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."

The Commentariat -- October 1, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

** 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.'" ...

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

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: Chao has job security as long as her husband Mitch does.

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."

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?

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.'" ...

     ... 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 the former F.B.I. director 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."

*****

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The United States and Canada have reached a last minute deal to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to people familiar with the negotiations, overcoming deep divisions to keep the 25-year-old trilateral pact intact. The deal came after a weekend of frantic talks to try and preserve a trade agreement that has stitched together the economies of Mexico, Canada and the United States but that was in danger of collapsing amid deep divisions between President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The 11th-hour agreement was punctuated by a frenetic Sunday, with Canada's leaders teleconferencing throughout the day with top American officials in Washington. Mr. Trudeau convened a 10 p.m. cabinet meeting in Ottawa to brief officials on the deal, as Jared Kushner, one of Mr. Trump's closest advisers, and Robert E. Lighthizer, the president's top trade negotiator, hashed out the final details. Mexico's under secretary of foreign trade, Juan Carlos Baker, was expected to present the texts of the agreement to the Mexican senate just before midnight. Text of the agreement was expected to be presented to Congress as early as Sunday evening. The deal represents a win for President Trump...."

"I'm starting to think that men might be too emotional for the Supreme Court." ...

It Depends on What the Meaning of "Limits" Is. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The White House has not placed any limits on the FBI investigation into claims of sexual assault leveled against ... Brett M. Kavanaugh but is also opposed an open-ended 'fishing expedition' that could take a broader look at Kavanaugh's credibility, two Trump administration officials said Sunday.... [Sarah] Sanders said on 'Fox News Sunday' that the White House is 'not micromanaging this process' but also said an open-ended probe into [Julie] Swetnick's claims and whether Kavanaugh may have misled lawmakers in his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony would not be acceptable.... The order to the FBI was signed by Trump but has not been made public, while the White House has sought to lay responsibility for the details on the Senate." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: These remarks get this week's Doublespeak Award. Both of these things cannot be true: (1) there are no limits; (2) certain lines of inquiry "would not be acceptable." The whole purpose of Flake's demand for an "investigation" was to give him & other senators cover for putting a lying, unbalanced, (alleged) violent sex offender on the Supreme Court. ...

... Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "The FBI has received no new instructions from the White House about how to proceed with its weeklong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against ... Brett Kavanaugh, a senior U.S. official and another source familiar with the matter tell NBC News. According to the sources, the president's Saturday night tweet saying he wants the FBI to interview whoever agents deem appropriate has not changed the limits imposed by the White House counsel's office on the FBI investigation -- including a specific witness list that does not include Julie Swetnick, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in high school. Also not on the list, the sources say, are former classmates who have contradicted Kavanaugh's account of his college alcohol consumption, instead describing him as a frequent, heavy drinker. The FBI is also not authorized to interview high school classmates who could shed light on what some people have called untruths in Kavanaugh's Senate Judiciary Committee testimony about alleged sexual references in his high school yearbook." ...

... Here's How That's Working Out. Jane Mayer & Ronan Farrow of the New Yorker: "As the F.B.I. began its investigation this weekend into allegations of sexual misconduct by Brett Kavanaugh..., several people who hope to contribute information about him to the F.B.I. said that they were unable to make contact with agents.... Roberta Kaplan, an attorney representing one potential witness, Elizabeth Rasor, a former girlfriend of Kavanaugh's high-school friend Mark Judge, said her client 'has repeatedly made clear to the Senate Judiciary Committee and to the F.B.I. that she would like the opportunity to speak to them.' But, Kaplan said, 'We've received no substantive response.'... Debra Katz, the lead attorney for [Christine Blasey] Ford, said that her client, too, had been willing to coöperate with the F.B.I.'s investigation, but as of Sunday the F.B.I. had not contacted her, despite Ford's central role in the controversy.... A Yale classmate attempting to corroborate Deborah Ramirez's account ... said that he, too, has struggled unsuccessfully to reach the F.B.I.... Leah Litman, an assistant professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, said the severe restrictions on the scope of the investigation made it 'a joke.' She asked, 'What kind of an investigation into an assault that happened under the influence of alcohol doesn't include investigating the accused's use of alcohol?'" ...

... Michael Shear & Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times: "A Yale classmate of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's accused him on Sunday of a 'blatant mischaracterization' of his drinking while in college, saying that he often saw Judge Kavanaugh 'staggering from alcohol consumption.' The classmate, Chad Ludington, who said he frequently socialized with Judge Kavanaugh as a student, said in a statement that the judge had been untruthful in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he had denied any possibility that he had ever blacked out from drinking. Mr. Ludington said that Judge Kavanaugh had played down 'the degree and frequency' of his drinking, and that the judge had often become 'belligerent and aggressive' while intoxicated. Other former classmates have made similar claims.... Mr. Ludington said ... that he planned to 'take my information to the F.B.I.'" ...

