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Across the Middle East, countries banned from purchasing armed drones from the US due to a weapons embargo are increasingly gravitating towards Chinese defense manufacturers, according to a new report from the Associated Press, sales that “are helping expand Chinese influence across a region vital to American security interests.”

“The Chinese product now doesn’t lack technology, it only lacks market share,” said Song Zhongping, a Chinese military strategist and former lecturer at the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force University of Engineering. “And the United States restricting its arms exports is precisely what gives China a great opportunity.”

The sales are supporting China’s expansion across a region home to many strategic US military bases, as well as, future routes for Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. 

“It’s a hedging strategy and the Chinese will look to benefit from that,” said Douglas Barrie, an aviation specialist at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The AP notes that Chinese drones are more frequently conducting aerial operations in the skies above Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Nigeria, Yemen, Iraq, and the UAE thanks to booming sales, with more than 30 China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics’s Cai Hong 4 (Rainbow 4, or CH-4) medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles worth $700 million being sold to countries since 2014.

Chinese arms exports have expanded 38% from 2008 to 2012 and from 2013 to 2017, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data.

Earlier this year, a spy satellite passing above southern Saudi Arabia snapped a pictured of US surveillance drones and Chinese-manufactured armed drones, parked side by side at an airfield.

According to the Center for the Study of the Drone at New York’s Bard College, both drones were being used in the war in Yemen, has emerged as a “sort of a testing ground for drones,” said Dan Gettinger, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone.

The CH-4 is the largest Chinese export. It is a replica of General Atomics’ Predator and Reaper drones, and in a global economy where emerging market currencies are getting crushed, the Chinese drone is the most appealing because of the low price.

A CASC executive spoke on condition of anonymity to AP, said US drones like Boeing’s Stingray, introduced earlier this year for the US Navy, still hold a technological advantage.

China recently transferred a Wing Loong II, an armed unmanned aerial vehicle roughly equivalent to the American MQ-9 Reaper to the UAE.

“In recent years, all types of drones have proven their value and importance through a high degree of use in warfare, and the military has noticed,” said the top CASC executive. “Many countries are now speeding up the development for these weapons systems, including China.”

Since 2013, President Xi Jinping has ramped up the development of fifth-generation jet fighters, new aircraft carriers, laser guns, space weapons, hypersonics, and the militarization of the South China Sea. It has even transferred some of this exotic technology to its close allies like Pakistan.

China still lags behind the US in total weapon exports, but it is catching up. The rapid growth of China’s share of the global drone market shows that countries are willing to buy cheaper defense products than overpriced weapons from the US. This is sure to upset America’s military-industrial complex, who are already looking for a fight with China judging by the rhetoric coming from the White House.

And as American exceptionalism is slowly dying, China is catching up… and the world wants more Chinese drones. 

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Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

With the push of a button and at the direction of President Donald Trump, a “Presidential Alert” was sent to all cellphones across America at 2:18 p.m. ET yesterday.

The message was the first test of what many are calling the “Presidential Alert” system, a new way to notify Americans across the country of national emergencies.

Here’s what it looked like, in case you were one of the few who didn’t get the alert, or you don’t have a cell phone:

A 2015 law called the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act limits the scope of what can be considered a valid emergency alert:

Except to the extent necessary for testing the public alert and warning system, the public alert and warning system shall not be used to transmit a message that does not relate to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety.

The idea for this system was sponsored by Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) and signed into law by then-President Barack Obama.

Despite the wording of the message, this is not a presidential alert system, explains Law & Crime:

It is a Wireless Emergency Alert system set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to allow government officials to swiftly send information to the American public in a time of crisis, specifically terror attacks, natural disasters, or other public safety threats.

The alert everyone got this week was not sent by Trump, despite the misleading title. It was sent by FEMA as a test of the system. In the future, the president will have the ability to send messages, as will other officials from federal, state, tribal, and local governments.

On its surface, the system appears to be a harmless way to reach US citizens in the event of an emergency.

