UNLIKELY HEADLINES: In an abrupt about-face, Romney emerges from dinner with Trump full of frog legs and high praise.

“I had a wonderful evening with President-elect Trump,” the former Massachusetts governor declared to the press after a final course of chocolate cake. “We had another discussion about affairs throughout the world, and these discussions I’ve had with him have been enlightening, and interesting and engaging.”

“What I’ve seen through these discussions I’ve had with President-elect Trump, as well as what we’ve seen in his speech the night of his victory, as well as the people he’s selected as part of his transition, all of those things combined give me increasing hope that President-elect Trump is the very man who can lead us to that better future,” he added.

That all sounds rather… diplomatic.

HEH: Democratic Senator Regrets Getting Rid Of The Filibuster For Presidential Appointments. It’s not like people didn’t warn them that this would happen. It’s as if they thought they’d never lose another election.

I LIKE TRUMP’S PLAN TO REPEAL TWO REGULATIONS FOR EACH NEW ONE (IF IT ACTUALLY HAPPENS), but here’s something stronger:

The director of a coalition seeking to restore a “balance of state and federal power” is in Midland this week garnering support for a constitutional amendment he believes provides the fastest and most reliable way to rein in power of regulators in Washington.

The “Regulation Freedom Amendment” specifically says:

“Whenever one quarter of the members of the U.S. House or the U.S. Senate transmit to the president their written declaration of opposition to a proposed federal regulation, it shall require a majority vote of the House and Senate to adopt that regulation.”

Roman Buhler, director of The Madison Coalition, said the proposed constitutional amendment is backed by a bipartisan coalition, including more than 900 state legislators, six governors, the American Farm Bureau and a unanimous vote of the Republican National Committee. He said 19 state legislative chambers have passed resolutions urging Congress to propose the amendment.

This would do a lot for separation of powers. Of course, Congress, by statute, could simply require all proposed regulations to pass the House and Senate before taking effect.

I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my …

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016

great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! While I am not mandated to ….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016

do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016

Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The Presidency is a far more important task!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016

Perhaps the biggest news item of the transition, and it went out on Twitter more than two weeks before the press conference.

No wonder they hate him.

CRASH LANDING: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is about to get a taste of Saturn’s rings.

It’s the beginning of the end. On Nov. 30, NASA’s Cassini mission will begin the ring-grazing final chapter of its career at Saturn, one that will end with the spacecraft’s terminal plunge into the gas giant’s unforgiving atmosphere.

The second half of this chapter, in which the spacecraft will dive through the gap between Saturn and its rings, will be like a whole new mission, said Linda Spilker, Cassini’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“We’re so close to Saturn that we’ll really get measurements that just haven’t been possible,” she said.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: The End Of The Anglo-American Order?

YOUNG WOMAN VILIFIED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES TRIES TO TELL HER SIDE: “She defends herself by telling us that her father is Hispanic and her mother was raised by an African-American stepfather. One defense when you are reviled as white is to trot out proof that you are not white or not that white. It’s kind of sad to see a young woman forced into the public light and then having to reveal private facts about other people because it’s so threatening to be thought of as a person of white privilege. . . . This young lady cannot have her private life back.”

Remember this the next time the NYT starts its “have you no decency” schtick.

TAKING SIDES: Laurence Jarvik: Public Broadcasting vs. Steve Bannon. “One of the more obscure aspects of the 2016 post-election season has been participation of public broadcasting, both television and radio, in personal attacks on Steve Bannon, currently chief strategist for President-Elect Donald Trump, formerly Trump Campaign CEO, and executive chair of Breitbart News Network.”

I HAD MISSED THIS STORY ABOUT Stephen Moore’s new sympathy for populism:

“For God’s sake, it’s Stephen Moore!” the source said, explaining some of the lawmakers’ reactions to Moore’s statement. “He’s the guy who started Club for Growth. He’s Mr. Supply Side economics.”

“I think it’s going to take them a little time to process what does this all mean,” the source added of the lawmakers. “The vast majority of them were on the wrong side. They didn’t think this was going to happen.”

Asked about his comments to the GOP lawmakers, Moore told The Hill he was giving them a dose of reality.

