Remember the “Tiger Mother” person who was in the news several years back for her book extolling or lampooning (depending on whom you believe) über-strict, traditionalist child-rearing practices? Yeah, me neither, but it turns out she and her husband (Jed Rosenfeld) are both law professors at Yale, and they vetted and advised students who were applying for clerkships with federal judges, including Brett Kavanaugh.
Chua served as a character witness for Kavanaugh at his rollout, calling him a “mentor to women.” She and Rubenfeld offered tips to students seeking clerkships, advice that was in some cases controversial. Via TPM:
An unnamed Yale Law School student said that two of her professors, Jed Rubenfeld and his wife, Amy Chua, warned her that then-federal judge Brett Kavanaugh liked his female clerks to have a “certain look,” according to a Wednesday Huffington Post report.
“He did not say what the ‘certain look’ was. I did not ask,” the woman told the Huffington Post. “It was very clear to me that he was talking about physical appearance, because it was phrased as a warning ― and because it came after the warning about Judge Kozinski.” Alex Kozinski retired in December to a chorus of sexual harassment accusations.
We’ll get to Kavanaugh in a minute, but first, why were Rubenfeld and Chua warning clerks away from Kozinski instead of informing the bar association or whatever organization handles federal judges that there was a sexist pig on the bench who was serially harassing and assaulting clerks and other women in the workplace?
I am not a lawyer, but if it was such common knowledge that that professors made a point to steer students away from Kozinski, why couldn’t they steer investigators toward him?
Via The Guardian:
According to one source, Chua invited a group of students that she mentored to a bar last year to catch up and discuss their plans for clerkships. The conversation turned to a high-profile #MeToo case that was emerging in the news at the time involving a well-known public figure.
The group began to talk about whether the federal judiciary would ever face similar scrutiny, and, according to a source, Chua said she did not believe it would. She told the students she had known about allegedly abusive and harassing behavior by another judge, Alex Kozinski, who was head of the ninth circuit and was forced to retire from the bench last year after more than a dozen women accused him of harassment.
The conversation then turned to Kozinski’s protege and good friend Kavanaugh, who one source said was a familiar name even though he had not yet been nominated to the high court. Chua allegedly told the students that it was “no accident” that Kavanaugh’s female clerks “looked like models”. Student reacted with surprise, and quickly pointed out that Chua’s own daughter was due to clerk for Kavanaugh.
A source said that Chua quickly responded, saying that her own daughter would not put up with any inappropriate behaviour.
Jesus Chicken-Fried Christ. It’s pretty obvious why Chua didn’t think the federal judiciary would face that kind of scrutiny — all these people in elite, powerful positions knew about it and did jackshit to stop it!
The Guardian reports that Chua is currently hospitalized and unable to comment, and Rubenfeld is the subject of an “internal investigation” at Yale for reasons unknown to him, he says. I’m going to make a bold prediction: It has something to do with sexual harassment.
Good God, hose out the entire place and rebuild from scratch. Our elites are fucked up. And I don’t want to hear one more peep out of so-cons about campus PC run amok. Sounds like we need more awareness about how to treat one another like equal human beings, not less.
Elizabelle
Thanks for the fresh thread, BCracker.
Sunlight is a good disinfectant, and these two won’t be able to stand much scrutiny.
Doug R
This morning I keep picturing Kavanaugh’s office looking like that Robert Palmer video, or at least the SNL version of it.
Corner Stone
“*My* Little Johnny would never lock someone up in a room, place his hand over her slutty mouth and try to rip her clothes off! And even if he did, why was she wearing something so provocative, anyway? She knew teenage boys were going to be there, and how they are!”
Corner Stone
@Elizabelle:
Call me petty, or what have you, but I personally want every single person who vouched for Kavanaugh to be run through a wood chipper and put into the compost pile. Chua and her husband, the women doing the TV ads, the people who signed the letter, idiots like Ben Wittes and Neal Katyal – every single one of them need to burn down.
schrodingers_cat
Chua was also a big cheerleader for HillBilly Elegy Vance.
satby
Decades (hell, centuries) of the elites being completely unaccountable have brought us to this point. But they at least used to try to be subtle to keep their lessers in line and give themselves plausible deniability.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Is there anyone on the current Supreme Court not from Yale or Harvard Law?
Paul T
Procuring?
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Neal Katyal too? I has a sad.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
I don’t really understand the point of that. Say her daughter doesn’t “put up with it”. She gets fired or she doesn’t get hired or she doesn’t get the clerkship. That’s the point. It’s not a matter of “not putting up with it”. It’s a matter of getting fired.
She seems not to understand this at all. Kavanaugh’s accuser is right now “not putting up with it”. How’s that going for her? I mean, if it were that easy to fix it wouldn’t be a problem at all.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@schrodingers_cat:
Is that book still considered the ultimate answer to why Trump won? So many morons at the time praised it.
MoxieM
Cheeze Whiz. I don’t know much about Law student vetting, but I do know that Chua & her hubs have taken to writing books Waaay outside their area of competencies. Basically they’ve been trying to reinvent Sociology & Social Psychology with racial theories of success and advancement in school, life and work. As if these topics had not been studied in a (lately) much less racist and essentialist way by, you know, professionals. Ick. So few failings of insight, or self-reflection on her part surprise me.
hey! rocks move around — Looka me Mom! I’m a Geologist! //not
Corner Stone
@Kay: I don’t really understand it either. But my attempt was to lampoon the notion that of course “her daughter” is much more special than other mere girls and she would have the courage and backbone that lesser model/sluts lack. With people like her it’s always someone else’s child smoking the weed or doing the nasty in the backseat of a 66 GTO down by the river in the moonlight.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
It is slightly amusing to watch, though. They are really clinging to this idea that their friends and associates are better people and it just keeps blowing up in their faces. So they do it again. Because it’s about THEM, right? They’re in this group. They’re wholly invested in the idea that it’s merit-based and superior. They’re the absolute worst people to evaluate it- they’re self-interested. If “elite private school” doesn’t mean “better” then they lose status. It’s magical- no one can break the spell or they’re all harmed.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
Also- contradicted by her advice to dress in a way that is appealing to the judge in order to get the job. That’s the definition of “putting up with it”.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Didn’t she famously call one of her daughters, garbage for not doing something in an exemplary fashion?
Elizabelle
It’s amazing how much conservatives and their enablers have colonized institutions the public assumes are nonpartisan or neutral.
Having to resemble a model to get a clerkship? That is ridicule material.
I do not think Kavanaugh will survive this. Also think Grassley and the other Grand Inquisitors are going to get pantsed. This isn’t late night and you don’t get the second ginzu knife if you don’t respond in the next five minutes.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: My StartPage search tells me RBG attended Harvard but graduated from Columbia Law, if one wants to fight about it. All the other 8 are H or Y.
boatboy_srq
As I have mentioned elsewhere, the Kavanaugh business illustrates the ethical gulf between the Left and the Fascists: the left want Kavanaugh held accountable in some way, and the charges investigated, and the Fascists simply don’t see an offense committed in the first place.
MoxieM
Also — setting up “her own daughter” to never tell, thereby compounding shame and trauma in cast something outside her control should happen. Like life, or douchy rape-boys. Nice.
