"It’s not my normal approach to b indecisive," tweeted the 85-year-old Charles E. Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee...

... letting the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh know about the latest deadline extension accorded to Kavanaugh's accuser Christine Blasey Ford.

The newest deadline is 2:30 PM today (Saturday). I'm told — reading the NYT — that they're working on negotiating the terms, but it's hard to believe this "tango" — NYT's word — is really over terms:

Throughout the day on Friday, Dr. Blasey’s lawyers and Senate Judiciary Committee aides tried to work out details like how many photographers and television cameras would be in the room (Dr. Blasey, fearful of being mobbed by the news media, wanted one of each); who would ask the questions (Republicans wanted an outside lawyer, Dr. Blasey favored senators); and what day the session would take place (Dr. Blasey asked for Thursday, Republicans wanted Wednesday).

If Blasey really wanted to testify, I think these terms would easily have been worked out. I suspect this last moving of the deadline is simply because they already know there will be no additional hearing, and the vote can't be until Monday anyway, so why not make even more of a show of being caring, considerate, and accommodating to Blasey? In this view, Grassley isn't really "b-ing" indecisive, nor is he really addressing Kavanaugh. It's a show for us, the sensitive people, and Grassley already knows the outcome of this story — that there will be no hearing and Kavanaugh will be confirmed.

In a follow-up tweet sent after the one directed to Judge Kavanaugh, Mr. Grassley wrote: “With all the extensions we give Dr Ford to decide if she still wants to testify to the Senate I feel like I’m playing 2nd trombone in the judiciary orchestra and Schumer is the conductor.” He was referring to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader.

Schumer is making him do it. I understand teenagers getting pushed around but the man is 85 years old. Grow up, already, or retire. Is he suffering from learned helplessness? I suspect he's simply posing as a man who gets pushed around by a stronger man. Maybe he thinks the American public is so sympathetic to victims these days that he'll get some.

Notice the use of phallic symbol metaphor: Schumer wields his powerful conductor's baton and he's stuck with a stupid old trombone.

A trombone is a well-known phallic symbol, so don't try to tell me otherwise. The motion of playing it is typically compared to male masturbation. Commenting on Prince's phallic display of his guitar at the Super Bowl in 2007, Rolling Stone magazine contributing editor Gavin Edwards said: "Those trombones are phallic, too. What are you going to do?"

There's even more commentary on the conductor's baton as a phallic symbol. Example (click to enlarge and clarify):

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"What [Christine Blasey Ford is] describing, I saw at parties in 2003 and ’04. Boys trying to take advantage of girls who were drunk."

Said Eric Ruyak, who attended Georgetown Prep in the 2000s — long after Kavanaugh left — quoted — for what it's worth — in USA Today.

"It’s predominantly white, very homogeneous," Ruyak said. "There’s a tremendous amount of wealth, no women, and, quite frankly, male teachers making lewd jokes. I feel badly. I know plenty of wonderful guys who went to Prep. "When I went to Northwestern (University), I saw then how malignant that environment really is.”

The article also quotes Elizabeth Mitchell, "a 1995 graduate of Georgetown Visitation, an all-girls Catholic school whose students often interacted with Georgetown Prep's."

"The re was definitely a heavy-drinking, country club-entitled, future-kings idea that I think prevailed," she said. "You had this culture where mom and dad weren't home, and you had these massive mansions."

Why — given that we're so ready to talk about race in connection with this story — are we not talking about religion? These are Catholic schools, and the teachers there attempt to shape the character of the students.

People are talking about Mark Judge's book "Wasted: Tales of a Genx Drunk," but I'm reading his other book "A Tremor of Bliss: Sex, Catholicism, and Rock 'n' Roll." And there's also "God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling," but at the moment it costs $1,500, so I can't tell you about that, but you can see from the title Judge is highly critical of his own Catholic schooling.

We're too afraid to talk about religion, even though we've plunged deeply into sex and even thrown race in where there's scarcely any reason. Why don't we talk about religion? There are so many Catholics on the Supreme Court that it's bizarre not to talk about it. Only Breyer and Ginsburg are not Catholic. (Gorsuch was raised Catholic and, like Kavanaugh, attended Georgetown Prep, but since marrying, he has attended Episcopal services with his wife and, I'm reading, refrains from saying whether or not he is Catholic.)

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"Rosenstein Suggested He Secretly Record Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment."

NYT headline.

The deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office for being unfit....

Mr. Rosenstein was just two weeks into his job. He had begun overseeing the Russia investigation and played a key role in the president’s dismissal of Mr. Comey by writing a memo critical of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But Mr. Rosenstein was caught off guard when Mr. Trump cited the memo in the firing, and he began telling people that he feared he had been used.

