Obama Implicates Russia's Vladimir Putin in Cyberattacks Against the Democrats (VIDEO)

He's leaving office totally disgraced, reduced to spreading unverified, rank partisan allegations against his democratically-elected successor.

This is how far we've fallen the past eight years. We really need to make America great again, man.

At WSJ, tomorrow's front page, "Obama Suggests Russia’s Putin Had Role in Election Hacking":

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Friday implicated Russian President Vladimir Putin in cyberattacks designed to hurt Democrats in last month’s election, and he promised a “methodical” retaliation.

Mr. Obama said the U.S. intelligence he has seen “gives me great confidence” that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and the email account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. Asked if he believes the Russian leader authorized the cyberattacks, he said, “not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin.”

“This happened at the highest levels of the Russian government,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference. “I will let you make that determination as to whether there are high-level Russian officials who go off rogue and decide to tamper with the U.S. election process without Vladimir Putin knowing about it.”

The president’s naming of Mr. Putin and his promised response escalates the public debate over cyberespionage’s effect on the campaign. Lawmakers of both parties are also vowing investigations. The confrontation could fuel growing tension between the White House and President-elect Donald Trump, who has raised skepticism about Russia’s role in the hacks and who Democrats argue benefited from the stolen, leaked emails.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday said of the Obama administration’s accusation that the U.S. “should either stop talking about it or finally produce some evidence; otherwise it looks highly unseemly,” according to Russian state news agencies.

Mrs. Clinton, speaking to campaign supporters Thursday, directly accused Mr. Putin of directing the attacks, saying he was motivated by her criticism of Russian elections in 2011 as “illegitimate,” according to an audiotape posted online by the New York Times.
Mr. Obama used Friday’s wide-ranging year-end news conference to trumpet his legacy, rattling off statistics showing improvements in health-care coverage and employment on his watch.

But the roughly 90-minute session was dominated from the outset by the Russia question. The president was vague about what form the U.S. response may take. With just five weeks left in office to order any retaliation, the president said some of it may be public while other aspects could be covert or only known by Moscow. Among the president’s options are declassifying more information or leveling charges at any people it believes carried out the attacks or assisted in them.

“Our goal continues to be to send a clear message to Russia or others not to do this to us because we can do stuff to you,” Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Obama, who has ordered the completion of a review of cyberattacks allegedly aimed at U.S. elections before he leaves office on Jan. 20, defended his administration’s response so far to the hacks.

Some critics have said Mr. Obama should have acted sooner and more aggressively. U.S. intelligence agencies issued a statement a month before the election saying they were “confident” the Russian government directed cyberintrusions into U.S. political organizations. But Mr. Obama said Friday that in September, when he encountered Mr. Putin at a meeting of world leaders in China, he addressed the issue of tampering with the voting process.

“I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn’t happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out, and there were going to be some serious consequences if he didn’t,” Mr. Obama said.

U.S. officials say Russian hackers were able to steal emails from Democratic political organizations and Mr. Podesta, but made a less aggressive effort to hack the computer networks of the Republican National Committee. Russia has denied the hacks.

Mr. Trump has called the U.S. intelligence assessment “ridiculous” and questioned its accuracy, reminding the public that the government’s claim before the Iraq war in 2003 that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction proved inaccurate. On Friday, Mr. Trump’s only comment on the subject came in a tweet, in which he mentioned that the cyberattack revealed intraparty Democratic tension during the primary campaign...

Keep reading.

Previously, "No Proof Russia's Behind the Alleged Election Hacks."

Deal of the Day: GoPro HERO

Wow.

Shop for $149.99, at Amazon, GoPro HERO+ LCD [Ecommerce Packaging].

Also, GoPro HERO Session Holiday Promo Kit.

And, GoPro Products and Accessories.

More, Up to 50% Off on Select Shopkins Toys and Games.

Plus, Save on Ninja Blenders. See especially, Ninja Kitchen System Pulse (BL201) for $48.99.

BONUS: Daniel Klaidman, Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency.

Joanna Krupa for BodyBlendz

At Maxim, "Joanna Krupa Bares All for Sultry NSFW Photo Shoot."

She's a stunning fine babe.

BONUS: At the Superficial, "Joanna Krupa in Playboy (Full Size version is NSFW)."

Ciara LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

Here's the latest in the LOVE series, featuring Ciara:

Epic Tucker Carlson Kurt Eichenwald Confrontation (VIDEO)

I missed it last night, but this has been a thing today.

Watch, the full clip via Fox News, "Tucker Carlson confronts Kurt Eichenwald and Newsweek's bias."

And then the dude went on at Twitter storm (slash) meltdown, with tons of deleted tweets, and then later tweets claiming he had an epileptic seizure. Man, that's something.

At Twitchy, "Kurt Eichenwald frantically deletes post-Tucker Carlson interview meltdown tweets; We’ve got them!; UPDATE: He’s still going (crazy); UPDATE: Claims seizure; Update: Continues post-seizure."

I thought the dude was basically unhinged in the weeks leading up to the election, but he's definitely gone off the rails now. It's a good idea for him to be off Twitter for a while. And I hope he's getting legal counsel.

Sheesh.

Also at NewsBusters, "Newsweek's Eichenwald Humiliates Himself After Trump Slam."

BONUS: At AoSHQ, "If You Thought Kurt Eichenwald Was Behaving Insanely During Tucker Carlson, You Gotta See Him After Tucker Carlson."

Democrats Actively Trying to Delegitimize President-Elect Donald Trump (VIDEO)

Here's the excellent opening monologue from Sean Hannity's show last night, "Hannity: It's time to stop undermining President-elect Trump: The left needs to admit that Trump won fair and square."

Stay with it until the end, where the video includes clips of Hillary Clinton alleging Donald Trump was attempting to destroy the "peaceful transfer of power."

Heh. Isn't that rich?

PREVIOUSLY: "Desperate Democrats Seeking to Deny Donald Trump the Oval Office (VIDEO)."

Jackie Johnson's Heavy Rainfall Forecast

It was raining a little today when I left work.

But it's supposed to really come down overnight.

Here's the lovely Ms. Jackie, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Training Workers for the New Economy

From Katherine S. Newman and Hella Winston, at the January/February 2017 issue of Foreign Affairs, "Make America Make Again":

Unlike the United States, Germany never abandoned vocational education. https://t.co/sODylrdnUM

— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) December 15, 2016

Despite their many differences, the major candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential election managed to agree on at least one thing: manufacturing jobs must return to the United States. Last April, the Democratic contender Hillary Clinton told a crowd in Michigan, “We are builders, and we need to get back to building!” Her opponent in the Democratic primaries, Senator Bernie Sanders, said the manufacturing sector “must be rebuilt to expand the middle class.” And the Republican candidate Donald Trump bemoaned bad trade deals that he said had robbed the country of good jobs. “‘Made in America,’ remember?” he asked a rally in New Hampshire in September. “You’re seeing it less and less; we’re gonna bring it back.”

