Recently, the Sierra Club has been spreading a blatantly false narrative that the rolling blackouts experienced during Winter Storm Elliott in Kentucky on December 23 were the result of the failure of coal-fired generating units to meet demand. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In reality, it was the region’s remaining coal-fired power generation fleet that ramped up to meet the demand during the deep freeze that engulfed the region in December.

Yes, Kentucky-based combined utilities, LG&E and KU, were forced to institute rolling blackouts from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the evening of December 23. But it wasn’t due to the failure of our coal-fired generation capacity. In fact, during these rolling blackouts, their combined coal units — totaling 5,100 MW of capacity — operated at a collective capacity factor of 90% and provided more than 70% of the energy required to keep our electric grid from complete failure. Had it not been for our coal plants, it is likely the entire grid would have collapsed at the very time when it was needed the most to provide the heat on which Kentucky lives were depending.

This is exactly why the Kentucky Coal Association opposes the closure of any more of our remaining coal generation units, as has been requested by LG&E and KU. Electric reliability is such a critical issue; it should not be sacrificed for political considerations.

If the 1,500 MW of coal units the companies have requested approval to retire had not been available during the critical time on December 23 undoubtedly the power outage would have been much worse, and lives would have been lost. Is this what we want? Is this what Kentucky wants? Is this what Americans want?

Are you willing to gamble the lives of your loved ones on the Ponzi scheme that is renewable energy? Are you willing to accept the empty, proven false promises of the “Big Green Money Machine?”

The US has created a permanent new pandemic agency called the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy in anticipation of future pandemics and the Decade of Vaccines. President Joe Biden has appointed a retired Air Force general to take charge of spearheading the project.

Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy

On Friday, the White House made an official announcement regarding the establishment of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR). This newly formed agency will have the important responsibility of formulating strategies to address public health crises, coordinating scientific research and medical initiatives to combat pandemics, and ensuring regular reporting to Congress on its activities.

Joe Biden admits it: "I am a gaffe machine," he said in December 2018. He turned his confession into a dig at Donald Trump—"But my God, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can't tell the truth"—but now the former vice president has entered the 2020 presidential race, he might regret some of his stumbles.

President Trump said he's eager to battle Biden for the White House.

"I hope it's Biden," he told a group of television anchors before his State of the Union address.

"Biden was never very smart. He was a terrible student. His gaffes are unbelievable. When I say something that you might think is a gaffe, it's on purpose; it's not a gaffe. When Biden says something dumb, it's because he's dumb."

That's a matter of opinion—but it's impossible to deny that Biden, who was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1973, has a pattern of odd, ill-judged, plagiarized or politically problematic comments and actions. Here's a look at some of the standouts.

“You can’t kill Americans … knowingly without the okay of the President because you’re literally burning up too much political capital.”

The question of our time is, how could this happen? How could these catastrophic crimes against humanity perpetrated by these injections be allowed to occur? “It can’t happen unless the boss says it has to or that it can,” declared Dr. Naomi Wolf on Steve Bannon’s War Room.

As a former political advisor, Dr. Wolf said, from experience working around a White House, “You can’t kill Americans … knowingly without the okay of the President because you’re literally burning up too much political capital. No one wants to be on the receiving end of having killed Americans when that kind comes to light without the imprimatur (approval) of the President.”

“If someone is found to have killed Americans, inadvertently, they get fired and shamed publicly. And it’s all put on them. And that’s the end of them. And that’s not what we were seeing. So I knew that up the chain of command, the White House had to be involved in these decisions, but we just didn’t have the smoking gun.”

“Now we have the smoking gun,” announced Dr. Wolf.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake petitioned the Maricopa County Superior Court on Thursday to compel Maricopa County to turn over the 2022 election’s early ballot envelope signatures. The first half of the trial in Lake’s case began Thursday and is scheduled to continue on Monday.

The county denied Lake’s request for the ballot signatures, claiming that it would violate voter privacy law, specifically the “confidentiality requirements” of A.R.S. 16-168(F). Lake turned around and sued Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer in April. Lake’s counsel said that the county’s claim of privacy interests in denying the public records request wasn’t valid.

