BECAUSE YOU’RE SO SMOOTH: Trump Victory Tour Set as Cabinet Comes Together.

I’m old enough to remember when the transition was in “chaos.”

NEW TOOLS FOR desktop bio-hacking.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Prince Alwaleed says women driving ban hurts Saudi economy.

It’s impossible to compete with Western economies when you keep half of your potentially productive population as chattel.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Air Force Has Too Few Fighter Squadrons to Meet Commanders’ Needs.

The U.S. Air Force says a shortage of fighter pilots has become so dire that it is struggling to satisfy combat requirements abroad.

“We have too few squadrons to meet the combatant commanders’ needs,” Major General Scott Vander Hamm, the general in charge of fixing the fighter pilot crisis, said in an exclusive interview with VOA.

The Air Force is currently authorized to have 3,500 fighter pilots, but it is 725 fighter pilots short. And with fewer pilots, the number of fighter pilot squadrons have also dropped, from 134 squadrons in 1986 to 55 in 2016.

As a greater percentage of the force has needed to be deployed over the past 10 years, readiness — the ability to accomplish missions at home and abroad — has dropped 20 percent.

Perhaps the most serious part of the problem is that fighter pilot training hours have dropped from a Cold War average of 200 hours a year, to 120-150 hours.

CHANGE: This deadly flesh-eating parasite is invading the US for the first time in decades.

FORGET IT, JAKE — IT’S SALON: American criticism of Cuba on human rights is total hypocrisy, given our history of terrorizing the island.

SNATCH AND GRAB: Man steals $1.6 million in gold from armored truck. More here.

BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME: Pennsylvania State Department says Stein missed recount deadline.

Stein missed Pennsylvania’s deadline to file for a voter-initiated recount. That blown deadline is a huge blow for Democrats who have pinned their hopes on recounts in the Keystone State, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“According to Wanda Murren, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday, “the deadline for a voter-initiated recount was Monday, Nov. 21.”

To keep their hopes alive, Stein has mounted a legal challenge in an attempt to force a recount. While the chances of litigation are uncertain, the vote tally is clear. Trump beat Clinton in Pennsylvania, a feat not accomplished by a Republican since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Progressives would be much better served by the Green Party than by Democrat/Wall Street wheeler-dealers like the Clintons and Nancy Pelosi — and should donate their time and money accordingly.

THE U.N.’S “ARAB DEVELOPMENT REPORT” NOT LOOKING TOO ROSY: Even more conflicts looming in the middle east as tens of millions of youth are tribal, unemployed and violent.

SHOT:

Just burned US flag at Trump Hotel NYC. We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America! Now your turn: #FlagBurningChallenge pic.twitter.com/pvMDaVIyKD

— Sunsara Taylor (@SunsaraTaylor) November 29, 2016

CHASER:

So Trump baited you into burning a flag and making liberals look bad. I think you've been played. https://t.co/6TaTh2xXR9

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 30, 2016

It’s what Sarah Hoyt calls “roll hard left and die.”

And the rolling is just getting started.

GREAT AGAIN: November consumer confidence highest since pre-Obama era.

2016, MAN: Arrested German spy was a onetime gay porn actor — and a secret Islamist.

Cisnormative suddenly doesn’t seem so bad.

SCRAMBLE: Prominent Republicans Begin Bid To Replace Haley In 2018.

The most well-known possible ticket for the 2018 gubernatorial election is Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy, who could announce their joint bid for the top two posts as early as December, according to The Post and Courier.

Gowdy first won his seat in the U.S. Congress in 2010, and has effectively campaigned for reelection every two years, earning just over 62 percent in the 2016 election season over Democratic challenger Chris Fedalei.

Gowdy is chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, and made news in recent months during his contentious interview with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for her actions as secretary of state during the attack, and FBI Director James Comey for recommending Clinton not be charged with the possession of classified materials. Gowdy also serves on the Ethics Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Scott became the first black senator from South Carolina when he was appointed by Haley to fill Sen. Jim DeMint’s term in 2013. Scott later won his seat in the 2014 special election with 61 percent of the vote. He currently serves on the Special Committee on Aging, as well as the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and he Chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Housing Transportation, and Community Development.

Governorships are a traditional route to the White House, and a forward-looking GOP could do a lot worse than Tim Scott or Trey Gowdy.

CHANGE: F.D.A. Agrees to New Trials for Ecstasy as Relief for PTSD Patients.

AND WITHOUT A COMPASS: The Democratic Party enters the wilderness.

Lisa Boothe:

What is left is the reality that the Democratic Party has been propped up by the personal likability of President Obama that pushed them past the finish line in 2008 and 2012. Now they are grappling with what is next in a post-Obama landscape.

But instead of shifting leadership or messaging strategies, they are poised to reelect the same people and failed ideas that led them into the darkness of irrelevancy. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco liberal, will likely stay at the helm. Rep. Ben Lujan, who ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and picked up only an embarrassing six seats for his party in the House, will stay in command as well. Chuck Schumer has already been tapped to lead Democrats in the Senate as minority leader.

