The Commentariat -- October 4, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Elana Schor, et al., of Politico: "Key undecided Republican senators are signaling on Thursday the FBI report on sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh may give them the confidence they need to back the embattled Supreme Court nominee. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) told reporters that 'we've seen no additional corroborating information' about alleged sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh in high school and college, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said the investigation 'appears to be a very thorough' one. But Collins made clear that she remains undecided on Kavanaugh and wants to read more of it herself."

Trump Confirms He's a Lying, Tax-Cheating Crook. Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday criticized a New York Times investigation into his and his family's use of dubious tax schemes over the years and the origins of his own wealth.... 'The Failing New York Times did something I have never seen done before They used the concept of 'time value of money' in doing a very old, boring and often told hit piece on me. Added up, this means that 97% of their stories on me are bad. Never recovered from bad election call!' ... Mr. Trump did not offer an outright denial of the facts in the report, such as that the money he made during his decades in real estate came from tax schemes of dubious legality, the existence of records of deception in documenting the family's financial assets, and that the beginning of the president's so-called self-made fortune dates back to his toddler years when, by the time he was 3 years old, Mr. Trump earned $200,000 a year in today's dollars from his father. Nor did Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... during subsequent briefing with reporters. Asked to identify what in the article was incorrect, she said, 'I won't go through every line of a very boring 14,000-word story.'"

John Wagner & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "As the Senate began reviewing the new FBI report on Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh on Thursday, both Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley and the White House stood by President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, saying the investigation found nothing sufficient to corroborate allegations of sexual misconduct while Kavanaugh was a teenager. 'There's nothing in it that we didn't already know,' Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement after being briefed on the report by his staff. 'It's time to vote.'" Mrs. McC: Thanks, Chuck, for repeating verbatim what we all predicted you would say.

*****

** 1,000+ Law Professors (and Counting), in a New York Times op-ed: "The following letter will be presented to the United States Senate on Oct. 4. It will be updated as more signatures are received. Judicial temperament is one of the most important qualities of a judge. As the Congressional Research Service explains, a judge requires 'a personality that is even-handed, unbiased, impartial, courteous yet firm, and dedicated to a process, not a result.' The concern for judicial temperament dates back to our founding; in Federalist 78, titled 'Judges as Guardians of the Constitution,' Alexander Hamilton expressed the need for 'the integrity and moderation of the judiciary.'... At the Senate hearings on Sept. 27, Judge Brett Kavanaugh displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land.... Judge Kavanaugh exhibited a lack of commitment to judicious inquiry. Instead of being open to the necessary search for accuracy, Judge Kavanaugh was repeatedly aggressive with questioners.... We have differing views about the other qualifications of Judge Kavanaugh. But we are united, as professors of law and scholars of judicial institutions, in believing that he did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of our land." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The law professors' letter is similar to a comment Akhilleus made a couple of days ago. It is an extraordinary letter. First, to get a thousand lawyers to agree is kind of amazing, isn't it? But seriously, many of these attorneys, as they write themselves, "appear in state and federal court." As long as Kavanaugh remains on the bench -- any bench -- some will appear before him. And you can bet Brett is taking names. He's very meticulous in that way (see boyhood calendars). A guy who spent three years harassing the family of Vince Foster, who did nothing to hurt him or anyone else, will be fine with arbitrarily ruling against claimants who happen to have hired these legal experts to plead their cases. ...

... Avery Anapol of the Hill: "The nation's largest coalition of Christian churches on Wednesday called for the withdrawal of Brett Kavanaugh's nomination for the Supreme Court. The National Council of Churches, which has membership from more than 40 denominations including most major Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations in the U.S., wrote in a statement on their website that they believe Kavanaugh has 'disqualified himself from this lifetime appointment and must step aside immediately.' The statement cited a number of reasons for the demand, including Kavanaugh's behavior during his recent testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on sexual assault allegations against him. 'Judge Kavanaugh exhibited extreme partisan bias and disrespect towards certain members of the committee and thereby demonstrated that he possesses neither the temperament nor the character essential for a member of the highest court in our nation,' the statement read. The National Council of Churches alleged that Kavanaugh's testimony included 'several misstatements and some outright falsehoods,' including some related to Christine Blasey Ford's accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party in the 1980s. The group also pointed to what they called Kavanaugh's 'troubling' judicial and political record on some civil rights issues." ...

... Trump Declares Operation Whitewash a Success. Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday declared that the allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are 'totally uncorroborated' and will possibly benefit Republicans in the upcoming midterms. 'The harsh and unfair treatment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh is having an incredible upward impact on voters. The PEOPLE get it far better than the politicians. Most importantly, this great life cannot be ruined by mean & despicable Democrats and totally uncorroborated allegations!' he tweeted." ...

... White House Whitewash Is a Fait Accompli. Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "The White House sent interviews conducted by the F.B.I. to the Senate early Thursday morning and expressed confidence that none of the information collected by agents should stand in the way of the Senate voting to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The material was conveyed to Capitol Hill in the middle of the night, just hours after Senate Republicans set the stage for a pair of votes later in the week to move to final approval of Judge Kavanaugh's nomination. A statement issued by the White House around 2:30 a.m. said the F.B.I. had completed its work and that it represented an unprecedented look at a nominee." (This is an update to a story linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

We will not be intimidated by these people. There is no chance in the world that they're going to scare us out of doing our duty. -- Mitch McConnell, speaking of sex abuse victims ("these people"), in a Senate floor speech Wednesday

From the man who single-handedly delayed the filling of Justice Scalia's seat for 10 months to complain about a one-week delay to get the truth -- give me a break. It is classic diversionary, blame-the-other-person tactics when he himself is the master of delay. It is galling, appalling, to hear day after day the majority leader get on his high horse about delay, when he almost invented the word when it comes to judicial nominations. -- Chuck Schumer, Wednesday ...

... Carl Hulse & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Underscoring his commitment [to placing a lying, crazed, drunken (alleged) violent sex criminal on the Supreme Court], Mr. McConnell took the procedural steps later Wednesday to set up a key test vote on Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation for Friday." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I happened to see part of Mitch's late-night floor speech. I got the feeling he thought Kavanaugh would not be confirmed, but that he doesn't really mind because, as Hulse & Martin note, he warned the White House before the nomination that "Kavanaugh's long history and paper trail in Washington would present complications." That said, I usually misread reptiles. ...

... But It Is a Secret Whitewash! Eliza Collins & David Jackson of USA Today: "Republicans are planning a careful choreography for the results of the FBI's background probe into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, including sending only a single copy to Capitol Hill that will be housed in a safe. The FBI report, which officials said will include interviews about Kavanaugh's conduct in high school, will first go to the White House and then to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where lawmakers will read it in a secure location. Senate Republicans are planning the cautious approach amid a debate over how much of the FBI's investigation into Kavanaugh's past -- including allegations of sexual assault -- should be available for public view. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said only senators will be able to see the results of the FBI's work. A handful of Senate aides may view it as well." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Earlier FBI Background Checks Did Not Give Kavanaugh a Clean Bill. Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "In anticipation of the [FBI] report's arrival, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday night teed up a key vote to advance Kavanaugh's nomination for Friday. Until that vote, senators will be rushing in and out of a secure facility at the Capitol to review the sensitive FBI report that the bureau has compiled, looking into allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh.... The developments came as Senate Democrats opened a new front in their objections to the investigations of Kavanaugh's conduct, suggesting in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) that past FBI background checks of Kavanaugh include evidence of inappropriate behavior, without disclosing specifics. The letter, signed by eight of the 10 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, challenged the accuracy of a tweet from the committee's Republican staff on Tuesday that said: 'Nowhere in any of these six FBI reports, which the committee has reviewed on a bipartisan basis, was there ever a whiff of ANY issue -- at all -- related in any way to inappropriate sexual behavior or alcohol abuse.'... 'If the committee majority is going to violate that confidentiality and characterize this background investigation publicly, you must at least be honest about it.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As you may recall, in Kavanaugh's first confirmation hearings, questions by some Democratic Senators -- Mazie Hirono & Kamala Harris -- suggested the previous background checks held some dark secrets. ...

... White House Whitewash, Ctd. Leigh Ann Caldwell & Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "More than 40 people with potential information into the sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh have not been contacted by the FBI, according to multiple sources that include friends of both the nominee and his accusers. The bureau is expected to wrap up its expanded background investigation as early as Wednesday into two allegations against Kavanaugh -- one from Christine Blasey Ford and the other from Deborah Ramirez.... One current and two former FBI officials confirmed to NBC News that dozens of witnesses have come forward to FBI field offices who say they have information on Brett Kavanaugh, but agents have not been permitted to talk to many of them. To the extent that any interviews have been done, the officials say, it's not clear the information will be considered as part of the FBI's limited scope inquiry." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Chris Strohm & Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg: "The FBI hasn't interviewed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford because it doesn't have clear authority from the White House to do so, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Instead, the White House has indicated to the FBI that testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford ... before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week is sufficient, said the people, who asked to not be identified discussing the sensitive matter. The new evidence of constraints on the FBI probe came as Republican Senator Bob Corker told reporters the FBI is likely to give senators a stack of interview reports, probably later on Wednesday. He said senators were told in a GOP meeting that a vote on cutting off debate is likely on Friday to move toward a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Washington Post has been able to confirm interviews with only six witnesses, five of whom have a connection to the professor or her allegation. The investigation was always unlikely to answer definitively whether Kavanaugh was guilty of sexual misconduct decades ago. But the probe's limited scope -- which was dictated by the White House, along with a Friday deadline -- is likely to exacerbate the partisan tensions surrounding Kavanaugh's nomination.... President Trump has insisted publicly he was not curtailing the FBI probe. But privately, the White House restricted the FBI from delving deeply into Kavanaugh's youthful drinking and exploring whether he had lied to Congress about his alcohol use, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Some of those involved in the case complained that the bureau did not follow leads that were offered to it." ...

... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Investigation designed not to find anything apparently finds nothing[.]... My guess is that Jeff Flake's Very Concerned reaction will be 'good enough.'" ...

... ** Debbie Ramirez Is Not Making up Stuff. Jane Mayer & Ronan Farrow of the New Yorker: "Frustrated potential witnesses who have been unable to speak with the F.B.I agents conducting the investigation into sexual-assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, have been resorting to sending statements, unsolicited, to the Bureau and to senators, in hopes that they would be seen before the inquiry concluded.... Kenneth G. Appold was a suitemate of Kavanaugh's at the time of the alleged incident [in which Kavanaugh exposed himself to Deborah Ramirez]. He had previously spoken to The New Yorker about Ramirez on condition of anonymity, but he said that he is now willing to be identified.... Appold, who is the James Hastings Nichols Professor of Reformation History at Princeton Theological Seminary, said that he first heard about the alleged incident involving Kavanaugh and Ramirez either the night it occurred or a day or two later. Appold said that he was 'one-hundred-per-cent certain' that he was told that Kavanaugh was the male student who exposed himself to Ramirez.... He recalled details -- which, he said, an eyewitness described to him at the time -- that match Ramirez's memory of what happened.... 'I believe her, because it matches the same story I heard thirty-five years ago, although the two of us have never talked.' Appold, who won two Fulbright Fellowships, and earned his Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale in 1994, also recalled telling his graduate-school roommate about the incident in 1989 or 1990. That roommate, Michael Wetstone, who is now an architect, confirmed Appold's account and said, 'it stood out in our minds because it was a shocking story of transgression.'" Read on. If you weren't sure Kavanaugh was a degenerate ass, you will be now.

... ** James Roche in Slate: "In 1983, I was one of Brett Kavanaugh's freshman roommates at Yale University. About two weeks ago I came forward to lend my support to my friend Deborah Ramirez, who says Brett sexually assaulted her at a party in a dorm suite. I did this because I believe Debbie. Now the FBI is investigating this incident. I am willing to speak with them about my experiences at Yale with both Debbie and Brett. I would tell them this: Brett Kavanaugh stood up under oath and lied about his drinking and about the meaning of words in his yearbook. He did so baldly, without hesitation or reservation. In his words and his behavior, Judge Kavanaugh has shown contempt for the truth, for the process, for the rule of law, and for accountability. His willingness to lie to avoid embarrassment throws doubt on his denials about the larger questions of sexual assault. In contrast, I cannot remember ever having a reason to distrust anything, large or small, that I have heard from Debbie." Read on. ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans are stepping up efforts to challenge Christine Blasey Ford's credibility by confronting her with a sworn statement from a former boyfriend who took issue with a number of assertions she made during testimony before the Judiciary Committee last week. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the committee chairman, cited the former boyfriend's statement in a letter sent Tuesday night to Dr. Blasey's lawyers demanding that they turn over material that could be used to assess her veracity.... The former boyfriend told the Judiciary Committee that he witnessed Dr. Blasey helping a friend prepare for a possible polygraph examination.... Dr. Blasey ... was asked during the hearing whether she had 'ever given tips or advice to somebody who was looking to take a polygraph test.' She answered, 'Never.'... [Blasey's friend Monica McLean], a former F.B.I. agent, denied the assertion on Wednesday.... Dr. Blasey's camp also rejected the account." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Amanda Arnold of New York: "At a rally in Mississippi Tuesday night, a crowd of Trump supporters roared with laughter as the President mocked Christine Blasey Ford.... The following day, politicians from both sides of the aisle condemned Trump's offensive comments, calling them 'wholly inappropriate' and 'just plain wrong.'... When asked by [Fox 'News'] host Bill Hemmer whether she thought Trump's comments were 'wrong,' [Kellyanne] Conway shot back that the White House has been 'incredibly accommodating' -- in her opinion, too accommodating. 'She's been treated like a Fabergé egg by all of us, beginning with me and Trump,' she said, before questioning Ford's veracity. 'She provided her testimony, she still has no corroboration for her testimony ... By Ford's own testimony, there are gaps in her memory, there are facts that she cannot remember.'... During a press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump was simply 'stating the facts' during his tirade, and insisted that the president is still 'very confident in his nominee, as he has said time and time again.' Neither Conway nor Sanders -- nor Trump -- questioned the truthfulness of Kavanaugh's story, which, as many of his former classmates have claimed, appears to be replete with lies." ...

... Eric Levitz: "... the people who have the power to make or break Brett Kavanaugh's nomination like his approach to Constitutional law. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Jeff Flake are perfectly fine with Kavanaugh's jurisprudence. But they have evinced some concerns about his character. For this reason, in recent days, Democrats have focused their case against Kavanaugh on two related 'character' issues: Multiple women have accused him of sexual assault.... When Kavanaugh appeared before the Senate to respond to those allegations, he delivered an angry partisan tirade, treated several Democratic senators with abject contempt, and was evasive in response to direct questioning. He also (ostensibly) told many, many lies while under a sworn oath.... Kavanaugh's behavior last Thursday was disqualifying by long-honored -- and well-founded -- norms of judicial conduct ... [even if he] has never sexually assaulted anyone in his life -- and that he did not (definitely, clearly, unambiguously) lie under oath in any of his testimony before the Senate." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Lawrence Hurley & Chris Kahn of Reuters: "Opposition among Americans to Brett Kavanaugh ... has increased in the wake of his testimony last week before a U.S. Senate committee in which he defiantly denied sexual misconduct allegations, Reuters/Ipsos polling data showed on Wednesday. In the latest seven-day average in a survey of U.S. adults, 41 percent of respondents opposed Kavanaugh, 33 percent supported the conservative federal appeals court judge and 26 percent said they did not know." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "The U.S. Capitol Police on Wednesday arrested a 27-year-old man for posting addresses and private information of senators, according to the police department. The department reported that it arrested Jackson A. Cosko for allegedly posting 'private, identifying information (doxing) about one or more United States senators to the Internet.' Cosko has been working as an intern in the office of Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and has been fired, according to her chief of staff, Glenn Rushing.... Cosko ... previously worked for Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and California's Barbara Boxer, who has since retired."

Aaron Elstein of Crain's New York Business: "... Donald Trump and his siblings could owe New York state more than $400 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties based on the New York Times report that their parents handed down more than $1 billion worth of real estate and cash. Based on the figures provided in the Times article, the Trumps could be on the hook for $210 million in unpaid gift or estate taxes and a similar amount in unpaid interest and penalties, according to Fred Slater, a CPA who has advised real estate professionals for more than 40 years.... Slater added that President Trump could be liable for a larger share than his sisters and brother because as trustee he signed the tax returns for the estates. The state Department of Taxation and Finance says it is 'vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Times would not have devoted 18 months & significant resources to Trump's finances were he not president. So if the state (and city) follow up & impose multi-million-dollar tax levies on Trump, that would put a significant crimp on whatever unconstitutional emoluments Trump is accruing as a result of his current job.

Brett Molina of USA Today: "On Wednesday at 2:18 p.m. ET, smartphones in the U.S. were buzzing with a test of a 'presidential alert,' managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to warn residents about national emergencies. The system was put in place due to a law passed during the tenure of former President Barack Obama but didn't get its first test until Wednesday, under the Trump administration. 'The test will assess the operational readiness of the infrastructure for distribution of a national message and determine whether improvements are needed,' read a statement from FEMA ahead of the alert test." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Wow! It's Thrilling to Be Nuts. Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "For most people, the [FEMA] test, which resembled a text message, passed with nothing more than a quick glance at their phones and a mocking tweet about it. But believers in the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory, the moment had titanic implications. Believers in QAnon -- a conspiracy theory based on a series of internet clues posted by an anonymous character named 'Q' that posits a world in which Trump and the military are engaged in ceaseless, secret war with globalist Democratic pedophiles -- think the text could mark the start of 'The Storm,' a fantastical MAGA dream in which Trump's political enemies will be arrested and tried at military tribunals. 'That is how we will receive orders if all else fails,' wrote one QAnon believer on the 8Chan internet forum. 'We are the next generation Minutemen! Standing by Sir!'"

Andrew Kaczynski & Nathan McDermott of CNN: "Audio of radio interviews between longtime Trump ally Roger Stone and the radio host he claimed was his back channel to WikiLeaks recently came into possession of special counsel Robert Mueller's office, two sources with knowledge of the matter tell CNN. The interviews between Stone and comedian Randy Credico took place between August 2016 and April 2017 on Credico's radio show, which aired on local New York station WBAI. Stone has claimed that Credico served as his intermediary to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 presidential election. Credico has denied the claim.... CNN's KFile has obtained audio of the interviews, in which Stone and Credico repeatedly discuss WikiLeaks. In the interviews, you hear Credico ask Stone about the back channel and also cast doubt that the back channel exists. While the interviews do not rule out the possibility Credico served as the back channel, the former radio host told CNN he believes the content of the interviews back up his denials."

** Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in California temporarily blocked the Trump administration's plans to terminate the legal status of about 300,000 immigrants who fled violence and disaster in Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua and El Salvador. In a decision late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen in San Francisco found substantial evidence that the administration lacked 'any explanation or justification' to end the 'temporary protected status' designations for immigrants from those countries. At the same time, he said there were 'serious questions as to whether a discriminatory purpose was a motivating factor' in the administration's decision, which would violate the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. He cited statements by President Trump denigrating Mexicans, Muslims, Haitians and Africans, including his January remark about 'people from shithole countries' and his June 2017 comments stating that 15,000 recent immigrants from Haiti 'all have AIDS.'"

