MICHAEL WALSH: FOR REAL ‘RUSSIAN COLLUSION,’ LOOK TO THE DEMOCRATS.

Dalton Trumbo, Paul Robeson, I.F. Stone, and Ted Kennedy could not be reached for comment.

UPDATE: “All right, I’m getting into this late because I thought it was a joke. Do Dems believe Trump was born in Russia and sent here or did they flip him here as a teen in military school or did he flip himself at age 70 because the Communist light bulb went off?”

—Dennis Miller.

Heh, indeed.™

OPEN THREAD: It’s just another Manic Monday.

CHANGE: GOP leaders strip Steve King of committee assignments. “House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans voted Monday night to strip Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, of all committee assignments after he appeared to wonder when ‘white supremacist’ and ‘white nationalist’ became offensive terms. . . . King said his remarks were misunderstood over the course of a lengthy interview with the Times. At one point King said in the interview, ‘White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? … Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?’ according to the Times. But King said his use of the term ‘that language’ was only meant to refer to Western civilization and not white nationalism or white supremacy.”

Wow, this really jacks up the pressure on the Democrats to police the racist, antisemitic statements of Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Just kidding.

SEE, THIS IS WHY TED BAXTER WOULD NEVER GO ON VACATION: Senior Trump official pens anonymous essay saying ‘wasteful government agencies’ are BETTER OFF without furloughed workers who are lazy and unaccountable – and should never be allowed back. “For government employees seeking to implement the president’s policy priorities, the person claimed their time is often wasted preventing so-called deep state actors from derailing the administration’s political agenda.”

Let a government shutdown produce a net reduction in government employment and we’ll never see one again.

BECAUSE SHE AGREES WITH HIM. AND SO DO HER FOLLOWERS: Meghan McCain to Women’s March leader: Why won’t you condemn Farrakhan?

MESSAGING: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Dem 2020 candidate, ‘regrets’ past anti-gay views.

UPDATE: From the comments: “Cut her some slack. She only wants to be president, not the Oscars host.”

FASTER, PLEASE: New Ebola vaccine effective in trials with primates, ferrets.

YOU COULD MAKE A SOLID MARKETING CASE FOR A PRO-TRUMP NATIONWIDE NEWSPAPER, BUT THAT’S NOT HOW IT’S GOING TO TURN OUT: Digital First Media eyes buyout of USA Today publisher Gannett.

SO EARLIER TONIGHT I WAS RECOMMENDING ARTHUR LEFF’S MEMORANDUM FROM THE DEVIL, to Steve Stirling, and even though I’ve posted it here before, it’s so good that it’s worth mentioning again.

JIM TREACHER: Gillette Tells Men They’re Repulsive Creeps. Now Give Them Your Money, You Piece of Garbage. “Our society has come a long way in shaming men for behaving in any way that anybody anywhere doesn’t like, and reminding men that we’re all complicit even if we don’t behave that way. But it’s not nearly enough. The mere fact of maleness is shameful and problematic. Men and boys everywhere need to be reminded that we’re evil. We must learn to hate ourselves as much as everyone else hates us. The patriarchy must be castrated. And who better to do it than a company that makes razors?”

DON’T GET COCKY™: 10 Reasons Trump Will Win Reelection. “Let’s call Trump a Putin-puppet racist rapist, compulsive liar, narcissistic conman who sexually desires his daughter, and is literally Hitler. Done. What else you got?”

We’ll know soon enough.

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: A Study Found That People Enjoyed Sex More When High Than When Drunk.

AT AMAZON, save on bestsellers in Grocery and Gourmet Food.

Plus, deals on DVDs.

WELL, OF COURSE: Media turns blind eye to Dems’ jaunt to PR during shutdown.

Remember Jim Treacher’s profound wisdom:

LIVING IN THE CRAZY YEARS: Men who identify as women are being invited for cervical smear tests even though they don’t have a cervix. “However, women who identify as male are not being offered crucial routine breast screenings or cervical cancer checks.” Well, of course not. Men don’t need those things, that would be crazy!

#METOO FOR ME, BUT NOT FOR THEE: Terry Crews on lack of support after sexual assault reveal.

TRANSPARENCY: Hospitals Must Now Post Prices. But It May Take a Brain Surgeon to Decipher Them.

PHILADELPHIA SODA TAX: LITTLE REVENUE, LOST SALES, AND UNCHANGED SUGAR CONSUMPTION. How bad is it? This bad:

So it came to pass that the federal government is giving poor Philadelphians benefits with which to buy soda that is being taxed as though it were liquor by Philly’s municipal government. Unexpected side effect to that detail: Now that beer is, in some cases, cheaper than soda in Philadelphia, alcohol sales are up sharply.

