I DIDN’T KNOW AI ALGOS COULD BE CONCERNED ABOUT BEING BEHEADED: ChatGPT Makes Tasteless Joke About Jesus, Declares Mohammed Off-limits.

YOU’LL CHARGE YOUR CAR AT NIGHT, THEY TOLD ME. IT’LL BE READY IN THE MORNING TO DRIVE ALL DAY, THEY SAID: Stanford study warns against charging electric cars at home overnight. “It found that if rapid EV growth continued with a continued dominance of residential, nighttime charging, peak electricity demand could increase by up to 25% in just over a decade.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: American Left Has Grown More Violent While FBI Was Hunting Soccer Moms. “Parents at school board meetings have yet to amass a body count.”

UNEXPECTEDLY! $52 Billion Chipmaking Plan Is Racing Toward Failure.

Passed last year with bipartisan support, the law was meant to revive US chipmaking capacity. Although America is a world leader in cutting-edge chip design, its share of global semiconductor manufacturing has declined from 37% in 1990 to about 12%. Given the importance of such chips to the economy and especially to national security — the Defense Department needs about 1.9 billion of them a year — a more or less coherent case could be made for subsidies, prudently applied.

Yet simply writing checks was never going to be enough. Producing chips in the US still takes 25% longer and costs nearly 50% more than doing so in Asia. Significant policy changes would be needed for US-based manufacturers to be even remotely competitive. As things stand, they face three serious impediments — all inflicted by the government.

As predicted by pretty much everybody who wasn’t expecting a handout. Maybe soon we’ll get a study showing that the Inflation Reduction Act doesn’t reduce inflation.

STOP CELEBRATING, INDULGING, AND SUBSIDIZING MENTAL ILLNESS — THAT IS, WHEN WE AREN’T PRETENDING TO IGNORE IT: The Nashville Killer Lied About Her Guns. “Had authorities known about Hale’s mental issues, she wouldn’t have been able to buy the ‘seven firearms from five different gun stores here,’ Drake told reporters.”

PRIVACY: The FBI Has Been Buying Bulk Internet Data from This Florida Company.

The FBI’s cybersecurity division has been purchasing bulk internet data from a little-known tech firm based in Florida, Motherboard reports. Team Cymru, which calls itself a “global leader in cyber threat intelligence,” sells access to bulk web traffic and tells clients it can act as a gateway to a “super majority of all activity on the internet.” It has previously been found selling its services to a number of other federal agencies.

Details of the FBI’s contract were revealed via a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Motherboard. The 4-page document is heavily redacted and doesn’t given much away about the broader purpose of the bureau’s data acquisition. However, it does show that, in 2017, the government paid a total of $76,450 for the information haul. Just what the bureau’s Cyber Division ended up doing with that data isn’t exactly clear, although Motherboard notes that the data in question is what is known as “netflow” data, which, in some cases, can allegedly be used to help track cybercriminal activity. Companies like Cymru typically purchase the data from internet service providers, then resell it to law enforcement agencies, Motherboard states.

The FBI isn’t the first federal agency to be found purchasing data from Team Cymru. Last September, it was reported that multiple agencies within the U.S. military had spent millions of dollars to procure a powerful internet monitoring tool from the Florida firm, dubbed “Augury.” According to advertising materials, Augury allows a user access to bulk internet traffic logs. In some cases, the data being provided could include “access to people’s email data, browsing history, and other information such as their sensitive internet cookies,” the outlet reported.

The Stasi never had it so good.

OK, CHIEF: ‘It’s Not Going to End Nicely’: Chris Christie Thinks He Will Be the One to Take Down Donald Trump In 2024.

BREAKING: Bodycam Footage of Nashville Cops Taking Out Trans Shooter Released.

ICYMI [VIP]: Is GenX the Last Generation of Americans?

Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT discount code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

CORN, POPPED: Musk invites Twitter fact-checker community to check Biden’s condemnation of ‘MAGA’ Republicans.