MoxieM
Edit: …in case…
Roger Moore
@Kay:
The point of “my daughter doesn’t put up with it” is to blame the victim. You just have to understand that people like Amy Chua care more about protecting the ability of the powerful to do as they please than they do about protecting their own children. You can dress it up, but that’s the essential point.
boatboy_srq
@Doug R: More like the Young Professionals’ very tongue-in-cheek pseudohommage to it in D.I.S.C.O.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: I think she transferred to Columbia to be with her husband after he got a job in NYC.
Cheryl from Maryland
I hate the policing of women’s appearance so much. I’ve had many, many run-ins, including a demand that I wear pantyhose for a part-time job in a location with no air conditioning. I was a cashier — no one could see my legs, nor was there a uniform. I quit as soon as it was demanded of me (I was told not wearing pantyhose would be a “health violation”). Three days later, the manager asked me to return because I was good and not a total fuckup. I had found another job at my graduate school library, where all they cared about was my competence. It was a pleasure to tell the manager to go away, as well as ask him why he lied about the health code.
So I hope Chua and Rosenfeld lose their jobs.
tokyokie
Since it’s buried toward the bottom of the previous post, let me just say, my main thought is that if one believes that women don’t have the sovereignty to have control of their bodies (the belief upon which all anti-abortion court decisions are based), it’s a small step indeed to figuring that they only exist for the amusement and sexual gratification of privileged white boys.
Of course he did it. It’s who he is and always wanted to be.
WaterGirl
@Cheryl from Maryland: From LGM:
boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: Not so very long ago that was a criteria for basic administration jobs (ask me sometime about that one got very early in my career with that well-known and respected health insurer). I think we are seeing the ageing out of that particular cadre, and the consequent shocks afforded to the incoming group.
Marcopolo
@schrodingers_cat: Ginsburg. She started at Harvard Law and was the first woman on the Law Review there but left when her husband, who was 2 years ahead of her, graduated and started working in NYC. She moved to NYC with him & transferred to Columbia where she graduated tied for 1st in her class.
scav
Come come, women just need to demonstrate their studiousness and capability in research — their final legal minds and training are made manifest in outgoing and variously dressed headshots! Men are just soooo much trickier where one has to plow through second-rate measures like grades and publication lists etc (unless lucky enough to get the proper frat handshake of course).
Next step is of couse denigrating all the female Supreme Court clerks’ qualifications as they only got hired because of flashing a little outgoing zazing. Real tiger mentoring that, encouraging the qualifying bikini parade.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@tokyokie:
Don’t anti-abortionists claim it’s all about the baby and it’s right to life? I don’t agree but I’m saying they sincerely believe that a “child’s” right to life probably trumps a woman’s control over her own body.
westyny
I feel bad for their now grown tiger cubs.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Kay: Obviously that “it” was acceptable, it was the other unspecified “it” where her daughter would draw the line. And of course her daughter knew the line without any ambiguity.
Elizabelle
@boatboy_srq: Are you speaking of “front office appearance”? Which is now “customer-facing”?
Nicole
What? Abusive parent who brags about the abuse turns out to be a garbage human being in other areas? You don’t say!
Geeno
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Sincerely isn’t the word I’d use for them. The baby’s life was a post hoc justification they came up with when they saw raw authoritarian/patriarchal arguments were falling flat.
trollhattan
They used this One Crazy Trick people such as they apply to all ethics questions: “Will doing this further my career, add to my power and/or make me richer?”
Elizabelle
@westyny: I’d love to see the cubs write a tell all one of these days, once they’ve matured and been away from their parents’ influences for a while.
Also wonder what’s up with Amy Chua’s health. Could it be “exhaustion”? Inquiring minds …
boatboy_srq
@Kay: Think of it this way: her daughter can afford not to “put up with it” because her daughter’s parents are powerful in that social stratum, where the other girls’ parents just aren’t so powerful/good/Blessed®/whatever. So she’s showing off her elitism and her Election® in the same breath. It’s not that she doesn’t care, it’s that she’s secure in her position that any employer her daughter selects would know not to cross her family.
Calouste
@Kay: What Chua means is that her daughter will say “do you know who my parents are?”. I.e. she thinks she has high enough status that her daughter won’t be harassed. Of course, she doesn’t care if commoner women are assaulted by scions of the elite, it’s those women’s fault for not being born to the right parents.
boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: Oh no. Back office. Systems environment. Invisible except to division bigwigs. And still my skirts were too long and my legs and bosom not shapely enough at the ripe old age of 24. (Ditto, by the way, the poor soul I had replaced).
Roger Moore
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
That’s what they say, but I see no reason to believe them, given their callousness to those children after they’re born. No matter how you slice it, though, opposing abortion means you think it’s OK at least some of the time to restrict women’s autonomy over their own bodies to benefit somebody else. Once you’ve accepted that, it’s a much smaller step to extend the cases where they lack autonomy.
scav
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): Well, all her daughter had to do was flash the birth certificate to get into the office: the bouncer vetting the others waiting in line knows her mama. (“Mentor my daughter: I’ll owe you a public one later.”) That particular it question was probably a little less likely to be posed.
Corner Stone
@boatboy_srq:
I disagree a little. IMO, Chua knows that “her daughter” knows how the game is played. So anything she wouldn’t “put up with” could be a very small subscribed bit of nonsense. Otherwise, Daughter Chua better be doing what she’s supposed to in order to keep Mama Tiger and Papa Procurer in the high cotton and good esteem they so richly deserve.
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle:
God, I hope you’re right. From your mouth to His/Her/Its ears.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: She was not too exhausted to tweet just a week ago. Why is she hiding now?
gene108
@Corner Stone:
I want anyone associated with Ken Starr’s mockery of an investigation into the Clinton Administration to never be allowed in public again.
Robert Fisk had already investigated all the supposed right-wing fever swamp allegations about the Bill and Hillary and found they did nothing wrong.
Then Newt takes over the House and appoints Ken Starr with a limitless budget and no real objective, other than to make Bill look bad. It was both a mockery of the legal system and abuse of Congressional oversight of the Executive, leading Congress to scrap the Special Counsel all together and thus reducing Congress’s ability to oversee the Executive.
Conservatives made Liberal a dirty word, in the 1980’s, and it stuck through the early 00’s, when even John Kerry ran away from that label, in 2004. I want the same or greater level of shame inflicted on everyone associated with Ken Starr.
schrodingers_cat
Those girls he was supposedly “coaching” what’s up with that?
Barbara
I know from experience that there is always at least one person at top tier law schools who serves as the arbiter of who should apply where. Ms. Chua is “conveniently” in the hospital and unable to, umm, throw her former student under the bus and lie about having told her not to bother applying to Kavanaugh because of his penchant for “lookism” in hiring female clerks. I am gnashing my teeth.
Mandalay
The most surprising aspect of all this to me is the media’s meek acceptance that Chua has been immediately “hospitalized”, and will be unavailable for months.
Very unfortunate for Chua of course, but also somewhat convenient.