It’s no secret that we are all being watched by the government in various ways – there seems to be no way to fully escape Big Brother’s prying eyes these days.

People are so used to being spied on now that many are shrugging off the possibility that the system is more invasive than it appears.

Cybersecurity expert John McAfee is not one of them.

In a Tweet, he explained that the alert system is just one more way the government is invading our privacy:

The “Presidential alerts”: they are capable of accessing the E911 chip in your phones – giving them full access to your location, microphone, camera and every function of your phone. This not a rant, this is from me, still one of the leading cybersecurity experts. Wake up people!

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) October 3, 2018

People responded with questions…

No sir

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) October 3, 2018

I’m making an issue out of it because the FEDS have co-opted E911 – intended for local emergencies only.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) October 3, 2018

It was intended for local emergencies. The Feds have illegally co-opted it. This is my fucking problem.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) October 4, 2018

Exactly! This was a TEST, not of the emergency broadcast system, but of their ability to KNOW where you are, your name and WHO you are!!!! Big Brother is HERE. THIS was always the important part of this exercise. He wants you to know, that He can find you!

— Cold without the Sun (@crw555) October 4, 2018

no uninstall, no disable, no block. You give permission to access to EVERYTHING -phone logs, social media, texts, emails, photos — EVERYTHING I have been screaming this all day pic.twitter.com/hmvyMOFLBc

— Deborah Macgillivray (@Scotladywriter) October 4, 2018

Speaking of McAfee, he recently announced he will be running for president in 2020 as a Libertarian. In a Tweet posted yesterday, he introduced his campaign manager:

I have finally chosen a campaign manager for my 2020 Libertarian Presidential run: @Loggiaonfire – the Intelligence Co-ordinator for my 2016 POTUS run, was instrumental in placing me on the 2016 National Stage. Rob is a loyal friend, a seeker of truth, and a constant warrior. pic.twitter.com/LmV9l3uMQu

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) October 3, 2018

If @officialmcafee teams up with Nick Fury, you know it’s going to get serious. pic.twitter.com/MpqEYTybDa

— coinsources.io ⚡ (@coinsources) October 3, 2018

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The epidemic of falling rents at shopping malls across the United States has been well duly documented here over the past year. In June, we wrote about an abandoned Macy’s that had been turned into a homeless shelter. Just days ago we followed up on the trend of malls falling victim to the “Amazon effect” in areas like Detroit. Today, we note the latest confirmation that the trend of dying malls across the entire U.S. isn’t stopping anytime soon. 

According to a WSJ report, the average rent for malls in the third-quarter fell 0.3% to $43.25 a square foot. This is down from $43.36 in the second quarter and is the first time this number has fallen sequentially since 2011, according to research firm Reis, Inc.

At the same time, vacancy rates are on the ascent, rising to 9.1% in the third quarter from 8.6% in the second quarter. This is the highest they’ve been since the third quarter of 2011, when these rates hit 9.4%. Barbara Denham, senior economist with Reis, told the Journal: “The retail sector is still correcting”. It sure is, Barb.

For instance, here are some photos we included in a recent article about one of the hardest hit areas, Detroit: 

The depleted food court at Laurel Park Place on Sept. 25, 2018 (Source/ Detroit Free Press)

There are numerous vacant storefronts inside Eastland Center mall in Harper Woods on Sept. 21, 2018 (Source/ Detroit Free Press)

A vacant storefront in Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights on Sept. 23, 2018 (Source/ Detroit Free Press)

Shopping mall data stands in stark contrast to the rest of the US economy which, as one look at Trump’s twitter account, is widely heralded as “outperforming” (amazing what $1.5 trillion in fiscal stimulus 9 years into an expansion will do). Solid job growth numbers and a good economic outlook have ensured that the Fed’s ultimate goal of people spending money that they don’t have continues; the only difference is that that fascinating creature known as the US consumer simply isn’t racking up this debt at shopping malls anymore, and is opting for online spending like Amazon instead.

At the same time, consumer confidence was at an 18 year high last month and the stock market is also at all-time highs.

Many retail brands are also benefiting from the booming economy and continue to buy back their own stock using debt post “strong” earnings numbers.

The rise in vacancy rates was attributed mostly to closings by Bon-Ton Stores – which filed for Chapter 11 earlier this year – and zombie retailer Sears, which somehow has continued to dodge bankruptcy but is closing stores at an accelerated rate. To make matters worse, Reis told the Journal that a “number of owner-occupied Sears stores were excluded from the numbers, since they don’t have leases.”

That means the real numbers are even worse.

And as the exodus from malls accelerates, many stores are reevaluating their brick and mortar strategy and instead investing in their online businesses. In Q2, e-commerce sales accounted for 9.6% of total retail sales after adjusting for seasonal variations, from 9.5%, in Q1. 

Back in January, we wrote an article why people should anticipate a “death spiral” for shopping malls. We noted then that shopping malls have faced a tidal wave of store closures and have been forced to backfill empty square footage with everything from libraries to doctors offices (see: America’s Desperate Mall Owners Turn To Grocers, Doctors & High Schools To Fill Empty Space).

Alexander Goldfarb, a senior analyst at Sandler O’Neill + Partners LP, told the Journal: “Any mall that is worried about a Sears orMacy’s closing has bigger issues.” Goldfarb, defending malls, noted that not all shopping malls are under pressure and that malls in more affluent areas still draw higher end shoppers and continue to attract tenants. “New uses like restaurants and theaters” can still bring in customers. 

Homeless shelters are also an option.

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Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

In the present era of decadence, Universal Basic Income (UBI) is the modern equivalent of Bread and Circuses.

The dynamics of decadence are easy to understand: as affluence becomes the norm that is widely assumed to be permanent, shared purpose and sacrifice for the common good is replaced by self-absorbed decadence and an ethos of maximizing personal gain.

In his seminal essay The Fate of Empires, Sir John Glubb listed these core dynamics of imperial decline:

(a) A growing love of money as an end in itself.

(b) A lengthy period of wealth and ease, which makes people complacent. They lose their edge; they forget the traits (confidence, energy, hard work) that built their civilization.

(c) Selfishness and self-absorption.

(d) Loss of any sense of duty to the common good.

Glubb included the following in his list of the characteristics of decadence:

— An increase in frivolity, hedonism, materialism and the worship of unproductive celebrity.

— A loss of social cohesion.

— The willingness of an increasing number to live at the expense of a bloated bureaucratic state.

Glubb’s list may at first glance be largely psychological–self-aggrandizement and a focus on hedonistic pursuits–but the dynamics of decadence have economic, political and social ramifications.

First and foremost, the aristocratic financial and political elites secured their position at the expense of social mobility by erecting barriers that protect them from competition and accountability. In effect, they eliminated the risk posed by change by rigging the system to their benefit.

To fund their extravagant lifestyles, they took more of the earnings of those below them, widening the inequality between the aristocracy and commoners to extremes. Historian Peter Turchin reports that where the patricians of the Roman Republic had 10 or 20 times the wealth of an average Roman citizen, by the late Empire the elites possessed up to 200,000 times the wealth of the average commoner.

The heavier burdens on the productive class and the decay of social mobility divested commoners of a financial stake in the system, and the concentration of political power in an oligarchy disenfranchised them of political influence.

When social mobility and shared purpose are lost, there is little motivation to contribute to a system that benefits the few at the expense of the many. People respond by reducing their productive participation and becoming dependents of the state, a phase captured by the phrase Bread and Circuses in the late Roman era, when a significant percentage of the Rome’s populace received free bread and access to costly entertainments in exchange for their political compliance.

