AUTOMATION: Flippy the Burger Flipping Robot Is Now Cooking at the CaliBurger Fast Food Chain.

Flippy is a brand new, burger flipping robot now cooking at a chain called CaliBurger, which serves up California style burgers and fries.

“The key to success in the restaurant industry is consistency. So anytime you go to a CaliBurger anywhere you know that the patty will be cooked exactly the same,” said John Miller, CEO of Cali Group, the company that runs the chain.

The robot was developed by a subsidiary called Miso Robotics.

So how does it work? Before Flippy can get started, it needs a little human help. A co-worker puts raw patties on the grill.

“The kitchen of the future will always have people in it, but we see that kitchen as having people and robots,” said David Zito, co-founder and chief executive officer of Miso Robotics.

“This technology is not about replacing jobs – we see Flippy as that third hand,” said Zito.

That’s a nice thing to say, but the minimum wage in California was just raised to $11, and is set to rise to $15 for large companies like CaliBurger in just four years.

HMM: New Gun Bill Would Mandate Reporting of Buyers Blocked by Background Check. “Senators argue that those who fail the background check and violate the law when trying to get a gun — such as convicted felons and domestic abusers — are rarely prosecuted.”

LONG, HARD SLOG: Janus Case Only Beginning for Forced-Dues Fights. “Labor watchdogs expect unions to continue collecting from unwilling members.”

Ron Conwell expected to sever his ties to the National Education Association after Gov. Rick Snyder enacted right to work in 2013. One of the first things the Army veteran had to do when he took a job as a teacher in 2001 was sign up for the local union. He grew up in a union household, the son of a UAW-member father. The idea of automatically signing up, rather than opting in, rubbed him the wrong way.

“I would have rather researched it first because I didn’t want my voice commandeered,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with a local union—it makes sense for a group of people to get together and take a collaborative approach to negotiating, but I found some of the things contrary to my fundamental beliefs.”

He vowed to withdraw his financial support of the union upon the enactment of labor reforms but claims in a lawsuit that he has been blocked from doing so by the union. The Clarkston chapter of the NEA and school district negotiated the extension of mandatory agency fee payments until 2016—even after the original contract expired in 2014. Right-to-work laws allow the enforcement of forced-dues clauses negotiated prior to their enactment, but workers should be allowed to opt-out as soon as existing contracts expire. Conwell said the union’s use of extensions violates his rights as a worker.

“It was all a concerted effort on their part to maintain their membership even after right to work. It was very disheartening for me as someone looking to exercise my rights,” he said. “They’ve shown a dogged resistance to accepting the law.”

The state teachers’ union did not respond to request for comment.

Other states have seen similar instances of unions attempting to undermine worker opt-out clauses in the wake of legislative labor reforms or adverse court rulings.

Where’s DOJ on this?

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT! Metaphor Alert: ‘Young Karl Marx’ Loses Tons Of Money.

WHAT DO YOU CALL BLACKSHIRTS WHO USE VIOLENCE TO STIFLE DISSENT? Antifa mob shuts down Yaron Brook event at London college.

Violent protests also erupted outside the event hall, which led the college to bar all non-student ticket holders from attending the event. The Ayn Rand Institute estimates the hosting student group, King’s Libertarian Society, was forced to turn away roughly 200 external ticket holders.

“I was told that due to a ‘risk assessment’ that it was only open to students. So I just huffed and went home! I’m not surprised it’s just an underhand tactic to effectively censor ideas they dislike. Which is fine I just wish they were more honest about it,” one individual who was turned away told Red Alert Politics, who commented anonymously.

John Switzer Haagensen, another non-student ticket holder, told Red Alert Politics, “it was somewhat chaotic at the campus. We were all their [sic] hopeful to get in but the university wouldn’t botch claiming security concerns … we were outside in the hallway prevented from entering, the antifascists aggressors arrived with smoke bombs.”

“I strongly feel the university caved into the antifa protesters. They need to protect free speech and not prevent people from joining peacefully. They changed criteria just 2.5 hours prior to the event despite it having been scheduled for months. I am very disappointed in an institution a top university in the world acting cowardly like this,” Switzer Haagensen continued.

