WHEN THE MEDIAN INCOME WON’T BUY A MEDIAN HOME: You Now Have to Earn Over $100,000 to Afford a Typical Home in the US.

With today’s high mortgage rates and expensive real estate, the median family income of $91,721 isn’t enough to buy a median-priced house.

In fact, it now takes a record income of $104,496 to qualify for a median-priced house at prevailing mortgage rates, according to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors (as of July). As recently as February, it was only $87,840 — about $3,000 less than the median income.

Even though property prices rose at record rates during much of the pandemic, the ultra low mortgage rates triggered by the economic shock of COVID-19 kept buying a home affordable for the average American household. But mortgage rates have shot up, more than doubling to over 7% amid soaring inflation, and prices are still setting new records because there are so few houses for sale. That’s been a lethal combination for affordability, the NAR data shows.

Previously: Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Summer of Love Defund the Police Schadenfreude Edition. “It wasn’t just the Summer of Love that set this in motion. The Democrats have been vehemently anti-cop since His High Holiness the Lightbringer Barack Obama decided to become the chief cheerleader for the false narrative about the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, MO.”

LIFE DURING WARTIME: Russia imposes ‘military censorship’ on the internet, ban on public gatherings and strikes in occupied Ukraine.

The Kremlin-backed head of a separatist region in eastern Ukraine is imposing a regime of military censorship — and a ban on going outside during the night — as fierce fighting continues in the self-proclaimed “republic” of Donetsk.

In a decree published Sunday, Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, “imposed military censorship on mail, Internet communications and phone conversations,” Russian state media reported.

The decree also prohibits public gatherings that have not received prior approval from military authorities, according to Reuters. Civilians are likewise banned from going outside on weekdays between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.; workers are also barred from going on strike, per Ukrainska Pravda.

Not exactly a vote of confidence in the loyalties of people lucky enough to have been liberated by Russian forces.

CHUTZPAH: Indicted Senator Bob Menendez to Announce Reelection Bid Monday.

AT LEAST HE’S HONEST ABOUT IT: Education Secretary says he doesn’t ‘respect’ parents thinking ‘they know what’s right for kids.’

Speaking about what he views as attacks on education during an interview Friday with The Associated Press, Cardona said, “I’ve never seen it where it is now,” and that we used to be able to “have healthy conversations around what’s best for kids.”

Parents are increasingly expressing concerns regarding their children’s education and attending school board meetings to voice their opinions, but Cardona said he does not think highly of such people.

“I respect differences of opinion. I don’t respect people who are misbehaving in public and then acting as if they know what’s right for kids,” he said, referring to parents who speak up at school board meetings.

Maybe Cardona isn’t quite as honest about his goals as other lefties, but give him time.

VICTORIA TAFT: California’s ‘Scorched Earth’ War on Gun Rights Presses On Despite Court Smackdown. “For the left, the process is the punishment. And, oh, what a grinding process this has been and will continue to be. This is the plan, after all.”

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP: Paramount+ Yanks Russell Brand Comedy Special; Look Whose Movies Are Still Streaming.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Rocket Lab suffers launch failure.

Rocket Lab’s string of 20 consecutive successful launches ended Tuesday when the company’s Electron rocket failed to deliver a small commercial radar imaging satellite into orbit, Ars reports. The problem occurred on the upper stage of the Electron rocket about two and a half minutes after liftoff from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. This was the fourth time a Rocket Lab mission has failed in 41 flights. A small commercial radar surveillance satellite from Capella Space was destroyed when the rocket crashed.

Not great, not terrible … The Electron rocket has a 90 percent success rate over its 41 missions to date, which is still better than Rocket Lab’s competitors in the market for dedicated launches of small satellites. Aside from Rocket Lab, Astra and Firefly Aerospace are the only other active companies in the new wave of commercial small satellite launch startups that have achieved orbit. Virgin Orbit launched a handful of successful missions, but that company went out of business earlier this year.

It’s a tough business — and a young one, too. Better luck next launch, fellas.

SHE ISN’T IN DENIAL. HER JOB AT MSNBC REMAINS WHAT IT WAS AT THE WHITE HOUSE, AND THAT’S SPINNING FOR BIDEN: Jen Psaki Is in Denial About Joe Biden’s Cognitive Health.

