HERE WE GO AGAIN: MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ Addresses Harassment Allegations Against Mark Halperin.

“Now to a story that broke overnight involving someone you see around this table every day. CNN is reporting allegations regarding our friend Mark Halperin during his time at ABC News over a decade ago, unnamed sources detailing unwanted advances and inappropriate behavior. Halperin apologized for the pain his actions caused and said “I will take a step pack from my day-to-day work while I properly address the situation.,” said co-host Mika Brzezinski, facing the camera. “We are going to be following this story as it develops I’m sure we are going to be talking about it again when we know more about it.” She did not address whether NBC News had taken any action regarding Halperin’s status as a contributor to the program.

CNN reports that “Halperin would leave his roles at that network and as an analyst at NBC News.” So there doesn’t seem to be much doubt that there’s at least some truth to the allegations about Mika’s “friend.”

Is the infotainment industry just as rife with sexual misbehavior as the entertainment industry? Stay tuned…

BACK TO THE FUTURE: China Edges Closer to One-Man Rule.

In unveiling a new top leadership lineup without a potential successor to Mr. Xi on Wednesday, the Communist Party edged closer to resurrecting one-man rule, four decades after the death of Chairman Mao.

The parade of the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee onto a red-carpeted podium in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People was the climax of a twice-a-decade process that placed Mr. Xi on a par with Mao in the party constitution and positioned him as pre-eminent leader even beyond his second five-year term.

Concentrating such power in Mr. Xi—who can now make policy and personnel choices virtually uncontested—draws to an emphatic end an era of collective leadership. It also represents a historic gamble.

Mr. Xi is calculating that strongman rule will make it easier to add China to the ranks of rich, global powers and to project Chinese power globally. An early test of the latter comes in just a few weeks, when U.S. President Donald Trump is due to visit Beijing.

The risk is a political culture that rewards loyalty over initiative, in which it is harder for the leadership to astutely address complex challenges.

There’s also the problem of legitimacy. Democracies and democratic republics hold ritualized revolts every few years, in which the people get to throw the bastards out and put in some new ones. Through that process, tensions are released and at least some legitimacy is restored.

China’s rule-by-communist-conensus allowed for an orderly transfer of power, but never faced any real stresses like mass unemployment or a long an unpopular war. But now Xi is betting that he doesn’t need the consensus fig leaf, or even the appearance of orderliness.

We’ll see how he fares.

STEPHEN KRUISER: The GOP Didn’t Abandon Jeff Flake, He Abandoned His Constituents.

COULD IT BE… SATAN 2? Russia to test new missile ‘that can beat any defences.’

The RS-28 is destined to replace R-36, nicknamed SS-18 Satan by Nato.

Weighing 100 tonnes and with a range of about 6,200 miles, the Sarmat will carry up to 16 warheads and, according to Moscow, will be capable of beating any missile defence system.

It could carry a payload capable of destroying an area “the size of Texas or France”, according to Zvezda, the defence ministry’s television channel.

First tests of the Sarmat were planned for last year but had to be put back. They were delayed again in March because the launch silo was not ready, and then in April because of a missile fault.

Whatever Russia’s financial and production problems are, the most recent US land-based ICBM, the Minuteman III, ended its production run in 1978.

HEADS UP: North Korea threat of ‘most powerful’ nuclear bomb test should be taken literally, foreign minister warns.

Dramatically upping the stakes as it showcases its bolstered military prowess, North Korea last month conducted its first test of a powerful hydrogen bomb. Shortly afterward, the country’s foreign minister responded to Donald Trump’s threat to “totally destroy” North Korea by saying the country could conduct the “strongest hydrogen bomb test over the Pacific Ocean”.

It was not an idle warning, according to senior diplomat Ri Yong Pil, who told CNN the possibility was meant to be taken “literally”.

“The foreign minister is very well aware of the intentions of our supreme leader, so I think you should take his words literally,” Mr Ri told CNN.

This is China’s baby, so the leadership in Beijing ought to give some thought to how they’d react to a nuclear test announcement from Seoul, Tokyo, or Taipei.

