Shane Northern

[Mary Katharine Ham @mkhammer]

“Oh, cool, y’all are planning a big get-together for the President’s birthday?”

“No, it’s a protest.”

“So, large crowds will gather in his name across the nation on the day of his birth?”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“And there will be a cool concert?”

“A protest concert!”

“And people will have watch parties for the birthday concert? Kinda like a reality show dedicated to him?”

“No!”

“Will there be cake?”

“I hate you.”

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

Cole Allen is the Dunning-Kruger Assassin.

Allen is not some random nut job from the fringes of society. He’s a very articulate graduate of Caltech, which means he has a high degree of native intelligence. He’s in the education profession. He is on BlueSky. He goes to No Kings protests. He’s your basic rank-and-file Democrat.

But it’s that high native intellect that led him astray.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is, at its simplest level, people thinking they know more that they do. People who are high achievers in one area often mistakenly believe their native abilities make them experts in all areas.

So you get a super-smart guy like Allen, he excels in one narrow area, and extrapolates that excellence into thinking he knows more than he does in other areas. He goes into Blue Sky, he goes to No Kings protests, and he is easily swayed into believing all of the insane, violent lies those sorts of intellectual cesspools foster. All of a sudden this computer science expert is a national political policy expert too, except that latter expertise is derived from insane propaganda. The man with the intellectual skill to write code is not smart enough to recognize when he himself has fallen prey to propaganda, so he KNOWS that Donald Trump is Hitler and must be stopped.

And when you KNOW that someone is Hitler, what’s the right thing to do?

That’s what is so scary at this very moment—the sheer number of ostensibly educated Democrats who KNOW so many things are “true" that are actually so very, very untrue.

In many ways, Cole Allen is just an average Democrat, and like most average Democrats, he fell prey to credentialism and Dunning-Kruger. But Cole took it to the next level; let’s pray more do not.

[The Real Mike Rowe @mikeroweworks]

If you haven’t heard, and even if you have, Jimmy Kimmel said this about Markwayne Mullin, former Senator from Oklahoma, and our newest Secretary of Homeland Security:
“We have a plumber now protecting us from terrorism.”

Apparently, there has been some backlash. Plumbers were offended, obviously, as were parents of plumbers, spouses of plumbers, children of plumbers, and millions of people who have had a plumber show up when they needed one. Comedians were also offended, (the funny ones, anyway,) along with a surprising number of terrorists - especially those with access to hot and cold running water. However, in spite of the ensuing kerfuffle, @jimmykimmel doubled down.

“I’m not upset that the head of Homeland Security was a plumber,” he said, “I’m upset that he isn’t still a plumber." He further elucidated by adding, "I wouldn't put a plumber in charge of Homeland Security for the same reason I wouldn't call a five-star general to pull a rat out of my toilet, OK? We all have our areas of expertise.”

Being offended is always a choice, and I don’t choose to be offended by a joke, even one that comes at the expense of the skilled tradespeople my foundation tries to elevate. But I am a tad butt hurt by the suggestion that skilled workers should never evolve into something new, and that competence is somehow limited to one vocation. Obviously, expertise and skill are important. If I need a new kidney, I’d prefer a doctor do the surgery, not a late-night talk show host. But if the doctor in question used to host a talk show, why would I hold that against him?

Ten years ago, during one of the presidential debates, @MarcoRubio answered a workforce-related question by arguing that America needed to get shop class back into high schools. He concluded by saying, “What our country needs are more welders and fewer philosophers.” A lot of people on this page commented that Rubio and I were singing from the same hymnal, but in fact, we weren’t. At least not entirely. Because I don’t think the current shortage of welders has anything to do with an overabundance of philosophers. In fact, I think it’s a mistake to promote one vocation at the expense of the other. What we really need in this country, are more welders who can talk intelligently about Aristotle, and more philosophers who can run an even bead. More Generals, in other words, who can fix their own toilets, and more plumbers who can hold a powerful government job.

