Monday Reading

As always, please to to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

In case you missed it, Sofia Tesfaye writes about how functionaries lick- spittles in the Trump regime are attempting to silence a whistleblower in the intelligence community who has "urgent" information possibly concerning serious misconduct by Putin's puppet:

According to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, a whistleblower who lodged an urgent complaint about wrongdoing within the intelligence community has gone ignored and left unprotected. In a letter released on Friday, Schiff accused a “top intel official of illegally withholding” a “whistleblower” complaint described as “urgent” by the Intelligence Community Inspector General (IC IG) — and one that could implicate the White House.

"A month ago, a whistleblower within the intelligence community lawfully filed a complaint regarding a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation of law, or deficiency within the responsibility or authority of the Director of National Intelligence," Schiff said in a statement. The IC IG first notified the committee of the whistleblower complaint on Sept. 9. The next day, Schiff requested a full, unredacted copy of the complaint, the ICIG's findings related to the matter, and all records connected to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) involvement, "including any and all correspondence with other Executive Branch actors including the White House."

In what may be the clearest example yet of obstruction in the Trump administration, acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, in direct contradiction to an unambiguous rule worked out in the wake of Watergate, is refusing to hand over the whistleblower’s complaint to Congress... [snip]

"The Committee can only conclude, based on this remarkable confluence of factors, that the serious misconduct at issue involves the President of the United States and/or other senior White House or Administration officials," Schiff wrote in a letter accompanying his subpoena of Maguire. He continued: "This raises grave concerns that your office, together with the Department of Justice and possibly the White House, are engaged in an unlawful effort to protect the President and conceal from the Committee information related to his possible 'serious or flagrant' misconduct, abuse of power, or violation of law."   (our emphasis)

Party before country and Trump before all else.

Need to plumb the shallow puddle that is Trump's persona?  James Poniewozik has you covered in this excellent op/ ed:

Mr. Trump has been playing himself instinctually as a character since the 1980s; it’s allowed him to maintain a profile even through bankruptcies and humiliations. But it’s also why, on the rare occasions he’s had to publicly attempt a role contrary to his nature — calling for healing from a script after a mass shooting, for instance — he sounds as stagey and inauthentic as an unrehearsed amateur doing a sitcom cameo.

His character shorthand is “Donald Trump, Fighter Guy Who Wins.” Plop him in front of a camera with an infant orphaned in a mass murder, and he does not have it in his performer’s tool kit to do anything other than smile unnervingly and give a fat thumbs-up.  [snip]

The taunting. The insults. The dog whistles. The dog bullhorns. The “Lock her up” and “Send her back.” All of it follows reality-TV rules. Every season has to top the last. Every fight is necessary, be it against Ilhan Omar or Debra Messing. Every twist must be more shocking, every conflict more vicious, lest the red light grow bored and wink off. The only difference: Now there’s no Mark Burnett to impose retroactive logic on the chaos, only press secretaries, pundits and Mike Pence.

To ask whether any of this is “instinct” or “strategy” is a parlor game. If you think like a TV camera — if thinking in those reflexive microbursts of adrenaline and testosterone has served you your whole life — then the instinct is the strategy.

And to ask who the “real” Donald Trump is, is to ignore the obvious. You already know who Donald Trump is. All the evidence you need is right there on your screen. He’s half-man, half-TV, with a camera for an eye that is constantly focused on itself. The red light is pulsing, 24/7, and it does not appear to have an off switch.

This is the cipher endangering our democracy every moment he's in office, surrounded by careerist sycophants and true believers desperate to keep the show from being cancelled.

Speaking of which, E.J. Dionne, Jr., writes about the sham FBI non- investigation of credible sexual assault claims against beer- loving *Justice* Brett "KavaNo" Kavanaugh and the institutional failures triggered by the rotted out Republican Party:

We focus, rightly, on the damage President Trump is doing to our institutions. But the wreckage goes beyond Trump and involves the other two branches of government as well. The right wing’s determination to control the Supreme Court is undermining its legitimacy as well as confidence in the U.S. Senate’s approach to confirming nominees.

