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April 11, 2025
AN UNGUARDED RESPONSE TO A CRITIC: Velkyn1 offered an usually detailed and lengthy critique of a video on the HillFaith YouTube channel. Take his critique and my response, put them together and you have an insight into the depth and detail of the present state of apologetical discussion of one critical detail from the Easter story, who were the guards Pilate commanded to keep watch on the tomb of Jesus to prevent His disciples from stealing his body and [falsely] proclaiming His resurrection?
THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS: Democrats Cheering MS-13 Gang Member’s Return Missed a Key Detail in SCOTUS Ruling.
NICE AIRPORT YOU’VE GOT THERE, BE A SHAME IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO IT: ‘All kinds of scavengers’: Russia speeds up asset grab.
Russian billionaire Dmitry Kamenshchik last year was approached by people close to the government and security services with an offer they hoped he could not refuse.
But when Kamenshchik balked at gifting the state 25 per cent in Moscow’s second-largest airport, a person close to him recalled, he was met with the full force of the Russian legal system.
In January, the Russian prosecutor-general asked a Moscow court to order the nationalisation of Domodedovo airport, claiming that Kamenshchik and his business associate were part of western efforts to undermine the Russian economy because they held foreign passports. The case, which is being heard in closed-door hearings, is ongoing.
The episode is part of a string of nationalisations that have accelerated since Vladimir Putin started his full-scale war in Ukraine, even as he is also making overtures to western companies lured by the prospect of Donald Trump rekindling economic ties with Russia.
Strongarming billionaire oligarchs to feed the war machine doesn’t seem like a sustainable business model.
IT’S FRIDAY AND TIME FOR MORE SKY CANDY [VIP]: Sky Candy Near and Far.
OUR CALIFORNICATION IS NEARLY COMPLETE: Colorado Dems Just Drove Another Stake into the Bill of Rights. “The 2nd Amendment died in Colorado on a sunny spring afternoon in Denver, and Democrats murdered it. Yesterday, so-called ‘moderate’ Democrat Gov. Jared Polis put his signature on SB 25-003 — perhaps the most convoluted and restrictive gun control law anywhere in the nation. But don’t you worry, Democrats are gunning next for the 1st Amendment.”
REMEDIAL MATH AT THE IVY LEAGUE: Harvard’s math class problem shows why merit still matters.
HMM: Trump Order Would Force the ACLU to Put Its Money Where Its Mouth Is on Lawfare.
What if I told you that when federal district judges issue injunctions blocking President Donald Trump’s policies in a judicial insurrection, they were the ones breaking the law?
No, it’s not just because these judges are effectively usurping the authority of the president over the executive branch. It’s more clear-cut than that.
When Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., issued an order demanding the Trump administration return reputed members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to the U.S., he wasn’t just making immigration policy—he was violating a black-and-white rule laid down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
What does that mean? It means that when the ACLU files a lawsuit against the Trump administration and asks the judge to issue an order forcing Trump to turn around, in midflight, the planes deporting violent gangbangers, the ACLU has to put up or shut up.
The ACLU has to put down a “security” payment when asking for the court order, just in case a later judge strikes down the order after it already cost the government money to follow it.
This commonsense requirement isn’t a Trump wish list item. It’s a rule with the force of law.
If the administration were to demand that judges follow this rule, it could stop the judicial insurrection in its tracks—or, at the very least, make the activists think twice before assuming they can dictate federal policy.
Much more at the link.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: It’s Hard to Believe, but People Still Underestimate Trump. “It’s stunning to me that President Trump’s detractors still like to portray him as some sort of hot-headed buffoon who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Well, stunning and tedious at this point. You would think that they would eventually get tired of being wrong.”
A MESSAGE MUST BE SENT:
She should now be court-martialed for conduct unbecoming, busted down a rank, and administratively separated with a reduction in retirement. https://t.co/RKRaLsM3IO
— Shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) April 11, 2025
A TIME FOR CHOOSING: Nato’s 2023 military spending produced about 233m metric tonnes of CO2 – report.
Is NATO prepared to fight against Europe’s enemies, or merely wage the moral equivalent of war against global warming? I know which way I’m betting; as Richard Fernadez tweets, “The European desire to defend against Russia is hampered by its conviction that building up the military is a climate crime. Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort or tension that arises when someone holds conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. Classic symptoms of cognitive dissonance are: Anxiety, guilt, shame, or regret Feeling paralyzed in decision-making Difficulty recognizing the person you’ve become and feeling a lost sense of self ‘Trump! Why did you do this to me?’”
That’s been the left’s constant cri de coeur during the last decade.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE: Colorado’s K-12 education department won’t comply with Trump’s DEI order.