This is what Mullin did. He was a private citizen who mastered an essential skill and then turned that skill into a multi-million-dollar company that employed a lot of people and served a lot of customers. That gave him the freedom to do other things with his life, including a career in public service which got him into Congress, where he’s spent the last eleven years doing whatever Congressmen do. Now, he has a very consequential position in the Cabinet of the current administration.

Is that not the embodiment of the American Dream? I get that Jimmy Kimmel might have a problem with Mullin’s politics, but what possible objection could he have about the trajectory of his career, or his desire to do more than one thing with his life?

The only sensible thing to do in the wake of a moment this tone deaf, is remind America that the skills gap is wide, and getting wider. The shortage of skilled tradespeople is now headline news and closing it is nothing less than a matter of national security. This year, my foundation has set aside $10 million dollars to help train the next generation of plumbers, and lots of other essential workers. I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of AI-proof, six figure jobs that don't require a four-year degree, waiting to be filled. The money is currently available to anyone who wants to master a useful skill at https://t.co/uolhGspFtN. Apply today.

As for those of you genuinely offended by Kimmel's comments, consider expressing your disappointment with a modest donation to mikeroweWORKS. Our work ethic scholarship is making a real difference, and your money will be well spent, I promise. The donate button is big and red and hard to miss, at https://t.co/uolhGspFtN

I’d love to chat but I’ve gotta pull a rat out of my toilet…

[Mulder’s Long Fight for Account Reinstatement @proteinwisdom]

Trump said he’d never let the IRGC get nuclear weapons.

For years. Before he got into politics. As a candidate. As an incumbent. As a second-time nominee.

The people who continue to bleat on about his “promising no new wars” and “I never voted for this!” need to be reminded — strongly — that were we EVER stupid enough to elect a President who preemptively removed military force from the table as a product of his or her election, we’d absolutely deserve the beating we’d take on our way out of hyperpower status.

These faux-“America First” isolationists are content to live under the protection of THE dominant global hegemon.

That they then virtue signal against the very actions that maintain the status that protects them, is more than just disagreeable. It’s craven.

I’ll take Colonel Jessep over Lt Kaffee any day *because* I’m a realist and not an “anti-war” ideologue.

That doesn’t make me a “neocon”; it makes me anti-enemy scumbags with malign designs on my country and countrymen.

The greatest disappointment in re: our military in my lifetime is that they’ve been the pawns and playthings of opportunistic or insincere pols.

If and when we go to war — and this is a just war against a monstrous regime — so long as we engage with the express mission of winning and breaking all the enemy things, I’m going to back our military and our CiC.

No nation building. Just sober and professional lethality.

Nearly every civilized human is “anti-war”; but it takes a special sort of sanctimonious asshole to puff out his chest and claim to be heroic in standing against the best interests of the US while laying claim to the “America First” mantle.

Fuck those pussies.

I never served because when it was my time we were still living in the aftermath of Vietnam. I saw how returning soldiers were treated. How bitter and broken so many were. I was the first in my family to go to college — and was pressured even into that. At 18 I had no idea what I wanted to do, save hookup and get drunk with friends.

My generation grew up on The Deerhunter, M*A*S*H, Coming Home, Rolling Thunder, Cutter’s Way, Who’ll Stop the Rain, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Born on the Fourth of July.

We were the early post-draft generation. Stripes was the beginning of our military comeback - and even it mocked discipline and authority.

But I soon became a Reaganite. I started siding with Frank Burns over Hawkeye. I watched Heartbreak Ridge a hundred times.

I won’t act like a skeptic of American value and virtue because some Bernie Bros and fake libertarians insinuated themselves on “my side” of the political aisle. Dave Smith and Glenn Greenwald and soldiers burned by Bush aren’t my conscience.

Again: if I know the US has entered into a righteous war with the aim of winning, I support my country, our troops, and our CiC.

If and when I feel we are no longer fighting to win, you’ll see me withdraw that support.

That’s pragmatism. That’s reality.

