IT’S DIFFERENT NOW BECAUSE REASONS: Candidate Joe Biden thinks President Joe Biden is a racist xenophobe.

IF FAUCI WERE ANY GOOD AT HIS JOB, HE MIGHT HAVE A POINT: Rand Paul and Ted Cruz Respond to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Claims of Political Persecution by Republicans.

LET THEM EAT LITHIUM: Buttigieg says if you hate soaring fuel costs and shortages, just wait until you buy an EV! “Let them eat electrons, says Pete Buttigieg, representing the supposed party of the working class. In an MSNBC interview yesterday, the occasional Secretary of Transportation told Americans that relief from high fuel prices were on the way — not by lowering fuel prices through more robust American production, however. Instead, Buttigieg asked everyone to get giddy in anticipation of buying hugely expensive electric vehicles and, um … not ask any questions about how much it will cost to charge them.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Mask/Vax Mandate False Narrative Takes Another Florida Hit. “You read that correctly, sports fans: Florida has the lowest per capita infection rate, and it is happening in a state where the governor has decided to let the citizens live like free Americans.”

SHOCKER: NYT Throws Cold Water on Biden’s Massive Infrastructure Bill. “Biden’s $1.2 trillion bill ‘carries enormous risks that the projects will face the same kind of cost, schedule and technical problems that have hobbled ambitious efforts from New York to Seattle, delaying benefits to the public and driving up the price tag that taxpayers ultimately will bear.'”

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

Stacey Lennox: The New COVID-19 Scariant Distracts From Questions We Should Be Asking About Vaccines. “Mass vaccination for an illness that causes fatigue and a slight cough for a few days seems a bit over the top if the current assessment holds. Still, the coverage appears to breathlessly hope that the new variant is still dangerous to the elderly to justify their authoritarian biosecurity state.”

Matt Margolis: Joe Biden: The George Costanza of Presidents. “‘My whole life has been a complete waste of time,’ George Costanza once declared on Seinfeld. And that pretty much sums up Joe Biden’s political career as well.”

Yours Truly: Natural Immunity Works Better Than COVID Vaccines: New England Journal of Medicine. “If you missed the news, you’re not alone. The news broke during the busy Thanksgiving holiday, allowing outlets like CNN to publish on Thanksgiving Day when many people (including Yours Truly!) don’t bother reading the news.”

I’LL TAKE TWO: For Sale: A Douglas A-4 Skyhawk Fighter Jet. “This 1960 Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is currently being offered for sale for $995,000 USD, making it one of the most affordable fully-functional fighter jets for sale anywhere in the world. The word ‘affordable’ is relative of course, but in the world of privately owned warbird jets, anything under a million dollars is a steal.”

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Eye Roll: Merriam-Webster Announces Word of the Year.

HOW ABOUT SOME CAUTIONS AGAINST ACTUAL LOOTING? San Francisco TV Reporter Cautions Against Use of Word ‘Looting.’

MANDATE CAVE: Biden to Suspend Vaccine Mandate for Fed Employees. “This is a huge cave for an administration whose remaining anti-COVID effort is focused almost exclusively on the vaccine mandate. Further lockdowns are out, according to one report. People have lost patience with social distancing and travel restrictions. And it’s probably not too much of an exaggeration to say that ‘Which famous person isn’t wearing a mask today?’ has taken the place of ‘Who in Hollywood is secretly gay?’ as America’s favorite gossip.”

CANCEL CULTURE IS ALL IN YOUR MIND: Far-Left Groups Organize Push To Get Kyle Rittenhouse Kicked Out Of Arizona State University.

UGH: Warning: Your Favorite Holiday Charity May Be Promoting CRT. “That’s right, the 156-year-old Christian charity known worldwide for its Holiday Red Kettle campaign has gone ‘woke.'”

THE NEW NORMAL: Biden’s Supply Chain Crisis Is Going To Be Here For Awhile.

There is a major supply chain crisis in our country, and it is not going away anytime soon. But if you listen to the White House, it’s no big deal. Nothing to see here. It will all end soon.

Not so says economist, consultant and writer, Milton Ezrati.

“The supply chain issues will be around for quite awhile, I’m talking about the 2nd half of next year at the earliest.”

So what is the problem? The two biggest issues are, too much government spending, and the Biden administration shutting down oil and gas.

“That’s not a supply chain issue, that’s policy” Ezrati told KTRH.

