ZEITGEIST: Why Audi Lost the Super Bowl of Advertising.

HEH:

INDEED: Want Your Husband To Step Up? Try Getting Out of His Way.

Suzanne Venker, author of The Alpha Female’s Guide to Men & Marriage:

I’d been on my husband for years about his eating habits and considered it my job to educate him about how to be healthy, just as I do with our kids. When I first met my husband, he was going to the gym every morning at 5:30am. He was also 40 pounds lighter. But after years of harping on him with no results, I couldn’t shake the feeling it was my fault my husband wasn’t taking care of himself.

Naturally, I didn’t see it this way at first. Why is it my fault if my husband makes bad choices? He’s lucky to have me guiding him! I’m just being helpful! But what controlling wives call helpful, husbands call something else. A man’s reaction to being told what to do by his wife is to do the exact opposite.

Indeed, it wasn’t until I stopped getting on my husband’s case that he began to take care of himself. Huh — go figure.

My light bulb moment didn’t end there. Once I saw the connection between the two — my dictating and my husband’s lack of motivation — I started thinking about other ways I was behaving that would cause him to react negatively. Like the times I’d tell him how to drive, or I’d correct his language, or I’d complain about whatever he wasn’t doing well and tell him how he could improve.

Read the whole thing.

For what it’s worth, my wife and I allowed our chores list of who-does-what grow organically — over the years we each have taken on what best fits within our skills and schedules. It probably helps that we’re both “see something, do something” types, but the net result is that I can’t recall us ever once fighting about household stuff. And I’ve found that in a smoothly functioning house, the desire to nitpick or complain is substantially reduced.

Best of all, you’re left with more time to enjoy one another’s company — which hopefully is why you’re together in the first place.

SCHADENFREUDE: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows to 1 Percent.

Twitter has had trouble persuading advertisers to spend more money on its social-media platform as fewer people join. Pressure on the company mounted in the fourth quarter when its search for a potential buyer failed, forcing Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey to focus on reaching profitability as an independent business. Twitter cut 9 percent of its staff, sold its Fabric developer business to Google and shut down its Vine short-video app. It also lost both its chief operating officer and chief technology officer, increasing the load on Dorsey, whose time is divided because of his other job — as CEO of Square Inc.

“The fact that they’ve tolerated having a shared CEO is remarkable given the situation they’re in,” said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group. “Unfortunately, it’s a situation of investor indifference — everyone is used to Twitter’s troubles by now.”

Square isn’t doing very well, either.

POSSESSION IS NINE-TENTHS OF THIS UNJUST LAW: Hempstead, NY Drone Law Presumes Guilt.

The law states that “The Town Board … finds that the flying of these drones presents a noisy and potentially dangerous condition to the public and wildlife that may be present at Town facilities and that drone use at Town facilities is inconsistent with the establishment and maintaining of a safe and pleasing public environment.

“The Town Board further finds that it is in the public interest to limit the private use of such UAS in the vicinity of Town of Hempstead facilities.

But then there is this kicker: “The possession by any person of a UAS while on or in the vicinity of any Town of Hempstead facility creates the presumption that such UAS has been used in violation of this chapter subjecting the possessor of such UAS to all penalties provided for herein.”

Good luck getting that provision to survive the first court challenge, which ought to come with the first attempt at enforcement.

DAVID HARSANYI: Republicans Should Make Elizabeth Warren The Voice Of Democrats.

It seemed pretty obvious to me that the nomination of Jeff Sessions as attorney general was likely a done deal. So it was unlikely any persuadable voter would have even heard about Warren’s grandstanding if it weren’t for the kerfuffle. If it were up to me, however, I’d let Warren speak whenever she wanted to — ceding my time, if necessary — for as long as she wanted on any stage she demanded. The more she speaks, the better for conservatives.

As The Washington Post points out, however, McConnell probably gave Warren’s 2020 presidential aspirations a huge “in-kind contribution” by forcing her to follow rules of decorum. It’s possible, I suppose, that the GOP is playing the same 3D chess mastered by Donald Trump. Maybe shutting down Warren was a surreptitious means of making her the de facto voice of the Democratic Party and #TheResistance (formerly known as “unprecedented obstructionism”). Maybe it was just good luck.

Warren as the voice of the Left might be the best-case scenario for Republicans. For one thing, Warren is no Barack Obama on the charisma front. For another, Warren saves conservatives the trouble of going after socialist strawmen. They’ll have a real one.

Right now it looks like Republicans won’t have to do anything at all — Democrats seem to think they have a real winner on their hands.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 4 Flexible Part-Time Gigs for Stay-at-Home Moms.

QUESTION ASKED: Is the Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ the New Tea Party?

It’s hard to say. Although I can say that the aftermath of the recent “Resistance” protest ended with violence and arson, and that the typical Tea Party protest ended with the grounds tidier than when the protestors arrived.

UPDATE: As an early and enthusiastic Tea Party supporter (and occasional speaker, too) I thought the mocking tone of my “hard to say” would have been obvious. Judging by the comments, it wasn’t — and for that I apologize.

