OUCH: On Behalf of The LGBT Community, Fuck Off, Kevin Spacey.

We don’t respect a man of his age and standing refusing to be open about who he is, but we respect his right to make that choice. But we vehemently reject the use of the standard celebrity coming-out announcement to distract from the fact that serious allegations have been made against him. Worse, the statement made it sound like feeling up 14-year-olds is just a thing that happens when gay men – pardon us, men who “choose to live as a gay man” – get drunk.

In case there’s any confusion on this matter, please allow these two longstanding gay men to clear it up for you:

Alcohol does not make gay men fondle teenage boys.

That one’s all on you, Kev.

Compare this Tom and Lorenzo column with the soft-hands treatment Spacey is getting from ABC and NBC.

TYLER O’NEIL: 5 Things to Know About Paul Manafort’s Arrest in the Mueller Trump-Russia Probe.

And don’t let this get lost in this morning’s huge news shuffle:

BILL ROGGIO: U.S. Military Hits Islamic State in Yemen.

BABY STEPS: Saudi Arabia will allow women to attend sporting events in stadiums.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Mueller Indictment, Obama and the Dossier, and Much, Much More.

JOHN STOSSEL: We need private military contractors.

”We did a helicopter resupply mission,” Prince told me. “We showed up with two helicopters and eight people — the Navy was doing it with 35 people.”

I asked, “Why would the Navy use 35 people?”

Prince answered, “The admiral that says, ‘I need 35 people to do that mission,’ didn’t pay for them. When you get a free good, you use a lot more of it.”

Prince also claims the military is slow to adjust. In Afghanistan, it’s “using equipment designed to fight the Soviet Union, (not ideal) for finding enemies living in caves or operating from a pickup truck.”

I suggested that the government eventually adjusts.

”No, they do not,” answered Prince. “In 16 years of warfare, the army never adjusted how they do deployments — never made them smaller and more nimble. You could actually do all the counter-insurgency missions over Afghanistan with propeller-driven aircraft.”

So far, Trump has ignored Prince’s advice. I assume he, like many people, is skeptical of military contractors. The word “mercenary” has a bad reputation.

Congress is authorized by the Constitution to issues letters of marque and reprisal, and there was talk in the early days after 9/11 (at least in the blogosphere) of doing just that against al Qaeda. Nothing came of it, but after 16 years that looks more and more like a mistake.

MAKING A MOLEHILL OUT OF A MOUNTAIN: “This Is A Big Problem” – North Korea Nuclear Test Site Headed For A Devastating Collapse.

A group of Chinese scientists have joined their North American peers in warning that North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear site could be on the verge of a dangerous collapse that could send a dangerous bloom of radiation floating over the border into Northern China.

As we’ve previously reported, China has stepped up its radiation monitoring on the border after detecting unsettling seismic activity surrounding the test site. Two weeks ago, a team of American scientists warned that the mountain above Pyungge-ri appeared to be suffering from “tired mountain syndrome” – a phenomenon commonly observed around Soviet Nuclear test sites.

And now in an effort to dissuade the North from carrying out another potentially destabilizing test, the South China Morning Post is reporting that a team of Chinese geologists warned their North Korean counterparts of a potentially catastrophic collapse of an underground nuclear test site on China’s doorstep during a briefing in Beijing last month.

Beijing should have reined in its rogue ally years ago.

MICHAEL LEDEEN: Did Putin Really Want Trump to Win?

The Kremlin was probably less vested in any particular candidate than it is in discrediting the American political system — an effort they’re being ably abetted in by the DNC-Media Complex.

THE REAL MINIMUM WAGE IS ALWAYS ZERO: Robots to help stock shelves at 50 Walmart stores.

DID SARAH HOYT HAPPEN TO LEAVE HER SHOCKED FACE HERE LAST NIGHT? Rouhani says Iran will keep producing missiles, state TV reports.

WELL, YES: To win in 2018, Democrats must resist moving further left.

Democratic strategist Tyler Jones:

Instead of pursuing the unrealistic goal of single-payer healthcare in 2017, we should be laser-focused on putting a stop to the opioid epidemic that is literally killing off thousands of young people every day in small towns across the country.

We must demonstrate a priority and commitment to jobs and opportunities for American citizens who work hard and play by the rules.

Instead of looking to figures like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to move the party forward, we should be listening to Governors like Steve Bullock of Montana and Roy Cooper of North Carolina who actually won elections in red states.

If we want to win again, Democrats must get out of the bubbles of New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and listen to the rest of America again.

Democrats mistook Barack Obama’s personal popularity for approval of his progressive agenda, which voters chose to frustrate in every Congressional election since 2010 — and in local elections, state houses, and governors’ mansion, too. As has been noted many times before, Obama presided over the loss of about 1,000 Democrat-held offices.

The “bubbles” Jones worries about are the Democrat Remnant’s safe spaces. And while Jones is correct that Democrats need to start listening to Americans outside of those safe spaces — that’s not what safe spaces are for. They’re places to retreat, to close ones eyes, cover one’s ears, and chant “Na-na-na-na-na I can’t hear you.”

I’m not saying Democrats can’t change, but that they probably won’t until they’ve been beaten badly enough to understand that they can’t win elections and openly the disdain bitter clingers and all those other undesirables out in Flyover Country.

LISTICLE: The Best Albums of the George W. Bush Presidency.

WHAT’D HE DO? Sexual Assault Allegations Make Bill O’Reilly ‘Mad at God.’

SPENGLER: Catalonia Declares Independence and Deserves Support.

CAN’T THEY DO ANYTHING RIGHT? Millennials Are Blamed For Falling Beer Sales In The U.S.

RON RADOSH: Will Bannon or the GOP Establishment Prevail? The Internal Fight Deepens.

OUCH: iPhone X screen repair will cost $279.

By all accounts it’s a gorgeous screen, but you’ll want a case for it.

TRIGGER WARNING: The 5 Most Inappropriate Halloween Displays of 2017.

KOWTOWING: American Social Media Silence Chinese Dissident.

NEWSWEEK: Why Are All the Conservative Loudmouths Irish-American?

The author, Van Gosse, “teaches history at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.”

MATCH-MATCH-MATCH-MATCH.COM: About 100k Brits Have Profiles on Muslim Polygamy Site.

GOOD LORD: Victims Of Vegas Massacre Being Harassed, Threatened By Conspiracy Theorists.

SEA STORY: Two women and their dogs rescued after 5 months adrift in the Pacific.

The group had left Hawaii in the spring, bound for Tahiti, but ran into trouble on May 30 when bad weather damaged their sailboat’s engine. The women decided to keep sailing, but strayed off course, according to the Navy.

After two months — past the time they estimated they would arrive in Tahiti — the Honolulu residents began sending out daily distress calls, the Navy said.

But they were too far away from other boats and shore stations to be heard.

“You can’t get any help at all because you’re in the middle of nowhere,” Fuiava said in the call.

Appel and Fuiava survived on a year’s worth of dry goods including oatmeal, pasta and rice, the Navy said. They also had a water purifier.

Sounds like they were prepared for the worst.

IT’S NO WONDER, GIVEN ALL THE SUBSIDIES THEY TAKE FROM EVERY OTHER INDUSTRY: Renewable energy is creating US jobs twice as fast as any other industry.

Other people’s money is not a renewable resource, as Margaret Thatcher might say today.

BRUCE BAWER: Mute Inglorious Meryls?