I was not going to talk about this, partially because taken in context the events of the last few days have been the greatest distraction from the things that matter and because my energy is insufficient to extend to matters of this sort.
However, it is Sunday today and seeing I woke up this morning thinking about this and I have a few hours before the next large headlines come
At the age of 62 I was brought up with different mores but I have always had what I would self-characterise as a healthy respect for women and have always supported the aspirations of the women's movement.
However, in the last couple of days I have been aghast at the ease with which people on social media, some of whom I would have expected might have known better have blindly followed the lead of CNN and the entirety of the media.
Not one of the people who talk about this has come out strongly against war being waged across multiple country. All men, according to some are inherently rapists but when the situation of mass rape of women in Europe by Muslim gangs that is okay and any criticism is labelled as 'islamophobia".
When one is talking about Justice Brett Kavanaugh none of the women who are coming forward to accuse him are "ordinary" people but are just as much part of the corrupt elite as their male counterparts.
Look at this. It seems that Ford has connections with the CIA which, these days perfectly fine with the Democrats
At the age of 62 I was brought up with different mores but I have always had what I would self-characterise as a healthy respect for women and have always supported the aspirations of the women's movement.
However, in the last couple of days I have been aghast at the ease with which people on social media, some of whom I would have expected might have known better have blindly followed the lead of CNN and the entirety of the media.
Not one of the people who talk about this has come out strongly against war being waged across multiple country. All men, according to some are inherently rapists but when the situation of mass rape of women in Europe by Muslim gangs that is okay and any criticism is labelled as 'islamophobia".
When one is talking about Justice Brett Kavanaugh none of the women who are coming forward to accuse him are "ordinary" people but are just as much part of the corrupt elite as their male counterparts.
Look at this. It seems that Ford has connections with the CIA which, these days perfectly fine with the Democrats
There are a thousand reasons to not confirm Justice Kavanaugh, up to an including his role as an author of the Patriot Act which eviscerated the US constitution but this is perfectly fine with the Democrats who have less than no objection to Trump waging wars of aggression in the Middle East.
Ralph Nader: Kavanaugh Is a Corporation Masquerading as a Judge
The following article, written by a Russian, reflects perfectly my response to the whole affair. In this I identify with the "rest of the world" rather than the dumbed-down American populace or the brainwashed sections of the population on the edges of empire.
Ralph Nader: Kavanaugh Is a Corporation Masquerading as a Judge
The following article, written by a Russian, reflects perfectly my response to the whole affair. In this I identify with the "rest of the world" rather than the dumbed-down American populace or the brainwashed sections of the population on the edges of empire.
American
shame: US has nothing to teach the world about justice or politics
after Kavanaugh farce
RT,
29
September, 2018
Many
outside the US watched Thursday’s hearing with open-mouthed
revulsion at the bad faith, lack of due process and inhumanity on
display. Dysfunction in the biggest Western democracy sets a poor
example to the rest of the globe.
The
present does not own the monopoly on ugly scenes in Congress - the
McCarthy interviews are on tape, after all. Nor do either of the
parties – from Kenneth Starr’s ultimately futile humiliation of
Bill Clinton, to their intransigence during Obama’s two terms,
Republicans largely set the tone for the partisanship that reigns
today.
But
make no mistake about it: in the age of a hysterical and
agenda-driven news media, and a social media that amplifies its worst
aspects, the Kavanaugh and Ford testimonies marked a new low. And it
is the Democrats that have guided the process into a high-stakes
wrestling match in a toxic swamp.
Disagreeing
with Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination on ideological grounds, and
questioning his record and temperament are fine, even if it is to
whip up your base before the upcoming mid-terms. This what the
confirmation hearings were for (minus the choreographed interruptions
from the gallery).
But
to pull out a last-minute 36-year-old sexual abuse accusation that
you have sat on for weeks, as Dianne Feinstein did, is a dirty trick,
notwithstanding her protestations to senators on Thursday that she
didn’t time the release of Ford’s testimony, or leak her name
(who did then? This person acting against the wishes of a
self-described abuse victim must surely be found and punished). As
are the systematic stalling tactics in full evidence at the
questioning – the condition-setting for the hearings, the alleged
flying fears that fell apart after two questions, the “What
about Mark Judge, when can we speak to him?” and the
demands for an additional FBI inquiry, during which yet more
allegations are sure to come out, as Michael Avenatti tap-dances
around his office in anticipation. Could a single senator in the room
from either party disagree, hand-on-Bible, that the Democrats are
hoping to drag out the process to give themselves a better chance?
To
do this, the party was prepared to turn a political attack into a
personal one, and personal trauma into a political weapon. Whatever
traction #MeToo had as a non-partisan campaign that concerns all
women is now in question. “Believe
women” has
turned from an expression of sympathy to reticent victims to a
battering ram for short-term political gain, deployed while
faux-innocently asking “Why
would any woman lie?” in
the one case where the reasons to do so are glaringly obvious.
The
Republicans’ scurrying to confirm their candidate is similarly
blatant and unseemly. They called the accuser to speak, but how many
of them would have changed their mind whatever she said? Five? Three?
No one? Staging this hearing for them was as much of a charade about
the optics. So polite on Thursday, by Friday Lindsey Graham was
calling the accusations “garbage.”
A tragedy in the hubbubYet this is not what made Thursday’s proceedings tragic. Politicians in that room play their power games and have known each other for decades - but here, real people were involved. For all the disingenuous pretense that this was just a job interview (most employers don’t suddenly ask jobseekers to prove they are not a rapist to get to the next round), their entire lives were at stake over how they would come across in a single afternoon.
