OLD VS NEW: Pentagon, Air Force Continue F-35 vs A-10 Close Air Support Testing – to Include Possible Fly-Off.

While the cherished A-10 is unambiguously combat-tested in the role of Close Air Support, some F-35 advocates have mused that the JSF sensors, maneuverability, high-tech computers, 25mm canon and arsenal of weapons just might better position the 5th generation aircraft for the mission; at the same time, the A-10s titanium frame, built-in redundancy, famous nose-aligned 30mm cannon and wide-ranging precision-weapons envelope make clearly make it the best choice for close air support.

Sure enough, the A-10s performance against ISIS, Congressional lobby and broad adoration among ground troops are among the many factors believed to have influenced the Air Force’s current plan to both extend the life of the current A-10 and also explore requirements options for a future Close Air Support platform. Air Force officials have told Scout Warrior the ongoing requirements and analysis procedure is looking at three options – upgrading the existing A-10 airframe, using the best available commercial-off-the shelf aircraft, or simply engineering an building a newly designed A-10-like Close Air Support airplane.

Many A-10 proponents are convinced that there is no other plane capable of succeeding with the highly-dangerous, revered and essential Close Air Support Mission. Nevertheless, the Air Force does plan to use the emerging F-35 for Close Air Support moving into the next decade. In addition, F-35 advocates argue that the stealth aircraft’s speed, maneuverability and high-tech weapons and sensors give the F-35 a decisive Close Air Support advantage.

The A-10’s advantage is its ability to loiter “low and slow” and put fire from its really big gun on enemies the pilot can positively ID from up close. But the F-35 was designed to evade modern surface-to-air missiles on battlefields where you wouldn’t dare send older aircraft.

Maybe the Air Force needs to embrace the healing power of “and.”

TIMING: Trump Will Keep Vow on Jerusalem Embassy Move, Giuliani Says.

Traveling to Israel with messages from Trump to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Giuliani said the new U.S. president and his advisers will probably take “six months or so” to develop a new strategy for American peace efforts in the Middle East. How and when the U.S. moves the embassy will be discussed when Netanyahu visits the White House in early February, Giuliani said.

“I think you’ve got to wait a little bit, but it will get done,” Giuliani said of the embassy move, speaking in an interview at the Tel Aviv offices of Greenberg Traurig LLP. He heads the law firm’s global Cybersecurity, Privacy and Crisis Management practice.

The fate of Jerusalem is among the most sensitive issues Israelis and Palestinians will need to address in any future peace negotiations. Israel took the eastern part of Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War and considers all of the city as its capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern portion as the capital of their hoped-for state.

Trump realizes the embassy decision “implicates four or five countries and how they’re going to react,” Giuliani said. “He needs to know how the prime minister of Israel is going to react and how he wants to see something like this done.”

It isn’t that the move won’t happen, but believe it when you see it.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Bushwick Trashes Southerners as Racist Killers.

The thriller, which enjoyed a cushy spot in the current Sundance Film Festival lineup, leans on the notion that Texans want to secede from the country. That’s so 2016.

Today, it’s Californians who crave just that following the improbable Election Day victory of Donald Trump. Haven’t you heard of Calexit?

The film doesn’t just miss the cultural mood, though. It’s yet another cheap shot at southern America. “Bushwick,” according to early reports, paints the secessionist movement as racist, violent and willing to indiscriminately kill anyone who doesn’t believe in their cause.

Maybe the best thing you could say is that at least it isn’t another reboot, superhero origin story, or Lady Ghostbusters.

THERE ARE SEVERAL TO CHOOSE FROM: Will Current Scandals End Netanyahu’s Career?

MICHAEL WOLFF: Why the Media Keeps Losing to Donald Trump.

It is the Trump view that the media has been so wrong in its predictions, and made to look in the eyes of the public so woeful and ludicrous, that it must now double down in an effort to prove its thesis about the president and restore its honor. (The Trump White House now hammers a persistent theme: Why was nobody fired in the mainstream media for such dunderheaded election coverage?)

The media strategy is to show Trump to be an inept and craven sociopath. The Trump strategy is to show that media people are hopeless prigs out of touch with the nation (e.g., CNN’s media correspondent, Brian Stelter, who turns to the camera every Sunday morning and delivers a pious sermon about Trump’s perfidiousness) and nursing personal grudges.

