Read it.

The problem with a Joe Biden speech is that he doesn’t believe anything he says.

When Reagan claimed to hate the dirty red commies, his personal history and actions in office backed up the statement. When George H.W. Bush promised to spread democracy around the world, even his harshest critics knew he believed it — and shuddered.

Not so with Biden. He boasts of bipartisanship in one paragraph, then accuses Republicans of killing Social Security in the next. One sentence on unity, the next ties a lefty nudist’s attack on Paul Pelosi to January 6. He demands an end to fentanyl, then ignores the issue until the next State of the Union.

Between his stilted cadence and mumble-whisper-SCREAM delivery, you wonder if Biden even knows what he’s saying.

Trump is the latest Republican to avoid his most notable success (MSNBC)

Why Trump’s secret plan for the war in Ukraine is unbelievable (MSNBC) Can’t be much of a secret if MNSBC knows about it.

Club for Growth Snubs Trump Ahead of Annual Donor Retreat

Why the Stormy Daniels Charges Might Actually Reach Trump This Time (Slate)

Newsom calls for federal probe into soaring natural gas prices

Japan Plans to Dump Fukushima Wastewater Into a Pacific With a Toxic Nuclear History (TIME)

Six foods that climate change is going to ruin (Salon)

Fake environmental reviews are killing good housing projects. Here’s what California can do about it (S.F. Chronicle)

For One Small Town, “Forever Chemicals” Are a Nightmare That Won’t End (Mother Jones)

Exclusive: Huge chunk of plants, animals in U.S. at risk of extinction (Reuters) ‘Exclusive’? In what sense? Climate alarmists have been ringing this gong for the past 50 years.

India Predicts 500% Increase In Domestic Natural Gas Demand

Brain Freeze? American Ski Team Focused On Climate Change

BP Pivots On Climate Promises

Mexico opposes restart of U.S. ‘Remain in Mexico’ immigration policy (Reuters)

Foreign Nations Poured Millions Into University That Houses Biden Institute  Taking a page from the Clintons.

Networks Yawn as Biden Releases ANOTHER Terrorist from Gitmo

Operation ‘Dump Kamala’ Is Officially On

10 Brand NEW Hunter Biden Breaking Stories the Nets Are Burying

In his SOTU, Biden will call for plugging gaps in his health policies (Washington Post)

Biden’s a Great President. He Should Not Run Again. (N.Y. Times) Hack journalist Michelle Goldberg tries to square the circle.

‘Social justice’ hijacks therapy, foreign bands, stay away and other commentary (N.Y. Post)

Must an Antioch student bow down to ‘social justice’ dogma to graduate? (The Hill) Well, yes.

‘Defund Police’ lawmaker ripped for hypocrisy after LAPD was called to watch staffer’s Lexus (Fox)

Florida State University has been seized by the DEI bureaucracy (Fox)

Britain’s NHS was once idolized. Now its worst-ever crisis is fueling a boom in private health care (CNN) Eventually you run out of other people’s money.

Surfing Champ Won’t Compete Against Trans Athletes

Facebook, Instagram Censor Vid of Project Veritas Confronting YouTube VP

NYC Is So Bad That Migrants Are Fleeing To Canada

The Astonishing Transformation of Austin (The New Yorker) They love it because they can be a mini-California without California’s crippling taxes and regulations.

Tucker Mocks Hell Grammys Sponsor: ‘Tonight’s Transgender Satanism Brought to You by Pfizer’

‘Trans Kids Are Magic!’ NBC’s ‘Quantum Leap’ Reboot Promotes Biological Males in Female Sports

We don’t need any new ideas to fix the Supreme Court. Just one very old one. (MSNBC)

Tucker Carlson knows exactly what he’s doing (Washington Post) Continuing the Hunter Biden coverup.

Pot is making people sick. Congress is playing catch-up. (Politico) Think of it as evolution in action.

As basic health care grows unaffordable, the rich seek eternal youth (Washington Post) Unaffordable for whom? Not for the poor, who can just show up at a hospital and by law must be treated whether they can pay or not.

