WITH RECALL APPROACHING, DA CHESA BOUDIN’S MEDIA HITS MULTIPLY:

Earlier this month we learned there was a real chance progressive DA Chesa Boudin would be recalled. A poll commissioned by the recall organizers but conducted by a reputable San Francisco polling agency found 2:1 support for the recall and further found that 74% of respondents had a negative view of Boudin.

Since then, Boudin has clearly been making the round and doing his best to turn things around. Yesterday Puck published an interview with Boudin in which he simultaneously admitted some people in San Francisco don’t feel safe and also blamed his predicament on the media and the pandemic.

* * * * * * * *

San Francisco voters’ verdict on Boudin will reverberate far beyond the city’s 47 square miles, including in Los Angeles, where Dist. Atty. George Gascón faces a potential recall. Because if you can’t make radical change in San Francisco, what future does the progressive prosecutor movement have?…

Boudin had won election by being the outsider who criticized a failed system; now he owned the system. To redefine public safety, to demonstrate that communities can be safe locking up fewer people, to build a consensus for programs that might break cycles of recidivism, would take years.

As Tom Cotton wrote in December: Recall, Remove & Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor.

WELCOME BACK, CARTER: Inflation has lessons for a ‘very entitled generation,’ says BlackRock co-founder.

An “entitled generation” is about to face some life lessons from soaring consumer prices.

That’s according to BlackRock President Rob Kapito, who made the remarks at a Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association conference in Austin, as reported by Bloomberg.

ELECTION WATCHDOG FINES CLINTON CAMPAIGN FOR LYING ABOUT STEELE DOSSIER IN FINANCE FILINGS: “For lying about the purpose of campaign funds, the FEC ordered Clinton’s campaign to pay $8,000 to the commission in the next 30 days. The Democratic National Committee was also fined $105,000 for the same violation.”

That’s the equivalent of tip money to both groups.

ACE OF SPADES: Washington Post: What a Scoop, We’ve Determined That Parts of Hunter Biden’ Laptop Are Real. CNN: Gosh, It Looks Like Hunter Biden Might Be Facing Actual Federal Charges For the Crimes We Said Were All “Russian Disinformation.”

Plus: Washington Post Verifies Some But Not All of Hunter Biden’s Laptop Using Third-Party Cryptographic Signature Analysis… Which the Daily Caller Did 17 Months Ago and Thereby Verified All of the Laptop’s Contents.

Related: GOP Sens. Grassley, Johnson Release ACTUAL Receipts Of Payments From Foreign Oligarchs To Hunter Biden.

Flashback: The ‘cabal’ that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his failed presidency.

UPDATE: Gaetz sends Nadler hard drive containing contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop.

(Updated and bumped.)

OKAY, GROOMERS: Leaked Internal Zoom Confirms Disney Drank the Gender Cult Kool-Aid.

There has been a massive overreaction by members of the LGBTQWTF Gendergeddon cult and their woke corporate partners over the new Florida law that prohibits creepy adults from talking to little kids about sex. Instead of realizing that most parents don’t think that adults who aren’t related to their kids should be talking to them about explicit topics and hiding those conversations from parents, the woke cult is having temper tantrums. One tantrum happened when Disney called an internal meeting to soothe gay employees’ hysterics. During the meeting, high-ranking Disney employees assured the staff that they would be queering the hell out of Disney content from now on.

This meeting was leaked on Twitter, and I’ve got it all for you, along with my commentary along the way in the linked video below. Athena Thorne has a good piece on it for the VIP subscribers (and if you aren’t one, you should be) called “Tragic Kingdom: Disney Enters End-Stage Terminal Wokeness Infection” comparing this shift into insanity to terminal cancer.

Get woke, go broke, as they say. I know I won’t be jumping to support Disney’s new queer-centered programming.

In more news from the happiest wokest place on earth: Disney Goes Woke, Will No Longer Say ‘Boys And Girls’ Within Park.

