AG LORETTA LYNCH CLARIFIES OBAMA GUN RULE. SUMMARY: “I suspect President Obama is hoping for ignorant crap like this from the media to make it look like he’s really doing something.”

What actually happened: “This has always been the law if you have a Federal Firearms License, and it’s always been illegal to be selling guns for “livelihood or profit” without first obtaining an FFL. The new EOs change nothing in that regard. But we do have some guidance from the Attorney General that indicates the Administration may indeed try to prosecute marginal cases it previously would not have. . . . So this is not to be part of any rule change, but merely a policy decision to prosecute ‘gun dealers, hobbyists and collectors,’ under the ‘new guidance.’ Rather than change the rule, they will use the current vague rule to send ‘hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.’ Though, in this case, it’s not mere harassment, but an intent to imprison. They know if they don’t put the dampers on the growing gun culture, their dream of destroying the Second Amendment will never be realized.”

“WELL, YEAH, BETTER TO AVOID A DEMOCRAT PARTY, JANET RENO-STYLE MASSACRE” — So Far, Local, State, and Federal Authorities Have Taken Low-Key Approach to Malheur Occupation.

In addition to not repeating the disasters of the Clinton-era,* isn’t a low-key response towards those occupying government property Eric Holder, Mike Bloomberg, and Jean Quan (the former mayor of Oakland) approved?

* Which should be everyone’s goal for 2016.

NO WONDER HILLARY GETS SUCH A SWEET DEAL ON THOSE DEBATES! Turns out the former Secretary of State and presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential nominee has a special arrangement with the Democratic National Committee. Essentially, it’s an incentive for hyper-dollar donors to max out to Hillary and give extra-generously to the DNC. Hillary scratches Debbie’s back, Debbie scratches Hillary’s back, while Bernie and Marty get screwed. The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group’s Luke Rosiak quotes several campaign finance experts who say it’s unprecedented.

LUKE GITTOS: The whispers about Cosby have chilling echoes of Salem. Well, the whole country’s beset by a curious breed of godless puritanism.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): A teacher invited a teen to her home for pizza, but his mom walked in on something less than wholesome.

AT AMAZON, New Year, New You.

Plus, outlet deals in Outdoor Gear.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

When The New York Times tells the rubes that it’s time to hand in their guns, when The Washington Post suggests that Jesus is ashamed of them for not welcoming Syrian refugees the week after a terrorist attack, people react not because they love guns or hate Syrians, but because their natural urge to being told by coastal liberals that they’re awful people and that they should just obey and shut up is to issue a certain Anglo-Saxon verb and pronoun combination with all the vigor they can muster. And if they can’t say it themselves, they’ll find someone who will, even if it’s a crude jerk from Queens who can’t make a point without raising his pinky like a Mafia goon explaining the vig to you after you’ve had a bad day at the track.

—“How the P.C. Police Propelled Donald Trump,” Tom Nichols, the Daily Beast.

Nichols’ editor at the Daily Beast certainly did his part.

JUST ONE PROBLEM: WHAT IF 2017 WILL BE EVEN WORSE? The Top 10 Reasons to Take a Pill and Sleep Through 2016.

HiberNol, take me away!

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? THE MAN’S A CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR* AFTER ALL: Obama ‘Confident’ Gun Executive Actions are ‘Entirely Consistent’ with Second Amendment.

* No really — just ask him!

Related: “Obama criticized George W. Bush for using the urgency of the immediate post-9/11 environment to expand the president’s powers, but he only built upon that ballooning authority when he occupied the Oval Office. The next president is equally likely to cite Obama’s dubious example to pursue unilaterally the agenda preferred by his or her core supporters” — On the flip-side however, “From halting the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, to the sprawling scope of the EPA’s regulatory authority, to the implementation of a dangerous nuclear détente with Iran, to the normalization of relations with Cuba; these liberal policy achievements can be unraveled with the stroke of a pen once Barack Obama is out of office.”

Let’s hope so.

NO. NEXT QUESTION?: Can Jeb Bush Make a Comeback? Joe Rago at the Wall Street Journal interviews Jeb! to ascertain the answer to a question that answers itself:

Contra Mr. Trump, Mr. Bush is medium energy, if graded on the overly amped-up curve of his competitors. That isn’t meant as a put-down. Part of Mr. Bush’s appeal—an acquired taste, apparently—is his analytic thoughtfulness and sometimes ironic detachment. A more deliberative debate might underscore his strengths. His challenge will be to translate the exclamation mark on his “Jeb!” logo, which he told Stephen Colbert “connotes excitement,” into the genuine article. . . .

Yet one obstacle to a Bush comeback is that, at minus 25.8 points, the spread between his favorable-unfavorable polls in the Real Clear Politics average—27.5% to 53.3%—is the highest of any candidate, including Mrs. Clinton at minus 8.5. Mr. Trump, the runner-up, has net favorability at minus 23.3. The difference is that the businessman is disliked by Democrats, while Mr. Bush is not well liked among Republicans. In a Dec. 22 Quinnipiac poll, 30% of registered GOP voters viewed Mr. Trump unfavorably, versus 52% for Mr. Bush.

