DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY:

Not even going to ask about the French she took.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: The Evolution of Terrorism Prosecutions – My Speech at the Federal Bar Council.

I KNOW SOMEBODY WHO’S GOING TO ENJOY HIS RETIREMENT: Joe Biden Wants Corvette’s Chief Engineer to Help Him Pick a New Vette.

YES. ALSO ALL OTHER PUBLIC OFFICIALS: Is it time to hold police officers accountable for constitutional violations? “Qualified immunity” is a judicial invention with no basis in the Constitution.

HAIL MARY: Chargers’ desperation move is a shot to the NFL’s vitality.

Now a weird year for the NFL just got weirder. If the Chargers do indeed move, and if owners approve the Raiders’ move to Vegas in March, three teams will have relocated in a 14-month span. There will be plenty of blame to go around. Goodell will be the face of it, but internally, owners and executives will wonder if NFL executive Eric Grubman, the point man on stadiums, did an effective enough job of negotiating with San Diego officials. The owners will be viewed as vessels of greed; Spanos will be the one who in the end decided to pull the plug on a cherished home, his legacy a sunburned version of Art Modell’s. But the lingering conflict goes beyond the relocations, beyond the logistics and into an area that is tougher to navigate if not solve, because there is no clear solution: What if the NFL simply matters less?

Indeed.

WHEN GADGET FIXERS TURN FBI INFORMANTS: Members of Best Buy’s Geek Squad passed incriminating evidence to the law enforcement agency and received payments from agents.

EPA: Fiat Chrysler Used Emissions-Cheating Software.

Officials stopped short of calling Fiat Chrysler’s software defeat devices, saying they were continuing to investigate. But they nevertheless accused Fiat Chrysler of illegal activity and said it could cost the company $4.63 billion, based on a $44,539 penalty for each affected vehicle.

“This is a clear and serious violation of the Clean Air Act,” said EPA Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles, adding Fiat Chrysler failed to disclose eight so-called auxiliary emission control devices on the vehicles when getting them certified. “AECDs that are not disclosed are illegal.”

Fiat Chrysler “is disappointed that the EPA has chosen to issue a notice of violation,” the auto maker said in a statement. The company “intends to work with the incoming administration to present its case and resolve this matter fairly and equitable and to assure the EPA and FCA US customers that the company’s diesel-powered vehicles meet all applicable regulatory requirements.”

European companies sure do talk a green game.

DECISION EXPECTED SOON IN University of Texas cover-up lawsuit.

BECAUSE WHEN TRUMP MOVES, HE SLICES LIKE AN F***ING HAMMER, BABY: “A source close to [Paul Anka], 75, told Radar exclusively that he will buck the trend of most singers and perform his song ‘My Way’ at the Inauguration January 20…with lyrics re-written for the incoming Commander-In-Chief!”

I assume this time, the guys will get shirts — and they’ll be the softest most luxurious shirts you can imagine. So many shirts, you’ll be sick of all the shirts.

HEALTH: Physically active men may improve their prostate cancer prognosis.

BETTER TO BE A “WEEKEND WARRIOR” than not to exercise at all.

VIDEO: It’s Really Not a Smart Idea to Try to Rob a Gun Store.

Graphic, but educational.

OVERRIPE: Are Conditions Ripening for Iraqi Kurdish State?

It is unlikely that Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD) or its fighting force, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), or Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will realize their objectives of statehood, but Iraq’s Kurds may be in a far more advantageous position to press for independence. Significant obstacles remain for Iraqi Kurds, but the combination of regional instability, the coming liberation of Mosul, and the state of Iraqi politics may help advance the historic goals of Kurdish leaders.

It might not matter if Syria’s or Turkey’s are “ready” for statehood. If Iraq’s Kurds achieve independence, Free Kurdistan will almost surely follow.

Whether we would get one Kurdistan or several remains an open question, but any people who can maintain cultural cohesion for so many centuries without a country, could probably make a go at unity.

GOOD: Scientists have figured out how to make wounds heal without scars.

WE HAD TO SAVE THE RULE OF LAW BY DESTROYING IT: Rosie O’Donnell Wants to Stop Trump Inauguration with Martial Law.

UPDATE (from Glenn): My paper on military coups just gets more timely all the time.