It’s true that many manufacturing jobs have left the United States, with the total number falling by about a third since 1980. But the news isn’t all bad. After decades of offshoring, U.S. manufacturing is undergoing something of a renaissance. Rising wages in developing countries, especially China, and increasing U.S. productivity have begun to make the United States much more attractive to manufacturers, who have added nearly half a million jobs since 2010.

But these jobs are not the same as the millions that have disappeared from the United States over the past four decades. Workers in contemporary manufacturing jobs are more likely to spend hours in front of a computer screen than in front of a hot furnace. To do so, they need to know simple programming, electrical engineering, and robotics. These are well-paying, middle-skill jobs that require technical qualifications—but not necessarily a four-year college degree. Between 2012 and 2022, these will account for half of all the new jobs created in the United States.

Yet the U.S. work force is woefully unprepared to take advantage of this opportunity. In New York State, for example, almost 25 percent of these jobs will likely go unfilled. According to a 2015 survey by the consulting firm Deloitte, 82 percent of manufacturing executives expect that they will be unable to hire enough people. The situation is all the more troubling when so many young people in the United States desperately need work.

There is a better way. In Germany, a “dual system” of vocational training that mixes classroom learning with work experience has helped drive the youth unemployment rate down to historic lows. The United States used to take a similar approach, but its commitment waned after decades of federal neglect and cultural antipathy to manual labor. It’s long past time to resurrect it.

NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE

In the years following World War II, the United States embraced vocational education. High schools prepared students for highly sought-after blue-collar work by training them to become aircraft mechanics or automotive repair technicians. The United States had hundreds of vocational schools where students studied welding, construction, and electrical engineering alongside a standard high school curriculum. These schools helped create a thriving blue-collar middle class.

But by the 1960s, white-collar positions had started to outstrip blue-collar jobs in number and prestige as the service sector came to dominate the economy. In 1963, Congress passed the Vocational Education Act, which provided federal funds to train students who were at an academic or socioeconomic disadvantage. The legislation was well intentioned but had the unintended consequence of encouraging the public to associate vocational education with troubled youth. A decade later, in 1972, the sociologist Richard Sennett found that many young people were embarrassed by their parents’ working-class origins and that older people felt at an increasing distance from their children as those children entered more prestigious jobs than their own. The stigma has stuck: parents in even very poor neighborhoods today believe that attending college is essential for a well-paying career and that middle-skill jobs are an inferior choice for their children. As a result, over the past four decades, the quality of technical education declined as investment in equipment and teacher training fell off, and private-sector interest has waned.

The move away from vocational education accelerated in the 1980s, when a 14-month-long recession triggered a crisis of confidence in U.S. education more generally...

Keep reading.

ICYMI: Shelby Steele, Shame

This is a great read.

ICYMI, at Amazon, Shelby Steele, Shame: How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country.

Shop Digital Deals [BUMPED]

Lots of good stuff, at Amazon, Digital Deals of the Day.

BONUS: Kim Zetter, Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon.

Donald Trump's Cabinet Picks Are Among the Most Conservative in History

Following-up from a little while ago, "Trump to Make Energy Policy Major Theme of Administration."

Like I said, I'm pleased as punch.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Trump's Cabinet picks are among the most conservative in history. What that means for his campaign promises":

Donald Trump promotes himself as a man divorced from party ideology, a president-elect just as open-minded to input from Al Gore as from Newt Gingrich.

But with his Cabinet nearly complete, he has chosen one of the most consistently conservative domestic policy teams in modern history, setting himself up for hard decisions and potential conflict with some of his supporters when he begins to govern.

The internal conflicts have emerged with nearly every pick.

Trump campaigned against the big banks, then chose a former Goldman Sachs partner, Steven Mnuchin, to run his Treasury Department. He pledged to save Medicare and Social Security, then chose Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who has advocated sweeping revisions in Medicare and Medicaid, to run Health and Human Services.

Trump has placed the burdens of working people at the top of his agenda, yet chose as Labor secretary an executive, Andrew Puzder, who talked in an interview about the advantages of replacing human workers with machines because they are “always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case.”

And even as Trump aides put out word that the president-elect’s daughter Ivanka would be an influential administration voice in favor of curbing global warming, Trump named a man who has repeatedly expressed skepticism about the scientific consensus on climate change, Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Scott Pruitt, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

“This is a big mystery to a lot of people, and it’s going to be one of the hardest things about this presidency,” said Elaine Kamarck, a former advisor in the Clinton administration now at the Brookings Institution in Washington, who has written extensively about the inner workings of White Houses.

Trump has so far shown a deftness at drawing attention away from sticky policy debates with bold, attention-grabbing strokes, a tactic that may help him deflect controversies when he moves to the Oval Office. On Monday, he announced he was delaying until next month a news conference at which he had promised to address his business conflicts of interest, then on Tuesday morning, he staged a photo opportunity at Trump Tower with entertainer Kanye West.

He defied some ideologues in his party, and won goodwill from many supporters, by dramatically persuading Carrier Corp. to keep some of the air conditioning company’s manufacturing jobs in Indiana rather than ship them to Mexico.

Despite criticism over singling out an individual company with tax incentives and implicit threats to its government contracting business, Trump was able to use the publicity over the deal to promote a message that workers, particularly those in manufacturing, were at the top of his agenda.

“We are going to see a lot of symbolic politics,” said Lara Brown, a professor of political management at George Washington University. She expects gestures like the Carrier deal to prove effective for some time.

Trump’s supporters, Brown said, are more invested in shaking up the system than a particular policy agenda.

But the splashy moves could wear thin if Trump fails to deliver on signature promises, like a jobs boom...

It's all going to be fine.

I'm sure of it.

But keep reading, in any case.

Fire Destroys Amazon Prime Delivery Truck on Interstate-15 in Scripps Ranch (VIDEO)

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Big-rig charred in fire on I-15."

The truck was empty at the time of the fire.

Imagine a truck-full of Amazon Prime products up in smoke!

Taylor Hill LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

The lovely Taylor Hill for today's entry in the LOVE series.



And there's a second video, "Day 14 - Taylor Hill by Hype Williams (LOVE Advent 2016)."

Trump to Make Energy Policy Major Theme of Administration

I'm pleased as punch with Trump's nominations.

It's absolutely thrilling. I mean, jeez, it's like a policy revolution in the works, about to completely destroy the radical left's anti-everything regulatory regime.

I can't wait to get cracking!

At IBD, "Can Trump's Energy-Savvy Cabinet 'Make American Energy Great Again'?":

With a spate of major Cabinet picks, President-elect Donald Trump has made one thing abundantly clear: He intends to make reform of U.S. energy policy a major theme of his administration.

On Tuesday word leaked out that Trump would choose former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as his new Energy Secretary.

Perry, whose economic success as Texas governor speaks for itself, is a terrific pick who'll need very little on-the-job training about what plentiful energy means to real people in the real economy — especially when compared to President Obama's energy secretaries, the UC Berkeley physicist Stephen Chu, who focused largely on global warming and pushing the idea of a "global glucose economy" based on energy from tropical plants, and physicist Ernest Moniz, who spent most of his time on helping push the disastrous Iran nuclear deal.

