HMM: Democrats Plan to Come for Big Tech With Swarm of Small Antitrust Bills.

Both Democrats and Republicans have become wary of the sheer size of firms like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft in recent years. Democrats have focused more on what they see as anti-competitive tactics, abusive labor practices, and promotion of misinformation and violent extremism, while Republicans have mostly sought to prove said companies are run by members of a semi-secret socialist cabal. Either way, tech firms have found themselves in more hostile territory in DC, with a more limited array of allies. Some type of major legislation or regulatory response designed to limit the companies’ power now seems politically realistic (even if the U.S. government remains unwilling or unable to take dramatic actions like breaking tech firms up).

Representative David Cicilline, the chair of the judiciary committee, told Axios this weekend that he sees prepping numerous proposals on antitrust as a sort of drone swarm tactic that would overwhelm Big Tech’s political firewall by sheer numbers.

Cicilline told Axios that he believes the result of the committee’s work could be 10 or more small bills that he believes would increase the likelihood that individual components could pass—as individual propositions may have broader support from members of both parties—and that would be harder for lobbyists to unite against.

We’ll see, but I’m dubious.

It isn’t that we don’t have a problem with Big Tech, it’s that I don’t trust the Democrats to come up with a “fix” that doesn’t end up locking in advantages for their allies in Big Tech.

SO MUCH HATE FROM THE LEFT, NONSTOP: Liberal Media Scream: Seth Meyers rants against rural whites, Constitution.

SEEN ON HELEN’S PAGE: Books by Moe Lane.

MATT TAIBBI: Meet the (Unsuccessfully) Censored: Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog.

GLENN GREENWALD: Any regime of political discourse that subordinates the merit of an argument to the identity of the person advocating it is inherently unhealthy.

MAKES SENSE: JetBlue Considers Move to Florida.

THE MORNING BRIEF: Joe Biden’s Humanitarian Border Crisis Becomes a Cover-Up While Kamala Harris Just Laughs. “The Biden administration is attempting to engage in a cover-up. Consider: It’s limiting reporter access to the border facilities; it’s refusing to offer any real numbers of those crossing illegally and those who’ve been apprehended; it’s failing to consult with Congress; it’s failing to work with the affected states; and it’s failing to work with local communities.”

I REMEMBER WHEN “DARK MONEY” WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BAD: Dark Money Fuels Push to Ditch Filibuster.

BLUE STATE BLUES: Jared Polis’ COVID-19 business restrictions have caused needless harm to Colorado’s economy.

In my view, the loss of so many Coloradans from the workforce at the end of the year is likely attributable to harsh COVID restrictions implemented by Polis last November. Indeed, payroll data show the employment rate for low-wage workers cratered following Polis’ renewed lockdown.

About 94,000 restaurant jobs have been lost with 40% of the restaurant workforce furloughed. All told, Colorado restaurants lost more than $3 billion in 2020, according to a recent industry survey. Job losses in these sectors were disproportionately concentrated among women and working-class communities.

Yet, Polis would have the public believe Colorado is “leading the way” reopening and getting people back to work. That might be true for some people, but not for many poor workers.

That Democrats “look after the little guy” is a fraud even bigger than “the party of youth.”

DON SURBER: Twitter is ruining liberals.

THEY’RE MEANT TO DO HARM. THEY’RE NOT MEANT TO DO GOOD. Identity politics do more harm than good. “This addiction to examining all social issues through the prism of race is harmful as it seeks to legitimize a claimed victimhood into our already balkanized society, inaccurately depicting historical and current events, and deflecting from a genuine search for meaningful redress.”

It’s meant to be destructive, and it is.

PUSHING BACK AGAINST WOKE IDIOCY AND PRO-PRC SYCOPHANCY: Academic Freedom Alliance stands with USD Law Professor in China Controversy. “Not only is the interpretation of Professor Smith’s phrasing as a slur based on race or national origin a tendentious misreading of the blog post in question, but the suggestion that a single phrase in a single blog post commenting on the behavior of the Chinese government and international health agencies can trigger the procedures of the university’s harassment policy sends a chilling message to all faculty.”

That’s what it’s meant to do.

Plus: “The Academic Freedom Alliance calls upon USD leadership to adhere to its academic freedom principles by rescinding its denunciation of Professor Smith and terminating all disciplinary proceedings against him based on his March 10, 2021 blog post.”

