Virginia Postrel has forgotten more about fibers than you or I know.

.. .polyester rules the textile world. It accounts for more than half of global fiber consumption, about twice that of second-place cotton. Output stands at nearly 58 million tons a year, more than 10 times what it was in the early ’80s. And nobody complains about polyester’s look and feel. If there’s a problem today, it’s that people like polyester too much. It’s everywhere, even at the bottom of the ocean.

I highly recommend her book, The Fabric of Civilization.

The Antiplanner is a wet blanket.

Sightline Institute researcher Michael Andersen offers Willamette Week readers “five ways to make [housing] cheaper.” Sounds good, except none of them will work.

Ann Coulter. is delightfully dyspeptic today.

With the mind-boggling rise in violent crime since the Democrats turned all policing policies over to BLM, the media have become obsessed with convincing us that it’s all the fault of the pandemic. (At least they’re not blaming it on Putin this time.)

Joel Kotkin.

At least he said ‘working classes’ rather than ‘working families’.

The French elections reflect the essential political conflict of our time. On one side, there is a powerful alliance between the corporate oligarchy and the regulatory clerisy. On the other, there are two beleaguered and angry classes – the small-business owners and artisans, and the vast, largely unorganised service class. The small-business class generally tends to favour the populist right, whether in America, Australia or Europe. These people want the government out of their business and to be left alone. Meanwhile, workers tend towards the populist left, which promises to relieve their economic pain.

The common feature is the politics of anger and resentment.

How Orwell Diagnosed Democrats’ Culture War Problem Decades Ago (Politico)

American businesses should wise up. Republicans endanger capitalism. (Washington Post) This would be the same capitalism that Jennifer Rubin actually hates, I suppose.

CNN reporter breaks down rejected Florida math textbooks (CNN) Because CNN reporters are experts on math.

Latter-day Saint leader joins open letter to Georgia: LGBTQ, religious rights don’t have to conflict (Deseret News) Even Mormons go Woke.

Student loan borrowers will get help after an NPR report and years of complaints (NPR) The Cloud People take care of their own at the expense of the Dirt People.

Biden’s latest student debt move will bring 3.6 million borrowers closer to loan forgiveness (CNN) The Cloud People take care of their own at the expense of the Dirt People.

Joy Reid obsessively invokes ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ when sounding alarm on GOP’s anti-abortion push  When you’re a one-trick pony, that’s all you’ve got.

Virginia School Board Misleads Supreme Court To Defend Anti-Asian Admissions Plan

‘Legal Advice’? Clinton Lawyers Scramble To Keep Fusion GPS Docs Secret

STUDY: 17,000 Reasons Bezos-Owned WashPost Hopes Elon Musk ‘Doesn’t Win His Bid for Twitter’

PA Elementary School To Vote On After School ‘Satan Club’

A university pays $400K to professor who refused to use a student’s pronouns

New York Times Chooses Passover and Easter to Mock God and Bible

Former Intelligence Officials, Citing Russia, Say Big Tech Monopoly Power is Vital to National Security

What’s the real reason why Black celebs are still so angry with Will Smith? (The Guardian) Only the Guardian knows for sure.

The Wealth of Notions

BLM Was Always a Fraud

‘White Nationalists’ Haunt America While Black Racists Aim to Kill People

DOJ will appeal federal judge’s ruling dropping COVID masks for public transport if CDC deems it necessary

Covid mask mandate for travel has been lifted. Where do we go from here? (NBC News)

Masks work. The judge’s ruling does not change that. (Washington Post) If masks worked, those who wanted that protection could get it by wearing a mask and wouldn’t need everybody else to wear a mask. The simple fact is that masks don’t help all that much and the Narrative Media’s opinion does not change that.

A new version of omicron is gaining a foothold in the U.S., CDC finds (NBC News)  My, what a surprise.

CDC: New Omicron strain accounts for about 20% of new cases in U.S. (Axios)

Moderna says redesigned Covid vaccine produced stronger immunity against omicron than current shots  (CNBC) So you’ll need Yet Another Shot! KA-CHING!

Does it feel like everyone has COVID? Why some experts say S.F. may be in a surge now even though cases are low (S.F. Chronicle) Who you gonna believe, the Narrative or your lyin’ eyes?

