READER FAVORITE: Surge Protector, Outlet Extender with Night Light. #CommissionEarned

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Chinese Communist Party Demands Employees At Western Firm Show Their Support.

When China began to require Western corporations to establish Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cells, businesses brushed off the move as benign. For example, when HSBCHBA became the first international financial institution at which workers established a Chinese Communist Party cell in its investment banking venture in China in July, the bank stated that the CCP committee does not influence the direction of the firm and has no formal role in its day-to-day activities. But the CCP may have begun to flex its muscle in other ways. This week, the CCP cell inside the Beijing office of Big Four accounting firm EY demanded that party members wear CCP badges at work in the run-up to China’s annual parliamentary meetings. The presence of CCP cells in Western financial institutions may not mean that communists are managing your money. However, they spell trouble for Western businesses operating in China.

The CCP is a master practitioner of lawfare, or the purposeful use of law to achieve strategic objectives. In a recent legal salvo, the CCP launched several reforms to increase Party influence in the corporate world. In January 2020, a CCP regulation required all Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to amend their corporate charters to include the Party in their governance structure. SOEs must now appoint a Party secretary to serve as chairman of any corporate board, and establish CCP committees to facilitate Party activities and advance government policy. In September 2020, the General Office of the Central Committee of the CCP released a report asking China’s United Front Work Departments to spread Party ideology and influence in the private sector, including integrating Party leadership into all aspects of corporate governance.

Recently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission began requiring the creation of CCP cells in foreign financial firms as well. Within Chinese corporations, CCP committees serve as labor unions. In some cases, they function as a way to install a party member in a corporation’s executive ranks. The Party’s aim seems to be to ensure that private sector businesses fall under Party influence and will work with it to achieve national goals.

Beijing has figured out a way to start forcing foreign-owned businesses to act as CCP state-owned enterprises. Westerners were fools to believe — or at least pretend to believe — these cells were benign.

Then again, that’s been true about most of how the West has done business in China these last 30 years.

STEVEN GOLDSMITH: The Profession Formerly Known as Medicine. “Medical students report rates of depression up to 30% higher than the general population. About 400 U.S. physicians commit suicide annually, with the rate for female physicians four times higher than among other female professionals. A 2015 survey reported that 13% of male physicians and 22% of female physicians suffered from alcohol abuse or dependence. A 2021 study found that 63% of U.S. physicians experienced burnout, with one in five intending to leave their practice within two years. These statistics attest to medicine’s core problem that affects the welfare of patients and the health, sanity, and professional longevity of physicians. It is this: we physicians have traded in our former gods for ersatz idols.”

Plus: “To estrange themselves further from their calling, doctors bow as never before to the state and the corporation.”

And: “They grovel before the altar of the ‘electronic health record,’ or EHR, a corporate creation that widgetizes and dehumanizes doctor and patient. In 2016, MDs spent almost 40% of their patient care time (now surely higher) pecking on computers. No wonder they retire or leap from ledges. With the advent of EHRs, weekly meetings of the clinical staff where I once worked no longer included discussions of actual patients. Instead we war-gamed how to enter EHR data so as to satisfy insurers, the government, and our corporate overseers.”

A THIRD GREAT AWAKENING? Christian revival spreads to Baylor University.

Maybe it’s just a college fad, but it’s a long way from swallowing goldfish, and flies in the face of the larger culture. Almost transgressive, even.

GAS FOR ME BUT NOT FOR THEE: After Bashing Natural Gas, Oregon Gov. Installs $300K Natural Gas Generator at Mansion.

FIGHT THE POWER: VMI alumni work to disrupt alumni donations to force school to end DEI programs. More like this, please.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA Is Desperately Trying to Mine the Moon Before China Gets There.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: DeSantis Seems Content to Let Trump Run Against Trump for a While. “Speaking of publicity — the longer DeSantis waits to announce his candidacy, the greater the buzz will build about whether he will or not. It’s free press on autopilot.”

CDR SALAMANDER: Lessons from Ukraine: “The Ukrainian experience underlines a requirement I’ve yet to see get traction; if the USA expects a WESTPAC conflict in the next 10-years, there is one bold-faced requirement; under no circumstances should any production line of weapons systems be allowed to go cold until its replacement achieves initial operational capability. Once those lines – and [their] equipment and craftsmen – are lost, they are almost impossible to get back. “

OH MY: Sam Bankman-Fried’s donations may have been tens of millions more than we thought. “According to figures compiled by Open Secrets, Bankman-Fried was the second-largest donor of the 2022 campaign cycle, with almost $36 million in donations, largely to Democratic groups and candidates. This put him ahead of megadonors like Peter Thiel or James Simons but behind George Soros or Ken Griffin. Now, the Department of Justice is alleging that his donating spanned even further, using the names of other executives to support more political candidates than he himself did.”

