Read it.

Nine years ago, Riman, a distinguished professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering, invented an energy-efficient technology that harnesses largely low-temperature, water-based reactions. As a result, he and his team can make things in water that previously were made at temperatures well above those required to thermally decompose plastics.

So far, the revolutionary technology has been used to make more than 30 different materials, including concrete that stores carbon dioxide, the prime greenhouse gas linked to climate change. Other materials include multiple families of composites that incorporate a wide range of metals, polymers and ceramics whose behavior can be processed to resemble wood, bone, seashells and even steel.

Ordinarily, when I see a product described as being ‘eco-friendly’ I ignore it, but in this case I’ll make an exception.

I guess you have to call something ‘eco-friendly’ these days in order to get any attention.

Read it.

Most people don’t spend much time thinking about Algeria, but the problems that they are experiencing are much the same as those that other ‘hird World countries are experiencing. Their governmental institutions are sufficiently defective that there is almost no economic opportunity for anyone outside of the golden circle of those who can leech off of government office. Any one with any talent, and certainly anyone who manages to get some sort of education, is faced with the choice of sitting at home and rotting or leaving the country for opportunity in a First World nation. As a result, the homeland never makes any progress.

John C. Wright, SF author, on Heinlein’s view of the future.

What Heinlein failed to predict was that the Crazy Years would simply continue up through 2010, with no sign of slackening. Ladies and gentlemen, we live in the Crazy Years.

We do indeed.

While Heinlein (as far as I know) supplied no rationale for the advent and the recession of the craziness in the Crazy Years, A. E. van Vogt was freer with is speculations: insanity, either of individuals or of peoples, in van Vogt’s stories (and perhaps in the theories of I. B. Korzybski, who discovered or invented General Semantics) is caused by a fracture or disjunction between symbol and object. When your thoughts, and the thing about which you think, do not match up on a cognitive level, that is a falsehood, a false belief. When the emotions associated with the thought do not match to the thing about which you think, that is a false-to-facts association, which can range from merely a mistake to neurosis to psychosis, depending on the severity of the disjunction. You are crazy. If you hate your sister because she reminds you of your mother who beat you, that association is false-to-facts, neurotic. If you hate your sister because you have hallucinated that you are Cinderella, that association is falser-to-facts, more removed from reality, possibly psychotic.

Scott Adams makes this point repeatedly in his Periscope broadcasts, which are well worth watching every day in order to keep one’s mind on an even keel.

Ace of Spades boils it down.

Good morning kids. Start of a new week and the lead story continues to be immigration and border security in the wake of the President’s signing of the CR monstrosity that allowed the government to remain open (G-d forbid it shouldn’t, right?) while providing some funds for the building of the border wall, along with his simultaneous declaration of a national emergency to use his executive authority to appropriate funds from other agencies. Except within the over 1,100-page monstrosity are thousands of tiny time pills that actually prevent even a shovelful of dirt from being dug, adequate funds or not. I don’t know; Trump is boastful as ever that it’s going to get done but frankly, I don’t see how. From a political standpoint, I would have preferred him vetoing the bill and then forcing Congress – Democrats and GOP-e alike – to override him and then letting them take full blame for this. Beyond that, the insanity of our national debt as well as the size and scope of the feral Federal government are travesties in and of themselves, as well as the lifeblood of the very swamp that the President set out to drain.

That pretty much sums it up. The ‘compromise’ funding provision for the Border Wall had, as a number have pointed out, two poison pills: one giving each of the communities along the southern border (almost all of which are Democrat to their core) an effective veto over whether any barrier gets built in their area, and one that effectively requires catch-and-release for any illegal immigrant that can with a straight face claim ‘sponsorship’ of an unaccompanied illegal immigrant child. That very clever Democrat legislators inserted these into the provision in order to render it useless is pretty obvious; that Republicans were either too stupid or too lazy to excise them is also pretty obvious.

The reason that Democrats, for all their flaws, keep winning is because the Republicans keep living down to their reputation as The Stupid Party, at least as reflected in the people that wind up in Washington. Is it any wonder that those who are inclined to vote Republican after a while just throw up their hands and say, ‘Why bother’?

ZMan at his best.

I’m not going to quote anything from this article because you need to read the whole thing. This is a better piece than I have found in many major publications that actually pay people to write. The fact that this quality of work is available for free on the internet gives me hope for our civilization. (Or, considering the gist of his argument, maybe not.)

