RECALL-LESS RECALLS: Tesla’s Autopilot investigation could change the nature of auto recalls.

Still, the Tesla investigation suggests that in the future, automakers may be able to avoid costly recalls through software updates before investigations into potential defects even close.

NHTSA even acknowledges that the Tesla update addressed some of its concerns about Autopilot in its report. That’s something most traditional automakers can’t currently do during an ongoing investigation because their vehicles aren’t capable of wireless updates. Instead, most car owners today have to take their vehicle to a dealer to get a software update.

In the future, NHTSA may change how it handles defects if it determines issuing a software update is faster than the recall process, Thomas said.

Over-the-air car fixes would certainly be a money-saver, and automakers could pass that savings on to consumers. But there’s also the risk of over-the-air car hacking, which isn’t exactly the stuff of science fiction.

CHANGE: Foxconn considers $7 billion US display factory in cooperation with Apple.

SEN. MIKE LEE: How Congress And Trump Can Reform Taxes To Put America First.

A number of economists on the Right and Left recognize the advantages of cutting corporate taxes and raising shareholder taxes. Although there are some important differences, this general approach is similar to a 2014 plan by Eric Toder of the Urban Institute and the American Enterprise Institute’s Alan Viard. Indeed, in a global economy with global investment opportunities, there is no reason for the United States not to tax all income the same.

But, you might ask, won’t hiking capital gains and dividends tax rates chase investment offshore? Not with that 0 percent corporate rate! That’s the beauty of this approach.

For foreign investors, it would be an offer they couldn’t refuse. But even for American investors, it would be a better deal than they could get anywhere else. Today, our 35 percent corporate tax rate, 20 percent rate on capital gains and dividends, and the 3.8 percent Medicare surtax add up to a 50 percent real top federal tax rate on investment income.

After eliminating the corporate tax, we could raise tax rates on capital gains and dividends all the way up to par with labor income (top rate today: 39.6 percent), and investors could still come out ahead, just not as much as workers will, and only if they invest in the United States.

Authoritarian governments with currency controls would either have to liberalize and allow their hoarded U.S. dollars to flow back here, or force their people to miss out on what could be the investment opportunity of a lifetime.

VIDEO: Watch an Airline Throw a Rabid Hillary Supporter Off a Flight!

I love a happy ending.

ASIA PIVOT: China, Philippines agree to cooperate on 30 projects worth $3.7 billion.

Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said he had a “very productive” meeting with Gao and they had discussed large projects in rural areas, as well as some smaller projects.

The deal is the first announcement from a two-day visit by a Philippine cabinet delegation to China that comes three months after President Rodrigo Duterte visited Beijing to pave the way for new commercial alliances.

China has welcomed Duterte’s foreign policy shift away from traditional ally the United States and toward doing more regional deals for loans and business under his “pro-Filipino” policy.

Relations between the Philippines and China “fully recovered” after Duterte’s visit, and “China supports president Duterte to lead the Philippines people in developing their economy,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing on Monday.

Who lost the Philippines? Obama did.

BUT THAT’S UNPOSSIBLE! Republicans: Schumer Broke His Word on Pompeo Confirmation.

Representative Pompeo will almost certainly be confirmed as CIA Director on Monday. And the CIA will no doubt survive two days without its new leader. But the nastiness of the partisan sniping between top Republicans and Democrats that led to the delay may well have a lasting impact on the Senate – in this Congress and beyond.

According to six sources familiar with the negotiations over Pompeo’s confirmation, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Republican leaders that he would allow Pompeo to be confirmed by voice vote on Inauguration Day, along with two other Trump nominees who have national security responsibilities. But Schumer broke his promise, these sources say, and offered an insulting excuse for having done so.

“Trust is important, even between adversaries,” says Senator John Cornyn, one of the Republicans involved in the discussions. “And that trust has been damaged.”

Read the whole thing, which ought to dispel any notions, however weak, that Harry Reid’s “retirement” would make for better-behaved leadership on the Democrat’s side.

ROSS DOUTHAT: The Tempting of the Media.

Then there are Trumpworld’s possible ties to Russia and the possible Russian attempts to exert influence on his behalf. This is an incredibly serious business, but it has not produced incredibly serious journalism. Instead there has been a rush to publicize all manner of dubious claims, from the midsummer reports of a secret server supposedly linking to Trump Tower and a Russian bank to more recent stories exaggerating Russia’s penetration of the U.S. power grid and accusing a variety of normal left-wing and right-wing websites of being Kremlin pawns.

This pattern peaked (so far) with BuzzFeed’s decision to dump a dossier of completely unverified rumors about Trump’s Russian connections on the internet, with a shrugging, “decide for yourself if it’s true” note accompanying the release. That dossier may well include some dark truths, but the way they were delivered to American news readers was effectively self-discrediting, more likely to help Trump brush aside legitimate allegations than to pin him or his circle to the wall.

