COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Israeli study: People with natural immunity have more protection than double-dose vaccinated. Hybrid immunity — those who’ve had the shot and covid — is strongest, though. “The clear winner in protection is hybrid immunity, at least in the near term, although the recently boosted and those with natural immunity from COVID after being infected four to six months ago aren’t far behind. The comparative loser is vaccination, with people who’ve had two doses within the past two months enjoying only as much protection as people who’ve had natural immunity for eight to 10 months. In fact, even that may understate the advantage from natural immunity considering that the unvaccinated paradoxically tend to be more willing to take risks with COVID than the vaccinated are, at least here in the U.S. The average naturally immune person may be exposing himself more frequently to the virus than the average vaccinated person is and yet still getting infected less often.”

Well, the naturally immune mostly experienced Covid as relatively mild and not living up to the hype.

BORIS JOHNSON JOINS THE U.S. ON BEIJING OLYMPICS: BoJo: UK honchos a no-go to Beijing Olympics. “The diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics picked up speed overnight as three US allies joined Joe Biden. Boris Johnson became the latest to join, announcing a few minutes ago that the UK would not send any ministers to the Olympiad in protest of China’s genocidal policies. That would be “effectively” the same as the US diplomatic boycott, Johnson said. . . . Thus far four nations have decided not to send any official delegations, including Lithuania and Australia. Did that get under Beijing’s skin? Just a wee bit, yeah. . . . China’s responses have pinballed between threats of revenge and measured indifference. The effect has been schizophrenic.”

WAR ON CHRISTMAS: Fox News Christmas Tree Catches Fire in Manhattan. The NYT headline makes it sound like spontaneous combustion, but a man has been arrested.

THIS MORNING: New report sheds light on Apple’s supply chain issues, highlights pre-pandemic problems.

Nikkei Asia has released a new report showing how ongoing supply chain bottlenecks and power restrictions in China have forced Foxconn, Pegatron, and other Apple suppliers to produce less, not more.

“Due to limited components and chips, it made no sense to work overtime on holidays and give extra pay for front-line workers,” a supply chain manager told Nikkei Asia.

“That has never happened before. The Chinese golden holiday in the past was always the most hustling time when all of the assemblers were gearing up for production.”

Nikkei Asia interviewed nearly two dozen industry executives in hopes of piecing together the story. As it turns out, the pandemic was only one part of the story.

Last Night: Apple CEO Tim Cook engineered a secret $275 billion deal with China. “Citing both interviews and direct access to internal Apple documents about repeated visits by Cook to China in the mid-2010s, the report describes a $275 billion deal whereby Apple committed to investing heavily in technology infrastructure and training in the country.”

Apple shareholders should have some very pointed questions for Cook about what he got for their $275 billion.

ABANDON THE PARTY AND THE PARTY ABANDONS YOU: Liz Cheney bruised, trails Trump pick by 18 points.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: The Sweaty, Gross Democrat/Media Lovefest Gets Even Nastier. “In yesterday’s Briefing we discussed the toilet flush of a president that is Joe Biden. America’s MSM hacks are the ones who put him in office. The Democrats wouldn’t have been able to pull off whatever the hell it was they did last November without the MSM lying and covering for them. Jim Acosta and George Stephanopoulos are as much to blame for the supply chain crisis, inflation, and global unrest as the drooling husk in the Oval Office is.”

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COLLUSION: Media Outlets Meet With White House To ‘Reshape’ Coverage of Biden Administration.

I don’t buy the claim that the press has been harder on Biden than it was on Trump. But if it were true, it would be because Biden’s is a failed presidency, and Trump’s was a largely successful one.

FINGERS CROSSED: Why Putin Won’t Invade Ukraine.

Risk aversion. Vladimir Putin undoubtedly would like to project an image similar to that of the brave bogatyrs who populate Slavic mythology, but his operating style more closely resembles the behavior of a different regional archetype: the cunning peasant who plays a weak hand well.

Putin has maintained power for two decades by standing up to the West without taking big chances. Invading a nation of 40 million where four out of five inhabitants are non-Russian would entail incalculable uncertainties—uncertainties that might ultimately endanger Putin’s hold on power. Taking such risks would be out of character.

You break it, you own it. That’s what Secretary of State Colin Powell warned President Bush before the U.S. invaded Iraq, a formulation that has come to be known as the Pottery Barn rule. An invasion of Ukraine would require Russia to occupy part or all of Europe’s poorest, most corrupt country.

Assuming that Moscow does not envision genocidal extermination of non-Russians, it would then have to subsidize a restive developing nation that is recovering from the effects of war. That burden would persist indefinitely, imposing big costs on the Russian state for returns that are likely to be quite modest.

Much more at the link.

MAKE THE RUBBLE BOUNCE: After calling parents domestic terrorists, NSBA discovers: Get woke, go broke — literally. “Does the National School Board Association still have enough money left in its coffers to send Joe Biden and Merrick Garland nice fruit baskets? Seventeen NSBA affiliates have cut ties with the NSBA over their coordination with the White House and Department of Justice in casting parental complaints over curricula ‘domestic terrorism.’ And as Axios reports, they’re taking their checkbooks with them — accounting for a 40% loss in revenue at the NSBA.”

