HMM: Russia’s growing threat to north Europe. “Sweden hugs its friends closer, but will it tie the knot with NATO?”

“A larger European conflict could start with an attack on Sweden,” warned the most recent report of the country’s defence commission. Electricity would be limited. Calorie intake would fall. Tens of thousands might be wounded. This was not idle talk: in June, all 22,000 Swedish volunteer soldiers were called up for the largest surprise exercise since 1975. For the first time in almost 30 years, the government has written to millions of households exhorting them to prepare for the worst. “We will never give up,” warned leaflets decorated with vivid tableaux of burning buildings and rolling tanks.

Sweden’s aim is to hold out for three months, until help arrives. These twin tasks—becoming “indigestible to Russia”, as one analyst puts it, and ensuring that the cavalry shows up—will be high on the agenda of whichever government emerges from the hung parliament produced by the election of September 9th. Sweden may not be a member of NATO. But under Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s Social Democratic prime minister for the past four years, it has manoeuvred as close to the alliance as it is possible to get from the outside. By deferring the question of outright membership, anathema to the left, he created political space to tighten Sweden’s triple embrace of America, NATO and its neighbours. A landmark “host nation” agreement with NATO was steered through parliament in 2016. America’s potential wartime role in Sweden was once a state secret; now contingency plans can be made openly.

NATO has been a dysfunctional mess, but Moscow has only itself to blame if the old alliance’s new members and prospective members are starting to get over it.

POLL: Amid Kavanaugh Confirmation Battle, Democratic Enthusiasm Edge Evaporates.

In July, there was a 10-point gap between the number of Democrats and Republicans saying the November elections were “very important.” Now, that is down to 2 points, a statistical tie.

Democrats’ advantage on which party Americans want to control Congress has also been cut in half since last month. Democrats still retain a 6-point edge on that question, but it was 12 points after a Marist poll conducted in mid-September.

The Democrats have been fully coopted by the party’s Kamikaze Wing.

MATT WELCH: Libertarians Cover the Polling Spread in 4 Senate Races. “It’s running strong candidates in toss-up races in a historically tight election year, yet America’s third party still finds itself routinely left off polls.”

OH: Rockefellers Use New Front Group to Advance Climate Liability Campaign.

I’m so old I can remember when dark money in politics was a bad thing.

ROBERT E. HEILER: Democratic Playbook’s Only Page: Division.

The current moment in American politics is large, consequential, and just another variation on the theme. This time, the arena of division is not race, but gender.

Remember the requirement for the emotional thread cited above: victimization by an identified class of villainy. If the arena is gender, and the requirement is a villain, then clearly the required crime is rape.

Enter Brett Kavanaugh. Never mind that he has had a huge number of successful female clerks, many subsequently requested by sitting Supreme Court justices and none of whom have a bad word to say about him. Ignore the dozens of women who have worked closely with him and characterize him as a gentleman. Do not credit the six extensive background checks already performed on him, which routinely include questions to associates regarding the subject’s alcohol use, and which have produced not a hint of sexual impropriety, or even subtle misogyny. The arena of division is gender. A rapist is required. Brett Kavanaugh is replacing a “swing vote” on the court and is a known conservative.

Seen from this angle, it becomes obvious why the atrocious circus we have all witnessed has come to be. The Democrats are, of necessity, trying to jam the square peg of Kavanaugh into the round hole of rapist.

If they succeed at it, we’ll get more of the same. Based on her statement yesterday, I’m not sure Senator Murkowski understands that.

SECDEF MATTIS: ‘What Is New Is That Iran Appears Resistant to Any Sort of Restraint.’ “Defense secretary notes mounting international concern when asked if the trajectory of the U.S. relationship with Iran is heading toward military conflict.”

THIS SHOULD BE ALL HOTELS, AND MOST PRIVATE RESIDENCES: This New Beer Hotel Has a Beer Fridge in the Shower, I Repeat, a Beer Fridge in the Shower.

TONI AIRAKSINEN: How I Discovered the Portland ‘Dog Rape Culture’ Article Was a Hoax.

By reading it, was my first guess.

PATRICK POOLE: Bloomberg News Botches Attack on Trump Over Refugees. “No, Ronald Reagan did not admit 207,000 refugees in one year.”

You can’t stick to the facts in here — this is a newsroom!

UGH: The US military is too reliant on China for critical supplies, and the Pentagon is trying to figure out what to do about it.

It was just dumb, thinking a nation ruled by Communists thugs had any business joining the WTO.

HA-HA. NO. United Nations Court “Orders” U.S. To Lift Sanctions On Iran.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING: Obama’s Social Experiments Are Wreaking Havoc on America Today.

MARK THIESSEN: Rachel Mitchell expertly eviscerates the case against Kavanaugh.

