Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Everybody saw this coming.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Fight them, without becoming them!

In my day, never was longer.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Consistently wrong since 2002

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The willow is too close to the house.

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

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

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112Comments

  1. 1.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Kittehs make everything better.

    I suspect tomorrow is going to be awful. I’m going to try and be in the mountains. I hope everyone has a game plan to take care of themselves as needed.

    Balloon-Juice has been a godsend.

  5. 5.

    Barbara

    I can only follow these things via Twitter or some other indirect means. I just can’t take it otherwise, plus I have work to do.

  6. 6.

    Jeffro

    I’m just gonna put this out there: I’m being perhaps not quite respectful to my dad at the moment, who’s trying to engage me by talking about all kinds of Bill Clinton nonsense.

    I did ask him if there was a “Clinton sunset clause” anywhere, or will Republicans still be saying “BUT CLINTON!!!” In 2250. No response yet.

  10. 10.

    TenguPhule

    Adam Bonin
    @adambonin
    I have never seen this before in a campaign finance report. @realScottWagner lost over $600K of his contributors’ money in the past three months through failed investments.

    How can Pennsylvanians trust him with their own money? cc: @timelywriter @CPotterPgh @AndrewSeidman (1/)

    3:16 AM – Sep 26, 2018

    Stuff like this doesn’t even make the A4 section today.

    Republican candidate for governor for PA.

    /Hattip Atrios.

  11. 11.

    Roger Moore

    @Jeffro:

    I did ask him if there was a “Clinton sunset clause” anywhere, or will Republicans still be saying “BUT CLINTON!!!” In 2250. No response yet.

    Plenty of people are still trying to re-fight the Civil War, so it shouldn’t be surprising Republicans are still hung up on Clinton.

  14. 14.

    geg6

    I saw my counselor today. I feel much better. I could cry and rage and get it out. And be totally validated by someone. And be told that being angry is exactly right for me, if not everyone. I no longer feel defeated, so that is exactly what I needed. I’m much stronger this time. I’m going to stay away from the news while at work tomorrow and check BJ only now and again. I’ll be back at the counselor next week unless something horrible happens. But right now, I feel a little shaky but okay.

    Thanks to all you jackals for all the love and support. It really made a huge difference to have a safe place to talk about this. John and my family are great and I love them, but it’s very hard to discuss these things with them the way I can here. I am eternally grateful.

  15. 15.

    TenguPhule

    Years before his Supreme Court nomination, Kavanaugh acknowledged heavy drinking in a 2014 speech to the Yale Federalist Society. He recalled organizing a boozy trip for 30 of his Yale Law classmates to Boston for a baseball game and a night of barhopping, complete with “group chugs from a keg” and a return to campus by “falling out of the bus onto the steps of Yale Law School at about 4:45 a.m.”

    Can anyone say perjury?

  18. 18.

    Hill Dweller

    A Senior Senate Dem aide told a Politico reporter that they’re afraid the Republicans are now leaking false accusations to make all the accusations look frivolous.

  19. 19.

    Barbara

    @TenguPhule: And then went on to discuss falling down drunk behavior at some kind of banquet at a faculty dining facility. I showed that to my SO and he was amazed that (a) he had time in law school to drink so much and (b) this is what a federal judge would be talking about in prepared remarks to a group of law students more than 20 years after he graduated from law school.

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    @Cheryl Rofer: I’m shocked they never did this with Trumpov’s tax returns. But then again, no one ever really pressed very hard on those, did they?

    We’ll see it – we’re already seeing it, with Trumpov’s “the Chinese are meddling in the midterms” – in future elections, that’s for sure. Because the uncertainty, and the both-sides/all-sides-do-it narrative, sure benefits one side in particular…

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    @TenguPhule:
    I saw that earlier. My question is who was on the other end of those investment transactions. Did the campaign take some radioactive investments off the candidate’s hands in a sweetheart deal? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

  27. 27.

    dmsilev

    @Cheryl Rofer: That seems like a risky strategy for the GOP. Wouldn’t most of the reporting end up being “multiple accusations, some anonymous, of sexual assaults committed by Judge Kavanaugh”?

  30. 30.

