OH: No Jail for NYC Prankster Who Told Diners He Had a Bomb and Would Kill Them for Allah.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. FBI Kidnapping Caper Was Flagrant Election Interference.

THE TRAGIC KINGDOM: Disney’s Colossal Political Error in Challenging DeSantis Will Cost It Dearly. “What matters is that, in the struggle between Disney and the Republican governor and potential 2024 candidate for president, Disney is currently losing. And if it doesn’t cut its losses and go back to making kids smile and stockholders happy, the fallout will cost it dearly.”

“RECESSION SHOCK”: Bank of America is the latest major institution to deliver a grim warning for the future.

It’s been over a month since Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to an unforeseen and prolonged fallout for the global economy. Combined with an inflation problem that was already spiking the prices of virtually every commodity, global institutions have begun ringing the alarm bells that we are on the brink of a long-anticipated recession.

In an investment strategy report sent to clients on Thursday, Bank of America analysts warned that “inflation always precedes recessions” and that tighter monetary policies being put in place to control surging prices make a “recession shock” very likely.

Inflation has been the bane of the U.S. economy for months, and rates have hit new highs since the war began. The annual inflation rate jumped to 7.9% in February, the highest it’s been in four decades, and the latest forecasts suggest March’s rate could reach 8.5%, according to investment bank UBS. Such a rate would be the highest since 1981.

At this point in 1981, the Fed funds rate was nearly 15%. Right now it’s at 0.33%.

The Fed’s a day late and an inflated dollar short of getting ahead of what ails us.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Do Republicans Have a Legit Shot at the Senate in November? “Mark Kelly has been flying under the radar as he finishes out the late John McCain’s term. He hasn’t distinguished himself but he hasn’t really made many enemies. The real problem here is that Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is the candidate who would almost be a slam-dunk to beat Kelly but he’s not running.”

KAMALA HARRIS, WINGING IT: “Um, we have definitely extended the — and I, it’s something that I think we need to keep doing, awareness about what we have to do on Pell grants, and I can follow up with you on specifically what we’ve been doing.”

OK, GROOMER: Leftists Try, Fail to Paint Republicans as the Real Pedophiles. “Christina Pushaw, who is press secretary to the mighty Gov. Ron ’47’ DeSantis and thus at ground zero of the anti-grooming law debate, tweeted out examples of the lockstep leftist media as it tries to fight the label that creepy rainbow-pimping educators have earned.”

SENSING ONLINE: The Ukraine War just got much, much bigger.

These massacres and casualty levels (on both sides) now mean that a negotiated peace is off the table. For Putin to make such an agreement would be seen by the senior military and civilian Russian leadership as an admission of Putin’s personal failure. And Putin would have to realize that making such a peace would be professionally and possibly personally lethal for him. Russians know good and well that the Czar/General Secretary/President is never the one who fails the country, ever. If Putin accepted a negotiated peace, everyone else within the senior reaches of government and the military would know that the scapegoating purges would come quickly. And Putin knows that they would know that. Who would act decisively first – Putin and his inner, purge-immune circle, or the intended victims?

As for Zelensky, to negotiate a peace with invaders who have mass murdered his people on repeated occasions would also be an admission of failure. Unlike Russia, he would likely remain in office until the end of his term, and even if he was forced out, his exit would have the façade not of disgrace, but of an exhausted hero of world significance, to whom the nation owes its everlasting gratitude.

Until a point, that is, And that point is if the war simply drags on. Putin cannot relent. Ukraine now must win. Before now, all Ukraine had to do was not lose, but that is no longer good enough. Now it must eject Russia from the country, and not slowly. But Putin cannot allow his army to be so defeated.

Plus: “The very difficult and very uncertain task before Europe and the United States now is to manage the war to keep it inside Ukraine.”

MARGOT CLEVELAND: Explosive Pennsylvania Testimony Explains How Leftist Money Infiltrated Election Offices In 2020.

CORN, POPPED: ‘Erased’ Hunter Biden Laptop Material to Be Released Soon.

EVERYBODY IS GOING TO GET COVID: ‘Frankenstein’ Omicron subvariant XE detected in UK, India and Thailand. “It’s unclear whether XE causes more severe illness or evades vaccines, though early data suggests that it may be more transmissible than earlier forms of the Omicron virus.”

