At 9:30 AM, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on whether to send Kavanaugh’s nomination to the floor. Regardless of how they vote, McConnell can schedule a floor vote. He will because of course he fucking will — subverting the US Constitution and the will of the people is what McConnell does.
After McConnell schedules a vote on Kavanaugh, I’m 95% certain the Republicans in the US Senate will put the belligerent, entitled, rapey prick on the United States Supreme Court for the rest of his fucking life.
Which Republican will vote no? Flake or Sasse? Give me a fucking break. Collins? Not gonna happen. Murkowski? Her colleagues will find a way to bribe her.
Kavanaugh’s ranty, partisan performance yesterday pleased the belligerent, entitled, rapey prick in the White House who nominated him. Lindsey Graham successfully auditioned to replace Jeff Sessions as AG, overcoming the deficit of a cracker-ass accent that grates on Manhattan Mussolini’s ears.
This country doesn’t give a shit about treating women equally under the law, and it never has, due to a combination of malice and ignorance, with the former increasing and the latter receding too slowly.
As I’ve said here before, the reaction to Anita Hill’s testimony among male colleagues at my first real post-college job was an eye-opener for me back when I was a dewy young thing.
“If he was so horrible, why didn’t she just quit?”
“Why was she friendly to him in social settings years later if he sexually harassed her?”
“A little bit nutty and a little bit slutty.”
They didn’t get it. Some still don’t.
I was a cynic even then, but not so much that I expected to be sitting here 27 years later watching an even more revolting spectacle play out among members of my generational cohort.
Oh well. Nothing to do but vote, get others to vote, and get on with our lives, right? That’s just the way it is.
Professor Christine Blasey Ford will go on with her life after her country proves so unworthy of her courage and patriotism, just like Professor Anita Hill did before her.
Maybe, after another 27 years has passed, 80-year-old Justice Kavanaugh will retire or kick the bucket, and my 47-year-old daughter will find the prospect of his being replaced with a misogynist unthinkable.
But you know what? I wouldn’t bet on it.
S-Curve
Between the choking rage and the beer blossoms, I wouldn’t count on his living to be 80.
lamh36
Surprising no one…Flake i saw a YES for confirmation
https://twitter.com/lacaldwelldc/status/1045666259042480129?s=21
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m not as pessimistic as you, I still think that out of pure self-interest (the Native American vote for Murkowski, the $1.6 million in Collins’ case, which will probably double if she votes yes on BK) those two might throw up an FBI roadblock. Flake might join them out of pure self-regard. 30% chance.
syphonblue
Flake a Yes, that’s it. He’ll be confirmed Tuesday. Collins has always been a Yes, Murkowski won’t go against the party. Manchin will probably vote Yes as well, and should be expelled from the Democratic Party over it. In fact, I think I’ll call Schumer and tell that to his office.
danielx
Worth noting that my niece, who graduated from law school in May and just passed the bar exam, has no faith whatsoever in the integrity of the Supreme Court at this point. Her opinion of the Senate Judiciary Committee is lower than that by a considerable margin – calling them pigs is an insult to pigs.
NotMax
On this week’s episode of Soul or No Soul…
Mr. Prosser
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t think so. As Charles Pierce points out, Corker and Flake are quivering columns of marshmallow fluff and Collins just lies.
lamh36
good
Jerzy Russian
It aim”t over until it is over, but fuck a duck. Facts don’t matter anymore.
randal m sexton
2/3 of the senate to remove a judge and 1/2 plus one to confirm is why eleven is the new nine. Sure that breaks norms.
Aimai
“We will fuck their shit up as shit has never been fucked up before.” Me to my sobbing 22 year old daughter last night.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and once again, big shout-out to the Michael Moores, the Susan Sarandons and the Cornel Wests who just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Hillary, and had too much integrity and savvy to fall for that blackmail about the Supreme Court
tobie
Thanks BJers for your humir, anger, and smarts throughout this whole shitshow of a process. I couldn’t have endured it without this blog community
clay
@lamh36: The sun rose. The tides rolled in. Flake flaked.