Read it.

Scott Adams has been making this point for some time now: The structure of the modern Democrat party makes it almost impossible for their Presidential nominee to be either white or male, even though that might be there best shot at beating Trump in 2020.

Read it.

That’s the real problem.

National emergency: Lawsuits launched in bid to stop Trump building border wall  Wow, how unexpected.

Terrified Todd: What If Trump’s National Emergency Is Found Constitutional?!

Beto Is ‘Playing Right Into President Trump’s Hands’: CNN Panel Scrambles To Say We Do Need Walls  Let’s face it, Bevo is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

‘SNL’ Lampoons Border Wall Deal With Giggly, Gloating ‘Chuck And Nancy’  They could have used the real ones; who would have known?

Repatriating Isis fighters is a complex issue – but it’s not one that Donald Trump can solve  Because TRUMP.

Read it.

He’s free to leave at any time.

I hope there’s a video of him saying this that will be extensively used if he ever runs for President.

Read it.

You know, as they do.

You would think that these people would learn a little restraint. But they never do,

UPDATE: Smollett’s Attorneys Speak Out, Say Reports Claiming The Actor Planned Own Attack Further Victimizes Him

Read it.

On December 12, 2018 the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced the availability of three “playbooks” produced by the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition that includes 16 states and Puerto Rico, to address climate change and implement policies that advance the goals of the Paris Climate Accord. Each of these playbooks deserves detailed review and comment but this post only gives an overview based on my initial skim through the reports.

According to the announcement: “The playbooks will serve as implementation resources for states in deploying solar energy, spurring electric grid modernization, and enhancing resilience in the face of climate impacts and natural hazards. The three solutions are highlighted in the following playbooks: solar deployment, non-wire solutions (NWS), and resiliency.”

Read it.

Sure, open up the borders! Let ’em all in! What could go wrong?

Read it.

The reason this isn’t All Over The News is because he isn’t a white guy.

Boy, those gun-control laws really work, don’t they?

Read it.

Britain is turning into America without the white people.

Read it.

“Knitting is just so white. Let’s hope it gets better.” I overheard this puzzling remark in my local yarn store in Edinburgh, Scotland, last week. The store is in the affluent area of Marchmont, just outside the city centre. Its Edwardian and Victorian tenement flats, adjacent to huge green spaces, are popular with students and families alike. Two customers were chatting to the store owner: “It’s about time we had the conversation,” one of them offered. Her companion nodded in solemn agreement.

Read it.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Read it.

In case you didn’t know it, Jambalaya Harris is the DemLegHump Media candidate for President in 2020.

UPDATE: Fangirls? TV Reporters from CBS, CNN and NBC Help Kamala Harris Pick Out ‘Amazing’ Coat

A tongue-bath from Jamele Hill, racist writer at the Atlantic.

You may recall Jamele Hill, who was fired from ESPN for her penchant for criticizing Trump.

Read it.

More men and boys from a Somali American community in Minneapolis have joined – or attempted to join – a foreign terrorist organization over the last 12 years than any other jurisdiction in the country.

FBI stats show 45 Somalis left to join the ranks of either the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency al-Shabab, or the Iraq- and Syria-based ISIS combined. And as of 2018, a dozen more had been arrested with the intention of leaving to support ISIS. Both numbers are far higher than those of alleged terrorist wannabes who left or attempted to leave the country from other areas in the country where Muslim refugees have been resettled.

Read it.

In 2016, a popular meme featured a photo of admiring reporters on an airplane and the text, something like “Find someone who looks at you the way reporters look at Hillary Clinton.”

…

In 2016, Hillary was the candidate of the liberal press. Who will be the anointed candidate next year? Kamala Harris is a good bet. She features Hillary’s leftist politics along with a “minority” look, probably a requirement in the next Democratic nominee. She is also considerably better looking than Hillary.

Read it.

It would be an interesting problem to have. Presumably anyone in that situation would have a plan.

Read it.

It doesn’t surprise me that a professional actor would arrange for something theatrical to aide his career.

“Morning Joe” On Amazon Deal: Certain Idiots Who Don’t Understand Economics Are Going To Get Trump Reelected  It’s all about Trump, even when he isn’t there.

Joy Reid Guest: Stop ‘Zombie’ Trump Supporters from ‘Infecting’ Others

Episode 418 Scott Adams: The Three Pillars of TDS  Scott Adams is always worth listening to.

