KURT SCHLICHTER: With Enemies Like This, Trump Doesn’t Need Friends.

So, the Washington Post says that Donald Trump wants to honor the military with a parade, which the Trump-haters inform us is the worst thing that ever was because it’s Donald Trump who wants to honor the military with a parade. The very day the Democrats decided that they should make fun of Trump’s physical disqualification for military service – Democrats were pretending to think not serving is bad that morning – the Donkeys also decided they needed to spazz out about honoring our troops.

Whap! That’s the sound of the Democrats stepping on another rake.

Is a parade a good idea? A bad idea? Irrelevant! It’s a hilarious idea, because when this idea erupted on social media, it was absolutely certain that the liberals would immediately take a position that required them to say, “No, we should totally not honor our troops.”

Oh, I’m sure they’ve got plenty of nuance to that position – my favorite is their newfound concern about spending – but at the end of the day the message is clear. Trump wants to honor the troops, and the Democrats don’t.

Hilarious! And Trump does this to them all the time.

Yep.

IS THE NAME WAR FINALLY ENDING?: Greece versus Macedonia. Life in the Balkans.

INSTAPUNDIT READERS ALREADY KNOW THIS, OF COURSE: Lift Weights, Eat More Protein, Especially if You’re Over 40.

People who would like to become physically stronger should start with weight training and add protein to their diets, according to a comprehensive scientific review of research.

The review finds that eating more protein, well past the amounts currently recommended, can significantly augment the effects of lifting weights, especially for people past the age of 40. But there is an upper limit to the benefits of protein, the review cautions.

On the other hand, any form of protein is likely to be effective, it concludes, not merely high-protein shakes and supplements. Beef, chicken, yogurt and even protein from peas or quinoa could help us to build larger and stronger muscles.

I wouldn’t put too much stock in the peas or quinoa.

OH: This Guy Paints the Sex He Allegedly Has with Aliens.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Olympic Skater Adam Rippon Is Bigoted Against Mike Pence.

OOPS: University Reportedly Funneled Money From Pro-Traditional Marriage Club to LGBT Groups.

FLORIDA MAN’S SON IS STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT: Florida boy gets trapped inside arcade claw machine.

WEIRD: DOJ Official Who Worked On Clinton, Russia Investigations Steps Down For Personal Reasons. “In addition to working on the investigation into Clinton’s handling of classified information, Laufman has also worked on the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. On the Clinton investigation, he sat in on interviews with the former secretary of state and several of her aides, including Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan. He was joined in those interviews by Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who is currently embroiled in a scandal over politically charged text messages.”

CHANGE: Remember the so-called “death panels”? They’re gone, repealing another key and unpopular component of Obamacare. “It was always a stretch to claim that Republicans had ‘basically repealed Obamacare’ just by repealing the individual mandate. But getting rid of the individual mandate and the Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board? Now we’re getting somewhere. The IPAB board was created under Obamacare and given the duty to slow the growth of Medicare spending, but no board members were ever nominated. But as written under the law, IPAB would have enjoyed a lot of power over what Medicare was willing to pay for and how much, with little opportunity for Congress to overrule their decisions. This deal gets rid of IPAB for good.”

Good.

And the above is just one item in Jim Geraghty’s look at the good and the bad in the spending caps deal.

PEAK SALON: Why is the Bible so badly written?

Update: Apparently peak Salon is too Salon even for Salon, so Salon pulled the article. But Paula Bolyard has the details and the reaction.

A LOOK AT THE Ford Ranger Raptor.

AT AMAZON, save on Generators and Portable Power.

Plus, deals on Pet Supplies.

STEPHEN KRUISER: The death toll continues to rise from tax reform.

IMPRESSIVE. MOST IMPRESSIVE. This is How the World’s Most Covetable Cameras Get Made. “Have you ever wondered what goes into that ‘Handmade in Sweden’ inscription?”

