ANALYSIS: TRUE. Trump: Obama ‘lost’ in key swing states for Clinton.

Rust Belt Obama voters who broke for Trump last month proved to be the key constituency, and Obama’s failure to deliver for those “bitter clingers” played in a big part in their redshift.

ASIA PIVOT: North Korea ‘racing ahead’ on nuclear plan, defector says.

JAYVEE: Three Months Needed to Rout Islamic State, Iraqi PM Says.

Iraq’s anti-ISIS counteroffensive has already been going on for months and will go on for months more, and yet only six weeks were required to rout Saddam Hussein and his army in 2003. Part of that is due to the professionalism and lethality of the US and British militaries, and (to a lesser extent) the other Coalition forces. The other part is cultural — that modern Arab armies with few exceptions haven’t performed as well in battle as their impressive equipment manifests and even more impressive military histories might suggest they would.

The real danger posed by ISIS may not be from ISIS itself. It may instead be that they have shown the way ahead to a far more effective method for Arab armies to wage war. They’ve combined the lessons learned in Coalition-occupied Iraq (before the Surge) and from the Palestinian intifada, plus the logistical ingenuity of the Viet Cong. They then added in postmodern propaganda and recruiting techniques, and old-fashioned, street-level terror that would have been appreciated by the cruelest among Hitler’s SS or Lenin’s chekists.

This “new” way of war isn’t anything that can’t be defeated by a determined Western military should the need arise. But doing so could prove bloodier — and politically more testing — than anything Western peoples or leaders, at least at the moment, are mentally prepared for.

I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS: Kerry to lay out vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

I KNOW WHO I’D RATHER FLY WITH:

The guy in front of me tried to get his saber through airport security. The results were predictable. pic.twitter.com/TfsE3az8T3

— Jillian Melchior (@JillianKayM) December 26, 2016

BODY OF WORK: 14 Other Movies Featuring Star Wars Actress Carrie Fisher.

Her best performance was probably in When Harry Met Sally…, which went on to inspire a thousand inferior romcoms. And her “Mystery Woman” in The Blues Brothers set up the funniest scene in an already very funny movie.

PRIVACY: Police seek Amazon Echo data in murder case.

Amazon’s Echo devices and its virtual assistant are meant to help find answers by listening for your voice commands. However, police in Arkansas want to know if one of the gadgets overheard something that can help with a murder case. According to The Information, authorities in Bentonville issued a warrant for Amazon to hand over any audio or records from an Echo belonging to James Andrew Bates. Bates is set to go to trial for first-degree murder for the death of Victor Collins next year.

Amazon declined to give police any of the information that the Echo logged on its servers, but it did hand over Bates’ account details and purchases. Police say they were able to pull data off of the speaker, but it’s unclear what info they were able to access. Due to the so-called always on nature of the connected device, the authorities are after any audio the speaker may have picked up that night. Sure, the Echo is activated by certain words, but it’s not uncommon for the IoT gadget to be alerted to listen by accident.

It’s unclear from this story whether Amazon could have gotten the data but declined to do so, or if the data was encrypted in such a way that the company could not have retrieved it even had they wanted to. If it’s the former, then Amazon could be in legal trouble for failing to comply with a warrant — and Echo customers might want to think twice about having an “always on” device networked to Amazon’s servers.

HECKUVA JOB, BARRY: Russia Expands Middle East Role to Libya.

I’m old enough to remember when Libya was at peace and quietly cooperating with Western antiterror efforts.

NOT WITH A BANG… The Top Five Firearm Stories of 2016.

CHINESE LIVES MATTER: Chinese Middle-Class Anger Reignites Over Death of 29-year-old Researcher Lei Yang in Police Custody.

Criticism has been building in the days since Beijing prosecutors announced Friday that they won’t pursue negligence charges against five police officers despite finding that their “improper” actions had contributed to the death of 29-year-old Lei Yang in early May.

A number of prominent academics, lawyers and businessmen have publicly taken the prosecutors to task, saying the decision undermines the rule of law. A petition started by alumni from the university Mr. Lei attended has attracted more than a thousand signatures decrying the outcome as “inappropriate.” Some high-profile lawyers expressed willingness to represent Mr. Lei’s family in potential lawsuits against the five officers.

Though discussions of the decision were heavily censored on social media—and searches for Mr. Lei’s name blocked—two censorship-tracking websites, Weiboscope and Free Weibo, logged hundreds of deleted posts on the Weibo microblogging platform. According to WeiboScope, censorship on Weibo rose to a three-month high in the two days after the decision.

Social media and the rising expectations of China’s middle class are two tricky obstacles in the way of President Xi Jinping’s efforts to re-consolodate Communist Party power.

FAT, DRUNK, AND BRUTAL: Five years of Kim Jong Un: How has Kim the younger clung to power?

