Mining Our Own Business
Posted By: RockyTCB, 5/2/2025 9:06:29 AM
Rare earth elements are crucial to our modern existence, as well as our advanced defense systems. China, America’s primary supplier of these metals, has restricted exports of rare earths into the U.S. in retaliation for the president’s tariffs on Chinese exports into the country. There’s no reason to panic, though. There’s a way to work around the problem, and it doesn’t require a minerals deal with Ukraine. Rare earth elements are needed to make our cellphones, computer hard drives, flat-screen monitors and televisions, as well as life-saving medical equipment. They are in fact “indispensable metals in electronics manufacturing.”
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President Donald Trump has expended a lot of effort negotiating new tariffs with America’s trade partners. But will tariffs lead to lower income taxes and more factories at work in the U.S., as suggested? A plurality, though not a majority, of Americans say they will, and support them for that reason, according to the latest I&I/TIPP Poll.
With hot debate over tariffs ongoing and current talks with trade partners, tariffs have been in the media spotlight this year.
Seeking to find out how Americans see tariffs, the I&I/TIPP Poll posed the following statement to respondents: “President Trump recently stated that tariffs could lower or even eliminate income taxes
Back in March, unnamed “senior tax officials” told the Washington Post that the “rapid demolition of parts of the IRS” was going to result in a 10% plunge in revenues this spring.
Actual result: Revenues are up 9% compared with the first four months of last year.
We heard repeated horror stories about DOGE’s devastating spending cuts, too.
Actual result: Spending is up 7% over last year.
Are you noticing a trend here?
According to the Washington Post, “Senior tax officials are bracing for a sharp drop in revenue collected this spring, as an increasing number of individuals and businesses spurn filing their taxes
A university report published last month shows that more than half of those who identify as being left of center on the political spectrum believe assassinating President Donald Trump would be justified. This didn’t come about organically. It’s the product of a vicious campaign waged by the Democratic Party-mainstream media axis.
According to a Rutgers Social Perception Lab-Network Contagion Research Institute brief, 55.2% of Americans on the left “reported that if someone murdered Donald Trump, they would be at least somewhat justified.” Overall, 38.5% hold the same belief.
Trump, who has survived a pair of assassination attempts
Defund The United Nations
17 replies
The United Nations is running short of cash. This is not a crisis but an opportunity. Please rid us of this meddlesome, venal and baleful organization.
The Economist reports that “internal modeling” at the U.N. “suggests that the year-end cash deficit will, without cuts, probably blow out to $1.1 billion, leaving it “without money to pay salaries and suppliers by September.”
Apparently “some members are paying their bills late and others not at all” and it is the U.S. and China that “are pushing it to the brink of financial collapse.”
Who says the U.S. and Beijing have no common interests?
How did President Donald Trump do during his first 100 days (and counting) in office? By and large, American voters are sharply split, with Republicans strongly positive on Trump’s leadership, while both Democrats and independents remain mostly skeptical, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.
Regarding presidential leadership, U.S. voters were asked: “Overall, is your opinion of Donald Trump generally favorable, generally unfavorable, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?”
The online national poll, taken from April 30-May 2 by 1,400 adults, provided a muddled answer: Overall, 44% assessed Trump’s presidential
Mining Our Own Business
1 reply
Rare earth elements are crucial to our modern existence, as well as our advanced defense systems. China, America’s primary supplier of these metals, has restricted exports of rare earths into the U.S. in retaliation for the president’s tariffs on Chinese exports into the country. There’s no reason to panic, though. There’s a way to work around the problem, and it doesn’t require a minerals deal with Ukraine.
Rare earth elements are needed to make our cellphones, computer hard drives, flat-screen monitors and televisions, as well as life-saving medical equipment. They are in fact “indispensable metals in electronics manufacturing.”
Let’s get the big news out of the way: The economy shrank by 0.3% during the first quarter of 2025, a mild but not wholly unexpected drop blamed by nearly everyone on President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes. Is that the first step toward a recession, or, as Trump put it, just a result of the “Biden overhang”?
