QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES: Granted, Fox is the pot calling the kettle black, but I’ve been harping on the failure of news organizations to conduct and publish serious and genuinely independent autopsies for quite a while. And I must be right, because Prof. Jacobson and I are in are agreement:

Cornell University law professor and Legal Insurrection founder William Jacobson said [NBC President] Lack had no business overseeing the investigation. “It’s hard to see how an internal investigation that reports to senior executives would be viewed as complete and transparent when the conduct or lack of conduct of senior executives, such as Andrew Lack, necessarily should an issue,” Jacobson told Fox News.

Jacobson continues:

“Anything other than an independent outside investigation that reports to the NBC Universal Board of Directors would raise questions as to whether responsibility is being pushed down to lower corporate levels.”

And going a step further, not only is a secret investigation in-house insufficient, it seems to me that media organizations — who live and die on readership trust — should not allow their usual outside law firms to do this, because they have a vested interest in client relations.

FASTER, PLEASE: Time to Get CNN Out of the Airports, etc., Roger Simon writes.

SO FAR: Four Times Liberal Hollywood Declared War Against GOP Women.

BREAKING: NYC Bomber ID’d.

Twenty-seven-year-old Akayed Ullah is in police custody. Officials say he sustained burns to his abdomen and hands and cuts after the crude pipe bomb exploded.

Law enforcement officials say Ullah was inspired by the Islamic State, but apparently had no direct contact with the terrorist group. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the suspect or incident.

Dog bites man.

PRIVACY: Ireland risks shooting itself in the foot in crucial Microsoft email case.

The case involves emails held at Microsoft’s Dublin data centre. A federal judge in a drug case in New York state demanded that Microsoft’s US office produce the emails. Microsoft refused, saying that the appropriate approach was to use the well-established route of mutual legal assistance treaties, by which countries authorise the gathering and exchanging of information for such cases.

Microsoft rightly argued that to allow courts or law enforcement in one country to have direct access to data held in another violates fundamental privacy guarantees that make modern business possible.

International data exchange and storage are the basis for the multibillion-euro cloud-computing model, which brings efficiency and scale to businesses large and small. Instead of every company having to invest in costly hardware and software, they instead can use applications and storage made available online – “in the cloud” – from companies such as Microsoft and Oracle, which are among the dozens that now have enormous data centres in Ireland for this purpose.

Crucially, the only reason a US judge can even try to directly demand access to electronic data is because a vague US communications law from the 1980s fails to indicate whether electronic data has the same protection as information on a piece of paper.

Well, it certainly should have the same protection — but remember that no one’s life, liberty, property, or data are safe while the legislature is in session.

EMILY YOFFE IN POLITICO: Why the #MeToo Moment Should Be Ready for a Backlash: As a much-needed reckoning happens in the workplace, look to college campuses for a note of caution.

Much of the Obama administration’s policy was at the initiative of Biden, for whom the issue of violence against women was career-defining. In 1994, as a senator, he oversaw the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, what he calls his “proudest legislative accomplishment.” When he became vice president, a new position was created under his aegis, White House adviser on violence against women, and he appointed Lynn Rosenthal, a national leader on domestic abuse, to fill it. The administration then decided to focus its efforts on what it said was an epidemic of sexual violence against female students by their male classmates. In 2011, the Department of Education sent a bombshell letter with the bland greeting, “Dear Colleague” to the country’s 4,600 institutions of higher education laying out new rules for how campuses were to root out and punish sexual assault.

It was the beginning of a concerted effort that radically remade how students could interact sexually, with severe penalties for violating increasingly stringent codes of conduct. Title IX is the federal law that prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex. Under the Obama pronouncements, college Title IX offices became vast bureaucracies, and students were encouraged to report any perceived violation. The Dear Colleague letter forbade “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” To stay on the right side of federal regulators, many school codes expanded to turn even unwanted flirtation or sexual jokes between students into actionable offenses. New rules known as “affirmative consent” were put in place on many campuses, requiring that partners engaging in any sexual contact get explicit permission, preferably verbal, for each touch, each time. (Affirmative consent on campus has become law in California, Connecticut and New York.)

Weird that Creepy Uncle Joe was behind this. Or maybe not.

CHANGE: Saudi Arabia to allow movie theaters after decades of ban.

It’s the latest stark reversal in a county where movie theaters were shut down in the 1980’s during a wave of ultraconservatism in the country. Many of Saudi Arabia’s clerics view Western movies and even Arabic films made in Egypt and Lebanon as sinful.

Despite decades of ultraconservative dogma, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sought to ram through a number of major social reforms with support from his father, King Salman.

The crown prince is behind measures such as lifting a ban on women driving next year and bringing back concerts and other forms of entertainment to satiate the desires of the country’s majority young population.

The 32-year-old heir to the throne’s social push is part of his so-called Vision 2030, a blueprint for the country that aims to boost local spending and create jobs amid sustained lower oil prices.

