KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Eddie Murphy Makes SNL Funny for the First Time In Years. “What struck me while watching Murphy bring hilarious characters like Buckwheat and Velvet Jones back to life was that the wokescolds would probably keep them from ever becoming SNL staples were he starting out on the show today. We just had to endure several days of them rending their garments because Joe Biden once had a stutter and people were wondering what his bizarro imitation of a stuttering kid was at the end of the last debate. The entire character of Buckwheat is built on a speech impediment. Velvet Jones refers to women as ‘Ho’s.”

I’d forgotten all about Velvet Jones. That was a great character.

THE DECLINE IN THE PRESTIGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION HAS BEEN PRETTY SWIFT: Is college necessary? Only half say ‘yes.’

“IF YOU’RE GOING TO DRAIN THE SWAMP, YOU’VE GOTTA CALL IT OUT:” The Hellish Legacy of the Dingell Family.

CRIMINAL STATE: Narcotics trafficking is the weapon of choice for Venezuela’s socialist dictatorship.

CHANGE: US Rare Earth Element Processors to Help Break China Stranglehold: U.S. Military aiming to secure elements critical for Blackhawks, Joint Strike Fighters.

A BROTHER’S CHRISTMAS GIFT OF LIFE: On this day in 1954, the first successful kidney transplant in history was performed at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now called Brigham and Women’s Hospital) at Harvard University. The recipient—23-year-old Richard Herrick—was dying of chronic nephritis. The donor—Ronald Herrick—was his identical twin brother.

The procedure was, of course, dangerous for both brothers, and Ronald, a perfectly healthy young man, had a lot to lose. According to Ronald’s wife, “Ron got a note from Richard the night of the surgery telling him to get out of there and go home.” “Ron sent a note back saying I’m here, and I’m going to stay, and that’s it.”

The surgical team included J. Hartwell Harrison, Joseph Murray, and John P. Merrill. Murray received a Nobel Prize for this and his subsequent work in furthering the science of organ transplantation. He recounted the surgery in his autobiography: “There was a collective hush in the operating room as we gently removed the clamps from the vessels newly attached to the donor kidney.” “As blood flow was restored, the patient’s new kidney began to . . . turn pink. There were grins all around.”

Ronald’s gift gave Richard an extra eight years of life. And they were years of happiness. Richard went on to marry one of the nurses who cared for him and fathered two daughters before dying at the age of 31. Ronald lived with one kidney until 2010, when he died at the age of 79 of unrelated causes.

The Herrick brothers’ pathbreaking surgery is now routine. Ronald thus benefited not just Richard, but all the rest of us too.  In 2018, over 35,000 organ transplants occurred in the United States, of which 81% came from cadavers and 19% from living donors. Of the total, about 21,000 were kidney transplants (which obviously dominates the living donor category). About 8000 were for liver, 3400 for heart, and 2500 for lung.

Alas, the most significant problem today is getting donors who can be matched to recipients. It is estimated that 20 die each day waiting for a transplant.

JOEL KOTKIN ON CALIFORNIA PREENING: The Golden State is on a Path to High-Tech Feudalism.

GOOD DOG! K-9 Cop Leaps Through Broken Glass: Subdues Fugitive After Police Chase.

GO AWAY KID, YA BOTHER ME. St. Greta exploits Australia’s bushfire crisis, gets rebuked by Prime Minister Morrison.

WELL, OF COURSE. THEY LIKED IT BETTER WHEN WE WERE SLEEPING. China attacks the newly formed U.S. Space Force as a ‘direct threat to outer space peace and security.’

WORST PUTIN PUPPET EVER: U.S. Sanctions Halt Work on Russia’s Gas Pipeline to Europe: The pause comes hours after President Trump signed a bill targeting entities working on the project.

U.S. sanctions have temporarily stopped the construction of a pipeline that is set to increase the flow of natural gas directly from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

The sanctions would target all businesses and individuals participating in the construction of the pipeline and would effectively cut off those companies from doing business in the U.S. or with U.S.-linked companies. Washington has long opposed the project on grounds that it would increase Germany’s and Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.

Washington has long opposed, but Trump has disposed.

ADVERSARY TECHNOLOGY: How Your Phone Betrays Democracy. “In the United States, and across the world, any protester who brings a phone to a public demonstration is tracked and that person’s presence at the event is duly recorded in commercial datasets. At the same time, political parties are beginning to collect and purchase phone location for voter persuasion. . . . Within minutes, with no special training and a little bit of Google searching, Times Opinion was able to single out and identify individuals at public demonstrations large and small from coast to coast. By tracking specific devices, we followed demonstrators from the 2017 Women’s March back to their homes. We were able to identify individuals at the 2017 Inauguration Day Black Bloc protests. It was easy to follow them to their workplaces.”

I’M NOW READING Target-Rich Environment, Vol. 2, from Larry Correia. Through this I learned of Jonathan Maberry, who I had somehow missed before. I enjoyed his contribution and I’ve bought some of his books. (Bumped).

SWAMP CREATURES: The Hellish Legacy of the Dingell Family.

VICTORY GIRLS: Purity Tests, Fascism And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

WAYNE ALLYN ROOT ON SUNDAY: Biden Just Lost the Election.

Biden, for better or for worse, remains the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But in Thursday’s debate, he committed a major sin. He alienated his base — the only group in the party that still backs him. In speaking of economic growth, the moderator asked, “As president, would you be willing to sacrifice some of that growth, even knowing potentially that it could displace thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of blue-collar workers, in the interest of transitioning to that greener economy?'”

Biden answered quickly and boldly: “The answer is yes.”

End of story. There’s your Trump TV advertisement. Even if Biden somehow still wins the nomination, Trump will destroy him with working-class and middle-class voters.

PJMedia VIP members got the scoop on Friday.

STANDING UP AGAINST BIGOTRY: Boris Johnson: Britain Will Combat Israel Boycotts.

AT AMAZON, Gold Toe Men’s Fluffies Crew Socks, 3 Pairs.

HAPPY HANUKAH FROM BORIS JOHNSON:

Britain would not be Britain without its Jewish community. And we will stand with you and celebrate with you – at Chanukah and all year round. pic.twitter.com/S5ClRprCuL

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 22, 2019

ARE THEY LEARNING TO CODE? These Reporters Lost Their Jobs. Here Are the Stories They Couldn’t Tell.. When steel mills close, it’s necessary restructuring of jobs that probably shouldn’t exist anyway because Gaia. When reporters are laid off, it’s a “crisis.”

WHEN THE SCIENCE ISN’T AS SETTLED AS YOU THOUGHT: A Genetic Test Led Seven Women in One Family to Have Major Surgery. Then the Odds Changed. “I would have had another kid. I would have waited to do surgery.”

COLD WAR II: US Navy Bans TikTok, Citing ‘Cybersecurity Threat.’ “Both the United States Navy and the Army are instructing service members to avoid ByteDance’s TikTok on government-issued smartphones. Lawmakers suggest the popular app poses a threat to national security. ByteDance, however, denies any close relationship with the Chinese government.”

(From Glenn: More adversary technology.)

ANGELO CODEVILLA: For Whom the New Rules?. “So egregious have been the ruling class’s attacks on Donald Trump, so shameless has been the sanctimony with which men such as William Webster have defended their biased governing rules, that the rest of us are well nigh compelled to give it a double dose of its own medicine.”

FROM THE BOSTON HERALD: Hanukkah in a Time of Rising Antisemitism.

Don’t worry, Jews — Donald and Boris have got your back.