DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: San Francisco Has a Cool New Way to Stick It to the Poor.

DON’T GET COCKY: ‘Now They’re Voting Red’: A Pennsylvania Fracking Boom Weighs on Biden’s Re-Election Chances.

The area’s reliance on energy jobs helps explain why Democrats look to be losing more voters than they have gained here despite a Biden agenda that’s pumping billions of dollars into infrastructure and manufacturing.

“Everyone here is aware that it’s better for oil and gas if Republicans get elected,” said Adam Kress, who works with Sabo in Zelienople, 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

There is little sign that Biden can regain substantial support in seven largely working-class and rural counties that surround the city, every one of which produced a larger vote margin for Trump in 2020 than in 2016. The resistance to Biden’s energy policies is making it harder for the incumbent to stop his party’s decline among noncollege voters there, forcing the party to wring more votes out of a Democratic base elsewhere that, so far, seems dispirited.

They have good reason to be.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: What a Miserable Difference Six Months Can Make. “Dumpster fire. Train wreck. There are a variety of tried and true phrases to describe this period of painful Biden havoc in which we live. In reality, it’s more like being caught in the midst of competing dumpster fires and train wrecks, and there’s no place to hide. There also seems to be an endless supply of burning dumpsters and wrecking trains.”

SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: SpaceX begins 2024 with several record-breaking feats. “While SpaceX’s goal of achieving 148 launches in 2024 may be a tough challenge, the company did achieve twelve Falcon 9 launches in a single month in March 2024. This is the number of launches that the company would have to have every month during 2024 if it wants to come close to its year-end goal.”

CATHERINE SALGADO: Oct. 7 Massacre: Six Months Later. “Growing up, we all talked about the Nazis as if it were inconceivable that anyone could ever have condoned or ignored the Holocaust. Yet Westerners are doing just that now; ignoring the very real attempted genocide against Israelis while preposterously accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, based on Hamas talking points and Hamas-issued casualty numbers. The Arabs now calling themselves Palestinians have never had a right to Israeli land, and they have spent decades rejecting offers of land concessions and their own nation from Israel. Even now, the majority of Palestinians still support terrorist Hamas and its horrific attacks on Israel Oct. 7. Yet both Muslims and non-Muslims around the world refuse to admit the reality of the situation.”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: The Odds of $100 Oil Are Rising as Supply Shocks Convulse the Market.

When oil jumped above $90 a barrel just days ago, military tensions between Israel and Iran were the immediate trigger. But the rally’s foundations went deeper — to global supply shocks that are intensifying fears of a commodity-driven inflation resurgence.

A recent move by Mexico to slash its crude exports is compounding a global squeeze, prompting refiners in the US — the world’s biggest oil producer — to consume more domestic barrels. American sanctions have stranded Russian cargoes at sea, with Venezuelan supply a potential next target. Houthi rebel attacks on tankers in the Red Sea have delayed crude shipments. And despite the turmoil, OPEC and its allies are sticking with their production cuts.

Meanwhile: Biden admin cancels plan to refill emergency oil reserve amid high prices.

ROBERT SPENCER: Yes, It Has Come to This: They’re Screaming ‘Death to America’ In Dearborn.

Related:

Unfettered immigration is working out well for Europe … Just a quarter of British Muslims say Hamas definitely committed murder and rape in Israel on October 7 – and nearly 40% say they DIDN'T, shock poll reveals https://t.co/xE17kWUoAn

— A.C. Spollen (@ACSpollen) April 7, 2024

INDEED: Honest Question for Trump-Averse Republicans: How Bad Do Things Have to Get?

#METOO: Space experts foresee an “operational need” for nuclear power on the Moon.

Each day and night on the Moon lasts two weeks. When the Sun sets, a solar-powered lunar lander like Odysseus is starved of energy. Temperatures during the lunar night plummet, bottoming out at around minus 280° Fahrenheit (minus 173° Celsius).

Over the course of two weeks, these cold temperatures can damage sensitive spacecraft equipment, killing a lander even if it could start generating power again at lunar sunrise. Surviving the night requires heat and electricity, and NASA officials say nuclear power is one of the most attractive solutions to this problem.

“We do anticipate having to deploy nuclear systems on the lunar surface,” said Jay Jenkins, program executive for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

“Honestly, it’s not unrealistic that we’ll want to do be able to do this within five years or less. We are starting to buy payloads that are meant for investigations that go beyond one lunar day,” Jenkins said during a Nuclear Regulatory Commission conference earlier this month.

I like the idea of small, rugged, transportable reactors for down here, too.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: How About a Nice Game of Global Thermonuclear Shoplifting? “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news and this week we have the most dangerous shoplifting game, the worst trip into Disney World, and British Woman’s invaluable contribution to veterinary medicine.”

TELL ME AGAIN WHY THE REPLACEMENT THEORY IS JUST PARANOIA:

Foreign-born population growth:

Barack Obama: 68,000 per month
Donald Trump: 42,000 per month
Joe Biden: 172,000 per month pic.twitter.com/dugg87pT2Z

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 4, 2024

This isn’t an accident.

COME SEE THE ANTISEMITISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: NBA Star Gives Jersey to October 7 Victim’s Family. Enraged Fans Object.

