Hi there, !
Today Tue 10/02/2018 Mon 10/01/2018 Sun 09/30/2018 Sat 09/29/2018 Fri 09/28/2018 Thu 09/27/2018 Wed 09/26/2018 Archives
Rantburg
533595 articles and 1861717 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 52 articles and 153 comments as of 15:17.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Tajikistan national among 48 killed, wounded in Kunduz operations
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
2 12:24 JohnQC [3] 
2 15:39 Skidmark [3] 
8 15:08 SR-71 [5] 
12 22:17 NoMoreBS [5] 
9 23:52 JohnQC [5] 
1 07:56 newc [3] 
9 20:47 Airandee [6] 
6 12:47 Abu Uluque [4] 
7 13:31 badanov [2] 
3 11:02 JohnQC [4] 
3 18:33 Skidmark [8] 
11 18:35 Deacon Blues [1] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
2 14:15 Zenobia Floger6220 [5]
1 09:07 Frank G [2]
0 [3]
0 [4]
0 [4]
0 [6]
0 [6]
0 [9]
0 [4]
2 08:47 Frank G [2]
1 08:47 Frank G [4]
0 [6]
1 04:29 g(r)omgoru [3]
Page 2: WoT Background
2 23:39 Fairbanks [4]
1 08:53 Frank G [2]
3 16:46 Frank G [4]
0 [13]
0 [8]
0 [1]
3 17:13 Frank G [5]
5 18:19 Skidmark [8]
0 [5]
Page 3: Non-WoT
0 [2]
9 20:32 trailing wife [17]
10 18:23 Skidmark [5]
4 15:20 Skidmark [3]
8 14:32 Alaska Paul [2]
0 [3]
1 04:32 g(r)omgoru [2]
0 [5]
2 23:14 Seeking Cure For Ignorance [8]
3 15:23 Raj [6]
2 07:12 M. Murcek [3]
1 15:26 Skidmark [10]
3 16:29 Skidmark [4]
2 15:35 Skidmark [7]
4 06:04 Skidmark [5]
4 09:23 Alan C [5]
4 19:35 Skidmark [5]
Page 6: Politix
2 18:35 Skidmark [6]
-Short Attention Span Theater-
You can always go around (video)
Zip Wire - airplane bonus story
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 08:10 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks, great tune that reminds me of all the screwed up landing I have ever attempted....
Posted by: 49 Pan || 09/29/2018 10:26 Comments || Top||

#2  In many of these, alcohol may NOT have been involved.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/29/2018 15:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Kavanaugh, The Disgust Circuit, And The Limits Of "Nuts & Sluts"
[Zero] The Ragin’ Cajun, I believe, coined the phrase "Nuts and Sluts" to succinctly describe the tactic used by the elites I call The Davos Crowd to smear and destroy someone they’ve targeted.

Brett Kavanaugh is the latest victim of this technique. But, there have been dozens of victims I can list from Gary Hart in the 1980’s to former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn to Donald Trump.

"Nuts and Sluts" is easy to understand. Simply accuse the person you want to destroy of being either crazy (the definition of which shifts with whatever is the political trigger issue of the day) or a sexual deviant.

This technique works because it triggers most people’s Disgust Circuit, a term created by Mark Schaller as part of what he calls the Behavioral Immune System and popularized by Johnathan Haidt.

The disgust circuit is easy to understand.

It is the limit at which behavior in others triggers our gut-level outrage and we recoil with disgust.

The reason "Nuts and Sluts" works so well on conservative candidates and voters is because, on average, conservatives have a much stronger disgust circuit than liberals and/or libertarians.

This is why it always seems to be that anyone who threatens the global order or the political system always turns out to have some horrible sexual deviance in their closet.

It’s why the only thing any of us remember about the infamous Trump Dossier is the image of Trump standing on a bed in a Moscow hotel room urinating on a hooker.

The technique is used to drive a wedge between Republican voters and lawmakers and make it easy for them to go along with whatever stupidity is brought forth by the press and the Democrats.