Read the whole thing.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Wave Goodbye to Gillette.

UPDATE (From Ed): “Savage:” Dollar Shave Club is capitalizing on Gillette’s woke stupidity.

(Bumped.)

MORE THAN 200K SIGN PETITION CALLING FOR TLAIB IMPEACHMENT: In case the name sounds unfamiliar, it’s Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), she of the “we’re going to impeach the m—–f—–” infamy. The petition on Change.org has only been up a week but already has nearly 210,000 signatures. There are questions about Change.org, too.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): You can’t “impeach” a member of the House or Senate, though you can remove them with a 2/3 vote of their house. I doubt that will happen, but that’s not really the point of petitions like this, is it?

FACING TIGHT HOUSING MARKET, PALO ALTO TENANTS WORRY OVER UNCERTAIN FUTURE:

Dennis Backlund spends most nights lying awake wondering where he’s going to live. Soon the day will come when he must leave his longtime home at the President Hotel Apartments as part of a mass eviction of every tenant of the historic, 75-unit building in downtown Palo Alto.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. I never, ever dreamed that something like this could happen. This was going to be the place where I spent the rest of my life. That is what I thought,” said the 76-year-old, who has lived in his 300-square-foot apartment at the President for the past 37 years. Now he faces leaving not only his home but possibly the community where he was born.

Backlund said he can’t move just anywhere. He lives on a fixed income, doesn’t drive and has to use a walker to get around, so he needs a place that’s affordable and within short walking distance to food and other amenities.

But the real lede is buried many paragraphs into this Palo Alto Online article:

Palo Alto continues to rank close to the bottom in Santa Clara County for housing production: The city is 14th out 15 cities in the county when it comes to meeting its state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Allocation, according to a report the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury issued in June. At the start of this year, the city adopted a plan to produce 300 housing units annually to address its housing shortage. So far, it has only approved one major development with 57 units. The loss of the 75 units at the President will more than offset that project.

As Thomas Sowell has written, it’s “The Housing Price of Liberalism.”

(Found via Virginia Postrel’s Twitter feed.)

WEIRD HOW NOBODY EVER GOES ON STRIKE OVER KIDS NOT LEARNING: 30,000 LA teachers go on strike over wages, class size.

ONE WOULD NEED A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH: Israel Makes the Hormones I Need, But I Support Palestinian Liberation. “A large part of the trans community in the U.S. is being forced to choose between our life-affirming transitions and our Palestinian siblings’ demand for freedom.”

WHY IS THE LEFT SUCH A CESSPIT? Lifetime Documentary ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Proves American Fathers Have Been Castrated.

I spent the weekend watching episodes one through five and am in a state of shock and horror at the degenerate crap rich people can get away with. I’m from Chicago and I remember when R. Kelly was arrested for child pornography.

Believe it or not, the alleged details get worse from there. But all the best people tell me that banning “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is a far more important musical goal.

In 2015, CNN reported, “Lady Gaga & R. Kelly to perform after Obama’s speech at Selma.” In a 2009 review of the “Best & Worst Obama Tribute Songs,” the Daily Beast gave Kelly’s “I Believe” a “win,” “despite its auspicious beginnings, the track is typical R. Kelly take-it-to-church, I-really-do-believe-I-can-fly soaring melody and inspiration. By the time the climactic key change kicks in at minute four, you’re already standing up with one arm in the sky screaming, ‘Hallelujah!’”

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, though: Full list of R. Kelly abuse, underage sex and cult accusations — dating back 25 years.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Your Turn, Hollywood (Women’s March Edition).

Stars glommed on to the cause, letting themselves be captured on camera and interviewed by reporters along the way.

This year? We’ll have to wait until Jan. 19.

Of course, Sarsour’s ugly record wasn’t exactly secret prior to the first Women’s March. Perhaps her most outrageous statement?

This is a woman who said that Ayaan Hirsi Ali – who was a victim of FGM [female genital mutilation], escaped brutal conditions, and now must travel with bodyguards 24/7 – deserves to have her vagina taken away because Sarsour doesn’t agree with her worldview.

At a time when a decade’s old Tweet can alter, if not permanently stain, a career, this horrific statement has been roundly ignored by most reporters and every actress at the first two March events.

* * * * * * * * *

Will Hollywood news sites question any stars who previously attached themselves to the March knowing what we all know now? This reporter set up a Google Alert for the terms “women’s march hollywood” several weeks ago to keep tabs on the subject.

So far, it’s come up mostly empty. We’ll see if that changes in the next few days.

I’m so old, I can remember when Hollywood still posed as meaningful change being “on us.”