Gothamist.

Police are searching for an unidentified man accused of setting multiple fires across the city last week, including inside two subway stations and a police car.

The NYPD said the man set a police car on fire shortly after 2 a.m. Friday before igniting a second fire that damaged a vehicle in front of 14 Murray St., near City Hall. The suspect then reportedly traveled to the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall subway station, where he set a paper cup on fire and tossed it into a garbage can around 2:55 a.m., police said. The spree concluded around 3:40 a.m. when the man set fire to a pile of garbage next to a sleeping passenger aboard a northbound J train at the Woodhaven Avenue station in Queens, according to officials.

ZMan looks behind the curtain.

Over the last week a dispute has erupted on Twitter about the relative difficulties faced by young people. One camp, current young people, claim they are entering a world that is much more difficult for them than youth of prior generations. They do not think they have the same opportunities as their parents and grandparents. Another camp thinks that young people are entering relatively good times economically but may have unrealistic expectations regarding adulthood.

To be accurate, there is at least one other camp in this debate. That camp thinks the youth face a demographic reality for which they have not been properly prepared and a prevailing culture that works to prevent that preparation. The relative state of the economy for young people does not matter if they are entering a society that is about to come apart along demographic lines. Young white people have been poorly trained up for a world that should not exist.

As is often the case, the two camps squaring off over economics are on the main stage while the camp looking at upstream issues is marginalized. While economics is downstream from demographics and culture, it still matters. We see this with the oldest demographic who remain stubbornly committed to the system. Baby boomers, overall, have it pretty good, so they still believe in the system, even it means they must endure an emergency room that looks like a Tijuana bus stop.

The Other McCain.

Before we discuss Jen Rubin and her “exciting new online platform,” let’s first take time to examine the problem of stereotypes. Being a member of the Appalachian-American community (we consider “hillbilly” to be an offensive slur), I know a few things about belonging to an ethnic group with reputational issues. This is why, despite my noted musical abilities, I never learned to play the banjo. Also, I’ve never lived in a mobile home, I don’t drink moonshine and my wife is not my cousin.

One has a duty to try to avoid behaviors that might contribute to negative stereotypes of one’s ethnic group. However, one must acknowledge that stereotypes don’t arise for no reason, but rather have some basis in fact. The stereotype of hillbillies as lazy and stupid arose at a time when the dangers of the hookworm parasite were unknown; a disease that sabotages health cannot be prevented if you don’t know what causes it, and the South suffered as a result. Nowadays, we have hillbillies graduating from Yale Law, thank you very much, and so it’s time to stop the anti-hillbilly hate speech. (Stay off the moonshine, J.D.)

Well, I could continue that rant indefinitely, but the point is that group averages are not predictive for individuals. Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average IQ of any ethnic group and yet, there’s the helplessly stupid Jen Rubin who thinks we’re going to believe her when she claims she voluntarily left her job at the Washington Post, rather than getting axed as deadwood at a newspaper that’s lost readership and revenue at a startling pace in recent years. So, in announcing she’s going to launch “The Contrarian” with Democrat apparatchik Norm Eisen, Jen Rubin delivers a sanctimonious lecture about how “billionaire owners of major media outlets have betrayed their audiences’ loyalty and sabotaged journalism’s sacred mission — defending, protecting and advancing democracy.” And she’s going to fight the good fight for the “sacred mission” with . . . a Substack blog? Because that’s what her gushing about an “exciting new online platform” is about, as if there were something unique being offered, rather than a mere $7-a-month newsletter on Substack. John Nolte quips: “The good news is that The Contrarian’s subscription fee will be $7 per month, which means we will all save $7 per month by not reading Jennifer Rubin.”

Read it.

The Surrender to Hamas Deal is a bipartisan betrayal of Israel in which the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration got together to throttle Israel and demand that it accept a Hamas deal, overseen by its state sponsor Qatar, trading thousands of terrorists for hostages, live or dead, abandoning Gaza, and allowing Hamas under a fake ‘technocratic’ government to take it over again. Followed by an extended reconstruction that the United States will be paying for.

UPDATE: They love Donald Trump — and hate the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal he demanded

UPDATE: Ceasefire Is No Victory for the Israelis—Or for Us

Read it.

Westminster City council in London has advertised a job opportunity and admitted that while it is open to everyone, white British people will not be favoured over people from a “Global Majority (GM)” background.

The position, which has a starting salary of £54,684, is for an “Executive Assistant.”

The ad states “The council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce.”

That’s a lot of words to say ‘A DEI hire is preferable.’

Even though the United States is a little further down the list, coming in 9th place, it still yields considerable power, enabling citizens to enter 186 countries without major restrictions.

Read it.

Three doctors are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent a California agency from investigating them over their opposition to state-approved COVID-19 policies.

Persecution for non-government-approved views? What persecution?

Read it.

YACBFDP.

UPDATE: Raphael Warnock-Led Charity Admits It Illegally Campaigned for Stacey Abrams, Will Pay $300,000 Fine  Crooks of a feather flock together.

Read it.

You know, as they do.

Read it.

Was one of them named Climate Change?

