Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Everybody saw this coming.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

No one could have predicted…

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Come on, man.

T R E 4 5 O N

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Not all heroes wear capes.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Friday Morning Open Thread: If We’re Lucky…

Friday Morning Open Thread: If We’re Lucky…

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BS master-dealer gets high on his own supply. From the NYTimes, “Trump Sees a ‘Red Wave’ Where His Party Sees a Red Alert”:

During a discussion about his party’s legislative high points this year with a small group at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, expressed a new concern about an old habit of President Trump’s.

The many “distractions” generated by the president, Mr. McConnell said during the dinner, were preventing Republicans from having a coherent message for the midterm elections focused on the booming economy, according to multiple people who were briefed on the remarks.

Representative Paul D. Ryan, the House speaker, who also attended, expressed another concern — that the president’s talk with his supporters of a “red wave” in November was unfounded. All agreed that he should instead be sounding the alarm about the possibility of big Democratic gains…

Voters who are not die-hard Trump supporters may not “believe there’s anything at stake in this election,” Mr. Newhouse wrote. “Put simply, they don’t believe that Democrats will win the House. (Why should they believe the same prognosticators that told them that Hillary was going to be elected president?).”

Mr. Trump has alternately acknowledged to aides and supporters that the climate is troublesome and insisted that the worst will never happen. It is not clear that he actually believes his talk of a “red wave,” or if he is trying to will it into existence, advisers and allies say…

Some of this, of course, is poor-mouthing to gin up donations and scare the local precinct-walkers to up their efforts. But in his own clueless fashion, I think Conor Friedersdorf may have blundered into a salient point:

… Consider the Trump voters who strongly gravitated toward him in the 2016 primaries because they felt so alienated by the rest of the GOP establishment; or who voted for him in the general election due to his celebrity, or his status as a political outsider, or faith that he would “drain the swamp” of a corrupt, bipartisan, establishment elite, or confidence that he would be a good “dealmaker” once in Washington, or a desire to “shake things up,” or to stoke and then revel in chaos, or because of an unusually strong or visceral dislike of Hillary Clinton…

…[I]f what you like most about the Trump presidency is watching him drive the media crazy; or reading his steady stream of combative tweets ostensibly “owning the libs”; or having a white man rather than a black man back in the White House; or seeing a president unapologetically attack Muslims, Mexicans, and NFL players; or following along to Sean Hannity’s sycophantic analysis of daily events; or believing that Trump is keeping North Korea or Iran in check? Well, all of that will continue regardless of the 2018 election.

For the subset of Trump supporters mostly in it for the “are you not entertained” spectacle, Democratic victory might even enhance their enjoyment, with their champion stepping daily into an arena filled with new villains. “Here’s the question facing the voters this fall,” talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt, a perennial Republican Party partisan, wrote recently in a Washington Post op-ed. “Do they vote to ratchet up this culture of conflict and chaos, or to return Republican legislative majorities that have figured out how to work with this most unusual of presidents?”

For at least some of the Americans who put Trump into power, revealed preference would seem to suggest their choice is: Ratchet up the conflict! As the reality-TV POTUS preps for a new season, fans want plot twists…

And us sane people have things like this to look forward to (i.e., to encourage us to keep fighting for every vote)…

Reader Interactions

123Comments

  4. 4.

    raven

    I’m hoping the effects of the shingle shot are gone today. I wasn’t horrible but I did feel punky all day and took two naps!

  5. 5.

    hells littlest angel

    My fear is that Trump’s “red wave” bullshit will just turn into “Democratic party hacking and voting fraud” bullshit the day after election day. It will be used to distill and purify his base, making it smaller, but more insane and intense.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I need to get one. My little brother got shingles a couple years ago. I’d just as soon not follow in his footsteps.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    @satby: I can only speak for myself but I don’t want another rollercoaster of a day

    Chris Garrett’s who is suppose to take the fall for the attempted rape apparently teaches in the city that I live in. I wonder how much they paid him. Atlanta Academy His picture is under middle school teachers.

  9. 9.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: I got it on my forehead and into my left eye while I was finishing my dissertation. I was fortunate it’s didn’t damage my vision but it was a stone motherfucker. Imagine and ice-cream headache for days on end! Get those shots!

