THAT’S NICE BUT WE ALSO NEED TO BE WORKING ON A WARP DRIVE. OR THE MANNSCHENN DRIVE, I’M NOT TOO PARTICULAR. New NASA telescope will give humans ‘largest, deepest, and clearest picture’ of universe and could discover 1,400 new planets.

HARRY REID: I DIDN’T MEAN IT WHEN I SAID BUSH WAS THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER.

When the next Republican president takes office, the DNC-MSM’s strange new respect for President Trump to reflexively bash his successor will be astonishing to watch — but not at all “unexpected.”

WHAT AOC, LBJ SHARE WARNS CPAC NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE HER: Yes, she often talks like a lefty loon and maybe she is, but she shares something with the young LBJ that should give the Right pause. UPDATE: And Jameson Campaigne explains why AOC should give the Left pause.

CNN’S BERNIE SANDERS TOWN-HALL SNAFU:

I was kind of curious how this happened, so I reached out to CNN’s media people for a response. A spokesperson provided this statement: “Though we said at the beginning of the Town Hall that the audience was made up of Democrats and Independents, we should have more fully identified any political affiliations.”

Isn’t the baseline assumption that CNN’s town halls and “debates” are always stacked with Democrats? As Michelle Malkin quipped in 2012, “If any more political plants turn up at CNN’s presidential debates, the cable-news network will have to merge with the Home and Garden channel.”

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

● Shot: Ocasio-Cortez says GOP is being held ‘hostage’ by Trump.

—The New York Post today.

● Chaser:

—“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez likens herself to ‘Watchmen’ character that creator calls ‘nutcase,'” the Washington Times, January 11th.

As with Trump, there’s a tweet from the prolific AOC for everything.

NO. GO AWAY. Flu outbreak with second strain could last until May: What you need to know.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: The Awful Truth of Michael Jackson’s Depravity.

Years after their time with Jackson, both Safechuck and Robson married and had children, and becoming fathers triggered more revulsion at what had happened to them. The final 45 minutes or so of the documentary delve into their depression and torment as well as that of their mothers, each of whom searches her soul at excruciating length. What can it be like to know that you abetted the long-term despoliation of your own son? Safechuck says Jackson abused him for four years; Robson says his nightmare lasted seven years. Both mothers own up to what they did, and neither will ever be able to live with herself again. Says Stephanie, “I danced when I heard that he died.” She thought, “Oh thank God, he can’t hurt any more children.”

Throughout the film, everyone involved marvels at his or her own acquiescence to the acts of a monster. No one heard any alarm bells going off. No one saw any red flags. Both boys and their mothers were fully in the singer’s thrall. Jackson’s fame was central to why he got away with so much. Leaving Neverland is a harsh reminder that supposed role models who ought to be held to the highest of standards can use that notoriety as a way of blinding people to the obvious, odious truth.

Read the whole thing.

Flashback: Hugh Hefner, Gangsta Rap & the Emerging Moral Majority: “Slowly, however, the elite of our culture seem to be drifting toward a new, far-more jaundiced and suspicious view of popular culture from the 1960s to the 1990s…Moral concerns pop up one decade in right-wing clothes, and, in the next, change into another outfit.”

YES, I TOLD YOU THIS WAS TRUE ALREADY: Inside Higher Education reported yesterday that African American and Hispanic students abandon STEM majors at much higher rates than white students. But it didn’t explain how that wouldn’t happen as often if under-represented minority students attended schools where their entering academic credentials matched those of their fellow students.

If you haven’t done so already, please read Want to Be a Doctor? A Scientist? An Engineer? An Affirmative Action Leg Up May Hurt Your Chances.  (Or, better yet, read this longer version.)

YA THINK?

When she’s right, she’s right.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Jussie Smollett Is a Victim of Hollywood or Something.

Step 1 is to restore Jussie Smollett to his natural, rightful place as a victim. Today he’s aided in that effort by Scott Johnson, Michael O’Connell, and Chris Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter, who remind us that the real culprit is… Hollywood! No, seriously, the headline is “Jussie Smollett and the Pressure of Hollywood Fame.”

