ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT… MIMAS? Saturn’s Moon Mimas Harbors Global Ocean beneath Its Icy Shell, Study Suggests.

Evidence that some moons may have oceans beneath their surface is growing, but the detection of such watery worlds is challenging.

Mimas — the innermost, and smallest (radius = 198.2 km, or 123 miles), regular moon of Saturn — is an unlikely candidate, owing to differences in its surface properties compared with other icy moons, such as Enceladus.

This theory is challenged by Sorbonne Université researcher Valery Lainey and colleagues, who assess observations of the small moon made by Cassini.

Previous research suggested two possibilities for Mimas’ interior: either an elongated rocky core or a global ocean.

The new study reveals changes to the rotational motion and orbit of the small moon that are affected by its interior.

Applying the solid-body model would require the rocky core to be elongated, almost pancake-shaped, which does not match the observations.

Instead, the measurements of Mimas’ position suggest that the evolution of its orbit is better explained as being influenced by an internal ocean.

The more water we find out there, the better.

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Oakland Becoming a ‘Ghost Town’ Due to Crime as Gov. Newsom Sends 120 CHPS Officers to Help.

IT AIN’T OVER YET: Fed’s Barkin says recent progress on inflation might be a ‘head fake.’

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Maybe Karine Jean-Pierre Is Too Stupid to Know That Biden’s Lost It. “If Biden’s handlers want to keep trotting him out in front of cameras so that he can babble about conversing with dead Frenchmen who he thinks are German, they have to know that there will be very valid questions asked. Despite the fact that she seems to not be aware that it is in her job description, KJP is the one who is going to field the majority of those questions.”

DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE: Inside the Biden administration’s indifference towards rescuing Americans from Afghanistan.

The Biden administration’s failures put countless lives at stake on the ground, and the best a lot of Democratic representatives could do was ask their Republican counterparts to save the lives of their constituents. In one poignant case, a Democratic congressman relied on a GOP office active in the evacuation of American citizens to evacuate a bus full of nuns from Afghanistan, those who worked on the evacuation confirmed to The Spectator.

While Democrats were more than willing to acknowledge the failures on the ground to their Republican counterparts behind the scenes, the Democratic Party marched publicly in lockstep with the White House — causing Republicans huge consternation. “Fuck them,” one of the GOP staff working on rescuing Americans said of his counterparts on the other side of the aisle. “They wanted their constituents out, just wanted us to do it for them once they realized the White House lied to everybody. And the omertà is always in force. Expose Biden and you might as well burn a Qur’an in Mecca.”

It’s unclear whether the Pentagon official was referring to not “giving a fuck” about the complaints from Congress or about the problem of abandoned Americans itself.

On a different call in early 2022, one of the State Department’s Coordinators for Afghan Relocation Efforts’ liaisons to the legislative branch, Courtnay Rosenberger, told a staffer that her department isn’t interested in solutions. This admission came when one staffer told CARE, “I’m just trying to find solutions.”

Read the whole, damning thing.

NICE SHOOTING, NAVY: Chalk Up the First Kill for a 50-Year-Old Gun.

SUSTAINABILITY: U.S. Debt on Pace to Top $54 Trillion Over Next 10 Years.

The report did offer a sliver of relief: Recently enacted legislation to curb federal spending and a U.S. economy that has been growing faster than expected are making the fiscal picture slightly less bleak. Annual deficits over the next decade are 7 percent smaller than the $20.3 trillion the budget office forecast last year.

That decline reflects several conflicting forces. A deal that President Biden and congressional Republicans struck last year to limit discretionary spending for two years reduces deficits over the decade. So does a surge of 5.2 million new workers into the labor force, most of them immigrants.

But those deficit declines are partly offset by an increase in the estimated budget costs from Mr. Biden’s clean-energy agenda, an aging U.S. population and higher interest rates on the national debt.

The budget office’s director, Phillip L. Swagel, said that even with the decline in deficits, the nation remained on track to rack up more debt as a share of its total economic output in 2034 than at any other time in its history.

Anything that can’t go on forever will stop.

SHOCKING BUT MAYBE NOT SHOCKING-SHOCKING: Shocking New Details About Fani Willis’ Relationship With Her Special Prosecutor.

CHARMING: Self-Absorbed Swift Doesn’t Give a RIP About Deceased Mentor Toby Keith.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Ronna McDaniel May Not Be Resigning As RNC Chair After All.

I’M SORRY, STEVE, I CAN’T DO THAT: Google’s New AI Image Generator Is So Great I Want to Reprogram It With an Axe.