Mane of terror: the sorry return of long-haired men (The Guardian)

Chelsea Handler Defends Cancel Culture: Just Don’t Be Racist or Sexist

Socialist Students Protest Sasse on First Day as UF President

Smithsonian Kicks out Students Over Pro-life Hats

Sen. Daines responds after Twitter suspends his account for hunting photo: ‘My wife is a great shot’ (Fox)

PBS Anchor Fights with GOP Rep. Chip Roy on ‘Un-American’ Border Bill

Lemon Declares GOP Making Americans ‘Suffer’ Through Biden Probes

Disney+ Kids Show ‘Proud Family’ Pushes Anti-White Hate

The High School ‘Asshole’ Who Became a Blackface-Wearing Neo-Nazi Homeschool Dad (Vice)

Cringey 23-Year-Old Mayor Quotes Steve Jobs to Defend His Trumpian Coup (Daily Beast) Trump cooties! They’re everywhere!

Black History, Uncensored: Alice Walker rejects GOP’s view for women (MSNBC)

Biden Admin Distributes ‘Black Resistance’ Flyers to Border Agents

PBS Promotes Apocalyptic Folkie Twisting Black Spiritual Into Green Jeremiad

Up in Smoke: Black Activists Slam Kathy Hochul for Proposed Menthol Cigarette Ban

Rep. Katie Porter Says Governor Should Keep Promise to Choose Black Woman to Fill Feinstein’s Seat (NBC) Katie Porter is, of course, white.

N.Y. School Regrets Serving ‘Insensitive’ Meal During Black History Month  I guess chicken and waffles are waaaaaaacist.

Zeldin dumps campaign treasurer he shared with Santos (Politico)

Journalist finds something unusual in George Santos’ campaign expenses (CNN)

Meet the Auschwitz survivor saluted by George Santos in Congress (The Forward)

Susan Quinn: Get Rid of George Santos

Santos’ unusual $199.99 campaign expenses are putting scrutiny on his longtime treasurer (CNN)

Santos expected to face House ethics committee probe (CNN) But no probe of Maxine Waters for funneling funds to her daughter’s business.

McCarthy: House Ethics Committee Investigating GOP Rep. George Santos

Eric Adams lifts COVID vax mandate for NYC workers — but what of the 1,780 fired? (N.Y. Post)

COVID in California: Mask mandate returns to 4 Marin County elementary schools (S.F. Chronicle)

Experts Want Labels For Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines Updated To Acknowledge Limitations

California Quietly Ditches COVID-19 Mandate For School Children

The Disaster of Covid Shutdowns

ZMan does some dusting.

Last month Paul Gottfried wrote a brief note in Chronicles about an event hosted by The Philadelphia Society. The event was a virtual debate between Christopher Owen and Glenn Ellmers on the topic of which is the more important founding document, the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. Presumably, this is some sort of old person role playing game where the two men reenact the debates between Harry Jaffa and Willmoore Kendall from half a century ago.

Read it.

We now know, of course, that lockdowns had a minimal impact as a public health measure. But they capsized the best economy (in an election year) in 40 years. Just in time to get President Joe Biden elected. How convenient.

Read it.

The predilections of the ultra-rich will likely loom over politics and policy debates for decades to come. In the U.S., nonprofits’ assets have grown nine-fold since 1980. In 2020, nonprofits brought in $2.62 trillion in revenues, constituting more than 5.6% of the U.S. economy. And this process is just beginning, as the boomers begin to leave behind their riches. The consulting firm Accenture projects that the Silent Generation and baby boomers will gift their heirs up to $30 trillion by 2030, and up to $75 trillion by 2060.

Yet this bounty will be highly limited due to the rapid concentration of assets in ever fewer hands, with the top 1% in the U.S. increasing their share by roughly 50% since 2002. The class implications of this process are profound. The winners clearly will be the small pool of big inheritors, as we already see in Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott; Bill Gates’ now-discarded wife, Melinda French Gates; and Laurene Powell Jobs, the left-leaning publisher of The Atlantic and the widow of Apple’s founder.

Read it.

It’s undeniable that Rasmus Paludan has really got the world’s 7.8 quadrillion Muslims riled up. There have been large demonstrations against Sweden in majority-Muslim countries all over the world, and — as reported here earlier today — culture-enrichers in Germany have let it be known that their feelings are hurt.

Now it appears that the USA and the UK are warning their citizens to keep a low profile in Sweden, due to the possibility of Islamic terrorist attacks. But how can that be? Everyone knows that Islam is the religion of peace ’n’ love.

