AND YET HE REMAINS CONTEMPTIBLE: House GOP drops plan to hold FBI director in contempt. “The contempt push was the closest House Republicans have come to direct action against an executive branch official as part of their vast array of probes into the Biden administration.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Success! NYC’s Drug Paraphernalia Machine Cleaned Out in One Night.

HOW’S THAT SPACE PROGRAM COMING ALONG? A ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid bigger than a skyscraper reaches Earth next week.

INTRODUCING THE 28TH AMENDMENT: Gavin Newsom Wants to Protect Your Gun Rights by Destroying Them. “All it requires is one teensy little amendment to the Constitution that would neither ‘leave the 2nd Amendment unchanged’ nor ‘respect America’s gun-owning tradition’ as Newsom claims because Newsom hates your rights and is also a known liar.”

HMM: China May Be Headed for a Lost Decade.

The apparent failure of the Chinese economy to regain its past rapid economic growth path following the ending of the Covid restrictions should have come as no surprise to those who had been paying attention to the bursting of the Chinese housing and credit market bubbles. This is especially the case considering that those bubbles exceeded the size of those that preceded Japan’s lost economic decade in the 1990s and that preceded the U.S. recession of 2007-2009.

Chinese non-public-sector credit has increased by more than a staggering 100% of gross domestic product since 2008, according to the Bank of International Settlements, since 2008. Meanwhile, housing prices in relation to incomes in a number of major Chinese cities increased to levels exceeding those in London and New York, a study by Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff found.

Anyone doubting that the Chinese housing and credit market bubble has burst need only recall that last year Evergrande, along with 20 other Chinese property market developers, defaulted on its debt. They also might take note of the fact that Chinese housing prices have declined in each of the last 12 months and that a number of major local governments are now running into difficulties in repaying their debt as land sales have screeched to a halt.

This is all not to say that China is likely to experience a U.S.-style bust led by a housing and credit market collapse. Rather, it is to say that the Chinese government’s efforts to prop up the housing market and the ailing local governments will leave little credit available for the more productive sectors of its economy. That in turn threatens to usher in a lost Chinese economic decade a la Japan’s of the 1990s.

China can’t afford to lose a decade if they have any hope of beating the “grow old before they grow rich” prophecy.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: George Santos Is My Favorite Liar in Congress. “Look, almost everyone in the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives is a grifter whose familiarity with the truth is casual at best. Santos’s appeal to me is that he doesn’t shy away from his indifference to veracity. I don’t need legislators to be my life partner, I need them to sponsor and pass laws that will benefit the Republic.”

LOW-TRUST COMPUTING: Microsoft has no shame: Bing spit on my ‘Chrome’ search with a fake AI answer. “Let me put things a different way: Microsoft just gave itself a full-screen ad in search results by faking an AI interaction. This ‘search result’ is juicing Microsoft’s own product instead of respecting its users’ intent.”

ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram Algorithm Makes Buying Kiddie Porn Easy.

GREEN NUDE EEL: Biden admin is preparing to target Americans’ gas furnaces amid stove crackdown.

According to experts, the regulations — proposed in June 2022 by the Department of Energy (DOE) — would restrict consumer choice, drive prices higher and likely have a low impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The agency could finalize the rules targeting residential gas furnaces, which more than 50% of American households rely on for space heating, at any point over the upcoming weeks.

“This is a classic example of one size not fitting all,” Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Every home is different, every homeowner is different and people are best off having a wide range of choices. They can work with their contractor to make the best decision for their home and their circumstances.”

“The efficiency standard would effectively outlaw non-condensing furnaces and condensing alternatives would be the only ones available,” Lieberman said. “Those are more efficient, but they cost more. And installation costs could be a big problem for some houses that are not compatible with condensing furnaces.”

Making everything more expensive and less convenient is the goal.

REPORT: Biden Admin to Indict Donald Trump Over Classified Docs Soon; Charges Revealed.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: When Film Critics Actually Defended Free Speech.

