I have been to hell, otherwise known as Southern California, and back (and no, it’s not that bad, but how could I pass up that joke?)

Updates

  1. Originally published, October 27, 8:41 pm.
  2. October 28, 11:19 am:
    • Something I let pass below was the xenophobic and extreme right-wing violence—yet more violence—that has occurred recently. There have been three such incidents—bombs sent to some of Donald Trump’s prominent opponents, a shooting of two people (Blacks) at a Kroger store, and an attack on a synagogue that killed 11 people.[1] I generally let stories like this pass. The U.S. is an extraordinarily violent and vicious society, due to alienation, due to a style of entertainment that promotes violence and Hierarchically Invidious Monistic thinking, due to the identification of a significant part of the population with guns, due to empire and its legacy. I see such stories and I don’t really see them as news. You may deny that “this is who we are,” but the plain and simple fact is that it is. I don’t like it but I am powerless to change it. So I have to accept it. (Yet more violence)
  3. October 28, 2:15 pm:
  4. October 29, 7:47 am:
    • Finger-pointing blah over the recent violence[2] even though this does absolutely nothing about root causes.
  5. October 29, 12:18 pm:
    • Is it any wonder chronological children can't wait for fucking Christmas when retailer children put up Christmas decorations before Halloween?
      Is it any wonder chronological children can’t wait for fucking Christmas when retailer children put up Christmas decorations before Halloween?
  6. October 29, 2018, 7:26 pm:
    • Paul Waldman has another scathing review of Donald Trump’s and his followers’ ‘victimhood.’[3] (Yet more violence)
    • There’s been more fun on Wall Street.[4]
  7. October 30, 7:18 am:
    • Words fail me. I cannot even utter what Mike Pence did.[5] (Yet more violence)
    • Moved Jennifer Rubin’s column on Donald Trump’s and his supporters’ ‘victimhood’[6] from Donald Trump to Yet more violence. Also, this post had misclassified Paul Waldman’s column[7] under Donald Trump when it had actually been archived under Yet more violence.
    • I don’t know who is telling Donald Trump he can end birthright citizenship with an executive order[8] but I’m sure wondering how they manage to mangle the 14th amendment to reach that conclusion. The amendment begins, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”[9] The only weasel words I see there are about being “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” but if they’re here, they’re subject to that jurisdiction. Unless, that is, Trump wants to not enforce the law against unauthorized migrants. (Unauthorized migration)
  8. October 30, 2018, 11:10 am:
  9. October 30, 2:19 pm:
    • Aaron Blake thinks Donald Trump’s claimed intention to abolish birthright citizenship by executive order is a “cynical ploy that, even if it’s attempted, will likely fail. And it probably won’t even be attempted.” His logic boils down to that this is the kind of thing that idiot authoritarian populists, whom Trump wants to motivate to vote, slobber over.[12] My guess is that Blake is right. (Unauthorized migration)
    • Donald Trump is a black hole. There is no limit to the depths of his depravity. The latest? “When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims [of sexual assault] about the Special Counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation.”[13] (James Comey)
  10. October 30, 3:40 pm:
    • I neglected to mention in the last update that I am still not caught up.
  11. October 30, 10:52 pm:
    • Now, I’m caught up.

It’s been a week. Just as my server was having a crisis, I had to leave to go to Southern California. Now that I’m back, I’ve almost got things back to a tolerable condition.

In the meantime, I have three new blog entries:

  1. On understanding the ‘other’
  2. Musings of a San Francisco kid
  3. This is not just extremist right-wing violence. It is our violence. And we must own it.

And my patience with my credit union is running very, very short.

I had a transaction declined for absolutely no good reason. It wasn’t that I had insufficient funds and, it turns out, it wasn’t that they had suspected my Southern California activity was fraudulent.

Though my patience with so-called “fraud protection” ran out a while ago. I do yell at customer service representatives on the phone these days and I have been no less scathing in my communication with the credit union (they close down their customer service phone lines at night and on weekends so I couldn’t actually yell at them). I have been hit with these holds numerous times, presumably because my life does not—nor would I ever in a million years want it to—fall into nice neat predictable patterns except over a relatively, but apparently long enough to fool their artificial idiocy, short periods of time.

I need to be clear here: Declines for scratching-their-scrotum reasons are absolutely unacceptable. They are intolerably rude. They are inexcusable. And don’t try to tell me they’re protecting me against fraud when all I see, and see way too often, are false positives, which means I have no evidence whatsoever of true positives, but considerable reason to doubt they can tell a false positive from a true positive. All they’re really doing is keeping me from money I have a right to access, just as I need to access it. What this really amounts to is another way of picking on the poor, who are less likely to have access to alternative payment methods.

Right now it looks like they just have an incredibly incompetent Information Technology department. Among other things, they hate Android. Their Android app simply sucks in so many ways that I’ve uninstalled it and refuse to use it. They failed to enable near field communication (NFC) payments on Google Pay for Android devices for years after it worked on Apple Pay and didn’t get on the ball for at least several months after claiming it worked (it does now work on my Wear OS smartwatch).

And again, these assholes are making huge salaries while I remain poor. I should dump them for their arrogance alone. As it is, I’m getting closer to making that decision simply because with their IT problems they simply aren’t a reliable place to keep what little money I have.


#MeToo

Kat Rosenfield, “Sarah Silverman Tweaks #MeToo,” Tablet, October 26, 2018, https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/273331/sarah-silverman-tweaks-metoo


Brett Kavanaugh

Seung Min Kim and Elise Viebeck, “Grassley refers Avenatti and Swetnick to Justice for a criminal probe,” Washington Post, October 25, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/grassley-refers-avenatti-and-swetnick-to-justice-for-a-criminal-probe/2018/10/25/75ef7a02-d879-11e8-9559-712cbf726d1c_story.html


Wall Street

Thomas Heath, “Dow plunges more than 600 points in another day of losses, officially wiping out its 2018 gains,” Washington Post, October 24, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-stocks-whipsawed-in-fresh-wave-of-volatility/2018/10/24/b9b75066-d7a2-11e8-a10f-b51546b10756_story.html

Amrith Ramkumar, “Markets Moving in Lockstep Are Latest Warning Sign,” October 24, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/markets-moving-in-lockstep-are-latest-warning-sign-1540382401

Thomas Heath, “U.S. stocks skid deeper on tech sell-off,” Washington Post, October 26, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-stocks-skid-again-on-tech-sell-off/2018/10/26/cf9607f4-d920-11e8-aeb7-ddcad4a0a54e_story.html

Amrith Ramkumar, “U.S. Stocks Slump on Tech Worries,” Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stocks-resume-declines-1540541081

Thomas Heath, “Embattled tech stocks drag down rest of market in late-day plunge,” Washington Post, October 29, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/embattled-tech-stocks-drag-rest-of-market-down-too/2018/10/29/6dc8a230-dbae-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html


Unauthorized migration

Kevin Sieff and Joshua Partlow, “Why Mexico isn’t stopping the migrant caravan,” Washington Post, October 22, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/why-mexico-isnt-stopping-the-migrant-caravan/2018/10/22/0a10c886-d608-11e8-8384-bcc5492fef49_story.html

