For posterity. pic.twitter.com/CHmWHk6qih
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) September 15, 2019
This thread from Jon Lovett sheds more light on how the Times mis-handled Ramirez’ accusations:
Then when that story becomes weaponized by the right the Times runs this: pic.twitter.com/CkThCizQHL
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) September 14, 2019
The reporting backs up a hugely important set of allegations and the headline is “It’s hard to fit in at Yale”!
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) September 14, 2019
JPL
It’s still an important story and I’m so disappointed that I’ve not heard it discussed on MSNBC or CNN.
germy
How is having a penis thrust into your face at a party “harmless fun” ?
Makes me wonder about that Times reporter’s college years.
SFAW
“Mis-handled” usually implies that the mishandling was unintentional.
germy
@SFAW:
Manhandled.
Another Scott
I’m shocked, shocked that FTFNYT helped downplay a story that was damaging to Kavanaugh and it continues to do so.
So shocking, shocking.
From NYCSouthpaw’s Twitter:
Exactly.
Grrr.
Good for the New Yorker and these decent reporters for continuing to pursue the story. The FTFNYT is broken and needs to be shunned until their editors and management gets its act together.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
Moderation?? Oh, I forgot that pen1s apparently is still a dungeon word.
[ edit: at least if your handle isn’t “germy”. ]
Help?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
@germy:
I think the FTFTFNYT meant is it’s usually harmless for the asshole doing the thrusting-in-face. Appears they were correct, based on The Rapist Drunk’s confirmation.
ETA: Yes, I realize the tweet talked about the thrustee, not the thruster.
germy
Any lip readers here among the Jackals?
Baud
I could have been on the Supreme Court if I had made poorer decisions in my youth.
SFAW
@germy:
That word choice works on multiple levels. Nicely done.
Chyron HR
Having an extraterrestrial lifeform shove its reproductive organs down your throat may seem like harmless fun. But when the infant xenomorph burst from his sternum, Thomas Kane says it confirmed that he didn’t belong at the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
SFAW
@Baud:
You can always try to make up for lost time.
Well, you could, if you were a Rethuglican. Actual, non-asshole humans have a tougher time doing that, however.
Nora
“Harmless fun”. Someone actually let that phrase go through under the New York Times’ handle. I wonder what would constitute non-harmless fun. If the body part were thrust somewhere else? If it was more than one body part thrust in someone’s face? Thrust. The very choice of words tells you it’s violent and aggressive.
Who ARE these people?
SFAW
@Nora:
Objection! Assumes facts not in evidence.
[Apologies to the actual lawyers here, who doubtless know the right wording for that type of objection.]
Ohio Mom
I’m only half paying attention to this story so I might be off. To me, there is a strong subtext of victim blaming: This wouldn’t have happened if Ramirez wasn’t where she didn’t belong. Thank goodness there was an asshole frat boy available to be a gate keeper.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: I guess our overlords are sleeping in. Trying again (removing all the at-s)…
I’m shocked, shocked that FTFNYT helped downplay a story that was damaging to Kavanaugh and it continues to do so.
So shocking, shocking.
From NYCSouthpaw’s Twitter:
Exactly.
Grrr.
Good for the New Yorker and these decent reporters for continuing to pursue the story. The FTFNYT is broken and needs to be shunned until their editors and management gets its act together.
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
In an earlier thread, someone suggested that since we can’t get rid of Kavanaugh, to instead focus on Collins (I assume as either revenge or to lessen the chance of other assholes’ appointments). That’s fine, but I think this guy needs to be shown no respect and publicly humiliated nonstop until the day he slinks off to die.
debbie
@Another Scott:
I think it misses the point to call this “Yale behavior”; it’s fraternities. You’ll see this despicable kind of behavior at any frat house on any campus in this country.
JR
@germy: ding ding fucking ding
Unsaid is that a lot of bros, past and present, have these kinds of skeletons in their closet. They don’t want to be confronted with their past wrongdoing so they’re just going to whitewash ’em. Keep pushing, folks.
Another Scott
@germy: The screen crawl says it is when Kavanaugh is sworn in – kinda late for anything about Kavanaugh to be shocking at that point.
So, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were something like:
“Hey, Tony, did you know that I had the biggest inauguration audience in history? It’s true, believe me. Let me show you the pictures…”
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@Another Scott:
I wrote an email to Cole. All cap letters. He replied, “Okay, you can say penis all you want.”
germy
@Nora:
Our “betters”. The elite.
Another Scott
@debbie: I posted that tweet from the guy at LGM.
Showing Kavanaugh derision is fine – we heap derision on Thomas all the time, but Collins was a critical vote in getting him confirmed. And she said she didn’t believe the accusations against him. She says she supports women’s reproductive rights but enables gutting of those same rights. She needs to go, and all of her compatriots that try to play the “oh so concerned, but he’s a good man and told me that he’s not a monster so I had to vote for him” card need to go, too.
Fighting for the impossible (impeachment of Kavanaugh, as some argue) is ineffective. We need to use our energy on achievable goals.
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: Nononoooooo, they are salt of the earth betters. If they were “elite” they’d be DEMs, ask any Repub.
Another Scott
@germy: Maybe FYWP chokes on too many “@” in a comment even if they’re not links. Dunno.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
delk
And Trump is tweeting that Boofy should sue for ‘liable’.
JPL
The president tweeted that Kavanaugh should be suing for liable. I’m disappointed that popehat hasn’t changed his name yet.
what delk said
satby
@Another Scott: impeachment of Kavanaugh becomes less impossible if we win the Senate and keep the House. Then it becomes probable, because he clearly committed perjury.
MomSense
The NYT is garbage and apparently so is a contingent of the FBI. Were the assholes from the NY field office who interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help trump assigned to investigate Kavanaugh? It seems the FBI didn’t investigate anything.
Alain
@Another Scott: too many links in a post can be an issue; even if the technical limit isn’t breached, they make such comments marked as spam.
MomSense
@debbie:
Helping us to defeat Collins is a good option because we can actually do something about her now.
Another Scott
@satby: Impeachment and removal requires 2/3 of the Senate. Only one SCOTUS justice has ever been impeached (Samuel Chase in 1804), and he was not convicted in the Senate.
Impeachment and removal is an impossible lift unless a party has something like 75% of the Senate (because history shows there will always be people who won’t vote to go that far).
I’m a big fan of the politics of the possible. If talking about and getting voters agitated for impeachment gets them to turn out and gets more seats flipped, that’s good. But we know that the other side will use it to rile up their voters to turn out as well. And the GOP-owned press will tut-tut about unreasonable sore-loser Democrats who want to politicize the oh-so-pure SCOTUS, yada-yada-yada. The net result is likely to be a wash or an incremental shift – not a 75% majority.
Showing Susan the door is likely to have a more concrete impact.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
JPL
@MomSense: Sessions was director of the FBI and the House is hoping to to question him. I hope they are able to and they also ask him about the investigation of Kavanaugh.
germy
@MomSense: Collins is ready for the next phase of her life: Corporate lobbyist.
Cheryl Rofer
@Ohio Mom: That was what occurred to me the first I saw the story. It’s part of the same attitude that allowed so many people (including at least one NYT reporter) to give Jeffrey Epstein a pass. He had a lot of money, and those were girls he picked up off the street. A number of people have said the girls should be grateful for the steady cash and the opportunities to meet people.
JPL
Because of trump’s tweets, the story is gaining more traction. nice
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Alain: What about when one link means the comment disappears? I can’t even put up a comment if I have anything in the Website field.
Cheryl Rofer
@Another Scott: I released it, but now I think there is some repetition.
Neldob
Maybe we should rename him Moscow Penis Kavanaugh, after Moscow Mitch. I guess it’s time to donate, again, to Sara Gideon.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
BTW, Maysie found the silvervine toys while they were on an extended walkabout this morning. New vid up.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Hey Scott, I just made a test post on the new site. I had tested for this before but did it again just now so I could be sure. The comment below successfully posted on the new site, when I was not logged in. (except I added a dash or two in each one so I could be sure it would post here.)
