Sorry I'm gonna need testimony from everyone in the room for me to think it's credible that he was actually sworn in. https://t.co/LVlBJc07L1
— zeddy (@Zeddary) October 6, 2018
Very few people, when Preston Brooks assaulted Charles Sumner on the Senate floor, foresaw that Books’ supporters would declare war against their own country just a few years later. We’ve got the advantage of history to demonstrate where the kind of violent intransigence that just put Brett Kavanaugh on the SCOTUS bench can lead, so I devoutly hope we’ll be able to ringfence his future before he and his GOP co-conspirators can lead us down a similar path. But I’ve been accumulating a stack of links over the past couple of weeks, and I’m going to tack some of them up to this virtual wall just so we have them at hand.
Kavanaugh’s (former) friend Benjamin Wittes, in the Atlantic, “I Know Brett Kavanaugh, but I Wouldn’t Confirm Him”:
… Faced with credible allegations of serious misconduct against him, Kavanaugh behaved in a fashion unacceptable in a justice, it seems preponderantly likely he was not candid with the Senate Judiciary Committee on important matters, and the risk of Ford’s allegations being closer to the truth than his denial of them is simply too high to place him on the Supreme Court.
We are in a political environment in which there are no rules, no norms anymore to violate. There is only power, and the individual judgments of individual senators—facing whatever political pressures they face, calculating political gain however they do it, and consulting their consciences to the extent they have them.
As much as I admire Kavanaugh, my conscience would not permit me to vote for him.
Charles Pierce, at Esquire, “A High-End Legal Ratf*cker Is Still a Ratf*cker”:
… … I believe most of what has been alleged about Brett Kavanaugh from the people who knew him back in the day. His demeanor before the committee last week made him look like every privileged lace-curtain Irish inebriate with whom I grew up. I believe everything Dr. Christine Blasey Ford said about him, not because I oppose his nomination, but because she was human and he was a wind-up rage doll. Those charges and that temperament are enough to keep him off the Supreme Court. Hell, they’re enough to keep him out from behind the counter at Costco.
But, even if these most recent charges never emerged, I want him kept off the Supreme Court, even though his attitude last week is a damned good reason. (And, as The Washington Post reported, it was what gave the American Bar Association pause regarding Kavanaugh’s demeanor during the judge’s first go-round in the Senate.) I want him kept off the Supreme Court because, up until C-Plus Augustus rammed him onto the bench in 2006, Kavanaugh’s career was not that of a lawyer, but that of a partisan ratfcker. If he gets confirmed, we will have a vengeful partisan ratfcker on the Supreme Court for the rest of my lifetime, and that’s not a legacy I want to leave behind.
Of all the things about which he has hedged and fudged and prevaricated, his services to conservative ratfcking exercises—from the Great Penis Hunt of the 1990s, to the brawl over little Elian Gonzalez, to the 2000 presidential burglary, to his activities on behalf of the Avignon Presidency—are the most consequential of his many misleading fairy tales, sleight-of-hand alibis, and outright lies.Brett Kavanaugh is a lawyer only because he went to law school and passed the bar. He’s never tried a case, at least to my knowledge and, until he became a judge, he put his legal training at the service of high-end ratfcking, keeping the activities at least within sight of the traditional guard rails that stand between lawyers and 5-15 at Allenwood… Kavanaugh’s only experience as a prosecutor was as a drooling operative in Ken Starr’s little shop of sanctified presidential porn—which was, in many ways, one of the great ratfcking operations of all time, and certainly the most expensive…
… [T]here is a fine living to be made as a partisan lawyer specializing in high-end political ratfcking. It’s an industry now. But a partisan ratfcking lawyer should not be able to hedge, and fudge, and prevaricate his way onto the Supreme Court. I’m also worried that he might chuck some water at counsel during oral arguments, but I’m putting that concern on, well, ice for a while.
Maureen O’Connor, at NYMag: “Why Won’t Brett Kavanaugh Stop Lying?”:
… Honesty is more than the mere absence of lies. Honesty requires correcting omissions. Honesty means looking at complex, messy realities and taking seriously the task of understanding each mess. It means reflecting on behavior you may have considered as “rough horseplay,” and considering whether it was a life-altering trauma for someone else. Honesty means questioning your assumptions and constantly measuring whether the things you believe and say are as accurate as possible. So what would an honest man do, in Brett Kavanaugh’s place? I could imagine a version of reality where he acknowledged young-adult delinquency and discussed what he thinks now as he looks back. If he does, in fact, remember the incident in question — or has reason to believe it may have happened — then he should honestly reckon with that truth…
… When the Washington Post profiled 95-year-old Jimmy Carter’s “un-celebrity” life last month, the quote that got the most attention was the former president calling the current one “a disaster.” But then Rosalynn jumped in: “The worst is that he is not telling the truth, and that just hurts everything.”
The article recounts Carter’s famous aversion to lying, which he credits to a strict father and his education at the U.S. Naval Academy “where he said students are expelled for telling even the smallest lie.” Amid widespread government mistrust post-Nixon and post-Vietnam, Carter ran for president on this promise: “I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never knowingly make a misstatement of fact. I’ll never betray your trust. If I do any of these things, I don’t want you to support me.” Jimmy Carter was so honest, he told Playboy he wanted to cheat on Rosalynn! That’s a level of honesty that, frankly, I might not want in a significant other. (But I’m glad “radical honesty” worked for the Carters, decades before everyone else caught on.) You don’t need to be rude. But when the choice is between rude and true? Choose true.
Roger (not Richard) Cohen, at the NYTimes, back in September, “An Injudicious Man, Unfit for the Supreme Court”:
What America saw before the Senate Judiciary Committee was an injudicious man, an angry brat veering from fury to sniveling sobs, a judge so bereft of composure and proportion that it was difficult not to squirm. Brett Kavanaugh actually got teary over keeping a calendar because that’s what his dad did. His performance was right out of Norman Rockwell with a touch of “Mad Men.”
