Europe-Wide Manhunt for Anis Amri; Berlin Attack Suspect Previously Arrested Three Times (VIDEO)

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Berlin Massacre Terror Suspect Anis Amri Arrested Three Times This Year."

Figures.

Germany's probably swarmed with criminal jihadists, and Merkel doesn't even care. It's all about humanitarianism. That is, until your own citizens are massacred.

Merkel's party's going to be toast in this year's federal elections. Merkel's going to be toast in this year's federal elections. I'm surprised she's running or a fourth term.

More at the Telegraph U.K., "Live Berlin terror attack: Tunisian suspect was investigated over earlier terror plot":

A Tunisian man wanted in connection with the deadly truck attack on a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market had been previously investigated over an earlier terror plot, a senior German official has said.

Ralf Jäger, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, said an investigation had been launched against ... Anis Amri, who was due to be deported, earlier this year on suspicion of "preparing a serious crime endangering national safety".

He moved around Germany and lived in several places, Mr Jäger said. Since February this year he lived mostly in Berlin, but he had been back in North Rhine-Westphalia recently.

The man is aged 21 or 23 and known by three different names, according to reports in the daily Allgemeine Zeitung and the Bild newspaper.

Both said asylum office papers believed to belong to the man were found in the cab of the truck.

The documents, which announced a stay of deportation, were found under the driver's seat of the 40-tonne lorry that barrelled through the Christmas market in the heart of the German capital.

Police were reportedly searching for the suspect, who was born in the southern Tunisian city of Tataouine, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Twelve people were killed in what German authorities have called a "terrorist attack" in Berlin late Monday, including the Polish driver of the truck. Twenty-four remained in hospital, 14 of whom were seriously injured.

The scenes instantly revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist...

Edward O. Wilson, Half-Earth

Recommended by Paul Simon, of Simon and Garfunkel (more on that later today).

At Amazon, Edward O. Wilson, Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life.

Alessandra Ambrosio LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

As longtime readers will recall, Ms. Alessandra's always been a favorite.

Here she is in the latest installment:

Deal of the Day: Tonicstar Wireless Optical Mouse for Computer

At Amazon, Tonicstar Wireless Mouse 2.4G USB Optical Mouse for Computer Black.

Plus, AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable - 6 Feet (1.8 Meters) - Black.

BONUS: Victor Davis Hanson, Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power.

The Left's Political Intimidation of the Electoral College Fails

A must-read editorial, at WSJ, "Hamilton’s Electors Vote Trump":

While Monday’s final tally wasn’t known when we went to press, the count was headed toward 304 for Mr. Trump, with two dissenting GOP electors from Texas.

It is nonetheless worth noting the extraordinary lengths that Democrats and the progressive media have gone to attempt to lobby electors to vote for Hillary Clinton or a Republican alternative. “Electors under siege,” said a headline in Politico, reporting that many “have been inundated by harassing phone calls and hate mail,” even “death threats.”

So much for the calm deliberation that progressives claim to want as they lobbied electors under the rubric of Hamilton’s Electors. The spectacle of the last month has been an exercise in political intimidation, precisely the kind of pressure politics that Alexander Hamilton wanted an Electoral College to protect the country from. There’s a case for independent judgment by electors, but only in extraordinary circumstances—such as learning something new and disqualifying about a candidate....

The larger cynicism at work is the continuing attempt to undermine Mr. Trump’s democratic legitimacy. First Democrats tried a recount, which failed when the Republican gained votes in Wisconsin. Then they turned to the Electoral College, whose vote won’t technically be official until the new Congress certifies the result in January. Look for Democrats to make speeches before the vote questioning Mr. Trump’s authority to be President.

Then there are the charges that Vladimir Putin elected Mr. Trump. Mr. Podesta—perhaps still trying to purge his conscience for not campaigning in Wisconsin—even suggested on Sunday that “Trump Inc.” advisers colluded with the Russians to hack Democratic emails. That would be some story, though we’ll wait for evidence. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump will be President, but he shouldn’t anticipate a honeymoon.

It's not Donald Trump who's raising the specter of fascism in America, it's the Democrats and the radical left. We've been witnessing it since the voters repudiated Hillary Clinton on election day.

Brazilian Model Ana Braga Christmas Celebration

She's definitely in the Christmas spirit, heh.

At WWTDD, "Ana Braga Celebrates Christmas."

Last-Minute Deals in Tools and Home Improvement

I want to thank everyone once again for shopping through my Amazon links.

It's been a great season for Amazon blogging!

Thanks so much.

And keep shopping, here, Featured Holiday Deals in Tools and Home Improvement.

Plus, Gold Box Deals on Makita Power Tools.

More in Last-Minute Deals.

BONUS: Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan.

Kim McKinney Cohen's 'Primal Scream' Against the Democrat Party

Heh.

I love that, "primal scream."

At Politico, "‘It Was My Primal Scream’: A lifelong progressive was so disgusted with her party, she voted for Trump. Will Democrats care enough to win her back?":

Three weeks before Election Day, as she sat at her kitchen table to fill out her ballot, Kim McKinney Cohen was angry and fed up. The Democratic Party, to which she had been unswervingly loyal for four decades, had sabotaged her chosen candidate, Bernie Sanders, and then lectured her about the need to vote for a woman whose hawkishness and arrogance rubbed her the wrong way. When Hillary Clinton said dismissively supporters of Donald Trump were “a basket of deplorables,” Cohen had heard enough.