A separate race for the Democratic National Committee has exposed how liberal and out of touch the party truly is right now. Candidate Rep. Keith Ellison, who once called for a separate country for black Americans, has received the endorsement of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Ellison has also been accused of anti-Semitism and has ties to the Nation of Islam. The Daily Caller has also identified law school columns in which Ellison calls the Constitution “best evidence of a white racist conspiracy to subjugate other peoples.”

The Democratic Party will likely continue its sharp turn left.

Steve’s Second Law of Holes says that when you’re opponent is in one, hand them a bigger and nicer shovel.

SOON EVERYTHING NOT COMPULSORY WILL BE FORBIDDEN:

France bans TV ad showing happy Down Syndrome kids. It could "disturb the conscience" of moms who aborted DS fetuses https://t.co/hfz3dMnvot

— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) December 1, 2016

PARTY OF YOUTH:

The average age of the House Republican leadership is 47.

The average age of the House Democratic leadership is 76.

— Curtis Kalin (@CurtisKalin) November 30, 2016

FUNNY, I’M OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER WHEN LEFTIES SAID THE GOP WAS DOOMED TO REGIONAL STATUS:

@Patriot_Musket Not sure what they're freaking out about. pic.twitter.com/pxRsF4KEAc

— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) November 30, 2016

F-BOMBS? F*** YEAH! Hearing the Occasional F-Bomb Won’t Damage Your Children.

Looking back, hearing a whole lot of f-bombs doesn’t seem to have damaged any of my childhood friends — but if not, I’m sorry.

HMM: Trump considering Goldman Sachs president for top post.

President-elect Donald Trump is considering Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn for a senior administration job, possibly as director of the Office of Management and Budget, several sources close to the situation said on Wednesday.

People familiar with the matter say Cohn’s meeting with Trump on Tuesday included talks about a potential job in the new administration, possibly to run OMB, a sprawling office that will handle much of Trump’s budget policy after he takes office in January.

Cohn, who is friendly with both Republicans and Democrats in Washington, is a longtime commodities trader who became Goldman’s president and co-chief operating officer in 2006. He has long been the heir apparent to Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

GOOD: It will soon be illegal to punish customers who criticize businesses online.

The Consumer Review Fairness Act — full text available here — voids any provision in a form contract that prohibits or restricts customers from posting reviews about the goods, services, or conduct of the company providing the product or service. It also voids provisions that impose penalties or fees on customers for posting online reviews as well as those that require customers to give up the intellectual property rights related to such reviews. The legislation empowers the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the new law and impose penalties when necessary.

The bill also protects reviews that aren’t available via the Internet.

Senate Republicans and Democrats praised the bill’s passage. “By ending gag clauses, this legislation supports consumer rights and the integrity of critical feedback about products and services sold online,” Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) said in the announcement.

These gag-order “agreements” are unAmerican.

PRAISE BE, MISS NANCY RETAINED!: Pelosi, the perfect Democrat leader.

House Democrats elected Nancy Pelosi to another term as minority leader on Wednesday, rejecting a challenge from Rep. Tim Ryan, of Ohio, who called for a leadership shakeup after the party’s poor election performance.

Pelosi won with a little more than two-thirds of the vote, 134-63, a few weeks after she predicted that about two-thirds of the caucus would back her.

The early morning vote occurred in a House office building committee chamber. It was closed to the public and the media. Lawmakers made their choice via secret ballot. Pelosi’s victory came after a group of Democrats stood up and praised her as a strong leader who has kept the caucus united and who is “battle-tested, “seasoned,” and “tough.

Yes, she’s seasoned.

USMC WARGAMES IN NORWAY: The tone of this CNN report is a bit breathless but the article is worth the read. During the Cold War the Marines had equipment stored in Norway. The USMC, Royal Marines and a Canadian brigade were supposed to reinforce Norway if Russia attacked. At least at one time that was the plan. After Putin annexed Crimea the US and Norway agreed to pre-position more equipment in Norway.

Here’s some background (from 2015) on Russia provocations in the Nordic region.

UPDATE: Ought to link to my latest Creators Syndicate column which reviews Russia’s cyclic war in Ukraine. It’s definitely related to the USMC’s Norwegian exercise.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1301. It’s funny how people are suddenly worried about the politicization of the IRS.

STRONG HORSE: French Election Hints at a European Shift Toward Russia.

Since the end of World War II, European leaders have maintained their ever-growing alliance as a bulwark against Russian power. Through decades of ups and downs in Russian-European relations, in periods of estrangement or reconciliation, their balance of power has kept the continent stable.

But a growing movement within Europe that includes Mr. Fillon, along with others of a more populist bent, is pushing a new policy: instead of standing up to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, stand with him.

Mr. Fillon has called for lifting sanctions on Russia and for partnering with Moscow in an effort to curtail immigration and terrorism. He is friendly with Mr. Putin. If pollsters are right and Mr. Fillon wins the French presidency in the spring, he could join several rising European politicians and newly elected leaders who are like-minded.

Their movement, scholars stress, is driven by forces far more formidable than any elected leader: the populist upsurge that is remaking the Continent and, simultaneously, the impersonal but overwhelming pressures of international power balancing.

NATO was founded on the premise — proven by two devastating world wars — that Europeans can’t be trusted to look after their own security needs. And after 67 years there’s still very little evidence to challenge that premise.