     ... The story has been updated. New Lede: "The F.B.I. moved on Sunday to quickly complete an abbreviated investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, even as Democrats demanded more information about the inquiry's scope, warning that its apparent constraints could make it a 'farce.'" Mrs. McC: I guess so: "Officials said the F.B.I.'s 'limited' supplemental background check of Judge Kavanaugh could be finished by Monday morning.... The F.B.I. was directed by the White House and Senate Republicans to interview just four people: Mark Judge..., P.J. Smyth..., Leland Keyser ...; and Deborah Ramirez...." ...

     ... Here is Chad Ludington's full statement, via the New York Times. Mrs. McC: Needless to say, repeating "I like beer" 10 times doesn't cover it. Kavanaugh should not be allowed to judge the neighborhood kids' dogs-in-costumes show. AND you know how he whined he'd never be able to coach girls' basketball again thanks to the Clinton cabal? Well, I hope not. I wouldn't allow my young daughter anywhere near the guy. ...

... Mihir Zavari of the New York Times: "Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to President Trump, said on Sunday that she was a victim of sexual assault and that the Supreme Court confirmation proceedings of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh should not become a broader 'meeting' of the #MeToo movement, suggesting instead that victims hold their assailants directly accountable. Ms. Conway made the personal revelation during an interview with Jake Tapper on the CNN program 'State of the Union' during which she largely derided the 'partisan politics' of Judge Kavanaugh's hearing on Thursday." ...

... Kris Schneider of ABC News: "The leading Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said that if Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, 'the House will have to investigate' allegations of sexual assault and perjury if the Senate doesn't 'properly' do so through this week's limited FBI probe. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on 'This Week' Sunday, 'We can't have a justice on the Supreme Court ... who has been credibly accused of sexual assaults, who has been credibly accused of various other things ... including perjury.'... 'I was astonished at his -- at his rant,' Nadler said. 'He's a judge; he's a sitting circuit court judge. He's supposed to be nonpartisan.'" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Don't be silly, Jerry. The Senate is knocking itself out on some aspects of the Kavanaugh "investigation":

     ... Jacqueline Klimas of Politico: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office will be investigated to determine whether it leaked a confidential letter from one of Brett Kavanaugh's accusers, Sen. Tom Cotton said Sunday. Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, also said lawyers recommended to Christine Blasey Ford by Democrats will face a Washington, D.C., bar investigation for telling her that Senate Judiciary Committee staffers would not travel to California to interview her about her sexual-assault allegation." ...

     ... AND Naomi Lim of the Washington Examiner: "Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., vowed Sunday to launch a thorough inquiry into Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to find out whether there was any wrongdoing in how they managed the sexual misconduct allegation Christine Blasey Ford leveled at ... Brett Kavanaugh. 'We're going to do a wholesale, full scale investigation of what I think was a despicable process to deter it from happening again,' Graham said during an interview on ABC News' 'This Week.'... Ryan Grim, the journalist from the Intercept who first reported on the letter, said on Twitter last week that he did not receive it from [Sen. Dianne] Feinstein's staff." ...

... James Comey in a New York Times op-ed: "Although the process is deeply flawed, and apparently designed to thwart the fact-gathering process, the F.B.I. is up for this. It's not as hard as Republicans hope it will be.... Unless limited in some way by the Trump administration, they can speak to scores of people in a few days, if necessary.... Agents have much better nonsense detectors than partisans, because they aren't starting with a conclusion.... They know that obvious lies by the nominee about the meaning of words in a yearbook are a flashing signal to dig deeper." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "Alumni from Georgetown Prep are calling on their fellow graduates of the elite preparatory school to come forward with information about Brett Kavanaugh if they have it. The self-described 'call to action' comes in light of the FBI's re-opened background investigation into the embattled Supreme Court nominee -- which is reportedly only focused on two sexual assault allegations leveled against him by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and former Yale acquaintance Deborah Ramirez.... The letter also explicitly calls for anyone with knowledge of Kavanaugh's alleged sexual assaults to provide that information to the FBI on their own volition -- perhaps particularly relevant in light of NBC News' bombshell report that ... Donald Trump personally intervened to severely limit the scope of the FBI's inquiry into Kavanaugh." ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "For the White House, it's Brett Kavanaugh or bust. They have no Plan B and there's not even discussion of one, according to five sources with direct knowledge of the sensitive internal White House talks.... 'He's too big to fail now,' said a senior source involved in the confirmation process. 'Our base, our voters, our side, people are so mad,' the source continued. 'There's nowhere to go. We're gonna make them f---ing vote. [Joe] Manchin in West Virginia, in those red states. Joe Donnelly? He said he's a no? Fine, we'll see how that goes. There will be a vote on him [Kavanaugh]. ... It will be a slugfest of a week.'" ...

... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "As he yelled at Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, it was not hard to imagine that [Kavanaugh] would be less than evenhanded if they were a party in litigation. 'With his unprecedented attacks on Democrats and liberals, Kavanaugh must now likely broadly recuse himself from matters including those groups,' says ethics guru Norman Eisen. 'It may wipe out a substantial portion of his docket should he be confirmed. We have a rule of thumb in government ethics: When recusals are so broad that the nominee can't do his job, then maybe he shouldn't be confirmed to the position....'... [Laurence Tribe says,] '... Judge Kavanaugh could not credibly cast a vote or participate in any way as a Supreme Court Justice in any of the very substantial number of cases that court decides each year involving litigants, whether individuals or organizations, that Kavanaugh evidently blames for orchestrating what he sees as an outrageous attack on his integrity, his decency, and his very life as well as the life of his family.'... This is a man soaked in the Clinton wars, who delivered dozens of speeches thrilling conservative activists at the Federalist Society and now lets on that he harbors rabidly hostile views of the Democrats. It's inconceivable someone so biased, someone who vowed revenge ('What goes around, comes around,' he shouted), could be elevated to the Supreme Court. And yet, he might." ...

... Once upon a Time. Jim Fallows of the Atlantic: "By the rules of previous, pre-Trump-era politics, neither [Trump nor Kavanaugh] could possibly have made this final career step -- Trump to the presidency, Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Each has done things and revealed traits that would have been automatically disqualifying in the world as it existed before 2016. Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh; Trump's example is also shaping him. By the pre-Trump rules of presidential campaigning, Trump's prospects would have come to an end numerous times along the trail[.]... In Kavanaugh's case, his afternoon before the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed three traits that previous nominees who sat in that chair have carefully avoided, because they would have been considered so damaging. They were: temperamental instability; open partisan affiliations; and a casual willingness to tell obvious, easily disprovable lies. These are apart from the underlying truth of the multiple sexual allegations about Kavanaugh, which may not ever be provable." ...

... Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs does a marvelous job of cataloging the lies Brett Kavanaugh told Thursday. " I can prove quite easily that Kavanaugh's teary-eyed 'good, innocent man indignant at being wrongfully accused' schtick was a facade. What may have looked like a strong defense was in fact a very, very weak and implausible one." This is a long piece, but it's easy to read. Many thanks to Keith H. for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: As safari pointed out in yesterday's Comments thread, there's another lie in this clip. Kavanaugh claimed under oath he did not have connections to get into Yale. In fact, he was a legacy admission. It was an unforced lie and completely irrelevant. But Kavanaugh, like many elites, particularly conservative political ones, have to believe not only that they deserve a place at the top but that they earned it. The last four Republican presidential nominees -- Trump, Romney, McCain, Bush -- were all legacies. Trump was not an elite, of course, but he got his nest egg (and probably his place at U. Penn) thanks to the old man's money.

The Children's Warehouse. Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home: a barren tent city on a sprawling patch of desert in West Texas. Until now, most undocumented children being held by federal immigration authorities had been housed in private foster homes or shelters, sleeping two or three to a room. They received formal schooling and regular visits with legal representatives assigned to their immigration cases. But in the rows of sand-colored tents in Tornillo, Tex., children in groups of 20, separated by gender, sleep lined up in bunks. There is no school: The children are given workbooks that they have no obligation to complete. Access to legal services is limited.... The tent city in Tornillo ... is unregulated, except for guidelines created by the Department of Health and Human Services." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Lolita Baldor of the AP: "Stricter Trump administration immigration policies have stymied Pentagon plans to restart a program that allowed thousands of people with critical medical or Asian and African language skills to join the military and become American citizens, according to several U.S. officials. The decade-old program has been on hold since 2016 amid concerns that immigrant recruits were not being screened well enough, and security threats were slipping through the system. Defense officials shored up the vetting process, and planned to relaunch the program earlier this month. But there was an unexpected barrier when Homeland Security officials said they would not be able to protect new immigrant recruits from being deported when their temporary visas expired after they signed a contract to join the military, the U.S. officials said."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has completed a detailed legal proposal to dramatically weaken a major environmental regulation covering mercury, a toxic chemical emitted from coal-burning power plants, according to a person who has seen the document but is not authorized to speak publicly about it. The proposal would not eliminate the mercury regulation entirely, but it is designed to put in place the legal justification for the Trump administration to weaken it and several other pollution rules, while setting the stage for a possible full repeal of the rule. Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist who is now the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected in the coming days to send the proposal to the White House for approval."

Cristiano Lima & Jeremy White of Politico: "The Justice Department is suing California to block a recently signed law restoring net neutrality rules that the Federal Communications Commission discarded last year, setting up a high-stakes legal bout between the Trump administration and the nation's most populous state. The announcement comes immediately on the heels of Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to sign the bill into law. Brow had until midnight on Sunday to approve the measure, which was passed by the state's legislature in August." More on California legislation below. Mrs. McC: California is becoming a country unto its own, & it's far better than the one the rest of us inhabit.