Just to be clear then, the answer to The Atlantic’s cringeworthy question is a disdainful “No.”

CHANGE: Trump presidency heralds new era of closer ties with Egypt.

Friendly phone calls, an invite to the White House, a focus on Islamic militancy and what Donald Trump called “chemistry” have set the tone for a new era of warmer U.S.-Egyptian ties that could herald more military and political support for Cairo.

The mutual admiration dates back to a U.N. meeting in September, when then-presidential candidate Trump found common ground with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s hard line on extremism. Trump described the ex-general, who rights groups criticize as authoritarian and repressive, as a “fantastic guy”.

Sisi, the first foreign leader to congratulate Trump on his election victory, returned the favor last month after the newly inaugurated president barred citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

Egypt, not on the list, refrained from speaking out against the ban on behalf of Muslim countries that often look to it for leadership. That silence spoke volumes about the changing tone of its relationship with the United States.

I keep reading that Trump is the bull in an international china shop, but it was Obama who blundered around Egypt, searching for a foreign policy there, annoying/disappointing/angering everyone in the process, before finally settling on the terrorist-loving and anti-American Muslim Brotherhood (since deposed) as his preferred Egyptian government.

PROCUREMENT: Top Marine Corps aviator wants F-35Bs faster than planned.

The Marine Corps’ top aviator is hungry for more F-35Bs, telling reporters on Wednesday that he would like to see the service’s buy rate increase to 37 jets per year.

That would almost double the planned rate of F-35B procurement over the next few years, which is projected to sit at 20 aircraft per year from fiscal years 2018 to 2021.

“We have the infrastructure in place,” said Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation. “Bottom line is we’ve had a very anemic ramp, so we’ve been holding onto the older airplanes longer. If asked by the American people to get the airplanes faster, I guarantee we’d put them into play very, very quickly.

“We’d transition squadrons faster is what we’d do,” he said, adding that if the service were allowed to purchase 37 B-variants a year, it would be able to retire its legacy F/A-18 Hornet and Harrier planes by 2026.

The more a jet ages, the more expensive and time-consuming it is to maintain. And the more a jet is subjected to the rigors of war, the faster it ages. The average age of our jet fighters is far above historical norms, and we’ve been at war for 15 years. That combination creates a maintenance nightmare, which hurts readiness — as evidenced by this week’s report that nearly two-thirds of the Navy’s F-18s are unavailable for flight duty, and over 70% of the Marine Corps’.

Faster procurement is the obvious fix, but the previous administration refused any substantive or genuine budget negotiations. The bill for years of neglect has come due.

VIDEO: Coretta Scott King Thanks Sen. Jeff Sessions for Rosa Parks Library.

That’s racism, straight up.

THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS ALSO MY ENEMY: Battle to Retake Syrian City Turns Into a Geopolitical Test of the War.

The complication is that the advancing forces — the Syrian Army and pro-government militias backed by Russia, and Syrian rebels backed by Turkey — are sworn enemies.

Their simultaneous race to seize the city, Al Bab, has turned into a test of how a global realignment of powers supporting Syria’s antagonists could help reshape or end the nearly six-year-old conflict.

Al Bab, which had roughly 100,000 people when the war began in 2011, is the last urban area held by the Islamic State west of its proclaimed capital, Raqqa, where the group remains entrenched.

Russia and Turkey have swerved in recent months from outright hostility to working more closely in a diplomatic effort aimed at resolving the conflict, after fitful and repeated failures led by the United Nations and the United States.

But in the battle for Al Bab, Russia and Turkey must transform their newfound understanding into results on the ground, with the ambitious goal of pushing their Syrian partners into de facto military cooperation. Otherwise they risk creating a new flash point.

The coming days will show if the Syrian foes, who do not always obey their patrons, will work together for the first time against the Islamic State, or drive out the extremists and then try to kill one another.

The smart money should go on the latter rather than the former.

CONRAD BLACK: Trump Cannot Lose the Travel Ban Fight.

The President should not have referred to Judge Robart as a “so-called judge,” but the whole business is a frame-up. The Democrats must have had in the back of their minds the hope that Mr. Trump would impetuously ignore Judge Robart’s order, as President Jackson famously invited Chief Justice Marshall to try to enforce a decision of his Supreme Court.

This would have enabled them to start already on the line they are bursting with impatience to raise — that this was grounds for impeachment. This too would be nonsense, but it would help them to ratchet up the righteous obstruction and start agitating for the complete immobilization of this unconstitutional billionaire megalomaniac who was assaulting constitutional propriety.

Instead, Mr. Trump has been more compliant than necessary, and gone through the charade of appealing to the notoriously flaky and leftist Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, and will probably have to go on to the Supreme Court, which could entangle this issue with the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy on that court.

Mr. Trump will get the political credit for trying to safeguard the country whether he is sustained or not, but can be almost a bystander between the raving Democrats and a serious Court when the issue arrives at one.

Whatever its actual utility proves to be (and leaving aside what even Black describes was a “botched” rollout), the travel moratorium is a popular and easy-to-understand issue, with the President at his most reasonable on one side of it, and a bunch of screeching and weeping Democrats on the other.

