PrairiePundit

Guardian:
The appearance of a single green leaf hinted at a future in which astronauts would grow their own food in space, potentially setting up residence at outposts on the moon or other planets. Now, barely after it had sprouted, the cotton plant onboard China’s lunar rover has died.

The plant relied on sunlight at the moon’s surface, but as night arrived at the lunar far side and temperatures plunged as low as -170C, its short life came to an end.

Prof Xie Gengxin of Chongqing University, who led the design of the experiment, said its short lifespan had been anticipated. “Life in the canister would not survive the lunar night,” Xie said.
... Night time on that area of the moon is a long one.  It lasts for about two weeks.  Apparently, the plant died well before that period.  Scientists should not be that surprised.  The harsh conditions are one of the reasons it is a barren wasteland.

Politico:
Top Kremlin officials are scoffing at the idea that President Donald Trump is working as a Russian agent, dismissing the notion as “nonsense” and blasting U.S. journalists for their attention to the issue.

“That’s stupid,” said Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Bloomberg News. “How can the president of the United States be an agent of another country? Just think about that.”

The White House was hit with a pair of bombshell reports over the weekend that involve Trump and Putin, including one from The New York Times that revealed the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into Trump in 2017 over whether he was wittingly or unwittingly working on Russia’s behalf.

Another report, from The Washington Post, revealed that Trump has sought to conceal the details of his meetings with Putin from members of his administration, possibly in an effort to avoid leaks.

Trump this week rejected both reports, telling reporters Monday…

Bloomberg:
Why the U.S. Imports LNG Despite Its Gas-Export Boom: QuickTake The anti-energy left is blocking pipelines in the Northeast that could provide domestic natural gas where it is needed most.  Then there is the Jones Act which requires that shipping between states be done on American owned boats with American crews and all the LNG carriers or foreign. 

Both situations are self-defeating policies that help the Russians more than the US.  BTW, Trump supports the pipeline expansion that is being blocked by Democrats like Andrew Cuomo.  Is Cuomo a Russian agent? 

No, he is just a guy who has embraced the anti-energy left and is harming the New York economy with his intransigence.

ESPN:
Turkish prosecutors are seeking an international arrest warrant for New York Knicks center Enes Kanter, accusing him of membership in a terror organization.

Sabah newspaper says the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office had also prepared an extradition request for the NBA player.

The newspaper says prosecutors are seeking an Interpol "Red Notice" citing Kanter's ties to Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for a failed coup in 2016, and accusing him of providing financial support to his group. Officials at the prosecutor's office could not be reached for comment.
Kanter reacted to the report in a tweet Wednesday.

Enes Kanter
✔@Enes_Kanter
Turkish Government can NOT present any single piece of evidence of my wrongdoing.

I don’t even have a parking ticket in the US (True)

I have always been a law-abiding resident.

Washington Post:
A CNN analyst called out a Fox News contributor for ‘white privilege.’ He’s black. “I hate to break it to you, but you should’ve been better prepped. I’m black,” radio host David Webb told CNN legal analyst Areva Martin.









Webb is a smart guy who comes across as an intelligent person.   What this episode also demonstrates is that educated people have an advantage that has nothing to do with their race or "privilege." 

NY Times:
...

Under a new interior minister, Amrullah Saleh, and an earlier influx of new security commanders, including General Roshandil, the authorities have begun a concerted effort to restore order in Kabul and to reinforce police forces that have been crushed by record casualties and weakened by a reputation for corruption, abuse and acting as the extended arm of warlords as well as the elite.

Last fall, police and intelligence forces began a major push against Islamic State and Taliban cells in and around Kabul. It was a campaign that has been credited by American and Afghan officials with reducing the number of attacks, though insurgents still manage to sneak in large amounts of explosives for truck bombs and daring raids.

Now, the police forces are focused on dismantling what they call a “pyramid of crime” in the capital.

Officials say they have identified about 1,500 people in the city who are suspected of criminal activity, and who are thought to own a total of nearly 30,000…

Julie Kelly:
...
But the reality is that the Times article and resulting hysteria are the death spasms for Trump-Russia election collusion. The public now is being told not to expect any earth shattering surprises out of Team Mueller. ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl admitted over the weekend that Mueller confidants warned the final report, due shortly, will be “anticlimactic.” If that happens, the media will be further discredited as reliable, skeptical, and honest brokers of the truth and instead will be mocked as the hostile, reactionary propagandists that they are. They are not just accomplices in the biggest political scandal in U.S. history: they are co-conspirators.