Mike Pence Gets Silent Treatment In Munich When He Offers Greetings From Trump

Scott Adams: ‘How Long Before We See Trump Derangement Syndrome Used as a Legal Defense?’

Read it.

I guess they win.

In the U.S. that would be a HUGE wrongful death action–don’t know how they handle it in Londonistan.

Read it.

Dr Melik Demirel has been leading a project at Pennsylvania State University growing new fibres in large fermentation tanks using the same substances that make up natural materials.

“We are developing different types of protein-based fibres, similar to silk and wool and so on,” said Dr Demirel.

Read it.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

Ms Perez is part of an online community of people who carry out “First Amendment audits” which involves filming police officers to see how they react.

As part of the practice, an “auditor” stands filming in a public place and refuses to stop or identify who they are when approached by a police officer.

The people who film the videos consider themselves to be testing their constitutional rights.

Think of it as evolution in action.

Read it.

The Swiss are strange people.

Sarah Hoyt points out some inconvenient truths.

The left is very adamant about charity not coming “with a sermon.” It is most of their excuse for wanting government not churches to preach.

But while I understand the convinced Christian’s need to preach and to save everyone from hell, which if you believe it is an eternal sentence and an awful one is mere human decency, I don’t understand the left’s similar need to ensure that everyone lives “a decent life” by its lights.

They refuse to understand that just as people are entitled to disbelieve and deny eternal salvation (and if you’re a Christian you know they are entitled to that. It’s called free will. Just as they’re entitled to sin. Doesn’t make it right. They’re still entitled to it. You can’t force anyone to be holy) they can refuse to live a middle class life. (Or better. The left keeps imagining that middle class is much further up than it is. Possibly because so many of them these days are spoiled rich kids.)

Read it.

Actually, it’s about controlling what Americans do everywhere.

It’s about controlling how Americans travel.

It’s about controlling where Americans live.

It’s about controlling how much money Americans are allowed to make and how much they are allowed to keep.

It’s about controlling what Americans are allowed to say and eventually what they’re allowed to think.

Ultimately, it’s about a boot stepping on an American face … forever.

Joel Kotkin is delightfully dyspsptic today.

For a decade, the oligarchs of Silicon Valley and Puget Sound worked overtime to win over progressives. For the most part, they enthusiastically back the Left on its immigration, environmental, gender, and racial agendas. The merger of the tech oligarchs with the Democrats went swimmingly—until the contradictions became too obvious. Even as they muzzled conservatives both inside and outside their companies and donated heavily to President Obama and other Democrats, they have remained at their core ruthless capitalists, determined to crush competition and shape society to their liking.

As Amazon has discovered, though, progressives now seek to limit the power and influence of these monopolistic behemoths. The Left’s new firebrands, including New York’s freshman representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, much as Bernie Sanders did in 2016, openly regard both tech oligarchs and Wall Street billionaires as class enemies. The progressives’ alliance with private-sector unions, whose presence has shrunk in tech-driven urban economies like San Francisco and Seattle, has drawn attention to Amazon’s non-unionized warehouses and fulfillment centers, where widespread claims of low pay, brutal management practices, and an accelerated search to replace workers with robots have energized labor advocates. The new scrutiny is especially critical because an increasing number of millennials—soon to be the nation’s largest voting bloc—say that they prefer socialism to capitalism, threatening the future profits of even the most “woke” Silicon Valley plutocrats.

This is the newest twist on an ancient game. It has long been customary for rich politicians to launder their wealth through ‘progressive’ demagoguery (see Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, or really almost any Democrat in national politics), but Actual Rich People are discovering that they can get in on the fun without the fuss and bother of running for office. But they’re discovering that there are a lot of ankle-biters flopping around who actually believe this stuff. I think that it was in anticipation of this that Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post — it’s not as if it was a profitable enterprise.

Tucker Carlson scratches his head.

One thing that every late-stage ruling class has in common is a high tolerance for mediocrity. Standards decline, the edges fray, but nobody in charge seems to notice. They’re happy in their sinecures and getting richer. In a culture like this, there’s no penalty for being wrong. The talentless prosper, rising inexorably toward positions of greater power, and breaking things along the way. It happened to the Ottomans. Max Boot is living proof that it’s happening in America.