The most magical place on earth is now also the most bizarre. Disneyland and Disney World are removing “gender greetings” from its parks, meaning, those inside the budget-bursting theme parks will no longer be addressed or greeted by the phrases “boys and girls” or “ladies and gentlemen.”

Thank goodness. I’ve never heard something so offensive in my life!

Instead of addressing the biological males and females, park goers will hear “Hello, everyone” or “Hello, friends.” Sounds like a prime opportunity for Jim Nantz to score some voice-over work.

If you’re wondering if Disney has lost its magic, or its marbles, wonder no more. A recently released online meeting of various Disney execs makes the new policy very clear.

Related: Attacks on the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law are about control.

When you scratch a millimeter beneath the surface, or just actually read the damn bill for yourself, you see how innocuous the whole thing is. Why was the law even needed? And why, you might wonder, the extraordinary outrage and all the public tantrums? On its face, rather than some Christian theocratic decree, the law seems to act as a reminder, more than anything else, for educators to stick to age-appropriate topics. None of this is about gay rights — little is these days — but rather about control.

Here’s what happened: during lockdown and remote learning, some teachers and school districts were caught by parents being inappropriate. Students were not only getting pumped full of Critical Race Theory, parents realized, but bizarre gender ideology as well. Parents across the country were disgusted and outraged — they even flipped Virginia red in 2021 as a result. One state, Florida, has now put the left in time out, and Democrats are having an absolute conniption fit. This isn’t about the law, per se. Progressives arec raging against being reeled in. They’re not worried about “gay kids.” They’re telling America: you’re not allowed to tell us what to do, especially in education.

They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Flashback: Glenn Youngkin Defeated Terry McAuliffe Because Democrats Betrayed Parents.

ALEX JONES FACES FINES FOR SKIPPING SANDY HOOK DEPOSITION: “The penalties will begin at $25,000 per weekday beginning Friday and increase by $25,000 per weekday until he appears for a deposition, Judge Barbara Bellis said. She found Jones in contempt of court orders and repeated her view Wednesday that letters submitted by Jones’ doctors did not include enough evidence that he was too ill to attend last week’s deposition. She noted Jones appeared on his website show — either in-person or by phone — every day last week.”

BRUCE WILLIS HAD ‘COGNITIVE ISSUES’ ON SETS AHEAD OF APHASIA ANNOUNCEMENT:

Bruce Willis was having cognitive issues on the set of his recent films, and was unable to remember his lines before his family stepped in “to take care of him,” a source told Page Six.

On Wednesday, Willis’ family announced that the star has been diagnosed with aphasia and will step away from his decades-long career.

There was buzz last year that Willis was having issues on productions dating back to 2020 when the busy former “Pulp Fiction” star was making a string of mostly B action movies with titles such as “American Siege,” “Survive the Game,” “Cosmic Sin” and “Hard Kill.”

A source told Page Six of the 67-year-old star: “He was having cognitive problems, they all knew Bruce was having problems.”

The insider added, “Everybody knew, the cast and crew. His family has stepped in, they moved in to take care of him.”

Related: What is aphasia, condition that Bruce Willis is suffering from: “Aphasia is disorder stemming from damage to the parts of the brain that deal with language, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Those areas reside on the brain’s left side in most people, the institute says on its website. It usually occurs suddenly after a stroke or head injury, but can also be due to a brain tumor or progressive neurological disease, the institute said. It hits one’s ability to express and understand language, as well as read and write, and may go hand-in-hand with speech disorders. It was not clear what had brought the family to announce Willis’s condition at this time, and what could be causing it. Aphasia comes in many forms, with more than one cause, said Dr. Andrew Rogove, medical director of stroke services at Northwell Health Care’s South Shore University Hospital in Bayshore, N.Y.”

DON’T GET COCKY: Chuck Todd: It still looks as if Democrats are ‘going to get walloped’ in the midterms.

SOD OFF, SWAMPY: How About We Keep Wearing Masks on Trains and Subways Forever?

