THEY’D LIKE TO:  Censoring Johnny the Walrus?

AS I’VE BEEN SAYING:  Biden Tells Congressional Hispanic Caucus He’s Open to Cancelling ‘Substantial Amount’ of Student Loan Debt.

OH, LOOK. THERE’S MY SHOCKED FACE:   Biden Blocks Oil Drilling on Millions of Acres in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve.

RUSSIA IN THE END WANTS TO BE THE USSR AGAIN:  Ukraine Updates: Russia Cutting Gas to Poland and Bulgaria, Claims Ukraine Making Nukes.

Remember that. That’s my marker.

BEHOLD! MY SHOCKED FACE:  Russia Hoax: Durham Staffer Accidentally Reveals Emails Showing Coordination Between Fusion GPS And Media.

IF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WON’T FULFILL ITS CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY TO GUARD THE BORDERS:  States Join Forces To Tackle Border Crisis And Cartel-Related Crime.

THEY PROJECT LIKE IMAX:  MSNBC, ABC Claim Elon Musk Wants To See Abuse Of Women & Jews, And A Return To Apartheid.

Beyond mean words, the only people in fact abusing women and Jews and creating apartheid — oh, pardon me, separate graduations for students of color — are the left.

SURE, THEY’RE DOING SO WELL ALREADY WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Is Russia gearing up to go to war with NATO? “As great as the cost of the war to Russia’s army and Russia’s economy may be, the biggest casualty may be Russian pride. They expected to take Kiev in three days; instead their forces have withdrawn from the north. They hoped to spook their neighbors into not allying with the west over Russia; instead eastern Europe has been Ukraine’s staunchest ally and Finland and Sweden are scrambling to join NATO. Their fearsome military seems inept and their economic leverage over Europe in the form of energy exports is shrinking. Their archenemy, the United States, is operating with total impunity in supplying Ukraine with weapons and intelligence. They can’t help but consider the possibility that what the rest of the world already knows to be true really is true — that they’re a fading, second-tier power. In which case, this conflict could become existential. Not so much with respect to the existence of Russia but with respect to Russia’s existence as a major power and prestigious player in world affairs. Although, in the minds of Russian nationalists, one equals the other.”

FAUCI CATCHES UP WITH 2021: Dr. Fauci Says the Country is ‘Out of the Pandemic Phase.’

UPDATE (From Ed): A Fauci divided against itself cannot stand! Fauci reverses: By no means is this pandemic over.

(Updated and bumped.)

BEYOND ESCAPE VELOCITY: A Soldier Dies in the Biden Border War and China’s Strategic Drug War

RTWDT. Read the whole damned thing.

DOES THE EXIT RAMP LOOK MORE ATTRACTIVE TO PUTIN NOW?

The Russian army has been mauled, so far. The most precise damage assessment I’ve seen comes from Ben Wallace, Britain’s defense secretary. He said in a speech Monday that 15,000 Russians have been killed, 2,000 armored vehicles destroyed, and 60 helicopters and jet fighters downed. Russia’s massive invasion army of 120 battalions has suffered a 25 percent loss in combat strength, Wallace said. That’s a body blow.

A rough composite portrait of the human beings represented by these numbers comes from Mediazone, a Russian independent media group. Researchers analyzed 1,744 specific Russian death reports. They found heavy losses among elite paratroopers, marines and special forces. At least 317 of the reported dead were officers; 44 had the rank of lieutenant colonel or above. The fallen soldiers were disproportionately from the poor regions of Dagestan in the Caucasus Mountains and Buryatia in eastern Siberia.

The question is whether Putin cares.

STEPHEN GUTOWSKI: Analysis: Video Shows Alec Baldwin’s Finger on Revolver Trigger During ‘Rust’ Rehearsals.

OPEN THREAD: Head for escape velocity.

HMM: Explosions and downed drones suggest Ukraine is striking targets deeper inside Russia. “In Russia, three governors described incidents involving drones or blasts on their territories. An ammunition depot was set on fire near Belgorod, a city less than 20 miles from the border. Two explosions were reported in Voronezh, nearly 200 miles from Ukraine, and a Ukrainian drone was reportedly shot down over Kursk, about 70 miles from the border. The attacks in Kursk and Voronezh, where air-defense systems were reportedly activated, raised the specter of a wider war, as they were farther inside Russia than previous targets.”

Of course, this stretches Russian resources further, and when their air defense systems activate it poses problems for the Russian air force as those systems aren’t great at telling friend from foe.

UPDATE: From the comments:

Imagine that you are a colonel that has been selling military supplies on the black market.
Imagine that you are a politician that pocketed graft instead of actually buying supplies for the military.

Imagine that you know that someone is going to come looking for those supplied now that a war is on.

Oops….I’m sorry, comrade…all the evide…I mean the supplies burned up.

Heh. We may see “Ukrainian Special Forces” burning down warehouses all across Russia, just ahead of the auditors.

DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE AND CREEPY JOE: Biden Tells Teachers: Children Are ‘Yours When They’re In The Classroom.’

