My feelings exactly.
What a boorish, rude, aggressive, nasty man.
Dana Milbank wrote in the Washington Post:
Brett M. Kavanaugh proved himself unfit to serve on the Supreme Court.
It has little to do with his treatment of women.
Kavanaugh’s freshman-year roommate at Yale had told the New Yorker that the future Supreme Court nominee could become “aggressive “and “belligerent” when drunk. But, as millions have now seen with their own eyes, he is aggressive and belligerent when stone-cold sober.
His testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday was a howl of partisan rage. He said the behavior of Democrats on the committee was “an embarrassment” and “a good old-fashioned attempt at Borking.” He said they were “lying in wait” with “false, last-minute smears.”
The proceedings were, he said, “a national disgrace,” a “circus,” a “grotesque and coordinated character assassination” and a “search and destroy” mission. He blamed Democrats for threats against his family, “to blow me up and take me down.”
“This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election,” he said, “. . . revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups.”
Kavanaugh shouted and scowled, sniffed and wept, turned the pages of his text as if swatting insects and thumped the witness table. Gone was the nominee who two weeks ago preached judicial modesty. Gone was the man who on Monday spoke to Fox News about fairness and integrity and dignity and respect.
On Thursday afternoon, after his main accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, gave such compelling testimony that even Republican senators described her favorably, Kavanaugh ripped off the mask — or the robe, as it were — and revealed himself to be the man he was when, as a lieutenant to Kenneth Starr in the 1990s, he proposed to hit President Bill Clinton with a sexually vulgar line of questioning.
Beckoning to the Democrats, he said: “Thanks to what some of you on this side of the committee have unleashed, I may never be able to teach again. . . . I may never be able to coach again.” (If defeated, he would still retain his lifetime seat on the nation’s second-most powerful court.)
He mocked his Democratic questioners. Asked by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) about his drinking, Kavanaugh shot back: “I like beer. I don’t know if you do. Do you like beer, senator, or not? What do you like to drink? Senator, what do you like to drink?”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), mentioning her father’s alcoholism, asked whether Kavanaugh had ever blacked out. “I don’t know. Have you?” he responded. Pressed, he replied, “I’m curious if you have.” He later apologized.
Kavanaugh had cast aside judicial restraint for fury and ridicule. Perhaps he figured his nomination was doomed, and his scorched-earth testimony was a parting shot. Or perhaps he calculated that he could only salvage his prospects by making the fight about partisan warfare rather than sexual assault.
Except that it isn’t. If Kavanaugh isn’t confirmed it will be because of Republican votes from the likes of Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) or Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), who have expressed concern about the allegations. Polling shows plunging support for Kavanaugh among Republican women. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee — all men — were concerned enough about appearances to hire a female prosecutor to question Ford; this produced frivolous lines of questioning about whether she’s really afraid of flying and who paid for her polygraph.
Fighting Ford’s sexual-assault allegation on the merits was difficult to sustain. Ford seemed credible, and Kavanaugh, like committee Republicans, was reluctant to have the FBI investigate her claims (he derided “phony” questioning on the topic). Kavanaugh was reluctant for the committee to hear from the alleged eyewitness, and he acknowledged that he sometimes drank “too many beers” (how many? “whatever the chart says”) and hadn’t blacked out but had “gone to sleep” and vomited from drinking.
Eventually, Republican senators jettisoned their distaff mercenary and joined with Kavanaugh in his attempt to cast the fight as partisan. “The most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics,” shouted Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.).
Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.) called the proceedings the most “embarrassing scandal for the United States Senate since the McCarthy hearings.”
But this required accepting Kavanaugh’s word that the accusations are variously “a joke,” “a farce,” “crazy,” “nonsense,” “refuted” or with “no corroboration.”
Maybe so. Maybe he doesn’t remember. But this we know: Kavanaugh’s response revealed him to be a political hack more than a jurist. “Your coordinated and well-funded effort to destroy my good name and to destroy my family will not drive me out,” he told the Democrats, threatening them that “what goes around comes around.”
Partisanship and revenge fantasies: Exactly what we don’t need on the Supreme Court.

