Oh that's so sad

Hot Air: "NPR layoffs: employees blame racism and transphobia."

When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.  A racist nail. 

Is anybody going to defend this garbage indictment?

Reason: "The Shaky New York Case Against Trump Reeks of Desperation To Punish a Reviled Political Opponent" - "Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is relying on debatable facts and untested legal theories to transform minor misconduct into a felony."

I'm assuming the NY Times is on board but it's all behind a paywall.  They're putting together a pretzel logic editorial as we speak.  

No kidding

Hot Air: "WaPo editorial board: This Trump indictment looks pretty dodgy to us."

Extra - Jonathan Turley: "The Trump Indictment: Making History in the Worst Possible Way." 

More - PJ Media: "Dershowitz on Trump Indictment: 'Worst Case of Prosecutorial Abuse I Have Ever Seen'." 

Crossing the Rubicon

Federalist: "America’s Banana Republic Era Is Here: Manhattan Grand Jury Votes To Indict Trump" - "If Bragg gets his way, Trump could face jail time over a case that Bragg, the Department of Justice, Bragg’s predecessor, and the Federal Election Commission previously decided not to pursue." 

Dementia Joe: I like ice cream

"Also some kids got shot."  Ace: "Biden's Dementia Is Accelerating."

Here's the transcript of Joey's rambling commentary about ice cream before he looked up at the teleprompter and thought "Oh, yeah, the shooting."  I know exactly what happened here: Joey came down to address a women's conference and he had his whole schtick ready to go: "I'm Jill Biden's husband," "I'm here for the ice cream - you think I'm kidding," "look at those kids!."  The shooting in Tennessee was a distraction for him.

Extra - Red State: "Joe Biden Either Has Dementia or He's a Sociopath."  Why not both?

Men of action

Red State: "Incredible Body-Cam Footage of Nashville Shooting Destroys the Uvalde PD and Its Left-Wing Apologists." 

What an unexpected development

Wall Street Journal: "The Real Cost of the Inflation Reduction Act Subsidies: $1.2 Trillion - Goldman Sachs says the uncapped tax credits will cost three times what Democrats claimed."

The Inflation Reduction Act may go down as one of the greatest confidence tricks on taxpayers in history. Democrats used accounting gimmicks to claim the partisan law would reduce the budget deficit. But now a Goldman Sachs report projects its myriad green subsidies will cost $1.2 trillion—more than three times what the law’s supporters claimed.

The Congressional Budget Office forecast that the IRA’s energy and climate provisions would cost $391 billion between 2022 and 2031, but this appears to be a huge under-estimate. One reason is companies are rushing to cash in on tax credits that aren’t capped. The Biden Administration is also loosely interpreting conditions for the credits.

Of course they are.  Just like Obamacare or any other big government spending plan, the trick is to get it through Congress with promises of being "deficit neutral" and then cast away the spending limits.  Every. Single. Time:

At its start, in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost only about $12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation). This was a supposedly "conservative" estimate. But in 1990 Medicare actually cost $107 billion.

And now?

In 2021, Medicare benefit payments totaled $829 billion, up from $541 billion in 2011. 

Whoopsie!

Very on-brand

College Fix: "A debate on DEI will be held at MIT. The university’s DEI deans refuse to participate."

"Deans," plural?   🙄

NPR is a clown show

Twitchy: "NPR roasted for claiming ‘limited scientific evidence’ trans women have a physical advantage."

I can't even listen to NPR on my morning commute.  It's not just the obvious political bias, it's stuff like this where they just make up fiction to suit their preferred narrative.

But, hey, if there's no physical advantage between the sexes, why do we even have the WNBA?  Let them all play together, equally.  Throw some boxing matches in there, too.

Michigan turns anti-choice

Reason: "Michigan Repeals Right-To-Work Law - A decade as a right-to-work state made Michigan better off." 

The Left hates free speech, Virginia edition

In this case, they're protesting against the governor of Virginia: "Diversity and Inclusion means shutting people up." - "The largest college Democrat group in Virginia wants you to know that keeping Republicans off campus is required if you value diversity and inclusion." 

