LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Jerusalem Is the Capital of Israel, Mueller Mania and Much, Much More.

THEY ALL KNEW: 12 Notorious Matt Lauer Stories.

Any other industry run like the infotainment industry would have been regulated out of existence by now.

JEFF DUNETZ: Six Facts The MSM Isn’t Reporting About The Jerusalem Issue.

Here are probably the two most important:

Jerusalem has been part of Israel since 1948. The Arab Nations aren’t objecting to Israel’s presence in the part of Jerusalem controlled since June 1967, they are objecting to any Israeli presence in Jerusalem, even the section agreed to as part of the 1949 Israeli/Jordan armistice. Because of the rejectionism by Israel’s neighbors, the United States has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Under Arab rule holy sites were not protected. Only since 1967 when Israel took control of all of Jerusalem have the holy sites in the eastern part of the city been protected and open to all faiths. Between 1949 and 1967 the Jordanians breached their commitment (in the Armistice Agreement) to allow free access of Jews to the holy sites, mainly to the Western Wall and to the cemetery on the Mount of Olives. They also desecrated the Jewish holy sites.

Read the whole thing.

I’d just add that the Jewish State has been a boon to the local ecology, recreating a fertile land out of a Promised Land which had been badly stewarded for nearly two millennia.

BRIDGET JOHNSON: King Abdullah Tells Trump Moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem ‘Will Provoke Muslims and Christians Alike.’

Meanwhile, Bridget’s unexplained banishment from Twitter continues without explanation.

BUT THE NARRATIVE!

The full report is available here.

AND ANOTHER ONE DOWN: Top gossip editor Dylan Howard accused of sexual misconduct.

The behavior by Dylan Howard, currently the chief content officer of American Media Inc., occurred while he was running the company’s Los Angeles office, according to men and women who worked there. Howard’s self-proclaimed nickname was “Dildo,” a phallus-shaped sex toy, the former employees said. His conduct led to an internal inquiry in 2012 by an outside consultant, and former employees said he stopped working out of the L.A. office after the inquiry.

Howard quit soon after the report was completed, but the company rehired him one year later with a promotion that landed him in the company’s main office in New York. It was not clear whether Howard faced any discipline over the accusations. AP is not aware of any sexual harassment allegations involving Howard since he was rehired.

The AP spoke with 12 former employees who knew about the investigation into Howard’s behavior, though not all were aware of every detail. The outside investigator hired to examine complaints about Howard’s behavior also confirmed to AP that he completed a report.

From the story he doesn’t seem to have assaulted or molested anyone, but his behavior would be completely out-of-place in your typical midwestern office building.

American Media’s gossip rags include The National Enquirer, Us, and Star.

MILLENNIAL WISDOM: Student Protesters: Defending the First Amendment Is ‘Violent.’

A group of students at Western Washington University used their own right to free speech to disrupt a pro–free-speech lecture — calling the idea of complete free speech “violent” — and apparently, they don’t understand the irony.

According to an article in the school’s official student newspaper, the Western Front, Professor Jonathan Zimmerman was about to begin his “Censorship and Free Speech in the Age of Trump” lecture when he was disrupted by a group of students carrying signs reading “Advocating for the right to racist, sexist and transphobic speech is violent” and “Your safe space is violent.”

I wonder what it’s going to take to knock some sense into these kids, but I don’t wonder that it will have to be something awful. And due to the depths of their ignorance and inability to reason, something inevitable.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Guns, Canes, and Home Security: What Senior Citizens Need to Know About Self-Defense.

CIA DIRECTOR: Trump’s Tweeting Has Actually Helped Us.

ALL YOUR CODE ARE BELONG TO US: US Claims It Doesn’t Need a Court Order to Ask Tech Companies to Build Encryption Backdoors.

According to the documents, intelligence officials told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that there’s no need for them to approach courts before requesting a tech company help willfully—though they can always resort to obtaining a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order if the company refuses. The documents show officials testified they had never needed to obtain such an FISC order, though they declined to tell the committee whether they had “ever asked a company to add an encryption backdoor,” per ZDNet. Other reporting has suggested the FISC has the power to authorize government personnel to compel such technical assistance without even notifying the FISC of what exactly is required.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gives authorities additional powers to compel service providers to build backdoors into their products.

Nice product you have there. Be a shame if anything were to happen to it.

