NO MORE MANDATES: Senate Republicans Vote to Strike Down Biden Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers.

In a 49 to 44 vote, the Senate approved the effort to get rid of the mandate, a vote they were able to force under the Congressional Review Act, per The Hill.

Even though no Democrats voted alongside Republicans, they were able to move it through the Senate due to absences.

Indeed, six Democratic senators missed the vote.

Yeah, COVID is over.

STACEY LENNOX: President Biden’s Unity Tweet Might Be the Most Offensive Attempt to Retcon the Last Year. “One could assume it was a throwback to his inaugural speech, after which Biden did his absolute best to otherize Americans that Democrats believe oppose their policies. Whether it was the unvaccinated, parents fighting masks and radical race and gender curriculum, or Republican-led states passing laws to restore election security, the Biden administration treated them as the enemy.”

DAVID GOLDMAN: Gold will soar as China seeks US dollar alternatives.

Investors have had little reason during the past dozen years to own gold rather than inflation-protected US Treasuries until now. If the United States and Europe can seize the assets of the Russian central bank by administrative fiat, without a declaration of war, Treasuries become a risky investment for a significant part of the world.

China alone owns $2 trillion of US Treasury securities.

How to respond to sanctions is the subject of intense debate in the Chinese media. “The United States and Europe should realise that sanctions are a double-edged sword,” economist Gao Desheng wrote on March 1 in the “Observer” (guancha.cn) website, a Shanghai-based news and opinion group that often reflects deliberations in China’s State Council.

“While hitting the Russian economy, sanctions will also harm Europe’s interests and weaken the independence and credibility of international organisations, including SWIFT,” the global messaging service for international bank transfers, Gao wrote. “For the United States, the frequent use of the financial sanctions weapon will accelerate the process of de-dollarisation of the world, which is tantamount to digging a grave for dollar hegemony.”

Everything is going swimmingly.

UGH: J6 Defendant Facing Absurd Sentence Kills Himself, the Left Rejoices.

UKRAINE WAR: Charred remains of Putin’s tanks lie smoldering in the street in extraordinary images after convoy was blown to pieces by Ukrainian resistance near Kyiv as Russian troop death toll ‘climbs to 5,840.’

Moscow admits to 500 KIA. Take both figures with an entire box of Morton.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: DeSantis Unmasks the COVID Panic Porn Hypocrisy. “Everything that DeSantis has done to make the citizens of his state more free has brought caterwauling prophecies of mass COVID casualties from the tyrants who have a vested interest in keeping the public frightened. And they’ve been wrong every time.”

THE TRUTH HURTS: Trump’s Truth Social bomb. “The vast majority of people downloading the app, me included, were given a waitlist number. Nine days later, most of us remain on that waitlist, with our number unchanged and without a word of communication from the company. A waitlist ‘refresh’ icon doesn’t work.”

I signed up on Day One a week ago Monday, just to check it out and maybe read some classic Trump mean tweets for the first time in over a year.

But just like this Axios report, all I’ve seen in an unchanging waitlist number.

PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

Matt Margolis: Spare Me the Faux Outrage Over Biden Being Heckled. “Actually, it says a lot more about Biden that he didn’t take a moment during his State of the Union address to honor those who died because of his recklessness. It says a lot that Biden didn’t even mention the withdrawal at all. Someone had to call attention to those heroes who are no longer with us.”

Megan Fox: Parents of Mutilated Teenagers Speak Out About the Dangers of Transing Kids. “One father, who is also a scientist, dug into the data after his son told him he believed he was a woman. The distressed dad found out that giving hormones to the opposite sex is dangerous and leads to more mental health problems. In his article, ‘Rise of the Trans Medical Taliban,’ the dad discusses multiple studies that show too much estrogen harms the brain, but he says the scientific community will not acknowledge these known facts.”

Yours Truly: Shrinkwrap a Looter? You Can’t Do That in Real Life! (But We Know You Want To). “Today’s feel-good story comes from my friend Brodigan at Louder with Crowder who reports that Ukrainians are shrinkwrapping looters to electrical poles…What else is it we’re not supposed to do but wish we could? Would you believe I made a little list?”

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Here’s How One Brazilian Artist Stared Down Cancel Culture.

BY CHOICE, OR DID HIS OWN PARTY EXILE HIM THERE? Sen. Joe Manchin sits with Republicans during State of the Union.

