SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

NOT EXACTLY OLD IRONSIDES – FROM FOX:   U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has a penchant for doling out interesting and unconventional names for new warships, but a petition currently on the White House website wants the next major warship to be named something that may be too outlandish even for him.  The petition suggests that the next major vessel be christened “USS The Deplorables,” as the petition notes, “to honor those citizens who rose up to defend America and the Constitution from the globalists.”  The name is taken from a remark Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made on the campaign trail to refer to supporters of President-elect Donald Trump.  "You know, just to be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables,” Clinton said at a rally in September. "The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And, unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”  It could be a new class of ships.  And the next one could be USS Flyover People.

GOOD PICK – FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:   President-elect Donald Trump has picked Rick Perry to head the Energy Department, said two people familiar with the decision, seeking to put the former Texas governor in control of an agency whose name he forgot during a presidential debate even as he vowed to abolish it.  Perry, who ran for president in the past two election cycles, is likely to shift the department away from renewable energy and toward fossil fuels, whose production he championed while serving as governor for 14 years.  The Energy Department was central to the 2011 gaffe that helped end his first presidential bid. Declaring that he wanted to eliminate three federal agencies during a primary debate in Michigan, Perry then froze after mentioning the Commerce and Education departments. “The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.”  They can laugh all they want.  Perry was an excellent governor of Texas, and was instrumental in building the state's economy.  I also doubt that he'd shift the focus of the Labor Department too far away from renewable energy.  Who really is against renewable energy?  But he will make sure the fossil fuel sector is strong and productive, for we will need fossil fuels for most of the next century.  Whisper that to the Dems.

A MATH PROBLEM – FROM THE HILL:  Voting machines in 37 percent of Detroit's precincts registered too many votes in the presidential election last month, the Detroit News reported Tuesday.  Records from Wayne County show optical scanners in 248 of the city's 662 precincts registered more ballots than the number of votes tallied in the poll books.  The city's voting irregularities prompted a call for an audit by Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson's office, according to the publication.  President-elect Donald Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes, but Hillary Clinton received more votes in Detroit and Wayne County.  The state's recount effort ended Friday after a decision by the Michigan Supreme Court.  Detroit precincts were among some of the precincts that couldn't be counted during the presidential recount because of a state law that bars the precincts from being recounted if the numbers don't match, unless there's a valid explanation.  I'm shocked that this could happen in a city as well governed as Detroit.  Do not take that seriously.

December 13,  2016