First, let’s just note one big thing: The media can’t help but show its glaring bias against Trump even when it reports boring data, such as the barely negative GDP number.
“Honey, Trump shrunk the economy! And the lying coward is still blaming Biden,” as a particularly crass opinion on USA Today said.
At a town hall meeting last week, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez — one of the few moderate Democrats left in the world — made a perfectly common-sensical statement: “Americans believe that only U.S. citizens should be determining the outcome of American elections.”
She was greeted with a torrent shouts, boos, and profanity, signs that said “shame” from her constituents, and was ushered out of room for “security reasons.”
After President Donald Trump called for a “revolution of common sense,” it spread like a virus – except among Democrats, who appear to have a natural immunity.
Newsom Hits The Gas
14 replies
It wasn’t long ago that a California governor made it clear that oil refineries were not welcome in his state. Then another California governor asked regulators to loosen the chains on refineries to ensure that they will be profitable and remain in the state that every day burns an enormous volume of gasoline.
Actually, it is the same governor, one who has turned his attention from playing to his hard-left, blue-state constituency to shifting toward the middle for a 2028 White House run.
It was just last summer when Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a “plan to prevent Big Oil ‘profit spikes’” that would also “save Californians money at the pump.”
Once upon a time, your correspondent was summoned to a New York war room to help develop the announcement of AOL’s acquisition of Time Warner. His immediate response: “Why!? These guys (TW execs) are the sharpest knives in the business!”
Two years later, the combined company announced a record $54-billion write-down of “goodwill” — which the Oxford Dictionary defines as “the established reputation of a business regarded as a quantifiable asset.”
Credible operational explanations exist for this catastrophic drop of value. But to this commentator, the prime reason was an anonymous media campaign by those C-suite assassins
For some, it’s hard to imagine an unpaid civil servant doing an important job for the government could be treated worse than Elon Musk. The government cost-cutting head of DOGE has been rewarded for his service by a boycott of Tesla and its stock, by death threats, insults, and violent attacks on Tesla dealers and owners. And now, according to the latest I&I/TIPP Poll, a surprisingly large share of the population backs this behavior.
The national online I&I/TIPP poll was taken by 1,452 adults from March 26 to March 28. It has a margin of error of +/-2.6 percentage points. The poll was intended to look at the anti-Musk phenomenon,
Last week, the New York Times discovered that President Donald Trump was serious when he promised to liberate the economy from the oppressive weight of the regulatory state, describing it as “deregulation on a mass scale.”
Cornell’s Donald Kenkel, who was chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers in the first Trump administration, told the Times that “It’s going on much more quietly than some of the other fireworks we’re seeing, but it will have great impact.”
Great, indeed. In both senses of the word.
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Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg held a town hall in the influential early-contest state of Iowa on Tuesday, potentially fueling added speculation about another presidential run for the prominent Democrat. Buttigieg held the town hall with VoteVets, a progressive political action committee advocating on issues like national security and veterans’ care, in Cedar Rapids, marking the first time he’s been back to Iowa since the end of the Biden administration. The former 2020 presidential candidate noted that he’s not currently a public official, nor is he actively running for office and called on officials to take part in more events
LOS ANGELES — Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg said Friday that Democrats have to figure out how to grow their party in order to help younger people pay their bills and focus on having fun and sex. He told comedian Bill Maher during an appearance on the “Real Time” show that assisting younger people with getting by will allow them to “focus on what young people should be focused on.” (snip) “Young people should be able to focus on what young people should be focused on, which is how to get laid and how to go and have fun,” the vice chair continued.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has taken steps towards removing gun control activist and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor David Hogg as vice chairman.
On Monday, the credentials committee of the DNC voted 13-2 to void the election results from February in which Hogg and Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D) were elected to serve as co-vice chairmen of the DNC, according to the New York Times. The vote comes as Hogg is reportedly planning to “spend up to $20 million” to fund “primary campaigns against incumbent Democrats.”