And don’t think for a second that, more often than not, GOP leadership isn’t in cahoots with the DNC on these take-downs. Because they are.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 08:25 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DNC and GOPe (but I repeat myself) operate on the time proven principle that if you establish a PAC to "send Joe to the electric chair" Joe and his wife are probably good for the max allowable donation. And Joe's boss will figure out a way to make straw donations many times above the limit.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/29/2018 9:43 Comments || Top||

#2  "The Resistance has become more and more outraged." As the result, the left seems to be working at the fringes of the Overton Window. People tend not to believe what is being sold. Telling the big lie and telling it often doesn’t work anymore?

“The truth is easy to support. Lies cost money. The more outrageous the lie the more expensive it gets to maintain it.”
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2018 12:24 Comments || Top||


ABC's Moran: 'Millions of Women' to Feel 'Annihilated Inside' If Kavanaugh Is Confirmed
[Newsbusters] While CBS was conceding that Brett Kavanaugh will probably make it onto the Supreme Court, ABC’s Terry Moran on Thursday fumed about how "millions of women" will feel "annihilated" if the Judge is confirmed. He also warned Kavanaugh not to rule against abortion or the high Court will lose "legitimacy."

Moran lamented, "I can't imagine the feeling of the millions and millions of women, and others who found Dr. Ford very, very credible." Conceding a Kavanaugh victory, the ABC journalist stooped to extreme hyperbole on female reaction: "If, as seems likely, Republicans are able to get... Judge Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court, they're just going to feel annihilated inside."
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 08:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A close look at the protesters during the Senate confirmation hearing tells you what this debate is all about.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 8:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Get a diaphragm, b*tches!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/29/2018 8:16 Comments || Top||

#3  I disagree. Pulling fictitious numbers out of the air is a weak mans ploy, a bluff. They fear the truth in numbers is overwhelmingly against them. This is the educational systems speak.PBS, Georgetown(in of all places a formally religious institution). They tell lies for so long they don't know of the truth and cannot accept the truth when it is presented to to them, if at all when truth is allowed airing.Same technique is used against the deniers of global warming.
Posted by: Dale || 09/29/2018 9:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Terry Moran ought to change one letter in his last name for saying shit like that.
Posted by: Raj || 09/29/2018 10:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Someone ask "the perfesser" if he's still voting for Bredesen in November.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/29/2018 11:33 Comments || Top||

#6  ABC’s Terry Moran on Thursday fumed about how "millions of women" will feel "annihilated" if the Judge is confirmed.

Do they really? I doubt that.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2018 12:26 Comments || Top||

#7  Exactly how many abortions does a typical liberal woman have in a lifetime?
They act like it’s more than the number of dental exams they would expect to have.
Posted by: Knuckles Glanter1286 || 09/29/2018 14:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Good!
Posted by: SR-71 || 09/29/2018 15:08 Comments || Top||


On Kavanaugh, has disgraced Dianne Feinstein finished herself off?
[American Thinker] As Sen. Lindsey Graham unexpectedly elevated himself to statesman during the last of the Senate hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Thursday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein dropped herself to bottom of the barrel as a political hack. Her performance, from start to finish, was a disgrace. It was so bad, so loathsome, even to the left, that it's hard to think it won't cost her her Senate seat, where she is in a tight race this November.

Here was the exchange on the Senate floor just yesterday, and Fox News has a video here:

"Only at an 11th hour, on the eve of Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation vote, did the ranking member refer the allegations to the FBI. And then the allegations were leaked to the press. That's where Dr. Ford was mistreated. This is a shameful way to treat our witness, who insisted on confidentiality, and Judge Kavanaugh, who has had to address these allegations in the midst of a media circus."