Mitchell lays out how Ford had “not offered a consistent account of when the alleged assault happened” or her age when it happened, and how “her account of who was at the party has been inconsistent.” For example, Mitchell points out that Ford listed Patrick “PJ” Smyth to the polygrapher and in her July 6 text to a Post reporter, but “she did not list Leland Keyser even though they are good friends. Leland Keyser’s presence should have been more memorable than PJ Smyth’s.”

Ford has “no memory of key details of the night in question — details that could help corroborate her account,” Mitchell writes. Ford does not remember who invited her to the gathering, how she heard about it, how she got there, or where that house was located with any specificity. “Most importantly,” Mitchell writes, “she does not remember how she got from the party back to her house. Her inability to remember this detail raises significant questions. . . . Given that this all took place before cell phones, arranging a ride home would not have been easy.” Furthermore, Mitchell notes, Ford “testified that her friend Leland, apparently the only other girl at the party, did not follow up with Dr. Ford after the party to ask why she had suddenly disappeared.” This seems highly unlikely.

And, Mitchell demonstrates, Ford’s inconsistencies are not limited to events three decades ago. For example, Ford delayed the hearing because she said her symptoms prevented her from flying from California to Washington, but then acknowledged under questioning that she flies to the East Coast “at least once a year to visit her family,” and has flown to Hawaii, French Polynesia and Costa Rica for hobbies and vacations.

Moreover, Mitchell points out, Ford also testified that she was not “clear” that Grassley (R-Iowa) had offered to send committee investigators to interview her in California. Either this statement under oath was untrue or her attorneys failed to share Grassley’s offer with her — which is a serious violation of the American Bar Association’s rules of professional conduct.

There’s been a lot of that kind of behavior lately.

JIM GERAGHTY: How the Kavanaugh Fight Will Shape Our Politics.

Did the last-minute leak of Christine Blasey Ford’s name and accusation help Kavanaugh opponents win?

Did the New Yorker article that began with a lurid accusation, but that halfway through admitted could not confirm Kavanaugh’s attendance at the party at the center of the accusation, help Kavanaugh opponents win?

Did the implausible claims of Julie Swetnick, released and publicized by Michael Avenatti, help Kavanaugh opponents win?

Did fundraising off of the Kavanaugh accusations help Kavanaugh opponents win?

Did a U.S. senator telling all men in America to “shut up and step up” help Kavanaugh opponents win?

This is binary. Either these efforts derailed the nomination, or they didn’t.

There is no circumstance where everyone involved with those norm-breaking steps suddenly wakes up, has a crisis of conscience, and realizes that they were morally wrong. The only way they decide not to take similar steps in the future is if they conclude that those steps are not effective.

Pass this along to your Senators.

ROGER KIMBALL: It’s All Gone: The Democrats’ Dead Ideals.

Democratic jackals on the Senate Judiciary Committee, aided and abetted by their loyal public relations firms — the mainstream media — and hectoring unpleasant people funded by George Soros heap mud on Brett Kavanaugh for weeks and then step back and say: “He’s got mud all over him! Let’s move on to a more pristine victim.”

This is of a piece with the spurious claim that Judge Kavanaugh’s impassioned testimony last week shows that he lack the requisite judicial temperament to be a Supreme Court Justice. Andy McCarthy dispensed with that ridiculous meme with some portion of the contempt it deserves. But since some of the squealers in the press have castigated Judge Kavanaugh for the condign anger he displayed in answering the scurrilous attacks on his character, let’s give the last word to Aristotle on the just deployment of anger. “We praise a man,” says Aristotle, “who feels anger on the right grounds and against the right persons, and also in the right manner and at the right moment and for the right length of time.” Indeed, those who do not get angry at things it is right to be angry at “are considered foolish.” After having been groundlessly accused of drunkenness, belligerence, and rape, Judge Kavanaugh was right to display anger towards those who had slandered him. He did so in a fitting manner, in an eloquent, heartfelt address. And he did so at the right moment, the Senate hearings, and for the right amount of time.

The travesty that was the smear campaign against Brett Kavanaugh is disintegrating. He will be confirmed, but the mephitic stench of the attack against him and the rule of law will linger.

Needless to say, read the whole thing.

BILL GERTZ: North Korean Financial Hacking Group Revealed.

North Korean hackers are engaged in sophisticated financial hacking operations that have targeted at least $1.1 billion in thefts from nearly a dozen countries ranging from Asia to South America to Europe, according to a new report by a noted cyber security group.

Using a combination of fraudulent emails, malicious software and destructive cyber attacks, the North Korean group dubbed APT38 is distinct from Pyongyang’s other cyber espionage and political operations, such as the 2014 cyber attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, according to a report by the cyber security firm FireEye.

