Maybe it was his phony act of outrage that was clearly put on to impress Tr-mp and rally the cultists who surround him. Maybe it was his flippant discussion of drinking beer and his inability to know when too many is too many, were it not for some blood alcohol chart. Maybe it was his loss of composure throughout his testimony, hiding his dark deeds behind a wall of theatrical anger, unfit for a judge at any level. Maybe it was his invoking the Clintons and a left-wing conspiracy. Maybe it was his embarrassing evasion of asking for, not to mention demanding, an FBI investigation into the matter. Or maybe, just maybe, it was the moment he swore to God he didn’t do it, didn’t do any of what he was accused of doing. After all, what Jesus-loving, Jesus-obeying Christian would do that? Consider the words of Jesus from Matthew Chapter 5:
Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
There you have it, as far as I’m concerned.
As for our new cultural hero, Christine Blasey Ford, her testimony was both breathtaking and heartbreaking. One cannot do, as Republicans all did yesterday and continue to do today, say she was credible and also defend Brett Kavanaugh. It simply isn’t possible. You cannot believe she was the victim of a sexual assault and also believe that Kavanaugh was telling the truth. Why? Because she clearly and with a sound mind named him as her attacker. To try to have it both ways, to try to say she was credible and also to either believe Kavanaugh or give him the benefit of the doubt, is logically and morally inconsistent. If you credit her and then give him the benefit of the doubt, you are necessarily saying she is either a liar or is suffering from a serious mental disorder causing her to believe a lie, causing her to publicly name Kavanaugh as her attacker in a case of a deranged mistaken identity.
Yet today, the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee ignored all decency, ignored what they saw and heard, and voted to move his nomination to the full Senate, where we will now find out whether there are any Republicans, including Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who have even an ounce of decency left in their tanks.
After Jeff Flake’s vote this morning, my expectations are not high.
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
Anonymous
/ September 28, 2018I agree. Kavanaugh is a liar. He doesn’t lie as frequently as T-rump, but a lie is a lie. The party of “principles” has lost all claim to principles. We will be saddled with this man on the Supreme Court for many years to come. I am worried about the future of my country with such men in the judiciary.
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R. Duane Graham
/ September 28, 2018Well, it’s all up to Murkowski and Collins and, perhaps, a few wayward Democrats, but I think you’re right. And I’m worried about the future, too. That’s why I support an expansion of the Court, an issue Dems should run on in 2020.
Duane
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thgeneralist
/ September 28, 2018When you’re all in for totalitarian fascism — as is the entire GOP (including Murkowski and Collins) — democracy and decency are no longer your friends, but your hard enemies. Patriotism is replaced with party-tinged nationalism. The rule of law is made to be broken. The are no depths to which you cannot sink. The bet played by the GOP is on a new national order: the suspension of elections in 2020; the right to push all non-fascists off the courts; the replacement of the FBI and CIA by ICE and Homeland Security. The GOPers will be on te winning team and to the winners go the spoils. Who knows what new titles will be taken: Emperor? Chief Inquisitor? Chancellor? King? Prime Assassin?
We — like the Romans — allowed our laziness and greed to reorder the game. There are plenty of professional political Democrats to blame, too. Barring a miracle (speaking of lazy, I’m pretty sure “God” no longer intervenes in history — if she ever did and if she even exists) — it’s game over for American democracy.
On another note — Blasey Ford’s courageous testimony should have only been necessary to send Kavanaugh to prison. (She will be professionally and socially destroyed for her bravery.) His serial lying every time he comes up for a judicial appointment should have been sufficient to disqualify him from SCOTUS consideration. Republican frat boys are running the country: from the halls of Congress, to the board rooms of American business and banking, to the local and national judiciary, to the the press rooms of most of the news media that still exists. Why are we even having this discussion?
Truth doesn’t matter (or exist?) anymore. Donald F***ing Trump is President of the United States. There will be five fiends on the SCOTUS. The November election vote counts will be altered in Moscow. Hide and watch. We are tilting at windmills, friends.
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R. Duane Graham
/ September 29, 2018I’m pessimistic, too, my friend, although not to the degree you are. My national optimism, once very strong during the Obama presidency, has taken a big, big hit, that’s for sure. But I’m not ready to concede just yet. I periodically need to give myself a pep talk and it looks like you need one now. So, here goes.
As you know, I’m not one to believe in miracles. But I do believe in numbers.
I’ll call your attention to a CNN article, which reiterates what I’ve tried to say on this blog: despite all the focusing on and fussing over Tr-mp voters we see in the press, Tr-mp is just not that popular overall:
Now, granted he is higher in other polls and granted that even 36% support (most of it comes from Republicans, obviously) is grossly offensive, but still it is a good place for us to find some hope.
Also from that CNN article, party ID most recently finds:
25% identify as Republicans
31% as Democrats
38% as Independent
More than two-thirds of folks don’t identify as Republicans, a number that has been increasing. Bottom line on these stats is:
Surmountable in the extreme, don’t you think?
Also consider this:
Perhaps the saddest of all these statistics is that Tr-mp is in power only with the consent of 25.7% of the population and that more than 108 million people weren’t interested enough in their democratic inheritance to bother to vote—and that was in 2016, a presidential election year!
Can we do better? Can we get more people out to vote—even in this off-year—who will vote against Tr-mpism? I have confidence we can. The polls are showing as much all over the place. When more people vote, more Republicans tend to lose. And we need more Republicans to lose if we are to start the long job of, first, putting things back together and, second, restarting progressivism. It’s that simple.
It’s not a miracle. It’s math.
Duane
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thgeneralist
/ October 1, 2018I do hope you’re correct, but I’m not sure math works in this particular post truth society.