Feinstein responded to Grassley's criticism when she began her opening remarks, saying, "Yes, I did receive a letter from Dr. Ford ... the next day, I called Dr. Ford, we spoke on the phone, she reiterated that she wanted this held confidential. And I held it confidential, up to a point where the witness was willing to come forward."
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 07:44 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She and they don't care. It's about power. It appears they know what they are doing. The Trunks don't. There is nothing civil about it, except the war to follow.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 09/29/2018 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  IMO, it's not even about power anymore, P2k. It's "If I can't have it, nobody will!".
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/29/2018 8:15 Comments || Top||

#3  If the people who vote for Feinstein were presented wit a button like Swillary's reset button but labeled "Eliminate all humans right now" the scrum to push the button would clear up a lot of our problems.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/29/2018 10:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Here's an LA Times article on that lovely doll Feinstein:


Posted by: Clem || 09/29/2018 10:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Let's try it again, Sam:

http://articles.latimes.com/1997-03-28/news/mn-43046_1_china-connections
Posted by: Clem || 09/29/2018 10:58 Comments || Top||

#6  That old bag Feinstein is 85 years old and wants another six-year term. Pathetic.
Posted by: Clem || 09/29/2018 11:01 Comments || Top||

#7  It's not that I want de Leon in the Senate. I fear him too. But I want to punish Feinstein. Maybe de Leon will be so bad that next time around a Republican might have a chance at that seat. Wishful thinking, I suppose. But DiFi must go.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/29/2018 12:35 Comments || Top||

#8  The Left look at the villainy within their own circle and project an image of total absolute depraved E-Vile as their view of the 'Right'. From their it is only a small step to justify ANY action...
...Or as an ex-Friend confided to me "The only reason that someone didn't vote for Obama is Raaaacism." The. Only. Reason.
Posted by: magpie || 09/29/2018 17:37 Comments || Top||

#9  It turns out Feinstein recommended the dike lawyer to Christine Ford. They were communicating right after or just before she sent the letter.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 09/29/2018 18:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Man, you didn't think that Katz lawyer was a hottie? /sarc
Posted by: DooDahMan || 09/29/2018 18:45 Comments || Top||

#11  Like #7 , I never thought I'd want a left wing extremist like de Leon in the Senate. But to our friends in California, vote for him. DiFi and her ilk have to learn a lesson.
Posted by: Tom || 09/29/2018 20:01 Comments || Top||

#12  Write in “disgusted”....
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 09/29/2018 22:17 Comments || Top||


Kavanaugh Character Assassins Must Pay in November
[American Thinker] Absent any allegation that Judge Brett Kavanaugh was the serpent who gave Eve the apple in the Garden of Eden, Associate Justice Kavanaugh will soon haunt Democrats, like Justice Clarence Thomas before him, for decades to come, with or without an asterisk next to his name. Yet this is no time to celebrate, for already the mudslingers of the left are poring over President Trump's list of deplorable judicial nominees for things the next nominee can be falsely accused of as the spawn of Satan.

From Dianne Feinstein's withholding of Dr. Ford's conveniently leaked letter to Kamala Harris's clumsily edited Kavanaugh tape, we have seen the shape of things to come for future Trump nominees. Senate Democrats will lie, manipulate, and just plain make things up for the sake of power over principle, and the only way to make sure they do not succeed in the future is to make sure in November that there are fewer Senate Democrats.

The timing of President Trump's October 1 rally for GOP Tennessee Senate candidate Rep. Marsha Blackburn is coincidental but fortuitous, for the seat being vacated by Bob Corker, who has said yes to Kavanaugh, is one that must be held as others are gained to ensure that Kavanaugh's originalist view of the Constitution is restored as the dominant and permanent philosophy of the Supreme Court.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 07:41 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  1. If Kavanaugh is not confirmed in a week, the GOP will feel the wrath of their voters.
2. The Character Assassins must Pay

Point of order. You can do one, not both. If you stay home in case 1, the assassins in case 2 will be in control, which is part of the strategy. They know their opponents are weak willed patsies who seek their approval and will grovel. Knowing that, they intend to destroy them with the anger of their base.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 09/29/2018 7:54 Comments || Top||

#2  The Democratic Party - The Party of Slavery and Treason (tm).

