THE END OF AN ERA: The last 747.

On Tuesday, Boeing will wave a final goodbye to the 747 jumbo jet.

In the years after its launch, the 747 elevated the Puget Sound region to the world’s premier airplane manufacturing site and boosted Boeing to preeminence in aviation. It made international air travel routine.

A diverse cross-section of the Boeing workers who helped bring this transformative piece of engineering to life tell their stories below. They reflect upon their affection for the jumbo jet that changed their lives, and aviation.

Almost exactly 54 years after the first flight, thousands of current and former employees and guests will attend a bittersweet ceremony in Everett on Tuesday before cargo carrier Atlas Air flies away a 747 freighter model, the 1,574th and last “Queen of the Skies” ever built.

This is an excellent read.

KRUISER: Trump’s Creepy Obsession With DeSantis Is Eerily Familiar.

THIS IS A POOR — BUT INCREASINGLY NECESSARY — USE OF CALIFORNIA’S SCARCE WATER RESOURCES: California Firefighters Use 6,000 Gallons of Water to Put Out Tesla Fire on Highway 50.

OH: Two Officers Involved in Tyre Nichols Death Were Hired After Memphis PD Lowered Recruiting Standards.

THE LEFT’S WAR ON WOMEN: Female Inmate Reports Rape Occurred in California Women’s Prison. “Le says she was told by multiple inmates that the woman had been sexually assaulted by Jonathan Roberston, also known as Siyaah Skylit. Robertson was previously the subject of widespread trans activist campaigns attempting to relocate him from a male facility to the women’s institution he is now in.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Biden/Garland Rogue FBI Takes One on the Chin. “After Roe v Wade was tossed into the Supreme Court dustbin last summer, the always frothing-at-the-mouth abortion ghouls wanted their pound of flesh.”

LAUGHING WOLF: Iran, Russia, Oh My.

Moscow has extensive air and missile defenses. Even the Kremlin is rumored to have air defense. Yet, two Pantsir are placed where they can provide overlapping close-defense of the Kremlin. Why?

Ukraine has nothing on the books that can reach Moscow. Could they create a one-off or even several that could hit Moscow and the Kremlin? Yes. Outside of propaganda, why would they do it? I mean there is a serious risk that such a move could backfire on multiple levels. Keep in mind that the Kremlin is not a building. It is in fact several buildings and bunkers inside a brick fortress that houses them and rather extensive grounds. Pretty place, enjoyed the museum. To do significant damage would take large payloads and precision hits.

Unless.

What if your target wasn’t a building? What if it was an individual. One who regularly travels into the Kremlin via the vehicle gate at the intersection of Serafimo and Manezh.

The mysterious art of Kremlinology didn’t end with the Soviet Union.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): What if they’re there to protect the Kremlin not from Ukraine, but from other Russians?

WATCH: Professional Groomer Visits Preschool, Indoctrinates Children Into Transgenderism.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: The U.S. Consumer Is Starting to Freak Out.

The engine of the U.S. economy—consumer spending—is starting to sputter.

Retail purchases have fallen in three of the past four months. Spending on services, including rent, haircuts and the bulk of bills, was flat in December, after adjusting for inflation, the worst monthly reading in nearly a year. Sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell last year to their lowest level since 2014 as mortgage rates rose. The auto industry posted its worst sales year in more than a decade.

It’s a stark turnaround from the second half of 2020, when Americans lifted the economy out of a pandemic downturn, helping the U.S. avoid what many economists worried would be a prolonged slump. Consumers snapped up exercise bikes, televisions and laptop computers for schoolchildren during lockdowns. When restrictions were lifted, they rushed back to their favorite restaurants and travel destinations.

And they kept spending, helped by government stimulus, flush savings accounts and cheap credit, even as inflation picked up. Faced with four-decade-high inflation last year, Americans outspent it. Through most of 2022, consumer spending growth exceeded price increases by about 2 percentage points.

Now the forces that helped keep spending high are unwinding, while inflation remains elevated.

“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”

I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT: Warning Signs Indicate a Great Depression May Be Coming.

OK, GROOMER: Salon Comes Out in Defense of Groomers, Because of Course They Do. “I have decided to spare you some of the other things I’ve found researching this column and others. But if I could please go the rest of my life without seeing another photo of a 15-year-old girl displaying her double mastectomy scars, gained in pursuit of trendy gender dysphoria conformity, that would nice.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: After a failure 4 months ago, the New Shepard spacecraft remains in limbo.

The rocket’s single main engine failed about one minute into the flight, at an altitude of around 9 km, as it was throttling back up after passing through the period of maximum dynamic pressure. At that point a large fire erupted in the BE-3 engine, and the New Shepard capsule’s solid rocket motor-powered escape system fired as intended, pulling the capsule away from the exploding rocket. The capsule experienced high G-forces during this return but appeared to make a safe landing.