You could call it a crisis by design.

GOOD READS: Support Non-Woke Authors: Buy Indie Books Now on Sale Through Tuesday.

GRIFT: How the Build Back Better Act Steers Billions of Medicaid Dollars to Labor Unions.

LAPTOP FROM HELL: The Biden Grift & Influence Machine Is Even Worse Than You Thought.

BLUE CITY BLUES: Our other seasonal surge: porch pirates. “The Mile High City somehow leapfrogged from outside of the top-10 cities for package theft into sole ownership of the top spot to steal the annual crime crown from three-time reigning champion San Francisco. A dubious distinction if ever there was one.”

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Gonzales Lays the Border Crisis Blame at Democrats’ Feet. “Rep. Tony Gonzales is a GOP congressman from Texas’ 23rd district. His district covers an astonishingly huge space — roughly a third of the U.S.-Mexico border. So if anybody in Congress is aware of what’s going on at our Southern border, it’s Gonzales.”

SNOWFLAKES, ENABLED BY COWARDS, LIED TO BY THE MEDIA: Levi Strauss and Best Buy offer counseling to employees distressed over Rittenhouse acquittal, including session with ‘racial trauma specialist.’

HMM: Is The Omicron Variant The ‘Midterm Election Variant’? “On Saturday, Jackson suggested that Democrats will use the Omicron variant to push for universal mail-in voting for the 2022 midterm elections and save their party from an electoral bloodbath next year.”

BULLIES: Taiwan Scrambles Jets after Chinese Air Force Breaches Buffer Zone.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 18 fighter jets from mainland China’s air force, along with five H-6 bombers and a refueling aircraft, flew through the defense zone near the southern part of the island. Taiwan scrambled its own air force to respond and deployed missile systems to track the Chinese breach.

The incursion came at the close of a three-day military conference attended by Chinese premier Xi Jinping, where he called for the cultivation of military talent, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

At the same time as the conference, five U.S. lawmakers conducted a surprise visit to Taiwan and met with President Tsai Ing-wen. The delegation affirmed U.S. support for Taiwan, and comprised Representatives Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.), Nancy Mace (R., S.C.), Mark Takano (D., Calif.), Sara Jacobs (D., Calif.), and Colin Allred (D., Texas).

It’s pretty clear that Beijing’s actual audience wasn’t Taipei.

THE LEFT CAN’T MEME: The DOT’s Twitter Meme Doesn’t Just Offend Comedy — It May Also Be Illegal.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Hospital Struggles To Treat 18 Waukesha Parade Victims Because Of Vaccine Mandate. “The largest children’s hospital in Wisconsin has been struggling to care for patients in injured in the Waukesha Christmas parade attack on Nov. 21 in large part because of staffing shortages stemming from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, multiple sources say.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: New York’s New Governor Is Andrew Cuomo Without the Groping. “Guv Kathy wants to delay elective surgeries to deal with the problem that isn’t a problem. FYI, one of the main reasons that hospitals have been so busy in recent months is that they’re filled with people who had to delay surgeries last year, not because of ZOMG DELTA, as the MSM would have you believe.”

IT FAILS A LOT OF TESTS: Biden’s Build Back Better bill fails Manchin’s three-part test.

Manchin asks three questions about any proposed spending program: 1) Are proposed programs paid for? 2) Do they have bipartisan support? 3) And do they solve a specific problem facing his constituents?

Build Back Better clearly fails the first two parts of the test and probably fails the third as well.

As the Congressional Budget Office has confirmed, Build Back Better is in no way paid for, adding $791 billion to federal deficits in just five years. Over 10 years, the legislation only adds $367 billion to deficits, and the deficit reduction stems from the fact that the bill authorizes only a few years of new spending and then “pays” for it with 10 years of taxes. If the spending were extended to last as long as the taxes that “pay” for it, then the bill would add trillions to deficits.

Moving to the second test, Biden’s Build Back Better agenda didn’t receive a single bipartisan vote in the House, and no Republican senator has said they support the bill either. This legislation has zero bipartisan support.

On the last test, it is not exactly clear what problem the Build Back Better bill actually solves for West Virginians. Manchin has said the bill’s child tax credit expansion is anti-work and he wants the child care portion of the bill means-tested. He also clearly doesn’t believe the climate portions of the bill are good for his state’s economy.

Stand fast, Senator.