OH NO: Lefty actors are beginning to fear Donald Trump.

WOULDN’T IT BE IRONIC IF ROGER AILES WAS HER BIGGEST FAN? Megyn Kelly’s Audience Drops 42% From Last Week. What’s really troubling is that the geriatric 60 Minutes clobbered her in the 25-54 demographic.

JERRY POURNELLE ON TRUMP AND THE DEEP STATE:

I have long been an admirer of Peggy Noonan, but she seems lately to have been converted to the obligatory Trump bashing of the neo-cons and the editorial authorities of the Wall Street Journal. The paper’s policies are curiously contradictory, in that they seem to believe some reform of the Washington Establishment is needed, but they are so much a part of the Establishment that they can’t resist whacking Mr. Trump whenever possible; and Peggy Noonan has now joined that crowd, . . .

I’m not sure what this means. Mr. Trump is the elected president of the United States. It is no secret that many holdover officials were explicitly not loyal to the President, and some were proud of dragging their feet or even sabotaging Mr. Trump‘s action. Why should the President not expect loyalty from the Director of the FBI? Is the top investigating agency not subject to control by elected officials? This insistence of Administrative Independence is the very essence of the deep state, of the experts who have a right to rule not subject to the elected officials; it is a resurrection of the old divine rights, only the deep state is superior to everyone else: they and only they have a right to rule.

Mr. Comey had spent months “investigating” the Russian question without finding anything to prosecute. It consumed time, distracted from proper government, and to what purpose? Was the President improper for asking when this very expensive and distracting investigation would end? Do we want the FBI “investigating” whomever it wants to, subject to no elected authority?

As to the President not being subject to the norms, rules, and traditions of the Presidency, is there a person in America who thought this president would be? Was it not clear from the moment of his announcing his candidacy on the escalator in Trump Tower that he was not going to be subject to the rules, norms, and traditions of the Establishment? He made all that very clear throughout his campaign, and only a ninny could believe otherwise; indeed, he was denounced for it right up to the election. Yet he was elected.

A Republic’s government must be responsible to SOMEONE. There is no Monarch to be the fountain of justice. The President must take care that the laws are faithfully enforced. And the Establishment may insist on norms, rules and traditions all it likes, but they are not laws, and elections count.

Mr. Obama had a pen and he had a phone, and guess what, he won.

Mrs. Clinton was his designated successor. She did not win.

And that’s the real crime that Trump is guilty of.

Plus:

One story about “professionalism” in government. George H. W, Bush, Bush I, was the essence of the establishment, and believed in government professionalism and competence. The Foreign Service is the professional diplomatic establishment. When Saddam Hussein became a problem and threatened Kuwait, our Ambassador, Ms. April Glaspie, a professional, went to him and formally delivered a message, which I have read many times over – and for the life of me I can’t see that she says don’t invade Kuwait or we’ll do something about it.

Her message is diplomatic and polite, professional, and traditional. It is also ambiguous about the US position on Saddam taking Kuwait.

Would we not be better off today had we had a traditional ambassador, an old chum of the President who could speak for him and say “Saddam, old boy, you’ve been kind of our favorite over here because you resist Iran. We know Iraq was glued together out of provinces of the Turkish Empire, and maybe you have some claim to Kuwait from that, but we don’t agree. We can’t allow you to invade Kuwait, and if you do, we won’t like doing it, but we’ll come over here and throw you out. Now, let’s talk about what we can let you do, or even do for you.”

In which case, there would not have been the two Iraqi Wars costing a $Trillion or more.

But modern diplomacy isn’t about saying no to dictators.

TOO LATE! The New York Times Needs To Save Whatever Dignity It Has Left.

LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Hacking a heart pacemaker isn’t science fiction. See what experts are doing to prevent it.

SUPERBUGS: Resistance to last-ditch antibiotic has spread farther than anticipated.

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WAIT, WAS JEFF SESSIONS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY KESHA?

ANN ALTHOUSE TO THE PUBLIC THEATER: “You’re presenting hatred of Donald Trump in the center of Manhattan. Don’t preen, and don’t bring God into it. You’ve got ‘the mirror.’ Look at yourself.”

I’M JUST GOING TO SHAKE IT OFF: The left-wing hate machine doesn’t stop even as the left denounces the right-wing hate machine.