SUCK-UP WATCH: Having backed the losing candidate, Google now tries to align with Trump. “Despite Google’s support of Clinton, and Trump’s tendency to hold grudges, the tech behemoth may very well succeed in its efforts to embed itself in the new power structure.” And apparently they’re doing okay:

Joshua Wright, long an ally of Google, is in charge of the transition team at the Federal Trade Commission. The Intercept noted Wright is “pulling off the rare revolving-door quadruple-play,” having moved from academic work supported by Google to FTC commissioner, back to Google-supported work and now back to the federal government.

As a George Mason University law professor, Wright wrote at least four academic papers while being funded by Google that argued the company hadn’t violated antitrust laws by favoring its own sites in search engine results.

After Wright became a FTC commissioner in 2013, he recused himself from any cases involving Google for two years. He returned to George Mason in August 2015, but also began working with the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Google’s primary outside law firm.

Now Wright could very well be named chairman of the FTC in the coming months.

Stay tuned.

HEADLINES FROM 2015: As Trump Berates News Media, a New Strategy Is Needed to Cover Him.

SUPERCUT: 79 Times Obama Referred to Himself in Farewell Speech.

Oops? The link is correct but the wrong video is playing, at least on my end. So click the YouTube link if you’re having the same problem.

FUSION GPS: The Sordid History of the Firm Behind the Trump-Russia Dossier.

Mark Hemingway:

That’s not all Fusion GPS has been up to in recent years. In 2015, Planned Parenthood was stung by a video expose that detailed its involvement in human organ trafficking—organs harvested from the bodies obtained after abortions. Those behind the expose, David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress, knew they would be severely scrutinized so they released dozens of hours of raw footage that their documentary evidence was culled from to show that their reports had not been selectively edited. Nor were they misrepresenting the shocking statements of Planned Parenthood officials.

Nonetheless, Planned Parenthood produced a “forensic report” concluding that the videos had in fact been manipulated. The author of that report was none other than Fusion GPS. If you bothered to read the details of Fusion GPS’s report it made some damning concessions, even admitting there was no “widespread evidence of substantive video manipulation.” But overall, the report was calculated to be misleading and was nothing but an underhanded PR stunt for Planned Parenthood. Naturally, Fusion GPS’s report was uncritically covered by a credulous media. Politico’s headline was “Report for Planned Parenthood finds sting videos manipulated.” The New York Times went with “Planned Parenthood Videos Were Altered, Analysis Finds.” Neither report mentioned the controversy about Fusion GPS’s attacks on GOP donors or otherwise suggested the firm had partisan motivations.

Indeed, it seems that the media have been uncritically amplifying Fusion GPS’s disinformation campaigns for years now.

Read the whole thing.

THE WORLD’S COLDEST CAPITALS: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia is the world leader in cold capital cities. It’s average annual temperature is -2.4 degrees Celsius. The link goes to that old Cold Warrior, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. RFE/RL credits the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

IN THE MAIL: From Milo Yiannopoulos, Tom Kratman, et.al, Forbidden Thoughts.

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ROGER SIMON: More CEOs, Please — Tillerson Hugely Impressive in Confirmation Hearing.

THE SINS OF THE GRANDDAUGHTER: L.L. Bean Targeted by Anti-Trump Group.

The anti-Trump group “Grab Your Wallet” has targeted outdoor company L.L. Bean for a boycott because a granddaughter of the L.L. Bean founder donated money to a Trump PAC.

Linda Bean is the granddaughter of founder Leon Leonwood Bean and “owns a chunk” of the company.

They can have my Bean Boots when they pry them off my cold, dead — but still dry! — feet.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1344: Democrats Remind Jeff Sessions AG Enforces ‘Every Law,’ Yet Were Silent When DOJ Declined To Prosecute Lois Lerner.

CUE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: Billionaire George Soros Lost Nearly $1 Billion in Weeks After Trump Election.

Last year, Mr. Soros returned to trading at Soros Fund Management LLC, which manages about $30 billion for Mr. Soros and his family. Mr. Soros was lured back by the opportunities to profit from what he saw as coming economic troubles.

