President Trump has made one intention very clear, that being that he will be working to restore the United States' industrial base. He's been taking steps to do that, and many of those steps have involved tariffs intended to balance trade. This effort has culminated (so far) with the April 2nd "Liberation Day" reciprocal tariffs. Democrats and even some Republicans are opposing the tariffs, but one administration member, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, went on record on Friday in support of the president's plans. //

Granted, tariffs make many uncomfortable, and that discomfort is not limited to the left; free-trade advocates on the right are concerned as well. But, as President Trump points out, free trade has to work both ways, and many nations have heavy tariffs on American goods.

The free-market advocate website Issues & Insights is a little more cautious on the matter, but they are not ruling out the idea that the tariffs may have the desired effect. //

If Trump’s approach works better than all those trade deals at bringing down other nations’ tariffs, who can complain? Certainly not free traders.

You don't get much more free trader than I&I's editorial board. //

The thing is, we're in terra incognita here. The United States has not tried a major tariff reset since Smoot-Hawley in 1930. And, despite what you will hear in some quarters, the Smoot-Hawley tariffs didn't cause the Depression; the market crash that led to that financial disaster happened in 1929. No less an economist than Milton Friedman opined that the effect Smoot-Hawley had on the Depression was minimal. What's more, the global economy is vastly different now than it was in 1930. Britain, in 1930, had the world's largest and most powerful navy on the planet and a powerful industrial base, while the United States was still moving from being a predominantly agricultural economy to an industrialized one - and only ten years later, we would be the "arsenal of democracy." Japan was the primary power in Asia, militarily and economically, while China was an agricultural country mired in what we would now call the third world.

Much has changed since then. //

anon-9s7n
3 hours ago edited
Trump has been right about pretty much everything so far. The status quo of being a services economy (that is pretty easy to compete against given our woeful status of education) is not acceptable to anyone with a functioning cranium. We have to incentivize manufacturing in this country and not one single person at any level of the public square has come up with a better way than this.

All the detractors need to clamp their pie holes shut until they can come up with a detailed, multi-year strategy to achieve the same end of bringing manufacturing back to this country.

I'm far more interested in FAIR trade than free trade. Free trade just means giving other nations a free ride on the back of Americans. Enough! //

Eric R EDMUND
an hour ago
There were 10% drops twice in 2024 with no tariffs and a Dem in the White House, no one panicked, almost no one even noticed. The markets will recover quickly enough and if the number of people working has increased in the mean time, it will based on healthier fundamentals. //

At last check, we were north of 160 federal lawsuits filed against Trump administration executive actions, and while the district courts have been furiously handing out temporary restraining orders (TROs) and injunctions, a number of the cases have been snaking their way up through the appellate courts to the Supreme Court. Mind you, these are largely procedural rulings rather than decisions on the merits. There's still a long way to go before all the dust settles.

But the Trump administration scored a win before the Supreme Court Friday afternoon as the high court issued a 5-4 decision granting the administration's request for a stay of a district court TRO, which enjoined the administration from terminating various education-related grants and required it to pay out past-due grant obligations and continue paying grant obligations as they accrue. //

As noted above, this was a 5-4 decision. It is per curiam, so there's no designated author of the majority decision, but Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court's three liberal justices in dissent. //

DaveM Outerlimitsfan
an hour ago
Roberts has been a problem from the day he became Chief Justice.
When he became Chief Justice he exposed himself as a typical long service government bureaucrat- i.e the smooth functioning of the organization is vastly more important than anything the organization actually does.