Ryan Lizza has a long piece in Esquire about Devin Nunes's family farm, which secretly moved from California to Iowa in 2006. "... the family has apparently tried to conceal the move from the public -- for more than a decade. As far as I could tell, as of late August, neither Nunes nor the local California press that covers him had ever publicly mentioned that his family dairy is no longer in Tulare[, California].... Other dairy farmers in the area helped me understand why the Nunes family might be so secretive about the farm: Midwestern dairies tend to run on undocumented labor.... In the heart of Steve King's district, a place that is more pro-Trump than almost any other patch of America, the economy is powered by workers that King and Trump have threatened to arrest and deport.... The absurdity of this situation -- funding and voting for politicians whose core promise is to implement immigration policies that would destroy their livelihoods -- has led some of the Republican-supporting dairymen to rethink their political priorities."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "The Washington Times on Monday issued a lengthy retraction and apology for an editorial it published in March about Aaron Rich, the brother of the slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich whose unsolved murder became the basis for conspiracy theories on the far-right. 'The Column included statements about Aaron Rich, the brother of former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, that we now believe to be false,' read part of the retraction. The retraction added, 'The Washington Times apologizes to Mr. Rich and his family. All online copies of the Column have been deleted and all online content referencing the Column has been deleted to the extent within The Washington Times' control.' The retraction came as part of a settlement Aaron Rich reached with The Washington Times after he filed a lawsuit against the conservative newspaper -- and others -- in March, his attorney Michael Gottlieb told CNN. Gottlieb declined to discuss other terms of the settlement, but said that Aaron Rich had accepted the newspaper's apology.... The Washington Times' initial article, which the lawsuit said was published both online and in print, stated that it was 'well known in intelligence circles that Seth Rich and his brother, Aaron Rich, downloaded the DNC emails and was paid by Wikileaks for that information.' The article cited no evidence to support the assertion." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently the paper, besides being "conservative," is aimed at the semi-literate. "[They] was paid"???

Election 2018

Florida State-wide Races. Marc Caputo of Politico: "Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló is expected to endorse Sen. Bill Nelson (D.Fla.) and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum on Monday in the heart of Florida's Boricua community, giving both Democrats' campaigns a potential lift with this crucial demographic. Rosselló at 10:45 a.m. will make a 'special announcement' with Nelson by his side, according to Nelson's campaign. And at 1:15 p.m., Gillum's campaign says, he'll stand beside Gillum for another press conference in Kissimmee.... [Gov. Rick] Scott[, who is challenging Nelson,] had hoped to score Rosselló's endorsement. Florida's governor has flown to Puerto Rico eight times since the hurricane and stood side by side with Rosselló." A moderate, Rosselló is the leader of Puerto Rico's New Progressive Party (and not a Democrat, as Caputo writes).

Texas Senate Race. Madlin Mekelburg of the El Paso Times: "Roughly 55,000 people stood crammed together at Auditorium Shores in Austin on Saturday for the Turn Out For Texas rally, watching as U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke sang 'On the Road Again' with country music legend Willie Nelson. Attendees at the free concert, which included performances from Leon Bridges and local Austin artists like Tameca Jones, waved 'Beto for Senate' signs and chanted the Democrat's name as he addressed the crowd. 'Let tonight be a message to the future,' O'Rourke, D-El Paso, said to cheers."

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "California has become the first state to require publicly traded companies to include women on their boards of directors, one of a series of laws boosting or protecting women that Gov. Jerry Brown signed Sunday. The measure requires at least one female director on the board of each California-based public corporation by the end of next year. Companies would need up to three female directors by the end of 2021, depending on the number of board seats."

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Track Palin, the oldest son of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, has been arrested on domestic violence charges for the third time in about three years. Alaska State Troopers responded to a home in Wasilla around 11:30 p.m. Friday after a report of a 'disturbance,' according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety. Once there, investigators said they found that Track Palin had assaulted an unnamed 'female acquaintance.' When the woman tried to call police, Palin allegedly took her phone away to keep her from doing so. Palin physically resisted troopers while being placed under arrest, according to the Alaska DPS. The 29-year-old was charged with fourth-degree assault, interfering with the report of a domestic violence crime, resisting arrest by force and disorderly conduct, according to court records." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, Track doesn't have a law degree so he might not be the best candidate for a job on the federal bench, but surely Trump can find some high government position for this now well-qualified candidate.