New versions of Omicron variant make gains against BA.2 (CNN)

The Big Myth About Renewable Energy You Need To Stop Believing

NBC’s Holt Whines: A ‘Trump Judge’ Struck Down Mask Mandates!

Supercut: Media Devastated by Joyful Maskless Airline Passengers

CBS, NBC Peddle Fear Porn About Masks, Demand They Stay Indefinitely

House GOPers Call On Top Scientist To Clarify Comments About Lab Leak Theory

Clean energy is buried at the bottom of abandoned oil wells (Vox) Repurposing wells for geothermal seems good until you try to get the power from the wells to the users; unlike oil, you can’t just dump it into barrels or a tanker and ship it off.

Sea Level Rise Not the Only Coastal City Danger (The Weather Channel) Join the Woke chorus.

Losing some bald eagles may be among the trade-offs for clean energy (Washington Post) The first ever use of the term ‘trad-off’ in the Washington Post with respect to an environmental issue.

Using geoengineering to slow global heating risks malaria rise, say scientists (The Guardian) So all you have left is to PANIC!

National Grid unveils plan to run carbon-free gas through its pipes by 2050 (Boston Globe) There is, of course, no such thing as ‘carbon-free gas’; this is just a trial balloon to see how stupid Woke people really are.

How Biden’s ethanol order is sparking worries about pollution (The Hill) Narrative to the contrary notwithstanding, adding ethanol to gasoline doesn’t prevent pollution, or even help.

2021 State of The Climate Report: Empirical Observations Show No Sign of ‘Climate Crisis’ – ‘Snow Cover Stable, Sea Ice Levels Recovering, & No Change in Storm Activity’

Coca-Cola Hosts Earth Day Event With Democrat Who Says Jews Control Weather

A Puppet Slip of the Tongue. Did She Really Just Say That? Hump Day Hilarity

The hair shirt eco-elite don’t want pain-free fusion power  Matt Ridley.

The madness of our worship of wind

UK Energy Bosses Call for Government Assistance for Poor People

TIME Pushes Climate PANIC, Admits Green Transition’s Threat to Blue-Collar Workers

Biden restores climate safeguards in key environmental law, reversing Trump (Washington Post) Everything Trump did must be reversed, so nobody even needs to think about it.

Jen Psaki refuses to apologize for White House’s debunked claim about Border Patrol ‘whipping’ migrants

Biden Having An Increasingly Difficult Time With G-20 Fissures

Louisiana Asks SCOTUS To Block Biden Administration From Calculating ‘Social Cost’ Of Carbon Emissions

The Biden Administration’s Seder Makes a Mockery of Passover and the Jews  My, what a surprise.

STUDY: How Big Tech Tried to Kill the Hunter Biden Story

Watch: Virtually No One Shows Up To Hear Biden Claim He Was The “Poorest Man In Congress”  Not any more….

U.S. forgives 40k student loans

Nets Spend MEASLY 52 Seconds on Hunter Laptop, Since NYT Finally Acknowledged Its Existence

COME ON! PolitiFact Claims Biden’s Invisible Handshake Was ‘Gesturing at the Audience’

Border Patrol Union: Abbott Should “Absolutely” Use Constitutional “Invasion” Powers On Border

Florida Health Dept Slams Biden Admin for ‘Injecting Political Ideology Into the Health of Our Children’

Read it.

The Supreme Court recently reinstated a Clean Water Act regulation by the Trump administration that helps to prevent states from using reasons other than water quality, such as climate change, to block critical infrastructure and energy projects.

The rule, which specifically addresses states’ abuse of Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, will remain in place pending litigation.

Read it.

As Florida and its increasingly popular Governor Ron DeSantis (now a front-runner, along with President Trump, to secure the Republican nomination in 2024) seek to respond to (some might say retaliate against) Disney over its opposition to Fla. House Bill 1557 – better known by its leftist nickname the “Don’t Say Gay” bill – the Florida Senate has now passed a bill that would dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District, an entity created in the 1960s that essentially gave the Walt Disney World Resort the same powers as a municipality.

Get Woke – Go Broke.

ZMan sums it up.

Most of what we consider public life in modern societies is public reactions to things done by the powerful. The New York Times makes up a new hoax and the week is spent on the hoax. The usual suspects swear by the obvious lies and normal people spend days picking apart the lies. Occasionally, we get the reverse where some uncomfortable truth gets loose and the usual suspect go bananas trying to “debunk” it while normal people cling to it as blessed relief.