UPDATE: Blowtorch-Wielding Illegal Immigrant Has at Least Three Prior Los Angeles Arrests—and a History of Violence

Read it.

What could the difference be, I wonder?

Read it.

I got your climate change … right here.

Read it.

We had an inexpensive life-saving solution both before and during the pandemic…

The inconvenient truth is that even at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a very simple, inexpensive and effective treatment was available that could have saved the majority of lives lost (1-3). All that the WHO and public health bureaucracy had to do was to recommend and support people taking sufficient Vitamin D3.

I took D3 throughout the Pandemic Panic, didn’t wear a mask unless forced to, and still have never had COVID (though my  wife, whom I smooch whenever I have an excuse, has had it twice).

This failure to act traces back to the unscientific bias and pro-vaccine obsession of Dr. Anthony Fauci. And once again the legacy media, while being paid by the US government and the pharmaceutical industry to promote vaccination, acted by censoring, defaming and suppressing the ability of physicians to inform people of scientific truth. The disease you suffered, the loss of life among your family and friends, could have been greatly reduced by simply getting enough Vitamin D3. This is another example of what happens when unelected bureaucrats are allowed to control free speech. Crimes against humanity.

Still waiting for some justice-obsessed individual to Do The Right Thing re Fauci. I’d do it myself but it would be Too Much Like Work.

Astral Codex Ten.

Asians are smartest, Africans (and other Turd World countries) are dimmest, and Europeans are in the middle. Who doesn’t know that?

Read it.

Try to get past the clickbait headline.

A woman who switched from a vegan diet to eating only meat and dairy products six years ago has revealed the shocking impact it’s had on her body.
Plant-based diets have been on the rise over recent years, with statistics from The Vegan Society and Finder estimating that between 2-3% of the UK population follow a vegan diet.
But not everybody is convinced by the growing trend to axe animal products from their diets, with one woman who has been eating only meat and diary for the past six years after previously being vegan sharing the impact it’s had on her body.

We wait with bated (not baited) breath.

The decision to follow such a drastic diet may come as a shock to most of us, seeing as we’re regularly told it’s important to practice and balanced eating habits.
However, Bella stands by her carnivore decision, claiming that her lifestyle has helped deal with skin issues, regulate her menstrual cycle and improve her mental health.
In one clip showing herself gorging on an entire roast chicken, Bella tells her 421,000 Instagram followers: “I haven’t eaten a single carb, piece of fruit or vegetable in six years and I’m not dying of low energy, nor have I wrecked my hormones.

I imagine a daily vitamin supplement would be a wise move.

“I’ve actually lost 25 pounds, now have painless periods, unbelievably stable energy and moods because my body burns fat for fuel now.”
In another clip she claims that her body odour has improved drastically since switching from being vegan to following a carnivore diet.
“People think that if you only eat meat you will smell terrible,” she says in a voiceover, while eating a steak.
“I used to be vegan for about six years [and] my body odour, farts and sweating just went out of control and now that I’m carnivore I don’t need any soap or body wash. I smell amazing and I no longer fart.”

Of course, some of that could be genetic.

According to guidance from the NHS, a healthy and balanced adult diet should consist of at least five portions of fruit and vegetables, high fibre foods such as potatoes, rice or bread, dairy (or dairy alternatives), a source of protein and unsaturated oils.
When it comes to eating red or processed meats the NHS recommends that to avoid eating no more than 70g of either per day.
Meanwhile, Cancer Research UK has warned that processed and red meats are carcinogens which have been linked to an increased risk of bowel cancer.

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE … until it changes; then FOLLOW THE NEW SCIENCE.

Face it, the Government and the Crust don’t want you to be healthy if it means you get to do it without Official Guidance.

Watch it.

This is one of the most interesting things that was demonstrated at CES this year. Evidently it doesn’t vent to the outside; it just cleans the air and dumps it back into your kitchen.

It’s unclear how effective it would be — JennAir is the poster child for failed potential in this space — but I love that people are thinking about ways to solve the Kitchen Stink problem.

Raw Story, a Voice of the Crust.

And the Woke Witch Hunt contines.

Read it.

For the latest proof that we’re all living in a black comedy about the leftist-led destruction of the West, cast your eyes on a woke theater in “gay Paree.”

In December, the Gaîté Lyrique theater held a conference titled, “Reinventing The Welcome For Refugees In France.” Fittingly, more than 250 African migrants showed up, were welcomed — and then refused to leave. Five weeks later, they’re still there, along with 50 more who’ve piled inside.

Read it.

Amid a busy news day Monday, a familiar figure was named Chief Operating Officer of National Public Radio. Ryan Merkley, who directed the Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder and also appeared in the Twitter Files as Wikimedia’s liaison to “Industry Meetings” with federal law enforcement, was elevated to the job by NPR president/Titania McGrath clone Katherine Maher.

“Throughout his career Ryan has demonstrated a commitment to the public trust, leading organizations that prioritize universal access to the common good,” Maher said. Maher, perhaps best-known for describing the First Amendment as the “number one challenge” that makes it “tricky” to remove content.

