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OPEN THREAD: Keep the discussion moving.

I’M GOING TO KEEP TAKING MY RESVERATROL AND NIAGEN, AND THIS SUGGESTS THEY’RE HELPING: Suppression of SIRT1 in Diabetic Conditions Induces Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells via RUNX2 Signalling.

UPDATE: People are acting like this is incomprehensible, but if you click through and read the summary and conclusions it’s pretty straightforward. SIRT1, which is activated by things like resveratrol, protects veins and arteries from hardening and calcification. What’s more, if you block SIRT1 activity, the hardening and calcification get much worse. This doesn’t exactly prove that the supplements I’m taking work — it’s a lab experiment with tissue, not a human body — but it suggests that they do what they’re advertised to do, and that might help.

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YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Howard Schultz Gives Dems the Jitters.

Today [H. Ross Perot is] remembered, if he’s remembered at all, as the man who probably cost George H.W. Bush a second term. If not for Perot, Bill Clinton would be a footnote instead of a DNA splotch. Perot proved that one man can change the course of human history just by being a pest.

That’s why I find it amusing that another possible independent candidate is driving Dems crazy today. All the people who voted for Hillary Clinton, who would be blessedly forgotten by now if the 1992 election had been a two-way race, are panicking at the idea that 2020 might not be a two-way race.

Earlier: Howard Schultz Could Actually Win the Presidency, Roger Simon writes.

FACEPALM: CHRIS HAYES OF MSNBC TAKEN TO THE WOODSHED FOR ELABORATING ON THE ‘SEXY PART OF SOCIALISM.’

Our friends at Twitchy were on the same wavelength because the first thought that comes to mind is what in the fresh hell is this? Liberal America certainly knows there are other networks besides MSNBC, they just choose to ignore the facts, per usual, to keep the narrative alive. Whether it is peddling fake news to keep the Russian collusion myth propped up or ignoring video evidence to keep a social media trashing of Catholic high school students alive because they wore hats they found offensive, keeping the talking points alive is paramount, even at the expense of facts. But remember, if you’re morally right, you can just lie, lie, and lie some more.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes took to Twitter to lecture us about the “least sexy part of socialism,” adding that it’s grounded in “effective, efficient bureaucratic administration but the project lives or dies based on it.

Excuse me? That’s the least sexy part? I’m sure the tens of millions of Chinese who starved during the Great Leap Forward would disagree, or the countless millions killed under Stalin. Also, it amazes me that the failures of Maoist China and Stalinist Russia still flies over the heads of the far left. and yes, Hayes was torched over this on Twitter.

Matt Vespa of Townhall asks, “There’s a sexy side of socialism?”

Oh yeaaaah — our source for that is the New York Times.

THIS IS ALL JUST PAYBACK FOR MAKING A PRIVILEGED GROUP LOOK BAD: Prof whose hoax got a chapter of “Mein Kampf” accepted by a feminist journal in trouble for researching on human subjects–that is, journal editors.

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THAT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE A PATHETIC, ATTENTION-SEEKING IDIOT WHO DOESN’T CARE ABOUT FACTS: Phoenix restaurant says this is a photo of coal miners. But I see offensive blackface. “Fact: The photograph shows coal miners’ faces covered in soot. The context of the photograph is not the issue.”

It’s not an issue because — let me repeat myself — you’re a pathetic attention-seeing idiot who doesn’t care about facts.

“At the downtown Phoenix restaurant, my concern that the photograph of men in blackface was a threat to me and my face and voice were ignored.”

Your concern deserved to be ignored because — let’s be clear here — it’s a really stupid concern, born of a deep desire to feel important and offended and powerful.

“The operators of that downtown restaurant can choose to take the photograph down, leave it up or create a title card with an intention statement. No matter their decision, I think the photograph should be taken down — sacrificing one image for the greater good.”

Making you feel more powerful isn’t “the greater good.” In fact, empowering people who are, let’s be clear again, pathetic attention-seeking idiots who don’t care about the facts and are desperate to find something to be offended about, is horribly destructive to society.

And while we’re at it, your desire to ignore the “context” ignores these men’s lives, their sacrifice, and their suffering to superimpose your own pathetic, attention-seeking idiocy, erasing their lived experience in support of your own momentary striving for importance. It’s patronizing and, dare I say, privileged cultural appropriation. Apologize at once.

NARRATOR VOICE: THEY ALREADY HAVE. Media Shouldn’t Make The Same Mistakes in Empire Actor Jussie Smollett Attack Stories As The Mistakes They Made With The Covington Kids.

Robby Soave at Reason posted a huge scoop on this developing story earlier today:

“According to the victim, the offenders’ faces were concealed,” a police spokesperson told Reason. “We have no record indicating that [they shouted ‘MAGA’], we only have record of them shouting racial and homophobic slurs at him.”

Chicago police have also released a statement contradicting claims that Smollett identified his attackers’ race and heard them shout “MAGA.”

“We have no record of The MAGA Country comment,” said the police in a statement. “We have racial and homophobic comments documented.”

Even without a MAGA shouting/white guys component to this story, what Smollett – who has reportedly already been discharged from the hospital – said happened to him is absolutely horrific. If the story is accurate, the perps should absolutely be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

However, in the mad dash to get to the bottom of the allegations in order find out what happened and who committed the alleged acts, the national press needs to keep itself in check on this and have all their facts in order before rushing to social media to report on what they’ve found out.

