JIM GERAGHTY: An Obama Insider’s Lament.

“I was forced to ask myself, would he really have used religious language to convince voters of something he did not believe?” Wear writes. “If the president did believe in and support same-sex marriage in 2007 or even earlier, his repeated assertions that he did not were a direct rebuke to the type of politics he said was possible. To let stand the claim that he supported gay marriage all along is to choose political gain over the integrity of the president’s own words.”

Rarely will you hear a participant in a winning presidential campaign describe the victorious effort so scathingly. Wear cringes at Democratic National Convention speakers “almost comically excited about abortion.” The cynicism of the endeavor grates on him. “Data-driven politics is incompatible with an aspirational politics. It is willing to sacrifice a broader coalition for a few bucks, a dozen hours of free airtime and an angrier base.” He’s clearly uncomfortable with the effort to paint Republican opponents into extreme, theocratic monsters: “Too often the White House would not seek to marginalize the most offensive voices but to prop them up. . . . One former aide to Obama summarized the 2012 campaign’s ‘basic message’ to voters was that ‘Mitt Romney hates you.’”

Community agitators gotta agitate, I suppose, but the far worse offense was our Fourth Estate’s willing complicity.

OBAMA’S PARTING GIFT: Trillion-Dollar Deficits As Far As The Eye Can See.

To be fair, the spending problem didn’t originate with Obama. To be even more fair, the last President who tried to do something about our entitlement crisis — George W. Bush’s push for partial privatization of Social Security — was excoriated by Obama’s fellow Democrats for the attempt.

UPDATE: From the comments, “State Department freezes Obama’s $221m gift to Palestinians.“

LABOUR’S LOVE LOST: Britain’s Populist UKIP Party on Track to Pull Off a Major Upset in Labour Stronghold.

The future is looking bright for Britain’s populist and patriotic U.K. Independence Party. According to a new poll, the party’s new leader — Paul Nuttall — is on track to win the by-election in Stoke Central on February 23. That’s significant because Stoke is one of Britain’s most important Labour strongholds. If the socialists lose their parliamentary seat to UKIP, it’s a sure sign that a populist revolution is coming in the next national elections.

A UKIP win there would put a little Fear of God into Tory MPs still on the Brexit fence.

REST IN PEACE: Mary Tyler Moore, dead at 80.

Her absolutely winning personality dazzled on the small screen, but her most lasting impact might have been in TV production company, MTM Enterprises. The company was responsible for classics like Lou Grant, WKRP, The Bob Newhart Show, Hill Street Blues, and of course The Mary Tyler Moore Show among too many others to list.

OVERREGULATION: How Virginia’s Hospital Licensing Laws Led to an Infant’s Death.

According to the report, 35 states have similar requirements.

INDEED:

PANIC AT THE EPA! Trump Erasing Climate Change Data from EPA Servers.

DR HELEN: Misandry and Child Abuse Flourish Among ‘Elites’ Who Want Revenge.

To be clear, this is elites looking for revenge for the harm they feel Trump will do them.

MYRON MAGNET: Trump’s revolution has been a long time brewing.

As Amity Shlaes shows in her 2008 book The Forgotten Man, that term, which Franklin Roosevelt applied to the man on the breadline in the Great Depression, “the man at the bottom of the economic pyramid,” more properly applies to those unhappy-if-silent taxpayers who funded the New Deal’s social-welfare schemes. And these are the forerunners of the Tea Partiers, another key class of Trump voter: the widow on a fixed income whose property-tax payment helps house a public-sector retiree comfortably but whose inexorable rise is making her own paid-off home unaffordable; the retiree whose IRA savings the Great Recession eroded or who can no longer get an adequate income from safe bond investments, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s policies; the small businessman or farmer ruined by undemocratic government regulation lacking even the pretense of due process; the ex-soldier abandoned by a dysfunctional Veterans Administration; the parent disgusted with public schools that impose ideologies she abhors on her children, while leaving them inadequately educated; and all those sincere believers in God or traditional values whom Obama dismissed as clinging desperately to outmoded pieties, as the arc of history, which the elite professor-president claimed to understand and direct according to his politically correct enlightenment, swirled them down the drain.

