I can't stand Trump, I think he is a vile bully, a liar, a philanderer, racist, and all the rest. But I also can't stand Hillary, just in case someone wants to bring that either-or, black-white, 0-1 sort of argument up. I also can't stand Kavanaugh either, I'm sure he will try to overturn Roe v. Wade.

But the way that the feminists handled this was appalling: a sort of game of bluff - believe us because we've got such passion and are so virtuous, don't worry about evidence. Innocent until proven guilty ? Nah - just feel the passion.

No, sisters, evidence counts, no matter who the bastard might be. You can't run a dishonest campaign, or an incredibly klutzy campaign, as this one was. You need passion AND evidence. AND a bit of competence. Otherwise people like me will sit on the sidelines UNTIL you've got some evidence. I WANT Kavanaugh to be as guilty as buggery, if possible guilty OF buggery. But do it honestly and competently, with conclusive evidence. Not like a bunch of six-year-olds.

And please don't use the excuse that evidence would be awfully hard to get in a case like this. Yes. Indeed. In which case, you've got no case.

Play it smarter next time.

Joe

Never the less Loudmouth, and I share your view on Trump, and the me too movement may have gone too far.
Women in America may well think the Republicans think they are second class.
If they do, and if they vote based on that, the midterms will be of interest

Joe,

There was no evidence that Kavanaugh was guilty of anything, and he is now a Supreme Court judge, which is another victory for Donald Trump, bless him :). So, why do you say that you want Kavanaugh to be guilty? He isn't and that's it. I don't understand your 'want'.

Donations to the GOP have skyrocketed since the shonky accusations against Kavanaugh fizzled out and he was installed in the Supreme Court. All because Trump stood his ground, even giving the lunatic, man-hating women, a week extra to hang themselves. If only our own dopey politicians would learn something from the man.

Dear Loudmouth,

I agree that the evidence wasn't sufficient to sustain a guilty verdict on the sexual assault accusations but it was certainly sufficient on the charge of repeatedly lying to the senate committee.

A lay person in front of such a committee might have been excused for not being consistent in their testimony but not a judge with his level of experience.

The guy is a lying piece of you know what which is why he is such a darling of the right. They know his ilk because they voted one of them to be their president.

They really don't care who they put into positions of power as long as they get to pop the middle finger at the 'left'.

I suppose it is part of the deep desire for authoritarianism that the right is seemingly so desperately seeking. One of the measures of how well and authority figure fills his role is when he can tell bald faced lies and have people defend his version of the truth even when it is so evidently wrong.

They just love it.

I am really finding all this stuff deeply fascinating. There are roads this show is travelling that kind of horrify and delight at the same time. It gives us and extraordinary insight into what would have happened with previous incarnations of authoritarianism.

Thank goodness it is at arms length, at least for the moment.

Hi Steele,

Yes indeed, but my point is that the women's movement didn't seem to even try to prove their case, they resorted to 'belief' and passion and their obvious (at least to themselves) virtue and innate goodness, rather than evidence, which is what counts: even a person like Kavanaugh (and although I hate to say it, Trump too) has to be attacked and condemned on the basis of evidence.

In that sense, the women's movement flirted very dangerously with authoritarianism themselves: that passion and even some threat of (necessary and unavoidable) violence were all that were needed - and if you didn't 'believe', then you were an enemy. Well, I don't just 'believe', I'm too old to be suckered into that. I certainly suspect that Kavanaugh will try to overturn Roe v. Wade, and support all manner of extreme conservative positions.

But the case against him in these instances was so weak and the tactics used against him were so infantile and cavalier that I despair that we may be moving toward a futile contest between two different forms of authoritarianism, that the women's movement has surrendered any ground for free, honest, open and democratic forms of discussion and dispute - and that 'the other side' has spuriously moved in to claim them for its own.

I guess I'm still haunted by that photograph of that left-fascist with a megaphone blaring into the face of somebody (Bettina Arndt ?) trying to speak. Yes, left-fascism. That's how low I think the level of discussion has become. Sorry. Of course, after all, Mussolini was once a Socialist, so it's not all that hard to degenerate from one to the other.

Joe