Mr. Soros was cautious about the market going into November and became more bearish immediately after Mr. Trump’s election, according to people close to the matter. The stance proved a mistake—the stock market has rallied on expectations that Mr. Trump’s policies will boost corporate earnings and the overall economy.

As a result, some of Mr. Soros’s trading positions incurred losses approaching $1 billion, the people say. Mr. Soros adjusted his positions and exited many of his bearish bets late last year, avoiding further losses, the people added.

Maybe he got tired of all the winning.

WHAT IS THIS, NAZI GERMANY? Democrats Take Aim at Civil Liberties Group F.I.R.E.

In the wake of last year’s election upset, Democratic activists and journalists worried about the rise of authoritarianism under the new administration urged Americans to donate to the ACLU and other organizations devoted to protecting civil liberties against government overreach. But now Senate Democrats are trying to derail a Trump cabinet nominee because she donated to a group that stands up for free speech and due process in an arena where their ideological allies have tried to restrict them. . . .

Imagine Senator Casey’s quote applied to a hypothetical 2019 Trump administration policy that stripped due process rights from terror suspects: “Democrats must fully explain whether they support the radical view that it should be more difficult for victims of terrorism to receive justice,” an administration spokesman might demand. Such a statement would surely be described (accurately) as classic demagoguery.

As a spokesperson for DeVos noted, FIRE does work in a wide range of areas. It protects student free speech rights regardless of the speakers’ political orientation, although because conservatives are a such a small ideological minority on campus, their views tend to be targeted more frequently. And it advocates for sexual assault policies that fairly weigh the interests of both accusers and the accused, rather than simply expelling students after kangaroo court show trials, as many activists demand.

That Democrats are floating this line of attack against DeVos is a testimony to how influential identity-politics fixated campus activists have become even among the party’s moderates. Which, needless to say, is a big reason the party finds itself in opposition in the first place.

You want more Trump? Because this is how you get more Trump.

FAKE NEWS IS EVERYWHERE: When Leftist Foundations Fund Activism Posing as Journalism.

ASIA PIVOT: China to set up Asia-Pacific security framework amid growing mistrust among its neighbours.

China has vowed to set up an Asia-Pacific security framework and continue building up its armed forces, citing complex security concerns in the region.

In its first policy white paper on Asia-Pacific security cooperation, Beijing said on Wednesday that the present security framework should be upgraded.

Military alliances in the region should be made with transparency and confrontation should be avoided, it says. It also calls for more military exchanges between China and other nations in the ­region.

“The current security structure in the region is not satisfactory, which has led to mistrust among the nations,” vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin said.

Sometimes, diplomacy consists of the doggie playing nice until it has a big enough rock of its own.

JOHN PODESTA AS SECRETARY OF STATE? Hillary’s List Of Cabinet Picks Revealed, Including Black Person To Be Named Later. The “black person to be named later” bit is funny, but this list of sad retreads (Jamie Gorelick as Attorney General? Really?) makes Trump’s picks look awfully good, which probably means it’s “fake news,” right?

AWARENESS: We asked Nancy Pelosi what part of Obamacare had underperformed. “I can’t think of anything,” she said.

Vox, so click with caution.

JOSE CABRANES: If colleges keep killing academic freedom, civilization will die, too. “Recent attempts to shame professors for unpopular views and to curtail the due process rights of those accused of misconduct are cause for alarm. Especially when academic freedom is endangered at places such as Yale — long celebrated as a leader on freedom of expression — we know that the erosion of academic freedom has become a national problem.”

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HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Dangerous Rise of ‘The New Civics.’

You may wish to revisit this 2006 essay by Eric S. Raymond, The Gramscian Damage.

DONALD TRUMP: Bringing Media A Reality Check:

The relationship with the White House press corps is being redefined by President-elect Donald Trump, who takes to Twitter to drive home his point and calls out journalists in a fiery new normal reporters will need to adjust to quickly, media watchdogs said.

“This administration is going to cause the press to rediscover itself and rediscover its true role,” said Richard Benedetto, an American University professor who as a reporter covered the White House for decades. “It’s going to be a rough ride because this president operates a little differently.”

Again: In the post-World War II era, the press has enjoyed certain institutional privileges based on two assumptions: (1) That it’s very powerful; and (2) That it will exercise that power responsibly, for the most part. Both assumptions have been proven false in this election cycle. Like many of the postwar institutional accommodations, this one is being renegotiated under Trump.

