;)
The Commentariat -- October 5, 2018
Sheryl Stolberg & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh appeared destined for final confirmation to the Supreme Court after two key undecided senators -- Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia -- announced Friday that they would support his elevation to the high court after the most divisive confirmation fight in decades." ...
... As I write, Susan Collins is standing on the Senate floor justifying a vote for Kavanaugh. She has not yet announced how she will vote, but if she announces "no," it will be because lightning struck her. Lightning did not strike. After Collins finished her lo-o-ong grandstand, Joe Manchin announced that he too would vote for Kavanagh's confirmation. So it will soon be Justice Wood B. Rapist. ...
... John Wagner & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "The Senate advanced Brett M. Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination in a key procedural vote Friday morning, putting him one step closer to confirmation and ending a deeply partisan and rancorous fight in the Senate. The chamber voted 51 to 49 to advance the nomination after Republican leaders secured the votes of two GOP senators and one Democrat who had not publicly announced their intentions before arriving to vote.... Sens. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Susan Collins (Maine), two of the Republican holdouts, voted to advance President Trump's nominee, while Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) was the only GOP senator to break with her party. Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), a red-state Democrat up for reelection next month, was the only Democrat to support Kavanaugh. The vote Friday is a strong indication that Kavanaugh will win confirmation but some votes could change. Collins considered a key swing vote, said that she would vote to advance the nomination but wait until later Friday to say how will vote on confirmation." ...
... MSNBC reports that Jeff Flake will vote to confirm Kavanaugh. ...
... Trump Tweets Conspiracy Theory. Jane Coaston of Vox: "On Friday..., Donald Trump tweeted that people protesting against Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court by confronting members of Congress are 'paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad,' adding that they were 'paid for by Soros and others.' This is the first time the president has referenced Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, whose links to progressive causes have made him a far-right boogeyman both in the United States and around the world."
... D.W. Pine of Time: "Using words and phrases from Ford's testimony, San Francisco-based artist John Mavroudis recreated her likeness by drawing each letter by hand." Haley Edwards' cover story is here. ...
I testified with five people foremost in my mind: my mom, my dad, my wife, and most of all my daughters. I hope to be a role model for them with my vitriolic partisanship and conspiracy mongering, my deceptive and incomplete answers, and my snide remarks. -- Paraphrase of Kavanaugh's WSJ op-ed by NYU historian Tom Sugrue, via Jeet Heer ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Judge Wood B. Rapist has written an op-ed boasting about what a good boy he is. Sadly, he decided to place in the EXCLUSIVE firewalled rich people's Wall Street Journal, so I won't be able to link it (if the WSJ took down the firewall for this particular op-ed [update: and it appears it has], I'm still not going to link it). You can read about Kavanaugh's non-apology in this New York Times report. ...
... OR Here. "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General." Abby Zimet of Common Dreams: "Whoa. Clean Up On Aisle Four: With the The Washington Post and distinguished former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens now joining lawyers, judges, sexual assault survivors and much of the furious country in urging our next Supreme Court judge not be a lying, belligerent, injudicious partisan hack, said hack has taken to the Wall Street Journal to write an unprecedented op-ed defending himself. With the meme-enticing headline, 'I Am An Independent, Impartial Judge,' Kavanaugh didn't apologize for last week's frenzied, paranoid testimony but conceded, 'I was very emotional..., and I said a few things I should not have said. I hope everyone can understand that I was there as a son, husband and dad.' He also whined about 'wrongful and sometimes vicious allegations,' 'deep distress,' 'unfairness,' etc.... The problem, as many pointed out, was that his craven-cum-arrogant non-apology used the language of every other abusive, alcoholic son, husband and dad who did or said heinous things in the dysfunctional heat of the moment, sobered up the next day and frantically sought to cover his repugnant tracks.... Like his Fox News performance, he also again went to the only media source - Murdoch-land - that would have him without asking pesky factual questions like those mean Democrats did for like almost a whole hour. Finally, despite his protestations about his upstanding judgement, it's tough to trust anyone who chooses a headline so ripe for savage mockery, which quickly came: ... 'I am an insane, intoxicated judge,' 'I am the rightful heir of the Romanovs,' 'I am the very model of a modern major general,' etc." ...
