I HOPE THAT’S TRUE BUT I’M HONESTLY A BIT SKEPTICAL: NASA declares SLS tanking test a success.

AD ASTRA: SpaceX’s Florida launch seen as far as New York, Massachusetts. “People reported seeing the launch as far as Cape Cod in Massachusetts as well as New York, New Jersey and Maryland — sharing pictures on social media of the rocket in the sky. SpaceX has launched more than 3,340 satellites into low-Earth orbit with 2,499 operational, according to an online tracker. Last weekend, SpaceX launched 34 satellites into low-Earth orbit with AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 satellite.”

ALIENS: A New FRB Signal Has Buzzed Nearly 2,000 Times in Just Two Months, Raising a Mystery.

BYRON YORK: Inflation drives our politics in 2022 — and maybe 2024, too.

REMEMBER, GREENS WANT YOU TO SUFFER: “This was part of an effort to appease the green parties in government, who have been notable for their long-standing opposition to nuclear power.”

YES: Fauci and Jha disqualify themselves — as does the “expert class.”

THAT’S BEEN AMPLY DEMONSTRATED IN THE PAST: Woke ‘Teacher of the Year’ proves NY’s educrats don’t care about actual education.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Countertop Nugget Ice Maker. #CommissionEarned

RIP: Pharoah Sanders, influential jazz saxophonist, dies at 81.

FROM THE FILES OF POLICE SQUAD: Colorado officers put a suspect inside a patrol car. That patrol car was resting on some train tracks. Yes, you can guess what happened next.

FIRST PUTIN, NOW THE MULLAHS:

JAMES MEIGS: Why Fauci Became a Bobblehead. 

Fauci seems to have concluded that he is synonymous with science itself. “It’s easy to criticize,” he complained on Face the Nation last year, “but they’re really criticizing science because I represent science.” Note to reader: No one “represents” science. Science is a radically transparent system of inquiry, debate, and a willingness to challenge received wisdom. As soon as any individual claims the authority to speak for science as a whole, that person is doing the opposite of science.

Today, there is reason to believe that Covid-19, as devastating as it was, did less damage to our society than our ham-fisted overreaction to the disease. Fauci and his public health colleagues were enthusiastic cheerleaders for the policies that inflicted this damage. The social, medical, and economic aftershocks will reverberate for decades to come. It’s tempting to lay the blame here all on Fauci, to assume that his personal moral shortcomings created this mess. I don’t think that’s right. By all accounts, Fauci is a well-meaning official who really believes he’s doing what’s best for the country. But so what? Well-intentioned people can do just as much damage as malevolent ones, sometimes more.

No. The real problem here is power. Fauci simply has had far too much of it for far too long. When the Good Saint Anthony retires in a few months, this administration (or, more likely, one that follows) would be smart to ensure that the next NIAID director operates on a much shorter leash. We would all do well to recognize that appointing “czars” in times of crisis always backfires in the end. And it’s fundamentally un-American.

Flashback: Fauci and other health ‘experts’ are messing up monkeypox just as they did COVID, Ebola and AIDS.

LET THE COMMENTING BEGIN: 9 mm vs. .45 ACP–A Different Kind of Comparison.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR CANADA: Parents and Students Protest Transgender Teacher With Huge Fake Breasts.

DUMBEST GUINNESS RECORD EVER: Teen puts 22 socks on one foot in 30 seconds for Guinness record.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Ford’s Latest Supply-Chain Problem: a Shortage of Blue Oval Badges. “The shortage is impacting Ford’s popular F-Series pickup trucks, the people said. Ford executives had considered some workarounds, such as 3-D printing the insignia until the permanent ones could be obtained, some of the people said. But they didn’t feel the printed substitutions would meet the bar on quality, these people said…A Michigan-based supplier that has made badges for Ford in the past had to limit operations in August, after disclosing to Michigan regulators it had discharged industrial chemicals into a local sewer system, according to city and state officials. The supplier, Tribar Technologies, Inc., specializes in decorative exterior trim for automotive, including making badges and lettering for vehicles. The company’s website shows it has made the insignia for Ford models previously, including the 2021 F-150 pickup truck.”

YOU SHOULD HAVE ONE, BUT PREFERABLY ONE THAT WORKS: Officials issue warning after carbon monoxide detectors fail to alarm. “Consumers should immediately stop using HECOPRO digital display carbon monoxide detectors because they can fail to warn about the presence of the dangerous gas, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.”

RIP: Louise Fletcher: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s Nurse Ratched dies aged 88.

Flashback: Kathy Shaidle in 2012: Nurse Ratched, My Hero: 4 Female Movie Villains I Love.

Related: RIP Louise Fletcher: Watch her magnificent Oscar speech in which she thanked her deaf parents for her success.

JOE BIDEN TOLD US COVID IS OVER: Chicago and suburbs reach low risk level for COVID-19 as new cases, hospitalizations decline.

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Joe Biden’s Old Man Filter Goes Haywire Again: “Biden with his arm around Elton John: ‘It’s all his fault we are spending $6 billion in tax payer dollars on HIV and AIDS this month.’”

SLEEP IS VITAL: Getting enough sleep key to a healthy immune system.

JUST A REMINDER: I get paid based on ad revenue now, so if you wouldn’t mind whitelisting InstaPundit if you run an ad blocker that would be great. Or some people hit the PayPal donation button, which is also great.

Some people have asked how to send a donation by check; you can send those to 118 N. Peters Rd. #12-230, Knoxville TN 37923. If you do, please make it out to me, Glenn Reynolds, not to “InstaPundit.” (Bumped).

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Stacey Abrams Bursts Through Wall Like Kool-Aid Man To Tell Overjoyed Mother That The Heartbeat Sound She’s Hearing Is Fake.

MCDONALD’S TO FACE $10B LAWSUIT ALLEGING BIAS AGAINST BLACK MEDIA COMPANIES:

A $10 billion lawsuit against McDonald’s will be allowed to proceed after a federal court denied the company’s motion to dismiss and sided with media tycoon Byron Allen, who is alleging that the corporation allocates less ad funding to black-owned media.

Allen will be allowed to try and prove the franchise discriminates against black-owned media, thus violating federal civil rights laws, a federal district court in California ruled last week.

“This is about economic inclusion of African American-owned businesses in the US economy,” Allen said in a press release Tuesday. “McDonald’s takes billions from African American consumers and gives almost nothing back. The biggest trade deficit in America is the trade deficit between white corporate America and black America, and McDonald’s is guilty of perpetuating this disparity.”

Allen alleges that the company placed his networks, which include the Weather Channel and Comedy.tv, to an “African American tier” that receives less funding. The lawsuit claimed black people represent 40% of fast-food customers, but McDonald’s spent 0.3% of its $1.6 billion U.S. ad budget in 2019 on black-owned media, according to the press release.

When then-CEO Steve Easterbrook said in 2015 that he wanted to transform the corporation into a ‘modern, progressive burger company,’ apparently, he wasn’t kidding. 

HILLARY IS RIGHT: Abortions should be as hard to obtain as AR-15s. “I’m here to tell Mrs. Clinton that these terms are acceptable. Abortions nationwide should be as easy as obtaining an AR-15. The pro-life movement should begin working on implementation immediately.”