SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET:

I'M SO GLAD WE KNOW – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   A Rutgers University women’s and gender studies professor thinks she has the answer to why white women seemingly voted against their interests in the 2016 presidential and last month’s Alabama US Senate elections.  “Simply put,” Kyla Schuller writes in a guest post for the Duke University Press blog, “sex difference is itself a racial structure.”  The professor, whose research interests include feminist science studies, biopolitics, and Transnational American Studies, claims that “sexual difference, as a concept, emerged as a function of race.” Her new book, The Biopolitics of Feeling, “zeroes in on this generally overlooked phenomenon.”  Indeed. Weird how so many think of sexual difference in terms of biology.  “The binary entities of man and woman were newly understood as thoroughly distinct in terms of mental, physiological, emotional, and psychological capacity,” Schuller writes. “Sex difference was presented as the singular attainment of a teleological evolution moving toward ever greater specialization.”  No doubt about it.  I've been thinking this way for a long time.  I'm glad to be getting new support.  Choke.

SAY IT AIN'T SO – FROM FOX:   An illegal immigrant on a Greyhound bus who allegedly threatened to shoot and kill passengers on Friday — leading police on a chase from Wisconsin to Illinois — was deported five times, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told Fox News.  The spokesperson said on Sunday Margarito Vargas-Rosas, 33, who faces terror charges, was in the U.S. illegally and was "removed" from the U.S. the last five times Border Patrol agents encountered him.  Police responded to a call around 9:40 p.m. Friday from a bus passenger who claimed there was a person threatening to kill people, Fox 6 reported, citing the Racine County Sheriff’s Department.  Vargas-Rosas, of Chicago, was reportedly pacing the aisle toward the back of the bus, and appeared to draw what passengers thought was a weapon from his waistband.  Obviously a misunderstanding.  We're sure Barack Obama can clear it all up.

TAX REFORM COMETH – FROM CBS LOCAL, BY CNN MONEY:   (CNN Money) — The U.S. Treasury and the IRS on Thursday put out new guidance and withholding tables for employers that incorporate changes from the new tax law.  Under those new tables, the Treasury estimates that 90% of people who get a paycheck are likely to see more in take-home pay, as soon as February. Employers will have until Feb. 15 to incorporate the changes in their payroll systems.  But for many taxpayers, they will need to assess whether the new tables really are withholding enough money so that they’re not saddled with a big bill when they file their taxes next year.  The major changes affecting individuals include new tax brackets, (mostly) lower income tax rates, a near-doubling of the standard deduction and the elimination of both personal exemptions as well as many itemized deductions.   We hope this works well.  If it does, it will be another great shot in the arm for the economy, as well as providing ammunition for the GOP in November.

January 14, 2018