Curt Prendergast of the Arizona Daily Star (Sept. 28): "An off-duty Border Patrol agent was holding a gender-reveal celebration for his wife's pregnancy last year when he accidentally started a 47,000-acre wildfire, his attorney said. The incident will cost Dennis Dickey $220,000 in restitution after he pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to a misdemeanor charge of causing a fire without a permit. Nearly 800 firefighters from various agencies battled the Sawmill Fire for about a week in April 2017, at a cost of about $8.2 million. The wildfire began when Dickey shot a target that contained Tannerite, an explosive substance designed to detonate when shot by a high-velocity firearm, U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Brent Robinson wrote in an affidavit filed Sept. 20 in U.S. District Court. The explosion was caught on film by a witness. Tannerite is a legal compound that has been linked to wildfires in several other Western states." Mrs. McC: Border Patrol agents are not the brightest bulbs on the tree. Unfortunately, we authorize them to make life-and-death decisions.

Way Beyond

Christina Anderson of the New York Times: "A Swedish court on Monday found Jean-Claude Arnault, the man at the center of a scandal that led to the cancellation of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, guilty of raping a woman in 2011. The court sentenced Mr. Arnault to two years in prison, the minimum term for rape.... Mr. Arnault, a French photographer, was long seen in Sweden as someone who could make or break a career in the arts. He and his wife, a member of the Swedish Academy, owned the Forum, a popular cultural venue that received support from the academy.... In November last year, the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter reported that 18 women had accused Mr. Arnault of sexual assault or harassment. Many said they had been mistreated at the Forum or at academy-owned properties in Stockholm and Paris. The accusations covered a period of 20 years...."

News Lede

New York Times: The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded on Monday to James P. Allison of the United States and Tasuku Honjo of Japan for their work on unleashing the immune system's ability to attack cancer, a breakthrough in developing new cancer treatments."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 30, 2018

Afternoon Update:

It Depends on What the Meaning of "Limits" Is. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The White House has not placed any limits on the FBI investigation into claims of sexual assault leveled against ... Brett M. Kavanaugh but is also opposed an open-ended 'fishing expedition' that could take a broader look at Kavanaugh's credibility, two Trump administration officials said Sunday.... [Sarah] Sanders said on 'Fox News Sunday' that the White House is 'not micromanaging this process' but also said an open-ended probe into [Julie] Swetnick's claims and whether Kavanaugh may have misled lawmakers in his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony would not be acceptable.... The order to the FBI was signed by Trump but has not been made public, while the White House has sought to lay responsibility for the details on the Senate." Emphasis added. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: These remarks get this week's Doublespeak Award. Both of these things cannot be true: (1) there are no limits; (2) certain lines of inquiry "would not be acceptable."

Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs does a marvelous job of cataloging the lies Brett Kavanaugh told Thursday. "I can prove quite easily that Kavanaugh's teary-eyed 'good, innocent man indignant at being wrongfully accused' schtick was a facade. What may have looked like a strong defense was in fact a very, very weak and implausible one." This is a long piece, but it's easy to read. Many thanks to Keith H. for the link. ...

... James Comey in a New York Times op-ed: "Although the process is deeply flawed, and apparently designed to thwart the fact-gathering process, the F.B.I. is up for this. It's not as hard as Republicans hope it will be.... Unless limited in some way by the Trump administration, they can speak to scores of people in a few days, if necessary.... Agents have much better nonsense detectors than partisans, because they aren't starting with a conclusion.... They know that obvious lies by the nominee about the meaning of words in a yearbook are a flashing signal to dig deeper."

The Children's Warehouse. Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home: a barren tent city on a sprawling patch of desert in West Texas. Until now, most undocumented children being held by federal immigration authorities had been housed in private foster homes or shelters, sleeping two or three to a room. They received formal schooling and regular visits with legal representatives assigned to their immigration cases. But in the rows of sand-colored tents in Tornillo, Tex., children in groups of 20, separated by gender, sleep lined up in bunks. There is no school: The children are given workbooks that they have no obligation to complete. Access to legal services is limited.... The tent city in Tornillo ... is unregulated, except for guidelines created by the Department of Health and Human Services."

*****

Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "The FBI has begun contacting people as part of an additional background investigation of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, including a second woman who alleges that the Supreme Court nominee sexually assaulted her. The bureau has contacted Deborah Ramirez, a Yale University classmate of Kavanaugh's who alleges that he shoved his genitals in her face at a party where she had been drinking and become disoriented, her attorney said Saturday.... The FBI also is following up on allegations by Christine Blasey Ford.... But Michael Avenatti, an attorney for Julie Swetnik, who alleged that Kavanaugh and another boy got teenage girls drunk at parties, where the girls were sexually assaulted, sometimes by groups of boys, said Saturday that Swetnik has not been contacted by the bureau.... Each of the people Ford identified as being at the gathering — [Mark] Judge, Leland Keyser and Patrick J. Smyth -- has said they will cooperate with the FBI.... A background investigation is, by its nature, more limited than a criminal probe, and FBI agents will not be able to obtain search warrants or issue subpoenas to compel testimony from potential witnesses." ...

... AND there's this from the WashPo report: "Trump said the FBI is 'all over talking to everybody.... They have free rein, they can do whatever they have to do, whatever it is that they do. They'll be doing things we have never even thought of.'"