Kay
I’d like to thank Dr. Ford for appearing. They erased her the moment she concluded her testimony – if they heard it at all, which I doubt- but I heard her and this was profound for me. I got it in a way I hadn’t before. I hope she has a long and happy and quiet life. Good job.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Any woman who thinks Rs will look for her interests is delusional. The support is supposed to go all in one direction.
tobie
@tobie: that’s humor not humir. I’m typing on my phone.
clay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t think Michael Moore was in that category. I could be wrong…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Tokyokie
I hope every last Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee draws a female opponent the next time he’s up for re-election and gets his head handed to him. Well, except for Rafael Cruz. Beto will end his political aspirations in November.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36:
lamh36
the video!!
https://twitter.com/tpmlivewire/status/1045669346616528897?s=21
r€nato
Jeff Flake should STFU up forever about Trump. A lame duck and he still couldn’t do the right thing. #allhatnocattle
Kay
They’re going to jam this piece of shit into the AG’s job once they get rid of Sessions. That’s why he’s giving this performance. It’s to impress Donald Trump.
Better work hard to elect ethical and competent state AG’s. You’re not protected by federal law.
lamh36
Betty Cracker
@Aimai: That’s the spirit! :)
wormtown
@r€nato: HIs post senate think tank/lobbying position is his no. 1 concern. Can’t jeopardize that.
Tokyokie
Somebody needs to drag Huckleberry out of the closet.
Quinerly
@clay: oh, he was firmly in that category. I loathe him as much as I loathe BS and Stein. Sarandon too.
trnc
Sent a message to Tillis that Tom Cotton brought up Duke Lacrosse and UVA frat as examples of false allegations, and pointed out that both had their names cleared through investigations. Hoping to spread the word as a way to pressure an investigation.
ruemara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I hope Dems learn to bury the very idea of comity.
Shrillhouse
And so concludes the American experiment.
I think we can all agree that it has been an abject failure.
AliceBlue
I knew this was coming but god I can’t stop crying.
low-tech cyclist
@Kay: Graham didn’t have the guts to say that to Dr. Ford’s face, of course. He snarls just fine when there’s nobody to snarl back at him. Like all bullies, he’s really a coward.
sherparick
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Unfortunately, there are a lot of Maine voters, especially males, who dig Trump and because there not one but two independents running, a Republican Governor in the Trump & LePaige mode is likely to be Governor.
lamh36
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: apparently he and Flake are “good friends”…well He’s friend with a rape apologists and should choose his friends better..
danielx
@lamh36:
Can’t say I’m disappointed, since I never expected anything else. Flake has less courage than your average mouse, and he;ll go on voting with the majority until the day he leaves office no many high-sounding phrases he farts out – I’m sorry, emits, emits! – in the meantime. Makes me wonder if Mitch McConnell has Flake’s balls in a jar somewhere, only to be returned if turtle-boy is happy with Flake’s votes.
low-tech cyclist
@lamh36: Too bad that elevator didn’t get stuck between floors for an hour or two.
Tokyokie
Remember when the Republicans were the party of “family values?” They still are, of course, but it’s the values of the Gambino Family.
danielx
@Aimai:
Damned right.
Mike R
@Quinerly: Agree, it is even worse as knew they were part of the population that was wealthy enough they would never pay a price for their folly. In many ways as entitled little shits as Kavanaugh.
mali muso
So, so glad that I started the process of getting my documents in order to apply for Canadian immigration back when this shit-show began. Took the French language test last week, have the English test this month, and then I can submit our application. With a 2 year old biracial daughter to think of, I can’t not have a back-up plan in place.
trnc
@AliceBlue – Cry as much as you need to, then use any remaining energy to get dems elected so we can subpoena Mark Judge and block any more shitty DT nominees.
Kay
It’s a small thing but apparently, it’s too much to ask that this distinguished and prestigious lawyer know what the fuck he’s talking about on ..laws. He had a million dollar legal team to carry him from third base where he was born to home and not one of them could be bothered to check his pronouncements on applicable law. There’s a higher standard in a municipal court.
