THEN WE SHOULD DISMANTLE IT AND REPLACE IT WITH SOMETHING MUCH SMALLER AND LESS DANGEROUS: Biden Administration Finds ‘Structural Racism’ Throughout Government.

ANTITRUST: Did Google Break The Law? “I know that headline is more than a little ambiguous, as Google has probably broken multiple laws, if only because they’re so big and there are so many laws. But ‘Did Google break the law using sneaky, underhanded means to carry out anti-competitive trade practices to kill off an alternative ad allocating system called ‘header bidding’ because it threatened to damage one of its biggest revenue streams’ is way too long for a blog post title.”

Much more at the link.

SHE SAYS IT ISN’T A WEALTH TAX AND IT WILL ONLY HIT THE EXTREMELY WEALTHY SO YOU KNOW SHE’S LYING ON BOTH COUNTS: Yellen, Biden, Pushing Radical Wealth Tax on ‘Billionaires,’ Coming After Your IRA Next.

SOCIALISM: Forget Medicaid Expansion. Congress Is Pushing A Medicaid Takeover. “The impetus behind this transformation is simple. President Biden and congressional Democrats dislike that 12 states have refused to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. From Texas to Florida to South Dakota, governors and state legislators have held out for the better part of a decade. Years of pressure have failed to convince these states to give in, so the president and Congress have decided to force it on them anyway.”

DESPERATION? McAuliffe, Abrams Peddle Conspiracies to Virginians at Rally.

DETERRENCE: Joe Biden’s Taiwan Policy Is Now A Total Disaster.

“Well, there has been no shift,” Psaki told reporters on Friday. “The President was not announcing any change in our policy nor has he made a decision to change our policy. There is no change in our policy.”

In fact, there was a change. Biden’s definitive statement was a stark departure from America’s decades-old policy of “strategic ambiguity,” the policy of telling neither Beijing nor Taipei what the U.S. would do in the case of imminent conflict.

There are now two causes for concern. First, Biden, as Commander-in-Chief, makes foreign policy. The Constitution does not give that power to Psaki, Price, or Austin. Beijing may wonder—as should Americans and others—if Biden is still in charge.

Second, the instant clarifications undermine deterrence. Biden’s statement was clear and unambiguous, a warning to Beijing. The clarifications, on the other hand, tell China the United States is not committing itself to defend Taiwan.

The walk-back statements could lead Beijing to believe there are disagreements inside the Biden administration and in a crisis, some officials would try to override the President to block an American defense of Taiwan.

Our “elites” decided that a senescent near-octogenarian — who was constantly wrong and/or lying even when he was in full possession of his faculties — was just what the country needed, so here we are.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Alec Baldwin’s Gun Didn’t ‘Accidentally Discharge,’ But Gun Owners Already Know That.

DON’T BE EVIL: Google worked with Facebook to undermine Apple’s attempts to offer its users greater privacy protections, complaint alleges.

Google worked with Facebook to undermine Apple’s attempts to offer its users great privacy protections, 12 state attorneys general alleged in an update to an antitrust lawsuit against the search engine.

“The companies have been working together to improve Facebook’s ability to recognize users using browsers with blocked cookies, on Apple devices, and on Apple’s Safari Browser,” the amended complaint states. “Thereby circumventing one Big Tech company’s efforts to compete by offering users better privacy.”

The lawsuit was first filed by the attorneys general in December 2020, accusing Google of engaging in market collusion, and focused on claims that Facebook and Google had agreed to cooperate if their pact ever came under regulatory scrutiny.

The attorneys general also accused Facebook and Google of engaging in an illegal advertising deal, with the latter leveraging monopoly power over its adtech business by helping Facebook make better bids in ad auctions, which would make it easier for Facebook content to appear in more Google Ads.

Rather than break them up — which for a social network isn’t really possible, anyway — why not go after their business model?

I’d suggest forcing them to share, say, 40% of their profits with the users whose data generates those profits, but I’m open to higher numbers.

