VIDEO: MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Brags About Telling Jeb to Punch Trump in the Face.

SPENGLER: The Stock Market on the Orient Express. “Everybody did it in Agatha Christie’s novel Murder on the Orient Express, and the same problem bedevils the U.S. stock market today. A dozen co-conspirators killed the victim in the Christie novel. Here are a dozen factors that bedevil the stock market…”

Click on over.

BREAKING: U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson Released in Turkey.

THAT SEEMS LIKE A LOT: Interior Dept. disciplined 1,500 employees for misconduct.

The employees, both full-time staff and probationary appointees, have either been removed, reprimanded or suspended, according to the email sent by Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt.

Bernhardt provided the update to follow up on Secretary Ryan Zinke’s promise to crack down on what the department called “the widespread and pervasive culture of harassment and discrimination” in a news release last year. The initial effort focused on harassment in the National Park Service, but since then, the department has taken steps to combat harassment throughout the department. The 1,500 employees come from all parts of the department as well.

Zinke announced plans to combat harassment in the National Park Service last October, a week after The New York Times published the first story detailing allegations of sexual assault and harassment from Harvey Weinstein, igniting the national #MeToo movement.

A National Park Service Work Environment Survey from 2017 found that 10.4% of service employees had experienced sexual harassment, and 38.7% employees reported experiencing some form of harassment in the past year alone, according to the initial release.

Is every federal department this bad?

RUN, HILLARY, RUN! Another losing presidential candidacy is the best way she can serve her country.

Does she have to spell it out for you, America? Hillary Clinton wants you to beg her to run for president in 2020. On behalf of America, I am answering. Hillary Rodham Clinton, I beg you: Please run again.

Hillary Clinton is precisely the candidate the Democratic party needs. And the Democratic party she represents is exactly the one the country needs: foolhardy, inept, dismissive of reality, blind to appearances, deaf to lessons, alien to the heartland, and contemptuous of the voters. The longer Hillary Clinton remains the Democrats’ idea of a standard-bearer, the better off the country will be. She should run in 2020. And in 2024. And forever.

Forever is a mighty long time.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Caused by climate change? “In the midst of this disaster, The Guardian runs this headline: ‘Victims of Hurricane Michael voted for climate deniers.’ The article’s description: ‘Elections have consequences. Denying science has consequences. And we are reaping what we sow’.”

HEALTH: Growing number of U.S. children not vaccinated against any disease.

An estimated 100,000 young children have not had a vaccination against any of the 14 diseases for which shots are recommended, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday.

“This is pretty concerning. It’s something we need to understand better — and reduce,” said the CDC’s Dr. Amanda Cohn.

Most young children — 70 percent — have had all their shots. The new estimate is based on finding that, in 2017, 1.3 percent of the children born in 2015 were completely unvaccinated. That’s up from the 0.9 percent seen in an earlier similar assessment of the kids born in 2011. A 2001 survey with a different methodology suggested the proportion was in the neighborhood of 0.3 percent.

Young children are especially vulnerable to complications from vaccine-preventable diseases, some of which can be fatal.

Flashback: Rich People in Hollywood Aren’t Vaccinating Their Children.

How many belong to the “Party of Science” or the “Reality-Based Community?”

THEY STILL THINK THEY HAVEN’T RUN OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: Cash-strapped Venezuela sets new wages for oil workers as protests simmer.

WELL, GOOD: Turkey Is Expected to Release American Pastor on Friday.

Mr. Brunson, who has been held since 2016, is due to appear in court near the coastal town of Izmir, where a judge is expected to drop some charges and, at most, sentence him to time already served, these people said. One person said Mr. Brunson also could be released on technical grounds.

In any case, he is expected to be handed back his passport and put on a plane to the U.S., the people said—an outcome people close to him said they would consider a victory.

Officials on both sides urged caution, warning a previous deal between Turkey and the U.S. for Mr. Brunson’s release had collapsed at the last minute.

His release could help improve relations between President Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a sensitive time in bilateral relations, as Ankara is seeking Washington’s support to confront Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of a journalist in Istanbul.

I had been assured that Trump’s blustering style would make this kind of trust-building measure impossible.

FASTER? PLEASE!

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Tennessee Senate Race Shows There Is No Such Thing As A Moderate Democrat In 2018.

How many times have politicians claimed they wouldn’t vote for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) or Schumer only to do just that or otherwise fail to put other Democrats in power? Bredesen claimed he wouldn’t vote for Schumer for leader, but voters likely understand that his no vote would have no effect on Schumer’s success. It is perhaps worth noting that new undercover video from James O’Keefe casts Bredesen’s moderation pledges in a questionable new light.

Rather than target Bredesen, who is generally liked, it points out that if he wins, bad things will happen to Tennessee. It makes the case that the majority in the Senate is razor-thin and that Tennessee voters could be responsible for turning the Senate to a Democratic majority. Featuring clips of radical senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and Cory Booker, (D-Spartacus), it notes that “If Bredesen wins, Dianne Feinstein picks your judges, Bernie Sanders runs the budget and Chuck Schumer runs everything.”

