CORRUPT POLS AND HIGH-SPEED RAIL SEEM TO GO TOGETHER: Corruption Derail’s China’s Rail Plans In Mexico.

Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto has cancelled a lucrative, $3.6 billion contract his country signed with a group of Chinese firms to build a high speed rail system between Mexico City and the industrial hub of Querétaro. The move came as a concession to public perceptions of corruption related to the deal, which was signed so soon after being proposed that alternative firms didn’t have the time to enter bids for the project. . . .

This is a big loss for China. One of the reasons that it invested so much in its own high speed rail system was so that it could market its technology, as well as other infrastructure development projects, abroad. But as this story shows us, Chinese companies may have to change their ways of doing business to land big contracts in the OECD world. In today’s world, corruption isn’t just a domestic issue.

Well, they can always try California, New York, and other third-world parts of the US.

FLASHBACK: Obama: I Can’t Bypass Congress, We’re a Nation of Laws.

THE ATLANTIC ON WHY openly-Republican gays still have trouble getting elected to office. One day, I hope, these shameful prejudices will have been left behind.

AT AMAZON, Holiday Gifts For Gamers.

Also, deals on Pet Supplies.

ANOTHER THING THE NEW GOP CONGRESS COULD DO IS ELIMINATE ASSET FORFEITURE STATUTES: Highway seizure in Iowa fuels debate about asset-forfeiture laws.

Related: Police Use Department Wish List When Deciding Which Assets to Seize.

Plus: “IF IN DOUBT…TAKE IT!” Behind Closed Doors, Government Officials Make Shocking Comments About Civil Forfeiture. “Just think what you could do as the legal department. We could be czars. We could own the city. We could be in the real estate business.”

When the police act as predators and see the populace as prey, the result is nothing even close to “law enforcement.”

ANDREW BOSTOM: End the Bush-Obama Fecklessness: Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Now. Yeah, if that happens it won’t be done by us.

MORE MOCKERY OF THE PALACE-GUARD MEDIA:

So @CapehartJ faults sexism for the critique of Valerie Jarrett: https://t.co/DLhD0jUmEL But he said this of Palin: http://t.co/iAV55XrPHG

— Will Antonin (@Will_Antonin) November 11, 2014

JOE PAPPALARDO: Welcome to the Polish Base on the New Cold War’s Front Lines.

NATO and allied jets have scrambled more than 100 times this year in response to Russian military sorties. This activity is growing more dramatic. Within the last week, NATO intercepted four groups of Russian aircraft. “These sizable Russian flights represent an unusual level of air activity over European airspace,” the alliance said in a statement.

When the planes at Łask jump into action, it’s called a Quick Reaction Alert, or QRA. Lt. Col. Ireneusz “Palm” Nowak, the base commander at Łask, says that while the Russians keep to their own airspace, the Poles scramble fighters to shadow them whenever they come near. Sometimes, Nowak says, Russian aircraft cruise right up to the the Polish border in what professionals call RECCE missions — reconnaissance endeavors meant to test the enemy’s readiness.

Can’t we just give Poland some of those nuclear Pershings we used in the 1980s?

ANOTHER POST-ELECTION DISCLOSURE: Secret Service discloses 40 barrier-jumping incidents. “There were more than twice as many incidents involving White House complex fence- and barrier-jumping over the last five years than the U.S. Secret Service previously publicly disclosed, although the vast majority of them involved breaches of lower barriers than the main fence.”

UNDERPERFORMING AS USUAL: HHS: ObamaCare signups will be millions fewer than expected.

KEITH HENNESSEY: ObamaCare Architect, MIT Economist Dr. Jonathan Gruber’s Honesty About Lying. Quoth Gruber: “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass. It’s a second-best argument. Look, I wish Mark was right that we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not.”

See, they have to lie about their policies, because if they told the truth no one would support them.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Former Teacher Charged With Sex Crimes Against 12-Year-Old Student. “Whitney Fair Mullen, 34, appeared in court Thursday morning in Senatobia, Mississippi on charges of molestation and sexual battery of a child. Mullen is a former teacher at Strayhorn Elementary School in Tate County. . . . With long hair hiding her face, the former teacher didn’t have anything to say about accusations after court on Thursday.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: I’m 41, Single, and Pregnant: Welcome To The New Normal.

NEW FRONTIERS IN TOADYING: Jonathan Capehart Steps Up To Defend Valerie Jarrett From Those Meanie Journalists At Politico and TNR.

UPDATE: Oh, and Capehart has blocked me on Twitter. Wimp.

AFTER 40,000 MILES: VW Passat TDI Long-Term Test Review.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK, SUPPRESSING POLITICAL OPPOSITION: Taxpayer-funded initiative collected 600,000 political tweets in its ‘database,’ bragged about having conservative Twitter accounts suspended.

SO PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ASKING ME FOR KIDS’ HANDS-ON TOY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHRISTMAS/HANUKKAH. Here’s some stuff that’s done well with my geeky nephew over the years:

1. The GeoTrax Train Set. My nephew loved it at 2, and for quite some time after.

2. The Snap Circuits Electronics Kit. (Also this one.)

3. Penny Norman’s Inventions Kit.

4. The Snap Circuits Radio Controlled Rover.

5. The Fisher-Price Smart Cycle.

6. This Trebuchet Kit.

7. This radio-controlled helicopter.

8. The Dangerous Book For Boys.

He’s a pretty geeky kid. For his birthday last week I got him the Arduino Starter Kit.

LARA LOGAN quarantined after Ebola report.

NEW YORK TIMES COMMENTER ED FONTLEROY delivers a bracing dose of reality to Charles Blow’s fever-swamp conspiracy theories:

John Quincy Adam’s campaign called Andrew Jackson’s mother a prostitute. . . and American electoral history has a lot worse (and funnier) mudslinging acrimony in its annals than that. Then what happens is people go out and vote and some politicians get rejected by the electorate, like Mr. Obama just was. That’s America; that’s how it works. And, the only thing worse than living under our system of government is living under anything else.

So, Mr. Blow and others here can get off their shocked, appalled, and outraged moral high-horses and stop fantasizing about some made up racial and class war launched against Obama that is undermining all liberal American ideas just so you have a scape goat for presidential failure. His presidency lost last Tuesday. The majority of voters – regular, everyday “folks” – are happy about that. Now, keep calm and carry on.

Although, honestly, Blow’s nonsense about what Obama set out to do when elected is pretty much self-refuting. And what’s amusing is that not even the “progressive” commenters are buying the hope-and-change crap anymore.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THAT STORY ABOUT Italian scientists convicted of manslaughter for failing to predict an earthquake.

UPDATE: More here.

JUDGING BY THOSE JOWLS, AL, YOU NEED A PERSONAL POLICY ON FOOD: Al Gore: ‘It’s Time For A National Policy On Food.’

TESTICLES: The Most Distinct Human Tissue.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Former substitute teacher arrested, charged with sexual battery. “Terry Fults, 34, of Twin Cedars Lane, Tullahoma, was arrested Oct. 29 and charged with aggravated sexual battery. She was released Monday on a $100,000 bond.”

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE CUBAN SANDWICH is from Puerto Sagua in South Beach. But there’s much more to the story.

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Rush Limbaugh Threatens To Sue Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He may well have a case, and every dollar they spend defending it, or paying damages, is a dollar they don’t have for elections. Plus, it sends a valuable signal.