Kevin Sieff and Joshua Partlow, “How the migrant caravan became so big and why it’s continuing to grow,” Washington Post, October 23, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/how-the-migrant-caravan-became-so-big-and-why-its-continuing-to-grow/2018/10/23/88abf1a6-d631-11e8-8384-bcc5492fef49_story.html

Aaron Blake, “Trump’s transparent, frivolous ploy on birthright citizenship,” Washington Post, October 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/30/trumps-transparent-frivolous-ploy-birthright-citizenship/

John Bowden, “Trump says he will sign executive order banning birthright citizenship,” Hill, October 30, 2018, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/413770-trump-says-he-will-sign-executive-order-banning-birthright


Student loans

Annie Nova, “These Americans fled the country to escape their giant student debt,” CNBC, October 27, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/26/he-moved-to-a-jungle-in-india-to-escape-his-student-debt–and-hes-not-alone-.html


Yet more violence

Jennifer Rubin, “President Trump, ever the victim,” Washington Post, October 26, 2018,https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/10/26/president-trump-ever-the-victim/

Ray Sanchez and Melissa Gray, “72 hours in America: Three hate-filled crimes. Three hate-filled suspects,” CNN, October 28, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/us/72-hours-of-hate-in-america/index.html

Robert Costa and Felicia Sonmez, “Trump, GOP defiant amid allegations that incendiary rhetoric contributed to climate of violence,” Washington Post, October 28, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-gop-defiant-amid-allegations-that-incendiary-rhetoric-contributed-to-climate-of-violence/2018/10/28/eecd91f6-dae1-11e8-b732-3c72cbf131f2_story.html

Alana Newhouse, “American Yahrzeit,” Tablet, October 29, 2018, https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/273679/american-yahrzeit

Paul Waldman, “How Trump and Republicans wield the politics of victimhood,” Washington Post, October 29, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/10/29/how-trump-and-republicans-wield-the-politics-of-victimhood

Moriah Balingit, Avi Selk, and Mark Berman, “Shooting victim’s family shuns President Trump in Pittsburgh as top officials decline to join him,” Washington Post, October 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/30/despite-calls-stay-away-trump-heads-pittsburgh-after-synagogue-massacre/

Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Honoring Pittsburgh synagogue victims, Pence appears with ‘rabbi’ who preaches, ‘Jesus is the Messiah,’” Washington Post, October 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/30/honoring-pittsburgh-synagogue-victims-mike-pence-appears-with-rabbi-who-preaches-jesus-is-messiah/


James Comey

Emily Birnbaum, “Special counsel asks FBI to investigate conspiracy against Mueller,” Hill, October 30, 2018, https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/413873-fbi-asked-to-investigate-claims-women-were-offered-money-to-allege


  1. [1]Ray Sanchez and Melissa Gray, “72 hours in America: Three hate-filled crimes. Three hate-filled suspects,” CNN, October 28, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/us/72-hours-of-hate-in-america/index.html
  2. [2]Robert Costa and Felicia Sonmez, “Trump, GOP defiant amid allegations that incendiary rhetoric contributed to climate of violence,” Washington Post, October 28, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-gop-defiant-amid-allegations-that-incendiary-rhetoric-contributed-to-climate-of-violence/2018/10/28/eecd91f6-dae1-11e8-b732-3c72cbf131f2_story.html
  3. [3]Paul Waldman, “How Trump and Republicans wield the politics of victimhood,” Washington Post, October 29, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/10/29/how-trump-and-republicans-wield-the-politics-of-victimhood
  4. [4]Thomas Heath, “Embattled tech stocks drag down rest of market in late-day plunge,” Washington Post, October 29, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/embattled-tech-stocks-drag-rest-of-market-down-too/2018/10/29/6dc8a230-dbae-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html
  5. [5]Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Honoring Pittsburgh synagogue victims, Pence appears with ‘rabbi’ who preaches, ‘Jesus is the Messiah,’” Washington Post, October 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/30/honoring-pittsburgh-synagogue-victims-mike-pence-appears-with-rabbi-who-preaches-jesus-is-messiah/
  6. [6]Jennifer Rubin, “President Trump, ever the victim,” Washington Post, October 26, 2018,https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/10/26/president-trump-ever-the-victim/
  7. [7]Paul Waldman, “How Trump and Republicans wield the politics of victimhood,” Washington Post, October 29, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/10/29/how-trump-and-republicans-wield-the-politics-of-victimhood
  8. [8]John Bowden, “Trump says he will sign executive order banning birthright citizenship,” Hill, October 30, 2018, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/413770-trump-says-he-will-sign-executive-order-banning-birthright
  9. [9]U.S. Const., amend. XIV, § 1.
  10. [10]Alana Newhouse, “American Yahrzeit,” Tablet, October 29, 2018, https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/273679/american-yahrzeit
  11. [11]Moriah Balingit, Avi Selk, and Mark Berman, “Shooting victim’s family shuns President Trump in Pittsburgh as top officials decline to join him,” Washington Post, October 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/30/despite-calls-stay-away-trump-heads-pittsburgh-after-synagogue-massacre/
  12. [12]Aaron Blake, “Trump’s transparent, frivolous ploy on birthright citizenship,” Washington Post, October 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/30/trumps-transparent-frivolous-ploy-birthright-citizenship/
  13. [13]Peter Carr, quoted in Emily Birnbaum, “Special counsel asks FBI to investigate conspiracy against Mueller,” Hill, October 30, 2018, https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/413873-fbi-asked-to-investigate-claims-women-were-offered-money-to-allege

Idiocy: Why they get the big bucks

There are two new blog posts:


Twitter isn’t really the place for lengthy ranting. The post-length limitation and the fact that posts can’t be edited both make it dubious. So I don’t do it often. I did it Wednesday.

There are a few updates here:

  1. AAA took its own failures as a reason to shut off recurring payments. Which is simply a non sequitur, but to them, this is logic. My guess—I don’t know because they haven’t actually mentioned the expiration date like anybody else does in this situation—is that the card information is out of date. It’s my debit card; a little, but not very long before the expiration, they send me a new one. When I activate it, the old one immediately becomes invalid. If they’d simply include the expiration date with the notice of failure, it would help a lot. Instead, they offer a generic message: Their site is currently unable to process payments.
  2. Uber requires its “partners” (the euphemism for employees whom they’re trying not to acknowledge are employees[1]) to occasionally submit a selfie when they try to go on line or even while driving for verification. This supposedly happens at random and there is no alternative procedure. So now I’m supposed to drive 70 miles out of my way to the nearest “Greenlight” location on the slim hope that they’ll be able to sort out their malfunctioning app there. (Lyft does not do this.)
  3. Meanwhile, Lyft sends me a note informing me that someone gave me a low rating on cleanliness. Which is absurd. The car is spotless. I have it washed nearly every day and the interior cleaned about twice a week on monthly plans I have with not one, but two, car wash places.
  4. And when I composed the twitter rant, I forgot to mention $EX-EMPLOYER, who keeps wanting to know if I’ll come to work today, when I have repeatedly informed them that I can’t plug the piece of shit GPS tracker that they require into my OBD2 port because it wipes critical safety related settings on my car. We’re only talking about minor things here like braking and traction control. As the rainy season approaches. My mechanic and dealer have both informed me that plugging things into OBD2 ports is unsafe. The relevant regulation only requires GPS tracking, owned by the company, not the driver, that can promptly locate the vehicle and must be attached to the vehicle. It says nothing about the OBD2 port, but $EX-EMPLOYER insists this is the only solution.

