NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: U.S. troops carry out ground raid against ISIS in Syria.

The troops, who landed on helicopters, spent about 90 minutes in the area, then left carrying Islamic State captives and bodies, according to witnesses quoted by the website Deir al-Zour 24, which monitors Islamic State activity in that province.

According to U.S. defense officials in Washington, the U.S. forces intercepted a vehicle carrying an Islamic State militant whom the U.S. military hoped to capture and interrogate. One official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an operation whose details have not been publicly announced, said that a firefight broke out and the suspect, along with another person in the car, was killed. No Americans were injured.

Well done.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1342: New Chair of House Oversight Committee Pledges To Increase IRS Accountability.

FASTER, PLEASE: Time to Move the US Embassy to Jerusalem to Save the Two-State Solution, Roger Simon writes.

Though personally, when it comes to the Middle East, I’m in favor of the One-State Solution.

WELL, YES: The Russia hacking report is an indictment of Obama, not Trump.

Did Russia attempt to influence our election? Of course it did. That’s not shocking. As the declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) pointed out, it has been trying to do so since the days of the Soviet Union. The report called the hacking effort “the most recent expression of Moscow’s longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order,” adding that “Russia, like its Soviet predecessor, has a history of conducting covert influence campaigns focused on US presidential elections.”

The difference today, the report concluded, was that Russia’s actions in 2016 represented “a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations.”

So why would Putin be so brazen? Simple. He knew that, under President Obama, there would be zero consequences for his actions.

“But Trump!” is the new “But Bush!” and he hasn’t even been sworn in yet.

CORNEL WEST: Pity the sad legacy of Barack Obama: Our hope and change candidate fell short time and time again. Obama cheerleaders who refused to make him accountable bear some responsibility.

Our “post-integrity” and “post-truth” world is suffocated by entertaining brands and money-making activities that have little or nothing to do with truth, integrity or the long-term survival of the planet. We are witnessing the postmodern version of the full-scale gangsterization of the world.

The reign of Obama did not produce the nightmare of Donald Trump – but it did contribute to it. And those Obama cheerleaders who refused to make him accountable bear some responsibility.

A few of us begged and pleaded with Obama to break with the Wall Street priorities and bail out Main Street. But he followed the advice of his “smart” neoliberal advisers to bail out Wall Street. In March 2009, Obama met with Wall Street leaders. He proclaimed: I stand between you and the pitchforks. I am on your side and I will protect you, he promised them. And not one Wall Street criminal executive went to jail.

Well, to be fair, they gave him a lot of money.

But hey, Obama’s willing to stand up for the downtrodden: White House defends Meryl Streep’s anti-Trump speech. So take that, Cornel.

LEFT BEHIND: Top Six Trump Surrogates Who Were Passed Over for Jobs in the Administration.

You’ll breathe a sigh of relief at four or five of these also-rans — at least.

WHO YOU GONNA BELIEVE: Cory Booker or your own lyin’ eyes?

GIZMODO ISSUES 20-MEGATON CORRECTION.

The frightening intro:

Between the Trump transition team’s infighting, incompetence, and high-profile resignations, any decisions that signaled even a modicum of stability for the country would come as a relief at this point. Unfortunately, the nascent Trump Administration isn’t inclined to calm anyone’s nerves. According to an official within the Department of Energy, the Trump transition team has declined to ask the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration and his deputy to temporarily stay in their roles after Trump takes office on January 20th.

The NNSA is the $12 billion-a-year agency that “maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.” It’s unclear when the two officials will be replaced. Their offices will remain vacant until they are.

The correction:

Another NNSA official, speaking on background to Gizmodo and Defense News, has disputed this report as “inaccurate” while confirming that “there have been no discussions between the president-elect’s transition team and any of NNSA’s political appointees on extending their public service past Jan. 20.” In other words, the Trump transition team has not asked the top two NNSA officials to stay on until they can be replaced.