The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to state education departments on April 3 threatening to pull federal funding from public schools over such programs. States were given 10 days to sign and return the notice, but multiple states, including New York and Minnesota, have said they won’t comply with the order.
“The use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law,” the federal Education Department wrote in the certification, adding that it is illegal for programs to advantage one race over another.
Córdova said during a meeting of the Colorado State Board of Education on Thursday that she isn’t signing the certification letter and will not ask districts to do so. She added that Colorado schools already comply with federal anti-discrimination laws.
Not if they’re promoting DEI, they aren’t.
SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: A Critique of John Yoo on Ex parte Merryman. “Yoo tells us that Lincoln defied a judicial order in Merryman. But Taney issued three orders in Merryman. Which among the three Taney-issued Merryman orders does Yoo believe Lincoln defied? Yoo does not say. That is a tell. Nor does Yoo, in any readily identifiable way, explain what action or inaction by Lincoln constituted defiance. And that is a tell too.”
IF YOU CAN MAKE IT WITH A CORPSE THERE, YOU CAN MAKE IT WITH A CORPSE ANYWHERE:
The subhed appears to be, uh, pretty backed up by the headline. pic.twitter.com/9UaeE7QEaZ
— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) April 11, 2025
NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: Stephanopoulos Described Biden as ‘Heartbreaking’ After Interview.
They all knew. They. All. Knew.
We knew they all knew, too. It’s infuriating.
In his new book Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History, Chris Whipple claims that ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos described former President Joe Biden as “heartbreaking up close” after an interview in July.
The interview happened one week after Biden debated then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Biden dropped out of the race on July 21. He immediately endorsed his VP Kamala Harris.
More from The Washington Examiner:
The book’s author, Chris Whipple, described Biden’s appearance as “hoarse and semi-coherent” during the interview, in which Stephanopoulos asked his questions “gently, like a grandson.”
“Afterward, when I asked the ABC anchor by email for his impressions, he replied: ‘Heartbreaking up close,’” Whipple wrote.
—
Whipple’s statement mirrors a story that spread after the Biden interview when a passerby asked Stephanopoulos if he believed the president should step down. The anchor appeared to respond, “I don’t think he can serve four more years.” The Washington Examiner’s Sarah Bedford contended that most people agree that Biden was not fit to serve another term and that such an assessment is “pretty apparent.”
Related: Stephanopoulos in June of 2024:
“We had a dry run in 2016, we saw more of it in 2020, it’s going to be worse than ever here in 2024,” George Stephanopoulos told the Deadline ElectionLine podcast this week regarding disinformation campaigns and tactics that are going to be unleashed on America as we get closer to this year’s general election in November.
Stephanopoulos was certainly correct; if only he know how accurately he described his industry during every presidential election year.
IT’S INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT IN TRUMP 47 TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TDS AND IRON RICE BOWL SYNDROME: Contractor Overseeing Sensitive Government Docs in ‘Cave’ Accused of Having Major Case of TDS.
SUNLIGHT IS THE BEST DISINFECTANT:
BREAKING: @FDRLST has obtained the Russiagate binder, which consist of seven separate files totaling hundreds of pages. In the interest of full transparency and disclosure, we are making the documents available to everyone for review on our Scribd page.
Links to follow…(1/2) pic.twitter.com/vJ4JryTMsl— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 11, 2025
Kudos to The Federalist for making these files available to all.
COVID FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY:
As Ross Douthat wrote in the New York Times a few days later in 2020: When Coronavirus Lockdowns Go Too Far. The closures were necessary. Chasing picnickers and closing paint aisles is petty overreach.
The tweet shows two silhouettes, extending in familiar policeman shapes. The text is as cheery as a beat-walking bobby in an Edwardian children’s book: “If you think that by going for a picnic in a rural location no one will find you, don’t be surprised if an officer appears from the shadows!” And the message, directed in this case to the inhabitants of Central Bedfordshire in England, is an example of how even when they’re essential, anti-pandemic policies are always at risk of going a little bit insane.
I’m a skeptic, to put it mildly, of the skeptics of lockdowns and social distancing requirements. At best they make an argument for more speed and optimism in reopening*, not a case that there’s an alternative world where the American economy stayed open** and steady while the virus was killing more people weekly than car crashes, flu or cancer and New York’s monthly death toll was climbing above that of September 2001***.
But the skeptics’ determination to catalog every petty tyranny inflicted in the name of quarantine is an important public service — not just because overreach always needs critics, but because petty tyrannies today are obstacles to the adaptation we need to get to semi-normalcy tomorrow.
In response to the overreach of the Central Bedfordshire rozzers, James Lileks noted:
If you sneak off into the woods for a picnic, you could be killing people and crippling the NHS, so shadowy peelers should manifest themselves and issue tickets.
