THERE’S (ALMOST) A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN: FBI Shuts Down DEI Office Before Trump’s Inauguration.

IT’S ON: Starship’s Seventh Flight Test.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Great launch, hot-staging succeeded. Heading for booster catch.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Booster caught. Elon, you da man.

ONE MORE UPDATE (STEVE):

Starship Flight 7 breaking up and re-entering over Turks and Caicos pic.twitter.com/iuQ0YAy17O

— Alex Davenport (@adavenport354) January 16, 2025

Version 2 of the Ship upper stage did not enjoy a nominal flight. Looking forward to learning what happened.

MORE (FROM GLENN):

it is beautiful though 😭 pic.twitter.com/rQpdrsJ8VX

— strwb (@strwbcom) January 16, 2025

That’s okay. SpaceX’s secret is that it’s not afraid of failure, it’s only afraid of not learning from it.

Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed! ✨
pic.twitter.com/nn3PiP8XwG

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2025

Improved versions of the ship & booster already waiting for launch 🚀

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2025

CROWDFUNDING: Mr. Wonderful’s Plan to Buy TikTok. “This Reg A+ Test the Waters offering is made available through StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc. This potential investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. This potential investment, if any, may be made through StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc.”

That’s a hard pass from me.

STATEMENT FROM SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE:

I just read an extremely disturbing IG report. Last December, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized and failed to follow the law by notifying the White House or Congress. Similarly, his deputy, Secretary Kathleen Hicks, also refused to follow protocol and report the transfer of authority.

Now, the Inspector General’s report just released reveals that this doesn’t just happen once. Secretary Austin did the same thing again five months later, last June, and he hid it from everyone. Now look, I get it.

People get sick. It happens to all of us, and I sincerely hope Secretary Austin is healthy. But it is dangerous and deeply concerning that our Secretary of Defense left the United States vulnerable when he was completely out of commission.

Not once, but twice, and he didn’t feel the need to tell his boss either time. So, thanks to Joe Biden, we have wars all over the world. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am deeply, deeply disturbed to learn that we have had two significant lapses in the chain of command that have left our country wide open for attack.

Just as you’d expect, there will be zero accountability from the Biden administration. So, thankfully, change is on the way. In five days, President Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as our 47th president, and the Senate will swiftly confirm Pete Hegseth as our next Secretary of Defense.

We will have accountability, accountability and strength in the Pentagon once again, and it can’t come soon enough. God bless.

I’d recommend calling Austin back to active duty, followed by a court-martial for dereliction, but he doesn’t seem fit to stand trial.

But he’s fine to serve as SecDef, according to Joe Biden.

INDEED: It’s Time to Excise the Cancer.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

Biden Takes Credit For Developing Dementia So Kamala Would Take His Place And Lose To Trump So Hamas Would Release Hostages https://t.co/Db9Aitr4xN pic.twitter.com/HHuzfNrJYV

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 16, 2025

WHOSE TRACTOR IS IT, ANYWAY? John Deere faces U.S. lawsuit over farmers’ ability to repair tractors.

The lawsuit — filed on Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission along with Illinois and Minnesota — escalates a long-running battle over farmers’ right to repair their own agricultural equipment and parts.

As tractors and combines have gotten more computerized, farmers have complained that Deere has restricted access to its software and made it difficult, or nearly impossible, for owners to diagnose and fix problems themselves or with the help of independent mechanics. Instead, farmers have to use authorized dealers, who tend to charge more and may take longer.

The lawsuit accuses Deere of withholding access to its technology and best repair tools and of maintaining monopoly power over many repairs. Deere also reaps additional profits from selling parts, the complaint alleges, as authorized dealers tend to sell pricey Deere-branded parts for their repairs rather than generic alternatives.

“Unfair repair restrictions can mean farmers face unnecessary delays during tight planting and harvest windows,” FTC Chair Lina Khan wrote in a statement. “In rural communities, the restrictions can sometimes mean that farmers need to drive hours just to get their equipment fixed. For those who have long fixed their own equipment, these artificial restrictions can seem especially inefficient, with tractors needlessly sitting idle as farmers and independent mechanics are held back from using their skill and talent.”

“Virtually any and everything as a service” is one of the 21st Century’s most annoying innovations.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: David Lynch: RIP.

