Our economic realities as Americans are tied directly to energy. But those of us working outside the energy industry must be forgiven for not noticing that in 2022, China began construction on an experimental thorium reactor that requires no water, generates substantially less toxic byproduct, purports and appears be vastly safer than all other reactor designs, and all but eliminates the possibility of meltdown. American citizens should be forgiven for not noticing because in 2022, as you recall, we were suffocating in the various tendrils of psychological operations and captured government.

And when China operationalized the reactor and proved the design, firing it up last month, pulling a positive yield of uranium, Americans were again distracted. Our industries are still captured, corrupted, or sidelined. Our government is still dysfunctional, and it appears we are now, in some very official sense, losing the energy arms race.

Clickbait headlines have suggested that China outright stole the reactor design. The truth is probably even worse.

The Chinese reactor works. It delivers cheap, abundant, safe, clean energy. Congress is silent. Portions of our mainstream media only serve corporate (often energy sector-tied) interests, so they aren’t going to sound the alarm.

Here’s the kicker regarding the United States’ second-place status in this energy battle: Americans funded the entirety of the original research for the thorium reactor in the 1960s at Oak Ridge Nuclear Laboratory. This raises major questions about past, present, and future for the energy and tech sectors.

Of the successful test of the thorium reactor in China, the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics stated in a press release, “This marks the first time international experimental data has been obtained after thorium was introduced into a molten salt reactor, making it the only operational molten salt reactor in the world to have successfully incorporated thorium fuel.”

Clickbait headlines have suggested that China outright stole the reactor design. The truth is probably even worse. If you take blood pressure medication, be forewarned: There is malfeasance here, for sure, but the technology wasn’t stolen from either American corporations or Oak Ridge Laboratory. Oak Ridge Laboratory, in concert with the U.S. government, evidently declassified much of the pertinent research, according to researcher Kirk Sorensen.

RELATED: This city bought 300 Chinese electric buses — then found out China can turn them off at will

CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Sorensen runs the website https://energyfromthorium.com, where portions of the material, now in the public domain, were published. Meanwhile, private American research into what turns out to be a highly feasible and safe energy source has been, at best, scattered and underfunded. What’s more, the stultifying (false?) dialectic between environmentalism and first-world living standards has muddied the waters for decades.

Oak Ridge Labs partnered with the Shanghai Applied Physics Institute back in 2015. American research was just simply handed to the Chinese. Meanwhile, we have considerable energy issues in America: prices jumping 10%-20% per year in many states and services often approaching third-world standards in terms of reliability and transparency. We have the highly unstable and contentious AI industry building data centers at a heady pace and signaling orders of magnitude more energy demand in short order. Lastly, we have a contingent of right-aligned Americans squaring up to take on the potential re-industrialization of the country — automobiles, pharmaceuticals, microprocessors, and steel manufacture at all levels could and probably must be re-shored if we as a nation are ever to right the ship.

None of this happens without abundant, cheap energy.

Since the early 2000s, concerns over dwindling cheap oil have confused the public and stymied good-faith efforts to manage the infrastructure, source, and delivery problems that our grand techno-American plans seem to require. Elon Musk’s grandfather, Joshua N. Halderman, was involved with M. King Hubbert in the original Technocracy Inc. endeavor, which signaled early alarms about exponential growth meeting finite oil capacity. Elon is a big fan of solar, but one wonders if perhaps now he’d be better off investigating thorium … if American industry and government can get out of his way, of course.

​Tech, Culture, Power, Energy, China 

The Senate Republicans officially passed their funding bill to reopen the government Monday night, with the help of Democrat defectors. The legislation is now in the House, where members are expected to vote to finally reopen the government sometime Wednesday.

Over 40 days into the record-long government shutdown, eight Senate Democrats voted to pass the same clean continuing resolution that has been on the table since day one. The funding bill was passed in a 60-40 vote, with Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Angus King (I) of Maine, and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada voting with 52 Republicans to reopen the government.

House Democrats are already whipping members to vote against reopening the government.

With just enough Democrats defecting to pass the GOP resolution, many of their fellow Democrats expressed disapproval for the “pathetic” deal they negotiated.

The main reason Democrats shut down the government in the first place was to force Republicans’ hand on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are expiring at the end of the year. One record-breaking shutdown later, all Democrats have to show for it is a pinky promise from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) that there will be a floor vote on the subsidies, which was offered to Democrats on day one of the shutdown.

