WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Crash-Proof: ‘Indestructible’ Drone Springs Back To Shape.

HEY. WE’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE, HAVEN’T WE? Why Is CNN Refuting The Susan Rice Story It Refuses To Cover?

2017: The Rice-Free Zone.

2008: The Wright-Free Zone:

Just think of the MSM as Democrat activists with bylines (and vice-versa) and it all makes sense.

IN RANGE OF NORTH KOREAN NUKES: NBC talks to American ex-pats in South Korea. I’ve read similar stories over the years.

Of course, there was this earlier NBC report, quoting a North Korean defector.

A senior North Korean defector has told NBC News that the country’s “desperate” dictator is prepared to use nuclear weapons to strike the United States and its allies.

Thae Yong Ho is the most high profile North Korean defector in two decades, meaning he is able to give a rare insight into the secretive, authoritarian regime.

Reuters reports on China-North Korea relations.

China has taken steps to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang but has long been unwilling to do anything that may destabilize the North and send millions of refugees across their border.

Here’s what I wrote two weeks ago regarding the end of “strategic patience.” The essay provides a lot of context.

STUFF JUST GOT REAL: Susan Rice isn’t a ‘smoking gun,’ but she does have some explaining to do.

That’s WaPo’s Aaron Blake, and if The Fix is willing to even breathe the words “smoking gun,” then you can bet there’s “a fish, a barrel, and a smoking gun.”

“THE MONEY AND TIME PUBLIC CAMPUSES WASTE DEFENDING THESE MANIFESTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL CODES IN COURT IS A NATIONAL SCANDAL. CAMPUSES SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BE FORCED TO RESPECT STUDENTS’ FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS.” – This morning I testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice on the topic of First Amendment Protections on Public College and University Campuses. As of this posting, the hearing is still in progress— you can watch it here, or read my oral testimony over at The Huffington Post.

QUESTION ASKED: The Beginning of the End of Putinism?

Putin may have cause for concern. The recent protests, complaining about corruption, are materially different in substance than the 2011 and 2012 protests that focused on election fraud, although the issues are related. The latest round of protests has taken place in a worse economic and political environment.

Moreover, the luster of the nationalism aroused by Putin’s geopolitical adventures in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere may have begun to fade as the conflicts in those regions continue and as their economic cost rises. Russia’s increased negative image in the world, and in the West in particular, may be taking its toll on the Russian polity as the effects of the corruption exposed in the Panama Papers and by the impressive investigative activity of opposition leader Alexei Navalny starts to have an impact. This is in addition to the impact of the massive Russian sports cheating scandal exposed by the WADA investigations.

Western sanctions have been meaningful but not for the purpose for which they were implemented, i.e., to reverse the annexation of Crimea. The sanctions may have helped foster the economic conditions which might over time bring about political change in Russia. Real incomes in Russia have been steadily falling for several years despite relatively stable energy prices. The number of Russians living below the poverty line has increased by 15 percent in the past two years. The number of billionaires and millionaires has increased, and evidence of their extravagant lifestyles has become increasingly available on the internet.

A corrupt and heavily centralized state has always been good for the 1%.

ROGER SIMON: SUSAN RICE, OBAMA’S HATCHET WOMAN, PROVES LORD ACTON RIGHT AGAIN.

BEN CARSON ON TRUMP H.U.D. BUDGET: ‘Nobody’s Going to be Thrown Out on the Street’

It’s a symptom of our poisoned political atmosphere that Carson feels the need to say that.

TIME FLIES ON STRATEGYPAGE, SO TO SPEAK: I’m behind –again. Time to catch up with StrategyPage.com’s WW2 bomber series.

From late last week: the A-20 Havoc. Note the six .50 caliber machine guns in the nose.

This week: the B-34 Lexington, with U.S. markings.

Earlier this week: the Avenger. An outstanding Navy plane. The caption mentions President George H. W. Bush and Paul Newman.

BILL GERTZ: U.S. Ill-Prepared to Stop Widespread Russian Information Warfare.

