"If you like your lights, you can keep your lights..........."-----Lights Out: Top 7 Threats To America's Power Grid

Lights Out: Top 7 Threats To America's Power Grid | The Daily Caller:
Revelations earlier last week that hackers linked to Russia attacked and took down the Ukrainian power grid are bringing to light once again major threats to the American power grid.

“There’s this combination of federal and state-level programs that are aimed at shutting down reliable baseload generation, such as coal, while propping up expensive and unreliable wind and solar power,” Chris Warren of the Institute for Energy Research told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “This includes policies such as the wind PTC, solar ITC, state renewable portfolio standards, and EPA regulations like the carbon rule.”

American homes, industries, and businesses are deeply dependent on reliable electricity, so threats to the consistent delivery of electricity put modern life itself at risk.

“This perfect storm of policies will unavoidably raise electricity prices on Americans and seriously threaten grid reliability,” Warren continued.

From the Environmental Protection Agency crusade against to cheap domestic energy and to renegade rodents, here are the top 7 threats to the American electrical grid.

1: Environmental Protection Agency

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has repeatedly attempted to implement regulations that shut down coal and natural gas power plants.
At the same time, the agency openly encourages solar and wind power, which also puts stress on the power grid.

Independent groups have suggested EPA regulations could be responsible for shutting down up to 81,000 megawatts of power generation capacity.
That is the equivalent of shutting off the lights of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado and Idaho.
Such action makes the power grid more vulnerable to other disruptions.

And the agency proposes so many new regulations that it creates uncertainty among investors, which effectively prevents the construction of additional conventional power plants that could stabilize the grid.

2: Terrorism

Snipers opened fire on an electrical substation supporting the power grid in April, 2013, near Silicon Valley, California. Substations are critical links in the power grid which make it possible for electricity to move long distances.
It took utility workers 27 days to make repairs and successfully reactivate the substation.
No one has been arrested or charged for this crime.

Jon Wellinghoff, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, called the incident “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred.”

It takes more than a year to manufacture a new transformer, and transformers aren’t interchangeable, as each one must be individually built specifically for its location.
The country’s roughly 2,000 very large transformers are expensive to build, often costing millions of dollars each, and hard to replace. Each is custom made and weighs up to 500,000 pounds.
3: Cyberattacks 

“The threat to America’s power supply from a cyber attack increases every day,” Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, told TheDCNF. “If just one major city were attacked in this way, the economic and societal consequences would be devastating.”

The increased networking of electrical grids worldwide allows for various time and money-saving features which make the day-to-day operations simpler, however they also make it easier for the grid to be hacked.
Lots more to worry about! Read on!

Obama lies AGAIN!-----Obama's Claims About Internet Gun Sales Are False

Obama's Claims About Internet Gun Sales Are False:
Yesterday President Obama dramatically announced a handful of executive branch actions related to the sale of guns. 
The media event was comprehensively staged and included a social media push. Using the hash tag #StopGunViolence, the White House tweeted several dozen quotes and claims about guns. One in particular stood out:
In fact, it is illegal for violent felons to purchase guns. 
And no one can just order guns off the Internet without going through a background check. 
Far from it. 
Internet gun purchases are relatively rare, but when they happen, the purchased items aren’t sent directly to the buyer but first must be sent to a dealer holding a federal firearms license. 
Such gun transactions processed by a federal firearms license holder must include a background check, regardless of whether the sale is across state lines or not. 
Gun transactions across state lines must be processed in the home state of the recipient. 
So if you purchase a gun off the Internet from a different state, it will be sent to a federal firearms license holder in your state, and you would not be allowed to take possession of it until a background check is done on you.
Lots more. Read on!

