NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Revealed: 104 terrorist border crossings. “Critics laughed at former President Donald Trump when he claimed that terrorists, ‘some real bad ones,’ had crossed the border just as he was selling Congress on paying for a border wall. But it turns out that Trump was correct that in the waves of illegal immigrants pouring over the southern border in the last decade were dozens of terrorists and terror sympathizers.”

LIKE SO MUCH ELSE, YES: Twitter and Facebook are going to ruin newsletters, aren’t they?

Can’t they please just let us have this one thing?

This was the thought that came to mind last week, when Twitter announced its acquisition of the newsletter platform Revue, and when three sources told The New York Times that Facebook is planning its own newsletter tools for journalists and writers.

For Twitter and Facebook, getting into the newsletter business makes sense. Alongside Google, their platforms have come to dominate the distribution of journalism and online discourse in general, using their news feeds and search results to monetize a never-ending flow of content. With newsletters, a growing number of writers are trying to get off that treadmill and establish a more direct relationship with readers. Some prominent journalists have even quit their staff jobs to make newsletters full-time, and some budding newsrooms now publish primarily to readers’ inboxes.

By offering newsletter tools themselves, companies such as Facebook and Twitter are clearly hoping to pull the flow of information back onto their own platforms.

You will be assimilated.

JOURNALISM IS BY AND FOR MIDDLE-SCHOOL GIRLS NOW: Liberal Media Scream: Reporter decries ‘ex-boyfriend’ abuse from Team Trump.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Impeachment 2.0 Is Dems Giving the Finger to Unity Forever. “The Democrats are getting underway with yet another public exercise of daddy issues, wasting time and taxpayer dollars in what will amount to nothing more than an on camera diaper filling. They get to spend more time complaining about the man who is now developing prime, rent-free real estate in the heads of every Democrat in Congress.”

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Unity is submission.

EMBEDDED RACISM: Biden Justice Department Pick Opposed Enforcing Civil Rights Laws Against Blacks. “As an NAACP lawyer, Kristen Clarke lambasted the Justice Department for bringing a complaint against an African-American party boss in Mississippi who worked to suppress white votes, according to a federal probe. On a separate occasion, a federal oversight commission investigated claims that Clarke worked with allies at the Justice Department to quash the prosecution of the Black Panthers who menaced voters outside a Philadelphia precinct in 2008.”

Unity!

BIDEN’S CIA PICK IS CHINA’S BFF: The Lid’s Jeff Dunetz notes that William J. Burns comes from a think tank that has close ties to the Chinese military, and including significant funding from a well-connected Chinese business tycoon. In any other age, such relationships would be disqualifying for the nation’s chief spook. But c’mon man, China is our friend now, right? Right?

IMMIGRATION REPORT: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is more or less shut down for a while. Our Chair, Catherine Lhamon, resigned on Inauguration Day to take a position at the White House as Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council for Racial Justice and Equity. Given that Trump had appointed two new commissioners in the last year, that has made our normally eight-member Commission majority conservative (4-3). Nevertheless, since a quorum is five and the progressive caucus is determined not to allow us to conduct a business meeting at which they could be out-voted on something, nothing is likely to happen before Biden fills the vacant seat.

Our state advisory committees are, however, still in business. Recently, our California State Advisory Committee released a report entitled, “Understanding the Impact of Immigration Enforcement on California Children on K-12 Schools.” The interesting thing about this report is that it contains a vigorous dissent from the three conservatives on the committee—Maimon Schwarzschild, Nancy Eisenhart, and Velma Montoya. Here are some comments from the dissent:

“The Committee document dwells largely, if not primarily, on an emotionally inflammatory claim that children are victimized by immigration law enforcement.”

“Regrettably, many of the Committee’s ‘findings and recommendations’ are based on dubious and controversial academic research and exaggerated testimony from politically-motivated advocacy groups—testimony that was challenged by other official and expert testimony as well as by thoughtful and cogent statements at the SAC Community Forum … only to be virtually ignored by the Committee.”

“Nearly 90% of the public comments to the SAC supported consistent and effective enforcement of the immigration laws, and expressed deep concern about the erosion of public order, and of the rule of law itself, from failure to enforce the law, and in particular from ‘sanctuary’ policies which obstruct enforcement of the law.”

This is a new (and healthy) Commission policy to permit state advisory committee members to file dissents that are longer than one page.