BERNIE SANDERS JUST PROPOSED A 95% BUSINESS TAX. HERE’S WHY THAT’S SO ABSURD: “If only we could return to May 2020, when national gas prices fell to $1.93/gallon because oil companies decided they love us and didn’t care about making money. Is that how pricing works?”

UNEXPECTEDLY: Susan Collins Will Vote to Confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to SCOTUS.

DON’T GET COCKY: Poll finds GOP favored to win House; has 6-point lead over Democrats.

OKAY, GROOMERS: ‘I was just wherever I could adding queerness:’ Christopher Rufo has video from Disney’s all-hands meeting.

JEREMY CLARKSON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: “Petromasculinity” Is Becoming Toxic, Too—at Least to Online Daters. OkCupid users say climate denial is now their top deal-breaker.

REPORT: UN to name investigator on Israel who compares it to Nazi Germany.

OKAY, GROOMERS: Biden and top Democrats slam DeSantis for controversial parental rights law.

In a tweet, Biden declared that “every student deserves to feel safe and welcome in the classroom” and “our LGBTQI+ youth deserve to be affirmed and accepted just as they are.”

“My Administration will continue to fight for dignity and opportunity for every student and family — in Florida and around the country,” the president said in the tweet.

[Education Secretary Miguel Cardona] was far more forceful, calling out DeSantis by name, and accused the governor of hiding behind parental rights.

“By signing this bill, Gov. DeSantis has chosen to target some of Florida’s most vulnerable students and families, all while under the guise of ‘parents’ rights.’” Cardona said in a statement. “Make no mistake: this is a part of a disturbing and dangerous trend across the country of legislation targeting LGBTQI+ students, educators, and individuals.”

Cardona said that the Department of Education would be monitoring the implementation of the law “to evaluate whether it violates federal civil rights law,” while encouraging students who believe they are being discriminated against to file a complaint with the department’s Office for Civil Rights.

“Instead of telling some students or families it’s not okay to be who they are, our Department is fighting for dignity and opportunity for every student and family,” Cardona said.

Pelosi likewise condemned the new law as “cruel legislation” that was “an affront to our Nation’s cherished values.”

“[DeSantis] and Florida Republicans have chosen to needlessly bully, isolate and demean LGBTQ students,” Pelosi said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, at America’s Newspaper of Record: Teachers Who Insist They’re Not Teaching Your Kid About Sex Also Weirdly Outraged By Ban On Teaching Your Kid About Sex.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Chris Rock Smooths Things Over With Will Smith By Sleeping With His Wife.

I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: The tragic folly of lockdown. Data on excess deaths show that countries that locked down hard fared no better than those that didn’t:

What can we learn from these data? How did three main pandemic strategies compare: (a) a do-nothing, let-it-rip approach; (b) focused protection of high-risk older people with only limited restrictions on others, and (c) general lockdowns and restrictions on all age groups?

Belarus and Nicaragua did little to protect older people and they imposed very few Covid restrictions. They also report among the lowest Covid mortality numbers. From the excess-mortality data, it is clear that they did not escape the pandemic. Nicaragua had 274 excess deaths per 100,000 population, which is precisely the same as the regional average. Belarus had 483 excess deaths per 100,000, higher than the average for either Eastern Europe (345) or Central Europe (316).

In Western Europe, the Scandinavian countries had the lightest Covid restrictions while they tried to protect their older high-risk population. Sweden was heavily criticised for this by the international media. The Guardian, for instance, reported in 2020 that life in Sweden felt ‘surreal’, with ‘couples stroll[ing] arm in arm in the spring sunshine’. Many journalists, politicians and scientists expected that the lighter Scandinavian touch would lead to disaster. That did not happen. Sweden has among the lowest reported Covid mortality numbers in Europe. Of the European countries with more than one million people, Denmark (94), Finland (81), Norway (7), and Sweden (91) are four of only six countries with excess mortality less than 100 per 100,000 inhabitants, the other two being Ireland (12) and Switzerland (93).