Mr. Rosenstein made the remarks about secretly recording Mr. Trump and about the 25th Amendment in meetings and conversations with other Justice Department and F.B.I. officials. Several people described the episodes, insisting on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations....

Thanks to commenter readering for saying — on my post about the "Battle of Brett" Drudge graphic — "Much better Drudge headline now."



Drudge rarely uses the siren in recent years, so it has a big impact now.

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Nice Drudge graphic.

I read that as humorous critique, the play being on "The Battle of Britain." Drudge is saying they're making a mountain out of a molehill.

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Cory Booker and Brett Kavanaugh — Chris Cillizza pushes away whataboutism, but we might reach for it anyway.

"What makes Cory Booker's groping incident different than the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh."

That's the CNN headline for a piece by Chris Cillizza.

The automatic, easy, snarky answer: He's a Democrat.

I still haven't read the article, and I hadn't previously noticed there was a "groping incident" about Cory Booker. Is it an allegation or something we know happened? Anyway, to give an nonsnarky answer — again, before reading the article — I'd say: Cory Booker has a limited term and faces reelection. Brett Kavanaugh is up for a lifetime appointment.

Let's read this piece now:

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker wrote in the early 1990s -- while a student at Stanford -- about an incident on New Year's Eve 1984 (when he was 15) in which he groped a female friend's breast after the two of them had kissed.

"With the 'Top Gun' slogan ringing in my head, I slowly reached for her breast," Booker wrote of that night. "After having my hand pushed away once, I reached my 'mark.'" The point of Booker's column was how that moment, and his work on the issue after, had changed him -- and his views on women, consent and assault -- forever. "It was a wake-up call," Booker wrote in his Stanford column. "I will never be the same."

You're already consensually kissing. You try to touch her breast and are pushed away, and you try again and — what? — the end of the story is missing. But, holy God, if that's what ruins your life these days, the world has gone mad. I wonder whether college-student Cory was bullshitting when he claimed to be changed forever by this "wake up" call. But, again, I don't know the end of the story. Did the woman take him to task for trying again? And what's the "Top Gun" slogan? Maybe Cillizza isn't telling the story straight.

So the difference between the 2 stories — and this is my opinion, not Cillizza's — is that Booker's story was a story he told on himself, as part of posturing and instructing about how to be a good man. I don't know if it's true, but he chose to tell it and tell it that way. What really happened? I have no idea. Kavanaugh is suffering through someone else's telling of what is purportedly his story, and it's not told in the template of how he became such a good man, but to frame him as secretly evil. Within that other person's story, he is brutal and ugly, not boyishly copping a feel that he later lavishly regrets.

Back to Cillizza:

The rise of the #MeToo movement and the cavalcade of high-profile men admitting to behavior that ranges from boorish to criminal has opened eyes and forced uncomfortable and important conversations. The accusations against Kavanaugh are another moment to examine our assumptions and talk openly about how we should bets [sic] approach these situations -- both now and going forward.

Oh, yes. Let's have a conversation about everything! Talk openly! How do you think that will go? Place your "bets."

What we don't need amid all of this is an epic bout of "whatboutism" [sic].

Yeah, don't come after my guy while I'm going after your guy. That's whataboutism! I want you to stand down while I take all my shots. Funnily enough, that's how all these "conversations" tend to go when we're encouraged to have a conversation about some hot subject.

What Booker did as a teenager wasn't right. And he has been and will be judged by voters on them. But to turn Booker into a political missile to prove hypocrisy misses the mark. This isn't about Booker. This is about Ford, Kavanaugh, and how we, together, figure out the right way forward.

Yes, tell us what this is about.  You call out "whatboutism" — AKA whataboutism— but I'm going to call out your "what-it's-about-ism." You don't get to restrict the subject to exactly the scope you like. When you do that, it's "what-it's-about-ism" (my coinage).

But of course, everything's different from everything else. We can talk about differences and samenesses. Don't tell me what to do.

IN THE COMMENTS: Nonapod said:

"an incident on New Year's Eve 1984 (when he was 15) in which he groped a female friend's breast after the two of them had kissed. 'With the 'Top Gun' slogan ringing in my head'"

Top Gun came out in 1986. This whole story is an anti-strawman.

Wow. I found 2 typos in Cillizza's piece — "whatboutism" and "bets" — so maybe "1984" is another typo.

Anyway, checking the release date of the movie — it is indeed 1986 — I found the "slogan," I believe. It's "I feel the need... the need for speed!" That's such a stupid sex slogan.