Merkley’s name figured in several high-profile efforts to control “disinformation” through aggressive content moderation. In 2021, the Aspen Institute created a Commission on Information Disorder, whose big-name participants included Katie Couric, “Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex,” and DHS official Chris Krebs. Merkley was the Commission’s Director.

Your tax dollars at work.

NBC News, a Voice of the Crust.

The Minnesota Democratic caucus plans to skip nearly three weeks of the new legislative session in a bid to deny Republicans the ability to conduct business before a special election.

Have you ever noticed how the arrested adolescents in the Democrat party don’t seem all that interested in actual democracy? Somebody ought to sue them for false advertising.

UK Daily Mail.

A former high energy Democratic fundraiser, failed congressional candidate and social media influencer is now raising money for President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee.

Lindy Li made the shocking 180 after an extraordinary journey though a crazy year in Democratic politics culminating in Kamala Harris’ historic loss to Donald Trump.

‘It’s been one of the most painful and rewarding moments of my life,’ Li told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

New York Times, a Voice of the Crust.

A nonprofit founded by Stacey Abrams, a Georgia Democrat, admitted on Wednesday that it had violated state law by concealing the fact that it had campaigned for her during her 2018 run for governor.

At the time of that campaign, the group was led by Raphael Warnock, who was later elected to the Senate as a Democrat from Georgia.
At a meeting of the state’s ethics commission, the nonprofit New Georgia Project conceded that it had paid for fliers and door-to-door canvassers telling voters to support Ms. Abrams and other Democrats.

Under federal law, tax-exempt charities like this one are forbidden to campaign for candidates, but this case was about a violation of state law.

YACBFDP.

Newsbusters.

When it comes to honesty and ethics, TV and newspaper reporters rank with the likes of car salespeople, lawyers and advertising professionals, results of a new Gallup survey of U.S. adults reveal – and Americans’ opinion of them may actually be much worse than they say.

In a national survey, conducted December 2-18, 2024, Gallup asked respondents to “rate the honesty and ethical standards” of 23 professions. “TV reporter” was one of just three professions distrusted by a majority of Americans. Only 13%, or about one in eight, rate the trustworthiness of TV reporters as either “high” or “very high,” while more than four times as many (55%) think it’s “low” or “very low” (55%).

Similarly, nearly half (45%) of U.S. adults rate the honesty and ethics of newspaper reporters as either low or very low, while only about one in six (17%) give them a positive score.

Washington Poop, a Voice of the Crust.

Questions surrounding a newly reelected Democratic lawmaker deepened in recent weeks as Florida moved to sue the company she once led in an attempt to recoup a more than $5 million covid overpayment.

The Office of Congressional Ethics, the House’s internal watchdog, referred Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Florida) to the House Ethics Committee for further investigation in September 2023 after finding “substantial reason” to believe that she may have violated campaign finance rules. The office released its report on her alleged misconduct last month.

The House Ethics Committee’s investigative subcommittee is still looking into the matter, the committee acknowledged in a statement on Jan. 2.

Yet Another Crooked Black Female Democrat Politician. (YACBFDP)

Read it.

The now-long-defunct Jan. 6 House select committee’s members are reportedly privately talking potential pardons with President Joe Biden in the final hours of his administration, hoping to protect themselves from legal accountability from the incoming administration under President-elect Donald Trump.

Former Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is among the leading House members fearing accountability from Trump, who has been talking about criminal destruction of evidence, including that which would exonerate Trump against former special counsel Jack Smith’s ceased cases, Punchbowl News reported Tuesday morning.

“I believe Donald Trump when he says he’s going to inflict retribution on this,” Thompson said on Monday night. “I believe when he says my name and Liz Cheney and the others. I believe him.”

Mess with the bull, and you get the horns every time.

How one of Trump’s most controversial allies became one of his safest Cabinet picks (Politico)

4 Things the Middle Class Likely Won’t Be Able To Afford Once Trump Takes Office (GOBankingRates) Is that really true? No, but we need the clicks.

‘The million-dollar question:’ Trump’s populist economic promises meet Republican skepticism (Semafor)

How Donald Trump’s policies could impact the Long Island economy (Newsday)

The Biggest Economic Risk From Donald Trump’s Presidency Is a Loss of Confidence in U.S. Governance (Chatham House) Too late. That ship has already sailed. That’s why people voted for him.

The Report on Trump’s 2020 Election Subversion Is Damning (Ryan Bort/Rolling Stone)

Marco Rubio Isn’t Likely to Last Long as Secretary of State (Nahal Toosi/Politico)

Trump: Hegseth Has ‘My Complete and Total Support’  Personally, I’d pick Eric Prince.

Bannon taunts Musk: He doesn’t have that much power (Politico)  But more than Bannon, and that’s what burns.

Hegseth’s track record falls short of military standards: Dem senators (Military Times)

Felon Who Stole and Leaked Trump’s Tax Returns on Biden’s Clemency List  Of course he is. The Crust take care of their own.

Canada ready to buy more American products to appease Trump’s tariff threat, ambassador says (Rob Gillies/Associated Press)  Oh, so Trump’s methods work. Good to know.

