SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:16 P.M. ET: 

THE WAY IT'S DONE – FROM DAILY MAIL:   Judge Brett Kavanaugh is going into the Supreme Court confirmation process with a hail of rhetorical arrows zinging by him, including a phony letter-writing campaign aimed at unsuspecting American newspaper editors   At least 21 papers were duped last week, including big-market brands like the Dallas Morning News and The Washington Times. They ran identical letters over a four-day period, each signed by a different person.  The effort is an example of public-relations 'astroturfing,' a technique meant to simulate genuine grassroots support for an idea or cause.  The form letter is one small piece of the message minefield erupting around Kavanaugh as he prepares for a brutal confirmation process that will end with scant support from Democrats.  It begins by declaring that 'Brett Kavanaugh is the wrong choice to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. If he is confirmed to the Supreme Court, everything that we hold dear as a nation will be at stake.'  It's an old stunt, done fairly often.  What I find ugly is the idea that Judge Kavanaugh somehow represents a rejection of American values.  Quite the contrary, I think.

THIS MUST BE ANALYZED – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s recent selection to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by Anthony Kennedy, was a “bland eater” in college, his then-roommate has revealed, with the potential justice preferring to dress his pasta with simple sauces that were not spicy at all.  The revelations come in an article at The Yale Daily News that reveals other details about Kavanaugh’s life at the elite Ivy League university, including that he was “a big Redskins fan” and that he used to participate in scratch basketball games with friends.  The details about Kavanaugh’s food habits came from a former roommate, who said that the judge, during his time at Yale, was a “bland eater” who “never ate his pasta with anything more exotic than tomato sauce or ketchup on top,” according to The Daily News.  “At visits to Yorkside Pizza following late nights at Toad’s Place…the judge’s pizza had to be plain cheese, or sometimes just pepperoni,” The Daily News reported.  The left will find this behavior suspicious.  Pizza is elitist, as compared with selections from third-world countries or oppressed populations.  As far as the judge's affinity for the Redskins, that speaks for itself.  Racist!  Sexist!  Anti-gay!  Pizza lover!

THIS GUY IS NUTS – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  The man who co-wrote “The Art of the Deal” said Sunday he believes President Trump’s faculties are diminishing — and that he feels obligated to sound the alarm.  “We are in a true emergency,” Tony Schwartz said on CNN Sunday. “And the accelerated rate at which his breakdown or decompensation is occurring is cause for us, and certainly for me, to come on to TV more often, to tweet more often.”  Schwartz told CNN’s Brian Stelter that he felt comfortable making that assessment because he had “spent an enormous time with [Trump] over a period of 18 months.”  He also said he was a 25-year student of psychology and had spent “an enormous amount of time” with shrinks who were trying to get to the bottom of Trump.  Hey, guy, cut the amateur psychology.  Shrinks who want to get to the bottom of Trump know they'd have to personally examine him, the way real doctors do.  Analysis from a distance is severely frowned upon within the profession.  Grow up.

July 15, 2018