THERE ARE CERTAIN SECTIONS OF FLYOVER COUNTRY, COMRADE, THAT I WOULDN’T ADVISE YOU TO TRY TO INVADE: Communist Front Group ‘Refuse Fascism’ Plans Nov. 4 Revolution to Unseat Trump.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: As Democrats denounce Weinstein, Clintons and Obama stay mum.

Longtime Hillary Clinton aides have been confused by the former secretary of state’s silence on the issue, questioning — in private — why she has not weighed in at all.

Weinstein has long been a Clinton donor with ties to the political family. Weinstein was one of many from Hollywood who donated to Bill Clinton’s legal defense fund in the 1990s, a Washington Post report from the time stated. More recently, the Clintons rented a home next to Weinstein in the Hamptons in 2015, and Weinstein served as a connector between Hollywood stars and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Weinstein raised about $1.5 million from 1990-2016, according to data from the campaign finance-tracking Center for Responsive Politics, and was a bundler for Clinton’s 2016 effort, including at a star-studded fundraiser for Clinton in June 2016 at Weinstein’s Manhattan home.

Clinton personally headlined multiple fundraisers Weinstein was involved in organizing during the campaign.

CRP’s OpenSecrets website shows Weinstein was a bundler for Obama as well, and the Hollywood giant visited the White House on several occasions during Obama’s tenure. At a White House event for student films in 2013, first lady Michelle Obama credited Weinstein for making the event happen and praised him as a wonderful person and a good friend.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has been outspoken on the issue of sexual assault, also has not appeared to make any public statements about Weinstein since the report came out, and the Biden Foundation did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The only Girl Power that Hillary has ever been interested in is her own, but how to interpret Obama’s reticence, given his status as our most vociferous former President?

Meanwhile, it’s business as usual in Clintonland.

DEROY MURDOCK: Trump’s Delicious Tax Cut.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) proposes a simple postcard for filing typical tax returns. Rather than the current 1040 form’s 79 lines, Ryan’s postcard contains 14. With nearly every deduction and exemption discarded — beside the home-mortgage and charitable write-offs — there simply would be fewer lines to fill.

This should cheer Americans who struggle to machete their way through today’s tax system. The IRS’s Amazon jungle is impenetrable, menacing, and plagued by pitfalls at every turn. Last month in North Dakota, Trump called America’s tax structure “outdated, complex, and extremely burdensome.” He further lamented the “billions of hours wasted on paperwork and on compliance.” He added: “Our tax code is a giant self-inflicted economic wound.”

Genuine reform isn’t just cutting rates or eliminating brackets, it’s making the tax code transparent and free of cronyism. That’s why the bipartisan Tax Reform Act of 1986 was so revolutionary, and why it was so quickly corrupted by succeeding Administrations and Congresses.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Weinstein & Vegas Shooter Updates, ESPN Fiasco and Much, Much More.

SMART: Walmart’s Latest Attempt at Making Life Easier and Getting You Off Amazon.

Through Walmart’s Mobile Express Returns, beginning next month, Walmart customers can use the retailer’s app to initiate a return, completing the process by dropping the item off at any store’s Mobile Express Lane and scanning the app’s QR code.

The new mobile returns will be available first for Walmart.com purchases, with in-store purchases added early next year. Walmart also said it’s currently planning a similar returns process for items purchased from third-party sellers on Walmart.com.

Additionally, beginning in December, for some items like shampoo and cosmetics, Walmart customers can be refunded on the app without needing to return the item to stores at all.

It’s become popular in some circles to threaten antitrust against Amazon, but before going down that road it might behoove us to see what else Walmart (and others) come up with.

YOU WILL BE MADE TO CARE: New California law allows jail time for using wrong gender pronoun, sponsor denies that would happen.

The sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, has argued adamantly that nobody is going to be criminally prosecuted for using the wrong pronoun.

“It’s just more scare tactics by people who oppose all LGBT civil rights and protections,” he said in a statement last month.

