Brief news reports

1.   The Trump administration has a new policy on visas:   It will no longer issue visas to unmarried, same-sex partners of foreign diplomats.   Marriage is now a requirement to get a visa as the partner of a diplomat -- if they are same sex;  the article I saw did not address the question of opposite sex, unmarried partners of diplomats.
     I'm sure that Donald Trump doesn't care one whit about this -- except that it's a sop to his ultra-conservative base.    I'm strongly opposed to this move -- but, in truth, it's pretty far down the priority list of Trumpian offenses.   There's only so much room for outrage and action.

2.  It's remarkable to me how many of Brett Kavanaugh's classmates and even his supposed tight-knit circle of friends are making negative statements about him to the media, and hopefully the FBI.    They tend to be about the discrepancies between his testimony and how he actually behaved in high school and college -- or to defend another friend that has been demeaned falsely.  Even his close friend Mark Judge supposedly agreed to talk to the FBI as long as what he said would be kept confidential.   So will he confirm Christine Blasey Ford's allegations . . .  in private and under oath?

3.  In a very short time, over 800 students and alumni of Harvard Law School signed a letter asking that the course that Judge Kavanaugh has been teaching annually during winter quarter not be held this year.   This has been a very popular course.    However, even before the letter was delivered, the school had decided to cancel the course for this year.

4.  President Trump has said that, if Kavanaugh is shown to have lied to Congress, then that would disqualify him.   Sen. Jeff Flake has said that he is concerned about the level of partisanship Kavanaugh showed during last Thursday's hearing.   "We can't have that on the court," he said.

5.  Canada just eked out an eleventh hour agreement to join the U.S. and Mexico in a new version of NAFTA, which is to be called USMCA.   According to my liberal friends on MSNBC, most of what's in this agreement was in the TransPacificPartnership (TPP) that Obama had negotiated but failed to get approval from Congress.   Of course, Trump is lauding himself for his accomplishment, failing to address what some have dismissed as:    Sure, he resolved the problem with Canada that he himself created with his tariffs.   I'm not sure that's entirely fair, but then it's not an area I follow closely.

6.  On the subject of Trump's narcissism:   The special hour-long MBNBC program "The Meeting" centers on a long interview with Rob Goldstone, the British PR guy who set up the Trump Tower meeting at the request of the Russian father-son billionaire Agalarofs, who are closely connected with the Kremlin and Putin.  Goldstone describes the initial meeting between Trump and the Agalarovs, back around 2012, I think -- at least it was prior to the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, which the Agalarovs co-sponsored with Trump.
     Goldstone traveled with the Agalarovs to Reno to meet Trump.  When they arrived at his hotel, Trump was standing at the far end of the lobby.   Recognizing them, he yelled across the lobby:    "The richest man in Russia has come to meet ME!!!"

7.   In the 'be careful what you wish for' department:   It's said that the most likely replacement, if Judge Kavanaugh withdraws or loses the vote, is Judge Amy Barrett.  It's also been said by some that Judge Barrett is even more conservative than Kavanaugh, at least on abortion and gay marriage.    But apparently not on presidential power and protection, which to me, at this point is the most pressing question of concern.  If Donald Trump is allowed to continue demolishing our democratic institutions, that may be hard to recover from.

We've been told before that Kavanaugh's position on presidential power and protection from prosecution or subpoena was the main reason Trump picked him.   His position is that the president is immune from any charges or investigations while in office.   And he was a late addition to the list submitted from the Federalist Society, apparently mainly because of this position -- so he could be picked to protect Trump from Mueller and other investigations.

8.  One person's view of the source of Mitch McConnell's anger over all this Kavanaugh thing is that he didn't want Trump to pick him.   I don't know what McConnell knew or what his objection was based on -- but now McConnell is having to deal with the fallout of what he himself would have avoided if they listened to him.

Ralph