MSNBC to Hold Democrat Debate in New Hampshire on Thursday (VIDEO)

So, the RNC cancelled NBC's initially-scheduled debate for February 26 in Houston, Texas. And now the DNC's going with MSNBC for its Thursday night debate at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. That's a weird --- even freaky --- kind of partisan symmetry.

In any case, at the Boston Herald, "MSNBC to host Democratic debate in N.H. on Thursday."

And Kasie Hunt reports below, for the least popular cable network, with Steve Kornacki.

It's scheduled for Thursday at 9:00pm Eastern, and will be just the second of the Democrat debates that's been in held during a prime time weeknight slot (four have been held so far, and two were held on October 13 and November 14, a Saturday and a Sunday, respectively, on the weekends).

The Sanders campaign was really upset, thinking the DNC was putting its weight on the scales for Clinton, and apparently negotiations over the additional four debates got testy.

Watch:

Deal of the Day: 66 Audio BTS+ Bluetooth Sports Headphone

Today only, at Amazon, 66 Audio BTS+ Bluetooth Sports Headphone [2015] - Wireless Stereo Music Streaming and Hands-free Calling w/ Noise Canceling Mic feat. Bluetooth 4.0+ Multipoint.

Pretty wicked headphones.

Plus, good anytime, that Sasha Issenberg book I've been raving about all morning, The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns.

BONUS: From Robert Service, The End of the Cold War: 1985-1991.

Fierce Winds Blew Through Sacramento Overnight, Downing Trees and Causing Damage (VIDEO)

Here's more on Sunday's storm, this time from up north.

Via KCRA News 3 Sacramento:



PREVIOUSLY: "Fierce Storm Hit San Diego; One Person Killed When Tree Falls on Car (VIDEO)," and "Fierce Winds Reach 115 MPH Near Castaic; Snarled Traffic Closes Grapevine (VIDEO)."

Tareena Shakil, Who Took Toddler Son to Syria, Sentenced to Six Years for Joining Islamic State

She traveled to Syria and posted pics of her toddler son with a Kalashnikov.

At trial, the jury saw photos of her wearing at terrorist's balaclava.

Six years isn't enough, shoot.

At the BBC, "Tareena Shakil jailed for six years for joining IS."

Briton Tareena Shakil who took her toddler son to Syria jailed for six years for joining so-called Islamic State https://t.co/2D1KCbVNcC

— BBC Breaking News (@bbcnews_ticker) February 1, 2016

LATEST: Donald Trump Leads Ted Cruz 31-to-24 Percent in Last Iowa Poll Before Caucuses

As if we needed another poll, heh.

At the Hill, "Quinnipiac poll: First-time caucusgoers boost Trump, Sanders in Iowa."

And just now, at Quinnipiac, "First-Timers Put Trump Ahead in #Iowa GOP Caucus; Sanders Needs First-Timers to Tie Clinton in Dem Caucus."

Check back here for all the breaking news throughout the day. Shoot, I've been beating the "bigs" to the latest news all weekend, lol.

ADDED: Oops, I better check my ego here, lol. Ed Morrissey's got an analysis, at Hot Air, "Final Iowa Q-poll: Trump, Sanders up thanks to first-timers."

WATCH: Bernie Sanders Goes Negative? Hillary Clinton's Private Email Server a 'Very Serious Issue' (VIDEO)

Well, he's not going full-on negative, but he's not blowing off questions about Hillary's email scandal either.

And the Clinton campaign has been merciless in attacking Sanders, and it's just the beginning.

Jake Tapper asked him about his personal security detail on the campaign trail, indicating that he's been receiving death threats, which was something the "democratic socialist" thought it was better not to talk about.

Man, this is getting serious folks.

Watch, via CNN (the email comments come toward the end of the interview, after 7:30 minutes):

Florida Driver Pulls Over Cop for Speeding (VIDEO)

At the Orlando Sentinel, "Florida driver pulls over police officer for speeding."

And watch, via CBS News 2 New York:

Voters on 'Ideological Edges' to Set the Tone for 2016

I don't think the millions of white working-class voters providing (most of) the enormous surge of support for Donald Trump's campaign are on the "ideological edge."

On the other hand, 43 percent of Democrats self-identify in recent polling as "socialists," an ideological stance that's by definition to the far-left of the ideological spectrum.

But if you're a leftist, being in favor of secure borders and free markets makes you on "the fringe," or so we're told at the New York Times.

And it's not "may set the tone." Fringe leftists are definitely setting the tone, and the Trump campaign is frankly a push back against that monstrous ideological tendency.

