A THAW? Israel’s Top Diplomat to Visit Turkey for First Talks Since Reconciliation.

Yuval Rotem will head the three-day Israeli delegation to Turkey, where they will meet with Turkish officials across government agencies, Israeli embassy staff, and Jewish community representatives.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry said that “the political dialogue sends a positive message on the commitment of both sides to deepen the relationship between the two countries,” and added that the talks will “allow for comprehensive discussion, after six years of … challenges, on the drastic changes in the region.”

Diplomatic ties between Israel and Turkey were cut following the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010, during which ten Turkish citizens were killed on a Gaza-bound protest ship attempting to prevent Israeli commandos from boarding the vessel.

Turkey and Israel acted as de facto allies, prior to Recep Erdogan sabotaging the special relationship with stunts like the Gaza “protest” ship — two natural, democratic friends swimming in a sea of often-hostile Arab (and one Persian) autocracies.

Now that Turkey has chosen the path of autocracy and creeping Islamism, it’s difficult to imagine those two countries becoming as close as they had been in this century’s first decade.

I LIKE THE CUT OF THIS MAN’S ROBE:

LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: The Booming Demand for Commercial Drone Pilots: Training programs are popping up around the country for a rush of new jobs.

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CLAUDIA ROSETT: Spare Us Iran’s Pieties on U.S. Immigration Policy.

According to the State Department’s most recent report on State Sponsors of Terrorism, covering 2015, “Iran continued its terrorist related activity… including support for Hizballah, Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, and various groups in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.” State noted that Iran views the terror-sponsoring Assad regime in Syria as “a crucial ally,”; that Tehran-backed Shia terrorist groups have “exacerbated sectarian tensions in Iraq and have committed serious human rights abuses,” that “Iran has also provided weapons, funding and to Shia militants in Bahrain,” including such gee-gaws as “a bomb-making facility” which, when discovered by the Bahraini government, was housing 1.5 tons of high-grade explosives.

As for Zarif’s charges that the Trump administration is imperiling the friendship between the people of Iran and the people of America, let’s recall that Iran’s Islamic Republic, from the year of its inception right up to the present has made a practice of seizing and holding Americans as de facto hostages — the latest batch released in Jan. 2016 coincident (or, as it now appears, no coincidence?) as President Obama secretly hustled to Iran’s terror-sponsoring government $1.7 billion in cash. Nor does it help the cause of friendship that Iran — despite its official promise to abjure a nuclear weapons program — continues, as it did just last week, to test ballistic missiles (for which the only realistic use is delivering nuclear weapons).

It is the Tehran regime itself that is the prime cause of misery for people who would like to travel from Iran to America, or vice versa.

Read the whole thing.

NFL IMPLOSION UPDATE: NFL scrubs Super Bowl script, boots Barstool Sports. “This is just a continuation of Roger Goodell controlling the narrative.”

UPDATE: Buckley: Time for Roger Goodell to provide answers to Patriots fans.

I’M GUESSING THAT POLITICAL LAWFARE WON’T BE AS ONE-SIDED AS IT’S BEEN IN THE PAST: Trump Files With FEC For 2020 Election Bid, Outmaneuvers Nonprofit Organizations.

A document from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) indicates that Donald Trump took steps last week to outmaneuver nonprofit organizations, leaving them unable to officially campaign against him over the next few years of his Presidency.

Filed on January 20th, 2017, the letter states that, while not an official announcement for reelection, Donald Trump has filed an FEC Form 2 in order to “ensure compliance with the Federal Election Campaign Act.” This is an unprecedented, although legal, move for the President to make. Barack Obama did not file for his 2012 re-election bid until April 2011. Having filed (even if not formally announcing a bid) as a candidate, Trump would be able to coordinate with PACs and other similar organizations.

More importantly, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations would no longer be able to engage in “political speech” which could theoretically affect the results of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election without running the risk of losing their nonprofit status. The move effectively bars interest groups from creating nonprofits which they could funnel money into for the purposes of opposing Trump’s initiatives. This will likely create chaos for political opponents of Trump such as George Soros, who has sunk significant amounts of money into various nonprofit groups with the intent of opposing Trump’s government.

