INCREASINGLY COMMON IN THE GLOBAL BABY BUST: The unseen side of depopulation in Lithuania. “Every year, the Lithuanian state sells hundreds of properties whose owners have passed away without any heirs. These include prime real estate in central Vilnius as well as low-value homes in the provinces. Part of the reason is Lithuania’s deteriorating demographic situation, says a researcher. . . . According to researcher Donatas Burneika, the proliferation of property without owners reflects Lithuania’s demographic situation – an ageing population with increasingly many single and lonely people.”

STILL, I’M GLAD HE’S DEAD: Tucker Carlson Blasts Biden for Bragging About al-Qaeda Leader’s Death: Here’s Why.

DAVID BARON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Black bear enters Connecticut home, raids snacks from kitchen.

MILBLOGGER LAUGHING WOLF’S NUCLEAR WAR PRIMER CONTINUES WITH PART 4: Now What? “It truly is the eternal question: Now What? In 1945, it was the question asked as we realized we were on the back of the bull/tiger/dragon/colorful metaphor of your choice and needed to hang on. It’s still the question today, and we will get to it here in time.”

Here’s Part 3 from yesterday: Delivery.

RON DESANTIS’ CAMPAIGN RESPONDS TO THE VIEW’S GRACIOUS INVITE WITH A GRACIOUS MIC DROP:

Related: From a well-caffeinated Kurt Schlichter: Media Hacks Pout As Republicans Treat Them Like the Trash They Are.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX rocket fueled for launch this week to send Korean mission to moon.

THE FINAL ACT: Joe Manchin’s thirty pieces of (inflated) silver.

And the coda: GOP to Manchin: Payback’s coming in 2024, pal.

IT’S A TAX AND SPEND BILL, PERIOD: The ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ Reduces Inflation by One-Third of a Point — Over 10 Years.

WEAR SUNSCREEN, THEY SAID. IT’LL PROTECT YOU FROM CANCER, THEY SAID: Banana Boat sunscreen recalled after cancer-causing chemical found.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE JOE’S ABILITY TO F*** THINGS UP: Russia puzzled by Biden proposal to replace nuclear arms treaty

Biden said in a statement on Monday that his administration was ready to “expeditiously” negotiate a new framework but that Russia should demonstrate that it is ready to resume work on nuclear arms control with the United States.

“Is this a serious statement or has the White House website been hacked?” a Russian foreign ministry source told Reuters. “If this is still a serious intention, with whom exactly do they intend to discuss it?”

Biden intends to negotiate with that guy he said “must go,” I guess.

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK: Wait, I Thought the Democrats Already Did That: Iran Threatens to Turn New York City Into ‘Hellish Ruins.’

SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: Training Children.

FREE AGENT: Nancy Pelosi Arrives In Taiwan Despite Strong Warnings From China.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: How to Spot a Groomer With This 1 Weird Trick. “Of all the ways the Left has come up with to break up the nuclear family, weaponizing sex for use against children is easily the most sordid.”

Plus:

• CNN tries to find a Liz Cheney supporter in Wyoming, fails
• A pox by any other name would feel as itchy
• Will Nancy Pelosi start WWIII while making insider stock trades?

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

ROGER KIMBALL: A Small but Practical Step to Start Dismantling the Regime.

Back in January, I wrote a practical column, that is, a column that, unlike so many opinion columns, actually put forth a simple pragmatic suggestion that, if implemented, would ease partisan tensions and otherwise improve life across the fruited plain.

In brief, I suggested that the next presidential inauguration take place somewhere other than Washington.

Some people laughed at that suggestion.

Surely, I wasn’t being serious.

On the contrary, although I recognize the novelty of the suggestion, I was entirely serious.

There’s nothing in the Constitution that specifies where that ceremony should take place.

Indeed, the Constitution is gratifyingly quiet about all such details.

It specifies the minimum age at which a person is eligible to be president (35); it says he must be a “natural born Citizen,” and that he have been “fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”

It also provides details, some of which have changed over the years, about how electors are to be chosen, how many there are to be, and who is ineligible for that role.

It also sets forth an “Oath or Affirmation” of office that a person who is elected president is required to pronounce before he takes up his duties.

This solemn formula will sound almost comical to ears tainted by modern disillusionment, but it’s nevertheless worth repeating: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Those titters you hear are from the scribes and Pharisees who populate our government but who wouldn’t have a clue about what it might mean to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

But one thing the Constitution is silent about is the inauguration.

The word doesn’t appear anywhere in the document.

There’s no suggestion that the ceremony—the swearing in—should take place in Washington or any other particular spot.

I understand that the inauguration, like the Oscars, is a ceremony festooned with precedent and expectation.

But with each passing day, it becomes clearer that Washington is the source, the living embodiment, of so much that’s wrong with our society.

Then, once sworn in, start moving federal departments to unpleasant locales across the nation.

IT’S ONLY FOOD: Canada’s government is now coming for the farmers. “As Andrew Stuttaford points out in the linked article, this is all part of the war on beef. And the war on beef is a major component in the war on climate change, at least for liberals. Less nitrogen and fertilizer means smaller crop yields. And a lot of those crops are used to feed the cattle. So the government wants them to reduce the size of the herds as well. All of this translates to less income for farmers who already operate on the slimmest of margins in most places.”

IT’S AS IF JOURNALIST-TWITTER DOESN’T REFLECT PUBLIC SENTIMENT: Gallup surprise: Supreme Court approval ticks *up* after end of Roe?

SO YOU WANNA EAT OR HAVE POWER (OCCASIONALLY): Good question, especially in Virginia where the rapid proliferation of solar power fields just since 2020 is taking fertile farmland out of production, according to the Thomas Jefferson Institute’s Barbara Hollingsworth.

This problem is becoming acute in Virginia, which is among the states with the fastest growing solar field construction. But if the enviros succeed in forcing the nation to go the full Green New Deal, it is a problem that will be felt nationwide. And likely sooner than later.

JOHN TAMNY: Air Conditioning Is An Inconvenient Truth for Inequality Nail-Biters.

RAFAEL MANGUAL: What George Soros Gets Wrong. His Wall Street Journal article defending his support for “reform prosecutors” is a shallow, essentially data-free collection of platitudes and misleading assertions that offers nothing to the victims of violent crime — who are disproportionately members of the minority groups he purports to care about.

CHARMING: Portland Leftists Put Targets on Backs of Cops Involved in Shootings This Week.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Autel OBD2 Scanner Autolink AL319 Code Reader. #CommissionEarned

SHE HAS ARRIVED: Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan, flouting Chinese threats and Biden’s concerns.

UPDATE:

CUE THE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: Six years later, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign gravy train is almost dried up.“Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign used up almost all its remaining cash reserves during the first half of 2022, Federal Election Commission filings show.”

FAUCI IS THE COMMON FACTOR: UCLA student paper warns of ‘inaction’ against monkeypox — like what happened with AIDS.