Greg Ip: Forget GDP; It's the Jobs Report That Matters

I have no idea whether this is at all right:

The first-quarter decline in economic output tells us almost nothing about the economy’s actual performance which, through March, was actually fine.
It tells us even less about the broader impact of President Trump’s tariffs, federal cutbacks and immigration crackdown. For that, we’ll have to await April data, starting with jobs and unemployment to be released Friday.
This will provide the first “hard” data since Trump’s April 2 tariff announcements. Federal cuts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency were also in full swing, as were deportations, while border crossings had plummeted. A weak jobs number could vindicate Trump’s critics, a strong number would shut them up, at least for now.
I suspect, though, that the April report—regardless of the number—won’t tell us much about Trump’s impact. Businesses are certainly talking a lot about tariffs, but aren’t doing much yet in terms of raising prices or altering production plans. Federal layoffs and deportations are also probably too small to have much macro impact.
But wait, wasn’t that 0.3% annualized drop in gross domestic product in the first quarter because of tariffs? No: it was affected by a couple of statistical quirks.

Matthew Petti: Court Frees Palestinian Student Who ICE Arrested at His Citizenship Hearing

We pretty much know each side will go to far when given a chance...but I didn't think Trump would go (so far as I can tell) this much too far this quickly.

   Not that I would think the other thing would be o.k., but it seems particularly notable that these students don't even seem to be promoting anti-U.S. views so much as they are promoting anti-Israel views. I tend to be pro-Israel...but not that pro-Israel...

Abigail Anthony: HHS Report Finds No Strong Evidence Supporting the Effectiveness of "Gender-Affirming Care"

Nothing could be less surprising.

Dan McLaughlin: GradingTrump's First 100 Days: C-

Tough but fair.

RIP David Horowitz

Damn.

I recommend Radical Son.

Homan: Biden Was The First President To Intentionally Unsecure The Border

Well, it certainly seemed that way.

I just want to point out that (I think) I got this right: that Biden would basically be a puppet of radical progressives in his administration / on his staff. I think that's how we got the intentional quasi-opening of the southern border.

I also suspect it is in accordance with my stratified motives view. There are some Democrats (and pseudo-Democrats) who are hard-core globalists, more-or-less wanting the U.S. (and other nations...but mostly the U.S.) to wither away. Then there are the less-radicals who want to pump up the population of blue states to strengthen Dems in the electoral college. Then there are the less-radical useful idiots who basically don't know or care about anything beyond Oh, the poor brown people...why can't we just be nice? These are the most numerous blue-teamers--AWFLs and the like. 

Anyway, yeah, I'm skeptical of people who say such things...but Biden could have stopped the tsunami whenever he wanted to. Or, rather: if he had wanted to. But he didn't. Maybe he just wanted to own the wingnuts. More probably he was talked into it by his penumbra of progressives. But, yeah: he could have stopped it and he didn't. So, very probably, he just didn't want to.

Who's Dumber, Trump or the Canucks?

Trump helped install another Trudeau, and the damn Canucks screwed themselves to spite him:

Canadian Boomers top election issue was “Donald Trump” and their bottom issue was “Making Canada a better place to live”…

Can’t make it up. https://t.co/qUPFJh8uwt

— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) April 29, 2025

Rufo: "We Can't Hire a White Guy"--a Prof on Life at Princeton

DEI has permeated and further perverted my own much more modest institution. I'd bet a fair amount of money that, under our previous dean and provost, we engaged in race-based hiring. Though that's just one aspect of the left's influence on campus.

   One aspect of the Princeton prof's story is a lot like something that happened here. Our previous dean used to say that we had to hire more Hispanic faculty because we were projected to have more Hispanic students in the near future. I questioned this bizarro argument, asking whether he'd say we needed to hire more white faculty if we were projected to get more white students. No answer. And, of course, since SFFA, we probably are projected to have more white students. This is pretty standard fare. Bullshit rationalizations that the purveyors would never dream of generalizing to less-favored demographic groups. This is one way universities ratchet themselves ever leftward.

   Our previous provost illegally re-wrote our hiring guidelines over one summer. Many faculty did revolt about this...but mostly went along with the new guidelines in the end. They were designed to give the provost a freer hand in selecting from the short list mostly chosen by faculty. (I say mostly because we were (and may still be for all I know) under certain rules that (a) required us to have a certain number of candidates on the short list from "underrepresented" groups, and (b) we weren't allowed to drop those candidates from the list unless we deemed them unacceptable--a low standard indeed. We actually had to do this once. The candidate from the "underrepresented" group was awful.) The provost specifically cited "equity" as a reason for the illegal rule changes. An ad hoc group of pissed off faculty began working against the guidelines...but none of them cared nor would even recognize that DEI and leftist preferences were at the root of the problem. I emphasized in many meetings of the group that "equity" was the provost's acknowledged motive. No one would even respond to my point. We were on Zoom, and every time there would just be dead air after my comment. 