NotMax
@danielx
More like a pillbox.
;)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
guachi
Like Lucy with the football. Expecting a Republican to vote no was fairly hopeless, wasn’t it?
lamh36
skerry
I’ve tried to call multiple senators this morning.
Could’t get through, heard message “All circuits are busy. Try again later.”
Kay
@low-tech cyclist:
He’s showing off for Donald Trump. It’s a lot like the frat boys cheering on the rapist, really. Same dynamic.
sherparick
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Michael Moore did vote for Hillary and asked everyone to vote for her as well. He just was the messenger with the bad news that Hillary was unpopular in Michigan, and in fact the whole Midwest because of the association of the Clinton brand with NAFTA. So I don’t put Moore in with the same box of political morons I put Sarandon and Cornell West. I put Glenn Greenwald in a very different, very cynical, political box since I now believe he is a knowing aider and abettor of oligarchy.
Doug R
Missed the earlier thread but is that calendar reference to “squi” referring to “squid” as in a new fresh victim?
lamh36
the full exchange between Flake and sexual assault survivors…
trigger warning!!
https://twitter.com/cnn/status/1045671067270836224?s=21
raven
yep
AliceBlue
@trnc:
That’s my plan.
geg6
This country is over and done with. Over one half of its inhabitants have just been told that they are not humans whose lives matter. This, over and above the other inhabitants who are black and brown who now know that they matter even less than they had before. I don’t know if I can bear to live with this as my country. I need to find a way out. I have to sit down and talk very seriously with my John. We’re sliding into fascism and the good guys aren’t winning. I don’t think they can. We need a plan. I’ll still keep working my heart out to make the election as big a blue wave as possible, but I am, for the first time, doubting that we can stop this slide into horror.
jacy
@Doug R:
No, that’s the boy Ed Whelan chose as the “real rapist.” Kavanaugh named him yesterday
Kraux Pas
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Damn. Can’t call Huckabee an asshole on Twitter. Got sent to the Sin Bin.
germy
Women as second class citizens.
POC as second class citizens.
We’ll all be second class citizens. The elderly, those of us with pre-existing conditions, those of us with vicious and unreasonable bosses.
When asked if he’d be willing to take a polygraph test yesterday, Kavanaugh replied that they are unreliable “as you know, senator”
And yet as a judge he ruled that employees could subject job applicants and employees to polygraph tests.
I feel sorry for any assault victim who finds herself in front of the supreme court. It will be a mockery.
The Thin Black Duke
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Damned right. I won’t forget and I will NEVER forgive those motherfuckers.
Nicole
Blech. I think I shall go through my FB friends this weekend and delete every single Republican. If they’re still GOP after this, it’s obvious the kind of people they are and those are not the kind who deserve the pleasure of my company.
schrodingers_cat
Never forgive, never forget. We knew this, Flake was always going to vote for the drunkface frat boy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kraux Pas: “If I can’t have Bernie, let it all burn!”
I’m not in the mood to play with you anymore, you vile little piece of crap. You helped create this. You and Bernie.
Fuck off forever
cintibud
@ruemara: “I hope Dems learn to bury the very idea of comity”
The talking point needs to be “Mitch McConnell took Comity into a back room, locked the door behind him, turned up the music and put his hand over her mouth. Comity is dead now”
tobie
Is it true that McConnell will hold a full Senate vote at 1:30 today? I may go to DC after work. Anyone know where there will likely be demonstrations?
jacy
@geg6:
I know things are horrible (and horrible is not nearly strong enough, maybe there are no words that are strong enough), but sometimes it takes the absolute worse for change to come. The pendulum does swing. It ALWAYS swings. The worse they make it, the more resistance will arise. Everything seems impossible until suddenly it isn’t. We have no way of predicting what will happen in the future — next week or next year or in the next decade. We push forward and don’t quit. We support each other. We fight and wait for an advantage, we make the change we can. It’s okay to have periods of despair — and maybe we need them to remind ourselves of the gravity of the situation — but know that it’s never the end.
NotMax
The word morass, in any possible pronunciation, was never more applicable.
