READER BOOK PLUG: From reader Mark Kalina, Aurora.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Do Men Gain Weight In Their Bellies?

My theory: It’s evolutionary. As men age, and have to defend the stuff they accumulate from younger men, this provides protective padding to vital organs, as well as an impression of size.

VIRTUE-SIGNALING: Madeleine Albright ‘ready to register as Muslim’ over refugee suspension.

Will she also adopt the veil and stop appearing in public without an adult male relative in attendance?

FASTER, PLEASE: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish. “The experiments, which took place at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, raise the possibility of off-the-shelf cellular therapy using inexpensive supplies of universal cells that could be dripped into patients’ veins on a moment’s notice.”

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Newsflash: Obama Was A Historically Unpopular President, According To Gallup.

That poll found that Obama’s overall average approval rating was a dismal 47.9%.

Only three presidents scored worse than Obama since Gallup started doing these surveys in 1945: never-elected Gerald Ford (47.2%), one-termer Jimmy Carter (45.4%), and Harry Truman (45.4%).

Obama even did worse overall than Richard Nixon, whose average approval was 49%, and was less popular overall than George W. Bush, who got an average 49.4%.

Well, he was a historically bad president. If he hadn’t had the press propping him up he’d have been in the 30s.

CHANGE: Trump becomes schmoozer-in-chief.

Trump, a Washington outsider, is hoping to build the kinds of relationships that can lead to cooperation with Republicans and Democrats that would advance his agenda.

Lawmakers who felt shunned at worst or tolerated at best by former President Barack Obama are hopeful for the change.

“We’re a couple days in but it’s going to be way better than what we’ve had during the last eight years,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said in an interview. “He’s a builder and he wants to bring people together.”
Trump so far has appeared to relish joking around with lawmakers at informal and formal events, and he’ll take his effort on the road Thursday, when he will speak about his agenda in front of House and Senate Republicans’ joint retreat in Philadelphia.

But it’s unclear how far the new president’s charm offensive will get him.

Well, it’s early yet. But Trump’s effort stands in contrast to Barack Obama, who kept Congress at arm’s length even when his own party held both chambers.

And the thing about elected officials is, most of them enjoy schmoozing and being schmoozed.

BASICALLY, LIKE WHAT SJW-TYPES DO TO ORGANIZATIONS: ‘Crypt-Keeper Wasp’ Turns Its Host into a Self-Sacrificing Zombie.

BUT OF COURSE — ALL THE WAY AROUND: Donald Trump Rightfully Calls Chelsea Manning a ‘TRAITOR,’ Washington Post Takes Offense.

U.S. GENERAL: Iraqis Prove to be ‘Formidable Fighting Force’ with ‘Monumental Achievement’ in Mosul.

Quite an achievement, but the shame of it is that ISIS — the “jayvee” — was allowed to metastasize into such a potent force and over such a large area.

TRUMP TO MEXICAN PRESIDENT: Better to cancel our meeting.

YOU CAN’T FIRE ME; I QUIT! Mexican President Pena Nieto says he canceled meeting with Trump.

Boy, that escalated quickly.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Trump is playing with the press: He’s gaslighting them and they fall for it every time.

BREAKING: The State Department’s entire senior management team just resigned.

Washington, home of the self-licking ice-cream cone, has just invented the self-draining swamp.

YEAH, HE PROBABLY IS: Elon Musk may actually be serious about tunneling under L.A.

Billionaire innovator Elon Musk declared early Wednesday that he’s ready to move ahead with his recently formulated ambitions to bore holes, possibly under the city.

“Exciting progress on the tunnel front,” Musk tweeted. “Plan to start digging in a month or so.”

Digging just where and how, no one knows. Coming from anyone else, such a declaration might brushed off as a joke.

But given that Musk is the entrepreneur who, with a team, reshaped mobile payments (PayPal), sent rockets into space (Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX) and launched an electric-car company (Tesla Motors), the tweets are unlikely to be dismissed. He is, after all, being taken seriously about a possible Mars mission.

Whatever you might think of the merits of Musk’s various projects, he thinks big and he writes big checks.

RAHM EMANUEL’S CHICAGO: 6 Shot at Gun Violence Victim’s Memorial.

Meanwhile, John Kass says that Donald Trump has “turned Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a sympathetic figure.”

We’ll see.

DIVIRSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: Two Afghan migrants revealed as those arrested over horrific three-hour rape streamed on Facebook Live in Sweden.

According to this FrontPage Mag report from 2013, “Sweden has continued to treat rapists more leniently than pretty much every other country in the Western world.“

FRANK BRUNI GETS IT: Trump Wins When His Opponents Lose It. “He triumphs when opponents trade righteous anger for crude tantrums. When they lose sight of the line between protest and catcalls.”

Related:

OUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING:

A brutal WFB mashup of Hillary’s famous ad and “highlights” from Saturday’s march.

THE CHARGE OF VOTER FRAUD IS SO SERIOUS THAT AN INVESTIGATION IS ESSENTIAL: Even if there were zero voter fraud, wouldn’t you want to know rather than just guess?

POLITICO: Trump’s flashy executive actions could run aground.

Former President Pen & Phone was not reached for comment, apparently.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Oral Arguments to Begin in Minnesota Case of Mother Suing Her Transgender Child.

Anmarie Calgaro’s lawsuit alleges that healthcare providers treated her 17-year-old as an emancipated minor without her consent when the teen began receiving transgender medical and mental health services.

While the lawsuit centers largely on the state’s lack of a clearly defined legal process for emancipation, Calgaro’s unnamed teen daughter earlier told Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid attorneys that her mother had “made it known to him [sic] that she no longer wishes to have any contact with him,” according to court documents.

The resulting emancipation notice allowed the teen to make her own healthcare decisions. But, as it states in the complaint, Calgaro denies neglecting her child.

In a video of Calgaro’s press conference the day the lawsuit was filed, she began to tear up while talking about the “shock” she felt upon discovering that her child was receiving gender-affirming medical treatment without her parental consent.

Gender-affirming?

RASMUSSEN: Trump Approval Rises to 59%.

“FAKE NEWS” IS FAKE NEWS: Study Lands Blow Against “Fake News” Panic.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Trump is playing with the press: He’s gaslighting them and they fall for it every time.

JOHN PODHORETZ: The National Elite’s Nervous Breakdown. “It’s been five days since the inaugural and the adrenalized, hypercaffeinated, speed-freak affect of the entire chattering class is beginning to seem like we’re living through Bob Woodward’s classic depiction in his book Wired of John Belushi’s final overcharged sleepless days before dying from a cocaine speedball overdose in 1981. If every word out of Donald Trump’s mouth is greeted with shrieks of horror and rage and anger and despair and hysteria by his opponents, they are going to find it impossible to serve as any kind of effective opposition to him.”

Two points: (1) This is mostly about status anxiety, as Trump’s presidency represents the renegotiation of postwar status arrangements that were very comfortable for a lot of people; and (2) Trump knows that this sort of nonstop freakoutrage works in his favor, and thus encourages it. Not that it needs a lot of encouragement.