Disenfranchised commoners with few prospects for advancement form a volatile political class; a small event can trigger a non-linear explosion that threatens the stability of a status quo that benefits the few at the expense of the many. To counter this threat, the elites bought the compliance and complicity of the masses with Bread and Circuses. As Glubb noted, the willingness to live off the state is a reflection of general decadence; if there is no other hedonistic pursuit within financial reach, then Bread and Circuses will do.

As the eventual collapse of decadent empires attests, Bread and Circuses are no substitute for social mobility, low barriers to accumulating capital and a political stake in the system. In the present era of decadence, Universal Basic Income (UBI) is the modern equivalent of Bread and Circuses. But buying off the disenfranchised doesn’t transform an unstable system into a stable system; it merely masks the instability for a time.

The core belief of decadent eras is that the status quo is so powerful and permanent that it can withstand the predations of the few and the Bread and Circuses lavished on the many.

This is of course a false confidence. Every status quo is a social construct that is inherently non-linear. The decline of productive sectors, the divestiture of commoners from ownership of productive assets and the political disenfranchisement of commoners hollow out the economy and the society.

These dynamics of decadence weaken the social and economic order, creating conditions that favor a loss of faith in the status quo and the failure of key institutions.

*  *  *

My new mystery The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake is a ridiculously affordable $1.29 (Kindle) or $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free in PDF format. My new book Money and Work Unchained is now $6.95 for the Kindle ebook and $15 for the print edition. Read the first section for free in PDF format. If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

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Bahrain’s slumping economy and mushrooming public debt have been given a fresh lifeline as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) allies have agreed to inject billions in order to stabilize the tiny island gulf nation and prevent a looming financial crisis.

In a move designed to keep Bahrain’s currency from collapsing and to avoid a potential credit crunch, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates have pledged to give Bahrain $10 billion — enough to meet its funding requirements as it attempts to eliminate its budget deficit by 2022.

Bahrain had faced the likelihood of defaulting on a $750 million Islamic bond repayment due on Nov. 22. and the IMF last spring warned its public debt represents 89 percent of its gross domestic product, while reserves are low.

Bahrain was severely impacted by a slump in global oil prices in 2014 and has experienced sporadic political unrest going back to the so-called “Arab Spring” protests of 2011.

Beyond wanting to stave off financial collapse and any associated contagion or dwindling confidence in the region from spreading, its GCC partners have a pressing geopolitical interest in protecting the ruling Khalifa monarchy as well. 

The last time Bahrain needed an urgent “bail out” from its Saudi older brother – a New York Times headline from 2011: Saudi Troops Enter Bahrain to Help Put Down Unrest

The tanks poured across the King Fahd Causeway bridge, which connects Saudi Arabia and Bahrain

When widespread protests among Bahrain’s Shia-dominant population first broke out against the longtime Sunni rule of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and his family — a dynasty which has held power since 1783 — the Saudis immediately sent tanks and over 1000 troops across the King Fahd causeway to suppress the Shia rebellion, with the UAE sending a further 500 of its own police and security personnel. 

Thus Bahrain’s Sunni “big brothers” in the region fear that any deep financial turmoil could quickly lead to internal political unrest among the majority Shia population. 

Bahrain – Public debt (% of GDP) projected through 2020, via the IMF/Actualitix

The details of what’s essentially an Arab bailout deal are summarized by Reuters as follows:

A package of reforms announced by the Bahrain government on Thursday are aimed at delivering 800 million Bahraini dinars ($2.12 billion) in annual savings and eliminate its budget deficit by 2022. Manama had projected a $3.5 billion budget deficit in 2018.

…The program includes reforms aimed at reducing public expenditure and inefficient spending while also simplifying government processes and increasing non-oil revenue.

A source quoted by Reuters said the $10 billion support package is to be delivered through a long-term, interest-fee loan with financing to be provided gradually on terms acceptable to both parties. The loan is said to be enough to keep Bahrain’s economy afloat and able to avoid defaulting on loans until it balances the budget. 

The timing is politically interesting as the bailout comes ahead of potentially contentious November parliamentary elections on November 24th, the last two of which sparked anti-government demonstrations. 