There are only three reasons for voting for or being a member of the Democratic Party. 1) You're just as corrupt and fascistic as they are 2) You know they're corrupt, but you string along because you think they're the best shot for your own personal gain 3) you're too f&%$ing stupid to know they're corrupt. Any of the three reasons disqualifies you from serious consideration as a worthwhile member of the human race.
Posted by: Jack Snomoth4337 || 09/29/2018 8:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Expand it to all leftists, everywhere, Jack.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/29/2018 8:13 Comments || Top||

#4  #2 Yes, I have thought this way as well. Looking back over the years the Democrat party has been hijacked.This is now a mask they wear to hide but they are no longer hiding. The days of the blue collar worker are gone. The days of the white family membership are disappearing. Our country has long suffered influences from outside our national interests. It is an old game played with lots of money.This influence or shall I say collusion (a word so popular these days) will always have inroads as greed rules where religion and faith have fallen. Rule of law as with the constitution are subject to change with contemporary though of the day.
Posted by: Dale || 09/29/2018 9:19 Comments || Top||

#5  #2 'The party of Slavery and Treason', yeah, and armed insurrection, segregation, concentration camps, welfare state, utter scholastic corruption, and now socialism. What new degeneracy is left for them to wallow and sink to?
Posted by: Cesare || 09/29/2018 11:34 Comments || Top||

#6  You left out the party of human sacrifice and orgranized crime.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 09/29/2018 12:21 Comments || Top||

#7 
Looking back over the years the Democrat party has been hijacked.


Hijacked?

The Democrat party has always been this way. The first Republican to win the presidency, and the Democrats were seceding before he was even in DC! Their only allegiance is to their own power, and they quite openly destroy anyone who dares stand in their way!
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/29/2018 17:40 Comments || Top||

#8  This farce had little to do with Judge Kavanaugh. The lefty Dems would savage anyone the Pubs put up for SCOTUS. Look at their history. They try this same play on everyone to destroy them. Fewer and fewer decent people fall for their B.S. The Dems will end up being the instrument of their own destuction. Everyone of the Dems on the Judiciary Committee are evil.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2018 23:35 Comments || Top||

#9  I was too limited in scope. IMO most of the Dem office holders are corrupted, evil and capable of anything to gain and hold power. #walkaway now.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2018 23:52 Comments || Top||


Trump Bashing Leads to Walk Out at Wanda Sykes Show
[Daily Caller] About a dozen people walked out of Wanda Sykes’ comedy stand-up show at a theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, on Thursday over her attacks on President Donald Trump.

The 54-year-old comedian started out her show making jokes about how the president thought that part of his speech at the U.N. General Assembly this week that was met with laughter was not at him but with him, according to the Asbury Park Press Friday.

"What was the joke he told?" Sykes asked the crowd.

She also made a joke about how, unlike past administrations, the American people were the ones aging quickly since he had been in office, rather than the other way around.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 05:20 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What exactly did the audience expect to hear at a gaystapo performance ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 5:27 Comments || Top||

#2  But all of her friends at the martini party said that the jokes were so, so funny!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 09/29/2018 6:37 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm so old that I remember when political humor was actually humorous.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/29/2018 8:44 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm so old that I remember when political humor was directed at both parties.
Posted by: Raj || 09/29/2018 10:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Anyone here old enough to remember when any of it was actually funny?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/29/2018 13:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Johnny Carson? Steve Allen?

But I date myself. I barely remember Steve Allen.
Posted by: Bobby || 09/29/2018 14:45 Comments || Top||

#7  Will Rogers was funny.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 09/29/2018 18:43 Comments || Top||

#8  So was Samuel Clemmons.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 09/29/2018 18:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Will SNL have John Goodman play Dr Ford the way he played Linda Tripp when she was the Washington inappropriatel sexual whistle blower In The 90’s?
Posted by: Airandee || 09/29/2018 20:47 Comments || Top||


Republicans Should Not Have Delayed the Kavanaugh Vote
[National Review] ou have opponents whose first and only objective is delay. From the start of the confirmation proceedings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, those opponents, Senate Democrats, have thus pushed for delay. At every turn. Of course they never come out and say that’s what they’re doing ‐ they never come out and say, "We’ve abused the confirmation process and dropped a bomb at the eleventh hour, an uncorroborated, 36-year-old allegation of sexual assault, because we’re trying to delay the vote until after the midterms." But delay is what they want.

