CLIMATE CHANGE: Der Spiegel: Merkel Might Lose After All. “The refugee crisis, though, changed everything. Since the summer of 2015, Merkel has become extremely polarizing, not unlike Hillary Clinton was in the recent U.S. campaign. ‘There are now people who would rather chop off their hands than vote for Merkel,’ says one Merkel confidant. When the chancellor was campaigning in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania last summer ahead of elections in the state, she occasionally appeared only in front of hand-picked audiences because her speeches would otherwise have been drowned out by boos and whistles.”

THE CHIK-FIL-A EFFECT: Guess what’s #1 in Beauty on Amazon?

HMM: F-15s scramble to intercept unresponsive aircraft over restricted airspace over West Palm Beach.

LIKE TOM HARKIN, BLUMENTHAL SHOULD CUT AND RUN WHENEVER ANY VETERANS APPEAR: An open letter from 14 Medal of Honor recipients to Sen. Blumenthal over his hypocrisy on Gorsuch.

Dear Sen. Richard Blumenthal,

You recently called upon your Senate colleagues to subject Judge Neil Gorsuch’s record to “extreme vetting,” questioning both his qualification and biography. The Senate certainly has the right and obligation to closely review any nominee for the United States Supreme Court. Conversely, it is our right as Americans and veterans to scrutinize your hypocrisy in doing so.

We are veterans of the Vietnam War. We fought alongside our brothers in arms, many of whom died or were gravely injured there. We saw the treatment meted out on us and our fellow military personnel upon our return, yet we never questioned our commitment to our nation’s freedom. But perhaps more relevant to this discussion is that we know you were not there with us.

The fact you repeatedly and consistently claimed to have served in Vietnam is a gross case of stolen valor in our opinion. You obtained at least five military deferments between 1965 and 1970, at least two of which were seemingly political favors to you so that you could avoid joining us in a war zone. Here are just a few examples where it appears that you have chosen to buttress your political resume by shamefully inflating your record of military service:

In 2003, you apparently stated, “When we returned [from Vietnam], we saw nothing like this [a public outpouring of support for deployed military personnel].”

In 2008, the New York Times reported you said, “We have learned something important since the days I served in Vietnam …”

At a Vietnam War memorial in 2008, it is reported you stated, “I served during the Vietnam era … I remember the taunts, the insults, sometimes even the physical abuse.”

We recognize that military service of any kind is valuable to the protection of our nation’s freedom. There is no shame in engaging in “Toys for Tots” campaigns, recycling efforts, or assisting in the improvement or construction of various facilities, which appears to be a fair description of the bulk of your duties during the Vietnam War.

What is offensive to those who fought in a most brutal conflict, some of us who were captured and tortured by our enemy, is any comparison of those most brutal experiences to the ones of people like you who never even sniffed the air in Vietnam.

One of them should run against him.

WE COULD DO WORSE IN MICHIGAN, AND HAVE: Ted Nugent vs. Kid Rock in Michigan Race?

ANOTHER CAMPAIGN PROMISE KEPT: Trump signs bill undoing Obama coal mining rule.

Coal is going to take a beating because of fracked gas anyway, but he promised to do this and he did. That alone sets him apart.

IN THE KNOXVILLE NEWS-SENTINEL, COLUMNIST GREG JOHNSON HAS ADVICE FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE’S NEW CHANCELLOR, BEVERLY DAVENPORT:

Yes, let’s do diversity. Given that Berkeley burned when a conservative provocateur was invited to campus, this after numerous conservatives have been stifled in academe in recent years, some humble suggestions from your humble columnist:

-Affirm the Chicago Principles. In 2014, the University of Chicago established a committee on freedom of expression in light of the uproars. The committee noted UC President Hanna Holborn Gray said that “education should not be intended to make people comfortable, it is meant to make them think.”

“The University’s fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the University community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed,” the committee wrote.

-Embrace the Tennessee Student Free Expression Act. State Rep. Martin Daniel, R-Knoxville, has introduced HB739, which quotes the Tennessee constitution: “The free communication of thoughts and opinions, is one of the invaluable rights of man, and every citizen may freely speak, write, and print on any subject.”

Daniel’s bill states the obvious: “In recent years, state institutions of higher education have abdicated their responsibility to uphold free speech principles.”

-Commit to hiring conservatives. The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA found the number of professors identifying as “liberal” rose from 42 percent in 1990 to 60 percent in 2014 while “moderates” declined by 13 percent and “conservatives” dropped by 6 percent.

Liberals outnumber conservatives by more than 4 to 1 in the academy while conservatives outnumber liberals 38 percent to 24 percent in the real world, according to Gallup. Like with other disparities of diversity, UT and other universities need to intentionally recruit from the underrepresented group.

Read the whole thing.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Face the Nation host: Media has to take ownership for its own credibility issues. “Today’s media environment has gotten so poisonous that its customers no longer give their coverage much credibility. That poisonous atmosphere began long before Trump got elected president, but few can doubt that it’s reaching its nadir now — in large part because of that ‘hysterical coverage about every last little thing’ Dickerson mentions. Trump may have demonstrated a historical level of antagonism for a president to the media in yesterday’s presser, but the media has provided a historical level of antagonistic coverage of this presidency, too. The masks have slipped over the last several weeks; Dickerson’s honest enough to point it out.”

EIGHT YEARS AGO, ON INSTAPUNDIT:

POLITICO: A REVOLVING DOOR? “In three months since Election Day, at least a half-dozen prominent journalists have taken jobs working for the federal government. Journalists, including some of those who’ve jumped ship, say it’s better to have a solid job in government than a shaky job – or none at all – in an industry that’s fading fast. But conservative critics answer with a question: Would journalists be making the same career choices if John McCain had beaten Barack Obama in November?” If it were another industry, and a Republican candidate/President, the press would treat this as a serious conflict of interest. It does kinda explain the favorable election coverage . . . .

Yes.

A CERTAIN TURN OF PHRASE: The Water’s So Hard . . .

BECAUSE IT STOPPED BEING FUNNY YEARS AGO? Why I Don’t Watch ‘Saturday Night Live’ Anymore.

WAS IT EVER QUITE SANE: Has Washington Gone Crazy?

THE LOST CHILDREN OF THE WEST: RadFems, Cenobites, and the Lament Configuration.

DUH: Europe’s Green Madness: Dieselgate Was A Political Disaster.

IS IT NORMAL TO GRIN LIKE THIS WHEN I THINK OF THE EPA’S DOOM? Senate confirms Scott Pruitt as EPA administrator in mostly party-line vote.

THAT WORD DOESN’T MEAN WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS: All Dare Call It Treason.

WHAT IF I TOLD YOU: Trump’s ‘Nuke the Moon’ Image Works.

AT AMAZON, shop the Home Improvement Outlet.

Plus, deals in Safety and Security.

POLL: Voters Trust Trump More Than Media.

A Gallup poll found the same a couple of days ago. “In its annual confidence poll, Gallup found that Americans’ trust in the mass media ‘to report the news fully, accurately and fairly’ reached its lowest level in polling history, with only 32 percent saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media.”

UPDATE: And it’s not just toothless flyover deplorables who think so:

MORE: