OBAMA SIGNS DEFENSE BILL DESPITE GITMO PROVISIONS: President Obama has quietly (and on the eve of Thanksgiving) signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which renews tight prohibitions against using any federal funds for the transfer of Gitmo detainees to the U.S.

Obama has previously intimated that he would transfer Gitmo prisoners to the U.S. despite congressional opposition. It is unclear whether Obama’s decision to sign the NDAA indicates that he has abandoned plans for U.S. transfer, or whether (as some former Obama Administration officials have argued) Obama believes he has the independent constitutional authority to transfer the detainees to the U.S. anyway.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. This obsession with ‘cultural appropriation’ is leading us down a very dark path. “The idea of ‘cultural appropriation’ sums up everything rotten in today’s intensifying politics of identity. It’s fuelled by the borderline racist idea that to mix cultures is bad. It isn’t only yoga that’s getting it in its supple neck from these new cultural purists: white rappers like Iggy Azalea are slammed for appropriating black culture; students have been banned from wearing sombreros lest Mexicans feel mocked; non-black celebs who try out the cornrow hairstyle can expect to be Twitch-hunted by mobs of these new cultural purists who think black people and white people should stick to their own cultural camps.”

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POLITICO’S GLENN THRUSH DISMISSES JOURNO COORDINATION WITH TEAM CLINTON AS ‘TRADECRAFT:’

Thrush basically has two gaslighting modes when bad news strikes Democrats — explain it away as “badass,” which is he he described Hillary’s now-infamous email server, and bored y’all, which was the mode he switched to when the Obamacare servers blew up in the fall of 2013, and today.

The Washington Post isn’t much better — the young staffer writing up a leading news and opinion Website offering a “no surprises” interview to Chelsea Clinton dismisses it as “Politico just handed Republicans a ‘liberal media’ talking point.”

And there are so, so few of those to go around these days.

Related: “WaPo Attacks Republicans For Politico Offering Chelsea Clinton a Puff Interview” — “Democrats sure got it good.”

BURIED LEDE: “Officials confirmed Wednesday that Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered them removed.”

NEVER LIBEL A LAWYER WITH A BLOG: John Hinderaker: Apology Accepted.

KEEP TRYING, GUYS: 11 Outlandish Attempts To Build The Next Concorde.

MASTERING THE ART OF THE BABY JUGGLE AT HOLIDAY GATHERINGS: Sounds like much more fun than mastering the art of dealing with the crazy uncle who loaded up on Vox and HuffPo Thanksgiving socialist talking points.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: New Method for Producing Nanowires Could Offer a Commercial Avenue.

P.C. RUN AMOK: Political correctness likely contributed to a flash mob theft of a designer store in Georgetown. The store–a Diesel clothing store on M Street–was overtaken by a mob of more than 20 juveniles Tuesday evening, who stole more than $12,000 worth of merchandise within a matter of minutes. The Washington Post story conveniently omits the racial identity of these juveniles.

Some in the Georgetown area started using the app service in February, 2014 after the business organization — Georgetown Business Improvement District — worked with police in the District to launch it. The service called “Operation GroupMe” was meant, some in the area said, as a tool to try to reduce shoplifting in the area. Georgetown is one of the nation’s poshest shopping districts.

But a look at the bulk of the correspondence over a nine-month period of those using the service had some people expressing suspicions about African Americans. About 90 percent of the photographs that were put up showed blacks. And there were descriptions in offensive language.

Joe Sternlieb, chief executive of the Georgetown business group, had said there were concerns that the app could be used to violate shoppers’ “civil rights and individual dignity.”

Um, does anyone care about the rights, dignity, or safety of the store owners, patrons, and employees who work in these stores? If blacks are suspected of crimes in an area, it isn’t “racial profiling” to report suspicion of such individuals. If they are black, they are black. If they are white, they are white. If they are Asian, they are Asian. Simply reporting a suspect’s race is not racial profiling. It is reporting a fact that is useful in preventing crime. Geez. Political correctness is becoming very dangerous.

I GUESS THIS IS WHY WE’RE LOSING: Think Campus P.C. Is Out of Control? Look at the Military.

THEY NEED TO CRYOGENICALLY FREEZE IT: Senator John Barroso (R-WY) has an oped in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Congress Can Cool Off Obama’s Climate Change Plans.”

