DON SURBER: Like Bud Light, Harvard discovers backlash: Claudine Gay shows why you shouldn’t hire a person based solely on sex and race.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Pro-Hamas graffiti smeared at Lincoln Memorial blamed on police cuts.

OUR WOKE MILITARY: U.S. Space Force Officer Claims Troop Readiness Affected by Non-Existent Anti-LGBT Laws.

RACE-GRIFTING IS THE BUSINESS, AND BUSINESS IS GOOD: The 10 Best Nikole Hannah-Jones Articles of 2023: The hardest-working woman in ‘antiracist’ show business.

AT AMAZON, Shop the Winter Sale. #CommissionEarned

BIDENOMICS IS WORKING: 2024’s Deficit Is Already on Track to Be the Worst Since Covid.

According to the latest monthly statement from the Treasury Department, the total budget deficit for the 2024 fiscal year (which began October 1) has already risen above $380 billion. The new total, which includes the months of October and November, puts the US on track for a total annual deficit of more than $2 trillion by the end of the fiscal year. That would be an increase of more than 25 percent over 2023 fiscal year, which was itself a 23 percent increase over 2022.

A 2024 annual deficit of $2 trillion would make 2024’s deficit the third-largest deficit ever, behind only 2020 and 2021 during which federal spending in covid-related social benefits were seemingly unlimited.

Comparing the same two-month period over the previous decade, the totals also suggest deficit spending in 2024 will lag only the covid years of 2020 and 2021. During the first two months of fiscal year 2021, the deficit came in at more than $429 billion.

I had been assured that the economy was roaring but all I see is mountains of debt.

WAR, DROUGHT, AND DETOURS: Top ocean shipping stories of 2023.

ROBERT SPENCER: How the Byzantines Saved Civilization. “If they had not stood as a bulwark between Western Europe and Islam for all those centuries, the jihadis would certainly have swept over all of Europe, and the civilization that gave the world ideas that are now widely considered to be universal truths, such as the dignity of the human person, the equality of rights of all people before the law, the freedom of speech and more, would never have arisen.”

It sure would be nice if our current elites still believed in those things.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE, in Houston. There’s certainly no shortage of available surface water there.

I NEED MORE HELP TO STOP THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE’S POWER GRAB:  Last week, I asked Instapundit readers for “X/Twitter” help in opposing the California legislature’s new effort to gut Prop 209.  And you came through!  Thank you to all who helped!  You are terrific!

I have another request.  Mercifully, it still won’t cost you a nickel.  (If this turkey of a bill makes it to the ballot, I will start asking for money then, but we stand a decent chance of stopping it in the California Senate on a shoestring budget.)

Our “NO on ACA7” PETITION needs at least 25,000 signatures to get noticed.  And we’re probably going to need a lot more.  Fortunately, we have a while. Today is our first earnest day of collecting them.  You don’t need to be a Californian to sign.  (But if you are a Californian, please be sure to include your zip code.  In the past, some legislators have asked us for the number of signers from their district’s zip codes.)

If you can also share the petition with your friends or via social media that would be terrific.

For those of you you haven’t been following this, Prop 209 amended the state constitution in 1996 with these words:  “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin ….”  California’s deep-blue legislature has been gunning for it since.  They tried to get the voters to repeal it three years ago with Prop 16.  But Californians stunned them by overwhelmingly voting to keep it.  It was a real David and Goliath moment; we won despite being outspent more than 14 to 1.

It’s surprising to me that they are trying again so soon after that defeat.  But I guess I should have seen it coming.  The report of the California Task Force on Reparations, which was released earlier this year, called for Prop 209 to be gutted.  It stands in the way of their proposals.  Right on schedule, the Assembly voted for ACA7.

The new effort is trickier.  Instead of attempting an outright repeal, it creates a procedure under the governor can make “exceptions.”  All Gov. Newsom (and future governors) will need is to be able to point to (or create) “research” showing that preferential treatment would be a good thing.  But in a world in which “scholarly” research tells us that men are women and women are men, that limitation is not worth a red cent. (Bumped.)

OPEN THREAD: Expatiate as you please.

POWERLINE:  Cheering for Mass Murder.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Lagrange Points Could Become Battlegrounds in a New Space Race.

FLOSS: Expert Reveals a Surprising Link Between Oral Health And Your Brain.

BOB MCMANUS: Depraved pro-terrorist protesters try to cancel Christmas as politicians coddle them. “When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announces that Jesus was Palestinian, or when a gaggle of city councilors shows up wearing pro-Hamas T-shirts, or when iconic city celebrations are flamboyantly disrupted, you know whose side they are on.”

PROGRESS: Revolutionary Success: NASA’s 3D-Printed Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Soars. “That kind of sustained burn emulates typical requirements for a lander touchdown or a deep-space burn that could set a spacecraft on course from the Moon to Mars, said Marshall combustion devices engineer Thomas Teasley, who leads the RDRE test effort at the center.”

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why is the day after Christmas called Boxing Day?

READER FAVORITE: Yes4All High-Frequency Elastic Fitness Bar for Toning Muscles. #CommissionEarned

OH, CANADA: Canadian Health Care Leaves Patients Frozen In Line. “This year, Canadian patients faced a median wait of 27.7 weeks for medically necessary treatment from a specialist after being referred by a general practitioner. That’s over six months—the longest ever recorded.”

THE EV EXPERIENCE IS NOT LIVING UP TO THE HYPE: Our Last Ford F-150 Lightning EV Pickup Road Trip Was a Nightmare.

GUN MEME OF THE YEAR: The package clearly states “from Santa.”

SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter set a new flight distance record on Mars. “In total, Ingenuity has so far spent 125.5 minutes aloft to fly nearly 10.5 miles across the surface at altitudes as high as almost 80 feet. . . . Ingenuity long surpassed its original estimated lifespan, even without taking its latest feats into consideration. When first launched back in 2021, NASA expected the aircraft to only last for 5 flights in order to test avionic capabilities in the thin Martian air (just 1 percent of Earth’s atmosphere), and had no intention of utilizing it as a major component in the overall Perseverance mission.”

HMM: Engineers develop a vibrating, ingestible capsule that might help treat obesity.

SPACE: SpaceX launches Starlink, Sarah-2 missions.

YOU KNOW YOU WANT ONE: Tikduck Flying Orb Ball Toys. #CommissionEarned