Accordingly, “alternative facts.” It’s curious to pick a battle whose outcome won’t change anything—like over the actual size of the inaugural crowd. But both sides grabbed it. Hence, the argument becomes about relative reaction. Who is perceived as overreacting more? Whose apoplexy is greater?

Trump’s genius is for making his opponents seem crazier than he is — and I’m using “crazy” as a pejorative in the former example, but not in the latter.

BLOGGERS AND SOCIAL MEDIA USERS WANTED BY NASA: Experience the Next SpaceX Launch of Science & Supplies to the Space Station.

WHEN THEY GO LOW, WE GO HIGH: Leftist Student Physically Assaults Conservatives, Yelling ‘F*ck You!’

Either these crybullies will cry themselves out, or they’re just getting started — and I’m betting on the latter.

FLASHBACK: Obama — Let’s Face It, These Republicans Are Practically ISIS Recruiters.

H/T, Dan McLaughlin.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Paper Airplane Toss Could Land SC High School Student In Jail.

The South Strand News reports that the student, 17-year-old David Michael Elliott, was arrested January 10 by Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office deputies and charged with third degree assault and battery. The teacher, Edward McIver, told deputies he had been struck in the eye by the errant paper airplane.

According to the incident report, McIver contacted the school resource officer to report he had been hit in the eye. He was “very upset” about the incident because he had recently had ocular surgery. The teacher said this was not the first incident with Elliott in the classroom, and “something needs to be done.” Deputy Paul Glover asked if McIver wanted to press charges. The teacher said if Elliot was in fact responsible, he did.

The resource officer then met with Elliott, who admitted to throwing the airplane, and said he had intended to hit McIver in the head, but not the eye. Elliot could not give a “logical reason” for throwing the airplane, and he was cited by resource officer Glover for third degree assault and battery.

My seventh-grade English teacher, facing the blackboard, somehow caught one of my classmates launching a spitwad. We learned this when he took the chalk eraser he was holding and beaned my classmate with it.

We had only the one instance of anything like that, and zero police.

OF COURSE THEY ARE: Media Matters Is Trying To Influence Facebook’s News Judgment.

Left-wing activist organization Media Matters claims to be secretly working “behind the scenes” with Facebook to influence Facebook’s news judgment on the subject of “fake news,” according to a briefing book for donors obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Matter Matters, founded by Clinton hack David Brock and funded by left-wing financier George Soros, claims its “core mission” as an organization is “disarming right-wing misinformation.” This typically takes the form of attacking non-liberal news sources and playing defense for Democrat politicians and other prominent liberals. Leaked emails from the Clinton campaign revealed staffers discussing coordinating with Media Matters to push their message out into the media.

In the briefing book, Media Matters takes credit for pressuring Facebook into committing to fight fake news.

The question is as ever: Who will watch the watchmen?

NO, IT ISN’T “MORE BEER.” The Beer Accessory You Didn’t Know You Desperately Needed.

The Drink Tank looks a lot like a piece of industrial camping equipment, or maybe a NASA-issued extraterrestrial water collection container. It’s a formidable piece of technology that has inspired more than a couple coworkers to ask what the hell it is. It can hold up to 128 oz. of beer (or any liquid). That’s 8 pints or just under 11 cans of beer. Plus it would easily fit in a backpack. Its double-wall insulated chamber can keep beer cold for 24 hours after an initial filling. So if your friends don’t finish the limited edition saison you brought back from Vermont, you can have it again for breakfast the next day. Waste not.

What really takes this Hulk-sized Thermos to the next level is the keg accessory cap. With a screw-on top, a CO2 cartridge, and a keg hose, this package turns the already impressive growler into that walk-around keg I was dreaming about. That CO2 pressure keeps beer fresh for longer, as opposed to a “Once You Open It, You Finish It” policy that comes with a regular growler—or crowler. No tipping and spilling. No flat beer. Just the pinch of a tap hose.

I’m not sure what problem these solve — they don’t keep beer cold long enough for a weekend camping trip, but they’re too big for most anything else — but they certainly are a clever concept.

THE HORROR… THE HORROR: ‘Apocalypse Now’ Video Game in Works From Francis Ford Coppola.

“Forty years ago, I set out to make a personal art picture that could hopefully influence generations of viewers for years to come,” Coppola said in a statement. “Today, I’m joined by new daredevils, a team who want to make an interactive version of ‘Apocalypse Now,’ where you are Captain Benjamin Willard amidst the harsh backdrop of the Vietnam War.”

