HMM: Tesla’s big price cuts mean ‘a major shift in the EV market.’ “Analysts who spoke to The Verge on Friday stressed the significance of these cuts and said they may have profound effects not just on Tesla’s brand but on the increasingly competitive EV game. Some even said this could be the first shot in a looming EV ‘price war,’ even as automakers struggle to source enough materials to put these cars on the road en masse.”

TSLA shares had been priced (before they crashed) as though Tesla were a tech startup with unlimited growth potential. But it’s a carmaker and subject to the same market pressures as any other.

STUDY: The Case for Pediatric Gender Transitioning Is Built on Lies.

YOU’LL OWN NOTHING, EAT BUGS, AND BE MISERABLE: Beetleburgers could soon reach mass production — helping to feed the world.

Related: As Davos opens, Oxfam urges windfall tax on food companies.

They really do want you to starve.

TAX CHEAT? Joe Didn’t Report the $50,000/Month in Rent Hunter Claimed He Paid. “There’s more than one way to kick back 10% to ‘the Big Guy,’ and making vastly inflated rent payments is certainly one of them.”

BUT THEY WERE A GREAT WAY TO TRANSFER WEALTH FROM THOSE WHO COULD LEAST AFFORD IT: Lockdowns Had Little Impact on COVID-19.

RED-PILLED? NYC Mayor Eric Adams Visits the Border to View Illegal Alien Crisis That’s Pushed His City to the ‘Breaking Point.’

COLORADO: Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds in Democrats’ crosshairs.

Last year, Colorado Democrats championed TABOR refunds as they campaigned for reelection. Yet not a week into the 2023 legislative session, they announced plans to try and halt those refunds indefinitely.

A forthcoming bill by Rep. Cathy Kipp (D) and Sen. Rachel Zenzinger (D), if passed by the legislature and approved by voters, would allow the state to retain future tax refund dollars mandated under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) in Colorado’s Constitution. Kipp says the money would go to fund public schools.

Proponents of this idea have failed in the past to gather the 120,000 signatures required to put the question on the November ballot. The legislature can circumvent this requirement by passing the measure as a bill first.

Every time voters speak on key issues related to TABOR, they send the same unambiguous message: “Leave TABOR alone and let us keep our money!”

Democratic legislators either didn’t get the message, or they just don’t care what voters think.

And yet they run the state.

THE ROT RUNS DEEP: Moderna Withheld Data From FDA Regulators to Get Bivalent Booster Approved.

WHEN TRUMP ASKED THIS IT WAS AN ALLIANCE-DESTROYING BLUNDER: Why Does Germany Keep Neglecting Its Defense? “Why, despite Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, does Germany, the continent’s strongest economic power and a close U.S. ally, continue to neglect its defense? Simply put, as long as the United States serves as Europe’s primary security guarantor and Russia’s armed forces prove themselves inadequate, Germany has no reason to seriously reform their defense policy or invest in costly defense expenditures.”

That’s part of Berlin’s problem. The other part is that so much of Germany’s ruling class has financial ties to Moscow.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: GOP Needs to Nuke Ronna McDaniel’s Romney Stench. “Ronna McDaniel has been in charge of the RNC for three awful election cycles. Her only job is to help the party’s candidates win elections, and she’s failed miserably at that. What makes it all even worse is that she’s a Romney.”

CORN POP COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT: Biden falsely claims he fought apartheid, was in civil rights movement, in gaffe-filled MLK Day speech.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER: CCP State Media Praises ‘Davos Spirit’ as Conference Begins.

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Wells Fargo Dumps Florida Gun Seller’s Accounts, Signaling Complete Severing of Gun Industry Ties.

The financial institution abruptly closed both the business and personal accounts of Brandon Wexler over the Christmas holidays. Wexler is a longtime customer of the bank, having had personal accounts for over 25 years and business accounts for at least 14 years.

