I spent part of a busy weekend migrating my photos to Google’s photo app. I’m trying to extend the life of my phone a while longer; at four, it’s apparently ancient, at least according to the tech writers covering the new generation of iPhones, who assume everyone in the world wants a new phone every year.
Anyway, with G-photo doing auto backups at the default quality, I can delete all the ones on my phone and free up some space for more crap, like scooter-rental apps. Twice in the last week I’ve wanted to grab a scooter and spare my aching feet (plantar fasciitis acting up), only to find the available ones were from the company I don’t have the app for, dammit.
But that’s a tangent. Google photos are amazing. As soon as it synced with my phone, it started sorting everything, with almost terrifying accuracy. It recognized Kate’s face in pix taken from age 3 to present day. It recognized our old neighbor Allie with a full set of dreadlocks and a shaved head. At first it thought Spriggy and Wendy were the same dog, but once I corrected it, boom, two folders. Then, sometime overnight, it got into “things.” There are 41 Things folders; and I’m sure more are coming. It sorted food pix into Baking and Cooking. Landforms are divided by Beaches, Cliffs, Waterfalls, Caves, etc.
It’s not 100 percent accurate — it put all my sunrise pix into a folder called Sunsets, which bugged me, because what, it can spot my daughter’s eyebrows in a group picture from a homecoming dance six years ago, but not read a time stamp? The Flowers folder includes shots of a birthday cake for J.C., which included a frosting flower on top. But that cake is also in Baking, so no biggie.
It got me to spend some time with old photos this weekend, which most of us don’t do. It also dug up pix I thought had long been deleted, including this one, which I’m calling “selfies are stupid:”
(There are about three dozen selfies in my G-photo account.)
Here’s the view from the top floor of Michigan Central Station, after the official launch event Ford put on in June:
That’s going to be nice when it’s finished, assuming it gets finished.
It was a pretty good weekend — dinner with friends, a bike ride, and a Saturday-night stop at an after-hours party, whoop di do for a person who’s generally asleep by 11. I regret to say the after-hours was nothing much, though — fun enough, but I’ve been to a million of these so far, and the only difference between the legal, before-closing variety and this one was: Open marijuana smoking and nitrous balloons for recreational gas-sipping. Not my thing, although I do remember a party in Fort Wayne where a friend offered that particular canapé, and ran into his landlord when he was carrying the tank in — “Carl, I didn’t know you were a scuba diver!,” etc.
I don’t really have any bloggage today. I stopped reading Kavanaugh takes Friday afternoon, because I’m full-up and only awaiting the inevitable confirmation vote. And Kavanaugh takes were all there were to read this weekend.
Well, there was Tom & Lorenzo on Lady Gaga. I generally agree, although I think her boobs look like they’re in pain.
So let’s face the week ahead with strength and honor. It beats cowardice and scandal.
basset said on September 30, 2018 at 9:38 pm
I spent much of the morning fighting with Flickr, trying to get photos of the variety-meat recipes and WW2 re-enactors sorted out… sometimes Flickr just says no for no apparent reason, you get an error message and all you can do is come back later. Went wade-fishing in the pm and saw nearly as many snakes as we did fish, two of them large and venomous.
There are about a dozen folders on the left side of my Mac desktop waiting for the contents to be moved to Apple Photos. Retirement will provide plenty of time for that, they said. Relax and enjoy it, they said.
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brian stouder said on September 30, 2018 at 9:41 pm
The Kavanaugh cacophony, indeed.
The remarkable thing is how unremarkable his ‘central casting’ privileged/put-upon doophous personality really is.
And then I watched 4 minutes of our president bellowing to a West Virginia crowd before I had to eject…but not before hearing him proclaim his ‘love’ for the North Korean despot, and indeed the NK despot’s gushing love for him, too.
It is a cliché to say it, but we are living in strange times, indeed
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Deborah said on September 30, 2018 at 10:28 pm
From the previous thread, Susan that Diana Damrau thread was fantastic.
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Deborah said on September 30, 2018 at 10:43 pm
Susan, I should have said that previous link not thread. Sorry, I’ve been reading so many Twitter threads lately I’m befuddled.
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beb said on October 1, 2018 at 12:03 am
At least there’s little chance of Lady Gaga’s boobs popping out. They
re too tightly bound in for any kind of movement.
