UNEXPECTEDLY: Democrats pushed climate action. Then utility bills skyrocketed.

There is intensifying political pressure on state lawmakers to do something about utility bills that have shot up by as much as 127 percent over the last decade. Climate spending — from wildfire prevention to building out transmission capacity and paying for renewables — is partly to blame.

“Californians are fed up,” said Democratic state Assemblymember Marc Berman at a recent news conference in Sacramento. “My constituents are pissed off. I know because they told me over and over again at every community coffee that I had in the fall and in the winter. Their rates keep going up.”

Lawmakers there and in other Democratic states with nation-leading climate objectives — like New York and Massachusetts — are scrambling to make their transitions from fossil fuels affordable before they face an all-out ratepayer revolt. The problem is more pressing in an election year when Republicans say Democrats don’t pay enough attention to Californians’ ability to afford the high costs of daily life.

Gooder and harder, California.

WHO’D HAVE EXPECTED SUCH REACTIONS?  Major investors pull business from New York City following Trump verdict.

Only sane people, of which the left knows none.

THANKS TO ELON FOR MAKING THIS NEWLY RELEVANT:

SO refreshing! Actual, complex thought full of wonder! No boilerplate or pablum. A discussion that respects the audience and assumes understanding! I think people forget that we are STILL ALLOWED to wonder, and that wonder is essential to both science & theology. https://t.co/78o9T3wSTA

— Elizabeth Scalia (@TheAnchoress) February 21, 2024

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: 35 More Academic Scandals.

A PACK, NOT AN HERD:  Wild moment American Airlines passenger tackled by fliers & put in zip ties after ‘trying to open plane door mid flight’.

GOOD: Joel Kotkin: Class War Isn’t Working Out for the Democrats. “So why are Democrats, the putative party of the people, so disconnected from their historic base? One reason may be that, for many in their increasingly well-educated pool of support, things are going swimmingly. Pollster Scott Rasmussen has done a deep dive on ‘the one percent’—urban dwellers with post-graduate degrees and incomes over $150,000. These, by a four-to-one margin, support Joe Biden and his climate policies and progressive agenda. These professionals, particularly women, are increasingly the base of the Democratic Party.”

ON MY RECENT PBS NEWSHOUR APPEARANCE I debated a DEI admin who tried to dismiss all of my arguments as “anecdotes.” As we remind readers in the latest edition of The Eternally Radical Idea, “First Amendment law is filled with ‘anecdotes’ …that we now call “precedent.”

YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE THE THINGS I’M WILLING TO BELIEVE THESE DAYS: You’re Not Going to Believe the Reason the Alleged Super Bowl Shooter Gave for Opening Fire.

FLASHBACK: Rock band The Slants’ frontman, Simon Tam, knows more about free speech than CNN.

IT REALLY HAS TO BE UNDERSTOOD ON ITS OWN TERMS:   Slogging Through the Past.

And it should never be assumed our ways are superior. There is no arrow of history. We’re making it up as we go along. I consider the abolition of slavery a plus. But compulsory education controlled from DC might be an enslaving of young minds. (And bodies.) Not to mention an infringement of parental rights.  What? Do I prefer ignorance? No. And I have yet to see how the public schools aren’t mechanisms to enforce ignorance.

COLLUSION: RealClearInvestigations: ‘Sue and Settle’ Looks to Some Like Crony Democracy. And Under Biden’s Lawfaring Eco-Politics, It’s Back.

THEY’VE BEEN SO BUSY CHASING DOWN ‘CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS’ AND ‘ELECTION DENIERS’ AND, OH, YEAH, TRADITIONAL CATHOLICS:   FBI finally probing ‘super mayor’ Tiffany Henyard — who is accused of corruption — as Illinois AG shuts her charity: sources.

MARICOPA COUNTY MAY BE LAX ABOUT VOTING REGS, BUT THEY KNOW WHAT GETS THEM OUTSIDE THE MARGIN OF CHEATING:  Arizona prosecutor slams ‘soft-on-crime’ DA Bragg, refuses to send suspect in Soho hotel murder back to NYC.

WHAT THEY WROTE, THEY MEANT:  Absolute Inalienable Rights.

THE LEFT NEVER THINKS THROUGH FIRST ORDER CONSEQUENCES, LET ALONE SECOND:  Judge Talks, Money Walks.

I am sorry for New York City. I have fond memories of our stay there in 2000.  Alas it fell in the hands of the nutcases.

SO IT’S COME TO THIS:  The Question of When…

I’M JUST GLAD THAT, UNLIKE IN 2008, I’M NOT FEEDING TWO GROWING BOYS:  The harsh reality of grocery costs.

And Tilting at Windmills is having a subscription sale.

OH DEER!  Officials Declare Emergency as Rare “Zombie Deer” Disease Spreads through U.S..

DEVELOPED WITH MONEY FROM THE US TAX PAYERS:  Russia Recives Around 400 Ballistic Missiles From Iran.

G-D BLESS THEM AND KEEP THEM:  Israeli Parliament Votes Against ‘Unilateral Recognition of a Palestinian State’.