THEY AREN’T WOKE; THEY’RE HACKS: ‘Woke’ Media Fail to Notice Historic Cabinet Appointment by Trump. Of Course They Did.

CORN, POPPED: Dems Won’t Guarantee Same-Day Results for Saturday’s Nevada Caucuses.

I’d planned on spending Saturday evening grilling a ribeye rubbed with something spicy and making a pitcher of margaritas, but maybe I’ll indulge in a little schadenfreude-tinged drunkblogging, too.

HMM: Oddsmakers Say Democratic Race Just Got A Whole Lot Simpler.

According to Real Clear Politics’ latest averages of the various betting sites, Biden has collapsed from a high of 37.9% on January 20 to a grim 9.8% as of February 19. Warren peaked on October 13 at a field-burying 53.9% chance of winning the nomination. As of February 19, she’s all the way down at a dismal 3.6% (which is beneath Hillary Clinton, who’s not even in the race but who oddsmakers are saying still has a 4.9% chance of winning).

SOCIALISTS GOTTA SOCIALIZE: Trump Breaks Another ‘Never Trump’ Person; MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace Confesses Who She’ll Vote For. “Former self-proclaimed Republican and MSNBC anchor Nicole Wallace has taken that step off the cliff and now said that she would support Bernie Sanders.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Katie Hill’s Rehab Tour Is an Incurable News Cycle STD. “Hill could very well be the worst human being of all the low-life Dems who have recently crawled out from under wherever it is these people hide while they’re pulling the wings off of flies for fun. She used the first whiff of power she ever had in her life to take advantage of people. Had she been allowed to rise in the ranks of the Democratic party, Hill might have gone full ‘Teddy Kennedy Off a Bridge in Chappaquiddick’ more than once in her life.”

TWO AMERICAS, TWO SYSTEMS OF JUSTICE:

DECOUPLING — IT’S CONTAGIOUS! Coronavirus: China’s manufacturing supply chain pummelled from all sides in efforts to restart.

HER POSITION HAS EVOLVED: Elizabeth Warren, Who Said She Wouldn’t Take ‘A Dime’ From Super PACs, Is Now Accepting Support From A Super PAC.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Why Richard Grenell As Director Of National Intelligence Is A Loss For The Deep State.

In staffing another crucial position in the executive branch with someone who genuinely shares his worldview, instincts, and tenacity, President Trump is signaling to the Trump-haters of the administrative state, and its Deep State apotheosis, that those who reject or actively seek to undermine his America First agenda will no longer be welcome in meaningful positions.

This is no minor statement because the establishmentarian Resistance, knowing that personnel is policy, has sought to stymie the president’s agenda by seeking to undermine if not destroy like-minded individuals the president has considered for top-level posts.

Consider that the effect, if not intent, of the still-going effort to ruin Gen. Michael Flynn. It has gone beyond punishing him for sharing the president’s views, having directly challenged the national security and foreign policy establishment, and threatening its power and privilege. Its aim was to send a message from the very start of the administration that the president’s actual supporters need not apply.

Substantively, after eight years spent during the George W. Bush administration engaging in diplomatic combat with the “jackals” of the United Nations as the longest-serving spokesman and appointee in U.S. history, Grenell has doggedly pursued the president’s agenda in the face of unrelenting defiance from the European Union’s (EU) most consequential power.

That’s nothing compared to the anti-American forces he’ll have to face down in our own intelligence community.

CHANGE? ICE Throws Down the Gauntlet to Challenge California State Law on Arresting Illegals.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Bloomberg Posts Funny Video, Breaks the Internet. “Just so you’re sure where I stand on Bloomberg, I would rather gnaw off my own forehead than see him become president. (What I would to myself to avoid seeing a Bernie Sanders presidency is so much worse, so much graphically worse, that I won’t even hint at what it might be.). So whatever else I’m about to write, please don’t mistake any of it as a defense of Bloomberg’s candidacy. But I know an enjoyably silly video when I see one, and this is one.”

Video and much mockery at the link.

HMM: Why Obama May Be Terrified by Trump Commuting Blagojevich’s Sentence.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Media Gaslighting 101: Rescuing ‘Birds of Prey’ from Reality.

WE’RE FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND WE’RE HERE TO HELP: DU Professor: Municipal Broadband experiments failing nationwide.

WHAT SWEET MUSIC THEY MAKE: PJM’s Raymond Ibrahim to Speak at U.S. Army War College Despite CAIR’s Howling.

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘EV Freedom Act:’ Just Another Taxpayer Funded Payout to Wealthy Elites.

IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM: Obama reportedly expects he’ll have to play a ‘prominent role’ in uniting Democrats this summer.

BREAKING: Roger Stone Is Sentenced In D.C. Courtroom.

BY THE NUMBERS: States That Defend Us—Where Do Our Military Volunteers Call Home?

Contrary to popular myth, members of the U.S. Armed Forces are mostly drawn from the middle class, with the lowest income quintile being slightly underrepresented, and the highest quartile being even less represented, with about 17% of enlisted personnel coming from the top 20% of neighborhoods by income. Further, 92% of accessions to active duty have a high school diploma, compared to 90% of adults age 25 and older.

But as representative of the nation as our armed forces are, there are stark regional differences in the makeup of our military, with the South contributing more than its fair share of personnel and the Northeast largely lagging behind, with a few exceptions.

Reviewing a 2016 report from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness titled “The Population Representation in the Military Services” shows that California (17,729), Texas (16,139) and Florida (11,552) had the largest number of people enlist in the military. But these three states are the three most-populous states. Further, new recruits are mostly 18-to-24 years old with about 0.5% of them volunteering and being accepted for active duty each year.

Looking at each state’s share recruits by the number of 18-to-24-year-olds in the state determines how well or how poorly a state is doing compared to its recruitable population. By that measure, the top five states in 2016 were: Hawaii, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Florida. The five places with the smallest share of recruits were: Washington D.C., North Dakota, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.

North Dakota is an outlier because the high-wage opportunities created by fracking boom have made recruitment all-but-impossible there.

HEH: Farmer in Eastern Washington Invites Bloomberg to Teach Her How Simple Farming Is.

Almost 30 years ago I had to rebuild a carburetor, and if I didn’t already have the utmost respect for mechanics, I certainly did after that near-disaster.

BUT THE NARRATIVE! John Bolton Trashes Democrats’ ‘Grossly Partisan’ Impeachment, Downplays Impact of Would-Be Testimony.

SHORT-TEMPERED: Bloomberg on NDAs: ‘Maybe They Didn’t Like a Joke I Told.’

HE LIES: Pete Buttigieg caught exaggerating his black support — and this isn’t the first time.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump Train Keeps Steamrolling Dems. “What I love about these rallies is that they provide such a stark contrast to the vision of America that the Democratic candidates keep describing. The story they’re selling is that these are dark times in a country that’s being run by a lawless autocrat. The rallies are filled with thousands of happy people who are laughing and applauding a president for whom they have very deep affection. Trump comes off as a proud, gloating grandpa, giving off no autocrat vibe whatsoever.”

BILL OF FOR SALE: Based On Tax Filings, Bill Kristol’s Been A Democrat For Years. “Bill Kristol, currently editor-at-large of The Bulwark, has been funded from the start of his rebellion by big left-of-center donors like Pierre Omidyar and the Hewlett Foundation.”