The photo from the top of the Michigan Central Station was really great. What a view. I’m looking forward to seeing the train station after it’s renovated. I hear this year they’re putting a haunted house there. That sounds like a gas.
I wish I could have stopped reading about ralphin’ Kav. It’s been a long painful weekend.
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Dexter Friend said on October 1, 2018 at 3:56 am
The times I have been at parties with weed being passed around constantly, the always-available companions were cold wines like Mateus, cheap longnecks, and sometimes poppers. Amyl nitrate poppers, and once was enough for me. That short rush , maybe a little shorter period than the salvia rush, made me feel like my heart was exploding. How anyone enjoys that horrible feeling is beyond me. I would have to be dosed somehow to try salvia. Those YouTube videos are terrifying. I did like watching how Hamilton of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia (Vice Network–cable) did salvia…he traveled to some misty mountain outpost where a shaman took him to the place where it could be done properly…Hamilton did not freak the fuck out at all, but he did get weird…everyone does, on that shit.
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alex said on October 1, 2018 at 7:41 am
In military school, it was always cringe-inducing to see fellow cadets on the hot seat being forced to explain teen lingo for sex, bodily functions and illicit behavior. Adults were always on high alert for coded language and moved swiftly to exterminate it. And Kavanaugh was the quintessential squirming schoolboy on Friday when confronted with the same. Under oath, mind you. What I want to know is how the Jesuits in charge of his school could have been so oblivious that they’d allow this stuff in the yearbook. His prep school experience looks like it was a saturnalia compared to mine.
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Julie Robinson said on October 1, 2018 at 8:58 am
Saturnalia indeed. The stuff staggers me. I’m gonna sound prissy again, but none of it appealed to me. My friends and I got wild and crazy by shouting out sing alongs from musicals, under the influence of Cheetos and M&M’s. I did a little drinking in college but that was all. When I needed escapism I found it in books, movies, theatre, music, and friends.
So I guess it goes without saying I didn’t know the slang in Kavanaugh’s yearbook. Except ralphing, I knew that one. The one I did look up made me want to ralph, so I haven’t gone any further!
Anyway, I agree about the wonders of Google photos, especially auto backup. Which is what you need to do, basset, rather than waiting to migrate those folders to Apple photos. You’ll kick yourself if your computer dies before you get around to it. (Voice of sad experience speaking.)
On variety meats: my mom loves Spam. As a farm girl eating mostly home-raised pork, it was a novelty to open a can and have that glistening cube pop out, ready to be sliced and fried. But then, she also loves Jello.
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JodiP said on October 1, 2018 at 9:58 am
Senator Flake is such a coward, especially after being confronted in the elevator. I agree with Nancy; I think he’ll get confirmed.
I try to avoid the news during weekend, and I was busy! My wife was at a friend’s cabin. I would have gone, but I had arranged to do the brunch fundraiser for someone running for county commissioner. Friday night I went to a wine bar to hear a very talented friend sing, and because he’s gregarious, met 5 new friends.
Saturday: cooking, cleaning for the brunch. I did do a 2-hour break for a wine tasting in my neighborhood: 30 wines over $30. There really is a difference, and I love hearing about all the different regions.
The brunch was great–there were just 7 of us, so the candidate was able to really drill down on her vision.
I was pretty tired and vegging out watching Death in Paradise, but a friend texted that she was in the neighborhood and popped in for a bit. She is very wise, and peaceful and smart. It was wonderful.
Then Melissa came home and told me all about how they’d spend hours searching for bonsai specimans–our friends and the other couples at the cabin are all enthusiasts–and eating well and enjoying great conversations. She smelled of woodsmoke from the bonfire….
Sonia Sotomayor’s memoir popped up in my audibook app, which was good timing. Just hearing about her childhood, and how that lived experience differs so much that Kavanaugh’s, and informs her approach to the bench.
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Heather said on October 1, 2018 at 10:41 am
Re: the yearbook, color me unsurprised. I remember answering some question about my opinion for my high school paper–I can’t remember the question but my answer was, “It was better than sex.” And it ran. This was 1986 or so. I kind of couldn’t believe they ran it at the time.
