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

CYNTHIA, NOT DICK – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Cynthia Nixon on Tuesday proudly proclaimed herself a democratic socialist.  The actress-turned-candidate for governor explicitly embraced the democratic socialist label for the first time in a statement provided to Politico.  “Yes. Some more establishment, corporate Democrats get very scared by this term but if democratic socialism means that you believe health care, housing, education and the things we need to thrive should be a basic right not a privilege then count me in,” Nixon said in the statement.  Nixon, who is backed by the left-leaning Working Families Party, is challenging two-term incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Sept. 13 primary.  Another genius.

THE CHICKEN WINGS PLOT – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  Have you ever watched two men devour spicy chicken wings and been so affected by the absence of women that you wrote an academic paper about it?  If not, then you’re not as enlightened as the University of Tulsa’s Emily J.H. Contois.  The professor of media studies apparently sees toxic masculinity at work in the popular YouTube show Hot Ones, whose host and celebrity guest each eat a plate of hot wings “dressed with hot sauces of increasing intensity.”  Her research “examines how media representations of food, cooking, and dieting construct and negotiate masculinities in our current historical moment,” and Contois’s paper in Feminist Media Studies sees dark forces at work in the three-year-old web series produced by First We Feast.  I've worried about this, too.   You can never be too careful. 

BE OPTIMISTIC – FROM DAILYWIRE:  The two woman GOP senators who seemed recalcitrant about supporting President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court are hinting they will be fine supporting Trump’s actual nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.  According to Politico, Lisa Murkowski (R-AL) and Susan Collins (R-ME) were far less confrontational after Trump’s announcement Monday night than they had been with the possibility of Judge Amy Coney Barrett joining the Court.  Murkowski allowed, “Let’s put it this way: There were some who have been on the list that I would have had a very, very difficult time supporting, just based on what was already publicly known about them. We’re not dealing with that.”  Collins said she wouldn’t compare Kavanaugh to Barrett, then added, “It will be very difficult for anyone to argue that he’s not qualified for the job. He clearly is qualified for the job. But there are other issues involving judicial temperament and his political or rather his judicial philosophy that also will play into my decision.”  I think we're making progress.  Rational senators should be embarrassed if a man like Brett Kavanaugh cannot be confirmed.

July 10,  2018