   In addition to hiring candidates on the basis of--or at least heavily influenced by--their race, here's another thing that happens: extremely left-friendly areas of specialization are preferred to more traditional specializations on DEI grounds. So DEI is used as a reason not only for hiring nonwhite, non-heterosexual, and female candidates, it's also used as an excuse for hiring candidates who special in left-leaning areas of scholarship like CRT, colonialism, feminism, "gender" studies, "queer theory," etc. Our two most important positions--history of ancient and history of modern--remained empty for something like five years after the retirement of the profs. We were told that we could hire "philosophy of disability" or "world philosophy"...neither of which is central to a philosophy department...but the dean wouldn't let us fill the positions we really needed. We finally filled one of them a couple of years ago because we had to hire for a different reason and managed to hire somebody in one of the relevant areas of specialization. We just now finally hired to fill the other one. And we were able to do so mainly because the previous dean and provost aren't around anymore. The dean moved on to a more prestigious university--which the goal of everyone around here. The provost "quit"...but no one thinks she did so voluntarily. She did not mention where she was going. Which means she probably wasn't going anywhere. Though she didn't seem old enough to retire...

   Anyway.

   As I've said before, DEI is almost nothing more than a catspaw for the academic left to strengthen its grip on campus. It's not the heart of the problem, but it's a tool and an additional motive for moving institutions leftward.

[Written in even more haste than usual; probably some infelicities up there. sry.]

Trump Loses Another Election for Conservatives--This Time in Canada

Dumbass.

Poilievre seemed to have this one in the bag until Trump wouldn't shut up about the 51st state nonsense.

How many elections has he lost for conservatives now?

The White House: Lab Leak: The True Origins of COVID

LOL for all his flaws, Trump kicks a lot of ass.

Can't believe I didn't post this when it first came out.

Wish I could remember who it was on Twitter who said I was "in tinfoil hat territory" for saying I thought the lab-leak hypothesis was most likely back in 2020.

Brainwashed cultist.

Another Hegseth Signal Fiasco?

Big if true.

Seems pretty clear that he ought to go if we're getting the straight dope about this.

He never sounded like the greatest appointee--though his book is pretty good.

Biden "Disinformation" Crazy Nina Jankowicz Lobbying for Speech Restrictions in Europe Now

This loon is an enthusiastic commissar in a slightly different timeline.

Becket Adams: Conservative Rhetoric Did Not Cause the Media Credibility Crisis

The left just can't take responsibility for anything.

Ontario Must Pay for Surgery to Give "Trans" Resident Both a Penis and "Vagina"

Crazier and crazier.

Of course he's a dude. So he already has a penis. But they have to pay to have a fake vagina fabricated for him.

UK: Migrant Pedo Can Stay Because He's an Alcoholic

You can't make this shit up.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, "Maryland Man"

The left has lost its shit.

McCarthy: Trump's Job is to Enforce Congress's Immigration Laws, Not Make Up His Own

The great Andrew McCarthy:

Go read the whole thing.

In actuality, as the above snippets from relevant Supreme Court jurisprudence instruct, the involvement of the courts in immigration enforcement is extremely limited — confined to the narrow authority Congress has vested in them. Sure, it is also the judiciary’s 

constitutional duty to uphold due process protections; in the immigration realm, though, that is not much protection because Congress decides what process is due and aliens do not have the full array of due process rights enjoyed by citizens. 

As the Supreme Court has recognized in Johnson v. Eisentrager (1950), the rights of aliens become more robust as they lawfully weave into the fabric of our society. The foreigner who has never entered the United States has no constitutional rights; the illegal alien at the border has nearly none; the illegal alien who has entered has marginally more; the alien on a temporary visa has still more but less than an immigrant with a green card. 

Let’s set aside for a moment the difficult cases of legal aliens the Trump administration seeks to expel because of pro-Hamas agitation. What the president, the vice president, and their staffers are mainly squawking about are deportable aliens, near the lowest end of the sliding scale of due process rights. 

Read more »

UK Toddler Kicked Out of Nursery School for "Transphobia"?

Sounds like that's what happened.

Bryan Caplan: Why GMU Should End DEI For Real

Exactly.

And so should all other universities.