DECOUPLING: French constitutional court backs provisions of ‘anti-Huawei law.’ “The French Constitutional Council backed the law’s aim of ‘safeguarding the interests of national defence and security and protecting mobile radio networks from the risks of espionage, piracy and sabotage’.”

RECOUPLING? Cruz blocks vote on Biden Commerce secretary nominee over Huawei concerns. “”I’ll lift the hold when the Biden admin commits to keep the massive Chinese Communist Party spy operation Huawei on the Entity List.”

MARS RACE UPDATE: Success! The United Arab Emirate’s Hope Spacecraft Just Entered Martian Orbit.

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: Biden Threatens America’s Dominance in Space. “On many fronts, it seems the Biden administration is downplaying the threat to the United States from China — both on Earth and beyond.”

Joe’s an honest politician — he stays bought.

FROM CELIA HAYES:  Adelsverein:The Complete Trilogy.

The Adelsverein Trilogy, now combined in a single hardbound edition, is a saga of family and community loyalties, and the challenge of building a new life on the hostile frontier. They came from Germany to Texas in 1847, under the auspices of the “Mainzer Adelsverein” – the society of noblemen of Mainz, who tried to fill a settlement in Texas with German farmers and craftsmen. Christian “Vati” Steinmetz, the clockmaker of Ulm in Bavaria, has brought his sons and daughters: Magda – passionate and courageous, courted by Carl Becker, a young frontiersman with a dangerous past. Her sister Liesel wants nothing more than to be a good wife to her husband Hansi, a stolid and practical farmer called by circumstances to be something greater, in the boom years of the great cattle ranches. Their brothers Friedrich and Johann, have always been close – in the Civil War, one will wear Union blue, the other Confederate grey homespun – but never forget they are brothers. And finally, there is Vati’s adopted daughter Rosalie, whose life ends as it began – in tragedy. But Vati’s family will will survive and ultimately triumph. They will make their mark in Texas, their new land. Adelsverein: It’s about love and loss, joy and grief . . . and the sometimes wrenching process of becoming American.

BUT WHEN IT’S A BIDEN OFFICIAL IT GETS THE SOFT-FOCUS TREATMENT: “Everyone knows what would happen to the reporter caught secretly dating a Trump admin official.”

GOOD ADVICE: Republicans: Stop Fighting Among Yourselves.

Parties that lose tend to go on purity crusades, which is exactly the wrong thing — especially in this case, where the loss, such as it was, was extraordinarily narrow.

AND THIS IS JUST COOL:  Meet YInMn, the First New Blue Pigment in Two Centuries.

I DID ONE OF THOSE FREE SHORT STORY THINGS, AGAIN: Magic Mirror.

It’s short and silly and… it happens.

WHEN THEY SAY “ELITE” I HEAR “SNOBS”:  New York Review of Books is hookup spot for intellectuals.

TEACH WOMEN THAT SCHOOLS ARE NOT HUNTING GROUNDS FOR THEIR LUST:  Florida teacher had sex with female student in classroom.

Good thing most men have been discouraged from teaching, right? (Spit.)

WELL, OF COURSE:  Today’s blacklisted American: Chase Bank blacklists Pro-Trump Covfefe Coffee.

Among the brand’s many sins, the most unforgivable one is having a sense of humor!

OF COURSE IT DOES, BECAUSE DOUBLING DOWN ON STUPID IS NEVER ENOUGH:  Democrats Pandemic Relief Bill Includes Temporary Obamacare Expansion.

DUH:  Yes, computer experts can know exactly what went down during a hack.

BUT IT’S OKAY, SINCE IT’S IN SERVICE OF THE JUNTA:  Jen Psaki mocks reporter when asked about Keystone pipeline job losses.

WE DIDN’T KNOW WHETHER TO LAUGH OR CRY AT JEEP’S ATTEMPT TO SELL TO DEPLORABLES:  READ THE ROOM, JEEP!

But Larry Correia’s take definitely made us laugh.

YOU WANT ME TO STICK A SWAB IN THIS TIGER’S WHAT????  Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo tigers test positive for COVID-19.

Also as I understand a papaya also tested positive. Look guys, the tests are not what we’d call reliable.  They’re bad enough one wonders if their purpose is to have enough false positives to cause panic.

COVIDIOCY EXACTS ITS PRICE:  Rich COVID-19 globetrotters paying price for breaking rules.

THE PROBLEM WITH MOST ART — AND BOOKS — THESE DAYS IS THAT THEY AIM FOR PROPAGANDA:  PROPAGANDA VERSUS ART.