Live your life like Ronan Farrow's gonna find out what you did eventually.
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) August 27, 2018
people ask what i like to do in my free time as if keeping up with the day's news cycle and meme cycle leaves any wiggle room
— Astead (@AsteadWesley) April 5, 2018
Enough is enough. One credible sexual assault claim should have been too many to get a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court and make decisions that will affect millions of women’s lives for generations. Two is an embarrassment. It’s time for a new nominee.
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) September 24, 2018
“By 3 percentage points, men want Republicans rather than Democrats to control Congress, 47% to 44%. Women, by contrast, favor Democratic control by 25 percentage points—58% to 33%.” https://t.co/TJAPndb93Q
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 23, 2018
If it weren’t for persistent Repub thimble-rigging, I’d say November was ours to lose. But least we’re doing our best to make it harder for them to steal another election!
Benjamin Wallace-Wells, in the New Yorker, “Is the G.O.P. Actually in Trouble in the Midterms?”:
… There are just forty-eight days until the midterm elections. The primaries are finished, and the slate of candidates is set. Republicans are alarmed. Their own internal polling suggests that, on the so-called generic ballot for the House of Representatives, American voters prefer Democrats over Republicans by nine percentage points…
… Paul Ryan is leaving Washington, and his libertarian brand of conservatism has lost its vogue. Trump’s Presidency has been full of warlike gestures but devoid of strategy: having promised a politics that would elevate those left behind, he has crafted tax policies that favor the rich and a failed health-care plan that would gut protections for working-class Americans. And, having won by slim margins in 2016 in the upper Midwest, he has imposed an aggressive tariff program that has meant chaos for farmers, who are struggling to sell their products overseas. The Republican Party is out of ideas...
Parties remake themselves by winning. Victories bring new talent to Washington. The Democratic primaries this summer were widely said to have moved the Party to the left, but the mechanism for this shift was a succession of charismatic young candidates, each presenting a different version of the Party’s future. There was the working-class pugnacity of Randy Bryce, in Wisconsin; the sunny millennial socialism of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in New York; and the historic turn promised by two talented black progressive politicians in the South—Stacey Abrams, in Georgia, and Andrew Gillum, in Florida. These candidates’ base, and maybe the future of the Democratic Party, has hinged on the increasing progressivism of cities across the United States and the idea that the politics of Brooklyn are no longer so out of place in Atlanta, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, or Phoenix—and that a forthrightly progressive politics has a chance in the states where those cities dominate…
Nicole
Love the first tweet except for Jane Mayer being removed from the story.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Patricia Kayden
Morning Rikyrah. This week should be another “winning” week for us. Trump was right when he promised that we’d be tired of all the winning. I’m exhausted. It needs to stop.
OzarkHillbilly
Maybe I’ll just go back to bed.
JoyceH
Someone on Twitter summarized the current state of things rather cogently – “Next week has been exhausting”
OzarkHillbilly
@Nicole: Ronan Farrow is the Next New Thing (which is fine, we can use all the new things we can get if they are of his ilk) but I wouldn’t worry about Jane Mayer. She made her bones some time ago and hasn’t lost a step since.
Nicole
@OzarkHillbilly: Mayer is great; I agree. Which is why it’s so frustrating to see her repeatedly removed from the narrative. I mean, yeah, as a female person you think I’d be used to it by now, but especially in cases of women being abused by powerful men it’s still really annoying. Not blaming Farrow; blaming society.
Also annoying that she and Farrow haven’t gone after McConnell yet. Because you just know he’s got skeletons. It would be an act of patriotism.
OzarkHillbilly
@Nicole:
I know, and no, I don’t know how it feels from a woman’s POV, but with the election of trump, I feel we are at a real turning point. Women are pissed. That’s what the Women’s March is all about. That’s what #MeToo is all about. That’s what all these women entering politics is all about. They are mad as hell and they aren’t taking it anymore.
Anne Laurie
@Nicole:
In fairness, it’s an older tweet, citing what I believe was a Farrow-only story (Weinstein, maybe?). I’ve just been saving it for the right moment…
raven
@Nicole: Wel, Joe is having her on this morning so there is that.
Betty Cracker
Hard to see how the Repubs avoid disaster with this Kavanaugh nomination, whether they manage to seat him or not. Good.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
Meet the ‘climate refugees’ who already had to leave their homes
I doubt he is right a third storm hitting him.
Elizabelle
Good morning, jackals. Living satby’s life (up really early), except without dogs.