It doesn’t matter what sheep’s clothing the wolf comes in; the wolf is always delay. When they say, "We’re protecting survivors," they mean, "We want delay." When they posture that "women must be believed," their aim is more delay. When they say, "The FBI must investigate to remove any cloud over the nominee," the translation is: "Give us a delay so we can come up with new reasons for delay."

Get it?

Dems say, "potato," they mean "delay";
Dems say "tomato," they mean delay;
Tomato, delay, potato, delay;
Let’s call the whole thing off.

So, finally, we get to a committee vote over two weeks after it should have happened; after reopening a hearing that involved 31 hours of testimony from the nominee; after 65 meetings with senators and followed by over 1,200 answers to post-hearing questions, more than the combined number of post-hearing questions in the history of Supreme Court nominations. We finally get Kavanaugh’s nomination voted out of committee. And then, as a final floor vote is about to be scheduled and debated, Republicans ‐ taking their lead from the ineffable Jeff Flake ‐ agree to accede to one more Democratic request (really, just one more, cross-our-hearts . . .). And what would that be?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 05:14 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So Flakes legacy will be confirming this slanderous and irresponsible behavior by the democrats.

and I have nothing to show for 90 days of this hearing.
Posted by: newc || 09/29/2018 8:00 Comments || Top||

#2  This is how you get a dictator. People sick of gutless wonders, leap at a chance to support anyone with a spine.
Posted by: Elminemble Whainter2035 || 09/29/2018 8:10 Comments || Top||

#3  The problem is that the accuser came across as believable,at least iflooked actin isolation, and Kavanaugh did not come across as likeable, again in isolation. And isolation is all most people see - and vote on. Flake’s move was probably necessary if the final vote to confirm is to succeed. Like it or not, even the Stupid Party hacks are pros at the game.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/29/2018 10:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Let us agree that these are the Heinlein's Crazy Years.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/29/2018 10:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Were it not for the uncertainty of the RINO votes, the confirmation could have been put through and not delayed.

Flake was conned by Coons and the Dems?

You would not find such wiffle-waffle with the Dems. They would push a confirmation through if they had the votes and say FUVM.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2018 11:09 Comments || Top||

#6  If a one-week investigation gives the likes of Murkowski and Collins the cover they need to confirm Kavanaugh it will be worth it. I would like to believe the odds are extremely high the FBI will find nothing to support Ford's accusation. But what troubled me the most was a report that Flake was on the telephone with Rod Rosenstein before this decision was made. Also troubling is the fact that he will not face voters in November. I sure hope he's not pulling a McCain on us.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/29/2018 12:47 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Drops Iran Bombshell at UN
[PJ] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly that there exists a secret Iranian nuclear facility in Tehran that proves the Iranians have not given up their ambition to build a nuclear weapon despite the agreement they signed in 2015 with western powers.

The previously undisclosed facility is a warehouse in Iran that Netanyahu says housed 33 pounds of nuclear material. The storage facility is close to an atomic archive that Netanyahu exposed last April after a daring raid by Israeli intelligence netted thousands of nuclear-related documents.

Reuters quotes Netanyahu in his speech:

"Since we raided the atomic archive, they’ve been busy cleaning out the atomic warehouse. Just last month they removed 15 kilograms of radioactive material. You know what they did with it?" he said. "They took
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 05:40 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  overshadowed by the democrat crapfest on the hill.

So Lebanon, it is.
So be it.
Posted by: newc || 09/29/2018 7:56 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Why militant fundamentalism is post-modern, not orthodox
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] It might seem ironic but religious fundamentalism is quite a modern, sui generis phenomenon. As its quest for truth is driven more by casuistry than spirituality, it strives to confute the orthodox and traditional practices of various faiths, polities and cultures.