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Something good for a Friday morning:

    Drawing golf courses was the reason God put him here, Valentino Dixon thought. Maybe one day he’d even get a chance to try the game.

    Dixon wrote as much in Golf Digest magazine back in 2012. Incarcerated at the time in the infamous Attica correctional facility in New York, he was in the midst of serving 39 years to life for a murder he had been convicted of in 1991. Now, six years after his story came to the attention of the magazine’s readers, and after spending 27 years in prison, he may finally get his chance as his conviction has been vacated.

    If not for the 48-year-old Dixon’s fortuitous aptitude for drawing golf courses, he might have never walked free again. Although he’d never been on one, a prison warden who knew that he liked to draw had shown him a picture of the 12th hole at Augusta National. Dixon took to it immediately, reproducing a drawing that the warden ended up loving.

    “Something about the grass and sky was rejuvenating,” Dixon wrote. “It seemed peaceful. I imagine playing it would be a lot like fishing.”

    …………………..

    With a brighter spotlight on his case, and a series of volunteers and lawyers working on his behalf, it became harder for state officials to ignore.

    “Once a case crosses a certain threshold of media attention, it matters, even though it shouldn’t,” Donald Thompson, one of the lawyers who worked on his behalf, told Golf Digest. “It’s embarrassing for the legal system that for a long time the best presentation of the investigation was from a golf magazine.”

    It is embarrassing, and an indictment on the criminal justice system, something Erie county’s district attorney’s wrongful convictions unit and recently incoming district attorney, John Flynn seemed eager to correct.

    Through their efforts, another man already serving life in prison for murder, LaMarr Scott, pleaded guilty to the murder in question. He had admitted responsibility all along, including on the night of the murder Dixon was convicted for, but the prosecutor at the time pressured him to say otherwise.

    “It’s possible I wouldn’t have lived to this age if I’d stayed on the outside,” Dixon wrote back in 2012. “When I was a young man I wasn’t useful to society – this I don’t argue. But I’m not a murderer. That’s the worst thing somebody can be, and I’m not that. I hope all you need to do is look at my drawings to know that.”

    Someone did, and now we know.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: Dixon’s pictures are amazing, and maybe now he can visit a golf course.
    What a sad story though, because he should not have been behind bars in the first place.

  14. 14.

    Jeffro

    @hells littlest angel:

    My fear is that Trump’s “red wave” bullshit will just turn into “Democratic party hacking and voting fraud” bullshit the day after election day. It will be used to distill and purify his base, making it smaller, but more insane and intense.

    No way to avoid that, really. It certainly beats the alternative of us not winning. =)

    Look on the bright side: distilling and purifying the GOP base means the saner (not ‘sane’, just ‘saner’) parts of the GOP drift away to become non-voters, or Dems, or re-engage to take back their party and have a nice ol’ Republican civil war. They’re long overdue for it, that’s for sure. And while they’re doing that, we’ll keep winning elections and undoing the damage of the past two years, and institutionalizing/codifying whatever reforms we can put in place to make sure the Mercers’ and Kochs’ money can’t run this country off the rails again, and that no one can run for federal office without disclosing their past 10 years of tax returns, etc etc. Voting rights restored/protected, gerrymandering ended…

    Meanwhile…we win and we start investigating…and oh my, that’s gonna take for.ever. but it’s got to happen. And it’ll have to take place while that purified and distilled nutso group baying in the background, but that’s ok. If they’re howling, we’re winning!

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    On a brighter note: going to see Sir Elton Hercules John tonight with the Mrs…should be fun! The morning ‘radio’ inside my head is stuck on “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me” and “Philadelphia Freedom”! =)

  17. 17.

    JoyceH

    @JPL:

    Chris Garrett’s who is suppose to take the fall for the attempted rape apparently teaches in the city that I live in. I wonder how much they paid him. Atlanta Academy His picture is under middle school teachers.

    I wonder if he even knew this was coming. Because I can’t imagine they could pay him enough, unless they want to drop enough millions that he never has to work another day in his life, and can completely uproot his life and go underground and incognito.

    He’s a middle-school teacher, and suddenly he’s being accused of attempted rape of a fifteen-year-old?! He almost has to sue now, he’s got no choice. If he hasn’t been receiving death threats yet, just wait a few minutes. The discovery phase of his lawsuit ought to be interesting, because the entire wingnutosphere has been on the edges of their seats, waiting for the Whelan info to drop. It sounds like Kavanaugh was in on this smear, and McGann, and pretty much everyone involved.

