SUSTAINABILITY: Mortgage rate soars closer to 5% in its second huge jump this week. “With both rates and prices considerably higher, the median mortgage payment is now more than 20% higher than it was a year ago.”
Rates are going to have to go considerably higher before prices come back to Earth. As things stand now, mortgage rates are still below the inflation rate — free money, so why not bid up prices?
MATT MARGOLIS: I Thought Reporters ‘Don’t Root for a Side’? “On Sunday’s episode of Meet the Press on NBC, host Chuck Todd expressed panic over the Republican Party’s edge in his network’s latest generic congressional poll—calling it a ‘huge red flag.'”
THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST: Who Said It: Vice President Kamala Harris Or Elmo?
HUNTING HUNTER: GOP Readies Probes of the Laptop and the Election-Eve Cover-up.
SPOILER: NO. Did Tipping Come from Slavery? The 1619 Project Lies Again.
To be fair, when hasn’t it?
DON’T UNDERESTIMATE JOE’S ABILITY TO F*** THINGS UP: Because of the US president’s recent remarks, it is likely that this conflict will drag on.
The news out of Russia that Moscow was ordering its forces in Ukraine to refocus its efforts on pacifying the Russian-speaking eastern portions of Ukraine that Russia had enjoyed nominal control over since the 2014 annexation of Crimea indicated to many that Putin was looking for an off-ramp.
There was, however small, a light at the end of this particularly dark geopolitical tunnel that did not involve a possible mushroom cloud.
Even Ukraine’s gallant leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky, had in effect approved the potentiality of a diplomatic solution with Putin that involved the ceding of eastern Ukraine to Russia, the acknowledgement that Crimea was now Russian territory, and the acceptance that Ukraine – if it at all wanted to be left in peace – would not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
But:
It is not that hard to believe that President Biden does, in fact, support deploying American troops into Ukraine or that he wants to overthrow the Putin regime as the United States did to Saddam Hussein’s or Muammar Gaddafi’s regimes (and attempted to do to Bashar al-Assad’s government).
The greater question one must ask is: Why? Why on Earth would Biden wade into this geopolitical crisis that could go nuclear at any moment at a time when both the Ukrainian government and the Russian government appeared to be taking de-escalatory steps? And why hasn’t Biden come out immediately to correct the record, if he did indeed misspeak?
Yours Truly, last week:
Vladimir Putin has been informed reliably by the Western alliance that his exit — which in his case possibly includes a firing squad — is the price for peace.
Instead of building Putin a golden bridge to peace, Biden has backed him into a corner and dared him to lash out.
That’s the idiot’s way to start World War III, but from Joe Biden, what else did you expect?
And all that was before Biden’s disastrous ad-libs in Poland on Friday.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Gosh, There Sure Is a Lot of Hunter Biden News These Days. “The members of the MSM haven’t been honest about almost anything since Trump was elected in 2016. Their abuse of their First Amendment protections has been borderline criminal. Everyone involved in the Hunter Biden laptop cover-up in 2020 isn’t set up well in the karma department.”
Wouldn’t the Russians have plenty of those already?
AN INTERVIEW WITH ROB STEINBUCH, the rebel law professor who’s running for the Arkansas legislature.
A LOT OF POLICIES ARE FAILING LATELY: ICBM Test Proves America’s North Korea Policy Has Failed.
SPOILS OF WAR: Ukraine captures one of Russia’s most advanced electronic warfare systems, which could reveal military secrets, reports say.
Ukrainian forces have seized part of one of Russia’s most advanced electronic warfare systems, which could reveal its military secrets, reports say.
The Krasukha-4 command module was found abandoned on the outskirts of Kyiv partly damaged but otherwise intact, The Times of London reported.
Photos of the unit posted on social media appear to show the container containing the module covered in tree branches, possibly in a hasty camouflage attempt by retreating Russian forces.
Again, take all these war stories with a grain of salt, but we have enough confirmed reports of Russian soldiers abandoning equipment to lend this one some credence.
A HISTORIC LOW SO FAR: Biden approval to 34%, historic low faith in economy.