OK THEN: Trump’s Lack of Diversity is Weakening National Security, Top Dem Argues.

OH: De Blasio spending over $3M a year to keep repeat offenders out of jail.

TYLER O’NEIL: 5 Potential Conservative Replacements for Sen. Jeff Flake Besides Kelli Ward.

Ward’s own former advisors (who came to her from Breitbart) have disavowed their own candidate.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Progressive, “Fair Wage” Pizza Shop Closing Its Doors.

JAMES HOHMANN: Flake and Corker feel liberated to speak their minds. That should terrify Trump.

But a much better outcome for President Trump would have been if Flake ran and lost in the primary. Public and private polls showed that he was deeply vulnerable to a challenge from anyone aligned with the administration.

Flake was building up a serious campaign apparatus, and his advisers were telling him that he had to be cautious. If he had decided to take his chances, the senator’s critiques of Trump would have been very measured. If he subsequently lost in a primary, it would be much easier for the president’s allies to dismiss future attacks as sour grapes from a senator scorned.

— Flake’s decision to retire means that he gets to leave the Senate on his own terms and apparently that entails going full “Bulworth.”

In an op-ed for The Post, Flake explains that he decided not to seek reelection in order “to remove all considerations of what is normally considered to be safe politically.”

“For the next 14 months, relieved of the strictures of politics, I will be guided only by the dictates of conscience,” he promises. “It’s time we all say: Enough.”

I fail to see how a Republican Senator who has annoyed his own constituents so much that he doomed himself in the coming primary becomes somehow more powerful now that he has no constituency at all.

P.S. Bulworth’s outspoken antics won him his primary, James.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Clinton Corruption Update for October 25, 2017.

QUESTION ASKED: Can Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman drag his fundamentalist country into the 21st Century?

WHAT’S THE POINT? Genetically modified pigs bred with 24% less fat.

THE DAM HAS BURST: Actress Dominique Huett Sues Weinstein Co. for Covering Up Harvey Weinstein’s Alleged Sexual Assaults.

STEPHEN KRUISER: Tapper Reaffirms Hack Status, Compares Trump to McCarthy.

Video at the link.

THE 21ST CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT THE WAY I’D HOPED: Americans Are Retiring Later, Dying Sooner and Sicker In-Between.

BOOM: For full effect, Trump dossier subpoena needed full power of House behind it. Ryan has just provided that.

That’s just the tweet. Byron York has the full writeup here.

The meat:

Fusion resisted Nunes’ subpoenas partly on the grounds that he had “recused” himself from the investigation (Nunes says he never did) and that therefore the subpoenas were not valid. Other lawmakers believe Nunes’ weakness is also part of the FBI’s calculation in resisting a dossier-related subpoena from the House committee.

Nunes subpoenaed the FBI for information on the dossier on August 24. So far the bureau has not provided any information.

That is why Ryan’s support is critical. For a House committee’s subpoena to have maximum effect, it must have the power of the House of Representatives, in the person of the Speaker of the House, behind it.

Which is what Ryan did Wednesday morning. “We’ve had these document requests with the administration, the FBI in particular, for a long time, and they’ve been stonewalling,” Ryan said in an interview with Reuters. “The FBI and the Justice Department need to give Congress the documents it has been requesting, and they need to do so immediately.”

On York’s reporting on this story earlier today, Glenn noted that “People should be fired — and, quite possibly, prosecuted — over this.”

Help drain that swamp, Mr. Speaker. (Bumped).

RETAIL BLUES: Sears will stop selling Whirlpool appliances for first time in a century.

Sears will still sell Kenmore-branded appliances which are manufactured by Whirlpool, but the two companies couldn’t reach an agreement allowing Sears to keep selling the bigger nameplate.

DRAGNET: DOJ Subpoenas Twitter About Popehat, Dissent Doe And Others Over A Smiley Emoji Tweet.

It’s a subpoena asking for information on the following five Twitter users: @dawg8u (“Mike Honcho”), @abtnatural (“Virgil”), @Popehat (Ken White), @associatesmind (Keith Lee) and @PogoWasRight (Dissent Doe). I’m pretty sure we’ve talked about three of those five in previous Techdirt posts. Either way, they’re folks who are quite active in legal/privacy issues on Twitter.