Related: San Diego Law School “Must Immediately Cease Its Investigation” Into Prof. Thomas Smith Over China Criticism, Demands Free Speech Group.

KRUISER: I’ve Decided to Be Nicer While Being Mean to Joe Biden. “Here’s the thing about Biden though: he’s just too easy to make fun of. I’ve never liked the guy. He’s always been a spaz and I never found his verbal gaffes to be charming like so many others have. He was a gift that kept on giving for his critics even before his obvious recent decline. He may be the most powerful man on Earth now but he is also the low-hanging fruit that’s hanging underneath the low-hanging fruit.”

MORE GREEN HYPOCRISY: The True Face of the North Face. “It turns out the vast majority of North Face’s apparel—its hoodies, snow pants, coats and many other items in its product line, like backpacks and tents—are made with polyester, polyurethane and nylon, all of which come from petroleum. Even its fancy fleece jackets are made of polyester.”

People who’ve lost their jobs due to Biden’s energy policy should go picket North Face stores and pass out copies of this article.

FROM R D MEYER: Homecoming.

Earth. The mere name has had an almost talisman-like pull on the human race since we were driven from our homeworld over 6,000 years ago. Mankind’s ancestors ran from the genocidal threat engulfing them, fleeing like intergalactic refugees towards a new home that would allow us to flourish once again.

And flourish we did. From a ragtag group of just over 12,000 survivors, humanity has grown to create a proper empire of nearly 900 billion spanning two galaxies. But we never forgot our home, so we waited and we planned. Now the time was finally right to return to Earth and take back what we once had no choice but to abandon.

Although the military campaign, as well as the alien races between humanity and our birthplace, were the primary concern, they turned out to not be the only ones. You see, Earth itself, despite crawling with the vermin that nearly eradicated us, was far from free of surprises, both physical and historical. Unanticipated challenges waited for the people of the Terran Confederation, including notions that would shake the very foundations of what it meant to be human. Our legends had defined us, but could those legends withstand scrutiny? What if everything we’d come to believe about ourselves and our world had been carefully crafted to cocoon us for our own good?

A story meant to be about our return to Earth expands to cover our journey both across and within the realms of known space, from long lost colony worlds where mankind has morphed into something else, to the edges of an intergalactic war between implacable enemies…enemies that now had the incentive to turn their attention towards humanity…

THERE’S NOTHING TO SEE HERE, FOLKS, JUST MOVE ALONG:  Mexican drug cartels use kids as decoys to smuggle members into US.

MORE MONEY LAUNDERING VIA PUBLISHERS:  Dr. Fauci’s life celebrated in upcoming kids’ picture book.

Oh, Dr. Falsy do explain how you completely f*cked up the AIDS response, and then went for a twofer with Winny the Flu. You are so fascinating Dr. Fraudsy.  Why don’t you go directly to China and tell them how to manage public health crisis. We hear you have friends there. At a lab in Wuhan, in fact.

WHY NOT? PASTE EATING POLIS MADE OUR CONVENTION CENTER A SHELTER FOR HOMELESS:  Biden’s HHS turns San Diego’s famed Convention Center into shelter for “unaccompanied migrant children”.

These rank morons think that public assets means their assets, to dispose of anyway they please, because they are the government. (How come none of you has yet made a photoshop of Polis over the Louis XVI “l’Etat c’est Moi” portrait? Am I going to have to take the time to do it myself?)
Those of us who know history know that this doesn’t end well, but these morons think they have won.

YEAH, THEY TRIED TO PULL THAT ON ME YEARS AGO:  U. San Diego Law Prof. Thomas Smith Harshly Criticized Chinese Gov’t, Now Faces False Claims Of Ethnic Bias.

The CCP is not the Chinese people. Much less people of Chinese ethnicity. My most notably sinophile friend hates Winnie the Xi with undying passion.

OPENING OUR BORDERS IS NOT AN ACT OF KINDNESS:  Children in Danger: Where is Madeisy Batista?

HOW DARE PUBLIC SERVANTS RESENT ABUSIVE TREATMENT? Cops’ posts to private Facebook group show hostility, hate.

COMPENSATION FOR BEING SHUT DOWN BY GOVERNMENT?  Wichita Eagle tortures the truth opposing COVID compensation law.

Why, that’s just crazy talk. Next you’ll say there’s a law against illegal takings….

THE TABLE IS ALWAYS SET AT THE CANNIBAL FEAST:  When The Cancel Culture Eats Its Own.