One question is whether the pressures and anxieties of modern fame played any role in Smollett’s seemingly inexplicable behavior. “One of the darkest corners of fame is that it becomes addictive,” says Donna Rockwell, a clinical psychologist who specializes in fame and celebrity, “and then you are so afraid of becoming a has-been or yesterday’s news that you might do something desperate…”

Hollywood exerts strange and unrelenting pressures; once released within a person, they can be difficult to contain.

Well, there ya go. Hollywood did it. Who can resist its strange and unrelenting pressures? Otherwise, Smollett’s actions would be “inexplicable.”

Or to put it another way, “Tomorrow, you’ll know I wasn’t kidding, and you’ll all think I’m crazy. But, look, I figure it this way: better to be king for a night, than schmuck for a lifetime.” Rupert Pupkin, call your office.

UH OH: Tensions rise sharply as India and Pakistan engage in aerial dogfights.

WELL, GIVEN MICHAEL COHEN’S DEMONSTRATED LEGAL COMPETENCE, THAT WOULD BE PAR FOR THE COURSE: In Attempting to Bury Trump, Michael Cohen May Have Inadvertently Exonerated Him.

VIDEO: Michael Cohen Rebuts Trump Dossier: ‘I Have Never Been to Prague’ or Czech Republic. “After turning on Trump, he has no reason to lie about this.”

I DUNNO, 2019 ISN’T A GREAT YEAR FOR ARGUING THAT THAT’S AN UNFOUNDED STEREOTYPE: Serena Williams’s new all-female Nike ad, “Dream Crazier,” hit on an issue almost as old as time: the “hysterical” woman.

AT AMAZON, save in Blu-Ray and DVD.

Plus, deals on Vitamins and Dietary Supplements.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Clarence Thomas is right: Here’s why Supreme Court should revisit libel law overreach.

ROGER KIMBALL: Democrats Are Interminably ‘Waiting for Mueller’, Just as in Samuel Beckett’s Absurdity.

LAW ENFORCEMENT: Waco Biker Massacre Prosecutions Continue to Fall Apart as Last Set of Original Indictments Dismissed: “Special prosecutor involved in dropping charges says, ‘I do have a very serious problem as a lawyer with the wholesale charging of people without an investigation’ in the case.”

ARCHEOLOGY: Geologists have finally found exactly where some Stonehenge rocks came from, debunking old research.

A team of 12 geologists and archaeologists from across the United Kingdom unveiled research this month that traces some of the prehistoric monument’s smaller stones to two quarries in western Wales.

The team also found evidence of prehistoric tools, stone wedges and digging activity in those quarries, tracing them to around 3000 BC, the era when Stonehenge’s first stage was constructed.

It’s rock-solid evidence that humans were involved in moving these “bluestones” to where they sit today, a full 150 miles away, the researchers say.

“It finally puts to rest long-standing arguments over whether the bluestones were moved by human agency or by glacial action,” University of Southampton Archeology Professor Joshua Pollard said in an email.

That still leaves the mesmerizing question of how.

FASTER, PLEASE: One dose of Keytruda may put melanoma into remission.

NEW SOCIALIST “IT” GIRL CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: PAYMENTS TO OCASIO-CORTEZ BOYFRIEND SPUR FEC COMPLAINT.

“It’s not illegal for [Ocasio-Cortez] to pay her boyfriend, but it appears that they created some sort of scheme to avoid claiming the money [as a campaign expense],” Dan Backer, a D.C.-based attorney who filed the complaint on behalf of the foundation, told Fox News. “What exactly did he do for that money?”

It was first reported last week that the Brand New Congress PAC paid Roberts during the early days of the Ocasio-Cortez campaign. According to FEC records, the PAC made two payments to Roberts – one in August 2017 and one in September 2017 – both for $3,000.

What’s a little lawbreaking when there’s a planet to save?

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Hip fracture recovery strongly linked to age, study says.

EX-BERNIE SPOKESMAN LASHES OUT AT HILLARY’S TEAM, ‘BIGGEST A**HOLES IN AMERICAN POLITICS.’

To paraphrase Henry Kissinger on the Iran-Iraq War, fortunately, in 2016, both teams lost.

SUMMIT: A Quick Word on the North Korea Summit. “It’s an attempt to actually establish a foreign policy where there hadn’t been one before.”