In Boulder, CO today:
In days since she came forward accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, support for Boulder’s Deborah Ramirez has come from all over the county. Now, it is even coming out of the sky.
A plane towing a banner that read, “Thank you Deborah we have your back” flew over downtown Boulder and the University of Colorado on Wednesday to show support for Ramirez, one of three women to come forward with allegations against Kavanaugh.
Unplugging was the right thing for me today. It’s been a good day. Now I have to get back to work so I can goof off tomorrow and go for a hike.
Open thread
TenguPhule
The Fix Analysis
President
TenguPhule
@TenguPhule: Gah! Warning: leads to the goat demo derby’s cliff notes.
lamh36
lamh36
@lamh36: NUMBER 4!
TaMara (HFG)
lamh36
lamh36
oatler.
Merkley’s on it.
TenguPhule
There are a herd of goats, a crashed train and then there’s this.
lamh36
trollhattan
Nice touch! I spotted this storefront window Saturday night in the People’s Republic of Portland.
lamh36
@lamh36: In 1988 he was 33!!!!
dmsilev
At least I had a productive afternoon; a colleague and I successfully hoisted a squid out of our subbasement.
(OK, OK, it’s a SQUID, a sensitive device for measuring magnetic fields, but it sounds better without the explanation)
TenguPhule
This is bad comedy.
Villago Delenda Est
The desperation of the deplorables, at least in the media, is palpable. They’re dragging out anything they can to attack any of these women in a desperate attempt to save a despicable fellow deplorable.
Kavenaugh’s vile life needs to be ruined.
trollhattan
@lamh36:
It would appear that screwing around with other rich kids can leave you exposed to said kids having the resources to get back at you at such time as it seems warranted. Sucks to be Brett.
khead
It truly warms my heart to know that – if I were ever in a jam – all I’d have to do is go back to the GOP to get a lot of folks I know to blindly support me and trash my accuser. Especially the dude bros and Fox grandmas. So, I got that going for me.
Don’t mean to be too flippant, but I’ve reached the point where I have to go with sarcasm or rage.
Baud
This is a lesson in the level of blind loyalty I expect from you guys.
lamh36
Mary G
Some chickens coming home to roost:
It’s not just liberal women who are having to think about the bad old days. Democratic candidates of both sexes are saying that they don’t want this to keep on happening to their daughters, and it’s sinking in.
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: I think the explanation sounds way cool!
dmsilev
@lamh36: It’s sort of beside the point of that tweet, but the “just a kid” thing pisses me off. As a college student, he wasn’t “a kid”. Not to mention, even a 17 year old should be expected to know better. “He was just a kid” was always a cop-out excuse.
Martin
I admit, I don’t fully understand the GOP midterm strategy, but whatever it is it seems to be going great.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: Sorry, lamh, not possible. Pretty sure he was still a virgin then. //
Jim, Foolish Literalist
with a brief video, and I do not read lips
and how did I never notice till now that Jared Kushner is the long lost twin of that guy from The Big Bang Theory
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: To expand out the acronym, Superconducting QUantum Interference Device. There are people using them to do neat things like imaging brain cell activity, though our needs are a bit more mundane (mapping the magnetic properties of various materials). The thing was in storage for the last few years, and we’re putting it back together again.
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: how is this somehow less cool than a cephalopod
lamh36
@lamh36: Sorry 1998, not 1988
dmsilev
@Martin: I think they’re trying to make this headline come true: With growing support from women, Democrats poised for major gains in midterm, new poll shows
(LA Times poll from this morning)
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: It’s a lot colder, if that helps.
(the thing needs to sit in a liquid helium bath in order to work)
WaterGirl
Someone linked to this just before the press conference, and I think it may have gotten lost in the shuffle;
Written Testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford
How can anyone not believe her?
Gvg
@dmsilev: did you see the video of the seal slapping the face of the kayaker with a large piece of squid tenticle? Sometimes nature is even stranger that Trump.