His interview on FOX News (of all places), his rant about the “left” wing conspiracy to destroy him and his preposterous behavior yesterday completely decimated any hope I had that he could be a calm, rational, fair and impartial jurist.
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“Perhaps he figured his nomination was doomed, and his scorched-earth testimony was a parting shot. Or perhaps he calculated that he could only salvage his prospects by making the fight about partisan warfare rather than sexual assault.”
Or maybe because he knows he could strip naked and assault Ford right there on the Senate floor and still get confirmed. Or maybe because he’s a spoiled elite private school brat whose prosecutor mommy has always bailed him out of his minor little scrapes with the law (I mean, what’s a little underaged drinking here, a few rapes there, amiright?).
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Proven rapes? As for underage drinking, c’mon, everyone does that. One can be killed in a sacred faraway war before being eligible to drink.
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You are right – but his behavior and blatant lying about the meaning of the many phrases in his yearbook, his bellicose and angry responses, his citing of nonsensical Clinton revenge motivation, make it extremely apparent that he is a very poor choice as a lifetime appointment judge.
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“Everyone” may drink underage but “everyone” does not commit perjury.
He committed a crime when he went under oath and lied. It is a crime this man has committed many times, including at his first confirmation hearing.
It would be one thing to give him the benefit of the doubt that his blatant lying at his first confirmation hearing years ago was simply “misremembering” the fact. But now that we witnessed him on Thursday blatantly lying under oath about so many things, the only conclusion is that he does not believe the law applies to him.
Which makes sense, as the reason he was appointed is because he believes powerful men who are right wing should be above the law.
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It’s as if central casting put out a call for a nasty, entitled Republican shitheel, and this is what we got.
He’ll fit right in with his bro’s on the Court.
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Maybe K is doing exactly what he thinks the political base of the Republican Party needs to rile it up before the election. People I know who like Trump saw a courageous man fighting for them against the unreasonable democrats.
The democrats, meanwhile, saw the perfect morality play to point out to all the voting base that did not vote in the past election how important the elections are this fall. They also wanted to make the point that the Mistreatment of Merrick Garland by unprecedented ignoring constitutional duty would not go unnoticed or unpunished.
I did not know that K worked on the Ken Starr team. This is the same Ken Starr that had to resign as president of Rice a couple of years back? Over a sex scandal?
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Yes. The same person.
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The pundits agree with you, Ray. They concluded that Kavanaugh’s reference to “beers” was to make him one of the guys who make up Trump’s base.
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What must NEVER be forgotten about Brett Kavanaugh, in addition to the perjury he has committed and the allegations of sexual assault and his “off the rails” response to his accuser, Ms. Ford:
In 2000, he helped the Supreme Court 5 (Republicans) steal the presidential election from Al Gore and for George W. Bush, resulting in the 9/11 terrorism (Bush & his regime ignored repeated warnings) and the wars on the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, which have destabilized Central Asia and the Middle East, and murdered more than one million people and made refugees of millions more.
During the Bush-Cheney regime, Kavanaugh worked with John Yoo to “legalize” the U.S. torture of prisoners captured in the Bush-Cheney illegal War On [OF] Terror that is still being waged worldwide.
While we do not have DEFINITIVE proof (yet) that Kavanaugh is a sexual predator (the FBI will FINALLY be investigating the allegations), we know for a fact that, because of his active complicity in the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld torture policy (which Obama refused to prosecute, as he was REQUIRED by the law), Brett Kavanaugh is a War Criminal and guilty of Crimes Against Humanity, as are John Yoo, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld.
True justice demands that these war criminals be prosecuted, but I am not holding my breath for that. U.S. war criminals are NEVER prosecuted.
As Noam Chomsky said, “If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war [WW II] American president would have been hanged.”
I don’t want all these U.S. war criminals hanged. I want them prosecuted and imprisoned for the rest of their greedy lives, with all their evil wealth distributed to the families of those they had murdered, maimed, or tortured.
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Thanks, Ed for detailing Kavanaugh’s worst. Your account also damns the Yale law school professors who supported him.
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The Dean of Yale law school now agrees there should be an investigation. Good luck to him salvaging Yale’s reputation.
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“he is aggressive and belligerent when stone-cold sober.”
There is the possibility that he wasn’t stone-cold sober.