GRIDLOCK: Senate DACA Deal at Stalemate Over Pathway to Citizenship.

The kicker? “Durbin willing to shut down government over DREAM Act.”

This might be yet another way to Get More Trump™.

AND ANOTHER ONE: Netflix cuts ties with Danny Masterson after rape allegations.

TAX CUTS: THERE’S NOTHING THEY CAN’T DO. Will the GOP tax bill lower home prices in California?

NEW FRONTIER: Bomb Shelter Business Booming Thanks to North Korea Threat.

I WAS PROMISED A 21ST CENTURY WITH ELECTROMAGNETIC RAILGUNS, AND I WANT A 21ST CENTURY WITH ELECTROMAGNETIC RAILGUNS: The Navy’s Horrifyingly Powerful Electromagnetic Railgun Might Be Coming to an End.

As the Navy has been developing the electromagnetic railgun, it has also been investing in hypervelocity projectile (HVP), a low-drag guided spike that the railgun could use for ammo. And now it seems the SCO has more interest in that ammo than the railgun it was originally built for.

HVP can also be fired using available powder weapons, and the Department of Defense might be interested in getting those projectiles combat-ready before the railgun makes it through years of testing. “SCO shifted the project’s focus to conventional powder guns, facilitating a faster transition of HVP technology to the warfighter,” Chris Sherwood, an SCO spokesperson, told Task & Purpose. “Our priority continues to be the HVP, which is reflected in the program’s budget.”

According to Task & Purpose’s report, some researchers think the SCO’s prioritization of HVP means the railgun wont go through the necessary testing that would lead to its permanent installation on ships.

I had understood that half the point of railguns is that they provide much greater range than traditional powder guns.

OH: Doctor Created 3D-Printed Euthanasia Machine That Can End Life Painlessly.

The 70-year old doctor developed the Sarco capsule in The Netherlands, where people have been able to legally end their lives with the assistance of a doctor since 2001. Use of the machine, however, does not require help from a doctor.

“In my opinion—and when it comes to the Sarco-a doctor is not necessary. There are still certain conditions that people need to meet before they are considered, like being of sane mind. This is determined by an online questionnaire,” Nitschke said.

The device is made up of a reusable machine base and a capsule that can serve as a coffin after detaching. These parts can be created using a 3D printer and can be assembled anywhere.

Nitschke said the coffin uses liquid nitrogen, which can be legally bought. The fluid will start to flow once a person takes a seat inside the machine. The person will then start to feel disoriented within two minutes, a feeling the doctor said is comparable to having too many drinks. The person will then lose consciousness a few minutes later and die in about five minutes.

The capsule also comes with an emergency window in case the person changes mind.

What if the person is already unconscious when placed into the device by someone else?

TOLERANCE: Nancy Pelosi to California Republicans: ‘You Don’t Belong Here.’

Here in Colorado, we could use a few more California conservatives to balance out all the California progressive invaders who turned my once-fine state deep purple.

DAVID HARSANYI: How Democrats Corrupt English To Create Hysteria.

How did so many liberals convince themselves that tax reform (a rare cut that is, according to sometime-reliable Washington Post factcheckers, only the eighth largest in history) signals the implosion of American life? Everyone tends to dramatize the consequences of policy for effect, of course, but a Democratic Party drifting towards Bernie-ism is far more likely to perceive cuts in taxation as limiting state control and thus an attack on all decency and morality. Taxation is the finest tool of redistribution, so it’s understandable.

There is a parallel explanation for the hysterics. With failure comes frustration, and frustration ratchets up the panic-stricken rhetoric. It’s no longer enough to hang nefarious personal motivations on your political opponents — although it certainly can’t hurt! — you have to corrupt language and ideas to imbue your ham-fisted arguments with some kind of basic plausibility.

Liberal columnists, for example, will earnestly argue that Republicans, who at this moment control the Senate, the House of Representatives, and White House thanks to our free and fair elections, are acting undemocratically when passing bills. As you know, democracy means raising taxes on the rich. Just ask all the folks who told us democracy died over the weekend.

But the most obvious and ubiquitous of the Left’s contorted contentions about the tax bill deliberately muddles the concept of giving and the concept of not taking enough. This distortion is so embedded in contemporary rhetoric that I’m not sure most of the foot soldiers even think it’s odd to say anymore.

