QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: What Happened to Modern Movies? Clifton Duncan interviews Will Jordan aka The Critical Drinker (Video).

LOL: Ibram Kendi wants to correct Sen. Tim Scott on racism: Kendi argues America still racist despite vast successes of black Americans. Kendi’s own “vast success” — or grift, tomato, tomahto — depends on America still being racist, so you know what side he’s going to come down on. He has no choice.

RUN ALL THE CANDIDATES! Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Files Paperwork to Enter 2024 GOP Field.

AMERICA, F*** YEAH: Biden Wants to Build an 8,000-Mile Ocean Train and I Say Let’s Do This! “On today’s installment of ‘What the Hell Did Biden Actually Just Say?’ we have the alleged president of the most powerful country in the world announcing his plan to build, and I quote,’a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean.'”

GLEICHSCHALTUNG! UWashington rubric grades academic departments on process of ‘transforming’ into DEI programs.

FASTER? PLEASE! Defense tech firm Rafael reveals first-ever hypersonic interceptor.

According to the company, the Sky Sonic interceptor missile, which has been in development for around three years, will be shown for the first time at the upcoming Paris Air Show next week.

The announcement comes after Iran earlier this month claimed it had developed a new hypersonic missile. Rafael officials said the company had only recently been given approval by the Defense Ministry to reveal the system.

Rafael said the Sky Sonic missile “represents a major technological leap in hypersonic missile defense.”

“Designed with exceptional maneuverability and high-speed capabilities, it effectively neutralizes hypersonic missiles [which travel at speeds of over five times the speed of sound] with unmatched precision and stealth,” it said.

Baking stealth into an anti-ballistic missile to avoid detection by the ballistic missile’s countermeasures is a nifty trick.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: GOP Squish Caucus Saves Evil Adam Schiff From Being Censured. “Good news today gang — we’re not leading with Trump or Pride. In fact, we get to return to a topic that unites us all: going off on the idiot squish Republicans who aid and abet the Democrats’ efforts to destroy the country. You know, the gang that takes the line, ‘With friends like these, who needs enemies?’ as a personal challenge.”

SPACE LAW NEWS: Former Spaceflight CEO joins law firm to support commercial space clients.

Back in 1989, the NYT had a story on space law, including a picture of me, Neil Hosenball, and Dennis Ahearn. We probably represented a hefty percentage of all the lawyers working in the area at the time. No longer!

COSMETIC SURGERY: From luxury to necessity?

HEH: Tucker Carlson’s Lawyer to GOP Lawmakers: Boycott Fox.

Tucker Carlson’s lawyer Harmeet Dhillon has ended her appearances on Fox News and is urging Republican lawmakers to do the same.

The move comes after Fox sent a cease-and-desist letter to Carlson after his second episode of “Tucker on Twitter.” Carlson took his show to the social media platform after being taken off the air by Fox earlier this year.

Dhillon tweeted on Monday:

For all the friends who have been asking “why don’t we see you on Fox anymore?” — This is why. I am passionately committed to free speech and a free flow of information necessary for a free society. Until Fox stops trying to silence Tucker, it’s not a place for me. And I feel for my friends working at the network which has clearly caved into pressure from some quarter to silence @TuckerCarlson. What you are seeing on Fox today is a censored version of the news. Keep that in mind as you make your viewing and your commenting choices.”

Times like this make me wish PJTV hadn’t gone dark in 2016 — we’d have guests beating down the doors in 2023.

OLD AND BUSTED: Redneck Nation.

The New Hotness? Vodkapundit Nation! People Are Boozing Like It’s 1860 As Americans Have Reached Civil War Levels Of Alcohol Consumption.

I DUNNO, IT SEEMS LIKE IN ALL THE SERVICE BRANCHES THE STANDARDS SLIP ABOVE O-6. Marine Corps’ brand: ‘I’m not sure you’re good enough to be a Marine.’

BRINGING NEW MEANING TO THE PHRASE, “THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE:” Penn State professor Themis Matsoukas accused of performing sexual acts with his dog: ‘I do it to blow off steam.’

A longtime and award-winning Penn State professor allegedly performed sexual acts with his dog in sickening displays that were captured on a state forest trail camera.

Themis Matsoukas, 64, was charged Tuesday after he was allegedly caught earlier this year naked from the waist down — except for socks and shoes — committing the perverted sex acts with his collie near bathrooms at Rothrock State Forest in Pennsylvania, according to reports.

Matsoukas, who is on leave from the university, was identified through a North Face backpack he was carrying from an incident in April and also May, according to a criminal complaint cited by the Centre Daily Times.

He allegedly tried to record himself performing the lewd acts with an electronic tablet, according to the trail cam footage, Fox 43 reported.

