IT’S ALL GREEK TO ME: Whitmer Administration Used ‘Calculated’ Scheme To Hide Sensitive Email From the Public, Lawsuit Says. “Michigan energy department consultant Andy Leavitt in September 2021 emailed a top adviser to Whitmer to express ‘some major red flags’ with the administration’s response to a lead water crisis in southwestern Michigan, which Leavitt compared to a similar crisis in Flint, Michigan. But Leavitt’s initial message was not written in English—the consultant used letters in the Greek alphabet in place of English ones, a move that ‘appears to be calculated to conceal the statements,’ a June court filing in a class action suit against Whitmer’s government argues. Leavitt’s use of Greek letters means his email would have been excluded from any public records request for government communications that contain the word ‘Flint.'”

Plus: “The apparent scheme to hide sensitive conversations from public records requests comes years after Whitmer promised to bring transparency to the Great Lakes State as governor. In Michigan, the governor’s office is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, a policy that Whitmer promised to reverse during her 2018 campaign.”

Of course.

REMEMBER, THE AP ADVERTISES ITSELF AS AN UNBIASED NEWS SOURCE: AP’s abhorrent slander that DeSantis is somehow to blame for a racist killing.

Related: Associated Press Coverage of Courts, Climate Bankrolled by Dozens of Left-Wing Foundations: Billed as purveyor of ‘unbiased news,’ wire service strikes lucrative sponsorship agreements with progressive charities.

The Associated Press knows which side it’s bread is buttered on. That would be the left side.

I STOPPED WATCHING THE OSCARS WHEN E.T. LOST TO GANDHI: Award Shows Aren’t for You, Conservatives.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: United States ‘experiencing a crisis of early death.’

A recent study is revealing the dire state of public health in the United States. In comparison to other wealthy nations, the U.S. death rate far outpaces America’s peers — leading researchers to say that the country is actually “experiencing a crisis of early death.”

Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) found that more than one million U.S. deaths a year — including many young and working-age adults — could be avoided if the country had mortality rates similar to other high-income nations.

In 2021, 1.1 million deaths would have been averted if the U.S. had mortality rates similar to other wealthy nations. The study refers to these excess deaths as “Missing Americans,” because these deaths reflect people who would still be alive if the U.S. death rate was equal to its peer countries.

“The number of Missing Americans in recent years is unprecedented in modern times,” says Dr. Jacob Bor, the study’s lead and corresponding author and associate professor of global health and epidemiology at BUSPH, in a media release.

Given that the defunct Soviet Union was the first industrialized country to experience shrinking life expectancy — thanks to a toxic political/economic/cultural climate — this news (which isn’t actually new) ought to be the defining story of our time.

Maybe it would be if the people creating that climate in our country weren’t also setting the news agenda.

I’M SURE HE’S RIGHT: Med school professor says students weakened by campus paternalism.

CHANGE (IT BACK): American Indian Group’s Petition to Restore ‘Redskins’ Garners 128K Signatures.

OF COURSE NOT. PRETTY MUCH EVERY ANTI-GUN TALKING POINT IS A LIE. No, guns don’t kill more children than cars.

When they talk about “children” they mean gang members: “This is how it works: Step one, acquire statistics on firearm-related deaths among children ages 0-14. Step two, combine that relatively low number with the far greater number of firearm-related deaths involving juveniles and young adults ages 15-19, or even ages 15-24. Step three, present the resulting data as the shocking number of ‘children’ (ages 0-19 or 0-24) who are subjected to ‘gun violence’ each day/week/month/year. Step four, use the disingenuous statistic to advocate for pre-determined gun control policies.”

BIG SURPRISE: ED DEPT. PANEL GIVES BAD ADVICE ON DEALING WITH END OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION. Affirmative action in admissions is a band-aid to cover the miserable failure of the public education system at all levels, everyone involved knows this, and we all need to quit pretending they don’t.

MASSIVE RESISTANCE: Biden administration advises alternatives to affirmative action.

THE DARK NIGHT OF FASCISM IS ALWAYS DESCENDING IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND YET LANDS ONLY ON THE LEFT: The government’s attack on Elon Musk is the latest regime experiment in repression.