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Deborah said on October 1, 2018 at 11:22 am
Scout posted this on Twitter, she indicated she didn’t know who wrote it. It’s brilliant https://mobile.twitter.com/imaginista111/status/1046776482029133825/photo/1
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Jeff Borden said on October 1, 2018 at 12:05 pm
They want Kavano on the court for a lot of reasons including what he might do to Roe v. Wade and Griswold v. Connecticut, but their desperation to get this particular Federalist Society robot onto SCOTUS is more likely Gamble v. United States. It’s a case that questions the issue of “double jeopardy” and would prevent states from pursuing charges at the state level against anyone who had a presidential pardon. If this is overturned, folks, it means no one will ever pay a price for the looting and vandalism of the Orange King’s administration. People like Michael Cohen, who are being prosecuted at the state level, would have no fear.
Sometimes, I really do wonder if our democracy will survive this presidential term. So far, so good, but this is a presidency that never stops pushing against well-established norms, so who really knows?
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Deborah said on October 1, 2018 at 12:12 pm
This is an excellent, very revealing article about undocumented workers on Iowa dairy farms, particularly one owned by Nunes’s family https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/amp23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california/?__twitter_impression=true
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Sherri said on October 1, 2018 at 12:43 pm
I had the following interaction with the friend of a friend on Facebook a couple of days ago. I don’t know the person; my friend is a very good friend, but I don’t know all her friends. I’m still processing this exchange.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Atkosto9G5MX9DbuUfy-NjGXRmM5
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Atkosto9G5MX9DcapuwTScuZss5H
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Deborah said on October 1, 2018 at 1:38 pm
Sherri, that exchange is fairly typical of the kind I used to have with my sister via email. She usually didn’t respond to the actual point I was making, she’d say something totally unrelated as though it was a response that was on topic. I’m taking a break from communicating with her.
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Jakash said on October 1, 2018 at 1:59 pm
I don’t understand what there is to process about that, Sherri. This is how we got where we are. She’s in her “bubble,” you’re in yours. (Or shall I say, “ours.”) The difference being that ours deals in rational argument, facts and the ability to see our own deficiencies. Plus, we bend over backwards (Cletus Safari, anyone) to understand what the other side is actually thinking.) Hers — not so much. Bill Clinton “should have been impeached.” Uh, he was, thanks to guys like the K-bro. She’s very concerned that the K-bro’s “life will never be the same.” I wonder how often she’s chanted “Lock her up” about the most over-investigated public figure of our time and how bad she feels that Hillary’s life will never be the same, after having been robbed of the presidency that she won by 3 million votes.
“Maybe if you were being treated the same way, you’d be a bit testy.” Hillary was treated far worse, testified for 11 hours one time, and never responded like this dude did. And she was not being interviewed for a lifetime job appointment to a position that should *require* judiciousness, for crying out loud.
My takeaway, FWIW, which ain’t much. This exchange gives me a slightly better understanding of how Hair Furor got 53% of the votes of white women. Other than that, there’s nothing to be done about it, unless she has an event in her personal life that makes her a bit more empathetic than she probably is right now. I’m not talking about assault, here — I mean something like needing health care, or her daughter needing an abortion for medical reasons, or her son telling her that he’s gay — stuff like that. Republicans seem to mainly be able to “get” something when it personally affects them…
I realize that Jeff B. @ 12 was just employing a turn of phrase, but “So far, so good” with regard to the way our democracy is performing during this presidency would not be my evaluation…
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Sherri said on October 1, 2018 at 2:11 pm
Do we need a pool on when the confirmation vote will take place? I think it will be before the week is up. I’m going with Tuesday.
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Jakash said on October 1, 2018 at 2:11 pm
In the previous thread, Deborah mentioned that her husband went to his first Cubs game ever yesterday. My wife and I were at the game, and I’m imagining that it may have been a bit more than he bargained for. It was a good time, and the Cubs won big, but as a fair-weather fan, myself, the phrase “too much of a good thing” comes to mind. Deborah, I hope that your husband realizes that not every game lasts 3 hours and 44 minutes, like yesterday’s did. The day before, the game was over in 2 hours and 25 minutes, though the Cubs lost that one! : )
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Deborah said on October 1, 2018 at 2:37 pm
Why do right wingers keep saying we weren’t incensed with what Bill Clinton did? I know I was, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news, I was driving home from work and I heard it on NPR. I was disgusted, I could hardly believe my ears. I was hugely disappointed in him, and thought for years he was a creepy, imbecile for doing that. Many years later I thought that he had done some good things as president, but I never forgave him for his indiscretion with an intern, even if she did consent to the sex.