Ken Jungeberg’s efforts saved a vast collection of North American Aviation’s WWII engineering drawings from being lost. In this interview, Ester Aube of AirCorps Aviation shares his story and her role in their preservation. //

During World War II, long before the advent of computer-aided design, thousands of skilled draftsmen meticulously created tens of thousands of engineering drawings for every aspect of each aircraft model produced. These drawings were not only precise and detailed—ensuring different factories could manufacture components to exact specifications—but also works of art in their own right. Without the dedication of preservationists and archivists, many of these irreplaceable documents might have been lost forever. Thanks to the vision of a select few, however, these drawings are being safeguarded—not just as historical artifacts but as invaluable resources for the warbird restoration community. In 1988, Ken Jungeberg, head of the Master Dimensions Department at North American-Rockwell’s Columbus plant, was granted permission to save a large collection of non-current engineering drawings from the company archive. //

In this video interview, Ester Aube, Manager at AirCorps Aviation, shares Ken’s story and her role in preserving these invaluable engineering drawings.
https://youtu.be/eK--vNanN_U

Delta Air Lines is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a grand renovation of the Delta Flight Museum, reopening on April 7. Located at the airline’s Atlanta headquarters, the museum showcases a century of aviation history with expanded exhibits, interactive experiences, and rare aircraft like the Douglas DC-3 and Spirit of Delta Boeing 767.

“That just opened the door for me to start listening more to the other side, really. Because if you’re willing to lie to me and tell me that a man can become a woman, then I wonder what else could you be lying to me about?”

A former top advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris' failed presidential campaign was shocked when Harris told "The View" that she wouldn't have done anything different from President Biden, according to a new book by reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.

With roughly one month to go until the November election, Harris famously told the liberal hosts that nothing "comes to mind" after they asked her to name something she would've done differently than Biden over the past four years.

Harris senior campaign advisor Stephanie Cutter was floored at Harris’ response, according to Allen and Parnes' new book released this month entitled, "FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House."

"What the hell was that?" Cutter recalled thinking to herself. "That’s not what we practiced.". //

That was all the ammunition the Trump team needed, and they wasted no time in brutally (but fairly) using it to their advantage. Epic: //

ThatGuy81
2 hours ago
With the passage of time, we can now see that unburdening ourselves of what could have been brings us joy. //

CJay
an hour ago
Three things…-ish.
1) What the heck did they practice for an answer? (Also, an admission that they knew questions in advance?)
2) Who had to tell her that she had just fallen out of the coconut tree on live TV? (Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that room.)
3) When did she finally realize she had unburdened herself of what could be? (Or has that even happened yet?)

anon-tf71 CJay
an hour ago

1. Not that I believe you are wrong, but in theory one can practice for anticipated questions.
2. No one. That would be a career limiting move. Let's face it, anyone working for her was already pretty career limited.
3. Your parenthetical.

Media political commentator Jonathan Turley broached the subject on Wednesday, opining that a third term in office for Trump is "unlikely":

The late Justice Antonin Scalia famously said that Congress does not “hide elephants in mouseholes.” His point was that courts are skeptical of using minor provisions in a statute to achieve sweeping new legal changes.

The challenge of stuffing an elephant into a mousehole came to mind this week after President Donald Trump said that he is “not joking” about considering a third term and that experts told him it is possible under the Constitution.

One often has to take such moments with a heavy dose of skepticism from a president who clearly relished handing snake-in-a-can soundbites to the media just to watch the resulting screams. If so, he was not disappointed. The media went into renewed vapors as commentators pronounced, yet again, the death of democracy.

However, given the president’s statement, it is important to be clear about the basis for this theory, which has long been something of a parlor game for law professors on how a president might be able to circumvent the two-term limitation imposed by the 22nd Amendment. //

Translation: While some on our side relish Trump's role as a master troller, this is one area where trolling, if he is indeed doing so, could potentially hurt both the president and congressional Republicans who defend such talk.

It behooves the wise among us—including Trump, I hope—to understand that while he relishes playing to loyalists, his decisive president election win was made possible by untold numbers of Democrat crossover votes, including record numbers of Black and Hispanic voters, who may not have been huge fans, but voted as much against Harris-Walz as for Trump-Vance. //

etba_ss
an hour ago
There is only one way, legally. A new Constitutional Amendment. If they tried the back door, SCOTUS would rule 9-0 against it, as they should.

A ticket of Vamce-Trump would lose, as the focus would be on subverting the Constitution. The votes you'd lose on that issue would make it unwinnable. Why would Vance be interested in that?

Trump isn't serious. He's trolling. I think it's a foolish troll that offers no reward but risks him being viewed as the tyrant they claim he is by people who aren't crazy about him in the first place.