Considering what they do sua sponte, ‘triggering’ would seem rather redundant.

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

Read it.

Britain’s National Health Service is a product of the socialist wave that overtook the U.K. following World War II. It has long been held up as an exemplar by those who seek to impose socialized medicine in other countries, like ours. But today, the state of the NHS is dire. The Wall Street Journal headlines: “The U.K.’s Government-Run Healthcare Service Is in Crisis.”

Eventually you run out of other people’s money.

NYT: How Dare the Greatness of Ta-Nehisi Coates Not be Taught to Children?

Black Share of Homicide Offenders Grew from 46% in Early 1980s to 64% in 2020

Why does ‘The 1619 Project’ worry people? It offers a peek at the truth. (Washington Post) According to the Narrative.

Looks Like Cops Put a Fake MLK Quote on a Police Cruiser for Black History Month (Vice)

Where Was the Fact-Checking? CBS Sucks Up to Factually-Challenged Nikole Hannah-Jones

The Latest Crisis: Not Enough Black Women Meteorologists

American universities are hiring based on devotion to diversity (The Economist)

Connecticut armed robbers shoot store owner who pulls out legal firearms and kills suspect: cops (Fox)

Pension debt, property taxes, budget holes: Chicago’s next mayor faces huge financial problems

Ex-NY Gov. David Paterson slams asylum process, calls it a budding ‘industry’ (N.Y. Post)

Medicaid rolls swell as 8 million New Yorkers get coverage at expected record- price of almost $35B (N.Y. Post)

‘It’s now come to our doorstep’: Librarians find themselves at the center of increasingly bitter culture wars (Boston Globe)

It is hard to admit being wrong. But Brexit voters are doing so in droves (The Guardian) Oh,  I don’t believe that.

East-Oregon Movement To Secede And Create ‘Greater Idaho’ Picks Up Steam

Fresh Calls For UK To Ditch European Human Rights Laws To Take Back Control Of Its Borders

STUDY: Five Months Of Late Night: 93 Liberal Guests, 1 Conservative

EU Commission, Suspected of Islamist Links, Appoints Islamophobia Czar

Unfortunately, the Biggest Election Case of the Supreme Court Term Could Be Moot (Slate)

Ticket to ride: NYC mayor gives free bus tickets to Canada for asylum-seekers (Hot Air)

Dobbs Was Always Just the Beginning (Slate)

Chinese spy balloons under Trump not discovered until after Biden took office (CNN)

The Mob Boss Tactic Trump Uses to Keep People From Flipping (Daily Beast)

Prospects rise for NY charges against Trump in Stormy Daniels case (The Hill)

Mark Pomerantz on investigating Donald Trump (CBS)

Trump should be charged with corruption, says former Manhattan prosecutor (MSNBC)

Trump’s ‘24 game plan: Be the dove among the hawks (Politico) The chance that someone writing for politico has even the vaguest clue about Trump’s 2024 game plan is slightly above zero.

Inside the Trump Campaign’s Plan to Take Down Nikki Haley (Daily Beast) Needless to say, the chance that anybody writing for the Daily Beast has even the vaguest clue about any Trump  Campaign plan is slightly above zero.

Mark Pomerantz on investigating Donald Trump (CBS)

Environmental protests have a long history in the U.S. Police had never killed an activist — until now. (NBC) Maybe that’s the key, then.

Billionaire-Backed Green Group Working To Ban Gas Stoves Counts Chinese Official as Top Adviser

Study: 40 Percent of Animals in US Face Extinction  And yet they never go extinct. Funny how that works.

Monday Mirthiness – Diesel Powered Wind Turbines? Yes, Really.

Wind-Power Makers Suffer Huge Losses, Want To Abandon Major Project

Wake up, Corporate America: You can’t bribe, threaten, or feed people to get them back in the office (Boston Globe) Sure you can.