In fact, the Times story is just another example of the media’s Trump-Russia spin machine; it was alarming not for what it did report but for the key details it twisted, misrepresented and/or omitted. In the nearly 2,000-word account, one name does not appear: Andrew McCabe.

The Times failed to mention that when t…

Thomas Lifson:
Has President Trump suckered Democrats and the Deep State into a trap that will enable a radical downsizing of the federal bureaucracy? In only five more days of the already "longest government shutdown in history" (25 days and counting, as of today), a heretofore obscure threshold will be reached, enabling permanent layoffs of bureaucrats furloughed 30 days or more.

Don't believe me that federal bureaucrats can be laid off? Well, in bureaucratese, a layoff is called a RIF – a Reduction in Force – and of course, it comes with a slew of civil service protections. But, if the guidelines are followed, bureaucrats can be laid off – as in no more job. It is all explained by Michael Roberts here (updated after the beginning of the partial shutdown):

A reduction in force is a thoughtful and systematic elimination of positions. For all practical purposes, a government RIF is the same thing as a layoff. ...

Organizations must stick to predetermined criteria wh…

Jeff Dunetz:
The Department of Justice just released a study asking criminals where they got the guns they had with them when committing the crime that put them in prison. In 2016, they polled 287,000 prisoners in state and federal prisons where they had with them when committing the crime 90 percent of them “did not obtain it from a retail source,” and less than one percent obtained it from a gun show. Although not the purpose of the study it does demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the new gun regulations coming out of the anti-gun lobby.
... I suspect they buy them from other criminals or they steal them.   The study does suggest that proposed new regulations of guns would be ineffective in stopping gun crime.  They are more likely to inconvenience the innocent.

Washington Times:
Activist Laura Loomer sets up illegal immigrant ‘sanctuary’ on Nancy Pelosi’s lawn Conservative activists are getting good at demonstrating liberal hypocrisy.  Unlike Antifa and other liberal activist groups, the conservatives are actually funny.

Fuel Fix:
Houston-based American Ethane announced plans Monday to expand an existing Neches River terminal to support an ethane-export facility with capacity to supply about $72 billion in gas to China, a first for a U.S. company.

The project also could create 1,000 construction jobs initially and as many as 200 permanent full-time jobs, the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce projects.

American Ethane CEO John W. Houghtaling said the company was willing to commit to the project because China has signaled its willingness to grant permits to the company’s three business partners based in that country.

“Ethane has never been imported into China,” Houghtaling said during a groundbreaking Monday. He added, “We weren’t sure how many permits China was going to grant, but we recently got indication that all of our partners would be granted permits. That means we can build the terminal large, all at one time.”

Plans call for expanding Martin Midstream Partners’ Beaumont Neches Terminal, buil…

Forbes:
China is still the world’s No. 2 economy and is still the monster of emerging markets, but regardless of those bonafides, Xi Jinping’s country is losing the trade war in nearly every way imaginable.

The arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Canada last month for breaking U.S. sanctions law, followed by the firing of Huawei sales executive Wang Weijing in Poland last week shows China can be a bad actor, exactly as Washington believes. The Poland story centers around spying allegations, where Wang allegedly sought trade secrets from the government. Huawei’s latest bad headlines show how China tech companies may have risen to prominence by copying foreign technologies in joint venture deals or through white-collar criminal actions such as intellectual property theft and corporate espionage. Huawei is one of China’s most important, private tech firms. It rivals Cisco Systems worldwide.

Thanks in part to Huawei, China is getting beat on the public relations front in the trade war.

Earl…

IBD:
It's now beyond any reasonable doubt that Obama administration minions launched an all-out effort to destroy, first, President Trump's presidential campaign and, when that failed, his presidency. The only question is, knowing the truth, will the Justice Department charge these people with crimes?

The whole concern over "Russian interference" with the 2016 election was little more than a smokescreen for a much wider effort to go after Donald Trump. And that's not us talking, but the New York Times.