UNINTENDED CONSQUENCES: California’s new $20-an-hour fast food minimum wage law poses headaches for school districts: ‘Harder to hire.’

California’s new $20-an-hour minimum wage for fast food workers won’t just impact consumers who have to pay higher prices for menu items, but it could also make it more difficult for some public schools to retain low-paid cafeteria staffers.

Cash-strapped school districts in the Golden State could be forced to compete with billion-dollar corporations such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Pizza Hut parent company Yum! Brands for food service workers who are badly needed in California.

The state – which became the first in the country to guarantee free meals for all students regardless of income – will distribute 70 million more meals this year compared to 2018, according to education officials in Sacramento.

Assuming they can find — and afford — the people to prepare and serve them.

KRUISER: Election 2024 Will Be an ‘Abortion vs. Border’ Battle That the GOP Needs to Learn How to Fight.

BIDENOMICS IN ONE LESSON: Job Creators Network Reacts to March Jobs Report. “Looking under the hood of today’s jobs report shows it isn’t the home run that Democrats and the media claim. Approximately, half of all jobs created last month came in unproductive government or quasi-government healthcare sectors. Full-time jobs continue to decline, while part-time jobs are on the rise. And average wages are growing slower than inflation again, meaning Americans are suffering declining living standards. The Main Street labor market is far weaker than the topline numbers or the conditions on Wall Street or K Street suggest.”

OH: Illegal Alien Deported 7 Times Arrested for Ohio Murder.

SMART: Ford to delay all-electric SUV, truck to focus on offering hybrid vehicles across its lineup by 2030.

The three-row SUV was part of a roughly $1.3 billion investment to transition Ford’s Oakville Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada, into a new electric vehicle hub. It was supposed to be Ford’s first time completely retooling a North American facility producing gas-powered vehicles into one that manufactures EVs.

“The additional time will allow for the consumer market for three-row EVs to further develop and enable Ford to take advantage of emerging battery technology, with the goal to provide customers increased durability and better value,” the company said in a release.

Translation: Ford will let somebody else take the risk in a market segment that doesn’t really exist.

THE LEFT MEANS TO KEEP POWER BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY: Drain the Swamp? Not So Fast. “To keep the bureaucracy in place and functioning even without a progressive president, the Biden-Harris administration has issued a new rule that will make it difficult for Trump to clean house during his second term and for conservatives to remake the federal government as some have claimed they would like to do. The rule will not make the process of firing civil service employees impossible, but it will make the process longer.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Illegals Might Be in Control Before the Election. “The Democrats have gone from refusing to punish people for being in the country illegally to refusing to punish them for any crimes they commit after they’re here.”

HMM: Noted Tesla bear says Musk’s EV maker could ‘go bust’ and stock is worth $14.

Tesla could “go bust” while its stock could fall to $14, Per Lekander, a hedge fund manager who has been shorting Elon Musk’s electric car maker since 2020, told CNBC on Wednesday.

His comments come after Tesla reported 386,810 vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of the year, significantly below even the lowest market estimates.

“This was really the beginning of the end of the Tesla bubble, which probably, arguably was the biggest stock market bubble in modern history,” Lekander, managing partner at investment management firm Clean Energy Transition, said on “Squawk Box Europe.”

“I actually think the company could go bust.”

I’m not exactly bullish on EV adoption rates but Tesla going bust seems extreme.

RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Hamas Treats Captive Israeli Women as Animals — for ‘All Are Ridden.’

HMM: IDF halts leave for combat troops, intel chief warns ‘worst is yet to come.’

The IDF on Thursday said it has halted leave for all combat units after an Israeli airstrike that killed an Iranian general in Damascus earlier this week drew threats of retaliation.

“In accordance with the situational assessment, it has been decided that leave will be temporarily paused for all IDF combat units,” the IDF said in a statement. “The IDF is at war, and the deployment of forces is under continuous assessment according to requirements.”
On Wednesday, the IDF said it would call up reservists to bolster the IAF’s air defenses.

The decisions come amid heightened tensions in Israel and increasing threats by Iran in the wake of an alleged Israeli strike in Syria, which killed senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi.

Meanwhile, the Biden Cabal seems determined to bully Israel into letting Hamas off the hook, even without a hostage release.

Al Jazeera reports that Biden told Netanyahu that the administration has halted discussions in Congress regarding future arms deals, and that National Security Adviser Sullivan will arrive in the region to monitor the change in Israeli policy

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) April 4, 2024

I’m not sure what more Biden & Co. could be doing to generate a wider conflict in the Middle East — and in Europe.

IT TURNS OUT EVS CAN STALL, AFTER ALL: About That Inevitable Transition to Electric Vehicles…

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What the Hell Is Missouri, Anyway?

THERE’S CONTEXT BUT THEN THERE’S CONTEXT-CONTEXT:

WOW. Instagram has labeled the video of Democrats calling for political v*olence as "Missing Context." It's literally on video in their own words…

I'm sure their "independent fact-checkers" are totally impartial and not biased at all.

Unlike Instagram, people on X can freely… pic.twitter.com/UHw4Wp84ip

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 4, 2024

In any case, you know which direction the so-called fact-checkers lean.

But Twitter/X’s Community Notes have made that platform a must-read again.