Stephen Montemayor of the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune: "The DFL Party&'s attempt to find a law enforcement agency willing to investigate a domestic abuse claim against U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison was mired in uncertainty Wednesday, after the Minneapolis Police Department said it would seek to refer the case to another jurisdiction. Earlier Wednesday, the DFL asked Minneapolis police to investigate after both a city attorney and a county prosecutor declined to review a report the party commissioned that did not substantiate the allegation. Ellison's former girlfriend, Karen Monahan, alleges that the Democratic candidate for attorney general tried to drag her off a bed during a fight in August 2016. He denies it. 'Due to a conflict of interest, or the appearance of a conflict of interest, the Minneapolis Police Department will not be handling the matter involving Congressman Keith Ellison,' read a police statement. It said the department is in communication with other law enforcement agencies to which it may refer the case. Ellison's son, Jeremiah Ellison, is on the Minneapolis city council."

News Lede

AP: "Seven law enforcement officers were shot, one fatally, in a confrontation Wednesday with a suspect who held children hostage in a South Carolina home, authorities said. The suspect was taken into custody after a two-hour standoff. The gunfire erupted in an upscale neighborhood of Florence, a city of about 37,000 people still reeling from heavy flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence's strike on the Carolinas last month."

The Commentariat -- October 3, 2018

Afternoon Update:

White House Whitewash, Ctd. Leigh Ann Caldwell & Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "More than 40 people with potential information into the sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh have not been contacted by the FBI, according to multiple sources that include friends of both the nominee and his accusers. The bureau is expected to wrap up its expanded background investigation as early as Wednesday into two allegations against Kavanaugh -- one from Christine Blasey Ford and the other from Deborah Ramirez.... One current and two former FBI officials confirmed to NBC News that dozens of witnesses have come forward to FBI field offices who say they have information on Brett Kavanaugh, but agents have not been permitted to talk to many of them. To the extent that any interviews have been done, the officials say, it's not clear the information will be considered as part of the FBI's limited scope inquiry." ...

... Chris Strohm & Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg: "The FBI hasn't interviewed ... Brett Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford because it doesn't have clear authority from the White House to do so, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Instead, the White House has indicated to the FBI that testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford ... before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week is sufficient, said the people, who asked to not be identified discussing the sensitive matter. The new evidence of constraints on the FBI probe came as Republican Senator Bob Corker told reporters the FBI is likely to give senators a stack of interview reports, probably later on Wednesday. He said senators were told in a GOP meeting that a vote on cutting off debate is likely on Friday to move toward a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh." ...

... Nicholas Fandos & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Three influential Republicans, who together could decide the fate of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court, condemned on Wednesday comments by President Trump that mocked one of the women who has accused his nominee of sexual assault. The president's mockery of the woman, Christine Blasey Ford, at a Mississippi campaign rally on Tuesday injected still more uncertainty into the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh and only served to heighten tensions in the Senate." ...

... But It Will Be a Secret Whitewash! Eliza Collins & David Jackson of USA Today: "Republicans are planning a careful choreography for the results of the FBI's background probe into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, including sending only a single copy to Capitol Hill that will be housed in a safe. The FBI report, which officials said will include interviews about Kavanaugh's conduct in high school, will first go to the White House and then to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where lawmakers will read it in a secure location. Senate Republicans are planning the cautious approach amid a debate over how much of the FBI's investigation into Kavanaugh's past -- including allegations of sexual assault -- should be available for public view. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said only senators will be able to see the results of the FBI's work. A handful of Senate aides may view it as well." ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans are stepping up efforts to challenge Christine Blasey Ford's credibility by confronting her with a sworn statement from a former boyfriend who took issue with a number of assertions she made during testimony before the Judiciary Committee last week. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the committee chairman, cited the former boyfriend's statement in a letter sent Tuesday night to Dr. Blasey's lawyers demanding that they turn over material that could be used to assess her veracity.... The former boyfriend told the Judiciary Committee that he witnessed Dr. Blasey helping a friend prepare for a possible polygraph examination.... Dr. Blasey ... was asked during the hearing whether she had 'ever given tips or advice to somebody who was looking to take a polygraph test.' She answered, 'Never.'... [Blasey's friend Monica McLean], a former F.B.I. agent, denied the assertion on Wednesday.... Dr. Blasey's camp also rejected the account." ...

... Eric Levitz: "... the people who have the power to make or break Brett Kavanaugh's nomination like his approach to Constitutional law. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Jeff Flake are perfectly fine with Kavanaugh's jurisprudence. But they have evinced some concerns about his character. For this reason, in recent days, Democrats have focused their case against Kavanaugh on two related 'character' issues: Multiple women have accused him of sexual assault.... When Kavanaugh appeared before the Senate to respond to those allegations, he delivered an angry partisan tirade, treated several Democratic senators with abject contempt, and was evasive in response to direct questioning. He also (ostensibly) told many, many lies while under a sworn oath.... Kavanaugh's behavior last Thursday was disqualifying by long-honored -- and well-founded -- norms of judicial conduct ... [even if he] has never sexually assaulted anyone in his life -- and that he did not (definitely, clearly, unambiguously) lie under oath in any of his testimony before the Senate." ...

... Lawrence Hurley & Chris Kahn of Reuters: "Opposition among Americans to Brett Kavanaugh ... has increased in the wake of his testimony last week before a U.S. Senate committee in which he defiantly denied sexual misconduct allegations, Reuters/Ipsos polling data showed on Wednesday. In the latest seven-day average in a survey of U.S. adults, 41 percent of respondents opposed Kavanaugh, 33 percent supported the conservative federal appeals court judge and 26 percent said they did not know."

Brett Molina of USA Today: "On Wednesday at 2:18 p.m. ET, smartphones in the U.S. were buzzing with a test of a 'presidential alert,' managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to warn residents about national emergencies. The system was put in place due to a law passed during the tenure of former President Barack Obama but didn't get its first test until Wednesday, under the Trump administration. 'The test will assess the operational readiness of the infrastructure for distribution of a national message and determine whether improvements are needed,' read a statement from FEMA ahead of the alert test."

*****

This Is Not Okay. Brian Ries of CNN: "... Donald Trump for the first time directly mocked Christine Blasey Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a rally in Mississippi, casting doubt on her testimony about her alleged sexual assault. Trump imitated Ford during her testimony before the crowd, mocking her for not knowing the answer to questions such as how she got to the party.... Trump then called Democrats against Kavanaugh 'evil people' who are out to 'destroy people.' Trump also reiterated his earlier claims Tuesday that nowadays you are 'guilty until proven innocent.'" ...

... MEANWHILE, Chuck Grassley thought it would be a good idea to smear another (alleged) victim. Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "In an unprecedented move, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday released an explicit statement that purports to describe the sexual preferences of a woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of misconduct. The statement, which was circulated to the hundreds of journalists on the Judiciary Committee's press list, was from Dennis Ketterer, a former Democratic congressional candidate and television meteorologist who said he was involved in a brief relationship with Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick in 1993." ...

... FBI to Complete Whitewash Wednesday. Sheryl Stolberg & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. is expected to complete its investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and deliver the results to the Senate as early as Wednesday, and Republican leaders said Tuesday that they expect to vote on the nomination this week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "Senate Republican leaders pressed on Tuesday to wrap up the confirmation of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, seizing on word from the F.B.I. that it would complete its investigation into allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct as early as Wednesday."

     ... Nelson Cunningham in Politico Magazine: "... we shouldn't expect [FBI Director Christopher] Wray and [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein to stand up and push back against this political interference [in the Kavanaugh "investigation."]... First, background checks are not independent investigations. Here, the FBI is very much an organ of the White House, assisting the Senate (meaning today, the Republican majority) in what is an inherently political mission to examine a presidential nominee.... [Second, to Wray & Rosenstein], Kavanaugh is a longtime colleague, political ally and perhaps even friend. The three men have known each other for decades, working closely on the shared mission of advancing conservative judicial and policy goals. We simply cannot expect Wray and Rosenstein to block the advancement of their fellow conservative and longtime colleague to the highest court in the land." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Great! More witnesses. The FBI ought to interview Rosenstein & Wray to ask them if they had observed their friend Brett drinking heavily & acting obnoxious when drunk. ...

... Karen Yourish & Troy Griggs of the New York Times: "Democrats sent the F.B.I. a list of two dozen witnesses they said must be interviewed, just four of whom were on the Republicans' original list. On Monday, the White House authorized the F.B.I. to expand its investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh -- as long as the review is finished by Friday." The article includes the lists.

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: According to MSNBC reporters & pundits, Deborah Ramirez's lawyer says the FBI has not interviewed any of the witnesses she named, & according to Christine Blasey Ford's lawyer, the FBI has not interviewed her. In other words, the "investigation," despite protestations from Trump & the White House, is the sham we figured it would be from the get-go. And Nelson Cunningham was right: Wray & Rosenstein sat on their hands. ...

