Deadline: In a game of political brinksmanship, the college professor accusing  Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault while the two were in high school has until 10 this morning to say whether she will testify in a hearing on Monday. Senate Judiciary chairman Charles Grassley said the hearing will go on with or without  the presence of Christine Blasey Ford, who has called for an FBI investigation before she testifies.

Ford has been the target of death threats and internet rumors. She’s taken her family into hiding.

If Ford does not appear, Senate Republicans are likely to move quickly to confirm Kavanaugh to the court. They might just do it even if she appears.

Ford’s lawyer said in a statement, “The committee’s stated plan to move forward with a hearing that has only two witnesses is not a fair or good faith investigation; there are multiple witnesses whose names have appeared publicly and should be included in any proceeding.”

It’s clear that Democrats want to delay or derail the Kavanaugh nomination. It’s also clear that the Republicans want to ram it through no matter what. Grassley wrote to committee Democrats,  “It would be a disservice to Dr. Ford, Judge Kavanaugh, this committee and the American people to delay this hearing any further.”

The Republicans are making a big political gamble that they can get their fifth conservative on the Supreme Court and not have to pay for it in the November elections.

The Russia Thing: In his continuing campaign to kill the Special Counsel Russia investigation, President Trump told The Hill in an interview that he doesn’t have an attorney general in Jeff Sessions. “And it’s very sad what happened,” Trump said. “In the meantime, I don’t have an attorney general. It’s very sad. I’m not happy at the border, I’m not happy with numerous things, not just this.”

What happened was that Sessions recused himself from the Russia matter because he had meetings with Russians in 2016 while he stumped for the Trump campaign. Justice Department guidelines required him to do it.

Trump claims Sessions didn’t have to and went on to say, “You know Gregg Jarrett (Fox News) wrote a book called the Russian Hoax. It actually is a hoax. I call it a witch hunt, but it’s a hoax. Beyond a witch hunt.”

Meanwhile this week, Trump ordered the Justice Department todeclassify secret documents in the Russia investigation, to ensure that “really bad things” at the FBIare exposed.  In particular he ordered the release of information on a list of people he’s publicly named as his enemies who are current or former FBI employees, including former director James Comey.

It’s highly unusual and could backfire on Trump as an act of obstruction of justice.

The NY Times has posted a long story outlining the Russian effort to influence the US election. Read it here.

Collateral Damage: The editor of the New York Review of Books is out after just a year on the job, evidently because he published an essay by a Canadian radio host who claimed he was a victim of the #MeToo movement.

The Review did not say whether Ian Buruma resigned or was fired.

He caused outrage when he published the piece by  Jian Ghomeshiwho had been accused of sexual impropriety by at least 20 women but nonetheless was acquitted at trial of sexual assault.

No doubt, Ghomeshi went easy on himself and Buruma let it pass. On Wednesday, the magazine posted a caveat with the essay that says, “The following article, which has provoked much criticism, should have included acknowledgment of the serious nature and number of allegations that had been made against the writer, Jian Ghomeshi.”

The Obit Page: Robert Venturi, the architect and author who helped inspire the “postmodernist” movement in American architecture, has died at age 93.

Venturi moved beyond the austere and unadorned buildings of Mies van der Rohe and le Courbousier. He still drew in straight lines, but added adornment and fun. The home he built for his mother has a split dividing the house at the peak of the pitched roofline.

Mies famously said, “less is more,” and Venturi said, “less is a bore.”

Lost and Found: Researchers are expected to announce today that they may have found the remains of the ship captain James Cook first used to explore the Pacific, the Endeavour.

Cook used the ship built as a cargo vessel to sail all the way around the world in his first exploration that began in 1768. It ended up as a troop ship during the revolution and was sunk in the harbor of Newport, RI as part of a blockade against the French fleet.

The people who found the remains are not certain, but believe they have narrowed their search to a handful of wrecks.

Water is Wet: President Trump said Hurricane Florence “one of the wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water.”

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