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

Rick Moran: The ‘Right Side of History’ Argument Is a Crock. “Every time you hear some left-wing blowhard tell you or conservatives that they’re on the ‘right side of history,’ you have history’s permission to tell them they’re full of crap.”

Matt Margolis: 5 Power Grabs Democrats Will Never Stop Trying. “Democrats didn’t just lose their majority in the House of Representatives in November; they lost their opportunity to secure their power in the federal government in perpetuity. With only a slim majority in the House, and a 50-50 split in the Senate, they knew they had a small window of opportunity, and while they failed, they showed us their hand, and we know exactly what they will try to do the next time they regain one-party control.”

Yours Truly: Verdun Turned Inside Out. “The Battle of Verdun has spent weeks dancing around the edges of my mind as I read about the mutual slaughter going on at the Battle of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.”

HIGHER EDUCATION’S CULTURE OF OPPRESSION: 2023 Outlook: Bias reporting systems continue to infringe 1A rights.

FLASHBACK: Ron DeSantis has emerged as America’s awesome ‘shadow president.’

AT AMAZON, New Year Sale. #CommissionEarned

SMART, SINCE THEY’RE THE OUTFIT IN CHARGE OF PROTECTING THEM: In Major Step, Space Force Takes Over All Military Satellite Communications.

I REMEMBER WHEN CANADIANS USED TO PRETEND TO BE DECENT AND NICE: Jordan Peterson Ordered to Report to Reeducation Camp for Criticizing Trudeau. Siccing psychologists on political opponents — and that’s what’s happening here — is Stalinist stuff. But Justin Trudeau is basically Stalinist trash.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: New Republican House Majority Is a Driverless Clown Car. “The red trickle Republican majority in the House of Representatives has finally arrived, ladies and gentlemen. Everything is going to be better now, right? We finally have some leverage to push back against the Democrats in the Senate and White House. Can’t we all just feel the freedom again?”

JONATHAN TURLEY: The targeting of Ginni and Clarence Thomas proved just another exercise in liberal rage. Democrats are afraid of a strong black man, especially one who’s married to a white woman.

AMERICAN REFUGEES: Karol Markowicz: It’s been a year since we left New York for Florida. Here’s what we learned. “It wasn’t the virus that killed our New York dream. It was the political reaction to that virus.”

THOMAS KLINGENSTEIN: DeSantis Goes to War.

In evoking Churchill’s speech, DeSantis lets us know that the woke regime is bearing down on America. In the urgent cadences of war, DeSantis tells us that America will not survive unless she defeats the woke regime. He believes this regime is so evil and powerful that he can, without bathos, compare it to the Nazi regime.

DeSantis has made a good start. He has told us that we are at war with a deadly regime, the woke regime. You cannot win a war unless you know you are in one.

But at some point soon, he must go further. He must show a voting majority of Americans that wokeism is the challenge of our generation, as Nazism was the challenge of the WWII generation and Communism for two generations thereafter.

And he must back up his claim. He has given us at least one piece of substantial evidence: in large numbers, people are fleeing their homes. Still, we need more. We shall not address the problem with the right strategies and people or the necessary resolve until we believe the country’s life truly is at stake. DeSantis needs to put America on a war footing.

If you didn’t catch any of the DeSantis inaugural yesterday, it looked absolutely presidential — which you can be sure was no accident.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: We’re doomed: 12 of 13 outlooks are negative, Gallup poll finds.

In one of the gloomiest forecasts Secrets has seen, the nation has an almost universal feeling of doom heading into 2023.

In the latest Gallup survey, views in 12 of 13 key areas are negative. Some 90% fear the year will see “political conflict,” and 8 in 10 predict economic calamity.

“Americans are greeting 2023 with great skepticism and little expectation that the economic struggles that closed out 2022 will abate,” read the survey analysis.

“Coming off several challenging years, Americans enter 2023 with a mostly gloomy outlook,” added the polling giant.

Likely driving the nation’s depression is the surge of COVID-19, Wall Street’s crash, political division on Capitol Hill, and a winter of woe for travelers.

No place in the Gallup results showed a positive view, though the survey said that Democrats are more upbeat than independents and Republicans. Gallup chalked that up to the liberals holding the White House.

“This is a typical phenomenon whereby Americans who identify with the sitting president’s party are more positive in general in their outlook for the year ahead,” read the analysis.

The survey asked participants for their views on politics, society, economics, and international affairs.

On politics and society, 90% expect political conflict and 72% anticipate rising crime.

On the economy, most expect tax increases, rising prices, and a sinking stock market.

Well, at least they won’t be disappointed.

BREAKING: Trump Endorses: ‘Kevin McCarthy Will Do a Good Job.’

BLUE CITY BLUES: Akron Teachers May Strike Over Safety Issues.

DO THE LETTERS “F.O.” MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU? ‘Repent to Allah’: Machete-Wielding Times Square Attacker Is an Islamic Extremist.

YOU DON’T SAY: St. Louis Fed Quietly Finds US Is Now In A Recession.

In recent weeks, we have seen a burst of unexpected truthiness out of various regional Fed banks, a sharp contrast to the constant barrage of prevarication out of the Federal Reserve.

First, it was the Philadelphia Fed which effectively revised what was according to the BLS a gain of 1.1 million jobs to just 10,500 jobs, meaning that the Fed was looking at erroneously overstated, arguably politicized data, as it unleashed its burst of 75bps rate hikes in June… which happened just as June jobs number turned negative.

Then, a few days later, the Cleveland Fed suggested that the Fed’s entire inflation view is wrong, relying on core CPI (and PCE) data that is woefully, even dangerously, delayed – in some cases lagging market data by up to 12 months, and suggesting that rent inflation – a core component of shelter and OER inflation which is arguably the most important component of “sticky” US service inflation – is actually far lower if measured correctly.

The assertion that inflation might actually be lower than reported — than experienced — is specious at best. But this is from ZeroHedge, where they seem to love easy money.

That aside, it’s nice to see various Fed banks finally catching up to where the rest of us were months ago.

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: 8 of the 10 Neediest Cities in America Have Something in Common. “Wallethub.com released the tragic list showing which cities are starting 2023 with a thud. They used 28 indicators including poverty, hunger, homelessness, etc.”

FROM SARAH A. HOYT, THIS TIME WITH A PAPERBACK EDITION:  Through Fire (Darkship Thieves Book 4).

#CommissionEarned

SOLUTIONS: Texas National Guard installs razor wire on Mexico border.

DOES THAT MEAN IT’S 120%?  Drink up: Large study finds that not consuming enough water increases risk of death by 20%.

A VALUABLE SERIES OF REMEMBRANCE POSTS:  The Battle of Princeton, 1777.

WE KNOW:  The Pied Piper Has No Clothes.

CAN SOMEONE GET HIM AND BIDEN IN A MEMORY CARE FACILITY?  Paul Ehrlich Claims Vindication for his Climate Catastrophe Prediction.

WE LITERALLY HAVE PHONE IN GOVERNMENT:  (1) Phoning in votes for a $1.7trillion omnibus bill?! (2) Jan. 6 committee drops subpoena of Trump; (3) Dr. Mordechai Kedar on new Israeli government: “calm down everybody”.

NOW THEY’RE RACE SWITCHING REAL PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE:  Victor Hugo, Dumas, the French response to “le wokisme”, and the NYT beclowning itself.

WE NEED A LOT MORE OF THIS:  Pushback: Court denies school principal immunity from lawsuit for squelching free speech.