Another Scott
@Cheryl Rofer: Thanks. Sorry about that.
FYWP Moderation here is a pain. I know dungeon posts are eventually released, but sometimes it happens when a thread is nearly dead. If one tries to figure out what caused the FYWP panic about it, then there’s the risk of repetition. :-(
Here’s hoping the new site has fewer issues like these!
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Scott.
Cheryl Rofer
If the FBI can blow off an investigation if ordered to by their bosses, as was the case for Kavanaugh, that puts an additional urgency on the intelligence community whistleblower whose complaint is being suppressed by Acting DNI Joseph Maguire. Especially since Adam Schiff thinks the President is involved.
And the DOJ is supposed to be giving a special medal of merit this week to the folks who jammed Kavanaugh’s nomination through.
Lots of things to keep an eye on here.
WaterGirl
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Can you take a closer look at exactly what you typed in the URL field? Because if there’s something funky in there, your comment will definitely be marked as spam.
WaterGirl
Please take a closer look at exactly what you typed in the URL field? Because if there’s something funky in there, your comment will definitely be marked as spam.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: It doesn’t seem to be “penis” in the problematic post. It seems to be the multiple twitter “@”s. Dunno why.
But it could be something else (the FTFNYT link, the phase of the moon) – who knows… :-/
Thanks for checking.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
That test didn’t work.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Huh. Moderation again. Maybe FYWP thinks I’m a spammer now.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
MomSense
@germy:
My dad was really close with her uncle. He was a very important person in his life. I still can’t reconcile that they were in the same family.
germy
@MomSense: Maybe Collins started out with good intentions, and then was corrupted along the way. I honestly don’t know.
Cheryl Rofer
Released two.
ETA: I’m going away from the screen for a bit. Y’all play nice with FYWP!
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: We are using completely different moderation software for the new site.
Again, this is a reminder that I should do another update / ask me anything later this morning.
MomSense
@Cheryl Rofer:
It’s a sad state of affairs when FYWP has higher standards for posting than a Supreme Court Justice had for his conduct.
Another Scott
@MomSense: rofl.
Inorite!!
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@WaterGirl: Yeah, I checked for embedded bad words before I complained. The link was the YouTube channel
channel/UCKmy4GnALnwDqvfwEFOZeRw
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
The part that FYWP is choking on is the website address for YouTube. Even with the dots removed, it just wouldn’t post.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Testing another link that wouldn’t post. Just removing the Amazon part of the link.
/Prevue-Pet-Products-Catville-7220/dp/B00UXHR86Y
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
OK, it also fails when I spell out delta oscar tango charlie oscar mike.
FYWP.
Another Scott
Twitter:
Hmmm…
A reminder that Never-Trumpers are not our friends.
Grrr….
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
Another low quality hire. It’s pretty simple- if your institution or organization or entity is composed of bad people it will be bad.
There’s no getting around this. If “the thing”, in this case the Supreme Court, is made up of people who didn’t meet the standard so shouldn’t have been hired it will be worse. Always.
Merrick Garland is both a better, more ethical person and also more qualified, so Garland as 1/9th of this entity makes a higher quality entity than Kavanaugh as 1/9th. You can’t finesse that. The more bad people you hire the worse it gets, no matter the history or reputation or status of the entity itself.
B.B.A.
I think, for allegations against white men, we need to adopt presumption of guilt. I’d add something about innocence being proven beyond a reasonable doubt, but let’s be honest – there are no innocent white men.
Full matriarchy now!
Kay
They needed a male witness to validate – “vouch for” – the female witnesses. One man’s word = five women.
Also- if the FBI are going to continue to work exclusively for Donald Trump I suggest they get on his payroll and get off the public payroll. I don’t want to pay them. Bill your boss.
Spanky
@Kay: Bad hires? Follow the evidence. All evidence points to Russia
the GOPworking to dismantle our democracy from as many simultaneous fronts as possible. They’re racing to make the 2020 election irrelevant – I suspect they have assumed an outright cancellation to be too far a leap too soon.Each hire is working as designed, especially Captain Chaos at the top.
