He says he can't see what's real in front of your face

[sovay]

So I left the house for my appointment this afternoon right as Dr. Blasey was finishing her testimony and got back just in time for the mopping-up of Kavanaugh's tantrum.

Tell me again how we can't have women in positions of power because they're so emotionally volatile and irrational and unreliable and cry all the time.

Comments

[gwynnega]

His affect when he was tearfully reading his opening statement reminded me of my ex-husband when he had to cop to his misdeeds in couples counseling.

[sovay]

His affect when he was tearfully reading his opening statement reminded me of my ex-husband when he had to cop to his misdeeds in couples counseling.

It is fascinating to me that there is a classic presentation of a caught abuser, but you are not the first person to tell me that that was Kavanaugh's show.

How are you doing?

[gwynnega]

Mainly I'm glad the hearing is over. I hadn't thought it was stressing me out until I noticed my vertigo symptoms were getting markedly worse, and then I realized how much it was affecting me.

[sovay]

I hadn't thought it was stressing me out until I noticed my vertigo symptoms were getting markedly worse, and then I realized how much it was affecting me.

*hugs*

I hope you are doing something vertigo-calming now.

[asakiyume]

I didn't watch/listen, but I saw reports on twitter. Hell hath no fury like a white man potentially denied a Supreme Court seat.

[sovay]

Hell hath no fury like a white man potentially denied a Supreme Court seat.

Hell can have him back.

[selkie]

It is fascinating to me that there is a classic presentation of a caught abuser, but you are not the first person to tell me that that was Kavanaugh's show.

"It's a pity, it's a downright crime, it happens all the time."

[kore]

I want JUST ONE person to call him "hysterical." Hah.

[kore]

Oh dude, I was seriously like "Those are the tears of a man who has is really really sorry he's been found out, not sorry that he fucked up."

[gwynnega]

Yes, the tears of a man having to face the consequences of his actions for the first time.

[kore]

T said he thought that was the demeanour of a guy who is no longer fighting for the Supreme seat but just to keep his current cushie perm judgeship, and he may be right.

[sovay]

T said he thought that was the demeanour of a guy who is no longer fighting for the Supreme seat but just to keep his current cushie perm judgeship, and he may be right.

spatch called him a one-man three-ring circus. I said then I hoped he was his own Hartford circus fire. Burn his appointment, burn his job, burn his life. No one destroyed him but himself.

[kore]

Altho of course the SURVIVOR has clearly been feeling the consequences of his actions since 1982, and she was the one who had to appear nice and polite and accomodating and blah blah performative femininity to even be listened to. (By some people.) I was reading this not-unrelated article on Brock Turner and someone was like, "This was one time, how long should he be punished, his whole life?" and I flashed on Emily Doe and her whole life and was like, WHY NOT.

[kore]

Hah, v witty the both of you!

No one destroyed him but himself.

Yeah. Zap him out of being-ness. Let his name be forgotten.

[ranalore]

So many tantrums by white men in power today. So. Many.

[sartorias]

I couldn't bear to watch any of it, far too triggery. My spouse stuck it out, and said that Kavanaugh did the typical white male caught being a shit thing of blaming everyone else for every THING else.

I'm so glad I stayed away. I don't need another stroke.

[sovay]

So many tantrums by white men in power today. So. Many.

Seriously, the masks of power come off and what's underneath is this sniveling entitlement? This is a great simplification for children's TV, but I thought the real world was supposed to be more nuanced.

Is there any kind of protest movement organized à la Mueller if this creep is confirmed tomorrow? I'd like to know what time I have to be in front of my state house if it comes to it.

(If it comes to it, I want the Republicans to burn at the ballot box in November and Kavanaugh to cry himself into an apoplexy. I know the latitude to throw performative snitfits is the new sign of dominance in the conservative male, but I hope he knows that even if he sits on the Supreme Court, more than half the people he has judgment over will be pointing and laughing at him for his display as long as he's on the bench. I've seen toddlers with more dignity. Toddlers have less malice. If he took his cues from his President, I hope it bites him on the ass and keeps its teeth there till he dies.)

[sovay]

I'm so glad I stayed away. I don't need another stroke.

I would very much prefer you not have one. Good call.

[sovay]

I want JUST ONE person to call him "hysterical."