Understand the people who make these decisions are pulling down six and seven figures, if not more. But I have to be poor.

My fury knows no limits.


  1. [1]City Attorney of San Francisco, “Herrera investigates Uber, Lyft over driver pay and benefits,” PR Newswire, May 29, 2018, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/herrera-investigates-uber-lyft-over-driver-pay-and-benefits-300655892.html; Lydia DePillis, “California ruling puts pressure on Uber, Lyft and other gig economy employers,” CNN, May 1, 2018,http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/01/news/economy/california-gig-employer-ruling/index.html; Bryan Menegus, “San Francisco Subpoenas Uber and Lyft for Proof Drivers Aren’t Employees,” Gizmodo, May 29, 2018, https://gizmodo.com/san-francisco-subpoenas-uber-and-lyft-for-proof-drivers-1826398148; Sam Schechner, “Uber Suffers Setback as U.K. Court Rules Its Drivers Should Have Workers’ Rights,” Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2017, https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-loses-appeal-against-u-k-ruling-on-drivers-rights-1510313218; Heather Somerville, “San Francisco subpoenas Uber, Lyft on driver classification,” Reuters, May 29, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ridehailing-sanfrancisco/san-francisco-subpoenas-uber-lyft-on-driver-classification-idUSKCN1IU2IX

Hurricane Michael

There are three new blog posts:


Updates

  1. Originally published, October 8, 6:45 pm.
  2. October 8, 7:33 pm:
    • A minor mystery is solved. (SpaceX)
  3. October 9, 1:27 am:
    • Here’s some quantitative analysis confirming what we already know: The Democratic Party is run by absolute fucking idiots who have no business being in politics and who do not deserve anyone’s faith, let alone that of progressives.[1] Or to spin it slightly differently, to vote for Democrats might be to vote for neoconservative and neoliberal ideas, as with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but it sure as hell isn’t to vote for progressive accomplishment.
    • I’m not hearing much from Cuba as Hurricane Michael brushes (to put it mildly) the west end of that island. But I suspect the Cubans know how to tell a hurricane how to get its act together, because Michael is looking a lot more organized now than when I first published this issue.
  4. October 10, 1:22 pm:
    • From Cuba (or at least the strait between it and the Yucatan peninsula) with love: Hurricane Michael has made landfall as a Category 4 storm.[2] In figure 1 (now here preserved as the 12:00 pm version), it indeed appears undiminished in fury.
  5. October 10, 10:00 pm:
    • I agree with the substance of Marlon Smith’s essay.[3] I worry about men—like Smith—telling women how to conduct feminism. That said, Smith’s essay, for me, captures again the failure of the Third Wave of Feminism[4] and the reason I’ve been expecting a fourth wave (the latter is likely under way, but still not authoritatively recognized).
  6. October 11, 6:12 am:
    • “[Hurricane Michael] was the most powerful tropical storm to hit the Florida Panhandle since record-keeping began in 1851. Just two hurricanes have ever hit the United States with barometric pressure readings in the eye — a key metric of a storm’s effects — lower than the 919 millibars of Michael.”[5] As to the rest of it, there’s probably no substitute for actually being there—which sounds like a terrible idea.
    • Wall Street is throwing a temper tantrum.[6] But “[d]espite the selloff in stocks, financial markets overall didn’t exhibit a classic flight to safety. Two safe assets, gold and bonds, have had a horrible year and were essentially flat on Wednesday. . . Investors are starting to realize how dependent the longest bull market in history has been on cheap money.”[7] This latter bit may be a sign that yet another one of those “creative destruction” parties capitalists love so much, a recession, is in the offing. Mind you, I haven’t recovered from the one in 2001 so I’m just really low on sympathy for all these rich bastards.
  7. October 11, 3:55 pm:
    • The Dow Jones Industrials fell by over 500 points but “[t]he rise in bond yields paused”[8] and, allegedly, “All the leading indications that would point to a recession in the next year just aren’t there.”[9] I love these assholes who think there’s no sign of a recession. Until there is. And when it’s way too late to be a forecast.
    • Something I heard about yesterday but then failed to capture and archive at the time was a sense that Wall Street is concerned about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. Justin Lahart discusses this concern.[10] Something else I’ve been hearing for a while but is not captured here is that the Fed desperately wants to rebuild the arsenal of weapons it expended in the financial crisis of 2008.
  8. October 12, 11:53 am:
  9. October 12, 2:57 pm:
    • I disagree that the markets are rational in the short or long term, except perhaps within an unsustainable frame, but Allan Sloan explains why Wall Street’s reaction to the Fed’s raising of short term interest rates is, well, short-sighted.[11]
  10. October 12, 11:15 pm:
    • A sleeper question has been, what happens when Robert Mueller finishes his investigation, specifically, what happens to his findings? The Department of Justice, within whose auspices Mueller operates, is an executive branch department. So there’s no guarantee that Mueller’s findings would ever see the light of day. It turns out the Watergate investigation encountered a similar problem, analysis was done, and some folks think that analysis might help Mueller.[12] So this judge’s ruling, seeking to release findings that have been kept confidential for decades, is hugely important.[13] (James Comey)
  11. October 13, 11:03 pm:

Hurricane Michael

Fig. 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration infrared satellite imagery of the Gulf of Mexico (public domain), assembled into a 72-hour gif, as of 12:00 pm, October 10.

Arian Campo-Flores and Jon Kamp, “Hurricane Michael Makes Landfall in Florida, Threatening ‘Unimaginable Devastation,’” Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/hurricane-michael-expected-to-make-landfall-wednesday-1539171937

Kevin Begos et al., “‘We’re kind of getting crushed’: Record-breaking Hurricane Michael slams Florida,” Washington Post, October 10, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/were-kinda-getting-crushed-record-breaking-hurricane-michael-slams-florida/2018/10/10/3e7f376a-cca8-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html


Democratic Party

Aaron Blake, “Another big Democratic loss. And yet more complaints about a ‘rigged’ system,” Washington Post, October 8, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/08/another-big-democratic-loss-yet-more-complaints-about-rigged-system/


SpaceX

So I was driving in the Redwood Shores area of Redwood City last night and happened to see strange lights. They didn’t seem to be moving. I stopped the car, opened my window, heard no sound, and took a picture (figure 2). I thought maybe these lights were drones, hovering, shining their lights through some smoky skies.

Fig. 2. Photograph by David Benfell, October 7, 2018, apparently of SpaceX on ascent.