“Well, then,” she sighed, "I guess I'm a deplorable.”

Keep reading.

Obama, Now You Want to Be a Cowboy?!!

Watch, a righteous Tomi Lahren, "7 years later, Obama wants to be a cowboy . Convenient. I have some Final Thoughts."

Richard Haass, A World in Disarray [BUMPED]

This looks excellent, particularly in that Richard Haass is no hard-right neocon.

He's an establishment centrist.

And it's Obama's disarray.

At Amazon, A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order.

Lou Dobbs on the State of the Democrat Party (VIDEO)

Yeah, Lou Dobbs the man!

His rants against illegal immigration cost him his job at CNN, but he's riding high now on Fox Business News, and he's basking in the political power of the Trump movement.

The radical left has been reduced to irrelevance, and the radical left is frankly the establishment Democrat Party. They haven't learned the lessons of the election, and their chances of returning to power looks smaller as each day goes by.

A great clip:

Fall of Aleppo is Huge Gift to Islamic State

From Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, at the Daily Beast, "The Fall of Aleppo is a Huge Gift to ISIS":

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the “Caliph Ibrahim” of the so-called Islamic State, had an excellent week last week.

The fall of Aleppo to a consortium of Iranian-built militias backed by Russian airpower and special forces constitutes not only a loud victory for Damascus but also a quieter one for ISIS, or the Islamic State, which mounted a surprise attack that retook the ancient city of Palmyra.

The contrast could not have been starker or a more clear vindication of one of ISIS’s longest-running propaganda tropes: the “infidels” and “apostates” will do nothing to save Sunni Arabs from the pillage, rape, and barrel bombs of the Russians, Alawites, and Shia. But Aleppo’s fall also buttresses one of the lesser-scrutinized claims made by ISIS’s former spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, shortly before his demise.

In May, months before he was taken out by a U.S. airstrike, Adnani issued what would turn out to be a final communiqué refuting a common Sunni criticism of ISIS, namely that the group’s takeover of Sunni towns and cities invariably brought only devastation. See Fallujah and Ramadi. For Adnani, however, such devastation was never the fault of ISIS, as rival jihadist enterprises had discovered at their peril.

“If we knew that any of the righteous predecessors surrendered a span of land to the infidels, using the claim of popular support or to save buildings from being destroyed or to prevent bloodshed, or any other alleged interest,” he said, “we would have done the same as the Qa’idah of the Fool of the so-called Ummah.” Only steadfastness, even in the face of overwhelming odds, would restore Sunni dignity.

Thanks to Bashar al-Assad, Vladimir Putin, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—not to say Barack Obama—Adnani now gets to play the posthumous prophet. Rather than die fighting for Aleppo, the Free Syrian Army (and its Western backers), plus rival Islamist or jihadist groups such the Syrian al Qaeda franchise Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, negotiated the terms of their surrender through a series of failed and humiliating “ceasefires” and evacuations, which are in fact forced population transfers. And Aleppo was still pulverized.

The loss will be compounded by the sectarian context. Aleppo fell to what Der Spiegel correspondent Christoph Reuter once aptly called the “first international Shia jihad in recent history,” led by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and relying largely on a patchwork of guerrilla fighters from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Iraq. This is precisely what Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian founding father of ISIS, wanted. He once described the Shia as “the insurmountable obstacle, the prowling serpent, the crafty, evil scorpion, the enemy lying in wait, and biting poison… Whoever takes the time to look carefully at the situation will realize that Shiism is the greater danger threatening us and the real challenge we must confront.” And the only way to confront this enemy in Iraq was to render Sunnis hopeless that anyone else would, by attacking the Shia so that the Shia took revenge by attacking the outnumbered Sunnis.

In Syria, the Zarqawi thesis is even more relevant, as the country is a Sunni majority one and is now subject to occupation by a minority. And as bad as the physical collapse of the symbolic citadel of Syria’s revolution is, worse still is the chauvinist triumphalism attending it, which plays directly into the Zarqawi strategy.

Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, one of the Iraqi militias which the United Nations accused of murdering 85 civilians, including women and children, broadcast a song on an affiliated Iraqi TV channel. “Aleppo is Shia,” it ran. In his Friday sermon, delivered in Tehran, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani declared the “liberation” of the city from “infidels”—using more or less the same language of sectarian incitement that ISIS reserves for the Kashani’s coreligionists. In this case, the cleric was declaring all 150,000 Sunnis who’d been besieged for months in East Aleppo, and now driven from their homes, godless. Even he must be aware of the lasting repercussions of such imprecations.

Rhetorical provocation has also been met by the visual kind. Images circulating on social media to show Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s spymaster and head of the expeditionary Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, treading the rubble in Aleppo in an unmistakable show of who was really responsible for the siege and recapture. (Bashar al-Assad, the nominal sovereign of “all of Syria,” is nowhere to be seen on this hollowed-out and Iranian-occupied battlefield.) Any of these photographs could easily grace the forthcoming issue of Rumiyah, ISIS’s propaganda magazine...

Keep reading.

The idea is that the Sunnis will be so heavily wiped out that they'll rise up and join arms with the most murderous thugs of Islamic State. That's why the fall of Aleppo's a gift to ISIS.

