REPLACEMENT THEORY IN CENSUS DATA: You know the theory: Democrats, led by President Joe Biden, opened U.S. borders to enable the importation of millions of new voters who will be loyal to the party symbolized by the braying donkey. But is that really what is going on?

The always curious lads at Issues & Insights (I&I) did some digging into U.S. Census Bureau data on net migration flows since 2020 and here’s what they found:

“We broke out net international migration numbers into counties that voted for Biden and those that voted for Trump. What did we find? Of the more than 2.5 million international migrants, more than 2 million went to counties that voted for Biden. Which means fewer than 500,000 of them ended up in counties that voted for Trump.

“Here’s another way to look at it: Of the 100 counties with the largest gains from net international migration since 2020, all but eight of them voted for Biden in 2020. At the other end of the spectrum, of the 100 counties with the lowest levels of net international migration, only five voted for Biden.”

You have to assume the newcomers will vote the same way continuous residents do in order for the Replacement Theory to hold water. But, as I&I notes, be prepared to be labeled racist and xenophobic if you do. And don’t expect an apology when the returns come in election night and we all see the result.

MORE NUKES IS GOOD NUKES: Biden administration announces $1.5 billion loan for first reopening of a shuttered nuclear plant.

The plant operated from around 1977 through 2022 and was acquired by a Louisiana-based utility in 2007. When brought back online, the Energy Department projects the 800-megawatt Palisades plant will produce power through at least 2051. The state Legislature has also allocated $150 million to recommission the facility. The administration and the state of Michigan have set a target of a late 2025 restart.

“Nuclear power is our single largest source of carbon free electricity, directly supporting 100,000 jobs across the country and hundreds of thousands more indirectly,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, in a statement. “President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is supporting and expanding this vibrant clean energy workforce here in Michigan with significant funding for the Holtec Palisades nuclear power plant.”

“Once open, Palisades will be the first successfully restarted nuclear power plant in American history, driving $363 million of regional economic impact and helping Michigan lead the future of clean energy,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said in a statement. “I am so grateful to my bipartisan partners in the Michigan Legislature, the Biden-Harris Administration, Holtec, and labor for coming together to get this done. Together, we are showing the world that Michigan is a place where history is made by hardworking people.”

It’s the right thing to do, of course, but Democrats doing it reeks of desperation.

I SEEM TO REMEMBER THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY AS “REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKES AND EXPECTING A DIFFERENT OUTCOME”: The Biden administration wants to shape the final settlement of the Israel-Hamas war to give a “revamped” Palestinian Authority control of Gaza.

What color is the sky in Joe Biden’s world? JustTheNews reporting that:

“The Biden administration’s plans for post-war Gaza center on boosting the Palestinian Authority (PA), which currently controls significant portions of the West Bank and is ruled by the Fatah party, to take control over the coastal strip despite consistent corruption warnings and poor governance.”

***

“Former Chief of Staff of the National Security Council under the Trump Administration, Fred Fleitz told Just the News that the Biden administration’s effort to boost the PA while overlooking both corruption and security concerns stems from a naive view of international security and domestic political motivations. “It’s politics,” Fleitz said, explaining that the Biden campaign is concerned over alienating reliable Democratic Muslim voters in key swing states such as Michigan, with a dense Arab population.”

Democrats are willing to trade Israel for Michigan, it seems.

 

 

WHAT A BARGAIN: EV maker slashes prices as it tries to avoid bankruptcy.

California-based electric vehicle startup Fisker slashed the prices of some of its vehicles as it fights to avoid bankruptcy after a potential deal with another automaker fell through.

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the 2023 Ocean electric SUV lineup in the U.S., which is equipped with Fisker’s 2024 Ocean OS software version 2.0, fell by tens of thousands of dollars.

Fisker lowered the MSRP for the 2023 Ocean Extreme trim from $61,499 to $37,499, the company said Wednesday. The 2023 Ultra trim will be priced at $34,999, down from $52,999, and the 2023 Sport will be priced at $24,999, down from $38,999, according to the automaker.

Cashflow is cashflow, and they need it.

There’s also this: Tesla Bulls Turn Bearish As ‘Nightmare’ First Quarter Comes To An End.