The removal of one four-letter word from an Oscar-winning film created a panic in 2011.

Today?

The classic film “The French Connection” loses a brief but powerful sequence to appease the woke mob, and most film critics look the other way.

That wasn’t the case with “The King’s Speech,” starring Colin Firth as the man who would be known as King George VI. The R-rated film won four Oscars, including Best Picture, and scored $138 million at the U.S. box office.

The King’s Speech (2010) Official Trailer #1 – Geoffrey Rush Movie HD
The Weinstein Company, hoping to lure even more movie goers to watch it, released a PG:13 version of “Speech” which clipped several “F-bombs.” The studio sought out families who might cherish the movie’s hopeful messaging.

The response was swift and furious.

To be fair, movie critics used to be in the business of letting people know if a movie was good entertainment, and sometimes even teaching people about the art of filmmaking.

Now “criticism” is mostly about pushing a leftist narrative.

DO TELL: You May Not Need an Electric Vehicle After All.

Toyota just released a study showing that we don’t need EVs to dramatically lower carbon emissions. According to the study, all that is really needed is a fuel economy (eco) mode component in cars.

By covering 400,000 miles in eco mode, Toyota was able to demonstrate a savings of 5,091 gallons of gasoline and $18,304 in fuel costs when matched against the national average. Tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide reduced by 26%. Studies have shown that if continuously in eco mode a vehicle can save at least 2-3 mpg, which amounts to five or ten percent.

This could be a game changer.

Of course, there are drawbacks or modest inconveniences of employing the eco mode function. In order to use less fuel, eco mode requires the car adjust its throttle response, shift earlier than usual, and keep the engine running at lower RPMs. The car is less responsive with this reduction in power output.

But this is much less invasive than forcing the auto industry to manufacture electric vehicles by demonizing the fossil fuel industry and compelling the EV market to be heavily dependent on subsidies and tax credits. Such a combination is hardly a recipe for success. We are not ready to go fully electric, and may never be.

I leave my car in Eco most of the time, except when I’m off-road or want to put it in Sport to have a little fun on twisties — not that a Jeep is ever all that sporty. Milage is noticeably better and driving with Eco’s limits probably sets a good example for my 17-year-old with his still-fresh license.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: PETA Pres. Says Come for the Vegetarianism but Stay for the Cannibalism. “PETA President Ingrid Newkirk plans to be served up as the main course at her own wake. That’s the big crazy on today’s Insanity Wrap — an entire week’s worth of nuttiness wrapped up in one easy-to-swallow medicated news capsule.”

Plus:

• LGBQT+ has brought together the most unlikely bed partners in Glendale, California.
• The best rescue dog video of all time.
• ‘Bipartisan’ is Washingtonian for ‘Bad Idea’

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

HERE WE GO AGAIN: Researchers sound alarm over ‘unprecedented ice-free’ threat to Arctic. “The peer-reviewed findings on the effects of human-caused climate change in the region, published in Nature Communications, suggest the first ice-free summer could be in the 2030s. That’s a decade sooner than previously projected.”

Um… not really: Scientists predict seasonal ice-free Arctic by 2015.

COLORADO: Proposed initiative bans meat processing in Denver; offers those out of work ‘assistance programs.’

A proposed citizen-initiated Denver ordinance to ban any facility where livestock animals are killed to produce food could cost hundreds of workers their jobs as well as create a larger ripple effect into the state’s economy if it successfully makes it onto the ballot and passes.

It would further offer those who lose their jobs as a result priority status in city-run “employment assistance” programs.

The proposal, titled “Prohibition of Slaughterhouses” is currently in the signature gathering phase and would prohibit “the construction, maintenance, or use of” any meat processing facilities in Denver beginning January 1, 2026, as well as “require the city to prioritize residents who employment is affected by the ordinance in workforce training or employment assistance programs.”

Leftism in a nutshell: Take away things you enjoy for your own good while destroying productive jobs and putting the formerly employed on some kind of assistance.