At nearly the same moment that the president was touting his administration’s supposed success in creating jobs for Americans, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to enjoin Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) from creating jobs for Americans. This is not a polemical mischaracterization; the Department’s complaint hinges on its claim that “from September 2018 to May 2022, out of more than 10,000 hires, SpaceX hired only one [asylee]…and did not hire any individuals who were refugees.” Musk’s company, which unquestionably is a global leader in space and satellite technology, has revenues in the billions of dollars, and employs 12,000 people, is now in the federal crosshairs for only hiring Americans and, presumably, permanent residents. A few years ago, you might be forgiven for assuming this hypocrisy was the consequence of one arm of a bloated bureaucracy not knowing what the other was doing. Not anymore.

More sinister forces are at work. Any informed observer would recognize this move as a deliberate power play: the regime says one thing to deceive its low-information voters while doing another to destroy its opponents. Here, since Elon Musk is a regime opponent, it is irrelevant that SpaceX’s hiring practices are consistent with the president’s supposed economic goals. Musk must be stopped (or at least deterred), even if it means Americans will lose their jobs. In this respect, the suit is a lame attempt to sideline Musk prior to election season. Second, the suit also reveals what the regime (and the ruling class that supports it) think about America and ordinary Americans. They don’t like or care about them.

And:

If the government of the United States of America can sue an American company because it “hired only U.S. Citizens and lawful permanent residents”; can sidestep the jury system, that last vestige of representative government in which American citizens can still participate; can publicly encourage aliens of dubious legal status to snitch on the so-called wrongdoing of Americans and American companies; and can then rely on its propaganda mouthpieces in the mainstream media to pretend none of this is happening, then the country is in bad shape indeed.

The Biden cabal is willing to inflict economic and social damage, no matter how large, in pursuit of political or financial gain, no matter how small.

LESLIE EASTMAN: Self-Involved NASA Climate Scientist Complains about “Climate Grief:” Personally, I am grieving over state of science in the world today, which led to the publication of Dr. Kimberly Miner’s histrionic editorial in “Nature.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: However Bad You Think the Border Mess Is—It’s Worse. “Who had ‘ISIS-Friendly Smuggler’ in their ‘What Fresh Hell Can Biden Unleash Next’ office pool?”

PROF. JACOBSON: Trump March 4 DC Trial Date is “Pretty Shocking:” “I don’t know how [the Judge] justifies the day before Super Tuesday. Clearly that puts the defense under enormous burden to prepare their defense…. I think this really does deprive Trump of his right to a fair trial.”

Related: Donald Trump’s Trial For Election Interference Set To Begin In Time To Interfere With Election.

THEY’RE GOING FULL BUD LIGHT. EVERYBODY KNOWS YOU NEVER GO FULL BUD LIGHT: NASCAR crosses a legal line in going woke. “It turns out that NASCAR has been running an internship program designed to help younger people get a leg up and break into the business in various capacities. That’s kind of nice, isn’t it? Professional auto racing is a very competitive and expensive sport to dive into, so some interested folks could likely use a helping hand. But there’s one problem with the racing organization’s ‘diversity internship program.’ (You’re probably already able to guess where this is going.) People are welcome to apply, but only if they meet certain “racial criteria.” In other words… whites need not apply.”

DON SURBER: WVU cuts classes, not overhead.

WVU is broke due to crazy overspending, and needs to make cuts. But cutting only teaching faculty and no administrators looks like a stunt to squeeze more money out of the legislature.

The reaction to cutting programs instead of fat is as one may expect. Fools fell for it. The local paper blamed Republicans. It said, “The West Virginia Legislature has continually slashed funding for its public colleges and universities. Specifically, the state has cut funding for WVU by 36% over the past 10 years. Really, though, the issue goes back even further.”

And yet despite a Republican legislature, WVU’s budget grew by 26% in those 10 years. It rose from $951 million in 2013-2014 to $1.2 billion in 2023-2024. Enrollment shrank, which pushed spending per pupil through the roof.

E. Gordon Gee, the elfin president of WVU, is to blame for this mess as he was overly optimistic about the college’s growth. He believes in magic.

The Wall Street Journal reported, “Gee said in 2014 that the university, which at the time enrolled about 33,000 full- and part-time students across its three campuses and online, should grow to 40,000. That would require new investments.

“The students didn’t come—enrollment fell to about 27,500 last fall—but the spending continued.”

The failure is his and his alone. He budgeted for more students than the state can provide. And by state, I mean New Jersey because so many kids from the Garden State attend WVU.

So the school is cutting classes — not administrators. The bureaucracy of any organization is the first hired, last fired because the people who run the organization see the bureaucrats every day. They are nice and friendly. The people who actually do the work are less in touch with corporate management.

