EAT CAKE WHILE YOU’RE AT IT: Buttigieg Says the Solution to High Gas Prices Is Simple: Just Buy an EV.

WELL, LOOK AT WHAT THE ALTERNATIVE TURNED OUT TO BE: Bill Barr: Trump went “off the rails” — but sure, I might vote for him again.

BETTER FILL UP YOUR TANK TODAY: BREAKING: Biden to finally ban Russian oil imports.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: NY Times published an opinion piece on campus self-censorship and progressives are proving the author’s point.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Beef Market Update: The cost of feeding cattle spikes higher, as unknowns mount.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or tonight, or how long it’s going to last. So the markets are reacting in that same extremely volatile way,” Wasko says. “And you know, we know Ukraine’s a key corn exporter in the world, and so it has significant impacts on our key feed for cattle. That’s I guess what it comes down to in terms of we just don’t know what’s going to happen to corn prices, and cost of grain, and therefore the price of cattle.”

And this is only half of the problem — cattle on feed numbers are higher than ever, and before all of this happened with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we were short on feed supplies to begin with.

“It’s a huge problem when that supply chain has been so fragile anyways. To have any kind of flicker there and some insecurity, that is just going to create lots and lots of concern and angst,” says Wasko.

2020: Food Prices Up 20% Over the Past Year.

2021: Hold my (surprisingly expensive) beer.

I HAVE AN IDEA: When will record-high gas prices go down in Massachusetts? ‘The million dollar question.’ The story makes it sound like it’s all because of Ukraine, when in fact gas prices have been rising since Biden was installed.

TO BE FAIR, LESTER HOLT HAS BEEN FIGHTING THE TRUTH FOR A WHILE: Liberal Media Scream: Lester Holt fights truth that police are where crime is.

This week’s Liberal Media Scream features a rare case of a news source pushing back against the bias of a big-shot news host, this time NBC anchor Lester Holt’s view that minorities are targeted by biased police.

Doing the pushing back was former President Donald Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, who challenged Holt’s positive view of Black Lives Matter and rejected the liberal statement that police are racists. . . .

In a special about Barr, who is pitching his new book, One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney, the former attorney general was his typical matter-of-fact self, stopping Holt dead in his tracks when he said, “Black men are the subject of three times as many traffic stops by police.”

Barr responded, “That sometimes is a function of where the police are. Police go where the crime is.”

Plus: “Since it happens so rarely, it’s great to see an interviewee press back in real time against the loaded liberal premise pushed by a star TV journalist. Holt seemed baffled that someone wouldn’t see the world through his liberal prism, where America is racist and police enforce that racism, and thus Black Lives Matter should be treated as a heroic cause.”

TACOMA CHOSE POORLY: City of Tacoma to Accept Window Replacement Grant Applications March 7 – 28.

As part of efforts to alleviate ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic* on Tacoma’s small business community, Mayor Victoria Woodards recently announced the availability of $300,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, establishing a Window Replacement Grant Program to offset costs incurred replacing windows broken at their business location. Program details, informed by input from the City Council’s Economic Development Committee, were developed by the City of Tacoma’s Community and Economic Development Department.

Eligible small businesses based in Tacoma, with no more than 15 full-time equivalent employees, may submit an application starting March 7, 2022 at 8 AM for a Window Replacement Grant. The deadline for submitting a grant application is March 28, 2022 at 11:59 PM. Grant recipients will be selected via random lottery and notified on April 6, 2022.

Window Replacement Grant Program details are available now at makeittacoma.com. The online grant application will be available at makeittacoma.com starting March 7, 2022 at 8 AM in English, Khmer, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. Language assistance is also available upon request. Questions, or requests to receive information in alternate formats, can be directed to or (253) 591-5208.

* I had no idea the virus can break windows as well! Or perhaps there might be other causes, as Seattle’s CBS affiliate, KIRO 7 reported on February 2nd: City leaders propose paying for smashed windows, increasing security at Tacoma businesses.

Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards on Tuesday proposed three initiatives to help businesses impacted by crime across the city.

The proposals come less than a week after hundreds gathered at the LeMay – America’s Car Museum to raise the alarm on problems affecting their businesses, but Woodards said the city has been working on the initiatives for quite some time.

“The issues that are plaguing some of our businesses are an ongoing cost that makes it very difficult for them to sustain themselves during this difficult time,” Woodards said at a Tacoma City Council study session on Tuesday.

According to an end-of-year crime report from the Tacoma Police Department, the city saw an increase in both violent and property crimes in 2021 compared to 2020.

The first city initiative proposes allocating $250,000 for short-term private security enhancements in business districts.

Jeff Robinson, director of community and economic development for the city, said at Tuesday’s meeting that the city is looking into the funding being used for one- to two-person teams to provide security services. The details are still being worked out, like what the shift would look like, how long it would stay in place and which areas of the city would be prioritized.

