BLUE CITY BLUES: Given The Chance, Austin Voters Escape Austin. “Three areas voted to disannex from Austin after saying they’re paying for services they don’t receive.”

HOCHUL APOLOGIZES FOR DROPPING THE MASK: Gov. Hochul says she ‘misspoke’ when she said some ‘Black kids’ don’t know the word ‘computer.’

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul apologized this week after saying there are Black kids in the Bronx who don’t know what the word “computer” means.

Hochul made the remarks during an address at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, California.

“Now what we have is the money to build a phenomenal super computer that is gonna be accessible to the researchers in New York, college students, will attract more federal grants, and this is how we lay down the mark,” Hochul said. “No state has done this. In fact, I talk to a lot of other people who say, ‘I wish my governor had thought of that first.’ I say, ‘No no, this is New York. We like to be first,’ with all due respect to you from other states.”

“It’s sort of our attitude,” Hochul continued. “We will be the best, we will be the first, and I want others to follow, because right now we have young Black kids growing up in the Bronx who don’t even know what the word ‘computer’ is. They don’t know. They don’t know these things.”

President Joe “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids” Biden could not be reached for comment.

THIS EXPLAINS THE COLAVITA TRUCKS IN FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE: Olive oil could help reduce risk of dying from dementia, Harvard study says.

CORN, POPPED: I Dare You. “Donald Trump is now daring the judge in his Manhattan trial to throw him in jail for violating his gag order.”

AN IDEA SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT WORK: How to solve social chaos: Treat people as persons, not things.

PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE, HOW DOES IT WORK?

Actually even that is not enough to acquit. Trump has to have not known about the $130,000 hush money payment at the time he was reimbursing Cohen for it! https://t.co/b3UZH03Xvo

— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) May 6, 2024

This is just embarrassing for an attorney but par for an MSNBC legal analyst.

SURE, BUT THEN IT WOULDN’T PRODUCE GRAFT IN CALIFORNIA: Money California wastes on the homeless could buy a first-class life in Missouri.

In some places, one unit of supportive housing for people who are homeless costs a cool million dollars. And, every month after it is built taxpayers fork over $17,000 for security, maintenance, social workers to help them get government assistance, utilities, cleaning and such.

To put that in perspective for people in normal America, you could buy each Californian suffering from homelessness two first-class tickets to Kansas City International Airport, get them a limo ride to their new home, which would be a new three-bedroom ranch, fully furnished (natch) with a new Tesla in the garage, and still save hundreds of thousands of dollars. Every month, you could give them a salary for picking up cans and other debris along the highways that would be greater than half of what working Missourians make and still save $10,000 off that monthly bill.

If money and houses could solve homelessness, this is what California would do — and Missouri would be a winner, as all those formerly homeless people paid property and income taxes thanks to the taxpayers of the palm-festooned paradise on the Pacific.

Well, if California wanted to solve homelessness. But homelessness is too lucrative a problem to solve.

READER FAVORITE: VIKING Garden Hose Nozzle, High Pressure Hose Nozzle with 8 Spray Patterns. #CommissionEarned

TRUMP’S TAX CUTS MAY DECIDE 2024 ELECTION: Remember President Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the massive reduction in federal levies negotiated between him and the then-Republican Congress? The across-the-board tax cuts included in that law expire next year, but the political reverberations could be a major factor in the outcome of this November’s election.

Check out the Tax Foundation’s analysis of the state-by-state amount that individual levies will increase for all taxpayers if the TCJA is not renewed. When everybody in, for example, Texas realizes their federal taxes are going up by on average $2,919 if something isn’t done, they aren’t going to be happy. Same for a key swing state like Michigan where the hike will be more than $2,000 per taxpayer on average.

Expect Trump and his allies to be talking about this a lot in the days ahead.

LOW-G FITNESS: Astronauts could run round ‘Wall of Death’ to keep fit on moon, say scientists. “Using a rented Wall of Death – a giant wooden cylinder used by motorcycle stunt performers in their gravity-defying fairground act – a 36m-high telescopic crane, and some bungee cords, researchers showed it was possible for a human to run fast enough in lunar gravity not only to remain on the wall, but to generate sufficient lateral force to combat bone and muscle wasting.”

It looks like fun, too.

VICTORIA TAFT: Trump Isn’t the Only One Silenced at His Trial. “The man who might be the most important witness to Donald Trump’s defense in Manhattan has been effectively silenced, much like the defendant himself. Now why would that be?”

TRAVELING TO RUSSIA IS INVITING YOURSELF TO BECOME A HOSTAGE: US soldier was arrested in Russia last week, officials say. “There are a number of Americans being held in Russia, including two who have been declared as wrongfully detained by the US State Department – Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan.”

GOOD: UNC faculty, students, alumni support school’s crackdown on anti-Israel activists.

DON’T BE A SOFT TARGET: A Foiled Church Shooting Demonstrates the Need for Churches to Have Security Teams.

HIGHER EDUCATION SPEAKERS, LIKE SPEAKERS AT COLLEGES IN GENERAL, ARE JUST A MONEY LAUNDRY FOR THE LEFT: Democrats outnumber Republicans as commencement speakers – again.