Jeffro
@Baud: Speaking of blind loyalty…I have taken to pointing out (to my RWNJ dad and brother, natch) that even a conservative with half a brain could see the smart thing to do here would be to pull Kavanaugh and nominate some other wingnut with a clean history. Heck, clean-ER would do at this point.
But they’re not…and why is that?
That’s how you know you’re in a cult, Trumpublicans! You stick by your guy when he doubles and triples down, even though it’s the dumbest possible thing to do
khead
@dmsilev:
Kevin Drum was on this two months ago. Here’s the thing though – I just don’t trust white women* after the last election. I hope I’m wrong and that some folks I know have learned their lesson.
* – Not all white women and definitely not the BJ folks
debbie
Thank you for that photo. What a palette cleanser after that shitshow of a press conference!
Jeffro
@dmsilev: eh, it’s not really a wimmin problem…China’s already hacking the midterms in favor of the Dems, dontcha know?
MisterForkbeard
@TenguPhule: I mean, if a literal slaveholder wants to run in 2018, you’re damn right Democrats would 100% vote against him. Interesting that Trump doesn’t think so.
chopper
@TenguPhule:
i can actually imagine trump thinking it’s a good idea to nominate a guy who owns slaves to the court.
dmsilev
@Gvg: Yes I did. Rather amusing,
One comment on the video ruined the fun a bit by saying that the seal was just trying to shake its prey back and forth quickly to kill it, and the kayaker just happened to be in the wrong place and ended up getting squid-slapped by accident.
Jeffro
@khead: Fortunately, I’ve become such an open/out liberal in the past decade that even as a white guy, the folks around me have no doubt about my flaming lib bonafides.
Others who don’t know me, however? Yeah, they’re very hesitant talking politics with me – and I totally get that.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: master’s from Pepperdine!? That is through and through the Church of Christ — especially in 1991.
“We speak where the Bible speaks and we are silent where the Bible is silent.”
Blasey Ford may well be an Evangelical.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: Lemieux has been pushing the thesis that the worse Kavanaugh gets, the more certain it is that they’ll confirm him, because this is driven by active malice and the need for a raw display of power. The point is to put an obvious known rapist on the Supreme Court, to prove that they can do absolutely anything and we can’t stop them. The flat denials are like O’Brien telling Winston Smith the stars are little holes in a dome, an assertion of power over reality itself.
I think that for some core of Republicans that’s all true. I don’t know if it’s true for 50 Senators, though. Maybe only for 47 or 48…
TenguPhule
What’s the next stage beyond gaslighting?
trollhattan
@dmsilev:
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the Santa Fe High spree killer is 17. Under Texas law he’s an adult.
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: “I did a thing! Not involving a cuttlefish, nothing interesting like that, just involving a quantum device bathed in liquid helium”
this is what you sound like
TenguPhule
@Baud:
You can only trust us as far as you can throw us. With your own two unaugmented arms.
Millard Filmore
@TaMara (HFG):
There is a segment of soft core porn that will smile at that prospect, but Jeepers! I NEVER thought that advancing that attitude would come from the religious conservative Republicans.
TenguPhule
@WaterGirl:
It helps if you stand to lose a lot of money and influence if she is believed.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
“Hold my beer and watch this.”
–Most congressional Republicans
Jim, Foolish Literalist
John Kasich calls for “complete and thorough investigation” before a vote on Kavanaugh
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Damn, that almost guarantees it won’t happen
TenguPhule
@Millard Filmore:
That’s not the surprising bit. The part where she’s essentially declaring her open season on her own daughters to the Trumps of the nation is.
I thought this country had moved beyond human sacrifices.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@TaMara (HFG): that was so fucking annoying. Those people weren’t even at a trump rally, it was a fredo trump rally, fercrissake.
Mnemosyne
G is bringing home a slab of cake from his office. His timing is perfect. ?
Matt McIrvin
Speaking as an alumnus of a college with a lot of religious conservative Republican students, none of these attitudes surprise me at all.