WaterGirl
@boatboy_srq: Thanks for writing this. I had those same thoughts but I couldn’t find the words.
schrodingers_cat
Tiger Pimp is in hiding. Hospital my ass, she was promoting her article in the Atlantic, on Twitter just a week ago, when this story broke.
Barbara
@MoxieM: As an attorney, I have come to realize that a lot of my knowledge is a mile wide but not that deep. There are some things I know better than nearly anyone but trust me, you would not want to read any kind of book about those things. Some lawyers, Amy Chua, let’s say, just don’t have much insight into the limitations of legal training and legal thinking, and seem to think that because they are smart and can write well that with the right amount of time they can become authorities on anything they are really interested in.
TenguPhule
All Republicans should be considered guilty of sexual misconduct unless proven otherwise by extensive FBI background checks.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Tiger Pimp. LOL.
Strikes me she’s hiding behind Yale giving her “health issues” privacy.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
To be fair, she could be afraid of a fatal case of nerve toxins.
Elizabelle
@Mandalay: Yeah. That was a neon red flag.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
i would be merciful and at least feed them in face first.
jl
A prioritized list of all the reasons this crummy little operator is unfit would be useful.
A list of all the lies and misleading statements and equivocations would be useful, with some sort of three dimensional grading system on the severity of the act he lied about, the degree of the lie, and finally, a grade on the quality of the lie.
I saw a news story someplace that the assault was widely known at the time among his social circle. So looks like he lied about the assault too.
If Harris has something on him re improper conduct concerning Mueller investigation, I hope she drops something soon.
Martin
Higher education has a similar problem. My institution is showing some meaningful progress toward this. They took down the biggest known harasser in a rather public way (having to rename a school because of it) and are now working their way through the smaller fish. I think they know that they may be removing ⅓ of the male faculty when this is all said and done, but it’s happening. Wish I saw more institutions doing the same, and wish we had both done it sooner and could do it faster, but at least its a bit of progress.
schrodingers_cat
I am so old that I remember when our media had the vapors and reached for the fainting couch after the Deplorables speech. Turns out that the d word was too mild for the Rapist party under the Rapist in Chief in the WH.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
They don’t. They believe women are not people, but commodities. Even if the fetus is non-viable, they want to deny an abortion. Because its all about control.
Mary G
Grifters all the way down.
jl
And, repeating a serious question from previous thread for BJ legal flying wedge, if there is strong evidence this crook lied about his role in the hacked Democratic documents, why not file a criminal complaint against him? I guess Sessions’ DOJ wouldn’t do anything about it, but wouldn’t make a strong public statement about his character?
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Her husband is under investigation for sexual harrassment. “Health issues” may be due to that also.
jl
OTOH, how many of us here could whip up 65 witnesses overnight swearing that we never physically assaulted them? Actually, by GOP standards damn strong evidence of a wonderful guy with integrity!
There are millions of puppies I have never kicked down the street and stomped on. But damn, how could I get that verified over night. I guess I am a suspicious person.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: I think Burnsy provided the legal eagle answer, as far as strong public statement…that’s probably not a legal question.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
I’ve long had my suspicions.
Mandalay
@Barbara:
I think they are correct in theory, but you have to be a lot more than just “smart” to pull it off. Steven Pinker comes to mind – the breadth and depth of his knowledge is astounding. But then again, he’s not a lawyer. Chomsky as well of course, though rational discussion usually flies out the window at the mere mention of his name.
zhena gogolia
Ah, Yale. I remember going to a professor (RIP, nil nisi bonum) for advice before an important interview for a fellowship and being told I needed to learn to part my hair straight.
MoxieM
@Barbara: Yeah–it could be argued that it’s more or less true for most humanities & social science areas. But. Yeah. Nah-When the product is elementary, its claims previously dismissed by folks who have spent lifetimes trying to grapple in a less prejudicial way, arrogant, and seemingly designed only for eyeballs and shallow thinking, then no. In my opinion. (Fair disclosure I have my doctoral degree in sociology, and then later did an MA in American History for career reasons. Just that alone gave me insight into the different ways that disciplines grapple with social information, for good or ill.) I’m all for interdisciplinarity, done well. But not big-footing areas of study in which an author is clearly under-prepared and does, well, shitty work! (take that Tiger-person.) And I’m not even in academia any more, nor have been for many years…
It does seem to give insight into the personality of the authors, I’d say.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Where? I have to go now but if you give a link I’ll read it later. Thanks in advance.
MoxieM
@zhena gogolia: hah! white shoes after Labor Day, perchance? //s
schrodingers_cat
While Garbage Times is asleep at the switch, Elle’s is doing MSM’s job.
https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a23336071/brett-kavanaugh-yale-fraternity-law-clerks/
cain
In a related thing, Linus Torvalds stepped down temporarily from Linux and at the same time they changed the Code of Conduct and kicked off an incredible screeching and rendering of garments because white nerdy man babies can no longer say whatever they want. They promise all kinds of doom and gloom. They are getting cornered and given no quarter as society norms fall down on nerd society like a ton of bricks.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Not suspicious at all.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Oh yes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: It was a reply to your comment in the previous thread where you asked the question.
boatboy_srq
@Corner Stone: Naturally Daughter Chis will know at her age How The Game Is Played. But one of the allowed plays at her level is the ability to say “no” and imply the subtext “because you don’t want Mommy and Daddy to find out you even suggested this.” So yes, her daughter will play the game, but playing the game includes flexing clan muscle against would-be aggressors.
rp
@Mandalay: Agreed — I thought the better angels of our nature was an amazing book. But Pinker also did an incredible amount of research for that book; he wasn’t just pontificating.
MoxieM
@Mandalay: Ha ha — Chomsky & wife were (are?) anti-leash-free dogs on public land … it abuts their house. Madame Chomsky came to many meetings with her anti-dog flag held high.
Rational?? discuss.
James E Powell
@jl:
Trump and the Republicans gave this nominee the “Could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot some one and not lose votes” status. He’s quite plainly inappropriate for the supreme court, but they just don’t care.
Amir Khalid
Open Thread:
My former neighbour Najib Razak has been hit with 25 more charges — money-laundering, bribery, criminal breach of trust — involving RM2.3 billion, a little under US$600 million. He’s out on bail: RM3.5 million. These are by far the biggest piles of money ever involved in a Malaysian criminal trial. I’m pretty sure there will be more charges.
Najib’s reaction: the vaguely Nixonian “I am not a thief.”
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
unfortunately, if they’re really willing to throw all dignity and public appearance to the wind, they can still get him onto the Supreme Court. As we have learned from the last 9 2/3rd years, they feel no shame and no guilt.
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid:
Have they at least confiscated his passport?
TenguPhule
@MoxieM:
Depends on the dog. Some of them really should not be out without a leash.
Amir Khalid
@TenguPhule:
Of course they have. Both of them: regular and diplomatic.
WaterGirl
Lovely.
TenguPhule
@jl:
A quick visit to the Humane Society and a quiet donation to get 65 puppies to vouch for you.
Bobby Thomson
@Barbara: not at Yale. People apply wherever they want and ask whomever they want for advice and letters of recommendation.
Shakti
@schrodingers_cat:
Ruth Bader Ginsburg got her J.D. from Columbia University.
