How about this. If the press (or anyone) is going to delve into every aspect of Dr. Ford’s story and life, how about they also interview every one of the women who signed that letter of support for Brett Kavanaugh? Ask them to answer these questions with as much detail as is expected from Dr. Ford:
- When did you first meet Kavanaugh?
- How many interactions have you had with him over the years?
- Explain the extent of these interactions.
- When was the last time you had an interaction with BK?
Instead of expecting us to just take their signature as a statement of facts.
I mean, if I were calling a job candidate’s personal reference for a job, I’d ask a minimum of these questions. And isn’t that what the GOP is saying these women are?
Otherwise, if you’re going to take them at their word (which in reality is just a signature at this point) you should also take Dr. Ford at her word. Period.
chopper
looks like only two of the women who signed that letter are still willing to stand by it.
cain
Yet by enlarge, nobody seems to really support the man.
MisterForkbeard
@chopper: I’ve heard that. Evidently they weren’t told of any of the specifics of the letter at all if this was all it took for them to back off. Do we have a source on that, though?
Princess
Politico has been calling the women. Most won’t reply. A couple refused to state and, as above, only two so far are still standing by it.
The Midnight Lurker
I’ll vouch for Kavanaugh’s character – he’s a lying’, racist, raping, drunken douche lord. How’s that?
Mnemosyne
I totally agree — if the victim is going to get dragged through the mud, the absolute minimum that the women who signed that letter can do is testify under oath about the letter. And if they no longer support Kavanaugh and want their names removed from the letter, they need to say that, too.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Princess: 5 now support him per Politico politico.com/story/2018/09/16/trump-kavanaugh-allegations-response-826069
Cacti
Kavanaugh liking to coach girls’ softball suddenly seems a lot less wholesome.
scott (the other one)
Here’s a link to a tweet about the story from the Politico writer.
PPCLI
Also it would be good to ask them what exactly they were told before signing the letter. Was it the “some woman said he locked her in a room briefly which made her nervous”, which is how the Republicans were describing it before the letter actually came out? And maybe ask them if they are prepared to go on record calling Dr. Ford a liar.
Also it would be useful to know just what are the “diverse political views” that are purportedly featured. I have a hunch that if there was a single Democrat in the bunch they would have advertised this with “bipartisan” rather than “diverse”. Does the group consist of a) True believing all-in Trumpers b) People who disagree with Trump because they think he went soft by backing off on the family separation policy? Is that the kind of “diversity” at issue?
PPCLI
@PPCLI: Ah, I see that this has already been touched on. Damn you, absent edit button!
VeniceRiley
Meanwhile, the private girls school is supporting HER
and also meanwhile… Kav is at the White House. 3 hours now and they’re either calling Senators and strategizing, or they’re trying to convice him to not withdraw. huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-seen-arriving-at-white-house_us_5b9fce02e4b046313fbda070
TaMara (HFG)
@Cacti: This. I keep thinking that somewhere some other young woman has been traumatized into silence.
Corner Stone
I would rather they ask the parents of the girls basketball squad they allowed Kavvy to use as morality props. So, parents…how’re you feeling now about your little girl being used by this monster?
RSA
I’m about the same age as Kavanaugh, and I went to an all-boys high school. I was kind of shy and introspective then, but I’m wondering, “How many girls knew me then, well enough to write a letter of support, and are reachable now?” 65 just seems like an order of magnitude too high.
Wyatt Derp
The other question to ask is “When were you first approached about being a character witness?”. These women were clearly lined up well in advance and it kind of makes you wonder why?
Corner Stone
@VeniceRiley: Kavvy knows there are others. Maybe a lot more recent others…
WaterGirl
@PPCLI: I wonder if they were just told that they were signing a letter of support for K.
Mary G
@TaMara (HFG): Almost always, when there’s one, there are more than one. I found all that “he’s so good with the girls” desperately creepy.
schrodingers_cat
Isn’t she tenured faculty, in which case it should be Prof. Ford. Also, her rank and educational qualifications should not really matter in this case, sexual assault and rape are wrong even if the victim is not high status.
Wyatt Derp
@RSA: Exactly. I went to a coed high school and there are not 65 women who would even remember me.
Villago Delenda Est
When you’re a lifelong GOP ratfucking operative, it’s pretty much a given that the GOP will defend him to the death. He’s unfit to sit on any federal bench, let alone the USSC.
Corner Stone
Also too, we should ask dumbass Ben Wittes how he now is feeling about his personal endorsement of Kavvy as a decent and honorable man who should be on SCOTUS.
And then proceed with all the women who filmed pro-BK commercials for him talking him up. I am interested to hear what those women have to say now.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
I think they need to be checked for mud too. And if there are horribly embarassing circumstances that would shame and discredit any of his supporters then let it fly.
Sauce for the goose.
oclday
Interesting isn’t it that he has taken a page from the Trump play book. Why wouldn’t he just say sorry, I am ashamed, I changed my ways long ago, etc? That would have made it go away. As it stands now it adds credence to the Democrats contention that he is a liar. Makes you wonder if Kavanaugh knows there potentially other accusers out there. And as for the old white men telling us this isn’t the Bret they know, I really don’t think Bret would have been in the habit of pushing them down on a bed and trying to rip of their clothes. So shut up Ken Starr, Mr I lost my job for covering up sexual abuse.
TenguPhule
@Villago Delenda Est:
The terms are acceptable.
trollhattan
@TaMara (HFG):
Yup, and probably not just one. How Ms Ford is treated will influence the likelihood of their coming forward.
It’s already skeevier than anything Al Franken was accused of.
Villago Delenda Est
@The Midnight Lurker: I’d upfist the hell out of this comment if we had an upfist button.
TenguPhule
@oclday:
Admitting to the crime would not make it go away. It would end his career.
Nelle
I appreciate seeking out the women who signed the supportive letter because, in my experience, ant-abortion zealots feel totally justified in lying to get what they want..getting Roe v Wade overturned. I want them examined as much as Dr. Ford will be.no hiding in a herd of 65…and I like the questions above. Not just a quick, still support your guy?
TaMara (HFG)
@schrodingers_cat:
ruemara
It’s been amazing to watch, how men line up to defend men. The abject horror men should feel at the white house lawyer who said if these are the standards then no man would be able to pass them… yet I don’t see many men decrying being painted as naturally rapists.
schrodingers_cat
@RSA: I went to an all girls Catholic school and I was outgoing and participated in many inter-school contests. Even so I don’t think there were 65 boys I knew as a teen.
Ella in New Mexico
1 That letter was created and developed in a highly suspicious way, i.e. “sig this chain mail in support of BKs general character” to a bunch of networked Republican women supporting all things Republican. Reporters contacting the women are not getting what you might call “full-throated support” for Kavanaugh right now. They are apparently not comfortable stating he’s the cats pajamas now that he’s been accused of attempted rape.
