WE HAVE QUESTIONS, SO MANY QUESTIONS, ABOUT RUSSIA AND WHO? What is the phenomenon shrinks talk about in which a person projects onto a nemesis characteristics they despise in themselves?

What if the Trump/Russia Collusion narrative is projection by the Clintonista liberals, obsessed as they are with getting even with Trump for defeating Hillary? Charles Ortel continues his series this week in LifeZette asking some disturbing questions and offering evidence that is even more disturbing.

And if these questions make you a bit uncomfortable, did any of us ever expect to hear a U.S. senator tell the nation his committee has an informant describing meetings outside of the Department of Justice of a “secret society” from within the FBI devoted to stopping any presidential candidate or incumbent chief executive. Strange times we live in, friends and neighbors.

SLOW LEARNER: Democrats are funding CHIP for six years and reopening the government without losing their shutdown leverage.

Ezra Klein:

Consider what we don’t know about what comes next. We don’t know which immigration bill, or bills, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will bring to the Senate floor. We don’t know if any immigration compromise passes the Senate. We don’t know if an immigration bill that passes the Senate will get a vote in the House. Even if it does get a vote in the House, we don’t know if it’ll pass. And if it does pass, we don’t know if Trump will sign it.

We also don’t know what the implicit Democratic position is here. If Democrats get a fair vote in the House and Senate on an immigration deal and it doesn’t pass, will they shut down the government again in three weeks? Put differently, is this a deal about a fair process or about a particular outcome? If Democrats don’t get a deal and they shut the government back down in three weeks, it’s hard to see what was lost here.

Schumer accepted public humiliation rather than extend the shutdown past the two-day mark — and this is “leverage” he might be reasonably expected to use again in just three weeks?

Perhaps the SJW Wing of the Democratic caucus will force Schumer to try again, but two “Schumer Shutdowns” in under a month would be awfully difficult to pin on the GOP. Particularly since it didn’t even work the first time around.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Schumer listened to the Resistance — and lost badly.

KYLE SMITH: The Final Year Reveals the Obama Administration’s Naïvety and Arrogance.

The Obama foreign-policy masters see their three accomplishments as the Paris Climate Accord, the opening to Cuba, and the Iran deal. Given that the former wasn’t presented to Congress for approval, was nonbinding, and was later dumped by President Trump, while the other two amounted to making concessions to American foes in exchange for virtually nothing, this is a bit like bragging that you suckered the Franklin Mint into giving up a souvenir Elvis plate for only $34.95. But to understand why Rhodes and Obama are so pleased with their foreign policy, you have to understand the way they think. The documentary is revealing about that.

Rhodes’ rhetorical trick, which he shared with Obama, was to use a favored trope of the center-right in service of knocking down a strawman. “[Obama] has been saying for ten years that American exceptionalism is rooted in what we stand for and how we act and not just in our ability to impose our will on people,” Rhodes says, as if anyone is arguing that American exceptionalism equals steamrolling other countries like Hitler.

Rhodes is an arc man: There’s this Mighty Arc of History (™), see, and everything naturally bends toward it. (In Vietnam, Rhodes coaches Kerry how to talk about the trip: “I think the main thing for them is drawing the arc of progress like how far this place has come and how tied that is with the relationship with us.”) The Arc is indistinguishable from a progressive vision of the future, so if you do nothing, everything just gets more progressive by itself. That’s how it works in theory, anyway.

Naïvety, meet arrogance.

It was eight years of dorm-room bull session as Great Power foreign policy.

ONLY IN THEIR WEST WING/NPR FANTASIES: Does the Left Lose because It’s Too Civil?

We’re still endlessly debating how we “got Trump” in 2016. But one of the chief reasons is that many Republicans — down to the very marrow of their bones — believed that the GOP had been “too nice,” and that nominating gentlemen like Mitt Romney meant that the party was unilaterally disarming in a no-holds-barred political war. There is still deep rage at the way in which lefties who allegedly yearn for civility painted Romney as a greedy, racist monster who was indifferent to cancer deaths and sought to put African Americans “back in chains.”

No, Democrats aren’t losing because they’re “too nice” or because they yearn for dialogue. The better explanation is that they’re losing in part because their own incivility and rage drive millions of Americans to the polls to vote in perceived self-defense. Their own incivility and rage falsely escalate too many political disputes to matters of life and death. What’s the argument after claiming that Republicans are intentionally killing people? Is there a rhetorical step beyond that?

No, the next step is physical violence, and we’ve seen plenty of that from the left over the past year, up to and including, as the Daily Caller noted in August, “Bernie Bro James T. Hodgkinson, Attempted Assassin Of Steve Scalise, Already Being Erased From History.”

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL A SHUTDOWN: US kills 150 ISIS fighters in Syria airstrike during government shutdown, Pentagon says.

The airstrike took in one of the last remaining pockets of ISIS control along the Euphrates River near the border between Syria and Iraq, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command, responsible for American forces in the Middle East.

While ISIS has lost 98 percent of its territory, the remaining 2 percent held by the terror group includes an area around the Syrian city of Al-Shaafah, where the strike took place. Top U.S. military officials believe the head of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is hiding in the area.

U.S.-backed fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) “assisted in target observation prior to the strikes,” according to a statement announcing the airstrike.

Nice work.

A NOT-UNCOMMON MOTIVATION: ‘Tiger Daughter’ May Go To Law School ‘To Delay Entering The Real World As Long As Possible.’

THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE:  Hot yoga is total hogwash.

IF YOU’RE OBSESSING ABOUT YOUR EARLOBES, YOU MIGHT NEED SOMETHING BETTER TO DO:  This hot beauty trend can give you younger-looking ears.

BECAUSE ALL TEENS ARE ALIKE AND DO THE SAME THINGS ONLINE. PFUI:  The exact amount of screen time teens can handle before they want to kill themselves.

JUST DON’T TRY CARRYING A TUBE OF IT THROUGH TSA CHECKPOINTS:  You should always wear sunscreen on airplanes.

TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT ECONOMICS DOESN’T MAKE YOU POPULAR:  Steakhouse owner ripped over objection to rising minimum wage.

IDIOTS AND FOOLS:  Explaining the delay in undoing the Hawaii nuclear scare.

GOOD:   Trump Admin to States Managing Medicaid: Feel Free to Defund Planned Parenthood.

BITING THE HANDS THAT FEED THEM:  NFL Rejects AMVETS Super Bowl Ad; Pig Socks Totally OK.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRAFT AND CORRUPTION: Pork Barrel Government.

I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH THIS, FROM MY OWN MEDICAL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS:  You are being abused.

AT AMAZON: CRKT M16-01KZ Folding Spear Point Straight Edge Knife.

SEN. RON JOHNSON: FBI INFORMANT SAYS ‘SECRET SOCIETY’ HELD SECRET MEETINGS OFF-SITE.

TONIGHT’S OPEN THREAD: Talk about what you want.

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Study: Being a Teen Sucks Now.

THE GORE EFFECT LIVES! Scientists Get Buried In Snow At Davos While Lecturing On Global Warming.

To be fair, this really is the 21st century I was once promised.

1968: IN 50 YEARS, WE’LL HAVE FLYING CARS!

2018: People have to be told not to eat Tide Pods.

AT AMAZON, January deals in Wheels and Tires.

Plus, save on Herbs, Spices, and Seasonings.

DEMOCRATS: Two staffers plead guilty after sharing explicit phone videos of congresswoman.