As the Wall Street Journal noted in June of 2020: Liberal Cities, Radical Mayhem: Democratic mayors and governors seem unable to stop the destruction of their own cities.

The “broken-windows” school of policing says that you can help maintain public order by taking care of even small examples of disorder—such as fixing broken windows. Liberals scorned that policy in the last decade as somehow racist. Well, in recent days we’ve learned that America’s left does have a broken-windows policy: Let rioters break enough windows and loot enough stores and maybe their righteous anger will be satisfied.

That’s certainly how it looked when the June sun rose Tuesday over the broken glass, looted storefronts, burnt-out cars, and vandalized buildings in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Madison and other American cities. Public officials let rioters exploiting the memory of George Floyd run wild in the streets. Even after nearly a week of violence, these and other liberal Democratic cities let lawless radicals harass and plunder almost at will.

* * * * * * * *

This isn’t merely about damage to property. It’s about destroying the order required for city life. Non-criminals are afraid to go into these cities to make a living. The police pull back from active policing, which creates more opportunity for criminals, especially in poor and minority neighborhoods. Businesses that are finally starting to emerge from government lockdowns have new costs to absorb and more reasons for customers not to return.

What all these cities have in common is that they are led by Democrats who seem to have bought into the belief that the police are a bigger problem than rampant disorder. They are either cowed by their party’s left, or they agree that America is systemically racist and rioting is a justified expression of anger against it. They offer pro forma disapproval of law breakers but refuse to act to stop them.

Jason Rantz of Seattle’s KTTH-AM wrote in October of last year: Police staffing crisis in Tacoma is nearly as bad as in Seattle, morale ‘decimated.’

To [Detective Henry Betts, the Local 6 union president for the Tacoma PD], there are simple reasons for the crime surge: Criminals are taking advantage of an underfunded and understaffed police department, while anti-police activists have impacted officer morale.

While the city did not defund the TPD by much last year, there were cuts. Now, a handful of councilmembers say they need to invest more as soon as possible. Beyond writing a public letter, however, officers don’t believe there will be any follow up. Add to the mix the overzealous statewide policing reforms, widely panned as driven by anti-police fervor from progressive politicians, and it has created a nightmare for the police.

You can see the effects the crime surge has had on the city when you drive around town.

“It’s about the community. You drive around the community, and it’s just different now,” Betts noted.

Betts says he and others have been vocal about their concerns, but he says the city response has been “crickets.”

As a result, another Broken Windows theory kicks in:

SEEMS UNLIKELY: “Gun Deaths Increased 11% as a Result of “Stand Your Ground” Laws, Study Finds.”

There’s a lot of misunderstanding out there concerning these laws. Try reading this for what I believe to be more accurate information.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Tone-Deaf Team Biden Responds to High Gas Prices With Electric Car Sales Pitch. “Because nothing can work out too well anymore — especially while the Biden clown car is in charge — the gas price nightmare is coinciding with American workers actually heading back to their offices after a couple of years of mostly remote work.”

THAT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE LYING LIARS WITH AN AGENDA: Media Outlets Continue To Portray Pro-Biden Lincoln Project as ‘Republican’ Organization: The Democratic super PAC is best known for enabling a sex pest and engaging in neo-Nazi cosplay.

WHY DOESN’T BIDEN SUPPORT ETHICAL OIL? Canada Says Its Oil Could Replace U.S. Imports Of Russian Crude.

HMM: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s ‘weird’ resume stymies criticism and support.

Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, Texas, said Jackson’s path to the court was not only odd but provided little help in figuring out her philosophy.

“I’ve looked at her opinions,” he said. “I don’t see, you know, rock star. I don’t see the superstar. She only had a couple of noteworthy opinions. I didn’t hear her giving any sort of influential speeches. She didn’t really write articles. There wasn’t much that distinguished her. I mean, nothing. That’s not a criticism. It wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t that she was the greatest thing in the world.”

What’s more, he added, is that she has no record of working with other judges to get them to agree with her view of constitutional law, a basic chore on the Supreme Court. “How is she going to persuade John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, or Amy Coney Barrett in a case? She has no experience doing that,” Blackman said.

We asked Blackman, a constitutional law professor, if the nomination was similar to Harriet Miers, picked by then-President George W. Bush but scuttled when critics said her experience wasn’t deep.

“I think it’s actually worse because Harriet Miers, for all the criticism, was actually a pretty well-known attorney in private practice in Texas. She had a good reputation. She was White House counsel. People actually had papers to go on, but she hadn’t decided on the bigger constitutional issues. Jackson just doesn’t have much of a record at all,” he said.

Reminds me more than a little of a certain former junior senator from Illinois.

