WHO IS THIS “WE,” KEMOSABE? Bernie Sanders is the front-runner because of how we raised our kids.

DEEP STATE: FBI’s ‘Case Agent 1’ Stephen Somma ‘primarily responsible’ for FISA failures.

Horowitz said he did not have enough information to determine “whether it was sheer gross incompetence that led to this versus intentional misconduct or anything in between.”

When questioned by a lawyer from DOJ’s Office of Intelligence about Page’s prior relationship with the CIA, Somma claimed those “interactions took place while Page was in Moscow (which was between 2004 and 2007)” and were “outside scope.” Because of this, the attorney “did not include information about Page’s prior interactions” with the CIA in the FISA application. Horowitz said the information Somma provided was “incomplete, inaccurate, and in certain respects contrary to the information the other agency provided to the Crossfire Hurricane team on August 17, 2016 and that Carter Page had provided to the FBI in 2009 and 2013.” Page’s relationship with the CIA “actually overlapped with information alleged in the FISA application concerning his alleged ties to Russian intelligence officers.”

Horowitz showed that Somma omitted significant information provided by confidential human source Stefan Halper — known as “Source 2” in the report. Halper met with and recorded Page in October 2016, before the FBI filed its first FISA application. Horowitz concluded Somma failed to include key “exculpatory” information from that meeting, including Page denying meeting with Russians mentioned in Steele’s report, denying knowledge of the WikiLeaks dissemination of the DNC emails hacked by the Russians, and denying any role in the GOP platform related to Russia.

Read the whole thing.

HIS FACULTIES ARE SLIPPING: Joe Biden’s Tall Tale About Being Arrested in South Africa in the 1970’s Debunked.

HYPOCRITE: AOC Says Charter Schools for Mine But Not for Thine.

Also at the link: The latest on AOC vs the Establishment in the Great Democratic Civil War, VodkaPundit-style.

CORN, POPPED: Ex-Bill Clinton Adviser Details ‘Scheme’ He Thinks Is In the Works to Help Hillary Become the Democratic Nominee.

I HAD BEEN ASSURED THAT KILLING SULEIMANI WOULD ONLY LEAD TO MORE TERROR: Iran’s Revolutionary guards wrestle with new reality after killing of their chief military strategist.

Analysts and officials in the region say the Revolutionary Guards in fact now find themselves on the back foot, a notable change after successfully projecting their power in the Middle East over recent years.

“The assassination of Qasem Soleimani and the downing of the airliner were both shocks to the Revolutionary Guard,” said Saeid Golkar, an expert on Iran’s security forces and professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “Soleimani was a big loss for the Islamic Republic, and the downing of the airliner, it blew the Guard’s entire credibility.”

The IRGC, which was established to protect the Islamic Republic, “has to rebrand and rebuild its reputation, which takes time, especially with a population that has grown critical of the Islamic Republic,” Golkar said. “And now the strategy is not to go to war with the United States but to test its limits step-by-step – and not to overreach.”

That challenge, in part, will fall to Brig. Gen. Ismail Qaani, who has replaced Soleimani as commander of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force. He will have to preserve Iran’s regional influence and nurture the proxy groups and militias developed by his predecessor – but without provoking a forceful U.S. reaction.

Qaani should probably never sleep in the same bed twice.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Chris Matthews Thinks Bernie Sanders Is Hitler and the Weekend Was Just Perfect. “While it is truly disturbing that one of the two major political parties in America has just hit the gas while driving off of the socialist cliff, it’s also delightful political theater for the moment. Put another way: it’s all fun and games until someone gets an eye redistributed.”

EXCLUSIVE: Pompeo Reveals Trump Admin’s Wide-Ranging Plan to Combat Iran, Deal Death Blow to Nuclear Deal.

WHAT’S THE SPANISH FOR “NEW ECONOMIC POLICY?”: Venezuela’s Socialists Embrace Business, Making Partner of a ‘Parasite.’

“Big business and big government working hand-in-hand to achieve total political control sounds an awful lot like fascism,” would be a totally unkind thing to say to any Maduro supporters or Chavistas you might know…

(Classical reference in the headline.)

HMM: Phil Haney Former DHS Whistleblower Found Dead. But Was It Suicide?

THE RETURN OF THE CVL: The Navy’s New Amphibious Assault Ship Is Now Rocking F-35 Stealth Fighters.

