THE NEW REPUBLIC: The Democrats Are Running Out of Time. “The Democrats enter a new year more or less exactly where they were before Congress shut down for the holidays. Their legislative agenda is completely stalled out, and it’s not clear how the party’s leaders will get it unstuck.”

They have done very little in the last few months beyond very pointedly warring with one another. During that time, the Biden administration briefly threatened to restart student loan payments, before backing down—and kicking the can down the road to the spring, when doing so would be even worse for the party’s dismal midterm prospects. It has more recently made it clear that no further Covid relief in the manner of last year’s American Rescue Plan Act will be forthcoming, despite the fact that parts of the country are effectively shut down due to the insanely infectious omicron variant. This might play into the hands of Republicans, who will have the opportunity to make the case, only somewhat disingenuously, that they did as much on this front as their rivals. Donald Trump would be a fool not to mount such an argument in 2024—though so far his nascent presidential campaign remains resolutely focused on conspiracy theories about vote-counting software, so it’s not a sure thing that he will.

Testing remains patchy and often expensive, effective masks are hard to come by, the administration is sending out half a billion at-home testing kits and modestly expanding the number of federal testing sites, but its response to the pandemic has lately degenerated into inadequacies and frustration—which is particularly bad given that responding to Covid-19 was the centerpiece of Biden’s presidential campaign.

But other than that, how are you enjoying your party’s performance?

#RESIST: From the comments to this post.

“Saw this at a Gas Station in Minden NV on US 395 on Saturday January 8.”

Begun, the sticker wars have.

QUESTION ASKED: Say, Does President Biden Support or Oppose Non-Citizens Voting in Municipal Elections? “Say, in this battle of democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice, does the President of the United States have anything to say about non-citizens voting in municipal elections?  Does he think it is right, legal, just and constitutional that New York City will now allow more than 800,000 non-citizens in the city to vote in municipal elections? Does he believe that illegal immigrants should get a vote, just like U.S. citizens? If he does not agree with any of this, why isn’t he speaking out against it?”

WHY ARE THESE RIGHT FIGURES BACKING DRIVE TO ABOLISH ELECTORAL COLLEGE? If you think only Left-wingers man the continuing effort to abolish the Electoral College so the popular vote in a few Blue States like New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey can dominate presidential elections, think again.

Hayden Ludwig of the Capital Research Center has a lengthy, detailed and documented analysis in The American Conservative that puts the spotlight on Saul Anuzis and others from the ranks of the Conservative side of American politics who are working with the Left on this campaign that is only a handful of states away from ensuring no Republican ever again is elected President.

#RESIST: A reader sends this from outside of Memphis.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: Today’s Teens Gotta ‘Fight for Your Right to Total Safety.’

Plus:

• Biden has one word — just one word — for Coloradans who lost their homes to wildfires: Windmills
• Medi-Cal for illegal aliens because at this point why the hell not?
• Pelosi’s worst thing ever (and we’re not talking about whatever is the latest thing she did to her face)

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

YOU DON’T NEED TO BE A WEATHER MAN TO KNOW WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS: Ed Perlmutter says he won’t seek reelection, upending Colorado’s 2022 political landscape.

“After much thought and consideration, I have decided not to run for reelection,” the Arvada Democrat said in a written statement. “I’ve never shied away from a challenge but it’s time for me to move on and explore other opportunities. There comes a time when you pass the torch to the next generation of leaders.”

Perlmutter, 68, was elected to Congress in 2006. He represents the 7th Congressional District anchored in Jefferson County.

The district was redrawn as part of Colorado’s once-a-decade redistricting process, becoming more competitive and shifting west to include mountain counties including Lake, Chaffee, Park and Fremont.

The new 7th District is forecast to favor Democrats by 7 percentage points. That’s based on an analysis of the results of eight statewide races between 2016 and 2020.

If an incumbent is worried a seven-point advantage might not be enough…

IRAN: When We Strike America, It Will Be With Great Force.

OUT TODAY:The Great Reset: Joe Biden and the Rise of Twenty-First-Century Fascism. #CommissionEarned

HEY MAN, NICE SHOT: All hail the Ariane 5 rocket, which doubled the Webb telescope’s lifetime.

There were two stunningly good pieces of news about the James Webb Space Telescope this past weekend. One was widely reported—that after an intricate, two-week process, the telescope completed its deployment without any difficulties. The next steps toward science operations are more conventional.

The other piece of news, less well-covered but still important, emerged during a news conference on Saturday. NASA’s Mission Systems Engineer for the Webb telescope, Mike Menzel, said the agency had completed its analysis of how much “extra” fuel remained on board the telescope. Roughly speaking, Menzel said, Webb has enough propellant on board for 20 years of life.

This is twice the conservative pre-launch estimate for Webb’s lifetime of a decade, and it largely comes down to the performance of the European Ariane 5 rocket that launched Webb on a precise trajectory on Christmas Day.

It will be a while yet before Webb reaches L2 and finishes fine-tuning its mirrors, but this is just great news for the once-troubled program.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Half the class of 2020 does not have real jobs six months after graduation: study.

PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

Athena Thorne: Let The Left Hunt the Great Orange Whale. “Anti-Trump forces can’t see how they’re hurting their own brand. They can’t stop themselves from going full steam ahead with their Jan. 6 agenda. Why?”