2. Who the fuck is this Virginia Hume who appears to have been at least partially responsible for coordinating Kavanaugh’s cheerleading squad, and why was she talking to pervert Mark Judge who is supposed to be the other guy in the room during this assault about “youthful indiscretions” way back in June, before this even came to DiFi?
3. Also, more weirdness: if you get a chance to see some of the icky stuff Mark Judge has written and video’d and photographed (he had a You Tube account that he scrubbed a few days ago but many folks screen shotted some pretty salacious stuff beforehand) during his illustrious career as a “writer”, it looks like he’s got some serious sexual aggression issues, along with his admission he regularly “blacked out” from alcoholism in his teen/young adult years. Both of these guys were shit-faced at the event where this assault took place, and are going to try and use “i don’t recall” to infer it didn’t happen. Why is Kavanaugh still associating with this creeper if he’s so squeaky clean?
4. Now hearing a DC lawyer has a “Me too” story coming out that involved Brent as an adult involving an intern/summer clerkship. Also, apparently Brent is lawyering up. Stay tuned.
Finally, THIS from a TPM commenter is exactly what I want to see happen, and today:
WaterGirl
@trollhattan:
Attempted rape is not even on the same planet as he grabbed my waist for a photo and it made me feel uncomfortable.
JaneE
The speed with which the 65 Kavanaugh defenders came forward is suspicious to me. Why did they think they needed women to support him?
MisterForkbeard
@oclday: I think you nailed it on accident. Trump proved that Republicans literally don’t care about whether you’re right or wrong, or lie constantly. All that matters is that you never admit it. Then your supporters will back you up, and the media will start writing “both sides disagree” and about “democratic ambushes” or “Were the Democrats wrong to bring up (the fact that the Republican is a sexual assaulter)” stories. We’re already seeing it.
Anecdotally, during the 2016 campaign right after the “grab her by the *****” tape aired, I had a Trump friendly work colleague who was aghast at Trump. Not for the rape and sexual assault, but because he tepidly apologized for it. He was angry that it showed weakness, and that men clearly talked about this stuff all the time, and that it let the media attack Trump for something everybody does, etc. He thinks that apologizing for and acknowledging awful behavior makes you less of a person. I suspect this is exactly where Republicans in general are on this as well.
MisterForkbeard
@TenguPhule: Not sure I agree. If he’d just said “You know, I think I went to that party and I remember trying to kiss her but that’s it – I think we were both drunk and she could have easily misremembered this. The real shame here is that the Democrats are accusing me of rape based off a 35-year-old misunderstanding” then Republicans would have lined up behind him and the media would have basically shrugged.
But then, they’re sort of doing that now anyway.
Eric S.
@RSA: I had a similar thought when the letter came out. I few years younger. I was definitely shy. I have never been good at keeping in contact. Still am. Given all that I’m not sure I could name 65 girls I went to HS with. I might be hard pressed to name 65 people of either gender.
raven
In the early 1980s, at secretive night-time events around Oxford University and in grand country homes in Kent, Surrey and Buckinghamshire, carefully selected guests would descend in gowns and tuxedos to drink, eat, flirt, dance, kiss, date, fight, show-off, gossip and then drink some more. Before the age of Instagram, they were there to behave badly.
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
*jumping up and down*
over here!
low-tech cyclist
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S):
And one of those is Virginia Hume, who has been organizing the WH campaign to defend Kavanaugh, and who’s pals with Mark Judge, the sleazeball who Ford says helped Kavanaugh try to rape her.
Corner Stone
@MisterForkbeard:
If he admits that far he is done. He has to blanket denial and he needs the RWNJ crew to smear the absolute F out of his accuser, as a warning to the other ones he knows are out there.
Ella in New Mexico
@oclday: A man of character, who had mistakenly thought that that was the way to treat women when he was 17 years old but realized it was TERRIBLE and WRONG and who regrets ever doing such a thing and hoped nothing happened to the girl or came out now that he lives a good and decent life would be embarrassed, ashamed, and maybe even reluctant to talk about the incident.
But that kind of man would also likely not want to get a job knowing he was telling a giant falsehood in order to get it, because for that kind of man, one’s piece of mind and self-respect involve honesty. That kind of man would likely make a brief but meaningful admission, apology and tender his withdrawal from consideration.
I sincerely doubt Brent the prep-school-Yale/Ken Starr-Republican groomed for just this moment has that kind of character.
Mike E
@The Midnight Lurker:
In today’s GOP, that’s a given.
Elizabelle
Kavanaugh’s a very low quality Supreme Court pick. He should go down for that. It’s pathetic that the fucking Republicans will vote to confirm a ham sandwich. To a lifetime appointment. Where he might sit in judgement of Trump, to whom he owes being elevated to a position he is not suited for. That is what Republicans will do, and were very likely going to do. (Lisa Murkowski gets the benefit of a doubt, and Sneaky Susie Collins has been sticking her finger every which way to figure out the wind.)
I am not sure the allegation against him is provable at this point, although it is not unprovable either.
Down with you, Kavanaugh, and be gone. No more Supreme Court picks from Trump. None.
TenguPhule
Wapo headline.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
And yet he was Kennedy’s choice.
What the fuck does Russia have on Kennedy?
jacy
Word is the White House is desperate for there not to be any open testimony and there should just be calls between the committee and Kavanaugh and Ford. So the real push is for open testimony — how many opportunities does open testimony give for old white Republican men to absolutely fuck up on record? All of them, I’d say.
I’m putting down a marker. I think Kavanaugh is toast. How exactly he is toasted is up in the air, but all the background skullduggery indicates there’s something even worse lurking somewhere. And somebody who would sexually assault a woman the way Kavanaugh did — that shit doesn’t just happen once.
Mary G
Jennifer Rubin has more bad news for Republicans:
I’m so old I remember when the Democratic senators up this cycle were in terrible trouble.
Bruce K
@TenguPhule: The problem is, you can’t count on the GOP to follow through on that last bit. Not unless it’s someone else’s death on the line. Preferably a nCLANG or a HONK or an AWOOGA.
Corner Stone
@low-tech cyclist:
I wonder if Politico has any obligation to reference the fact that she is also the daughter of Fox News’ Brit Hume?
TenguPhule
And there is a developing story about a serial killer that was caught working in the Border Patrol. Because one of his female victims escaped before he could kill her.
Eric S.
@TenguPhule:
?
?
➕
Like
Corner Stone
@Bruce K:
Is that where the eyes bulge out, and you momentarily float while making the noise?
Mary G
And Rod Dreher is getting dragged for this:
That is the best example of rape culture yet.
Ruckus
@MisterForkbeard:
They consider the shitty behavior normal. That’s the way human males are, in their worlds and minds. But apologizing is showing weakness. They are two separate things in their minds.
The first, the shitty behavior being “normal” is what gives them permission to act like asses whenever they want.