After speaking to our source for clarification, we have updated the story and headline to reflect that, while Klotz and Creedon have submitted their resignations, intend to depart on January 20, and have not been asked by the Trump transition to stay past that date, the Trump team has not explicitly instructed them to leave or “clean out their desks,” as we reported. According to our source, both officials “have expressed [to the Trump team] that they would likely be willing to stay to facilitate a smooth transition, if asked,” as is the tradition for key officials, and have received no response.

To put it in the plain English which Gizmodo couldn’t even bother to do in the correction, two Obama appointees are leaving at the end of the term, and Trump hasn’t named their successors yet.

Frightening.

UNSURPRISINGLY, THEY’VE TURNED IT INTO A POLITICIZED MESS: Report: How American Universities Teach Civics.

CHANGE: U.S. Small-Business Optimism Index Surges by Most Since 1980.

THE HILL: What Trump can accomplish on day one.

ANNALS OF OIKOPHOBIA: ThinkProgress Senior Editor Is Scared Of His Plumber:

A visit from a plumber left ThinkProgress senior editor Ned Resnikoff “rattled” due to fear that the plumber may have voted for Donald Trump.

Resnikoff stated his fears in a November Facebook post, a screenshot of which is now making the rounds on the Internet.

The plumbing visit, which came four days after the 2016 election, became a harrowing experience for Resnikoff even though the plumber was “a perfectly nice guy and a consummate professional.”

“He was a perfectly nice guy and a consummate professional,” Resnikoff shared. “But he was also a middle-aged white man with a southern accent who seemed unperturbed by this week’s news.”

Resnikoff said his fear was rooted in the chance that the plumber knew he was Jewish.

“While I had him in the apartment, I couldn’t stop thinking about whether he had voted for Trump, whether he knew my last name is Jewish, and how that knowledge might change the interaction we were having inside my own home,” he said.

The “uncertainty” of the situation left Resnikoff “rattled for some time.”

This reminds me of law professor Wendy Brown’s backwoods encounter with a man in an NRA hat who helpfully fixed her car, only to be the star of a Yale Law Journal article in which she speculated that he might have been a rapist. That produced Doug Laycock’s memorable piece, Vicious Stereotypes In Polite Society. (Really, click through and read it, you’ll be glad you did). Things haven’t gotten any better in the 25 years since. (And I remember Laycock telling me at the time that he was disturbed to have some of his colleagues tell him — quietly, when no one was around — that he was “brave” to have published that piece. Moreso today!)

On the other hand, I had some workmen at my house a while back and the foreman looked at me and said, “You’re the InstaPundit, right? I read you all the time . . . but I’m really one of Ace’s Morons.” And I felt good about that.

SICK BURN? ISIS Has a New Weapon: Fire.

“This is a quick option for anyone intending to join the just terror campaign,” says the latest issue of the ISIS magazine Rumiyah.

This tactic requires neither guns such as were used in San Bernadino and Orlando nor vehicles such as were used in other attacks.

“With some simple and readily accessible materials (i.e. flammables), one can easily terrorize an entire nation,” the magazine advises.

Issue #5 of Rumiyah has flames on the cover and a “Just Terror Tactics” section that has in the past called for mass shootings and the use of vehicles to mow down pedestrians. A lengthy article begins with a tribute to the “brothers” inspired by a previous issue of Rumiyah to employ vehicles at Ohio State and in Berlin. It then proceeds to detail an added method to murder innocents.

“ARSON ATTACKS,” the headline reads.

Eventually ISIS might just trigger the civilizational war they say they want, but they wouldn’t like the results very much.

IT’S NOT ENOUGH THAT SHE GAVE HILLARY THE DEBATE QUESTIONS IN ADVANCE, NOW DONNA BRAZILE IS OPENLY PEDDLING RACISM!!!

They told me if Donald Trump were elected, powerful people would feel free to engage in racist attacks. And they were right!

NICK GILLESPIE: If You’re Freaking Out Over Donald Trump’s Presidential Powers, Thank a Liberal! Where were Democrats when Obama was going power-mad? Egging him on, mostly.

And, once again:

CHANGE: Microsoft is retiring the Blue Screen of Death for some users.

They’ll get a green one instead.

HMM: Jeff Sessions shunned, slandered by longtime Senate Democrat collaborators.

