2024 IS GOING TO BE A LONG YEAR: Biden Drops First Campaign Ad, and It’s As Dishonest and Embarrassing As You’d Expect.

THANOS AND AGENT SMITH WOULD LIKE A WORD: We Need to Talk About That ‘Inevitable’ Switch to Electric Vehicles.

I’LL BE OUT THE REST OF THE DAY MAYBE POSTING LESS OFTEN THIS WEEK: A Murder in the Family.

BIDEN FINALLY DEIGNS TO SIT FOR AN INTERVIEW AND IT’S WITH… RYAN SEACREST? Biden has to be reminded by Jill that ice cream is his favorite food during rare interview.

ASSUMING THEY DON’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO DUMP HIM: NBC News Admits That Biden Is a Huge Gamble for the Democrats.

HMM: Russian Jets Downing in Ukraine Fuel F-16 Speculation.

A total of eight Russian jets have been shot down over Ukraine in the last three weeks, including three Su-34 fighter-bombers on December 22.

The Patriot air defense system has been credited for most of the downings. However, pro-Russian Telegram channels have speculated whether the Lockheed Martin platform has already joined the battle.

They have even attributed an F-16-launched cruise missile for the demolition of a Russian vessel in the Black Sea this week.

The Netherlands said last week it was preparing to deliver 18 F-16s to Ukraine, without revealing the delivery schedule.

It comes after Amsterdam sent five of the aircraft to Romania in November to train Ukrainian pilots.

A total of 61 F-16s have been pledged by the country and Denmark to help Kyiv counter the Russian Air Force and mount a counter-attack.

Background: What F-16s Would Mean for Ukraine.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Appeals Court Allows California’s Public Spaces Gun Ban to Go Into Effect.

DECOUPLING: US Overtakes China as South Korea’s Top Export Market. “The change in positions partly reflects China’s economic challenges, which led policymakers to come up with a series of stimulus measures last year. Still, one month’s data doesn’t offer conclusive proof of a conscious or enduring shift in trading patterns.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Nobody Knows Anything and That’s Half the Fun. “Conventional political wisdom went missing in 2016 and hasn’t been seen since. Here is the one prediction I will make: it won’t be found in 2024.”

I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: US office buildings face $117BN debt time bomb: Mortgages due this year threaten to sink US economy as thousands of workplaces remain empty.

Economists last month found 40 per cent of office loans on bank balance sheets were underwater – owing more than the property is worth.

Smaller regional banks who loaned the money to buy them could themselves be at risk if the loans default as they are not big enough to handle the losses.

Moody’s Analytics estimates 224 of the 605 loans that will expire soon will be tough to repay or refinance because their owners have too much debt or the buildings aren’t making them enough money.

The analysts predict buildings would need to be generating at least nine per cent of their debt in annual income or their owners will struggle to refinance.

One example is the Seagram building on Park Avenue in Manhattan, which was mortgaged at $760 million in 2012.

The loan assumed the building would bring in $74 million in revenue a year, but the best it ever did was $69 million in 2018 – and only $27 million in 2022, according to the Financial Times.

The light at the end of the tunnel for office space owners is that the Federal Reserve is expected to start cutting interest rates earlier than predicted.

I’m not too sure about that last part with the mixed signals the Fed is sending.

COME SEE THE ANTISEMITISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Swedish MEP Slams ‘Crazy’ Anti-Semitic Leftist Who Accused Israel of Terrorism.

PIRACY: Shipping firms split on return to Red Sea as Houthi attacks continue.

Hapag-Lloyd and Evergreen Line, the container shipping arm of Evergreen Group, told CNN Wednesday that they would continue to reroute vessels via the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip. MSC said the same Tuesday.

“At the moment we still consider the situation too dangerous to pass,” a spokesperson for Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd said in a statement. “We continuously assess the situation and plan a next review on Friday.”