Do you think Kavanaugh will withdraw his nomination? I think he might. I don’t see how a nominee survives this level of accusations.
The real sin is that his finances and extraordinarily corrupt takes on judicial matters (a GOP POTUS is above the law, basically) should have stopped him flat if we were in normal times.
I hope this whole debacle wins Democrats the Senate along with the House. It could.
Elizabelle
@raven: Jane Mayer will be on Morning Joe? You might get me to tune in, online. Do you know when?
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: We live near a beach and will have to move inland eventually because the insurance costs are becoming unsustainable. We’ve never submitted a claim, but our rates have quadrupled anyway. The insurance people know climate change is real, even if they fund politicians who pretend there’s no scientific consensus.
Immanentize
Good morning, All!
Bronco busting is hard and exhausting work.
What insanity will today reveal?
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker:
This is so true. Insurance folks helped get rid of cigarettes as candy, and if we required it, insurance folks could really help with our gun problem too.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: If these were normal times, I’d expect Kavanaugh to withdraw his name from consideration this morning. Maybe he will. But the Republicans are so dug in on this nomination — more than I can ever recall seeing. The evangelical hypocrites have convinced themselves it’s all a leftist hit-job, and the Trump people must know that holding a court nominee to a higher standard than the president himself is awkward. They’re boxed in but good. “Alexa, order ALL the popcorn!”
Elizabelle
@Immanentize:
When we take the House and Senate (and it could be this year, with the wind at our backs as it is), we should have legislation ready to go on requiring insurance for all firearms, and for having the CDC study all gun-related deaths.
Enough of this madness.
Do you all as jackals even know the name of the shooter in last week’s mass shooting in Aberdeen, MD? Or any of the victims? That one was memorable only because of the shooter’s demographics.
Nicole
@raven: That’s cool. Probably not enough to make me watch (I stopped watching news commentary shows Nov 7th of 2016 and have yet to regret it) but I’m really glad they’re having her on; thanks for mentioning it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
Because they won’t regulate their business or raise their taxes to pay the inevitable tab for their neglect.
Nicole
@Anne Laurie: I just really want a cartoonist to draw Mayer and Farrow as Scully and Mulder. I don’t think that’s so much to ask. :)
Immanentize
@Elizabelle:
No, sadly I don’t. It is all flying by so fast. It was a woman and that was interesting and I meant to follow up because I couldn’t imagine what the reason was and….
I don’t know. We have to get off this train if it ever slows down.
Old Charlie stole the handle
And the train it won’t stop going
No way to slow it down.
Elizabelle
@Nicole:
Please let that happen. I don’t understand why more journalists aren’t doing splashier stories on how unprecedented all of McConnell’s thievery has been, and how much it endangers the Senate as an institution, and democracy. But if anyone takes McConnell out over personal behavior, I am good on that too. Just take. him. out.
Immanentize
@Nicole: No, not too much to ask at all.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Donald Drumpf, Roy Moore, Kavanaugh
War on Women
JPL
@Elizabelle: Always wrong JPL thinks he withdraws if he loses the support of Flake, Collins or Murkowski.
TS (the original)
MJ just played the Franklin Graham response (she said no & he walked away!) without a word as to how revolting it was. Dr Ford escaped, she didn’t walk away (and she wasn’t “asked”) – they cannot bring themselves to call out these RWNJs for what they are. I turned it off, no idea why I keep hoping they will be honest any time soon.
Elizabelle
@JPL: I don’t think Kavanaugh has the support of Murkowski. She’s never gone on the record on any of this, has she? And the reasons to not support him are mounting.
But I guess BK might have to fight on, because he can’t just go back to his day job as a judge if there are credible accusations against him. Still, I wonder that he would put his family through this, especially when there is plenty of reason for non nutjob GOP senators (and there are some) to put on the brakes.
I also want the FBI to investigate Anthony Kennedy and his son. This whole thing stinks. Fingers crossed Team Mueller has seen a few tentacles during their ongoing investigation.
NotMax
Was there a contest at The New Yorker to see who could fit the most stereotypes onto one page?
Sheesh.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
@Baud: Good morning ?. You’ve seemed pretty subdued lately, or maybe I’m not reading long enough. I hope everything is ok.
@Elizabelle: and I overdid the hedge trimming yesterday, took an Aleve PM, and slept past 6! The dogs were a trifle annoyed with me.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
I see what you did there.
