THE FUTURE IS NOW: Seth McFarland, Social Media, and Communist China.

SELF-DRIVING UBER CAR KILLS ARIZONA PEDESTRIAN: “A woman in Tempe, Ariz., died after being hit by a self-driving car operated by Uber, in what appears to be the first known death of a pedestrian struck by an autonomous vehicle on public roads.”

PRIVACY: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google.

In at least four investigations last year – cases of murder, sexual battery and even possible arson at the massive downtown fire in March 2017 – Raleigh police used search warrants to demand Google accounts not of specific suspects, but from any mobile devices that veered too close to the scene of a crime, according to a WRAL News review of court records. These warrants often prevent the technology giant for months from disclosing information about the searches not just to potential suspects, but to any users swept up in the search.

This comes courtesy of Dave Mark, who adds: “According to this story, and others I’ve read, Google can track your location, even if you take out your SIM card. Amazing.”

I’m not sure “amazing” is the word I’d use.

FALLEN ANGELS IS JUST A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL, RIGHT GUYS? RIGHT? GUYS? Are We Undergoing Global Cooling?

FASTER, PLEASE: The Battery Boost We’ve Been Waiting for Is Only a Few Years Out.

The first commercial consumer devices to have higher-capacity lithium-silicon batteries will likely be announced in the next two years, says Mr. Lam, who expects a wearable to be first. Other companies claim a similar timetable for consumer rollout.

Enevate produces complete silicon-dominant anodes for car manufacturers. CEO Robert Rango says its technology increases the range of electric vehicles by 30% compared with conventional lithium-ion batteries.

BMW plans to incorporate Sila’s silicon anode technology in a plug-in electric vehicle by 2023, says a company spokesman. BMW expects an increase of 10% to 15% in battery-pack capacity in a single leap. While this is the same technology destined for mobile electronics, the higher volumes and higher safety demands of the auto industry mean slower implementation there. In 2017, BMW said it would invest €200 million ($246 million) in its own battery-research center.

Now looks like a great time to wait before buying an electric car.

PLANETARY DEFENSE: Options And Uncertainties.

BLUE WAVE? New Generic Congressional Ballot Poll Shows Dems Regaining Double-Digit Lead. But: “Will party infighting derail the Dems’ chances to take over the House?”

FROM SETH BARRETT TILLMAN, a new filing in the Emoluments Clause suit.

A TROUBLING QUESTION FOR CBS NEWS: What if Trump is right and there is no collusion?

CHANGE: Saudi Crown Prince, in His Own Words: Women Are ‘Absolutely’ Equal. Didn’t all this stuff start after Trump’s Saudi trip?

BIPARTISANSHIP: Public Troubled by ‘Deep State.’

A majority of the American public believe that the U.S. government engages in widespread monitoring of its own citizens and worry that the U.S. government could be invading their own privacy. The Monmouth University Poll also finds a large bipartisan majority who feel that national policy is being manipulated or directed by a “Deep State” of unelected government officials. Americans of color on the center and left and NRA members on the right are among those most worried about the reach of government prying into average citizens’ lives.

Just over half of the public is either very worried (23%) or somewhat worried (30%) about the U.S. government monitoring their activities and invading their privacy. There are no significant partisan differences – 57% of independents, 51% of Republicans, and 50% of Democrats are at least somewhat worried the federal government is monitoring their activities. Another 24% of the American public are not too worried and 22% are not at all worried.

Fully 8-in-10 believe that the U.S. government currently monitors or spies on the activities of American citizens, including a majority (53%) who say this activity is widespread and another 29% who say such monitoring happens but is not widespread. Just 14% say this monitoring does not happen at all. There are no substantial partisan differences in these results.

This breakdown in trust is what happens when power is held by people unworthy of it.

WEIRD HOW WE AREN’T SEEING MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: This Is What Record-Low Unemployment Looks Like in America.

ROGER KIMBALL ON OUR PREENING RULERS: A ‘Higher Loyalty’ to Their Inflated Sense of Virtue.

One of the most interesting details to emerge from the Comey-McCabe Affair is the . . . er, tension between what McCabe has just said about who said what to whom and with what authority and the testimony of Comey before Congress under oath. In his post-firing statement, McCabe said “I chose to share [information about the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server] with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As deputy director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter” (my emphasis).

But as Jonathan Turley reports at The Hill, “If the ‘interaction’ means leaking the information, then McCabe’s statement would seem to directly contradict statements Comey made in a May 2017 congressional hearing.”

Stay tuned.

SOD OFF, SWAMPY: Experts Say We Should Tax Meat Eaters the Same Way We Tax Smokers.

FROM MY COLLEAGUE MICHAEL HIGDON, WHO HAS SPENT A LOT OF TIME THINKING ABOUT PATERNITY: Biological Citizenship and the Children of Same-Sex Marriage.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. No one can pretend Facebook is just harmless fun any more.

