READER FAVORITE: SwissGear 1900 Scansmart TSA 17-Inch Laptop Backpack. #CommissionEarned

THE ‘IMMOVABLE OBJECT’ DOGE MUST CONQUER: Having covered waste, fraud and abuse for three decades, I know full well why President-elect Donald Trump calls the Elon Musk/Vivek Ramaswamy DOGE initiative the biggest challenge since “the Manhattan Project.” My latest Special Report for The Epoch Times lays it out in great detail today.

IT’S LIES ALL THE WAY DOWN: Gun Control Groups Pad Their ‘Gun Violence’ Numbers With Suicides to Inflate Their Statistics.

SHE’S A FREQUENT DISAPPOINTMENT:

Sen. Joni Ernst, who is reportedly lobbying to replace Hegseth as Trump's SecDef nominee, supports the transing of the military and requiring women to be eligible for the draft. Not entirely surprising she prefers the status quo to Pete Hegseth. https://t.co/NRsuprY42n

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) December 5, 2024

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA Shares Orion Heat Shield Findings, Updates Artemis Moon Missions. “Experts discussed results of NASA’s investigation into its Orion spacecraft heat shield after it experienced an unexpected loss of charred material during re-entry of the Artemis I uncrewed test flight. For the Artemis II crewed test flight, engineers will continue to prepare Orion with the heat shield already attached to the capsule. The agency also announced it is now targeting April 2026 for Artemis II and mid-2027 for Artemis III. The updated mission timelines also reflect time to address the Orion environmental control and life support systems.”

Yes, let’s please get those last two right.

SCOTT PINSKER: The CEO Assassin: Messages on Bullets, Physical Evidence Left Behind, and an Indecipherable Motive.

READER FAVORITE: Apple AirPods Pro 2 Wireless Earbuds. #CommissionEarned

I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: U.S. math scores show ‘devastating’ decline.

The declines were “steep” and “devastating,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. While high achievers held their own, low-performing students lost the most, widening achievement gaps.

“One in five U.S. eighth graders scored below the low benchmark, meaning they lacked even basic proficiency,” Meltzer writes. That’s way up from earlier years.

The drop in science scores was less extreme, but U.S. fourth-graders now score worse in science than they did in 1995.

Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan topped the rankings. Poland, Sweden and Australia made the greatest gains, passing the U.S. “We have countries leapfrogging over us,” Carr said.

It’s not clear whether school closures, which lasted longer in the U.S. than in Europe or Asia, led to more learning loss. But one of the countries that raised achievement, Sweden, didn’t close elementary schools or mandate masks.

I’m not surprised.

WHY BOTHER WITH THIS, THE ELECTION IS OVER: Mysterious illness in Congo has killed dozens of people, health authorities report.

CHANGE? House Democrats in Open Revolt Against Aging, Out-of-Touch Ranking Committee Members.

FROM WORLD WAR I TO NOW, EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: “Although dazzle camouflage fell out of favor between the wars, it is remarkable that the Ukrainian navy have recently shared images on social media where vessels are dressed in a form of dazzle. The precise purpose of this is not clear, but one expert supposed it might offer some protection against drones.”

IMAGINE THAT: Mexico makes record fentanyl bust days after Trump tariff threat. “Mexico’s top security official, Omar Garcia Harfuch, said the ‘historic’ bust was achieved in two raids spearheaded by the country’s navy and that two men were arrested and several weapons seized.”

Incentives work.

SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: SpaceX sets record launching Falcon 9 first-stage booster 24 times.

CATHERINE HERRIDGE REVEALS STORY ABOUT CBS AND ELON MUSK THAT EXPLAINS WHY LEGACY MEDIA IS IMPLODING:

She took it to the CBS executives and they told her she “couldn’t do it live.”

She asked, “What do you mean I can’t do it live?”

“Well, we don’t know what he’s going to say” was their replay according to Herridge.

She said she replied to her bosses, “Isn’t that what journalism is all about?”

Herridge explained that CBS then tried to condition the interview with possible alternatives, including having it edited, taped, and only on CBS. She said she felt so ashamed that a news organization would place so many restrictions on an interview like that that she couldn’t go back to Elon Musk, the free speech advocate. But it indicates how fearful CBS was that something that they might not want to come out might come out in such an interview. When you think that way, you’re no longer operating as a journalistic organization. You should want to report on the truth, whatever it is.

Herridge was then laid off in February when she was also looking into the Hunter Biden laptop story and they laid off other employees.

Gentlemen (and ladies), you can’t commit journalism here – this is CBS News!

CONGRESS: House Hearing on Trump Assassination Attempts Devolves Into Screaming Match.

EXPERTS BAFFLED: Study links rise of teletherapy with increase of Americans in psychotherapy.

COLONIALISM, STRAIGHT UP:

Wow, England has changed!

The most popular boys’ name in England and Wales in 2023 is ‘Muhammad.’ pic.twitter.com/L5wGIZV0eV

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) December 5, 2024

Previously: “It was alleged that the document showed that Labour had overseen a deliberate open-door ­policy on immigration to boost multi-culturalism. Voting trends indicate that migrants and their descendants are much more likely to vote Labour.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD ON IMMIGRATION: “That a majority of Americans now favor mass deportation of illegal immigrants is the natural and inevitable result of one of the most sustained acts of political incompetence and humanitarian malpractice in the history of the American presidency.”

Plus: “The openness of the American political system to populist revolt is a feature, not a bug. The country badly needed a reset.”

WHY NOT BOTH? Ketanji Brown Jackson Vs. Sonia Sotomayor: Who’s Dumber?

DON’T EXPECT THANKSGIVING FACTS FROM AXIOS: Just Facts illustrates yet another example of why two-thirds of Americans don’t trust journalists.

READER FAVORITE: Keurig K-Supreme Single Serve K-Cup Pod Coffee Maker. #CommissionEarned

THE RISE OF The “Bluegoisie.” “They haven’t learned anything because they can’t learn anything. Learning would threaten their careers, reputations and relationships. Learning would require them to abandon the hubris that defines them. They’ll never do that.”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (RUSSIA EDITION): ‘It’s never been so bad.’ Russia is threatened with a record loss of winter crops. “Harvest problems have become one of the reasons for the acceleration of inflation, said Alexander Isakov, an economist for Russia at Bloomberg Economics. According to Rosstat, by the end of November, the growth rate of food prices reached 10.2% and became a record in almost two years, and some basic food products soared in price by tens of percent: potatoes – by 78%, cabbage – by 31%, beets – by 27%, butter – by 31%.”

HOW TO BECOME A WRITER. AGAIN:The Problem With Inspiration

This is at Sarah Hoyt’s Mad Genius Club, a worthy blog for anyone interested in writing.

KRUISER: The Mainstream Media Death Rattle Has Begun. It’s Going to Be a Long One, However.