;)
JPL
@Elizabelle: If the story Judge told his girlfriend is investigated, both could be spending years in jail. That might be why he’s fighting on. McConnell won’t let it come before the Senate if he doesn’t have the votes.
Elizabelle
@TS (the original): Yeah, they had Michael Schmidt of the FTF NYT on when I peeked in, so buh bye Morning Joke. Also, Schmidt has an ugly voice. FWIW. I still don’t know why the FTF NYT published the big scoop about Rosenstein, which might be from a not credible anonymous source, or exaggerated. Would love to see that blow up bad for the Judith Miller Times.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ronan has also focused relentlessly on #MeToo issues.
debbie
@Nicole:
Repeatedly? I don’t think so.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: You’re up early! LOL re using a charged word. If it fits …
Elizabelle
@satby: Good morning.
I know. I am worried about Baud too. Come back Baud! You are irreplaceable, believe it or not.
Ruckus was making some noises about stepping away from BJuice too. Don’t want to see an outstream of valued peeps. It’s troubling.
Nicole
@Elizabelle: There’s so much fishy about him and so much of his past that he’s kept very quiet (including his brief stint in the Army Reserve). I can only assume he has dirt on most of Washington.
debbie
@Immanentize:
Next time there’s a hearing, someone should construct a graph of the increases and ask whether this is due to climate change or to craven corporate gouging.
OzarkHillbilly
“When you need precision decision making you can’t count on a black quarterback.” – Now resigned Texas school superintendent Lynn Redden on Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Immanentize
It is a bit off how much Kavanaugh and Judge are bound at the hip. I suppose Brett could say he hardly knew the guy. The fact that he doesn’t speaks volumes about what they were up to together and how much Judge could hurt Kavanaugh.
satby
@NotMax: You know, I’m sick of reading these sad tales of middle class or well off people forced to uproot their stable lives because of reasons, like it’s such an unfair tragedy. It may be unfair, but that happens to literally millions of people a day in this country and all over the world. Possibly some enterprising young reporter could do a human interest story some day on the unfair tragedy of what happens when you’re too poor to move after a disaster, or when your child is locked up by the government for being brown and you get arrested and deported when you try to get your child released.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle:
When people get overheated and start just flailing about, stepping back is wise. A deep breath, then back into the fray.
NotMax
Gonna be a more hellish Infrastructure Week than the average.
Nicole
@debbie: Many, many folk are crediting Farrow and not mentioning her. There’s a particularly amusing meme referring to Farrow as “The Omar for rich white men” which would be funnier if I wasn’t seeing a woman’s work get erased.
I’m not referring to links to the article, which generally credit both authors; I’m referring to how the story is being discussed among us hoi polloi, and Ronan Farrow is frequently being cited as the sole author. Which is a shame, because, as someone said, in pointing this out, we’re here watching a brand-new, gender-balanced Woodward & Bernstein and it’s pretty neat.
In other news, I clearly spend too much time reading political articles and the accompanying comment threads at 4:30 in the morning. Not a cure for insomnia; that’s for sure.
Barbara
@Immanentize: Her name is Snochia Moseley. No criminal record, and authorities seem to be blaming mental health issues for her actions.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
Versus Public Enemy in “Channel Zero:”
“We got a black quarterback, so step back!”
JR
@Nicole: Even after all this, Farrow will always be remembered for bringing the Woody Allen allegations to light. Meyer is an outstanding reporter but political reporting just doesn’t get the same exposure.
debbie
I liked this Tweet I came across yesterday:
TS (the original)
@Elizabelle: They had some other poncy looking guy on with a supercilious sneer on his face as well (I don’t think that was Michael Schmidt, but could have been) – and when I saw Andrea Mitchell appear – that was just ridiculous. Rachel is about the only political show I can watch these days. She said after Dr Blasey Ford came out with her accusations that Kavanaugh would not survive – I’m beginning to believe that.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@TS (the original):When their co-host Mark Halpern was exposed and fired for serial sexual assault they supported him.
Elizabelle
@Nicole: Jane Mayer is the reason I would believe The New Yorker articles. She’s got the years of credibility and hard investigative work. Ronan Farrow builds his brand by partnering with HER. I agree with you on her not getting sufficient credit, but she also seems to be more a working journalist than a TV-pandering publicity hound. (I am not calling Ronan Farrow that. Thinking more on the FTF NYT and WaPost reporters that are on MSNBC at night; wonder if they should stick more to their day jobs.)