The second is what sets them apart from other animals, they are always strong.
The problem is that they know the shitty behavior is wrong and they know that they owe the person and the world an apology for being that way. Except for the last few decades the republican party has been saying that the shitty behavior is OK and the apologizing is wrong. And of course these are powerful people so they must be right. And the people that the republican party has been trying to and convincing of these things have learned to accept this a reality.
To fix any of this that has to be changed.
Mary G
@jacy: The women who are standing by the letter of support should also be required to testify in the committee and in front of the whole nation. The thought of facing Kamala would scare the shit out of them.
Silvery
@Wyatt Derp: This is the question and answer I would very much like to see.
jacy
@TenguPhule:
There also the ICE agent who was just arrested for incest, among other charges. Maybe this is the answer to the “Angel Families.” We have giant posters of all the Border Patrol and ICE agents who have either murdered or sexually assaulted people. Goose, Gander, Sauce, etcetera, etcetera.
TenguPhule
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle:
Oh, come on. She will vote to confirm. You know that, I know that, everybody here knows that.
jacy
Gosh darnit, I used one of the bad words. Fish me out of moderation, please?
Also, the first question I want Kavanaugh to have to answer in the new hearing is “Do you support abortion in the case of any of the women you raped?”
Dog Dawg Damn
It’s been dawning on me all year that beneath the sanctimonious puritanical auspices of “values voters” was a cadre of abusers, pedophiles, and perverts who were using sexual morality to silence their victims and create a culture where speaking out was worse than offending.
Roger Moore
@MisterForkbeard:
I’m not sure. I don’t think a partial admission would help. He doesn’t want there to be a he said/she said, especially because there’s at least some evidence he was far more drunk than she was so here recollection is likely to be better. He’s probably better off doing as he has: brazenly lying about it and claiming it’s a politically hit piece.
SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal
@low-tech cyclist:
and who is, apparently, the daughter of FOX News’ Brit Hume. I’m thinking Bill Shine’s fingerprints are all over this.
TenguPhule
Only the best imperial storm troopers….
ruemara
@TenguPhule: Good. Hope Elon loses a lot.
@TenguPhule: My only thought at that story was, “Just one?”
Dog Dawg Damn
Such a shame that the Q*non freaks are going after pizza parlors when the Catholic Church and Republican party are basically organized sex abuse protection rackets.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
If it worked for Donald Trump…..
MagdaInBlack
@TenguPhule:
Please see Nut Bra on youtube
schrodingers_cat
Never Trumper, Tom Nichols.
eemom
@ruemara:
@WaterGirl:
Again, I can’t believe this even needs to be stated.
I’ll repeat what I said on the last thread. A person who rapes or attempts rape is deeply, deeply fucked as a human far beyond anything that has to do with drinking or with age. That’s one of the reasons I’ve never been one to knee jerk “believe” stories like UVA and Duke lacrosse. A guy can be the drunkest, assholest of assholes….that has nothing to do with the question of whether he possesses that particular sick criminality.
So, in addition to the fact that the “denial” of a blackout drunk about what he did or didn’t do when drunk OBVIOUSLY is not worth jack shit, I’m not on board with the theory that “if he’d only admit he did something wrong” is any kind of answer here. I don’t think any rapist just “grows out of it.”
TaMara (HFG)
@jacy: I have freed you!
Jeffro
@Ella in New Mexico: I saw that TPM comment/article and wow is that spot-on. No more backing away from fights with these clowns, not now, not ever.
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
One survivor. He killed 2 more women in the five hours between when she escaped and he was caught.
schrodingers_cat
@TenguPhule: TMI.
Corner Stone
@Dog Dawg Damn:
Welcome to the 1980’s! Good to see you! The hairspray is on the table to the left, and the leg warmers are on the back bench. Make sure when you leave you pick up your complimentary BetaMax or VHS – your choice!
Chetan Murthy
@Mary G: Yeah, in high school (age 16), I was physically bullied by 17 y.o. boys, in a sexually humiliating way (but not sex) too. In a small town in Texas (not so different from Baton Rouge, I bet. If I could deliver to each of them a kick in the balls from a large horse, I’d be ecstatic. This is *bullshit* that he doesn’t hold it against them. 100% grade-A bullshit.
The Midnight Lurker
@TenguPhule: I also read about this! WTF! How come this isn’t bigger news?! Usually, anything involving serial killers is front page stuff and fodder for a movie.
And what? Do you have to fail the psych profile portion of your aptitude test to become a Border Patrol agent?
Fair Economist
@oclday:
In this case, there’s no statue of limitations so he could go to jail for it.
SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal
@Corner Stone: @SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal:
As happens with depressing regularity, someone else (CS in this case) got there first.
Jeffro
Petri, not missing a chance to really put the knife in Kavanaugh, and twist…
Every Man Should Be Worried If Kavanaugh Goes Down. At Least, I’m Worried.
TenguPhule
@The Midnight Lurker:
Is this a trick question?
Aleta
@The Midnight Lurker: Oh that guy. Sure, everyone remembers him.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: How is she a character witness for Brett K, he is in his mid 50s how old is she?
Eljai
@Wyatt Derp: On the flip side, I was thinking that there are not 65 people from high school that I remember well enough to vouch for their behavior. Heck, I was close friends with 5 people in high school and I cannot vouch for their behavior. Granted, we went our separate ways after high school. If any of them did something heinous, I would say that I was surprised and it doesn’t sound like something they would do. But I would have to have maintained a very close relationship with each of them to swear on it. So Kavanaugh maintained close friendly relationships with 65 women since high school? Where did he find the time?
MagdaInBlack
@Corner Stone:
Welcome to Patriarchy .
Fair Economist
@TenguPhule:
Bet there are a bunch of sex abusers too. Definitely a job to attract the worst element.
Haroldo
@trollhattan: A lot skeevier.
eemom
@schrodingers_cat:
New qualification for Supreme Court judges: Not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
schrodingers_cat
@schrodingers_cat: * Character witness for teen Brett K, I mean.
Dog Dawg Damn
@Eljai: How about some humility from them? “I was a naive stupid kid, and so were they. I wouldn’t trust my judgment back then, and you shouldn’t either.”
TenguPhule
Alexa, bring me more popcorn please.
Fair Economist
@Dog Dawg Damn:
To repeat: It’s always projection with Republicans.
schrodingers_cat
@eemom: I quoted him because he gets quoted as a sane R.
trollhattan
@Mary G:
That is one messed-up dude.
He needs to go fix his own mess and stop moralizing to others, a task for which he’s wholly unqualified.
Lulymay
@Nelle:
And I would add one more exploratory question… “and what was your role as well as his role in that latest interaction?”
eemom
@schrodingers_cat:
I know. Like all of that kind, he’s full of shit.
The Thin Black Duke
@jacy: The way that shit went down in that room was well-rehearsed. Of course this dirtbag did it more than once.