Now go after the other 60%.

CHRIS QUEEN: EU Scrooges Wind Up With Eggnog on Their Faces After Trying to Ban the Word ‘Christmas.’

Post-Christian rule didn’t work out for Europe very well — to say the least — under the Nazis or the Soviets. There’s little reason to think it will turn out well under the EU, either.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: WSJ: Some Professional Degrees Leave Students With High Debt But Without High Salaries.

But not all: Big Law Hiring Of Law School Graduates Has Nearly Doubled In Nine Years.

MEN ARE BETTER AT EVERYTHING, I GUESS, EVEN BEING WOMEN: UPenn transgender swimmer continues dominant season with more record-breaking wins. “Lia Thomas blew away her competition Friday night in the 500-yard freestyle preliminaries and finals at the Zippy Invitational at the University of Akron, according to results posted by the school.”

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Mom Says Her Son Got Vaccinated for Pizza Without Her Consent.

A mother in Los Angeles has said her son had been vaccinated at school without her consent after he was offered pizza.

Maribel Duarte told NBC 4 News her 13-year-old came home with a vaccine card after saying yes to being vaccinated in exchange for pizza at the Barack Obama Global Prep Academy school in South LA.

Duarte said she should have been asked to give her written consent for her child to be vaccinated.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) website has sent a message to parents to get their children over the age of 12 vaccinated before January 10, 2022. According to the LAUSD mandate, students who are not vaccinated and do not have a valid exemption by that date will to have to follow classes through virtual, online learning.

The statement read: “Attention families of students aged 12 or older—this is your reminder to get your child vaccinated.

“Your first dose must be uploaded into Daily Pass no later than December 19, 2021. Both doses must be uploaded before January 10, 2022!”

Duarte said: “I should have been involved. The lady that gave him the shot and signed the paper was the one who told my son ‘please do not say anything, I don’t want to get into trouble.’

The reference to “the Barack Obama Global Prep Academy” is yet another reminder that the version of the Matrix that Tom Wolfe programmed shortly before his 2018 death continues to be functioning perfectly.

OPEN THREAD: Hush.

ORWELL WOULD APPRECIATE THE IRONY OF 1984 BEING REWRITTEN: George Orwell’s estate approves retelling 1984 from woman’s point of view.

JUST NBC THE LEFTISM! Remembering Yamiche Alcindor’s Greatest Hits.

COLLUSION: Report: Apple CEO Tim Cook engineered a secret $275 billion deal with China.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chinese private firm Galactic Energy puts five satellites in orbit with second launch.

PUBLISHING HAS BECOME AN INDUSTRY DOMINATED BY WOKE GARBAGE PEOPLE: Publishers against the People of the Book. And antisemitism is central to wokeness, because both are built on a hatred of achievement.

OH, THAT WAR ON CHRISTMAS: EU Scrooges Wind Up With Eggnog on Their Faces After Trying to Ban the Word ‘Christmas.’

ROD DREHER: ‘Ve Haff Vays Of Making You Get Vaxxed.’

I don’t think these governments believe that fences and shopping restrictions directly hinder the spread of Covid. They are trying to make everyday life harder for the unvaxxed, and to turn them into social pariahs, to compel them to conform and get the vaccines.

Don’t you see what’s happening here?! This is also a trial run for the future. You will have seen academics (for example, here), medical authorities (here), and even governments (this summer, the Mayor of Chicago and the city’s public health department) declaring that “racism is a public health issue.” It is not difficult to imagine a future in which the state, in the name of health and hygiene, imposes restrictions on those it determines to be bigots. Does it sound far-fetched? Maybe. But look, if parents angry over what school systems are doing to their kids can be considered potential “domestic terrorists,” the potential is there. Do you really think that the Woke in power would not use public health as an excuse to punish their political opponents?

Read the whole thing, which has examples of a two-tiered lifestyle being imposed throughout Europe, Australia, “And, of course, China, putting its social credit system mentality to use.”

Exit quote: “The Covid pandemic has been used as an opportunity for elites with particular global economic and political interests to accelerate the process of arranging the infrastructure for a new biosecurity surveillance regime. This novel paradigm of governance will be directed and managed largely by unelected technocrats. This regime will increasingly demand ever more intrusive and burdensome interventions into the lives and bodies of individuals.”

Related: COVID Closes the Christmas Markets (And Why It’s Important), from Michael Fumento.

I’M BEGINNING TO THINK POT ISN’T AS BENIGN AS WE WERE TOLD: Large Study Links Cannabis Use to Sleep Disruption, Especially Among Heavy Users.

THE BEATLES’ GET BACK: The Long and Grinding Road.

My recap of Peter Jackson’s mini-series, just published at Ed Driscoll.com.

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