This is what you get from the unexamined life…
… Kavanaugh’s bleating about due process and presumption of innocence — his rage at a supposed “national disgrace” — misses the point. He failed the job interview. Who would want this spoiled man pieced together on a foundation of repressed anger and circumscribed privilege — this man who quite plausibly was the teenage drunk near-suffocating Christine Blasey Ford as he ground his body against hers, this man who may now have perjured himself — occupying a place for life on the highest court in the land?…
The hearings were a Rorschach test for America’s tribes. They saw what they wanted to see. For Kavanaugh’s supporters, his rage was as good a primal scream for threatened white male privilege as may be imagined. No wonder Trump loved it.
Addressing the Democrats on the committee, Graham fumed: “You want this seat? I hope you never get it.” But of course, as Democrats will never forget, Republicans stole a seat. Remember Merrick Garland? There is something so hypocritical in Republican outrage that it would be comical if the issue were not so grave.
It’s hard to argue that America’s tribal democracy is not dysfunctional these days, but still the United States is a democracy. Flake’s 11th-hour decision to demand a week’s delay before a full Senate vote to allow the F.B.I. investigation — a decision driven by conscience over Republican Party allegiance — is a small act of honor in a tawdry time. It can take a while for democracies to zigzag toward the truth.
Kavanaugh has revealed himself to be a man without measure, capable of frenzy, full of conspiratorial venom against Democrats. Justice would not be served by his presence on the Supreme Court.
Even a renowned auteur of American man-baby entitlement can’t believe this dude…
He couldn’t do it because he’s never had to. It’s all been handed to him. https://t.co/wuiRlzs5cD
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) October 6, 2018
rikyrah
No words untrue in this post. Not a one.??
BGinCHI
I hope investigative journalists keep digging on this guy. There’s more stuff out there.
Gambling, connections to mobbed up people, etc.
Josie
I hope that, at some point, we figure out how to make him and his supporters regret winning this battle.
Mike in NC
I’ve skimmed three Sunday newspapers so far this morning. All the usual right-wing pundits are offering up some variation of the idea that conservative Christian white men are an oppressed minority in this country. Sad!
Elizabelle
I have no respect for Brett Kavanaugh, or for the machinations that put him there. He is an illegitimate justice, of an illegitimate president, of an illegitimate process.
These shitwads would not even give Merrick Garland a hearing. And they would not allow their tainted Kavanaugh a full FBI investigation.
Down goes the reputation of the Supreme Court, and of “moderate” Susan Collins. Down goes Mitch McConnell, although he’s already several layers subterranean.
#disgusted
debbie
@Josie:
Isn’t that what the midterms are for?
Elizabelle
This was just plain bullying. A demonstration of power. Elevating a tainted justice who might rule for Trump, and to protect their own tainted criminal asses.
We have to make them regret it. I think we can.
Dorothy A. Winsor
November is what matters now. These are bad people. They need to be removed from power.
Corner Stone
Not to the point of this OP, but can we please drop it with the fucking excuse making for Joe Fucking Manchin? Thanks
Elizabelle
@debbie: But more than just the midterms. I don’t think these bullies should expect respect on the street, quiet in their offices and hallways, or acquiescence to their theft. Further, norms are broken. Work around that.
Corner Stone
@BGinCHI: Hey, I was wondering if you and the wife had moved past the surgical masks and nitrile gloves when dealing with the kid? Hit the Nixon mask era yet?
debbie
I would also add Adam Gopnik to Anne’s list up top:
Mai Naem mobile
Don mcgahn is getting forgotten here. This mother f***** needs to be chased out of every bar and out of every restaurant in DC. When he plays with his band he needs to have tomatoes and eggs thrown at him. If the Democrats take back the Senate and the house they should go out of their way to hurt the states that have two Republican Senators. Stop playing Hardball. Stop being the adults in the room.
r€nato
Kavanaugh should be endlessly investigated, as Hillary was. #packthecourt
Josie
@debbie:
That would be a good beginning, but I want more – much, much more. I want them to sob with regret, for a long time.
MazeDancer
Dems not in Disarray:
Over 42,000 PostCards have been written to help elect (BJ Top 40 Candiate) Vangie Williams to become the first African-American Member of Congress from Virginia.
Her campaign has covered every name on their Dem rolls. Plus, they gave out 6K Republicans who voted for Clinton names.
Still have a few left at PostCardPatriots.com
(Why, yes, grabbed the last ones.)
But – not to go all Ad Biz on you – IMHO, an ideal PostCard Program would send as many personal PostCards as possible to voters. Each one different, each one from the heart.
So, will also be giving out the 250 we have, again and again.
Suzanne
The Dems need to take a serious look at how we structurally unfuck ourselves. Abolishing the electoral college, fixed-population Congressional districts that can cross state lines, ranked-choice voting, semi-proportional Senate, etc. Because we are never going to win a damn thing ever again at this rate, and the amount of infighting between the supposedly woke just makes me so emotionally exhausted. We are squabbling amongst ourselves rather than doing what we need to do to regain our electoral power.
There’s no reason that opiate abusers in rural Kentucky should tell me how to live, but here we are. And fixing that should be the first order of business.
Amir Khalid
If the Democratic party regained the House, the Senate by a sufficient majority (I’m not sure whether it takes 2/4 or 3/5), could it impeach and convict Kavanaugh of lying at his confirmation hearing, and thus remove him? I understand the evidence is pretty strong.
Another Scott
Good morning, everyone.
They have won this battle, as we suspected (and dreaded) they would. But it’s not over.
We need to help make sure people can vote:
LWV.org is having a matching gift program.
VoteRiders.org helps people get IDs.
We need to help energized women candidates win:
EmilysList.org does that.
We need to help protect minority voting rights and help drive turnout:
NAACP.org does that.
We need to look the future and get representatives that support sensible, representative redistricting:
Eric Holder’s https://democraticredistricting.com/ does that.
I donated (again) to all of these groups this morning. Keep them in mind when you win the lottery this coming month. There are lots of other worthy groups, of course. It doesn’t really matter which group you pick, but pick one or more and give what you can so that they have the resources they need to make the biggest impact they can before November 6.