Read the whole thing.

CLAIM: Corruption worsens under populist leaders.

After eight years of Obama’s “scandal-free” administration, I’m just hoping for some honest reporting.

Well, “hope” might be too strong a word.

CHEATING? Judge says Aetna dropped out of some Obamacare markets to help win its merger fight.

Aetna announced it would pull out of most of the state exchanges where it sold health insurance under the Affordable Care Act last August, citing financial losses. But a U.S. District Court judge who rejected the company’s proposed merger with Humana on Monday revealed in his opinion that profitability wasn’t the only concern driving the company’s decision — Aetna also exited several markets as part of an effort to “improve its litigation position.”

U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates wrote that Aetna, pushing for a $37 billion merger with Humana since summer of 2015, decided to leave 17 counties in three states in order to improve the likelihood that the deal would be approved — including one where the business was doing well. Florida was the company’s third most-profitable exchange market in 2015 and the beginning of 2016.

If ObamaCare had allowed for a single, nationwide market for health insurance instead of further entrenching the country’s 51 little insurance fiefdoms, then gamesmanship like this wouldn’t be possible.

BUT OF COURSE: Media Covers Fake Mike Flynn Story, Ignores Bombshell on Secret Obama/Iran Meetings.

FASTER, PLEASE: U.S. Kills 5 AQAP Operatives in Yemen Airstrikes.

CHANGE? North Korean Defector Says Kim Jong Un Can’t Last.

North Korea’s former deputy ambassador to Britain, who last year became Pyongyang’s highest-profile defector in two decades, said “Kim Jong Un’s days are numbered” and vowed to help bring down the North Korean leader, calling that the only way to resolve the nuclear issue and unify the Korean Peninsula.

Thae Yong Ho, speaking to a group of foreign reporters for the first time since his defection, said he was prompted to abandon the regime in part to free his two sons from what he called the “slavery” of the North Korean system.

“I am sure that more defections of my colleagues will take place since North Korea is already on the slippery slope,” said Mr. Thae, who predicted a “popular uprising” against the leadership.

That would be nice, but we’ve been assured that the Kim regime was doomed since U.N. forces commanded by Douglas McArthur landed at Inchon in 1950.

JOURNALISM PROFESSOR: Boycott Kellyanne Conway.

New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen floated the idea of denying Conway access to television on a Recode podcast. Her ability to befuddle interviewers and parry questions and accusations from journalists frustrated Rosen, who served as department chair from 1999 to 2005.

“This is somebody who can speak for the Trump administration. But if we find that what Kellyanne Conway says is routinely or easily contradicted by Donald Trump, then that [reason to have her on] disappears,” he said. “It’s not just lying or spin or somebody who is skilled in the political arts of putting the best case on things or not answering a question, which is a pretty basic method of doing politics. It’s that when you are done listening to Kellyanne Conway, you probably understand less. That’s a problem.”

Rosen’s concern for spin appears to be new-founded. He was critical of President Barack Obama for allowing reporters to control the narrative during press conferences.

“You’re the President of the United States standing at the podium in the briefing room? You can steer the conversation any damn way you want.”

If it weren’t for double standards…

PROCUREMENT: China Announces Deployment of New Long Range Nuclear Missile.

In a rare move, China has publicly announced the deployment of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The Dong Feng (“East Wind”) -41 missile, or DF-41, can carry up to a dozen nuclear warheads and China claims it has the longest range of any nuclear missile in the world. The announcement of the missiles is likely a warning to U.S. President Donald Trump, who is known for sharply worded anti-Chinese rhetoric and has announced plans for a new ballistic missile system.

According to China’s Global Times newspaper, the People’s Liberation Army has deployed its newest intercontinental ballistic missile to Heilongjiang Province. The article cited eyewitness photos culled from Chinese social media by news media in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The photos showed heavy missile launchers, also known as transporter/erector/launchers (TELs) moving through Daqing City in Heilongjiang.

