A good laugh is sunshine in the house.

"A good laugh is sunshine in the house." William Makepeace Thackeray

We've been through an emotional rollercoaster the last few days. Today I return to more positives. We've got wise words, talented artists, and heroes to help us keep the darkness away.

This skit from Saturday Night Live is brilliant, and scary in its accuracy. Satire and Reality are getting harder and harder to distinguish in these Backwards Days.  I am thankful for these gifted artists, for letting us laugh at most difficult times.





And amazing that the SNL peeps put that together in two days!


Dan Rather is a journalistic hero. I imagine him as a wise grandpa with a world of knowledge -- which  I suppose is the reality -- sitting by the fire speaking in low, measured tones to reassure the family. Though it is sometimes hard to see, we are making progress. Here's the whole of his recent post to Facebook.

Dan Rather, September 28, 2018

Over the course of the last few years, as our ship of state shudders on dangerous and uncharted shoals, I can feel the waves of despair shake the confidence of so many fair and decent Americans. How can this be our country? Where is all that I knew, and trusted, and cherished? 

Today, in the wake of yesterday's events on Capitol Hill, I hear these fears pour forth once more. It is understandable and even appropriate. But as someone who has the perspective of a long life and whatever approximation of wisdom that comes with it, I remain unbowed and even optimistic in what I saw.  

Yesterday a courageous fellow citizen stood up and told her story. Unlike with Anita Hill, at least half of the senators on the panel treated her with respect. That is progress. Unlike in the past, many of those senators were accomplished women who you could imagine someday being president. That is progress. A culture that in the not-so-distant past had no notion of "date rape" now does. And that is progress. Millions of men as well as women will not stand for it. And that is progress. Across the country a great spirit of righteous political fury is brewing, and it is propelling more women to positions of leadership. And that is progress. 

Time and time again, in the course of American history, solitary acts of courage have blossomed into movements for social justice. When Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, any Civil Rights Act seemed a hopeless dream. But she, and the brave men and women who supported and followed her action with actions of their own, knew that the path to justice was not going to be quick or painless but that they were on the right side of history.  

The early protesters of the Vietnam War were written off as communists and un-American. So too was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the other early women suffragists who gathered in Seneca Falls. Labor leaders, children's rights advocates, environmentalists, those who marched at Stonewall and Ferguson, those who have fought for immigrant rights and against religious hatred and now in the #MeToo movement, these are fights for justice that are far from over. But millions of Americans are aware and awake and motivated to action. This can, and should, start at the ballot box.  

And to this pantheon of courageous Americans we can now add the name of Christine Blasey Ford. Whatever the tides of history are in the short term I believe that too many of my fellow Americans understand what is right and what is just to not have her voice echo forth with clarity well into a better future.
Steady. #WhatUnitesUs

More too-close-to-home laffs from The Onion.

And the biggest positive, no matter what the outcome. We have a new American Hero. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has spoken for countless among us who have lost their voice. And she has inspired others to find their voice and share their stories, and call out perpetrators of violence, pain, and fear. She serves as an inspiration to all of us, men and women alike, to examine our society more deeply, to challenge our perceptions, to challenge each other, to stand up for what is right, to be better citizens. She will be remembered for decades. I wish her and her family strength and peace as they navigate this path, knowing that many do not share this attitude about her.

Now, go. Call your Senators. Let them know how you feel. Be the Change. RESIST!

Acknowledging the Boof in the Room

A lot happened today.

I was able to listen to only part of today's deliberations by the Judiciary Committee. For your reference and mine, here is the complete video of today's hearing.




I fell in love with Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI), who hauled out a blow-up of the calendar page in question and noted that this evidence could very well corroborate Dr. Ford's statement. His comments start at 2:25:25 above.

Whitehouse also called out Brett's lies about what "boof" and "devil's triangle" mean.  I'll let you google them, but they don't mean "flatulance" and "a drinking game," as Brett lied. Under oath. Again.

Toward the end of the meeting, several Democrat committee members walked out on their colleagues. Later, during the recess, as the vote was about to begin, it was evident that Sen Jeff Flake (R-AZ ) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) were off conversing together. Earlier, Flake had been confronted in the elevator by an impassioned survivor. When the committee reconvened, it was revealed what he and Feinstein had been talking about.

Sen. Flake looked pained as he called for an FBI investigation, and said that though he'd vote to move the nomination to the full Senate, he will vote "No" on the nomination there unless an FBI investigation is done.

Wow.

Flake had been on the fence, and had finally revealed that he would vote to confirm. This, despite his being on the way out of office. I suppose Dianne convinced him that he is the voice to speak up and ask for the inquiry. No doubt his fellow fence-sitters Senators Murkowski and Collins also encouraged him.