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Jakash said on October 1, 2018 at 3:26 pm
Neil Steinberg, with an optimistic take on the current political drama:
“…the question of who is a person, who counts, is still the essential issue of America, asked again and again throughout our history…”
…..
“What Lincoln certainly did write, preserved in his notes before the Lincoln-Douglas debates, is this: ‘Whoever moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.’
In that light Ford, the alleged victim, might ultimately wield more influence over history than Kavanaugh, the future Supreme Court justice. She could be the more significant player in this latest act of our national drama, by casting a harsh and unmistakable light exactly where women are in this country, still, despite pretensions otherwise.”
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/steinberg-christine-blasey-ford-brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-abraham-lincoln/
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Deborah said on October 1, 2018 at 4:29 pm
Jakash, my husband said he was bored during the game yesterday.
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Julie Robinson said on October 1, 2018 at 5:23 pm
Baseball can sustain me for about four innings. Per year.
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susan said on October 1, 2018 at 5:29 pm
Also, too, in addition, football can sustain me for about one inning over more than three decades.
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alex said on October 1, 2018 at 5:30 pm
Sherri, your friend’s friend is a troll, plain and simple, and I’d bet your friend is embarrassed for her.
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Sherri said on October 1, 2018 at 5:50 pm
Perhaps I was too cynical on my pool idea. Apparently the White House has caved on its plan to limit the FBI investigation.
If we could step back from trump for a moment, Gamble is a problematic case from a civil liberties point of view. Sure, we’d like blue states attorneys generals to be able to go after trump and confederates even if he issues pardons, but that cuts both ways. Do we want red state attorneys general to be able to file politically motivated charges against someone who has been acquitted in Federal court? Let’s say Beto beats Ted Cruz, but Jeff Session’s DOJ finds some trumped up charge to file against him, and he is acquitted. Should the (usually notoriously conservative) Texas attorney general then be able to charge him for the same thing?
My friend’s friend doesn’t fit the usual profile of a troll. What I think she is instead is an older naturally conservative woman infected with the Fox virus. I just found the complete non sequitor nature of her exchange odd. I had had an exchange with her once before that had shown me that she was relying on flawed sources of information (she had commented concerning the number of undocumented immigrants who showed up for their hearings), but at least the discussion was on point.
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FDChief said on October 1, 2018 at 6:40 pm
Now that’s it’s officially actual”love” I’m eagerly waiting for the film version (“Must Love Nukes”?), to include the montage where Donnie and his Little Rocket Man frolic on the beach, buy each other adorable tchotchkes at the open-air Pyongyang Political Prisoner’s Market, and cuddle on the couch sharing pork rinds and watching torture porn…
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alex said on October 1, 2018 at 8:23 pm
Hey little Rocket Man, you got peanut butter all over Mr. Toad. Lick him clean, please.
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Sherri said on October 1, 2018 at 8:27 pm
Let me help you out there, Joe. Do. Not. Run.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/us/politics/biden-2020-anita-hill-kavanaugh.html
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Diane said on October 1, 2018 at 8:52 pm
I looked at Sherri’s link @28 (didn’t read the whole article) and shocked myself. I’m so angry now that I do not think I would vote for Biden if he was the Dem candidate. And I have fought and fought with friends who were for Bernie and decided not to vote in the election telling them they were contributing to the destruction of the country, etc. And now I have a glimmer of empathy for a feeling that I absolutely had no sympathy for previously-anger and frustration to the point where counterproductive acts seem reasonable.
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Suzanne said on October 1, 2018 at 8:55 pm
Biden is too old. Would I vote for him over the orange menace? Yes. Would I want a different choice? Absolutely
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The Garden Fairy said on October 1, 2018 at 9:05 pm
@13 Deborah — Thanks for the well-crafted Esquire piece. Back in the 80s & 90s, I believed the growing need for temporary workers across the range of agricultural production (livestock, fruit/ veg, horticulture, you name it) would bring some ag sectors back toward the Dem end of the political spectrum (’cause they weren’t _always_ this entrenched). During that period, trade publications regularly featured articles on how the ag industry was working to bring workers in legally, on H-2A visas.
But then, along came the idea of a wall, and anything resembling common sense went out the window.
Of course, once you realize how much leverage you’ve got over someone who’s not legal, it appears it becomes pretty easy to live with the cognitive dissonance of hiring ag workers illegally and supporting the likes of Nunes.
https://modernfarmer.com/2017/12/h-2a-temporary-agricultural-worker-visa-process-explained/
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Sherri said on October 1, 2018 at 11:02 pm
There’s a straight line between slavery, share cropping, and undocumented labor in agriculture.
The entire US agriculture system is built around exploiting cheap labor. I highly recommend the Farm to Taber podcast for an amazing dive into ag policy from a food safety inspector.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2018 at 12:25 am
I see a lot of conservatives trying to claim that Kavanaugh has not perjured himself based on some precise definitional work and squinting around, as well as parsing each individual lie as a separate, unrelated incident. Sure, you can make an argument for any of the statements, but there are so damn many of them! It’s the pattern, not just the individual lies, that suggests that Kavanaugh is deeply dishonest, and has no business in his current role much less SCOTUS.
I still think the man is an active alcoholic.
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Suzanne said on October 2, 2018 at 6:33 am
I, too, thin Kavanaugh has either and alcohol or drug problem. During the hearing, the way he kept sniffing and the anger and the chocking up at odd moments. Sure, your reputation is under the gun so what better time to prove that you are measured and thoughtful, rather than erase the doubts that you could be that crass and mean? Instead, he displayed it.
At some point, I looked at my husband and said “He’s either drunk or needs a drink. Badly.”
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Suzanne said on October 2, 2018 at 6:38 am
Isn’t the modern Republicans’ plan to make as many of us serfs as they can so we can be exploited easier? They are well on their way…
I, too, think Kavanaugh has some sort of substance abuse problem. During the hearing, I said to my husband that he is either drunk or badly wanting a drink.
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The Garden Fairy said on October 2, 2018 at 6:57 am
@32 Sherri — Family owned/ run farms of the north were based on large families. As family planning became an option, the in-house source of labor dwindled and, being located in small communities, there wasn’t a pool of local labor to pick up the slack. Thus the exploration of skilled and/ or temporary worker systems, and with it exposure to aspects of community diversification that hadn’t existed before.
If the H-1A visa system hadn’t been rendered so difficult to navigate, I expect most farmers would prefer to hire legally and be able to keep these employees on long-term due to advancing skills. But that’s a story you won’t be able to ferret out in Osceola County, IA.
In the horticulture industry of the Pacific NW where the bulk of the liner stock is grown, there is great concern over aging-out of the population of Hispanic workers that have the fine motor skills for grafting and young-plant pruning/ training. Like our grandmothers, they were taught needle-working skills as children and they practiced at length. These specialized talents translate readily to grafting, etc. As folks integrate into modern culture, valuation of this type of skills development slips away.
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basset said on October 2, 2018 at 8:44 am
Michael Lewis’ take on Trump, and I fear that he has it right:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/michael-lewis-trump-could-trigger-a-financial-crisis-b3lqbw0ks
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Deborah said on October 2, 2018 at 9:00 am
When LB was 14 or so she spent a couple of weeks with her uncle in Kansas. They made her get a job so she tried detasseling (autocorrect doesn’t know that word so I’m probably spelling it wrong) corn. She didn’t last long as it was hot as blazes and hard, hard work. I think she ended up washing dishes at the VFW or something like that. Her uncle is an LCMS pastor and thought/thinks that idle hands are the work of the devil. I think I read somewhere that farmers are allowed to hire youngsters to do farm work, I don’t know what the age limits are/were.
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Suzanne said on October 2, 2018 at 9:40 am
Basset, that Michael Lewis book sounds very interesting. It’s mirrors what Trump’s ghostwriter for The Art of the Deal says, that Trump has the attention span of a flea, is not curious about anything but his money, refuses to learn anything about anything. In other words, the perfect foil for Putin, too ignorant to grasp he’s being played.
The big thing for me is still that so many follow blithely along, rah, rah, go Trump. Each day I marvel at it; people I know who are decent, hard working, loving family people who cannot or will not see what is right in front of their faces.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2018 at 9:53 am
Amazon is raising its minimum wage to $15/hour.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-raises-starting-wage-for-its-workers-to-15-an-hour/
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Julie Robinson said on October 2, 2018 at 10:00 am
Detasseling was the first job for most of my friends. At that time you only had to be 13 or 14, and it was done in the hottest part of summer. Miserable, but the money was good, you could work on your tan, and many of the crews had a party atmosphere. It sounded like great fun to me.
