IS THIS A TREND? Vandals attacked power facilities in Pierce County, Washington state, and left thousands without power, according to the Blaze. These kinds of attacks seem to be happening more frequently. Oh well, I’m sure the Department of Justice (DOJ) is taking care of the problem, right? Right??

GET IN SHAPE: Bowflex SelectTech 552 Adjustable Dumbbells. #CommissionEarned

NOW OUT FROM ANDREW WAREHAM: A Pretty Fortune.

SCIENCE! Black physicist canceled for challenging narrative of ‘homophobic’ NASA telescope.

The New York Times reports National Society for Black Physicists President Hakeem Oluseyi (pictured) initially was “sympathetic” to those claim James Webb had overseen homophobic government actions in the State Department during the 1950s’ “Lavender Scare.”

But after doing quite a bit of research, Oluseyi changed his mind.

“I can say conclusively that there is zero evidence that Webb is guilty of the allegations against him,” Oluseyi wrote at Medium.

This did not sit well with one of Webb’s biggest critics, “queer agender” black feminist physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein of the University of New Hampshire. Prescod-Weinstein has been very outspoken about renaming the James Webb Space Telescope and claimed NASA had assigned Oluseyi to “impugn” her concerns and to provide a “shield” for Webb and the agency.

I wonder how her physics work is?

WHAT HATH XI WROUGHT? A remilitarizing Japan. “Bleak surroundings warrant a muscular response from Tokyo. . . . Globalization has crashed headlong into geopolitical reality according to Kishida. Japan must tend to its own survival and prosperity.”

VOTING WITH OUR FEET: Interim Census Bureau Report Shows Red States on a Roll.

PRETTY MUCH THE ONLY EPSTEIN CLIENT TO PAY ANY PRICE AT ALL: “Randy Prince Andy has been kicked out of Buckingham Palace. He will no longer be allowed the perks of being a working royal when he is not one. The 62-year-old disgraced prince resigned from his Royal Family duties almost three years ago due to his ties with the sex trafficking duo Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. He will no longer be allowed to use an office in Buckingham Palace or the staff there.”

QUESTIONS:

My question too. I can remember numerous times when it was as cold, or even significantly colder, without any talk of rolling blackouts. TVA needs to face accountability on this, as do other utilities.

SANITY PREVAILS: Swiss Government Rejects Third-Gender Option On Official Records.

HOLIDAY DEALS IN HOME IMPROVEMENT are here. #CommissionEarned

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Hollywood lost a half trillion dollars in market value in 2022.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: A Vacation Classic With Rush Limbaugh.

I DON’T THINK ACTUAL PEOPLE ACTUALLY LIKE HER THAT MUCH: Only 20 people showed up to Brittney Griner’s “Welcome Home” party at a church in her collegiate town.

BUT HE’S STILL IN POWER: Xi Starts His Third Term With Failure Upon Failure.

Xi rose to such power in part because he was boring. More flamboyant figures, such as his rival Bo Xilai, who fell in a dramatic scandal in 2012, were seen as dangerous by the party elders, semi-retired leaders who still played a strong role in selecting each generation of leadership. Xi was a solid, uncharismatic, competent fixer; that allowed him to escape the pressures that forced most “princelings” like him—the children of the founding generation of Chinese leaders—out of politics and into the private sector out of fear that they might accumulate too much power. He was a safe pair of hands, or so it seemed.

But throughout his time in office, Xi has proved anything but. He’s doubled down on party control in every aspect of Chinese life, from the tech sector to sexuality to the cinema. Rolling purges have decimated state institutions, while the economy has groaned under the weight of constant government interference—at a time when three decades of high growth were already coming to an end. The aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomacy endorsed by Xi has left China hugely unpopular worldwide, and the relationship with the United States has collapsed. A close alliance with Vladimir Putin’s Russia has been strained by the disasters of Ukraine. China is looking less like a potential colossus and more like a stumbling, if still dangerous, giant.

And yet, Xi’s power still seemed almost unassailable at home, amid blanket surveillance by both big data and secret police, a security force under his thumb, and a burst of nationalism in 2021 thanks to the country’s then-successful suppression of COVID-19. As the year draws to a close, even his domestic control seems in question. A wave of protests has led to the end of his widely unpopular zero-COVID policy—leaving China facing a potentially devastating wave of outbreaks among a still incompletely vaccinated population.

Xi’s own political power may be far weaker than anticipated—but there are plenty of ways he could still quell any opposition, with little sign of any concerted faction against him emerging within the Communist Party. Nor is there any clear sign of who would come next if he did fall. For the moment, the future of China is still in Xi’s hands.

Xi’s proven much more effective at eliminating opposition than at running the country well — so, mission accomplished.

ROBERT STEINBUCH: Exposing Race-Hustling Fraud.

Advocates of racial preferences in higher education assert that: 1. diversity enhances the learning of all students 2. preferences counter so-called implicit bias that disadvantages minorities in the admissions process, and 3. set-asides remedy historic discrimination by both universities and the country.

While the first is permitted under Supreme Court precedent, it’s largely unseemly tokenism. The second is illegal, and–along with part of the third justification–is irrelevant, because there is no implicit bias that disadvantages minorities in the higher-education admissions process today. Indeed, there is no historic discrimination still in need of remediation at these leftist cathedrals.