When the U.N. climate-change talks convene in Paris next week, the risks will be high for American taxpayers. President Obama wants a climate deal and is willing to pay dearly to get it. The inevitable outcome is a plan with unproven benefits and unreachable goals, but very real costs. It will be up to Congress to check the president’s ambition of committing the U.S. to an international green scheme that will produce little or no return. . . .

Todd Stern, the chief American negotiator heading to Paris, has tried to justify the disconnect. Mr. Stern recently told the Senate that developing countries need to be allowed to keep emitting so that their economies can continue to grow by 8%-9% a year. . . .

Why should the U.S. accept a plan—and pay to grease the deal—that keeps its economy stuck at 2% growth while American taxpayers subsidize other countries’ economies growing at 9%?

Almost as bad is that President Obama will likely pledge $3 billion of taxpayers’ money to the U.N.’s Green Climate Fund. Developing nations are eager to accept this cash, which in theory they will use to address the effects of extreme weather. It seems more likely that the money will end up in the pockets of government officials in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. . . .

The envoys in Paris should understand: Congress does not support the president’s $3 billion promise. Earlier this year Mr. Obama requested in his budget the first $500 million installment. That budget was voted down 98-1. Congress should continue to reject this spending and insist that any agreement reached in Paris be subject to Senate approval—regardless of whether or not the administration formally calls it a treaty.

Whatever comes of the Paris talks, there is reason to be wary. We’ve seen the Obama administration’s negotiating skills. Anyone who watched the Iran nuclear agreement play out has good reason to be nervous about the concessions this administration will make in closed-door negotiations.

So here we go again: The President of the United States is hellbent on accomplishing a goal that is opposed by the majority of Americans. He is looking for a way (once again) to “work around” Congress. He is willing to strike a deal that puts the U.S. at a disadvantage, in the name of “helping” other “developing” countries, and the “globe” (even though it won’t actually help the latter).  Who does he think he’s the President of, exactly? Because it sure doesn’t seem to be Americans.

Let’s hope Congress shows more courage and intelligence in stopping the President this time than it did with the Iran deal. I won’t hold my breath.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: On Wisconsin!: State Appeals Court rules man can possess a switchblade in his home. “The appellate court found the possession prohibition is unconstitutional as applied specifically to the facts of Herrmann’s particular case. The judges said the state’s argument that the prohibition protects public safety has nothing to do with Herrmann’s case since possession in a home for self-defense poses little to no danger to the public.”

Specifically rooted in Heller and the Right to Arms. More here. Of course, progressive, civil-rights-conscious states, like Tennessee, have opened up knife rights in and out of the home by statute. Perhaps Wisconsin will catch up.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 930.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: So you’ve been caught smuggling potato chips into your school — as in, like, maybe a crate or two?

SPRINGTIME FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: Forget ISIS: Climate Change Caused Hitler!

And despite his party’s best efforts at nascent environmentalism, the Fuehrer will likely never be dubbed by history as “history’s greenest conqueror” — unlike Genghis Khan.

(Now there’s a “Hitler freaks out over the news of…” Downfall parody clip just waiting to be uploaded to YouTube.)

BILL CLINTON ON IDEOLOGICAL INTOLERANCE:

You just look at how many of our collective bigotries we have overcome in America in the last 100 years. We are less racist than we used to be, we are less sexist than we used to be. We are less religiously bigoted than we used to be. We are less homophobic than we used to be. We have one remaining bigotry: We don’t want to be around anybody that disagrees with us.

Plus:

The candidate for First Man also said, “the polarization of American politics is present not just in Washington, but in American life.” Clinton didn’t call out any institutions in particular, but one wonders if he had the recent campus meltdowns in mind. American universities in some ways epitomize the trends Clinton has described: They pursue aggressive affirmative action, they are saturated with centers for race and gender and LGBT students, their brochures are shot through with paeans to diversity and tolerance—and yet they are now cementing their reputations as the most ideologically intolerant institutions in the country.

For good and ill, there is no reason to think that the trends Clinton described are abating. As we noted last week, millennials are more tolerant of different identities than older generations, but they are also most eager to censor offensive opinions.

