Tuesday, 25 September 2018
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!”— Smash Racism DC (@SmashRacismDC) September 25, 2018
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
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.”Is this group for real? Because they are helping Kavanaugh. False flag? Stupid people? Deliberately careless chaos-making?
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.”
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?Here's "Clampdown" at YouTube, and here are the lyrics. Excerpt:
“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.”
In these days of evil presidentesSpeaking 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."
(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)
Tea or Chai?
The word used for 'tea' in most languages around the world is derived from Chinese. However not all languages derive the word 'tea' from the same Chinese word. Some languages get their word for tea from the Mandarin 'chá', while in other languages the word tea derives from the Min Nan Chinese word 'te'. The result is that in most languages around the world the word for 'tea' sounds something
Monday, 24 September 2018
I've always been afraid to go for a walk alone in the woods...
... but I did it today. At Blue Mound:
I had the Indian Marker Tree Trail completely to myself. Beautiful!
Talk about anything you want in the comments.
The long view:
I had the Indian Marker Tree Trail completely to myself. Beautiful!
Talk about anything you want in the comments.
The long view:
The point at which Brett Kavanaugh almost moves himself to tears: "I was focused on trying to be number 1 in my class and being captain of the varsity basketball team."
From the Fox News interview that aired just now.
ADDED: Kavanaugh (and his wife) gave a strong performance. He stuck to absolute denials, and he was asked the question I wanted to hear — did he ever drink to the point of a memory blackout — and he said he did not.
AND: There are so many things that might have made him cry, and clearly he didn't want to cry, but it provides an insight into his mind to see what was the thought that made it most difficult to maintain his composure. He'd been asked about partying and pursuing female companionship, and he was thinking about how he lived in those days. He was trying to be number 1 in his class. That meant a lot to him, and it took tremendous time and concentration. And then, the second thing, being captain of the varsity basketball team. What a good boy I was! All that striving, all that effort at goodness — and look what they are doing to me now!
ALSO: You'll see the whole interview. There were certain words that he repeated over and over, especially that he has always treated women with "dignity and respect" and that all he wants is "a fair process." Asked again and again to speculate about other people's motives, he always declined. He would not say anything bad about any individual. He always made it about the allegations, not the person. The person he spoke of was himself.
"Brett Kavanaugh said Monday he was a virgin in high school and college..."
The full Kavanaugh interview will air at 7 Eastern on Fox News.
And, I'm listening to Fox News now and hearing Brit Hume saying something very close to what I said this morning. I said:
There's a real contrast to the carefully built up Blasey incident, and while the conflict with Blasey seemed to be too much of an unresolvable he said/she said, to say he said/she said was to elevate Blasey to equal status: her word against his. There was dignity in that, and Kavanaugh supporters were being circumspect and allowing that dramatic confrontation to unfold. Now, Kavanaugh antagonists have escalated the attack and seem willing — some of them, anyway — to use anything. I think more sober Kavanaugh antagonists — such as the NYT — rue this development.
ADDED: If the allegations are not true, Kavanaugh must stand his ground. If this effort to take him down works — if the allegations are not true — the same strategy will be used against the next nominee and the one after that. It will never end. If the allegations are true, he should have done something long ago. Either he should have have withdrawn, or he should have conceded his past wrongdoing, apologized sincerely, and said tactfully what he could to minimize the relevance of the incident to the question of his qualification to serve on the Court.
And, I'm listening to Fox News now and hearing Brit Hume saying something very close to what I said this morning. I said:
The new allegations — from Avenatti and The New Yorker — are, I think, helping Kavanaugh's case.... After all the careful work creating credence and empathy for Christine Blasey Ford, we now have an onslaught, a piling on, and it's making Kavanaugh into a sort of hero, who must stand his ground.There was a problem when there was only Blasey's accusation, and it did seem that you'd need multiple accusations to take down Kavanaugh. Multiple accusations were needed to take down Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Alex Kozinski, etc. But this new material doesn't seem like more Blasey-like allegations, but something different and much more questionable and more noticeably unfair.
