EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Food Shortages Will Be a Reality in the West This Winter. “As bad as the agricultural outlook is in America, it is far worse in Europe. The dedication to a green energy suicide pact on the continent is colliding with the news Russia will not ship any fossil fuels until the West lifts sanctions. The skyrocketing energy prices have farmers leaving crops in the fields to die.”

Farmers have a hard enough time just fighting nature and ever-changing market conditions. Now they have to deal with hostile governments, too.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Legacy Heating Quartz Galss Tube Patio Heater. #CommissionEarned I bought Glenn a couple of similar heaters for his birthday a while back and he loved them.

AUTOCRACIES ALWAYS UNDERPERFORM IN THE LONG RUN: China’s ‘Lost Decade’ Is Even Worse Than You Think.

Turns out, economists worried about a Japan-like “lost decade” in China were both wrong—and right.

By “wrong” we mean that Asia’s largest economy today might not suffer the painful deflationary funk the region’s previous top power did. Or, depending on your view, still is given the comatose state of wages and Japan Inc.’s waning international influence.

By “right” we mean the cost of President Xi Jinping’s disastrous battle with Covid-19 variants Beijing clearly doesn’t understand. It’s helping relegate China to a roughly 4.5% growth rate for this decade—and 3% in the next one. This estimate from Oxford Economics means China won’t be catching up with the U.S. anytime soon in terms of living standards.

In fact, Adam Slater at Oxford suggests that South Korea, Taiwan and other major Asian export economies can probably stop looking over their shoulders, too. The odds of Chinese blowing past developing Asia in per capita income terms anytime soon may be dropping, too.

Plus: “Under Xi, the empire—state-owned enterprises—is striking back. The state sector is feeling emboldened again at a moment when China’s tech innovators are going silent, worried about poking Xi’s regulatory state.”

Lots more to chew on at the link.

CLOUDFLARE GIVES IN AGAIN, THIS TIME TO ‘STOCHASTIC TERRORISM’ TYPE BALONEY. After putting up a big front about how they’re not going to deny people DDOS protection anymore, they do it anyway, even though it’s against their business interests, common sense, and even their own inclinations. Why does this keep happening? (Beware – it’s a Verge article, which I link only so you can see what the self-proclaimed great and good are telling themselves this week.)

I used to be confused about why we can’t even count on Adam Smith-style capitalist self-interest anymore. Increasingly, the only answer that makes sense is that someone with real, physical power is telling these Master of the Universe types (or just “implying” it, har har) that they had better do what they’re told, if they know what’s good for them. Mark Zuckerberg knows what I’m talking about…

SO MANY DO: Michael Knowles says university that denied his speech ‘pretends to be Catholic.’

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

Matt Margolis: Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Scheme is a Winning Issue for Republicans. Here’s Why. “No other issue this cycle has enraged middle and working class voters more than this.”

Stacey Lennox: It’s Time for Republicans to Give Democrats a Taste of Their Own Medicine. “To help our feckless Congressional Republicans, here are some obvious strategic moves.”

Yours Truly: Trans Madness: Start With Grooming Children for Stripping, End With Surgically Mutilated Teens. “Thanks — if that’s the right word — to City Journal’s Christopher Rufo, I learned this week that the city government of Boise, Idaho is ‘hosting a festival featuring child drag queens as young as 11 years old.’ The events are sponsored by Citibank, Hewlett-Packard, Target, and Wells Fargo.”

SOUNDS LIKE AN EXCUSE TO ME: Basketball coach cancels future games against BYU despite debunked racial claims.

I remember when sports were supposed to build character.

LAUGHING WOLF’S NUCLEAR WAR PRIMER CONTINUES WITH Nuclear 201: Scenarios. “If you’ve read your Clancy, you already know that a number of such war games take place so that people can get to know each other, and figure out how to respond to things. Rumor has it that such ‘games’ have not been done in a while, at least on a senior level. If that is true, I think it a huge mistake. One of my larger concerns for escalation involves Russian doctrine and the asinine concept of ‘escalate to de-escalate.’ For a number of reasons, I can see bumbling incompetence on both sides taking things a lot further than they should.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Anthony Fauci May Not Be the Devil, but He’s Not a Good Guy. “Despite having all the world find out that Fauci was wrong about so many things, the man’s arrogance hasn’t diminished one bit. I don’t know that there’s any way to take his ego down a peg, but I would like to see him continue to be exposed as being the tool that he his.”

BREAKING: Queen Elizabeth II ‘Under Medical Supervision,’ Family Notified.

FALLOUT: ‘Let them come to their senses’: Russia will ‘freeze’ European countries that impose a ‘stupid’ oil price cap, Putin warns.

ELECTED OFFICIAL WHO WAS SUBJECT OF LAS VEGAS REPORTER’S STORIES ARRESTED IN JOURNALIST’S DEATH: Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German was found stabbed to death outside his home Saturday.

It takes NBC 11 paragraphs into the story to bury the accused politician’s party: “[Robert] Telles lost a narrow race for his job in June, when he was ousted in the Democratic primary. He captured 35,279 votes, or 32.4%, finishing just behind one of his top deputies, Rita Reid, who had 37,401 votes, or 34.3%.”

YES, AND WHAT’S YOUR POINT? Ed Sec: Recruiting outsiders to teach a ‘slap in the face’ to educators.

SANDY’S WAR: AOC Eviscerates America.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) used to believe that “anybody can grow up to be president” of the United States. Not anymore, she told GQ magazine, which features the hard-left Democrat on the cover of its October 2022 issue.

