CHANGE: Fiat Chrysler Agrees Binding Merger With Peugeot Maker to Create $50 Billion Auto Giant.

The two companies said Wednesday they had signed a combination agreement fixing the financial terms of the deal and the corporate governance structure of the combined group. The move marks an important step in solidifying a merger that was announced in October. The tie-up aims to create a $50 billion auto giant that would rank among the world’s largest car companies by sales.

The deal comes at a time of mounting cost pressures in the global car business, with auto companies investing billions in new technologies, such as electric cars, as demand for cars and trucks in the top auto markets weakens.

Among the terms added over the past several weeks were agreements that China’s state-run Dongfeng Motor Group Co. would sell part of its 12.2% stake in PSA back to the French car maker and that Fiat Chrysler would spin off its Comau division after the deal.

The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported that both companies’ boards had backed the agreement and the new deal terms that were added in recent weeks.

The transaction—expected to close in the next 12 to 15 months—will create a car maker selling 8.7 million vehicles a year with revenues of nearly €170 billion ($189 billion), the companies said. The merger won’t result in any plant closures and will lead to annual cost savings of some €3.7 billion euros a year, they added. The merged company’s name is so far undecided.

I wonder if this means they’ll try bringing Peugeot models back to the US again — maybe rebadged as Chryslers, since their line-up consists of one aged sedan and a minivan.

AN OBSERVATION AFTER READING GLENN’S POST: “Newly Released Eric Holder Memo: Feds Can Use FISA to Spy on Journalists.”

From experience, I can just hear the voices in DC newsrooms:
“That was so three years ago. Obama is not President anymore, let it go. Oh, how are we doing on that story about Trump’s grandfather being all in for the Kaiser?”

I’M CALLING THIS A WIN FOR TRUMP: Judge Tosses Paul Manafort’s Fraud Case In New York. Though DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. plans to appeal.

AT AMAZON: Gerber Paraframe Mini Knife, Fine Edge, Stainless Steel.

UNITED NATIONS: UN peacekeepers in Haiti ‘fathered hundreds of babies’ then abandoned mothers. “Ten Haitian women are taking groundbreaking legal action against the UN to establish paternity and make child support claims.

WHY WOULD THEY? IT’S BEEN DOING THEIR DIRTY WORK FAITHFULLY, IF NOT WELL. Howie Carr: Unhinged Democrats should probe FBI. “The Inspector General’s report — it’s worse than you’ve been told. A few years ago, you would have said that this sort of top-to-bottom corruption, even in the ethical cesspool that is the FBI, was beyond belief. But now it’s all too believable. The FBI has become the secret police of the Democrat party, their KGB, their Stasi. That’s my grievance on this Festivus, and it should be yours, too. We’re paying for an American Gestapo to railroad people like us into prison, on behalf of crooked Democrats. . . . Trump is being “impeached” for asking about corruption, while the people who actually were corrupt — a befuddled old hack and his crackhead son — cannot be questioned about their Quid Pro Joe.”

FORGOTTEN, MEMORYHOLED, WHATEVER: Operation Fast and Furious: The Forgotten History of the ATF’s Notorious Gunwalking Scandal. “It’s one of many scandals of the Obama Administration that was never given as much press attention as, for example, Russia buying Facebook ads about NoFap and Pizzagate. Given that the guns run by the ATF were allowed to kill hundreds and that subsequent Congressional investigations resulted in Eric Holder, President Obama’s Attorney General, becoming the first sitting cabinet member to be held in criminal contempt of Congress ever, this is shocking. At least for anyone still under the illusion that the establishment media is a fair and impartial source of information.”

MAKING LAW SCHOOL CHEAPER IS SUGGESTION NUMBER ONE – Fixing Law Schools spends a lot of time detailing the unconscionable run up in law school tuition and student debt over the last few decades and some ideas for how to reverse the trend. Paul Caron reports that Memphis Law School has cut its out-of-state tuition by 25% to $24,000, which is a nice step in the right direction by Glenn and my sister public law school across the state.

LIFE IS HARD. IT’S HARDER WHEN YOU’RE STUPID. Democrat Behind Law That Just Got Hundreds Of Writers Fired Says It’s ‘Not All Bad,’ Gets Smacked, Apologizes.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. James Bovard: Comey, the FBI, and FISA: The Debacle is Now Undeniable.

DRUNK DRIVING, PULLING A GUN ON SOMEONE FOR SPILLING TEA: BALTIMORE COPS HAVE UGLY YEAR.