Gas stove makers have a pollution solution. They’re just not using it (NPR)

‘Autocrats’: Receipts bust house GOP for secret MAGA deal after admission (MSNBC)

Ron DeSantis ramps up war on education (MSNBC)

Ted Cruz Can’t Say Why He Wants Two-Term Limits AND a Third Term (Daily Beast)

Denialism is seeping into legislation and undermining public health (The Hill)

DeSantis wants a ‘core curriculum.’ That idea is college kryptonite. (The Hill)

Politico Story on Twitter Uniting Europe Devolves Into Fierce Elon Musk Attack

Neo-Nazi leader and girlfriend accused of targeting Md. power stations (Washington Post) Everybody worries about ‘neo-Nazis’ but nobody worries about actual Communists. I wonder why that is.

The View’s Ana Navarro Tries to Pin Balloon-Gate on GOP: China Loves That ‘Republicans Turned This Into a Big Drama’ (MEDIAite)

Soros-Funded Group Targets Elon Musk for Engaging with ‘Right-Wing’ Twitter

Santos is accused of harassing prospective staffer in his D.C. office (Washington Post)

About Those 2,500 Dogs That George Santos Claims He Saved (N.Y. Times)

George Santos, who claimed mom survived 9/11, invites ground zero volunteer to SOTU (ABC)

Read it.

The number of criminal offenses, including violent knife attacks and sexual assaults, rose considerably on trains and at train stations in Germany over the past year. Official government figures reveal that incidents involving knife attacks more than doubled compared to the previous year.

While the federal police registered 398,848 criminal offenses on trains and at train stations in 2022, an uptick of roughly 12% compared to the previous year, 336 knife attacks—82 on trains and 254 at train stations—were recorded, representing an increase of 102% year over year, the Hamburg-based newspaper Der Spiegel reports.

According to the statistics collected by the federal police last year, 71 suspects were investigated for violent crimes involving the use of knives on trains, 36 of whom were classified as “non-Germans”—just over 50%. In the previous year, that figure was six of 25, or 24%.

Of the nearly 400,000 criminal incidents, 14,155 were classified as assaults. There was a slight rise in assault cases involving “other dangerous tools” like baseball bats, at 97 (seven more than the previous year), and in assaults involving firearms, at 5, only two more than recorded in 2021.

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

New York school, food vendor apologize for serving chicken and waffles on first day of Black History Month  I guess it ought to have been chitlins’ & collard greens.

PBS Host, Top Journalism Dean Agree Black Officers Motivated by White Supremacy

Revised AP African American Studies curriculum delivers course students deserve (N.Y. Post)

Latino Media Cheer Biden Push To Make “Latino” A Race In 2030 Census

Washington DC Has Given Up Penalizing Fake License Plates Because Blacks Use Them More

CNN: Why Do Black Brains Differ from White Brains? Racism!

A Storm’s Brewing At Home For Donald and Melania Trump With New Stormy Daniels Case Defense Strategy (Vanity Fair)

Trump Will Never Stop Reminding Us That He Hates Free Speech (Daily Beast) Like being called ugly by a frog.

Yes, Chinese Spy Balloons Flew Over The U.S. When President Trump Was In Office Too (Forbes) SO THERE! (Trump, top national security officials refute claim that Chinese spy balloons transited US under his admin)

Koch Network, Aiming to ‘Turn the Page’ on Trump, Will Play in the G.O.P. Primaries (N.Y. Times)

Koch network to back alternative to Trump after sitting out recent primaries (Washington Post)

“It’s Disinformation”: Trump, Former Officials Slam Anonymous Report Of Chinese Spy Balloons Under Their Watch

Ukraine Situation Report: Kyiv’s Modern Tank Corps Begins To Take Shape

F-22 Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off Carolinas With Missile

US downs Chinese balloon, drawing a threat from China (Associated Press)

Kremlin-Linked Group Arranged Payments to European Politicians to Support Russia’s Annexation of Crimea (OCCRP)

Here’s how spy balloons work (CNN)

LEADERSHIP: Mistrust And Diversification

Mayor Adams hunkers down for frigid night with migrants inside Brooklyn Cruise Terminal (N.Y. Daily News)

Hunter Biden’s shady biz partner handled transfer of Joe’s Senate papers to Delaware (New York Post)

‘MAJOR PROBLEM’: Biden knew Hunter’s laptop was ‘bad news’ so he lied, Devine says (Fox)