After serving in Congress for three and a half years, Ocasio-Cortez is increasingly skeptical that a woman will ever be elected president of the United States because the American people are a bunch of raving misogynists. “My experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color,” she told celebrity journalist Wesley Lowery. “I admit to sometimes believing that I live in a country that would never let that happen.”

Lowery described how the congresswoman known as “AOC” started to cry while explaining her reluctance to tell little girls her honest opinion about whether America is too sexist to elect a female president. “I never want to tell a little girl what she can’t do,” she said. “And I don’t want to tell young people what is not possible.” Ocasio-Cortez went on to say she also dislikes questions “about the future” because she can’t say for certain whether she’ll even “be alive” a month from now.

“The American people are a bunch of raving misogynists.” To be fair, many of them are in the same party as AOC, such as Obama’s “peace in our time” speechwriter, Jon Favreau:

And this prominent Democratic Party supporter:

And this fellow, who’s currently (p)resident:

During the pre-Covid antebellum of 2019, much ink was spent on AOC’s crazed first draft of the Green Nude Eel with its references to “farting cows and airplanes,” and her quote that we only have 12 years left if we don’t ban pretty much everything. So why is AOC accelerating our demise by increasing the strain on GQ’s air conditioned server farms? Why data centers are the new frontier in the fight against climate change.

(Classical reference in headline.)

OF COURSE: It Happens Again: Suspect in Memphis Shooting Rampage Was Released From Prison Early.

RIDICULOUS! HE’S AS FIT FOR OFFICE AS JOE BIDEN IS! Fetterman’s Hometown Newspaper Questions His ‘Ability To Serve’ After Skipping Debate.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Kanu Surf Men’s Short Sleeve UPF 50+ Swim Shirt. #CommissionEarned

GOODER AND HARDER: Welcome To The Green New Deal, California.

Of course, I kid when I say that California is already experiencing the effects of the Green New Deal. A state that still derives more than 66 percent of its energy from non-renewable sources, has tens of trillions of dollars to go before it meets Joe Biden’s promise of reducing 65 percent reduction in emissions by 2030. The flooding of an already rickety grid with undependable renewables offers only a small taste of the “transition” to “clean energy.”

Because you can scaremonger about climate change all day long and ratchet it up to insane levels, but no one escapes the laws of physics or economics. California has been forced to extend the life of its last nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon and gas-fired power plants to save the state from being plunged into darkness rather than the occasional blackout. As it turns out, most people are only theoretically fans of deindustrialization.

California is following in the footsteps of Germany, which over the past ten years closed down most of its nuclear power plants and engaged in a national decarbonization of the economy — energiewende. When reality hit, Germany, and thus the rest of the EU, was compelled to start relying heavily on Russian natural gas as it struggled to transition. Then Russia attacked Ukraine. Rather than falling back on its world-class, environmentally friendly, forward-looking nuclear-energy program, the Germans must now contemplate rationing and historically high prices. If they can avoid this fate, it will only be because the industry has turned back to coal.

Exit Quote: “Democrats are rigging the market to force you to buy a car that has a 200-mile reach and uses erratic and expensive energy when you already have increasingly efficient models in your driveway and tens of billions of easily accessible barrels of offshore fossil fuels here at home — and much more around the world. We have centuries’ worth of the stuff waiting in the ground. Which gives us enough time to come up with some better ideas. Because, sorry, transitioning away from modernity and into windmills, choo-choo trains, folding fans, and candles isn’t progress, it’s regression. And California is leading the way.”

SMART: Downing Street hints fracking ban could be lifted after Liz Truss becomes new Prime Minister.

BECAUSE THEY’RE AWFUL: NYT: Why is the Biden administration forcing masks on poor toddlers in HeadStart?

HOW IT STARTED: LA can be entirely powered by renewable energy in 25 years, study says.

—ABC7, March 25th, 2021.

How it’s going:

That’s gonna leave a mark.

Fortunately though, America’s Newspaper of Record reports that help will soon be at hand! Newsom Promises There Will Be Enough Electricity For All Californians After Everyone Moves To Florida. “‘Everyone, I understand your frustration, but by the end of the year with everyone leaving California, we’re gonna cut our energy usage in half!’ explained Governor Newsom. ‘In fact, so many are headed for Florida that the few of us who remain will be able to do cool stuff like use air conditioning and charge iPhones!’”

OH: Damning Documents Reveal Mark Zuckerberg Gave Fauci His Personal Phone Number.

FROM WILLIAM LEHMAN:  Shadow War.  #CommissionEarned

When John Fisher retired from the Navy SEALS, he thought he was done with war.
But now, someone is killing the avatars of the tribal gods. Worse
they’re stealing the power that is supposed to revert tp the gods when
the avatars die. Mary has been told to investigate.
Someone is stirring-up hate and discontent among the Asian communities
inSeattle as well and John’s old friend Yoshi would like him to
investigate.
Oh and there’re several federal agencies that would really like John’s
head on a platter over his LAST case.

AS I THINK ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT’S UPCOMING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION CASES, I REMEMBERED THIS: How Diversity Destroyed Affirmative Action: Once race-conscious admissions stopped being about equity and reparation, the only argument for it was the enrichment of white students. That was never going to hold up.

Powell tried to split the difference in Bakke, which is usually a mistake, and substituted “diversity” for “affirmative action.” Everything that’s come since then has basically been a lie, and it’s crumbling. But as even The Nation realizes, it’s fundamentally unstable even on its own terms.

BEHOLD, MY SHOCKED FACE:  Biden, Harris Not Welcome on the Campaign Trail.