Thus, fundamentalism is modern not merely because of its emergence in relatively recent times, but because it attempts to impose a systematic structure to dogma and is generally averse towards religion’s essentially metaphysical and esoteric dimensions.

By discarding the intricacies of the metaphorical, fundamentalism clings to a literalist defense of scripture that invariably gives its arguments a reductionist, absolutist and intolerant streak.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Salafists

#1  Someone forgot the original Arab Conquests by sword?
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 09/29/2018 7:58 Comments || Top||

#2  So Ye Olde Tyme Arab Conquest involved uniting under a All-Powerful Monarch (Feudalism type) and the New & Improved Modern Arab Conquest has a Total Dictator (Fascist-state model)...
So... What's the difference, really?
Posted by: magpie || 09/29/2018 13:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Since ancient(?) times, religion instituted derived meaning in from human consciousness through its spiritual political injunctions, ethical distinction distortions of right from wrong as well as restrictions on attempts to suppress the bestial and carnal instincts of the non-privileged classes.

Thank you Franks.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/29/2018 18:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
The Truth about Brett
The Supreme Court of the United States of America cannot save America now. America doesn’t need new judges or new presidents. It needs an exorcism.
Posted by: badanov || 09/29/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And that is why we voted Trump...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 09/29/2018 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Mongo Impressed!!!
Posted by: newc || 09/29/2018 2:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Then Judge Willett up or down vote, no hearing. How bout it?
Posted by: newc || 09/29/2018 2:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Thanks badanov for a good read. Amidst all the sexual hullaballoo of the Dems, it is good to see an article that goes into some depth. Are we really going to get small government from large ($20 trillion+ large) government? Doubtful.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2018 11:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Apart from an exorcism, what does this pessimistic writer suggest?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/29/2018 12:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Justice Willett. I forgot about him. Thats exactly who we need to replace RBG or else Justice Thomas.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 09/29/2018 12:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Justice Willett. I forgot about him. Thats exactly who we need to replace RBG or else Justice Thomas.

Most likely to be a female.
Posted by: badanov || 09/29/2018 13:31 Comments || Top||


Taki's Mag: The Kavanaugh Farce Escalates
Before the sexual revolution, there were certain mores that the sexes were expected to follow in regard to sex and romance. Of these, not having sex before marriage and children out of wedlock were by far the most important. Although not everyone ever followed it, the loss of this bourgeois script has seen collective organic wisdom superseded by personal autonomy. Having unleashed rampant chaos in the culture, that change now shows its worst effects in the debased family and in the weird puritanism that has emerged in response to the anything-goes attitude toward sex. Such puritanism seems quite ironic, to be sure, and yet it merely signifies the need for more social order and moral cohesion amid unfettered eros.

With this context in mind, we can better understand the ongoing Brett Kavanaugh controversy. On Sunday, The New Yorker published an article by Jane Meyer and Ronan Farrow that led the farce to take on more ridiculous proportions. Perhaps the most influential journalist in the #MeToo movement, Farrow is an ambitious man and hardly strikes one as an unbiased reporter. He is the son of actress Mia Farrow and director Woody Allen (from whom he is estranged), and the gay man is perhaps motivated in part by his own rather unhappy family romance, to borrow an apt term from Sigmund Freud.

Say the reporters:

The woman at the center of the story, Deborah Ramirez, who is 53, attended Yale with Kavanaugh, where she studied sociology and psychology. Later, she spent years working for an organization that supports victims of domestic violence. ‘The New Yorker’ contacted Ramirez after learning of her possible involvement in an incident involving Kavanaugh. The allegation was conveyed to Democratic senators by a civil-rights lawyer. For Ramirez, the sudden attention has been unwelcome, and prompted difficult choices. She was at first hesitant to speak publicly, partly because her memories contained gaps because she had been drinking at the time of the alleged incident. In her initial conversations with ‘The New Yorker,’ she was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty. After six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections to say that she remembers Kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away. Ramirez is now calling for the F.B.I. to investigate Kavanaugh’s role in the incident. “I would think an F.B.I. investigation would be warranted,” she said.