Nicole
@geg6: I agree with you, geg6. I’ve been trying to think of some way to get out because I really don’t believe we’re going to see anything resembling fair elections this November. The GOP know they’re facing a blue wave and their behavior indicates they aren’t concerned about it. Much like holding up Garland’s nomination up for the next President- why do that, unless they knew the next would be a Republican?
James E Powell
It is really puzzling to me – and infuriating – that misogyny and white supremacy are ascendant. The explanations I’ve read all seem inadequate. We are not in the middle of a war or deep economic crisis. The people most animated with hateful bigotry are all doing well; the people who are bankrolling the movement might be the richest people in the history of the world. This makes no sense to me.
The press/media who made “her emails” the number one issue are working hard to bury sexual assault and lying under a pile of “both sides” bullshit. I suppose I should have expected it.
Kay
They’ll be worse after this. When they win one they double down. It’s the risk you take opposing them.
Judge Kavanaugh told us himself- ‘what goes around comes around”
Boy, I am just pleased as PUNCH to be paying his salary, I must say. He loathes me and he isn’t afraid to tell me. Such a humble public servant.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@cintibud:
Yeah, time to be done with the “my friend” shit. Same with staffers – make it hurt.
Nicole
Also, what I want includes an investigation into Bernie Sanders’ finances.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Michael Moore’s career is on the downslide. We have grifters just like the Right, but unlike the Right we don’t give them lifetime sinecures.
He’ll probably switch sides. That’s what our grifters tend to do.
Quinerly
@Nicole: I got rid of the last Trump supporter on my FB friends list. I had kept her around because she didn’t post much and I delighted in outing her a few months back in one of her threads. Most of her friends didn’t know she supported Trump. She’s 4 times married, very Catholic, Air Force Colonel. Deleted her last night. Felt very good. Highly recommend even if petty and silly. This is fucking war.
tobie
@Nicole: this is my greatest fear, too. We know so little about our voting infrastructure.
NotMax
@Nicole
Had a D won they would have continued holding it up, once having set the precedent.
“Once 84 more months long hearings on Benghazi are completed, then we’ll get right on it. Maybe.”
schrodingers_cat
Rs are shitty but they fight and they fight dirty. Mitch McConnell didn’t cry when President Obama won in 2008. He fought back. Let’s do the same.
Kraux Pas
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Nicole
@tobie: Machines have always been hackable, including the old lever and switch booths (my late aunt worked for the Elections Commission and had all kinds of stories) but it was generally small scale- you had to have someone tamper with each individual machine. Now, it’s possible to mess with a lot of polls, from a long distance away. Ugh.
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
All political fights are dirty. Republicans fight filthy.
A Ghost To Most
@geg6:
Still think I’m crazy? Yeah, me too.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
Hopefully, he’ll be alive for questioning by revolutionary tribunals, where “are you now or have you ever been a member of the Federalist Society” doesn’t bring forth a smug smirk of admiration, and teary shouts of “this isn’t fair” bring about a rifle butt to the abdomen.
Maybe he can wear his robe on his tumbrel ride, as a measure of respect for his former office…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@NotMax: John McCain laughed about it in a campaign interview, they were going to block all of HRC’s nominees.
https://www.npr.org/2016/10/17/498328520/sen-mccain-says-republicans-will-block-all-court-nominations-if-clinton-wins
(link function not working for me the last couple of days)
EveryDayIHaveTheBlues
@Aimai: THIS. I agree completely. None of these people deserve respect or consideration, from the lowest dog-catcher at the county level, to the illegitimate president.
Never give-up, never surrender. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!
Nicole
@Quinerly: Thank you for the recommendation. Life is too short to waste engaging with unrepentant right-wingers.
schrodingers_cat
@NotMax: The point is they don’t leave the fight, flounce off and say everything is lost.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Well, A LOT of fancy legal people have a black eye on this one. Why do they admire such horrible people? You can’t help but think it’s because they’re horrible themselves.
