Doug Santo

Mark Penn:

“…Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.

That is the dilemma President Donald Trump faces as he decides whether to fire Rod Rosenstein following revelations that the deputy attorney general allegedly talked about taping the president and rounding up Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment. 

There were several people present at this meeting in the aftermath of the firing of former FBI Director James Comey. Despite the fact that Rosenstein wrote the key memo trashing Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, he reportedly was angry and uncertain after the president actually did it, using his memo as a justification. 

The prime source for this information appears to be none other than fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who faces investigation by a grand jury and whose memos are being declassified. McCabe appears to be even angrier at the Department of Justice (DOJ) brass who fired and humiliated him just for leaking and lying when he may have far worse on his comrades.

This is the deep state unraveling…”

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/407908-donald-trumps-rosenstein-dilemma

Last night’s 10:00 pm deadline for Christine Blasey Ford’s team to agree to come to testify came and went, and unfortunately, Senator Chuck Grassley has given her yet another extension—until 2:30 pm ET today—to reach an agreement.

Personally, I don’t think Ford has any intention of testifying, and I don’t believe Democrats actually want her to either. Ford’s demands have been crazy and absurd, and the entire negotiation circus feels more like a stalling tactic than a negotiation in good faith on Ford and her team’s part.

One of her recent excuses was based on the claim that she couldn’t possibly make it to the hearing in time because Ford has a fear of flying (aviophobia) and would have to drive. Now, let’s put aside the fact that Republicans have literally offered to come out to California to accommodate her, and look into this claim. According to a report from ABC News, we get the following nugget of information.

Meantime lawyers for Ford are asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to schedule a hearing for her to be heard on Thursday, allowing time for Ford to make the drive from California to Washington D.C. Ford’s friend, Kate Devarney, told CNN this week that Ford’s fear of flying is directly related to her allegation of assault, and that an airplane is “the ultimate closed space where you cannot get away.”

Isn’t that convenient? Not only does she have a fear of flying, but she’s basically claiming the alleged attack caused it. An interesting detail likely included to evoke sympathy and make it more difficult for people to question.

But, attributing the flying phobia to the attack is curious. Prior reports have only indicated that the alleged assault primarily impacted her ability to have healthy relationships with men—Ford first brought up the assault in couples therapy in 2012.

Years later, after going through psychotherapy, Ford said, she came to understand the incident as a trauma with lasting impact on her life.

“I think it derailed me substantially for four or five years,” she said. She said she struggled academically and socially and was unable to have healthy relationships with men. “I was very ill-equipped to forge those kinds of relationships.”

She also said she believes that in the longer term, it contributed to anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms with which she has struggled.

One could argue that “anxiety” could cover a fear of flying, but a fear of flying (or confined spaces in general) for 35 years seems like an incredibly debilitating phobia that seems likely to have been called out specifically prior to this new fear of flying claim. Has Ford, for example, been unable to ride in an elevator for 35 years? Assaults in elevators are certainly more common than assaults on airplanes.  Further, Ford herself went to a private all-girls prep school. Her family must have been fairly well-to-do, and probably went on expensive vacations more than once during her teen years. If she suddenly developed a fear of flying because of the attack, are we expected to believe her family didn’t notice she suddenly couldn’t join them on a family vacation? Is it possible they never flew to go on vacation? Sure, but I consider that unlikely.

But, let’s give Ford the benefit of the doubt. Let’s assume her family never went on vacation together requiring her to fly after the alleged assault, and concede that she may, in fact, have had a genuine fear of flying for the past 35 years. Well, clearly The New York Times didn’t get the memo. This was written in a profile of Ford on September 19th:

Dr. Blasey developed a passion for surfing, which she shares with her husband and two sons. “She’s been chasing waves,” said Beth Stannard, a friend and former co-worker, who said Dr. Blasey’s decisions to teach at Pepperdine, in Malibu, Calif., and to complete an internship at the University of Hawaii were at least partly informed by the campuses’ seaside locations. She and her family live in Palo Alto — where she has volunteered for her sons’ schools and junior lifeguard training, has restored her midcentury modern home with an eye toward historical preservation, and has attended Stanford football and basketball games with her family. The family also has a house in Santa Cruz, famed for its beaches and breaks.

Did Ford swim to Hawaii for that internship? Did she ride a pontoon? Are we expected to believe she took a boat?