Even so, the media had a field day with the Perry pick. Why? In a 2011 presidential debate, he vowed to get rid of three government agencies if elected. One was Commerce, one was Education, and the third ... he couldn't remember. Oops! It was Energy.

Yes, ironic and good for a laugh. But also irrelevant. Because Perry, as the top executive in the nation's No. 1 energy state, knows the energy industry and energy regulation backward and forward. And just because he would eliminate the Energy Department — for the record, so would we, because it's utterly useless — he will be a wise and steady leader when it comes to deregulating the overly regulated energy industry.

Our hope is that he will free up federal land for more energy exploration and drilling, but also find ways to ease burdens on energy users and producers. We would, for instance, like to see the anti-business, anti-industry, anti-consumer, anti-energy Clean Power Plan done away with entirely. If he does all that, the energy and fracking revolutions will continue — bringing decades if not centuries of relatively cheap energy to fuel U.S. growth.

But Trump's energy Cabinet isn't just about Perry...

Keep reading.

Desperate Democrats Seeking to Deny Donald Trump the Oval Office (VIDEO)

Here's an excellent piece on the Electoral College, and why Democrats are so hopelessly out of touch with reality.

It's sad actually.

At Reason, "Why 'Hamilton Electors,' Who Would Make Hillary Clinton President, Are as Dead as Their Namesake":

Donald Trump's surprise election has made the Electoral College a thing again. Sad Democrats and progressives, still looking for anyone and anything to blame besides their feckless candidate and the inept, celebrity-obsessed campaign she ran, are repeating their stages of grief from 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the White House to George W. Bush. In both cases, the Dems could fixate on the Electoral College, that awful holdover from the country's slave-owning past. But despite high-profile attempts to bend the rules before the Electoral College votes on December 19, there's no way in hell that Trump is not going to be the next president. Whatever you think of either him or Clinton, that's not a bad thing. It's the way the rules are supposed to work, and for good reasons.

"Mr. Trump is unfit to serve," reads an online petition to "make Hillary Clinton president." "His scapegoating of so many Americans, and his impulsivity, bullying, lying, admitted history of sexual assault, and utter lack of experience make him a danger to the Republic," runs the argument, which has nearly 5 million signatures and implores "conscientious electors" to vote for Clinton regardless of how the people they represent voted.

Alas for them, a presidential election is really 51 elections (all the states, plus Washington, D.C.), in the same way the World Series consists of up to seven individual baseball contests, rather than a competition determined by which team scores the most total runs. The Electoral College, which guarantees at least three representatives to each state, affects how people vote on a state-by-state basis and voting strategies, like campaign strategies, would surely be different in a system driven purely by popular-vote totals...

Keep reading.

Video Hat Tip: Breitbart, "Sore Loser Celebrities Beg Electors to Vote Against Trump (Video)."

Treasured Toys

Don't forget the little tykes for Christmas.

At Amazon, Holiday Treasures in Toys.

Plus, Amazon Devices - Kindle for Kids Bundle 16.

And, HP 61 Black & Tri-color Original Ink Cartridges, 2 pack (CR259FN).

More, AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable - 6 Feet (Latest Standard).

Check out, GoPro HERO4 Silver.

And, KIND Breakfast Bars.

Still more, Lasko 754200 Ceramic Heater with Adjustable Thermostat.

BONUS: Sean Trende, The Lost Majority: Why the Future of Government Is Up for Grabs - and Who Will Take It.

And, from James E. Campbell, Polarized: Making Sense of a Divided America.

'You Got Lucky'

From Monday morning's drive time, at the Sound L.A.:

Shock the Monkey
Peter Gabriel
10:28 AM

Somebody's Baby
Jackson Browne
10:24 AM

Bad to the Bone (Live)
George Thorogood
10:19 AM

Hot In the City
Billy Idol
10:15 AM

YOU GOT LUCKY
TOM PETTY
10:12 AM

Caught Up in You
38 Special
10:08 AM

Jack & Diane
John Mellencamp
10:04 AM

Blinded By the Light
Manfred Mann's Earth Band
9:55 AM

New Year's Day
U2
9:50 AM

Dead Man's Party
Oingo Boingo
9:37 AM

Stairway to Heaven
Led Zeppelin
9:29 AM

Don't Bring Me Down
Electric Light Orchestra
9:25 AM

Runnin' With the Devil
Van Halen
9:21 AM

Magic Man
Heart
9:16 AM

Rock the Casbah
The Clash
9:12 AM

No Proof Russia's Behind the Alleged Election Hacks

Look, I've been saying all along the allegations are hearsay. I personally haven't seen a shred of evidence to implicate Russia --- or the Russian government --- in the 2016 election hacks.

It's too bad the media's gone all in on this scam, especially the New York Times (of which I'll have more later).

At any rate, here's Sam Biddle, at the Intercept, "HERE’S THE PUBLIC EVIDENCE RUSSIA HACKED THE DNC – IT’S NOT ENOUGH."

It's good.

No one has actually proven Russia's behind the hacks: https://t.co/P6XPDJ0KWc

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 14, 2016

'Dunkirk' Trailer (VIDEO)

This is going to be great!

The film's in theaters July 21, 2017.

I can't wait!

Olga Perez Stable Cox, Orange Coast College Professor, Flees the State After Death Threats (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Olga Perez Stable Cox, Orange Coast College Psychology Professor, Attacks Donald Trump's Election as an 'Act of Terrorism' (VIDEO)."

Who cares about this lady?

I certainly don't. She made her bed, that's for sure.

You go off on a rant like that and not think you're going to be videotaped? She's an idiot.

At the Orange County Register, "OCC professor received threats, left the state after video of her anti-Trump comments":

On Monday, hundreds of students and faculty members who support Cox gathered for a noon rally on campus. Carrying homemade signs calling for free speech, they defended the teacher they described as someone dedicated to protecting all students, including those who are LGBT and students of color.

“She has been here 30 years and impacted over 30,000 lives,” said student Elias Altamirano, 20, one of those who organized the rally. “I want to let Olga know this is her home and she doesn’t have to feel threatened.”

A smaller group – with students from the College Republicans, which made the video public – also was on hand. They set up a computer to continuously play Cox’s recording, in which she referred to white supremacy and called the vice president-elect “one of the most anti-gay humans in this country.”

Those students countered that the issue is not about academic freedom but points to an instance of a college instructor pushing her own political agenda, something they say is prevalent on college campuses nationwide.

“This has nothing to do with free speech. It’s a professor overstepping her profession,” said Vincent Wetzel, who said he is a gay student who has attended some of Cox’s LGBT panels. “Of all the people who are supposed to provide an inclusive environment, it’s her. Now, I don’t feel comfortable.”

Two students in Cox’s class said she asked those who had voted for Trump to identify themselves.

“She tried to get everyone who voted for Donald Trump to stand up and show the rest of the class who to watch out for and protect yourself from,” said Tanner Webb, 21, of Huntington Beach.

Webb, who describes himself as apolitical, said he chose to speak up after reading comments in the Register from Schneiderman, the faculty union president, defending Cox. Schneiderman had said that Cox is “known for her open and engaging ways in class” but that the student who videotaped her chose to not engage in a discussion.