Spanky
@Kay: I suspect the folks at the FBI have noticed that Trump never pays his hires. Better to stay on the govt dole, right?
Another Scott
Twitter:
Yup. The House needs to investigate all of this.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
How do you get out of high school still so immature that you’re pulling your pants down at parties? They probably shouldn’t coddle these people so much. He really could have used some interaction with the real world. He’s still completely managed to avoid it, based on his screaming, entitled hissy fit at that shitfest of a job interview. Was that his first real interview ever?
B.B.A.
If you think I’m losing it – I was probably in the same room with Jeffrey Epstein and didn’t kill him when I had the chance, you better believe I’m losing it.
germy
@Another Scott: Remember the interview Brett and his wife did together? Was it with ABC News? One of those interviews put together to “humanize” the candidate (“His wife is so nice! And they’re so lovely together!”)
At one point, the interviewer asked Mrs. Kavanaugh if her husband would agree to talk to the FBI and she replied “Of course!” and then Brett cleared his throat and quickly said “Actually, no…”
Kay
To me the bigger issue is not that he behaved like this- the female witnesses were credible so all of these elites know damn well he did these things- the bigger issue is that he lied repeatedly under oath and he has a lifetime appointment to a hugely powerful court. He’s a liar and he told THIS set of lies in a process that is supposed to sanction people for doing that.
Either the norm and the rule that bar lying in one of these proceedings matter or they don’t. If they don’t let’s stop pretending they do. That’s just another lie.
chopper
@Another Scott:
it’s because of all the times you said “penis”. you have to know the trick to get it past the filter.
Kay
So funny because that doesn’t surprise me at all. I feel like that’s perfectly on brand for that news corporation.
Roger Moore
All TheOnly News That‘s Fit To PrintFits the NarrativeAnother Scott
@germy: IIRC, Mrs. Boof was visibly horrified by some of the testimony against him, and not in a “I know this man and he didn’t do that” way but in a “OMG, how did I end up with this monster” way. Of course, it’s easy to misinterpret people’s faces, so who knows…
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@Another Scott:
Or maybe “I was really hoping none of this stuff would ever come out!”
Yarrow
Reminder that the money has not been followed with Kavanaugh. Who funded the $92K country club membership? How did he live in that expensive house his salary wouldn’t warrant? Who owns him? Follow the damn money.
Betty Cracker
Harris goes boldly…
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Good!!
JPL
@Yarrow: The entire nomination was rushed though, because they knew they could not investigate. Trump would have had the opportunity to appoint someone else, so why push this one through. Was their a guarantee that he would protect trump’s tax returns?
Kayla Rudbek
@Yarrow: Amen to that! I was pointing out on Twitter at the time that I could buy tickets to the Nationals in that time period for something like $25-50 per person. Don’t we have a single forensic accountant in the entire FBI? Follow the money, people!
laura
@Kay:
How do you get out of high school still so immature that you’re pulling your pants down at parties?
Gee Kay, I dunno, maybe we should assemble a panel of experts to explain it to us; Mark Halperin, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, dead Roger Ailes, Harvey Weinstein, Pinche Schulzberger . . . . .
Long before men hate women, they learn that girls don’t matter and have no agency or purpose other than as objects to be used for fun and games, or mere stepping stones to the highest positions of power.
Kay
Handy list of Kavanaugh’s lies in case anyone decides to enforce any rules and laws.
Yarrow
@germy: His wife just looks terrified every time I’ve seen her. I feel for their kids.
Kay
It seems like it might be important for a judge to know what “refute” means, re evidence. Maybe he was blackout drunk the day that was defined in class. Can we get him a bench card defining ordinary terms? Remedial. A hand up, not a hand out.
J R in WV
@Another Scott:
And too bad for her that she appears to be totally committed to a values system that doesn’t allow for her to do a press conference, confess that he abuses her and has for years, and file for hostile divorce at the same time.
Not than anyone in the Boof Republican-Russia party would believe her, or care if they did believe her.
