Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

I'm Dan Premack. On today's show, why no one really knows anything about stocks and how big tobacco is finally turning its sights to marijuana.

But first, the state of post-Cavanaugh politics. It's been six days since Senator Susan Collins

decided that Judge Brett Kavanaugh would become Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court,

after weeks of intense arguments over allegations of sexual assault that eventually devolved

into depressingly predictable partisan sniping. So if you believe Dr. Ford, I totally get it. And

if you believed Kavanaugh Moore, I get that too. If you found them both credible, so didn't

know what to think and decided it was better to err on one side or the other, entirely defensible.

The thing I couldn't understand though, and I keep thinking about, were those, including

Collins and Joe Manchin, who said they believed Ford when she said she was assaulted but that it

had to be by someone else it's this weird cowardly middle ground his identity was

literally the only thing Ford said she was 100% sure about so if you believed her then any

sort of consistent mind would have to believe that

too. Again, I'm not saying who was telling the truth. I'm saying that the post-vote narrative by

certain senators was entirely disingenuous. But either way, here we are. Less than a month from

the midterms with both bases fired up. And since the Kavanaugh vote,

we've gotten another strong jobs report, the resignation of UN ambassador Nikki Haley, and a massive

hurricane in Florida, which happens to be home to one of the nation's tightest Senate races.

Lots and lots of moving pieces. So in 15 seconds, we'll try to get some political clarity

with Axios CEO Jim Bandahehy.

But first, this.

Axios gives you the news and analysis you need to get smarter, faster on the most important topics.

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