    And I can’t get over the sheer unprincipled cynicism of the attempt. You know they’d like to try to sell ‘the crazy lady made it up’ like they did with Anita Hill, but they know that in the Me Too era, that’s not possible. So okay, let’s allow that the attack really happened, but the attacker was somebody else.

    And they were SO SURE this was going to work! Before tweeting his magnum opus, Whelan was bragging that Kavanaugh would be completely cleared within a week, and Feinstein would have to apologize to him! Because – Zillow floor plans?

    My gob is smacked. They really have lost their minds.

  19. 19.

    gene108

    I was listening to some of the statements from Senators during the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings talk about process and thanking Sen. Biden for the bipartisan way he was handling things, and it dawned on me, maybe the reason the Senate had so much comity back then was because they were all white men.

    It was a good old boys club, with unwritten rules that were followed because if you got in then you were one of the boys. Part of me thinks it must have been like a secret society, that once your are in, you are in and no one talks about “Senate club”.

  22. 22.

    JPL

    @raven: There is big money behind Kavanaugh, and I assume that a middle school teacher can use a nice retirement package. I haven’t seen anything on local news this morning about him. Maybe the story was suppose to drop after school today, and they made an error.

  23. 23.

    JPL

    Garrett is a big Kavanaugh supporter, and I just can’t imagine that they didn’t forewarn him. Kavanaugh will be asked whether or not he knows Whelan.

  24. 24.

    hells littlest angel

    @Jeffro: Good points. But my fear involves things that could happen in places other than voting booths. A few million rabid slobbering morons can do a lot of harm — especially if they’re armed.

  25. 25.

    Chyron HR

    Republican legislative majorities that have figured out how to work with this most unusual of presidents

    Other than the fact that they’re currently afraid to confirm his supreme court nominee.

  26. 26.

    Ken

    @JPL: You say “retirement package”, I say “money trail.” Part of me still thinks no one would be so stupidly obvious when conspiring to conceal a felony, but with at least one Congressional staffer bragging about it on Twitter….

  28. 28.

    debbie

    @raven:

    Did you get the new one or the old one? My doctor says they won’t send her the new vacccine until she’s used up the old stuff.

  29. 29.

    Ohio Mom

    @JPL: It isn’t just Garrett whose life is going to be upended. Plenty of parents are going to fall for this. They are going to panic that a rapist of teen girls is teaching in the same school their daughters go to.

    I’m not usually up at this hour, I had a fitful night’s sleep. As did the headmaster/principal of that school.

  30. 30.

    debbie

    @gene108:

    No. Race wasn’t a factor in what the Senate has become. It’s power, greed, and overreaching. “This is our due.” “We will become a permanent majority.” That kind of bullshit.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    This year’s wildfire season has produced the largest burn in California’s history and, in the northern part of the state, an awe-inspiring “firenado”. As scientists say that “megafires” are the new normal, climate change capitalism is finding an increasing number of customers. This echoes a global trend: cottage industries have sprung up to serve those who can afford to be a bit more protected and comfortable while the weather grows more cataclysmic. The uber-wealthy have bought estates in New Zealand (to the point that the country is in the midst of passing legislation to stymie foreign buyers) and luxe underground bunkers in Kansas and elsewhere to escape civic or natural collapse.

    In western states, the wildfire-evacuated masses have huddled in Best Westerns or on gymnasium floors and are often locked in insurance-claim limbo, while the affluent check into five-star luxury hotels – usually reimbursable by their insurance – confident that their homes are being looked after.

    Ronald DeKoven is a New York attorney, English barrister, and a tech entrepreneur, regularly flying to London or Singapore, where his startup MyLawyer is headquartered. In 2011, he and his wife, Linda, bought an estate with three guesthouses in the center of a 30-acre Napa Valley vineyard. It was meant as a second home, but after falling in love with wine country, the couple moved in permanently.

    Last year, one of his workers texted to report that a blaze, which would eventually become the catastrophic wine country fire, had started just down the road. Within minutes of the text, he and Linda sped away to a friend’s. “We put our shoes on and grabbed coats and left,” he says. “We probably were the first to leave this area. Given that I’ve practiced law for 50 years, you might say I’m cautious.” An insurance crew showed up to remove any combustibles around the house and spray fire retardant around the property’s edges. Meanwhile, the DeKovens checked in at the tony Clift Hotel in San Francisco. Their insurance company, Pure, explained over the phone to the couple that the company would prepay the hotel bills.

