PAUL BOLYARD: A few thoughts on Mitt Romney running for Senate from his perch in Utah.

If you want Trump’s agenda to succeed (and that’s what it’s all about, right?) the GOP is going to need that Republican vote from Utah. We simply cannot afford another debacle like we saw in Alabama. Mitt is still wildly popular in Utah, and he’ll have the money and skillz to beat whatever upstart Roy Moore type the Bannonites throw at him. And then he’ll beat whatever sacrificial scrub the Democrats send to the plate.

A protracted mini-war along the way doesn’t help our side and will just give the Democrat-Media Complex more ammo to use against us in future wars. Think long and hard before you put that lighter to your hair.

Read the whole thing.

WEIRD, WHERE DID THEY COME FROM? Measles cases in Europe tripled last year, officials say.

STUDY: Acetaminophen May Disrupt Male Sex Hormones, Placing Unborn Babies at Risk.

Given the way acetaminophen and alcohol (don’t) mix, I haven’t kept a bottle of Tylenol anywhere in the house for years.

BLUE WAVE? Democrat Margaret Good Flips Seat in Florida, the 36th Democratic Flip Since Trump’s Inauguration.

If you’re trying to square that with today’s news that the GOP leads the generic congressional ballot by +1, it helps to have a drink first.

The only sure thing right now is uncertainty.

AT AMAZON, Bonus 25% off Fire tablets with Amazon Trade In. Limited-time offer.

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT HOW I’D PLANNED: Oregon woman first ever with human ‘eye worm’ infection.

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: At age 6, she weighs just over 13 pounds, as hunger plagues Venezuela.

Maria del Carmen is 6 years old and weighs 6 kilograms — just over 13 pounds. In her home, eating is no longer routine. Her family is hungry, and it shows.

The last time the girl was put on a scale was in December. Her relatives say she weighed 10 kilos in November but then dropped to six and suffers from severe malnutrition.

Her mother abandoned her in her grandmother’s house alongside her four siblings — two other girls who are 8 and 5, and two boys who are 4 and 2.

Katiuska Chourio, the mother’s aunt, said that the mother had taken her five children away but Maria del Carmen got sick and was taken to the Chiquinquira Hospital. She was hospitalized for a month in a ward for malnutrition cases and contracted meningitis while there.

“After that she brought the five children, left them here and she went to live in Colombia with another man,” said Chourio.

Heartbreaking. And given that reporter Sheyla Urdaneta chose not to make any mention of Venezuela’s socialist government, a complete mystery.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Student Snowflakes Sign Petition To Ban ‘Offensive’ Valentine’s Day.

Unexpectedly.

Related: Woke bros wonder: How does a woke bro get laid in this difficult #MeToo era?

HEADLESS BODY IN TOP CONDITION: 186-Year-Old Skeleton of Philosopher Jeremy Bentham Checked For Bugs, Travels Headless to New York.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Giant Robots Are the Future of Underwater Mining.

RUTH BADER GINSBURG: Enshrine in Constitution That Men and Women are ‘Equal in Dignity and in Rights.’

Anyone who believes that “dignity” can be legally enforced has no clue what they’re talking about.

LAYERS AND LAYERS OF FACT CHECKERS, EDITORS, AND HR DEPARTMENTS: New York Times writer fired just hours after being hired.

“Despite our review of Quinn Norton’s work and our conversations with her previous employers, this was new information to us,” read a statement from editorial page editor, James Bennet.

“Based on it, we’ve decided to go our separate ways.”

In a series of tweets, Norton admitted to being “friends with various neo-Nazis” although she claimed she “never agreed with them.”

In one conversation from 2013, Norton wrote “Here’s the deal, f—t. Free speech comes with responsibility. not legal, but human. grown up. you can do this.”

In another oddly prescient tweet from 2014, she said “Today I realized I’d probably make a lot more money being a racist for @nytimes.”

Analysis: True, alas.

Related: New York Times Fires Writer After Deciding It Went Too Far In Its Search For Intellectual Diversity.

WHATEVER ELSE THE ROB PORTER SCANDAL MIGHT CAUSE: It’s prompted new attention to a huge problem that has been around for decades. Every federal civil servant must clear a comprehensive background check before being allowed to work for the taxpayers. Most of these checks are done by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) National Background Investigations Bureau.

LifeZette’s Jim Stinson reports that Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dan Coats told the Senate yesterday that an estimated 700,000 background checks have yet to be completed. On checks for jobs that require access to classified information, the wait can be a year or more before its completed. These realities may or may not shed light on why former White House staff secretary Rob Porter was able to remain on the job for so long.

When I served at OPM as a Reagan political appointee from November 1982 to June 1985, the backlog was in the thousands and growing despite heroic efforts by political and career employees alike. Things have only gotten worse, much worse. But at least the public now knows of yet another illustration of Big Government getting so big it can’t competently do even the most basic tasks competently and efficiently.

JERRY HENDRIX: Don’t Retire Our Stealth Bombers.