There are only two possible conclusions here: Either she’s lying about the phobia, or can (and has) successfully managed it with medication. Both conclusions here don’t reflect well on Ford’s credibility.

The bottom line here is that there is enough reason to believe that Ford’s claim of aviophobia was just another stall tactic, that Ford has no genuine desire to testify, and likely, Senate Democrats don’t want her to testify either. We’re being thrown all sorts of excuses that are either absurd (like her crazy demands for the hearing) or don’t hold up under scrutiny, like this fear of flying excuse. Grassley shouldn’t have given Ford this latest extension. We’ve been getting bogus stalling tactics for a week now. It’s time to stop the circus and confirm Kavanaugh now.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/poking-a-hole-in-professor-fords-fear-of-flying-excuse/

“…The last-minute accusation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is an ugly spectacle by any measure. But if there is a silver lining, it is that the episode is providing an education for Americans on the new liberal standard of legal and political due process.

As Ms. Hill and Sen. Hirono aver, the Democratic standard for sexual-assault allegations is that they should be accepted as true merely for having been made. The accuser is assumed to be telling the truth because the accuser is a woman. The burden is on Mr. Kavanaugh to prove his innocence. If he cannot do so, then he is unfit to serve on the Court.

***
This turns American justice and due process upside down. The core tenet of Anglo-American law is that the burden of proof always rests with the person making the accusation. An accuser can’t doom someone’s freedom or career merely by making a charge.

The accuser has to prove the allegation in a court of law or in some other venue where the accused can challenge the facts. Otherwise we have a Jacobin system of justice in which “J’accuse” becomes the standard and anyone can be ruined on a whim or a vendetta.

Another core tenet of due process is that an accusation isn’t any more or less credible because of the gender, race, religion or ethnicity of who makes it. A woman can lie, as the Duke lacrosse players will tell you. Ms. Hirono’s standard of credibility by gender would have appalled the civil-rights campaigners of a half century ago who marched in part against Southern courts that treated the testimony of black Americans as inherently less credible than that of whites. Yet now the liberal heirs of those marchers want to impose a double standard of credibility by gender.

A third tenet of due process is the right to cross-examine an accuser. The point is to test an accuser’s facts and credibility, which is why we have an adversarial system. The denial of cross-examination is a major reason that campus panels adjudicating sexual-assault claims have become kangaroo courts…”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-presumption-of-guilt-1537570627

“…The White House has drafted an executive order for President Donald Trump’s signature that would instruct federal antitrust and law enforcement agencies to open investigations into the business practices of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and other social media companies.

The order is in its preliminary stages and hasn’t yet been run past other government agencies, according to a White House official. Bloomberg News obtained a draft of the order…”

https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/2018/09/22/draft-order-for-trump-would-crack-down-on-google-facebook#gs.YEDjQa8

I urge the President to maintain self-control. 

Fred Barnes:

“…Eyebrows were raised in Washington when President Trump responded to an allegation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The president didn’t mention the accuser. He said the Senate Judiciary Committee would go through “a process and hear everybody out [and] I’d like everybody to be very happy.”

Trump’s remarks were “unusually sober,” the Washington Post declared in a page-one headline. That was high praise from an archenemy. White House aides got credit for recommending the mild response, if only because the press doubts Trump is capable of getting a grip on his emotions without help. Yet that’s what he did.

When facing a political crisis—and the threat to the Kavanaugh confirmation is a crisis—Trump has often stayed cool and rational. True, he seems to enjoy erupting more. It’s more fun. But he’s the one who decides whether to blow his stack. Believe it or not.

We saw this in the 2016 campaign. When his raunchy comments on the Access Hollywoodvideo put his chance of winning the election in jeopardy, he became a paragon of self-discipline. He read speeches from a text. He minimized the ad libs.

Now, with the midterm election six weeks away, it’s time for Trump to tighten his grip on his emotions again, limit any distractions, and act like a gentleman. He has a big incentive to do so. If Democrats win the House by a big margin—40 or more seats is possible—he will face impeachment…”

https://www.weeklystandard.com/fred-barnes/trump-tries-something-surprising-self-control

Jonathon Tobin:

But it turns out that the Iran hawks in Trump’s new foreign-policy team — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton — understood the situation better than the “adults” who urged the president not to scrap the nuclear deal. Rather than allow weak-willed allies to dictate US policy, Trump realized he could tell the appeasers what to do and make it stick because of the power of the US economy.