Apparently, it was Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket, headed for space.[14]

Amy Graff, “Strange light moving slowly through the Bay Area sky was Elon Musk’s SpaceX,” SFGate, October 8, 2018, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Falcon-rocket-SpaceX-strange-light-Elon-Musk-13290064.php


Third Wave of Feminism

Marlon Smith, “It’s time for Black women to stop caping a white feminist agenda,” Grio, October 8, 2018, https://thegrio.com/2018/10/08/time-for-black-women-to-stop-caping-a-white-feminist-agenda/


Wall Street

Fig. 3. A screenshot from the Wall Street Journal puts recent losses in perspective. (Fair use.)

Spencer Jakab, “Markets’ Scary Divergence Is Worrisome,” Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/markets-scary-divergence-is-worrisome-1539205900

Michael Wursthorn, “U.S. Stocks Drop as Bond Yields Keep Climbing,” Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stocks-pause-amid-doubts-over-growth-1539158283

Justin Lahart, “The Fed May Not Be Investors’ Friend,” Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fed-may-not-be-investors-friend-1539273524

Allan Sloan, “Yes, it was a $1 trillion wipeout in stocks — but let’s not all go crazy,” Washington Post, October 11, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/yes-it-was-a-1-trillion-wipeout-in-stocks–but-lets-not-all-go-crazy/2018/10/11/662202a0-cd77-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html

Christopher Whittall, Steven Russolillo, and Jessica Menton, “U.S. Stocks Extend Losses on Heels of Wednesday Rout,” Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/markets-tumble-across-asia-led-by-tech-as-growth-worries-dominate-1539225820


James Comey

Josh Gerstein, “Judge orders partial release of Watergate ‘road map,’” Politico, October 11, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/11/watergate-report-donald-trump-896046


  1. [1]Aaron Blake, “Another big Democratic loss. And yet more complaints about a ‘rigged’ system,” Washington Post, October 8, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/08/another-big-democratic-loss-yet-more-complaints-about-rigged-system/
  2. [2]Arian Campo-Flores and Jon Kamp, “Hurricane Michael Makes Landfall in Florida, Threatening ‘Unimaginable Devastation,’” Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/hurricane-michael-expected-to-make-landfall-wednesday-1539171937
  3. [3]Marlon Smith, “It’s time for Black women to stop caping a white feminist agenda,” Grio, October 8, 2018, https://thegrio.com/2018/10/08/time-for-black-women-to-stop-caping-a-white-feminist-agenda/
  4. [4]See also Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings, ed. Charles Lemert, 4th ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2010), 449-451.
  5. [5]Kevin Begos et al., “‘We’re kind of getting crushed’: Record-breaking Hurricane Michael slams Florida,” Washington Post, October 10, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/were-kinda-getting-crushed-record-breaking-hurricane-michael-slams-florida/2018/10/10/3e7f376a-cca8-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html
  6. [6]Michael Wursthorn, “U.S. Stocks Drop as Bond Yields Keep Climbing,” Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stocks-pause-amid-doubts-over-growth-1539158283
  7. [7]Spencer Jakab, “Markets’ Scary Divergence Is Worrisome,” Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/markets-scary-divergence-is-worrisome-1539205900
  8. [8]Christopher Whittall, Steven Russolillo, and Jessica Menton, “U.S. Stocks Extend Losses on Heels of Wednesday Rout,” Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/markets-tumble-across-asia-led-by-tech-as-growth-worries-dominate-1539225820
  9. [9]Patrick Kaser, quoted in Christopher Whittall, Steven Russolillo, and Jessica Menton, “U.S. Stocks Extend Losses on Heels of Wednesday Rout,” Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/markets-tumble-across-asia-led-by-tech-as-growth-worries-dominate-1539225820
  10. [10]Justin Lahart, “The Fed May Not Be Investors’ Friend,” Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fed-may-not-be-investors-friend-1539273524
  11. [11]Allan Sloan, “Yes, it was a $1 trillion wipeout in stocks — but let’s not all go crazy,” Washington Post, October 11, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/yes-it-was-a-1-trillion-wipeout-in-stocks–but-lets-not-all-go-crazy/2018/10/11/662202a0-cd77-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html
  12. [12]Charlie Savage, “Legal Experts Urge Release of Watergate Report to Offer Mueller a Road Map,” New York Times, September 14, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/us/politics/mueller-report-grand-jury-watergate.html
  13. [13]Josh Gerstein, “Judge orders partial release of Watergate ‘road map,’” Politico, October 11, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/11/watergate-report-donald-trump-896046
  14. [14]Amy Graff, “Strange light moving slowly through the Bay Area sky was Elon Musk’s SpaceX,” SFGate, October 8, 2018, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Falcon-rocket-SpaceX-strange-light-Elon-Musk-13290064.php

A sexual harasser on the Supreme Court is not enough; let’s add an accused rapist