First Bob Uecker and now Lynch? What a day.

CHANGE? New Polling Show UK’s Real Conservatives on the Rise.

THEY PROTECT THEIR OWN:

Whoa…. 🤯

The Senior Pentagon Official James O’Keefe just caught on Camera talking about Sabotaging Trumps Inauguration —— was busted in 2021 for Soliciting an Underage Girl for S*x

How in the hell was Jamie Mannina a Top Senior Pentagon Official after this?

How was he… https://t.co/6kAazqqSoI pic.twitter.com/CbjnhexMSr

— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) January 16, 2025

What are the chances the Chinese knew, too, and had a great blackmail target?

WE NEED MORE PEOPLE TO SERVE WHO DON’T WANT TO SERVE: Ivanka: ‘I HATE Politics,’ Won’t Serve During Trump 47.

MAKE THEM PAY:

EXCLUSIVE: Amy Wax has sued the University of Pennsylvania for race discrimination, arguing that Penn punishes speech that offends racial minorities but not speech that offends Jews.

Here is a table from the complaint, which was filed in federal court this morning.🧵 pic.twitter.com/mIdKNDftfs

— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) January 16, 2025

More: “The complaint, obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon, advances a novel legal theory that could have major implications for universities as they brace for the incoming Trump administration.”

Read the whole thing.

FULL REUSABILITY IS THE HOLY GRAIL OF ROCKETRY SO WHY NOT SKIP RIGHT TO IT? Firm developing a fully reusable rocket raises a quarter of a billion dollars.

“The market is tough, but I think what we’re doing is poised to go straight to the end state of the industry, and I think investors recognize that,” said Andy Lapsa, Stoke Space’s co-founder and chief executive officer, in an interview with Ars after the announcement.

By “end state of the industry,” Lapsa means that Stoke is developing a fully reusable medium-lift rocket named Nova. The vehicle’s first stage will land vertically, similarly to a Falcon 9 rocket, and the second stage, which has a novel metallic heat shield and engine design, will also land back on Earth.

Lapsa said there is incredible demand for launch services and that ultimately, only companies that can offer ultra-low-cost prices and on-demand service will be successful. That’s why the company has made difficult technical decisions such as developing a highly efficient full-flow staged combustion engine and a reusable upper stage. SpaceX’s much larger Starship rocket is the only other fully reusable rocket in development at this time.

Starship Flight Test 7 is still set for this afternoon.

HE SEEMS TO BE BLACKLISTING ALL THE RIGHT PEOPLE: Trump’s Hiring Requirements for His New Administration Are Something Else!

“THE LEFT LIVES IN A DIFFERENT REALITY”: We’ve Been Through A North Korean Brainwashing Experiment. “Weinstein notes that creative people in the trades (electricians, truckers, etc.) were never sucked into the woke mindset, because their jobs require them to be based in unforgiving reality. It was only among academics, PhDs and corporate workplaces that the woke virus spread.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Pam Bondi Is the Epitome of a Strong and Intelligent Woman.

Exit Question:

Pam bondi is older than Kirsten Gillibrand.
How is that possible? pic.twitter.com/oqz8ii2YwY

— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) January 15, 2025

Progressivism is hard on the body and soul.

COLD WAR II: China tests microwave weapon with nuclear bomb-like power to kill satellites.

Chinese researchers have allegedly developed a new high-power microwave (HPM) weapon with power equivalent to electromagnetic energy released by a nuclear explosion. Reportedly also relatively compact, the new weapon could prove game-changing for anti-drone and anti-satellite military operations.

The weapon is still developing and has not left the laboratory, so it is yet to be field-tested. Weapons such as this one can cause significant damage and even destroy electronic components, making them invaluable for modern military operations.

Many nations worldwide are developing their HPMs, with the U.S. reportedly planning to deploy some to the Indo-Pacific region soon. It is reported that the U.S. would plan to use such weapons to target and knock out Chinese satellites should conflict erupt between the two superpowers.

In most cases, though not all, HPMs comprise a satellite-dish-type antenna with multiple degrees of rotation to engage targets at will. The new Chinese HPM, however, uses phased array transmission technology instead.

This, it is reported, enables “precisely focus energy, increasing its effective range and enhancing damage effects, enabling simultaneous attacks on multiple targets,” according to researchers involved in the project.

