HEGSETH HAS A LOT OF DEADWOOD TO CLEAR OUT OF THE PENTAGON:

The Russians here fail to understand the same thing US flag ranks don't.

The economic and organizational barriers to entry to operational/strategic range drone airpower, in massive numbers, that is too cheap to be engaged by missiles. https://t.co/03ApaxQNze

— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) January 14, 2025

Three years of this war and the people who should get it about drones still don’t get it about drones.

WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED THAT ELECTING A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER TO AN IMPORTANT EXECUTIVE OFFICE WOULD NOT LEAD TO EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE? ‘Lack of Leadership’: L.A. Fire Vet Says No One Prepared Even After Extreme Wind Warnings.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Colorado apartment complex occupied by Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua will be closed.

An apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, occupied by members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is being closed by court order, city officials said Monday.

The complex drew national attention in August 2024 following a viral video of armed gang members entering a unit.

Aurora city officials were pursing a lawsuit to declare all but one building at the complex a criminal nuisance.

Last week, they asked a judge to close the property in the meantime because the situation had reached a “breaking point” following the kidnapping and assault in December of two residents, according to CNN.

The court granted the request Friday, ahead of a court hearing Monday on the matter.

Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said in a court filing that the complex had become a frequent place for crime and there has been a “criminal element that has exerted control and fear” for residents.

However, he later made clear gang members had not taken over the complex and that the main problem was the lack of management and oversight by the property’s owners.

That must be an awfully fine line between a “criminal element that has exerted control and fear” and “gang members had not taken over the complex.”

ROBERT SPENCER: Old Joe Biden Reminds Us Yet Again That Leftists Live in a World of Pure Fantasy. “The left is at war with reality and has been for decades now. And Old Joe Biden has just confirmed that this war is still raging, although it has become so familiar that many Americans overlook the pitched battles that are still being fought.”

“BUT THEY STILL STOP THE SPREAD OF VIRUSES, RIGHT?”

Los Angeles County Public Health just announced:
“Please do not wear cloth or paper masks—they don’t filter out fine particles or ash." 🤡

— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 14, 2025

I’m so old, I remember when that was dangerous misinformation.

I MENTION THIS ONLY BECAUSE MORE THAN A THIRD OF THE CLOSURES ARE IN CALIFORNIA AND HALF OF THOSE ARE IN THE BAY AREA: Kohl’s is closing 27 stores in 15 states.

BIDEN’S PARTING GIFTS:

As we learned early in the Biden Administration, it is rather easy to rename warships. Even easier before they are commissioned.

This is a BS move with less than a week to go. https://t.co/oKsP9FIJyB

— cdrsalamander (@cdrsalamander) January 13, 2025

Stop naming carriers after presidents, particularly living presidents.

AS IT SHOULD BE: Pete Hegseth: ‘My Only Special Interest Is the Warfighter.’

DOG BITES MAN: Lefties Mourn End To Facebook Censorship. “I don’t necessarily trust Zuckerberg’s assertions that Facebook’s original intentions were pure as the driven snow when he started putting fact checkers in place (and that’s one reason I’m not editing out things like ‘um,’ ‘like,’ and ‘you knows,’ as these may be verbal tells when he’s glossing over or eliding information rather than just verbal throat clearing), but I think his depiction of how government pressure for censorship came down is probably accurate.”

BIDEN’S PARTING GIFTS: Biden and Harris Insult Wildfire Victims During Disastrous Briefing.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:

Breaking from @hntrbrkmedia: China’s DJI, the world's largest drone manufacturer, has disabled U.S. geofencing on its drones, enabling flights over airports, military bases, and no-fly zones.

DJI says it is putting “control back in the hands of the drone operators” pic.twitter.com/UGqDi8zjhP

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) January 14, 2025

ANALYSIS: TRUE. To Stop Wildfires, Burn Wokeism. “Wildfires are inevitable. The apocalyptic devastation seen in Los Angeles isn’t.”

OF COURSE THEY DO. THAT’S WHY STUDENTS’ DESIRES OR EXPECTATIONS SHOULDN’T SET STANDARDS: Students want A’s for trying hard, B’s for (mostly) showing up. “Students want to be rewarded for effort, even if it doesn’t lead to achievement, writes psychologist Adam Grant in a New York Times op-ed. ‘Two-thirds of college students say that ‘trying hard’ should be a factor in their grades, and a third think they should get at least a B just for showing up at (most) classes,’ he writes.”

SARAH ANDERSON: From the Race Card to Grief Grifting: Celebrities’ Tone-Deaf Reactions Amid Fires.