Why Jack Smith Passed on Charging Trump With Incitement  Because there wasn’t any evidence?

Special Session To ‘Trump-Proof’ California Postponed Amid Ongoing Wildfires

New Jersey Announces It’s Stockpiling Abortion Pills Before Trump Takes Office (Alanna Vagianos/HuffPost)  I’ll be happy to contribute. Fewer New Jerseyians sounds like a win to me.

Trump Floats Creating ‘External Revenue Service’ for Tariffs (Bloomberg)

Trump says will create ‘External Revenue Service’ to collect revenue from foreign sources (Ryan Patrick Jones/Reuters)

The Most Damning Lines in Jack Smith’s Brutal Trump January 6 Report (Hafiz Rashid/New Republic)

Hegseth fights back against ‘smear campaign’ as Democrats charge he is unqualified to lead Pentagon (Washington Examiner)

Hirono grills Hegseth over allegations of drinking on the job (Alexander Bolton/The Hill)

Hegseth interrupted by protesters (Alexander Bolton/The Hill)

The Washington Post just endorsed 19 Trump nominees. Here are the 5 worst. (Jamison Foser/Finding Gravity)

Speaker Orders Capitol Hill Flags Raised for Inauguration (Robert Jimison/New York Times) The swine!

Johnson announces flags will fly full-staff during Trump’s inauguration (Ali Bianco/Politico) The swine!

Vice Is a Moat – 1. Secretary Pete – Here is the thing about Pete Hegseth: (Jonathan V. Last/The Bulwark)

Hegseth’s Drinking, Once ‘Self-Medication,’ Could Prompt Questions at His Hearing (New York Times)  All the innuendo that’s fit to print.

Trump’s CIA director will take a ‘wrecking ball’ to transgender lectures and pride events at Langley (Rob Crilly/Daily Mail)

GOP Culture War Fights Were Instrumental to Trump Win, Report Says

Trump would have been convicted over 2020 election, says special counsel (David Smith/The Guardian)

Kaine clashes with Hegseth over infidelity, drinking, scandals (Alexander Bolton/The Hill)  Borking is the favorite Democrat sport.

‘Days of thunder’: Steve Bannon on the second coming of the Trump administration (Myah Ward/Politico)

What we learned from the Trump Jan. 6 report by special counsel Jack Smith (Washington Post)  Mostly that Smith really doesn’t like Trump.

NYT Scoops Up WaPo Reporter Behind Botched Steele Dossier Reports

BEASTMODE: Markwayne Mullin Calls Out Drunken, Philandering Senators After Tim Kaine Lectures Pete Hegseth

Pete Hegseth seems open to ordering soldiers to shoot protesters (Philip Bump/Washington Post)  As am I.

Pete Hegseth Refuses To Answer Whether He Would Follow Donald Trump’s Unconstitutional Order (Aaron Parnas/MeidasTouch News)

3 Republican Senators Respond to Poll Showing Nearly Half of DC Federal Bureaucrats Aim to Oppose Trump

Paul Krugman: Trump Voters Are Already Getting “Brutally Scammed” (New Republic)

Trump Envoy Speaks At MEK Conference On Regime Change In Iran

In Greenland, a cold shoulder for Trump, but curiosity about U.S. ties (William Booth/Washington Post)

How Biden Tried to ‘Trump-Proof’ Government With Federal Telework

Alone in a Trumpian world: The EU and global public opinion after the US elections (European Council on Foreign Relations)

Jack Smith reminds us of the futility of truth in the Trump era (Lisa Needham/Public Notice)

Scoop: Trump’s $500 million post-election windfall (Marc Caputo/Axios)

Trump will begin his presidency in delicate position, poll finds (Domenico Montanaro/NPR)

By Targeting Hegseth, Democrats Open a Path for Gabbard (Jonathan Martin/Politico)

Michelle Obama signals she’s done with Trump (Amie Parnes/The Hill)  I’m sure he’s worried.

Are We Sleepwalking Into Autocracy? – Since Donald Trump’s election victory … (New York Times)

Paul Krugman Issues Dire Warning On How ‘A Lot’ Of Trump Voters Will Be ‘Brutally Scammed’ (Lee Moran/HuffPost)

The Greatest DEI Disaster Ever (Jennifer Rubin/The Contrarian)  Jennifer Rubin loses her shit — as she does.

Thinking About the Confirmations – There are a few things that are critical to understanding … (Josh Marshall/Talking Points Memo)

The Second Trump White House Could Drastically Reshape Infectious Disease Research. Here’s What’s at Stake. (Anna Maria Barry-Jester/ProPublica)

Trump’s threat to place conditions on fire aid outrages Democrats (Washington Post)  Why? Democrats do it whenever they can.

CNN SEETHES Over Hegseth Confirmation Hearing, Continues Peddling Conspiracies

Rubio vows to place US interests ‘above all else’ as Trump’s top diplomat (Associated Press)  The swine!