Even if we want to avoid the site and keep our data protected, it’s not as easy as one might think. According to Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook, the company uses techniques found in propaganda and casino gambling to foster psychological addiction in its users – such as constant notifications and variable rewards. By keeping us hooked, Facebook is able to hold a huge amount of data on us. What is surprising, and worrying, is the derived data Facebook has – the profiles it can build of its users based on seemingly innocuous information. The author of the book Networks of Control, Wolfie Christl, noted that a patent published by Facebook works out people’s commute times by using location data from mobile apps. It then uses this and other data to segregate users into social classes.

Facebook’s massive data cache goes hand in hand with its acquisition of competitors. Nick Srnicek, author of Platform Capitalism, says, “Facebook is acting like a classic monopoly: it’s buying up competitors like Instagram, it’s blatantly copying rivals like Snapchat, and it even has its own app, Onavo, that acts to warn them of potential threats. All of this is combined with an unchecked sweeping up of our data that’s being used to build an impervious moat around its business.”

Anti-Facebook sentiment seems to have gone viral.

THESE AUSTIN BOMBINGS are escalating. Bomb designs are sophisticated, from a “serial bomber.”

I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING: Walmart Applies for Patent to Develop Drone Bees.

MAGGIE HABERMAN: Newly Emboldened, Trump Says What He Really Feels.

For months, President Trump’s legal advisers implored him to avoid so much as mentioning the name of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, in his tweets, and to do nothing to provoke him or suggest his investigation is not proper.

Ignoring that advice over the weekend was the decision of a president who ultimately trusts only his own instincts, and now believes he has settled into the job enough to rely on them rather than the people who advise him.

A dozen people close to Mr. Trump or the White House, including current and former aides and longtime friends, described him as newly emboldened to say what he really feels and to ignore the cautions of those around him.

That self-confidence has led to a series of surprising comments and actions that have pushed the Trump presidency in an ever more tumultuous direction.

Yes, up until now reticence has been Trump’s defining characteristic.

HOW THE #METOO MOVEMENT IS BACKFIRING ON CAMPUS:

Rape hoaxes like what took place at the University of Virginia, Duke, and Columbia, added fuel to the fire and amplified the debate on whether campus sexual assault cases should rely solely on due process or if campus authorities can act without ample evidence. In many circles, it is thought that sexual assault accusers should be readily believed, even if all the facts aren’t yet presented. However, two recent cases have shed light on the dangers of jumping to conclusions.

Last December, a student activist at Middlebury College published a “List of Men to Avoid” in the campus newspaper. It brandished individuals as “physically /emotionally abusive,” “physically violent,” and even as a “rapist.” Elizabeth Dunn, the student author, “evidently took no steps to verify any of the claims she posted,” according to one of the men accused as a rapist.

While Dunn, the author of the list, lacked any compelling evidence, many students at Middlebury jumped to conclusions. The fallout from the published piece was brutal for the students accused. One individual, who insists all his sexual encounters were consensual, penned a letter for The College Fix, explaining the social and psychological setbacks he experienced. He lost friends and has sought professional counseling. He’s even had suicidal thoughts.

Dunn claimed to have been motivated by the #MeToo movement.

A case with additional repercussions took place at Clemson University earlier this year. Sarah Katherine Campbell submitted a fake police report against the Delta Chi fraternity at Clemson, claiming to have been sexually assaulted. When the local sheriff deputies concluded that actions between Campbell and the male she was accusing were consensual, she was arrested for filing a false report. Based upon the investigation and the evidence gathered, it was actually found that Campbell wasn’t the victim at all. Instead, the man she falsely accused was a victim of her wrath.

Despite the due process, Clemson Interfraternity Council suspended all Greek life on campus.

Sounds like a hostile educational environment on account of sex. Let the lawsuits bloom!

DON’T SAY THAT LIKE IT’S A BAD THING: Trump’s pick for secretary of state reportedly set up ‘kill teams’ of commandos at the CIA.

TELFORD: Police Failed to Act While Shahzad Khan Made £2,000 a Night Selling Victims at ‘The Rape House.’

The Pakistani migrant, who died in 2015 aged 61, had targeted girls in the town since 1981, picking up at least one of his victims from under the noses of the authorities outside a police station on a regular basis, the Mirror reports.

“He’d pick me up right outside the police station in Wellington and sometimes police cars would drive past us,” she said.

“They must have realised something was very badly wrong but they never said a word, nor asked me what I was doing with a much older man.”

The scandal — barely covered by national broadcasters, including the publicly-funded BBC, despite being the worst in Britain’s history — saw up to a thousand girls beaten, raped, and even killed in a city of just 170,000, with Khan standing out as one of the most prolific abusers among hundreds of potential rapists.

Diversity is our strength.

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY: From Suffrage to Suppression: Women Now Lead in Anti-Speech Sentiment.