Don’t let the west haters demoralize you or weaken your resolve.

[Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby]

BREAKING: Black smoke is rising out of Temple Israel synagogue in Michigan after someone rammed his vehicle into the building and unleashed gunfire.

The attacks against Jews must stop.

[Willis Eschenbach @WEschenbach]

I posted that a zionist is anyone who thinks Israel has a right to exist, and that I am a zionist.

Man, you'd think I pissed in the oatmeal bowl of each of a thousand X denizens. I've been called every conceivable name, and some I've never heard of. And I'm as far from being Jewish as a man can get!

So, building on that success, I thought I'd address those accusing Israel of "genocide".

I'm fed up with all the pussy-footing around an ugly reality. Here is the unspoken truth about genocide in the Middle East, the plain fact about genocide that most people are steadfastly ignoring.

The Palestinians have a stated goal of killing every single Jew in Israel—and they have been trying over and over for 75 years to do exactly that.

That is the very definition of genocide.

It began with the war the Palestinians started on the very day Israel was created, when the Palestinians firmly believed that they would win, kill all the Jews, and take all of the Jews' land and belongings.

When that didn't work, they began a string of endless wars with the same object in mind—killing all the Jews.

In more modern times, both the PLO and Hamas have the same genocidal message baked into their charters—the extermination of the Jews.

And the Palestinian people are clearly in favor of genocide—it's taught in their schools, they repeat the genocidal "From the river to the sea" chant endlessly, they send bombers into shopping malls, they fire numberless missiles randomly into Israeli civilian areas, and they pay welfare to the families of the suicide murderers blowing up women and children.

All of those are the deliberate targeting of Jewish civilians, the exact genocidal crime that Israel is falsely accused of.

Finally, Hamas started the current war to the death by committing their unbelievable atrocities on 10/7 and then promising to repeat them over and over until every Jew in Israel is dead.

Can you say "genocide"?

The reality is, the Israelis have enough firepower to turn Gaza into glassy slag and kill every living thing. But they haven't done that and never will. Instead, they are doing their utmost to prevent civilian casualties.

To me, the Israeli restraint in the face of the endless genocidal actions of the Palestinians is remarkable—in their place I would not, could not, be so restrained.

So don't give me any BS about Israeli genocide. Anyone with half a brain can see that it is the Palestinians who have engaged in a violent, murderous genocidal agenda for as long as both countries have existed.

Unfortunately, "anyone with half a brain" clearly doesn't include the majority of the supporters of the Palestinian genocide … I can't have everything, I guess.

And on the Israeli side, calling Israel's fight to defend itself "genocide"? Get real.

• This is the only genocide in history where the people supposedly being genocided could end it today by releasing the hostages and laying down their arms. "Genocide" over, peace returns.

• This is the only genocide in history where the people supposedly committing the genocide have provided over 475,000 tonnes of food to the people being genocided.

• This is the only genocide in history where the children supposedly being genocided who require evacuation for urgent treatment are allowed by the genociders to be sent to hospitals in third countries, such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Egypt.

• This is the only genocide in history where the people supposedly committing the genocide are required to provide water and electricity to the genocidees.

• This is the only genocide in history where the people supposedly committing the genocide have sent over 18,000 tonnes of medical supplies to the genocidees.

Providing medicine to your sworn enemies in wartime?

Gotta say it. The Israelis are really good at war, but they are REALLY bad at genocide.

• And most importantly, this is the only genocide in history where the army is warning the genocidees via text messages, emails, leaflets, and radio and TV announcements where they are going to attack next, so people can avoid being genocided.

Consider what that means. That is giving up a huge military advantage, the advantage of surprise. And the inevitable corollary is that the lack of surprise increases Israeli deaths, purely in order to avoid Muslim deaths

Let me say that again. Israeli Army young men and women are dying to prevent Muslim civilian deaths, and you are accusing Israel and the IDF of genocide?

For shame.

"Genocide"?

Don't make me laugh.

My best to all … well, except jihadis and their supporters.