... Nicholas Fandos & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The Senate, deeply divided over the results of an F.B.I. investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, moved uneasily toward a Friday morning vote that will most likely determine whether President Trump's nominee will reach the Supreme Court. Republican leaders were increasingly confident that despite a barrage of accusations, the Senate will narrowly vote to cut off debate on Judge Kavanaugh's nomination and move to a final confirmation as early as Saturday. Because Republicans changed Senate rules last year to end filibusters for Supreme Court nominees, Friday's vote will need the same 50 senators that the final confirmation tally will need. But with four senators still undecided -- the Democrat Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and the Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska -- Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation was still not assured." ...
... Elana Schor, et al., of Politico: "Key undecided Republican senators are signaling on Thursday the FBI report on sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh may give them the confidence they need to back the embattled Supreme Court nominee. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) told reporters that 'we've seen no additional corroborating information' about alleged sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh in high school and college, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said the investigation 'appears to be a very thorough' one. But Collins made clear that she remains undecided on Kavanaugh and wants to read more of it herself." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... John Wagner & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "As the Senate began reviewing the new FBI report on Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh on Thursday, both Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley and the White House stood by President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, saying the investigation found nothing sufficient to corroborate allegations of sexual misconduct while Kavanaugh was a teenager. 'There's nothing in it that we didn't already know,' Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement after being briefed on the report by his staff. 'It's time to vote.'" Mrs. McC: Thanks, Chuck, for repeating verbatim what we all predicted you would say. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Kevin Wallevand of ABC News Fargo: "U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp will vote NO on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination. Heitkamp sat down exclusively with WDAY News to share what she will do when the U.S. Senate votes on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Heitkamp also shared her reasoning behind her decision [which she explains in the embedded video]." She believes the women. Good for Heitkamp. She is down in the polls; this took guts. I just sent her 50 bucks. ...
... Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "A GOP senator may miss a Senate confirmation vote for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh this weekend because his daughter is getting married on Saturday. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) will walk his daughter down the aisle for her wedding regardless of the timing of the vote, a Daines spokesperson confirmed to The Hill. Senate Republican leaders plan to hold a key procedural vote Friday morning, setting up a potential confirmation vote for Saturday afternoon. It is unclear if Daines' trip will impact the timing of the vote." Mrs. McC: Oh, it will, unless Mitch has a clear majority without Daines. ...
... Erin McGroarty of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: "More than 350 female attorneys from Alaska have sent a joint letter to Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan opposing the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.... 'We are Alaskan women attorneys who work in a variety of settings...,' the letter begins. 'Among us are Republicans, Democrats, Nonpartisan and Undeclared voters. We ask you, as your constituents and as fellow lawyers, to vote against confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh as justice of the United States Supreme Court.' The letter notes that the group's opposition to Kavanaugh is not based on policy disagreement or political affiliation but rather on a concern about allegations of sexual misconduct and even more with Kavanaugh's temperament, which the attorneys consider unbefitting for someone on the nation's highest court." ...
... ** Lulu Ramadan of the Palm Beach Post: "Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on Thursday said that high court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, who Stevens once lauded in one of his books, does not belong on the Supreme Court. Speaking to a crowd of retirees in Boca Raton, Stevens, 98, said Kavanaugh's performance during a recent Senate confirmation hearing suggested that he lacks the temperament for the job." Stevens is a life-long Republican.... Stevens, who retired in 2010 after 35 years on the bench, stands as one of the longest-serving justices in history. Nominated by President Gerald Ford, Stevens was unanimously confirmed by the Senate." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "The FBI investigation into Brett Kavanaugh has turned out to be a fig leaf. Multiple reports tell the same story: The White House has controlled the probe, ignoring the attempts by multiple witnesses to reach investigators and wrapping up its work well before its already-tight deadline. In the meantime, however, significant new evidence has appeared from the news media. It demonstrates beyond a doubt that Kavanaugh's emotional testimony was a farrago of evasions and outright lies." ...
