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The Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation As Associate Justice of The Supreme Court Of The United States: It’s Not Over

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Brett Kavanaugh was officially confirmed as Associate Justice of The Supreme Court on Saturday. That the action actually took place has this blogger still in a complete state of shock.

In the past, if someone came forward as a candidate for Supreme Court Judge and then an allegation of sexual assault was attached to his name, you could kiss his chances of even sniffing a confirmation hearing room goodbye.

The two just don’t seem to match up: a guy who has a reputation as an animal house drunken frat boy rising to the place of the highest legal office in the land. It wouldn’t matter, then, if the guy was white – that would not have happened.

But it did.

Now, I have to applaud Dr. Christine Blasey Ford for stepping forward and daring to share a 36-year-old horror story that happened to her when she was 15 years old. That was a hard thing to do, given what was at stake.

Dr. Ford’s now a reluctant celebrity. She will be known as the woman who tried to stop a man who she claimed wronged her from playing a giant role in running the United States, and who missed the mark, initially.

As for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, I was all set to accept him as the next SCOTUS judge, but then came Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, and the way he handled her claims, and one thing Brett did not do, caused me to see, and to still see this occurrence, as a complete utter nightmare.

The reason why I was all set to accept Kavanaugh before Dr. Ford was simple: Donald Trump’s POTUS, and his place in the White House is a reflection of one simple fact: 10 percent of the African American voting base that came out for Obama in 2012, stayed home and away from Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Not me. I believe in voting. Period. And so much so, that when this Uber Driver named Michael proudly told me in December of 2016 that he didn’t vote and that voting did nothing for blacks (he’s black), I told him to let me out of his car, as soon as possible. There’s no reasoning with someone who thinks like that, and I didn’t want to get into an unreasonable sitution, so I sought an exit.

But, I digress.

The point is, for all practical purposes, we asked for Trump, and we got him. Donald Trump is President, and we must respect the system we established, even as we seek to rid ourselves of Russian and white supremacist hacking. That belief, born of my powerful love for our government institutions and protocols, is why I was all set to welcome Brett Kavanaugh as SCOTUS Judge.

But then Brett went off and acted all kinds of wrong.

During his ranting and unhinged hearing of two Thursday’s ago, Judge Kavanaugh failed to do one thing that just plain got to me. He never once expressed any sympathy with Dr. Ford’s plight. He could have said “Dr. Ford, my sympathies are with you, but I’m not the person who harmed you. I hope and pray you discover who really did. It wasn’t me.”

Those words never once came out of Brett Kavanaugh’s brain.

Instead, Kavanaugh was attacking Democrats, impolitic, and breaking-point sobbing. I get that he was pissed off over bring falsely accused of sexual assault, but his dissent felt more like an act than a very real explaination of himself. It’s like someone said “Just go out and be an Angry White Man, and that will do the trick.” Well, the only trick it did other than to get him confirmed, was to send America into a tailspin, spinning off course from its normal “let’s talk and figure this out” discourse of the recent Obama past, and to something that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.

I say that, because, while new-style, anti-intellectual conservatives with little love for institutions are drinking beer in celebration, and President Donald Trump is taking a victory lap, and his press secretary is tweeting about how nice it is to have a 5-4 conservative Supreme Court, rather than a 6-3 liberal one, the very core of politics and society has been shaken and violently. It’s not done being shook, and I shudder to imagine what will come out as a result, but I’m going to do just that.

Here goes:

1. A country that consists of people so angry that they may take drastic approaches to the expression of poltical dissent.
2. A new place where even Washington D.C. Eateries will have “liberal” and “conservative” seating areas.
3. All out efforts to destroy the reputation of any person up for any political appointment that could gain media or social media (What’s the diference?) attention.

That’s what I see forming, right now. And I’m pretty sure it’s not going to stop there. The reason I formed those views are based, in part, on the emails I received Saturday, alone.

Zennie Abraham Received A Lot Of Press Releases From Left And Right Before And After Kavanaugh Was Confirmed

There were 99 emails sent to me with the name “ Kavanaugh” in them on Saturday, alone. In large part, that’s due to the fact that I’m a card-carrying Democrat, my media company Zennie62Media being on the White House Press List, and another part because I’ve blogged and vlogged about the Kavanaugh matter, and then still because we’ve issued press releases from people and groups on both sides of Kavanaugh.

Here’s a sample of what I’ve read to date:

Friend,

I write to you today on the heels of a tremendous victory for our nation, our people and our beloved Constitution.

You elected Republicans to fight for Americans in the face of injustice.

Today, I’m proud to tell you that our Party stood up against the angry mob and voted to CONFIRM Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

And the real hero of this great battle was you.

But although today is a big victory, we can NEVER forget what the Democrats did to this good man and his family.

Because if they did it to Judge Kavanaugh… They could one day do it to YOU.

With ONLY 31 days to go until the election, please make a contribution to DEFEAT every Democrat complicit in this nasty witch hunt.

That was from Donald Trump’s fundraising campaign of which I’ve never given a dime, but like to know what they’re thinking.

Mitch McConnell LOSES

I’ve never been angrier — and I need $1 to kick every single Republican out of office.

I just watched in horror as Senate Republicans confirmed accused sexual abuser, Brett Kavanaugh, to the Supreme Court.

They don’t care about everything we’ve learned about him. About the women who came forward. All they care about is falling directly in line behind Trump.

