QUALITY CONTROL: Tesla Employees Say 90% Of Model S/X Cars Fail Quality Checks After Assembly.

Last month we highlighted a report from Automotive News which suggested that Tesla’s Model 3 production misses might have been the result of a rather basic and embarrassing problem…the company hadn’t yet figured out how to weld. As automotive manufacturing consultant Michael Tracy of Agile Group pointed out, the clues of Tesla’s steel problems came from a video posted by Musk himself of the Model 3 assembly line. Referencing Musk’s video, Tracy said a well functioning auto assembly line would not produce the sparks seen in the video below which are symptomatic of welds spots overheating or poor alignment of components.

And while it’s difficult to believe that Tesla hasn’t been able to iron out simplistic assembly line issues like the proper alignment of welds, a new report from several current and former employees would seem to lend some credence to Tracy’s hypothesis. As Reuters notes today, interviews with nine “current and former employees” revealed that 90% of all Model S and Model X vehicles that roll off the assembly line fail quality control checks…which compares to roughly 10% for Toyota.

A boutique manufacturer of expensive automobiles can afford, at least for a while, to hand-finish its products before turning them over to its customers. But if Tesla has any hopes of scaling up to Toyota-level production, it will have to scale up to Toyota-level quality control.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: A disturbing tidbit from Variety’s investigation into Matt Lauer.

Lauer, who was paranoid about being followed by tabloid reporters, grew more emboldened at 30 Rockefeller Center as his profile rose following Katie Couric’s departure from “Today” in 2006. His office was in a secluded space, and he had a button under his desk that allowed him to lock his door from the inside without getting up. This afforded him the assurance of privacy. It allowed him to welcome female employees and initiate inappropriate contact while knowing nobody could walk in on him, according to two women who were sexually harassed by Lauer.

What is something like that called — an “instill-panic button?”

PLUS:

Ouch.

THERE’S ALWAYS A TAX ANGLE: Meghan Markle’s U.S. Citizenship Could Cause Tax Headaches For British Royal Family.

USA TODAY: Flashback editorial from ’98: Bill Clinton should resign. “This crisis continues to expose Clinton as someone who lacks both the courage and the character to make that sacrifice.”

ARE NOTHING TO WHAT THEY DO TO ANNOY US:  Things we do to annoy the hell out of our co-workers.  (Right now my co-workers, in terms of shared space are my husband and three cats.  The husband is all right.  You don’t want to know what the cats do to annoy me.  No, you really don’t.)

THIS IS WHY IT’S INSANE TO KEEP ALL OF HUMANITY’S EGGS IN ONE BASKET:   We’d only have 15 minutes of notice if a space storm were to hit.

NOT NEARLY AS TERRIFYING AS IT WILL BE ONCE THE GOVERNMENT GETS DONE REGULATING IT TO MAKE IT ‘SAFE’:  The terrifying future of medicine is already here.

NOT AS BAD AS IF SHE HAD TO PAY HER OWN BOOZE BILL:  Partisan Politician Pelosi Had a Really Bad Day.

I’M OFFENDED ON BEHALF OF FLOOR MOPS.  FLOOR MOPS ARE RARELY COMMUNIST:  Cruz and Scott use Cantwell and Sanders as Floor Mops in CNN Debate.

WAIT.  YOU’RE SAYING THEY USED TO PRACTICE JOURNALISM?  WAS THAT BEFORE OR AFTER COVERING UP HOLODOMOR?  NY Times Editors Quit Journalism In Favor Of Blatant Political Activism.

I THINK THEY’RE MISSPELLING POT:  Infosec Employs Top Men.

CHARACTER ASSASSINATION TO BEGIN IN 3, 2, 1:  Denzel Washington: Positive Change in Black Community ‘Starts in the Home’.

YEAH, NO, THOSE ARE NOT BROMANCES:  UK Magazine Says ‘Bromances’ Often Include Kissing, Cuddling.  Aka, if you’re going to hide in that closet, you should at least install louvered doors.

MARK HEMINGWAY: The lesson of 2017 is that conservatives have been right about sex all along. Well, maybe. Or at least that lefties have been wrong.

AT AMAZON, Holiday Deals on Martini Glasses.

Also, Brandy and Cognac snifters.

THIS WILL CHANGE WHEN BRITAIN GOES MUSLIM: More than 700,000 men were victims of domestic abuse in a year as stats reveal arrests are only made in less than HALF of all cases.

MELANIA’S CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS: John Hinderaker: How Hateful Are the Democrats? This Hateful. The criticisms seem rather petty.

More here. I love using the lights-off photo to make it look creepy.

SCIENTISTS ARE BAFFLED AS TO WHERE THIS CAME FROM: Scarlet fever cases hit 50-year high in England. “A joint investigation by public health authorities from across England and Wales found that the incidence of scarlet fever tripled between 2013 and 2014, rising from 4,700 cases to 15,637 cases. In 2016, there were 19,206 reported cases, the highest level since 1967. The majority of the outbreaks were in England. . . . Dr Lamagni described the soaring number of cases of scarlet fever as ‘baffling,’ adding that no underlying causes had been identified.”