... Kate Kelly & David Enrich of the New York Times: "In a 1983 letter..., the young Judge Kavanaugh warned his friends of the danger of eviction from an Ocean City, Md., condo [the group had rented for Beach Week]. In a neatly written postscript, he added: Whoever arrived first at the condo should 'warn the neighbors that we're loud, obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us....'... Recent interviews with more than a dozen classmates and friends from that time depict Judge Kavanaugh as a member of a small clique of football players who dominated Georgetown Prep's work-hard, play-hard culture. His circle celebrated a culture of heavy drinking, even by the standards of that era.... Four Georgetown Prep classmates said they saw Judge Kavanaugh and his friends partake in binge-drinking rituals many weekends in which other partygoers saw them inebriated, even having difficulty standing." The article reproduces the two-page note from Kavanaugh. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: During last Thursday's hearing, Kavanaugh refused to answer Pat Leahy's question as to whether or not he was the drunken "Bart O'Kavanaugh" in Mark Judge's roman à clef. "You'd have to ask [Judge]," Kavanaugh finally answered after suggesting the venerable Leahy was making "fun of some guy who has an addiction" (which Leahy definitely did not). According to the NYT reporters, Kavanaugh was "nicknamed 'Bart' after a Georgetown Prep teacher garbled 'Brett'." In the letter the Times reproduces, Kavanaugh signs off as "Bart." ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump said Tuesday the controversy surrounding Brett Kava[na]ugh's nomination to the Supreme Court shows it is a 'scary' time for young men.... 'You can be accused before you prove your innocence.' Asked if he had a message for young women, Trump said, 'Women are doing great.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Biggest Liar Doesn't Think Others Should Lie. Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn, Trump also drew a line on lying to Congress. 'I don't think you should lie to Congress and there are a lot of people over the past year who have lied to Congress,' he said. 'For me, that would not be acceptable.'" Mrs. McC: Of course, since the FBI isn't investigating Brett's lies, Trump will be able to claim the FBI didn't turn up evidence of Brett's lying, so it's all good. More from Helaine Olen, linked below, on GOP lying. ...

... Greg Sargent: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has emerged as the contorted face of right-wing rage at the very idea that Christine Blasey Ford's claims should merit a serious and thorough examination, has done it again. On Fox News on Monday night, he showcased what is emerging in some quarters as the last-ditch strategy to save Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination -- a strategy that exposes Trumpism at its ugliest. 'This good man should not be destroyed,' Graham told Sean Hannity, speaking about Kavanaugh. Graham warned that if the Senate does not confirm Kavanaugh now -- say, if two GOP senators end up opposing him -- it will 'end up legitimizing' the 'destruction of a good person' by a 'horrible process.'... But what this argument really means, inescapably, is that Ford's claims should never have gotten the examination they are now getting. Note that Graham is claiming this whole process has been deeply unfair to Kavanaugh. The ads on [Kavanaugh']s behalf claim that Democrats are trying to 'ruin' him with 'smears' -- but what they've really done is insist on a fuller inquiry than Republicans wanted." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Mitch McConnell was on the Senate floor this morning advancing the same argument. The underlying premise seems to be that a good, white, conservative man can do no wrong, so whatever his behavior, whether sexual assault or perjury, it is normative for a good, white conservative man. Needless to say, this standard does not apply to people of other persuasions. ...

... Julian Zelizar of The Atlantic: "Senator Lindsey Graham is among Kavanaugh's most ardent defenders and will likely vote to confirm the judge no matter how many lies he may have told. Back in the 1990s, however ... Graham blasted those who dared to pretend that perjury didn't rise to the level of a 'high crime or misdemeanor,' and strongly suggested that lying under oath merited removal for any high-level government official, not just a president.... To make their case for impeachment [of then pres. Bill Clinton] to the House, Graham and other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee held a nine-hour meeting on December 1, 1998, about the consequences of perjury." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Tinfoil Hat Club. Nicole Lafond of TPM: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has emerged as the most ardent defender of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, accused NBC News of being a 'co-conspirator in the destruction of Kavanaugh' on Sean Hannity's show Monday night." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, yes, reporting is diabolical. ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Brett M. Kavanaugh will still probably be confirmed to the Supreme Court. But it's becoming increasingly clear that he damaged himself with last week's angry appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.... Calling Kavanaugh's display 'sharp and partisan,' [Sen. Jeff] Flake [R-Az.] said Tuesday, 'We can't have that on the court.'... Perhaps the most symbolic pullback, though, came from conservative legal scholar Benjamin Wittes. Although he doesn't have a vote, as Flake does, he does count Kavanaugh as a longtime ally and has defended him. Yet he said Tuesday that he no longer thinks Kavanaugh should be confirmed. And while he said the allegations are troubling, he said Kavanaugh's testimony left him 'nonviable' to serve on the Supreme Court[.]" ...

... Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare, in The Atlantic: "If I were a senator, I would not vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.... I am also keenly aware that rejecting Kavanaugh on the record currently before the Senate will set a dangerous precedent.... We are on a dangerous road, and the judicial confirmation wars are going to get a lot worse for our traveling down it.... I would do it both because of Ford's testimony and because of Kavanaugh's.... I find her account more believable than his. I would also do it because whatever the truth of what happened in the summer of 1982, Thursday's hearing left Kavanaugh nonviable as a justice.... His performance was wholly inconsistent with the conduct we should expect from a member of the judiciary." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: We might want to thank Matt Damon & late-nite comedians in general for fixing Kavanaugh's image. Of course a conspiracy-theory spouting, shouting, spitting judge is unacceptable in any courtroom, but he is also eminently mockable. The boys' laughter especially haunts Christine Blasey Ford; Trump uses mockery as a tool against her & others. Why? Because ridicule works. Once one gets over the shock of seeing the antics of an out-of-control judge, it's kind of healing to view him not as a dangerous maniac but as a figure of fun. Mocking Kavanaugh makes him "safer"; he becomes less a powerful madman & more a silly little grotesque. ...

... Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "Two former law school classmates of Brett Kavanaugh's who previously vouched for him wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to say they are withdrawing their support for him because of 'the nature' of his recent testimony. 'Under the current circumstances, we fear that partisanship has injected itself into Judge Kavanaugh's candidacy'" Michael J. Proctor and Mark Osler say in a letter to Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).... 'That, and the lack of judicial temperament displayed on September 27 hearing, cause us to withdraw our support.' Proctor and Osler were among 23 classmates of Kavanaugh's at Yale Law School who signed a letter in August pledging their support for his confirmation. At the time, they cited his 'exemplary judicial temperament' as a reason for their support." ...

... About that time Brettsky got in a bar fight after attending a UB40 concert, Colbert's team mixes him into "UB40's biggest (and only) hit, 'Red, Red Wine.'":

... Sarah Nechamkin of New York: "On Monday, three women approached Republican senator David Perdue of Georgia at the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., asking whether he would vote to approve Kavanaugh. One informed him she was a sexual-assault survivor; another asked him about the millions of women who have come out about their own experiences[.]... The three women -- sexual-assault survivors Patti Serrano and Jennifer Epps-Addison, of the Center for Popular Democracy advocacy group, along with Arizona State Representative Isela Blanc -- also asked Perdue whether he supports a full FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh. Perdue ignored the women, even pushing one -- she can be heard saying 'Don't push me' on the escalator -- before literally dodging them to hide in the men's bathroom. When the survivors tried to introduce themselves and shake his hand, Perdue said, 'Don't touch me.'" ...

... The Party of Liars. Helaine Olen of the Washington Post: "Brett M. Kavanaugh is a liar. He has fudged the truth (either provably or almost certainly) on everything ranging from slang in his high school yearbook to documents stolen from Senate Democrats during the George W. Bush years.... Kavanaugh's tall tales are part of a larger ecosystem. The Republican Party, as part of its quest for power, has been waging a battle with the truth for decades.... Ronald Reagan ... once claimed trees cause more pollution than cars.... Kavanaugh spent nearly three years attempting to prove a right-wing conspiracy theory that Clinton White House staffer Vincent Foster did not die by suicide. Kavanaugh did this despite the fact he personally believed those theories about Foster's death were bogus. This is cynicism taken to an almost mind-boggling degree.... Republicans have not considered Trump's trouble with the truth, apparent to anyone even before the campaign, to be disqualifying. His successful campaign depended on a cavalcade of falsehoods, ranging from a crazed obsession with Hillary Clinton's emails, to fake news pushed on Facebook and Twitter feeds in a Russian-sponsored misinformation campaign."

Trump Got Rich Because of (1) Gifts (& Bailouts) from His Father & (2) Cheating You & Me. David Barstow, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents, an investigation by The New York Times has found. Mr. Trump won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire, and he has long insisted that his father, the legendary New York City builder Fred C. Trump, provided almost no financial help. But The Times's investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father's real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day.... He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents.... Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents' real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings. These maneuvers met with little resistance from the Internal Revenue Service...." ...

... David Barstow, et al.: "Here are ... ways that Fred Trump made his children rich.... Fred Trump made his son not just his salaried employee but also his property manager, landlord, consultant and banker.... Fred Trump provided money for Donald Trump's car, money for his employees, money to buy stocks, money for his first Manhattan offices and money to renovate those offices. He gave him shares in multiple partnerships. He gave him $10,000 Christmas checks. He gave him laundry revenue from his buildings. He also gave him trust funds that were used to transfer a majority of Fred Trump's empire to Donald Trump and his living siblings.... The biggest payday Donald Trump ever got from his father came long after Fred Trump's death. It happened quietly, without the usual Trumpian news conference, on May 4, 2004, when Donald Trump and his siblings sold off the empire their father had spent 70 years assembling with the dream that it would never leave his family. Donald Trump's cut: $177.3 million, or $236.2 million in today's dollars." The article includes several videos. ...