Notably, the Navy’s 5th Fleet is based out of Bahrain, so the US-Saudi alliance clearly prioritizes the stability of the island-nation’s Sunni ruling family and the economy it oversees. 

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Authored by Daniel Payne via The College Fix,

Site features dozens of unsubstantiated allegations; take them ‘with a grain of salt,’ moderators say…

A website allegedly run by University of Washington students allows individuals to publicly accuse people of sexual assault with no evidence.

The website, titled “Make them scared UW,” was first registered in November of last year but reportedly launched in late September of this year by University of Washington students, the Daily UW campus newspaper reports.

It appears that the list of accused rapists and sexual assault perpetrators has grown substantially on the site in recent weeks in the wake of the rape claims made against U.S. Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Meanwhile, one student named on “Make them scared UW” told The College Fix that the allegation is false, that the University of Washington has dismissed the allegations against him as completely uncorroborated and cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Thus far, every person named on the list is male, and their names include the school they attend. Many listed on the site appear to be University of Washington students, but as apparent word of this site has spread, students from many other colleges are now listed, too.

The site does not employ any mechanisms to verify the truth of any accusations it publishes, and the website’s moderators attempt to protect themselves from liability or criticism by stating atop the list of the accused: “Please remember, just because a name is on this list does not mean the individual is guilty. All it means is that we have received an accusation against them.”

The moderators of the website did not respond to The College Fix‘s repeated requests for comment. The Fix sought to learn if the site’s moderators had any concerns about accusations being directed at innocent people, and whether or not the website has received any legal challenges for publishing unverified allegations.

According to the FAQ page of the website, “Make them scared UW” is a “communal rape list.”

It is “intended to be an online hub for anyone who wants to expose the names of their attackers and harassers, and to fill a gap left by inadequate treatment of these cases by formal institutions.”

“One of our site’s moderators will review your submission, verify your contact information, and after receiving your confirmation, publish the information you provided us (minus any personally identifying info) on the list page on our site,” the FAQ page tells individuals who wish to submit an accusation.

“We do not have the ability to determine whether any accused party is guilty or innocent of the accused acts, so take all names listed with a grain of salt,” the site’s front page states.

Via Facebook message, The College Fix managed to contact one student on the list, a young man who was identified as attending the University of Washington. The student denied having sexually assaulted his accuser.

“I was investigated by my school’s office and found that there was insufficient evidence of what she was accusing me of,” he told The Fix. He said the allegation stems from a night in which he and his accuser “both got pretty drunk,” after which he performed oral sex on her. After he attempted to initiate intercourse, his accuser said no, at which point he “backed off,” he said.

“This girl gave the investigator at my school literally everything, our facebook messages, our snapchat messages (she saved all of them), text messages, and even my reddit account and I was deemed to be so not a threat to her that the investigator didn’t even care if I was in the same class as her,” the student said. He said that he wasn’t even aware he was on the “Make Them Scared” list until The Fix contacted him.

Campus spokesman Victor Balta told The Fix that the school has not decided how to proceed on the issue.

“The contents of the website are very concerning, and the UW is committed to our work toward preventing sexual violence and sexual harassment, maintaining support and protections for anyone who experiences such violence, properly investigating and addressing allegations, and upholding due process,” Balta said via email.

Asked if the school was aware if the website is run by students at the University of Washington, Balta said: “We don’t know for certain.”

Asked if false allegations on the site made or posted by students or affiliates of the university would be treated as “harassment” under school policy, Balta said: “If the university received a complaint that an individual was being harassed or bullied by a student, we would investigate it in the same manner as we would any other case.” Balta reiterated that the university is uncertain if the site is run by students.

In an interview with the student newspaper The Daily UW, University of Washington School of Law associate professor Zahr Said said that the website moderators could face “considerable risks of a defamation lawsuit by anyone whose name they mention in connection with a criminal behavior or sexual assault that gives rise to civil liability.”

