The Kavanaugh hearing just ended. I watched them from their beginning at 10am through their ending at about 6:45pm. Decency, truthfulness, respect, no longer exist in this country. I don’t know when I have seen anything more degrading, more devoid of anything except the acting out of a petulant teen who was responded to by other very ugly teen delinquents in that room.
Dr. Ford’s testimony was first. Listening to her being questioned and hearing her honest, forthright answers, I felt as though these United States had been redeemed and we were going to be alright after all. She managed to testify for hours without cursing; without yelling and screaming; without having a temper tantrum and without insulting those questioning her. She simply and clearly and as honestly as possible answered the questions put to her.
That civility stopped when she finished her testimony and questioning and left the room. Brett Kavanaugh then entered the room and started his testimony. Everything then became ugly, vicious, lying, dissembling, distracting, belligerent, insulting those who asked questions he didn’t want to answer and literally turning in his seat to turn his back on those who he apparently didn’t like.
Respect left the room – as did the decency, truthfulness, and all those good things which you could feel in the room with Dr. Ford doing her best to make sure her answers were truthful and that she was as respectful to those asking her questions as she could be. She did not dissemble – trot out stories of how great she was; what a fantastic education she had; her amazing accomplishments with bull shit pouring out of every pore. The truth and direct answers are what Dr. Ford relied upon.
When Brett Kavanaugh entered the room entitlement; hatefulness; a 14 year old having an out of control temper tantrum, screaming, interrupting, insulting Democratic Senators who questioned him and to whom he didn’t want to or would not give a straight answer to entered the room. It was too horrible to adequately describe.
My hope for this country left. My feeling that we were being redeemed and were going back to being a respectful, gracious, honest, decent country was wrong. Brett Kavanaugh channeled Donald Trump in that room and the Republican Senators did the same. There was yelling – blaming viciously – playing politics – hiding the truth – insulting Senator Diane Feinstein by accusing her of lying. It was an unbelievable show.
The hearing was about sexual assault. The mechanics of the hearing were totally sexually abusive and made a clear statement that women are less than human and are to be treated so that they know they are not the great white Republican Senators equals.
The “assistant” – Rachel Mitchell, who was brought from Maricopa in Arizona to ask the questions and interrogate Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh – or so we were told that is what was going to happen – wasn’t allowed to do that.
Dr. Ford did an elegant, careful, respectful job. Attorney Mitchell asked her questions, but did that in a way that was respectful of everyone. For five minutes she asked questions of Dr. Ford for one of the white male Republican Senators. For the next five minutes a Democratic Senator asked their own questions of Dr. Ford. Attorney Mitchell then asked questions for another five minutes for the next white male Republican Senator and for the next five minutes a Democratic Senator asked their own questions of Dr. Ford. The Democratic Senators were white, black, asian, jewish, male, female and more. The Republican Senators were totally and completely all white and all male and all WASP.
At the end of that time came Brett Kavanaugh – to be questioned. He gave his opening statement and it was a screaming, angry, belligerent out of control rant during which he rotated between temper tantrums, crying, being hateful and demeaning of everyone. His face almost never changed from its very angry expression and his demeanor kept its belligerence until the whole thing ended. It was degrading, demeaning, dishonest, insulting of some of the Democratic Senators – particularly of Senator Klobuchar and more.
When the questioning started Attorney Mitchell asked questions of Brett Kavanaugh for one of the white male Republican Senators. Kavanaugh went off the deep end. The next five minutes a Democratic Senator asked questions of Brett Kavanaugh.
The second time around one of the white male Republican Senators moved Attorney Mitchell out of the way and took over to ask his own questions and for five minutes asked questions of Brett Kavanaugh and for the next five minutes one of the Democratic Senators took over and for five minutes asked questions of Brett Kavanaugh.