TenguPhule
@Matt McIrvin:
Cleek’s law as declaration of war.
Roger Moore
@WaterGirl:
They don’t want to believe. That’s how all this stuff works.
TenguPhule
@dmsilev:
White men are children into their forties.
Black and brown children are adults upon reaching grade school.
//
Jeffro
@Matt McIrvin: I doubt it’s true for more than half of the GOP Senators. It’s 110% true for Trumpov
lamh36
you betta believe his wife knows this…cause unless I missed it…Kavanaugh hasn’t even admitted to drinking occasionally
Doug R
@dmsilev: ….and here I was all impressed at finding an IR thermometer for less than $25
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It begins! GOP, your civil war is holding on line 2…please pick up…
MisterForkbeard
@TenguPhule: Right? This did not happen. Trump is completely lying about his accusers backtracking. Maybe it would be nice if the Press actually pointed this out.
lamh36
Jeffro
@Roger Moore: Yup. They’d LIKE to believe her, would LIKE to do something about it…but gosh, something sure seems to be keeping them from doing that. It’s almost like they HAVE to push this guy through so that he can…protect…who? What?
That’s how deep they’re in it. Putin has Trumpov by the balls, Trumpov has the GOP by the balls, and I hope they all squeeze themselves into sterility toot suite.
Immanentize
@TenguPhule:
Assuming facts not in evidence.
TenguPhule
@MisterForkbeard: Its not just a big lie. Its almost a literal parallel universe at this point.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: if I recall my rightwing talking points from the last week correctly, shouldn’t Senator Gardner have turned this over to the FBI immediately? He is responsible for this leak which poisoned our political process, et cetera, et cetera…
TS (the original)
Old man yelling at clouds and too many take it in good faith. Kavanagh is a symptom of this rotten disease that is the trump administration – ably supported by politicians who simply want to hurt those they were elected to serve.
lamh36
NUMBER 5?
Wapiti
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
In my opinion, Kasich is one of the most reasonable-sounding Repubs. In 2016 I thought he was the one that would do best in the general.
He knows what position he needs to take to be electorally viable in 2020. otoh, Sen. Flake has an idea that he wants to run, but doesn’t have the imagination or guts to take this position.
One glimmer of hope is that the Repub base doesn’t like Kasich.
Tim C.
@TenguPhule: Also….. George Washington owned other human beings as property. Yes, historical context matters, and I can look at him in 1790 and understand that, but Yes, I would agree that Democrats, today, think George Washington would be unfit for office; owning slaves is something that shows moral failure.
David Evans
@WaterGirl:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
Upton Sinclair
Mary G
Another Kavanaugh roommate from Yale weighs in, and it’s not pretty (NY Mag/The Cut)
MisterForkbeard
@lamh36: OH! Well, if he denies it then that’s good enough for me. Just “He said, those 10-other-women-said”.
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major:
Yep, that’s my life. Except for the parts where cooling to liquid helium is just barely cold enough to bootstrap the _real_ cooling loop which gets into the milikelvin regime.
(we haven’t cooled the thing yet, there probably a few weeks of long-deferred maintenance jobs on it that we need to do first, but we will)
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Interesting! I was appalled when I read this morning that (my words) her parents are just barely standing behind her. They have kept very quiet — though her husband’s family has been very supportive–and her dad said some bullshit thing like “who doesn’t love their daughter. ?????
I got the impression that they don’t like what she’s doing – do not air dirty laundry of the elites! Fuck them. She brings her kids to visit every summer in spite of the political differences with her parents because she believes it’s important for kids to know their grandparents.
I get the impression that she is a highly principled and ethical person.
dmsilev
@lamh36: At this point, perhaps to save time, maybe all of the women who have met Kavanaugh over the years who he _hasn’t_ tried to assault should come forward.
Keith P.
@Mary G: It won’t be long now before we have GOP leaders publicly defending having skidmarks in underwear and engaging in circle-jerks.