See, "In Iowa, Voters on the Edges May Set Tone for Primaries":

DES MOINES — Iowa, widely derided for being unlike the rest of the United States, was supposed to be irrelevant this year as the presidential race became nationalized — thanks to widely viewed televised debates and the rise of social media.

But as the Iowa caucuses loom on Monday — the first votes after 1,500 candidate rallies, 60,000 TV ads and a nail-biting tightening of the polls here — the state’s voters are poised to play perhaps their most significant role ever in both parties’ nominating contests. And their embrace of candidates on the ideological fringes has amplified a national grass-roots rebellion against establishment politicians.

Both Democrats and Republicans have seen their presumptive nominees of a year ago — deeply experienced, proven political leaders — brushed aside by Iowans in favor of idol-smashing outsiders.

“There’s a tremendous amount of anti-establishment, anti-Washington sentiment here, and I would not be surprised if an outsider on both sides wins,” said Gov. Terry E. Branstad, a Republican, who has exerted himself in an unheard-of effort to derail one of his own party’s front-runners, Senator Ted Cruz.

Voters on the ideological edges, who dominate both parties in Iowa, have made Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, and Donald J. Trump and Mr. Cruz, whose views are anathema to Republican leadership, the standard-bearers of the left and the right.

The embrace of Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump, visible nationally in huge rallies, has stirred Iowa’s latent Midwest populism, with voters angry about the hollowing out of the middle class, Wall Street greed and the corrupting influence of money in politics. It has created two insurgents who in some ways are opposite sides of the same coin.

The policies of President Obama have added accelerant to the fire, with the far left unhappy he did not go far enough, and the right convinced he radically changed the United States.

“There’s a very disaffected segment of Republican voters and Democratic voters who just want to throw ’em all out,” said David Redlawsk, a political scientist at Rutgers University who wrote a book about the Iowa caucuses. “These particular voters have been told for several cycles, ‘All you have to do is vote for me, and it will be 100 percent different.’ It never is. Sanders and Trump are both benefiting.”

The results of Monday’s caucuses, which will take place in 1,681 precincts across Iowa, ride on such concrete factors as candidates’ get-out-the-vote efforts — but also on intangibles like voters’ perception of who is catching fire at the last minute, and even on the weather. Campaigns were anxiously checking forecasts amid reports of a snowstorm arriving late Monday, but expected that the weather would hold enough to encourage turnout, which could give an edge to the two candidates with large support from first-time voters, Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders. A victory for Mr. Trump, who has drawn thousands to his rallies here, would devastate Mr. Cruz. The senator has deployed waves of volunteers and sought to visit all 99 counties in Iowa to mobilize evangelical Christians, the core of a conservative coalition that he has built along with Tea Partiers and libertarians...

Even Ted Cruz is not on the "ideological fringe." One of the most interesting things at that GOP debate on Thursday was Megyn Kelly hammering Cruz for his past prodigious support for immigration amnesty. But, again, if you're to the right of center, you're on the "ideological fringe," according to the idiot mandarins of our collectivist press.

Still more, FWIW.

Tour Seville, Spain, with Brazilian Model Hellyda Cavallaro (VIDEO)

Via Playboy, "Photographer Ana Dias Takes Us to Seville with Model Hellyda Cavallaro - Playboy Abroad (VIDEO)."

Laura Ingraham and Charles Krauthammer on What to Expect in Iowa (VIDEO)

Watch, at Fox News.

Matt Lewis Has a New Book Out, Too Dumb to Fail

Check it out, at Amazon, Too Dumb to Fail: How the GOP Betrayed the Reagan Revolution to Win Elections (and How It Can Reclaim Its Conservative Roots).

That reminds me of a book from (just over) 10 years ago, Adrian Wooldridge's, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America.

You remember the "America's a center-right nation" argument the left was pushing back against so hard when Obama came to office? I think it's going to be back in vogue this year.

Shop for Valentine's Day Gifts

Well, it's coming up in two weeks, although it's the last thing I've been thinking about, which is not to say it isn't important.

I used to take candy and flowers to my wife at work when I was in grad school. My wife worked the fragrance counter at Robinson's department store back then, and having the husband drop of the Valentine's presents like that gained my wife some high creds with her female colleagues, heh.

At Amazon, Shop Amazon - Top Valentine's Day Gifts.

MORE: Shop for gym bags and running shoes.