    Barbara

    @dmsilev: The ghost of Dan Rather dies hard. But I tend to agree that multiple additional allegations would deprive them of what they want most, and that is a quick vote. It’s hard to resolve even meritless allegations in a few days. Nonetheless, I think it’s right at this point to ignore allegations that are totally anonymous. You just can’t test them at all.

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    @dmsilev: Nope. On Fox, and many other outlets unfortunately, it would be “fake rape accusations pulled back/disproven” against Kav.

    As if that exonerates him. As if that excuses the lies and perjury. But that’s what they do – just one example, and that becomes the new narrative.

    It’s the Fox playbook writ large. Find one crazy liberal someplace asking for some crazy thing – mandatory granola lunches in schools? I dunno – and they just run with it, to keep hammering on those fear buttons of their audience.

  33. 33.

    dmsilev

    @Barbara: Oh definitely. God knows there are enough victims who have named themselves and come forward that in any rational world Kavanaugh would just slink away and go hide under a rock for the rest of his life. Still, floating “there are even more victims out there” as a strategy once the credibility of three or four named victims has been established seems to make the Whalen Gambit look like genius by comparison.

  34. 34.

    zhena gogolia

    I have so much work to do tomorrow. I am really feeling the lack of cats. They help me get my work done, and they help absorb the horror of the Trump era.

  36. 36.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @dmsilev: They may be hoping to flood the zone and discredit the named accusers.

    I think part of what is happening is that the old men are playing by the old rules. Kavanaugh denies everything. That has worked in the past, probably for him as well as others, because men, particularly wealthy white men, are believed rather than women. It’s likely that there are real anonymous reports, but there’s little that can be done with them, except rhetorically. The old rules say that women do these things simply to hurt men, including lying about rape. So the fact that others may be coming forward, according to the old rules, means that it is a mob determined to bring down a good man.

    I don’t know if the old rules or the new ones will prevail. The new ones are very new and not well established. The majority on the committee are playing by the old rules. Mitch McConnell is playing by the old rules, in addition to being totally committed to total power. But there are a lot of angry people.

  38. 38.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Donald Trump Jr. @ DonaldJTrumpJr
    I think He makes a solid point here. Sen. Graham on newest porn lawyer allegation:

    Michael Avenatti @ MichaelAvenatti Replying to DonaldJTrumpJr
    You haven’t been paying attention. Your dad is the man who had unprotected sex with my “porn star” client when your brother was 4 mos. old and your step mom was at home. How many other “porn stars” has he slept with? You should leave this to the adults and go back to playing.

    (I deleted Lindsey Graham’s drivel because Lindsey Graham)

  43. 43.

    gene108

    @Jeffro:

    Bill Clinton will probably be put out pasture for the next election cycle, since he did stuff, like exposing himself to Paula Jones, that is no longer condoned and has become career ending.

    But Republicans will still have to defend Trump, who has admitted to doing as much and accused of more bad behavior than anything Bill did.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    I am counting down until G brings leftover cake home from work. Tonight is definitely the night for it.

    And the season 3 premiere of “The Good Place” is tomorrow night, so I’m super excited for that.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Mitch McConnell is playing by the old rules, in addition to being totally committed to total power.

    I’m sorry, McConnell is not playing by any rules.

  49. 49.

    gene108

    @Jeffro:

    and the both-sides/all-sides-do-it narrative

    I wish Democrats – maybe not currently elected officials – but proxies start just openly declaring Republicans are bad for America.

    Just list the ways, like the invasion of Iraq, financial meltdown, to Trump’s trade war destroying our reputation and hurting our economy.

    I really want “conservative” to become a dirty word like what “liberal” was or still is until very recently; a term no politician wants to be associated with.

  50. 50.

    Mary G

    Pretty striking and says a lot about who Republicans were and are:

    Twenty years ago this month the Starr Report came out. Let’s review what happened to some of Bill Clinton’s antagonists. (1/7)— David Greenberg (@republicofspin) September 26, 2018

  51. 51.

    gene108

    @Jeffro:

    Find one crazy liberal someplace asking for some crazy thing

    New Black Panther Party intimidating voters in Philadelphia, during the 2008 election.

