Agreed

Douthat suggests some lines of inquiry to find out what happened.

Even if the Senate doesn't do it's job and try to figure this out -- can someone else? A documentary filmmaker? A journalist? Jessica Jones?

Truth

What's so fascinating about this Kavanaugh-Ford situation versus most other sexual harassment situations is that there is a clear truth out there that would reveal one of two things:

1) Kavanaugh is a sociopathetic liar and the Republicans so paranoid, they are willing to sweep under the rug an attempted rape because they want a Supreme Court pick to go their way. Further, all witnesses and people involved conveniently "don't remember" anything resembling the event suggesting they might be covering for Kavanaugh.

2) The Democratic Senators and their base have lost their mind so completely, they've embraced a total fabrication in order to discredit a man they don't agree with politically.

My wife thinks we'll never know. I disagree. There is such a thing as truth - especially in this case - something resembling it happened or didn't and someone is either lying or delusional or hugely mistaken. And I really want to know, because it sort of matters...and will put into perspective our current time. Either the Democrats are Mccarthyites or Kavanaugh is an utterly despicable and corrupt human being.

Sullivan

Nails it again. He's re-becoming an important voice of sanity.

To the extent that the hearing went beyond the specifics of Ford’s allegations and sought to humiliate and discredit Kavanaugh for who he was as a teenager nearly four decades ago (a dynamic that was quite pronounced in some Democratic questioning of the nominee), it was deeply concerning. When public life means the ransacking of people’s private lives even when they were in high school, we are circling a deeply illiberal drain. A civilized society observes a distinction between public and private, and this distinction is integral to individual freedom. Such a distinction was anathema in old-school monarchies when the king could arbitrarily arrest, jail, or execute you at will, for private behavior or thoughts. These lines are also blurred in authoritarian regimes, where the power of the government knows few limits in monitoring a person’s home or private affairs or correspondence or tax returns or texts. These boundaries definitionally can’t exist in theocracies, where the state is interested as much in punishing and exposing sin, as in preventing crime. The Iranian and Saudi governments — like the early modern monarchies — seek not only to control your body, but also to look into your soul. They know that everyone has a dark side, and this dark side can be exposed in order to destroy people. All you need is an accusation.

America

Let's get this drunk Mark Judge on the stand and figure out what happened. Maybe it'll be a drunk holed up in beach house that brings us back to reality. That'd restore my faith in the US of A.

The Testimony

Ford came across as credible. So did Kavanaugh. If I could gamble on what happened, I'd bet she was assaulted by someone other than Kavanaugh, but I realize that's a really stupid thing to say.

The thing that makes me most believe Ford is the fact she names 4 people at the party all of whom were friends of Kavanaugh. She couldn't make this up, so I believe she was at parties where Kavanaugh was.

But the thing that makes me believe Kavanaugh is his strong denial of anything even resembling the event happening and the fact that the 4 people named all deny the event taking place. Very tough to buy all 4 would completely deny even the party taking place -- no one being able to remember anything about it at all or something resembling it.

Seems to me the key to figuring out what happened is this "2nd guy" in the room that according to Ford, she knew better and hoped would stop what was going on.

Great entertainment. Terrible for the greater good of our country and souls.

Assault on Kavanaugh Proving Trump Voters Right

Rich Lowry isn't wrong.

First, that good character is no defense. If you are John McCain, who genuinely tried to do the right thing and carefully cultivated a relationship with the media over decades, they will still call you a racist when you run against Barack Obama. 

If you are Mitt Romney, an exceptionally earnest and decent man, they will make you into a heartless and despicable vulture capitalist, also for the offense of campaigning against Obama. 

If you are Brett Kavanaugh, a respected member of the legal establishment who doesn’t have a flyspeck on his record across decades of public service in Washington, they will come up with dubious accusations of wrongdoing from decades ago when you were a teenager.

Democrats decided to embrace tribalism, but ask the other side to behave decently. Doesn't work that way.

Revenge of the Nerds

And they say Trump is lowering the discourse.

Democrats are poised to ask questions about the drinking culture of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s high school when the judge faces the Senate Judiciary Committee following a sexual misconduct allegation. 