I’D ASK, “WHY CAN’T SHE JUST TELL HOMELESS PEOPLE NOT TO BURN STUFF OR SMOKE CRACK?” BUT I ALREADY KNOW THE REASON:

The LA County Fire Chief just said at this morning’s news conference:
“We are asking our unhoused neighbors to not have warming fires right now.”

— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 14, 2025

Progressive Newspeak is the art of saying what everybody knows in a way that allows them to pretend that they don’t know it.

IT’S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO BELIEVE SHE WROTE FOR A MAJOR PAPER:

To commemorate this tragic news, a quick 🧵thread 🧵of some of my favorite Jennifer Rubin tweets.

She will be missed. See why. ⤵️ https://t.co/IEFNVW4KLu

— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 14, 2025

Much more at the thread, all of it embarrassingly awful.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Elon Might Buy WHAT Next??? “Are you kidding me with this? Why would Musk want to buy a social media platform in need of a total top-to-bottom re-do when he already owns a working social media platform that he did a total top-to-bottom re-do on?”

CHRISTIAN TOTO: ‘Reagan’ Not Diverse Enough for Oscars. “2024 biopic one of many films blocked from Best Picture consideration.”

Whatever slim hopes the film had for earning a Best Picture nomination vanished in a DEI snap. The film was ruled ineligible for the top prize because it didn’t meet the Oscars’ new diversity requirements.

The rules in question rose up from the fires of 2020’s BLM protests. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences proposed diversity mandates, which went into effect last year, demanding Best Picture hopefuls check multiple progressive boxes.

Example? A film must have diverse crews or tackle subjects pertaining to marginalized groups. Jews, apparently, don’t qualify.

“Reagan,” apparently, didn’t check enough boxes. And it’s not alone. TheWrap.com reports 116 films released last year didn’t qualify for Best Picture consideration.

Excluded from consideration under the new rules: Patton, The French Connection, The Godfather, The Sting, The Godfather Part II, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (one Indian is not enough diversity and while the bad guy is white, she’s also female), Rocky, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter (probably), and Kramer vs. Kramer.

Those are just the ’70s winners from a decade when auteur directors shot the movies they wanted to shoot. I’d love to hear what Francis Ford Coppola, George Roy Hill, or Milos Forman (among others) would have to say about today’s rules.

CUE THE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: Gavin Newsom Has Found the L.A. Fires’ Biggest Victim: Himself. “If there was some small part, a vestige of a scintilla of a wisp of moral authority with more heft than a wish left in Gavin Newsom he just blew it away. Poof.”

METAPHOR ALERT:

ADMIN POST.

French leftist theatre faces bankruptcy after opening its doors to 250 African migrants for a free show… and they refused to leave and remain in the building five weeks later.

Go woke, go broke strikes again. pic.twitter.com/ymxiCghS9N

— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) January 14, 2025

Imagine what might happen if an entire nation did something like that.

NUMBERS MATTER: USS Hartford could be next US Navy submarine to extend service.

The US Department of Defense has awarded General Dynamic Electric Boat an $83.7m modification to a previously awarded deal for the completion of an engineering overhaul of the US Navy’s Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) USS Hartford.

According to an 8 January 2025, contract modification notice, the work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut, and is expected to be complete by November 2027.

Any way to speed that up, fellas?

THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG: Bye-Bye, Baby? Recall Efforts Begin Against Newsom & Bass.

WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE, ANYWAY? Nearly Half of Federal Employees in the Swamp Plan to Resist Trump, Poll Finds.

The poll found that many Americans are willing to support the new administration, even among the elites and even among those who voted for Harris.

The survey asked, “Looking ahead to the next four years, will your political efforts be primarily to support the Trump administration or resist the Trump administration?”

Most Main Street Americans (59%) said they would support the new administration, while only 28% said they would resist it. Even the Elite 1% proved more likely to say they would support (48%) than resist (39%) the administration.

Even some of those who said they voted for Harris in November said they would support the new administration. Twelve percent of Harris voters said they will work to at least somewhat support the new administration.

On Election Day, 64% of the Elite 1% voted for Harris while only 34% voted for Trump. Yet among the Elite 1% who voted for Harris, a quarter (26%) said they are working to support the new administration.

Federal Government Managers, however, proved evenly split, with only 44% saying they would support the administration and 42% saying they would resist it.

Let them resist from the unemployment line.

LIVE BLOG: Trump’s Cabinet Confirmation Hearings Begin.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Great American Political Divide Is Just Going to Get Bigger Now. “Democrats who believe that their politics make them permanent residents of the moral high ground are particularly galling. While I truly would like to get along better, I can’t muster any patience to indulge delusions like that. Political beliefs don’t make one a good person, being a good person makes one a good person.”