The Manchurian Candidate: The NY Times reports that US intelligence agencies have concluded “with high confidence” that Russia acted covertly to sway the November election to Donald Trump.

The Times report says US intelligence believes the Russians hacked Republican computer systems, but released none of the information, while releasing self-damaging information from the Democrats.

President Obama ordered all US intelligence agencies to deliver him a full report on Russian electronic efforts to influence the election before he leaves office. One of Obama’s closest aides said, “We may have crossed a new threshold here.”

Members of Congress from both parties have expressed rising concern about Russian computer hacking. President-elect Trump, who has skipped national security briefings, dismisses the intelligence reports. A statement from the transition team yesterday said, “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again.’”

In Transition: Some reports say Rex Tillerson, the head of Exxon Mobil, is now the leading contender to become Secretary of State. Former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani has withdrawn his bid because he clearly wasn’t going to get it.

The President-elect is expected to name Goldman Sachs President Gary D. Cohn to direct the National Economic Council. Cohn has the reading disorder, dyslexia, which can be debilitating, but also character building, he says. Cohn told New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell, “The one trait in a lot of dyslexic people I know is that by the time we got out of college, our ability to deal with failure was very highly developed. And so we look at most situations and see much more of the upside than the downside.”

The Swamp: Donald Trump’s still-unfilled cabinet has already been dubbed by some wags as “The Idiocracy” and “The Clown Car Cabinet.” Many of his appointees are at odds with the very thing they are supposed to advocate, or with public opinion about what should be done. The NY Times laid it out in a table.

-Tom Price, Health and Human Services, would cut funding to Planned Parenthood. Fifty-seven percent of Americans favor continued support. Price opposes abortion. Sixty-four percent say it should be legal.

-Betsy DeVos, Education, favors public money vouchers for attending private school. Fifty-seven percent of Americans oppose vouchers.

-Scott Pruitt, EPA, a climate-change denier who opposes limits on greenhouse gases emitted by power plants. Sixty-three percent of Americans favor limits.

-Andrew Puzder, Labor, opposes a federal minimum wage, saying it would cost jobs. The Secretary of Labor is supposed to be an advocate for the welfare of workers. An examination by the Obama administration of worker complaints from fast-food restaurants found that 60 percent involved Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants, usually for failure to pay minimum wage or time and a half for overtime. Those are the burger chains Puzder runs.

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?: The Trump’s transition team has issued a 74 point questionnaire to the Dept. of Energy asking for the names of all employees and contractors who attended climate change conferences, and all emails associated with the conferences. One DOE employee told the NY Times it had the look of a witch hunt for climate scientists.

Had to Do It: Jurors in the federal trial of Dylann Roof in the Charleston church massacre were played a video of his confession in which he said, “I had to do it because somebody had to do it.” Roof killed nine parishioners inside an historic all-black church. “I don’t like what black people do,” Roof said in the video. He said he chose the church as a target because he knew a number of people would be there. “It’s like this,” Roof said. “I’m not in a position, by myself, to go into a black neighborhood and shoot drug dealers.”

Detour: The National Park Service says it’s working with organizers of the “Women’s March on Washington” to find somewhere for the march to go because it will be barred from large parts of Pennsylvania Avenue, as well as the Washington Monument, the National Mall and the Lincoln Memorial. The march is scheduled for Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration, but the National Park Service, at the behest of the inaugural committee, filed a “blocking permit” reserving the spaces traditional for massive marches.

Fired Up!: The International Olympic Committee voted this week to recognize cheerleading, putting it on the path for eligibility to become an Olympic Sport. “Oh …. he dropped her! That’s going to cost some points!”

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