... ** Russ Beuttner, et al., of the New York Times: "Here are some key takeaways [from the New York Times' investigation]. The Trumps' tax maneuvers show a pattern of deception, tax experts say.... Donald Trump began reaping wealth from his father's real estate empire as a toddler.... That "small loan" of $1 million was actually at least $60.7 million -- much of it never repaid.... Fred Trump wove a safety net that rescued his son from one bad bet after another.... The Trumps turned an $11 million loan debt into a legally questionable tax write-off.... Father and son set out to create the myth of a self-made billionaire.... Donald Trump tried to change his ailing father's will, setting off a family reckoning.... The Trumps created a company that siphoned cash from the empire.... The Trump parents dodged hundreds of millions in gift taxes by grossly undervaluing the assets they would pass on.... After Fred Trump's death, his empire's most valuable asset was an I.O.U. from Donald Trump.... Donald Trump got a windfall when the empire was sold. But he may have left money on the table." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Though we haven't known the details before this, we've known the outline since early in the 2016 presidential campaign. Our fellow Americans are so damned dumb that put a complete, unadulterated fraud in the White House. ...

... Phil Helsel & Adam Reiss of NBC News: "The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance says it is reviewing allegations made in a New York Times article about questionable tax schemes used by now-... Donald Trump in the 1990s.... A lawyer for Trump, Charles Harder, in a statement said 'The New York Times' allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100% false, and highly defamatory' and that 'There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone.' He said 'the facts upon which the Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate.'" Mrs. McC: Is there such a thing as an "inaccurate fact"? ...

... Jonathan Chait: "That the Times presents these conclusions so baldly — accusing him of 'outright fraud' in the first sentence -- in the face of Trump's famous litigiousness, is a testament to the power and clarity of its findings.... Trump was in the money-inheriting business. And that business was essentially, and not just incidentally, illegal.... The English language has terms for people who make large sources of money from illegal activity: criminals.... Trump's presidency will enable more Trumps. His career as white-collar criminal who ran for president as an alleged business genius is a metaphor for the exact thing he is doing as president. He is the crook who got away with it." ...

... Sad! Dan Alexander & Chase Peterson-Withorn of Forbes: "By refusing to divest, Trump raised an unprecedented question: How would the most divisive presidency in modern American history affect a company built on the president's persona? Forbes has been working to answer that question since the moment Trump got elected.... The early results are in. Much as he's trying ... Donald Trump is not getting richer off the presidency. Just the opposite. His net worth, by our calculation, has dropped from $4.5 billion in 2015 to $3.1 billion the last two years.... Trump's mixture of politics and business has proved to be a net loser for him so far. In further polarizing the country, he has also further polarized his business.... Understanding how that has happened offers a fresh window into the state of Trump Inc. -- and Trump's America." --s

Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "... a Wall Street Journal report out Tuesday sheds new light on how [Donald] Trump personally managed damage control over the revelation of the payouts to ... [Stormy Daniels] -- well into the second year of his presidency. Per the Journal, Trump used his own private real estate company and his own son [Eric] to do so. The report provides the latest evidence that Trump Organization officials, acting on order of their boss-turned-U.S. president, were intimately involved in making and covering up hush money payments to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. Federal and New York state authorities are currently investigating the structure and approval of those payments. 'I'll take care of everything,']Trump said in February 2018, according to the Journal. That reassurance to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, came a month after the newspaper first revealed that Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016. Contrast that to what Trump said in April, shortly after Cohen's premises were raided by federal agents who seized documents related to the hush money payouts. 'This has nothing to do with me,' Trump told the 'Fox & Friends' cast. 'I'm not involved and I've been told I'm not involved.'" The WSJ report, which is firewalled, is here.

Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Federal law enforcement officials have referred a 2-year-old email hacking investigation to special counsel Robert Mueller, according to the Republican operative who was the target of the hack. The referral adds yet another dimension to the special counsel's sprawling probe, even as some of ... Donald Trump's allies portray Mueller's work as nearing its conclusion. The operative and Trump critic, Cheri Jacobus, told Politico that FBI agents in the bureau's cyber division informed her in September that they had forwarded their investigation to Mueller because the matter came to exceed the bounds of computer intrusion, the crime that had been the initial focus of the investigation."

Krishnadev Calamur of The Atlantic: "[A] new survey from the Pew Research Center released Monday shows not just how unpopular Trump himself is.... Seven in 10 people around the world have no confidence in Trump.... 43 percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable view of the U.S.; 50 percent said they had a favorable view.... Trump is viewed with less confidence than German Chancellor Angela Merkel (52 percent confidence), French President Emmanuel Macron (46 percent), Chinese President Xi Jinping (34 percent), and Russian President Vladimir Putin (30 percent).... Still, the world's views about the U.S., or indeed its president, don't mean that the alternatives to U.S. power are particularly attractive.... Or to put it another way: The world may not like Trump or the direction the U.S. is headed in, but the alternatives look worse." --s

Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "The EPA is pursuing rule changes that experts say would weaken the way radiation exposure is regulated, turning to scientific outliers who argue that a bit of radiation damage is actually good for you -- like a little bit of sunlight. The government's current, decades-old guidance says that any exposure to harmful radiation is a cancer risk. And critics say the proposed change could lead to higher levels of exposure for workers at nuclear installations and oil and gas drilling sites, medical workers doing X-rays and CT scans, people living next to Superfund sites and any members of the public who one day might find themselves exposed to a radiation release."

When Government Works. Patrick Caldwell of Mother Jones: "The Affordable Care Act has led to a massive drop in the amount of money women have to spend on birth control. The law required that plans sold to individuals and insurance offered by employers had to cover a range of contraception options at zero out-of-pocket cost for the subscriber.... A 2015 study published in Health Affairs estimated that women saved $1.4 billion on co-payments for birth control pills during the first year of the ACA's implementation, an average of $255 per user. And it's popular, with 68 percent of people supporting the contraception requirement in a poll last year -- even a majority of Republicans in favor." Check out the chart, it's impressive. --s

David Dayen of The Intercept (Sept. 28): "Comments submitted to a top banking regulator supporting a 2015 merger between OneWest Bank and CIT Bank were attributed to people who never sent them, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.... The fake comments appear to be tied directly to Joseph Otting, the head of the regulatory agency himself. The documents reviewed by The Intercept show that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the main bank regulator for nationally chartered banks, knew about the fake comments at the time, before it approved the merger. But the OCC appears to have done no meaningful investigation of the matter, and even cited public support for the merger when approving it." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Jenny Rowland of ThinkProgress: "The Republican-controlled Congress allowed the country's most popular parks program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to expire Sunday. The lapse threatens access to public lands and water and leaves many potential projects in limbo.... The Land and Water Conservation Fund provides funding to protect parks, forests, cultural heritage sites, and water resources, at zero expense to taxpayers. The fund, which is paid for through revenues from offshore drilling, was passed in 1964 and has financed projects in all 50 states." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

2018 Election

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City who is considering a 2020 presidential campaign, will give $20 million to the main Democratic Senate super PAC this week -- jolting the national battle for control of the chamber just five weeks away from the midterm elections. Bloomberg's intervention bolsters the Democrats' Senate chances by infusing significant late-season capital into the Senate Majority PAC, a group that had $29 million on hand at the end of August and has been purchasing advertising in expensive media markets. Bloomberg -- a former Republican and declared political independent -- says the emotional national debate over sexual-assault allegations against President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh has energized Democratic voters and provides an opening for the party to be more competitive in rallying women and swing voters, his advisers said Tuesday, adding that he sees last week's contentious hearings as a tipping point."

Charles Pierce of Esquire: "There is some reason for optimism out in the states that voters are beginning to take the attacks on the franchise seriously as a reason to go to the polls and revenge themselves in the proper democratic fashion against the vandals who have been running wild over the past decade [in Kansas, Michigan & Florida]." --s

Karen Weise of the New York Times: Amazon "on Tuesday said it would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all of its United States workers. It said the pay increase would include part-time workers and those hired through temporary agencies. The company said it would also lobby Washington to raise the federal minimum wage. Amazon said the new wages would apply to more than 250,000 Amazon employees, including those at the grocery chain Whole Foods, as well as the more than 100,000 seasonal employees it will hire for the holiday season. It goes into effect on Nov. 1." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Suzanne Moore in the Guardian: "Watching [Kellyanne] Conway is always horribly fascinating.... She is anti-abortion, and though a survivor of sexual assault, works for a man accused of multiple sexual assaults.... The #MeToo movement hits a block when it gets reduced to party politics, as we are witnessing, and feminism hits a block as long as there are women, like Conway, complicit in upholding male power.... One cannot ignore or wish away female complicity in the patriarchal structure Trump presides over. He is in power, it is said, not because of poor rural voters, but middle-class white women. All over the world some of the staunchest defenders of systems that limit women are other women. This is a reckoning, then, foranyone who wants to change things.... The venal semi-circle of stony-faced men who confronted Blasey Ford is one face of male power, but every time I see Conway, I am reminded of that great but uncomfortable truth bell hooks told us: 'Patriarchy has no gender'." --s ...