For the GOP, nothing will be allowed to derail its effort to create a generation-long conservative majority on the court. And that helps to explain why Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh was railroaded through his confirmation hearings last year after what amounted to a pretend inquiry into the various charges against him.

Remember, the Republican Senate voted in lockstep to confirm this sexual predator.  Every damn one of them.  If you've got one in your state up for re- election in 2020, you know what to do.  Especially with these two:

Cory Gardner and Susan Collins will never live down the shame of voting for a sexual predator to be on the Supreme Court for life.

— Matt Rogers 🎙 (@Politidope) September 15, 2019

As always, we close by recommending you pay a visit to Infidel 753's link round- up.  He covers so much territory every week that you're bound to find lots of "interesting stuff" (as he puts it) to engage you.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the complete articles/ op eds.

Anxious human windsock Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins' home state newspaper has seen the real Brett "KavaNut" Kavanaugh, and therefore has seen enough:

...Based on what he demonstrated in his own testimony, Kavanaugh lacks the character and judgment to serve on the Supreme Court. 

In his widely watched appearance, Kavanaugh revealed that he has an explosive temper and resorts to bullying when he feels threatened. He was understandably under stress and fighting a high-stakes battle for his reputation, but his temperament was tested during the hearing, and he failed the test. 

Kavanaugh also showed himself to be impermissibly political for a job that is supposed to be above politics. We’re not naive. We understand that federal judges are nominated by presidents and confirmed by senators, and that electoral politics influences their decisions about who gets to serve. 

RIPPING OFF THE MASK 

But we have never had a Supreme Court nominee who ripped off the nonpartisan mask the way Kavanaugh did Thursday and identified himself as an enemy of a political party that represents the policy preferences of millions of Americans. He blamed his predicament on bizarre conspiracy theories, claiming that his troubles stemmed from “pent-up anger about President Trump” and opponents seeking “revenge on behalf of the Clintons” and were not the result of allegations that emerged while he was being evaluated for an important job. After his partisan rant, Kavanaugh will never be able to judge a case without the animus he expressed being considered a factor in his decision. This is not the road we want to take.  (our emphasis)

Are you paying attention, Sen. Collins?

Meanwhile, the FBI background investigation initiated by fellow anxious human windsock and retiring Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake has been (contain your shock) sharply constrained by the White House, despite pathological liar Donald "Rump" Trump's claims to the contrary:

Officials said the F.B.I.’s “limited” supplemental background check of Judge Kavanaugh could be finished by Monday morning. Set in motion late last week by three Senate Republicans, the inquiry was supposed to shed further light on accusations that Judge Kavanaugh engaged in sexual misconduct during his high school and college years and help resolve the fierce national debate over whether he should win confirmation to the Supreme Court. 

But the investigation’s apparent narrow reach has infuriated the judge’s critics, who said he should be subjected to a wide-ranging examination of his drinking and possible sexual misconduct. 

Instead, the F.B.I. was directed by the White House and Senate Republicans to interview just four people: Mark Judge and P.J. Smyth, high school friends of Judge Kavanaugh’s; Leland Keyser, a high school friend of one of Judge Kavanaugh’s accusers, Christine Blasey Ford; and Deborah Ramirez, another of the judge’s accusers.

Marcy Wheeler has an unvarnished take on the "fig leaf" investigation (and faults Dems and the media for their early buy-in):

This was about the easiest thing in the world to predict. Jeff Flake issues some hollow self indulgent bullshit to make himself look like the last great reasonable man, and it is all garbage being run as cover for a complicit Trump White House and weak Senate Republicans (and at least one faux Democrat) desperately and cowardly seeking any fig leaf possible to allow them to put a craven, partisan, angry and drunkard historical sex offender on the United States Supreme Court for the next three to four decades.

They're steering the FBI away from corroborating evidence that could be provided by both Dr. Ford's and Ms. Ramirez's contemporaneous friends and acquaintances.  Also, no checking into the lies KavaNut told during multiple confirmation hearings.  We'll have to leave that up to investigations by the new Democratic House.