I wonder if any journalists are feeding leads to Team Mueller. Sometimes the government can investigate what’s out of reach for journalists, especially if their owners (looking at you, FTF NYT), don’t want to look too hard.
Barbara
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: The subtext for all the political reporting on Kavanaugh is that a lot of male journalists live in dread of their own exposure, which is a step up from feeling a kind of fraternal immunity that informed their reaction to Trump and HRC.
rikyrah
John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) Tweeted:
new NBC/WSJ poll for control of Congress: Democrats 52%, Republicans 40%
six weeks before Election Day, Republicans face a mid-term wipeout that could be large enough to hand Democrats the House and Senate
my analysis: https://t.co/Qp3jPBLmPI https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1043848931724201984?s=17
NotMax
Now that’s miniaturization. Amazing.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
Don’t forget
Mayer wrote that excellent Dark Money book.
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: Wait. What? A black person with mental issues? I thought only white mass shooters could have mental issues. Huh. The things learn here.
NotMax
Blech. Blockquote fail. Fix.
Now that’s miniaturization. Amazing.
More amazingness.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: IIRC, that jurisdiction has had 3 mass shooting events, and law enforcement there isn’t waffling on what the common denominator is: unstable people able to get guns.
rikyrah
AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) Tweeted:
.@TERESATOMLINSON: It takes 1.3 million votes to be the governor of #Georgia. #HillaryClinton had 1.8 million votes in the 2016 election. If @staceyabrams can find those 500,000 people, inspire & encourage them, or some fraction thereof she will smoke Brian Kemp on Nov. 6 #AMJoy
https://t.co/Ztuy3TLTS4 https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/1043936069585174528?s=17
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: That was my first thought also.
Ken
@NotMax: I’m kind of surprised the Japanese rovers aren’t equipped to convert the asteroid into a cybernetic rover factory. Japan is pretty advanced, you know.
TS (the original)
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: And then they never spoke of him again – but they sure had lots to say about Al Franken.
(I had completely forgotten about old Mark in the MAGA cap – may he go back down the memory hole quickly).
raven
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Oh bullshit,
MomSense
@satby:
The blech is spreading. Given the daily deluge, blech is pretty good.
My mom was almost giddy last night when she heard there were more credible accusations against Kavanaugh and then I watched it hit her in real time that these are women who experienced trauma. The political is overriding our humanity. I think some terrible things about trump and everyone who voted for him. It’s toxic. I don’t know how we rebuild our country after all of this. Maybe we should have a truth and reconciliation process – after we get all these evil ass Republicans out of our government.
NotMax
FYI.
OzarkHillbilly
Some good news: Round-the-world sailor rescued after injury traps him in bunk
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Trump’s tariffs, biggest tax increase in history.
ETA: On that note, I’m going to bed. I promised the kid I stay up on Sydney time in case she had camera questions.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: I saw that about the Japanese probe yesterday. Loved how the robots are going to navigate their way about the asteroid:
I had to laugh at the “staying in the air” gaffe.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Karma is a beach in the Carolinas.
danielx
Good morning…….amazing weekend. I got up on Friday morning and it was summer. Got up Saturday morning and it was fall, just that quickly. One serious cold front and even the air feels different.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@raven:
An open letter by 10 women Halperin had attacked.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
“On the one hand, these new counter tops are affordable and also a cheery color. On the other hand, they’re made of compressed pig lagoon waste.”
Steve in the ATL
I would be ok with white men being denied the right to vote for the length of the time that blacks and women were denied that right. Let them take over and fix everything we have fucked up.
Steve in the ATL
@NotMax: red state? Fuckem.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Elizabelle: I don’t learn the names of shooters. But I was aware of the shooting because my former employer notified me with an auto text to say everyone there was safe. It wasn’t far from where I used to work. Aberdeen is not a big place.
rikyrah
The thing about Kavanaugh is that the Federalist Society has binders full of right-wing judges.
Judges willing to wipe away the progress of the past 50 years.
But, only Kavanaugh has put forth that the President is above the law….hence the only qualification that counts.
Let them have this man around their necks like an albatross.
Steve in the ATL
@rikyrah: if they are allowed to vote!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Steve in the ATL: Agreed. You know that the Repukes can’t have a majority among Latino or African American males, so how big is the edge in white males in that poll?
Princess
Wearing black today to remember all the victims of sexual assault, and especially thinking of some of the people in BJ who have discussed their own experiences.
