DAVID STROM: Fusion “breakthrough” a total dud. “In simple terms the lasers delivered X amount of energy to ignite the fusion process, and the fusion process delivered about 1.5X coming out. But in order to deliver that X amount of energy (about 2 million joules) they needed 150X to generate it.”

OUR RULING CLASS HAS GOTTEN TOO COCKY: CEO of Union-Owned Amalgamated Bank Touts Her Plans for Backdoor Gun Purchase Tracking at NY Times Conference. “Amalgamated Bank CEO Priscilla Sims Brown was the special guest at the Times’ DealBook confab and was interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin.”

OH: Subaru warns Ascent owners to park outside due to fire risk. “This week, Subaru announced a recall for more than 271,000 Ascent SUVs due to a potential fire risk. Although owners won’t be formally notified until early February, Subaru says that model year 2019–2022 Ascent SUVs should not be parked in garages or car ports or under other structures. Subaru also says owners should not leave their Ascent running unattended, and if they notice or smell smoke coming from the dash or driver’s footwell, they should immediately turn the car off and not attempt to restart it.”

READER FAVORITE: Shark IZ483H Vertex Cordless Stick Vacuum. #CommissionEarned

THE ARMY’S NEXT HELICOPTER ISN’T: Tilt-Rotor, Take Two. “The cruise speed is almost twice the 175 mph of the Black Hawk it’s replacing, and significantly faster than the competing Defiant X design (265 MPH). It also has higher troop carrying capacity than the Black Hawk (14 vs. 12). ‘Firstest with the mostest’ is still hugely important in combat. And though the V-280 carries considerably less than the V-22, it has a much longer combat range.”

I’ll take two.

LIVE AT 3PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, VodkaPundit, Special Guest Kevin Downey Jr.

SPACE JUNK — BETTER PUT UP MY UMBRELLA: Space debris expert: Orbits will be lost—and people will die—later this decade.

Meanwhile, here’s a piece that Rob Merges and I wrote about orbital debris removal a while back.

THEY ONLY SUPPORT IT IN CHINA BECAUSE THEY KNOW IT WON’T HAPPEN: Democrats Defend Free Speech for Chinese Citizens but Support Censoring Fellow Americans.

A YEAR LATE AND A TRILLION DOLLARS SHORT: WHO eyes end to Covid emergency in 2023.

AND WITHOUT ANY LOCKDOWNS TO BLAME: US Industrial Production Annual Growth Slowest Since March 2021.

AT AMAZON, LEATHERMAN, Raptor Rescue Emergency Shears with Strap Cutter and Glass Breaker, Black with Utility Holster. #CommissionEarned.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Government Warns That With Elon Owning Twitter They Will Only Control 97% Of The Media.

SO WOULD WE ALL:  Kash Patel wants to know about the role of Wray and Barr in the FBI and DOJ liaison with Twitter.

JEFF DUNETZ: Rampant Retail Theft In Big Box Stores-Raising Prices And Closing Locations.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: It’s Time to Rehabilitate ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside.’

I’ve seen one glimmer of hope that “Baby It’s Cold Outside” might finally be getting the rehabilitation it deserves. MSN — nobody’s idea of a cultural conservative news outlet — published a piece by Kenneth Partridge last week on the “complicated, controversial history” of the song. I read the article, waiting for the eventual condemnation, but it never came.

There’s a brief mention of having “more substantive conversations about the very real issues underlying the discourse,” but that’s about it. There’s a discussion about John Legend’s sanitized version, but even Legend calls his reworked lyrics “a joke.”

For those of us who don’t need to make jokes — the ones who know how to be civilized grownups and take part in civilized grownup delights — I offer to you what is in my mind the definitive version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

Much more at the link.

CHANGE: After backlash, China stops counting asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. “There are signs that the government in scaling back on its strict policies. In the past few weeks multiple testing facilities that would screen citizens before they were allowed into public spaces have been shut down. On Monday China discontinued an app the government was using to track travel and quarantine individuals who had visited high risk areas.”

RENT-SEEKING: Young Montana Entrepreneur Is Being Legally Barred from Hauling Trash Because Established Players Don’t Want the Competition.

ELON TURNS TABLES, DROPS VIDEO OF ‘CRAZY STALKER’ WHO LOOKS LIKE ANTIFA: “The video posted by Musk on his Twitter account now has 8.4 million views as of this writing. Chances this guy gets nailed soon if he hasn’t been already? I’m going to guess that he isn’t going to last out the day without being identified. The real question, if this is in California, is whether this guy will suffer any consequences at all for his actions.”

BIGLY! Trump ridiculed for ‘major announcement’ that he’s selling digital trading cards.

Former President Donald Trump is being mocked over his “major announcement” that he’s selling digital trading cards featuring himself depicted as a superhero.

“MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT! My official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection is here!” Mr Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social on Thursday.

“These limited edition cards feature amazing ART of my Life & Career! Collect all of your favorite Trump Digital Trading Cards, very much like a baseball card, but hopefully much more exciting,” he added. “GET YOUR CARDS NOW! Only $99 each! Would make a great Christmas gift. Don’t Wait. They will be gone, I believe, very quickly!”

Twitter users were quick to mock the announcement.

As Michael Walsh recently described Trump: ‘A Man Who Could Have Been Great.’

THAT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE ON THE SIDE OF INFLATING AWAY THEIR DEBTS: Democrats Are Getting Very Nervous About the Fed’s War on Inflation.

DON SURBER: Groomer is the word of the year. It’s “the word of the year because it serves as the dividing line between the sane who live in this country and the insane people who run its government…The word is powerful because it calls out what is behind this wave of sexualizing very young children. And that is why liberals do not want us to use it. Too darned bad.”

ABOLISH THE CDC: Emails Show CDC Removed Defensive Gun Use Stats After Gun-Control Advocates Pressured Officials in Private Meeting.

WE CAN HOPE: “It may be premature to forget about a potential revival of the nondelegation doctrine. For now, and for a majority of the Supreme Court Justices, it may be that reliance on the major questions doctrine has supplanted a rebirth of the long dormant nondelegation doctrine as the preferred means of cabining the exercise of administrative power within the bounds of congressionally delegated authority. But it’s worth pointing out there are still nondelegation doctrine challenges making their way through the judicial system.”

WHAT ARE THE LONGTERM EMOTIONAL EFFECTS OF GESTATING WITHOUT A MOTHER’S PRESENCE? The Real-Life Matrix: ‘EctoLife’ Artificial Womb Facility to Engineer, Grow Babies in ‘Factory.’

HOLIDAY DEAL: Quility Weighted Blanket for Adults. #CommissionEarned