WINSTON SMITH, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Trudeau-appointed librarian ordered purge of online historical archive.

Canada’s top librarian personally directed her staff to wipe federal websites of content she deemed offensive.

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, chief archivist Leslie Weir told employees at Library and Archives Canada to purge thousands of pages, including a biography of Canada’s first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald.

“We need to discuss having a disclaimer on the website about having content that may offend people. I feel very strongly about that,” Weir said in an email on June 9, 2021.

“Much of the content on the Library and Archives Canada website reflects the time at which it was written. We understand much of this outdated historical content no longer reflects today’s context and may be offensive to many. This is an enormous undertaking with over 7,000 web pages.”

* * * * * * * *

“Leslie has asked for us to remove all ‘offensive’ content from the website. We are scrambling today to identify what that might be with a rough set of criteria to work with,” wrote Giesbrecht.

Weir’s criteria for offensive history included any page that erased Indigenous people, had “outdated terminology,” and anything that “lacked Indigenous perspectives and/or that ignores or dismisses the impact of colonialism.”

“The result will be that a lot of stuff from our website disappears rather quickly and nothing substantial will be up to replace it immediately,” wrote Giebrecht in a June 8, 2021 email.

I’m sure Private Ogilvy is always up to the task if replacements are needed:

“ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL GOVERNANCE” IS A NIGHTMARE IN WHICH AWFUL LEFTIES DECIDE HOW PEOPLE WILL LIVE WITH NO DEMOCRATIC INPUT: Arizona AG: ESG May Be an Antitrust Violation: I’m investigating a coordinated effort to allocate markets.

The biggest antitrust violation in history may be in plain sight. Wall Street banks and money managers are bragging about their coordinated efforts to choke off investment in energy. It’s nearly impossible to raise money to explore for oil and gas right now, and we may all be experiencing rising energy costs because of this market manipulation. Russian and Chinese aggression overseas also is exacerbating inflation.

Here’s what is happening: The biggest banks and money managers seek to implement a political agenda, such as compliance with the Paris Climate Accord. Then a group mobilizes: Climate Action 100+, for example, comprised of hundreds of big banks and money managers that together manage $60 trillion. The group uses its coordinated influence to compel companies to shut down coal and natural-gas plants. The activism can include pushing climate goals at shareholder meetings and voting against directors and proposals that don’t comport with the agenda, even if other decisions may benefit investors.

Firms report their plan to carry out these activities back to Climate Action 100+ headquarters. This helps ensure maximum coordinated effort toward the common goal of overhauling the energy industry. Money managers wield influence over these companies because they represent investors who are shareholders, often through their 401(k)s or pension plans. In other words, your retirement funds are likely helping facilitate these political campaigns to advance far-left policy goals, with consumers bearing the costs of increased energy prices.

Climate Action 100+ is one of many activist groups that operate like this, with a significant impact on critical investments in America’s energy infrastructure. Decarbonization of capital expenditures is one of their major goals. Investment in oil and gas exploration and production in 2021 was nearly 25% below 2019 levels. One private-equity CEO described trying to raise wide-scale capital for drilling oil as almost impossible.

An axiom of economics is that if you produce less, the cost will go up. The price of Brent crude hit $114 a barrel last week, an eight-year high, amid tensions over the Russian-Ukraine war. This hurts the pocketbook of all Americans, especially lower-wage workers, who spend a greater percentage of income on fuel.

While climate activists believe they know best, the U.S. can’t maintain its security while depending on foreign dictators and oligarchs to supply its energy. Current economic trends and international tensions heighten the need for domestic companies to maximize efficiency and productivity. Proper corporate governance is good not only for shareholders but for the stability of America and the world.

As attorney general of Arizona, I have a responsibility to protect consumers from artificial restrictions on production. That’s why I’ve launched an investigation into this potentially unlawful market manipulation.

There’s no reason why a cabal of rich people should be allowed to decide how ordinary Americans live. It’s economic warfare against the working class. It should be stopped, and punished.

More here. And antitrust laws should be employed vigorously to punish all sorts of gentry-class anticompetitive economic collusion.

Related: Russian invasion sheds light on hypocrisy of Gary Gensler, woke investment.

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has further exposed the hypocrisy of the woke investment fad known as ESG.

ESG is the acronym for environmental social governance. It’s an amorphous group of edicts that have been adopted by big Wall Street firms, investment managers and many corporations to allegedly make the world a better place.

Follow ESG edicts and you will help protect the environment by investing in windmills instead of oil companies. Board diversity is big under ESG rules. So is supporting social justice, which is why you see so much corporate money flowing to groups like Black Lives Matter.

Do all of that and you can virtue signal ‘til the cows come home despite obvious drawbacks. Reducing your carbon footprint might be a good thing but do it as the ESG zealots want and you get what we have now: Higher energy prices because of the inefficiencies of windmills.

