PERRY DE HAVILLAND: “Looking back, it’s hard to overstate the cultural significance of GamerGate: it marked when the Left suddenly and unexpectedly lost control of social media, right at the point where the influence of social media actually started to matter. In a sense, it was the second wave of discontent that started with the arrival of anti-MSM blogs in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but within a very different internet environment compared to ‘The Golden Age of Blogging’ 2001-2010. As has often been the case in military campaigns, when one side becomes greatly overextended, they only realise they have lost the initiative when they seek to advance and experience a completely unexpected reversal: a result that may seem obvious and perhaps even inevitable to a historian looking back, but which was far from obvious to the people on the ground at the time. . . . could just as easily be talking about Brexit or Trump, for it was a widespread tone deaf lack of introspection by establishment folk that made those things possible (albeit for very different reasons)… but the way I see it, GamerGate was the canary-in-the-coal mine.”

TYLER COWEN: The Left Underestimates Trump’s Economic Plan.

As a libertarian-leaning economist, I don’t favor either of those changes, or their combination, but still there is a logic here worth considering. Think of this policy as taxing the consumption of elites and throwing that money, and more, at job creation, in this case through corporate subsidies. It’s a bigger and bolder gamble than just making some marginal adjustments in current transfer payments. In essence Trump has outflanked the left by packaging plans for redistribution of wealth with a revamped mercantilism, combined with a macho mood, media-baiting and incendiary rhetoric about who deserves what. It is an underlying fear of the left that a right-wing-flavored redistribution might prove more popular with voters than the left’s preferred egalitarianism and identity politics. . . .

I think many of the critics are underrating the potential popularity and durability of Trump’s efforts, at least if they manage to pass. Stock prices have been up, and VIX measures of volatility are stable or down. On key issues such as health care and taxes, the new policies will sound terrible, but they will utterly outflank the left by being radically redistributive and choosing some new ways to measure policy success.

Well, the priorities of the Gentry Liberals are not the priorities of mainstream America, as we’ve seen.

THE INSTA-WIFE ON The Art Of Exhaustion.

MICHAEL WALSH: John McCain, Meddling Busybody.

STRIKE A POSE, THERE’S NOTHING TO IT:

Shot:

Chaser: Back to reality! The Obamas take off in Richard Branson’s private jet from their ten day island getaway—after taking a helicopter to the airport.

Related: Joe Biden and Colin Powell drag race their ’67 and 2015 Corvettes.

I don’t want to hear another goddamn word about Glenn Reynolds’ carbon footprint.

ANALYSIS: US Setting up a Confrontational Approach With Iran.

What would we do without analysts?

TAQIYYA: Man Who Claimed Mother Died In Iraq Due To Travel Ban Lied.

As it turns out, the real reason why Hager’s mother wasn’t permitted to fly to the United States on Friday was because she had been dead for five days.

Hager’s Imam confirmed on Wednesday that the original story was not accurate and that Naimma had passed away on January 22. Fox 2 was able to confirm the date of death as well.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? “The San Francisco police department is suspending ties with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. The announcement comes amid growing concerns of spying on Muslim Americans by the new Trump Administration.”

As Jim Geraghty writes in response, “While you’re at it, why not paint a bull’s-eye on the TransAmerica building?”

SAVE ON GAS! Bentley To Turn All Of Its Models Into Hybrids.

FASCISM IS ALWAYS DESCENDING IN THE UNITED STATES AND YET LANDS ONLY ON AMERICAN COLLEGE CAMPUSES: Amherst Walks Out Over Trump, Ignores Fellow Student Punished Without Trial.

SALENA ZITO: Grassroots rage and the Democrats’ crackup.

The base’s tack — arguing that Trump is akin to Hitler, when he takes actions that many of his voters find at least arguably appropriate, even if they have questions — cuts off debate. It’s a mistake Hillary Clinton made in trying to scare voters away from Trump rather than articulating why she was the right choice.

And now the angry left, thinking it’s learning from Clinton’s mistakes, is actually repeating one of her biggest. Essentially, the Clinton faction won the party’s nomination, but the Bernie Sanders faction won the day. Instead of offering independents, moderate Democrats or reluctant Republicans an alternative, those non-liberals see protests after protest, outrage after outrage — and they’re tuning the anger out and going on with the business of life.

It appears that the Trump team grasps that with a strategy zeroed on making the Democrats constantly play defense.

Says Sracic, “Trump issues an executive order beginning the process of dismantling the ACA, and Democrats respond by saying he is trying to ‘Make America Sick Again. People think, however, that the ACA needs to be improved. Where is the Democratic alternative?

“You can argue the same thing about immigration, taxes and regulations, all subjects of Trump executive orders.”

I’m not overly fond of rule-by-EO, but there’s a big difference between EOs used to circumvent Congress (“I have a pen and a phone”) and orders written in harmony with Congressional action (ObamaCare repeal).