I try to feel pity for her, it is really hard! Not willing to be interviewed by the FBI? Really? What a shocking surprise!!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Joy Reid had an NBC reporter on this morning, and she said she has sources– currently off the record, I believe, and here’s hoping they go public– who have texts that demonstrate that the Kavanaugh camp thought Debbie Ramirez was the anonymous person who had gone to the Washington Post
laura
I’m still furious about the virgin mayor of keg city’s job interview in that Senate Hearing. In what world does a candidate for a promotion get spittle-flecked and rages demanding his f’ing right to that promotion? Oh yeah, the world of smug, entitled white male elite privilege. And now that self-same justice gang bang will be doling out justice as he sees fit. Individual rights will be taking a backseat to corporate lege majesty for the rest of our lives.
Suzanne
@germy:
In my experience, men like Kavanaugh are usually experts at lying to their wives. If the wives ever know the truth, they learn it little by little, over a long period of time, and by then they have their lives enmeshed and they are probably financially dependent, so leaving is a difficult, embarrassing, incredibly disruptive, and expensive proposition. I would be somewhat surprised if she knew the extent of what he had done beforehand.
I will say that I went to more than one party where dicks (and tits) came out. It’s certainly childish, but that to me isn’t the problematic part. It’s the “thrusting” it in someone’s face that I consider the horrifying part. Ugh. Gross.
J R in WV
If I was on a jury, and Bret Kavanaugh was the defendant, and the case was weak, weak, and then he took the stand and testified as he did before the Senate committee? GUILTY, guilty, guilty just based upon his hostile testimony.
He was totally not open and honest, every tiny bit of body language was full of guilt, his speech was tortured and guilty, his reaction to questions that weren’t even hostile compared to cross examination by a lawyer intending to prove his guilt in court, all guilty, guilty, guilty.
If I was elected foreman, I would say to my fellow Jurors “This guy is guilty, what say you all?” Then we would sign the form for guilty and go home early. I’ve seen five-y-o kids who broke a vase and did a better job at pretending innocence. This guy, if he didn’t rape the women in the room, he raped other women and was hoping they wouldn’t come forth next.
He’s guilty of crimes that haven’t yet been discovered, like being bribed by unknown rich men who want to have a S C Justice in their hip pocket for future problems. No one is more guilty than Bret, just ask his wife. I bet the medical records for her and the daughters would put him in jail. Too bad HIPPA won’t let us see those files!!
Mowgli
@laura: so, so much this. His hearing should have sunk him regardless, it was painfully obvious the nomination was being rammed through with no concern for his fitness for this incredibly powerful lifetime position. Graham’s rant was just the icing on that garbage cake we all had to watch our Republic eat.
Gretchen
@J R in WV: Yes. The way he raged when challenged made me think that he is probably an abusive husband. And the way his wife looked at him during the hearing – not sympathetic, but disgusted and maybe afraid – made me think that she knew that she wasn’t going to have a pleasant evening. But when you’re a stay at home mom and the family is tens of thousands of dollars in debt, it’s hard to see how you can take care of your children if you leave. And giving that monster weekend solo visitation? Nope.
Duane
Well at least he fit in at Yale.
J R in WV
Well, at least we know there’s plenty of reasons to impeach the little shitwad going forward.
Tho maybe it would be easier to just amend the act to add justices to the benches.
Hoodie
We can speculate all sorts of things about Kavanaugh’s behavior, but probably would not be able to prove most of them in a manner that meets any legal standard. But that almost deflects from the point that he clearly is a shameless liar. There were multiple instances where his testimony was not credible. Of course he got blackout drunk in college, he knew what boof meant, and that the yearbook reference was clearly slut shaming. Needless, to say, shameless lying is not exactly the sterling personal qualities you’d wish for in a federal judge.
What I don’t get is why they bothered to cover for this asshole. I know plenty of conservatives who have led pretty exemplary personal lives. They could have easily found another Federalist drone who didn’t waive his dick around at frat parties. Trump must have insisted because he recognized a kindred spirit, a fellow sociopath asshole.
laura
Because justice gang bang is never going to be impeached, we should demand he resign.
low-tech cyclist
What she said.
Michael Allen
@Another Scott: Collins is a gullible spineless whore, no offense to actual whores.