The Navy’s USS America amphibious assault ship, a first-in-class new generation amphib, traveled the seas armed with 13 F-35s during a previous deployment, senior Navy officials said. This brings an unprecedented measure of air attack and surveillance possibilities, to include the option to provide stealth air attack support to amphibious assaults. Amphibs could offer a smaller, more mobile type of aircraft carrier power projection capability, Vice. Adm. Rich Brown, Command, Naval Surfaces Forces, told an audience Jan. 14 at the 32nd Annual Surface Navy Association Symposium.

“A big deck with that many F-35s is beginning to look like an aircraft carrier to me,” Brown said.

Since potential adversaries now have longer-range weapons, better sensors, targeting technologies and computers with faster processing speeds, amphibious forces approaching the shore may need to disperse in order to make it harder for enemy forces to target them. Therefore, the notion of an air-powered, disaggregated, yet interwoven attack force, less vulnerable to enemy fire, could be launched to hit “multiple landing points” to exploit enemy defenses.

Execution of this new strategy is, depending upon the threat, heavily impacted by the arrival of 5th-generation aircraft, such as the F-35.

The Marines have also been putting mobile rocket launchers on the deck, turning ships like the America into combination amphibious-assault/land-attack/aircraft-carriers. Which is about as awesome as it sounds ridiculous.

BECAUSE OF COURSE: Maryland High School History Lesson Compares Trump With Nazis, Communists.

POSTMODERN PROBLEMS: Stunning: A Delusional Socialist Just Blew Away the Democrat Competition in Nevada. Now What?

My worry is less that Sanders could win in the fall — although I don’t completely discount the possibility — but that there’s enough of a constituency for bolshevism in the Democratic rank-and-file that he could win the nomination.

This is when sane people might encourage the DNC to go Full Bill Clinton and cheat, cheat, cheat.

NEVADA CAUCUS MINIDRUNKBLOG: Results are coming in fast.

CORN, POPPED: Bernie Bros Are LOSING IT: Nevada Caucus Workers Asked to Sign NDAs Barring Them from Talking to Media.

A LITTLE VODKAPUNDIT SOMETHING FOR OUR PJMEDIA/TOWNHALL VIP MEMBERS: Donks 2020: Your Nevada Caucus Preview. “Tonight’s Nevada caucus is where union-member fear of Medicare-for-All — which would take away their generous health benefits — is supposed to boost Joe Biden at Bernie Sanders’ expense. Biden’s campaign has been in free fall since Iowa but Mini Mike isn’t on the ballot and I understand that write-in votes are not allowed. But even with strong dislike for Sanders in union-heavy Las Vegas, RCP’s latest poll average has Sanders out in front by 2-to-1 over nearest rivals Biden and Pete Buttigieg. So Nevada has an anything goes feel to it.“

If you’ve been thinking of becoming a member, the VODKAPUNDIT promo code is still good for a nice little discount. If not, for non-members this evening I’ll drunkblog the Nevada returns over a cayenne-rubbed ribeye and a pitcher of margaritas.

TAKE A BREAK FROM THE SERIOUS STUFF: Florida Man Friday: Park Closed for Snake Orgy.

OH FER CRYIN’ OUT LOUD: Coronavirus-Themed College Party Being Investigated For Racism.

FIVETHIRTYEIGHT: Increased Voter Turnout Could Benefit Republicans Or Democrats In 2020.

Indeed.

WHEN YOU’VE LOST CNN… CNN Sources: Intel Deputy Overstated Claim At Briefing That Russia Is Planning To Help Trump In The Election.

BEAM ME UP… ER, NEVER MIND: The terrible truth about Star Trek’s transporters.

BOOM: ICE Throws Down the Gauntlet, Arresting Two Illegal Aliens in a California Courthouse.

MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE SPENT THE LAST FEW YEARS PLAYING FOOTSIE WITH MOSCOW: Turkey Seeks U.S. Patriot Missiles to Deter Russia in Syria.

DECOUPLING: Apple moving production from China to Taiwan due to Wuhan coronavirus.

DON’T GET COCKY: A new swing state poll paints an ominous picture for Democrats.

In a Quinnipiac survey of registered voters released Thursday, Trump beats all of the major 2020 Democratic contenders in the key state of Wisconsin by between 7 and 11 percentage points, with frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) seven points away from Trump in the state.

The major Democratic contenders fare better against Trump in Pennsylvania and Michigan, where all of them are beating the president, although the margins in Michigan are generally more narrow. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) beats Trump by four points in Pennsylvania and five points in Michigan.

Wait until Trump starts hitting the nominee on their promise to ban fracking (they’ve all promised to ban fracking), which is the best thing to happen to Pennsylvania since the ’70s Steelers.