    After a night at the Clift, the DeKovens moved to Four Seasons hotels in Silicon Valley and then San Francisco for three weeks. “Needless to say the bills were high,” DeKoven says. “It was just paid through Pure.”

    While many other evacuees were locked in months of bureaucracy with insurance carriers, the DeKovens sailed through the recovery process. When they returned to their stone-and-stucco estate – which escaped the fire – Pure had already filtered the air to get rid of the heavy smoke smell. Pure sent out a team to test for carcinogenic dust in the house, detecting some in the main house’s attic. DeKoven hired their general contractor to vacuum the dust in hazmat suits and replace the insulation – a nearly $50,000 job that Pure prepaid with a check in the mail.

    “I found it astonishing they would be so focused on our best interest,” DeKoven said. Insurance is a suddenly sexy conversation topic in California, and DeKoven has been handing out his adjusters’ name like some others pass around the name of their skilled masseuse.

  33. 33.

    debbie

    @JoyceH:

    Do we know for sure he was in on this “outing”? I can’t believe he would compromise his career and his reputation for a high school pal (or that a high school pal would ask him to do this).

  34. 34.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I don’t think the Dems should talk about going after Kavanaugh if they take Congress next year. I think it becomes a GOTV issue for the GOP. Talk about oversight for the corrupt stuff in the admin and the bread and butter stuff but not Kavanaugh. Of course do it when you win ,just don’t advertise it.

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    @JPL:
    I have been swamped at work, doing 14 hour days and coming home to sleep.
    Please explain your reply. They are now admitting that Dr. Ford was attacked, but not by Kavanaugh??
    Da phuq ? ?

  39. 39.

    Ohio Mom

    @rikyrah: Yup. Republican operatives are spreading the rumor that it was a classmate who looked vaguely like Kavanaugh, with a similar hairstyle (big news, teens tend to follow the same fashions). And they have the yearbook photos to “prove” it.

  42. 42.

    JPL

    @rikyrah: Also it has to do with a zillow map. lol
    Hatch mentioned a few days ago that it could have been another person, and then Whelan mapped out possibilities. See Debbie’s comment at 38. I didn’t know until this morning that the person mentioned taught 5 miles from me. Ohio mom is correct because this presents huge problems for the school.

  43. 43.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: In the American League the Anaheim Angels lost yesterday to the Oakland A’s, 21-3. What’s remarkable about that game is not just its football-like score, but that a catcher named Francisco Arcia pitched the 7th inning and gave up 2 runs, pitched a scoreless 8th inning, then hit a home run batting as the catcher, then caught for the 9th. I think I got that right.
    Position players have stepped in to pitch for other teams in the past, Robin Ventura of the LA Dodgers comes to mind, but Arcia is the first to do what he did. He’s new this year. I think he’s a keeper.

  45. 45.

    Bruce K

    Powerful, unprincipled, and desperate is a bad, bad combination. This is where the 21st-century GOP gets really dangerous, from where I stand, because the consequences of failure are getting more extreme – like Sing Sing, Leavenworth, Supermax extreme. They’re going to reach a point where no action, regardless of legality, will be beyond them – because their livelihoods, if not their lives themselves, will hang in the balance.

    It’s not like anyone who bothered to study 20th-century history hasn’t seen crap like this before.

  47. 47.

    opiejeanne

    @JoyceH: I have missed most of this, except the word “doppelgänger” kept popping up yesterday, as well as something about someone named Whelan but I didn’t get more than a hint of what this is about. I hope the other guy sues the pants off of them, including Kavanaugh if he’s involved, and really? He’s party to this bs?
    We were on the road across Oregon with little or no connection to the internet. There’s just no signal for some long stretches, and we had some car trouble and got stuck in Grant’s Pass for half the day. Loose lug nuts on two wheels, one sheared off. Took 4 hours to diagnose and replace the broken stud, but it’s all fixed now.
    I can’t sleep. I’m tired but I just can’t stay asleep. Might as well find out what’s going on.

