7 minutes ago
Gag order hearing wraps with no immediate ruling, Keith Davidson back on stand

The gag order hearing wrapped a few minutes ago. Judge Juan Merchan did not issue an immediate ruling.

The lawyer Keith Davidson is now back on the stand for a second day of testimony.

Space.com by Mike Wall 5/2/2024

The concept studies could end up aiding NASA's Mars science missions down the road.

NASA has selected nine companies to develop concepts that could aid agency science missions to Mars down the road.

The agency is awarding each company between $200,000 and $300,000 for this early-stage work, with the goal of making robotic Mars exploration more efficient and more productive.

"We're in an exciting new era of space exploration, with rapid growth of commercial interest and capabilities," Eric Ianson, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said in a statement on Wednesday (May 1), when the awards were announced.

"Now is the right time for NASA to begin looking at how public-private partnerships could support science at Mars in the coming decades," he added.

This idea is not new. NASA already does something similar with its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS, which has sent agency science gear toward the moon on two private landers.

One of those landers — Intuitive Machines' Nova-C spacecraft, named Odysseus — made it to the lunar surface safely, acing its touchdown this past February. The other one, Astrobotic's Peregrine lander, suffered an anomaly shortly after its January launch and failed to reach the moon as planned.

More: https://www.space.com/nasa-picks-nine-companies-mars-mission-ideas

May 2, 2024
A bill to prolong death and destruction
By Edward Lozansky

I am speaking of a $95-billion foreign military aid package that includes $61 billion for Ukraine.

Speaker Mike Johnson’s turnaround from opponent to supporter of the war in Ukraine raised many eyebrows.  His meeting with Donald Trump in advance of this announcement added intrigue and speculation regarding his sudden change of heart.

Most likely, both men decided that it would help Trump and the GOP to win votes in November, and how many more Ukrainians would die in the process was of no particular concern to them.  Instead, Johnson used the same Lindsey Graham and Co. language that financing this war is the best investment ever made, since no Americans are dying.  The only new element is that the speaker added his son into the equation.  “To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys,” Johnson told reporters last week.  “My son is going to begin in the Naval Academy this fall.  This is a live-fire exercise for me, as it is for so many American families.  This is not a game; this is not a joke.” 

Well, nowadays it is useless to ask whether such statements correspond to moral, ethical, or any other values that U.S. and E.U. politicians claim to adhere to.  (There are exceptions, but so far, their numbers are not enough to change the course.)  But Ukrainian president Zelensky surpasses their cynicism by thanking Congress, saying, “The vital U.S. aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives.”  He is talking about saving American, not Ukrainian lives.

more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/a_bill_to_prolong_death_and_destruction.html

May 2, 2024
To Oust Or Not To Oust?
By Sally Zelikovsky

Conservatives are haunted by House Republicans who make all manner of campaign promises but, once in office, forget their obligations to voters or justify why they reneged on their word to support or reject a particular piece of legislation. Our biggest disappointments to date are probably their epic failure regarding Obamacare and capitulations ad nauseam regarding anything budgetary.

The Republican counter-response to these repeated failures has been less than exemplary. Basically, all we’ve done is eat our own. Recall Kevin McCarthy, who had a tough time getting elected Speaker in January 2023—a prolonged, painful, and very public process that did not reflect well on House Republicans. In exchange for enough votes to win after 15 ballots, McCarthy agreed that any one member could bring a motion to vacate his Speakership.

Out of abject frustration and the desire to make a point (and perhaps a desire to make history), Rep. Matt Gaetz caused an uproar among his Republican colleagues and millions of constituents when he successfully moved to vacate Speaker McCarthy on October 3, 2023—unleashing a Game of Thronesian Red October where candidates like Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan and Tom Emmer were paraded about as successors, then electorally crucified until Mike Johnson was elected on October 25.

It was a bloody mess. Although many agreed in principle, most didn’t see any strategic value given our newfound but very slim majority and the need to present a united front until we could re-elect Trump and increase our numbers in Congress. Looking frail and scattered, they presented the antithesis of two core Democrat party principles: Never eat one’s own and always vote in lockstep.

more
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/to_oust_or_not_to_oust.html

Biden’s worst-case economic scenario is unfolding at the worst possible time
J.T. Young, opinion contributor

Last Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its advance estimate for 2024’s first-quarter real GDP growth. At 1.6 percent, it is the worst quarterly performance since the economy contracted by 0.6 percent almost two years ago in the second quarter of 2022. This was a growth level one-third below economists’ expectations of 2.4 percent. It is also a precipitous drop from 2023’s fourth quarter rate of 3.4 percent and 2023’third quarter rate of 4.9 percent.

This slower growth comes on the heels of higher inflation. The March report on overall prices showed the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers rose 3.5 percent over the last year — 3.8 percent when core inflation (minus food and energy) was considered. That figure was higher than any since September 2023 and marked the third consecutive monthly increase. 

Then on Friday, came more bad inflation news, this time on personal consumer expenditures excluding food and energy. This is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, and in March it rose 2.8 percent compared to a year ago — the same as in February and above expectations.

This jujitsu juxtaposition of higher inflation and lower growth must not be underestimated. Gone is the charade of someone who has effectively never worked in the private sector telling working Americans how good the economy is. Joe Biden, who loves to harken back to blue-collar Scranton roots, should have known better. Americans now do.

more
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4633147-bidens-worst-case-economic-scenario-is-unfolding-at-the-worst-possible-time/