Republican reactions to Dr. Blasey’s allegation that SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school have been predictably crass, clueless and bizarre. Only one of those reactions has been surprising (to me, at least): Trump’s relative restraint. I think we all knew it wouldn’t last:
I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
I feel a great disturbance in the GOP Force, as if millions of Republican voices suddenly cried out, “FUCKING SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU STUPID FUCKING FUCK!” and were silenced (by cowardice).
ETA: Speaking of clueless assholes who aren’t helping their pal Kavanaugh with their dumb rants and foolish interventions:
I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaugh's Georgetown Prep classmate. I take full responsibility for that mistake, and I deeply apologize for it. I realize that does not undo the mistake.
— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) September 21, 2018
Not good enough. We need a full accounting of how Special Ed coordinated his ill-fated smear job (of a Kavanaugh supporter!) with Republicans in Congress, the Federalist Society and maybe even White House advisers. Josh Marshall has the goods on that here.
Elizabelle
Well, it is Friday. The mask slips.
OR: what is Trump distracting us from NOW? What just happened that’s not on the radar yet?
Chyron HR
But yesterday CNN told me that he had finally became president by not attacking the rape victim? Was cable news wrong???
germy
terraformer
I do so hate this man.
Major Major Major Major
Although even this is surprisingly restrained.
Barbara
And what if she did go to the Montgomery County DA and file charges? Does Trump think that would speed things up with the nomination process?
Elizabelle
Do we know that Dr. Blasey told her parents of the attempted assault? I am not sure I would have confided in my parents. …
Corner Stone
This is just the opening salvo. The cracks are widening and over the weekend Trump may continue stewing on this. Can’t wait til he outright slut shames her.
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major: How odd is it that the person in the WH is saying this about a survivor and we are all, “Huh. That was fairly tame.”
Elizabelle
I wonder if behind the scenes classmates and friends are getting in touch with the accuser, since it’s easy to do so via her attorneys. Might be a lot more confirmation being assembled, people who heard accounts at the time …
What’s going on with the 65 wimmens who vouched for Brett Kavanaugh? How many stand by their signatures?
Raoul
And this happened. Even before this latest in a looooooong line of horrible Trump tweets:
Cook Political Report moves Texas Senate race to ‘toss-up’ | TheHill
Shit bricks, GOP.
Redshift
Ivanka is very disappointed… /Haberman
JPL
@Redshift: lol I needed a good laugh, because this morning sucks.
Tony Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
Someone explained ‘shade’ to him using golf balls with different facial expressions drawn on them and now he thinks he’s being ‘cyber-hip’ or somesuch.
Give him an hour and he’ll be magnanimously offering Dr Ford a pardon if she’ll just come clean about who in the Deep State told her to lie so that they can get the Justice4Kavanaugh4Justice Roadshow back into high gear. Or else!
p.a.
The arrogant idiot probably does sense the narrative spinning out their control, so in his own mind this is a brilliant counterstroke. And in the minds of the MAGAts too.
Major Major Major Major
@Corner Stone: Sad maybe, but I find very little about politics truly odd these days. It feels like there’s about a ??♂️% chance of any given thing happening.
Elizabelle
Who thinks Kavanaugh will stick it out until the hearings? I am guessing he and his wife are discussing withdrawing the nomination. But I don’t know …
It would be sweet to see him lose his current judgeship too. It could happen.
chopper
this fucking guy.
donnah
Antiperspirant/deodorant sales skyrocket to prevent flopsweat.
Leto
I sure am glad there’s all those adults in the room, making sure he stays focused and on task. Wasn’t that supposed to be Mr. Kelly’s job, to keep Pu$$y Grabber off Twitter and focused? Pepperidge Farms remembers…
Elizabelle
@Elizabelle: To spare the daughters. They’re old enough to know what’s been alleged. This must be torture for the oldest, who is two years younger than the accused when the alleged assault occurred.
The three prop Kavanaugh females, at the rollout announcement. Such a good man around women. Not.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Chyron HR: How can anyone still be saying that?
@Elizabelle: I hope so.
JPL
@Elizabelle: Quinerly picked today for him to withdraw, and she might be right. I’m not sure if she consulted Poco though.
Amir Khalid
@Chyron HR:
I haven’t attacked Dr Ford either. Why have I not been declared presidential?
Major Major Major Major
@Dorothy A. Winsor: comedienne Megan Amram tweets it every Friday evening, to my weekly delight. “This was the week Donald trump became president…”
tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)
So if Whelan has apologized on Twitter after having accused another classmate on Twitter does that absolve him of any damages to the reputation of the middle school teacher who thought supporting Kavanaugh train wreck was a good thing?
As Kay says, they’re all bad hires. All of them. I mean if one of they’re biggest conservative hitters thought it was a brilliant strategy to name a classmate who is now a teacher with a family and think that would fly, I hope every Republican in trouble hires him. Let them continue to destroy themselves from the inside.
Raoul
I think Jeet’s correct, here. The syntax, spelling and capitalization is too clear/smooth.
I’m not as amazed as he is that staff signed on. They are all panicking. And incompetent.
BTW Whelan’s apology is garbage. He planted the seed of doubt in MAGA minds, and they’ll be conspiracy-theorizing this for years. I feel bad for the teacher dude. Not real bad, since he signed onto a support letter for Kav. But kinda bad. He’ll be a fringe suspect for life among some part of the tinfoil hat set.
Leto
@Elizabelle: The power of privilege compels him to stay the course. It’s his due. He’s done all the rat-fucking he was told, this is his due. Republicans are all in. They’re not going to let some wimmin stop them from gutting Roe, dismantling worker rights, stopping the flow of PAC cash to them, stuffing the LGBTQ community back into the closet, or from making sure cops can kill with impunity. They know once they get him onto the bench, just like Thomas, Roberts, and Goruck, there’s no way Dems will ever be able to impeach/remove him so horrible decisions will be issued forth like stone tablets from on high. They don’t care. They’re not going to stop.
chopper
@donnah:
APPLY DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD
Barbara
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): Whelan’s tweet is the kind of tactic that he and Kavanaugh pioneered against the Clintons. It must have dawned on them within a couple of hours that it won’t work for a Supreme Court nomination.
Corner Stone
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat):
Personally, I hope school teacher Garrett gets burned by this and loses everything.
Kay
The President is a nasty piece of work. This is meant to imply that if she had loving parents there would be a police report.
Here’s what I think- If Trump had had decent parents he wouldn’t be such a nasty, mean-spirited piece of shit.
I’m amused they’re changing tactics though- they better. See if their default “asshole” approach works. The phony “caring” approach wasn’t fooling anyone.
Leto
@Raoul:
As Kay continually states, and Trumpov continually proves, they’re all terrible hires. They’re underneath the barrel hires. Set the bar on the ground, dig six feet down, and that’s the clearance needed to work there. I’m more surprised he let someone else hold the phone to tweet this.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)
@Barbara: Thanks. Would the teacher have much of a case given the apology? I’m a teacher. Reputation is critical to a teacher’s ability to have an effective relationship with students, teachers, peers and supervisors. If there’s a whiff of something off, it will stick and the gossip will follow. It can derail promotion possibilities. There are always those that will believe there must be some truth behind the accusation.
pk
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s just the beginning. Wanna bet on how long it’ll take for him to call her a liar? I’m thinking Sunday morning.
germy
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/09/morning-notes-kavanaugh-fiasco
Kay
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat):
They won’t get good hires either. Ever. The two things are connected. Good people won’t work for them. Then it gets worse every cycle, because the bad hires hire and promote other low quality people. They have to clean house. It’s too late for tweaks.
Tony Jay
@Amir Khalid:
Glad to see that Candidate Baud has an early challenger. I hope it’s a fair fight all the way through the Primaries, culminating in a drunken rant at a truck-stop outside Boise where the eventual loser denigrates his opponent as a “Thrice-aborted ass-wipe who isn’t fit to hold my sample bottle” before passing out in a puddle of his own making.
And since I don’t think you’re the drinker in this contest…
Brachiator
Trump lacks compassion and is morally obtuse.
He probably thinks he is being even-handed.
I read somewhere that some of his staffers are upset that he has been relatively restrained, and has not come out with a full bore attack.
tobie
Something changed this week in the Democratic party. We’re used to playing defense, to answering accusations but not to making them. It’s a pattern so tried and true that both sides got used to it and, at first, with Grassley’s deadline ultimatum to Dr. Blasey, it looked like the pattern was about to repeat itself yet again. And then the tables turned. Dr. Blasey’s attorney laid down her conditions for a hearing, and the Democrats kept on questioning Kavanaugh’s and the GOP’s motives and coverup and suddenly even Kavanaugh’s dishonest answers during the recent and 2006 hearings became news again. It’s been eye-opening for me to see the GOP floundering and tripping over itself as it confronts an emboldened and righteously indignant Democratic party. Wow–this is a personal and political lesson for me.
Mike in NC
Beautiful sunny Friday morning here on Nantucket. We’ll head out shortly to see the whaling museum and take a walking tour downtown. Avoiding any media bullshit about Brett Bozo and Fat Bastard on the boob tube.
