LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Google on the Hill Today and Much, Much More. “It’s time for these tech companies to be treated like a utility or a publishing venue since they are making decisions and curating their content, picking and choosing who can use their services. You don’t see the power company debating whether or not to provide electricity to the Breitbart offices or other perceived political adversaries do you?”

BARRIERS TO ENTRY: Indiana Commission to Examine Bar Exam Cut Score; California Asked to Take ‘Fresh Look’ At Its Exam.

CLAIRE BERLINSKI ON THE PARIS PROTESTERS:

I spent Saturday speaking to the Gilets Jaunes near the Bastille, where I figured I’d have a good vantage point on a traditional protest site. I walked with them as they slowly made their way to the city hall, or Hôtel de Ville. It was obvious from a single glance that these weren’t Parisians, but rural people who couldn’t afford to buy expensive Parisian clothes or get chic haircuts. I instantly understood why Macron rubs them the wrong way. They looked worn out; their hands and faces were lined; they were mainly in late middle-age. They seemed to be decent, respectable, weary people who had worked hard all their lives, paid their taxes, and played by the rules.

They couldn’t have seemed less disposed to violence, nor more apolitical. They were respectful of the police, and vice-versa. As cops drove by, relaxed, the Gilets Jaunes smiled at them, like kids excited about their first trip to the big city, waved at the officers, and gave them the thumbs-up. The cops reciprocated. The sentiment was fraternal. “We’re all weary, overtaxed working men,” they were saying to each other. “We’re on the same side.”

I concluded they were just what they were advertised to be: family men and women who couldn’t make ends meet and who were tired of Macron’s attitude. Why this protest, why now, I asked? The fuel tax was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, they said; it made the difference between “able to make ends meet, barely,” and “not able to make ends meet.” It had just been getting steadily worse every year since the economic crisis began. They had run out of hope. . . .

The rioter demographics were surprising. They were mainly aged 30-40, the police reported—a bit old for rioting, you’d think. They were “socially well-inserted” into the movement, but unlike the majority of the protesters, they had come with the goal of breaking and smashing things, rejecting the authority of the state and its symbols as savagely as they could. Of the 378 people taken into custody on Saturday, only 33 were minors. Most were rural men. The security services had drastically underestimated the number of violent protesters who would arrive and where they would be. It was immediately clear that this represented a massive police intelligence failure. The Elysée called a crisis meeting. Reports leaked to the press that the failure to anticipate the size of the violent and radicalized contingent of Gilet Jaunes was of a magnitude that “could lead to a deep reform of the Paris police headquarters,” as one television channel put it.

But read the whole thing.

CHANGE MORE OF THE SAME: Brexit in turmoil as May pulls vote to seek changes to EU divorce. “British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday postponed a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal to seek more concessions but the European Union refused to renegotiate and lawmakers doubted her chances of winning big changes.”

YESTERDAY: European Court of Justice rules UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50 and halt Brexit.

Glenn called it “shenanigans,” but the EU is playing hardball. On the one hand they’re making it impossible for May to get a deal she can sell to Parliament, and on the other they’re giving her an easy way to kill Brexit. I think they’re afraid for the world to see how fragile the EU really is.

THESE PEOPLE ARE PATHETIC: Liberal Media Scream: Together now, networks preach ‘impeachment.’

This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the media jumping on the impeachment bandwagon, with CBS and ABC leading the way, even in their intros.

Displaying identical news judgments, the ABC and CBS evening newscasts on Sunday night offered a matching way to frame the day’s news as both used the very same phrasing for their on-screen teases, with corresponding narration from the anchors: “Impeachable Offenses?”

They were talking impeachment before Trump was even sworn in. His real crime: Beating Hillary, and rubbing the establishment’s noses in how unpopular they are with a lot of Americans. It’s been an extended nervous breakdown ever since.

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT: Federal judge rules Mass. law prohibiting secret audio recording of police, government officials is unconstitutional. “According to the court, the Suffolk DA’s office has opened at least 11 cases involving a felony charge under Mass. General Laws Section 99, including cases where the person being recorded was a police officer. Similarly, the Boston Police Department has applied for criminal complaints against at least nine individuals for secretly recording police performing their duties in public.”

The opinion is here. Note that this case was brought by Project Veritas, which is here performing the First Amendment role once occupied by the ACLU.

See also, A Due Process Right to Record the Police. And, of course, Morgan Manning’s magisterial treatment.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Does the US want a war with Iran over Syria?

BYRON YORK: Sudden shift in get-Trump talk; now it’s campaign finance, not Russia. It’s always got to be something; they’ve been talking about impeachment since before Trump was sworn in.

