PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

Matt Margolis: Former Intel Official Doubles Down on Hunter Laptop ‘Russian Misinformation’ Letter. “Earlier this year, after the mainstream media finally conceded the laptop was genuine, the New York Post reached out to the intelligence officials to see if any regretted signing on to the letter. Of those who responded, none apologized.”

Stephen Kruiser: Our Ruling Elites: Feds Caught Trading in Stocks They Oversee. “The three Virginia counties that are near Washington, D.C., are among the top 10 wealthiest in America, with Loudon and Fairfax counties being at the top of the list. Government is the cottage industry and business is booming, even in Joe Biden’s economy.”

Yours Truly: This Congressman Has a Bill to Outlaw Inflation (And It Would Work, Too). “The best part? Mooney has a tried-and-true method for protecting the value of your dollar from the spendaholics in Congress and the printaholics at the Federal Reserve. The worst part? I’ll get to that in a sec.”

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Mike Lindell Sending 20,000 Free Pillows and Blankets to Hurricane Victims. What Are the Stores That Cancelled Him Sending?

MILBLOGGER LAUGHINGWOLF has a new series on nuclear preparedness, starting here with “60-40.”

JAW, JAW IS BETTER THAN WAR, WAR: Trump, Gabbard Warn of Nuclear Armageddon.

VIDEO: Huge Ukrainian Offensive in Luhansk? “Svatova is the supply hub of the Russian army here in the Luhansk border.”

Once again, if you don’t have the time or inclination to watch a video, BattleSwarm’s Lawrence Person has done a great job of breaking out the bullet points.

SHE’S AWFUL: Project Veritas Video Exposes Why Katie Hobbs Won’t Debate Kari Lake.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: More soldiers are leaving the Army National Guard at a faster rate than they are enlisting.

SHOCKER: 90,000 ‘Irrecoverable’ Russian Losses in Ukraine.

Longtime Sharp VodkaPundit Readers™ know I’ve been erring on the cautious side since the beginning of this stupid war, discounting Kyiv’s claims, like that “63,380 dead” in the infographic above. Last week, I was willing to concede that as many as 20,000 Russians might be KIA.

The real number could be indeed be much higher, so bear with me while I do some back-of-the-envelope math for you.

Much more at the link.

CREATING YOUNG DISCONTENTS: Why Does Fort Worth ISD Want To Teach ‘Gender Identity’ To Pre-K Children? “Simply because the victimhood identity politics hard left simply can’t wait to corrupt your children to their worldview.”

SPOILER: HE WON’T. John Fetterman Needs to Tend to His Health Instead of Running for the Senate.

RUDY GIULIANI’S NEW YORK IS DEAD AND DEMOCRATS MURDERED IT: Killings in NYC subway system skyrocket to highest level in 25 years — even as ridership plummeted.

THEY LIED: Pfizer Executive: ‘No, Haha!’ We Didn’t Test If COVID Vaccine Stopped Transmission of Virus.

HERE’S HOW THAT SPACE PROGRAM IS COMING ALONG: The DART mission successfully changed the motion of an asteroid.

Plus: Space Force telescope will hunt foreign spacecraft, asteroids and comets too.

Baby steps on the road to planetary defense.

THIS IS ABUSE: Journalist Called Child Protective Services on State Senate Candidate—for Celebrating Columbus Day with Her Daughter. “A leftist journalist called Child Protective Services on a Republican state Senate candidate and single mother because she teaches her daughter to celebrate Columbus Day.”

DON’T LET IT BE SAID THAT BIDEN REDUCED THE VALUE OF EVERYTHING: Thanks To Biden’s Border Crisis, The Million-Dollar Migrant Smuggling Industry Is Now Worth Billions.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting for Tulsi Gabbard to Join the GOP. “Her greatest value is probably remaining independent and showing the way to regular American Democrats who don’t believe that kindergartens should be hosting drag queen story hours. They may not jump ship to the GOP, but they just might reconsider reflexively voting for Democrats who are trying to drag them off of the progressive cliff.”

WE ALL ARE: White House Feeling ‘Trepidation’ Over 80th Birthday of Oldest President Ever.

The president’s allies are worried about “storylines surrounding his age,” which they see as a “sensitive topic,” prompting the White House to try to “downplay the birthday.”

Biden, the oldest person ever elected president, is facing intense criticism over his mental fitness. While giving a speech on Sept. 28, he called out for a congresswoman to stand up. The congresswoman had died two months before.

Previously:

It’s been a long way down for the Dems.

PREPARING THE POST-ELECTION BATTLESPACE: In a Preemptive Move, Democrats Begin Blaming GOP Fraud if They Lose in November.

COMMUNISTS RUIN EVERYTHING: Russia And China Don’t Give A Damn About Soft Power.

It turns out that an era of good feelings constitutes a substantial asset to diplomacy.

Professor Nye declares that soft power emanates “primarily from three sources: its culture; its political values, such as democracy and human rights (when it upholds them); and its policies (when they are seen as legitimate because they are framed with an awareness of others’ interests).” If so, Moscow and Beijing stand on flimsy ground. Run Nye’s checklist. Culture is all the twin despotisms have going for them. Their political values and policies amount to tyranny at home and aggression abroad. Now there’s a banner to which others will flock!

Threatening to ravage your neighbors—or in Russia’s case, actually doing so—holds scant appeal beyond kindred hives of scum and villainy. Nor does trying to overthrow a largely beneficent world order kindle fellow-feeling.

Moreover, even the cultural factor is suspect. You could grant China and Russia a certain quotient of cultural charm, I suppose. But whatever cachet they enjoy derives from times before communism, not from recent or contemporary achievements. Invoking the distant past thus highlights how culturally barren Marxism-Leninism has left two venerable civilizations. Russians can summon Peter the Great, Pushkin, or other cultural figures of immortal luster. Russian history is replete with them. China can conjure up Confucius or the Ming Dynasty voyager Zheng He, two icons of antiquity touted at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and other forums.

But these titans lived long ago. What has either country done since going communist that helps its leadership woo others? Not much according to Nye’s indices. Small wonder they fare so poorly in foreign eyes.

Russian culture — music, literature, food, dance — once rivaled the best of any other nation. If that seems like it was a long time ago, that’s because it was.

I HAD BEEN ASSURED THAT THIS KIND OF THING WAS A MYTH: Planned Parenthood Accused of Trying to Register Dead People to Vote in Texas.

FROM THE PARTY OF COMPASSION: ‘They Treat Me Like a Piece of S—’: Raphael Warnock’s Church Pays for His Home. It’s Also Trying To Evict the Poor From Theirs. “Ebenezer Baptist Church owns an apartment building where residents are being served eviction notices for $28.55 in past-due rent.”

TODAY IN HISTORY: Christians Save Western Civilization From Islam—to Hitler’s Dismay.

THIS TIME I’M SIDING WITH MOSCOW: Russia Adds Meta To List Of ‘Terrorist And Extremist’ Organisations.

PRIORITIES: NYU Fired One Prof for Being ‘Too Hard’ but Employed a Child Porn Offender for Years.

THE GHOST OF TROFIM LYSENKO SMILES: California makes it illegal for doctors to disagree with politicians.