Democrats, immigrant advocates raise red flags over Biden border plan: ‘Deeply disappointed’

DeSantis activates National Guard as hundreds of Cuban migrants arrive in Florida (Politico)

Message from US asylum hopefuls: Financial sponsors needed (Associated Press) Here we are! We want to live in your country! Give us money!

Oil industry exec rips White House after surprising Keystone admission: Biden created ‘economic boondoggle’

Cubans Crossing Into US Stunned to Hear of New Asylum Limits Here we are! We want to live in your country! Give us money!

Report: Texas AG Sues Biden Admin Over Welfare Rule for Immigrants Here we are! We want to live in your country! Give us money!

Biden Releases Latest Plan to Funnel Illegal Migrants into the United States (Center for Immigration Studies)

Court May Force Hunter Biden To Disclose Buyers of His Pricy Artwork  Thinly-disguised bribery.

Voters Remorse: Rapper Cardi B Complains About Inflation, ‘F**king $7’ Lettuce

Biden’s Bloated IRS Will Skewer Taxpayers

Report: Democrat-Run Border City Clears Out Migrant Encampments Ahead of Biden Visit

WATCH: Joe Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week (Vol. 24)

Taxpayer Dollars Could Reach Terrorists Under Biden Admin Aid Changes, McCaul Says

The feds say they’re in for the long haul in the Jan. 6 investigation. There is a time limit. (NBC)

Nation In Shock As Politicians Show Up To Work 4 Days In A Row (Babylon Bee)

Writer calls for ‘anti-fat bias’ training, condemns ‘triggering’ workplace health programs (N.Y. Post)

Civil rights organization blasts Chicago mayor, top cop for not firing officer for his links to the far-right Proud Boys (Chicago Sun-Times) BRAAAAAAAINS!

Southern Poverty Law Center wants CPD officer fired (CBS)

The ‘Stolen’ Election That Poisoned American Politics. It Happened in 1984. (Politico) Pushing that ancient Narrative.

Enablers, line-straddlers and quiet resisters: How GOP lawmakers contributed to Jan. 6 (Politico)

A Harvard professor’s book asks: What if the Jan. 6 attack had succeeded? (Washington P0st) Only a Harvard professor could believe that Jan. 6 was an attack or that it could have ‘succeeded’. (When the Narrative is based on fairy-tales, those who write fairy-tales for a living cash in.)

Adam Schiff: Republicans are currently being led by ‘chaos agents’ (MSNBC)

What the Jan. 6 Committee Report Left Out (Politico) Facts?

Why the Godfather of Human Rights Is Not Welcome at Harvard (The Nation)

NBC’s Law and Order Attacks Texas Gov for Busing Illegals to NYC

‘The Democrats, the Republicans and the Freedom Caucus’: Inside the right’s plans to seize power in the new Congress (Grid News)

Supporters raise millions to rebrand Jan. 6 rioters as ‘patriots’ (Washington Post)

House Democrats connect Jan. 6 to GOP’s speakership fight (Axios) Of course they do.

Meacham Alleges Republicans Oppose The Declaration Of Independence  Another fairy-tale for the Narrative.

Hostin Blames DOJ for Speaker Gridlock, Need to Arrest Holdouts for J6

Gavin Newsom Blames Republicans for January 6 Riots in Inaugural Address  My, what a surprise.

California Law Allowing Private Residents To Sue Gunmakers Takes Effect

NPR Attacks Rush Limbaugh and Salem Radio in Seven-Minute Hit Piece on ‘Right-Wing Radio’

The January 6 Attack Is Not Over (The Atlantic)

FLASHBACK: Lib Media Used ‘Bridgegate’ to Kneecap Hillary Foe

CNN, MSNBC Accuse GOP Of Helping China Discredit Democracy

A Puritanical Assault on the English Language

Mother Of Ashli Babbitt Arrested For “Jaywalking” Near Capitol While Protesting

Read it.