Maybe this is just vaporware or propaganda, but Chinese engineering has evolved from “cheap crap” to “fast followers” to “world-class innovators” with alarming speed.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Let’s Talk About Those ‘Seeds’ Biden Planted. “Poison ivy where once a lush lawn grew.”

OH MY:

Darrin Bell, the cartoonist who made this, was just arrested with child porn on his computer pic.twitter.com/lVuUVhRfB0

— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) January 16, 2025

Anyone using Nazi slurs is automatically suspect. Using them to deflect from credible grooming/child sexual abuse allegations makes them doubly so.

ROBERT SPENCER: Hamas Celebrates Ceasefire Deal in Gaza, and With Good Reason. “That was an uncharacteristic display of generosity from Miller and the Biden regime, and don’t think for a nanosecond that regime wonks have suddenly become appreciative of Trump and his team, and willing to acknowledge when they’ve done something good. Miller’s giving credit to the Trump team is an indication that even the Biden regime knows how bad this deal is for Israel and its allies, and for the free world as a whole.”

I’m less convinced. The deal is far from perfect but A) it is only a ceasefire and not a “peace” plan, B) the Israeli government is under tremendous domestic political pressure to bring hostages home, and C) Hamas hotheads will have the Israelis raining hellfire down upon them again soon.

All that said, I’m not sure why Trump wanted his fingerprints on a not-so-good deal that’s soon to be broken.

CHANGE? Russia’s Quiet Conquest: Belarus. “The Kremlin seeks to de facto annex Belarus by formalizing the Union State as a Russian-dominated federated government that grants Moscow dominant power over most if not all aspects of Belarusian governance. This includes establishing full operational and administrative control over Belarus’ armed forces during peacetime and permanent Russian military basing in Belarus; a political union with a Kremlin-dominated federated government with a common set of federal laws and institutions for Belarusians and Russians to be governed as a single polity; and a fully integrated economy complete with common markets, free labor flows, unified laws, and a currency union. The Kremlin very likely plans to leverage Belarus’ population of 9.155 million people, Belarus’ geostrategic territory on NATO’s eastern flank, and Belarus’ economic resources in service of Russian state power.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Dems Make a Case for One-Party Republican Rule, At Least for a While. “Watching the Democrats proudly display their delusion and denial during the confirmation hearings this week has brought me to a place where I can easily advocate for the Republicans being in charge for quite some time. Bear in mind, I always find problems with the way Republicans do things; I’m just saying that the worst Republican in Congress is exponentially better than the best Democrat.”

BIDEN’S PARTING GIFTS: Biden exempted nearly 7000 foreign nationals from terror-related entry restrictions into the US.

The report doesn’t break down the number by country but the Biden previously increased the refugee cap from 18,000 set in the last year of the Trump administration to 125,000.

According to DHS reports, the number is much higher than the 2,085 in FY 2023. That year was higher than the 603 waivers distributed in FY 2022, 191 in FY 2021, and 361 in FY 2020.

Foreign nationals can be deemed inadmissible from entry into the US and for immigration benefits if they have associated with, supported, or worked with terrorist organizations, but the DHS secretary can exempt certain foreign nationals if they provided support under duress, provided medical care, or meet other standards for exemptions.

You’d either have to be a fool to trust the Biden administration’s vetting process or a bigger fool not to take advantage of it.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:

Second stage engine cutoff confirmed. New Glenn’s second stage and payload are now in orbit. Another burn coming up…

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) January 16, 2025

New Glenn safely reached its intended orbit during today's NG-1 mission, accomplishing our primary objective. The second stage is in its final orbit following two successful burns of the BE-3U engines. The Blue Ring Pathfinder is receiving data and performing well.

We lost the… pic.twitter.com/MmDlCb6AVj

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) January 16, 2025

“It took SpaceX 8 attempts to nail their first landing.”

Bravo to all involved, no matter what novelty shirts they might have been wearing.

AND YET IT STILL SUCKED: Your Favorite Moment of the Biden Presidency Has Finally Arrived! “The same steely-eyed leader who still insists he could deftly serve another four years (and surely would’ve bested Trump!) struggled through his speech, mangling words and swallowing syllables with Hawk Tuah-level proficiency. Even the 2017 Atlanta Falcons were like, ‘Bro, that’s a weak way to finish.'”