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Environmentalists, Florida Democrats and several local newspaper editorial boards have pointed to the algae problems as another mark on what the Ocala Star-Banner called Scott’s “putrid environmental record.” During his first term in 2011, Scott cut $700 million in funding from Florida’s water management oversight. He is seen as an ally to Big Sugar, one of the state’s largest polluters. In his push to jumpstart Florida’s economy, Scott has drastically rolled back environmental regulations including required septic-tank inspections.

    His administration also forbade state officials from using the terms “climate change” or “global warming,” as the Florida Democratic Party reminded voters in a recent tweet.

    “The sight of green slime in our waterways and dead fish on our beaches is a visible sign of just how bad a job Rick Scott has done as governor,” Nelson communications director Ryan Brown told TPM in a statement.

    The Scott campaign has pointed fingers at Nelson, in turn, saying that he came into office pledging to clean up Florida’s environment and has not managed to do so. At his stop this week in Orlando, Scott said that he respected protesters’ “right to what they think” about the issue, but that his administration is “doing everything we can right now.”

    “We need really good easterly winds right now,” Scott told reporters. “I wish it would get off our beaches. I know so many people would enjoy our beaches and enjoy our fishing.”

    Scott has funneled resources to help clean up affected communities, setting aside an additional $4 million in grant funding this week alone.

    Am I the only person who thinks “He failed to stop me from destroying the environment” isn’t really a winning argument?

    Also $4 million bucks to offset the damage caused by a $700 million cutback, strikes me as a rather weak response.

  51. 51.

    The Thin Black Duke

    You want to bet that this poor schmuck Garrett is somebody who pissed off Kavanaught years ago in high school?

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @hells littlest angel:

    My fear is that Trump’s “red wave” bullshit will just turn into “Democratic party hacking and voting fraud” bullshit the day after election day.

    We can respond by modifying our rules for superdelegates.

  56. 56.

    Immanentize

    Blasey said she and Garrett socialized in high school and that she had once visited him in the hospital. Maybe it is just sideways revenge on one of Blasey’s actual friends.

  59. 59.

    Chyron HR

    @Baud:

    Is it too late to rescind the nomination and retroactively declare someone else the Democratic candidate? Asking for Crazy Aunt Maxine.

  60. 60.

    Chyron HR

    @JPL:

    He signed a letter in support of Kavanaugh.

    After we found out he was a rapist, or back when everybody just through he was a perjurer?

  62. 62.

    JPL

    @JPL: I might add that Josh Marshall had the information up on his twitter feed, which is how I found out where he taught.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @opiejeanne:

    I focused on the floor plans, because I couldn’t figure it out- why are there so important? First they’re used to identify the house- she said stairwell HERE, bathroom, THERE, family room, etc. But I think they’re mostly important because they’re used to show that Kavanaugh and Judge could have been in the family room and not seen the perp or the victim coming down the stairs and out the front door. I’m still a little confused about that part- the person who lived in the house left after the crime? Where did he go? WHY did he go?

    Since it may not be the right house it may not matter. However.

  65. 65.

    Immanentize

    @JPL: Is the school closed for today? So much collateral damage.

    What Whelan did has turned this into a question of whether it ever happened (why didn’t she come forward before?!) Into a certainty that it happened but with a mis-ID. That is not the best place to be when the co-acter (Judge) is on the run and probably won’t say it was Garrett.

    So Kav better have an excellent alibi now.

  66. 66.

    JPL

    @Kay: Someone on Whelan’s twitter feed mentioned that Judge’s grandparents lived on the same street, and he spent a lot of time during the summer there. I had no way of verifying that though, although there was an address.

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I have done defense work for decades and this is just a stupid what if. Like what if she was actually abducted by aliens?

    Like I said above, his crazy defense makes it clear that the attempted rape happened….

  68. 68.

    JPL

    @Immanentize: It’s preschool pastry day, so it appears to be open. I didn’t see it on the local news this morning, but a local ABC reporter lives in the area so maybe they’ll have something on it later. Fox news has covered the possibility that it might not be Kavanaugh.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    Jamison Foser
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    This is a New York Times columnist suggesting a random person is guilty of attempted rape, based on nothing more than “I know Ed Whelan.”

    Because that’s what it comes down to- they truly believe their judgment is infallible. Why have investigations? They are incredibly great and they’re vouching for these friends of theirs. There’s not even a slight possibility that their judgment sucks and/or they admire bad people. No way that would ever happen.