Over the last decade, “The Science is Settled” has been a major refrain of American life. As so many critics have noted, this phrase is not an empirical statement. People who challenge the “settled” state of science explain that science is a process of discovery and not a conclusion. They aren’t wrong, but they unfortunately assume that “the science is settled” is meant in good faith. It’s not. The slogan is a form of rhetorical bullying. Its singular purpose is to create an illusion of certitude in order to preempt any meaningful debate about the natural world, public policy, and the role of scientific knowledge in democratic deliberation.

Read it.

Education policy became a top issue in 2021’s gubernatorial race in Virginia. Parents were fired up about the breakdown of public schools, from extended school closures during the pandemic to contentious left-wing doctrine being inserted into official curricula. Republican Glenn Youngkin rode this wave to the governor’s mansion. Once there, he quickly racked up several victories for the movement for greater parental rights in education, including banning Critical Race Theory, issuing new guidance on how schools should accommodate transgender students and rescinding mask mandates in schools.

Rolling Stone.

Among the major factors in McCarthy losing over a dozen speakership ballots, people familiar with the matter say, was the severity of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s enmity toward the Republican leader. Gaetz’s intense and personal distaste for McCarthy has been an open secret in Washington political circles for years, so much so that Gaetz and McCarthy’s colleagues would argue it isn’t even a “secret” at all.

But Gaetz’s hatred curdled into something even more powerful after it was revealed in early 2021 that the MAGA congressman was the target of a federal investigation into the sex trafficking of a minor. (No charges were filed against Gaetz, but his “wingman” Joel Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison.) McCarthy, in Gaetz’s opinion, failed to mount a forceful enough defense on his behalf. According to two sources familiar with the matter, Gaetz has been furious at McCarthy for the perceived lack of support ever since — despite the fact that McCarthy did not strip him of any committee assignments during the probe.

What goes around, comes around.

Read it.

The House Jan. 6 committee, while posting hundreds of records online during its final weeks, included in the cache a spreadsheet containing nearly 2,000 Social Security numbers associated with people visiting the White House in December 2020, including those of three members of former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, some GOP governors, and several Trump allies.

“Whether it was a careless and sloppy handling of records or a deliberate disregard of decorum, either scenario is a perfunctory and callous display of government and a frightening reminder of the current state in Washington,” former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, whose name and Social Security number were included on the spreadsheet, commented to The Washington Post.

Read it.

In the eyes of the modern Left, suffering is a virtue. For them, the greatest thing a human being can achieve is to be a victim.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that opportunistic leftists, hoping to achieve clout in their social circles doling out cachet to the downtrodden, have begun to embellish or outright lie about their victimhood status to gain attention and perks.

Take the story of Kay LeClaire, a white woman who was recently exposed as faking Native American ancestry in Madison, Wisconsin.

LeClaire claimed a plethora of tribal identities alongside Cuban and Jewish roots, just to fill those last few spaces on the oppression bingo card. Oh, and she also identifies as nonbinary, because no modern leftist identity is complete without a silly new gender.

George Will (a Princeton alumnus).

Squalls of indignation gust across campuses so frequently that they seem merely performative — synthetic, perfunctory, uninteresting. Princeton’s current contretemps, however, fascinatingly illustrates how wokeness, which lacks limiting principles, limits opposition to itself.

Since 2001, a statue of John Witherspoon (1723-1794), the Presbyterian minister recruited from Scotland to be the then-college’s president, has adorned a plaza adjacent to Firestone Library. Now the woke, who subordinate everything to “social justice” as they imagine it, demand its removal because he owned two slaves and did not advocate immediate abolition.

