BUT AL GORE TOLD ME THEY WERE GETTING WORSE: New Evidence Reveals 30 Year Global Drop in Hurricane Frequency and Power.

Reality rarely gets much of a look-in these days when fanatical Net Zero activism is afoot, but the paper, written by a group of Chinese meteorologists, makes its case by considering the facts and the data. The scientists apply a “power dissipation index” (PDI) which they consider superior to single measure indicators since it combines storm intensity, duration and frequency.
…
Downward trends in the cumulative PDI can be seen in a number of Pacific regions, while the trend holds steady in the North Atlantic. The southern Indian ocean downward trend is particularly pronounced while the overall global line is also heading in a similar direction.

So why does all this scientific twaddle get written by the green activists in mainstream media? Much of it arises from the new pseudoscience that claims it can tie individual weather events to human-caused climate change. Press releases peddling climate Armageddon are issued days after a natural disaster and are eagerly reprinted by activist journalists promoting the Net Zero fantasy. The distinguished science writer Roger Pielke Jr. is a fierce critic of this new pseudoscience, which he calls weather attribution alchemy. In a recent Substack post in the aftermath of Chido, he noted that the WWA at Imperial College simply assumes the conclusion that it seeks to prove by accepting that every storm is made stronger because of warmer oceans. Using this explanation, continues Pielke, it is straightforward to conclude that the storm was made more likely due to climate change. Or as Imperial states: “The difference in the storm intensity and likelihood of this storm intensity between the counterfactual climate and today’s climate can be attributed to climate change.”

As the new Chinese paper shows, the matter is not quite so simple.

Much more at the link.

KEVIN DOWNEY JR PRESENTS KDJ’s Bourbon-Inspired Predictions for 2025: Buckle up, Islam. “The ‘bourbon-inspired’ predictions are every bit as accurate as Sister Rita-Mary’s eraser-throwing arm as I learned at Saints Peter and Paul Elementary School in Detroit when I was experiencing what would later be called petit mal seizures.”

THAT WOULD BE THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF CONGRESSIONAL DEMS:

🇺🇸THESE ARE THE 158 DEMOCRATS WHO VOTED AGAINST DEPORTING SEX OFFENDERS

Alabama:
-Terri Sewell

California:
-Pete Aguilar
-Ami Bera
-Julia Brownley
-Salud Carbajal
-Tony Cárdenas
-Judy Chu
-Jim Costa
-Mark DeSaulnier
-John Garamendi
-Robert Garcia
-Sylvia Garcia
-Jimmy Gomez… https://t.co/jtPc80DMNo pic.twitter.com/k0ySFXuSG5

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) January 5, 2025

Why do Democrats hate women?

“IT’S MERELY ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF PALESTINIANS TRYING TO CLAIM A HISTORY THAT DOESN’T BELONG TO THEM”:

“Big Ben is Palestinian” 🤣pic.twitter.com/XGhvkRNpQ3

— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) January 4, 2025

To be fair, when your people only date back to the mid-1960s, the temptation to steal somebody else’s history must be pretty strong.

VIDEO: Legacy Media Not Only Covered Up President’s Health but Never Asked Who “Ruled in Biden’s Name.”

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™ — No ‘Taxes,’ Please, We’re Leftists.

LET THEM RATTLE: Honduras Rattling That ‘No Deportar or We Boot Your Bases’ Cage. “What the televised message to Trump boiled down to was, ‘Don’t be dumping those illegal Hondurans back in our lap, or we’ll shut your bases down.'”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Take the Gator and Run. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we have the snake that didn’t bite, a one-man crime wave, and Colorado Man’s impeccable Woody Allen impersonation.”

BREAKING: Mike Johnson Wins Reelection As House Speaker.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: To the moon, an asteroid and beyond: The biggest space missions ahead in 2025.

All eyes will be on the moon once again in 2025.

Later this month, a SpaceX rocket is set to launch two new missions to the lunar surface. One is a lander called Blue Ghost, which was developed by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace and aims to spend about two weeks collecting science data on the moon. The second is a privately built Japanese moon lander that houses an accompanying tiny rover.

Blue Ghost will attempt to touch down in a region of the moon known as Mare Crisium, which is thought to be the site of an ancient asteroid impact.

