Kavanaugh’s Rage Is Not Evidence of His Innocence
October 4, 2018 at 5:54 pm | Posted in Abuse of Office, Conceited, Disinformation, Dysfunctional Politics, Judicial Misjudgment, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Anthony Kennedy, Brett Kavanaugh, Brittney Martin and David A. Fahrenthold, Christine Blasey Ford, David Ignatius, E.J. Dionne Jr., Eugene Robinson, Lori Rozsa, Molly Roberts, Sarah Kaufman, Shamus Khan, Suniya S. Luthar, US Supreme Court, Washington Post
![Photo in 1887 of the actor Richard Mansfield, by Henry Van der Weyde (1838-1924; London,](https://thepoliblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/jekyll-hyde-richardmansfield-1887.jpg?w=550)
Photo in 1887 of the actor Richard Mansfield, by Henry Van der Weyde (1838-1924; London,
There is intense disagreement about Brett Kavanaugh’s fitness to become one of the Justices on the Supreme Court.
During the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on September 27, 2018, the committee and the world tried to decide whether to believe Christine Blasey Ford’s assertion that a drunken Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her at a party when she was 15 years old, or whether to believe Kavanaugh’s denial.
Both Ford and Kavanaugh showed strong emotions during the hearing.
This post is about the interpretation of Kavanaugh’s rage, frustration, and dread.
Some Senators and others have interpreted Kavanaugh’s rage as evidence of his innocence. It is not.
About the diverse interpretations, see this article by Lori Rozsa , Brittney Martin and David A. Farenthold.
Kavanaugh’s rage is because the unwritten rules of entitlement that he absorbed as a teenager were violated: he was not allowed to escape being held accountable for acts for which only the less privileged were supposed to be held accountable.
Those rules said that anyone of his social class, of his wealth, with his connections, with his accomplishments and talent, would never suffer the consequences of breaking the rules that apply to lesser mortals.
These unwritten rules are exposed by Shamus Khan, in a revealing article in the Washington Post. Khan explains why Kavanaugh lies so readily, and so self-righteously. Khan also notes that privilege also makes some kids callous – a notable feature of Kavanaughs judicial rulings, of his work for George W. Bush. It would also lower his internal barriers to sexually abusing others. As noted in an article by Suniyah S. Luthar, those same unwritten rules, combined with greater resources, explain the surprising fact that rich kids are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol than are middle class kids or disadvantaged kids. That was another striking feature of the Kavanaugh’s behavior during high school and college.
Parenthetically, similar violations of expectations of special status underlie the rage of white supremicists and of male supremicists.
Kavanaugh also exhibited frustration. Based on media reports and on the current distribution of power between the two political parties, Kavanaugh had become convinced that his bid for a judgeship on the Supreme Court was unstoppable. But now his ascension to the Supreme Court is leaking away, and he doesn’t know how to stop the leak.
At the hearing, Kavanaugh also radiated dread. He knows that his wife and his daughters will no longer look up to him and trust him. He knows that friends and colleagues will re-evaluate him.
It is not just Kavanaugh’s past behavior that is at issue. His present behavior is problematic.
During the Senate hearing, Kavanaugh lied repeatedly, while under oath.
Eugene Robinson and David Ignatius give valuable insights about Kavanaugh’s lies and character.
Molly Roberts shows why it is quite believable that Christine Blasey Ford vividly remembers who attacker was, and who was laughing, while having difficulty remembering other details about the party at which Kavanaugh assaulted her.
Kavanaugh tried to evade answering inconvenient questions by attempting to change the subject (as Trump does). Kavanaugh tries to change a troublesome question about himself into an analogous question about his questioner.
Here is an example of his Kavanaugh’s deflection of an inconvenient question, as quoted from an article in the Washington Post by Sarah L. Kaufman
“He went back to being combative, even at times overly hot, inappropriate and rude. He challenged Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on her questions about whether he’d ever drunk so much his memory was affected. “Have you?” he said.”
A qualified judge would never have put up with a deflecting, topic-changing non-answer like that.
Kavanaugh also tried to claim that the accusations against him were part of a conspiracy. That was another misleading attempt at changing the subject. The time-line of Ford’s accusation refutes Kavanaugh’s claim, as is demonstrated by an editorial in the Washington Post.