Fair Economist
@eemom:
You mean, “not *yet* proven guilty”, I think.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
There are no sane Rs.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@TaMara (HFG): Women. I’d bet $ it’s more than 2. These guys are serial assaulters.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: She apparently went to an all-girls school at same time and knew him.
Link to her article in Weekly Standard.
It’s very brief but packed with 100% RDA of lies and untruths.
Fair Economist
@The Thin Black Duke:
He and Mark Judge were probably trading off on rapist and assistant on different tries.
Elizabelle
@TenguPhule:
We so need to find that out. Kennedy and his (possibly) dirty money son. Anthony Kennedy gave us Citizens United; never forget that.
schrodingers_cat
@TenguPhule: I know that, you know that, apparently there are still some people who hope that they exist.
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
When push comes to shove, she’ll vote to confirm. At the same time, she knows that this is likely to be the end of her political career, so she’s desperately hoping for some excuse for not holding a vote.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Brit Hume looks too young to have a 55 year old daughter, hence the confusion. Thanks.
jacy
Now Kavanaugh is saying he was never at the party in question.
Apparently Kavanaugh was a pretty heavy drinker as an adolescent. And, yet, he specifically remembers that he was not as THIS party, even though, AFAIKT, there’s been no date given for the party.
I drank a lot in high school. I went to a lot of parties. 35 years later, there is no way in hell I could tell you which parties I went to and which I didn’t.
These denials are getting more and more desperate.
ruemara
@TenguPhule: NO. Wrong. I meant just one serial killer.
jonas
@Mary G:
In a normal political environment, they would be. But Republicans now face Trump headwinds, rather than coattails. GOPers today can’t win in a primary w/o Trump’s endorsement, but they also can’t win a general election with Trump’s endorsement. And it’s only going to get worse as his ratings plummet. This is why there are no statewide Republican office holders in CA today. To get through the primary, you have to be a crazy-ass, anti-immigrant racist. But then you’re completely toxic once you come out of that primary.
The Moar You Know
People have secrets. I think everyone knows that.
So why the fuck would you “vouch for” (whatever the fuck that means, nobody’s even explained what they mean by this mantra they keep repeating) someone who you likely haven’t spent more than a few passing minutes with since high school, which was thirty-something years ago? Now, it’s true, I have one parent who insists on remembering things his way and one who’s a full on NPD, and I wouldn’t conceive of vouching for anything concerning either one of them save that they were pretty shitty parents, but still. My high school friends? Most of ’em, great people. Would I categorically vouch that none of them had or could conceivably have committed rape? Maybe for one. Maybe. I’d really have to think about it. But some rando who was just in my classes, some guy who signed my yearbook and was at all the same parties that I was? Ha, fuck that. My greatest life surprise was going to my last reunion and finding out that most of my classmates hadn’t been to jail. Not that we went to a “bad school”, just that most of them were really shitty, albeit shitty wealthy, people.
Eric S.
@The Midnight Lurker:
I haven’t read the article so I don’t know how long the guy’s been on the job. I do have some vague recollection in the back of my brain about requirements being waived to staff up the border patrol though. Any one else recall that?
Dog Dawg Damn
@jonas: Think they are tired of all the winning yet?
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: I checked out his wiki, she was born in 1965. He is a well preserved 75 year old. Also, I haven’t had cable for the last 7 years so I am thinking of Brit Hume of a decade ago. Besides even then, I hardly if ever watched Fox News.
CaseyL
What the “don’t judge by what I did as a teenager” claque misses is that Kavanaugh isn’t in danger of going to jail or losing some ordinary job; he’s being nominated to SCOTUS. That is, or used to be, a revered position; about as close as the US gets to a secular priesthood. The standards for SCOTUS damn well should be higher than most people can meet.
I’m thinking about the dynamics of this. Kavanaugh went to an emergency meeting at the WH this morning, and fer sure 45 told him to keep denying. So he has. 45 hates to back down in public. HATES it. Having to pull the nomination, or seeing it go down in flames, will fry his shorts so badly he might stroke out.
Gin & Tonic
@schrodingers_cat: Wiki tells me he’s 75 years old.
Dog Dawg Damn
If Republicans lose House and Senate, then I’d say there’s a great chance Trump gets impeached and removed (relative to the normal chances).
Republicans know they are in this bind, and they don’t want to spend 6 years in the wilderness over it.
Immanentize
@jacy: This never happened.
Well, I certainly wasn’t at the party where it happened.
OK, I was at that party, but not when it happened
Maybe I was there when it happened, but I was passed out drunk outside at the time
or maybe inside, but I was definitely passed out!
I remember it all so very clearly.
Bruce K
@Corner Stone: No, the AWOOGA is where my mouth gets covered by a big black box labeled PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT LYRICS, and a shepherd’s crook grabs me by the neck and yanks me away.
The Moar You Know
@Eljai: Eh, not that time consuming. Pop the yearbook, pick up the phone…”hey yeah, just wondering what your daughter is doing on Friday? Oh, she’s going to a party? Ha, those crazy kids. Is it that one over by Sell-It-All Liquors? Yeah, the one we went to in high school. Well, really good talking to you, see you at soccer practice next week!”
That’s maybe two minutes, max, amirite?
SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal
@schrodingers_cat:
(Wikipedia article on Brit Hume.)
They are both 53.
MagdaInBlack
Some one has posted Dr. Fords personal phone #’s on Twitter
Gin & Tonic
@jacy:
That’s fascinating, because I read the WPo article yesterday, and IIRC Dr. Ford didn’t specify exactly when or where this party was, because it was 35 years ago and she doesn’t remember precisely enough to say. So how can Kavanaugh deny he was there, if Ford din’t say where “there” was?
TenguPhule
@Eric S.:
10 year vet. So a Bush regime hire.
sukabi
@TenguPhule: John is really embracing TMI.
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
By denying he ever went to any parties at all while in high school.
PAM Dirac
@Corner Stone:
I wouldn’t bet on that and blocking this nomination is too important to take chances. I know people in what my brother’s friends call the DC Catholic high school mafia and they say that the story of how the letter came about is very believable. One person says she knows at least 40 of the women that signed and is not the slightest bit surprised that it only took a day and not the slightest bit surprised that they jump to the defense of one of their own. I think focusing on the questions listed above are bound to backfire mostly because the answers will not be what you want, but also because it could very well be true that he treated members of the group quite well. Note that Holton Arms is not a Catholic school and Dr. Ford does not seem to be even slightly part of the group, then or now. I think it is vital to stick to evidence that bears on whether Kavanagh committed the assault (or others that may come up). It doesn’t matter how many friends he has or how nice he treats them if he is guilty of attempted rape.
MagdaInBlack
What are Judge Kavanaughs connections to Opus Dei?
Aleta
@Ella in New Mexico: (By M-J, July 2016)
This and other articles under his name appeared at Sp lice.
