MEMO TO THE FAINTING-COUCH MEDIA: Donald Trump will speak erratically, nearly insanely, before settling on a somewhat-conventional decision, every single time.

The rest of us have caught onto this — why haven’t you?

FILL ‘ER UP: Navy Fast Tracks MQ-25 Tanker Drone Procurement.

The ability to midair refuel fighters and bombers is a necessary component of defending expanses like the Pacific Ocean — making tankers a likely target for Chinese anti-access/area-denial attacks. Removing the human element from risk makes perfect sense.

TOO BIG TO SUCCEED: GOP, Business Groups Launch Campaign to Constrain CFPB.

The trade group for credit unions has demanded that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau immediately “cease its pending rulemaking” affecting its members, seeking to give the new administration a chance to cast a more skeptical eye on the proposals than the current Democratic White House would provide. The agency has “stifled” the industry’s ability to serve its customers, Jim Nussle, head of the Credit Union National Association, said Friday.

“I am encouraged that the Trump administration seems eager to combat this regulatory overreach, and I look forward to working with them in those efforts,” Texas GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe told The Wall Street Journal Monday. Mr. Ratliffe last year sponsored legislation jointly with a fellow Texas Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz, to abolish the agency, which was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and championed by Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Aside from enshrining “Too Big to Fail” as a national policy, running roughshod over checks and balances, and cementing the incestuous relationship between Washington and Wall Street, Dodd-Frank has been a smashing success.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE: Ex-teacher impregnated by student pleads guilty to lesser charge.

The boy was a 13-year-old middle school student at the time.

BEGIN THE HEALING, BOSTON GLOBE-STYLE: I don’t want Trump to succeed. I want him to fail spectacularly.

I’m old enough to remember when wanting the President to fail was the cause of much hand-wringing on the left.

SEND THE MARINES: Russia’s 61st Separate Naval Infantry Brigade in the Donbass.

The following investigation from Askai707 provides a significant amount of evidence that proves the direct participation of Russia’s 61st Separate Naval Infantry Brigade (often referred to as just the “61st Naval Infantry Brigade” or “61st Brigade” in the translation) in the Ukrainian Conflict, particularly in villages near Luhansk in the summer and fall of 2014. Askai identifies about a dozen Russian servicemen who were photographed and filmed in Luhansk at a separatist base in 2014 — many of whom were awarded medals by decree of the Russian President after returning home, and continued serving as active servicemen.

These men who were photographed and filmed fighting in Ukraine in 2014 were not volunteers. These men were not locals. These men were not “on vacation” and acting outside of their duties as servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

These men were, and in some cases still are, active servicemen of the Russian Federation. They continued to serve as soldiers after returning from Ukraine and were recognized by a presidential decree with medals that rewarded them for their participation in combat. These men participated in a military operation organized and executed by the Russian Federation against the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It’s a lengthy investigative piece, so I won’t say “Read the whole thing.” But it is well-documented and compelling.

This report should go a long way to dispelling Putin’s convenient fiction that Russian military forces have not been fighting in Ukraine.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why you should be drinking whiskey with your Thanksgiving turkey.

We usually serve a bottle or three of an earthy Côtes du Rhône with our turkey, but I’m willing to experiment — in the name of science, of course.

BEGIN THE HEALING, SLATE-STYLE: There’s No Such Thing as a Good Trump Voter.

21ST CENTURY PARENTING: “Extreme Makeover” Couple Accused of Booting Adopted Kids Out After Winning Dream Home.

UPDATE: The quoted headline was unclear at best and misleading (more likely) at worst. The children were in foster care, not adopted. As always, I regret the error.

ALWAYS BE CARRYING: Good Guy with a Gun Kills Perp Beating a Cop.

ALSO: Pizza shop customer shoots 2 robbers, killing 1.

GUNS, GUNS, AND MORE GUNS: Guinness refuses to acknowledge NRA’s world record, gun activists say.

The National Rifle Association tried to set a world record Monday for the number of people firing two rounds at the same time — but they claimed the Guinness World Records committee shot it down.

NRA spokesman Jason Brown said Guinness World Records emailed him to say the organization did not have such a record — and had no plans to create it. Still, he told USA Today it wasn’t too big a deal, saying the NRA was the ultimate authority on gun-related record-keeping.

“There’s something that just seems right about making history today,’’ NRA board member Pete Brownell said at the special event in Phoenix, called the “1000 Man Shoot.”

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder outdoors at a shooting facility, 1,000 men and women stood ready, aimed and fired. Two minutes later, they fired again to a big cheer, the activists said.

Surely this record attempt is no sillier than the Guinness-recognized 2013 world record for the tallest Mohawk.

WELL, YEAH: IEA expects U.S. shale output rise if OPEC pushes oil to $60.

Some frackers can make money at sub-$50 prices. Many more are profitable at $60, and working furiously on becoming even more efficient and productive.

Barring a major crisis in the Middle East, there’s an effective $60-$70 ceiling on the price of oil — and that ceiling drops a little with each new productivity gain made by American frackers.

ANALYSIS: FALSE. The Presidential Election Was a Referendum on Gender and Women Lost.