Plus, some related thoughts of mine from last night. The best thing would be to have an honest, competent, reasonably fair press. It’s not entirely clear what the second-best thing is.

DISTRACTED DRIVING: The Next Ad Frontier is the Windshield.

The advent of connected cars is creating a new sales battleground, and using a vehicle’s windshield may be the next way to pitch more products and services to consumers. McKinsey & Co. estimates that mobile and data-driven services in autos will generate $1.5 trillion by 2030. At least part of that will be spent projecting information to drivers and passengers right before their eyes.

“When you think of a person driving and what your needs are when you’re on a typical trip, it’s food, it’s fuel and it’s rest stops,” said John Butler, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. “Owning the inside of the car is critical, it’s really where the money is made. The real value is locked up in the ad opportunity.”

I’m going to hang on to my comparatively low-tech 2009-model SUV until it falls apart around me.

ALLIES:

That’s all I’ve been able to find on this story so far.

IF IT WEREN’T FOR DOUBLE STANDARDS, THEY’D HAVE NO STANDARDS AT ALL: Trump’s Presser Shows Media Double Standard On Politicians Attacking The Press: The idea that this kind of singling out of press members by politicians is new and especially catastrophic is odd. Remember de Blasio and Obama doing the same? “There was also the time the Obama adminstration named Fox national reporter James Rosen a co-conspirator in violating the Espionage Act so they could spy on his phone records, whereabouts, and personal emails. Or the time the Obama administration seized two months of AP reporters’ phone records. Also, don’t forget the time Obama booted three newspapers’ reporters from his campaign plane because he didn’t like their coverage. So, there’s that.”

That’s different, because shut up.

A-10 WARTHOG UPGRADES FOR COMBAT SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSIONS: A short but informative article.

Of all the fixed-wing aircraft in the US Air Force’s inventory, no plane carries out CSAR missions like the A-10. CSAR missions jump off with little warning and often involve going deep into enemy territory, so becoming certified to perform CSAR missions takes tons of training, which only A-10 pilots undergo. The A-10’s rugged survivability, massive forward firing power, newly acquired communication capabilities, and long loiter times at low altitudes make it ideal for flying low and slow and finding the lost person.

RELATED: From May 2016, when the plot to kill the A-10 was still in full swing. Can popularity save the A-10? Long post by Jim Dunnigan but has the details.

THEY’RE NOT A CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP, THEY’RE A DEMOCRATIC PARTY FRONT GROUP: NAACP head won’t say if any Republican would make a good attorney general.

NAACP President Cornell Brooks refused to say whether he thought any Republican could make a good attorney general when asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham detailed the NAACP’s report cards giving Democrats perfect scores and flunking Republicans during Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearings for attorney general. Graham then pressed Brooks to identify whether any Republican would be suitable to lead the Justice Department.

“Can you name one person you think would be a good attorney general on the Republican side?” Graham asked.

“Senator, my purpose here, as you well know, as a witness is to speak to the nominee’s fitness to serve as attorney general,” Brooks answered.

Graham said he thought it was “odd” how the nation’s oldest civil rights organization viewed the Democratic Party much more favorably than the GOP before noting that Brooks’ view of Sessions was matched by the NAACP’s view of the Republican Party.

I thought these tax-exempt groups were supposed to be nonpartisan.

MICHAEL MOORE: Trump Is ‘The Godfather of This Decade’s Fake News’

The word you’re looking for is “chutzpah.”

DATA POINT: One of my friends, an Arab immigrant who hates Trump and has been blasting him on social media nonstop for a year, watched Rex Tillerson’s confirmation hearing yesterday and came away very impressed, to his own surprise.

HOLDING THE JERRIES OFF ALL NIGHT LONG: That is the face of a very weary soldier. Great photo, informative caption. The latest in StrategyPage’s Battle of the Bulge photo series. (Yes, there’s a typo in the title. It’ll be fixed.)

MICHAEL BRENDAN DOUGHERTY: Why the media’s Trump dossier coverage is suicidal.

