Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

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

Their freedom requires your slavery.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

You cannot shame the shameless.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

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

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

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

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

White supremacy is terrorism.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Open Thread: This Is Absolutely One of the Worst Timelines

Open Thread: This Is Absolutely One of the Worst Timelines

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“Better truth-seeking”, sigh…


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175Comments

  8. 8.

    debbie

    They’re fucking idiots if they think this will die once Kavanaugh’s been confirmed. Investigations, lawsuits, etc. won’t stop. Imagine that spectacle! Thanks, GOP!

  9. 9.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    Think I heard Tuck Chodd say that Grassley won’t even name the outside counsel woman; somebody else (McTurtle?) let it slip that she is an “assistant.”

    Is Dr. Ford required to respond to this woman’s questions on Thursday, or can she insist on having all questions posed to her by actual, y’know, Senators/members of the fucking Judiciary Committee??!!

    Can/will the Dems on the JudComm do anything about this? I’ve been impressed with them so far but don’t know the legalities here.

  10. 10.

    germy

    Feinstein can’t guarantee Kavanaugh accuser shows, as Ford bristles …
    Fox News-2 hours ago

    It’s Fox, so I doubt it’s true. But they’re putting this out there.

  11. 11.

    PenAndKey

    @Corner Stone: Out of genuine curiosity, what do you base this dislike on, exactly? I’m more familiar with him for his tech legal discussions and analysis, but in that field he’s solid.

  14. 14.

    PenAndKey

    @SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal: Huh, consider this seconded. I’d really like to know what legal basis the judiciary committee has for bringing in an outside party to question people in an official Senate capacity. And if she’s not brought in with that authority, why the hell would anyone give her the light of day except for the GOP grandstanders hoping to use her as a foil?

  17. 17.

    germy

    @Mike J:

    Men are just too emotional to be trusted with this

    While their “female assistant” grills the witness, will they sit and glare with their arms folded?
    Maybe scribble notes with their fat sharpies?

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    Breaking headline on CNN just now: JudComm will vote on Kavanaugh at 9:30 Friday morning.

    Aux téléphones, citoyens!

  21. 21.

    germy

    Ford has to drive cross country to testify, because she can’t fly. She can’t stand being confined in small spaces.

    When I first heard that, it was like a punch in the gut.

  23. 23.

    TenguPhule

    Dear universe I’d like to report that there is a prime time television interview of a Supreme Court nominee in the midst of confirmation fight talking about his virginity and I’m sorry there must be a mistake I’d like to return this universe what is your store policy?

    Yes please.

  24. 24.

    germy

    I know Mayer and Farrow found a second witness, and Avenatti is “promising” a third.

    But was there news about a fourth accuser, or did I dream that?

  26. 26.

    Corner Stone

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    Remember how we had to hear, in interminable detail, all about Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan’s sex lives? It’s just how these things go, am I right?

    I don’t specifically remember it for the Wise Latina, but there was rampant out and open discussion that Kagan was a lesbian and the confetti and rainbow balloons were going to drop as soon as she was confirmed. Then Gay Marriages for every body!

  27. 27.

    MisterForkbeard

    Storytime! Just got into a facebook argument with the friend of one of my aunts about this kind of thing. I think it’s the first time 60+ year old lady has told me to go fuck myself.

    I might have deserved it. I listed a bunch of the things Kavanaugh had demonstrably lied about in his defense (drinking, having sex, etc.) with sources and then told her that she’d just called holding someone down on a bed, turning up the music so no one could hear them scream, then putting your hand over their mouth and trying to take off their clothes as “acting inappropriately”. She told me she resented the implication and that she was entitled to her opinion.

    I got the resulting “fuck you” when I asked if she’d still call it “inappropriate” if a man did that to her or her daughter. Honest question – did I go too far on that one?

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    @schrodingers_cat: Neither, I think. He’s an asshole first off. And an asshole Republican who doesn’t like Trump, second.
    He’s on record being an absolute asshole to associates in the law firm he works for.

  31. 31.

    TenguPhule

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I got the resulting “fuck you” when I asked if she’d still call it “inappropriate” if a man did that to her or her daughter. Honest question – did I go too far on that one?

    Not far enough.

    You could have asked her “I guess that means you consent?”

  33. 33.

