I’M BEGINNING TO LIKE THE CUT OF HER JIB: Socialist Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Accidentally Endorses Social Security Privatization, Minimum Wage Repeal, Corporate Tax Cuts.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump to Address Nation Tonight and Much, Much More. “I look forward to it, hope I can stay up that late. As a bonus, Trump’s remarks are never as entertaining as the media’s response. It’s gonna be lit, yo, so I hope I can stay up to watch the following media freak out. What are you expecting from the President?”

THE HARD UNDERBELLY: Of an A-10.

MY NEW CONGRESSMAN: Rep. Burchett joins Rep. Fleischmann to refuse pay until partial shutdown ends.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK: “The Bachelor is about a man, dating multiple women at once. Primarily watched by women, who hate men who date multiple women at once.” So maybe women thrill to female intrasexual competition, but prefer to enjoy a monopoly themselves.

NOW GO AWAY OR WE SHALL IRK YOU A SECOND TIME: USS McCampbell Freedom of Navigation Operation Past Paracel Islands Irks China.

Lu Kang, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, was critical of McCampbell’s FONOP during his regularly scheduled briefing with the media.

“The Chinese side immediately sent military vessel and aircraft to conduct verification and identification on the U.S. ship and warned it to leave. We have lodged stern representations with the U.S. side,” Lu said, according to the official English translation of the ministry’s press conference.

Starting in the 1990s, in a move not recognized by international maritime law, China claimed a straight baseline around the entire Paracel Islands archipelago, which it calls the Xisha Islands. The Chinese government wants foreign warships to ask permission before operating near the islands. Vietnam and Taiwan also claim the chain.

In response, U.S. Navy officials stated McCampbell operated within the standards of international maritime law.

A modest proposal: Anyone hostile to freedom of the seas should opt themselves out of maritime-based trading.

HMM: A warning for Trump in George Washington death plot.. “If I were Trump, I’d read about how George Washington fought back against those plotting against him. Washington launched secret committees to deal with those trying to infiltrate our government — and fought with all his might to bring the country together. It’s good advice, back then and today.”

SAD: Sears to ask bankruptcy judge to liquidate.

A FOOL AND HIS MONEY? Venezuela’s PDVSA inks oil deal with firm part-owned by Florida Republican. “Erepla Services LLC, part-owned by Republican Harry Sargeant III and which Delaware state records show was only registered two months ago, said it plans to invest up to $500 million to increase production at three Venezuelan oil fields in exchange for a portion of the crude produced.”

I WAS A BIG FAN OF MIA LOVE, BUT, WELL, WE’LL SEE HOW THIS GOES. . . Former reps Mia Love, Luis Gutiérrez join CNN as commentators.

WELL, GOOD: Tax Refunds Will Be Paid During Shutdown, White House Says. “New policy meant to ‘mitigate the impact’ of shutdown, Vice President Mike Pence says.”

The decision, announced Monday by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would remove one of the biggest potential pains for Americans from the shutdown and allow hundreds of billions of dollars to flow once tax filing opens later this month in the event that the shutdown lasts that long.

The administration is trying to make the shutdown as “painless as possible consistent with the law,” Russell Vought, the acting OMB director, told reporters.

“We’re going to continue to take steps like that to mitigate the impact,” Vice President Mike Pence said of the tax refunds.

The Administration can keep all kinds of things going during a partial shutdown, right down to the national parks. As I wrote at the PJM Live Blog yesterday concerning just that, “We called it ‘Shutdown Theater’ when Obama did it. Obama wanted to inflict maximum pain (well, maximum inconvenience, mostly) on his fellow Americans for political advantage. Trump wants to inflict maximum pressure on his well-heeled political opponents.”

Big difference.

SHOT: Global warming of oceans equivalent to an atomic bomb per second.

CHASER: Deep Pacific Waters Are Cooling Down Due To Centuries-Ago Little Ice Age, New Study Suggests.

The science is… settled?

RAISING THE STAKES: Trump will travel to US-Mexico border Thursday amid wall fight.

THE POWER OF GLAMOUR: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a good dancer, clueless on tax policy.

Does the Bernie Sanders-backed U.S. Representative from the Bronx — who wants to abolish ICE — not know there’s seven federal tax brackets in the 2018 U.S. tax code and that the “rich” already pay the lion’s share of taxes? In fact nearly 50% of Americans don’t pay income taxes at all.

It gets worse. In the TV interview, the Democratic National Committee’s “Mini Maduro” —whose social and economic policies are more in-line with Venezuelan Socialist President Nicolas Maduro than JFK — said she wants to tax wealthy Americans 70% to fund a utopian climate crusade she calls a “Green New Deal” where the U.S. exclusively uses renewable energy to achieve zero CO2 emissions.

Clearly she’s unaware of the mass Yellow Vest protests that since November have been fighting French President Macron’s left wing environmental taxes.

Does she realize that in addition to tanking the U.S. economy and destroying millions of tax producing jobs it would mean Democrat one-percenters like Hillary Clinton, former VP Joe Biden and Sanders would all have to stop flying private jets fueled by — gasp — fossil fuels?

She might not know much, but she knows exactly what she’s doing.

JONATHAN TOBIN ON TARGETING CATHOLICS: Senatorial attacks on the Knights of Columbus should alarm Jews who care about religious freedom, but so far, crickets from the organized Jewish world. It’s as if the “organized Jewish world” is just a bunch of Democratic Party super-PACs.

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION: Traditional Masculinity Is A Problem. “It is interesting that in a world that otherwise teaches boys and girls to “be yourself,” that rule often applies to everyone but the ‘traditional’ male who has traditional male impulses and characteristics. Then, they’re a problem. Then, they’re often deemed toxic.”

Weird the stuff you are, and aren’t, allowed to crap on in today’s society. But if you’ve known very many male psychologists this attitude is easily explained. But then, you’d expect to hear that from a hypermasculine guy like me.

And some related thoughts from Christina Hoff Sommers.

OUR DIVERSE AND TOLERANT NEW CONGRESS: Marco Rubio Blasts Rashida Tlaib’s Dual Loyalty Suggestion: ‘Typical Anti-Semitic Line.’ “#BDS isn’t about freedom & equality, it’s about destroying #Israel.”

WELL, THE “OTHER GALAXIES” PART EITHER MEANS THAT CHINA IS REALLY ADVANCED OR THE HEADLINE WRITER IS SCIENTIFICALLY ILLITERATE: Moon Landing May Fuel China’s Push to Other Galaxies.

But there’s this: “Last year, for the first time, China passed the U.S. in orbital launches, most of them for satellites.”

I HAVE RESERVATIONS ABOUT IT MYSELF: NYT’s Maggie Haberman: Warren’s 2020 Rollout Displayed ‘Awkwardness.’

THIS IS FASCINATING:  See where the area you were born, grew up in, or live in used to be as continents drifted.  And yes, I spent WAY too much time on this.

THEY’VE BEEN ON A TEAR:  Did Twitter Just Lock Rob Schneider’s Account?

CONTRADICTIONS ARE THE LEFT’S STOCK IN TRADE. WHY SHOULD THIS BE ANY DIFFERENT?  I could have been somebody.

ONLY TWENTY? TOUGH:  The 20 Most Annoying Liberals of 2018.

SPINNING ‘ROUND ‘ROUND ‘ROUND:  LibMedia Spins Another Golden Globes Ratings Dip.