SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

CANADA AND U.S. MAKE UP – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  The US and Canada reached a deal late Sunday on reforming the North American Free Trade Agreement.  Canada agreed to join the revised trade deal that the US and Mexico had signed last month — just hours before a midnight deadline, that allows Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto to sign the accord on his last day in office, two people familiar with the talks told The Washington Post.  The new treaty is expected to be signed by President Trump and his counterparts in Canada and Mexico within 60 days — preserving a three-country NAFTA trade pact.  The agreement will boost US access to Canada’s dairy market and protect Canada from possible US auto tariffs, two sources with direct knowledge of the talk told Reuters.  We have no further details at this time.

STUNNING – THIS STORY IS JUST GETTING STARTED – FROM FOX:   Rachel Mitchell, the sex-crimes prosecutor who questioned Dr. Christine Blasey Ford last week, wrote in a memo released late Sunday that there were inconsistencies in Ford's testimony and that-- given the information at hand-- she would not bring criminal charges against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.  Mitchell, who was hired by the Senate Judiciary Committee to assist Republicans, addressed the letter to “All Republican Senators,” and said no senator approved the memo. She noted in the assessment that she is a Republican, but said she is not a political person.  She identified Ford's case as an example of  “he said, she said,” and said her case is “even weaker than that.”   Ford, a California psychology professor, claims Kavanaugh assaulted her while at a house party in the 1980s when they were both teenagers. She said he pinned her to a bed, attempted to forcibly remove her clothes and prevented her from screaming. Ford said she was "100 percent" certain that Kavanaugh was her attacker.  Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations.  Mitchell, who worked as a sex-crimes prosecutor for nearly 25 years in Arizona, pointed out what she identified as timing inconsistencies. She wrote that Ford appeared to jump around on the timing of the alleged sexual assault, ranging from the “mid 1980s” to “early 1980s,” and then the “summer of 1982.”  “While it is common for victims to be uncertain about dates, Dr. Ford failed to explain how she was suddenly able to narrow the timeframe to a particular season and particular year,” she wrote.  Mitchell also pointed out that Ford has a history of struggling to name Kavanaugh as her attacker. Mitchell noted that his name was not in notes from her 2012 marriage therapy or her individual therapy in 2013.  This story was posted late tonight.  I'm sure there'll be more tomorrow.  It is an excellent takedown of Ford's case.

MAJOR ARTISTIC NEWS – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  The Kent State School of Theatre and Dance has chosen to cancel its production of “West Side Story” due to some students remaining dissatisfied with the production’s casting decisions.  Theater major Bridgett Martinez, of Puerto Rican heritage, apparently thought her ethnic background alone would get her the play’s lead role of Maria. She was disappointed that she was cast as Maria’s understudy, reports KentWired.com, but got really upset upon seeing the full cast list.  “I was just blown away because it was not correct at all,” she said.  “Not correct” means several non-Latino students had gotten traditional “Latino” roles in the classic musical, including the leads.  Another theater major, Viviana Cardenas, was irked a role she wanted had gone to a black student.  This is complete madness.  If allowed to continue, it will shut down all college theater, or turn it into one of those "Everybody is a winner here at Dumbbell State" things.  Grow up.

September 30, 2018