A Times report titled "F.B.I. Opened Inquiry into Whether Trump was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia" shows that the investigation into Donald Trump for the non-crime of "collusion" with Russia's government began before the election. The inquiry aimed at stopping Trump — and not, really, at determining whether Russians interfered in our presidential election.

The actual investigation by the Justice Department and FBI began during the ele…

Defense News:
The world’s largest navy has spent the last few years feeling like it was being put in check.

China and Russia have heavily invested in anti-access technologies aimed at holding its main force-projection assets — aircraft carriers — at risk. Now the U.S. Navy and the upper ranks of the military are preparing to take back control of the game board, and it’s looking to unmanned technologies to help.

The U.S. surface fleet has for the past few years sought to flip the script on actors such as China. The fleet aimed to move from a role of simply defending the carrier to going on the offensive.

The goal was to spread out over a wide area to strain Chinese intelligence and reconnaissance assets and thereby exercise a degree of sea control in places such as the South and East China seas that China seeks to deny with long-range, anti-ship missiles and an ever-growing fleet.
...
Enter: the rise of the machines.

The paradigm shift is moving the fleet away from platforms like the A…

Washington Post:
The polar vortex has fractured, and the eastern U.S. faces a punishing stretch of winter weather

This past weekend’s storm, which dumped 10 inches of snow in both St. Louis and Washington, may have been one of the first indicators of a shift to harsher winter conditions that could peak in February.
I know they try to cover for this by changing the name to "climate change" but all their models predicted rising temperatures.  And when it is hot they call it the "new normal."  When it is cold they revert to calling it weather which is different from climate.  The double talk never ends.  These people still can't explain which of their assumptions are invalid when their projections are not met.  No one should call it science.

Washington Post:
Maxine Waters takes the reins of a powerful House committee, making Wall Street nervous The California Democrat would have broad influence over the financial world in her role as head of the House Financial Services Committee. She could slow the deregulation efforts of the Trump administration. This cannot come as a surprise to those on Wall Street.  She bragged about taking over this committee before the election and promised to use her power against them.  It is just passing strange that Wall Street donates so much money to Democrats.  It could be part of a protection racket, but in this case, it appears that there is no protection from liberal ideologues.

NY Times:
Court Blocks Trump Administration From Asking About Citizenship in Census Critics had accused who the Trump administration of trying to turn the census into a tool to advance Republican political fortunes. It also demonstrates the real reason why Democrats oppose real border security.  They want illegals to come to the US and they want them counted in the census in order to gain House seats and replace their shrinking political base.  This ruling is a bastardization of the founding principles behind the census.

Michael Walsh:
In trying to lob a Molotov cocktail into the Trump White House, the New York Timeslast Friday succeeded only in blowing off yet another of its appendages. Fixated on its manic desire to destabilize the lawfully elected government of the United States (at what point does the "Resistance" become active sedition?), the media has chosen to fight as down and dirty as possible, and in so doing hit a new low:

F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia

In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.

The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted …

Spectator:
Black lives matter, until they’re ended by black people For many of us, a senseless killing is still a senseless killing no matter what the race of the perp might be.  For much of the media and the political establishment that does not appear to be the case.

IBD:
Most people think President Trump's critics are trying to use Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation to delegitimize the 2016 elections, the latest IBD/TIPP Poll finds. And a plurality thinks the FBI investigation into Trump's alleged ties to Russia was meant to rein him in.

These findings come in the wake of a New York Times story Friday that claimed the FBI had opened a counterintelligence probe into Trump several months into his presidency

The probe began, the Times says, days after Trump fired then FBI Director James Comey and was meant to determine whether Trump was a Russian agent.

Trump blasted the report, and said that the question of his being a Russian agent is "the most insulting thing I've ever been asked."

The IBD/TIPP Poll found that 51% agree that "the president's opponents are using the ongoing special counsel investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion as a way to delegitimize the 2016 election."

That includes…

PJ Media:
More than 30 students at the University of Texas have been doxxed by a student antifa group, typically for the crime of joining conservative clubs or being spotted at lectures held by conservative speakers.

The doxxers — calling themselves Austin Autonomous Media (AAM) — are a small collective of UT students. Since fall 2018, AAM members have snuck into conservative club meetings, taken photos of attendees, and posted students’ names and emails online.

