POTEMKIN AIN’T JUST A VILLAGE IN RUSSIA: It Looks Like Russia’s ‘Massive’ Military Exercise Wasn’t So Massive After All.

I’M EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: America’s newest nuclear gravity bomb completes design review.

The B61-12 life-extension program consolidates and replaces the older B61-3, -4, -7 and -10 variants, in a move that proponents say will both update aging parts of the weapons and drive down upkeep costs. The review, which involved a team of 12 independent experts studying three years of data, certified that the B61-12 design meets Defense Department standards.

The weapon is certified for both the B-52 and B-2 bombers, America’s F-15, F-16 and F/A-18 fighter aircraft, and British and German Tornado aircraft under a NATO agreement. The F-35 is also planned to go through certification on the weapon at some point in the next decade.

Production qualification activities at the agency’s Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas, will begin in October 2018, with the program on track for its first production unit in March 2020, according to an agency timeline. The weapon passed another milestone in June, when two non-nuclear designs for the weapon were flown and released successfully over Tonopah Test Range in Nevada.

Still, it would be nice if we could test one of the damn things every now and then.

FAINTING COUCH NOT INCLUDED: Female Reporters #LiterallyShaking after Trump Treats Them Exactly Like Male Reporters.

MAQA: Five decades of two-party rule just ended in Quebec. “A center-right party that was founded just seven years ago and vows to curb immigration won Monday’s election in Quebec.”

More:

The result ends a half a century of rule split between the federalist Liberals and the Parti Quebecois, which wants the predominantly French-speaking province to leave Canada and came close to achieving that in a 1995 referendum.

The triumphant Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) won 74 of the province’s 125 seats. The Liberals, which had held power for 13 out of the last 15 years, got just 32.

CAQ leader François Legault, who co-founded budget airline Air Transat before entering politics, campaigned on a plan to take in 10,000 fewer immigrants a year and to expel new residents who fail tests on French and Quebec values within three years.

That’s real change.

MICHAEL WALSH: Italian Mayor Arrested for Aiding ‘Migrant’ Invasion. “Gee, that’s too damn bad.”

It’s come to this: Southern Italy is investigating high-level lawbreaking with more vigor than America’s West Coast does.

WHOSE BANDWIDTH IS IT, ANYWAY? Suit seeks to block Trump from sending ‘presidential alerts’ to phones.

Three New Yorkers are suing in federal court to try to halt a test scheduled for Wednesday of a system that allows President 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.

The first-ever national test of the “presidential alert” system for mobile phones and similar devices was originally planned for Sept. 20, but it was delayed due to the onslaught from Hurricane Florence.

Wireless phone users have the ability to opt out of most alerts sent under the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. While some users can choose not to receive regional messages and so-called Amber Alerts regarding missing or endangered children, under federal rules, receipt of the top-level “presidential alerts“ is mandatory.

To be clear, this suit would stop any President from using mandatory alerts, but putting “Trump” in the headline of a political story only tangentially related to Trump is clickbait, like putting “Apple” in the headline of a tech story only tangentially related to Apple.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: More Than 50 Colleges Endorsing The First Ever Holiday Of Zieselves, Xerselves, Eirselves.

I refuse to teach SpellCheck any of those words.

JONATHAN TURLEY: Boofed is the new Borked: Democrats lay a perjury trap for Brett Kavanaugh. “Salacious terms in a high school yearbook could end up sinking Brett Kavanaugh. If that becomes the standard for future confirmations, we’re all boofed.”

DOESN’T EVERYTHING THESE DAYS? UN Secretary-General: Tobacco Use Causing Climate Change.

I wonder how soon California will add climate change warnings on everything to go alongside the state’s cancer warnings on everything.

PEOPLE FLEE PEOPLE’S STATE, UNEXPECTEDLY: Venezuela Has Lost 13% of its Population in the Mass Exodus from Socialism. “Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis is causing refugee flows that may exceed those of the Syrian Civil War.”

Official figures from the International Organization of Migration (IOM) indicate that between 2015 and 2017, Venezuelan emigration more than doubled, increasing from 700,000 people to 1.5 million.

But the truth is that there are thousands of Venezuelans with dual citizenship who have left Venezuela; just as there are many more that arrive as tourists to their new destinations, and remain there. The incalculable migratory flow began with mass arrivals to neighboring Brazil and Colombia, but has now spread across the region.

According to the pollster ‘Consultores 21′, 40% of the population of Venezuela wants to emigrate; and according to estimates made by the sociologist Tomás Páez, by the middle of 2018, 15% of the Venezuelan population will have left the country, hoping to be able to return one day.

One out of six have left, and there are still shortages of everything.

IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN MUZAHMIYYA: Saudi Arabia Shelves Work on SoftBank’s $200 Billion Solar Project.

The stalled project marks a setback for a partnership between Saudi Arabia and SoftBank that has pursued ambitious ideas. Together, they have created a $100 billion fund for technology company investments that has resulted in a rush of new money flooding into startups.

The project would have turned the world’s most important oil producer into a giant in solar power, ultimately generating about 200 gigawatts of energy—more than three times what the country needs every day.

The plan was announced by SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in New York last March and was meant to be an extension of their partnership.

Now, officials and a Saudi government adviser said, no one is actively working on the project.

Instead, the officials and the adviser said the Saudi kingdom is working up a broader, more practical strategy to boost renewable energy, to be announced in late October around the time of an investment conference in Riyadh.

