POCKET CHANGE: FCC goes easy on a robocaller by proposing slap-on-the-wrist fine of $45 million.

I’d modestly propose a slightly different tack for putting a stop to robocalls: A modest fine — maybe just $5 — slapped on the telecoms for each fraudulent call they let pass through their networks.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Canada’s Commie Fascist Ways Warm the Hearts of American Democrats. “The disturbing fascist spectacle to the north of us is moving in a direction that should soon make it seem as if we’re living next to North Korea with hockey. Plant-based Canadian dictator Justin Trudeau is doing the cliché tyrant thing now and working hard to make a temporary power grab permanent. Because the people of Canada — truckers excluded — are weak and really want to be under the boot of an authoritarian government, it’s working.”

WITH UTMOST CARE, ONE WOULD HOPE: How NASA plans to take the International Space Station out of orbit. “In the planned, controlled, de-orbit operation for the ISS, newly built modules will first detach from the main structure and remain in orbit to eventually recombine as parts of future space stations.”

Now that’s a recycling program I can get behind.

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Are You a Commie Pinko? Take the Quiz!

COLD WAR II: Scores Of ‘Dark Vessels’ Belonging To China’s Maritime Militias Are Operating In Contested Waters.

A large number of China’s “little blue men,” the irregular maritime militia forces that receive support and training from the Chinese government, have gone dark on traditional maritime tracking systems thanks to a new law. The inability to track these ships is worrisome given the role many Chinese fishing and commercial vessels play in Beijing’s plans to assert itself in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, some of the most hotly contested areas of the Pacific.

A new report underscores the safety and intelligence gaps caused by a cybersecurity and data privacy law passed by China last year which caused a large number of Chinese vessels operating in or near the country’s territorial waters to disappear from global tracking systems. The new data detailing the scope of China’s fleet was published by commercial satellite firm Unseen Labs, which specializes in tracking and identifying radiofrequency (RF) transmissions from space.

In a February 18 press release, the company writes that “most ships are not visible from traditional surveillance systems once they get close to Chinese shores” and that “more than 60% of ships in the area have disappeared” from the automatic identification system, or AIS, the global standard for tracking and identifying ships at sea.

Communist China enjoys all the advantages of maritime trade and shoulders none of the responsibilities and respects none of the laws. Hell, the CCP rejects them outright when they aren’t merely flaunting them.

It won’t end well but it isn’t yet clear for whom.

DOG BITES MAN: Biden Update Does Not Inspire Confidence in Ukraine’s Future. “Biden spoke for a good 30 seconds before he began stumbling over his words and losing his train of thought.”

HEALTH SAFETY THEATER: NYC Mayor: Vax mandates don’t work but we’re sticking with them anyway.

HE CERTAINLY WAITED FOR AN AUSPICIOUS MOMENT: Going For Broke, Putin Is Counting on the West’s Weakness to Win.

THE DANGEROUS PART IS, NEITHER IS PUTIN: ‘Is This Really It?’: CNN’s Jim Sciutto Is Not Impressed With Biden’s Response To Putin.

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Kyle Rittenhouse Is Going on Offense. Will He Sue Joe Biden?

ANOTHER MILESTONE: James Webb Space Telescope’s Mirrors Align 1st Starlight In A Hexagon, Reveals NASA. “Engineers handling the James Webb Space Telescope have achieved another milestone as they recently completed the ‘Segment Image Identification’ phase of mirror alignment. With the completion of the first phase, the telescope has brought the 18 unfocused images of a star into a hexagonal formation by moving each of its 18 primary mirror segments. As of now, Webb is in its commissioning phase and has two of its four major instruments turned on.”

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: Putin Gets Piece (Of Ukraine) In Our Time.

Plus:

• Good news: We’re winning the meme war
• Maybe Biden could try de-sanctioning American energy producers
• Deep Thoughts by… Kamala Harris?