A woman lost, having run an over-scripted campaign run by the wrong people targeting the wrong voters in the wrong states.

ROGER KIMBALL: The Steve Bannon Bogeyman.

A REAL-LIFE HORROR MOVIE: The Last Days of ISIS in Mosul.

That the “jayvee” was allowed to take and hold the city for so long ought to be just as revolting as the atrocities ISIS is committing there.

RESET: Putin pulls Russia out of International Criminal Court.

Russia in 2000 signed the Rome treaty that established the Hague-based court but never ratified it.

Putin’s decree, published on the Kremlin’s website, comes a day after the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee approved a resolution condemning Russia’s “temporary occupation of Crimea” and blamed Russia for rights abuses such as discrimination against some Crimean residents, such as Tatars.

I’m not sure the ICC (the U.S. is not a member) has ever accomplished much besides providing yet another international forum for grandstanding.

THANK GOODNESS IT’S ONLY SIX: Six More Examples of Anti-Trump Violence.

SYRIA: Regime blitz on Aleppo kills 21, including children.

At least 21 people — including four children — were killed in a Syrian regime blitz over war-ravaged eastern Aleppo on Wednesday that pounded hospitals, a blood bank and targets near schools, activists and medical staff said.

The Al-Shaar neighborhood appeared to be the worst hit, with nine barrel bombs striking the Children’s Hospital, Al-Bayan Hospital and the Central Blood Bank, staff on site with the Syrian American Medical Association (SAMS) told CNN. Buildings nearby were completely flattened.

Good lord.

TRANSPARENCY: Facebook Says It Found More Miscalculated Metrics.

SKYNET FROWNS: Human drivers will bully robot cars, says CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA.

Some people are afraid of robots taking over. Exler is worried that humans will “bully” driverless cars.

Human drivers already speed, drive erratically and cut in line. Driverless cars will be programmed to be polite and follow the law.

When someone tries to cut in line at a traffic merge, humans won’t let them in. But a driverless car will be programmed to stop when it sees an obstruction — like a line cutter. “They’ll look for the autonomous car and that’s where they’ll cut in,” he said.

Theoretically, robot cars could be programmed to be more aggressive, but he doubts regulators would allow that to happen.

Humans have been gaming systems probably since the first system was put into place.

YES, BUT THEY WON’T: Could the Electoral College elect Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump?

A Change.org petition, now signed by more than 4.3 million people, encourages members of the Electoral College to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton when the college meets on Dec. 19. The petition argues that Donald Trump is “unfit to serve” and that “Secretary Clinton WON THE POPULAR VOTE and should be President.”

“If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win,” the petition states. “However, they can vote for Hillary Clinton if they choose. Even in states where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted, they would simply pay a small fine – which we can be sure Clinton supporters will be glad to pay! We are calling on the Electors to ignore their states’ votes and cast their ballots for Secretary Clinton.”

Wishful thinking about the Electoral College has been de rigueur on the losing side of every election since at least 2000. The Electoral College could act as a failsafe against a crazy electorate, but electors are unlikely in the extreme to undermine the College’s own existence just to please a few internet cranks.

GRUMPY OLD WHITE MEN: Schumer is next top Senate Democrat, adds Sanders to leadership ranks.

PRESIDENTIAL TWEETSTORM: President-Elect Trump Goes on Twitter Rant Against NY Times Reporting: ‘They Looked Like Fools’

We never saw media handwringing like this over President Selfie Stick.

HEALTH: Ebola Might Not Make Some People Sick.

But beware of Ebola Mary?

CHANGE? House Democrats Pressure Nancy Pelosi After Trump’s Win.

One week after Democrats picked up only a fraction of the 20 House seats that they had once expected to gain, dozens of rank-and-file lawmakers at a closed-door meeting called on Mrs. Pelosi to delay leadership elections scheduled for Thursday. By the end of the meeting, she had done so, giving a faction of unhappy Democrats until Nov. 30 to potentially build support for an opposition candidate.

The coming leadership fight, in tandem with a separate battle over who will lead the Democratic National Committee, will expose fault lines within the Democratic Party that have been buried for years, cutting along the lines of race, class, geography and gender.

Those divisions have been easily finessed while President Barack Obama has been in power and served as a unifying force. But some lawmakers say they have felt growing anxiety for years about the party’s loss of support among the white working class, including many men who flocked to President-elect Donald Trump on Election Day.

As Speaker, Pelosi’s major achievements included a toxic asset removal program which didn’t remove any toxic assets, a stimulus which didn’t stimulate, and the ongoing slow-motion train wreck known as ObamaCare. Her tenure with the Speaker’s gavel, which began after a huge protest vote against President George Bush’s initial inability to mend a deteriorating situation in Iraq, ended in a stunning reversal just four years later with a protest vote against ObamaCare.

As Minority Leader since 2011, the best that can be said about Pelosi’s tenure is that she hasn’t passed any more expensive and/or disastrous legislation. Or, depending on your point of view, perhaps the best that can be said is that her efforts to win back the House never amounted to much.

Pelosi has been as bad for House Democrats as Obama has been for elected Democrats across the nation, and maybe now we’ve reached the point where even the lemmings are tired of being marched off the cliff.