BTW: 2 more women have come forward with allegations. Kavanaugh is D-O-N-E. Just too many of these to deal with in the time frame they need to make. I didn’t think this was going to be possible 2 weeks ago, but here we are.
Immanentize
@lamh36: I am lost. Who was number four??
O. Felix Culpa
@khead: Oh, I don’t blame you. I had to fend off some female howler monkeys (white, of course) on Facebook over the Kavanaugh issue a few days ago. High school classmates. Vicious beasts who were reliving their mean girl days, so the Trump era is a return to former glory for them, I guess. Their troglodyte politics always seem to be coupled with stunning illiteracy.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: All the Rs that plan to run in 2020 are saying this.
MisterForkbeard
@dmsilev: Okay, but can you consider doing the neat quantum device thing WITH cuttlefish? Because it would be that much more awesome.
Mary G
HIS OWN DAUGHTER:
Monsters.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The role of John McCain will now be played by John Kasich.
Major Major Major Major
Job offer formally accepted ✅
lamh36
@Immanentize:
Here ya go…
@lamh36:
Cheryl Rofer
I just put an apfel kuchen of my mother’s recipe in the oven. Comfort food.
dmsilev
@Immanentize: I think #4 was the (anonymous) person mentioned near the top of the thread, who accused him of attacking her in 1998. So yeah, attempted rape on a boat in 1985 is #5. At least. It’s entirely possible I’ve missed someone.
(I’m truly sorry for the flippant tone. It helps me cope, a bit, with this atrocity)
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: that only supports my wild ass guessing.
Isn’t it wonderful/strange how family bonds change hearts. I personally belief that same sex marriage would not have been accepted but for the AIDS plague that made self righteous parents accept the humanity of their dying children.
Barbara
@Immanentize: Anonymous, so not much to really say there, other than to put the Senate on notice that more is almost certain to surface. Basically, Kavanaugh became drunk at a bar and pushed a woman against a wall in a way that was aggressive and sexual and she and her friends were stunned when it happened, but she doesn’t want to come forward. Her mother provided the story.
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: Congrats! How long until you move?
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Yay!
Immanentize
@dmsilev: ok, not flippant at all. I am now caught up.
But please agree that one needs a Bingo card to keep up….
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl:
My wife and I have this conversation a lot. I’m mostly against it, but she’s leaning towards cutting her parents out of the lives of their grandkids if they can’t disavow not just Trump, but the entire Republican Party. She takes it all personally in a way that I frequently don’t, though I did first raise the idea to her a few months into 2017 and she told me she’d already been thinking about it. It’s a hard decision.
@O. Felix Culpa: Just yesterday I was talking about how I started discussing this with the friend of an Aunt on Facebook and said 64 year old retired nice woman told me to go fuck myself. As in, she called it “Kavanaugh is accused of acting inappropriately when he was 17” and I listed the acts he was accused of… and then asked if she didn’t think it was a big deal if a 17 year old did that to her or her daughters. It didn’t go well.
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: Woot. When’s the move, so we can get a farewell Bay Area meetup before you take off?
dmsilev
@MisterForkbeard: We did once threaten a malfunctioning system of this sort by putting a couple of cups of marinara dipping sauce next to it and telling it that it had one last chance to shape up, does that count?
(sadly, it saw through our bluff)
Immanentize
@Barbara:
I cannot tell you how much this fills me with despair. I mean, fills me with despair.
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: @dmsilev: Six weeks. The company is actually headquartered in SF, so everybody orientates out here; and of course I need some time to wind things down where I currently am. They’re being very accommodating.
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
Somebody get a rope. And tar. And feathers.
Immanentize
@MisterForkbeard: How old was Anne Frank?
TenguPhule
@Keith P.:
I’ve given up on relying on any scrap of Republican decency in this timeline.
Steve in the ATL
@Mary G: my god what a bastard
Matt McIrvin
@dmsilev: I had to do a lab with liquid helium and superconductivity in a lab course in grad school. The main lesson I took from it was “I don’t want to play with liquid helium any more.” I admire anyone with the level-headedness to deal with that stuff.