But the language seemingly allows for the possibility, however remote.

The bill itself is aimed at protecting transgender and other LGBT individuals in hospitals, retirement homes and assisted living facilities. The bill would ensure those facilities accommodate transgender people and their needs, including letting them decide which gender-specific bathroom they prefer to use.

“It shall be unlawful for a long-term care facility or facility staff to take any of the following actions wholly or partially on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status,” the bill reads.

Among the unlawful actions are “willfully and repeatedly” failing to use a transgender person’s “preferred name or pronouns” after he or she is “clearly informed of the preferred name or pronouns.”

The law states that if provisions are violated, the violator could be punished by a fine “not to exceed one thousand dollars” or “by imprisonment in the county jail for a period not to exceed one year,” or both.

In California, a simple human misunderstanding is now a misdemeanor. Because rights, or something.

JONI ERNST: Trump Tweets Haven’t ‘Worsened the Situation at All’ with North Korea.

In fact, they might be helping.

VIDEO: Lauren Sivan Describes the Time Harvey Weinstein Sexually Assaulted Her.

HOLY LAWFARE: Turkey Now Targeting Academic Freedom in Europe.

OH: Devil in the Details. “Tesla has little chance of hitting its 5,000 weekly output during the fourth quarter. The chief reason: Its current production line can’t build vehicles at that rate unless it runs two 10-hour shifts seven days a week, which is unlikely.”

More:

A source in position to know says a second body shop mirroring Fremont’s would be required to support the high volume Musk has forecast. “I understand they’re talking about a second body shop,” he says, “but I can’t see them reaching 2,500 to 3,000 weekly until the end of next year” with current production facilities.

Tesla had a slow launch to full production for both the Model S and Model X, but Musk already is looking to add future SUVs and even pickups.

Knowledgeable sources say Tesla’s Model 3 launch has been hampered by all manner of problems, some self-inflicted because of Musk’s disdain for using development and production processes honed by traditional auto makers.

Most importantly, Tesla bypassed production prototyping typically used by auto makers to catch glitches before gearing up for high-volume output and instead sought to save time by using a “pilot line” to check out processes. “Using prototyping you can make changes and it doesn’t cost as much,” says one source.

At some point, the hundreds of thousands of people who placed a deposit on a Model 3 are going to expect to take delivery — either of a car or of a refund.

DOUBLING DOWN: ESPN’s Jamele Hill Urges Fans To Boycott Anti-Kneeling NFL Advertisers.

If Hill was just trying to give ESPN’s sad ratings another bump, she’ll have to try something else for the next two weeks since ESPN just suspended her.

NOTHING FROM TONY BENNETT’S DECADE-LONG CREATIVE AND COMMERCIAL COMEBACK? The Best Albums of the Bill Clinton Presidency.

HISTORY: In one of America’s worst “Broken Arrow” incidents, a B-52 carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed on the ice off Greenland.

BOTS ARE PEOPLE, TOO? 83% Bots: We Told You The Power Grab ‘Comment Period’ Is Titanically Stupid.

Seton Motley explains:

We were just subjected to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “Comment Period” – as the Donald Trump FCC reasonably engages in the government process of undoing the heinous Barack Obama Administration FCC power grab known as “Network Neutrality.”

(Yes, we have to “Comment Period” again when we rightly undo “Comment Period”-ed power grabs.)

How’d that go?

80% Of All Net Neutrality Comments Sent By Bots, Claim Researchers

What’s a “bot?”: “An Internet bot, also known as web robot, WWW robot or simply bot, is a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone.”

Get all that? We have unelected bureaucrats. At little known bureaucracies. Engaging, nigh always, in huge power grabs. For which they have little renowned “Comment Periods.” During which they pretend to listen…to a bunch of non-human respondents.

Automated autocracy.

SHOCKING ADMISSION FROM DIANE FEINSTEIN: No Law Would Have Stopped Vegas Gunman.

RELATED ITEM FROM THE PARTY OF YOUTH: Feinstein says she is running for reelection.

