LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Sessions Testimony, Cruz Explains Robin Hood to Bernie and Much, Much More.

JESSICA VALENTI: #MeToo named the victims. Now, let’s list the perpetrators.

At first I didn’t understand what made me so uncomfortable about #MeToo – after all, the more women sharing their stories and raising their voices, the better. And though we all know the statistics around sexual violence, it can be easy to think of these things in terms of numbers rather than people. So why not humanize the issue?

Then I realized: we’ve done this so many times before. Told our stories, raised our hands. Do we really need to bleed ourselves dry once again? How many times will we need to lay our traumas bare in the hope that this will finally be the time people care enough to do something about it?

It’s true that telling our stories can help – it can help victims not feel quite so alone and make others understand the breadth and depth of the problem. But the truth is that nothing will really change in a lasting way until the social consequences for men are too great for them to risk hurting us.

Why have a list of victims when a list of perpetrators could be so much more useful?

Indeed.

YOU DON’T SAY: German Officials Say Iran Working to Build Nuclear-Armed Missiles.

German security officials have accused the Iranian regime of pursuing its goal to build missiles armed with nuclear warheads, the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel reported.

“Despite the nuclear agreement [reached with world powers in July 2015], Iran has not given up its illegal activities in Germany. The mullah regime also made efforts this year to obtain material from [German] firms for its nuclear program and the construction of missiles, said security sources,” Der Tagesspiegel wrote on Friday.

The paper added, “Iran has [according to the security sources] clearly not given up its long-term goal to become an nuclear power that can mount nuclear weapons on rockets.”

What a shame this story didn’t hit the papers in time for former President Obama to read about it before he negotiated his nuclear deal with Iran.

FASTER, PLEASE. DEEPER, TOO: Senate Judiciary Committee Launches Probe Into Uranium One Bribery Case, DOJ to Review.

MEGAN FOX: #FakeNewsweek Calls Innocent People Nazis for Criticizing Politics in Wolfenstein II.

THAT’S A FEATURE, NOT A BUG: Democratic Socialists of America’s Drift from Democratic Socialism to Stalinist Totalitarianism.

Link was missing before — fixed now, sorry!

NOT QUICKLY ENOUGH: Is Obama’s Foreign-Policy Legacy Disappearing?

ANALYSIS: TRUE. The Secret To Marriage Is Being Married.

Good stuff from Jazz Shaw today.

ROGER KIMBALL: Donald Trump Is an American Patriot of the Same Stamp as Ronald Reagan.

THE 21ST CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT THE WAY I’D HOPED: Hacked Butt Plug Can Be Controlled “From Anywhere.”

WALTER DURANTY, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Making the World Safe for Communism — Again.

A recent surge of Communist nostalgia suggests that a Marxist revival of sorts may be afoot in some elite American quarters. Nowhere is this more apparent than in “Red Century,” the New York Times editorial page’s yearlong series of op-eds commemorating the centenary of the October Revolution.

A handful of “Red Century” op-eds were critical of the Communist legacy. Yet readers won’t find among the 35 published so far a detailed treatment of the horrors of the gulag. Nor will they find coverage of the misery that socialist regimes in Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, and elsewhere inflict on their citizens to this day. There are no accounts of the persecution of Christians under Communism regimes, past and present. Young readers unfamiliar with history will learn about Star Trek’s supposed debt to Marxist ideology, but they won’t encounter major Cold War heroes such as Vaclav Havel, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, John Paul II, and others who inspired Communist citizens to live in truth.

We know which side the New York Times is on — we’ve always known.

BRITISH NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE TO SMOKERS, OBESE PEOPLE: Drop dead!

SCIENCE: This Man Got a PhD in Threesomes.

SO IT’S COME TO THIS: Man Spits on Homeless Guy for ‘Making His Grandmother a Slave.’

UNDERREPORTED HISTORY: The Lost Opportunity to Terminate the Kim Il Sung Dynasty.

This is a slightly longer piece, but definitely of interest.

OH: Doctor accused of bribing Menendez met with other politicians too.

A wealthy West Palm Beach eye doctor accused of bribing Sen. Bob Menendez wined and dined other politicians, including former Florida governor Charlie Crist, it emerged in Newark federal court on Tuesday.

Flor Melgen, the wife of Dr. Salomon Melgen, testified Tuesday about a weekend in October 2010 when Crist showed up at her house unexpectedly, ate dinner — consisting of Capital Grille takeout — and stayed the night.

He then handed Flor a $100 check for the cost of the meal and his stay.