Video at the link.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Strzok Ignored Clinton Server Hack and Much, Much More. “What ARE they doing at the FBI? ‘What would you say you do here?’ They aren’t following up on tips of a possible school shooter, they aren’t following up on foreign hacking of the Secretary of State’s illegal email server, so what?”

IT’S A LONG LIST: This is one of the reasons America hates the media. Our entire industry lit itself on fire because a troubled Trump hanger-on made an ass of himself — live.

HMM: DOJ Is Sued For Records Of Official Linked To Dossier.

Judicial Watch seeks records of Ohr’s contacts with Steele as well as with employees of Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the dossier. Fusion worked during the presidential campaign for the Clinton campaign and DNC.

Ohr’s links to Steele and Fusion GPS are one of the strangest wrinkles in the saga over the salacious and unverified dossier.

In September 2016, while serving as associate deputy attorney general, Ohr met with Steele to discuss his investigation of Donald Trump and the Trump campaign. He also met with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson several weeks after the election at a Washington, D.C. coffee shop.

Ohr was also connected to the dossier through his wife, a Russia expert named Nellie Ohr. She worked on the Fusion GPS research team investigating Trump.

The Ohrs’ connection to the dossier was kept secret for nearly a year after the dossier’s publication. Bruce Ohr also failed to disclose Nellie’s work for Fusion on his annual financial disclosure forms.

Let the sunshine in.

GANGSTER STATE: Former Russian Mole In Critical Condition After Exposure To “Unknown Substance.”

STOP ME IF YOU THINK YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE: North Korea Says It Is Open to U.S. Talks on Denuclearization.

After meetings between envoys from the South and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang signaled a “clear intent to pursue denuclearization,” according to Chung Eui-yong, South Korea’s national security adviser.

North Korea said that it wouldn’t conduct nuclear or missile testing during any talks, Mr. Chung said.

Mr. Kim also told the South that he would be willing to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom in late April, in what would be the third-ever inter-Korean summit.

Mr. Chung and Suh Hoon, the South Korean intelligence chief who was also part of the delegation, will travel to Washington this week to brief senior Trump administration officials, Mr. Chung said in a press briefing.

Be wary, but if the North is being at all honest, it’s because peace-through-strength works.

YUGE: Trump Considers Visit to Jerusalem in May to Open New Embassy.

There will be a few more few strictly pro forma complaints from the Arab nations, and before long everyone (but Iran’s mullahs) will forget what all the fuss was about.

TYLER O’NEIL: Iran Will Host International ‘Hourglass’ Festival Celebrating Israel’s Imminent Demise. “The Israeli regime will collapse within 25 years.”

UM… NYC ‘Sperminator’ Has Fathered 26+ Kids by Donating Sperm in Some Pretty Weird Ways.

CHANGE: A U.S. Aircraft Carrier Is Docking In Vietnam For The First Time Since The War.

Related: Xi May Scare Asia Back Into Washington’s Orbit.

Years ago I wrote that a rising and possibly belligerent China would cause her neighbors to draw to the US like iron filings around a magnet, and that it would take concerted effort on our part to screw that up. Which is exactly what we got eight years of under the previous Administration.

THIS WILL END WELL: Country Music Executives Slammed The NRA In Push To Oust Huckabee.

LOST AND FOUND: We’ve located the USS Lexington after she sank 76 yrs ago.

SHOT: Conservatives Are Losing the Culture War Over Guns.

-Peter Beinart, The Atlantic.

CHASER: Oscar Ratings Down Double Digits, Eye All-Time Low In Early Estimates.

-Nellie Andreeva, Deadline Holywood.

DAVID SOLWAY: The Media and Joe McCarthy. “The name and the man serve as reminders that muck-raking leftists and elite conservatives are not always that different, that the Fourth Estate cannot be trusted, that the Fifth Estate is almost entirely a gutter institution, and that the only antidote to the intellectual and emotional subversion practiced by the FNM is perpetual skepticism and diligent study.”

Read the whole thing.

OH: Only Half of F-35s Available for Flight, Program Head Says.

Actually, readiness isn’t nearly as bad as the headline implies:

Of the 280 operational F-35s purchased to date by U.S. and international partners, only 51 percent are currently available for flight, Vice Adm. Mat Winter, director of the F-35 Joint Program Office, told reporters Wednesday at a round-table event.

