THE SOFTER SIDE OF TRUMP: Currency strategy would avoid singling out country in bid to avoid break in relations.

Under the plan, the commerce secretary would designate the practice of currency manipulation as an unfair subsidy when employed by any country, instead of singling out China, said people briefed on or involved in formulating the policy. U.S. companies would then be in a position to bring antisubsidy actions themselves to the U.S. Commerce Department against China or other countries.

The currency plans are part of a China strategy being assembled by the White House’s new National Trade Council, which seeks to balance the goals of challenging China while still keeping relations with the country on an even keel. To do that, measures taken against China would also apply to other nations.

The administration would avoid, at least for now, making confrontational claims about whether China is manipulating its currency for trade benefit, the people said.

On the other hand, China has been “playing a dangerous game” propping up the value of the yuan against the dollar, spending almost one trillion of its foreign reserve dollars since mid-2014 to do so.

FORMER SENTATOR KIRK: Trump Should Declassify Entire Iran Deal.

WELL, GOOD: WSJ Editor Tells Reporters Who Don’t Like Objective Trump Coverage To Leave The Paper.

If he’s as bad as the detractors say, objective coverage will do him in. If objective coverage won’t do him in, then he’s not as bad as the detractors say.

FAKE NEWS: More mainstream media mess-ups: The Muslim Olympian ‘detained because of President Trump’s travel ban’ was actually detained under Obama.

The Daily Mail said of the incident that it, “comes after Donald Trump signed an executive order – currently suspended – banning travel from seven largely Muslim countries causing chaos in US airports.”

“U.S. Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad being detained illustrates why Trump’s Muslim ban is not who we are as Americans,” read the headline to an article published by the New York Daily News.

The Hill published an article whose opening paragraph read, “A Muslim-American Olympic medalist says she was detained by Customs for nearly two hours without explanation after President Trump’s travel ban was instituted a few weeks ago.”

Sports Illustrated and ESPN published stories whose entire purpose was to tie Muhammad’s customs tale to Trump’s immigration order, though the reports don’t come right out and say it.

Journalists reacted to the story on social media with the usual mixture of despair and outrage.

The problem with this particular news cycle, however, is that the alleged detaining apparently occurred in December, before Trump had even been sworn in as America’s 45th president.

And the press wonders why people trust it less than Trump.

BE MINE? ISIS Beheads Teddy Bear to Warn of Valentine’s Day Ban.

EIGHT YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT:

HMM: Justice Department Lawyers Held in Contempt: “An angry federal judge held Justice Department lawyers in contempt yesterday for failing to deliver documents to former senator Ted Stevens’s legal team, as he had ordered. . . . ‘Isn’t the Department of Justice taking court orders seriously these days?'”

I am, as readers well know, no Ted Stevens fan, but it’s beginning to look as if he got the shaft in this case. Did his absence allow the stimulus bill to go through? . . . .

I now suspect that it did. . . .

JOHN RINGO, ON FACEBOOK:

The world constantly reminds me of Heinlein.

Does anyone else remember Thorby’s uncle, the professor, lecturing Thorby (who had lived as a slave under the ‘kindness’ of the Sargon, an Islamic society) that the Sargon worlds did not practice slavery but ‘indentured servitude’ which was more similar to serfdom?

I WOULDN’T SEND OUT INVITATIONS TILL WE KNOW MORE ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD: How to Host an Extraterrestrial,

THIS TOO IS DESPICABLE: Here’s how NOT to treat a customer.

Has anyone seen such a big dummy-spit fit just because we denied them their corruptocrat of choice, Hillary What Emails Clinton?

OR, HOW TO GET SCREWED TWICE IN A NIGHT: Why college guys should be terrified of campus hookups.

STRANGE MILLENNIAL RITUALS: Millennials use sushi-making classes to show their love on V-Day

WE’D BE MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THIS IF TEACHERS COULD MORE RELIABLY TEACH READING, WRITING AND ARITHMETIC: Teachers are now showing students how to spot fake news.

DUH: Op-Ed  Are gender feminists and transgender activists undermining science?

MAIN NEWS FROM FAKESTREAM MEDIA: More mainstream media mess-ups: The Muslim Olympian ‘detained because of President Trump’s travel ban’ was detained under Obama.

THIS IS DESPICABLE: Trump ties to Upper East Side school stirs moms.

PRIORITIES: California spent on high-speed rail and illegal immigrants, but ignored Oroville Dam:

Reinforcing the Oroville Dam was not included on Mr. Brown’s $100 billion wish list of projects prepared last month at the request of the National Governors Association in response to Mr. Trump’s call for $1 trillion in infrastructure improvements, CNBC reported.

One project that did make the list: California high-speed rail, a pet project of Mr. Brown’s with an estimated price tag of $100 billion that has become for state Republicans a symbol of out-of-control government spending.

During their flight from reality in the post-Clinton years, elite California lefties bragged they were “dam busters”; in the early days of Obama’s administration, his then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Deanna Archuleta, promised the enviro-faithful, “You will never see another federal dam” — and maintenance on state-run projects was apparently out as well. Like the famous Monty Python architectural sketch, Sacramento seemed to consider magical thinking as sufficient to prop them up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlaYJhLylzw

HILLARY WANTED TRUMP TO GET THE NOMINATION, AND EVEN HELPED HIM DO SO, BECAUSE SHE THOUGHT HE’D BE EASY TO BEAT. NOW: The Kremlin Is Starting To Worry About Trump: Vladimir Putin’s entourage cheered the outcome of the U.S. election – until they saw exactly what they were dealing with.

BREAKING: Michael Flynn resigns as Trump’s national security adviser, AP reports. The Washington Times adds that “Petraeus among possible replacements…According to CNN, retired Gen. David Petraeus will be ‘coming in’ Tuesday to discuss the position.”

Flynn’s resignation letter is online here:

REPORT: Michael Flynn, Trump’s embattled national security adviser, resigns amid controversy over communication with Russian ambassador.

HMMMM: “Trump Is Right Again on ‘One China,'” Spengler writes.

TOMORROW IS VALENTINE’S DAY — It’s not too late to send Amazon Gift Cards!

Plus, Fresh deals on Top Rated Products. Browse and save!

Also, Shop Amazon Warehouse Deals – Deep Discounts on Open-box and Used Camera Equipment.

TO THE HAPLESS CLOWNS AT MEDIA MATTERS, “OK” is now a white supremacist hate gesture or something.

FAKE NEWS: Someone please tell Time magazine who was president when a Muslim-American Olympian was held last December.

STATUS ANXIETY: Mainstream media whines as Trump calls on less established news outlets. Best bit: “To be fair, the previous WH also handpicked reporters. But it was very different than this.” Obama handpicked the right reporters.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Al Franken: Mocking Elizabeth Warren For Her Fake Cherokee Heritage Is Racist. Quoth Jim Treacher: “CNN is the place to be for ridiculous clowns who are trying to restore their reputations by opposing Trump. Well, not me, but some other clowns. It’s working out just fine for Andrew Sullivan, and now it’s Al Franken’s turn.”