THE LEFT’S WAR ON WOMEN: Female Inmate Reports Rape Occurred in California Women’s Prison. “Le says she was told by multiple inmates that the woman had been sexually assaulted by Jonathan Roberston, also known as Siyaah Skylit. Robertson was previously the subject of widespread trans activist campaigns attempting to relocate him from a male facility to the women’s institution he is now in.”

FOR WHATEVER REASON, HE SEEMS RELUCTANT TO STEP ONTO THE NATIONAL STAGE: Mitch Daniels opts against a run for the Senate. “It’s just not the job for me, not the town for me, and not the life I want to live at this point.”

Hypothesis: The reason the Club For Growth went after him was that they knew this would happen, but now they’ll claim they had something to do with it.

R.I.P. TO THE CUMBERLAND AVENUE STRIP IN KNOXVILLE: City planners and real estate developers partnered to ruin it.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Biden/Garland Rogue FBI Takes One on the Chin. “After Roe v Wade was tossed into the Supreme Court dustbin last summer, the always frothing-at-the-mouth abortion ghouls wanted their pound of flesh.”

DON SURBER: Why conservatives oppose the war.

Related: The liberal push for an all-out war with Russia.

I’m in favor of bleeding Putin into helplessness, but not in favor of outright war.

LAUGHING WOLF: Iran, Russia, Oh My.

Moscow has extensive air and missile defenses. Even the Kremlin is rumored to have air defense. Yet, two Pantsir are placed where they can provide overlapping close-defense of the Kremlin. Why?

Ukraine has nothing on the books that can reach Moscow. Could they create a one-off or even several that could hit Moscow and the Kremlin? Yes. Outside of propaganda, why would they do it? I mean there is a serious risk that such a move could backfire on multiple levels. Keep in mind that the Kremlin is not a building. It is in fact several buildings and bunkers inside a brick fortress that houses them and rather extensive grounds. Pretty place, enjoyed the museum. To do significant damage would take large payloads and precision hits.

Unless.

What if your target wasn’t a building? What if it was an individual. One who regularly travels into the Kremlin via the vehicle gate at the intersection of Serafimo and Manezh.

The mysterious art of Kremlinology didn’t end with the Soviet Union.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): What if they’re there to protect the Kremlin not from Ukraine, but from other Russians?

IF EVERY INSTITUTION HAS BEEN CORRUPTED, CAN WE TRUST THE BLS? US lost 287,000 jobs while government was reporting +1 million in gains. “This is the second major report to come out showing significant job growth discrepancies in the second quarter. Last month, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank released a report saying it thought the government overestimated job growth by more than one million. The Philadelphia Fed calculated 10,500 net new jobs added versus the 1,047,000 revised estimate by the BLS. . . . BLS is releasing its latest national data revisions on Friday with the January jobs report.”

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Big win for gun owners as federal judge grants second TRO against New Jersey carry laws.

IT IS: Social media is a defective product, lawsuit contends. “If the case is allowed to proceed, it will test a novel legal theory, that social media algorithms are defective products that encourage addictive behavior and are governed by existing product liability law. That could have far-reaching consequences for how software is developed and regulated, and how the next generation of users experiences social media.”

WATCH: Professional Groomer Visits Preschool, Indoctrinates Children Into Transgenderism.

SPREADING MISINFORMATION: Groups on Google Payroll Flood Supreme Court With Briefs Defending Google. “Dozens of groups that have financial ties to Google are filing amicus briefs to the Supreme Court as it deliberates whether the tech giant should be held liable for content posted on its platforms. They all just so happen to be advocating for a ruling that benefits Google.”

LAWS OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND:  The subminimum wage gives the severely disabled a chance to have a job and feel productive. Their parents and siblings know that.  That’s why they supported it so strongly when the issue was brought before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  It’s less clear who is behind its repeal.  But there is a whole lot of effort behind that repeal.  One thing is for certain, if you repeal it, a whole lot of Down syndrome adults with jobs will end up jobless.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: The U.S. Consumer Is Starting to Freak Out.

The engine of the U.S. economy—consumer spending—is starting to sputter.

Retail purchases have fallen in three of the past four months. Spending on services, including rent, haircuts and the bulk of bills, was flat in December, after adjusting for inflation, the worst monthly reading in nearly a year. Sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell last year to their lowest level since 2014 as mortgage rates rose. The auto industry posted its worst sales year in more than a decade.

It’s a stark turnaround from the second half of 2020, when Americans lifted the economy out of a pandemic downturn, helping the U.S. avoid what many economists worried would be a prolonged slump. Consumers snapped up exercise bikes, televisions and laptop computers for schoolchildren during lockdowns. When restrictions were lifted, they rushed back to their favorite restaurants and travel destinations.

And they kept spending, helped by government stimulus, flush savings accounts and cheap credit, even as inflation picked up. Faced with four-decade-high inflation last year, Americans outspent it. Through most of 2022, consumer spending growth exceeded price increases by about 2 percentage points.

Now the forces that helped keep spending high are unwinding, while inflation remains elevated.

“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”

CDR SALAMANDER: “China is bulding at a wartime pace.”

WSJ: Rebellion Over U.S. News Rankings Seems Likely To Fail. “The reality is that what the schools themselves contribute to the rankings is relatively small: The data includes test scores, alumni giving, financial information and so on. But most of the data used to determine the rankings can be derived from publicly available information, or surveys conducted by U.S. News itself. Indeed, U.S. News has revised the survey over the years in response to criticism. There is a case to be made that the less the schools contribute, the more objective the rankings might become, in some respects.”

Well, it succeeds as performance art. Which is enough.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Get ready for the coming fertilizer shortage apocalypse.

Related: Looming food shortages is the next ‘slow-moving disaster’ to hit world. Not by accident.

I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT: Warning Signs Indicate a Great Depression May Be Coming.

FROM NATHAN BRINDLE: The Tale of the Crane Princess.

#CommissionEarned

Ordinary, everyday shopkeeper Horiuchi Tsurue is running a little general store and mini-café on a small island in Japan’s inland sea, two centuries after mankind was nearly wiped out by a virus.
One day, Yamaguchi Yukiko, the kamaitachi of legend (The Cross-Time Kamaitachi), and her daughter Mikoko, appear in front of Tsurue’s shop, and she invites them in for tea.
That’s when Tsurue discovers she is anything but ordinary. And in the end, the island she is sworn to protect will depend upon it.

SOHRAB AMARI: Race was invented by liberals.

The notion that capitalism created terrible inequality, however, seems to me ahistorical. Inequality under feudal aristocracy was pretty damn pronounced too.

WE’RE ALL BETTER OFF FOR A LITTLE ENGINEER BRAIN:  Toasters.

NEWS YOU CAN’T USE BUT ARE KIND OF COOL:  What Exactly is Happening at the Earth’s Core?

WELL… IT’S AN EXPERIMENT:  Disposable Culture.

SURE SHE DIDN’T:  Ilhan Claims She Didn’t Know About Tropes of Money And Jews.

THIS THIS THIS:  Tyre Nichols Isn’t the Only Victim Entitled to the Truth.

ALL THEIR INSTITUTIONS ARE IN A PANIC. THAT’S WHY THEY’RE MAKING EVERYTHING SO CRAZY:  Woke Salon at Stage II over “Grooming”.