But the site’s moderators told The Daily: “We hope that anyone whose name was inaccurately posted on our site will let us know so we can remedy the situation. We’ve verified each claim to the best of our ability, and have not published any claims which we believed to be false.”

“The site’s domain name was registered Nov. 29, 2017, with additional security so as not to reveal the identity of the individual who registered it,” The Daily reported.

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Yet another shopping mall project looks to have fallen victim to “the Amazon effect”, serving as evidence that brick and mortar retail, in the conventional sense, is doomed.

The latest victim is the New Horizon Mall in Calgary. The construction of the “multicultural mega-mall” is nearly complete, but tepid interest forced its developer to push back its planned grand opening to next year. The mall was initially set to open in October of this year.  Only 9 of the 517 spaces in the mall have opened for business since May, when owners were first allowed to take possession according to a new report by Global News.

“It’s surreal. It’s not normal – we’re in the Matrix,” one shopper told Global News. 

The developer, Eli Swirsky, president of The Torgan Group of Toronto, told Global News:

“I love the mall. I think the mall will be fine,” he said in an interview. “I wish it was faster, of course, but every time I go there I’m awed by its size and potential and I think we’ll get there.

Swirsky told Global News that he expects 20 stores will be open by the end of September, but he still wouldn’t commit to a final grand opening date. Instead, he said that it will likely happen when 80 to 100 stores have opened. That is seen to push back the grand opening well into spring of next year.

The optimistic outlook stands in the face of eerie reality of the project, which shows “For Lease” signs and empty glass spaces traditionally reserves for stores.

Those who have already taken up shop in the mall, including Rami Tawil of Silk Road Importers, think that pushing the grand opening off until there are more tenants is a good idea: “I think now it’s better if we push it a couple of months because we need more stores here to open. We need the people coming to see more stores.”

The mall style is based on a similar mall that the developer opened in the Toronto area – about 20 years ago. The mall is different from traditional malls in the sense that it doesn’t exclusively lease to tenants. Rather, investors can purchase retail space and then have the option of leasing it to others or operating it themselves. The developer also holds large chunks of space in hopes of enticing anchor tenants. None of these have been announced yet.

The few tenants of the mall are at varying stages of readiness. Some are still trying to figure out what type of product or service may be best to offer at the location. Others are trying to re-sell or lease their spaces, according to the mall’s general manager, Jason Babiuk.

The mall was a $200 million project that broke ground in June 2016. Some believe that the difficulty in filling the mall has to do with its condominium-like ownership model, which could attract the wrong type of investors to such a project.

Retail analyst Maureen Atkinson, a senior partner at J.C. Williams Group stated: “The challenge with the condo model is that the people who run the stores are typically not the people who own them. So they would have sold these to investors … who see it as an investment and they may have trouble finding somebody who wants to run a business.”

Earlier this week we learned that mall rents in the United States were plunging as vacancies were shooting toward record highs.  According to a WSJ report, the average rent for malls in the third-quarter fell 0.3% to $43.25 a square foot. This is down from $43.36 in the second quarter and is the first time this number has fallen sequentially since 2011, according to research firm Reis.

At the same time, vacancy rates are on the ascent, rising to 9.1% in the third quarter from 8.6% in the second quarter. 

Our take? Instead of trying to re-invent an industry that is already on its deathbed by opening a “multi-cultural” mall, maybe Canada should have, at very least, taken a page out of the United States’ once successful mall playbook: bankrupt retail brands and greasy Asian food court samples. 

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Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

Four days after he described Christine Blasey Ford, the accuser of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, as a “very credible witness,” President Donald Trump could no longer contain his feelings or constrain his instincts.

With the fate of his Supreme Court nominee in the balance, Trump let his “Make America Great Again” rally attendees in Mississippi know what he really thought of Ford’s testimony.

“‘Thirty-six years ago this happened. I had one beer.’ ‘Right?’ ‘I had one beer.’ ‘Well, you think it was (one beer)?’ ‘Nope, it was one beer.’ ‘Oh, good. How did you get home?’”