“You have heard me say it many times about our children, but it is true, they’re all our children. And the reason you are the teachers of the year is because you recognize that,” he said. “They’re not somebody else’s children. They’re like yours when they’re in the classroom.”

https://youtu.be/zX0pKJi6mX4

The president’s remarks come after uproar over gender identity and Critical Race Theory concepts being taught to children in both public and private schools. Largely exposed by virtual schooling during the pandemic, these concepts have prompted a parental rebellion against school boards across the nation.

Former Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe sparked massive backlash when he said on the campaign trail that he didn’t think “parents should be telling schools what they should teach” — a remark that some have argued cost him the election.

To be fair, we’ve known where Comcast stands on this issue since 2013:

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China to build a lunar communications and navigation constellation.

“I GIVE YOU MY WORD AS A BIDEN:” Report: Joe Biden Failed to Report More than $5.2 Million in Income He Used to Pay Hunter’s Legal Fees.

Related: Hunter Biden to Brother’s Widow After Affair — ‘Get Tested for HIV.’

(Updated and bumped; classical reference in headline.)

QUESTION ASKED: If Elon Musk Is ‘Targeting’ Twitter Employees, Isn’t The Washington Post ‘Targeting’ Elon Musk? If there is a headline, it should probably be: “Elon Musk Agrees With Twitter That Censoring the Hunter Biden Story Was Wrong.”

If Dwoskin and the Post reject that analogy, this is what they are saying: when the media industry holds people to account, it’s noble and justified; but when people outside media hold people to account, it’s an act of targeted harassment. The media then insist these acts of targeted harassment (as they define it) are newsworthy, and the cycle repeats itself.

This was the subtext of last week’s Washington Post expose on Libs of TikTok, which revealed the name of the woman behind the influential rightwing Twitter account. Libs of TikTok collects and republishes videos depicting progressive teachers and activists making comments that attract mockery from conservatives; by exposing the account, The Washington Post sought to shed light on the inner workings of the rightwing outrage machine. But the woman’s identity wasn’t particularly important to the story, and revealing it undoubtedly subjected her to considerable opprobrium.

In response, fans of Libs of TikTok relentlessly assailed the story’s author, Taylor Lorenz. Much of the anti-Lorenz campaign was itself creepy and vile. But it’s getting somewhat difficult to delineate legitimate reporting that serves the public interest from malicious spotlighting of political foes, unless one takes the clearly dubious position that exposes crafted by journalists are de facto legitimate.

To be fair, that is the view of the DNC-MSM: Taylor Lorenz is simply following the new rules of journalism.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Christopher Rufo threatens ‘full-scale legal war’ against Randi Weingarten, AFT over doctored quote.

FRED HOYLE SMILES: We Have Even More Evidence Life’s Building Blocks Came to Earth From Space.

ROLE MODELS FOR OUR RULING CLASS: “You think we imprison people on a whim? No, if you think our humanistic system capable of such a thing, that alone would justify your arrest.”

ALLAN BENTON IS AN AMERICAN TREASURE: Foraging for Ramps With the King of Appalachian Smoked Pork.

Friends in NYC are amazed that Benton’s Bacon is available all over Knoxville.

MAKE UP YOUR MINDS: Taking low-dose aspirin on regular basis does not prevent heart attack: Report.. A new report released by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) on Tuesday (April 26) states taking low-dose aspirin on regular basis has little to no benefit for most adults suffering from heart problems. In fact, scientists believe that it can lead to internal bleeding inside the stomach or brain as people get older.”

Plus: “If you’re taking an aspirin a day and you get in a motor vehicle accident, you’re going to bleed more.”

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Megan Fox Admits To Participating In Ritual Blood Drinking With Machine Gun Kelly.

Eventually Fox would be asked, “Is it true you drank each other’s blood after he proposed?”

She answered, “I guess ‘drank each other’s blood’ might mislead people, or like people are imagining us with goblets and we’re like Game of Thrones drinking each other’s blood.”

“It’s just a few drops,” she said. “But yes, we do consume each other’s blood on occasion, for ritual purposes only.”

“He’s much haphazard, and hectic, and chaotic, where he’s willing to just like cut his chest open with a broken glass and be like, ‘Take my soul. Let me bleed on you,’” she revealed.

As always, life imitates the earlier, funnier, Woody Allen movies: “Touch my heart. With your foot.”

GREAT MOMENTS IN PROJECTION: Hillary Clinton warns of ‘fascism’ at Madeleine Albright funeral.

Hillary Clinton on Wednesday injected partisan politics to the funeral of diplomat Madeleine Albright, the nation’s first female secretary of state, saying “fascism” could dominate the United States if “dictators and demagogues” aren’t stopped — taking a clear swipe at former President Donald Trump and his allies.

Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, lost to Trump in a shocking upset and her attacks generally are welcomed by Republicans who describe her as an embittered and base-rallying foe.

“She knew better than most and she warned us in her book on fascism that yes, it can happen here and time and courage are of the essence,” Clinton said in a eulogy at Washington National Cathedral.

To be fair, Hillary knows “better than most,” as well.