... BUT That Was A Double Whopper with Cheese. Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "The White House is limiting the scope of the FBI's investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against ... Brett Kavanaugh, multiple people briefed on the matter told NBC News. While the FBI will examine the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, the bureau has not been permitted to investigate the claims of Julie Swetnick, who has accused Kavanaugh of engaging in sexual misconduct at parties while he was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in the 1980s, those people familiar with the investigation told NBC News. A White House official confirmed that Swetnick's claims will not be pursued as part of the reopened background investigation into Kavanaugh.... The White House counsel's office has given the FBI a list of witnesses they are permitted to interview, according to several people.... They characterized the White House instructions as a significant constraint on the FBI investigation and caution that such a limited scope, while not unusual in normal circumstances, may make it difficult to pursue additional leads in a case in which a Supreme Court nominee has been accused of sexual assault.... White House counsel Don McGahn, who has shepherded Kavanaugh's nomination since President Trump chose him for the high court on July 9, is taking the lead for the White House in dealing with the FBI on the investigation...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: McGahn knows where the bodies are buried. The fix is in. ...

     ... UPDATE. Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Saturday that the F.B.I. will have 'free rein' to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, but the emerging contours of the inquiry showed its limited scope. Four witnesses will be questioned.... Left off the list were former classmates who have contradicted Judge Kavanaugh's congressional testimony about his drinking and partying as a student.... Presidential advisers were working in concert with Senate Republicans.... 'I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion,' Mr. Trump wrote [in a tweet]. He denied an NBC News report that he was limiting the inquiry and that investigators were not permitted to examine the claims of Julie Swetnick.... Democrats, left out of the discussions that led to Mr. Trump's order, tried on Saturday to clarify the scope of the F.B.I. investigation...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So as I understand it, if a credible person called the FBI tipline & said, "I was at that party in 1982 where I directed Chrissie up to the bathroom, she stayed there a long time, & a while later I saw Brett & Mark come stumbling down the stairs laughing, & when I asked them what was so funny, Brett said, before passing out, 'We just did the Devil's Triangle with Squi's squeeze,'" under the parameters set by McGahn & Trump, the FBI would not be permitted to interview that witness. ...

... bmaz of emptywheel: "This was about the easiest thing in the world to predict. Jeff Flake issues some hollow self indulgent bullshit to make himself look like the last great reasonable man, and it is all garbage being run as cover for a complicit Trump White House and weak Senate Republicans (and at least one faux Democrat) desperately and cowardly seeking any fig leaf possible to allow them to put a craven, partisan, angry and drunkard historical sex offender on the United States Supreme Court for the next three to four decades."

... David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "His hand forced by the demands of Senators Flake, Collins and Murkowksi, President Trump has authorized an FBI investigation into some details of Kavanaugh's past. Unfortunately (but not unpredictably), the White House is so delimiting the investigation as to make it a farce and a sham[.]... Also off limits are Kavanaugh's drinking habits and Mark Judge's employment records at Safeway. Both would be crucial in corroborating the accounts of both Dr. Ford and Ms. Ramirez.... And Flake, Collins and Murkowski have all the power they need to prevent the coverup." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: But they won't exercise that power. The minute the clock stops ticking, Grassley is going to announce he has received the FBI report & there's nothing new in it. The next minute, McConnell will call the vote. ...

... Steve M.: "The supposedly heroic Jeff Flake could be really heroic by threatening a no vote on Kavanaugh unless these restrictions are lifted. But he won't do that. So Democratic senators need to raise hell right now. It has to become widely known at the outset that this is a sham investigation." ...

... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Say one thing about Donald Trump, the man knows how to obstruct justice[.]... It sure is amazing how Trump does not want any investigations that might implicate assertions made in Brett Kavanaugh's meticulous, highly believable testimony!... To state the obvious none of the actions Republican public officials are taking suggest they think Kavanaugh is credible." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you're looking for evidence of Kavanaugh's guilt, it's the cover-up.

... Matt Shuham of TPM: "The ACLU doesn't normally endorse or oppose individual candidates or nominees. It made a 'rare exception' Saturday, in its president's words, announcing its opposition to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. Citing 'credible allegations that Judge Kavanaugh has engaged in serious misconduct that have not been adequately investigated by the Senate,' the ACLU's national board of directors passed a resolution stating that 'Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's credible testimony, subsequent allegations of sexual misconduct, the inadequate investigation, and Judge Kavanaugh's testimony at the hearing lead us to doubt Judge Kavanaugh's fitness to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's great! I'm sure when the ACLU brings its cases before the Supremes, Justice Wood B. Rapist will treat the organization's clients fairly & impartially. Because that's the kind of guy he is.

