ASHE SCHOW: 462 Financial Journalists Were Asked Their Political Leanings. Guess How Many Said They Were Conservative.

Less than five percent. But there’s also this:

“First, financial journalists have stronger incentives to produce original information and analysis than to disseminate information already in the public domain, and they rely heavily on private communication with company management for information. Second, sell-side analysts play an important role in informing financial journalists, many of whom lack financial sophistication. Third, the incentives for sensationalism in the business press assumed in prior research are dominated by incentives for accurate, timely, in-depth, and informative reporting, while the quid pro quo incentives assumed in prior literature (e.g., putting a positive spin on company news to maintain access to inside sources) are substantial.”

Get that? Journalists covering the financial industry don’t know the industry and give favorable coverage to keep access. Sounds like pretty much every other type of journalist.

Journalists often present themselves as vital gatekeepers of news and information, but not in the direction you’d hope.

UGH: Drug Resistance Could Soon Kill More People Each Year Than Cancer, UN Warns. “CDC last month reported that an outbreak of salmonella in raw chicken products was a strain resistant to multiple antibiotics.”

BRUCE BAWER: After Thousand Oaks, It’s Time to Dethrone the Mental-Health ‘Experts.’

NO. Keurig launches a cocktail-making pod machine.

MANUAL TRANSMISSION: Self-driving vehicles will lead to a rise in car sex, according to a new study.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT: ISIS Threatens White House ‘Soon Under Fire,’ Depicts Rifle Aimed at U.S. Capitol. “Threat included in a barrage of post-Melbourne calls to violence, including one promising Nice-style vehicle attacks and another vowing to stab police.”

AVNER ZARMI: ‘Vote Early, Vote Often’: Did ‘The Chicago Way’ Move North to Wisconsin?

QUESTION ASKED… Does Anyone Love Our Military Less Than Trump?

…and answered:

Next question?

UPDATE: Dry-Dock Sinking Could Accelerate the Russian Navy’s Decline.

It could take years for the Kremlin to make up for PD-50’s loss. In the meantime, the Russian fleet will lack a floating repair facility for the 60,000-ton-displacement Kuznetsov and potentially other large warships of Cold War-vintage.

Dry docks lift ships out of the water, allowing workers to access their lower hulls for deep maintenance.

Even before PD-50’s sinking, the Russian fleet was slowly replacing big, old ships with much smaller new ones that can’t sail as far or carry as much weaponry, but which are cheaper and easier to operate and repair than the old vessels are.

Plus: Russian officials: Nope, we can’t finish fixing the carrier Kuznetsov.

LIKE BLOOD FROM A STONE: Trump Attorney Breathes Fire in Latest Attempt to Get Avenatti and Stormy Daniels to Pay Up in Full.

KABUKI: Cummings urges reluctant Dems to back Pelosi for speaker if she wins caucus vote.

Cummings, a Maryland Democrat who has represented a Baltimore district since the 1996 elections, offered a preview of how Pelosi’s allies will attempt to counter arguments that she’s overstayed her welcome as Democratic leader — she’s led the party in the House for 16 years — and has become a divisive figure that has jeopardized Democratic gains in swing House districts.

A slew of Democratic victors in last week’s elections vowed to oppose Pelosi in a House floor vote, imperiling her bid for a second stint as speaker. But no alternative candidate has emerged yet, and Pelosi’s allies are beginning to mount a forceful campaign suggesting that Pelosi’s leadership and experience is necessary to guide the new Democratic majority.

The suspense isn’t exactly killing me.

SHENANIGANS: Brenda Snipes Says Boxes Found in Rental Car at Ft. Lauderdale Airport Contained Blank Ballots. “The rental car had been driven by a Democratic Broward supervisor of elections employee.”

HE FIGHTS: Trump Vows Warlike Posture if Dems Inundate Him with Investigations.

THEN WHAT IS IT? Tesla Model 3 Performance Disqualified From Global Time Attack Podium Because ‘Electricity Is Not a Fuel.’

EVERGREEN:

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Arizona Has the Blues and Much, Much More. “Yes, Democrat Sinema has won the election after ‘all the ballots were counted’ or whatever the Democrats say when magical boxes of votes materialize. For Democracy.”

Yes, but it’s a dry cheat.

HIPSTER BLUES: A Major Beer Battle Is Brewing and it Could Mean the End of PBR.

