NEWS YOU CAN USE: Parents Having Sex Save Their Relationships One Quickie at a Time.

MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN: Iranian Women Are Defying The Clerics And Winning Freedom.

NEW ISLAMIST “IT GIRL” CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: Rep. Ilhan Omar targets Israel again, compares Jewish state to US South during segregation.

GODSPEED: SpaceX’s Huge Falcon Heavy Rocket Will Launch On Its 2nd Flight in March. “The rocket will loft the 6.6-ton (6 metric tons) Arabsat 6A communications satellite for Saudi Arabia, a far more conventional payload than the Falcon Heavy toted on its first mission. That shakedown flight, which lifted off from Pad 39A in February 2018, sent a Tesla Roadster and its mannequin driver, dubbed Starman, into orbit around the sun.”

OTHERING: Silicon Valley Restaurant Chef Says Patrons Wearing MAGA Hats Won’t Get Served. “… same as if you come in wearing a swastika, white hood, or any other symbol of intolerance and hate.”

No, it isn’t.

FAKE NEWS: UK Media Claims Churchill Was ‘Fascinated’ With Islam, May Have Been a Muslim.

This is so far divorced from reality that just a few years ago it would have been almost impossible to even imagine a major outlet running with it. These days, it barely elicits a shrug.

Anyway, Robert Spencer has the details.

SHE GOT GAME: Why Trump’s superfans dig Ocasio-Cortez.

“I aspire to be the conservative AOC,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told POLITICO. Gaetz, an outspoken 36-year-old in his second term who has achieved a measure of prominence as a highly visible Trump defender, said there’s just one problem with that aspiration: “I can’t dance for shit.”

“AOC has what I call ‘gameness’ or competitive heart — the combination of grit, determination, fighting spirit that you can’t coach,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, told POLITICO. “You either have it or you don’t, and she has it big league.”

Such admiration, in spite of vast ideological and demographic differences, is a testament to just how quickly the 29-year-old former activist and waitress has achieved political stardom.

Yes, but for how long?

REPUBLICANS POUNCE! Republicans seize on liberal positions to paint Democrats as radical.

Legalized infanticide, outlawing private insurance, a wealth tax, drastically increasing the income tax, taking control of the entire economy in order to micromanage the climate… nothing radical to see here, nope.

BREAKING: SPLC Hires High-Powered Defamation Lawyer to Defend Tax-Exempt Status in RICO Lawsuit.

SPLC could lose their tax-exempt status? That’s what I call punching back twice as hard.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Mysterious Trump Jr. calls revealed and much, much more. “Part of the crazy RUSSIA collusion conspiracy theory that Democrats like Rep. Adam Schiff peddled to partnered media outlets is that Donald Trump Jr. briefed his father on the phone before and after the infamous Trump Tower-RUSSIANS meeting during the 2016 presidential campaign. Everyone has maintained that the President did not know about the meetings, but Schiff has been snorting and quacking on cable news that there were calls to a blocked number(s) and those numbers were the President! BOOM. POW. GOTCHA. TREASON. Quack.”

Their whole world is falling down.

ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS THE NARRATIVE: President’s Hispanic Pastors Roundtable Gets Zero Coverage on Latino TV Nets.

It doesn’t seem to have gotten much attention anywhere outside the few right-leaning press outlets.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Well, you know,

A CONSERVATIVE IS A LIBERAL WHO’S BEEN MUGGED: DC political comedian robbed at gunpoint changes stance on guns.

Tim Young was heading to one of D.C.’s newest hotspots—The Wharf—when his life changed.

He was walking down a well-lit section of M Street at about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday when two men approached him—one of them had a gun.

“Terrified. You know, when I talk to people about this… you’re scared. There’s no man card involved. I was defenseless,” explained Young, who’s a political comedian and host of ‘No Things Considered’ at the D.C. Examiner. The men ran off with his cell phone.

Now, he said he absolutely plans to apply for a concealed carry permit in D.C., but it won’t be easy. The District is one of the toughest places in the country to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

A fact not lost on his muggers, I’m sure.

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Citgo considers bankruptcy amid Venezuela turmoil.

Bankruptcy is one option executives and advisers at the large U.S. refiner are weighing to protect its assets as control over funding stirs global tensions between Washington and Caracas, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The U.S. is attempting to shift control of Venezuela’s energy assets from disputed President Nicolás Maduro to opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who has been sworn in – and recognized by the U.S. – as the once-wealthy nation’s leader.

Filing for bankruptcy would allow the company to stabilize operations and restructure its debt in a court-protected forum even though its financial pressures aren’t necessarily critical, the Journal reported.

Citgo did not immediately return FOX Business’ request for comment.

This story comes on the heels of other reports that the Maduro regime might be shipping large quantities of gold to Russia and the UAE.

Is the endgame in sight?

DEPLATFORMED: Amazon takes down Castalia House.

You may have noticed that you can’t find any Castalia House ebooks on Amazon right now. That’s because Amazon shut down our KDP account on the basis of a wildly spurious claim of publishing material to which we do not have the necessary rights. We happen to have some VERY bad news for them on that subject….

The book in question? You guessed it. Corrosion: The Collapsing Empire again. This is the second attack on that book this month, as ten days ago, they pulled the book itself down for the sixth or seventh time due to claims that it was “misleading”.