NO: MLB considering starting extra innings with runner on second base.

PATRICK POOLE: CIA That Funded the ‘Moderate Muslim Brotherhood’ Narrative Opposed to the Group’s Terror Designation.

PASCAL-EMMANUEL GORBY FOR THE WEEK: Liberals are wrong to gang up on Betsy DeVos.

I’m a conservative. But sometimes wonder if I could describe myself as a member of the political left.

After all, I am animated by the same moral instinct that leftists endlessly and loudly profess: the belief that a society’s moral worth is measured by how it treats its weakest, neediest, and most marginalized members. Like them, I am outraged by all the ways in which our society screws over the little guy. These convictions are born of my Christian faith and are anchored deep in my mind and heart.

But it’s those same moral convictions that too often make me angry at the political left as it currently exists in the West, and make it impossible for me to call myself a leftist. Perhaps nothing exemplifies this better than the debate around the confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her stance on school choice.

Read the whole thing. Education ought to be one of the Right’s best wedge issues, but they still haven’t figured out how to exploit it.

DANA LOESCH: Racist Hypocrite Elizabeth Warren Is The Original Rachel Dolezal.

“I think it’s hysterical that this woman, who is a cultural appropriator, who is a race appropriator, that she has the audacity to engage in some sort of race-based attack against someone simply because she doesn’t like their party affiliation and doesn’t wish to see them confirmed to be AG,” Loesch said. “And I’ll tell you this, the closest that her ancestors ever came to American Indians was rounding up my ancestors, so let’s get that straight right now if anyone wants to have a discussion on what is or is not racist.”

In case the NRA’s stalker, Media Matters, missed it, Dana made her feelings extremely clear:

“I’ll reiterate that so the folks at Media Matters, for whom we pay the bills over there, so they can get it right. She’s a racist who appropriated an entire ethnicity so that she could get a job at Harvard,” Loesch said. “[She’s] a racist hypocrite. Democrats, and particularly all these anti-gun people, need to stop making excuses for the original Rachel Dolezal.”

Ouch.

OF COURSE IT DOES: Gravy Train Flows Wide And Deep At Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Agency.

The Senate majority and minority leaders are paid $193,000 annually. Two hundred and one CFPB employees outdo Sens. Mitch McConnell and Charles Schumer in pay.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan of Wisconsin receives $223,000 per year, but that’s less than what 54 CFPB employees are paid.

Another 170 CFPB employees earn more than the secretaries of defense and state, the attorney general and the director of national intelligence. All cabinet salaries are capped at $199,700, but not at the bureau. Thirty-nine CFPB employees earn more than the $230,000 paid to Vice President Mike Pence.

A total of 198 CFPB employees also earn more than their ultimate boss, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellin, who is paid $201,700.

Overall, 449 CFPB employees get at least $100,000 per year and 228 CFPB are paid more than $200,000, according to publicly available 2016 data.

These findings are part of a Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group salary analysis for the consumer agency that was founded by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and then-President Barack Obama in 2011. The agency was created under the Dodd-Frank Act to serve as a consumer agency protecting the poor against financial fraud.

You can’t make an omelet without slushing a few funds.

FLASHBACK: 100 percent of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s donations went to Democrats.

BREAKING: Gorsuch Called Trump’s Judiciary Attacks ‘Disheartening and Demoralizing,’ Says Senator.

HERE’S JOHNNY: Jack Nicholson, Kristen Wiig to Star in ‘Toni Erdmann’ Remake.

Nicholson had been out of the public eye for so long, I was certain his health or acuity was in decline.

TORQUEY: Tesla’s 5-Seater Model S Crushes $1.5 Million Sports Cars Off the Line.

This latest test by Motor Trend pushed the Tesla ahead of the 2017 911 Turbo S, which was previously the quickest according to tests conducted by the magazine in November 2016. It also puts the Model S P100, which has a base price of $135,700, ahead of the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1, and Porsche 918 Spyder, which have base prices of $1.5 million, $1.5 million and $845,000 respectively.

Operating in Tesla’s Ludicrous Easter Egg mode, the Model S accelerated from 0 to 30 mph 0.05 seconds faster than the 911 Turbo S, the magazine says in its review. The two vehicles even out as the acceleration continues, with the Tesla edging ahead by 0.2 seconds as the cars move from 60 mph through to 90 mph. The two cross the quarter-mile mark together at 10.5 seconds, according to Motor Trend.

I wonder how many miles of regular driving were left in the batteries’ charge after that (admittedly impressive) stunt.

WAPO MIGHT ACTUALLY BELIEVE THEIR OWN HEADLINE: Mitch McConnell gives Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign an in-kind contribution.

IT’S THE MEDIUM NOT THE MESSAGE: College Warns Against Recording in Class After Prof’s Anti-Trump Rant Goes Viral.

FACEPALM:

John McCain is a lot of things, some of them unpleasant, but he is most certainly not an armchair general.

Katrina vanden Heuvel on the other hand is a very silly person and an important voice in Twitter’s progressive echo chamber.

THANKS, OBAMA: 95% of Brigade Combat Teams Unprepared to Fight Immediately.