Staggering

Sep 30th, 2018 4:49 pm | By

Another Yale buddy turns up to say no actually Kavanaugh drank like a fish and could barely stay upright when he did.

A Yale classmate of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s accused him on Sunday of a “blatant mischaracterization” of his drinking while in college, saying that he often saw Judge Kavanaugh “staggering from alcohol consumption.”

The classmate, Chad Ludington, who said he frequently socialized with Judge Kavanaugh as a student, said in a statement that the judge had been untruthful in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he had denied any possibility that he had ever blacked out from drinking.

Mr. Ludington said that Judge Kavanaugh had played down “the degree and frequency” of his drinking, and that the

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The F.B.I. is up for this

Sep 30th, 2018 4:20 pm | By

Comey says the FBI can do a lot.

President Trump’s decision to order a one-week investigation into sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, his Supreme Court nominee, comes in a time of almost indescribable pain and anger, lies and attacks.

We live in a world where the president routinely attacks the F.B.I. because he fears its work. He calls for his enemies to be prosecuted and his friends freed. We also live in a world where a sitting federal judge channels the president by shouting attacks at the Senate committee considering his nomination and demanding to know if a respected senator has ever passed out from drinking. We live in a world where the president is an accused serial

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Days of wrath

Sep 30th, 2018 3:01 pm | By

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Anyone at all, on this short list

Sep 30th, 2018 11:03 am | By

Trump last night, telling another lie:

Nope; big ol’ lie. NBC News today:

The FBI has received no new instructions from the White House about how to proceed with its weeklong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a senior U.S. official and another source familiar with the matter tell NBC News.

According to the sources, the president’s Saturday night tweet saying he wants the FBI to interview

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Who would?

Sep 30th, 2018 10:40 am | By

Roger Cohen nailed the Kavanaugh operetta well:

What America saw before the Senate Judiciary Committee was an injudicious man, an angry brat veering from fury to sniveling sobs, a judge so bereft of composure and proportion that it was difficult not to squirm. Brett Kavanaugh actually got teary over keeping a calendar because that’s what his dad did. His performance was right out of Norman Rockwell with a touch of “Mad Men.”

This is what you get from the unexamined life, a product of white male privilege so unadulterated that, until a couple of weeks ago, Kavanaugh never had to ask himself what might have lurked, and may still linger, behind the football, the basketball, the lifting weights, the workouts

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Might as well put Sean Hannity on the court

Sep 30th, 2018 10:06 am | By

Jennifer Rubin argues that Kavanaugh’s enraged performance makes him a terrible fit for the Supreme Court.

…here I want to focus on what may be the most significant issue — whether Kavanaugh’s “big reveal” that he is an angry partisan who thinks Democrats conspired to get him — now disqualifies him to sit on any court, let alone the Supreme Court.

That’s one of those questions that demand a single answer. No, an angry partisan who thinks Democrats conspired to get him should not be on the Supreme Court, because the court is emphatically not supposed to be a party-based institution.

The judiciary’s role in vital, hot-button issues has increased, making the Supreme Court seats precious, but the Senate acted

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A note of aggressive petulance

Sep 30th, 2018 9:18 am | By

Speaking of styles of masculinity and who does it better and what it all means – Alexandra Schwartz argues that Kavanaugh’s bizarre mix of shouting and sobbing is the new hip conservative thing.

Kavanaugh choked up and sobbed as he described his father’s detailed calendars, which apparently inspired his own calendar-keeping practice; he seemed unable to gain control over himself, gasping and taking frequent sips of water. The initial impression was of naked emotional vulnerability, but Kavanaugh was setting a tone. Embedded in the histrionics were the unmistakable notes of fury and bullying. Kavanaugh shouted over Dianne Feinstein to complain about the “outrage” of not being allowed to testify earlier; when asked about his drinking, by Sheldon Whitehouse, he

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He likes beer

Sep 30th, 2018 8:52 am | By

Matt Damon does Kavanaugh:

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The universal daddy

Sep 30th, 2018 8:30 am | By

Steve Bannon was terrified that the women will take over way back in February.

In the new paperback edition of his book “Devil’s Bargain,” journalist Joshua Green writes that Bannon, the former Trump campaign chairman and White House chief strategist, “thought Oprah might represent an existential threat to Trump’s presidency if she decided to campaign for Democrats in 2018.”

But, Green wrote, Bannon believes the most powerful backlash to Trump is bigger than Winfrey, who’s been the subject of much 2020 speculation. He’s most concerned by the women-led wave of liberal, anti-Trump activism, fueled by the #MeToo movement.

Yes, very scary, much scarier than the activism of scruffy racist wife-beaters and gilded smirking pussy-grabbers.

“The anti-patriarchy movement is

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More inclusive

Sep 30th, 2018 7:59 am | By

New athletic policy announced:

U Sports has brought in a new policy aimed at creating a more inclusive environment for transgender student-athletes. It takes effect at U Sports‘ 56 member institutions immediately.

The policy allows student-athletes to compete on the team corresponding to either their gender at birth or their gender identity, provided they comply with the Canadian Anti-Doping Program. They are still eligible to participate in U Sports for five years, and they may only compete on sport teams of one gender during any single academic year.