    Mike in DC

    @germy: Briefly there was a story about a woman filing a claim with the Montgomery county police department, re an incident involving an 18 year old Kavanaugh. Not sure what happened with that.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    @MomSense:

    The Senate Judiciary Republicans are too chicken shit to ask the questions themselves. It’s all about the optics.

    Oh yes, I know why they are pulling this utter crap. I was just wondering if it’s even legal (I guess it probably is, since they’re in the majority for the time being).

    As for the optics, hauling out a woman for all 11 old white Republican men to hide behind strikes me as worse optics than having 11 old white Republican men actually ask Dr. Ford their questions.

    But p’r’aps I’m very old-fashioned. Yes, p’r’aps I’m very old-fashioned. (H/T “Beyond the Fringe.”)

  36. 36.

    tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)

    @SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal: I asked this question when the idea was first floated. After that there was a report in the news that Grassley had said that the Senate gets to decide who questions the witness. The way it was framed was she did not have a choice if she appeared in front of the committee. I agree with you. It’s not a court of law. They asked her to speak to the committee. They should do their jobs.

  41. 41.

    germy

    @debbie:

    Isn’t the fourth the guy friend who said Ramirez told him about it the next day?

    Oh! Maybe… I honestly can’t keep track anymore.

    And Thursday is the big Rosenstein meeting, scheduled to distract the media.

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    @MisterForkbeard:
    Insofar as this is the kind of person with which I would not desire a social relationship I’d say shoving her nose in her own hypocrisy is just fine.

    You’re just another Intolerant Liberal now, but you already knew that. :-)

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    @SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal:

    What they want to do to the witness in order to secure their SCOTUS nominee is so appalling, they don’t want any footage of them asking the questions. This is going to be a disgusting spectacle. I’m so worried for Blasey Ford.

  49. 49.

    Miss Bianca

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I got the resulting “fuck you” when I asked if she’d still call it “inappropriate” if a man did that to her or her daughter. Honest question – did I go too far on that one?

    *I* don’t think so, but then again…I’m an asshole, not a lady like my nymsake.

  50. 50.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Soprano2: @TenguPhule: @Gin & Tonic: I just apologized for being an asshole about it because I cared about rape and putting someone who was demonstrably lying about his rape defense into a Supreme Court seat, and asked her if she normally went straight to name calling. I’m paraphrasing – I was still being kind of a dick and not as nice as I’m making myself sound here.

    I was told to fuck myself again.

    I told her I’d apologize if she was willing to engage on any level other than name calling. I expect to get yelled at again. I don’t actually LIKE arguments (even when clearly in the right I get fidgety about it) but I think the “you’re seriously calling this ‘inappropriate'” response is absolutely the right way to handle it.

  53. 53.

    germy

    If this were a movie I was writing, I’d have the female assistant outside counsel become disgusted halfway through her questions, become sympathetic to Ford, and completely ruin Grassley’s/McConnell’s plan.

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, too, I love how the conservatives who couldn’t stop talking about Bill Clinton’s peni$ are clutching their pearls with all of this dirty talk about where Kavanaugh was putting his. You assholes created this world, so you don’t get to bitch about it backfiring on you. Lay back and enjoy it just like you advised women to do when you thought you would never be affected.

  58. 58.

    Gravenstone

    @MisterForkbeard: Did you go too far? No. The only way these fuckers seem to learn is if you personalize it. Just like your average Republican can’t quite seem to get the hang of empathy, on any subject – until that subject happens to them or someone they care about.

  61. 61.

    Mary G

    @Corner Stone: @germy: @schrodingers_cat: When I first got on Twitter I followed him because Anne Laurie was always quoting him. He blocked me for no reason at all that I know of, I am almost positive I never tweeted at him, and since I use my real name I am not my real nasty self on Twitter. It bugged me and when I saw his name at first I would read his tweets in a private tab, but that stopped after about three days.

  63. 63.

    Miss Bianca

    @germy:

    If this were a movie I was writing, I’d have the female assistant outside counsel become disgusted halfway through her questions, become sympathetic to Ford, and completely ruin Grassley’s/McConnell’s plan.

    Unfortunately, this whole scenario seems like it’s coming from a movie Leni Riefenstahl was writing.

    @Mnemosyne: And not only that…specifically a world that *Kavanaugh* created. Lie back and enjoy it, indeed.

  64. 64.

    Jay

    @MisterForkbeard:

    No.