After Matsoukas was identified as the possible suspect, rangers from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources searched his home earlier this month and he went into a panic, the complaint reportedly states.

Between this story, Jerry Sandusky, and the late Joe Paterno looking the other way, we need a complete and total shutdown of Penn State until we can figure out just what the hell is going on there.

KRUISER: Trump Is Just the Tip of the Dems’ Rogue Law Enforcement Harassment Iceberg. “I’m not one given to existential crisis panics, but it’s safe to say that I am now at least ‘existential crisis adjacent.’ Joe Biden has been in office for only two-and-a-half years, but it feels like the Left has done a century’s worth of damage to the Republic in that time. We don’t want to live in the horror show that would be a second Biden/Harris term.”

GRIFTERS GONNA GRIFT: BLM Activist’s Income More Than Tripled as His Nonprofit’s Revenue Plummeted: Shaun King has been accused of financial mismanagement and fraud.

You put a fake black guy in charge of your black nonprofit and, well, who could have seen this coming?

A HANGOVER FROM 2020’s SUMMER OF LOVE: Judge rules that Seattle must not enforce law against graffiti.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: World Bank Just Halved Its US Growth Forecast For 2024, Saying The Economy ‘Is Likely To Remain Weak.’

Real gross domestic product (GDP) in the country is now projected to grow by 0.8% in 2024, according to the international lending institution’s latest Global Economic Prospects report. Previously, its forecast was 1.6%.

“In the United States, growth is expected to weaken significantly through 2023 and early 2024, mainly as a result of the lagged effects of the sharp rise in policy rates over the past year and a half aimed at bringing down the highest inflation rates since the early 1980s,” the report stated.

The World Bank noted that while consumption has been resilient in America, it is “expected to slow down substantially.” In particular, higher borrowing costs and tighter financial conditions could impact household spending. At the same time, Americans will run out of savings that they accumulated during the pandemic.

Absent more inflationary stimulus from Washington, I figure we might be lucky to get 0.8%.

ELI LAKE: Trump Probably Broke the Law. But That Law Shouldn’t Exist. To be fair, that’s probably at least half of federal criminal laws.

UNEXPECTEDLY: China’s economy is way more screwed than anyone thought.

Entering 2023, the relentless drumbeat of Wall Street consensus was pounding out one consistent rhythm: China is back. After years of lockdowns and suppressed output, economists and investors cheered the end of Beijing’s zero-COVID policy and the economic boom that was sure to follow. The colossus-in-waiting that is the Chinese consumer was about to roam freely, analysts said. This was great news for the whole world — everyone would benefit from the globe’s second-largest economy getting healthy.

But six months into the year, Wall Street’s dreams for the country are turning into a nightmare.

Far from an economic explosion, China’s recovery from COVID has been weak. Industrial production has disappointed. Trade — both imports and exports — has slowed markedly. There is debt everywhere, especially in property development, which makes up 30% of the economy. Trading partners are upset for a litany of reasons, from human-rights abuses to concerns about the government’s increasing role in the country’s commerce. The private sector — which was expected to drive most of China’s bounceback — is running scared.

Flashback to November of 2019: How to Conduct Business with Chinese Companies That See a Dark Future.

And to December of 2021: China Is Becoming the Soviet Union.

MATT MARGOLIS: Is This Proof the Trump Indictment Is a Scam?

CALIFORNIANS’ CHOICE: If state officials go forward with their plan to ban sales of all fossil-fueled vehicles by 2035, they will force upon their millions of residents one simple choice – they can either recharge their Electric Vehicles or they can keep the lights on in their homes and businesses. Issues & Insights explains why that is inevitable, based on a detailed analysis by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) that is well-worth reading.

Being about California,  there is also a delightful Hollywood allusion by the I&I miscreants that illustrates the end of such madness, via a Ramirez that would no doubt prompt a hearty laugh from Charlton Heston.

SO, THERE WAS A MINOR ABOMINATION, IN THAT MY BOOK PROMO AND VIGNETTE CHALLENGE GOT MOVED TO WEDNESDAY:  Book Promo and Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

It ended up eating most of my day though, because of the stupid AI tricks that wordpress is playing now.  Forgive the extended rant at the beginning of the usual festivities, please.

VIA MARK JUDGE: The Beauty of Female Passion. “I’m not trying to lure anyone to their doom. Just to dinner.”

ZHOU BAI-DEN, CHINA’S VICEROY ON OUR SHORES IS A VERY WEIRD MAN:  White House Brags About Chart Showing Inflation Skyrocketing on Their Watch.

And his merry band of pranksters are dumber than anyone should be, who can walk and chew gum at the same time.

I DISAGREE WITH HIS WEIRD LOVE FOR RUSSIA BUT WHATEVER:  Tucker on The Indictment of Trump and America’s Principles at Stake.