I’m sure we’ll hear a lot of complaining about this, but after the way the IRS scandal was handled, it’s going to ring kind of hollow.

NICK BILTON: Why Hollywood as We Know It Is Already Over.

In the mid-90s, the first time I downloaded an MP3, I realized that the music industry was in grave trouble. People who were my age (I wasn’t old enough to legally drink yet) didn’t want to spend $20 on a whole compact disc when all we coveted was a single song on the album. Moreover, we wanted our music immediately: we preferred to download it (illegally) from Napster or eventually (legally) from iTunes without the hassle of finding the nearest Sam Goody. It turned out that this proclivity for efficiency—customizing your music and facilitating the point of sale—was far from a generational instinct. It explains why the music industry is roughly half the size it was one decade ago.

These preferences weren’t confined to music, either. I also felt the raindrop moment firsthand when I began working at The New York Times, in the early 2000s. Back then, the newspaper’s Web site was treated like a vagrant, banished to a separate building blocks away from the paper’s newsroom on West 43rd Street. Up-and-coming blogs—Gizmodo, Instapundit, and Daily Kos, which were setting the stage for bigger and more advanced entities, such as Business Insider and BuzzFeed—were simultaneously springing up across the country. Yet they were largely ignored by the Times as well as by editors and publishers at other news outlets. More often than not, tech-related advances—including e-readers and free online blogging platforms, such as WordPress and Tumblr—were laughed at as drivel by the entire industry, just as Napster had been years earlier.

Of course, the same logic that had decimated music would undermine print publishing: readers didn’t want to travel to a newsstand to buy a whole newspaper when they were interested only in one story or two. And, in so many cases, they really didn’t care all that much whose byline was at the top of the piece. Subsequently, newspaper advertising revenues fell from $67 billion in 2000 to $19.9 billion in 2014.

Wrenching change is coming whether Hollywood wants it or not. And given the huge size of their megaphone — still, for now — the shouting will drown out anything you’ve heard from the newspaper or music industries.

HEH: North Dakota Wants Paid Pipeline Protesters To Pay State Income Tax. “After spending more than $22 million on the Dakota Access pipeline protest, North Dakota wants to make sure any paid activists remember to submit their state income taxes. Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger said his office is keeping an eye out for tax forms from environmental groups that may have hired protesters to agitate against the 1,172-mile, four-state pipeline project.”

I’M OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER WHEN COMPARING A PRESIDENT TO HITLER WAS PROOF YOU WERE A KOOK, AND PROBABLY A RACIST: Washington Post, again, draws parallels between Trump and Hitler. “Trump’s daughter Ivanka is a convert to Judaism and her husband Jared Kushner is also an American Jew and descendant of Holocaust survivors.”

NONIE DARWISH: On Boycotting Radical Islamic Nations.

Early this morning an Arabic radio station in the Middle East called asking my opinion about President Trump’s ban on refugees and citizens of seven Muslim nations. The radio host, who sounded angry over the ban, was a Christian Arab. She was surprised to hear that I supported the ban and think that it should have taken place the day after 9/11.

She then asked me if I knew any Arab American activist who was against the ban because she wanted to interview someone against the ban. She seemed shocked to hear that I do not have any Arab or Muslim friends who are protesting the ban, and that many immigrants of Islamic and Middle East origin support the ban and are fed up and embarrassed by what jihadists are doing.

She said that all she sees on CNN and other channels are riots that portray almost all Americans supporting Muslims and against Trump. I am upset over the success of the leftist propaganda all over the Middle East. It brings back memories of the life of the hate indoctrination and misinformation I lived under for most of my life.

Read the whole thing — and keep in mind that the progressive left produces heat and noise all out of proportion to its actual size, and that it is treated overseas (and by our own, sympathetic news media) with far more respect than it deserves.