Barbara
@Immanentize: Here’s the subtext: She was probably someone who knew him through her work on the Hill, and she and her friends are probably either still connected to or part of the Republican political professional class — working for lobbyists or as committee or congressional staffers. They are probably afraid of professional repercussions.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize:
I thought it was the church of water polo and volleyball.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
The sequel is rarely as good as the original.
And let me tell you, the original was really fucking terrible.
jackmac
@TenguPhule: You might recall Republican Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, a chief Clinton accuser during the impeachment mess in the 1990s, said his own extramarital affairs were “youthful indiscretions.”
Hyde was 41 at the time.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
I think this is a cop out. Trump may have cut a deal with Putin or be in Putin’s pocket, but the Republicans have free will. They could go against Trump if they wanted to. They don’t want to not because Putin has the goods on them but because Trump is giving them stuff they dearly desire- their desired Supreme Court justices, undermining regulations left and right, etc. Their biggest objection to Trump is that he’s doing stuff blatantly rather than continuing to give them plausible cover. It’s a question of style and pace, not of goals.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize: Wasn’t Ken Starr at Pepperdine before he went to Baylor?
lamh36
MomSense
I’m glad you had a better day, Tamara. I devoted myself to work and my business today and that was the right decision for me.
My older boys both called me last night just to see how I was holding up and then we talked about all the things.
Tonight was hard when I finally caught up with the latest accusations. The high school friend who really stood by me, died suddenly three weeks ago so I was already grieving and dealing with painful memories before this Kavanaugh nightmare. The other difficult part of this is that seeing the power structure in Congress working to harm the victims is so similar to what it was like when my teacher and assistant principal was harassing me every day.
I called RAINN last night and I’m so glad I did. Thank you to Mnem and Adam for encouraging the use of that resource.
I wanted to mention an organization called Speak About It. They educate about consent. You can follow them on twitter and IG. I know the local chapter and cannot say enough good things about them.
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: Very nice. I’m only sort of kidding about a farewell meetup – but it’d be a fun excuse to get the BJ commentariat back together for a few days.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major: ?
Gin & Tonic
@Major Major Major Major: Cool. NYC will be fun. Hope hubby agrees.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
independence not in evidence.
jacy
@Major Major Major Major:
CONGRATS!
TenguPhule
@lamh36:
Encore requested.
CapnMubbers
@Major Major Major Major: Six weeks = Diwali! Auspicious. Friends who celebrate cite Ganesha for prosperity and good luck, and Lakshmi for wealth and wisdom. All attributes I wish for you, husband, and Samwise (and thanks for all the great pics, btw.)
Chetan Murthy
@MisterForkbeard: If I had children, I would want them to know and love my mother. I would never want them to meet my father. Never. Not in a million years. Lucky for me, he died nearly 20yr ago, and I’m childless, so no need to worry about that decision.
Awful people are awful people, even if they’re your parents.
Mart
@lamh36: Be careful with #5, it could be a trap.
Jeffro
@Baud: Kasich – for now – is asking harder questions than McCain ever did of Trumpov.
Which I heartily encourage. Let’s have that civil war, GOP!
Immanentize
Creative experiment of the evening. My son is once again on line with his friends are having a joke off, where the first line us agreed to.
“A man and a duck walk into a restaurant….”
The Immp’s first submission:
A man and a duck walk into a restaurant, and the host says, “how many, Sir?” The man says, three, please. The host says, I see one… The man says, “The duck of course and my best friend will be able tolong in ten minutes.”
For some reason I cannot stop laughing about this. But there is more… Obviously the other fellows submit theirs.
Immp’s second attempt: A man and a duck walk into the restaurant followed by another couple. They ask for a table for four and in a while the waiter comes for their order. The woman of the couple says, “I’ll have the steak.” Her partner says, “I’ll have the fish.” The man with the duck says, “I’ll have the duck.” The duck looks upset. But then the man pulls a small box out of his pocket and says to the duck, “Will you marry me?”