Altogether, Kavanaugh’s behavior at the hearing was behavior he would not tolerate from any party who was appearing before him at a trial at which he was the Judge.
Kavanaugh lied repeatedly during the Senate hearing. He lied while under oath. E.J. Dionne Jr. has provided a superb account of Kavanaugh’s lies, and why Kavanaugh is unfit to be a judge. His article has links to extensive compilations of Kavanaugh’s lies. Eugene Robinson also has a penetrating account of Kavanaugh’s lies at the hearing, and how it shows Kavanaugh’s unfitness for serving as a judge.
Kavanaugh’s unjustified sense of entitlement, his lies in the Senate hearing, and his tactic of avoiding answering unwelcome questions by trying to change the subject, are all un-judgelike. They disqualify him from the Supreme Court.
His presence on the Supreme Court would further degrade respect for the Supreme Court’s decisions.
His defects also disqualify Kavanaugh from serving a a judge on any court, including the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which is the court he now serves on.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, why have you so sullied your judicial legacy, by recommending someone as unfit as Brett M. Kavanaugh?
Disloyal Americans in Congress
August 19, 2018 at 3:58 pm | Posted in Abuse of Office, Conceited, Disinformation, Dysfunctional Politics, Enemies of Freedom, Presidential election | Leave a commentTags: Beth Kreydatus, Bob Goodlatte, Carl Bernstein, cyber-defense, Devin Nunes, disloyal Americans in Congress, E.J. Dionne Jr., Freedom Caucus, interference in elections, Jennifer Rubin, Jim Jordan, Joe Scarborough, Kathie Sowell, Margaret Sullivan, Mark Meadows, Matt Gaetz, Max Boot, Putin, Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, Rudi Guliani, Washington Post
In a recent Congressional hearing, Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) shouted at Rod Rosenstein, “Why are you keeping information from Congress?”. This question referred to Robert Mueller’s special investigation of Putin’s interference in the Presidential election in 2016. Mueller’s investigation had been approved by Rod Rosenstein.
Jim Jordan’s question was loaded, like “When did you stop beating your wife?”
A question is loaded if it is being used as a vehicle for making an un-proven assertion, usually a derogatory assertion. The question is being used in a sneaky attempt to implant the assertion into the minds of those who hear the question.
Jim Jordan’s question was dishonorable. Indeed, Jim Jordan is both dishonorable and disloyal.
Jim Jordan is posturing at due diligence in Congress, in part to deflect attention to the fact that he either did not exercise sufficient due diligence to learn about Richard Strauss’ widely known sexual abuse of wrestlers at Ohio State University , or else that he knew about it but chose not to do anything about it.
Here are some legitimate questions. They are not loaded questions, because they assert about Jim Jordan only what his actions have proved about him.
– Jim Jordan, why are you opposed to the investigation of the well-established fact that Putin interfered in the Presidential election in 2016?
– Jim Jordan, why are you opposed to the United States and it allies learning from Mueller’s investigation how we and our allies can combat Putin’s future attempts at manipulating public opinion and elections in our country?
Your opposition amounts to obstruction of justice, and delays the improvement of our cyber-defenses.
– Jim Jordan, why are you obstructing justice?
– Jim Jordan, since you are obstructing justice, and are delaying the US’s defense against Putin’s manipulations, why should anyone believe your claim that you didn’t know about Richard Strauss’ sexual abuse of wrestlers at Ohio State University?
– Jim Jordan, when did you cease to be a patriotic American?
As an institution, Congress is worthy of respect. But not all Congressional Representatives are worthy of respect.
Jim Jordan is not worthy of respect.
The same is true of the notorious Devin Nunes, and of Bob Goodlatte, Mark Meadows and Matt Gaetz, who collude with Jim Jordan.
Each of these disloyal Americans in Congress proritizes partisan advantage over justice, and also proritizes partisan advantage over the election-based legitimacy of the United States Government.
This has been eloquently stated by Kathie Sowell and by Beth Kreydatus in their letters to the Editor of the Washington Post.
These disloyal Americans in Congress are opposed to investigating attacks on our electoral integrity, and therefore on the legitimacy of our government.
They are opposed to obtaining the information that is needed for developing defenses of our electoral integrity, and therefore of the legitimacy of our government.
Their loyalty is to their party, in its current degenerate form. Their loyalty is not to their country.
They are colluding in a Trump-Putin disinformation campaign.
None of them merit security clearances.
None of them deserve to be re-elected next November.
They should be impeached, or at least censured.
A “Freedom Caucus”? They are the exact opposite.
Disloyal Americans in government are also found outside of the House of Representatives: Rand Paul in the Senate, by President Chump, Rudi Giuliani (formerly a hero, now a heel), and their cronies in the Administration.
The headline of a Washington Post article by Max Boot: “Trump is ignoring the worst attack on America since 9/11 … we are at war without a commander in chief.”
An astute and careful commentator, E.J. Dionne Jr., notes “And Republicans should bear in mind that disrupting Robert S. Mueller III’s probe serves Putin’s interests, not just Trump’s.”
In an insightful article about the attempt by Jim Jordan and cronies to impeach Rod Rosenstein, Jennifer Rubin quotes Norman Eisen (a former White House ethics counsel ) and Fred Wertheimer (founder of Democracy 21): “Key House Republicans are abusing their offices and the public trust to blindly provide protection for [President] Trump. They are doing so instead of working to get to the bottom of the worst foreign attack on American elections in our history.”
In an update that is included in the online article, Jennifer Rubin then noted: “In case it wasn’t clear that this is all about Jordan’s political aspirations, he [Jim Jordan] indicated today that he is running for speaker[of the House of Representatives].”
You may remember Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who uncovered crucial information about the break-in at the Watergate by Nixon’s team. Margaret Sullivan, of the Washington Post, reports that “Earlier this month, Bernstein said on CNN that he had never seen anything like the political reaction to Trump’s kowtowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a news conference following their Helsinki meeting: “We’ve never had a moment in our history like this where serious people of both parties are questioning the loyalty of the president of the United States. Unprecedented.””
“The GOP, AWOL as the U.S. is attacked“. That is the headline of an important article by Joe Scarborough in the Washington Post. Scarborough’s article is well worth looking at. It is a masterful concise summary that includes all of the most important facts.
The active disloyalty of Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes, Bob Goodlatte, Mark Meadows and Matt Gaetz, and their ilk must be distinguished from the passive disloyalty of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. The passively disloyal deliberately refuse to legislatively forestall Trump’s likely attempt to fire Mueller, much as he fired Comey over “the Russian thing”, and removed Brennan’s security clearance to silence a voice that was pointing out Trump’s errors.
Posters and Chants Against Depravity
June 21, 2018 at 7:37 pm | Posted in Abuse of Office, Climate change, Conceited, Crime and punishment, Disinformation, Dysfunctional Politics, Enemies of Freedom, Enemies of Planet Earth, Fairness, Global warming, Presidential election | Leave a commentTags: concentration camp, disloyalty, Fox and Friends, Fox News, human rights, inadvertant agent of a foreign government, Jeff Sessions, mistreatment of children, President Chump, Putin, Rupert Murdoch, Sean Hannity, Trump, Un-American, un-Constitutional
President Trump = President Chump
Dump President Chump
No More Concentration Camps for Kids
Trump
Made America Ashamed Again
Trump the Chump
Toxic for America
Fox News
Fux News
Murdoch of Mordor
Murders the News
Fox and Fiends
Font of Fake News
Hannity Is Insanity
Disloyal Donald
Putin’s point-man in the White House
Trump is Cruel and Unusual
Punishment for the United States
Trump is Evil
President Chump Undermines America
President Chump
Inadvertent Agent of a Hostile Government
The Soviets had a name for people like Chump:
Useful Idiot!
Rupert Murdoch
America’s Most Toxic Immigrant
These slogans were all created by thepoliblog.WordPress.com,
who hereby declares them to be in the public domain.
Canada, Mexico, and NAFTA
June 7, 2018 at 6:51 pm | Posted in Abuse of Office, Conceited, Disinformation, Fairness | Leave a commentTags: Canada, fair trade, free trade, Mexico, NAFTA, President Chump, Trump
![In the San Juan de Dios Market in Guadalajara, Jalisco, MEXICO. Photo by Christian Frausto Bernal (Tepic, Nayarit, MEXICO), on 26 June 2006.](https://thepoliblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/640x427-mercado_de_sanjuandedios.jpg?w=550&h=367)
In the San Juan de Dios Market in Guadalajara, Jalisco, MEXICO. Photo by Christian Frausto Bernal (Tepic, Nayarit, MEXICO), on 26 June 2006.
It is possible to preserve NAFTA in effect, if not in name, despite Trump’s attacks and despite his divide-and-conquer tactics.
President Chump is a more accurate terminology than President Trump, so that is what he will be called in what follows.
To preserve NAFTA in effect, the most important thing is to forestall President Chump’s divide-and-conquer tactic.
Chump prefers one-on-one negociations, because in one-on-one negociations he is better able to bully and to lie.
Canada and Mexico should agree beforehand that in all negociations on trade with the US, their positions will be coordinated, even during negociations between the US and only one of those countries.
Before any further trade negotiations with the US, Canada and Mexico should agree on an initial combined list of features that they want to have in their agreements with the US. They should jointly announce those initial goals, while stressing their understanding that the list may be revised as a result of the negotiations with the US.
They should then announce that even during any one-on-one negotiations with the US, the currently-negociating non-US negotiator will accept only what is also accepted by the not-currently-negotiating non-US negotiator. It should be explicitly announced that the two countries will always synchronize their agreements with the US, much as a person’s smart phone and computer are often kept synchronized even when each is used separately.
Let A and B be abbreviations for the two non-US negotiators.
During all trade negotiations with the US, A should insist that it will accept only changes that are also accepted in side-discussions between A and B, even if that forces a prior agreement between B and the US to be updated before A‘s negotiations with the US can continue.
Britain and the EU can similarly defeat Chump’s divide-and-conquer attempts in negotiations with with them.
At all times, keep in mind that Chump wants to bully you, that he is psychopathic liar, famous for falsely promising whatever his target wants to hear, and that divide-and-conquer helps him to get away with both bullying and with lying.
To counter a would-be-bully, remind him of his inadequacies and insecurities. Do so at every opportunity.
Practice, so that whenever you shake Chump’s hand, you have grip of steel. With his small hands, Chump won’t be able to exert as much force. The goal is to make his orange face turn red, and then white.
Ask Chump whether he admires his brother, and wants to follow in his brother’s footsteps. (On second thought, research that topic before deciding whether to ask those questions. But there are other ways of keeping him off balance.)
By limiting the damage that flea-brained Chump can do to international trade, you will be doing a great service to the US and to the world, as well as to your own country.
“Flea-brained” is a precise description in Chump’s case, because a flea hops first here, then there, and never thinks carefully before the next hop.
Trump Has Admitted His Guilt
June 1, 2018 at 2:50 pm | Posted in Abuse of Office, Crime and punishment, Disinformation, Enemies of Freedom, Presidential election | Leave a commentTags: 2016 Presidential election, Jeff Sessions, Paul Waldman, President Chump, President Trump, Putin, Washington Post
Trump has admitted his guilt, without realizing that he has done so.
This point was made recently by Paul Waldman, in an article in the Washington Post.
Quoting from that aricle, “According to a January New York Times story, when Sessions decided to recuse himself, “the president erupted in anger in front of numerous White House officials, saying he needed his attorney general to protect him.” (Emphasis added.)
There would be no need for the Attorney General to protect Trump from the investigation of Putin’s interference in the the Presidential election in 2016, if Trump had not done something illegal in connection with that election.
The Attorney General’s job is to protect the American people from crime, not to protect the President – or anyone else – from the consequences of illegal actions.
About the nature of Trump’s crime, we know only that it pertains to Putin’s interference in the Presidential election in 2016. That is the topic that always presses Trump’s buttons, and elicits his most feverishly desparate reactions.
Further evidence of Trump’s knowledge of his own guilt occured in Trump’s meeting with Sessions in March 2017. According to Paul Waldman’s article, “[Trump’s] grievance was with Mr. Sessions: The president objected to [Session’s] decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Mr. Trump, who had told aides that he needed a loyalist overseeing the inquiry, berated Mr. Sessions and told him he should reverse his decision, an unusual and potentially inappropriate request.” Why would Trump need “a loyalist overseeing the inquiry”, if he wasn’t scared about some fact connected to this particular topic?
