Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

All your base are belong to Tunch.

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

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Open Thread: Really Big & Infinitely Stupid!

Open Thread: Really Big & Infinitely Stupid!

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… In public, Trump continues to voice support for his embattled Supreme Court nominee, telling reporters at the United Nations earlier this morning that he stands with Kavanaugh “all the way.” But in private, Trump is growing increasingly frustrated by being mired in a deteriorating political situation beyond his control. On Monday morning, a Republican briefed on Trump’s thinking said the president has been considering pulling Kavanaugh’s nomination.

According to the source, Trump allies are imploring him to cut Kavanaugh loose for the sake of saving Republicans’ electoral chances in the midterms. The argument these advisers are making is that if Kavanaugh’s nomination fails, demoralized Republicans will stay home in November, and Democrats will take the House and the Senate and initiate impeachment proceedings. The end result: Trump will be removed from office. “The stakes are that high,” the source said. Another Republican adviser told me: “Trump is very worried now, and is finally waking up that it’s the end of his presidency if he loses the Senate.” Trump’s outside allies are advising him to nominate Amy Coney Barrett and fast-track her confirmation before the midterms. “Some in the White House think you can only appoint a woman now,” a former administration official told me. An outside adviser added: “Democrats won’t be able to pivot fast enough to attack her, since she’s a woman.”…

As Kavanaugh’s poll numbers plummet, Trump is telling people in private that he was never a fan of Kavanaugh’s selection, sources said. According to two people who’ve spoken with Trump recently, Trump complained that establishment Republicans foisted Kavanaugh on him, because they reasoned Kavanaugh would unite the party in November. According to one former West Wing official, Trump’s first choice was Judge Thomas Hardiman, who served on the federal bench alongside Trump’s sister Maryanne Trump Barry.

Trump is keeping his distance from the nominee. A White House official said he hasn’t spoken with Kavanaugh in recent days. “This is Brett Kavanaugh’s fight,” the White House official said.

He likes SCOTUS nominees who don’t get captured, okay?


Reader Interactions

329Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Jane Mayer @ JaneMayerNYer
    Jane Mayer Retweeted Seung Min Kim
    Same Senator who claimed Anita Hill got her claims against Clarence Thomas from The Exorcist.

    Seung Min Kim @ seungminkim
    Hatch refers to Ramirez’ allegation in NYer as “phony.” We asked why he’s calling it “phony.” He responds: “Because I know it is. That’s why.” When asked whether Ford allegation is also phony, Hatch: “I think she’s sincere, at least I hope so. But I think she’s sincerely wrong.”

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    “I’m not going to let false accusations drive us out of this process.” —Brett Kavanaugh

    _True_ accusations, on the other hand…

  3. 3.

    debbie

    If the issues weren’t so serious, I’d truly enjoy reading all these clowns struggling to play 11-dimensional chess.

  4. 4.

    jacy

    They’re saying that Kavanaugh said in the Fox interview he never had sex in high school or for “several years” after that. So, you see, he’s the real victim here.

    I saw just a snippet of the interview and if you watch his micro-expressions he seem just chock full o’ contempt. It amazes me how many people can’t read really bad people when it just seems so fucking obvious.

  5. 5.

    debbie

    Grassley Spends Weekend Practicing Pretending-to-Listen Face

    By Andy Borowitz8:00 A.M.

    Photograph by Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg / Getty
    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Facing the daunting challenge of appearing to pay attention to a woman’s utterances during a televised hearing, Senator Charles Grassley spent the weekend rehearsing what aides are calling his “pretending to listen” face.

    In round-the-clock practice sessions that aides characterized as “excruciating,” the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee struggled to simulate even a trace of interest in what a woman had to say.

    “Chuck has never pretended to listen to a woman before,” an aide said. “These are uncharted waters.”

    According to the aide, Grassley’s fake-listening skills “are rudimentary at best,” and the senator was able to hold only a semi-attentive facial expression for seven seconds before it showed unmistakable signs of boredom, irritation, and contempt.

    At one point, Grassley reportedly exploded with frustration, bellowing, “If I’d known that going into politics meant I’d have to listen to women, I’d have become a longshoreman.”

    Complicating the mock sessions further was the absence on the Judiciary Committee of any Republican women to whom Grassley could pretend to listen, forcing Senator Orrin Hatch to step uncomfortably into the role of a woman.

  6. 6.

    Jerzy Russian

    According to two people who’ve spoken with Trump recently, Trump complained that establishment Republicans foisted Kavanaugh on him, because they reasoned Kavanaugh would unite the party in November. According to one former West Wing official, Trump’s first choice was Judge Thomas Hardiman, who served on the federal bench alongside Trump’s sister Maryanne Trump Barry.

    I hate it when people foist things on me. I also hate it when I don’t get my first choice in a process in which I am supposed to be in charge of.

  7. 7.

    jacy

    Breaking news via Ari Melber — Susan Collins saying second Kavanaugh accuser should testify to Senate.

    Suzy Q looking for a parachute? I personally think if Murkowski has already bailed, Collins is looking for a way out.

  8. 8.

    Chyron HR

    The smears on #JudgeKavanaugh are going to backfire. Callers so angry.

    But Mitch McConnell just said that if you’re angry it means you’re losing. Justify this inconsistency, Huey.

  10. 10.

    Mary G

    Mrs. Kavanaugh looks like she’s full of horse tranquillizers. I don’t like or admire him, but making her go through this makes me hate him. He also looks right on the edge of screaming with rage, so I look forward to Kamala’s questions on Thursday, if they happen.

  12. 12.

    MisterForkbeard

    @jacy: Nah. The 2nd accuser isn’t going to do well on the stand, because she admits she was drunk and that she was 100% sure it was Kavanaugh initially.

    Shes trying to sound concerned and supportive while setting up a failure that will enable her to vote for Kavanaugh

  14. 14.

    TenguPhule

    On Monday morning, a Republican briefed on Trump’s thinking said the president has been considering pulling Kavanaugh’s nomination.

    According to the source, Trump allies are imploring him to cut Kavanaugh loose for the sake of saving Republicans’ electoral chances in the midterms. The argument these advisers are making is that if Kavanaugh’s nomination fails, demoralized Republicans will stay home in November, and Democrats will take the House and the Senate and initiate impeachment proceedings. The end result: Trump will be removed from office. “The stakes are that high,” the source said. Another Republican adviser told me: “Trump is very worried now, and is finally waking up that it’s the end of his presidency if he loses the Senate.”

    These would be the same nameless Republicans who assured the FTFNYT that Rosenstein was gone this morning?

  15. 15.

    Edmund dantes

    I was a virgin – Kavanaugh.

    Oh fuck off you fucker with that weak ass explanation. The fact he thinks that is relevant as a defense proves what a bad judge he is.

  17. 17.

    balconesfault

    Says Dems have become much better than Rs at opposition research and putting together strategies for nominees.

    Ever heard the term “target rich environment”?

  21. 21.

    Brent Wilson

    The argument these advisers are making is that if Kavanaugh’s nomination fails, demoralized Republicans will stay home in November, and Democrats will take the House and the Senate and initiate impeachment proceedings. The end result: Trump will be removed from office.

    I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me at this point but how can he believe there is a likely scenario for him being removed from office regardless of what happens with respect to the Senate in November? Its not that I am surprised that he doesn’t understand how impeachment works, but given that he is as personally afraid of its consequences in the way the article describes, you would think he would ask, for instance, McConnell to explain it to him.

