By L. Neil Smith

February 1, 2017 - Okay, the 2016 General Election is well and truly over, and I fully intend this to be my final commentary on it. Many individuals have written to me or about me, denigrating, in various ways, my difficult decision to vote for Donald J. Trump. As I had already explained at some length on several occasions, whatever electoral pacifists may say, I believe in voting defensively; the prospect that Hillary Clinton might be elected - further extending the reign of vile, brutalitarian collectivism that began with the election of spymaster George H.W. Bush - was so bleak and repulsive to me that I would have voted for practically anybody to prevent the end of Western Civilization.

MADRID, Spain (PNN) - February 5, 2017 - Separatists in Catalonia plan to come out in force Monday when the Spanish region's former leader, Artur Mas, stands trial over a non-binding independence referendum he held, further straining ties with Madrid.

CANBERRA, Australia (PNN) - February 1, 2017 - Researchers have found a way to turn cheap, everyday cooking oil into the wonder material graphene - a technique that could greatly reduce the cost of making the much-touted nanomaterial.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (PNN) - February 1, 2017 - Itron’s Wi-Fi smart meters are being installed in homes across the globe. Iltron's "OpenWay CENTRON”, and its EM420i modular smart meters, are a privacy nightmare.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (PNN) - January 31, 2017 - Ryan Bundy, accused of leading the 2014 standoff near his father’s ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, testified Tuesday that the charges detailed in the 16-count indictment against him describe the actions of federal agents who tried to illegally impound his father’s cattle.

PARIS, France (PNN) - February 1, 2017 - Francois Fillon’s French presidential campaign plunged deeper into trouble on Tuesday after further revelations about his use of public funds to employ members of his family.

The Republican candidate’s daughter and son allegedly earned 84,000 euros ($91,000) from 2005 to 2007 while working for him when he was a Senator, Le Canard Enchaine said. His wife, Penelope Fillon, earned more than 900,000 euros over a decade as a parliamentary assistant and a contributor to a magazine while doing little actual work, according to Le Canard.

SAN DIEGO, Kalifornia (PNN) - February 1, 2017 - A DNA sequence code critical to our understanding of how human genes are turned on and off has just been unlocked by a team of scientists. Molecular biologists refer to this code as the “human initiator”. Ever since it was first observed back in the 1980s, the human initiator was believed to play a significant role in gene activation, given that it commonly occurs at the start sites of genes.

LOS ANGELES, Kalifornia (PNN) - January 28, 2017 - A campaign for Kalifornia to secede from the rest of the country over Donald Trump's election is gaining momentum, with supporters allowed to start collecting signatures for the measure to be put to a vote.

By Marianne March

January 27, 2017 - I see the look in my best friend’s eyes when I talk to her about free markets. She looks at me like she doesn’t know me; as if the friend that she has laughed and cried with, that she trusts, has been invaded by an inhuman body snatcher.

LOS ANGELES, Kalifornia (PNN) - January 24, 2017 - According to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, a record number of disaffected, Hillary Clinton-supporting Kalifornians now support secession from the Fascist Police States of Amerika because they're just so "triggered" by Donald Trump's victory.