SKED FOR THIS AFTERNOON AT 1:37 PM ET: United Launch Alliance to launch final Delta Heavy IV rocket March 29. Here’s how to watch live. “In addition to the Delta IV Heavy, ULA plans on retiring another one of its rockets: The workhorse Atlas V. The idea is to make way for the company’s new Vulcan Centaur, which launched on its first mission on Jan. 8, 2024 when it sent Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander moonward. The Atlas V will keep flying through 2029, however, as it is already booked for missions to help develop Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet constellation and send Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule to the International Space Station on its first launch, slated for no earlier than May 1.”

Deltas and Atlases have a great history, but both rockets are older than me. The future is elsewhere.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Will Dems’ Abandonment of Law Enforcement Finally Haunt Them in 2024? “As we’ve seen in recent years, it’s not just that the left is anti-law enforcement, but that they’re pro-criminal. Donald Trump and his supporters are the only people they want to see in jail, the real bad guys get sent right back out to return to their criminal ways.”

CHANGE: New Georgia Voting Rules Approved. “While there are plenty of people talking about improving election security, Georgia appears to be doing something about it. Just in time for this year’s elections, the Georgia legislature has passed reforms that will impact access to the presidential ballot. They have also altered the rules defining the criteria for being able to submit a ballot and how ballots can be challenged. Ballot challenges will be under strict scrutiny this year with more people expected to be monitoring the process from each party, particularly in swing states like Georgia. The measure has been sent to Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who is expected to sign it into law. Needless to say, many Georgia Democrats are not happy about this.” Of course they’re not. It makes cheating harder.

Also: Shocking Court Ruling Says Ballots Must Be Signed and Dated.

THE TIMES LOOKS BACK ON COVID: “The New York Times looks back on covid, four years down the road, and says ‘Here’s what we’ve learned.’ I would say we have learned some things that the Times doesn’t touch, like the idiocy of shutting down stores, businesses, churches and, especially, schools. But admitting that would be a bridge too far for the Times. Even on the lessons the Times acknowledges, you sometimes have to read between the lines.”

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: My chat (+transcript) with Spencer Weart on the history of nuclear energy fear.

Interesting, but missing here is that as the Vietnam War ended, activists turned to the anti-nuclear movement — in some sense created it — in order to preserve the infrastructure, and fundraising, that had been created for the Vietnam antiwar movement. The issue is never the issue, the issue is always the revolution. And the grift. Always the grift.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: The Department of Education’s FAFSA Fiasco.

If, like me, you have a college-bound high-school senior in your family, you’ve likely been on the receiving end of yet another colossal screw-up by our federal government: the overhaul of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as the FAFSA. Every year, students (or more commonly their parents) need to fill out the FAFSA with information about their income, assets, and expenses in order to qualify for federal student aid. Many colleges require the FAFSA before awarding other forms of need-based aid, and some require it to be filed even by people without need before they can qualify for scholarship aid. There’s a more detailed and onerous form, the CSS, operated by the College Board and required by some schools. Filling these out is like doing your taxes, only more so. Typically, the forms are available in October, and schools may set filing deadlines in the fall so that they can deliver financial-aid awards at or near the time they send out acceptances.

Not this year. The FAFSA wasn’t even fully available until January 8, after the Department of Education briefly flicked on the lights on the form on December 30 just so it could claim that it launched in 2023. I was on two college visits over the weekend; one school said that it was just starting to receive the first batch of FAFSA need assessments for its accepted students, and the other had decided in the fall that this was going to be a disaster and pushed its date for students to commit to the school back from May 1 to June 1. For schools with rolling deadlines, that means that students who are ready to commit now will have a leg up on those whose decisions hinge on available aid. It also means that undecided students may end up wasting time visiting campuses they would otherwise have crossed off their lists by now. On Monday, Gavin Newsom signed an emergency law extending by a month the deadline for California students to apply for scholarships, and the state has already pushed back the commitment date to May 15.

From there, things get worse:

Even so, in late 2022, Republicans were willing to pony up more funding for the project, but with one condition: Not a penny of the money could be spent on Biden’s illegal student-loan-forgiveness program. Biden chose to turn down the money and let the FAFSA burn rather than accept that condition, and then the Supreme Court struck down his loan-forgiveness scheme anyway. Now, the bill for that brinksmanship is coming due, and college applicants and their parents are the ones who’ve been stuck with it.

Never underestimate Joe’s ability — or eagerness — to f*** things up.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The War at Stanford. “We’re only in our third week of college, and we’re afraid to be here.”