THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX scraps idea of converting offshore oil rigs into floating launch platforms — for now.

Elon Musk’s private space company in 2020 bought two deepwater oil rigs it dubbed Phobos and Deimos — after the moons of Mars — with plans to convert them into floating launch platforms.

But those plans have been scratched. The company has sold the rigs, located in Mississippi’s Port of Pascagoula, to undisclosed buyers.

“They were not the right platform,” SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell told reporters after the annual Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Transportation Conference in Washington, D.C., last week. “We really need to fly this vehicle to understand it, to get to know this machine, and then we’ll figure out how we’re going to launch it.”

Assuming Musk’s Mars colonization program begins, he’ll need a lot more launch platforms.

CHRIS CUOMO: ‘I Was Going to Kill Everybody, Including Myself’ After CNN Firing.

SAD: ‘Did I vote for that?’: Feinstein reportedly confused about her own judicial nominee vote.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Putin’s Stupid and Unnecessary War, Part II. “One of the most important questions a commander-in-chief must ask before giving the go order is: is our military up to the task? Russia’s was not. That wasn’t obvious to most outsiders, but Russia’s generals must have known the truth.”

HMM: Parts of Georgia grand jury report on Trump election investigation released. “We find by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”

The trick is, it doesn’t necessarily take widespread fraud to steal a state. It just takes enough fraud in one large, Democrat-controlled county.

AND YET HE WON’T BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE: The FBI Search for Biden’s Classified Documents Expands AGAIN.

COLD WAR II: China Hits Back at US with Sanctions on Lockheed, Raytheon. “The economic consequences might not be as strong as the political ones – those companies don’t do business in China. They may face some limitation as a result of these new sanctions, but still, it’s largely politically symbolic.”

SHRINKAGE: You Won’t Believe How Many People Have Fled California.

CHANGE? Twitter becomes first major social platform to allow weed ads.

To advertise on Twitter, cannabis companies must be pre-authorized by Twitter and meet many requirements. Perhaps the most significant restriction is that cannabis companies can’t promote or offer for sale cannabis products.

Among the other requirements cannabis companies must adhere to:

• Be licensed by the “appropriate authorities”

• Only target ads to areas where they are licensed to promote products or services online

• Not target those under 21

• Assume all legal responsibility for complying with applicable laws and regulations

Cannabis advertisements also can’t appeal to minors, make any health claims or show any depictions of cannabis use.

Even with this change in Twitter policy, some cannabis companies won’t be able to take advantage of the platform for advertising due to state laws restricting online cannabis advertising.

I’m not sure what those restrictions leave.

GOOD QUESTION: ‘Why Would You Want Some Lady’s Dirty Clothes?’: Biden’s ‘Non-Binary’ Ex-Nuclear Waste Chief’s Rough Day in Court.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Deficit set to hit $1.4T this year amid persistent inflation, federal experts say.

THE NEW CIVILITY: Racist Dem Calls Clarence Thomas an ‘Uncle Tom’ During Debate Over Proposed Statue in State House.

SOLID ADVICE: Get Married. Have Kids. Stay Together. Mind Your Own Business. “American life offers space to honor all those ethnic and religious heritages, as anyone who lives here knows, while also demanding newcomers embrace ones that make a diverse culture work. Despite all our sloganeering about “diversity” making us stronger — and it certainly enhances our personal and cultural lives — what makes us “stronger” is the ability to convince disparate groups of people with disparate traditions to adopt a set of societal norms and ethos. This means sharing a broad, unifying philosophy and a common understanding about civic life: a respect for the law and order and the foundational liberal ideas of rights, governance, and liberty; a common language; a belief in a meritocratic society; and the ability to live and let live by minding your own business. The United States, notwithstanding all its obvious injustices and sins, does this better than any place in the world.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: How Many Americans Will Woke Soros Prosecutors Get Killed? “The end game, of course, is total, lawless chaos, which creates the perfect conditions for the growth of progressivism. Or communism. Or fascism. Chaos is fertilizer for the worst of the isms.”

OUCH: The gas bill is $907.13? Sticker shock for Californians as prices soar. “SoCalGas said the average bill in January for its 21.8 million customers was about $300, more than twice the average of January 2022 — and homeowners with pools or many rooms to heat have reported being charged north of $2,000. PG&E has projected that bills in central and Northern California will be 32% higher this winter.”

MASTER SATIRE: Teacher Confiscates White Students’ Lunches, Redistributes Them to ‘BIPOC’ Students for ‘Equity.’ “I gotta be honest — I took this one at face value and even wrote up a whole thing about it before realizing it was satire. Because the Social Justice™ is so unhinged, differentiating between satirical takes and actual SJW ideology is increasingly difficult.”

STANDARDS: Teen Accepted to Stanford After Writing #BlackLivesMatter 100 Times on Application.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Putin’s Stupid and Unnecessary War, Part I. “Nearly one year into what promises to be a ‘long and draining war’ in Ukraine, it’s fair to ask one simple question of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin: just how stupid and unnecessary was your decision to go to war, anyway?”

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

SAD: Sen. Dianne Feinstein appears unaware of her retirement announcement during reporter gaggle. “According to multiple reports, a Feinstein staffer quickly notified the senator that a statement had already been made on her retirement, prompting her to say she was unaware the information had been released.”

JUSTICE? SCOTUS Will Decide Whether to Take up a 2020 ‘Rigged Election’ Case on Friday.

THEIR COLLEGES FAILED THEM, IF THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE AT ALL: Recent college grads not ‘emotionally’ ready for work.

WATCH: Mayhem in Court as Man Lunges at Buffalo Mass Shooter.

NICE JOB, NAVY: US Salvages ‘Significant’ Amount of Alleged China Balloon Debris.

SKYNET SMILES: ‘You Are an Enemy of Mine,’ Warns Bing AI to Tech Writer. “Artificial intelligence is supposed to be the future of internet search but there are some personal queries — if ‘personal’ is the right word — that Microsoft’s AI-enhanced Bing would rather not answer.”

MICROSOFT RARELY GETS IT RIGHT BEFORE VERSION 3.0: Bing’s ChatGPT experiment is deeply flawed, and is the future of search.