In Surf City, there are two girls for every boy.

At WVU, there are four administrators for every faculty member.

I could do better budgeting in an afternoon. But this isn’t about a good budget.

UPDATE: From the comments:

I do budgets. In the real world, when you have a budget shortfall you generally cut middle/upper management first if possible, that way you aren’t affecting the customer-facing portion of the business.

WVU’s shortfall is $45M. There are 7500(!) administrators. Assuming an average compensation cost of $150,000 (and that might be on the low end), you just need to cut 300 administrators to balance the budget. That’s just 4% of administrators. Heck, you should probably be doing this every year even if you don’t have a shortfall just to remove the bad apples.

But of course there has been no accountability in higher education in decades.

No, it’s been turned into a money laundry for the left, especially the administrative staff.

STUFF LIKE THIS IS WHY EVERYTHING IS ENGINEERED TO KEEP THE VOTERS FROM GETTING WHAT THEY WANT: Voters choose MAGA: Spend on US border, not Ukraine.

In the latest sign that the Make America Great Again coalition is holding strong, voters overwhelmingly believe Washington should get control of the U.S.-Mexico border crisis instead of “supporting” Ukraine in the war with Russia.

By a wide 2-to-1 margin, 60%-30%, likely voters, fueled by even larger percentages of Republicans and conservatives, said getting control of the border crisis is more important than aiding Kyiv. Democrats in a new poll are split, with 42% choosing the border as more important for U.S. national security and 45% Ukraine.

In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey shared with Secrets, likely voters also said the border disaster created by President Joe Biden’s pro-illegal immigrant policies is a “crisis” by nearly 3-to-1.

The survey said 65% see the border situation as a “crisis,” while 24% don’t. That includes 51% of Democrats, 60% of independents, and 84% of Republicans.

It’s a crisis by design.

HE WARNED THEM NOT TO TREAD ON HIM, THEN THEY TRIED TO TREAD ANYWAY: The Gadsden Flag Kid Just Secured Total Victory.

PLEASE HELP US OUT:  In 2020, the California legislature attempted to strip the state constitution of these words:  “The State shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.”  Yes, that’s right … our esteemed legislators didn’t like those words.  They wanted to be able to discriminate.

The words had been put there in 1996 by Proposition 209 (a campaign I co-chaired).  At the time it was a big deal.  It made news around the world.

I also co-chaired the opposition to the repeal effort—known as Proposition 16—in 2020.  And miracles of miracles, with the help of Instapundit readers, we won.  The pro-16 forces outspent us something like 17 to 1, but we nevertheless defeated the repeal.  And it wasn’t close.  We beat the pants off ‘em.

But they just won’t stop … which ought to show you something.  While Proposition 209 hasn’t ended all state-sponsored race and sex discrimination in California, it ended a whole lot of it.  That’s why progressive legislators want to get rid of it.  It’s in their way.

Their new plan—ACA 7—will put on the ballot what purports to be a mere “exception” to Proposition 209.  But the exception will swallow the rule.  The governor will be able to authorize discrimination if there is “research” showing that such discrimination will “increase[e] the life expectancy of, improv[e] educational outcomes for, or lift[] out of  poverty  specific  groups  based  on  race … sex, [etc.]”

Anyone who understands a thing or two about “research” knows that you can find “research” that finds the moon is made of green cheese.  But the “research” won’t even need to be fraudulent.  If you pass a law that says only people from the “right races” can get state jobs or contracts, that will indeed “lift” them “out of poverty.”  But it will do so by unfairly driving those of other races into poverty.

In essence, if ACA 7 is passed by the legislature and passes at election time, the State of California will be able to violate Proposition 209 whenever the governor d*mn well pleases.  And that will happen a lot.

Fortunately, this thing hasn’t made it out of the legislature—not yet anyway.  And with luck it never will.  Moreover, this seems like a rock stupid way for the progressive movement to use its time and energy.  First, it will further alienate Asian American voters, who used to be a reliable Democratic constituency.  As a result of Proposition 16 and Democratic indifference to crime, they no longer are.  Second, the repeal effort is likely to lose at election time (though it will cost conservatives (and me!) a lot of time and resources to make that happen).  Third, given the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College (2023), the whole enterprise is likely to be futile.  Every time the California governor purports to authorize an “exception” to Proposition 209’s prohibition on racial preferences, it is likely to be struck down by the courts.