Berlin Terrorist Attack Aftermath (VIDEO)

It's Paul Joseph Watson, via Small Dead Animals:

Berlin Attack Suspect Still at Large; Police Admit Wrong Man in Custody (VIDEO)

Well, how do you say FUBAR in German?

At the Telegraph U.K., "Live - Berlin terror attack Perpetrator 'still at large and has a weapon' as police admit they may have wrong man in custody after arresting asylum seeker":

German police have said they may have arrested the wrong man over the Berlin terror attack, and the real culprit could still be at large and armed and dangerous.

"We must get used to the idea that he was possibly not the perpetrator or that he didn't belong to the group of perpetrators," Germany's chief prosecutor Peter Frank told a press conference.

Police urged people to remain "particularly vigilant" and to report "suspicious movement" to a special hotline.

"We have the wrong man," an unnamed police source told Welt newspaper. "This means the situation is different. The real culprit is still armed and can commit further atrocities."

The man arrested on Monday night under suspicion of ploughing a 7-tonne truck through a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, killing 12, was named in German media reports as Naved Baluch, a 23-year-old asylum seeker of Pakistani origin.

Baluch has denied involvement in the attack, according to police.

He was picked up about 2 kilometres (1½ miles) away from the scene of the attack, near the Victory Column monument.

At least 48 were injured, some seriously, in the attack, after the vehicle mounted the pavement at about 40mph and crashed into them.

A passenger in the lorry – believed to be the original driver – was later found dead inside. German authorities confirmed that the passenger was a Polish national and that he was not the person in control of the vehicle, which belonged to a Polish delivery company, at the time of the crash...

More.

They won't catch him. They won't catch the suspect. The dude will sink and blend in with the local Islamic community. They'll plan more attacks.

Oh boy Merkel screwed the pooch.

Los Angeles City and County Governments Pledge $5 Million to Illegal Alien Defense Fund

This isn't right.

I'm not against a legal defense fund. I just don't think local government should be paying for it.

Expect a backlash, that's for sure.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Responding to Trump, L.A. proposes $10-million legal defense fund for immigrants facing deportation":

Los Angeles city and county leaders on Monday unveiled a $10-million fund to provide legal assistance for residents facing deportation, the region’s boldest move yet as it prepares for an expected crackdown on illegal immigration by Donald Trump.

If approved by lawmakers, Los Angeles’ two top government agencies could find themselves in the position of using public funds to challenge policies sought by the White House and Republican Congress.

The fund represents another provocative pushback against the Trump agenda in heavily Democratic California, but outside legal experts said the local government agencies are likely within their right to use the money for these purposes.

Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer said the fund will ensure that there is “more fairness and more effectiveness in the immigration system.” He cited statistics showing that immigrants who have representation have a better chance at succeeding in court.

Still, some anti-illegal immigration activists criticized the move, saying it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars and interferes with the federal government’s immigration policies.

L.A. officials “should be focused on assisting the citizens, [not] taking tax dollars to pay for services to assist illegal residents countywide,” said Robin Hvidston, executive director of We the People Rising, a Claremont-based organization against illegal immigration. The money, she added, would be better spent on unemployed citizens, veterans, disabled and the elderly.

L.A. Justice Fund would receive at least $5 million total from city and county government. Philanthropic groups would donate the rest of the money. The California Endowment, the state’s largest private healthcare foundation, plans to give the fund $2 million, according to a foundation spokeswoman.

The legal fund, aimed at helping immigrants who can’t afford attorneys, follows similar efforts at the state and national level to provide protections for migrants...

Almost Half of U.S. Voters Not Sure Russia's Behind Election-Related Hacks

Makes sense.

No one's seen any actual evidence of Russian hacking.

See Morning Consult (at Memeorandum):

Almost half of Americans do not agree with the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that the Russian government was behind cyberattacks on the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016, according to a new Morning Consult/POLITICO survey.

When asked to pick the statement that most aligned with their views, 46 percent of respondents chose one that said the U.S. can’t be sure who is primarily responsible for the hacking because tracing cyberattacks is complicated and because intelligence groups were wrong about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In contrast, 29 percent chose the statement that said there was “near certainty” that Russia is responsible for hacking and that intelligence agencies had used advanced techniques to determine that the former Cold War adversary is responsible. A quarter said they didn’t know or had no opinion...

Well, the public's perfectly reasonable about thing. Leftists not so much.

Still more.

Suspect in Berlin Christmas Market Attack Was Refugee - UPDATE

UPDATE: "Berlin Attack Suspect Still at Large; Police Admit Wrong Man in Custody (VIDEO)."

The death toll has risen to twelve, and reports indicate the suspect was a refugee from Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Oh boy, Merkel's in a world of human refuse.

At Fox News, "Suspect in Berlin Christmas market attack came to Germany as refugee, reports say."

Also at Blazing Cat Fur, "Let’s Not Jump to Conclusions… #Berlin." And Pamela's, "Berlin Jihad Truck Attacker was Pakistani REFUGEE."

Previously, "At Least Nine Dead as Truck Plows Through Berlin Christmas Market (VIDEO)."

Deal of the Day: Intex Comfort Plush Queen Airbed

At Amazon, Intex Comfort Plush Elevated Dura-Beam Airbed, Bed Height 18", Queen.

