NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN AND NEW MOTHERS: Russia’s population woes continue.

So far in 2018 for every hundred births there were 120 deaths. Even worse the number of births was down four percent compared to the same period in 2017. Similarly deaths were up nearly two percent.

Read the whole post.

HIPSTER BLUES: A Major Beer Battle Is Brewing and it Could Mean the End of PBR.

Pabst’s attorneys have said in court documents and hearings that MillerCoors LLC is lying about its brewing capacity to break away from Pabst and capture its share of the cheap beer market by disrupting Pabst’s ability to compete. At a March hearing in which MillerCoors tried to have the lawsuit dismissed, Pabst attorney Adam Paris said “stunning documents” obtained from MillerCoors show that it went as far as hiring a consultant to “figure out ways to get rid of us.” MillerCoors has called that a mischaracterization of the consultant’s work.

The 1999 agreement between MillerCoors and Pabst, which was founded in Milwaukee in 1844 but is now headquartered in Los Angeles, expires in 2020 but provides for two possible five-year extensions. The companies dispute how the extensions should be negotiated: MillerCoors argues that it has sole discretion to determine whether it can continue brewing for Pabst, whereas Pabst says the companies must work “in good faith” to find a solution if Pabst wants to extend the agreement but MillerCoors lacks the capacity.

Pabst needs 4 million to 4.5 million barrels brewed annually and claims MillerCoors is its only option. It is seeking more than $400 million in damages and for MillerCoors to be ordered to honor its contract.

Years ago the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Globe-Democrat had a similar arrangement, where they ran (and profited from) the same want-ads, and shared a printing facility owned by the Post. When the Post let the agreement lapse, things didn’t go well for the Globe, which folded not long after.

No matter what the short-term benefits might be, it’s rarely a wise business decision to trust a competitor with vital assets.

EXODUS: Chilean Air Force to Retrieve Hundreds From Venezuela in Crisis.

CAN WE GET A VACCINE FOR THIS, PLEASE? Robo-calls are at ‘epidemic levels’ this season of health open-enrollments.

DO TELL: ‘Emergency Voting’ Centers Opened by Dem Recorder Raise Questions. It’s always an emergency when Democrats aren’t getting enough votes.

HOUSE OF CARDS: Forget the trade war, China’s economy has other big problems.

The Chinese economy expanded rapidly in the years after the global financial crisis thanks to repeated debt binges.

“China’s growth has been highly credit intensive,” said Gerard Burg, Sydney-based senior economist at National Australia Bank. The total amount of debt in the Chinese financial system is now several times the size of the entire economy.

Some of this money has gone into building bridges, road and other infrastructure. But a lot has ended up in less productive parts of the economy, such as big, inefficient state-run companies. The more dynamic private sector hasn’t benefited as much.

Late last year, Beijing stepped up its efforts to rein in the high levels of debt, which is one of the main reasons the economy is now losing momentum.

Some analysts are skeptical about the Chinese government’s commitment to cleaning up its financial system, especially as the slowdown deepens and the trade war intensifies.

One party rule can’t afford a lot of transparency, but a modern economy demands it.

Plus: Beijing is burning through its foreign reserves to prop up the yuan and prevent a currency outflow crisis, and the country is undergoing a real estate bubble.

Eventually, something’s gotta give.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: House Democrats plan aggressive gun control effort next year.

Gun control proponents are buoyed by the takeover of the House. Democrats ousted at least 15 House Republicans who had an “A” rating with the National Rifle Association with candidates who received an “F” rating, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., told the Journal on Friday that he plans to introduce legislation that will mandate universal background checks. Thompson is chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.

Among the incoming Democrats is Lucy McBath, who defeated Rep. Karen Handel, R-Ga. She was a former spokeswoman for the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety backed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The group spent $38 million during the 2018 election cycle, compared to the NRA, which spent $20 million.

I’m pretty sure this is how you get more Trump, but how about a few less anti-gun nuts in Congress?

DIPLOMACY: Trump Wields His Energy Weapon.

The tip of the spear when it comes to President Trump’s diplomacy is not the tongue of the diplomat, but the power of the pipeline.

The United States is now the world’s No. 1 producer of oil and natural gas, eating away at Washington’s past dependence on foreign producers and oil cartels. And that means the influence of petrostates like Iran and Russia and autocracies around the world.

Trump calls it “energy dominance,” and the freedom it provides has undergirded many of the president’s decisions, from moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem to re-imposing sanctions on Iran, according to administration sources.