... David Corn of Mother Jones: Why didn't the White House allow the FBI to interview Christine Blasey Ford & Brett Kavanaugh, which would of course be standard in any investigation of an allegation of sexual misconduct? "Democrats on Senate Judiciary Committee have a theory: Trump White House officials blocked an interview with Ford because they were worried about the FBI questioning Kavanaugh.... During the hearing last week on Ford's allegations, Kavanaugh frequently dodged questions from Democratic senators, who each were limited to five-minutes of time.... [And Republicans spent their time whining about Democrats.] Kavanaugh did not undergo a true and professional grilling. An FBI interview would have been a much different experience.... It does make one wonder just what Trump, McGahn, and other White House officials feared about a Kavanaugh sit-down with the FBI." Mrs. McC: Oh, it doesn't make me wonder. ...
... Charles Ludington, Lynne Brookes & Elizabeth Swisher in a Washington Post op-ed: "We were college classmates and drinking buddies with ... Brett M. Kavanaugh.... It was his public statements during a Fox News TV interview and his sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that prompted us to speak out. We each asserted that Brett lied to the Senate by stating, under oath, that he never drank to the point of forgetting what he was doing. We said, unequivocally, that each of us, on numerous occasions, had seen Brett stumbling drunk to the point that it would be impossible for him to state with any degree of certainty that he remembered everything that he did when drunk.... Brett lied under oath while seeking to become a Supreme Court justice.... All of us went to Yale, whose motto is 'Lux et Veritas' (Light and Truth). Brett also belonged to a Yale senior secret society called Truth and Courage. We believe that Brett neither tells the former nor embodies the latter. For this reason, we believe that Brett Kavanaugh should not sit on the nation's highest court." ...
... Courtney Tanner of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Sen. Orrin Hatch faced swift backlash Tuesday -- including accusations of 'slut-shaming' -- after sharing on Twitter an uncorroborated account from a Utah man questioning the legitimacy and sexual preferences of one of the women accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of misconduct. The Republican senator tweeted excerpts from the signed statement of Dennis Ketterer, a former Democratic candidate for Congress and D.C. weatherman with ties to Centerville, Utah, saying the man reached out to his office this week to talk about Julie Swetnick and her allegations against Kavanaugh.... In a sleazy nutshell, the story is that Dennis Ketterer claims that Swetnick approached him at a Washington bar one night and struck up first a conversation and then a brief relationship in which sex was discussed but never performed." ...
... SLT Editors Say Hatch Is Not Qualified to Vote on Kavanaugh. Salt Lake Tribune Editors: "The despicable attack launched by Sen. Orrin Hatch and the Senate Judiciary Committee -- more precisely, the Republicans on that committee -- on one of the women who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault is a textbook example of why more victims do not come forward. Worse, it betrays a positively medieval attitude toward all women as sex objects who cannot be believed or taken seriously. The fact that no one involved in the Twitter attack on Julie Swetnick seems to see that is solid evidence that their opinion of who should and should not serve on the Supreme Court is to be ignored." ...
... Update. Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) raised the ire of protesters on Thursday after telling a group of mostly women who confronted him in one of the Senate buildings that he would talk to them when they 'grow up.'" Mrs. McC: Make that "Not Qualified to Wipe a Pig's Ass." ...
... Just Another Constitution-Loving American. Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Last week, James Patrick posted a credible threat on Facebook, saying he planned to shoot members of Congress depending on the outcome of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The Florida man was arrested, yet, oddly enough, Facebook still hasn't removed the post.... [Among his posts:] 'Getting ready if Kav is not confirmed,' he wrote in a Sept. 22 Facebook post. 'Whoever I think is to blame may God have mercy on their soul .. just cleaned out the gun shop where I get guns ammo and target practice .. bought all their 50 cal hollow points. I expect to be confronted and I will be ready to kill and ready to die.'"
