THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE: Georgia Senate Candidate Jon Ossoff (D) Quietly Discloses Financial Ties to Pro-CCP Hong Kong Media Company.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: What To Do About Media’s Horrible 2020 Election Malpractice. “We need to begin exploring bigger, louder, and harsher ways of exposing the vile pathological liars in the MSM. There can be no letting up. Should Grandpa Gropes make it to the White House, they no doubt will be emboldened and double-down on their truth-free ways.”

EXERCISE WESTPAC RUMRUNNER III: USAF F-15C Eagles and an E-3 Sentry fly in formation after participating in exercise WestPac Rumrunner, which was run from Kadena Air Base, Japan. Photo taken Oct. 16, 2020. Here’s a background article on AWACS aircraft like the E-3 Sentry. Telling quote: “The AWACS proved to be a key to victory in the 1991, 2001, and 2003 campaigns. The critical element in this was knowing where all friendly aircraft were at all times.” (Typo corrected.)

ON THE BELATED BALLOT: Trump’s Middle East Peace Prize. Trump earned a Nobel. Obama didn’t. Leftist Nobel Peace Prize privilege?

OH: Rules for strong passwords don’t work, researchers find. Here’s what does. “In an experiment, users created passwords on a system that simply required them to enter 10 characters. Then the system rated the passwords with the lab’s password strength meter and gave tailored suggestions for stronger passwords. Test subjects were able to come up with secure passwords that they could recall up to five days later. It worked better than showing users preset lists of rules or simply banning known bad passwords.”

GOOD: Why young white men are abandoning the Democrats.

A shock poll by Reuters/Ipsos reveals that the Democrats are shedding millennial votes, with support dropping by nine percentage points since 2016. This shift is most pronounced among white millennial men, who now favour Republicans over Democrats by 11 percentage points. In 2016, Democrats led Republicans in this group by 12 percentage points. There has been a staggering swing of 23 percentage points in just two years.

I think more and more young men will get woke as time goes on.

YOU CAN’T HAVE A TRANSITION UNTIL THE ELECTION IS OVER: Bill Clinton GSA chief backs Trump’s in transition standoff.

Despite the Democratic outcry against a top President Trump appointee who has not OK’d funding of the transition to a Biden administration, she has won the backing of a Bill Clinton-appointed official who faced a similar standoff in the 2000 ballot-counting crisis.

Former General Services Administration Administrator David J. Barram said he understands the situation current Administrator Emily Murphy is in because he held off signing off on transition funds during the fight between George W. Bush and Al Gore in the 2000 election.

“Get the facts, and act on evidence,” he said.

That’s different because shut up.

GOOD MORNING. IT’S FRIDAY THE 13TH. IN 2020. But according to a friend there’s an upside: “There was a glitch in the time space continuum on Friday the 13th back in March.. I’m hoping this Friday the 13th is a portal that will take us back to the proper timeline.” I like it, but it’s awfully optimistic for 2020.

COVIDIOCRACY: Why Andrew Cuomo’s Latest New York COVID Restrictions Make Zero Sense.

This doesn’t make much sense. What about 10:00 pm is so special? Does “the science” say that the virus turns into a pumpkin when the clock strikes 10:01?

Evidently,  the governor gave no thought to the fact that this might simply encourage more crowding of these facilities prior to 10:00 pm rather than smaller crowds dispersed over more time. This is just one example of the many oversights plaguing the latest heavy-handed restrictions.

“At the time of the announcement, restaurants have not been provided important details by the State or City about the new restrictions on their businesses,” the NYC Hospitality Alliance said. “They don’t know if the restrictions apply to indoor and outdoor dining, and if customers need to leave the restaurant by 10:00 pm or if they can finish their meals, which is creating more confusion, so we hope that information is released immediately.”

“Today’s news is a huge blow to the restaurant industry that is desperately trying to stay afloat,” New York State Restaurant Association President Melissa Fleischut said.

Related: Pandemic Hypocrites Produce Pandemic Cynics:

In ways small and large, leaders like Cuomo (aided and abetted by a media friendly to Democratic politicians) have eroded the public’s trust by saying one thing and doing another. One egregious example, laid out in detail by the New York Post’s Karol Markowicz, was the behavior of CNN’s Chris Cuomo and his brother, the governor, during Chris’ bout with coronavirus. Chris broke quarantine while sick with COVID and got a haircut indoors (a violation that would have netted a non-celebrity a $1,000 fine), while his wife enjoyed indoor workout sessions at a gym that was supposed to have remained closed.

Worse, Governor Cuomo devoted an inordinate amount of time to promoting his leadership style during the pandemic, despite the fact that the state was second only to New Jersey in deaths per capita from COVID.

In Washington D.c., which still has some of the most restrictive lockdown measures in the country and where public school students never returned to in-person education, Mayor Muriel Bowser offered residents a pitch-perfect example of political hypocrisy last week when she and many of her staff traveled to Delaware to celebrate Biden’s win at a crowded campaign party. Delaware is listed as a “high risk” state by D.C., which means anyone traveling to the District from Delaware must quarantine for two weeks. But such rules don’t apply to Bowser, who deemed her and her staff’s partying “essential travel” and, thus, “exempt” from the quarantine order.

They don’t apply in Chicago, either: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tells city to stay at home for 30 days, cancel Thanksgiving plans and puts 10-person limit on gatherings due to COVID-19 spike — days after she joined crowds celebrating Biden’s win.

To be fair, there mere presence of the legendary superhero Corona Destroyer would have been enough to strike fear into the heart of the cowardly Coronavirus, thus rendering it powerless.

JEFF CARTER: Who do you vaccinate first?

COLD WAR II: Chinese embassy in Brazil hits back as Brasilia joins America’s ‘Clean Network.’