Raoul
Maybe I’m overthinking this, but Whalen’s attack yesterday interests me in the sense that the organized, official right was willing to potentially destroy a man to save another man’s potus shot. I mean, conservatives don’t care how many women get shredded, slut-shamed and ruined as they stampede towards an American Taliban future.
But ruining a fellow dude, a prep school buddy who signed a public letter supporting Kav? They trashed him in a dangerous way. Wild.
Also, reprehensible. None of this should be happening, but the leap across gender and privilege shows just how desperate a so-called top operative is.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: To us you’re more than just presidential, you’re esteemed.
Parfigliano
@Corner Stone: Wife divorces him. Children shun him. Unable to find employment…fuck this fucker.
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
With so much at stake for his corporate/Federalist masters, he’ll stick it out.
Corner Stone
@Kay: Trump is furious no one has threatened to sue ‘the woman” yet. That’s his default tactic that never fails.
Gin & Tonic
@Mike in NC: Oh, I envy you. This is a great time of year to be out there. Just as soon as I win the Powerball I’m buying a house on the island and living there full-time.
Raoul
@Kay: They have to burn the house to the ground. And truck away the soil to a clay-lined specialty landfill.
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: Yup. I’d bet the farm on that. He’s spent his entire life kissing ass to get here, he’s not going to give it up for some slut he barely remembers.
Elizabelle
@Mike in NC: Lucky bug. Beautiful place to spend the last day of summer.
I’ve never been to Nantucket, but we lived for a while in Newport, RI. Loved it! Enjoy. New England rocks.
Hello out there to efgoldman. Where has that curmudgeon been?
JPL
@Corner Stone: Garrett has the opportunity to issue a statement that mentions that
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was a friend and a good person. He also has the opportunity to deny the allegation.
lol I sometimes am amazed by my naivety.
Kay
This is (obviously) my personal hobbyhorse but I think it’s important in this:
You can’t have a meritocracy if people are getting promoted on something other than merit. I mean, you can do it for a while, and in some instances, but it can’t be the main reason people get promoted. Or it will substantively suck. Guaranteed. The actual composition of the thing will be of poor quality. The individuals ARE the institution. They are what the institution is composed of – elite institutions are failing because of the individual people we’re elevating. That’s all an institution is- it’s a set of ideas and then people. If the people in it are bad, it’s bad.
Why do so many fancy people admire this guy? What is that based on? It has to be based on something.
SFAW
In the Eragon “trilogy,” the incredibly powerful and evil ruler, Galbatorix, in a “then, a miracle occurs” moment, is somehow made to see and understand all the harm he has caused to his subjects, whereupon he utters some mystical word(s) [“Kltpzyxm,” I think], and disappears in a flash of light, never to be seen again.
We should only be so lucky. Of course, Lying Littledick is as evil as Galbatorix, but without the intelligence.
Major Major Major Major
@Raoul: also trump was probably saying that if they didn’t tweet something at least mostly terrible, he would just grab the phone and go to town.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So Trump is off the depressed self pity party and now into rage state.
Thank god these people are idiots. This could be so much worse. I mean the GOP had any sense this justice thing would have been done Spring 2017.
Elizabelle
@SFAW: But maybe he is concerned about the trauma to his daughters. They’re at an impressionable age, and knowing their dad is at a hearing being accused (credibly!) of sexual abuse, in front of the nation and world?
If he sticks with it, we will know that he is a sold his soul to the GOP type.
Tony Jay
The crazy and rather sad thing about all this is that the only thing (and I do mean the only thing) the Republicans have to do to pull this entire disaster back out of the fire is to have Kavanaugh release a statement painting himself as the victim of a horrible and politically-orchestrated smear and withdrawing from – this – Supreme Court nomination, which would allow the White House to put up a carbon-copy hard-right candidate who the Media would, nevertheless, paint as a moderate, centrist, well-respected good guy (or good gal, just to really defang any opposition) who the Democrats simply have to allow through on a unanimous vote.
But will The Pustule let them? Crystal ball says “Unlikely.”
catclub
@Raoul:
I still think Mark Judge will say that he DID see the other guy assaulting her.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
They have farms in RI (or SE Mass or wherever you are)?
Amir Khalid
Is Trump ever anything but predictably skeevy?
tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)
@Raoul: This. You articulated what’s been brewing in my head. A supposedly ace conservative lawyer thought this was a topnotch strategy? I hope it’s a sign of how panicked they are that they can’t think. Otherwise it’s Darwin’s self-selection on speed dial. May it continue.
Jeffro
@Raoul: Beto’s going to win. I’m sending him another $100
Hildebrand
Any rational human being would sue Whelan for defamation. Of course, this is a republican stooge, so he just seems to be sitting there, taking it in the teeth. How broken do you have to be to be willing to be accused of attempted rape, just to lift someone else to a position of authority? What’s the benefit? Hoping that your ‘friend’ will remember you when he claims his seat? I am just gobsmacked by the lengths these knaves are willing to go.
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
Based on the “body of his work” (i.e., Ken Starr, other stuff), I’m thinking that’s not a priority for him. He’s slime/scum, and I feel comfortable in believeing the frog doesn’t change his spots when he gets home.
SFAW
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat):
Good thing you inserted “supposedly.”
Msb
These people. So shameless. So predictable.
Jeffro
@tobie:
Great observation. And long may we stay righteously indignant. SO much better to be throwing punches than receiving them.
Kay
My youngest thinks they fingered the other guy because the other guy actually did it, so they were hoping he would confess.
He’s adorable :)
SFAW
@pk:
I’ll take the “under” on that.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Elizabelle – Regarding whether Dr Blasey ever told her parents about the attempted rape, I would bet she didn’t. GIven the time and the circumstances(kids at party) she might have felt ashamed or like they would blame her. I was in a similar situation when I was 19, in the military (almost 40 years ago). I never told my parents and I regret telling the military version of the police. What happened after I reported it was worse than the original incident in some ways. I would never tell anyone they had to report it, and I have never trusted the police since then…
celticdragonchick
@Corner Stone:
No. Fuck no. Whatever his political beliefs, he was smeared as a possible sexual assault perpetrator by a wired-in GOP/Federalist operator and I hope Whelan gets his ass sued into fucking oblivion…and I would say that if one of our own people did it as well.
You don’t do that shit to people, and his job as a teacher has been made next to impossible. Every one of his students will know about this by lunchtime. I cannot imagine trying to teach middle school kids under that burden. It’s bad enough on a normal day.
frosty
This whole business is so far down the wormhole I can’t believe it. I occasionally share stuff from B-J with my wife but this is impossible. She’s so far behind on the news! “Wait, what? Some guy who wasn’t there drew a floor plan them implicated another guy who wasn’t there by name? WTF.??”
boatboy_srq
@Brachiator: Familiarity breeds resentment.
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: Sure do.
celticdragonchick
@Parfigliano:
Did this person do something to you in another life? I thought we liberals were still in favor of basic fucking decency. I may have been mistaken.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Leto:
Were does it say the Dems can’t impeach a Justice? Beyond the Dems are to polite too and that’s changing. This is a bit like lead up to the Civil War, were the South took advantage of the North being polite and letting the South break all the rules until the North wasn’t polite anymore. It’s pretty clear rights of mintority groups are critically important in for society now, just packing the court and saying shut up, that’s why isn’t going to work anymore than Dreed Scot stopped the end of slavery.
germy
The Moar You Know
He really is going to be tagged with that moniker for the rest of his long, stupid life. Well, sometimes justice comes quickly.
zhena gogolia
@frosty:
I hear ya. This was a midnight conversation with my husband, who got all distracted by the floor plan because he loves floor plans.
waratah
They want the details so they can get their attack right. They did not have enough information to get the other person did it right. Even so they forgot that he put a hand over her mouth but did not cover her eyes. She could see who was doing it.
zhena gogolia
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
“There isn’t a cannon factory in the whole South.”
“What difference does that make to a gentleman, suh?”
“It’ll make a great deal of difference to a great many gentlemen.”
[No. 1 of 1,000,000 great Clark Gable moments.]
JPL
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: A few days ago the Washington Post told the story of Amber Wyatt who reported a rape when she was in high school. This was 2006 so really not that long ago. It was heartbreaking.
I feel so bad for you and the Ambers of the world.
Betty Cracker
@Tony Jay: This is true. A lot of evangelicals were pissed that Trump didn’t choose Amy Coney Barrett, who is every bit as hard-right as Kavanaugh and even more pious. If the Kavanaugh nomination crashes and burns, I’ll be surprised if they don’t put her forth. Except Trump is the wild card in all of this. He’s self-absorbed enough to keep trying to ram Kavanaugh through even if it’s politically damaging, and he’s petty enough to want to nominate only white men to own the libs. Who knows?
Gravenstone
I don’t think that’s Trump. Rather, it’s another ghost post from one of his faithful minions, or at least ghost written at his (mis)direction. But I’m sure he’d be thrilled, thrilled if Dr. Ford were to file charges today, seeing as there is no statute of limitations in MD for the act in question.
Elizabelle
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I am sorry to hear of your ordeal. Protect the military; accuser goes on ice?
Myself; my parents would have “overreacted” and I sure would not have been at any further parties with upperclassmen. I can see telling a trusted friend or two, though, and asking them to keep it quiet.
