The Brett Kavanaugh confirmation to the Supreme Court was problematic, and left a bad taste in a lot of mouths. Christine Blasey Ford has been dragged through the mud in the name of pushing through a temperamental partisan Republican mouthpiece, who even if he was innocent, proved by his behavior and his blatant lies that he was unfit to sit on the bench of the highest court of the land. So of course, leave it to Donald Trump to continue to mean spiritedly rub salt in the wound. Because of course he couldn’t just let it happen. He had to make a big show of the swearing in, and then, on behalf of the country, apologize for the treatment of Kavanaugh. I’m sorry, but he certainly doesn’t speak for me in that apology. And I would argue that he doesn’t speak for most Americans. Indeed, I’m pretty sure most Americans who have been paying attention don’t think he was treated harshly enough for his infantile behavior. The softball investigation by the FBI, with it’s overly limited scope was an embarrassment and a total miscarriage of justice. So no, Don. You don’t speak on behalf of America. And seeing as you don’t apologize for anything in general, I don’t know that you were speaking on behalf of anyone.
I honestly would have been shocked had Brett Kavanaugh NOT been confirmed. Seriously, it would have blown my mind. The GOP was just too gung ho about getting this done. Having a conservative majority directing the course of legal discourse for the foreseeable future was just too important. That said, there was hope of some Republican holdouts. Unfortunately, that amounted to one of them (Lisa Murkowski from my state, Alaska) basically just no voting, which helped no one, and another, Susan Collins, giving a long diatribe that betrayed decades of principles on her part. Susan Collins fancies herself something a champion for women, yet the day before the confirmation vote, she went on a rant that was tantamount to victim blaming. She attacked Christine Blasey Ford’s recollection, and suggested that she was less reliable than Brett Kavanaugh, a man who lied right to her face. And let’s not mince words: He lied. Provably so. He lied and handed the Senate proof of his lies while doing it. And the fact that he did and the Republicans didn’t seem to care, showed me that no FBI investigation, no matter how impressive the scale allowed, would have stopped this confirmation from moving forward. So, Justice Brett Kavanaugh is moving forward as the most disliked Supreme Court Justice at confirmation, and Susan Collins moves forward as a hypocrite that no one with any sense will ever take seriously again.
I want to take a second to talk about the new trade deal that is taking the place of NAFTA. USMCA, which is an infinitely less impressive abbreviation and all around title was unveiled on Monday and….no one talked about it. Now, listen, when it comes to economics and trade deals, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know a whole heck of a lot, but based on the limited coverage it got, I guess it’s alright? I mean, I guess Canada is being less stingy about it’s milk which is…fine? I dunno. But it’s limited coverage, ESPECIALLY on Monday, the day this deal dropped, kind of blew my mind. I actively sought out information on the deal on Monday, and couldn’t find much more than descriptions of it, and all of that was buried under the Brett Kavanaugh situation. And that HAS to grind Trump’s gears. It HAS to. On the day that Trump presumably didn’t completely screw up a significant trade deal (I think he didn’t?), all anyone wants to talk about is Kavanaugh. And when Trump spoke up on Kavanaugh on Monday…I feel like the things he chose to speak on reflected that. I mean yeah, he did TECHNICALLY defend the man, but only after basically calling him an alcoholic and saying that he’s allowing the FBI to conduct a thorough investigation, where days ago, it seemed like it was going to be pretty limited. Maybe I’m reading a bit too much into it, but maybe, just maybe Trump doesn’t like people talking about another rich white guy on the day that he’s the rich white guy who should be getting the attention.
I would be quite surprised if Brett Kavanaugh isn’t confirmed for the Supreme Court. This whole situation smells an awful lot like the Anita Hill incident which didn’t stop Clarence Thomas from getting confirmed, and the fact is that the Republicans really want their agenda represented in the highest court in the land. I just don’t see how it won’t happen. THAT said, he certainly doesn’t have a lot of great people helping his case. Roy Moore, ex-Senate candidate and accused sex offender and pedophile, is trying to make his voice heard on what he is declaring a liberal smear job. The fact is, NO ONE would want Roy Moore defending them against sexual assault allegations. He is in the unfortunate position of having basically no one believe he’s innocent of what he’s being accused of. Only adding to Kavanaugh’s problematic defenders were a panel of Conservative women out of Florida. They were interviewed by CNN, and their argument wasn’t “Kavanaugh is innocent”, but it was more of a “What guy hasn’t done this kind of thing when they were that age?” And to that I would say…most? No one I hang around with has, to my knowledge, ever attempted to sexually assault anyone. And if they did, it wouldn’t be an “aw shucks, boys will be boys” moment. It would be a friendship ender. So yeah…Kavanaugh will get confirmed despite there being no good reason he should be. Politics in America.
The confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh as the newest Justice of the Supreme Court started on Tuesday morning. And, I think as most people expected, it was a rather raucous affair. Protestors were abound, desperately trying to throw a wrench in the works of Kavanaugh getting confirmed. The Democrats were also attempting to delay the whole affair, and frankly, I don’t mind. Kavanaugh is kind of awful. But in total fairness, their reason for attempting to postpone the confirmation is pretty legit. You see, just a few hours prior, over 42,000 documents pertinent to the career and character of Kavanaugh were released to the Senate. Now, maybe I’m being unreasonable, but I feel like it’s unfair to expect people to read tens of thousands of documents in a few hours. The whole thing stinks of a runaround, so yeah, I feel like the Democrats had a legitimate cause for postponement. But of course the Republican majority wasn’t having it, Chuck Grassley especially, seeming completely baffled that there was an issue. While they weren’t successful in lobbying for a continuance, the protestors and bickering certainly slowed things down, which I suppose is something…
Mind the Exit 