Ooops, my bad for impugning his “character”.
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Duane–could explain his intense case of “cotton-mouth” he was chasing with this tongue…and the 3-4 bottles of water he doused himself with as well. One of the many question not asked was, Were there other drugs at these parties like Quaaludes? Did your parents know about your excessive alcohol consumption? Why were you grounded for three consecutive weeks? Did you ever get treatment for alcoholism? On average how many did you drink? How much do you weigh…and you would have been considered impaired after two or three. How dd she know the names of your friends if she didn’t know you? Who prepared the room for the attack?
Bonking is not farting…there was an event on a weeknight…you lied about the mid-week parties. And you diary note just how important getting Skies in high school and this continued into college…when and why did you quite binge drinking, or do you still drink to get drunk?
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Yes, especially since Blasely was first. They couldn’t then come back and “play hardball” with her. But hey, one has to follow decorum in a Senate hearing. . .
. . . and someone didn’t tell that to Kavanaugh, eh.
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I was also wondering if he was on medication…did he take something because of the stress? Or is that the real him ? Maya…if someone shows you who they are….believe them.
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Kavanaugh’s after the fact apology for his out-of-line snark response to a questioner, won’t be repeated when he is on the Supreme Court. Instead of Clarence Thomas’ silence, we can watch Brett be a bombastic, intimidating ideologue on the bench.
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This is Kavenaugh channeling Fox News and Trump.
“This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election,” . . revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups.”
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Actually, the good news is that these crazy conspiracy allegations very clearly came straight from Trump, since he’s said these kinds of things publicly himself. That demonstrates BK was probably coached by Trump (Graham, too, most likely) and will be loyal to him. Since Trump is likely to know a lot about the ghosts in K’s closet by now, BK has probably been compromised as well, which means he is subject to blackmail. That and the partisan allegiance to Trump could get K impeached if he makes it to SCOTUS.
Clearly, neither of them was smart enough to have figured that out in advance, but others are aware. See Lawrence O’Donnell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTqqLam26_Y
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Kavanaugh will never be impeached, no matter what comes out later. It takes 67 votes to impeach in the zsenate. That’s not gonna happen.
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Yes, it will most certainly be an uphill battle. All the more reason to galvanize workers, women and under-represented groups and get out the vote. If TeaPartiers were able to get into power as a backlash against our first black president, we should be able to do something similar, because we have so much more to lose.
As demonstrated yesterday, while we were looking elsewhere, corporate owned politicians (including Dems like Conor Lamb) were giving even more tax breaks to the wealthy at the expense of those less fortunate: “With Nation Transfixed By Kavanaugh Monstrosity, House GOP Votes to Give Rich Another $3 Trillion in Tax Cuts” https://www.alternet.org/nation-transfixed-kavanaugh-monstrosity-house-gop-votes-give-rich-another-3-trillion-tax-cuts
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Let’s not forget he lied under oath, ignored straightforward questions, refused to answer directly…In stark contrast to Dr. Ford!
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Hard to believe a nominee for the SC would make such a juvenile “mistake” (if not lie) about being legal to drink while in high school. Hell, even I caught it as soon as he said it.
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It’s not hard to believe if you understand that K is exactly like Donald Trump. They believe that laws don’t apply to them. Trump has said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and be allowed to do so by his voters and no doubt he chose a nominee who he knew would agree.
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While watching his testimony I wondered if he was under the influence. He seemed to sober up after the break when he came back and apologized to Klobuchur. He also seemed to snap to attention when Lindsay Graham went off the rails. I don’t think that man who came in to the hearing yesterday should be coaching teen girls let alone serving on the Supreme Court. He has severe anger management issues and perhaps alcohol control issues. I was astonished by the way he spoke to both Klobuchur and Rachel Mitchell when they asked about beer drinking. I even commented about his mom and wife being right there to see his disrespect to the women who questioned him. And I wonder what it is that inspires his 10 year old to decide to pray for “the woman”. He is a mess. A sorry mess.
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“He seemed to sober up after the break”
Allow me to get all crazy here. Pop a few greenies and straighten up. Would also explain his water consumption.