The Miami Herald has a heart- wrenching article about the continuing suffering of our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico, over a year after Hurricane Maria:

The face of forgotten Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria could well be that of José Luis “Chegüi” Aponte Cruz, who lost his livelihood and everything in his home when the ferocious storm pushed the roiling sea a mile into this poor beachfront community, sweeping away much of what lay in its path. 

Maria smashed apart the bright yellow concrete beach kiosk where people once came for Chegüi’s famed bacalaítos, or codfish fritters. The storm took his freezer, his fridge and his stove, his tables and chairs, all uninsured. A year later, denied loans or government aid to reopen in a food truck, he has — like much of Puerto Rico — barely begun to recover. [snip]

An analysis by Miami Herald parent McClatchy of public data for FEMA’s housing assistance program found that, as of June 1, Maria survivors in Puerto Rico received an average of $1,800 for repair assistance. In contrast, survivors of Hurricane Harvey in Texas last year got $9,127. 

In many if not most cases, advocates and homeowners say, FEMA grants were hardly enough to replace lost appliances, furnishings and clothing, much less to make repairs sufficient to allow people to remain living safely at home, the purpose of the emergency aid.  (our emphasis)

As the article points out, Puerto Rico has been left to fend for itself by the incompetent, racist Trump regime and a Republican House and Senate only interested in enabling that rotted out regime.

We conclude, as always, with a strong recommendation to check out Infidel 753's excellent round- up of links to interesting blog posts from the last week (the post we did yesterday on 1914 Paris in color was via him).

BOOM: And Then There Were Three

Michael Avenatti has produced a third Kavanaugh accuser:

In a Wednesday tweet, lawyer Michael Avenatti released emails with a lawyer for the Senate Judiciary Committee containing the name of a third woman detailing sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 

A spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley said Wednesday that lawyers for the committee “are in the process of reviewing it now.”

The client, Julie Swetnick, alleges in a sworn declaration that in 1980 and 1981 she attended house parties with Kavanaugh and Mark Judge, Kavanaugh’s accused accomplice in the alleged attack of Christine Blasey Ford in the early 1980s. 

There, Swetnick claims Kavanaugh engaged in “abusive and physically aggressive behavior toward girls, including pressing girls against him without their consent, ‘grinding’ against girls, and attempting to remove or shift girls’ clothing to expose private body parts.” 

Swetnick also claims that Kavanaugh and Judge would spike the alcoholic “punch” at parties “so as to cause girls to lose their inhibitions and their ability to say ‘No.’” 

She claimed that boys at these parties used this technique to “gang rape” a drunk woman at the party with a “train” of men waiting in the hallway to have their turn. Swetnick alleged that Kavanaugh and Judge were among the boys she saw “lined up outside rooms at many of these parties waiting for their ‘turn’ with a girl inside the room,” though it does not appear that Swetnick witnessed such an attack. 

Swetnick alleges that she was a victim of a gang rape, and that Kavanaugh and Judge were “present” when it happened — though she does not explicitly say that they took part in the alleged attack.

The sworn declaration can be viewed at the link above.

Here's Avenatti's tweet:

Below is my correspondence to Mr. Davis of moments ago, together with a sworn declaration from my client. We demand an immediate FBI investigation into the allegations. Under no circumstances should Brett Kavanaugh be confirmed absent a full and complete investigation. pic.twitter.com/QHbHBbbfbE

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 26, 2018

Some Of Kavanaugh's Female Supporters Now Having Second Thoughts

Oh, Brett, they hardly knew ye.

At least two of the women who have publicly vouched for that virginal exemplar of Republican morals, Brett Kavanaugh, are having second thoughts about their man:

Louisa Garry, one of the former Kavanaugh classmates who asked the New Yorker to remove her name from a statement of support for Kavanaugh, seems to be the same Louisa Garry who appears in a Judicial Crisis Network ad supporting Kavanaugh. https://t.co/ZpAoaEuNIf pic.twitter.com/733MHHvlVX

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 24, 2018

(h/t Karoli Kuns)

Oh... oh man. https://t.co/WFaeDMuWm7 pic.twitter.com/5MIwDch240

— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) September 25, 2018

Meanwhile, we have Kavanaugh's freshman year roommate at Yale, James Roche, vouching for Debbie Ramirez and painting a now- familiar portrait of the young man as a drunken abuser:

"It is from this experience that I concluded that although Brett was normally reserved, he was a notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time, and that he became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk. I did not observe the specific incident in question, but I do remember Brett frequently drinking excessively and becoming incoherently drunk." 