Klepper: Hegseth’s Obsession With Merit Is ‘Damning’ Because He’s a TV Host

Few US adults confident Justice Department and FBI will act fairly under Trump, AP-NORC poll finds (Amelia Thomson-Deveaux/Associated Press)

Pentagon Contractor Fired After Undercover DoD “Stop Trump” Exposé

How Right Wingers Rushed to DEI Hire Pete Hegseth (emptywheel)

Would Pam Bondi Stand Up to Trump as Attorney General? (Elie Honig/New York Times)  Has any Democrat AG ‘stood up’ to a Democrat President? I can’t remember one. Ever.

The GOP Is No Longer the Party of National Security (Tom Nichols/The Atlantic)

Hegseth Will Implement The Trump Doctrine  Nobody has yet defined this so-called “Trump Doctrine”.

The Fear Is the Point – The administration won’t have time, money or resources to enact mass deportations right away. (Adrian Carrasquillo/The Bulwark)

No, Merrick Garland Did Not Let Donald Trump Skate (Harry Litman/New Republic)

Gavin Newsom Rushes Into Burning Building To Inform Fire Victim Trump Is Bad (Babylon Bee)

Why the World Beyond Europe Is Warming to Trump’s Second Term

Read it.

The Nuwa Pen utilizes three tiny cameras to capture what you write – on paper! – and save your notes in an accompanying app. I demoed the game-changing device at CES 2025.

Read it.

2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the iconic Terminator franchise, which has captivated audiences with its thrilling storyline and futuristic concepts. One intriguing question that often arises when watching these films is: How does a time-traveling robot, like the Terminator, never have to worry about running out of battery power during its mission?

Maybe in the future depicted in the movie, they possess advanced technology that allows them to operate with remarkable efficiency and longevity.

The future is now. On January 8, Betavolt Technology, the Beijing-based start-up, announced the successful development of the world’s first micro-atomic energy battery. In a press conference, company CEO Zhang Wei revealed they have created an innovative new power source that combines nickel-63 isotope decay and China’s first diamond semiconductor module. This integration allows the battery to be dramatically miniaturized while maintaining low production costs.

At just 15x15x5 mm, smaller than a coin, the BB100 battery produces 100 microwatts of energy safely and stably for 50 years without recharging. The nuclear battery generates power every second and minute, producing 8.64 joules of energy per day and 3,153 joules of energy per year. The modular design means multiple batteries can be connected to deliver higher output. The stable, zero-emission energy could help power AI and autonomous technologies driving China’s next revolution.

Read it.

The tale of Lloyd Peterson is almost too perfect an American parable. Born in rural Arkansas in 1912, Peterson was the grandson of pioneers who, as the tales have it, rolled into the Ozarks by wagon. He was too hardworking a fifth grader to take money from his parents, so he dug ditches, mowed lawns, milked cows, sold newspapers. He was too practical a 22-year-old to accept a professional baseball contract offered by the New York Giants, choosing instead to manage a farm store in Decatur. “Lloyd Peterson developed his business by being fair and honest,” one industry biography reports.

Soon he began to deal in chickens, which he sold to local farmers to be raised and shipped live to cities across the Midwest. By 1939, Peterson had decided to keep a flock to produce “broilers,” the term for chickens destined to become dinner.

It was the eve of a growth spurt for both the chicken industry and the chickens themselves. Technology was key. New indoor barns featured artificial light and heating, promoting faster growth. Nutritionists carefully formulated feeds. Peterson had not gone to college, but he leaned into another angle of the emerging poultry science: genetics. He kept detailed notes on his own chickens and perused scholarly studies. Eventually, he hired a team of geneticists. When he was inducted into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame, the citation noted Peterson’s breakthrough recognition that “feed efficiency” was a heritable trait. He realized that you could, in other words, breed birds across generations that got better and better at turning food into body mass. Less input, more output.

Read it.

Why does nobody care about anything? The world is full of stuff that could be excellent with just 1% more effort. But people don’t care.

Have you been to the DMV? It sucked? There is a human being whose job it is to be in charge of the DMV. They do not care that it sucks.

Ever used a piece of software that’s buggy as hell, looks bad, but still costs money, presumably because the company behind it has found some regulatory capture to justify their existence? The programmer who wrote it probably doesn’t care. Their manager definitely doesn’t care. The regulators don’t care.

You might think “something something incentive systems”. No. At my big tech job I had the pleasure of interviewing a few programmers who worked for a large healthcare company that engages in regulatory capture. Let me assure you: They. Do. Not Care.

I’ve met a few people that work for municipal governments. Not politicians, just career bureaucrats deep in the system. I ask them what their favorite part of the job is. They all say “stability” or “job security” as their #1. It takes 18 months to get the city to permit your shed? They. Do. Not. Care.

ZMan lays out some inconvenient truth.

In the fullness of time, whoever is writing the story of the American experiment will marvel over the fact that the United States never understood itself and as a result, was eventually destroyed in a struggle with itself. A land with vast resources and a capable people could never move past a central problem that stepped off the Mayflower to start the American story. That problem is how can you build a society that derives equality from inequality?