... More realistic than the original! Thanks, P.D.:

... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: At Thursday's Judiciary Committee hearing, "Judge Kavanaugh was angry and emotional, embracing the language of slashing partisanship. His demeanor raised questions about his neutrality and temperament and whether the already fragile reputation of the Supreme Court as an institution devoted to law rather than politics would be threatened if he is confirmed.... The charged language recalled Judge Kavanaugh's years as a partisan Republican, working for Ken Starr.... There was reason to fear that Judge Kavanaugh's searing reaction to the recent accusations could affect his work should he be confirmed to the Supreme Court." ...

... Jamelle Bouie: "With his furious partisanship and snarling anger, Kavanaugh is now an extraordinarily toxic nominee. And the raw exercise of power behind his confirmation is itself a powerful blow to the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.... Given the already unprecedented blockade of Merrick Garland, the presence of a Justice Kavanaugh would, for millions of voters, cement the Supreme Court as a narrow, factional power, meant to enhance one political party at the expense of another. In response, liberals may push for radical solutions that alter or dilute the power of the court, from impeaching Kavanaugh to expanding and 'packing' the court with new members. Either move would bring about an institutional arms race, as parties responded with ever-escalating reforms." ...

... Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times refute some of the tall tales Kavanaugh told during his confirmation hearings. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Charles Pierce: "In plain terms, for all his spleen and outrage, Judge avanaugh lies about everything. In his earlier hearings, he lied about his judicial philosophy, and he lied about his days as a Republican operative, both in and out of the White House. On Monday, he lied to Martha McCallum of Fox News. On Thursday, he lied about his entire adolescence and his college days. He lied even when he didn't have to lie. He lied in preposterous ways easily disproven by common sense. (The 'Devil's Triangle'? 'Renate Alumnius'?) He lied like a toddler, like a guilty adolescent, and like a privileged scion of the white ruling class, which is a continuum with which we all are far too familiar.... And now, he is a couple of easy steps away from having lied his way into a lifetime seat on the United States Supreme Court. This guy is going to be deciding constitutional issues for the next four decades, and the truth is not in him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Shamus Khan, in a Washington Post op-ed: "How could a man brought up in some of our nation's most storied institutions -- Georgetown Prep, Yale College, Yale Law School -- dissemble with such ease? The answer lies in the privilege such institutions instill in their members, a privilege that suggests the rules that govern American society are for the common man, not the exceptional one.... Schools often quite openly affirm the idea that, because you are better, you are not governed by the same dynamics as everyone else.... Children whose parents are in the top 1 percent of earners are 77 times more likely to attend an Ivy League school than are the children of poorer parents.... Privilege casts inherited advantages as 'exceptional' qualities that justify special treatment.... His peers from the party of personal responsibility have largely rallied around him, seeking to protect his privilege." ...

... Michael Kranish, et al., of the Washington Post: Those calendar pages Kavanaugh provided to exonerate himself may be of interest to the FBI this week. Several entries tend to corroborate Blasey Ford's account. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

The Poor Dear Is Just Confused. Irin Carmon of New York: "The script was set ten days earlier.... Orrin Hatch called Christine Blasey Ford 'mistaken' and 'mixed up' in her belief that ... [Brett Kavanaugh] tried to rape her when they were teenagers. When the hearing came, Kavanaugh ... said, 'I am not questioning that Dr. Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time.' It was the pseudo-empathic version of, 'Bitch set me up.' The Republicans held fast to their mendacious dodge: The poor dear meant well. She was just confused -- and the true perps were the Democrats who were using her.... The insult to injury of this position is that it elides its cruelty with infantilizing faux-compassion: It's okay, little lady, you just don't know your own mind. Brett knows best." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Men who write laws designed to subjugate women have long claimed they're doing so to "protect" women. When I started working, many states had laws "protecting" women from having to lift more than 25 pounds. Coincidentally, it turned out that most job descriptions (and this includes office jobs) had a requirement that the job-holder lift more than 25 pounds even when that was not remotely true. For some reason, none of the he-men were around to help secretaries lug around boxes full of copy paper or files. ...

... Maureen Dowd: "... Kavanaugh simply adapted Clarence Thomas's playbook of raging against the machine.... 'This is a circus,' Thomas seethed in 1991. 'This is a circus,' Kavanaugh seethed on Thursday. Kavanaugh echoed Thomas's martyrdom, claiming he was being 'destroyed' by partisans conspiring to dig up dirt. He charged that Democrats were conducting a 'grotesque and coordinated character assassination' because of their anger about President Trump's ascent and their desire for revenge after his own seamy work helping Ken Starr in his pervy pursuit of Bill Clinton. It was a cri de coeur custom-made for the age of Trump -- and custom-designed to please Trump himself: entitled white men acting like the new minority, howling about things that are being taken away from them, aggrieved at anything that diminishes them or saps their power.... The nominee whom Ted Cruz defended as 'a boring Boy Scout' became a sneering portrait of privilege denied. As The Atlantic noted, Kavanaugh brandished Yale as 'a magic wand, something that could be waved to dispel questions of his conduct.'... The hope that the F.B.I. will save the day may be misplaced. In the case of Anita Hill, agents were deployed by Republicans to help smear her.&" ...

