“PLEASANTLY SURPRISED”: So, as someone who was not #NeverTrump, but certainly #NotFondOfTrump, what do I think now?

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Berkeley Didn’t Birth ‘Free Speech,’ but It Seems Intent to Bury It.

HAVE THEY EVER HEARD ONE OF HIS SPEECHES? Obama reportedly pulls in another $400G for speech.

For an extra $50k, he’ll stick to the teleprompter.

AS OUR LAST PRESIDENT LIKED TO SAY, ELECTIONS HAVE CONSQUENCES: Trump tax plan would hit blue states hardest.

President Trump’s plan to overhaul the federal tax code threatens to fall disproportionately on residents of liberal-leaning states, a short-term boost for state governments that could turn into a long-term drag.

Most states have tied their tax codes closely to the federal code. Since the federal income tax was first levied in 1913, taxpayers have been able to deduct the state and local taxes they pay from their federal taxable income. Taxpayers who live in states with higher tax rates are able to deduct more from their federal taxes than those who live in states with lower rates

Those deductions cost the federal government more than $60 billion a year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Trump has proposed ending that state and local tax deduction. Experts who reviewed Trump’s outline, issued Wednesday, said that will mean higher taxes for those who live in states with more progressive tax codes, like California, New York, Oregon and New Jersey.

“Individuals, particularly in high-tax states, would see their state tax burdens increase. The federal government is essentially subsidizing high tax rates in states like California and New York,” said Nicole Kaeding, an economist at the Center for State Tax Policy. “Those taxpayers would be impacted pretty directly by the Trump tax plans.”

I see no reason why federal taxpayers — often in poorer states — should subsidize the high-tax policies of other states.

ON NOTICE: Trump says ‘major, major’ conflict with North Korea possible, but seeks diplomacy.

“There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely,” Trump told Reuters in an Oval Office interview ahead of his 100th day in office on Saturday.

Nonetheless, Trump said he wanted to peacefully resolve a crisis that has bedeviled multiple U.S. presidents, a path that he and his administration are emphasizing by preparing a variety of new economic sanctions while not taking the military option off the table.

“We’d love to solve things diplomatically but it’s very difficult,” he said.

The man who coined the phrase “Speak softly and carry a big stick” rarely spoke softly, either.

GOOD MORNING: Liz Sheld has your end-of-the-week Morning Brief.

DAMON LINKER: The global elite are headed for a fall. And they don’t even know it.

They are themselves the greatest beneficiaries of the global meritocracy — and that very fact serves to validate its worth. They live in or near urban centers that are booming with jobs in tech, finance, media, and other fields that draw on the expertise they acquired in their educations at the greatest universities in the world. They work hard and are rewarded with high salaries, frequent travel, nice cars, and cutting-edge gadgets. It’s fun, anxious, thrilling — an intoxicating mix of brutal asceticism and ecstatic hedonism.

The problem is that growing numbers of people — here in America, in the U.K., in France, and beyond — don’t see it like this at all. Or rather, they only see it from the outside, a position from which it looks very different. What they see is a system that is fundamentally unjust, rigged, and shot through with corruption and self-dealing.

They see Marissa Meyer, the CEO of Yahoo, taking home a cool $186 million in stock (on top of many millions in additional salary and bonuses) for five years of “largely unsuccessful” work. . . .

And this is how things appear at this historical moment: The world is run by an international elite that lives in a rarified world of seemingly boundless power and luxury. Though the members of this elite consider their own power and luxury to be completely legitimate, it is not. It is the product of a system that’s rigged to benefit them while everybody else languishes in declining small cities and provincial towns, eking out a dreary existence, toiling away their lives in menial service-sector jobs or scraping by on disability checks while seeking out a modicum of fleeting joy in the dumbstruck haze of a painkiller high.

Something that can’t go on forever, won’t.

TO PROPERLY STUDY THE PRE-HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA A LOT OF PC COWS WOULD HAVE TO BE GORED.  SO DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH: A 130,000-Year-Old Mastodon Threatens to Upend Human History.

IN THE EMAIL FROM J. M. NEY-GRIMM: The Tally Master.

CALIFORNIA PERSISTS IN IMAGINING THAT WISHES ARE IN FACT HORSES: California single-payer healthcare bill passes first committee test.

IN THE EMAIL, FROM WILLIAM H. DUQUETTE: Through Darkest Zymurgia!: A Ripping Yarn.

AS IN SPACE, SO ON EARTH: This New Ocean.

MAYBE THEY’RE THE PET ROCKS OF THE 11TH CENTURY? Ireland trying to solve mystery of these X-rated statues.

HE’S TAKEN TO HIS SAFE ROOM: The monster that never was is no more.

ALT RIGHT DEFENDS FREE SPEECH FROM ANTIFA.  WE’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE: Alt-right thugs want to bring muscle to liberal protests.

THE ANTI-WAR LEFT EMERGES FROM EIGHT YEAR SLUMBER: Will the new wave of Middle East war movies paint a fair and balanced portrait of U.S. soldiers?

THE TRUMP MACHINE HAS PLACED PROVOCATEURS THROUGHOUT AMERICA’S TOP UNIVERSITIES TO MAKE THEM LOOK RIDICULOUS, AND IT’S PAYING OFF IN SPADES: Yale Grad Students Go on ‘Symbolic’ Hunger Strike Where They’re Allowed to Eat.

AT AMAZON, Save Big in Sports and Outdoors.

Plus, save in Toys and Games.

NYT ARTICLE ON “the casual racism of the Asian salad” gets roasted in the comments by NYT readers who have apparently had enough of all this bullshit.

WAIT, I THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED: Higher sodium intake associated with lower blood pressure. You read that right.

In another blow against decades of accepted medical wisdom, one of the most prestigious, long-running studies reports that lowering sodium intake doesn’t reduce blood pressure.

The study also implies that most Americans are consuming a perfectly healthy amount of salt, the main source of sodium. But those who are salt-sensitive, about 20 to 25 percent of the population, still need to restrict salt intake.

Consuming fewer than 2,500 milligrams of sodium daily is actually associated with higher blood pressure, according to the Framingham Offspring Study report, given today. The American Heart Association recommends consuming no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium daily, equal to a teaspoon of ordinary iodized table salt.

High blood pressure is a known risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Hence, lowering salt intake is supposed to lower blood pressure and thus reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. But the study found that supposition to be unfounded.

Moreover, the lowest blood pressure was recorded by those who consumed 4,000 milligrams or more a day — amounts considered dangerously high by medical authorities such as the American Heart Association.

Trust the salt science, they said. The salt science is settled, they said.

OUR FECKLESS ELITE: Charlie Martin: The War Crimes and International Law Scam.

MITCH DANIELS’ LATEST IS HUGE: Purdue to acquire Kaplan University, increase access for millions. “To launch the new university, Purdue will acquire Kaplan University and its institutional operations and assets, including its 15 campuses and learning centers, 32,000 students, 3,000 employees, and decades of experience in distance education. All existing Kaplan University students and faculty will transition to the new university.”

THE LATEST IN THE TENNESSEE STAR‘S CONSTITUTION SERIES: How and Why Thirteen States Ratified the Constitution: 1787 – 1790.

I KNOW PEOPLE WHO DO THIS AND ARE HAPPY WITH IT, BUT I’D BE RELUCTANT: Taking Metformin for Weight Loss.

THE WAR CRIMES AND INTERNATIONAL LAW SCAM: Charlie Martin is angry. You’ll like him when he’s angry.