And what info does the DOJ want on them? Well, basically everything:

1. Names (including subscriber names, user names, and screen names);

2. Addresses (including mailing addresses, residential addresses, business addresses, and e-mail addresses);

3. Records of session times and durations, and the temporarily assigned network addresses (such as Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses) associated with those sessions;

4. Length of service (including start date) and types of service utilized;

5. Telephone or instrument numbers (including MAC addresses, Electronic Serial Numbers (“ESN”), Mobile Electronic Identity Numbers (“MEIN”), Mobile Equipment Identifier (“MEID”), Mobile Identification Numbers (“MIN”), Subscriber Identity Modules (“SIM”), Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network Numbers (“MSISDND”), International Mobile Subscriber Identifier (“IMSI”), or International Mobile Equipment Identities (“IMEI”));

6. Other subscriber numbers or identities, or associated accounts (including the registration Internet Protocol (“IP”) address);

7. Means and source of payment for such service (including any credit card or bank account number) and billing records.

That’s a fair bit of information. Why the hell would the DOJ want all that? Would you believe it appears to be over a single tweet from someone to each of those five individuals that consists entirely of a smiley face? I wish I was kidding.

Read the whole thing.

DON’T BE WEEVILS: PragerU Sues YouTube, Google For ‘Intentional’ Censorship of Conservative Speakers.

COMMISSAR CAUGHT COMMISSARING: China’s Anti-Corruption Czar, Accused of Corruption, to Step Down.

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: Obama-era uranium deal yields new questions, new accusations and new investigation.

FBI investigations are typically not disclosed at the time they are ongoing, so it is possible that the government officials involved in approving the Uranium One deal were not aware of the criminal investigation at the time of the approval. CNN spoke with Ronald Hosko, assistant FBI director in charge of criminal cases at the time of the investigation, who said that he wasn’t aware of the ongoing probe, saying it was handled on the counterintelligence side of the bureau. Counterintelligence investigations are some of the most closely held in the FBI. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee at the time of the probe, also told The Hill that he was never informed about the FBI probe either.

The informant who played a crucial role in the FBI investigation is now trying to speak out, but his attorney says he is barred by a non-disclosure agreement the FBI made him sign. A law enforcement source familiar with the process said it is common for cooperating witnesses to sign non-disclosure agreements when the investigation involves national security concerns, as it did in this case. However, these agreements are typically narrowly written, and do not typically prevent individuals from speaking to Congress about what they learned in the ordinary course of business while simultaneously working as an informant, the source said. However, the source says the agreement would prevent any disclosure of information that was gleaned while working closely with federal investigators as it pertained to the investigation itself.

The informant’s attorney tells CNN the informant has a lot of information about corruption that has not come out yet. In particular, the attorney maintains that while the FBI investigation was going on, FBI agents told the informant that President Barack Obama was being briefed on the probe, and that’s why the informant was so stunned when the Uranium One deal was approved in 2010. Obama’s representative declined to comment.

That’s an awful lot of official silence for something which Hillary Clinton says is “baloney.”

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Dirty Dossier, RUSSIANS, Manafort, and Much, Much More.

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Venezuelan Oil Cargoes to U.S. Ports Plunge as Sanctions Bite.

Oil sales to U.S. buyers have fallen for two straight months and now are 56 percent lower than their 2016 average, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Ever since President Donald Trump slammed the regime of Nicolas Maduro with sanctions in August, American refiners have found banks reluctant to provide letters of credit for purchases of oil from state-controlled Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

The quality of Venezuelan oil has also been called into question. At least one U.S. refiner has rejected oil that arrived laced with as much as four times as much water as it should have. Water content in oil cargoes is closely watched by chemical engineers because excessive quantities can damage sensitive oil-processing equipment.

Shoddy product will do more harm to Venezuela’s economy than sanctions ever could, but Yankee Imperialist sanctions will take the blame.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: 0 for 4! ‘Geostorm’ Latest Climate Change Flop.

Maybe the problem with socialist agitprop movies is that they just don’t have the right producers in charge.