Also, Logitech Harmony Ultimate All in One Remote with Customizable Touch Screen and Closed Cabinet RF Control, Works with Alexa - Black.

And, Save on Bushnell Best Sellers. More, Bushnell Michael Waddell Bone Collector Edition 4x 21mm Laser Rangefinder, Realtree Xtra Camo.

Plus, Up to 60% Off Holiday Gifts from Anne Klein. More, Anne Klein Women's AK/2390BKGB Diamond-Accented Gold-Tone and Black Ceramic Bracelet Watch.

BONUS: Tara Ross, Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College.

More Stella Maxwell LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

Here's the previous video, "Stella Maxwell LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)."

She's worth an encore, heh.

Donald Trump Seals His Election in the Electoral College (VIDEO)

The biggest drama surrounding this whole thing is how the far-left has sought to destroy and delegitimize the process. It's never been disrupted like this.

But Trump's sealed his election with the vote today around the nation.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Trump officially gets 270th electoral vote, sealing his election as president."



And at the Wall Street Journal, "Donald Trump Wins Enough Electoral Votes to Become President."

And this is actually hilarious:

Monday’s Electoral College proceedings drew a record number of votes for candidates other than Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton. That reflected the lingering deep divisions within the country that played out during an election season in which Mr. Trump won more electoral votes, but trailed Mrs. Clinton in the popular vote. At least seven electors defied the will of the voters in their states—a number not seen in roughly a century and a half.

Two Texas Republican electors cast ballots for Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul. On the Democratic side, four Washington state electors refused to cast ballots for Mrs. Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine. Three voted for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, while one cast a ballot for Native American activist Faith Spotted Eagle. In Hawaii, one Democratic elector also cast a ballot for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

In the vice-presidential vote, the Washington vote was even more unusual, with electors casting votes for a trio of female U.S. senators: Democrats Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Maria Cantwell of Washington, as well as Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine. Another elector cast a ballot for Winona LaDuke, an environmental activist. One Texas Republican voted for former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on the vice-presidential ballot. Another Hawaii elector also voted for Ms. Warren.

Several other attempts by electors to cast ballots for alternative candidates were unsuccessful. Democratic electors in Colorado and Maine tried to cast votes for Mr. Sanders. In Maine, the elector was ordered to vote again, while in Colorado the elector was replaced with an alternate...

Still more.

Soner Cagaptay, The New Sultan

From Soner Cagaptay, a Turkish-American political scientist based in Washington, The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey.

Bella Thorne on the Beach in Miami

At London's Daily Mail, "Newly single Bella Thorne was seen on a romantic outing with Charlie Puth on Sunday in Miami."

Universal Basic Income in Finland

Well, I'm not sold.

The idea is that current welfare rules prohibit part-time workers from receiving benefits, but if you lift the rules and provide a basic income, that'll free up people to get out and work.

Okay, as long as the monthly checks aren't too big. If you give people too much money, they won't want to work. It's human nature.

Interesting, in any case, especially in how leftists just love it. There's a failure of capitalism, and all that.

At NYT:

Free Cash in Finland. Must Be Jobless. (Universal basic income, a bad idea.) https://t.co/tWXRPbLcTr

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 19, 2016

At Least Nine Dead as Truck Plows Through Berlin Christmas Market (VIDEO)

Well, it's not like I was expecting a slow news day, or anything.

There's video at Fox News, "Police: At least 9 dead after truck slams into Berlin market," and MSNBC, "Truck Runs Into Berlin Crowd, Many Killed."

Also, at USA Today, "At least 9 dead after truck slams into Berlin market."

At the Wall Street Journal, "Truck Rams Berlin Christmas Market, Killing Nine and Injuring at Least 50":

BERLIN—A truck drove onto the sidewalk at a Christmas market in the German capital on Monday, killing nine people and injuring at least 50, police said.

A semi-trailer drove onto the sidewalk near Breitscheidplatz in Charlottenburg, a tony district in West Berlin, at about 8 p.m., a spokeswoman for the Berlin police said. After hitting the people, the truck swerved back into the street where it came to a stop, the spokeswoman said.

The circumstances of the incident weren’t immediately clear, but a security official said authorities believe it was a deliberate act. One person, suspected to be the truck driver, has been arrested, a police spokesman said on German television. A passenger in the truck died in the incident, he said.

The crash took place at the site of the Christmas market in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, a popular site for tourists...

Also, at Pamela's, "Truck PLOWS into crowded CHRISTMAS Market in Berlin, 9 DEAD, 50 INJURED IN TERROR ATTACK."

And at the Guardian U.K., "Berlin truck crash: 'suspicious person' arrested after nine killed at Christmas market – live: Unclear whether incident at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz in which ‘many’ also injured is terrorist-related, according to reports."

Plus, at Telegraph U.K., "Berlin terror attack: at least nine dead, 50 injured as truck ploughs into crowd at Christmas market."

Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, Assassinated in Ankara (VIDEO)

Oh boy.

I'm just now logging onto the news, and it's not good.

There's video at Ruptly, "Turkey: Assassination of Russian ambassador caught on camera," and CNN, "Turkish media: Russian ambassador shot."

Also at ABC News, "Russian Ambassador Killed by Gunman RAW VIDEO."