  23. 23.

    jacy

    @TenguPhule:

    All the have to do is find one girl who slept with him in high school or college (willingly) to show he’s a liar. Although I certainly wouldn’t own up to it if it were me.

  24. 24.

    Chyron HR

    Full Transcript of Bret Kavanaugh’s Fox News interview: “Am I a rapist? No. Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors.”

  27. 27.

    Immanentize

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Actually, the second allegation is pretty much rock solid. It didn’t start with the victim, it started with witnesses.

    And if Collins is calling for hearings on the second allegation, Kananaugh is finished

  28. 28.

    lgerard

    I’m sure Kavanaugh can produce the calendar entry for the day he lost his virginity

    Case closed libtards!

  30. 30.

    TenguPhule

    @Immanentize:

    It didn’t start with the victim, it started with witnesses.

    Which is why the Republicans on the committee have no intention of calling any of the witnesses, just the victim.

  32. 32.

    gene108

    Trump must be sooooo confused. He’s done as much or worse to women than Kavanaugh, throughout his entire life, and a lot more recently too, and 63 million people voted him into the Presidency.

    But some crap from high school is getting his boy Brett in trouble, must be really, really hard for Trump to understand.

  33. 33.

    Ladyraxterinok

    The testimony/questioning will be televised, right. I read that the room assigned for Thursday is very small.

    Also the GOP senators will be doing their own questioning, right? I read they wanted Kelly Ayotte to do their questioning.

    Who wooda thought defending patriarchy would become so difficult // We should just repeal the 19th amendment// Like Ann Coulter repeatedly emphasizes, if women couldn’t vote, we’d never have a democrat as president again!

  35. 35.

    Aleta

    Yale law school canceled 31 classes on Monday to help facilitate protests that saw students pack the halls and speak out against abusers and those who silence victims. In the nation’s capital, a bus carried additional students to the Supreme Court and Senate buildings to demonstrate.

    Catherine McCarthy, a third-year law school student who was attending the on-campus event, told HuffPost that organizers counted at least 260 attendees. Among them were faculty members and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who spoke in support of a full investigation into Kavanaugh’s alleged misbehavior.

    Multiple classes were canceled on Monday at Yale University’s law school to help facilitate student protests.
    “The first word that comes to mind is fierce,” McCarthy, 29, said of the scene’s mood in a phone interview.

    “People are, I think, angry on behalf of people who have been mistreated, particularly on behalf of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Ramirez,” she said, naming the two women who have publicly come forward with allegations against Kavanaugh this month.

  36. 36.

    balconesfault

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Conservatives seem to spend so much time inside their bubble that they’re incapable of understanding any argument … or believing any facts … that exists outside their bubble.

    OTOH, our media largely seems intent on judging conservatives on a curve, based on only those opinions and facts accepted within that same bubble … so we’ll keep getting exposed to BS only because it’s slightly less stupid and counterfactual than other BS,

  38. 38.

    JaneE

    I would like Kavanaugh to explain his yearbook entry. With his wife in the room, but probably better not the daughters. It doesn’t sound as if he were “not getting any”. Maybe just not getting any with consenting females. Or maybe he was just a liar then too.

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    The R men on the committee can probably wangle a bulk purchase price on shock collars. Aides will be instructed to surreptitiously punch the button each time the facial mask slips.

  41. 41.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @jacy: Doesn’t his claim of virginity destroy his creds with his prep school gang? Wonder what Judge would say–after he recovered from a massive laughing fit, of course

  44. 44.

    brettvk

    @jacy: I read the quote and yelled out loud, “Bullshit!” I don’t for a moment believe that a DKE bro saved himself for marriage in the 1980s. I hope the intertubes do their worst with that clip.

  45. 45.

    cynthia ackerman

    FSM, how I hope the Kavanaugh debacle is seen by future historians as the Edmund Pettis Bridge moment for our current GOP, and that McConnell is clearly painted as the worst of the worst.

    Fuck that all.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    @JaneE:

    With his wife in the room, but probably better not the daughters. I

    Why? Forewarned is forearmed and don’t they deserve a chance to recognize a sex offender by his behavior?

  48. 48.

    khead

    Hugh isn’t that far off – he’s just talking about the wrong bubble. Enjoy this from a dudebro in bizarro world, AKA my FB feed:

    I quite honestly do not care who I upset or who’s toes I step on and I never hardly discuss politics, but I just have to say that what the Democrats are doing to this supreme Court candidate makes me want to vomit and it’s the worst fiasco and exploitation of women and women’s rights that I have ever witnessed in my life. This BS has to stop!!

    If I had to take a guess I am thinking, if asked, he would say Merrick Garland is a school principal in southern WV. The GOP bubble is strong.

  49. 49.

    JPL

    @Mary G: It was creepy to bring in the girls team that he coached to the hearings. When has another nominee had a teenage cheering section behind them?

  52. 52.

    gene108

    @Immanentize:

    DO not forget Rosenstein was appointed to his job by Trump, and confirmed by a Republican controlled Senate.

    He isn’t a liberal savior. He just seems to have more respect for the rule of law than any elected Republican official.

  53. 53.

    Doug R

    @Mary G:

    Mrs. Kavanaugh looks like she’s full of horse tranquillizers. I don’t like or admire him, but making her go through this makes me hate him. He also looks right on the edge of screaming with rage, so I look forward to Kamala’s questions on Thursday, if they happen.

    She married the contemptous rapey frat boy in the wingnut bubble, now she’s got to live with it.
    I feel for that poor 13 year old I saw at his ass kissing speech.

  55. 55.

    Martin

    @jacy:

    All the have to do is find one girl who slept with him in high school or college (willingly) to show he’s a liar. Although I certainly wouldn’t own up to it if it were me.

    The plan is to get him confirmed before that can happen. This is a race. They need 50 votes to seat him but Democrats need 66 to remove him.

  59. 59.

    ruemara

    @JPL: I thought it was weird that they were making such a big deal about his coaching of whatever. He’s not being hired to coach the senate republican baseball team. Now, it makes sense.

  60. 60.

    Mary G

    FTFNYT still sticking to the Rosenstein story:

    NEW: Rosenstein grew emotional at the White House, rehirerated he wants to resign and is concerned Trump will attack him if they don’t have an amicable split. One reason he wants to quit: he doesn’t want to testify on the Hill about the allegations. https://t.co/NSnBx2Nzge— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) September 24, 2018

    In such a hurry to get it out, spelled reiterated “rehirerated,” if you are a professional writer, Mr. Schmidt, there is a thing called spellcheck you may want to look into.

  64. 64.

    Steve in the ATL

    From what I’ve seen of Kavanaugh, I have no problem believing that, despite his many attempts at committing rape, he was involuntarily celibate throughout high school and for many years afterward.

    Creepy mofo.

  66. 66.

    Aleta

    Martha MacCallum called Ailes a “terrific boss” after the initial allegations against Ailes emerge.

    Shine, the deputy chief of staff for communications at the White House, has participated in coaching sessions for Kavanaugh. He was a longtime Fox News executive who was forced out over his proximity to the sexual harassment scandal involving Roger Ailes.

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: UCLA is planning for the class of 2029. I am not joking. In the University world, outside of the big universities, if you are not planning for recruitment ten years from now, you are sunk.

    But if you are a biggy like UCLA, you understand that, and spend money doing that. That is why great universities stay great. Whatever great is.