OK … now you can break out the torches and the pitchforks.

But remember, calling me ugly names just means you can't disagree with anything I said, so you're reduced to acting like a baby who's lost his binky and blames his mom.

w.

[You can’t make this crap up! @cantpretendtoo]

@CynicalPublius

[Mulder’s Long Fight for Account Reinstatement @proteinwisdom]

The woke left and the woke right will blame every US soldier and civilian death on Israel and Donald Trump, because to them, only Israel and the Jews have actual independent agency.

Iranians are simply responding to US imperialism; Palestinians on 10/7 were simply responding to colonialist subjugation.

As they’re pulling you in with this leftist blather, I want you to stop and think of what they’re *actually* arguing, and compare it the arguments Soros-backed DA’s are notorious for making, namely, that criminality is mostly merely the reaction to forces that explain and even justify the crime: poverty; a mommy who didn’t hug them; an absent father; systemic racial injustice.

That is, the argument is always framed as the way power operates on the less powerful, and in so doing, creates a category of victims out of the very conditions of liberty (which by its nature results in outcome differences).

Responsibility itself, in this formulation, becomes a tool of oppression demanded by the powerful of the less powerful.

We should of course expect this kind of lazy and dangerous critical studies epistemological framework from the cultural Marxists.

But it is anathema to American conservative thinking — and should alert you to the interlopers who’ve insinuated themselves into the conservative movement, often at its highest levels.

Iran’s actions have triggered a (reluctant) US response. Hamas and Gazans invading Israel and slaughtering civilians resulted in a robust Israeli response; 9/11 was not an act of “resistance.”

Reject the rot of leftism that reduces each of us to a series of predictable responses foisted upon us by power dynamics.

Embrace free will and individualism.

The woke right is a mirror image of the prog left.

[Mulder’s Long Fight for Account Reinstatement @proteinwisdom]

Satchel is now a 10 year survivor of this rare form of brain cancer. He manages his endocrine system, is mindful of his cortisol situation, and lives a normal life with his girlfriend of four years as an EMT in paramedic school.

With each passing year, his chances of recurrence drop exponentially.

So proud of the man he has become.

@satchelstrong

[Ricky Gervais @rickygervais]

This wasn't allowed in public incase it offended anyone.
So please don't retweet it. Thanks 🙏https://t.co/1stbtsOxvz

[Willis Eschenbach @WEschenbach]

For all you good folks who are hyperventilating about the end of the Endangerment Finding, I fear you've been fed a lie. Here's the supposed "danger" …

[Chris Martz @ChrisMartzWX]

Al Gore is a fraud.

There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that trace carbon dioxide (CO₂) is in any way a danger to public health. The Obama administration's EPA Endangerment Finding was a politically motivated response to Massachusetts v. EPA (2007).

The Clean Air Act, as written, does not classify CO₂ and other “greenhouse gases” (GHGs) as “air pollutants.” Congress would have to amend the Clean Air Act to do it, but Obama decided to lean on the Chevron Deference (which no longer stands) to force the EPA to “find” evidence that GHGs are a danger to public health.

Contrary to what you have been told by charlatans like Al Gore, scientists cannot say for certain whether most, or even all, of the warming observed over the last century and a half has been human-caused or not. This is for two reasons:

1⃣ The measurement of the natural radiation fluxes in and out of Earth's climate system have a larger margin of error than the global energy imbalance imposed by mankind's CO₂ emissions.

🔗https://t.co/5z5iMdazRB

2⃣ Computer models used to ascribe warming to our emissions are artificially tuned such that CO₂ is the proximate cause. That is, when building their models, climate “scientists” assume Earth's climate system was in a natural state of energy balance before the Industrial Revolution. They set everything to zero and assume nothing else has changed the planet's mean surface temperature since 1850, then jack up the CO₂ until the modeled temperature curve matches the observations, then they say, “See?! CO₂ is the cause of the warming.” But this is circular reasoning because they are trying to prove what they assumed from the outset.