Senate Democrats are poised to throw away 20 years of friendship and a bipartisan working relationship with Sen. Jeff Sessions to wreak political vengeance on him this week as they consider his nomination for attorney general.

Highlighting the deep partisan divide and the bad blood between Democratic lawmakers and President-elect Donald Trump, the same senators who have socialized and co-authored reams of legislation with Mr. Sessions are under pressure from liberal interest groups to air accusations that he is a racist, a sexist and a homophobe.

Somebody needs to keep a list of these bigots who were collaborating and socializing with a racist, sexist homophobe, and loudly shame them for those associations at election time. . . .

UPDATE: Cory Booker: “I feel blessed and honored to have partnered with Senator Sessions.”

FAKE NEWS: Media trips over itself to make hate-crime narratives converge.

The picture became clearer as police departments and college campuses across the country responded to media and public pressure to address the “post-election hate spike.” Nearly every hate crime detailed in the article, which used the word “alleged” once, turned out to be a hoax or investigations remain ongoing, though some have been suspended due to lack of evidence.

Police suspended the investigation into “the robbery of a Muslim student at San Diego State University who wore traditional religious clothing” in December after no corroborating evidence emerged to confirm her account that two Trump supporters ripped off her hijab and stole her car. “The victim in this case you are referring to decided she no longer wanted to pursue the matter criminally,” a police spokesman told the Daily Caller on Dec. 23, adding that the report of a stolen car was “unfounded as the victim forgot where she parked her vehicle.”

The Washington Post mentioned the alleged incident six times in hate crime posts, including a Dec. 15 article contrasting it with a New York City hate crime hoax: “Muslim advocates expressed concern that Seweid’s episode would hurt the credibility of real anti-Muslim attacks and other hate crimes.” It never mentioned it again after the Caller’s report, nor did it update any previous stories that included the anecdote.

Read the whole thing. Although as you can probably guess, WaPo comes across as either sloppy, partisan, or just another purveyor of leftwing fake news.

BYRON YORK: How Jeff Sessions would change the Justice Department.

Trump promised to put an end to cities defying federal immigration law. To do the job, he picked Sessions, who has called sanctuary cities “one of the biggest, most egregious, and most dangerous wrongs now occurring in our immigration system today.”

“Sanctuary cities are together freeing an average of 1,000 criminal aliens a month,” Sessions said in October 2015. “Countless crimes are happening as a result of these never-ending releases: DUIs, assaults, burglaries, drug crimes, gang crimes, and murders.”

Now, some sanctuary cities are gearing up for a fight to protect their ability to defy federal law. Sessions, who as a senator voted for (unsuccessful) measures to crack down on sanctuary cities, last year called on the Obama administration to “immediately take action to withhold significant federal law enforcement funding” for sanctuary cities. It seems likely Sessions would attempt to do that as attorney general, but what other measures he might take are not clear. What is clear, though, is that he would likely exert significant pressure on defiant cities to observe federal law.

There are many other areas that the Justice Department covers — terrorism, civil rights, business and securities fraud, cyber crime, and still more — that will require Sessions’ attention, if he is confirmed. And finally, beyond those, there is the question of what role an attorney general should play in making sure his boss, the president, follows the law like everyone else.

In addition to being busy with all of that, Sessions will likely face significant pushback from his own Department.

YOU NEED TO CHECK MY WHAT? Alabama’s Bathroom Bill Would Have People Guarding Stalls.

The bathroom bill, called the Alabama Privacy Act, would put attendants in mixed gender public bathrooms to guard against potential “molestation, assault and battery,” reports AL.com.

“Further, to the extent possible, it is incumbent upon this state to ensure the emotional and physical security of its residents and the visitors to this state,” the bill states.

The act, slated to be introduced in February by GOP Sen. Phil Williams, would force public institutions to have bathrooms that only serve one gender or to place attendants in bathrooms that serve both genders.

But who will police the bathroom police?

ANALYSIS: TRUE. If You’re Freaking Out Over Donald Trump’s Presidential Powers, Thank a Liberal!