  70. 70.

    lamh36

    @vanitaguptaCR
    13m13 minutes ago
    More
    I lost count of how many times Kavanaugh said he wants fair process. And yet he refuses to ask for or support a FBI investigation.

  71. 71.

    lamh36

    @RonanFarrow
    11m11 minutes ago
    More Ronan Farrow Retweeted Sean Langille
    Worth considering re. Kavanaugh’s assertion that all men & women he knew in college consider this “inconceivable”: his roommate at the time is on the record saying Ramirez’s claim is credible and consistent with Kavanaugh’s behavior he witnessed: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/senate-democrats-investigate-a-new-allegation-of-sexual-misconduct-from-the-supreme-court-nominee-brett-kavanaughs-college-years-deborah-ramirez …

  72. 72.

    Mary G

    Kavanaugh said he wanted a fair process seventeen times in the Fox interview.— Philip Bump (@pbump) September 24, 2018

    His hero worship of Twitler is off the charts. Wants a fair process, but cuts off his wife from answering whether or not a FBI investigation should be reopened.

  74. 74.

    Immanentize

    @Martin: I think his virginity is a total red herring. Who is more likely to go along with the boys, wangle his dick in front of a girl, prove unable to perform even when in control than a man who has bought into a sick version of virginity.

    Ideals of virginity increase antisocial behavior. See Priests.

  76. 76.

    Mary G

    Dr. Blasey Ford’s lawyers also trolling not having senators ask the questions:

    And Ford's attorney seeks more information about why a Republican members of the committee will have a lawyer ask questions on their behalf, and who the lawyer is, asap. pic.twitter.com/FvA4BAjerX— Todd Ruger (@ToddRuger) September 24, 2018

    And they refer to her as Dr. Blasey Ford so I know which version of her name to use.

  77. 77.

    MagdaInBlack

    At one point, Grassley reportedly exploded with frustration, bellowing, “If I’d known that going into politics meant I’d have to listen to women, I’d have become a longshoreman.”

    Aside from that being flat out ignorant in that statement, you wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes as a “longshoreman.” You’d have to actually WORK.

    I despise these people.

  78. 78.

    lamh36

    Ok…ugh…so I have to do a 10 page term paper for this Health Econ class, and I have no idea where to start. I know I want to do something that’s lab related (since I AM a laboratory tech)…but I’m stumped…and I have about 2-3 weeks before my first outline is due, and then the finish product will be due by November!

    Ugh…any body got any ideas…hit a sister up!

  79. 79.

    Hungry Joe

    @Martin: This. Trump will NOT be removed via impeachment, then conviction in the Senate: You couldn’t get 16 GOP senators (51 Dems, plus 16 GOP to get to 67 — 2/3) to vote to convict Trump if he were to, oh, I don’t know — shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. They (so far) can’t even come up with two votes to heave Rapey McRapeface overboard.

  82. 82.

    lamh36

    @samstein
    31m31 minutes ago
    More
    Kavanaugh isn’t just denying the assault allegation(s), he’s denying the perception that he (and Judge) were booze hounds. says his high school was spent on academics, sports, church and working on being a good friend. No sex and only occasional drinking

  83. 83.

    Baud

    @lamh36:

    so I have to do a 10 page term paper for this Health Econ class,

    Just write “Single Payer!” for 10 pages like all the cool kids do.

  85. 85.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Does it strike anyone else as odd that both stories we’ve heard about Kavanaugh’s sexual assaults include male witnesses being present? Sexual assault gets talked about as he-said she-said because there’s usually no one else there. Just who is K trying to impress with his sexual prowess here?

  86. 86.

    lamh36

    @Baud: ugh…if it was that easy…

    oh and not for nothing, but I’m pretty sure my teacher (who just so happens to be the department head) is a wingnutty economist…down to the text he is using for the class…and it’s beyond hard for me NOT to roll my eyes…

  88. 88.

    lamh36

    @WayneFreedman
    Just spoke with #JamesRoche who was Yale roommate of Brett #Kavanaugh . He confirms that the #SCOTUS nominee was frequently drunk, and incoherently. Says he supports integrity of Debbie Ramirez, the 2nd accuser. #abc7now #KavanaughConfirmation Respects her courage.

    3:44 PM – Sep 24, 2018

  92. 92.

    Miss Bianca

    @MagdaInBlack: Errmm…you do realize that Andy Borowitz is a satirist, right? That that article is parody?

    Tho’ I totally get it if you didn’t. Parody these days is having to gallop so hard to stay ahead of reality that the poor beastie might just just drop down dead of exhaustion.

  93. 93.

    lamh36

    @RadioFreeTom
    20m20 minutes ago
    More
    I am having trouble reconciling the virginal altar boy with pledging DKE.

  95. 95.

    lamh36

    @Immanentize:i do…but I also have to be able to write about them with some understanding…and as much as I read David’s post…health care economics are just not my thing…so by trying to relate it to lab issues, I think I can at least get 10 pages out of it…

  99. 99.

    sukabi

    @Mary G: so the grabby old pervs want a sex crimes prosecutor to question Dr. Ford? Will he be questioning Kavanaugh as well? Dems should be able to have their own sex crimes prosecutor question Kavanaugh.

  102. 102.

    Mary G

    And in Twitler’s speech at the UN today, he says he wants to work with the administration in Colombia to eliminate cocoa production. You think women hate you now, buddy? The Chocolate Wars will be brutal but short.

    Wait…. WHAT?????Trump Wants to Help Colombia Eradicate WHAT??? pic.twitter.com/VcITVOSlIe— Indivisible Network (@IndivisibleNet) September 24, 2018

  106. 106.

    Chyron HR

    @Mary G:

    BREAKING, MUST CREDIT NYT: One time Rod Rosenstein went to the White House, and it was dark in there, and he saw some shadows and thought it was Dracula, but John Kelly said it was the coat hanging on the rack, and he turned on the light and it really was Dracula. Okay, bye.

  107. 107.

    Karla

    @lamh36: Maybe something about the shortages resulting from the hurricane in Puerto Rico or the apparently bad decisions by leaders of companies making injectable opioids in the continental U.S.? I don’t know how they’ve affected research science since I left the field, but hospitals have been thrown for a loop.

  109. 109.

    Immanentize

    @lamh36: OK. Empirical research? Or at least focussed on lab work. How about the economics of cancer DNA testing? Valuable or not? I could do 10 pages on that sorry topic.

  110. 110.

    Mike in NC

    Rosenstein? Kavanaugh? Fuck this so-called reality! I’m going back to Nantucket tomorrow even if it means I have to swim there.

  113. 113.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    What seems implausible about a claim that frat boys in the 1980s spent all of their time studying hard and praying to keep their virginity until marriage? //

  114. 114.

    Steve in the ATL

    @lamh36: how about a human interest story about a poor lawyer who received a bullshit $400 bill from a hospital for a procedure from months ago that supposedly wasn’t covered by insurance? Compelling stuff!

  115. 115.

    Citizen_X

    Compared judge to “elite media figures” like Les Moonves & Harvey Weinstein who have been accused of sexual harassment/assault

    Talk about your wingnut bubble. Because it worked out so well for those guys, right, Kellyanne?

  116. 116.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    @jacy:

    Kavanaugh said in the Fox interview he never had sex in high school or for “several years” after that.

    Not for want of trying!

  121. 121.

    Patricia Kayden

    @jacy: Or maybe many people are okay with bad people as long as those bad people are on their side. Hence Trump in the White House and a Republicans in full control of Congress.