King Faisal was assassinated in 1975 following similar reforms, including allowing television.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Rutgers University labor rights group blamed for ‘xenophobic’ graffiti.

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LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Alabama Senate Race, RUSSIA Update and Much, Much More.

REASON: FBI Handling of Michael Flynn Case Is Disturbing: Why didn’t the FBI charge Flynn with an underlying crime? It might be because there was none.

You could eliminate most special counsel abuses by requiring that “process” charges, like False Statements Act violations, be referred to the regular DOJ for prosecution rather than falling within the special counsel’s bailiwick.

OF COURSE: Turkey’s Erdogan calls Israel a ‘child-murderer’ state.

BUT: Netanyahu Says Israel Will Not Be Lectured to by the Likes of Erdogan.

AND: Erdogan will cut ties with Israel if the US Embassy moves.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the de facto Turko-Israeli alliance was one of the few bright spots in Middle East geopolitics. These days, it’s the de facto Saudi-Israeli alliance.

And it’s no coincidence that the Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince bin Salman is attempting to modernize, while Turkey under Erdogan is regressing into pre-Kemalist thuggery.

THIS IS AWFUL: The Police Murder of Daniel Shaver. “I have seen soldiers deal with al Qaeda terrorists with more professionalism and poise. . . . I know that police have a dangerous job, but they’re not at war. As I noted above, it’s infuriating to see civilian police exercise less discipline than I’ve seen from soldiers in infinitely more dangerous situations. Not one of the men I deployed with would have handled a terrorist detention the way these officers treated American citizens.”

Well, soldiers face the likelihood of discipline if they act badly. This case has gotten some attention, but nothing like the amount it would get if there were a racial angle. But Shaver is just as dead.

CLAIM: After Jerusalem, the US Can No Longer Pretend to Be an Honest Broker of Peace.

Trump has, in effect, adopted wholesale the Israeli position that all of Jerusalem belongs exclusively to Israel, and that all of it—including areas extending far north, south, and east of the city—is Israel’s capital, denying the Palestinians any national or political rights there. He has thereby nailed the United States flag to a position that antagonizes virtually every Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim, and the overwhelming majority of peoples and governments around the world.

There can be—and there should be—no going back to the old formula in place for decades, whereby the United States colluded privately with Israel and the two powers thereafter imposed their will on the Palestinians. That was never the way to achieve a just and lasting peace; it served only to oblige the weaker party to bow to the will of the stronger, which in turn exacerbated and prolonged the conflict.

Even if Rashid Khalidi’s ruthlessly dishonest argument had any merit, it would still matter only if the Palestinian leadership was honestly desiring of peace.

IN NEW YORK, an explosion at Port Authority. Not much else is known, except that there are multiple ambulances.

UPDATE: “Possible pipe bomb.”

MORE: Several Injured As Device Explodes At Port Authority.

STILL MORE: Suspected Bomber In Custody.

MORE STILL: Roundup here including possible surveillance video.

GOOD: Blinded By Her Husband, Muslim Woman Aces Law School And Finds Success At DLA Piper.

BECAUSE REPUBLICANS LITERALLY MURDER ALL ANIMALS TO DEATH: Newsweek Demands to Know Why ‘Mike Pence’s Animals Won’t Stop Dying.’

HMM: Trump admin scraps Obama-era proposal requiring airlines to disclose bag fees.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) posted a notice on the Federal Register this week that it is withdrawing the proposed rule, along with another plan to force air carriers to disclose how much revenue they make from charging other ancillary fees.

The administration, which has made easing regulatory burdens for businesses a top priority, said the rules would have “limited public benefit.”

Airlines are already required to disclose information about optional service fees on their websites. But consumer groups say it’s still difficult for passengers to compare airfare ticket prices, fees and associated rules, and have pushed for more transparency at the start of the process.

Transparency is good for consumers, full stop.

SO PHIL BREDESEN IS RUNNING FOR THE CORKER SEAT IN TENNESSEE. He was a good governor, and I worked with him on a state commission and like him. But he’ll be running against a woman (Marsha Blackburn) in an election cycle where his own party is going to be going all Women Good, Men Bad.. So this doesn’t help: Top Democratic Tennessee Senate candidate Phil Bredesen’s gubernatorial administration was investigated for concealing details of sexual harassment allegations against high ranking political appointees.

Bredesen, who announced his Senate campaign Thursday, came under scrutiny in 2005 after state investigators shredded documents related to sexual harassment allegations brought against high-level administration officials. Bredesen justified the shredding on the basis that it was done to protect the identity of the victims.

The Tennessean, a Nashville-based daily, began investigating the office in 2005 after Bredesen’s senior adviser for legislation and policy, Mack Cooper, was suspended due to a workplace harassment claim. Reporters were unable to unearth any details about the claim because state investigators shredded all of their notes. . . .