OAK RIDGE: Researchers break data transfer efficiency record. “Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have set a new record in the transfer of information via superdense coding, a process by which the properties of particles like photons, protons and electrons are used to store as much information as possible.”

I’M TORN ON THIS ONE: Chaffetz Kills Public Lands Bill After Backlash From Sporting Community.

The Disposal of Excess Federal Lans Act of 2017 (or H.R. 621) would have directed “the Secretary of the Interior to sell certain Federal lands in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming, previously identified as suitable for disposal, and for other purposes.” This would have encompassed 3.5 million acres– roughly the same size as the state of Connecticut.

Many saw this as a threat to access to hunting and fishing on public lands, so Chaffetz felt it was wise to withdraw the bill and let it die in the House Natural Resources Committee.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE: Oregon Governor Kate Brown Forms Trump Resistance Team.

BIG DEAL, SCHOOL CAFETERIAS HAVE BEEN DOING THAT FOR YEARS: Scientists have turned cooking oil into a material 200 times stronger than steel.

MY PAPER ON MILITARY COUPS JUST KEEPS GETTING MORE TIMELY: Clueless celebrity watch: Let’s fight fascism with … a military coup, or something. ” It’s difficult to come up with a better operational definition of fascism than a military coup of a duly elected government simply because the losers didn’t like the outcome. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of that going around these days.”

READER BOOK PLUG: From reader Michael Rank, Against All Odds: Ten Historical Figures Who Overcame Incredible Adversity, From William the Bastard to Winston Churchill.

I HOPE THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP AND ATTORNEY GENERAL SESSIONS WILL MAKE FIXING THIS A PRIORITY: Experts: California voter registration system ‘highly susceptible’ to fraud. We may need additional legislation from Congress, too.

THE DEEP STATE STRIKES BACK: GOP Defectors Have Received Thousands From Teachers Union.

The two Republicans who broke ranks with their party and announced they would vote against education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos have received thousands of dollars from the nation’s largest teachers union.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) and Susan Collins (R., Maine) have each benefited from contributions from the National Education Association. Collins received $2,000 from the union in 2002 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Murkowski, meanwhile, has received $23,500.

The NEA represents 3 million members, making it the wealthiest and most influential union in the country.

The NEA represents public school employees, not public school students.

YOU CAN’T SAY THAT ON TV! Dutch Politician Jan Roos: Stop Building a ‘Little Middle East’ in Europe.

CHARLIE MARTIN: In the Trump Era, truthful news is replaced by fashionable lies.

• The Trump Administration was muzzling the EPA and USDA. The reality? It was, again, a customary step at the change of administration.Science, among others, debunked this fashionable lie.

• The famous Muslim ban. Reality? It was a (temporary) ban on entrance from seven countries that had been identified as being so chaotic as to make effective vetting difficult — under a law passed in 2015, modified in 2016, and signed by Obama (remember him?). The law itself had been supported by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — who was in tears this weekend after it was implemented. Look folks: if the Executive Order blocks Christians from Iraq, but it doesn’t block a Muslim cleric from Mecca, where only Muslims are permitted to enter by law, it just isn’t a Muslim ban. “It’s a Muslim ban” is just another fashionable lie.

• Trump excluded countries from the “Muslim ban” (see above) that he has business dealings with. Reality? Let’s look back at that same law: the list of countries comes from 2016. I think it’s pretty clever of Trump to arrange for the Obama Administration to craft that list to give Trump’s businesses an advantage, don’t you? But lying about Trump’s Executive orders has become fashionable.

There are a lot more examples, but that’s enough. Everett Mickey on Facebook said (I’m paraphrasing because I didn’t save a link) that people should learn to read news stories like a reformist judge reading search warrant applications from a corrupt police department.

He certainly got the “corrupt” part right.

CNN HEADLINE: Like Hitler, Trump is sending tanks into Poland.

THE BENEFITS OF A BERKELEY EDUCATION:

I hope he didn’t borrow any money for that education he’s receiving.

THE HOWLING: Scott Pruitt, Trump’s E.P.A. Pick, Is Approved by Senate Committee.

A day after Democrats on the Senate environment committee boycotted a planned vote on Mr. Pruitt’s nomination, the panel’s Republicans reconvened on Thursday and temporarily suspended the committee’s rules, which require the presence of at least two Democrats to hold votes, and approved Mr. Pruitt.

The Democrats’ boycott and the Republican response followed the same pattern that played out this week on the Senate Finance Committee, as Democrats sought to block action on the nominations of Representative Tom Price of Georgia to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and of the financier Steven T. Mnuchin to lead the Treasury Department.

Tip for Democrat Senators: When you’ve made Orrin Hatch willing to suspend his beloved rules, you might need to rethink a few things.