IF BEZOS CAN’T GO TO THE MOON, NOBODY CAN: NASA’s moon mission is waiting on a fight over meetings. “NASA administrator Bill Nelson says he can’t firm up plans to return Americans to the moon by 2024 until a lawsuit against the space agency, brought by Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin, is resolved. The suit contends that NASA should not have chosen Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build a lander that will carry astronauts to the lunar surface.”

Meanwhile: SpaceX considers increasing Crew Dragon fleet after Inspiration4.

VICTORIA TAFT: FBI Narrative About the Jan. 6th Capitol ‘Insurrection’ Is IMPLODING.

SCIENCE! Victoria named lockdown capital of the world with record case numbers. “Victoria officially became the most locked-down place on Earth at the same time that Victoria Health announced its highest Covid case numbers since the beginning of the pandemic.”

FAMILY TIES: The Ball’s in Your Court, CNN: Chris Cuomo Accused of Sexually Harassing a Co-Worker.

JOE BIDEN’S RETURN TO DECENCY:

YOU CAN’T CIRCLE BACK TO A PLACE YOU’VE NEVER BEEN: Has Joe Biden Ever Visited the Southern Border? Jen Psaki Can’t Spin This One.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE MIGHT HAVE TO BE PERMANENTLY RETIRED: Some Profitable Companies Would Still Pay No Taxes Under Democrats’ Plan.

The bill, however, doesn’t touch the main reasons why profitable companies sometimes don’t pay taxes, including accelerated depreciation of investments and tax credits for activities such as research and development. The bill does strengthen a minimum tax on U.S. companies’ foreign profits, but it doesn’t include the separate minimum tax that Mr. Biden proposed to limit the number of zero-tax companies.

The legislation also expands tax credits for clean energy and low-income housing in ways that could push some companies from paying little to paying nothing.

“Corporations that don’t pay any taxes are still going to be able to go on paying no taxes, and in some ways they may even get a bigger refund,” said Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, a progressive group that advocates higher taxes. “It is remarkable that there is no talk about this in Congress.”

No, it’s business as usual.

STACEY LENNOX: Kids and Immunity: 15 Months Later, Banned Doctors Are Vindicated. “This is another cautionary tale about suppressing scientific debate. Now consider the other things we aren’t allowed to talk about.”

WHOSE SIDE ARE THEY ON? Dems Plan To Scuttle Space Force.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D., Calif.) led a resolution, cosigned by fellow Democratic representatives Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Mark Pocan (Wis.), and Jésus García (Calif.), to “abolish” America’s newest military branch. The measure received support from the Koch-funded National Taxpayers Union and radical anti-war groups such as Peace Action and Demand Progress.

The push to defund the Space Force comes as China increasingly threatens the United States. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said Monday that China is developing means to bombard American targets from space.

Previously: China’s Destabilizing Nuclear Weapons ‘Strategic Breakout.’

BREAKING: #WhipGate Photographer Says ‘I’ve Never Seen Them Whip Anyone.’

#RESIST: Denver Deputy Quits Over Vaccine Mandate, Says It ‘Was The Last Straw.’

BREAKING: Ignore the MSM: Here’s What the 2020 Maricopa County Election Audit Actually Says.

CAM EDWARDS: Dems Slip Red Flag Provision Into Military Spending Bill. “The military version of the red flag law proposed by Democrats looks a lot like the civilian version found in more than a dozen states. Without being charged or even accused of a crime, a service member could have their right to possess a firearm taken away from them by a military court, and the subject of the red flag order wouldn’t even have a chance to provide any evidence on their behalf for up to 30 days after the court’s order was issued. The authors of the measure audaciously state that this is ‘sufficient to protect the respondent’s due process rights,’ but I doubt many service members would agree.”

IT HAS TO DO WITH THE SUSPECT: Joy Reid Complains About ‘Missing White Women Syndrome.’ So Why Won’t She Ever Mention Missing Black Women? “Yes, there is a racial aspect to which stories the press will and will not touch, but not in the way Reid wants to believe.”

HECKLER’S VETO: Overwhelming majority of college students say shouting down a speaker is acceptable.

ANOTHER REASON TO BE FOND OF POLICE BODYCAMS: Antifa Activist Sues Portland Police for Livestreaming and Showing Faces of Rioters.

