Hat tip to Eve Tushnet.

Thomas Lifson argues that Trump intends to drain the swamp of bed-wetting, GOP-policy-obstructing liberals at Fogg Bottom, and has concluded (for some unknown reason) that Mitt Romney is the man for the job.

Donald Trump has a plan that eludes his critics, who can’t help thinking about politics the way it has always been played and still do not grasp his thinking nor the range of new tools he brings to the presidency.

The Department of State is badly broken and desperately needs to be fixed. State requires fundamental restructuring as well as the departure of many entrenched figures whose goals and beliefs are antagonistic to realistic confrontation with Islamic jihad and the generations-long efforts of Muslim states to “wipe Israel off the map.” The State Department is full of people called “Arabists,” who instinctively blame Israel when it is attacked and defends itself and who presume that the U.S. should attend to the prejudices of hundreds of millions of Arab Muslims because they are so populous, and because they have oil and have funded an amazing number of sinecures for retired bureaucrats with generous compensation and few demands (other than reflexive support whenever an issue arises).

This is just a start on enumerating the problems, for the Middle East is not the only problem ahead, merely the oldest. There are serious issues with Russia, China, North Korea, and Venezuela, among major problems for U.S. diplomacy.

Read the whole thing.

I think a lot of people are busy projecting their favorite personal fantasies on the blank page that is Donald Trump.

I’m skeptical myself that Trump has been secretly a hard-core Republican hawk all these years, kicking his gold-plated furniture every time he has to listen to the like of Colin Powell.

I would guess that Donald Trump is familiar with the way Mitt Romney straightened out the Winter Olympics mess and perceives Romney as highly competent manager and negotiator. Trump’s primary policy interests are probably new trade deals favoring US interests and a grand renegotiation of the NATO Alliance which extracts larger financial contributions from America’s strategic partners.

It is easy enough to see why Trump would like Mitt Romney’s combination personal distinction, professional competence, and geniality working on his behalf out of State.

Beyond Mitt Romney’s particularly desirable combination of personal characteristics and skill set, getting his strongest GOP Establishment critic to accept his leadership and come on board would go a long way toward reuniting the entire Republican Party behind Donald Trump, and would be a strong public demonstration of The Donald’s own skills at negotiation and persuasion.

Mark Joseph Stern, in Slate, dismisses the idea that there could possibly exist serious levels of voting fraud in this country, and sounds the left’s La patrie est en danger! alarm over imminent nefarious Republican attempts “to limit voting rights.”

On Sunday night, the president-elect of the United States declared that more than 2 million fraudulent votes had been cast in the election that elevated him to the presidency. “I won the popular vote,” Donald Trump tweeted in an angry response to Jill Stein’s swing state recount, “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” Some pundits once again insisted that this demonstrably false assertion was “just a distraction” to divert our attention from the real crises and scandals. That’s nonsense. One of the key crises facing the United States today is the Republican-led assault on voting rights. And whether or not he intended to, Trump just helped to lay the groundwork for a coming crackdown on suffrage across the country.

The Trump Administration should prioritize efforts to prove him right.

Nearly every major city in this country is controlled by a democrat party machine which systematically exchanges patronage (and other things) for votes.

In thousands and thousands of voting precincts, you can find on election day professional agents of the democrat party delivering voters to the polls. In minority neighborhoods across the country, you can find ministers receiving “walking around money” for delivering their congregations to the polls. If I tried, I would have no difficulty finding polling places in my own native state where small sums of cash routinely change hands in exchange for voters pulling the democrat party lever. In 2015, 141 US counties had more voters than living eligible residents.

Donald Trump’s famous tweet may have been characteristically guilty of hyperbole, but Trump was right to point to a flagrant and brazen pattern of voting fraud that is widely institutionalized and ignored by law enforcement and the election authorities in this country. The United States is not a banana republic. There should be no exchanges of cash for votes, no deceased people on the voting rolls, no organized hunt and drag operations, and definitely no inner city residents voting “a few times.”

The Trump Administration should create a special Justice Department division with the sole mission of tracking down and prosecuting election fraud abuses, and the Trump Administration should introduce in Congress a comprehensive bill to establish strict and uniform national voter identification requirements. That would put an end, once and for all, to the ability of urban political machines to manufacture votes in unlimited quantity as required.

Hat tip to Vanderleun.

The Yakuza life, according to Kaz Matsune on Quora:

Here is a story I heard from my father-in-law.

My-father-in law runs a small restaurant in a rural area of Japan for the past 30 years. It’s located in the even remote part of the town.

Because of the restaurant’s location, many customers come to avoid the crowd in the city for a nice quiet sit down meal.(food is very good by the way)

Naturally and eventually, some Yakuza members discovered this quiet establishment, for they too need a place to eat lunch and dinner to avoid crowds. So, they started to come to the restaurant frequently.

Now, my father-in-law is quite a big man for his generation: at the age of 80, he is 183cm (6’1″) tall and weighs 100kg (220lbs). Thanks to his physical feature, he is not easily intimidated, even by the Yakuza.

