"Goodnight, now it's time to go home," then he makes it fast with one more tab ...
Does the @nytimes know what NATO stands for? pic.twitter.com/wvD1WxPOnN
— Sasha Issenberg (@sissenberg) April 3, 2026
Ed: The headline editor didn't. Neither did the page editor, nor any of the other editors and "layers of fact-checkers" supposedly adding value and accuracy to the Protection Racket Media. It's "North Atlantic Treaty Organization," you dolts.
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WSJ: President Trump on Friday released a summary of his budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal year, seeking $1.5 trillion in military spending, by far the largest dollar amount in modern history.
The proposal for military spending included $1.1 trillion for the Defense Department for the next fiscal year, as well as another $350 billion for critical munitions, an effort to expand the military industrial base and other matters. Trump promised a $1.5 trillion military request in January, before the U.S. launched large-scale strikes on Iran.
The White House proposed a 10% reduction of nondefense spending to about $660 billion in the 2027 fiscal year, followed by additional cuts in subsequent years. The outlined reductions hit areas including education and would halve funding for the Environmental Protection Agency.
Ed: We get a lot more value from the War Department than the EPA anyway, as we're proving at the moment. And thanks to the fecklessness of NATO, we may need to focus on building up a "North American Treaty Organization," so to speak.
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NYC during Holy Week in 1956 pic.twitter.com/XiQAKX2HyL
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) April 3, 2026
Ed: My, how times have changed ... and not for the better.
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NY Post: CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss is poised for a major shakeup at “60 Minutes” — with layoffs slated for this summer that could engulf some of the show’s top talent and producers, The Post has learned.
The bloodbath is slated for June, a source with knowledge said. That’s after CBS News last month slashed 6% of its workforce — between 60 and 70 people — including the surprise shuttering of its 99-year-old radio division. ...
“Bari wants to make the show harder,” one source told The Post. “No one is talking about ‘60 Minutes’ on Monday morning.”
Ed: She needs to focus on restoring its credibility. 60 Minutes owns the two worst journalistic failures at CBS and potentially in television news: Rathergate in 2004 and the attempt to boost Kamala Harris in 2024 through selective editing. Paramount paid millions of dollars for the latter. 60 Minutes should have been Weiss' first target for reforms.
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He tried to fight a union worker for disagreeing with him and made a Gold Star mom cry. https://t.co/Er3IelTiwT
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 3, 2026
Ed: The myth of Joe Biden's empathy has become legendary. Biden had a singular focus on cashing in on his access to power. He performed empathy rather than possessing it. He turned any interaction with a voter who didn't completely agree with him into a johnson-measuring contest, including the two incidents Bonchie references. His first presidential run got derailed only partly over his plagiarism; the catalyst was an argument that Biden nearly turned into a barfight, when Biden lied about practically everything he claimed about his intellect and educational achievements. He should be remembered as one of America's truly authentic jackasses.
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Battleswarm: Some debatable assertions: “Iranian forces are nothing if not creative, and they are highly motivated to accept risk to their own lives in order to deliver damage to an adversary.” And “The first problem that the US would have to account for is the Iranian ground forces. Combination of roughly 350,000 soldiers in the Iranian army, about 150,000 soldiers across the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, and another several hundred thousand paramilitary fighters of the Basij Resistance Force.” Whistler suggests virtues not necessarily in evidence for Iran’s forces. The IRCG has certainly shown itself highly motivated when it comes to launching terror rockets, supporting insurgencies, or slaughtering civilians, but not so much when it comes to an actual toe-to-toe fight against a real military, a domain in which they have zero experience or demonstrated competency. Likewise, there’s little evidence that Iranian military regulars are all that keen to die for the regime. They also did not notably distinguish themselves in the long, bloody slog of the Iran-Iraq War, a stalemate against an Iraqi military that the United States-led coalition would quickly and comprehensively dismantle in the Gulf War a few years later. And back then, Iran had some relatively modern air power. Likewise the Basij seem well equipped to beat defenseless women for immodesty, but I rather strongly suspect the overwhelming majority will cut and run when faced with trained soldiers who can fire back.
If America successfully takes Kharg Island, it will be impossible for Iranian forces to get ships across from the mainland to retake it in the teeth of overwhelming American air power, even if they try crossing at night. ...
“The American public is not willing to accept the loss of American troops, and it is not willing to accept long-term or severe economic pain just to see the Islamic Republic overthrown.” This assertion is not necessarily true. The American public can certainly be fickle, but thus far Astroturf protests against the war have modest and populated with the usual foreign-funded, elderly white lefty idiots. Americans over a certain age remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and may feel eliminating one of they key sources of jihad terror worldwide for good worth the cost. Also, unlike Iraq or Afghanistan, U.S. military and civilian leadership seems 100% dedicated to absolute victory.