See also the previous post on this blog.
I know it won’t happen, but for such a hypocrite I cannot resist: “Lock him up!”
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Trump Is Guilty
May 4, 2018 at 7:38 am | Posted in Abuse of Office, Conceited, Crime and punishment, Disinformation, Dysfunctional Politics, Enemies of Freedom, Presidential election | 1 CommentTags: legitimacy of the United States government, New York Times, Putin, Robert Mueller, Trump
![Old gavel and court minutes displayed at the Minnesota Judicial Center, photographed by Jonathunder, 2008-04-17.](https://thepoliblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/480x480-courtgavel.jpg?w=550)
Old gavel and court minutes displayed at the Minnesota Judicial Center, photographed by Jonathunder, 2008-04-17.
Trump is guilty of something that causes him to frantically impede the investigation of Putin’s interference in the American election in 2016.
Trump is so guilty, that he opposes an investigation that every patriotic American would want to succeed, because the legitimacy of elections underlies the legitimacy of the American government.
Trump is so guilty, that he seeks to terminate the only activity that would exonererate him if he wasn’t guilty.
Trump is so guilty, that he seeks to terminate the only activity that would remove the cloud on his legitimacy.
For a summary of the issues, see the New York Times article on Robert Mueller’s questions to Trump.
Unpatriotic Devin Nunes, Unpatriotic Donald Trump
February 28, 2018 at 9:41 am | Posted in Abuse of Office, Disinformation, Dysfunctional Politics, Enemies of Freedom | Leave a commentTags: Devin Nunes, Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, Ruth Marcus, Vladimir Putin
Every loyal American would want the investigation of Putin’s interference in the 1916 election to get to the bottom of what Putin’s minions did, and how they did it. Every loyal American would want to refute Putin’s lies, and would want America to have the information it needs to craft defenses against Putin’s future attempts, both on this country and on its allies.
It is iron-clad logic, a simple syllogism: if every loyal American would want those things, then any American who obstructs those investigations and defenses is not a loyal American.
Devin Nunes is not a loyal American.
Donald Trump is not a loyal American.
Devin Nunes is not a patriotic American.
Donald Trump is not a patrotic American.
Devin Nunes is inadvertantly an agent of Vladimir Putin.
Donald Trump is inadvertantly an agent of Vladimir Putin.
Neither should ever have had access to classified information.
Neither should have future access to classified information.
Trump’s primary loyalty is to himself and to his “brand” – not to America, not to freedom, not to fairness, not to honest elections.
There are indications that the same is true of Devin Nunes.
Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution begins, “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, …”
The writers of the Constitution never anticipated a President who favored an opponent of the United States.
![Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet at the 2017 G-20 Hamburg Summit. Photo by www.kremlin.ru.](https://thepoliblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/640x395-vladimirputindonaldtrump-atthe2017_g-20hamburgsummit.jpg?w=550&h=339)
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet at the 2017 G-20 Hamburg Summit. Photo by http://www.kremlin.ru.
What about Paul Ryan?
![Donald Trump shaking hands with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan at his February 28, 2017 address to a joint session of Congress.](https://thepoliblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/640x457-trumpshakinghandswithpaulryan.jpg?w=550&h=393)
Donald Trump shaking hands with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan at his February 28, 2017 address to a joint session of Congress.
Surely Paul Ryan had some sense of Devin Nunes’ personality and character before appointing him to the House Intelligence Committee.
Why then did Paul Ryan appoint Nunes as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee?
Why did Paul Ryan even allow Nunes to be on that Committee?
Paul, please explain to the American people why you appointed Nunes as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Paul, now that you cannot miss seeing that you introduced a worm into the apple, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to re-assign Nunes?
Paul, are you, too, not a loyal American?
Paul, are you, too, inadvertantly an agent of Putin?
Paul, where are your primary loyalties? They seem to be to the Republican Party in its current debased form, not to America, not to freedom, not to fairness, not to honest elections.
As noted by Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post:
“Real patriotism would be not to denounce the “Russia hoax” but to insist that Congress — and for that matter, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — get to the bottom of what happened in the 2016 election and, even more imperative, that the United States strengthen its defenses to prevent future meddling.”
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