SO MUCH IS: By The Left’s Standards, The Pro-Fat Movement Is Institutional Racism.

“[Seventy-eight percent] of hospitalizations due to COVID are Obese and Overweight people,” Neman wrote in an Aug. 31 deleted LinkedIn post citing March data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Is there an underlying problem that perhaps we have not given enough attention to? Is there another way to think about how we tackle ‘healthcare’ by addressing the root cause?”

While the root cause Newman indicted as the underlying culprit in the COVID crisis was obesity, Newman’s own diagnosis of the problem is fertilized by the proliferation of a cultural movement to both normalize obesity and demonize its opposition as “fat-phobic.” Newman himself became the latest target of the left’s nefarious feel-good crusade for daring to raise alarm over the nation’s ballooning crisis, while obesity triples an individual’s risk to hospitalization with COVID-19.

“This post is disgusting,” one LinkedIn user wrote back, according to Business Insider.

“Yikes, this is incredibly fat-phobic,” wrote another. “Have you considered how our healthcare system systematically underserves people who are considered to be in those groups?”

Has the race-obsessed left considered that its pro-fat movement systemically promotes obesity to the very people it claims to champion?

Read the whole thing.

I’d just add that so much of what the Left does — everything the Left does? — harms the very people they purport to champion.

PARTY OF THE LITTLE GUY: The Rich Get Richer When Democrats Hold Power.

BIDEN’S RETURN TO NORMALCY: Biden White House leans toward releasing information about Trump and Jan. 6 attack, setting off legal and political showdown.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: COVID Gives GOP a Chance to Get Serious About School Choice. “I’ve been playing the conservative Republican activist game for a very long time and, quite honestly, I am often perplexed by the battles the party chooses to wage. Or, almost as frequently, the ones it doesn’t fight.”

BUT WHICH PARTY WOULD SHE CAUCUS WITH? Sinema Cueing Up To Go Indy. “Absolutely fascinating look at Kyrsten Sinema’s efforts to position herself as an independent in Arizona, possibly formally but definitely in effect. It makes pretty clear she’s not done with politics or angling for a high dollar lobbying gig, as some speculate. She thinks she can be a latter-day McCain and build her political brand on that basis, likely looking for a promotion above the Senate.”

DEVELOPING…: Maricopa County 2020 Election Audit Will Be Presented to Arizona Senate Friday.

BOOM: Evergrande crashes as China dumps ‘build, build, build’ playbook.

Evergrande is proving to be the first big victim. As the company falters, its undoing raises a fundamental question for the world’s second-largest economy: has China’s property-driven growth model – the global economy’s most powerful locomotive – run out of road?

Yes, says Leland Miller, chief executive of China Beige Book, a consultancy that analyses the economy through proprietary data. “The leadership in Beijing has been more worried about Chinese growth than anyone in the West.

“There is a recognition that the old build, build, build playbook does not work any more and that it is actually getting dangerous. The leadership now appears to be thinking that it can’t wait any longer to change the growth model,” Miller says.

Ting Lu, chief China economist at investment bank Nomura, says he does not expect Evergrande’s woes to trigger an economic collapse. But he believes Beijing’s attempts to transition from one growth model to another could significantly depress annual growth in coming years.

Two thoughts come to mind.

The first is that the post-Tiananmen deal was that mainland Chinese would trade any hopes of political reform in exchange for ever-increasing prosperity.

The second is that authoritarian regimes often look invincible until shortly before they unravel.

Update: More here from Battleswarm Blog.

Not only is Evergrande possibly facing complete liquidation, but word came down that the company might make payments on Chinese-owned debt, but stiff foreign debt holders.

But the word this morning is that the Chinese government is now telling them to avoid default on dollar-denominated bonds. After all, if investors worldwide decided that all Chinese debt was potentially toxic, that would leave connected Chinese communists in a world of hurt.

What’s that old Chinese curse about interesting times?

THIS SHOULD BE A BIGGER STORY: After Mandating Masks Outdoors, Oregon’s Active COVID-19 Cases Increased 73 Percent.

2024 PREVIEW? Trump Still Rising. “The latest Rasmussen poll shows that in a hypothetical matchup between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2024, Trump would win 51 percent to 41 percent. Independent voters give their support to Trump by a whopping 20 points over Biden.”