Yeah, that’s low, but I couldn’t help myself.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/09/28/irreverent-sexual-assault-survivors-impromptu-speech-against-kavanaugh-outside-susan?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork
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Kavan-ugh proved himself unfit to serve on any court. Senators Grassley and Graham showed themselves unfit to hold office too. And of course, President Unfit was behind the entire reality TV drama.
The thing that still gets me weeks later is that Kavan-oof brought his daughters to witness what was sure to be a thorough questioning of his hidden record. What kind of monster subjects his own children to the harsh environment of a Trump nomination in order to use them as show ponies?!
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And then had the consummate gall — or utter weakness of character — or more likely both, revealing his dis-integrity– to weep crocodile tears every time he mentioned his family. Shame disguised as outrage. Humiliation is what it was, caused by the confrontation between image and reality.
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Veruca Salt Kavanaugh
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Bingo!
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Why isn’t Georgetown Prep being cited as a counterexample to the reformy narrative of private schools being better than public schools? After all, Kavanaugh didn’t behave the way he did in a vacuum. He was performing for his private school buddies.
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Dana Milbank writes: “Republicans on the Judiciary Committee — all men — were concerned enough about appearances to hire a female prosecutor to question Ford; this produced frivolous lines of questioning about whether she’s really afraid of flying and who paid for her polygraph.”
The GOP men were concerned about APPEARANCES but obviously NOT concerned about SUBSTANCE… and to the best of my knowledge no one on the Blue Team asked Mr. Kavanaugh who paid for his country club dues, a question the FBI might want to look into… https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/the-many-mysteries-of-brett-kavanaughs-finances/
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Also, let’s not forget that she told her therapist, husband and friends about the assault BEFORE K. was ever nominated!!!!!
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My historical rememberance goes back to the controversial nomination of Abe Fortas under Lyndon Johnson. Republicans fought the nomination hard and were able to defeat Fortas. I remember my family talking about it in my youth, but have never studied that aspect of history. Democrats responded with an opposition to Clemmet Haynesworth in the Nixon years. The next big fight was against Robert Bork, where modern conservative thought places the beginning of time in this chapter of judicial history.
If you go back to Franklin Roosevelt, you find his court packing plan that served either to cement his own majority or pressure the justices to change their tune lest they fall victim to a public that cried out for different decisions. Roosevelt lost a lot of support for this attempt in that direction.
I have the perception that the Supreme Court has always been in a different place in American politics. The Robert Taft conservative wing of the Republican Party opposed Abe Fortas mostly because he was an old New Dealer. This was, to my knowledge, the first instance of political philosophy being the foundation of opposition to a court nominee. Someone correct me if I am suffering from historical ignorance in this matter. It seems to me that ever since Fortas, the nomination of justices has been more and more a philosophical decision by increasingly partisan political leaders. It seems to me they will not be satisfied until Preston Brooks and Charles Sumner sit on the same court (Preston Brooks famously beat Sumner senseless with a cane after Sumner impugned the name of his family in an anti-slavery speech before the civil war).
To me, the most remarkable part of this history has been the Merrick Garland Ignoring(the MGI). That has never been done, I am sure. The K thing, impugning of character was certainly part of both the Haynesworth and the Clarence Thomas nominations, is not new. What is new about that is that the behavior of all the Harvey Ws and Fox creators has legitimized such accusations to the end that they cannot be ignored. Now that we live in glass houses, we better get ready to sweep up the glass every time there is a nomination.
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The Republicans didn’t “defeat” Fortas’ nomination. Fortas was confirmed and served as SC justice for 4 years and LBJ tried to make him the Chief Justice until it was filibustered.
A year or so later he had to step down after ethics inquiries.
If this perjuring unsuitable political man is confirmed, the Democrats must investigate him as soon as they control the house or senate.
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The Dems can investigate Kavanaugh but once he has a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, he won’t and can’t be impeached except for 67 votes in the Senate.
That’s why Trump won’t be impeached despite his profiteering as a hotel owner receiving large payments from foreign governments while President, violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Rent a suite for $22,000 a night and get the President’s ear.
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Diane,
It doesn’t matter whether the Democrats have the votes to impeach. What matters is that they force Republicans to defend the perjury and say it doesn’t matter. or say that they pray every night that their own daughters know a group of boys who “honor” them exactly the way that K and his friends “honored” Renate.
