Do you remember that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh liked beer? During his Supreme Court hearings, he was accused of sexual assault when he was in high school. The FBI had a tip line for complaints about Kavanaugh. We now know that the tips were forwarded to the White House, which decided which ones to investigate. Vanity Fair said “We now know that the FBI Investigation of Kavanaugh was a total sham.”
Supreme Court confirmation hearings aren’t usually burned into people’s minds, but there were a number of things that went down during Brett Kavanaugh‘s that will be difficult to ever forget. For one thing, the fact that he referenced his love of beer approximately 30 times, telling the lawmakers interviewing him for the job: “We drank beer. My friends and I. Boys and girls. Yes, we drank beer. I liked beer. Still like beer. We drank beer.” For another thing, the fact that his answer to the question “Was there ever a time when you drank so much that you couldn’t remember what happened or part of what happened the night before?” wasn’t a simple “No” or “Not since college,” but “Have you?” Then, of course, there was the weeping over calendars.
Still, the thing that probably struck people as the most memorable, because it was the most disturbing, was the fact that much of the proceedings centered around the credible accusations of sexual misconduct that had been lodged against the would-be justice, most notably by Christine Blasey Ford, who testified that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted and tried to rape her when they were in high school. (Kavanaugh has denied this and all other allegations against him.)
Given these allegations—in addition to Kavanaugh’s temperament, which, to put it in terms he can understand, could be best described as “a hothead who just did a 10 Jägerbombs”—it struck many as outrageous for him to be given a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. That sense of outrage only deepened last year, when we learned that the FBI had received 4,500—4,500!—tips about Kavanaugh, which were referred to the White House, i.e. the organization trying to get the guy confirmed to the Court. And now, the FBI has confirmed that, yeah, it didn’t really feel the need to look into any of those tips, and when it did follow up on some, the White House was making sure it didn’t dig too far.
Baker Mitchell is not an educator but has created a charter school empire soon after the Tea Party took control of North Carolina. In 2014, the U,S. Department of Education conducted an investigation of Mitchell’s financial practices at his for-profit schools. NC Policy Watch reported that he collected $16 million in only three years from his chain.
Anyone who objectively watched those hearings knew that Kavanaugh, at the very least, was guilty of some serious “infractions” in his “youth”. One consideration should have been if these behaviors continued into adulthood. It was obvious to me that he didn’t have the temperament to be on the Supreme Court after his outburst and I had my own concerns about the extent of his admittedly continued beer drinking.
Yet it wasn’t a surprise that the FBI investigation was a sham given the political climate, just as it isn’t a surprise that Baker Mitchell used his charter school empire to rake off millions of dollars in profits. The fact that we accept these injustices as part of the way business is conducted, is the real tragedy.
In those days (and to some extent, even now), the rich boys in the country club circuit were encouraged to go out and “sow their wild oats”. It’s just good old, rich boy fun for the patriarchy….no harm, no foul…..except for those on the receiving end of the “fun”. The problem is that there are thousands of these country club man/boys occupying the highest levels of government and business and they still feel entitled and they will not be denied what they think they deserve.
and the fact that what you just clearly articulated is NOT part of our “news” cycles is also a tragedy — we are always so careful to never mention deepest truths
Irrespective of the accusations, Kavanaugh demonstrated a terrifying inability to control his rage. I have seen a lot of judges, some great, some horrible. But I never saw one that was so incapable of reining in his or her temper as I saw with Kavanaugh.
There is clearly a cauldron of resentment and grievance bubbling away beneath his “judicial” appearance. He might have felt blindsided (he shouldn’t have – it was clearly coming), and even being treated unfairly. But judges do not have the luxury of indulging in the wild flailing and snarling that he showed on camera.
He is emotionally unfit for his office. Were we not living in a time of outsized political grievance, he would have torpedoed his own nomination even among Republicans. But the Republican Party has proven, repeatedly, that it has no respect for the rule of law or even acting one’s age.
He was encouraged to come out “slugging” to convince us that he was not guilty of the accusations, as well as to please Trump. Deny, deny, deny and do it as loudly as possible – that’s a strategy that seems to work.
It only works with his fans. (Any cop or trial lawyer will tell you that those who scream the loudest are the guiltiest.)
The country’s divided into those who believe nonsense, and those who spot it from a long way off.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but most FBI agents like most officers in the military are conservatives, even if they vote for moderate Democrats since moderate Democrats today are about the same as traditional conservatives before the 1980s.