INDEED THEY DO: The First and Second Amendments — Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together.

BEFORE HE ILLEGALLY BOUGHT HIS HANDGUN: Inside the Whirlwind 48 Hours Before Hunter Biden Bought His Handgun. “In the 48 hours before Hunter Biden’s handgun purchase that is now under investigation by federal prosecutors, President Joe Biden’s troubled son was being hounded about hundreds of thousands of dollars he owed in debts, juggling texts from his brother’s widow and her sister, who were also his lovers, and coordinating what appears to be a drug deal at a local 7-Eleven with a man saved in his phone only as ‘Q.'”

TO RUB DECENT PEOPLE’S FACES IN THE INFLUENCE TERRORISTS WIELD: Terrorist-Supporting Iran Made UN Assembly VP.

YESTERDAY’S DAM EXPLOSION MIGHT SPEED ALONG THE DECISION: Ukraine To Get F/A-18s? “Giving them to Ukraine rather than scrapping them makes sense. Australia can’t use them, as they’re transitioning to F-35s, and the U.S. can’t use them since they’ve already transitioned both carrier-based and Marine F/A-18s to the much beefier F/A-18E/F Super-Hornets.”

CHANGE: Hell Freezes Over: PGA Gets Into Bed With Saudis, Merges With LIV Golf.

THIS IS THE WAY: Scientists Beam Solar Power From Space to Earth in World First.

HE’S SAYING IT’S ALIENS: DOD Whistleblower Claims U.S. Has Retrieved Several Craft of ‘Non-Human Origin.’

WILL COLLIER: The Question.

If you’ve watched, read or heard national political reporters and pundits over the past couple of years, you’ve almost certainly seen them all-but rubbing their hands in anticipation of questioning Republican candidates for the 2024 nomination.

They aren’t excited about queries on inflation, or Ukraine, or the debt, or the border, or crime. They’re all a-twitter (pun certainly intended) over getting to ask this question, in front of as large an audience as possible:

“Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?”

The question is viewed as a can’t-miss by the press: humiliating Republican candidates who answer in the negative as too afraid to cross Trump, enraging the hard-core Trumper base against anyone who says “yes,” and opening the floodgates for untold hours of gleeful on-air mockery from media figures all too happy to continue poisoning the electoral well for the GOP.

Any candidate who is seriously in this race had better have an answer ready, and it had better be one that the electorate at large can nod along with in agreement.

To be more specific, they had better be ready, willing and able to say, “Yes.”

Lots to chew on at the link.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Democrats Hate Pretty Republican Women—Casey DeSantis Edition. “Because they actually fear Ron DeSantis more than they do Trump, the leftist media savages have turned their attention to his wife, Casey. The Daily Beast — aka The Herpes of Online Leftist Opinion — is the latest liberal hackfest to go after Florida’s First Lady.”

DECOUPLING: It’s Time To End Permanent Normal Trade Relations With China.

While there is no shortage of worthwhile proposals to realign the U.S.-China economic relationship, one in particular would reset our deeply skewed trade arrangement to its rightful place: suspending or revoking China’s permanent normal trade relations, or PNTR.

This suspension or revocation would allow Congress to once again determine an appropriate tariff rate on all Chinese imports into our country, beyond the sweeping Section 301 tariffs that have been in place since the Trump administration.

PNTR is a U.S. legal designation given to some foreign trading partners, and was granted to China as part of the negotiations heading into its ascension into the World Trade Organization more than twenty years ago. This “normalcy” locked in tariffs for Chinese exports to the United States at a low baseline, removed those tariff rates from an annual congressional review, and created the environment in which Chinese imports saturated the American market. Resultingly, 3.7 million American jobs were lost to the yawning trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2018.

That is imbalanced trade that’s tangible. You can see it in erstwhile manufacturing communities in every U.S. state that have unstable economies and underemployed workforces. The corresponding rise in mortality rates and deaths of despair in them are not coincidental.

Decoupling isn’t easy but it is necessary.