Mr. Bush broke with one faction of the political right on immigration and education standards—but it’s hard to imagine any specific policy apostasy that could rationalize this level of dislike. Not in an election where Mr. Trump, a lifelong Democrat who in 1999 proposed a one-time 14.25% tax on wealth, is feted as a conservative luminary. . . .

The problem with Jeb! is that he fails to exude strength and leadership at a time when Americans are desperately yearning for it. His personality reminds one of a geeky, boring history professor who drones on and on about details, when at this particular moment of history, Americans seem to want a larger-than-life hero who may be short on details, but long on courage.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Hold Onto Your Astro-Butts, 2016 Will Be a Big Year for Space.

THIS REPORT MAY NOT BE TRUE, BUT SOONER OR LATER ONE PROBABLY WILL: There’s Cougars In Them Thar Hills.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: What flight attendants really think of you.

ON #OREGONUNDERATTACK AND #YALLQAEDA: Stop Calling Everyone a Terrorist.

Related: Both the Bundy Occupation and ‘Black Lives Matter’ Are Revolts, Not Protests.

But only the latter is DNC-MSM approved.

EMERGENCY GUILT RESERVES: “If you live a life powered by guilt, it can be a hard thing to sustain. . . . Never fear, HuffPo to the rescue!”

BILL’S FEMALE ‘FANCLUB’ BACKFIRES: As Hillary Clinton’s husband hits stump for the first time the women on stage behind him scowl, grimace and look like they’d rather be ANYWHERE else.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in Tools & Home Improvement.

HUCKABEE CALLS 2016 CYCLE ‘BEWILDERING:’

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee called the 2016 election cycle perplexing Sunday due to voters shying away from candidates with past political experience.

“This has been, of all the election cycles I’ve been involved in, this has been one of the most bewildering, because it’s almost as if the more experience, the more preparation one has had for this job, it’s almost like it’s a detriment than it is an asset,” Huckabee told a crowd in Urbandale [Iowa].

I’m not at all sure what’s so bewildering about it — if there’s one thing the DNC-MSM told me about presidential elections in 2008, experience simply doesn’t matter when someone with overwhelming charisma has entered the race. Why shouldn’t that be true for both parties?

I HOPE NEWSBUSTERS HAS THEIR TiVOs PROGRAMMED FOR TONIGHT: I’ll be curious to read which of the late night talkers mocks Hillary’s UFO statement — or if Hillary’s palace guard even mentions it at all.

ATTENTION, CHATTANOOGANS: My former research assistant — now a hard-boiled Chattanooga criminal lawyer — has started her own law firm. She’s smart and good.

I THINK THAT’S HOW OBAMA’S BETTING: Don Surber: House of Saud About To Collapse. On the one hand, it deserves to. On the other hand, I doubt the replacement regime will be any better. And this is likely true: “President 45 is going to have to deal with this, and President 44 is going to leave him with a weakened military, adversaries who mock us, and allies who no longer trust us.”

Related thoughts from Richard Fernandez. “An administration which based its foreign policy strategy on simultaneouly befriending rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran finds that instead of dampening the competition the effect has been to heighten their conflict to a critical point. . . . ‘Nothing has gone right for Riyadh.’ To be fair, nothing has gone right for anybody at all — except ISIS — ever since the power vacuum created by Obama’s ‘leadership from behind’ imploded Syria and Iraq.”

DOES EUROPE HAVE A FUTURE? “Europeans are now faced with questions they have hitherto preferred to dodge. Are Europeans ready to fight for Europe? What is the place of Islam in a post-Christian Europe? Or, to look at it from the jihadist point of view, what is the place of Europe in a fast-expanding and globalized Islam? Is 21st-century Europe still the heart of Western civilization, or is it changing out of all recognition?”, Daniel Johnson, the founder of the British monthly Standpoint, writes at Mosaic.

“However one answers those questions, a brave new world seems to be emerging in which Europe becomes the theater where the clash of civilizations is played out. So far, the signs are that this encounter will be no more peaceful than it has been in the Middle East.”

At the moment, Mark Steyn’s question a decade ago seems rather prescient: “The hyper-rationalism of post-Christian Europe turns out to be wholly irrational: what’s the point of creating a secular utopia if it’s only for one generation?”

Related: Robert Spencer: “The Western world has moved forward since the days of fire and brimstone, but the Middle East is turning backward toward it.” That’ll play out well for all concerned in Europe.

DON SURBER: Austin Discovers Garbage In, Debt Up. “Austin, Texas, thought it was going to become rich off its recycling program. Instead, it spent more than $3 for every $2 it brought in. Demand for garbage is low, which is why people throw it away. So what is Austin’s solution to lagging prices? Increase supply.”

SO ON A READER RECOMMENDATION, I’ve stuck some of these motion-sensor LED lights around my yard and they seem to work quite well.

TWO CNNs IN ONE!

● Face it, Oregon building takeover is terrorism.

—CNN, today.

● Think Occupy Wall St. is a phase? You don’t get it.

—CNN, October 5, 2011.

As John Podhoretz tweeted yesterday, “So it’s OK to occupy a park near Wall Street but not an empty office building in the middle of Oregon? I’m against both. How about you?” Adding, “Admit it. You like people who have your politics and you make allowances, and you want people whose politics you hate to be arrested.”

This is CNN.

UPDATE: Five Times CNN Whipped Up Violence In Baltimore.