CAN CAN’T BUY ME LOVE? Bloomberg jumps to fourth place in new national poll.

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has jumped into fourth place in the Democratic primary contest with 9 percent support among Democrats nationwide, a poll published Wednesday shows.

The top contenders remain unchanged, according to the Monmouth University survey: Former Vice President Joe Biden was the choice of 30 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had 23 percent and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren came in with 14 percent.

A distant fourth isn’t much to crow about, given the ad dollars Bloomberg is throwin around. And while I’m not much for predictions, Bloomberg might blow out Jeb!’s dollars-to-votes ratio.

OUT ON A LIMB: Ralph Northam is demonizing gun owners to distract from his racist past.

MUST-FLEE TV: Woke Taylor Swift: I’m on the ‘Right Side of History.’ “The suddenly far-left superstar’s transformation powers a new Netflix documentary.”

Christian Toto, so lots of good stuff at the link.

IRAN: Jim Hanson: The Failure of Iran’s Shia Crescent. “During the end of Obama’s second term in 2014-15, these combined efforts seemed to be bearing fruit and even saw Iranian-controlled militias partnered with the U.S.in counter-ISIS operations. Iran’s dream of a land bridge from Tehran to the Mediterranean seemed a distinct possibility until 2016. But Donald Trump was elected and the laissez-faire approach to Iranian malign actions practiced by the Obama administration left when President Obama did.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Despite stable enrollment, law schools continue to shed full-time faculty. “44 law schools saw faculty declines of at least 15% in that time period.”

STUPID LILY-WHITE RACIST RED-STATE BACKWATERS . . . OH, WAIT: Detroit man settles race discrimination lawsuit, then bank won’t cash his check. “First, the Detroiter sued his employer alleging racial discrimination in a lawsuit that settled confidentially. Then he went to the bank this week to cash his settlement check, but the Livonia bank refused to cash or deposit his check. Instead, they called the cops and initiated a fraud investigation — actions that dumbfounded Thomas and his lawyer, triggering another lawsuit.”

OH BY THE WAY, CAPITALISM IS ENDING POVERTY WORLDWIDE: Those Issues & Insights rapscallions are at it again, today blowing up the Left’s myth that evil capitalism is pushing humankind toward a hellish inequality and impoverishment. As with so many of the Left’s claims, the opposite is true and to an astonishing degree. What’s even more astonishing is how little notice this reality gets among Western elites.

DARK MONEY IS ONLY BAD WHEN IT’S IN THE HANDS OF REPUBLICANS: FEC Complaint Filed Regarding Bernie Sanders’ Dark Money Cash Cow.

WEIRD, I’D RATHER NOT EVER HAVE TO SEE THEM AGAIN: Trump Goes Nuclear on ‘Major Sleazebags’ Schiff and Nadler: ‘I’d Love to Go and Stare at Their Corrupt Faces.’

HMM: Suleimani Ally Whacked In Iran.

Nice work, if it was us or the Israelis. If his killing was part of an internecine struggle within the mullah’s regime, even better.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD: $25K defamation lawsuit over negative Yelp review refiled against Wilson County woman. Apparently, there was a disagreement about her recording the session (she was not the patient), and she posted a nasty Yelp review saying that he’s unfit to practice medicine. Yelp has downgraded her review. His lawyer says recording the session was illegal (under HIPAA, I presume) because it endangered the privacy of patients. At any rate, it’s okay to sue people for false and defamatory reviews — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects Yelp, but the individual reviewer is still on the hook — but it’s not okay to sue people for truthful and non-defamatory reviews. Hard for me to say what’s going on here based on news accounts.

Meanwhile, the nice thing about the Internet is that, Yelp reviews not withstanding, the physician can give his side of the story. The downside is that Yelp users wouldn’t see it.

You could write a book on this stuff.

DIVERSITY PROBLEM: Profs donating to Democratic candidates outnumbered those giving to Republicans by 95 to 1 ratio.

UNNERVING PARALLELS BETWEEN SPYGATE, WISCONSIN ABUSES: Badger State senator Tom Tiffany describes the multiple common themes seen in the FBI’s spying on the Trump campaign in 2016 and how state law enforcement and judicial authorities conspired against allies of former Gov. Scott Walker.

IMPOSSIBLE. ALL THE SMARTEST PEOPLE ASSURED ME THAT BRITAIN WOULD BE A HOWLING DESERT POST-BREXIT. British economy will grow faster than eurozone rivals, says IMF. “Britain’s economy will grow faster than those of other major European countries this year as chief executives regard it as an increasingly attractive place to invest, two studies have found. Amid growing optimism over Britain’s economic outlook, the International Monetary Fund said that it would outperform the eurozone this year and next.”

SEEN ON FACEBOOK: “Maybe one day Trump will do something truly impeachable, like sic the IRS on his political adversaries.”

SELLERS’ MARKET: Supply of homes for sale hits record low, and prices suddenly jump.

Sales of existing homes rose a steeper-than-expected 3.5% in December compared with January, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Demand is surging because mortgage rates are about a full percentage point lower than they were a year ago, and the largest generation, millennials, are aging into their homebuying years.

That demand has pushed the supply of homes for sale down 8.5% annually to the lowest level since the Realtors began tracking inventory in 1982.

At the current sales pace, the total supply would sell out in just three months. A six months’ supply is considered a balanced market.

I wondered what was up. A few weeks ago we started getting an attention-grabbing number of unsolicited letters from real estate agents we’d never heard of, more than one trying to entice us with mysterious-sounding “out of town buyers.”

CHINA SYNDROME: A professor at the University of Kansas has been charged wth fraud for surreptitious collaboration with the Chinese government. “Associate professor and researcher at the University of Kansas, Feng Tao, has been charged with two counts of wire fraud and one count of program fraud for not disclosing his work with China. He was allegedly involved in a ‘scheme’ to transfer ‘intellectual property’ from American universities to Chinese universities.”

I suspect that there’s a whole lot of that going on out there.

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WHY WE NEED ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT: Google Is Posing A Serious Threat To Innovation.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: President Trump’s Biggest Pro-Life Move Yet.

Whenever I talk to the Never Trumpers who still speak to me, this is the kind of thing that I point to as being actually important. I don’t care that he’s indelicate at times. I don’t care that he sometimes can’t get out of his own way. I really, really don’t care that he’s not nice all the time.

I’ve repeatedly said that, after decades of conservative activism, I don’t need a prom date, I need a president who will do some things that I like.

This is something that I like very much.

Plus, Kruiser’s very personal story about Monty Python and the late Terry Jones.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: I Live With Six Brothers. I Have Sex With Two of Them. It’s Fine, They Know. But since it’s Slate’s advice column we get this: “I don’t know why six adult brothers would be living in a house together, [and] why their parents weren’t more concerned with overpopulation and what it might mean for a looming water shortage.”

WHY ARE SO MANY STAFFERS LEAVING THESE SENATORS, REPRESENTATIVES? High turnover rates tend to get a lot of attention during election years because legislators who can’t keep good staff are often thought to be suspect.

That’s not always the case, but Democrats may want to ponder the fact that when Legistorm compiled the turnover data for 2019 and for the period 2000-2019, most of the worst are from the Donkey party, including 13 of the top 20 last year, and 12 of the top 20 for the longer period.

NEWS YOU CAN USE? How to block Facebook and Google from identifying your face.

THE OTHER 45% AREN’T PAYING ATTENTION: 55% say media are ‘corrupt’ and ‘exaggerate’ news.