IRS agent Darrell Waldon echoed IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley’s testimony that prosecutors in Washington, DC, and California previously blocked now-special counsel David Weiss from charging Hunter Biden in those jurisdictions.

“Mr. Weiss went to the U.S. Attorney’s Office — I can’t recall the dates — and they did not agree to prosecute the case in D.C.,” Waldon told the House Ways and Means Committee during a transcribed interview in September, the Washington Examiner reported.

“I’m aware that it was presented to the District of Columbia and, at some point, the Central District of California, I believe,” he added.

Waldon’s transcribed interview comes after he previously confirmed Shapley’s claims in April of political interference. Waldon later left the Hunter Biden case for another responsibility within the IRS.

As the investigation progressed, Weiss never charged Hunter Biden in the jurisdictions of Washington, DC, or California. Instead, he formed a sweetheart plea agreement with Hunter Biden that collapsed in July under judicial scrutiny. Shapley’s testimony in April reportedly triggered the plea deal, filed in Delaware. Weiss later brought three gun-related charges in Delaware against Hunter Biden.

MSNBC host Al Sharpton said Friday on “Deadline” that he believed a “lack” of gun legislation in the United States was a civil rights issue because society was “arming bigots.”

Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “Kamala Harris will lead this effort. She spoke today about witnessing firsthand the impacts of gun violence during her time as a prosecutor and attorney general.”

Sharpton said, “Absolutely. The fact that she has an effective background as a prosecutor, she wasn’t just holding the title, and dealt with this in California, dealt with it when she was D.A. of San Francisco. It was a good choice of the president to put her there. And I know she’ll be all in.”

He continued, “This is the most dangerous time, particularly for young people, that we have seen in American history. And yet, you have almost a wall there of people saying, no, we’re not giving up our AR-15s, we’re not giving up not even background checks.”

Webmaster addition: We are seeing a real escalation in the gun-grabber agenda. The government must be really afraid of the American people! Expect another staged mas shooting to sell the idea law abiding citizens must give up their guns!

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Saturday backtracked and said he will keep the $300 million of Ukraine aid in the Pentagon funding bill.

On Friday it was reported that the Pentagon will exempt Ukraine funding from a possible government shutdown as House Republicans argue over the stopgap bill.

“The Pentagon will exempt its Ukraine operations from a potential shutdown if lawmakers can’t agree on a deal to fund the government by the end of the month, allowing key training and other activities in support of Kyiv’s forces to move ahead uninterrupted, according to a Defense Department spokesperson,” Politico reported.

“But if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement and government appropriations lapse, DOD has decided to continue activities supporting Ukraine, DOD spokesperson Chris Sherwood told POLITICO Thursday — just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley and other senior leaders at the Pentagon.” according to Politico.

 Dennis Francis, president of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), has ignored the objections of 11 countries and approved the UN declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response without submitting it to a full assembly vote.

A Muslim stand-up "comedian" by the name of Hasan Minhaj loves to make anti-white jokes that make white people sound like ignorant buffoons, but it turns out that Minhaj's jokes are based on fantasy inside his own head.

 Finland has now built the first section of its border fence with Russia, with Finnish Border Guard (FBG) soldiers protecting the barrier.

 Technology bigwigs and senators sat down for a closed-door hearing on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on different facets of society.

 Ending dinner with a piece of chocolate is a nice treat, but you may need to rethink your eating habits if you often finish off a whole chocolate by yourself.

 High-energy electrons found in a tail of plasma near Earth appear to have been a source of water throughout the moon, according to a new study.

 Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, who is already serving two consecutive life sentences for murder, pleaded guilty on Thursday to financial crimes.

 Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife Nadine have been indicted on bribery charges, according to the Department of Justice. 