    They know Special K is a serial gang rapist bit as long as they can pretend to themselves and others it was “just boys being boys”, they can close their eyes and open their legs for the Christofacist White Corporate nation they want.

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I feel very lucky that I met up on Facebook with one of my dad’s cousins and she is a nice liberal lady who despises Trump and all Republican works. Phew! My side of the family seems to be the Republican side.

  68. 68.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    @Mnemosyne:

    Jaysus, I hope you’re wrong. I have a pretty livid imagination, but Jeannine Pirro hadn’t even occurred to me as a possibility.

  69. 69.

    PenAndKey

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Hell, your response is more civil than what I’ve given my own family over this. I’ve already driven my mother to tears when I told her I refuse to talk to my aunt again until she can apologize for nearly an identical response to me asking her near identical questions.

    As far as I’m concerned she a rape apologist and I’ll damn well call her that to her face if she ever comes around me again.

    Civility has its time and place, and this sure as hell ain’t it.

  70. 70.

    janesays

    @germy: Is that actually true?

    The only sources I get when I Google “christine blasey ford afraid of flying” are far right wingnut sites like Infowars and Tucker Carlson, who were arguing that she made the fear up to delay the hearing. Has it been reported by any credible news outlet that she is afraid of flying?

  72. 72.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I got the resulting “fuck you” when I asked if she’d still call it “inappropriate” if a man did that to her or her daughter. Honest question – did I go too far on that one?

    Easy question/answer: NO.

  73. 73.

    NotMax

    One can but dream of the Dems on the committee bringing in John Houseman as Professor Kingsfield to question Brett K.

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    Apparently there’s a way to auto-block a whole set of Twitter accounts, but it’s a very broad tool. It was probably something like your geographic location was similar to a bad person’s so everyone got banned.

  76. 76.

    germy

    @Mary G: The last straw for me was when he attacked Oliver Willis for no good reason. Willis tweeted something about media coordinating to be favorable to Trump. Willis obviously meant the Fox News, RW web, talk radio axis, but Hat thought it was some sort of coded anti-semitic tweet and gave a nasty reply.

    I didn’t like seeing Oliver Willis trashed. He gets enough of that from the usual suspects.

  78. 78.

    Humdog

    @germy: Ooh, I like that twist! Alternatively , she begins to testify to BKTreachery she witnessed in college, supporting the New Yorker testimony!

  79. 79.

    guachi

    After every question, Dr. Blasey Ford should preface every answer with “I’m sorry that Senator is too afraid to ask me questions himself”

  80. 80.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    Seriously or speculation? Because she was supposed to be hospitalized and so ill that she couldn’t answer Yale’s questions about her steering clerks to rapey judges like Kavanaugh.

  84. 84.

    Miss Bianca

    @MisterForkbeard: I am trying to resist prolonging a FB battle with some young male punk don’t know his ass from his useful bits getting all butt-hurt about all the guys he’s known whose lives have been so irreparably damaged by “false accusations of rape” and OMG why won’t these feminazis just realize that once again, *men* are the real victims here? (It’s on a friend’s page, one who’s a Republican but is completely disgusted by all this rape-enabling).

    Otherwise, I would probably provoke a flame war by asking, “how many accused rapists do you know, bud? Oh, all the accusations are “false”? How do you actually know they’re false, bud? Were you there in the room?.” Just to watch Young White Asshole Guy’s head virtually explode.

  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NotMax: One can but dream of the Dems on the committee bringing in John Houseman as Professor Kingsfield to question Brett K.

    I think he’s in better shape, of mind, body and spirit, than Orrin Hatch

    “Mr… HAATCH…. here is a dime. I suggest you use it to call your mother….”

  86. 86.

    janesays

    @germy: The Montgomery County Sentinel reported yesterday that another individual came forward to Montgomery County PD with a new allegation, but the Montgomery County PD put out a statement yesterday afternoon that they have received no requests for a new investigation from anybody.

    I’d take it with a grain of salt at this point.

    As for Avenatti’s accuser, I really hope this person does come forward before the hearing, because if she doesn’t, Avenatti’s announcement will probably have done more harm than good. I fully believe he really has a client making allegations against Kavanaugh, but I’m not sure if that person is willing to step forward, and I wish he would have determined with certainty her willingness to step forward before putting the allegation out there. Without an actual name to associate with the claim, it’s going to be dismissed by a lot of people as not credible.