Some jokes aren't smart to make.

Red in Illinois
2 hours ago edited
Rand Paul is good on alot of things but he should not be in charge of anything. His “principles” will not allow him flexibility to actually get to where his principles are occurring.

We do not have free trade right now. We have free trade for thee but not for me. We allow most countries to import their goods to our shores at little cost while these same countries create barriers to our exports….making them non-competitive in foreign markets. These barriers can be out right tariffs, import quotas, regulations that make thier domestic good more affordable and/or manipulate their currency. They can also subsidize their industries effectively making them undercut our products.

For those that havent learned how Trump operates yet….I’ll clue you in. The end goal is not to collect tons of $ from these tariffs nor to raise prices of imported goods. That may occur during the interim though. The goal is to get these countries to reduce their barriers to our exports by using the admission price to the US consumer market as leverage.

In other words, these tariffs are meant to promote FREE trade between countries…not end it.

I don’t know if it will work but I have learned a long time ago that Trump often ends up proving alot of people wrong. I think he’ll do it again.

"In previous years when I had known about transgender fencers being present, I just wouldn't register, but for this one, Redmond must have signed up after me," Turner said.

"I was like, ‘You know what, I’m just going to give it to God. If this person shows up to my event and is on my script, then I would take a knee, and that would be God's will.'"

It was not a decision she came to lightly, however.

Turner paid close attention to the "protect women's sports" movement that has emerged in recent years, and the backlash and harassment faced by the women who took part in it. She recalled the story of Riley Gaines being held hostage and assaulted at San Francisco State University in April 2023.

The idea of the backlash haunted Turner, but wasn't enough to stop her from taking the knee.

"It will probably, at least for a moment, destroy my life. I don't think that it's going to be easy for me from now on going to fencing tournaments. I don't think it's going to be easy for me at practice," Turner said. "It's very hard for me to do this."

For Turner, one of the sacrifices she is most concerned about is impeding the friendships she has with people in the LGBT community, who she said don't currently know about her stance on the issue.

As a lifelong Democrat, Turner insists she never opposed LGBTQ people. But the issue of trans inclusion of women's sports has driven her away from supporting the party, and she now identifies as a "new Republican conservative."

"I voted red down the ticket this year," Turner said. "It was like waking up to the lies of the mainstream media… Just to watch so many of my friends have this glassy-eyed look while just defending this policy because their brains can not manage the possibility that their party or their position has been wrong on this, and perhaps this isn't a civil rights movement, and they have been misled."

Turner added that she fully supports President Donald Trump cutting funding to states that allow trans athletes to compete in women's and girls sports.

"Something needs to be done, and there are activists who have embedded themselves in authoritative positions in sports bodies."

If you are a clergy member or minister, you must:

• Include the rental value of the home you live in, or the housing allowance, if it was provided to you by the church
• Include income you get for working as a minister if you are an employee

Ministers' housing
If the church provided housing to you as part of your minister’s pay, you should include the rental value of the home or housing allowance as part of your earned income from self-employment for the EITC.

The rental value of the home is the money the church would get if they charged you rent.

The Heritage Guide to the Constitution is intended to provide a brief and accurate explanation of each clause of the Constitution as envisioned by the Framers and as applied in contemporary law. Its particular aim is to provide lawmakers with a means to defend their role and to fulfill their responsibilities in our constitutional order.

There are plenty of details throughout that indicate the procedures predate the current administration. An email from an employee complaining about these flights was delivered last year. The company they worked for - GlobalX - made reference to these ICE flights and what the employees do on them during an earnings phone report in 2023. In another section a quote from an ICE official regarding some of their protocols is from 2021. There is in reference to the controversial use of a particular restraint during flights, seen in a DHS report – that is from 2024, regarding the use in the previous year. //

Yet despite the timing of these interviews ProPublica never managed to issue this report until now? Even if there is some form of explanation made regarding the timing of publication, how do you speak to these employees in 2024 regarding what they experienced on flights that year and those prior and never managed to reference these were practices and policies made during the Biden administration?