At the Telegraph U.K., "Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov shot dead by police officer in Ankara who shouted 'Aleppo, revenge'":

Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was shot dead on Monday by an assassin who told him: “We die in Aleppo, you die here.”

The gunman – an off-duty policeman – opened fire at an art gallery in Ankara as Andrei Karlov was making a speech, then stood triumphantly over his body shouting “revenge for Syria and Aleppo”.

Photographs taken by an Associated Press photographer who kept his finger on the shutter while others dived for cover captured the aftermath of a murder which Russia described as a “terrorist act”.

The murder followed days of protests in Turkey over Russia’s role in Syria as a backer of President Bashar al-Assad and came on the eve of talks in Moscow about the future of Syria involving Russia, Iran and Turkey, which will still go ahead today.

The Turkish foreign ministry insisted it would not allow the murder to “cast a shadow” over Turkey’s improving relations with Russia.

The killer was named on Monday night as Mevlut Mert Altintas, a 22-year-old riot squad police officer who has been based in Ankara for the past two years.

He shouted “Allahu Akbar” – God is great – as he pulled the trigger, but was unclear whether he was inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) or the rebels who have finally been crushed in Aleppo after four years of war.

Reports in Turkey suggested he recited a message in Arabic similar to a phrase associated with the rebel group Al Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda.

He was shot dead by police in a shoot-out that lasted 15 minutes. Three other people were wounded in the attack.

President Putin spoke on the phone to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the shooting and Moscow said it was “a tragic day in the history of our country and Russian diplomacy”.

Russia and Turkey, which back opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, had entered a diplomatic crisis when the Turkish air force shot down a Russian jet in November 2015, but in recent months Mr Putin and Mr Erdogan have been in regular contact, and have held talks about a general ceasefire in Syria.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "We qualify what happened as a terrorist act. The murderers will be punished.

"Today this issue will be raised at the UN Security Council. Terrorism will not win out."

More.

Also at Memeorandum.

ADDED: At Pamela's, "“Allahu Akbar!” Jihad Assassin of Russian Ambassador was Member of Erdogan’s Special Ops."

Poland's 'Neo-Dark Age' (VIDEO)

I swear, it's not the end of the world.

But for leftists, everything's crashing down. Populism is the same as Nazism to them, and they can't handle it.

Our best bet would be to just crush the left, then we wouldn't have to entertain all the progressive sky-is-falling hand-wringing.

At WaPo, "In Poland, a window on what happens when populists come to power":

WARSAW — The Law and Justice Party rode to power on a pledge to drain the swamp of Polish politics and roll back the legacy of the previous administration. One year later, its patriotic revolution, the party proclaims, has cleaned house and brought God and country back to Poland.

Opponents, however, see the birth of a neo-Dark Age — one that, as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to move into the White House, is a harbinger of the power of populism to upend a Western society. In merely a year, critics say, the nationalists have transformed Poland into a surreal and insular place — one where state-sponsored conspiracy theories and de facto propaganda distract the public as democracy erodes.

In the land of Law and Justice, anti-intellectualism is king. Polish scientists are aghast at proposed curriculum changes in a new education bill that would downplay evolution theory and climate change and add hours for “patriotic” history lessons. In a Facebook chat, a top equal rights official mused that Polish hotels should not be forced to provide service to black or gay customers. After the official stepped down for unrelated reasons, his successor rejected an international convention to combat violence against women because it appeared to argue against traditional gender roles.

Over the weekend, Warsaw convulsed in street protests amid allegations that the Law and Justice party had illegally forced through a budget bill even as it sought to restrict media access to Parliament.

Cheered on by religious conservatives, the new government has defunded public assistance for in vitro fertilization treatments. To draft new sexual-education classes in schools, it tapped a contraceptives opponent who argues that condom use increases the risk of cancer in women. The government is proffering a law that critics say could soon be used to limit opposition protests.

Yet nothing has shocked liberals more than this: After a year in power, Law and Justice is still by far the most popular political party in Poland. It rides atop opinion polls at roughly 36 percent — more than double the popularity of the ousted Civic Platform party.

“The people support us,” boasted Adam Bielan, Law and Justice’s deputy speaker of the Senate.

The party's a little hardcore for me, but like I said, it's not the end of the world. If at least a third of the voters support them, then in fact we're looking a democracy in action. Call me back when Auschwitz starts firing up the ovens again.

Still more.

Sorry Global Warming Alarmists, the Earth is Cooling

From Peter Ferrara, at Forbes (via Sarah Hoyt, at Instapundit):

Climate change itself is already in the process of definitively rebutting climate alarmists who think human use of fossil fuels is causing ultimately catastrophic global warming. That is because natural climate cycles have already turned from warming to cooling, global temperatures have already been declining for more than 10 years, and global temperatures will continue to decline for another two decades or more.

That is one of the most interesting conclusions to come out of the seventh International Climate Change Conference sponsored by the Heartland Institute, held last week in Chicago. I attended, and served as one of the speakers, talking about The Economic Implications of High Cost Energy...

Keep reading.

Amber Lee's Cold Overnight Forecast

Very chilly when I woke up this morning.

I wrapped up with a blanket, put the coffee on, and pumped up the central heating, heh.

Here's the lovely Ms. Amber:

William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears [BUMPED]

Professor Wilson's work is increasingly in vogue. Lots of folks are citing it, from J.D. Vance to Katherine S. Newman and Hella Winston.

