So now there’s the Ghomeshi-Buruma backlash, because of course there is. I’ve been expecting it.

Some of the biggest names in English letters, including Joyce Carol Oates, Ian McEwan, Lorrie Morre and Colm Tóibín, have released a joint letter in which they express dismay at what they call the “forced resignation” of the editor of the New York Review of Books under a #MeToo stormcloud.

Ian Buruma stepped down from the editorship of America’s most prestigious literary magazine earlier this month in the wake of his decision to publish a highly controversial article by former broadcaster and alleged sex attacker Jian Ghomeshi. The 3,400-word essay, in which Ghomeshi played down allegations of sexual violence brought against him by

Then, feeling much better once that awful boring pre-written speech was over, Trump energetically got on with attacking the women who say Brett Kavanaugh assaulted them.

In which the President of the United States suggests that a woman who has been drinking cannot be sexually assaulted. pic.twitter.com/072B8HM7ov

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 25, 2018

… Read the rest

The part where he talks trash about the International Criminal Court.

His delivery is truly terrible – he slurs his words and looks as if he can barely keep his eyes open. He comes across as drunk or exhausted at best. Note the flub where he says “reported” for “repeated” and pretends he didn’t.

TRUMP: "We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism around the world." pic.twitter.com/XrNVI2rIIJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 25, 2018

As far as the United States is concerned the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority.

He’s utterly disgusting.… Read the rest

Twitter is working on new rules.

For the last three months, we have been developing a new policy to address dehumanizing language on Twitter. Language that makes someone less than human can have repercussions off the service, including normalizing serious violence. Some of this content falls within our hateful conduct policy (which prohibits the promotion of violence against or direct attacks or threats against other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease), but there are still Tweets many people consider to be abusive, even when they do not break our rules. Better addressing this gap is part of our work to serve a healthy public

Ok that’s it. From the Times:

Brett Kavanaugh’s page in his high school yearbook offers a glimpse of the teenage years of the man who is now President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee: lots of football, plenty of drinking, parties at the beach. Among the reminiscences about sports and booze is a mysterious entry: “Renate Alumnius.”

The word “Renate” appears at least 14 times in Georgetown Preparatory School’s 1983 yearbook, on individuals’ pages and in a group photo of nine football players, including Judge Kavanaugh, who were described as the “Renate Alumni.” It is a reference to Renate [last name], then a student at a nearby Catholic girls’ school.

The Times gives her last name, but I was alerted to … Read the rest

The mass migrations have begun.

A woman in Charleston moves out of a house that has flooded three times in three years.

Millions of Americans will confront similarly hard choices as climate change conjures up brutal storms, flooding rains, receding coastlines and punishing heat. Many are already opting to shift to less perilous areas of the same city, or to havens in other states. Whole towns from Alaska to Louisiana are looking to relocate, in their entirety, to safer ground.

The era of climate migration is, virtually unheralded, already upon America.

The population shift gathering pace is so sprawling that it may rival anything in US history. “Including all climate impacts it isn’t too far-fetched to imagine something twice

They’re being all self-righteous about it.

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, facing mounting allegations of sexual impropriety and growing doubts over his confirmation to the Supreme Court, vowed on Monday to fight the “smears,” saying he will not withdraw his nomination.

“These are smears, pure and simple. And they debase our public discourse,” he wrote in a letter to the senior Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “But they are also a threat to any man or woman who wishes to serve our country. Such grotesque and obvious character assassination — if allowed to succeed — will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from service.”

They debase our public discourse, says the guy who wanted to … Read the rest

Dave Ricks alerted me to some news from the American Association for the Advancement of Science:

The governing body of the American Association for the Advancement of Science voted Saturday to enact a policy under which an elected AAAS Fellow’s lifetime honor can be revoked for proven scientific misconduct or serious breaches of professional ethics.

The AAAS Council adopted and approved the new policy that includes procedures AAAS will follow in considering the revocation of an elected AAAS Fellow’s status. The action came during a special meeting of the AAAS Council, a member-elected body that includes the AAAS board of directors, at AAAS’ Washington, D.C. headquarters.