  122. 122.

    lamh36

    @Immanentize:

    The objective of the paper is to apply economic concepts to a health care subject of interest to the student. The paper will be graded on its writing, content and use of economics.

    A one-page description of the proposed research topic is due to me by October __. The proposal should describe your proposed sources of data or information, what economic issues you will be exploring and what you hope to accomplish. The paper itself is due on December __.

  126. 126.

    Luthe

    @lamh36: Costs of the lab tests you perform (for materials, labor, energy, etc) vs. the costs charged by the lab/hospital/insurance companies? I’m sure the tests you do are hella cheaper than the mark up charged to the insurer.

  127. 127.

    Mary G

    @Mnemosyne: And a frat whose members are famous for running around chanting “No means yes, and yes means anal,” and caused the frat’s charter to earn a five years suspension in 2011? Sure, Jan.

  128. 128.

    Aleta

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    Proving his hetero-ability to the hetero world?
    Or to Judge? Or to some past priest?

    Judge wrote that after drunkenness etc, they would go tell their Sex and Marriage teacher (also a priest) about it. The teacher later left teaching, had a popular radio show, and then spent 5 or so years in prison for possesion of child pornography.

  129. 129.

    Immanentize

    @lamh36: OK.

    I teach professors how to do scholarship. First rule -+ what pisses you off? Because that passion will sustain you.

  130. 130.

    Mnemosyne

    @Citizen_X:

    The wingnuts are up in arms because what Kellyanne actually said was that it’s hypocritical of the media to go after Kavanaugh because they covered for Weinstein et al for so long. Which is not exactly the same as a full-throated declaration that Kavanaugh is innocent of all charges.

  138. 138.

    sukabi

    @Immanentize: damn, don’t yell.

    Have they decided on a “questioner” yet? At this point it’s all speculation. I thought Grassley had told Dr. Ford’s lawyers that she couldn’t bring in someone to ask questions that the senators would be doing it…now they want to treat her like she’s the perp.

  139. 139.

    Luthe

    @jacy: You have to remember, these assholes define “sex” as p*nis-in-vagina. So that hummer they got from a drunk sorority girl wasn’t really “sex.”

  140. 140.

    Martin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: You bring a buddy along so you have someone who can (falsely) refute the girl’s claim. The administration doesn’t want to deal with problems, so having a 3rd party swearing that nothing happened usually resulted in the matter being dropped.

    Bringing a buddy is clear evidence of predatory intent.

  142. 142.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    @opiejeanne: Plus, she’s already 81 years old, so even if she turned out to be terrible it wouldn’t be for an inordinately long time.

  146. 146.

    Immanentize

    @lamh36: The cost of the American system requiring separation of a Doctor’s business and a lab business versus the European model of combined doctor and lab services.

    Nice because international, too.

  147. 147.

    lamh36

    @riotwomennn
    7m7 minutes ago
    More
    This month, Renate Schroeder Dolphin joined 64 other women who, saying they knew Judge Kavanaugh during their high school years & signed a letter supporting him.

    That’s before she read the Kavanaugh year book

    Horrible Hurtful Untrue … Kavanaugh was not quite what he seemed
    https://twitter.com/riotwomennn/status/1044379959307972608

    Uh huh…so blindly signing off on a letter of support for someone for partisan reasons..didn’t quite work for ya huh lady

  148. 148.

    catclub

    Say what you will about Brett Kavanaugh, but his life trajectory from suburban Maryland to Yale to Yale Law School to DC legal work to the DC Circuit give him an unprecedented connection to ordinary Americans living outside the Beltway.

    some one else pointing out that he is a creature of the DC swamp that trump pretends to care about.

  150. 150.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Let us hope.

    There is an article in the Times about a phrase that occurs multiple times in Kavanaugh’s yearbook: “Renate Alumnus.” K’s spokesperson says it merely refers to his having taken her out once on a date and kissed her, chastely, once.

    Any of us who went to high school can figure out that’s a lie, I think. It’s entirely possible that the boys calling themselves that were bragging on no basis whatsoever, but they were sliming Renate.

  152. 152.

    Aleta

    @lamh36: Lab tests or screening in the economics of children’s health care? Or something to do with lab work in the economics of children’s preventative medicine ?

  154. 154.

    chopper

    @Luthe:

    it’s not that as much as he’s just lying through his fucking teeth. hell, he also said he didn’t do much drinking at all. his former roommate at yale is all ‘dude was tanked to the point of incoherence much of the time’. dude was in DKE for fuck’s sake, what was he, the house chaplain?

    this isn’t ‘depends on the definition of sex’, he’s just bullshitting. motherfucker was a virgin all the way through college my lily-white ass.

  155. 155.

    Cheryl Rofer

    The transparent lying is an assertion of power.

    I will pretend to be exactly what an idealized Supreme Court Justice should be, from an idealized Catholic school and Ivy League background, and you must agree that I am fully qualified for the post.

  159. 159.

    raven

    @Mary G: Mine as well, I got #1 last week at the pharmacy.

    Shingrix costs $280 for both shots. Medicare Part D — the prescription drug plan for people ages 65 and older — will cover the cost. But you may have to get the shot at your pharmacy instead of your doctor’s office.

  160. 160.

    hueyplong

    Only on FOX could an assertion of virginity be a complete defense to accusations of sexual assaults that do not include allegations of penetration.

    FOX people hew to a logic I can’t follow.

  161. 161.

    raven

    Most insurance plans that cover drugs require you to use a “preferred” pharmacy in their network if you want the lowest co-pay. And Clements points out that under the Affordable Care Act marketplace plans the copay could be zero. But what if drugstores in your network don’t yet have the vaccine even though out-of-network pharmacies do? Must you spend additional dollars — potentially a lot of them — because of a situation that isn’t your fault? The short answer: It depends on your plan. You’ll have to call your insurer and ask.

  162. 162.

    The Moar You Know

    I don’t know what ‘Renate Alumnus’ actually means

    @lamh36: That’s comedy gold.

    It means you were the frat bicycle, lady. They knew it, you know it, now the whole world knows it. Hopefully you’ve learned a lesson here, and next time you won’t sign letters of support for rapists.

  163. 163.

    TS (the original)

    When you think he can’t get any more revolting – He is back to attacking the San Juan Mayor
    From wapo

    President Trump said in a radio interview broadcast Monday that he is an “absolute no” on statehood for Puerto Rico, citing his running feud with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, a critic of the federal response to Hurricane Maria.

    “With the mayor of San Juan as bad as she is and as incompetent as she is, Puerto Rico shouldn’t be talking about statehood until they get some people that really know what they’re doing,”

  165. 165.

    Redshift

    @jacy:

    They’re saying that Kavanaugh said in the Fox interview he never had sex in high school or for “several years” after that. So, you see, he’s the real victim here.

    Well, if he had a reputation as an attempted rapist, that could have hurt his chances…

  167. 167.

    opiejeanne

    We spent a few hours in Newport Beach today and it was lovely at first. We had a nice time at a cafe waiting for a business to open, walked around the marina afterwards, then headed to Rogers Garden to see the Halloween display, which was quite something, gloriously silly but the prices!!!.

