Break's Over...

Marriage...

Upper Crust

Left...

The Democrats are in disarray and face a number of problems winning the 2020 election. For starters, the Democratic presidential nomination process is highly fluid.   At the debates, the media panelists goad candidates to attack each other. They dig up long-forgotten issues.  

Candidates, to win attention, outdo each other in moving to the left or in making bold declarations on controversial issues such as "Medicare for All."

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the initial front-runner, has been an embarrassment. He is not a good debater, is inarticulate, seems to be confused and out of touch, and makes numerous gaffes.    

 Impeachment has become a partisan political brawl. It has not gained support among Republican voters, who are strongly opposed, or among independent voters, who are evenly divided on its appropriateness. 

Hips ..

Prepping for the Super Bowl halftime show, Shakira works incredibly hard to stay in shape and live a healthy lifestyle. The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer will take Pepsi’s stage with Jennifer Lopez at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Feb. 2—which also happens to be her birthday.

Aside from increased exercise (i.e. a ton of dance rehearsals), her fitness routine follows the same simple structure it has for years. Here’s exactly what she does to stay in such incredible shape at 43.

Shakira’s trainer Anna Kaiser has told multiple publications about the artist’s fitness routine ahead of her once-in-a-lifetime performance. “Every day is different because I want to make sure I’m preparing her not just for the Super Bowl, but for each day as it comes.” 

Again...

Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who this morning excused President Donald Trump’s actions over the Ukraine scandal as “maybe wrong,” told Bloomberg News on Sunday that if former Vice President Joe Biden were to become the next president, the GOP could very well try to impeach him.

“I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened, “Joe Biden should be very careful what he’s asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, ‘Well, we’re going to impeach him."

Wait...

Patrick Mahomes threw for a pair of touchdowns in the game’s final 6:13, helping the Kansas City Chiefs erase a 10-point deficit and beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in Super Bowl 54. 

Mahomes finished 26 of 42 passing for 286 yards, his last pass intentionally going incomplete on the final play -- a heave downfield to erase the final 5 seconds of Kansas City's 50-year wait.

Unsetteled...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry — one of Joe Biden's highest-profile endorsers — was overheard Sunday on the phone at a Des Moines hotel explaining what he would have to do to enter the presidential race amid "the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party — down whole."

Sitting in the lobby restaurant of the Renaissance Savery hotel, Kerry was overheard by an NBC News analyst saying "maybe I'm f---ing deluding myself here" and explaining that in order to run, he'd have to step down from the board of Bank of America and give up his ability to make paid speeches.

Kerry said donors like venture capitalist Doug Hickey would have to "raise a couple of million," adding that such donors "now have the reality of Bernie.

It’s not clear how serious Kerry was on the call about jumping into the race. But that he would even discuss the possibility suggests that prominent members of the Democratic Party remain deeply unsettled by the current field, Sanders' strength in the polls, and the ability of any candidate to defeat President Donald Trump.

Quarantine...

The United States will implement stringent travel restrictions Sunday evening in an effort to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak that has so far killed more than 300 people in China and infected more than 14,000 worldwide.

The plan, which goes into effect at 5 p.m. ET, includes temporarily denying entry to foreign nationals who visited China in the 14 days prior to their arrival to the US, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday.

Restrictions also apply to US citizens who have been in China's Hubei province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, in the two weeks prior to their return to the US. Upon their return to the US, those citizens will be subject to a mandatory quarantine of up to 14 days.

Witch Hunt...

The Senate voted on Friday to block new witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial, signaling a crucial turning point and steering toward an all but certain acquittal within days. 

The end game became clear after this step. The Dems new what they are getting out of it and the Republican will solidify their base as a result.

The rancor engendered by our current impeachment debate bears out Alexander Hamilton’s prediction that impeachments would “seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties.” But the scope of “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” shouldn’t turn on one’s opinion of any particular president. 

Partisans who lower the bar to impeachment in order to punish a president they revile — or raise it to save one they support — may, under future presidents, live to regret the standard they’ve set.