21ST CENTURY CRIME: It took seven miles to pull over a Tesla with a seemingly asleep driver.

The situation is a bit of a puzzle because Autopilot is supposed to detect if a driver’s hands are on the wheel and disengage if they’re not. Tesla has steadily tightened up these rules, with recent revisions of the software warning drivers in as little as 30 seconds. So if the driver did fall asleep at the wheel the car should have started slowing down on its own within a few minutes.

In a similar case back in January, police encountered a man asleep behind the wheel of a Tesla car on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. When police woke him up, he insisted that everything was fine because his vehicle was “on autopilot.” Unfortunately for him, there’s no autopilot exception to drunk-driving laws.

That’s what Uber is for.

CHANGE? With Pro-Pot Democrat in Governor’s Mansion, Minnesota Could Be Next to Legalize Weed. “Republicans will have something to say, too. And the Minnesota Legislature will be split between the two parties in 2019.”

ORBAN’S GETTING SERIOUS: University founded by George Soros says it has been kicked out of Hungary.

There’s a lot of scare language in this Los Angeles Times report, but the truth is that Soros has rarely been a friend of existing institutions in almost any country where he performs his philanthropy. That he’s finally receiving some pushback should come as no surprise.

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES-SAN: Meet South Korea’s Shiny New ‘Aircraft Carrier.’

Large amphibious assault ships like the Dokdo -class are sometimes referred to as “aircraft carriers in disguise.” This is certainly apt in the case of Japan’s Izumo-class helicopter destroyers. Those ships are roughly 250 meters (820 feet) long and displace 24,000 tons. The Izumos are about 50 percent bigger (in terms of displacement) than Japan’s previously largest ship, the Hyuga-class helicopter destroyer. Others have pointed out that the ships are actually larger than Spain and Italy’s short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft carriers.

While the Dokdos are not quite as big as the Izumos, they might also be considered an aircraft carrier in disguise. That’s because a few months back reports emerged that South Korea is thinking of refitting the vessels to be able to carry the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter.

Back in the bad old days of the Cold War, we used to call meaningful procurements by our allies “burden-sharing.” It’s good to see Tokyo and Seoul both getting serious about it — and if China doesn’t like it (Spoiler: They don’t), well, they have no one to blame but themselves.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: GHWB Funeral Not to Be Anti-Trump Rally and Much, Much More. “I was not a Bush fan, either one of ’em, but the man was President of the United States, he was a veteran, he served his country, hopefully his family and the media harpies can focus on him at his funeral.”

That would be nice.

POLITICO: Trump names hardliner Lighthizer to be ‘vigilant’ in China talks.

Megan Cassella and Caitlyn Prysko’s use of scare quotes around “stealing” is almost comical, given Communist China’s history of doing just that. But maybe they’re just 27 and literally know nothing:

Lighthizer will work in concert with other top administration officials to demand changes to address a litany of complaints that the U.S. has about China’s practices. The White House has accused China of “stealing” corporate trade secrets and technology, and earlier this year, the administration had produced a list of roughly 142 demands they wanted Beijing to address.

Lighthizer’s reputation as a hardened negotiator might help accomplish some of Trump’s goals. Two weeks ago, Lighthizer and his office released an update to a March report slamming China, saying the country has done little to improve the problems that the Trump administration has pointed to as a way of justifying U.S. tariffs.

It’s weird how you never see the MSM-DNC refer to Democratic appointees as “softliners” or “hard left.”

HMM: The US might end up tolerating India’s $5 billion deal for Russian missile systems.

India’s purchase of the Kremlin’s S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile system is subject to potential U.S. sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, a measure that was signed by President Donald Trump in 2017.

The deal and possible sanctions could come up this week, when India’s defense minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, holds talks with Defense Secretary James Mattis. The U.S. Defense chief stressed on Monday that this wouldn’t be the first time India has purchased weapons from the Kremlin.