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

“PARANOID” NOW JUST MEANS “THREE WEEKS AHEAD OF THE NEWS CYCLE”: Am I Paranoid Enough? “Though quite jaundiced and cynical about the ‘good intentions’ of our national and international elites (political and otherwise), I’ve tried to avoid buying into conspiracy theories about a ‘great reset’ being planned for us by Klaus Schulz of the World Economic Forum. But now come news that Justin Trudeau wants to make all the ‘temporary’ expanded financial surveillance powers permanent.”

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Slow Boiling the Western Alliance Like a Frog.

Being an ex secret policeman, Putin knows much of his menace comes from unpredictability. The public can tolerate ordinary police because they know what the rules are and do not anticipate a midnight knock on the door. As with secret police, Ukraine and the Western public don’t know what the rules are. They are hanging on the caprice of a seeming madman, who curiously keeps going to the brink without crossing it for good reason; if he actually invades in a recognizable way the uncertainty is removed and the West knows what to do about aging overreaching dictators who’ve started something they can’t afford. By preserving ambiguity Putin has Biden spellbound, on the one hand reportedly convinced it’s on. “The President was very clear that he is convinced by U.S. intelligence that this invasion will happen, that President Putin decided to do it, … ‘Because the intelligence says that Russian troops have actually received orders now, to proceed with the invasion,’ CBS News correspondent David Martin said.”

On the other hand, Biden seems to think Putin can still be talked out of it. The wires announced a breakthrough summit brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron in which “President Biden has agreed ‘in principle’ to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future, provided Russia has not invaded Ukraine, the White House announced.” Taking all the elements together it seems, according to a former White House adviser, that “ultimately Putin wants some kind of deal. They think Biden is the kind of president who could actually make a deal. Trump never could.” Perhaps Putin’s first choice in the Ukraine crisis was always a deal. He ramped up the geopolitical tension and held out until there was enough sweetener in the pot to make it worth his while.

Already Putin has begun what the New York Times calls “a carefully choreographed day of building drama over the fate of Ukraine”. In the short term buying Putin off is “good” because it averts war. But in the longer run it solves nothing because Putin will be back once he’s burned through the loot he anticipates getting from the West. Ironically Putin may even front load his demands to compensate for the possibility political checks made out by Biden dated “2023” and “2024” might bounce owing to electoral misfortune.

Read the whole thing.

Previously, I wrote for our VIP members:

Putin is also testing. He needs answers to questions of his own.

Is Biden so beholden to enviro-radical domestic interests that he can’t wage an effective foreign policy? Would NATO agree to withdraw weapons and troops from former Warsaw Pact countries close to Russia’s borders? Can the West be coerced or conned into recognizing Putin’s illegal occupation and annexation of Crimea? Will Ukraine succumb to threats and return to a government more friendly to Moscow? Or could Europe go full Munich 1938 and agree to a de facto partitioning of eastern Ukraine and the Finlandization of the rest?

A “Yes” to any one of these questions would make Putin’s game of mass chicken more than worthwhile.

Even better, so far as Putin is concerned: He can always move the troops around some more in a year or two and see what he can wrangle out of us next time.

No matter what the White House claims, I don’t see an all-out shooting war happening between Russia and Ukraine. Putin can gain too much profit, or at least for now believes he can, through simple bluster. Sending in the Russian Army risks too much, including perhaps showing for all the world to see his military’s real limitations.

What I do see, however, is Biden giving the farm away at the negotiating table—all to avoid a war that Biden, himself, seems to be drumming up.

If the summit happens, we might have to add Neville Chamberlin to Biden’s growing list of unfavorable historical analogs.

LET’S GO BRANDON: NASCAR reporter asks fans what message they wrote on the finish line.

WHEW! Dogs on Death Row Win Their Freedom as Anne Arundel County Settles After Losing in Court.

COLORADO: Committee kills bill that would have established feasibility study on nuclear energy.

Senate Bill 22-073 would have required the Office of Economic Development (OED) to study using small modular nuclear reactors as a carbon-free energy source that would contribute to the state’s goal of reducing overall carbon emissions.

The Democratic-controlled Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee voted to postpone the bill indefinitely by a 3-2 party-line vote.