Otherwise everyone else currently on the Court graduated from Harvard or Yale Law.
There isn’t much variety for undergraduate degrees either:
Sotomayor, Alito and Kagan went to Princeton for their undergraduate degrees. Breyer went to Stanford (and Oxford). Thomas went to Conception Seminary College and College of the Holy Cross. Gorsuch went to Columbia.
Roberts went to Harvard for both of his degrees.
The current nominee went to Yale for both of his degrees.
I learned a long time ago that all law school professors graduate from the Ivy League for their JD and further legal degrees. So…
I can’t fathom why Bretty was nominated, except to “own the libs” because there are plenty of Federalist Society candidates who don’t have such problems that admitting them to the bar would be an issue. But hey, Trump nominated a guy to a federal judgeship who did not know what the fucking Daubert Standard was so what are standards?
TenguPhule
@WaterGirl:
/Facepalm
Look, is there a way for us non-Republican males to signal we’re not a part of this when the inevitable castrating horde descends?
Luthe
@tokyokie: If we ever do get dragged back to the bad old days, I am going to file paperwork to declare myself a corporation and my body corporate property. I will then challenge any law dictating what I can do with my “property” as a taking by the government and demand just compensation for said taking. You want control of my body, fine, but declaring eminent domain over it requires paying for it.
Miss Bianca
@Mandalay:
No, no, Chomsky has at least the distinction of being truly a brilliant and original mind in at least one of his claimed fields of expertise. Not sure either Chua or her husband can make similarly legitimate claims. Tho’ I am *sure* they would say they were!
Corner Stone
@boatboy_srq:
Mmmmm…clams and mussels…
schrodingers_cat
Tiger Pimp’s daughter clerked for Kavanaugh as well, according to Jezebel.
MoxieM
@TenguPhule: Absolutely true. I have not mastered the art of a blog post with necessary caveats, yet carries the main message.
Gelfling 545
@Kay: I suspect she meant that she and her husband had enough influence to keep Kavanaugh from trying such nonsense.
Corner Stone
@MoxieM:
Does this mean they believe a dog in public should be on a leash? Because I am 1000% on board with mandatory leashing.
Kraux Pas
@TenguPhule:
I’m hoping that it helps that I almost exclusively date men.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Ha, guessed it right, Kavanaugh is the type that incident with Ford wasn’t just some stupid kid thing.
Consider; if any normal guy heard his High School girlfriend would be on national TV giving the inside skinny on how lame he was, his reaction would be utter horror along the lines of “look, I am much better now!”, but not Kavanaugh, he’s all self righteous about how dare anyone question his abilities with the ladies. That, in opinion is someone to dumb to learn and who will abuse others threw his life.
eemom
@TenguPhule:
That I should live to see the day I’d be linking to Jennifer Rubin.
As I’ve said before, I don’t think Dr. Ford will refrain from showing up on Monday at the cost of letting them confirm the scumbag. And if she does show up, I can’t see that resulting in anything other than a debacle for him. My $.02.
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: Damn, the women’s magazines have been on fire reporting this shit! And yet they still have this stigma of being about nothing but fashion and silly, gossipy things. Whereas, the MSM is all *serious journalism, maaaann…” Well, as in so much of our thru’ the rabbit hole and down the map current reality, it a truth self-evident that it is the women’s magazines that are doing the serious journalism, while the MSM is devoting itself to fashion and silly, gossipy things.
Corner Stone
I, for one, welcome our new sodomite overlord elites.
Mandalay
@Elizabelle:
It certainly was, yet her “hospitalization” was announced two weeks ago, and the media have uncovered absolutely nothing.
Imagine that instead of Chua a spokesperson announced that (say) Anderson Cooper or Tom Brady or Beyonce was going be hospitalized, and would be unavailable for months. Would the media simply accept that and move on?
To be fair, Chua is not as prominent a figure as any of my random examples, but it is still bizarre that nobody in the media seems to be asking about Chua’s sudden disappearance. I don’t mean “disappearance” in a sinister way, but it’s certainly worth finding out exactly why she has gone off the radar as all hell breaks loose.
WaterGirl
Cole just linked to a Kathleen Parker article on his twitter feed. As the kids say, I can’t even.
Holy fucking shit, Batman, that might have been the stupidest thing I have ever read. i hope she’s getting excoriated! I don’t really follow these columnists, but how does someone that stupid have a column???
JohnPM
“I am not a lawyer, but if it was such common knowledge that that professors made a point to steer students away from Kozinski, why couldn’t they steer investigators toward him?”
In theory, yes, but in practice that would require the clerks to report the harassment and would upset the powerful people, thus affecting your ability to get a job or other clerkship. Unfortunately, no one wants to be the first one to break the silence.
Barbara
@Bobby Thomson: I have to take your word for it and it wouldn’t surprise me if things have changed since I applied. When I applied, basically, the dean bigfooted everyone and tried to prohibit me from applying to certain judges because he wanted other students to have a better chance. Since at that time most judges required some kind of documentation on students from the dean, he could effectively control who applied where. To this day I hate that dean because I wanted to apply to a judge who had taught our ethics class. At any rate, if Amy Chua is knowingly encouraging students to consider their looks in applying to certain judges, she is participating in employment discrimination.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@WaterGirl:
Is little Brett’s true calling in life to make every other man alive feel smugly superior to him? Who in the hell joins a secret society to have ass sex???? I suppose since the Christian Right wubs Brett so much we should have seen this coming.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Kathleen Parker’s column was absurd. Suggesting a doppelganger, because this isn’t the Kavanaugh she knows.
It was skating on the edge of parody, and I’d love to see Alexandra Petri take the same tack, which could be hilarious.
Parker’s not worthy of her Pulitzer; never has been (I think she was a token there). Her column is the stage of denial, pure and simple.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Mandalay:
Look, I LOATHE Amy Chua, her malignant Tiger-in-defense-of-privilege schtick, and everything about the self-satisfied elite in which she is embedded, but: how would that be different from a granite countertop drive-by? Even she, horrible as she is, and much as I want to wash my hands after typing this, has a right to privacy regarding health issues.
The Moar You Know
@Corner Stone: Spot on. Do not think for one second that these kinds of people are above pimping out their own kids to advance their goals. They are usually the first to do so.
TenguPhule
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
George W. Bush?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid:
Damn, Amir, that’s a tough neighborhood. Have you considered moving?
TenguPhule
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
That was the old rule book.
Republicans have written the new rule book “Anything goes”
We’re just following the new rules.
trollhattan
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Maybe she is, maybe it’s a dodge–who knows?
Similarly, I think it’s awfully convenient that 3-D printed gun douche and all-around libertarian hero managed to be in Taiwan for his arrest warrant for rape and child abuse. I’ll bet a dime somebody dropped a dime to warn him.
eemom
@Elizabelle:
Pulitzer is a joke. Every hack at the NYT and WaPo has one. Fucking MoDo has one.
Her, Parker, Marcus…..all of them. They make me physically ill.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: Seconded. This is a rather urgent question as the chopping is long overdue and IMO should probably be starting at any minute.
