THE LEFT’S WAR ON WOMEN: ‘Transgender Woman’ Roxanne Tickle Sues Women-Only App for ‘Discrimination.’

HOW’D THAT ZERO COVID THING WORK OUT FOR YA, COMRADE XI? China Dec manufacturing contracts sharply as COVID infections soar.

Previously: The COVID lockdowns were all for naught. “Guess which developed country had the lowest excess mortality between 2020 and 2022. Go on, have a guess. That’s right. Sweden, which refused to close shops or schools or to impose a mask mandate, saw cumulative excess deaths rise by 6.8%, the lowest figure in the OECD.”

RED ON RED: What The –?? Trump Moves Left, Attacks Pro-Lifers.

FASTER, PLEASE: First-ever robotic pill makes insulin injections obsolete. “A new drug capsule developed at MIT may one day be able to replace those injections. The capsule has a robotic cap that spins and tunnels through the mucus barrier when it reaches the small intestine, allowing drugs carried by the capsule to pass into cells lining the intestine.”

DOG BITES MAN: Ayatollah Khamenei Celebrates the New Year by Praising Terrorists.

PRIVACY: Wickr Me, Amazon’s encrypted chat app, stops accepting new users.

The decision, first announced in November, follows several controversies surrounding the ultra-secure chat app, which allowed users to sign up without a phone number or other potentially identifying information, making it a favorite for security-minded groups including hackers, drug dealers and journalists.

In June, an NBC News investigation revealed that Wickr Me had become a go-to product for many people trading child sexual abuse material. The investigation identified 72 court cases from the past five years in which the defendant allegedly used Wickr (as it’s commonly known) to trade child sexual abuse material.

More:

In its statement in November, the company explained that it was shutting down Wickr Me to devote more resources and focus toward its business-to-business products, AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise. The post did not mention the business it has with government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.
…
In June 2021, Wickr was acquired by Amazon Web Services. Since the acquisition, the company had faced questions about its government contracts with agencies like Customs and Border Protection and attracted attention with its role in records-related scandals in which the app was used to automatically destroy government communications.

It seems as though Amazon is killing off consumer-level encrypted messaging to focus on providing unhackable (and instantly “shreddable”) comms to big business and big government.

CRAPPY NEW YEAR: Ukraine War Kicks Off 2023 with a Very Big Bang. “It’s the single-deadliest known strike in months.”

WELL, LIKE MOST GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS, IT CERTAINLY DIDN’T WORK OUT AS PROMISED: Was the sexual revolution a government psy-op?

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: California Officially Becomes a Sanctuary State for Child Mutilation.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: ‘We better watch out’: NASA boss sounds alarm on Chinese moon ambitions.

So says NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who warns that Beijing could establish a foothold and try to dominate the most resource-rich locations on the lunar surface — or even keep the U.S. out.

“It is a fact: we’re in a space race,” the former Florida senator and astronaut said in an interview. “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’”
He cited an Earthly example in the South China Sea, where the Chinese military has established bases on contested islands. “If you doubt that, look at what they did with the Spratly Islands.”

If it weren’t for SpaceX, I’m not sure we’d be even contenders in the New Space Race.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The First Hillary-Bashing Briefing. “Happy New Year! I’m off again today, so here is another “rerun.” I wanted to find something from the early days after I took over the Briefing. This one was written after I’d been on the job a little more than a month, and I believe it is the first headline from what I’m now referring to as the ‘Drunk Hillary Collection.’ The days when I go off on Granny Maojackets always end up being popular. It’s also fun to see how things have changed since ancient times.”

NOT TOO BADLY: How Did EVs Handle America’s Arctic Blast?

1. EVs are not ready for frigid road trips. I warned about this in August: Driving an EV on the highway in extreme cold will produce a range loss of 40% or more. EV owners of various brands traveling for the holidays shared numerous stories verifying this annoying (and potentially dangerous) reality. Drivers traveling in temperatures at or around zero with a headwind could go only 100 to 150 miles before needing to stop and recharge, depending upon the car, significantly increasing travel time. When they did charge, they had to deal with another disconcerting problem with EVs and winter…

2. EV fast-chargers operate much more slowly in extreme cold, if they work at all. The colder the EV battery, the slower the rate of charge that it will accept, making “fast-charging” in subzero temperatures a potentially miserable and plodding experience. Think a 45 to 60 minute charge instead of a 25 to 35 minute one. To top it off, users reported that fast-charging equipment, particularly from Electrify America, often just didn’t work in temperatures below -10 °F. Tesla’s proprietary Superchargers didn’t seem to have the same reliability issues.

The upshot is that EVs performed tolerably well for most drivers, although most would probably rather not spend 30 minutes at a charging station in sub-zero weather.

MEGAN FOX: Idaho Suspect’s Classmates Accuse Him of ‘Anti-LGBTQ’ Statements but Reporters Don’t Verify. “PJ Media contacted Norton and asked what was said and why other reporters hadn’t asked for details. Norton responded, ‘They asked but I was not comfortable elaborating.’ When I pressed her for the statements she heard Kohberger make, she accused me of harassing her and deleted her public post.”

GEORGE FRIEDMAN: The State of Play in Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine seems permanent. Neither side appears capable of destroying the opposing force or articulating what it would take to reach a peace agreement. The Russians are speaking to Belarus, India and anyone else they might find, but no one can help enough on the battlefield or in the munitions factory to turn the tide. The Ukrainians are speaking to the United States, NATO and anyone else who will listen so that they will continue to receive weapons – perhaps even some new ones. But Ukraine hasn’t broken Russia yet, concerned as it is with preventing the collapse of the country, and doing so may prove difficult. On the battlefield, there is movement on both sides, but movement doesn’t carry with it the taste of victory. When, then, do wars end if the leadership will not concede?

History shows there are several answers to that question.

None seems likely in the near future.

THE WAR ON NORMALCY: Reuters ‘Youth in Transition’ Report Plots to Prevent Children From ‘Detransition.’

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Can You Run .223 And 5.56 NATO Interchangeably?

THEY DID NOTHING WRONG: Pentagon not planning to reinstate 8,000+ fired troops who refused COVID vax, says report.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): You wonder, given the state of today’s military, how many would even want to go back.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: DHS Dropped the Ball on Background Checks for Gun Sales.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Why Did You Stop Going to the Movies? “Box office collapse portends darker days for Tinsel Town in 2023 … and beyond.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Guess What the Tylenol Shortage and the Fentanyl Surplus Have in Common.

OH: Another mystery death in Russia as tank boss dies ‘suddenly’ a day after Putin abruptly cancels meeting with him.

IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH FREE INQUIRY HAD BEEN PART OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS ALL ALONG: You Are Free to Question ‘The Science’ on Twitter Again.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Comic Book Fans Shun Superheroes’ Woke Makeovers. “A new Batman is black. There’s a new Spider-Man-like character, except she’s a lesbian who uses a wheelchair. Iron Man is now a black teenage girl. Really.”

JOE BIDEN DID THAT: Gird Your Loins, $5/Gallon Gas Could Be Coming Again in 2023.

OF COURSE: NASA Mulls SpaceX Backup Plan for Crew of Russia’s Leaky Soyuz Ship.