“He knew that my husband was Bob’s [Menendez] friend and he was wondering if he might be with him,” Flor told the jury about the surprise visit.

The defense said the purpose of the testimony was to illustrate to the jury that Menendez, who flew Melgen’s private jet that same weekend, was in Florida for an official political function.

As such, the flight on Melgen’s private jet as well as a leg on a commercial flight Melgen paid for should have been reimbursed for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — not Menendez, according to Melgen’s lawyers.

The Garden State Democrat stands accused of accepting all-expense-paid trips and private jet flights from Melgen in exchange for political favors, including help with the doctor’s $8.9 million Medicare bill and in obtaining visas for the ophthalmologist’s young girlfriends.

Amazing how little coverage this trial is getting, isn’t it?

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: The Most Powerful Journalist In Hollywood Protected Harvey Weinstein For Years.

HARDBALL: McConnell Floats Names of Failed Tea Party Candidates in Response to Bannon Threat. “What do they all have in common? They’re in private life, and a Democrat is in the Senate.”

YOU DON’T SAY: Neolithic Feasts at Stonehenge Were Not Vegan-Friendly.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE (CONT’D): Snapchat Video Gets California Teacher Arrested For Alleged Sexual Relation With Student.

According to Patch.com, a high school student at Beaumont High School in California, spotted the Snapchat video in August and approached the student, who had reportedly posted it and asked if it was “Mrs. Ciotta.”

“Yes…Bro, I’m getting in deep…been f—–g (Ciotta) and getting threesomes for the past couple weeks (at her house),” the student reportedly responded, according to the documents obtained by Patch.com, a local news organization in New Jersey.

Police have been investigating if the teacher had inappropriate sexual contact with more than just one minor Beaumont High School student, according to Patch.com. Ciotta is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 3.

Beaumont Unified School District officials had been made aware of the video on Sept. 1 and they then contacted the police about the rumors alleging Ciotta appeared half-naked with the alleged victim and other underage students, according to the documents obtained by Patch.com.

Where are the cries about “rape culture” in our high school teaching staffs?

ISIS IN THE CONGO: Video Calls Jihadists to New Turf in Central Africa.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, “DESPITE?” UnitedHealth Revenue Grows Despite ACA Exit.

The latest quarterly results from the nation’s largest health insurer come as the market is facing policy changes related to the ACA. President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order seeking to provide lower-cost plans in the individual insurance market, and he has said his administration will end payments to insurers that offset subsidies to low-income consumers.

Guiding the company through the shifting landscape is David Wichmann, the former UnitedHealth president who took the reins as chief executive Sept. 1. Former CEO Stephen Hemsley now serves as executive chairman.

During a call with analysts, Mr. Wichmann said UnitedHealth has “a great deal of experience in the areas covered” in the president’s executive order, which are short-term health policies, association plans and health-reimbursement arrangements. UnitedHealth said it has around 300,000 people currently enrolled in association plans and the “performance is strong.” The insurer also said it was seeing an “incredible increase in the growth” of short-term plans before the Obama administration capped their duration at three months, and the company would be “excited” to see the Trump administration expand the length again, as the executive order suggested.

Counting on illegal subsidies to sell people plans they don’t want was never a good business model, and UnitedHealth and others were right to exit the ObamaCare faux-marketplaces.

TROLLMASTER: White House Places CNN, MSNBC In The Back Row Of Presser.

The White House placed CNN and MSNBC in the last two rows of the foreign press section during Tuesday’s joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

CNN political analyst and Sentinel editor Brian Karem tweeted Tuesday complaining about the situation.

“I am not saying that they are punishing MSNBC and CNN,” he wrote. “What I am saying is that they are in the last two rows of the foreign press section.”

Maybe the Trump White House really is biased against foreigners.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Tax Reform, Weinstein Fall Out, Vegas Security Guard Surfaces and Much, Much More.

JANE FONDA ON WHETHER SHE’S ‘PROUD’ OF AMERICA: ‘No, but I’m Proud of the Resistance’ Against Trump.

Sackur followed up by asking if it is effective for celebrities to protest Trump at award ceremonies and whether she is “proud of the American today.”

“I don’t know, all I know is, and I say this as a dyed in wool Democrat, the Democratic Party has failed us,” Fonda said. “Clinton failed us, and in a way the Obama administration have all neglected the very people who voted for Trump, who used to be the base of the Democratic Party.”

Before joining any “resistance,” Fonda needs to ask herself why so many Obama voters switched to Trump.