BACK TO THE FUTURE! Russia’s Latest Battlefield Antiques and the New, New World Order. “The establishment of a new New World Order races along as some of Russia’s oldest tanks creak their way towards battlefields in Ukraine. Making laws or sausages has nothing on how messily history is made, so join with me as I show you how two seemingly unrelated stories are reshaping the world.”

JON GABRIEL: Julie Su put California’s economy in chaos. And Biden wants her as Labor secretary?

Serving in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Cabinet, Su allowed more than $11 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims during the pandemic.

“There is no sugarcoating the reality,” Su said when announcing the massive scam in 2021. “California did not have sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud, and criminals took advantage of the situation.”

As Labor secretary, she would oversee the nation’s unemployment insurance program. Over the COVID-19 era, that agency pumped $888 billion into job relief programs.

About one-eighth of that total was spent in California.

She supported a law that hurt many industries

Worse still, Su supported passage of California’s Assembly Bill 5, a law that essentially abolished independent contractors in the state as a shot at tech companies such as Uber and Lyft.

A court affirmed tech companies being able to exempt themselves via the ballot this week, and other politically powerful groups like doctors and lawyers were able to score themselves exemptions. (Even freelance journalists had to lobby to get themselves exempted from the law.)

AB 5 has wrecked California’s trucking industry, and the industry is currently mired in a legal fight while it’s already exacerbating the nation’s supply-chain woes.

Biden sought to bring AB 5 to the nation with the PRO Act last Congress. Since that stalled, the president is likely to push Su to execute it via administrative action.

Flashback: Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.

UNEXPECTEDLY: I just asked Google’s new AI chatbot “Bard” the very same question about both Biden and Trump. The difference in its answers is astounding.

UPDATE: From PJM Alum Bryan Preston on Facebook:

DAVID HOGG AND JESUS CHRIST: A JUST COMPARISON. “David Hogg is a young activist who rose to national prominence after surviving the tragic Parkland school shooting in 2018. Since then, he has become a vocal advocate for gun control and has worked tirelessly to prevent further gun violence in the United States. While his mission and background may differ from that of Jesus Christ, there are certain similarities that can be drawn between the two. David Hogg may even be a bit more holy.”

THREE YEARS AGO AMERICAN THINKER WAS THE FIRST TO CALL OUT THE FRAUD OF DR. ANTHONY FAUCI AND WAS VICIOUSLY ATTACKED BY THE WAPO, NYT OTHER MSM OUTLETS:

At the time, the United States was in the first days of an unprecedented nationwide lockdown as a result of the pandemic. The weeks and months ahead would witness the greatest disruption of life in the U.S. since World War II – and arguably the most serious suspension of the constitutional protection of civil liberties, as well as harm to hundreds of millions of Americans’ health and personal freedom – in the history of the country.

Although Fauci, as director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), had a four-decade-long history of questionable influence on the nation’s health care, the media in March 2020, both left and right, were largely swooning over him. Having reported on Dr. Fauci starting in 1985, however, I knew better.

Read the whole thing.

WHADDAYAKNOW? Joe Signed Off on Hunter/Burisma Statement. “The latest revelations from the saga put the current President much closer to the action than he had previously admitted to. Many Americans are concerned about the influence this might have on the White House’s foreign policy decisions.”

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Democrats Vow To Arrest As Many Political Opponents As It Takes To Defeat Fascism. “‘Fascism is a clear and present danger in this country,’ began Senator Chuck Schumer, ‘and the only way to defeat it is with a corrupt, all-powerful police state that can imprison anyone who disagrees with us politically. If we don’t do this, fascism will win.’”

MOVE ALONG, NOTHING TO SEE HERE: New court docs state that Ashley Biden’s infamous diary does in fact belong to her. Yes, the diary in which she wrote that Joe Biden inappropriately showered with her as a child.

DPREVIEW IS SHUTTING DOWN:

DPReview, easily one of the most beloved publications among photography enthusiasts, will shut down and its content will be deleted. The website was caught up in the recent layoffs that hit Amazon and it will cease operations on April 10.