Biden slaps 20-year mining ban on Minnesota land, gives more power to China

ABC Poll Shows Trump Beating Biden, Karl Befuddled by Results

Petulant NPR Reporter Predicts Media Will Continue Ignoring Hunter Scandal

What Debt Ceiling? Biden Admin Gears Up to Blow $400 Billion on Soft Green Energy Loans

DeSantis files complaint against Orlando Philharmonic for hosting drag holiday event (The Hill)

The Neo-Nazi Hunter Next Door (Rolling Stone)

Tom Brady, Cheating Trump Fanatic, Ruins ‘80 for Brady’ (Rolling Stone)

‘Miserable’ Marjorie Taylor Greene Whines That Her Congressional Salary Is Too Low (Daily Beast)

SNL Roasts Santos, MTG and Trump’s ‘Big Ole Dump Truck’ (Daily Beast)

Ron DeSantis Moves To Strip Florida Venue’s Liquor License For Christmas Drag Show (Huffington Post) They can dish it out, but they can’t take it.

Theater Of The Absurd In J6 Courtrooms

Don’t Let Republican ‘Judge Shoppers’ Thwart the Will of Voters (N.Y. Times)

An ex-Romney presidential campaign strategist says Nikki Haley ’embodies the collapse’ of the Republican Party (Business Insider)

As G.O.P. Rails Against Federal Spending, Its Appetite for Earmarks Grows (N.Y. Times) Nothing compared to Democrats, of course.

Facebook, Instagram Threaten To Restrict Or Ban Project Veritas

AR-15 lapel pin is a perfect symbol for a GOP that’s become a death cult (Philadelphia Inquirer) Will Bunch loses his shit. (At least he’s quit calling it an ‘assault rifle pin’.)

Forgotten words: ‘A well regulated Militia’ (The Hill)

Americans Continue To Flee High-Tax New York And California — Here’s Where They’re Going

Equity is the New Communism

The rise of universities’ diversity bureaucrats

U.S. plans to stop buying Covid shots for the public this fall. Here’s what that means for you (CNBC)

CDC tracking new, potentially dangerous COVID variant (NBC)

How is the World Health Organization funded, and why does it rely so much on Bill Gates? (EuroNews)

It’s Official: Ugly People More Likely To Wear Masks – University Study  And who could blame them?

Everything You Need To Know About The Lab Leak (But Were Not Allowed To Ask)

Ex-staffer claims George Santos sexually harassed him, violated pay rules (N.Y. Post)  Joining the witch-hunt for fun and profit.

George Santos Is Accused of Sexual Harassment in His Capitol Office (N.Y. Times)

Read it.

Americans are sorting themselves into red and blue states. To be fair, though, the sort is mostly a one-way street: millions are leaving failing blue states and flocking to Florida, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, South Dakota, etc.

As this realignment of population continues, states seem to be doubling down. California and New York edge farther to the left, while in Minnesota, my state, Democrats are proposing to increase personal income taxes to the second highest rate in the nation, thus driving the state further into irrelevance. But that is a minority trend.

Read it.

It looks like the citizens of the village of Upahl in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are going to need to install bundling-boards in their beds, because they’ll be welcoming almost as many “refugees” as there are local residents.

500 culture-enrichers will be imposed on 700 townspeople, and for a while it looked like there would be no accommodations for them. But a container facility in a meadow has just been approved — against the wishes of the local populace — so Upahl can now expect to be fully enriched.

“Here I am! I want to live in your country! Give me money!”

What is the best alternative to a wood-burning stove? (The Guadian)

Wood-burning stoves attract thousands of neighbour complaints – but just two fines in six years (The Telegraph)

Climate disasters hit poor people hardest. There’s an obvious solution to that. (Vox)

Will the world run out of critical minerals? (Washington P0st)

Climate change and a population boom could dry up the Great Salt Lake in 5 years (NPR)

Carbon capture project is ‘Band-Aid’ to greenwash $10bn LNG plant, locals say (The Guardian)

Upsurge in Rocket Launches Threatening the Earth’s Ozone Layer, Warn Scientists (The Weather Channel)

A rapidly growing rocket industry could undo decades of work to save the ozone layer – unless we act now (The Conversation) The Conversation ought to change it name to The Lecture.

Virtual simulation shows impact of sea level rise, Category 5 hurricane on West Palm Beach

Should We Start Preparing for the Evacuation of Miami? (The Nation) Couldn’t hurt.