There was a good article published in Science about this almost 10 years ago.

🔗https://t.co/PImzcNbn0W

Even less compelling, scientists cannot claim with any high level of confidence that global warming—and by extension, CO₂ emissions—are in any meaningful way endangering public health and life on Earth.

First, the human condition has never been better than it is today:

• Average life expectancy has more than doubled on every continent since the 19th century.

🔗https://t.co/xqSxg7VjMm

• The total number of deaths resulting from weather-related disasters have decreased by >96% since the 1920s; that is despite a six billion-person increase in global population over that time.

🔗https://t.co/RgELre0aZ7

• Global crop yields have been at all-time record highs in recent years.

🔗https://t.co/ENQvE408dt

Anyone who claims that we are facing an “existential crisis” because the planet is a little warmer than it was a century ago is either uninformed OR is lying. No hard data supports that claim.

Secondly, there is no scientific justification to relegate CO₂ to a “pollutant.”

Recall that the EPA has, up until now, classified CO₂ as pollution because it “contributes to GHG pollution that threatens public health and welfare.”

Well, by that standard, then water vapor (H₂O) should also be classified as a pollutant and regulated because, like CO₂, it is a GHG and is also a byproduct of combustion. In fact, vapor is the most abundant and potent GHG since it (a) comprises 1-4% of atmospheric volume (CO₂ is only 0.04%) and (b) it absorbs a wider spectrum of infrared wavelengths than do CO₂ molecules.

However, we do not regulate water vapor because water is an essential compound for life on Earth. But, so is CO₂; it is required for photosynthesis, which forms the basis for the food chain on land and in the oceans.

At the end of the last glacial maximum 20,000 years ago, atmospheric CO₂ levels were on the order of 180 parts per million (ppm). There is plenty of peer-reviewed evidence suggesting that plants were in fact carbon-starved during this period.

🔗https://t.co/CAtWWfiP7x

🔗https://t.co/b4gndyHtFp

🔗https://t.co/tVRXsvBSlP

As of January, the atmospheric CO₂ concentration is nearing 429 ppm.

That is about half the level needed for optimum plant growth and only about a third of the concentration in the room you are probably reading this post in.

🔗https://t.co/wA97CDLxIn

The OSHA Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) is 5,000 ppm for an 8-hour period.

🔗https://t.co/j28laQwryA

Submariners in the Navy are exposed to levels that often exceed 10,000 ppm, and it has little to no impact on their mental faculties or ability to complete their assigned tasks.

Some people may experience drowsiness at 10,000 ppm, but not most. Almost everyone will feel drowsy at levels exceeding 30,000 ppm, but only at levels at or above 40,000 ppm is CO₂ “immediately dangerous to life or health.”

At concentrations encountered in Earth’s atmosphere (which have been as high as 7,000 ppm in the last 600 million years), there is no compelling evidence that justifies labeling CO₂ as “pollution.” And, in fact, we do not have enough fossil fuel reserves left to tap into, extract resources from, refine into petroleum products, and burn to get the atmospheric CO₂ level anywhere remotely close to 5,000 ppm.

U.S. CO₂ emissions have been falling for 30 years. They will continue to fall (largely due to the phaseout of coal and adoption of natural gas, but the increase in solar and wind capacity do play a major roll) despite the rescinding of the Endangerment Finding. As it turns out, the free market has done more to reduce our emissions than government actions.

Regardless, until China and India curb their emissions whatever the U.S. does will make little difference.

This is nothing but rehearsed performative outrage.

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

It simply can’t be any clearer than this. If this is the hill (yet again) that Dems want to die on, so be it.

[Willis Eschenbach @WEschenbach]

Can we stop with the lies about Trump saying he'd only go after the "worst of the worst"?

In a December 8, 2024 Meet the Press interview, when Kristen Welker asked, “Is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years?”, Trump replied, “Well, I think you have to do it,” then said he would start with people with a criminal history and “then expand out.” This is a direct statement endorsing deporting “everyone who is here illegally."