Updates

  1. Originally published, September 23, 8:18 am.
  2. September 23, 3:17 pm:
    • A problem that Christine Blasey Ford faces as she confronts Brett Kavanaugh in the latter’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court is that the rich and well-connected protect each other. They do this even when, as with Judith Butler (a renowned critical theorist), they clearly should know better, and at the expense of “lesser” people.[1]
  3. September 24, 1:01 am:
    • A second woman, Deborah Ramirez, has come forward with allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, specifically that he “exposed himself to Ramirez during a party. She acknowledged lapses in her memory of the episode but said she remembered Kavanaugh standing to her right and laughing while he pulled up his pants, according to the [New Yorker] magazine.”[2]
  4. September 24, 9:49 am:
    • Government of the bullies, for the bullies, by the bullies: Donald Trump stands by Brett Kavanaugh.[3]
    • White House officials say Rod Rosenstein has offered to resign.[4] (James Comey)
  5. September 24, 12:43 pm:
  6. September 24, 7:54 pm:
    • Rod Rosenstein has not resigned or been fired after all. This might happen Thursday. Or it might happen after the midterm elections.[5] (James Comey)
    • I am not caught up.
  7. September 25, 1:37 am:
    • Apparently Deborah Ramirez’ accusation of sexual harassment against Brett Kavanaugh is on weaker legal ground than Christine Blasey Ford’s.[6]
    • An as-yet-unnamed third woman, represented by Michael Avenatti, apparently has credible information against Brett Kavanaugh.[7]
  8. September 25, 11:24 am:
    • A judge has labeled Bill Cosby a “sexually violent predator,” meaning he “must undergo counselling for life and appear on the sex offenders’ registry.”[8]
  9. September 25, 2:52 pm:
    • Bill Cosby has been sentenced to at least three years in a Pennsylvania state prison.[9]
  10. September 26, 12:37 am:
    • Added a photograph of Bill Cosby being helped to a police car to be taken to jail.
  11. September 26, 7:15 am:
    • In our system of so-called “justice,” we very often focus on inconsistencies in the victim‘s story as a way of discrediting the victim and turning a proceeding into an attack upon her, all in the name of course, of allowing the accused to confront his accuser, but it seems Brett Kavanaugh has a few of his own.[10]
  12. September 26, 12:01 pm:
    • Michael Avenatti’s “third accuser” against Brett Kavanaugh has come forward. Her name is Julie Swetnick.[11]
  13. September 27, 11:24 pm:
    • There’s a lot to catch up on with the Brett Kavanaugh nomination:
      1. I don’t believe I’ve noticed Paul Waldman’s work at the Washington Post before. But he effectively dismantles the Republican case for ramming through the nomination.[12]
      2. Apparently Kavanaugh might not just have been a drunken asshole would-be rapist while in high school. According to an anonymous allegation, he was still a drunken asshole would-be rapist when he was 33 years old.[13]
      3. I was specifically not reacting to early reports of Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. I was waiting for the picture that includes Brett Kavanaugh’s testimony. The bottom line seems to be that both did what they needed to do, while the committee’s chairman, Charles Grassley, seems defensive about his and his committee’s handling of the confirmation and the appointment of a prosecutor from Arizona to handle questioning seemed to backfire on the Republicans who (probably correctly) figured they didn’t know how not to be bastards in questioning Ford.[14]
  14. September 28, 6:03 am:
    • Are Republicans so partisan that they will put a possible sex offender on the Supreme Court? Maybe. The Judiciary Committee is expected to vote today (September 28).[15]
  15. September 28, 1:57 pm:
    • The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the full Senate[16] but a final vote will be delayed pending an FBI investigation.[17]
  16. September 28, 4:20 pm:
  17. September 30, 12:59 am:
    • Donald Trump claims the FBI is free to pursue the investigation of Brett Kavanaugh wherever it leads, but the White House has in fact sharply limited the scope of the investigation to the claims of the first two women, Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez. Julie Swetnick’s claims will not be investigated. Furthermore, the White House has limited the witnesses who may be interviewed.[18] I’m just going to say it: Somebody at the White House is very afraid of Swetnick.
  18. October 1, 12:49 am:
    • Jerry Brown signed Net neutrality into California law and the U.S. Department of Justice promptly sued.[19]
    • Apparently, we still do not know the scope of the FBI investigation for Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. But the part about omitting Julie Swetnick’s claims seems to be holding.[20]
  19. October 1, 7:34 pm:
  20. October 1, 11:15 pm:
  21. October 2, 10:56 am:
    • When Christine Blasey Ford appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, senators had a prosecutor from Maricopa County (Joe Arpaio territory) question her. This prosecutor wrote a report essentially saying Ford’s testimony was insufficient and Republican senators used this to claim Ford’s testimony was uncorroborated. Experts from both major parties say more investigation is necessary and that the prosecutor’s report looks like a political hack.[25] (Brett Kavanaugh)
    • Brett Kavanaugh was a mean drunk in college, too.[26]
  22. October 2, 11:42 am:
    • Brett Kavanaugh’s testimony may have been deceptive, in that he withheld truth, but it doesn’t quite rise to the level of lying.[27]
  23. October 3, 1:12 am:
    • Benjamin Wittes has a comprehensive assessment that tilts against confirming Brett Kavanaugh. My differences with Wittes are that 1) he cares much more about the integrity and credibility of the nomination and confirmation process than I do; 2) he cares much more about the possibility that Kavanaugh may be being treated unfairly than I do; and 3) I think it fair to say, I care much more about the prospect of a possible sex offender participating in decisions affecting hundreds of millions of people, especially women, than he does. But he cares enough about what I do enough that it is one of a number of reasons he gives for opposing Kavanaugh.[28]
    • Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has a story to tell about a younger Brett Kavanaugh, then part of Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater investigation; Vince Foster; and the intimidation of a witness.[29]
  24. October 4, 1:19 am:
    • Jeet Heer argues that Republicans are attempting to salvage Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination in essence by asserting that it’s normal for boys to commit sexual assault.[30]
  25. October 4, 8:31 am:
    • Women cite a few reasons for not reporting rapes and sexual assaults. These boil down to 1) that their stories will be discounted, and 2) that they will be attacked. So look what we have here:
      1. There are a number of witnesses the FBI did not talk to in its so-called investigation of Brett Kavanaugh. Deborah Ramirez perceived no effort to corroborate her story.[31] “White House spokesman Raj Shah said Thursday that the FBI agents had reached out to 10 witnesses — nine of whom were interviewed — and that no one had corroborated the account of Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual assault.”[32] In general, the supposedly apolitical or even allegedly anti-Trump FBI appears to have adopted a “see no evil” approach with regard to Kavanaugh.
      2. Senate Republicans are embracing an ad hominem approach toward Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers.[33]
  26. October 4, 4:52 pm:
    • Ben Sasse, uncharacteristically for Republicans in the present polarization, acknowledged that women’s experience of rape is a thing.[34] To give a speech such as he gave on the Senate floor and then to vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh would be paradoxical. But right now, it seems like none of it makes any difference: At least some powerful Republicans don’t care and continue to press forward[35] while at least two of those whose votes seemed in doubt expressed satisfaction with what can only be considered a rather dubious FBI report.[36]
  27. October 4, 6:49 pm:
  28. October 7, 1:19 am:
    • Mostly for the record here, Brett Kavanaugh was indeed confirmed to the Supreme Court. I’m really not that much interested in the political blow-by-blow of how this will affect the midterm elections next month,[37] but I will point out that if voting—as some recommend in response to this confirmation[38]—actually was a functional strategy, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. And as for November, we’ll see that soon enough. The rest is bullshit, piled up by those who need to pile up bullshit.
  29. October 7, 1:58 pm:

For those who do not recall, Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Senators on the Judiciary Committee, two of whom are still there, offered a brutal example of “gaslighting” before “gaslighting” was a term. Needless to say, Thomas now sits on the Supreme Court, where he participates in some of its more ignoble decisions.[39]


There are six new blog postings:


I am no longer on Google Plus. Their artificial intelligence bot censored two of my comments on Saturday, September 22, claiming they were spam. These were political comments, not commercial speech. Since rape is an issue of the day, and I was discussing that issue, I suspect that the use of the word ‘rape’ is what triggered the bot. Google Plus offers no means to appeal its bot’s decisions; I can only send “feedback,” which I have no reason to believe is even read, let alone by a human.

Unfortunately, my relationship with Google will continue. As things stand, I continue to face homelessness, likely in about ten years (I will be about 70 years old at this time), plus or minus a few years. Among other things, this means I need to get out of the business of hosting my own sites at home, since I may no longer have a home. At $20 a month, the G Suite deal, which hosts my email, contacts, and calendar, and offers unlimited cloud storage, is simply far too good to pass up.


Brett Kavanaugh

Fig. 1. Brett Kavanaugh. Photograph by Tom Williams of Getty Images, via National Public Radio, fair use.