WRT Blasey-Ford, I wonder how much she was especially vulnerable for being younger than a lot of the other young women at the party. Although, IMHO, they’re often still pretty oblivious about personal safety once they get to college, too.
NonyNony
@celticdragonchick:
Not just the kids – how many parents are going to be believing that he’s actually the guilty one now from this? His life is going to be a shitshow just because he kinda looked like Kavanaugh in High School.
I do wonder if he’s regretting signing that letter attesting to Kavanaugh’s character now though.
Major Major Major Major
@germy: hypnosis! Lol! Stuck in the 80’s (or was that the 90’s) they are.
Another Scott
Both items are in the “water is wet” category and were pretty easy to predict. Here’s hoping that both Donnie and Ed get their comeuppance quickly.
In other news, GovExec:
The GOP hasn’t forced a government shutdown in an election year since it blew up in their faces under WJC. Even then, they weren’t stupid enough to do it so close to the actual election day.
Will he or won’t he?? He’s so brain damaged that it’s impossible to know with certainty.
I’m sure lots of Democratic strategists are thinking – “Please, please don’t throw me in that briar patch!!11”
Cheers,
Scott.
Gelfling 545
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): I suspect that Whelan realized his “mistake “ when contacted by a lawyer for Garrett. How the hell does Garrett go to work today?
The Moar You Know
@Kay: He will do what he’s told by his betters without every questioning what he is to do or why. Like a Starbucks barista, or a grocery clerk. He has a track record of doing so.
Get a guy like that in a place that means something (Supreme Court, presidency) he’s worth a lot.
bemused
@Elizabelle:
You’d think Kavanaugh would be pushing for full investigations to clear himself for his daughters’ sake if not for himself. Very peculiar he is not, no?
frosty
Edit function? “then” not “them” … mild compared to some of the others I’ve read. LOL.
Honus
@Kay: speaking of loving parents, wasn’t Kavanaughs mother the Montgomery County prosecutor at the time?
Trump just can’t conceive of a woman or person of color being reluctant to report an incident (involving a connected white male) to the authorities.
celticdragonchick
@NonyNony:
Yep. I understand doing a minor favor for a buddy from 30 years ago…and this time it really cost him, unfortunately.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)
@NonyNony: @celticdragonchick: Exactly. Reputation to a teacher is everything. It goes hand in hand with trust. You lose those, you might as well look for another job. Of course, given the way this accusation has spread, good luck with that!
bemused
@Kay:
I almost laughed, definitely groaned at him using the word “loving”, an normal human emotion he has no concept of.
Princess
You’ve got to hand it to Trump. It wasn’t easy to trash Ford’s reputation at the same time as you troll every single women (and man) in the country who has ever been sexually assaulted, but he managed it.
This should help the GOP in the upcoming midterms.
Elizabelle
@bemused: Peculiar indeed. Extremely peculiar.
That might have occurred to the GOP thieves in charge of the Judiciary Committee. But no ….
jeffreyw
@Corner Stone: I hope he files a suit and his lawyers serve those people with an order to preserve all emails and other communications.
Aleta
Raoul Paste
After Dr. Ford came forward (and it wasn’t just a nameless accuser), only 2 of the 65 maintained their support for Kavanaugh
Elizabelle
@Aleta: Oh gawd. No, I don’t think so.
But, in the event they get him through, think of how beholden this craven prick is going to feel, to Mitch McConnell and the other top Republicans, who might find themselves in legal jeopardy before too long. Mueller and the NRA investigation. Tick tock.
Mitch is probably just flapping his turtle lips in attempt to keep the donor money flowing. He is a whore, through and through. (The usual apology to sex workers, who at least know which is the john.)
Also: tick tock — where is Yarrow? Been seen around much lately??
Bruce K
It just occurs to me that depending on the nominee’s involvement with the attempt to pin the assault on someone else in the court of public opinion, and his other recent behavior with respect to his youthful behavior, there’s a (very small but non-zero) chance he could end up losing his license to practice law over this.
And I can see the 21st-century GOP saying that even that shouldn’t be a disqualifier from the Supreme Court.
Major Major Major Major
@Raoul Paste: 5, last I saw (the day after). Most hadn’t returned the call. Which could mean many things, like a desire to stay out of the spotlight regardless of opinion.
Tazj
@Aleta: This is so awful, how fair will this hearing be?
Why are all of them so invested in confirming Kavanaugh instead of any other right wing judge?
Tony Jay
@Betty Cracker:
On the one hand, the only constant and reliable facet of that shithead’s character is that, however badly you think he can screw something up, he has a beer he needs you to hold. There is nothing he can’t make worse, and then he can even top that, over and over and over again. It’s a gift.
On the other hand, this is a Supreme Court seat we’re talking about here. The Republicans and their backers need it, want it, and they will have it. If they really can’t squeeze Rapey K and his baggage through the rapidly shrinking hole in the nomination process they’ll have to go with someone else just as bad. Will Pustule screw it up for them? Maybe, for a while, but all it takes is one late night sit-down in the Oval Office where Candidate B promises to be a firm vote against sending House Trump to the gallows and that will be that for Kavanaugh’s lifelong quest for Supreme Judgeship. The Pustule is desperate, but never knowingly loyal.
I am, however, often wrong.
raven
@Mike in NC: In New Bedford? There are actually two of them!
Elizabelle
WaPost breaking news banner:
Ya think?
Ruviana
@Elizabelle: I didn’t read the whole comment thread but in the WaPo article on Sunday she said she didn’t tell her parents because they didn’t allow her to go to parties with alcohol and they would’ve found out about alcohol at the party and she would’ve gotten in trouble. That so so sounds like the logic of a 15-year-old. Apologies if someone else mentioned all this earlier.
Lyrebird
@Kay: @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
Yeah, I heard about this tweet from Garbage Dump and thought, duh, why would she have called the police? Why would she think they would help her? Sorry Crone that you have more proof.
I am going to ask my senators, AND other senators this:
Do you want to make sure that another generation of girls grows up not able to imagine that the police would help them? Or move further towards “liberty and justice for all”?
Bruce K
@Tony Jay: All you’ve got to do is wait for the moment when standing by the man becomes more of a liability than turning on the man.
Of course, I’ve been waiting for two goddamned years for the GOP to hit that point with Trump and it hasn’t happened yet. I’m not sure whether that says something disturbing about Trump, about the 21st-century GOP, or about me.
Elizabelle
@Tazj:
(1) Trump chose Kavanaugh because of BK’s weird insistence that Republican presidents must be protected from consequences.
(2) They don’t really have enough time to get someone else through, and especially not after their stunt with Merrick Garland. What’s the rush, thieves?
(3) Democrats could very well win the Senate. And shitshows like the one with Kavanaugh are firing up Democratic-leaning voters.
I am hearing at the doors that even genuinely independent folks are concerned at the “no standards” GOP. They see how bad this could get, if not stopped in its tracks.
Raoul
@Kay: I don’t think they admire him, Kay. I think they puff him because he has been determined to be the person to grab the anti-abortion brass ring. And Republicans do one thing better than all others: toe the line and read the script.
Of course, toeing the line and reading the script is how we teeter towards autocracy.
randy khan
I mentioned this on LGM, but Whelan’s attempt to protect himself from a libel suit is pathetically bad. He doesn’t say he identified the wrong person – he says he regrets naming him publicly. He hasn’t retracted a thing.
Elizabelle
@Ruviana: Yep. That would have figured in my calculations!
An actual rape would have been different, but even then, you’d realize the girl would be attacked again in court for being in that situation, for possibly drinking, for her attire and behavior, for being the one responsible for not stopping the rape.
Responsibility. It’s for women. And never for Republicans. Consequence-free, to the extent their circle can ensure that.
Raoul
@Elizabelle: He sold his soul back in the Starr / Vince Foster era:
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Unpossible. There’s never been a better process for ever and ever, amen. WaPo:
Heh. How’s that working out for you, Brett? Still have your “red line” Susan??
These people will say anything. It’s just mouth noises to them.
Cheers,
Scott.
Leto
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: What do you need for impeachment? Majority in the House and 3/4th in the Senate? We might capture the majority come this November (dog help us), but we sure as shit won’t have 3/4th in the Senate, nor will we be able to convince the remaining shitbags in the Senate to join in on a 3/4th majority vote to remove the fucker they just installed. It’s not being “too polite”, it’s basic math. With a dose of reality. Also do a quick bit of research regarding impeachment of SC justices and see how well that’s gone. The easier solution is to stop him before he’s seated. Once he’s seated it becomes infinitely harder to remove.
Ksmiami
@Leto: until they feel the effects of the civil war they’ve unleashed- if the sc becomes useless, time for it to go
Matt McIrvin
@Major Major Major Major:Megan Amram is the greatest. She’s a writer/ producer on The Good Place; that alone…
hilts
Betty,
With this tweet, we’ve switched from New Trump back to Trump Classic.
lamh36
My first question… had the guy who Whelan named commented or issued a statement on the accusation? Putting on my conspiracy theory hat and realizing the guy named also signed a letter of supper for Kavanaugh and I’m beginning to think Whelan et al out the theory out there with his knowledge, but and told him “hey we’lil put it out there so that it makes it into the news cycle…then we retract it his apology and all you gotta do it now comment…”
Cause I am sorry, this guy is a middle school teacher and if he was being accused of sexual assault like this…he sure as shit would have issued some statement saying…he’ll no this is ludicrous…but he’s suspiciously silent, IMHO.