Matt Margolis: Sotomayor Was a Terrible Affirmative Action Pick for the Court. “It appears that Harvard law professor Larry Tribe actually warned Barack Obama not to nominate Sotomayor to the Supreme Court back in 2009.”

Yours Truly: The CCP Has Turned Hong Kong Into a Dystopian Nightmare. “You’d think a story like this one is from the early months of 2020 when COVID-19 was still poorly understood. But no. Chen’s tale is a Christmas story.”

THIS IS DONALD BOUDREAUX AT GEORGE MASON: Professor explains his public opposition to university COVID booster mandate.

MORE NEWS FROM ARKANSAS: Professor Affirmed.

The myriad travails of late at the University of Arkansas’ Bowen School of Law were justified after a university committee found Professor Rob Steinbuch was correct in having invited guests lead his classes during the Jewish high holidays.

Using guest lecturers was something Steinbuch had legitimately done without question for nearly 20 years.

After he again used a respected Arkansas federal judge last semester to cover his class during the two highest Jewish Holy Days, Bowen Dean Theresa M. Beiner wrote to say he could no longer use such temporary fill-ins, he said.

However, a three-person university committee found Beiner apparently acted against law school rules by restricting Steinbuch’s future absentee scheduling.

Widely considered the state’s pre-eminent authority on our Freedom of Information Act, Steinbuch said the committee specifically advised that not allowing Steinbuch to use guest lecturers would constitute religious discrimination, should Beiner refuse him in 2022.

Based on Bowen’s own rules, I believe I (or any first-year law student) could have reached that same conclusion. . . .

Steinbuch said his conflict with the Beiner administration actually preceded these events, when last summer he reported that a named professorship at Bowen had been quietly and improperly labeled as the “William J. Clinton Professorship in Constitutional Law,” even though Clinton had previously withdrawn his name for the position.

That professorship had been held since its founding by Bowen professor and dean emeritus John DiPippa, who also was involved in the renaming, according to Steinbuch.

Steinbuch and others on the faculty refused to drop that issue, and eventually UALR’s chancellor and a state Senate hearing into the matter vindicated Steinbuch’s concerns over the Clinton professorship title.

I’ll say one thing for this silver-haired firebrand of a professor, righteous thorn in the administration’s side and transparency authority: He’ll never be accused of being shy or retiring when it comes to expressing strong views about right and wrong.

And now he’s been twice proven right.

This seems pretty clearly to have been petty retaliation on the part of the Dean.

BECAUSE THE NARRATIVE NEEDS IT TO BE: Fox to Psaki: How is this still a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” if the boosted are getting sick?

THEY’VE DONE STUDIES, YOU KNOW:

@travishamilton4 Can’t wait to get banned for this one lol #covid19 #cdc #coronavirüs #share #fyp ♬ original sound – Travis Hamilton

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Mom, Radio Host, Arrested At School Board Meeting Files Federal Lawsuit: ‘I’m Not Gonna Back Down.’

COLOR ME UNPERSUADED: In Defense of the Emory Law Journal.

FROM PANDEMIC TO ENDEMIC: Spanish Prime Minister Wants to Treat COVID like the Flu: ‘We’re Going to Have to Learn to Live With It.’

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Blue on blue attack: Georgia Dems slam visit from Biden and Harris as “insufficient and unwelcome.”

FACT-CHECKING THE FACT-CHECKERS: AP source who ‘fact checked’ Mass Formation Psychosis theory encouraged ‘behavioral nudging’ people into Covid compliance, quoted Goebbels.

In a Nature article in 2020, Van Bavel posited that “insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behaviour with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts.” What is this if not an attempt to push people to do what they’re told?

The article addresses using fear as a means to control people, in the right doses: “A meta-analysis found that targeting fears can be useful in some situations, but not others: appealing to fear leads people to change their behaviour if they feel capable of dealing with the threat, but leads to defensive reactions when they feel helpless to act. The results suggest that strong fear appeals produce the greatest behaviour change only when people feel a sense of efficacy, whereas strong fear appeals with low-efficacy messages produce the greatest levels of defensive responses.”

Van Bavel deals with how to deal with “optimism bias” in a population, as well as risk perception, emotional responses, and how the “global pandemic may also create opportunities to reduce religious and ethnic prejudice.”

He wrote that “People’s behaviour is influenced by social norms,” but that “Changing behaviours by correcting such misperceptions can be achieved by public messages reinforcing positive (for example, health-promoting) norms.”

Wear the mask, save the world.

COVERUP: Without a Single Interview, 3 Agencies Cleared Capitol Cop Who Shot Ashli Babbitt.

#JOURNALISM: Rage blinded media to black advances under Trump.

The narrative was Trump as white supremacist. And they’re not just unwilling to report things that contradict the narrative, they’re increasingly unable even to perceive things that contradict the narrative.

INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM: Analysis: Nearly Half Of 500+ Higher Ed Schools In CriticalRace.org Database Mandate Race-Based Training And Study.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Our Pathetic Puppet President Is Letting Iran Grow Too Bold. “The psychotollah crowd in Iran has been getting a little uppity lately, no doubt emboldened by the fact that the United States of America is currently being presided over by a chief executive whose brain is being run by a cabal comprised of radical leftists who have an infantile worldview.”