    These people serve on juries. Now there’s a terrifying thought. What do they do when they don’t “know” people? Flip a coin?

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    If you;ve done defense work for decades then you know this kind of thinking is an occupational hazard. You fall in love with your theory. You so want it to be true that it seems brilliant and air tight until you roll it out to someone else and they’re like “WTF is that nonsense? No. Start over”. But he doesn’t have people like that. He has a whole wingnut cheering section telling him how rigorous and brilliant he is so he stupidly published this instead of running it by someone sane who isn’t in love with it and invested in it.

  73. 73.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:

    You fall in love with your theory.

    This is too true. I refer to it as litigation psychosis. It is one of the reasons I always want co-counsel when I try a case. Just so there is someone there to remind me we are actually circling the drain.

  74. 74.

    Dave

    @Kay: I feel like this is giving Whelan entirely too much h credit. I suppose it’s possible they believe Kavanaugh so spend significantental energy coming up with scenarios that are exculpatory but the simpler more likely answer is they know it’s bullshit they we’re just hoping to change the narrative throw up and chaff. And are doing a really terrible job of it.

  78. 78.

    germy

    “To be clear, I have no idea what, if anything, did or did not happen in that bedroom at the top of the stairs, and I therefore do not state, imply or insinuate that Garrett or anyone else committed the sexual assault that Ford alleges.”

    Oh. All right, then.

  79. 79.

    Emma

    I don’t think Garrett was in on it. I think he did the same stupid thing all the signers of the pro-Kavanaugh letter did: circle wagons around one of the tribe. But he’s not really one of the tribe; he ended up a middle school teacher far away from the power circles, so he was fair game. Now he either fights for his life or he emigrates so far away the natives have never heard of Fox News.

  80. 80.

    germy

    It is regrettable that private citizens are being drawn into this. But that is the product of Senator Feinstein’s shockingly shoddy handling of the whole matter.


    (Ed Whelan)

  81. 81.

    eric

    @Immanentize: I refer to it as “mission creep” or “marrying your case.” This is worse than any of that. The one commodity you have with the fact finder is credibility or trust, and once you lose it, buh-bye. Everything you then say is looked at with skepticism, and heaven forbid you are going to ask someone to believe something “unusual:” forget it. If the affected guy demands an investigation into whether the nominee knew of the smear beforehand, this could end up removing him from the appellate court.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    To me, the dealbreaker was not calling Judge as a witness. Cause this may just be in county courts but if you have a good judge who actually wants the facts and wants to know what happened they will let it in. The witness. The police report. The text messages. Whatever it is. You’ll have to make some evidence argument- cite a rule- but if they want to see it they will make sure it comes in. Because they want to know. They want to do a good job. They want to place this in the realm of the factual. They are almost desperate NOT to be put in a he said/she said situation because they are uncomfortable with the subjective nature of that. They (rightfully) doubt their own judgment.

    Republicans don’t want to know. We’re giving them something to use. They don’t want it.

  83. 83.

    germy

    @Emma:

    But he’s not really one of the tribe; he ended up a middle school teacher far away from the power circles, so he was fair game.

    I was thinking the same thing. He doesn’t seem to be in the same league as the “boat shoe and polo shirt club” so they’ve made him a target. Just like their targets in high school were the children of parents who were not powerful judges or politicians.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @Dave:

    Unlike the NYTimes writers I do not “know” him so that’s entirely possible. Even if I knew him it could be possible because I’m wrong about people occasionally. Some of the people I know are bad people and I think they’re good people.

    I was flipping it too- maybe the point is to put up specifics – house, people, etc. and then use those to discredit her. So they could spend the whole day making her prove it wasn’t this house, if it wasn’t this one then which one, like that. They have fake specifics and they can use that to make her look fuzzy and imprecise. OTOH, though, they risk Kavanaugh being subjected to the same questioning “WAS it this house? Were you there? Did you see anything?”

    Oh, there’s no telling how horrible they are! We haven’t nearly hit bottom with this gang. Mistake or plan? Beats me.

