BECAUSE EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW IS IN SEVERE DANGER AND MAYBE DEAD:  Chauvin State Appeal Argued – Low Likelihood Of Success Despite Being Deprived Of A Fair Trial.

OH, THERE’S A SHOCK: Anita Dunn was behind the decision to keep the classified documents story from the press. “If you’re not familiar with Dunn, she was the person behind the war on Fox News during the Obama administration. She’s been in and out of the White House since the start of the Biden administration. She helped come up with the phrase ‘ultra MAGA’ and I strongly suspect she’s the person behind Biden’s border strategy PR, i.e. refusing to admit there’s a crisis and always referring to the situation as a ‘challenge.'”

So a moron, then.

RIGHT?

HER MOMENT, IF SHE HAD ONE, HAS PASSED. Nikki Haley sure sounds like she’s running for president: “Stay tuned.”

Am I running for President? Stay tuned.

But seriously, her moment, if she ever had one, has passed. She might serve in DeSantis’s cabinet.

OPEN THREAD: Enjoy every sandwich.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: With Starshield, SpaceX readies for battle.

Now that SpaceX has established itself as a leading provider of U.S. national security launches, it is seeking a bigger share of the defense market with a new product line called Starshield. SpaceX quietly unveiled Starshield last month offering defense and intelligence agencies custom-built spacecraft, sensors, and secure communications services leveraging SpaceX’s investment in its Starlink network of broadband satellites.

Like other commercial players, SpaceX is eyeing opportunities fueled by the United States’ “great-power competition” with China and Russia. A U.S. national defense strategy document the Pentagon released in October calls China a “pacing challenge” that threatens to surpass the United States in defense and space technologies. To win this race, DoD intends to tap commercial innovation.

“We have in the United States by far the most resilient commercial space enterprise anywhere in the world. The Chinese know that, and we’re going to lean into that,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said Dec. 8 at an Aspen Security Forum in Washington. “We’re going to make sure we’re working closely with the commercial sector and leveraging all that commercial space capability.”

Russia’s war in Ukraine cast a powerful spotlight on the space industry, notably on the value of imaging satellites and on SpaceX’s satellite broadband service Starlink. The system — with well over 3,000 satellites in orbit and thousands more to come — demonstrated resilience against jamming and showed the strength of this kind of proliferated architecture.

“This wasn’t available before,” John Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said Dec. 14 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Ukraine is the first major conflict, he noted, where commercial space technology has come into play in a significant way.

But not the last.

THEN THERE MUST BE A LOT OF SICK PEOPLE OUT THERE: Procrastinating Could Be a Sign of Serious Health Problems, Study Finds.

I’M NOT SURPRISED TO HEAR THIS: Aspirin may help prevent blood clots after surgery for broken bones.

THE LAMENTATIONS OF THE PUNDITS: “Just two weeks ago, Democrats were chortling over chaos in the G.O.P., convinced that far-right Republican control of the House would help them in 2024. Then they experienced the exquisite torture that comes with the slow release of politically damaging information, in this case the acknowledgment of classified documents found in Mr. Biden’s former offices and Wilmington home. Now he’s fully in the barrel — targeted by powerful congressional committees, aggressive reporters looking for scoops and a methodical new special counsel, Robert Hur, to match Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating Mr. Trump.”

Jonathan Alter’s still spinning, though, trying to explain that of course Biden’s document scandal is nothing like Trump’s documents.

SOCIALISM AS USUAL: Cuba’s Famous Ice Cream Parlor Closed for Lack of Ice Cream.

LOTS OF ATTENTION for David Bernstein’s Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America.

FLASHBACK: When Rulers Despise the Ruled.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Is It Still Armed Robbery When the Weapon Is an Office Supply? “This week we have the curious case of the armed robber who wasn’t, what happens when someone becomes emotionally attached to drain pipes, and North Carolina Man showing Florida Man how it’s really done.”

MAKE THEM PAY: Illinois AG, Buried In Lawsuits, Has Bad Day At Gun Ban Court Date.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Texas Aims To Rein In Rogue DAs. “As George Soros-backed leftwing Democrats started capturing District Attorney offices across the country, a dangerous soft-on-crime ethos has taken hold in many blue-controlled cities. Prosecutors are letting violent felons back on the streets for minimal bond, no bond, or even failing to charge them entirely.”

NOTHING WRONG WITH IT THAT A MOAB WOULDN’T FIX: “Davos itself is like a military zone, where you have limited access and everything is cordoned off.”

But that’s their plan for all of us — limited access and everything cordoned off. Plus:

The globalization project is nothing if not a recipe for entanglement, and Davos prescribes more of it. Yet central planning by the elites may have caused at least some of the instability we are in the midst of. The men of Davos cannot pretend to stand outside the system, in which they were the leading actors, as if they had nothing to do with anything; that the polycritical world was just an unfortunate event they encountered along the road, for which they bear no responsibility. They should consider, if only hypothetically, whether they are part of the problem.

Perhaps Elon Musk, the billionaire who is not going to the WEF meeting, hit the nail upon the head. The danger isn’t that the world won’t hand control over to the Elect in time, but that the saviors of the planet will get in over their heads and create more monsters than they slay.

Chaos Umpire sits, and by decision more embroils the fray by which he reigns.

UPDATE: WEF/Davos presents the glass bubble where you and the bugs you eat will live in the future prepared for you.

JOHN HINDERAKER ON FALSE DEBT LIMIT REPORTING: “The Democrats say the sky is falling…” He’s right– it’s political show. That said, Big Debt is the biggest self-inflicted threat the U.S. faces.

TRAINING FOR WINTER WAR: Special Ops airmen in the snow at Camp Mad Bull, Alaska. I still shiver when I recall freezing in (West) German snow, 1975-77. But you have to learn to live in it. This Army training photo was snapped in Finland in November 2022 during an exercise with the Finnish Army.

I recall a senior NCO saying in, oh, December 1975 (?) that anyone who griped about cold weather training was historically ignorant. He was referring to all of the cold weather casualties the Army suffered during the Battle of the Bulge. Here’s a good Bulge photo from January 1945. Yes, the senior sergeant in 1975 was referring to a winter battle that had taken place in his lifetime.

READER FAVORITE: GTHUNDER Digital Night Vision Goggles Binoculars for Total Darkness. #CommissionEarned

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood looks like a scene from the WALKING DEAD as grim photos show ‘tranq’ addicts shooting up in broad daylight on sidewalks in area dubbed ‘Zombieland.’

Figures aren’t available yet for 2022, but overdose deaths in the US increased 50% from just 2019-2021.

WILL AI AND CHATGPT CHANGE HIGHER ED FOR THE BETTER? Maybe not in the way you think.

SKYNET SMILES: Boston Dynamics’s bipedal robots can throw heavy objects now.

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: George Santos, Drag Queen? The Rabbit Hole Just Got a Lot Deeper.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Florida Legislature May Impose Penalties on Local Legislators Who Illegally Impose Gun Control Laws. Florida Supreme Court: “The constitution … confers exclusively upon the Legislature the power to abrogate common law and restrict local government power. . . . By enacting the Preemption Statute, the Legislature exercised its power to preempt the field of firearms and ammunition (subject to limited exceptions)…. The imposition of these civil statutory [penalty] actions for violations of the Preemption Statute does not violate governmental function immunity.”

We need more liability for government officials who seek to deprive citizens of their rights.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS STUCK LIKE THAT: Biden’s IRS plans to squeeze everyone, even those making less than $400,000 a year.