Freak Out Friday – September 21, 2018

He almost managed to do it. Trump almost managed to act like a decent human being.

And then today his true nature rose and he blew it.

You of course all know about Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who (shades of Anita Hill) described a teenage Brett Kavanaugh, drunk out of his mind, attempting to sexually assault her. The obvious question is, should something a stupid teenager do be held against him decades later? The obvious answer is, if he’s black, yes. If he’s white, no. At least that is most likely what his defenders believe, even if they wouldn’t admit it.

Yet with his candidate under assault, Trump was displaying an astonishing even-handedness, stating that Ford should be heard. He wasn’t tweet-assaulting her. He was actually behaving like a concerned citizen with a sense of the trauma attempted rape would have on a frightened teenager, and advocating that Ford be given a hearing. Even his staff expressed genuine surprise that Trump was behaving like someone who had a moral center, something that until this week he appeared not to possess.

And that lasted until today, when Trump suddenly launched an assault against her from his Twitter haven, declaring that he wanted to see the police report because certainly a terrified teenager who didn’t want her parents to know she’d been at a party where drinking was going on would tell them all about it.

1). I would ask if Trump was insane, but sadly we all know the answer to that.

The fact is this: Back in the early 1980s, a teenage girl who accused a guy–especially a rich guy or an athlete–of sexually assaulting her was likely setting herself up to be a social pariah. This is what she would have faced: “Did he actually rape you? Penetrate you? No? Then why ruin the rest of his life for a stupid mistake. Besides, admit it: you really wanted it, didn’t you. You wanted it and then changed your mind at the last second, right, you stupid slut?” If she had said what happened, the chances are huge that she would have been talked out of pursuing it while simultaneously getting herself marked as a temptress who likes to get guys in trouble. Of course she didn’t say anything; she would get her life slagged while everyone else would be patting Kavanaugh on the back and telling him to ignore the little troublemaker.

This is, of course, a policy only held toward women. When hundreds and hundreds of boys are assaulted/raped by Catholic priests years ago, everyone accepts it and demands justice. But one scared teenage girl sexually assaulted by a Trump nominee? Sorry, but if she’s unwilling to testify by Monday, toss her aside, and she was probably lying anyway.

I’m not the slightest bit surprised that Ford wants the FBI to examine it before she testifies. You never know how many Trump-loving gun nuts are going to want to punish her for making life difficult for Trump. Having an actual investigation that backs her up, she figures, is sure to serve as proof of her allegations.

Yet Trump falsely claimed that the FBI wasn’t interested in investigating it. Trump has no trouble ordering the FBI to investigate “crooked Hillary,” but an actual crime? No, he claims it’s not their thing. Not their thing? IT’S IN THEIR DAMNED NAME. Plus, no surprise here, the FBI stated that Trump was lying. That he had not spoken to them, and they would be perfectly happy to begin investigating it if he told them to. Which of course he won’t. Because nothing, not even the humiliation of a teen girl, is going to derail Trump’s ultraconservative selection who will send the SCOTUS spiraling downward for a generation or more.

Could Trump remotely be expected to understand the shame of a teenage girl? Of course not. He thinks it’s okay to grab women by the pussy, for God’s sake.

The fact is that Kavanaugh is going to wind up on the Supreme Court no matter what he’s done. The GOP is walking in lockstep to make sure this culmination to their plan to make the SCOTUS conservative goes through. They first made it incredibly obvious when they stole a nomination from Obama, manufacturing arguments about how a president shouldn’t be able to nominate anyone during an election year, an excuse they completely threw away when it came to Trump nominating someone during an election year. They have forsaken any adherence to the notion of serving the people; they just want everything they can get as fast as possible. I still think Obama’s biggest mistake was not saying, “If they’re not going to do their job, that’s their choice, but I’m going to do mine. He’s now a Supreme Court justice. Presto.” If he had, we wouldn’t be in this fix.

2). Hey Sessions–you don’t exist. . Trump told “The Hill” two days ago that he doesn’t have an attorney general. What he really means is that he doesn’t have an attorney general who will do whatever he wants him to do. If Sessions would shut down Mueller, Trump would love him. Unfortunately for Trump, Jeff Sessions–who really is, frankly, something of a dick–at least has enough respect for the Constitution to place his loyalty to that over his loyalty to Trump. That makes him ineffective and a subject of ridicule.

Did he do anyt–Oh, screw it. Why even bother asking anymore?

PAD