Not only have they shut down the account, but they sent us an email today declaring that they will not pay us any of the unpaid royalties, thereby screwing over each and every author we publish.

More at the link.

PLUS: “Amazon can’t even find the account information. It looks like whoever was responsible actually wiped all the data.”

UPDATE: They’ve been reinstated.. But without any explanation beyond something “incorrect” happened. It’s enough to make you wonder what’s going on behind the scenes.

RUN ALL THE CANDIDATES! Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey Launches Presidential Campaign.

Mr. Booker made his campaign announcement on Twitter and in a video emailed to supporters, saying, “Together, we will channel our common pain back into our common purpose.”

The African-American senator is the fourth Senate Democrat to launch a presidential campaign, joining Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. Potential rivals such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke are considering entering the wide-open field.

While several Democrats are emphasizing their fights against Mr. Trump’s policies, Mr. Booker has stressed the need for unity among Americans who have become disillusioned with government and disconnected from their communities.

So he’s running the same campaign as the previous Democratic Oval Office-holder, but with an even thinner resumé.

Obama Lite.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: By Redacting Columbus, the Fighting Irish Cease Fighting. “Notre Dame yields to the perpetually offended.”

DON’T DO THAT: Man drunkenly swallows prickly catfish after being inspired by TV show ‘Jackass’, case report says.

Leave the serious drinking to the pros.

HMM: Launch-and-Landing Failures Add to $13 Billion Ship’s Troubles.

The Navy’s costliest warship, the $13 billion Gerald R. Ford, had 20 failures of its aircraft launch-and-landing systems during operations at sea, according to the Pentagon’s testing office.

The previously undisclosed failures with the electromagnetic systems made by General Atomics occurred during more than 740 at-sea trials since the aircraft carrier’s delivery in May 2017 despite praise from Navy officials of its growing combat capabilities. The Navy must pay to fix such flaws under a “cost-plus” development contract.

The new reliability issues add to doubts the carrier, designated as CVN-78, will meet its planned rate of combat sorties per 24 hours — the prime metric for any aircraft carrier — according to the annual report on major weapons from the Defense Department’s operational test office.

Not good, if they can’t get EMALS sorted out.

VIDEO: Sen. Sherrod Brown Complains That Trump Rips Babies from Families on Same Day His Party Pushes for Infanticide.

CHARLIE BROWN, MEET LUCY AND HER FOOTBALL: Pelosi Says No wall money in U.S. border deal talks.

A BAR SO LOW IT’S ACTUALLY A TOOTHPICK RESTING ACROSS TWO THIMBLES: Howard Schultz is just too sane for today’s Democrats.

Schultz was a Clinton Democrat when that meant Bill Clinton, though as a donor he stuck with Hillary and dutifully wrote checks to Barack Obama, John Edwards, the Democratic National Committee and others. But in 2019, he says he can’t in good conscience run as a Democrat.

“What the Democrats are proposing is something that is as false as the Wall,” he says, indicating “free” health care, “free” college and the entire litany of “free” things “which the country cannot afford.” He worries about the national debt, unfunded liabilities and other examples of fiscal recklessness.

He thinks that the Democrats’ current liquidate-the-kulaks ­ap­proach to taxes may prove counterproductive to the long-term interests of the United States.

Indeed.

BECAUSE COMMUNISTS: Why Did Soviets Invade Afghanistan?

One day in October 1979, an American diplomat named Archer K. Blood arrived at Afghanistan’s government headquarters, summoned by the new president, whose ousted predecessor had just been smothered to death with a pillow.

While the Kabul government was a client of the Soviet Union, the new president, Hafizullah Amin, had something else in mind. “I think he wants an improvement in U.S.-Afghan relations,” Mr. Blood wrote in a cable back to Washington. It was possible, he added, that Mr. Amin wanted “a long-range hedge against over-dependence on the Soviet Union.”

Mr. Blood’s newly published cable sheds light on what really drove the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan only two months after his meeting with Mr. Amin. Spoiler alert: It was not because of terrorism, as claimed this month by President Trump, who said the Soviets were right to invade. Among the real motivations, the cable and other documents suggest, was a fear that Afghanistan might switch loyalties to the West.

There’s some interesting history here from the New York Times, if you can get past the needless anti-Trump stuff and some oh-so-NYT pro-Soviet notes.

TYLER O’NEIL: Howard Schultz Shoots Down Liz Warren Attack With Passionate Defense of the American Dream.

SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Incendiary Devices Found Outside Eugene Police HQ after Police Shooting of Armed Antifa Radical.

PROCUREMENT: F-35A Cost To Drop Below $80 Million Per Fighter In 2023.

In 2022, Lockheed Martin officials expect to negotiate the next multiyear F-35 contract with the Joint Program Office. The goal is to use the steady cash flow from a multiyear contract to drive down further the production costs once the contract kicks in.

As part of a pitch for multiyear contract, Lockheed Martin officials say such a deal will lower the F-35A price to less than $80 million per fighter, Marillyn Hewson, chief executive of Lockheed Martin, told analysts during a conference call today discussing the company’s 2018 year-end results and expectations for 2019.

“That’s our target, to continue to drive the unit cost down,” Hewson said. “And we won’t stop there, we will always be looking at ways that we can take the cost down in the program as it continues to mature and grows.”

That’s not much more than the Air Force pays for a fully loaded F-16 Block 52.