  52. 52.

    dmsilev

    @Cheryl Rofer: But discrediting phony reports takes time. And the longer this drags on, the worse the GOP looks. They have to either jam the vote through as soon as possible after tomorrow or let things fester for a while.

    They may be in the “throw shit at wall, see what sticks” mode.

  55. 55.

    Fair Economist

    The false allegations may not be to save Kavanaugh. By trying to push him onto the Court even after the allegations started popping up, the Republican Senators have outed themselves as pro-rapist, as long as it lets them poison people, take away their healthcare, and cut rich people’s taxes. They’re going to need a cover story for what they’ve done, and it seems it will be “well, some of the allegations were false, so therefore all were”. It’s not just Kavanaugh, the existence of the Republican Party is now at risk.

  57. 57.

    Jeffro

    @gene108: I think what set my RWNJ dad off tonight was that I just kept hammering things like “pedophile-supporting Republicans” and “neo-nazi-supporting Republicans” and “rapey Brett Kavanaugh”. I think I might have throw in a “Koch boot-lickers” or two as well.

    They haven’t heard Dems talk like that in a while, if ever, and boy it sure gets to them.

    I had a blast mocking “CLINTOOOOOON!” As the GOP’s all-purpose excuse to look away from whatever R disaster has just hit the news. (Hence my earlier comments about whether or not there is a Clinton ‘sunset clause’, or do we still have to talk about WJC in 2450?)

    They really, really don’t like being called on their lack of princples. “Wealth-worshipping idolaters” also seems to have hit a nerve…;)

  60. 60.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @dmsilev: I agree. The more accusations, the more time it would seem they will need. But they may not see it that way. I really don’t want to go through tomorrow’s hearings in real time, so I’m planning to be away much of the day. But I can see how there could be many surprises, mostly not good for the Republicans.

  61. 61.

    Jeffro

    @gene108: yeah that, but they’ll settle for saying that because some liberal professor someplace saying all white people are guilty for the crimes of their great-great-great-great-great ancestors, BLM is BS, that or because some liberal someplace bought a couple incandescent bulbs instead of LEDs, all of global warming is a hoax.

    Hell, my idiot dad tried to take Ted Cruz being heckled at a restaurant as evidence that “all the violence is on the left”. Really? Pops I thought if we agreed on anything, if ANY issue has the potential to bring the country together, it’s that Ted Cruz is a douche. Also, heckling =/= violence. However, running down protestors in the streets of Charlottesville DOES = violence…it’s not the kind of thing that “very fine people” do.

    I’m looking forward to putting my inheritance into a trust fund that pays for women’s & POC’s scholarships until the heat death of the universe. “Very fine people” THAT, jerk.

  63. 63.

    gene108

    @TenguPhule:

    Cough, Franken, cough.

    We’re still testing out the new rules on believing women accusing men of sexual misconduct. There will be outcomes that are not always favorable.

    Plus, it is my opinion, that Franken was becoming a distraction. Right-wingers have much larger media platform than we do. Any accusation against a Republican would have been met with a “what about Franken?” rejoinder.

    Roy Moore is accused of molesting a 14 year old girl, but how can Democrats condemn him, but support Franken?

    I think Franken in the Senate would have lead to Senator Roy Moore.

  64. 64.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @gene108:

    I think Franken in the Senate would have lead to Senator Roy Moore.

    I agree. Unfortunately, he was a casualty in our Cold Civil War.

  65. 65.

    TS (the original)

    I’m not a great fan of Chris Hayes – but impressed that most of his guests on tonight are women.

  69. 69.

    chopper

    @dmsilev:

    i think the idea would be to toss a few anonymous accusations that could then be shown by BK’s team to be made up (but not by GOP ratfuckers) – like the time and place don’t match up with where BK was back then or something. in order to get people to think all of the accusations are false.

  70. 70.

    gene108

    @Steve in the ATL:

    No.

    Paula Jones is legit, though.

    I am glad Bill fought, and glad we were able to elect him in 1992, when it seemed Republicans had a strangle hold on the Presdency, but between the Monica Lewinsky affair and Paula Jones, he needs to lay low.