This is the news cycle in a nutshell. There is very little news. It has been at least a generation since the major news outlets in America have done reporting. Most of it is just stenography. The “journalist” copies what a government spokesbot has sent to them and dresses it up with some commentary. Then there are the narratives that are designed to give the public a way to repeat the official truth that sounds convincing to them and their acquaintances.

…

Narrative journalism is just accepted these days. The “news” has always been a form of passive-aggressive political activism so its evolution into story telling on behalf of powerful interests seems natural. When you think of the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal as propaganda arms of their respective clients in the managerial elite, it all makes sense. Instead of the Ministry of Truth we have the mainstream media “speaking truth to power.”

The Other McCain is not afraid to ask the not-so-hard questions.

Start with a simple question: Does wearing a mask protect you from COVID-19?
If the answer is “yes,” and you are protected by your mask, then why does it matter whether or not other people are also wearing masks? If you think other people must also be compelled to wear masks — because their mask protects you from their germs, supposedly — then doesn’t that imply that your mask is ineffective? But if your mask isn’t working to protect you, then why do you think their mask is necessary, since you apparently don’t think masks really provide a barrier to germs?

We could have a long discussion about the efficacy of masks — do they reduce the spread of airborne viruses by 10% or 20% or whatever? — but the real bottom line is that people who act as if masks will protect them from COVID-19 don’t really seem to believe masks work that way, or else they would be content to protect themselves and not worry about whether other people are also wearing masks. And we could say much the same thing about COVID-19 vaccine mandates: If you think the vaccine will protect you, why does it matter whether other people are also vaccinated?

The fundamental fact is that masks and vaccines don’t work very well, the COVIDians know they don’t work very well, but they have nothing but PANIC to fall back on. Security theater is not a monopoly of the TSA.

Read it.

Pressured by the UN and a new American government, Yemen and the Arab Coalition (Saudi Arabia and UAE/ United Arab Emirates) agreed to another truce with the Shia rebels. These ceasefires are seen as futile because the Shia rebels have violated three such agreements so far and show no interest in change, especially since Iran support is crucial to the maintenance of the Shia military efforts.

Not even Muslims trust Muslims.

Read it.

A musician is suing a government-funded Pennsylvania orchestra after it suspended him for refusing to pay union dues, a punishment he said violates his First Amendment rights.

Read it.

Qualified immunity allows law enforcement officials to get away with all manner of bad deeds. Now, the city of Durham, North Carolina, is proving that even if you overcome that obstacle, it won’t necessarily be enough to get justice.

After a Durham detective fabricated evidence, Darryl Howard was wrongfully convicted of murder and imprisoned for more than two decades. A jury awarded Howard $6 million in the ensuing lawsuit, but the city if refusing to pay it.

Worse yet, the city is asking Howard to pay the legal fees of two city employees dismissed from the suit.

The mayor of Durham, N.C., Elaine M. O’Neal:

She looks pretty white to me but undoubtedly ‘identifies’ as black.

Democrat, of course.

Read it.

The remnant of the Islamic State is calling for mujahideen in Europe to take advantage of the crisis in Ukraine by mounting terror attacks against targets in Europe.

Avoid religions that make a virtue of killing random innocent people.

Read it.

In the early days of the “pandemic” — I don’t remember exactly when, but I recall seeing articles about it at the time — someone leaked internal German government documents that discussed in the most cynical fashion possible strategies for frightening the populace in order to induce them to accede to the state’s directives.

The relevant documents are sometimes referred to as the “panic papers”. In the following video, a speaker highlights relevant quotes from a document that proposes ways to achieve “the desired shock effect”.

Read it.

The United States is awash in crises. The crime rate is surging; inflation continues to rise; COVID-19 is still not tamed; curricular reform is a contentious issue at all levels of education; global warming continues to be the source of much anxiety; the antitrust laws are under strong attack; social media continues to be a flashpoint. But for the readers of the New York Times Magazine, on April 10, 2022—devoted largely to The Money Issue—attacking the proliferation of new billionaires, who now total 735 (or is it 927?) has become the centerpiece of their campaign to reduce income and wealth inequality.