RELATED: ‘Pathetic’ Senate Democrats cave, advancing key shutdown vote and prompting intraparty uproar: ‘It’s a surrender’

Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

Republicans offered Democrats one minor concession Sunday night ahead of the filibuster vote: to reverse some firings made via reduction-in-force notices. Republicans agreed to reverse all RIFs issued during the shutdown and to refrain from issuing any more until the continuing resolution expires on January 30.

In total, this deal affects only about 4,200 employees of the roughly 150,000 federal workers who have been laid off since President Donald Trump began his second term in January.

RELATED: Democrat senator makes stunning admission about Obamacare failures

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

The bill is now headed over to the House, where votes are expected to resume Wednesday afternoon after the House has been out of session for over 50 days. During a Monday press conference, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) publicly urged all members to return to Washington, D.C., as soon as possible to begin voting.

House Democrats are already whipping members to vote against reopening the government, arguing that the continuing resolution “fails to address” their health care concerns. Despite their ongoing opposition, the funding bill needs only a simple majority and is expected to pass the House.

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​Chuck schumer, John thune, Mike johnson, Donald trump, Government shutdown, Democrat shutdown, Senate democrats, Senate republicans, Democrat defectors, Dick durbin, Maggie hassan, Tim kaine, Jacky rosen, Jeanne shaheen, John fetterman, Angus king, Catherine cortez masto, Affordable care act, Aca subsidies, Obamacare, Rifs, Reduction in force, Federal firings, Politics 

When General George S. Patton served as military governor of postwar Bavaria, he startled the press by comparing Germans who voted for the Nazis to Americans who voted for Republicans or Democrats. Eighty years later, that comparison, once deemed outrageous, makes more sense than most care to admit.

Today’s Democratic Party has become a profoundly destructive force. Its leaders incite violence, wink at assassination attempts, and encourage riots to block the Trump administration’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants — including criminal offenders — the Biden White House imported as future Democratic voters.

As a European historian whose own family fled the Nazis, I recognize the pattern. The difference today is that Democrats enjoy advantages the German totalitarians never had.

In Virginia, Democrats just elected an inexperienced attorney general who once wished death upon a Republican leader and his children. Jay “Two Bullets” Jones, a man with no serious professional experience and a long public record of hate-filled rhetoric, is now the state’s top law enforcement officer. His victory didn’t trouble Virginia’s Democratic establishment. Democrats defended him, celebrated him, and made clear they see nothing disqualifying about open derangement when it serves the cause.

Parallels in power

The point isn’t that the Democratic Party is identical to Hitler’s regime. It’s that its tactics — the deceit, manipulation, and contempt for constitutional limits — echo the methods the Nazis used to dismantle Weimar Germany from within.

As a European historian whose own family fled the Nazis, I recognize the pattern. The difference today is that Democrats enjoy advantages the German totalitarians never had. Even at the height of economic collapse, no more than one-third of German voters supported Hitler’s party. In America, at least half the electorate — and possibly more — backs a party that celebrates political violence, erases gender distinctions, tears down monuments, degrades men, and promotes the mutilation of confused children in the name of “affirmation.”

Many of the Democrats’ most reliable constituencies — college-educated women, black voters, and recent immigrants — embrace the movement’s nihilism without the desperation that once drove Germans to extremism. Their loyalty is ideological, not circumstantial, and that makes the threat more enduring.

How the right lost its nerve

The totalitarian Democrats’ rise owes as much to their ruthlessness as to the right’s failure to resist it. For years, the so-called conservative establishment — especially the Murdoch media — has preached “common ground” and “dialogue.” Its members have treated the left as a legitimate partner even as it dismantled every shared institution. They’ve assured us, wrongly, that the Democratic Party was about to collapse. Their naïve optimism left Republicans unprepared for last week’s electoral debacle.

RELATED: Accountability or bust: Trump’s second term test

Credit: Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

A serious conservative movement would treat the Democrats not as rivals but as a subversive force bent on domination. They control the mainstream media, public education, entertainment, and the bureaucracy. The task is not to appease them but to weaken their grip. That means defunding their institutions, shrinking the administrative state, and cutting federal money to the states and cities run by radical leftists — Virginia, California, New Jersey, Minnesota among them. Washington should stop subsidizing those who despise the nation it governs.

The vapid notion that “we all want the same things for our children” only empowers those who plainly do not. They want to rule, not reconcile.

