WELCOME PUPPET SHOW, SPINAL TAP, AND KAMALA HARRIS: The White House Sending Kamala Harris to Small Towns in Red States Is a Genius Political Move. “Everyone, the public, the Biden White House, the Democrat party, and even the Beltway media, realize that Kamala Harris is way out of her depth and is a political liability. Most observers believe that 2022 and 2024 will be challenging years for the Democrats, and the last thing they need is Harris to start cackling while discussing abortion or genocide, or some other serious subject. The clincher is that the Biden team can’t put her on ice without creating a massive issue for themselves, so they have to find something for her to do. That something is to send her out on the road to places where she can’t screw anything up because the Democrats know they aren’t going to win those areas anyway.”

TODAY’S INSTALLMENT IN THE FEINSTEIN COUNTDOWN: “Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, a reliable barometer of certified liberal opinion inside the Beltway, has a column up about the matter of Dianne Feinstein, which even a careless reader can make out as another loud note in chorus of coordinated voices that has determined that Feinstein needs to be forced from office…we have to wonder whether this effort to drive Feinstein from office is a dry run for how the left will try to remove President Biden at some point soon.”

Flashback: The Democratic Party’s Ice Floe Politics: “The next time a Democratic politician makes an anonymous observation about the age or vigor of a colleague with whom they disagree, be skeptical. The remarks are made to reporters as if in sorrow, but the message is about as subtle as a shiv in the prison yard.”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Loose Nuke Talk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently boasted of possibly using nukes against both Ukraine, and, more ominously, those NATO countries who aided Kyiv. In response, French President Emmanuel Macron reminded Russia that NATO itself has an ample nuclear deterrent.

In theory, should NATO and the U.S. supply Ukraine tanks, artillery, and planes, the fierce Ukrainians could push the entire Russian army entirely out of their country. But would a nuclear Putin allow that?

Over the last few weeks nuclear talk has arisen over a myriad of issues. If the war continues to go badly for Russia, at what point will a seemingly erratic Putin begin issuing nuclear redlines to Ukraine and its allies?

Would a crushing defeat push over the edge a nuclear trash-talking Putin — facing the possible end of his regime?

Ukraine nuke talk spins off into lots of other places. Nuclear North Korea is resuming its ballistic missile launches to intimidate non-nuclear South Korea and Japan. China is rapidly expanding its nuclear stockpiles and now talks openly of ending a free Taiwan, warning Taiwan’s friends and allies to keep out — or else.

Iran promises to become nuclear soon. Nuclear Russia has assumed the role of interlocutor of all discussions to restart a new nuclear “Iran deal.”

Russia controls Syrian airspace. In theory, Putin could stop nuclear Israel either from replying to terrorist attacks emanating from Syria, or from staging a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear bomb facilities.

Suddenly newspapers and blogs seemed fixated on hyping the relative stockpiles and megatonnage of various nuclear states, as if they were just GDP or energy output data.

Listen Sug — don’t forget to say your prayers. And remember to socially distance in the fallout shelter*:

Here’s a link to the referenced document if you want to see it for yourself.

Flashback: The Unexpected Return of Duck and Cover.

* Note that Twitter management has already nuked Libs of Tik Tok.

APPARENTLY BOTH THE INVISIBLE MAN AND THE FLASH WERE ON STAGE BEHIND HIM: ‘Fact Checkers’ Claim Biden Wasn’t ‘Shaking Hands With Thin Air.’ Oh, Really?

UH-OH TATER: Brian Stelter’s Days at CNN May Be Numbered, He’s Called ‘Partisan Lighting Rod,’ ‘Distraction.’

Sad news to report. We may not have Brian Stelter to kick around much longer. After the Warner Brothers/Discovery merger, there was a focus on what partisan crap CNN has become. One of the people who makes CNN the least trusted name in news entertainment is our favorite genderless Potato head content creator Brian Stelter. Rumor has it his days are numbered. At least, according to reporter Jon Nicosia.

Nicosia’s past credentials include Mediaite and Washington Examiner. His sources are the ones breaking the bad news, stating Discovery management “very much considers him a Zucker henchman and embarrassment” and believes he is “a negative partisan lighting rod and distraction going forward.”

Stelter will then be free at least to pursue his dream job: Becoming a “senior fellow” at Media Matters.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Michigan kindergartener brings Jose Cuervo margaritas to snack time, made students ‘woozy.’

I’M SO OLD, I CAN REMEMBER WHEN BILL KRISTOL WAS STILL CONSERVATIVE: Big Government Advocate Bill Kristol Calls For Tax Hikes on The Rich.