The shift in energy markets that led to the world being awash in oil — including the fact that the United States is now a net exporter rather than dependent on foreign sources — also means Iran has little leverage over the West.

The implications are clear.

Far from a hopeless quest, the US determination to force Iran to renegotiate the nuclear issue, cease its illegal missile program and desist from terror is a realistic goal.

Just as important, though Trump didn’t enter the White House with much knowledge of the subject, this vindicates his instincts that the establishment is intellectually bankrupt. For decades it has guided US Middle East policy on both Iran and Israel.

The success of oil sanctions should not only encourage the United States to push Tehran harder. It’s also one more reason to ignore the so-called experts’ contempt for Trump’s unconventional but clearly spot-on approach to the region.

https://nypost.com/2018/09/20/trumps-iran-sanctions-prove-the-establishment-wrong-again/

Michael Gerson:

“…If the FBI were to find strong evidence implicating Kavanaugh in a crime, Democrats would oppose him. If there were a muddled mix of accusations and memories, Democrats would oppose him. If Kavanaugh were completely vindicated, Democrats would oppose him…”

That’s a big hot spot under there. An eruption could be a huge disaster,

“…A thermal spring near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park has erupted for the fourth time in the last 60 years, a park official said Thursday.

Ear Spring on Yellowstone’s Geyser Hill went from being dormant on Saturday to spewing steam and water between 20 and 30 feet (6 and 9 meters) high, a height not recorded since 1957, said park spokesman Neal Herbert. It has since continued to erupt at a near-constant height of about 2 feet (0.6 meters), he said.

Ear Spring, named for its resemblance to the shape of a human ear, is one of dozens of geysers, pools and hot springs in Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin — among the park’s top attractions that feature the popular Old Faithful. It last erupted in 2004.

The eruption is among the new thermal activity seen over the last several days on Geyser Hill, just across the Firehole River from Old Faithful…”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/yellowstone-thermal-spring-erupts-4th-time-60-years-205633388.html

This has to be considered a public utility and regulation is in order. Normally I am against additional government regulation, but it is needed here to prevent bias against conservative ideas.

“…WASHINGTON—Days after the Trump administration instituted a controversial travel ban in January 2017, Google employees discussed ways they might be able to tweak the company’s search-related functions to show users how to contribute to pro-immigration organizations and contact lawmakers and government agencies, according to internal company emails.

The email traffic, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, shows that employees proposed ways to “leverage” search functions and take steps to counter what they considered to be “islamophobic, algorithmically biased results from search terms ‘Islam’, ‘Muslim’, ‘Iran’, etc.” and “prejudiced, algorithmically biased search results from search terms ‘Mexico’, ‘Hispanic’, ‘Latino’, etc.”

The email chain, while sprinkled with cautionary notes about engaging in political activity, suggests employees considered ways to harness the company’s vast influence on the internet in response to the travel ban. Google said none of the ideas discussed were implemented…”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-workers-discussed-tweaking-search-function-to-counter-travel-ban-1537488472

The Kavanaugh nomination advise and consent hearing in the U.S. Senate has devolved into a circus. The politically motivated accusations against Kavanaugh are  despicable.

Daniel Henninger:

“…Consider the spectacle: Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court, the embodiment of a modern rule of law, is being decided in the Senate by the medieval practice of trial by ordeal, such as surviving immersion in fire or ice. Trial by ordeal was outlawed by the Lateran Council in 1215.

Or worse, the standards of the mob in the Roman Colosseum, turning thumbs up or down on the combatants. Though unlike the Senate Democrats, the Roman mob at least had an open mind.

Incidentally, the standard trope that Donald Trump has degraded our politics? We don’t need to hear that anymore. Or about the moral certitudes of the religious right.

Is there a sadder figure in the modern Democratic Party than Sen. Dianne Feinstein? Elected to the Senate in 1992, Mrs. Feinstein has produced a creditable career. Her above-it-all reputation was never quite deserved, but she has at least performed with dignity.

Now, seeking re-election at 85, she is getting heat from the progressive-dominated Democratic Party in California, the world capital of identity-only politics. By withholding from the committee the accusatory Ford letter that came into her possession nearly two months ago, Sen. Feinstein ensured the nomination’s descent into such a hapless, cynical moment. This will be the most remembered event in Sen. Feinstein’s career.

