NULLIFICATION: California Dem Wants the State to be ‘Wall of Justice’ Against Deportations. John Calhoun smiles. And so does Donald Trump, who doesn’t need California’s votes, and who can bolster his support elsewhere by hammering them on this.

DECLINE IS A CHOICE: Man Dresses as ISIS Fighter, Crosses Border Unchallenged Between Denmark and Germany.

Entirely unrelated: France’s National Front Finds Support Among Millennials.

Sébastien Faustini’s decision to skip the firework display at the beach not only potentially saved his life — it steered his politics toward the far right.

The soft-spoken 18-year-old stayed home with his cousin and watched the Bastille Day display on TV, instead of heading to the Nice promenade as they’d planned on July 14.

A truck was driven into the crowd that night, killing 86 people.

“We could have been there,” said Faustini, who is now forced to pass by the scene of attack daily on his way to university. “Every day that hits me.”

Three weeks ago, he joined France’s far-right National Front.

“Certain media organizations stigmatize members of the National Front calling them fascists, insults that have nothing to do with the party’s program,” Faustini told NBC News.

Faustini is far from alone. Many millennials are embracing the National Front — which boasts a founder who had been fined repeatedly for racism and anti-Semitism. They say recent terrorist attacks across Europe and high unemployment levels validate their personal views and the party’s anti-immigration stance.

It’s easier for the political class to blame fascist “outside agitators” than their own weakness, corruption, and incompetence. But those are the real problems.

HOW A TV SITCOM TRIGGERED THE DOWNFALL OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: “I want to discuss a popular TV show my wife and I have been binge-watching on Netflix. It’s the story of a family man, a man of science, a genius who fell in with the wrong crowd. He slowly descends into madness and desperation, lead by his own egotism. With one mishap after another, he becomes a monster. I’m talking, of course, about Friends and its tragic hero, Ross Geller. You may see it as a comedy, but I cannot laugh with you.”

YOUR YULE LOG VIDEO:

Okay, this is from a few years ago, but I enjoyed the whole Island Christmas thing!

UPDATE: Is this rampant hyper-masculinity appropriate for Christmas? Sorry if you’re offended by all the testosterone!

FEELGOOD STORY OF THE DAY: Virginia couple spends Christmas delivering gifts in Gatlinburg.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

WAS THE BLACK DEATH BAD FOR EUROPE? Was Barack Obama Bad for Democrats? “His legacy regrettably includes the more than 1,000 Democrats who lost their elections during his two terms. Republicans now have total control in half of America’s states.” Note that the takeaway lesson — which Republicans should encourage — is that Obama just didn’t go left enough, loudly enough.

TED CRUZ: No money for UN until Israel decision reversed.

MERRY CHRISTMAS: Intel Committee Releases Declassified Snowden Report.

USING THE TOOLS YOU HAVE: Cops: impaired driver nabbed by excavator.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Do It Yourself Star Wars Snowflakes.

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT: Have You Heard “The 12 Days of Clinton”?

THE TRUE COST OF DIVIDING THE NATION EVER MORE FINELY: How Wonder Woman and Tilda Swinton Became Enemies of the Left.

“CRAPPY IDEA” IS WAY TOO KIND:Why rebooting ‘The Honeymooners’ is a crappy idea.

IT WOULD BE EASIER AND MORE TO THE POINT TO LIST WHAT DOESN’T OFFEND FEMINISTS: Why Holidays Offend Feminists.

ONE MORE COMPONENT OF “GLOBAL WARMING” WE DON’T UNDERSTAND: How NASA’s space laser might help save the world.

STOP THAT SNIGGERING IN THE BACK OF THE ROOM: The real reason why we have sex.

MITT JUST CAN’T CATCH A BREAK: Newt ‘Will Never Forgive Romney for the Depth of Dishonesty’ in Campaign.

NATE COHN: How The Obama Coalition Crumbled.

It is entirely possible, as many have argued, that Hillary Clinton would be the president-elect of the United States if the F.B.I. director, James Comey, had not sent a letter to Congress about her emails in the last weeks of the campaign.

But the electoral trends that put Donald J. Trump within striking distance of victory were clear long before Mr. Comey sent his letter. They were clear before WikiLeaks published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee. They were even clear back in early July, before Mr. Comey excoriated Mrs. Clinton for using a private email server.

It was clear from the start that Mrs. Clinton was struggling to reassemble the Obama coalition.

At every point of the race, Mr. Trump was doing better among white voters without a college degree than Mitt Romney did in 2012 — by a wide margin. Mrs. Clinton was also not matching Mr. Obama’s support among black voters.

This was the core of the Obama coalition: an alliance between black voters and Northern white voters, from Mr. Obama’s first win in the 2008 Iowa caucuses to his final sprint across the so-called Midwestern Firewall states where he staked his 2012 re-election bid.

In 2016, the Obama coalition crumbled and so did the Midwestern Firewall.

Obama won because of the support of a bunch of voters that he treated with contempt, and they finally noticed.

OBAMA’S LEGACY: WaPo: Governors Lead a Republican Renaissance in New England. “Republican governors will lead Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine next month – a remarkable feat considering how much the GOP has struggled in New England for more than a generation.”

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AUTOBLOG: The Worst Cars We Drove In 2016.

THE WAGES OF “SMART DIPLOMACY.” The U.S. Is Now a Country That Can Be Ignored.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT EXXON CEO REX TILLERSON AFTER SPENDING A WEEK ON JURY DUTY WITH HIM.