FLASHBACK: Obama Fails to Fight Putin’s Propaganda Machine.

The story of how Obama has failed to fight back against Russian propaganda is a depressingly typical one for this White House: a threat is recognized, then publicly denounced, some activity follows, only to be dropped due to a lack of interest, courage, and follow-through.

Perhaps the worst part of this unsatisfying inside-the-Beltway saga is that we know how to fight back against Kremlin lies, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel here. Back in the 1980s, when KGB disinformation was at its peak, the Reagan administration created the Interagency Active Measures Working Group, led by the State Department and the U.S. Information Agency, to counter Soviet propaganda. Using truth to fight lies, it became something of a model of how to debunk Kremlin disinformation without resorting to propaganda oneself. Let the facts speak for themselves was their watchword, and it worked.

Nothing more is needed now than to replicate the solid work of the Active Measures Working Group, sped up for the Internet age. To be fair to the White House, there are obstacles in the path. The disestablishment of USIA under President Bill Clinton, reducing its vital information mission to a mere appendage of the State Department, must be regarded as a bureaucratic error of the first order.

That was John Schindler, writing a full year before the recent election.

It was difficult to take Boris Yeltsin seriously, but Obama never did take Vladimir Putin seriously enough.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Should Americans worry about Trump’s generals?

FLASHBACK: Remember When the Russians Hacked the White House’s Computers? “While we pounded away at the story, the White House refused to respond to our inquiries. The Washington press corps, which must have known that the White House’s computers were out of action, maintained a discreet silence, declining to write about the Russian hack, even though many D.C. reporters no doubt followed the story on Power Line. Why the coy silence? Because it was October 2014, weeks before the midterm elections, and the story reflected poorly on the Obama administration, which didn’t even discover the intrusion itself. It turned out that American officials were alerted to the Russian hack of the White House and State Department by an unidentified ally (I’m guessing Israel).”

Likewise, the extremely serious Chinese personnel-records hack got very little attention. But that’s because neither of these events was connected with Democrats losing power. That’s what it takes to get the press upset.

“WINNING THE TRANSITION:” Salena Zito on Trump’s first month post-election.

As if to drive home the point, a Trump campaign sign defiantly reminds passersby he won the presidency last month in this Mahoning Valley suburb of Youngstown, a once-dominant manufacturing town in the famed Steel Valley.

“It’s not as if we need any reminders,” said Paul Sracic, a political science professor at nearby Youngstown State University. “Trump has dominated the news cycle. It is almost like Barack Obama has disappeared and Trump is already president.

“He is all we talk about. He is already saving or creating jobs, with what happened with Carrier along with the big but vague announcement with a Japanese billionaire who said he was going to invest $50 billion in the American economy and jobs.”

Two weeks ago president-elect Trump went to the Carrier Corp. plant in Indianapolis to announce that he saved nearly 1,000 jobs; last week he took credit for the $50 billion U.S. investment pledge by Masayoshi Son, the colorful billionaire founder of SoftBank, a Japanese tech conglomerate, a deal Trump says wouldn’t have happened without him.

There really has not been a break since the day he won the election, Sracic said.

And for voters around here — the most concentrated area in the country that went from being Obama supporters to Trump supporters — he is winning the transition from candidate to president.

To be fair, though, I’m pretty sure he’s still losing inside the Beltway.

DEMOCRATS UPSET THAT TRUMP APPEARS TO BE KEEPING HIS CAMPAIGN PROMISES.

Related: Everyone Trump has picked wants to dismantle the agency they will be running. That’s it. No punchline. If only.

YEAH, BUT THERE’S NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT, BECAUSE HE HAS BEEN DEAD FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS (THE COWARD):  Actually I find they’re giving him credit for much that I believe was ultimately done by Italians (global trading routes, etc.)  Also, for the record, the places he conquered have a certain legacy of  dysfunctional polity. But, eh. Maybe THAT’s what they mean by father of globalization? Genghis Khan — The Father of Globalization?

YEARS AGO, IN A BAD PLACE, I FOUND A BOOK OF DA VINCI WORKS FED SOMETHING I NEEDED FED. I HAVEN’T FOUND THE SAME IN MODERN WORKS.  APPARENTLY I’M NOT ALONE: Room for Rubens and Rembrandt.

THEY’D BE HARD PUT TO DO WORSE: States need to do better by their most talented students.

WHEN THEY SAY LOVE TRUMPS HATE, THIS IS WHAT THEY MEAN BY LOVE: Supposedly tolerant NYC is making the Trump kids’ lives ‘horrible’.

EVER NOTICE THAT WHEN LIBERALS DROP THE MASKS THAT SUPPOSEDLY HIDE THEIR FACES, WHAT WE SEE ARE BACKSIDES? Animal rights activists sued for ‘terrorizing’ carriage horses.

FALSE NEWS: MSNBC Anchor Falsely Claims Fox News Had Christmas Party at Trump’s D.C. Hotel.

NOT ONLY NO, BUT H*LL NO: Bill Would Allow Government to Locate People With Tracking Devices.

WHAT IF SMART PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH THESE BIMBOS? They’ll only have sex with smart people.

IT’S SUCH A GOOD WORD, TOO: Social Justice Warriors of the Sea.

I DON’T WANT TO BELIEVE!  Zombie Apocalypse – It’s Real.