MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: The Real Reasons Why Legacy Media Are Freaking Out Over Trump’s Successful Baghdadi Mission.

Corporate media have moved from at least projecting concern for reporting the actual news into unembarrassed political actors. That enables them to flamboyantly spin — as opposed to their previous method of subtly spinning — even major news with indisputable facts.

The 2016 campaign was a humiliating defeat for Hillary Clinton, but also for political media. Media outlets never understood the electorate they were paid big dollars to write and broadcast news about. They confidently asserted Trump had no chance to win, and convinced themselves that casting off journalistic standards was defensible because of the certain ruin Trump would bring.

Instead, President Trump’s administration has been marked by success in the domestic and foreign spheres. The economy is humming, including job and wage growth the media had previously said was unlikely to impossible to achieve. This is due to tax cuts, tax reform, and unprecedented deregulation. No new wars have been launched, much less the apocalyptic nuclear wars the media predicted. A long overdue recalibration with China is taking place.

What is good news for the country is bad news for the media and their political allies.

In short, they’re more anti-Trump than pro-America — and the gap between the two is yuge.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Media Tries to Kill the Messenger in the Katie Hill Story. “All of this is happening because any elected Democrat who isn’t a straight, white male is supposed to be a protected species who can never be criticized. Hill was part of the Democratic youth movement that the Left loves so much simply because they’re young. Anybody who assails a member of the protected class must be destroyed.”

Hit back twice as hard, the wise man once said.

ALLIES: This Is How America Can Stop China From Dominating the South China Sea.

HMM: How Democrats’ Gun Control Plans Would Wreck Wildlife Conservation. “Every current Democratic presidential candidate is advocating an assault on wildlife and habitat conservation in America. It’s fair to assume they don’t know. They, like most Americans, are likely unaware that the bulk of wildlife conservation funding in this country comes from a healthy firearms industry.”

The most knowledgable conservationists I’ve known were all hunters, quite unlike know-it-all urban hipster “environmentalists.”

THE PROBLEM WITH SOCIALISM IS, EVENTUALLY YOU RUN OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: Venezuela Defaults on Its Last Bond, Setting Up Legal Showdown.

Luxembourg-based Clearstream Banking and Brussels-based Euroclear, the clearinghouses for the debt, didn’t receive the $843 million in principal and $71 million in interest due Monday, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Guaido, recognized by the U.S. and nearly 60 countries as Venezuela’s interim president, scored a last-minute victory on Thursday when the Treasury Department updated its sanctions guidelines to block creditors from seizing their collateral for 90 days. With the Trump administration’s support, Guaido and his allies effectively run Houston-based Citgo, yet have little operational control over its Caracas-based parent PDVSA.

It’s complicated.

THE HIGH COST OF HIGH TAXES: JPMorgan Weighs Shifting Thousands of Jobs Out of New York Area. “Despite more than two centuries of history in a city synonymous with the global financial industry, JPMorgan is quietly shrinking its workforce there. The bank’s been building up its presence in other locations and is now considering relocating several thousand New York-based employees out of the area to help rein in costs ahead of a possible economic downturn, according to people with knowledge of the bank’s strategy.”

As Arthur Schwartz quipped on Twitter, “Well done, @NYGovCuomo. Who are you going to tax when they’re all gone?”

HE BURNED A LOT OF BRIDGES WITH PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN THOSE THINGS: Paul Ryan Launches Free-Market, Upward Mobility Nonprofit.

IT ISN’T ALWAYS NICE TO MAKE TWITCHY: ‘Sick backpedal’! Max Boot tries to pretend he didn’t totally suggest that al-Baghdadi was courageous for blowing himself and his kids up.

SHOCKINGLY, IT MEANS BEING PRETTY WASTED: What Does It Mean to Be ‘Cali Sober’?

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: George Soros Bets on Warren, Calls Her the ‘Most Qualified To Be President.’

THOSE WHO KNOW NOTHING OF HISTORY… One in Three Millennials Says OK to Communism.

ILLINOIS: Illinois State Representative Charged with Offering Bribe to Fellow Lawmaker in Return for Support of Legislation.

NO, THEY WANT TO SHAME PEOPLE INTO NOT GOING TO THOSE SITES: Australia wants to use face recognition for porn age verification.

JEFF DUNETZ: ISIS Isn’t Dead Yet, And Trump’s Syria Policy Is Very Much Alive.

VIDEO: WalkAway Founder Brandon Straka Confronts CNN’s April Ryan: ‘You’re The Biggest Liar in This Room.’

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Democratic Presidential Clown Car Update for October 28, 2019. “Biden is up, Ryan is out, a poll has Buttigieg second in Iowa, and the Yang Gang takes on Bernie Bros.”