Three days after this accident with the New Shepard-23 mission, the bipartisan leadership of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration, calling for a thorough investigation. In an interview with Ars later that month, the chair of the subcommittee, US Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), urged Blue Origin to be transparent.

“I’m heavily in favor of transparency, and I’m hoping that the FAA comes through pretty quickly with this,” Beyer said. “I would strongly encourage Blue Origin to be as transparent as possible, because that builds trust. It doesn’t have to be overnight, but it would be nice to keep people updated on the progress they’re making.”

The company has not heeded this advice.

For the time being, the New Space Race is pretty much Elon vs the World.

GO AWAY: West Point Reinstates Travel Ban on Unvaxxed Cadets AFTER Military Mandate Repealed.

COLD WAR II: China’s Nuke Lab Has Been Using US Chips, Despite Being Blacklisted. “The widely used chips were reportedly procured through resellers in China, and the blacklisted nuclear weapons lab had them used to model and simulate nuclear detonations. Nvidia says the chips used are for graphics and are general-use chips used in personal computers.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: We Are Not ‘At the Brink of World War III’ — At Least Not Yet. “Putin is stuck in a war he has so far been unable to win or quit. The longer this drags on, the more likely it is that Putin will try something truly desperate, or that some other spark — perhaps in Iran, for example — will light an even bigger conflagration.”

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

THE LEFT’S WAR ON WOMEN: Ex-prisoner was ‘shaking with fear’ while sharing shower block with violent trans inmates at Scots prison. “The Scottish Government and Prison Service have been under fire over the decision to allow Bryson – a transgender double rapist – to be incarcerated at Cornton Vale Women’s prison.”

WELL, GOOD: Federal Judge Blocks Gavin Newsom’s War Against the Freedom of Speech.

COLORADO: Rep. Valdez bill tells rental owners they can’t charge a pet deposit; state would pay for damage. “While the bill requires those receiving the tax credit to allow pets, it does not address the likely impact on animal shelters from market-based housing whose landlords may stop allowing pets altogether because of the new regulations.”

It’s Whack-A-Mole against stupid bills like this one whenever Democrats are in charge, and the first thing they do is outlaw hammers.

TO A SPEEDY RECOVERY: Damar Hamlin Addresses Fans in Video: ‘God Using Me as a Vessel.’

FASTER, PLEASE: Cancer Vaccine Created via CRISPR Prevents and Stops Brain Tumors. “Glioblastoma, also called glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is the most common cancer that originates in the brain. Cancer of the brain and nervous system accounted for over 250,000 deaths worldwide in 2020, according to Global Cancer Statistics (GLOBOCAN). Glioblastoma is an incurable disease with poor overall survival and a high rate of recurrence that forms from glial cells that surround and support neurons. It is one of the most treatment-resistant, complex, and deadliest types of cancer.”

BEN BARTEE: Transes Wear Mental Illnesses Like Fashion Accessories.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: This Rare Asteroid May Be Worth 70,000 Times the Global Economy. Now NASA Is Sending a Spaceship to Explore It.

The space agency decided back in 2017 that humankind would benefit from a closer look at 16 Psyche. The Psyche mission was initially slated to take place at the end of 2022 but was delayed due to “development problems.” NASA is now planning to launch the Psyche spacecraft this October. The vessel should reach the ultra-valuable asteroid in August 2029.
…
The metal-rich asteroid is about the size of Massachusetts and shaped somewhat like a potato, according to astronomers. Its average diameter is about 140 miles—or roughly the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego. The asteroid orbits between Mars and Jupiter at a distance ranging from 235 million to 309 million miles from the Sun.

A study published by The Planetary Science Journal in 2020 suggests that Psyche is made almost entirely of iron and nickel.

If Psyche turns out to be as metals-rich as we think, it might not be too outlandish to say that whoever controls Psyche will control the solar system.

THIS WILL END BADLY: Trans Prisoner Who Stalked 13-Year-Old Girl Transferred to Women’s Prison.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Consumers could be in a ‘world of hurt’ if Biden doesn’t act soon, former Walmart CEO warns. “Food costs have gone up 23% in the last two years. So now, wages have gone up 17% at Walmart, 25% at Delta for pilots, 25% for the rail industry. And wage increases like that sort of counteract the employment layoffs that we’re starting to see. And so there’s a lot going on.”

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

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: You Will Be Forced to Care — Gay Hockey Edition. “There is no level of capitulation that is satisfactory for those who want to be permanently aggrieved. It’s not just that we will be made to care, but that we’ll be made to care with rules that are ever-changing.”