Bruce K
I keep thinking of the Chernobyl parallels.
Basically, political demands collided with common-sense caution and ran it over, safeties were bypassed because everyone was in a rush, the situation destabilized to a point where the only thing preventing a complete shutdown was political pressure to GET THIS THING DONE, NOW, and by the time someone got up the nerve to pull the plug, it was too late to stop the disaster, and the rest is explosion and fire and fallout and dying engineers and firefighters and the next thing you know the neighborhood’s uninhabitable for the next several centuries.
In retrospect, it was damn near inevitable.
SFAW
@Steve in the ATL:
Speaking of that: although I’ve only been here intermittently lately, I haven’t seen efgoldman commenting lately. Is it just bad timing on my part (I hope), or is there something else going on?
Fair Economist
@TS (the original): Kavanaugh is sunk. It’s just a matter of how long. The question now is whether the Republican party will survive, because they tried to move up the vote *after* being informed of the new allegations. The Republican Senate leadership provably and knowingly tried to put a likely rapist on the Supreme Court. That is dynamite if people start talking about it and there is going to be a lot of effort into distracting people from that now. Amongst other things, it’s yet another reason Kavanaugh is sunk because the Republicans need to get the whole process out of the limelight as soon as possible.
I am serious about this.
SFAW
@MomSense:
A week or two ago I suggested a “Truth and Retribution” commission. Primarily directed at Rethug members of Congress, but I’m OK with certain others (Murdoch, Zombie Roger Ailes, Hannity, et al.)
SFAW
@Fair Economist:
Only if Traitor Turtle decides to sink him.
Bruce K
@Fair Economist: The 21st-century GOP should be dealt a mortal blow by those actions. Unfortunately, I can say the same thing about any number of actions they’ve taken over the last fifteen years, but they’re like the monster in one of those 1980’s slasher movies: no matter what you do to stop them, they simply will not fcking die.
MomSense
@SFAW:
I’ve been worrying, too. Hope he is ok.
TS (the original)
@Fair Economist:
Everyone is serious about this. At the minute I’m impressed that Rachel called it on day 1, when I had my doubts that it would even slow McConnell down. Unless they hold the vote today – I think they are done with him.
Elizabelle
@SFAW: Where does Turtle get the votes?
This reflexive “the Republicans are all powerful” schtick irritates me.
There are credible accusations against Kavanaugh, and that’s on top of the financial oddities and judicial theories (Trump and GOP uber alles).
Can GOP senators in purple states withstand voting for an accused attempted rapist and man who may have a blackout drinking past (or even recent future, maybe present — inquiring minds)? Are all Red State women good with this? Are you sure about that? Do Flake or Corker want this to be their legacy, seating a USSC justice this tainted?
I don’t think so, and it’s only getting worse.
I get tired of people assuming the Republicans are all powerful. They are not. They are corrupt and on a precipice. Let’s push them off.
Fair Economist
@Bruce K: I can’t think of another thing that demonstrates simple direct evil on the part of the whole Republican leadership like this. Iraq couldn’t be pinned on the Congressional leadership and things like the tax cuts can be attributed to their ideological nuttiness. There is no excuse for this. And on one of the hottest issues of the decade, too. They have #MeToo’d the whole party.
I agree they are very good at covering things up, but this is going to take a lot to cover up and it is going to soak up most of their energy. And I maintain Kavanaugh is doomed. The Republican party will be fighting for its life now and he is a deadly anchor.
MomSense
@SFAW:
If we are ever to become anything like one nation but this time with everyone included in the for all part, we liberals are going to have to be the adults and set up a process to reconcile. The thing about truth and reconciliation is that it requires the abusive parties to be completely honest and to make the changes in order to be restored into society. We will have to do some forgiving. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen if any of the current GOP are in government.
JPL
@SFAW: Yup. If he doesn’t have the votes, he’ll tell Kavanaugh to resign.
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
That’s not what I said (nor implied). But Traitor Turtle has (mostly) kept his caucus together when the issue is really important to him. He’s not as good as Pelosi, but few have ever been. But being able to make the rules (so to speak) for another 30 years has always been uppermost — or close to it — in his mind.
I am cynical about the prospects of Collins voting against, unless and until she has “cover” from others. I would love to be proved wrong. Flake and Corker will fold.They talk a much better game than they play. Murkowski, I have no idea.
chris
@MomSense: Yes, also, where is Yarrow? Parlous times call for regular applications of Tick, Tock Motherfucker!