I say we just start calling him that instead of his first name. It has a ring to it. Very frontier-y.

[sovay]

"It's a pity, it's a downright crime, it happens all the time."

I wrote you a classical face-eating poem.

[spatch]

We have a word for this at the theater and that word is "shitshow". Argh.

[sovay]

We have a word for this at the theater and that word is "shitshow".

I just want it to have the appropriate career-ending effect and I am very concerned it will not and then I'm not sure what to do, since I do not actually long for an inter-party shooting war and the space rocks don't seem to fall where I want them.

I mean it above, though: if the Republicans do ram him through to a confirmation, I hope his public never lets him forget it. I'll consider him an illegitimate justice right until he drinks himself out of the job.

[cmcmck]

Or so it was believed in the 13th century..........

Aristotle has a lot to answer for!

[selkie]

Teeth. TEETH. TEETH!

[ranalore]

Seriously, the masks of power come off and what's underneath is this sniveling entitlement?

Sadly, I found myself completely unsurprised. I'm sure I didn't used to be this cynical, but then, such blatantly infantile displays weren't rewarded when I was younger. The entitlement was there, the hostility, and the partisanship, but if a man couldn't maintain a veneer of gentility, it was an acknowledged liability.

Is there any kind of protest movement organized à la Mueller if this creep is confirmed tomorrow?

I know the #Resist Network on Meetup sent out a call this morning for people to demonstrate before their state houses at noon today, so I bet there will be protests all day.

(If it comes to it, I want the Republicans to burn at the ballot box in November and Kavanaugh to cry himself into an apoplexy. I know the latitude to throw performative snitfits is the new sign of dominance in the conservative male, but I hope he knows that even if he sits on the Supreme Court, more than half the people he has judgment over will be pointing and laughing at him for his display as long as he's on the bench. I've seen toddlers with more dignity. Toddlers have less malice. If he took his cues from his President, I hope it bites him on the ass and keeps its teeth there till he dies.)

I've got my gameplan for November, and I feel keenly the importance of a single vote, now that I live in a "swing state." I do think Kavanaugh was playing to Trump, specifically, and given his sense of entitlement and paranoia, I'm not sure he'll think about the opinions of the American people except as echoes of "the conspiracy" against him and those who see "the truth." Even when--when--a Democrat takes the White House in 2020 and he loses that support for his tendency toward histrionics as well as his judicial suitability, I'm not sure he'll ever acknowledge that's on him any more than he's acknowledged that it's his behavior that prompted the hearing.

[sovay]

Aristotle has a lot to answer for!

Seriously!

[sovay]

I know the #Resist Network on Meetup sent out a call this morning for people to demonstrate before their state houses at noon today, so I bet there will be protests all day.

They did! I am not at one of them because I am still waiting, like something out of Beckett, for the arrival of the repairman who was supposed to fix our oven yesterday.

The entitlement was there, the hostility, and the partisanship, but if a man couldn't maintain a veneer of gentility, it was an acknowledged liability.

I'm just hoping it's still considered a liability. Kavanaugh behaved as though it was a recommendation.

To clarify: I am currently reading Joanne B. Freeman's The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War (2018), which is brilliantly researched and written, pertinent till it hurts, and only not upsetting because the material is so interesting to me; if early exposure to 1776 had not done its best to deprogram me of the illusion that government was ever a cool and dignified business, reading these accounts of congressmen bullying one another as viciously as any high school clique would have done it. It's not like I don't know that powerful men can have less emotional maturity than flatworms. (It's not like it hasn't been on parade in the last two years.) But I did not expect Kavanaugh to put all his pettiness, vindictiveness, and childish entitlement out there like a dominance display instead of making sure that he looked like the one person in that room taking the high road. It was either an incredibly miscalculated gambit to impress his president or an unacceptable loss of control in a public figure. Whichever one, it was about as subtle as Goofus and Gallant.

Even when--when--a Democrat takes the White House in 2020 and he loses that support for his tendency toward histrionics as well as his judicial suitability, I'm not sure he'll ever acknowledge that's on him any more than he's acknowledged that it's his behavior that prompted the hearing.

I agree. Why start now? But I don't care if he ever achieves self-awareness; I'd settle for disbarment and the gutter.