This entire presentation is about using prior examples to demean what is taking place under the new leadership. Nowhere in this report is there a cited detail about what the current ICE flights are engaged in. It is a sham that all the objectionable actions are offloaded onto the current administration. //

C. S. P. Schofield
4 hours ago
So, once again the Democrats want to blame a Republican President for something a Democrat President did.

Yawn

How tiresomely predictable.

JHW252
5 hours ago edited
If tariffs are so bad why is the rest of the world using them against us ? My father was a successful businessman who owned a small engineering firm. He predicted everything that is happening now back in the 80’s.
“If they sign NAFTA that’s the end of manufacturing in the United States”
“There is no substitute in an economy for the blue collar worker and his paycheck”. //

Blue State Deplorable
6 hours ago
In general, I agree tariffs drive up prices and discourage trade or so I was taught as an Econ major.

But, I think that analysis fails to capture what Trump seeks. This is a gambit. He’s leveraging the power of the American marketplace to encourage other nations to trade fairly. If you wish to export to the US, you’ll eliminate the tariffs you impose on American goods (and subsidies to your manufacturers that allow them to compete unfairly) or suffer the consequences in the form of retaliatory tariffs. Trump’s betting most nations will fold. Whether it works, remains to be seen.

At the same time, Trump is wooing investment from abroad to create jobs and reinvigorate America’s manufacturing base. He’s also seeking to incentivize American manufacturers to produce goods in the US. Why? Well jobs, as I said, but it’s more strategic than that.

Trump sees a dangerous world and with it, declining US power. He believes that a weakened US makes the world more dangerous and less stable. To shore up US power, he’s looking to re-establish American manufacturing and wealth (particularly middle class wealth). Why? So that America can continue to project power to ensure a stable, less dangerous world and wield that power lethally when it becomes necessary.

The tariffs Trump’s imposing are designed to reset America’s trade relationship. They are intended to be short term in nature and predicated on the assumption that most of the world will play ball. As I said above, whether it works remains to be seen. //

Blue State Deplorable anon-lier
4 hours ago
Yes, “unequal tariffs” make those imports more expensive for American consumption, but they remain cheaper than goods manufactured here. Why? For a lot of reasons. Some of it has to do with the cost of producing in a first world economy, some of it has to do with direct and indirect subsidies that importing manufactures benefit from like Chinese slave labor and the like.

Trump’s view of the world is a little different though. His goal is not higher prices or reduced trade, it’s trade on an equal footing, it’s more manufacturing in America, it’s more good paying American jobs. Could we see higher prices? Possibly, but if real wages go up, it doesn’t necessarily matter.

It’s a complex issue, but I do heed Thomas Sowell’s warning (see above). Make no mistake, Trump’s gambling. It could pay off handsomely, but there could also be severe consequences. //

Outerlimitsfan
6 hours ago edited
Meanwhile Rand Paul is Saying tariffs and protectionist policy was a political disaster for McKinley in 1890. Yes, McKinley(a Congressman) and his party lost badly soon after.

Rand failed to mention though that McKinley later became President in 1896 and reelection for a second term. Rapid economic growth occurred under his protectionist/tariff policies as President. Highest tariffs in U.S. history occurred in late 1800s/early 1900s.

Also Alexander Hamilton and many of the founders supported tariffs and protectionism. //

surfcat50 Outerlimitsfan
6 hours ago
People forget, or may not know, that prior to the constitutional amendment bringing the income tax to life in the US in 1913 (using the same lies then that only “the rich” would pay it), the federal government was funded entirely through duties, excise taxes and . . . TARIFFS.

anon-rjsc
6 hours ago
President Trump’s tariffs are much more than a simple tool to get concessions and/or collect money. He’s setting a new global baseline for international relations. For 40 years, the baseline has been zero US tariffs, high tariffs into other countries, and we impose sanctions when we want countries to change. The new baseline is a bilateral reciprocal tariff. From there, we reward a country AFTER it does something beneficial to us, like lowering their tariffs. This new baseline opens countless opportunities way beyond tariffs.

anon-ai01
3 hours ago
Since Jimmy Carter founded the Dept. of Education in 1978 as a payoff to the teachers' unions for their support, educational achievement for US students has gone from #2 in the world to #40. So many children cannot read. It is a crying shame. Teachers' unions oppose teaching phonics. Returning power to the local level weakens union control. Thank you, Pres. Trump and Sec. McMahon!