Chetan Murthy
@Mary G: It would be -understandable- (though no less evil) if she weren’t his only child. But my god: to do that to your only child. That’s subhuman.
Jeffro
@Roger Moore: Yeah, well I think he’s told them more than once that he can expose them if they cross him. “If I go down, everyone finds out where you’ve been getting your money from”, etc etc. We’ll see.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
(crackle crackle) “Houston*, the Python has landed.”
Go east, young man.
*pronounced in this case as in Houston Street. :)
Mnemosyne
@dmsilev:
I liked the mollusk version better.
Speaking of mollusks …
https://mobile.twitter.com/mattcolville/status/1045007334118805504
Barbara
@khead: It’s really important to tease out the demographic data when it involves the polling of white people. Basically, whites in the South and a few mountain and upper midwestern states are so all in for Republicans that they skew the result nationally. Raw numbers are raw numbers, but what it really means is that small swings in the percentage never change the outcome in the South, but they often can and do change the outcome in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania. Brad DeLong had a great analysis of polling data in 2012 that showed how approval rates of Obama were distributed by region. West, North and East were all within the range of 47/53, whereas, the South was like 30/70. That result simply masks the fact that Obama was actually pretty popular in most large states even among whites.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Matt Schlapp* on Chris Matthews shooting up the backpfeifengesicht list. And then somebody mess up his $400 haircut, please.
* Chairman of the American Conservative Union and self-described “dear friend” of Brett Kavanaugh. Of course. (Wikipedia says he has five daughters. Interesting.)
Mike J
@Mart:
Weird, that was my first thought. Putting forward an easily shot down accuser sounds like something Republicans would do.
Barbara
@Mart: Among other things, was he in Rhode Island in the time frame, does anyone remember him being injured, etc. Yes, of course, don’t jump on anything feet first so to speak.
TenguPhule
@Mart:
i see what you did there.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: I prefer the one where the duck says “Hey, Major Major Major, Major, fix the edit function so we can figure out what Immanentize is trying to say in the first one.”
schrodingers_cat
@CapnMubbers: Ganesha festival was over two days ago. Lakshmi pooja is a part of Diwali though Diwali is more like Christmas part religious, but more of a winter celebration with lights, fire crackers, special snacks and new clothes.
Mary G
@Chetan Murthy: It certainly explains why she moved to California and never looked back, and was reluctant to go back to D.C. My admiration for her grows every day. Her husband’s family loves her to bits and has been very outspoken that she would never lie, so someone has her back at least.
Mnemosyne
@Gvg:
OCTOPUS tentacle. Know your cephalopods. ?
I swear I’ve watched that video 50 times today. It’s cathartic somehow.
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL:
And we wonder why she didn’t go to her parents and make a big stink at the time it happened!
Ladyraxterinok
@Immanentize: That’s what I thought Pepperdine was. As many progessive Christian blogs have long lamented–news media people know little about church culture/history. So they fail to see what often is in plain sight. See Adam’s explanationof T’s use of patriotism linking to Charles Spurgeon.
CapnMubbers
@schrodingers_cat: Ah! thank you. My imperfect understanding, no doubt, but the good wishes for M4 et al stand.
Mnemosyne
@Immanentize:
Pepperdine is known locally as kind of a party school, despite its religious ties. Probably not at the graduate level, though.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Major Major Major Major:
Congratulations! What will you be doing/working on (if you are comfortable talking about it)?
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
A lot of it depends on how you’re dealing with it. I’ve dealt with it, but only with a big superconducting magnet where all the liquid got transferred through siphons and stuff. It was a bit nerve wracking when filling the magnet dewar, but that was because there’s a small chance of a quench if you get some warm gas in the wrong place, not because the LHe itself was a big problem. After a while, you get used to it the same way you get used to any kind of dangerous activity. You still have to be super careful about what you’re doing, but the fear goes down a notch after you’ve done it successfully a few times.