HOW PHILLY’S MAYOR IS HELPING REPUBLICANS WIN THE MIDTERMS: “In Philadelphia, which is as blue as a blue city gets, there’s grumbling. Many of my clients who abided by the mask rules in the past may now ignore them. A few doctors I know — doctors! — are at loss to explain the rationale. You can see their irritation and hear it in the voices of the morning news team when they interviewed the city’s health commissioner — and these people are paid to be cheery! And yet the mayor and his party refuse to see what’s happening. Despite this very weak variant, we’ll likely see continued mask mandates on planes. Their media will continue to demand more mandates. They think they are saving lives, but they’re destroying so many others. And they think their actions are what people want. People — even many in their own party — don’t want this. And everything they do only helps Republicans. How do I know this? Just wait until November.”

ANSWERS TO THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why the Ukraine War Hasn’t Crashed the Stock Market.

To paraphrase JP Morgan banker Jamie Dimon’s advice to investors and analysts this week, everything looks pretty good except the possibility that something really bad could happen.

The stock market, so far, has largely recapitulated its pattern from past wars: sell the rumor, buy the news. The S&P 500 hit a recent low on Feb. 23, the day before Russia’s invasion. It’s up 167 points since then.

A Canadian fund manager made news by advising his investors to keep buying stocks because in an all-out nuclear war their portfolio allocation would be irrelevant anyway. Looking back and trying to explain a modest 7% drop during the Cuban missile crisis, economists reached for a similar explanation: There’s no point discounting a worst-case outcome because nobody will be around to benefit from a wise investment decision.

Fritz Todt, who built the autobahn, told Hitler in November 1941 the war could not be won and must be ended politically. Hitler responded: “I can scarcely still see a way of coming politically to an end.”

The führer was talking his book. Negotiated endings are always on the cards, as they now could be for Vladimir Putin. There was no “existential” risk for Germany. Even under the rigorous terms actually imposed—unconditional surrender—Germany survived and quickly was on its way to becoming the leading state in Europe. The “existential” risk belonged to Hitler; under any settlement that might be envisaged, he would have had to leave power and accept accountability for his crimes.

Mr. Putin, in astonishingly short order, has turned his Ukraine lark into a similar risk not for Russia but for Mr. Putin.

In the interim, though: Zelensky warns the world to ‘prepare’ for Putin to unleash a nuclear attack. “‘Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they’ve faced so far, militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons,’ [CIA Director William Burns] said​ during a speech last Thursday at Georgia Tech University.”

WALLS ARE CLOSING IN ON PUTIN: The Department Of Defense Just Released An “Equity Action Plan” And I’m Sure This Is Probably The Most Important Thing For Our Military To Focus On Right Now.

If that news doesn’t have him trembling in the Kremlin, this ought to do it: Julian Lennon sings John’s ‘Imagine’ for first time ever in Ukraine fundraiser.

In accordance with the prophecy: Putin Withdraws From Ukraine After Celebrities Threaten To Sing ‘Imagine.’

Speaking of which, a flashback: The Babylon Bee made a parody of John Lennon’s “Imagine” about communism and it’s quite simply the greatest thing you’ll see on the internet today:

THE JEWS WHO DIDN’T LEAVE EGYPT:

This weekend, millions of people will sit around Seder tables and memorialize the exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

Guided by the Haggadah, or Passover text—one of the most popular Jewish books ever written—Seder participants are led along in a series of prayers, texts, and activities. We talk and talk and talk about the miracle of liberation; we parse the details of its unfolding, enumerating the many miracles involved; we go over whether we are supposed to commemorate the blessing of freedom only in this life or also in the next one; we assert in words and song the gratitude we feel for being the lucky descendants of those who escaped from slavery.

One thing we do not generally discuss, however, are the Jews who didn’t leave.

Read the whole thing.

BASKIN-ROBBINS’ SHOCKING NEW RE-BRANDING CAMPAIGN:

In a shocking move, mega-ice cream seller Baskin-Robbins has re-branded itself for 2022 — and neglected to include any obnoxious, in-your-face woke themes in its new marketing! No parade of rainbow creatures, no pant-suited feminist mascots, no underdogs bravely standing up to America’s racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted, xenophobic system. There’s nary a victim nor a woke hero to be seen. It’s almost eerie.

Almost as inexcusably, the re-launched branding is relentlessly positive. The new campaign — the first in 20 years for the 77-year-old company — is called “Seize the Yay.” It focuses on celebrating the myriad joys of ordinary life. In a press release, Baskin-Robbins explains:

Made your bed? That’s a reason to celebrate. Put on pants with actual buttons? There’s another! Legendary ice cream brand, Baskin-Robbins is celebrating the happiness ice cream brings to every moment with a refresh of the iconic brand’s logo, packaging, employee uniforms and tagline encouraging customers to “Seize the Yay” – appreciating every moment, no matter how big or small.

