THE NEW SPACE RACE: Sierra Space showcases its Dream Chaser spaceplane at CES 2022. “Sierra Space may be a newcomer to the space industry, but the company has secured a deal with NASA for unmanned flights to the International Space Station (ISS) starting this year.”

America’s private-sector space efforts are really taking off — if you’ll excuse the pun — while China is cracking down on its own private sector.

PLAYING NICE WITH OUR ENEMIES: Iranian Wrestling Team Coming to U.S. for Friendship Match, Iran Wrestling Chief Says It’s for ‘Death to America.’

COLD WAR II: Australia, Japan sign ‘historic’ defence pact amid China concerns.

Called the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), the treaty is only Japan’s second such agreement.

Its only other military pact is with the United States, a status of force agreement that dates back to 1960.

Morrison called the signing of the RAA a “pivotal moment for Australia and Japan” that will “form an important part” of the two countries’ response to “the uncertainty we now face”.

The treaty will also “underpin greater and more complex engagement in operability between the Australia Defence Force and Japan Self-Defense Forces,” he said.

Prime Ministers Scott Morrison and Fumio Kishida deserve some credit, but this is pact is really the fruit of Xi Jinping’s labors.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Democrats Calling Out Teachers’ Unions Over School Closures Is Garbage Theater. “The unions can do what they want because they have all of the money and all of the power. Almost every elected Democrat who is calling out the unions right now isn’t up for reelection this year. They have the luxury to grandstand. The unions can let them have a long leash, knowing full well that they’ll be back begging for money and offering promises to make up for their public proclamations.”

EVERGREEN: New York Governor Kathy Hochul Is Delusional. “The Democratic Governor of New York declaring that she’s going to make New York ‘the most business-friendly State in the nation’ is like Danny DeVito declaring that he’s going to become an offensive lineman for the New York Jets; nothing in the rules actually forbids it, but everyone involved knows it’s not going to happen.”

LINCOLN BROWN: None of My Best Friends Are Black.

It was a very strange thing for me to be labeled a racist. I grew up in a black neighborhood. I was surrounded by black culture. The music I heard was from Parliament, Bootsy Collins, Heatwave, Ohio Players, and later The Sugarhill Gang and a slew of blues artists. That is not to say it was my music , but it was the music I grew up on and when I hear it today, it brings back memories.

Yes, as a short, skinny white kid with glasses, I got roughed up for the color of my skin on occasion. I was even spit on and throat-punched once. But I also caught hell from rich and poor white kids who were just jerks. And I had plenty of black friends back in high school and beyond. Some were good friends, some were casual acquaintances. As I have written before, my first girlfriend was black and no one except my left-wing parents had a problem with it.

This is a lovely piece. Read the whole thing.

WHOSE CHILD IS IT, ANYWAY? ‘There you go’ US science teacher arrested for ‘vaccinating 17-year-old student at home.’

BLUE CITY BLUES: This Is the Reason the NFL Might Relocate Super Bowl LVI.

JON CALDERA: Progressives sic wolves on rural Colorado.

Then there’s the wolf “re-introduction” passed by citizen’s initiative.

The term’s a fib to begin with. The wolves to be “re-introduced” aren’t the same breed as those wandering the Rockies centuries ago. But hey, salesmanship can’t be limited by the facts.

Just like Jurassic Park, a whole new breed will be released into Colorado, and just like Jurassic Park the experts say they have it all under control.

Progressives in Boulder and Denver voted to parachute killer animals into other people’s back yards. It was a wildly, but not surprisingly, intolerant act. It was a vote to injure people in a different tribe. People you don’t see. And frankly, people you look down upon as backwards rubes.

And besides, as any urban fan of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” will attest, giant wolves are loyal, majestic and magical beasts that only kill bad guys.

The state recently confirmed the first wolf kill in decades. A wolf pack took down and eviscerated a 500-pound purebred heifer near Walden.

Walden is in Jackson County. I’m guessing most of the people who voted for the wolf initiative don’t really know where Jackson is. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that except when you vote to have people’s animals viciously ripped apart, it’s proper to at least know where and how your victims live.

Read the whole thing.

LIVE AT 3:30PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, VodkaPundit, Special Guest.

Cold drinks, hot takes.

“LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ” ALWAYS SEEMS TO COME DOWN TO CASTING OUT THE UNDESIRABLES — OR WORSE: French President Emmanuel Macron Says Someone Who Refuses COVID Vaccine Is ‘Not a Citizen.’

KAMALA HARRIS, TAKE NOTES: Why December 7 Is Nothing Like… That Other Date.

HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT: Another Kamala Harris aide quits as claims of turmoil, ‘bullying’ mount.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Georgia Launches ‘Ballot Harvesting’ Investigation.

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP:

I decided to actually do something with my months-old Gettr account this week, and while small, it has the fun vibe of early Twitter.