Our folks wouldn’t let us detassel. They never really explained it but Dad lost an arm in a farm accident as a kid and they probably didn’t want us anywhere near farm work. So I guess I had idle hands and because of that got involved in what the LCMS uncle would see as the devil’s work; that was when I started volunteering at the local community theatre. Ha!
NYT is reporting a bar fight in 1985 in which Brett Kavanaugh threw his beer glass at another patron, who had to be treated at the hospital. Kavanaugh was questioned by the police, not arrested, and there are records from the occasion. The bar was known to have cheap beer and big slices of pizza, perfect for the Yale drinkers.
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Jakash said on October 2, 2018 at 11:00 am
Kavanaugh did not throw the beer glass, according to the NYT article.
“the police report stated that a 21-year-old man accused Mr. Kavanaugh of throwing ice on him ‘for some unknown reason.’
A witness to the fight said that Chris Dudley, a Yale basketball player who is friends with Mr. Kavanaugh, then threw a glass that hit the man in the ear, according to the police report, which was obtained by The New York Times.”
A former classmate of his says Kavanaugh “threw his beer at the guy,” a fight ensued and then Kavanaugh’s friend “took his beer and smashed it into the head of the guy, who by now had Brett in an embrace.”
Somehow, I managed to drink boatloads of beer and eat mountains of pizza without being involved in an incident like that, but I just don’t have a judicial temperament…
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/us/politics/kavanaugh-bar-fight.html?
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Jakash said on October 2, 2018 at 11:08 am
This guy’s statement seems strong, but fair, to me, and notes that “On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive.”
…..
“I can unequivocally say that in denying the possibility that he ever blacked out from drinking, and in downplaying the degree and frequency of his drinking, Brett has not told the truth.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/us/politics/chad-ludington-statement-brett-kavanaugh.html
It was interesting to me how Kavanaugh kept saying beer, beer, beer, as if that’s the only alcohol he knew anything about…
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Sherri said on October 2, 2018 at 11:26 am
I would not be able to deny that I had never blacked out while drunk (which is different than passing out), but I admit that I am an alcoholic. As far as I know, it only happened to me once, but denial is a strong drug. I found out after I got sober that my perception about how often I had passed out drunk, as opposed to falling asleep, and my husband’s perception were different.
Of course Kavanaugh was a belligerent drunk. His performance in the hearing should make that clear.
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Deborah said on October 2, 2018 at 2:04 pm
I’m in NM, on the dreaded shuttle.
I guess I didn’t know the difference between blacking out and passing out drunk. Obviously when you black out you can still function to some degree but don’t remember what you did/said. Passing out is falling asleep? I’ve seen that in movies, there’s a famous scene in Cat Baluo where Lee Marvin pitches forward to the ground, dead drunk.
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basset said on October 2, 2018 at 2:24 pm
Detasseling… been there, done that, down in Greene County. For those of us who have not, let me explain that it involves pulling the tops out of cornstalks in order to crossbreed two varieties of seed corn.
If I remember right, the standard layout was eight rows of “female” corn with the top of the plant mowed off by a big spidery tractor, then four of “male,” another variety with the tops left intact so they could pollinate the “female” rows. The fields were often large, the stalks high, and the heat and humidity challenging; got the worst sunburn of my life out there, back of my neck scabbed over and I couldn’t turn my head for awhile.
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beb said on October 2, 2018 at 2:41 pm
I saw an article on Yahoo News (an increasingly poor choice for news) that said Sen Flake would against Kavanaugh if Kav had lied. Not in the headline was that Flake had said “if he lied to the FBI.” Because there was a lot of evidence that Kav lied a boat-load of times before the committee. Most people would think that would be enough evidence that Kav was unfit for SCOTUS. Flake is dithering more than Hamlet.
Biden is too old. So is Hillary. John Kerry wants to run but unless he’s found kryptonite for the Swift Boaters he’ll be DOA. Warren is giving it a thought but will she survive Pocahontas? I like Kamala Harris, Sen. Schiff and (tentatively) Cory Booker.
Watching clips from the Kav hearing I was struck by how many members of the committee are not just old, but really old. Me need to elect younger, better Democrats.