    They seem to already be setting up a “what about Bill Clinton” defense of their wrong doing, and one thing canvassing for my local congressional race has shown me is (a) the B-J commenters are a helluva lot more tuned into politics, like orders of magnitude more tuned in, than many low info or sporadic voters, and (b) independent low info voters do not have or do not want to invest the time into figuring out nuanced arguments

    I don’t want to deal with a “what about Bill Clinton” line of attack, if plays a prominent role in drumming up support in 2020.

  71. 71.

    lamh36

    Maggie H…as wrong as ever.

    shorter Yarmiche…”put some respect on my name…Maggie”

    @Yamiche
    I definitely miss The NYT & respect Maggie’s reporting. But I did cover part of Pres. Trump’s campaign. I also rode the Trump press campaign plane during the last week of his campaign. See these stories:

    @maggieNYT
    Follow Follow @maggieNYT
    More
    Trump, who claims to ignore the New York Times, recognizes one of its former reporters who didn’t cover his campaign.

    One of the few Black reporters who covered Chump on the trial…and of course Maggie gets it wrong!

  74. 74.

    TenguPhule

    Brock Long’s improper use of FEMA staff, SUVs included Hawaii pineapple plant tour, investigation says

    Everything Trump touches, dies.

    FEMA administrator William “Brock” Long used government vehicles and staff on 40 trips for personal reasons, including during a family vacation in Hawaii, despite official warnings the practice was unauthorized, an internal investigation found.

    Long’s improper use of government resources cost taxpayers $94,000 in staff salary, $55,000 in travel expenses and $2,000 in vehicle maintenance, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general determined. The Washington Post obtained a redacted copy of the inspector general’s report before it was made public Wednesday.

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @gene108: Is he raising his head? No, then let’s not bring him or JFK into the discussion. They might not have been particularly loyal husbands, I’ve seen nothing that I trust that says either one was rapey. Let’s not do the GOP groundwork for them.

  78. 78.

    TenguPhule

    Sen. Brian Schatz says FBI should investigate Kavanaugh allegations

    U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said he believes the FBI should further investigate the background of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and that there is “no way to get to a fair process and a vote by Friday.”

    The Hawaii Democrat addressed Kavanaugh’s troubled nomination this morning after speaking to Hawaii reporters on a conference call about upcoming federal disaster funding for Kauai, Oahu and Hawaii island.

    Regarding Kavanaugh, Schatz said, “The most important thing to do is to try to have a dignified and fair process.”

    With Republicans in control of both the Senate Judiciary Committee considering Kavanaugh’s nomination and the full Senate, Schatz said all of deadlines are self-imposed.

    “There is no real rush,” Schatz said. “We ought to move with dignity, with a sense of fairness to all the parties involved and make sure we do a thorough investigation.”

    He’s building a good resume as one of the next generation of Democrats. Leadership should keep him in mind.

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    Pork, pork, pork.

    …a $667 billion defense spending bill Congress plans to approve Wednesday will jump start orders on dozens of new planes the Pentagon did not request, giving lawmaker’s pet projects the inside track.

    The defense legislation Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, shepherded through Congress includes funding for 16 additional F-35 aircraft — assembled in her Fort Worth district— as well as other models.
    [snip]
    Along with funding for additional F-35 aircraft — pieces of which are built in as many as 350 Congressional districts — it also includes money for eight Air National Guard C-130J aircraft, six Navy and Marine Corps V-22 Osprey aircraft, two Navy E-2D aircraft and six AH-64E Apache helicopters above the levels set by the nation’s defense leaders. Source

  80. 80.

    TenguPhule

    @NotMax:

    The defense legislation Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, shepherded through Congress includes funding for 16 additional F-35 aircraft — assembled in her Fort Worth district— as well as other models.

    They have no fucking shame at all, do they?

  81. 81.

    germy

    A senior Trump appointee responsible for enforcing laws against financial discrimination once questioned in blog posts written under a pen name if using the n-word was inherently racist and claimed that the great majority of hate crimes were hoaxes.

    Eric Blankenstein, a policy director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, expressed those and other controversial views more than a decade ago on a political blog he co-authored with two other anonymous contributors.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trump-anti-discrimination-official-once-called-most-hate-crimes-hoaxes/2018/09/26/05438bbe-c0fe-11e8-92f2-ac26fda68341_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.53cf5c06e88c

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    “Mad Dog” Musk?