So that policy is aimed at creating a more inclusive environment for transgender student-athletes while it creates a much less inclusive environment for female student-athletes. Why is the former more … Read the rest



It’s how they roll

Sep 29th, 2018 4:47 pm | By

Pliny again:

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It’s not that

Sep 29th, 2018 3:47 pm | By

From The Naked Jesus on Facebook:

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You have half an hour and one flashlight

Sep 29th, 2018 3:25 pm | By

Trump is telling the FBI it can’t investigate what it needs to investigate to get at the truth about Kavanaugh.

The White House is limiting the scope of the FBI’s investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, multiple people briefed on the matter told NBC News.

While the FBI will examine the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, the bureau has not been permitted to investigate the claims of Julie Swetnick, who has accused Kavanaugh of engaging in sexual misconduct at parties while he was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in the 1980s, those people familiar with the investigation told NBC News. A White House official confirmed that Swetnick’s claims will

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He punched the clock

Sep 29th, 2018 10:48 am | By

Then there’s the whole “I got into Yale!!” thing.

At one point, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pursued a line of questioning about the “Beach Week Ralph Club,” a phrase that appeared in Kavanaugh’s yearbook next to his senior photo. Kavanaugh told Whitehouse that “Ralph” probably referred to vomiting, something that Kavanaugh attributed to his “weak stomach, whether it’s with beer or with spicy food or anything.” Whitehouse asked if the “Ralph Club” reference had to do specifically with alcohol, and Kavanaugh responded:

Senator, I was at the top of my class academically, busted my butt in school. Captain of the varsity basketball team. Got in Yale College. When I got into Yale College, got into Yale Law School. Worked my

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He thinks of it as a minor transgression

Sep 29th, 2018 9:48 am | By

I haven’t finished yet.

There’s the bit where Whitehouse asked Kavanaugh about the cutesie stuff on his yearbook page, starting with “the Ralph club.” “Ralph” is slang for vomit, barf, hurl, puke. Kavanaugh said so but immediately followed that with drivel about having a weak stomach. Here’s the thing: if you vomit a lot because you have a “weak stomach” (whatever that is) then you probably don’t boast about being in the Ralph club in your yearbook. Vomiting a lot is not cute or macho if it’s a medical problem, it’s only cute and macho if you do it because you’ve poured a lot of alcohol down your throat. So that was, you know, one of his many casual lies … Read the rest



They’re shocked, shocked

Sep 28th, 2018 5:12 pm | By

The WSJ reports that the White House is wringing its hands in consternation.

A person close to the White House described those working on the confirmation process as “shellshocked” by Friday’s events.

“As of last night, everyone was in a good mood,” the person said, saying the view was that Dr. Ford’s testimony was “good” but Judge Kavanaugh’s was “great.” As of 10 p.m. Thursday, the person said, “everything was locked and loaded.”

Then, shortly before midnight on Thursday, the American Bar Association issued a letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination only after a “thorough” FBI investigation. After that, the person said, “It kind of fell apart.”

The person said there was “enormous anger”

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Go ahead with that lawsuit

Sep 28th, 2018 4:13 pm | By

Also today:

A federal judge on Friday gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit filed by 200 congressional Democrats against President Trump alleging he has violated the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments while in office.

The lawsuit is based on the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bars presidents from taking payments from foreign states. Trump’s business, which he still owns, has hosted foreign embassy events and visiting foreign officials at its downtown D.C. hotel.

The decision opens up yet another legal front for the president, who is now facing an array of inquiries into his business, his campaign and his charity.

Trump is already facing a separate emoluments suit filed by the attorneys general of Washington, D.C. and Maryland

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Illustration for: Vulgarity

Sep 28th, 2018 4:07 pm | By

No words necessary.

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“The devil’s triangle” is not and has never been a drinking game

Sep 28th, 2018 3:41 pm | By

A Facebook post (I don’t know who O. B. is):

O.B. : I was a dude who went to parties in the eighties, and worked on the yearbook staff, so let me shed some light on a few things:

“Boofing” doesn’t refer to farts or flatulence. Boofing is a very specific category of anal insertion. He lied about that. Under oath.

A comment said it’s a variant of BuFu, geddit?

“The devil’s triangle” is not and has never been a drinking game. It’s a euphemism for a threesome involving two men and one woman. He lied about that too. Under oath.

Yearbook editors do not doctor or change copy provided by students for their dedication page without their permission. Whatever

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It turns out his integrity is not absolutely unquestioned

Sep 28th, 2018 3:24 pm | By

Over the course of the morning I read, via a slew of name lawyers on Twitter, that both the American Bar Association and Yale Law school had withdrawn their endorsements of Kavanaugh pending an investigation. Greg Sargent at the Post wrote about it early in the day:

During his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Brett Kavanaugh defended his qualifications for the Supreme Court by repeatedly citing his support from the American Bar Association. Crucially, Kavanaugh noted that the ABA had vetted him for the position. Kavanaugh said this not once but twice.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Kavanaugh’s chief defender, a man who melted down in a fit of histrionic rage at the sight of Kavanaugh getting

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