New Covid strain is the most transmissible yet, WHO says (Politico)

New COVID omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is ‘spreading like wildfire’ in US: Health experts reveal why (Fox)

What the great reopening means for China—and the world (The Economist)

Meet the biology professor who named the surging ‘Kraken’ COVID variant. He has more to help make sense of Omicron’s ‘alphabet soup’ (Fortune)

Pentagon Scrambles to Prep New COVID Rules as Vaccine Mandate Nears End (Defense One)

Biden toughens border, offers legal path for 30,000 a month (Associated Press)

Biden fumbles during speech, appears not to know Title 8 border law, mislabels CBP (Fox)

Hunter Biden child support case could reveal buyers of his art, docs show (N.Y. Post)

‘IT WAS WORKING’: Arizona border residents blast decision to remove container wall (Fox) Which is why it had to be destroyed.

Biden Seeks To Solve Border Crisis—by Making It Easier To Enter the United States

‘Everything Tripled’: Rapper Cardi B Slams Biden Economy

Fact-Checking 5 Fibs From Biden’s Border Speech

Biden to Award Citizens Medals to 12 on Jan. 6 Anniversary

Report: Texas AG Sues Biden Admin Over Welfare Rule for Immigrants

Louisiana AG: Biden Admin Was ‘Actively Involved’ in Suppressing Free Speech Online

Karine Jean-Pierre Claims Everything Has Always Been More Expensive Than Usual

US military starts removing base names, items related to Confederacy (The Hill)

Military to proceed with changing the names of bases honoring Confederate generals (CBS)

On official tours of the U.S. Capitol, there is no mention of Jan. 6 (Washington Post) Guess it wasn’t all that important after all.

Experts Worried Elderly Billionaires Will Become Immortal, Compounding Wealth Forever (Futurism) Experts! That proves it!

Nashville suburb sues Tennessee Historical Commission over Confederate-named streets (Tennessee Lookout)

Laura Loomer Trolls McCarthy With Revenge Text, Savors His Humiliation (Newsweek)

McCarthy speaker spectacle is no joke. It shows the Republican Party will damage America. (USA Today)

Poll: Americans Split on Attention Given to Jan. 6 Probe

Antisemitic Hate Crimes Doubled in NYC as The New York Times Targeted Orthodox Jews, Hasidic Group Says

Liberal Media Agree With Cori Bush: Black Republican Byron Donalds Is a ‘Prop’

McCarthy Destroys His Speakership In Order to Save It (Politico)

CNN Invokes Hamlin’s Cardiac Arrest to Warn Against GOP Lawmakers

Judge Sides With DOJ Over Trump in Mar-a-Lago Document Dispute (Daily Beast)

PBS Pits Rep. McCarthy vs. ‘Hard-Line Right Wingers…Trump Is These People’s Demigod’

Trump Sued by Estate of Capitol Police Officer Who Died After Jan. 6 Attack (Wall Street Journal)

How Trump’s Missing Call Logs Could Become His Nixon Tapes (Daily Beast) Carl Bernstein is waiting in the wings….

The Guardian view on Europe’s heatwave: the door is closing – but there is a way out (The Guardian)

Record Heat Has Turned Europe’s Ski Season Into a Slushfest (Mother Jones)

Four Big Things to Expect in Clean Energy in 2023 (Inside Climate News)

A new world energy order is taking shape (Financial Times)

Comedians made some hilarious jokes about climate change. Were they right? (Washington P0st)

Climate crisis: 4 reasons for hope in 2023 (The Hill)

Manchin’s Favorite Federal Offshore Fossil Fuel Lease Sale Flops (Gizmodo)

New Legislation Would Fund Wyoming Fight Against Closing Coal-Fired Power Plants (Cowboy State Daily)

EU ban on deforestation-linked goods sets benchmark, say US lawmakers (The Guardian)

Here’s how the EU’s new rules could finally turn the tide on tropical forest loss (Reuters)

Amazon deforestation may shrink Himalayan snow and Antarctic ice (New Scientist)

Study: Two-Thirds of Glaciers on Track to Disappear by 2100

Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Prices To Asian Markets Amid Sluggish Demand

