SALENA ZITO:

Politicians and commentators love to focus on the differences between the experiences of white people and racial minorities in America.

But when the camera is pulled back, and poor rural white communities are placed side by side with poor urban minority communities, a lot of similarities become apparent.

Of all of the news and entertainment outlets in the country, it was “Saturday Night Live” that nailed this back in 2016 with its election-season “Black Jeopardy” skit. Actor Tom Hanks, in a MAGA hat, finds himself on a panel with cast members Leslie Jones and Sasheer Zamata. Kenan Thompson’s questions as “Jeopardy” host center on issues of marginalization, skepticism of government and blue-collar identity in Black culture, and Hanks’ character — initially dismissed by Kenan and the other two contestants — delivers responses showing just how much they have in common, especially in terms of experiences of disempowerment.

Until the “Black Lives Matter” question appeared to divide them. Exactly as it was designed to do.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Reminder — Some Teachers Are Truly Horrible People. “While not all teachers are awful people, the same can’t be said for the union higher-ups. They’re evil. As I wrote a full year ago, COVID has exposed them for the garbage human beings that they are, especially Weingarten.”

HACKS:

HEH: Elon Musk Mocks Trudeau After Massive Trucker Rally: ‘Fringe Minority’ ‘Is Actually The Government.’

CHANGE: High Octane Aviation Gas Being Replaced with Lower-Octane Unleaded. What could go wrong?

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IS ONLY POPULAR WITH ELITES: Poll: large majority of Americans not into affirmative action in SCOTUS nominations.

The Democrats are relishing the prospect of Joe Biden chalking up a win for his base this year when he gets the chance to nominate his first person to the Supreme Court. His supporters immediately moved to pressure him to keep his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the court and a quick glance at the shortlist of potential candidates shows that he has no intention of disappointing them. But how much of a “win” will this really be in the minds of the public? A new ABC News/Ipsos poll out this week suggests that Biden and his party are once again failing to read the room. On the one hand, many people are losing faith in the Supreme Court because they believe that it’s now driven by political ideology. But when it comes to the topic of presidential nominations, a surprisingly large majority want the President to consider all of the best-qualified candidates rather than immediately winnowing the field to a small list of people based on nothing more than the color of their skin and the lack of a Y chromosome.

It must have been painful for ABC News to have to publish those results. Liberal dogma would tell us that having a court that “looks like America” is not only important but what most people want to see. And perhaps many of them would be in favor of more racial and gender diversity, but not at the expense of compromising on experience and qualifications. More than three-quarters of respondents (76%) want Biden to “consider all possible nominees.” Less than a quarter (23%) want to see him carry through on his campaign pledge.

This plan isn’t even popular along the racial and political lines that you might have expected. Barely one-quarter of non-white respondents (28%) want Biden to restrict his choices to only Black women. He couldn’t even get a majority of Democrats to agree, with a 54-46 majority saying he should consider all possible nominees.

How about that.

FIGHT THE POWER, STICK IT TO THE MAN: Catholic cop wins $75K settlement after suspension for praying at abortion clinic.

The city of Louisville, Ky., is paying a local police officer a $75,000 settlement after he was suspended for praying outside an abortion clinic, according to the firm representing him.

Officer Matthew Schrenger was off-duty when he stopped to pray with his father on the public sidewalk outside the EMW Women’s Surgical Center nearly a year ago, on Feb. 20, according to the Thomas More Society. Schrenger arrived in the early morning, before the abortion provider opened, as part of 40 Days for Life, an international grassroots campaign dedicated to ending abortion through prayer and fasting.

Matt Heffron, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, previously said that Schrenger, a 13-year police veteran, was praying the rosary, according to the local Fox affiliate, WDRB News.

For his actions, Schrenger was suspended for more than four months with pay, stripped of his police powers, and placed under investigation, a Jan. 27 press release by the Thomas More Society read. . . .

The settlement comes three months after Schrenger sued the city’s mayor, police chief, and police department in a federal lawsuit filed by the Thomas More Society with Blaine Blood, a Louisville attorney, in October.

Schrenger’s attorney, Heffron, called the city’s actions against the 13-year police veteran “a significant and inexcusable violation of a loyal officer’s Constitutional rights.”