Have I missed a statement from Mr Garrett?
Corner Stone
@celticdragonchick: This is the crowd Garrett hitched his wagon to. He had every option of not being a suckup to power and a toady for his elite superiors. At some point it has to have a cost.
And since Trump is leading the way, let me ask – where is a statement from Teacher Garrett? Even if it says, “My attorney will be releasing a statement shortly.” I might have missed it but I haven’t heard a peep from him. If he’s concerned about getting his reputation dragged around GloboTwitter it’s not yet showing.
Elizabelle
@Raoul: I really don’t think Kavanaugh will get through. He’s a very low quality nominee, from the outset. Can some of the GOP Senators in purple or blue states afford a vote for him? Likely not. Whatever they’re saying now.
And whatever they’re saying in public, a lot of them must really fear the damage Trump can do. Give him a confederate on the Supreme Court? Maybe not.
This does not hold for the craven true believers, many of whom are GOP Judiciary Committee members.
That party cannot go down in flames fast enough.
I am hearing at the doors that these “are not conservatives.” They’re radicals and reactionaries. The fig leaf has disappeared.
Barbara
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): Regarding using the name of a teacher as a likely assailant in a sexual assault that occurred in high school — well, yeah, I think it could be libelous. Someone was incredibly reckless, that’s for sure, and if the teacher had some notion of what was being cooked up (which I actually consider quite doubtful given the stakes for himself and his family) then he would have been reckless as well.
Corner Stone
@Raoul:
Possibly one Edward G. Whelan? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Raoul
@Hildebrand: If we didn’t have Sessions as A.G., I’d hope the financial crimes unit would be tracking unusual cash flows into the teacher’s bank accounts.
Mnemosyne
@celticdragonchick:
Some people suspect that the newly accused is conspiring with Kavanaugh and Special Ed to be the fall guy, so that’s where that hostility is coming from. Especially since he was one of the signers of the letter supporting Kavanaugh’s nomination.
IF (big if) that turns out to be the case, dude obviously didn’t think it through.
Matt McIrvin
@Leto: 2/3, but we won’t have that either.
boatboy_srq
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Pelosi set the precedent. There’s enough squeamishness now among mainstream Dem pols to make impeachment of any federal official in any position next to impossible unless that person did indeed push the nuclear button just for kicks.
When progressivism cleans house it needs to sweep the Dem rank and file.rigjt along with the GOTea.
@Raoul: Among the Reichwing there are strata of Election®, and being safe amongst the herd doesn’t guarantee that you won’t ever be hindmost.
Chyron HR
@Aleta:
“In the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the Supreme Court,”
There are exactly 51 people in the world keeping Judge Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court right now and every one of them is a GOP senator. How do you propose to pray that problem away, Mitch?
Another Scott
@Another Scott:
Even then, they weren’t stupid enough to do it so close to the actual election day.The number of days between 9/30 and election day don’t change that much from year to year. So, strike that.
My kingdom for an Edit function! And my other kingdom for a Preview function!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@celticdragonchick: Yep. Everything you said. And yes…I hope that this teacher sues the pants and everything else off Ed Whelan. And that he includes Kavanaugh. And I hope that, *unlike* the slimy fucker my friend ended up suing for libel, that these guys don’t have any kind of umbrella insurance policy that covers defamatory statements. (Did you know you could get insurance that covered that? I sure didn’t!)
HinTN
@Mike in NC: Get your cappuccino at The Bean.
hilts
@Another Scott:
Agree with you 100%. Alain, the intrepid site fixer, needs to get on this.
Cheers to you too.
bemused
Oh, those adorable old white southern white republicans. SC Rep Ralph Norman joked to a group, you hear the breaking news, Ruth Bader Ginsberg said she was groped by Abraham Lincoln.
I despise these people.
Elizabelle
Listening to the press conference re yesterday’s latest mass shooting Maryland incident:
sheriff and others are talking about mental illness and loss of respect for life.
This speaker has just used the word “guns”, but it’s in connection with mental illness diagnoses not keeping pace with gun ownership. (Yesterday’s shooting woman owned a registered Glock, I think. Also diagnosed with mental illness in 2016 …)
It’s the guns, fuckers. It’s the guns. Otherwise you’d be dealing with a mass stabbing attempt. That is not what you have. It’s a shooting, fuckers.
It’s the guns.
Doug R
@Elizabelle:
I saw a replay of that announcement and I was looking at his older girl, wondering what she’s thinking right now.
Leto
@boatboy_srq:
You’re putting the cart before the horse and they see/understand that. Run on anti-corruption, run on big ideas, but most importantly get into office first. Running on impeachment isn’t a winning strat.
El Caganer
@Elizabelle: The daughters were supposed to be his armor. Why would a guy who’s allegedly running on his judicial acumen need to display his family and encourage all kinds of praise on his parenting skills? Wife and kids were/are props.
Ridnik Chrome
@Tazj: Because if Kavanaugh goes down, they might not get another shot. By the time the Orange Fool actually nominates someone the Senate might well be in Democratic hands, and the Democrats will (hopefully) remember what was done to Merrick Garland and do the same in return.
Frankensteinbeck
@Raoul:
Bear in mind, the entire country is laughing at Trump’s penis right now. He is living his worst nightmare. I have no idea what we’re going to hear from him.
Elizabelle
@Leto: Agreed.
Investigation is the I word for me, not necessarily Impeachment. Not if we get President Pence. Or another Republican. No way.
Investigation is good. Sunlight is good. These thieves have stayed in the dark, like the vampires they are. Sunlight, sunlight.
Brachiator
@Tazj:
The Republicans simply do not want to lose to the Democrats. They want who they want,and they insist on getting their way.
Also, the Senate will probably remain under GOP control, but they want to be on the safe side.
celticdragonchick
@Corner Stone:
You should stop now. This isn’t merely unseemly, it’s actually evil. If partisan hatred is now going to demand we destroy junior high teachers and the like, I want nothing to do with it. It is nihilism.
Ridnik Chrome
@Elizabelle: No edit function, or I’d add “what Elizabelle said” to my last comment.
WaterGirl
@Brachiator:
fixed that for you.
Barbara
@El Caganer: I agree that most of them only have family present at the swearing in, and it’s less typical to have family present at the announcement.
WaterGirl
@tobie: It’s not just this week. We saw the same thing in the K. hearings, as well. They did not roll over then, either.
celticdragonchick
@Mnemosyne:
That’s QANON level stuff there. They can do that shit. We don’t have to be that stupid, I hope.
debit
@boatboy_srq:
What part of the process is unclear to you? Is it the part where we don’t have a majority yet? Or is it the part where you need 3/4 of the senate to convict, which we will not have. Is it where there’s no point in bringing up impeachment until we actually have a chance of it working? That all it does is reinforce the GOP’s battle cry to try to whip up voters?
Finally, anyone who calls for Pelosi to step down or wants her “swept out” sounds like a rat fucker.
Leto
@Elizabelle: Speaking of stabbings, this was in last Sunday’s WaPo:
Borrowing strategy from NRA, activists quietly overturn knife restrictions across U.S.
They’re on a relentless march to make this a Mad Max style hellscape in which to live. Public safety/public health are words/issues that are totally foreign to them.
Elizabelle
@Leto: Hadn’t read that story, cuz figured it would depress me.
Your odds are still better against a knife, I would guess, unless you’re in a drastically enclosed space. Knives don’t jam or misfire either.
Le sigh. I am sick of these pantswetting activists. Cowards, cowards.
Raoul
Mitch McConnell, with video! “We’re gonna plow right through it”.
Perfect word choice, Mitch. How on earth any women can vote Republican is just beyond me.
Wyatt Derp
@Betty Cracker:
True they could find other hard right judges to nominate but what sets Kavanaugh apart in Trump’s mind is his clear willingness to be Trump’s Get out of Jail Free card.
Elizabelle
@Barbara: I remember Dancing Jack from the John Roberts rollout. Those two little blonde kids, costumed for the Eisenhower era. Robin Givhan wrote a column about how out of time they were.
But otherwise, yeah, it’s usually just the nominee. Maybe a spouse.
celticdragonchick
@Leto: @Leto:
NYC went waaaaay over the top with some of the knife laws and was arresting theatre hands with utility knives used for work etc. The legal situation was such that knives that were legal for sale and to have in the home could not be legally transported from the place of sale to the home.
But who the hell needs switchblades and hidden spear points?? Are we forming a secret tertio regiment to fight the Holy Roman Empire or did I miss something?
chris
At this point I’m out of can’t evens. Apparently Dr. Blasey’s brother worked for a law firm once…
https://www.politifact.com/facebook-fact-checks/statements/2018/sep/21/blog-posting/no-christine-blasey-fords-brother-isnt-linked-russ/
Ella in New Mexico
@Honus:
She’s listed as “Associate States Attorney for Montgomery County” 1978-1984 in a biography on the Maryland state site. She later became an Associate Judge then a Circuit Court Judge, retiring in 2001.
