COVID IS OVER (CONT’D): No more free at-home COVID tests. “The reasons the government is giving for shutting off the flow of free kits seem a bit on the sketchy side, however. They’re blaming it on decreasing supplies amid fears that there may be a surge in the fall and a lack of congressional funding to stockpile more of the kits. Really? . . . Both of these excuses seem like weak tea, as I mentioned above. If the government’s supply of test kits is running low, that means that someone wasn’t keeping track of the inventory and ordering enough to keep up with demand. I’ll just give you all a moment to recover from the shock of hearing that somebody in the Biden administration took their eye off the ball.”

MICHAEL WALSH ON OUR POLITICAL CLASS: What’s the Constitution Among Friends?

Well, for one thing, they’re not our friends.

BREAKING: Iraq Presidential Palace Stormed, US Embassy Helicopter Evacuation.

NO NUKES IS GOOD NUKES: Russia blocks final nuclear treaty document. “If the group could have managed to publish a final report without mentioning Ukraine, they would likely have had a good shot at unanimity and finishing their business on schedule. But that would be rather hard to do in the middle of a war featuring one of the world’s chief nuclear powers that keeps threatening to detonate some nukes.”

TRIPLING DOWN ON STUPID: Trifecta! Man Snags COVID, HIV and Monkeypox in One Bromantic Weekend.

NOW OUT: From Jared Kushner, Breaking History: A White House Memoir. #CommissionEarned

DEFUND THE COPS, BUT FIRST LET ME SNITCH TO THEM: Andrew Stiles of the Washington Free Beacon has the goods on Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who, while a vocal advocate of everything anti-police, is not above ratting out a suspect fleeing the cops and hiding in her backyard.

PARTY OF YOUTH: Sanders has highest favorability among possible 2024 contenders. “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) clocked in with the highest favorability rating among a list of 23 potential 2024 presidential contenders, according to a new USA Today-Ipsos poll.”

DOING WELL BY DOING WHAT? Sen. Raphael Warnock is doing quite well for himself in the U.S. Senate.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: CIA Admits to Losing Dozens of Intelligence Assets Around the World. “The loss of agents is particularly troubling because there doesn’t seem to be a major intelligence leak. The problem is with the agents themselves.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: California lawmakers reintroduce amended zero bail bill in waning days of session.

Three days earlier: California county saw 70% of criminal suspects released on $0 bail commit new crimes.

Gooder and harder, California.

A DECADE AFTER FUKUSHIMA DISASTER, FOES OF NUCLEAR POWER RECONSIDER. “‘As much as I think it is wrong to go into nuclear power, I have to ask myself this question,’ German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said this weekend at an open government day in Berlin. ‘It is complex.'”

It is not complex. Green Party member Robert Habeck and people like him are not fools. They are actively anti-human Marxists who are reconsidering things now only because they are worried that they will get the Ceaușescu treatment when the people they rule finally realize who sentenced them to freezing in the dark. Unless it’s Latin America or Africa, that’s always what the Communists end up doing to you.

HMM: Kazakhstan halts arms exports. Background: “On 22 February, Kazakhstan did not recognise the Russian-occupied parts of Donbas as independent, citing international law. The country also rejected the dispatch of Collective Security Treaty Organisation troops to Ukraine, which is known as ‘the Russian NATO.’ Kazakhstan also rejected the Russian Federation’s request to send its troops to join their assault against Ukraine.”

MSN IS NOT EXACTLY RIGHT-WING MEDIA, but its front-page poll on Biden’s student loan proposal isn’t an endorsement:

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Don’t Believe the Democrats’ Midterms Homestretch Hype. “The Democratic base may be stupid enough to believe that the Inflation Reduction Act will actually reduce inflation but the rest of us still have to buy groceries.”

STILL A FEW BUGS IN THE SYSTEM: NASA scrubs first SLS launch attempt due to engine issue.

PROF. JACOBSON: Operation Demoralize Is Back: “The media swarms and lies. Tells you it’s over, wants you to give up. Happens every single time.” Don’t fall for it.

WELL, MAYBE THERE SHOULD BE: Lindsey Graham: If Trump is indicted, there’ll be riots. If you turn a country into a banana republic, you shouldn’t expect people to be neat and orderly in their politics. And as we’ve been told a lot when the riots come from the left, a riot is the voice of the unheard. Maybe the people who’ve been locked out by government, media, and big tech in collusion need to be heard.

The alternative would be for the government, et al., to do their jobs appropriately, but that doesn’t seem to be on the table. Indeed, the best argument against rioting is that they seem to want to provoke that. America’s ruling class has been playing an increasingly dangerous game, and I don’t think it will end well.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, JUST LEFTIES ABUSING POLICE TO TRY AND ASSASSINATE A SITTING CONGRESSWOMAN: Marjorie Taylor Greene swatted for a third time in less than a week.

AS I’VE BEEN SAYING, DON’T GET COCKY: White House Report Card: Never doubt GOP’s ability to blow it.

With Slow Joe’s documented ability to f*ck things up vs. the GOP’s indisputable ability to blow a sure thing, there’s no telling how this will come out. But if you care, you should be donating and volunteering. Commenting on the Internet doesn’t count.

YOU CAN WATCH THE ARTEMIS I LAUNCH IN ABOUT 15 MINUTES on NASA’s YouTube Channel.

Update: Now about 40 minutes out while engineers discuss a “bleed” on engine #3.

Correction: That’s T-minus 40 and holding.

Nope: Scrubbed at 0835 Eastern.

RE-REMAKING THE JUDICIARY: Shame on You for Caring More About Inflation Than Biden’s Judicial Nominees.

SLICK MOVE: DeSantis Opponent Names Running Mate: A Teachers’ Union Head Who Fought to Close Schools, Compared Parents to Serial Killers.

THE RULES ARE DIFFERENT FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Fetterman Opposes School Vouchers for the Poor. He Sends His Kids To One Of PA’s Priciest Prep Schools.

GREAT POWER POLITICS: US Coast Guard cutter is denied entry into the Guadalcanal port in the Solomon Islands stoking fears over China’s growing influence in the Pacific.

The cutter Oliver Henry was taking part in Operation Island Chief monitoring fishing activities in the Pacific, which ended Friday, when it sought to make a scheduled stop at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, to refuel and re-provision, the Coast Guard office in Honolulu said.

There was no response from the Solomon Islands’ government for diplomatic clearance for the vessel to stop there, however, so the Oliver Henry diverted to Papua New Guinea, the Coast Guard said.

China has been assertively trying to expand its presence and influence in the Pacific, and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare alarmed some neighbors, the U.S. and others after he signed a new security pact with China.

The pact has raised fears of a Chinese naval base being established within 1,200 miles off the Australia’s northeast coast.

Related: China’s Navy Is The Largest On Earth (Yes, Bigger Than The U.S. Navy).