  90. 90.

    artem1s

    “Do they vote to ratchet up this culture of conflict and chaos, or to return Republican legislative majorities that have figured out how to work with this most unusual of presidents?”

    this is what happens when a party substitutes a celebrity for actual legislators. The GOP has turn that dial all the way up to 12 and look what it got them. It’s what happens when your voter base thinks throwing a fun rally and taking it on tour like the Dead, is a substitute for crafting policy and a sound platform. The Dems stepped in this direction with the Kennedy’s. Good hair was OK in that case because he at least knew how to hire some decent people. But they also saddled the DNC with a lot of baggage: misogyny, licentiousness, frat boy culture, elitism, world wars by proxy, etc.

    Who knows if Bobby’s feint towards inclusion was the real deal or just an attempt to capture a huge new voting base in the south before the GOP grabbed it. Johnson sealed the deal and the party has been paying the price for centering civil rights, human rights, in their platform for decades. Luckily Obama was the real deal. And it still took him 1.5 terms to get that no amount of politeness was going to attract the GOP back to legislating again. And now it’s not just window dressing for the DNC to have POC and women on staff or behind the Resolute Desk. It just is part of who the party is now. It takes time to build an honest base of voters who get the difference between policy and celebrity.

    The GOP is going to opt for more and more chaos. and there will be idiots like Sarandon and Moore and Nina Turner who keep howling that the Dems should follow the GOP down the celebrity rabbit hole. The Dems have a precious window of opportunity to become the peoples party again. It hasn’t had this since the New Deal. I really hope the idiots who love the camera, attention, and money more than they love their fellow human beings don’t completely screw it up and forget that their vote matters.

  93. 93.

    Kay

    Ed Whelan
    ‏@EdWhelanEPPC
    Follow Follow @EdWhelanEPPC
    More
    I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaugh’s Georgetown Prep classmate. I take full responsibility for that mistake, and I deeply apologize for it. I realize that does not undo the mistake.

    Maybe, just maybe, they were also wrong about their ‘ol buddy Kavanaugh. This is like a crack in the wall of arrogance! Follow that thought, Mr. Whelan! See where it leads you. Your judgment is not, in fact, infallible.

  95. 95.

    debit

    @Mai Naem mobile: I think they’re smart to let Kavanaugh and everyone who has helped manufacture this story that there will be a reckoning. At some point, everyone of these chuckleheads can look forward to the option of lying or telling the truth to the FBI or in a committee hearing.

  96. 96.

    El Caganer

    @Kay: Perhaps he responded to a phone call. “Ed? Ed Whelan? Hi, this is Michael Avenatti; my client Chris Garett asked me to get in touch….”

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    That is such a bright spot amid all the grim horribleness. I’m jealous of Texas Democrats. Florida has a star underdog too. Those are fun.

    We have one here in a tiny, no-national-media way. Our statehouse candidate is really talented. People like him. I went to an event where he showed up and the room changed when he walked in. I thought “they REALLY like him”. I get it. There’s something just very appealing about him. It’s just SUCH a big area he has to cover and he has no money- he may not have enough time. But no matter. He’ll be back. He’s good at this.

  98. 98.

    NotMax

    artem1s

    who keep howling that the Dems should follow the GOP down the celebrity rabbit hole

    >

    Jerry Springer ’20?

    (Yes, do feel somewhat dirty after typing that.)

  99. 99.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaugh’s Georgetown Prep classmate. I take full responsibility for that mistake, and I deeply apologize for it. I realize that does not undo the mistake.

    Shorter:

    Can’t put the genie back in the bottle. My Bad. So sorry. Sucks to be you!

    And

    Mission Accomplished! There’s always a certain amount of collateral damage.

  100. 100.

    germy

    Was Kavanaugh involved with this Ed Whelan theory? I read somewhere Brett’s been locked away with Bill Shine, rehearsing various defenses, and the “You got the wrong guy” defense came up as a possible tactic.

    And can someone tell me what Mark Judge does for a living? Surely he doesn’t support himself with quirky essays and youtube videos?

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Well, from the defense side, Special K’s side, it’s not “reasonable doubt” and it’s not a real trial, so I wouldn’t want him talking either. But fuck them. They got themselves into this mess and they’re faking “good faith” and it’s not actually a criminal conviction – he doesn’t get the best job in the country. Boo hoo.

  103. 103.

    Heidi Mom

    @OzarkHillbilly: Amen to that. There is plenty of competition for the title of “lowest life form on Earth,” but prosecutors who seek a conviction of someone, anyone, just to raise their stats have got to be right up there among the finalists.