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Deborah said on October 2, 2018 at 3:05 pm
Senator Feinstein is 85. RBG is in her 80s too, I hope she lives forever, and stays a SCOTUS as long as possible. Joe shouldn’t run, and as much as I love Elizabeth Warren, it’s time to get some youngens in the White House.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2018 at 5:24 pm
I’ve never been a supporter of term limits, but looking at Orrin Hatch, Chuck Grassley, and Patrick Leahy, still on the Judiciary Committee 27 years after Anita Hill testifies makes me think there’s got to be a better way. Doing committee assignments other than by seniority might reduce the incentives somewhat for Senators to never leave.
We don’t have term limits for governor in Washington, and given Inslee’s apparent Presidential ambitions, he seems likely to run for a third term. I find that unfortunate; while I generally agree with Inslee ideologically, I think he’s not all that effective as governor, and would prefer someone else. My preferred candidate won’t run against a sitting Democrat, though. Hanging around forever blocks opportunities for other potential candidates, which works against the ability to build a bench.
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Icarus said on October 2, 2018 at 5:37 pm
although probably not the first to propose it, Eric Zorn suggested term limits for SCOTUS many, many moons ago. TMQ Gregg Easterbrook is also suggesting it (wonder if he reads zorn).
I’m sure the Republicans will be on board…if the court ever leans left again.
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beb said on October 2, 2018 at 6:23 pm
How about poll every ten years of Supreme Court justices popularity and the one with the lowest popularity would be required to resign.
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Julie Robinson said on October 2, 2018 at 6:34 pm
Mother and I were just talking about Supreme Court term limits this afternoon. Would it need a Constitutional Amendment?
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Sherri said on October 2, 2018 at 6:53 pm
Yes, an amendment would be required, though this article suggests that an agreement could be reached to only nominate and confirm candidates who agreed to serve no longer than a fixed term. We’ve seen how well these sorts of norms have held up recently, though.
https://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2018/6/27/17511030/supreme-court-term-limits-retirement
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Suzanne said on October 2, 2018 at 7:44 pm
I don’t think anyone has linked to this yet. Probably the best reasoned thoughts on the whole Kavanaugh mess I have read:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/why-i-wouldnt-confirm-brett-kavanaugh/571936/
“But my bottom line is the opposite of the one Flake expressed in his statement: Faced with credible allegations of serious misconduct against him, Kavanaugh behaved in a fashion unacceptable in a justice…”
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Sherri said on October 2, 2018 at 9:12 pm
I’m going to take a bit of an exception to “best reasoned”, simply because until last Thursday, Wittes was strongly defending Kavanaugh. Wittes is a Very Serious Person who was put off by the incivility, and suddenly discovered that his good friend was less than credible. Wittes doesn’t believe that Kavanaugh has lied about anything else in his Senate testimony, which I suppose makes his conversion here more compelling, but not more reasoned.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2018 at 11:51 pm
Ken Starr was Baylor’s President when this was going on.
https://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_and_trials/former-title-ix-chief-crawford-s-deposition-takes-aim-at/article_0909593c-bd17-5a96-ac34-4d7ac471f68c.html
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alex said on October 3, 2018 at 7:14 am
I’ve been volunteering for Courtney Tritch, Dem congressional candidate from my district, distributing yard signs and working the phone bank one night a week. What never ceases to amaze me is the sheer number of people who have never heard of her despite what has been a spirited campaign season around here. Yet to my surprise, I’ve had very little negative blowback. Some people just hang up, but these are people who might hang up on unsolicited callers in any case. For the most part, I leave voice mail messages. Last night I got an alert that there were nine new callbacks on the phone I was using but I was told they don’t check those. Most likely these were from irate cranks.
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Suzanne said on October 3, 2018 at 8:06 am
That is sad, Alex, but in my experience, not all that surprising. People simply do not pay attention. I run into them all the time. They don’t read, they spend their time watching Dancing with the Stars or The Voice. They clean their houses and mow their grass and do their jobs, but no curiosity about things outside their normal day to day lives. And so many think what the politicians do has no impact on them.
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Jeff Borden said on October 3, 2018 at 10:11 am
So. . .last night in Mississippi goddam the Orange King held another of his mini-Nuremberg rallies, where he mocked Dr. Ford before an appreciative audience of chanting mouth-breathers screaming, “Lock her up.” There is no level to which this creature will not stoop. My contempt for him is almost matched by my feelings toward the Republican Congress.
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