Roche says he became friends with Debbie Ramirez. "She stood out as being exceptionally honest, with a trusting manner. As we got to know one another, I discovered that Debbie was very worried about fitting in. She felt that everyone at Yale was very rich, very smart and very sophisticated and that as a Puerto Rican woman from a less privileged background she was an outsider. Her response was to try hard to make friends and get along."

Who, again, is more believable?

BONUS:  Kavanaugh has a gold - pated endorser who, like the smarmy Mitch McConnell (see post below), says Kavanaugh's accusers are liars --

The Democrats are working hard to destroy a wonderful man, and a man who has the potential to be one of our greatest Supreme Court Justices ever, with an array of False Accusations the likes of which have never been seen before!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2018

Wow, "the likes of which have never been seen before!"  Even worse than the accusations by multiple women who've accused YOU of sexual misconduct? Just, wow.

BREAKING: At Least Two More Women To Accuse Kavanaugh (UPDATED)

As the Kavanaugh Keystone Kops Koverup team tries to convince us that he kept calendars of his social engagements from 1982, it appears the situation may be about to reach critical mass:

Senate Democrats Investigate a New Allegation of Sexual Misconduct, from the Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s College Years https://t.co/OtxrOWQc8c

— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) September 23, 2018

Here's an excerpt from the story:

The woman at the center of the story, Deborah Ramirez, who is fifty-three, attended Yale with Kavanaugh, where she studied sociology and psychology. Later, she spent years working for an organization that supports victims of domestic violence. The New Yorker contacted Ramirez after learning of her possible involvement in an incident involving Kavanaugh. The allegation was conveyed to Democratic senators by a civil-rights lawyer. For Ramirez, the sudden attention has been unwelcome, and prompted difficult choices. She was at first hesitant to speak publicly, partly because her memories contained gaps because she had been drinking at the time of the alleged incident. In her initial conversations with The New Yorker, she was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty. After six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections to say that she remembers Kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away. Ramirez is now calling for the F.B.I. to investigate Kavanaugh’s role in the incident. “I would think an F.B.I. investigation would be warranted,” she said.  (our emphasis)

But wait, there's more:

My client is not Deborah Ramirez.

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 23, 2018

It's never just a one off with sexual predators;  there's always a pattern of behavior and now we're seeing it emerge.  Keep your popcorn popping.

UPDATE:  The hits just keep on coming.  Another accuser is talking to Montgomery County (MD) police.

Report: Kavanaugh Struggling With "Too Personal" Prep Questions

Awww.

Rats at the White (Supremacist) House, including disgraced former Fox executive and sexual harassment overseer Bill Shine, have been busy prepping accused sexual assaulter Brett Kavanaugh for the upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.  The WaPo is reporting all is not going well for him:

Kavanaugh grew frustrated when it came to questions that dug into his private life, particularly his drinking habits and his sexual proclivities, according to three people familiar with the preparations, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. He declined to answer some questions altogether, saying they were too personal, these people said.

“I’m not going to answer that,” Kavanaugh said at one point according to a senior White House official, who said that the questions were designed to go over the line and that he struck the right tone.  (our emphasis)

"... the right tone"?  As in, "I'm stonewalling you"?  That can't be good.

We pause for a little karma:

Bad sign for Kavanaugh that this detail leaked.

But the fact that Kavanaugh, who desperately wanted ask Bill Clinton about various places where he ejaculated, is blanching at these questions is chef-kissing-fingers perfect. pic.twitter.com/98Z0zz6PR4

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) September 22, 2018

In my fantasy version of 2018, @MonicaLewinsky shows up to this hearing, sits right behind Kavanaugh, in response to which he crumbles while testifying. https://t.co/7chRB39Qkm pic.twitter.com/TyAOcd9qxe

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) September 22, 2018

Let's get real:  When you've done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide you, at a minimum, 1) answer any questions posed to you without stonewalling, 2) insist that the FBI open up their background investigation of you before going forward, 3) insist that the only eyewitness to the assault (Mark Judge) be compelled to testify, and 4) don't participate in spreading a fake doppelgänger alibi that fingers an innocent classmate. Of course, Kavanaugh and his rat handlers are doing none of these things.