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: History 101: The Left Is Awakening a ‘Sleeping Giant.’ “Now is the time for conservatives to get LOUD. The battle against Marxism is ON, and it’s going very well for us. Now is the time to step on the gas, NOT the brakes. It’s time for all of us to go to a school board meeting, demand answers, and stop voting for RINOs like Mitt Romney.”

FASTER, PLEASE — THE RUSSIANS AND UKRAINIANS AREN’T THE ONLY ONES RUNNING OUT OF GEAR: US Army initiates plan to replace Stingers with next-gen interceptor. “The request for information to industry for a new surface-to-air missile for the Army’s SHORAD system comes as the Pentagon has been sending Javelin and Stinger missiles to Ukraine to help it fight the ongoing Russian invasion. But even as the Army considers that version of the Stinger obsolete, senior defense officials are discussing with industry how production might be ramped up.”

EXTORTION: 9-Year-Old Ohio Boy Denied Kidney Transplant Because Father Is Unvaccinated. “They tried explaining to the clinic that Dane Donaldson had recovered from COVID-19 and therefore has natural immunity—even presenting results from a T Detect test, which measures the T cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2—but their rationale fell on deaf ears.”

A VERY PUBLIC EDUCATION: 5 percent of Denver’s Black, Latino 3rd-graders are reading at grade level.

Since taking office in late November, the DPS board has largely ignored how DPS is performing its core function: educating students. Some board members – Tay Anderson, Michelle Quattlebaum, and Carrie Olson – have begun saying that it’s time to pivot away from adult priorities and back to kids, the district’s core constituency.

Some others, most notably board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, have shown little outward interest in how kids are doing academically. “…part of what I believe is the vision for this board (is) to continue to move forward so that we are affecting our teachers in a positive way,” she said during the recent innovation schools debate, never once mentioning students or academics.

That’s problematic, given that the data reveals that in several schools in the part of town she represents, 0% of tested third-grade students – that’s not a typo – were meeting or exceeding grade level in reading.

The kids aren’t the board “constituents.” The teachers and administrators are.

I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DOWN (CHINA EDITION): Did China Just Invade Shanghai? “If Beijing were worried about possible civil unrest during such an extended and severe lockdown, you might expect to see scenes like this one.”

HEH: Joni Ernst Slyly Confronts Biden TVA Nominee on 2015 Insult Complete With Floor Chart.

“AND THEIR KIDS”: Disney Corporate Insurance Paying for Trans Surgeries and Hormones for Employees and Their Kids.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Mark Wahlberg Breaks Ranks with A-List Hollywood (Big Time). “This movie has a very clear message that we are not going to give up on people. We are not going to turn our backs on people because of mistakes that they’ve made. We are going to tell people and encourage people that nobody is beyond redemption and that we support you, we love you, we accept you for who you are.”

HMM: Two Men Arrested for Posing as DHS Agents Gave Gifts to Secret Service Agents. “Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36 were taken into custody after the USPS tipped off federal authorities that the men were claiming to be Homeland Security agents working as part of a task force on violence connected to the Jan. 6 riot.”

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Biden Family Corruption Update. “Now that the Hunter Biden dam has finally burst for the MSM, we’re finally getting the ‘Hey, the Biden family sure seems to be involved in a lot of shady business deals’ stories we should have gotten well before the 2020 election if the media weren’t so in the tank for Democrats.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. ‘The Babylon Bee Is a More Reliable Source of Fact’ Than Pelosi, Rep. Cawthorn Declares.

WELL, YES: Biden Presidency Bad for America, Most Voters Say.

Only 28% believe it would be better for America if Biden is reelected to a second term in 2024. Forty-two percent (42%) think it would be better for America if former President Donald Trump is elected again in 2024. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say it would be better if somebody else is elected president in 2024.

While 57% of Democratic voters believe Biden’s reelection in 2024 would be better for America, that opinion is shared by only 10% of Republicans and 16% of voters not affiliated with either major party. Sixty-six percent (66%) of Republicans think electing Trump again in 2024 would be better for the country, as do 19% of Democrats and 42% of unaffiliated voters.

19% of Democrats? That’s yuge.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Reminder — Barack Obama Is Un-American and Awful. “Upfront: I know, I know… RACISM.”

“HUGE TRAGEDY”: Kremlin spokesman admits to ‘significant losses’ of Russian troops in bungled invasion of Ukraine, as army hit by mutiny.

Take the mutiny claims with a grain of salt. “Advance and maybe get shot by the enemy or don’t advance and for certain get shot by me” is a longstanding Russian command attitude.