Another problem with Kavanaugh

[sathari]

Pursuant to rydra_wong's last post, for anyone who understandably finds it uncomfortable to talk about sexual assault with Republican senators' office staffers (or indeed Republicans and conservatives generally, or anyone in general), former Senator Russ Feingold, who served on the Judiciary Committee during Kavanaugh's confirmation to his present position, has laid out the, AHEM, discrepancies between Kavanaugh's testimony then and information that's come out in the current proceedings and the extent to which that's an issue..

(I suspect I'm not alone in wanting Mr. Feingold to make the rounds of the news shows with this.)

Comments

[sathari]

Oh. Em. Eff. Gee. Let's see, we've got, ah, testimonial inconsistencies, financial peculiarities... why did it even have to get to the point where Sen. Feinstein had to bring up Dr. Blasey's allegation? Seriously, GOP and Federalist Society, vet your people a little.

[rydra_wong]

On the subject of vetting (re: sexual assault and harassment), I thought this was pithy:

https://twitter.com/AdamBlickstein/status/1043509558163976192

[sathari]

So. On. Point. I mean. If you wrote this as satire it'd get thrown out for being over the top. "What, the guy hired to help confirm a SCOTUS nominee accused of sexual assault is himself forced out for sexual harassment? Don't you think that's a little much?" YES, YES, GOP, WE DO.

[rydra_wong]

If you wrote this as satire it'd get thrown out for being over the top.

YUP. See also:

https://twitter.com/rtraister/status/1043133321323196416

"Good morning & welcome to another episode of I Genuinely Cannot Believe What Is Fucking Happening No One Would Ever Write An Actual Episode Of This Because It Is Too Implausibly On The Nose.

On today's show: the president weighs in and I might already be drinking."

[sathari]

Good grief, yes. Rebecca Traister is a national treasure.

[kore]

Oh, Traister's great!

[gingicat]

That’s my question too - there’s awful stuff he’s doing NOW.

[sathari]

Yes, exactly! So many more reasons NOT to confirm him than otherwise and yet they're railroading this thing along.

[kore]

Did Trump's WH ever ever run full background checks on anyone? I mean, it was partly super incompetence, but I also remember a bunch of times "this person has to be confirmed/sworn in but oh their background check isn't ready yet, do it anyway." What crooks.

[sathari]

Exactly! "Extreme vetting" is only for foreign brown people who might want to, ~oh noes~, come here and work hard and live peacefully, not, you know, for people who are actually supposed to be running the country and accessing state secrets. (Or for that matter, being appointed to the nation's highest court, because all of this with Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing just does not happen if the GOP had slowed its roll and addressed some of the more documentable if less serious issues with his nomination.)

[kore]

"Extreme vetting" is only for foreign brown people who might want to, ~oh noes~, come here and work hard and live peacefully

RIGHT
RIGHT

And also women! so untrustworthy and nasty. And if you are a foreign woman, forget about it, you are probably like that Mazie Hirono woman (OMFG, I love her, SO MUCH: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/senator-mazie-hirono-is-the-moral-anchor-of-the-kavanaugh-hearings https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/25/us/politics/mazie-hirono-kavanaugh-senate.html)

[sathari]

I KNOW RIGHT. They are being more thorough in their background checks for random people who want to live here (and, lbr, often work in really demanding/unpleasant/grueling jobs for minimal pay and limited access if any to social services or any kind of worker protections) than they are FOR A JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THINGS REASONABLE IS THIS NONSENSE.

MAZIE HIRONO!!!! LIONESS OF THE SENATE, WE HEAR YOU ROAR! (Seriously, I remember right after McCain's death people were talking about how "the last lion of the Senate is gone" and now with Sen. Hirono, I am just like, "The lions are dead... LONG LIVE THE LIONESS!"

[kore]

MAZIE HIRONO!!!! LIONESS OF THE SENATE, WE HEAR YOU ROAR! (Seriously, I remember right after McCain's death people were talking about how "the last lion of the Senate is gone" and now with Sen. Hirono, I am just like, "The lions are dead... LONG LIVE THE LIONESS!"

YES YES THAT'S AMAZING I remember seeing her come back from cancer treatment and voting so that people could have healthcare, and crying because she was just so fantastic.