WELL, THAT WAS FAST: Google Gets A Seat On The Trump Transition Team:

Joshua Wright has been put in charge of transition efforts at the influential Federal Trade Commission after pulling off the rare revolving-door quadruple-play, moving from Google-supported academic work to government – as an FTC commissioner – back to the Google gravy train and now back to the government.

The Intercept has documented how Wright, as a law professor at George Mason University, received Google funding for at least four academic papers, all of which supported Google’s position that it did not violate antitrust laws when it favored its own sites in search engine requests and restricted advertisers from running ads on competitors. George Mason received $762,000 in funding from Google from 2011 to 2013.

Wright then became an FTC commissioner in January 2013, agreeing to recuse himself from Google cases for two years, because of his Google-funded research. He lasted at the FTC until August 2015, returning to George Mason’s law school (now named after Antonin Scalia). But Wright also became an “of counsel” at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Google’s main outside law firm. Wilson Sonsini has represented Google before the FTC.

Wright’s leadership position in the Trump FTC transition flips him back into government work. The FTC has two open seats on its five-member panel, and Chair Edith Ramirez’s term ends in April 2017. So Trump will be able to remake the agency, which has responsibilities over consumer protection and policing anti-competitive business practices, like the employing of monopoly power. Outside of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, no government agency is more responsible for competition policy than the FTC.

Yet another argument for my revolving-door surtax.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE: Ex-teacher impregnated by student pleads guilty to lesser charge.

The boy was a 13-year-old middle school student at the time.

TAXES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Thompson Staffer Pleads Guilty: Isaac Lanier Avant claimed he was exempt from income tax.

Rep. Bennie Thompson’s chief of staff Isaac Lanier Avant has pleaded guilty for failing to file tax returns for five years.

Avant claimed in 2005 that he was exempt from paying income tax. Avant earned $165,000 between 2008 and 2013, the five years that he did not file timely tax returns

In addition, Avant filed returns with false deductions in 2006 and 2007, according to the Clarion-Ledger.

Guess which party Bennie Thompson belongs to, since the story doesn’t say. Right you are!

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Rutgers professor who teaches a course on politicizing Beyonce is taken for psych evaluation by NYPD over ‘threatening’ tweets about ‘shooting white people.’ He says it’s all part of “Trump’s crackdown on free speech.” Honestly, the Second Amendment tweet mentioned here — would conservatives care as much about the Second Amendment if guns killed more white people — isn’t a threat at all. It’s not clear that that’s the basis for what happened, but it wouldn’t be the first time a university characterized something harmless as a threat.

THE PURE, UNSULLIED GROVES OF ACADEME: These Professors Make More Than A Thousand Bucks An Hour Peddling Mega-Mergers. “The economists are leveraging their academic prestige with secret reports justifying corporate concentration. Their predictions are often wrong and consumers pay the price.”

BEGIN THE HEALING, BOSTON GLOBE-STYLE: I don’t want Trump to succeed. I want him to fail spectacularly.

I’m old enough to remember when wanting the President to fail was the cause of much hand-wringing on the left.

KEEP MARCHING, SORE LOSERS: Half of Americans More Confident in Trump Since Election.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Ryan stops vote on bringing back earmarks.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday convinced Republicans to postpone votes on bringing back legislative earmarks until 2017 after reminding members of Donald Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington.

House Republicans were set to hold a secret ballot on changes to their internal conference rules that would have allowed lawmakers to direct spending to projects in their districts, under certain circumstances.

Based on what lawmakers were saying in the meeting, “it was likely that an earmark amendment would have passed,” according to a source in the room.

“Ultimately, the Speaker stepped in and urged that we not make this decision today,” the source said.

Behind former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Republicans banned earmarks after winning the House in 2010, and have stuck by that policy despite grumbling from both sides of the aisle.

With the GOP now set to control Congress and the White House next year, some Republicans are agitating for change.

Reps. John Culberson of Texas, Mike Rogers of Alabama and Tom Rooney of Florida filed an amendment to GOP rules that would ease the earmark ban by creating a new process for targeted spending.

Remember those names, but for now, it’s another PorkBusters victory!

USA TODAY TAKES AMERICANS’ PULSE: Democrats were the divisive agents in 2016: Multi-generational, European Americans felt ignored.

SEND THE MARINES: Russia’s 61st Separate Naval Infantry Brigade in the Donbass.

