DECLINE IS A CHOICE: Colorado has fallen behind in economic growth.

Up until recently, Arizona and Colorado had remarkably similar economies, with Colorado having a slight edge — from state GDP and growth trajectories to population and jobs. But something happened in Colorado around five years ago that set us on a different course. For the first time since the Great Recession, Arizona’s economy now outpaces Colorado’s, even when factoring in the impacts of the pandemic.

According to the Arizona chamber’s report, the shift in tide came after Colorado’s 2019 state legislative session, which sparked the rapid onset of new mandates, costs and regulatory burdens on the business community. As the report’s joint authors at the Common Sense Institute said, “the lesson of Colorado’s anti-business policy transformation over the past half decade shows that climates can change quickly.”

Since 2019, Colorado’s annual job growth slowed by more than 60%. Sectors that are sensitive to governmental regulation, such as manufacturing and energy resources, have been declining.

Most of the job growth we have experienced has been found in professional business services — an area that (not coincidentally) assists with regulatory compliance through human resources, accounting, and legal support.

Political pull and “regulatory compliance” assistance are the big growth industries wherever big government dominates. All three are classes of parasites.

TAX THE RICH, FEED THE POOR, TILL THERE AIN’T NO RICH NO MORE: GOP lawmakers try to tax ‘woke’ private universities’ massive endowments. If it were up to me, I’d limit nonprofit tax exemptions to organizations that actually provide services to the needy.

YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN: The Biden Campaign Is Planning to Deploy a Secret Weapon to Re-Ignite Voters.

WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A HOTBED OF HATRED AND BIGOTRY? Dept. of Education investigating University of Wisconsin over anti-Semitism complaint.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Northrop Grumman’s orbital refueling port selected for U.S. military satellites. “Northrop Grumman said the Space Systems Command, which oversees in-space logistics and services programs, also will support the company’s development of an orbital fuel tanker for geosynchronous orbit missions that would carry up to 1,000 kilograms of hydrazine fuel and deliver it to client satellites on demand.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Joe Biden Traveling Senility Circus Is Tedious and Tyrannical. From now until the election, any time I see one of the leftmedia hacks fact-checking Trump, I’m bringing up Biden’s stolen Gold Star parent valor to them. Will it change anything? No. That doesn’t mean we should let it go though.”

HMM: Ms. Carroll’s Answer on How She’ll Spend Her Trump Money Is a Sound Bite That Could Win Him the Election.

DOUBTFUL, BIDEN’S DOING A FINE JOB OF THAT ON HIS OWN: Jill Biden Goes on the Attack in Houston: Trump Wants to Make Joe Biden Look Bad.

DON SURBER: Democrats and RINOs desperately try to wipe the open borders off their shoes.

THE CHINA SYNDROME: Evergrande shares halted after Hong Kong court orders liquidation.

Policymakers in China have been scrambling to stem the debt crisis in the beleaguered property sector.

Last week, the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance announced measures to help boost the liquidity available to property developers.

The measures, which will be valid until the end of this year, will help ease a lingering cash crunch for Chinese developers after Beijing cracked down on the sector to address bloated debt levels in real estate.

The property sector in China remains challenging against the backdrop of the Evergrande news, according to Alexander Cousley, APAC investment strategist at Russell Investments.

“I think the measures have to be much more targeted and much more forceful,” Cousley said on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”

Perhaps. But this isn’t one of those problems that even a fully committed Communist can get out of by shooting enough kulaks.

KAROL MARKOWICZ: How I got kicked out of a Mothers Against Antisemitism group. “It’s not rocket science. Years of melding Reform and Conservative Judaism to leftism, only to find that that leftists wouldn’t spit on Jews if we were on fire, has been a disaster. It has moved Jews away from Judaism and it has functionally destroyed these Jewish movements. If you’re a Jew still sitting in the pews and funding the services that push political nonsense in place of torah, it’s time to go. Stop paying for a rabbi’s 7th grade musings on climate change and stop funding displays of “banned” books that aren’t actually banned. There were lessons in the horrific attacks of October 7th of how Jews should move forward. Let’s learn them now. And I wish the new MACA Foundation, and their totally emotionally healthy leader, all the very best.”