It's easy for all but the most rotted out to draw a conclusion simply from Kavanaugh's evasive actions, even without the credible testimony of Dr. Blasey Ford.

BONUS:  Lest we forget, Kavanaugh has some shady finances, too.

Kavanaugh Updates (UPDATED)

Close to home on the Kavanaugh debacle:

BREAKING: Montgomery MD  PD Chief Tom Manger confirms will investigate sexual allegations against Brett Kavanaugh if a complaint is filed. ⁦@CNN⁩  ⁦@ChrisCuomo⁩ pic.twitter.com/JDo30ZVPJn

— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) September 22, 2018

If she can endure it, we sincerely hope Dr. Blasey Ford takes the opportunity to visit Montgomery County police if and when she comes to Washington to testify.

In a follow up to the desperate Kavanaugh doppelgänger theory put forth by right- wing propagandist and Kavanaugh intimate Ed Whelan, it appears Whelan knew Dr. Blasey Ford was Kavanaugh's accuser before her name became public:

On Sunday, Ford noticed that — even before her name became public — Whelan appeared to be seeking information about her. 

That morning, Ford alerted an associate via email that Whelan had looked at her LinkedIn page, according to the email, which was reviewed by The Post. LinkedIn allows some subscribers to see who views their pages. Ford sent the email about 90 minutes after The Post shared her name with a White House spokesman and hours before her identity was revealed in a story posted on its website. (our emphasis)

Now, how would he know that, we ask rhetorically. Maybe for the same reason Republicans had 60 former female classmates from 36 years ago ready with a signed statement of support shortly after Dr. Blasey Ford came forward.  Are you smelling the same rat we are?

Actually, many rats:

It turns out that the Keystone Cops detective work by conservative legal activist Ed Whelan — which set Washington abuzz with the promise of exonerating Brett Kavanaugh, only to be met by mockery and then partially retracted — was not his handiwork alone. 

CRC Public Relations, the prominent Alexandria, Virginia-based P.R. firm, guided Whelan through his roller-coaster week of Twitter pronouncements that ended in embarrassment and a potential setback for Kavanaugh’s hopes of landing on the high court, according to three sources familiar with their dealings. (our emphasis)

That brilliant plan having blown up spectacularly, they're still at it:

On Friday, hours after Whelan called his decision to name and post photographs of Kavanaugh’s high school classmate “an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment,” CRC helped organize a news conference featuring an array of women who dismissed Ford’s allegations. 

Best known for its work with the Swift Boat Veterans in 2004, CRC bills itself as a full-service communications firm “specializing in media relations, social media and issues management,” according to its website. It has long been the go-to communications firm for conservative organizations in Washington and across the country. Its current clients include the Federalist Society and the Judicial Crisis Network, the chief outside groups working to help confirm Kavanaugh.  (our emphasis)

There are rats in North Dakota, too. This one is running against Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp:

North Dakota GOP Senate nominee [Rep.] Kevin Cramer said on Friday that the accusation against Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh was "even more absurd" than Anita Hill's accusation against Clarence Thomas because Kavanaugh and his accuser were drunk teenagers when the alleged incident occurred. 

Cramer added that Ford's allegations were less legitimate than Hill's in part because the assault she describes "never went anywhere."  (our emphasis)

Let's work to see that Cramer's career never goes anywhere as well.

UPDATE: Looks like there's a previously unknown rat who was working for the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who left a previous job due to (wait for it) sexual harassment allegations.  Make no mistake.  These are all awful, rotted out people.