Whether or not you agree with Dougherty on any of the particulars, they all come down to this one line: “Our institutions can’t temporarily suspend the very standards that grant them credibility and expect to survive.”

I’d quibble only with the word “temporarily.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Study: For-Profits Match Similar Nonprofits in Learning Results.

Students at for-profit institutions achieve learning results that are similar to those of students who attend comparable nonprofit colleges, according to a new study by the Council for Aid to Education.

The council used its Collegiate Learning Assessment to measure learning outcomes in six areas for 624 students from four for-profit higher education systems, which the study does not name, and then compared the scores with those of a matched group of students from 20 unnamed public and private institutions that were selected because they were similar to the for-profits on key measures related to academic performance. The CLA aims to show how students’ learning has grown on average between when they entered and when they graduated from an institution.

“In all six comparisons, students at proprietary institutions outperformed the students at the nonproprietary comparison institutions,” the study said. “However, in all but one case, the difference in mean scores is too small to be considered statistically significant.” Students from the for-profits outperformed their peers at nonprofits to a statistically significant degree on the performance task section, which includes measurements of problem solving and writing.

Who could have seen this coming?

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Hey Hollywood, Smugness Isn’t a Political Strategy.

The problem with Hollywood people making political speeches is not that their political ideas are worse than anyone else’s, or that they enjoy sharing their half-baked ideas. This is a minor and forgivable social sin, like arriving five minutes early for a party. No, the problem with Hollywood people making political speeches is that the speeches themselves are bad, at least at their presumed goal of producing political change.

Take Streep. She’s right that Trump should not have made fun of a disabled reporter. However, she surrounded that point with an extended discussion of how mean everyone was being to actors and journalists.

This was a double mistake. First, it accepted Trump’s frame: it’s a handful of liberal elites against the rest of the country. That’s an argument he just won, so it’s unwise to try for an immediate rematch. And second, there is in this whole world no sight less rhetorically compelling than that of successful people with fun and rewarding jobs, and a decent income, complaining that they’re victims of the unglamorous folks who labor at all the strenuously boring work required to make their lives nice. Even I, who have one of those jobs, am rolling my eyes and saying “Good heavens, suck it up.” The only people who don’t recoil from this sort of vacuous self-pity are those similarly situated in elite liberal institutions — but since those folks already hate Trump, you haven’t actually changed anything.

Perspective is difficult for those working in an isolated and highly paid field which devotes an entire season to self-congratulation.

EMISSIONS CHEAT: Six Volkswagen Executives Indicted by Department of Justice.

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan returned an indictment today, fingering the execs for playing key roles in a decade-long conspiracy to deceive the U.S. government and public. While five of the men live in Germany, one man — Oliver Schmidt, former head of VW’s regulatory compliance department — was nabbed by the FBI in a Miami airport on Saturday while attempting to return to Germany.

As the charges were handed down, the embattled automaker pleaded guilty to three criminal federal counts and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in criminal and civil penalties.

It will be interesting to see if Germany agrees to extradite the other five.

SO MUCH WINNING: Trump Pentagon likely to abandon social experiments for core mission under Mattis, say expert. Rumors that Mattis only took the job on condition that the Department of Defense be renamed the Department of War remain, as they say, unverifiable.

I THINK REPUBLICANS SHOULD USE THIS AS A JUMPING-OFF POINT TO CAP THE PAY OF UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS AND NONPROFIT OFFICERS AT THE LEVEL OF A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: Democrats Move To Cap Employee Pay.

VIDEO: Prof. Stephen Cohen: Allegations Against Trump a ‘Grave American National Security Threat’.

It took five years, a major hurricane, and a civil war in Iraq to discredit and hobble George W. Bush, and the Democrats aren’t going to make that kind of a mistake again.

SEAN DAVIS: Progressives Don’t Understand How Gun ‘Silencers’ Work. Here Are Some Facts To Help Them.

Actress Quietly Blended ‘F*ck Paul Ryan’ Pin Into Pattern Of Her Golden Globes Dress.

The last line of Lindsey Ellefson’s writeup claims that Lola Kirke “was just one of the bold political statements made that evening, but it was one of the most unique.” But how is hiding a tiny pin on a busy dress worn at an event of likeminded individuals in any way “bold?”

