CHANGE? GOP Senate hopefuls reluctant to back McConnell as leader.

The Hill asked nearly two dozen Senate candidates this week if they would support McConnell as leader if elected. Not one campaign said outright that they would support him, although two candidates appear to have expressed support in the past.

Several candidates declared their opposition to McConnell and attacked their GOP primary opponents for not taking a stance on the question. Other candidates deflected, or spoke on background about the bind they’re in over the question of McConnell’s leadership. Most candidates were eager to avoid the question entirely, and ignored multiple requests for comment.

The candidate survey underscores the tricky balancing act facing Republican Senate candidates in 2018, which is shaping up to be a proxy war between the party establishment and its grass-roots base.

Part of the reason the Democrats are in such bad shape is the huge number of Obama-to-Trump Democrats, who seem to be mostly sticking with the GOP in the 2017-18 cycle. Those voters are reshaping the Republican party in new and sometimes uncomfortable ways, but at a best guess, the GOP has maybe two election cycles to deliver to their new constituents before they start looking elsewhere — again.

CHINA HAS NO ONE TO BLAME BUT THEMSELVES: Abe to push reform of Japan’s pacifist constitution after election win.

The U.S.-drafted constitution’s Article 9, if taken literally, bans the maintenance of armed forces. But Japanese governments have interpreted it to allow a military exclusively for self-defense.

Backers of Abe’s proposal to clarify the military’s ambiguous status say it would codify the status quo. Critics fear it would allow an expanded role overseas for the military.

“Now that pro-constitutional change parties occupy more than two-thirds of the parliament, the constitution will be the most important political issue next year,” said Hidenori Suezawa, a financial market and fiscal analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities.

If China had dealt with North Korea when and as they should have, then there wouldn’t even be any talk about amending or abolishing Japan’s Article 9.

HE’S BACK: Jimmy Carter Volunteers to Negotiate End to North Korea Crisis.

THE 21ST CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: Dangerous, Filthy Homeless Encampments Force Closure of Hawaii Public Park Indefinitely.

OF COURSE: 92-Year-Old World War I Monument Declared Unconstitutional ‘Breach’ of Church and State Separation.

FIGHT TO WIN, AND QUICKLY? What We Can Learn From World War II.

VIDEO: Tucker Grills Former Obama Lackey Over Uranium One Story.. “This is your Russia story.”

WELL, GOOD: The Majority of US Senators Now Endorse Beer Excise Tax Reform.

A majority of U.S. Senate members now support legislation that would reduce excise taxes on all brewers and importers.

According to a press release jointly produced by six beverage lobbying groups, including the Beer Institute and the Brewers Association, 51 senators have co-sponsored Senate Bill 236, known as the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA).

The legislation, which was introduced into the Senate on January 30 by Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), also has majority support from 281 members of the U.S. House of Representatives who have backed a companion bill (H.R. 747).

“Beer is bipartisan, and I want to thank the broad coalition of Senators and House members from across the country for supporting this commonsense legislation that will provide critical tax relief to America’s brewers and beer importers,” Jim McGreevy, the CEO of the Beer Institute, which represents the interests of all brewers, importers and supply industries, said via a press release.

“I look forward to Congress taking up the bill and moving it to President Trump for his signature so that brewers and beer importers can continue to invest in their businesses to meet consumers’ demand for beer,” he added.

Beer is bipartisan.

AL DENTE, PLEASE: Italian researchers have created a pasta that could help us survive heart attacks.

BONAFIDE? Yelp Unloads on Restaurant after They’re Caught Serving Popeyes Chicken as Their Own.

MICHAEL BARONE: Democrats Yelp as Trump Upholds Constitution.

“STINK” MIGHT HAVE BEEN A BETTER WORD: Tesla’s New Car Smell.

Jean-Louis Gassée:

My first serious doubts about Tesla didn’t stem from missed schedules, I’ve been guilty of too many of these, they’re part of tech life. What seriously worried me was a July 2016 visit to Tesla’s manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. In taking delivery of my wife’s Model S, we were treated to a group tour of the site. Everyone marveled at the robot porn, at the activity on the assembly line, at the endless stores of spare parts piled to the ceiling.

Everyone but yours truly.

I couldn’t help check off the sins against the “Toyota Bible”, prescriptions for car manufacturers that are lucidly detailed in The Machine That Changed The World (a great and, in parts, sad read). In particular, one mustn’t stockpile parts on the floor, they must be fed in small quantities at small time intervals. If a part has a problem, only a small quantity needs to be shipped back to the supplier who can inspect, correct, and quickly adjust their own production process.

As I watched Tesla’s messy, hiccuping line, with workers dashing in to fix faulty parts in place, my mind travelled back to the Honda plant I had visited years ago in Marysville, Ohio. Clean, calm, everything moved smoothly. I was so shocked by the contrast that I imprudently voiced my concern. That didn’t go over well with my fellow Tesla owners. I was a killjoy, I was calling their choice into question.

What Gassée saw in 2016 was production of either the already well-established Tesla S and X — any production hiccups on those models should have long been hammered out by then.

Needless to say, that doesn’t bode well for Elon Musk’s goal of growing Tesla from a boutique manufacturer (S and X models) to a mass manufacturer (Model 3) over just the next few months. And judging by the reaction from his fellow Tesla owners Gassée witnessed last year, the emotional fallout from a failed Model 3 is going to be epic.

Maybe Tesla’s future is in sourcing batteries to carmakers who know how to build cars.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: 5 Horror Shockers Without All That Gore.

I used to love the gore, back when the effects were all practical and made you wonder how they did that.

INSTAPUNDIT: STILL FREE! Facebook is now testing paywalls and subscriptions for Instant Articles.

Advantage: Instapundit.