Don’t get discouraged, remain determined. They win when we get discouraged by setbacks along the way. We have to keep fighting!
29 days to go!!
Cheers,
Scott.
BGinCHI
@Corner Stone: He’s in first grade!
Time flies.
I tried to get him to go as Nixon this year but he told me that old shitbird wasn’t even much of a crook compared to the world we’ve brought him into.
Sharp, that kid.
BGinCHI
@Mai Naem mobile: I think we can play hardball and be adults.
Actions? Consequences.
Another Scott
@MazeDancer: Nit: You mean African American Congresswoman from Virginia in Congress, I assume?
There have been three AA Congressmen from Virginia.
Well done. Make it happen. Keep fighting!!
Cheers,
Scott.
BGinCHI
@Suzanne: Exactly. Time to rip up the status quo.
A younger Democratic Party needs to start offering some clear, stark, more aggressive alternatives to the dead-ender GOP.
trollhattan
Every Republican from today going forward.
“Yes, we ‘won’ the battle to put a supremely qualified, overqualified really, man on the Supreme Court–as was ordained by God–but more importantly we fought back and won the confirmation battle against the cruelly unfair tactics deployed by the Democrat Party and their rich Liberal paymasters. However, since the Democrat Party still exists the greater war is still being engaged and our task now is to win that war. We will never forget your crimes!”
Mary G
The only good thing that has come from this are women being able to tell things they have kept secret for years and even decades, and they now know they aren’t alone, aren’t crazy, and can possibly get therapy and healing and end up in a better place.
Republicans are showing their asses more and more in public, and watching Ben Wittes go from testifying about knowing Kavanaugh as a good person and judge, getting roasted on Twitter so much that he does a GBCW, and then having the honesty to come out with the Atlantic piece admitting he was wrong, gave me a lot of satisfaction. Maybe more that have blinded themselves to reality will continue to have their delusions exposed eventually.
FlyingToaster
@Amir Khalid: 50% for the House to impeach, which refers the miscreant to the Senate for trial. 2/3 (67) in the Senate to convict and remove from office, usually into the gentle hands of the US Marshals service for transport to a court of relevant jurisdiction.
In the modern era, if it looks as if impeachment is likely, most accused simply resign, and take their chances with the relevant state courts. I’d expect Kavanaugh to fight it, since he’s an entitled asshat, but who knows?
satby
@MazeDancer: omigod, I would go nuts if I kept getting postcards. One is plenty for me. ?
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Am unclear on exactly what the process is for congress to remove a Supreme Court justice but it strikes me as extremely unlikely short of evidence of a felony. Now disbarment could make things interesting and importantly, doesn’t involve congress.
SFAW
@Josie:
I’m of two minds re: the “for a long time.”
On the one hand, I want them thrown in a dungeon for the rest of their (presumably) long lives.
On the other hand, I want them convicted of Treason, and have its harshest penalty levied against them. [NB: Yes, I’m aware of some of the legal parsing re: whether Treason can be charged, etc. Let me dream, OK?]
p.a.
Xmas wish that is born of pure spite, and provides no benefit to Dems: next time in control of gvt, privatize TVA in Kentucky. Fuck you Mitch, no gvt subsidized elec for your mouthbreathers.
Sorry decent Kentuckians…
MazeDancer
@Another Scott:
Yes. nit right,
Vangie Williams will be the First African-American Woman that Virginia will send to Congress.
(Especially if you write PostCards for her, click on nym.)
Apologies to those men for ignoring them.
SFAW
@trollhattan:
SCOTUS justices can be impeached.
Whether a child molestation, treason, or murder conviction would result in KavanUGGH being impeached and convicted is another matter. With the current Senate, Rethugs maintaining their grip on power is their only goal; removing KavanUGGH might threaten that goal.
Gin & Tonic
I’m so old I can remember when one of the country’s two leading newspapers printed a very (very) lengthy, meticulously sourced investigative piece accusing the President and his immediate family of a decades-long fraud and tax-evasion scheme.
BGinCHI
@p.a.: Nationalize the distilleries, privatize the utilities.
I’d wear that t-shirt.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mike in NC:
Isn’t that an interesting reaction, almost like this ass clowns realized they just stepped over the line and and reckoning was going to follow.
Gin & Tonic
The head of Interpol has vanished without a trace in China. A columnist for the Washington Post went into the Saudi consulate in Turkey and never came out; current assumption is that he was assassinated inside the consulate for his anti-government writings.
I’m so old I can remember when the USA would have cared about these things, and that that would have mattered.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mike in NC: Minority yes. Oppressed? hahahahhahah
JPL
@Gin & Tonic: This is my new motto thanks to twitter
Next week has been so exhausting.
I’m so old the same paper had an article on what a good week it was for Trump.
debbie
@Suzanne:
Exactly. Stop thinking there’s only one way to do this and instead act on any and all proposals.
trollhattan
@JPL:
I understand we’re winding up for Infrastructure Week right after tomorrow’s federal holiday.
Corner Stone
@Mary G: Ben Wittes is dumb. Has was dumb, he is dumb, he will remain dumb.
oldgold
The South Carolinian Preston Brooks, who caned Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, was not a Senator; rather, he was a member of the House of Represenatives.
This savage attack was in response to a speech given the day before by Senator Sumner. In that speech, delivered in the Senate chamber, Senator Sumner accused Senator Butler of South Carolina of having taken a “mistress.”
“A mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean, the harlot, Slavery.”
Ohio Mom
My wish is that half-decent Republicans, the kind that are Republicans because their parents were Republicans, are granted the emotional wherewithal to examine their identity. Don’t ask me who grants them the wherewithal, this is a wish.
If that could happen, I think a good number of them could become fully-decent Democrats.
I live among these people, the white, middle-class, suburbanites blinded by their relative privilege, and unreflectively Republican. I know one family that has made this transformation, so I know it is possible. But I don’t know how to scale it up.
Now I also know a fair number of unredeemable (you might even say deplorable) Republicans. They are lost causes of course.
B.B.A.