In addition to the hacking and leaking campaign during the election, Russian intelligence agencies engaged in covert influence operations that falsely reported terrorist attacks in the United States and against the key U.S. military base in Incirlik, Turkey.

The Russian government also backed the Occupy Wall Street protest movement and trumpeted racially charged news to sow social unrest.

The federal government has been unable to stop Moscow’s propaganda and influence operations. Likewise, it has failed to counter cyber attacks aimed at stealing data or sabotaging critical networks.

“Americans should be concerned because right now a foreign country, whether they realize it or not, is pitting them against their neighbor, other political parties, ramping up divisions based on things that aren’t true,” said Clint Watts, a cyber security expert and former FBI special agent.

Russian information warfare operations seek to erode Americans’ trust in the government.

“If they can do that, if Americans don’t believe that their vote counts, they’re not going to show up to participate in democracy,” said Watts, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

There’s still no evidence that Russia “hacked” the election in any way, although high-level Clinton hand John Podesta was apparently gullible enough to fall for a phishing attack — which revealed embarrassing, but true, details about Hillary’s campaign.

As for the rest, given how much more fragile Russia’s institutions are than ours, a little tit might prevent a whole lot of future tat.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Political Economy Of Administrative Bloat in American Higher Education.

REMEMBER OBAMA’S CHEMICAL WEAPON RED LINE IN SYRIA?: Stephen’s posted on this. I’ve been following the chemical attack in Syria story since early this morning. The BBC article Stephen linked to and the AP both report the suspected the chemical agent used in the attack is sarin (GB), a nerve agent. The description of the symptoms experienced by victims is consistent with a nerve agent.

Note this from the BBC report:

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that strikes on Khan Sheikhoun by Syrian government or Russian jets had caused many people to choke.

We don’t know who delivered the bombs– not yet.

Now, recall Obama worked out a deal with Russia (via Vladimir Putin). Russia would take control of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons arsenal. The Kremlin would then move the weapons out of Syria and destroy them.

Apparently the BBC didn’t remember that history, even though it is very relevant context. Well, Business Insider remembers.

The Obama administration’s failure to enforce the “red line” it drew for intervention in Syria against Assad in 2012 has become arguably the biggest stain on the former president’s foreign-policy legacy. Kerry acknowledged in December that the failure to follow through on the threat to retaliate against Assad for his use of chemical weapons to kill 1,500 people in August of 2013 damaged the US’s reputation in the region.

Obama opted instead for a deal brokered by Russia to ship Assad’s chemical weapons stockpile out of Syria and destroy them. The US hailed the deal as a success, but Assad has evidently retained some of the weapons he promised to destroy. Syrian activists have reported three separate chemical attacks in the last week alone, according to the Associated Press, including the attack Tuesday.

Stay tuned.

THEY’D RATHER PEDDLE FAKE NEWS: Attention NYT: This Is What Journalism Looks Like.

It’s worth noting here that one of biggest scandals in American journalism is the longtime failure of the New York Times to cover the corrupt nature of city politics in New York. The readers of the NYT don’t know very much about political power in America’s largest city because the Times is too grand for such base concerns—and because, frankly, Democratic politicians are often subjected to less scrutiny by the mainstream media. If the NYT had been doing its job, very little in this Daily News piece would be news to New Yorkers.

Shoe-leather journalism is too hard.

I NOTICE THAT EVEN THE MAINSTREAM PRESS IS MAKING THIS POINT NOW:

CHANGE? Trump Administration Floats Compromise on Health Care.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. and head of the conservative Freedom Caucus, called the administration’s new measure for compromise “a solid idea.”

“We remain open minded and willing to look at details for the plan, so we’re hopeful,” Meadows said after emerging from his group’s meeting with Pence Monday night. “We are encouraged by at least the idea — intrigued by the idea — but would certainly need a whole lot more information before we take action in support or opposition.”