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): 22-Year-Old Woman Facing Sexual Assault Charges for Relationship with 18-Year-Old Male Student. “A 22-year-old student-teacher in West Hartford, Connecticut, has been arrested for having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old male student at the school. Tayler Boncal, who was 21 at the time, was charged with three counts of second-degree sexual assault, even though she was engaged in a consensual relationship with her purported victim. In fact, the 18-year-old’s parents said their son and Boncal are in love, and asked the prosecutor to drop the charges, according to WTIC TV. Despite the fact that the age difference between the two is just three years, the relationship consensual—the victim initiated it, according to the arrest warrant—and neither party is a minor, this is considered a crime because Boncal held a position of authority at the school.”

See what Catharine MacKinnon — recently spotted taking a victory lap in the NYT — and Andrea Dworkin have wrought? Of course, this was only supposed to happen to icky men.

I BLAME THE GOVERNMENT’S CARB-HEAVY “FOOD PYRAMID” FOR THIS: More than 100 million Americans have diabetes or prediabetes.

ED MORRISSEY: Even House Dems Wonder: What Was The Point Of The Pelosi Filibuster?

Nancy Pelosi spoke for eight hours yesterday — and even some of her own colleagues don’t quite know why. She took advantage of a rarely used privilege which allows House caucus leaders to hold the floor indefinitely. Pelosi insisted that she would keep talking until Paul Ryan agreed to schedule a vote on a DACA compromise and would block any attempt to pass a budget until he did.

That sounded great … right up until her negotiating partner Chuck Schumer announced a budget deal without linkage to the “dreamers” issue in the middle of her filibuster. Now Pelosi’s colleagues wonder whether she intended to move the issue at all, or whether she was covering her behind after selling them out.

It’s difficult to imagine that Pelosi and Schumer weren’t keeping each other informed on exactly what they were doing.

THIS SEEMS PRUDENT: Cotton, Rubio Introduce Bill Banning Govt. Use of Chinese Telecom Devices.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: What To Do In A Nuclear Attack. Honestly, this is not a very good piece, as it conflates thermal radiation with ionizing radiation.

Related: The Unexpected Return of Duck and Cover.

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: ISIS Deploys Wheelchair-Bound Suicide Bomber.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: ‘Bad actors’ force Hollywood to bring back the morals clause.

Second look at bringing back the Hays Office, as well?

PROCUREMENT BLUES: German Navy experiences “LCS syndrome” in spades as new frigate fails sea trials.

The Baden-Wurttemberg now bears the undesirable distinction of being the first ship the German Navy has ever refused to accept after delivery. In fact, the future of the whole class of German frigates is now in doubt because of the huge number of problems experienced with the first ship during sea trials. So the Baden-Wurttemberg won’t be shooting its guns at anything for the foreseeable future (and neither will the Zumwalt for the moment, since the US Navy cancelled orders for their $800,000-per-shot projectiles).

System integration issues are a major chunk of the Baden-Wurrenberg’s problems. About 90 percent of the ship’s systems are so new that they’ve never been deployed on a warship in fact—they’ve never been tested together as part of what the US Navy would call “a system of systems.” And all of that new hardware and software have not played well together—particularly with the ship’s command and control computer system, the Atlas Naval Combat System (ANCS).

Perhaps most inexcusable, the ship doesn’t even float right — it has a permanent list to starboard.

THE BIG, ER, FALCON ROCKET: SpaceX Aims to Begin BFR Spaceship Flight Tests as Soon as Next Year.

CHANGE: The man who should have been Labor Secretary, Andy Puzder, writes in the Wall Street Journal about how the employment atmosphere is changing:

The Obama economy was a “part time” economy that failed to generate the full-time jobs Americans need.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people working full time increased by 2.4 million in 2017, compared with only 1.6 million in 2016. In other words, the overall number of jobs added was lower in 2017, but only because hundreds of thousands of people left part-time for full-time jobs.

Both 2016 and 2017 set some year-end records. In 2016, BLS recorded the highest number of people working part time at year’s end since it began recording the data in 1968. In 2017, it recorded the highest number of people working full time at year’s end since 1968 and the fewest working part-time since 2011.

As I mentioned last week, the next thing to look for is people being attracted back into the labor force from never-ending education and the like.