Nicole
@WaterGirl:
Megan McArdle just said, “Holy my pink Himalayan salt.” (insert any McArgleBargle column here)
Gelfling 545
@WaterGirl: When I looked at it, the comments were…not what one would call supportive of the notion.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TenguPhule:
Figures. Does this have something to do with boy’s only High Schools?
Mandalay
@WaterGirl:
Parker is far from stupid, and she probably doesn’t believe a word of what she wrote, but that is beside the point.
The goal of the article is simply to propose a (ridiculous) story line which fully supports Kavanaugh without disparaging his accuser in any way. Yes, the accuser is being honest and truthful. Yes, her recollections are accurate. Yes, the assault really occurred. Yes, it was a horrible act.
Concede everything, except…….IT FUCKING WASN’T KAVANAUGH!!!
The purpose of Parker’s drivel is to ensure Kavanaugh emerges smelling of roses without smearing his accuser. There are plenty of clowns who will happily attach themselves to that nonsense, and probably a few of them are Republican Senators.
raven
God’s loophole
warning, hilarious but nasty
chris
@schrodingers_cat: I forgot about Elle but there’s a good reason I follow https://twitter.com/TeenVogue.
schrodingers_cat
Tiger Dad is just as horrible if not more so.
Thread
His expertise was arguing that rape and sexual assault laws have gone too far. He is under investigation for sexual assault himself.
schrodingers_cat
@schrodingers_cat: * oops not assault but “his conduct with female students” quoting Valenti.
Roger Moore
@cain:
I find the response predictable but distressing. It’s been obvious for a long time that Linus has been excessively harsh in his criticism, and that doing so was very likely driving away people who wanted to contribute to Linux. I’m glad to see he’s acknowledging his problem and trying to do something about it. What I find interesting, though also predictable, is that the screeching and rending of garments appears to be coming predominantly from bystanders. Some of the regular contributors have questioned the exact Code of Conduct chosen, but none of them seem to think the idea of a Code of Conduct is inherently a bad idea.
catclub
@raven: garfunkel and oates, ‘fuck me in the ass cause I love Jesus’ ?
hueyplong
Never forget the Republicans knew this shit when they introduced the cuddly minivan cowboy (with the 65 stepford signatures in their back pocket).
Mandalay
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
It’s a story that has been put out there. Nobody knows whether it’s true or not, and it’s certainly very suspicious and highly convenient.
It is entirely possible for the media to get authoritative confirmation that Chua has been hospitalized without going in to the specifics. For example a named source in the administration at Yale could formally go on the record and explicitly state “I confirm that Amy Chua has been hospitalized, and she will not be returning this semester, but I will give no further information”.
Such a statement from a credible source at Yale, with their name on the record, would reveal nothing about Chua’s medical condition, but get skeptics like me to STFU. But they won’t even do that. And as far as I know the media is not even asking.
raven
@catclub: Uh, that’s it!
D58826
There was a time when there was a Jewish seat on SCOTUS and an A/A seat. Now it looks like we have added a groper seat (Thomas) and a rapist seat (kavenaugh). DIVERSITY!!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Great, now I am having this esoteric crises like I had with the Russian’s and the Republicans that the US government is secretly under control of bunch of perverts obsessed with ass sex thanks to years of abuse in their boy’s only schools and Brett is here gave the game away.
Truly, American politics has touched bottom.
trollhattan
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m probably over-fixated on Ken Starr but he oversaw and protected Baylor’s football program’s rape culture for years, until being finally shown the door with velvet gloves. It hurt his reputation so badly he now appears on television daily. Kavanaugh worked for Ken Starr, happily chasing the Clenis across the seven oceans. Is it so hard to believe he has longstanding issues with women and sex?
Elizabelle
I just called Grassley’s office to request an FBI investigation. Got through to the Des Moines office (515-288-1145).
Young woman was very cordial. She did ask my name and where I was calling from. Told her it was Virginia, but he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee “for all of us.”
trollhattan
@schrodingers_cat:
So, Betsy DeVoss has basically taken on his schtick? Lovely.
NickM
@Roger Moore: I think that “my daughter won’t put up with it” is more about feeling like a master of the universe. She’s saying that her kids has two Yale law professors as parents, and doesn’t have to put up with bullshit from a boss because she’s a member of the elite as well, and if Kavanaugh stepped out of line she could flash her elite card. To Chua and the other people who control our world, getting sexually harassed is for the little people.
And it kills me the irony of downwardly mobile MAGAts standing up for Kavanaugh. Fucking catch a clue morons — everything about the guy telegraphs that he thinks he’s better than you. Everything. Christ, you’d think no-one has ever seen an 80’s teen movie.
Elizabelle
Here’s contact info on Grassley’s webpage. Click on the little map at the very bottom.
All the eastern offices had busy signals; Des Moines was first that actually answered.
khead
It’s pretty funny watching folks on my FB feed turn on a dime like an NFL CB from: “If you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about”…. to “Every mother of boys should be terrified that at ANY time ANY girl can ruin fabricate ANY story, with NO PROOF and RUIN her BOY’s LIFE!!!!”
Roger Moore
@Mandalay:
Part of this is HIPAA. If she is actually in the hospital, the hospital is legally forbidden from sharing her information with the public without her permission. It’s a serious restriction with real teeth. And honestly, I doubt the hospital would let her stay for a couple of weeks just because she wanted to hide from the media. Unless it’s one of those celebrity rehab type hospitals; they’d probably be more than happy to treat her for whatever phantom addiction she’s worried about in exchange for a thick enough stack of cash.
Frankensteinbeck
@Calouste:
I believe you are giving Chua too much credit. I agree with @The Moar You Know that she’s aware her daughter might be raped, and considers it a minor issue, less important than the holy right of men with power to take what they want. Note she’s married to a sexual harasser. I have known too many people who don’t really care about their children, and the more conservative, the more likely they will see their children as objects whose happiness is less important than ambition, the parent’s reputation, or especially conformity.
@TenguPhule:
I believe the requirement is ‘don’t rape anyone.’ I know, our senators have told us that’s too much to expect of any man.
Miss Bianca
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Err…I see what you did there. Tho’ I kinda wish I didn’t.
Tenar Arha
@Barbara: @Bobby Thomson: In The Guardian, it seems quite clear about the power of Chua at the law school
[my emphasis]
I suppose that could be partially Chua’s own PR effort. But that “and rewarding loyalty” thing is a major yellow flag that there’s an unspoken power structure that bypasses normal channels to get access for favored students, & the next thing you know you’re in quid pro quo situation with a former professor.
mad citizen
I say game over for the Brettster. How creepy, wrong and phucked up.
schrodingers_cat
@Frankensteinbeck: She sent her daughter to clerk for Rapey K.
Elizabelle
Just spoke to a lovely woman in Susan Collins’ office. She said they are getting lots of calls on the Kavanaugh issue, and they’re passing along messages from out of staters too.
Bangor office: 207-945-0417
I asked that Senator Collins request a full FBI investigation, and said there was no need to rush, especially after they left Merrick Garland to twist in the wind for months.
trollhattan
@Frankensteinbeck:
If only they would turn to dead Andrew Breitbart for advice on rape.