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R. Duane Graham
/ October 2, 2018Math *always* works! It’s just that in this case we’re still relying on people and that, as you know, is always risky. 🙂
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thgeneralist
/ October 2, 2018I would like to clarify that I WILL be voting and driving people to the polls — as is my custom. I am no longer confidently optimistic about much — although Amazon is raising its minimum wage to $15 per hour. There are other things going on beyond the noise of Trump and Kavanaugh. In other news the Carolina Panthers signed courageous-previously-black-balled Eric Reed to a contract. This gives me one team to tepidly root for since the owner, David Tepper, is an articulate and noisy critic of the Trumpster. The rest of the NFL owners are cowards. I have not watched a game since Kaepernick became unemployed.
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R. Duane Graham
/ October 2, 2018I understand totally.
Eric Reid’s lawsuit/grievance against the NFL is still active (and he has a good case despite being signed), although he probably isn’t going to protest the way he did with San Fran. And I love the way Tepper has come into a league of mostly Republicans (including, apparently, most of the white players and even some of the black ones) and said true things about Tr-mp.
Duane
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middlechildwoman
/ September 28, 2018I’m so angry right now that I might have to go walk 5 miles just to clear my head. I sense that I might not be polite to the ND (no data) person who I will encounter on my upcoming canvass on Sunday. Last weekend I politely listened and assured each one that I would MOST CERTAINLY remove his/her name from our data base. Hell, I don’t want any Republicans in our campaign. I am ashamed at what my country has become under the reprehensible GOP and their leader. I am also determined to keep registering the young people to vote and doing what I can to achieve a blue wave. I’d like to say I’m not afraid of the future of this great country but I cannot. I simply cannot.
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R. Duane Graham
/ September 29, 2018I’m with you, my friend. Anger is the first emotion in this case, that’s for sure. I expressed some national optimism in today’s post, so I won’t go into that now.
But I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the work you are doing here with the local Democratic Party. Without people like you, there simply is not much of a fight. I am awed by your dedication and passion and those who are working with you.
If McCaskill wins in this state, it will be because of people like you. I’m proud to know you and call you my friend.
Duane
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helenofmarlowe
/ September 28, 2018I feel so distressed and disturbed by this, it even, really, keeps me awake at night. Regardless of who is telling the truth (she is), he is not qualified to be on supreme court. His loyalty to the Republican party and his disparaging remarks about “the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups” removes the veil of pretense that he would be a non-partisan judge. He has already lied under oath, in his 2006 confirmation hearings, when he claimed he had not seen the Miranda memos. It is known now that he lied under oath at that time, and yet he was obsessed with
impeaching Clinton for lying under oath? (He worked with Kenneth Starr.) If this man is put on the court, we will no longer be able to pretend that our supreme court is a non-partisan judicial group of impartial justices, and how will our country be changed by that, by having to give up that pretense?
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R. Duane Graham
/ September 29, 2018Nice to hear from you again, even under these sad and maddening circumstances.
I completely agree with you about Kavanaugh’s political tactics and about his previous lies that have nothing to do with Christine Blasey Ford’s highly credible accusations. He should be impeached for them standing alone. And certainly I agree with you that if, despite all of what we have seen, Kavanaugh ends up on the Court, even the pretense of an impartial Court (long gone for me anyway) will be impossible to defend.
Thanks for writing in and sharing your passion.
Duane
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Jim Wheeler
/ September 29, 2018To the point about who’s lying, some note that witness identification is notoriously inaccurate. This is true when the perp is a stranger, and even more so when the perp is of a different race. However, in this case it is not because Kavanaugh and Judge were not strangers, nor of a different race. Ford knew them from previous parties. She is 100% credible.
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R. Duane Graham
/ September 29, 2018Great point, Jim. I studied the reliability of eyewitness testimony when I was an arbitration advocate and you are exactly right. He was not a stranger to her, and his attempt to dismiss her as someone he may have casually and unremarkably interacted with was an attempt to diminish her testimony by the way you suggest.
Thanks,
Duane
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Herb Van Fleet
/ September 29, 2018For now, I will just share some good news. (I’ll have more later – as you might expect.) Anyway, there’s this from a Facebook friend:
“Less than a day after Grassley’s performance at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing investigating Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation of sexual assault against nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a Crowdpac has been started to fund his future opponent in 2022. In roughly 14 hours, it’s raised about $63,000.
“The fund was started by Ady Barkan, the activist behind the Crowdpac to fund Maine senator Susan Collins. Unlike Grassley’s Crowdpac, Collins’s is specifically tied to her vote on Kavanaugh: If she votes yes, the more than $1.6 million already raised goes to fund her opponent in 2020. How about a fund to get rid of Lindsey Graham?”
Here’s a link to the article. https://lifehacker.com/how-to-rage-donate-against-chuck-grassley-1829390249
I also saw this morning tha the Catholic Church has withdrawn its support for Kavanagh – a Catholic. Of course, the ABA has already pulled their endorsement.
All that plus the FBI report will surely stop this whole farce. And don’t call me Shirley!
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R. Duane Graham
/ October 2, 2018Nice! But I have my doubts about the FBI report. Doesn’t look like a very thorough job is being done. But I really didn’t expect much. If you can’t see by now that Kavanaugh is a liar, a mountain of evidence won’t convince you.
Duane
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Jim Wheeler
/ October 3, 2018Herb and Duane, if you will, permit me an aside here to Duane’s point about the obvious:
I had the thought that Kavanaugh’s loss of composure during the hearing was much like the big scene in the movie, A Few Good Men, where Nicholson’s character loses his cool on the witness stand.
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