That's what he said, and that's what we voted for.

w.

[Electroverse @Electroversenet]

Reaching Net Zero by 2050 would require mining 4.5 million tons of copper, 940 million tons of nickel, 9 billion tons of graphite, and 4 million tons of germanium.

At current global mining rates, that scale of extraction would take more than 1,000 years.

Mining capacity cannot be multiplied by orders of magnitude in just 24 years.

Permitting timelines alone are measured in decades, and energy inputs rise as deposits degrade.

Most constraints are physical, not political.

Net Zero targets violate material reality.

They're never going to happen.

[Willis Eschenbach @WEschenbach]

There is a more fundamental problem. Temperature cannot be averaged because it is an intensive quantity, unlike an extensive quantity like mass.

Suppose we have three objects of mass 3, 5, and 7 kg. To get the average, we add the masses together to get a total mass 15 kg. This has a real, physical meaning. We can put the three objects at once on a scale and it will read 15 kg.

And when we divide the total mass by 3, it gives an average weight of 5 kg.

But when we try to do the same with temperatures, we run into a problem. Suppose we have three objects with temperatures of 30°C, 50°C, 70°C. Using the same procedure, we get a "total temperature" of 150°C … which is totally meaningless. There's no such thing as a "total temperature". It is imaginary. It has no physical meaning.

And that in turn means that the number we get when dividing the "total temperature" by 3 has no physical meaning.

Here's another way to look at it. We have three containers of water, with temperatures of 30°, 50°, and 70°. What is their average temperature?

Well … there's no way to tell. You could claim it's 50°C, but the first container might hold 50 ml of water, the second one a liter, and the third one 10 liters. Or vice-versa.

And unless we know their volumes, there is NO way to establish an average temperature.

Of course, the problem with atmospheric temperatures is exactly that … we don't know the volumes.

Best to all, and Chris, thanks for the good work.

w.

[Chris Martz @ChrisMartzWX]

I know exactly what an average is.

Averages only exist in math.

And, an average temperature isn’t what the temperature should be at any given location or time. It isn’t the “correct” value as you and other panicans seem to think.

The average global surface temperature is about as useful as the average zip code or average height of a flower stem.

It has no real-world value.

[Electroverse @Electroversenet]

Germany built one of the largest wind and solar fleets on Earth.

It dismantled its nuclear power stations and retired its coal, with the promise that green energy would power its future. The country spent billions transitioning.

Then winter arrived, and Dunkelflaut hit - the dark windless dead zone. Wind and solar fell to barely 5% of demand. The grid staggered, and Germany was forced to fire up old coal plants it said had closed forever, and import expensive nuclear from France.

This is the physics politicians fail to mention, and a point many people still fail to grasp.

When the wind dies and the sun sets, renewables disappear. And the only way the grid survives, the only reason countless millions don't freeze to death, is thanks to oil, coal, nuclear and gas.

[I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 @ImMeme0]

🚨BREAKING: GiveSendGo Co‑Founder Jacob Wells has shared that he spoke with ICE Agent Jonathan Ross, and Ross is extremely appreciative of all the support he’s receiving from people who have donated and shared the fundraiser.

According to Wells, the funds are expected to be released soon so Jonathan won’t have to worry about his family’s financial needs or their safety.

If you can and haven’t yet donated or shared the fundraiser for ICE Agent Jonathan Ross and his family, here’s the GiveSendGo link.

No donation is too small, every bit helps. Let’s take care of people who put their lives on the line to keep us safe. 🇺🇸

https://t.co/NeYWk29v30

[Masih Alinejad 🏳️ @AlinejadMasih]

Message from inside Iran:

Please help us. The situation here is horrific. It is a full scale war. The regime’s forces show no mercy. They shoot protesters in the head and heart and even finish off those already wounded on the streets. In hospitals the wounded are being kidnapped and killed.

Masih please tell the world we need help 💔

#IranRevolution2026
#Iran