“Professor Cox’s anti-Trump rant was no open debate to engage students,” said Webb, who added that he has enjoyed the class and described Cox as “a good teacher.”

Noah Faerber, 19, another student in Cox’s class, confirmed Webb’s account.

Schneiderman offered a different version of what happened: Cox told the class some people would be happy with the election results, and a student stood up in approval. She then invited others to stand up and show their support if they wished, he said.

Shawn Steel, the Republican national committeeman from California and an attorney who is representing Orange Coast College Republicans, brought the matter to the administration’s attention Nov. 23, a week before the group went public with the video.

At that time, Steel wanted Cox, a tenured professor, to apologize. Now, with students saying she tried to separate and shame Trump supporters, Steel said school officials should consider firing her.

“That’s a deal-breaker for me,” he said.

School administrators said they are investigating Steel’s complaint and also whether the student who taped the teacher should face sanctions for recording her without permission.

Since the initial video surfaced and made national news, a second video clip has been posted online from the same class, with Cox expressing more of her political views and vowing to keep her students safe from any acts of racism and prejudice...

Plus, more video at Fox News, "Student under fire for recording professor's anti-Trump rant," and "Student faces backlash for recording anti-Trump lecture."

BONUS: From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "PROF WHO CALLED TRUMP WIN AN ‘ACT OF TERRORISM’ ALLEGEDLY ASKED TRUMP BACKERS TO STAND DURING CLASS."

Merkel and Whose Army?

From Hans Kundnani, at Foreign Policy, "A German military that practices with broomsticks isn't in a position to become the new “leader of the free world”":

Angela Merkel isn't in a position to become the "leader of the free world," argues @hanskundnani https://t.co/gKwipFj0Dy pic.twitter.com/i1s1q4Nx1f

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) December 14, 2016

In Germany, Angela Merkel is known as “mommy” — and judging from the desperate global reactions to the election as U.S. president of Donald Trump, it won’t be long before the rest of the world starts calling her that, too. With Trump having indicated an intention to abdicate America’s role as “leader of the free world,” a chorus of commentators have pointed to Germany under Merkel’s leadership as the most obvious replacement.

However, as Merkel herself has been quick to acknowledge — including on Nov. 20 when she announced she would run for a fourth term as chancellor — the idea is absurd. First, German power has always been regional, not global, which means it has little to offer vulnerable Western allies in Asia; Germany could therefore at most replace the United States as the “leader of a free Europe.”

But even that notion is a fantasy. If the leadership in question were purely a question of moral symbolism, Germany might qualify for it — though even that is questionable. But it also describes a set of concrete military responsibilities, stretching back to the Cold War, to defend the security of other democracies. These are responsibilities that Germany — which has only minimal military power and deep-seated reluctance, both political and cultural, to deploy what power it has — is singularly unable to fulfill.

Carol Giacomo of the New York Times suggested shortly after the U.S. election that Germany “replace America in leading NATO.” But any country either obliged or inclined — as Germany was, during a 2014 NATO exercise — to have its soldiers paint wooden sticks black and attach them to armored vehicles in lieu of heavy machine guns is not in a position to claim military leadership.

A simple comparison of the military budgets of Germany and the United States serves to illustrate the problem. In 2015, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the U.S. defense budget was $597.5 billion. Germany’s was $36.7 billion — about one-twentieth the size of America’s. Germany’s military budget is small even in comparison to that of France ($46.8 billion) and the United Kingdom ($56.2 billion), which are also, like the United Sates and unlike Germany, nuclear powers. In that sense, despite the political challenges they currently face, the heads of the French and British governments have a greater claim to be the “leader of the free world” than the chancellor of Germany.

Germany’s level of defense spending looks even more inadequate when one considers it in relation to the size of the German economy. NATO members collectively commit to spending 2 percent of GDP on defense, but only four members apart from the United States (Greece, Estonia, Poland, and the United Kingdom) actually do so. For years, Germany had spent 1.3 percent — at the lower end of the scale of NATO members. But it has fallen further in the last couple of years and is now under 1.2 percent. This year, Merkel finally committed eventually to reach the 2 percent target — after the election of Trump, she has simply restated this position — but has not specified when she will do so. Berlin’s only hard commitment is an 8 percent uptick in defense spending in 2017, which will bring it to 1.22 percent of GDP.

A similar picture emerges when one goes beyond the figures on defense spending and considers capabilities...

Keep reading.

It's a good piece. I'm cutting Foreign Policy a little slack on this one.

Freddie deBoer Slams the Condescending, Certain, and Incoherent Left

He's a great writer.

He's far left, but usually honest about his ideological tendencies. At least as far as I can remember. The main strike against him is he used to blog with E.D. Kain at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen, a stupid blog that's still in operation, it turns out.

In any case, here's Freddie, "condescending, certain, and incoherent":

I’ve been asking my friends on the academic left what rights conservative students have, in an era of a university culture obsessed with trauma. Two things are broadly true: one, they think that it’s ridiculous to suggest that there’s any reason to worry about what conservative students can and can’t say – there’s no questions here, no conflicts, nothing even to discuss. Two, despite the mutuality of this dismissal, no two of them have the same idea about what answers are stunningly obvious, only that they are. I am told that of course students can support Trump and say so, but that “Make America Great Again” is hate speech, despite simply being the slogan of the campaign that they just said students have the right to support. They say that it’s not permissible for students to identify with the alt-right, which is a hate group, but it’s fine for them to be plain-vanilla conservatives, despite the fact that the latter group has indisputably done vastly more to harm marginalized people than the former.

What are the rules? I don’t know, and I’m ensconced firmly in these debates. I harp on civil liberties and free speech a lot because, yes, I think they’re worth defending and that the traditional association between leftist politics and support for them was substantively correct on political theory grounds. But also because they’re a perfect example of the holes in current left theory. When does someone’s trauma outweigh the right of another to speak? Who can say what, in which contexts, when? I have no idea what people think the answers are. I just know that they think the question is so obvious as to not be worth asking. It’s an inverse argument from incredulity, not “I can’t believe you could possibly think that” but “I can’t believe you don’t already.”

As they say, RTWT.

Richard Spencer Interviewed on the PBS 'News Hour' (VIDEO)

I don't like Richard Spencer.

And I don't care for the "alt right."

But he'd be a nobody if the idiot leftist press wouldn't be giving him so much media coverage.

Sheesh.

@JudyWoodruff I don't think he'd be such a "major figure" if he wasn't getting so much MSM airtime, frankly.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 14, 2016

The Leading Global Thinkers of 2016

I just can't read Foreign Policy any more. Well, once in a while I'll wade through some of their stuff, if it's from somebody I trust and appreciate (like Edward Luttwak, from a few weeks back).

But otherwise, the magazine's gotten rather disgraceful.

.@BlazingCatFur I'm sure you can have some fun with this: FP's "Global Thinkers": JUSTIN TRUDEAU https://t.co/UOA7QSO6i1

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 12, 2016

@AmPowerBlog Oh brother!