The absolute gall of these people! Don’t they realize that somewhere, a transgender first-grader isn’t being celebrated zealously enough by xir 6-year-old peers? That black people were enslaved and mistreated? That there are billions of poor people in the world who have yet to be welcomed into the United States and given free smartphones, medical care, food, education, and housing? That white supremacists lurk around every corner, COVID still exists, mean tweets might be a thing again, and there’s a buzzsaw of a war on the other side of the world that we aren’t yet tossing our kids into??? How dare Baskin-Robbins be so innocently cheerful!

“Made your bed?” What is this crazy vast right-wing conspiracy dog-whistle callback to Jordan Peterson?!

Related: At long last, the woke spell is being broken.

ED MORRISSEY: He is risen, indeed: A happy and blessed Easter to our readers!

IT’S COME TO THIS: Trans doctor who helps teens transition says it’s now ‘gone too far.’

FIGHT THE POWER, STICK IT TO THE MALE-IDENTIFYING PERSON: A Professor Was Punished For Refusing To Use Preferred Pronouns. He Sued And Just Settled For $400K.

GOT WOKE, GOING BROKE: Seattle’s transit system struggles as riders refuse to pay. “By one measurement, as many as a staggering 70% of all passengers are free riders. But even that is only an estimate as there is almost no fare enforcement. Sound Transit did away with fare enforcement officers after a study revealed people of color were disproportionately getting fined. Instead, the system now relies on fare ambassadors. There are only a handful for the whole light rail system, so riders will rarely encounter them. They currently engage only 2% of all riders. When fare ambassadors do board a train, they ask passengers if they have paid their fare. Most have not. But instead of removing fare evaders from the train, fare ambassadors ask a series of questions starting with a request for identification. About 76% of the free-riding passengers refuse to produce valid ID, which makes it impossible to issue a warning. Sound Transit allows two warnings before even the first fine is issued. But with so few people providing identification, fines are infrequently given and even more rarely paid.”

TWITTER AND THE WAR OF OLIGARCHS:

Those fretting about the world’s wealthiest man gaining control over their favorite site have scarcely objected to the fact that the media outlets, think tanks, NGOs, and universities they work for comprise a patronage network bankrolled by a handful of other billionaires like eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Musk has done a service by exposing the function Twitter performs for this alliance of oligarchs and the professional classes, which Michael Lind terms “Progressivism, Inc.”

Plus:

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich elaborated this position more fully at The Guardian. Musk’s free-speech agenda, he argued, would fulfill “the dream of every dictator, strongman, demagogue, and modern-day robber baron on earth.” This is because relaxation of controls over expression would allow the internet to be “dominated by the richest and most powerful people in the world, who wouldn’t be accountable to anyone for facts, truth, science, or the common good.”

What Reich left unstated is to whom Musk and the like are accountable under the current censorious dispensation. The implicit answer is “experts” like himself, who have managed to claw back a certain amount of power over the internet in the past half-decade by prevailing upon major digital platforms to censor and ban. Reich is partly telling the truth when he states, “This is not about freedom. It’s about power.”

“We are fighting over which billionaire is more beneficial to our common life.”

Musk’s promise to end Twitter’s heavy-handed speech regime directly threatens the power of Reich’s own class of educated professionals, which depends on being able to silence dissenters and suppress narratives that conflict with their own.

Which is ultimately what the chattering class’s meltdown is all about:

As Glenn Greenwald tweeted, Thursday “was a flagship day in corporate media. It was the day they were forced to explicitly state what has long been clear: they not only favor censorship but desperately crave and depend on it. Even if Musk doesn’t buy Twitter, never forget what [Thursday] revealed.”

THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Under Federal Scrutiny, NYU Law School Faces Uproar Over Anti-Semitism.

New York University School of Law may be legally obligated to punish some of its star students after nearly a dozen student groups signed a statement that defended terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and bemoaned the “Zionist grip on the media.”

The statement, drafted by NYU Law School’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, has elicited harassment complaints from Jewish students who say that the letter—and some of the responses it sparked from students—constituted vicious anti-Semitic attacks.

“The Zionist grip on the media is omnipresent,” the statement read. “Palestinians are not obligated to engage in racialized ‘nonviolence’ theory and wait around for a United Nations action that will never come as their homes are taken from them.”

Several students who signed and organized the statement are attending the law school on scholarship as part of the Root-Tilden-Kern Program, widely considered the most prestigious public interest law scholarship in the country. The scholarship’s winners have gone on to hold federal office: They include Lamar Alexander, a U.S. senator and former secretary of education, and Jenny Yang, who served as chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during former president Barack Obama’s second term.

