A close reading of my post will reveal that I don’t think it’s entirely hopeless… but that I believe relying on traditional institutions for remedy is.
On Thursday, the Senate judiciary committee and many millions of Americans were presented with two different expressions of pain. In the morning, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford spoke about being sexually assaulted by a couple of insensate drunks at a party when she was a teenager. She talked about hearing them laugh at her while she struggled, and about thinking that she might die in that room with that sound in her ears; she talked about how the trauma of that moment of violation, even after she escaped, has followed her throughout the rest of her life and how she fought for years to win some tenuous peace with the experience.
In a break from the earlier stages of his confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh offered one hypothetical after another in laying out how he might be made to hurt: he might never be able to work as a federal judge again, or teach law again, or coach youth basketball again. He spoke about the damage done to his reputation, stopping periodically to fight back tears. He spoke about how unpleasant and invasive it was to have to answer questions, in private and then in public, about his past. He kept bringing up sports for some reason, and where he went to college and law school. With the help of some Republican Senators on the committee, several of whom were reported to be in tears during his statement, Kavanaugh finally allowed that, yes, during this last week and change he had been through hell . When Senator Chris Coons of Delaware suggested delaying the vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination by seven days so that a more thorough investigation of the charges could go forward, Kavanaugh responded, “do you have any idea how long these 10 days have been?” He meant for him.
It is the purpose of everything that the people in power do every day: to punish and push down wherever and whenever it is easiest, to do violence not just because of the old rancid principles that have long justified such violence, but precisely because it is easy to do. What was once subtext is now explicitly principle. When the Senators vote to confirm Kavanaugh on Friday they will vote not just about whose pain is more real but whose pain means more. They already know he will distribute pain in the future.
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I went with Dero ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sharpe_Shaver ) but I suppose Devo fits the early 80s time frame better.
Like posting despair on blogs - that’s a sure fire winner.
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MRAs may use gaslighting, because yes it is a pretty effective way to look in control a conversation etc. That doesn’t preclude the fact that women can gaslight too. Lived it first hand for a few too many years.
But that’s off topic. There’s no doubt Kavanaugh is gaslighting/DARVOing the situation.
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Not the sort of person that I’d want doing calm evaluation of thorny legal questions.
At least he didn’t go DAVROS.
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If some reports are true, there is a serious gambling problem to address as well. $200k in debts? Really?
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“This girl has no family – nobody knows that she worked here. It’ll be as if she never existed. All that’s left is our friendship.”
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I am far from defending this ass, but there is a reason, even if he is completely innocent. He knows that if there is an FBI investigation, then it is highly possible to last until after the election. And if it does, then there is no way the next group of senators would confirm him (assuming the Dems gain 1 seat, which is likely). So, his only hope is to fight the investigation, regardless of whether or not he is guilty.
US politics is so, so broken and sad.
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I think you are 100000000000% correct and it is why he under oath did not say “YES I WANT THE FBI TO DIG DEEPER”
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I just realized (after clicking on the story) that Kavanaugh looks just like Francis from Peewee’s big adventure…
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If Francis were a little less chubby? He really does…
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And aren’t these assholes always banging on with the “you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide” drum, anyway?
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Everybody has something to hide. Except for me, of course. And my monkey.
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As I alluded to in another thread:
Caveat: I have no idea whether he’s a legacy admission or not.
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How about one of these:
- Half the Senate is below its current average.
- 10% of senators are so low, they are the only ones below the current median*.
- Half the Senate should be standing in a median waiting for a tow truck to pull their morality out of the ditch.
*sic