    While we were there something got to me, maybe it was all the extreme wealth displayed in the parking lot or all the older very rich women, extremely thin women blocking walkways while they gabbed, not noticing anyone else. The Hispanic men discreetly moving hoses and watering some of the plants in pots, so discreet that they were invisible to almost everyone there. The cafe with a one month waiting list for lunch. The contrast was just too much
    By the time we were done I couldn’t wait to get out of town, and I’ve always liked Newport Beach. Driving down MacArthur looking for the freeway onramp, I looked around at all of the newish high-rise buildings and it just really got to me. We’re not poor, we have a second home in the mountains in SoCal, but all of that money, that extreme wealth concentrated right there in that Republican enclave was just overwhelming. Sickening. Infuriating.

  168. 168.

    lamh36

    @Luthe: that is actually a topic and friend and I did discuss…the economics of lab cost reinbursment from private insurance vs medicare/medicaid?

  169. 169.

    sukabi

    @lamh36: Reading that I got a very sick feeling…I think that woman is in for some very rough times as she comes to grip with memories that have been buried for 30+ years.

  170. 170.

    Immanentize

    @raven: Yes, I used to head up your CTLE (Center for Teaching and Learning Education). Clinical Legal Education scholarship is 90% SOTL.

  171. 171.

    TS (the original)

    @sukabi: I hope Dr Blasey Ford will attend the hearing and refuse to answer any questions from anyone other than senators on the committee.

  172. 172.

    Caphilldcne

    @lamh36: how about some modeling on savings produced by getting doing emergency room testing for HIV in states with high HIV rates. (Or maybe in southern states that did not expand Medicaid). The impact of early diagnosis could be high. I’ve got some very recent modeling of the US epidemic that I can send to you. Not sure how to relate it to labs however. Or could look at Similar testing for STIs?

  173. 173.

    Steve in the ATL

    @catclub: underage drinking—omg!!!!!!!

    Clearly you did not go to high school or college.

    I find the gang rape allegations far, far more concerning than underage drinking.

  175. 175.

    Elizabelle

    Kavanaugh is not going to get his Supreme Court seat. He is the butt of jokes. That will not put him on the highest court.

    We have to make sure that Trump seats no more justices. We are better with the 8 we have. He can nominate Merrick Garland, but no one else. It would just be self-dealing.

  176. 176.

    Calouste

    @Redshift: “Mr. Kavanaugh, we’re not here to talk about whether your sexual assault succeeded, we’re here to talk about whether you attempted it.”

  183. 183.

    Mike in NC

    @raven: Thanks. Probably my favorite place to live was Newport, RI for three years. Close to shopping in Boston, New Bedford, and Fall River, MA. I was also an avid scuba diver way back then and went lobstering on many weekends. Nantucket reminded me of coastal RI and Cape Cod.

  186. 186.

    Mary G

    @opiejeanne: I know, I used to love Rogers Gardens when they were just in a field in the middle of nowhere, but it’s conspicuous consumption all the way down now. And all the people who knew about plants and bought rare ones you can’t get anywhere else have all been fired for being homely and having dirt under their nails, and they don’t have nearly the selection in the huge space they have now that they used to have in the tiny one. Did you see the parking lot for the help? My mom and I parked there by accident once, and it’s full of plants the rich people just pointed to waiting for the gardener to pick up. Carry your own.

  187. 187.

    TenguPhule

    @Elizabelle:

    Kavanaugh is not going to get his Supreme Court seat. He is the butt of jokes. That will not put him on the highest court.

    let;s not jinx it until he’s actually gone?

  188. 188.

    chopper

    the amazing thing is, all this schmuck needed to do was get in front of this by dealing with it, admitting to it, and saying that after it all when he was 25 he turned around and “found christ” and was “born again” and all that bullshit and goopers would be piling themselves up to take a bullet for him.

  191. 191.

    lamh36

    @HeathaT
    Follow Follow @HeathaT
    More Heather Timmons Retweeted Matt Pearce ?
    ““You need a date / and it’s getting late / so don’t hesitate / to call Renate.” The “Renate alumni” club Kavanaugh was part of at Georgetown Prep mocked a local teen girl.

  192. 192.

    TenguPhule

    @chopper:

    Judge Kavanaugh’s personal page boasts, “100 kegs or bust”

    I’m sure he has a perfectly reasonable line of bullshit to explain that.

  194. 194.

    Immanentize

    @raven: Sorry, I meant to type “our”. But not take backs in BJ. I would love to head up UGA’s center. They are doing some great stuff.

  197. 197.

    TenguPhule

    @Mary G:

    And in Twitler’s speech at the UN today, he says he wants to work with the administration in Colombia to eliminate cocoa production.

    Give me chocolate or give Trump death.

  200. 200.

    Mary G

    @lamh36: Or why people who don’t have insurance get charged a huge amount just in case they can pay it? I used to get Rituxin IVs that they would bill $40,000 and accept $6,500 from Medicare. I could never get a straight answer about why there was never a poor, and rarely a person of color, in the infusion suite, and just feel sick thinking about somebody suffering that could not get what I got because I had those two little cards.

  201. 201.

    chopper

    @TenguPhule:

    it was obviously a reference to 100 kegs of sweet, wholesome root beer, brewed in the basement of the church he spent seriously all of his free time at worshipping jesus am i right y’all?

  203. 203.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @chopper: Pride goeth before a fall and all that. In the end this might be what saves us, because these sick mofos CAN’T EVEN PRETEND to be compassionate human beings, they can’t do it.

  204. 204.

    Elizabelle

    @opiejeanne: Interesting take on Newport Beach. I did not like the place the first time I was there. Full of people who looked at you, but did not talk to you.

    Rogers Gardens is beautiful. Sorry that it was full of trophy wife types. A danger of the OC beach communities.

  205. 205.

    Roger Moore

    @Luthe:

    You have to remember, these assholes define “sex” as p*nis-in-vagina.

    They need to ask if he had anything he would have classified as sex if it occurred between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski.

  207. 207.

    Anotherlurker

    @opiejeanne: Boy, opiejeanne, I know that feeling! I grew up in a rich town. I am 3rd generation in a line of cooks, gardeners and domestics. Scottish Grandmother (Estate Chef, Italian Grandfather, Gardener).
    I made my liviving as a broadcast TV tech, Audio.
    One thing I find to be consistent: the rich don’t notice the help. We are invisible. The conversations that I have heard , as a tech, onset, in the sports broadcast booth and as a waiter, bartender, busboy have been candid, unguarded . I have heard racist words about President Obama from the president of a sports network. I have heard misogynistic statements, from upper mgt., about one of my bosses, a very attractive production manager.
    Shit, as a scrawny, 17 year old busboy, I was propositioned by a woman who was a member of of very exclusive yacht club.
    We (the wait staff) used to joke that the typical yacht club member’s wife was small brested and large footed. This was a genetic mutation that evolved so that when they consumed too many Tanquerey and Tonics, they would not fall over, due to the center of gravity being lowered.
    for the most part, the rich hold the help in contempt. We are there for them to use and then forget about, until our services are needed, again, for their comfort.
    To be fair, I did work for a very wealthy couple who did a lot of good in this world. They took the concept of Noblese Oblige seriously. The patriarch of the family retired from a very large law firm. He spent his retirement as an election judge for volital countries. I believe he was involved in overseeing something in South Africa, during the end of apartheid .

  210. 210.

    TenguPhule

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I find the gang rape allegations far, far more concerning than underage drinking.

    Somehow I managed to go through high school and college without doing either.

  212. 212.