@oldgold: Nowadays the mainstream press would have strongly denounced the incivility of Sumner’s speech, while shrugging when Brooks beat him half to death, “see? both sides do it.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ohio Mom: The Rs I know who have made the transition were all persuaded by their children.
Betty Cracker
@oldgold: I recently learned that Brooksville, FL is named after that thug.
JPL
@Ohio Mom: Recently I declined a fancy invite held at a R’s house. After the kidnapping of children, I just can’t even pretend to be civil anymore
Humdog
@Ohio Mom: Your wish is less bloody than mine. I have been comforting myself with a daydream that a virus hits the whole country. Repeated liars will come down with a disease that makes them unable to make one more lie because a hole opens up in their neck and blood pours out when they lie. Lying men will take to wearing red neckties to hide the proof of their lies. Lying women try to make red scarves a thing again. All of a sudden, it gets very quiet in the halls of power.
Yeah, I know, this is strange. But I keep wanting violent revenge and this is sating that desire, kinda.
FlyingToaster
@Ohio Mom:
My experience growing up in a border-state (Missouri), in first urban and then suburban KC, leads me to say, “probably not”.
The reason that they’re still Republican is because they react to the tribal marker more than to the facts in front of them. They vote “tradition” rather than “wallet”. And it’s often generations deep; they go to the same kind of church, belong to the same kind of social network, and do the same stuff as their parents.
The best place to catch them is in college, because they’re not nestled snugly in the bosoms of their families and they’re having to live with people who aren’t exactly the same as they are. And those people are their peers. For some folks, that’s so terrifying that it distills their hatred for the other; in others, it’s an eye opener that my family might not always be right.
I wish you luck, but I don’t hold out much for your chances in changing anyone at this late date.
Villago Delenda Est
This is where we’re heading right now. Should the Dems retake the House and/or the Senate, the MAGAts will rise in revolt.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle:
I wish that would fit on a bumper sticker. Maybe I need to paint it on my house.
JGabriel
Gin & Tonic:
Names, please?
Shakti
@Elizabelle:
I wonder if the dude in this article is tasking people to find out what possible post-elected office options these fuckers have for money and sinecures, so we can ruin those for them as well. Many of these corrupt fuckers have said they don’t want to run again or they’re not up for reelection for a long time. Surely he is familiar with the iron triangle of government. They all have cushy wingnut welfare jobs/investment schemes lined up.
I don’t just want them out of office, I want them to regret ever abusing it every day of their sorry lives and every day of their children, grandchildren and spouse’s lives.
Elizabelle
@Villago Delenda Est:
Let them. I think we are ready for them.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: I’m glad to see you back here a few times lately. Yours is a voice I have missed.
Elizabelle
@Humdog: We should check in to what Stephen King has been writing lately. I have a feeling he is addressing current events in his writing.
hilts
Meanwhile, Rudy Ghouliani doubles down on his batshit craziness to attack George Soros:
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/rudy-giuliani-touts-call-to-freeze-assets-of-anti-christ-george-soros
Ohio Mom
@JPL: Oh, I’ve defriended deplorables over the years, starting during the Bush years. And I won’t rehire our old painter or electrician, even though they were cheap, reliable and good enough for my purposes because they joined the Tea Party.
But it is a continuum, as are most things. My red neighborhood went for Hillary so clearly some of them are redeemable.
MazeDancer
@FlyingToaster:
Having grown up in the South, can attest, the GOP is all about the Church. To this day.
Especially for rich, white women.
To vote Democratic is a sin.
Corner Stone
@Shakti:
Maybe not, but pretty sure there’s a familiarity with the Devil’s Triangle of G-Prep.
Steeplejack
@JGabriel:
BBC News: “Interpol Chief Vanishes on Trip to China.”
Tim C.
@Amir Khalid: Impeachment takes a majority in the house and 2/3 of the Senate. The senate won’t convict. Even if Democrats magically had 67 seats, it would be a hard lift.
Packing the court would take 60 votes in the Senate, easier to do, but about as likely.
The Amendment process is even harder as it takes 2/3rds of the states to ratify, not happening.
With 5 solid evil votes on the Supreme Court now, it’s going to be even worse.
Look. We have missed the “easy” off-ramps now. The Republicans have many many structural advantages in the Constitution that mean we are in this till Trump does a lot more damage. Most of the crap he’s pulling now (Monkey Wrenches in the ACA, alienating allies, blowing up the nation debt more to pay for tax cuts) are all going to take some time to be felt. Likewise, the next time he feels like invading Venezuela someone may not be able to talk him out of it, and never discount the possibility of a major terrorist attack causing, once again, the idiots getting more people killed in some kind of idiot response. Once again, we will have to wait for enough blood and treasure to be lost before the GOP cult gives us an opening. But it’s going to have to get a lot worse before it gets better. The Blue states will weather the storm better than others as we have some ethic in taking care of each other. We should do the same here.
WaterGirl
@JGabriel: This should be enough to get you started with google:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-chinese-head-of-interpol-has-disappeared–in-china/2018/10/05/4e4878c2-c88f-11e8-9c0f-2ffaf6d422aa_story.html?utm_term=.459ef38caca7
Elizabelle
@Tim C.: I think journalists and even citizens and citizen-journalists might get somewhere, digging on connections and background on Kavanaugh and Mitch McConnell and all the treason-appeasers. We can use FOIA requests too, can’t we?
There is going to be dirt, and more than we can imagine. There is going to be a paper trail.
And there are still good and committed people in the FBI, state attorneys generals’ offices …
It is interesting how the Trump tax evasion story disappeared beneath the waves. Maybe that is just for now …
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: Thanks. On a phone, so hard to link.
This is also the 12th anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya’s assassination.
Tim C.
@Elizabelle: Oh! I’m not saying there’s not criminal wrongdoing. I’m certain much can and will be found in the next few months and years. But getting anyone who is a Republican to accept what’s in front of them? Not likely.