The alarm bells of this trend have been rung by Willy Staley, one of its staff writers, whose lead delivers this supposed knockout punch: “Their numbers are out of control—and the rest of us are subject to their whims.” This makes great copy, but horrific economics. Just why is the increased number of billionaires a bad thing? Theirs is not a coming crime wave in which each of us are put at risk for the loss of our lives or property by a new band of predators. Indeed, the exact opposite is true. Although none of the Times’s writers cares to mention the point, each of these billionaires (or their direct ancestors) created the wealth by selling goods and services to people, which at a minimum had a total value far greater to those people than the fraction of the gain that the billionaires were able to garner for themselves.

Tell the truth: You’ve always wanted to do that.

Read it.

“There is little to no evidence that critical race theory itself is being taught to K-12 public school students,” The Associated Press wrote recently.

If that’s true, why would the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, invest in a campaign to keep the theory in K-12 instruction? That is, how could the union keep critical race theory in classrooms if it wasn’t there in the first place?

The answer is simple: School officials around the country not only are teaching critical race theory’s components, such as “intersectionality,” to K-12 children. They also are applying the theory’s principle that discrimination is appropriate and necessary for school activities in the form of mandatory racial affinity groups. For example, where students are separated by skin color for different school functions.

Ron DeSantis takes his culture war to the next level (CNN) Note how this is somehow his culture war, not the one that CNN has been waging for the last thirty years.

Why did CBS News hire Mick Mulvaney? (The Guardian) Robert Reich is not pleased with the ideological traitors at CBS.

Why Tucker Carlson wants men to aim lasers at their private parts (Washington Post) Why Dana Milbank is so concerned with men’s private parts.

Florida’s vile ‘groomer’ law may soon blow up in DeSantis’s face (Washington Post) Vile!

How ‘Drag Storybook Hour’ set off culture wars at a Virginia community center (Washington Post)

John Oliver Reveals How He’s Been Trolling Dr. Oz for Years (Daily Beast) Oliver was an asshole before being an asshole was Politically Correct.

WashPost’s Lorenz Attempts to ‘Expose’ Woman Behind Libs of TikTok  There’s gotta be a witch in there somewhere….

WaPo “Tech Reporter” Taylor Lorenz Under Fire For Doxxing ‘Libs Of TikTok’, Harassing Family

CNN Decries ‘Putin-esque’ ‘Book Burning,’ Suggests Florida Is Cancelling Math

Jack Dorsey Goes After CNN For Deliberately Stirring Division

‘Unqualified,’ ‘Florida,’ ‘Dangerous,’ MSNBC Attacks Judge Who Struck Down Mask Mandate

Liberals Raise Concerns About Account That’s Making Them Look Bad By Just Sharing Their Actual Words

Doxxer Taylor Lorenz thinks she’s the real victim  Of course she does.

How worried are people about catching COVID-19? New Utah poll has answers (Deseret News)

Florida judge voids national mask mandate for public transportation (The Guardian) And the maskerati lose their shit.

Supreme Court won’t hear New York City teacher vaccine dispute (NBC)

Risk of breakthrough COVID-19 infections are tied to mental health problems, research shows  (Deseret News) Covidian cultists hardest hit.

Shanghai Finally Confirms First COVID Deaths Since Start Of Lockdown

Americans Should Put A Stop To The ‘Biomedical Security State’: Dr. Aaron Kheriaty

Why No One Wants to Talk About Sweden

Uber No Longer Requires Masks

7 Ways To Cope Now That You Can’t Force People Around You To Wear Masks  Babylon Bee.

Biden Admin Will Likely Fight To Keep Masks on Planes, Becerra Says

Armor: Tanks As Weapons Not Targets

Former Russian foreign minister reveals precisely when Putin may pull trigger on nuclear weapons

Natural gas surges to highest level since 2008 as Russia’s war upends energy markets (CNBC)

Inside The Ukraine-Induced Defense Contractor ‘Gold Rush’ At The Pentagon

To Arm or Not to Arm?

Wargame Simulating the Sinking of the Moskva

Explaining Germany’s Russian Gas Problem

IMF Slashes Global Growth Outlook, Blames Putin; Fears ‘Social Unrest’ & ‘Global Instability’

Lavrov Denies Russia Could Use Nukes In Ukraine

AirPods looted by Russians giving away their location via Find My  Now that’s comedy.