Immanentize
@Immanentize: ugh.
will be able tolong in ten minutes = will be along in ten minutes.
I hate it when I step on a punch line. Even with bad typing.
Redshift
@MisterForkbeard:
A friend of mine just pointed out that her father is the author of a new article related to the Kavanaugh case in a prominent wingnut publication, and it’s threatening to cause permanent rifts in the family.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: I love that duck!
Mnemosyne
@dmsilev:
That’s what that letter signed by 65 women was supposed to be, except that poor Renate Dolphin found out after she signed it that she was (at best) the victim of vicious rumors by Kavanaugh and his rapey buddies.
Major Major Major Major
@Steeplejack (tablet): Banal corporate web development, but in New York!
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
Gee, and people wonder why she never told her parents. ??
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Question for the legal beagles. I keep reading that what these accusers, their attorneys and the Democrats want is the FBI to investigate the criminal allegations. The Republicans of course don’t want that.
My question: why do they get to decide what crimes the FBI investigates?
Steve in the ATL
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: because their party controls the executive branch which controls the FBI
Matt McIrvin
@Mike J: Any of them could have been a trap. I was freaked out by the rumor that Avenatti had gotten suckered by 4chan trolls out to Dan Rather him, but that seems not to be the case. Could happen at any moment though.
Immanentize
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: answer:. The FBI I start of the executive branch and, at most, the legislature only has the power to request the FBI investigate anything. Normally, of course, the FBI honors those requests.
Also, as part of the executive, the FBI could be told by the President or the Attorney General to investigate and they certainly would.
But in this case, the Senate (majority) refuses to request an investigation and neither Trump nor Sessions will ever do so.
Mnemosyne
@Redshift:
I really hope her father published that before he knew who the accuser was, because if he published it afterwards … ?
Jay
@Matt McIrvin:
Smart sources have figured out “there be trolls”, “there be Russians”, “there be organized ratfucking”,
Be careful.
The Access Stenographers however keep getting rickrolled by John Barron.
Redshift
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: They’re not calling for the FBI to do a criminal investigation – these are probably not federal crimes. They want the FBI to reopen the background check investigation and interview witnesses to provide a factual basis to evaluate the nomination. Unfortunately, the White House gets to decide whether that happens.
sgrAstar
@Major Major Major Major: congratulations, M^4!
sukabi
@lamh36: #5 has contacted Sen. Whitehouse
Redshift
@Mnemosyne: I may have been unclear; it read my friend’s father, not the accuser’s father.
Roger Moore
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
They don’t. The FBI is free to investigate Kavanaugh if they choose– though they won’t because the allegations against him are for violations of state, not federal law. But that would be doing stuff on their own recognizance. The Senate might not even know about it, and they certainly wouldn’t change their calendar because of it.
What people are asking for in this case, though, is something different. They’re asking for the FBI to investigate Kavanaugh as part of a background check, which is something else the FBI does. If the Senate asks for a background investigation on a nominee, they’re effectively forced to put any vote on the nominee on hold until they hear back. Also, the FBI isn’t supposed to do background checks on its own hook, because the risk of abuse is too high; it only does them in response to somebody else asking for one.
Ladyraxterinok
@Gin & Tonic: Ken Starr was dean of Peppersine Law School before he left to become president of Baylor. Had to leave Baylor because of mishandling and covering up of sexual assault by football players
Manyakitty
@Major Major Major Major: Awesome!!!! Stability is good.
Manyakitty
@Cheryl Rofer: That sounds wonderful!
NotMax
@Cheryl Rofer
OT.
Cheryl (or Adam), would welcome a front page post touching upon the topic here.
Mnemosyne
@Redshift:
Phew! Okay, I got confused.
J R in WV
@Ladyraxterinok:
Actually also lost a big pension and permanent home to live in on campus at Baylor, IIRC. Fired, zeroed out !!