RAW POWER: The FBI didn’t come up with a lame excuse because that’s all they could come up with. They came up with a lame excuse because they think that’s all they need.

PROMISE KEPT: US Embassy in Jerusalem will open next year.

Vice President Pence said Monday that the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem will open before the end of 2019.

“By finally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the United States has chosen fact over fiction. And fact is the only true foundation for a just and lasting peace,” Pence said in a speech to Israel’s parliament.

The U.S. will set its relocation plans in motion in the coming weeks, with the facility slated to open by the end of next year, Pence said. Observers had previously expected the Embassy to open in a few years.
During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pence said it was an honor to be in “Israel’s capital, Jerusalem.”

The Trump administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital drew widespread backlash from leaders in Europe and the Middle East, who said it undermines the peace process.

There’s always a peace process that the US and Israel are supposed to hold to, but never any peace from the Palestinians.

I NEED TO ADD THIS TO MY APOCALYPSE-PREP SUPPLIES: Kraft Mac N Cheese Cheddar Cheese Powder.

THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST: University Student Hospitalized After Eating A Tide Pod.

THE ART OF THIS DEAL:

Schumer’s internal polls must have looked awful to have caved so quickly and completely.

PROCUREMENT: US approves potential F-35 sale to Belgium.

The approval, which was granted by the State Department and announced by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on 19 January, covers 34 aircraft, spares, ancillary systems, simulators and support, and is valued at USD6.53 billion.

The Belgian Air Component (BAC) is seeking to replace its 44 single-seat Lockheed Martin F-16AM and 10 twin-seat F-16BM aircraft in the 2023–30 timeframe with 34 new multirole platforms.

The US government approval for the F-35 does not indicate that Belgium has selected the type or even made a decision, but is the normal administrative step that must be taken ahead of any such sale to a foreign government. However, the F-35 is the strong favourite given that Belgium is part of the Multinational Fighter Program (MNFP) that includes the US and most European F-16AM/BM operators.

The Lightning II has been doing quite nicely in foreign sales.

WHEN “BELIEVE ALL WOMEN” TURNS PROSECUTION INTO PERSECUTION: 13 more innocent men are put through rape hell by the CPS: Cases collapsed after vital evidence was withheld – as pressure mounts on law chief after student is cleared before trial.

ISN’T IT ROMANTIC? Need to Ensure the Sex You’re about to Have Is Consensual? There’s an App for That. “LegalFling is the first blockchain-based app to verify explicit consent before having sex.”

Or as Antonin Scalia said, “The main business of a lawyer is to take the romance, the mystery, the irony, the ambiguity out of everything he touches.”

TO BE FAIR, NBC HAS A LONG HISTORY OF MINDLESSLY PARROTING LEFTWING STATE PROPAGANDA. Pointless: NBC’s Lester Holt goes to North Korea, complies with the state’s censorship demands.

I wonder if Holt will sample the same pizza that Nicholas Kristof Instagrammed last year while being in full Walter Duranty mode for the New York Times? 

CNN set the bar pretty high for over-the-top pro-Juche propaganda. Can NBC top them?

INSTEAD OF TRUMP AND THE GOP SURRENDERING ON AMNESTY, WE GET THIS: Dems give up shutdown fight. “Senate Democrats relinquished on the government shutdown Monday, agreeing to vote to reopen the government but insisting they’ll keep fighting for illegal immigrant ‘Dreamers’ over the next weeks, with another shutdown deadline looming Feb. 8.”

CHANGE? Wonder Woman 2 will be the first production to adopt new anti-sexual harassment guidelines.

I DON’T THINK THERE’S MUCH ROOM FOR DOUBT: Sharyl Attkisson in The Hill: Was Loretta Lynch coordinating with James Comey in the Clinton investigation?

THE PRE K-12 CHAIRS: Professor: Small Chairs in Preschools Are Sexist, ‘Problematic,’ and ‘Disempowering.’

Reclining Barcaloungers for all the tiny tikes!

(Classical allusion in headline.)

BLUE STATE BLUES: Idiot CA Legislators Demand Corporations Give Fed Tax Savings Back To State.

Richard Fernandez noted on Twitter that “The only solution progressives can come up with in the emerging two tier world is to tax the skilled and put everyone else on welfare.”

The solution to the failures of big government is always bigger government.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: These College Girls Are All Making Their Money (And Paying Off Student Loans) By Being “Sugar Babies.”

HMM: New California law will automatically register illegal immigrants to vote.

In 2015, the state passed a law called the California New Motor Voter Act to increase voter rolls by simplifying the process to register to vote.