The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The space agency awarded contracts to three private companies, including Firefly Aerospace, to deliver science experiments, technology and other cargo to the lunar surface. The initiative is a component of NASA’s larger Artemis program, which aims to eventually return humans to the moon. The Blue Ghost mission is expected to carry 10 NASA science and technology experiments.

Riding the same rocket booster into orbit will be the Resilience lander and Tenacious “micro rover,” both developed by a Japanese company called ispace. They will take a longer, less energy-intensive path to the moon than Blue Ghost, aiming to land on the moon about four or five months after launch.

The targeted spot for touchdown is in the moon’s far north, in a region called Mare Frigoris.

That’s about it for anything Artemis-related this year, which is supposedly still on track for a manned landing in 2027. Godspeed, but even 2028 seems overly ambitious.

WAS HE TAKING WORKOUT TIPS FROM HARRY REID? Biden Returns From Vacation With Unexplained Injuries, Slurred Speech.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Quadrantids, 1st meteor shower of 2025, expected to peak tonight: How to watch.

HMM, BUT I’M STILL FOLLOWING THE 48-HOUR RULE: This Possible Motive for Vegas Cybertruck Explosion Changes Everything.

YOU CAN GROK THIS: The biggest AI flops of 2024.

The vast majority of major AI image generators have guardrails—rules that dictate what AI models can and can’t do—to prevent users from creating violent, explicit, illegal, and otherwise harmful content. Sometimes these guardrails are just meant to make sure that no one makes blatant use of others’ intellectual property. But Grok, an assistant made by Elon Musk’s AI company, called xAI, ignores almost all of these principles in line with Musk’s rejection of what he calls “woke AI.”

Whereas other image models will generally refuse to create images of celebrities, copyrighted material, violence, or terrorism—unless they’re tricked into ignoring these rules—Grok will happily generate images of Donald Trump firing a bazooka, or Mickey Mouse holding a bomb. While it draws the line at generating nude images, its refusal to play by the rules undermines other companies’ efforts to steer clear of creating problematic material.

What it does is make Grok’s image generator much more useful and fun than the others I’ve tried.

BECAUSE OF COURSE: New Orleans Jihadi’s Mosque Tells Members to Refer Inquirers to Hamas-Linked CAIR. “This statement was as notable for what it didn’t say as for what it did. The mosque expressed no shock, horror, or even disapproval of Jabbar’s jihad attack. It offered no condolences to the families of the victims. It offered nothing regarding what it planned to do to ensure that other members of the congregation didn’t misunderstand Islam in the way that Shamsud-Din Jabbar supposedly did. It didn’t include a word about cooperating with law enforcement efforts or affirming the mosque members’ patriotism and renunciation of jihad violence.”

I can only assume why, and while it’s supposed to be dangerous to make assumptions, sometimes it’s dangerous not to.

THE EV BUBBLE IS DEFLATING: Tesla’s Global Vehicle Deliveries Fell in 2024 for the First Time in Years.

Tesla’s annual vehicle deliveries fell in 2024 for the first time in more than a decade, after a surge of promotional deals in the fourth quarter failed to stimulate sales enough to top the prior-year results.

The world’s most valuable automaker posted a slight 2% increase in deliveries for the fourth quarter, leaning heavily on promotions, such as interest-free financing deals and free Supercharging, to entice buyers.

While it sold a record number of cars during the three-month period, the final quarterly tally still missed analysts’ expectations and fell short of the roughly 515,000 vehicles it needed to sell in the fourth quarter for Tesla to top its 2023 performance on a full-year basis.

For all of 2024, Tesla delivered 1.79 million vehicles worldwide, down about 1% from a year earlier.

That’s still a lot of EVs, which is still a lot more EVs than people would buy without various government incentives and mandates.

VICTORIA TAFT: Woke DA Seeks Final Revenge on Voters Who Kicked Him Out of Office. “Schmidt lost his job as district attorney in the May primary election. Voters, scared to walk the streets of Portland, gave his tougher-on-crime opponent a clear victory in the primary. Now, in the closing chapter of Schmidt’s journey from judicial infamy to political ignominy, he has chosen to flip off Portland voters by attempting to illegally set up early releases for a rogue’s gallery of murderers, rapists, and thugs.”