The Moar You Know
@MagdaInBlack: And her home address, and her work address, and the names of her kids and the schools they go to. Pretty SOP.
Republicans are playing to win here, and if somebody dies, they don’t fucking care even a little bit.
JPL
@TenguPhule: That should work out. It’s all good now.
sukabi
@Aleta: is that excerpt a Judge fiction?
Kelly
One of my friends in high school based that, based on what how he behaved at the time I’d testify was a good guy, shot up a bar killing 4 people for no apparent reason 7 years after I graduated. The only violent thing he did in high school was beat the living shit out of the school’s most obnoxious bully. Big surprise to everyone that he could whip the bully and we were kinda taken aback at how far he went once he got started. Never saw him after I graduated. No idea what went wrong.
Point is testifying to someone’s character is a bit iffy.
Brachiator
@Aleta:
Wow. What a load of crud.
Roger Moore
@jonas:
The change to the jungle primary hasn’t helped them at all. The Democrats seem to be doing a pretty good job of avoiding too much vote splitting by limiting the number of serious candidates on the ballot, which the Republicans have been really bad at. Of course that tends to be a self-reinforcing situation. Holding all the offices helps the Democrats build a good bench and have a plan for who’s going to advance to which office next. Being shut out means the Republicans lack a team of developing candidates with the same name recognition. That means they lack good candidates and they have a hard time limiting their candidates to a handful of plausible contenders.
TenguPhule
Trump’s Next Round of China Tariffs ‘Coming Soon,’ Top Adviser Says
We are so fucked.
WaterGirl
@jacy: @Immanentize: These guys aren’t just pigs and rapists and sociopaths, they are really stupid, too, to think that is gonna be believable.
I am not rich or famous or in politics, but if I were any of those things and accused of something terrible, I would know not to change my story every 45 minutes. Geez. This is their idea of cream of the crop.
TenguPhule
@Kelly:
Anger can carry you a long way.
The Moar You Know
@Aleta: Leonidas and the Spartans were utterly wiped out and the only thing that lives on are the legends of their sick, diseased, pederast culture and the failure of their military might to achieve anything of value or permanence, while Xerxes’ people prospered and still live in the lands they conquered to this day.
I’ll take that.
wormtown
@MagdaInBlack: Good question.
Dog Dawg Damn
A lesson for Democrats.
When Kavanaugh was nominated, everyone was being defeatist and saying it was a fait accompli that he would be confirmed. This was even after numerous instances of him perjuring himself in front of the committee. Now, everything has changed, and it looks like he may be dropped. He would be even more vulnerable if Democrats had sustained their opposition without wallowing in defeat the past three weeks. The lesson is to fight always, never give up hope, and lay the groundwork for victory even if it looks remote.
TenguPhule
Trump’s nasty fight with China’s middle class could extend the trade war
Who knew that pissing off the citizens of another country would have consequences?
Corner Stone
@PAM Dirac: 1) it is published in Weekly Standard so ipso cogito ergo facto tatum, it is imbued with lies, and 2) I am unaware of anyone basing their strategy on defeating a letter signed by 65 people Kavvy may or may not have raped over the years.
MagdaInBlack
@Kelly:
One of the guys I know well, did 10 years, in his 20’s,for involuntary manslaughter
Ken is a biker, he was in a bar, some guy was harassing a waitress, Ken stepped in. Guy pulled a knife, Ken did too. Guy was drunk. Ken wasn’t. 10 years.
Oddly, I’d rather see Ken as SCOTUS. He, at least, was defending a woman.
* Told you I had a bit of a miss-spent youth ?
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodingers_cat: Rethuglicans are Rethuglicans. Even the “Never Trumpers”. They’re pissed because Donald is making what their party is about obvious to all. Racists, Xenophobes, haters of the Enlightenment, insatiable greedheads.
Elizabelle
@Dog Dawg Damn: I’m with you. I cannot stand the defeatism and Eeyorism on display here from some folks. We may not win every battle, but why defeat ourselves by not even trying? Also: situations and conditions change.
debit
@Dog Dawg Damn: What wallowing? There was sustained fighting all along.
WaterGirl
Holy shit, I don’t even know who Alexandra Petri is, and she wrote something that good? How can I not already have known who she is?
washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/17/every-man-should-be-worried-at-least-im-worried/?utm_…
Mary G
Don’t know if this is credible, but interesting if true:
I’d say it’s possible that the White House gets that going after Prof. Ford will just ensure that they lose even more seats, and hoping, as Republcians do (cough Sarah Palin cough) that putting up a woman will appease female voters. Possible, but not likely, because Twitler hates backing down.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: She’s a treasure. WaPost.
Chetan Murthy
@WaterGirl: She is a national treasure. She is reason to subscribe to WaPo. Well, her, Farenthold, and a few others. Minus most of the op-ed page. Her Weinstein piece was excellent, too. Her back-catalog is highly recommended for giggles.
debit
@Elizabelle: I assumed the comment was in regard to the Dems on the judiciary committee and on the news.
It also pisses me off when defeatism happens here, but honestly, I doubt the comments on one blog (no matter how popular!) are going to make a difference. It’s the phone calls, the emails, to continual push back that matters.
Ella in New Mexico
@Fair Economist:
I think that is more the case in the last couple of years, but I have to say I know several Border Patrol agents personally, none are rapists, muderers or even hate immigrants. When they entered the service, it was a combination of wanting a decent paying job with decent benefits, to serve in law enforcement, and hopefully get some really bad guys off the streets in the process. They were some of my client’s best advocates back when I worked in domestic violence. They all are having serious issues lately with the sudden change to target ALL undocumented people like they’re criminals.
So like cops, some of whom are drawn by their own power and control issues to the field, there’s good guys and there’s bad guys.
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: her “symptoms of a trump bite to the neck” column was great too. Really she’s all around great. She also is behind the Emo Kylo Ren twitter account.
TenguPhule
The Squirrel King is Real!!!
TenguPhule
@WaterGirl:
She’s very very good. Check out her archives for the past 20 months. Comedy gold.
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl:
That’s really quite stunning. I love it.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: About to read it. One thing to keep in mind: Petri is the daughter (only child, actually) of a former moderate GOP congressman from Wisconsin, Tom Petri. She is a product of the upscale DC area private school scene, as was Kavanaugh and, I guess, a lot of the 65 women who jumped onto that letter. Alexandra attended National Cathedral School, and then Harvard.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: At some point in the distant past there were even a couple of exchanges between her and our own DougJ, in which she clearly was up to the challenge.
Kelly
@Dog Dawg Damn:
Yes.
I think there’s a problem maybe from thinking metaphorically that losing a political battle is like losing a physical battle. But in a political battle the ammo you’ve fired can be fired again, there are no lines of communication or territory lost. The Republicans have demonstrated that firing the same ammunition over and over can increase it’s effectiveness. The political fight mostly encourages your side win or lose.
