CRISIS BY DESIGN: Joe Biden’s Insane Plan to PAY $1 Billion to Illegal Aliens Separated by Trump’s Border Policy.

BLAME THE VICTIM: Jen Psaki Faults Americans’ Spending Habits for Economic Woes: ‘Root Cause’ of Supply Chain Problems.

BIDENFLATION: McDonald’s Does Exactly What Anyone Who Understands Economics Said Would Happen.

Related: Joe Biden, Milton Friedman, and the Tyranny of Tiny Minds.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: US Army commissions 300-kW, target-tracking laser weapon.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Democrats Are Clinically Insane. Discuss. “Democrats and economics have a very casual relationship in which the former is quite abusive.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: A once-quiet battle to replace the space station suddenly is red hot.

In recent years, signs of aging have become more apparent, particularly with cracks spreading across the Zvezda module. And more than the hardware is coming apart. The political forces that drove the formation of the space station partnership, principally the desire of the United States and Russia to work together after the Soviet breakup, have given way to a zealous anti-Americanism in Moscow and suspicions in Washington, DC. The partnership remains intact for now, thanks to healthy working relationships among astronauts, cosmonauts, and engineers. But politically, the rhetoric is at times toxic.

Although nothing has been formalized, a general consensus has emerged among the international partners that the International Space Station can probably keep flying through 2028 or 2030. But after that? NASA realizes it needs a succession plan.

Politicians and policymakers have started employing the spectre of the dreaded “g” word, saying NASA must avoid a “gap” in flying a low-Earth-orbit space station. This has become especially urgent with China’s recent, successful launch of its own Tiangong space station in April. In response to these concerns, NASA has hatched a plan. Recognizing the maturing US commercial space industry, NASA intends to become an “anchor tenant” of one or more privately developed space stations.

If Jeff Bezos is serious about space habitats, he should get Blue Origin out of direct competition with SpaceX for launch capability (a competition they’ve pretty much already lost), and redirect the company to building space station modules.

THERE’S A WORD FOR SPENDING MONEY YOU DON’T HAVE FOR GOODS THAT AREN’T BEING PRODUCED: BIDENFLATION. U.S. Economy Is in Freefall As Biden’s Only Answer Appears to Be ‘Spend More Money.’

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Supply Chain Update. “Our supply chain problems are a culmination of years of bad policy decisions by America’s elites.”

DON’T GET COCKY: One Democrat Leader Seems to Think His Party Is Doomed Next Year.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GARRETT MORRIS? THIS: ‘SNL’ Legend Schools Woke Reporter (And It’s Glorious).

HMM: Radio Silence: Where’s Dan Bongino? “The host is currently in a showdown with his radio syndicator, Cumulus, over the company’s COVID-19 shot mandate. The company won’t comment on the battle with Bongino. He, however, is anything but silent, telling his podcast listeners that he’s lost a lot of sleep over the conflict, but believes he’s right to use his position to fight on behalf of Cumulus employees who will lose their jobs if they can’t or won’t get the shot.”

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

DEMOCRATS HAVE LONG THRIVED ON MISERY, POVERTY, AND MENTAL ILLNESS: “NYC’s Homeless Problem Is A Giant Scam!”

Here’s a Louis Rossmann video that discusses a homeless shelter in New York City that:

1. Bills the government $3,500 to $4,000 [per homeless person] a month to

2. House the homeless in a literal shithole (with visible feces in one picture of the place), and

3. By an amazing coincidence, is run by a non-profit founded by Andrew Cuomo and now run by his sister Maria Cuomo Cole.

Much more than just the video at the link.

REPENT! January 6 Defendant Denounces Trump, Self… Gets Released.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Biden Plans To Further Break The Border With Fraudulent Asylum Seekers.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Biden’s FEMA Refuses Emergency Aid to Battle Texas Border Crisis.

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: Yes, China Could Invade Taiwan.