I’ve never thought Manchin would switch parties, mostly because he’s a survivor and knows he could probably never win a primary race in West Virginia as a Republican.

But after these last few days, who knows?

IT’S NEVER ENOUGH: Squad Member Rep. Tlaib Gives the Radical State of the Union: $6 Trillion Isn’t Enough.

KATHERINE MANGU-WARD: Why Can’t We Build Anything?

The issue has never been a lack of funds for infrastructure; it’s that the money flows unpredictably from multiple sources and then frequently ends up getting spent on something else via a heavily politicized decision-making process.

There’s also the question of why building anything, but especially infrastructure, in the United States costs so much and takes so long. The U.S. is the sixth-most expensive country in the world to build rapid-rail transit infrastructure like the New York City subway or the Washington, D.C., metro system.

Part of the reason is just plain waste and corruption. The federal infrastructure bill has created massive incentives for rent-seeking while ballooning the municipal lobbying sector. Like contestants on a game show, states and localities are scrambling for dollars, correctly understanding that this might be the only major windfall in this area for a decade or more—again, largely due to Congress’ inability to do its job in a predictable way in concert with a chief executive who can set clear achievable policy priorities.

We’re governed by grifters and dullards.

WORSE THAN THE PREPARED TEXT? This Ad Lib During Biden’s SOTU Speech Went Horribly Wrong.

KILL THE WHITE PEOPLE: UC Berkeley professor under fire for ‘abolish white people’ comments. “That’s why I am coming up with this recent understanding that to abolish whiteness is to abolish white people. That’s very uncomfortable perhaps, but it asks about our definitions of what race is and what racial justice might mean.”

Enough talk from the Left about genocide, and eventually people will start taking it seriously.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: BATTLEFIELD NUKE DETONATED (And Joe Biden Dropped It). “Crashing the ruble might be nuking a golden bridge too far — if you’ll allow me to tangle metaphors.”

SPOILER: IT WON’T. Biden Hopes SOTU Provides Much-Needed Reset. “Biden likely relished all that applause as his motorcade returned to the White House. But what his party needs desperately, if Democrats are to avoid a shellacking in November, is a presidential polling bump. When he addressed Congress in April, Biden enjoyed a 53% approval rating according to the RealClearPolitics Average, a number that plummeted to 40% ahead of his first State of the Union.”

Except for some mentions about re-funding the police (that Democrats defunded and which isn’t Washington’s job) and securing the border (that Biden broke), Biden’s domestic cures all boiled down to one thing.

“If you liked all the things I didn’t get passed last year, you’re going to like them even better when I don’t get them passed this year.”

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Meet the Neocons, Different from the Old Cons (but on the Same Team).

NEVER BEFORE HAVE SO MANY SPENT SO MUCH ON SO LITTLE: Finally, we know production costs for SLS and Orion, and they’re wild.

Appearing before a House Science Committee hearing on NASA’s Artemis program, Martin revealed the operational costs of the big rocket and spacecraft for the first time. Moreover, he took aim at NASA and particularly its large aerospace contractors for their “very poor” performance in developing these vehicles.

Martin said that the operational costs alone for a single Artemis launch—for just the rocket, Orion spacecraft, and ground systems—will total $4.1 billion. This is, he said, “a price tag that strikes us as unsustainable.” With this comment, Martin essentially threw down his gauntlet and said NASA cannot have a meaningful exploration program based around SLS and Orion at this cost.

You don’t say.

Plus:

Later in the hearing, Martin broke down the costs per flight, which will apply to at least the first four launches of the Artemis program: $2.2 billion to build a single SLS rocket, $568 million for ground systems, $1 billion for an Orion spacecraft, and $300 million to the European Space Agency for Orion’s Service Module. NASA, Martin said, had checked and confirmed these figures.

What is striking about these costs is that they do not include the tens of billions of dollars that NASA has already spent developing the Orion spacecraft since 2005 and the Space Launch System rocket since 2011. If one were to amortize development costs over 10 flights of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, the $4.1 billion figure cited by Martin would easily double.

I figured NASA would get one, maybe two flights out of SLS/Orion — just to avoid admitting a total cesspit of waste and failure — but this report brings even that minuscule effort into doubt.

SPOILER: THE VILLAGE PEOPLE WERE NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE DEPICTIONS. America’s Wild West Was Super Gay? Wut.

LAUGHING WOLF: Vladimir and the Ukraine.