Also the real shit will be hitting the fan after the mid-terms. Mueller has gone dark for a bit. No matter who controls the house, it will be … a time for Adam to remind us to stay frosty. And a time for me to give up booze.
smintheus
This column by Dana Milbank is good too.
Also, I’d forgotten that Collins called for Franken to resign without an investigation of the allegations. Presumption of innocence evidently does not apply to
peopleDemocrats elected to office.debbie
@hilts:
I almost wish Rudi would follow through with his threat, if only to see the protests increase, not stop.
WaterGirl
I am just now reading some of the Kavanaugh related articles that have been staring at me from my RSS feed. I couldn’t face them until now.
I just saw the photo of the rapist and his family as he is being sworn in: (photo in the article below)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/10/07/with-kavanaugh-republicans-secure-an-unjust-and-unsustainable-minority-rule/
I now have to revise my previous opinion about Mrs.K., which I formed by watching her facial expressions while he lied on FOX and as he showed his true colors in the second round of hearings. I thought — based on photos from those two events — that she was horrified to find out who her husband really is.
But seeing her photo at the swearing in makes me want to vomit. The admiring, happy look she is giving him tells me that what I mistook for horror as she watched K. last week was instead horror at their plans going down in smoke. Now that he made it into the ultimate club, she is happy. I truly want to vomit in disgust. I now loathe her as much as I loathe him.
SFAW
@hilts:
The insanity of some of the comments there is depressing. I assume at least some of them are not Russian bots.
Another Scott
@Tim C.: OTOH, it only takes a simple majority to approve cabinet members, pack the Federal District and Appeals courts, etc., etc.
The SCOTUS (basically) won’t take cases if there isn’t a controversy between the various lower courts. Like the Internet, we can route-around damage.
Yes, it won’t be easy, but we have ways to move forward if we have good people in office.
“Never give up! Never surrender!!” Activate the Omega 13!!
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@JPL:
I just declined my brother’s invitation for Thanksgiving. This makes the third year I’ve not been there.
Ruviana
@WaterGirl: Probably a dead thread but I found his older daughter’s expression interesting and her black dress as well. I know nothing of these kids but she looks like she’s on the cusp of tween/teendom and both her attire and attitude (hard to explain, just how it struck me) seemed less than pleased? Approving?
BGinCHI
@WaterGirl: Yeah, too much time on twitter…..
I’ll try to get over here more often. I miss you jackals.
Barb 2
When the Democrats take over the House they take over the committees. You know like the Judiciary Committee!
Then they investigate BK fully – and then put him on trial for perjury and all the other crimes they will discover.
He can go to jail – it’s hard to be a Supreme in jail.
His biggest crime is that he is an ugly partisan hack.
I believe that things are changing. We have global warming – we are at a critical time and place. The old ways did hard. We are seeing all the ugliness of the patriarchy on full display. Not so long ago we women weren’t considered fully human (Trump and his mind still believe that). Real men know better.
Anyway – I look forward to the Democrats grilling that lying bastards and all the other traitors. The
smintheus
@Ruviana: She saw her father declare in public that he never drank to excess…while he was declaring that he never lied and never abused or coerced anyone. The realization of who he is was impossible to avoid.
Ruviana
@smintheus: Yes, I thought something like that, and the disappointment children experience when their parents have feet of clay.
WaterGirl
@Ruviana: Interesting comment on the older daughter. The look on the older daughter’s face is the same look that the wife was giving in most of the photos from the FOX interview.
Based on that look, I’d say the older girl knows how to google and has doubts about her father. As well she should.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: I really hope you do that!
Cole, too. So many of his tweets are just the kind of short comments that would often start the best conversations here on BH. Just a sentence, maybe two. Sigh. I miss that, too.
Kay
Well, they can relax. Now they’ve got themselves an enforcer on the supreme court who vowed publicly to go after the enemy- Democrats. Hundreds of millions of people.
Is Kavanaugh hitting the trail for his sleazy, corrupt boss after he’s sworn in, or his campaign over? I’m hoping we can get some hints on how he plans to punish Democrats for ideological crimes against the Trump Administration. We’ll need to prepare for the upcoming political trials. Take that bumper sticker off your car, folks. This “judge” vows reprisals!
WaterGirl
@Ruviana: @smintheus: And her father has feet of shit.
You watch someone lie about one thing you know to be untrue… how do you not question everything.
I feel for that girl, wondering about whether her dad shoved his penis in the face of a girl to terrorize and humiliate her, and held his hand over the mouth of a girl not that much older than she is, as he tried to rape her. While he laughed about it.
I feel for her, but I hope K.is self-aware enough to see the doubt in her eyes, and I hope it haunts him forever.
James E Powell
Last night as I was drinking the “this should probably be my last one” glass of wine, I got to thinking that but for James Comey, we might be looking at the second justice appointed by Hillary Clinton. I am not a violent person, and it’s not something I’d really do, but I did feel a strong urge to punch that asshole’s face in.
The lesson of 2016 is that there is no alternative to voting Democratic every single election.
BGinCHI
@WaterGirl: If you’re on twitter, reach out.
BGinCHI
@James E Powell: This is a good take.
WaterGirl
Repeating my comment that in moderation for the p-word.
@Ruviana: @smintheus: And her father has feet of shit.
You watch someone lie about one thing you know to be untrue… how do you not question everything.
I feel for that girl, wondering about whether her dad shoved his p.e.n.i.s in the face of a girl to terrorize and humiliate her, and held his hand over the mouth of a girl not that much older than she is, as he tried to rape her. While he laughed about it.
I feel for her, but I hope K.is self-aware enough to see the doubt in her eyes, and I hope it haunts him forever.
Kay
Kavanaugh should have to recuse if there are any Democrats, liberals, or non-Republicans involved in any aspect of an issue before his court.
He publicly vowed revenge on The Left. Since he’s as far Right as it is possible to be he means everyone to the Left of him, so hundreds of millions of people. We can’t get a fair hearing and that’s a violation of due process.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: Thank you for that, but I am not. I just follow a few people by keeping their twitter web page open in my browser.
If I googled BGinCHI twitter would I find you?