Inconceivable!

Associated Press: "Biden approval dips near lowest point: AP-NORC poll."

I'll tell you why: as inflation stays stubbornly high, the border is unguarded, and banks are failing, Joe Biden spent the week (so far) meeting with the cast of "Ted Lasso" and then handing out medals to Mindy Kaling and Bruce Springsteen.  Yesterday and today, he gave his same tired speech to two different groups.  It doesn't matter who the audience might be, Joey wants you to applaud his gracious spending of taxpayer money.  Joey doesn't want to be questioned.

Sure a recession is right around the corner but did you hear that insulin is only $35 now?

Umm … the banks are melting

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2023

"Satire"

Babylon Bee: "Democrats Vow To Arrest As Many Political Opponents As It Takes To Defeat Fascism." 

Save the internet millionaires!

Federalist: "The Silicon Valley Bank Bailout Sends Exactly The Wrong Message And Endangers The Economy." - "Normal people should be furious. Once again, the government changed the rules everyone lives by for a small, extremely wealthy, and politically connected group of people."

The most relevant commentary I've heard about protecting 100% of SVB's deposits is that it essentially sends the message that the Fed will protect 100% of all bank deposits everywhere.  After all, why should SVB get special protection above the standard FDIC limits?

Normally there's a process where a bank winds down assets and pays so many cents on a dollar to all creditors.  The Fed decided to just fire up the money printers - again.

Shouted down

Hollywood in Toto: "‘Ted Lasso’s’ White House Visit Proves Woke Is a Joke (Again)." 

Working on the issues that matter to you, America!

After another weekend in Delaware, Joe Biden is getting right to work!

Update - Well...somebody isn't a fan of Ted Lasso.

Fact checked, at last

Not the Bee: "Biden claims billionaires only pay 3% in taxes, gets absolutely clowned by Elon Musk."

Dementia Joe Biden has been repeating this completely bogus statistic that billionaires only pay 3% of their taxes for months now and this is the first time I've seen pushback.  My question is this: where are the keyboard warriors at the Washington Post and New York Times who were so eager to catalog every misstep of a certain previous President?

That was a rhetorical question.  We know it's (D)ifferent. 

Wokesters don't like to be called woke

Federalist: "‘Woke’ Effectively Describes The Left’s Insanity, And That’s Why They Hate When You Say It." - "Woke-ism is intentionally ambiguous. So when you describe it, that offends those who wish for its intentions to remain murky."

Hence the bend towards censorship.

"You f--d up! You trusted us."

Red State: "Reporters Rip Into WH for Not Answering Questions, Then WH Stiffs Them Again."

Salt in the wound

It wasn't bad enough that Howard University lost in the first round of March Madness, they had to endure a cringe speech (is there any other kind?) from Kamala Harris.  Outkick: "Kamala Harris talks to Howard basketball team like they’re a bunch of little leaguers." 

It’s just so, so, so bad. Not only did these poor Howard players just lose by 30, but now they have to listen to Kamala Harris talk to them like they just lost the little league county championship game.

I have no idea why Kamala talks to everybody as if they're third-graders, with her exaggerated cadence and low-rent vocabulary.

At least she stopped talking about Venn diagrams.

Seven Sisters --> Seven Misters

PJ Media: "It’s the End of Women’s Colleges as We Know It, and You Know Why." 

I was curious about Smith College here in Western Massachusetts and - unsurprising for a college based in Northampton - it accepts dudes that identify as women.  Sounds like a low-budget movie in the making.

Fake fake fake

Red State: "Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte: Biden Gets Busted by Twitter Fact Checkers Again."

If there's a God in heaven then somebody will ask binder-reader KJP if this letter is a fake at the next White House press conference.  Because it's totally a fake.

Prove me wrong, KJP!  Let's get "Charlotte" on camera. 

I didn't want to buy food anyway

Reason: "Inflation Isn't Going Away" - "Prices rose by 0.4 percent in February and core inflation was up 0.5 percent, the third consecutive month that it has increased."

You know the numbers are bad because Joey didn't add an event to his daily calendar.  