Kay
I can’t stop watching. I want to SEE them do this. I’ll have to drop out for the obligatory bullshit that comes after one of these power plays, where they all mumble nonsense about “the country coming together”. Nope. I’m done believing in that. I prefer to live in reality.
schrodingers_cat
I have no T voting friends to unfriend, they were unfriended after the first Muslim ban.
@KayAkhil Reed Amar and Amy Chua can DIAF.
Mai Naem mobile
Flakes a phoney prick member of the mormon mafia. Fuck him. He thinks his two lobbying pennies are going to let him go onto Planet Zingo or whatever the fuck planet mormons move onto after they die.
EveryDayIHaveTheBlues
@lamh36: This clip is very hard to watch. Even for a someone like me, a male who has not gone through an iota of what women go through, it was agonizing. How soulless are these people? I think we know the answer.
Giving up is not an option. I became a citizen in April 2017, and I’ll be damned if these fuckers drive me out. Fight till you’re exhausted and then fight some more. I’m gonna call Portman and then volunteer for Aftab.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
“We fucked you and got our way, now you’re obligated to smile and respect us” is how conservatism always worked in this country.
Nope – no more anthem standing for me.
lamh36
I need folks to get out and vote in November, cause I have absolutely NO trust that any of the 53% of white women or 1/2 of the country who’s voted for Trump or just against the Black guy/HRC, despite all we knew about his history of sexual assault will do the right thing in November bass in the railroading of this Kavanaugh dude on the SCOTUS.
IT’S ON GOOD MINDED people to get out and vote…and hopefully prevail.
Bostonian
@trnc: I guess Republicans are saying they’d like the investigation to happen after Kavanaugh is confirmed.
Doug R
@Nicole:
While I have my reservations, the wave of retirements and the cancellation of August recess and the ramming through of judicial appointments makes me think the Republicans can see the wave coming too.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@lamh36:
Always remember – bogus allegations by white women are frequently at the guts of whatever criminal convictions that the Innocence Project are seeking to unwind. Their keening fears and petty jealousies bring those about.
schrodingers_cat
@lamh36: I will be canvasing next Sunday for D candidate for governor.
PenAndKey
@mali muso: Express entry? My French is too rusty to rely on for any points there, but with an 8 year old son and a wife with a history of high risk pregnancy I’ve been putting out feelers to see what parts of Canada have a job market we could both get in to. Did you end up getting any support from Canadian immigration specialists or are you doing this on your own?
I’m sure as hell not going to put up a fight, but with the next 30-40 years in play here it’s time to start looking at contingency planning for my wife and son, if not me. I may be a bastard, but as a middle class white guy with no history of health problems I’m relatively safe. Them? This isn’t the world either of them deserve to be in.
Reboot
A de-lurk to say just as I thought my email to Susan Collins was going through (her section of the Senate web site took quite a while to come up), I got this:
WEBSITE TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE DUE TO MAINTENANCE.
Normal service will return soon.
[Senate Logo]
I wonder if my email had the honor of breaking the entire Senate website. In other news, before emailing, I tried calling and got busy signals from her, Manchin and Murkowski. I was able to leave a voice mail with Rubio’s office.
PenAndKey
@PenAndKey: “not going to” = “going to”…
I need more coffee.
Mike in DC
Karma would involve Clarence Thomas croaking 3 days after a new Democratic president is sworn in.
I am ambivalent about court-packing, but only because I think the Republicans will return the favor the minute they run the show again, and I’m not sure in the current environment that we can keep them out of power for a whole decade (or three). But I would sure like to!
El Caganer
@Nicole: We need to do what the Irish did – screw electronic voting, back to paper ballots. I love technology, but in this case it doesn’t seem to be working in the service of the people.
Mnemosyne
@Kraux Pas:
Jesus, is there any fucking thing whinier than a troll? You guys were mmmmeeeaaaaannnnn to me when I trolled you and now you’ll never win me over to your side!
How about this: go fuck yourself for making today all about YOU. You’re just as bad as Kavanaugh and all of the other self-righteous white dudes like oldgold who don’t give a shit about anything other than themselves.