COLORADO: Out-of-state money dominates fundraising for anti-hunting ballot measure. “In a January 16 filing with the Colorado Secretary of State, the issue committee backing the measure (Cats Aren’t Trophies) reports raising just over $218,000 in the last quarter of 2023, with another roughly $60,000 in ‘non-monetary’ contributions. Of that, $100,000 comes from the Washington, DC-based Animal Wellness Action, with another $2087 in-kind donation of “personnel services” provided. The group lists a Colorado state director on its website as the campaign manager for the effort, currently numbered as Initiative #91.”

I USED TO HAVE A LOT OF FUN WITH THESE BUT THEY’RE ALMOST GETTING DIFFICULT TO LOOK AT: Watch Biden’s Latest Brain-Break Moment During a Press Conference.

MAYBE THEY’RE FINALLY NOTICING THAT DEMOCRATS TAKE THEM FOR GRANTED WHEN THEY AREN’T TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THEM: Democrats Lose Ground With Black and Hispanic Adults.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: I Know Just What’s Next for Nikki Haley. “Whatever goodwill Nikki Haley might have once enjoyed with Republican voters is burning up like a stack of million-dollar bills at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on How to Keep Your Lobbyist Warm at Night. Haley’s path to the nomination doesn’t even amount to a ‘twisty little maze of passages, all alike.'”

SOMEBODY MUST HAVE ACCIDENTALLY ADDED AN EXTRA ZERO SOMEWHERE IN THEIR MATH: Zeihan on Evergrande: 1.5 BILLION Unsold Condos?

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Dozens of New York City Public Housing Employees Charged in Massive Bribery Scheme.

WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT REPORTS? America’s falling out of love with its California dream—and housing costs are a major reason why, report says. “More than 40% of people leaving the West for the South had incomes above $125,000, and over 10% had incomes above $250,000.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Underappreciated Albums: ‘Givin’ It Up.’

OUCH: Hertz went all in on Tesla — and is paying the price. “Hertz, in reporting an adjusted loss of $1.36 per share, wider than the $0.76 loss expected, was saddled with losses stemming from its decision to sell 20,000 Teslas, representing a third of its EV fleet. Hertz said last month it would take a $245 million charge from the sale of those cars due to high depreciation costs, in addition to higher costs for repairs for EVs, which dragged on the bottom line.”

Yesterday: Hertz halts plan to buy 65,000 electric cars amid EV slump.

ARE YOU TIRED OF ALL THE WINNING? Is Trump Right About Bud Light? “Anheuser-Busch is a Great American Brand that perhaps deserves a Second Chance.”

DECOUPLING: China close to shipping 5 nm chips, despite Western curbs.

The country’s biggest chipmaker, SMIC, has put together new semiconductor production lines in Shanghai, according to two people familiar with the move, to mass-produce the chips designed by technology giant Huawei.

That plan supports Beijing’s goals of chip self-sufficiency, with President Joe Biden’s administration tightening export restrictions for advanced chipmaking equipment in October, citing national security concerns. The US has also been working with the Netherlands and Japan to block China’s access to the latest chip tools, such as machines from the Dutch maker ASML.

According to two people with knowledge of the plans, SMIC is aiming to use its existing stock of US and Dutch-made equipment to produce more-miniaturized 5-nanometer chips. The production line will make Kirin chips designed by Huawei’s HiSilicon unit and destined for new versions of its premium smartphones.

While 5 nm chips remain a generation behind the current cutting-edge 3 nm ones, the move would show China’s semiconductor industry is still making gradual progress, despite US export controls.

Even Intel has trouble producing 5nm chips in-house, while Taiwan Semi began its smaller 3nm chip fabrication last year.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Disney’s Woke Chickens Keep Coming Home to Roost. “The woke corporate idiots might want to consider that there are a lot of non-leftists in America with money to spend. Disney more than most companies should know that its core fan base isn’t made up of raging commies.”

HE’S PAST HIS PRIME, WHENEVER THAT WAS: GOP senators call for McConnell to step down, declare border bill ‘unadulterated bulls—-.’ “Cruz, a staunch critic of McConnell since 2013, said the long-standing leader offered no response when he asked him, ‘Is there anything we are willing to fight on?’ regarding the closed-door border negotiations that began in December, which Republicans are now determined to tarnish.”

IT’S NEWSWORTHY: Tucker Carlson Explains Why He’s Interviewing Vladimir Putin.