WaterGirl
@Kay: Thank god for the lawyers who will surely bring lawsuits for that very reason.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Agreed. Kavanaugh must recuse.
And he must recuse in all matters relating to Trump. As should Gorsuch. But especially Kavanaugh. It is why he was elevated to a judicial post that he does not deserve.
We are watching.
BGinCHI
@WaterGirl: Yep. Be prepared for snark, rage, and some light wisdom.
BGinCHI
@Kay: This assumes ethics not in evidence.
Ken B
@JGabriel:
The Interpol president is Meng Hongwei.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45771813
The journalist the Saudis whacked is Jamal Khashoggi. He didn’t start as a WaPo journalist, he was a Saudi journalist\dissident who had to leave the country for what might be euphemistically called health concerns.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/turkey-launches-probe-saudi-journalist-disappearance-181006144026186.html
NotMax
@Barb 2
The House does not conduct trials, nor hold any claim to authority to do so.
Shakti
@WaterGirl: Mrs. Sniffledrunk Calendar worked as Shub’s personal secretary and then at his Presidential Foundation and Center. He came to their wedding and called Republican senators to whip votes. She knows dry drunks and drunks. She wasn’t going to give up the secondary gains of being power adjacent. I wouldn’t bet on his daughters doing so either. And I’m sure they all tell themselves the rest of it is untrue so they can sleep at night.
Kay
Republicans like the phrase “due process” this week- not last week, but this week. So lets talk about due process. Not for Brett Kavanaugh, who got exactly what he wanted, but for the hundreds of millions of people who don’t share his ideological views and political Party and now cannot expect a fair hearing in his court.
That’s a denial of their rights.
Another Scott
If you, or someone you know, needs some inspiration to keep fighting, take a look at this:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Doxpx36XsAUCJrW.jpg:large
She’s not going to give up. The rest of us shouldn’t either.
(via https://twitter.com/ddale8 – the DC reporter for the Toronto Star)
Cheers,
Scott.
B.B.A.
@smintheus: The usual counterargument I see is “But there was photographic evidence of Franken!”
I’m there are plenty of Polaroids out there of Kavanaugh doing much worse than Franken did, and if they had turned up, the Repubs would have found some way to laugh it off as “boys will be boys.”
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: That works for me!
edit:
“Well, then you’re as fucking dumb as you are spineless.”
Sold!
MisterForkbeard
@hilts: I can’t imagine that the government unilaterally freezing the assets of a completely legal dissident would have a chilling effect on protestors. *rolls eyes*
I’m beginning to think we need to do the same thing to the Kochs and Mercers when the Dems get back into power, though. Because unlike the Left, the Right actually DOES have a large and semi-secret nationwide agenda to push right-wing radicalism, and it’s funded by right-wing billionaires. I’m pretty sure we could do something like start an investigation, find obvious violations of the law, and then pull the rug out from under them. <– Pipe Dream
Redshift
@hilts:
And after Trump and Giuliani’s conspiracy theory rantings on Friday, a local JCC was defaced with swastikas. No words.
MagdaInBlack
Here we go, folks. Sure didn’t take long, did it
MisterForkbeard
@Barb 2: This is where I’m realistically going with this.
A SCJ can still be accused of a crime. Democrats (once they’re allowed to investigate) will have some pretty heavy evidence that Kavanaugh perjured himself, and not just about the sexual assault allegations. It’ll cause howls from the Republicans (and the media) but I don’t think there’s a better way around this.
He lied under oath. Repeatedly. He should go to jail for it. Let him judge from a cell if he wants to.
Kay
I can’t figure out which crime the protesters committed. Opposition to Brett Kavanaugh? Disagreeing with the Trump Administration? Too much “back talk” to Susan Collins when she told them to shut up and sit down?
If it had been a real crime you know these cowardly, coddled assholes would have had them arrested, so this must be a new crime- “attempted liberalism”. A conspiracy to oppose the Trump Administration. Membership in the Democratic Party.
Sister Golden Bear
From Zennia Jones:
We will not forget. We will not forgive. We will not stop fighting. We are coming for you, conservatives. We won’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And we absolutely will not stop, ever, until your party is dead and you are destroyed.
Kay
@MagdaInBlack:
Collins pro-choice voters just got screwed again. I have very little sympathy for them. It’s the ninth or tenth time she’s lied to their faces. There’s no cure for stupid.
Redshift
@NotMax:
But they do conduct hearings, and lying to Congress is a crime. Let’s not nitpick about the details when we’re daydreaming about how we return to sanity.
WaterGirl
@Kay:
Gary Kasparov from Preet’s twitter:
Redshift
@Kay:
Insulting Dear Leader. It’s a crime in all the regimes they admire, so authoritarians are sure it somehow ought to be a crime here, too.
satby
@smintheus: @WaterGirl: if you both think for a second that drunk abusive daddy hasn’t already been obvious to the kid for years, I have a lovely bridge to sell you.
She never needed the last two weeks to tell her. Men who’ve never faced consequences don’t change their behavior.
low-tech cyclist
During middle school and the beginning of high school, I attended a private boys’ school in the same prep-school athletic conference as Georgetown Prep.
Those weren’t the happiest days of my life, by any means. But I did take away one important life lesson. a thug in jacket and tie is still a thug. People who wear suits and ties are no better as human beings than those who don’t.
Corner Stone
@Kay:
Do we know if she actually has any? I keep seeing reports of her moderateness holding women to back her but I doubt pretty much every report like that on face value. They may have existed but no way they bought the same rope a dope 8 or 10 or 20 times? Maine is a small pop state where it has to be much more difficult to hide your true self from voters.
MagdaInBlack
@Kay:
She “screwed” every woman in this country, Kay.
I’m still wrapping my head around that fact.
It shouldn’t be so hard; I’ve seen a lot of incredible bs in my life, but this one….this one really tears me up.
Elizabelle
@Corner Stone: Maine went for Hillary in 2016.
Susan’s day is up. She shit her own bed. She may have already decided against running again, a few months ago.
