OPEN THREAD: Lookin’ good, hangin’ with the wild bunch.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: India continuing work on moon landing and crewed spaceflight plans despite delays.

I DUNNO, THEY’VE BEEN PRETTY PROFITABLE: Massive Study Finds We Need Better Therapies Than Antidepressants. Here’s Why.

SCHEDULED FOR 8:55 PM ET TONIGHT: Watch SpaceX’s Private Ax-1 astronaut mission leave the space station Sunday.

PUSHBACK: New bill to not require education leaders to use students’ preferred pronouns. “A new bill is traveling through Tennessee Legislature Tuesday calling for education leaders not to be required to use a student’s preferred pronoun. Introduced by Senator Mike Bell, SB2777 is a bill that will not legally require teachers or staff to use a student’s preferred pronoun, absolving them of any discriminatory accusations.”

WE’VE ENTERED SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELLWORLD IN WHICH MATT YGLESIAS IS A VOICE OF SANITY:

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: NYC schools facing unprecedented levels of chronic absenteeism.

COLORADO MOVES TO CAST ITSELF AS THE ANTI-FLORIDA:

A public feud brewing between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Colorado counterpart Gov. Jared Polis could be used by the latter to cement the Centennial State as the country’s anti-Florida stronghold.

The Florida Republican has leveled criticism and threats of retaliation against Disney and Twitter in recent weeks, prompting Polis to invite the two companies to relocate their headquarters to Colorado in the wake of DeSantis’s feud with the House of Mouse.

“Florida’s authoritarian socialist attacks on the private sector are driving businesses away,” Polis said in a tweet earlier this week. “In [Colorado], we don’t meddle in affairs of companies like @Disney or @Twitter. Hey @Disney we’re ready for Mountain Disneyland and @twitter we’re ready for Twitter HQ2, whoever your owners are.”

The Florida governor’s office told the Washington Examiner it considered the proposal to be odd, as Twitter and Disney are both headquartered in California, but declined to comment further.

The criticism from Polis could be an attempt to position Colorado as Florida’s political antidote — appealing to progressive voters and businesses in the meantime.

“I think picking a fight with Florida is good politics from Colorado,” Democratic political strategist Brad Bannon told the Washington Examiner. “I think there are some businesses out there who are deciding whether they’re going to move from California to somewhere else — they are more likely to move to a state like Colorado, where they’re not going to get caught up in right-wing social politics that they would be in Florida.”

CTL-F for both “Masterpiece Cakeshop” and simply “cake” yields zero results.

REVIEW: 2023 BMW 7 Series: Everything but the Kitchen Sink.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China’s Moon Base to Rival NASA Advances After Russia Deal.

China will this year begin work on the next phase of its lunar program to build a base on the Moon for research, its space agency announced, a project in cooperation with Russia that will rival NASA’s own efforts to establish an orbital facility.

Phase 4 of China’s program will carry out scientific examination of the Moon’s south pole with a view to constructing a research base there, state media reported.

Wu Yanhua, vice administrator of the China National Space Administration, told CGTN they hoped to survey the area and build some facilities within a decade.

“And in the 10 years or so after the first stage, we look to build a comparatively all-around science station, with engagement from different countries, organizations, including private-sector participation,” Wu said.

After the news emerged, Russia confirmed it would work alongside China on several projects related to the study of the Moon as well as further exploration.

It’s a race for the water-rich south polar regions.

BE PREPARED (FOR NOISE) : Eargasm High Fidelity Earplugs. #CommissionEarned

ALL THIS, AND WORLD WAR II: As Finland considers NATO membership, citizens mobilize for an invasion by Russia.

When the Finnish Reservists’ Assn. recently announced wartime defense courses for civilian women in the southern town of Haemeenlinna, the 400 slots filled almost immediately, with a waiting list of 500 more.

Topics will include shooting, cybersecurity and how to manage the first several days of an invasion from abroad.

“I wouldn’t call it fear,” said Sgt. Sonja Airikki, a 39-year-old reservist who will lead the training next month. “It’s more about being prepared.”

Military readiness is ingrained in the culture of this country of 5.5 million people that shares an 833-mile border and a long, complicated history with Russia.

The relationship has grown increasingly tense since Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago. For the first time, Finland is considering seeking membership in NATO, prompting threats of retaliation from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin really does consider himself the second coming of Stalin, doesn’t he?

MACRON DEFEATS LE PEN TO WIN RE-ELECTION IN FRANCE.

MARK STEYN: A Republic, If You Can Keep It.

CLIMATE ACTIVIST DIES AFTER LIGHTING HIMSELF ON FIRE OUTSIDE US SUPREME COURT: As Tom Wolfe wrote in his epochal 1976 article, “The ‘Me’ Decade and the Third Great Awakening:” “It is entirely possible that in the long run historians will regard the entire New Left experience as not so much a political as a religious episode wrapped in semi military gear and guerrilla talk.”

THESE ARE IMPORTANT: The US is looking for a new anti-air missile.

THE VACCINES WERE OVERSOLD: Pfizer COVID-19 third dose vaccine protection against hospitalization from omicron wanes after 3 months: study.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Dem Rep. Cuellar calls out Biden for hurting party – “look at the polls.” No, please don’t. Let MSNBC be your guide.

A ONE-MAN CULTURAL COUNTERREVOLUTION: DeSantis signs bill limiting tenure at Florida public universities: He takes aim at faculty, saying they develop an “intellectual orthodoxy” if left unchecked.

Except it’s not one man. It’s a majority of Florida’s voters and legislators. It just took someone to lead it.

VDH: How America Became La La Land.

ALEX JONES’ INFOWARS FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY AMID SANDY HOOK LAWSUITS.

READER FAVORITE: HATHASPACE Smart Air Purifier for Home, Bedroom, with True HEPA Air Filter for Allergens. #CommissionEarned

THE FORGOTTEN ECONOMIC CRISIS OF ’68:

There have been many accounts of the 1960s, and of the tumultuous year 1968 in particular, but strangely missing from most of them, writes Collins, a historian at the University of Missouri at Columbia, is “the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression.” The crisis of 1968 “marked the beginning of the end of America’s postwar economic boom,” he argues, and helped persuade President Lyndon B. Johnson to cap escalation of the Vietnam War and curtail the Great Society.

The crisis-which culminated in March in a speculative run on gold (“the largest gold rush in history,” Time called it in a cover story) was brought on by a combination of factors, Collins says. The “most deeply rooted one was chronic U.S. balance-of-payments deficits. The causes: increased spending overseas, both by American tourists and a U.S. government vigorously prosecuting the Cold War, as well as increased imports from an economically resurgent Europe. The deficits produced a glut of dollars abroad, weakening other nations’ confidence in the dollar; (The dollar was then tied to the gold standard, while other nations’ currencies were tied to the dollar.)

The Johnson administration’s massive expenditures on the Vietnam War seriously aggravated the balance-of-payments problem and also fueled inflation.

In March of ’21, Robert Reich’s column at Newsweek was headlined, “This Is Biden’s LBJ Moment.” It sure is, Robert. It sure is.

OPEN DISCRIMINATION: Science professor job opening limited to only women, trans, non-binary or two-spirit folk.

Science!

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, JUST THE CCP ENGAGING IN ORGAN HARVESTING: 71 Chinese inmates on death row had their hearts or lungs removed during executions before being declared dead, new study says.