The following investigation from Askai707 provides a significant amount of evidence that proves the direct participation of Russia’s 61st Separate Naval Infantry Brigade (often referred to as just the “61st Naval Infantry Brigade” or “61st Brigade” in the translation) in the Ukrainian Conflict, particularly in villages near Luhansk in the summer and fall of 2014. Askai identifies about a dozen Russian servicemen who were photographed and filmed in Luhansk at a separatist base in 2014 — many of whom were awarded medals by decree of the Russian President after returning home, and continued serving as active servicemen.

These men who were photographed and filmed fighting in Ukraine in 2014 were not volunteers. These men were not locals. These men were not “on vacation” and acting outside of their duties as servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

These men were, and in some cases still are, active servicemen of the Russian Federation. They continued to serve as soldiers after returning from Ukraine and were recognized by a presidential decree with medals that rewarded them for their participation in combat. These men participated in a military operation organized and executed by the Russian Federation against the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It’s a lengthy investigative piece, so I won’t say “Read the whole thing.” But it is well-documented and compelling.

This report should go a long way to dispelling Putin’s convenient fiction that Russian military forces have not been fighting in Ukraine.

I WONDER IF THE TECH COMPANIES REGRET GOING ALL-IN FOR HILLARY NOW? Photo of Google/Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt wearing Clinton campaign “staff” badge. Or maybe they’ll just cut a deal with Trump.

WHAT’S SAD IS, I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT OF GEORGE MASON AS LESS P.C. THAN AVERAGE: George Mason Needs To Get A Grip.

My school, George Mason University, has been triggered.

I know this from the seven — yes, seven — university administration emails I received in less than 24 hours advertising forums described as “post-election conversations” and “healing spaces.” These forums are offered as “a space for students to gather in the wake” of the election to “discuss and make sense of the outcomes.” Counselors from the university’s Counseling and Psychological Services will be available for “students wishing to discuss the recent election results in a safe environment.”

Although “snacks and refreshments” will be provided, the emails say nothing in the way of binkies or diapers; students may need to bring their own.

Okay, fine, I should not joke. There are, after all, some very sinister undertones hidden in these emails.

First, let’s strip these forums of all pretext: such “post-election conversations” are intended for those unhappy with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s victory. I can only speculate, but I think it is safe to assume the university would not take such ridiculous measures had Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won. Professors would have outwardly exalted checking off the “madam president” box, students would have celebrated preserving our nation’s indifference to abortion, and much of George Mason would have been cheering what conservatives view as the destruction of individual liberty.

Moreover, such sweeping liberal changes would have bolstered left-wing hubris, giving conservative Americans ample reason to fear for their freedom, beliefs and even personal safety. Just ask David Wilcox, Omar Mahmood, Jade Armenio, Ben Shapiro, the North Carolina and Delaware GOP or these Republicans. Given past edicts of the Democratic Party (e.g., providing space to “those who wished to destroy”) and the viciously anti-conservative censorship culture on most of America’s college campuses, it is not at all clear conservatives would have been safe to disagree.

So, yes, conservatives were completely justified in fearing a President Clinton.

With their true purpose exposed, however, George Mason’s “post-election conversations” become even more disturbing. . . .

Conservatives have suffered many disheartening setbacks in the past few years, many of which kept us up at night in worry and anger. Yet we saw no comforting emails from administrators or invitations to use “special resources” (not that we would have used them; we value our dignity). Rather, we were left to endure the harassment, intimidation and death threats all by ourselves. And we’re still here and still going strong.

Students and faculty and George Mason: get a grip.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

And let me note that, even though I’m at a state university in a conservative state, a university that has a green-light rating from FIRE for free speech, I’ve had lots of conservative students say they’re afraid to speak out, whether in support of Trump or on other topics.

And the author of this piece, Thomas Wheatley, is a law student at George Mason. I hope that more students will be inspired to push back against these double standards at their own schools.

LOVE TRUMPS HATE: Man gunned down outside bar after he joked about voting for Trump.

THAT WOULD BE NICE: How To Fix Flying.

SERIOUSLY, ARE THEY FOR REAL NOW? Media Loses Sh*t over “Transparency”.  If they didn’t need it over Obama Care, Benghazi or Hillary’s monumental email blunder/treason, they certainly don’t need it over… steak?