JOHN HINDERAKER: Trump Bestrides The Left’s World Like A Colossus. “As we and others have documented countless times, the liberal world has gone bonkers over Donald Trump. It is an odd thing: Trump isn’t even a conservative, or wasn’t until recently. Yet liberals have gone nuts over his ascendancy in a way that is unprecedented. They make fools of themselves hour by hour, and, weirdly, don’t seem to notice. The current issue of Vanity Fair, a celebrity-oriented Democratic Party magazine, is a case in point. . . . Are these people nuts? For whatever reason, Donald Trump has driven them around the bend. As regular readers know, I was anything but a Trump supporter through the primary season. But observing how bizarrely liberals react to him makes me think that his fans were on to something from the beginning.”

Yes, they’re nuts. And yes, their craziness is cementing a lot of Trump support.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Senate opens Obamacare repeal drive with overnight marathon.

The House is expected take a swift vote on the resolution, possibly as early as Friday, which will trigger congressional committees to begin crafting a second bill that would roll back major parts of Obamacare. Though it will be weeks before Congress votes on that bill, Thursday still marked a victory for the Republican Party as it moves toward overhauling the country’s healthcare system.

I recall headline after headline over the last week or so, each claiming that Republican Senators were having second thoughts, due to the difficulty of repealing such a complicated law with so many popular provisions.

Those stories felt more like the MSM trying to create news than report it, and sure enough that feeling has been proven correct.

THIS IS WHAT A “COMMON-SENSE IMMIGRATION POLICY” LOOKS LIKE: Left-wing Dutch vegan who moved to Switzerland is denied a Swiss passport because she is too annoying. “The resident’s committee argued that if she does not accept Swiss traditions and the Swiss way of life, she should not be able to become an official national.”

More cowbell.

SPYING: Trump conducts his own sting operation to ensnare intelligence briefers – and says he caught them leaking.

OF COURSE THEY DO: Civil Rights Activists Blast Senators for ‘Collegiality’ with Sessions. Now make a list of those Senators and run ads against them next election.

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SO THIS ISN’T EXACTLY A CLIMBDOWN, but I’m rethinking my position that a good argument for having Trump as President is that if he gets out of line, the press and the Deep State will go after him and bring him under control.

There are two reasons for that. First, the press and the Deep State are already going after him, before he’s even had a chance to get out of line. And second, I mean, holy crap, could they be any sorrier at doing so? I mean, “Peegate?” Really? What the hell?

This is good news for Trump, sort of, but overall it’s really bad news, since it means that both journalism and the intelligence community are both more politicized, and less competent, than even I thought. Sweet Jesus, these people are terrible.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 13 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SEMEN.

Left out is that it’s an antidepressant for women.

AUDIOBLOG: The Politics Guys.

THIS IS NEWS: Trump secretary of state nominee: China should be denied access to South China Sea islands.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: St. Jude Medical releases security patches for vulnerable cardiac devices. “The transmitters record and receive RF traffic from the embedded medical devices before sending this information to physicians through the Merlin.net Patient Care Network. The US agency has investigated a set of security flaws found within this setup by MedSec and has come to the conclusion that the bugs could allow cyberattackers to remotely access implanted cardiac devices by compromising the transmitter.”

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SENATOR TIM SCOTT (R-SC) DELIVER’S TWITTER’S SICKEST BURN:

More here.

UPDATE: A friend on Facebook writes that this is the best thing she’s seen all day, “and I’ve watched the press conference 3 times.”

WHY ARE LEFTY CAMPUSES SUCH CESSPITS OF INTOLERANCE AND HATE? Intolerance at Berkeley as Faculty Demand Gay Immigrant Stay Off Campus.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. BuzzFeed undermines all journalists with Trump ‘dossier.’ “In crossing one of the few lines left for mainstream news outlets, a demand for some level of verification, BuzzFeed could not have given Trump better ammunition with which to vilify the press as dishonest, biased and all the other claims he makes in trying to inoculate himself against valid criticism.” Yeah, well, being dishonest, biased, etc. will do that. I mean, after Rathergate and Journolist, none of this is a surprise, but they just get lamer and more obvious with each iteration.