Meet The Eco-Movement That’s Hoping For Humanity’s Extinction

Taliban and China firm agree Afghanistan oil extraction deal (BBC)

China And India Are Buying Up Russia’s Arctic Oil

Serially Wrong Paul Ehrlich Is Wrong, Again. We Are Not on The Brink of a 6th Mass Extinction Event

The Wind Power Mirage

Extreme Weather Events Declining

How the Media is Funded by ‘Green Investors’ to Promote ‘Climate Change’

You Wicked Planet Wrecking Coffee Drinker – Think of the Climate Impact!

Connecticut lawmaker dies in wrong-way crash after attending his own swearing-in ceremony (MSNBC) Well, that didn’t take long.

With Affirmative Action Program Under Scrutiny, UNC Backs Racially Exclusionary Scholarships

Read it.

Professor Kyong-Tai Kim and Ph.D. candidate Kyung Won Jo, from the Department of Life Sciences at the Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH), have found that the gossypetin in hibiscus activates microglia, the immune cells in the brain. Their research also showed that these microglia can scavenge amyloid-beta in the brain to improve cognitive function in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.

 

New York Post.

Fortunately, there are ways to find out who’s calling you from an unknown or blocked number. We put together this helpful guide on finding an unknown caller number. (If you’ve ever found yourself asking, “What does unknown caller mean?” or “How to block unknown calls on iPhone?” we’ll explain that, too.) Prevent spam and scam callers from being anonymous with a few of these tricks, starting with a few simple tracing techniques.

Read it.

The company’s first product is an over-the-counter device with an app that measures blood pressure without a cuff or calibration. It’s still waiting for FDA clearance, but Valencell’s technology is already found in other products, such as those from Samsung, Bose, Huawei, Sony, and others.

Steven Hayward at Power Line.

I am not as averse to the current general scene as many commentators. In fact I think there is something useful and healthy to disrupting business as usual in Congress—sort of like the effect Trump had. As I put it on Twitter, not having a functioning House of Representatives is almost as good as a government shutdown.

Read it.

Life is a beach, they say, and we’re all just playing in the sand. Soon, though, there might not be any sand left. That’s because the world is running out of it.

Running out of sand, you ask, how can that be? After all, 33 percent of Earth is covered in desert, and many of these deserts have copious amounts of sand (not all of them, though). Yes, that’s true, but desert sand, like sea sand, lacks the compressive strength needed to construct houses, skyscrapers, roads, and bridges. In other words, when it comes to the world of construction, both desert sand and sea sand are utterly useless. This is why there is a race to secure the limited amounts of appropriate sand available.

Scarcity breeds desperation and this desperation is particularly palpable in China. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has deployed “pirates” to raid neighboring countries. In truth, the “pirates” have been plundering and pillaging for years. In recent times, however, they have zeroed in on Taiwan, stripping the island of its valuable deposits.

And they can blame it on rising sea levels due to ‘climate change’! Win-win!

Read it.

A series of cartoons depicting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were published recently in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

They include a turbaned cleric reaching for a hangman’s noose as he drowns in blood and Khamenei clinging to a giant throne above the raised fists of protesters. Other images depict more vulgar and sexually explicit scenes.

“The insulting and indecent act of a French publication in publishing cartoons against religious and political authority will not go without an effective and firm response,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote on Twitter.

Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
A Muslim waits there
To try to kill you.

Read it.

Under the proposed law, gold and silver would be accepted as legal tender and would be receivable in payment of all public and private debts contracted for in the state of Missouri. Practically speaking, this would allow Missourians to use gold or silver coins as money rather than just as mere investment vehicles. In effect, it would put gold and silver on the same footing as Federal Reserve notes.

Missouri could become the fourth state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender. Utah led the way, reestablishing constitutional money in 2011. Wyoming and Oklahoma have since joined.

Read it.

