Everybody's tabbing at me ... can't read a word they're texting ...
.@PressSec Karoline Leavitt says the 10% baseline tariff on all counties is here to stay, even after trade deals are done.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) May 9, 2025
Indicates countries that have offered 0% tariffs will not see full reciprocity - and deal negotiations will be sector-specific pic.twitter.com/fgdSY8TM6d
Ed: To quote the meme -- bold strategy, Cotton, let's see if he can pull it off. To get a trade agreement, you have to get the other side to agree, and I'm not sure anyone will agree to a flat imbalance on tariffs.
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Newark Liberty International Airport is “not safe” for travelers, one air traffic controller at the delay-plagued travel hub reportedly warned.
“It is not safe. It is not a safe situation right now for the flying public,” the federal air safety employee reportedly told NBC News correspondent Tom Costello.
Ed: Nearly 40 years ago, I got downsized at Hughes Aircraft when it lost the bid to modernize the ATC systems in the US to IBM. Hughes had an actual working system, which South Korea adopted, and I believe the Canadians bought it too through a subsidiary. IBM never delivered on it, and the FAA has been playing catch-up ever since. It's a disgrace and it needs emergency action to resolve.
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🚨NEW: Former Governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper turns tail and RUNS when asked about his support for shredding the integrity of women's sports:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 9, 2025
"Why do you support men being able to play women's sports?!"
He can't get into his Uber fast enough! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/MTgFqajorX
Ed: If he had an answer, he would have provided it. And if he doesn't have an answer, why is he supporting biological males encroaching on female spaces and competition?
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A simplistic left-vs.-right narrative of Catholic social teaching would turn its history into a game of table tennis, with the industrial revolution leading popes into support for labor militancy, Pope John Paul II embracing markets as communism fell, and Pope Francis turning against markets once the world grew less enamored of them.
But that account does not capture the thought of any of these popes, or the consistency and vitality of their teaching. Leo XIII’s famous encyclical endorsed the right to form unions and insisted on employers’ responsibilities to employees. But it also explicitly condemned socialism for causing “the levelling down of all to a like condition of misery and degradation” and failing to recognize “the inviolability of private property.” It condemned government intrusions into “the family and household.”
Later encyclicals in the same tradition criticized concentrations of economic power and unchecked individualism — but also warned that it would be a “grave evil” for the centralized state to take on responsibilities that lower levels of social organization could handle. That has two implications that conservatives in the United States are usually more eager to trumpet than progressives are. First, the federal government should not do what states can. Second, the autonomy of all of the institutions that stand between the individual and the state, including families and churches, must be protected.
Ed: This is why I was encouraged by the adoption of Leo XIV as the regnant name of the new pontiff. I made this point repeatedly yesterday; Leo XIII framed Catholic 'social justice' on both solidarity and subsidiarity, with the family being the locus of authority and charity. Without Leo XIII, we wouldn't have G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc pushing back on collectivism and authoritarian diktats on economic matters. Ramesh Ponnuru hits a home run with this essay.
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Italian and Spanish media both appear to confirm that Pope Leo XIV has decided to restore the Papal residence to the Apostolic Palace.
— Western Exile (@westernexile) May 9, 2025
The Vicariate of Christ returns home! https://t.co/i3BH6GvWLH pic.twitter.com/knEAZaajdx
Ed: First the traditional stole, now the traditional residence. Pope Leo XIV is sending some interesting signals. The decision by Pope Francis to eschew the residence never made a lot of sense anyway. Why not use the space set aside for the pontiff rather than reinvent the wheel elsewhere?
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Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Mass as pontiff in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, stressing the importance of missionary work in a world where many live “in a state of de facto atheism.” ...
“There are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure,” he said in the sermon. “They are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed.”
He lamented that “there are many settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman.” The pope added, “this is the world that has been entrusted to us.”
Ed: So far, so good. Build the Church, preach the Gospel, and defend the faith and doctrine.
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But if that is so, the most important unknown about the new pope isn’t what he will teach but how he will govern. Francis tended to live by his own admonition to ‘make a mess.’
Leo will have the less glamorous but fascinating job of deciding how to tidy it up, bringing a measure of coherence to often contradictory papal laws and teachings. How he chooses to do so, what he delicately rolls back and what he decidedly doubles down on, will shape the Church for decades to come – conceivably for the next century.
Ed: I suspect that he will move the ball forward on evangelization and outreach, but quietly impose discipline on doctrinal matters. The German bishops will likely not be very happy with the next few years, but the African bishops may be.
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Dear Members of the @PulitzerPrizes board,
— Emily Damari (@EmilyDamari1) May 8, 2025
My name is Emily Damari. I was held hostage in Gaza for over 500 days.
On the morning of October 7, I was at home in my small studio apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas terrorists burst in, shot me and dragged me across the border…
... into Gaza. I was one of 251 men, women, children, and elderly people kidnapped that day from their beds, their homes, and a music festival.
For almost 500 days I lived in terror. I was starved, abused, and treated like I was less than human. I watched friends suffer. I watched hope dim. And even now, after returning home, I carry that darkness with me - because my best friends, Gali and Ziv Berman are still being held in the Hamas terror tunnels.
So imagine my shock and pain when I saw that you awarded a Pulitzer Prize to Mosab Abu Toha.
This is a man who, in January, questioned the very fact of my captivity. He posted about me on Facebook and asked, “How on earth is this girl called a hostage?” He has denied the murder of the Bibas family. He has questioned whether Agam Berger was truly a hostage. These are not word games - they are outright denials of documented atrocities.
You claim to honor journalism that upholds truth, democracy, and human dignity. And yet you have chosen to elevate a voice that denies truth, erases victims, and desecrates the memory of the murdered.
Do you not see what this means? Mosab Abu Toha is not a courageous writer. He is the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier. And by honoring him, you have joined him in the shadows of denial.
This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it.
Ed: The Pulitzers are a disgrace, Columbia University is a disgrace, and the Protection Racket Media is an utter disgrace. Shame on all of them.
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In situations like this, one must ask: Where was the family? Apparently, quite busy trotting out a clearly ailing man in front of the cameras. Tomorrow, perhaps the real former president and real villain of this story—Dr. Jill Biden—will appear on The View.
Joe Biden shouldn’t be on The View. Like my great-grandmother, who is nearly 90 and has dementia, he should be at home, smoking menthols and playing dominoes at the kitchen table. Like my great-grandmother, when someone asks Biden what he did yesterday, he should be given permission to shrug his shoulders and say, “Who knows?”
There’s dignity in that, and it’s what the old deserve, even our most mediocre presidents.
Ed: Speaking of shame ...
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Guess who was spotted having breakfast in London at the Langham, a 5-Star hotel in London (average price per night $600). A bagel costs 26 dollars and a cup of coffee costs 9 dollars. Socialism has its perks. For the right people, that is. pic.twitter.com/zC7xpSvoAh
— TheMorningSpew2 (@TheMorningSpew2) May 9, 2025
Ed: Bernie Sanders wants to fight oligarchy while enjoying the spoils of it. He's a world-class phony.
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