James R Lindley
The rape that a drunken Brett Kavanaugh couldn’t complete will be finished by the Republican bros on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Except that they are assaulting all American women and the men who love them.
Miss Bianca
@NickM:
Now that would make a great anti-Kavanaugh short. All you’d have to find is a James Spader type to play Bretty Boy. Hell, get James Spader to do it.
Elizabelle
FTF NY Times:
mad citizen
100 year moratorium on any Ivy Leaguers appointed to anything. There are smart people throughout this damn country.
The Thin Black Duke
Kavanaugh is going to be confirmed, unfortunately. Why? Because the only way to stop this requires the Republicans to not act like Republicans and that’s not going to happen.
Timurid
@The Moar You Know:
The National Razor will be a bit smaller this time…
sheila in nc
@Roger Moore:
@cain: (trying and failing to link comment #75)
Were they rendered with the white nerdy man babies still inside them? Must have been messy.
J R in WV
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Well, yes, if she is legitimately ill, sure. But if she’s avoiding the current legal profession’s stunning and public debacle by claiming to be ill, that’s a horse of a different color to me.
Just running away from a bad situation she helped set up by conspiring in and participating in illegal employment discrimination — that’s really bad. I bet she never thought of it in that light ever, and has had her eyes opened suddenly, shocked to find herself in potential legal troubles from a conspiracy.
Amir Khalid
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
It was actually a decent neighbourhood. To my knowledge only one crook ever lived there: Najib.
Mandalay
@Roger Moore:
I’m not asking that anything about Chua’s medical issue be disclosed, and specifically not her medical issue or the name of the hospital.
All I’m suggesting is that someone with credibility who is in a position to know the truth (an administrator at Yale) confirms on the record that Chua is hospitalized and won’t be returning for the rest of the semester. Not much to ask, and no confidentiality is being breached. Until that happens I’m not assuming that Chua is “hospitalized”.
Miss Bianca
@khead:
Whereupon you would never point out that “it is the dubious prerogative of every mother (and father) of girls to be terrified that at ANY time ANY boy could RAPE her, and RUIN HER LIFE and even if she HAS PROOF, that her rapist would likely get away with it!” because you are undoubtedly a much nicer person than I am.
As the late, sometimes great Sydney Harris observed one time, fathers in particular might be struck by the fact that “boys will be boys” is fine until you realize that until it’s “boys being boys” with their daughters.
Corner Stone
@trollhattan:
Kosinski, Starr, now nommed by Trump? Kavvy has that tattoo on his forehead that they can all see quite clearly. They know what they’re getting from BK.
hitchhiker
For some reason the moment I remember most vividly from the Thomas hearings was during the testimony of one of his (young black female) supporters. She’d just said that it was impossible for her to believe that Thomas had done the things Hill described. She was very sweet and calm.
And joegoddamnbiden — who had made a decision NOT to call women who could have backed up Hill — smiled warmly down at her from his spot in the center of the dais and told her that if he was ever in trouble, he’d want someone like her to come and speak for him.
The utter failure of our party to stand up for Anita Hill is what got us 30 years of Thomas on the court. It’s what got Anita Hill a lifetime of knowing that majorities of people did not believe her or care about what her boss had done. I keep thinking of Ford hiding somewhere with her husband and sons. I keep thinking of what must have been a scramble to triage their stuff and take what they needed for an unknown time period, wondering if some vicious crackpot was really on his way with his AR-15 tucked on the passenger seat, and wondering if they were crazy to be thinking that way, and knowing that Kavanaugh was at that very moment sitting in the White House practicing his lies.
I don’t know what to want anymore on this. Should she say eff you to Grassley? Should she go on Rachel Maddow and tell her story for a full hour? Should she walk into the buzzsaw and try to save us all from seeing 30 years of Kavanaugh? How can we possibly go forward?
JPL
@Elizabelle: The lawyer needs to explain to the republicans on the committee the meaning of the word fair.
Miss Bianca
@Miss Bianca: Have I mentioned how much I miss the edit function?
Corner Stone
@Mandalay: I would not want anyone to publicly confirm I was hospitalized, even if they didn’t say why.
J R in WV
@eemom:
Growing up in the news biz, I once had a lot of respect for the Pulitzer Prizes. Then I learned that the Pulitzer people didn’t review the year’s news media to find the best reporting, etc. No, no no.
Newspapers put together custom leather-bound books of their reporting on an issue and submit it to the committee, who reviews those beautiful leather-bound books over drinks. Reporters don’t apply themselves, usually, their management does all that, and spends a butt-load of money on putting together the beautiful custom leather-bound applications…
Not so much respect any more, esp for the news prizes. Lit and fiction and such, maybe a little.
JPL
@hitchhiker: I’m pleased that Anita Hill is speaking out now. It will probably not take much more for Virginia Thomas to start drunk calling her again.
Wapiti
@Roger Moore: I worked a couple tiers below a general in the Army who implemented a “no sarcasm” rule. He used a lot of sarcasm. I don’t know if his rule was to try to keep himself in check (it didn’t seem to, but he might have been even worse before) or to keep subordinates from responding in the same manner (I lean towards this).
Linus stepping away for a bit, to straighten his own behavior out, seems more honest.
burnspbesq
@schrodingers_cat:
RBG is from Columbia.
Also note: both Obamas went to Harvard Law.
Timurid
“No means yes; yes means anal.”
Martin
@TenguPhule:
Yes, call out these problems when you see them. Not the dipshit of the day being nominated by the President but the local problems around you. It’s not enough to be willing to stand behind the women (POC, etc.) when these things happen, instead take the hit for them. Be the one to blow the whistle, be the one to demand action. It’s pretty uncomfortable the first few times you do it, but take comfort in the fact that it’s way more uncomfortable for the victims to be doing the same thing. Particularly do this for the soft bigotry – the ‘I’m not sure about this candidate, she just got married’ implying she may take a maternity leave and therefore shouldn’t be hired, or pay disparities, or job duty disparities – asking the women more often to take notes or order lunch or whatever. Call them out all the time. Get a reputation for calling them out. Offer to be an ally. I have stood beside a lot of people as they blew the whistle on things, helping them stay composed, helping make sure they don’t forget something important, letting them know that there are people that care that aren’t being paid to care.
Be warned, you will be an unpopular person for this. To help with this, look for the opportunities to promote characteristics that tend to be overlooked. Offer to speak when someone is being publicly recognized and fill in the stuff that doesn’t fit the ‘maternal’ category, since you can probably count on that being the main thing mentioned. Again, take a hit for them. Point out the stuff they’re better than you at. If you’re getting credit for something that the women aren’t getting credit for, stop and point that out, and insist that they get the credit. Sometimes this will cost you personally. It’s much easier for white men to get bonuses, retention packages, etc. Don’t accept them unless it can be demonstrated that the others around you are getting a comparable offer.
If you do all of this stuff, you’ll be exhausted. It just never ends.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: Have you considered homosexuality?
Elizabelle
More from the FTF NY Times story, which is still a short one:
The Republicans are learning. Slowly. They see how potentially devastating this whole thing is going to be for Senate Republicans, who have been trying to rubberstamp and rush this one through.