Winter added that availability rates are lowest for aircraft purchased in early lots, which were beset with a number of hardware and software issues that later production lots addressed. Low-rate initial production lots 2 through 4 have availability rates between 40 and 50 percent, Winter said. The most recent LRIP lots, 9 and 10, which include aircraft that are still rolling off the production line, have the highest availability rates, 70 to 75 percent, he said.

My understanding is that the logistical train isn’t yet fully developed, which also impacts readiness of jets which would otherwise be airworthy.

UGH: Rare, Cox Media’s Facebook-driven conservative site, is shutting down.

Rare.us, the viral content site launched by Cox Media in 2013 to take on the ever-evolving digital landscape from a right of center lens, will shut down at the end of the month, according to Facebook posts by its top editors.

It’s another example of a viral website built on Facebook traffic that is shutting down after Facebook announced it would be making changes to its News Feed algorithm to weed out publisher content.

Facebook is great for reconnecting with old friends and sharing adorable family photos, but never forget that it’s somebody else’s business with no real concern for anyone else’s.

DEATH WISH REBOOT: Audiences Love It, Critics Hate It.

The film is a remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson classic, and shares the story of an ordinary man facing down crime with nothing but courage and a gun after his wife is murdered and daughter raped. About the earlier film, Roger Ebert called it “propaganda for private gun ownership.”

The same thing is being said of the new film. As one reviewer complained, “If the NRA made a feature film, it would be this.” The conservative film website HollywoodinToto praised it for just that angle: “This gut punch of a remake will drive SJWs crazy. That’s just one of many reasons to see Eli Roth’s latest.”

It’s been a while since Willis has starred in a must-see movie, but teaming him up with Eli Roth sends this picture to the top of my Don’t Miss list.

CONSIDER THE SOURCE: Christopher Steele says RUSSIANS prevented Trump from tapping Mitt Romney as secretary of state..

JIM GERAGHTY: The Devin Nunes You Don’t Know.

In November, Andrew Janz, a Democratic congressional candidate, unveiled a billboard that depicts Trump and Nunes on Putin’s leash. In January, MSNBC contributor John Heilemann asked Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on air, “Is it possible that we actually have a Russian agent running the House Intel Committee on the Republican side?”
…
In 2014, he denounced the “shameless propaganda” of RT, the Kremlin’s flagship international media outlet. And, in an op-ed in the Washington Times, he warned: “While [Vladimir Putin] may be willing to sacrifice Russia’s own economy for his geo-political ambitions, we cannot afford to be a mere bystander as his destabilizing actions begin to threaten the economies of the Baltics and other NATO allies, possibly including our own.”

In 2015, he joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers urging the Obama administration to authorize the transfer of “lethal, defensive weapons systems to the Ukrainian military.” In an appearance on CNN in April 2016, he criticized the Obama administration for being too soft with Putin.

Collusion!

DOUBLING DOWN: Erdogan calls for mobilization of army reserves in Syria.

Addressing his supporters who were chanting, “Our leader, take us to Afrin,” Erdogan said, “Don’t worry. Once we decide to go we will not leave you behind, but take you with us. Now we are dispatching our trained cadres. Those who received mobilization orders should get ready. But at this moment we don’t need them. The minute we decide we will hit the road.”

Turkish males are subject to conscription when they reach the age of 20, and they are required to mobilize until the age of 41.

Following Erdogan’s remarks that those who have received mobilization orders should be ready, millions visited the official website of the Ministry of Defense to find out if their name is on the list. Due to the heavy traffic the site went down quickly.

Devlet Bahceli, the chairman of the opposition Nationalist Action Party (MHP), which has decided to enter into an elections alliance with the AKP and to support Erdogan, answered the president’s call by saying, “We are ready for mobilization. It is time to hoist the Turkish flag over Afrin.” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim got into the mood by dressing up in military attire at a meeting of the AKP’s youth wing in Kocaeli.

Pity the Kurds.

STEPHEN KRUISER: Dear California: Call Me When the Commies Leave. “After 22 years in Los Angeles — 13 on its West Side — I threw half my life into boxes, the other half into dumpsters, and returned to my native Arizona.”