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MATT WELCH: The Two Parties Are Awful on Almost Everything Important.

It’s long since past time to recognize a glaring truth about two-party politics in 2018: In both effective practice and, increasingly, aspirational rhetoric, there are no significant Republican or Democratic voting blocs on Capitol Hill in favor of reducing deficits, restraining government growth, tackling entitlements, protecting privacy, defending free speech, practicing transparency, challenging prohibition, conducting legislative-branch oversight, passing damn budgets, reducing war, or extending the post-World War II America-led system of reducing global tariffs in the name of both prosperity and peace.

These are among the most important issues facing the country, and the two major parties are currently awful on all of them.

This is not a nihilistic, equal-pox-on-both-houses observation. In an era of increasing polarization, it’s ignorant to pretend that the parties (and as importantly, their customers) are the same. On abortion, immigration, guns, and plenty besides, there has been a great divergence, particularly in recent years.

But when we return to trillion-dollar deficits and pivot toward trillion-dollar debt-service bills without causing much more than a ripple of public fuss, it’s worth stepping back and wondering where the fiscal-sanity bloc will land after our current political re-sorting.

I don’t know about Matt, but you’ll find me at the bar.

IT’S ALMOST LIKE THEY WANT TO LOSE THE CONGRESS: “Congressional Republicans are jeopardizing the Second Amendment rights of 4.2 million senior citizens. At the same time, they have voted to funnel tens of millions of dollars to gun control organizations and support other actions that Democrats will love.”

SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST:

● Shot: It’s official: NYC hasn’t seen snow like this in 130 years.

—CNN, yesterday.

● Chaser: Flashback 2000 New York Times: ‘Sledding and snowball fights are as out-of-date as hoop-rolling’ – Blame lack of snow on ‘global warming.’

—Climate Depot, February 18, 2014.

(Classical reference in headline.)

HMM: Charges Have Been Dropped Against Most Turkish Officers in D.C. Clash.

Prosecutors first asked a judge in November to dismiss charges against four members of Mr. Erdogan’s security detail. Then they dropped charges against seven others on Feb. 14, the day before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flew to Ankara for a meeting with Mr. Erdogan meant to ease tensions. Among those freed of legal jeopardy immediately before the high-level meeting was the head of Mr. Erdogan’s security team.

U.S. officials said that no one pressured prosecutors to drop any of the charges for political reasons. Instead, the decisions were the result of investigators misidentifying some of the suspects and failing to develop enough evidence against others, according to the U.S. officials and an attorney who provided some free legal advice to defendants in the case.

Mr. Tillerson, in his private talks with Turkish leaders, pointed to the decisions to drop charges—which hadn’t been publicized or announced—as an example of how the U.S. had addressed Mr. Erdogan’s grievances, according to administration officials familiar with the talks.

He’s not the only one with grievances, you know.

OMNIBUS BILL: It hasn’t even passed and already Nancy Pelosi knows what’s in it.

While Pelosi supported the overall spending package — she and other Democrats have bragged that they defeated many “poison pill” rides sought by Republicans — the California Democrat is unhappy that there was no action on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump has sought to end the program, although the issue is now likely heading for the Supreme Court.

Pelosi also laid into Trump during a speech on the House floor, slamming him for claiming victory on border wall funding.

“That’s not completely true, Mr. President,” Pelosi said. “There’s some resources for fencing and the rest there. But some of that money is for technology and other ways to protect our borders… But if you want to think you’re getting a wall, you just think it and sign the bill.”

The crowing on the Left makes me think they really do want Trump to sign it as-is, but we aren’t yet to the final deal.

SHE’S RIGHT, YOU KNOW: University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax notes that the problem of low academic performance by affirmative action beneficiaries won’t go away just because student grades are shrouded in secrecy:

The mindset that values openness understands that the truth can be inconvenient and uncomfortable, doesn’t always respect our wishes, and sometimes hurts. Good feelings and reality don’t always mix. But there is a price to be paid for putting the quest for psychological comfort over openness on matters central to how our society is organized.

Alas, Wax’s article, entitled The University of Denial, is itself shrouded in semi-secrecy behind the WSJ paywall. For more easily accessed data on the issue, try A “Dubious Expediency”: How Race-Preferential Admissions Policies on Campus Hurt Minority Students. Or spend a few dollars for Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s Intended to Help and Why Universities Won’t Admit It.

DAVID HARSANYI: John Brennan Shouldn’t Be Lecturing America, He Should Be The Focus Of A Congressional Inquiry.

“I think he is afraid of the president of Russia,” Brennan said of the president who began selling lethal weapons to Ukraine and missile defense technology to Eastern European nations, and oversaw the U.S led bombing and killing of Russian in Syria. “The Russians,” he went on, “could have something on him personally that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult.” They “may have things that they could expose and reveal,” he added.

Surely a former intelligence chief wouldn’t float rumors about a foreign power blackmailing the president of the United States if he didn’t have some information to back up this kind of contention. Surely, he wouldn’t further corrupt the trust Americans have in their institutions by using the respect people have for his former position for political purposes.