Gravenstone
@TenguPhule: Plus the ICE guy in Oregon who is apparently a serial sodomizer. Great organization they got going there…
TenguPhule
China accuses Sweden of violating human rights over treatment of tourists
Not the Onion.
Proof we are truly in the dumbest timeline.
Villago Delenda Est
@Aleta: Hm. Defends a slaveholding tyranny opposing a civilization that had abolished slavery. Tells us a lot, doesn’t it?
WaterGirl
Thanks to all who replied to my comment about Alexandra Petri.
I didn’t know who Molly Ivins was until she was gone, so I guess I’m making progress.
Chetan Murthy
@Gin & Tonic: There is *no* way I’d take the risk of a verbal exchange with Ms. Petri, other than “uh, could I have you autograph?”
A man’s gotta know his limitations.
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
Li’l Brett should use Homer’s three most important sentences:
Number one: ‘Cover for me.’
Number two: ‘Oh, good idea, boss.’
Number three, ‘It was like that when I got here.’
His friend literally covered him.
He vastly overpraised Trump for the nomination.
He totally tried to help that poor girl at the party he never attended.
Chetan Murthy
@TenguPhule: From what I read, it was more like, they arrived the night before, and wanted to hang out in the lobby until their reservation started. And then the son asked the hotel staff to accommodate his parents, who were a bit frail or weak or maybe disabled. So “hours before their booking” means, like 12 or 14, I’m guessing.
When looked at that way, it’s pretty unreasonable for the hotel to put up with that, no?
Gin & Tonic
@Chetan Murthy: Well, DougJ may have gotten soft, being now a husband and father and all, but he could hold his own too, back in the day.
TenguPhule
Date of execution postponed.
The Midnight Lurker
Testifying to someone’s character, whom you haven’t seen in 35 plus years is problematic.
I knew a guy in High School. We weren’t tight, but he was my wood shop partner. We hung out, had lunch a few times. He seemed like a good guy. If you asked me about his character today, I’d have probably said something like, ‘Yeah, I knew him. He was cool.’
Except… about ten years out of High School he robbed a liquor store and killed the owner. Got a life sentence.
A mutual friend (much closer to him in HS than me) went to see him in prison. The friend told us that he seemed like the same ol’ guy from High School, until they talked about the robbery/murder. Then he said the guy went dark. Showed no remorse.
There was a lady in the store at the time, who hid when the robbery went down. She was the one who ID’d him. When the friend spoke of her, my former wood shop partner said, “Yeah, if I had seen her. I would have killed her too!”
The mutual friend said that when he left the prison, he was shaking all over. He said they guy was a monster now and there was no reaching him. The guy came from a good home. He was working blue-collar, but not broke when he pulled the stick-up. None of us could ever comprehend ‘why?’
TenguPhule
@Chetan Murthy: Apparently the son started making threats against the staff for not making his family feel special and that’s when they called the police.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: This reminds me a bit of the three rules of criminal defense, which Brett should NOT be following in a job interview/confirmation hearing:
1) Admit nothing
2) Deny everything
3) Demand Proof
ruemara
@Chetan Murthy: Um, good customer service skills say accommodate the family by at least just letting them bunk in the open livingroom, since they are elderly. Unreasonable is what happened.
sukabi
@TenguPhule: It’s “comforting” to know that entitled assholes exist in all cultures?
Ruckus
@Kelly:
A woman I went to school for 12 yrs and the same church, has been in jail for murder and has been there since the 70s. The murder was committed after HS. If you told me at graduation that this woman would go on to murder someone less than 5 yrs later I would have laughed at for being a moron.
I’m not signing a letter testifying to someone’s character unless I was with them 24 hrs a day for a very long time. IOW I’m not signing. Anybody can have secrets. Anybody is capable of doing horrible things and appearing completely acceptable otherwise.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: I mean, they know how this will end up, right?
First day: test message
Day After: “CROOKED HILLARY AND LYIN’ MUELLER ARE TRYING TO DESTROY ME, BUT I AM STRONGER. EVERYBODY DANCE NOW. I HAVE THE TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD, BELIEVE ME”
Minute after text alert on the Day After: About 65% of America throws their cellphones in the garbage.
raven
@Ruckus: I went to my 50th, even though I didn’t graduate, partly because I KNOW I was the “least likely”. Fuck em.
sukabi
@Ruckus: yep.
TenguPhule
@ruemara: They were, then the son started making threats against the staff.
TenguPhule
Trump defends Kavanaugh after sexual assault allegation, says Senate will ‘go through a process and hear everybody out’
Breaking now.
I am feeling more optimistic that this nominee is toast. Trump’s tells are showing.
The Midnight Lurker
@WaterGirl: I so miss Molly. She was a real treasure.
Chetan Murthy
@ruemara: One presumes they could have rented a room for the extra night. Look: I understand “reasonable accommodations”, but “comping them a free night” i snot a reasonable accomodation. The common area is not a bunkhouse.
TenguPhule
Clinton voters express more economic distress than Trump voters — including among whites
holy shit, we’ve finally found the unicorn that shits glitter and rainbows at the Washington Post.
Kay
southpaw
Oh, he doesn’t KNOW, is the right answer. I mean, if he didn’t do it why would be so sure he wasn’t at this unspecified “party”? It wouldn’t be memorable at all. Unless he went to no parties, and it seems we;ve already established that’s not true.
Chetan Murthy
@TenguPhule: Oh, nice! So finally we have hard data for the thesis. Excellent! Thank you, TP!
Gelfling 545
@TenguPhule: It wasn’t so much that his lying worked as that his voters just didn’t care.
Kay
@TenguPhule:
Democrats should accept no lectures from Donald Trump on the propriety of what may or may not have been a tactic. I mean, come on.
This is the thing with these people. They rely on everyone else following rules, so they can ignore the rules and get an advantage. That’s the whole mindset. They wanted to throw the rules out. Well, guess what? Now no one follows them. Now they lost their advantage. They’ll have to come up with something actually smart now.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: What you said. This fucker is done. Maybe he’ll listen to Mitch next time.
Next deplorable on deck, please.
Raoul
Hey Juicers in Colorado (or with CO connections). Let’s add some pressure, as he shouldn’t just be given a pass. He’s no Susan Collins, but he’s in a very serious fight for his seat.
Drop him a line. Or call one of his offices – Denver (303) 391-5777 – D.C. (202) 224-5941 (more offices to call are listed here).
Raoul
Eh, fywp.
Cory Gardner’s official Senate regional offices list gardner.senate.gov/contact-cory/office-locations
Thanks!
TenguPhule
@Kay:
FTFY.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@MagdaInBlack: I see nothing odd about that. I’d rather see Ken on the Supreme Court as well. Seriously. And as a prosecutor I wouldn’t have asked for much of a sentence in that situation, recognizing that some time is required when the fight is fatal.