All trolls be warned — I am NOT FUCKING PLAYING AROUND TODAY. Shut the fuck up, or prepare to be eviscerated.
mali muso
@PenAndKey: Yes, we’re putting together our materials for Express Entry. No job offers yet, but I’m going to see if we can try for Provincial Nomination in Ontario to up our score. Doing things on our own at this point, without a specialist, just relying on lots of research. I really don’t want to live in cold weather, but I’ll take that over what looks like an increasingly likely dystopian future here. Besides, with climate change, it probably makes sense to head north.
And yes, like you I’m still going to put up a fight here. I’m registered, voting, donating and canvassing. I don’t want to be a quitter. But I have to think of my daughter’s future in case things continue to degrade here.
randy khan
@Doug R:
Yeah, I think the message is that they know the party is about to be over, not that they’re confident they’ll stay in power.
feebog
@Quinerly:
I have only blocked one, a lifelong friend who has gone completely around the bend. A couple days ago I had another longtime friend get very huffy when I told him he didn’t get what women go through after sexual assault and/or rape. I told him he could block me or ignore my posts, his choice. But the reactions from that post were amazing. A woman I have known for many years pm’d me and told me she had been raped at age 11. Another thanked me for sticking up for her. A former manager told me about a case where he had been falsely accused of sexual harassment. Coincidentally, after he described it, I realized I had deposed his accuser in this case, although I did not represent him in any of the EEO hearings. So I’m not going to get block any of them. Let them block me if they wish, or simply not respond to my posts.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Kavanaugh is like Sara Paulin, he personalizes everything and hates everyone. I suspect even the Hard Right is going to regret the pushed this toad licker threw.
infovore
@randal m sexton:
“By 5-4 the Supreme Court ruled that the Democrat proposal to extend it to 11 judges is unconstitutional. In his trenchant concurrence Justice Kavanaugh noted that Democrat resistance to his appointment has robbed that party of any credibility when it comes to appointing judges to any court whatsoever.”
mjl
No voting machine should be on any network, ever. Sadly a number of swing states are eminently hackable: and they are mostly swing states (not a coincidence, I am sure). OH in particular hasn’t tracked exit polls since 2004.
A Paper Ballot Amendment needs to become a permanent plank in the Dem party platform, both Fed and State level. And any politician who opposes it should be openly accused of complicity.
State Govs/AGs also need to have a plan in place for when Gamble vs US is used to strip state sovereignty (and therefore essentially grants immunity to the GOP mobsters at the State level). Which is what this is really about.
It’s war. Time to fight like it…
Another Scott
@sherparick: I only heard part of Moore’s speech at the Women’s March in January 2017, but he was starting to slag on Hillary before the crowd started booing and then he quickly dropped it.
He may have voted for her, but he certainly hasn’t given up on not being fully on our side.
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
PenAndKey
@mali muso:
I’m a born and raised upper Midwesterner and live in SW Wisconsin, so unless I get stuck in Alberta I’m not terribly concerned with the weather. Even with stable management-level careers and being undergraduate degree holders though, my wife and I are at the lower threshold for an invite so I’m a bit nervous about being stuck if it gets that far if I can’t snag a provincial endorsement. Good luck, and let’s both hope it doesn’t get that far.
Mnemosyne
@Reboot:
That is … very intriguing. Sounds like Kavanaugh’s performance didn’t go over as well with the American people as it did with the Russian bots on Twitter.
I hope all of the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are prepared to be harassed in public for the rest of their natural lives. What Flake got in that elevator is just a small foretaste of what’s coming from the citizens they refused to listen to.
Wild Cat
@S-Curve: Fuckface Trump was supposed to keel over two years ago. This rapist will flourish on the SC until there’s a civil war, and even then, the fascists may win and retain him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as with Bernie’s half-trolling, half-hearted HRC support that came after six months of bellowing that she was corrupt, and turning the convention into an exercise in trolling– do you think half of the kids with “No TPP” signs could tell you today what the initials stood for? I’d be surprised– Moore has spent the last twenty years shrieking that there’s no difference between Rs and Ds. He sometimes figures out how stupid that is– after grievous damage is done, in 2004, in the fall of 2016– , and then goes right back to it. He is, like Bernie, a net loss for the movement he thinks he supports.