Turns out this wasn’t well received:
Utter nonsense. Huge stonking heaps of bollocks. Walking to the dunes for a picnic, or heading to the field off Potter’s Lane to enjoy the sun, is absolutely harmless, and everyone knows it, and it’s corrupting the trust people would normally grant the authorities. As I once wrote about small-minded public officials: “I don’t make the laws, sir, I just enforce them with a great deal of enthusiasm.”
Back in 2018, when British cops were threatening social media critics after the NHS banished 23-month-old Alfie Evans to the Spartan hillside, British ex-pat Charles Cooke tweeted, “Michael Brendan Dougherty pointed out to me that police in the U.K. spend all their time on Twitter threatening people with jail time for frivolous things, and now I can’t stop seeing it.” The lockdowns gave the British police all the excuse they needed to get their inner Mosley on.
* In retrospect, Sweden would like a word here.
** As John Hinderaker wrote at Power Line last year, “The New York Times looks back on covid, four years down the road, and says ‘Here’s what we’ve learned.’ I would say we have learned some things that the Times doesn’t touch, like the idiocy of shutting down stores, businesses, churches and, especially, schools.”
*** New York Times quietly admits COVID deaths were overcounted by ‘almost one-third.’
LIGHTNING DEAL: Biofreeze Roll On Pain Relief. #CommissionEarned
GOVERNMENT. NEXT QUESTION? NASA nominee asks why lunar return has taken so long, and why it costs so much.
Cruz opened the hearing by stating his priorities for NASA clearly and explicitly: He is most focused on ensuring the United States does not cede any of its preeminence to China in space, and this starts with low-Earth orbit and the Moon.
“Make no mistake, the Chinese Communist Party has been explicit in its desire to dominate space, putting a fully functional space station in low-Earth orbit and robotic rovers on the far side of the Moon,” he said. “We are not headed for the next space race; it is already here.”
Cruz wanted Isaacman to commit to not just flying human missions to the Moon, but also to a sustained presence on the surface or in cislunar space.
In response, Isaacman said he would see that NASA returns humans to the Moon as quickly as possible, beating China in the process. This includes flying Artemis II around the Moon in 2026, and then landing the Artemis III mission later this decade.
The disagreement came over what to do after this. Isaacman, echoing the Trump administration, said the agency should also press onward, sending humans to Mars as soon as possible. Cruz, however, wanted Isaacman to say NASA would establish a sustained presence at [sic] the Moon. The committee has written authorizing legislation to mandate this, Cruz reminded Isaacman.
“If that’s the law, then I am committed to it,” Isaacman said.
Maybe the biggest obstacle to establishing a sustained presence is Artemis. Flying on SLS at $4 billion per launch — just for the SLS rocket — is too expensive, and its launch cadence is too slow to do what it’s supposed to do.
OUR JUDGES ARE THE BEST AMONG US:
Pennsylvania judge Sonya McKnight convicted of shooting sleeping boyfriend in the head https://t.co/swemk5QSeL pic.twitter.com/nsjy75aAdz
— New York Post (@nypost) April 10, 2025
HOW IT STARTED: Space Force Commander in Greenland Sent Out Email Breaking with Vance After His Visit.
Just days after Vice President JD Vance’s March visit to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, the installation commander sent out an email to the base distancing it from Vance’s criticism of Denmark and its oversight of the territory, Military.com has learned.
Col. Susan Meyers, the commander of the 821st Space Base Group who also oversees the Pentagon’s northernmost military base, sent a March 31 message to all personnel at Pituffik seemingly aimed at generating unity among the airmen and Guardians, as well as the Canadians, Danes and Greenlanders who work there, following Vance’s appearance. She wrote that she “spent the weekend thinking about Friday’s visit — the actions taken, the words spoken, and how it must have affected each of you.”
“I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the U.S. administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base,” Meyers wrote in the email, which was communicated to Military.com.
The emailed remarks, confirmed as accurate to Military.com by the Space Force, mark a rare pushback within the ranks of the Trump administration’s repeated criticism and critiques of NATO members and longtime allies. A source familiar with the email said it was sent to all base personnel, including those from Denmark and Greenland on the installation.
How it’s going: “Colonel Susannah Meyers, commander of Pituffik Space Base was removed from command by Colonel Kenneth Klock, commander of Space Base Delta 1, on April 10, 2025 for loss of confidence in her ability to lead. Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties. Colonel Shawn Lee has assumed command.”
IT WOULD TAKE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH: Kamala Harris Falls on Hard Times: ‘If She Ran for Dogcatcher, She’d Lose.’