    …SpaceX’s president and CEO says the firm would consider launching weapons into orbit for the U.S. government, if asked. “If it’s for the defense of this country, yes, I think we would,” Gwynne Shotwell said, in response to a question about SpaceX’s willingness to launch “offensive weapons” into space for the United States.

    She made her remarks at the Air Force Association’s annual conference. The crowd broke into applause. Source

    Outsourcing defense. What a concept. //

  83. 83.

    TenguPhule

    @NotMax:

    SpaceX’s president and CEO says the firm would consider launching weapons into orbit for the U.S. government, if asked. “If it’s for the defense of this country, yes, I think we would,”

    Genies, bottles. Jackasses.

  85. 85.

    Keith P.

    Ugh…I’m taking my kittens in to get fixed tomorrow AM. Part of me hates to do it, but their playing (male and a female) is getting rougher and more intense every day, particularly with the male….he’s probably not too far off from trying to mount her.

  86. 86.

    Redshift

    @gene108:

    Any accusation against a Republican would have been met with a “what about Franken?” rejoinder.

    Instead, it’s “what about Keith Ellison?”

    I don’t think what happened with Franken was wrong, much as I like him, but the idea that there isany level of perfection that Democrats can achieve that will prevent Republican whataboutism is a sucker’s game.

    When I was starting to get involved in politics, there were still Dems who saw Republicans making hay of statements by Democrats, and went into a defensive crouch of believing if they were careful and said things just right, they wouldn’t be able to attack them.

    Do the right things for the right reasons, and don’t make stupid mistakes, but don’t for a minute think of doing anything just because we think it will prevent attacks. It won’t.

  87. 87.

    J R in WV

    @geg6:

    Such good news that you’re feeling a little better.

    We spent the late afternoon and evening at a campaign office, phone banking for a local candidate, and it went as expected. Some people just say “I don’t like talking about my political decisions!”

    One woman told me “They’re all the same, crooks and liars, all of them!” I wanted to say you’re confusing the Republicans with the Democrats, but she hung up. Ignorant, tho she didn’t sound stupid.

    Several told me, as soon as I told them who I was calling for, “You can stop now, I’m already solid for him!” or “This household is always solid Democratic!”

    One guy was a local politician, currently small town mayor, wanted signs to put around “his” town… one guy had a very real disability, his doctor wouldn’t release him to go back to work, but the Social Security Law Judge wouldn’t agree with that, wanted someone to help him before he would vote for someone. I sympathized, but couldn’t tell him anything but to vote Dem if he expected Social Security to be around to help anyone. Took nearly 20 minutes to let him down gently.

  89. 89.

    Mary G

    @lamh36: Wow, that’s low even for Maggie. Some suspect person on Twitter said that Roger Stone tweeted her for one of her kids’ birthdays, but his account had been cleared and I couldn’t find it on a legitimate site, but now I’m started to wonder.

  93. 93.

    Wapiti

    @Jeffro: My older brother is clinging to something about Republicans; I’m not sure it’s his core beliefs, or his friends, or the people we have to work with back in Kansas.

    It might just be that he understands that the desire of 40% of the population to go back to 1962 and the desire of 60% of the population to finally be free is not easy to compromise.

  95. 95.

    gene108

    @Redshift:

    but don’t for a minute think of doing anything just because we think it will prevent attacks. It won’t

    Attacks will come, but we shouldn’t give them a target rich environment, by not thinking ahead about how what we say or do can be used against us.

    Until the MSM realizes both sides are not the same, we are stuck in an asymmetrical conflict, where Obama’s “you can keep your insurance” comment gets rated as a huge lie, just like most of what Trump says.

    So I do worry a bit about how misuse of information can be used against. We are not playing on a level playing field. It is tilted against us.

  97. 97.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ve seen people whatabouting Ted Kennedy, who also was not rapey AFAIK. Apparently the death of Mary Jo Kopechne (sp?) means that Brett Kavanaugh gets a free pass for attempted rape forever, QED.

  98. 98.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    OK, kitten pics are a cue for me to switch mental gears away from politics.