Christine
Blasey Ford’s account might be fiction or her own truth, but here
was a woman who was evidently genuinely traumatized, and having to
relive the moment. And if she is telling the facts as they did
happen, and she was assaulted by a drunk, violent Brett Kavanaugh,
this is hardly the format that best serves to bring her justice. She
said she was no pawn, but she was surrounded by politically-motivated
lawyers, participating in some improvised talk show format in which
smarmy praise from Democrats who regard her exactly as that chess
piece, alternated with fragmented lawyerly questioning from a female
prosecutor (once again all optics) looking for a “gotcha!” moment
in frustrating five-minute chunks. She had been used.
Some
observers said she “won” because
she looked credible. The entire modern law was invented and allowed
to flourish in America, that most legalistic of states, so that
people wouldn’t be judged on their “credibility.” It’s
fine that she turned out to be an educated, well-spoken woman, but
what if she had turned out a little twitchy, or stuttered? Would that
have meant that she wasn’t assaulted? After all, many viewers
questioned Ford’s patchy memory, the number of times she looked
down at her notes, or even her high-pitched voice.
Kavanaugh tears up at hearing while speaking about his family: 'We mean no ill will' toward accuser fxn.ws/2R6JEFN
Same
goes for Brett Kavanaugh: Some saw a man under extreme pressure in
indignant tears as he strove to save his name against allegations so
vague they couldn’t even be substantively refuted. Yet his
opponents online said his passion made it easy to imagine how angry
he would have got before raping Ford (“and this is him sober”),
while his tears – a quality supposedly demanded from modern men –
merely made him too unbalanced to be a judge. Many just posted photos
of unflattering facial expressions and the blotches on his face.
In
any case, even if Ford provided specific details of her ordeal, this
wouldn’t have changed anything. Kavanaugh would still have turned
around and denied it. Thursday's hearing was not just inadequate as a
court, with its burden of proof, witnesses, evidence, judges and jury
– it wasn’t even a tribunal attempting to establish the truth.
Instead, it was designed to have the opposite effect, with all sides
smearing each other for political gain entirely on the basis of he
said/she said accounts.
Lindsey
Graham / Reuters
“This
is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics,” said
Graham as the hearing wrapped up. But even if he was right, he was
not the man to say it. Both over the longer term and in the past few
weeks, it is him and the other senators who have allowed this human
baiting show to take place.
Human
baiting
And
a cruelty circus there was: the tarred human targets drew to
themselves millions of vitriolic opinions, self-righteous statements,
and outright lies. Thousands of women told stories of their own
sexual abuse (though there is a question if one man, not proven
guilty, should be punished for another man’s crime, or even for the
cause of equality before the law), abortion advocates reminded
viewers that Roe v. Wade was in danger, the Washington Post wrote
dissections of various slang terms in Kavanaugh’s yearbook.
On
the other side, Republicans spoke of vast left-wing conspiracies –
a subject the prospective Supreme Court justice himself raised –
and reposted talking points from the questioning and fake memes
casting doubts on Ford’s sexual morals, which somewhat misses the
point, as well as being slander.
If
there was nuance, it got drowned under the majority of the comments
that went along strict party lines. Perhaps in an existential battle
for the future of America’s legal system the ends justify the means
and no one cares about the collateral. More chilling than all this
was the tone of callous disregard for the people involved: even if
someone believes that a man or woman may only have a ten percent
chance of being innocent, shouldn’t they be treated with humanity,
particularly in a murky situation like this? Neither Kavanaugh nor
Ford are monsters, and even if they were, what of the compassion and
tolerance on which much of America prides itself?
What
the world sees
Instead,
there were two sacrificial lambs in a kangaroo court among lying,
plotting, openly amoral politicians, amid a cacophony of raw noise.
This
is how the world saw the US on Thursday.
Scores
of countries across the world live according to constitutions modeled
on the US Bill or Rights, political systems fashioned after that of
the US, legal practices that treat America as the gold standard.
American leaders are icons of world history, countries hang on to
their every word, and many attempt to emulate and follow them (yes,
even Trump).
The
US revels in this role, and just this week its leader spoke of its
“unique values” and how America made the world better and stood
up for it. These scenes are not going to persuade Saudi Arabia that
democracy is efficient. It excites not awe but laughter within the
walls of the Kremlin.
The
US has two choices: to fight as best it can to preserve the remaining
value of its institutions - Congress, the supreme court, security
agencies, and the presidency – or to continue its all-out battle
against itself, where everyone is a loser, even when someone is
declared the winner either on this nomination, the mid-terms, or
2020.
Igor
Ogorodnev
In case you think this is all restricted to the alt-Right here is an article from the far-Left WSWS.
The
day-long, nationally televised hearing before the Senate Judiciary
Committee, devoted to allegations of sexual assault against Supreme
Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, was an exercise in political
degradation.
The
Democratic Party has chosen to wage its campaign against the
nomination of Kavanaugh on the most right-wing basis possible. Rather
than focus public attention on Kavanaugh’s ultra-right political
views—his opposition to abortion rights, his rubber-stamping of
police violence, his consistent defense of corporate interests
against workers and consumers—or on his lengthy record as a
partisan legal thug going back to the Clinton impeachment, the
Democrats engineered a hearing in which all attention was focused on
Kavanaugh’s personal conduct as a teenager.
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