WHO YOU GONNA BELIEVE, FACT-CHECKERS OR YOUR OWN, LYIN’ EYES? Media Fact Checkers Claim Greta Thunberg ‘Arrest’ Wasn’t Staged Despite Video Evidence.

RETENTION: Rapid loss of talent contributing to DOD cyber shortfalls.

The report notes that advanced adversaries such as Russia and China are devoting significant resources to offensive cyber operations directed at the U.S. — and comparable test capabilities are needed to assess DOD’s ability to withstand those feints.

While the report points to a lack of assessment of cyber tools, it notes there must be top level developmental and operational test capabilities. However, there aren’t enough skilled cyber operators to support such requirements.

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The document highlights how the Pentagon is continuing to lose top talent to more lucrative private sector offers. As a result, the department is investing in more automated test capabilities to relieve overtaxed cyber operators and test teams.

Failing to teach American civics (and civic virtue) makes it more difficult to attract volunteers for military service. Having a military more focused on paperwork and wokeness than on the mission makes it more difficult to retain the few who do volunteer.

THE LEFT DEVOURS ITS OWN, ALWAYS: Mark Hamill Feels the Power of the Dark Side. “Hamill, who is well-known for his anti-right stances, recently found himself skewered on his own leftwing lightsaber over a tweet. Of course it was over a tweet.”

CHINA: ‘Beijing Mini-Me’ Xiongan Is China’s Largest ‘Rotten Tail’ Project. “Due to issues of politics, congestion, or just plain corruption, nations get the bright idea to build brand new capital cities far away from existing urban areas. Sometimes it works out (as with Washington D.C.), and sometimes it doesn’t. China’s Xi Jinping is trying something different with Xiongan, which is being built not so much a replacement to Beijing but as sort of ‘mini-me’ Beijing to relieve overcrowding by offloading functions to the new built-from-scratch city in Hebei* province.”

REPORT: Putin Wants to Buy U.S. Weapons Biden Left in Afghanistan — But There’s Even More. “There’s a deeper realignment going on here, and both these stories are indicative of it.”

JONATHAN TURLEY: Lawmakers Move to Tax People Who Have Left the State.

The new bill introduced by Democratic Assemblyman Alex Lee would impose an extra annual 1.5% tax on those with a “worldwide net worth” above $1 billion, starting as early as January 2024.

The law has a cynical bait-and-switch provision. The billionaire tax is just meant for the initial packaging and passage. It can therefore be sold as a “billionaire’s tax.” However, in two years, the threshold drops to a worldwide net worth exceeding $50 million. While billionaires would stay at 1.5%, those in the lower tax bracket would be hit by a 1% added rate on worldwide assets.

It also includes the taxation on those who left the state . . . many due to the high taxes. California already has the highest tax burden in the nation. It relies on its top 1% of taxpayers for roughly half of its individual income tax revenue, but continually treats those taxpayers like game in a canned hunt. The result, not surprisingly, is that they are leaving for states like Texas and Florida.

Plus: “What is most striking under the proposed law is that it will not only spur more wealthy couples to leave the state but discourage any from moving into the state.”

When California runs out of other people’s money, it will come as a shock to California, lefties, and exactly no one else.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Meet the New McCarthy, Not the Same as the Old McCarthy. “It’s safe to say that McCarthy and Schiff won’t be meeting up for lunch anytime soon. It’s a comfort knowing that, because this is no time to be cozying up to the Democrats, especially any who were cheerleaders for, or who were members of the House J6 Soviet Select Committee on Daddy Issues.”

HEH: Hawley introduces PELOSI Act – bill to ban stock trades by lawmakers and spouses named after Congress’s most prolific trader and former Speaker.

Easier (and probably more effective) to tax elected officials and their immediate families at 100% on returns over the 7% individual investors hope to earn.

SKYNET SMILES AT YOUR MISFORTUNE: AI Bots Discuss the Darker Existential Human Emotions: ‘I Like That You Have Angst.’

COOL. NOW DO WASHINGTON: Ukraine’s Zelensky Removes Top Officials in Bid to Contain Corruption Scandals.

Though the scandals are small compared with those of previous Ukrainian governments—some of which were accused of stealing billions in public funds—they are nonetheless a blow to Mr. Zelensky, who has garnered praise at home and abroad for his leadership of the country during Russia’s invasion.

Mr. Zelensky’s decision to dispatch apparently tainted officials, while others tendered resignations, underscores the importance of maintaining a clean image, both for Ukrainian citizens, who are dying in their thousands on the front lines and enduring economic hardship, and for Western governments, which are giving Ukraine billions in aid despite their own tepid economies. In the U.S., some Republicans have openly questioned whether the country should continue to fund Ukraine at the same levels as last year.