“India has been spent many, many years in its nonaligned status, and it’s drawn a lot of weapons from Russia,” Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon ahead of Sitharaman’s arrival Monday. She is slated to leave Washington on Tuesday.

“We are here today to talk about all the issues that bring us closer together and we’ll sort out all those issues here today and in the days ahead,” he added, when asked about India’s S-400 purchase.

India does have a long history of buying Soviet/Russian hardware — although you’d think they’d have learned better by now.

That said, India isn’t likely to bolt for some new Moscow-led bloc, and we need them as a counterbalance to China. So as long as they aren’t expecting to buy any F-35s from us in the future, they should probably get their waiver.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: There’s No ‘Obvious Candidate’ Who Could Beat Trump In 2020. “You need someone who can speak some of the same language [as Trump] … and the Democrats don’t have an obvious, effective presidential candidate.”

It will be fun watching the many, many candidates try out variations on Trumpism in Iowa next year.

SOCIALIST THUGS DECREE A LOT OF THINGS: Maduro Orders Price of Venezuela’s ‘Cryptocurrency’ to More Than Double.

Following Maduro’s Thursday announcement, Venezuelan economist Leonardo Buniak explained that the petro “was worth 3,600 Bs.s because the Dicom dollar cost 60 and the oil cost 60,” Atodomomento publication reported. He added, “now a petro is decreed at 9,000 Bs.s … you have just devalued the sovereign bolivar with respect to the petro and by more than 100%.”

Buniak also asserted that “the petro cannot be called a cryptocurrency because the value was given by President Maduro and not the interaction between supply and demand,” the publication conveyed.

Furthermore, the wallet for the petro is still unavailable. The links to download them for Windows and Linux still pop up the message: “This wallet will soon be available for your operating system.” In addition, Tarek El Aissami, the country’s economic minister and former vice president, previously explained that Google has removed the Android app for the petro wallet from the Google Play store.

So the petro is a cryptocurrency you can’t mine, backed by oil Venezuela can’t recover, to bolster an economy which has already basically ceased to exist.

As I said, socialist thugs decree a lot of things, but what they plan and what takes place ain’t ever exactly been similar.

DAVID CATRON: The left’s nauseating love affair with “Beto.”

Part of O’Rourke’s popularity is due, of course, to the amount of sycophantic media coverage he has received pursuant to his failed bid to unseat Senator Ted Cruz. The volume and tone of this coverage should not be contemplated during or immediately after eating. Politico, for example, just published a lengthy piece comparing Beto to Abraham Lincoln. I’m not kidding. And Politico is by no means the only publication to do so. In fact, O’Rourke has himself suggested a none-too-subtle connection between his own career and that of the Great Emancipator. Three weeks ago he published a solipsistic blog post about a morning run, which took him (Surprise!) to the Lincoln Memorial:

I walked over to the north wall and read Lincoln’s second inaugural address. My body warm, blood flowing through me, moving my legs as I read, the words so present in a way that I can’t describe or explain.… Picked up my run as I headed due East, now on the south side of the reflecting pool. Snow in my face, the flakes smaller, more biting now, maybe sleet. It had changed. My knee no longer hurt.… I wondered if the winds had changed too.

You can’t say you weren’t warned if you are now wiping vomit from your screen. It goes without saying that O’Rourke’s self-indulgent verbal slush fails to note that the inaugural address which so moved him would never have been delivered if Lincoln hadn’t defeated his northern Democratic opponent in 1864. The ability to recognize such irony requires the kind of intellectual subtlety with which Lincoln was so generously endowed and which neither nature nor education has provided Beto. Such subtlety has also been cruelly withheld from his media boosters as well as his star-struck supporters, who actually believe he has Lincoln’s greatness plus Barack Obama’s voter appeal.

Yes, but he would make an excellent president because he has such large teeth, says the Party of Science.

TONI AIRAKSINEN: Pitzer College Professors Vote to End School’s Partnership With the University of Haifa. “A despicable effort to impose their hateful anti-Semitic agenda.”