WELL, IT SHOULD BE. HARRY REID’S ABANDONMENT OF TRADITION SHOULD BE EXPENSIVE. Ted Cruz: Nuclear Option Is On The Table. I just heard Nina Totenberg on Morning Edition and she never even mentioned the possibility of going nuclear — just whether the GOP could pick up enough Dem votes to break a filibuster. But, of course, the filibuster as an institution was already broken under Harry Reid. And hey, until 2010, the filibuster was a terrible anti-Democratic institution anyway!

YES! WE! CAN! Making America’s ICBMs Great Again.

BLUE ON BLUE: DNC boots candidate from chairman’s race for criticizing Ellison’s Islamic faith on homosexuality.

The Democratic National Committee is kicking a candidate out of the chairman’s race after he told The Hill that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) should not be the party’s next leader because he is Muslim.

In a Jan. 5 email to The Hill, Vincent Tolliver, a former House candidate in Arkansas, said that Ellison, the first-ever Muslim elected to Congress, should not be chairman because of Islamic positions on homosexuality.

“His being a Muslim is precisely why DNC voters should not vote for him,” Tolliver wrote. “Muslims discriminate against gays. Islamic law is clear on the subject, and being gay is a direct violation of it. In some Muslim countries, being gay is a crime punishable by death.”

“Clearly, Mr. Ellison is not the person to lead the DNC or any other organization committed to not discriminating based on gender identity or sexual orientation,” Tolliver continued. “I’m shocked HRC [Human Rights Campaign] has been silent on the issue. A vote for Representative Ellison by any member of the DNC would be divisive and unconscionable, not to mention counterproductive to the immediate and necessary steps of rebuilding the Democratic Party.”

A spokesperson for Tolliver said he stands by the statement.

Why are Democrats so anti-gay?

ROLL CALL: In Gorsuch, Trump Saw Plenty of Scalia-Like Qualities: President hopes ‘Democrats and Republicans can come together’ around nominee.

Related:

DEMS GIRD FOR SUPREME COURT BATTLE: A central question is whether Senate Democrats, under pressure from the party’s base, will try to block Judge Gorsuch.

It likely will take days before the intensity of the Democratic opposition becomes apparent. A number of Democratic senators quickly said they opposed the nomination, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. Mr. Merkley announced his stance even before Mr. Trump disclosed the selection.

But other Democrats were more restrained. “I still believe we must evaluate Judge Gorsuch’s record, legal qualifications and judicial philosophy,” said Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a centrist Democrat hailing from a state won by Mr. Trump last year. “I urge my colleagues to put partisan politics aside and allow the vetting process to proceed.”

Warren and Merkley are both from deep blue states, and although Brown is from Ohio, he isn’t up for reelection until 2020. Manchin seems the most reasonable — and he ought to be, coming from a state Donald Trump won by a whopping 42 points.

Claire McCaskill, another Red State/Blue Senator, tweeted that she favors “a full confirmation process” hours before Gorsuch’s name was revealed.

Mitch McConnell will presumably keep the Nuclear Option in his back pocket. It would make a potent threat: Vote honestly on Gorsuch, or pave the way for a majority vote on Trump’s next SCOTUS nominee, who might be even more conservative.

That’s roughly equivalent to the game former President Obama played by nominating Merrick Garland last year. Obama dared the GOP to consent to someone somewhat conservative, but hostile to the 2nd Amendment — or risk an even worse selection made by President Hillary Clinton.

CORRECTION: Brown is up for reelection in 2018, not 2020. Of course I regret the error, and will try in the future to refrain from doing simple addition before a second cup of coffee.

FAKE NEWS: “This Buzzfeed piece on Gorsuch is really dumb. Reads like oppo that Raw Story and TPM turned down.” Well, it’s Buzzfeed.

NEVER AGAIN: Jewish Community Centers Face Third Wave of Bomb Threats Nationwide.

FREE SPEECH ON CAMPUS, A LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL.

What are the elements of the model legislation?

First, it creates an official university policy that strongly affirms the importance of free expression. Any restrictive speech codes would be nullified.

