Political Hack: President Obama said the US will retaliate for Russian computer hacking to influence the US election. Obama told NPR’s Steve Inskeep, “I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our election, we need to take action. And we will — at the time and place of our choosing.”

Answering what it is the US might do, Obama said, “some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be.” He could impose financial sanctions, or conduct a cyber counter-attack.

President-elect Donald Trump is still fighting the CIA claim of Russian hacking. Trump tweeted yesterday, “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”

As always, Trump has a loose grip on the facts, if he has any grip at all. The White House formally accused Russia of hacking on Oct. 7^th, and during the campaign Trump encouraged Russia to keep hacking to find Hillary Clinton’s missing emails.

Guilty: A federal jury has found 20-year-old Dylann Roof guilty of hate crimes in the murder of 9 black parishioners in an historic Charleston, SC church in June, 2015. Roof admitted the killings and told investigators he had wanted to start a race war. Roof now faces the penalty phase of trial in which he could get death.

In the last days of the criminal phase the jury heard a 911 call from parishioner Polly Sheppard, who survived. Sheppard told the operator, “He shot the pastor. He shot all the men in the church. Please come right away,”

Sheppard told the jury that Roof said to her, “I’m going to leave you here to tell the story.”

College Politics: Forty members of the Electoral College signed a letter this week asking for a national security briefing on the impact of Russian computer hacking on the election. “These matters directly impact the core factors in our deliberations of whether Mr. Trump is fit to serve as President of the United States,” the letter says. Only one of the signatories is a Republican.

Some electors who are bound to Donald Trump are under pressure to change their vote. Thirty-seven “faithless” electors would have to vote for another candidate to deny Trump the 270 votes necessary to become president. He has 306 according to the election results, but Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.8 million.

EJ Dionne wrote in The Washington Post, “Memo to the electoral college that votes next Monday: Our tradition — for good reason — tells you that your job is to ratify the state-by-state outcome of the election. The question is whether Trump, Vladimir Putin and, perhaps, Clinton’s popular-vote advantage give you sufficient reason to blow up the system.”

Partisan Politics: North Carolina’s Republican-dominated legislature went into special session to pass laws that would hinder the power of the incoming Democratic governor, Roy Cooper. This is the same bunch that passed the infamous “bathroom bill” that made the state a national punchline.

One bill takes partisan control of state and county election boards away from the governor and gives it to Republicans during an election year. Other bills strip the governor of the power to make appointments to state and local boards and require legislative approval of his cabinet appointments.

Chill Out: Minot, ND, -4; Green Bay, Wisc., 11; Chicago, 14; Buffalo, NY, 15; Windsor, Ct., 6.

The Obit Page: NBA announcer Craig Sager, known for his pithy interviews and a wardrobe of colorful sport coats that were louder than the crowds, died of leukemia at age 65.

Bad Santa: The heart-warming tale of a Knoxville Santa Claus who said a terminally ill boy died in his arms has been circulating this Christmas season. Dozens of news outlets repeated the story.

The Santa, Eric Schmitt-Matzen, told a columnist for The Knoxville News Sentinel that he had been called to a local hospital to grant a boy’s last wish to meet Santa. Schmitt-Matzen said he spoke to the boy, gave him a gift, promised that when he got to heaven he would be Santa’s #1 elf, “and that’s when he passed.”

Now the newspaper says it is unable to identify the boy or his family, or verify whether the whole thing ever happened. We’re going to watch the move Elf  to renew our Christmas spirit.

-30-