The compromise Pence and the moderate members of the House discussed — and that Pence has taken to the conservative members on the Hill — would give states the opportunity to issue a waiver so they don’t have to impose those requirements on the condition that states show that getting rid of the insurance regulations, such as essential health benefits, will lower the cost of premiums, according to a Republican aide.

The compromise would not allow states to waive those requirements for dependents under 26 or allow an opt-out for pre-existing conditions or impose lifetime spending caps.

Most any negotiations might be an improvement over last month’s failed attempt at a fait accompli.

SYRIA: ‘Chemical attack’ in Idlib kills 58.

If you have the stomach for it, Australian reporter Sophie McNeil’s Twitter feed is filled with photos from the attack — and it certainly does look like chemical weapons were used.

BAD NEWS FOR TECH OVERLORDS, GOOD NEWS FOR TECH WORKERS: Computer programmers may no longer be eligible for H-1B visas. “This aligns with the administration’s focus on reserving the temporary visas for very high-skilled (and higher-paid) professionals while encouraging low- and mid-level jobs to go to American workers instead.”

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Who, the People? Courts have a duty to enforce the Constitution as written, whether those results further the aims of a political majority or of a minority.

It’s based on Randy Barnett’s new book.

THAT DOESN’T LOOK GOOD: “Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff, who is running to fill the congressional seat vacated by Tom Price earlier this year, admitted on Saturday during a town hall meeting that he does not currently reside in Georgia’s sixth congressional district.”

Plus: “This is not the first controversy in Ossoff’s bid to replace Price, who now serves as President Donald Trump’s secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Ossoff admitted last week that he misrepresented his national security credentials.”

Out: Astroturf campaigns. In: Astroturf campaigners!

EQUALITY? Now Female Students Get Suspended Over Scant Allegations.

This is not the progress I was hoping for.

“A TREMENDOUS ABUSE OF THE SYSTEM:” Susan Rice Ordered Spy Agencies To Produce ‘Detailed Spreadsheets’ Involving Trump.

Former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice ordered U.S. spy agencies to produce “detailed spreadsheets” of legal phone calls involving Donald Trump and his aides when he was running for president, according to former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova.

“What was produced by the intelligence community at the request of Ms. Rice were detailed spreadsheets of intercepted phone calls with unmasked Trump associates in perfectly legal conversations with individuals,” diGenova told The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group Monday.

“The overheard conversations involved no illegal activity by anybody of the Trump associates, or anyone they were speaking with,” diGenova said. “In short, the only apparent illegal activity was the unmasking of the people in the calls.”

Other knowledgeable official sources with direct knowledge and who requested anonymity confirmed to TheDCNF diGenova’s description of surveillance reports Rice ordered one year before the 2016 presidential election. . . .

Col. (Ret.) James Waurishuk, an NSC veteran and former deputy director for intelligence at the U.S. Central Command, told TheDCNF that many hands had to be involved throughout the Obama administration to launch such a political spying program.

“The surveillance initially is the responsibility of the National Security Agency,” Waurishuk said. “They have to abide by this guidance when one of the other agencies says, ‘we’re looking at this particular person which we would like to unmask.’”

“The lawyers and counsel at the NSA surely would be talking to the lawyers and members of counsel at CIA, or at the National Security Council or at the Director of National Intelligence or at the FBI,” he said. “It’s unbelievable of the level and degree of the administration to look for information on Donald Trump and his associates, his campaign team and his transition team. This is really, really serious stuff.”

Michael Doran, former NSC senior director, told TheDCNF Monday that “somebody blew a hole in the wall between national security secrets and partisan politics.” This “was a stream of information that was supposed to be hermetically sealed from politics and the Obama administration found a way to blow a hole in that wall.”

Doran charged that potential serious crimes were undertaken because “this is a leaking of signal intelligence.”

“That’s a felony,” he told TheDCNF. “And you can get 10 years for that. It is a tremendous abuse of the system. We’re not supposed to be monitoring American citizens. Bigger than the crime, is the breach of public trust.”

