Joe Capitalist
Racism is a disease
1. Christine Blasey Ford
Over the weekend, Dr. Ford reached a tentative deal to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Most of her other requests were denied, as apparently Senate Republicans feel no particular need to respect the wishes of a mere woman. Republicans are going to make her testify first, when she’d asked to testify second. Republicans refused to call other witnesses who Ford claims have first-hand knowledge of the attack (more on that collection of heroes later). And Republicans are currently on the hunt for a woman, any woman, to do the attack job on Ford for them, so they don’t have to face the “optics” of attacking a potential survivor of sexual assault.
And Republicans are already indicating that nothing Ford says will matter to them in the least. Lindsey Graham, for instance, said: “What am I supposed to do, go ahead and ruin this guy’s life based on an accusation?” You see, it’s the guy’s life that is being ruined by taking his accuser seriously. Get it? What man could get ever get a promotion to the highest court in the land, if women were to be believed?
Ford has stuck to her story, but the Senate now claims it has obtained statements from the other people who Ford claims were at the party. Nobody else remembers that party that Ford is talking about. It’s not clear if they remember any parties, and we might never know if they do, because the Senate still refuses to call them as witnesses to have them testify under oath and answer questions about their high school recollections.
Meanwhile, Brett Kavanaugh now says that he has calendars from high school that show he never was at “that” party. Yeah, no, I’m not making that up. Brett Kavanaugh claims that he has calendars from June, July, and August of 1982, calendars that he’s somehow kept for the past 36 years, and these calendars show that he was he was “out of town” for most (though not all) of the summer, and there was definitely no entry for “try to rape Chrissy Ford.”
May you all one day experience the brazen confidence of a white man that tells you “Mommy said I was a good boy” is an acceptable rebuttal to allegations of attempted rape.
2. Deborah Ramirez
Last night, Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow published accusations from Deborah Ramirez. She claims that while a freshman at Yale, she played a drinking game with Kavanaugh and some of his friends. She claims that, after being egged on by another friend, Kavanaugh whipped out his penis, and waved it around in her face.
Kavanaugh denied this new allegation. “This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen. The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said so. This is a smear, plain and simple.”
Again, it’s very categorical denial for a man who seems to have spent a lot of high school and college at the bottom of a bottle.
Like with Ford, other people who Ramirez says were at the party have no recollection of the party. But, unlike Ford, the New Yorker was able to find people who back up Ramirez’s account as in keeping with Kavanaugh’s general behavior:
A classmate of Ramirez’s, who declined to be identified because of the partisan battle over Kavanaugh’s nomination, said that another student told him about the incident either on the night of the party or in the next day or two. The classmate said that he is “one-hundred-per-cent sure” that he was told at the time that Kavanaugh was the student who exposed himself to Ramirez. He independently recalled many of the same details offered by Ramirez, including that a male student had encouraged Kavanaugh as he exposed himself. The classmate, like Ramirez, recalled that the party took place in a common room on the first floor in Entryway B of Lawrance Hall, during their freshman year. “I’ve known this all along,” he said. “It’s been on my mind all these years when his name came up. It was a big deal.” The story stayed with him, he said, because it was disturbing and seemed outside the bounds of typically acceptable behavior, even during heavy drinking at parties on campus. The classmate said that he had been shocked, but not necessarily surprised, because the social group to which Kavanaugh belonged often drank to excess. He recalled Kavanaugh as “relatively shy” until he drank, at which point he said that Kavanaugh could become “aggressive and even belligerent.”
Like most guys, I was not a guy who would whip it out at random women. But, like most guys, I knew the guy who would. That guy exists. That guy is a known problem. And that guy doesn’t just whip it out once.
I’ve already seen Kavanaugh’s Twitter mafia say that whipping it out is just the kind of “boys will be boys” behavior that is common in college. I feel that take misses the crucial point — that it’s common for assholes in college. It’s common for people in college who probably shouldn’t be put in charge of deciding what rights women do or do not have.
Kavanaugh’s men are all in on: this didn’t happen, and if it did, so what, and if it matters, it was a long time ago.