Hannah E. Meyers: Trans Criminals: the Problem We Refuse to Acknowledge/Quantify

Crazytime

Dreher: Owning the Libs is Not a Strategy

agreed

"Dark Woke:" The Dems are the Party of Cringe

LOOOLOLLOLOLOL

LOOOLOLOOOLLOLOLOLOLOLLOOLOLOOL

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

OMGICAN'TBREATHE

Yet Another Reason to Like Elon

He makes lefty girly-men want to scratch his eyes out.

Democrat Judge Blocks...Noncitizen Voting + Cities That Give Aid and Comfort to Illegal Aliens Edition

Democrat judge blocks Trump admin from requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration.

Democrat judge blocks...Trump from withholding funds from traitorous "sanctuary" cities.

Jesus Christ.

KBJ: Not Smart

In case you hadn't noticed.

Coulter: Rachel Maddow's Very, Very, Very Special Friend

Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid are, of course, both abject morons.

David Brooks: TRUMP IS NOT NORMAL WE NEED AN UPRISING REEEEEEEEEEEE

Dude, I'm not at all convinced that everything Trump is doing is right. And given his demeanor and whatnot, I understand being concerned about the overall sweep of his actions--I'm also concerned.

   But c'mon, enough with the melodramatic puling.

   And this is just stupid:

Trumpism is threatening all of that [stuff he weepily enumerates]. It is primarily about the acquisition of power — power for its own sake. It is a multifront assault to make the earth a playground for ruthless men, so of course any institutions that might restrain power must be weakened or destroyed. Trumpism is about ego, appetite and acquisitiveness and is driven by a primal aversion to the higher elements of the human spirit — learning, compassion, scientific wonder, the pursuit of justice.

   Really, how can anyone be confused enough to believe that? This is just something people say as an ad hominem. Many have made the same charge agianst the PC/woke left: they just want power...

Bullshit.

   Trump, like the left, believes in what he's doing.

   If you don't realize that, you're probably stuck in an echo chamber.

   In the case of the left: it's worse than if they only wanted power. I wish they only wanted power. That's at least a minimally sane goal. Unfortunately, the PC left actually believes the crazy shit it says, and actually thinks its goals--re-engineering society, brainwashing children, open borders etc.--are good.

   Trump &co. at least have sane goals--mainly: push back on the left's lunatic program. Save Western Civilization.

   Now, you may not like his goals. And, like me, you may be concerned about some of his methods.

   But you're deluded if you think he just wants power.

   A reminder: I don't think Trump is the kind of person who ought to have a lot of political power. But that's largely beside the point here.

Mason Econ Grad Student Asks, of Trump and His Administration, "When Must We Kill Them?"

On the one hand, it's just one lefty douchebag (but I repeat myself) grad student. You can find people in any faction who are saying psycho things. Both sides, etc., etc.

OTOH, well, dude doesn't really seem like that much of an outlier...

Turley: SCOTUS Hears Major Case Over Mandatory "LGBT..." Readings

link

On the one hand, I don't see a problem with some readings having non-heterosexual characters in them--obviously. OTOH, we all know what's going on here: this is part of the concerted, culture-wide program of advancing the "queer theory" agenda, and of the institutional capture of public institutions and use of them as instruments of leftist indoctrination. There is no doubt that that's really the point of all this.

   Schools--in particular, many in MD--are not doing their jobs. But political brainwashing is both easier and more emotionally gratifying to a certain kind of teacher. Many of whom went into teaching precisely to gain an ever-renewing captive audience. Even if the kids were learning the important stuff, the indoctrination would be unacceptable. But the two things together are just absurd.

   It's great that we've had some victories this year. But I say again: this will be an on-going fight. The left has evolved into an institution that strives mainly for mind-control. It has seized on a tangle of ideas and arguments from the humanities and recent Continental philosophy that have a proven power of confusing and misleading. These ridiculous ideas and sophistical arguments have been scrambling the brains of literary types for 40 years now. The general form of their argument is:

[Massive tangle of jargon-laden pseudo-philosophical bullshit that leaves most people in stunned silence]

Therefore:

[Insane conclusion to the effect that everyone and everything must be re-engineered in accordance with the fantasies of the left.]

41.2% of Vienna Students Are Muslim: ‘No Longer Immigration,’ But ‘Displacement’

I would very much like for someone to give me a reasonable argument for the conclusion that the immigration situation in Western Europe is not a catastrophe.

Sullum: By Openly Retaliating Against Disfavored Law Firms, Trump Attacks Free Speech and the Right to Counsel

Yeah, I've been fretting about this.

These firms suck. They're dedicated to the despicable blue-team practice of ceaseless lawfare.

But--and, again: I am not a lawyer--this sound pretty bad on its face.

I've already got stage three Trump fatigue.