This is good news for Truth. Minutes ago, TЯUMP directed the FBI to conduct an investigation. We may just get some more answers about the truth of the matter with Dr. Ford and more about the true character of Entitled Frat Boy Brett Kavenaugh.

And it may mean the end of the nomination. Perhaps Brett will withdraw rather than face another excruciating week of being held accountable for his actions. Perhaps within the next week, other credible allegations will come to light.


And from the gotta-laugh-to-keep-from-crying files:

A couple other notable calendar pages:

Thanks to Big Sister Resister Pagrs for this comic from my favorite political cartoonist, Tom Toles

And another from George Washington's calendar. SCROTUS had intimated that President Washington might have had a questionable past when he said, “he may have had a bad past, who knows, you know? He may have had some, I think, accusations made. Didn’t he have a couple of things in his past?”  This calendar was found -- it may corroborate those claims!

From The Daily Show

The Onion never fails: Mark Judge speaks out.

Headline: Kavanaugh Scores Keg For Christine Blasey Ford Testimony

And this. This is brilliant.

pic.twitter.com/lZDRtMTD2Z

— C H I L I (@heyitschili) September 28, 2018

"The best protection any woman can have is courage."

"The best protection any woman can have is courage." — Elizabeth Cady Stanton

I listened and watched much of the Kavenaugh confirmation hearing on this historic day.  I haven't read or listened to a whole lot of the spin. This evening I jot down some of my own thoughts.

I was in tears during Dr. Ford's opening statement and testimony. She was completely credible, humble, intelligent, and human. She rose to the highest level of citizenship, both by coming forward in an organic way, and by lamenting during the hearing that she couldn't be more helpful when her memory lapsed. She was compelling. She was raw. She is an American hero.

I know that I was not alone in my emotional response. I know millions across the country had the same reaction. I heard from the talking heads during the break that many in the Senate chambers were tearing up. People are feeling her pain; people are feeling their own pain. It was reported that Chris Wallace reportedly shared on Faux News that his daughters confided to him some "incidents" that they experienced in high school.

The questioning of Dr. Ford by the GOP's independent prosecutor counsel was ineffective. I don't know what they were trying to accomplish, but they didn't accomplish much with her questioning. If she was trying to impeach Dr. Ford, she completely failed. If anything, she allowed the opportunity for Dr. Ford to illustrate even more deeply her honesty and humanity.

I loved that Dr. Ford brought up brain science to explain why her memories of the incident are so acute.

Turning toward Judge Kavanaugh's testimony. His opening statement struck me as loud, fake, and entitled. His very demeanor and temperament was quite telling. I thought his behavior in the chair in itself was unbecoming of a Supreme Court Justice. His sniffles and dramatic pauses were forced. His yelling was out of line. It was a show. It was a show a la his role model, the Baby Cheeto Boy.

It was interesting that his questioning started out with the independent counsel and soon turned into the Good Ol' Boys club, with more yelling and indignation about the evil Democrats reigning injustice upon this poor, poor choirboy.  Did they believe Dr. Ford? Who knows. They only illustrated that they were willing to damn the facts and just take pitchforks against Dianne Feinstein.

Other observations.

I thought Sen. Grassley was a doddering fool. It was embarrassing watching him in the opening statement that he could barely read.

Dr. Ford agreed to the questioning by the independent counsel but did assert her desire to interact with each of the Committee members themselves. This was not honored.

The Republicans did not even honor their own commitment to have the independent counsel question Brett Kavenaugh.  It was obvious that they were not there to find the truth. They were there to raise hell (literally, right, Lindsay Graham?). It was ugly and it was a farce when it came to Brett's testimony.

None of Brett's shrieking had any relevance to whether he was a predatory drunk 17-year-old idiot.

The ten days of horror that he had faced during the delay in the hearing? Cue the tiny violins.

My take away from the long day of testimony: they must not vote to confirm. Senators Murkowski (R-AK) and Collins (R-ME) particularly should follow their conscience and vote "No."  Better yet, the nomination should be withdrawn.

More thoughts:

My she-ro, Sen. Kamala Harris, again took Brett to task, pressing him to ask the President^* to call for an FBI investigation.

Because she rocks, I give you her questioning:




Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) also rocked his questioning, both to Brett and to Dr. Ford. He touched on the July 1 party at Timmy's for "skis" that Brett noted that he had attended with Mark Judge and PJ and others, but I wish he had gone deeper, as the famous calendar has been brought up in an article from Slate that could very well be corroborating evidence. The FBI could do a good job of looking into Timmy and where he lived, and talk to Judge, Tom, PJ, Bernie and Squi.