Character Witness, Cont. -- A Doppelgänger Theory Blows Up (UPDATED)

Ed Whelan, a Brett Kavanaugh buddy, right- wing bullshitter and proprietor of the ironically named "Ethics and Public Policy Center," expounded an irresponsible, crackpot theory on Twitter yesterday (which was already being peddled by the usual Republican suspects) that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault was a case of "mistaken identity:"

... Meanwhile, Kavanaugh backers have already come up with a theory that exonerates him, without calling Ford a liar. Earlier this week, Senator Orrin Hatch said Kavanaugh told him “he didn’t do that, and he wasn’t at the party,” so clearly Ford must be “mistaken.” The same possibility of mistaken identity was floated by The Wall Street Journal editorial board, and by the Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker, who mused, “Could there be a Kavanaugh doppelganger?” 

Ed Whelan, a former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia and the president of a think tank called the Ethics and Public Policy Center, took this theory to a new, wildly irresponsible place on Thursday night, actually identifying a classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Georgetown Prep, and suggesting that he, not the future judge, might have attempted to rape Ford.  (our emphasis)

Dr. Blasey Ford had a quick response:

“I knew them both, and socialized with” them. She said she’d visited the other classmate in the hospital, so “there is zero chance that I would confuse them.” (our emphasis)

Having his demeaning, ludicrous theory quickly demolished -- including the (hopefully actionable) naming of the supposed Kavanaugh doppelgänger and his risible "evidence" -- Whelan is now apologizing ... to the classmate he wrongfully accused, but not to Blasey Ford:

I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaugh's Georgetown Prep classmate. I take full responsibility for that mistake, and I deeply apologize for it. I realize that does not undo the mistake.

— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) September 21, 2018

In a delicious twist, the classmate Whelan slimed had recently signed a letter testifying to Kavanaugh's impeccable morals.  Bwahahahaha.

It would also appear that Kavanaugh may have had some role in coming up with the bogus theory that his close buddy Whelan tried to float.  What sterling character!

UPDATE:  And now we hear a new line of attack from the Assaulter- in- Chief himself:

I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn  date, time, and place!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018

Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a fine man, with an impeccable reputation, who is under assault by radical left wing politicians who don’t want to know the answers, they just want to destroy and delay. Facts don’t matter. I go through this with them every single day in D.C.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018

Keep digging, you irredeemable assholes.

UPDATE II:  #whyididntreport is trending on Twitter with accounts of why women didn't report sexual assaults.  

Character Witness, Cont.

As Republicans and their media swine continue their assault on the reputation and motives of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in coming forward with her account of attempted rape at the hands of Brett Kavanaugh, we're seeing a portrait of Kavanaugh as someone Republicans are desperate that you not see.  Like these brushstrokes:

-- On Kavanaugh liking his female clerks to look "a certain way:"

A few years ago, as she was prepping to interview for a judicial clerkship, a student at Yale Law School received a troubling combination of warning and advice from her professors about one federal judge in particular: Brett Kavanaugh, she was told, liked his female clerks to have a “certain look.” [snip] 

The professors proffering the advice are themselves well-known. Both Jed Rubenfeld and his wife, Amy Chua, author of the controversial 2011 book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, told this woman about Kavanaugh’s preferences. Then, Kavanaugh was simply known as a prestigious judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.  [snip]

Her first inkling that there might be issues with Kavanaugh came from Rubenfeld in a conversation about various judges with whom she might work.  

Rubenfeld took care to warn her about two judges in particular: First, Alex Kozinski, then a judge on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, was known to sexually harass his clerks, he told her. (Kozinski retired in December amid accusations of harassment.)  

The other was Kavanaugh. Though the judge was known to hire female clerks who had a “certain look,” Rubenfeld told her, he emphasized that he had heard nothing else untoward. 

“He did not say what the ‘certain look’ was. I did not ask,” the woman said. “It was very clear to me that he was talking about physical appearance, because it was phrased as a warning ― and because it came after the warning about Judge Kozinski.”

The pairing with the disgraced Kozinski is particularly telling and chilling.

-- On Kavanaugh buddy, right- wing skunk and sexual assault witness Mark Judge, we hear from another Georgetown Prep alum, Eric Ruyak:

“For those of you who don’t know, I went to Georgetown Prep, where both Kavanaugh and Gorsuch went as well,” wrote Ruyak. “When I came forward with allegations regarding Gary Orr, a former priest, sexually assaulting me… Mark Judge (Kavanaugh’s friend in this who [sic] despicable story of sexual assault) reached out to alums saying that Gary Orr was a great priest and that I had obviously been corrupted by liberalism into a homosexual and therefore was most definitely lying.” 