HMM: McConnell open to changing how Congress certifies presidential elections. “Lawmakers in both parties are eyeing legislation that would change the ease with which lawmakers can object to presidential election results following last year’s riot at the U.S Capitol on Jan. 6, the day both the House and Senate met to certify President Joe Biden’s victory under the Electoral Count Act.”

WHY MAKE IT TEMPORARY? Postal Service asks for temporary waiver from Biden vaccine requirement. “In a letter to OSHA, the Postal Service says its ability to deliver the mail would be hurt because employees would either leave over the mandate or be disciplined for disobeying it.”

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

Stephen Kruiser: Why Are Entertainment Industry Libs Treating Omicron Like It’s a Monster? “Despite the fact that even the Covid panic porn ‘experts’ are saying that the Omicron variant isn’t even remotely as severe as any iteration of this virus that has preceded it, Hollywood sheep are fleeing for the safety of their virtual pens as if they were facing the Bubonic plague in 1350.”

Stacey Lennox: The Political Appointees at the FDA Are Taking the War on Boys to a Whole New Level. “According to Kaiser’s study, there is almost no circumstance where a male between 12 and 24 should receive an mRNA vaccine. A society that was not intent on burdening its children to make adults feel safer would not subject any child under 12 to an mRNA vaccine out of an abundance of caution.”

Yours Truly: Biden’s 2022 Agenda: Abort, Retry, Fail? “Had Biden settled for a smaller agenda, he might have gotten it. But instead, the so-called moderate tried to push major changes through on slender majorities. That would be a challenge for a much more talented and energetic executive, and impossible for someone of Biden’s diminished capacities — that were never that great.”

KUDLOW: Game Over? Manchin Approval Soars as He Stands Ground.

This high tax, high spend, woke monstrosity is going nowhere. All these phony baloney political writers who say otherwise are wrong. Like the Axios report yesterday that breathlessly said that Mr. Manchin is really negotiating on a child tax credit.

Blah, blah, blah. No he’s not. That was a Democratic leak. Pure baloney, and Axios should know better than to fall for that stuff. Unless, of course, they’re pushing their own little woke, “BBB,” big government socialist agenda. Is that what they want? Really? I thought they were independent journalists.

The point I’m making is that not only has Joe Manchin been heroic, he has also been loyally representing the voters of West Virginia. Some recent polling shows that West Virginians oppose the big government socialism bill.

Nearly two thirds of them believe the bill would lead to higher costs for gas and groceries. Senator Manchin’s job approval has gone up seven points to 59%. He’s doing the lord’s work.

And he offered a deal to Chuck Schumer last summer, and Mr. Schumer dissed him.

It’s business and personal.

THIS ASSUMES HE CAN REMEMBER IT: Oops, I Bet Biden Wishes He Could Delete This Tweet.

WELL, BYE: And then there were 25: House Dems swarming for the exits. “At 67, [Rep. Brenda] Lawrence is practically a youngster in comparison to House Democrats’ senior leadership, all three of whom are in their eighties. At only four terms, her colleagues must have expected her to keep working her way up the leadership ladder, too. The only reason this isn’t a surprise is because twenty-four of Lawrence’s fellow House Democrats have already hit the egresses before her — and it looks like more of them will follow suit.”

DIVIDE AND CONQUER: New York Times Offers Stunning Report on Left-Wing Racial Fundraising. “This is the largest amount of philanthropy ever spent on one cause in such a short period — probably by a factor of 10.”

HOW’S THAT PERMANENT DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY COMING ALONG? Pollster Scott Rasmussen Says Democrats Are Getting Demographics All Wrong. “Democrats want to present this notion of persons of color, that they are all the same. It is not a coalition that exists in the real world. And when you appeal to a Hispanic voter who thinks they’re White, trying to make their life in America, and you say ‘fighting for civil rights,’ it doesn’t connect. There have always been divisions in America. They’re just divisions we don’t recognize after the 20th century. People from Poland, Italy, Ireland, were not considered White. Jews were not acceptable. [In the] 19th century, and actually much of the 20th, Catholics were not accepted.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: DeSantis Derangement Syndrome a Boon for Florida GOP. “We’ve all been witnessing the spectacle of the leftist panic porn crowd admitting that we here in Knuckle-Dragging Land have been right about everything all throughout the Wuhan Chinese Bat Flu plague. OK, they’re not actually admitting that, but I’m hard-pressed to think of a conservative position on Covid that hasn’t been co-opted by the leftist ‘experts’ in the last two weeks.”

FEDS CHASING FEDS: DHS, FBI are tracking online posts promoting a violent Jan. 6 reunion on Capitol Hill.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): From last night’s open thread:

Plus, a flashback: The FBI has lost the plot. “The FBI is similarly domesticated. Its number is increasingly part of the shapeless swamp that controls our lives. Its actions are, seen from afar, often ridiculous. But that does not mean they are not also malevolent. That’s an important point: that the ridiculous often easily cohabits with the vile. Hence the dawn raids, the summary incarcerations, the identification of people they disagree with as ‘domestic extremists’, ‘terrorists’, etc.”