WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Israel Set To Deploy National Laser Shield. “Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced a plan on Feb. 1 to deploy a ‘laser wall’ in the country’s south later this year to shoot down rockets from Gaza. The system will be initially deployed as an experimental weapon in southern Israel, then be expanded “elsewhere” around the country.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Fire Whoopi Goldberg? That Won’t Fix What’s Wrong with ‘The View’ (Or Anything Else on TV).

It always comes down to survival of the fittest, and in TV Land, the fittest aren’t the most knowledgeable or balanced. The fittest tend to be the prettiest, the most sensationalistic, and those who are best at generating strong emotional responses from viewers.

Goldberg has two outta three, and that ain’t bad.

So go ahead and fire Whoopi Goldberg… or don’t. But if she does get fired, the economics of TV infotainment require that ABC News hire someone pretty much just like her.

Read the whole thing.

KENTUCKY: Lefty Gov. Appoints New Judge Who Called Breonna Taylor’s Cop-Shooting Boyfriend a ‘Hero.’

BLUE CITY BLUES: Downtown Denver business owner to charge 1% fee to recover shoplifting losses. “Since 2019, he says shoplifting at his downtown and Federal Boulevard stores has tripled.”

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Oh, so This Is Why There’s a Border Crisis. “Just ask White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. According to her, ‘We had every intention of implementing a different approach’ than the Trump administration on immigration.”

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Maxine Waters continues to pay daughter with campaign cash, adding up to $1.2M so far.

I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Diabetes Deaths Hit 100K Two Years in a Row: Wonder Why?

FINALLY, AN ONLINE EXPERIENCE WORSE THAN TWITTER: Woman Says She Was ‘Virtually Gang-Raped’ in Facebook’s Metaverse. “Vivek Sharma, Meta’s vice president of Horizon, told Verge that the incident was ‘absolutely unfortunate,’ and the beta tester didn’t use a safety feature that’s meant to block someone from interacting with you. Sharma said the tester’s report was ‘good feedback.'”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Insane Dem Media Hacks Wonder Why COVID Didn’t Unite Us. “The Democrats and their flying monkeys in the mainstream media have been in an orgiastic frenzy for two years whenever using COVID panic porn to bully, demean, censor, and force people out of their jobs. Now they’re wondering why we didn’t respond to that by meeting them at the pub for a pint.”

Almost two years of beatings and yet somehow morale still hasn’t improved.

PRIVACY: NSO Group offered ‘bags of cash’ for access to U.S. cell networks, whistleblower claims. “The mobile-phone security expert Gary Miller alleges that the offer came during a conference call in August 2017 between NSO Group officials and representatives of his employer at the time, Mobileum, a California-based company that provides security services to cellular companies worldwide. The NSO officials specifically were seeking access to what is called the SS7 network, which helps cellular companies route calls and services as their users roam the world, according to Miller.”

I CELEBRATE THIS EVERY TIME I GO TO THE BEACH: Strike A Blow For Freedom: Celebrate No Hijab Day.

BECAUSE THE BIDEN WHITE HOUSE IS THE REAL WORLD: Psaki Mocks Violent Crime Concerns as ‘An Alternative Universe.’

IT’S WEIRD WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WASHINGTON PRINTS UP FUNNY MONEY BY THE TRILLIONS: Inflation is High, Will Remain Elevated for Years.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) is officially committed to a 2 percent average inflation target, as explained in its Statement on Longer-Run Goals and Monetary Policy Strategy. But supply constraints and a surge in nominal spending have pushed prices well above target. In December, the price level was 3 percentage points higher than it would have been had prices merely grown at 2 percent since January 2020.

The Fed reaffirmed its commitment to a 2 percent average inflation target on January 25, 2022. But, so far, it has done little more than say it would tighten monetary policy in the coming months.

Following last week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the Fed announced it would leave its federal funds rate target and the interest rate it pays on reserve balances unchanged. It will reduce its monthly asset purchases, but the size of the Fed’s balance sheet will continue to grow for now. None of this really amounts to tighter monetary policy, and yet the Fed seems to have convinced markets that it is serious about bringing down inflation.

Inflation isn’t that tough to tame if it is nipped in the bud. But the longer the Fed and Congress put off making the necessary changes to interest rates and spending, the more painful the correction will be.

CHANGE? An Article V Convention Becomes More Likely As Convention of States Action Hits the Halfway Mark.

HAVE YOU TRIED VOTING FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN A DEMOCRAT? Portland residents criticize city officials for rampant homelessness: ‘They’re straight up idiots.’

APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT? Joe Rogan Apologized and Now He’ll Have Hell to Pay.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Has $31 Million from the Chinese Compromised President Biden?

BOMBSHELL: Key Evidence Undermining Ukraine Impeachment Narrative Withheld From Trump Defense.

MAKE AMERICA DEPENDENT AGAIN: Federal Judge Revokes Oil And Gas Leases. “I know you’ll be shocked, shocked to discover that Contreras was appointed by Obama.”

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: Cursing Granny Stops Walmart Shoplifter, Psaki Pre-Spins Jobs Report.

Plus:

• Biden Crime Syndicate Got $31 million selling stealth tech to CCP
• Meet the CNN town hall “Republican” who isn’t
• You’ll never guess who sits on the board of the company that owns 50% of Neil Young’s music rights

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

THINK OF IT AS THE “ABRAHAM ACCORDS EXERCISE”: Israel to join massive US-led naval exercise in Red Sea for first time. “Participants include a number of countries that Israel does not have formal ties with, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, Comoros, Djibouti, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan, as well as several countries with which Israel recently normalized relations, like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which hosts the US 5th Fleet.”

FROM PANDEMIC TO ENDEMIC: New Poll: 70% Say It’s Time to Accept COVID Is Here to Stay and Move On With Our Lives.

TEST IT ON SOME BIDEN APPEARANCES: AI Could Analyze Speech to Help Diagnose Alzheimer’s.

CLEANEST ELECTION IN HISTORY: New Dinesh D’Souza Movie ‘2000 Mules’ Exposes 2020 Ballot Traffickers.

STEALTH REGISTRATION: Biden Admin Has Records on Nearly One Billion Gun Sales. “The ATF disclosed to lawmakers that it manages a database of 920,664,765 firearm purchase records, including both digital and hard copy versions of these transactions. When a licensed gun store goes out of business, its private records detailing gun transactions become ATF property and are stored at a federal site in West Virginia. The practice has contributed to the fears of gun advocacy groups and Second Amendment champions in Congress that the federal government is creating a national database of gun owners, which violates longstanding federal statutes.”