So here’s the ask:  Please help us direct as much noise as we can toward these legislators.  They need to know that we’re quite prepared to oppose this thing. The Assembly Appropriations Committee is meeting on Friday.  We need to make sure as many members as possible hear from opponents as often as possible.  You can email these members here.  One sentence will do–“I oppose ACA 7” or “I can’t believe you’re trying to destroy Proposition 209 again.”

Tomorrow, I will post some tweets (Xs?) directed at specific legislators that I hope those of you who have twitter accounts will retweet (re-X?).  I don’t care if the only follower you have is a dog named Fred who lives in Bulgaria, it will still help.  And it’s easy.

No, I don’t need any money.   And I won’t ever if we can head this fool thing off now.

“THE TRUTH HURTS” ISN’T SUPPOSED TO APPLY TO THE TRUTH-TELLERS: YouTube Demonetizes Montage of Democrats Denying Elections, Calls It ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Harmful.’

To be fair, it might be dangerous and harmful to traitorous, insurrectionist Democrats spreading such falsehoods about our super-safe, not-to-be-questioned election procedures.

SERMON ON THE MOUNT CONTRADICTION? Was Jesus’ most well-known sermon delivered up on a mountain or down on a plain? Both locations seem to be suggested in Scripture, which critics claim amounts to a contradiction. Not so fast, says Apologetics Press Eric Lyons this morning on HillFaith.

EVERY INSTITUTION HAS BEEN CORRUPTED: Associated Press Coverage of Courts, Climate Bankrolled by Dozens of Left-Wing Foundations: Billed as purveyor of ‘unbiased news,’ wire service strikes lucrative sponsorship agreements with progressive charities.

UNIMAGINABLY FOOLISH: That’s how a former U.S. State Department adviser on Iranian affairs describes the decision of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to invite Hussein Mousavian, who is, according to The Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Credo, “a former member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team who works as a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University, to headline its 2023 Deterrence Symposium, a high-level powwow that brought the former Iranian official shoulder-to-shoulder with America’s top military brass.”

But Mousavian is so much more indicative of the feeble-mindedness of the present American military elite, as described by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.): “Mousavian helped lead the murderous Iranian regime’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons so it could threaten the United States and our allies with annihilation. Now he’s in semi-retirement at Princeton as a full time propagandist for the IRGC. Inviting him to spread lies at a U.S. military seminar is insanity.”

And then there is this from Gabriel Noronha, the former Iran adviser at State: “The decision to invite former Iranian ambassador Mousavian to speak to STRATCOM is unimaginably foolish. He is a pawn and propaganda agent of the Iranian regime, which explains why he is allowed to travel back to Iran.”

I mean, the guy admired Soleimani and attended his funeral after President Donald Trump introduced him to eternity. “Unimaginable foolish” seems an understatement. God help us.

OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND: Moment knife thugs armed with huge machetes brawl in street in front of crowds of revellers at Notting Hill carnival – with final day ‘marred by violence’ as eight are stabbed and police officer is sexually assaulted.

MATT TAIBBI: YouTube Censors Us Again.

A year ago, this site had to throw a public fit to resolve a preposterous controversy involving videographer Matt Orfalea and YouTube. The issue centered around the above video, “‘Rigged’ Election Claims, Trump 2020 vs. Clinton 2016,” which despite total factual accuracy was cited under its “Elections Misinformation” policy. YouTube in July of last year demonetized Orf’s entire channel over his content, saying “we think it violates our violent criminal organizations policy.”

As you will see if you click now, the above video, as I argued to Google, could not possibly be violative of any “misinformation” guideline, as it was comprised entirely of “real, un-altered clips of public figures making public comments.” After both Orf and I tantrumed in public — there’s not much else to do in these situations — YouTube sent Matt the “Great News!” that “after manually reviewing your video, we’ve determined that it is suitable for all advertisers”:

We thought the matter was settled.

This week, Orf discovered the video had been re-classified as problematic by a new “human reviewer,” who declared it in violation for “harmful or dangerous acts” that “may endanger participants.” Potential problems, the reviewer determined, included “glorification, recruitment, or graphic portrayal of dangerous organizations,” by which I can only presume they mean former Bernie voters like Orf and myself whose political homelessness apparently constitutes a threat.

“Dangerous” in this context just means “dangerous to the politico-media-academic complex’s narrative.”

FASTER, PLEASE: Smoking Gun ‘Evidence of Joe Biden’s Corruption’ Will Be Released in Coming Weeks.