I address this in two new blog posts entitled, “Clarity on Brett Kavanaugh” and “Innocent until proven guilty.” But of course the controversy rages on as a third, as-yet-unidentified woman represented by Michael Avenatti has something to say,[40] and meanwhile:

Emma Brown, “California professor, writer of confidential Brett Kavanaugh letter, speaks out about her allegation of sexual assault,” Washington Post, September 16, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/california-professor-writer-of-confidential-brett-kavanaugh-letter-speaks-out-about-her-allegation-of-sexual-assault/2018/09/16/46982194-b846-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html

Deanna Paul, “A former sex-crimes prosecutor analyzed Ford’s allegations against Kavanaugh. Here’s her take,” Washington Post, September 18, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/18/former-sex-crimes-prosecutor-analyzed-fords-allegations-against-kavanaugh-heres-her-take/

Emily Witt, “The Boys’ Club That Protects Brett Kavanaugh,” New Yorker, September 22, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-boys-club-that-protects-brett-kavanaugh

Eliot A. Cohen, “The Crisis of the American Elites,” Atlantic, September 23, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/the-crisis-of-the-american-elites/571060/

Karoun Demirjian, Amy Gardner, and Seung Min Kim, “Senate Judiciary panel’s top Democrat calls for delay in Kavanaugh hearing after new allegation,” Washington Post, September 23, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/as-hearing-on-kavanaugh-assault-allegations-loom-senators-seem-unwilling-to-budge/2018/09/23/99f3fd3e-bf37-11e8-90c9-23f963eea204_story.html

David Smith, “Anita Hill and the Senate ‘sham trial’ that echoes down to Kavanaugh,” Guardian, September 23, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/law/2018/sep/22/brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-anita-hill-clarence-thomas-senate-judiciary-committee

Alexander Bolton, “Trump calls Kavanaugh accusations ‘totally political,’” Hill, September 24, 2018, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/408056-trump-doubles-down-calls-kavanaugh-accusations-totally-political

Deanna Paul, “The new Kavanaugh allegation is on precarious legal ground, former sex-crimes prosecutors say,” Washington Post, September 24, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/24/new-kavanaugh-allegation-is-precarious-legal-ground-former-sex-crimes-prosecutors-say/

Joanna Walters, “Brett Kavanaugh: third woman expected to make accusations of sexual misconduct,” Guardian, September 24, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/24/brett-kavanaugh-third-woman-expected-to-make-accusations-of-sexual-misconduct

Aaron C. Davis, Emma Brown, and Joe Heim, “Kavanaugh’s ‘choir boy’ image on Fox interview rankles former Yale classmates,” Washington Post, September 25, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2018/09/25/ea5e50d4-c0eb-11e8-9005-5104e9616c21_story.html

Kathryn Rubino, “Brett Kavanaugh Seems Like He Was A Real Jerk In High School,” Above the Law, September 25, 2018, https://abovethelaw.com/2018/09/brett-kavanaugh-seems-like-he-was-a-real-jerk-in-high-school/

David Von Drehle, “Kavanaugh says he never blacked out from drinking. Can he swear to it?” Washington Post, September 25, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kavanaugh-says-he-never-blacked-out-from-drinking-yeah-right/2018/09/25/60bba4d4-c0f1-11e8-be77-516336a26305_story.html

Maeve Reston and Sara Sidner, “New allegations against Kavanaugh submitted to Senate committee,” CNN, September 26, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/26/politics/julie-swetnick-allegation-kavanaugh/index.html

Paul Waldman, “Explosive new allegations against Kavanaugh demand a full investigation — now,” Washington Post, September 26, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/09/26/explosive-new-allegations-against-kavanaugh-demand-a-full-investigation-now/

Dan Balz, “A day of explosive testimony results in a partisan brawl,” Washington Post, September 27, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-day-of-explosive-testimony-results-in-a-partisan-brawl/2018/09/27/3be77b18-c297-11e8-97a5-ab1e46bb3bc7_story.html

Jordain Carney and Emily Birnbaum, “Five takeaways on Kavanaugh and Ford’s testimony,” Hill, September 27, 2018, https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/408876-five-takeaways-on-kavanaugh-and-fords-testimony

Seung Min Kim and John Wagner, “Kavanaugh vote: Flake, Murkowski back FBI investigation; Senate committee advances nominee,” Washington Post, September 28, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-committee-prepares-to-vote-on-kavanaughination-as-key-senators-remain-silent/2018/09/28/0b143292-c305-11e8-b338-a3289f6cb742_story.html

Seung Min Kim and John Wagner, “Kavanaugh vote: Senate Republican leaders agree to new FBI background investigation of Kavanaugh,” Washington Post, September 28, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-committee-prepares-to-vote-on-kavanaughination-as-key-senators-remain-silent/2018/09/28/0b143292-c305-11e8-b338-a3289f6cb742_story.html

Ken Dilanian, Geoff Bennett, and Kristen Welker, “Trump: No limits on FBI’s investigation into allegations against Brett Kavanaugh,” NBC News, September 29, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/white-house-limits-scope-fbi-s-investigation-allegations-against-brett-n915061

Dustin Volz and Peter Nicholas, “White House Directs FBI to Interview First Two Kavanaugh Accusers, But Not the Third,” Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-directs-fbi-to-interview-first-two-kavanaugh-accusers-but-not-the-third-1538256505

Mike DeBonis and Josh Dawsey, “Fight over Kavanaugh intensifies amid confusion over limits of FBI sexual assault investigation,” Washington Post, September 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/administration-says-white-house-is-not-limiting-fbi-probe-of-kavanaugh-but-is-against-fishing-expedition/2018/09/30/aa7b796e-c4bb-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html

Peter Baker and Michael S. Schmidt, “White House Tells F.B.I. to Interview Anyone Necessary for Kavanaugh Inquiry,” New York Times, October 1, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/us/politics/trump-fbi-kavanaugh.html

Emma Brown and Seung Min Kim, “Experts question GOP prosecutor’s memo on Christine Blasey Ford,” Washington Post, October 1, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/experts-question-gop-prosecutors-memo-on-christine-blasey-ford/2018/10/01/85a454c0-c5a2-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html

Aaron Blake, “More half-truths in Brett Kavanaugh’s denials?” Washington Post, October 2, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/02/more-half-truths-brett-kavanaughs-denials/

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, “My sinister battle with Brett Kavanaugh over the truth,” Telegraph, October 2, 2018, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/my-battle-brett-kavanaugh-over-truth-ambrose-evans-pritchard/

Sabrina Siddiqui and Sarah Betancourt, “Brett Kavanaugh faced police questioning over 1985 bar brawl – report,” Guardian, October 2, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/01/kavanaugh-police-questioning-report-deborah-ramirez

Jeet Heer, “The New Face of Men’s Rights,” New Republic, October 3, 2018, https://newrepublic.com/article/151509/brett-kavanaugh-new-face-mens-rights

Bryan Logan, “Republican Sen. Ben Sasse drops a bombshell on the debate over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court,” Business Insider, October 3, 2018, https://amp.businessinsider.com/republican-ben-sasse-on-brett-kavanaugh-trump-shouldinate-someone-else-2018-10

Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow, “The F.B.I. Probe Ignored Testimonies from Former Classmates of Kavanaugh,” New Yorker, October 3, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/will-the-fbi-ignore-testimonies-from-kavanaughs-former-classmates

Sean Sullivan and Gabriel Pogrund, “Adopting Trumpian strategy, Republicans level personal attacks against Kavanaugh accusers,” Washington Post, October 3, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/republicans-level-personal-attacks-against-kavanaugh-accusers/2018/10/03/6a8a250a-c739-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html

Seung Min Kim and John Wagner, “Kavanaugh moves closer to Senate confirmation as GOP argues FBI report exonerates the judge,” Washington Post, October 4, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senators-prepare-to-review-fbi-report-on-kavanaugh-after-early-morning-arrival/2018/10/04/394dbaf8-c7be-11e8-b2b5-79270f9cce17_story.html

