I BELIEVE I LIKE THE CUT OF THIS TOM PRICE FELLOW’S JIB: Trump Health Secretary Pick’s Longtime Foes: Big Government and Insurance Companies.

THEY WILL MISS CIVIL SOCIETY ONCE THEY’VE DESTROYED IT: The Danger of Delegitimizing Trump.

RUSSELL BERMAN & CHARLES HILL: Ten Proposals On The Middle East For The New U.S. Administration.

AT AMAZON, save in Sports Nutrition.

Plus, deals in Industrial and Scientific.

CAN WE TALK? Sex Is Communication at a Biological Level.

Evidence from animal research and clinical studies has led researchers to conclude seminal fluid – the fluid sperm are bathed in following ejaculation – plays an important role in fertility.

Seminal fluid contains small molecules that act as biological signals. Once deposited in the vagina and the cervix of a woman, these persuade the woman’s immune system to adopt a profile that tolerates (that is, recognises and accepts) sperm proteins known as “transplantation antigens”.

The tolerant profile matters if fertilisation takes place. Immune cells recognise the same transplantation antigens on the developing baby, and so support the process through which the embryo implants into the wall of the uterus and forms a healthy placenta and fetus.

So over time, repeated contact with the same male partner acts to stimulate and strengthen a tolerant immune response to his transplantation antigens. The immune system of a woman responds to her partner’s seminal fluid to progressively build the chances of creating a healthy pregnancy over at least several months of regular sex.

That healthy bodies engaging in a healthy activity leads to a healthy outcome should come as no surprise.

NEWS FROM A POST-ANTIBIOTIC WORLD: Drug-resistant ‘nightmare bacteria’ show worrisome ability to diversify and spread.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Law Schools Have Shed 1,460 Full-Time Faculty (16.1%) Since 2010.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Laser Weapons Will Turn Earth’s Atmosphere into Lenses, Deflector Shields.

CONGRESSMAN STEVE RUSSELL: U.S. military ‘completely broken’

Russell is an Army Ranger graduate who commanded infantry troops in Iraq. He retired as a lieutenant colonel.

He has been a foremost advocate for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis.

“We’ve got a military that is completely broken, completely broken,” Russell said.

He said the first step in turning things around is giving the defense secretary post to Mattis.

“Let’s get him in there and get our military repaired,” Russell said.

Military cuts need to be restored and ISIS needs to be wiped out, he said.

“My goodness, the most humane thing we can do with regard to ISIS is to win. Let’s eliminate them.”

Completely broken — or fundamentally transformed?

WHY TAKE CHANCES, I SAY: Live Longer By Eating Peppers?

STEPHEN HAYES: Obama’s Shameful Legacy.

There was a time, early in Barack Obama’s presidency, when it was considered outrageous to worry out loud that the new president might treat enemies better than allies, run down friends and elevate foes, show solidarity with anti-American leaders, maybe even release dangerous terrorists or sympathize with traitors.

And here we are.

Obama has accommodated leaders hostile to America, like Vladimir Putin in Russia and Bashar al-Assad in Syria. He strengthened a rogue regime in Iran and boosted despotic leaders in Cuba. At the same time, he chastised and isolated Israel and abandoned friendly governments in places like Afghanistan and Ukraine.

He’s freed from Guantanamo dozens of jihadists and high-ranking al Qaeda terrorists, including some who have promised to kill Americans upon their release, and he’s done this even as U.S. men and women in uniform and in the intelligence community fight and die to protect us from the threat that these enemies represent.

Read the whole thing.

NOW HE TELLS US:

READER BOOK PLUG: From A.H. Lloyd, Battle Officer Wolf.

WELL, ASIDE FROM OBAMACARE: 7 of the Deepest Holes Humanity Ever Dug.

ARMOR, TARNISHED: Rep. Steve King: John Lewis trades on status as civil rights icon, hasn’t contributed since. Lewis was a hero 50 years ago. John McCain was a hero 50 years ago, too, but that hasn’t stopped Democrats from attacking him — including Lewis, who compared him to George Wallace.

FRACK, BABY, FRACK: IEA Sees Significant Gains in U.S. Shale Oil as Prices Rise.

Which, of course, will help put a lid on prices.

REPORT: 300,000 Small Business Jobs Lost Due to Obamacare.

I’m old enough to remember when ObamaCare was spurring startups and creating small business jobs.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to Prevent Another President Obama.

AMERICAN THINKER: Barack Obama’s Deplorable Race Relations Legacy.

ABOUT THAT WAGE GROWTH: Real Average Weekly Earnings Growth Plunges To Weakest In 30 Months.

TEARS THAT TASTE LIKE CHAMPAGNE TO AMERICA’S DEPLORABLES: Amid packing boxes and tears, staffers leaving White House.

I LOVE WHEN JOURNOS ACT LIKE THEY’RE GOING ON SAFARI IF THEY VENTURE MORE THAN 100 MILES INLAND: Not just ‘Trump’s America’: These journalists will spend 100 days digging into Appalachia.

You want to understand stuff? Go talk to Sen. Frank Niceley.

WHITES NOT WELCOME: ACLU Official Mocks Elderly White People, Tells Them They Have ‘Five Years Left’

Rialto, California, held a regularly scheduled city council meeting last Tuesday after a city councilman apologized for planning an event to discuss the possibility of Rialto becoming a “sanctuary city.”

Luis Nolasco, a community engagement and policy advocate for the ACLU of Southern California, stood up to speak at the city council meeting and attacked many of the white people present, saying they are not actual residents of Rialto.

Nolasco said, “This is my town.”

He said that the important part of the sanctuary city discussion is “who are the people we are talking about.”

The ACLU official said that “the people in this room are not representative of Rialto. Sorry to break it, but growing up here white people were the minority.”

“The reality is that black and Latinos are the majority of the city, and that is representative of the city, and that’s going to continue to be the case for future generations,” Nolasco, 26, added.

The city of Rialto is 72.4 percent Latino, according to a 2015 Census estimate.

“It’s kind of mean for me to say it but these people have probably like five years left,” Nolasco said while gesturing to the white attendees at the meeting. A video of the meeting shows that several of them were elderly.

Eliminationist rhetoric.

CONFIDENCE: British Consumers Keep Economy Humming Months After Brexit Vote.

British officials and most economists thought a vote to quit the European Union would persuade Britons to squirrel away more cash, causing growth in the wider economy to tail off. Some expected Britain might even tip into recession as uncertainty over the country’s future ties to its biggest trading partner paralyzed companies and households.

Instead, consumers embarked on a spending run in the second half of 2016 that underpinned a robust expansion. The International Monetary Fund said Monday it estimates the U.K. grew 2% for all of 2016, comfortably above its 1.6% growth forecast for the U.S.

This consumer resilience was unanticipated by economists, highlighting the difficulty of predicting how big, political surprises affect short-term growth.

It feels nice, getting the chance to win your country back.

CHRIS CILLIZZA: 10 years ago today Obama made a huge promise. He didn’t keep it.

Ten years ago today, then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois announced he was taking the first steps to run for president in 2008. In a three-minute video, he explained why — and what he hoped to accomplish.

It’s remarkable as a historic artifact — God bless YouTube! — but if you watch the whole thing (it’s only 187 seconds long!), you are reminded of the central reason Obama ran for president: to fix broken politics.

The big idea at the heart of Obama’s candidacy was that he — because of his background, proven résumé and the historic nature of his candidacy — was uniquely suited to solve the partisan gridlock that had seized our politics under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. That he could bring us all together through an appeal to our better angels and our shared values — and, in so doing, create a government that worked for all of us.

Another rube self-identifies.