THEY’RE OUT OF IDEAS. THEY’RE RUNNING ON FUMES:  Nah, It’ll Be Fine: Entertainment Vlogger The Critical Drinker Hammers Cultural Corruption.

They’re not just wounded pigs. They’re cornered wounded pigs. And they’re desperate.

BUT MOST OF ALL THE STUPID:  Lockdown Year: The Good, The Bad, The Very Ugly.

This whole thing is the stupid leading the stupid. None of these measures are useful. They’re all, however, completely insane.
Reagan was wrong. The scariest phrase in English is “We’re from the government and we’re here to derp, and you will obey us.”

SHE’S AT LEAST AS DEMENTED AS HE IS:  NY Times Maureen Dowd Thinks Joe Biden Is Cool.

Though if by “cool” she means in deep freeze somewhere and being played by a bumbling double, I’m willing to entertain it. I mean, I don’t think so. I think Zhou Bai-Den was never that smart and now is a potted plant, but what the heck, I’m not a part insider.

SURE, BECAUSE IF TRUMP DIDN’T EXIST BIDEN WOULDN’T BE IN POWER:  DHS Secretary Mayorkas Blames Trump For Biden’s Border Woes.

Hillary would be. And none of us would know about the border crisis. Because anyone leaking it would commit suicide with two shots to the back of the head.
See, it makes perfect sense, right?

IT WON’T WORK:  They Can’t Drag Us to the Past.

The left is a cargo cult at variance with reality. Those can exist only for limited times.  And I’m sick and tired of Doomers and Actchually people.

“WHEN YOU ACT OUT OF FEAR, YOU MAKE SERIOUS TACTICAL ERRORS:” The Filibuster Fight Is About Dems’ Fear Of Losing Control.

AT HELEN’S PAGE: COFFEES FROM ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE.

OPEN THREAD: Enjoy!

SO EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT WILLIAM SHATNER’S UPCOMING 90TH BIRTHDAY, and mostly about Captain Kirk. But, you know, he owned the role of Denny Crane in Boston Legal.

I REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE PROMISED A RETURN TO NORMALCY. THIS ISN’T THAT. Is Joe Biden Really Doing the Job of President? Nearly Half of Voters Doubt It.

CERTAIN PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO MAKE ANY CRITICISM OF CHINA A POLITICAL THOUGHT CRIME: San Diego Law School “Must Immediately Cease Its Investigation” Into Prof. Thomas Smith Over China Criticism, Demands Free Speech Group. In letter to Dean Robert Schapiro, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education writes: “Smith’s post on his personal blog is an exercise of extramural expression, a right USD Law expressly provides to its faculty…. Accordingly, we call on USD Law to immediately disband its investigation into Smith.”

And you can learn a lot about who’s on the payroll, or at least on the team, by tracking who’s repeating PRC/CCP talking points.

And Dean Robert Schapiro supposedly teaches Constitutional Law.

I STILL SAY IT’S AN ALIEN SPACESHIP: Interstellar object ‘Oumuamua is a pancake-shaped chunk of a Pluto-like planet: The strange tale of our first interstellar visitor keeps getting weirder.

NANCY ROMMELMANN: The Dream of the ’90s Died in Portland.

Wheeler, who’d squeaked past openly pro-antifa challenger Sarah Iannarone to win reelection, issued an anodyne press release, thanking voters for giving him a second chance and stating that Portland “is not a perfect place, and we have many historical inequities to repair, but this is a very special place.”

There were other signs people had had enough of the violence. Commissioner Eudaly, a favorite of the activists, was unseated by someone backed by the police union. And when I asked a local news editor, whose paper had pretty much been in the bag for the protests, if he had a contact at the PNW Youth Liberation Front, he wrote back, “If I had the names of the little criminals who run PNWYLF, I would have published them! [If they] were all torn apart by bears, as in the book of II Kings, I would consider that the work of the Lord.”

The situation in Portland did not improve after the election. Activists kept marching nightly. They swarmed the house of a newly elected city commissioner because he’d voted against the latest measure to defund the police. They vandalized 27 businesses along a six-block strip in Northeast Portland. They established an “autonomous zone” called Red House, ostensibly in support of a black and Native American family facing eviction. And on New Year’s Eve, they used Molotov cocktails and other high-powered incendiary devices to cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage in downtown.