“The unfair discipline revealed undeniably content-based discrimination against Officer Schrenger’s personal pro-life views and violated his First Amendment rights,” Heffron said. “He did not engage in any political protest on duty – he prayed quietly. Yet Officer Schrenger was punished for this peaceful, private behavior.”

He accused the police department of a double standard.

“The treatment of Officer Schreger was particularly galling considering other Louisville police officers previously had marched, while on-duty and in uniform, in political protests that apparently were approved by the police department,” he said. “He was treated very differently than other officers who had undeniably engaged in true political protest and activism while participating in LGBT and Black Lives Matter demonstrations.”

According to the Thomas More Society, open-records requests showed that those other officers faced no suspension or any kind of discipline whatsoever.

The gentry class has grown impatient with your defiance. Grow impatient with its two-faced response.

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: Kansas Schoolteacher Joins ISIS, Plots Jihad Massacres in U.S., Leads All-Female Terrorist Battalion.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Mike Rogers: Space race with China is not just a military competition.

EVERY WEEK I HOST A PROMO POST ON MY BLOG FOR MOSTLY INDIE WRITERS:  Pictoral Story Challenge and Book Promo.

The hamsters failed to deliver the word challenge for the vignette thing my fans do, but hey I put up a picture and a blur challenge, and I understand it’s already spawned a novel.  I’m contagious or something. Also: Taking back the culture one story at a time!

WE ALL NEED TRUCKERS:  Elites Vs. Blue collar, or Maybe Canada’s Yellow Vest Day: Here’s What the Media Won’t Say About the Truckers Convoy.

The mainstream media, on the other hand, has proven it’s not essential.

I FOR ONE SOMETIMES THINK SMOD* WOULD BE WELCOME:   What would happen if an asteroid hit Earth today?

*Sweet Meteor of Death.  Okay, okay, so I prefer life to death, but look at it this way, at least SMOD is not Joe Biden!

THEY’RE ALL OVER:  More Supply Chain Stories.

IT VERY MUCH SOUNDS LIKE IT:  Is the Biden regime creating a “Wag the Dog” scenario with Ukraine ?

NOW IS THE TIME TO STAND UP AND HONK THE BASTAGES OFF:   Truckers, Speech, and Pushback.

HOW DID THEY PICK ONLY TWO?  Just a couple of examples of stupid leftism.

GOOD:  Dirty Water Bar, D.C. Won’t Show Genocide Olympics.

More like this.

TO BE FAIR, WITHOUT THE MEDIA GIVING HIM A GLOSS OF SENSE, FDR WAS ALREADY PRETTY MUCH WTF*:  Bill Maher: “The Party of FDR and JFK is Turning Into the Party of LOL and WTF”.

*Read The Forgotten Man if you don’t believe me.

CULTURES RESEMBLE LIVING BEINGS MORE THAN THEY RESEMBLE MACHINES:   China’s Population Growth Drops to 61-Year Low Despite Ending One-Child Rule.

They’re not infinitely adjustable, and there’s consequences for shoving them into too much change too fast. The entire 20th century should have demonstrated this. But of course, Marxists think they can change everything in service of their poisonous fantasy, so they’re trying to stack a pile of corpses in the 21st century to rival the 20th.  And that’s not counting the died-too-early, the never-born and those whose lives are blighted by a few insane individuals and their drive to power in the service of a grifter’s pet theory.

No more! Never again!

SAME AS IT EVER WAS:  Democrat Incompetence Led To PA Bridge Collapse, So Of Course They Blame Republicans.

YOU SEE, UNLIKE THE JUNTA, AMERICANS AREN’T STINKING RACISTS AND SEXISTS:  ABC Poll: Only 28% of “Nonwhite Americans” Agree That Biden Should Only Consider A Black Woman For SCOTUS.

YEP:  Samizdata quote of the day.

It’s time to say No More! and Never Again!

MARXISTS HATE HUMANS, AND ANIMALS THAT HUMANS LOVE:  What is it with Chicoms and killing people’s pets?

What part of “death cult” is opaque? By its very nature, Marxism is inimical to human nature. Because it appeals to a certain kind of mind that likes systems more than messy people, sooner or later it leads these minds to believe that people are ones at fault. The system remains perfect. It’s people (and pets) who must go.

HONK!  Day Two, Canadian Trucker Freedom Protest in Ottawa.

YOU DON’T SAY!  Unboostered Brits infected and dying at higher rates than unvaccinated.