TWO MORE ILLUSTRATIVE WARSHIP PHOTOS: I should have included two other photos in yesterday’s post with pictures depicting the warships mentioned in my column on the USN frigate controversy. By the way, the technical and operational comments made by Navy vets on my initial post (Wednesday) were very informative.

A photo of a Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and a USN five-inch gun would have been useful to readers.

1 – A Freedom-class LCS. The LCS photo in yesterday’s post was an Independence-class trimaran vessel. Here’s that photo for immediate comparison.

Both classes have had machinery, equipment, and construction problems. These have led to fundamental changes in the LCS program and concept. My column looked at some of these issues. (These two links lead to US Naval Institute reports on LCS issues. Both strike me as succinct and accurate.)

2 – What does a five-inch gun look like? Like this: an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer fires its five-inch gun. It can fire 16 to 20 rounds a minute.

Here’s the link to the Instapundit archive page with the warship photo links. One photo shows a 76 mm gun in action.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Has the Ignorant Media Gotten Worse? From storm coverage to the deep state, many in the media display a pro-government bias. “More than 20 million Americans work for the government. Because of civil service rules, it’s almost impossible to fire them. The Times calls these 20 million people “apolitical”. Please. Most are just as partisan as you or I. Maybe more so, as leaks and signs of bureaucratic resistance to presidential edicts demonstrate.”

THIS LOOKS SERIOUS: Former Rep. Steve Stockman charged with diverting charitable funds to campaign.

“It is a crime to make a campaign contribution by one person in the name of another, and to make a false statement to the Federal Elections Commission,” according to a sworn statement by FBI Agent Vanessa Walther, which was unsealed in federal court in Houston Friday.

The agent says that in January 2013, shortly after taking office as a congressman for the second time, Stockman solicited $350,000 in charitable donations from an unidentified “wealthy businessman” on behalf of a Las Vegas-based nonprofit, Life Without Limits, which had been set up to help people through traumatic events.

The donation ostensibly was to have been used to renovate the so-called Freedom House in Washington, D.C.

Instead, the check was deposited a few days later in a Webster bank account set up by Stockman doing business as Life Without Limits., an account that had a balance of only $33.48 at the time, according to the sworn statement.

Instead of spending the money on the Freedom House, however, Stockman diverted the funds to pay personal expenses and make illegal contributions to his campaigns, according to the agent.
Records show he made no contributions toward renovation of the Freedom House.

THE VIEW OF THE WORLD FROM PINCH AVENUE. Left-Leaning Documentary World Seeks Right-Wing Perspective:

Three of the 10 top-grossing political documentaries ever are the work of the right-wing polemicist Dinesh D’Souza. The most powerful documentarian in the country is the White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon. Still, the rap on documentaries is that they preach to a left-leaning choir, one still trying to figure out how Donald J. Trump became president.

To that end, the American documentary establishment — financiers, festivals, filmmakers — has begun a determined effort to support films made by, for or about the other side of the political divide, one that they themselves say they’ve failed to bridge. The objective may be more about political conversation than conversion, but the wish to engage the “other” in a Trump world raises questions about why nonfiction cinema speaks largely to the like-minded and liberal.

The media left have been continually trying to figure out the rest of the country since 1969, when Time magazine declared “The American Middle Class” its collective “Man of the Year,” and wrote about their customers in a strangely detached anthropological fashion that Henry Luce (a moderate Republican), the magazine’s then recently-deceased founder, would have been floored by. And nothing has changed since – the “other” in quotation marks in the above quoted excerpt from the New York Times  is a particularly nicely done touch of oikophobia.

(Classical allusion in headline.)

FLASHBACK: Liberal hysteria over Trump is rapidly becoming self-satire. That was in November, and now, well. . . .

SECRETARY OF STATE REX TILLERSON: North Korea is an “imminent threat.”

MORE:

“…the threat of North Korea is imminent. And it has reached a level that we are very concerned about the consequences of North Korea being allowed to continue on this progress it’s been making on the development of both weapons and delivery systems.”

RICK MORAN: The Death of ‘Meals on Wheels’? Not Even Close.

TOXIC FEMININITY: ‘Feminist’ brand behind ‘period-proof’ underwear slammed over allegations of toxic working conditions – with one ex-employee claiming ‘it was like being in an abusive relationship.’ Why are lefty institutions such cesspits of abuse and exploitation?

THE TURKISH COUP PLOT THICKENS: German intelligence agency director Bruno Kahl says his agency is not convinced that “U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind last summer’s failed coup in Turkey…”

As to the source of the coup:

Kahl also said he did not think the Turkish government was behind the coup, saying: “The coup attempt was not initiated by the government. Before July 15 the government had already started a big purge so parts of the military thought they should do a coup quickly before it hit them too.”

YES: Has OPEC Underestimated U.S. Shale Once Again?

Two and a half months into the supply-cut deal, it looks like OPEC is losing the campaign to prop up oil prices. The drop in prices that began last week saw them retreating to almost exactly the same level as on November 30 – just below $52/barrel for Brent – when the OPEC deal was announced, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report on Wednesday.

At the same time, reduced breakeven prices in many shale plays and forward locking-in of production is allowing the companies currently drilling in the U.S. to turn in profits even at a price of oil at $40 a barrel.

The U.S. shale patch has not only emerged leaner and more resilient from the downturn, it has also hedged future production with contracts guaranteeing the price of the crude they will be pumping a year or two from now, Bloomberg reports, citing industry executives and analysts.

According to Katherine Richard, chief executive at Warwick Energy Investment Group that holds stakes in more than 5,000 oil and gas wells, many of the U.S. drillers would not see their profits reduced unless the price of oil drops to the $30s or lower.