HMM: Nancy Pelosi to Retire? “Probably, I would have that conversation with my family first, if you don’t mind.”

RE-FUND THE POLICE: Gov. Ron DeSantis Offers Bonuses To Anti-Vax Cops To Come Work In Florida. “DeSantis said he wants to offer police officers refusing to be vaccinated a $5,000 bonus to work in Florida. He doesn’t yet have the money to do so yet but plans to pass legislation allocating the funds.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Stacey Abrams Is Still the Worst Fake Governor in America. “The Democrats have been whining about Donald Trump casting doubt on last year’s election, feigning shock that anyone would call into question the results. In reality, they’ve been doing just that for all of the 21st century, beginning with the 2000 presidential election. Democrats spent years insisting that Al Gore really won that one. They got so comfortable with the lie that they’ve kept it at the ready to be used whenever one of their smug, entitled candidates loses.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China just test-fired a massive solid-fueled rocket motor.

The rocket motor was ignited Tuesday (Oct. 19) at a site near Xi’an city in north China, firing for 115 seconds, creating a tremendous trail of flame and exhaust.

The new motor was developed by the Academy of Aerospace Solid Propulsion Technology (AASPT) which belongs to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the country’s main space contractor.

The motor has a diameter of 11.48 foot (3.5 meters)1 and a maximum thrust of 1,00,000 pounds-force (500 tons) is powered by 330,000 pounds (150 tons) of solid fuel. A CASC statement said it is the most powerful solid rocket motor with the largest thrust in the world so far.

Chinese engineering has moved from “cheap imitations” to “fast followers” to “innovators” with almost startling speed.

THIS HAS BEEN HIS SCHTICK FROM THE VERY START: If Obama Wants Americans to Reject the ‘Politics of Meanness,’ Why Is He So Mean?

LET’S SEE WHO FOLLOWS THIS SCIENCE: Yale Study Shows Natural Immunity Protects Against COVID Three Times Longer Than Vaccine.

LONGSHOT: Crabby Marylanders Want Out.

VIDEO: Marine Corps vet disarms gun-wielding robbery suspect at Arizona gas station.

NOT ANTIWAR, ON THE OTHER SIDE: UC Berkeley Students Happily Pledge Money to Help the Taliban Kill Americans Inside the U.S.

I’M SO OLD I REMEMBER WHEN BIDEN SAID HE WASN’T GOING TO RAISE TAXES ON ANYONE MAKING LESS THAN $400,000:

NO: CDC Says 5 Year Olds Will Still Need to Wear Masks After Vaccine Is Approved for Kids.

LET’S GO BRANDON: State Dept. Accidentally Proves Biden Lied About How Americans Were Left Behind in Afghanistan.

GOOD LORD: Black, female DC police officers say they were given ultimatum: Have an abortion or be fired.

BREAKING: Alec Baldwin’s Gun Loaded with One Live Round in Place of a Blank. “Despite reports that Baldwin was using a ‘prop gun,’ that’s dangerously inexact. He was using a real gun being used as a prop, as is often the case in moviemaking. Somehow a genuine round was loaded into the genuine firearm.”

SADLY, THIS IS NOT THE SILLIEST OR MOST DANGEROUS THING TO COME OUT OF THE BAY AREA: San Francisco State University Prof Says Jewish Pot is Making Black Men Gay.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Logistics Crisis Will Lead to Long-Term High Prices, Ports Council Chair Warns.

I LIKE THE CUT OF HIS JIB: China Pulls Celtics Games After Player Says ‘Free Tibet.’

China pulled Boston Celtics games from the streaming service Tencent on Thursday after center Enes Kanter protested Beijing’s repressive rule over Tibet and called President Xi Jinping a “brutal dictator.”

Wearing a T-shirt bearing an image of the Dalai Lama, Kanter in a Facebook video post called for China to “free Tibet,” saying the Communist Party is carrying out a campaign of “cultural genocide” in the region.

“Shame on the Chinese government,” Kanter said. “The Chinese dictatorship is erasing Tibetan identity and culture.”

More like this, please.