The problem is that all of this alarmist journalism, no less than the really fake news churned out by pro-Trump trolls and cynics, has commercial imperatives behind it. There is a large and frightened readership looking for confirmation of its darkest fears in every “unprecedented” (but often, not really) move that Trump and his administration make. These readers trust liberal-leaning mainstream outlets to deliver them the truth. But their clicks and shares will reward those outlets when they make rumor seem like certainty, or make the truth more alarming than it is.

To regain its credibility, all the Mainstream Media needs to do is its job. But most of the older members seem to have forgotten how and the younger ones never knew.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: Lawyer Left Wastes No Time Mobilizing Against Trump – on Bergdahl’s Behalf.

GRASSROOTS: Soros Has Links to 56 ‘Partners’ of the Women’s March on Washington.

I was about to ask if there was any part of the Protesting Left which isn’t bought and paid for, but then I remembered that even the Obama Administration dismissed them as “the professional Left.”

HMM: US committed to Israel embassy move but expected to act cautiously.

Believe it when you see it.

RESIST WE MUCH:

Hopefully the economy will improve enough that this weekend’s young protestors will be making too much money to continue serving as Hollywood’s tools.

COURAGE! Dan Rather on Trump: ‘These are not normal times’

Rather wrote that the press, the public and the political leaders of both parties have “never seen anything like this before.”

He urged fellow journalists to demand follow-ups and satisfying answers rather than accept elected GOP officials’ non-answers.

“Facts and the truth are not partisan,” he said. “They are the bedrock of our democracy. And you are either with them, with us, with our Constitution, our history, and the future of our nation, or you are against it. Everyone must answer that question.”

Fake but accurate?

AL HUNT: Nope, the Oval Office Won’t Change Trump.

It certainly didn’t change Barack Obama, who entered the Oval Office as a know-it-all agitator looking to bring America down a notch or two, and left the same way.

BREAKING:

More to come.

Trump Poised to Wield Executive Power to Make Immigration Changes.

On immigration, advocates on both sides of the issue expect the administration to toughen enforcement by deporting more people and reversing Obama administration rules protecting young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Frustrated by Congress’s unwillingness to pass immigration legislation, Mr. Obama used executive power to target enforcement to serious criminals and recent border crossers, and to give safe harbor from deportation and work permits to young, so-called Dreamers. Conservatives said he was acting beyond his authority, and when he tried to extend that safe harbor to millions more people, the move was blocked by the courts.

Mr. Trump also is likely to reject refugees from Syria and other Muslim nations, and cut grant funding for so-called sanctuary cities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Obligatory:

PRIORITIES: Milo Protester Shoots Suspected Conservative, No Charges After He Points To ‘Racism’

A man who shot someone outside a speech at the University of Washington (UW) by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos said his victim was a “white supremacist,” and police let the shooter go, even as the victim is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

In what appears to be a case of mistaken identity by the “anti-racism” vigilante, the shooting victim later turned out to be a supporter of Bernie Sanders.

And the university president, Ana Mari Cauce, wrote a letter Saturday that focused not on why one of the protesters attempting to stop the speech had shot someone, but instead questioned why the college had allowed the event to be held in the first place.

Read the whole thing.

I would like to hear Cauce’s explanation for her actions to the victim’s parents.

WAPO: With executive order, Trump tosses a ‘bomb’ into fragile health insurance markets.

Prior to Trump’s “bomb,” if you liked your plan you could keep it under ObamaCare, and same with your doctor.

Putin Signs Long-Term Basing Deal With Syria.

The pact calls for expanding and making permanent Russia’s temporary air base in Latakia, and expanding the Russian naval facility in Tartus that would allow it to permanently harbor 11 ships. The expansion would enable Tartus to host larger ships than it currently can accommodate — for instance, the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov couldn’t dock there last fall — as well as nuclear submarines, according to Russian state-controlled press reports. Moscow will also send engineers and specialists to Damascus to help refurbish Syrian warships and defend the port area.

One takeaway is that Moscow expects the Assad regime to be around for the long term. The other is this:

The U.S. defense official said that Russia uses Syria “as a testing ground” for its latest weapons systems, showing off the fruits of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military modernization. “Their mobile operations, their use of special operations Spetsnaz forces, and electronic warfare” in particular have been noted by the Pentagon.

“They’re a real great power to contend with, and they have significant military capabilities,” the official said.

Indeed.

TRAINED PROFESSIONALS: It Didn’t Take Long for the Media to Compare Trump to ‘Hitler’s Rise’

BUT OF COURSE: Drunkblogging the Dawn of the Trump Administration.