— Blazing CatFur (@Blazingcatfur) December 12, 2016

The Truth About the Shutdown of the Dakota Pipeline

This is great!

From Naomi Schaefer Riley, at Commentary, "Bury Their Future at Standing Rock."

There's no great pullout quote. Just read it at the link:

From the January 2017 issue: Bury Their Future at Standing Rock - by @NaomiSRiley https://t.co/LEY9LfFZss pic.twitter.com/YAaeH4hCMO

— Commentary Magazine (@Commentary) December 15, 2016

Top Gift Ideas [BUMPED]

At Amazon, Our Most Popular Products Ordered as Gifts.

Plus, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers. Books, DVDs, and More.

Also, Holiday Deals.

And, Holiday Gift Cards.

More, Handmade Stocking Stuffers.

Even more, Amazon Tablet Christmas 2016.

And, Shop Carhartt Jackets.

Still more, Snow Removal Products.

BONUS: Donald Stratton, All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor.

Jackie Johnson's Winter Weather Forecast

Well, she's says it's going to get cold.

Here's Ms. Jackie, in a fabulous purple dress, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Sara Sampaio LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

Sara Sampaio grows on you after a while, heh.

The latest in the LOVE series, at least for American Power.

Muslim Woman Accused of Hoax Story of 'Trump' Supporters Harassing Her on the Subway (VIDEO)

It's mostly hoaxes.

Indeed, all the legitimate post-election stories of violence and harassment were those perpetuated against Donald Trump's supporters.

At CBS News New York, and from Pamela below:

Islamophobia HOAX: NY Muslim Yasmin Seweid arrested for filing false report #GellerRightAgain https://t.co/hWFiNkKECB pic.twitter.com/7ZWiMxlbGg

— Pamela Geller (@PamelaGeller) December 14, 2016

Democratic Disgrace Under Pressure

From Noemie Emery, at Washington Examiner:

Throwback because watching hair cutting videos today made me think how crazy it was I cut all this off. pic.twitter.com/rx7pw9wpzP

— ɑղժí (@andi_ludewig) December 12, 2016

A month after the surprise election of Donald Trump in November (surprising to noone more than to Trump and Clinton), the losers are still working through the stages of anguish in ways that seem strange to many observers but of which they appear oddly proud.

Not only do they brag of the length and intensity of their bouts of sobbing —"crying as if someone died" was a common description — but, as New York magazine reported days later, professional women all over the country are making a brave stand to protest Trump's election by doing hideous things to their hair. Because "the election results felt like an attack on minorities, women, and marginalized people in general," a "vegan chef" cut her hair off to send Trump a "message." Others like her got buzz cuts, flat tops or tossed out their extensions, and went platinum, or black.

Unfortunately, there was not a chance in the world that this message would reach Trump, or that he would care if he got it, but somehow the logic of making themselves ugly in the interests of spiting a well-know connoisseur of feminine pulchritude just seemed the right thing to do...

Keep reading.

Erin Heatherton Irresistibles (VIDEO)

Via Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

The 'End of History' or the 'Clash of Civilizations'?

Professor Dan Drezner's got an excellent piece up at WaPo, on international theory, Frances Fukuyama versus the late Samuel Huntington.

Both their books are still available, The End of History and the Last Man and The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.

Click through at the link:

The intellectual ghosts of the post-Cold War era will be haunting us for a while. https://t.co/JbWs90racv

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 13, 2016

Heh. I'm Cheering 'Professor Watchlist'

Having been on the receiving end of leftist campaigns to have me fired from my teaching job for having conservative views, I can only laugh at the progressive shock to the creation of the new website, "Professor Watchlist."

My view is that as long as left-wing professors treat all their students fairly, then they should be able to spew whatever they want. (But of course they don't treat conservatives fairly.) That, and they have academic freedom too. Of course the humanities and social sciences have been plagued by the radical takeover since at least the 1960s, and even earlier if you consider the German invasion of "critical theorists" at American universities after World War Two. So the problem merits some consideration as to remedies.

I mean seriously, it's like a plague.

I expect the best way to fight back is to simply to expose the left's hated and malevolence. There'll be enough cases of corruption and ideological harassment that left-wing professors will start losing their jobs. Leave it to local districts, and their voting constituents, to do the job. Just make sure that obscene campus ideological indoctrination and politicization is brought to public light and held accountable. It's not like there'll be a shortage of cases.

Here's the list.

I haven't actually skimmed it over yet, although I'm pleased as punch to see that Erik "Homosexual Lumberjack" Loomis has been recognized, and he's not too happy about it, hilariously.

See the idiot's essay at the Nation, "Trumpism Poses the Most Dire Threat to Academic Freedom in Recent Memory":

Thanks to the principle of academic freedom, professors have unusual space in American society to challenge the powerful without fear of retribution. For this reason the right has always resented professors, and for decades it has targeted them as subversives. The election of Donald Trump and the rise to power of the extremist ideologues surrounding him, like Steve Bannon and Rudolph Giuliani, make this a frightening moment for those academics who see fighting for a more just world as part of their job.

In 2012, I found myself the target of a hate campaign after saying a few intemperate things about the National Rifle Association and American gun culture in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. I was upset not only because of the horrors of the event itself—a shocking one for many Americans—but because in 1998 my high-school Spanish teacher in Springfield, Oregon, had been murdered by her son before shooting up his own high school. How many people had to die before anything was changed? Noting on Twitter that I would like to hold NRA leadership accountable for its promotion of high-powered firearms, I said that I wanted to see “Wayne LaPierre’s head on a stick.” This was obviously a metaphor, but thanks to a right-wing website called Campus Reform, which “monitors” leftists on college campuses, demagogues such as Michelle Malkin started a campaign to have me fired. Hundreds of phone calls and e-mails poured into the university. Luckily, I work on a unionized campus and nothing came of the campaign.

While people still joke about this incident with me, I barely gave it another thought until two weeks ago when a young conservative activist backed by the extremist right-wing organization Turning Points USA created the Professor Watchlist. Listing 195 professors believed to be hostile to the group’s agenda of unregulated capitalism, white-supremacist politics, and opposition to women’s reproductive freedom, it is a rough draft of a possible Trump-era blacklist. I was placed on the Watchlist because of my attacks on the NRA four years ago. Professors across the nation found themselves suddenly targeted by well-connected conservative activists in a nation where increasingly radical Republicans have suddenly captured each branch of government. No one knows what will come of it, but the shock has ricocheted through the halls of campuses all across the country.

So far, the reaction has mostly been an awesome display of solidarity from my students and my colleagues, both at my university and around the nation. Hundreds of professors have reported themselves to the Professor Watchlist, asking to be included, with faculty at the University of Notre Dame even writing a public letter to that effect. This is wonderful. But what happens after Inauguration Day? Will free speech be respected by the Trump administration? Will the right be emboldened to launch increasingly harsh attacks against professors? If there are sustained pressure campaigns against radical academics, will administrations be able to resist giving in?

Still more.

And fuck "radical academics," the bleedin' idiot losers.

Discover the Best in Electronics

At Amazon, NETGEAR N300 Wi-Fi Range Extender, Essentials Edition (EX2700).