  88. 88.

    Chetan Murthy

    @PenAndKey:

    Civility has its time and place, and this sure as hell ain’t it.

    *Indeed*. When I un-friended those three Trumpists, I wrote then that I had no white supremacist friends, no fascist friends, no racist, friends, no misogynist friends. And that by voting for Trump, they were those things. They were really butthurt. Fuck them.

    There’s only two reasons to not rub their faces in it: (1) you think they might be redeemable, or (2) you have other reasons (family/work harmony?) for wishing to remain in their good graces. But anybody who supports this shit in the face of what we’ve learned in the past 21 months (set aside the last 30 years of Shitlord’s behaviour) is a moral imbecile. Incorrigibly wicked.

  89. 89.

    Tokyokie

    The contemporary GOP has defined morality downward to mean anything you could get away with. Kavanaugh, having been born into the GOP political elite, knew he could get away with molesting girls from the lesser prep schools, because they wouldn’t dare speak up and risk ruining their families. And so he drank heavily and partied hearty, because such behavior would be without consequences for him. He could get away with it. Same thing as moral to these swine.

    I heard a story a couple of years ago from my old high school. One of the boys clubs, the one that was supposed to be the most “prestigious,” had selected somebody with whom I wasn’t familiar as its “queen” one year. I found that odd, because such groups usually picked the cheerleader one of them was dating or some such. She was chosen, a friend told me, because several members of the club plied her with booze and gang-raped her one weekend, and they thought putting her name and picture on the club’s page in the yearbook would serve as a constant reminder to her of what they had done to her. I know all the alleged participants and as horrible as their behavior was, I find it plausible because they were assholes, and they could get away with it.

    Brett Kavanaugh is a bigger asshole than any of them, and he and his sponsors are furious that some women from lower social circles are trying to make him suffer some consequences for his awful behavior. Because getting away with it is the ultimate white male privilege.

  92. 92.

    Duane

    What else should we expect from the cowardly republicans? Too scared to do their damn jobs. Republican senators can contract the whole thing out, and take their chickenshit fail parade home. Sit on the porch and sip sweet tea.

  93. 93.

    Schlemazel

    @Schlemazel: @MisterForkbeard:

    I have noticed one thing that I think explains a lot of women being ‘OK’ with this shit. They sincerely believe this sort of thing can’t happen to a nice girl. Good girls just don’t get raped . . .
    until they do but it was not them so they still assume at some level she invited it

  97. 97.

    Mnemosyne

    @Miss Bianca:

    My question for those dudes is, if they were so drunk that they don’t remember what happened with that girl, how can they be so sure that she didn’t tell them to stop and they were too drunk to pay attention?

    I realize that a lot of guys are retroactively horrified at their past behavior while drunk or high. THEY FUCKING SHOULD BE.

  98. 98.

    sukabi

    @Schlemazel: the thing is, they don’t have to bother with the virgin nonsense. They just have to prove he’s a liar, and has a pattern of lying about his finances ECT. He’s already perjured himself multiple times during this confirmation, shouldn’t be very hard to find further evidence of his deceit.

    Of course if some 34 yo person came waltzing in with their mother and a DNA match to Kavanaugh that would be just desserts.

  100. 100.

    Wapiti

    @SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal:

    As for the optics, hauling out a woman for all 11 old white Republican men to hide behind strikes me as worse optics than having 11 old white Republican men actually ask Dr. Ford their questions.

    In some universe all of Dr. Ford Blasey’s answers were given in the form, “You can tell the 11 old white Republican men hiding behind your skirts that my answer is ____.”

    It’s a fantasy in this universe. :(

  101. 101.

    Tokyokie

    @Schlemazel:

    I have noticed one thing that I think explains a lot of women being ‘OK’ with this shit. They sincerely believe this sort of thing can’t happen to a nice girl. Good girls just don’t get raped . . .
    until they do but it was not them so they still assume at some level she invited it

    They’re good girls right up until the time they’re raped, and then those women decided that they must have been bad girls all along.

  103. 103.

    Wapiti

    @Schlemazel: “The nice girls can’t get raped, until it happens and then we know they weren’t nice girls” belief easily fits in a brain that figures “He was a law abiding gun-owner until the moment of the shooting”

  105. 105.

    sukabi

    @germy: a fourth is having the Montgomery sheriffs office investigate her claim. At least that’s what I read somewhere…don’t remember where though.