Trump Confirms He's a Lying, Tax-Cheating Crook. Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday criticized a New York Times investigation into his and his family's use of dubious tax schemes over the years and the origins of his own wealth.... 'The Failing New York Times did something I have never seen done before. They used the concept of "time value of money" in doing a very old, boring and often told hit piece on me. Added up, this means that 97% of their stories on me are bad. Never recovered from bad election call!' ... Mr. Trump did not offer an outright denial of the facts in the report, such as that the money he made during his decades in real estate came from tax schemes of dubious legality, the existence of records of deception in documenting the family's financial assets, and that the beginning of the president's so-called self-made fortune dates back to his toddler years when, by the time he was 3 years old, Mr. Trump earned $200,000 a year in today's dollars from his father. Nor did Sarah Huckabee Sanders the White House press secretary, during a subsequent briefing with reporters. Asked to identify what in the article was incorrect, she said, 'I won't go through every line of a very boring 14,000-word story.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... "Government of Tax Cheats, for Tax Cheats." Paul Krugman: "The blockbuster New York Times report on the Trump family's history of fraud is really about two distinct although linked kinds of fraudulence. On one side, the family engaged in tax fraud on a huge scale, using a variety of money-laundering techniques.... On the other, the story Donald Trump tells about his life -- his depiction of himself as a self-made businessman who made billions starting from humble roots -- has always been a lie: Not only did he inherit his wealth..., but Fred Trump bailed his son out after deals went bad.... The truly wealthy end up paying a much lower effective tax rate than the merely rich, not because of loopholes in tax law, but because they break the law.... America's wealthy [are] probably costing the government around as much as the food stamp program does. And they're also using tax evasion to entrench their privilege and pass it on to their heirs, which is the real Trump story.... Republicans in Congress have ... been systematically defunding the Internal Revenue Service, crippling its ability to investigate tax fraud."
... John Whitlow in a New York Times op-ed: "Donald Trump is a homegrown creature, a species well known and justifiably loathed by most New Yorkers — the unscrupulous landlord.... More than a stooge for Vladimir Putin or the embodiment of a disgruntled -- and mythical -- white working class, Mr. Trump is at his core a landlord, turning a handsome profit while the rest of us live in increasingly precarious conditions.... Much of the outrage generated by the reporting on the Trump family's finances has focused on tax evasion, which is immense and possibly criminal, and on the myth that Mr. Trump is a self-made man. But it is no small thing that the Trump empire is built on the same kinds of predatory practices that tenants and tenant advocates deal with every day: inflated costs for repairs, which are passed on to tenants in the form of rent increases; lax government oversight over building conditions and rent levels; and racial divisiveness." ...
... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times (Jan. 2016): "More than a half-century ago, the folk singer Woody Guthrie signed a lease in an apartment complex in Brooklyn. He soon had bitter words for his landlord: Donald J. Trump's father, Fred C. Trump.... Mr. Guthrie, in writings uncovered by a scholar working on a book, invoked 'Old Man Trump' while suggesting that blacks were unwelcome as tenants in the Trump apartment complex, near Coney Island. 'He thought that Fred Trump was one who stirs up racial hate, and implicitly profits from it,' the scholar, Will Kaufman, a professor of American literature and culture at the University of Central Lancashire in Britain, said in an interview."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Hillary Clinton should have had a troupe perform this at every campaign event during the general election season./p>
Lindsey Graham Is Such a Whore. Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has been one of the biggest proponents of President Trump's crackdown on China, welcoming tariffs on Chinese imports while conceding that they will raise costs for American businesses and consumers.... But behind the scenes, Mr. Graham has been working to help chemical and textile companies in his home state avoid the pain of Mr. Trump's trade war.... The senator has written seven letters to the United States trade representative on behalf of companies seeking tariff relief -- more than any other member of Congress has penned. Four of those seven received at least some of the relief they were seeking."
News Ledes
New York Times: The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to two campaigners against wartime sexual violence: Dr. Denis Mukwege, 63, a Congolese gynecological surgeon, and Nadia Murad, 25, who became the bold voice of the women forced into sexual slavery by the Islamic State group."