Sarah Palin Just Laid The Smackdown On President Obama For His 'Weeping'

Sarah Palin Just Laid The Smackdown On President Obama For His 'Weeping':

"For a president who — in the opinion of numerous critics — hasn’t seemed particularly presidential throughout his years in office, the timely use of of very public tears probably shouldn’t come as a surprise — especially on an issue that Obama’s hoping people will react to emotionally. And President Obama probably shouldn’t be surprised that not everyone was particularly impressed by the salty droplets that fell from his eyes as he spoke of putting further restrictions on the constitutional rights of Americans."

This is cool!-----What Would It Take To Flip States In The 2016 Election?

What Would It Take To Flip States In The 2016 Election? | FiveThirtyEight:
"How the Swing-O-Matic works:
We started with the results of the 2012 election and the support for each party’s candidate by the five demographic groups.
We then adjusted the size of those groups based on four years of population change.
When you adjust the vote and turnout above, our model recalculates the results for each state — as well as the Electoral College outcome and the national popular vote — taking into account how much of the state’s electorate the group accounts for."

History for January 12

History for January 12 - On-This-Day.com
Edmund Burke 1729, Herman Goering 1893, Rush Limbaugh 1951 


Howard Stern 1954, Kirstie Alley 1955, Jeffrey Bezos 1964 


49 BC - Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River signaling a war between Rome and Gaul. 


1904 - Henry Ford set a new land speed record when he reached 91.37 miles per hour. 


1940 - Soviet bombers raided cities in Finland. 


1943 - The Office of Price Administration announced that standard frankfurters/hot dogs/wieners would be replaced by 'Victory Sausages.' 


1949 - "Kukla, Fran and Ollie", the Chicago-based children’s show, made its national debut on NBC-TV. 


1966 - "Batman" debuted on ABC-TV. 


1967 - "Dragnet" returned to NBC-TV after being off the network schedule for eight years. 


1971 - "All In the Family" debuted on CBS-TV. 

Cyber Expert Tells Congress Hillary Clinton’s Private Email System Was a Major Security Risk | TheBlaze.com

Cyber Expert Tells Congress Hillary Clinton’s Private Email System Was a Major Security Risk | TheBlaze.com:

"During the hearing, John B. Wood, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman at Telos Corporation, listened to a scenario posed by Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, in which Smith asked if his company would accept the request of a “senior government official at an executive branch department” who approached Wood’s company to create a private email account and server with which to conduct both personal and official business. In addition, Smith said, this government official would store all of the emails in a server located in their private residence.

Following the presentation of this scenario, which was published in a YouTube video, Smith asked Wood two questions: “Could this scenario unnecessarily expose classified information to being hacked?” and “How would your company respond to such a request?”

Thomas Sowell: Complicating the obvious

Thomas Sowell: Complicating the obvious | TBO.com and The Tampa Tribune
Engineers who design computerized products and services seem to have an almost fanatical determination to avoid using plain English.
It is understandable when complicated processes require complicated operations.
But when the very simplest things are designed with needless complications or murky instructions, that is something else.
For example, like all sorts of other devices, computers and computerized products and services have to be turned on and off.
And everybody knows what the words “on” and “off” mean.
But how often have you seen a computer or a computerized product or service that used the words “on” or “off”?
These simple and obvious words are avoided like the plague on many electronic devices — and this is symptomatic of a mindset that creates bigger problems with other operations.
It is as if using words that everybody understands is beneath the dignity of a high-tech product.
Often “power” is substituted for “on” and all sorts of words or symbols are substituted for “off.”
A laptop computer of mine had an unidentified symbol on the screen, and only after you clicked on that symbol did another symbol appear, with some words indicating where you could turn the computer off.
Designers of many electronic products do not condescend to use words at all.
...Plain and simple words are avoided whenever there is some fancy, murky or esoteric word that can be used instead.
All sorts of things are computerized these days, and the same preference for murkiness often prevails in their design.
After I bought a minivan, everything seemed to go well until I found myself running out of gas.
After pulling into a filling station, I wanted to open the cover of the fuel tank — and saw nothing among the forest of anonymous control buttons and levers that would open the fuel tank.
There was nothing to do but get out the 300-page instruction book.
However, nothing in the table of contents or the index had any such pedestrian word as “fuel” or “gas.”
Eventually — and it seemed like an eternity at the time — I finally stumbled across something in the instruction book that revealed the secret identity of the lever that opened the fuel tank.
I wish someone would issue some insights to engineers designing computerized products and services.