According to ESA, Sentinel-6, one of the most advanced altimetry satellites, has a sea surface height measurement accuracy of <4 cm. NASA echoes similar numbers, claiming satellite altimetry achieves 2.5 to 4 cm accuracy over the global oceans.
So let’s be clear: they’re detecting micron-scale accelerations using instruments with centimeter-scale noise. That’s a factor of 1,000 between the noise and the signal. Even with years of averaging, extensive noise filtering, and meticulous data modeling, this veers between pseudoscience at best and scientific fraud at worst. //

Scott Simmons @sjsimmons
·
1h
3/ The analysis is based on thousands of measurements from satellites, and uncertainty decreases with =SQRT(N). So the measurement error is much larger than the error of the mean GMSL value. With your Ph.D. in earth science, you certainly learned this. You're being dishonest.

Once non-citizens living in the United States have a SSN, opportunities to commit fraud become clear.

Selecting the right differential for your rearend build is an important decision that will be with you for a very long time - if you get it right.

Below are short, not-too-technical, overviews of some of the most frequently asked about differential options for Hot Rods, Muscle Cars, and Muscle Trucks. //

Detroit Truetrac - Helical-gear limited-slip (worm differential) is the modern replacement for the classic clutch-type posi. //

Trac-Lok/Posi-Trac – Clutch-type limited-slip (Posi), offered as original equipment in many GM and Ford performance cars, these units rely on clutches (friction plates) to transfer power to the wheels. //

Detroit Locker - Automatic "ratcheting-style" differential is known for its reliability, rugged construction, and fully-locked performance on any surface. When power (torque) is applied in either forward or reverse directions, the unit locks both axles together like a spool. When coasting or rolling through a corner (no torque applied), the unequal speed of the inside and outside wheels causes the unit to unlock momentarily, before abruptly locking when power is applied.

tigas Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
21y
7,000
Subscriptor

SomewhereAroundBarstow said:
And that's as close as you're going to get an active astronaut to saying that what some people call the Deep State is actually where the heroes that keep everything from falling apart work.

What actually makes you a "steely-eyed missile man" isn't bravery, mojo, having XY chromosomes or white skin, it's to

sit in their cubicle for decades studying their systems, and knowing their systems front and back. And when there is no time to assess a situation and go and talk to people and ask, 'What do you think?' they know their system so well they come up with a plan on the fly

"Hey, this is a very precarious situation we're in." //

As it flew up toward the International Space Station last summer, the Starliner spacecraft lost four thrusters. A NASA astronaut, Butch Wilmore, had to take manual control of the vehicle. But as Starliner's thrusters failed, Wilmore lost the ability to move the spacecraft in the direction he wanted to go. //

Wilmore added that he felt pretty confident, in the aftermath of docking to the space station, that Starliner probably would not be their ride home.

Wilmore: "I was thinking, we might not come home in the spacecraft. We might not. And one of the first phone calls I made was to Vincent LaCourt, the ISS flight director, who was one of the ones that made the call about waiving the flight rule. I said, 'OK, what about this spacecraft, is it our safe haven?'"

It was unlikely to happen, but if some catastrophic space station emergency occurred while Wilmore and Williams were in orbit, what were they supposed to do? Should they retreat to Starliner for an emergency departure, or cram into one of the other vehicles on station, for which they did not have seats or spacesuits? LaCourt said they should use Starliner as a safe haven for the time being. Therein followed a long series of meetings and discussions about Starliner's suitability for flying crew back to Earth. Publicly, NASA and Boeing expressed confidence in Starliner's safe return with crew. But Williams and Wilmore, who had just made that harrowing ride, felt differently.

Wilmore: "I was very skeptical, just because of what we'd experienced. I just didn't see that we could make it. I was hopeful that we could, but it would've been really tough to get there, to where we could say, 'Yeah, we can come back.'"

So they did not.