UM:  Kakistocracy, Israel edition.

AND THERE IS MY SHOCKED FACE AGAIN:  Drug overdose death rate rises since pandemic.

NOT HARD ENOUGH:  Republicans pounce on the poor beleaguered FBI.

THERE’S A LOT OF MOVEMENT GOING ON:  House.

OWNED BY A MAN WHOSE COMPANY SELLS A LOT OF STUFF MADE IN CHINA:  Washington Post Claims U.S. Capitol ‘Honors’ 140 ‘Enslavers’.

A for real contemporary slave-state.

WHAT PART OF THIS IS DISEASE CONTROL?  CDC Pressures Teachers to Increase ‘LGBTQ Inclusivity’ in Classroom Instruction.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN “OUR?”  Our Killer Green Energy Infatuation.

WE KNOW:  They hate us.

BEHOLD! MY SHOCKED FACE:  Black Lives Matter Lauded Fidel Castro, Domestic Terrorists.

NO ONE IS SAFE:  Online Mob Forces Editor-in-Chief of Major Psychology Journal To Resign Over Contrived Racism Accusations.

SO THERE’S STILL SANITY IN AUTO MAKING?  Toyota CEO: ‘Silent Majority’ Of Automakers Skeptical of Making Electric Vehicles a ‘Single Option’.

PRESSTITUTES:  Netanyahu Returns as Prime Minister While Media Throws Hissy Fit Over Israel’s “Most Right-Wing” Government.

HE’S NOT BURNING THE WORLD; IT’S A PROTECTIVE BURN:  Elon Musk To Media: Info Coming Out of Twitter Has ‘Only Just Begun’.

HARSH, BUT FAIR:

OPEN THREAD: Only a few of these left in 2022. Use them well.

THE COLONIAL MARINES: Not such a crack outfit, really.

JEFF DUNETZ: Will China Reinfect The World? Will Biden React Correctly This Time?

If you’ve been following the news, you know that China has been amid a surge of Covid that has infected at least 248 million people. They’ve drastically locked down and done everything they can to the detriment of their own economy to stop the disease. But experts are concerned that China’s latest move could literally reinfect the world: they lifted their restrictions on international travel yet again as of January 8, (Even though the surge in coronavirus cases continues.)

The Biden administration will impose testing requirements for any travelers from China after calling Trump “xenophobic” for imposing restrictions on China residents visiting the U.S.

But where will President Joe end up? Will he be the pre-election Joe trying to divide the country or the COVID despot he became?

Flashback:

When President @RealDonaldTrump announced the China travel restrictions, Joe Biden criticized them as “hysterical xenophobia.”

Now that experts agree they saved lives, Biden's rewriting history and pretending he supported them all along.

Our new digital ad looks at the facts. pic.twitter.com/TQgQPi9S1Q

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 1, 2020

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China sends second Shiyan-10 test satellite sent into orbit with its final launch of 2022.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Gun permits no longer required in Georgia and Alabama on January 1.

But there’s an issue with fee revenue: “With gun permit requirements out the window, Sheriff Jones says they’ve already seen a 30 to 40% decrease in revenue.”

And I like the warning about less-progressive states: “Sheriff Jones also says before traveling to another state — make sure you are aware of their gun laws because certain states DO still require permits to carry concealed weapons.”

Also: New York Ban on Guns in Church Enjoined.

ROGER SIMON: How to Be Happy in 2023—Make Saving the Republic Your New Year’s Resolution.

The way to succeed isn’t complicated if you remember that you too are media. You have a voice. You can and should pass information to people as much and as often as you can. You don’t have to have a podcast or your own Substack. Person-to-person contact is often better and more effective. Most of our country doesn’t realize what’s happening to them. Explain it. Change will come from this.

But in doing so, be as kind and generous as you can, though it can be difficult at times. Choose your interlocutor carefully. Remember these people have been brainwashed for a considerable amount of time. Some are prepared to hear things, others not. Also, choose your subject matter carefully. Some people are just beginning to seem willing to discuss COVID-19, bias in our educational system, the open border, and now gender issues, less so election integrity. That will come. It’s all about patience.