    Immanentize

    @raven: I live near Boston. But I may know Lori…. Does she belong to POD? Professional and Organizational Development? Sort of an offshoot of AAC&U for CTL/SOTL folks

  213. 213.

    chopper

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    it’s a sign of progress that the ‘i didn’t do it and also she’s a slut’ defense doesn’t work so much anymore. it’s also sad that the ‘just say you found jesus’ defense still likely would. really all of this is just a bunch of different dimensions of sad and enraging.

  214. 214.

    Barbara

    @lamh36: One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. What you consider moderate is no doubt relative to what others around you are doing.

  216. 216.

    Elizabelle

    @raven: No, missed that. Do love the Laguna art galleries. And the Pageant of the Masters. Biked along the Pacific a LOT. I miss SoCal.

    Do not miss the moneyed types. Conspicuous consumption. Meh. Must have empty lives.

  217. 217.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @TenguPhule: I seldom drank in high school. And the drinking age was 18 when I started college. I still managed to avoid gang or other forms of rape. It isn’t all that difficult.

  222. 222.

    opiejeanne

    @Doug R: His wife strikes me as someone he married because he needed a wife; a non-threatening female, presentable in appearance and not a flashy dresser daily life, with whom to have children. For his career, for advancement in his career.

    I am dead certain he’s got someone on the side, possibly an ever-changing string of young women who look like models.

  223. 223.

    raven

    @Immanentize: No, Law Prof here. Big in con law and voting. We’re all hooked up with POD and AAC&U, we’re going to co-host the AAC&U Annual Conference in Atlanta in January. My civilian email is markann at the goggle mail place if you want to shoot me a note and we’ll compare them!

  224. 224.

    James E Powell

    @Elizabelle:

    Full of people who looked at you, but did not talk to you.

    When I moved to Los Angeles from Cleveland, that was my impression of the whole of southern California.

  227. 227.

    TenguPhule

    @opiejeanne:

    I am dead certain he’s got someone on the side, possibly an ever-changing string of young women who look like models.

    Fairly certain they’re his clerks. And once he was done with them, John Roberts got his sloppy seconds.

  228. 228.

    J R in WV

    @a href=”#comment-7028776″>Immanentize:

    the American system requiring separation of a Doctor’s business and a lab business versus the European model of combined doctor and lab services.

    My doctor has a lab right there in his office. Does almost all of the routine blood work associated with appointments, most results available before you leave, partly because he wants to see them at the end of the appointment, which takes all day, but I don’t care. Full service family practice, plus board cert gerontologist.

    I suspect a large part of his take home income is from the billing for the lab services. A long time ago he sent patients down stairs to the medical staff building lab, but that stopped years and years ago. We’ve been seeing him since the late 1970s… when he started his independent practice.

    He leased his office, the docs do not have an end date, nor any method for ending a lease, so they can’t kick him out. He is the last independent doctor in the 11 story building. He has a grand piano and a huge couch in his office, has taken refuge there from power outages with wife, cats and dogs, on the hospital’s generator. They also put up sturdy aluminium flood walls when it rains a ton, which makes it hard to park in the garage under the facility.

  230. 230.

    MagdaInBlack

    @TenguPhule:
    Thank you for clarifying.
    I am well aware of the origin.
    I am also an over-educated old woman with some very interesting people in my past.
    Trust me that there are other, more recent meanings, not all of them so…..innocent.
    ?

  231. 231.

    Elizabelle

    @Immanentize: Bob Packwood and Jim Jeffords were the NO votes among Republicans. Interesting.

    FTF NY Times: How the Senate voted re Clarence Thomas. John McCain was a yes. As was his Democratic colleague from Arizona, Dennis DeConcini, and Sam Nunn of Georgia. So was Democrat (then!) Richard Shelby.

    Joe Lieberman was a No. Dang, both Virginia Senators were a Yes. Chuck Robb (for shame!) and John Warner. A lot of the Southern and Western Democratic Senators voted yes.

  232. 232.

    TenguPhule

    Because Texas.

    The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says in a Facebook post that the drugs were found in two pallets of bananas that were donated because they were already ripe. The donation arrived Friday.

    The department says sergeants who picked up the boxes found a bundle of a white powdery substance under the bananas. U.S. customs officials were called to the scene, and authorities say 540 packages of cocaine were found in 45 boxes of bananas.

  234. 234.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @hueyplong:
    #MeToo also wasn’t a thing and the Dems then were willing to overlook Thomas’ improprieties. Now, they’re fighting like hell. He also only ever had one accuser of sexual misconduct. Not attempted rape. He could still be seated but it’s looking really bad right now for the GOP

  236. 236.

    Immanentize

    @raven: Oh my, that Lori R! Big deal and the real deal at this moment. Alex S is a longtime colleague and friend of mine.

  237. 237.

    MomSense

    I’m watching Rachel and I feel sick. Sometimes this is just too much. I’d walk my dog but I’m currently icing a swollen knee.

  238. 238.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @opiejeanne:

    I am dead certain he’s got someone on the side, possibly an ever-changing string of young women who look like models.

    Nah, he comes off as enough of a dork that I believe his virgin story. He was the kid who showed up at the fraternity rush mixer and had to talk about his SAT scores or the car his parents gave him. When his picture came on the screen, my fraternity would have thrown beer cans at it.

  239. 239.

    Elizabelle

    @James E Powell: Mine too! I had flown down from San Francisco, which was a way friendlier (and more walkable) city. But then I grew to like SoCal. Most of it. I miss the landscape.

  240. 240.

    TenguPhule

    Ten days after Florence came ashore, the storm caused fresh chaos today in Yauhannah and elsewhere across South Carolina, where rivers kept rising and thousands more people were told to be ready to evacuate.

    Authorities urged up to 8,000 people in Georgetown County, on the South Carolina coast, to be prepared to flee from potential flood zones. A “record event” of up to 10 feet (3 meters) of flooding was expected to begin Tuesday near parts of the Pee Dee and Waccamaw rivers, county spokeswoman Jackie Broach-Akers said.

    Places along the waterfront in Georgetown were predicted to flood for the first time since record keeping began before the American Revolution.

    North Carolina is just shit out of luck.

  246. 246.

    Immanentize

    @Elizabelle:

    Bob Packwood and Jim Jeffords were the NO votes among Republicans. Interesting

    Wow Blasts from the past with certain intimate knowledge of harrassment.

  249. 249.

    Elizabelle

    @TenguPhule: Georgetown SC had a disastrous fire in its historic downtown a few years ago. They do not need this flood. Charming place. A Rice Museum I have yet to visit. Not so far from Pawleys Island.

    Although I have mixed feelings about the Palmetto State, with its Republican-voting habit. For shame.

  251. 251.

    Elizabelle

    @Immanentize: Yeah. Packwood was interesting. And Jeffords later caucused with the Democrats.

    Mark Hatfield, a moderate Republican of Oregon and Packwood’s colleague, was a yes. For shame. He got a lot of good press in the day.

  252. 252.

    OldDave

    @MagdaInBlack:

    “If I’d known that going into politics meant I’d have to listen to women, I’d have become a longshoreman.”

    You should note that’s from an Andy Borowitz satire / political humor article and almost assuredly non-factual. Funny, I must admit, but not reality.

  255. 255.

    Chetan Murthy

    @MagdaInBlack: How *interesting*. I can see how that might have happened (inferring what your (ahem) “modern usage” might be, from the list you provided).

    Sigh.

  260. 260.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay: FIVE? I’d read of two others. But FIVE? OK, now I”m even *madder* at Biden than I was already. Ugh.

