Closing the tabs ...
In just one week President Trump secured:
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 12, 2025
- UK trade deal
- China trade deal
- release of an American hostage
- ceasefire with India and Pakistan
- ceasefire with Houthis
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I VOTED FOR pic.twitter.com/2JNU9IHTyQ
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The surplus totaled $258.4 billion for the month, up 23% from the same period a year ago. That cut the fiscal year-to-date total to $1.05 trillion, which is still 13% higher than a year ago. ...
Customs duties totaled $16.3 billion for the month, some 86% above the $8.75 billion collected during March and more than double the $7.1 billion a year ago, the Treasury Department reported Monday.
That brought the year-to-date total for the duties up to $63.3 billion and more than 18% ahead of the same period in 2024. Trump instituted 10% across-the-board tariffs on U.S. imports starting April 2, which came on top of other select duties he had leveled previously.
Ed: This is good news and some worthy data when considering tariffs as policy. However, this isn't nearly enough to overcome annual deficits now running over $2 trillion a year, let alone replace the revenue that comes from the income tax.
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🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage taken on October 7, 2023, is officially out of Hamas captivity.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 12, 2025
Edan is returning home after nearly 600 days in captivity. pic.twitter.com/ZGP9CKz3dt
Ed: Praise the Lord. And pass the ammunition, as long as Hamas remains in Gaza.
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Israel is known to do everything in its power to bring hostages and captured soldiers home. The country has historically been willing to pay high prices for slain captive soldiers and is known for daring hostage-rescue missions such as the Entebbe raid in 1976, during which Netanyahu’s brother died.
Going against this ethos is painful for many in Israel.
“My Nimrod doesn’t have a foreign citizenship. My Nimrod is 100% Israeli. Nimrod also deserves to come home,” said Viki Cohen, mother of captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, 20, who remains in Gaza and is believed to be alive.
Ed: Netanyahu and Trump both downplayed any suggestion of daylight between them today. However, there's a clear political risk for Netanyahu in this deal with Hamas if he can't follow it up with the release of the rest of the hostages.
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Townhall's @KatiePavlich has some thoughts on David Hogg's strategy to earn back favor among young men:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 12, 2025
"I think that David Hogg is having some issues with his dating life — like many young people do — and he's taking it out on the DNC, and that is not a strategy to win general… pic.twitter.com/3ihZZs4nTC
Ed: I LOL'd at Katie's commentary here. I second every word of it.
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The wildfires that devastated Los Angeles tore through the city and county in January; the last of the fires were extinguished at the end of the month. Three and a half months have passed; last month, Los Angeles County launched a website that tracks how many rebuild permits have been issued in Pacific Palisades and Altadena following January’s fires.
As of this morning, the county has issued . . . seven building permits. Seven!
The county estimates that more than 12,000 parcels of land were damaged or destroyed by the wildfires.
Ed: Totally predictable. Anyone who has lived or worked in California and the LA region would not be surprised in the least by this outcome.
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California's high-speed rail is the most audited public works project in the country.
— Senator Alex Padilla (@SenAlexPadilla) May 12, 2025
Trump and his admin are hellbent on killing the project. Why? Because they'd rather waste billions and lose jobs for political games.
California is leading the nation in realizing the… pic.twitter.com/koh1ISCJi1
Ed: Looks like someone never learned the Sunk Cost Fallacy. We are not required to use federal funding for California's pipe dreams. We can't afford it, and the money we do have should be put to better use. Maybe Padilla should focus on his state's inability to expedite the rebuilding process needed after his party's absolutely corrupt and incompetent leadership in his state's largest metropolitan area than spend time demanding money for the choo-choo.
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Tax legislation expected to be unveiled Monday by the House Ways and Means Committee includes a $30,000 cap to the state and local tax deduction, according to two people directly familiar with the contents of the package.
However, the number isn’t final, and negotiations over the contours of the policy are expected to continue all the way up to a floor vote on the GOP’s tax legislation next week, according to two other people.
“There’s no set number yet. That’s the whole thing. This is still being resolved,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, after a Monday morning call with a contingent of blue-state Republicans and members from the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.
Ed: This is such nonsense. It's nothing more than pandering to people who don't need the break, on behalf of politicians who likely won't survive the midterms even if this passes. But this is how the sausage is made, people.
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Pope Leo tells Lester Holt he doesn’t plan to visit the United States “any time soon.” pic.twitter.com/AMnvX5TTUs
— Christopher Hale (@chrisjollyhale) May 12, 2025
Ed: Pope Leo XIV will have too much on his plate to make any foreign visits "any time soon." He will come to the US in due course, and I'd be surprised if he made it his first foreign destination.
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During the ceremony, Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — referenced how he met with then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio several times during the years when he served as prior general of the Augustinians.
“I won’t tell you the reason, but let’s just say that when Cardinal Bergoglio and I met, we weren’t always in agreement,” Prevost said with a smile, without specifying what disagreements he had with Pope Francis.
Ed: We'll find out soon enough. Whatever disagreements arose, they weren't so unpleasant as to prevent Pope Leo XIV from becoming a bishop and then coming to the Vatican to serve in a key role for Pope Francis. Bear in mind that the two men had very different formative experiences as young men too. The new pontiff's embrace of Pope Leo XIII and Rerum Novarum is a good signal of shifting priorities and focus.
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Ed: Let me predict that neither side of the American political divide will love Pope Leo XIV ... which is pretty much the norm for any pontiff. I do like his older brother Louis. He's very well spoken in defense of his younger brother, and there's something very charming in his efforts to run interference for Pope Leo XIV with the media.
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