FAIL, BRITANNIA: The Church of England May Go Gender-Neutral.

I’M SO OLD, I REMEMBER WHEN BIDEN WAS GOING TO RESTORE RESPECT FOR US ON THE WORLD STAGE: Saudis Increase Sentence for US Citizen in ‘Middle Finger’ to Biden.

TO BE FAIR, THAT IS THEIR JOB: MSNBC Spreads Fake News About Trump and Chinese Spy Balloons.

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: A San Francisco Man Is Facing Hate Crime Charges After Allegedly Firing Blank Rounds Inside A Synagogue. “Dmitri Valerie Mishin, 51, has been indicted on multiple charges, including making threats and obstructing exercise of religion, which prosecutors say are considered hate crimes. He was also charged with disturbing a religious meeting and five counts of misdemeanor brandishing a replica firearm in the Feb. 1 incident, prosecutors said on Wednesday.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Forget Decorum — Republicans Need to Be in Street Fight Mode. “To a man and woman, Republicans in Congress need to be far less decorous, especially until November 2024. Put more plainly: less Mitt Romney, more Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

HMM: China Isn’t Ready to Pick Up Phone After Balloon Incident.

As the debris was settling into the Atlantic and Navy divers were beginning the arduous task of trying to recover the balloon’s sensors and other surveillance equipment, the Pentagon reached out to China to clear the air.

“We believe in the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the United States and the P.R.C. in order to responsibly manage the relationship,” Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said in an emailed statement, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “Lines between our militaries are particularly important in moments like this.”

It was not to be. “Unfortunately,” General Ryder said, “the P.R.C. has declined our request” to arrange a call with Wei Fenghe, the Chinese defense minister.
General Ryder said the Pentagon would keep trying.

I’m not sure which is more embarrassing: That Biden waited until the balloon had passed completely over the US before giving the shutdown order, or that the Pentagon keeps calling back like a spurned high school girl.

HMM: James O’Keefe Put on Leave at Project Veritas. Has There Been a Coup?

FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS: Wholesale Egg Prices ‘Collapse.’ “New data from Urner Barry, a market research firm that tracks wholesale food prices, shows its Urner Barry Egg Index has plunged 57% since peaking at $4.65 per dozen on Dec. 19. Wholesale prices are now at $2.01.”

UKRAINE WAR [VIP]: The Russian Steamroller Crushes Down on Bakhmut, but for How Long? “If Kyiv is already giving ground, it’s a fair question what the army might be forced to do if the expected Russian wave starts really crashing down later this month.”

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

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: Boston task force appoints TWO 11th graders and a BLM-supporting college student to decide how much money to pay black community.

Previously — way previously: Boston, hotbed of anti-slavery.

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: A Scientific Review Shows the CDC Grossly Exaggerated the Evidence Supporting Mask Mandates. “These findings go to the heart of the case for mask mandates, a policy that generated much resentment and acrimony during the pandemic. They also show that the CDC, which has repeatedly exaggerated the evidence in favor of masks, cannot be trusted as a source of public health information.”

IT PROBABLY SHOULD: AI Is Making Voice Actors Nervous.

AI voices are usually good enough for listening to audio books, and I suspect most video games, too.

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Portland anarchists attack goat refuge as revenge over homeless encampment removal.

SAME: GOP Congressman Dismisses Complaints Over ‘Lack of Decorum’ at State of the Union.

FACT CHECK: Biden Says COVID Caused The 2020 Crime Spike. “These trends come amid a revival of jailbreak liberalism. Soros-backed prosecutors have let violent criminals off easy in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and countless other cities. The Democrat-dominated D.C. Council voted in January to reduce sentences for car-jacking, robberies, and gun-related felonies. Obama era civil rights policies have made schools reluctant to discipline and flag potentially dangerous students, which may be why a Virginia elementary school ignored warnings that a six-year-old was brandishing a gun.”

BOMBSHELL: Yep, It Looks Like Team Biden Blew Up Europe’s Nord Stream Pipeline.

COLD WAR II: China Has More ICBM Launchers Than U.S., American Military Reports.

“The number of land-based fixed and mobile ICBM launchers in China exceeds the number of ICBM launchers in the United States,” the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees nuclear forces, wrote the Senate’s and House’s Armed Services Committees on Jan. 26.

