I’m not watching the hearing live; I’ll probably watch parts of it later. Twitter is supplying commentary.

Prosecutors have good spidey-senses. Mine says Dr. Ford is telling the truth. Her demeanor, the small details, her lack of willingness to force her memory, her emotion, her sense of duty as a citizen. And I believe her when she identifies Kavanaugh as the man who assaulted her.

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) September 27, 2018

https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1045337462317428736

This is just so hard to watch. An institutional failure of the highest order, being televised nationally. What a failure: No witnesses. No FBI investigation. A GOP Chairman who claims to be fair but HAS NOT even brought forward a WITNESS who was IN THE ROOM. #KanavaughHearings

Michael Lewis gives a glimpse of how Trump managed the transition from random real estate profiteer to idiot president.

[Chris] Christie volunteered himself for the job: head of the Donald Trump presidential transition team. “It’s the next best thing to being president,” he told friends. “You get to plan the presidency.” He went to see Trump about it. Trump said he didn’t want a presidential transition team. Why did anyone need to plan anything before he actually became president? It’s legally required, said Christie. Trump asked where the money was going to come from to pay for the transition team. Christie explained that Trump could either pay for it himself or take it out of campaign funds. Trump didn’t want

Originally a comment by iknklast on It’s the lying.

Of course, that idea of lying is what makes this interesting. Democrats have gone down for lying, and Clinton’s impeachment centered a lot around his lying. But the interesting thing is that the Dems were, for the most part, dealing with consensual sexual acts between consenting adults (even accepting the possibility that Lewinsky couldn’t be consensual because of disparate power, but with that caveat, most women can’t be truly said to be consenting, since men in general have disparate power over women in general).

The Repubs, on the other hand, who seem to get away with it, are not consensual. Anita Hill did not consent to being sexually harassed by … Read the rest

Historian Claire Potter says it’s the lying at least as much as the sexual assaults.

The phrase “he said, she said” is often used to characterize the opaqueness of a sex crime: Without a direct witness, someone must be lying. But who? Is it equally likely that the accuser and the accused will lie? Conservatives don’t think so. Kavanaugh, as Thomas did, has categorically denied all charges, and his supporters have characterized Blasey as the agent of a smear campaign orchestrated to keep Kavanaugh off the court.

But Blasey’s story resonates with feminists and, in a change from 1991, with male Democratic senators — some of whom are former prosecutors shaped by the legal world that feminists made. Blasey’s

Hey kids of all ages, looking for a fun new Halloween experience? The West Midlands police have just the thing for you!

The West Midlands force used its Facebook page to advertise a charity event that will see thrillseekers pay £75 to bed down in Birmingham’s old Steelhouse Lane lock-up.

The message said: ‘These cells were occupied by none other than the original Peaky Blinders, Fred West and many more. Be there if you dare!’

That’s serial murderer of women Fred West, who killed at least 12 young women, at least 8 of whom were raped, bound, tortured, and mutilated.

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, said: ‘We have seen the glorification of violence against women used to

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

https://twitter.com/petersuderman/status/1044255410075709441… Read the rest