Second, campuses would be declared open to anyone invited by members of the campus community. The legislation bars administrators from excluding speakers, no matter how controversial, from whom members of the campus community wish to hear.

Third, the legislation establishes a system of disciplinary sanctions for anyone who interferes with the free-speech rights of others. Importantly, the disciplinary system would include due rights protections (e.g., right to confront the witnesses accusing them) for those brought before it, unlike the typical college disciplinary system in sexual harassment cases, for example.

Fourth, the legislation allows persons whose free-speech rights have been infringed by the university, and who sue the university in response, to recover court costs and attorney’s fees if they prevail.

Fifth, the legislation affirms the principle that universities, at the official institutional level, must remain neutral on issues of public controversy. It thus frees professors and students from pressure to support an official position, thereby encouraging the widest possible range of opinion and dialogue within the university.

Sixth, it requires that students be informed of their institution’s official policy on free expression. Freshman orientation would stress the importance of free speech and the disciplinary rules that back up the institution’s commitment to it.

Seventh, it authorizes a special subcommittee of the university board of trustees to issue a yearly report to the public, the trustees, the governor, and the legislature on the administrative handling of free-speech issues. This mechanism would likely deter administrators from restricting free speech, lest they be reported by the trustees to the legislature that controls the purse strings.

Read the whole thing.

CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI: What Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s SCOTUS Pick, Means for American Women.

Neil Gorsuch, Donald Trump’s nominee for the vacancy on the Supreme Court, is a consistently conservative judge who’d enter the court at a critical moment for reproductive rights. Though Gorsuch, a federal judge on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has never ruled on an abortion rights case, his record shows him to be hostile to women’s health care and willing to give broad leeway to institutions that want to discriminate against them.

Women will be affected by every decision that comes out of the next iteration of the Supreme Court, of course, whether the cases deal with voting rights, labor issues, immigrant rights, civil liberties, criminal justice, or any other area of law. Because women make less money than men, shoulder the bulk of home and family responsibilities, and have less access to traditional spheres of power, they are in fact particularly dependent on legal protections, and they will likely be disproportionately impacted by any harm that comes from the court’s decisions.

Just ten days ago, lefties participated in a women’s march that was in part organized, led, and addressed by that proponent of sharia law, Linda Sarsour.

Paying for your own birth control versus the veil — or worse — should not be a difficult choice, ladies.

DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: Sweden Took 162k Refugees Last Year, Just 494 Got Jobs.

NOAH ROTHMAN: The Smallness of Barack Obama.

Eventually, the scales will fall from Democratic eyes. Their gauzy recollections of the Obama years will one day give way to a realization that he presided over the immolation of their party. Obama knows this. Why else would he commit himself to a course defined by such smallness? The president, the most powerful man on earth, was reduced in his final days in office to drumming up enthusiasm for state assembly races. Today, when he should be focusing on building his library and serving as a sagacious ambassador to the world, he lowers himself to offer a muted and impotent burble of opposition to his successor. On Monday, the former leader of the free world endorsed Sophia King in the race for alderman of Chicago’s Fourth Ward.

Obama cannot withdraw from the political realm. If he does, he risks allowing the narrative to get away from him. Any sober liberal reflection on the president’s legacy will necessarily yield to despair over all the opportunities that were lost. So Obama will speak, endorse, and issue statements. He will posture and preen and do whatever he can to make sure the Democratic Party’s next leader is cast in his mold. So long as Obama can fill the silence, Democrats won’t have time to reflect on the president’s legacy.

We shouldn’t have Barack Obama to kick around anymore, but we probably always will.

THAT’S NOT MY TEACHING STYLE: Helicopter Law Professors Are Hurting Their Students.

AH, THE PROFESSIONAL, WELL FUNDED PROTESTERS: Already protesting Gorsuch.

THEY’D BETTER LEARN TO SWIM, OR THEY’LL SINK LIKE A STONE; FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE ACHANGING: “No Irish need apply”.