The AAM also typically posts students’ phone numbers and employers. For example, one young woman was doxxed for the crime of attending a pro-Kavanaugh rally. "Call [employer redacted] to get her fired: (512) XXX-XXX" the post said.

Saurabh Sharma, 21, is the president of the UT chapter of Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT). Many of Sharma’s cabinet members have been doxxed, and he says the fallout has been immense. (PJ Media is not linking to the doxxing posts to protect students’ privacy).
... The University of Texa…

Washington Examiner:
RNC calls on Pelosi to follow GOP's Steve King rebuke with 'action' against Democrats with Louis Farrakhan ties Farrakhan should be an embarrassment to Democrats.  That he isn't suggests how inconsistent they are when talking about bigotry.  It is a striking double standard.

Erick Erickson:
Democrats across America are currently declaring racist the very policies they supported under Barack Obama. It was not racist or immoral when he decided to add border barriers. It was not racist or immoral when George W. Bush did. It was not racist or immoral when Bill Clinton did. But Democrats are so invested in believing the worst about President Trump that they are willing to reject the very policies they supported only a few years ago.

A secure border with barriers to keep non-citizens from crossing into American territory without permission is not an issue of morality or racism. It is an issue of national integrity. The party that is fine with illegal aliens casting votes is not a party committed to national integrity and sovereignty.
... Too many Democrats use epithets and insults instead of logic to argue their political differences.  That is why they use bogus claims of racist or compare people they disagree with to Hitler.   They really should try to make th…

Brandon Morris:
WATCH: New Series “Walls Across America” Shows Us Democrat’s Walls Around Their Homes Starting With George Soros It appears that only walls that protect the rest of Americans are considered immoral by rich Democrats.

Fuel Fix:
San Antonio pipeline company Epic Midstream Holdings remains on schedule to begin moving crude oil from West Texas' Permian Basin to the Port of Corpus Christi by this fall.

As part of a plan originally announced in October, the company plans to temporarily use its natural gas liquids pipeline to temporarily ship crude oil starting in the third quarter.

Epic said Monday that those plans remain on schedule and that it has secured all of the mainline right of way needed to build a separate crude oil pipeline along the route of natural gas liquids pipeline.

With steel for the Epic Crude Oil Pipeline being sourced by U.S. mills, delivery of the 30-inch pipeline to build the 700-mile project is expected to take place later this month.

The Epic Crude Oil Pipeline runs from Orla, Pecos, Saragosa, Crane, Wink and Midland in the Permian Basin to Gardendale and Helena in the Eagle Ford Shale to the Port of Corpus Christi.

Construction of the crude oil pipeline is expected to begin…

Telegraph:
New wind turbines earmarked to be built off the Kent coast should be painted green to "blend in" with the landscape, councillors have said.

Kent County Council members warned plans by Swedish energy firm Vattenfall to expand Thanet Wind Farm with an additional 34 turbines by 2021 threatened to harm tourism in the area.

The current structures, thought to be around 100 white turbines standing at 115m tall, have been branded a "monstrosity".

Councillors claimed the coastal district is being "degraded" by the structures as they urged Vattenfall to paint any new turbines dark brown or dark green, suggesting it could be added as a condition in future planning applications.

Cllr Sean Holden said: "It would be nice if the wind towers could be painted any colour but white to help the environment and, quite frankly, tourism.

"I would like to see them a different colour. Painting them would mean they would not stick out so unnaturally. The quali…

Margot Cleveland:

Missing: Key Documents About Alleged Misconduct By Robert Mueller’s Lead Prosecutor

Late Friday, a federal judge’s office confirmed that several documents that would shed light on the special counsel’s lead prosecutor’s alleged misconduct are missing from the court record.

...
In a joint motion to dismiss the criminal charges filed against them, four individuals connected to the Enron collapse alleged that Weissmann had improperly threatened witnesses to keep them from speaking with defense lawyers. In support of their motion, the defendants included an email Weissmann had sent to the lawyer of a “critical witness.” What exactly Weissmann said, though, is unclear, as the brief redacted the details.