And someone who pretends to be on your side, and then betrays you, is treated much more harshly than someone who was never your friend or represented your interests in the first place.
Susie gonna learn that. Independent thinker, my ass.
SFAW
@Kay:
Since when has a wingnut Justice recused himself for any of the usual reasons. Or for that matter, for ANY reason.
If I recall correctly, Scalia’s son was moderately-to-heavily involved in the Bush v Gore case. Not only did Fat Nino not recuse himself, but he browbeat Sandra “I’m a fucking patsy/shill, but I’ll claim remorse after it’s too fucking late” O’Connor into voting with him.
Expecting any wingnut — at any level of government — to demonstrate ethics or integrity is a waste of time.
MagdaInBlack
@low-tech cyclist:
Somewhat relevant anecdote: guess who more often than not, will hold the door for the person behind them, going into or out of a place of business?
In my experience, it ain’t the “suits.”
I pay attention to little acts of civility/politeness…..and lack of same.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: there was some “women for Kavanaugh” tweet going around yesterday, a linked video with the text “Look what she had to endure! And nevertheless, she persisted!” the video was Susan Collins being yelled at as she boarded the Senate elevator (aside, what a weird thing that is). The Martyrdom of Collins is a Thing on the right.
Rand Paul posed for a picture with some Real Housewives of the GOP types, all carefully arranged blond tresses and smile, and tweeted something about “the contrast with the violent protestors of the left”. Violent.
Elizabelle
What a one-two for Mitch McConnell WRT Susan Collins.
Got his unqualified justice seated, and took out a “moderate” female Senator. (Although she’s not a moderate, she just plays one on teevee. Which is enough for the cable news pundit class.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Corner Stone: 1) her approval rating has dropped twenty points since 2016. No longer having to share the “old school moderate New England Republican” con with Olympia Snowe seems to be backfiring in the age of trump.
2) never underestimate the importance of affect in politics. Look at all the lefties who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for HRC in no small part for bills that passed when she was First Lady, but they say they would’ve voted for Joe Biden, who not only voted for but wrote a lot of those bills. Also, Bernei and the crime bill.
WaterGirl
@satby: I was thinking more of sexual abuser / rapist daddy, but I take your point.
Cermet
@Sister Golden Bear: We have the numbers, the demographics, and money on our side. A storm is coming (not caused directly by the deplorable’s) but it will be really bad thanks to these asswipes. They and their 0,001% will go down. The storm is AGW and billions of people will be uprooted and forced to survive by any means. We the liberal left, will not be their target.
Corner Stone
@SFAW:
Didn’t Scalia also refuse to recuse from a case where he had gone on a hunting trip/hunting lodge of one of the party’s that had the case before him?
smintheus
@satby: The point was that she wouldn’t have known that her father sexually abused girls and women.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I love that being vocal is now defined as “violent.” Pussies.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I hope the wife finds her voice.
MagdaInBlack
@debbie:
Well behaved women seldom make history……except Senator Collins.
Dangerous Women ?
WaterGirl
@debbie: Maybe I wasn’t clear? I was wrong before. I think the wife knows exactly who/what her husband is and has accepted that as part of the bargain of getting to be part of the elite.
She disgusts me as much as he does.
SFAW
@Corner Stone:
Sounds vaguely familiar.
Unethical motherfuckers, all the way down.
Steeplejack
@MagdaInBlack:
Thank you for your unsourced Internet bullshit.
Conway who? I presume Kellyanne. Karl who?
Could you provide a link to your hot takes, or at least give some clue as to the source? Otherwise they border on useless.
Taobhan
Susan Collins may explain her vote to confirm Kavanaugh as though it was based on high-sounding principles but fundamentally it was a vote to protect white-male privilege, plain and simple. She isn’t part of the solution – she’s part of the problem, plain and simple. We hear a lot of wailing and moaning about the polarization in politics today but I think the polarization can be explained best this way: those in the current administration and the voter base that supports them want to pull the rest of us into their “Gilead” (as described by Margaret Atwood in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The rest of us are resisting that effort and rightly so. Who in their right mind wants to live in that world?
debbie
@WaterGirl:
Sorry. I wasn’t disagreeing. I just noticed, in all the photos of the Kavanaughs (always walking hand in hand [give Melania credit for refusing that lie]), she looks so empty-eyed. The very same look as Anthony Weiner’s wife during those public statements.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Suzanne: I just finished the biography of U.S. Grant and one of his regrets was not anticipating the effect of granting African Americans full personhood – as opposed to 3/5th they counted as before the Civil War . The South got extra representation by counting them as full persons, because Congressional representation is based on population and they now counted them as 1 instead of 3/5…but then they didn’t let the black people vote so the South got political representation that was just as racist as before the war, only more of it.
One option to combat that would be to base Congressional representation on votes cast rather than total population – that would certainly punish any State that imposed barriers to certain people voting. That would require a change in the Constitution though, so it’s probably easier to help people register and get IDs in places that require them for voting.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Seriously? I knew exactly who was being referred to and where it came from. Google has its uses.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I googled. At least the first one was RawStory.
MagdaInBlack
@Steeplejack:
Terribly sorry to have unsettled you with unsourced bs, because certainly its never been done before and certainly will never again.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/kellyanne-conway-begins-assault-reproductive-rights-women-can-get-abortions-absolutely-no-common-sense/
You presume correctly
Take a pill..
WaterGirl
@debbie: Interesting. I thought her look at the swearing in was like a kid in a candy store or like a little girl that was bering turned into a princess. No emptiness there. I doubt she will ever find a voice that’s not about status.
If she looked empty before, I have concluded that her thoughts were “this isn’t the way it was supposed to go!”
edit: you may be right, but I’m so angry right now that I can’t see it any other way.
I actually thought before the had no idea and might pressure him to withdraw. What a food I was!
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I didn’t see the swearing-in, so you could be right.
tony prost
for a judge, he does not seem to have a very good legal understanding of “due process”.
WaterGirl
@tony prost: I think “due process” means he gets everything he believes he is entitled to.