  261. 261.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Jay:
    Oh? I guess I need to brush up on my history. Still, the political and social climate is different now.

  262. 262.

    Barbara

    @J R in WV: Most doctors can only do simple lab tests with autoprocessing. Anything more sophisticated means they have to be CLIA certified, which most doctors’ offices won’t do.

  264. 264.

    lamh36

    @frankthorp
    20m20 minutes ago
    More
    In new letter from Dr Ford’s Attorney to the Judiciary Committee, they again object to having outside counsel ask the questions for republicans at Thursday’s hearing, and ask for the name and resume of who that person will be.

    This does not appear to be a done deal.

    I don’t know, but would Dr. Ford be better served by giving an on-camera interview w/news net. Or maybe even sittindown for an interview right after testifying or right after Kavanugh testifies

  265. 265.

    Mary G

    @Jay: That’s what I will never forgive Joe Biden for. The women were IN THE BUILDING ready to back up her story and he “just couldn’t do it” like he had no control over anything. I just imagine all the time and effort and emotional struggle they put in deciding to speak up and were just not allowed to.

  268. 268.

    MisterForkbeard

    @WaterGirl: That’s immediately where my wife went with it, saying she probably never knew she was assaulted. I had to forcefully remind her that Renate is just saying that Kvanaugh lied about screwing her with all his friends.

  269. 269.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mary G:
    Good luck with that. A lot of fine upstanding Colombians are not going to give up their traditional coca-leaf tea without a fight.

  274. 274.

    Original Lee

    @lamh36: Maybe you could do something with the different kinds of marker tests? I honestly don’t know very much about this, but I do know that my doctors really try hard not to order a full liver function panel if they can help it, because it’s so expensive.

    Alternatively, you could do a cost/benefit analysis of MRI assessment of diastolic and systolic heart function. IIRC, the diastolic is cheaper but the systolic is more comprehensive.

  275. 275.

    frosty

    @opiejeanne:

    … all of that money, that extreme wealth concentrated right there…

    Years ago I did a cross-country trip returning to SoCal; since it was winter I headed south and west. After Alabama, Mississippi, rural Texas, and New Mexico, dropping down I-8 into San Diego gave me a similar feeling. The obvious money everywhere and the contrast to where I’d been was eye-opening.

  277. 277.

    satby

    @MisterForkbeard: you had to “forcefully remind her”?!? WTF
    Given the other stuff that comes out, it could be both that she’s saying he’s lying and she might have been assaulted while drunk and unconscious, thus not realizing it.

  279. 279.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Michelle Goldberg should be one of the most quoted pundits in pundit land

    Regardless of what happens to Kavanaugh, however, this scandal has given us an X-ray view of the rotten foundations of elite male power. Despite Donald Trump’s populist posturing, there are few people more obsessed with Ivy League credentials. Kavanaugh’s nomination shows how sick the cultures that produce those credentials — and thus our ruling class — can be.

  281. 281.

    psycholinguist

    @opiejeanne: A colleague in my department (psychology) is a sex researcher. Not particularity political, but she’s been following the women involved here. We were talking and I asked about her views, and she asked about Kavenaugh’s wife – age difference, when they were married. Didn’t know at the time, but she bet she was younger and that K married late. His wife is 10 years younger, and he was 40 before he married, as she predicted. She thinks there’s going to be a lot more come out that happened in his pre-marriage adulthood – not necessarily rape, but dominant, probably violent. Reminded me of the stuff the New York DA.

  282. 282.

    Mnemosyne

    @WaterGirl:

    I think she’s probably just someone who didn’t realize she was the object of nasty rumors among the boys at Georgetown Prep. Sucks to be her and find this shit out 30 years later, but maybe next time she’ll check before she blindly endorses someone.

    Though if she does have any alcohol-related gaps in her high school memories, she’s probably freaking the fuck out right now. I would be, too.

  283. 283.

    raven

    @frosty: When we moved out there in the late 50’s Laguna was a sleepy little place with this dude meeting you.

    Eiler Larsen (March 27, 1890 – March 19, 1975) was a Danish vagabond who earned fame as “The Greeter” of Laguna Beach, California, United States.[1] Larsen wandered in Europe, South America and across the United States before settling in Laguna at age 52. He worked as an occasional gardener, but adopted the daily habit of standing on a street corner to greet every car and passerby. From the 1940s until the early 1970s, the shaggy-haired, heavily bearded Larsen grinning, waving and booming “Halloo-oo-oo!” to visitors became a cultural icon for Laguna Beach tourists. Local patrons supported him with a rent-free room, free meals and other services. In 1964, Larsen was proclaimed Laguna’s Official Greeter by the mayor. During his lifetime, Larsen was featured in paintings, postcards, photographs and sculptures.

  285. 285.

    MisterForkbeard

    @satby: Meaning, my wife kept interrupting me when I was trying to explain what had happened saying “So she just found out she was assaulted!” “No… she was saying that -” “they tried to get girls drunk with jungle juice and she just found out!” “No, she was only saying that Kavanaugh-” ” They got girls blackout drunk, so she wouldn’t have even remembered.” “Let me finish – shes not saying that happened! She is saying Kavanaugh and his friends were all lying about her and spreading rumors!” “Oh! I hope that’s all that happened.”

    That’s what I mean by “forcefully”. My wife immediately went to the worst possible explanation, which is… pretty reasonable.

  287. 287.

    janesays

    I’d love to believe that the loss of the Senate by the GOP would result in Trump being removed from office, but who are we kidding here?

    In the absolute best case scenario, Democrats hold all of their red state seats and pick up Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Tennessee (very unlikely all of that will happen). That gives them a 53 seat majority.

    Who exactly are the 14 Republican senators that are going to vote to remove Trump from office after he is impeached in the House?

    They don’t exist. You might get 2 or 3 if you’re lucky, but that’s about it. But 14? Not a snowball’s chance in hell.

  289. 289.

    Bill Arnold

    @jacy:

    I saw just a snippet of the interview and if you watch his micro-expressions he seem just chock full o’ contempt. It amazes me how many people can’t read really bad people when it just seems so fucking obvious.

    I was kinda-sorta hoping he’d go for emergency Botox injections after his transparent efforts in his (2018, first) Senate confirmation hearing. Probably would have been too obvious though. :-)

  290. 290.

    MisterForkbeard

    @MisterForkbeard: Yeah. Though I feel like we can guess about this stuff, but we have to be careful about it. If a woman says she wasn’t raped. we should take that at face value.

    Hopefully that’s all it is. :(

  293. 293.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Mary G:

    The new shingles vaccine? My doctors won’t do it but advise I go to CVS and get it. Don’t know why.

    Late to the thread, but both my PCP and the pharmacist who shares a bed with me recommended it in strong terms. Unfortunately it can have unpleasant side effects, and, in my case, did.

  296. 296.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @debbie: Like I said upthread, I believe his virgin story. I am more or less his age. No girl that I knew in college would have fucked him, He was a douche with a giant forehead. He had no chance.

  302. 302.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @lamh36: Have you considered Nurse-patient ratios and their effect on patient care? Specifically the cost-benefit analysis of having enough RN’s (and patient care technicians, aka CNA’s) to make sure patients are seen, assessed, and paid attention to in the hospital vs. “8-1 ratios and total care so let’s roll the dice this shift and hope no one falls in the hallway and has a huge subdural hematoma cuz they lost their way to the bathroom”?