If you can’t get solar to scale up at a reasonable cost in Saudi…

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Has even one of Ford’s claims held up under scrutiny? Just one? “Renovation Records Undercut Ford’s Exit-Door Account.”

ROBBY SOAVE: Julie Swetnick Told NBC Her Brett Kavanaugh Story, and She Has Serious Credibility Issues.

“I did see him giving red solo cups to quite a few girls,” said Swetnick. “I saw him around the punchbowls. I don’t know what he did.”

Swetnick also claimed in her initial statement that the boys at these parties would line up outside bedrooms, waiting their turn to rape the incapacitated women inside. But she told Snow that the boys were merely huddled near the doorways of the rooms.

“I would see boys standing outside rooms, congregated together, sort of like a gauntlet,” she said. “I would see them laughing.”

It seemed quite possible Swetnick was reading far too much into this.

According to Swetnick, she was sexually assaulted at one of these parties. She could not say with any certainty that Kavanaugh was involved. She recalled being “shoved into a room” and hearing laughter, and that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were present. These are details that resemble Ford’s story so closely it raises suspicion (of Swetnick, not of Kavanaugh).

Read the whole thing.

SUSTAINABILITY: $1,271,158,167,127; Feds Borrowed $8,172 in 2018 Per Every American With a Job.

NO LAW REQUIRED: Amazon to raise minimum wage to $15 for U.S. employees.

TONI AIRAKSINEN: Students Demand Professor Fired After He Champions Due Process, Says ‘Accusers Sometimes Lie.’ “It was never my intention to hurt anyone.”

If liberty and constitutional protections hurt, you’re doing America wrong.

THE CALL FOR REVOLUTION IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE SCHOOLHOUSE: Democratic Socialists of America’s Plan to Infiltrate America’s Public Schools.

BUT CAN FACEBOOK LISTEN TO FACEBOOK MESSENGER CALLS? FBI: We can’t listen to Facebook Messenger voice calls. Judge: Tough luck. “While traditional telecom companies must give access to police under a 1990s-era law known as CALEA, Internet-based calls are exempt, despite the government’s previous efforts to change the law. Prosecutors seemingly argued that nevertheless, Facebook had to comply with the government’s request.”

IT WOULD CERTAINLY ENCOURAGE MORE FRACKING: What Oil at $100 a Barrel Would Mean for the Global Economy.

The good news is that Bloomberg Economics found that oil at $100 would mean less for global growth in 2018 than it did after the 2011 spike. That’s partly because economies are less reliant on energy and because the shale revolution cushioning the U.S.

Ultimately, much depends on why prices are pushing higher. A shock amid constrained supply is a negative, but one due to robust demand just reflects solid growth. Both forces are now in play, driving Brent crude up about 22 percent this year.

If 4%+ US economic growth has driven the price of crude up only to about $80, then I’d say the fracking revolution has been a stunning success — and is just getting started.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: The Kavanaugh Watch Continues and Much, Much More. “Majority Leader McConnell said yesterday that the Senate will be voting on Kavanaugh this week so our long national nightmare might soon be over. Just kidding. It’s not going to be over because the resistance media will just pivot back the Mueller investigation.”

The “resistance media” will also bring up these unsubstantiated allegations every time Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sides with the other conservative justices on a controversial decision.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: How Bill Maher Inadvertently Exposes the Left. “Bill Maher shreds his fellow progressives more than most prominent liberals.”

UNEXPECTEDLY: Study Shows Consequences Cut Illegal Immigration. “Research shows prosecution reduces migrant reentry after deportation.”

As the wise man once said, “Tell me how you measure me, and I will tell you how I will behave.”

ALLIES: Pastor Andrew Brunson’s Fate Will Be Decided by Turkish Court.

The pastor was detained by Ankara on terrorism-related charges. This development has led relations between Turkey and the United States to new lows.

President Erdogan said whether the pastor will be released or not is a matter of the country’s judiciary. He pointed out that a hearing has been scheduled on October 12 and politicians have no say on this matter, reiterating that Turkish courts are independent entities and not controlled by the government. If Brunson was found by the court to be guilty, the American could be sent to jail for as long as 35 years. Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State, said on September 24 he hopes Ankara will be releasing the evangelical pastor.

Retaliatory sanctions have pinched Turkey’s economy, but Erdogan isn’t exactly known for his good economic sense.

SOCIALISM ALWAYS KILLS THE GOLDEN GOOSE. ALWAYS. Venezuela’s Crisis Imperils Citgo, Its American ‘Cash Cow.’

The production of the parent company, known as Pdvsa, has been hard hit by the country’s turmoil. It is struggling to meet more than $1 billion in payments due in the next couple of months on its bonds and other obligations, including compensation for property it had nationalized. Trump administration sanctions are squeezing its ability to borrow.

If Pdvsa defaults, its collateral — Citgo — could become prey. It would be vulnerable to a takeover by creditors, with other oil companies or private equity investors watching for the opportunity to take a stake.

“The loss of Citgo would be the coup de grâce for Pdvsa,” said Gustavo Coronel, a former member of the parent company’s board. “The psychological impact for Pdvsa and the Maduro regime would be catastrophic.”

The financial impact won’t be anything to sneeze at, either.

Plus, a quick editorial check on this NYT story reveals yet another heaping dose of Sergeant Schultzism:

If I recall correctly, the NYT wasn’t so shy about using the S-word back before Venezuela’s inevitable crisis hit. Unexpectedly, of course.

EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. NEXT QUESTION? Can a Blue Wave Save America?

Betteridge almost always gets the last laugh on headline writers.