Digital Photography Review, or DPReview, which was founded in 1998 and acquired by Amazon on May 14, 2007 had built up a sterling reputation for providing photographers with some of the most detailed reviews of cameras, lenses, and related equipment in the world. DPReview was originally based in London, but eventually moved its operations to Seattle to be closer to its parent company and where it continued to operate relatively independently.

More at NRO: R.I.P. Digital Photography Review, Victim of the Rotting Internet. “What’s worrisome is that there seems to be no plan for keeping the site’s valuable archives and forums online. The forums were a hive of connected communities around different camera brands or even sensor-sizes. I’m not a pro photographer at all, but every time I’ve considered buying a new lens for our Micro Four Thirds system camera, I go to the forums on DPReview to see what other pros and amateurs are doing with it first. Many millions of dollars of value from professional and amateur creators are in this website, and in a few days it may just blink out of existence.”

CHANGE: DirecTV to Return Newsmax to Lineup After GOP, Conservative Outcry.

JACK SHAFER: Unnatural Endorsements. Scientific journals may have erred when they decided to endorse Biden for president. “If Nature’s Biden endorsement had little or no effect on readers except to make some Trump supporters disdain Nature in specific and the scientific establishment in general, why did the publication endorse any candidate? One more time, the question is there for the taking by all publications, not just Nature. In many cases, editorials — especially editorials of endorsement — exist not to persuade readers of a viewpoint or a candidate’s soundness, but to feather the nest of the editorialist (or his publisher) for a moment or two with the illusion that he has struck a blow for all that is right[.]”

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Democrats Vow To Arrest As Many Political Opponents As It Takes To Defeat Fascism.

FINALLY: Muffler Men and Other Fiberglass Giants to Get Their Own Museum.

SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST: Relax, Roast Magazine, Climate Change Is Not Causing ‘Systemic Shocks’ Harming Coffee Production.

Roast Magazine’s Daily Coffee News rans a story claiming climate change was causing “ongoing systemic shocks,” harming coffee production by creating more simultaneous extreme weather events across different growing regions. This is false. Data refutes claims that extreme weather events are increasing in number, intensity, or frequency. Also, coffee production is increasing amid modest warming.

According to the Roast Magazine story, titled “Study: Climate Change Increasing ‘Systemic Shocks’ to Coffee Production:”

The global coffee industry can expect increasing and “ongoing systemic shocks” to coffee production due to climate change, according to new research published this month in the journal PLOS Climate.

And they totally deserve to get what’s coming to them, good and hard: Is coffee racist? How drinking coffee perpetuates white supremacy.

(Classical reference in headline.)

OLD AND BUSTED: You Vill Eat Ze Bugs!

The New Hotness? Now even insect farming is cruel.

GENTLEMEN, START YOUR FAILURE THEATER! House GOP Launch Their Own Jan. 6 Committee, Probing ‘Misconduct’ By Original Panel.

NEVADA GOVERNOR SLAMS BIDEN FOR LOCKING UP MINERAL-RICH LAND IN NEW MONUMENTS: “Gov. Joe Lombardo (R-NV) blasted President Joe Biden on Tuesday for locking up 500,000 acres of mineral-rich land in Nevada and Texas. He said the move would be tough on Nevadans for generations. Lombardo said the White House did not respond to any of his concerns before the announcement of the 506,000-acre Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in southern Nevada.”

TRUST THE SCIENCE, THEY SAID. WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? Trump Platformed Fauci and Shut America Down Three Years Ago This Week. “Though Donald Trump and his supporters do not want to admit it, this week, three years ago, American kids were forced out of schools and into their homes. The President of the United States had chosen to give Tony Fauci a big platform and advocated shutting everything down. On Donald Trump’s last day in office, instead of pardoning the people who’d stormed into the Capitol on January 6th, he was giving a presidential commendation to Fauci. That’s the actual history. Here’s the video of Trump, Fauci, and Deborah Birx laughing it up as they shut down America.”