In a surprising move, the Air Force’s Bomber Vector roadmap also includes a plan to retire all 20 of the service’s nuclear-capable, stealthy, B-2 Spirit bombers. These iconic, black flying wings have served as the backbone of the nation’s long-range penetrating strike force for the past quarter-century. The Air Force is arguing that, given the upfront costs of acquiring the new B-21 bombers, it can no longer afford to maintain the older B-2 aircraft.

Even the most cursory analysis of the global security environment highlights long-range penetrating strike as the critical emerging mission requirement, especially in light of the expansion of anti-access area-denial capabilities, which include advanced surface-to-air defensive missile capabilities. This analysis suggests that the Air Force will need more bomber capacity than can be supplied by its 100 new B-21 bombers.

In fact, multiple reports from various analysts reveal that the Air Force will need a minimum of 160 penetrating, long-range strike bombers if the nation decides to execute a sustained campaign against a rival great power. Against this strategic context, any proposal by Air Force leadership to retire a key component of the nation’s nuclear strategic triad and diminish our overall capacity to penetrate modern anti-air defenses can only be viewed as a blatant attempt to coerce Congress into raising its overall budgetary top line.

We slowed down (under Bush) and then capped (under Obama) production of F-22s at a mere 187 airframes, under the (false) assumption that air superiority battles were a thing of the past. Are we going to make the same mistake with our bomber fleet?

ASHE SCHOW: After Settlement With Fraternity, The Rolling Stone Rape Hoax Saga Is Officially Over.

CNBC: Democrats go on defense as the Republican tax plan grows more popular.

YEAH, BUT IDIOTS THINK “ANGLO-AMERICAN” IS RACIST OR SOMETHING: The Anglo-American Office of Sheriff: Americans’ right to elect their Sheriffs comes from ancient English legal tradition.

I HAD BEEN ASSURED HE WOULD STUMBLE INTO A MAJOR WAR: Trump Is Showing Significant Leadership on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

IN THE MAIL: From My Valentine, The Judiciary’s Class War (Encounter Broadsides).

Plus, fresh Gold Box and Lightning Deals. New deals every hour.

SINCE WHEN ARE LIBERTARIANS PRO-“TERROR” AND AGAINST “FAIR PLAY”?  How the Right Co-Opts Frederick Douglass.

Yale History Professor David Blight:

[Frederick] Douglass did preach self-reliance for his fellow blacks: He argued that the freed slaves should be given their rights, protected and then “let alone.” But he never employed that “let alone” dictum without also demanding “fair play,” and security against terror and discrimination. Conservatives have cherry-picked his words to advance their narrow visions of libertarianism.

Put this in the ongoing series of liberal academics who don’t understand libertarianism writing critiques of it. Among other things, Blight confuses “individualism,” i.e., favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control, with being unconcerned with the welfare of the community. Hopefully, though, the op-ed will spark interest in Tim Sandefur’s new biography of Douglass, which inspired Blight’s rant.

DEBRA HEINE: Susan Rice Email Suggests Comey ‘Seriously Misled’ Senate Regarding Meeting With Obama.

BUT HER PEOPLE! Elizabeth Warren Absent From Tribal Nations Policy Summit.

THE CARTER PAGE PILE-ON:

A frisson of gleeful anticipation greeted the news in fall 2017 that charges were being brought against Paul Manafort and his protégé Rick Gates, and that Mike Flynn and George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and were cooperating with the authorities. Amid the satisfaction and self-congratulation about Trump’s impending downfall, no one seems to have paid much attention to the fact that none of the charges had anything to do with collusion with Russia, nor did they suggest that any of the damning allegations in the Steele dossier had been verified. Rather, there was an assumption that Trump’s associates, nabbed by the long arm of the law, would start “singing,” and that their chorus would quickly and undeniably implicate the President in impeachable wrongdoing.

But the hopes of autumn are giving way to a silent spring. Is this deafening silence from Manafort et al. a token of their undying loyalty to The Donald—the omerta of mafia thugs? Or is it just possible that there is simply no song to sing—no collusion, no payoffs, no information-sharing—maybe not even any “golden rain?” And what did the FBI, armed with its FISA warrant, learn about Page during the months its agents were surveilling him? Did this unlikely hypostatic union of awkward geek and master of intrigue manage to cover his tracks so well that the Feds could not even muster the risible amount of evidence required for a conspiracy charge?

It’s hardly a secret that, for a broad swath of the U.S. political classes and the American press, the removal of Trump has become the Holy Grail, the goal to which all other things must be subordinated. In this sacred endeavor, Carter Page is useful in ways that even the most cynical Russian handlers could hardly have imagined. And if his dignity and reputation must be utterly trashed in the process—well, so much the worse for Page.

Responsible journalism dies in darkness. Or is it dankness?

Indeed.

NETFLIX AND CHILL AND DON’T TREAD ON US: Libertarian Date Night: Eight Romantic Films.

Great picks, nothing to quibble with.

Although I would add About Time. There’s nothing overtly libertarian or conservative about it, but it does make some lovely observations about living an unencumbered life.

ACROSS THE PERFUME RIVER: A South Vietnamese pontoon bridge in Hue, February 1968. From the Vietnam War Tet Offensive photo retrospective.