It’s worth pointing out that Senate Republicans were made aware of these allegations last week, at which point that tried to rush through Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Here he is drunk again and verbally assaulting women:
Over the weekend, Dr. Ford reached a tentative deal to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Most of her other requests were denied, as apparently Senate Republicans feel no particular need to respect the wishes of a mere woman. Republicans are going to make her testify first, when she’d asked to testify second. Republicans refused to call other witnesses who Ford claims have first-hand knowledge of the attack (more on that collection of heroes later). And Republicans are currently on the hunt for a woman, any woman, to do the attack job on Ford for them, so they don’t have to face the “optics” of attacking a potential survivor of sexual assault.
And Republicans are already indicating that nothing Ford says will matter to them in the least. Lindsey Graham, for instance, said: “What am I supposed to do, go ahead and ruin this guy’s life based on an accusation?” You see, it’s the guy’s life that is being ruined by taking his accuser seriously. Get it? What man could get ever get a promotion to the highest court in the land, if women were to be believed?
Ford has stuck to her story, but the Senate now claims it has obtained statements from the other people who Ford claims were at the party. Nobody else remembers that party that Ford is talking about. It’s not clear if they remember any parties, and we might never know if they do, because the Senate still refuses to call them as witnesses to have them testify under oath and answer questions about their high school recollections.
Meanwhile, Brett Kavanaugh now says that he has calendars from high school that show he never was at “that” party. Yeah, no, I’m not making that up. Brett Kavanaugh claims that he has calendars from June, July, and August of 1982, calendars that he’s somehow kept for the past 36 years, and these calendars show that he was he was “out of town” for most (though not all) of the summer, and there was definitely no entry for “try to rape Chrissy Ford.”
May you all one day experience the brazen confidence of a white man that tells you “Mommy said I was a good boy” is an acceptable rebuttal to allegations of attempted rape.
2. Deborah Ramirez
Last night, Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow published accusations from Deborah Ramirez. She claims that while a freshman at Yale, she played a drinking game with Kavanaugh and some of his friends. She claims that, after being egged on by another friend, Kavanaugh whipped out his penis, and waved it around in her face.
Kavanaugh denied this new allegation. “This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen. The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said so. This is a smear, plain and simple.”
Again, it’s very categorical denial for a man who seems to have spent a lot of high school and college at the bottom of a bottle.
Like with Ford, other people who Ramirez says were at the party have no recollection of the party. But, unlike Ford, the New Yorker was able to find people who back up Ramirez’s account as in keeping with Kavanaugh’s general behavior:
A classmate of Ramirez’s, who declined to be identified because of the partisan battle over Kavanaugh’s nomination, said that another student told him about the incident either on the night of the party or in the next day or two. The classmate said that he is “one-hundred-per-cent sure” that he was told at the time that Kavanaugh was the student who exposed himself to Ramirez. He independently recalled many of the same details offered by Ramirez, including that a male student had encouraged Kavanaugh as he exposed himself. The classmate, like Ramirez, recalled that the party took place in a common room on the first floor in Entryway B of Lawrance Hall, during their freshman year. “I’ve known this all along,” he said. “It’s been on my mind all these years when his name came up. It was a big deal.” The story stayed with him, he said, because it was disturbing and seemed outside the bounds of typically acceptable behavior, even during heavy drinking at parties on campus. The classmate said that he had been shocked, but not necessarily surprised, because the social group to which Kavanaugh belonged often drank to excess. He recalled Kavanaugh as “relatively shy” until he drank, at which point he said that Kavanaugh could become “aggressive and even belligerent.”
Like most guys, I was not a guy who would whip it out at random women. But, like most guys, I knew the guy who would. That guy exists. That guy is a known problem. And that guy doesn’t just whip it out once.
I’ve already seen Kavanaugh’s Twitter mafia say that whipping it out is just the kind of “boys will be boys” behavior that is common in college. I feel that take misses the crucial point — that it’s common for assholes in college. It’s common for people in college who probably shouldn’t be put in charge of deciding what rights women do or do not have.
Kavanaugh’s men are all in on: this didn’t happen, and if it did, so what, and if it matters, it was a long time ago.
It’s worth pointing out that Senate Republicans were made aware of these allegations last week, at which point that tried to rush through Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Here he is drunk again and verbally assaulting women:
