THE FBI has 'grave concerns' about releasing the House Intelligence Committee's memo? I agree. As PowerLine notes, "The Bureau needs, at a minimum, to be reformed via a thorough housecleaning of senior bureaucrats."

And not just the FBI -- all of Washington D.C. would be a good beginning.

RANDOM THOUGHT on the State of the Union speech. The Democrats presented themselves as a bunch of ugly, spoiled brats. Even on their worst days, neither of my children ever behaved that badly.

Their parents should be ashamed.

OPEN LETTER to Melinda Byerley: Thank you for your generous offer not to share your presence with us 'violent, racist, and/or misogynistic stupid people who live in the shithole known as rural America'. We much prefer that you and your self-anointed elitist narcissists remain in your pristine urban enclaves.

Again, thank you for not subjecting us to your lunacy.

DONALD TRUMP, JR: "Boots, not suits." Talking about his father's priorities on Hannity last night.

CLASS ACT: Liberal author Jonathan Tasini celebrates fatal GOP train accident: ‘God is working hard today’.

I doubt he'll be working for CNN again anytime soon.

EXCLUSIVE: Schiff memo leaks to PowerLine.

Heh.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Inside every dark cloud is a Democrat.

DON'T DRINK COFFEE WITH A STRAW IN CALIFORNIA. Or you might end up in jail with cancer.

CRUMBS? JUST CRUMBS? House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: Bonuses of $1,000 are "crumbs".

Uh, huh. Let's look at the data. According to the Social Security Administration the average wage at the beginning of the Obama administration in 2009 was $39,653 (~$19.06/hr). At the end of the Obama administration in 2016 it was $46,120 (~$22.17/hr), an annual growth rate of 2.2%. That Trump tax cut induced bonus may be a 'crumb' to Miz Pelosi, but it exceeds the average annual wage growth during the entire Obama administration (2.4% vice 2.2%).

Somehow I don't think a bonus that probably exceeds last year raise would be considered a 'crumb' by most working Americans.

Miz Pelosi should try working some time - she might come to appreciate the value of hard-earned money.

CALIFORNIA ON FEDERAL TAX CUT: It's really our money and we're kindly letting you have half.

America really needs a major earthquake to send the rogue state of West California out to sea....

NOT JUST LINDSEY GRAHAM: out of the mainstream on immigration.

It's the entire ruling bureaucracy that's out of the mainstream. Their contempt for those they think they represent is increasingly obvious, and now, with Donald Trump's election, our growing contempt for them is turning toward action in the 2018 mid-terms.

NEWTON MINOW WAS RIGHT: television has gone from a 'vast wasteland' in the 1960's to an even more vast wasteland in 2018.

TRUMP-VOTING DEMOCRATS are delighted in Ohio. Off-air, I'll bet CNN's newsers really got their knickers in a twist.

IN THE UNITED STATES: Christianity isn't shrinking, it's growing stronger. Living where I do, I find the assertion believable.

TREVOR NOAH: continuing proof that the Left is inherently racist.

DAN RATHER: tanned, rested, and ready to report Leftist 'reality'.

LIBERALS can't help going Nazi. Greg Poops. What an appropriate name....

What? It's Proops? Oh, sorry....

CNN'S JIM ACOSTA: putting the 'me' in media.

HARSH WORDS: "Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants."

But true ones.

IT SEEMS THE DNC CHAIR really hates his job. It would be more accurate to leave off the last two words.

THANK GOD THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IS OVER: Now the pandas will survive and the killer asteroids will return to outer space.

And the progressives will stop clutching their pearls....

AMID THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, here are the lawmakers who chose not to receive a salary. A total of 41 out of 535 (a measly 7%); 30 Republicans and 11 Democrats.

NOVEMBER 2018: Reality check ahead.

SOME CHURCH SIGNS FROM AROUND THE TOWN:

A vitamin for Christians is B-1.

Stop by and say hello. God doesn't mind pop-ins.

May your troubles last as long as your [New Years] resolutions.

Unlike the urban cityfolk, those of us in rural America have pretty good senses of humor.

IT LOOKS LIKE the people who say political correctness kills have a point.

PJ MEDIA: The scourge of multiculturalism.

[Multiculturism] was the idea behind the Schengen policy adopted by the European Union, the Diversity Visa Lottery or “chain migration” program in the U.S., and the hospitality to primarily Muslim immigration in my own country of Canada. Every one of these measures has, by any honest report, proven a failure.

Read it all.

HEH: Kimber Manufacturing (a gun manufacturer) expands its facilities; just not in New York.

YA THINK? Liberals only believe in climate change when it suits them.

GOOGLE is an intolerant race cult.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Does the California model really work?

HEH:

WHAT IS BEST IN LIFE, DONALD? “To pass a tax bill, to stop a shutdown, to see the Schumers driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women.”

Heh. And heh again.

MIKE ROWE gently shows a liberal woman the error of her ways.

Read it all; I don't think I've ever seen a better takedown.

BRITISH FEMINIST: It's okay to discriminate against conservatives.

Bullying is only wrong when liberals are the victims.

INSTAPUNDIT on the decency of hard work. I'm sure the Democrats will howl at the very thought of allowing the homeless to earn a living.

POWERLINE: an immigration trifecta. Read it all, and be sure to watch the video.

With respect to Hinderaker's note that California now has the highest percentage of its population living in poverty, here's the data.

OUR GOVERNING CLASS: "Trump doesn't reflect who we are." A more accurate lede is "Trump doesn't reflect who we think we are - your superiors".

The thing is, they’re not superior to him, as the 15-month ragefest since the 2016 election demonstrates. And, what really burns is, the voters don’t think they’re superior to him. And when a sense of superiority is all you’ve got (and cultivated self-superiority is the core of the current leftist project), realizing that others don’t share it is a narcissistic wound from which there is no recovery.

Read it all.

SODA TAX STICKER SHOCK hits Seattle.

I almost wish there was a CostCo in my neighborhood. It's refreshing to see a company tell its customers to go shop elsewhere if they want to save money.

TEAM SCHUMER CAVES: the government will (probably) reopen.

HEH: More here.

UPDATE & BUMP TO TOP: The Democrats didn't cave; they collapsed - the vote in the Senate was 81-18 in favor. The House is now still voting to concur with the Senate, but they've already got the 218 votes they need to win a majority.

WHAT THE SHUTDOWN TELLS US ABOUT MODERN DEMOCRATS: "Minority, majority, process, or norms, it doesn’t really matter. Democrats believe they should always be in control."

As if we (those of us who can still think) didn't already know....

THE FOOLITIZER PRIZE: Where is the media's shame?

They have no shame; they're proud of being fools....

BECAUSE THEY'RE DUMBER? Why do Californians pay more state and local taxes than Texans?

TWITTER: this is your brain on social media.

THIS IS A NO-BRAINER: CNN 'star' Jim Acosta should be kicked out of the White House press corps. If President Trump has his way, it may already be a fait accompli.

IF YOU ONLY THOUGHT THE FBI SENIOR MANAGEMENT WAS CORRUPT, now you know.

TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE IN HAITI have Donald Trump to thank for their vision.

GOVERNMENT DEPENDENCY breeds stupidity. I used to think stupid was inherited; now I'm convinced it's taught.

AMMO GRRRLL on showers (bad) versus baths (good).

THEY'RE GOING TO BE WAITING A WHILE: The Left is dying for a concealed carry holder to make a mistake.

Sure, it's better to let the bad guy continue killing innocents than risk a good guy killing an innocent in the process of stopping the bad guy.

POWERLINE: A bully flees from confrontation.

TAKEDOWN TWEETS from the White House.

It's masterful trolling of the Left....

POWERLINE: a primer on the government shutdown.

Right now I think Trump is winning; let's hope he - and the Republicans in Congress - don't back down.

THINGS JOURNALISTS BELIEVE that are nonsense.

[J]ournalists like to think theirs is a noble profession, when in fact it is a simple trade. They fancy themselves as do-gooders, sent to Earth to right all wrongs.

Persistent in all this is the wrong-headed belief that news organizations must educate the public.

No. They must inform.

That is a humbler but more valuable service to society.

Journalism's arrogance is underwhelming.

THE NEW STATES SHOULD BE NAMED 'NEW CALIFORNIA' AND 'NEW VENEZUELA': 'New California' movement seeks to divide the Golden State in half. In population, not geography.

Note that 'New Venezuela' is already scheduled to depart the U.S., being west of the San Andreas fault.

STORM SIGNS for Fauxcahontas?

The cartoons are hilarious....

HEH: "[S]ometimes you just have to take the sweet with the sweet."

DONALD JOHN TRUMP has been President of the United States for one year now. How does his first year compare with (thankfully former) President Obama's first year?

The data was taken from Rasmussen's Presidential Approval index where the index is the difference between the percentage of those who strongly approve the President's performance and those who strongly disapprove.

Trump started his administration nearly 20 points below Obama, and that difference remained constant for the first six months of his administration. Since July his approval leveled out and has been slowly increasing ever since.

Trump's approval exceeded Obama's for the first time ever on the 21st of December and the two have been essentially the same ever since. The trend lines (3rd order polynomial least-mean-square fit) tend to indicate that Trump's approval will continue to improve while Obama's will continue to decline.

The media narrative isn't looking so good....

ABSOLUTELY: Much of the federal government should be shut down.

Friday was a good start....

SARAH SANDERS on the Schumer Shutdown:

Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown. Tonight they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans.

We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands. This is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators.

When Democrats start paying our armed forces and first responders we will reopen negotiations on immigration reform. During this politically manufactured Schumer Shutdown, the President and his Administration will fight for and protect the American people.

Bravo, Sarah. Don't back down.

THIS WEEK IN PICTURES: Dumbocrat Edition. There are so many good ones this week I couldn't select just one:

One, two, many ....

Oops ... or a twofer?

Proof positive.

The new Democrat motto.

Someone has hearing loss.

Now go and see the rest.

THE WOMEN'S MARCHES ARE UNDERWAY. According to Fox News, the 'ladies' are wearing pink hats. What happened to the 'pussy hats' of the before-Trump era?

MORE: The embarrassing collapse of the feminist movement.

MINNESOTA WOMAN strikes St. Catherine University. You can thank the Dumbocrats Democrats for promoting victimization 24/7 for the last many years.

SO, HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT MOVING? When an earthquake hits next door.

THINK ABOUT IT FOR A MOMENT: The federal government government shut down at midnight last night and the sun still rose on schedule this morning. Maybe - just maybe - we can get along without our bureaucratic bunglers 'helping' us.

Let the Dumbocrats Democrats keep the government shut down. The longer, the better.

COMMENT OF THE DAY: "The only thing bipartisan in Washington D.C. is incompetence."

Heard on Fox Business channel this morning. Truer words were never spoken.

HEH:

SINGLE PAYER: dying for health care.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Since Democrats are so adamently opposed to the Republican tax cuts, I would suggest that all registered Democrats be required to continue paying income taxes at the 2017 rate for as long as they remain registered Democrats.

CNN'S JIM ACOSTA: What happened to me today at the White House is something I thought would only happen in foreign countries.

What a pompous, arrogant jerk. He's an embarassment to journalism.

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: 'Shithole' countries are diverse too.

WHAT'S LEFT WHEN YOU CAN'T COMPETE ON MERIT? Gender studies coordinator denounces the ‘logic of meritocracy’ as fundamentally ‘racist’.

TAX REFORM: the (mainstream) media vs. the facts.

ANOTHER 'TOLERANT' LEFTIST bites the dust.

Keep punching back, America.

'CHELSEA' MANNING runs for Senate; [Medal of Honor recipient] Dakota Meyer responds.