Aleta
@sukabi:
Nonfiction. It pretends to be thinking about a movie (300) but gets distracted by thoughts of Trump and Obama (not running against each other, btw).
The close is a single line that mentions Hilary: “But afterwards, as more and more freedom slips away under Clinton, remember him.” (him= Trump)
It’s like grandiose thinking is contagious.
trollhattan
OT–Kudlow says out loud what we already knew.
Attention olds: They’re coming for your Medicare and Social Security.
catclub
@Chetan Murthy:
I would have guessed the hotel was completely full and they could not rent a room. who knows?
cain
@TenguPhule:
Any reason why they didn’t allow them to stay in the lobby considering they are going to be paying guests? On the other hand, just pay for a night.. sheesh.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
and
“How close was your relationship?”
Josh at TPM was pointing out the Senate GOP doesn’t feel obligated no BK like they did with Tomas because BK the Feduralist Societies’ Dumb White Boy, not there’s, were Thomas was on some senator’s staff for a long time.And now I see even Trump is cooling on BK.
This all very Al Capon getting it on tax evasion. BK really has worse problems than what he did in High School (like his mysterious massive credit card debts), but if that’s what it takes…
Villago Delenda Est
@trollhattan: What, after all, are a few million premature deaths of nobodies next to tax cuts for the parasites of the 1%?
sukabi
@Aleta: fiction / fantasy / delusion . I’m sticking with my assessment.
MCA1
@The Moar You Know: Well, yeah, but I mean, how many college and high school football teams go by the Persians these days? Suck on that, libs! ‘Murka, fuck yeah!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Aleta:
Christ on a pogo stick, we’re War Nerd, I know he lurks here. “Before their time” as in when the Spartans sold out to Persians so the Spartan could win their war with Athens? . One could argue the real fight during the Persian Wars was between Athens and Sparta over who could be the Persian surrogate in Greece.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
trumps financial bullshit is aimed at two things.
1. Making the shitgibbon look good in his tiny mind
2. See number one.
2A. He will accept advice from people who tell him that fucking over everyone but the wealthy will make him look good.
I’m one of those olds. I depend on my SS and will completely when I retire. I get my healthcare from the VA, which I’m already seeing being fucked over. People are retiring/quitting and not being replaced, wait times are extending out farther than they were, services are being cut. My primary retired about 6 months ago and has not been replaced. My only real option now if something new comes up is the VA ER because you have to go through a primary to be sent to any clinical service and the only way for me to see a primary is to drive to the clinic, 24 miles and sit and wait for an opening. You can wait all day and still be sent away.
It isn’t just the cabinet heads that is the problem, it is every service has been taken over by incompetent morons because they are all political positions and given the current political guidelines from the WH, it is destroy the federal government. It isn’t just SS and Medicare. It isn’t just the VA. It is every department, every service. Every branch.
TenguPhule
@Ruckus:
And each month they get more and more entrenched, like a bad case of termites.
We have imported Iraq’s government here. Bribes are going to be the only way to get things done.
eric
I wonder if Kamela Harris will ask the nominee how he could deny that he was not a specific party when no one has alleged he was at a specific party? I suspect she will ask other questions about 35 years ago to test his memory. The best part: he said this after he lawyered up. Allow me to provide some free advice: “i cannot say when or if I ever attended a party with Dr. Ford, given that it was 35 years ago. But, I can tell, you clear and unequivocal terms that i never acted, participated in, or witnessed anyone doing anything sexual with or to Dr. Ford.”
TenguPhule
@cain:
The son started to threaten the staff. At that point, they called the cops.
cain
@TenguPhule:
Yeah, that’s not a good thing to do. Threatening the safety of hte staff is a good way to get your ass hauled off to jail in any country including China. China must have some kind of shit going on that they need a distraction.
TenguPhule
@cain:
Trying to save face. The family’s antics were caught on video, so the dignity of the state was at risk.
chris
Jeez! Went out for a couple hours and came back to this. And it’s only Monday.
TenguPhule
I know Atrios has fallen out of favor here. But he still turns a mean phrase now and again.
p.a.
I haven’t parsed their statements, but I’m surprised how many rethug senators seem to be saying ‘let’s look at this’ instead of just stonewalling. Their own polling must show them in the shits with women: no fake news that.
J R in WV
@Eljai:
Heck, I played in the marching band with guys, and sat beside them for years, and I thought we were good friends.
Then a few years later I heard Skip had shot and killed his brother at their dealership! Shows what good friends can wind up doing!!
Ruckus
@p.a.:
Wanna bet they are getting calls, far more against than for BK or at least telling them to not just push him through without actually investigating?
Kelly
It’s hard to rank the disingenuousness of the arguments against Dr Ford but “Why is she speaking up now, at the 11th hour” as the R’s rush the nomination thru in a completely unprecedented way really irritates me.
Corner Stone
@p.a.: Do yourself a favor and don’t watch or read what Sen Orrin Hatch has said on this today.
bemused
@WaterGirl:
Awesome!
Kelly
Time for a quiet walk along the river. Politics gonna get way dumber.
Corner Stone
Old white R Senators calling Ms. Ford a liar while she’s under oath is going to be a *fantastic* look for them.
cain
@p.a.:
Well, he is going to overturn Roe vs Wade. That probably doesn’t make him a great candidate for women’s rights or any rights for anyone other than white men.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
The crowning touch will be the sandbox, the toy dog and Ted Cruz demanding they LARP reinact the scenario.
randy khan
@Mary G:
Oy. Reading between the lines, the bullies used homophobic slurs, or called him a girl, or something like that. That’s terrible, and I’m glad he can forgive them, but there’s a wide, deep chasm between that kind of behavior and attempted rape.
Haroldo
@Mary G:
i am late to this party, but it also goes a really long way toward explaining why there is a Rod Dreher.
Rape culture begets rape culture.
sukabi
Congress needs to start having competency tests. Pretty sure if he was in your family behavior like this would get his license to drive pulled and a “companion to make sure you’re not burning down the house while cooking”…making decisions for the country shouldn’t be part of your daily activities.
jacy
Collins just answered questions and said, “If he (Kavanaugh) lied under oath, then that would be disqualifying.”
Kavanaugh is toast. Republican senators are right now trying to figure out the calculus to get out from under it.
Trump’s tepid talk is also distancing in a typically narcissistic way. The gears are turning inside his head to figure out how he never supported Kavanaugh in the first place.
Kay
@eric:
It’s a weird answer. I wasn’t at that party. What party? We know why it’s memorable to her, but it’s not supposed to be memorable to him.
Kay
@jacy:
It’s pretty clever. She doesn’t have to adjudicate the incident. If AN incident occurred and he said none did then she can go with “lying”. She’s probably getting pretty good at this parsing to avoid all contentious issues the last 2 years. Cowardly, but useful for her purposes.