The legislation, which goes into effect April 1, will automatically register people who apply for a new driver’s license or new state ID at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

California has long provided driver’s licenses to anyone who claims to be in the country legally, whether they provide proof or not, which means illegal aliens will be registered to vote, WND reports.

The only way a person won’t have their information at the DMV automatically sent to the Secretary of State’s Office for registration is if they opt out.

The does seem ripe for abuse, which I suppose is the entire point.

LET US COUNT THE WAYS COMEY’S FBI SAVED HILLARY FROM AN ORANGE JUMPSUIT: Former U.S. Attorney Joseph DiGenova has found seven and he ought to know because he’s been there, done that on FBI investigations and Department of Justice prosecutions.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Ridiculous licensing rules are holding back people who want to work.

THEY WEREN’T ALL “LOST”: New Strzok/Page Texts Suggest Lynch Knew About Clinton Exoneration Well Before Comey Announcement.

TOM HICKS: Democrats will destroy America just to spite Trump.

If you think the headline is overwrought, look at the cities where Democrats have ruled uninterrupted for decades, and you’ll realize that they don’t need Trump as an excuse.

50 YEARS OF WAGING WAR AGAINST THE VERY IDEA, AND NOW. . . . America Needs More Gentlemen:

All the stories we’ve read the past few months about predators—not those accused of rape and sexual assault, which are crimes, but of general piggishness, grabbiness, manipulation and power games—have a common thread. The men involved were not gentlemen. They acted as if they’d never heard of the concept.

We have lost track of it. In the past 40 years, in the movement for full equality, we threw it over the side. But we should rescue that old and helpful way of being. The whole culture, especially women, needs The Gentleman back.

A person of the cultural left would say that is a hopelessly patriarchal thing to say. But one thing the #MeToo movement illustrates is that women are often at particular risk in the world, and need friends and allies to stand with them. That would be men. And the most reliable of them are gentlemen. . . .

David Gandy, a fashion model, wrote a few years ago in London’s Telegraph that his work had taught him “being a gentleman isn’t about what you do or what you wear, it’s about how you behave and who you are.” A gentleman “holds chivalry and politeness in great regard. He holds the door for people; he gives up his seat; he takes off his coat to a lady on a cold evening.” These are old-fashioned actions, but a gentleman still holds to them “even though the world has changed.”

Yes, a gentleman does.

A man once told me it’s hard to be a gentleman when fewer of the women around you seem interested in being ladies. But that’s when you should step up your gentleman game. We are all here to teach and inspire.

I know I keep saying this, but the thing about chivalry is, it’s a system. It’s not just a bunch of rules for men that are designed to benefit women. It’s an entire social approach that lays expectations on women too. Overthrowing those very expectations was at the core of the feminist project. And now the response to the consequences thereof is that . . . men should try harder?

To be fair, that’s the response to pretty much all gender issues these days. Which is also part of the problem.

ALICE STEWART: On shutdown, Democrats have a lot of explaining to do.

Chuck Schumer blames the GOP generally and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell specifically, saying the Democrats are happy to compromise, but “we will not be bullied.”

The reality is that Democrats chose protections for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients over funding the government. They will have to explain that to the American people.

The fact is that, while there is tremendous support for protecting Dreamers, 56% of Americans, according to a recent CNN poll, said approving a budget to avoid a shutdown was more important than continuing DACA. Thirty-four percent thought renewing DACA was more important than preventing a shutdown.

President Trump has been clear on his goal for dealing with immigration. Along with a DACA fix, he wants increased security at the border, an end to chain migration, and an end to the visa lottery program.

With that in mind, Congress should have addressed first things first: fund the government now and address DACA by its March deadline. It’s shameful that our military and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will suffer due to the reality show known as Congress.

But if the GOP can’t get the Democrats to pay a political price, then you can expect more of the same.

HERE’S WHY THE URANIUM ONE SCANDAL IS YUUUGE: Charles Ortel lays it out in LifeZette. Yes, uranium is an essential resource and Hillary Clinton played a key role in making it possible for the Russians to gain control of a fifth of U.S. supplies. But there is even more to this one.

NEO-NEOCON: All hail Jordan Peterson: not just a debater.

What Peterson does in that interview isn’t just on the order of what someone like Thomas Sowell (whom I also admire greatly) habitually does in argument, which is to counter the adversary on the cognitive and logical points, and to apply the results of research to the discussion. Peterson certainly does do that, and that’s what most people see when they watch that interview. But he adds certain techniques of the therapist and particularly of the family therapist (although I really don’t know if he’s done any family therapy; Peterson’s a psychologist and used to have a private practice as a therapist, however).

Read the whole thing.

Peterson’s book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, is due out tomorrow.