MORE LIKELY TO TIP OVER, TOO: Rep. Hank Johnson Compares Trump to Hitler, Says MAGA Supporters are ‘Less Educated,’ ‘Dying Early.’

COLD WAR II: Chang’e 4 landing on far side of moon marks start of China’s space race with the US.

The next stage of the mission, according to the CNSA, is for Chang’e 4 to release a rover to explore the surrounding area, fire up ground penetration radar to map the moon’s inner structures, analyse soil and rock samples for minerals and chemicals with potential economic values, and activate a radio telescope to search for possible signals from distant universes.

The probes also carried a canister filled with air, soil, water, bacterium, silkworm eggs, the seeds of a small flowering plant and a potato. Scientists hope that the small eco-system will spring to life and produce the first blossoming flowers on the moon in about three months’ time.

It’s an impressive achievement, but the real action these days is in private space projects. Where is the Chinese Burt Rutan, Jeff Bezos, or Elon Musk?

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): I believe some of those are in the works, actually.

SUSTAINABILITY:

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Nancy Pelosi Is in the House and Much, Much More. “The media was the real freak show yesterday, as they gushed and fawned over the new “diverse-est evah” Congress. I don’t see diversity as a virtue, I just want my elected officials to competently represent my interests, I don’t care about their gender or their skin color. But the media really, really, really cares about diversity, maybe more than anything else in the world. So when they have an opportunity to showcase it, they are going to sing from the roof!”

STACY MCCAIN: The Wheel Turns on SPLC’s Heidi Beirich. “It is not illegal to express opinions with which Heidi Beirich disagrees, nor is it illegal to befriend people Heidi Beirich dislikes. And yet, as an employee of the SPLC, Dr. Beirich seemed to believe that she was authorized to determine the limits of our personal liberty. Because no one has ever offered to pay me to write the full story of my career as a Thought Criminal, and because I have not (yet) felt any need to share every detail of that sage, Dr. Beirich never understood my jocular good cheer in response to being defamed and, on advice of my close personal friend Bert the Samoan Lawyer, I have been content to watch patiently as she has proceeded down her chosen path to her inevitable destruction.”

Background here from PJM’s Tyler O’Neil.

NICE: USB-C with secret codes making connections secure.

USB hasn’t exactly been known for its security features.

KOWTOWING: Former NYT editor claims publisher drafted letter “all but apologizing” to China for tough story.

Did they at least get “access” in exchange?

CHICAGOLAND: Alderman Edward Burke charged with attempted extortion of Burger King owners.

The criminal charge was jaw-dropping even for a city with a long history of public corruption. While dozens of his City Council colleagues have been convicted and sent to prison over the decades, Burke was largely seen as too clever or sophisticated to be caught. He had faced federal scrutiny several times before but always escaped charges.

For decades, the Southwest Side alderman has used his iron grip on the City Council’s Finance Committee and key role in slating Cook County judges to build a massive amount of political capital.

Burke, who turned 75 last week, often decides whether Chicago’s most important legislation will move forward. He controls millions of dollars in campaign funds. He is the sole steward of the city’s $100 million workers’ compensation program. And he plays a crucial role in redrawing the city’s ward maps — a key in maintaining political power amid shifting demographics.

He’s also married to Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, who was quietly sworn in to a second 10-year term on Nov. 29, the same day her husband’s City Hall and 14th Ward offices were raided. The FBI carried out a second search of Burke’s City Hall office on Dec.13.

But here’s the kicker:

Bhachu also revealed that the FBI found 23 guns when agents raided Burke’s offices in November. As a condition of bond, he must surrender the firearms and any others he may own within 48 hours of his release. He’s also allowed to travel only within the Northern District of Illinois and to his lake house in Power Lake, Wis., while the case is pending.

Emily Zanotti noted on Twitter, “Burke was a key partner with Rahm Emanuel in expanding gun control in Chicago through the mayor’s “Safe Guns Policy.”

The hypocrisy would be astounding were it not completely and rightly expected.

CHANGE: Brazil wants to move embassy to Jerusalem, push reform at WTO.

The national security adviser to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that the leader wants to move Brazil’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, but that logistical considerations were standing in the way.

Retired Army General Augusto Heleno, Bolsonaro’s top adviser on security, did not elaborate. But the country’s powerful agriculture sector is opposed to moving the embassy from Tel Aviv and angering Arab nations that buy billions of dollars worth of Brazilian halal or “permissible” meat each year.

Unless the Arab world can summon up another major source of livestock, this seems like an empty threat.

BECAUSE THE LEFT CARES ABOUT CHILDREN AND OTHER LIVING THINGS: ‘Shout Your Abortion’ Movement Targets Children in Creepy Video. “Imagine telling a child he or she should have been aborted.”

I BELIEVE GLENN SAID “THIS WHOLE THING STINKS” OVER A YEAR AGO: Exculpatory Russia evidence about Mike Flynn that US intel kept secret.

PATRICK POOLE: Afghan and Iranian Asylum Seekers Rampage Through German Town, Injuring 12.

MARK RIPPETOE: Heavier Kit? Stronger Soldiers!

JON CALDARA: On January 1, I became a criminal in my hometown of Boulder.

In Boulder, if your core beliefs include dressing as the opposite gender or following the teachings of the Koran our city government will bend over backwards to protect you from those who wish to separate you from your community. You’d never be forced to self-identify to government authorities, to submit to inspection, to be registered and made to pay fees to keep your core beliefs.

My strong belief in my Second Amendment rights is core to who I am. I know that is not understood by many today, however I am not asking to be understood. I’m asking to be left alone.

I am asking for progressives who run city government to live up to their assertion of tolerance and just let me be.