"TO TELL THE TRUTH, the biggest s***hole in America ... [is] the 535 members of Congress that remain on course to turn our country into another Haiti or El Salvador or MS 13 stronghold or Moslem caliphate..."

Read the whole thing.

NEWSWEEK: Ocean levels aren't rising because the ocean floor is sinking. Could someone please explain to Newsweek that the ocean floor is connected to the land surface by beaches?

HEH:

From this post.

MY FAVORITES from PowerLine's Week in Pictures:

The Obama Presidential Library

Now go see the rest.

EXCITING NEWS FROM MARYLAND: Convicted traitor running for U.S. Senate.

Thanks, Obama.

WHY IS THIS A QUESTION? Is the Washington Post part of the far left?

OF CRUDENESS AND TRUTH: Thoughts on President Trump’s latest verbal tempest. Key graf for me:

The fact is: some countries are shitholes. I don’t want [America] to become one of them.

Read it all.

THANKFULLY FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Fox News viewers are “living on a different planet” than people who consume mainstream media.

He's right. Except that his supporters are living in gated communities on an imaginary planet of unicorns and rainbows; ours are living on a real planet.

STILL MORE ACADEMIC IDIOCY: an "article from the Western Journal of Communications, which ... must specialize in Gabby Johnson’s 'authentic frontier gibberish'.”

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D[umb]-MA) says she believes in science.

Actually she believes in 'Science'.

BEARING ARMS: Small group of Georgia (Democrat state) senators want to destroy guns.

The guns in question are ones that have been confiscated by police. Current policy is to sell them at auction to licensed dealers and put the proceeds into the state's general fund, which strikes me as an eminently sensible idea.

But then, Democrats (naturally) are not well known to be sensible ... eminently or otherwise.

THIS HEADLINE in Newsweek -- "Trump Could Destroy the Entire Human Species, Says Yale Psychiatrist Who Warned Congress Members" -- is a reminder that ending involuntary commitment to state hospitals had its downside.

Linked from Don Surber.

GOOGLE'S NEW FACTCHECKER is partisan garbage.

And their search engine is equally biased. Here's an example: try a search for "Shadow's World blog" on a variety of search engines. I did. Here are the results:

Google: not in the first 10 pages (100 entries)
Aol: 1st entry
Bing: 3rd entry
Yahoo: 4th entry
Ask: not in first 10 pages

More here, here, and here.

And here are two more related articles.

NEVER TRUMPERS: Apologize now, before it's too late.

NATIONAL REVIEW on sacrificing pain patients to stop the opiod epidemic. Key graf for me:

I am weary of how we punish the law-abiding and productive sectors of our society in order to protect people who may have serious addictions or criminal intentions.

So am I, and I've been making this exact same argument since 1985.

DON SURBER: Now it's Trump, 43; anti-Trump, 0. Scroll down.

Keep trying, anti-Trumpers. You might win one yet.

NANNY STATE CHRONICLES: Oregonians can now pump their own gasoline.

No wonder middle America calls itself 'flyover country' -- who would want these bozos driving through?

2017: It was a very good year.

SOME CARTOONS THAT HAVE PASSED MY WAY:

And as an added bonus: the fork in the road.

Enjoy.

IT'S TIME TO REVISIT MY HOLDINGS: The five best handguns in the world.

WHY DON'T THEY JUST DECLARE EVERYTHING RACIST AND BE DONE WITH IT? Boston University professor: The Christmas song 'Jingle Bells' is rooted in racism.

A BIT LATE but here's 2017 in Pictures courtesy of PowerLine. My favorite:

Now go and see the rest.

TAKING THEIR CUE FROM HOLLYWEIRD HOLLYWOOD, Democrat women are planning on wearing black to President Trump's first State of the Union address.

FRANKLY, I don't think the aliens would watch.

Or maybe they are the aliens instead of merely being insane.

DEMOCRATS: If illegals can't vote for us we're dead.