HomeFeatureBritish Houses Worth 584 Million Pounds To Fall Into The Sea Due To Coastal Erosion: Report (NDTV)

DeSantis Moves To Eliminate Taxes On Gas Stoves As DoE Makes Major Push To Regulate

The Ministry of Climate Truth

The Climate Crisis Is Threatening Spain’s Saffron Crop  (Wired ‘Science’)

LA Times Claim that the World Can “quickly phase out all fossil fuels” is Completely Incompetent

California won’t require COVID vaccine to attend schools (Associated Press)

The public health emergency is ending. Covid isn’t. (Politico)

How quickly does COVID immunity fade? What scientists know (Nature)

Immune Response to COVID-19 Strengthens Over Time – Important Implications for Vaccine Boosters (SciTech Daily)

It turns out that masks are mostly a symbolic talisman

Colbert Preaches to His Masked-Up Parishioners

Will there by an H5N1 pandemic for humans?

The most important secret George Santos is keeping (CNN)

The One Lie That Could Get George Santos in the End (Daily Beast)

George Santos may owe thousands for traffic violations in two states (CBS)

George Santos: ‘I’ve kept 100 percent of my campaign promises’

Of course New Yorkers are furious at the red carpet rolled out for the migrant wave (N.Y. Post)

‘Constantly displaced’: migrants to New York City seek housing in freezing cold (The Guardian)

‘Latinx’ and other woke ‘inclusive language’ has ‘gone overboard,’ warn liberal pundits: ‘It’s a joke’ (Fox)

The dark side of ESG: data ‘sweatshops (UnHerd)

Sims 4 trans-inclusive update faces culture war backlash in record time (PC Gamer)

Hochul addresses New York’s asylum-seeker crisis (WGRZ)

They’re Not Even Bothering to Try to Cover Up Anymore

Nature: Mathematics Needs to be Decolonized Because Too Many Theorems and Techniques Are Named After Gauss

The Grammar and Rhetoric of Media Bias

Soros-Backed Lobbying Hotline Launched for EU Officials

Newsom’s wife made $1.4M charging schools to screen her documentaries

Democrats Overhaul Party’s Primary Calendar, Upending a Political Tradition (N.Y. Times)

House GOP embraces mainstream media after years of bashing ‘fake news’ (Washington Post) Uh, not really.

Miami police cruiser’s Black History Month design draws criticism (CBS) Racist History Month has its problem.

Ta-Nehisi Coates on the right-wing backlash to teaching Black history (MSNBC) The Halfrican take.

Internal Records Show San Diego Cops Have Done Some Wildly Racist Sh*t (Daily Beast)

The Meaning of African American Studies (The New Yorker) It’s all about hating white people.

Councilwoman Fatally Shot Outside New Jersey Home Was ‘Targeted’  As a Republican.

On PBS NewsHour, Capehart Implies His Mother Picked Cotton…In New Jersey?

The Systemically Racist Black Memphis Police

The Long Overdue and Much Awaited Return of Aspiring Rapper Update

More on the Dana Point “White Privilege” Killer

Memphis: Systemic Racism-Determined Police Brutality or Typical World Star Hip-Hop Behavior?

MSNBC On 1619 Project Critics: ‘The Criticism Is Not Legitimate’

What The Media Won’t Tell You: The Squad, Race And Anti-Semitism

How Prosecutors Say a Top F.B.I. Agent Sold His Services Overseas (N.Y. Times)

Jim Jordan Subpoenas Garland, Wray Over School Board Memo Used Against ‘Domestic Terrorist’ Parents

Next Media Narrative: How Joe Biden Defeated the Evil Chinese Spy Balloon

Ukraine Situation Report: Kyiv Officially Getting Long-Range Rocket-Boosted Bomb

China rushes to cap damage over suspected spy balloon as Blinken delays trip (Washington Post)

Putin’s Men Fear ‘Minced Meat’ Fate in New Offensive (Daily Beast)

How Russia dodges oil sanctions on an industrial scale (The Economist)

Ukraine dispels the myth of American decline (The Hill)

Enter the hunter satellites preparing for space war (Ars Technica)

Report: Russia to Use Hypersonic Missile During ‘War Games’

It’s 2023. Why are militaries still using spy balloons? (Politico) Well, they’re cheap….