Baltimore’s last Republican mayor left office over 50 years ago. Why are Democrat-monopoly cities such cesspits of government-sanctioned violence?

BLACK PEOPLE “INVADED” LUNCH COUNTERS IN THE SOUTH TOO, UPSETTING PEOPLE WHO WERE THERE: Men are showing up to the Wing and women are pissed.

The Wing was supposed to be the ultimate sanctuary for women: decidedly feminine in design, with walls and furniture in shades of millennial pink and a thermometer set at a women’s-clothing-friendly 72 degrees. Conference rooms and telephone booths are named after feminist icons like Anita Hill and fictional literary heroines such as Hermione Granger of “Harry Potter” fame. It offers perks that other co-working spaces can’t match — showers stocked with high-end beauty products and events featuring big names such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Critics of the Wing were quick to point out the lack of diversity in the spaces, but the company’s expansion and popularity has brought up a completely different issue that was never expected to arise: straight men wanting to come in and hang out.

Sure, it’s not against the rules for men to be at the lady lair, which costs anywhere from $185 to $250 a month in the US to join. But that’s only because legally the company can’t ban men.

“There’s usually at least one [man] whenever I visit,” says Kaitlin Phillips, 29, a member in New York for the past two years. “It’s bizarre to choose to occupy a space women specifically wanted for themselves. Classic patriarchal entitlement complex.”

The problem, multiple members have told The Post, is that the men physically take up too much space with their bigger bodies and belongings.

First of all, how dare you assume their gender? Second, I’ve seen plenty of feminists who take up a lot of room with their “bigger bodies and belongings.” And really, did you think you could have your ban-all-male-spaces rule and still have all female spaces? Yes, yes, of course you did. Classic matriarchal entitlement complex.

HE’S TOO KIND: Mark Levin Blasts FISA Judge Rosemary Collyer: ‘You Chose To Sit On Your Hands!’

THEN ACT LIKE ONE: Lisa Page Complains to Rachel Maddow: ‘This Is Not How Public Servants Should Be Treated.’

UPDATE (Heinlein via Charlie): “In any advanced society, ‘civil servant’ is a euphemism for ‘civil master.’”

NORTH AMERICA’S INFLUENTIAL ENERGY DIPLOMACY

OPERATION CHRISTMAS DROP 2019: A USAF C-130J Super Hercules based at Yokota Air Base, Japan, drops five Low-Cost, Low-Altitude humanitarian aid bundles on to the island of Woleai, Federated States of Micronesia. Photo taken December 10.

NICE: Nikon is now offering a 30-day trial for the Z50 camera with its ‘Yellow Program’ initiative.

I previewed the Z50 here, and I’ve yet to read a bad review of Nikon’s first consumer-focused mirrorless body. Personally, I’m still waiting for prices to come down on their pro-level Z bodies before I switch to mirrorless — if then.

MAYBE THEY REALLY ARE CRAZY: Bedlam in the (Mad) House.

WELL, IT’S THE DEAN OF STUDENTS, WHOSE DEPARTMENT, BASED ON EXPERIENCE ELSEWHERE, PROBABLY HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH GINNING IT UP: Holy Cross dean defends protestors who disrupted Heather Mac Donald lecture.

JOE AND MIKA, MEET THE NEW RULES (Video).

I can’t wait to hear Joe and Mike complain about a cable news channel’s over the top rhetoric.

SO MUCH FOR BEING THE SMARTEST PEOPLE IN THE ROOM:

Nothing beats being laid off just before the Holidays, huh?

EVERGREEN HEADLINES: Lobbyists and interest groups win big in $1.4-trillion federal spending bill.

The numbers keep getting bigger, but the winners never change.

MACRON’S MESS: France on strike: Power cuts, schools shut, no Eiffel Tower. “French union activists cut electricity to nearly 100,000 homes or offices. Eiffel Tower staff walked off the job. Even Paris opera workers joined in Tuesday’s nationwide protests across France, singing an aria of anger as workers rallied against the government’s plan to raise the retirement age to 64. Despite 13 days of crippling train and subway strikes, French President Emmanuel Macron and his government stayed firm.”

On the one hand, Macron’s actually right here. 64 is laughably low, but that’s the upward revision. On the other, man, France is really a mess under him.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Spongebob, Tom Brady, & cow ‘rape’: The 5 most insane academic works of 2019.