USS GEORGE H. W. BUSH HONORS THE 41ST PRESIDENT: A night photo snapped on December 2 while the aircraft carrier was underway in the Atlantic. Sailors with lights form the 41st president’s initials and the number 41. The former president died November 30. As the caption notes, George H. W. Bush flew 58 combat missions as a Navy pilot during World War 2.

YUGE: Trump administration’s Waters of the United States rule gives power back to states.

At issue is the extent of the federal government’s control over our nation’s waters. Under the Clean Water Act, the federal government has jurisdiction over navigable waters — defined as the “waters of the United States.” Federal regulators and the courts have broadened this definition over time, moving from waters a vessel can navigate to ponds and wetlands as well. The definition may seem like a trivial technicality, but it has enormous consequences for land use decisions nationwide.

In 2015, the Obama EPA put forward a definition that further expanded Washington’s reach into privately owned lands. They claimed it was in the interest of water quality. But it was really about power — power in the hands of the federal government over states and landowners. The Missouri Farm Bureau, for example, estimates that bodies of water — from streams to ephemeral drainage ditches — in over 95 percent of the state’s land area could come under the purview of the federal government. The rule was issued in spite of the fact that Missouri, and most other states, already have their own protections for waters within their borders, regardless of whether they are federally regulated as waters of the United States.

More like this, please.

OUT: DIVERSE PROFESSORS. In: Professors of Diversity.

BAD SANTAS: SantaCon revelers trash San Francisco restaurant.

Found via Tim Blair, who writes, “The only way to explain San Francisco is that someone thought it would be fun to assemble a ridiculous concentration of thieving Democrats then stood back to observe the result.”

Analysis: Very, very true.

COMPETITION: Hertz Rolls Out a Faster Airport Exit So You Don’t Hail An Uber.

Available to Gold Plus Rewards members, the service relies on biometrics (fingerprints, iris scans, and facial scans) for its checkout system. To use it, you first need a Clear account with your biometric data contained within, linked to your Gold Plus Rewards account. Grab a car, and your physical identity will be confirmed via facial scan an automated kiosk at the exit gate.

“Prior to the use of Clear, we have an exit gate process that takes two minutes on average,” said Jodi Allen, chief marketing officer at Hertz, told Bloomberg. “As a result of putting Clear in place we’re able to get our customers out the exit gate in 30 seconds or less, which is a 75 percent improvement. On Monday mornings in Atlanta where there are surge customers, making sure we can get people out significantly faster makes everybody’s experience better.”

That’s a real boon for existing rewards customers.

MORE ON NORTH CAROLINA GRADUATE ASSISTANTS’ THREATENED “SILENT SAM” GRADE STRIKE: “The University has received student and parent complaints. Such actions have been interpreted as coercion and an exploitation of the teacher-student relationship and in fact are a violation of students’ First Amendment rights as well as federal law.”

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LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Chuck, Nancy and Donald and Much, Much More.

BUT THE NARRATIVE! Study Finds No Rise In Violent Crime Attributable To Adopting Right-To-Carry Laws.

CULT OF PERSONALITY: Harvard Poll: Obama more influential with Democrats than Trump with GOP.

WE FELT IT: Two earth tremors hit Knoxville area.

HE’S NO TED KENNEDY — BUT HE’S WORKING ON IT: Beto O’Rourke Overtakes Biden As Dem’s Top 2020 Candidate In New Poll. “You can be a failed Senate candidate with not much in the way of accomplishments except a bad rap for stealing land from the poor and trying to flee a drunk driving incident, and STILL be the number one choice for Democrats in 2020.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Harsh but fair:

LIFE AT TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: Complain about a crime and you get this: “If I carried a weapon on campus, I would be fired. When I got the telephone call, I thought perhaps the police were following up on my harassment by a group of teenagers on campus—an incident I wrote about a few weeks ago.”

Plus: “It’s interesting to me that my colleague, Marc Lamont Hill, is clinging to his job at Temple under the provisions of the First Amendment. Others, however, would lose their job if they claimed protection under the Second Amendment.”

CYBERSECURITY: Sen. Warner Warns China, Russia are Accelerating Cyber, Disinformation Capabilities.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said the General Accountability Office “found almost all our new weapons systems are vulnerable” to cyber attacks, he said in a Friday speech at the Center for a New American Security.

“If at the seams we don’t have protections, you have vulnerabilities,” he said. The GAO said even inside the Pentagon’s newest systems, ”DoD’s weapons are more computerized and networked than ever before, so it’s no surprise that there are more opportunities for attacks.”

