ANALYSIS: TRUE.

The reason you know that Democrats are lying about every single thing they say about these debt ceiling negotiations is because they talk in generalities while we talk in specifics. We gave you specific provisions of the CR that we didn’t like. They will tell you Elon Musk bad,…

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) December 19, 2024

It isn’t just Democrats, of course. North Carolina Rep. Greg Murphy looks at holding disaster aid hostage to a bunch of pork and Democrat priorities and calls it “governing.”

Disaster aid and Farm aid is not ‘Pork’. It’s called governing. That’s what we were all ELECTED to do.

— Congressman Greg Murphy, M.D. (@RepGregMurphy) December 19, 2024

If that’s governing, pal, we could use a lot less of it.

WATCH: Sen. Kennedy Delivers Masterclass in Destroying Climate Change Hypocrites.

SLOUCHING TOWARD WWIII: At least 100 North Korean soldiers killed, 1,000 injured in fighting in Russia, South Korean intelligence says.

North Korea may dispatch more troops to Russia despite casualties, South Korea’s National Intelligence told lawmakers during a briefing Thursday.

At least 100 North Korean soldiers died, and over 1,000 were injured during combat in Kursk, Russia, South Korean lawmaker Lee Sung-kwon of the ruling party told reporters Thursday after a closed-door briefing with South Korea’s National Intelligence.

U.S. and Ukrainian estimates suggest there are between 10,000 and 12,000 North Korean troops currently inside Russia, with their focus on the Kursk region. Ukrainian and American officials now say North Korean forces are actively engaged in fighting and taking casualties.
…
South Korea’s National Intelligence found evidence suggesting there were numerous North Korean casualties including senior officials during missile, drone attacks and drills, Lee said Thursday.

The reason why there were so many casualties despite a small number of battles is because North Korean soldiers were deployed as frontline shock troops in an unfamiliar open field and lack abilities to respond to drones, Lee said.

So in the two weeks (more or less) that North Korean troops have been fighting, they’ve lost roughly 1% KIA and another 10% wounded.

CHINA IS A COLONIAL POWER: American Pleads Guilty to Operating Secret CCP Police Station in NYC’s Chinatown.

THAT WOULD BE FUN BUT HE’S NEEDED MORE ELSEWHERE: Rand Paul floats Elon Musk for speaker.

WORKING AS INTENDED, NOT AS PROMISED: Obamacare Is Killing People.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER:

NY Governor Kathy Hochul is literally left speechless as a reporter demolishes her "subways are safer" lie with crime stats pic.twitter.com/cPFbxBGcF5

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 19, 2024

The guy on the right that Hochul deflected to at the end of the clip looks like he’d rather punch somebody than answer that.

MANDATES FOR EVERYONE! Biden Just Gave California What They Always Wanted for Christmas.

NEO-OTTOMAN ASPIRATIONS: Turkey looks set to play an outsize role in shaping the new Syria after Assad. “In his interview with Al Hadath TV, Fidan said that Turkey has been sending messages from Western and regional countries to the new Syrian leadership in an effort to moderate HTS. The group formed as an affiliate of al-Qaida in 2011. Turkey, the United States and the United Nations Security Council have designated HTS as a terrorist organization. But since defeating Assad, the group has portrayed itself as more moderate and inclusive of other religions and minorities, with encouragement from the Turkish government.”

Does anybody buy that?

EXCLUSIVE: Experts Slam Biden’s ‘Egregious’ Climate Spending Ahead of Trump Inauguration.

FUSION IN TEN YEARS (AGAIN): ‘World’s first’ grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant announced in the US.

If all goes to plan, Virginia will be the site of the world’s first grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant, able to harness this futuristic clean power and generate electricity from it by the early 2030s, according to an announcement Tuesday by the startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

CFS, one of the largest and most-hyped nuclear fusion companies, will make a multibillion-dollar investment into building the facility near Richmond. When operational, the plant will be able to plug into the grid and produce 400 megawatts, enough to power around 150,000 homes, said its CEO Bob Mumgaard.

“This will mark the first time fusion power will be made available in the world at grid scale,” Mumgaard said. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin welcomed the announcement, calling it “an historic moment for Virginia and the world at large.”

The plant would represent a new stage in the quest to commercialize nuclear fusion, the process which powers the stars. But the path toward it is unlikely to be smooth, not least because the technology has not yet been proved viable.

I’d love to see this happen but that last line does give pause.

BREAKING: Georgia Appeals Court Removes Fani Willis From Trump Case.

PURELY HYPOTHETICALLY, I’M SURE: Hypothetically, if Our President Were Brain-Dead and the VP an AWOL Drunk, What Would Our Enemies Do?