“Battle Of Donbas” In Full Swing As Russia Launches ‘Hellish’ All-Out Assault

EU’s Hope To Rely On LNG Is Weak Point In Plan To Wean Off Of Russian Gas

Russia Must Prepare For “Possible Aggressive Action” From NATO, Putin Advisor Says

EU To Impose Full Embargo On Russian Oil Next Week, Will Send Price Above $185 According To JPMorgan  Those of us who own shares in oil MLPs appreciate the heads-up, so we can stock up.

Russian Ambassador To US Says Biden Officials Won’t Speak With Him  Of course not – not until Biden’s poll numbers start going back up.

On Ukraine: being wrong over and over doesn’t seem to stop Colonel Macgregor

Russia Tells Azov Fighters Trapped In Giant ‘Fortress’ Steel Plant: “Lay Down Arms Or We’ll Level Everything”

The Tank Is Dead: Long Live the Javelin, the Switchblade, the … ?

Ilhan Omar mocked for voicing outrage over Easter worship on plane: ‘Why do you hate Christians?’  Hint: Because she’s Muslim. Duh.

Americans’ taxes used to be public — until the rich revolted (Washington Post) After all, what possible objection could you have to everybody and his dog pawing through your financial affairs?

Justices reject states’ appeal over cap on tax deductibility

Out to Mislead: Media Spew Inflated Mass Shootings Stat for 2022

Expect More Riots This Summer

Apple Includes “Pregnant Man” Emoji In Latest Software Update  Sure, that’s what it means.

Justice Sotomayor: Intelligent, Well-Informed, Reasonable-Minded People Must be Banned from Capital Case Juries

Interest In Immigration Surges As Wealthy Chinese Look To Flee Shanghai  No time is a good time to live in a Communist country.

EU Exhumes 18 Year Old Embezzlement Charges To Derail Le Pen Presidential Bid

WATCH: Bezos Was a ‘White Knight’ for Washington Post Purchase. Now, Musk’s Twitter Buyout a ‘Danger’ To Free Speech.

Illinois Dem Pays Another $25K in Donor Funds to Political Rival She Bribed

More States Move to Affirm Parental Rights in Education

Despite Raging Inflation, Congress Bent on Continuing Spending Spree

NY Times Visits the Old City, Grants Islam More Deference Than Christianity, Judaism

Commentators SLAM Crybully Taylor Lorenz for Doxxing Libs Of TikTok, Disgracing Journalism

Ancient Protein Rubisco Could Be Used to Save Future Food Crops From Dying in Hot Climates (Daily Beast)

As the world experiences sea level rise, Iceland’s waters are falling — and flowing to the other side of the planet (CNN)

Jamie Raskin on the climate crisis: ‘We’ve got to save democracy in order to save our species’ (The Guardian)

The hydrogen energy dream (Vox)

Japan’s ‘hydrogen economy’ runs the risk of being powered by coal (Japan Times)

In a pandemic of medical misinformation, how do you deal with conspiracy believers? (The Guardian)

Changes In Vegetation Shaped Global Temperatures Over Last 10,000 Years

Apple to celebrate Earth Day with walks, podcasts, apps  I.e. all virtue signaling, nothing really effective.

MIT Climate Change Virtue List Topped by EU Nations

The Antiplanner seconds Joel Kotkin.

The war in Ukraine has forced people of the “West”—a term that has come to mean most of Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand—to confront a social system that we have pretended went extinct hundreds of years ago: feudalism. While feudalism has mostly disappeared from the above-named nations, it is thriving in Putin’s Russia, as well as many other places around the world.

Read it.

Although nuclear power remains controversial, new reactors are being built in surprising numbers and these will provide the second largest share of the world’s carbon-free energy. It’s also an industry undergoing rapid change as new technology comes on line. So, what will nuclear power look like in the decades to come?

Read it.

I see that President Calvin Coolidge is in the news, along with his sidekick Warren Gamaliel Harding. Warren was a mediocrity’s mediocrity and was long held to be the worst president of modern times. That was until Jimmy Carter became president and then Barack Obama and now Joe Biden. After Joe’s term, I think we shall retire the trophy.

Climateer blows the whistle.

My topic for today: All numbers are wrong.

Like, seriously. Whenever you see a number – in a tweet, newspaper headline, office email, technical report, textbook, anywhere – assume it is wrong. Treat it as enemy misinformation, deliberate sabotage of your understanding of the world, and disregard it.