When Kim Jong Un first came to power, he seemed like something of a long shot. Could this princeling, still only in his twenties, really maintain order and secure the rule of his family amid the endless cloak and dagger ways of North Korean politics? Many assumed he’d quickly be assassinated, some that he’d simply be a puppet for more powerful interests.

But five years on and the Kim Dynasty of North Korea seems stronger than ever. The ruling party and the army are marching in step with the leadership, and state media is full of reports of his military supervision and party activities. Within no time, he’s slipped with ease into the roles that his father and grandfather inhabited for so long.

So how has he managed this?

Execution of the occasional rival by antiaircraft gun probably had something to do with it.

OF COURSE HE DID: Obama circumvents Constitution with ‘signing statements’ after blasting Bush.

President Obama said Friday that the annual defense policy bill Congress sent him violated the Constitution — but he signed it anyway.

Instead of a veto, Mr. Obama issued a statement saying he would modify the law in its execution so he carries it out the way he thinks meets constitutional muster.

Mr. Obama promised during the 2008 campaign not to engage in issuing signing statements. He said that kind of behavior was a dark spot on the presidency of George W. Bush. But in the years since, Mr. Obama has become a regular practitioner, issuing more than 20 signing statements purporting to alter the way Congress wrote laws.

If it weren’t for double standards…

“She Betrayed Our Country” – Afghan “Top Gun” Pilot Seeks US Asylum, Sparks Domestic Outrage.

It all started when Niloofar Rahmani, a 25-year-old pilot described widely domestically as the “Afghan Top Gun”, was scheduled to return to Afghanistan last week after a 15-month training course with the US air force. But on the eve of her departure, she announced she will not be returning according to AFP, citing fears for her safety, triggering a storm of criticism in Afghanistan for “betraying” her nation but also garnering support from activists.

For a country whose love-hate relationship with the US in the past two decades has mostly gravitated to the latter, the defection was a huge blow: “What she said in the US was irresponsible and unexpected. She was meant to be a role model for other young Afghans,” defense ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh said on Monday. “She has betrayed her country. It is a shame.”

Rahmani had emerged as a symbol of hope for Afghan women when she surfaced in the press in 2013 after becoming Afghanistan’s first woman pilot since the Taliban era, dressed in tan combat boots, khaki overalls and aviator glasses. The once-unimaginable feat last year won her the US State Department’s “Women of Courage Award”.

But with fame came death threats from insurgents and she routinely faced contempt from her male colleagues in a conservative nation where many still believe that a woman does not belong outside the home. In an interview in Kabul last year, Rahmani said she always carried a pistol for her protection and though she has grown accustomed to the ogling eyes of men, she never left her airbase in uniform, lest it make her a target.

We would be lucky to keep her.

THOMAS SOWELL IS RETIRING. “Even the best things come to an end. After enjoying a quarter of a century of writing this column for Creators Syndicate, I have decided to stop. Age 86 is well past the usual retirement age, so the question is not why I am quitting, but why I kept at it so long.”

His thoughts and his writing were always so fresh, I had no idea he was 86.

LOOKING BACK AT LOOKING UP: The 10 Biggest Spaceflight Stories of 2016.

HE GOT A PUBLIC EDUCATION, ALL RIGHT: High School Entrepreneur Suspended for Using WhatsApp to Take Snack Orders.

ARMS: China tests F-31 stealth fighter, cheaper competitor to US F-35.

The revamped version of what was previously known as the J-31 made its debut flight in the northeastern city of Shenyang on Friday, the state-owned China Daily reported.

The trailblazing aircraft was the brainchild of Shenyang Aircraft Corp, part of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).

According to AVIC, the FC-31 has a maximum take-off weight of 28 metric tons, a flight radius of 1,250 km, and a top speed of Mach 1.8 or 1.8 times the speed of sound.

The aircraft can easily carry 8 tons of weapons, holding six missiles in its internal weapons bay, plus six more under its wings.

Sergey Kornev, head of Russia’s Air Force Equipment Export Department, earlier told RIA Novosti the J-31 will fly on Russian aircraft engines RD-93.

The F-31 isn’t so much the “brainchild of Shenyang Aircraft Corp” as it was stolen wholesale by Chinese hackers.

SECURITY: Morocco Warned Germany Twice About Berlin Killer Anis Amri; German Intel Did Nothing.

BARACK WHO? Defying U.N., Israel Prepares to Build More Settlements.

MEET THE NEW MAO, SAME AS THE OLD MAO: Xi’s Power Play Foreshadows Historic Transformation of How China Is Ruled.

China’s Communist Party elite was craving a firm hand on the tiller when it chose Xi Jinping for the nation’s top job in 2012. Over the previous decade, President Hu Jintao’s power-sharing approach had led to policy drift, factional strife and corruption.

The party’s power brokers got what they wanted—-and then some.

