I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: ‘How Do I Do That?’ The New Hires of 2023 Are Unprepared for Work.

Roman Devengenzo was consulting for a robotics company in Silicon Valley last fall when he asked a newly minted mechanical engineer to design a small aluminum part that could be fabricated on a lathe—a skill normally mastered in the first or second year of college.

“How do I do that?” asked the young man.

So Devengenzo, an engineer who has built technology for NASA and Google, and who charges consulting clients a minimum of $300 an hour, spent the next three hours teaching Lathework 101. “You learn by doing,” he said. “These kids in school during the pandemic, all they’ve done is work on computers.”

The knock-on effect of years of remote learning during the pandemic is gumming up workplaces around the country. It is one reason professional service jobs are going unfilled and goods aren’t making it to market. It also helps explain why national productivity has fallen for the past five quarters, the longest contraction since at least 1948, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Missing skills can be taught, but productivity won’t recover until we’re rid of Biden’s massive re-regulation and malinvestments.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Somebody Might Finally Lie About DeSantis to His Face. “DeSantis seems to be at his best when naysayers are in the same room with him. He routinely dismantles reporters who have asked idiotic questions and/or misrepresented what he’s done. I think part of the problem with his campaign so far is that he hasn’t had many in-person foes to help spark some enthusiasm.”

ICYMI: MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY IS ON EDUCATION AND THE POLITICS OF YOUTH: Hey, Teacher, Leave Those Kids Alone!

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: College-going is down, and that could be a good thing.

GENTLEMEN, START YOUR AIRBRUSHES! Busted: Stephen L. Miller catches media updating old stories about the number of Biden’s grandchildren.

MERELY A COINCIDENCE: Judge In Trump Election Case Worked At Same Law Firm As Hunter Biden.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “They’ve cast Trump as the hero.”

BUT YOU HAVE HIS “WORD AS A BIDEN:” Evidence Of Biden Burisma Corruption Is Overwhelming.

HMM: There’s Something Very Strange About the Death of Obama’s Personal Chef. “The story became one of palace intrigue due to the anonymous 911 call, the location of the Obamas at the time of the incident, and the former president’s injuries at a golf course not long after the event. He was sporting bandaged hands and a black eye. It might be a coincidence, but the drowning has sparked many conspiracy theories and accompanying fact-checks, which don’t mean anything. The liberal media destroyed the ‘fact check’ beat when weaponizing these pieces against the Trump presidency.”

Well, yes. For “fact checks” to mean anything you have to trust the fact-checkers, which you clearly can’t. Of course, that doesn’t tell us what the truth is here.

LIFE IN 2023: Australians Fight for the Right To Work From Home Permanently.

CHANGE? Black Voters in Georgia Aren’t Automatically Lining up Behind Joe Biden.

MAKING YOUR LIVES WORSE ISN’T COLLATERAL DAMAGE, IT’S THE POINT: Meet the Biden Climate Official Who Wants To Force You To Live a ‘Simpler Life:’ ‘We need to be saved from ourselves,’ Ann Carlson said before joining Biden admin.

I think we need to be saved from interfering assholes. But we’ll have to do the saving ourselves.

Related:

Rousseau, despite his personal ties to key Enlightenment figures, carved out a staunchly contrary position – irrationalist and statist to the core. To call him a generic “national socialist” would be quite fair. If Orwell’s “Freedom Is Slavery” slogan ever struck you as over-the-top, try Rousseau’s notorious line from The Social Contract: “Whoever refuses to obey the general will will be forced to do so by the entire body; this means merely that he will be forced to be free.”

Do the letters F,O mean anything to you?

WELL, YES: Still “Yes” to Campus Carry.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Elite Gourmet ECT-3100 Long Slot 4 Slice Toaster. #CommissionEarned

I HAD BEEN ASSURED THIS KIND OF THING WAS JUST A QANON DELUSION: Florida sting targeting child sex exploitation finds nearly 40% of arrestees in US illegally. “Officials said that seven out of 19 people arrested in Bay County, Florida, were in the country illegally. Five have no record showing lawful entry into the U.S. One man was admitted on a B-2 visitors visa that expired in 2021, and another was admitted on a J-1 student visa that also expired in 2021.”

THE RULE OF LAW IS A JOKE. IT’S THE RULE OF FORCE AND GRAFT NOW. DOJ declares war against Americans.

WHO BETTER TO ASK ABOUT THIS THAN A LAW PROFESSOR? Making Internet Dating Less Painful.

REPORT: Ron DeSantis And Gavin Newsom Agree To Debate.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP [VIP]: Maybe AI Isn’t Evil, It’s Just… Wrong.

Plus:

• How to stop the shoplifting crime wave with this one weird beating.
• Ron Perlman performs the Triple Lindy of backflips.
• The Mitch McConnell/Diane Feinstein meme you’ll never unsee.

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

I PREFER GRIFTER-IN-CHIEF: Joe Biden, Leader of the Fleece World.

SHE’S RIGHT YOU KNOW?   Review: Sworn to the Light by Denton Salle.

WHEN YOU FIND OUT ONE OF YOUR ONLINE  FRIENDS SINCE FOREVER IS YOUR FRIEND FOR A REASON: I Hate Barbie.

With me, I don’t hate Barbie so much as she just hit the uncanny valley. Also my dolls were all babies or toddlers. The closest I came to fashion dolls were paper dolls I made myself. And their clothes, I drew and cut out myself.  And since they were fantasy or science fiction I don’t think it was fashion exactly. Okay, fine, I’m broken.

HOW DO THEY KNOW HOW THIS PERSON IDENTIFIED?  REEEEE:  Face of 45,000-year-old woman reconstructed 70 years after skull found.

WELL, DUH!  BREAKING: Former Capitol Police Chief told Tucker Carlson events surrounding Jan 6 ‘appear to be a cover-up’ in unaired interview.

EDITORIAL POLICIES WILL REMAIN UNCHANGED:  George Soros-tied fund, Fortress buy bankrupt Vice Media for $350M.