Ed: Read through the entire discussion of an operation to take Kharg Island. This is excerpted from a section that dissents from some pessimistic observations, but it's important to absorb all of the points raised here. I suspect that Trump will want to seize Kharg as an ultimate checkmate on the regime, but it has political risks, and I'm not convinced that Trump will simply ignore those.
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One positive about this conflict is that it clarifies which pundits who have been shaping American narrative for decades should be unequivocally shamed, then ignored. https://t.co/6adY2YBl0F
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) April 3, 2026
Ed: Count Zakaria among the pundits who think the world began when Kamala Harris lost.
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Gavin Newsom’s wife on how she raises her kids:
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 3, 2026
“I've given our boys dolls…if I'm reading a book and the protagonist is a male, I just change the 'he' to a 'she.'” pic.twitter.com/WUwilxb7xC https://t.co/WUwilxb7xC
Ed: Why not just tell stories that authentically center around women and girls? It's so performative and manipulative, and yet Mrs. Newsom seems oblivious to the manner in which those aspects come through to her children, and to her sons in particular. The doll thing is less objectionable to me than her contrived strategy. Don't be surprised if her sons grow up to resent the implication that their mother was never comfortable with their masculinity at any stage.
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Newsweek: Who Might Replace Pam Bondi? List of Candidates
The list of possible replacements is small but clear, with Blanche in the mix due to his recent experience as the face of the administration, as well as Environmental Protection Agency Director Lee Zeldin, who was named in the initial Fox News report about Bondi's departure as a name floated to replace her. ...
The potential candidates named have legal backgrounds—DeSantis, for example, served as a legal advisor to SEAL Team One and was stationed at Joint Task Force Guantanamo in 2006 before deployment to Iraq in 2007.
Ed: I can't imagine DeSantis blowing off the last year of his office to become AG for less than three years, but it's possible. However, I wonder whether Trump will offer it to Ken Paxton instead (on Newsweek's list but barely mentioned) as a way to end the runoff election in Texas scheduled for next month. Paxton might see that as a real opportunity to take his legal battles against the Left to the national level. Paxton is a closer fit on temperament than most of the people on Newsweek's list, too.
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Emanuel: "50% of American kids aren’t reading at grade level. Reading and math scores at a 30-year low. The Democratic Party’s response was bathroom access and trans athletes in women’s sports."pic.twitter.com/d4fjr4IBdj
— Brandon Straka #WalkAway (@BrandonStraka) April 2, 2026
Ed: Exhibit A for why Rahm Emanuel won't even make it to Iowa in 2028. He might as well jump into the GOP primary instead. (He wouldn't get to Iowa as a Republican either.)
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Will Rahn at The Free Press: A quick search for “faith-based fitness” on YouTube brings up plenty of jacked men, some in clerical collars, telling you Jesus wants you to look and lift like they do. On X, there are plenty of animations of the Knights Templar among these folks, featuring armor that can barely contain their massive muscles. Another search, for the term Deus Vult, will get you videos that, at the very least, strongly imply that the Crusades to capture the Holy Land were a good idea. (They weren’t.)
We know that young men in America are turning toward God, but guys, this Holy Week, I suggest staying away from that version of the faith. Getting in shape is always a good idea. The Knights Templar probably did look quite cool as they rode along a path that’s now Israel’s Highway 1. But Catholicism is not an extension of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The savior you pray to was not a jacked warrior. Instead, Christ went to his execution without a fight. When one of his followers slashed a guardsman sent to arrest him, Christ healed him. In my humble opinion, this is a better incident to meditate on than the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099.
I’m not saying men should stay away from faith generally. In fact, I’m writing this to encourage you to go to church—not necessarily because it will get you fit, or be fun. Pretending to be a crusader is probably more exciting than just sitting in a pew. But going to church will probably make you a bit happier, and perhaps a slightly better human.
Ed: It will bring you closer to real salvation rather than performative muscularism will.
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🚨69% say their faith or religion is important in their daily lives.
— Scott Rasmussen (@ScottWRasmussen) April 3, 2026
✅41% say it is Very Important.
✅26% read the Bible at least several times a week.
✅52% pray at least several times a week.
✅35% pray every day or nearly every day.https://t.co/19ARuWm9NX pic.twitter.com/1r0lV8mTvQ
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I just had a very disturbing Good Friday encounter with an ICE agent at the airport
— Three Year Letterman (@3YearLetterman) April 3, 2026
As I was going through security, an ICE agent asked me for my ID. I told him this isn’t Soviet Russia and that the only citizenship papers I planned to show him were the Declaration of…
Ed: 3YL is a satirist, but he does a great job here of emulating progressive-activist fabulism.
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