    I posted before about how our new adoptee pup is an escape artist. The gate that closes him into the kitchen when we go out literally looks like the way Houdini would be secured for his act, with padlocks and wire and ropes securing it. When I described his escape artistry here before one of the jackals used the term “evil genius”.

    So today I took him with me to lunch at the nearby small grocery. He was in his harness. Leash attached to the harness, and then tied around the table in the outside seating area. Went in, bought my sandwich and drink, came out. Was greeted with the following crime scene: Unleashed dog happily greeting me at the door of the grocery. Table 6 feet from where I left it. Leash still attached to table. Harness still attached to leash.

    In the kitchen, we have a bunch of hooks I mounted on the wall at about 5′ off the ground that we hang all our keys on. This is a little guy, a 25 pound mostly-Beagle, but we routinely find stuff pulled off those hooks. I’m going to have to raise them.

    The gate has a little cat door in the bottom which he has demonstrated he can open. It is secured with a padlock. One of those keys on the hooks opens the padlock. Surely he hasn’t figured that out, right? Right?

    I’m beginning to think “evil genius” is apt, except he’s super sweet and not interested in taking over the world. Just being where his humans are, wherever in the world that is at any given time. Oh, and getting at his kibble, which right now (oh, foolish human!) is kept in the kitchen, only 3′ off the ground)

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    Great article from Dave Zirin today: Two snippets:

    What the Worst of Sports Taught Brett Kavanaugh—and What it Still Teaches Today

    When I would ask them if they had ever been at a party where an assault took place, they uniformly would say “no.” When I then would define assault as “taking advantage” of a person who was passed out drunk, then the answer was then “yes,” but always with pushback—always with the caveat—that “their friend” was also drunk and therefore if everyone is drunk, how can it be assault? The idea that they would be more than bystanders, that they would actually intervene if a teammate were assaulting someone passed out, was akin to me suggesting that they travel through hell in a gasoline suit. It was none of their business.

    Brett Kavanaugh is the product of this very triplet: privilege, entitlement, and high-school sports. These are cultures that nurture the very behaviors of which he is accused. That makes the way he’s been shielded for decades all the more obvious and odious. That makes this wind tunnel of controversy he’s endured way past overdue. Whether he becomes a Supreme Court justice or not, making him confront the essence of who he actually is matters. Not so much for his own personal growth, about which I could give a damn. But it creates the conditions for a long overdue reckoning way beyond the cushy confines of Bethesda, Maryland, about who we are, what we’re teaching our sons, and why they should strive to be nothing like Brett Kavanaugh.

  101. 101.

    p.a.

    Want to thank everyone in the recent threads for watching and reporting on what I wouldn’t.

    In related news I believe there is now a project up for bid to install a vaudeville hook mechanism in the WH Presidential Conference room. If only it could deposit the object into the historical dumpster, immediately…

  102. 102.

    Elizabelle

    Can you imagine the chill in the Kavanaugh home tonight? Mrs. is no doubt starting to wonder who/what she is married to. And the daughters are going to be dragged through hearing all those accusations against their father (if not personally, it will get back to them). And I guess Kavanaugh has to go through with it, because his day job is on the line too.

    Conduct unbecoming for a judge on the DC Court of Appeals.

    Couldn’t happen to a more deserving schmoe. He does not belong on the bench. Be gone, Bart O’Kavanaugh.

    Wondering if anyone has Mike Judge on suicide watch.

  103. 103.

    Mandalay

    @gene108:

    Any accusation against a Republican would have been met with a “what about Franken?” rejoinder.

    I’m not sure it makes any difference either way, since there is no limit to their whataboutery. There is plenty of “What about Keith Ellison?” floating around the intertubes right now. There will always be some Democrat to attack. If Ellison resigned they’d go after Joe Biden for being a pedo because there are photos of him with his hands on the shoulders of teenage girls. And if Biden died they’d fall back on Clinton for being a rapist. They will always find or fabricate accusations against some Democrat to turn it into a “both sides do it” issue.

    Incidentally, Ellison is refusing to follow Franken’s leave-quickly-and-quietly approach:

    As demand grew for further investigation into allegations that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) physically abused a former girlfriend, another Democrat joined the call for an additional inquiry: Ellison himself.