BUSINESS AS USUAL: John Cornyn holds up top White House nominee.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn is frustrating both administration officials and conservative movement leaders by holding up the confirmation of Russ Vought to be Mick Mulvaney’s right hand man at the Office of Management and Budget.

Cornyn — a member of Senate leadership who has a strong say over the floor schedule — has made it clear that Vought will be held up until he gets more funding for Texas’ hurricane relief, according to three sources close to the situation. It’s unclear how Cornyn has phrased his demand or how much extra money, exactly, he’s asking for, but his message has been heard loud and clear by top Trump administration officials.

Cornyn’s office didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. Sources said the next supplemental bill — and therefore Vought’s confirmation — could be held up for at least another month.

This White House has suffered some serious staffing injuries, but not all of them have been self-inflicted.

SARAH HOYT: The Left’s Long Post-Election Tantrum.

I started noticing some acts of truly bizarre public performance during the Bush years. It was as though, with Motor Voter and the ease of election falsification, they’d assumed no Republican candidate would ever displace theirs, and therefore they went utterly unhinged when Bush won. From trying to disqualify the election results, to bizarre displays including hanging him in effigy, they were off the reservation. On the other hand, I understand their public displays were always fairly unhinged, including the “marching around with giant papier-mache puppets.” But even then I thought that “women dancing around in vulva” (unlike them, I know anatomy) “costumes” was a step beyond.

Maybe those costumes and the silliness of them were around before, and it was only their being reported on new media that made them so completely insane.

In fact, I think what is happening is a combination of New Media plus their completely and totally losing their minds more and more every year, culminating in Trump’s election.

Trump’s election does seem to mark some kind of watershed, in that now they’re being definitely non-normal not just in street displays, but in their own channels and their own publications.

Read the whole thing.

Sarah’s observation dovetails with something I’ve noticed over the last few weeks or months. Opening Salon or Slate or various other lefty publications was almost guaranteed to generate something blog-worthy, even if only to rebut or to cringe. But if you’ve noticed far fewer links here to those sites, it’s because the material there has gone so far over-the-top that I won’t waste your time with it.

PERHAPS SARAH HOYT WILL LET ME BORROW HER SHOCKED FACE: Harvey Weinstein doesn’t seem to be taking sex rehab seriously.

YOU WOULD BE, TOO: After six tests, the mountain hosting North Korea’s nuclear blasts may be exhausted.

HMM: IRS to block, suspend tax returns that lack Obamacare disclosures.

“Taxpayers remain obligated to follow the law and pay what they may owe at the point of filing,” the IRS said in a description of the new policy.

The ACA requires most people to have some form of health insurance coverage or pay a tax penalty — a requirement known as Obamacare’s individual mandate.

That penalty is the higher of 2.5 percent of adjusted gross household income or $695 per adult and $347.50 per child under age 18.

The agency, in an online notification to tax professionals, said that in the upcoming tax filing season “the IRS will not accept electronically filed tax returns where the taxpayer does not address the health coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act.”

“Returns filed on paper that do not address the health coverage requirements may be suspended pending the receipt of additional information and any refunds may be delayed,” the IRS said.

I had thought the White House had more or less gutted the individual mandate.

MEGAN FOX: Vox Day’s Alt✰Hero Comic Book Issues a Right-Wing Challenge to SJW Marvel, DC Comics.

AVIK ROY: Sorry Everybody, But Trump Hasn’t Instigated The Obamacare Apocalypse.

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Driven by unrest and violence, Venezuelans are fleeing their country by the thousands.

“Everything there has turned ugly. There’s hunger and crime. You can’t leave your house after 5 p.m. because you’re going to be robbed or killed,” Linares said, adding that she now earns enough to afford three meals a day, an impossibility for many these days in Venezuela.

“I miss my mother, my house and at times I feel out of place here, like in someone else’s home,” Linares said. “But Peru has opened its doors to us.”

Linares is part of the rising tide of Venezuelan immigrants washing over Latin America as conditions at home steadily worsen. Arrivals in Peru have roughly doubled since last year and more than 20,000 Venezuelans have either applied for or received a special residency permit since the government began offering them in February.

And here’s the one mention of socialism in the lengthy Los Angeles Times report:

Eduardo Febres Cordero, 32, a former Venezuelan consular official from Maracay, decided to stay in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, after resigning in 2011 and marrying an Ecuadorean woman. He says President Maduro “betrayed” the socialist revolution begun by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, whom he served as a student leader.

Scapegoats, scapegoats everywhere, but never a socialist to blame.

TYLER O’NEIL: SPLC Removes Stonewall Elementary School From ‘Turmoil and Bloodshed’ Confederate Monument Map.

ACCOUNTABILITY, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG: B-21 cost info to stay secret despite new Air Force leadership.

Air Force leaders claim that the B-21 program is going swimmingly and has remained on budget and on schedule. Earlier this year, Gen. Stephen Wilson, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff, told lawmakers it had recently completed its preliminary design review.

The service plans to buy at least 100 Raiders — although that number could change as a result of the Trump administration’s defense strategy review and the Air Force’s bomber road map — at a price of about $550 million (in 2010 dollars) per copy.

The engineering and manufacturing development phase is being carried out under a separate, cost-plus contract that is estimated to amount to about $21.4 billion.

“The program is on track,” Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the service’s top uniformed acquisition official, said Tuesday. “What I will say is that we are marching to the acquisition program baseline timelines that we’ve established, and we don’t have anything … that has risen to a red flag.”

I’d be willing to cut the Air Force more slack if they had a procurement history showing that they’d earned it.

JONATHAN TASINI: America needs higher wages, not lower taxes.

An easy way to raise everyone’s wages would be to cut everyone’s taxes.