Canada Reports ‘Potential Second Incident’ With Massive Chinese Balloon

High-Flying Balloon Seen as Part of Broader Chinese Spy Program (Bloomberg)

NYT Claims Russian Troop Deaths Nearing 200K, Far Surpassing All Prior Estimates

Secret CCP Overseas Police Station In NYC Closed After Reported FBI Raid

How and when will the Ukraine war end?

INFORMATION WARFARE: Righteous Misinformation

EU To Train 30,000 Ukrainian Troops As Kiev’s Losses Mount

179 Soldiers Freed In Significant Ukraine-Russia Prisoner Swap

The NYT should tell readers whether it helped crooked FBI agents get Trump elected in 2016 (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Trump trashes ‘ambitious’ potential 2024 rivals in sprawling interview (The Hill)

N.Y. prosecutors group says former Trump investigator violated ethics with book (Washington P0st)

Prosecutors likened Trump to mob boss and had to prove he wasn’t insane – book (The Guardian)

Why Tom Fitton’s misguided advice to Trump matters (MSNBC)

NYC Prosecutors Had to Prove ‘Trump Was Not Legally Insane’ (Daily Beast)

Trump 2016 Campaign to Pay $450,000 to Settle Non-Disclosure Case (Bloomberg)

Jamie Raskin on why Trump charges are ‘almost inevitable’ (MSNBC)

Democrats, Seeing a Weaker Trump, Are Falling in Line Behind Biden (N.Y. Times) Lacking a yellow dog. Biden will have to do.

An insider’s critical view of an investigation of Donald Trump (Washington Post)

Forget Trump, Democrats Are Preparing Ways to Beat a DeSantis Campaign (Bloomberg)

MAGA rebuked on TV: See Ebro tell U.S. to face ‘Who we are’ from Jan. 6 to police brutality (MSNBC)

The right’s anti-ESG crusader (Axios)

Big Oil reaps record profits while the planet burns. California should curb its greed (L.A. Times)

Let me mansplain: studies reveal impact of condescension (The Guardian)  Such as this on the part of The Guardian.

Veteran sues after being arrested for holding ‘God bless the homeless vets’ sign (Fox)

After College Board Victory, DeSantis Faces CNN Smears of Racism

NY Times Smears Scientist on Front Page for Daring to Defend Gas Stoves

Democrats Propose Abraham Lincoln Statue Removal  After all, he was a Republican.

Republicans have a big Kari Lake problem (Washington Post)

MSNBC Invokes The Bible While Claiming Russia, China Love DeSantis

MSNBC: ‘January 6 Now! January 6 Tomorrow! January 6 Forever!’

U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry

The blue Midwest is where DeSantis’s school crackdowns ‘go to die’ (Washington  Post) Paul Sargent must be taking a vacation day from bashing Trump.

Read it.

I posted last month about the Greater Idaho movement, which aims to move the border of Oregon to the west, allowing rural Oregonian counties to join Idaho, with which they are culturally and politically compatible. Initially there would be eleven counties that would switch from Oregon to Idaho, while others would be added later, possibly including several from northern California, and giving Idaho a Pacific coastline.

A bill to begin the consultation process with Oregon was formally introduced in the Idaho legislature earlier this week.

Read it.

The high and mighty NFL and City of Phoenix thought they could restrict free speech in Arizona’s capital city. They thought wrong. A judge on Friday smacked down their attempts to allow only Super Bowl-related messaging for businesses in the weeks leading up to the league’s championship game.

While cozying up to the NFL in the run-up to the Feb. 12 Super Bowl, the lefties who run city government in Phoenix passed the “Super Bowl Censorship Ordinance’’ to restrict business sign messaging to only Super Bowl-related language.

An Arizona trial court judge, Bradley Astrowski, ripped apart that blatant attack on free speech, declaring the ordinance “an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech and an unconstitutional delegation of power.” The city was given 48 hours to review the plaintiffs’ request to advertise in his own business window space that he has property available for leasing. Bramley Paulin was represented in his lawsuit by the Goldwater Insitute, a Phoenix-based legal firm that works to advance, defend and strengthen the freedom guaranteed by the U.S. and state Constitutions.

Read it.