  108. 108.

    Miss Bianca

    @Tokyokie: My God, I almost puked reading that story.

    This whole Kavanaugh thing is really, really getting to me. This whole horrible lancing of the rape culture boil on our body politic. I mean, I know that eventually the pus will drain, but Jesus, how long will it take and how long will so many women be thrashing around in agony while it’s happening?

  109. 109.

    sm*t cl*de

    @germy:

    Republicans are calling their outside counsel their female assistant?

    To further underline how seriously they take their responsibilities, they will avoid the hearing and hire someone else to listen to the answers.

  110. 110.

    Jeffro

    @MomSense: Then I hope Dr. Ford starts off every answer with, “Well, Ms. _____, since you are here to provide the Senate Republicans on this committee with better optics and a layer of deniability for their actions, my answer is _____”

    Every. Time.

    Wait, no, don’t even answer. Just repeatedly point out that a simple FBI investigation would put both of them under oath and in jeopardy of committing a felony if they lie…and she (Dr. Ford) is okay with that, so why isn’t Brett Torture Kavanaugh okay with that?

  111. 111.

    Steve Jones

    All this happened at Georgetown prep, a Jesuit high school.

    What’s that about the benefits of getting God into the classroom again?

  112. 112.

    piratedan

    @sukabi: i hear ya… its as if the apparent fact that he’s a partisan political hack with a law degree isn’t enough, he has no landmark rulings into an interpretation of the law that aren’t completely part of the FAQ of GOP interpretation of the law isn’t enough, being a binge drinker at the first onset of being legal isn’t enough, being a hired flunkie of Kenneth Starr and his “successful” prosecution of a blow job when he was after tax evasion and political favoritism while searching real estate transactions aren’t enough, we have to have some fig-leaf vindication that he also wasn’t a sexual assaulter of women nevermind the fact that he currently makes “looks” a key criteria of his selection of staff.

    jaysus we have to dig not just a ditch but rather backhoe out a trench to find out where the bar is on this nominee and by gawd Mitchy is gonna make sure he’s in place come hell or high water and Chicky Grassley and Orrin Hatch are going to help him get there.

  113. 113.

    Miss Bianca

    @Duane:

    She could read an initial statement then drop the mike. If the Republican committee MEN won’t conduct their own damn qustioning fuckem.

    That’s what I’m hoping for. And that the statement reads, in part, something like this: “Since you gentlemen – and I use that term loosely – appear so uninterested in initiating an investigation by law enforcement into what actually happened, I have done so for you. I have filed charges against Brett Kavanaugh in Montgomery County, MD. Good day to you, sirs.”

  114. 114.

    Jeffro

    Btw not to derail the thread but my RWNJ dad texted tonight absolutely outraged that….that…Ted Cruz was hounded from a restaurant by hecklers.

    For realz, that was his #1 issue as of about 6:50 p.m. tonight.

    Wowzers.

    Suffice it to say, the list of things I thought needed addressing in this country BEFORE I worry about Ted “I kneel before the TV reality show host that insulted my wife and dad” Cruz being hounded out of a restaurant was rather long, stretching nearly to infinity, in fact.

    Fox sure does know how to push old white guys’ buttons, though…

  117. 117.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    It didn’t seem that far-fetched, sadly. And I’m not entirely joking about Pirro or Grace showing up. Isn’t Grace allegedly a former prosecutor?

  119. 119.

    Jeffro

    @piratedan: It is kind of bizarre. I’m not in the habit of giving good advice to bad people, but IF I WERE…I’d be like, “Republicans, just drop this asshole and nominate some other right wing nutjob without the baggage. Y’all have a whole frickin’ farm team out there, you can’t find anyone else for this?”

  120. 120.

    janesays

    @Corner Stone: Combing through his blog, while he certainly doesn’t come across as a progressive warrior, he’s no wingnut, either. He’s been mocking Fox News, Michelle Malkin, and Laura Ingraham since the Bush administration, and he frequently praised blog entries from Sadly, No! as far back as 2007.

  123. 123.

    Dan B

    @Miss Bianca: These young men always seem to lack an iota of empathy for any woman who’s been assaulted, any kid who’s been bullied, or any minority who’s been hurt. It’s as though empathy makes you weak and being weak makes you likely to be victimized yourself. They don’t understand that empathy is a sign of strength because it builds alliances naturally instead of alliances built on fear.