One way to approach people is to ask them questions politely, rather than to confront them with a direct argument. Let them think things through for themselves, rather than create intransigence. If you get a positive result, ask yet another question, but resist the temptation to go too far. You don’t want the snail to go back into its shell. When they are by themselves, they will have something to think about.

More importantly, resist the suggestion that some have made to employ a conservative version of the deceitful techniques of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radical.” Do so and you will start to resemble Alinsky yourself. You don’t want that. The truth is on our side. Be honest and always be a soldier for good.

I know I’m sounding a little prescriptive here. But I feel incredibly lucky to have this growing forum through which to express my opinions, and I want others to know they have a role to play that’s in many ways equal or superior.

I also want to remind myself of how to behave because I’m as tempted as any to get into counter-productive arguments with those I have no chance of convincing. In fact, I have more than a few times.

Exit quote: “These last few years have been filled with much doom and gloom and, as Edward Ring has written eloquently on American Greatness, it’s time for a resurgence of optimism. Pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy employed by the globalists to engineer a future that none of us should want.”

STUDY: DEM-RUN CHICAGO 3X MORE DANGEROUS THAN AFGHAN COMBAT ZONE, AND IT GETS WORSE.

In Chicago, applying the same criteria found that “Chicago’s most dangerous zip code faced a risk of firearm-related death over 3x the risk of combat death in Afghanistan, and nearly 4x the risks of Iraq.”

“The death risks were also greater than combat for the 10% most violent zip codes in the city,” del Pozo reported.

This insane level of violence has led many Chicago residents to refer to the city as “Chiraq.”

Chicago’s last Republican mayor left office in 1931.

TYLER O’NEIL: Rachel Levine Targets Transgender Heresy for Big Tech Suppression.

“There is substantial misinformation about gender-affirming care for transgender and gender-diverse individuals,” he said. “We are in this nation facing an onslaught of anti-LGBTQI+ actions at the state levels across the United States, and they are dangerous to the public health. They target and politicize evidence-based treatments that should be considered the standard of care and actually aim to criminalize, criminalize medical providers, including physicians providing care to their patients.”

“The positive value of gender-affirming care for youth and adults is not in scientific or medical dispute,” Levine claimed. “So, we all need to work together to get our voices out in the front line, we need to get our voices in the public eye, and we know how effective our medical community can be talking to communities, whether it’s at town halls, schools, conversations with others, and we need to use our clinicians’ voice to collectively advocate for our tech companies to create a healthier, cleaner information environment.”

The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to The Daily Signal‘s request for comment on how Levine responds to criticism and whether he stands by his call for censorship.

Rather than explaining the kind of medical interventions Levine supports, he used the euphemism “gender-affirming care.” This term refers to various attempts to make a biologically male body resemble the body of a female or vice versa, in the pursuit of a nebulous “gender identity” that often—although not always—corresponds to the gender opposite that of a person’s biological sex.

Related: Rachel Levine must explain ‘misinformation’ over ‘gender-affirming care.’ “Levine is using semantics and hyperbole to effectively control and shutdown the debate around quite graphic and irreversible treatments for minors, just as the progressive left has done with abortion. We as the taxpaying public must support these procedures. We must even pay for them; however, we must never speak of what is actually involved (surgery and irreversible hormone treatments) with them because people will die, or something. Levine must be held accountable — in front of Congress, on the record — and answer how exactly and specifically the American public is being ‘misinformed’ about physical and mental medical treatments of minors who believe they are non-binary. What does transition involve, exactly? Levine needs to be specific. How are irreversible hormone and puberty treatments being mischaracterized? Does Levine believe in top or bottom surgery for minors, and are medical centers that perform such procedures misinforming the public writ large about what those surgeries involve (such as the removal of premature breasts or genitals) and how the human body functions afterwards?”

JANUARY 6 CHARGE: If they can’t explain Ray Epps, ‘They were in on it.’

Plus: “Massie noted that the committee adjourned without fulfilling its year-old promise to release the transcript of its Epps interview.”

THERE’S A LOT TO UNPACK IN THIS HEADLINE: ‘Toxic’ influencer Andrew Tate is arrested in human trafficking raid at his luxury villa in Romania after PIZZA BOX in his smug video clap-back at Greta Thunberg gave away his location.

THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING BORED: Technology Is Saving You From Profound Levels of Boredom And It’s a Problem.