The RPG version of “Apocalypse Now” aims to blend a cinematic narrative with role-playing game mechanics. Players will take on the role of Captain Willard, on a secret mission to assassinate the renegade Colonel Kurtz.

Given the talent involved, hopes would be high for this game — but for the Social Justice Warriors infesting the gaming industry.

Or perhaps Coppola has enough cross-industry credibility to get the game that he wants.

SLATE MORPHED INTO SALON SO SLOWLY I HARDLY EVEN NOTICED: The Siege of Sanctuary Cities Has Begun.

Siege?

WALTER HUDSON: 3 Easy Tips for Raising Your Daughter in Trump’s America.

Really, this is solid, apolitical advice no matter who sits in the Oval Office.

REAL NEWS:

How will Secretary Tillerson cope?

PERHAPS SARAH HOYT WILL LET ME BORROW HER SHOCKED FACE: U.S. Border Patrol Chief Morgan asked to leave the agency.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan, a former longtime Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, has left the agency, two sources familiar with his departure told Reuters on Thursday.

Morgan told employees on a phone call Thursday morning that he was not resigning but had been asked to leave by the Trump administration, said a Department of Homeland Security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Morgan’s departure comes one day after President Donald Trump announced a broad plan to crack down on border security, including directing the construction of a wall along the border with Mexico.

The border patrol union, which endorsed Trump’s presidential campaign and applauded his executive order, had been critical of Morgan. The union criticized Morgan for supporting former President Barack Obama’s plans to safeguard certain undocumented immigrants from deportation.

At the very least, Morgan’s departure ought to improve morale.

TALIBAN OPEN LETTER TO TRUMP: ‘Unwaveringly Accept’ Defeat in Afghanistan.

Nation-building is out, but mowing the lawn never gets old.

HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL: Boeing Unveils New Spacesuits for Starliner Astronaut Taxi.

Boeing got the weight down to a mere 20 pounds, and they’re pretty sharp given their purpose.

BULLY PULPIT: Trump creates name-and-shame list to embarrass sanctuary cities.

Keep in mind that the “bully” in “bully pulpit” refers to its utility, and not to any actual bullying.

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: CFPB Chief Cordray Urged to Run for Ohio Governor.

The mood of the country — and especially the Rust Belt states that made Trump president — is not “Let’s promote the failed chief of an unloved and unconstitutional federal bureaucracy.”

BAD TEACHER: Texas Teacher Screams “DIE” While Shooting Water at Trump Inauguration Video in Class.

Video at the link.

KURT SCHLICHTER: Can Creepy Leftist Weirdos Create A Progressive Tea Party?

Now the question is whether the Democrats can pull off the same thing, because you know they want to – sort of. Don’t believe the comfortable lie liberals tell themselves – the Tea Party was no astroturfed, community organized event. It was largely spontaneous, brought into being mainly by people who had learned their organizational skills running small businesses, churches, and community events. Sure, the charlatans came along later, but in its prime the Tea Party was just normal people pushing into politics as a way of pushing back against liberal intrusion into their lives.

Of course, that decentralization was what frustrated the GOP Establishment – they could not control the beast. The Tea Party did its own thing, famously defying the bosses with various levels of success. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Marco Rubio: Good. That oddball who went on TV to deny being a witch: Not so good. And the Tea Party held the Establishment’s Gucci loafered feet to the fire – instead of just going through the motions, now the GOP had to start performing. That’s happened with various levels of success, but just remember that Obamacare is going to be dead in the very near future. Revenge is a dish best served cold – think iced tea.

Now, can this collection of leftist strange-os and commies, feminists and femboys, do the same?

Not without plenty of Astroturf and Soros money — which isn’t the same at all.

QUESTION ASKED: Will France Sound the Death Knell for Social Democracy?

Social democracy is the perfect example of H.L. Mencken’s comment that “the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” But Marine Le Pen’s Nationalist Front is more of the same, just with different bosses and different state-selected winners and losers.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Printed human body parts could soon be available for transplant.

VIRTUE-SIGNALING: Madeleine Albright ‘ready to register as Muslim’ over refugee suspension.

Will she also adopt the veil and stop appearing in public without an adult male relative in attendance?