MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Starship Flight Test 9: Another Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
May 28, 2025
SUPPORT IMMUNE HEALTH: ForestLeaf Colostrum Powder 50% IgG Highest Pure Concentration. #CommissionEarned
HOW’S THAT SPACE PROGRAM COMING ALONG? Venus Harbors Secret Asteroids That Could Threaten Earth, Study Warns. “These so-called ‘Venus co-orbitals’ share a similar path around the Sun with our neighbor planet but aren’t harmless tagalongs. According to a paper under review for the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, and currently hosted on arXiv, a yet-undetected group of the asteroids could pose a threat to Earth.”
CHANGE: Universities brace for endowment tax hike as GOP’s ‘big beautiful bill’ heads to Senate. “While some reports indicate administrators have hired lobbyists to try and water down the proposal, observers say some sort of tax hike is likely in the offing for these institutions. Rather than a flat rate, House Republicans seek to increase taxes on private university endowments ranging from 1.4 percent to 21 percent, according to the legislation.”
ROBERT SPENCER: King Charles Undercuts Canada’s Sovereignty While Trying to Affirm It. “Yeah, this was really a great idea from the beginning: show Orange Man Bad that you’re a sovereign state by reminding the world that you’re a part of an international conglomeration of former British colonies under the sovereignty of the English king. But when he actually spoke on Tuesday, Charles made it even worse.”
MADE IN THE USA: Grass Fed Colostrum Powder, Unflavored Bovine Colostrum for Humans. #CommissionEarned
THE EV BUBBLE CONTINUES TO DEFLATE: Tesla Rival BYD Tumbles After Launching China EV Price War. Several Rivals Fire Back.
BYD is generally viewed as the low-cost producer in China, reflecting its in-house production of batteries and many key components as well as its ability to extract volume discounts from suppliers. So it has more scope to get prices lower than rivals, many of which are not profitable.
Rising inventories at BYD dealers reportedly spurred the automaker’s move, along with a desire to reach 5.5 million in sales this year, up from just over 4 million in 2024.
The EV maker’s discounts don’t apply to its surging overseas sales. Those already tend to have higher margins. That gives BYD another edge over rivals that are almost entirely reliant on the cutthroat China market.
Still, hefty price cuts will likely squeeze BYD’s profit margins.
China price wars are nothing new. Tesla helped kick off big discounts in early 2023, as the U.S. EV giant slashed prices worldwide.
In early 2024, BYD spurred a wave of price cuts.
The market has too many producers and not enough growth, even with mandates and subsidies.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Reports of the Dems’ Return to Relevance Are Greatly Exaggerated. “Where Politico takes this is so ridiculous it’s like reading an old copy of Mad Magazine. The Who’s Who of leftist whackos in its fever dream for this shadow cabinet is chuckle-worthy. Bill Nye the Fake Science Guy is on it. The Democrats’ media mouthpieces are even less serious people than the party leaders are.”
CHANGE: Trump admin issues pause on student visa interviews at all embassies.
The Trump administration on Tuesday reportedly issued a blanket pause on the scheduling of student visa interviews at embassies and consulates while it mulls the implementation of social media vetting for foreign students.
The interim pause came via an order from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Politico reported.
“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued septel, which we anticipate in the coming days,” it read.
Somewhere, a Biden or Obama judge is trying to figure out how to put a stop to the stoppage.
IT’S A CLASSIC BLOG AND GOOGLE NEEDS TO FIX THIS: The Blog “No Pasarán” Has Been Locked and Removed; Google: Put an End to the Censorship.
IT’S ALWAYS LIKE THIS:
This is perfect. When you read the headline about defunding cancer research you think it involves doctors and scientists, instead it involves a DEI "statistician" who’s mostly famous for being incompetent at statistics https://t.co/gmSZSatimo
— Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry_en) May 28, 2025
ELON’S DISAPPOINTED, BECAUSE AS HARD AS ROCKETRY IS, POLITICS IS HARDER:
Did my best
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 26, 2025
I mean, he’s not wrong to be disappointed and disgusted with the GOP, but making deep political change is really hard, since you’re threatening so many rice bowls. If you want people to act differently, you have to make it in their interest to act differently. Carrot, stick, whatever. You need incentives that will offset the power and stickiness of the Blob.
DON SURBER: Democrats have a BO problem: The Donald offers the young hope and change from Obama.
Obama was the ultimate Boomer fantasy president. Naturally, he sucked.
THE PURPOSE OF A SYSTEM IS WHAT IT DOES:
The point of a system is what it does. Clearly Roberts and Barrett were fine with Biden's "parole" BS.
— Dan Warner (@dwboston1) May 27, 2025
NOBODY SAW THAT COMING: Gen Z Is Rebelling—by Getting Religion.
When truth-telling becomes a crime, make an example of the censors.
LIGHTNING DEAL: Slushie Machine, No Ice Needed. #CommissionEarned
THE ART OF THE DEAL(S): Consumer confidence for May was much stronger than expected on optimism for trade deals.
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index leaped to 98.0, a 12.3-point increase from April and much better than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 86.0.
Much of the positive sentiment, according to board officials, came from developments in the U.S.-China trade impasse, most notably President Donald Trump’s halting of the most severe tariffs on May 12.
“The rebound was already visible before the May 12 US-China trade deal but gained momentum afterwards,” said Stephanie Guichard, the Conference Board’s senior economist for global indicators.
May’s rebound followed five straight months of declines. Consumers and investors had grown sour on economic prospects amid the intensifying trade war that Trump has launched against U.S. global trading partners, with China a particular target.
However, the two sides reached a truce in early May, marking the second major walk-back of Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs since he levied them in his April 2 “liberation day” announcement.
Other board sentiment indicators also increased.
Now that the Democrats are out of power, the unexpectedlies all run in the opposite direction.
INDEED:
The last president told me his patience with me was “wearing thin”, tried to have me fired for not taking a fake vaccine, and then told the entire country I was a threat to the very foundations of democracy.
You don’t ever get to call anyone else “divisive.” It’s on now. https://t.co/77P1JjEgoP
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) May 27, 2025
Plus:
Joe Biden gave a speech in front of a blood red background flanked by Marines basically calling half the country dangerous fascists. https://t.co/E6sLWRQGjH
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) May 27, 2025
ICYMI: So This Latest Move Will Save the Democrats for Sure. “The Democrats have guys like Walz, who is maybe one handful of confetti away from Rip Taylor. Republicans? Their top guy’s third wife is also his second supermodel. How are you gonna compete for the male vote like that?”