The Origins of Political Correctness

The Origins of Political Correctness
"...We call it “Political Correctness.”
The name originated as something of a joke, literally in a comic strip, and we tend still to think of it as only half-serious.
In fact, it’s deadly serious.
It is the great disease of our century, the disease that has left tens of millions of people dead in Europe, in Russia, in China, indeed around the world.
It is the disease of ideology.
PC is not funny.
PC is deadly serious.
If we look at it analytically, if we look at it historically, we quickly find out exactly what it is. Political Correctness is cultural Marxism.
 It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms.
It is an effort that goes back not to the 1960s and the hippies and the peace movement, but back to World War I.
If we compare the basic tenets of Political Correctness with classical Marxism the parallels are very obvious.
First of all, both are totalitarian ideologies.
The totalitarian nature of Political Correctness is revealed nowhere more clearly than on college campuses, many of which at this point are small ivy covered North Koreas, where the student or faculty member who dares to cross any of the lines set up by the gender feminist or the homosexual-rights activists, or the local black or Hispanic group, or any of the other sainted “victims” groups that PC revolves around, quickly find themselves in judicial trouble.
Within the small legal system of the college, they face formal charges – some star-chamber proceeding – and punishment.
That is a little look into the future that Political Correctness intends for the nation as a whole..."
Read on and see the origins of this scourge.

House Committee Instantly Defies Obama's Gun Control, Issues Response Leaving Him POWERLESS

House Committee Instantly Defies Obama's Gun Control, Issues Response Leaving Him POWERLESS:

"On the same day that President Barack Obama released a new statement on his gun control measures, the The House Appropriations Committee sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch saying that they will not provide extra funds for the “unlawful limitations on the unambiguous Second Amendment Rights of Americans.”

Foiled New Year’s Terror Attack Is 76th Islamist Plot in US Since 9/11

Foiled New Year’s Terror Attack Is 76th Islamist Plot in US Since 9/11
"...Lutchman is a 25-year-old U.S. citizen who has a history of arrests and in 2006 was sent to prison for five years for robbery.
Beginning in November of 2015, he started confessing his allegiance to ISIS online.
It wasn’t until after purportedly getting in contact with a member of ISIS within Syria that the planning of an attack began.
Through his pledge of allegiance to ISIS, Lutchman declared his intent to travel to Syria and fight with the terrorist group—once stating,“I’m ready to lose my family.”...
Of the 76 terror attacks or plots since 9/11, Lutchman is the 65th case of homegrown radicalization, or where the terrorist was radicalized while in the U.S. 
It is also the 15th plot to target some sort of public mass gathering.
ISIS continues to be successful in its influence of misguided young Americans—as every attack or plot in 2015 was attributed to individuals who were at least partially inspired by ISIS and less so by other Islamist terrorist organizations.
With the total number of Islamist terror plots against the U.S. at 13 in 2015, there were more terror plots in 2015 than any other year since 9/11 and more in 2015 than 2012, 2013, and 2014 combined..."

Lifelong Democrat explains how Paris climate pact will force working people "to pay for policies that are going to damage the economy"

WATCH: Lifelong Democrat explains how Paris climate pact will force working people "to pay for policies that are going to damage the economy" - The Rebel:
On The Ezra Levant Show, I talked at length to Professor Joel Kotkin, a liberal Democrat who opposes the Paris global warming (COP21) agreement.

