OH: Russian oligarch suddenly dead after dinner on Côte d’Azur. “According to Baza, the Russian oligarch was invited to dinner with friends in Antibes that evening. After making his way home shortly after midnight, he suddenly felt unwell and then fell over the banister for unknown reasons.”

WE USE POCKET-SIZED SUPERCOMPUTERS TO COMMUNICATE WITH HIEROGLYPHS: Young People Are Using Emojis as Pronouns and I Can’t Even.

“FLATLAND” DIRECTOR LADD EHLINGER’S FILMLADD BLOG IS BACK, now as a YouTube channel.

I enjoyed this one: No KanYE, Hitler Didn’t Invent The Microphone.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: Upstart conservative student paper at University of Alabama will tackle ‘rise of DEI,’ founder says.

DRAIN THE SWAMP? Trump Tells Anti-McCarthy GOP Rebels to Back Off Their ‘Dangerous’ Opposition.

ONLY FIVE? 5 times leftist activists wanted to rewrite American history this year.

SAY ANYTHING: Biden Makes up a Story About Awarding a Purple Heart, and It Gets Much Worse From There. “Absolutely everything about the story is false.”

VERY MERRY DEALS are here. #CommissionEarned

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Musk Applies Twitter Rules to Libs and the Poor Dears Lose It. “I sincerely hope that this is causing emotional trauma for these truly awful human beings. The vile left media types have been begging for a karmic payback for a long time and Musk is giving them one at the moment.”

DISAPPEARING JEWS: Here, according to the “College Guide” produced by Hillel nationally, are the percentages of Jewish undergraduates at Harvard College.

GREEN NUDE EEL: Oil industry faces end of the road in California regardless of Newsom penalty on profits.

Oil companies in California are planning an all-out fight against Gov. Gavin Newsom over his proposal to punish them for what he calls “unconscionable” profits. But that may be the least of the industry’s worries.

Fossil fuel companies face an existential threat in California as the state shifts to a carbon neutral future: Lawmakers have set a deadline to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles. State and local officials have restricted, or in some cases banned, new oil wells. And some cities are even banning gas stations and non-electric lawnmowers.

These and other measures suggest a grim outlook in the country’s largest car market for an industry more closely tied to the state’s development than the Gold Rush.

“It’s clearly redefining the industry and its role,” Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, said of efforts by lawmakers. “And it’s consistent with phasing out the fossil fuel industry.”

Left unsaid: How California will produce the energy to replace those fossil fuels.

Decline is a choice, and Californians have chosen it.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY, VLAD: ‘People were turned into hamburger’: How Putin’s arrogance turned the war into a slaughterhouse for his troops.

Related: How Russia’s 200th Brigade was ‘completely wiped out.’

UGH: CDC Obesity Chart Balloons to Accommodate Gargantuan American Children.

ANALYSIS: TRUE: Absolute Immunity Puts Prosecutors Above the Law. “When district attorneys falsify evidence, knowingly introduce perjured testimony, coerce witnesses, or hide exculpatory information from the defense, their victims generally have no legal recourse. And although such misconduct theoretically can trigger professional disciplinary action, including disbarment, that rarely happens.”

WHAT’S HAPPENING OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY:  “Brevard County School Discipline Reportedly Out of Control.”  Yup.  This is what happens when we allow the federal bureaucrats to control school discipline policy.

HMM: Reports of Beijing Covid Deaths Fuel Speculation China Covering Up Data. “China’s hospitals, especially outside major cities, are under-resourced and its unclear whether the country has sufficient stockpiles of anti-virals and other Covid-19 medications.”

LEARNING TO LIVE WITHOUT IMPORTS: Russia’s Wartime Economy.

Stanislav is one of a growing number of Russian so-called import-export specialists — experts in finding loopholes and getting goods through customs — that have cropped up in response to western sanctions on the country.

Interviews with participants of this underground market reveal a lucrative but highly unpredictable and unstable trade, one on which Russia’s beleaguered economy will struggle to rely.

And yet, increasingly, rely it must. Sweeping sanctions introduced since the outbreak of war have roiled Russian supply chains and left many companies scrambling to source crucial foreign-brand products and parts.

When the heaviest sanctions were introduced in March, some economists predicted a rapid collapse in the Russian economy, perhaps by as much as 30 per cent. But that did not happen: oil and gas revenues continued to flow in and the currency soon recovered.

Instead, what is emerging is something different — not a dramatic decline, but a steady degradation of its productive capacity which economists in both Russia and the west argue is pushing the country back decades. Russia is trying to operate a modern economy without the ability to import many of the components, raw materials and technologies on which it depends.

The impact is being felt across the economy — from the banks that need servers to process payments to the country’s poultry industry, which had relied on the Netherlands as a supplier of the chicks from which broiler hens are grown for the mass production of eggs.

Agricultural firms are struggling to source tractor tyres, while airline companies are unable to secure foreign components to repair their planes.

Economies are resilient. You can bomb the crap out of countries and their economies will struggle on. Emphasis on the “struggle” part, though.

THE WAR ON FAMILIES: Maine School ‘Socially Transitioned’ 13-year-old Girl Without Her Parents Knowledge.

DON SURBER: The Dummy Who Invented the Artificial Heart.