Pabst’s attorneys have said in court documents and hearings that MillerCoors LLC is lying about its brewing capacity to break away from Pabst and capture its share of the cheap beer market by disrupting Pabst’s ability to compete. At a March hearing in which MillerCoors tried to have the lawsuit dismissed, Pabst attorney Adam Paris said “stunning documents” obtained from MillerCoors show that it went as far as hiring a consultant to “figure out ways to get rid of us.” MillerCoors has called that a mischaracterization of the consultant’s work.

The 1999 agreement between MillerCoors and Pabst, which was founded in Milwaukee in 1844 but is now headquartered in Los Angeles, expires in 2020 but provides for two possible five-year extensions. The companies dispute how the extensions should be negotiated: MillerCoors argues that it has sole discretion to determine whether it can continue brewing for Pabst, whereas Pabst says the companies must work “in good faith” to find a solution if Pabst wants to extend the agreement but MillerCoors lacks the capacity.

Pabst needs 4 million to 4.5 million barrels brewed annually and claims MillerCoors is its only option. It is seeking more than $400 million in damages and for MillerCoors to be ordered to honor its contract.

Years ago the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Globe-Democrat had a similar arrangement, where they ran (and profited from) the same want-ads, and shared a printing facility owned by the Post. When the Post let the agreement lapse, things didn’t go well for the Globe, which folded not long after.

No matter what the short-term benefits might be, it’s rarely a wise business decision to trust a competitor with vital assets.

EXODUS: Chilean Air Force to Retrieve Hundreds From Venezuela in Crisis.

CAN WE GET A VACCINE FOR THIS, PLEASE? Robo-calls are at ‘epidemic levels’ this season of health open-enrollments.

HOUSE OF CARDS: Forget the trade war, China’s economy has other big problems.

The Chinese economy expanded rapidly in the years after the global financial crisis thanks to repeated debt binges.

“China’s growth has been highly credit intensive,” said Gerard Burg, Sydney-based senior economist at National Australia Bank. The total amount of debt in the Chinese financial system is now several times the size of the entire economy.

Some of this money has gone into building bridges, road and other infrastructure. But a lot has ended up in less productive parts of the economy, such as big, inefficient state-run companies. The more dynamic private sector hasn’t benefited as much.

Late last year, Beijing stepped up its efforts to rein in the high levels of debt, which is one of the main reasons the economy is now losing momentum.

Some analysts are skeptical about the Chinese government’s commitment to cleaning up its financial system, especially as the slowdown deepens and the trade war intensifies.

One party rule can’t afford a lot of transparency, but a modern economy demands it.

Plus: Beijing is burning through its foreign reserves to prop up the yuan and prevent a currency outflow crisis, and the country is undergoing a real estate bubble.

Eventually, something’s gotta give.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: House Democrats plan aggressive gun control effort next year.

Gun control proponents are buoyed by the takeover of the House. Democrats ousted at least 15 House Republicans who had an “A” rating with the National Rifle Association with candidates who received an “F” rating, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., told the Journal on Friday that he plans to introduce legislation that will mandate universal background checks. Thompson is chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.

Among the incoming Democrats is Lucy McBath, who defeated Rep. Karen Handel, R-Ga. She was a former spokeswoman for the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety backed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The group spent $38 million during the 2018 election cycle, compared to the NRA, which spent $20 million.

I’m pretty sure this is how you get more Trump, but how about a few less anti-gun nuts in Congress?

THE PEOPLE’S PARTY: These Wealthy Neighborhoods Delivered Democrats the House.

CHANGE? D’Souza Suggests ‘Detoxified’ Post-Election Rhetoric from Trump, GOP. “Says it’s ‘very important for Trump to make a powerful speech in favor of legal immigrants and spell out what legal immigrants have done for this country’.”

TONI AIRAKSINEN: UW Institutes ‘Diversity’ Training After Professor’s Op-Ed on Sex Differences. “The controversy began in June, when UW-Seattle Professor Stuart Reges published ‘Why Women Don’t Code’ for Quillette, in which he articulated why women are less interested in computer science than men. (Hint, hint: men and women are different). Though Reges admits the title was hyperbolic — as he has taught hundreds of women to code during his career — UW students didn’t see it as such. They circulated an internal memo of concern and lobbied UW against his gender harassment’.”

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Here’s a Preview of House Democrats’ Cavalcade of Investigations.