It also appears she was one hell of an advocate for women. She must be in agony right now.
In any case, I find it incredible that a in 1982, a 15 year-old girl, most likely terrified of getting into trouble with parents for being at a party in the first place, then experiencing a terrifying “near rape” would rush to tell Mom and Dad about what happened. No, she felt guilty enough, blamed herself for what happened. Add to that the perpetrator’s Mom worked in the DA’s office.
So much stuff I keep thinking in regards to this tragedy: I keep wondering what kind if influence the friendship with the guy we now know to be a youthful blackout drunk and subsequent lifetime pervert, may have had on prompting this incident. Was Mark Judge one of those assholes who mocked other guys for not “getting some” and egged the incident on? Is that also why they maintained contact, albeit relatively loose, over the years? A kind of unspoken pact between two people who would never speak of it again?
I also wonder what if young Brent had woken up the next day, realized what a fucking shit he’d been and had enough shame, empathy and yes, self respect to admit he’d done a terrible wrong to someone? What if he’d then found a way to go to and profoundly apologize to Christine Ford? What kinds of good things would that have done for his soul, his Karma?
I really think that two lives would have been incredibly different. She would have been given the chance to be acknowledged, to learn that it wasn’t her fault, and to be given the power to forgive her attacker–an incredibly important step towards healing. She wouldn’t have had to struggle for decades with the shame and the trauma and could have moved on in a healthier way, not secretly stuffing her pain, having it grow and morph and impair her loving relationship with her husband. She’s done well, but it did it’s harms.
What kind of a person would Brent Kavanaugh have turned into, too? How might it have steered him in ways less extreme in his political stance and career choices? He carried his secret, which he knew would be a devastating and horribly disappointing thing for his mother–the advocate for women’s rights and for domestic violence victims. No, it could never be acknowledged. But bad things, not addressed, fester and do not go away until they are.
He reads like a guy who has tried to be “perfect” as compensation for something he has suppressed deeply enough as to render it unconscious; and yes, some of his work has been pretty well regarded legally, no doubt. But his dark stuff kept poking through the mask of “Mr. Wholesome”. Reading the stories about the kinds of salacious questions he came up with, and how zealous he was in wanting to sexually humiliate Bill Clinton during the Starr investigation screams “projection”.
I raised four kids who all did things that disappointed us. Nothing like this situation, but enough that it brought a lot of upset and stress into our lives while we dealt with the episode. We never let them off the hook, nor did we not find a way to help them make things right, to gain the self respect that comes from being honest, telling the truth, accepting the unhappy consequences, being accountable.
(And yes, you need to walk a fine line when you’re trying to do that with a teenager while at the same time not be a pissed off and angry parent who just wants to scream in their faces that you can’t BELIEVE they’d do something so fucking stupid like this )
Because I believe that teenagers can do some pretty awful things and yet, if guided well and given the chance to learn how to be better, really can grow and do good things because of their learning, I really wish I had a magic wand to go back in time and fix this situation. For her, and yes, for him.
In any case, this thing just gets worse and worse. For everyone. For the country. If Kavanaugh really was the “good guy” he’s touted to be, he might realize that his seat on the Supreme Court was and is not “his”. He’s not entitled to it. That it would be best for everyone–including himself–to pull his nomination.
Major Major Major Major
@boatboy_srq:
This is ridiculous. Pelosi wouldn’t impeach Bush because there wasn’t solid evidence of anything cut and dried, nor was there public desire to impeach him, nor did they have the votes. Politicians gonna politick.
Ella in New Mexico
Dear God
Please shine your powers of healing on Balloon-Juice and restore it’s “Edit Post” function to it’s former functionality. Amen.
Elizabelle
@Ella in New Mexico: In the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster too.
Pasta be to an edit button. That works.
Chetan Murthy
@Elizabelle:
In the sense of John Rogers’ Crazification Factor, if this happened (from your lips to The Goddess’ ears!) credit should go to Josh Marshall for the term “Dignity Wraith” — which is what KavENOUGH would have become.
raven
@Leto: Do a quick bit of research on how many presidents don’t win reelection after they lose the midterms.
Leto
@Elizabelle: Agreed: cowards and bed wetters.
@celticdragonchick: See Elizabelle’s comment: cowards and bed wetters. People in constant fear of the “other” and who feel like they need to be ready for hand-to-hand combat at a moments notice. Like this guy. Or maybe this genius: Man who thought he was wearing stab proof vest dies after stabbing himself.
Chetan Murthy
@Corner Stone:
Wait, what? Dude, you’re not thinking strategically! My prayer would be for him to sue the pants off Whelan, get discovery and connect the dots to KavaNONONO and a few GrOPer Senators, and retire a rich, rich, rich man, having taken Whelan’s kids’ college funds and KavaFUCKHIM’s house!
NonyNony
@lamh36:
I wouldn’t say shit until I had a lawyer who could make sure I didn’t say something stupid. Especially if I was considering a lawsuit.
And I don’t have a lawyer on speed dial. I doubt a middle school teacher does either.
Ruckus
@SFAW:
He’ll stick it out to the very end because nothing else matters except his and his parties power to fuck over millions. What’s a couple more bodies thrown aside, considering that?
catclub
@Leto:
I think basic math says it takes a 2/3rd vote in the Senate to convict, not 3/4ths. A majority in the House to impeach.
randy khan
@Ridnik Chrome:
Time works against the Republicans in a couple of ways here. Although there’s still time to confirm someone before the end of the session if Kavanaugh drops out, it gets trickier and trickier each day that you wait. Right now there are exactly 101 days until the end of the year. If, for argument’s sake, Kavanaugh dropped out next Friday, that would be 94 days. Kennedy announced his resignation on June 27, and it took 12 days for Trump to nominate Kavanaugh. Right now it’s been 74 days since the nomination, so that’s a total of 86 days from the date they knew they had a vacancy until the nomination. McConnell’s original schedule was to have the vote yesterday, and everyone agreed that was an unusually compressed time frame, but that was still 85 days from when Kennedy announced his retirement and 73 days since the nomination.
And all of this assumes that McConnell could keep the Senate in session over the holidays, which is less than certain.
raven
President Trump on Friday walked back his order earlier this week to declassify information in the ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying Justice Department officials and others had persuaded him not to do so for the time being.
catclub
@Chetan Murthy:
then we could get rulings on whether a sitting Judge can be compelled to testify, can be indicted….
Jeffro
@raven: Deserves it own thread – clearly someone got to him and told him the IC was done with him, full stop, if he went there.
chris
@raven: Haha. Somebody must have read the stuff and realised why that MOC said, “Be careful what you wish for.”
catclub
@Major Major Major Major:
agreed,
and the GOP did not have the votes to convict in 1997, but decided that impeaching Clinton would benefit them politically.
Pelosi with a House majority would still not have the votes to convict, but deciding to impeach could still be the right political choice.
Major Major Major Major
@catclub: and, of course, that didn’t work out so great for republicans in 1998.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@zhena gogolia: Bringing in a floor plan made me think of English whodunit mysteries, Agatha Christie and her imitators. Floor plans figure prominently in a number of those. So Whelan should have next called a meeting where all the principals are sitting in the house, and then re-enact the crime, up to the point where suddenly one person (the real rapist!) realizes he’s been uncovered, and leaps up and makes a break for the door.
To be apprehended of course by Inspector Gadget or Hercule Poirot or Lestrade or whoever.
Ruckus
@Kay:
It’s based upon their standards, which are as low as his. They don’t amount to much or they are the same person, maybe just not to the same degree. They go through life with the goal of party! Accomplish anything? No, nothing. Some of that is that they have no actual real skills, they never learned, they aren’t capable of that learning. Part of that is them, part of that is the education they did learn. And part of it is what rewards are there for doing better? Does your dog learn because it wants to do anything other than please you so that it gets a treat, a reward? What reward is there for most people in life? It’s either make lots of money so that people will think you are smart, or a life of basically no treats. And even when you get the money, it’s never enough. Republicans promise white supporters status through racism or god bothering. And status is always at someone else’s expense. Democrats promise equality and status as an individual. You have to see that as a positive to admire it. And that doesn’t work if you are selfish and need a reward for something, anything that might make you a step ahead.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Trivia fact: A. A. Milne (author of Winnie the Pooh) wrote at least one of those, a locked-room mystery which I’m pretty sure included a floor plan.
banditqueen
@lamh36: Garrett is likely working with an attorney at this point. He signed a letter of support for Special K, and seems to have got caught up in this desperate tabloid-level gaslighting dopplegaenger conspiracy theory. Kathleen Parker posted the tabloid response a couple of days ago, probably tipped off by Whelan. They’re trapped in their tower of privilege and can’t escape.
Citizen Alan
@celticdragonchick:
“We” are not destroying anyone. They are destroying each other. Corner Stone merely suggests that we should have no sympathy for them as they do so, a sentiment with which I agree.
El Caganer
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Inspector Clouseau?
celticdragonchick
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Federalist heartthrob Ed Whelan solves mysteries and pwns the libs every week in the new hit show PIZZAGATE PELOSI UNCOVERED
Follow Ed and his lovable rapscallion QANON pals as they use Zillow, an old 70’s mystery board game and do it your self Mad Libs to solve the toughest liberal whodunnits!