... Angry White Men think Kavanaugh Was "Too Timid." Jeremy Peters & Susan Chira of the New York Times: "For many conservatives, especially white men who share Mr. Trump's contempt for the left and his use of divisive remarks, the clash over Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation has become a rallying cry against a liberal order that, they argue, is hostile to their individual rights, political power and social status.... Judge Kavanaugh's furious denials of the allegation and his tirade before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday also underscore how Mr. Trump's own angry rhetorical defenses of himself ... have become such an effective playbook with the Republican base. Republican politicians now regularly portray critics, Democrats, the news media and even people making allegations of sexual misconduct as liars or fakes, and strike aggrieved tones as they present themselves as victims of conspiracies or leftist cabals."

... Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "Catholic University's president suspended a dean whose comments on social media this week questioned allegations of sexual assault against ... Brett M. Kavanaugh. John Garvey, the president of the university, said Friday evening in an email to the campus that the remarks 'demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to the victim.' Will Rainford, the dean, had issued a written apology Thursday evening for a remark he made on his university Twitter account that he said 'unfortunately degraded' one of the women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.... 'Swetnick is 55 y/o,' Rainford posted Wednesday on his @NCSSSDean Twitter account. 'Kavanaugh is 52 y/o. Since when do senior girls hang with freshmen boys? If it happened when Kavanaugh was a senior, Swetnick was an adult drinking with&by her admission, having sex with underage boys. In another universe, he would be victim & she the perp!'... Scores of graduates of the National Catholic School of Social Service signed a letter to the university's president, provost and board of trustees objecting to Rainford';s comment and calling for his resignation." Rainford is dean of the School of Social Service. Huh. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... I was really being tough. And so was he. And we were going back-and-forth. And then we fell in love, OK? No really. He wrote me beautiful letters. And they're great letters. We fell in love. But you know what, now they'll say: "Donald Trump said they fell in love. How horrible! How horrible is that? So unpresidential." I always tell you it's so easy to be presidential, but instead of having 10,000 people outside trying to get into this packed arena, we'd have about 200 people standing right there. -- Donald Trump, speaking of his relationship with brutal dictator & U.S. nemesis Kim Jong-un, at a rally in West Virginia yesterday ...

... Reuters: "North Korea's foreign minister told the United Nations on Saturday continued sanctions were deepening its mistrust in the United States and there was no way the country would give up its nuclear weapons unilaterally under such circumstances. Ri Yong-ho told the world body's annual General Assembly that North Korea had taken 'significant goodwill measures' in the past year, such as stopping nuclear and missiles tests, dismantling the nuclear test site, and pledging not to proliferate nuclear weapons and nuclear technology. 'However, we do not see any corresponding response from the U.S.,' he said."

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "An F-35 fighter jet crashed in South Carolina, the US Marine Corps said, in the first such incident to affect the most expensive defence programme in the world.... 'The US Marine pilot ejected safely,' the statement [by the Corps] said, adding that there were no civilian injuries and both the health of the pilot and the cause of the crash were being evaluated. The F-35 Lightning II is built by Lockheed-Martin. Reuters reported earlier on Friday that the Pentagon announced an $11.5bn contract for 141 planes, which 'lowered the price for the most common version of the stealthy jet by 5.4% to $89.2m'."

Election 2020. Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts declared on Saturday that she would 'take a hard look' at running for the White House in 2020 once the midterm elections are over, and called on the country to elect a female president to fix the 'broken government' in Washington. Ms. Warren made the announcement during a town-hall meeting in Holyoke, Mass., where she was decrying President Trump and Senate Republicans for digging in behind Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, the embattled Supreme Court nominee who has been accused of sexual assault. She described the hearings as a spectacle of 'powerful men helping a powerful man make it to an even more powerful position.'"

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, under pressure from his lawyers and investors, reached a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Saturday to resolve a securities fraud case. The settlement will force Mr. Musk to step aside as chairman for three years and pay a $20 million fine. The S.E.C. announced the deal two days after it sued Mr. Musk in federal court for fraud and misleading investors over his post on Twitter last month that he had 'funding secured' for a buyout of the electric-car company at $420 a share. The deal with the S.E.C. will allow him to remain as chief executive, something he could have jeopardized if he had gone to battle with the agency."

News Lede

AP: "Rescue officials feared the full scale of Indonesia's earthquake and tsunami could climb far past the more than 800 already confirmed dead, as several large coastal towns remained cut off Sunday by damaged roads and downed communication lines. The country's disaster agency said the death toll more than doubled to 832, and nearly all of those were from the hard-hit city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi. The regencies of Donggala, Sigi and Parigi Moutong -- with a combined population of 1.2 million -- had yet to be fully assessed."