WOEING: FAA Opens New Boeing Inquiry Over 787 Inspections.

Federal air-safety regulators have opened a new investigation into Boeing after the jet maker recently disclosed that its employees may have skipped some inspections on 787 Dreamliners and falsified records, the latest quality issue at the manufacturer.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane maker notified the agency in April that it may not have completed required inspections related to the electrical safeguards of bonding and grounding where wings join the fuselage on certain aircraft.

The FAA said it was investigating “whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records.” The agency has been scrutinizing Boeing’s production since the Jan. 5 midair blowout of a door plug on a 737 MAX jet flown by Alaska Airlines.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether any 787 Dreamliners currently flying passengers around the world would need to be pulled out of service for inspections. The agency said Boeing was reinspecting all 787s in production and must formulate a plan to address the in-service Dreamliner fleet.

Then there’s this from March: Video of Boeing engineers goes viral – “I wouldn’t fly on one of these planes.”

And: Boeing, Boeing, GONE: Another Whistleblower Has ‘Died Suddenly.’

SHOP AMAZON Pet Day. #CommissionEarned

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Dems’ Alternative Reality Gets Weirder by the Day. “We’re just a little under six months away from the election to end all elections. Seriously. People on both sides of the aisle swear that there won’t be any more free elections in the United States if the other guy wins. The difference in the two versions of the story is that one side is still mostly reality-based.”

GENERATIONAL CHANGE:

The divide between younger and older Black voters was seen during the 2020 primary, and I see it again now… Sample sizes are smaller, so I had to average across polls… Still, Black voters under 45: Biden 60%, Trump 32%. Black voters 45+: Biden 75%, Trump 12%…

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) May 6, 2024

Previously: Biden Loses Support Among Black Men, WSJ Poll Finds.” While most Black men said they intend to support Biden, some 30% of them in the poll said they were either definitely or probably going to vote for the former Republican president. There isn’t comparable WSJ swing-state polling from 2020, but Trump received votes from 12% of Black men nationwide that year, as recorded by AP VoteCast, a large poll of the electorate.”

THE EV BUBBLE DEFLATES: Pulling the plug: Three signs EVs are not catching on in the country.

The dogs don’t like the dog food.

WELCOME TO THE KLEPTOGERONTOCRACY: At Least He Isn’t Running for President: 82-Year-Old Bernie to Run for Senate Again.

STANDING UP TO HATRED AND BIGOTRY: 13 Federal Judges Say They Will No Longer Hire Law Clerks From Columbia University, Citing ‘Virulent Spread of Antisemitism’ and ‘Explosion of Student Disruptions’.

The letter marks a new front in the hellish public relations war that has consumed Columbia and cost it major donor capital. As the encampment drew throngs of outsiders to the university’s doorstep—some of whom promised daily repeats of the Oct. 7 attacks—pressure mounted on Shafik, the university’s president, to lay down the law.

She did not do so until April 30, after nearly 5,000 alumni signed a petition demanding that the police clear Hamilton Hall. In the interim, Columbia lost one of its most prominent patrons, Robert Kraft, who said he could not in good conscience donate to a school awash in “virulent hate.” Billionaires Leon Cooperman and Henry Swieca have also cut ties with the university.

Related: Columbia Faculty Group Goes on Strike in Solidarity With Anti-Israel Student Protesters.

THE PROCESS IS THE PUNISHMENT:

If you were or are currently being excluded from public spaces at your university campus because you are Jewish, support Israel, or are otherwise not accepted by SJP security, please consider filing a Title VI complaint. https://t.co/kU03Zr1vW4

— Julie Hamill (@hamill_law) May 6, 2024

THEY AREN’T CITIZENS OR EVEN LEGAL RESIDENTS AND SHOULDN’T COUNT: Illegal Aliens Skew Elections By Inflating Certain States’ Electoral Power. This Bill Would Change That.

When former President Donald Trump signed a memo in July 2020 barring illegal aliens from being counted in the census, it was promptly met with a flurry of challenges. A handful of judges blocked the memo, and President Joe Biden eventually reversed the policy.

Democrat New York Rep. Yvette Clark made it crystal clear why Democrats support including illegal aliens in their apportionment tallies when she said in 2021 that her district could “absorb a significant number of these migrants” because “I need more people in my district, just for redistricting purposes.” As droves of Californians and New Yorkers head to red states like Florida and Texas, Democrats are desperate to recoup their population losses to maintain their electoral advantages. Through policies like sanctuary cities — which drain government resources and often invite violence — Democrats have incentivized a boom in illegal immigration to blue areas, which in turn inflates census data in Democrats’ favor.

Red state voters aren’t being replaced (yet) but they are being shoved aside.

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Dems use the legal system to target the right — yet give the left a pass.

“For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”

This philosophy, announced by Brazilian President Getulio Vargas in the 1940s, is no longer just the favored approach of Latin American strongmen. It has become the openly practiced strategy of today’s Democratic machine.

Read the whole thing.