May 2, 2025

NOW OUT FROM KURT SCHLICHTER & IRINA MOISES: Lost Angeles: Silver Bullets On The Sunset Strip. A departure from Kurt’s earlier work, though there are still guns. With silver bullets. Kinda more Larry Correia-ish and that’s a compliment. I enjoyed it, and it’s a real page-turner.

Posted at 1:31 pm by Glenn Reynolds 7

TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER TO END TAX MONEY FOR ‘RADICAL, WOKE’ PBS AND NPR:

Late on Thursday night, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to cut taxpayer funds to PBS and NPR through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The text was posted on the Trump team’s “Rapid Response 47” account on X.

It said: “@POTUS just signed an executive order ENDING the taxpayer subsidization of NPR and PBS — which receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”

The executive order includes this argument:

Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options. Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.

At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage.

Since PBS and NPR are funded by all the American people, it should reflect the viewpoints of the people, and instead, after Trump was re-elected, both networks have doubled down in their anti-Trump animus. This was the top of the NPR home page on Thursday morning:

Given that NPR views America as having been born of Original Sin, they should be thrilled to no longer have to take such dirty money to keep the lights on: Perfect Timing! Here’s a Propaganda Parade From NPR and PBS Just As Trump’s EO Ends Gov’t Funding.

Exit quote:

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll 5

“AS SOON AS” IS THE HARDEST-WORKING PHRASE IN HIGH-SPEED RAIL:

Palmdale to Gilroy, eh?

To be fair, “high-speed” is not the same as “high traffic.”

Posted at 12:46 pm by Stephen Green 166

FINALLY: Trump makes first judicial nomination since returning to White House. “The nomination was the first of what is expected to be more than 100 nominations Trump could make over the next four years to the federal courts, helping further put his conservative stamp on a judiciary that to his frustration has stymied key parts of his immigration and cost-cutting agenda.”

Congress needs to increase the size of the judiciary, and the Supreme Court, as soon as possible. It’s a nonpartisan project with bipartisan support!

The National Judicial Council just recommended adding 66 District Judges and two Court of Appeals judges to remedy the “crisis of undermanned federal courts.” Republicans should do at least that, though I would add at least two new Court of Appeals judges to each circuit. And I might increase the number of district judges appointed to the District for the District of Columbia, and perhaps the Southern District of New York, beyond the Council’s recommendations on the ground that those districts seem to be getting busier.

This wouldn’t be court-packing, since it’s simply following the recommendations of a non-partisan commission. (And in truth, it’s been widely agreed for many years that the federal courts are understaffed).

Now for the Supreme Court. Again, no partisan court-packing. Instead, in a spirit of bipartisanship, the GOP should enact the Democrats’ bill from 2021, which would have expanded the Supreme Court from 9 to 13. Although perhaps, in a spirit of generosity, they might increase the number to 15.

Yes. We must be generous.

Posted at 12:17 pm by Glenn Reynolds 94

CHANGE: ‘No Participation Trophies’: Trump Revamps Performance Reviews for Top Bureaucrats.

Performance reviews are about to become much more difficult for the upper echelon of federal government employees.

The Trump administration will soon introduce rules to end what the Office of Personnel Management describes as an “everyone gets a trophy” culture permeating the federal workforce, RealClearPolitics is first to report.

The ranks of the Senior Executive Service, top bureaucrats serving throughout the government and across administrations, swelled to around 8,000 under President Biden. Most live in Washington, D.C. They typically earn an annual salary between $183,000 and $250,000. An overwhelming majority, 96%, according to an OPM memo, receive above-average performance ratings even as public trust in government continues to crater.

“Above average” doesn’t mean what it used to.

Posted at 11:44 am by Stephen Green 62

COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM:

UPDATE (From Ed): Past performance is no guarantee of future results:

By the way, if “Hitler’s terrible tariffs” implies that Trump’s tariffs are bad, then going full Godwin means it’s time for the Atlantic to go full libertarian as well: Hitler’s Handouts — Inside the Nazis’ welfare state.

—Michael Moynihan, Reason magazine, August/September, 2007.

Posted at 10:55 am by Stephen Green 95

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT’S FRIDAY AGAIN [VIP]: Sky Candy Close and Distant Earth.

This is a little bit different approach this time, sort of a travelogue.

As always, if you’re not already a VIP member, you can subscribe here. Use promo code FIGHT for 60 percent off.

Posted at 10:43 am by Charlie Martin 7

DECOUPLING: Apple Says Most of Its Devices Shipped Into U.S. Will Be From India, Vietnam.

The company was among the hardest-hit of the tech giants last month because of its exposure to China, a primary target of the Trump administration’s global tariff pressure. Most of Apple’s devices are assembled in the country, and investors are closely watching its efforts to shift final assembly to India and other countries.
…
Apple expects that a majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in the June quarter will come from India, Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh said in an interview. A majority of the company’s other devices sold in the U.S. from April to June—including iPads, Macs, the Apple Watch and AirPods—will come from Vietnam, he said.

The company’s shares have recovered much of the value they lost after President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs sent them spiraling, thanks to a pause on so-called reciprocal tariffs for smartphones. The administration continues to weigh other actions that could affect tech companies, and the company faces 20% duties on imports from China and 10% from those sent via India.

China is a good place to get out of and not just because of tariffs.

Posted at 10:42 am by Stephen Green 70

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE:

Posted at 9:57 am by Glenn Reynolds 74

THE NEW SPACE RACE: FAA grounds Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket until failure investigation is complete.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is requiring an investigation into Alpha’s latest flight, an April 29 launch from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base that ended in failure.

“A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety,” the agency wrote in an update the day of the mishap. “In addition, Firefly may need to request and receive approval from the FAA to modify its license that incorporates any corrective actions and meet all other licensing requirements.”

The April 29 mission, which Firefly called “Message in a Booster,” was the sixth to date for the two-stage, 96.7-foot-tall (29.6-meter-tall) Alpha. The rocket was supposed to deliver a prototype version of Lockheed Martin’s LM 400 multi-mission satellite bus to low Earth orbit, but that didn’t happen.

Just after its two stages separated, Alpha suffered a mishap “that led to the loss of the Lightning engine nozzle extension, substantially reducing the engine’s thrust,” Firefly wrote in a post-launch update. (Alpha’s upper stage is powered by a single Lightning engine.)

Better luck next time, fellas.

Posted at 9:40 am by Stephen Green 8

EVEN YALE (MY LAW SCHOOL ALMA MATER) IS LOOKING RELATIVELY GOOD (BUT ONLY RELATIVELY): I Don’t Mean to Brag, but I Didn’t Go to Harvard. Money quote: “It’s almost like certain Harvard affiliates want to give the Trump administration ammunition in its war against the university.”

Posted at 9:29 am by David Bernstein 58