IF YOU’RE SO SCARED, STOP SCREAMING AND TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR OWN SAFETY: A Handy Guide For Liberals Who Are Suddenly Interested In Gun Ownership.

TEMPERED AND CAREFUL: Reflections on the Trumpocalypse.

OKAY, IT IS OBSCENE IN THE LIGHT OF REASON: It’s also stupid, blinkered and unintentionally hilarious.  Mamas, don’t let your daughters grow up to be feminists.  It clearly rots the brain. I mean, if you’ve never seen Poe’s law in full bloom, this is Poe’s law in full bloom. Lena Dunham’s Newsletter Just Published The Most OBSCENE Slobbering Love Letter To Hillary Clinton

OF COURSE THEY ARE: Hillary Clinton Supporters Doxxing, Harassing Electoral College Voters. Normally I’d say nothing would come of this, but it is 2016, after all, so I’ll say “Do you want a civil war?  That’s how you get a civil war.”

SOMETIMES THAT’S THE ONLY WAY TO MAKE AN AFFIRMATIVE: Michael Barone: “Double negative” voters decided election.

IMPLODING THE SELF IMPORTANCE OF FEMINIST LETTERS TO DAUGHTERS: And zooming in on what Hillary Clinton really taught boys and girls.

Sweetie, Hillary Clinton lost because she’s a deceitful, corrupt, morally vacuous human being. There are a lot of good women in the world — women like Mommy and Nanna and whichever Disney princess you’re obsessed with this week — but Hillary Clinton is not like them. Whereas Mommy and Nanna and the Little Mermaid are kind, honest, generous, and selfless, Hillary Clinton is mean, conniving, selfish, and greedy. This is why we don’t have a woman president. Because the woman who ran for president didn’t deserve the honor.

WHATEVER THE POPE MIGHT SAY: When Walls Are More Merciful Than Bridges.

YES, INDEED: The MSM has a transition mission, too: keep the panic going.

JOURNALISM: Ira Stoll: The Borking of Bannon — or Why Trump’s Breitbart Pick Bests the New York Times’ Arthur Sulzberger.

The effort by the Times to depict Mr. Bannon as the second coming of Adolph Hitler and David Duke initially struck me as odd. I say that primarily because when my book JFK, Conservative came out, Mr. Bannon had me on his radio show. He was gracious, friendly and supportive. He’d clearly read the book, which has plenty of material about Kennedy and Israel and the Soviet Jews, and which doesn’t exactly leave it a mystery where I am coming from on those issues. I assume he realized I was Jewish from my biography indicating past work for the Forward and the Jerusalem Post.

In the past few days, additional testimony and information has emerged. Ben Shapiro, a critic of Breitbart‘s who left the site with some acrimony, nevertheless wrote: “I have no evidence that Bannon’s a racist or that he’s an anti-Semite; the Huffington Post’s blaring headline ‘WHITE NATIONALIST IN THE WHITE HOUSE’ is overstated, at the very least.” No mention of that in the New York Times.

As David Bernstein has pointed out, the Breitbart site also includes totally philosemitic and innocuous content, such as this story headlined: “1000 Attend Giant Shabbat Dinner in Tel Aviv for Global Shabbat Project.” No mention of that in the New York Times.

It’s interesting, too, that the New York Times that is so suddenly on newfound hair-trigger alert for antisemitism would publish, in the same issue as all the paranoid coverage of Mr. Bannon, an article headlined: “76 Experts Urge Donald Trump to Keep Iran Deal.” Among these “experts” are Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, whose view of the “Israel lobby” was endorsed by David Duke, and whose book and Harvard Kennedy School paper were widely condemned by Jewish groups for trafficking in long-discredited and harmful stereotypes of Jewish influence. Yet the Times news article doesn’t even mention their involvement, let alone their sordid history. It’s a double standard — almost enough to make one think that what the Times is worried about isn’t antisemitism, but Republicans in the White House.

To be fair, that’s always what they’re worried about. But getting this kind of pushback — in The Algemeiner, no less — is a pretty brutal blow.

THEY TOLD ME IF DONALD TRUMP GOT ELECTED, BIGOTS WOULD FEEL FREE TO EXPRESS THEIR PREJUDICES OPENLY. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! “Typical Trump voters… white men with work boots and fuzzy beards in their early 30s to mid 40s.” The words of Wisconsin state Democratic Sen. Kathleen Vinehout.