‘I don’t remember.’ ‘How did you get there?’ ‘I don’t remember.’ ‘Where is the place?’ ‘I don’t remember.’ ‘How many years ago was it?’ ‘I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.’”

By now the Mississippi MAGA crowd was cheering and laughing.

Trump went on:

“‘What neighborhood was it in?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Where’s the house?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Upstairs, downstairs, where was it?’ ‘I don’t know. But I had one beer. That’s the only thing I remember.’”

Since that day three years ago when he came down the escalator at Trump Tower to talk of “rapists” crossing the U.S. border from Mexico, few Trump remarks have ignited greater outrage.

Commentators have declared themselves horrified and sickened that a president would so mock the testimony of a victim of sexual assault.

The Republican senators who will likely cast the decisive votes on Kavanaugh’s confirmation — Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski — they all decried Trump’s mimicry.

Yet, in tossing out the “Catechism of Political Correctness” and treating the character assassination of Kavanaugh as what it was, a rotten conspiracy to destroy and defeat his nominee, Trump’s instincts were correct, even if they were politically incorrect.

This was not a “job interview” for Kavanaugh.

In a job interview, half the members of the hiring committee are not so instantly hostile to an applicant that they will conspire to criminalize and crush him to the point of wounding his family and ruining his reputation.

When Sen. Lindsey Graham charged the Democratic minority with such collusion, he was dead on. This was a neo-Bolshevik show trial where the defendant was presumed guilty and due process meant digging up dirt from his school days to smear and break him.

Our cultural elites have declared Trump a poltroon for daring to mock Ford’s story of what happened 36 years ago. Yet, these same elites reacted with delight at Matt Damon’s “SNL” depiction of Kavanaugh’s angry and agonized appearance, just 48 hours before.

Is it not hypocritical to laugh uproariously at a comedic depiction of Kavanaugh’s anguish, while demanding quiet respect for the highly suspect and uncorroborated story of Ford?

Ford was handled by the judiciary committee with the delicacy of a Faberge egg, said Kellyanne Conway, while Kavanaugh was subjected to a hostile interrogation by Senate Democrats.

In our widening and deepening cultural-civil war, the Kavanaugh nomination will be seen as a landmark battle. And Trump’s instincts, to treat his Democratic assailants as ideological enemies, with whom he is in mortal struggle, will be seen as correct.

Consider. In the last half-century, which Supreme Court nominees were the most maligned and savaged?

Were they not Nixon nominee Clement Haynsworth, chief judge of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, Reagan nominee Robert Bork, Bush 1 nominee Clarence Thomas, and Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the last three all judges on the nation’s second-highest court, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals?

Is it a coincidence that all four were Republican appointees, all four were judicial conservatives, and all four were gutted on the grounds of philosophy or character?

Is it a coincidence that Nixon in Watergate, Reagan in the Iran-Contra affair, and now Trump in Russiagate, were all targets of partisan campaigns to impeach and remove them from office?

Consider what happened to decent Gerald Ford who came into the oval office in 1974, preaching “the politics of compromise and consensus.”

To bring the country together after Watergate, Ford pardoned President Nixon. For that act of magnanimity, he was torn to pieces by a Beltway elite that had been denied its anticipated pleasure of seeing Nixon prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to prison.

Trump is president because he gets it. He understands what this Beltway elite are all about — the discrediting of his victory as a product of criminal collusion with Russia and his resignation or removal in disgrace. And the “base” that comes to these rallies to cheer him on, they get it, too.

Since Reagan’s time, there are few conservatives who have not been called one or more of the names in Hillary Clinton’s litany of devils, her “basket of deplorables” — racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, bigoted, irredeemable.

The battle over Kavanaugh’s nomination, and the disparagement of the Republicans who have stood strongest by the judge, seems to have awakened even the most congenial to the new political reality.

We are all deplorables now.

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