Thought: When people weaponized libel law in an organized campaign to get their political opponents via state power, the Supreme Court, in New York Times v. Sullivan, found that the First Amendment required expanded protections for speech. Now that we’re seeing the same thing being done with campaign finance law, also by government actors, maybe the Supreme Court needs to find expanded protections for political participation.

GUN CONTROL: Reminder: You Can’t “Buy Back” Something You Never Owned.

MERCY, MERCI: To quell unrest, France’s Macron speeds up tax cuts but vows no U-turn.

In his first national address following two weekends of France’s worst unrest for years, Macron sought to restore calm and struck a humble tone after accusations that his governing style and economic policies were fracturing the country.

But he refused to reinstate a wealth tax and to back down on his reform agenda, which he said would proceed in 2019 with overhauls of pensions, unemployment benefits and public expenditures.

“We will respond to the economic and social urgency with strong measures, by cutting taxes more rapidly, by keeping our spending under control, but not with U-turns,” Macron said in the 13-minute TV address from the Elysee Palace.

Getting no relief is the French middle class, which will have to continue paying for Macron’s schemes and these new benefits.

REMEMBER, IT’S NEVER ACCEPTABLE TO CITE THE ARROGANCE AND INEPTITUDE OF THE POLITICAL CLASS AS A CAUSE FOR ANYTHING: Did Facebook Cause Riots in France?

IT’S ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK? Mueller’s Investigation is Missing One Thing: A Crime.

This week’s Key to Everything is Michael Cohen, the guy who lied out of self-interest for Trump until last week when we learned he is also willing to lie, er, testify against Trump out of self-interest. If you take his most recent statements at face value, the sum is the failed negotiations to build a Trump hotel in Moscow, which went on a few months longer than was originally stated, and that we all knew about already.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York submitted a sentencing memo Friday for Cohen, recommending 42 months in jail. In a separate filing, Mueller made no term recommendation but praised Cohen for his “significant efforts to assist the special counsel’s office.” The memos reveal no new information.

Call it sleazy if you want, but looking into a real estate deal is neither a high crime nor a misdemeanor, even if it’s in Russia. Conspiracy law requires an agreement to commit a crime, not just the media declaiming that “Cohen was communicating directly with the Kremlin!” Talking about meeting Russian persons is not a crime, nor is meeting with them.

The takeaway that this was all about influence shopping by the Russkies falls flat.

We haven’t had a President this firm with Moscow since Reagan, which makes Trump the worst influence buy ever.

JULIE KELLY: Will The Leakers In The Flynn Case Escape Justice? The safer bet is “yes.”

HMM: Mark Meadows Says Serving as Trump’s WH Chief of Staff Would Be ‘Incredible Honor.’ “Is the Freedom Caucus chairman making a bee-line for the White House?”

MAKING SCHOOL LUNCHES GREAT AGAIN: Rolled-back school lunch rules put refined grains, low-fat chocolate milk back on menu. Though there’s nothing beneficial about low-fat milk.

WHEN YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM IS A CHRISTMAS SONG YOUR GRANDMOTHER FOUND AMUSING, PERHAPS YOU SHOULD STOP TRYING TO SHOCK THE STRAIGHTS. MAYBE YOU’RE THE ONE WHO IS SHOCKED AT EVERYTHING:  Baby, It’s Dumb Outside.

LOOK, WHEN IT COMES TO THE UNAFFORDABLE CARE ACT, I JOIN MY ASATRU FRIENDS AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE WAY OF THOR.  WE JUST NEED TO HIT IT WITH A HAMMER:  Trump Administration Undermines Obamacare.

THE ELITES HAVE BEEN CHARGING UP AN ENORMOUS DEBT (NOT JUST FISCAL) AND IT IS COMING DUE. THE PROBLEM IS ALL OF US WILL HAVE TO COVER THE BUTCHER’S BILL:  AMERICAN GOMORRAH™ — Merde Edition.

SPEAKING OF A TRAGIC LACK OF MIRRORS:  Comey Goes Full Trump Bashing In Interview.

SPEAKING OF MIRRORS, DOES SHE OWN ONE.  OR IS SHE TOO STUPID TO RECOGNIZE HER OWN REFLECTION?  Trump is a Despicable Character: Says Maxine Waters.

LOOKING INTO A FUNHOUSE MIRROR, AGAIN?  Bibles! Guns!! FOX!!! DNC Chair explains Republicans.

AND THAT’S BESIDES THE FACT THAT THE NEXT TIME IT WORKS, IT WILL BE THE FIRST ONE:  Reminder: You Can’t “Buy Back” Something You Never Owned.

DUH:  Why Illegal Immigration IS a Crime.