    In a statement Wednesday, the congressman said he would ask the House Committee on Ethics to investigate claims that he dragged his former partner Karen Monahan off a bed by her feet while yelling obscenities at her during a 2016 fight.

    “I am taking this step now because I am innocent and eager to see this entire matter resolved,” said Ellison, who is also the Democratic nominee for Minnesota Attorney General and deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

  104. 104.

    burnspbesq

    @TenguPhule:

    Can anyone say perjury?

    You can say it all you want. I’d love to hear you explain how you plan to prove materiality beyond a reasonable doubt.

  105. 105.

    Matt McIrvin

    @NotMax: It’s how they’ve always done it, to some extent. Military tech is largely built by private defense contractors, and basically all of the big aerospace companies are getting a piece of the pie.

  106. 106.

    Jay

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    When Sugar was a pup, I built a 4 foot high gated hardware cloth enclosure across the kitchen, so that until she was potty trained, and during the day, she would be on linoleum.

    They days before crates.

    She was a Lab/Rottie/Shepherd cross, just weaned.

    So, the first night, it was scrabble, scrabble, wham, from the time we put her to bed, at 10pm. Every time I’d get up, go in, correct her, put her back on her bed, leave. 15 minutes later, scrabble, scrabble, wham.

    This went on until 3 am. At the last scrabble, scrabble, wham, I left the bed, went into the dining room, turning the lights on as I headed to the kitchen, bleary eyed, only to see Sugar, head held high, tail wagging, trotting proudly past me, into the bedroom.

    After two tries on her own, I helped her up onto the bed, where she curled up at the foot of the bed, and fell asleep. She slept there even when she grew to be 90lbs, other than the nights before I went fishing, or camping. Then she’d sleep ontop of the gear to make sure that she was going on the adventure too.

  107. 107.

    B.B.A.

    @Elizabelle: Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill, Office Space, etc., is probably cursing his bad luck to have a very similar name to serial rapist and unindicted Kavanaugh co-conspirator Mark Judge.

  108. 108.

    Mandalay

    @Elizabelle:

    Can you imagine the chill in the Kavanaugh home tonight? Mrs. is no doubt starting to wonder who/what she is married to.

    Do you mean because she had no idea about his drinking and sexual assaults, or because she has known all about that stuff for years, but is staggered to see him lie to the nation so brazenly?

    My guess is that it’s a mix of both, and she probably knew about his drinking, but not the assaults. But either way Kavanaugh’s choir boy impersonation on Fox News must have left her a bit shaken (unless she is a shameless social climber who doesn’t give a shit, and I have no reason to believe that).

  109. 109.

    B.B.A.

    @Mandalay: If the charges hadn’t broken so close to the election, I would be calling for Ellison to drop out of the AG race and resign from the DNC (the latter mostly for being a Berniebro favorite). Now it’s too late and we may need to write off the race entirely.

  110. 110.

    Jay

    @Mandalay:

    He’s a violent serial gang rapist and an ugly drunk.

    She’s been on the receiving end of that more than once.

    She puts up with it for the power, money and social standing.

    She’s standing behind him, because if the nomination isn’t rammed through, he’s going to take his drunken anger out on her.

  111. 111.

    Aleta

    @Jay: There are people (the ones I know are women and into the christian god) who believe they have to remain a wife for life to whomever they married. And that their role, assigned by their god, is to obey and submit and always support and believe.

    I don’t know about priests, but I know there are RW pastors who tell women they have to stay even if they’re being beaten, bones broken and threatened. When the Kav. wife said “I know his heart”– I think that vocabulary is a clue that she is a RW christian.

    What I wonder about him: when he’s swearing up and down that he’s innocent, does the belief that his sins are forgiven and he’s been washed clean cause him to feel OK about lying?

  112. 112.

    Jay

    @Aleta:

    “What I wonder about him: when he’s swearing up and down that he’s innocent, does the belief that his sins are forgiven and he’s been washed clean cause him to feel OK about lying?”

    Dollars to donuts he’s a violent sociopath, and doesn’t believe at all.

    Church just provides the illusion of respectability, a social, political and economic network, under the cover of learned rituals and phrases that hides the fact in empty preachy conversation that he’s an amoral, violent sociopath.

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