At every step in the American story, we see this conflict. One the one hand, what drives the efforts of the American people is the desire to equalize not only American society, but the society of man. On the other hand, there is the grudging acknowledgment that what lies between here and the egalitarian paradise if the impenetrable barrier called the natural inequality of man. Despite the unconquerable truth of the human condition, what drives America is the desire to overcome it.

The Other McCain.

There may be dumber people in the Senate than Mazie Hirono, but I’m having trouble naming one after the Hawaii Democrat’s absurd questions to Pete Hegseth during Monday’s confirmation hearing,

Read it.

Is your home on fire because your local fire department is run by three lesbians named Kirsten and there’s no water because that department is also being run by a diversity hire?

Sorry, maybe you should have bought diversity insurance.

Read it.

There’s enough heat flowing from inside the earth to meet total global energy demand twice over. But harnessing it requires drilling deep underground and transforming that heat into a usable form of energy. That’s difficult and expensive, which is why geothermal power—sometimes called the forgotten renewable—makes up only about 0.3% of electricity generation worldwide.

And that really tells you all you need to know.

Now, though, it’s getting a boost. The recently passed US infrastructure bill set aside $84 million for the Department of Energy to build four demonstration plants to test enhanced geothermal systems, an experimental form of the technology.

“Geothermal is really ready for prime time,” says Tim Latimer, founder and CEO of the EGS startup Fervo.

But not, notice, without government taxpayers paying for it.

I remember a time when everybody didn’t assume that if you couldn’t get the government to pay for something it’s just impossible.

Biden Races to Cement His Legacy Through a Series of Actions (New York Times)

Certification of Rescission of Cuba’s Designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (The White House)

Biden moves to lift state sponsor of terrorism designation for Cuba, part of deal to free prisoners (Associated Press)

Biden Administration to Lift Cuba’s State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation (NewsMax)

Biden Throws Cuban Curve Ball Days Before Trump Enters White House

Florida Dems: Mistake to Remove Cuba as Terrorist State (NewsMax)

Sen. Cruz Rips Move to Lift Cuba Terror Designation (NewsMax)

Biden Solidifies Anti-Oil Legacy With Flurry of Lame-Duck Attacks on Drilling and Mining

No One Wants A Biden Presidential Library (The Federalist)

‘Sinking the Democratic Party’: Florida Dems Rip Biden for Delisting Cuba as Terrorism Sponsor

Read it.

Oh, say it ain’t so! Follow the Science — until it changes….

Read it.

From America’s founding — and before — false narratives about post-racism and meritocracy have been at play in our national identity. By the early 19th century, there was a general expectation that white men should, and could successfully, strive for self-mastery and improvement: that a hard-working, right-living youth could become a prosperous self-made man. Implicit disapproval of the poor has an even longer history, rooted in debates over colonial poor laws. As a nation, we have absorbed and employed these narratives for generations.

In tracing the roots of these narratives, two caveats are in order. First, what the average person thought about individual achievement and opportunity at the beginning of the 19th century is difficult to say. What exists are the accounts of those who succeeded, those wealthy enough to have had political power and thus be included in the historical record. Second, this topic is much too broad to cover adequately here. Many have written about the nation’s evolving sense of itself in the wake of independence and during the years in which the republic solidified. I will borrow from their insights and heavily summarize the import of their work for this discussion of the origins of The Myth, as I call it in my book.

In other words, this guy wrote a book just summarizing what everybody knows about ‘meritocracy’ and bad-mouthing every phase of American history. AI could do the same with less effort and pretension.

Americans don’t like anything that can be characterized as an ‘-ocracy’. A large segment of the population doesn’t like rich people because Envy and so smears rich people as ‘oligarchs’. Another large segment of the population doesn’t like poor people because they are the generators of crime and other icky aspects of American culture, even though that’s pretty much true, but it’s outside of the Overton Window to say so and engage in the crime of Noticing. And these segments overlap more than you might expect.

And, tellingly, the People Who Matter don’t like talk about ‘meritocracy’ because the notion that some people might have a greater dollop of Merit than other people goes against the Narrative that everybody has exactly the same potential and talents and only differ in their outcomes because Oppression.

Tyler Cowen, a Real Economist.

It is commonly assumed that the U.S. “acquiring” Greenland, whatever that might mean, will result in greater U.S. control of the territory.  Along some dimensions that is likely.  But it is worth pondering the equilibrium here more seriously.

Larry Correia.

Listen, epic fantasy readers, real talk time. I know you had a good thing going with George. At the beginning of your relationship there seemed like there was so much potential there, like he really cared, and he’d provide a satisfactory end to your relationship. Only George is fat and lazy, and once he got that sweet sweet HBO money, he didn’t need you anymore. So then you turned to Pat, only he was even sleazier, gas lighting you, promising you a new chapter if you paid his rent, stringing you along for a decade.

The swine.

George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss have totally fucked over an entire generation of new authors. That will be their real legacy. They wrote some books that got super popular. These books dominated their genres for a lot of years, and hundreds of thousands of readers were glued to them, waiting for the next installment. Only because they are both apathetic sacks of shit with zero work ethic, their fans have been left waiting for over a decade for them to fulfill their promises.