What Meyer and Farrow don’t tell us is that before The New Yorker spoke with Ramirez, The New York Times had already heard her story, but since they couldn’t find anyone to substantiate it, despite doing dozens of interviews, the paper chose not to “give a voice to her silence,” as cant peddlers would put it.

“Without her consent” is a significant and revealing phrase. For today we are supposed to believe that any heterosexual activity that is not preceded by a woman’s verbal consent is wrong by definition. But as I showed in my last column, this mad simplification is contrary to the essential ambiguity of sex and romance. Besides, by this standard most men in history must be deemed sexual assaulters.

Read the rest at the link
Posted by: badanov || 09/29/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The senators and press remind me of this:
Posted by: 3dc || 09/29/2018 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Why am I thinking France just before the revolution?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/29/2018 4:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Or during the revolution.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2018 11:02 Comments || Top||


Government
National Review - 'Confirm Kavanaugh'
[National Review] The Senate should elevate Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. Thursday’s hearing was at times compelling, at times emotional, and at times frustrating. At no point, however, was it transformational. When the day started, there was no corroborating evidence behind any of the charges leveled against Kavanaugh. That remains the case now.

Although she was subject to only the lightest cross-examination, Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, acquitted herself well. Indeed, as Kavanaugh himself acknowledged, it seems entirely possible that at some point in her life, Ford was sexually assaulted. That is a terrible thing. Nevertheless, the charge that Kavanaugh was responsible for the attack remains extremely weak ‐ even non-existent. Every single named witness has either rejected Ford’s story outright or testified that he or she has no memory of it. One of those witnesses, a lifetime friend of Ford’s, not only affirmed she had never attended a party with Kavanaugh ‐ with or without Ford ‐ but that she did not in fact know him at all. And, as Ford herself acknowledged, there are serious gaps in her account.

That Kavanaugh believes himself to be wholly innocent was clear from his extraordinary opening statement. Rarely in American life has any figure pushed back so indignantly or professed his innocence with more vehemence. His reputation, Kavanaugh insisted, had been "totally and permanently destroyed," his life made a living "hell." Echoing Clarence Thomas in 1991, Kavanaugh described the last ten days as a "circus" and repeated on more than one occasion that he had wanted to appear at a hearing from the moment the charges had been presented. Frequently, he broke down into tears.

After Kavanaugh had made his plea, the senators on the Democratic side of the aisle were noticeably muted. Perhaps the vagueness of the charges they had been asked to consider had made their jobs effectively impossible. Perhaps they had been shocked by the intensity of the accused’s protestations. Either way, the ten members of the minority descended swiftly into repetition ‐ and, at times, into farce. One after another they asked Kavanaugh to ask for an FBI investigation into himself, no doubt so that they could tell the world that he was under such an investigation and delay his vote as long as possible. And, when that failed, they resorted to litigating his high-school yearbook or to making insinuations about his drinking. Unusually for a nominee, Kavanaugh was aggressive in his rebuttals, demanding that he be allowed to finish his answers, expressing his frustration with the gamesmanship, and at times asking derisive questions back at the senators.

COMMENTS
Kavanaugh said repeatedly that his reputation and career must not be laid waste by an accusation that he denied and for which there is no independent evidence. The larger principle here is that it would be a disaster for American democracy ‐ and American culture more generally ‐ if mere charges were deemed sufficient to cast widely respected figures to the curb. At various points during this saga it has been suggested that, irrespective of their veracity, the allegations against Kavanaugh could "cast a shadow on the Court." If permitted to stand, this view would bring untold peril to our public life. "I have accused you," any opponent would be able to say, "and that fact renders you ineligible for this position."