Because I own a long gun with a pistol grip and a detachable magazine, I had to the end of December to self-identify to the police, present myself for investigation and my gun for inspection, pay fees in order to receive a police-issued permission slip, all to avoid jail time, monetary penalties, and the confiscation and destruction of my gun.

I have never been convicted or even charged with a crime in my 54 years of life, but this week I became a criminal.

Needless to say, read the whole thing.

JEFF DUNETZ: Trump’s Iran Sanctions Destroying Their Economy — Liberal Critics Were Wrong.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO DO THAT: Special-ed teacher arrested for throwing New Year’s Eve party and letting kids drink alcohol and smoke pot.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Nancy Says No $$ for the Wall and Much, Much More. “WH spokesman Hogan Gidley said about the meeting, ‘What [President Trump] wants on his desk is a bill that opens the government, that funds the government and protects the American people. And right now, the Democrats are not serious about that. And you know they’re not serious because serious people with serious plans and serious proposals don’t negotiate in the press. And that’s all that Democrats have done to this point’.”

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: ISIS Message After Barcelona Warning: Kill Pedestrians at ‘Very Busy and Full of Disbelief’ Location. “A vehicle is equally powerful or even more than a bomb… hit with all the force at the first moment.”

OH: Dems ‘Refused’ To Even Listen To Border Security Briefing At White House.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Golden Globes Hosts Vow No Trump Jokes (Right…).

Let’s go through the following quotes, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, to share what’s spoken between the lines:

SAMBERG … Everyone is depressed [Hollywood liberals haven’t gotten over Hillary Clinton’s loss … yet!], and maybe that’s as good a reason as any that everyone could use a little time to laugh and celebrate. Not to ignore anything [I’m already hedging my bets], but we spend so much time every day wallowing in a lot of things that are happening in our world that are really depressing [like record low unemployment rates?], and with good reason — that stuff needs to be paid attention to — but there’s also power to being positive and celebratory in the tougher times as well.

OH: …I don’t really think that [getting political] is for the hosts necessarily [reciting talking points from the show producers who fear a ratings debacle]. You make it an open and safe place for whoever wants to use that platform to speak. [of course we openly encourage anti-Trump rants despite our ‘no politics’ pledge]

SAMBERG: The most memorable moments from the last two years of the Globes have been the DeMille speeches, Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey. [Remember when I said the show should shy away from politics? Just kidding!]

OH: …And I’m not interested in [talking about Trump] at all. What I’m interested in is pointing to actual real change.

That’s entertainment? Anyway, much more at the link.

UGH: For decades, nuns in India have faced abuse.

Across India, the nuns talk of priests who pushed into their bedrooms and of priests who pressured them to turn close friendships into sex. They talk about being groped and kissed, of hands pressed against them by men they were raised to believe were representatives of Jesus Christ.

“He was drunk,” said one nun, beginning her story. “You don’t know how to say no,” said another.

At its most grim, the nuns speak of repeated rapes, and of a Catholic hierarchy that did little to protect them.

But, hey, the Pope has taken a strong stand against climate change.

HMM: Iranian mullahs’ lock on power is now shakier than ever.

Today, unpaid factory workers, teachers, farmers and truck drivers are some of the most organized and motivated anti-regime forces. The southwestern city of Ahvaz experienced anti-regime labor protests last month. Truck drivers were also on nationwide strikes for much of 2018, blocking major roadways and access to gas stations over low pay and rising tolls.

Farmers in Isfahan, in central Iran, have turned their backs against regime clerics during Friday prayers and chanted: “Our back to the enemy, our faces to our nation.” Another favorite slogan: “They say our enemy is America, when the real enemy is right here” — meaning the mullahs. Meanwhile, many Iranian women have been shedding the compulsory hijab in public, a gesture that was unthinkable even two years ago.

You can thank American frackers and Trump’s reimposition of sanctions — both bitterly opposed by many Democrats — for the mullahs’ increasingly difficult situation.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Black Lawmakers’ Charity Didn’t Give Out A Single Scholarship, Top Pols Hide Financials.

The caucus of black New York state lawmakers runs a charity whose stated mission is to empower “African American and Latino youth through education and leadership initiatives” by “providing opportunity to higher education” — but it hasn’t given a single scholarship to needy youth in two years, according to a New York Post investigation.

The group collects money from companies like AT&T, the Real Estate Board of New York, Time Warner Cable and CableVision, telling them in promotional materials that they are “changing lives, one scholarship at a time.”

The group — called the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Inc. — instead spent $500,000 in the 2015 – 2016 fiscal year on items like food, limousines and rap music, the Post found.

The politicians refused to divulge the charity’s 2017 tax filing to the Post despite federal requirements that charities do so upon request.

This sounds like the kind of thing any reasonably competent attorney general would look into, but in Cuomo’s New York…

YA THINK? New Documents Suggest The Steele Dossier Was A Deliberate Setup For Trump.

But here’s the angle that caught my eye:

The dossier operation has not only damaged institutions like the FBI and DOJ, it has also poisoned the public sphere, perhaps irremediably. As a result, it is now accepted journalistic practice to print, and reprint, any garish fantasy so long as it’s layered with Russian intrigue and Trump team treason. Even as the rest of the country sees an institution that has made itself a laughingstock, the press continues to salute itself for its bravery—or the courage and industry required to take leaks from law enforcement and intelligence officials and Democratic operatives in an effort to topple a president it doesn’t like, elected by neighbors it holds in contempt.

Barack Obama wasn’t just speaking for himself when he derided millions of Americans as bitter clingers, and Hillary Clinton wasn’t speaking just for herself when she condemned millions more as irredeemable.

TWITTER IS A CESSPIT, EXHIBIT #1,000,006: Hackers seize dormant Twitter accounts to push terrorist propaganda.