“It allows us to impose these sanctions and not upset the world oil market very much,” said Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette. “It’s a fundamentally different posture to be in, in regard to our foreign policy. … It just gives us leverage.”

In negotiations with European, Chinese, and other world leaders, the president has made energy a central theme. Earlier this year, Trump even taunted NATO members at a summit in Brussels, calling them “captives” to Russian energy.

Above all, the comment was aimed at Germany, which is working with the Russian state-run energy firm Gazprom to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

I remember when The Smartest President Ever told us that we couldn’t drill our way out of depending on our enemies for energy.

THE PEOPLE’S PARTY: These Wealthy Neighborhoods Delivered Democrats the House.

CHANGE? D’Souza Suggests ‘Detoxified’ Post-Election Rhetoric from Trump, GOP. “Says it’s ‘very important for Trump to make a powerful speech in favor of legal immigrants and spell out what legal immigrants have done for this country’.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Chicago Expelled a Male Student 4 Days Before Graduation Because His Ex Made a Dubious Sexual Violence Claim. He’s suing the school, and the accuser, and good.

A former student who was expelled for sexual misconduct just four days before graduating is suing the University of Chicago for allegedly violating his due process rights.

He has also sued his accuser—his ex-girlfriend—which is a rare step for those seeking justice in such cases. Most lawsuits born of shoddy campus sexual misconduct adjudication solely target the institution.

That the accused student, “John Doe,” has chosen to sue his accuser, “Jane Roe,” is indicative of the serious, malicious actions he ascribes to her. According to Doe’s lawsuit, their relationship was entirely consensual, and Roe did not dispute that. After they broke up, they continued to have sex, and those encounters were all consensual as well. Roe did not allege wrongdoing until her friends—to whom she had trash-talked Doe, and promised to stop seeing her ex—discovered she was still sleeping with him. She then claimed Doe had engaged in nonconsensual sex with her after she had passed out.

“UC expelled [John Doe] despite overwhelming evidence that Jane Roe fabricated her story because she was too embarrassed to admit to her friends at UC that she was engaged in a secret sexual relationship with her ex-boyfriend,” wrote Doe’s lawyers in his lawsuit.

Cost of attending the University of Chicago: $75,735 per year. A lot to spend only to be kicked out just before graduation based on unfounded charges.

CULTURE OF INDOCTRINATION: UCLA diversity requirement threatens academic freedom, trust in academia.

If you’re going to turn universities into super-PACs for the Democratic Party — or the Democratic Socialists of America — then don’t scream “anti-intellectualism” when taxpayers get tired of subsidizing them.

“U DIDN’T STOP ISIS. YOU SENT JAMES TAYLOR. PLUG YOUR KNOTHOLE, CAPTAIN DRIFTWOOD:” John Kerry thought he could out-troll Greg Gutfeld on Veterans Day. Boy, was he wrong!

AT AMAZON, shop the Holiday Toy List.

DURING THE OBAMA ERA I WAS TOLD IT WAS RACIST EVEN TO MENTION THIS: The National Debt Is Coming Due, Just Like We Told You.

Seriously, it’s not that I quit worrying about this, it’s just that I gave up on getting anyone to care enough to do anything.

I THINK IT USED TO BE MORE LIKE 9 OUT OF 10: Nearly 1 in 10 Americans struggles to control sexual urges. “The gap between genders was very small: Just over 10 percent of men showed compulsive sexual behavior, compared to 7 percent of women.”

SERIOUSLY NOW:  The Tragedy of Our Electoral Commons.

OPEN THREAD: Display your erudition.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Non-Elite Universities Launch Medical, Not Law, Schools In Search Of Future Financial Stability.

MAD GENIUS: THE REASON MAGAZINE FOUNDING STORY. “Upon [Lanny] Friedlander’s death in 2011, Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of the magazine from 2000 through 2007, wrote that in the absence of any information, he had ‘started thinking of Lanny as libertarianism’s answer to Syd Barrett, the mad genius founder of Pink Floyd who got something great started and then couldn’t or wouldn’t live in the world he did so much to create.’”

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Crazy in love? The Japanese man ‘married’ to a hologram.

SAD! Martha McSally concedes Arizona Senate election to Kyrsten Sinema.

IT’S AN IDEA SO CRAZY, IT JUST MIGHT WORK: The Way to End Our Cold Civil War? Get Back to Less Government.

As Charles C.W. Cooke asked the left in mid-2016: “Has Donald Trump’s remarkable rise done anything to change your mind as to the ideal strength of the State?”

LEFTY LARPING: Lonely Mobs Lift Their Spirits By Fighting Fantasy Nazis.