KURT SCHLICHTER: President Trump Has Been Far Too Nice To The Mainstream Media.

It wasn’t a press conference – it was a kinky dungeon session where masochistic journalists eagerly sought out the delicious pain Master T was dealing. Hack after hack stepped up, tried to play “gotcha.” and ended up whimpering in the fetal position. The best part was CNN’s Jim Acosta, fresh from whining about how conservative outlets now get to ask questions too, basically handing Trump the cat-o-nine tails. Dude, next time keep from talking yourself into more public humiliation by biting down on the ball gag.

The media’s safe word is “Objectivity,” but none of them uttered it.

The wonderful thing about Trump – and the thing that sets the Fredocons and wusspublicans fussing – is that he gives exactly zero damns about the media’s inflated and ridiculous self-image. He doesn’t pay lip service to their lie that they are anything but what Instapundit calls “Democratic Party operatives with bylines.” Trump called them the “the enemy of the American People,” to which normals responded with “Yeah, sounds about right.”

Read the whole thing.

WAPO’S MARGARET SULLIVAN WORRIES THAT TRUMP WILL “HUNT DOWN” REPORTERS.

You went full Eason Jordan, Margaret. Never go full Eason Jordan.

Related:

UPDATE: Hey, is this the new meme on the Journolist? “[CNN’s Chris] Cuomo: ‘Someone Will Get Hurt’ By Trump’s Attacks on Media.”

Everything old is new again at CNN!

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The End Of Identity Politics: “Class is finally reemerging as a better barometer of privilege than is race—a point that Republican populists are starting to hammer home. The children of Barack Obama, for example, have far more privilege than do the sons of Appalachian coal miners—and many Asian groups already exceed American per capita income averages. When activist Michael Eric Dyson calls for blanket reparations for slavery, his argument does not resonate with an unemployed working-class youth from Kentucky, who was born more than 30 years after the emergence of affirmative action—and enjoys a fraction of Dyson’s own income, net worth, and cultural opportunities. . . . The 2016 election marked an earthquake in the diversity industry. It is increasingly difficult to judge who we are merely by our appearances, which means that identity politics may lose its influence. These fissures probably explain some of the ferocity of the protests we’ve seen in recent weeks. A dying lobby is fighting to hold on to its power.”

IT’S THEIR WAY: The Usual People Plan ‘Not My President’s Day’ Protests In The Usual Places.

I’m curious to see how long the Professional Left can maintain this level of outrage. You can’t keep it cranked up to 11 forever, especially since Trump has yet to do anything truly outrageous like sign an ObamaCare repeal & replace bill, or defanging the IRS or EPA, or — and I’m giddy at this prospect — announcing his replacement for a retiring liberal member of the Supreme Court.

THE DIPLOMAD: Madness and Chaos: the Left in the Time of Trump. “The losers are not happy. The sort of attack they have launched on Trump, his administration, and supporters might seem unprecedented, although it might be comparable to how the Democrats in the South reacted to Republican-led Reconstruction after the Civil War, except it doesn’t make anywhere as much sense.”

FREE TRADE: After OPEC cuts heavy oil, China teapot refiners pull U.S. supply to Asia.

Chinese independent, or teapot, refiners are bringing in rare cargoes of North American heavy crude in a new long-distance flow that traders say has only been made possible by OPEC’s output cuts and ample supplies in Canada and the United States.

In April, at least 1 million barrels of the heavy crude Mars, pumped from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, are expected to land in China’s Shandong province and 1 million barrels of a second unidentified heavy grade will arrive in China, trade and shipping sources said last week. This follows the arrival in January of 600,000 barrels of U.S. Gulf Blend, a heavy crude made up of a blend of various U.S. and Canadian grades loaded onto ships on the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to the sources and shipping data.

OPEC might have just found its drilling floor, like it or not.

HMM: U.S. Air Force deploys WC-135 nuclear sniffer aircraft to UK as spike of radioactive Iodine levels is detected in Europe.

THIS SEEMS FAIR: Sixth Circuit Reverses IRS, Tax Court: ‘Citizens Can’t Comply With Tax Laws They Can’t See.’

VIDEO: Milo Yiannopoulos Advocating for Sex Between Men and Boys.

Full transcript here.

And the denial here.

WHO KNEW THAT BARACK OBAMA WAS SO RACIST?

As I’ve said, Richard Fernandez has been on a roll lately. For example:

UPDATE: From the comments: “President Trump ought to use these exact same words in his next speech and then we can see how the left and the media react.”

SET PHASERS FOR BACKFIRE: George Takei deletes Twitter poll after something goes hilariously awry.

WHILE THEY CAN: Red-State Dems Thread the Needle in Working With Trump.

In the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Thursday, an unusual entourage joined President Trump to watch him nix a coal mining rule put in place by his predecessor.

