21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: Towns cracking down on GPS app shortcuts. “The apps use real-time traffic data to reroute drivers around long delays, sometimes taking vehicles through little-known bypasses or residential streets not normally used by a large number of vehicles for a daily commute.”

Yeah, last year in LA I was driving to Roger Simon’s house and Olympic and Santa Monica Boulevard were both jammed; Google routed me through a bunch of residential streets in Beverly Hills and I noticed that quite a few other cars were following the same route, probably for the same reason. But roads aren’t just for the people who live on them, and ordinances that fine “non-resident drivers” aren’t likely to hold up.

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AMERICA: He Asked For 10 Volunteers To Shovel Snow For Seniors. Over 100 People Showed Up.

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OBVIOUSLY, SHE’S MOTIVATED BY RACISM AND FEAR OF A STRONG BLACK MAN: Jill Abramson Reboots Her ‘High-Tech Lynching’ of Clarence Thomas. “She kicked up dirt to give the impression of scandal, which would not have been necessary had she actually uncovered proof of one. Meanwhile, she unintentionally presented stronger evidence of her sham than of the scandal she hoped to create.”

WANT TO LIVE PAST 90? It Helps To Drink Alcohol. “Here’s some information to ponder while hitting the gym instead of a bar: Beer and wine have better health benefits than exercise in terms of longevity. Those are the findings of University of California neurologist Claudia Kawas and other researchers conducting the 90+ Study, an effort that started in 2003 to explore impacts of daily habits on longevity.”

I hope Stephen Green will raise a glass to my memory on New Year’s day, 2200.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Washington Post opinion piece defends Peron, compares him favorably to Trump, because “Peronism led a process of expanding economic equality, collective organization and political enfranchisement. Trumpism, by contrast, builds upon American tendencies toward inequality, individualism and political disengagement.” Left-wing fascism, in other words, is superior to American democracy. Breaking eggs to make omelettes and all that.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Comrade Michael Moore Attended Glorious Russia-Backed Anti-Trump Rally.

OUT: GATEWAY DRUGS. In: Gateway Knives.

HOWARD DEAN: Devin Nunes ‘Belongs in Jail.’

POWERLESS ON THE BENCH: A powerful speech by Kevin Sharp, a former federal district judge, who resigned from the bench because he could no longer be complicit in crazy jail sentences caused by a combination of Congressional malfeasance and prosecutorial overzealousness.

THE PERILS OF TAX REFORM: Plexus Announces Revised Capital Allocation Plan and Employee Bonus.

• Plexus’ Board of Directors has approved a new share repurchase authorization, commencing upon completion of the 2016 Share Repurchase Plan, in the amount of $200 million. Shares would be purchased through the open market, on a relatively consistent basis, with the intent to complete the repurchases in fiscal 2019.

• In order to reward employees for their contributions towards Plexus’ success, Plexus will provide existing, full-time, non-executive employees a one-time cash bonus. This bonus will be provided in the fiscal second quarter to nearly 16,000 employees, totaling approximately $13 million.

Let me have just a little bit of peril.

I HAD BEEN ASSURED THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN: Marines Quietly Lower Combat Training Requirements To Help Female Officers.

BEST TO WORST: Every Full-Sized SUV Ranked. But where’s the Toyota Land Cruiser?

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USEFUL IDIOT OR FELLOW TRAVELER? Michael Moore Plays Into Russia’s Plans, Urging Kids to ‘Revolt!’ and ‘Shut Down These Schools.’

WHISKEY: The alcoholic drink that’s even better for you than wine.

The article doesn’t say whether 12-year-old-and-up single-malt scotches are even better for you than everyday whiskeys, but I say why take chances.

OH, GOODY: Flu is evolving in new and unpredictable ways in China’s poultry.

RICHARD POLLOCK: George Soros Makes Massive Financial Investments On Fossil Fuels.

In the last quarter of 2017, Soros Fund Management reported investments in eleven new fossil corporations totalling nearly $160 million, according to his company’s December 31, 2017, filing before the Securities and Exchange Commission reviewed by TheDCNF.

His investments in fossil fuels undermines his public pledge to use his money to eliminate the oil, gas and coal industries, claiming they threaten the planet by accelerating climate change.

The billionaire’s most recent political efforts to warn about climate change was his underwriting of the organizations behind the April 29, 2017, “People’s Climate March” that marked the 100th day of President Donald Trump’s administration. Soros donated $36 million to 18 of the march’s 55 steering committee organizations between 2000 to 2014, according to the Media Research Center.

He also agreed to give former Vice President Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection $10 million over a three-year period.

Further, Soros founded and operates his own climate change advocacy group called the Climate Policy Initiative. He pledged to give at least $100 million in 2009 to the institute over ten years and in 2015 he gave $26.5 million to the group, according to his latest filing with the Internal Revenue Service.

But without flagrant hypocrisy, where would Soros get the money to finance his progressive political causes?

IF NRA’S BUCKS ARE KEY TO ITS POLITICAL POWER, WHAT ABOUT THESE FOUR LIB GROUPS? Each of them spent more for Democrats in the 2016 campaign than the NRA did for Republicans, so why do we always hear kids are slaughtered in schools because you-know-who controls Congress with its money and blocks passage of new gun control laws that would save lives? Collectively, the four spent more than seven times as much as the NRA!

FASTER, PLEASE: Researchers create first superatomic 2-D semiconductor.

SECDEF MATTIS: Service Members Need to be Deployable or Find Another Job. “If you can’t go overseas … carry a combat load, then obviously someone else has got to go. I want this spread fairly and equitably across the force.”

“IMPEACHMENT OR BUST”: What if ‘Resist!’ makes it harder for Democrats to take back the House?

Finally there’s Mr. Trump. Even with his recent bump in the polls, he remains divisive. But he’s not the only divisive politician who will figure in this election. The most recent Politico/Morning Consult poll suggests that Nancy Pelosi has pulled off a largely unheralded achievement: In the Age of Trump, she is arguably the most unpopular politician in America.

What does that mean for impeachment? Well, in 69 House districts surveyed by the Congressional Leadership Fund (a super PAC devoted to maintaining the GOP majority), Mrs. Pelosi is underwater in every one. She is also toxic among independents.

Take California’s 10th District, held by Republican Jeff Denham. Hillary Clinton carried this district in 2016, and Mr. Trump’s approval rating is at minus four. But again, Democrats are split among eight primary contenders. And the CLF survey showed that voters in Mr. Denham’s district prefer Paul Ryan as speaker to Mrs. Pelosi by 13 points. Come this fall, expect many GOP ads featuring Mrs. Pelosi calling tax cuts for workers “crumbs” and reminding voters that even if they find their Democratic candidate for the House reasonable, a vote for him will be a vote for Speaker Pelosi.

Of course it’s still early, and the polls remain volatile. The received orthodoxy may well turn out to be true, and the blue tsunami will wash over Congress in November, which will be followed by President Trump’s impeachment the following year.

Even so, the Resist! card remains a huge gamble.

All Democrats have to do is not act crazy, somebody recently quipped, and they can’t even manage that.

21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY: Building lighter and huge in the low gravity of space.