This weeks special guest star: Chuck C Johnson!
SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
The Red House Mystery. I adore it, and treat myself to a reread every couple of years. And it does indeed have a floor plan ?
tobie
@banditqueen: the Post should conduct an internal review on Parker. Was she fed a story by Welan? Does she regulars present as her own the views of the Federalist Society?
raven
@El Caganer: zat is not my dog. . .
randy khan
@catclub:
All answered already: yes I said yes I will Yes.
Oh, wait, that’s something else.
Anyway, they can be compelled to testify, can be indicted, and can be convicted of crimes.
BC in Illinois
@boatboy_srq:
If progressivism wishes to sweep rank and file Democrats out of office, then it had a chance to do so this primary season. It will have its next chance during the Democratic primaries of 2020. If progressivism has some other agenda in mind from Jan ’19 to Jan ’21 than resisting Trump at every term and investigating the Trump administration on a daily basis, then progressivism should just stow it.
If progressivism envisions the goal of the next two years is to sweep rank and file Democrats out of office, then progressivism is an ass.
Aleta
@Tazj: Guessing the nomination was a reward, or a promise, in exchange for something? Looking at other Tr appointees:
He donated or raised big money during the campaign or for the convention/inaugural slush funds?
He has represented Koch Brother interests or worked for their orgs? (Btw, Walen’s organization is funded by the Kochs. 70% of senior officials in the admin. are said to have ties.)
Or, something to do with a promise to Kennedy when he stepped down?
Or, when his membership in college groups devoted to random sex was mentioned (as a downside) to Tr, Tr instead liked that about him? Or saw potential for controlling him with threat to expose something?
Elizabelle
@banditqueen: Katheen Parker’s INSANE column was the first I saw of this. Is there a Kavanaugh doppelganger? Two days ago. The WaPost published this swill.
I hope Parker gets badly, badly burned by this. She’s part of the howler monkey chorus, trying to prop up Kavanaugh. I thought at first it might be stupid denial and disbelief by Parker. Now I think it’s something way, way worse.
Someone should track this doppelganger theory shit; figure out the vectors. Don’t spare anyone. This is vicious.
Kathleen Parker is a motherfucker. She likely got her Pulitzer because she did not fall for the Sarah Palin schtick, but do not think she is not One of Them otherwise. She is rotten. In velvet gloves.
ruemara
@Corner Stone: Shit, I hope whatever Garrett is hiding is uncovered. I have no faith that somehow he’s absent any misbehaviour.
@Kay: It’s based on “If we put him on the supreme court, we’ll own all legislation for the next 10-15 years, we can do what we like without fear because we’ll have multiple state & county judiciaries and we won’t have to be this restrained in remaking America”. It’s really that simple. If they get that, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
celticdragonchick
@Citizen Alan:
That is a fucked up thing to agree with.
Teachers are not the target here, and we shouldn’t stand by and let them be targets. He isn’t a goddamned K Street player. He is an Atlanta middle school teacher who has to deal with 8th grade kids and correct their homework tonight while this shit is going on around him.
By the way, signing onto a letter for a friend from 30 years ago is usually seen as a social nicety. Nobody takes it seriously and nobody puts any weight on it.
Whatever screwed up version of morals you have subscribed to, being nice to your high school buddy from 3 decades past in no fucking way merits this kind of bullshit and we should be ashamed for even entertaining the notion that it ever would!!!
I have been at this site since 2006, and if that is the way we are going to play now, I’m done. I want nothing to do with this kind of thinking.
Elizabelle
@tobie: You got to it faster than me. But yes, Kathleen Parker’s got some explaining to do.
She should be suspended, or lose the WaPost column, if they can connect the dots.
rb
@Raoul: But the person they smeared is a teacher. Hell, he may as well be a woman with that kind of income.
It’s filth all the way down with this crew. I wouldn’t put it past them to somehow get Garrett to ‘admit’ to the crime – like, say, a guy who “Big Time” Dick Cheney shoots in the face – and then try to mansplain it to Ford and the nation.
boatboy_srq
@BC in Illinois: The point here is that Dems have no interest in impeachment proceedings because theyre too cowardly and/or too invested in the current structure to pursue the best remedy to public sector lawbreaking (a/k/a High Crimes And Misdemeanors). If that’s acceptable to you then you can go on sitting out primaries and crossing your fingers every November, and leave impeaching undesirable public officials to the Republicans. Some of us are working to get better candidates on primary ballots so this question doesn’t come up again.
celticdragonchick
@rb:
Conservatives have never, ever liked school teachers.
Tony Jay
@Bruce K: I
I think you can give yourself a clear bill of health on this one. The way the entire Republican Party has turned itself into a hand picked studio audience of whooping clappers on the Trump Unreality Show has surprised even a foreign observer like me, and after the Bush Residency I didn’t think that was possible.
Fair Economist
@Ridnik Chrome: They have enough time as long as Kavanaugh withdraws prior to late October. Kennedy himself was nominated after the November elections and got his hearings on December 14th. A vote two weeks after that and there is still a confirmation before the new Senate gets seated.
If Kavanaugh is still twisting in the wind at the elections it starts to get dicey.
This timetable would mess up their plans to use the lame duck to mess up the country further, and the new nominee is less likely to be an out and out criminal like Kavanaugh, so it is still a big win.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@boatboy_srq: Goddamn but your are a fucking tiresome asshole.
debit
@boatboy_srq: You still don’t get it. Impeachment means nothing without conviction. Name the GOP senators who will break ranks to convict. I’ll wait.
Gravenstone
@boatboy_srq: Math is a foreign concept to you, isn’t it? It’s been explained ad nauseum here why impeachment and conviction has not been the standard practice to this point in time. If circumstances change to allow a plausible opportunity to impeach, and more importantly convict Kavanaugh (or Gorsuch or Thomas or Alito, etc.), then by all means it should be seized upon. Until then, impeachment remains political theater, with an uncertain payoff.
Mike in DC
@Fair Economist: Between Barrett and Hardiman, seems like Hardiman is the safest pick. Who knows for sure, though?
dmsilev
@celticdragonchick: Agreed. So far as any of us know, Mr. Garrett is only “guilty” of signing a letter saying that he thought his high school classmate was a good guy. And, assuming that he had no knowledge of the assault Kavanaugh committed, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
rb
@Corner Stone:
What ‘wagon’? He teaches middle school three states away. FOH with this bullshit.
If he makes some kind of a statement somehow blaming Ford for this fiasco, that might be a different story. For the moment, he’s a citizen these fucks are trashing for their personal gain, and joining up with the bullies is a fucked up way to respond.
JoyceH
Here’s a new wrinkle in the Whelan story. One of his tweets was a street map showing where all the party goers lived. Including the female classmate of Ford. Well, that classmate has never been publicly identified so how would Whelan know where she lived? Only explanation I can think of is that this theory was developed in association with Kavanaugh, who would know who the other girl was – IF there had been a party and IF he had gone to it. Whelan needs to be questioned under oath.
debit
@Gravenstone: I guess we just need to CLAP HARDER!
dmsilev
@boatboy_srq: 67 Senators.
Laertes
To be fair, Trump IS an expert on how women respond to being sexually assaulted.
celticdragonchick
@rb: @dmsilev:
Thank you both. We cannot become the thing we are trying to fight.
Aleta
@JoyceH: Perhaps he’s trying to out her (more widely) to warn any other classmates with stories not to come forward.
prufrock
@Elizabelle: When I was in the Marine Corps, I was taught how to repel a knife attack. I vividly remember the instructor’s opening statement. He said, “When you get in a knife fight, you are going to get cut. The only question is whether you get cut a little, or cut a lot.”
Chyron HR
@boatboy_srq:
You forgot to claim that the democratic primaries are “rigged” because too many black people are allowed to vote. Bernie’s still pushing that line, right?
Elizabelle
New thread: JCole on Trump deciding to cool his jets (for the time being) on declassifying intelligence material.
Last paragraph of Cole’s WaPost link:
Le sigh.
Ella in New Mexico
@celticdragonchick: Thank you for this. We know nothing about this guy and yet people here who claim to be on the good guys’s side are cool with destroying someone based on ZERO information or evidence he ever wanted to be involved in this God-forsaken nightmare. It’s really disappointing when our side just let’s itself go balls-to-the-wall ugly mob.
That’s the Republican/Trump Cult’s schtick.
celticdragonchick
@prufrock:
Yep. Best bet is to run away. if you can’t run (and I have an injury that really limits that), try to disable him ASAP so you can escape.
I still have my combat knife I was issued in the army.
celticdragonchick
@Ella in New Mexico:
Exactly.
Amir Khalid
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
The floor plan made me think of Cluedo.
Aleta
@Aleta: @JoyceH: (That didn’t answer your question, just adding a thought.)
It sure seems like a team effort to me too. And agree with the oath. Dedicated investigation into this too I hope.
Major Major Major Major
@prufrock: the Krav Maga classes I’ve taken taught me that the best way to defend from a knife attack is to run away from the person with the knife.