…

The neoconservatism of Irving Kristol and his friends was jarring to the ossified liberal establishment of the time, but in retrospect it was basically a centrist philosophy: pragmatic, tolerant of a limited welfare state, not rigidly ideological. By the time Bill Kristol got done with it 40 years later, neoconservatism was something else entirely.

I would have phrased the headline ‘Why Are These Pretend Conservatives Still Around?’, but it wasn’t my article.

John Hinderaker at Powerline figures it up.

The two hottest commodities in the Democratic Party are Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Earlier this week, Omar exhibited stunning ignorance in her hostile questioning of Elliott Adams Abrams. Similarly, Ocasio-Cortez has often displayed a surprising lack of knowledge for someone who apparently is a college graduate. Don’t get me started on the “Green New Socialism.” But she outdid herself yesterday.

I think the best comment was by Tom Smith of the Right Coast:

Nobody seems to have made the point that AOC is not so dumb that she can’t count votes. A bunch of new voters in her district who are making about $150K per year are probably not going to vote for a far left former barista to represent them. She knows who’s putting money in her tip jar.

True dat.

Read it.

After all, the two greatest successes when it comes to nuclear energy are Sweden and France, two nations held up by democratic socialists for decades as models of the kind of societies they want.

It is only nuclear energy, not solar and wind, that has radically and rapidly decarbonized energy supplies while increasing wages and growing societal wealth.

Read it.

This is laying the groundwork for adding ‘ban laser sights’ to the Usual Suspects’ gun-grabbing efforts.

CNN think they’re clever but they’re not.

Bob Menendez Claims Trump Could Be ‘An Agent Of The Russian Federation’  Could be an alien from the Andromeda Galaxy, too — that would explain the additional sanctions he’s slapping on Russia. Guess Menendez doesn’t read the news.

MSNBC’s Deutsch Slams ‘Slimeball’ Trump: ‘History Will Really Frown on the Republicans’  Especially if Democrats get to write it.

Hunt Suggests Trump Got Idea For National Emergency From Hannity  Who cares where he got the idea? If Trump took his ideas from Rush Limbaugh, I’d be the first to rejoice.

Media Ignore Beto Crowd Smashing Trump Piñata, Carrying Mexican Flags

Alan Dershowitz Compares 25th Amendment Attempts Against Trump To A Coup D’etat  Well, yeah.

CNN’s Cillizza Absurdly Rationalizes DOJ Attempt to Remove Trump from Office

NYT Claims Trump Is the One With the Anti-Semitism Problem  A lie that not even progressives will believe.

MSNBC: Dems Can Exploit Military Deaths to Slam Trump’s Emergency Declaration

Read it.

What goes around comes around.

Read it.

If you feel the need to wear a bracelet with 5 survival gadgets in it, you have problems that a bracelet with 5 survival gadgets won’t solve.

Read it.

I doubt that she’ll run in 2020.

Hobble, maybe.

Read it.

But it really doesn’t matter. Once again, Trump has seized the initiative, and Democrats are going to spend the next two years responding to him rather than whatever they had in mind for their agenda.

This is why Trump’s ‘base’ is the same as Patton’s: ‘We’re going to hold them by the nose, and we’re going to kick them in the ass.’

Read it.

One thing that no one dared mention in the story but which is immediately obvious from the video is that she is a light-skinned brown woman who probably ‘identifies’ as black when it is to her advantage.

The press is full of warnings by ‘climate scientists’ about things that COULD happen, which ‘journalists’ then carry around (with their hair on fire) as if they CERTAINLY WILL happen.

Legal Experts Suggest Climate-Crusading Kids’ Newest Stunt Will Wreck The Economy

Is Global Warming Theory Scientific?

Insects are dying off at record rates — an ominous sign we’re in the middle of a 6th mass extinction

Insects Are Dying En Masse, Risking ‘Catastrophic’ Collapse Of Earth’s Ecosystems

Environment suffering multiple crises that threaten to destabilise society and global economy, experts warn

Are Childless Climate Change Eco-Worriers Modern Day Shakers?

Here’s how global warming will change your town’s weather by 2080  And of course we all know that the weather can be predicted 40 years ahead of time. Just look at how accurate local weather forecasts are now.

By 2080, Climate Change will Force Canadians to Endure Warm Conditions Like Today’s Minnesota  And we all know how accurate long-range weather prediction is.

Data analysis: Global temperature has not increased under Republican presidents, only Democrats

Read it.

Easy to say, harder to do. Calling Jonny Ive….