It’s exactly the opposite. Preferred minorities are given exceedingly large preferences in admissions and faculty recruitment. In hiring for a position at my school, all but one of the candidates presented by the administration-chosen DEI-driven screening committee were minority. That’s a staggering influence of race.

And remedying national-historic discrimination as a justification for affirmative action is properly illegal under Supreme Court precedent; you don’t fix discrimination by discriminating, as Chief Justice Roberts stated.

DEI/Affirmative Action has become an entrenched item of faith, a tool of status competition and — not least — a tool for keeping the evil white males in their place.

THIS KEEPS HAPPENING: Thousands lose power after three substations targeted in Washington state, sheriff says.

THOMAS JEFFERSON USED TO BE A TOP PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL: The War on Merit Takes a Bizarre Turn: Why are administrators at a top-ranked public high school hiding National Merit awards from students and families?

For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships. This episode has emerged amid the school district’s new strategy of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.” School administrators, for instance, have implemented an “equitable grading” policy that eliminates zeros, gives students a grade of 50 percent just for showing up, and assigns a cryptic code of “NTI” for assignments not turned in. It’s a race to the bottom.

An intrepid Thomas Jefferson parent, Shawna Yashar, a lawyer, uncovered the withholding of National Merit awards. Since starting as a freshman at the school in September 2019, her son, who is part Arab American, studied statistical analysis, literature reviews, and college-level science late into the night. This workload was necessary to keep him up to speed with the advanced studies at TJ, which U.S. News & World Report ranks as America’s top school.

Last fall, along with about 1.5 million U.S. high school juniors, the Yashar teen took the PSAT, which determines whether a student qualifies as a prestigious National Merit scholar. When it came time to submit his college applications this fall, he didn’t have a National Merit honor to report—but it wasn’t because he hadn’t earned the award. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a nonprofit based in Evanston, Illinois, had recognized him as a Commended Student in the top 3 percent nationwide—one of about 50,000 students earning that distinction. Principals usually celebrate National Merit scholars with special breakfasts, award ceremonies, YouTube videos, press releases, and social media announcements.

But not at TJ. School officials had decided to withhold announcement of the award. Indeed, it turns out that the principal, Ann Bonitatibus, and the director of student services, Brandon Kosatka, have been withholding this information from families and the public for years, affecting the lives of at least 1,200 students over the principal’s tenure of five years. Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors. . . .

“Keeping these certificates from students is theft by the state,” says Yashar. Bonitatibus didn’t notify parents or the public. What’s more, it could be a civil rights violation, says local parent advocate Debra Tisler, with most TJ students in a protected class of “gifted” students, most of them racial minorities, many with disabilities, and most coming from immigrant families whose parents speak English as a second language. “It’s just cruel,” says Tisler.

In a call with Yashar, Kosatka admitted that the decision to withhold the information from parents and inform the students in a low-key way was intentional. “We want to recognize students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements,” he told her, claiming that he and the principal didn’t want to ‘hurt’ the feelings of students who didn’t get the award.

It increasingly appears that ending your kids to public schools is parental malpractice.

JUST WHAT SHE ASKED FOR: Kamala Harris Got Some Illegal Immigrants for Christmas. Really.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Rising Power Prices in Europe Are Making EV Ownership More Expensive: In some cases, filling a tank with gas has become cheaper than charging an electric vehicle.

Rocketing electricity prices are increasing the cost of driving electric vehicles in Europe, in some cases making them more expensive to run than gas-powered models—a change that could threaten the continent’s electric transition.

Electricity prices have soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in some cases eliminating the cost advantage at the pump that EVs have enjoyed. In some cases, the cost difference between driving both types of cars 100 miles has become negligible. In others, EVs have become more expensive to fuel than equivalent gasoline-powered cars.

The price rises for power, which economists expect to last for years, remove a powerful incentive for consumers who were contemplating a switch to EVs, which used to be much cheaper to run than combustion engines.

Coming just as some governments are removing subsidies for EV buyers, this change could slow down EV sales, threaten the region’s greenhouse-gas emission targets, and make it hard for European car makers to recoup the high costs of their electric transition.

It’s as if the West is run by crooks and morons who ruin everything they touch and never consider the long term consequences of their actions. And that’s the most charitable explanation.

Related: Soaring energy costs could threaten future of electric cars, experts warn.

Also: Rising battery prices threaten affordable EV push.

IT’S LIKE THEY WANTED US TO DIE:

ICYMI: Notes on the Twitter Files (9):

“The bottom line? Federal law enforcement asserted primacy over all media distribution, a situation normally only found in tinpot regimes.”

The CIA is identified as the “OGA” (Other Government Organization or Other Government Agency) that is involved with “helping” Twitter moderate its platform. The CIA emerges as a prominent player in this respect. Still, it wasn’t the only one. It was only one of the many agencies from the government to “help” Twitter.

What’s the likelihood that other social media organizations — or other media organizations period — are more independent?

SAVING THE PLANET WITH NUCLEAR POWER: Japan Embraces Nuclear Power, Cancels Phase Out Plans.