The extreme misogyny of that performance was just mind blowing. The white, male Republicans were totally unaware of the fact that they reflected and enacted the sexual abuse that they were investigating and questioning Brett Kavanaugh about. Dr. Ford was questioned by Attorney Mitchell – a woman brought from Maricopa in Arizona for that specific purpose, but when that was done the white, male, Republican Senators started taking turns asking Kavanaugh questions for five minutes and then a Democratic Senator took over and asked him questions for the next five minutes.
Apparently, the Republican Senators were not going to demean themselves talking to a woman and questioning her – they left that up to another woman. They took over with Brett Kavanaugh asking him questions themselves. After asking questions of one white male Republican Senator, Attorney Mitchell was stopped and the WASP Senators took over themselves talking directly to Brett Kavanaugh. Lindsey Graham asked if he could have the floor because he was quite angry about this whole thing and felt Brett Kavanaughw wasn’t being treated properly. Senator Graham then went on a rant for quite a few minutes and certainly didn’t let the five minute rule stop him.
Senator Graham clearly was playing up to Senator John McCain when he was alive and they were friends. He apparently played McCain to be a part of his power and influence group. He is no longer that person. He is now all up into Donald Trump and has become his lackey with no thoughts of his own simply reflecting what he apparently believes Donald Trump wants to see. It is an entire 180 degree turn and not pretty.
Kavanaugh was very ugly to the Democratic Senators refusing to answer one Democratic Senators question in the ugliest way. He was extremely ugly to Senator Klobuchar who was asking Kavanaugh questions about the drinking of which he had been accused. Trying to ease the tensions and anger that showed in his face, she talked for a minute about her father who had an alcohol problem. Brett Kavanaugh then proceeded to interrupt her and in the ugliest way asked her if she had a drinking problem also and refused to answer her questions. When he returned after a break he had to apologize to Senator Klobuchar because his response to her had been so vicious.
The kind of sexism practiced during that hearing over the time Brett Kavanaugh was being questioned was beyond belief. The arrogance, refusal to answer questions, the constant responding to Senators questions with a list of his great accomplishments in sports and his being accepted by the top law school in the country and enumerating his achievements in sports because he was such a great sports figure, instead of answering the Senators’ questions made me sick to my stomach.
It was a performance worthy of Donald Trump and his folks. The ugly, vicious, untruthful way Brett Kavanaugh conducted himself said clearly he was guilty and Dr. Ford was clearly truthful.
I have seen many hearings in my day. Never have I seen one so crude, vicious, full of lies, poutings by an out of control teenager, yelling at the top of his voice, bullying everyone, degrading himself and the process of which he was a part with the white male Republican Senators responding with equal amounts of bullying, viciousness and clear attempts to demean and destroy Senator Feinstein- it was an unbelievable performance.
One Republican Senator went so far as to call Senator Feinstein a liar. They have become so accustomed to the community of liars that has developed since Donald Trump has become president and has shown himself to be a pathological liar that all of Trump’s ugly ways are totally permeating this society. They so permeated the hearing that you had little hope for anything except a country moving further down into the muck, filth, slim and degradation.
God help us all. From what I saw today only God can intervene here and bring about some kind of redemption. Dr. Ford brought to everyone in the hearing room a feeling that we had been redeemed. She certainly presented that and was clearly a presence of truth, graciousness and a breath of fresh air. That was cut off when Brett Kavanaugh appeared and his testimony started. I keep repeating myself, but the degradation he brought into that hearing room was only surpassed by the way the WASP Republican Senators topped the filth he brought. A petulant, belligerent out of control teen delinquent showed clearly that he is very capable of having done that of which he was accused. His personality – the way he treated the women in that room – the way he treated other Democratic Senators asking him questions he didn’t want to answer and so would go off on some kind of rant, or turn his back to whoever was irritating him, or made cutting remarks back to the person questioning him – it was beyond disturbing. If he becomes a U. S. Supreme Court Justice, God help this country. We will have someone who could be guilty of breaking the laws of this country sitting as a justice in our highest Court judging others. So much for the rule of law and justice.
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