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.