Long but well worth a read, to see a leftist-monopoly city implode gradually, and then suddenly, to paraphrase Hemingway on bankruptcy.

SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Scientific American asks if climate anxiety is ‘a form of white fragility or even racial anxiety.’

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Yes. The answer is yes.

ENTIRELY ADEQUATE NUMBERS, IF LESS IMPRESSIVE THAN SOME OTHERS: AstraZeneca says U.S. trial shows COVID-19 vaccine almost 80% effective.

Though interestingly, I know one person who got the Astra Zeneca vaccine last summer in a trial, and she also came down with Covid recently. Ironically, she’s the most Covid-paranoid person I know. Her case, however, consistent with the findings above, was quite mild. Her take: “I’ve had worse hangovers plenty of times.”

Then again, that was basically my Covid experience too, with no vaccine.

IF IT’S NOT CLOSE, THEY CAN’T CHEAT: Report: Democrats Going All In to Take Iowa House Seat They Lost by Six Votes.

(Classical reference in headline.)

RACISM STRAIGHT UP: Report: Top Health Insurance Provider Tells Employees Not To Hire White Men.

SEEN ON HELEN’S PAGE: Free Military Thriller.

PRIORITIES: Biden Offers Hotel Rooms for Illegals, but Let the National Guard Sleep in a Parking Garage.

I MAY BE WRONG, BUT I FEEL LIKE THE “VARIANTS” ARE BEING OVERSOLD: Existing vaccines may protect against the Brazilian coronavirus variant.

Also, if “Chinese coronavirus” is racist, why isn’t “Brazil coronavirus variant” racist? Answer: Brazil isn’t bribing and blackmailing academics and journalists.

PUSHING BACK AGAINST WOKE IDIOCY AND PRO-PRC SYCOPHANCY: Academic Freedom Alliance stands with USD Law Professor in China Controversy. “Not only is the interpretation of Professor Smith’s phrasing as a slur based on race or national origin a tendentious misreading of the blog post in question, but the suggestion that a single phrase in a single blog post commenting on the behavior of the Chinese government and international health agencies can trigger the procedures of the university’s harassment policy sends a chilling message to all faculty.”

That’s what it’s meant to do.

Plus: “The Academic Freedom Alliance calls upon USD leadership to adhere to its academic freedom principles by rescinding its denunciation of Professor Smith and terminating all disciplinary proceedings against him based on his March 10, 2021 blog post.”

THE REST OF IT, HE WASTED: Self-Proclaimed Black Lives Matter Leader Indicted For Spending Donations On House, Guns, And Prostitute. He doesn’t look very black in the picture.

MARK JUDGE: Matt Damon and What Makes a Good Death.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A MUCH BIGGER BLOG: California’s 2021 Job Killers.

Much of California has been completely shut down or at a reduced capacity for the past year.  Unemployment is still high, with approximately one million individuals out of work compared to the year before the pandemic hit.  According to EDD, almost every sector of the economy saw a reduction in their workforce in 2020.  Small businesses have shut down, or are barely holding on.  It is estimated that about 44% of small businesses are at risk of shutting down permanently as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Small business revenue is down more than 30% in California, with some sectors being down more than 70%.    According to Visit California, hospitality and tourism lost $59 billion in 2020 and California is not likely to reach pre-pandemic travel related spending until 2025.  And while the increased vaccine distribution is promising and providing optimism that we may be close to the end of this pandemic, no one knows for sure. The Governor and federal government continue to remind people to be vigilant against the virus to curb any rise in infections.

Despite the uncertainty, loss, and devastation to California’s economy, the Legislature has introduced bills to: (1) increase taxes on targeted groups of Californians, even though California currently has a $15 billion surplus with another $151 billion coming from the federal relief package to state and local governments, schools and other sectors; (2) expand labor and employment mandates including additional protected leaves, new threats of litigation and costs, and forced unionization, all of which will burden struggling employers; and (3) even though it is well acknowledged that California has a significant housing shortage, there are bills to limit or eliminate housing production in the State. There is also a bill that will eliminate oil and gas production in this State to address climate change, even though it will put thousands out of work and make California more reliant on importing oil and gas from other states or countries with less restrictive environmental laws than California. And finally, a proposal has been introduced to completely overhaul the entire healthcare system in California, while we are still in a pandemic, and have the Government take over and manage it.

Coming soon? The Californication Of America.

