LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Amnesty Gone Wild and Much, Much More. “Mexico says it will deport the 500+ invaders who tried to breach the US-Mexico border. Good, try breaching a border in another country and see what happens to you. After you land in De Gaulle or Heathrow airports and just run right past customs and see if they let you into their country once they catch you and lay you flat.”

COLD WAR II: China’s Tactic to Catch a Fugitive Official: Hold His Two American Children.

When Victor and Cynthia Liu landed with their mother on a tropical Chinese island in June to visit an ailing grandfather, they thought they would soon be on a plane back to their East Coast lives — he to start his sophomore year at Georgetown University, and she to work at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in New York.

Instead, within days, police officers detained their mother, Sandra Han, who, like her children, is an American citizen. They moved her to a secret site, commonly known as a black jail. The children discovered at the airport that they could not leave China, even though the police had said they were not being investigated or charged with a crime, the children told American officials and family associates.

By holding the family hostage, they said, the police are trying to force the siblings’ father to return to China to face criminal charges. The father, Liu Changming, a former executive at a state-owned bank, is accused of being a central player in a $1.4 billion fraud case.

The children say their father severed ties with the family in 2012, but the Chinese authorities have still held them for months under a practice known as an exit ban — a growing tactic that has become the latest flash point in the increasingly rancorous relationship between the United States and China.

Flashback: Yes, It’s Cold War with China — So Win It Like the Last Cold War. “The problem is NOT what the Chinese are doing, but we are AREN’T doing.”

THE UKRAINE WAR: Tension escalates after Russia seizes Ukraine naval ships.

Two gunboats and a tug were captured by Russian forces. Ukraine says they were fired on and six crew were injured.

The countries blame each other for the incident. Ukraine’s government said it could declare martial law.

The crisis began when Russia accused the Ukrainian ships of illegally entering its waters.

The Russians placed a tanker under a bridge in the Kerch Strait – the only access to the Sea of Azov, which is shared between the two countries.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called an urgent meeting of his “war cabinet” over the incident, his spokesperson said.

Plus: Ukrainian Armed Forces website is now down. Maybe that happens on occasion. But recent experience would suggest Russian cyber intrusion.

SOCIALISM: Venezuela Is Leaking Oil Everywhere. “The once-mighty PDVSA is polluting waterways and farmland, unable to clean up its messes after years of neglect, scant investment and corruption scandals.”

The spills are conspicuous signs of what has gone so horribly wrong at once-mighty PDVSA. The state-owned company doesn’t publish statistics, but environmentalists, analysts and workers keep seemingly endless lists of examples of wayward crude—unleashed by busted valves, ripped gaskets, cracked pipes and on and on—that they say has polluted waterways and farmland and probably has seeped into aquifers.

PDVSA’s cleanup policy is, on paper, strict, because “if spills aren’t quickly attended to, they become environmental liabilities,” said Carmen Infante, a Caracas-based industry consultant. But resources are spread so thin that responses are rarely swift or comprehensive; trunks of nance trees near the three tanks in Anzoategui state are buried in crude more than 10 months after the leak was discovered.

According to workers in the field, many of the services contractors that specialize in sponging up spills, with trucks equipped with giant vacuums, have gone out of business because they’ve had such trouble getting paid by PDVSA.

You know who else has or had lousy environmental protections? The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Communist China, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

As I’ve said elsewhere: If you want to protect the environment, you’d better embrace free-market capitalism.

PRIVACY: European privacy search engines aim to challenge Google.

Sites such as Britain’s Mojeek, France’s Qwant, Unbubble in Germany and Swisscows don’t track user data, filter results or show “behavioral” ads.

These sites are growing amid the rollout of new European privacy regulations and numerous corporate data scandals, which have raised public awareness about the mountains of personal information companies stealthily gather and sell to advertisers.

Widespread suspicion in Europe about Google’s stranglehold on internet searches has also helped make the continent a spawning ground for secure searching. Europe is particularly sensitive to privacy issues because spying by the Nazi-era Gestapo and the secret services in the Soviet Union is still within living memory.

“For us, it’s all about citizens and citizens have the right to privacy,” said Eric Leandri, chairman of Paris-based Qwant. He said that view contrasts with the mind-set across the Atlantic, where internet users are seen as consumers whose rights are dictated by the terms of their agreements with tech companies.

I have good luck with DuckDuckGo, and use Bing as my fallback on the rare occasions that DDG doesn’t deliver.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS: Navy May Have to Choose Between New Ballistic Missile Subs or 355 Ship Fleet.

When asked by USNI News what the future holds for fleet size and ballistic missile submarines now that the Democrats control the House, Frank Rose, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former assistant secretary of state for arms control, he said: “There is not enough money” for both, and “priorities need to be taken.”

Rose and Jim Miller, a former undersecretary of Defense for policy, came down firmly on the side of building the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, the replacements for the current Ohio-class, in setting priorities for Navy spending.

For the U.S., the ballistic missile submarines “secures the second strike” in event of a nuclear attack. “It really is the backbone of our nuclear force now and for the next 70 to 80 years,” Rose said.

The Navy shouldn’t be allowed to say, “sorry, we ran out of money” when it comes to paying for the ballistic missile submarine because the shipbuilding account was used for other kinds of warships. “The Navy needs to step up to that bill,” Miller said.

That line of thought is not confined to think-tanks.

Rep. Adam Smith, (D-Wash.), who is expected to become chairman of the House Armed Services Committee when the new Congress convenes in January, has long expressed skepticism over the Navy’s shipbuilding plan leading to a fleet of 355 warships. He has several times at recent public events referred to it as “simply a number thrown out there.”