That’s a tax — and a big one — on the working class.

Related: America’s elites are waging class war on workers and small biz.

Also: The rich and powerful thrived as the rest of us suffered in the year of lockdowns.

Flashback:

Related (From Ed): Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) tells MSNBC: ‘We Should Have a Climate Emergency’ and Need to ‘Have the World Transition’ to Green Energy to Undercut Russia.

PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

Matt Margolis: Okay, Now I Think Hillary Will Run in 2024 … Here’s Why. “The reason I’m starting to come around in thinking that Hillary might run again is that the Clinton Foundation is planning another Clinton Global Initiative.”

Athena Thorne: Anyone Else Starting to Get a Bad Feeling About All This Ukraine Worship? “Two things can be true at the same time: Ukraine is being mauled by vicious invaders, and globalists are laying the foundation to leverage this crisis that they’ve been building up for months.”

Yours Truly: Biden Kowtowed to Xi AGAIN — This Time on the Eve of War. “At the exact same time that the Biden Administration was warning us day and night that Russia was about to invade Ukraine, they were also actively looking for ways to appease Russia’s great power ally, Communist China.”

MARK JUDGE: Bad Blood on the Right: The Civil War Roiling Conservative Media.

Although often couched in complex political theory, conservative media’s internal war boils down to one idea: Some think it’s possible to work with liberals while others believe liberals are out to destroy conservatives and must be fought at every turn.

This divide explains the difference between a magazine like National Review, which sometimes but not always opposes President Trump’s populist policies, and pro-Trump outlets like American Greatness and the Federalist.

“National Review thinks we can make peace with the liberals in debates over principles and policies,” a conservative author, James Piereson, says. “But we can’t go too far lest they call us radicals. The other side thinks we are in a wartime situation: the left wants to destroy us. That is a large difference.”

The president of the William E. Simon Foundation, Mr. Piereson says that to understand the rift in conservative media, it helps to turn to a scene from “The Godfather.” In the film, after a rival faction tries to assassinate the head of the family one of its lawyers wants to make a peace deal.

As Mr. Piereson recalls, “The two brothers reply that you can’t make peace with people who are trying to kill you.”

He adds that there is “genuine bad blood” between the conservative journalists in New York and Washington, not that he’s taking sides.

Mr. Piereson observes that National Review “cares very much what the liberals think of them,” while the Federalist’s editor-in-chief, Mollie Hemingway, and American Greatness and others in that group “don’t care what they think because the left wants to eliminate opposition and take over. They also think the liberals have been pushed out of the conversation by the left, progressives, and ‘woke’ advocates to the point that liberals no longer exist — to the extent they do, they have come over to our side.”

One source who has more than a decade of experience both in conservative media and on Capitol Hill thinks that Mr. Pierson’s “Godfather” analogy is perfect — that disagreement stings harder when it’s coming from inside a political family.

“The difference boils down to this,” the source, who asked not to be identified for fear of upsetting friends and colleagues, says. “National Review thinks its job is to police the right. We think that our job is to defeat the left.”

Message to National Review: Never go against the family.

D*MN IT BEE:  Biden Sells Alaska Back To Russia So We Can Start Drilling For Oil There Again.

Look, I don’t even mind that they’re America’s Paper of Record. We’ve had worse. It’s the fact that they have a time machine and won’t share or admit it that’s frosting my sugar cookies.

WEIRDLY, APPARENTLY, THIS ISN’T DIRECTED AT THE BRANDON JUNTA:  Do you know the symptoms of dementia in your pet?

No. For real. They have pictures of cats and dogs….

3 KEY REGIONS: EASTERN UKRAINE, CENTRAL UKRAINE, AND …  Russia tells Ukrainians war can end if they give up 3 key regions.

RAGGEDY ANDY’S UGLIER SISTER ONLY HAS FLUFF IN HER HEAD:  The Little Red Lyin’ Twit Says Biden Will Try To Reduce Impact of Rising Oil Prices, but Won’t Unleash U.S. Energy Resources.

FROM DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS:  On this day in 1921, hotfootin’ hoofer Cyd Charisse was born.  At a very young age, she had a bout of polio, but … uh … she seems to have gotten over it in this video from Singin’ in the Rain.

(Here’s a medley of her greatest dancing hits that starts with Singin’ in the Rain and quickly goes on to several other numbers.  Go Cyd!)

GOOD:  Tsarnaev Death Penalty Reinstated By SCOTUS.

COMPOUNDING WITH OUTRIGHT EVIL:  Climate Obsessed Biden Administration Seeks Oil Deal with Venezuela and Iran.

And enabling those who want us dead.

OH, THEY’RE GOING TO TRY TO MESS WITH THE ELECTION:  The Biden Inflation Octopus.

And that’s what will break their teeth.