  124. 124.

    janesays

    @sukabi: It was reported by the Montgomery County Sentinel, but the Montgomery County PD put out a statement that they have received no request for an investigation. So it’s dubious right now.

  125. 125.

    MisterForkbeard

    @PenAndKey: Yeah. Luckily this is just the FRIEND of my Aunt – I’ve never met this lady and she seems like a superficially nice person who loves her family and so forth… but reflexively defends Republicans and minimizes everything they do.

    Most of my dad’s family is pretty liberal, a couple of cousins notwithstanding. Though there’s a couple of bernie bros in the mix. My Mom’s family is 90% Republican and pretty ignorant in their defenses of Republicans. For example, pulling the “I think it’s just awful that Democrats are attacking Kavanaugh without any evidence whatsoever and it’s awful the way they’re treating the nominee” or “I think it’s awful how both sides treated Kavanaugh and Garland and why can’t we all just get along and confirm Kavanaugh?”

    I think my least favorite was a maternal aunt who posted a meme about two women comforting each other after a rape, and one says “You poor thing. Let’s wait 30 years and not say anything unless he runs for office as a Democrat.” I’m still not sure whether that was supposed to be pro or anti Kavanaugh, because it’s an incredibly stupid argument and doesn’t make sense.

  126. 126.

    Corner Stone

    @janesays: I’m not going to comb his blog right now but there have been many tweets where he said D’s and/or libs were not going to like his posts because he is basically a conservative who hates the far reaches of the R party that currently exist.

  127. 127.

    Mnemosyne

    @Baud:

    Not with her Fox News fans, it wouldn’t. Because to them Dr. Blasey Ford is a fake victim and Kavanaugh is the REAL victim.

  129. 129.

    Tenar Arha

    (I hate the new chrome interface on iOS. I just closed the fricking window with my comment, damnit!)

    Trying to reconstruct…

    Almost any attorney with experience questioning sexual assault victims, walking out as a “surprise” on Thursday will be setting her life on fire. It’s incredibly irresponsible for the GOP Judiciary to ask this of anyone. Honestly Senators Murkowski &/ Collins would be a better choices, bc at least they have some experience being in the center of an Internet firestorm. AFAICT These Senators have no freaking clue what they’re doing, bc even if they’ve hired someone as high profile as Amy Chua (who AFAIK has no listed experience in asking survivors questions) they have no inkling of what this could do to any woman’s life & career, & probably no plan prepared for the aftermath.

    These sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical, bigots on the GOP Judiciary are targeting at least two women, whether they understand it or not, & they’re proving once again they don’t give a flying anything for women’s lives.

  130. 130.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Miss Bianca: Yeah. I just saw someone doing this, claiming that women pull the “I was raped or assaulted!” card at custody hearings all the time.

    To be clear, I do know a particular druggie mother who did this to her (clean and responsible husband), and I know someone who at 19 was dating a 17 year old and got arrested and charged with statutory rape. He now has to report as a sex offender and it really has ruined his life.

    But that shit is the exception and not the rule.

  134. 134.

    Dan B

    @Tokyokie: That’s also the dynamic that keeps many upper class women from revealing they’ve been assaulted. If they do they’d become “cheap women” in the eyes of their peers. They’d be shunned.

  136. 136.

    Schlemazel

    @Tokyokie: @Wapiti:
    Yeah and I just don’t understand it. Mrs told me about her ‘incident’, it was not as horrible as Ms Ford, not even close but it was bad enough. Several others have made admissions recently, to the point where if there is a woman who has not dealt with this shit at some level she is a rarity. Yet so many of them blame themselves & not the men and the society that made it seem OK. I don’t get it. I am seriously tearing up in anger & frustration

  137. 137.

    janesays

    @germy: It would make sense, I just haven’t seen it reported anywhere, outside of wingnuts like Tucker Carlson whining that she fabricated a fear of flying to delay the hearing.

  138. 138.

    Jeffro

    Looks like Dave Brat…dare I even think it?…dare I jinx it?…just might lose and be relegated back to history’s chamber pot

    Brat in tight race with Spanberger

    Rep. Dave Brat, the Republican upstart who toppled then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor four years ago, is in a tight race with Democrat Abigail Spanberger, according to a new poll.

