Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from Washington, where no love is lost between Democrats and Trump's Cabinet nominees. Only our first president had to wait so long for department heads to be in place. Rob Bluey has stats. A Trump adviser shares insight on defeating ISIS. Josh Siegel reports. What might Trump do about lawmen's seizure of property? Melissa Quinn explains. Plus: John Cooper on the sorry state of military readiness, Rachel Bovard on unmerited praise for the gentlewoman from Massachusetts, and Peter Myers on Frederick Douglass and the American spirit.

NEWS Trump Has Fewest Cabinet Secretaries Confirmed Since George Washington Unprecedented delays and obstructionism on the part of Democrats have resulted in the most contentious confirmation process in U.S. history. Read More

NEWS Trump Terrorism Adviser Says War on ISIS About Ideology "I am down with killing terrorists," says Sebastian Gorka, who advises Trump on foreign policy. "But the ultimate victory will have accrued when we delegitimize the ideology of groups like the Islamic State." Read More

COMMENTARY Elizabeth Warren Is Not a Feminist Icon Raising Warren up as a hero of feminism because she knowingly broke a gender-neutral Senate rule not only belittles the actual achievements of feminist heroes like Alice Paul, Sojourner Truth, and Susan B. Anthony, it relegates women—again—to the status of victims, which they are most certainly not. Read More

COMMENTARY Defense Leaders Agree: US Military Readiness Is at a Dangerous Low Of 58 total brigade combat teams (the Army's main combat building block), only three are considered ready for combat, while the Navy's fleet is the smallest it has been in nearly 100 years. Read More

NEWS What Trump Can and Can't Do to Make Changes to Civil Forfeiture In a roundtable discussion, Trump questioned why anyone would want to limit the police's ability to take "a huge stash of drugs," and ultimately told the sheriffs in attendance they were "encouraged" to take property through civil forfeiture. Read More

FEATURE She's Taking What She Learned on Capitol Hill to a National Pro-Life Group As director of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, Autumn Christensen helped craft bills that would prohibit the use of federal funds for abortion and prohibit abortion of babies who are capable of feeling pain. Read More

COMMENTARY Why Frederick Douglass Embraced Patriotism Douglass confessed to an early abolitionist mentor that the sentiment of patriotism "was whipt out of me" by the slave masters under whose dominion he was born. But he later changed his mind. Read More

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