White House Dossier's

Supreme Court appears ready to hand the Deep State a massive defeat . . . Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism about a 40-year-old precedent urging courts to show special “deference” to administrations’ interpretations of law. Conservative legal scholars have long argued that the 1984 Chevron case has fueled massive growth of presidential power at the expense of Congress and average Americans. The cases heard Wednesday give the court, with a majority of Republican-appointed justices, a chance to overturn the “Chevron deference.” The cases involved Atlantic herring fishermen. A federal agency ordered the fishermen to allow catch monitors onto their boats and pay $700 daily to cover the cost. Fishermen say the fee could put many of them out of business and argue that courts have not recognized Congress ’ intentions with the law. Washington Times

The federal government has been writing laws for long enough.

US asked banks to flag transactions using terms like "MAGA" and "Trump" . . . Federal investigators asked banks to search and filter customer transactions by using terms like "MAGA" and "Trump" as part of an investigation into Jan. 6, warning that purchases of "religious texts" could indicate "extremism," the House Judiciary Committee revealed Wednesday. The committee also obtained documents that indicate officials suggested that banks query transactions with keywords like Dick's Sporting Goods, Cabela's, Bass Pro Shops and more. Fox News

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Nikki Haley was governor of South Carolina. It could be where her campaign ends . . . Nikki Haley’s long-shot strategy to win the Republican presidential nomination is to pull off an upset in New Hampshire next week over former President Donald Trump—then beat him again in her home state of South Carolina a month later. But she has a problem: South Carolina is Trump Country. Despite Haley’s deep personal ties and political legacy, Trump, 77, has been considered the front-runner in South Carolina for months. Haley lags behind Trump by about 30 points in most state polls. Wall Street Journal

Trump critics grumble that Haley not hitting Trump hard enough

Maine told to wait before removing Trump from ballot . . . A Maine judge told Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to wait to decide whether to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot until after the Supreme Court decided on a similar case from Colorado. Hearing Trump’s appeal to the Maine Democratic secretary of state’s decision to remove him from the ballot, Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy delayed the situation until after the Supreme Court ruled on whether it was constitutional to remove Trump from the Colorado ballot, the first state to move to remove the former president under the 14th Amendment. Washington Examiner

Former DeSantis super PAC spokesman defects to Trump

Biden decision to water down Houthi terror designation draws outrage . . . The Biden administration moved to reapply sanctions this week on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, but did so under a weaker federal statute that will not criminalize support for the terrorist group or force American banks to seize their assets, current and former U.S. officials said. After months of Houthi attacks on U.S. and Western ships in the Middle East, the Biden administration announced late Tuesday that it will be placing the Houthis on the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list, which applies a range of new sanctions on the group, effective Feb. 16. Washington Free Beacon

US launches fourth round of strikes against Houthis

North Korea gets to test its weapons in Ukraine . . . Despite a barrage of test launches, North Korea hasn’t been able to gauge how its new generation of short-range ballistic missiles performs on the battlefield—particularly against Western defenses—until now. The high-profile battlefield exposure is likely to afford the regime of leader Kim Jong Un new proliferation opportunities, security experts say. The country’s illicit-arms business stretches back decades, though it has trailed off in recent years. Wall Street Journal

International

Pakistan bombs Iran . . . Pakistan conducted a series of military strikes Thursday morning against insurgents operating in Iran in response to a deadly bombing in the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan on Tuesday. The Pakistan Armed Forces completed a "series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes" against Pakistani terrorists in Iran's Siestan-o-Baluchistan province as part of an intelligence-based operation named "Marg Bar Sarmachar," Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. Fox News

Germany's economy is at a standstill . . . The economy shrank last year and is not predicted to grow much in 2024. Farmers are angry, industrial output is falling and the government is bickering. Since it was rebuilt after World War II, Germany has been Europe’s main driver of economic growth, becoming an industrial powerhouse known for vast factories and fine-tuned engineering. But now its automakers must compete with relatively cheap electric cars from China, and it vies with the United States to attract tech giants. There is a growing realization that Germany has not been successful updating its industry with sufficient flexibility and digital know-how to remain competitive. New York Times

Money

Spotify has trouble spotting profits . . . Spotify has a plum position in the audio-streaming business. It’s the leading platform, with some 600 million users. Its 30% market share is twice that of its next-largest competitor. Spotify is adding millions of new subscribers a month, and few of its users cancel. Most companies can only dream of that kind of industry dominance. Yet not even the leading audio-streaming company has consistently made money off audio streaming. Wall Street Journal

Google set to lay off more workers . . . Google has laid off over a thousand employees across various departments since January 10th. CEO Sundar Pichai’s message is to brace for more cuts. “We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year,” Pichai told all Google employees on Wednesday in an internal memo that was shared with me. “The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices.” The Verge

Private jets for CEOs are back . . . One of the flashiest executive perks has roared back since the onset of the pandemic: free personal travel on the company jet. Companies in the S&P 500 spent $65 million for executives to use corporate jets for personal travel in 2022, up about 50% from prepandemic levels three years earlier. Early signs suggest the trend continued last year.  Overall, the number of big companies providing the perk rose about 14% since 2019, to 216 in 2022, figures from executive-data firm Equilar show. The number of executives receiving free flights grew nearly 25%, to 427. Wall Street Journal

Why is this, along with CEO mega-salaries, a problem? Companies are making a bottom line decision that CEOs are worth the money and need to get places faster. That helps everyone in the company including workers at the lowest rung of its ladder.

Culture

Jordan Peterson ordered to take social media sesitivity training . . . Conservative commentator Jordan Peterson lost his court fight to bar the College of Psychologists of Ontario from forcing him to take social media training courses. On Tuesday, the Ontario Court of Appeals rejected the psychologist’s motion to relitigate an earlier decision by the Ontario Divisional Court that ruled against Mr. Peterson. “It’s capitulate to the petty bureaucrats and the addle-pated woke mob or lose my professional licence,” he wrote on X, adding, “There is nothing you can take from me that I’m unwilling to lose. So watch out. Seriously. You’ve been warned.” Washington Times

Family of woman killed by illegal immigrant sues Biden administration for $100M . . . The family of a 20-year-old woman slain in 2022 will file a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit arguing the Biden administration caught and released an undocumented immigrant who then brutally raped and strangled her with a phone charging cord. Authorities would later figure out the suspect had MS-13 ties at the time he snuck into the U.S., but he was still caught and released under new relaxed policies the Biden administration implemented to deal with immigrant children without documentation. Washington Times

Man sets pants on fire trying to light a fart . . . He suffered from a serious case of fart-burn. A Chinese man’s attempt to light his fart literally backfired after he accidentally set his pants ablaze, as seen in viral footage igniting the internet. A video obtained by South West News Service shows Bin Touzi of Jilin province lying on his bed as he prepares to, well, add fuel to the fire. Heeding Bin’s instruction, a friend and idiocy enabler — who unsurprisingly wished to remain anonymous — raises a lighter to his buddy’s bum. He ignites it right as the prankster lets ‘er rip, creating a massive fireball. New York Post