Hillary Clinton's Campaign Manager Spent Final Hours Knocking on Doors in Iowa

Boy, they're really trying to avoid the mistakes of the 2008 campaign, heh!

At Boomberg, "Robby Mook Returns to Field Organizing for Final Iowa Push":

With hours to go until his boss faces voters for the first time in eight years, Robby Mook was doing the same, knocking on doors in a small corner of a Des Moines suburb.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager could’ve spent Saturday afternoon holed up in headquarters, shuttling around the state with the candidate or schmoozing politicos in the lobby of the Marriott. Instead, he was making his way through a solidly middle class Urbandale neighborhood, checking in with committed supporters.

“Hey! My name’s Robby. I’m here with Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” he says once it's clear that the person answering the door is the person on the list of confirmed supporters that he picked up from a nearby field office, just as any volunteer would. “I was just coming by to remind you about the caucus on Monday.”

Though two Bloomberg journalists spent about 45 minutes watching Mook visit 15 houses on a gray but warm-for-January afternoon, it wasn’t just a photo-op. He would’ve been doing this without reporters watching him and planned to do it again on Sunday and Monday, schedule permitting. In all, people at eight houses answered their doors, five of whom said they would be caucusing for Clinton. At one door, a man supporting former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said that his wife—who was out of the house when Mook visited—was the Clinton supporter. At another, a man identified as a Clinton supporter seemed to be engaged in a tense moment with his son. A woman said she and her husband were Clinton supporters but that she had a doctor's appointment and may not be able to make it.

Mook has built his career on field work—the collection and analysis of meticulous data. He proved himself as her 2008 state director in Nevada, Ohio and Indiana. And when it was time to build her 2016 team, the lessons of being out-organized by Barack Obama in Iowa and beyond made Mook, a 36-year-old Vermont native, Clinton’s choice for the job.

Clinton had a slim three-point lead over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, 45 percent to 42 percent, in the final Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers, conducted Jan. 26-29. With the race so tight, both campaigns are determined to get their low-hanging fruit – committed supporters – to caucus sites. The Sanders campaign said its volunteers knocked on close to 77,000 doors on Friday and Saturday, while the Clinton campaign knocked on more than 125,000 doors over the weekend.

“Part of this is just simply having a human interaction where we remind them," Mook says while walking along a winding residential street that changed names three times in the span of a few dozen houses. “But a really important part of this is actively making a plan with them. So if I get someone in person, I want to make sure that they’ve made sure they’ve thought about where they’re gonna leave from to go to the caucus, how they’re getting there and if they’re bringing anyone with them. We know that if they have a plan in place, they’re more likely to show up.”

The Iowa caucuses have never been more important, which is amazing, considering it's the most intense style of retail politics you could have, and we live in an era of the highest electronic technology we've ever seen. But with the campaigns on both sides too close to call, the ground game is the be all end all of 2016.

More.

Check back for more throughout the day...

Victory Lab

Back in September 2012, I was with my wife and kids in Las Vegas, taking a break from blogging, if I recall, and reading all kinds of hard-copy newspapers. I remember reading this incredible article on the nuts and bolts of the modern presidential campaigns in the New York Times, but then later lost track of where I put the paper. It turns out the piece was by Sasha Issenberg, who had the awesome piece at Bloomberg yesterday, blogged here, "In Iowa, Hillary Clinton Looking to Avoid Mistakes of the Past."

The publisher's pitched this book to me a few times in professional newsletters at work, although I've yet to read it. School's starting back up on Febuary 8th, and my reading output's declined this last week or so as the caucuses have neared. But this Issenberg book's going to the top of my political science reading list.

Here, The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns.

Issenberg's on Twitter for Victory Lab here.

Office of Bureau of Land Management, Burns, Oregon, Flies the Gadsden Flag (PHOTO)

The Marines and the Navy have flown the flag since 1775, although it seems like BLM's exactly the opposite of what that flag stands for: "Don’t Tread On Me"

Via OPB's Amanda Peacher, on Twitter:

So, the Gadsden "Don't tread on me" flag is suddenly hanging at BLM HQ outside Burns. #OregonStandoff pic.twitter.com/16nRBMRvEZ

— Amanda Peacher (@amandapeacher) February 1, 2016

Europe's Civil War Breaks Out: The Battle for Stockholm's Train Station (VIDEO)

From Pamela Geller, on Twitter:

In an event that may very well be the spark to the outbreak of Europe’s civil war, a young, beautiful social worker, Alexandra Mezher, 22, was brutally stabbed to death by Muslim migrants at the child migrant centre where she worked.