New York Times: "The unemployment rate fell to a nearly five-decade low in September, punctuating a remarkable rebound in the ten years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a global financial crisis. The 134,000 jobs that employers added in September reflected the slowest pace of growth in a year, and the growth in wages cooled slightly from August.... The report on Friday extended the current run of monthly job growth to eight straight years, double the previous record."
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Reader Comments (26)
Somewhere in Alaska and somewhere in Maine: A breakfast conversation:
Teenager: Hey, mom, I don't get it. Aren't the people we elect to represent us supposed to represent us? Our local papers all have editorials criticizing Kavanaugh––not to put him on the S.C. and we have lots and lots of people–-mostly women–-who have trekked all the way to Washington to speak to our senators urging them to vote no but looks like they might vote yes, so I'm asking––who the heck are they representing?
Mom: (looking deeply into her coffee) I wish I had an answer for you ––I could tell you that the true heroes many times are the ones who are brave enough to speak the truth and because of that might lose something in return but gain so much more. Finish your Cherrios–– continue being a decent human being and help change the world.
THE SUPREME COURT'S LEGITIMACY CRISIS: by Michael Tomasky
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/05/opinion/supreme-courts-legitimacy-crisis.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront
Interesting that Republicans are threatening that no one will be safe
if Democrats release trump's tax returns. Do they mean no one in
the 1% will be safe? I feel safe. Haven't hidden any income; always
paid what the tax preparer told me to.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/republicans-if-dems-
release-trumps-tax-returns-no-one-will-be-safe
@forrest morris: Jonathan Chait has an even narrower explanation: "Yes, YOUR returns might be next, assuming 'you' are the presidential nominee of a major party and/or had your manifestly illegal tax fraud described in 8,000 word detail in the newspaper of record."
But, yeah, you're right. It would make a great deal of sense for the IRS to concentrate on the returns of the 1 percent -- you know, the people for whom the Republicans work -- just is terms of return on investment. So I'm think you & I could change our ways & start cheating without consequence as long as Republicans are keeping the IRS on a short leash.
Actually, even with its limited resources, there is a group of filers the IRS audits routinely and its not the 1 percent. It's poor working people who file for the Earned Income Credit. Wouldn't you know it.
@PD Pepe: Thanks for your comment yesterday afternoon when you chose one of the darkest American Gothic stories in literature -- "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" -- to symbolize these times.
@Marie: right you are about Hillary using Woody's tune–-if only she had known it existed. Again looks like our reporters ––the ones who have free reign––dig up the dirt and the gold nuggets much better than the FBI who in this latest sham investigation had their hands tied by the W.H. who lied about giving them total access to whomever.
Last night Lawrence O'Donnell played again that clip of Kav and Senator Klobuchar, the "have you? (gotten blackout drunk)" clip again and it was newly chilling. If it had been Brett and Amy at a party with exactly that dialogue, not a Senate hearing room, he clearly and no doubt could be the guy who'd get pissed and pugnacious towards her. I daresay it was quite easy to imagine the scene with the penis menacing her. My palms got sweaty and I couldn't sleep. That guy!
"The grandmother shrieked. She scarmbled to her feet and stood staring. 'YOU'RE THE MISFIT!' she said. 'I recognized you at once!'
'Yes'm, 'the man said, smiling slightly as if he were pleased in spite of himself to be known, 'but it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn't of reckernized me.' "
from "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Flannery O'Connor
Good men are not hard to find. Just hard for the Republican Party to stomach.
Mitch McConnell will forever be remembered as the vile snake who denied a good man a chance at a seat on the court, a highly qualified judge, much respected by both sides, so that he could install an attempted rapist, a hyper partisan attack dog, an emotionally unstable clown, by miles the least qualified nominee I can recall in my lifetime, on that court for the rest of his unnatural life for the sole purpose of carrying out the Confederate agenda and attacking its enemies.
Travesty doesn't begin to describe what's happening today in Washington.