Also, AmazonBasics Lightweight On-Ear Headphones - White.

And, Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide.

BONUS: David Horowitz, The Black Book of the American Left: The Collected Conservative Writings of David Horowitz, and The Left in Power: Clinton to Obama: Black Book of the American Left: Volume VII.

ICYMI: Katherine Cramer, The Politics of Resentment

I posted the interview with Professor Cramer this morning, here.

And ICYMI, check out her book, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.

Jackie Johnson's Storm System Forecast

Possible heavy showers and windy conditions by the end of the week.

Back with the lovely Ms. Jackie tonight, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Clinton's Campaign Now Claims the Election Was Rigged

The left is working feverishly, viciously, to attack Donald Trump's legitimacy.

The Electoral College gambit's the ultimate sore loser's sleaze campaign.

At WSJ, "An Electoral College Coup":

Only a few weeks ago Hillary Clinton’s campaign was denouncing Donald Trump as un-American for saying the election might be “rigged.” We criticized Mr. Trump at the time. But now that Mrs. Clinton has lost, her campaign is claiming the election really was rigged, albeit for Mr. Trump by Russian meddling, and it wants the Electoral College to stage what amounts to a coup.

That’s the only way to interpret the extraordinary statement Monday by Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta endorsing a special intelligence briefing for electors a week before they cast their ballots for President on Dec. 19. He released the statement hours after 10 members of the Electoral College sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper seeking information on foreign interference in the election to judge if Mr. Trump “is fit to serve.” One of those electors is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter.

“The bipartisan electors’ letter raises very grave issues involving our national security. Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed,” Mr. Podesta said. “We now know that the CIA has determined Russia’s interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. This should distress every American.”

What should really distress Americans is that the losers are trying to overturn the election results based on little more than anonymous leaks and innuendo. Whatever Russia’s hacking motives, there is no evidence that the emails it turned up were decisive to the election result. Mr. Podesta is citing a CIA judgment that Americans have never seen and whose findings are vaguely public only because one or more unidentified officials chose to relate them to a few reporters last week.

Much of the press is reporting these as the gospel truth, though it isn’t clear that the CIA’s judgment is even shared across the intelligence community. The FBI doesn’t share the CIA’s confidence about Russia’s hacking motive, and our sources say the evidence is thin for the CIA’s conclusion.

Yet Mr. Podesta’s demand is that those same unidentified leakers now give a secret briefing to the 538 electors, most of whom lack any experience in judging the nuances of intelligence. Those electors are then supposed to decide based on information Americans won’t have seen whether they should invalidate the results of an election in which more than 128 million voted. Even Vladimir Putin at his most devious couldn’t have imagined his cyber-spooks would provoke this much anti-democratic nonsense...

It's despicable. Evil even.

But that's the Democrats for you. The despicable evil party of sleaze, corruption, and scurrility.

Keep reading.

Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, A Matter of Honor

At Amazon, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice.

And ICYMI, from this morning, Donald Stratton, All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor.

Kim Kardashian LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

Continuing with the LOVE series, here's Kim Kardashian:

'We've Only Just Begun'

A cover of the Carpenters, from Bat for Lashes:

Susan Faludi's Father's Sex-Change (VIDEO)

Wow.

Now this is a trip.

Here's Susan Faludi's new book, In the Darkroom.

Her dad was a Jewish fugitive from the Holocaust, from Budapest, Hungary. She describes him as the ultimate "macho" dad who oppressed her mother and influenced her decision to become a radical feminist.

Faludi won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism in 1992, and her book, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, won the National Book Critics' Circle.

Hillary Clinton's Huge Popular Vote Margin Illustrates Her Weakness as a Candidate —And the Democrats' Weaknesses as a Party

A great piece, at the Los Angeles Times, "Clinton won as many votes as Obama in 2012 — just not in the states where she needed them most":

The final results of the 2016 presidential election look like this: Hillary Clinton got roughly the same number of votes that President Obama received four years ago en route to his reelection, but she nonetheless lost the presidency to Donald Trump, who came in at least 2.8 million votes behind her.

That’s a highly unusual outcome — the biggest gap between the popular vote and the electoral college in almost a century and a half. Only now, with almost all the nation’s ballots counted, have analysts begun to flesh out what led to that result and what implications it has for the nation’s deep political divisions.

Start with California, where Clinton beat Trump by almost 2 to 1, amassing a margin of more than 4.2 million votes. That’s a victory more impressive even than Obama’s in 2012, and it included a win in Orange County, which had sided with the Republican in every presidential election back to 1936.

But Clinton’s huge majority in the nation’s largest state was also part of her key weakness — a base of support too concentrated in the big, urban areas of the northeast and the West Coast.

A candidate gets all of a state’s electoral votes whether she wins by four or 4 million, so in the national picture, the huge size of Clinton’s majority in California, as well as a similarly lopsided margin in New York, did her no good. Clinton piled up similarly “wasted” votes in some big, Republican states — notably Georgia and Texas — in which she did significantly better than recent Democratic nominees, but not well enough to win any electoral votes.

By contrast, Trump’s vote “was incredibly efficient,” said Tom Bonier of TargetSmart,  a Democratic data and strategy firm based in Washington. “Where he lost, he lost big. Where he won, he won by a little. There weren’t many wasted votes. He won almost all the close ones.”

Trump narrowly eked out the victories he needed in key states of nation’s industrial belt, taking Michigan by 10,704, according to final returns, Wisconsin by 22,717 and Pennsylvania by just under 45,000, according to a compilation of the latest data maintained by David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report.

The reasons that happened varied from state to state, Bonier and other analysts note. In Ohio and Wisconsin, for example, turnout fell, belying the image of an army of previously hidden Trump voters storming the polls.

In Pennsylvania, by contrast, that image may be more accurate — turnout rose significantly across the state. Similarly, in Florida, Clinton won heavily in nearly all the places that Democrats generally count on, but lost because of a huge election-day upsurge in heavily white, nonurban counties of the central part of the state, according to an analysis by Democratic strategist Steve Schale.

One big, consistent piece of the problem was that Clinton performed worse than Obama did in blue-collar, predominantly white communities outside of major cities; such as the counties that include Scranton and Erie, Pa.; Youngstown, Ohio; Green Bay, Wis.; and Daytona Beach in Florida. In many such counties, Clinton’s vote was 15 percentage points or more below what Obama received in his reelection.

“When I look at those blue-collar areas, I’m still kind of in awe” over how dramatic the change was, said Sean Trende, election analyst for the RealClearPolitics website.

Clinton actually did better than Obama in counties that have high levels of education — Orange County being a prime example — as well as suburban counties outside Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston and several other major cities.

Indeed, the share of the white population with a college degree or higher turned out to be one of the strongest predictors of which candidate would win a particular area this year.

Trump’s weakness in those suburban counties, which in the past have often sided with Republicans, provides “a big red, flashing sign for both parties,” said Trende.

The danger for Democrats is that “if Trump can bring those suburban Republicans back into the fold” without losing his core support among blue-collar, white voters, “he could win a pretty significant victory” in the next election, Trende said.