The DF-41 is described by Global Times as the most advanced ICBM in the world. It reportedly has a range of 8,699 miles, enough to hit any target on Earth with the exception of South America and parts of Antarctica. It can carry up to 12 nuclear warheads, and travels on China’s nationwide network of roads to make it difficult to track down and destroy.

The mainstay of the U.S. ground-based missile fleet is the 1970-vintage Minuteman III.

YEAH YOU DID, BIGLY: Twitter holds emergency intervention for Deadspin writer utterly owned by Ted Cruz: ‘I didn’t get owned’

WHAT’S HAPPENING? Newfound Asteroid ‘Rerun’ Zips Harmlessly By Earth.

YOU HAVE TO PASS IT BEFORE YOU CAN… OH: Schumer ripped Obamacare replacement before he read it.

Two GOP senators say Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has dismissed their Obamacare replacement bill before he ever had a chance to read it.

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said on CNN Tuesday that Schumer’s criticism of their plan to turn over healthcare policy to the states shows that the minority leader is making a partisan stand instead of trying to find a solution.

“He’s trying to keep his party in line, he’s trying to enforce partisanship,” Cassidy said. “We’re not about partisanship.”

Has Cassidy never heard the parable of the frog and the scorpion?

CHRISTIAN TOTO: 5 Great Mel Gibson Movies (Before ‘Hacksaw Ridge’).

I was glad to see Apocalypto on the list. Once it gets started, it’s the most kinetic, non-stop action movie I can recall — and with a surprisingly likable and relatable ancient Mayan hero.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: “If the economy grows during Trump’s administration, his opposition will dwindle.”

It certainly worked for Reagan, who “inherited” a similar mess.

NAVY REPORT: Larger 355-Ship Fleet — “Executable”

A completed “Force Structure Assessment” underscores what Navy leaders have been saying for quite some time – – that the current fleet size is insufficient to meet global demands from combatant commanders.

The assessment could likely mean more carriers, submarines, destroyers and amphibious assault ships, among other things.

The Navy assessment for 2018 calls for a sizeable jump up to 355 ships, including 12 carriers, 104 large surface combatants and 66 attack submarines. In the meantime, the services’ near term 2017 proposed fleet size seeks to increase the current 274-ship fleet up to 308.

Although various benchmarks will need to be reached in order for this new plan to come to fruition, such as Congressional budget allocations, Navy officials do tell Scout Warrior that the service is already working – at least in concept – on plans to vastly enlarge the fleet. Findings from this study are expected to inform an upcoming 2018 Navy Shipbuilding Plan, service officials said.

Navies take far longer to build up than any other service, and the traditions which make them effective are easy to lose and difficult to regain. And both are absolutely vital to a maritime trading power like the United States.

DOW HITS 20,000; PAUL KRUGMAN HARDEST HIT:

OUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING:

A brutal WFB mashup of Hillary’s famous ad and “highlights” from Saturday’s march.

REFLECTIONS OF PATCO: National park’s Twitter feed posts climate data in apparent defiance of Trump administration order.

The official Twitter account of South Dakota’s Badlands National Park posted climate data Tuesday in apparent defiance of a Trump administration order temporarily prohibiting such messages.

The posts carried the hashtag “Climate” and were soon deleted.

The Associated Press reported over the weekend that staff employees at the Interior Department were temporarily ordered to stop making posts to its Twitter account after the official account of the National Park Service retweeted a pair of photos that compared those gathered for Trump’s inauguration with the much larger crowd that attended Obama’s swearing-in.

Emails sent to staff at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and reviewed by The Associated Press also detailed specific prohibitions banning press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency’s social media accounts.

“Not the most inspiring time at EPA right now but we’re fighters,” an anonymous EPA staffer told Fox News.

Could this be the first “You’re fired!” moment of Trump’s young administration?