I have a copy of the book on my living room bookshelf.

Time to crack it out again!

At Amazon, William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor.

Hunting Gift Guide

Heh.

For the holidays, at Amazon, Hunting Gift Guide - Sports and Outdoors.

And check this, UTG 547 Law Enforcement Tactical Vest, Black.

More, UTG Ambi 24/7 Cross Body Shoulder Vital Sling Pack, Black.

Russian Supermodel Anne V Remembers 7 Years with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (VIDEO)

Now this is one Russian I can dig, heh.

Anne Sergeyevna Vyalitsyna for Sports Illustrated.

Indeed, she's been with the swimsuit issue for 10 years total, 2005–14.

Alexa Chung LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

The latest installment, with Alexa Chung:

'The Art of the Deal' Surging in Popularity Since Donald Trump's Election

Now a #1 Bestseller at Amazon, and among the Top 100 books.

 See Donald Trump, Trump: The Art of the Deal.

Hat Tip: CNN.

Donald Trump is a best-selling author again. "The Art of the Deal" has skyrocketed in popularity since his election https://t.co/ML1yslDDcH pic.twitter.com/5ntiqkBHER

— CNN (@CNN) December 15, 2016

If More Journalists Would Just Listen to Middle America...

Another great piece from Salena Zito, at the Washington Examiner, "Two things Democrats, and the media, should do to understand Trump":

Two things Democrats, and the media, should do to understand Trump https://t.co/S0Py1BGmTa by @SalenaZito pic.twitter.com/ewYlv5XGjd

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) December 18, 2016

NEW YORK — The glass revolving doors of Trump Tower were doing what they have done every day since Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States: briskly allowing a steady stream of mostly tourists from the interior of the country get a glimpse, sometimes longer, of the comings and goings of the man and his Cabinet members who will soon govern this country.

"The energy of the people who come just to stand behind the ropes is sort of unbelievable," said one of two New York City fireman charged with keeping an eye on things in the lobby of the building where the president-elect has been going about the business of putting his government together for his January inauguration.

"If you see Mr. Trump can you please tell him that the Murphys' from Minnesota wish him good luck and that we pray for him?" a gentleman told one of the police officers as he and his wife strolled past the elevators where Trump, his children, future Cabinet members, U.S. senators, members of Congress, business leaders, a former vice president and a rapper have all taken the golden elevators to the 26th floor.

Carlos, from Florida, a third-generation Hispanic American also wanted to pass on good wishes to the Trump family, as he lingered with his family in the lobby, "We saved up to come to New York for Christmas for the first time, I wanted my family to see the best city in America, first place we stop is here to maybe see the next president," he told an officer standing off to the left of the gold elevators.


"It's like that all day long," the fire chief said, adding, "To be honest I didn't know what to expect during the transition process, but honestly the well-wishers come from all over and really just want him to know they are behind him," he said.

It's not exactly the same reception that Trump is getting from those who opposed him, loathed him, still have not accepted that he has won the election and worse yet still have not understood why he won.

They have blamed Russian interference and James Comey's letter for Hillary Clinton's loss; yes the Russians have appeared to interfere and yes Comey's letter was damning to Clinton, but if we all had the ability to be honest with ourselves the DNC emails and the Comey hesitation only reinforced people's view of Clinton's character whether for or against her.

In short, if more journalists had spent time in Middle America, they would have understood that this election wasn't decided at the last moment...

Keep reading.

I Sent Corrections to USA Today

I found errors at this piece:

#GOP electors targeted with $500K ad buy in final anti-#Trump push. https://t.co/Y0tTSDrKe4

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 18, 2016

I tweeted:

@HeidiPrzybyla They're not quoting the Constitution. They're quoting the Federalist. Also coalition is singular at first graf. @USATODAY

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 18, 2016

USA Today revised the piece, correcting a statement about quoting the Constitution to quoting the Federalist Papers, but the first paragraph still has a problem with subject/verb agreement:

A coalition of outside groups seeking to pressure Republican members of the Electoral College to vote against Donald Trump are sinking half a million dollars into a final ad buy in all 50 states.

The "coalition" is the subject." The verb should be "is."

I tweeted again. We'll see if they correct the error.

@HeidiPrzybyla Still got subject verb (dis) agreement at the piece. The subject in first graf is the "coalition," verb is "is."@USATODAY

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 19, 2016

Video of Oklahoma Sooners Running Back Joe Mixon Punching Woman

At USA Today, "Video released of OU's Mixon punching woman."

He broke her jaw. She was on the floor for minutes.

A black athlete beating a white woman. You'd think you'd be hearing more about that angle as well, not just the violence against women. Violence against women is part of black hip hop culture, but to raise the point would "racist."

Donald Trump Can End the War on Cops

It's Heather Mac Donald, at the Wall Street Journal.

And here's her awesome book, at Amazon, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.

Jonathan M. Ladd, Why Americans Hate the Media

At Amazon, Jonathan M. Ladd, Why Americans Hate the Media and How It Matters.

We should be seeing a raft of books like this in the years ahead. The mainstream media's collapsing.

Deal of the Day: Up to 50% Off Kate Spade Handbags

At Amazon, Kate Spade Handbags.

And see, Kate Spade Cobble Hill Lacey Wallet, Black/Cement, One Size.

