“On Wall Street, TACO — Trump Always Chickens Out — has abruptly been replaced as a favorite meme by NACHO — Not a Chance Hormuz Opens. As a result, oil futures have soared. I never bought into the TACO meme, which was initially about tariffs: Trump did not, in fact, reverse his destructive tariff policy, although he blinked in his confrontation with China. But NACHO looks right. Hormuz won’t open until the economic damage from its closure becomes much more severe.” (04/30/26)
“Banning DEI doesn’t necessarily end DEI. So-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies mandate guilt-inducing collectivist indoctrination about race and sex and/or impose race and sex quotas. The Texas legislature rightly concluded that DEI indoctrination is pernicious and required that it be removed from public universities in the state. Suspecting that the law would not be obeyed with perfect grace, the organization Accuracy in Media (AIM) has been doing undercover work to gather evidence on whether university staffers formerly determined to propagandize for DEI and impose DEI-based requirements are now backing off. Many are not.” (04/30/26)
“A leading preoccupation of the first Trump administration has all but slipped from view. Except when ostensible conservatives speak out against it, the major media have scarcely breathed a word on the subject. But it’s still there, 30 feet tall, aspirationally 1,952 miles long, obliterating habitats, dividing families, and sucking down public funds faster than a carrier-based air squadron. The media’s lack of attention is understandable. All-too-real wars of choice and metaphorical wars against science, universities, and the environment have dominated our airtime and the headlines. The rise of a new medievalism in medicine and the abrogation of international trade and security agreements have also won attention. Add to all of that a federal paramilitary kidnapping people, even from what still passes for the halls of justice, while murdering the occasional protester, and one’s journalistic cup runneth over.” (04/30/26)
“A Peter Thiel-funded startup launched this month will use an ‘AI jury’ to ‘subject the media’s claims to systematic investigation and judgment.’ That same system of AI adjudication assigns a numerical value — the so-called ‘Honor Index’ score — grading the trustworthiness of individual reporters. And for a starting price of $2,000, anyone can pay for the company to review and adjudicate complaints they may have about a news outlet or reporter. Objection AI was founded by Aron D’Souza, a lawyer best known for leading the Thiel-funded lawsuit that bankrupted the digital news outlet Gawker in 2016. D’Souza has described Objection as a private arbitration court, which individuals can turn to when they feel they have been unfairly maligned by reporters or pundits.” (04/30/26)
“With the Third Gulf War raging since late February, the prophecies of economic doom have been rolling in ever since. Iran’s economy is predicted to shrink by nearly 10% this year, while forecasts for growth in the Gulf nations are expected to fall from 4.4% in 2025 to 1.3% in 2026. It’s estimated that the Middle East’s tourism industry alone is losing $600 million a day through lost visitor spending. The global fallout has also seen projections of misery for all. … But there are an ever-growing number of thinkers and the historical evidence to back them up that point to major crises – wars, depressions, state collapses – often being followed by unusually strong growth.” (04/30/26)
“As Dr. Anthony Fauci’s right-hand man, David Morens, was charged this week with conspiracy and destruction of federal records in the COVID-19 cover-up, another scandal over the vaccine was unfolding on Capitol Hill. According to a new Senate report and congressional testimony on Wednesday, Biden administration health officials deliberately ignored warning signs of possible serious reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, including heart attacks, strokes, Bell’s palsy and sudden cardiac death. … when the FDA’s senior medical officer, Dr. Ana Szarfman, whose job was to monitor the vaccine data for warning signs, repeatedly raised the alarm throughout 2021, she was ignored, and emails show her colleagues tried to stop her from using a newer, more accurate statistical methodology to investigate the data.” (04/29/26)
“Trump will never face the voters again. But for him to be discredited so widely is to help ensure that the Trump line of would-be MAGA heirs ends with him.” (04/30/26)
“The Department of Justice does not need to wait for Dr. David Morens to turn on his colleagues; the evidence to charge the next key advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci is already in the public record. Greg Folkers was critical to the censorship operation at the heart of the Covid response. As Chief of Staff at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Folkers oversaw operations for the agency’s $6 billion budget and later sought to evade FOIA requests by conspiring with Dr. Morens and intentionally misspelling key phrases such as ‘g#in-of-function.'” (04/30/26)
