THIS IS CNN? CNN host Fareed Zakaria gets profane in uncensored Trump discussion.

Appearing beside host Don Lemon on CNN Tonight in a discussion about the president’s unsubstantiated claims that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the election, a frustrated Zakaria said Trump is “indifferent” to the truth before launching into a profanity-laced comment about the commander-in-chief.

“He’s spent his whole life bulls———. He’s succeeded by bulls———. He has gotten the presidency by bulls———,” Zakaria said, uncensored. “It’s very hard to tell somebody at that point that bulls— doesn’t work, because look at the results, right?”

This is the same Fareed Zakaria who was once suspended from CNN for plagiarism. Given that his suspension only lasted a couple of weeks, it seems that CNN has a pretty high tolerance level for bullshit.

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.

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

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?

VIDEO: Donald Trump Almost Called Himself a Traitor…

Heh.

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.

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

The percentage for men is probably higher.

I MUST HAVE GROWN UP WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF CLIMATE: Climate, not just genetics, shaped your nose, study says.

HMM: Injuries From Products Designed to Keep Children Safe on the Rise.

SKYNET SMILES: Bots Are Learning to Chat in Their Own Language.

As detailed in a research paper published by OpenAI this week, Mordatch and his collaborators created a world where bots are charged with completing certain tasks, like moving themselves to a particular landmark. The world is simple, just a big white square—all of two dimensions—and the bots are colored shapes: a green, red, or blue circle. But the point of this universe is more complex. The world allows the bots to create their own language as a way collaborating, helping each other complete those tasks.

All this happens through what’s called reinforcement learning, the same fundamental technique that underpinned AlphaGo, the machine from Google’s DeepMind AI lab that cracked the ancient game of Go. Basically, the bots navigate their world through extreme trial and error, carefully keeping track of what works and what doesn’t as they reach for a reward, like arriving at a landmark. If a particular action helps them achieve that reward, they know to keep doing it. In this same way, they learn to build their own language. Telling each other where to go helps them all get places more quickly.

As Mordatch says: “We can reduce the success of dialogue to: Did you end up getting to the green can or not?”

Surely the Germans must have a word which means both “fascinating” and “creepy.”

BUD LIGHT? Former judge pleads guilty to offering FBI agent Bud Light in exchange for wife’s texts.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: How does a water bear survive drying out?

CHRISTIAN TOTO: The Mysterious ‘Disappearance’ of Richard Simmons.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: How Donald Trump Shot The Gun Industry In The Gut.

Unfortunately, Trump’s win has had the unintended consequence of throwing the firearms industry into a deep slump, forcing major companies to lay off workers, driving prices deep into the red, and forcing some gun dealers out of business. While the Obama years might have been a dark time for gun rights, the Democrat president was a boon for gun retailers and manufacturers (a fact Obama has admitted himself). Each time the needle ticked further in the direction of gun restriction, Americans flocked to their local gun store and plunked down cash for more irons.

The industry swelled because of the “panic buying,” with new manufacturers popping up, old names in the industry swelling their ranks, and more new gun owners pushing into demographics with previously tepid interest.

After buying an AR-15 last summer for the express purpose of annoying Senator Joe “Due Process Is Killing Us” Manchin, I held off on any further purchases. But I did get a very nice deal last week on a tiny Ruger LCP II.

It’s a buyer’s market, but the good times won’t last forever.

JAZZ SHAW: Just days after Preet Bharara is fired, investigation of NYC Mayor is conveniently dropped.

WHAT STORY? ‘We Broke the Story Correctly’: Rachel Maddow Returns Fire on Her Trump Tax Scoop.

BRANDON MORSE: It’s Rand Paul vs Paul Ryan in the battle over Obamacare — and the future of the GOP.

ANOTHER NARRATIVE CRUMBLES? Russian Bank Claims Trump Server Story May Have Been a Hoax.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Lockheed Martin completes new battle laser for U.S. military.

“We have shown that a powerful directed energy laser is now sufficiently light-weight, low volume and reliable enough to be deployed on tactical vehicles for defensive applications on land, at sea and in the air,” said Robert Afzal, senior fellow for Laser and Sensor Systems at Lockheed.