I’ll just note that while the left has been sponsoring boycotts of cultural stuff it doesn’t like, this is ultimately an asymmetric weapon for the right because so many more cultural outlets lean left.

THIS IS ACTUALLY AN AMAZING TRIUMPH, EXCEPT AESTHETICALLY: The Whole World Is Getting Fatter, Study Finds. “Nearly a third of the world’s population is overweight or obese now, and it’s getting worse, researchers reported Monday. The number of obese people has doubled since 1980 in 73 countries, the global team of researchers wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine. Twelve percent of adults and five percent of children are classified as obese, meaning their body mass index (BMI), a measure of height to weight, is significantly above the healthy level.”

All of human history has been a struggle to get enough to eat. And now the problem is too much to eat. Come on, jam with the band, blow the horn of plenty!

VIDEO: Joy Behar Jokes That Trump, Putin, and Priebus Are All Gay for Each Other.

Not that there’s anything funny with that.

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:

Shot: What Changes Will We Make After the Giffords Shooting?

—Alec Baldwin, the Huffington Post, January 15, 2011.

Chaser:

Alec [Baldwin] has recently been making waves with his impressions of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, reprising the role in the season finale last month.

In fact, the production of Julius Caesar at Delacorte Theater has caused controversy for its portrayal of a Trump-like character as the Roman general.

The re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic play showed the Trump lookalike being stabbed to death on the senate floor.

Delta and Bank Of America both pulled their funding from the Shakespeare in the Park production on Tuesday for the ‘graphic staging’ of the tragedy.

—The London Daily Mail today.

Still no word if and when CNN’s parent company will pull their funding. But then, as Kathy Griffin recently demonstrated, presidential murder porn is all the rage at CNN these days.

Related: Lefty Actors Are Beginning to Fear Donald Trump.

As Kurt Schlichter likes to say, you’re not going to enjoy living under the rules you’ve created, lefties.

TRIGGERED: ‘Broad City’ will bleep Donald Trump’s name in Season 4.

“We wrote (Season 4) being like, ‘Here we go! Hillary for president!’ ” Glazer tells USA TODAY. But after “this game-show host became president of our country, we rewrote a lot.”

One episode, which premiered at Colossal Clusterfest in San Francisco earlier this month, deals with the idea that “a witch is really just a woman who’s in touch with her womanhood,” Glazer says. “Ilana’s ‘powers’ are decreasing during the current administration because it’s just so hard to (orgasm) when you know so many people are in such danger. So Ilana works through her Trump-related (hang-up) and it’s wild.”

It’s billed as a comedy.

THEY CALL THEM SUPERHEROES FOR A REASON: ‘Batman’ star Adam West had sex with eight women a night.

MICHAEL VAN DER GALIEN: Theresa May and Her Tories Now Opting for ‘Soft Brexit.’

We now see happening what those of us who worried about what would happen if the Tories would lose the elections feared: Brexit is coming under pressure. Yes, the government still seems to go ahead with Britain’s break from the European Union, but it’s negotiation position has been weakened tremendously. Labour may say they’re in favor of Brexit now, but it’s crystal clear that the socialists are in their hearts Europhiles. That will have an impact on the talks between the EU and Britain; Labour will want to give Brussels more than Britain should be willing to give.

Sadly the truth of the matter is that British voters voted for this: they had the chance to guarantee Brexit, a hard or a soft on, but have failed to do so.

Read the whole thing.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE, TRANSATLANTIC EDITION: Now saying genius or brilliant ‘can alienate female students’: Cambridge academics are discouraged from using phrases with ‘assumptions of gender inequality.’

Really though, what doesn’t alienate lefty screaming campus garbage babies, as Iowahawk famously dubbed them.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Zero A Rifle Like A Marine Corps Gunner.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Crumb-Free Bread Could Soon Be Made Fresh On The International Space Station.

YOU’LL STILL BE ABLE TO GET SOME TATTED MILLENNIAL TO ABSCOND WITH A FLASH DRIVE, THOUGH: Physicists use quantum memory to demonstrate quantum secure direct communication.

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OVERWHELMED: Rome mayor calls for a stop to migrant arrivals to the capital.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR: Chris Cillizza challenges Twitter to name a story that is fake or incorrect; brutality ensues.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: The Parameters of Attorney General Sessions’s Recusal.