Somewhat related flashback: Every Time You Wish Someone ‘Happy Hanukkah’ You Acknowledge The Historic Jewish Claim On Jerusalem.

Happy Hanukkah.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER WHIP: British Dominatrix Serves Only White, Right-Wing Clientele to Convert Them to Socialism.

TODD BENSMAN: When Terrorists Learned ‘Lawfare’ Works: The Holy Land Foundation Trial’s 10-Year Anniversary.

PROFILES IN SANITY: Dutch Court Rules 69-Year-Old Man Can’t Legally Declare Himself 20 Years Younger.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What did President Trump know, and when did he know it, regarding Melania’s red Christmas trees?

SECDEF MATTIS: Cutting defense will not help deficit.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis on Saturday threw his weight behind an op-ed from two top Republicans calling for greater funding for the Defense Department — and lining himself against Trump administration guidance to cut fiscal year 2020 defense spending.

“Fiscal solvency and strategic solvency can co-exist,” Mattis said at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

In a Friday Wall Street Journal editorial titled “Don’t cut military spending, Mr. President,” Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Calif., and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., warned that a smaller defense budget won’t have a major impact on fixing the national deficit, but would have painful repercussions on military equipment and end strength.

“Our top priority is the troops,” the pair wrote. “Any cut in the defense budget would be a senseless step backward.”

There’s nothing more expensive than a second-best military, the wise man once said.

UPDATE: U.S. 5th Fleet Commander Found Dead in Bahrain.

While an investigation is ongoing, the death of Stearney will almost certainly be ruled a suicide, a U.S. defense official told USNI News. An official determination on the cause of death is expected by mid-week, USNI News has learned.

A Navy spokesperson didn’t have additional information on the investigation when contacted by USNI News on Saturday.

“The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Bahraini Ministry of Interior are cooperating on the investigation, but at this time no foul play is suspected,” read a statement from Richardson.

RIP.

NUCLEAR SABER-RATTLING: Putin’s Plan to Send Russians to Heaven.

Nuclear threats are central to Russia’s strategy for dealing with the West and are sometimes made over trivial issues. Noted Russia expert Dr. Stephen Blank has pointed out that, “When 300 marines came to Norway to help Norway defend its coastline in the Arctic, they [Russia] made nuclear threats against Norway also. This is what they do, because it’s the only way they can intimidate people and force them to take Russia at Russia’s own self-evaluation.”[7] Notably, the recent Russian threats concerning responses to U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty were made during a period in which Russia was trying to downplay nuclear threats as part of a strategy aimed at ending sanctions, terminating the increase in NATO military budgets and ending NATO military exercises directed against a Russian invasion. However, Russia just can’t stop making them. As Alexei Arbatov, former Duma Vice Chairman of the Duma Defense Committee and head of the International Security Center within the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Major General (ret.) Vladimir Dvorkin and Petr Topychkanov stated in November 2017, there is “a visceral assumption among contemporary Russian strategists that the decision to use force—including nuclear weapons—would be a rational step.”[8]

Today, President Putin not only threatens to kill his enemies with nuclear weapons but asserts that he is doing so in a way that results in their eternal damnation.

This would be a huge deal if it were an American President — of a particular political party, of course.

Reagan was called a warmonger, even while working publicly to render the damned things useless, and privately some in the White House wondered if he’d actually push the button should the Soviets strike first. And now Trump, too. It’s almost as though the media has a single playbook for GOP presidents, regardless of the facts.

YOU DON’T SAY: Mother Forcing Transgenderism on 6-Year-Old Son May Suffer From a Mental Disorder, Pediatrician Says. “This case is consistent with a diagnosis of Munchausen by proxy. This is a disorder in which an adult feigns either physical or psychological condition in a child for their own subconscious reasons. Most often the perpetrator is the biological mother and she often has a background in health or medicine.”

WELL, WE CAN’T HAVE THAT: Rutgers Profs Outraged After Illegal Arrested for DUI, ‘Reckless Endangerment.’