HE’D BE SMARTER TO MOVE SOMEWHERE WITHOUT EXTRADITION: Comey Will Move To New Zealand If Trump’s Re-Elected.

ROBERT SPENCER: The ISIS Caliph Is Dead – But Who Was Protecting Him? “It strains credulity that Turkey, with its interests in northern Syria, did not know he was there. Al-Baghdadi was killed in Barisha in the Idlib province, a town of no more than 2500 people right on the Turkish border. If the Turks didn’t know that the world’s most wanted terrorist was there, they’re incompetent beyond measure. If they did know, they’re complicit in protecting him.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Joe Biden: The Frontrunner Dems Don’t Really Like.

Democrats don’t like Joe Biden — he’s too popular.

From the Yogi Berra Institute for Advanced Whackery — er, Business Insider, actually — comes a new poll showing that while Joe Biden is the most-loved Democratic presidential contender, he’s also the least-liked. According to figures released on Sunday, “27% of likely Democratic voters would be unsatisfied with a Biden nomination, 21% would be dissatisfied with a Sanders win, and 15% would be dissatisfied with Warren.”

What that means is, should Biden win the nomination next summer, more than a quarter of Dems would face a serious “Meh” moment when deciding whether to even bother showing up at the polls in November.

Read the whole thing, if you don’t mind me saying so myself.

GOOD GRIEF: Colorado School Suspends 17-Year-Old After She Posted a Non-Threatening Gun Photo With Her Older Brother.

DECOUPLING: China’s industrial profits fall 5.3% in Sept as trade war toll mounts.

China’s vast industrial sector has come under pressure amid trade tensions and tit-for-tat tariffs with the United States. Profits have slowed visibly since the second half of last year, though the sector has seen some transitory rebounds as Beijing steps up support measures.

The decline in profits contrasted with the slight improvement in the manufacturing sector in September, with factory surveys and better-than-expected industrial production growth pointing to a pick-up in domestic demand.

But factory gate prices, considered a key barometer of corporate profitability, fell at the steepest clip in more than three years as economic growth ground to a fresh near 30-year low in the third quarter.

Xi seems to think he holds the upper hand, since he has no voters to face. But people who can’t vote eventually express their frustrations in less peaceful ways.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: #WaPoDeathNotices Edition. “It was Dead Terrorist Weekend in America, which in times past was the kind of thing that would bring us together as a nation, even if only for a little while.”

HARSH, BUT FAIR: Democracy Dies in Darkness – ISIS Edition.

FULLY INTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Lack of transparency may keep public from knowing truth about campaign spending.

Where former Democrat State Rep. Rochelle Galindo actually spent $4,500 of her campaign cash, and whether or not it was for defending criminal charges unrelated to her campaign, may never be known because of rules written by the Secretary of State and placed into law by the Democrat majority in the last session — including Galindo.

Galindo stepped down from her office representing House District 50 in Greeley on Mother’s Day amid accusations she sexually assaulted two staffers during her campaign for office. She was in the midst of a recall and said at the time the allegations against her were false but would be hard to surmount in a recall battle.

Ten days after she stepped down, she received a summons for “unlawful acts.” She has appeared in court on that complaint, and now has a pre-trial hearing scheduled for Dec. 20. She is charged with providing alcohol to a minor, a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries possible penalties of up to 18 months in jail and fines up to $5,000 or both.

However, she didn’t close out her campaign finance account with the Secretary of State’s office until just recently, and in her final filling, she reimbursed herself $4,500 for what she reported as legal fees related to her recall.

However, what legal costs may have accrued at the time she stepped down is unclear as signatures were still being gathered against her, so such actions as challenges to signature validity had not occurred yet.

Colorado’s Californication continues to move briskly along.

Plus: “Galindo’s campaign has not returned multiple requests for comment from Complete Colorado.”

Why should she be accountable to the press when she isn’t even legally accountable to her own donors?

HMM: Hong Kong Protests Spread to U.S. Colleges, and a Rift Grows.

As the protests in Hong Kong enter their 21st week, the conflict is spilling onto campuses across the United States and highlighting rising tensions between Hong Kong-born students and their classmates from mainland China. College officials face the challenging task of supporting free expression without alienating the largest demographic of international students on American campuses.

Schools in the United States have yet to report physical attacks, like one at the University of Queensland in Australia this summer. But solidarity protests and lectures have devolved into shouting matches. Pro-Hong Kong “Lennon walls,” covered with sticky notes and artwork, have been vandalized.

It would be nice if our universities would stand up against oppression, but I know better.