“Based on observed activity, we judge that APT38’s primary mission is targeting financial systems to raise large sums of money for the North Korean regime,” the report, “APT38: Un-usual Suspects,” states.

They’ve taken “Gangster State” to its literal extreme.

HEALTH: WHO Endorses Traditional Chinese Medicine. Expect Deaths To Rise.

The World Health Organization, which is supposed to be devoted to improving the health and medical care of people around the globe, will for the first time endorse a belief system called “traditional Chinese medicine.” I’m labeling TCM a belief system because that’s what it is–but the WHO will be endorsing it as a set of medical practices.

The Nature writer, David Cyranoski, presents this news in a classic two-sides-of-the-story format, describing the “endless hours” that TCM proponents spent on such important topics as the “correct location of acupuncture points and less commonly known concepts such as ‘triple energizer meridian’ syndrome.” Later in the article (but much later), he points out that scientists have argued that qi and meridians simply don’t exist.

Cyranoski also falls into the trap of using the phrase “Western medicine” as if it were just an alternative point of view.

This story might be kind of cute if it weren’t going to get people killed.

BRIDGET JOHNSON: Feds Make Four New Arrests from August 2017 Unite the Right Rally. “Four California members of a militant white-supremacist group are charged under federal rioting laws for their part in the protests.”

THE POLITICS OF PERSONAL DESTRUCTION: Hillary Clinton Says Kavanaugh Self-Defense Is a ‘Denial of the Legitimacy of Women’s Stories.’

LET’S GET FRACKING: Oil prices will ‘certainly’ go above $90 after sanctions on Iran and Venezuela ‘tighten the market,’ says energy and geopolitics expert.

On the other hand, Vladimir Putin said Russia can increase output by 200-300k barrels per day, and that Russia is fine at $60, $65, $70 per barrel. So there’s at least one major player willing to lower prices a bit to take market share.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: Ryan Lizza’s Hit Piece On Devin Nunes’ Extended Family Is Deeply Flawed. “It turns out that Nunes doesn’t have a secret, that he’s not a hypocrite on immigration policy, and that the Iowans Lizza met were wary of him slowly driving around town while children were at play because they discovered Lizza had recently been fired from his job for sexual misconduct.”

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Dr. Ford’s Ex-Boyfriend Makes an Appearance and Much, Much More. “Dr. Ford explained in detail what to expect, how polygraphs worked and helped McLean become familiar and less nervous about the exam. Dr. Ford was able to help because of her background in psychology.”

“Don’t know much about polygraph,” my rear end.

Update: Link was missing before. Fixed now — sorry!

DISPATCHES FROM THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY: CNN’s Camerota: Ford’s Tale ‘Makes More Sense’ Given Alleged Kavanaugh Ice Throw. “I disagree. I think it’s part and parcel of the entire thing. I think that if you are known as a belligerent, mean, fighting drunk that’s relevant. I think that it’s relevant to then a woman who says that you would corner her and put your hand over her mouth, somehow that, I think, makes more sense than if you were just a fun drunk who always fell right asleep. Okay. So I think that it is relevant.”

I was in a water balloon fight with my kids this summer, which probably makes me the next John Wayne Gacy.

BLUE WAVE? GOP Cuts Into Dem Lead In House Races, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds.

Five weeks before the Midterm Elections, 49 percent of American voters back the Democratic candidate in their local race for the U.S. House of Representatives and 42 percent support the Republican candidate, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today.

This compares to the results of a September 12 survey by the independent Quinnipiac University National Poll, showing Democrats with a 52 – 38 percent lead.

I wonder what might have happened in the last few weeks to cause such a large red shift?

Now if only the NRCC, which seems to be in the midst of a preemptive surrender, would take note.

CHANGE? Texas Governor Greg Abbott Opens His Mind to Marijuana Decriminalization… Kinda.

For the past three years, Governor Greg Abbott has been viewed as a primary hurdle to rewriting Texas’ draconian marijuana laws. So on Friday, when he revealed he’s “open” to the idea of reducing criminal penalties for low-level pot possession during a debate, activists cheered it as a “green light” for cannabis reform ahead of the 2019 legislative session.

Still, Abbott’s version of marijuana reform pales in comparison to that of his party, which this summer voted to support eliminating criminal penalties for small-time possession altogether. Not to mention the majority of Texas voters, who, according to the most recent polling, support legalizing cannabis. That leaves many marijuana reformers in the familiar and awkward position of both lauding the governor’s new stance while also arguing that it doesn’t go far enough.

Enough of our 50 laboratories of democracy are experimenting with various levels of legalization or decriminalization that no state needs to be in a huge rush.