Kotkin, the Presidential Fellow at Chapman University, says the agreement will force the working- and middle class of the West to pay for policies that are going to damage large parts of the economy. Meanwhile, he notes, "India and China have no intention of doing this on a mass basis."

Kotkin also critiques what passes for "liberalism" today in general.

He says Democrats (and liberal elites in general) now favor top-down, unilateral, executive actions instead of real grassroots democracy.

He says "progressive" "Silicon Valley" types in particular are insular and privileged, and their growing insistence on censoring social media and championing open borders reflects that.

"If you're Mark Zuckerberg, you want to have good ethnic restaurants and good gardeners," regardless of how that may harm ordinary American citizens.

Kotkin calls Donald Trump "a despicable person" but admits that he and Bernie Sanders "have tapped into a vast dissatisfaction" among the American public. 

Lunch video!-----A Truck Is Sinking In The River, But It’s Not Empty. This Made Me Nervous Just Watching!

A Truck Is Sinking In The River, But It’s Not Empty. This Made Me Nervous Just Watching! | Daily Insider:
"The dog is certainly thankful for being saved, but he has no way to repay this type of action, he can’t even thank them!
All he can do is be thankful and offer these people his friendship and loyalty.
This just goes to show that we, as a species, go way beyond economics and shallow materialism."

Noon-toon

VIDEO: Navy Seal Decimates Hillary Clinton Straight UP! - 'You Are An Ignorant Liar' ⋆ US Herald

VIDEO: Navy Seal Decimates Hillary Clinton Straight UP! - 'You Are An Ignorant Liar' ⋆ US Herald:

"However when civilians attempt to masquerade themselves by either wearing the uniform or pretend to be a war hero or create a false narrative of their experiences, to either bolster their careers or perhaps use the military in some nefarious way by claiming to be within a hostile environment, then look out."

Federal Dietary Policies Are an Unsteady Diet of Nothing

Federal Dietary Policies Are an Unsteady Diet of Nothing - Reason.com:
"...the new federal Dietary Guidelines, which the federal government updates every several years as "an important resource to help our Nation reach its highest standard of health," urge all Americans to adopt a healthier diet.
What does that mean, exactly? 
The definition of a healthy diet appears to be much like the date on which Easter falls: it's a moveable feast.
Cholesterol had long been painted as a villain in the federal guidelines.
No longer.
Coffee was of questionable merit.
It, too, now gets the green light.
In their place, sugar and protein—the latter a surprise to many—have emerged as areas of concern.
Does this mean cholesterol and coffee are good, and that protein and sugar are bad?
Maybe so.
Maybe not.
It depends.
Critics have long pointed out the many, many ways Dietary Guidelines have been wrong over the years. 
Every revision and update of those guidelines is, at least in part, an admission that some or all of the previous advice was flawed.
I have little problem, at the theoretical level, with the government proposing broad dietary advice, provided a couple things.

• First, the advice must be based on sound science. 

It's better to give millions of people no advice than to give them all bad advice.

• Second, the advice should recognize and embrace the fact that dietary choices are like snowflakes. No two are alike. 

And the guidelines should never attempt to coerce anyone to adopt a particular diet.
But these Dietary Guidelines fail on both counts.
First, there's the issue of bad science.
The guidelines claim to be "informed by a critical, and transparent review of the scientific evidence on nutrition."
I spoke with two key critics of the federal government's development of dietary advice this week.
I'd previously written pieces on the issue that quoted Nina Teicholz, science journalist, author of The Big Fat Surprise, and board member of The Nutrition Coalition, and Edward Archer, Ph.D., a researcher and leading author on dietary science.
"Clearly there is not 'significant scientific agreement' on several key recommendations made by the [Dietary Guidelines], so it's not clear that they meet the standard that Congress requires to appropriate funds for them," says Teicholz, in an email to me this week.
Teicholz points to the fact federal dietary recommendations for salt consumption conflict with the government's own research on salt and the "significant disagreement" over the science of saturated fat, which the federal government treats as a settled matter.
"Until our national health policy is based on solid science," Teicholz tells me, "it seems questionable that it will do a better job of fighting obesity, diabetes as well as other nutrition-related diseases..."
Read on