Republicans can stick by their guns but I want to see their faces as they explain how much they want their daughters and granddaughters to get the Renate treatment from boys just like K and his friends.
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You saw their faces at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.
They heard Christine Blasey Ford describe what she knew and answer every question directly without evasion.
They heard Kavanaugh yell and bluster and bully and and evade and insult Senators.
And every one of them voted to confirm him.
What do you think will give them a new perspective?
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“You saw their faces at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.
They heard Christine Blasey Ford describe what she knew and answer every question directly without evasion.
They heard Kavanaugh yell and bluster and bully and and evade and insult Senators.
And every one of them voted to confirm him.
What do you think will give them a new perspective?”
Exactly. It’s so disappointing.
Add to that the Republicans’ blatant hypocrisy, after completely stonewalling Garland.
Party politics over ethics, decency, and common sense.
Kavanaugh will not be an impartial judge. This, if nothing else, is what we’ve learned from his public display of aggression. No wonder Trump likes him.
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The reputation of Yale’s law school, similar to Harvard’s school of education, has been tarnished beyond short-term and possibly long-term repair. The Kavanaugh hearings informed the public about Yale Professors Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, about the Federalist Society’s connection to Ed Whelan via Leonard Leo, and Whelan’s connection to Orrin Hatch’s aide.
The support of Yale Law School professors for Brett was plentiful despite his baggage.
On the other hand, Sotomayor who had no damning character baggage, received faint support from Yale’s law professors.
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Sorry Elton, Bernie and Diane…
I can see by your eyes you must be lying
When you think WE don’t have a clue.
Brett you’re crazy
If you think that you can fool us,
Because we’ve seen that movie too.
The one where the players are acting surprised
Saying victim’s just a six letter word.
Between forcing smiles, with the knives in their eyes,
Well their actions become so absurd.
So keep you auditions for somebody
Who hasn’t got so much to lose.
‘Cause you can tell by the lines we’re reciting,
That we’ve seen that movie too.
Goodbye Yellow Prick Toad…
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We live in a winner take all system. The party in power gets to pick the SCOTUS justices. Over the past 20 plus years the Democrats have appointed Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan and Garland who was blocked for the remainder of Obama’s last year in office. While Garland was no screaming progressive, he would have been far better than Gorsuch or the K-man. It is so wrong that the SCOTUS is being turned into a far right wing/libertarian freak show and menagerie. When is enough enough?
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The Federalist Society drives America over the cliff.
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His over the top spectacle performance Thursday was for Trump, in a good offense is the best defense Trumpian fashion. How dare anyone question his right to the Supreme Court, “I am a Georgetown Prep and Yale law school graduate,” I’m entitled!!
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On Sept. 27, 2018, a Wikipedia entry was changed by a congressional IP address so that a definition conformed with Kavanaugh’s answer. My guess, Lindsay Graham, Orrin Hatch, Grassley, or Rohbacher, reflecting another plot by Ed Whelan?
Republican morality and ethics- an oxymoron.
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“What a boorish, rude, aggressive, nasty man.”
That’s Trumps’ guy, alright.
Wouldn’t expect anything less (or more).
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Diane,
I think of your “billionaire boys club” in practice…
I think you need to update your term n a book of its own.
Q: does anybody wonder (like I do) who wrote that narrative that Brett Kavanugh was reading? Seems too hard core of a script…. more like waiting for the drama of a primetime, huge viewer audience playbook.
Q: since billionaire boys club people start out as high school boys, with a collective “brotherhood mindset” of “ keep it in the van” do you really think the FBI is going to get to the bottom of this?
( seems like one of their members is calling the shots.)
Q: Does it make you wonder how $200,000 of debt from baseball tickets (?) Went away? I like baseball, but….
I’m wondering if it’s more like everybody in that hearing had financial skin in the game if approval wasn’t guaranteed. Who is funding those campaigns, and who’s giving out those big bonuses when certain legislation is passed? You know how when somebody does a favor for you, you have a return favor hanging over your head…. possibly for life?
Yes Diane, we await your billionaire boys club book, but a Blog post will work in the meantime.
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