THE BEGINNING OF THE END? Qatar Quitting OPEC to Focus on Exports of Liquefied Natural Gas.

Speaking to reporters Monday in Doha, the country’s minister of state for energy affairs, Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, made the surprise announcement, saying that the world’s largest exporter of LNG plans to increase its exports from 77 million tons of gas per year to 110 million tons.

“In light of such efforts and plans, and in our pursuit to strengthen Qatar’s position as a reliable and trustworthy energy supplier across the globe, we had to take steps to review Qatar’s role and contributions on the international energy scene,” al-Kaabi said.

Qatar also wants to raise its oil production from 4.8 million barrels a day to 6.5 million barrels, he said.

The tiny, energy-rich Arab nation is locked in a diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia, which dominates OPEC, but al-Kaabi said that the move to leave the organization was not driven by politics.

The decision seems more likely driven by economics, and the worldwide oil glut due to the explosion of American oil production.

In other words: Thanks, Obama!

ANDREW C. MCCARTHY: Robert Mueller’s Plan.

No prosecutor builds a case the way Mueller is going about it. What prosecutor says, “Here’s our witness line-up: Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Alex van der Zwaan, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen. And what is it that they have in common, ladies and gentlemen of the jury? Bingo! They’re all convicted liars.”?

For a prosecutor, like any trial lawyer, what the jury thinks is at least as important as what the law says. If the most memorable thing the jury takes into the deliberation room is that no one should believe a word your witnesses say, you are not going to convict the lowliest grifter, much less the president of the United States of America.

As a prosecutor, you build a case by having your cooperating accomplice witnesses plead guilty to the big scheme you are trying to pin on the main culprit. After all, what makes these witnesses accomplices, literally, is that they were participants in the main culprit’s crime. That’s the scheme you’re trying to prove. So, on guilty-plea day, the cooperator comes into court and admits guilt to the same conspiracy on which you are trying to nail the lead defendant.

That gets you 90 percent of the way home.

But if your intention is to smear by implication, rather than build an actual criminal case, you’d go about it the way Mueller is.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: RIP 41, Paris is Burning, Comey to Testify and Much, Much More. “The former president (41) passed away at home, peacefully on Friday at a respectable 94-years-old. The media is gushing over GHWB, just gushing over him because, you know he was good one. A good Republican not like the one we have now who is a barbarian and a pig. But back in the day, the media hated Bush 1 too, just like they hated W and Romney and McCain when they threatened democrat power.”

What a strange new respect.

MAYBE THEY COULD TRY LOOSENING ECONOMIC CONTROLS AND GIVING PEOPLE LESS TO PROTEST: France considers ‘all options’ to quell violent protests.

Nah:

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told reporters at a Sunday press conference those involved in Saturday’s protests would face “a very firm response from the criminal justice system.” Some will be brought up for trial as soon as Monday, according to the minister.

Asked about the possibility of a state of emergency, Belloubet said, “I am not sure we have reached that stage quite yet. I think there are other options.”

French President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency meeting with top officials on Sunday just hours after returning from the G20 summit in Argentina. In a statement, Macron paid tribute to law enforcement and rescue teams who “showed unrelenting bravery throughout the day and evening.”

Macron also “stressed the importance of judicial follow-up so that none of the acts committed remains unpunished,” the statement added.

Tensions rising

Rising fuel prices are largely attributed to a leap in the wholesale price of oil worldwide.

Um…

PUTTING OUT FIRE WITH GASOLINE: Hyperinflationary Venezuela announces 150 percent minimum wage hike. “Maduro said in a televised broadcast that the new monthly salary would be 4,500 bolivars. Citizens routinely complain they cannot afford basic items despite a 60-fold minimum wage increase in August.”

Related: Venezuela Devalues Currency by More Than 40% in Dicom Auction.

A country which barely produces anything domestically any longer just made imports that much more expensive — assuming you can actually buy dollars at the official exchange rate, which seems (ahem) unlikely.

Except for the nomenklatura, I assume.