Current scholars include Zaynab Said, who signed on behalf of NYU’s Black Allied Law Students Association; Maya Goldman, who signed on behalf of the Disablility Allied Law Students Association; Yosmin Badie, who sits on the board of NYU’s Students for Justice in Palestine; and Allison Hrabar, who signed with the valediction, “from the river to the sea”—a call for the elimination of Israel.

NYU may have no choice but to punish these students because the university in 2020 agreed to adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward anti-Semitism as part of a settlement with the Department of Education’s civil rights office, which was investigating a string of anti-Semitic incidents at the elite scool. The agreement obligates NYU to “take all necessary actions, including pursuant to its student discipline process,” to address anti-Semitism on campus. Should the Biden administration decide to enforce the terms of that agreement, inaction could jeopardize NYU’s federal funding under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Related: Pushing back against the Corbynization of the Democratic Party: Group launches ‘#EndJewHate’ national billboard campaign to denounce antisemitism. Including this hotbed of MAGA voters: Group floods San Francisco with digital billboards to #EndJewHate.

DESANTIS 1, MOUSE Ø: In Florida, Disney Is Throwing in the Towel.

Disney, with the full weight of the showbiz culture behind it, thought it was playing with house money. What could go wrong by proclaiming yourself to be opposed to homophobia? Plenty, it turned out. American consumers are irritated with companies that take partisan political positions on controversial topics. It now appears obvious that Disney never should have injected itself into the debate in the first place. So its new tack is to avail itself of the opportunity of choosing tactful silence and hoping the whole thing blows over. The WSJ today: “Disney . . . declined to comment on criticism from lawmakers. Inside the company, some executives have expressed disappointment that Disney has become politicized, said people familiar with their thinking.”

As the kids say: LOL. A Florida lawmaker says in the piece that he believes Disney’s decision to denounce the parental-notification bill was made in California, which of course has a very different culture from Florida, but no matter how left-wing the state a Disney executive may be sitting in, he should understand that his customers come from a wide range of political convictions, and he should decline to wade into political controversies.

Earlier: Kurt Schlichter on The DeSantis Doctrine.

You gotta hand it to a guy who convinces Democrats to die on the hill of defending perverted groomers talking about sex with little school kids. It’s on-brand for their fellow travelers at The Lincoln Project, but you would think that Democrats actually want to win elections. But no – they want to make the schools safe for pedos, and they don’t care who knows it. But they’ll care plenty in November when parents around the country come out and vote for The Party of Not Hitting on Der Kinder.

Donald Trump has his record of achievement – economic success and peace abroad. But Ron DeSantis has the DeSantis Doctrine, sort of like the Monroe Doctrine, except instead of keeping shady foreigners out of our hemisphere, the DeSantis Doctrine keeps woke fascists out of our lives.

Exit quote: “He loves to crush his enemies, see them driven before him, and to hear the lamentation of their women-identifying persons. And those of us in the base love it.”

WHY ELON MUSK HAS RATTLED THEM:

The Washington Post’s Max Boot was swift out of the blocks. ‘I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter’, Boot tweeted. ‘He seems to believe that on social media anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.’

On an even more demented note, Robert Reich, veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations, essentially argued that Musk buying Twitter would put us on a fast track to fascism; that Musk’s vision for an ‘uncontrolled’ internet was ‘​​the dream of every dictator, strongman, demagogue and modern-day robber baron’.

Reich wasn’t the only one gripped by this interesting idea that dictators love free speech and that more of it online will bring the Third Reich back. New York University journalism professor ​​Jeff Jarvis had this poetic response to Musk’s bid: ‘Today on Twitter feels like the last evening in a Berlin nightclub at the twilight of Weimar Germany.’

* * * * * * * *

Elon Musk will not save free speech online. Even if his intentions really are good ones, the scale of the problem goes beyond one platform. And free speech online is too important to rely on the benevolence of billionaires. But his attempted takeover of Twitter has already done us a great service, in revealing how important censorship now is to America’s permanently hysterical elites.

There’s only one thing for the panicked socialists to do: Time for leftists to build their own Twitter.

THE BANNINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES ELON MUSK BUYS TWITTER: Libs of TikTok has been suspended from Twitter again. Here’s the notice and a message from LOTT.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Roman Soldier Assigned To Guard Tomb Of Some Jewish Carpenter Looking Forward To Uneventful Weekend.

PUTIN’S PUPPET: Lee Smith: Biden and Putin Are in Business Together, Thanks to the Iran Deal.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Twitter Employee Undergoes Therapy Over Elon Musk Takeover (Video).

LES PAUL — ARTISTS WHO CHANGED MUSIC PART I (Video):

Flashback: My 2002 interview with Les: The Many Lives of Les Paul.