... Sherry Amatenstein in Vox: "I'm a therapist who treats many victims of sexual abuse, and since the Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations have exploded, I know each new story will lead to a call or text begging for an emergency session by a re-traumatized patient.....Studies conducted by the National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center Medical University show that nearly one-third of all rape victims develop PTSD at some point and that it does not recede for more than one in 10.... Not every survivor of sexual assault responds to triggers in the exact same way. Still, I am not the only trauma therapist who has noticed an uptick in his or her patients' agony post-Kavanaugh -- more than after Harvey Weinstein was outed last fall. This time around, many women are tapping into their feelings of helplessness and fear rather than releasing their long-suppressed rage.... Since victims of abuse cannot live in a bubble, it is vital to know how to best armor yourself against the daily reminders of misogyny and abuse that come with the news cycle. These guidelines are good to keep in mind...." --s

Sarah Boseley of the Guardian: "One in two women will develop dementia or Parkinson’s disease, or have a stroke, in their lifetime, new research suggests. About a third of men aged 45 and half of women of the same age are likely to go on to be diagnosed with one of the conditions, according to a study of more than 12,000 people. The researchers, from the University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands, said preventive measures could 'substantially' reduce the burden of the illnesses. The findings have been published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Steve Vockrodt, et al., of the Kansas City Star: "Jason Kander, citing depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, is dropping out of the Kansas City mayor's race. Kander posted a message on his campaign website and Facebook page saying that in the 11 years since leaving Afghanistan as an Army intelligence officer, he has experienced depression, nightmares and suicidal thoughts. He said needed to abandon the mayoral race, in which he was seen as a front-runner to win the 2019 contest, to focus on his mental health."

News Lede

New York Times: "Since 1901, when the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was first awarded, 177 people have captured the honor. On Wednesday, Frances H. Arnold became only the fifth woman to be awarded the prize. Dr. Arnold, 62, an American professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, earned the award for her work with the directed evolution of enzymes."

The Commentariat -- October 2, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

FBI to Complete Whitewash Wednesday. Sheryl Stolberg & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. is expected to complete its investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and deliver the results to the Senate as early as Wednesday, and Republican leaders said Tuesday that they expect to vote on the nomination this week."

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump said Tuesday the controversy surrounding Brett Kava[na]ugh's nomination to the Supreme Court shows it is a 'scary' time for young men.... 'You can be accused before you prove your innocence.' Asked if he had a message for young women, Trump said, 'Women are doing great.'"

Greg Sargent: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has emerged as the contorted face of right-wing rage at the very idea that Christine Blasey Ford's claims should merit a serious and thorough examination, has done it again. On Fox News on Monday night, he showcased what is emerging in some quarters as the last-ditch strategy to save Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination -- a strategy that exposes Trumpism at its ugliest. 'This good man should not be destroyed,' Graham told Sean Hannity, speaking about Kavanaugh. Graham warned that if the Senate does no confirm Kavanaugh now -- say, if two GOP senators end up opposing him -- it will 'end up legitimizing' the 'destruction of a good person' by a 'horrible process.'... But what this argument really means, inescapably, is that Ford's claims should never have gotten the examination they are now getting. Note that Graham is claiming this whole process has been deeply unfair to Kavanaugh. The ads on [Kavanaugh']s behalf claim that Democrats are trying to 'ruin' him with 'smears' -- but what they've really done is insist on a fuller inquiry than Republicans wanted." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Mitch McConnell was on the Senate floor this morning advancing the same argument. The underlying premise seems to be that a good, white, conservative man can do no wrong, so whatever his behavior, whether sexual assault or perjury, it is normative for a good, white conservative man. Needless to say, this standard does not apply to people of other persuasions.

Karen Weise of the New York Times: Amazon "on Tuesday said it would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all of its United States workers. It said the pay increase would include part-time workers and those hired through temporary agencies. The company said it would also lobby Washington to raise the federal minimum wage. Amazon said the new wages would apply to more than 250,000 Amazon employees, including those at the grocery chain Whole Foods, as well as the more than 100,000 seasonal employees it will hire for the holiday season. It goes into effect on Nov. 1."

Jenny Rowland of ThinkProgress: "The Republican-controlled Congress allowed the country's most popular parks program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to expire Sunday. The lapse threatens access to public lands and water and leaves many potential projects in limbo.... The Land and Water Conservation Fund provides funding to protect parks, forests, cultural heritage sites, and water resources, at zero expense to taxpayers. The fund, which is paid for through revenues from offshore drilling, was passed in 1964 and has financed projects in all 50 states." --safari

Julian Zelizar of The Atlantic: "Senator Lindsey Graham is among Kavanaugh's most ardent defenders and will likely vote to confirm the judge no matter how many lies he may have told. Back in the 1990s, however ... Graham blasted those who dared to pretend that perjury didn't rise to the level of a 'high crime or misdemeanor,' and strongly suggested that lying under oath merited removal for any high-level government official, not just a president.... To make their case for impeachment [of then pres. Bill Clinton] to the House, Graham and other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee held a nine-hour meeting on December 1, 1998, about the consequences of perjury." --safari

David Dayen in The Intercept (Sept. 28): "Comments submitted to a top banking regulator supporting a 2015 merger between OneWest Bank and CIT Bank were attributed to people who never sent them, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.... The fake comments appear to be tied directly to Joseph Otting, the head of the regulatory agency himself. The documents reviewed by The Intercept show that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the main bank regulator for nationally chartered banks, knew about the fake comments at the time, before it approved the merger. But the OCC appears to have done no meaningful investigation of the matter, and even cited public support for the merger when approving it." --safari

Nelson Cunningham in Politico Magazine: "... we shouldn't expect [FBI Director Christopher] Wray and [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein to stand up and push back against this political interference [in the Kavanaugh "investigation."]... First, background checks are not independent investigations. Here, the FBI is very much an organ of the White House, assisting the Senate (meaning today, the Republican majority) in what is an inherently political mission to examine a presidential nominee.... [Second, to Wray & Rosenstein], Kavanaugh is a longtime colleague, political ally and perhaps even friend. The three men have known each other for decades, working closely on the shared mission of advancing conservative judicial and policy goals."

Sarah Boseley of the Guardian: "One in two women will develop dementia or Parkinson's disease, or have a stroke, in their lifetime, new research suggests. About a third of men aged 45 and half of women of the same age are likely to go on to be diagnosed with one of the conditions, according to a study of more than 12,000 people. The researchers, from the University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands, said preventive measures could 'substantially' reduce the burden of the illnesses. The indings have been published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry." --safari

*****

** Peter Baker & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The White House has authorized the F.B.I. to expand its abbreviated investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh by interviewing anyone it deems necessary as long the review is finished by the end of the week, two people briefed on the matter said on Monday. The new directive came in the past 24 hours after a backlash from Democrats, who criticized the White House for limiting the scope of the bureau's investigation.... The F.B.I. has already completed interviews with the four witnesses its agents were originally asked to talk to, the people said.... 'The F.B.I. should interview anybody that they want within reason, but you have to say within reason,' Mr. Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden after an event celebrating a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. 'But they should also be guided, and I’m being guided, by what the senators are looking for.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... ** BUT former FBI honcho Frank Figliuzzi, speaking on MSNBC Monday night, says there's every indication the FBI has NOT received new instructions allowing the agency to expand its investigation. So Baker & Schmidt may be drinking the Kool-Aid, not for the first time. ...

... About That Bar Fight. Emily Bazelon & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "As an undergraduate student at Yale, Brett M. Kavanaugh was involved in an altercation at a local bar during \ which he was accused of throwing ice on another patron, according to a police report. The incident, which occurred in September 1985 during Mr. Kavanaugh's junior year, resulted in Mr. Kavanaugh and four other men being questioned by the New Haven Police Department. Mr. Kavanaugh was not arrested, but the police report stated that a 21-year-old man accused Mr. Kavanaugh of throwing ice on him 'for some unknown reason.' A witness to the fight said that Chris Dudley, a Yale basketball player who is friends with Mr. Kavanaugh, then threw a glass that hit the 21-year-old man in the ear, according to the police report.... The report said that the victim, Dom Cozzolino, 'was bleeding from the right ear' and was treated at a hospital. A detective was notified of the incident at 1:20 a.m.... Speaking to the officers, Mr. Kavanaugh did not want 'to say if he threw the ice or not,' the police report said.... The outlines of the incident were first referred to in a statement issued on Sunday by Chad Ludington...." Dudley, a former NBA player, has "disputed reports that [Kavanaugh] drank excessively." ...

... Alan Levin & Ben Brody of Bloomberg: "What the incident illustrates about Kavanaugh 'is just the aggressiveness that came along with the alcohol, the hair-trigger machismo, which was pathetic, [Chad Ludington] said. That bar episode and others were something Ludington didn't find 'very attractive' and he found himself drifting away from Kavanaugh as a friend." ...

... ** See Judge Brett. See Judge Brett Tamper with Witnesses. Heidi Przybyla and Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC News: "In the days leading up to a public allegation that ... Brett Kavanaugh exposed himself to a college classmate, the judge and his team were communicating behind the scenes with friends to refute the claim, according to text messages obtained by NBC News. Kerry Berchem, who was at Yale with both Kavanaugh and his accuser, Deborah Ramirez, has tried to get those messages to the FBI for its newly reopened investigation into the matter but says she has yet to be contacted by the bureau. The texts between Berchem and Karen Yarasavage, both friends of Kavanaugh, suggest that the nominee was personally talking with former classmates about Ramirez's story in advance of the New Yorker article that made her allegation public. In one message, Yarasavage said Kavanaugh asked her to go on the record in his defense. Two other messages show communication between Kavanaugh's team and former classmates in advance of the story. The texts also demonstrate that Kavanaugh and Ramirez were more socially connected than previously understood and that Ramirez was uncomfortable around Kavanaugh when they saw each other at a wedding 10 years after they graduated. Berchem's efforts also show that some potential witnesses have been unable to get important information to the FBI.... Bob Bauer..., White House counsel for President Barack Obama, said 'It would be surprising, and it would certainly be highly imprudent, if at any point Judge Kavanaugh directly contacted an individual believed to have information about allegations like this....'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There's a reason Mark Judge spent a couple of weeks hiding out in Delaware & Brett's high-school buddy P.J. Smyth had a convenient lapse of memory. And it probably has more to do with requests from Brett than from their actual feeble brains. Also, too: the FBI, as Republicans tell us ad nauseum, have conducted six background checks on Kavanaugh. If they had found out about this bar fight, you would think Democrats would have asked about it during the hearings. They didn't. So how come New York Times reporters were able to find the police report in a single day, yet the FBI appears to have overlooked it when doing all those background checks? This is a public record in a town where young Kavanaugh lived for some seven years. And the FBI never thought to check to see if his name popped up on the local police blotter? Also too, did agents even bother to ask Choir Boy Kavanaugh if he'd ever had any run-ins with the police? If they did, did he lie about it? Did they even ask him about substance abuse? If so, did he lie about it? I seriously doubt Kavanaugh confined his lying to Senators. ...