    Spanberger, a former CIA officer and political newcomer, leads Brat 47 percent to 42 percent among all potential voters, according to a Monmouth University poll released Tuesday. Two percent favor Libertarian Joe Walton, and 9 percent are undecided.

    Brat vs Cruz: who’s the bigger douche? What’s that saying again…por que no los dos???

  142. 142.

    Miss Bianca

    @MisterForkbeard: Sure, I’m sure it’s happened. But it’s like DanB says: this reflexive stance of “well, men get falsely accused of rape *all the time* and oh, how awful that is!” just…completely negates the experience of women. I don’t know whether it’s a lack of empathy or lack of imagination or lack of native motherwit, but it’s damned depressing to watch this dynamic play out at both the macro and the micro level in this society.

  143. 143.

    Mnemosyne

    @Dan B:

    The reason rape used to be called “the fate worse than death” wasn’t because of how terrible the crime itself is (though the crime is pretty goddamned terrible). It was because becoming known as a rape victim made a woman a social pariah who could never marry or be allowed to socialize with “normal” people because she was damaged goods. Even into the early 20th century, being raped was a common way women ended up working as prostitutes, because their families would throw them out of the house for being “tainted” and they had no other way to make a living because no respectable employer would hire them.

  144. 144.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    @Jeffro: My lone fb hate follow haa a friend who commented on that today. He wrote that these are rhe same people who were chasing Jewish people out of German restaurants in 1934.

  146. 146.

    Jacel

    @Baud: @Baud: I’d like to hear the Democrats on the committee — but if they could have Anita Hill in to ask a few questions, that would be swell.

  147. 147.

    Dan B

    @Jeffro: Old white men can imagine being harassed in a restaurant but can’t imagine being deported, the trauma of being raped, the anguish of being denied asylum, or any of a nimber of things that happen to “other” people.

    Some don’t even believe “other” people deserve anything, let alone the dignity of being considered human.

  148. 148.

    James E Powell

    @Schlemazel:

    I have noticed one thing that I think explains a lot of women being ‘OK’ with this shit. They sincerely believe this sort of thing can’t happen to a nice girl. Good girls just don’t get raped

    It’s a form of denial. They don’t want to face the reality.

  150. 150.

    janesays

    @Corner Stone: Fair enough. Like I said, he didn’t come across as any sort of progressive warrior, but he also didn’t appear to be a raging wingnut, either. He did vote for Obama twice, though, so he’s at least been willing to be somewhat critical of his own party for the past ten years. Meaning, he wasn’t a bog standard party line Republican all the way up to the point Trump entered the picture. He may be a never-Trumper, but he had that ethos while people like David Frum and Jen Rubin were still carrying water for Bush 43.

  151. 151.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Miss Bianca: No kidding. We *know* that women are frequently raped and don’t report it for various reasons. We know that when they do, they’re frequently attacked and that this gets worse if the rapist is successful or white.

    So you have to weigh the evidence and give some weight towards the woman. In this case, it’s that Ford was provably talking about this years ago before Kavanaugh was a thing. And that there’s other accusers of illegal behavior by Kavanaugh that are backed up by witnesses. And that Kavanaugh has notably and repeatedly lied about his own behavior during that time (virgin, didn’t drink, etc.), not to mention his lies about his own professional career.

    It’s not enough to convict in a court of law. But it’s *strongly* indicative that Kavanaugh did it and he shouldn’t be allowed on the court, if just because he’s provably lied about his own behavior. Hopefully the Senate Democrats can nail him to the wall on this stuff during his hearing. “You said on Fox News that you didn’t drink at all. However, your college roommate and several of your friends disagree with you, as does your own words in your yearbook and a book your fellow alleged assaulter Judge wrote about his time with you.” And then “Why did you join a fraternity known for drinking and where sexual assault was a known factor?”, etc.

  152. 152.

    Dan B

    @Schlemazel: It’s the system that’s corrupt and damaging. We do horribke things to avoid being shunned. We’re like fish that don’t recognize water because it’s pervasive. Then we blame individuals or groups. (And I’ve never blamed either individuals or groups….///)

  153. 153.

    hitchhiker

    During the first weeks after the election I had an exchange with the one member of my family whom I’ve always seen as reasonable, grounded and kind. He suggested that I was overreacting in my fury and horror — that really, there just wasn’t anything to get excited about.