John Wagner and Seung Min Kim, “Grassley, White House stand by Kavanaugh as Senate reviews FBI report,” Washington Post, October 4, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senators-prepare-to-review-fbi-report-on-kavanaugh-after-early-morning-arrival/2018/10/04/394dbaf8-c7be-11e8-b2b5-79270f9cce17_story.html

John Wagner and Seung Min Kim, “Key Republicans signal satisfaction with FBI report, increasing confirmation odds for Kavanaugh,” Washington Post, October 4, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senators-prepare-to-review-fbi-report-on-kavanaugh-after-early-morning-arrival/2018/10/04/394dbaf8-c7be-11e8-b2b5-79270f9cce17_story.html

Jennifer Haberkorn, “Senate narrowly approves Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court, cementing conservative majority,” Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-kavanaugh-confirmed-20181006-story.html


Donald Trump

Nomi Prins, “The Donald in Wonderland: Down the Financial Rabbit Hole With President Trump,” TomDispatch, September 16, 2018, http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176468/tomgram%3A_nomi_prins%2C_cooking_the_books_in_the_trump_universe/

Peter Van Buren, “What Ohio’s ‘Deplorables’ Really Want,” American Conservative, September 19, 2018, https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/what-ohios-deplorables-really-want/

David Smith, “Mommy dearest: a psychiatrist puts Donald Trump on the couch,” Guardian, September 30, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/29/trump-on-the-couch-justin-frank


James Comey

Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky, “McCabe memos say Rosenstein considered secretly recording Trump,” Washington Post, September 21, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mccabe-memos-say-rosenstein-considered-secretly-recording-trump/2018/09/21/f4aa9a62-bdca-11e8-8792-78719177250f_story.html

Devlin Barrett et al., “Rod Rosenstein to stay in job for now, will meet with Trump on Thursday, White House says,” Washington Post, September 24, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rod-rosenstein-who-had-been-overseeing-russia-probe-has-offered-to-resign/2018/09/24/d350477c-aad8-11e8-8a0c-70b618c98d3c_story.html

Devlin Barrett et al., “Rod Rosenstein, who has been overseeing Russia probe, has offered to resign, according to White House officials,” Washington Post, September 24, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rod-rosenstein-who-had-been-overseeing-russia-probe-has-offered-to-resign/2018/09/24/d350477c-aad8-11e8-8a0c-70b618c98d3c_story.html


Brexit

James Crisp, Kate McCann, and James Rothwell, “‘It will not work’ – EU leaders reject Theresa May’s Chequers proposal for Brexit,” Telegraph, September 20, 2018, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/20/brexit-eu-leaders-almost-unanimous-support-second-uk-referendum/


Bill Cosby

Fig. 2. Photographer unidentified, via the Seattle Times in a newsletter for an article that was unavailable when I clicked on the link, fair use.

British Broadcasting Corporation, “Bill Cosby is a ‘sexually violent predator’, judge rules,” September 25, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45644374

Manuel Roig-Franzia, “Bill Cosby sentenced to 3 to 10 years in state prison,” Washington Post, September 25, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/bill-cosby-sentenced-to-3-to-10-years-in-state-prison/2018/09/25/9aa620aa-c00d-11e8-90c9-23f963eea204_story.html


Net neutrality

Jazmine Ulloa, “California enacts strongest net neutrality protections in the nation — and the Trump administration sues,” Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-net-neutrality-california-signed-governor-jerry-brown-20180930-story.html


North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Anne Applebaum, “Trump’s new NAFTA is pretty much the same as the old one — but at what cost?” Washington Post, October 1, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/10/01/trumps-new-nafta-is-pretty-much-the-same-as-the-old-one-but-at-what-cost/

David Fickling, “Globalists Will Love Trump’s New Nafta Deal,” Bloomberg, October 1, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-10-01/globalists-will-love-trump-s-new-nafta-deal

Vicki Needham and Sylvan Lane, “Five things to know about Trump’s new NAFTA,” Hill, October 1, 2018, https://thehill.com/policy/finance/409344-five-things-to-know-about-trumps-new-nafta