Sites subjected to a DMCA takedown notice should consider removing the content in question or contesting the claim. But consider this scenario. To reduce piracy, Google accepts DMCA takedown notices for URLs that don't yet exist in its indexes. So what happens if you receive a 'future piracy' notice that's clearly bogus? A DMCA counter notice won't work; they're talking about things you haven't even done yet.

 Pressure is beginning to build for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to resign from office after federal prosecutors indicted him on multiple charges related to alleged corruption.

 A secret internal report commissioned by the Loudoun County, Virginia public school system found that school administrators failed to even look into a 2021 rape by a skirt-wearing boy, in brazen violation of federal Title IX laws governing sexual harassment.

Police in the United Kingdom have dropped an investigation into a Christian woman who was arrested after silently praying outside of an abortion facility for allegedly violating a “buffer zone” law. 

 Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) lashed out on Friday after he and his wife Nadine were indicted on bribery charges by federal prosecutors, suggesting that he was the victim of a vast conspiracy.

Pizza Hut's Australian outpost has suffered a data breach.

The baked goods purveyor has delivered bitter news to around 190,000 customers: that their name, delivery address, email address, and phone numbers have been accessed by unautorised entities.

Even more seriously, pizza order histories have also leaked.

Yes, dear reader – that means the bad guys have seen a database of people who like pineapple on their pizzas.

We can only hope that whoever lifted the data doesn't devise some horrible extortion scheme, threatening to reveal that shameful secret to the victims' loved ones and employers.

AI-generated and self-published books sold on Amazon have not earned a reputation for quality.

One such volume, which Amazon rated as a bestseller, claimed to detail the full story behind the wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui before the blazes were doused and while hundreds of residents were missing. The book was “written” by an author who has left no trace on the digital world other than his books for sale on Amazon, the texts of which include grammatical oddities and other hallmarks of being generated by AI.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed rules for commercial space launch companies to address orbital debris, a growing threat to spacecraft and satellites.

Detailed this week in a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) [PDF], the FAA wants commercial space operators to take responsibility for disposing of the upper stages of their launch vehicles, and offers them five options to implement this.

The options include conducting a controlled re-entry; an uncontrolled atmospheric disposal; moving the upper stage to a storage or graveyard orbit; retrieving the upper stage within five years; or pushing it into an Earth-escape orbit.

However, the FAA proposes that operators should be allowed up to 25 years in which the upper stage is removed from orbit using the uncontrolled or natural decay method.

The reason a US Marine Corps pilot ejected from his F-35B stealth fighter jet last weekend remains unknown, but a government agency report on the dismal state of the F-35 fleet's maintenance provides a few clues.

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which coincidentally released its report the same week the search for the now-recovered crashed F-35 was happening, found that the DoD's fleet of the fighter craft "face costly maintenance issues" that have led to an average of just 55 percent of them being ready for action at any given time.

For reference, the DoD's goals for the F-35A is a mission capable rate of 90 percent, while it wants the B and C variants of the F-35, with their more complicated short takeoff and landing and carrier launch configurations, to have an 85 percent rate.

Security researchers with the Citizen Lab and Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) revealed today that three zero-days patched by Apple on Thursday were abused as part of an exploit chain to install Cytrox's Predator spyware.

Between May and September 2023, the attackers exploited the bugs (CVE-2023-41991, CVE-2023-41992, and CVE-2023-41993) in attacks using decoy SMS and WhatsApp messages to target former Egyptian MP Ahmed Eltantawy after announcing plans to join the Egyptian presidential election in 2024.

"In August and September 2023, Eltantawy's Vodafone Egypt mobile connection was persistently selected for targeting via network injection," Citizen Lab explained.

"When Eltantawy visited certain websites not using HTTPS, a device installed at the border of Vodafone Egypt's network automatically redirected him to a malicious website to infect his phone with Cytrox's Predator spyware."

 Ukraine doesn’t have to worry about a potential U.S. government shutdown affecting the flow of cash, weapons, and military equipment to its country after the Pentagon exempted Ukrainian operations from the possible shutdown. 

 Democratic Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Friday that he will switch his party affiliation to Republican.