Navies are expensive and time-consuming to build, plus the expense of crew training and maintenance. But for a global trading power, it’s an absolute necessity.

And Congressman Smith should know better, if he’s expected to become Chair of the House Armed Services Committee. The 355-ship figure was not just “thrown out there.”

MEXICAN STANDOFF: Dems Look to Leverage Votes on Spending Bill to Protect Mueller. “Trump hints at shutdown if he doesn’t get funding for the wall.”

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Kimmel Scolds Celebs for Nonstop Trump Bashing.

SPENGLER: Yes, it’s Cold War with China — so win it like the last Cold War.

THE NEW CIVILITY: Hawaii Congresswoman Calls Trump ‘Saudi Arabia’s Bitch.’

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: The NYT Has an ‘Angry Uncle Bot’ to Help You Navigate Thanksgiving with Your Family. “According to the robot programmed by a liberal, if you want to talk to somebody about hot-button issues over Thanksgiving dinner, the only acceptable responses are to agree with the liberal or to avoid openly disagreeing with the liberal. Anything else and you’re just an angry uncle.”

Do not taunt the angry uncle bot.

HEADLINES FROM THE BIRTHPLACE OF LIBERTY: Defrosting your windscreen wrongly can mean a £60 fine and three penalty points.

JOHN HAWKINS: The 5 Critical Keys to Making Something Go Viral.

NO. You can buy Christmas lights for your beard.

MEET THE NEW BOSS… It’s been exactly a year since Robert Mugabe resigned, but Zimbabwe is still the house that Bob built — and the new president has done little more than paper over the cracks.

CREEPING SHARIA: Ban on female genital mutilation ruled unconstitutional.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT: ISIS Threat Invoking Christmas Market Attack: ‘Retribution’ Coming on New Year’s Day.

RACISM, STRAIGHT UP: Missouri Democrat Says Oval Office ‘Needs to be Fumigated’ After Kanye West Visit.

QUESTION ASKED… Why Are Young People Having So Little Sex?

…and answered, by Chanel’s new line of “imperceptible” makeup for, well, boys?

(Hat tip to Kevin Furr on Facebook.)

UPDATE: #MeTooByTSA spotlights TSA abuse; screener arrested for felony sexual battery after pat-down.

Airline passengers this Thanksgiving can look to the trending hashtag #MeTooByTSA and the valid citizen’s arrest of ex-TSA screener Michael Gerard Polson for felony sexual battery, to help draw attention to inappropriate, overzealous and excessive force searches by TSA screeners.

While we all want good airport security, the abundance of admitted striking of passengers’ genitals by TSA screeners is not being tracked by TSA. Just like the MeToo movement, #MeTooByTSA seeks to draw attention to abuses of authority, for which TSA admits to paying screeners $250 cash bonuses after they strike or abuse passengers ( https://bit.ly/2Tj5N4s ), encouraging abuse of passengers!

TSA’s excuse in court even cited by the federal court as implausible is that TSA screeners claim to still not know that they should not hit or strike compliant passengers’ testicles or genitals!

There’s nothing funny about official abuse.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: LA’s Skid Row Voter Scheme and Much, Much More. “So it’s obstruction of justice because Trump had conversations with his advisors about prosecuting Clinton and Comey but didn’t do it? Remember, the Obama administration actually DID THIS. Obama went after the Trump campaign for Hillary with the ‘insurance policy’ and used a salacious and unverified garbage dossier to spy on everyone involved in the Trump campaign.”

That’s different because shut up.

THIS SEEMS PRUDENT: Trump administration paying undercover informants in migrant caravan.

DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman, in a statement to The Hill, declined to comment on the “sources or methods” that DHS uses to gather intelligence on the migrants. But she added that it would be “malpractice for the United States to be ignorant about the migrants.”

“We have an obligation to ensure we know who is crossing our borders to protect against threats to the Homeland and any indication to the contrary is misinformed,” she added.

And as Jazz Shaw noted on Twitter, “I bet it was dirt cheap, budget-wise.”

TO BE FAIR, IT ISN’T 2020 YET: Even Hillary can’t hold a candle to outsized sore loser Stacey Abrams.

HMM: Democrats Have Devised A Way To Dilute Trump’s Judicial Picks.

California Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D) and Kamala Harris (D) are utilizing their positions on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee to try and have a say in who should fill vacancies in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and various district courts.

The two legislators sent a letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to let the Trump administration know that they’re ready and willing to come to a compromise nominees.

Were they able to come up with a reason Trump should want to compromise with them?

SPOILER: THEY’RE FLEEING. The only options for Illinois millennials: fight or flight.

Dowling calls for Illinois millennials to get engaged. Kudos to him for the wake up call.

But the question of what exactly Dowling wants millennials to fight for remains. He doesn’t make clear whether he favors passing the tough reforms like a constitutional amendment so the state can restructure not-yet-earned pension benefits, or just more tax schemes and the pension “fixes” Pritzker is considering. (More on Pritzker’s progressive tax scheme and his potential pension fixes here, here and here.)

If Dowling favors more taxes and “fixes”, he’ll need to revisit his opinion piece – especially the line where he says, “We are the ones that will shoulder the $129 billion for the foreseeable future.” Dowling wrongly assumes Illinois millennials will stick around to pay the higher tax bills and face the cuts in services. But millennials are highly educated and an extremely tech-savvy generation. They don’t have to stay in Illinois to find their future.

The data already tells us they aren’t.

Illinois has lost a net of 107,000 millennials and their dependents to other states across the nation since 2012, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

It’s a stunning number.

Yes, but hardly shocking. Illinois has probably already entered a fiscal death spiral, and the state will go broke in the two ways made famous by Ernest Hemingway.