... Kevin Drum: "This is from the afternoon session of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings last week: ORRIN HATCH: 'When did you first hear of [Deborah] Ramirez's allegations against you?' KAVANAUGH: 'In the last -- in the period since then, the New Yorker story.'... [As NBC News reports in the story linked above,] 'The texts show Kavanaugh may need to be questioned about how far back he anticipated that Ramirez would air allegations against him. Berchem says in her memo that Kavanaugh 'and/or' his friends 'may have initiated an anticipatory narrative' as early as July to 'conceal or discredit' Ramirez.' [Emphasis Drum.]... If it turns out that Kavanaugh (a) reached out to potential witnesses weeks ago regarding allegations of misconduct and (b) lied to the Senate about when he first heard about these allegations, then he's toast." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So how did Kavanaugh know in July that Ramirez had a story to tell? According to the NBC story, her friend Kerry Berchem didn't know about it. The implication is that Kavanaugh & his "team" (I'd guess that includes Don McGahn) were trying to quash it months ago. That kind of suggests that Kavanaugh knew about the story because, um, (1) it happened & (2) he remembers it. ...

... Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone: "... that Fox News interview that Kavanaugh conducted with Martha MacCallum has been entered into evidence as testimony by Kavanaugh -- under 'penalty of felony,' as the judge might put it.... In the Judiciary Committee transcript [of a staff interview of Kavanaugh], the Fox News interview is placed retroactively under oath. A staffer, whose name is redacted, asks Kavanaugh: 'Everything that you said on that interview, do you -- do you affirm that today? Do you adopt that as your testimony today?' Kavanaugh replies, 'Yes.' The SCOTUS nominee also responds in the affirmative when the questioner asks if Kavanaugh understands that entering his answers to Fox News as testimony means that he is 'subject to felony prosecution if you're lying.'"

... Megan Keller of the Hill: "Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that there's 'not a chance' he would have called for an FBI investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh if he were running for reelection. 'Not a chance,' Flake said when asked on CBS's '60 Minutes' if he would have asked for the investigation if he were up for reelection in the November midterms. 'There's no value to reaching across the aisle,' Flake said. 'There's no currency for that anymore. There's no incentive.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is disingenuous. The fake Flake "investigation," unless the FBI ignores the White House's constrictions, does nothing but provide a cover for Senators -- like Flake -- who want to vote for Kavanaugh but find it politically expedient to pretend they've fulfilled their Constitutional responsibility to vet the candidate. What Flake is saying, too, is that a Republican running for re-election would be committing political suicide to fulfill that duty. This is an admission that Republican legislators have no intention of doing their jobs, at least during any period in which they may run for office again. ...

... Harry Litman, in a New York Times op-ed: "... by Sunday the Democrats were dismissing the investigation as a farce -- and rightly so. Thanks to the White House and Senate Republicans, not only is the F.B.I. limited to a weeklong investigation -- a constraint ... James Comey called 'idiotic' in these pages -- but, far more important, the bureau is seriously limited in terms of who it is allowed to interview.... The Times has reported that Senate Republicans identified a list of just four witnesses.... Such constraints are very unusual, if not unprecedented for such an investigation.... The nucleus of agents' work in a background investigation is to pursue leads and widen the circle of witnesses.... The fact that witnesses do not know the universe of others that the bureau will be talking to serves as a kind of truth serum: They are deterred from lying by the prospect that they could be contradicted by another unknown witness." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Brett's Miscalculation. Jonathan Chait: "... the fact that the administration is attempting to strangle the FBI is itself a sign [they're worried about Kavanaugh's confirmation]. And the fact that the FBI is obviously leaking about White House interference shows that at least somebody within the Bureau wants to conduct a legitimate investigation. And what is there to turn up? Potentially a lot. Kavanaugh's testimony was, at best, wildly misleading. You can find detailed accounts of Kavanaugh's train of lies here, here, here, and (most thoroughly) here. Would it matter if this is proven? Senator Jeff Flake said on 60 Minutes it would, and provable testimony perjury would be disqualifying. (Obviously there is some cause to doubt whether Flake would follow through on this promise.)... The issue of Kavanaugh's lying ... is probably the central weakness in his candidacy at the moment. Kavanaugh['s] ... opening statement ... was intended to rally his party with red-meat partisan rhetoric, and lead directly to a rapid vote in a flourish of tribalistic emotion. It was not intended to survive a week of close factual scrutiny by the media or potentially the FBI.... He also calculated that any partial defense would come unraveled, and settled from the outset on a stance of total denial. This is why he has told lie after lie after lie. But now Kavanaugh is caught in those lies." ...

... Demand Justice, in a Medium essay, details 29 lies Kavanaugh told to Senators & other officials. ...

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Senate will hold a vote on Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination this week. 'The time for endless delay and obstruction has come to a close. Judge Kavanaugh's nomination is out of committee. We're considering it here on the floor and ... we'll be voting this week,' McConnell said." Mrs. McC: Speaking of "endless delay, Mitch, time to bring up the Garland nomination. ...

... AND Speaking of Merrick Garland.... Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: Brett Kavanaugh's testimony "was a startling display of partisan rhetoric from a judicial nominee -- and one that raises ethics questions that are likely to follow him whether he is confirmed or not.... Kavanaugh's angry jabs at Democrats and liberal groups could be grounds for recusal requests in either court. Ethics complaints have been filed against Kavanaugh in the DC Circuit, including at least one claiming he lied about the sexual assault allegations against him. Ethics experts say there's no precedent for what happens to those complaints if he's elevated to the Supreme Court. For now, they're under the purview of the DC Circuit chief judge -- former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. If Democrats take control of the House of Representatives after the midterm elections in November, they could launch further investigations into the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh as well as his Senate testimony and other public statements.... Federal judges and Supreme Court justices have to follow federal law when it comes to recusing. The law says judges and justices should step aside from cases where their 'impartiality might reasonably be questioned,' and if they have a 'personal bias or prejudice.'... Lower court judges are ... subject to a code of conduct..., and they can be investigated via the judiciary's internal conduct review system for alleged violations.... The federal judiciary doesn't have the power to remove judges." ...

... Laurence Tribe in a New York Times op-ed: Brett Kavanaugh "himself has unwittingly provided the most compelling argument against his elevation to that court. His intemperate personal attacks on members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and his partisan tirades against what he derided as a conspiracy of liberal political enemies guilty of a 'calculated and orchestrated political hit' do more than simply display a strikingly injudicious temperament. They disqualify him from participating in a wide range of the cases that may come before the Supreme Court: cases involving individuals or groups that Judge Kavanaugh has now singled out, under oath and in front of the entire nation, as implacable adversaries.... His required recusal would extend to a very broad slice of the Supreme Court's docket during his lifetime tenure as a justice. That would leave the court evenly split in far too many cases, for years on end, if he were to recuse himself as required -- or deeply damaged in the public's trust if he were not." ...

... Pema Levy of Mother Jones: "A former colleague of Rachel Mitchell, the sex crimes prosecutor hired by Senate Republicans to question Christine Blasey Ford, blasted Mitchell for writing a memo casting doubt on Ford's allegations against ... Brett Kavanaugh. Matthew Long, a former sex crimes prosecutor who was trained by Mitchell in the Maricopa County, Arizona, attorney's office, told Mother Jones the memo was 'disingenuous' and inconsistent with Mitchell's own practices as a prosecutor.... On Sunday, Mitchell submitted the memo to the Republicans who had hired her, stating that Ford's case would be too weak to bring charges in a criminal trial. 'A "he said, she said" case is incredibly difficult to prove,' Mitchell wrote. 'But this case is even weaker than that ... I do not think that a reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the Committee.'... [Long said] '[Mitchell] should only be applying this standard when there's an adequate investigation.' Rather than jump to conclusions, Mitchell should have laid out the steps that needed to be taken in order to gather enough information to make a determination about the case." ...

... Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel: "The Senate Judiciary Republicans' hand-picked sex prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, has released a report that is generating the desired headlines from credulous journalists. It should take reporters no more work than to compare what Mitchell claims in her memo with what actually happened last Thursday to declare it a sham report. But since journalists are reporting it as an honest submission, I guess I'll have to debunk it." So she does. ...

To be a good judge and a good umpire, it's important to have the proper demeanor. Really important, I think. To walk in the others' shoes, whether it be the other litigants, the litigants in the case, the other judges. To understand them. To keep our emotions in check. To be calm amidst the storm. On the bench, to put it in the vernacular, don't be a jerk.... In your opinions, to demonstrate civility -- I think that's important as well. To show, to help display, that you are trying to make the decision impartially and dispassionately based on the law and not based on your emotions.... There's a danger of arrogance, as for umpires and referees, but also for judges. And I would say that danger grows the more time you're on the bench. As one of my colleagues puts it, you become more like yourself -- and that can be a problem. -- Federal Judge, speech in 2015 ...