It's a bailout

The Corner: "Biden’s Big Bank Bailout."

And then, once the management of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature screwed up badly enough, the federal government decided, “Never mind. We’re going to protect every amount for every bank customer.” The Biden administration may not like people calling that a bailout, but that is indeed a bailout.

As our Phil Klein writes, “In practice, it has created a huge moral hazard by signaling that the $250,000 FDIC limit on deposit insurance does not exist in practice. The clear signal it sends is that when financial institutions make poor decisions, the government will swoop in to clean up the mess.”

As the editors of the Wall Street Journal conclude, “This is a de facto bailout of the banking system, even as regulators and Biden officials have been telling us that the economy is great and there was nothing to worry about.”

It's unsurprising that the same crew who tried to push through student loan forgiveness has no idea what "moral hazard" means.  As for that Deposit Insurance Fund:

MIT economist Simon Johnson: “Disingenuous: that’s the right word to describe anyone (Treasury official or not) who claims the DIF is not ultimately backed by the taxpayer.“

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) March 13, 2023

But insulin is $35

PJ Media: "The Biden Economy Is Falling Apart, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once." 

Risk management

NY Post: "While Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, top executive pushed ‘woke’ programs." - "A head of risk management at Silicon Valley Bank spent considerable time spearheading multiple “woke” LGBTQ+ programs, including a “safe space” for coming out stories, as the firm catapulted toward collapse." 

There go entitlements

Wall Street Journal: "Biden’s Budget Is an Assault on Social Security - High taxes and crushing regulations will starve entitlement programs into insolvency."

President Biden released his 2024 budget request Thursday while continuing to accuse Republicans of scheming to cut benefits for seniors. But he’s got it backward. By advancing policies that hinder the economic growth that drives prosperity, Mr. Biden and his Democratic colleagues are the ones depriving Social Security and Medicare of the hundreds of billions of dollars those programs need to remain solvent.

Biden couldn't get these tax and spend proposals passed when Democrats controlled both sides of Congress.  This is a just a political document, to be dismissed.

Funny 'cause it's true

The Paper of Record: "Senate To Now Be Controlled By Whichever Party Has Fewer Senators In Hospital." 

The Left hates free speech: Stanford Law version

Hot Air: "Heckler's Veto: Judge shouted down at Stanford law school with help from Dean of DEI."

Yes, a dean joined in to shout down - not debate - somebody with whom they disagreed.  Future lawyers.

Extra - Powerline: "Stanford University disgraces itself."

More - Legal Insurrection: "Stanford Law Students, With Support From Diversity Dean, Shout Down Visiting Appeals Court Judge Because He’s Conservative." 

AYFKM?

Hot Air: "J6 committee co-chair: None of us watched the surveillance video, actually." 

Pure gaslighting from the NY Times

The Corner: "The Fetterman Guarantee."

In an absolutely shocking piece of “journalism,” the New York Times profiles how the office of John Fetterman is operating while the senator recovers from severe depression and a stroke at Walter Reed Hospital.

There is so much in this report that is wrong, troubling, or outright horrifying that it cannot be covered in a single blog post or column. Here’s one: “It is not unusual for lawmakers to be told by members of their staff, sometimes after the fact, what bills they are co-sponsoring.” This is simply not true.

This story is part of the ongoing prevarication by Democrats and the media - I repeat myself - that Fetterman is a functioning Senator as long as he maintains room temperature. 

Fish gotta swim. Democrats gotta...

PJ Media:"Chuck Schumer Calls for Censoring Tucker Carlson Over J6 Coverage."

Of course.  I watched Tucker's Monday show (missed Tuesday) and all he did was provide additional footage and context that was denied the American people during the sham J6 hearings.  It was always a Soviet show trial and Tucker proved that by showing videos pushing back on the chosen narrative.  Watching the Shaman politely escorted by Capitol Police and Brian Sicknick upright moments after he was "killed" was a revelation conveniently hidden from view up until now.

But Democrats, as always, are eager to confront those they disagree with facts on their side, right?  That's why this headline was exciting!  "Sen. Chuck Schumer agrees to go on Tucker Carlson’s show IF… (LOL)."