Steeplejack
@debbie, @WaterGirl, @MagdaInBlack:
Don’t come at me with that bullshit. Of course I could use the Google to run down the source. So could 10, 20 or 100 other readers who might be interested. But how much easier and more efficient for the poster to spend an extra 30 seconds to provide a link so that everybody else doesn’t have to go through the effort. Unless the point is just to blat out some inflammatory stuff for the extended group ragegasm. In which case carry on.
But if the point is communication, then maybe a link would help people who want to read more or, God forbid, spread the word with a bona fide source instead of just a random quote from an almost top 10,000 blog.
WaterGirl
@debbie: I’ll be interested to see how you view the photo here.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/10/07/with-kavanaugh-republicans-secure-an-unjust-and-unsustainable-minority-rule/
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Hey, Steep, mine wasn’t “coming at you”. I was providing info I thought might be helpful, because had wondered myself but hadn’t taken the time to google earlier.
I do agree with the point that it’s easier for the poster to supply a link than having 50 people googling the same damn thing. That takes energy for all the servers, so if nothing else, it’s not very “green”.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
Yeah, in that photo, she looks dutiful, if not loving.
This is an example of the sort of photos I’ve seen and was referring to:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/25/brett-kavanaugh-latest-news-supreme-court-nominee/1420143002/
WaterGirl
@debbie: Yep, the photo you linked to was the “before” one, which I took to be disbelief, disgust, oh my god who are you? But no, it was apparently “you are fucking up our plan”.
In the one I linked, she is looking so loving and ADMIRING. ugh.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
“Isn’t he dreamy? //
Elizabelle
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: You and Suzanne both had really interesting comments.
What I come here for. Not the defeatism and angst.
FlipYrWhig
@Kay:
Strangely enough, I do not recall the pundit set dragging Tea Party protesters for getting loud at their representatives’ town hall meetings. I recall that they were found endlessly fascinating, and still are to this day.
WaterGirl
@debbie: Exactly! That could have been her looking up at her prom date!
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: My apologies.
debbie
@FlipYrWhig:
Exactly. Women screaming loudly are more frightening than a bunch of slobs swaggering around with AR-15s.
John Revolta
@Steeplejack: What the fuck?
WaterGirl
@debbie: “slobs swaggering around”
I read that as SOBs — I think I liked mine better. :-)
B.B.A.
@debbie: okay but what about
women screaming loudly… with AR-15s?
debbie
@B.B.A.:
Don’t even mention that, what with the mood I’m in!
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Apologies for what?
Corner Stone
I don’t know, I’m just feeling very angsty and defeated right now.
Elizabelle
@Corner Stone: They want that.
FWIW, I am depressed too re the BK elevation. It’s a grey cloud. But we have midterms dead ahead, and have to persist.
Karma could arrive sooner rather than later, too.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: The profound sorrow and anger I have been expressing sounds a lot like angst you are not wanting to be around.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Tim C.:
That’s not really true, that’s a Senate rule and can be changed. Did you know it took 60 votes to confirm a Supreme Court nominee? It’s true, until the Gorsuch nomination couldn’t get 60 votes.
It’s 3/4’s.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: I always find you to be genuine, though. Not cynical. Which is probably more what I’d like to see less of …
Sister Golden Bear
@Cermet: You mistake me, sir. I am the storm.
And please, no mansplaining today. Not today…
ellie
@MazeDancer: OMG! I am writing up 25 postcards right now for Vangie Williams!
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Thanks. I think it would hurt less to be cynical! But I don’t think I have that gene.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Nope. And you are not a broken record either.
Sister Golden Bear
@B.B.A.:
I’m down for it. This is the way they view us (from Ben Carson’s political newsletter, via TPM):
So it’s not like being nice is going to get us anywhere. As someone who’s already being targeted, you push my back up against the wall, I am going to treat it like a fight to the death. ACT UP! Is reminder of what happens when you fuck with people who don’t have anything to lose. And yes, this time around Silence = Death as well.
The Lodger
@BGinCHI: Reading that, I’m glad my parenting career is at its current stage and no earlier (our son is 23.) How do you convince a kid there is a reward for good behavior when he or she sees Trump?
J R in WV
For what it’s worth, AR-15 style rifles are relatively low recoil and very good for those with smaller body weight to shoot. They are larger, hard to conceal and less handy than pistols, which can be CCW easily if you care to. Longer range than pistols, and much easier to aim if you take a prone position…
Also, you can obtain similar rifles shooting a similar cartridge/caliber that look more like a traditional rifle with a wooden look stock, much less assault-rifle futuristic look. The Ruger Mini 30 is a 7.62mm Russian caliber, the Ruger Mini 14 is .223 caliber, same as the AR-15. Actually looking at the Wikipedia entry, there are a ton of calibers and styles produced by Ruger as Mini rifles, so it’s more complex than my description above.
Chetan Murthy
@satby:
Kids know. Kids know. They know b/c they learn how to avoid the abuse, and that’s a really deep, ingrained thing.
BGinCHI
@The Lodger: Ha. You don’t. He knows Trump’s a fucking idiot and says so.
You can’t hide that level of truth.
Aleta
@Steeplejack: Is your point to insult instead of communicate?
It takes a lot more energy to absorb that kind of name calling than it does to google a phrase, if you’re concerned about wasting people’s energy.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Taobhan:
This,.. I think That Collins rambling explanation Friday was something the GOP drunken frait boys forced her to do to make up for not minding her place as a good conservative women. I think that tone of panic and self pity for white guys mixed with crude bullying coming out of Conservatives right now is because there a lot of conservative women are waking up to how much their lives suck from all the abuse. That adage from the Bible that what gains someone to get the whole world but lose their soul?
WaterGirl
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
She’s a grown ass woman who can make her own decisions, so as far as I’m concerned, she owns this.
I always say you shouldn’t be a manager if you’re not willing to take the heat of firing someone who can’t do the job or who is pulling the team down. Same here. If she isn’t capable of making her own decisions, then she doesn’t belong anywhere near public office. I hope she goes down if she runs as senator and I hope she is destroyed if she runs for governor.