SALENA ZITO: Florida Education Bill Looks Different Depending on Where You Stand.
When you come to “the happiest place on earth,” your main focuses usually are: minimizing wait times for your favorite ride; not breaking the bank on food and tchotchkes, and — if your children can stand yet another wait in line — to get as close as possible to their favorite Disney character.
Most folks will tell you that politics, thank goodness, is the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.
In fact, on a recent sunny March day, the only thing close to political at Disney was the fact that masks were no longer required, and most of the parkgoers were happily embracing that freedom.
Two weeks later, Disney is now the center of a political fight largely pushed by social justice activists and the national press: They’ve dubbed a Florida education bill restricting sexualized discussions until after third grade as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. In response, Disney employees have staged walk-outs and protests at the parks, forcing the CEO to criticize the governor and to use Disney social media as a platform for LGBTQ rights.
First, the facts: Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act for kindergarten through third grade students does not have the word “gay” in it, nor does it prohibit students of LGBTQ families from discussing them. It does bar the “instruction” of sexual orientation or gender identity for that 4- through 8-year-old age group.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll showed a wide margin of American voters support banning the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity to students that young, 51% to 36%.
There are two different things here worth addressing.
First, when many in the media repeatedly used the “Don’t Say Gay” characterization of the bill, the phrase inevitably got passed around and repeated by cultural elites, and soon leaders of global corporations felt compelled to express their concerns. The entertainment industry took a run at it in a “Saturday Night Live” skit; President Joe Biden chimed in by calling the bill “hateful”; and ESPN interrupted the NCAA women’s tournament for a moment of silence.
Second, it is clear that corporate America is willing to be bullied into political culture wars by the press and by activists, something their consumers wish they would stay out of — even when they agree. A survey last year showed that 59% of Americans think companies’ political positions add to our divisiveness. Over half of self-identified Democrats agreed. Another related poll found 66% of Americans thought corporations should not be taking political positions. Again, that includes over half of Democrats.
“I think people hate the politicization of everything,” said Youngstown State political science professor Paul Sracic.
And yet.
Flashback: Hollywood Is a Sex-Grooming Gang.
It is a brazen thing to go to other countries like some John the Baptist for the democracies, shortly after having trampled all over the rights of those involved in a largely peaceful democratic protest.
Let me make a plain, direct statement: The trucker protest was not an attempted coup. It was not a rebellion. It was not an assault on Canada’s democracy. It was none of those things.
The convoy protest was strong and present, but it was unthreatening and largely non-violent. It was superbly Canadian. It should not be slandered.
And it surely should not be used as some sort of example of anti-democratic forces by the leader of the country in which it took place. Most especially when he goes about the world delivering passionate defences of the idea of democracy itself.
To defend democracy, you should adhere to its principles. Don’t go to Brussels to preach what you skip over in Ottawa. Some examples:
For a start, don’t sic the banks on peaceful protesters. . . .
And yet, three weeks later, after all that, Trudeau went over to Brussels and presumed to tell European parliamentarians that, “The leaders of those convoys were effective in turning citizens with real anxieties against the system best suited to allay those concerns.”
He presumed to lecture them on “leadership” and confronting the threat posed by Russia. Yet, given his record, who is listening? Given his government’s treatment of veterans, who can believe his fealty to the Canadian military? Given his lack of interest in civil liberties, who would not question his commitment to democratic principles? This is indeed a sad moment — for Canada and its standing within the free world.
Indeed. Related: Canadian Media Ignores Scolding of Trudeau as Rest of World Media Reports It:
Despite Canadian legacy media outlets burying the story, the reprimand of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by European parliamentarians in Brussels has made headlines around the world.
Trudeau was treated to scathing condemnation by several Members of European Parliament (MEP) after giving a speech to the European Union on Wednesday.
Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakusic called out the Canadian prime minister for engaging in a “dictatorship of the worst kind” over his treatment of peaceful Freedom Convoy protestors in February.
At least three other MEPs echoed Kolakusic’s remarks, with Romanian MEP Cristian Terheș entirely boycotting Trudeau’s speech.
Just think of the Canadian media as Liberal Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.