Democrats paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a consulting firm operated by an illegal alien, which experts say may have violated campaign finance laws.

Antonio Valdovinos, the owner of the Arizona-based La Machine Consulting, has made his status as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient central to his personal narrative. He boasts of his “undocumented” status on his firm’s website and produced an off-Broadway musical,”¡Americano!,” about life as a “Dreamer.” Valdovinos’s immigration status could cause a problem for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which paid his firm, La Machine Consulting, $500,000 to canvas in three battleground states ahead of the 2022 midterm election.

The American Mind.

To understand how to view Trump, I think it’s important to appreciate why the showdown he kicked off is not yet finished.

I’ve explained elsewhere that even when we set aside any claims about outright voter fraud, it’s clear the federal government is no longer accountable to the will of the people. Thus, our electoral system over the last 50 years most nearly resembles the Las Vegas gambling cartel. The casinos have the same relationship to their customers that the permanent government in DC has to the Republican base. The game is designed to maintain the illusion of fairness by consistently permitting a significant number of winners (but never too many). Some lucky folks periodically hit a jackpot—perfectly calculated to impress the gullible. In fact, the casino might even show a quarterly loss now and then. Yet the final outcome, in aggregate, is never in doubt. Over the long term, the house always wins. Sound familiar?

NPR.

The application rate for young people seeking technical jobs — like plumbing, building and electrical work — dropped by 49% in 2022 compared to 2020, according to data from online recruiting platform Handshake shared with NPR.

Researchers from Handshake tracked how the number of applications for technical roles vs. the number of job postings has changed over the last two years.

Bristol Black Lives Matter march organiser denies fraud (BBC)

Crackpot Leftism In Minnesota

Another Grievance Group Fraud From a Not-So-Indigenous Trans Artist

ESG will be a heavy focus for tech leaders in 2023 (CNBC)

The year ahead in ESG: Pledges, politics and biodiversity (GreenBiz)

California’s ban on around 70,000 vehicles takes effect this week (S.F. Gate) You want supply chain problems? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Minimum wage just increased in 23 states and D.C. Here’s how much (NPR)

Would a $20 minimum wage work in Upstate New York? (WRGB)

Country of Immigrants? (The Nation)

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger joins CNN (Axios) I wonder whether he got the traditional 30 pieces of silver as a singing bonus.

LOL: Adam Kinzinger Hired as CNN Senior Political Commentator

Police Failures In Philadelphia Have Made Private Policing More Attractive

First Non-Binary Priest for the Church of England

Ruhle Dismisses U.S. Founding Fathers in Heated Debate with Boebert

2023’s First List of Openly Gay Transgender Nonwhite Accomplishments Ann Coulter keeps score so you don’t have to.

Scotland Police Rename Pedophiles As “Minor Attracted People” at Direction of EU

Soros Doubles Funding to Group Aiming to Pack Supreme Court

Torrent of Taxes Sends New Yorkers Fleeing on Southbound Expressway

‘New Normal’ in Gun Sales: 16.4 Million

Blood Money: NJ Allocates $15 Million To Abortion Provider Upgrades

Propaganda Avalanche: Soros Spreads $131M to Influence Global Media

The View Demands Republicans Capitulate to Democrats in Speaker Vote

Hillary Clinton to Be Columbia University Professor  I am not making this up.

What to Know About the New XBB.1.5 Variant (TIME)

New COVID omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is ‘spreading like wildfire’ in US: Health experts reveal why (Fox)

Fla. surgeon general used ‘flawed’ vaccine science, faculty peers say (Washington Post)

UF says no ‘standing’ to review Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s COVID-19 guidance (Fox) Gee, that’s not what the Washington Post said.

Hamlin’s collapse spurs new wave of vaccine misinformation (Associated Press) Well, if Fauci & Co. hadn’t lied to us so early and often, perhaps that wouldn’t now be a problem.