LARRY O’CONNOR: Why My Fellow Conservatives Are Wrong To Target Films And Video Games Defending Gun Rights.

On Sunday’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper on CNN former Senator (and presidential candidate) Rick Santorum suggested violent acts depicted in television programming, films and video games bear some responsibility on gun violence and, in particular, mass shootings.
…
It’s a common (and, frankly, predictable) response from social conservatives trying to parry and deflect attacks on the right to keep and bear arms and it’s a clever rhetorical diversion often employed by my fellow conservatives while engaged in these television debates where they often find themselves grossly outnumbered by the panelists and usually the moderator.

But it’s an ill-advised tactic and they’re wrong in raising the notion that the First Amendment should be infringed upon for the sake of keeping the Second Amendment intact.

Santorum is a scold, and nobody likes a scold.

MORALE: VA hospital changes course (again), will allow Pin-Up visit.

Veterans Affairs officials in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, spiked an appearance by two “pin-ups” at the VA hospital next week, saying the planned giveaway of calendars featuring female military veterans dressed in 1940s vintage clothing “may contribute to the disrespect of women Veterans.”

Models with Pin-Ups for Vets, a nonprofit whose annual calendar has raised more than $56,000 for veterans causes ― including medical equipment for VA facilities, per the charity’s website ― have made more than 60 visits to VA installations, along with trips to military bases and other appearances.

Founder Gina Elise said she confirmed the Oct. 10 appearance late last month; Elise and Marine Corps veteran and fellow vintage model Tess Rutherford already had travel booked from California when they received word that the visit had “been deemed inappropriate by the leadership.”

But then:

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Veterans Affairs leadership contacted Pin-Ups for Vets to allow representatives to visit while “at the same time maintaining an environment that is respectful of all the Veterans we serve,” according to a statement. The move reverts the change outlined in the below story. No further details were immediately available.

Notice that the VA’s retraction of the retraction of the invitation includes language vague enough that Gina Elise and company could find that a perfectly innocent visit still gets them into hot water with the VA.

BOB CORKER: Trump Tweets Have Hurt Negotiations, Could Pave ‘Path to WWIII.’

PROCUREMENT BLUES: The U.S. Navy will start losing its largest surface combatants in 2020.

In 2020, the cruisers Mobile Bay and Bunker Hill will reach their service life of 35 years and are slated for decommissioning. But despite the age of the hulls, some observers are loathed to see the cruisers go, especially given that there is no immediate replacement for the 567-foot ship that bristles with 122 vertical launch missile tubes and two five-inch guns.

“I think the right idea is the put them in to a [service life extension program] and keep them in the fleet,” said Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and analyst with the Center for a New American Security. “It’s cheaper to do that than a new build.

“Furthermore you have 122 VLS tubes in there, and if you are replacing these with the [Arleigh Burke-class destroyers] you get a 25 percent decrease in the number of cells. We really need those tubes. We need the mass – we need the capacity.”

According to the Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan, the Navy will continue to have between 98 and 100 large surface combatants in the fleet during the years the cruisers are decommissioning. The Navy is systematically putting its newest 11 cruisers in layup to modernize them and extend their service life into the late 2030s. But a decommissioning schedule obtained by Defense News shows the oldest 11 cruisers will be out of the fleet by the end of 2026.

It’s going to be extremely difficult to enlarge the fleet at this rate.

SALENA ZITO: This die-hard Democratic city is about to turn Republican.

If John Persinger wins the mayoral race in Erie, Pa., next month, it just might be the greatest local political upset in America this century. A Republican candidate has not been elected mayor here since 1961, when JFK was president.

Tall, witty, energetic and razor-sharp, Persinger is not the guy you’d expect to settle in a town like Erie. He is the kind of person who leaves, moves on to blazing success elsewhere and never returns.
…
The city is affordable, the housing is charming. It is both a college town (there are three: Mercyhurst, Gannon and Penn State Behrend) and a tourist town (miles and miles of beaches along the lake). It boasts some of the top medical facilities in the country, and it is also a company town (Erie Insurance is one of the top employers).

