Mike Plaiss on May 4, 2026 at 10:24 am: from the WSJ article cited:
” “Tim Cook Was Great for Apple Investors. He Was Not as Great for America.” ”
Since my wife bought us some Apple stock back in (about) 1992, it now constitutes the largest portion of our retirement portfolio. Perhaps too large a portion, but made smaller as we gift (split) shares to our family members. That allows us and them to help make America better and greater, too.
“Another reason tariffs are dumb.” But if Andy Kessler wants to display his TDS, he should at least realize tariffs used solely for income or economic purposes might be dumb, but when used for geopolitical leverage, they do seem to come in handy. His pro-globalization stance seems to also avoid consideration of the national security and medical and food security issues that have arisen, especially since 2009 and 2020. I believe back in Adam Smith’s time they used to call the discipline “political economy” in greater recognition that not all decisions could be made about money in isolation of other society needs and issues.
I guess that puts me in the middle on the globalization issue, overall.

Niketas Choniates on May 4, 2026 at 10:53 am:
“Editorial in Slate (remember them?) …”
They are still around?! Well, I am glad you are willing to tread those murky waters so I don’t have to.
…”It’s always been surprising to me that people can say something and seemingly not hear what they themselves are saying.” I presume that is surprising to many of us, … and yet here we are.

SCOTTtheBADGER on May 4, 2026 at 9:34 pm said:
“I did not watch the video, but the photo at the top of the post seems to indicate the Her Majesty was stacked!” The man made (maketh) the dress; and the dress maketh the woman. I am told there was also a rib as an intermediary in there somewhere. Perhaps as a corset stay? 🙂

Matt Van Swol
@mattvanswol
Former Nuclear Scientist for US Dept of Energy | Ex-Photographer for
@apple, @united, and @hyatt
Asheville, NC
realmattvanswol.com
Joined March 2020

I wish that entries in X accounts were listed chronologically, but I have scanned down through most of them. A small sample.

https://x.com/mattvanswol/status/1860132105134760121

I want to commend Fox News for flying a reporter down to Swannanoa NC today in the middle of a snow storm.

While FEMA is saying no one is in tents, Fox News is literally talking to them.

Well done.
6:23 PM · Nov 22, 2024

https://x.com/mattvanswol/status/1882790527785156619

If you’re wondering why everyone in Western North Carolina is freaking out about Trump coming today…

… It is because MY KIDS SOCCER FIELD still looks like this 119 days after the hurricane

We have been ignored for months, now we are finally getting help.

TRUMP EFFECT!!!!!!
7:00 AM · Jan 24, 2025

“Trump kept his promises” is a frequent refrain, as is the remark about Biden below:

https://x.com/mattvanswol/status/1883871715991896317

ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE CLEANUP EFFORT IS UNDERWAY IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA TODAY!!!

THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS ARE EVERYWHERE!!!!!

WHY DIDN’T JOE BIDEN DO THIS 4 MONTHS AGO?!!!!!!!
6:36 AM · Jan 27, 2025

Matt used to be a registered Democrat and a liberal.
Then he got mugged by reality.

https://x.com/mattvanswol/status/1968661769200574950

I have left the sidelines.

I am now a registered Republican.
7:01 AM · Sep 18, 2025

The hurricane hit in late September 2024.

I date my distrust of the Media (MSM aka Democrats-with-bylines) from the late 1970s, when “60 Minutes” ran a story about a local controversy that we actually knew something about.
Yeah, they have been “curating” the news for a long time.

https://x.com/mattvanswol/status/2051292351658697064

Matt Van Swol
@mattvanswol

Out of every disgusting, dishonest piece of filth the mainstream media has produced about Hurricane Helene…

This is the worst.

60 Minutes has NEVER done a story on the families FEMA denied.

They NEVER mentioned the Amish, who are STILL in the mountains rebuilding homes 550 days later.

They NEVER mentioned Jake Jarvis, who has worked 550 days STRAIGHT FOR FREE for Hurricane Helene victims.

Instead, they dug up some fringe conspiracy angle to smear the people who actually showed up as White Nationalists.

I’m so angry.

Let me tell you what 60 Minutes will NEVER report on

I was there. I lived it. I am still here.

I shared every story I could find.

Me, my wife, hundreds of volunteers delivered RVs to mothers holding babies who were sleeping in TOOL SHEDS AND TENTS in the freezing cold, in the mountains.

Because their homes had been ripped off the side of a mountain and washed down the French Broad.

So tell me 60 Minutes… WHERE WAS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT?

Tell me, WHY did all these volunteers NEED to show up?

Any thoughts on that?!!!!!

Any investigation AT ALL into the federal or state government’s response to Hurricane Helene?

Please tell me… if the federal government was doing such a GREAT JOB, why did we need to put victims in RVs…

…A MONTH AFTER THE HURRICANE?!!!!!!!

Literally every single victim you talk to in Western North Carolina has a horror story about dealing with FEMA…

…and guess who they will all say actually cam through for them?

Neighbors.
Church groups.
The Amish.
The Cajun Navy.
Shawn Hendricks.
Samaritan’s Purse.
MercuryOne.

The Mission Mules hauling insulin up washed-out roads, ONLY ACCESSIBLE by mules.

Greg Biffle burning his own fuel in helicopters.