“This really is the grimmest time I’ve seen in my more than 40 years working in the military,” Taiwan Minister of Defense Chiu Kuo-Cheng recently said. He went on to predict that, though an invasion now would exact a high—and presumably unacceptable—price from Beijing, the time will come when China’s military modernization drive will produce a capability that will lower that cost to a level Chinese leadership will judge acceptable.

Other experts have concluded that China’s military power has already reached the point that a conquest of Taiwan is not only conceivable but even tempting to Beijing. They also note that, as much as the Taiwanese people may be resistant to unification with China, U.S. military dominance in the area, and its ability to protect the island, is steadily eroding.

China, the U.S., and Taiwan are now caught in a “vicious spiral,” according to Jia Qingguo, a professor of international relations at Peking University who advises the Chinese government. “The process of vicious interactions between Taipei, Beijing, and Washington resembles the forming of a perfect storm.”

Presiding over what is undoubtedly China’s most powerful military in history, President Xi is setting the stage for a third term, beginning in 2022 He is worried about the political impacts of significant debt and other economic problems and could feel compelled to conquer Taiwan as the crowning achievement of his era of power.

Xi is tough to read. Sometimes he seems to be playing the long game, other times he seems like he’s in a mad rush. The thing he needs to be reminded of — assuming there’s anyone in Beijing who can still say “no” and make him really hear it — is that wars are easy to start, difficult to end, and nearly impossible to predict how they’ll go.

JOE BIDEN’S RETURN TO DECENCY: Aging Hippies Ruin a Wedding Officiated by Sinema Because That’s What Commies Do.

THAT’S A STRETCH: NASA wants to buy SLS rockets at half price, fly them into the 2050s.

NASA can’t even say what the full price is.

AN AMERICAN HERO: Marine Corps Vet Foils Robbery, Accepts Heroism Award Wearing ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ T-Shirt.

VICTIMS OF LEFTY BRAINWASHING: ‘Humans are a mistake’: Why more young women are getting sterilized.

FAKE NEWS CAN BE TRUE AS NEEDED: McAuliffe Ads Point to ‘Fake News’ Sites on the Campaign Homestretch.

OF COURSE: Democrats Ponder Cutting Medicare Advantage to Fund $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill. “Compared to traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage provides better benefits, lower costs, and higher quality care.”

EXCLUSIVE: How Long Will Vaccine Authoritarians Sit in the Cold and the Dark?

A network of contractors employ linemen, who generally flock to the scene in advance when the weather patterns predict severe storms in a particular area. There are also archaic rules about which contractors can serve different regions based on union regulations. For example, non-union contractors from the South are generally not allowed to work in New York and California. Usually, IBEW linemen from midwestern contractors would have been flooding to the Northeast before yesterday’s storm that left around 600,000 residents in several states without power. This time they didn’t.

In fact, according to one senior member of an IBEW local in the Midwest, the contractors did not even attempt to raise crews to go. This lineworker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that even if the call went out, almost no one would have volunteered. Anyone who did would be looked upon as a scab and may have difficulty getting jobs out of the union hall in the future. Unions have ways to encourage solidarity. While the union contract prevents these workers from striking, working on a storm crew is voluntary. No employer can compel an IBEW member to go.

According to informal polling out of the halls, the men in these muscular jobs in flyover country who worked consistently during lockdowns have very low vaccination rates.

Things are going to get interesting in the vaccine-mandate states when the winter weather comes.

And do read the whole thing.

STEALTH IS REALLY HARD: Oops! China’s ‘Stealth Ships’ Aren’t So Stealthy After All. “The Houbei-class fast-attack boats, which bristle with anti-ship missiles, are easily seen in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that remote sensing companies use, according to naval authority H.I. Sutton, author of the Covert Shores blog. He has uncovered convincing evidence that the Type-022’s radar-evading design is a myth. This calls into serious question whether other forms of radar can detect the boats, too, and whether or not their stealthy lines are actually just for show.”