IT’S A TOTAL MYSTERY HOW THIS COULD HAVE HAPPENED! “At Jan. 5 budget meeting for the city’s Bureau of Development Services, economists advising the bureau on the outlook for new construction presented dismal news: Portland has gone from one of the most desirable locations in the country just four years ago to near the bottom of an 80-city ranking.”

Naturally, Portlandia is taking all that “creative destruction” in stride: Readers Respond to Portland Plummeting Down the List of Desirable Cities. “Is this such a bad thing? We have been complaining about the growth rate for years.”

Which is vaguely reminiscent of another quote regarding the destruction of a socialist-oriented city:

“After the destruction of beautiful Dresden, we almost breathe a sigh of relief. It is over now. In focusing on our struggle and victory we are no longer distracted by concerns for the monuments of German culture. Onward!…Now we march toward the German victory without any superfluous ballast and without the heavy spiritual and material bourgeois baggage.”

—Robert Ley, National Socialist Labor Front Leader, as quoted by historian Frederick Taylor in Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945.

MOSTLY PEACEFUL: Armed Antifa Occupy Hotel, Shout at Cops: ‘Pigs in a Blanket, Fry ‘Em Like Bacon.’

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): None dare call it “insurrection.”

21ST CENTURY INSTITUTIONS: “Facebook announced this week in its earnings call that it has nearly 60,000 employees. This is a company that now has its own Supreme Court; that’s too big. If your institution is going to be massive and centralized, chances are you need a ton of people to moderate it. That’s something at odds with most existing internet platforms. Realistically, the internet would probably be happier with fewer of these sweeping institutions and more intimate bubbles that are loosely connected. That’s something that the network effects of the past couple decades have made harder but regulation around data portability could assist with.”

FAILING UPWARD: California Labor Secretary Promoted to Biden Administration After Overseeing Massive COVID Fraud Scandal.

THEY NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE, BUT SPLC: Pro-Israel Group Dedicated to Fighting Anti-Semitism Disappears from SPLC ‘Hate Group’ List.

UNDERSEA KILLERS: Using AUVs to control the outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

VIDEO: Watch this woman disembowel the pervasive brainwashing of Critical Race Theory in under 60 seconds. “In exactly 59 seconds, TikTok user Half Black Conservative shows how popular Critical Race Theory has become in the last year and details the dangers of such Marxist groupthink.”

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

● Shot: Andrew Cuomo Is the Control Freak We Need Right Now.

—The New York Times, March 16^th, 2020.

● Chaser: 9 Top N.Y. Health Officials Have Quit as Cuomo Scorns Expertise.

—The New York Times, today.

● Hangover: “Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died.”

—Cuomo on Friday.

IF ONLY YOU COULD TRUST THE W.H.O. TO TREAT CHINA HONESTLY: WHO probe team visits Wuhan market at heart of first virus outbreak.

BARI WEISS: 10 ways to fight back against woke culture.

YOU DON’T SAY: Twitter employees heavily favored Biden over Trump ahead of ‘priceless’ ban.

THE RACIST BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: Biden State Appointee Says White Diplomats Are Too ‘Protective’ of United States.

BECAUSE LOCKDOWNS ARE UNSCIENTIFIC AND DON’T WORK? Why has Macron decided against a new lockdown in France?

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

● Shot: Storm Orlena: New York City and New Jersey issue state of emergency ahead of heavy snow.

—The London Independent, today.

● Chaser: Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past.

—The London Independent, March 20^th, 2000.

A Practical Wish List for Joe Biden. Some doable libertarian ideas from Reason’s writers and editors.

ANGELO CODEVILLA: The FBI’s increasing preference for political action over bona fide investigations is part of its overall decadence—laziness, incompetence, and eagerness to integrate with the ruling class.

PARTY OF THE LITTLE GUY™ Lockdown has ravaged the working class.

CRIME, LIKE ANTIFA, IS JUST AN IDEA: Soft on Crime. A Biden administration policy of weak policing and lax prosecution would be a disaster for the nation’s cities.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: American Universities Declare War on Military History: Academics seem to have forgotten that the best way to avoid conflict is to study it.

To be honest, given what’s happened to the discipline of history in recent decades, maybe it’s better this way.

WITH ANY OTHER PRESIDENT — CERTAINLY ANY DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT — THIS WOULD BE A HUGE DEAL: Trump Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize over Israel/UAE Deal. By an Estonian legislator.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Intriguing – Palm Beach to Decide Whether Trump Can Live in the Building He Owns.

Insanity Wrap needs to know: When is the owner of a property merely a guest on that property?

Answer: Palm Beach is going to get back to you on that one.

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

• Voter suppression is in the I of the FB
• Sometimes the roads fall off
• Kristen Cenoweth self-cancels with the most embarrassing Dem-worship ever

Bonus Sanity: Jared Kushner nominated for a much-deserved Nobel Peace Prize.

And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

THAT LONG? Janet Yellen’s Ethics Agreement Is Barely A Month Old And She’s Already Breached It.

SCIENCE! Fauci Concedes ‘There’s No Data That Indicates’ Double-Masking Is Effective.

WHO’S THE NAZI NOW? Penn prof who used Nazi salute to protest perceived lack of free speech resigns.

IT WASN’T ANTI-RACISM: Asian-American Activists Blast Biden’s ‘Pandering’ Anti-Racism Order.

Biden signed an order to combat “racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders” on Tuesday. The order—which requires federal agencies to fight anti-Asian racism and promote “sensitivity” toward the Asian community in their pandemic response—was met with skepticism by some activists. Kenny Xu, an activist and author of an upcoming book, An Inconvenient Minority, called the order mere lip service aimed at progressives.

“I can see this whole issue of COVID racism being used as a way to satiate Asian-American victimhood mentality,” Xu said. “At the same time, the order is not addressing some real policy-based issues that Asian Americans face on a practical and actionable level.”

Xu and other activists worry that despite its pro-Asian-American rhetoric, the Biden administration will undo some of the Trump White House’s initiatives to combat anti-Asian racism. Chief among their concerns is the issue of affirmative action, which critics say rejects qualified Asian candidates to make room for other minority groups at elite institutions.

Message sent: Democrats aren’t interested in assimilated minorities.