German doctor jailed for illegally issuing mask exemptions (Associated Press) Thank God you don’t live in Germany.

Debunking claims that Western media is “exaggerating” Covid-19 in Shanghai (France 24)

Anthony Fauci didn’t get the hero’s sendoff he deserved. So it goes in the world of public health (S.F. Chronicle) He deserved to be tarred and feathered.

Experts urge domestic action against winter COVID surge (The Hill) All aboard for the latest PANIC!

Life is getting shorter in America, and the CDC is to blame (Fox)

Health Care Workers Cry Foul On FDA Claiming It Didn’t Prohibit Ivermectin For COVID-19

Zero COVID Ends But Zero Sense Continues

Whitlock Skewers NFL, Big Pharma For Ruling Out Vaccination Harms

Why everyone is going to need a heat pump (Washington Post)

Farming Destroyed Brazil’s Rain Forests. It Could Also Save Them (TIME) Except that there is plenty of rainforest left, they just want to scare people.

Welcome to a new year on a warming planet, now with 8 billion people (AZCentral)

Shadow Carbon Pricing: The Unexpected Costs of Fossil Fuel Opposition (Energy Institute at Haas)

Lowest sea ice on record powers ocean gyres as a heat source that is poised to take out W Antarctica (Daily Kos)

New York Times essay says you should mate with short people to save the planet (N.Y. Post)

New York Times mocked for essay on short people being better for the planet: ‘Ridiculous’ (Fox)

Eelgrass: the endangered marine plant vital to keeping climate stable (The Guardian)

Pa. lets polluter resume drilling in protected zone, outraging Dimock residents in fracking’s ‘ground zero’ (Philadelphia Inquirer)

‘Boys will be boys’: why consumers don’t punish big polluters for greenwashing lies (The Conversation) Perhaps because they just don’t give a shit?

Electric Vehicles Are Bringing Out the Worst in Us (The Atlantic)

Forget the climate: Steep prices the biggest reason EV sales aren’t higher  It’s easy to be ‘green’–if you’ve got the green….

Wash Post: ‘Climate change puts more women at risk for domestic violence’  Climate Change! Is there anything it can’t do?

Europe Experiences a “Climate Change” Heatwave

Climate Enforcers Need Hard Evidence. Friederike Otto Has It (Wired ‘Science’) Evidence is not proof, and climatology is not a science. SCIENCE works every time; it’s not a creature of statistics and probabilities.

Does the world have enough lithium to move to electric vehicles?  No.

Tim Robbins Says COVID Has Become A “New Religion”

‘Fearless’ Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives in Washington to lead Trump probes (Reuters)

Jack Smith returns to U.S. weeks after becoming Trump special counsel (Washington P0st)

The Kevin McCarthy Mess Is Peak Trumpism (Vanity Fair) All Trump! All the time!

Trump Extends His Losing Streak (Morning Shots) Demophile Charlie Sykes puts the slipper in.

FLASHBACK: Everything The Media Said We’d Find in Trump’s Tax Returns

An influx of 300 migrants forces closure of a national park in the Florida Keys (NPR)

Cuban migrants flow into Florida Keys, overwhelm officials (Associated Press)

Biden’s agencies in for a big year (Politico)

Migrants crowd Mexico’s refugee offices amid fears of U.S. policy change (Reuters)

Deleted Biden campaign ad slamming Buttigieg’s lack of experience resurfaces amid multiple crises (Fox)

Senior Taliban: Women’s Education Will Get ‘Permanent Solution’

FBI Agent Who Destroyed Evidence To Indict GOP Sen. May Get Wrist-Slap

Mayor Eric Adams: Migrant Crisis Could Bankrupt NYC  All that virtue-signaling and never a thought for the cost. (The face of the modern Democrat city: Three black politicians and one white cop in the background.)