What about the UK, with its more heavy-handed Covid restrictions*? Compared to the Western European average of 140 excess deaths per 100,000, England had 126, Scotland 131, Wales 135, and Northern Ireland 132.

In the US, South Dakota imposed few Covid restrictions, while Florida tried to protect older people without too many restrictions on the general population. Did that result in the predicted disaster? No. Compared to the national average of 179 excess deaths per 100,000, Florida had 212 while South Dakota had 156.

Read the whole thing.

Flashbacks:

● Johns Hopkins Analysis: ‘Lockdowns Should be Rejected Out of Hand.’

● How Fauci and Collins Shut Down Covid Debate: They worked with the media to trash the Great Barrington Declaration.

● Two Years After Lockdowns, The West’s Troubles Aren’t Ending — They’re Just Beginning.

* Since the article mentions the UK, it’s worth highlighting this classic moment in lockdown hypocrisy: What Neil Ferguson’s booty call tells us about modern politics. “It is actually incredibly important news that Ferguson, the Imperial College modeller who said it was possible 500,000 Brits would die if we didn’t lock down, defied the lockdown. It deserves the frontpage treatment it is getting today. For Ferguson’s booty call with his married lover actually reveals a great deal about the 21st-century elites and how they view their relationship with the masses. It’s one rule for them and another for us.”

THE POWER LINE MID-WEEK IN PICTURES: Oscars Suddenly Relevant Edition.

AND THE ANSWER IS NONE. NONE MORE GRAUNIAD: Guardian columnist writes that ‘white outrage’ over Will Smith’s Oscar slap ‘is rooted in anti-Blackness.’

Before we get into The Guardian’s take on Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars Sunday night, we have to once again marvel at satirist Titania McGrath, whose tweets so very often turn out to come true. Check out her take:

And here’s the Grauniad’s headline: White outrage about Will Smith’s slap is rooted in anti-Blackness. It’s inequality in plain sight.

If that’s the case, doctrinaire lefty Jim Carrey’s going to have to audit a lot of White Fragility courses if he wants to keep working in Tinseltown: Jim Carrey ‘sickened’ by Oscars’ standing ovation for Will Smith: ‘Hollywood is spineless.’

“I was sickened. I was sickened by the standing ovation,” Carrey told Gayle King in a “CBS Mornings” interview that aired Tuesday.

Smith scooped the Best Actor Oscar for his role in “King Richard” just minutes after assaulting Rock, with the crowd getting out of their seats to cheer for the star.

“Hollywood is just spineless en masse and it really felt like this is a really clear indication that we aren’t the cool club anymore,” Carrey, 60, told King of the audience’s warm reception for Smith.

Somebody should write a book on that recently developing topic!

WHERE’S HUNTER, FAT? Senators Release Receipts Showing Direct Payments From Foreign Oligarchs To Hunter Biden.

Shortly after The New York Times quietly admitted that Hunter Biden’s laptop is legitimate even though it was smeared as “disinformation” to protect then-candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 election, Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin released bombshell receipts showing Hunter received payments from foreign oligarchs that further reveal “the extent to which President Biden might be — and almost certainly is — compromised.”

According to the documents obtained by the senators, energy company CEFC, “an arm of the Chinese Government,” paid Wells Fargo Clearing Services $100,000 and designated “further credit to Owasco,” Hunter’s firm.

More: Eight Joe Biden Scandals Inside Hunter Biden’s MacBook That Corporate Media Just Admitted Is Legit.

UPDATE: Joe Scarborough’s 2020 Hunter Biden Rant Aged Like a Carton of Milk.

GLOBAL WARMING: IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Too Much Lake Water is Climate Change, Not Enough Lake Water is Climate Change.

WELCOME BACK, CARTER: Larry Summers: ‘The situation continues to resemble the 1970s.’