JUST THINK OF THE MEDIA AS DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATIVES, AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: Cuomo had staffers document which networks covered his press briefings and for how many minutes a day: Report.

A VIP TWOFER FOR OUR GOLD MEMBERS: Why My Trust in the Military Has Been Shattered.

I can’t begin to tell you how difficult it is to write these words, but my trust in the military has been shattered by its rapid surrender to the Woke Brigades that took over Washington on January 20.

As many others have noted, over the last 30 years or so, the military has consistently been our last remaining public institution enjoying broad public support.

Under the Biden Administration, our armed forces are becoming just as politicized as the DOJ under Eric Holder, Lois Lerner’s IRS office, or James Comey’s FBI.

Our Infotainment Industry, which just spent the last four years crying “Fascist!” about President Donald Trump and any Republican to the right of Mitt Romney, is mostly silent.

That one is from, and here’s another from our managing editor, Paula Bolyard: Berkeley Prof Robert Reich Knows the REAL Reason We Oppose D.C. Statehood. Can You Guess?

You really can’t.

But if you aren’t already a VIP subscriber, don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code.

DON SURBER: Government experts do not know what they are doing. “Ashli Babbitt was an Air Force veteran who stormed the Capitol on January 6. The overwhelmed Capitol Police panicked. An officer shot and killed her in the only violent death that day. It was the first act of the post-President Trump regime. A media that spent all summer bestowing sainthood on a man who died from a drug overdose has stoically ignored Babbitt’s tragic death at the hands of a police officer. Between the metro police, the Capitol Police, and the assorted law enforcement arms of various government agencies, Washington has the highest number of cops per capita in the nation. Nevertheless, Congress dragged in 25,000 Guardsmen from across the nation to protect buildings from imaginary attacks by right-wing boogie men. None dared call it crazy but it is, was, and always will be crazy.”

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT! The American media: the CCP’s useful idiots.

Read the whole thing.

PEW RESEARCH: Lockdowns Prompting Devastating Levels of ‘Psychological Distress’ Among Young People.

RIP: Elgin Baylor, Lakers legend, dead at 86.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS MAKE GOOD VILLAINS BECAUSE THEY GENUINELY WANT TO MAKE YOUR LIFE WORSE: THE HARM DONE BY ENVIRONMENTALISTS. The environment is just the excuse.

WELL, THAT’S NOT GOOD: Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” Beta Is Just Laughably Bad and Potentially Dangerous.

PRESIDENT WHO? It’s a Monday, a Disaster Is Unfolding and Joe Biden Just Called a Lid.

HIT BACK TWICE AS HARD: Defamation? Babylon Bee Is Considering Legal Options to Counter NYT Cheap Shot.

PROGRESS? Nanotech cannabis is here, and it makes edibles look downright prehistoric.

INTRODUCING A BIGGER BLOG: A Timeline of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Nursing Home Scandals.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: One of Our Presidents Is Missing!

Where’s Presidentish Joe Biden when you need him most?

Scratch that. Poor wording on Insanity Wrap’s part. No one has ever needed Biden, except as the occasional hatchet-man for bad Democratic projects like the 1994 crime bill and poisoning the well for judicial confirmations.

But you know what we mean: The country, we’re obliged to at least stipulate, needs a president. And Biden is AWOL.

Welcome, one and all, to a special “One of Our Presidents Is Missing” special edition of Insanity Wrap.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Biden White House…

…but were afraid was true.

WILL THIS BE LIKE DIESEL? Volkswagen Announces EV Battery Push.

BREAKING: Kay James Resigns From the Heritage Foundation.

I BELIEVE THIS. Happiness Can Be Learned.

WELL, THEY WERE SHOWN MONTHS OF PANICMONGERING BY THE MEDIA: Majority Of Americans Grossly Overestimated COVID-19 Hospitalization Rates.

ESPECIALLY IF THEY’RE ENGINEERS: Astronauts in crewed missions to Mars could misread vital emotional cues.

BREAKING: Trump to Return to Social Media With His Own Platform Soon.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY IN MUTTI MERKEL’S GERMANY: Several German states want German COVID curbs extended to April: draft plan.

HELEN’S PAGE, PHASE TWO: So, thanks to all the InstaPundit readers who served as volunteer testers, we’re now ready to invite people over to look around the site. It’s not done yet, as there are still some issues we’re nailing down, but a lot of you have been curious about how the site is coming along, so I thought it would be nice to have an Open House. Poke around the place, look at our sample listings for books, legal, furniture, films, or whatever strikes your fancy.