‘Step Up’: Dem Mayors Demand Biden Take Action To Stem Migrant Tide

President Biden Bashes Republicans While Unveiling New Immigration Plan

Lightfoot ad attacks Garcia, questions his ties to Madigan, cryptocurrency mogul (Chicago Sun-Times) BRAAAAAAAINS!

MAGA humiliation: McCarthy chaos reveals ‘total collapse of the Republican party’ (MSNBC) I see no ‘MAGA’ connection here, other then MSNBC’s obsession with Trump.

Pivotal moments from the select committee Jan. 6 transcripts (CBS) Scraaaaaaape that barrel….

Twitter Files: Musk says US government demanded Twitter suspend 250,000 accounts, including journalists (Fox)

I bought a Tesla to help the environment. Now, I’m embarrassed to drive it. (Bangor Daily News) It’s all about the virtue-signaling.

Judge Slashes Damages Due in Charlottesville Rally Case

Unhinged Joy Reid Attacks MRC’s Brent Bozell for Supporting New GOP Leadership

New York Gun Control Law Unconstitutional: NY Supreme Court

Twitter Files Reveal Hillary Clinton — Of Course! — Was Behind Censorship Push

At trial, Oath Keeper alleges specific plan to stop vote count (Washington Post) Alleges! That proves it!

Colbert Uses Speaker Battle To Suggest Reagan Is In Hell  He must have him confused with Ted Kennedy.

Rep. Donalds Rips Cori Bush for ‘Blatantly Outrageous’ Attacks

Nothing But Rage: The Ginni Thomas Investigation Ends Without A Mention In J6 Report

Read it.

Now I feel even better about my decision nearly two years ago to never drink or buy another Coca-Cola or, as far as I know, another Coke-owned product.

A new, quite believable Twitter feed about the beverage company makes it look even more like a cynical, race-baiting, dishonest bully than it already had appeared. About which, more in a moment.

ZMan is not afraid to ask the obvious questions.

National conservatism, a movement created by Israeli Zionist Yoram Hazony, has gained some degree of respectability over the last decade. People associated with the movement have been given space on mainstream platforms. His conferences get a large crowd of academic types, most of whom get a speaking role. The event is one part academic conference, one part networking event. Of course, it is all made possible by billionaire Peter Theil who underwrites it.

Therein lies the first puzzle. Look at the collection of people associated with the movement and it is hard to find common ground. Peter Theil calls himself a libertarian, but he supported Trump. Granted, the space between Trump’s 1980’s civic nationalism and libertarianism is not that great, but most libertarians threw their dresses over their heads and went squealing into the night when Trump arrived. They joined their friends on the Left in calling him a fascist.

It gets fuzzier when you see paleos like Paul Gottfried and Daniel McCarthy, along with varieties of the “new right” like Michael Anton and Josh Hammer. The only thing these people have in common is support for Trump. Otherwise, they do not have much in common with one another, at least on the surface. Then you have people like Rod Dreher and David Goldman speaking at these events. Hazony’s events are the bar in Star Wars for dispossessed right-wing intellectuals.

Scott Johnson at Power Line.

I have followed the Twitter Files as posted by Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, and David Zweig in a series of Notes on the Twitter Files. Taibbi has now posted a set of capsule summaries of each of the 12 installments posted on Twitter so far at his TK News site on Substack. It is posted here in accessible form. Most of Taibbi’s posts at TK News are behind a paywall. This one is not.

In an italicized note at the conclusion of his summaries Taibbi promises the post will be kept open and updated “as needed.” I take that to mean that Taibbi will add capsule summaries for future Twitter Files installments. Elon Musk — proprietor of the New Twitter and the man without whom we would know none of this — has teased the next installment. It will take up Anthony Fauci.

Women appear to be pretty hard to please.

Joel Kotkin.

In recent decades, progressive politics has been underwritten by the ascendant economic titans of capital, technology, and communication. Big Tech and financial firms have long financed Democratic causes, led by those such as George Soros and the now-disgraced crypto-master Sam Bankman-Fried, who was released last month on a $250 million bail deal.