THE MONEY BEIJING TOOK OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S POCKETS? China Raises Salaries for Government Workers to Boost Spending. “The Communist Party hasn’t published a public announcement on this month’s wage hikes, making it hard to determine the scope of the program or who will foot the bill. But the unexpected increase extends to teachers, policemen and bureaucrats from around the nation of 1.4 billion people, the people said.”

It’s a bit like Daylight Savings, the equivalent of cutting off a piece of rope and tying it back onto the other end of the original rope to make a longer rope.

CAUSE AND EFFECT REMAIN A MYSTERY FOR CERTAIN GROUPS: Seattle Set Minimum Wage Over $20 and You’ll Totally Believe What Happened Next.

WINNING:

For a decade, I’ve argued that so-called “net neutrality” regulations are unlawful (not to mention pointless). Today, the Sixth Circuit held exactly that. You can read the court’s excellent opinion here: https://t.co/3za2KOk7ou

It’s time for regulators and activists to give up… https://t.co/HzEnKUDpal pic.twitter.com/QbFgLEViUQ

— Ajit Pai (@AjitPai) January 2, 2025

Flashback: Obama gave Netflix net neutrality. Netflix gives Obama a television show.

It was one of the largest and certainly most undisguised acts of corruption in US history, and virtually ignored by a press that continues to act as though Obama were sainted.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: I Can’t Wait for All of That Biden Decency and Dignity to Go Away. “What the Biden family brought to the White House was embarrassing tawdriness. It’s like some backwoods, low-rent criminal family hit the political lottery and couldn’t wait to trash the joint. I wonder if Jill Biden has hit up Hillary Clinton for pointers on how to steal stuff on her way out the door.”

QUEERING HISTORY: Students in Boston U. ‘Medieval Trans Studies’ Course Learn About ‘Gender Fluid Angels.’

Boston University is offering a graduate-level “Medieval Trans Studies” course for the upcoming spring semester that explores how “medieval texts speak to the historical, theoretical, and political concerns that animate contemporary trans studies.”

The course has drawn criticism from scholars who argue that it reflects modern ideological biases rather than historical accuracy.

It considers “the deep histories of transgender embodiment” through an examination of texts stemming from the Middle Ages, according to the course description.

Students will read about “alchemical hermaphrodites, genderfluid angels, Ethiopian eunuchs, trans saints, sex workers, and genderqueer monks,” according to the university.

Adam Kissel, a fellow with the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, told The College Fix via email, “It is a mistake for the course to misinterpret Medieval texts by indulging modern obsessions.”

It isn’t a mistake. It’s Marxian propaganda.

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: What Will You Miss the Least About Joe Biden?

PUTIN’S STUPID WAR (YEAR-END ROUNDUP): Russian forces gained 4,168 square kilometers, largely comprised of fields and small settlements in Ukraine and Kursk Oblast, at a reported cost of over 420,000 casualties in 2024. “Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi stated on December 30 that Russian forces suffered 427,000 casualties in 2024. ISW has observed geolocated evidence to assess that Russian forces advanced 4,168 square kilometers in 2024, indicating that Russian forces have suffered approximately 102 casualties per square kilometer of Ukrainian territory seized. ISW previously observed that Russian forces gained 2,356 square kilometers in exchange for an estimated 125,800 casualties during a period of intensified Russian offensive operations in September, October, and November 2024. Russian forces made 56.5 percent of their 2024 territorial gains during the September through November 2024 period. Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev claimed on December 24 that 440,000 recruits signed military service contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) in 2024, suggesting that Russia is likely recruiting just enough military personnel to replace its recently high casualty rates one for one.”

Here’s to hoping Trump can wring some peace out of this wreck.

FBI: Largest Number of Pipe Bombs Ever Found (And You Won’t Believe Where They Found Them)

While most of the country was following the news of two terror attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas yesterday, another story broke based on an incident that happened in December in Virginia. According to the FBI, agents found what they’re calling the largest stockpile of “finished explosive devices” in the history of the agency at the home of 36-year-old Isle of Wight County resident Brad Spafford.

It appears that Spafford has been on their radar for a while.

Usually, we only hear that someone was on the FBI’s radar after they murder a bunch of people.