According to Afzal, the Lockheed Martin team created a laser beam that was near “diffraction limited,” meaning it was close to the maximum limit for focusing energy toward a single, small spot.

Lockheed believe the laser will act as a complementary weapon on the battlefield and will prove particularly effective in disabling drones or incoming rockets.

In 2015, the company used a 30kW laser weapon, known as ATHENA, to disable a truck sited a mile away.

Solid state laser technology is seen as a cheap option to defend against incoming attacks.

A Patriot missile, usually priced at about $3 million was recently used to shoot down a $200 quadcopter drone, according to a US general.

Conversely, in 2015 the Navy estimated that a solid-state laser can be fired for less than one dollar per shot.

If as a child I had known that “senior fellow for Laser and Sensor Systems” would become a real job, my education might have followed a much different path.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: House Stops VA from Finding Vets Mentally Unfit to Own a Gun.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Mommy, Where Do Cocktails Come From? “Utah law requires many restaurants to mix drinks behind a partition to shield the act from curious minors—but a new bill would allow it back in the open; the ‘Zion Curtain’ becomes the ‘Zion Moat’”

The partition rule, mandated in 2009 for new restaurants, was aimed at preventing underage diners from becoming inspired to imbibe. Last week, the Utah legislature passed a bill that offers another option, what locals call the “Zion Moat.”

If the governor signs the bill into law as expected, restaurants by next year will be able to replace Zion Curtains with buffer zones between family tables and bars. It would require a 10-foot zone around a bar that is off-limits to under-21 patrons if the bar is in full view—or a 5-foot zone if the view is partially hidden.

“I guess if they want to put in a real moat with water that’s their business,” said Republican state Sen. Jerry Stevenson, a sponsor of the bill, who expects restaurants will be creative with their buffer zones. “If you want to put in some potted plants that’s OK. Or a row of tables” for adults.

Utah’s ways might seem quaint and curious to residents of the other 49 states, but regional differences — and allowing America’s many subcultures to flourish — is what federalism is really about.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Google introduces Family Link, its own parental control software for Android.

SHORTER VERSION: “EVERYTHING.” What went wrong in Pakistan.

Pakistan was meant to be a model, an example for other nations to emulate. It was founded after World War II, as the sun was setting on the British Empire and India was preparing for independence. India’s Muslims, though glad to see the end of the Raj, were apprehensive about becoming a minority in a Hindu-majority land.

They envisioned instead what might be called a “two-state solution”: the establishment of a homeland for the subcontinent’s Muslims in areas where Muslims were in the majority. Their new nation was to be free, pluralist and tolerant. “We are starting with this fundamental principle,” Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam (Great Leader) declared in 1947, “that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State.”

What went wrong? In an excellent new book, “Purifying the Land of the Pure,” Farahnaz Ispahani both recounts and laments Pakistan’s “descent” into what it has become today: unfree, undemocratic, intolerant and both a sponsor and victim of terrorism.

A Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, Ms. Ispahani spent years as a journalist and high-ranking Pakistani official. She clearly loves the land of her birth. It’s doubtful that she’ll ever be able to safely return.

Pakistan, she writes, started out “as a modern state led by secular individuals.” But it was not long before important “religious and political leaders declared the objective of Pakistan’s creation to be the setting up of an Islamic state.”

I went ahead and ordered the book based on this Clifford May review.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: See if your J.C. Penney store is among 138 closures.

NICE SHOOTIN’: Israel’s Arrow anti-missile system ‘in first hit’

A surface-to-air missile (SAM) was intercepted using the Arrow system, designed to stop long-range ballistic missiles, reports say.

And in a rare admission, Israel said it had targeted several sites in Syria.

The intercepted SAM is reported to have come down in Jordan. Two others are said to have landed in Israel.

There were no reports of any injuries.

This episode is unusual on a number of counts. It is rare for Israel to admit to air strikes in Syria though there have been reports of at least four similar raids against Hezbollah weapons shipments since the start of December of last year.

This also looks to be the first operational use of Israel’s Arrow anti-ballistic missile system – launched possibly at an errant Syrian surface-to-air missile – that might have landed in Israeli territory.

Israel made the announcement to the world, but the intended audience was probably Iran.