Years later, Orr admitted to raping many children and Georgetown Prep confessed to the incident in a letter to parents and students.  [snip]

“So… for me to hear that this son of a bitch is involved in the allegations of Kavanaugh attempting to rape a girl in high school comes as no surprise to me,” said Ruyak. “It’s always the loudest most arrogant voices that are trying to hide the truth beneath the din of their own pompous voices.” 

He went on to say that the story Dr. Christine Blasey Ford “is one that I know was repeated dozens of times in my 4 years at Prep.”

Kavanaugh, who pushed for putting the most graphic, salacious details of the Clinton/ Lewinski affair in the Starr impeachment report, has been a (being charitable here) privileged jerk his entire adult life.  What we're seeing play out with Dr. Blasey Ford coming forward and with other insights into the character of both Kavanaugh and his buddy and character witness Judge is a rotted out party rushing to put a rotted out person on the Supreme Court for the rest of his life.

May more come forward, as difficult, dangerous and heart- wrenching as it will be, to tell their stories about Kavanaugh before it's too late.

Why Women Don't Come Forward: Brett Kavanaugh Edition

Dahlia Lithwick has a must- read article today about the broken system that "Republican Forrest Gump" Judge Brett Kavanaugh springs from and that may well advance him to the Supreme Court in spite of a sexual assault allegation:

The real tragedy is that we do not need this woman’s story to understand who the current Supreme Court nominee is. Because here is what we do know about Judge Kavanaugh: We know that he clerked for and had a yearslong close relationship with a serial abuser of women and claims he knew nothing about it. He claims he doesn’t recall being on a hypersexualized and misogynistic email list and claims he didn’t bother to search to determine whether he was. He claims that when the serial abuser of women for whom he clerked was revealed to be a serial abuser of women, he believed the victims and yet called the abuser, because he was worried about the abuser’s mental health. Worrying more about the accused judge than the accusers one claims to believe is the system protecting the system. This is why women don’t come forward. 

Here is what we do know about Judge Kavanaugh. We know that he was part of a group of young men who saw fit to write a creepy racist and misogynistic email chain—and to pledge to keep it secret. We also know that the “neutral” George W. Bush lawyer who vetted Kavanaugh’s papers (and also represents the disgraced judge for whom Kavanaugh once clerked) deemed one of those emails classified, even though it contained no national security or political secrets. Withholding that email was the system protecting the system. That is why women don’t come forward. 

Here is what we do know about Judge Kavanaugh. He had an opportunity to use all these questions around all these periods in his life to say anything at all about men and power and the female victims of that power, and about the systems that protect and reify and rehabilitate men in power, and he said nothing. Worse, he said he believed the victims of that system while still doing nothing to support or credit them. This is why women don’t come forward.

Litwick's article is a blistering indictment of an entrenched patriarchal system whose demise is long overdue. (Lithwick reminds us of what happened to Anita Hill in the confirmation process for Justice Thomas and of the many #MeToo victims who've often been further crippled by the experience of coming forward.)  We're happy to provide at least a partial response on the political side:  elect many more women into positions of power at all levels of government, starting with the 15 Democratic women running for the U.S. Senate and 187 Democratic women running for the House this year, and the 12 Democratic women running for Governor.

BONUS:  Paul Waldman on (white male) Senate Republicans' long- held knowledge of the accusation against Kavanaugh and how they chose to respond:

If you went to an all-boys high school how would there be 65 girls who knew you well enough to testify to your good character? And how long would it take to track them all down 35 years later and convince them to sign this letter? They were obviously preparing this for some time. https://t.co/gy5xVOrMgE

— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) September 14, 2018

BONUS II:  On the same note --

Maybe your pick for SCOTUS isn't so ideal when you knew you had to get statements of 65 women who *weren't* raped by Brett Kavanaugh before anyone even mentioned that he might be a sexual predator . . . https://t.co/xsApOILGw5

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) September 14, 2018

The stench is sickening.