When one of the Yakuza members noticed his missing pinky finger, their mode suddenly changed. Missing pinky is a sign of Yakuza – whenever they commit a serious mistake (among their organization), it’s their custom to cut their finger off.

“Hey grandpa, what did you do?” one of the Yakuzas asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Your pinky finger.”

“Oh this? My finger got caught in the electric winch on my boat.”

“Your boat?”

“Yes, I am a fisherman also. I go and catch fish and sell, when the restaurant is not so busy.”

“You are not Ex-Yakuza?”

“No. Are you?”

“Yes, we are. We thought you were because your pinky is missing. We thought you slept with your boss’s wife or girlfriend. That’s when we must cut our pinky. We thought you were reckless and courageous, worth admiring.”

“Really? Why courageous?”

“Because you are reckless, we thought.”

“Why is it good to be reckless?”

“Because we cannot be. Police know what we are doing and where we are. They always have their eyes on us.

Read the whole thing.

Red-bellied snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus). Yes, it’s an elapid.

ABC NET AU:

A snake catcher is warning of increased snake activity in South Australian towns and cities over summer after removing several dangerous reptiles from Adelaide’s CBD [Central Business District].

Adelaide’s Ian Renton said good spring rains had boosted food sources for mice, and while callout numbers were about average so far, they had the potential to increase.

Mr Renton said he had removed snakes from homes and businesses right across Adelaide, including the CBD.

“We’ve taken them out of Wyatt Street, out of Frome Road, Pulteney Street, both red-belly black snakes and brown snakes,” he said.

“People leave their doors open or snakes come in through pet doors or air conditioning systems.

Mice go into the roof space and the snakes follow the scent trail, and drop out through light fittings.”

Mr Renton said people needed to take care and use common sense around their properties.

“People need to be aware [and] watch where they’re putting their hands. Don’t put their hands in places where they can’t see,” he said.

“Make sure they’re wearing gloves, good leather gloves, when they’re doing gardening.”

He said SA Ambulance Service had been reporting almost daily calls to treat people for snake bites.

Joel D. Hirst mourns the 57 years stolen from the lives of millions of Cubans by the bandidito tyrant.

I said I would write no more about the death of a tyrant. I lied. Well, perhaps only changed my mind. Because I read something yesterday – something that nobody in Cuba would be able to read. “The greatest evil of the tyranny” it said “was the theft of six generations of life.”
children-in-cuba

Of life

Forget the gulags and the concentration camps and the firing squads. Those are the stories that made the papers at least – stories that were told. No – the most important part of this tragedy is not what happened, but what didn’t happen. The novels that were not written, stories of beach and mountain and freedom and loss; the beautiful paintings that did not come to be, which in turn did not inspire abounding love – the love of storybooks. The cuisine that was not refined; the businesses that did not provide for families; inventions that do not help humanity; diseases that were not cured.

The life that was not lived.

This – for me – is the greatest tragedy of all. We have this life at our fingertips, those of us from America. To a greater measure than others; but even those from Panama, or Chile, or Paraguay can see that which they wish to attain. They can uncork the $1000 bottle of wine and dream of the day they will sit in front of the sheer white tablecloth and drink deeply. They can read the novel, and imagine how they would make the stories unfold, improving them. They can look at the girl across their own malecon and imagine how they will win their fortune and then come for her.

None of these things have been imagined – for six generations – in Cuba.

For those of us who are writers, the unwritten story of Cuba is the saddest of all.

Read the whole thing.

Hat tip to Vanderleun.

#TrudeauEulogies

And they go and on.

We mourn the death of Vlad the Impaler, who spearheaded initiatives which touched the hearts of millions.

We must mourn the death of Jeffrey Dahmer, whose hunger for human life was second to none.

Empire News (a humor site):

In a bold move today that is sure to create controversy among fans of the company, Mattel announced its new Barbie doll; ‘Public Assistance Barbie’ will be marketed directly to inner-city youths and children of welfare recipients.

”Since 1959 Barbie dolls have been through major changes to reflect the times we live in. Today with over 40% of Americans on some sort of public assistance, we felt the time was right for ‘Public Assistance Barbie,” said Mattel spokesman Rick Reynolds. “After doing research on people receiving assistance, we have come out with what we think is a fair and sensitive portrayal of that kind of person with our new doll. Each Public Assistance Barbie will come with a new Cadillac, Puma sweats, a pack of Newports, an Obama phone, an EBT card, and a rack of Budweiser. She will also come in three styles: heavily tattooed and pierced, pregnant and smoking, and a ‘black eye’ version from when drunken Ken beat her for not paying the cable bill. Public Assistance Barbies will be on the shelves in time for your holiday purchases, and will come in special theft-deterrent boxes. EBT cards cannot be used to purchase, unfortunately.”

Read the whole thing.

Colonel Cornelio Rojas, Chief of Police, Santa Clara, Cuba, executed without trial 7 January 1959 by order of Che Guevara.