STARTED WOKE, ALREADY BROKE: Race Hustler Ibram X. Kendi’s Woke Center Lays Off Most Staff.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Kissin’ Cousins, Torchin’ Cars. “This week we have a love that we wish had not dared speak its name, how to celebrate open carry and only get shot a few times, and Indiana Man’s failed attempt at avoiding a DUI.”

HARDBALL: Biden Lays A Booby Trap For The Next Republican President.

On Friday, the White House unveiled a proposed rule that would make it even harder than in the past for an incoming Republican president to wrestle control of the left-leaning federal bureaucracy and actually implement the conservative policies promised to voters.

Of the 2.2 million federal civil workers, only 4,000 are presidential appointees. The rest stay in their jobs, from one administration to the next, protected by rules that make it nearly impossible to discipline or replace them.

They overwhelmingly favor the Left. A staggering 95% of unionized federal employees who donate to political candidates give to Democrats, according to Open Secrets. Only a tiny 5% support Republicans.

Some federal workers in high positions slow-walk or even derail a Republican president’s agenda — and get away with it.

Why bother to vote if the left-leaning deep state stays in charge no matter who wins the presidency?

GOP candidates Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis are vowing to conquer this obstructionism.

Everett Kelley, union president of the American Federation of Government Employees, claims GOP contenders want to “politicize routine government work.” Nonsense. We’re not talking about mail carriers. It’s time to make lawyers, PhDs and other top-level career bureaucrats implement the president’s agenda, not their own.

Previously: Two Cheers for Corruption!

VICTORIA TAFT: West Coast, Messed Coast™ Police Chief Defunds Himself and Seattle Votes to Save Itself.

SAY ANYTHING: Kamala Says Young People Aren’t Buying Homes Due to ‘Climate Anxiety,’ Doesn’t Mention 7% Interest Rate.

HE CAN’T EVEN HIDE IT FROM NEW YORKERS: Biden Is Still Trying to Hide His Border Crisis From the Public.

TRUCK THIS: Why I’m Leaving the Long-Haul Industry.

More recently, environmental regulations requiring manufacturers to reduce emissions gave us the diesel particulate filter (DPF), an exhaust treatment system that replaces a standard muffler. While there is no current federal mandate requiring a DPF, the filters are required by the 2008 California Statewide Truck and Bus Rule, which has incentivized many nationwide fleets to adopt them. The problem with DPFs is the filter system clogs. A lot.

When DPFs go down, trucks roll to a stop. Truckers report having to have a DPF serviced as often as every 5,000 miles, which means lots of lost productivity and stranded cargo. I’ve had four breakdowns over the past two years, and three were due to my DPF. A tow truck driver I spoke to on one of those occasions told me half of his business comes from malfunctioning DPFs. Repairs are a specialized affair, and replacements can cost up to $2,000. When my truck isn’t moving, I’m not earning. And these regulators have required that my truck stand still far too often.

Next up on the government’s list of ways to make truckers’ lives miserable are proposed speed limiters. Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation, wants to limit all tractor-trailers to the same speed. Imagine being stuck behind a pair of tractor trailers side by side, who can’t speed up to pass each other. It’s relatively rare right now, but it will become the norm. Every single interstate nationwide will be populated by moving roadblocks, inspiring road rage and blocking critical services. What happens when the fire truck or ambulance is stuck behind these unbreakable pairs?

However well-intentioned these rules and regulations might be, it’s clear that no one is consulting with the long haul truckers about the totally foreseeable bad outcomes.

Outcomes don’t matter. Only moral preening by the likes of otherwise useless functionaries like Pete Buttigieg matters.

IT’S A CRISIS BY DESIGN BUT THEY CAN’T SAY THAT: What Does the White House Call the Border Situation? KJP Won’t Answer That Question.

DECOUPLING: China just stopped exporting two minerals the world’s chipmakers need.

China produces about 80% of the world’s gallium and about 60% of germanium, according to the Critical Raw Materials Alliance, but it didn’t sell any of the elements on international markets last month, Chinese customs data released on Wednesday showed. In July, the country exported 5.15 metric tons of forged gallium products and 8.1 metric tons of forged germanium products.

When asked about the lack of exports last month, He Yadong, a spokesperson from China’s commerce ministry told a press briefing Thursday that the department had received applications from companies to export the two materials. Some applications had been approved, he said, without elaborating.

The curbs are indicative of China’s apparent willingness to retaliate against US export controls, despite concerns about economic growth, as a tech war simmers.