Kay
@rikyrah:
I don’t think he’s the Trump pick. Trump picked Gorsuch because of how he looks. I think he’s the far Right establishment pick, which is even scarier. The rot is much deeper than Trump. They wanted an actual operative on the court, as a hedge in case they lose power in the other two branches. Kavanaugh really is an unusually political pick, and he was that before the allegations. Kagan didn’t have to defend on her long history as a political operative for Democrats because she didn’t have one. That’s the part Kavanaugh lied about in conformation hearing(s) – not his judicial record- everyone knows he’s far Right and they would have accepted that- but his actions as an operative.
Democrats opposed him more aggressively than they did Gorsuch right from the get-go, before the allegations came out. They know a lot about him, not as a judge, but as a GOP hatchet man. Russ Feingold came out of retirement to call him a liar in an op-ed. They don’t want him on that court and it’s not ideological- any GOP pick will be far Right. They’re particularly opposed to THIS judge.
rp
@JR: Wait, what? The allegations first surfaced in 1992, when Farrow was 5 years old.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: I want the top elected Rs to face judgment for what they have done, reconciliation will be only after the perpetrators who foisted the Orange Blob on us are held to account,
MomSense
@chris:
Yes! We need our traitor timepiece.
SFAW
@MomSense:
In a perfect world (so to speak), your way would be the preferable one. Unfortunately, the Rethugs have proved themselves to be actively working against what we used to think of as the American ideal. (Not that we ever reached that goal, of course.) Until they have a collective epiphany that what they’ve done is shameful and anti-American, reconciliation will be meaningless. Since they have yet to feel a sense of shame, retribution might help push them down that path a little more forcefully.
Nicole
@Elizabelle: Oh yeah, I certainly agree with you that Mayer has the experience and credibility (and I need to read her book about the Koch brothers); it’s just that I think it’s something about our society that, even when the topic is the bringing abuse of women by powerful men to light, it’s the guy that we naturally gravitate toward handing the credit to. It’s not that everyone is A BAD PERSON for doing it; it’s just we’ve been so deeply socialized into women as “less than” that a lot of the time we as a society don’t even observe ourselves doing it.
It’s like racial bias- once I was willing to look at it, really look at it, it changed things so I now see it everywhere. And I’m even more aware I’m not anywhere near seeing it all.
But yeah, I absolutely agree with you that Jane Mayer is a top-notch investigative journalist and Farrow is lucky to have her as a writing partner. They make a good team. I wish them many articles that take down many corrupt people in power.
SFAW
@Kay:
I think I read somewhere that BK was McGahn’s pick, as most of the other confirmed judges have been. A Federalist Society wish list, I think.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: I have to agree. Unless they pay a heavy price electorally and are held to account for conspiring with Putin to install T they will just get worse not better.
Kay
@rikyrah:
There’s really two sections of his career. There’s before he was on the bench and after. A lot of Senate Democrats were there for Part One of Brett Kavanaugh, the part where he was Ken Starr’s right hand man. They knew he was vulnerable before the allegations, because they knew him. Compare how they treated Gorsuch with how they treated Kavanaugh. Leahy went after Kavanaugh on lying right out the box.
Kay
@SFAW:
But that’s a list. This is who they chose. And it was riskier than it had to be- he has a political history and they must have known Democrats were aware of it. They chose someone with a known vulnerability when they could have chosen a less overtly political judge who would have been just as far Right. They wanted a political pick, they wanted that skill set.
Immanentize
I wish someone would point out to Trump that the Federalist Society cannot be trusted to vet candidates. They are ruining his positives….
Immanentize
@Immanentize: by which I mean, that realization would really pisses Trump off, whether accurate or not.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Rs have installed an orange malevolent scowling Buddha to get their wish to turn back the clock and return to the 19th century.
Immanentize
@Kay: The only reason I can imagine that was a priority is if Roberts is not planning to be Chief for much longer
geg6
@SFAW:
He was McGahn’s pick but not the Federalist Society’s. He was never on the list they gave to Trump for SCOTUS nominations. They knew he had problems.
schrodingers_cat
Non persons according T-Rs
1. Muslims
2. Mexicans
3. Asylum seekers
4. Immigrants
5. Women.
Good people
1. Nazis.
Kay
Guffaw. The Trumpsters now believe “represented by lawyers” is discrediting. Friday they wanted Kavanaugh’s hired litigator to cross examine the alleged victim instead of GOP Senators, but now the victims can’t even have a lawyer.
