Space Cow.

Joe Manchin and Child Poverty - WSJ Opinion

Press headlines are warning about families on the brink of penury if the monthly payments aren’t extended, but the vast federal and state social safety net—food stamps, Medicaid, housing subsidies, school lunches, Head Start, child-care assistance, and much more—won’t cease to exist on Jan. 1. Weren’t these programs supposed to eliminate child poverty?

They got so close! Just a mere $1,600 a year can make all the difference to a family.

Bike Trailer Update:

• Kids had fun
• I could’ve used about 90 days of extra training

🚴🏻‍♂️

Christmas dinner.

Silent night, Holy night

Midnight Mass EDC.

Oh No! The Ghost Of Christmas Future Just Showed Up And He’s Wearing A Full Hazmat Suit! - The Babylon Bee

At publishing time, another ghost had appeared telling Scrooge to give all his money to the government and to come out in support of taxing the rich, but it turned out to just be Elizabeth Warren in a sheet.

Reminder: Husbands, It’s Time To Start Christmas Shopping - The Babylon Bee

It’s OK, though. Don’t fret. She probably doesn’t have incredibly specific wants and needs that she’s been dropping hints about for the past month.

Grabbing my keys now!

Boys gingerbread house.

My favorite day of the year.

❄️🎅🏻🎄

Report: 90% Of Dads Running Errands Are Just Doing It To Get Some Peace And Quiet - The Babylon Bee

Of thirty countries surveyed, the report found that dads everywhere are just trying to chill out.

The Bourne Ultimatum

🍿

My kids love Mark Rober. Most days, they beg me to watch his modern engineering videos on YouTube. They especially love the ones about Mark trying to outsmart squirrels in his backyard. You might know him better as the inventor of the porch pirate glitter bomb.

This time of year is a busy one for logistics and delivery companies. While ordinary people are away at work, their online orders arrive at their homes, piling up on the porch. Aware of this reality, thieves drive through neighborhoods, stealing packages.

Property theft is often characterized as a victim-less crime, but every crime has a victim. Companies may cover the loss, but those losses are passed on to all consumers in the form of higher prices. If they don’t, they’ll go out of business, destroying jobs. For those losses that are not covered by a company, the recipient has to absorb the blow. There’s no difference between stealing a package off a porch and taking cash out of someone’s wallet.

As we watched this year’s iteration of Glitter Bomb 4.0, I was very sad. Not only had the criminals become more organized, turning crime into a mere business transaction, but the full reality of what was happening hit me. The people caught on camera with the stolen boxes were in depressing homes. Stuff was everywhere. Many thieves tripped over items on the floor as they tried to get the bomb out of the house as quickly as possible. This is poverty in America today. A stifling overabundance of cheap goods.

It offended my sense of justice. I watched people who were willing to steal from people they didn’t know, in the middle of the Christmas season, receive nothing more than a prank in return. What they deserved was so much more.

It is always wrong to steal.

Putin Blames the West for Ukraine Tensions During News Conference - WSJ

defended what he called his country’s need to protect itself against NATO’s attempts to encroach on its doorstep.

NATO rotates 4,500 troops through the Baltics, and Russia needs to defend itself with 120,000 troops on the border with Ukraine?

Biden’s Holiday Troubles Multiply as Omicron Spreads, Agenda Stalls - WSJ

Mr. Biden, for his part, has expressed annoyance both in public and in private with the way the media covers him

In case you had doubts that the president is completely out of touch with reality, he wishes to assure you that he’s completely checked out.

“We’ve saved Christmas,” Ms. Psaki quipped on Wednesday.

And we appreciate Jen picking up extra shifts down at the docks after work to pull this one off for us. Had nothing to do with private companies coming up with their own solutions to put products to shelves.

And gas prices have started to go down.

Truly excellent. Went down $.07/gallon after rising $.82/gallon. Only has to fall $.75/gallon more to get back to even.

Winning!

The point is, things are bad, everyone can see it, so don’t pretend that it’s not. Admit to the mistakes, and come up with a plan that doesn’t cost $5T, that doesn’t trap generations of Americans in welfare hell, and that doesn’t raise taxes on people and the most productive parts of the economy.

Santa Clause 2

🍿

LEGO inventions celebrating the end of Advent.

Intel Apologizes After Asking Suppliers to Avoid China’s Xinjiang Region - WSJ

On Thursday, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker said its letter was written only to comply with U.S. law and didn’t represent Intel’s stance on Xinjiang.

Yeah, our compliance guys said we had to write it.

No worries though, we’re totally cool with the Chinese government operating a system of concentration camps and arbitrarily detaining over a million people.

Speaking of student loans, I just read the fine print.

Any unpaid interest outstanding on loans will be capitalized when the freeze ends.

Another government program that pretends to help you while in reality hurts you.

The Forever Student Loan Emergency - WSJ

Unlike its last pause through January, the Administration isn’t saying this extension is final—probably because it’s not.