The fact is, Vladimir has already lost simply because he didn’t win. He is committed, and is committing Russia and all its people, to a long, grinding, bloody slog that is going to have severe economic impacts. Just replacing ammunition, gear, people, is going to have a severe impact. Add to it the growing official and unofficial sanctions? The Russian people are going to feel this one, in ways they never have before. Current Vladimir does not care. He’s lost to that. He has no way to go in and control the country, or even the parts he’s tried so desperately to annex. Even those are likely to slip from him given the current state of “uppitiness” on the part of the Ukrainians.

The Ukrainians have not won. At best they have pushed things into a long grind with some chance of a stalemate. Yet, by doing this they have won. They have prevented the cheap and easy victory on which Vladimir counted. They have forced him into committing military and economic resources he does not have over the long term. Heck, even the short term. Russia’s economy was already teetering, current operations and responses are going to crater it unless something major happens. I’ve lived through a couple of power struggles in the Kremlin; under these circumstances, I hope we all do live through what is to come. A quick clean change of leadership seems unlikely given the Keystone gang we’ve seen so far, but it may be our best hope.

All we can do is wait and see what happens. While current circumstances are not new or unique on many levels, I will note that in my lifetime I’ve never seen a situation like this where key leadership was this insecure. Xi is in some ways hanging by a thread, and knows his enemies in the CCP are looking for any excuse to bring him down. Vladimir we’ve discussed. The Europeans, particularly the Germans? They are not secure either, especially since the Green policies have caused them to firmly place their mouth around Putin’s, er, finger, in regards energy. To see them decide to fund their own military, back off on the idiocy of green (maybe), and truly support the Ukraine strikes more as a desperation move than a rational push. Johnson is a non-entity right now, and not to be taken seriously. Our own dementia patient? Hell, he’s just waiting for his ice cream and to be allowed to go back upstairs to watch Matlock. Those behind him, however, are desperate beyond belief. Not one major stable leader anywhere in the world. That’s a new one and I thought I had about seen it all after watching the Soviets/Russians for more than 40 years now.

The world is in the very best of hands — and do read the whole thing.

Laughing Wolf also messaged to say — I might have more on this later, here or at VodkaPundit — that he rates the chances of a serious cyberattack on the US at 99% and that Russia will use battlefield nukes at 80%.

CLEANEST ELECTION IN HISTORY: 2020 Wisconsin Vote Should Be Decertified, Investigator Says.

THANKS FOR CLEARING THAT UP: Kamala Harris Slammed Over ‘Terrifying’ Explanation Of War In Ukraine: ‘She Is The Michael Scott Of Politics’ “So Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that’s wrong.”

SAY ANYTHING: Pelosi: You’re Too Dumb to Appreciate Joe Biden. “It doesn’t matter that inflation and high gas prices are killing your monthly budget, or that Joe Biden botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the nation’s response to COVID, or the border crisis. If all you see are things that he’s actually done, you can’t possibly know about the things he claims he’s done… which of course is all wonderful, historic, and perfect.”

HMM: Why Isn’t Russia’s Bomber Fleet Attacking Ukraine In Mass?

These bombers have the entirety of Ukraine within range. They can fly in Russian air space, fire missiles, land, re-arm, and do it again, according to defense writer David Axe.

An unnamed U.S. defense official said that 75 Russian bombers fired cruise missiles and other types of air-to-ground missiles in the early days of the war. These sorties were targeted at Ukrainian command and control centers, radars, anti-aircraft systems, plus fuel and ammunition dumps.

If I had to guess, Russian bombers have seen limited use for two reasons: Readiness and a dwindling supply of missiles.

They shot off what they could early on but the Russian Air Force just didn’t have the spares or resupply to maintain the bomber offensive.

That’s yet another sign that Putin was counting on a quick and decisive Desert Saber-style attack.

So now the supposedly reformed and remodeled Russian Army is back to doing things the old way: Firing artillery at stuff until the rubble stops bouncing.

One last thought: If Russia’s bomber force simply isn’t up to a sustained offensive, that’s very good for Western war planners to know.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Biden’s SOTU—Hey Racist Terrorists, Let’s Try Unity and Stuff. “A lot of the reports were mentioning Biden’s call for unity, which is impossible to take seriously coming from a man who calls his political opponents racists and terrorists and uses his Dept. of Justice to silence them.”