BOMB CANADA: THE CASE FOR WAR. Regina, Saskatchewan Tourism Organization Apologizes For ‘Show Us Your Regina’ Slogan.

(Classical reference in headline.)

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: FBI, CIA Relieved They No Longer Have To Travel Abroad To Turn Countries Into Banana Republics.

KEEP ROCKIN’! LA Times’ Hot Take on Banking Crisis: It’s a ‘Blessing in Disguise.’

I suspect the fallout from these developments will impact the stock market for some time to come, as well as consumer choices regarding investments and purchasing. It will be interesting to see how the American press plans to script the narrative to be favorable to the current administration and Democrats.

One intriguing data point on the upcoming narrative comes by way of The Los Angeles Times. One of its journalists, Doyle McManus (who is also a graduate of Stanford University) offered this hot take on the subject: Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse may be a blessing in disguise.

From the paper that brought you “funemployment” when Joe’s former boss was in office.

(Classical reference in headline.)

BUILD BACK BRANDON: Inflation is killing off New York City’s beloved $1 pizza.

UNEXPECTEDLY: In Philadelphia, It Turns Out That Rioting Can Be Fun and Profitable.

The city of Philadelphia has agreed to pay the staggering sum of $9.25 million to about 200 rioters because they were teargassed and struck with rubber bullets.

The rioting is entirely incidental to the fact that the people throwing rocks at police, breaking store windows, and assaulting innocent people were stung with rubber bullets and experienced tears from being gassed with an irritant.

That’s not all. The city is also ordered to pay $500,000 to a fund that will provide counseling to victims of police violence and offer community-led programming.

This has nothing to do with the George Floyd riots that convulsed the city on May 31-June 1 in 2020. This is apparently a downpayment on slavery reparations, according to Mayor Jim Kenney.

Rick Moran: “At least five police officers were injured on May 31, 2020, after being struck by rocks, bricks, and Molotov cocktails. Why have police respond to a riot at all if no one is going to back their actions against those who can’t protest peacefully?”

But as Andy Ngo tweets, “In case you were wondering how far-left extremists get paid to riot, this is one of the ways. Networks of far-left legal groups file frivolous lawsuits to get easy cash settlements from Democrat cities. The money is used to fund & support their operations to keep the racket going. The other goal is to punish police departments for trying to stop left-wing riots. In some cities, like Portland & Seattle, police just stopped responding to BLM-Antifa rioting altogether.“

ED MORRISSEY: Rathergate redux at the NYT?

Ahem. Put aside the characterization of [Ben] Barnes’ “credibility” in light of the Rathergate episode. Baker’s argument essentially boils down to this: Barnes is accusing Ronald Reagan of malfeasance and advancing a conspiracy theory with no evidence whatsoever after not saying anything for forty-three years, but he has no reason to lie. And the only other source with any connection to the incidents I can find says it never happened.

Is that journalism?

Or is that narrative building?

It’s too bad Brian Stelter is no longer at CNN — Barnes and Dan Rather could appear side by side on “Reliable Sources” to put the band back together again!

THAT’S WHAT XI SAID! TikTok lands first major ally on Capitol Hill: Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman.

For an app that boasts 150 million American users, TikTok has had virtually no allies on Capitol Hill to fight back against the growing movement to ban it. That appears to be changing.

The Chinese-owned platform has won over Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat, who is scheduled to host a press conference Wednesday at the Capitol alongside dozens of TikTok content creators to make the case for protecting the app in the U.S.

In an interview Tuesday, Bowman staunchly defended TikTok and denounced legislation to ban the app, rejecting arguments about its dangers as “fearmongering” and saying he hasn’t seen evidence that China is using it for espionage.

“This is a space where these creators have found a platform to share their ideas, their inspirations, their thoughts, their voices with the rest of the country and the rest of the world. And why do we want to take that away?” Bowman told NBC News. “Why do we need to ban a platform that 150 million Americans now use?”

Flashback: TikTok May Be A Chinese Superweapon.