But it is also a struggling city, where schools are hurting financially, the opioid epidemic is rampant and the manufacturing base is collapsing — all factors that led Erie County residents to vote for a Republican president in 2016, the first since Ronald Reagan.

The city of Erie, however, is a different story — Hillary Clinton won all 69 of its voting districts over Donald Trump.

So can 35-year-old Persinger convince his townspeople to turn red? It’s not impossible. And while he is nothing like the president in terms of temperament and style, the two politicians do share a key quality — tapping into voters’ willingness for change.

Fascinating profile, highly recommended.

IN A WORD? GOVERNMENT. Why Energy-Rich Australia Suffers the World’s Priciest Power.

New Yorkers pay half as much as Sydneysiders to keep the lights on, despite Australia boasting among the world’s largest coal and natural gas reserves, as well as ideal conditions for clean power generation. A decade of political dithering and climate policy missteps have set its patchwork power system adrift, ratcheting up manufacturing costs and hurting consumers with a doubling in electricity prices since last year and rising risks of blackouts.

“It is not a bit of a mess, it is a major mess,” said Sanjeev Gupta, 46, the British billionaire owner of Liberty House Group, who saw firsthand the effects of policy neglect after buying an ailing steel-making business in blackout-beleaguered South Australia in July.

Natural gas was meant to bridge the electricity supply gap left by the shutdown of decaying coal-fired stations and the gradual shift to solar and wind energy. But rising exports of the fuel to higher-paying overseas buyers created a local shortage.

With no long-term solution in sight, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull threatened gas producers with export restrictions unless they plugged the domestic shortfall. The government is also trying to convince power generators to patch up old and dilapidated coal-run stations, prolonging dependence on a fossil fuel the rest of the developed world is spurning.

Forced scarcity and other market distortions lead to shortages and higher prices — who knew?

SO IT’S COME TO THIS: Detroit Firefighter Fired for Bringing Watermelon to Station House.

HMM: Google uncovers Russian-bought ads on YouTube, Gmail and other platforms.

Google previously downplayed the problem of Russian meddling on its platforms. Last month, Google spokeswoman Andrea Faville told The Washington Post that the company is “always monitoring for abuse or violations of our policies and we’ve seen no evidence this type of ad campaign was run on our platforms.”

Nevertheless, Google launched an investigation into the matter, as Congress pressed technology companies to determine how Russian operatives used social media, online advertising, and other digital tools to influence the 2016 presidential contest and foment discord in U.S. society.

Google declined to provide a comment for this story. The people familiar with its investigation said that the company is looking at a set of ads that cost less than $100,000 and that it is still sorting out whether all of the ads came from trolls or whether some originated from legitimate Russian accounts.

A sub-$100,000 ad buy is nothing in a virtually billion-dollar campaign. Reportedly, the ads were purchased to promote “Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and the Green party candidate Jill Stein,” who were all “certain” losers. So it still seems that the Kremlin was less interested in influencing the result of the election than in sowing dissent in the American public. On that score, they have been ably abetted by the mainstream media and high-level members of the Democratic Party.

WE CAN HOPE: Why Trump Will Decertify The JCPOA Iran Nuke Deal On Thurs.

The beltway buzz is the Trump administration will use the two-month window and the leverage built by the lack of certification to try and negotiate a fix of the deal’s worst flaws. Indeed, there were unsubstantiated Reuters reports at the end of last week that Iran has signaled to France and Britain that it is willing to have talks about its ballistic missile program.

The biggest reason for the President’s decision not to certify may be the IAEA’s recent announcement that has been unable to verify “Section T” of the agreement, which outlines “Activities which could contribute to the design and development of a nuclear explosive device”

Jeff Dunetz has full details at the link.

BLUFF AND BLUSTER: Iran Threatens US Bases if New Sanctions Are Imposed.