Wow, too bad Brett Kavanaugh never considered anything like that. Somebody should have shared that advice with him before he went in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee &, even in prepared remarks, had a big, wacky, whiney, rude, partisan, sobbing, shouting temper tantrum. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "President Trump hailed a revised North American Free Trade Agreement as a victory for the United States, Canada and Mexico on Monday, saying his get-tough approach to trade, including his use of tariffs, was bringing results. 'This landmark agreement will send cash and jobs pouring into the United States and into North America,' Mr. Trump said in remarks at the White House. 'Good for Canada, good for Mexico.' Mr. Trump portrayed the new agreement as the fulfillment of a campaign promise to terminate Nafta, saying he had made good on his plan to rip up 'the worst trade deal ever made' and help American businesses and workers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The Farce Be with Us. David Rothkopf of the Daily Beast on "how a narcissist admits he is wrong.... He doesn't believe he makes errors. Errors are made by the Deep State and blamed on him as part of their plots. So, instead what he does is, he attacks the deals, throws the world into chaos by withdrawing from them or threatening to, attacks our trading partners and their leaders, goes big with his initial but grossly wrong-headed beliefs. Then, at the eleventh hour, when his bad policies are about to flush the good economy he inherited from his predecessor down the toilet, he rebrands the bad old deal as a new one with a shiny new name, makes a few relatively modest changes, takes credit for it, and declares victory. That is what happened with the trade deal the U.S. announced with Mexico and Canada today. That is also what happened with the trade deal the U.S. announced with South Korea a few weeks back." Read on. Rothkopf is ever so mean to the narcissist in question. ...

... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Well, that was unnecessarily painful. After spending a year and a half alienating our friends, punishing our farmers and manufacturers with devastating tariffs and counter-tariffs, and fracturing the hard-won alliance we had built to isolate and pressure China, we finally got a new trade deal -- and a 'new' trade strategy. Yet somehow, they look an awful lot like the old ones.... For the most part, despite Trump's assertion that 'it's not NAFTA redone, it's a brand-new deal,' the president mostly kept NAFTA intact. What's more, some of the more significant changes -- relating to issues such as labor standards, environmental protections and e-commerce -- appear to be cribbed from another trade deal that Trump has demonized: the Trans-Pacific Partnership.... Now Trump seems to have realized his mistake. Despite how he characterizes his 'historic transaction,' the USMCA is mostly just a smooshing together of two trade deals that he derided as the worst trade deals ever made.... In other words, Trump has wrought a lot of destruction in service of landing us in roughly the same position we would have been in had we simply stayed in TPP and pursued more amicable negotiations with Mexico and Canada on other outstanding issues." ...

... Heather Long of the Washington Post has a rundown of what's in the "new NAFTA." BTW, Trump has named the deal "USMCA." Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Editing out Misogyny. Daily Beast: "After President Trump was caught on camera telling a reporter she 'never' thinks, the White House moved to retroactively alter the president's attack at a Monday afternoon press conference by changing a word in the official transcript. While the president told ABC News reporter Cecilia Vega, 'I know you're not thinking. You never do,' the White House transcript reads, 'I know you're not thanking. You never do.'" ...

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Three New Yorkers are suing in federal court to try to halt a test scheduled for Wednesday of a system that allows ... Donald Trump or any future president to send alert messages to the cellphones of all Americans. The activists filed the suit last week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, arguing that the system violates their free speech rights and constitutes an unconstitutional seizure of their electronic devices.... Wireless phone users have the ability to opt out of most alerts sent under the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System...[;] receipt of the top-level 'presidential alerts' is mandatory."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Paul Manafort met Monday with special counsel Robert Mueller's office as part of his cooperation agreement in the special counsel's investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election. The sit-down at the special counsel's downtown Washington D.C. office stems from Manafort's guilty plea last month, which requires the former Trump campaign chairman to cooperate 'fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly ... in any and all matters as to which the government deems the cooperation relevant.'"

Darren Samuelsohn: "A liberal talk show host described as an intermediary between Trump confidant Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Senate Russia investigators on Monday that he's planning to plead the Fifth Amendment in response to its subpoena for testimony and documents. Randy Credico, a Bernie Sanders-supporting activist and comedian, told the Senate Intelligence Committee through his lawyer that he'd invoke his constitutional right against possible self-incrimination rather than answer the panel's questions in the ongoing investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election."

The Secretary is Out. Tanya Snyder, et al., of Politico: "Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao's day-to-day calendars are filled with large swaths of time blocked out as 'private,' according to Politico's analysis of newly released records -- a pattern that several former DOT officials called unusual. In total, Chao clocked more than 290 hours of appointments labeled private -- the equivalent of about seven weeks' vacation -- during her first 14 months in ... Donald Trump's Cabinet, based on a review of documents provided under the Freedom of Information Act. That total does not include any private hours that occurred on nights, weekends, days marked as vacation or federal holidays." Mrs. McC: Luckily for Chao, she has job security as long as her husband Mitch does. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mean AND Stupid. Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "The Trump administration will no longer provide visas for same-sex domestic partners of foreign diplomats and U.N. officials serving in the U.S., a policy that went into effect Oct. 1. Only if a same-sex couple is married will the spouse be eligible for a visa, but that could prove problematic for some, as the majority of the world's countries do not recognize same-sex marriages. The decision is meant to 'ensure and promote equal treatment,' according to a State Department spokesperson, as heterosexual domestic partners of foreign diplomats are also not eligible for U.S. visas. That rule has been in effect since 2009, but the Trump administration is saying because same-sex marriage is now legal in the U.S., it's no longer necessary or fair.... 'It is an unfortunate change in rules, since same-sex couples, unlike opposite-sex couples, have limited choices when it comes to marriage,' said U.N. Globe, a U.N. LGBTI staff advocacy group, in a statement."

Jesse Eisinger & Paul Kiel of ProPublica: "Starting in 2011, Republicans in Congress repeatedly cut the IRS's budget, forcing the agency to reduce its enforcement staff by a third. But that drop doesn't entirely explain the reduction in tax fraud cases. Over time, crimes only tangentially related to taxes, such as drug trafficking and money laundering, have come to account for most of the agency's cases.... The rate at which the agency audits tax returns has plummeted by 42 percent since the budget cuts started. Criminal referrals were always rare and are becoming rarer still, dropping from 589 referrals in 2012 to 328 in 2016.... The result is huge losses for the government. Business owners don't pay $125 billion in taxes each year that they owe, according to IRS estimates." ...

... OR, as Eric Levitz puts it, "For much of the last decade, the Republican Party has branded itself as a champion of fiscal responsibility and the rule of law -- while doing everything in its power to help rich people steal from the Treasury. Since taking Congress in 2011, the GOP has forced through a series of aggressive cuts to the Internal Revenue Service budget.... Last year, congressional Republicans attempted to divert the IRS's attention away from policing the one percent's tax evasion even further, by requiring the agency to invest more of its limited resources into cracking down on working poor Americans who improperly claim the Earned Income Tax Credit."

Kyle Potter of the AP: "An ex-girlfriend's allegation that Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison once physically abused her could not be substantiated because she refused to provide video she said she had of the incident, an attorney with links to the state's Democratic party who was hired to investigate the claims concluded in a draft report obtained by The Associated Press. The party launched an investigation after Karen Monahan alleged in August that the Democratic congressman dragged her off a bed by her feet while screaming obscenities at her in 2016. Ellison, also a deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has denied the accusation."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Aiden McLaughlin of Mediaite: "Kevin Jackson was swiftly fired as a Fox News contributor last week after he unleashed a torrent of tweets that, amongst other nuttery, referred to Brett Kavanaugh's accusers as 'Lying skanks.' The pro-Trump radio host spoke out about his firing on Joe Piscopo's radio show Monday morning and ripped Fox News for apparent hypocrisy.... On Piscopo's show, Jackson eventually turned his ire towards what he cast as hypocrisy at Fox News. 'Ed Henry was hanging out with strippers while he was married,' Jackson said, before falsely claiming Henry ... has a show on the network. Jackson continued: 'Jesse Watters, who just recently divorced his wife, or is in the process, and he's hanging out with some young chick that he did.'... Henry took time off from the network in 2016 after tabloids reported on an alleged affair with a Las Vegas stripper. Fox News host Jesse Watters, meanwhile, is currently divorcing his wife after an affair. Jackson also expanded on his attacks on Kavanaugh's accusers, calling Christine Blasey Ford a 'lying piece of crap.'... In one tweet, he said Ford's 'academic problems came from her PROMISCUITY!' 'Dang girl, stop opening your legs and OPEN A BOOK!' he wrote."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Officials said Tuesday that at least 1,234 people in Indonesia had died [as a result of the recent tsunami], including 120 foreigners. Others, still uncounted, lie in the rubble of ruined buildings or were swept away by the tsunami, which in some places reached a height of more than 20 feet. Nearly 6,400 personnel from an array of government agencies -- including the military, the police, the national search-and-rescue agency and the Energy and Mineral Resources Department -- were involved in efforts to find survivors, recover bodies and evacuate people from the stricken area, officials said."

CNN: "The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to a woman for the first time in 55 years, and for only the third time in its history. Donna Strickland, a Canadian physicist, was awarded the 2018 prize jointly with Gérard Mourou, from France, for their work on generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses. They share the award with an American, Arthur Ashkin, who at 96 becomes the oldest Nobel Laureate, for developing 'optical tweezers.' Both inventions had 'revolutionized laser physics,' the Royal Swedish Academy said."