TO BE FAIR, HE’S INCREASINGLY OBLIVIOUS ABOUT EVERYTHING: Biden oblivious about leaving Trump an economy on the precipice of disaster.

Apparently believing that the more you repeat a lie the truer it becomes, President Biden recently quoted a Time article claiming that “President Trump is receiving the strongest economy in modern history.”

The Time article was little more than a setup designed to position Democrats to take credit for the inevitable Trump economic boom – as I noted on these pages just four days before Biden repeated this audacious claim. Expect similar efforts from the Left as they attempt to rewrite economic history in hopes that our memories are weak enough – and our gullibility strong enough – to overcome economic reality.

The fact is, Biden is handing Trump an economy on the precipice of disaster. Thanks in large part to Biden’s four-year deficit spending spree, the economy is shackled by an incomprehensibly huge $36 trillion in debt and $1 trillion less in Treasury cash on hand. That debt is growing exponentially, with interest alone now consuming over $1.1 trillion annually.

And while Biden has been touting jobs numbers, those estimates keep getting revised down after wildly overoptimistic initial reports. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia just estimated that net job growth in the second quarter of this year was likely negative, meaning employment was falling.

Add in inflation that is once again accelerating by every measure, and you have some understanding of the debt-ridden, inflationary, dumpster-fire economy Trump is actually inheriting.

So, what is Biden talking about?

Nobody knows.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Mike Johnson Finds Out That the New Trump Order Has Taken Effect. “For the last several years, social media has used its political power in a shadowy fashion, carrying out orders from the Democrats all the while swearing that was not the case. Musk has turned X into a megaphone for the vox populi and its power in that regard was on glorious display yesterday.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

Huge implications for the use of AI. They used AI to "read" all 1,574 pages of that monstrosity and pull out the graft and corruption. This is a game changer. They can't hide things in multi-thousand page bills anymore.

— DJ Jones (@sgtdaviddjjones) December 19, 2024

DECOUPLING: U.S. Weighs Ban on Chinese-Made Router in Millions of American Homes. “TP-Link is the bestselling router on Amazon—and has been linked to Chinese cyberattacks.”

The router-manufacturer TP-Link, established in China, has roughly 65% of the U.S. market for routers for homes and small businesses. It is also the top choice on Amazon.com, and powers internet communications for the Defense Department and other federal government agencies.

Investigators at the Commerce, Defense and Justice departments have opened their own probes into the company, and authorities could ban the sale of TP-Link routers in the U.S. next year, according to people familiar with the matter. An office of the Commerce Department has subpoenaed TP-Link, some of the people said.

Action against the company would likely fall to the incoming Trump administration, which has signaled an aggressive approach to China.

An analysis from Microsoft published in October found that a Chinese hacking entity maintains a large network of compromised network devices mostly comprising thousands of TP-Link routers. The network has been used by numerous Chinese actors to launch cyberattacks. These actors have gone after Western targets including think tanks, government organizations, nongovernment organizations and Defense Department suppliers.

Not good.

HE’S THE VILLAIN IN HIS OWN STORY: Biden in Steep Decline, New York Times Tries to Portray Him as Tragic Figure.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Private Japanese rocket explodes after liftoff in its 2nd launch failure of 2024.

Space One was aiming to be the first private Japanese company to put a satellite into orbit with the Kairos 2 rocket, but it was not to be. After taking off around 11 a.m. local time today from Space Port Kii in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, the 59-foot-tall (18 meters) rocket began tumbling.

Space One terminated the flight some three minutes into the flight at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) after detecting anomalies in the rocket’s first-stage engines and trajectory. The rocket was carrying five satellites developed by Japanese commercial firms, high school students and a Taiwanese company.
…
Space One’s Kairos rocket features three solid-fuel stages and a liquid propellant upper stage. It was designed to carry payloads up to 550 pounds (250 kilograms) into low Earth orbit, filling a gap in Japan’s current competitiveness in the space launch market.

That’s a tough market with SpaceX doing ridesharing missions.

KRUISER: Trump Derangement Syndrome Meltdown of the Week — We’re Back, Baby!

WINNING: Invasive ‘murder hornets’ are wiped out in the US, officials say.

BATTLE OF THE BULGE: 80th Anniversary.

I HOPE HIS PLUS-ONE IS THE CHAINSAW: Argentinian President Javier Milei plans to attend Trump inauguration.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Drone Scare (But Were Afraid to Look up and See).

VIP members asked for longer essays and I’ve been happy to oblige.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Teens are doing less homework, earning higher grades. “Test scores are down for ‘Covid kids,’ but grades are up.”

KILL THE BILL: Johnson’s Massive CR Extends Censorship Entity’s Life.