IMPOSSIBLE, I REMEMBER WHEN THE SMARTEST PRESIDENT IN THE WORLD TOLD US WE COULDN’T DRILL OUR WAY OUT OF OUR ENERGY PROBLEMS: Gusher: Feds ID largest energy find ‘ever,’ worth 7 years of fuel.

The Interior Department has identified a massive basin of oil and natural gas in Texas and New Mexico, enough to cover nearly seven years of all U.S. needs.

“Christmas came a few weeks early this year,” said Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in announcing the discovery, which his department described as the “largest continuous oil and gas resource potential ever assessed.”

How much: 46.3 billion barrels of oil, 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 20 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. The U.S. consumes about 7 billion barrels of oil a year.

“Now, I know for a fact that American energy dominance is within our grasp as a nation,” said Zinke, who has bullishly been promoting the tapping of energy on federal lands.

Good for him.

PRESIDENT TRUMP WILL PICK THE NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS: “Trump hinted earlier on Friday that he would be announcing new military leadership on Saturday when he attends the Army-Navy football game.”

ONLY A MONTH AFTER BEING ELECTED, SHE’S ALREADY LEARNED HOW TO ABUSE HER POWER: Ocasio-Cortez Threatens Subpoena in Response to Meme Shared by Trump Jr.

Democratic Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) threatened to use Congress’ subpoena power against Donald Trump Jr. after the president’s son mocked her on social media.

In a Thursday Instagram post, Trump Jr. posted a meme that depicted the democratic socialist Ocasio-Cortez asking President Donald Trump, “Why are you so afraid of a socialist economy?”

“Because Americans want to walk their dogs, not eat them,” Trump responds in the meme, a reference to the extreme food shortages in Venezuela that have reduced residents to eating pets and zoo animals.

Socialists hate mockery, because it’s easy to mock lying idiots. But this kind of threat is specifically forbidden by House Ethics rules. So she’s managed to breach Congressional ethics before being sworn in. She really is precocious!

And here’s the meme she was unhappy about. Spread it around!

MAYBE CONSISTENTLY DOING THINGS VOTERS HATE, THEN TALKING DOWN TO THOSE VOTERS WHEN THEY COMPLAIN, IS A POOR STRATEGY: Macron’s Defeat in Paris Sounds Alarm for Europe.

Less than a month ago, French President Emmanuel Macron staked his claim as the flag-bearer for globalism. In a speech to 60 world leaders at the Arc de Triomphe, he eulogized the United Nations and declared nationalism the “betrayal” of patriotism.

Last Saturday, tear gas and cobblestones flew in the same part of Paris as protesters trashed the iconic monument and demanded Macron’s embattled government withdraw a proposed fuel-tax increase. For the first time in his presidency, he backed down. It was a humbling moment for opponents of the populist revolts that spawned Donald Trump.

The problem is, too much of the political class — and of the business class for that matter — places virtue-signalling for peer approval above actually doing its job. And people have noticed.

SEARCHING FOR the real Beto O’Rourke. For starters, his name is Robert. . . .

Although he said both before and after losing the Senate race in Texas to Ted Cruz that he had no plan to run for office in 2020, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke recently left the door wide open. And now he has met with Obama at his home in Washington. In that context, I sent a list of questions to his press spokeswoman, but never received an answer.

The first question dealt with whether O’Rourke has any Hispanic heritage, or whether, as he is in truth, fourth-generation Irish. As a child living in El Paso, O’Rourke was given the nickname “Beto,” which is a common Hispanic moniker for Roberto, in order to delineate between him and his maternal grandfather, Robert Williams. When O’Rourke attended Columbia in New York he used “Rob,” but his father, then El Paso County Judge Pat O’Rourke, suggested that he once again use “Beto” to increase his chance of winning political office in the heavily Hispanic city of El Paso, which Robert readily agreed to do.

He graduated from Columbia in 1995, and later that month was arrested for burglary at UTEP (the University of Texas El Paso) along with two others. He has previously explained it as a prank from his college years. I asked his spokeswoman if it was true he had already graduated from Columbia and never attended UTEP; what the purpose of the burglary was; what his relationship with Jose Prieto, Jr. and Jacob Barowsky whom he was arrested with was, and where they were located today. I received no response.