Yeah, they don't do that.  Otherwise you end up getting called out on national television.  Stay in your safe zone, kiddos.

Truth below:

Not only does this guy want to censor Tucker he wants to compel his speech before he even goes on his show.
Dems cannot tolerate any dissenting views. Ever.
They are unbelievably weak. https://t.co/RPPvkEDOmE

— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) March 8, 2023

We're broke

Heritage: "From Concerning to Terrifying: 7 Horrible Milestones on Horizon for Bloated Federal Budget."

That's just *one* MSNBC reporter

Twitchy: "Tom Elliott’s mega-thread takes a blowtorch to MSNBC analyst’s ‘name the lie’ challenge." 

We are Borg. You will be intoxicated.

Western Massachusetts update: "UMass Amherst warns against TikTok binge drinking trend after 28 ambulance calls Saturday."

University of Massachusetts Amherst is warning against a TikTok trend after the Amherst Fire Department received 28 calls for ambulance transports over the weekend.

UMass and Amherst officials said in a press release that numerous students were seen carrying “borgs” or “blackout rage gallons,” gallon jugs filled with alcohol, electrolytes and water, during off-campus student gatherings on Saturday. The binge drinking trend gained popularity on the social media app TikTok and has been seen at colleges around the country.

Every March, we need to make plans to stay far away from Amherst during the Blarney Blowout.

Sanctuary city

NY Post: "Biden’s migrant mess now costing NYC nearly $5M a day."  Oh that's a shame.

Venn diagrams

American Thinker: "It begins: NYT and its Democrats launch bid to revamp Kamala Harris into presidential material."

Well, it's not the Times per se but noted cheater Donna Brazile.  Good luck with all that. 

Fulfilling the Buttigieg standard for the DOT

Townhall: "Biden's FAA Nominee Can't Answer a Single Question About Aviation."

More on Sotomayor's great legal mind

James G. Martin Center: "The Supreme Court Hears Arguments in the Challenge to Biden’s Student-Loan Giveaway."

As is her wont, Justice Sonia Sotomayor would like the case to be decided on emotional grounds. She said to Nebraska’s attorney, “There’s 50 million students who will benefit from this. Many of them don’t have assets to bail them out after the pandemic. And what you’re saying is that we’re going to give judges the right to determine how much to give them instead of the Secretary of Education.” That probably won’t sway any of the justices who understand that the case turns on the legality of what the president has decreed, not on how many people might benefit from having their student loans cancelled.

Imagine that: a Justice ruling on the law.  Sotomayor is a joke.

The Wise Latina just making stuff up

Considering the case for student loan forgiveness before the Supreme Court, I wrote this the other day:

My feeling is that this effort to disappear obligations to the government is so wildly unconstitutional that only Sotomayor could possibly vote for it.

Charles C.W. Cooke similarly noticed Sotomayor's shoddy legal reasoning designed to bring about her desired outcome: "Please show us the Experts Clause of the Constitution, Justices Sotomayor and Kagan."

This is a nonsense argument from Sotomayor. First off, the question before the Court is not “how much aid” to give to students. The question before the Court is whether the statute it is examining — the 2003 HEROES Act — confers upon the executive branch the power to do what it’s trying to do. If it does, it does. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. The amount of aid doesn’t enter into that calculation. Neither does the level of “expertise and experience” exhibited by the incumbent Secretary of Education. That Secretary could have the most sparkling mind in American history, or he could be a total moron, and, in both cases, the issue before the Court would be same: “Does he have the power to do it?” There is no provision within the United States Constitution that accords unlimited power to bureaucrats simply because some people consider them to be well-credentialed.

As for Sotomayor’s suggestion that, by superintending this statutory matter, the Court is taking it upon itself to set policy, “instead of leaving that decision in the hands of the person who has experience with these questions,” that too is absolute rot.

Sotomayor is a fraud.

News from Berkeley East

Boston Globe: "Northampton to use pandemic relief dollars for ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ manhole covers - Four custom manhole covers will be incorporated into an upcoming Main Street redesign."

Other taxpayer's money.