Here's the calendar page, and here is some speculation about it.

As I dip my toes into others' analysis and spin, I see that there are some calls from esteemed groups to delay the vote until an FBI investigation can be done. The American Bar Association has called for a pause.  Republican Governors of four states have also asked for a delay.

This is a historic moment. I hope that Right and Truth prevail for this courageous woman, and for all of us. We shall see tomorrow.


Call your Senators. Today. Here's where to find them.

"A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true."

"A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true." -Martin Luther King, Jr. 

I'm so sick of old white men making decisions for our country.

This week my heart has been so heavy. I've had renewed anxiety and dread after Christine Blasey Ford courageously spoke up about the assault she survived at the hands of SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavenaugh.

So I turn to writing it out to try to process it.

It's a pivotal point for our country. Have we grown at all in the 27 years since the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas episode? Does the #MeToo movement have the teeth to force old white men to wake up to the reality of countless women's experiences? And believe them? And mete out consequences to the perpetrator?

They can't confirm Judge Kavanaugh. Period.

Boys will be boys. Boys will not be rapists.

Some of the more outlandish statements:

A female Republican panelist discussing the issue: "But we’re talking about a 17-year-old boy in high school with testosterone running high. Tell me, what boy hasn’t done this in high school?”  No doubt that woman was assaulted and has told herself lies for the last half-century.

GOP Congressman (N.D.) and Senate nominee Kevin Cramer: "If to the degree there was any legitimacy to Anita Hill's claims, and she tried and didn't prevail -- Clarence Thomas did and America did -- this case is even more absurd because these people were teenagers when this supposed alleged incident took place," Cramer said on the Jarrod Thomas Show on 1310 KNOX, a local North Dakota radio station. "Teenagers. Not a boss-supervisor-subordinate situation, as the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill situation was claimed to be. These are teenagers who evidently were drunk, according to her own statement. They were drunk. Nothing evidently happened in it all, even by her own accusation. Again, it was supposedly an attempt or something that never went anywhere."  From CNN. Let's hope this guy isn't raising children.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R- S.C.):  "Did y’all hear this latest late-breaking news from the Kavanaugh hearings? Ruth Bader Ginsburg came out that she was groped by Abraham Lincoln." From the Post and Courier. Sickening.

New York Republican politician, former judge, former district attorney, and current Faux News TV personality Jeanine Pirro:

JEANINE PIRRO: This is worrisome, it means that people will make up stories. 

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): My understanding is, didn't they say that this came out for the first time in couples therapy in 2012?

PIRRO: Yeah and what was that about, and when was the first time Kavanaugh's name came up? And what about, is this hypnosis? Is this confabulation? This is all stuff that is contrary to what the law calls for. 

Yeah, hypnosis to plant a SCOTUS nominee's name into her brain to sit for several years, just waiting for the day....

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in an interview:  “What do you expect me to do? What am I supposed to do? Go ahead and ruin this guy’s life? I don’t know when it happened, I don’t where it happened, and everybody being named in regard to being there said it didn’t happen, Unless there’s something more, no, I’m not going to ruin Judge Kavanaugh’s life over this,"   Excuse me, sir? There is a witness, known as THE VICTIM, who can tell you when and where it happened.

Lawyer and conservative think-tank leader Ed Whelan, in a (since-deleted) tweet, put forth a conspiracy theory. His angle: the assault happened, but it was a case of mistaken identiy. He has since taken a leave of absence from his firm and apologized for the tweet. You gotta feel for Kavenaugh's classmate who he fingered.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) (who, by the way, has retweeted a Neo-Nazi tweet) at a Faith and Freedom dinner, said that no man will ever qualify for the supreme court if this is the "new standard," according to the Des Moines Register. He said:

“I’m thinking, is there any man in this room that wouldn’t be subjected to such an allegation? A false allegation? How can you disprove something like that? Which means, if that’s the new standard, no man will ever qualify for the Supreme Court again.”

And the worst, from our Supreme(ly ill) Leader. SCROTUS wrote in a tweet: "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."

And as usual, The Onion gets it right. He was simply attempting to rape while white.

The repercussions of these statements and attitudes, I think, is what scares me the most. What is this teaching our sons and daughters?  Why are women still second-class citizens? If that?  For eons, women have been afraid to come forward. Out of fear of retaliation, fear of being disbelieved, fear of being judged, shame, or just plain not knowing it was a crime, or who to contact, or not wanting to believe that it happened.

And the overwhelming reason. The criminal justice system fails.