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Mapping Meteorite Strikes

Displayr have been busy mapping where meteorites fall. They have created a number of mapped visualizations of NASA's Meteorite Landings database. The database contains information on all known meteorite landings. The Displayer maps however only contain information on the 1,107 meteorites that were recorded as they fell.

In What Are Your Chances of Being Hit by a Meteorite Displayr unveils a

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Girl groups' first #1 songs

Girls' Generation - Into the New World

Oct 11, 2007 - #1 on M Countdown

Wonder Girls - Tell Me

Oct 28, 2007 - Mutizens' song on Inkigayo

Brown Eyed Girls - Love

Feb 22, 2008 - #1 on Music Bank K-Chart

Kara - Honey

Mar 4, 2009 - #1 on M Countdown

2NE1 - Fire

Jun 14, 2009 - Mutizens' song on Inkigayo

4Minute - Muzik

Sep 27, 2009 - Mutizens' song on Inkigayo

T-ara - Bo Peep Bo Peep

Jan 1, 2010 - #1 on Music Bank K-Chart

Miss A - Bad Girl Good Girl

Jul 22, 2010 - #1 on M Countdown

Secret - Shy Boy

Jan 13, 2011 - #1 on M Countdown

F(x) - Pinocchio

Apr 29, 2011 - #1 on Music Bank K-Chart

Apink - My My

Jan 5, 2012 - #1 on M Countdown

Sistar - How Dare You

Dec 17, 2010 - #1 on Music Bank K-Chart

Girl's Day - Female President

Jul 7, 2013 - #1 on Inkigayo

AOA - Miniskirt

Feb 9, 2014 - #1 on Inkigayo

EXID - Up & Down

Jan 8, 2015 - #1 on M Countdown

Red Velvet - Ice Cream Cake

Mar 27, 2015 - #1 on Music Bank K-Chart

GFriend - Rough

Feb 2, 2016 - The Show's choice on The Show

=

Instiz: Girl groups' first #1 songs that are full of good songs

- I need an official ballad version of Into The New World ㅠㅠ

- Hul, rough was the first #1 song? I thought it was Me Gustas Tu

- Hul, f(x) won #1 late than I thought

- Oh My Girl's first #1 song was Secret Garden!

- Wow, Miss A and SNSD won #1 as soon as they debuted, daebak

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Does Trump's tweet attack Christine Blasey Ford?

I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018

On CNN, they're going on and on about how Trump has suddenly begun directly attacking Blasey.

The front-page of the NYT says he's ending his "days of restraint":

I guess they've been waiting for Trump to say anything that could be construed as an attack and hoping he'd go low. I don't think this is low at all, but the anti-Kavanaugh media seem to be working off a theory that says that any attempt to defend Kavanaugh is an attack on the alleged victim. No matter how restrained and deferential, any defense of him will be presented as an attack on her. Those who want Kavanaugh confirmed should resist that template, but they still need to be careful. The media are trying to provoke them into saying things that really will seem like an attack on someone who may be a real victim or that unsettle people like me who are invested in the larger #MeToo movement.

And this does get the "civility bullshit" tag.

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Trump tweets, just now: "I met with the DOJ concerning the declassification of various UNREDACTED documents."

"They agreed to release them but stated that so doing may have a perceived negative impact on the Russia probe. Also, key Allies’ called to ask not to release. Therefore, the Inspector General....."

Still waiting for the rest of that sentence.

ADDED: Still waiting, but I wanted to ask what does "may have a perceived negative impact" mean? Did he mean that the people he talked to perceived a negative impact? Because that's not what the word literally mean.

Literally — as I read those words — it means that the people at the DOJ did not themselves perceive a possible negative impact, but thought that other people — the press? the public? — might  perceive a negative impact. In that view, the people at the DOJ were not worried about a negative impact on the Russia probe but were worried that Trump will be thought of as negatively affecting the probe.

UPDATE: The second tweet, with the rest of the sentence:

....has been asked to review these documents on an expedited basis. I believe he will move quickly on this (and hopefully other things which he is looking at). In the end I can always declassify if it proves necessary. Speed is very important to me - and everyone!

SO: He changed his mind! Speed is very important, so he's delaying.

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Are they going to say "time's up" suddenly in 7 minutes when the deadline hits?

ADDED, 2 minutes after the hour: No word yet.

Meade is watching MSNBC right next to me, and the people on that channel are freaking out, while nothing is happening.

ME: "Why do you watch MSNBC?"

MEADE: "Because they're the most extreme."

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