Concerning O’Rourke’s 1998 DWI, I asked his spokeswoman why he never admitted the incident also involved a hit and run until the press obtained the arrest reports last August. O’Rourke now claims it was not a hit and run, but I asked the spokeswoman if the arresting officer and a witness who reportedly chased him were lying after O’Rourke, going at an excessive rate of speed, struck a truck on I-10 west of El Paso and ended up on the other side of the Interstate, and then fled. Again no response.

Well, they do call him “Kennedyesque.”

WAS IT OVER WHEN THE GERMANS TWITTER BOMBED PEARL HARBOR? @USSArizona looking into why their ‘account was suddenly restricted’ while tweeting Pearl Harbor ‘as it happened.’

AT AMAZON, save on Snow Removal.

Plus, warm comforters for Winter.

Also: Fleece-Lined Jeans for Men.

A CRI DE COEUR FROM SLATE: I’m So Sorry to Report that Ted Cruz’s New Beard Looks Great: Thoughts on the unwelcome semi-hotness of the Texas senator’s facial hair. He does look good. I wouldn’t have guessed that.

JOURNALISM:

YES, ABSOLUTELY. BUT DON’T EXPECT THE STATE TO AGREE. Does the right to self-defense apply against agents of the state?

LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES: Academic Stabbed to Death for ‘Insulting Mohammed’ During Lecture. “An Irish lecturer was stabbed to death by a student outside the Paris university where he taught on Wednesday for allegedly insulting the prophet Mohammed by displaying a drawing of him during class. John Dowling, 66, was speaking with a student, identified by authorities only as Ali R., following a lecture when the 37-year old student fatally stabbed him 13 times in the throat and chest.”

THE DEATH OF THE MALL: ‘The carousel doesn’t run, the shops are almost all gone, and in the middle sits lonely Santa waiting for children to visit,’ Alissa shared on Facebook.

IF IT WEREN’T FOR DOUBLE STANDARDS, THERE’D BE NO JOURNALISTIC STANDARDS AT ALL:

OPEN THREAD: Have your way with it.

ZUCKERBERG IS AWFUL: 250 pages of internal Facebook files were just dumped online—here are the 6 key takeaways.

Richard Fernandez puts it in context:

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Do Cruciferous Vegetables Really Fight Cancer?

PUNISH THE BLACK MAN MORE! Washington Post Opinion: Kevin Hart hasn’t paid enough ‘penance’ for his bad tweets.

THE WAR ON ROMANCE: Fausta Wertz: Go ahead and Kiss The Girl, if you dare.

UGH: Second-largest Ebola outbreak in history spreads to major Congo city.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Kevin Hart Was Taken Down By White Folks, But It’s Not Racist Because They’re Liberals. 

In case you missed it, a bunch of white people just ganged up on a black guy and got him fired. But it’s okay, they’re not racists, because they’re the good guys and they have good reasons. What they’re doing isn’t whitesplaining, they don’t need to check their privilege and stay in their lane, because their target offended somebody they want to protect.

I can’t figure out whether identity politics makes people stupid, or stupid people are just drawn to identity politics.

Yes.

LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: A mum accidentally bought an inflatable sheep sex doll for her child’s nativity play.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 8 IN AUSTIN, TEXAS: The Humanities Texas Holiday Book Fair. Book signing from 10 AM to 1 PM in the restored Byrne-Reed mansion, 1410 Rio Grande (corner of Rio Grande and West 15th Street). I’ll be signing copies of Cocktails from Hell: 5 Complex Wars Shaping the 21st Century. (bumped)

IT JUST ADDS A LAYER OF ADDICTIVE RITUAL: Smokers Who Roll Their Own Are Less Likely To Quit. Though the study authors give a different explanation: “Roll-your-own smokers were less interested in quitting because of the cheaper cost of their cigarettes, the study found. Only factory-made cigarettes are taxed, the researchers explained.”

Plausible, but I note how much science these days seems to extol the virtues of higher taxes.