You’re thinking, ha ha, I’m exaggerating for effect. I’m not. Seriously I am not. I mean, of course not not all numbers are literally incorrect; but it happens so very, very much more often than your intuition, that I do literally mean it is a good practice to treat all numbers as incorrect by default.

I’ve come to this position slowly, over the years, one screwup at a time. But now that I’ve really started paying attention, the mistakes are everywhere.

ZMan does some sociology.

Yesterday a federal judge struck down the CDC mandate requiring passengers to wear ceremonial face coverings on public transport. For the last two years airplane passengers have been required to wear masks at the airport and on the plane, unless they were eating or drinking. Of course, this has allowed the petty dictators to harass people while traveling. The mask-marms have been looking for reasons to fly just so they could harass people. Now that is over.

…

It is a little hint as to why the sociopaths in the media keep getting away with these mass hoaxes that have become a feature of life. People wake up and see that everyone is now into the latest thing. Maybe that thing is outrage over a police shooting or maybe it is some new abstract concern. All of the right people are on their soapboxes and all of the best people are following along with them. It is only normal for people to want to do the right thing and support the latest thing.

Read it.

Politico Playbook reports that the White House is weighing its options in the case holding its mask mandate to be illegal. I thought that they had to go for it and protect their phony baloney jobs protecting public health consistent with the party line over the past two years, but they see the downside and the escape hatch afforded by Judge Mizelle’s ruling yesterday.

Politico has to let us know that they (at Politico) recognize the politics of the situation, of course, but that they have no doubt about the wisdom of the absurd regime we lived under until late yesterday afternoon. If the Biden maskaholics were to seek to squeeze the toothpaste back into the tube, “the administration would risk political blowback on a hot political topic heading into the summer travel season. And it would give voters a clear target of who to blame for mask mandates despite prominent Democrats’ efforts to distance themselves from the unpopular (if scientifically sound) policy.”

Read it.

Having been coached by Snopes to scope out the different angles that might portray the president in a more flattering light, I have checked out a few views of the intervention of the Easter bunny in Biden’s conversation yesterday on the White House lawn. Each angle confirms that White House staff do not trust the president to wing it and that he does not take their supervision amiss. He dutifully follows the lead of his minders who know him best. What a message.

Read it.

Easy to say – but who gets to pay for it? The taxpayer, of course.

Fund your own damned research.

Some days are better than others. We take our victories where we can.

Read it.

ProPublica, the left-wing journalism nonprofit bankrolled by billionaires, appears to have violated its ethics policy when it hosted an event last week sponsored by the white-shoe consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

ProPublica says it does not “accept sponsorship of news applications, series, or other targeted sections of our website from any participant in the industry or sector covered within that section of the site.” Yet the April 12 event—”The Billionaire Playbook,” an evening chat with reporters about how the world’s richest people ostensibly evade taxes—was sponsored by McKinsey, a firm that provides many of these people with corporate consulting and has been the subject of many ProPublica reports.

Read it.

For many people nowadays, the first port of call upon discovering an unusual rash or feeling a worrying pain is not the doctor, but rather Google.

Considering the behavior of doctors throughout the Pandemic Panic, can you blame them?

9 people shot in mass shooting at South Carolina lounge, police say (CNN) Let’s see: many wounded, no dead – Sailer’s Law of Mass Shootings says that this suggests that the shooter was black. This Is CNN, though, so no mention of a black shooter’s race is allowed.

South Carolina mall shooting suspect’s bond set at $25,000, can go to work with ankle monitor  And there we go: Meet Jawayne Price:

DC men released without charges after stealing puppy at gunpoint

Pittsburgh Mass Shooting: 10 shot, 2 juveniles dead at party in Airbnb; multiple shooters suspected

The Media Set Out To Incite the Next Subway Shooter

Could the Road Rage Explosion Have Anything to Do with the Racial Reckoning?

NFL-Style Diversity Excludes Whites, Some Minorities From Opportunity

Fareed Zakaria: We must stop Putin’s plan B (CNN) And, of course, a talking head at CNN knows what Putin’s Plan B is. Never doubt it.