Also, Neato XV-21 Robotic Vacuum, Black (Certified Refurbished).

More, M*A*S*H: The Complete Series + Movie.

Plus, Shop Amazon Basics - Luggage.

Shop Books.

BONUS: Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies." [Added: No "Sunday Funnies" posted over there today.]



Also, at Theo's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco.

Sunday Rule 5

At the Other McCain, from last week, "Rule 5 Sunday: Maid of Meat."

Also, at 90 Miles from Tyranny, "Morning Mistress."

More, at Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is snow that kids will soon never see again at Christmas, you might just be a Warmist."

And at WWTDD, "Lea Michele Ass in a Swimsuit and Shit Around the Web."

At Drunken Stepfather, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY."

At the Superficial, "Blake Lively’s Awesome Breasts."

Still more, at the Hostages, "Big Boob Friday."

Knuckledraggin', "Now if Hillary had looked like that…"

Theo's, "Irina Shayk Takes A Dip In Tahiti."

pic.twitter.com/54fnUMve7o

— Country Girls (@DownHomeGirls) December 13, 2016

Democrats Accusing Donald Trump of Treason One Month Before He Takes Office

Like I said in my previous entry, we have a fake political system.

We also have a fake opposition party.

Here's Instapundit, with what should be fake news, "I REMEMBER WHEN TOSSING AROUND POLITICIZED CHARGES OF TREASON WAS BEYOND THE PALE OF DECENCY: Democrats already accusing Trump of “treason” a month before he takes office."

Astonishing! Fifty-Two Percent of Republicans Say Donald Trump Won the Popular Vote

Basically meaningless headline at the Washington Post, "A new poll shows an astonishing 52% of Republicans incorrectly think Trump won the popular vote."

And that's at the Monkey Cage blog, which is run by political scientists, who of all people know that most Americans --- not just Republicans --- have in fact minimal knowledge of politics. That's why the 52 percent figure is in fact not "astonishing." BFD. A bare majority thinks Trump won the popular vote? A probably higher percent of Democrats thinks Hillary Clinton should be president, despite the fact that we don't use the popular vote. That's why you've got idiot leftists like Martin Sheen pushing these fake propaganda videos agitating for the Republican electors to reject Donald Trump in tomorrow's voting.

We have a fake political system at this point.

A new poll shows an astonishing 52% of Republicans incorrectly think Trump won the popular vote https://t.co/PyIHuOeVSH

— Monkey Cage (@monkeycageblog) December 18, 2016

I refuse to accept your premises, values, assumptions, facts or legitimacy. #caring

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 18, 2016

Liberals decided that truth was merely a bourgeois construct.
Well, then we're down that. #caring

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 18, 2016

Libs want to think the "52% or Republicans" meme means Republicans are dumb.
What it really means is we refuse to play your game.#caring

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 18, 2016

Law, principles, facts ... the liberals have shown us none of those exist.
Now they don't.
There is only power.
Enjoy the world you made. pic.twitter.com/qHPozfU4YQ

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 18, 2016

'The First Cut is the Deepest'

So, I'm driving with my son the other day, coming home from the Obey warehouse sale in Irvine, and Sheryl Crow's "The First Cut is the Deepest" comes on the radio. My son laughed because I used to play the song all the time when the CD came out back in the day.

Turns out I've already blogged Cheryl Crow's video, "Try to Love Again..."

So here's a recent video from Rod Stewart, who also covered it:

I Like 'CBS This Morning'. My Wife Likes 'Good Morning America'.

I love CBS This Morning. I post videos from the show quite a bit.

But my wife can't stand Gayle King, who stars on CBS along with Norah O'Donnell and Charlie Rose.

In turn, I can't stand "GMA." George Stephanopoulos is not a journalist. He's a Democrat political hack. And Lara Spencer has got to be the biggest airhead on daytime television. She's like a grown forty-something year-old woman who comes off like she's still a giggly teenager. I can't stand her.

Well, "GMA's" coming under some tough competition, apparently.

See the Los Angeles Times, "Morning TV wars heat up as NBC and CBS gain on ABC's 'GMA'."

Christmas Wish List Featuring Lindsey Pelas

Heh.

Yes, she should be on the top of any wish list, heh.

At Egotastic!, "Santa, My Christmas Wish List Must Include Lindsey Pelas!"

Hat Tip: WWTDD, "Lindsey Pelas Mighty Ta-Tas and Shit Around the Web."

'Hate Spaces'

This is the kind of major post you don't see on blogs that much anymore.

From Miriam Elman, at Legal Insurrection, "Hate Spaces: The Politics of Intolerance on Campus (Film Review)":

What’s happening to Jewish and pro-Israel students on many American universities and colleges from coast to coast is horribly ugly. On “hotspot campuses” the problem is only getting worse.

“Hate Spaces: The Politics of Intolerance on Campus”, a new 70 minute documentary recently released by the organization Americans for Peace and Tolerance, chronicles the rampant anti-Israel and anti-Jewish activism prevalent on many of America’s institutions of higher learning.

We featured the film’s trailer in a recent post and the movie premiered in NYC on November 30.

Last week, I had the opportunity to watch the film in its entirely. In this follow-up post, I review the documentary’s central themes and take-home messages.

A 10 minute clip prepared by executive producer, director and writer Avi Goldwasser for our use in this post is included below. Also included below is a statement from him exclusive for "Legal Insurrection."

