MAD DUCK: Obama administration scraps ‘wet foot, dry foot’ policy for Cubans.

The Obama administration is ending the “wet foot, dry foot” policy that granted residency to Cubans who arrived in the United States without visas.

That’s according to a senior administration official, who said the policy change was effective immediately.

The official said the U.S. and Cuba have spent several months negotiating the change, including an agreement from Cuba to allow those turned away from the U.S. to return.

First Obama cozied us up to the Castro regime, and on his way out he’s giving the finger to Cubans fleeing Castro’s oppression.

This, to borrow a phrase, is not who we are.

UPDATE (From Glenn): To be fair, it’s who he is.

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY:

Not even going to ask about the French she took.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: The Evolution of Terrorism Prosecutions – My Speech at the Federal Bar Council.

HAIL MARY: Chargers’ desperation move is a shot to the NFL’s vitality.

Now a weird year for the NFL just got weirder. If the Chargers do indeed move, and if owners approve the Raiders’ move to Vegas in March, three teams will have relocated in a 14-month span. There will be plenty of blame to go around. Goodell will be the face of it, but internally, owners and executives will wonder if NFL executive Eric Grubman, the point man on stadiums, did an effective enough job of negotiating with San Diego officials. The owners will be viewed as vessels of greed; Spanos will be the one who in the end decided to pull the plug on a cherished home, his legacy a sunburned version of Art Modell’s. But the lingering conflict goes beyond the relocations, beyond the logistics and into an area that is tougher to navigate if not solve, because there is no clear solution: What if the NFL simply matters less?

Indeed.

EPA: Fiat Chrysler Used Emissions-Cheating Software.

Officials stopped short of calling Fiat Chrysler’s software defeat devices, saying they were continuing to investigate. But they nevertheless accused Fiat Chrysler of illegal activity and said it could cost the company $4.63 billion, based on a $44,539 penalty for each affected vehicle.

“This is a clear and serious violation of the Clean Air Act,” said EPA Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles, adding Fiat Chrysler failed to disclose eight so-called auxiliary emission control devices on the vehicles when getting them certified. “AECDs that are not disclosed are illegal.”

Fiat Chrysler “is disappointed that the EPA has chosen to issue a notice of violation,” the auto maker said in a statement. The company “intends to work with the incoming administration to present its case and resolve this matter fairly and equitable and to assure the EPA and FCA US customers that the company’s diesel-powered vehicles meet all applicable regulatory requirements.”

European companies sure do talk a green game.

HEALTH: Physically active men may improve their prostate cancer prognosis.

VIDEO: It’s Really Not a Smart Idea to Try to Rob a Gun Store.

Graphic, but educational.

OVERRIPE: Are Conditions Ripening for Iraqi Kurdish State?

It is unlikely that Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD) or its fighting force, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), or Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will realize their objectives of statehood, but Iraq’s Kurds may be in a far more advantageous position to press for independence. Significant obstacles remain for Iraqi Kurds, but the combination of regional instability, the coming liberation of Mosul, and the state of Iraqi politics may help advance the historic goals of Kurdish leaders.

It might not matter if Syria’s or Turkey’s are “ready” for statehood. If Iraq’s Kurds achieve independence, Free Kurdistan will almost surely follow.

Whether we would get one Kurdistan or several remains an open question, but any people who can maintain cultural cohesion for so many centuries without a country, could probably make a go at unity.

WE HAD TO SAVE THE RULE OF LAW BY DESTROYING IT: Rosie O’Donnell Wants to Stop Trump Inauguration with Martial Law.

UPDATE (from Glenn): My paper on military coups just gets more timely all the time.

HEADLINES FROM 2015: As Trump Berates News Media, a New Strategy Is Needed to Cover Him.

SUPERCUT: 79 Times Obama Referred to Himself in Farewell Speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKIiKTuO9Og

Oops? The link is correct but the wrong video is playing, at least on my end. So click the YouTube link if you’re having the same problem.