  104. 104.

    eric

    @Kay: Now the must stop the blowback as to Cavanaugh knowing about the smear or else he loses his appellate court seat. Whelan will now fall on HIS sword to save the nominee. All disposable for the cause.

  105. 105.

    Leto

    @Immanentize: @germy:

    Into a certainty that it happened but with a mis-ID

    This morning:

    Ed [email protected]
    42m42 minutes ago
    More
    I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaugh’s Georgetown Prep classmate. I take full responsibility for that mistake, and I deeply apologize for it. I realize that does not undo the mistake.

    This from the “President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.” He needs to update his bio to include professional doxxer.

  106. 106.

    eric

    Trump’s twitter just went all in calling her a liar. surely there were police reports from back in the say, so show u snow. Effectively handing an anvil to the coyote! this guy can make any situation worse. Shit midas indeed.

  107. 107.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, jackals. Last day of summer. Gonna be an interesting autumn, no? Maybe the Fall of Trump and the Republicans.

    Thinking about what this whole Kavanaugh spectacle says about the rotting within of the “elites” in the DC area (we speak of high income Maryland here, which its own enclave. Some spectacularly spoiled kids.)

    Thinking about BK’s mom being a judge, and maybe how he calculated that made him extra bulletproof.

    Thinking on how this is playing out as the alphas trying to save themselves by casting around for betas to blame. 65 Mean Girls signing the original letter. It didn’t happen to them, so ….

  108. 108.

    eric

    @eric: @eric: Let’s try this again in English: Trump’s twitter just went all in calling her a liar. surely there were police reports from back in the day, so show us now. Effectively handing an anvil to the coyote! this guy can make any situation worse. Shit midas indeed.

  112. 112.

    JPL

    @eric: You mean this one

    I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!

    Show me the police report! He’s a sick bastard who will stop at nothing to inflict injury.

  113. 113.

    Gelfling 545

    @raven: Second that! I got it on my eye also (when I was tea hing and writing a master’s thesis – I’m guessing stress is a factor) They gave me opioid pain meds which did nothing. Get that shot.

  114. 114.

    germy

    @Heidi Mom:

    prosecutors who seek a conviction of someone, anyone, just to raise their stats have got to be right up there among the finalists

    For the past fews days I’ve been seeing the story of the prisoner who was released from prison after drawing pictures of golf courses. The MSM presents it, of course, as a wonderful and inspirational feel-good story.

    But I see it as more evidence of a corrupt system. A different man had confessed to the crime, but an innocent man was locked up anyway, for almost 30 years. And if he hadn’t entertained some white people with his ability to draw beautiful pictures of gold courses he’d never set foot on, he’d still be sitting in prison.

  118. 118.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: LOVE “Your Song”!

    I have to be honest, I love the songs more than his singing…that “Two Rooms” compilation/tribute with other stars singing John/Taupin songs is a favorite here; Elton’s greatest hits, not so much ?

    Thanks rikyrah!

  119. 119.

    Steve in the ATL

    @germy: I had the exact same reaction. Horribly unfair. How would the white lawyer who prosecuted him like to spend 27 years in jail?

  121. 121.

    dww44

    @Jeffro: You give me hope and “positivity” (, a word I actually dislike a lot). I keep trying NOT to count on that Blue Wave, perhaps because I live in such a Red state and have become far too accustomed to the GOP winning everything from dogcatcher to Governors and Senators. .And then there’s the fact we are not going to get paper ballots for November’s elections, just those untraceable Diebold Machine cast votes with no paper trail whatsoever.

  122. 122.

    gvg

    @germy: And i believe Golf Digest explicitly SAID that too. Pointed out the justice system was incompetent, and that they weren’t experts. That the miscarriage of justice was so obvious, that random magazine writers could see it.

  123. 123.

    J R in WV

    @schrodingers_cat:

    JFK was a Congressman and a senator before he became President, not just a celebrity with good hair as you put it.

    Also a war hero, taking a plywood PT boat loaded with high explosives out in the dark against the Imperial Japanese Navy, which boat was blown up under him. Say what you will about his love life,, the man was brave and suffered for the rest of his life. Also did NOT end civilization during the Cuban Missile Crisis, an important talent~!!~

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