SCENES FROM A FAILING STATE: Mexico gunbattle near Texas border between suspected cartel members, police leaves at least 21 dead.

PRIVACY: Now even the FBI is warning about your smart TV’s security. “Beyond the risk that your TV manufacturer and app developers may be listening and watching you, that television can also be a gateway for hackers to come into your home. A bad cyber actor may not be able to access your locked-down computer directly, but it is possible that your unsecured TV can give him or her an easy way in the backdoor through your router.”

ADD ONE OR TWO MORE ZEROES: Canadian woman arrested for not holding escalator handrail awarded $20G in damages.

COLD WAR II: Suspected Internet Cable Spy Ship Operating In Americas For Over A Month.

Russia’s controversial intelligence ship Yantar has been operating in the Caribbean, or mid-Atlantic, since October. She is suspected by Western navies of being involved in operations on undersea communications cables. Significantly, she appears to be avoiding broadcasting her position via AIS (Automated Identification System).

I suspect that going dark on AIS is a deliberate measure to frustrate efforts to analyse her mission. She has briefly used AIS while making port calls, where it would be expected by local authorities, for example while calling at Trinidad on November 8 and again on November 28. However in both cases she disappeared from AIS tracking sites almost as soon as she left port. Based on the exact locations where she disappeared, she likely turned it off. We can see this because other ships, which were much further away, were being picked up by the same AIS station. Another possibility is that her AIS transponder is operating with an unusually low power output. It amounts to the same thing. She also has a satellite AIS system, which we can be sure has been switched off.

With all the tracking turned off, I hope the Navy is providing a fulltime escort, just to keep her safe from a collision.

DON’T GET COCKY: Heartland Poll Shows Voters Decisively Reject Socialism and Socialist Candidates.

EVERYTHING IS PROBLEMATICAL: Hallmark Channel Under Assault by Race Hustlers and LGBTQ Cult, ‘Too White.’

THEY ALSO PASSED A ORDNANCE AGAINST UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, SO THIS SHOULD ALL WORK OUT A-OK: Denver approves a minimum wage that will rise to nearly $16 an hour in 2022.

FLAILING: General election 2019: Labour to change strategy with two weeks to go.

KIRA DAVIS’ UNSOLICITED ADVICE: Just Suck It up and Pray at the Thanksgiving Table. “It really isn’t too much to ask that you respect a family tradition that may last a minute, tops. You don’t even have to say ‘Amen.’ It isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that you simply quietly bow your head, mock everyone in your mind and then when they’re through move on with your evening and enjoy your dinner.”

IT’S FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY: Don’t Cry Over Spilled Meth.

HISTORY: 72 Years Ago Today, The UN Partitioned Palestine Creating Jewish And Arab States.

CHANGE: Iraq’s prime minister says he will submit his official resignation to Parliament following day of bloodshed.

SOCIALIZED MEDICINE: Locked up naked on a soiled mattress: Venezuela’s mental health nightmare.

LARRY ELDER: If Trump Is ‘Racist’ for Questioning Waters’ IQ, What Is Waters for Questioning Ben Carson?

WHERE ARE THE EXPLODING HEADS? Barack Obama Started the ‘Fake University’ ICE Sting Liberals Are so Outraged About.

AGING (OR LACK THEREOF): 104-year-old Wisconsin woman bagged buck during 1st hunt.

LOOK, WHEN YOU HAVE SOME SOLDIERS AND ARTILLERY AND A TARGET, STUFF’S GONNA HAPPEN: Why the Is Army Practicing Killing Ships with Artillery?

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Food Coma Friday Roundup. “President Trump has an extraordinary devotion to American troops. It is easy to see in his face in every interaction with them. He may come off as a cold New Yorker most of the time, but he has nothing but unrestrained love for those who put their lives on the line to defend liberty.”

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: A convicted German murderer won the right to have all mention of his crime scrubbed from internet search results under ‘right to be forgotten’ laws.

‘MERICA: That time Benjamin Franklin tried (and failed) to electrocute a turkey.

YES: Venezuela Proves That Socialism Eventually Kills Even Wealthy Economies.

ANOTHER TRUMP INITIATIVE SCOFFED AT BY THE EUROPEANS IS BEING ADOPTED BY THE EUROPEANS: Europe’s Backlash Against Huawei Has Arrived.

LOVELY: Trump Makes Surprise Thanksgiving Visit to Afghanistan.

START OFF YOUR HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON RIGHT: Your VodkaPundit Holiday Cocktail Guide.

If for nothing else, you’ll want to click over for Scott’s Ancho Chili Manhattan.

UPDATE: Link was bad before, so I bumped this back up.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: ‘Gobble This!’ Edition. “A genuinely brief Briefing today, as the last thing any of us need is a political hot take interfering with a righteous food coma. The feast I’m going to is going to have a fried turkey and a smoked turkey, so I will probably be passing on the side dishes and focusing my taste buds on just the birds.”

Gravy. Don’t forget the gravy.