Statistics from RAINN

The bright side, if there is one, is that women are coming forth with their stories, bringing these atrocities to the light. The tag #WhyIDidn'tReport has sprung up on Twitter with countless women sharing their stories and their reasons for not reporting.

As a dear friend reminded me over and over, "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." Listen to our sisters with love and compassion.

How to help?

Thanks, Syz, for the photo

Call your Members of Congress. Demand a fair hearing. Demand they vote against confirmation.

Register to vote now and VOTE in November.

And after that, run for office.

Talk about sexual assault. Share your stories.

Here is a suggestion from my Sister Resister Anne:

I don't know if it would help, but it might in enough cases to make it worth while- if you are a person who was assaulted, write down everything you remember and mail it to yourself. When it comes in the mail, tuck it away so that there is a paper trail. If the person who damaged you has continued to victimized people, and is caught, you can be a witness if you desire. A college friend of mine was raped but said nothing. I stand ready to speak his name anytime.

Believe others' stories and support survivors in their recovery. Speak about it.

Teach your sons and daughters.

Volunteer or donate to RAINN, a resource for survivors of sexual assault.

Change the things you cannot accept. 

Breaking: New allegations are emerging about a second and a third victim of assault by Kavanaugh. 

Adults in the Room

I apologize for the long hiatus. Personal stuff kept me away from my blog.

And now I come back with the specter of the eleventy-second constitutional crisis that we have faced in the last 594 days. But this one is big.

Yesterday, an anonymous "senior official in the Trump administration" penned an OpEd in the New York Times. It was explosive. Jaws dropped from coast to coast.

When I read it, I was shocked like everyone. By the end, I was moved to tears. We have allies working for good! And then in reflection, I was scared that things might get more dangerous. Then I returned to Hope. Maybe this will get Congress really moving. Maybe, just maybe, some brave senior Republicans will start the process to remove the Orange Scourge from office.

Bob Englehart

This article appeared just after previews of Bob Woodward's book, "Fear: Trump in the White House" came out. Even the President* admits that Mr. Woodward is a credible and "fair" journalist, as you can hear in their telephone conversation below (transcript below that).


Transcript here.

The stuff reportedly in Woodward's book, especially coming from such an esteemed journalist, was explosive. His sources were tape recorded; Woodward quotes many describing an off-the-rails President*.

And just a couple days later, the OpEd, reflecting Woodward's work but almost crying for help, was published. It is astounding that it was published anonymously. It goes against editorial sensibilities, but obviously the New York Times decided it was a person high enough on the totem pole and serious enough in the accusations, to allow an anonymous essay. Imagine, a 2018 Deep Throat.

Speculation is running rampant about who the author is. There are good analyses with educated guesses.

HuffPost speculated that it is Vice President Pence, based on one word (lodestar) that Pence often uses. However, the article concedes that anonymous leakers will often use catch-phrases of others in order to throw off speculation.

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell methodically analyzes the top officials and makes his conclution that it is Dan Coats. It's a good analysis.


No matter who it is --and it could be more than one-- we have to ask, what does it mean for the country?

The Atlantic ran with my second emotion. Danger, Will Robinson! The author warns that these revelations will lead to more instability and recklessness. He stipulates that if the administraion leaders feels he is not fit, then proceedings to remove him from office should commence under the 25th Amendment.

I don't know why Republicans are so afraid to remove him. They'll still have a Republican President, they'll have some of their credibility with voters restored, and they'll be able to move along their policies without the fear of WWIII. But perhaps Russia has something on every single Member of Congress.

Senator John Kerry expressed grave concern about this OpEd. I couldn't embed, but the video is in this link.

A columnist for the New York Times, who was not part of the decision to print the OpEd, outlines reactions from several sources. None of them shared my first reaction, that thankfully, someone is on the side of Right inside the Whitewash House. More than one source characterize the actions described in the OpEd as a "coup."  Not good stuff.

I may be in the minority, but I still have hope. I think the author is a hero. Maybe I'm just a Pollyanna, but if some are in there trying to do their best to steer the burning ship away from the rocks, then the ideals of our Nation have teeth. Some of those "best people" may actually be doing good work in difficult circumstances. Like Susan Hennessey of Lawfare said, it must be genuinely scary for someone to take this unprecedented step.

Let us convert this Hope into Pressure. Call your Members of Congress and insist that movements be made to remove this madman. You can find the phone number of your representatives here: Senators and Representatives.

And breaking: This esteemed publication shockingly offered two more anonymous letters from some close to SCROTUS.

Buckle up. The Resistance Road is going to get bumpy.