Per the outlet, the decision from the credentials committee came after “three hours of internal debate and one tie vote,”
Restaurants on Lower Broadway have shut down due to fears of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s presence in Nashville.
Fox 17 reported that at least two restaurants closed last weekend due to the rumored presence of law enforcement.
“It’s just creating this general sense of fear all the time,” said a manager to Fox 17. “There were rumors flying around about ICE being on Lower Broadway. It was credible enough that we had to close the restaurant because back-of-house staff had to leave. Everyone split.”
Democrat Rep. Shiri Thanedar (MI) has introduced a resolution to force a chamber-wide impeachment vote against President Trump.
Thanedar introduced “his impeachment resolution as privileged on Tuesday afternoon, meaning leaders have two days of the House in session to take up the legislation,” per Fox News.
No House Republicans have signaled support for the measure, and leaders could potentially keep lawmakers from voting on impeachment at all.
When deeming his resolution privileged, Thanedar said the president “has unlawfully conducted himself, bringing shame to the presidency and the people of the United States,” while calling the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) a “flagrantly unconstitutional creation.”
Democrats have not backed the impeachment resolution,
Over the years, numerous studies, speeches and books have focused on a phenomenon known as self-sabotage. The subjects are highly successful people who throw it all away by behaving recklessly when they get to the top of the heap. Think Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky. Overconfidence, boredom and a notorious quest for power are among the reasons commonly identified as explanations for the destructive cycle.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin hinted Monday that he’s preparing to roll back one car feature that every driver “hates.”
“Start/stop technology: where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy,” Zeldin tweeted Monday in a post that has since racked up more than 8 million views.
“EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it.”
The feature kills internal combustion engines at red lights and has been touted by proponents for being able to conserve fuel and cut down on pollution.
Critics have questioned whether the feature can wear down the car’s battery or engine more quickly.
Episcopal Church refuses to resettle White
South African refugees in clash with Trump administration 22 replies
South African refugees in clash with Trump administration 22 replies
The Episcopal Church’s migration service said it will refuse the Trump administration's request to help resettle dozens of White South Africans granted refugee status by the federal government. In a statement, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said the Episcopal Migration Ministries will instead terminate its partnership with the government. The announcement came shortly before 59 South Africans arrived in the United States.
"In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step," Rowe said of the government's request that the church help resettle the South African citizens.
In his latest proposal to end the war in Ukraine, former President Donald Trump reportedly offered Vladimir Putin a dangerous concession: de jure recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The proposal appears to accept the idea that Crimea was once part of Russia and that returning it to Russia would restore historical justice.
This logic is not just politically reckless, it is historically and legally indefensible. It echoes the imperial narrative Putin himself has long advanced: that modern Russia is the rightful heir to the entire Russian Empire[snip]
Crimea was never part of Russia, and the Russian Federation is not a successor to the entire Russian Empire.
David Hogg, who emerged as a gun control advocate and political activist after he survived the horrible 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, has shaken up the Democrat party and caused intense navel-gazing and infighting among the ranks. You see, after the 25-year-old was voted in as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, he continued to agitate and raise money for party candidates who were challenging Dem incumbents—in effect, going directly against the DNC’s core mission.
Now some want him gone, and on Monday night, they took action [snip] Hogg isn’t taking it well
The days of rogue district court judges hijacking executive authority may finally be numbered. On Thursday, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a consolidated case, Trump v. CASA, which challenges lower court rulings that blocked President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants. Despite the constitutional authority granted to the executive branch on immigration matters, three district judges issued sweeping nationwide injunctions halting the order. Now, the highest court may have the chance to rein in judicial overreach and restore balance between the branches of government.
Since President Trump began his second term,
An incendiary trend involving laptops and fueled by social media has gripped various school kids across the U.S., sparking fires, warnings, and juvenile criminal charges. Several teenagers have been tampering with their school-issued Google Chromebooks by inserting objects capable of conducting electricity into the laptops’ charging ports, causing the laptops to short-circuit and burn, according to authorities. The illegal act is also a social media trend, they said.