“As other states begin lifting their moratoriums, such as West Virginia, or actually initiating small modular reactor projects, such as Wyoming, Colorado is left behind,” Sen. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement. “Climate change may be real, but the Democrats’ concerns about it are as fake as can be.”

If you aren’t serious about nuclear, you aren’t serious about reducing carbon emissions.

KAMALA HARRIS EXPLAINS HOW SANCTIONS WILL DETER RUSSIA FROM AN INVASION THEY’VE ALREADY DECIDED ON: “Abso – we strongly believe – and remember also that the sanctions are a product not only of our perspective as the United States, but a shared perspective among our allies, and the allied relationship is such that we have agreed that the deterrence effect of these sanctions is still a meaningful one, especially because remember also, we still sincerely hope that there is a diplomatic path out of this moment. And within the context, then, of the fact that that window is still opening – open, although it is absolutely narrowing, but within the context of a diplomatic path still being open, the deterrence effect we believe has merit.”

I hope that clears things up for you.

DAVID DEAVEL: Ordinary American Heroes Take the Wheel: Brian Echevarria Takes on CRT as John Kissinger did Yellow Fever. “Brian Echevarria is biracial, multilingual, and multicultural. He doesn’t look much like my distant cousin John Kissinger but he reminds me of him in the deepest ways. Both men, separated in time by a century, were in the news this past week because of their heroism. Both men in their different ways represent the greatness of America—not found primarily in the credentialed elites but in ordinary citizens.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: It Would Be Super Cool If America Had a Real President Now. “We heard so much from the lefties about what Putin could get away with while Trump was president yet nothing happened. He did, however, annex Crimea while The Lightbringer was in office and now he’s acting up again while Obama’s idiot legacy is in office.”

UM… HELLO? Say hello to Trans Jesus.

First of all, kudos to Revd Woodman for calling Jesus “a revelation of God.” By the time most Christians get into queer theology, they’ve already dropped the Trinity. No doubt Revd Woodman is considered something of a dangerous reactionary in his own circles.

Secondly, I like that phrase he used — about challenging what Christians have believed “historically and recently.” That’s a clever way of saying, “Basically I’m making all of this up.”

Many Christians took offense at Revd Woodman on Our Lord’s behalf. As well they might. Bloomsbury Baptists may think queer is a compliment, but Christians don’t. (At least not “historically and recently.”) Yet I almost feel worse for the Reverend.

The Bible is the most profound and influential book in the whole history of the world. It contains the philosophy of Jesus Christ, the most important philosopher and mystic in world history. Most of His followers, including Revd Woodman, believe that He was God incarnate. Yet even nontheists like Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy were enthralled by the life and teachings of Jesus. Billions have lived by it. Millions have died for it.

Now, imagine if all you could find in those pages was a parable for transvestic fetishism. What a boring little place your head must be.

I’ve said for years that anyone who thinks the most interesting thing about themselves or others is the content of their underwear or whom they sleep with is a tedious person.

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

Matt Margolis: Is Senator Tim Scott the Right Running Mate for Trump? “‘I think everybody wants to be on President Trump’s bandwagon without any question,’ Scott told Bartiromo.”

Chris Queen: What Are the Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Policy? “Bardosh also noted that the ‘political psychology’ surrounding vaccine propaganda has upended the perception of which parties are more interested in science in the U.S. and Canada alike.” (The worst consequences weren’t actually unintended.)

Yours Truly: What Are They Hiding? CDC Refuses to Release COVID Vaccine Data. “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: CNN Stopped Reporting On Its Favorite Boogeyman and the Reason Is Hilarious. “It’s difficult to say whether the change is funnier than it is pathetic or the other way around. Maybe by the end of this column you can tell me.”

POVERTY AND OPPRESSION WERE NEVER SEXY: Making Socialism Sexy Again: New York Magazine Honors ‘Our First Female Wunderkind.’

HUH. LAST WEEK SHE DENIED IT EVER HAPPENED: Okla. Dem Candidate Abby Broyles Says Mixing Someone Else’s Sleeping Pills with Liquor Made Her Go On Boozy Racist Tirade Against Kids.