Ella in New Mexico
Public Service Alert:
It’d be wise to remember the host of what now clearly were Russia-back trolls who spent weeks and months here provoking intra-party wars back in 2016, successfully driving many people to vote for the wrong God-damned people in the Primary and General.
I remember them, and how they appeared out of nowhere, were posting multiple times a day on every BJ post, provoking and personally insulting people who have been here for a long time and were actual, REAL BJ readers. They they disappeared, like vampires when the sun rose. Never seen them since.
We’ve already had some solid contenders for Batch Number Two show up here. And they’re pretty obvious. Don’t feed the trolls.
Citizen Alan
@celticdragonchick:
Would you like a tissue?
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Patriarchy prevails because it has female allies like Amy Chua and Kathleen Parker.
schrodingers_cat
@schrodingers_cat: ETA To elaborate, that as a woman you can’t count necessarily on the automatic support of other women.
Chetan Murthy
I’m puzzled by the rush to attribute bad motives and actions to this middle school teacher.
(1) YES YES we should all be willing to throw assholes like KavENOUGH under the bus. Even if we grew up with them. And let’s stipulate that we heard a lot about them. Look: I say and write things like “males are a danger to modern industrial civilization” all the time, and I mean it. I believe that only women should hold elective office. And sure as fuck I wouldn’t give a pass to some guy who was heavily rumored to be a creep and a rapist.
But what we know about this man, is that he went to school with the rapist (ok, ok, ALLEGEDLY) and signed a letter of support. This is pretty anodyne by American standards. And YES we should expect better of him. But FFS, if he’s an apolitical middle school teacher, it’s possible he didn’t follow all this shit. And EVEN IF he is political, this was a former classmate! Cut him a break, until we know more, eh?
We don’t want to be like them, dammit.
(2) AND AND AND: I wonder where he lives? B/c via OpenSecrets, it seems that a guy with his name, in Georgia, donated to Barack Obama in 2008, and that’s the only guy by that name in Georgia who donated anything to anybody.
Maybe, just maybe, he’s a Dem? I’m not saying he is. I AM saying, maybe wait for some evidence, howsoever slim, before we pile on.
rb
@JoyceH: Oy, good catch. Have you seen anyone pursuing this?
Uncle Cosmo
@boatboy_srq:
The prominent one on the top of your head. Fuck off & die in a fire – the rest of us will just have to save American democracy without you, but from your posting history that may be addition by subtraction.
Ella in New Mexico
@Citizen Alan: When choosing to be an asshole, it’s wise not to target someone who’s asking people to be decent and have better principle than to just be shitty, tribal assholes.
rb
@Chetan Murthy:
I agree with the thrust of your point, but it really doesn’t matter if he’s a dem or if he donated as much as he possibly could to Trump. Nothing justifies what these guys are doing to Ford nor what they did to Garrett in the process. Going ‘mob justice’ on him is more than tacky – it’s a grave moral error. Let’s keep our collective eye on the ball.
gwangung
Actually, the point here is that you can’t count and seemed to have flunked basic arithmetic.
Y’all need to count (and they don’t includes eggs that haven’t yet hatched chickens).
El Caganer
@Chetan Murthy: Wow, you’re no fun at all. What’s the point of life if you can’t slag people you know nothing about?
celticdragonchick
@Citizen Alan:
Bye, Felicia.
JoyceH
I think some people are jumping the gun to assume that Garrett is in on this Doppelgänger defense. Let’s remember that the Whelan thread was just posted yesterday evening. Apparently Fox and Friends was all over the theory this morning. I don’t think a Georgia middle school teacher has the knowledge and connections to find a DC lawyer (or whatever jurisdiction Whelan is operating from) and file suit already.
Ruckus
@debit:
Impeachment without possibility of accomplishment is worse than doing nothing.
It shows a major political weakness and no understanding of that reality.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Yes. They’re enablers, and maybe even victimizers themselves.
Lee
@tobie:
I’m seeing the exact same thing. Not to get too navel gazing… but I think the Democrats new found spine is directly related to the hopefully pending ‘blue wave’. If they know that the electorate has their back they can push on attack knowing their back is covered.
That’s why the Rethuglicans could get away with it for so long. The knew their supporters were going to vote for them no matter what and there is enough low information independents they could get to the 50%+1.
Hopefully that calculus has now changed. The Dems populace know they have to vote or we get more Trumps, the narrative has now changed enough that the low information voters are beginning to see the shitshow the GOP has become.
Corner Stone
It seems a few have become wrapped around the idea that there are calls for destroying some innocent teacher. Last I checked, no one here made the vague accusation Garrett was the *real* rapist. I didn’t notice any calls for counter-top inspections, or seeing if he’d ever applied for govt programs. I am also pretty sure no one wants to get him SWATted. IMO, there’s a difference between the RWNJs cannabilizing their own and some others choosing to get out of the way when the hungry leopards show up at the door.
As for the “socially acceptable” vouching for an old classmate, no. I didn’t go to school with Kavvy but it took about 1.2 seconds for my slimy smug meter to ping. And that was before I was reminded he was Ken Starr’s vicious deputy. If you’re 50 and don’t know who Starr is then you are way beyond “apolitical”. Maybe my “vouch for” bar is set too high or something. But when Judicial Crisis Network, Federalist Society and the likes of Ed Whelan are in your corner I think I’ll take a moment to consider.
I’d love for more info to surface, specifically an announcement that Garrett rejects any/all specious claims about his possible conduct and his attorney has started the process to seek justice.
J R in WV
@celticdragonchick:
There are hundreds or thoursands of people commenting here, along with you. Do not ever expect all of those people to agree with you all the time.
That said, I am torn here. I hope the newly accused (by people who were never there) man already has a lawyer aimed and ready to fire upon K. Parker and E. Whalen, who are the readily identifiable despicable people in this equation. I hope the newly accused person has nothing to do with “Judge” Kavanaugh and his clique of rapey drunken fools.
Personally, the early writings of “Judge” Kavanaugh about drunkeness and his participation in a fraternity dedicated to sexual abuse make him inelegible for a law license, let alone a seat on any judicial bench, even night traffic court.
This middle school teacher (whose name I do not intend to use for now) has been attacked by his own cohort of fascists, and how he intends to deal with that will be revealing. I believe there is a conspiracy to have attacked the middle school teacher to divert attention from “Judge” Kavanaugh, and a court order to preserve all communications and records from all these people over the past few m onths would be in order, and might scare some of these monsters into shutting up.
But, celticdragonchick, you don’t have any more business attacking everyone on Balloon-Juice than weird people do attacking a should-be anonymous teacher somewhere in Georgia. So lighten up, there!
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Off topic maybe but Trump asking why Dr Blasy didn’t report has hit a nerve apparently (this does’t surprise me unfortunately) –
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9/21/1797518/-tRUmp-asks-why-Ford-didn-t-report-Twitter-answers-WhyIdidn-treport-and-it-s-trending-1
Citizen Alan
@Chetan Murthy:
Personally, I haven’t even been “piling on” or whatever. I’ve just mocking people who clutch their pearls over others here “piling on.” As if random comments on a blog are in any way significant to what this guy is going through. It was a Republican he chose to support, and it was Republicans who are now accusing him of being a rapist to protect the guy he supported.
If it turns out he was either a Democrat or “apolitical,” then I’m sorry, but Scorpion & The Frog and all that. If (as I suspect is more likely) he’s a Trump supporter, then frankly I hope he burns in hell for all eternity. Either way, neither my opinions nor anything I or anyone else writes here at BJ will have any effect whatsoever on any part of these events. So I’m really don’t see what people are in high dudgeon over posters not being solicitous of the feelings of probable Nazis who will likely never even read their words. I admire Michele Obama greatly, but I’ve also seen just how far we’ve gotten by “going high when they go low.”
Just One More Canuck
@Leto: but it’s a sign of purity, which is more important than, you know, accomplishing anything
banditqueen
@tobie: @Elizabelle: The Parker/Whelan stories aren’t 2 coincidental random events. The Parker effort put the pathetic dopplegaenger theory out there and Whelan provided the details–they’re part of the organizational scheme devised by desperate people who really thought we were dumb and credulous enough to believe it–“oh, so Special K didn’t do it but poor Dr Ford was sexually assaulted but confused about who did it. It all makes sense now. So let’s get Special K where he belongs–he’s got a lot of work to do”. Get the lot of them under oath. I don’t think even they know how to explain this in rational terms, because it’s all so truly nuts.
Ridnik Chrome
@Elizabelle: I’m a little surprised about Parker. IIRC, she was one of the very few media conservatives who actually dared to criticize Bush and Cheney back in the day, and was badly flamed for it by her own side. I’d also been under the impression she was a Never Trumper. Guess she’s back on the reservation. Or else saving Kavanaugh is important enough for her to put aside her other differences with the party.
Uncle Cosmo
@rb:The longer things go without a denial from Garrett, the more suspicion that there just might be something to the allegation. How hard should it be for him to issue (through his lawyer) a brief statement to the effect that “I didn’t do it” or even better, “I wasn’t even at the party in question” – ?
Presuming he didn’t do it, what possible reason would he have to not issuing a denial? IMO there are a few possibilities beside a willingness to collude (there’s that collusion again) with the GOP.