Yet for all its claims to represent the future, this ephemeral economy is starting to unravel, as the world begins to wake up to the fundamental realities underlying daily life. It turns out that, while they may seem old-fashioned in today’s digital world, material goods actually matter when they are hard to procure. Over the past year, traditional industries such as manufacturing, agriculture and energy have thrived, while media companies have lost $500 billion in value and tech firms have suffered a reversal of an astounding $4 trillion. Today, it’s not steel companies or gas plants that are experiencing mass layoffs, but firms such as Goldman Sachs, Meta, Amazon and Google.

Twitter Files Come Back to Bite Donald Trump (Newsweek) I doubt that he noticed.

Jan. 6 committee yet again debunks Trump claim of 10,000 troops (Washington Post)

‘Fearless’ Special Counsel Jack Smith Arrives in D.C. to Lead Trump Probes

New COVID Variant XBB.1.5: What It Is, Symptoms and What You Should Know (NBC) The first thing you should know, of course, is to PANIC!

Omicron offshoot XBB.1.5 could drive new Covid-19 surge in US (CNN)

America’s health care focus shifting in 2023 (Axios) Finding new reasons to PANIC!

‘Not business as usual’: Health lobbyists brace for Bernie Sanders (Politico)

‘Twitter Files’ Reveal How the Left Uses Big Tech to Create an Illusion of Scientific Consensus and Stifle Debate, Especially on COVID-19

As China Retreats From COVID Lunacy, Lunacy Returns To The US

California Bill To Punish Doctors For ‘False’ Covid-19 Information Goes Into Effect

Let’s Discuss The Real COVID Infection Fatality Rate

John Kerry: rich countries must respond to developing world anger over climate (The Guardian)

4 reasons to give up defending fossil fuels (The Hill)

Scientists say planet in midst of sixth mass extinction, Earth’s wildlife running out of places to live (CBS)

Noise pollution is a menace to humanity – and a deadly threat to animals (The Guardian)

’60 Minutes’ Makes Fake News About Humans Ruining Earth

A Mad Rush To Build More EV Factories, But Where Are The Minerals?

‘60 Minutes’ Peddles Fake News About Humans Overrunning Earth

How We Came to Know and Fear The Doomsday Glacier

Climate Alarmists

Racial Hoaxes as an Excuse for Playing Dress-Up

Workouts and White Supremacy: Exercise History According to TIME

Read it.

Some have criticized the new highly automated restaurant, arguing that McDonald’s is opting to install expensive automation systems to replace employees.

Well, duh. Thank you, minimum wage laws. Thank you, Union label.

ZMan totes up the score.

One of the truths of democratic politics is that enemies tend to be forever, while friends tend to be temporary. The reason is politics is personal. When someone does something to harm you in politics, you take it personally. You remember it long after the harm has been forgotten. When someone does you a favor, in contrast, it tends to be transactional, as the person doing the favor is acting from self-interest. Favors are impersonal, while harms are always personal.

This is something Kevin McCarthy is learning right now. His climb to the speaker’s chair has been sidetracked by a small group of malcontents. They oppose him becoming the next Speaker of the House because they do not like him. More important, they think he is a shameless liar, so they do not trust him. The reason they think this is that Kevin McCarthy is a shameless liar. To get where he is he had to knife people in the back, because he has no other qualifications for the job.

It will never be said publicly, but his role in knifing Congressman Steve King in the back, at the behest of the donor class, burned up his capital. If he is willing to work with the New York Times to ruin a Steve King, how can anyone in the caucus be sure he will not do the same trick to them? Politics is a sleazy business, but the reason to be in a party is to have the protection of the party. McCarthy broke an important rule so he is a man with few friends, only money to spread around.

Read it.

Because that’s the most important thing to know about them, right?

Count me in.

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