WHEN YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG: Koran Verse Denying Jesus Was Son of God Sung in Scottish Cathedral. “The cathedral praised the reading in a Facebook post, calling it a ‘wonderful event.’ However, retired Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali strongly condemned it, saying it was especially inappropriate for the feast of the Epiphany, which celebrates the revelation of Christ as the Son of God.”

WHEW! No, Marijuana Legalization Isn’t Crushing Craft Beer.

On the other hand, we could probably do with fewer craft beers trying to imitate cocktails.

BRAIN DRAIN: Jamaica Says U.S. And Others Are ‘Poaching’ Its Nurses. It’s cruel to rob developing countries of their best minds, right?

THE SMALL SILVER SCREEN: Coen Brothers to Write and Direct Their First-Ever TV Series, ‘Buster Scruggs’

The TV adaptation — reboot? reimagining? — of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo, which they produce, has been quite good in its first two seasons.

AN ONLINE SHOP RUN BY ONE OF MY BROTHER’S FRIENDS: Fancy Rascal.

NO TOUCHING:

If you’re male and 18 and waiting anxiously for your acceptance at a prestigious coastal liberal arts college or university, the authors of The Campus Rape Frenzy would undoubtedly have two words of advice: Don’t go. That is, if you plan on any sexual M.O. other than abstinence.

If you do go and then have sex, your partner (let’s say ze is a she) can, under current rules, accuse you of sexual assault or rape if you kiss her or reach for her hand without her permission, can say that she was afraid of you when she did give permission and so was coerced, can claim that after a single drink she was under the influence of alcohol and therefore unable to give consent (you can be way drunker, but that doesn’t matter), and can make these claims months after the fact without you being aware that she has made them.

Think that’s scary? What happens next is even worse. Following guidelines from the Obama administration Office of Civil Rights, you will likely be denied representation by a lawyer, forbidden from presenting exonerating evidence or asking questions of your accuser (who will invariably be referred to as the “victim” or the “survivor”), be subject to the decision of a college administrator who is under pressure to show that her (as it almost always is) institution is eagerly working with the federal government’s esoteric understanding of Title IX, and found guilty if there is a 50.01 percent chance you failed to get consent, or lost it at some point unbeknownst to you. The press will rake you over the coals and your future, now that you’re expelled and branded a sexual malefactor, will be compromised.

Yep. Everybody’s safer at Reynolds Online University.

REMINDER OF OBAMA’S WHITE HOUSE IN 2009: ‘Don’t Pretend’ Fox News Is a ‘Legitimate News Organization.’

AS THE TRUMP ERA UNFOLDS, NEWS CONSUMERS ARE GETTING KINDA UPPITY:

UPDATE: See also:

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IS THERE ANYTHING HE CAN’T DO? America was the unexpected theme at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show thanks to Trump.

OF COURSE THEY ARE: SJWs Furious After Tech Conference Protects Political Diversity. “In a potentially devastating blow to the most widely-used weapon in the arsenal of social justice warriors, FCOP forbids ‘naming & shaming.’ This technique involves shaming someone on social media, with the goal of forming a lynch mob powerful enough to get the person discredited or fired (‘tech evangelist’ Adria Richards notoriously used this technique to get a developer fired for a private joke he made to a friend at a tech conference).”

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Meryl Streep’s 4 Worst Films.

“GAS TAXES ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO CONSERVE GASOLINE.” “OKAY, I’LL BUY AN ELECTRIC CAR.” “WE HAVE TO TAX YOUR ELECTRIC CAR SO WE WON’T LOSE GAS TAX REVENUE.” Indiana thinking about adding fees just for plug-in vehicles. “Additionally, Indiana may increase its gasoline tax by 10 cents a gallon. That would increase gas taxes for typical Indiana drivers by about $50 a year. Still, the plug-in vehicle fees reflect the issue many states are facing in regards to governments not being able to collect gas taxes from the growing inventory of plug-in vehicles.” Okay, you have to pay for the roads somehow. But . . .

WHO IS REALLY COVERED BY OBAMACARE?

It might not be who you think.

SCOTT ADAMS on Trump’s response to the latest fake news.

MAYBE WE SHOULD TREAT APPLE AND SAMSUNG LIKE TOBACCO COMPANIES: Hooked On Our Smartphones.