Biden and US allies face new dilemma on Ukraine aid (CNN)

Dusty Johnson among hundreds of U.S. Representatives sanctioned by Kremlin, calls it a ‘badge of honor’

‘They mean nothing to me,’ Langevin says of Russia’s sanctions on members of Congress  I mean, it’s not as if people are fighting to go to Russia the way they’re fighting to come to America.

Germany’s Economic Minister Warned Of Unrest If Russian Gas Is Immediately Cut Off

James Lileks: Vladophilia

Shades Of Gray In The Russia-Ukraine War

R.I.P., Another Russian General

US, EU Sacrificing Ukraine To “Weaken Russia”: Former NATO Adviser

Austrian Chancellor: Putin “Believes He Is Winning The War”

LOGISTICS: The War Reserve Stockpile War

FORCES: Ukraine Must Decide

Russia Expands ‘Powerful’ Cruise Missile Strikes To Western City Of Lviv

Willing Victims

British Elite SAS Soldiers Are Training Troops On Ukrainian Territory

Captured Britons Appear On Russian TV Urging Boris Johnson To Negotiate Ukraine Prisoner Swap

It isn’t just Putin — Russia vs. Ukraine

A current sticking point of the Iran deal (also, how the Deal and the Ukraine War intersect)

Top Democratic Senator Favors Sending US Troops To Ukraine  But not to the southern border.

Kamala Harris keeps traveling to unconventional places. Here’s why. (Politico)  It’s not as of she has a Real Job.

U.S. arrests 210,000 migrants at Mexico border in March, rivaling record highs (Reuters)

20 House Republicans Demand ICE Data on Arrests, Deportations Withheld by Biden

White House “Disappointed” That Federal Judge Declares CDC Mask-Mandate For Planes, Trains Unlawful

‘We’re trying to turn the magnet towards optimism’: Cate Blanchett on her new climate crisis podcast (The Guardian)

Suing over climate change: Taking fossil fuel companies to court (CBS)

Ozone May Be Weakening One of the Earth’s Most Important Cooling Mechanisms – Heating the Planet More Than We Realize (SciTech Daily) So we’d better PANIC just in case.

How to fight the affordable housing and climate crises at once (Vox) Live in a thatched hut somewhere that doesn’t have electricity.

How a Determined Congressional Aide Helped Break Open the Biggest Environmental Scandal in U.S. History (Politico) Funny how nobody’s ever heard of it.

A beginners’ guide to planting trees – and fighting the climate crisis (The Guardian)

Thawing Permafrost Is Roiling The Arctic Landscape (Honolulu Civil Beat)

“Diplomats for Climate Action” Demand Australia Kowtow to the EU

The Green Hydrogen Swindle

Fake News: Wind Tops Coal & Nuclear for First Time in US History

Charleston SC’s Junk Climate Change Lawsuit

The First Post-Trump Republican Race (The New Yorker) A bit of wishful thinking there.

Trump’s clout on the line in Senate GOP primaries (The Hill) Guess somebody didn’t get the memo that we’re now ‘post-Trump’.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal: Student debt cancellation is ‘racial justice,’ ‘gender justice,’ ‘economic justice’ Surely she could have gotten a few more varieties of justice in there?

NYC Mayor Eric Adams agrees progressive politics play a role in increased crime across American cities

Rapper-turned-Brooklyn Dem candidate spews anti-cop hate, wants to defund NYPD  He looks pretty white to me.

‘The Minutes’ on Broadway Brilliantly Shows How Democracy Dies Under Strip Lighting (Daily Beast)

Illinois offering free health care to some illegal immigrants  God knows Americans aren’t worthy.

The red-blue divide is growing even bigger (CNN) Gee, imagine that.

How Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Rigged the 2020 Election to Defeat Trump

Univision Now Promoting Classes On How To Swim Across The Rio Grande

Scarborough Warns Dems: Deal With Border Chaos and Crime, or ‘Thugs Like Trump Will’

Dems Explain They Don’t Want Billionaires Controlling Our Media Unless They’re Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, Bloomberg, Buffett, Or Soros  Babylon Bee.

Free-Thinking Nonconformist Comes Out As Non-Binary Just Like Every Single One Of Her Friends  Babylon Bee.

