The Year-Long Week

It’s become common in my circles on Twitter  to joke that time moves extremely slowly in Trumpland, but at the same time the news cycle moves at light speed. Every day, every night, something new happening.

This nomination brawl for Brett Kavanaugh has become all-consuming. I don’t want hard-right, anti-abortion, partisan operative on the Supreme Court. Politically, for me, he’s the worst choice I can think of for women, minorities, the disabled, the poor, labor, and anyone who opposes the issues that the donor class wants.

That’s BEFORE all of the allegations started coming out. The events of the last two days have shown me, and America, who Brett Kavanaugh really is: a mean, angry, vindictive, and entitled man who is unfit for the Federal bench, let alone the Supreme Court of the United States. 

I believe Dr Blasey Ford. I don’t think she’s mistaken in her identification of Kavanaugh as her attacker. I don’t believe Kavanaugh’s protestations. I think he’s forgotten a long-ago, fumbling attack on a young girl…and not merely because he and his friend Mark Judge drank to blackout stage. I think her testimony was extremely effective and sincere. And I think his testimony was appalling – revealing him to be temperamentally unfit for the office. 

I think that either it was so commonplace and trivial for him that he can’t possibly pick out this single instance out of all the others.

OR, he didn’t think “humping” a smaller, weaker female counts as an assault. He didn’t get any, so it didn’t happen. So he forgot about it, as she wasn’t one of the elite girls he had to treat with more respect.

It’s been a rough week for assault and abuse survivors. I’m one of the lucky ones that didn’t suffer anything more serious than being poked and groped by “handsy” boys. And yes, dammit, it’s not right that those boys thought they could touch girls without consent. Somehow, I escaped anything worse once I went on to college. I heard dark rumors of things happening out of sight at frat parties, but I do remember feeling the need for groups of girls to look out for each other at parties (especially when leaving).

The turmoil of today’s Senate Judiciary committee meeting, with the odd flakiness of Senator Flake’s fakeout vote, which both enabled Kavanaugh to proceed on to the full Senate for a vote, but with a week’s delay for the FBI to finally reopen the background check to look into “current allegations.”

And Trump has actually authorized this, but I suspect Mitch McConnelll still controls the floor vote and could disregard the “pause” for the FBI.

The other allegations that are currently out there? I don’t know how far they’ll go toward coming in to testify or not.

Meanwhile, I have questions.

What’s the reason the Rs were all screaming about holding the SCOTUS seat open until 2020? As far as I know, the Ds hope to defeat this nominee’s confirmation…. but delaying until after the midterms is a pipe dream, let alonge until 2020. Is it because the Rs fear they will not only lose big in the midterms, but lose the White House in 2020? And what should they worry? Trump won’t stick around long enough for that, he’lll resign in a hissy before the Dems get a chance to air his dirty-money laundry.

Why did the Rs think having a female prosecutor asking questions for them was a good idea? They dumped her as soon as she got too close to the truth about a very intriguing date: July 1, 1982.

Finally, who else thinks Lindsey Graham’s job interview for AG went well? 

The American Bar Association had concerns about Kavanaugh 12 years ago. Republicans dismissed those, too.: History repeated itself. At least it had a spell of deja vu when the American Bar Association released an extraordinary statement at a crucial moment that raised concerns about Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to a powerful judicial position — just as it had done 12 years earlier. – by AVI SELK – Tags: politics – https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/28/american-bar-association-had-kavanaugh-concerns-years-ago-republicans-dismissed-those-too/

Survivors feel both hope and fear after Kavanaugh hearing, advocates say: (Reuters) – For sexual assault survivors, Christine Blasey Ford emerged as a new hero on Thursday, triggering a surge in calls to a national rape hotline as she told senators that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were teenagers. – by Jonathan Allen, Gabriella Borter – Tags: politics – https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-kavanaugh-women/survivors-feel-both-hope-and-fear-after-kavanaugh-hearing-advocates-say-idUSKCN1M82VH

Under pressure, Trump orders FBI Kavanaugh probe, causing week delay: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump, under intense pressure from moderates in his own party over his Supreme Court nominee, on Friday ordered an FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh at the request of Senate Republicans, a move that will delay the con – by David Morgan, Richard Cowan – Tags: politics – https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-kavanaugh/under-pressure-trump-orders-fbi-kavanaugh-probe-causing-week-delay-idUSKCN1M8174

That’s it for this batch. Thanks for reading!