Hope you like it! Feel free to put up a listing of your own if you like; listing is free for 30 days, but you will have to register and enter payment information to confirm that you’re a real person. Browsing is open to everyone, though, just click to agree to the terms of use and look around.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Trump EVISCERATES Biden’s Border Policy: ‘Turned National Triumph Into National Disaster.’

WHAT WENT WRONG: The Sinking of the Golden Ray.

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS EXCLUSIVE: Read the Shocking Pentagon Training Materials Targeting Conservatives in the Military.

SHOCKER: Bill Moyers casually smears the Federalist Society with laughably false claim.

I haven’t forgotten that Bill Moyers asked the FBI to investigate two men who were “suspected as having homosexual tendencies.”

More on Bill Moyers here and here.

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT, BIDEN’S GOTTA GIVE IT: Democrats Push ‘Drive Plastic Manufacturing To China’ Act. “Congressional Democrats are offering up a bill whose effects will be to destroy the American plastics industry and drive manufacturing to China.”

THE PRESS IS HIDING THIS BECAUSE THEY CAN’T PIN IT ON TRUMP: Project Veritas Exposes SHOCKING Images of Kids Packed Like Sardines in Border Facility.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Apple and Facebook’s Fight Isn’t Actually About Privacy or Tracking.

Apple isn’t going to stop developers from tracking you. It’s also not against personalized ads, as Facebook refers to the targeted advertising it shows you based on your internet activity. If you want to share everything you do online with Facebook, Apple won’t stop you. In that case, a developer can still collect the IDFA for the purpose of targeting ads or tracking conversions.

Apple is just going to require developers to be transparent about what data they want to collect and how they want to use it. Then, they have to ask your permission.

That’s what the real fight is over–transparency. And, it’s why Facebook is so worried.

Facebook’s problem is that, if given a choice, many people will choose not to allow tracking. A recent survey from AppsFlyer, an attribution data platform, shows that almost half of all users (47 percent) are likely to opt-out of tracking.

That’s the dirty little secret it would rather not talk about. Facebook doesn’t want you to think about tracking, and certainly doesn’t want you to have a choice.

In other words, it’s a very progressive firm.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HATE: USC College Republicans expose abusive messages sent to conservative students.

The College Republicans at the University of Southern California have taken matters into their own hands to expose abusive messages sent to conservative students after they say university officials have done nothing to help stop the online bullying.

The initiative is called Trojan Truths and aims to expose and challenge the hateful messages they have received from others on campus by publishing the comments for the world to see.

The series consists of actual screenshots of messages sent to center-right students from peers, edited to conceal full names. The USC GOP then adds thoughtful rebuttals.

I think it’s generous to conceal the names. I don’t think hatemailers have a legitimate expectation of privacy.

WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? Noem ‘Neutered’ Bill Protecting Women’s Sports. “Gov. Noem’s veto would scrap the vast majority of the bill text and would strip protections for female athletes in collegiate sports in the state. Additionally, it would eliminate all reasonable enforcement mechanisms, neutering the legislation so much as to render it meaningless.”

WELL, THAT’S WHAT SOCIALISTS DO — THEY STEAL THINGS AND THEY CENSOR PEOPLE: Anti-socialism memorial vanishes overnight. “The Young Conservatives of Texas at Sam Houston State University set up a memorial on the evening of Feb. 23 to honor victims of socialism only to find it gone the next morning. The night before an event against socialism, the Young Conservatives of Texas at Sam Houston State University planted 1,000 red flags on the lawn near the Lowman Student Center to represent the more than 94 million lives lost to socialism. The next morning, however, the flags were nowhere to be found.”

FASTER, PLEASE: Israeli company says oral COVID-19 vaccine on its way. “Oramed’s technology can be used to orally administer a number of protein-based therapies, which would otherwise be delivered by injection. Oramed is in the midst of a Phase III clinical trial through the US Food and Drug Administration of an oral insulin capsule for type I and type II diabetics.”

The “faster, please” seems a little presumptuous, given how quickly Warp Speed and other programs have produced results.