While the national media encourage the radicalization of the Democratic Party and highlight how that radicalization excites its base in liberal states, the result is the crushing of moderate Democratic senators in states where they may have had a fighting chance.

Voters fell for the Moderate Dem bait-and-switch in 2006 in a big way, and today’s even more radical Democrats don’t seem like the right crew to win back the trust the blew the last time they held both houses.

Or as I keep saying, all the Democrats have to do is not act crazy, but they can’t even do that.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Canadian Profs Claim STEM Promotes ‘Eurocentrism’ and ‘White Supremacy.’

BLUE WAVE? With Florida Governor’s Race Tied, Donors and Hillary Rally to Democrat’s Rescue. “DeSantis-Gillum gubernatorial election described as the ‘most nationalized race for Florida governor we’ve ever seen.'”

WELL, YEAH: It’s Only an ‘Angry Mob’ if It’s Made Up of Republicans.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Kombucha: can the fermented drink compete with beer at the bar?

ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Teens Are Being Bullied ‘Constantly’ on Instagram.

While Millennials relied on Facebook to navigate high school and college, connect with friends, and express themselves online, Gen Z’s networks exist almost entirely on Instagram. According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 72 percent of teens use the platform, which now has more than 1 billion monthly users. Instagram allows teens to chat with people they know, meet new people, stay in touch with friends from camp or sports, and bond by sharing photos or having discussions.

But when those friendships go south, the app can become a portal of pain. According to a recent Pew survey, 59 percent of teens have been bullied online, and according to a 2017 survey conducted by Ditch the Label, a nonprofit anti-bullying group, more than one in five 12-to-20-year-olds experience bullying specifically on Instagram. “Instagram is a good place sometimes,” said Riley, a 14-year-old who, like most kids in this story, asked to be referred to by her first name only, “but there’s a lot of drama, bullying, and gossip to go along with it.”

As the parents of two Gen Z kids, my wife and my solution to this problem is in two parts. First, we’re trying to raise our boys to have earned self-esteem instead of this participation trophy attitude. And second, we just don’t allow them to have any social media accounts.

RETENTION: Pilot Shortage: Air Force Hoping to Be ’95 Percent Manned’ by 2023. “We are so good at training people how to fly and the airlines know it.”

This isn’t a new problem, losing USAF pilots to the private sector, but reduced flying hours and increased bureaucratic BS have exacerbated it.

WORST. RACIST. EVER. Trump praises Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

BETSEY MCCAUGHEY: Dems’ Socialist Ideas Will Tank Economy.

I have it on the highest authority that it will work this time, because the right people will finally be in charge of Genuine Socialism™.

AND THIS TIME WE MEAN IT:

You’d think if the climate science were settled, they’d get at least one prediction right.

HMM: China’s Alleged Big Hack — ‘No There, There.’

At a Wednesday event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and RealClearPolitics, Joyce was asked twice about the sensational Oct. 4 story headlined “The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies.” The piece asserted that in 2015 spyware in the form of tiny microchips was surreptitiously placed – apparently by the Chinese military — on mother boards assembled in San Jose, Calif., for computer servers sold to American companies, including Amazon’s AWS and Apple Inc.

This purported effort to exploit the U.S. supply chain with manipulated hardware shocked national security officials as well as private sector cybersecurity officers already under siege from cyberattacks. Joyce, the senior adviser for cybersecurity strategy to the director of the NSA, downplayed the threat, however, saying that neither the agency nor any of the supposedly infiltrated companies have found any compromised mother boards.

Bloomberg or one of the allegedly hacked companies is going to have to produce one of these spy chips.

RASMUSSEN: Support for Dumping Electoral College Is Down.

WHY NOT JUST #WALKAWAY? Dave Chappelle on #MeToo: ‘I Wish They Would Speak to Black Women More.’

RED-HANDED: U.S. And Belgium Nab Chinese Spy Accused Of Stealing GE Jet Engine Tech And More.

“This case is not an isolated incident. It is part of an overall economic policy of developing China at American expense,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General John Demers said in a statement. “We cannot tolerate a nation’s stealing our firepower and the fruits of our brainpower.”

Xu, using the aliases Qu Hui and Zhang Hui, is said to have lured experts to China under the pretenses of delivering presentations to university students and often passed himself off as a member of the Jiangsu Science and Technology Promotion Association. He would try to convince them to bring sensitive documents with them and then turn them over to him.

Crappy engines are reportedly holding back both of China’s stealth jets, the J-20 and J-31.

I’D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR: Newsweek’s Former Owner Faces Fraud Charges.

Two publishing companies, IBT Media, which owned the magazine, and Christian Media, a faith-based online publisher in Washington, were charged with trying to defraud lenders by pretending to borrow money for sophisticated computing services.

Instead, most of the money was funneled back to accounts controlled by the two media companies and their principals — Etienne Uzac, a co-founder of IBT, and William Anderson, Christian Media’s former chief executive and publisher — and unnamed co-conspirators, the indictment said. It said some of the money had been used to cover the magazine’s operating expenses.

And where did the rest of the money go?