  1. [1]Eliot A. Cohen, “The Crisis of the American Elites,” Atlantic, September 23, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/the-crisis-of-the-american-elites/571060/; Emily Witt, “The Boys’ Club That Protects Brett Kavanaugh,” New Yorker, September 22, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-boys-club-that-protects-brett-kavanaugh
  2. [2]Karoun Demirjian, Amy Gardner, and Seung Min Kim, “Senate Judiciary panel’s top Democrat calls for delay in Kavanaugh hearing after new allegation,” Washington Post, September 23, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/as-hearing-on-kavanaugh-assault-allegations-loom-senators-seem-unwilling-to-budge/2018/09/23/99f3fd3e-bf37-11e8-90c9-23f963eea204_story.html
  3. [3]Alexander Bolton, “Trump calls Kavanaugh accusations ‘totally political,’” Hill, September 24, 2018, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/408056-trump-doubles-down-calls-kavanaugh-accusations-totally-political
  4. [4]Devlin Barrett et al., “Rod Rosenstein, who has been overseeing Russia probe, has offered to resign, according to White House officials,” Washington Post, September 24, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rod-rosenstein-who-had-been-overseeing-russia-probe-has-offered-to-resign/2018/09/24/d350477c-aad8-11e8-8a0c-70b618c98d3c_story.html
  5. [5]Devlin Barrett et al., “Rod Rosenstein to stay in job for now, will meet with Trump on Thursday, White House says,” Washington Post, September 24, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rod-rosenstein-who-had-been-overseeing-russia-probe-has-offered-to-resign/2018/09/24/d350477c-aad8-11e8-8a0c-70b618c98d3c_story.html
  6. [6]Deanna Paul, “The new Kavanaugh allegation is on precarious legal ground, former sex-crimes prosecutors say,” Washington Post, September 24, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/24/new-kavanaugh-allegation-is-precarious-legal-ground-former-sex-crimes-prosecutors-say/
  7. [7]Joanna Walters, “Brett Kavanaugh: third woman expected to make accusations of sexual misconduct,” Guardian, September 24, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/24/brett-kavanaugh-third-woman-expected-to-make-accusations-of-sexual-misconduct
  8. [8]British Broadcasting Corporation, “Bill Cosby is a ‘sexually violent predator’, judge rules,” September 25, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45644374
  9. [9]Manuel Roig-Franzia, “Bill Cosby sentenced to 3 to 10 years in state prison,” Washington Post, September 25, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/bill-cosby-sentenced-to-3-to-10-years-in-state-prison/2018/09/25/9aa620aa-c00d-11e8-90c9-23f963eea204_story.html
  10. [10]Aaron C. Davis, Emma Brown, and Joe Heim, “Kavanaugh’s ‘choir boy’ image on Fox interview rankles former Yale classmates,” Washington Post, September 25, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2018/09/25/ea5e50d4-c0eb-11e8-9005-5104e9616c21_story.html; Kathryn Rubino, “Brett Kavanaugh Seems Like He Was A Real Jerk In High School,” Above the Law, September 25, 2018, https://abovethelaw.com/2018/09/brett-kavanaugh-seems-like-he-was-a-real-jerk-in-high-school/; David Von Drehle, “Kavanaugh says he never blacked out from drinking. Can he swear to it?” Washington Post, September 25, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kavanaugh-says-he-never-blacked-out-from-drinking-yeah-right/2018/09/25/60bba4d4-c0f1-11e8-be77-516336a26305_story.html
  11. [11]Maeve Reston and Sara Sidner, “New allegations against Kavanaugh submitted to Senate committee,” CNN, September 26, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/26/politics/julie-swetnick-allegation-kavanaugh/index.html
  12. [12]Paul Waldman, “Explosive new allegations against Kavanaugh demand a full investigation — now,” Washington Post, September 26, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/09/26/explosive-new-allegations-against-kavanaugh-demand-a-full-investigation-now/
  13. [13]Elie Mystal, “And Now We’ve Moved To The Adult Assault Stage Of The Kavanaugh Accusations,” Above the Law, September 26, 2018, https://abovethelaw.com/2018/09/and-now-weve-moved-to-the-physical-assault-stage-of-the-kavanaugh-accusations/
  14. [14]Dan Balz, “A day of explosive testimony results in a partisan brawl,” Washington Post, September 27, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-day-of-explosive-testimony-results-in-a-partisan-brawl/2018/09/27/3be77b18-c297-11e8-97a5-ab1e46bb3bc7_story.html; Jordain Carney and Emily Birnbaum, “Five takeaways on Kavanaugh and Ford’s testimony,” Hill, September 27, 2018, https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/408876-five-takeaways-on-kavanaugh-and-fords-testimony
  15. [15]Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan, “GOP barrels toward Kavanaugh vote with key Republicans undecided,” Politico, September 27, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/27/senators-expect-judiciary-committee-will-hold-kavanaugh-vote-friday-850293
  16. [16]Seung Min Kim and John Wagner, “Kavanaugh vote: Flake, Murkowski back FBI investigation; Senate committee advances nominee,” Washington Post, September 28, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-committee-prepares-to-vote-on-kavanaughination-as-key-senators-remain-silent/2018/09/28/0b143292-c305-11e8-b338-a3289f6cb742_story.html
  17. [17]Seung Min Kim and John Wagner, “Kavanaugh vote: Senate Republican leaders agree to new FBI background investigation of Kavanaugh,” Washington Post, September 28, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-committee-prepares-to-vote-on-kavanaughination-as-key-senators-remain-silent/2018/09/28/0b143292-c305-11e8-b338-a3289f6cb742_story.html
  18. [18]Ken Dilanian, Geoff Bennett, and Kristen Welker, “Trump: No limits on FBI’s investigation into allegations against Brett Kavanaugh,” NBC News, September 29, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/white-house-limits-scope-fbi-s-investigation-allegations-against-brett-n915061; Dustin Volz and Peter Nicholas, “White House Directs FBI to Interview First Two Kavanaugh Accusers, But Not the Third,” Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-directs-fbi-to-interview-first-two-kavanaugh-accusers-but-not-the-third-1538256505
  19. [19]Jazmine Ulloa, “California enacts strongest net neutrality protections in the nation — and the Trump administration sues,” Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-net-neutrality-california-signed-governor-jerry-brown-20180930-story.html
  20. [20]Mike DeBonis and Josh Dawsey, “Fight over Kavanaugh intensifies amid confusion over limits of FBI sexual assault investigation,” Washington Post, September 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/administration-says-white-house-is-not-limiting-fbi-probe-of-kavanaugh-but-is-against-fishing-expedition/2018/09/30/aa7b796e-c4bb-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html
  21. [21]David Smith, “Mommy dearest: a psychiatrist puts Donald Trump on the couch,” Guardian, September 30, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/29/trump-on-the-couch-justin-frank
  22. [22]Vicki Needham and Sylvan Lane, “Five things to know about Trump’s new NAFTA,” Hill, October 1, 2018, https://thehill.com/policy/finance/409344-five-things-to-know-about-trumps-new-nafta
  23. [23]Peter Baker and Michael S. Schmidt, “White House Tells F.B.I. to Interview Anyone Necessary for Kavanaugh Inquiry,” New York Times, October 1, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/us/politics/trump-fbi-kavanaugh.html
  24. [24]Anne Applebaum, “Trump’s new NAFTA is pretty much the same as the old one — but at what cost?” Washington Post, October 1, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/10/01/trumps-new-nafta-is-pretty-much-the-same-as-the-old-one-but-at-what-cost/; David Fickling, “Globalists Will Love Trump’s New Nafta Deal,” Bloomberg, October 1, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-10-01/globalists-will-love-trump-s-new-nafta-deal
  25. [25]Emma Brown and Seung Min Kim, “Experts question GOP prosecutor’s memo on Christine Blasey Ford,” Washington Post, October 1, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/experts-question-gop-prosecutors-memo-on-christine-blasey-ford/2018/10/01/85a454c0-c5a2-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html
  26. [26]Sabrina Siddiqui and Sarah Betancourt, “Brett Kavanaugh faced police questioning over 1985 bar brawl – report,” Guardian, October 2, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/01/kavanaugh-police-questioning-report-deborah-ramirez
  27. [27]Aaron Blake, “More half-truths in Brett Kavanaugh’s denials?” Washington Post, October 2, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/02/more-half-truths-brett-kavanaughs-denials/; the distinction between deception and lying is from Sissela Bok, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life (New York: Vintage, 1999).
  28. [28]Benjamin Wittes, “I Know Brett Kavanaugh, but I Wouldn’t Confirm Him,” Atlantic, October 2, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/why-i-wouldnt-confirm-brett-kavanaugh/571936/
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  32. [32]John Wagner and Seung Min Kim, “Grassley, White House stand by Kavanaugh as Senate reviews FBI report,” Washington Post, October 4, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senators-prepare-to-review-fbi-report-on-kavanaugh-after-early-morning-arrival/2018/10/04/394dbaf8-c7be-11e8-b2b5-79270f9cce17_story.html
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  34. [34]Bryan Logan, “Republican Sen. Ben Sasse drops a bombshell on the debate over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court,” Business Insider, October 3, 2018, https://amp.businessinsider.com/republican-ben-sasse-on-brett-kavanaugh-trump-shouldinate-someone-else-2018-10
  35. [35]John Wagner and Seung Min Kim, “Key Republicans signal satisfaction with FBI report, increasing confirmation odds for Kavanaugh,” Washington Post, October 4, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senators-prepare-to-review-fbi-report-on-kavanaugh-after-early-morning-arrival/2018/10/04/394dbaf8-c7be-11e8-b2b5-79270f9cce17_story.html
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  37. [37]Jennifer Haberkorn, “Senate narrowly approves Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court, cementing conservative majority,” Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-kavanaugh-confirmed-20181006-story.html
  38. [38]Jennifer Haberkorn, “Senate narrowly approves Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court, cementing conservative majority,” Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-kavanaugh-confirmed-20181006-story.html
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