A BREAKDOWN OF ANTI-ASIAN “HATE CRIMES:”

The best data I’ve found for 2020, the salient period for this discussion, are provisional data on complaints and arrests for hate crimes against Asians in New York City, one of two cities which seem to have been most affected. They record 20 such arrests in 2020. Of those 20 offenders, 11 were African-American, two Black-Hispanic, two white, and five white Hispanics. Of the black offenders, a majority were women. The bulk happened last March, and they petered out soon after. If you drill down on some recent incidents in the news in California, and get past the media gloss to the actual mugshots, you also find as many black as white offenders.

This doesn’t prove much either, of course. Anti-Asian bias, like all biases, can infect anyone of any race, and the sample size is small and in one place. But it sure complicates the “white supremacy” case that the mainstream media simply assert as fact.

And, given the headlines, the other thing missing is a little perspective. Here’s a word cloud of the victims of hate crimes in NYC in 2020. You can see that anti-Asian hate crimes are dwarfed by those against Jews, and many other minorities. And when you hear about a 150 percent rise in one year, it’s worth noting that this means a total of 122 such incidents in a country of 330 million, of which 19 million are Asian. Even if we bring this number up to more than 3,000 incidents from unreported and far less grave cases, including “shunning”, it’s small in an aggregate sense. A 50 percent increase in San Francisco from 2019 – 2020, for example, means the number of actual crimes went from 6 to 9.

Is it worse than ever? No. 2020 saw 122 such hate incidents. In 1996, the number was 350. Many incidents go unreported, of course, and hideous comments, slurs and abuse don’t count as hate “crimes” as such. I’m not discounting the emotional scars of the kind of harassment this report cites. I’m sure they’ve increased. They’re awful. Despicable. Disgusting.

But the theory behind hate crimes law is that these crimes matter more because they terrify so many beyond the actual victim. And so it seems to me that the media’s primary role in cases like these is providing some data and perspective on what’s actually happening, to allay irrational fear. Instead they contribute to the distortion by breathlessly hyping one incident without a single provable link to any go this — and scare the bejeezus out of people unnecessarily.

It’s not unnecessary if it’s necessary to their chosen political narrative.

Also, if anti-Asian hate crimes are such a white-supremacist thing, why do most of them occur in deep-Blue cities? (Bumped).

UPDATE: Related: “Everyone who’s posting ‘stop Asian hate’ should need to publicly take a position on whether universities should be allowed to systematically exclude many Asian applicants for the explicit reason that they are Asian. It’s easy to post the trending hashtag of the day in response to a clearly horrific mass murder, but would you ever be willing to speak out against less visible forms of discrimination against Asian-Americans?”

Also: Anti-Asian “hatred” shows up mostly in university admissions.

Plus: Dear White Liberals, We Asians Aren’t Your Pawns. “My brother replied that there were over 3,800 incidents of anti-Asian violence last year, yet you didn’t check on us. The friend said he didn’t know. My brother said, of course not—because no one besides us Asians cared. But now that you see a perp is a white male from the South, you start to care. You have to make this about YOU making a political statement rather than really caring about us, the Asian Americans. . . . My brother told his ‘friend,’ or his ‘ally,’ to snap out of trying to be the white savior.”

THE TIMELINE THAT UPENDED EASTER DEBATE: There are 13 days left before Easter, so there is a bit more talk than usual about the event that precipitated the holiday. It wasn’t that long ago that doctoral students claiming a literal resurrection of Christ would be laughed off campus.

But the debate has radically changed in recent years, due in great part to the timeline Dr. Gary Habermas explains in this excerpt from a famous lecture he delivered at the Veritas Forum. It’s based entirely on sources skeptics and believers largely agree are credible. That’s why it changed the debate from derision to a genuinely open discussion.

COME SEE THE RACISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: ‘Teen Vogue’ Staffer Who Seized on New Editor’s Racist Tweets Had Racist Tweets of Her Own.

CHANGE: The New U.S. News Law School Rankings Methodology: Implications And Predictions. For the first time, they’re punishing schools with high graduate debt, which is a good thing. The weighting may not seem like much, but given that the rankings are actually pretty tight, even a small difference in score can move a school several places.

MICHAEL BARONE: What explains Biden’s chameleon-like transformation?

About the Biden transformation, there can be no question. The senator who opposed government financing of abortions for 30-some years now supports it up through the ninth month of pregnancy.

The Judiciary Committee chairman who sponsored and bragged about the tough provisions of the 1994 crime bill now decries systemic racism and echoes almost the entire Black Lives Matter mantra.