Is it possible he isn’t sure? Maybe in HS he was another “blackout drinker”. Maybe he doesn’t even know whether he was at that party. (And of course Judge-the-Judge’s-Buddy will be happy to testify you were & you did even if you weren’t & didn’t.)
Is it possible that back then he did stuff like this to other girls (just not this one)? Maybe Special Ed has at least one of them lined up to go public with the accusation.
Or it could be carrot-&-stick. Whelan (more likely his backers, he’s just a catspaw) might have told him something like-
Y’think mebbe?
IMO the Democrats ought to be scrambling to ID everyone that was at that party (wasn’t that many, IIRC, & I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Dr, Blasey can rattle the names right off) & secure affidavits (or some sort of testimony) from as many of them as possible to the effect that Garrett wasn’t there but Kavanaugh was. And then I would hold it very, very closely until the day of Dr. Blasey’s testimony, & hit Assley & the rest of the fucking Global Oligarchy Party with it between their beady eyes. Fuckers.
Calouste
@banditqueen: What the doppelgänger theory has done is more or less set in stone that Dr. Ford told the truth about the assault. They can’t really go back now and say it didn’t happen, because for the theory to make any sense, they must have accepted that there was an assault. Next thing that is falling apart is that they picked a guy to be the doppelgänger, but they already have gone back on that. They can’t just keep looking for a new guy who looks like Brett Kavanaugh, but isn’t Brett Kavanaugh. At one point people are going to suspect that the only guy who looks like Brett Kavanaugh actually is Brett Kavanaugh.
Obvious Russian Troll
Refresh my memory: what happened after Elon Musk said that the guy in Thailand he called a pedophile hadn’t sued him? Oh, that’s right, Musk was sued.
It’s too early to start calling bullshit. The teacher has not just been been very likely libeled, but he’s been essentially accused of a crime for which there is apparently no statute of limitations in the state where it was committed. While there is always a chance of some ridiculous setup bullshit going on with Republican donors, if I were him I would keep my mouth shut until I had a lawyer and my lawyer told me to open it.
Emma
@Uncle Cosmo: If I were Garrett, I’d keep my mouth shut until a lawyer told me to open it.
Darn. ORT beat me to it. Great minds or possible criminals?
Omnes Omnibus
Do you people think that middle school teachers have tame lawyers at their beck and call? I f someone called me on s Thursday afternoon to set up an appointment, they would get some date next week.
eric
@Obvious Russian Troll: I believe the diver called him a liar right away. the suit came later. I think people are looking for that precise response here and using that matter as a template for the “appropriate” response.
eric
@Omnes Omnibus: actually, people’s instincts are the opposite of waiting for the lawyer because the fundamental untruth burns at them.
there are good reasons for saying nothing now and there are good reasons for denying it now.
Saving your powder for a defamation suit is tricky, especially if there is something different truthful in your past that would equally undermine your reputation. So, for example, if someone attempted to rape a different person then there could be no damage to reputation even if this statement was false.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
Spin the “Wheel of Shit” and find out.
The Moar You Know
@Bruce K: Sadly, it isn’t. It surely should be.
celticdragonchick
@J R in WV:
Oh FFS.
Really?
celticdragonchick
@Omnes Omnibus:
That teacher had better talk to the school admin and district superintendent before anything else.
When I had a media madhouse issue two years ago, the district told me to shut up and say nothing.
Omnes Omnibus
@eric: I am saying that people who are saying Garrett is somehow complicit and using the fact that he has released a statement yet as evidence are jumping the gun.
The Moar You Know
@celticdragonchick: Far as I’m concerned you can walk, motherfucker, because this is literal war and the other side sure as shit doesn’t care who gets caught in the crossfire. They’re killing black folks and kids coming over the border. Deliberately. Actually killing people. They’ve taken the rules that have governed this country for over two hundred years and not only SAID “fuck that”, but they’re going many steps further than even the damnable George W. Bush and are acting on it. It’s literally not government for anyone who’s not rich and white, and last I checked, neither one of us is rich and you may not be white.
So hide in a hole and wring your hands over the lack of civility, but civility is done. We can’t keep saying “when they go low we go high” because that shit isn’t operative anymore. It’s just an excuse to kill more of us at this point.
celticdragonchick
@Corner Stone:
To wit:
celticdragonchick
@The Moar You Know:
Bye. Felicia
Omnes Omnibus
@The Moar You Know: The last time I was in the army we were supposed to avoid collateral damage and friendly fire. Since we don’t yet know where Garrett is on all this, jumping on him seems premature, but you go ahead and be you.
Corner Stone
@celticdragonchick: None of which we control, and no plans to do such.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: IMO, Garrett is already on the negative side of the ledger. WTS, I am happy to see what happens next. Maybe he’ll surprise. But I doubt.
Ella in New Mexico
@celticdragonchick:
@Omnes Omnibus:
Seriously. I’d hate to be in a foxhole with TMYK.
First Marine: “Hey, Moar, you need to settle down and go stake out your position. You’re gonna shoot someone or get one of us shot by leaving us vulnerable. Defend your position and stop your jabbering and all that bullshit running around”
MOAR”Oh yeah! You want me to calm down mother fucker? You think I’m just supposed to pull my shit together and just stay calm and man my position? Fuck that! You can walk motherfucker! I’m gonna run around in circles screaming in my buddy’s faces, firing off this M-16 because there’s a fucking war on and I’m not taking it calmly! No sireee-Bob! You fucking morons just go hide in a hole and wring your hands over my lack organization and worry all you want I might be making us all targes or shooting one of our own but Goddamn-it I’m done. It’s just an excuse to kill more of us!!! So fucking talk to the fucking hand, you assholes!!!…”
MEDIC: “We’ve got him, guys, we’ve got him. Ok MOAR, just chill, we’ll take the restraints off when you’re calm. IM shot of haldol administered, sir. We got ya, dude…”.
rb
@Uncle Cosmo:
Maybe he had to work today, a friday, which is a day schools are in session?0 “Y’think maybe”?
I know a lot of people think a teacher’s work isn’t important. Well sometimes a job actually is more important than people on a blog feeling comfortable with the exact number of news conferences a common citizen is holding LESS THAN A DAY after having his family dealt a completely out of left field lifefuck by the federal government and its cursed accomplices .
Jesus christ. Sometimes people here can really get ALL the fucking way up into their willful moral idiocy. This is some heinous shit you wouldn’t and shouldn’t wish on an enemy, never mind someone you don’t even know. Those of you cheering it on should be ashamed.
rb
@JoyceH:
“jumping the gun” is putting it mildly. No armchair theorist has even a plausible guess at why Garrett would have invited this kind of shit tornado into his life except he knew Kavanaugh back in the day so therefore he’s trash and his family expendable. I grew up around some trash people and I’m also 100% certain I grew up around some people I think were just fine but actually they’re trash. That’s life. It doesn’t mean Garrett participated in what Kavanaugh did back then and it absolutely doesn’t mean he’s participating in it now.
If the story changes, the story changes. Until then, everybody ought not emulate our kneejerk pustule of a president.
rb
@celticdragonchick:
But then how would he satisfy all the little Ed Whelans we’ve got in here? He knew Kavanaugh! He must be the one that did it! Look at him not denying it!
Assholes like Whelan roll out a shiny thing, and we go right ahead and get to chasing it. Amazing how we never fucking learn.
Uncle Cosmo
@rb: Maybe you should’ve kept reading my post before going ballistic. If you had, you just might have understood that the sentence you quoted was for the most part a rhetorical question – since I proceeded to set out a number of possible reasons, none terribly happyfor us to contemplate. All of them (& some even less savory ones) are in play until & unless Garrett denies the charge. I devoutly hope a denial comes soon; I personally will remain unsettled until it does. But it is his life.
Just FTR, your “sometimes a job is more important” comment is simply wrongheaded – it cannot be more important to teach a day of classes when faced with a situation that threatens to ensure you never teach again. It may be, as OO suggests, that he simply doesn’t have a top-tier lawyer on speed-dial & couldn’t get hold of someone on short notice.
rb
@Uncle Cosmo:
Oh really? Kindly disclose what went on when you observed Garrett discussing this with his administration.
Let me give you a for-real, legitimate, non-thigh-rubbing “possible reason” we have not heard from him: he has spoken with his administration and/or their cousel, and they advised him that the best course of action is to keep out of the media and do his job.
So yes, indeed it can be of UTMOST and far greater importance to teach a day of classes than to appear on MSCNNFOX singing whatever particular tune will meet the expectations of “Uncle Cosmo.” Which you should know, if you know any educators.
Another Scott
@Redshift: Didn’t read Josh’s take, but saw DeLong’s excerpts. The Aristocrats!:
Quoting Josh:
A reader notes:
I’m shocked, shocked that anyone could think such a thing!!!
Especially given the FTFNYT story about Rosenstein today, and her butt-hurt reaction to criticism of it!111
Cheers,
Scott.
r€nato
@germy: I suppose it would be a bad thing if terrorists attacked the Fox News studios during this show
Johannes
@Elizabelle: Wouldn’t that require empathy, and care for others, and the like?
Tehanu
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: So sorry you had to go through that.