Closing the tabs ...
Salem Media Group, Inc. (OTCQX: SALM), fresh off eliminating all corporate long-term debt and growing the #1 conservative news show in America, is making its boldest move yet. Today, Salem announces a historic, multi-dimensional deal that not only adds two of the most influential voices in American media, Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump, but launches the company into an entirely new era of scale, relevance, and cultural power.
This strategic transformation cements Salem’s emergence as the upcoming platform for conservative content across broadcast, podcasting, digital, and on-demand streaming, a full-spectrum media ecosystem built for today’s America.
Pursuant to the deal, Salem acquired a 30% stake in MxM News, a mobile news aggregation app co-owned by Mr. Trump Jr., and entered into a long-term services agreement under which Mr. Trump Jr. and Salem will work together to develop a series of high-impact promotional and growth initiatives. With this historic deal, Mr. Trump Jr. becomes a key stakeholder of Salem and a strategic force behind its future.
Ed: This is an exciting initiative from our parent company. We have made a series of moves this year to strengthen our balance sheet and open up new opportunities to expand our platform. Stay tuned!
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The threat of U.S. military intervention helped bring Iran back to the negotiating table. Its hobbled economy is likely to keep it there.
Iran’s currency is among the weakest in the world. Inflation remains well above 30%. Young people are struggling to find work, and a frustrated middle class can no longer afford to buy imported goods.
Those troubles look set to intensify under a second Trump administration, which resumed its campaign of “maximum pressure” to force Iran to rein in its nuclear program and prevent it from developing a bomb. Already severely strained by sanctions and endemic corruption, political observers and analysts say a further deterioration of Iran’s economy could push its people to the brink.
Ed: I think they are pretty much at the brink already. If they know about these talks and the mullahs come back without an agreement, that alone might push them over. Just as with corrupted elections, the dashing of hopes will prove much more corrosive than the usual state of hopelessness that preceded it.
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I guess this is the footage: pic.twitter.com/5nUFGXPJcc
— Reza Behrouz (@RBehrouzDO) April 14, 2025
Ed: Times are tough in Tehran!
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"Taiwan has started negotiations with the United States, and the first phase of the negotiations went smoothly," his office cited him as saying.
Lai said he "hoped to use this challenge as an opportunity for Taiwan to promote the new layout of 'Taiwan plus one', that is, Taiwan plus the United States."
Lai has pledged to seek a zero tariff regime with the United States, and to invest more in and buy more from the country.
Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, announced last month an extra $100 billion investment in the United States.
Ed: I wonder if Lai Ching-te even minds the tariffs so much, now that Trump has recalculated them to the fight against China. Taiwan would be the biggest beneficiary of an economically isolated China that no longer has its expansionist agenda financed by the West. Even so, there's no reason not to renegotiate to lower tariffs and improve relations.
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BLOOMBERG: "@nvidia just said it will produce supercomputers ENTIRELY built in the U.S." 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ioRXteZsNI
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 14, 2025
Ed: There's more on this at the link. This rehoming of supply chains will be easier to accomplish in the tech sector than in some other sectors, such as low-end manufacturing in clothing and department-store staples. This is still good news, of course.
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The White House has begun to notify Congress of its request to eliminate “all” public broadcasting funding and codify foreign aid cuts identified by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, The Post has learned.
Major proposed clawbacks in the so-called “rescissions” plan include $1.1 billion appropriated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funds to PBS and National Public Radio, and $8.3 billion from USAID.
Ed: This is a normal process for rescissions but one only rarely used. Trump only tried it once in his first term and failed to get it passed over a minor dispute. Republicans in this Congress might be more inclined to come together to notch some wins on spending cutbacks.
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President Trump: Do you allow men to play in women's sports?
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 14, 2025
El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele: That's violence. pic.twitter.com/wPl5f5l1oc
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After the Mangione murder on December 4th last year, Lorenz became Luigi’s version of Bundini Brown, telling Piers Morgan she “felt, along with so many other Americans, joy” after the murder of United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson (she denies the murder is what was what caused the “joy”; be your own judge).
Her Substack for a while was a Luigi fan page, which makes sense now that we know that “I saw the biggest audience growth that I’ve ever seen” with Mangione text. With article titles like “The merchification of Luigi,” “Inside the CEO shooter standom,” and my personal favorite, “Why ‘we’ want insurance executives dead,” Lorenz practically lashed her business to Mangione’s public image. Overnight, we went from living in a world where calling someone an untalented Swiss-boarding-school dipshit is unconscionable PTSD-inducing unfairness, to one where shooting an insurance executive in the back is cause for giddy celebration and smiles.
Ed: Matt Taibbi absolutely nails Lorenz here. This is but a taste. He's worth the subscription cost.
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Terrified Luigi Mangione Files Restraining Order Against Taylor Lorenz https://t.co/8OcJ4ON9RE pic.twitter.com/ipI5sr8cSL
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) April 14, 2025
Ed: She wants to "date" you, Luigi!
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When Governor Josh Shapiro and I spoke on Saturday afternoon about a potential data center investment in Pennsylvania, he ended the call by noting that he needed to go prepare for an 80-person seder which he was leading. Less than 12 hours later, he and his family were evacuated from the governor's residence, because an arsonist had set it on fire.
The pictures of the damage to the residence are horrifying. Yet even more frightening is the trend that this attack is a part of. And if left unchecked, this trend—of using political violence to settle our differences—has the potential to destroy our republic.
Ed: This essay by Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA) is also worth reading in full. It's the Lorenz antidote. I believe that the Free Press has this outside of its paywall, too.
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OUCH: Secretary of State Marco Rubio joins in on the smackdown of CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 14, 2025
"I don't understand what the confusion is. This individual is a citizen of El Salvador. He was illegally in the U.S., and was returned to his country...The foreign policy of the U.S. is… pic.twitter.com/aMbU8wUzRt
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Ed: This is a bit lengthy and both the host and guest are skeptical of the lawsuit, but it's still an interesting discussion. Plus, it's worth noting that this push for transparency was generated largely by the defendants in this lawsuit -- Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, who overpromised and underdelivered on the Epstein files. It's been a couple of months since their flop too, and we still haven't seen the rest of those files.
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