The new policy will go into effect on October 15, 2018. AAAS issued

No wait, he didn’t resign/he wasn’t fired after all!

Maybe. Who knows. They’re messing with us.

This may be the strangest day yet at the Trump White House. Rod Rosenstein was summoned to the WH to meet with John Kelly this morning. He expected to be fired. He wasn't. And now Rosenstein is attending a previously scheduled cabinet-level meeting (filling in for Sessions)

— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) September 24, 2018

If Trump thinks he can divert attention from the Kavanaugh hearing by scheduling a meeting with Rod Rosenstein that same day, he’s going to be sorely disappointed when he learns that women can multitask. https://t.co/bRwae6tqCc

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) September 24, 2018

Rod Rosenstein, who has either resigned or not,

Ooooookay, most of you have already seen this, some of you told me about it, but anyway – Ronan Farrow once again:

Senate Democrats are investigating a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. The claim dates to the 1983-84 academic school year, when Kavanaugh was a freshman at Yale University. The offices of at least four Democratic senators have received information about the allegation, and at least two have begun investigating it. Senior Republican staffers also learned of the allegation last week and, in conversations with The New Yorker, expressed concern about its potential impact on Kavanaugh’s nomination. Soon after, Senate Republicans issued renewed calls to accelerate the timing of a committee vote. The Democratic Senate offices

Oh come on.

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has calendars from the summer of 1982 that he plans to hand over to the Senate Judiciary Committee that do not show a party consistent with the description of his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, according to someone working for his confirmation.

Dear Diary: Today did not go to party where did not assault Christine Blasey who was not there and neither was I.

The calendars do not disprove Dr. Blasey’s allegations, Judge Kavanaugh’s team acknowledged. He could have attended a party that he did not list. But his team will argue to the senators that the calendars provide no corroboration for her account of a small gathering at a house where he

This really is something else.

One of my proudest moments [was] when I lookeda Barack Obama in the eye n I said [raising hand and pointing as if sticking his manly finger in Obama’s face] “Mister President you will not fill this Supreme Court VAcancy.”

You just know what he was really saying was “Nigga you will not fill this Supreme Court VAcancy.”

The crowd cheered.

He (and the Republicans in general) had no actual substantive reason to refuse to fill the seat. None. It was a complete defiance of precedent, rules, normal procedure, the whole idea of working together to accomplish necessary functions of government. It was just a power move, and a calculated insult to Obama.… Read the rest

Lindsey Graham is quite clear about his determination to ignore anything Christine Blasey Ford says in her testimony to Congress in a few days.

“You can’t bring it in a criminal court, you would never sue civilly, you couldn’t even get a warrant,” Graham said on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace. “What am I supposed to do? Go ahead and ruin this guy’s life based on an accusation? I don’t know when it happened, I don’t know where it happened, and everybody named in regard to being there said it didn’t happen.”

Ruin his life? He’s a Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. How is that ruin?

But more to the … Read the rest

Jennifer Weiner is also interested in women’s anger right now. She remembers the Anita Hill hearings all too well.

I remember her turquoise suit, her red lipstick, her perfect posture, her poise. I remember Justice Thomas’ denials, and the senators’ sneers and the pundits’ dismissals. She followed him from one job to another, they’d say. A few jokes about pubic hairs on Coke cans? Couldn’t have been that bad, right?

I knew why she’d followed him. By 21, like most women, I’d had experience with the way the world makes excuses for young men (and old ones), and instead trains its scrutiny on the women who dare to complain. What’s your problem? Was it really such a big deal?

Deborah Cameron looks back on the anger of the early women’s movement:

The first piece of writing students do for the course I teach on second wave feminism is a short response to the material they’ve read in the first two weeks–mostly personal essays and group manifestos dating from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their responses are always varied, but there’s one thing that gets at least a passing mention from almost everyone: how angry these women were.

For Teresa Green, who turned her response into this 2016 guest post, what was most striking wasn’t just the anger itself, it was “the fact that they boldly express it with no qualms about the male egos or female