What must be done

Conservatives must demand fair, transparent elections conducted in designated polling places on Election Day under bipartisan supervision. Voter identification should be federally required — a safeguard, not a surrender of state authority, which has long been diluted anyway.

And before Senate Democrats move to end the filibuster to cement their control, President Trump and his allies should act first. Forget “comity.” The GOP cannot afford another cycle of deference to rules their opponents ignore.

The moment demands moral clarity, not compromise. The Democratic Party is not merely misguided — it has become an organized threat to constitutional government and civil peace. Treating it as anything less will only hasten the day when America wakes to find itself a one-party state.

​Left wing violence, Domocrats, Totalitarian, Censorship, Opinion & analysis, Elections, Jay jones, Political violence, George patton, Virginia, Nazi germany, Filibuster 

ESPN’s reign as the king of sports media may be nearing its end.

BlazeTV contributor Paul Burkhardt is among those who believe this to be true, explaining that the network is “very vulnerable” as competitors like Netflix and Amazon prepare to make a “power play” that could permanently reshape the sports broadcasting landscape.

“I don’t think a lot of people are realizing — and I’ve been on this and been studying this now for probably about a year and a half — I believe ESPN is very vulnerable right now,” Burkhardt tells BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock and the rest of the panel on “Fearless.”

“And it’s the worst time for this to happen, because I think Netflix and Amazon are in a position to make the ultimate power play over the next, say, two to five years. They’ve already started to dabble into the games. They already have the leagues with them to some varying degree,” he continues.

“I think there’s a takedown about ready to happen, and I’m in line to watch it,” he adds.

Burkhardt believes that “Netflix and Amazon are ready to pounce.”

“I think that ESPN could be drunk on its success. ESPN has always had an overinflated sense of itself, particularly the on-air talent, because ESPN had such a monopoly on sports coverage that anybody you put on there was going to have the feeling of having a following,” Whitlock agrees.

“I don’t think Stephen A. Smith has a sincere following. I think he’s been forced down our throats on ESPN, but no one thinks Stephen A. Smith is talented. No one thinks he’s that informed or that insightful about sports,” he continues.

“It’s kind of reflective of the whole mentality of Hollywood and the leftist deal. … If they decide this person’s important; if they want to put Joe Biden in as president even though he’s half dead; if they decide, ‘Hey, no one likes Hillary Clinton, but we’re going to run her for president,’” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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​Sharing, Free, Video phone, Video, Camera phone, Upload, Youtube.com, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Netflix, Amazon, Espn, Paul burkhardt, Steve kim, Espn failing, Stephen a smith, Stephen a smith jason whitlock, Fearless with jason whitlock 

Law enforcement in Alexandria, Louisiana, responded to the 1800 block of Henry Street just after 7:30 a.m. Saturday for a reported home invasion, the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office said. Alexandria is about 200 miles northwest of New Orleans.

Officials said a black male identified as 33-year-old Davante Deundra Thomas of Alexandria allegedly kicked down the door of the residence armed with a handgun and fired at the homeowner.

‘People have a right to protect themselves.’

But the homeowner also had a gun — and wasted no time using it.

Officials said the homeowner returned fire, striking Thomas.

After deputies arrived, Thomas was found dead inside the home with the gun still in his hand, officials said.

Sheriff’s detectives and the Crime Scene Unit responded and began their investigation and processed the scene for evidence, officials said.

The sheriff’s office said no arrests have been made.

Officials said the investigation is still active and ongoing, and all those with any information about the incident should contact detectives at 318-473-6727 or the sheriff’s office at 318-473-6700.

Commenters reacting to the shooting were a bit mixed in their opinions. Most seemed completely behind the homeowner who returned fire — but others believed there was more to the story:

“Turns out the more you F around the more you find out,” one commenter said.”Welp, he won’t do that again!!!” another user noted.”This is a good opportunity to teach your kids about what happens if you go breaking into houses,” another commenter wrote.”People have a right to protect themselves,” another user said.”Crazy thing is people don’t realize how many homeowners actually have weapons in their homes just for this reason,” another commenter observed.”Naw, we aren’t getting the entire story here,” another user countered. “Don’t pass judgement without all the facts.””This just doesn’t sound right to me, either,” another commenter stated. “Something [is] not adding up.”

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​2nd amend., Alexandria, Armed intruder, Break-in, Crime thwarted, Door kicked down, Fatal shooting, Gun rights, Guns, Home invasion, Homeowner shoots intruder, Intruder opens fire, Louisiana, Rapides parish sheriff’s office, Self-defense, Crime