All these people need to be placed under oath and questioned separately about what happened. There’s also sure to be a document trail. And it seems like the mid-level security bureaucrats are starting to talk.

Bottom line:

“We’re looking at a potential constitutional crisis from the standpoint that we used an extremely strong capability that’s supposed to be used to safeguard and protect the country,” he said. “And we used it for political purposes by a sitting President.”

Yep. Political abuse has always been the big risk with mass surveillance, and now it appears that risk has become an actuality.

UPDATE: And I see Stephen Green was posting this at the same time. I’ll leave both up, because it’s that big a story.

Plus, InstaPundit from a month ago: “Hypothesis: The spying-on-Trump thing is worse than we even imagine, and once it was clear Hillary had lost and it would inevitably come out, the Trump/Russia collusion talking point was created as a distraction. Now it’s being rowed back because the talk of ‘transcripts’ supports the spying-on-Trump storyline. Will we ever know? Maybe, if there’s a proper investigation into Obama Administration political spying.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: From the comments: “If they were spying on Trump a year before the election, they were spying on other GOP candidates, too. And probably Democrats running against Hillary for the nomination.” Well, so far as I know there’s no evidence of that, but it’s worth looking into.

SMOKING GUN? Susan Rice Ordered Spy Agencies To Produce ‘Detailed Spreadsheets’ Involving Trump.

Former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice ordered U.S. spy agencies to produce “detailed spreadsheets” of legal phone calls involving Donald Trump and his aides when he was running for president, according to former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova.

“What was produced by the intelligence community at the request of Ms. Rice were detailed spreadsheets of intercepted phone calls with unmasked Trump associates in perfectly legal conversations with individuals,” diGenova told The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group Monday.

“The overheard conversations involved no illegal activity by anybody of the Trump associates, or anyone they were speaking with,” diGenova said. “In short, the only apparent illegal activity was the unmasking of the people in the calls.”

Other knowledgeable official sources with direct knowledge and who requested anonymity confirmed to TheDCNF diGenova’s description of surveillance reports Rice ordered one year before the 2016 presidential election.

Read the whole thing.

The question now most in need of an answer is: What did the former President know, and when did he know it?

MEGAN MCARDLE: The Pences’ Prophylactic Approach to Infidelity.

Eventually Pence’s critics seemed to settle on two reasonable-sounding arguments: that his rule against one-on-one dining with females other than his wife would structurally disadvantage women in his office political network and that his rules for himself were actually sexist demands on his wife, requiring Karen Pence to give up her own career and act as a chaperone.

On that second point, I can say only that I remember when it was the height of bad taste to have any opinion at all about what went on in someone else’s marriage — for example, whether Hillary Clinton or Huma Abedin should have divorced their husbands for their sexual indiscretions. Back then, women of Karen Pence’s age were presumed to be adults, fully competent to decide what they were willing to endure in the course of their marriage. They were even entitled to do so without the unsolicited advice of several million unlicensed freelance marriage counselors. Has that edict now been rescinded? Or did it only ever apply to the spouses of Democratic politicians?

The other objection is more serious. Having once worked at a place where a lot of client bonding went on at strip clubs — outings at which I would have felt unwelcome, to say the least — I am fully cognizant of how these sorts of structural barriers can hamper a career. “If Pence won’t eat with a woman alone, how could a woman be Chief of Staff, or lawyer, campaign manager …” asked Mother Jones editor Clara Jeffery on Twitter. “Would Pence dine with Ivanka? Or KellyAnne? Or are they too relegated to second class citizens … I don’t know/care if Pences have weird hangups. I do care if women are being denied jobs and opportunities, and that some normalize this. Has Pence in his career had a woman high up in any campaign, administration, private practice, radio show or think-tank?”

These are reasonable questions. The thing is, they have answers. And those answers seem to include a fair number of female staffers doing things other than fetching coffee. Who do not necessarily think that Pence’s rules are holding them back.

The important thing was to have an opportunity for Republicans Are Mean To Women!! shrieking, in the hopes that the majority of white women who voted from Trump can be lured back.