FUSION GPS: The Sordid History of the Firm Behind the Trump-Russia Dossier.

Mark Hemingway:

That’s not all Fusion GPS has been up to in recent years. In 2015, Planned Parenthood was stung by a video expose that detailed its involvement in human organ trafficking—organs harvested from the bodies obtained after abortions. Those behind the expose, David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress, knew they would be severely scrutinized so they released dozens of hours of raw footage that their documentary evidence was culled from to show that their reports had not been selectively edited. Nor were they misrepresenting the shocking statements of Planned Parenthood officials.

Nonetheless, Planned Parenthood produced a “forensic report” concluding that the videos had in fact been manipulated. The author of that report was none other than Fusion GPS. If you bothered to read the details of Fusion GPS’s report it made some damning concessions, even admitting there was no “widespread evidence of substantive video manipulation.” But overall, the report was calculated to be misleading and was nothing but an underhanded PR stunt for Planned Parenthood. Naturally, Fusion GPS’s report was uncritically covered by a credulous media. Politico’s headline was “Report for Planned Parenthood finds sting videos manipulated.” The New York Times went with “Planned Parenthood Videos Were Altered, Analysis Finds.” Neither report mentioned the controversy about Fusion GPS’s attacks on GOP donors or otherwise suggested the firm had partisan motivations.

Indeed, it seems that the media have been uncritically amplifying Fusion GPS’s disinformation campaigns for years now.

Read the whole thing.

THE SINS OF THE GRANDDAUGHTER: L.L. Bean Targeted by Anti-Trump Group.

The anti-Trump group “Grab Your Wallet” has targeted outdoor company L.L. Bean for a boycott because a granddaughter of the L.L. Bean founder donated money to a Trump PAC.

Linda Bean is the granddaughter of founder Leon Leonwood Bean and “owns a chunk” of the company.

They can have my Bean Boots when they pry them off my cold, dead — but still dry! — feet.

CUE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: Billionaire George Soros Lost Nearly $1 Billion in Weeks After Trump Election.

Last year, Mr. Soros returned to trading at Soros Fund Management LLC, which manages about $30 billion for Mr. Soros and his family. Mr. Soros was lured back by the opportunities to profit from what he saw as coming economic troubles.

Mr. Soros was cautious about the market going into November and became more bearish immediately after Mr. Trump’s election, according to people close to the matter. The stance proved a mistake—the stock market has rallied on expectations that Mr. Trump’s policies will boost corporate earnings and the overall economy.

As a result, some of Mr. Soros’s trading positions incurred losses approaching $1 billion, the people say. Mr. Soros adjusted his positions and exited many of his bearish bets late last year, avoiding further losses, the people added.

Maybe he got tired of all the winning.

ASIA PIVOT: China to set up Asia-Pacific security framework amid growing mistrust among its neighbours.

China has vowed to set up an Asia-Pacific security framework and continue building up its armed forces, citing complex security concerns in the region.

In its first policy white paper on Asia-Pacific security cooperation, Beijing said on Wednesday that the present security framework should be upgraded.

Military alliances in the region should be made with transparency and confrontation should be avoided, it says. It also calls for more military exchanges between China and other nations in the ­region.

“The current security structure in the region is not satisfactory, which has led to mistrust among the nations,” vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin said.

Sometimes, diplomacy consists of the doggie playing nice until it has a big enough rock of its own.

AWARENESS: We asked Nancy Pelosi what part of Obamacare had underperformed. “I can’t think of anything,” she said.

Vox, so click with caution.

DISTRACTED DRIVING: The Next Ad Frontier is the Windshield.

The advent of connected cars is creating a new sales battleground, and using a vehicle’s windshield may be the next way to pitch more products and services to consumers. McKinsey & Co. estimates that mobile and data-driven services in autos will generate $1.5 trillion by 2030. At least part of that will be spent projecting information to drivers and passengers right before their eyes.