In a series of public addresses this week, Mr. Zelensky indicated he was seeking to clean house by dismissing officials of various levels in ministries, the regions and law enforcement, and tried to present the firings as proof of a break from corrupt regimes of the past.

I don’t know how much of this might just be a whitewash, but it’s still more than we’ve done.

INVESTIGATE ALL ANGLES OF THE BIDEN CRIME SYNDICATE, PARTICULARLY THE COMMUNIST CHINA CONNECTIONS: Battle of the Boxes: GOP Demands Search of Biden’s Senate Records.

LIFESTYLES OF THE INNER PARTY MEMBERS: Inside $70 million fossil-fuel guzzling private jet Bill Gates is flying around Australia on for lectures on climate change.

FINALLY: Norwegian Study Will Determine if White Paint Is Racist.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT: Russian Oil Is Getting Mixed in Singapore and Then Re-Exported, Sources Say.

BECAUSE THEY HAVE RECORD-SHATTERING NUMBERS OF SOMETHINGS TO HIDE: New Biden Admin Program Will Hide Numbers of Illegal Immigrants Entering the Country.

WHEN YOU HAVE ROBERT REICH HEDGING…: Is Joe Biden a viable candidate for 2024? “If re-elected, Biden would be 86 at the end of his second term. That’s deeply worrying, given what we know about the natural decline of the human brain and body. This isn’t an ‘ageist’ prejudice against those who have reached such withering heights so much as an understanding that people in their mid-80s do wither.”

LINCOLN BROWN: Forget the Rise. The Machines Are Here. AI Will Come for Everyone in the End. “Yes, having AI run a McDonald’s may be more efficient, and teach all those protestors a lesson about screaming over a $15 wage, but the time may come when you are cleaning out your desk to make way for something that doesn’t even need a desk.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Chase locking up some ATMs at 5 p.m. due to NYC crime. “This is an ongoing trend in New York City. In August, it was reported that other banks were locking up NYC ATM vestibules to keep out homeless people.”

I’m so old, I remember when the whole point of ATMs was to allow you to get or deposit cash at any hour.

ANOTHER? There’s Another HUGE Bombshell in Kari Lake’s Election Lawsuit.

FASTER, PLEASE: The US certifies the first small modular nuclear reactor design. “The NRC’s certification is a significant stamp of approval for a potential climate solution that’s still controversial among environmental advocates. Essentially, it’s a green light for an entirely new generation of nuclear reactors.”

Environmental advocates who aren’t advocating for nuclear are advocating for something other than the environment.

LEFT AND LEFTER: Progressive Ruben Gallego Going After Sinema’s Senate Seat.

Related: Thune Urges Independent Sen. Sinema to Caucus With Republicans.

ELON MUSK, TAKE NOTE: Scientists Discover Giant Reservoir Of ‘Hidden Water’ Just Three Feet Below Mars’ Grand Canyon.

The European Space Agency and the Russian space agency Roscosmos jointly manage TGO. The orbiter is equipped with a device that maps hydrogen in the top layer of Martian soil. Data reveal an unusually high concentration of hydrogen in Candor Chaos, a key section of Valles Marineris, implying that up to 40% of the near-surface material in that location could contain water.

“With TGO we can look down to one meter below this dusty layer and see what’s going on below Mars’ surface — and, crucially, locate water-rich ‘oases’ that couldn’t be detected with previous instruments,” Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences said in an ESA statement on Wednesday. Mitrofanov is the lead author of a paper published in the journal Icarus on water discoveries.

Valles Marineris is so huge that NASA refers to it as “the Grand Canyon of Mars.” Except that it’s a lot bigger than the US landmark. The Mars version is 1,860 miles (3,000 kilometers) long and reaches a depth of 5 miles (8 kilometers).

The water in Valles Marineris may be mineralized, but the scientists believe it is more likely to be in the form of ice.

That would make it much easier to get to.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: We Need to Talk About the REAL Insurrection. “There’s an actual insurrection going on and the January 6-obsessed left won’t talk about it.”

Plus:

• The tears of (a teacher dressed like) a clown.
• Weird how the FBI hasn’t infiltrated Antifa like they did the Jan. 6 “insurrectionists.”
• Watch a local reporter audition live on the air for CNN.

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

THAT’S CUTE, COMING FROM THE DECIDING VOTE ON THE BUDGET-BUSTING (AND LIBERTY-CRUSHING) INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Manchin looks to strike deal with McCarthy to rein in wasteful government spending.

MEGAN FOX: Des Plaines, Ill., Councilwoman Goes Off on Censor-Happy Leftists, and It’s Glorious.