NOAH ROTHMAN: Obama’s Iran Is Trump’s Dilemma.

Questions abound as to how Trump will prosecute the conflict in Iraq against ISIS when some of America’s chief allies in that conflict are the Iran-backed Shiite militias. Thousands of members of those militia groups are in the fight to retake Mosul from ISIS, and some of them have been accused of crimes against humanity. While U.S. brass has praised the discipline of some of these forces, American military officials have nothing glowing to say about Iran’s conduct in Syria. Iranian air and ground forces began streaming into Syria as early as 2012, and Tehran’s involvement in the Syrian civil war has only deepened over the last four years.

While Trump administration has made it clear he desires rapprochement with Russia, Moscow is working hand-in-hand with Damascus and Tehran to ensure Bashar al-Assad emerges victorious. The Trump administration’s desire to see Iran punished for its provocations against the United States is going to slam into its preference for a thaw in Russo-American relations, particularly considering that the company with which Vladimir Putin surrounds himself have hands that as soaked in American blood as were Rafsanjani’s. If the Trump administration hopes to see the Middle East revert to a sort of status quo ante, in which Tehran is again relegated to the role of local pariah, the Trump White House is going to have to reconcile its contradictory attitudes toward Moscow.

And Putin’s Kremlin is going to have to decide if it’s worth enabling potentially nuclear-armed terrorists in order to defeat terrorists armed with garbage trucks.

PARTY LIKE IT’S 1979: NY Governor shutting down successful nuclear power plant because… it’s New York.

Cuomo says the plant is unsafe, but Jazz Shaw notes that

Indian Point has an above average safety record and is one of the more profitable properties owned by Entergy. In fact, the plant was recently awarded the highest possible safety rating by federal regulators, as it has for a number of years running. What exactly is Cuomo worried about in terms of safety considerations… an earthquake? The last one to hit anywhere near here didn’t manage to knock over any lawn chairs. Is he perhaps worried about a tsunami? Take a look at where Indian Point is located. If a tsunami reaches that location you’ll have much bigger fish to fry because all of New York City will have been destroyed first.

And finally, let’s remember that Indian Point provides fully 25% of all the electricity consumed in the Big Apple and its suburbs. Where will the power come from to replace it?

Take a guess:

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, will argue that more than enough other sources of energy will be available by 2021, including hydropower from Quebec carried by new transmission lines, state officials said. He also will say that the effect on electric ratepayers will be negligible.

Justin Trudeau laughed.

SO THIS UPDATE FROM ROD DREHER ON THE MEDIA, STATUS, AND NARRATIVE CONTROL IS WORTH BREAKING OUT:

The Times frames the Chicago case this way specifically for the same reason the European media initially downplayed – or ignored – stories of those mass migrant rapes:

They don’t want to give the “haters” any breathing space.

That is, to be forthright about what happened gives the alt-right types the ability to say “See, we told you so!” The Times has its own narrative and will not give this competing, conservative, “hate” narrative any air.

But it’s inevitable that the truth will emerge. In which case the alt-right types are EVEN MORE empowered, because they can both point to events, and the media’s attempt to cover them up – “fake news” indeed.

The media is utterly destroying its credibility this way, but it’s more beholden to “tolerance” than it is the truth. And this is why it will die out, because when a business model built up on reporting the truth suddenly has a new primary goal – it can’t survive.

Plus: “True. About a decade ago, as a working journalist, it became clear to me that when it came to some subjects, the media thought it’s job was more about managing the news than reporting it. If you read, for example, The New York Times as if we were the USSR and it was Pravda, you better understand its meaning. The comparison is certainly not one-to-one, but it’s closer than it ought to be.”

And this, of course, is what made Kellyanne Conway’s riposte to Meryl Streep so effective: She specifically mentioned that the white disabled man was attacked by 4 black men who shouted anti-Trump and anti-white slogans. That undercuts not only Streep’s point, but also the media that support Streep.

I’VE HEARD OF USED CLOTHES, BUT …  Queen Elizabeth I’s long-lost skirt to go on display after being found on a church altar in Herefordshire.