    As if I was just upset because my candidate lost.
    As if I was just upset because I didn’t get to see a woman president.
    As if I was just upset because the Republicans had won.
    As if this was just about politics as usual.

    I told him I didn’t even know how to respond, because his inability to see what had actually just happened (a national catastrophe from which it will take a generation to recover, if we’re lucky) meant there was nothing much to talk about.

    And we haven’t, at all, since then. I didn’t want to know what 2016 taught me about the USA and most members of my own family, which I guess is part of the problem. Well, I know it now.

  156. 156.

    Dan B

    @Mnemosyne: The same happens with many m to f transsexuals. Because they can’t get “respectable jobs” before they transition they are forced into prostitution. It’s especially horrific for poor people and P.O.C. All my trans acquaintances have been upper middle class and adept at avoiding traos and making good friends. Decades ago I had acquaintances who were not. They essentislly suffered with a Scarlet Letter.

  158. 158.

    Another Scott

    @Tokyokie: +1

    Well said.

    In the last week or so, someone made the point that Kavanaugh was the perfect gentleman to women he viewed as being in his social circle (or above), but was horrible to women who were below his social circle.

    And, presumably, he made that determination by seeing if he could attempt to have his way with them when he (and/or they) was drunk. It’s clear that many, many people like him divide women up that way as well.

    I’d be willing to bet that none of the 65 women were in that lower status group. And it seems clear that at least one of them though she was in the “good” group while he and his minions put her in the “bad” group.

    He’s a liar. He’s a monster. He thinks he can BS his way through any problem. And he’s got no business being a judge, let alone on the DC Circuit. Let alone on the SCOTUS!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  159. 159.

    Miss Bianca

    @Jacel: No, just as SiubhanDuinne is a Badass Jackal, Miss Bianca is a Badass Social Justice Warrior. I can only aspire. ; )

  161. 161.

    Mnemosyne

    @RedDirtGirl:

    I really hope for that woman’s sake that it was teenage braggadocio on their part and that she’s not frantically searching through her memories trying to figure out if something really bad happened when she was drunk around them. ?

  162. 162.

    Dan B

    @hitchhiker: We’ve got a similar dynamic in my partner’s family. What they are doing is denying your feelings. It’s essentially denying your humanity. They feel we’re being hurtful to them even when we claim them as “our” feelings. They’re dusgusted and angry at a multicultural world, a world that is happy to sacrifice some pleasures to conserve the earth fir future grnerations. They destroy their property and then laugh at our horror. It seems to cover a bottomless pit of anxiety and emptiness.

  166. 166.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Mnemosyne: There’s a tweet going around that says:
    Why is alcohol an excuse for a rapist’s innocence but proof of his victim’s guilt? #rapeculture

  169. 169.

    J R in WV

    I’ve decided that “Judge” Kavanaugh probably was more up in years before he remembers losing his virginity. It’s really hard for well adjusted men to maintain an erection while blind drunk. Let alone someone with a perverted set of morals regarding sex, like the “Judge” has.

    And if “Judge” Kavanaugh had managed to complete a rape while blind drunk, he wouldn’t remember it at all, not to excuse the attempted violent attacks on his female classmates, but alcohol poisoning is a real thing, and it does interfere with memory. I’m surprised he was able to pass his finals, write a resume, anything, given his drinking behavior.

  171. 171.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Not in the slightest.
    It’s a very fair question and gets to the heart of whether or not they’re the type who’ll set aside their ethics for gain.

    IOW, it’s an ethics test and she failed.

  172. 172.

    dnfree

    @PenAndKey: I base my distrust of him on the very first words out of his mouth when he accepted the nomination. First paragraph.

    “Mr. President, thank you. Throughout this process, I have witnessed firsthand your appreciation for the vital role of the American judiciary. No president has ever consulted more widely or talked with more people from more backgrounds to seek input about a Supreme Court nomination.”

    Really. NO PRESIDENT HAS EVER….” Flattery for Trump, check. Factually true–not even remotely possible.

  175. 175.

    unkown known

    @MisterForkbeard:
    Possible follow-up:

    “You know that if she, or her mother, had replied “fuck you” in exactly the same way you did, she would have been attacked as being emotionally unstable. That wouldn’t be at all fair, would it.”

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