The Kavanaugh nomination, “given what we know,” has come down to an undiscoverable accusation. The defeat of a Supreme Court nominee on this basis would be a victory for a level of conscious political nullification not seen in the U.S. for a long time. Republicans in the Senate shouldn’t allow it, and voters in November should not affirm it…”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-democrats-have-become-1537397973

“…The Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh has moved out of the field of nomination and into the bizarro field of male-bashing.

Kavanaugh’s confirmation has now become the left’s means of publicly hating on males — white males, in particular, at least according to “The View” host Joy Behar.

Could we please circle this circus show on back to the matter at hand, which, as anyone with long memories can attest, is supposed to be about upholding the integrity of America’s judicial system?

Oh yeah, about that. Behar’s busy doing this instead, speaking in context of discussing the players in the Senate Judiciary Committee who are responsible for Kavanaugh’s confirmation: “These white men, old by the way, are not protecting women,” she said during a recent show, Fox News reported.

And then this marvel of investigative prowess: “They’re protecting a man who is probably guilty.”

On the basis of that standard — “probably guilty” — Behar then demanded Kavanaugh take a lie detector test.

“Let’s see that from you, or are you a coward?” she asked.

At least her hatred is rooted in anti-conservatism, anti-Donald Trumpism. Sen. Mazie Hirono, on the other hand, has gone off the anti-Trump reservation into Hate Men Land.

Speaking on CNN about Christine Blasey Ford’s flimsy — and getting flimsier by the minute, mind you — accusations against Kavanaugh, Hirono had this to say: “[W]hat really bothers me and gets me so angry is the White House is victimizing [Ford]. … Guess who’s perpetuating all these kinds of actions? It’s the men in this country. I just want to say to the men of this country — just shut up and step up. Do the right thing for a change.”

Ouch.

Apparently, in Hirono’s world, when a woman makes an accusation, that’s it. Due process done. The guilty finding is in. No need for court, jury, judge or trial. A woman’s accusation is not to be challenged…”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/20/brett-kavanaugh-nomination-moves-bizarro-male-bash/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

Nearly half in top 5 U.S. cities don’t speak English at home, record 67 million.

I’d like to see a county by county analysis of this in the 5 cities comparing political leanings and voting trends with recent immigrants over the last 10 years. My guess is it will clearly identify Democrat strategy with respect to immigration and the open border policy. As if we already didn’t understand it.

Julie Kelly:

“…By ‘we,’ I mean America. And by ‘this,’ I mean some form of forced group therapy session for adult women who cannot move past an ugly event from their teen years and feel the need to relitigate it in public nearly four decades later. A serious vetting process for a Supreme Court nominee has suddenly devolved into the GenX version of ‘The Big Chill.’…”

Glenn Reynolds strung this together

THEY’RE NEVER THIS CURIOUS ABOUT DEMOCRATS — SEE, E.G., KEITH ELLISON. Media, ABC, PBS use Facebook to beg other Kavanaugh accusers to talk, ‘Truth will emerge.’ But remember when the NYT crowdsourced people to go through Sarah Palin’s hacked emails? Think of them as Democratic Party operatives with bylines and you won’t go far wrong.

UPDATE: Ellison accuser releases 2017 medical document saying she feared ‘retribution.’

News media: Who?

“…Senator, I would like to start by saying unequivocally, uncategorically, that I deny each and every single allegation against me today that suggested in any way that I had conversations of a sexual nature or about pornographic material with Anita Hill, that I ever attempted to date her, that I ever had any personal sexual interest in her, or that I in any way ever harassed her…”

“…A second, and I think more important point,” Thomas continued. “I think that this today is a travesty. I think that it is disgusting. I think that this hearing should never occur in America. This is a case in which this sleaze, this dirt, was searched for by staffers of members of this committee, was then leaked to the media, and this committee and this body validated it and displayed it at prime time over our entire nation. How would any member on this committee, any person in this room, or any person in this country, would like sleaze said about him or her in this fashion? Or this dirt dredged up and this gossip and these lies displayed in this manner? How would any person like it?”

“The Supreme Court is not worth it. No job is worth it. I am not here for that. I am here for my name, my family, my life, and my integrity,” Thomas said. “I think something is dreadfully wrong with this country when any person, any person in this free country would be subjected to this.”

“This is not a closed room,” Thomas continued. “There was an FBI investigation. This is not an opportunity to talk about difficult matters privately or in a closed environment. This is a circus. It’s a national disgrace.”

“And from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I’m concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you,” Thomas declared. “You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. — U.S. Senate, rather than hung from a tree…”