Only this post ain’t about them. I don’t know what makes up the assortment of their particular bag of nuts, or why they suck at doing their jobs now. As a writer who has retained his dairy farmer roots interpretation of what it means to have a work ethic, fuck those guys.

I second that emotion.

Childhood Vaccination Rates Were Falling Even Before the Rise of R.F.K. Jr. (Francesca Paris/New York Times)

Elon Musk Exposed Over Right-Wing Lie on L.A. Fires (Hafiz Rashid/New Republic)

Public health experts, scientists warn senators on confirming RFK Jr (Nathaniel Weixel/The Hill)

Zelensky Offers To Send 150 Ukrainian Firefighters To California After Stinging Rebuke From Trump Jr

Trump flies US flag at full height before end of 30-day mourning period following Carter’s death (Darlene Superville/Associated Press)  The swine!

Greenland to Trump: We’re Not for Sale but Let’s Talk Business (New York Times)

Elon Musk isn’t the only tech leader helping shape the Trump administration (Washington Post)

Heritage Foundation Launches Ad Supporting Former Dem RFK Jr. for HHS Secretary

Past work for Liz Cheney cost a ‘sherpa’ his Trump transition role (Daniel Lippman/Politico)

Trump Gets Insane Show of Support From Washington Post Editorial Board (Edith Olmsted/New Republic)  And if you believe that one, they’ll tell you another one.

Trump’s Reckless Greenland Comments Are Not a Joke (Thomas L. Friedman/New York Times)

Trump Faces Elevated Security Threat For Inauguration

Project 2025’s Plan to Dismantle Public Education–And Screw Over Disabled Kids (Julia Métraux/Mother Jones)

Pete Hegseth’s FBI background check does not include interviews with key women from his past (NBC News)  And of course women must be believed.

News Outlets Take Unusual Steps to Prepare for Onslaught From Trump (New York Times)

Elon Musk Is Expected to Use Office Space in the White House Complex (New York Times)

Rachel Maddow returns to nightly MSNBC show for first 100 days of Trump presidency (Gary Levin/USA Today)

NY Times Reports on RFK Jr. HHS Hit Letter

Crazy Like A Fox: Trump’s Greenland Pitch

Harris declines to invite Vance for courtesy visit to vice president’s residence before inauguration (Jennifer Jacobs/CBS News)

CBS Resumes the Regime Media’s Smear Campaign Against Pete Hegseth

Zuckerberg Debuts ‘Real Mark’ in Push to Woo Trump (Wall Street Journal)

Justice Dept. releases Trump special counsel report on Jan. 6 case (Washington Post)

The Pressure Campaign to Get Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Defense Secretary (Jane Mayer/New Yorker)

Special Counsel Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case (New York Times)

“Unprecedented Criminal Effort” – DOJ Releases Jack Smith’s Report On Trump ‘Election Interference’

Trump made the GOP a big-tent party. Now, he’s stuck with the infighting. (Politico)

Playbook: Hegseth, Senate Dems prepare for battle (Adam Wren/Politico)

Putin needs Trump’s help more than ever (David R. Lurie/Public Notice)

Why This Lifelong Democrat Voted for Trump

RFK Jr. faces a complicated confirmation with some opposition on both sides of the aisle (Sarah McCammon/NPR)

How Trump’s Greenland demands could impact Ozempic costs (Joseph Choi/The Hill)  TDS! Is there anything it can’t do?

Exclusive poll: For Trump, a strengthened hand but skepticism on tax cuts, tariffs (USA Today)

Senate GOP incumbents brace for MAGA primary challengers (Julia Mueller/The Hill)  Speed the day.

Is corporate America going Maga? (Financial Times)

EU may be reassessing billion-dollar Big Tech fines as it waits for Trump

Democrats Question Pete Hegseth’s Qualifications After Learning He’s Never Once Worn A Dress  (Babylon Bee)

ZMan:

Anyone who has had anything to do with the American healthcare system knows that it is both amazingly good and amazingly insane. If you have a treatable form of cancer, you can be cured of something that within living memory killed people. On the other hand, if they find some trivial ailment during your physical, you can be subjected to endless hustles to pump you full of prescription medications.

From my limited experience with the system, it appears to be a system created by organized crime, but some of the members found Jesus and wanted to help people, so the compromise was gangsterism mixed with altruism. The frustrating part of it is you are never sure which end you are experiencing. Often it feels like it is both at the same time, which should be impossible.

One reason for this is we do not treat medicine as a business. The medical professions, even the bullshit administrative stuff, are full of people who have nailed themselves to the cross as a sacrifice to the rest of us. Any suggestion that they are acting from anything other than the your best interests is treated as blasphemy. They are “care givers” who sacrifice for the rest of us.

Popular culture does not help, as it is full of movies and television shows that portray these people as altruistic angels, sent here to serve humanity. This took a massive hit during Covid, when we learned that the chubby nurses were making TikTok videos in empty hospitals when they claimed to be saving lives. This change in public perception had no impact on their view of themselves.

…

This confusion about the reality of the medical business lies at the heart of the debate of health care reform. The “universal medicine” people are sure that the problem is the profit motive, so they want to remove it. They think this will turn everyone into angels who live to serve us. Instead, it will turn them into the sorts of people who will never be fired for the Los Angeles wildfires.