Blast from the past.

The United States is in a perpetual state of national emergency.

Thirty separate emergencies, in fact.

An emergency declared by President Jimmy Carter on the 10th day of the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 remains in effect almost 35 years later.

A post-9/11 state of national emergency declared by President George W. Bush — and renewed six times by President Obama — forms the legal basis for much of the war on terror.

Tuesday, President Obama informed Congress he was extending another Bush-era emergency for another year, saying “widespread violence and atrocities” in the Democratic Republic of Congo “pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States.”

Those emergencies, declared by the president by proclamation or executive order, give the president extraordinary powers — to seize property, call up the National Guard and hire and fire military officers at will.

Democrat Ilhan Omar Sure Hates Jews — and the Media Sure Are Protecting Her

Isis bride Shamima Begum’s life in Syria: Two dead children, daily airstrikes and decapitated heads

Iran suicide bombing: Jihadists claim responsibility for bus attack that leaves at least 20 dead

Unaccompanied Foreign Rapist Terrorizes Women in Barcelona

Culture-Enriching Child Rape in Göppingen

Culture-Enriching Gang Rape in Sabadell

Israel-hating Islamists Fundraise Off Ilhan Omar’s Anti-Semitism

Muslim death row inmate executed after state refused to let imam be present during lethal injection

‘I got cheated. All of us got cheated’: Captured German Isis member says he regrets joining terror group

Trump says Isis has been defeated, but he is ignoring the bigger and much more worrying picture

Homeless Migrants Suck Up All Available Resources in Barcelona

Turkey calls on China to close Muslim ‘concentration camps’ where one million Uighurs have been detained  Good luck with that.

From Dublin to Daesh: Irish Isis suspect says he was trapped in the caliphate, others call him a terrorist  An Irish Muslim: Now there’s a terrorist’s terrorist.

Uyghur musician tortured to death in China’s concentration camp

Pope Francis To Visit Moroccan Imam Training Institute To Promote Moderate Islam  Good luck with that.

Ilhan Omar: Democrat congresswoman accused of antisemitism over Israel tweets

Taliban member accused of Kabul truck bombing that killed 150 arrested by Afghan forces

Indonesia police admit using snake to interrogate man over suspected theft

Omar goes full anti-Semite again

Rep. Omar Faces Backlash After Accusing Pro-Israel Lobbying Group Of Buying Support

Report: Wiretaps Show Turkish Intel Supported ISIS

Hamas Threatens Escalation of “Spontaneous” Violent Israel-Gaza Border Protests

Rep. Rashida Tlaib Wrote Column For Nation Of Islam Publication

Ilhan Omar: Jew-Gold Is Dictating This Nation’s Foreign Policy

Morning Networks Ignore Latest Anti-Semitic Comments by Dem Rep. Ilhan Omar

Google, Apple Allow Saudi Sharia Law Wife-Tracking App

Damage to Catalonia

Report: Syrian Forces Corner ISIS In Last Foothold

Bloody battle for last Isis territory nears end in Syria

Man admits stabbing wife to death after she refused to support his UK immigration application

Antisemitic crimes in Germany rose by around 10% last year, figures show

Shamima Begum: London schoolgirl who ran away to join Isis ‘does not regret’ decision but wants to return home

The Mosque That Won’t Go Away

Isis fighters surrounded in ‘tent city’ in Syria as final offensive imminent

Celebrating Valentine’s Day isn’t always straightforward for some Muslims – here’s why  Who cares whether Muslims celebrate Valentine’s Day?

House Votes to Halt Aid for Saudi Arabia’s War in Yemen  Yeah, that’ll work.

The Rushdie Fatwa Chilling Speech 30 Years Later

OPINION: Ilhan Omar Brings Shame To American Muslims

Turkey’s failings in Syria have piled the pressure on itself as Idlib falls prey to al-Qaeda style extremists

The West is encouraging a vicious war between Sunnis and Shias — that’s the real truth about Iran and Saudi Arabia  They’ve never needed any encouragement from anybody before.

Read it.

President Donald Trump has freed up $8 billion from various government agencies to build the wall, according to Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade.

Agent Orange for the win.

The Other McCain tells the tale.

Now it is being reported that Chicago police are questioning two black men, one of whom appeared as an extra on Empire with Jussie Smollett, and once they get full confessions, we can expect the rest of the story behind this obvious hoax to emerge.