SEE ALSO: HEALTH CARE ‘REFORM.’ Obama Wants to Ban ‘Assault Weapons’ but Does Not Know What They Are.

JOHN PODHORETZ: Trump the Shock Jock: A Pre-Mortem.

ROLL CALL: Changes To Gun Laws Appear Beyond Obama’s Reach.

Despite his pleas that changes could help prevent mass shootings like the one that killed 14 on Wednesday in San Bernardino, Calif., President Barack Obama seems resigned that he’s mostly powerless to overhaul the country’s gun laws.

Obama has urged stricter gun laws for much of his tenure, doing so during funerals and vigils for victims during his presidency. But with just 13 months remaining in office, even Obama appears resigned that the “common-sense gun safety laws” for which he often has advocated are out of his reach.

That’s because those changes are stupid, unconstitutional, and widely opposed.

TOM MAGUIRE: Welcome to the ISIS Apocalypse! “They aren’t afraid to die and we aren’t afraid to kill them. A win-win.”

UNEXPECTEDLY! CBO projects 2 million fewer jobs under ObamaCare. Remember, if you predicted this back when the bill was under debate, media “fact checkers” would ask the White House if that was going to happen, then give you four Pinocchios when the White House said no. And then call you racist.

ACLU ON OBAMA’S GUN PLAN: We only protect constitutional rights we like from people we don’t like. And we don’t like guns, and we do like Obama, so suck it, gun nuts. “The American Civil Liberties Union is taking no position on legislation that would bar people from buying guns if they are on the federal government’s no-fly list — a list that the ACLU has spent the past five years arguing is unconstitutional.”

VOX: Trump has a base:

A full 76 percent of Republicans, currently Donald Trump’s target audience, see Islam’s values — and thus, presumably, the Muslims who adhere to them — as incompatible with the American way of life.

And a majority of the general public agrees with them! 56 percent of all Americans in the survey agreed Islamic values are incompatible with American values — as a did substantial minority of Democrats (43 percent).

So Trump’s views — though not necessarily his specific plans for an immigration ban — match those of most Americans.

OF COURSE HE WON’T: Chuck Schumer Won’t Return Donations From Donald Trump.

FUNNY, WHEN REPUBLICANS WARNED ABOUT THIS A FEW WEEKS AGO, THEY WERE RACIST: ISIS has targeted refugee program to enter US, Homeland Security chairman says.

Intelligence officials have determined that Islamic extremists have explored using the refugee program to enter the United States, the head of the House Homeland Security Committee said on Monday.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) declined to go into detail about the determination, which the Obama administration has not announced publicly.

Yet the disclosure could add ammunition to critics of the White House’s refugee plans who have warned that the program is vulnerable to infiltration by adherents of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“ISIS members in Syria have attempted to exploit it to get into the United States,” McCaul said during a speech at the National Defense University.

“The U.S. government has information to indicate that individuals tied to terrorist groups in Syria have already attempted to gain access to our country through the U.S. refugee program.”

McCaul would not say specifically who informed him and other lawmakers about the revelation, only describing the sources as “elements of the intelligence community.”

“That was very courageous for them to come forward with this, to tell me about this personally, given the political debate on the Hill,” he added, suggesting that the news did not come from intelligence leaders.

The briefing happened “earlier this week,” McCaul said.

McCaul’s speech comes amid escalating concerns about Islamic extremism in the West, following the killings of 130 people in Paris and 14 in San Bernardino, Calif. The massacres have caused American fears about terrorism to spike, and left Congress grasping for a response.

President Obama has repeatedly pushed back against warnings that ISIS could attack the United States by sending over fighters as refugees.

Well, if Obama has been pushing back against these warnings, then you can take them to the bank. . . .

AIN’T NO PARTY LIKE A GOVERNMENT PARTY: VA Refuses To Terminate Employees Who Have Sex In Office, High On Cocaine During Work.

THE NAVY’S NEWEST DESTROYER, THE USS ZUMWALT, is commanded by Captain James Kirk. No word on whether his middle name is Tiberius.

HMMM: This is a Brilliant Move by Donald Trump, Erick Erickson writes at Red State:

Hate Donald Trump all you want, be offended by his proposal all you want, but it is really brilliant politics for Trump right now in the Republican primary and the reactions from the other candidates prove it. All the people attacking Trump on his immigration proposals now attacking him on this have done themselves no favors within the primary process.

Have none of these people read Art of the Deal? This is an opening, bombastic salvo to set the terms of negotiations and the other candidates except Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) just decided to negotiation in Barack Obama’s position. And it comes at a time some polls are suggesting Trump is starting to fade in places like Iowa.

Again, ignore the merits and constitutionality — the politics of this work to his advantage.

And if they end up making he and the rest of the GOP appear to be unelectable — well, Trump probably wouldn’t lose that much sleep over that, either.

Related: “Homeland Security Secretary: If You Don’t Know Muslims Want Peace, You Don’t Know Islam” — a reminder of why Trump’s bombastic rhetoric scores with many voters who’ve tuned out the most PC administration in history.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: College And University President Salaries, 2013. In the interest of fighting income inequality, I think we need legislation capping administrative salaries at institutions receiving federal funds at the equivalent of congressional salaries.

OBAMA’S HHS GAVE A SWEETHEART DEAL to a medical analytics firm owned by a company that had to settle a health data fraud case brought against it by the New York Attorney General for $400 million. Can you guess what the sole-source, five-year, open-ended “Blanket Purchase Agreement” is buying for the Obamacare program from the lucky firm? If you said health data –  including an undetermined amount from the database used in the New York fraud – you get the gold ribbon.

Oh, and did I mention that Andy Slavitt, Obama’s nominee as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (which runs Obamacare), is a former top executive with firm at the heart of the fraud? Maybe that’s why he got an unusual ethics waiver from the Obama administration that allows him to participate in decisions affecting his former employer? Just saying ….

And one more thing: Not only does the contract’s renewal not have to be made public, according to federal procurement regulations, nobody knows how much the deal is worth because there’s no dollar amount affixed to it. Okay, that was two things.

I KNOW NOZZING: Introducing President Sergeant Schultz.

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON PICASSO: Researchers Observe Effects of Art on the Brain.

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, TOVARISH: Why We’re Not Constantly Ill Despite Viruses And Bacteria.  Health privilege!

THAT’S BECAUSE IT’S REALLY  MARXIST WOMEN’S STUDIES: ‘Women’s studies’ is betraying women under Sharia law.

THEY ALWAYS EAT EACH OTHER: Wilsonians in the Woodpile.

UNEXPECTEDLY!   Obamacare Has Driven Health Spending Up, While Covering Fewer Than Expected.

NO NAYS IN THE AMEN CHORUS: Global-warming activists ask U.N. to banish skeptics from Paris Climate Conference.  Because in THEIR world, science is all about the consensus.  If we all clap our hands together and wish upon a star pigs will fly.

FOR MARXISTS EVERYTHING IS A FINITE PIE: The myth of finite goodness.

THEY WERE FOR BASIC RIGHTS BEFORE THEY WERE AGAINST THEM: They’re still devolving on the issue.  Or something.  The New York Times and President Obama Indulge their Inner Jekyll and Hyde.

YEAH THIS: Two Obama Speeches, Both Disasters.