Poll: Overwhelmingly, Democrats do not approve of the First Amendment on campus

Poll: Overwhelmingly, Democrats do not approve of the First Amendment on campus - The College Fix

The above is our straight-to-the-point headline;HuffPost College words theirs quite a bit differently: “Americans Are Split Along Party Lines Over Whether Schools Should Punish Racist Speech.”

Not to mention, their article saves perhaps the most damning bit of information for the very last sentence:

“Forty-four percent of Republicans in the poll said colleges should not sanction students for making racist statements, while 71 percent of Democrats said they should.”

Back in October of 2014, a You.gov poll revealed that 51% of Democrats supported restricting free speech if it is “hateful.”

It would have been helpful if the HuffPost story noted a difference between public colleges and private since there’s a legal distinction between the two. Only the latter would not run afoul of the First Amendment if it decided to punish a student for racist/offensive speech.

While the 71% (Democrats) figure is rather scary, the close-to-half of GOPers number should make you worry, too.

From the article:

In the HuffPost poll, a majority of people — 53 percent — said that colleges should sanction students who make racially offensive statements. Black, Hispanic and Democratic respondents were more likely to agree with this idea than whites, Republicans or independents. (People in the Midwest were also more likely to agree with this sentiment than people in the Northeast, the West or the South.) Among white people in the poll, 48 percent said a student should be punished for racist statements, compared to 33 percent arguing they should not.

RELATED: Poll: Most Democrats support curtailing free speech

The poll also asked whether colleges and universities should prioritize for their students “an absolute right to free speech, even if that means allowing offensive or racist comments,” or if it’s more important that “students have an environment free from discrimination, even if that means placing some limits on what students can say.”

Thirty-eight percent responded that an absolute right to free speech was more important, but 43 percent said an environment free from discrimination was more valuable.

Just 4 percent of black respondents said that an absolute right to free speech was their top concern, compared to 69 percent who said they valued an environment free from discrimination.

Lastly, two-thirds of Democrats believe universities should teach about racial bias, while almost the same percentage of Republicans say the opposite.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, of course, considering the political make-up of college faculty.

Nearly Half Of California Drivers Licenses Went To Illegals

Nearly Half Of California Drivers Licenses Went To Illegals | The Daily Caller
Almost 50 percent of all California driver’s licenses issued in 2015 went to illegal immigrants, according to recent state reports, wrapping up the first year of a state-wide program designed to provide Department of Motor Vehicle services to those without citizenship.
...Part of the push for the bill came from those who argued that the roads would be safer with more licensed drivers.
...The DMV went out of its way to hire 1,000 new employees to handle the surge in applications. 
The agency also opened four new centers and made office hours more flexible.
Still, despite the agency’s best efforts, processing centers ground to a halt at the flood of illegals looking for driver’s licenses.
Ann Coil, Santa Ana Tea Party Patriots coordinator told the Orange County Register that “There is concern in this country, and it’s reflected in this election, that there’s more compassion for people who are not citizens than those who are.”
Longer wait times particularly impacted the senior population, as those over 70 must appear in person to renew their licenses. 
These seniors have had to wait in lines for hours and hours..."

Rape Survivor Who Questioned Obama on Guns Reveals Harsh Thoughts on the President’s Answer | Video | TheBlaze.com

Rape Survivor Who Questioned Obama on Guns Reveals Harsh Thoughts on the President’s Answer | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"The rape survivor and mother of two who questioned President Barack Obama on guns at a Thursday town hall said she was not satisfied with the answer she received.

Kimberly Corban, who survived a 2006 rape while studying at a Colorado college, spoke with Fox News host Sean Hannity Friday night.

