#HIMTOO: Kavanaugh Pal Mark Judge Struggles to Put His Life Back Together After Dem Smear.

OPEN THREAD: Make of it what you will.

SENATE CANDIDATE STEALS COMMERCIAL: HBO’s ‘Veep’ gag and new Joe Donnelly political ad are basically the same.

Many Hoosiers who saw the latest Joe Donnelly ad entitled “Axe” may have viewed it and thought, “well, there’s a fella who likes to chop his own wood!”

But fans of HBO’s “Veep” looked at it and said, “boy, this sure looks familiar.”

That’s because the Donnelly ad posted to his YouTube page Wednesday is very similar to a commercial called “Chopping” that aired on the Julia Louis-Dreyfus led comedy for fictional congressional candidate Jonah Ryan.

The similarities, from the location to the close-up shots of wood being chopped on a stump, were pointed out on Twitter by Jerry Dunleavy. . . . The two are so similar that Timothy Simons, who plays Ryan, called Donnelly out: “IM SENDING THIS (expletive) AS CEASE AND DESIST (sic).”

Dunleavy’s been taking a victory stroll on this getting noticed.

Plus: “Remember this truth: Everyone in D.C. wants it to be like The West Wing, acts like it’s House of Cards, but it’s really just Veep.”

I SUSPECT THIS HAS A LOT OF OTHER LEAKERS WORRIED: “Terry J. Albury, 39, a former Special Agent of the FBI, was sentenced today to 48 months in the District of Minnesota in connection with his unauthorized disclosure and retention of classified national defense information.”

DEEPLY UNWISE, BUT ALSO DEEPLY UNSURPRISING: Poll: Jews strongly back Democrats in 2018 midterms.

I’M SKEPTICAL: Can a Constitutional Amendment Forestall the Threat of Court-Packing? I’m not sure why “liberal Democrats” need a concession here, though, at least if Trump holds Congress. Having opened up the possibility with injudicious statements, they should be happy to take it off the table before Trump does it.

SPOILER: IT’S BECAUSE SHE’S A FRAUDULENT HACK. Why Many Native Americans Are Angry With Elizabeth Warren.

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THE END OF SCANDINAVIAN NON-ALIGNMENT: Well, yeah. It’s been coming for quite awhile. What makes this essay interesting is Carl Bildt wrote it. Bildt served as Sweden’s foreign minister from 2006 to 2014 and Prime Minister from 1991 to 1994.

For example:

…in recent years, Northern Europe’s security landscape has changed. In response to Russian aggression and revisionism, NATO has deployed battalion battle groups in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as air force squadrons to police those countries’ skies. And in both Sweden and Finland, defense spending is increasing, and there is an ongoing debate about whether to upgrade the privileged partnership with NATO to full membership.

2015 is a recent year. Here’s a column I wrote on this subject, The Bluff Attack on Bornholm. Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic. The bluff atack was one of the Kremlin’s air and naval probes that “led Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland to reassess their military defenses.”

UPDATE: Chapter Four, Russia in Ukraine, analyzes the Scandinavian conundrum.

HMM: Bar Exam Failure Is A Harbinger Of Professional Discipline.

WE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD: Remembering the Hardships of TV Before Streaming Was a Thing.

WELL, THAT’S ENCOURAGING: The 2017 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport Completes 40,000 Mostly Trouble-Free Miles. Though by the standards of today, 40,000 miles shouldn’t be just “mostly” trouble-free.

HMM: California’s Prop 11 Is an Affront to EMTs.

ONE OF ELIZABETH WARREN’S OLD STUDENTS:  She reminds us of why all this stuff matters.

I DON’T LIKE THIS: A Mysterious Polio-Like Illness in Children Has The CDC Baffled.

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IT’S A SECRET WHY IT’S A SECRET:  So don’t ask.

DAVID BARON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Confirmed: Alligators Are Now In Tennessee. Plus: “Alligators are a protected species, therefore catching or shooting one is against the law.”

Maybe now that they’re ubiquitous in Florida and spreading back into niches they haven’t occupied for 200 years it’s time to un-protect them.

Leftward, ho!:  Steve Hayward writes about the Democrats’ leftward march.

SUPERSONIC: From White Paper To The White House.

WELL, GOOD: Pills that protect people from HIV may help stop spread, too.

ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS NOT BE CRAZY: Man Confronted For Ripping Cruz Signs From Yards Freaks Out: “I Hate Ted Cruz!” (Video.)

THIS LIST IS OKAY AS FAR AS IT GOES: Best Vitamins For Winter.

JILL FILIPOVIC: T.I.’s ‘Melania stripper’ video shows Trump-level misogyny.

When Trump says something mean about a woman, that’s on Trump. When someone else does it, that’s on Trump, too, I guess.