Bredesen confirmed that White had in fact been accused one year before his suspension but insisted investigators were unable to corroborate the allegation. He was unable to prove the probe yielded no corroborating evidence because the top investigator shredded her notes and produced no written report detailing the investigation.

Both the AP and The Tennessean conducted investigations and determined that Bredesen’s administration treated sexual harassment claims against political appointees differently than those against low level state employees.

“In a review last year of 602 workplace harassment case files across all levels of state government, the AP reported that documents were shredded only in high-profile cases,” the AP found.

More here: Top Dem in Tennessee Senate Race Has Record of Covering Up Sexual Assault Allegations.

The incidents sparked investigations into whether shredding of documents relating to sexual assault was common throughout state government or whether it was unique to political appointees.

“The governor’s office has become involved in a select number of workplace harassment complaints against top state officials and has put them under a veil of secrecy that does not apply to ordinary state workers, a Tennessean review of case files shows,” the paper wrote in July 2005 after finding that shredding of documents was common for investigations into officials at the level of Cooper and White.

The AP, which conducted its own thorough review of workplace harassment in Bredesen’s office, came to a similar conclusion.

“In a review last year of 602 workplace harassment case files across all levels of state government, the AP reported that documents were shredded only in high-profile cases,” the AP similarly found around the same time.

The Tennessean‘s then editor, Everett J. Mitchell II, slammed Bredesen’s secrecy on high-profile cases, writing in his paper, “How is the public to be assured that the problem has been appropriately and adequately addressed if the public business is done in secrecy?”

Mitchell argued “the shredding of documents raises the specter there was more to it and that there was something to hide.”

More here.

SUBPRIME BLUES: These 10 Charts Reveal An Auto Bubble On The Brink.

U.S. auto sales have hovered well north of replacement rates for several years now on the back of an improving labor environment and more importantly an extremely accommodating financing market characterized by $0 down, 0% interest loans to subprime borrowers, with perpetually longer maturities to help manage monthly payments…because if your monthly payment is $500 you can afford it, right?

But, according to data presented in Experian’s Q3 2017 auto financing market update slides, the auto market may finally be on the brink of running right off the other side of Ford’s proverbial “Plateau.”

The situation doesn’t appear to be as bad as it was in 2007, but the coming correction would be gentler if Detroit could stay away from the channel-stuffing and the subprime borrowers.

RON ROTUNDA ON RECUSAL: Justice Ginsburg has some explaining to do.

The Supreme Court allowed President Trump’s travel ban to go into effect this week, overturning a lower court ruling as a federal appeals court considers the issue. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented and did not disqualify herself from that preliminary decision. Two questions emerge: First, why not? And second, will she disqualify herself if the court takes the case?

We already know what Ginsburg thinks of the president. She told us more than a year ago that she “can’t imagine what the country would be . . . with Donald Trump as our president.” Facing criticism for her apparent endorsement of Hillary Clinton and her attacks on Trump, Ginsburg doubled down, emphasizing in a CNN interview: “He is a faker.” She then went on “point by point, as if presenting a legal brief,” the CNN analyst said.

Her statements are particularly troubling in the context of the travel ban case, in which the crucial issue — at least, according to the lower courts and the plaintiffs — is the personal credibility of Trump and whether he delivered his executive order in good faith — in other words, whether he is faking it. It’s no wonder 58 House Republicans sent Ginsburg a letter calling for her recusal because of her comments before the election.

She doesn’t care, because #Resistance. But, once again, efforts to “denormalize” Trump will instead weaken institutions people want to constrain him with.

IT’S ABOUT TIME: The Air Force is considering a step it has long avoided to ease its deepening pilot shortage.

The Air Force has pursued a number of policies to correct that shortage, including quality-of-life improvements, opening positions for retired pilots, and drawing more active-duty pilots from the National Guard and Reserve. The force also has the option to recall retired pilots, but says it will not avail itself of it.

Now it appears the Air Force is considering a step it has long avoided: training enlisted airmen to be combat aviators.

A new six-month pilot-training program will consist of 15 officers and five enlisted airmen, Maj. Gen. Timothy Leahy, chief of the Second Air Force, told his commanders in a November 30 email, seen by Air Force Times.

Currently, the only Air Force personnel eligible to be pilots are commissioned officers, and achieving officer status requires a four-year college degree.

I know more than one fighter pilot who have left the service or are conserving it after being “demoted” to piloting drones. UAV duty would be a great place for the Air Force to conduct a trial run for NCO pilots, because it could prove good for retention — and maybe even great for morale. Non-coms would get to do something the independent Air Force has never allowed, and “real” pilots wouldn’t get stuck with UAVs.

Besides, it shouldn’t take a captain or a major to fly a steel shack in the Nevada desert.

A MESSAGE TO THE JOURNALISTIC COMMUNITY: “Speaking truth to power involves speaking truth.”

Related:“You don’t write the truth; you write what people say . . . maybe it’s just what you think, what you feel.”