…is near.
Good. It’s long overdue. Couldn’t happen to a better group of thugs.
All posts by Rand Simberg
EPA
John Stossell says “Enough Protection Already.”
The amount of mendacity from the Left about Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” is more staggering than usual. It’s almost as bad as the health-care lies.
Graphene
Is there anything it can’t do? OK, probably, but this is pretty cool:
“Realization of scalable membranes with uniform pore size down to atomic scale is a significant step forward and will open new possibilities for improving the efficiency of desalination technology,” Rahul Nair, professor of material physics at the University of Manchester, said in a statement.
Previously researchers were unable to remove common salts using the graphene filtering technique, instead removing small nanoparticles and organic molecules.
“This is the first clear-cut experiment in this regime. We also demonstrate that there are realistic possibilities to scale up the described approach and mass produce graphene-based membranes with required sleeve sizes,” Nair added.
It will probably have useful purefying properties in general, but this would be useful for California as well as the Third World.
Capitalism In Space
Deuterized Drugs
The first one has arrived. The big advantage of this, according to a Twitter discussion with Derek, is that dosage times are much less critical.
Russia?
No, “the pony in the manure is the corruption of our intelligence officials.”
It’s both appalling and amusing to watch the Democrat operatives with bylines in the media attempt to “cover” this story (as in, in the immortal words of Iowahawk, hold a pillow over it until it stops moving).
[Update a couple minutes later]
It’s worth reading the Victor Davis Hanson piece that Clarice cites. Sure, after all the lies about Benghazi and the deserter, I totally believe Susan Rice now. As noted, if Obama was Nixon, she’d be one of his “plumbers.”
[Update a couple minutes later]
Rice, Obama’s hatchet woman, proves Lord Acton right again.
[Update a while later]
Why is CNN trying to refute a story it refuses to cover?
[Update another while later]
Susan Rice’s unmasking: A Watergate-style scandal:
Understand: There would have been no intelligence need for Susan Rice to ask for identities to be unmasked. If there had been a real need to reveal the identities — an intelligence need based on American interests — the unmasking would have been done by the investigating agencies.
The national-security adviser is not an investigator. She is a White House staffer. The president’s staff is a consumer of intelligence, not a generator or collector of it.
If Susan Rice was unmasking Americans, it was not to fulfill an intelligence need based on American interests; it was to fulfill a political desire based on Democratic-party interests.
Oopsie. What did the president know, and when did he know it? Will Susan Rice wear orange to protect him?
[Update late morning]
More links and thoughts from Glenn Reynolds.
[Update early afternoon]
Susan Rice has no defense. Only one I can think of is “I was ordered by the president,” but that one doesn’t pass the Nuremberg test.
[Update a while later]
A Watergate-level scandal? Looks like it to me, particularly if they can find a link to Obama. Of course, the IRS scandal should have been as well. Obama did what Nixon could only dream of doing.
Milspace
An interview with Mike Rogers. At the Space Symposium today he announced that he’s going to introduce legislation to create a Space Corps, attached to the Air Force, presumably per Coyote’s recommendation. This was amusing, though:
Is the development of a replacement for the Atlas 5 rocket’s RD-180 moving quickly enough? Is it moving in a direction you’re satisfied with?
Well, it’s not quick enough. I’m very happy that we’re staying after it. My subcommittee, our full committee, this Congress, is committed to not stop until we have an American-made engine that can get our national security space assets launched. And we’re not going to stop. I’m encouraged. I think we’re pretty close to getting a new engine that’s going to be viable.
Pretty sure he wants to engine that will be built in Alabama, even though no rocket manufacturer wants it.
Who The People?
Thoughts on the duty of the courts to enforce the Constitution and the law, from Glenn Reynolds. It’s based on new book by Randy Barnett
[Late-morning update]
Actually, Neil Gorsuch is for the little guy:
It’s hard to see what Hirono, Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer and all the other Democrats are talking about when they say Gorsuch doesn’t stick up for the little guy. But if you look more closely at his cases and the Democrats’ charges, you realize what the Democrats mean.
First, in Yellowbear, Little Sisters, Makkar, Carloss and the burping case, Gorsuch was ruling against government overreach. In Kelo, he praised the ruling against the government. And there’s the issue. When Democrats talk about being for the little guy, they often mean being for government power. The two concepts are inseparable in the liberal mind-set.
And when they conflict, they go for the government power every time. That’s why they shouldn’t be called “liberals.”
No one concerned about traditions of the Senate would be advocating a party-line filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee. #CrocodileTears
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) April 4, 2017
Don't give them an easy out. Make them actually filibuster from the well. Show the public what real obstructionism looks like. https://t.co/8RswBd3iIB
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) April 4, 2017
“Now To Make It Pay Off”
Jeff Foust’s take on the SpaceX success, over at The Space Review. I’d like to be surprised that people are surprised, but I’m not. Elon could have regular service operating between earth and Mars, with thousands living there, while NASA is still planning the first flight of SLS, and some people would complain that he’s not building starships.
Off The Air
We’re taking a break from our home renovation and driving up to Berkeley for the weekend to see old (now in both senses of the word) college roommates (mine). Posting will likely be light to non-existent. Be nice in comments.
[Monday-afternoon update]
OK, we’re back. That was probably the longest I’ve been completely off line for a while (not counting my phone). In answer to questions, the college roommate (and his wife) in question was from Michigan, though he does in fact have an MBA from Berkeley. They have a nice place up in the hills, where we spent the entired day of Saturday, and Sunday morning, hiking, cooking, eating, drinking and talking. It was a very nice break. We drove down to Buellton yesterday afternoon, and back to LA today.
FWIW, he voted for Hillary, she wanted Bernie, but we’re all good friends, and it’s even possible for us to discuss politics without damaging that. It can be done. Of course, it helps that she’s Canadian.
[Bumped]