3219

Oh Jesus

Also, Kanye West danced as a bottle of Perrier.

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Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy warned high schoolers, as the toxic fight over confirming Brett Kavanaugh to replace him on the court continues, that the country is seeing the “death and decline of democracy.”

“Perhaps we didn’t do too good a job teaching the importance of preserving democracy by an enlightened civic discourse,” Kennedy said during an appearance at a high school in his hometown of Sacramento, California. “In the first part of this century we’re seeing the death and decline of democracy.”

Kennedy’s appearance were a part of a Constitution Day celebration, as Kennedy went to teach students about the document, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The remarks came just after a whirlwind week surrounding Kavanaugh. The president was tasked with nominating a judge after Kennedy announced his retirement from the high court this past June. Kavanaugh was also once of Kennedy’s law clerks.

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“I’m an optimistic, keg half-full kinda guy!” LOL

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The crowd’s reaction to some parts of the bit were pretty good, like oooh did they really just go there.

“I’m not backing down you sons of bitches. I don’t know the meaning of the word stop.”

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Worse, Republican presidential candidates have won the popular vote once since 1988. (Bush got handed the election by the Supreme Court, and Russians hacked DNC data analytics for the trump campaign, making them both arguably illegitimate.) The electoral college is manifestly undemocratic.**

**And to forestall the inevitable reply:
A republic is a representative democracy. No country on earth has a “true” democracy (the closest thing to that is the federal Swiss referendums.)

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NYT reporting that the FBI will indeed ask Judge about Julie Swetnick’s allegations.

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It will be fascinating to see what kind of report the FBI produces. The disaster (and therefore most likely) scenario is that the FBI concludes that the allegations are credible and consistent with known events, but unproven. The Republicans then have cover to say “you got your FBI investigation, now shut up while we vote and confirm Kavanaugh.”

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Why would Judge cooperate? Given how limited the investigation is, should we not expect some combination of “I don’t remember” or “on the advice of counsel, I decline…” responses? The latter would have been dramatic had it happened on national TV. Not now, though.

My expectations are very limited. Imagine you were in Kavanaugh’s class at Prep or at Yale, and you knew some stories from that time (assuming none of them involve felonious assaults). Would you come forward? Would you stick your face in the meatgrinder?

Honestly, I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision. I see some of my old classmates on CNN telling what they know, and I’m glad they have the courage to do so. But it’s been a tiny number so far, and I’m not surprised by that. Getting involved in this is potentially stepping in front of a train, just as Blasey-Ford described.

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All I can say is FUCK YOU CNN, KEEP THAT WITCH OFF YOUR NETWORK. Thank you. They’ll never learn.

3230

This. A million times this.

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This is a long read, and it’s not exactly written from a dispassionate journalistic perspective, but I found it useful. The author laboriously connects the dots needed to reach the conclusion many of us reached without quite such rigorous dot connecting. A guy that says he can be trusted over someone else, because he isn’t a liar, is in fact a liar if he’s been lying about not being a liar.

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Even by Conway’s standards, this is despicable. She brought up her own status as a victim of sexual assault (apparently for the first time in public) in order to score political points. You can’t even argue that she wasn’t just scoring points, because the precise reason she is on the show as an administration spokesperson is to score political points.

As usual, her word salad leaves out the important point, anyway. It is a shame that Tapper was not quick enough on the uptake to call her on it.

From the transcript:

“And let me just say also it’s not a meeting of the MeToo movement. I feel very empathetic, frankly, for victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment and rape. That – I’m a victim of sexual assault. I don’t expect Judge Kavanaugh or Jake Tapper or Jeff Flake or anybody to be held responsible for that. You have to be responsible for your own conduct.”

No one is asking Kavanaugh to be held responsible for what happened to the women who confronted Flake. The whole point is to hold Kavanaugh responsible for his conduct.

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If that was supposed to be some sort gotcha regarding how folks on the left treated Bill Clinton lying under oath about a consensual affair vs. Kanavaugh lying to Congress during his job interview to avoid copping to a felony, I think Ken needs to up his game a bit.

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Still i think its a relevant only in that this is the moment that really flipped the conservatives out to crazyland. He was caught lying under oath, and the Democrats didn’t care. And literally to this day Republicans will have their bloody revenge for this even if it tearing the republic apart to have it. It was this moment so many Republicans seemed to, in their heart, go “ffffucckkkkk lllliiiibbbeerrraaaalllsss!!!” screaming inwardly till their eyes rolled in the back of their head and they clenched their jaws so hard in a reptillian-brain bite their teeth cracked.

It combines the two things Republicans care most about - following the letter of the law rather than the spirit of law (they’re happy to do things that are immoral all day long as long as they aren’t caught doing something illegal) and patriotic to the flag über alles (the whole Kapernick affair as the most recent example).

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Yes, why doesn’t Ford take responsibility for the fact that she let Kavanaugh throw her on the bed and pin her down while groping her and trying to remove her clothes? It’s outrageous that she wants Kavanaugh to take responsibility for this. He was just a teenager and yet she refuses to take responsibility for his actions. He’s a victim of her entitlement.

I really wish I believed in Hell because I want all of the motherfuckers to burn

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That was my first thought on seeing the quote. But I think it is pretty clear from the part I quoted that she means you cannot hold the current nominee responsible for reprehensible actions of others. She ignores the vital importance of determining if the reprehensible actions Kavanaugh is accused of did occur. If so, we need to hold him responsible.

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office will be investigated to determine whether it leaked a confidential letter from one of Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers, Sen. Tom Cotton said Sunday.

Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, also said lawyers recommended to Christine Blasey Ford by Democrats will face a Washington, D.C., bar investigation for telling her that Senate Judiciary Committee staffers would not travel to California to interview her about her sexual-assault allegation.

"They have betrayed her,” Cotton said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “She has been victimized by Democrats … on a search-and-destroy mission for Brett Kavanaugh.”