The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Let's call a

    By Flavius on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 7:27am |

    spade a spade shall we?  He’s a rapist. End of story. Really everyone looking at the screen last Thursday learned that. Maybe suited them not to use the word , so be it. Didn’t change the underlying reality.

    Even dear old David  Brooks.

    Like most of us here I disagree with most of what he would like the   government to do. But he seems like a nice guy, if a little dense. Except didn’t suit him to change his Schtick  so  didn’t choose to admit to the scarlet R last week. Perhaps for the sake of the rapist’s children and I understand that. But he’s got to square that with his day job of pontificating.

    But Christine wasn’t “corroborated” you say. What has that to do with anything? She knew what she was saying , told Senator Feinstein.  And everyone knew . It was just a fact, as she said. Like the fact that the Red Sox  edged out a win last night.

    Two people spent hours on the stand last week ,one of whom chose to tell the truth. And as I say everyone knew. ( I won’t repeat the underline, enough already). And BTW he certainly burnt the mid night oil hand writing that deathless prose. And my aged grandmother of sainted memory was a Mack truck. 

    But we can't punish without due process ,you say. And I agree . We missed our chance 36 years ago to assign  some appropriate punishment to a very badly brought up seventeen year old jerk. And society is paying the price today.  Well goes around comes around as someone remarked last week.

    But that doesn’t mean we should misuse the human language. Today’s pompous screamer happened to fail to complete his act.  So to be precise , he's a  failed rapist. But a rapist who fails is a rapist.OK?

    What else do I have to say about it? Nothing. Just wanted to point out the correct word. Helps communication.

    So the Supreme’s from now on will be composed of six justices and a rapist. I wonder who’ll st.and next to the R-word in those face- cracking year end photos.

    Comments

    Two Supreme Court justices are accused of sexual harassment, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.

    The Court speaks for corporations and rural whites. Urban voters are an afterthought.

    Welcome to the 2018 Supreme Court.


    by rmrd0000 on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 11:32am

    I like this line best for some reason as far as the communication thing: 

    But he’s got to square that with his day job of pontificating.

    And when you say 

    But we can't punish without due process ,you say. And I agree . We missed our chance 36 years ago to assign  some appropriate punishment to a very badly brought up seventeen year old jerk. And society is paying the price today.  Well goes around comes around as someone remarked last week.

    I immediately thought: well we already have as president another badly brought up jerk who failed as a real estate developer so nothing new here? Or maybe a new meme should be: blame the elite private schools?


    by artappraiser on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 11:39am

    Flav, interesting that this op-ed is the # 1 most popular piece @ The Hill right now. I don't presume to know why it is so popular, but it is sort of the opposite of your argument:

    Democrats just killed the blue wave

    By Heather R. Higgins — 10/06/18 09:30 AM EDT

    [....] Democrats underestimate how completely terrifying this spectacle appears to ordinary people. Here is a man who volunteers in a homeless shelter and coaches girl's basketball and has more female clerks than any other federal judge; and he is being destroyed on accusation alone. How could an ordinary person, without powerful friends, survive such an onslaught? [....]

    I don't presume to know Ms. Higgins' background, whether she really does have a bead on how "ordinary people" think, she could very well be part of the beltway preppy bubble. In any case, I note the op-ed is popular right now.


    by artappraiser on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 12:20pm

     Kavanaugh's   work among the homeless stands on its own feet. 

    Obviously he could have protected his family  and Ms.Blasey Ford's , never mind the country, two and a half weeks ago by saying 'Let's talk- bring our spouses if you'd like'.  And then turned that to his own advantage -since it obviously happened as she told us- by confessing  to his "recovered memory" and blubbering. He's good at that. She'd have fallen for it. Don't know about the spousi.

    Can't comment on ordinary people. Hope the Hilly's are wrong ,we'll learn


    by Flavius on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 2:37pm

    This is not surprising to me at all.  The Hill almost surely is read by many people who work on...the Hill. Lotsa folks there working for R officials who right now really need to hear a reassuring opinion expressed by Higgins, given that many of their jobs are potentially on the line.  With all of the highly visible anger and protest going on around them, especially.  Which doesn't mean Higgins is wrong, of course.  


    by AmericanDreamer on Sun, 10/07/2018 - 2:43pm

    Here's the new hot story on topic, D.C. Circuit sent complaints about Kavanaugh’s testimony to Chief Justice Roberts, I got notice of it because this was retweeted by Lara Rozen; I don't follow Carol or Bob;  it's obviously going viral among journos:

     


    by artappraiser on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 3:05pm

    for those who aren't watching the Senate vote: the beginning of the roll call live on CNN struck me sort of like a dystopian movie because there were several severe disruptions from loudly screaming female protestors and the sergeant-at-arms apparently had a real hard time following Pence's commands to "restore order in the gallery".


    by artappraiser on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 3:50pm