SEE, THIS IS A REASON WHY EVEN LEFTIES SHOULD BE GLAD TRUMP IS PRESIDENT: Trump Administration Lawyer Pummeled by Sotomayor and Gorsuch in Cellphone Tracking Case. If Obama were still president, I think the treatment would be different. If Trump reminds people that unchecked executive power is bad, and that leads to additional checks, everyone wins.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: National Concealed Reciprocity Passes House Judiciary, Is Expected To Receive A Floor Vote By The End Of The Year. “The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 was introduced by Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) on January 3, 2017. It changes federal law that so concealed carry permits are treated like driver’s licenses, making a permit from one state valid in the other 49. This would fix the complicated and often confusing patchwork of concealed carry laws currently in effect throughout the country.”

SARAH HOYT: The Moving Finger Fingers Our “Moral Betters.” “What happened in most of these cases is extortion and abuse of power. Almost all of the fields where this happened are highly oligarchic and controlled by the left. The males who rose to power in it, mostly by mouthing feminist platitudes, were, therefore, left I unchecked power over the careers of a lot of women. I come from a similar field, and I’m going to tell you I have lots of sympathy for those women. . . . And the sexual extortion in Hollywood, in news, in various kinds of showbiz happened because women gave in to it, cowered to it, and even protected the offenders. Because they wanted a career. . . . No one can victimize you unless you allow it. And allowing yourself to be victimized for power and money is not victimization, it’s greed and ambition. The continuous denunciation carnival grows tiresome, much as we on the right are watching your cannibal feast in growing fascination. The end result of it is to run men from public life as though women had no part in this system.”

Plus: “We’re racing to a system where women act like poor little flowers, who have to be protected and kept safe. It’s not a system I want for me or for my granddaughters. It’s not a system I want for anyone. You wanted into the workplace, you have it. Now hold the line. Refuse to sell your body for a career.”

NED RYUN: Don’t Reform the CFPB: Burn It Down, Salt the Earth.

CLYBURN COMPARES JOHN CONYERS’ ACCUSERS TO CHILD MURDERER WHO CLAIMED A BLACK MAN HAD ABDUCTED HER KIDS:

In a video posted on Twitter, the 77-year-old Clyburn is walking to an elevator with Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.), when asked “Other men in other industries have faced similar accusations … and gotten out of the way, resign, stepped down, far faster than he has, right … Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer?”

That was followed by another question, “So it’s different because he’s elected,” but the elevator doors closed before Clyburn might have responded.

Many comments critical of Clyburn have been posted on social media. Among them, people are questioning his logic, asking him to resign – in delicate and powerful terms – and calling him a poor representative of South Carolina.

A writer for The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic tweeted that Clyburn invoked the name of Susan Smith, South Carolina’s infamous child murderer, in his defense of Conyers.

“James Clyburn compared Conyers’ accusers to the child murderer Susan Smith, who initially claimed a black man had abducted her kids. Clyburn said, these are all white women who’ve made these charges against Conyers,” Robert Draper tweeted.

When asked if that comment was true, Draper said he verified it through two sources, adding “Clyburn has used the Susan Smith parallel more than once, to members & staffers.”

Classy stuff – Clyburn is smearing Conyers’ own former staffers as murderers and crypto-racists; never mind at least one of them telling AP she “felt honored” to be attending a Congressional Black Caucus event with Conyers:

Serving as a deputy chief of staff at the time, Deanna Maher, 77, said Conyers stripped in front of her in a Washington hotel room in 1997.

“I was absolutely shaking, and he took off his clothes,” Maher told CNN. “Then I figured out, ‘Oh my god, what did I do? How stupid at my age that I walked in and got myself into a situation like that.'”

Maher, who was in her 50s at the time, told the Associated Press she “felt honored” to attend a three-day Congressional Black Caucus event with Conyers, but later discovered they would be sharing a two bedroom hotel suite.

“He sat there eating sandwiches and then he stormed out and slammed the door,” she told the Associated Press. “He didn’t put his hand on me, but the message was loud and clear.”

Maher also described two other incidents of unwanted sexual contact from Conyers.

Conyers allegedly touched “all over” Maher’s abdomen during a car ride to the airport in 1998, and a year later he allegedly stuck his hands up her dress and whispered, “You’ve got great looking legs,” on stage during a town hall, Maher told CNN.

Maher also alleged that Conyers’ office promoted bad behavior and that a male staffer forcibly kissed her. CNN reported she filed complaints to the FBI and House ethics committee following the incident.

Hasn’t Clyburn’s race card gotten awfully maxed out by now? Here’s a flashback to Jim Treacher in 2010 on “A Brief History of Racism: The Clyburn Files.”

UPDATE: Report: Conyers To Announce Retirement In January.

AND ANOTHER ONE: Senior Producer for Jake Tapper’s “State of the Union” Sacked for Sexual Harassment.

LAKE WOBEGON: Where all the sexual harassment settlements are above-average. H/t Lowell Jacobson