April 19, 2024
SPRING CLEAN THE CAR: VIKING Microfiber Cleaning Cloth for Automotive Glass. #CommissionEarned
YOU DON’T SAY: IMF sounds alarm on ballooning US national debt: ‘Something will have to give.’
Under current policies, public debt in the U.S. is projected to nearly double by 2053. The IMF identified “large fiscal slippages” in the U.S. in 2023, with government spending surpassing revenue by 8.8% of GDP – a 4.1% increase from the previous year, despite strong economic growth.
If this trend continues, the Congressional Budget Office anticipates the national debt will grow to an astonishing $54 trillion in the next decade. Higher interest rates are also compounding the pain of higher debt.
Should that debt materialize, it could risk America’s economic standing in the world.
The IMF is talking down to Washington like we’re a Third World country because that’s the direction Washington is taking us.
LOL, EVERYONE THEY DISAGREE WITH IS A RACIST: Study claims ‘racism’ drives opposition to DEI statements.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: White House Blows Up as Israel Hits Iran. “There’s an old joke about how the New York Times would announce the end of the world. ‘World to End Tomorrow; Women and Minorities Affected Most.’ I’m here to tell you today that the real ‘victims’ of Israel’s Thursday night airstrikes on Iran are in the Biden White House — and just two miles away in Washington’s exclusive Kalorama neighborhood.”
THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE BUBBLE DEFLATES: Tesla shares tumble below $150 per share, giving up all gains made over the past year. “On Thursday, Deutsche Bank joined other industry analysts in voicing concern over Musk’s big bet on autonomous vehicles as it stripped the company of its ‘buy’ rating, citing Tesla’s ‘change of strategic priority to Robotaxi.'”
NOW OUT FROM HAMPTON SIDES: The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook.
His Ghost Soldiers was a work of nonfiction that read like a thriller novel.
LOOK OUT RFK, JR., YOU’RE A GENUINE THREAT TO THE MACHINE: Look out, Joe: RFK, Jr. is on the Michigan Ballot.
With no Secret Service protection.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Joe Biden and the Wawa Cannibals—An American Tragedy. “One of the most galling results of the mainstream media’s dereliction of duty is that every syllable that Donald Trump utters is fact-checked seven or eight thousand times, while Biden is given carte blanche to keep repeating stories that are truth-free garbage. They don’t even call him on his oft-recited lie that his son Beau was a casualty of war. This isn’t merely an elderly man’s confusion about a date or a place; either he’s so addled that he truly doesn’t remember where and how his son died, or he knows he’s deliberately lying.”
HMM…: Might Turn Out That POTATUS’ Gonzo Gaza Pier Plan Was a Blessing in Disguise.
Last October I wrote about the potentially catastrophic state of our country’s maritime support system, the U.S. Maritime Support Fleet. Biden has someone in charge right now they mockingly refer to as “The Ghost Admiral.” We have already lost the capacity to mobilize a tanker fleet to fuel our naval vessels at sea in event of a large scale conflict.
CDR Salamander, along with other experienced naval and maritime observers, have been raising alarms for years about the state of readiness of our vessels, and the shrunken posture of our force. You cannot continue to carve and carve away and still expect there to be meat on bones or good morale in overtaxed, understaffed, over-deployed ships companies.
We’ve all been railing against the money wasted on high-tech, whizbang boondoggles instead of maintaining a healthy, viable, lethal fleet (looking at YOU, LCS class).
What this exercise attempting to cross the Atlantic has proven is that we may not need tankers. Our poorly maintained and continually neglected naval vessels, be they Navy or Army, may not be capable of making it to the conflict to begin with.
Read the whole thing.
DEI STANDS FOR “DIDN’T EARN IT.” Equal Protection Project Opposes Proposed DEI Amendment to the NY State Constitution.
LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD:
Biden struggles to close the takeout box at Wawa, then eventually gives up and tells his handler: "You take that box. I'm gonna go order a milkshake."
Then he shuffles away (before getting confused once again). pic.twitter.com/6I5V0wW5zZ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 18, 2024
OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE RUN BY THE CORRUPT, THE CRAZY, AND THE MORONIC:
Wikipedia had to censor its encyclopedia to make it more free.https://t.co/U1Hsk1n0OS
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) April 19, 2024
UNFIT FOR OFFICE: Joe Biden Has All But Abandoned American Personnel in Niger.
But Biden has time for a milkshake.
Biden struggles to close the takeout box at Wawa, then eventually gives up and tells his handler: "You take that box. I'm gonna go order a milkshake."
Then he shuffles away (before getting confused once again). pic.twitter.com/6I5V0wW5zZ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 18, 2024
That looks like what happens when the edibles kick in before you make it back home.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U. Miami cost of attendance climbs $5,000, students to pay $93,000 next year.
GODSPEED: All the pieces are in place for the first crew flight of Boeing’s Starliner. “Now that Starliner is attached to its Atlas V rocket, ULA and Boeing engineers will run tests to ensure solid mechanical, electrical, and communication links between the spacecraft and launch vehicle. Next week, Wilmore and Williams will return to Cape Canaveral from their training base in Houston for final reviews and training.”
Meanwhile, in Texas: SpaceX Fired Up Starship Twice In Preparation For Flight 4 Launch.
TRUMP AS GROVER CLEVELAND: It’s 1892 All Over Again: How this year’s election mirrors an earlier presidential rematch.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Groove Life Men’s Stretch Nylon Belt. #CommissionEarned
MARTIN HACKWORTH: It’s Time to Wean NPR From The Public Dole.
I haven’t listened to an NPR fund drive for over a decade, but I remember the pitch all too well (I have an entire collection of coffee mugs and tote bags): Only 1% of our funding comes from public funds; the rest is from you, our listeners. Won’t you please help? Now, that is true only if you don’t count the public funds that are funneled to NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the form of subscriptions and fees from member stations.
Red states should decouple from NPR. In particular, if they’re serious about going after its partisan hate, they should disaffiliate their colleges’ member stations from NPR.
FRIENDS IN STRANGE PLACES: Wait, WHO Wants to Join NATO?
ON THIS LEXINGTON AND CONCORD ANNIVERSARY, LET’S RAISE A GLASS TO SAMUEL WHITTEMORE:
Whittemore was in his fields when he spotted an approaching British relief brigade under Earl Percy, sent to assist the retreat. Whittemore loaded his musket and ambushed the British grenadiers of the 47th Regiment of Foot from behind a nearby stone wall, killing one soldier. He then drew his dueling pistols, killed a second grenadier and mortally wounded a third. By the time Whittemore had fired his third shot, a British detachment had reached his position; Whittemore drew his sword and attacked. He was subsequently shot in the face, bayoneted numerous times, and left for dead in a pool of blood. He was found by colonial forces, trying to load his musket to resume the fight. He was taken to Dr. Cotton Tufts of Medford, who perceived no hope for his survival. However, Whittemore recovered and lived another 18 years until dying of natural causes at the age of 98.
Watch out for the old men. They know how things work, and they have less to lose.