Well, I’m having Bloody Marys, but I presume my co-bloggers will remain sober.

Relatively, at least.

UPDATE (From Glenn): For now, Stephen. For now.

CHUTZPAH: Dennis Hastert Countersues Assault Victim to Pay Back Hush Money.

Imprisoned former House Speaker Dennis Hastert wants one of his sexual-abuse victims to return the $1.7 million in hush money the Illinois Republican paid him over several years, according to a court filing this week in a civil case.

The document is a counter claim to the victim’s breach-of-contract lawsuit that he filed last year, arguing that Mr. Hastert owed him $1.8 million, what he said was the unpaid balance of an unwritten $3.5 million hush-money deal.

If I’m understanding this correctly, Hastert wants his hush money back because his victim didn’t stay hushed, while his un-hushed victim wants the other half of the hush money.

ROBERT TRACINSKI: When you read a science report claiming that 2016 was the hottest year on record, you might expect that you will get numbers. And you would be wrong.

I just got done combing through a New York Times report titled, “Earth Sets a Temperature Record for the Third Straight Year.” The number of relevant numbers in this article is: zero.

We are not told what the average global temperature was, how much higher this is than last year’s record or any previous records, or what the margin of error is supposed to be on those measurements. Instead, we get stuff like this.

Marking another milestone for a changing planet, scientists reported on Wednesday that the Earth reached its highest temperature on record in 2016—trouncing a record set only a year earlier, which beat one set in 2014. It is the first time in the modern era of global warming data that temperatures have blown past the previous record three years in a row.

Note to the New York Times: “trouncing” and “blown past” are phrases appropriate to sports reporting, not science reporting. Except that no sports reporter would dare write an article in which he never bothers to give you the score of the big game.

Yet that’s what passes for “science reporting” on the issue of global warming, where asking for numbers and margins of errors apparently makes you an enemy of science. Instead, it’s all qualitative and comparative descriptions. It’s science without numbers.

It wasn’t just the New York Times. Try finding the relevant numbers ready at hand in the NASA/NOAA press release. You get numbers comparing 2016’s temperature with “the mid-20th century mean” or “the late 19th century.” But there’s nothing comparing it to last year or the year before except qualitative descriptions. So the government’s science bureaucracy is setting the trend, making reporters dig for the relevant numbers rather than presenting them up front.

It’s almost like they’re hiding something.

Almost! Read the whole thing to find out exactly what they’re hiding.

MAD DUCK: With midnight regulation, Obama Energy Department just outlawed your three-way bulb.

Three-way bulbs, which have two different filaments and thus three different brightnesses, are currently exempted. DOE just ruled that they now need to be covered. The Department’s reasoning: “DOE expects these sales will likely increase since these lamps could be used as replacements for other regulated lamp types.” In other words: People might start buying these bulbs because they want regular light bulbs rather than expensive LEDs or crappy fluorescents.

DOE also spiked the exemption for globe-shaped bulbs. Many manufacturers make, and many retailers sell, globe-shaped bulbs that met the standards, but consumers were left with the option to buy globe-shaped bulbs of the old type. That couldn’t stand.

This rule doesn’t go into effect for three years, but it could lead pretty quickly to domestic bulb makers ceasing production.

It’s Friday.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: BLM Launches Social Media Site So You Can ‘Mark Yourself Unsafe’

QUIN HILLYER: Saul Alinsky Leaves the White House.

Obama and company also waged bureaucratic war against independent inspectors general; tried their hardest (even illegally) to hobble fossil fuels industries; evaded Congress’s intent by sending cash and uranium to a near-nuclear-ready Iran; fumbled and stumbled while veterans suffered virtually criminal neglect; wasted hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on projects that were not “shovel-ready” and did not create many jobs; oversaw an economy in which the workforce participation rate dropped to historically low levels while real median household income also fell and personal debt rose, and in which food stamp rolls grew to a number larger than the population of Spain; horrendously politicized the Justice Department; and saw race relations worsen for the first time in decades.

In what should have been treated by the media as major scandals (or more major than the media represented them), the Obama administration encouraged illegal gun-running to Mexican cartels, with untold numbers of resultant deaths; failed to provide adequate security before or rescue during the Benghazi tragedy; provided tax subsidies in return for campaign cash from useless “green energy” companies; spied on journalists; freed five killers in return for a deserter; failed to police or protect email use at the State Department; polluted a river through the ineptitude of the Gold King Mine Disaster; illegally (arguably) granted, to political allies only, numerous “waivers” from Obamacare; and of course committed the actions I related in the first paragraph of this piece, including the dismissal of the New Black Panther case and the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

And in almost every case, they covered up and/or lied about these actions, often egregiously and sometimes, quite arguably, criminally.

And those are only the major scandals and embarrassments.

Read the whole thing.