In a letter to the dealer, obtained by The Reload, Wells Fargo claims a review of the account deemed Wexler’s business “too risky.”

However, a second letter from Wells Fargo to Wexler indicates that isn’t a completely honest statement. The banking giant explicitly says the reason for yanking the business account is because their guidelines prohibit them from “lending to certain types of businesses.”

Wells Fargo’s real problem is with certain types of people.

SPOILER: THEY WILL. Andrew McCabe Calls on Biden’s DOJ to Obstruct GOP’s Classified Documents Probe.

On Friday afternoon, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced an investigation into Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, some of which were labeled top secret. Andrew McCabe, the disgraced former FBI deputy director and current CNN senior law enforcement analyst, promptly urged the Biden Justice Department to obstruct that investigation.

“Chairman Jim Jordan announced this House Judiciary Committee investigation into the DOJ actions related to the President’s handling of the classified documents today,” explained CNN anchor Anderson Cooper on Friday night. “How much does that impact the DOJ ongoing investigation?”

“I certainly would advise them — if they were willing to listen to my advice — I would advise them to take a very hard line against that,” McCabe said. “There is a clear precedent here of not sharing information from an ongoing criminal investigation with Congress. And I think the DOJ is in a very strong position to resist on those grounds.”

Previously: “The real purpose of the special counsel, as Larry O’Connor noted on yesterday’s ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ live chat, is to let Democrats accuse congressional Republicans of ‘interfering with the investigation’ when they issue their own subpoenas and question their own witnesses.”

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY: The Car Thief With the Shooting Pain Down His Leg. “This week we have a thief who shot himself in the leg with the gun he stole, the bank robber who left her most personal possession at the scene of the crime, and a truly electric rendition of our national anthem.”

IT’S PRETTY MUCH THE LAST THING LEFT RESTRAINING THE DEMOCRATS AT ALL: Celebrating 30 years of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

MATT MARGOLIS: The Latest Move by Speaker McCarthy Has Democrats in a Panic.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Americans Finding It Difficult To Pay Credit Card Dues On Time; Delinquency Rises Amid All-Time-High Interest Rates.

Related:

AND ANOTHER ONE: Meet ‘Lyin’ Clyde’ Shavers, the Democrat ‘George Santos.’ “The newly elected state legislator who just took his seat this week was outed as a liar by his own father, who, during the campaign, wrote an extraordinary letter to The Lynwood Times, a local newspaper.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE RED ZONES: Texas To Run Another Big-Ass Budget Surplus.

Previously: Florida Posts $21.8 Billion Budget Surplus, a State Record.

DOUBLE STANDARDS ARE THE BEST BECAUSE YOU GET TWICE AS MANY: The Appalling Double Standard in the Biden and Trump Classified Documents Cases.

WHAT BORDER? San Diego legislator proposes in-state tuition for Tijuana residents.

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: How to Survive in the Third World States of America. “It’s 2028. Our non-binary Emperor/Empress Kamala Harris has outlawed guns, meat, combustible engines, gas stoves, and testicles. Americans are starving except for those lucky enough to live in the Great Plains states, where federally-sanctioned locusts are mercifully plentiful this year.”

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What Ever Happened to Paul Ehrlich’s ‘Population Bomb’? “I was a college student when I read Mr. Ehrlich’s ‘The Population Bomb.’ I took it to heart and now have no grandchildren, but 50 years later the population has increased to eight billion without dire consequences. I was gullible and stupid.”

VICTORIA TAFT: Should Someone This Dumb Be the Special Counsel Investigating Biden’s Stolen Classified Documents Scandal? “Robert Hur is the man who served as the DOJ point man to Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation looking into Donald Trump’s alleged side hustle as a Russian secret agent — Double 45.”

The real purpose of the special counsel, as Larry O’Connor noted on yesterday’s “Five O’Clock Somewhere” live chat, is to let Democrats accuse congressional Republicans of “interfering with the investigation” when they issue their own subpoenas and question their own witnesses.