The first couple of drafts of this were angry, rough, and bordering on malevolent. With superior advice from my spouse, I refrained from publishing those early drafts and waited so I could gain some perspective from time. I have done that. The reflective time and thoughts did result in some serious editing, believe it or not. But I have to admit I am still angry.
Trump, Kavanaugh, Ellison, Betsy DeVos, Trump Jr., the other boy Trump, Jeff Sessions, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Dana Rohrabacher, Scott Pruitt, Wilber Ross, Kris Kobach, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Ryan Zinke, Devin Nunes and the list goes on. As the level of corruption, incompetence and idiocy approaches new heights every single day, I can’t seem to let it go.
I have heard from several people how they hate what the Dems did with the Kavanaugh nomination, making it a partisan political battle. Not one mention of Merrick Garland and a Senate led by Mitch McConnell that refused the President’s nominee even a hearing, let alone what type of hearing. Do people really not understand that the Republicans reaped what they have sown.
How could the Senate dismiss the accusations of at least four women, at least one roommate, now retracting earlier statements, and at least one other heavy drinking classmate and friend? That’s one question.
On the topic of the accusations themselves: Why is it so hard for men to understand why a woman might not want to make being sexually abused or harassed made public? I mean, getting right down to it, there aren’t that many guys talking about being caught masturbating by their mothers, are there? Why? Because it is demeaning and embarrassing, that’s why. And for women, what happens to them most often surpasses demeaning and harassing, and includes a violation of self-control and confidence and, also most often, a violent physical ordeal. Moreover, our history is we make women not only live the experience all over again when they go public, but we treat the victim like they deserved what happened to them. Who the fuck would want to volunteer for that? Not me, let me assure you. And, I bet, not you either.
One more point on this one. Had Kavanaugh said, “I am horrified and disturbed by this false allegation and welcome and will fully cooperate with all investigations of this alleged incident. Please hurry, because I am anxious to be vindicated”, this likely would have been over quickly – assuming he was telling the truth. But, no, what we get from the supposed impartial, non-partisan lifetime appointment candidate to the Supreme Court is a snide, arrogant, and unhinged blaming of the Democrats, the Clintons, and yes, the “left-wing conspiracy. No one convicted him, all that was asked for was an investigation. Kavanaugh’s seemed to smack of “methinks the lady doth protest too much.” And the abbreviated FBI investigation only served to further besmirch the reputation of the nation’s leading crime fighters.
But the important question is whether there was any real doubt – after his testimony – that the orientation and attitude of this candidate warranted a real rethink on his suitability for the highest court in the land? I think there was no doubt at all.
So, at the end, Kavanaugh gets confirmed (and Susan Collins of Maine is likely not to run again and Joe Manchin of West Virginia may have put his re-election at some risk) and now we know that regardless of his past, we now have a Supreme Court justice with no pretense of bi-partisanship and whose personality and behavior bode ill for the smooth running of the court.
My Dem friends rejoiced at the primary win of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, forgetting that she’s really a socialist (not a Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialist, but like a real Socialist) and, of course, anti-Israel because, well that’s just what the progressive left believes
Kris Kobach, he of the invented and duplicitous evidence used by the now defunct Trump Commission on voter fraud and now the subject of a Kansas Grand Jury investigation as to whether Kobach and others in his office engaged in “destroying, obstructing, or failing to deliver online voter registration.” This is the same guy who just won the Republican primary for Governor in Kansas by 110 votes. The most outspoken proponent of voter suppression is being accused of…. wait for it…. voter suppression. There is some delicious irony in that.
Pruitt, Ross, Zinke, and FEMA’s Brock as well as Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin are all either under investigation for corrupt practices, resigned because of their being caught, or are looking for ways to escape being caught.
Trump himself, I believe, could easily warrant an investigation as to whether he has violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution. When I tell my Republican friends that this is the most corrupt Administration since either Warren Harding or Ulysses S. Grant, they try to tell me that Obama’s administration was just as bad. I scream. Then I scream, “prove it.”
I tell my Dem friends that Keith Ellison may not be the guy they want representing their party and I get blank looks. I mention things like a long association with Louis Farrakhan and accusations of sexual misconduct and I get a classic “huh?” response and I believe they think I am way out of line. Shit, you guys made Al Franken resign because he has a crappy sense of gender humor and he thought it was 1984, not 2016 and Ellison gets a pass? “Bullshit”, I bellow, “total bullshit”.
Just read an Es quire article on Devin Nunes. You know, the Trump hosanna-ing guy who champions the wall on the border with Mexico, wants funding diverted to ICE to find and toss more illegal immigrants out of the country and who defends separating children from their parents as a disincentive message to other would be illegal immigrants. The guy who is always talking about his tie to land and his family’s dairy farm in California. Yeah, that guy. Just so happens the family dairy farm moved to northwest Iowa more than 10 years ago (something Devin just forgot to disclose as he was touting his California roots) and most definitely employs (like every other dairy farmer in the area) illegal immigrants to do the milking.
The sad problem is that you could not make this stuff up. The American President gets laughed at by the ENTIRE United Nations General Assembly – there on tape for all to see – and his Prevaricator-in-Chief Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells us – with a straight face – that General Assembly was laughing WITH the President, not AT the President. Say what? Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks could not have written that any better. What a joke.
I am most decidedly not a Democrat (these days). I am even more not a Republican (these days). I have no party. There is no party for those of us who are swayed by facts, are liberal socially, in favor of growth to improve all our futures, slightly hawkish when it comes to foreign policy and the use of American power to advance both our interests and (what I thought used to be) our values and are able to change our minds when presented with new information.
So, let’s stop the nonsense. Let’s call stupid, crazy and wrong for what they are and when we see it in practice. Rather, regardless of party, call it stupid, crazy and wrong. No matter whose ox gets gored. Wrong is Wrong. Stupid is stupid. And God knows, Crazy is crazy. And we all goddamn well know it.
Adult Language Is Possible 
Two thought: I watched a man in a Frank Lutz focus group argue (to some very conservative women) that he didn’t believe Dr. Ford because she waited 40 years to confront Kavanaugh. To each women who tried to explain to him what it is like to be attacked, he just kept saying, like a mantra, “Forty years?” But (I yelled at the screen) she didn’t wait 40 years to confront him; she still hasn’t confronted him; she has no desire to confront him. She came forward only in the hope that his name would be removed from a “short list.” So the men who doubt women’s claims do so with closed minds, which brings me to thought number two.
I share your anger, verging on rage, when someone says something like “Obama’s administration was just as corrupt.” It is like standing with someone on a pleasant sunny afternoon and having the person turn to you to bitch about the rain. You look at the person incredulously and say, “What are you talking about? It’s not raining now.” And the person just continues with this almost surreal discussion: “Are you nuts? It’s raining cats and dogs out here. I hate this weather.” And try though you might, you can’t convince the person that it is dry, sunny day. What do you do? You know the person is not crazy. And yet there is a section of their thinking that they have walled off from plain, demonstrable truth, and they will defend that wall at all costs. It literally makes we worry about humanity.
Two thoughtS: (sorry, no edit feature).