Even if cause originally existed to keep the content of this email secret, with the underlying criminal cases now complete, there is no longer a basis to hide the details from the public. Thus, my motion to unredact the public record asked Judge Lake, who had presided over t…

NY Times:
As Government Pulls Back, Charities Step In to Help Released Migrants With detention facilities overwhelmed, federal officials are releasing more migrant families with no provision for their well-being, leaving charities scrambling to fill the void. The Democrat plan of detection and apprehension instead of deterrence will only make this situation worse.  It will mean the US will be catching and then releasing more migrants and doing nothing to stop the flow of illegal immigration.  Nothing.   Without deterrence, there is an invitation for more caravans of uneducated people interspersed with criminals using them as cover for sneaking into the country to prey upon US citizens. 

Instead of releasing these people into the hands of charities, they should be released on the doorsteps of open borders Democrats.  Let them be overwhelmed by the hordes they are inviting into the country.

Mollie Hemingway:
In a Friday night news dump, the New York Times revealed the FBI’s surprisingly flimsy justification for launching a retaliatory investigation into President Donald Trump, their chief adversary during their recent troubled era.

Admitting there is no actual evidence for their probe into whether Trump “worked for the Russians,” FBI officials instead cited their foreign policy differences with him, his lawful firing of bungling FBI Director James Comey, and alarm that he accurately revealed to the American public that he was told he wasn’t under investigation by the FBI, when they preferred to hide that fact.

The news was treated as a bombshell, and it was, but not for the reasons many thought. It wasn’t news that the FBI had launched the investigation. Just last month, CNN reported that top FBI officials opened an investigation into Trump after the lawful firing of Comey because Trump “needed to be reined in,” a shocking admission of abuse of power by our nation’s top la…

Silvio Cantu, Jr.:
Who is stealing all that gasoline in Mexico? Probably it is the cartels.  What they are doing with it is not clear.  They are probably using some of it to pay for the transportation of their illicit drugs to market and perhaps for some of the production cost.  There is also the danger of them using the trucks used to haul the stolen gas for terrorist attacks in their criminal insurgency.

Mexico certainly produces enough energy for its domestic consumption.  But it seems to be having a hard time securing its pipelines against theft.  It should probably invest in some drones to have constant vigilance over the pipelines where the thefts are occurring.

Jim Daws:
No sooner had the Democrats taken back the majority in the House of Representatives than they proved their harshest critics correct – the party no longer concerns itself with the interests of the American people. And by refusing to provide a dime for a physical barrier on our border, they did it in the starkest terms possible.

Led by far-left Nancy Pelosi, who held off a challenge to her leadership from the even farther left, the House Democrats promptly put themselves in the position of being seen taking the side of foreigners entering the country illegally over the security and economic prosperity of American citizens. They reduced themselves to the absurd position that "walls don't work."

I'm not one who necessarily believes that President Trump is a master negotiator or is playing 3D chess. But whether by design or because of pressure from his restive base, he now has the winning hand to build his wall and go on to re-election in 2020.

What's imp…

Eileen J. O'Connor:
In the September 2016 issue of the Atlantic, Salena Zito diagnosed the chasm between opinions about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. She wrote that “the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” That continues to be the case in 2019.

Mexico paying for the border wall is a prime example. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other detractors speak as though President Trump had said Mexico was going to write us a check. He didn’t.

It reminds me of journalists’ and Democrats’ frustration when President Ronald Reagan responded to, “What is your strategy for the Cold War?,” with, “We win, they lose.”

Some have speculated that the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement would change the balance of payments enough in favor of the U.S. to cover the cost of the wall. That’s possible.

As I’ve noted in other writings, including a leng…

Mark Penn:
I guess no one in the FBI ever watched “The Apprentice.” It was only the number-one rated show in the country. In it, Donald Trump, more than any other person in the world, made famous weekly the phrase “you’re fired.”

Consequently when Donald Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey, exercising the authority he believed he had as president of the United States, he was taking the very action he made famous. It wasn’t out of character for him but in character, as he has been throughout his administration. If anything, it’s hard to find anyone who has not been fired or threatened with firing. It’s what he does.

Now, let’s review some of the actions of the FBI director. Many of these actions were clear at the time; others we know only now. What we have learned since underscores that the president’s firing of Comey was more than justified, and the actions of Comey’s staff and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to trigger the most extensive investigation in history of a camp…