"The crowd in front of the U.S. Supreme Court is tiny, looks like about 200 people (& most are onlookers)..."

"... that wouldn’t even fill the first couple of rows of our Kansas Rally, or any of our Rallies for that matter! The Fake News Media tries to make it look sooo big, & it’s not!"

Trump tweets.

Also at Twitter, I'm seeing Jordan Peterson promoting (but not necessarily endorsing) the idea that Kavanaugh, confirmed, should step down. Responding to him is Scott Adams, who says, "This feels like a terrible idea to me, but because smart people are saying it, I’m open to hearing the argument."

Peterson replies: "I'm not certain that is the right move. It's very complex. But he would have his name cleared, and a figure who might be less divisive might be put forward."

And Adams says, "Quitting would clear his name? I'm not connecting any of these dots."

I agree with Adams and would add that a "less divisive" figure is a fantasy. If the Democrats dream of stopping Kavanaugh were to come true, they would be fired up to use any means necessary to stop the new nominee. I'm reminded of this passage in the Susan Collins speech:

The President nominated Brett Kavanaugh on July 9th. Within moments of that announcement, special interest groups raced to be the first to oppose him, including one organization that didn’t even bother to fill in the Judge’s name on its pre-written press release – they simply wrote that they opposed “Donald Trump’s nomination of XX to the Supreme Court of the United States.” A number of Senators joined the race to announce their opposition, but they were beaten to the punch by one of our colleagues who actually announced opposition before the nominee’s identity was even known.

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We went down to the University of Wisconsin Library Mall because we saw the announcement from our local socialists: "We must show the ruling class we are not going anywhere."

"If Kavanaugh is approved tomorrow it will only be the beginning of sustained mass movement that will come for more than the rapists and misogynists they put and hold in power. Down with Trump, down with Kavanaugh, down with the GOP, down with the patriarchy and down with capitalism!"



There are a lot of people milling around downtown Madison. It's a Farmers' Market day on the square. It's a big football Saturday, and the game's not until this evening. And there was the big annual Marijuana Harvest Festival right on Library Mall.

And this is what the Socialist flooding of the street looked like.



It's not as if anyone was gravitating toward the Democratic Party. People cut a wide swath around this table:



That's the Socialist crowd in the background. A few feet away the mall was teeming:



The Libertarians were there, hoping to divert the marijuana-oriented passers-by:



It wasn't hard to see what they had to offer:

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Flake makes an ineffectual stand, but the Judiciary Committee votes to report the Kavanaugh nomination to the floor of the Senate.

The vote is on strict party lines. Senator Flake spoke just before the vote, and it seemed as though he was conditioning his vote on a one week delay, during which the FBI could do an investigation. But as his little speech wore on, it became apparent that he was only expressing the view that the Senate should delay its action for a week, but his committee vote would be yes. After the vote, it was made clear that everyone understood that the Committee has no power to dictate a delay to the full body of the Senate. The leadership of the Senate will decide how to go forward with the vote, and Senator Flake was only saying what he would need to feel "comfortable" voting for Kavanaugh in the full Senate.

ADDED: There's some discussion in the comments about my use of the word "ineffectual." I'll concede that Flake was effectual if the effect he meant to have was no effect. He was able to take a stand about how he felt about the importance of a one-week delay without causing the delay actually to occur. I do follow a general rule of thumb that people do what they want to do, and using that, I should say that Flake did exactly what he wanted, because he wanted the effect of no effect.

AND: Here's what confronted Flake as he made his way to the committee meeting this morning:

Women confront Sen. Jeff Flake after he says he'll vote yes to Kavanuagh: “That’s what you’re telling all women in America, that they don’t matter. They should just keep it to themselves because if they have told the truth you’re just going to help that man to power anyway.” pic.twitter.com/T7fSpyT69E

— CNN (@CNN) September 28, 2018

"You’re telling all women that they don’t matter — that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them, you’re going to ignore them... You’re just going to help that man to power anyway... That’s what you’re telling all of these women. That’s what you’re telling me right now. Look at me when I’m talking to you! You’re telling me that my assault doesn’t matter, that what happened to me doesn’t matter and that you’re going to let people who do these things into power! That’s what you’re telling me when you vote for him! Don’t look away from me! Look at me and tell me that it doesn’t matter what happened to me — that you’ll let people like that go into the highest court in the land!"

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Protesters chanting "We believe survivors" drive Ted Cruz out of a D.C. restaurant.

BREAKING. Activists just chased @TedCruz out of a fancy Washington DC restaurant, chanting “We Believe Survivors!”

Cruz has been friends with creep Kavanaugh for 20 years. Now Cruz is on judiciary committee hearing his testimony.

Fascists not welcome! #CancelKavanugh pic.twitter.com/7mx6Tc32za

— Smash Racism DC (@SmashRacismDC) September 25, 2018

Here's the write-up in the NY Post:

Following Cruz and his wife through the restaurant, the self-described constituent and “survivor of sexual assault” then proceeds to shout: “Senator, I have a right to know what your position is on Brett Kavanaugh.”

To which Cruz says, “God bless you, ma’am.”