“Just as Reagan converted the GOP into a conservative party, Trump has converted the GOP into a populist working-class party,” Moore said in an interview Wednesday. “In some ways this will be good for conservatives and in other ways possibly frustrating.”

Moore has spent much of his career advocating for huge tax and spending cuts and free trade. He’s been as close to a purist ideological conservative as they come, but he says the experience of traveling around Rust Belt states to support Trump has altered his politics.

“It turned me more into a populist,” he said, expressing frustration with the way some in the Beltway media dismissed the economic concerns of voters in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

“Having spent the last three or four months on the campaign trail, it opens your eyes to the everyday anxieties and financial stress people are facing,” Moore added. “I’m pro-immigration and pro-trade, but we better make sure as we pursue these policies we’re not creating economic undertow in these areas.”

That’s a big shift.

FLASHBACK: 2005 NYT Editorial: Senator Clinton In Pander Mode:

Hillary Clinton is co-sponsoring a bill to criminalize the burning of the American flag. Her supporters would characterize this as an attempt to find a middle way between those who believe that flag-burning is constitutionally protected free speech and those who want to ban it, even if it takes a constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, it looks to us more like a simple attempt to have it both ways.

Well, that’s her style.

SO TOM PRICE WILL HEAD HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES IN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: Dr. Price is a great choice. Here’s a link to his website and info on his Empowering Patients First Act. He first introduced the legislation in 2009. Now, remember, the mainstream media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) said the Republicans never offered any healthcare/medical insurance alternatives. What a complete and total lie. Here is Price on television in 2013. Like I said earlier this month, ObamaCare’s chickens have come home to roost. (The Observer essay contains a list of Republican alternative proposals.)

AN IDEA SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT WORK! Immigration: What If Trump Enforces The Law?

AND LEFTIES WILL BURN FLAGS, FURTHER CEMENTING HIS POSITION: Trump’s ‘Thank You Tour’ Said to Start in Ohio on Thursday. Unless they have more self-discipline than they’ve shown so far.

AT AMAZON, Get the All-New Kindle for Kids Bundle.

BLUE ON BLUE: Mika Shockingly Scorches Elizabeth Warren: ‘Tired of this Act,’ ‘Shrill, Almost Unhinged.’

REPORT: Risk-takers Mnuchin, Ross poised for Trump cabinet posts.

PETER EGAN: Counterparts On the Land and in the Air.

AT AMAZON, Shop Handmade – Gifts for Her

Plus, save big in Industrial and Scientific.

THE ART OF THE DEAL:

TURNING TABLES: Rwanda intends to investigate French involvement in the 1994 genocide.

CHOOSE YOUR POISON: Beer Volumes Declining in Markets Where Recreational Cannabis is Legal.

WHAT AMERICA NEEDS: A Plug-In Hybrid Minivan.

ISLAMIC STATE CLAIMS OHIO STATE TERRORIST WAS “A SOLDIER”: He probably had no direct contact with ISIS. His deluded mind obviously had direct contact with militant Islamist ideology.

The claim issued by Amaq news agency makes no suggestion that the assailant, Abdul Razak Artan, had been in direct contact with the group or was formally affiliated with the organization, according to a transcript of the report provided by SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors radical organizations.

Amaq is the Islamic State’s propaganda arm.

HE MAY BE RIGHT, BUT THEY ALWAYS SAY THIS AFTER A BIG REPUBLICAN ELECTORAL VICTORY: How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red.’ “The first factor was public support: How important do citizens think it is for their country to remain democratic? The second was public openness to nondemocratic forms of government, such as military rule. And the third factor was whether ‘antisystem parties and movements’ — political parties and other major players whose core message is that the current system is illegitimate — were gaining support.”

Here’s another warning sign: Having the worst political class in your nation’s history. If you don’t want the message that your current system is illegitimate to resonate, don’t let your current system act in ways that undermine its legitimacy.

Related: Who gave us post truth, conspiracy culture and the alt-right?

But hey, at least all this is good publicity for my paper on military coups!

FEW HAVE THE COURAGE TO STAND UP TO THE LA LECHE MAFIA: Woman Says ‘F Off’ To Mom Guilt With Bottle-Feeding Instagram.