Outside the Pentagon, the so-called internet-of-things is a growing vulnerability for all sectors of government, he added. Vulnerabilities are multiplying, Warner said, and there is no penalty for not closing gaps or failing to tighten security.

Always left out of these stories is whatever our own cyberoffensive capabilities might be.

THE NEW CHINA SYNDROME: Japan’s military sees record spending.

Japan’s military looks to raise spending over the next five years in response to security challenges and to narrow Japan’s trade surplus with the United States by buying U.S. equipment, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.

The Ministry of Defense looks to spend at least 27 trillion yen ($240 billion) between April 2019 and March 2024, with the spending rising an average 1.1 percent per year, exceeding the 0.8 percent average during the five years ending next March, the report said without identifying its sources.

Currently, payments on equipment and personnel expenses account for 80 percent of defense spending, Nikkei said. Under the plan, funds for new equipment purchases will be separated from these expenses, making it easier to buy equipment from the United States, it added.

Japan aims to have cabinet approval for the spending in mid-December, it said. The Ministry of Defence could not be reached immediately for comment.

Purchases of American-made equipment could help Tokyo ease trade friction with Washington as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes Japan to buy more American goods, including military gear, while threatening to impose tariffs on Japanese auto imports to cut a trade deficit with Tokyo.

If Beijing would rein in Pyongyang and stop with the aggressive moves in the South China Sea, Japanese rearmament wouldn’t be an issue. But having stronger allies and more robust defense sales isn’t a bad second option.

IT’S AS IF ALL HER KAVANAUGH POSTURING WAS JUST AN EFFORT AT DISTRACTION: California Dems Mum on Sen. Harris’s Longtime Aide’s #MeToo Resignation: Dem pols who blasted Kavanaugh keep quiet on Harris aide, allegations against Cardenas.

California Democrats who have strongly supported the #MeToo movement and excoriated Republicans over their handling of decades-old sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh have been notably mum on the resignation last week of a top aide to Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) after news broke he had been sued for “gender harassment.”

Prominent Democrats in the Golden State, along with newly elected Democratic members of the California Congressional delegation, have also remained silent about #MeToo allegations against several other powerful Democrats.

Many of them have also declined to take a position on a lawsuit against Rep. Tony Cardenas (D., Calif.), the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus PAC who has been accused of drugging and molesting a 16-year-old girl in 2007.

The silence on the resignation of the Harris aide and ­Cardenas comes a year after many of the state’s political leaders acknowledged a reckoning when it comes to sexual misconduct in and around Sacramento.

Remember, they don’t actually care. This all just manipulative bullshit.

CHAD FELIX GREENE: The Stigma Against My Conservative Politics Is Worse Than The Stigma Of Being Gay. “Everything I was told to fear about being openly gay has become a reality in being openly conservative.”

Today I look out across the turbulent sea of political discourse and ask, “Why would anyone choose to be a conservative?” To be a conservative means to openly invite others’ hatred into your life and to lose your humanity in the eyes of strangers who view you exclusively through stereotypes and prejudices.

To be a conservative means to be forced to choose when to speak and when to remain silent, since offending someone on the left, even mildly or by accident, is a social battle you may not be able to win. To be a conservative means carefully regulating your speech and constructing opinions in such a way as to avoid being banned from the public square. To be a conservative means to be a marginalized voice, suppressed and dehumanized; bullied into hesitating to speak out.

You might not be interested in the Gleichschaltung, but the Gleichschaltung is interested in you — and conservatives are by and large uninterested in the Gleichschaltung.

YES, THERE IS SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH THEM: Sad Radicals. They are not superior moral voices, but broken people, trying to work out their pathologies at others’ expense.

ROBERT SPENCER: Huffington Post Enraged: UN Pick Heather Nauert Has ‘Relationship’ With Me? “HuffPo offers its usual distortions and hysteria against a Trump nominee.”

THESE PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS: Princeton Singing Group Will No Longer Perform Kiss The Girl From The Little Mermaid After Complaints That It Makes Audiences ‘Uncomfortable.’

This is pandering to a neurotic 5% of the population, if that.

FOR THOSE WHO FIGHT IN THE CULTURAL TRENCHES:  BOOKS-Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization.

IT’S ONLY FAIR:  Let’s Prosecute Google For Illegal Campaign Contributions.

DUH. TANKING THE ECONOMY WORKED 06 TO 08, SO OF COURSE IT’S THEIR PLAN:  Is the Deep State trying to tank the China trade deal, stock market, and economy before 2020?