The politician who supported the welfare reform bill that Speaker Newt Gingrich kept pressing until Bill Clinton, facing reelection, decided to sign it in 1996, has now concocted “COVID relief” legislation that includes multiple thousand-dollar payments to single mothers with no work requirements.

I don’t think Biden has any view anymore. I think he’s just a vessel for his handlers at this point.

Related: There Is No Biden Administration. “Biden’s face is everywhere, but there’s no real sign that he’s actually running anything. Instead the Biden administration seems to be exactly the kind of mess that the 25th Amendment was designed to prevent in which a non-functional president is the figurehead for the cabinet members and the special interests who are actually calling all the shots. The Potemkin village that is the Biden administration was built in two tiers with establishment cabinet members who appear more moderate presented for Senate approval while extremists were being placed in key positions to set policy on everything from civil rights to Iran.”

#RESISTANCE: Protests spread across Europe as coronavirus surges create new lockdowns.

SKYNET FROWNS: New York lawmaker wants to ban police use of armed robots.

HILARIOUS: Bruce Gilley writes at the James Martin Center: “[I]n December of last year, the [Portland State University—American Association of University Professors] ‘voted overwhelmingly’ to officially condemn my research on colonialism. In a bizarre twist of logic, the PSU-AAUP justified its action by declaring that it ‘stands for academic freedom’ but does ‘not stand for hostile work environments created under the guise of academic freedom.’ In other words, by conducting research according to accepted methods and publishing my findings, I have somehow created a hostile work environment for my colleagues who have repeatedly attempted to censure me.”

This kind of problem is everywhere these days, including, most recently, at my own cute little law school.

BUT NYU WILL TAKE A BOLD POSITION AGAINST “ANTI-ASIAN HATE.” China Regularly Abuses NYU Students. NYU Keeps Taking Chinese Money Anyway: NYU receives millions from regime.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, CULTURE OF CORRUPTION EDITION: Cornell University, Pursuing Partnership with China, Can’t Say Whether Beijing is Guilty of Genocide.

JOHN FUND:  IDs for a Vaccine Shot, but Not for Voting?

MAYORKAS CLAIMS BORDER IS ‘CLOSED:’ Right. And President Biden regularly works out on a Stair Climber. Meanwhile, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) predicts a million illegal border crossings by summer.

TO BE FAIR, USD PROBABLY GETS A LOT OF MONEY FROM THE PRC: University investigates professor for criticizing communist regime.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Today We’re Gonna Party Like It’s 2019. “Colorado has 3,000 people a day applying for background checks,” I was told. “The backlog is pretty bad.”

GEORGETOWN’S KNEE-JERK FIRING OF A PROFESSOR HAS BAD CONSEQUENCES FOR BLACK STUDENTS: “Do Black students receive lower grades in law school? If so, why? It has now become dangerous to ask those questions. And that’s very bad news for anyone who cares about systemic racism — or freedom of speech — in the United States. We’ll never solve America’s glaring racial inequities unless we can also talk about them.”

The goal isn’t to “solve” anything, it’s to give people a shot of self-righteous dopamine. Nothing in the “woke” project is about making the actual lives of actual black people better.

YOU KNEW IT: Joe Schoffstall, with help from Matthew Foldi, exposes the left-wing money machine behind Fix Our Senate, the “grassroots” campaign to blow up the filibuster.

NEWSOM PRAISED BY ANTI-VAXXERS: Interesting how Washington Free Beacon needles California’s recallable governor this morning.

YES, BUT AMERICA IS IN THE CENTER: Biden’s firing squad stands in a circle: With no one in charge, none of Washington’s recent threats is consistent with identifiable policy objectives.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE HAS SUFFERED A BREAKDOWN DUE TO EXHAUSTION: Biden aides had ties to large tech companies, disclosures show.

LIBEL WIN: Project Veritas vs. New York Times. “The New York Times is a disgrace to journalism. While current defamation law makes it almost impossible for a plaintiff who is a public figure to win–hence the impunity with which organizations like the Times feel free to lie about their political enemies–it will be interesting to see what facts emerge from this lawsuit.”

In my Rethinking Libel in the 21st Century, I offer some ways courts can fix current libel law, without even having to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan.

ABOUT THAT ‘AMERICAN COMPASS’ LABOR MOVEMENT: Capital Research Center’s (CRC) Michael Watson, intrigued by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) supporting the unionization movement within Amazon, did some digging into American Compass and found a couple of major Lefty funding outfits.