The activists eventually surround his table, prompting the Republican and his wife to leave. “Let’s go ahead and go,” Cruz can be heard saying....

“Vote no on Kavanaugh!” one protester screamed at him. “Cancel Kavanaugh for women’s rights.”

Is this group for real? Because they are helping Kavanaugh. False flag? Stupid people? Deliberately careless chaos-making?

This seems to be their Facebook page. The same videos are posted there. 400+ comments, including:

1. "Beto is way hotter than you, dude"

2. "Beto wouldn’t approve of this type of behavior!!! Just saying"/"Then fuck him too. Power to the people, not the politician."/"Who gives a shit? Beto ain’t the revolution."/"You must not know who the clash are then. Beto name checked their song the clampdown in reference to Ted Cruz, he might not be able to outwardly approve of harassing ted Cruz but I doubt he's opposed to it."

3. "There is a whole lot of people commenting here that come November 2018 are going to be crying like they did in November 2016! Antics like these drive people in the middle away! Not wanting guilt by association!"

4. "This is disgusting, you people are simply thugs. You win the argument with reasoned debate not harassment and chants. Morons"

5. "I wish these douchebags would try that shit in front of me, they would all be taking a trip to the local trauma center. I have had enough of the leftist bullshit and its time we conservatives fight back"

At that Facebook page, they are also identified as @AntifaDC.

As for those comments, I don't agree with any of them. I mean #1 is technically true, just irrelevant. I agree with part of #3 but wouldn't make an outright prediction about the midterms. 2 of the sentences in #4 are true, but the middle one is only a nice idea. #5 — which may itself be false-flag, shows the right can be just as ugly as the left. #2 is a jumble of comments, but what's the bit about The Clash? I have to do research. Okay:

From Spin, "Beto O’Rourke Could Be the First Candidate for U.S. Senate to Reference The Clash in a Debate":

Beto O’Rourke might just be the coolest candidate in U.S. Senate history. It’s a well-known fact that he grew up playing in punk bands with At The Drive-In’s Cedric Brixler-Zavala, and he also jammed with Willie Nelson at the songwriter’s annual Fourth of July picnic this year in Austin. Now as Splinter points out, the Texas democrat snuck in a reference to The Clash’s 1979 song “Clampdown” in a debate Friday night with Senator Ted Cruz. What can’t he do?

“I want to make sure that, again, we’re not giving away to corporations or special interests,” O’Rourke said. “That’s what Senator Cruz would do thanks to the contributions that he’s received from those political action committees. He’s working for the clampdown and the corporations and the special interests. He’s not working for the people of Texas.”

Here's "Clampdown" at YouTube, and here are the lyrics. Excerpt:

In these days of evil presidentes
(Workin' for the clampdown)
But lately one or two has fully paid their due
For (workin' for the clampdown)
Ha! Get along! Get along!
(Workin' for the clampdown)
Ha! Get along! Get along!
(Workin' for the clampdown)

Speaking of Ted Cruz and restaurants, according to his wife, "He's the first one to say let's go out and eat hair. Human hair."

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"And so, 50 years after Dylan wrote it, 'The Times They Are a-Changin' ' vibrates with new meaning."

"Perhaps that's because the song itself doesn't look to the past — rather, it's an anthem of hope for a future where change is always possible," concludes NPR in "'The Times They Are A-Changin'' Still Speaks To Our Changing Times." Excerpt:

As the 1960s faded into the '70s, the urgency of the song faded, too. Bob Dylan moved on to other things, and the generation he first sang for grew up and...

I'll complete that sentence more bluntly: ... turned into the people who needed to get out of the way because their time was up.

The article goes on to describe the use of the old song, which anchors Bob Dylan in his political protest time, from which he changed. But Baby Boomer politicos have always harked back to it, and it serves them — I'm not including me — right to have that song sung in their face now that they are old and not ready to roll over for whatever advancement the young people think is due.

I don't include myself because I've never liked the forefronting of Protest Bob. "The Times They Are a-Changin'" is the song picked out from all the others by people who don't really know and love Bob. I don't like seeing him used this way, restricted to this narrow version.

And the words are to cruel and anti-inclusive to use generally (outside of the literal blocking of doorways in the desegregation era).

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

NPR calls particular attention to that verse, the third of five verses, because, I assume, calling out to authority figures and telling them what they need to do is more popular with protesters these days than speaking imploringly to "people" (verse 1), "writers and critics" (verse 2), "mothers and fathers" (verse 4), and the elite ("the first ones," verse 5).

And look at the threats of violence if you don't get up to the speed the singer is demanding: if you don't swim, you will "sink like a stone" (verse 1) and if you stall, you will get hurt (verse 3). Think what it means to revel in this song today: Accept my characterization that this is a fast-developing emergency, and if you don't do what I say, you're going to suffer terribly.

There are little spots where the song warns its singers not to be too smug and aggressive:

And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win

That's addressed to "writers and critics," so maybe that includes bloggers, even though Dylan's "writers and critics" are the ones who "prophesize with your pen" (and we're all typing now). He says "the wheel's still in spin," and you don't know who will win and lose over time. So be cautious, observant, and keep thinking clearly. Don't just jump onto the side you think is the winning side. It keeps changing.

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