BRING ON THE LAWSUITS: My New York Post column: Protesters, colleges are about to find out that, yes, the law DOES apply to them, too.

POSITIVELY TRUMPIAN: Joe Biden will double, triple and quadruple tariffs on some Chinese goods, with EV duties jumping to 102.5% from 27.5%.

Biden will hike or add tariffs in key sectors after nearly two years of review. The total tariff on Chinese electric vehicles will rise to 102.5% from 27.5%, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement. Others will double or triple in targeted industries, though the scope remains unclear.

Biden and his staff spent recent weeks finalizing the measures, including which items to hit and which to avoid because the inputs are needed to fuel American growth, one of the people said. The final decision was a consensus, the person said.

It’s not clear which items were spared but Biden won’t announce tariff rate reductions, two of the people said. The administration has signaled to the US solar industry that it’ll move to exclude some items, including machinery used to make solar panel components. The shift has been sought by some equipment makers who say current levies undermine Biden’s goal of wresting clean-energy supply chains from China.

The 2024 presidential race looms large over the flagship announcement: Biden is trying to crack down on China and differentiate himself from Donald Trump — whose original tariffs Biden is set to largely renew, but who is seeking widespread hikes that the current administration views as going too far.

As I recall, it was the end of the world when Trump imposed his smaller tariffs so it’s nice to know that when Biden doubles or triples them it’s no big deal.

CHANGE: Two Virginia universities scrap DEI requirements after Youngkin audit.

Related: UNC Diverts DEI Funds Toward Campus Police: Report.

Plus:

Every month, we are reducing the perceived risk of abolishing DEI departments. By the end of the year, most red states will have abolished DEI in their public universities. Then we will move on to the next campaign.

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) May 13, 2024

TODAY’S HAMAS-HUMPING BEHAVIOR ISN’T REALLY A DEPARTURE: Higher Ed and the Third Reich: As Hitler rose to power, colleges in the U.S. responded with a mixture of indifference, complicity and collaboration, a new book argues. “In order to understand the whole course of development that leads us to the Holocaust, I think it’s very important to see what influential sectors in the United States were doing. And in the case of higher education, it’s a very shameful record of complicity and indifference to atrocities committed against the Jews from 1933 onward — and actually a lot of collaboration, in terms of participating in well-organized student exchange programs, participating in well-orchestrated Nazi festivals in Germany, sending delegates to those and ignoring protests.”

NEWS FROM THE NCLA: The New Civil Liberties Alliance’s Peggy Little will take oral argument before the Fifth Circiut today regarding the FCC’s illegal diversity rules.

NCLA’s client, the National Center for Public Policy Research, which owns shares in many Nasdaq companies, argues that SEC has no power to regulate in this field because the rules have nothing to do with fraud or honest markets.

The diversity rules fall outside of SEC’s regulatory authority under the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act, which empowered SEC to regulate securities to ensure honest markets and enforce federal laws that punish fraud. These longstanding laws are being misinterpreted today by SEC to allow the agency, working with Nasdaq, to impose a “meet quota, explain why, or get delisted” regime.

Oral argument begins at 9 AM, and you can listen to it here.

Also: In NCLA Amicus Win, and FTC Amicus Loss, Second Circuit Upholds Decision Dismissing Antitrust Suit.

Reminder/disclosure: I’m on the NCLA’s Advisory Board.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Jerry Seinfeld Is the Hero We Need Right Now.

SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER: DEI Hits the VA: Biden’s Veterans Affairs Department Offers Race-Based Training Programs That Exclude White Vets. “‘Equity’ means realizing ‘treating everybody the same might not be enough,’ VA official Shawn Liu says.”

LIMITED TIME DEAL: Amazon Essentials Men’s Slim-Fit 9″ Shorts. #CommissionEarned

WHO DO YOU LIKE FOR VP? “Assuming no shenanigans occur with the election (yes, a BIG assumption indeed), Donald Trump is on a very promising track to secure his second term as POTUS.”

J.D. Vance seems like the obvious choice to me, which means it will probably be someone else.

THE COMMERICAL REAL ESTATE COLLAPSE HASN’T LET UP: Fort Worth’s tallest building sells for just $12.3M at auction in stunning price drop.

Burnett Plaza, the tallest building in Fort Worth, Texas, has been purchased via foreclosure auction for $12.3 million just three years after it was sold for more than $137.5 million, according to the Dallas Business Journal.

The 40-story behemoth was bought back by Pinnacle Bank Texas in the auction held on the steps of the Tarrant County courthouse on Tuesday.

Pinnacle had claimed in public filings that the tower’s former owner, Burnett Cherry Street LLC, an affiliate of New York-based Opal Holdings LLC, defaulted on a $13 million loan used to purchase the building in 2021.

The bank bought it back with a roughly $12.3 million credit bid, just $12.30 per square foot.

That’s still better than the second-tallest building in St. Louis, the former One AT&T Center, which sold last month for about $2.50 per square foot.

IT’S NOT JUST MEXICO: Northern Border Apprehensions Highest in US History – Includes Terror Watch List Suspects.

BECAUSE IT NEEDS TO BE SAID:  In Praise of Populism.

CUI BONO?

Leftist NGOs have made a multi-billion dollar industry out of the border crisis. They have zero incentive to actually solve the problem. The worse it gets, the more they cash in.https://t.co/Ydr5v4VGQk

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) May 13, 2024

IT’S NICE TO BE NOTICED: The Left Hates Us So Much That We’re Now on an ‘Enemies List.’

CDR SALAMANDER: Japan’s Renaissance: Just When We Need Her Most.

THIS SEEMS LIKE A THING SCHOOLS SHOULD DO MORE OF. AND NOT JUST FOR GIRLS. THE GENTLEMAN’S VERSION WOULD ALSO BE OF USE. PERHAPS MORE SO WITH SO MANY SINGLE PARENT FAMILIES:  Charm School for Feral Girls.

HOW IT’S GOING:

Latest Polls Show Biden Will Need Twice As Many Fake Ballots To Win Election This Year https://t.co/ngUqP0QjOY pic.twitter.com/qzxk1yQyci

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) May 13, 2024

BECAUSE THEY COULDN’T POSSIBLY GET RID OF THE DIRTY ANTI-SEMITES?  Pomona College moves graduation to Shrine Auditorium as encampment enters 5th day.

WELL, YOU KNOW IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR! Who Had Chinese Ebola Hamsters on Their 2024 Bingo Card?

SANITY SEEMS TO BE CATCHING ON SOUTH OF THE BORDER:  New Panama President Wants to Shut Down ‘Crucial Migration Gap’.

Not in Mexico, yet, of course. If Mexico turns itself around, I’ll call it a miracle.

YEAH, BUT THAT’S WITHOUT FRAUD:  New Poll Shows Trump Winning Key States, Including Michigan and Pennsylvania.

IT’S RELATED TO THE EFFORTS OF THOSE WHO HAVE TRIED TO JUSTIFY OR IGNORE 9/11. BREAKS FROM REALITY:  Anti-Israel campus protesters have experienced “some kind of psychiatric break”.

SUFFICIENT EVIL IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM STUPIDITY:  Progressives Are Mentally Defective.

TEACHERS’ UNIONS WHO DEMANDED SCHOOL CLOSURE NOW REAP THE CONSEQUENCES:  Public education’s watershed moment.

WAR IS NOT A GAME. THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT OF PROPORTIONALITY. ONLY PEOPLE POISONED WITH STORY WOULD THINK SO:  “Disproportionate”.