James E Powell
The efforts of some members of the press/media to “both sides” yesterday’s hearing and this whole episode are appalling.
I’m not a murderer and I’m not advocating murder, but I do wish they would all to die of natural causes real soon.
Seanly
My wife understands the danger to Roe. She thinks I’m being paranoid when I say that they’re coming not just for Roe but also for Griswold plus all the other positive changes of the last 50 years.
Two of my key criteria for our next Democratic presidential candidate will be 1) refusal to have any Republicans in appointed positions in their cabinet (fuck comity & there are no moderates) and 2) putting young progressive judges at every level of the judiciary.
We have to get Republicans out of every elected office that we can.
The only solace is that the Earth is probably only inhabital for about another 50 years by an advanced civilization so all these motherfuckers will starve with us. All the survivalist tech bros & old rich white men can fight over the last fertile patch of ground in our Mad Max future.
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Totally agree. And that goes for all the people – famous and otherwise – who call themselves left or progressive and who insist that if only the Democratic Party would advocate the policies of Olof Palme they’d win elections in this bigoted misogynist country.
I save my real rage for RWers, but I have nothing but scorn for the perpetually indignant lefties who refuse to deal with reality.
James E Powell
@Seanly:
Please tell your wife anyone else who will listen, they are coming after the positive changes of the last 100 years. It isn’t a secret. They’ve all been writing about it for decades.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: From a NYT article about a Ralph Nader rally published in October 2000: “A vote for Gore is a vote for Bush.” — Michael Moore.
He was playing playing with fire then, we got burned, and he went right back to playing with fire. The thing is, he doesn’t get burned — we do. So yeah, fuck that asshole. I heard his latest movie is tanking. Good.
Kraux Pas
@Mnemosyne:
Haven’t you figured it out yet? I’m on your side. I’ve been voting a straight D ticket for over a decade, virtually the entire time I’ve been old enough to vote. Yet you treat me like an enemy because I’m calling you out on your bad attitudes towards everyone you don’t agree with 100%. And it’s just a handful of you on here but you always manage to make yourselves heard.
You’re bullies. You think it’s Ok to treat someone however you want just as long as you’re the right sort of person and they’re the wrong sort of person.
Thank god the Dems don’t tend to nominate fools like you to office. Could you imagine either Clinton or Obama or any major D official past or present scolding people who only slightly disagree with them day in and day out for years?
PenAndKey
@Kraux Pas: Yup, this is going to end well. Just let them vent and stick them in the pie filter when they set their sights on a target, even if it’s not you. It makes the place much more peaceful.
I don’t know about you Mnemosyne, but I’ve never seen the pile-on attacks do anything but drive good people away. Hell, you’d think we wod have learned out lesson as a community when even good front pagers called it quits because of that sort of crap behavior.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
No. But I can imagine your idiot, bellowing savior doing it. And dimwitted, arrested adolescent clowns like you jumping up and down clapping and screaming “Whoooo!” because BERNIE! just tickled your naughty bits, and confirmed how special you think you are.
You and Bernie made this world, you piece of shit. You are every bit as much trump’s useful idiots as he is Putin’s.
You did this. You couldn’t have Bernie, so you let it all burn.
Felanius Kootea
@Kraux Pas: What is your opinion of what’s going on with Kavanaugh right now? Can you at least respect that many of the people “on your side” are in pain right now about the Supreme Court vote and either (i) offer some words of hope or comfort or (ii) shut the fuck up just for today? I’m serious.
Kraux Pas
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bernie isn’t my savior. I settled for Bernie before becoming actually somewhat enthusiastic for Clinton by the time the general rolled around. But you’re a liar and a bully, so you ignore that and waste your life berating strangers on the internet on a daily basis because it makes you feel smugly superior.
You’re as typical a cis white hetero man as it comes.
Kraux Pas
@Felanius Kootea: I think the whole thing’s a sham. But that doesn’t mean I have to tolerate lying, bullying behavior on the left either.