China’s embassy in Brazil has hit back at comments made by a senior US official, after Brasilia this week became the latest signatory to an American deal to block Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co. from foreign nations’ 5G networks.

“What the US calls ‘clean networks’ is discrimination, exclusionary and political,” the mission said in a statement released on Thursday.

It came after Brazil on Wednesday signed up to the US-led “Clean Network” proposal, which has already attracted support in dozens of other countries.

Taking flak, must be over the target.

PRIORITIES: California Set to Reopen Strip Clubs Before Churches.

THE FIRST DRAFT OF HISTORY: Every MSM Outlet: Postal Voting Fraud Whistleblower Recants! Whistleblower: No I Didn’t!

RED ON RED IN TEXAS: Special election runoff between Shelley Luther and state Rep. Drew Springer set for Dec. 19. Springer, a state representative, faces Luther, the Dallas salon owner who was jailed earlier this year after refusing to shutter her business due to pandemic restrictions, for the seat of state Sen. Pat Fallon, R-Prosper.

WHO WINS WITH A BIDEN PRESIDENCY? CHINA AND THE OLIGARCHS.

Progressive ideologues often like to evoke the idea that they speak “truth to power,” but this year it’s their leaders who are consolidating their clout. Although Democrats did far worse on the whole than expected, control of the White House assures greater influence for those already occupying what Lenin referred to as “the commanding heights” of both society and economy.

Tech elites and their Wall Street allies, as opposed to more populist candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, ruled Democratic primaries. Whereas Sanders and (to a lesser extent) Warren ran legitimately grassroots-backed campaigns, they could not withstand the money, influence, and media power of the oligarchies. In the presidential race Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the backing of Wall Street, tech, and Hollywood moguls, including bundlers who allowed them to raise unprecedented money. Among financial firms, communications companies and lawyers, Biden outraised Trump by five to one or more.

All these interests had one main priority: to remove the disruptive, irascible, and unpredictable Donald Trump. If spending tens of millions wired from the coasts to may not create a Democratic Senate, the executive alone can deliver on the critical aspects of the oligarchic agenda: friendly ties to China, the suspension of antitrust action, a full-bore assault on the tangible economy, and executive action that damages the great American heartland in favor of the dense, high-cost coastal areas. Consider this agenda’s winners and losers one by one.

China: The Big Winner

Trump’s willingness to stand up to China’s economic, political, and media threats constituted his signature departure from the corporate elite—notably in tech, where the oligarchs remain generally friendly to China. Beijing can count on friends from Never Trumping free traders to high fliers in Hollywood, the legacy media, and Silicon Valley, all of whom have censored critical coverage of China’s handling of the pandemic, and most of whom are allied to the amoralists on Wall Street.

The corporate members of the Biden coalition generally see China as a source of customers and capital, not a threat to American industries. The new Democratic gentry, epitomized by former New York Mayor and super-mogul Michael Bloomberg, even express open admiration for the Communist regime. Not surprisingly Vice President Biden, whose own family had had close business ties with Beijing, has minimized the Chinese threat to our economy, claiming incredibly last year that “you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us.”

As the Biden family saga reveals, the most enduring reason for embracing China is, of course, money.

Our political class is easily bought.

BEWARE THE GOVERNMENT-TECHNOLOGY COMPLEX: Biden tapped several Big Tech staffers for his transition team. “A number of Obama staffers got tech jobs during Trump’s term. Now they’re back.”

WELL, YES: Trump’s Economy Really Was Better Than Obama’s.

MARK STEYN: Looking for an Argument.

One of Mrs Thatcher’s great insights was: First you win the argument; then you win the election.

* * * * * * * *

So now we’re told that we all have to rush to Georgia for two months to focus on the run-off election because those two GOP Senate candidates are the only things that stand in the way of Biden-Harris ramming the Green New Deal down your gullet, and giving statehood to DC and Puerto Rico, thus greatly diminishing Susan Collins’ importance in Senate arithmetic now and forever.

Maybe. But it really would be nice if these guys would make an argument for something once in a while, instead of just saying we’re the fellows to block the other fellows. I mean, we’ve been here before even within the shriveled perspective of political memory: A decade ago we were told we had to back Republicans because they’re opposed to Obamacare. They raised a zillion dollars, saved their seats, won total control in 2016 …and had no plan.

It’s not enough. Last time round, the only guy making real arguments was Trump: Build the wall, renegotiate Nafta, get tough with China… So he won the argument, and then he won the election.

If they succeed in taking him out, we’re left with Republicans who have no argument other than process: Vote for me, so we’ll save the Senate. If we save the Senate, we can block Biden’s judges. So we’ll save the courts, so they can keep ruling that, er, Obamacare’s unconstitutional and that Pennsylvania shouldn’t be monkeying with election rules this close to the big day.

Wouldn’t it be easier to stand for something?

Read the whole thing.

KRUISER: Republicans Need to Win Both GA Runoffs for Senate Majority That’s Outside the Margin of Romney.

The best thing one might possibly say about a hypothetical Biden Administration is that Romney would join it and open up his senate seat for an actual Republican to fill.

KYLE SMITH: The Chump Effect: Americans who follow the rules are furious with those who get away with flouting them.

OH, BEE. AFTER THIS LAST WEEK, MOST OF US ARE LIKE “WHATEVER. SO LONG AS CRAZY SOCIALISTS DON’T GET IN.”  WHICH IS SAD:  Pompeo Commits To Smooth Transition To Second, Third, Fourth Trump Administrations.

FOR A GUY WHO THEY SAY LOST, TRUMP SURE HAD STRONG COATTAILS, AND FOR A GUY WHO WON, BIDEN SURE DIDN’T: The biggest surprises of the 2020 Democratic House debacle.