    It’s a really current issue in hospital-based care right now.

  308. 308.

    Jay

    @janesays:

    The model is that with the Democratic Party holding the House and Senate, and all the Chairs, every Committee starts holding hearings on every Trumpist and Enabler.

    So it’s all corruption, looting, Russians, moneylaundering, pay for play, mismanagement, sexual assault, harassment, all the time.

    Hundred’s of ReThugs and Trumpers join the cast of Orange Is The New Black Reality TV Edition.

    As the tumbrels start to stage up outside the House, Senate, Government offices, ReThug math say’s Kill Ceasar, try to Save Pence, and hope that’s enough to return to the “old ways”.

  311. 311.

    Another Scott

    @janesays: Verdict from 2017:

    Nevertheless, Donald Trump took office at the age of 70 years, 220 days, edging Ronald Reagan (69 years, 349 days) to become the oldest person ever to assume the presidency. That alone means that his survival in office cannot be taken for granted. A 71-year-old American male has an average remaining life expectancy of 13.5 years. This suggests Trump has about a 50% chance of being alive and kicking in 2031 – well beyond the constitutional limit of two terms in office. But the detailed actuarial tables tell us a more complete story. A 71-year-old American male has about a 2.6% chance of dying in the next year. This figure steadily creeps up with each year, to 3.3% in Year 4. The total cumulative chance of succumbing to the actuarial reaper within four years is a far-from-negligible 11.3%. By contrast, Trump’s defeated rival, Hillary Clinton (age 69) has about a 6.7% chance of dying during the same period, mostly by virtue of being female. President Obama (who took office at the age of 47) had only about a 1.7% cumulative chance of perishing during his first term.

    Of course, President Trump’s mileage may vary. He will benefit from first-rate medical care and has little risk of losing his health insurance during the next few years. By all accounts, he is a lifelong non-smoker and a teetotaler, both qualities known to give longevity a boost. On the other hand, Trump is at least somewhat overweight and not known to be fond of vigorous exercise. Overall, though Trump may fare slightly better than the average person his age, we know little about his health condition or history. Trump’s doctor released a letter during the campaign proclaiming that if elected, his client “will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency” – a claim which he later said was inspired by the hyperbolic literary style of his patient. After the election, the physician was more philosophical. “If something happens to him, then it happens to him,” Dr. Bornstein told the medical publication STAT. “It’s like all the rest of us, no? That’s why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying.”

    Indeed, as a matter of constitutional law, Dr. Bornstein is correct: that is precisely why we have them.

    Estimated chance of death in office from natural causes, 2017-21: 10%

    Donnie is a hot-head who hates to lose. That doesn’t usually lead to extended longevity.

    Mark Bowden from 2015:

    I watched as Trump strutted around the beautifully groomed clay tennis courts on his estate, managed by noted tennis pro Anthony Boulle. The courts had been prepped meticulously for a full day of scheduled matches. Trump took exception to the design of the spaces between courts. In particular, he didn’t like a small metal box—a pump and cooler for the water fountain alongside—which he thought looked ugly. He first questioned its placement, then crudely disparaged it, then kicked the box, which didn’t budge, and then stooped—red-faced and fuming—to tear it loose from its moorings, rupturing a water line and sending a geyser to soak the courts. Boulle looked horrified, a weekend of tennis abruptly drowned. Catching a glimpse of me watching, Trump grimaced.

    [ Claudia Schiffer on Playboy’s May 1997 cover with Mark Bowden’s Donald Trump profile. ]

    “I guess that’ll have to be in your story,” he said.

    “Pretty much,” I told him.

    This apparently worried him, because on the flight home a day later he had a proposition.

    “I’m looking for somebody to write my next book,” he told me.

    I told him that I would not be interested.

    “Why not?” he asked. “All my books become best-sellers.”

    The import was clear. There was money in it for me. Trump remains the only person I have ever written about who tried to bribe me.

    Donnie can’t buy-off the Democrats in Congress or the judges or prosecutors.

    He’s going to have lots and lots of heartburn next year…

    If we do all our part and show up and VOTE in November. 42 days to go!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  312. 312.

    Jay

    @Elizabelle:

    They only people they hate more than us, is them.

    The Nazi’s, Militia’s, Deplorables, Gullibillies, Ammosexual’s and others are much more likely to attack each other, and the ReThug Establishment, if The Insane Clown POSus is taken down,

    Than us.

  313. 313.

    janesays

    @MagdaInBlack: Poe’s Law lives on.

    Grassley didn’t actually say that – it’s from Andy Borowitz, the in-house satirist at The Atlantic.

    But isn’t it disturbing that a reasonable person could believe that Grassley would actually say that?

  314. 314.

    Bill Arnold

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I have no problem believing that, despite his many attempts at committing rape, he was involuntarily celibate throughout high school and for many years afterward.

    Remember Kavanaugh’s work against Bill Clinton. I am wondering about his lawyerly views on the definition of virginity.
    (Haven’t finished the thread so maybe this has been said.)

  317. 317.

    Mandalay

    @Another Scott:

    Trump is at least somewhat overweight

    Heh: “…at least somewhat…“. So mealymouthed.

    Trump is obviously obese, never exercises, lives on junk food, is perpetually angry, and the only person on earth who truly loves him is Devin Nunes. Not a good recipe for a long life.

  320. 320.

    opiejeanne

    @raven: I remember the Laguna greeter, usually standing on the corner at the place called The Pottery Barn (pretty sure that was the name), and then in the 70s he was gone. And soon there was a life-size statue made of fired pottery depicting him waving at traffic. That was when we knew he had died.

  321. 321.

    Mandalay

    @janesays:

    Who exactly are the 14 Republican senators that are going to vote to remove Trump from office after he is impeached in the House? They don’t exist. You might get 2 or 3 if you’re lucky, but that’s about it. But 14? Not a snowball’s chance in hell.

    Unlikely yes, but distinctly possible in a couple of scenarios:
    – If Trump is obviously guilty of a very serious crime such as (say) getting brown envelopes from Russia in return for enacting policies they requested.
    – Trump’s approval drops to the level where it is counterproductive for Republicans in the Senate to support him. Melania going rogue or new bombshell videos could easily trigger that.

  322. 322.

    janesays

    @Elizabelle: I really hope it works out that way, but I’ve got a gut feeling that the Senatortoise will just fast-track a new nominee through during the lame duck while he still has his majority.

  324. 324.

    Elizabelle

    @janesays: You know, there is enough shit going on every single day, I don’t know why people are going shopping for more stuff to worry about and be depressed over.

    Some lunatic named Noah Brand has showed up on the next thread.

  325. 325.

    Jay

    @janesays:

    The Angry Turtle might try, but then, Special K was supposed to be a cakewalk, and now he’s not.

    And it’s looking more and more like the only nominee Yurtle could rush through is Merrek Garland.

  329. 329.

    Mary Ellen Sandahl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Last week sometime a woman who was a contemporary of Dr. Blasey Ford (or near-contemporary) at one of the other schools in the Georgetown area posted IIRC a FB post in which she said she knew some of the Georgetown Prep boys and their partying habits. She said in her opinion they were gauche and inexperienced in dealing with girls, unable to view or treat them as friends, and had a group mentality that reinforced bad attitudes. One on one they could be pleasant and charming, but in a groiup, she said, they were like wolves.
    She took her statement down the same day she put it up, because journalists started contacted her, and she wanted no part of that.

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