Entering the Twilight Zone

Trump Roll:  Yesterday Trump showed up for a rollicking 80 minute plus press conference and boy was he in his element.  He responded to countless questions from the assembled press, only occasionally answering what was asked and rarely sticking to the facts.  He claimed that he’d refused a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau even though Trudeau never requested one and then went on to say that because Canada had treated us so badly he was inclined to go ahead with a NAFTA reboot without them. He again bragged about his North Korea achievements, ignoring that despite a recent halt in their nuclear tests they continue to bolster their nuclear arsenal.  He also repeated a statement that he’d made earlier in the day during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu by saying that he’d be all in on a two state solution, or not, because whatever makes both the Israelis and the Palestinians happy and pleases son in law Kushner will work for him.  He went on to demonstrate his diplomatic acumen by calling a Kurdish reporter “Mr. Kurd” repeatedly.  He bragged about the number of judges that he’s managed to seat on the Federal courts and slammed Obama’s failure to do the same, woefully ignoring that Senate Majority Leader McConnell made blocking Obama’s judicial appointments his top priority.  He again lauded Judge Brett Kavanaugh as a brilliant jurist who was innocent of any and all of the accusations against him though he did leave an opening to dump Kavanaugh if any of those accusations are subsequently proven, his way of saying that Kavanaugh better perform well at today’s hearing or else.  As to the Kavanaugh mess, when asked why he didn’t call in the FBI to investigate any of the accusations, Trump once again claimed that the FBI had already done their job so why bother. When asked if his refusal to believe any of Kavanaugh’s accusers was based on his own experience, Trump went off on a tirade, understating the number of women who had accused him of harassment and then saying that only Fox had covered how many of those accusations came from women who’d been paid to say bad things about him.  As to women, he also asserted that most love him claiming that he’d received 52% of their vote during the 2016 elections, a number he loves to cite but one that includes only white women, in reality he received only 41% of the women vote.  As to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, Trump said that he might have to defer the meeting that he’d planned to hold with him today to free up his schedule to watch the Kavanaugh hearing. No need to rush to meet Rosenstein because it’s looking more and more likely that Trump has decided to keep Rosenstein at his post through the election.  Trump then ended his “concert” by taking one more question and saying "I always like to finish with a good one, Elton John said 'When you hit that last tune and it's good, don't go back.'" He then offered a bizarre example of how a bad encore can ruin a show. There is no public record of Elton John ever saying the bad encore thing, and, in fact, Elton John does believe in encores.  

Must See TV: It’s raining women for Brett Kavanaugh and not in a good way.  Yesterday, as promised Michael Avenatti brought forth Kavanaugh accuser number three, a government cleared, computer technologist named Julie Swetnick.  Swetnick, says that back in the day she attended around ten of those now infamous alcohol fueled Maryland beach parties.  She asserts that she witnessed Kavanaugh act aggressively towards young women at those parties and goes on to claim that he and his friend Mark Judge facilitated the group rape of a number of “incapacitated“ girls.  She says that she was gang raped at one of those parties, though she doesn’t say that either Kavanaugh or Judge were involved in her attack. At this point there is not much in the way of corroboration for her assertions but she provided them in a sworn statement prepared by Avenatti and given to the Judiciary Committee so they do carry some weight.  At least one of Kavanaugh’s friends defended him by saying that their crowd would never have hung out with someone like Swetnick because she only went to a public school and was therefore not worthy of their company. Beth Wilkinson, Kavanaugh’s lawyer, said that Swetnick’s claims must be false because she failed to report her rape and kept on going to the parties even after she witnessed the boys’ alleged bad activities, an opinion also voiced by several Republican Senators. Late yesterday, NBC reported still another accusation against Kavanaugh, this one was included in an anonymous letter sent to Colorado’s Republican Senator Cory Gardner.  In that letter a mother asserts that in 1998 her daughter witnessed Kavanaugh shove her friend, who was dating him at the time, up against a wall very “aggressively and sexually.” This was another alcohol fueled incident. The mother asserts that there were four witnesses, that the women involved have recently discussed the event amongst themselves but that none of them wants to be identified.  After learning about the Swetnick accusation, Senator Susan Collins called for the FBI to get involved and said that she wants to hear from Mark Judge. So far no one has subpoenaed Judge, who is laying low somewhere in Maryland. Kavanaugh vehemently denies all of the new allegations, saying that they are from the “Twilight Zone.”  Today’s Judicial Committee hearing with Kavanaugh and first accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is still scheduled to go forward.  Yesterday, Senator Jeff Flake, the soon to retire Senator who is a member of the committee, went to the Senate floor to give one of his righteous speeches.  He expressed compassion for both Kavanaugh and Ford, repeatedly referring to them as "human beings." He also expressed regret that both Ford and Kavanaugh have received death threats, and disdain from some in both parties in the Senate.  "I will say to these witnesses -- these human beings -- we owe you both a sincere apology." He blamed the "toxic political culture" for infecting the confirmation process. He also chastised his colleagues for politicizing the issue before hearing Ford and Kavanaugh testify, and urged them to keep "open minds." Flake’s vote is particularly important because his vote may be the only one that matters since he appears to be the only member of the Judiciary Committee who is still undecided about Kavanaugh’s confirmation.  Both Kavanaugh Blasey Ford, the only accuser who has been invited to testify, have already provided their opening statements to the Judiciary Committee.  Ford’s is fairly persuasive, Kavanaugh admits to drinking during his high school days but asserts that he is totally and completely innocent of any misdeeds.   Must see TV begins at 10 AM EDT.  As of now a committee vote is still scheduled for Friday morning.