And:

The drilling spirit is indeed back, and the break even prices in the best shale areas are now below $40. According to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst William Foiles, in the Eagle Ford, for example, drillers in LaSalle County break even at $36 oil price, and at $39 per barrel oil in Gonzales County.

In the Permian (and what’s a shale recovery without the Permian), wellhead breakeven prices in the Permian Midland have dropped from $71/barrel in 2014 to $36/barrel in 2016–a 49-percent decrease–the steepest among the main U.S. shale plays, Rystad Energy said in its Permian Midland review. The average wellhead breakeven price decrease in the main shale plays has been around 46 percent since 2014, Rystad Energy noted.

Saudi oil can’t get cheaper to produce: Poke the sand with a pointy stick, and oil comes up. American shale will never get that cheap, but high-volume fracking at $40 — unheard-of just three years ago — takes away Saudi Arabia’s pricing power.

Have you hugged a fracker today?

THE GREEK DEBT CRISIS: World Politics Review argues it can still shatter the European Union, politically and economically.

NORTH KOREAN WEAPONS SMUGGLED TO AFRICA: A lesson in how to evade sanctions. North Korea smuggles weapons to African nations then takes payment in valuable minerals and gems.

In 2016 “UN investigators found evidence of North Korean weapons being used in several African nations, especially ones that themselves were subject to UN bans on receiving foreign weapons. Often this evidence was uncovered by UN peacekeepers, most of whom are assigned to trouble spots in Africa.”

Read the whole thing.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: What to Say to Your Doctor Badgering You On Hotcoldwetdry? “Gaia help any doctor that asks me questions or lectures me [on global warming], because they will be getting an earful asking them what they’ve done in their own lives, what they drive, what kind of house they have where they go on vacation, if they have a second vacation home, if they use air conditioning, what temp they keep it at, if they have an ice maker, if he/she plays golf, and so forth.”

(Via Maggie’s Farm.)

ERNIE PYLE* WEEPS:

According to LinkedIn, Miranda’s college background includes feminist studies, Latin America/Latino studies, mass communication, and journalism. Apparently WWI history – or reruns of Charlie Brown cartoons where Snoopy fought the Red Baron – weren’t part of her curriculum.

* I know. But not too many World War I journalists are household names these days.

VIDEO: Donald Trump Almost Called Himself a Traitor…

Heh.

HISTORY: Long Before Neil Gorsuch, Judges Had to Be Liberal Enough for Chuck Schumer.

Schumer, elected to the Senate in 1998, introduced his philosophy on using ideology in a New York Times op-ed in June 2001.

“For one reason or another, examining the ideologies of judicial nominees has become something of a Senate taboo,” the new senator wrote. “In part out of a fear of being labeled partisan, senators have driven legitimate consideration and discussion of ideology underground. The not-so-dirty little secret of the Senate is that we do consider ideology, but privately.”

He contended that ideological considerations aren’t new, noting the defeat of President George Washington’s nominee for Supreme Court, John Rutledge.

“If the president [then George W. Bush] uses ideology in deciding whom to nominate to the bench, the Senate, as part of its responsibility to advise and consent, should do the same in deciding whom to confirm,” Schumer wrote. “Pretending that ideology doesn’t matter—or, even worse, doesn’t exist—is exactly the opposite of what the Senate should do.”

In another Times op-ed just last month, Schumer criticized Gorsuch for not saying during a private meeting what his opinion was of certain cases, and asserted that, with Trump as president, Gorsuch will have to clear a higher hurdle than previous Supreme Court nominees.

I think the Senate should “go Reid” and ram him through even if it’s not actually needed, just as a lesson in payback.

THE INTERNET OF ANNOYING THINGS: Google Home is playing audio ads for Beauty and the Beast.

Today some Google Home owners reported hearing something extra when they asked for a summary of the day ahead from the smart speaker: an advertisement for the opening of Beauty and the Beast. Several users on Reddit have noticed the audio ad and Bryson Meunier posted a clip to Twitter. Some Android users also reported hearing the ad through Google Assistant on mobile.

The ad was delivered using the regular Google Assistant voice, so it blended in seamlessly with the other My Day information (weather, calendar appointments, etc.) — but some people still weren’t happy about it. “‘My Day’ configurations are weather, commute, calendar, reminders, and news, and I definitely haven’t searched for the film either,” one Redditor wrote.

Never forget that you are Google’s product.

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? Google lets antisemitic videos stay on YouTube.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Federal Government’s Student-Loan Fraud. “President Obama had a great idea back in 2010: nationalize the student loan program, and its problems would soon go away. It didn’t happen. Instead, more people are refusing to pay their student loans than ever before. . . . By taking over the student loan program, Obama in essence politicized it. Last year on the campaign hustings, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders repeatedly talked about making college ‘free.’ That is, they want to socialize the costs, but privatize the benefits, of a college education. Still surprised people aren’t paying their loans?”

STUDY: Half of Women Drink Alcohol While Trying to Get Pregnant.

The percentage for men is probably higher.

FLASHBACK: Abolish Women’s Studies: On universities and the rise of Big Sister. “What ‘women’s studies’ describes is not an academic discipline but rather a knot of grievances searching for recognition.”

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NO. NEXT QUESTION? Can Americans Trust Their Spies? If intelligence agencies can’t keep their secrets, they can’t credibly assure us they follow other rules.

THAT’S WEIRD BECAUSE MY LEFTY FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK SEEM TO THINK THAT THEY’RE ROCKETING UP: U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Fall 3 Percent: Global emissions flat for 3rd year in a row despite strong economic growth. “The IEA attributes the relatively steep drop in U.S. emissions largely to the ongoing switch by electric generating companies from coal to cheap natural gas produced using fracking from shale deposits.”

Environmental groups have opposed fracking, of course. Are they Putin stooges? The question must be asked, right?