“We want to hear — I would be wanting to hear what kind of environment it was in high school,” Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said Sunday during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Apparently, there was a lot of drinking and partying going on,” she continued. “This is why we need an investigation. We need an independent investigation that lays all of that out for us, so there’s at least some chance of some outside entity, like the FBI, doing an investigation.”

The Senate is now investing high school parties from 35 years ago. Not that they have anything more important to do.

Logging

Film: Mississippi Grind, Empire Strikes Back, Outland

Great trio of films. Mississippi Grind grew on me a lot after starting off as almost too much of an Altman homage.

Outland - crime film on a space station with a young Lester Freeman. Say no more.

TV: Forever, ep 1

Not for me.

Books: The Orientalist, The Last Kind Words Saloon

Enjoying reading these simultaneously.

COLIN KAEPERNICK CAN PROTEST THIS!

Every Once In Awhile Andrew Sullivan Is Right On

Today, he was.

I also believe we need to slow the pace of demographic and cultural change. It is happening too fast, even for America, to sustain our society’s coherence and cohesion. The elite indifference to mass immigration — especially the illegal kind — is an ugly pact between Republican elites, eager for cheap, exploitable labor, and Democratic elites, who cynically encourage it because they think it will give them a reliable voting bloc.

Which coupled with the PC-movement, is why Trump is President.

The problem, as I see it, are the "elites" show no less arrogance for their terrible governance and the PC/identity politics crowd is even louder than before. So we will have more Trump or something even worse.

Lowering Tuition

St. Johns cutting tuition by 17K. This is good, but I'd be pissed if I just finished paying for my kid to attend.

The Serena Williams Thing

I've only read about it, but men are generally taught in sport to not blame the refs. This ethos starts early on and is widely accepted. Many still do, but their better angels are encouraged. In this case, somehow feminists are reading into it as a gender (vs. a sport) thing in which "blaming the refs" is completely valid. If they're curious where this attitude leads -- I can tell them: to no more sports.

Wouldn't surprise me if they were satisfied with this goal.

The LeVeon Bell Thing

So I heard Cowherd's take on the Bell situation the other day. It was basically: dude, you signed up for this when you decided to be a running back. And I get it's a little weird when his teammates and QB are all calling him out. But...but...but...I think it's a little telling when all the fantasy folks had the same analysis on Bell: the Steelers were going to "run him into the ground" and not sign him to a long term deal.

Beyond being a bit dehumanizing, if all the fantasy guys know the Steelers plan, isn't it pretty obvious that Bell would be aware of the same plan? And if you were Bell and you knew your employer planned to run you into the ground and not resign you -- doesn't holding out for a more secure, guaranteed contract make sense? Especially when you have some leverage, ie are healthy and the championship window is closing for the Steelers?

With what we know about RB careers, I don't blame the guy. That said, I think Bell could play for a long time. I've noticed he runs very gracefully and doesn't seem to take huge hits like some of these guys who initiate violence when they run.

Football Is Back

Storylines I'm looking forward to:

1) Alex Smith turning the Redskins into a playoff team.

2) The rise of the Chicago Bears

3) The electric Kansas City offense that puts up crazy fantasy points, but finishes 8-8

4) Jimmy G banging every single girl in SF, but not making the playoffs

5) The Los Angeles Chargers going 13-3.

6) Marshawn Lynch reestablishing Beast Mode in Oakland

7) LA Rams underperforming

8) The Browns not being terrible because of Tyrod Taylor

9) The Seahawks not making the playoffs

10) My fantasy teams finishing in the money for the first time

Storylines I'm Not Looking Forward to:

1) Pats going to the Super Bowl again

2) Instant Replay

3) National Anthem protest tracking

4) Anything to do with the Lions or Tampa Bay

Unsolicited Kaepernick Advice

This is good advice and all true, but what the man doesn't understand is that Kaepernick isn't interested in solving any issues or making people's lives better. He's about getting attention for himself -- he's always been about this -- and the proof is that he has turned down many opportunities to actually resolve the issue or put quiet, behind the scenes actions into place. Instead, he's been manipulated by ideologues who flatter his puerile need for attention and this is why the issue hasn't gone away -- and yes, why it plays to Donald Trump who has a similar set of motivations to Kaepernick.