Alex Tabarrok, a Real Economist.

It’s well known that the voting methods we use are highly defective, as they fail to meet fundamental criteria like positive responsiveness, the Pareto principle, and stability. Positive responsiveness (monotonicity) means that if a candidate improves on some voters’ ballots, this should not reduce the candidate’s chances of winning. Yet, many voting methods, including runoffs and ranked-choice voting, fail positive responsiveness. In other words, candidates who became more preferred by voters can end up losing when they would have won when they were less preferred! It’s even more shocking that some voting systems can fail the Pareto principle, which simply says that if every voter prefers x to y then the voting system should not rank y above x. Everyone knows that in a democracy a candidate may be elected that the minority ranks below another possible candidate but how many know that there are democratic voting procedures where a candidate may be elected that the majority ranks below another possible candidate or even that democratic voting procedures may elect a candidate that everyone ranks below another possible candidate! That is the failure of the Pareto principle and the chaos results of McKelvey–Schofield show that this kind of outcome should be expected.

Almost all researchers in social choice understand the defects of common voting systems and indeed tend to agree that the most common system, first past the post voting, is probably the most defective! But, as no system is perfect, there has been less consensus on which methods are best. Ranked choice voting, approval voting and the Borda Count all have their proponents. In recent years, however, there has been a swing towards the Borda Count.

UnHerd.

Vaccination rates against childhood diseases have been on a downward slide for the past few years in the United States. Nationally, for example, the share of kindergarteners with completed records for the measles vaccine dropped to 93 percent last year, down from 95 percent in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Polio, whooping cough, and chickenpox vaccination rates have likewise slumped since the pandemic.

Vaccines are one of the marvels of modern science, allowing our species to overcome some of our oldest microscopic adversaries. The erosion of public support for childhood immunisation is thus lamentable, not to mention dangerous. Yet public-health and government authorities looking for someone to blame for growing vaccine scepticism might wish to look in the mirror: Their Covid and gender excesses have done a great deal to sow distrust among parents.

ZMan peers behind the curtain.

On Monday, Trump will be installed as president, so naturally everyone is speculating about what he will do once he gets the keys to the White House. Interestingly, much of the speculation is around the foreign policy issues he inherits. The neocons in the media are working hard to keep Ukraine in the news, so they are making claims about what Trump will and will not do with Putin. The Israel lobby wants Israel to be number one, so they are focusing on Iran.

What does not get noticed is Trump was elected on domestic issues. In the last election, Israel and Ukraine were far down the list for all voters. The number one issue was the economy. Immigration was the next big issue. The typical Trump voter looks at Ukraine as a boondoggle and Israel as an unsolvable problem. Logically, these two issues should be far down the list for Trump, but the media is focusing on them, which speaks to the power of their respective lobbies.

…

Time is the way to think about what Trump is planning for his second term. He has just one term and that means he has about eighteen months to get his domestic agenda pushed through Congress and the administrative state. Once we get to the summer of 2026 his party will be busy throwing the midterms. This means they will not pass anything the people want but instead focus on angering the base. After the election, Trump will get nothing from Congress.

This is a lesson Trump learned the hard way the first time. Once he won the election, he was swept up in a series of events that forced him to use his time in ways that had no benefit to him. He became the salesman wasting his days tending to customer service issues, rather than finding and closing new business. The number one skill for a salesman is time management. If you fail to manage your time, you fail. This is true for presidents, especially reformers like Trump.

Read it.

For a change, we get to see producer prices first this month (before tomorrow’s CPI extravaganza). While central bankers are sure this resurgence is a blip – a transitory rebound on the way to 2% – analysts are far less convinced with expectations signaling a big jump in inflation in December data.

Analysts were right on direction but not on magnitude as headline PPI rose 0.2% MoM (+0.4% exp), pulling the YoY PPI up to +3.3% from +3.0% prior (but below the 3.5% exp) – the highest since Feb 2023.

Read it.

In the 21st century, Democrats are misnamed:

They’re the less democratic of the two great parties, and their insider-dominated politics explains both how Biden wound up in a role for which he was unfit and why the candidate picked to replace him went on to lose every battleground state.

Kamala Harris had never won a presidential primary.

Read it.

On the same day that an ISIS-inspired terrorist killed 15 civilians in a deadly car attack in New Orleans, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protestors marched in Times Square chanting, “There is only one solution: intifada revolution.” After a year of such scenes and with domestic terror attacks escalating, the threat from those calling to “globalize the intifada” has never been more acute.

So, what exactly is meant by an “intifada,” and how do we defeat it?

Intifada – or “uprising” – refers to two periods of sustained violent Palestinian revolt against Israel. The first intifada (1987-93) ended with the onset of the Oslo peace process, as Israelis believed Palestinian violence stemmed from their desire for independence.

The second intifada (2000-05) began with the failure of Oslo as Israelis learned that rather than seek their own state, the Palestinians sought to destroy the Jewish state. And they would seek to achieve this through any means necessary, including targeting civilians.