Hence, the 48 Hour Rule: “So, the Covington Kerfuffle erupting over Saturday evening and Sunday morning initially earned one of those ‘meh’ reactions: another pearl-clutching media reaction over something simple and stupid, if not actually fraudulent… So – IAW (in accordance with) sensible practice, I deferred any interest, personal reaction or comment for at least 48 hours. The first reports about anything are usually wrong, misleading, inaccurate; SOMETHING has happened, and it usually takes at least that long for reporters to put out the fire in their hair and come up with some sensible reportage. Such was, I assumed (over considerable evidence to the contrary, gleaned through sad experience over the years) the common practice also among the more responsible news-gathering organizations. It seems that I am doomed to disappointment again, on this front.”

Not in the era of clickbait and Twitter, sadly. But then, the DNC-MSM has long described itself as “the first draft of history.” But as any writer can tell you, first drafts invariably suck. That’s why, in a more cautious era, they got edited, polished, and fact checked before publication.

MAGIC EIGHT BALL SAYS “ARE YOU NUTS?” Can You Trust the Personal Internet of Things? “[A] few years back, in the TV series Homeland, the US Vice President was assassinated by a terrorist who hacked into his heart pacemaker.

“Could that really happen? Yes.”

CREDENTIALED, NOT EDUCATED: Parents who don’t vaccinate kids tend to be affluent, better educated, experts say.

Related, via Facebook:

SKYNET SMILES: World’s first tendril-like soft robot can curl and climb.

FIFTH CIRCUIT HOLDS “PLANNED PARENTHOOD” STING VIDEOS NOT DECEPTIVELY EDITED: Tyler O’Neil reports that the Court of Appeals has lifted the restraining order on videos showing PP agents negotiating the prices of fetal body parts. In 2015, the Center for Medical Progress (“CMP”), a pro-life organization, released more than eight hours of undercover videos disclosing conversations held at the PPGC headquarters. In the CMP videos, two individuals posed as representatives from a fetal tissue procurement company. They claimed to be interested in purchasing liver, thymus, and neural tissue from fetuses aborted during the second trimester of pregnancy.

With the help of PR/fixer firm Fusion GPS, the mainstream media bought the “deceptive edit canard” hook line and sinker. This is the same media who loudly and unsuccessfully defended other hidden videos, such as Gawker’s infamous “Hulk Hogan” sextape and Mitt Romney’s “47%” remark.

While this Texas case is about the State of Texas seeking to disqualify PP from Medicaid eligibility, the fact that the court rejected the “doctored video” claims, saying:

The district court stated, inaccurately, that the CMP video had not been authenticated and suggested that it may have been edited […] In fact, the record reflects that OIG had submitted a report from a forensic firm concluding that the video was authentic and not deceptively edited. And the plaintiffs did not identify any particular omission or addition in the video footage.

More to come on this, I’m sure.

IN USA TODAY: Roger Stone’s not guilty plea shows collapse of Russian collusion narrative. “It was certainly not a crime for the Trump campaign to be interested in what Wikileaks had on Hillary Clinton or other Democrats. Wikileaks had established itself as a reliable — though notorious — source for purloined information. Weeks before Wikileaks published the emails, Democrats had made public that their computer systems had been hacked, allegedly by Russian operatives, though Wikileaks has denied that Moscow was their source.”

BAMN, BAMN, BAMN: Remember when I told you about the Antifa group called the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (“BAMN”)? They’re down at the border near San Diego now. Same folks. Same crazy.

CLAUDIA ROSETT: John Bolton’s Intriguing Notepad.

In most of the media, it’s playing as one of those gotcha moments. At Monday’s White House press briefing National Security Advisor John Bolton came to make some remarks on Venezuela. He carried a lined yellow legal pad, on which two short scribbled notes were visible to photographers. The scribble that made news was: “5,000 troops to Colombia.”

That sure sounds like a ramped-up threat to Colombia’s neighbor, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. A glimpse of inside pow-wows at the White House. It looked a lot more specific than President Trump’s warning that “all options are on the table.”

Was it a slip on Bolton’s part? Did the media steal a march on the National Security Advisor, by catching his note on camera?

Needless to say, read the whole thing.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Are Restaurants Getting Too Loud? As I’ve said before, I’m surprised they don’t deploy more sound absorbent material on ceilings, or in patches on the walls. But I think they want it loud because they think that gives a sense of excitement — and probably also encourages table turnover.

CLOWNS TO THE LEFT OF HIM, JOKERS TO HIS RIGHT? Howard Schultz Blasts Kamala Harris’ Plan to Abolish Private Insurance: ‘That’s Not American.’ “What industry are we going to abolish next? The coffee industry?“

It might be nice if, just for once, the presidential spoiler candidate spoiled the Democrats’ chances.

MEET THE CLIMATE RESISTANCE: On December 30^th, NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd devoted an entire episode to promoting the views of climate change alarmists. He said, “the science is settled, even if political opinion is not.” Todd expressly banned dissenting views, which are rooted in real-world scientific data.

My group CEI is pushing back with an ad campaign centered on a TV spot and a full page ad in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. You can view the ads and help CEI push back here. [Updated with fixed link]

I’D BE MORE INTERESTED IN THIS IF I TRUSTED THEM WITH MY OWN DATA: Apple Watch, using Aetna client data, wants to help you be healthy.

TV, IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Taking tune from “The Office,” man helps save woman’s life. “The Arizona Daily Star reports that 21-year-old Cross Scott found a woman locked in her car this month and broke in, finding she wasn’t breathing. He doesn’t have any emergency training but thought of the show where Steve Carell’s character does CPR to the tune of the Bee Gees’ song ‘Stayin’ Alive.’ The song has the correct tempo for chest compressions. Within a minute, the woman was breathing, and she was taken to a hospital and later released.”