MESS WITH THE BEST, DIE LIKE THE REST: James Woods, who wields a 50. cal Twitter feed like it’s nobody’s business wins his libel suit:

Portia Boulger alleged that Woods defamed her by tweeting out a post that falsely claimed she was a Bernie Sanders supporter who was planted at a March 2016 Trump campaign rally in Chicago and photographed giving a Nazi salute…On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge George Smith threw out the case, finding that Woods had not defamed Boulger because his post could be seen as posing a question about her identity and was “susceptible of more than one interpretation.”

Ohio law has the “innocent construction rule” in libel cases, wherein if a word is capable of multiple meanings, it isn’t defamatory per se. The court also went on to explain that questions are not statements of fact.

AT AMAZON, Shop Amazon Outlet – Clearance, Markdowns and Overstock Deals.

Plus, Shop Amazon Warehouse Deals – Deep Discounts on Open-box and Used Products.

THERE’S THAT MODIFIER “SOCIAL” AGAIN: Blackrock CEO says businesses need to serve a “social purpose.” At USA Today, I argue that they already do.

DIGITAL NAG: Amazon’s Alexa Will No Longer Tolerate Sexist Abuse. “Amazon’s Alexa software has now changed its response to a certain stimulus — namely, calling it sexist names — from ‘thanks for the feedback’ to ‘I’m not going to respond to that.’ Further, the device will also respond to the question of whether it’s a feminist with: ‘I am a feminist. As is anyone who believes in bridging the inequality between men and women in society.'”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Sorry, but “Woke Alexa” doesn’t sound promising at all.

Related (From Ed): Not so smart? Man upset Google Home device can’t answer ‘Who is Jesus?’

FASTER, PLEASE: The Last Gasps of Outrage Culture? Jordan Peterson’s popularity as an author and commentator may indicate a coming backlash.

SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: Humans expanded out of Africa 40,000 years earlier than we thought.

OPPRESSION, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG: Number of Arab students in Israeli universities grows 78% in 7 years.

CHANGE MORE OF THE SAME: Tesla employees say to expect more Model 3 delays, citing inexperienced workers, manual assembly of batteries.

Tesla’s problems with battery production at the company’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, are worse than the company has acknowledged and could cause further delays and quality issues for the new Model 3, according to a number of current and former Tesla employees. These problems include Tesla needing to make some of the batteries by hand and borrowing scores of employees from one of its suppliers to help with this manual assembly, said these people.

Tesla’s future as a mass-market carmaker hinges on automated production of the Model 3, which more than 400,000 people have already reserved, paying $1,000 refundable fees to do so.

The company has already delayed production, citing problems at the Gigafactory. On Nov. 1, 2017, CEO Elon Musk assured investors in an earnings call that Tesla was making strides to correct its manufacturing issues and get the Model 3 out.

But more than a month later, in mid-December, Tesla was still making its Model 3 batteries partly by hand, according to current engineers and ex-Tesla employees who worked at the Gigafactory in recent months. They say Tesla had to “borrow” scores of employees from Panasonic, which is a partner in the Gigafactory and supplies lithium-ion battery cells, to help with this manual assembly.

You can’t mass-manufacture anything using boutique methods.

ELIZABETH PRICE FOLEY: The immigration fight isn’t really about the Dreamers — it’s all politics. “President Trump’s immigration proposal offers a pathway to citizenship for approximately 1.8 million people. . . . Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, allowed approximately 800,000 individuals to stay, without any path to citizenship, for renewable three-year periods under his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order. If the Trump proposal is a hateful middle finger to Hispanics, presumably Obama’s much narrower order was a violent assault. Yet the far left’s leaders, including Congressman Gutierrez, praised DACA as an ‘antidote for do-nothingism’ and now thinks that Trump’s more robust proposal — replete with a path to citizenship — is a surefire sign of xenophobia. Such comments imply that the far left’s goal is not finding a workable solution for Dreamers but instead, keeping their base ginned up with hatred toward President Trump. By reflexively crying racism in response to reasonable policy proposals — which would achieve far more than any Democratic president or Congress has ever achieved — the political left undermines its credibility and suggests its goal is sowing racial division, not solving problems.”

Trump has made them a very generous offer, and — as I suspect he expected — they’re rejecting it and screaming racism. I think that leaves him right where he wants to be.

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Researchers reveal sexual prowess of older males not to be underestimated. “Quality sperm, good genes, and courtship knowledge are just a few reasons why females might benefit from mating with older males.”

BACKTRACK: ‘Real Possibility’ That ‘Secret Society’ Text Was Joke Between FBI Lovers, Sen. Johnson Says.

GONE BABY GONE: Casey Affleck, previously accused of sexual harassment, has withdrawn from presenting the best actress award at the Oscars.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The Internet Makes Life Better and Safer for Sex Workers. Obviously. A large new study out of the U.K. proves it.

BURDEN-SHARING: German military too small to aid ‘collective defense,’ official says.

Although the budget has increased slightly following criticism by U.S. President Donald Trump, the operational readiness of the German forces has further deteriorated this past year.

“The hard currency, in which the success of the [defense] minister is measured, is the readiness of the Bundeswehr,” Bartels said. “And that has not really improved in the last four years, but rather has become worse.”

“While foreign missions with small contingents went well, the Bundeswehr as a whole cannot currently be used in the collective defense,” he added.

Germany’s geographical location and industrial might make it one of Europe’s vital countries, but was is to be done with a people who won’t breed, won’t defend their borders, and can’t live up to their defense treaty commitments?

JOE PAPPALARDO: No Treaty Will Stop Space Weapons: Russia and China are shaming the U.S. for not signing a treaty against weapons in space. In reality, all three nations are racing to weaponize the final frontier on their own terms. Pushing the US to join an arms-control treaty that they will then violate with impunity is an old Russian trick. They did the same with biological weapons.

BLUE MODEL BLUES: New York City, Chicago Top List of Cities with Worst Fiscal Health.

IN OTHER WORDS, PRETTY MUCH EVERYBODY: Consumers, businesses seen buoying U.S. economic growth in fourth-quarter.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Questions for 6th graders on drug use, gender identity outrage parents in small Missouri town.

HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE: Earthquake fault runs through Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills’ shopping district, California geologists say.

Glenn’s plan to tax the blue zones would help put an end to such risky and short-sighted overdevelopment.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: Obama’s Conflict Tanked the Clinton E-mail Investigation — As Predicted: Hillary couldn’t be proven guilty without proving the president guilty as well. “Thanks to Friday’s FBI document dump — 189 more pages of reports from the Bureau’s year-long foray (‘investigation’ would not be the right word) into the Clinton e-mail scandal — we now know for certain what I predicted some eight months ago here at NRO: Any possibility of prosecuting Hillary Clinton was tanked by President Obama’s conflict of interest.”

TO BE FAIR, SHIELDING HARASSERS IS HER CORE COMPETENCE: Hillary Clinton Chose to Shield a Top Adviser Accused of Harassment in 2008.

TYLER O’NEIL: Five Gems from Trump’s Davos Speech.

ALLIES: Turkey’s Erdogan vows to fight Kurdish forces as far as Iraq.

I used to joke — pre-Erdogan — that maybe the locals would be better off if Turkey took back the Levant, but that the Turks were too smart to take it. It doesn’t seem nearly as cute now that the Turkish leadership might actually be dumb enough to try.

IT’S ALWAYS NICE to make Twitchy.