The American socialist worldview is just broken

Durham: Five Witnesses Connected To The Clinton Campaign’s False Russian Claims Have Refused To Cooperate

CENSORED: How ABC, CBS, NBC Suppressed the Hunter Biden Laptop Scandal

It’s Not Just Jews: Ilhan Omar Doesn’t Like Christians Either

Stelter: Allowing Free Speech on Twitter Will Be Playing in the ‘Gutter’

Why we’ve just scratched the surface of the January 6 investigation (CNN) Liz Cheney always looks as if she hadn’t bothered to wash her hair for a couple of weeks.

He Could’ve Taken Down the Trump Org. Now He’s Taking the Blame. (Daily Beast)

The Trumpified RNC strikes another blow against democracy (Washington Post)  Mommee! Billy hit me back!

On MSNBC, NPR’s Hinojosa Falsely Accuses Border Agents of Whipping Haitians

Brian Stelter Plays Dumb (Again) on Big Tech Spiking Conservatives

WashPost’s Max Boot Cries Elon Musk Is ‘World’s Richest Troll’  Which leaves Max Boot with the title of World’s Dullest Troll.

Report Alleges U.S. Spied on Big Tech Accounts of Project Veritas Employees

Lefty Singer on CBS: Abbott Wants to Make Black AND Gay People Disappear!

The Monopoly On Your Mind: These 6 Companies Control 90% Of What You Read, Watch, & Hear

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Anybody at all making money, actually, except Children of the Crust.

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For the vast majority of Americans, the IRS already knows what we owe in taxes. Instead of telling us, though, the IRS tasks us with filling out a slew of complicated forms and doing a bunch of arithmetic, which drives many people to tax-prep services.

Government regulation invariably leads to a complicated and burdensome web of restrictions and requirements. This, in turn, creates a service industry of ‘experts’ devoted to helping people to cope with that burden. This, in turn, motivates that industry to impede any attempt to make that burden any lighter and easier to navigate without the help of the ‘experts’. It also motivates the businesses in that industry to lobby their favorite politicians to preserve, and if possible extend, the scope of the regulatory burden so as to provide further business opportunities for the existing service industry players. The ordinary citizen invariably winds up with more stress and a much lighter wallet.

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Small, deployable nuclear reactors, an idea that the United States military has been experimenting with for decades, will receive new life under a program the Defense Department announced Thursday.

And unlike previous efforts to deploy alternatives to diesel and other fossil-fuel generators, which were stalled by high costs and little political support, this new effort may succeed in helping the military, and eventually commercial energy providers, wean themselves off carbon-intensive power. As one expert explained, while the physics haven’t changed, increasing concerns about the geopolitics of fossil fuels coupled with growing concerns about climate change have made the effort more critical.

Imagine the fights when localities try to set up one of these and the NIMBY/EcoNazi crowd attempt to regulate it to death:

But a number of nuclear scientists and watchdogs have questioned the need for such a device. In recent years, they have publishing scathing reports, commentary and analyses about the potential contamination should the reactor or its fuel be damaged during an attack, stolen or experience a catastrophic failure.

“Not only have my concerns not been alleviated, they’ve actually grown,” Professor Alan J. Kuperman told Military Times.

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“Don’t teach kids what to think, teach them how to think.” There is some truth to this. Any decent teacher knows that if a student arrives at an answer by themselves, instead of simply being given it, there is a better chance they’ll remember it. Students have the right to develop their own opinions, and should be offered tools to aid critical thinking.

But is this warm, cuddly mantra as profound as it appears? In their new book Dumbing Down, economist Magnus Henrekson and political scientist Johan Wennström assess the decline of Swedish education in the context of its starry-eyed departure from classical knowledge to the realms of “post-truth” schooling.

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California has always been like a trendy nightclub that can get away with a hefty cover charge because everyone wants in. I once asked Arthur Laffer, of the famous curve, how California could keep getting away with such a high cover charge—i.e., high taxes and crushing regulation—when virtually no other state could get away with it. I was expecting a technical economic term—”exploitable asymmetries”—that is, the great climate and abundant natural beauty that many people are willing to pay a premium to enjoy (like me), but no. Instead, he said, “That’s like asking why pretty girls are mean. Answer: Because they can.”

But maybe California can’t any more. Even the pretty mean girls age, and start to show wrinkles, gray hair, and such. The Census data showing more middle class people leaving California than coming in reminds of the old Yogi Berra line about a popular New York restaurant: “Nobody goes there any more; it got too crowded.”