It’s so unfair that the supreme court nominee has to go up against lawyers. How can he be expected to win that?
Nicole
@JR: The Woody Allen stuff came out in the early 1990s. It was pretty big news then. I don’t think Ronan’s byline was on any of the articles (he was born in 1987).
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle:
A lot of these people already know Republicans are not all powerful. They are making the assumption that due to the depth of corruption to which their souls have sunk, there is nothing they will not do to advance their agenda in the limited time they have left.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Birds of a feather hang together. Rapey Brotherhood is strongly behind Special K. No surprise there.
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: They also assume that Rs will get away with it.
Kay
What kills me is how deep the sense of privilege runs. The entitlement. Brett Kavanaugh enjoyed every possible advantage his entire life. Then, he enters a job interview with a lock-step GOP majority all set to rubber stamp him along with a 32.5 million marketing campaign by the Koch family- it’s “Wellspring” but that’s just a money laundering channel for Koch money. That’s what he went in with- they tenderly placed him on third base and said “now see if you can walk home by yourself, try not to fall down”
STILL he can’t get confirmed. THAT’S how much he sucks.
SFAW
@geg6:
OK, thanks for the correction.
Ridnik Chrome
@Betty Cracker: The Republicans believe that once Kavanaugh is on the court everyone will forget about the sexual harassment allegations, because that’s more or less what happened with Clarence Thomas. I think they also know it will cost them a few more seats in this coming election, and maybe in the one after that, too, but that they think it’s a price worth paying to have a reliable vote on the court for the next thirty years. And Kavanaugh will be very reliable. If he somehow manages to survive, he’s going to spend the rest of his career paying liberals back his confirmation hearings.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: That depends on how one defines “get away with it.” The reasoning I have seen is that the Repubs know they are about to pay a hellacious electoral price for there political overreach and so the need to get all they can while the gettin’s is good.
PJ
@Nicole: Part of it is that Farrow was the sole reporter breaking the Weinstein story, which he had developed at, I believe, NBC (or MSNBC), and which they refused to run, so he turned to the New Yorker. Since then, he has been paired with Mayer on these stories, which, I agree, adds more weight to them. But the average person has no idea who Jane Mayer is, while they know Farrow from TV and for being the first journalist to take on Weinstein – he is the public face of reporting on sexual harassment and assault. That doesn’t mean that not crediting Mayer doesn’t have some sexist motivation, but for most people, she’s just some other reporter.
Calouste
@Ridnik Chrome: The problem with that thought is that things have changed significantly in the last 27 years.
Elizabelle
BC has put up a new thread on BK.
Dev Null
@Fair Economist: The GOP has survived all of the last six extinctions I confidently predicted for them. The continued existence of the GOP is prima facie evidence for the non-existence of God.
Zombie Roman Hruska says, “don’t serial rapists deserve representation on the Supreme Court too? Doesn’t a serial rapist deserve a chance?”
Oh, wait … that is more or less what Grassley and Graham are saying.
zhena gogolia
@PJ:
Jane Mayer published the definitive investigative report on Clarence Thomas in 1994.
https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Justice-Selling-Clarence-Thomas/dp/0395633184
So I think she takes precedence over Ronan f–ing Farrow.
zhena gogolia
@PJ:
And by the way, the Weinstein story was first reported by a group of reporters (mostly or all women, I don’t recall exactly) at the New York Times.
Dev Null
@SFAW: If only two GOP senators bail, … not that I’m telling you anything you don’t know.
As noted upthread, Murkowski has not endorsed Kavanaugh; she has good (native American) reasons to vote against him. And who knows, some blue state Repub up for re-election in 2020 might conclude that voting for a serial rapist has a bad look.
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: It’s really not a competition. If Mayer’s great book of Thomas (It’s on my shelf in my office — I’m looking at it) and Farrow’s reporting on Weinstein mean that different cohorts feel comfortable getting in touch with either or both about the sexual harassment or assault they have experienced, we all win.
Immanentize
@Dev Null: Also, a number of Alaskan Republicans have come out against Kavanaugh. I assume McConnell is counting Murkowski out and relying on Pence.
SFAW
@zhena gogolia:
Which few people remember, as it was 25 years ago, etc. And despite her efforts, and despite the reports of Anita Hill being only one of many, Scalia’s Sock Puppet was confirmed. Whereas with Weinstein, his fall was pretty fast and stunning, considering the power he had until then.