This Turkey Day, be thankful that America is winning the war on racism and sexism. And ignore the torrent of articles telling you how to DESTROY your relatives for their incorrect opinions.

Good advice.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Brown University’s $100 Million Inclusivity Plan.

Here’s my plan: Randomly admit a bunch of students, then use the $100 million to give them free tuition. This will never happen, because it doesn’t produce jobs for educrats, and when the random admits did just as well as the special snowflakes who braved the regular admissions process, it would undermine the Ivy League’s rationale.

Better still, if you’re really concerned about inequality, abolish the Ivy League!

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THIS IS CNN: Suspended CNN Reporter Appears to Have Coordinated Tweets with State Department in 2013.

Candy Crowley could not be reached for comment.

HILLARY CLINTON’S DENIALISM IS THE OTHER EXTREME OF TRUMP’S RHETORIC ON ISLAM: “It’s telling that much of the media find only one of the views extreme.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Ace of Spades on “Thanksgivingmanship: Your Guide to Surviving The Progressive Imbeciles Who Have Spent a Week Cramming on How to Survive You.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE NIHILISTIC LEFT, from the far left Forward (sic) Website: “What Does Meditation Have To Do With Fighting ISIS Terror?”

Beyond the article’s highly problematic cultural appropriation, and its author’s thinly-veiled racism directed towards the one black man running for the presidency, file this one under “questions nobody is asking.”

But wait, it gets better! “HUFFPO WRITER: A Bernie Sanders Presidency Is THE ONLY WAY TO DEFEAT ISIS.”

So I guess a manbun-equipped Berniebro practicing meditation with “Imagine” playing in the background while chanting about global warming and full-on Soviet-level socialism should really finish off ISIS for good. Or as Mark Steyn would say, “‘Why do they hate us?’ was never the right question. ‘Why do they despise us?’ is a better one.”

IT WAS GOING TO END POORLY, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER: Teen Islamic State pin-up girl changes her mind, is ‘beaten to death:’

Samra Kesinovic, 17, went to Syria in April 2014 with her 16-year-old friend Sabina Selimovic, where they became propaganda poster girls for the Islamist group.

Now several Austrian newspapers are claiming Samra has been beaten to death, citing insider sources and an interview with a Tunisian woman who lived with the pair before escaping.

A year ago, Lee Smith of Tablet magazine explored: “Why the Teenage Girls of Europe Are Joining ISIS.” Note the prescient and chilling turn the last paragraph quoted below takes:

It is a striking fact that ISIS appeals not only to young men, but also young European women, many hundreds of whom have gone to Syria and Iraq to marry Islamic State fighters. Sure, some of them, like at least one teenaged French Jewish girl who left for Syria, may have come to regret their decision. But that hardly alters the essential point: The girls sought out IS fighters because the West seems weak and unmanly and they pine for real men who are willing to kill and die for what they believe in.

Why? Europe’s got great health care, welfare, and lots of attractive young men and attractive women who, unlike the vast majority of women in the Middle East outside of Israel, are sexually available. So, why given a choice between a comfortable, if somewhat boring, life as a pharmacist in Hamburg, or fighting and dying in the desert, are thousands of Western Muslims opting for the latter?

Because, for all the awesome social services and consumer goods it can offer, Europe has become incapable of endowing the lives of its citizens, Muslim or not, with meaning. A generation of young European Muslims are giving up their relatively easy lives in Malmö, Marseilles, and Manchester for the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, because Europe is devoid of values worth living—or dying—for. They are leaving for the same reason that Europe’s Jews are moving to Israel: Strength and a sense of purpose can be found elsewhere, whether it’s ISIS, Vladimir Putin, Ali Khameni, or the IDF.

European security services are worried that the large number of jihadist fighters with Western passports are destined to cause trouble should they come back to the continent. They’re worried, they say, about the special skills militants might obtain abroad and then employ at home—like Mehdi Nemmouche, the Frenchman who killed four people at the Brussels Museum in May.

Joyce Carol Oates used to enjoy writing about the temptations faced by teenage girls — perhaps she could deign to write some thoughts on what drove Samra and Sabrina to chuck it all and join ISIS.

Related: At Ace of Spades, “Fundamental Concepts — Nothing to Believe In.”