Four years on, Mr. Xi has taken personal charge of the economy, the armed forces and most other levers of power, overturning a collective-leadership system introduced to protect against one-man rule after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976.

Shattering old taboos, Mr. Xi has targeted party elders and their kin in an antigraft crusade, demanded fealty from all 89 million party members, and honed a paternalistic public image as Xi Dada, or Big Papa Xi.

Now, as he nears the end of his first five-year term, many party insiders say Mr. Xi is trying to block promotion of a potential successor next year, suggesting he wants to remain in office after his second term expires in 2022, when he would be 69 years old.

Mr. Xi, who is president, party chief and military commander, “wants to keep going” after 2022 and to explore a leadership structure “just like the Putin model,” says one party official who meets regularly with top leaders.

Read the whole thing.

BLUE CITY BLUES: Chicago’s Bloody Christmas Weekend.

Jim Geraghty:

For all of our complaining, every now and then the national media notices. The New York Times did a lengthy, in-depth piece in June — albeit one that mentioned Mayor Rahm Emanuel exactly once. Maybe there’s a hesitation to spotlight the ugly side of Chicago, or Emanuel’s tenure, or the city’s legendarily heavily Democratic leadership over the past century, or Obama’s hometown. Maybe it’s the glaring evidence that having really strict gun-control laws has had little effect on gang violence. In August, the state passed a law toughening penalties for penalty on anyone without a gun-owner identification card who brings a gun into the state of Illinois to sell. So far, there’s not much sign that that new law is having much effect, either.

The problems of Chicago’s violent neighborhoods — poverty, lack of education, lack of opportunity, family breakdown, drug abuse and addiction — exist to varying degrees in every other big city in America as well. So why is the gang violence in Chicago so much worse?

Good question. My initial answer is that Chicago is the Las Vegas of bad governance — a sort-of destination city for everything gone wrong with the Blue Model. And while that’s certainly too glib, there’s also some truth to it.

DIET: The meals your parents made for you are now too calorific for modern lifestyles.

An analysis of 30 years of data by the LSE has proven that the obesity crisis is largely driven by modern lifestyles, which have allowed people to become so inter-connected that they barely need to leave their desks or sofas to work, socialise or shop.

It means that traditional meals recommended by parents are now simply too much for a less-active generation.

Trade deals between countries have also caused food prices to tumble, creating virtually unlimited access to unrestricted calories for most people, while on-tap entertainment through television, smartphones and personal computers has replaced many traditional hobbies and activities.

Recommended calorie counts, which have been about 2,500 for men and 2,000 for women since the First World War, were set at a time when people naturally moved far more in their daily lives. But the new study suggests those counts may now be too high and researchers say that people need to stop eating the way their parents taught them.

There’s also evidence that a low-calorie diet in itself can be life-extending.

But it still might be smart to spend more time away from the desk and off of the sofa — I know I’m trying to.

AIR OFFENSIVE: British RAF pilots to switch bombing raids to ‘the heart’ of Isil.

Senior military sources said that from next Spring the RAF is likely to “pivot” its focus from Iraq to Syria as it seeks to bolster rebel forces fighting Syria.

Last year the RAF mounted just 60 air strikes in Syria compared to 347 in Iraq, where British planes have been heavily involved in the campaign to liberate Mosul from Isil.

Britain hopes that Mosul will be re-taken by Spring of next year, enabling RAF Typhoons, Tornados and Reaper drones to mount a fresh offensive in Syria.

The raids are likely to be “far more dangerous” because there is the added risk posed by the fact that Russia and the Assad regime control airspace.

Godspeed.

ANALYSIS: ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Maxine Waters: A Problem With Democrats Is That We’re Too ‘Nice’ to Other Side.

Not The Onion.

ANAYLSIS: TRUE. Sorry, Liberals. Bigotry Didn’t Elect Donald Trump.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump equally won over party loyalists. Yet about one in five voters did not have a favorable view of either candidate. These voters overwhelmingly backed Mr. Trump. Exit polls demonstrated that if voters who disapproved of both candidates had divided evenly between them, Mrs. Clinton would have won.

Several weeks before the election, a Quinnipiac University poll found that 51 percent of white working-class voters did not believe that Mr. Trump had a “sense of decency” and ranked Mrs. Clinton slightly higher on that quality.

But they were not voting on decency. Indeed, one-fifth of voters — more than 25 million Americans — said they “somewhat” disapproved of Mr. Trump’s treatment of women. Mr. Trump won three-quarters of these voters, despite their disapprobation.

Bluntly put, much of the white working class decided that Mr. Trump could be a jerk. Absent any other champion, they supported the jerk they thought was more on their side — that is, on the issues that most concerned them.

Many of those same voters helped put Barack Obama into the White House twice, but the jerk certainly had to look like a better choice than another four years of neglect and disdain.