Veterans like Adam Smith who organized helicopter rescues with other veterans BY HIMSELF and then was demonized by the media for it.

Volunteers like Jake Jarvis working TO THIS DAY, 550 days later without ANY PAY AT ALL.

THOSE ARE THE STORIES FROM HURRICANE HELENE WORTH TELLING.

But 60 Minutes won’t tell ANY OF THEM.

Because the truth makes the federal government the villain and the “deplorables” are actually the heroes in this story and they can NEVER admit that.

So instead they smeared the rescuers as white nationalists.

This is unforgivable.

I was there. I saw it with my own eyes.

And I will BE DAMNED if I let CBS rewrite the history of what happened to my mountains.

VIDEO (55 seconds) WYFF (NBC affiliate)
7:26 AM · May 4, 2026
·
190.7K Views

Swol does not link to the CBS piece, but his Xweet comes up at the top of the search along with it.
This appears to be the one, by Lesley Stahl.
What a surprise.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/some-white-nationalists-swoop-in-after-natural-disasters-60-minutes-transcript/

60 Minutes – Newsmakers
Some white nationalists swoop in after natural disasters, trying to soften their image while offering help
By Lesley Stahl
May 3, 2026 / 7:00 PM EDT / CBS News

A surge of tornadoes tore across a large swath of the country in April, carving a path of destruction. Over 200 tornadoes hit over 20 states, closely clustered in the last couple of weeks. And hurricane season is just around the corner.

Our story tonight is about what happens after these natural disasters. A pattern has emerged in recent years in which militias, conspiracists, and white supremacists show up to hard-hit communities — as they did last week in Texas — offering help. But they’ve been called disaster tourists who are out to sow doubt in government, soften their own image and gain followers.

September 2024. Hurricane Helene barreled through North Carolina with forces so powerful, it nearly wiped the town of Bat Cave off the map, lifting homes and toppling trees.
…
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: These folks that we’re talking about, they were in the minority. However that minority can create chaos. And that’s what we ran into.
…
Lesley Stahl: Would you say “white supremacist?”

Robert Rundo: No. I think that’s like a slander-ish term.

Lesley Stahl: But “My people” are white people. European white people.

Robert Rundo: Right. And there’s plenty of organizations that are geared towards other ethnic groups, right? If we don’t look out for ourselves, who is?

Lesley Stahl: I know that your organization has gone to floods, fires, hurricanes. What if you came upon someone who wasn’t white, but is suffering because of the flood?

Robert Rundo: Like if there was, like, a guy in a fire, would I give him water? Yeah. I’d probably give him some water.

Lesley Stahl: When you go into these areas, are you recruiting?

Robert Rundo: We hand out flyers, you know. If somebody wants to contact us later, that’s fine. But just us showing up changes somebody’s opinion, someone’s mind so the next time when they put something out and they say “These evil guys,” they say “Wait a second. That’s the guy who came when my house was on fire and helped me out.”

[narrator] Many of these outside groups want to build, as one of their posts states, “a pro-white parallel system.” One of the more prominent white supremacist groups that showed up in North Carolina was Patriot Front. They cut down trees and handed out bread.
…
Lesley Stahl: What do you say to people who argue that you go in, the purpose is to have some video shot of you handing out some water and then you leave and the whole point was for– to get that video so that you could post it.

Robert Rundo: That kinda sounds like—what everyone does, right? That’s what a president.. that when he goes into a community they have the cameras there. So is that bottle of water actually being handed out? Absolutely it is. Does our guys actually care and feel for the people they’re helping out. Absolutely. Do we also video it and put it out there to show another side of us? Absolutely.

BTW, Stahl did mention Samaritan’s Purse as being a group that came and stayed.
But nothing about the rest of them that Matt listed.

Rundo spoke very openly about his group and his ideology, and he is out-and-proud as a White Nationalist (he rejected the label “supremacist”) but the clear indication from Stahl was that, despite the Sheriff admitting “they were in the minority,” the few that Stahl talked about were the MOST IMPORTANT PART of the story.

And she never did get around to talking about those groups in Texas that she started with.

Stahl: “But they’ve been called disaster tourists who are out to sow doubt in government, soften their own image and gain followers.”
Sounds like most of the Democrats on the news anytime a Republican is President.
*********

Justice Alito has officially had enough of Justice Jackson.

https://x.com/i/status/2051457758151524835

See link for J. Alito’s response. It’s a dandy.

NYPost sets the threat in context: “Adm. Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), told reporters in a press call that while Iran historically has deployed ‘between 20 and 40 small boats’ to threaten commercial shipping in the strait, ‘Today, we saw just six and eliminated them quickly’.”

This evening, the NYPost has details: “ Trump is trying to force the Strait of Hormuz open — and daring Iran to respond”
https://nypost.com/2026/05/04/world-news/trump-is-trying-to-force-the-strait-of-hormuz-open-and-daring-iran-to-respond/

Sad to say there is barely a whisper over this success and extraction of pain from the Theocrats to be seen in “the news.”

Hoist a drink and salut them!

It is a delusion wide spread in academia, many are brilliant people who never doubt the superiority of their own views and morals. There is a pompous edge to it all that is annoying. And then they head off into the bsky swamp, or HuffPost desert.

Roy Cooper mishandled this storm just as badly as he did a previous bad hurricane in East Carolina, where some people STILL have not had their homes rebuilt as promised.