Never Heard of Sam Kriss, But His Takedown of the Left's 'Russia Hacked the Election and Gave Us Donald Trump' Meme is the Best

I really don't get where the "game theory" part is coming in here, which is apparently what this dude Eric Garland, who went on a Twitter rant about Russian meddling in the election, argued.

But the response from this Sam Kriss dude is the best ever:

It’s possible that the Democratic National Committee leaks were caused by Russian hackers—but given that the hack took place thanks to John Podesta clicking on a link in a phishing email, displaying all the technological savvy of someone’s aunt extremely excited by the new iPhone she thinks she’s won, it could have been anyone. The “leaked” CIA concerns over Russian meddling were quite clearly leaked deliberately by the CIA itself, an organization not exactly famed for its commitment to the truth; they’re the conclusions of an investigation that hasn’t even happened yet and on which there’s no consensus even among the gang of petty Caligulas that calls itself the intelligence community. Still, it’s possible. Countries sometimes try to exert influence in each other’s internal affairs; it’s part of great-power politics, and it’s been happening for a very long time. When Americans meddled in Russia’s elections, it was by securing victory for Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s very own Donald Trump, a man who had sent in tanks to shell his own parliament. Leaked cables suggest that Hillary Clinton’s own State Department interfered with the political process in Haiti by suppressing a rise in the minimum wage. And American involvement in the politics of Chile, Guatemala, Indonesia, and Iran was mostly through military coups, sponsored by none other than the CIA. There was no question of these countries repeating their elections; anyone the generals didn’t like was tortured to death. Next to the mountain of corpses produced by America’s history of fixing foreign elections, a few hacked emails are entirely insignificant.

Whatever Russia did or didn’t do, the idea that its interference is what cost Hillary Clinton the election is utterly ludicrous and absolutely false. What cost Hillary Clinton the election can be summed up by a single line from Sen. Chuck Schumer, soon to be the country’s highest-ranking Democrat: “For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.” As it turned out, he was fatally wrong. It wasn’t the Russians who told the Democratic Party to abandon the working-class people of all races who used to form its electoral base. It wasn’t the Russians who decided to run a presidential campaign that offered people nothing but blackmail—“vote for us or Dangerous Donald wins.” The Russians didn’t come up with awful tin-eared catchphrases like “I’m with her” or “America is already great.” The Russians never ordered the DNC to run one of the most widely despised people in the country, simply because she thought it was her turn. The Democrats did that all by themselves.

What the Russia obsession represents is a massive ethical failure on the part of American liberals. People really will suffer under President Trump—women, queer people, Muslims, poor people of every stripe. But so many in the centrist establishment don’t seem to care. They’re far too busy weaving themselves into intricate geopolitical power plays that don’t really exist, searching for a narrative that exonerates them from having let this happen, to do anything like real political work. They won’t accept that Trumpism is America, in all its blood-splattered horror—that the dry civics lesson of a democracy they love so much is capable of creating a monster. Decades of neoliberal policy disenfranchised people to the extent that Donald Trump could look like a savior; far better to just hide your bad conscience somewhere far away in Eastern Europe. It wasn’t us, it wasn’t our country, we were all duped by Putin. And if this means falling into reactionary paranoia, screaming red-faced about traitors and spies, slobbering embarrassingly over the incoherent rants of any two-bit con artist whose name isn’t Donald Trump—so be it. None of this will help anyone or achieve anything, but that’s not the point. And then, at the end, with nothing solved, they shrug at us like Eric Garland’s imagined game-theory version of Hillary Clinton. Jesus, what can you do?

Jeez, that wasn't hard, now was it?

Chrissy Teigen LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

Keeping the LOVE series alive, with Chrissy Teigen:

Is North Carolina a Sign for What’s Coming in Politics?

At Instapundit, "THE HORROR IS REPUBLICANS TREATING THEIR OPPONENTS LIKE DEMOCRATS DO."

North Carolina Republicans are moving to strip powers from Governor-elect Roy Cooper.

The background is here, at the Charlotte Observer, "Cooper pushes back against legislature’s move to limit his powers: Legislative Republicans clashed fiercely with Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper Thursday as the House and Senate voted to sharply limit his appointment powers – and Cooper vowed to sue them.

Thomas Sowell, The Vision of the Anointed [BUMPED]

Here's a great gift idea!

At Amazon, Thomas Sowell, The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy.

Great Holiday Deals [BUMPED]

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BONUS: Jonathan Haslam, Near and Distant Neighbors: A New History of Soviet Intelligence.

'Tequila Sunrise'

From earlier this evening, when I was out picking up my wife from work, at the Sound L.A.:

Crocodile Rock
Elton John
7:48 PM

Jack & Diane
John Mellencamp
7:44 PM

Don't Call Us, We'll Call You
Sugarloaf
7:35 PM

Midnight Rider
The Allman Brothers Band
7:32 PM

Tequila Sunrise
Eagles
7:29 PM

Runnin' Down a Dream
Tom Petty
7:20 PM

The Joker
Steve Miller Band
7:16 PM

THE WASP
THE DOORS
7:12 PM

Another One Bites the Dust
Queen
7:08 PM

Hey, Hey, What Can I Do
Led Zeppelin
7:04 PM

Rock the Casbah
The Clash
7:01 PM

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...

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