Mnemosyne
@boatboy_srq:
Ding ding ding. Kavanaugh wouldn’t harass Chua’s daughter, because she might tell her mom. It also means that Chua’s daughter won’t believe the other female clerks who aren’t as lucky with their connections because, hey, no one (who knows her mother) ever harassed HER!
And so the cycle continues.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan:
But, he’s still dead.
Elizabelle
@Martin: Good for you, Martin. I would guess most professionals fall far short of these practices. Especially in Darwinian workplaces.
schrodingers_cat
Tiger Pimp’s husband Jed Rubenfeld’s op-ed about rape and how its too tough for rapey rapists out there, in where else but Misogynist Times.
Martin
@Mandalay:
I’m sorry but I don’t see how this is fundamentally different than the hordes that refuse to believe victims. If someone says they’re in the hospital, then they’re in the hospital. The consequence of getting this wrong far outweighs the benefits of occasionally catching someone in a lie.
Mandalay
@Martin: That’s the best post I have read on BJ this year.
Roger Moore
@Nicole:
She actually hasn’t been completely terrible on this. She even wrote a column saying they should let the FBI investigate the allegations because they should be able to clear everything up expeditiously.
Elizabelle
From the Above the Law Blog: Details On The Allegations Against, And Yale Law School Investigation Into Professor Jed Rubenfeld
What is going on with Yale’s clerkship process, and when are they going to tell the rest of us?
From that letter to Alumni:
Mandalay
@Martin:
Nope – they are merely claiming they are in hospital – and that may or may not be true.
Chua’s sudden hospitalization is highly convenient for her, and I don’t give her a free pass given the public interest, and all the shit going on around her at the moment. I don’t assume that she is lying and she is not in hospital, but I also don’t blindly assume that she is just because a story is floating around the internet.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: A doppelgänger, who, coincidentally, was having out with the best friend of his doppelgänger. Oh yeah, i buy that.
Martin
@Elizabelle: Fuck, I fall far short in these practices. I try my best, but there are days when I just don’t have it in me. I regret countless situations when I should have pushed harder, or talked myself out of seeing something that was wrong, etc.
The event that started this was a female student of mine that was being stalked by another student. I talked to the victim to try and understand the scale of this (I guess I was under the impression that there’s an acceptable degree of stalking, who knows) and thought I had a clear picture until I spoke to one of her friends who pointed out a ton of things that the victim left out, some of which I could confirm from police reports. It dawned on me then that even the victims hold back on accusations, afraid that if they say a, b, c and c turns out to be wrong, that it’ll invalidate a, b. Because that’s how this actually works, so they never mention c. What I discovered was that this young lady was in legitimate danger and then it took a week to get anyone to actually listen to me. I was in the process of being fired for my aggression over this when the stalker was arrested with a gun hiding in the bushes of the place she was staying. Suddenly I wasn’t being fired any longer.
But I realized that’s what it takes. It takes me risking getting fired. It takes grinding the institution down day after day until they deal with this. because it’s WAY harder for them to impeach me than the victim. And it needs to be done because the consequences of this shit all too often wind up being lifelong ones. I also realized that if I hadn’t fought so hard, and she was harmed by this stalker, that I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I’d much rather be fired than have to live with that. I feel like I’ve made at least some progress for some people. But man do I have regrets for all the stuff I didn’t or couldn’t do.
Nicole
@Roger Moore: That’s good to hear, but I’m going to file that under, “nut found by blind squirrel.”
WaterGirl
@Gelfling 545: So glad to hear that!!!
At first I thought it must be parody, but then it became obvious. No, no it wasn’t.
hitchhiker
@bettycracker, could you promote this one? It’s perfect, right to the end.
https://twitter.com/casey_connects/status/1042805631579836416
WaterGirl
@Mandalay: Ugh. I’d almost prefer to think she’s that stupid.
WaterGirl
@raven: Was that the “fuck me because I love Jesus” one?
I clicked on a link from Omnes years ago, and it was so bad/good that I couldn’t look away.
gratuitous
Message to women considering an elite position in a prestigious field: Yes, you can do the classwork. You can be an exceptional student. You can show amazing promise. Quick-witted. Fast on your feet. You can have an encyclopedic memory for details and precedents. You can be considered for a plum clerkship with a highly-regarded court. But you still have to get through this ONE MORE HOOP that the boys don’t have to jump through.
Now, if you’re the offspring of a power couple of law school heavy hitters, you might (just might) be able to resist having to play this little game. But that’s if you are confident that your concern will be taken seriously, that there will be no retribution or recriminations, that you won’t acquire a reputation of being “difficult” or even “bitchy” that will dog you for the next decade at least. Oh, and that your family’s reputation will be proof against a system determined to retain its power over you and its privileged position in the society.
WaterGirl
@catclub: That’s the one I was thinking of.
bemused
@hitchhiker:
Powerful.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: This thread is like a walk through time.
Is that the “Stop raping people!” one?
WaterGirl
@JPL: Drunk dialing Virginia! This really is the greatest hits thread!
BlueGirlFromWyo
@hitchhiker: IMO, Dr. Ford might do well to bypass all of that and go to the Montgomery County MD DA’s office. Let these fuckers select a SC justice under criminal charges. Grounds for impeachment later. Again, might. This isn’t easy and I deeply admire her, her family, and her attorneys.
raven
@WaterGirl: Yep!
I’m just starting this 700+ page monster!
Historian and best-selling author Jill Lepore found herself wishing there was a book that covered the history of the U.S. and reminded readers that the political polarization of today is really nothing new. So she wrote it.
In her new book “These Truths,” Lepore takes on the task of tracking the nation’s story starting with Christopher Columbus’s voyage and continuing to the Civil War, the Civil Rights Era and President Trump’s election in 2016.
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle: Wow, holy shit. No wonder the Ivy Leagual Establishment is freaking out and doubling down on getting KavanaughMeansYes rushed thru’ the process. Since the light being shown on that establishment is showing up some of its ugliest features.
Elizabelle
Today’s shooter has died. Four dead; rest expected to make it. It’s still a mass shooting … this Thursday.
Miss Bianca
@raven: Oh, man, that’s going on my to-read list!!
catclub
@Miss Bianca: The fact that Brett Kavanaugh has been a typical dweller in the so-called DC swamp for his entire career, somehow made no difference to the guy who claimed he would drain the DC swamp.
Litlebritdifrnt
Everyone knows that Kavanaugh was nominated for two reasons and two reasons only. Reason number one is to rule that a sitting POTUS can’t be indicted and is entitled to pardon himself. Reason number two is to overturn Roe. The reason the anti-abortion zealots are willing to overlook Twitler’s sexual indiscretions is the same reason they are willing to overlook Kavanaugh’s. I have a simple solution to the anti-abortion zealots thing. Prior to December 31 of a given year everyone is required to register as “pro-life” or “pro-choice” the register will be kept up to date much like voting rolls. As of January 1 the following year abortion will be outlawed. All pregnancies will be carried to term with all required pre-natal care and medical treatment provided by the tax-payer to the pregnant woman. When the woman gives birth the baby is immediately given up for adoption to the first person on the “pro-life” list to raise for life, second one to the next and on and on. No exceptions, no matter the age of the pro-lifer, they must raise the child or suffer criminal penalties. At the end of the year people again will have to register as “pro-life” or “pro-choice” . I guarantee you by the end of the second year and all the “pro-lifers” have one or two kids to raise they will be registering as “pro-choice”. If they are so determined that these children are “god given” and deserve to live then they should put up and shut up and start raising them. Let’s see how long their convictions last.