And to top it off, Grassely, McConnell, and Kavanaugh, are all painting themselves as victims in this charade, this Potemkin process which they have stage-managed down to Lindsey Graham's immature and insulting tirades. The women attacked by Kavanaugh are not victims, he and his supporters in Congress are the poor victims in all this. How dare anyone question their right to rule and to do whatever they see fit, especially some uppity, pain in the ass broads.
Good men are not hard to find, but you won't find a single one with an R after their names.
PD,
I have to agree with Marie about your pick for an appropriate story, especially for today.
And it's been years since I read that story, but isn't there a spot in it where the killer claims to not remember what he did to be put in prison?
Sounds a lot like you know who.
And wasn't that just before he killed everyone?
Can't wait for Kavanaugh's turn.
More bad news.
Recent polls indicate that the enthusiasm gap (so-called) between Democrats anxious to vote in the midterms and Confederates, has almost completely closed. They (R's) have a new reason to vote. Well, not exactly new, it's what gets them to the polls every election:
Hate.
With McConnell and Grassley and Kavanaugh and Graham whining about how those evil Democrats are all out to get them unless real 'mericans step up and help, all will be lost.
And Confederate voters are Pavlovian to a fault (unlike Democrats and those ridiculous independents).
Add to to that the voter suppression tactics and electoral jiggering so prevalent on the right, we're going to need a huge number of registered Dems to come out and vote.
At least this might put an end to those stupid stories about a Blue Wave and how no one needs to worry about a huge Democratic victory a month from now.
Bad news after bad news.
And will those undecided senators let us all down?
You can bet on it. Right at this moment, I can see McConnell stamping his cloven hoof to get the vote underway as quickly as possible.
Akhilleus :'And will those undecided senators let us all down?'
The core problem is that senators represent the party, not America.
Marvin,
You got that right, brother.
There's a reason (many reasons) an American Gothic tradition exists. A good man may or may not be hard to find, but instances of the gothic, gruesome, absurd and even downright surreal are ubiquitous in our history and our present. During our lifetimes, though, (in most of the last century anyway) they have not been so visibly present in our politics. They were a sideshow not the main event.
Have a friend who "collected" instances of such. He had a name for the collection, which I can't now recall, but do remember the day we added the sacred relic of John the Baptist's severed hand which we encountered in the Topkapi Museum to his mental list. Not American, but it could have been. Kinda looked like it could have been attached to one of those old, white Repugnant senators.
And thanks for the Guthrie. Might be able to use it on our radio show.
Hey, does anyone else think it incredibly weird the way senators were given a glimpse at that fake FBI report? It's like something out of a bad science fiction movie or a story about a futuristic dysfunctional society run by a mysterious band of rich, old, white authoritarians who hide in darkened sanctums protected by phalanxes of armed troops.
So senators had an appointed time to "view" the report, of which there is but a single copy. They are led into the Star Chamber by some R apparatchik who stays with them to make sure no evil Dems snap a pic or two with their evil camera phones.
I picture a podium in the middle of a dark, dank chamber with a single naked light bulb overhead, and armed guards all around.
The senators are given a certain amount of time to view the sacred document then are led out so another can enter and genuflect before the work of the Trump FBI.
This whole process is SO.FUCKING.WEIRD.
But it's all of a piece here in TrumpWorld where nothing is as it should be. But the R's make sure to add that extra soupçon of strangeness, just to make things even weirder.
Starting with the Turtle's proclamation that a sitting president had no right to appoint a Supreme Court judge of whom he, the Turtle, did not approve, moving through a process scarred by tales of drunken violence, lies, bald manipulation, a phony investigation, then the viewing of the report in some lead lined safe room. The whole thing stinks to high heaven.
And not for nothin' but what would be the problem with releasing that FBI report if it A) had nothing new in it, and B) was as exculpatory as all the R's say it is? What are they still hiding?
They're playing that old Confederate game of Trust Us, also known by its street level name: Fuck You.