Corner Stone
@Kay: It also makes you wonder what the hell Mike Judge was denying. He was not at that party, either?
Corner Stone
Ooooo. Kavvy being downgraded from talking with Senators this afternoon to their *staffers*.
***SHUTTERS***
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Chetan Murthy: At worst it would be even money Doug J could win that round.
jacy
@Corner Stone:
Yeah, it seems like Mike Judge remembers the party he and Kavanaugh were at where the assault didn’t take place. They maybe should get their stories straight. I, for one, want to see Mike Judge have to testify. He seems nice.
Roger Moore
@p.a.:
“Let’s investigate more” is always a safe answer. If the investigation turns something up, you look smart for refusing to be railroaded. If your party leaders lean on you, you can cave and pretend you’re satisfied after some minor, face saving investigation that fails to turn anything up because it was never intended to.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
That party. Where nothing happened. I don’t know- they sounded like decadent rich kid drunks to me in the writings of Mr. Judge I read so I bet none of them have specific memories of parties. They were often puking drunk and these are house parties, right? You go to a house and mill around for a while. It’s not like “the graduation party at the hotel with the band”, even.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
G*d damn but I miss Stuck.
Ruckus
@Kay:
I’d bet he’s been sweating since someone on his side sat him down and said,
“Let’s review.”
“Review what?”
“Every day of your life since you wore diapers.”
And then they got to HS. I wonder how many small animals he killed before then? I wonder who bought the alcohol in HS? I wonder how many women there actually were in HS? I wonder how many in college? I wonder how many since? I wonder who paid for his college/law school? I wonder what political organizations he belonged/belongs to and which ones? I wonder what he thinks might happen when he was nominated and questioned?
I wonder what kind of balls it takes to think he’s qualified to be on the USSC, given the probable answers to any of the above?
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: that was @Corner Stone (for the new kids who winder WTF it has to do with anything.) Sniff.
Ella in New Mexico
@Aleta: Jesus H. Christ. Now his brother’s refutation of his memoir makes total sense. It’s actually pretty moving, too.
Kavanaugh’s Character Witness Once Wrote About His Family for Washingtonian. Check Out What His Brother Wrote in to Rebut Him.
Kay
@Ruckus:
I met a person who was waiting to be confirmed as a US attorney once. At a children’s party. At a bowling alley. Where I did not assault anyone. Anyway. He said it was a huge pain in the ass and he had to submit everything he ever did and it took months and months so Mr. Kavanaugh can just sit his ass down and wait until after the midterms. There are concerns. We’re troubled.
Fair Economist
@jacy:
Collins saying something like sounds like they are all saying to each other
“You take the flack for killing the nomination.”
“No, *you* do!”
PPCLI
I think it’s a good time to reflect on some of the questions Kavanaugh wanted to ask Clinton:
sheila in nc
@cain:
Hmmm…So, when you have booked a hotel room for a night, you think it is typical to show up at midnight the night before, and expect to be able to sleep in the lobby that night and hang around until the next day arrives and your room is now ready for you to occupy?
JPL
@jacy: He already lied under oath, and there are emails proving that.
eclare
@Ella in New Mexico: Wow, thanks for the link. Very moving letter from his brother.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Exactly this.
To BK.
What’s the fucking rush, it’s a lifetime appointment and you have a long bit of assholyness left. In too much of a hurry to fuck over people, create the perfect society, for the super wealthy? Was the $200,000 payoff not enough? How much more do you expect to get paid outside your USSC salary?
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
He’s worried if he doesn’t get confirmed before the election he won’t get confirmed at all.
Rand Careaga
@Wyatt Derp:
Quite. At my 40 year reunion eight years ago, a woman who’d sat next to me in sophomore English for the fall semester in 1967 did not remember me. I remembered her, of course, even though I’d never assaulted her (and geez, she was and remained in 2010 a junoesque figure who would likely have kicked my ass had I made the attempt).
J R in WV
OK, late to the thread, but I’m going to tell another story about a small town acquaintance. My brother’s classmate’s sister, about 4 years younger than me, but it was a small town. Parents were a math teacher and a shop teacher. Family had been around for a hundred years. She was cute as a youngster, smart enough.
So after she graduated from high school, one day on a downtown street (this was before malls) she whipped out a kitchen knife and stabs a black lady to death right there on the sidewalk!!
No fight, no previous connection, just a dead lady, not a skeevy person, a church-going lady, dead.
In court, she was depicted as having an irrational fear of black people, was adjudicated insane, sent to a mental hospital. At the time, if you recovered, according to the psychiatrists in charge of your case, you could be released from the mental hospital. So after a few years she was released, but was required to live in a group home.
She was sent to a facility over in Virginia, and did well, for a while. Then, helping in the kitchen one afternoon, she picked up a chef’s knife, and killed the house mother, a lovely black lady, who managed the group home. Dead. She was again depicted as not fit to stand trial, unable to assist in her defense.
Fortunately in Virginia, when you are found not guilty by reason of mental defect, you get the same sentence as a sane person, you just serve your time in in a mental hospital instead of a traditional women’s hospital. So she got a life sentence, after killing two fine respectable members of the community!! Of course, there will be lots of black folks in her hospital. We all hope she doesn’t kill any of them!
No knowing how your friends from school will turn out. She really was cute, and seemed sweet, but I wasn’t black, and so didn’t scare her irrationally.
If you had asked my Grandmother, who lived near her Great Grandfather’s gristmill, she would have told you the Smith (not their real name) family was pretty crazy. Old man Smith would have a break and chase his whole family out of the house and around it in their nightclothes brandishing a knife, with much screaming by everyone. This would have been in the 19teens, so perhaps 80 years before… strange story, absolutely true.
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
My high school class had 800 kids in it. I knew a lot of people, but do I remember them today? Hells no! I remember faces and such, but names? Nope.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Oh I understand, just my way when I’m pissed off, that at the moment we are losing rapidly. Not politically where I think we are gaining, but in the war on the federal government by the republicans. It’s affecting my life directly and if it’s doing that it’s affecting a lot of others as well. Millions. I have a little bit of a cushion but of course that’s supposed, once again to be for retirement and really isn’t a whole lot. Yes the damage can be fixed but how many are in the same place, with no cushion? And unless we have a major unforeseen epic change in government it’s going to be 2 more years. How many people are going to die because this asswipe of a person, who cheated his way to office, has all the common sense of a pile of horseshit?
IOW, it’s Monday.
kris
@CaseyL: @CaseyL: Also, Kavanaugh is a judge. This means he has probably been responsible, at some point of time, in sending people who are also teenagers to jail for similar offenses. For sure there are many such people in jail for less. He has no business being a judge, let alone in the supreme court if this turns out to be true.
Even without all this, his record during the Clinton impeachment, and probably his role in the torture during Dubya’s time should have been enough to disqualify him for judicial office. I hope that not only does he lose his nomination to the court but is forced off the bench altogether.