If you think I’m not deathly worried about the fate of the Supreme Court or that I don’t have a lot at stake, you’re sorely mistaken.
artem1s
@James E Powell:
Neither was Germany. They were on their way out of their depression when Hitler took power. Could be our butthurt over the debacle of Vietnam is comparable to theirs in WWI? Maybe it’s the aging out and dying off of the dominant demographic? who knows what gives rise to nationalistic fervor.
Chyron HR
@Kraux Pas:
How the heck are “The person who got more votes won the primary” and “America must die because Messiah was denied his coronation” a slight difference of opinion?
Splitting Image
@Kraux Pas:
No, but I could imagine Bernie Sanders and his wagging finger doing it.
Kraux Pas
@Chyron HR:
Are you lying or have you not read most of the conversation? I think lying. Even when I was on full blast, that is not remotely what I said.
James E Powell
@artem1s:
There were many factors at work, but the rise of the Nazis at the polls was largely due to unemployment which was around 30%.
Miss Bianca
OK, folks, I’m as much of a Bernie Sanders anti-fan as anyone here, but can we stop with slagging each other over him? At least for right now? I’d say we have bigger fish to cook right at the moment.
James E Powell
@Miss Bianca:
Second. Endorse, Co-Sign.
These are days of rage. We should avoid scorching each other. And if we chance to get a little scorched by someone whose anger is boiling over, let it go. Sometimes the best thing you can do for a person is to ignore what he just said.
PenAndKey
@James E Powell: Exactly. If someone goes off the rails in a post I’m just going to migrate to the newest one and ignore them for a while. I’d recommend everyone do the same. And if they start pulling the stalker routine? Pie them.
patrick II
I think the country will have turned entirely fascist before then and the courts will be courts in the same sense it is in Russia now. This was worse than Thomas. Lindsay Graham his fellow republicans are not just hyper-partisan, they conspired to cover a crime of one of their own. When Ms. Mitchell got too close to the truth with the calendar they took her off. When other witnesses came forward, they would not let them testify. Supporting witnesses for Ford did not testify. That goes beyond partisanship to criminal conspiracy. Lyndsay Graham, who has found his new strongman to make him feel safe, said very loudly what drives the Republican party — a rabid rebuttal against democracy, truth, and any challenge to the entitlement Republicans feel is their due. They are the boss of you. Monied white men own the show, even against fairly well monied woman who might defy them.
Lying Judge* Kavanaugh reminded me of a rabid dog, with upper lip curled in snarl, hate spewing at any question that might have a chance of offending Kavanaugh’s idea of himself as an entitled person. Why “I studied hard in school, I played sports, I went to Yale, and I didn’t drink that much beer.” Even though there is every indication he drank a lot of beer, and even athletes, and Yalies have attacked girls, especially vulnerable by nature or vulnerable by spike drink. He is entitled becaue he was a good boy who went to the right school and did what he was told unless no one was looking. And good boys who play sports and go to Yale deserve to be on the Supreme Court. I DESERVE IT! YOU CAN’T TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME! YOU VILLAINOUS ATTACKERS FOR THE PROLES! And he continued top do what he was told as a young republican, and a member of the Starr team, and as a judge. He has been a good boy for the fellow self-appointed elites of inherited money and power. No one is going to take this away from me! You have hurt my family As if the families of the various people he has prosecuted or passed sentence over had not feelings. His family is entitled to different feelings, better feelings. They need to share in the denial of what kind of person he is, because they too are now among the entitled and shouldn’t feel the shame of having their father embarrassed by his criminal behavior. And I am sure they are good kids and like any kid should be spared some hard truths for awhile. So here is a hard truth they should learn before they are too much older. Don’t go to parties where there is beer and boys like your father once was.
James E Powell
I don’t like telling other people what they should do (I love it!), but I’m thinking it would be pretty cool if women all over America called in sick, took a personal day, or otherwise just didn’t show up Monday morning. Especially the ones who can do it without any negative consequences at work. It might maybe have some impact.