HUH: Judges Reject Orange County’s Claim That Social Workers Didn’t Know Lying In Court Was Wrong.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets released a swarm of 103 Perdix semi-autonomous drones in flight.

The miniature Perdex drones, different from larger, more common remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) like the well-known Reaper and Predator, operate with a high degree of collective autonomy and reduced dependency on remote flight crews to control them. The large group of more autonomous Perdex drones creates a “swarm” of miniature drones. The swarm shares information across data links during operation, and can make mission-adaptive decisions faster than RPV’s controlled in the more conventional manner.

In a statement released by the U.S. Department of Defense, Strategic Capabilities Office Director William Roper said, “Due to the complex nature of combat, Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronized individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature,” Director Roper went on to say, “Because every Perdix communicates and collaborates with every other Perdix, the swarm has no leader and can gracefully adapt to drones entering or exiting the team.”

Video at the link.

FASTER, PLEASE: “Researchers have identified a drug that can regenerate teeth from the inside out, possibly reducing the need for artificial fillings.”

ROGER SIMON: Was My Russian ‘Honey Trap’ More Serious Than Trump’s?

AT AMAZON, Work and Safety Clothes and Footwear for Men.

WRONG NUMBER: Louisiana man texts deputy about meth delivery, sheriff says.

The Assumption Parish deputy seemed to take it in stride, reportedly texting back an OK last Friday, before he mobilized the Narcotics Division.

Sure enough, the suspect, 39-year-old Dwayne Herbert of Pierre Part, showed up with crystal meth and two guns, Sheriff Leland Falcon said. The deputy arrested Herbert, who faces charges ranging from meth possession to resisting an officer.

The movies are filled with criminal masterminds because real life isn’t.

I’M NOT SAYING THAT IT ‘S ALIENS. BUT IT’S ALIENS. NASA has discovered gigantic ice towers on Pluto, standing 500 metres tall.

STOP ME IF YOU THINK YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE: Jeff Sessions Faces Democrats’ Decades-Old Race-Baiting Routine.

HEALTH: According to federal regulators, companies that talk about reducing health risks by switching from smoking to vaping are breaking the law.

Then there’s something wrong with the law.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: New Strides In Alpha Centauri Planet Hunt.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Glenn Greenwald: The Deep State Goes to War with President-Elect, Using Unverified Claims, as Democrats Cheer.

NO: ‘Are We Living in Nazi Germany?’

This is over-the-top, even by Trump’s standards, but a little perspective is always called for — it’s just a tweet.

EXCLUSIVE! MUST CREDIT INSTAPUNDIT! Important but unverified national security documents!

FRACK, BABY, FRACK: A 2-year streak of U.S. oil output declines is ‘likely over’

JOURNALISM IN 2017:

So the problem here is that you can call for an investigation, but who do you trust to investigate? The news media? The national security bureaucracy? Congress? All of them have gone out of their way to prove themselves untrustworthy. That’s not a good thing, but it’s reality. And can I say, if this is the Deep State’s effort at a Trump killshot, it’s laughably inept. Which given their performance over the past few years argues that that’s who’s behind it. . .

And this has the effect of inoculating Trump against real scandals — and those are inevitable — down the line. So much so that I almost wonder if this wasn’t actually a Trump Organization “false flag” designed to discredit press attacks. The truth is out there!

POLITICO: Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire.

Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.

A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manafort’s resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump’s campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine’s foe to the east, Russia. But they were far less concerted or centrally directed than Russia’s alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails.

Is there anybody not trying to mess with our elections?

In a way it’s comforting, though. Even after eight years of Obama, other countries still think we matter.

WHAT IS IT DOING UP THERE ALL THIS TIME? Air Force’s Mysterious X-37B Space Plane Wings by 600 Days in Orbit.

“It remains a very useful way to test out things,” Winston Beauchamp, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space, told Space.com last September during an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) meeting in Long Beach, California.

And that’s about all the Air Force has to say about that.

IF IT WEREN’T FOR DOUBLE STANDARDS… Obama Boasts No Terror Attacks On Our Soil, Then Lists Terror Attacks On Our Soil.

It’s generally considered good form to wait at least 24 hours before contradicting oneself so completely.