I’m probably as apprehensive about the prospects for a soft landing of the U.S. economy as I have been any time in the last year. Probably actually a bit more apprehensive. In a way, the situation continues to resemble the 1970s, Ezra. In the late ‘60s and in the early ‘70s, we made mistakes of excessive demand expansion that created an inflationary environment…

And so now I think we’ve got a real problem of high underlying inflation that I don’t think will come down to anything like acceptable levels of its own accord. And so very difficult dilemmas as to whether to accept economic restraint or to live with high and quite possibly accelerating inflation. So I don’t envy the tasks that the Fed has before it.

…I think it’s very important not to be shortsighted and to recognize that what we care about is not just the level of employment this year, but the level of employment averaged over the next 10 years. That we care not just about wages and opportunities this year, but we care about wages and opportunities over the long-term.

And the doctor who prescribes you painkillers that make you feel good to which you become addicted is generous and compassionate, but ultimately is very damaging to you. And while the example is a bit melodramatic, the pursuit of excessively expansionary policies that ultimately lead to inflation, which reduces people’s purchasing power, and the need for sharply contractionary policies, which hurt the biggest victims, the most disadvantaged in the society, that’s not doing the people we care most about any favor. It’s, in fact, hurting them.

The “Ezra” Summers name-checks in the above interview is Ezra Klein, formerly with The American Prospect and “Young Adult Website*” Vox.com, now with the New York Times. Ezra may want to dust off his 2009 TAP post on why Carter’s Malaise Speech really wasn’t such a bad moment after all.

* Classical reference.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Gay Florida Kindergarten Teacher Worries On MSNBC He Won’t Be Able To Share His Love Life With Kids Anymore.

A Florida teacher shared anxieties with MSNBC Tuesday that he won’t be able to talk about his love life with his kindergarten students anymore due to HB 1557.

Kindergarten teacher Cory Bernaert reacted Tuesday to news that Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had signed legislation banning classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity for Kindergarten through 3rd grade (ages 5-9).

“It hits hard in my heart professionally and personally,” he said. “Professionally it truly makes me feel like I am not trusted as a professional. I know my kindergarten standards through and through and nowhere in our curriculum does it have anything about teaching sexual orientation or sexual identity.”

“We should be able to have discussions and that’s what we’re encouraged to do in kindergarten,” he said. “My kids do have questions. They want to know who my partner is in pictures outside of my classroom, and I should be able to speak to them.”

Funny, I have no recollections of my kindergarten teacher ever discussing her spouse with us — I don’t remember my high school teachers telling me much about their personal lives. And referring to the kindergartners as “my kids” instead of “my students” seems like quite a tell here.

UPDATE: Further thoughts, and examples of similar language from other teachers, at Ace of Spades.

PUSHING BACK AGAINST THE HOTTEST OF HOT TAKES: Obviously, Inevitably, The White Devil Did It.

So, anyway, as you may have heard, at a recent awards ceremony, a black millionaire celebrity slapped another black millionaire celebrity. The root cause, however, has only now been discovered:

This is about a much larger systemic issue rooted in white supremacist culture designed to police the behaviour of Blacks amongst the who’s who in Hollywood and beyond. 

It says so here:

Respectability politics suggest that equity and fair treatment require that Black people — both inside and outside of Hollywood — conduct ourselves in a manner deemed acceptable to whites. Furthermore, expressing any emotion other than complacence, apathy, or agreeance directly violates those norms, disqualifying Black people from receiving the same equitable treatment that whites enjoy as a birthright. And sadly, there is a large group of Blacks who have internalised this toxic messaging.

You see, when Mr Will Smith, a black millionaire celebrity, publicly assaults Mr Chris Rock, another black millionaire celebrity, on live television, and is promptly given a prestigious award, for which he is applauded, and is then seen celebrating triumphantly at the award after-party, this is somehow proof of victimhood, of being racially “policed” by “respectability politics” and other works of the White Devil. Mr Smith, we’re told, is “not receiving the same equitable treatment that Whites enjoy as a birthright.”

It’s David Thompson, so read the whole thing,