“When you think of a person driving and what your needs are when you’re on a typical trip, it’s food, it’s fuel and it’s rest stops,” said John Butler, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. “Owning the inside of the car is critical, it’s really where the money is made. The real value is locked up in the ad opportunity.”

I’m going to hang on to my comparatively low-tech 2009-model SUV until it falls apart around me.

ALLIES:

That’s all I’ve been able to find on this story so far.

MICHAEL MOORE: Trump Is ‘The Godfather of This Decade’s Fake News’

The word you’re looking for is “chutzpah.”

MICHAEL BRENDAN DOUGHERTY: Why the media’s Trump dossier coverage is suicidal.

Whether or not you agree with Dougherty on any of the particulars, they all come down to this one line: “Our institutions can’t temporarily suspend the very standards that grant them credibility and expect to survive.”

I’d quibble only with the word “temporarily.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Hey Hollywood, Smugness Isn’t a Political Strategy.

The problem with Hollywood people making political speeches is not that their political ideas are worse than anyone else’s, or that they enjoy sharing their half-baked ideas. This is a minor and forgivable social sin, like arriving five minutes early for a party. No, the problem with Hollywood people making political speeches is that the speeches themselves are bad, at least at their presumed goal of producing political change.

Take Streep. She’s right that Trump should not have made fun of a disabled reporter. However, she surrounded that point with an extended discussion of how mean everyone was being to actors and journalists.

This was a double mistake. First, it accepted Trump’s frame: it’s a handful of liberal elites against the rest of the country. That’s an argument he just won, so it’s unwise to try for an immediate rematch. And second, there is in this whole world no sight less rhetorically compelling than that of successful people with fun and rewarding jobs, and a decent income, complaining that they’re victims of the unglamorous folks who labor at all the strenuously boring work required to make their lives nice. Even I, who have one of those jobs, am rolling my eyes and saying “Good heavens, suck it up.” The only people who don’t recoil from this sort of vacuous self-pity are those similarly situated in elite liberal institutions — but since those folks already hate Trump, you haven’t actually changed anything.

Perspective is difficult for those working in an isolated and highly paid field which devotes an entire season to self-congratulation.

EMISSIONS CHEAT: Six Volkswagen Executives Indicted by Department of Justice.

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan returned an indictment today, fingering the execs for playing key roles in a decade-long conspiracy to deceive the U.S. government and public. While five of the men live in Germany, one man — Oliver Schmidt, former head of VW’s regulatory compliance department — was nabbed by the FBI in a Miami airport on Saturday while attempting to return to Germany.

As the charges were handed down, the embattled automaker pleaded guilty to three criminal federal counts and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in criminal and civil penalties.

It will be interesting to see if Germany agrees to extradite the other five.

VIDEO: Prof. Stephen Cohen: Allegations Against Trump a ‘Grave American National Security Threat’.

It took five years, a major hurricane, and a civil war in Iraq to discredit and hobble George W. Bush, and the Democrats aren’t going to make that kind of a mistake again.

Actress Quietly Blended ‘F*ck Paul Ryan’ Pin Into Pattern Of Her Golden Globes Dress.

The last line of Lindsey Ellefson’s writeup claims that Lola Kirke “was just one of the bold political statements made that evening, but it was one of the most unique.” But how is hiding a tiny pin on a busy dress worn at an event of likeminded individuals in any way “bold?”

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Senate opens Obamacare repeal drive with overnight marathon.

The House is expected take a swift vote on the resolution, possibly as early as Friday, which will trigger congressional committees to begin crafting a second bill that would roll back major parts of Obamacare. Though it will be weeks before Congress votes on that bill, Thursday still marked a victory for the Republican Party as it moves toward overhauling the country’s healthcare system.

I recall headline after headline over the last week or so, each claiming that Republican Senators were having second thoughts, due to the difficulty of repealing such a complicated law with so many popular provisions.

Those stories felt more like the MSM trying to create news than report it, and sure enough that feeling has been proven correct.