TrumpLand v the Rest of the Civilized World
So today we read that the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege for their work in battling sexual violence as a political weapon.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is overseeing the enthronement of a sexually violent drunk as a justice on his Supreme Court where misogyny will become re-energized as a political weapon.
Some power in the universe is pointing its finger our way today.
I bet Fat Boy was pissed that he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize for his kissy-facing with dictators Putin and Kim.
@Akhilleus: According to Cory Booker, in an interview I saw last night, the Democrats were herded into the Starr Chamber in groups, so that they had to read the "report" over each each other's shoulders. And, also according to Booker & other Democrats, the report, even in its magnificent whitewashiness,* was not entirely exculpatory but clearly showed "hints of misconduct," contra Grassley's fake characterization of the report. But Booker can't tell us what the hints were, because the report is sooper-dooper secret.
*Sherwin Williams or Kilz should make "Kavanaugh Whitewash" its new paint color of the month. "Covers every stain and blemish, including knots, dark character flaws & hints of misconduct."
@Akhilleus: I saw the Nobel Committee's decision as a bow to #MeToo but also a slap in the face of President Pussy-Grabber.
Secretly recorded video of the viewingof the sacred FBI document! Shhh...don't tell no one you saw it. They'll be coming for you.
Marie,
"Kavanaugh Whitewash". Love it. Kilz can market it along with their other lines:
Kilz Premium
Kilz Original
Kilz Hide All
Kilz Concrete
Kilz Whitewash, Kavanaugh Formula.
What they can't do is claim that it can cover up all stains. It can't cover up drunken attempted rape or lying to Congress.
Marie,
"Hints of misconduct". Is that what they're calling it? I guess now I know why they don't want anyone to see it. If even a rigged "investigation" can't bring in a perfectly clean bill of health, then what the hell? They put the fix in and they still can't clean the mud off his skirts?
Such a disgrace.
I wrote to Heidi Heitcamp last night to tell her that I had misjudged her and that she was quite brave to be planning on a NO for KavaNO. As usual, the other "brave" lunkheads do not disappoint. There is no point in being in congress anymore, as there is no such thing as honor and honesty. Maybe she has had it trying to balance things and still get elected in her blood-red state. Her brother pontificated about how the midwest is always slighted...More victimhood. I have seen the people behind Dump-diver and they don't share a brain among them. If that is the midwest, there is not a chance I will ever leave the east coast, where I am a certified "elite."
Paid professionals are trying to make senators look bad????
I'm sorry mr. president* but they don't need no help from paid
professionals to look bad. All they have to do is agree with you
and that does it for any sane person.
Of interest?
Or too much bright side gazing into the otherwise very dark?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/04/if-kavanaugh-is-confirmed-impeachment-could-follow-heres-how
You May Now View the Body
We’ve all been there. A loved one has not long to live. She’s been failing for a while but seems now and then to recover some strength, and there is always the hope against what seems an immutable reality that she will revive and bless our lives that much longer with her presence.
Alas, as much as you think you’re ready for the inevitable, when the news arrives of her demise, it’s still a shock. You thought you had it together, “Well, she’s been on her last legs for a while”, but news of her passing is more painful than you could have ever imagined.
Today, the United States we all grew up in passed away. She’s gone. But it wasn’t in the way of most passings. No. While we sat outside her hospital room waiting to hear from the doctors, cheap, vicious murderers slithered into her room. Grassley held her down on the bed and McConnell smothered her with a pillow handed him by Collins and Manchin and Flake. Outside the room, hearing her gasp her last breaths, we tried to save her but were blocked by Kavanaugh, who promised to drop the entire weight of the Supreme Court on the head of any who attempted to prevent her murder.
They all snickered as they walked out of the room, leaving the body where it lay.
“You can see her now” smirked McConnell. “There’s not much to see” giggled Grassley.
Kavanaugh shot a beer and let out a demented cackle. “Try to fuck with me?” he gurgled, as he threw up and passed out.
At the end of a darkened corridor, a fat man smirked. “I made her great again, didn’t I?” He grabbed for a passing nurse then disappeared into the elevator.