Islamic law is very strict concerning sexual intercourse: it must not under any circumstances occur outside of marriage. Shi’ite Muslims, however, have devised an ingenious workaround: the “temporary marriage”. A man who is feeling sexually deprived simply pays an imam to perform a marriage between himself and a woman who agrees to the arrangement in return for a (small) cut of the fee. Afterwards, as soon as his caftan is covering his ankles again, he intones Talaq! Talaq! Talaq!, and the divorce is finalized.

Shi’ites in Sweden were recently discovered to be engaging extensively in such temporary marriages, and the Swedish authorities were shocked — shocked! — to learn that such an egregious exploitative practice was occurring in their beloved Folkhemmet.

The following report from the Swedish state broadcaster SVT discusses all this pimping for Allah. The general thrust, as it were, is: Don’t worry — the imams now have an action plan, and everything is under control.

Read it.

The Associated Press added an entry to its style guide directing journalists to put the term “crisis pregnancy center” in scare-quotes, and to use “anti-abortion center” instead, to convey that “the centers’ general aim is to prevent abortions.”

The AP added this entry between Nov. 20 and Nov. 27, 2022, according to The Daily Signal’s search of the Wayback Machine. The guide describes the centers as “set up to divert or discourage women from having abortions” and warns writers against “potentially misleading terms” like “pregnancy resource centers or pregnancy counseling centers.”

“If using the term anti-abortion center, explain later that these often are known as ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ (with quotation marks) and that their aim is to dissuade people from getting an abortion,” the style guide entry states.

Law barring people with domestic violence restraining orders from having guns is unconstitutional, court rules (CNN)

Pursuing economic growth will kill us all in the end (The Guardian)

Kathy Hochul wants to boost ‘atrocious’ tax credit for her Hollywood donors to $700M (N.Y. Post)

Progressive NYC Democrat Lincoln Restler thinks city should coax migrants to stay longer (N.Y Post)

What happens if the Supreme Court strikes down student loan forgiveness? Here are 3 predictions (CNBC)

Civil Rights Groups Take Aim at Oklahoma Bills to Ban Gender-Affirming Care

DC Metro Shooter Had Prior Assault Dismissed by Progressive DA

Democrat Bill Seeks to Make Minnesota ‘Trans Refuge’ State

Leftist Lunacy Means Being ‘Transgender’ Is More Important Than Being the ‘Right’ Gender

The Latest Hunter Biden Revelation Is a New Low (New York Magazine)

EU Institutions Raise Alarm Over False Asylum Claims

Friday Funny: Jane Fonda: “There’d be no climate crisis if it wasn’t for racism”

Morning Joe: We Stand With Ilhan ‘All-About-The-Benjamins’ Omar!

Fla. Mom Pressing Charges Against Students who Beat her Kids on Bus

Exxon reports record profits, doubles down on fossil fuels (Salon)

Palm oil is actually not that bad (anymore) (Vox)

Carbon capture is here—it just isn’t evenly distributed (Ars Technica)

Aim for the Stomach (Mother Jones)

Energy experts share how the U.S. can reach Biden’s renewable energy goals (NPR)

‘Hypocritical’: environmental groups blocking union efforts, US workers say (The Guardian)

Americans’ Climate Migration Has Begun (The American Prospect)

Large glacier near Seattle has ‘completely disappeared,’ says researcher who has tracked it for years (CNN)

Fuel dealers, customers balk at clean heat proposal (WCAX)

The ocean twilight zone could store vast amounts of carbon captured from the atmosphere – but first we need an internet of deep ocean sensors to track the effects (The Conversation) With a plentiful contingent of highly-paid government bureaucrats to man the whole system.

U.S. Permian Basin oil production — and profits — have surged (Axios)

Environmental advocates push feds to investigate Texas’ enforcement of water quality (Texas Tribune)

Seawater split to produce green hydrogen with nearly 100% efficiency

Seawater electrolysis by adjusting the local reaction environment of a catalyst

The New Pause lengthens again: 101 months and counting …

Climate Envoy John Kerry Faces Congressional Investigation Over ‘Secret’ Dealings With China

Lying and Denying: Left Is Still Out to Take Away Your Gas Stove

BYU profs create new nuclear reactor to produce nuclear energy more safely