I would also suspect that more people know her as the author of Dark Money.
Jane Mayer not getting the credit she deserves does not mean that he’s “Ronan Fucking Farrow”; it just that some forms of misogyny are still all-too-present.
Dev Null
@geg6: Are you sure?
I could be wrong, but I remember reading – somewhere – a colorful story that Leonard Leo gave Trump two lists. The first list comprised “safe” far-right wingnuts. The second list comprised lunatic right-wingers who might present difficulties.
According to the story, Trump immediately tossed the first list.
Not necessarily fact-based, but it rings true even if it isn’t.
SFAW
@Dev Null:
I’m worried more about Collins than Murkowski. Collins has proved herself to be a good soldier in Traitor Turtle’s “army.”
Dev Null
@Immanentize: Yep, that’s what I’ve read too. Alaska’s governor and lt governor … and native Americans, who more or less put her back in office the last time she ran.
Immanentize
@Dev Null: The number one ethnic group in America that are victims of violent sexual assault are native americans.
Dev Null
@SFAW: As Schumer said, “Collins is always there when you don’t need her.”
I dunno, I’d think it’d be hard to dance around multiple accusations of sexual assault, but then I’m not a Republican senator. Also, too: Collins and Murkowski aren’t the only Senate Repub women; even those who might be fine with Kavanaugh overturning Roe v Wade might not be not so OK with putting a demonstrated serial rapist on SCOTUS… compelling evidence matters.
Sometimes.
As JPL says upthread, “almost always wrong”, but if Kavanaugh doesn’t knock the ball out of the park on Thursday and/or Avenatti has compellng evidence, we might see a stampede of one Repub or even two unendorsing Kavanaugh.
Dev Null
@Immanentize: Didn’t know that.
IIRC a key reason native Americans are agin’ Kavanaugh is a case where he sneered at Hawai’i natives. Saying “K clearly unsympathetic to native American” (Alaskan, Hawaiian, contiguous US) “protections”.
Dev Null
@Ridnik Chrome: It’s hard to predict, especially the future, especially accurately; but “times have changed”.
No Dem will vote for Kavanaugh – this shitshow has given red-state Dems cover – so no one can credibly pretend that K went in on a bipartisan vote, vs. Thomas with 11 Dems voting for confirmation.
Dems are pissed at McConnell both for stonewalling Merrick Garland and jamming through K’s confirmation proceedings.
And Dems are pissed at Kavanaugh for a slew of reasons, not least lying under oath.
Kavanaugh faces impeachment if he’s confirmed. Well, and if Dems take the House.
Conviction is a different matter, but looks like Dems won’t lose nearly as many seats in the Senate as expected, and the next two cycles are a good for Dems as 2018 is bad …
… so conviction isn’t entirely out of the question.
Especially if Roe v Wade goes down thanks to Kavanaugh’s vote.
I would really seriously like to hear Republican strategic thinking (“strategy? I see o strategy at all”); all I see is “grab what we can while we can, and hold on like hell when Dems come back in”.
Might be enough, but they are going way out on a limb.
Dev Null
Typo: should be “no strategy”.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: Amazing indeed! As Jack Aubrey was so wont to remark, “What a fascinating modern age we live in!”
Uncle Cosmo
@Dev Null: “Wrings troofy” all right. Among other things, dominance games: Nominating the most disgusting toady he could find & then ramming him through to sit on the Court is Trump waggling his willy in the Dems’ collective face: I’m gonna shove you in the shit till it stops up your nostrils & there ain’t a fucking thing you can do about it, nyaa-nyaa-nyaa!
Dev Null
@Uncle Cosmo: Not only that, Gabe Sherman at Vanity Fair is reporting that “Trump wanted to nuke Rosenstein to save Kavanaugh’s bacon”:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/trump-wanted-to-nuke-rosenstein-to-save-kavanaughs-bacon
There’s no strategy here. Trump is winging it. Every day is Reality TV Show Day!
Seriously, firing Rosenstein will have a YUUUGE impact on the midterms, with high probability not to the benefit of GOP candidates … yet Trump is thinking of firing Rosenstein to divert attention from Kavanaugh?!? WTF?!?
Rosenstein will be meeting Trump Thursday, which – just a coincidence, I’m sure – is when Blasey Ford and Kavenaugh will be questioned in the Senate. You want a distraction? We got distractions!