SUICIDE PACT: Cornell Board of Trustees “Unanimous Vote in Support of President Martha E. Pollack.” DEI is a religion at Cornell. People don’t give up their religion easily.

DIVERSITY IS OUR (ONLY?) STRENGTH: Another Story on the Hiring Scandal at the FAA. “This is a pretty clear case where a DEI pressure group— the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees—convinced the FAA to drop standards and then further gamed the new system from the inside for the benefit of the group’s members. All of this including the FAA ‘investigation’ which cleared those involved stinks to high heaven but we’re not supposed to talk about that because we can’t let the right have a win on DEI at this moment in time or, you know, ever.”

Background: “A scandal at the FAA has been moving on a slow-burn through the courts for a decade, culminating in the class-action lawsuit currently known as Brigida v. Buttigieg, brought by a class who spent years and thousands of dollars in coursework to become air traffic controllers, only to be dismissed by a pass-fail biographical questionnaire with a >90% fail rate, implemented without warning after many of them had already taken, and passed, a skill assessment. The questionnaire awarded points for factors like ‘lowest grade in high school is science,’ something explicitly admitted by the FAA in a motion to deny class certification.”

HMM: Did E. Jean Carroll Admit Her Real Motivations for Her Accusations Against Trump?

AT AMAZON, Shop the Winter Sale. #CommissonEarned

WELL, HE’S HALF-RIGHT: Senator Joe Manchin says Biden’s White House is dominated by ‘far-left liberals’ and admits he could ‘absolutely’ see himself as president.

Manchin, whose Senate term is up in 2024, revealed in November he won’t seek re-election in West Virginia.

The 76-year-old said in his announcement most Americans are ‘just plain worn out’ with Washington, and he would work to find ‘middle ground.’

The outgoing West Virginia lawmaker has launched his own tour to hear from Americans across the country.

Manchin has said there is no timeline for making a decision amid speculation that he will launch his own bid for the White House.

I doubt he will but I’m certain he’ll raise money in the meantime.

DEEP STATE WARMUP: Matt Taibbi: The Democratic Machine’s Dirty-Tricks Warmup Was With Nader in 2004.. “The recent ballot access challenges, political investigations, and canceled primaries are just an extension of a phenomenon we should have seen coming twenty years ago.”

YOU’LL ONLY THINK THAT IF YOU LISTEN TO THE PRESS: No, Texas Has Not “Defied” The Supreme Court: Perhaps Governor Abbott will flout a directive from the Supreme Court in a future case, but reports of Texas “defying” the Supreme Court are bunk, and many making such claims should know better. I suspect they do.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: How an Escalation in Drone Warfare Cost Three U.S. Servicemen Their Lives. “Sometimes you’ve got to hand it to the bad guys for being so murderously clever in ways few could imagine. Or worse, in ways that a few forward-thinkers did imagine but that those in power didn’t take seriously.”

CDR SALAMANDER: Tower 22’s White Swan: It was only a matter of time.

Related:

Biden Cleverly Distracts From Civil War By Starting World War https://t.co/6CUTKQkQjN pic.twitter.com/f3tEnuPARQ

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 29, 2024

URGENT:  Teach your children well.

ZOOZVE FOREVER:  Last January, I noticed something peculiar in my 2yo’s bedroom that – after a year of obsessive reporting – led me to a profound cosmic revelation about what’s even possible in our universe.

THE NATIONAL PAPER OF RECORD IS RIGHT ON THIS:  Tragic Report Reveals Thousands of Journalists Still Have Not Been Laid Off.

THE INVASION IS EVERYWHERE:  Illegal Immigrants Landing in San Diego’s Upscale La Jolla Area Makes Waves on Social Media.

INJUSTICE BY ANY OTHER COLOR:  The FAA’s Hiring Scandal: A Quick Overview.