There was the usual smattering of Republican lawmakers, of course, and a group of coal miners decked out in their gear. But among this small crowd were also two Democratic senators, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin, flanking the president as he spoke.

Manchin delivered a few remarks, too, to express his pride. “These are all West Virginians,” he noted, gesturing toward his home-state miners.

As Trump signed the resolution, they all crowded in for a photo.

“Come on, Heidi,” Trump said, urging the North Dakota lawmaker to slide in directly behind him. “Even though she’s sort of a Democrat.” Everyone laughed.

That was a fine moment, and it’s no coincidence that it featured the 2018’s two most vulnerable Senate Democrats.

JOHN FUND: Trump Is a Lot Like the LBJ Whom Liberals Still Idolize.

SHOCKINGLY, NOT THAT MANY PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN VACATIONING IN A COMMUNIST HELLHOLE: Now That Cuba Is Open, Americans Aren’t Going. I’ll wait until the Castros are gone. Then, maybe a condo at the luxurious Trump Bay Of Pigs Resort.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Trump And The Crisis Of The Meritocracy. “The rage of our privileged class is thus about loss of status. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t dangerous. Nations have blown up over less.”

LAUGH THROUGH THE TEARS:

ROGER SIMON: The Russians Are Not Coming, But What About The Iranians?

ALLIES: Why Japan Is Relieved About Trump.

Trump never once mentioned his earlier demand that Japan pay more – or, indeed, the entire cost – for US troops stationed there and the suggestion that Japan develop and deploy nuclear weapons that so horrified many never came up.

Instead, the two leaders busied themselves by reiterating the importance of the bilateral security relationship and Washington’s commitment to defending Japan and maintaining its nuclear umbrella. Pointedly, that included the disputed Diaoyu islands, which Japan controls and knows as the Senkakus.

The shared security message received a significant boost when North Korea launched a new type of medium-range ballistic missile on Sunday morning. Not many believe the timing of the launch was a coincidence.

The other key issue between Trump and Abe was economics, with the Japanese leader again relieved that there was no new talk of imposing tariffs on Japanese companies’ imports or accusations that Tokyo manipulates its currency to help exports and the national economy.

Good. These were never credible positions.

WHAT DESPERATION LOOKS LIKE? Byron York: 25th Amendment chatter: Dems, pundits mull ways to remove Trump.

As President Trump finishes his fourth week in the White House, a number of opposition lawmakers, political commentators, and self-styled members of The Resistance are discussing ways in which the president might be quickly removed from office.

Some have talked about impeachment for quite a while, even before the Trump inauguration. But that could take a long time, and it would require Trump to commit, and then be charged with and convicted of, “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” to meet the Constitution’s standard for removing the president from office.

That’s too long term, say some. So now, there is increasing discussion of the 25th Amendment. The 1967 amendment, which has its roots in the Kennedy assassination, covers ways to replace an incapacitated president. Up until now, its most-discussed provision was a measure by which the president could inform the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate that he, the president, can no longer perform the duties of office, whereupon those two officials would declare the vice president the acting president, until such time as the president informed them that he was again able to perform his duties. The amendment has been used or considered for cases in which the president underwent surgery or was under anesthesia.

Now, however, The Resistance is looking at Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, which would allow the vice president and a majority of cabinet officers, or the vice president and a majority “of such other body as Congress may by law provide,” to declare the president unable to serve, making the vice president the acting president.

If you want to see a civil war, just keep it up with these plans to “get rid of” Trump. That our “ruling class” continues to indulge in these despite the obvious danger demonstrates more than anything else that it is unfit to rule.

I’D BE HAPPY IF WE COULD GET THAT FOR THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PRESS: Dear Secretary DeVos, Please Prioritize Financial Literacy.

OH, CANADA: On Friday, Canadians protested a hate mosque that calls for the murder of Jews. Guess who police are investigating?

KAROL MARKOWICZ: Lefties keep showing off their civic ignorance.

Last week, cable news personality Sally Kohn tweeted what she called a “straightforward” plan that would eject Donald Trump and install Hillary Clinton into the presidency: “1. Impeach Trump Pence; 2. Constitutional crisis; 3. Call special election; 4. Ryan v Clinton; 5. President Clinton.”

Anyone with middle-school knowledge of the presidential chain of command should know that impeaching both Trump and his vice president would not, actually, lead to a “constitutional crisis” or a “special election.” It would lead directly, do not pass go, do not collect $200, to President Paul Ryan. Whom Clinton would be welcome to challenge in the next election.

Kohn is far from alone in broadcasting her ignorance of the political process. Our so-called “elite” seems to be in desperate need of a remedial civics class.

Call it willful ignorance of the legal impediment standing between the elites and absolute power.

AND YET THEIR OWN TRACK RECORD IS LESS THAN IMPRESSIVE: Flashback: Washington’s ‘governing elite’ think Americans are morons.