There's a real contrast to the carefully built up Blasey incident, and while the conflict with Blasey seemed to be too much of an unresolvable he said/she said, to say he said/she said was to elevate Blasey to equal status: her word against his. There was dignity in that, and Kavanaugh supporters were being circumspect and allowing that dramatic confrontation to unfold. Now, Kavanaugh antagonists have escalated the attack and seem willing — some of them, anyway — to use anything. I think more sober Kavanaugh antagonists — such as the NYT — rue this development.
ADDED: If the allegations are not true, Kavanaugh must stand his ground. If this effort to take him down works — if the allegations are not true — the same strategy will be used against the next nominee and the one after that. It will never end. If the allegations are true, he should have done something long ago. Either he should have have withdrawn, or he should have conceded his past wrongdoing, apologized sincerely, and said tactfully what he could to minimize the relevance of the incident to the question of his qualification to serve on the Court.
3 brothers demonstrate the problem of men — as opposed to boys — in shorts.
From a huge collection of adults recreating their childhood photographs (which made me laugh out loud about 20 times).
The problem of men in shorts is — as I've been saying for years — that they look like enlarged boys. It's self-infantilizing. But that's hilarious as a one-time photo prank. Not as a way of life.
Also, grabbing your crotch is cute if you're 3 years old. Hilarious as a one-time photo prank for an adult making fun of his old boy-self.
Love the socks and the way they grew up in reverse sizes. I mean the middle one stayed the same. Still the middle. But who cares about the middle child?
"These are smears, pure and simple. And they debase our public discourse ... But they are also a threat to any man or woman who wishes to serve our country."
"Such grotesque and obvious character assassination — if allowed to succeed — will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from service. I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process. The coordinated effort to destroy my good name will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out. The last-minute character assassination will not succeed."
Writes Brett Kavanaugh, quoted in the NYT. Also in the Times article is this undermining of the New Yorker's publication of a new allegation from a former Yale classmate named Deborah Ramirez:
The new allegations — from Avenatti and The New Yorker — are, I think, helping Kavanaugh's case. The NYT seems to realize this.
I read between the lines that NYT would not itself have published the Ramirez allegations. It had the story and tried unsuccessfully to corroborate it. And it won't even repeat the "salacious" allegations Avenatti dumped on Twitter. After all the careful work creating credence and empathy for Christine Blasey Ford, we now have an onslaught, a piling on, and it's making Kavanaugh into a sort of hero, who must stand his ground. It's no longer just about the fulfillment of his own aspirations to power and prestige and his own good name. He's now the champion of everyone in the future who — if he fails — will reject the call to public service.
ADDED: A preview of Kavanaugh on FOX News at 7 Eastern:
Writes Brett Kavanaugh, quoted in the NYT. Also in the Times article is this undermining of the New Yorker's publication of a new allegation from a former Yale classmate named Deborah Ramirez:
The New York Times had interviewed several dozen people over the past week in an attempt to corroborate Ms. Ramirez’s story, and could find no one with firsthand knowledge. Ms. Ramirez herself contacted former Yale classmates asking if they recalled the episode and told some of them that she could not be certain Mr. Kavanaugh was the one who exposed himself. The New Yorker strongly stood by its article.The NYT also refers to Michael Avenatti's "additional salacious allegations on Twitter," and characterizes Republicans as "caught between the growing anger of many female voters over the Kavanaugh allegations and the demands of core conservative voters infuriated by what they see as a Democratic plot."
The new allegations — from Avenatti and The New Yorker — are, I think, helping Kavanaugh's case. The NYT seems to realize this.
I read between the lines that NYT would not itself have published the Ramirez allegations. It had the story and tried unsuccessfully to corroborate it. And it won't even repeat the "salacious" allegations Avenatti dumped on Twitter. After all the careful work creating credence and empathy for Christine Blasey Ford, we now have an onslaught, a piling on, and it's making Kavanaugh into a sort of hero, who must stand his ground. It's no longer just about the fulfillment of his own aspirations to power and prestige and his own good name. He's now the champion of everyone in the future who — if he fails — will reject the call to public service.
ADDED: A preview of Kavanaugh on FOX News at 7 Eastern:
"I'm not going to let false accusations drive us out of this process." —Brett Kavanaugh
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 24, 2018
Watch @MarthaMacCallum's full interview with Judge Kavanaugh and his wife Ashley tonight on Fox News Channel at 7p ET. https://t.co/QFmLfIwW4R pic.twitter.com/r8J2TUYQDj
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