Nobody ever said weaning ourselves off the CCP would be easy.

BREAKING: Democrat U.S. Senator Indicted on Federal Bribery Charges.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Emergency Declared in Eagle Pass, Texas, as Thousands of Illegals Overwhelm the Small City.

HMM: China’s quest for human genetic data spurs fears of a DNA arms race.

Most of Europe was in lockdown in April 2020 when a plane arrived in the Serbian capital bearing a well-timed gift from the People’s Republic of China. Inside was a Chinese invention called the Fire-Eye, a sophisticated portable lab that could detect coronavirus infections from tiny genetic fragments the pathogen leaves behind.

And that, as Serbians soon discovered, was the least of its capabilities.

The Fire-Eye excelled not only at cracking the genetic code for viruses, but also for humans, with machines that can decipher genetic instructions contained within the cells of every person on Earth, according to its Chinese inventors. In late 2021, with the pandemic still raging, Serbian officials announced they were working with a Chinese company to convert the lab into a permanent facility with plans to harvest and curate the entire genomes, or genetics blueprints, of Serbian citizens.

Serbia’s scientists were thrilled, and the country’s prime minister praised China for giving the Balkan country the “most advanced institute for precision medicine and genetics in the region.” Yet now, China’s Fire-Eye labs — scores of which were donated or sold to foreign countries during the pandemic — are attracting the attention of Western intelligence agencies amid growing unease about China’s intentions. Some analysts perceive China’s largesse as part of a global attempt to tap into new sources of highly valuable human DNA data in countries around the world.

Communist China really has evolved the art of the Trojan Horse and in so many areas.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Legit Question — How Is Chicago Even Still Here? “My headline question was, of course, mostly tongue-in-cheek. Still, it does look like Chicago is an asylum that permanently bequeaths the keys to the craziest inmates. As we’ve seen in other super blue cities, there will be no Republicans, or even moderate Democrats elected again. Johnson is already making his predecessor Lori Lightfoot look like Cato the Elder.”

PRICE CONTROLS NEVER WORK: How Russia’s Playing Games With Gas Prices Became A Big Problem For Its War.

If fuel prices are higher abroad than in Russia, the government provides additional compensation to oil companies for supplying the domestic market. Conversely, if foreign prices are lower, oil companies contribute to the government’s budget. This mechanism guards against a scenario in which nearly all fuel is exported, creating a domestic shortage.

In their “quest to maintain control”, Vakulenko points out, the government has decided to “tether real fuel prices to strict inflation-based increments, regardless of how logical or reasonable market fluctuations might be”. This endeavor, Vakulenko explains, is akin to the authorities attempting to peg the exchange rate of the dollar at a fixed value, say 70 or 80 rubles, and compensating banks for the difference between this rate and the market rate.

However, this attempt to outsmart the market has planted a ticking time bomb. Oil companies have long been required to bear substantial costs to maintain price stability. In the previous year, when oil prices were particularly high, these compensations amounted to a staggering 2.2 trillion rubles ($23 billion), nearly a fifth of the total windfall generated from the oil and gas industry, which amounted to 11.6 trillion rubles ($120 billion).

While the government’s efforts to control fuel prices may yield short-term stability, they come at a considerable cost, potentially jeopardizing the long-term financial health of the oil and gas sector and the broader economy.

Russian oil production is already “among the most expensive in the world.”

WATCH: Democrat Strategist Shilling for Biden Melts Down Under Scrutiny.

JOANNE JACOBS: I am a rockgender, I am an autismgender.

Gender Spectrum, which Eden calls “arguably the most influential gender identity nonprofit in K-12 education,” is training “tens of thousands of teachers, administrators . . . and other leaders to create gender inclusive environments.”

In a 2022 video, “Intro to Neoidentities and Neopronouns,” Naomi Cruz, then Gender Spectrum’s manager of family and educational programming, explains that gender identity isn’t confined to variations on male and female, reports the watchdog group OpenTheBooks. There are an infinite number of identities, including “noungenders” such as rocks.

The current neo-identity movement got its start on Tumblr in the mid-2010s with emoji-self genders and unpronounceable pronouns, Cruz says in the video.

“If a man identifies as a woman, then, according to gender ideologues, he truly is a woman,” writes Eden. “However, if a man identifies as the moon, he is not necessarily the moon. It might just mean that he identifies with society’s perception of the moon.”

I hope that clears things up for you.