WaterGirl
@hitchhiker: I hope all you peeps who have twitter accounts will read what hitchhiker linked to AND do everything you can on twitter to spread the word.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
The very one. Funny how quickly YouTube spun it up, once a hit, always a hit I guess. I remember it better than I remember OWS.
EthylEster
BC write:
PLEASE…just wait for some info.
Take the higher ground.
EthylEster
@Kay wrote:
YES! As always, Key, you cut to the chase.
Shinea
Here’s the thing about academia: It’s full of full-on creepers with tenure. Here’s the other thing about academia: Short of killing and cannibalizing a student, tenured faculty are untouchable. Hell, that that UCLA professor that was found guilty of negligent homicide when one of his lab workers caught herself on fire and died got an OSHA fine and some community service, but didn’t lose his tenure or his position.
It’s not right, but it’s not unusual. If these incidents can change the culture, it will be a red-letter day for human rights.
Mnemosyne
@EthylEster:
Look at Elizabelle’s comment at #179. Yale told their law school students and alumni that he’s being investigated for inappropriate conduct towards students.
There’s the higher ground, and then there’s being willfully naive.
Tehanu
@Nicole: I knew there was a good reason why I hated that woman Chua. Hope her daughters get the therapy they undoubtedly need.
The Lodger
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Truly. Also literally.
Barbara
@hitchhiker:
Yes, everyone should read this.
ruemara
The thing is, Chua isn’t quite going with a “he wouldn’t DARE, because he’d know that was our daughter & we’re part of the club”. It’s more of a “he can dare, he will get to leer & ogle her as much as he wants so she has a powerful opportunity, but he knows the deal is a marriage with protection & money for our girl”. You cater to the whims of your fellow powerful men and daughters are gifts you have to cement bonds. Sure there’s protection from random abuse & assault. But it doesn’t mean he can’t make a firm offer. By the time a young woman is of the age, she’s probably been carefully trained to perceive of her youth, beauty and access to her body as part of the bargaining chip for maintaining elite status. Interloping climbers can & will be abused at the whims of those to the manor born. Because they’re trespassing and because you can. Faustian bargains but as old as human history.
Barbara
@BlueGirlFromWyo:
Great minds think alike. I had exactly the same thought.
MoxieM
@Corner Stone: Yes–but–it’s public land, and common use has long been for residents of town to walk dogs off leash under voice control (I know, I know). Allowed by town regs. Issues are unaccompanied dogs, and dog-walkers bringing handfuls of not-under-any control dogs. However, with the Chomskys, and their neighbors, what started as a nice piece of town land in their backyard turn out to be a piece of town land that other residents use … There are only two places to park and access the trails and one of them is the Chomsky’s street. Folks on that street don’t want other tax-paying residents of the town to park on “their” (public way) street. Small town politics in living color. I don’t live there anymore, so the situation may have changed.
Mike in DC
OT: Michael Cohen has been performing an operetta for Bobby Three Sticks over the last month, apparently. “This Russia Thing” is currently in rehearsals, and they are trying out new performers all the time. Paulie sounds like a nice bass tenor, so I hear.
gorram
@MoxieM: I remember throwing her “World On Fire” against the wall constantly as an undergrad, and I just bluescreened and never finished it when I got to the section on South Africa. She just couldn’t figure out why the White minority had such a monopoly on resources and power, golly gee!
chopper
@gorram:
funny that she’s such a buffoon, given that her dad was fucking brilliant electrical engineer. dude invented the memristor.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Miss Bianca: Sorry, I have to share the horror.
Damn it, it all makes sense if these are bunch of guys sexually confused from some old school abuse and scared to death they will be gang raped if they act like humans; the obsession with ass sex, the woman bashing, the trophy wives, the gay bashing, the over the top stupid, bluff masculinity and the abuse of anyone with less power than them.
opiejeanne
@westyny: We knew kids raised like that. We lived in the SF east bay and there is a very large immigrant population from a certain continent, and their kids are not allowed to have after school jobs unless it’s working for a family member, but they mostly discourage that. The kids are bought cars at age 16 and told that studying is their job. They HAVE to get into Cal, or UCLA as a second choice; either Davis or UC Irvine are the only remaining acceptable schools, but only after failing to get into the first two. CAL was preferred to avoid dorm fees.
One boy who was tied with my middle kid for math scores told her his parents turned off all of the electricity and heat in the kids’ bedrooms if one of them brought home a paper with less than an A grade.
We saw them outside the gym, weeping while a parent scolded them for not having a perfect SAT score.
They went away to college and discovered that their parents couldn’t see their grades or test scores unless they chose to share them, which they most certainly did not do. They tended to run wild for a while, one classmate told my daughter he’d flunked Bio 101 and laughed about it. His parents wanted him to be a doctor. She told me it was an easy class if you took notes and opened the book.
opiejeanne
@opiejeanne: The Tiger Mom’s description of women raising their children that way. That’s what I was referring to.
AM in NC
@Martin: Thank you for this. My female friends and I have been talking about this very thing. We are married to great men, and they stand behind us, as you so rightly put it. But what we really want is them standing beside us, taking this stuff on with us.
This entire situation also has the white women among us discussing how we can be better allies to our non-white friends and colleagues — how we can take some of that burden upon ourselves, because it sure gets heavy fast.
Mnemosyne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Nah. They’re just overprivileged rich assholes who’ve always gotten away with everything and keep pushing the boundaries to see if anyone is willing to try and stop them. But no one ever does.
Van Buren
@WaterGirl: How soon until the Op-Ed in the WSJ explaining how Chua is the real victim here?
WaterGirl
@Van Buren: The article has probably already been submitted.
Bobby Thomson
@Tenar Arha:
That would be an extremely safe bet. I can name a dozen people off the top of my head who have more pull with federal appeals judges.
Corner Stone
@Bobby Thomson:
How much do they charge per hour? Or is it a don’t ask/ can’t afford type situation.
Procopius
@Paul T: I doubt it was anything as obvious as that, but on a related matter, it would be interesting to find out what Chua is hospitalized for. It probably is something age-related, but this whole thing is so messy I would like to ask if it might be trauma related.
lisa b
Does anyone know where Jed Rosenfeld went to high school.. I’ve seen a lot of mentions that he went to a private prep school in the Washington, DC area.. just wondering WHERE — is he, perhaps, another Georgetown Prep “Little Hoya”?
@Elizabelle: @Doug R: @Doug R: @Doug R: @Doug R: @Doug R: @Doug R: @Doug R: @Elizabelle:
lisa b
Does anyone know where Jed Rosenfeld went to high school.. I’ve seen a lot of mentions that he went to a private prep school in the Washington, DC area.. just wondering WHERE — is he, perhaps, another Georgetown Prep “Little Hoya”?