Two weeks ago, what we knew of Judge Kavanaugh suggested that he is a man of immense talent, impeccable temperament, and excellent character. Nothing that has happened in the intervening days, certainly not Kavanaugh’s warranted anger today, has altered our view. "Judge" and "Defendant" are two wholly discrete roles, which is why judges recuse themselves when their personal affairs and those of the court intersect. In support of his innocence, Judge Kavanaugh has today’s testimony, and the reams of information provided over the last two weeks. In support of his suitability for the role for which he has been proposed, he has his life’s work. The Senate should confirm him ‐ and without delay.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jeff Flake (spit) will be gone in about 3 months. But he's planning to make it seem like 10 years for the rest of us.
Posted by: PBMcL || 09/29/2018 1:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe something will happen that will require Kav to kick the Federal Bureau of Idiots ass, too.
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 || 09/29/2018 1:37 Comments || Top||

#3  What is going on with Flake and Coons. Coons reportedly "fighting back tears" over Flake. Flake fight back tears over the loss of his "good friend" John McCain?

What are these people ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2018 4:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Stage tears are a standard part of modern political life:

George Voinovich sniffling over the Bolton recess appointment

John Boehner turning on the faucets pretty much at the drop of a hat.

The two clowns mentioned in the previous comment.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/29/2018 5:01 Comments || Top||

#5  The left cares little whether they destroy someone's life in their quest for political power. However, Karma can be a bytch.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2018 11:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Eggs, omelets. The Marxist recipe...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/29/2018 11:36 Comments || Top||

#7  One of the reporters on CBS last night said Flake is considering a run for POTUS in 2020.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/29/2018 12:14 Comments || Top||

#8  Flake running as a Democrat, of course?
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 09/29/2018 12:38 Comments || Top||

#9  Flake wasn't going to be re-elected in AZ, so he's auditioning for CNN and MSNBC before a POTUS run in Bill Kristol's Kasich Party
Posted by: Frank G || 09/29/2018 12:53 Comments || Top||

#10  What's Flake's platform? "If elected I will immediately sign an executive order saying that Evan McMuffin is not bald..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/29/2018 13:11 Comments || Top||

#11  Some bugwit commented on my Facebook page that National Review was a conspiracy group. I asked for evidence and he went away.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 09/29/2018 18:35 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
29[untagged]
3Hamas
2Commies
2al-Nusra
2al-Shabaab (AQ)
2Houthis
2Islamic State
1Moslem Colonists
1Salafists
1Sublime Porte
1Taliban
1al-Qaeda
1TTP
1Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Govt of Pakistan
1Hezbollah

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2018-09-29
  Tajikistan national among 48 killed, wounded in Kunduz operations
Fri 2018-09-28
  Rockets fired on Ghazni city during President Ghani’s visit
Thu 2018-09-27
  Kuwait: Houthi militias threaten international borders with Iran missiles
Wed 2018-09-26
  ISIS refuses to surrender volcanic region as Syrian troops attempt to advance
Tue 2018-09-25
  46 militants killed, 38 thousand kgs of explosives in Farah airstrikes
Mon 2018-09-24
  Exclusive: Rod Rosenstein is resigning (he didn't, then)
Sun 2018-09-23
  Pirates kidnap 12 crew members from Swiss shipping vessel in Nigerian waters
Sat 2018-09-22
  12 Killed, 14 Wounded in Mozambique Jihadist Attacks
Fri 2018-09-21
  Israel arrests 10 East Jerusalemites suspected of leading Temple Mount clashes
Thu 2018-09-20
  Sweida: ISIS faces dehydration as Syrian Army seizes last water source in Al-Safa
Wed 2018-09-19
  Syria Shoots Down Russian Jet, Moscow Threatens Retaliation ‐ Against Israel
Tue 2018-09-18
  Report: Syria mistakenly downs Russian plane as it attempts to repel alleged Israeli strike
Mon 2018-09-17
  Boko Haram gang members sentenced to ten years for murder -- community outraged
Sun 2018-09-16
  Ethiopian Air Force Conducts Airstrike Against Al-Shabaab In Somalia
Sat 2018-09-15
  Man Drives Car into Crowd in Southern France, Wounding Two


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.138.174.174
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (13)    WoT Background (9)    Non-WoT (17)    (0)    Politix (1)