“You never want a serious crisis go to waste,” Rahm Emanuel once said out loud. The “even if you have to manufacture it” was merely implied.

BUT OF COURSE: ‘Foreign Policy’ Names Chelsea Manning Top ‘Global Rethinker’ for 2017.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): These are the foreign policy “experts.” Is it any wonder people are talking about the death of expertise?

TONIGHT WE’RE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT’S 1982: A Band Without a No. 1 Hit Is Outselling Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran.

Depeche Mode, the British synth-pop group formed in 1980, is having one of the most remarkable tours in modern music and its most-successful concert run ever. The band sold 1.27 million tickets through the first nine months of 2017, more than Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber or Bruno Mars — much younger pop acts at the peak of their fame.

In October, the band became the first act to sell out four consecutive shows at the Hollywood Bowl, an open-air theater in the hills of Los Angeles that’s hosted everyone from the Beatles to Luciano Pavarotti. Now Depeche Mode is back on the road for its second tour through Europe this year and will head to Latin America in 2018. Not bad for a group whose album sales peaked more than 20 years ago.

“Every time we go out and tour, we’re playing to more people,” said Martin Gore, 56, the band’s guitarist and lead songwriter. “It’s just incredible at this stage in our career.”

I wonder how much of their renewed success is due to Gen X nostalgia, and how much is is due to Millennials with nothing better to listen to.

EVERGREEN ADVICE: Christmas Shopping for the Man in Your Life? Check Out Goop. Actually, Don’t.

WELL, GOOD: After Push on Taxes, Republicans Line Up Welfare Revamp Next.

A spokesman for Mr. Ryan said the goals for 2018 would be set at a conference retreat in January. But Mr. Jordan, a head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who often has the ear of the president, has argued in recent weeks that the issue is one of the most winning ones with Mr. Trump’s voters and should take center stage next year.

He said he and fellow conservative Rep. Mark Meadows (R., N.C.) had made a pitch to the president to pursue welfare as an issue in a meeting in the early summer.

“He gets it,” Mr. Jordan said. “I think there are lots of folks across the country who get it, but particularly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, folks understand that they’re working hard, doing what’s right for their family, and there are folks who can work, and won’t work, and they’re getting their money.”

Democratic lawmakers have indicated they are ready for a fight, in which they will argue proposals to change assistance programs are a sign of misplaced priorities by Republicans who favored the rich in the tax overhaul.

“Republicans are already saying ‘entitlement reform’ and ‘welfare reform’ are next up on the docket,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) in a Senate floor speech. “But nobody should be fooled—that’s just code for attacks on Medicaid, on Medicare, on Social Security, on anti-hunger programs. The story will be that America can’t afford these programs.”

Up until now, touching Medicare/Medicaid or Social Security has been considered political suicide. But now that the Entitlements Explosion has begun, leaving them unreformed is national suicide.

FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS: Federal judge rules that bikini baristas and their ‘art form’ can stay.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Mueller, Israel Announcement, Alleged Predator Update and Much, Much More.

SHE’S STILL GOT IT: Voyager 1 just fired up some thrusters for the first time in 37 years.

Voyager 1 is an important vessel. It’s the fastest spacecraft we’ve got, traveling at around 11 miles per second. It’s also the farthest. Its twin, Voyager 2, is nearly 11 billion miles away from the Sun, pushing through the last layer of our host star’s influence on the space around our system. But Voyager 1 is over 13 billion miles away from the Sun, and has the incredible distinction of being the first human-made object to enter interstellar space.

Yet even from that great distance, the probe still sends messages back to Earth. That’s where the thrusters come in. For decades, a set of thrusters has served to set out tiny, split-second pulses to keep the craft’s antenna pointed toward us. Now those thrusters are getting old, and it’s taking more effort to make Voyager 1 move. The solution? See if the TCM thrusters—which on the one hand haven’t been worn out by constant use over the last few decades, but on the other hand haven’t even been turned on — could take on some of the legwork.

“The Voyager flight team dug up decades-old data and examined the software that was coded in an outdated assembler language, to make sure we could safely test the thrusters,” Chris Jones, chief engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, said in a statement.

It takes 19 hours and 35 minutes for a signal from Voyager 1 to bounce back to Earth, but after a day of waiting the scientists confirmed that the hardware had fired right up.

Incredible.