Swedish police warn that Stockholm’s main train station has become unsafe after being “taken over.” A mob of Swedes took matters into their own hands.

As I predicted for months, the Europeans will either go quietly into the dark, destructive night, or they will fight back. The weak, the scared are hiding in their homes, and then there are the fighters.

Swedish towns have become terror hubs. Lawlessness is rampant, violent crimes skyrocket. There is this now constant state of violence, terror and fear.

It begins, appropriately enough, at a major train station. I say appropriately, because it was at scores of railway stations in Europe that the New Year’s Eve terror attacks took place. Mass sexual attacks, raping and robbing of non-Muslim women. Christians in Sweden have been warned, in blood-chilling messages, “convert or die,” with beheadings threatened; “We will bomb your rotten corpses afterwards.”

Swedish police warn that Stockholm’s main train station is now overrun by migrant teen gangs “stealing and groping girls.” Hundreds of Muslim migrant youth are living on the streets in Stockholm. They attack security guards at the main station. Police say they sexually assault girls and “slap them in the face when they protest.”

“Gangs of young, male refugees over-powered women and children at a train station in Stockholm, Sweden in recent days, and then robbed and groped them. Some of the migrants, who may be as young as 9, roam the streets day and night, according to Daily Mail. They have been offered help from Swedish Authorities, but have refused it, living in the streets instead.”

More at Pamela's blog.

PREVIOUSLY: "Alexandra Mezher, 22, Swedish Social Worker, Stabbed to Death by 15-Year-Old Muslim 'Refugee' (VIDEO)."

'You talk to Iowans about this extremely long group of presidential candidates that are going all over the state, and their eyes glaze over sometimes...'

Yes, and the campaign's just beginning for the rest of the country, heh.

Watch, here's Pat Kessler reporting for WCCO News 4 Minneapolis, "Presidential Candidates Make Final Push Before Iowa Caucuses."

Former MSNBC schlock jock Ed Schultz (now working for the Putin propaganda channel Russia Today) can seen in the background, right before Kessler interviews Islamic congressman Keith Ellison, who's apparently campaigning for Bernie Sanders. Naturally, they'd be out campaigning for the hardline communist.

Fierce Winds Reach 115 MPH Near Castaic; Snarled Traffic Closes Grapevine (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Fierce Storm Hit San Diego; One Person Killed When Tree Falls on Car (VIDEO)."

It's bad north of Los Angeles as well.

At LAT, "Toppled tree kills one person in San Diego; winds clocked at 115 mph near Castaic."

And watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Fierce Storm Hits San Diego; One Person Killed When Tree Falls on Car (VIDEO)

I had no idea it would be this bad when I posted Kristen Keogh's weather forecast yesterday, and neither did she.

Here's the latest, at the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Fierce storm unleashes on San Diego":

A fierce Pacific storm brought heavy rain and wild winds to San Diego Sunday, causing power outages, interrupting -- then delaying -- the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines, and toppling trees including one that killed a motorist in Pacific Beach.

Winds gusted to about 50 mph along the coast, and were strong enough to uproot the 80-foot-tall tree in Pacific Beach that crushed three parked cars and one passing by on Ingraham Street near Fortuna Avenue, causing fatal injuries to a person inside.

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Capt. Joe Amador called the incident “unimaginable,” noting that the car could have been easily missed by the falling tree.

“Even five seconds one way or the other and this wouldn't have happened,” Amador said. “Our thoughts and hearts are with the family. We're in the life-saving business and it's hard when it doesn’t turn out that way.”

The fatal accident was just one of the instances that had emergency crews scrambling across the county. Falling trees damaged cars and homes, roadways were flooded or littered with debris and crashes clogged busy thoroughfares.

The storm arrived in on-again off-again waves that had golfers at Torrey Pines seeking shelter from 40 mph winds and rain one moment, then returning to the squishy course the next to play under blue skies. But the winds wouldn't relent. The media tent eventually had to be evacuated because it appeared on the verge of taking flight. At 3:30 p.m., tournament organizers postponed all play, saying they'd finish the competition Monday...

More at that top link.

Democrats Neck and Neck in Iowa (VIDEO)

Watch, at ABC News, "Democrats Neck and Neck With Caucuses One Day Away."

New poll numbers show Hillary Clinton with a slight lead in Iowa, but Sen. Bernie Sanders points to new fundraising data as proof of a possible upset.

And from yesterday, "Bernie Sanders Draws Massive Over-Capacity Crowd in Iowa City, Iowa (VIDEO)."