The notification comes as the U.S. is facing the challenge of deterring Russia’s substantial nuclear forces as well as China’s growing nuclear arsenal. U.S. lawmakers are involved in an increasingly heated debate about how best to counter Beijing, including the Pentagon’s response to the Chinese surveillance balloon that recently traversed the U.S. and hovered over Montana, where a portion of the American military’s ICBM arsenal is deployed.

The U.S., which is modernizing all three legs of its land, sea and air based nuclear arsenal, has a much larger nuclear force than China.

Also: The Russians Aren’t Complying With the New START Nuclear Arms Control Treaty — Now What?

Previously: Don’t Look Now, But There’s a Nuclear Nightmare A-Brewing.

TESTED AND FOUND WANTING, INDECISIVE, AND IN THE END, DISHONEST ABOUT IT: Biden’s Empty Threats to China Underscore His Weak Response to Chinese Spy Balloon.

CDR SALAMANDER: Our Navy at its Best: ‘Yeah, we can do that.’ “Over at DVIDS, a nice series of pictures that represents one part of our Navy that doesn’t get to see the light of day often enough. Those who have served know it, probably been part of it, and nothing is more memorable that being right in the crunch of it all.”

THAT’S NOTHING. YOU SHOULD SEE WHAT HE MADE WHILE STILL A PUBLIC SERVANT: Unindicted COVID Warlord Fauci Making $100K Per Speech.

CHANGE: Microsoft announces new Bing and Edge browser powered by upgraded ChatGPT AI. “Microsoft says it’s using conversational AI to create a new way to browse the web. Users will be able to chat to Bing like ChatGPT, asking questions and receiving answers in natural language.”

But: “The new Bing is live today ‘for desktop limited preview,’ but it appears users are only able to ‘ask’ one of a number of preset queries and receive the same results each time. There is also a waitlist to sign up for full access in the future.”

I’m not sure if the limitations are because of the horsepower required to run AI queries, or whether Microsoft doesn’t fully trust ChatGPT out in the wild.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Hear Me Out — Let’s Scrap the State of the Union Address. “A gifted orator the man never was. Now he’s just the weird uncle at the Thanksgiving table who everyone is waiting to do something that makes them all uncomfortable.”

NATO: US approves $10 bn sale of Himars rocket launchers to Poland.

Poland announced a sharp increase in defense spending in late January to four percent of gross domestic product, with the prime minister saying the country needed to arm itself “faster” in light of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Warsaw had spent the equivalent of 2.4 percent of its GDP for the military in 2022, the third highest percentage among NATO countries, according to figures from the transatlantic alliance.

Other European nations have also announced increases in the budgets for their armies since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

Poland and the Baltic States are leading and showing the way for the rest of NATO. No surprise, given their proximity to Russia and long memories of Russian occupation.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: An Arizona Rancher Is Being Held for Shooting an Illegal Immigrant on His Property.

DENVER: Rocky Mountain High to Rocky Mountain Hellhole.

In 1963, an unknown singer named Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr was urged to change his name if he wanted to pursue a musical recording career. “He took his stage name from the beautiful capital city of his favorite state, Colorado. Later in life, Denver and his family settled in Aspen, Colorado and his love for the Rocky Mountains inspired many of his songs.”

The rest is history. What would John Denver think of his namesake now? Would he still, “See it rainin’ fire in the sky, the shadow from the starlight softer than a lullaby”? Probably not. Now it’s raining crime, drugs, homelessness, illegal immigrants, and many other big city urban blights.

The Chronicle, noted above reports, “Crime in the Mile High City is now worse than New York City or Chicago, and growing increasingly dangerous as the new year begins.” This includes violent crime, where on a scale of 1 to 100, Denver outranks NYC by 2.5 points, and property crime where Denver surpasses Chicago by 4.5 points. Bet you haven’t heard that on the news.

“Auto theft is now an epidemic in Denver and the second highest in the nation”, according to Denver Police Department data. Nearly 100 vehicles are stolen every day in Denver and rather than “rainin’ fire in the sky”, Colorado is raining car thieves, now leading America in auto thefts per capita.

Other statistics are not flattering. Ranking, “U.S. cities for home and community safety, natural disaster risk, and financial safety”, Denver falls between Little Rock and New Orleans. For home and community safety, Denver sits between Baltimore and Fort Lauderdale. Not a flattering position for the Mile High City.

Gooder and harder, Denver.