This is the former CIA director we’re talking about. It’s one thing for someone like Joe Scarborough, Trump’s jilted ex-bestie, to make such contentions. It’s quite another for a person who had access to potentially incriminating evidence to make such an assertion. Perhaps he needs to be put under oath so we can all see what he knows.

Yeah, well this hasn’t exactly been Congress’s week for doing the right thing.

SADLY, THIS SEEMS RIGHT:

MARK TWAIN WAS RIGHT: HISTORY DOESN’T REPEAT ITSELF, BUT OFTEN IT RHYMES: The Texas teen who made up an elaborate tale that she was kidnapped and raped by three black men will (unfortunately) not be jailed. It’s hard not to be reminded of the notorious case of the Scottsboro Boys when reading her story. Weird fact: She is from the town of Pottsboro.

ART IMITATES LIFE: Bill and Hillary Clinton have ‘AT LEAST a one-way open marriage’ claims their veteran pollster – who compares them to Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright in House of Cards.

‘It’s not hard to conclude that Bill and Hillary Clinton didn’t have at least a one-way open marriage,’ [Mark Penn] writes. ‘Perhaps it was not by choice, but the stories accumulated over the years until the fact of it became apparent.

‘There was also no question that at the same time their relationship was so deep and enduring. If this was the model of the first couple, what did it mean for the rest of the country?’

Penn claims that open marriages are ‘perfect’ for Hollywood stars and other A-listers, pointing out that it could be ‘more stable’ than having serial marriages.

‘Hollywood usually does as Hollywood writes. For example, Frank and Claire Underwood in House of Cards have numerous partners, including one who sleeps at the White House, as they pretend to ignore it. There seems to be a rage of jealousy under the surface.’

I never got past the first season of House of Cards, but assumed from the start that the Underwoods were based in no small way on the Clintons.

THERE THEY GO AGAIN: Maryland NAACP Cites Hoax as Evidence of Racism.

MILLENNIALS CAN’T CATCH AN EVEN BREAK:  Employers who recruit on campus may be violating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

THE TECH INDUSTRY IS A NOTORIOUS CESSPIT OF ILLEGAL AGE DISCRIMINATION: Cutting ‘Old Heads’ At IBM: As it scrambled to compete in the internet world, the once-dominant tech company cut tens of thousands of U.S. workers, hitting its most senior employees hardest and flouting rules against age bias.

In making these cuts, IBM has flouted or outflanked U.S. laws and regulations intended to protect later-career workers from age discrimination, according to a ProPublica review of internal company documents, legal filings and public records, as well as information provided via interviews and questionnaires filled out by more than 1,000 former IBM employees.
Among ProPublica’s findings, IBM:

Denied older workers information the law says they need in order to decide whether they’ve been victims of age bias, and required them to sign away the right to go to court or join with others to seek redress.

Targeted people for layoffs and firings with techniques that tilted against older workers, even when the company rated them high performers. In some instances, the money saved from the departures went toward hiring young replacements.

Converted job cuts into retirements and took steps to boost resignations and firings. The moves reduced the number of employees counted as layoffs, where high numbers can trigger public disclosure requirements.

Encouraged employees targeted for layoff to apply for other IBM positions, while quietly advising managers not to hire them and requiring many of the workers to train their replacements.

Told some older employees being laid off that their skills were out of date, but then brought them back as contract workers, often for the same work at lower pay and fewer benefits.

I think the Justice Department should look at the entire tech industry, which is notorious for its rampant and barely concealed age discrimination.

Related: The Age Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit Against Google.

BURIED IN 12th GRAF: “…praised by fellow Democrats.”
It’s all about the children, you know.

THERE WILL BE GUNS IN CLASSROOMS, THE ONLY QUESTION IS IN WHOSE HANDS THEY WILL BE:  Only small number of teachers support guns in classrooms.

SURE GLAD EVERYBODY SIGNED THOSE CLIMATE ACCORDS:  Global carbon emissions have hit a record high.

MEH. RICH FOLK BEEN DOING THIS SINCE MONEY WAS INVENTED:  Childless singles paying ‘mating agency’ to meet people for baby-making.

IN ALL HONESTLY, NOTHING ABOUT BDSM STRIKES ME AS SEXY — IT SEEMS A GREAT DEAL OF TEDIUM FOR AT LEAST ONE PARTNER — BUT I SUPPOSE OTHERS DISAGREE:  This vital part of BDSM is a lot less sexy than you’d think.

AND AGAIN, SERIOUSLY?   Affluenza boy to be released.

SERIOUSLY?  Is Big Brother now in the dentist’s office?

LOSING MORAL BEARINGS CAUSES THIS:   Atrocious Hardly Begins to Describe ‘Dear Dictator’.

YEAH, SURE, THAT’S WHAT WE NEED RIGHT NOW:  Geoengineering polar glaciers to slow sea-level rise.

THERE’S A LOT OF US IN THE BLACKLISTED-OURSELVES CLUB:  This sort of thing is why long-time liberal Alan Dershowitz is no longer invited to liberal dinner parties.

THE CONTINUING COLLAPSE OF HIGHER EDUCATION:  At Harvard Law School, A Course In Impeaching Trump.