BECAUSE OF COURSE: MSM Apologizes for ‘Misgendering’ Transgender School Shooter.

SOFT ON CRIME RARELY ENDS WELL: Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Nom Let Off Domestic Abuser. He Was Later Convicted of Attempted Murder.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Author Refuses to Play College Cancelation Kabuki.

THAT ’70S SHOW: World Bank Warns of ‘Lost Decade’ for Global Economic Potential.

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Man Who Stabbed Rand Paul Senate Aide in Broad Daylight Had Just Been Released from Prison. “A staffer for Republican Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was stabbed ‘in broad daylight’ by a man who had just been released from prison the day before. The unidentified staffer is in serious condition in a D.C. hospital.”

THINK BIG: Would building a Dyson sphere be worth it? We ran the numbers. “What if we decided to build a Dyson sphere around our sun? Could we do it? How much energy would it cost us to rearrange our solar system, and how long would it take to get our investment back? Before we put too much thought into whether humanity is capable of this amazing feat, even theoretically, we should decide if it’s worth the effort. Can we actually achieve a net gain in energy by building a Dyson sphere?”

The author says yes but failed to take into account the inevitable graft and NIMBYism in a project of this size.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: The Martyrdom of the Covenant School Shooter. “Make a martyr out of the Covenant School shooter? That’s the big crazy on today’s Insanity Wrap — an entire week’s worth of lefty nuttiness wrapped up in one easy-to-swallow medicated news capsule.”

Plus:

• Are you a hawk trapped in a human body?
• The curious case of an IRS house call and Matt Taibbi’s testimony to Congress.
• Biden’s entire foreign policy summed up in one short meme.

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

HMM: China Central Government Is Borrowing at Fastest Pace on Record. “In China’s 2023 budget — released earlier this month at the National People’s Congress — Beijing outlined plans to increase the central government’s borrowing by roughly 20% from last year to help finance a slightly bigger fiscal deficit and help provinces deal with increasing financial stress. It also plans to expand investment in infrastructure upgrades such as improving the drainage system in cities.”

Borrowing to ease debt is an idea so crazy I’m surprised it didn’t come out of Washington.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Biden Makes Best Case Yet for Presidential Age Limit. “I have never been more grateful than I am now for the fact that I’m not a ‘try to see the good in everyone’ person. Kudos to those of you who are, but that’s got to be a brutal gig these days, especially when it comes to finding something nice to say about Joe Biden.”

DOG BITES MAN: Joe Biden Swan-Dives off the Deep End With Incoherent, Offensive Speech. “Biden is a real man of the people, showing his empathy for the victims of a heinous crime by riffing for the umpteenth time on his love of chocolate chip ice cream and laughing about it.”

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: There Is No Try, Only Do: Man Arrested 10 Times in One Month. Guess Where?

THAT FEW? 4 in 10 Dems Want Biden to Step Aside in 2024. “Three in four Democrats (74%) have a favorable opinion of Joe Biden and just 14% hold an unfavorable view. However, when asked what they want to see happen in 2024 if the choice was up to them, nearly half (44%) would like Biden to step aside so someone else can run as the Democrat for president. Just 25% say their preference is for Biden to pursue a second term, while 30% say they have no preference either way. Among voters who identify as strong Democrats – representing just over half of the party’s electorate – 36% want Biden to run again and 36% would prefer him to step aside. Among voters with very liberal political views – representing just over one-quarter of Democrats nationwide – more than half (52%) want Biden to turn the reins over to someone else and just 22% say they prefer to see the incumbent seek another term.”

JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER WORLD-ENDING PANIC OF THE LAST 50 YEARS: The ‘Population Explosion’ Myth Blows Up.

BREAKING: Suspect in Christian School Shooting Confirmed to Be Transgender.

FLORIDA, MAN! DeSantis Makes Universal School Choice a Reality.