In an update posted to its website at 5 a.m ET on Friday, Hapag-Lloyd said it continued to divert its ships to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal.

Evergreen Line referred CNN to a December 18 statement in which the company said it had instructed its container ships to suspend navigation through the Red Sea “until further notice.”

The West used to hang pirates summarily and merchant vessels were free to travel as they saw fit.

ASKING (AND ANSWERING) THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Where Is Biden’s ‘Gender-Fluid’ Thieving Ex-Nuclear Waste Chief Today?

CHRIS QUEEN: Creating a Left-Wing Jesus. “Why does ‘universality’ only apply to certain ethnicities and their depictions of Jesus?”

MOSTLY PEACEFUL SWATTING: Marjorie Taylor Greene shares death threat warning she will be ‘shot in the head’ and ‘skinned’ like serial killer Ed Gein’s victims sent before she was swatted on Christmas Day.

PRIORITIES: Men Can Get Free Tampons in Canadian Government Building Bathrooms Now.

OK, CHIEF: Russia threatens to take US military bases in NATO territory as chilling warning issued.

Vladimir Solovyov, a Russian broadcaster, issued the demand during a recent TV segment.

In a clip shared on X by Eastern European media outlet Nexta, Solovyov said Moscow should capture American bases in Germany, Italy and Portugal.

He said during Evening with Vladimir Solovyov: “I believe that all American occupation troops should be withdrawn from Europe, and Russian military bases should be located deep from the territory of the Russian Federation.

“For example, it is perfectly possible to occupy part of the military bases that have been prepared by the Americans in Western Europe. Ramstein could be our base.

Ambitious, considering Russia hasn’t been able to hold anything west of the Dnipro.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Number of Chinese Nationals Spikes at the Border.

YOU DON’T SAY: Biden boasting about the economy makes him appear ‘out of touch’ with mainstream America.

SOMETIMES STUPIDITY IS AN INADEQUATE EXPLANATION AND ONLY MALICE WILL DO: Obama’s clueless foreign policy left behind the chaos we face today.

OUR WOKE MILITARY: U.S. Space Force Officer Claims Troop Readiness Affected by Non-Existent Anti-LGBT Laws.

BIDENOMICS IS WORKING: 2024’s Deficit Is Already on Track to Be the Worst Since Covid.

According to the latest monthly statement from the Treasury Department, the total budget deficit for the 2024 fiscal year (which began October 1) has already risen above $380 billion. The new total, which includes the months of October and November, puts the US on track for a total annual deficit of more than $2 trillion by the end of the fiscal year. That would be an increase of more than 25 percent over 2023 fiscal year, which was itself a 23 percent increase over 2022.

A 2024 annual deficit of $2 trillion would make 2024’s deficit the third-largest deficit ever, behind only 2020 and 2021 during which federal spending in covid-related social benefits were seemingly unlimited.

Comparing the same two-month period over the previous decade, the totals also suggest deficit spending in 2024 will lag only the covid years of 2020 and 2021. During the first two months of fiscal year 2021, the deficit came in at more than $429 billion.

I had been assured that the economy was roaring but all I see is mountains of debt.

ROBERT SPENCER: How the Byzantines Saved Civilization. “If they had not stood as a bulwark between Western Europe and Islam for all those centuries, the jihadis would certainly have swept over all of Europe, and the civilization that gave the world ideas that are now widely considered to be universal truths, such as the dignity of the human person, the equality of rights of all people before the law, the freedom of speech and more, would never have arisen.”

It sure would be nice if our current elites still believed in those things.

DON’T GET COCKY: Cook Political Reports Shift Two States to ‘Toss Up’ Amid Biden’s Weak Polling.

TO BE FAIR, COLLEGE SAID “MEH” TO MEN FIRST: Men say ‘meh’ to college. “The higher ed gender gap is widening, reports Richard Fry for the Pew Research Center. Fewer young men are pursuing degrees, especially at four-year colleges and universities.”