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: ‘Bad Faith’: Treasury Department Obstructing Investigation Into Biden Family Finances, House Republican Says.

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Chicago’s Mayoral Election on Tuesday May Be a Harbinger of the Future for Other Big Cities. “Vallas claims to be the law-and-order candidate, while Johnson has indicated he will defund the police and spend the money on “people.” Garcia is a radical congressman, and Lightfoot has presided over a city in the throes of a violent crime wave not seen since the 1990s.”

BILL CLINTON, AL FRANKEN, AND JEFFREY EPSTEIN HAD NO COMMENT: ‘Utter Silence’: Biden Judicial Nominee Pushed To Unmask a Sexual Assault Victim’s Identity. Her Parents Want To Know Why Democrats Won’t Speak Out Against Him.

STEWART BAKER: Why Big Tech will lose its Supreme Court case on section 230: I only count two votes to ratify Big Tech’s sweeping immunity claims.

JOEL KOTKIN: Are Asians the New Jews?

Related: Asians Get The Ivy League’s Jewish Treatment.

A TAXING ISSUE: Corporations are laughing at the idea of paying taxes as nearly $1 trillion goes offshore every year, researchers say.

About a decade ago, the world’s biggest economies agreed to crack down on multinational corporations’ abusive use of tax havens. This resulted in a 15-point action plan that aimed to curb practices that shielded a large chunk of corporate profits from tax authorities.

But, according to our estimates, it hasn’t worked. Instead of reining in the use of tax havens – countries such as the Bahamas and Cayman Islands with very low or no effective tax rates – the problem has only gotten worse.

By our reckoning, corporations shifted nearly $1 trillion in profits earned outside of their home countries to tax havens in 2019, up from $616 billion in 2015, the year before the global tax haven plan was implemented by the group of 20 leading economies, also known as the G-20.

When taxes are simple, transparent, and not too high, they generally get collected. If governments were more serious about generating revenues than creating carveouts for their friends, they’d simplify their tax codes rather than play these charades.

THE DESCENT INTO SELF-PARODY CONTINUES: FBI arrests ‘sedition panda’ in Capitol riot case.

WATCH: Aussie Reporter Loses It on Air Covering Biden’s Mental Health.

“President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” White House Physician Kevin O’Connor claimed.

Well, Sky News Australia host Rita Panahi found O’Connor’s assessment so absurd she couldn’t contain her laughter as she contrasted O’Connor’s finding with clips of Biden’s verbal stumbles, gaffes, and other embarrassing hits.

I’m so old, I can remember when we were told that Trump had made us an international laughingstock and that Biden would restore the respect of our allies.

WHICH HASN’T STOPPED A LOT OF PEOPLE FROM DOING JUST THAT: The Washington Post Fact Checker says: “So far, Trump’s rollback of regulations can’t be blamed for Ohio train wreck.”

MATT MARGOLIS: The Air Raid Siren During Biden’s Visit to Kyiv Was Likely Staged: Here’s How We Know.

BOEING’S WOES CONTINUE: FAA Documentation Concerns Halt Boeing 787 Deliveries: Boeing 787 Dreamliner deliveries have been paused since late January so the company can address FAA concerns. “Delivery of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft was previously halted from the second quarter of 2021 to August 2022, due to concerns raised by FAA about flaws revealed in safety inspections. According to The Wall Street Journal, the current halt began on January 26. The current issue is unrelated to the 2021-2022 safety concerns, according to Reuters.”

WITH LAWDOG, CEDAR SANDERSON, C.V. WALTER, J.L. CURTIS AND MORE:  Space Cowboys.

#CommissionEarned

There’s something about the Cowboy that speaks to us all. So it only makes sense that, as humans expand into space, they’re going to bring their Cowboys with them.

Join 10 authors as they explore what Space Cowboys would look like, why we love them, and how they deal with the livestock that travels with humanity.

HEINLEIN THOUGHT THE WORLD COULD BE CORRUPTED THROUGH BAD ART:  Talking About Art While the World Burns.

In light of the last few decades, I see no reason to disbelieve it.

GOOD TO SEE:  SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches 21 second generation Starlink satellites.

WHEN UNIVERSITIES LOSE THEIR MIND:  Academic Failure and the Loss of Discourse.