“Were you happy with the president’s answer?” Hannity asked."

‘We were left behind’: The Benghazi soldiers tell all

‘We were left behind’: The Benghazi soldiers tell all | New York Post
The first shots exploded around 9:40 p.m.
On Sept. 11, 2012, a group of local fighters, AK-47s in hand, burst through the fortified front gate of a US outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
One very long night later, the diplomatic compound was engulfed in flames and a covert CIA base a mile away lay in ruins, partially reduced to rubble by mortar fire.
Four Americans were dead, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens and two CIA members.
What happened in between is covered in “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” a new film from Transformers” director Michael Bay in theaters Friday.
It focuses on a team of six military contractors who happened to be stationed at the CIA base when the fighting broke out. 
They chose to join the battle, spending more than half a day repelling attackers.
“We wanted it [the film] apolitical….it was a story of heroism. 
That was getting lost in the politics of it all...”
Read on and cry for our heroes.

History for January 11

History for January 11 - On-This-Day.com:
Alexander Hamilton 1755 - United States Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, Carroll Shelby 1923, Rod Taylor 1930 - Actor 


Naomi Judd 1946 - Singer (The Judds), Dennis (Frederick) Greene (Sha-Na-Na) 1949, Mary J. Blige 1971 - Singer 


1770 - The first shipment of rhubarb was sent to the United States from London. 


1805 - The Michigan Territory was created. 


1913 - The first sedan-type car was unveiled at the National Automobile Show in New York City. The car was manufactured by the Hudson Motor Company. 


1922 - At Toronto General Hospital, Leonard Thompson became the first person to be successfully treated with insulin. 


1958 - "Seahunt" debuted on CBS-TV. The show was aired on the network for four years. 


1964 - U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released a report that said that smoking cigarettes was a definite health hazard. 


1973 - Owners of American League baseball teams voted to adopt the designated-hitter rule on a trial basis. 


1977 - France released Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. 

AP Source: Mexico Willing to Extradite Recaptured Drug Lord to United States (UPDATE: Mexico Says Extradition Will Proceed) | Video | TheBlaze.com

AP Source: Mexico Willing to Extradite Recaptured Drug Lord to United States (UPDATE: Mexico Says Extradition Will Proceed) | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is willing to extradite drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States, a federal law enforcement official said Saturday. It’s a sharp reversal from the official position after his last capture in 2014.

“Mexico is ready. There are plans to cooperate with the U.S.,” said the official, who spoke on condition anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment.

But he cautioned that there could be a lengthy wait before U.S. prosecutors can get their hands on Guzman, the most-wanted trafficker who was recaptured Friday after six months on the run: “You have to go through the judicial process, and the defense has its elements too.”

ISIS handbook tells UK jihadis to lose beard, shun mosque and wear cross before killing

ISIS handbook tells UK jihadis to lose beard, shun mosque and wear cross before killing | World | News | Daily Express:
Pretend to be Christians: ISIS urges UK jihadis to cut beards, shun mosques & wear crosses
WOULD-BE jihadis eager to carry out a Paris-style attack in the UK have been handed a chilling step-by-step guide by Islamic State (ISIS) thugs.
ISIS has issued a guide book for lone wolf attacks on the UK
The booklet, called Safety and Security Guidelines for Lone Wolf Mujahideen, offers a chilling insight into the levels of preparation expected of those wishing to cause carnage in Europe.
The 58-page terror manual, which has burning western-style buildings on the front cover, gushes about the importance of surprise when launching an attack to cause maximum impact.
It urges home-grown terrorists to carry out attacks as they are less likely to be noticed.
It also explains how nightclubs, full of loud music and drunk people, are the perfect place to discuss terror plans without being recorded or snooped on.
The main thrust of the instruction booklet is the necessity to blend in with the western way of life and to avoid ‘looking like a Muslim’ so as to stay below the radar of the security services..."