The danger for Republicans is that if Trump fails to improve his standing in the suburbs, “there are a bunch of GOP representatives from those districts” who could suddenly be at risk...

Still more.

Katherine Cramer, The Politics of Resentment

Following-up from Sunday, "Democrats Search for a Path Back Into Rural America's Good Graces."

I'm glad I've found Katherine Kramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her timely new book, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.

And listen to her at this interview, posted November 6th, but taped in August:

The Los Angeles Times Made the Right Call to Publish Two Letters to the Editor on Japanese Internment in the Newspaper's Travel Section

This is the exact kind of leftist concern trolling we'll be seeing for the next four years, at least.

Leftists will decide what's acceptable discourse, and what's not. The goal will be to suppress views deemed unacceptable before they see the light of day, lest such opinions become "normalized," and thus legitimizing the representative "acts of terrorism" inherent the election of Donald Trump.

Seriously, talk about some special snowflakes at the Los Angeles Times. The paper's editor-in-chief and publisher, Davan Maharaj, said the letters did not meet the newspaper’s standards for "civil, fact-based discourse" and shouldn't have been published:

“Letters in The Times are the opinions of the writers, and editors strive to include a range of voices. But the goal is to present readers with civil, intelligent, fact-based opinions that enlarge their understanding of the world,” Maharaj said. “These letters did not meet that standard.”

And get this, "The Travel section plans to print letters of response in the Dec. 18 edition."

And that's a bad thing?

No, that's a good thing.

Someone expresses an idea and people respond. If you don't like an idea, say so. That's how speech works. That's how debate works. It doesn't work by deeming a particular idea offensive "uncivil" discourse and banishing that view from the pages of the newspaper. It doesn't work by consigning a disagreeable idea as beyond the realm of controversy and engagement. The reaction to the letters is totalitarian, but then, leftists are totalitarian.

Read the letters here, "Were the stories about Japanese internment during World War II unbalanced? Two letter writers think so."

I don't think they're offensive, frankly. Americans thought Japanese citizens were a threat to national security, and they did something about it. The country survived, and a good thing too.

RELATED: See Erik "Homosexual Lumberjack" Loomis, at Lawyers, Guns, and Money, "What on Earth Was the Los Angeles Times Thinking?"

Special snowflakes over there at LGM as well, with an emphasis on "special."

BONUS: See Michelle Malkin, "IN DEFENSE OF INTERNMENT."

And here's Michelle's book, at Amazon, In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror.

Evelyn Taft's Partly Cloudy and Mild Forecast

Still nice weather, folks.

We're lucky in SoCal, heh.

Here's the lovely Ms. Evelyn, for my Evelyn Taft fans.

Doutzen Kroes LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

Today's installment:

John Glenn, Legendary American, Dies at 95

When the news broke the other day that John Glenn had died, I thought it was sad, but that he'd lived a full life until the ripe old age of 95.

What a kind and decent man, I thought.

It wasn't until I watched CBS This Morning's review of his life when I shook my head and said, "Damn, the dude's a freakin' American hero!"

Really, just wow.

And below is the New York Times obituary:

John Glenn, 1921-2016 https://t.co/lE2UaH5PLl

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 9, 2016

Democrats Search for a Path Back Into Rural America's Good Graces

Via Instapundit, "MAYBE NOT TELLING THEM THEY’RE IGNORANT, RACIST BIGOTS WHO DESERVE TO DIE OUT WOULD BE A GOOD START."

Democrats search for a path back into rural America’s good graceshttps://t.co/mwsCnQuYMG

— slone (@slone) December 12, 2016

Richard B. Frank, Guadalcanal

I'm putting this one on my list.

My son said he wants to actually buy me some books, not just a gift card, heh.

I'll tell him to check Amazon, Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle.

Amber Lee's Patchy Drizzle Forecast

Still mid-60s with partial clearing. I'm not complaining.

Some chance of light rain and drizzle.

From the lovely Ms. Amber:

Russian Hackers and American Hacks

At WSJ, "The CIA that misjudged Putin for years is now sure of his motives":

Finally, a MSM outlet reports facts not speculation... Russian Hackers and American Hacks https://t.co/fan2SJVXbl via @WSJ

— Diane Piette (@DianePiette1) December 12, 2016

Somewhere in the Kremlin Vladimir Putin must be laughing. The Russian strongman almost certainly sought to undermine public confidence in American democracy this year, and as the Obama Administration leaves town it is playing into his hands.

That’s the real story behind the weekend reports that U.S. intelligence services have concluded that Russia intervened to assist Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The stories are attributed to “senior administration” officials who won’t go on the record but assert murky details that are impossible to verify without seeing the evidence.

Mr. Trump is denouncing the claims with his usual subtlety, but he has a point about their timing and nature. “I don’t want anyone hacking us,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News Sunday, while blaming the leaks on Democrats. “I think it’s ridiculous” and “I don’t believe it.”

Democrats are still in shock from their defeat, and many want to add the Kremlin to FBI Director James Comey, fake news and the Electoral College as excuses that cast doubt on the legitimacy of Mr. Trump’s victory.

The new information in these latest stories is less about new intelligence than it is a judgment about Russian motives. Other sources who have seen the intelligence say there’s strong evidence that actors linked to high-level Russian officials hacked the Democratic National Committee (DNC) website. The Russians then posted them on sites they set up or handed them to WikiLeaks, though even the WikiLeaks transfer isn’t known for sure. The Administration made public the conclusion about the DNC hack months ago.

The difference now is that the intelligence community is said to have concluded with “high confidence” that the Russians did the hacking to help elect Mr. Trump. But we’re told the evidence for this conclusion is far from definitive, and multiple intelligence services offered no such judgments when briefing the House Intelligence Committee on the election-related hacks last week.

The New York Times cites claims from its sources that the Russians hacked the Republican National Committee website but then didn’t leak any documents. But other sources say that while it’s clear the Russians were probing the RNC website, it isn’t clear they penetrated it enough to grab emails. This is in contrast to the months the Russians spent roaming through the DNC site. We’re also told that there’s no definitive intelligence about who hacked Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta. His emails posted on WikiLeaks were arguably more politically damaging than those from the DNC.

Still more.

Donald Trump's Favorability Surge (VIDEO)

At Zero Hedge, "Trump Favorability Surges Post-Election."

Frank Luntz: Trump's Favorability Surge Is Largest Since Ronald Reagan https://t.co/rmHC5Oj2T4

— Michael Means #ORPUW (@michaelmeans49) December 9, 2016

Nina Agdal Virtual Reality Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (VIDEO)

I miss this lady.

She's so fabulous.

Stephen Budiansky, Code Warriors

Well, here's a good and timely book selection, considering all the allegations of Russian interference in the election.

At Amazon, Stephen Budiansky, Code Warriors: NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union.

Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns

One of Amazon's best-selling paperback non-fiction books.

See Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper (VIDEO)

Via Big Fur Hat, at iOWNTHEWORLD, "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper – The Story Behind It":

What I love about this video is the candor. A historian actually says that it was Rockefeller that put so many people to work during the great depression. How did this scholar slip through the cracks?