There are still traditional conservatives around, the ones that Traitor Trump calls RINOs, when the real RINOs are the dangerously dumber-than-dumb MAGA fascists that still support the traitor.
Since those agents allegedly thought Kavanagh was a conservative like them; maybe they decided to ignore stuff on purpose.
Those FBI agents had no idea that Kavanagh is not a conservative like most of them. He’s a theofascist along with the four other US Supreme Court justices that voted to overturn Roe vs Wade.
Justice K seems to be getting by the moderation well today. My chief problem with him is that he was the product of the same high school as Gorsuch. Not that I do not like that particular high school, it’s just that a nation of 350 mil should be able to produce enough diversity of thought to populate the highest court in the land with more than one line of thought. Unless, of course, you cannot get your particular brand of fascism by without a very narrow group in power.
I’m shocked, Roy. “Justice K_____” is an oxymoron.
The Inner Circle
It’s a small club.
rub a dub dub.
Nor is that particular school the only inner circle.
Don’t people send their kids to Catholic school to keep their kids away from the rotten kids? Like Brett Kavanaugh?
And now he and his sick ilk make the most personal of decisions for millions of women. It’s just too awful for words.
Kavanaugh got his SCOTUS job by way of the Federalist Society. Yesterday, Lee Fang reported at the Intercept that the Lilly Endowment (largest shareholder of Lilly stock) gave $1.5 mil. to the Federalist Society over the past 10 years. Other recipients, AEI and Pacific Research Institute. The Lilly Foundation advocates for school privatization in Indiana. The preceding provides example of weaponized charitable organizations delivering for the right wing.
Given, the Lilly Co.’s recent, hollow complaint about abortion law in Indiana, I’m curious if their related “charities” gave any money to Planned Parenthood.
The FBI Inspector General is a cowardly hack afraid of Republicans. And an Inspector General needs courage, not sycophancy.
The FBI will spend unlimited time and money to “investigate the investigators” when it comes to the rare times that the FBI would actually attempt a comprehensive investigation when someone reports possible wrongdoing by a Republican. How DARE the FBI properly investigate wrongdoing by any Republican the way they do when a Democrat is accused of wrongdoing! It just isn’t allowed and the Inspector General will spare no expense to learn why the FBI was so “biased”, as demonstrated by them doing a proper investigation instead of the sham investigations of Republicans that are necessary.
The Inspector General knows that a proper FBI investigation of any Republican or anything that makes a Republican look bad consists of spending a day or two talking to only the most favorable witnesses before the FBI announces they “found no evidence” of any wrongdoing at all. The Kavanaugh investigation was like this. So was the FBI investigation when they got a credible tip about communication between Trump servers and Russia. In both cases, after the most cursory and brief sham “investigations”, the FBI announced there was nothing to see.
On the other hand, FBI investigations into Democrats must turn over every rock, with unlimited time and staff. And of course there is no expense or effort spared when it comes to FBI investigations into their own FBI investigations should those FBI investigators not adhere to the rule that investigations into Republican wrongdoing must be cursory, short, and limited to witnesses who exonerate Republicans and accuse Democrats.
In the FBI world, a proper investigation stipulates that witnesses are credible BECAUSE they exonerate Republicans and accuse Democrats. Any witness that exonerates Democrats or incriminates Republicans is, by definition, not credible. There is no need for the FBI to confirm whether someone who is exonerating the Republicans is saying something true because if what they say exonerates a Republican, it is, by definition, credible. And if what they say incriminates a Republican or exonerates a Democrat, it is, by definition, not credible.
That’s why the FBI Inspector General after his “comprehensive” investigation of the FBI could only find many cases of anti-Trump sentiment and he was unable to find any sign that anyone in the FBI had ever said anything at all negative about a Democrat. The IG could find no evidence that the FBI wasn’t absolutely fair to Democrats but found copious evidence the FBI was so unfair to Trump. Because when the only “evidence” you are willing to consider credible is evidence that exonerates the Republicans and criminalizes the Democrats, you are doing work the IG approves of.
At least I agree with him on one (but I would guess only one) thing:
I like beer
I like beer
Anything frothy and fizzy and hoppy
Anything bubbly and bitter and malty
Yes, I like beer
I have here a beer that is cold and is wet
It’s all full of bubbles and fermented, you bet!
A gift from a frat bro, as drunk as a Brett
I love it because it’s beer