WE SURE COULD USE ANOTHER FOUR YEARS OF THIS: US strikes at the heart of China’s bid to become a tech superpower.

Washington announced Friday that it will require US exporters to apply for a license before they can sell to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). The US government claims that the chipmaker can use its tech to help China modernize its armed forces. SMIC (SIUIF) says it has no relationship with the Chinese military.

But in a statement on Sunday, the company acknowledged that while the restrictions are unlikely to hurt its short-term operations, its loftier goals are in doubt. The new US rules will have “a material adverse effect” on its ability to develop highly advanced chips, it said.

That’s because Washington has said that any request to export tech needed to produce super advanced chips “will be subject to a presumption of denial” — a major problem for SMIC, which uses American-made software and equipment to create its chips.

I guess we’ll see whether or not Joe Biden is the kind of politician who stays bought.

PRIORITIES: Half the States Base Giving COVID Vaccines on Minority Status Instead of Age.

SHE’S LOSING IT: Nancy Pelosi Goes on CNN and Has a Meltdown Too Amazing to Miss.

(Bumped.)

INDIANA INK: Famed Tattoo Artist Kat Von D Leaving California Due To ‘Tyrannical Government Overreach.’

SPACE RACE II: Biden Advisors Want ‘Cooperation’ with China. “Now we’re supposed to believe that cooperating with Communist China — flush with American dollars and far more technologically advanced and adept than the Soviets ever were — will buy us even more peace on Earth?”

This one is just for our VIP supporters, so if you’ve been thinking of becoming a member, you can do so here — and don’t forget to use that VODKAPUNDIT discount code.

WELL, YEAH: China Lies About Its Wrongdoing on COVID, Spying, Global Aggression, Pollution, and More.

IT’S DIFFERENT NOW BECAUSE REASONS: Hypocrite Joe Biden Gets Vaccinated After Suggesting for Months It Might Not Be Safe.

SO WHEN WILL MUSK START PRODUCING A LINE OF SMALL ‘POWERX’ THORIUM REACTORS? Toyota CEO Agrees With Elon Musk: We Don’t Have Enough Electricity to Electrify All the Cars.

OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: Congress Agrees To Second Airline Bailout. United’s CEO Prepares To Ask For A Third.

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Universities nationwide incorporate BLM, ‘anti-racism’ into their libraries.

DENVER: Mayor Hancock Issues Pre-Apology for His Upcoming Christmas Travel. “To those of you who disapprove of my trip and believe it is hypocritical, I pre-apologize from the bottom of my heart for the way you’ll feel seeing me live it up with my family and friends on Christmas while you spend the holiday alone.”

Satire… or is it?

PORK: The Only Thing Missing From This Absolute Cluster of a ‘COVID Relief’ Bill Is $ for Shrimp on a Treadmill. Trump Should Veto It.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Pork Apocalypse COVID Relief Package Shows Washington Is Dominated by Progressives.

Insanity Wrap needs to know: What is 900 billion American dollars divided by 330 million Americans?

Answer: $2,727. But you’re still only getting $600, rube.

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

• Meet the non-binary hardcore SJW deciding who gets the COVID vaccine
• You can trust Chris Krebs this time, honest
• Dear Santa: Andrew Cuomo has been a very good boy this year. Love, Andrew’s mom

Bonus Sanity: Unity achieved — everybody hates Washington.

And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

REFILL THE SWAMP: Biden Taps Liberal Billionaire’s Acolyte for Top Econ. Job. “Incoming Biden adviser’s last project said capitalism ‘fundamentally broken’.”

OR WORSE: Your online search history could make for a better credit score.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Will Gestapo Joe Make a Hard Run at Gun Owners Right Away? “It’s imperative to prepare for the system shock of an administration that has the potential to be such a nightmare that conservatives will be longing for the relatively happy days of the Obama administration. Biden is bringing back a lot of the flacks from the Lightbringer Era, and they all seem to be itchy to get working on unfinished business from the first go-round. In fact, you could say that a lot of them are probably looking at this as Obama’s third term. It’s not like the empty vessel Biden is possessed of any great original vision, and he is a pathological plagiarist.”

BUY HIGH, SELL LOW: AT&T reportedly struggling to sell DirecTV at anything but a huge loss.

COLD WAR II: China Used Stolen Data to Expose CIA Operatives in Africa and Europe. “The battle over data—who controls it, who secures it, who can steal it, and how it can be used for economic and security objectives—is defining the global conflict between Washington and Beijing. Data has already critically shaped the course of Chinese politics, and it is altering the course of U.S. foreign policy and intelligence gathering around the globe. Just as China has sought to wield data as a sword and shield against the United States, America’s spy agencies have tried to penetrate Chinese data streams and to use their own big-data capabilities to try to pinpoint exactly what China knows about U.S. personnel and operations.”

ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook Lets Vietnam’s Cyberarmy Target Dissidents, Rejecting a Celebrity’s Plea.

For the past two years, Do Nguyen Mai Khoi has been trying painfully, futilely, to get Facebook to care about Vietnam. The Vietnamese singer and pro-democracy activist, known best simply as Mai Khoi, has tried tirelessly to warn the company of a thousands-strong pro-government Facebook group of police, military, and other Communist party loyalists who collaborate to get online dissidents booted and offline dissidents jailed. Her evidence of the group’s activity is ample, her arguments are clear, and despite the constant risk of reprisal from her own country’s leadership, her determination seemingly inexhaustible. The only problem is that Facebook doesn’t seem interested at all.

Facebook, once briefly heralded as a godsend for a country like Vietnam, where social media allows citizens to squeeze past the state’s censorship stranglehold on traditional media, has now become just another means of strangulation.

Don’t trust Facebook… you know the rest.

TRUST US, THEY EXPLAINED: Congress releases 5,593-page COVID-19 stimulus bill hours before holding votes.

RADICAL CHIC: Portland Antifa Family Sends Out Christmas Cards Complete With Hoodie-Wearing Black Bloc Baby.

JOURNOLISM: Republican Mackenzie Kelly Wins Austin City Council Runoff. Local Paper Declines to Cover It.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Election Fraud Update for December 21, 2020.

REFILL THE SWAMP: Seriously? AG Barr Says He’s ‘Not Seen a Reason’ to Appoint a Special Counsel to Investigate Hunter Biden.

FASTER? PLEASE! Kansas, FAA Agree To Establish Supersonic Test Corridor. The agreement would provide a critical testing site for the emerging group of supersonic aircraft as civil supersonic flight remains banned over land. Flight testing for models such as Aerion’s AS2 and Boom’s Overture is expected this decade, while NASA noise trials with the Lockheed Martin X-59 demonstrator are anticipated by 2024. ‘This year marks 73 years since Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, and with this supersonic flight corridor Kansas will have a unique role in the next generation of supersonic transportation,’ said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) in the announcement of the agreement.”