Deal of the Day: DYMO LabelWriter Printer

At Amazon, DYMO LabelWriter 4XL Thermal Label Printer.

Plus, POS HARDWARE BUNDLE - Epson TM-T20II C31CB10021 Direct Thermal Printer and Epsilont Cash Drawer.

More, New and Interesting Finds at Amazon.

Plus, Fire Tablet, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black.

And, Kindle Paperwhite E-reader - White, 6" High-Resolution Display (300 ppi) with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers.

Also, AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable - 3 Feet (0.9 Meters) - White.

BONUS: Guenter Lewy, The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies.

Digital Cameras Under $250

Shop Digital Cameras at Amazon.

And thanks to everyone who's making my holiday Amazon blogging a real success!

I'm having a great time and the support has been fabulous.

Thanks again!

Still more in Electronics, Computers, and Accessories.

Plus, Save on Snow Blowers, Snow Shovels, Salt Spreaders and More.

BONUS: Gerhard L. Weinberg, Germany, Hitler, and World War II: Essays in Modern German and World History.

Heidi Klum LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

I love anything with Ms. Heidi, but these LOVE videos are most excellent, heh.

InfoWars: Orange Coast College Student Faces Expulsion After Psychology Professor Attacked Donald Trump's Election as 'Act of Terrorism' (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Olga Perez Stable Cox, Orange Coast College Psychology Professor, Attacks Donald Trump's Election as an 'Act of Terrorism' (VIDEO)."

Here's Margaret Howell and Lee Ann McAdoo, at InfoWars:

Orange Coast College psychology professor Olga Perez Stable Cox labeled Donald Trump’s victory “an act of terrorism” and seems to be suggesting that he is a “white supremacist” and Vice President-elect Mike Pence is “one of the most anti-gay humans in this country.” She tells her students that the difficult thing about the election loss is that the people who caused the “assault are among us,” as if Trump supporters are the enemy within.

Donald Trump on Russian Interference: 'I Don't Believe It...'

I love this guy.

At the New York Times (via Memeorandum).

Donald Trump Ties C.I.A. Reports on Russian Meddling to Democrats’ Shame https://t.co/J63rrViqhH, see more https://t.co/9kqEZCu26G

— Tø©hukwü Däviðãnthøn (@Okehdom) December 11, 2016

Holiday Shopping Portal [BUMPED]

At Amazon, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers. Books, DVDs, and More.

BONUS: Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in History and Memory.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers Picked for Secretary of the Interior

She's a great lady!

And she wants to drill, baby, drill!

At the Los Angeles Times, "Trump said to pick drilling advocate Cathy McMorris Rodgers for Interior."

And at Bloomberg, "Trump Said to Offer Cathy McMorris Rodgers Post to Head Interior":

President-elect Donald Trump has asked Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the highest-ranking Republican woman in the U.S. House, to be his Interior secretary, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

In picking the six-term Republican from Washington state, Trump would be putting a Westerner who has favored opening more areas to oil and gas development in charge of the agency that makes those decisions for 20 percent of the U.S. McMorris Rodgers, 47, has been House Republican Conference chairwoman, the fourth-ranking party leader, since 2013.

Her voting record in Congress has gained low ratings from environmental and conservation organizations, though her campaign website promotes her role helping to write bipartisan legislation passed in December to modernize the U.S. energy system, including by speeding hydropower development, which is important to her state.

She supported a provision ending the 1975 ban on the export of U.S. oil, voted to allow Indian tribes to use biomass as a stable energy source, and backed a bill rejecting an expanded definition of “navigable waters” under the Clean Water Act. She also helped write legislation on funding for wildfire disasters.

Even so, the League of Conservation Voters gave McMorris Rodgers a zero score in the group’s 100-point National Environmental Scorecard reflecting votes in 2015. Her lifetime pro-environment score is 4 percent with the group, which bases its findings on lawmakers’ votes on the group’s top issues including energy, global warming, public health, public lands and wildlife conservation, and spending for environmental programs. The average U.S. House score in the group’s ratings for all House members was 41 percent.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil CEO, Expected as Nominee for Secretary of State

Collectivist heads will explode.

At NYT

Rex Tillerson, Exxon Chief, Is Expected to Be Pick for Secretary of State https://t.co/eH09ri5FKO

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) December 10, 2016

And at WSJ:

Exxon’s Rex Tillerson is top candidate for secretary of state https://t.co/bcmujkGsYi

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 9, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state, a transition official said Saturday, a selection that would reach outside the traditional foreign policy establishment to elevate a global business deal-maker.

Mr. Trump hasn't yet made a final decision, the official said, but the president-elect heaped praise on Mr. Tillerson in an interview released Saturday.

“He’s more than a business executive; he’s a world-class player,’’ Mr. Trump told Fox News in the interview, to be broadcast Sunday. “He’s in charge of I guess the largest company in the world.”

Mr. Trump called it “a great advantage” that Mr. Tillerson already knows “many of the players,” noting that he does “massive deals in Russia.”

Those deals would be certain to come under scrutiny in confirmation hearings before the Senate. A number of Republicans have urged Mr. Trump to be wary of Russia, warning that it is trying to expand its influence in ways that run counter to U.S. interests in places such as Ukraine and Syria.

The nomination would also put Mr. Trump’s intentions toward Russia in the spotlight just as controversy is intensifying over reports that the Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that a Russian-led hacking effort of U.S. email accounts was intended to boost Mr. Trump’s election chances.

Mr. Tillerson, 64 years old, met privately with Mr. Trump on Saturday, four days after their first meeting.

Among those considered for the post, Mr. Tillerson has perhaps the closest ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, having negotiated a 2011 energy partnership deal with Russia that Mr. Putin said could eventually be worth as much as $500 billion. In 2012, the Kremlin bestowed the country’s Order of Friendship decoration on Mr. Tillerson.

This pre-existing relationship with Mr. Putin complements Mr. Trump’s push to improve U.S.-Russia ties.

Since Mr. Trump began vetting candidates for secretary of state, Mr. Tillerson’s stock has climbed steadily. He moved ahead of better-known hopefuls with established political credentials—including 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney —who had multiple conversations with Mr. Trump about the job. Mr. Tillerson is viewed by some of Mr. Trump’s advisers as a mold-breaking pick who would bring an executive’s experience to the diplomatic role, said a person involved in the process.

Tapping Mr. Tillerson for the job would be a “Trumpian” move, the transition official said.

Mr. Trump is expected to make a formal announcement about his State Department pick in the coming days.

An Exxon spokesman declined to comment.

Mr. Trump said in a statement on Friday that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had taken himself out of the running for the diplomatic job and other administration posts late last month.


With Mr. Trump’s decision not yet final, other candidates who remain in the running, apart from Mr. Romney, are former Central Intelligence Agency director David Petraeus, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), people familiar with the matter said.

If Mr. Trump selects Mr. Tillerson, it would add a seasoned business executive to a team that already includes three retired generals. As Exxon’s CEO since 2006, Mr. Tillerson could leverage existing relationships with numerous world leaders.