And putting an extreme, right-wing judge on our Supreme Court bench for decades is exactly what Trump wanted.

It makes me sick. It makes me furious. And it makes me want to fight harder than I’ve ever fought before.

That’s why I’m coming to you with this extremely time-sensitive request.

I need you with me, before midnight tonight, to kick every single Republican out of the halls of Congress.

That was from Nancy Pelosi, of whom I’m a big fan.

This is a Dark Day For Our Country

Senate Republicans have ignored the will of the people in order to install a far-right justice to the highest court in the land.

They put a sexual assault survivor on trial and bullied and attacked her for coming forward.
They concealed huge portions of Judge Kavanaugh’s public record, in an effort to prevent the American people from getting a clear understanding of who this man is.

At every turn, they have subverted our democracy and betrayed the public’s trust.
This vote will have consequences on American families for generations to come.
Our civil, reproductive, and voting rights are all on the chopping block.

And, most disturbingly, Senate Republicans have sent survivors of sexual assault a chilling message: politics come before justice in the U.S. Senate.

I will be forever grateful to the millions of Americans who took to the streets and raised their voices to protect our democracy, especially Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

Our country needs you now more than ever. Don’t lose hope – your voices matter, and they will be heard.

This is a setback. But it’s not the end of our story.

We will keep fighting to live up to our values of justice, equality and peace for all.

In Solidarity

Barbara Lee

That was from Representative Barbara Lee, who’s my Congressperson and friend. I always stand with Barbara Lee.

“ADF congratulates Brett Kavanaugh, who will be the newest member of the high court and a worthy successor to Justice Kennedy. Judge Kavanaugh has received high praise as a competent and professional jurist from people across the ideological spectrum, and he has demonstrated that he is committed to interpreting the Constitution as our founders intended. That commitment must include affirming our most fundamental freedoms of free speech and religious liberty, which will most certainly be at stake in cases that will come before the court in upcoming terms.”

That was fom the “Alliance Defending Freedom”

Brett Kavanaugh Has Lied His Way Onto the Supreme Court

That comment was in an email from The Nation Press Room.

Kavanaugh confirmed by 2 votes

Zennie, yesterday the Senate moved to vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Today the Senate confirmed him with a 50 to 48 vote.

Let me be clear: today the Republican controlled Congress gave a lifetime appointment to a right wing extremist to the highest court in our nation.

Zennie, elections matter.

If we don’t show up, the few that do decide who represents us in Congress. The ramifications of the few electing our representatives is dangerous and goes against the very principles that are the backbones of our democracy.

That was from Gina Ortiz Jones, who’s the 2018 Democratic nominee for U.S. Representative from Texas’s 23rd congressional district. Ortiz Jones’ opponent in the 2018 elections is incumbent Republican Will Hurd.

What you can do about it

What a disgrace, Zennie. Outrageous, immoral, unbelievable – actually, scratch that, totally believable. By confirming Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Senate just voted to silence women and throw their constitutional rights into jeopardy for decades to come.
Make no mistake: Kavanaugh and his backers in the Senate tried to steamroll women today. Silence them – not just the brave survivors, but thousands of women (and men) who stood up and called and protested with them.

But today is not the end of this story. A historic number of women are running for office, including here in CA, and they’ve just started raising their voices.

So here’s the best way I can think of to channel our anger, our heartache, our frustration: making sure we elect more Democratic women to Congress.

Katie Porter, Jessica Morse, and Katie Hill are running in three of the most critical – and flippable – House races in CA right now.
That was from long-time friend Gavin Newsom, who’s the Democratic representative in the California Gubenatorial Race.

I’m going to be honest with you, Zenophon — it’s been a tough day.
Despite serious allegations, a record as a partisan operative and a lack of honesty under oath, a majority of the Senate just voted to place Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.
I’m not going to pretend this is okay or normal. It’s not. Instead, I’m going to tell you there’s one thing we can do to make sure this never happens again:
ELECT. MORE. DEMOCRATIC. WOMEN.

That was from another friend: my Senator, Kamela Harris.

IWV Applauds Senators & President Standing Behind Presumption of Innocence

Washington, DC – Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) CEO Heather R. Higgins released the following statement in response to the Senate vote confirming Justice Brett Kanavaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States:
“The U.S. Senate rightfully stood behind Judge Brett Kavanaugh today, but more importantly, our Senators and our President stood behind the time-honored principle of the presumption of innocence. Today’s vote was not about Kavanaugh’s qualifications, which are undisputed, nor his judicial temperament, which was universally agreed to until it became expedient to pretend that was an issue. Today’s vote was about fairness, the importance of due diligence, of evidence, of process and respect.

“While every victim of sexual assault deserves to be heard, no one deserves to be convicted without corroboration or evidence. Furthermore, no victim of sexual assault deserves to be unfairly re-victimized as part of a political ploy, as Senate Democrats did to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. She too deserved better.

“We are seeing the consequences of transforming the Supreme Court from the role of non-partisan umpires that our Constitution intended, to being unelected super-legislators making policy and law. This confirmation process was unfairly and unnecessarily politicized. The Supreme Court is not a partisan or political body. Sexual assault is not a partisan or political issue. Personal destruction for political ends has no place in our Senate. The incivility and bullying behavior, particularly by women who claim to respect all women, on Sen. Susan Collins and towards other Senators trying to respectfully listen to all their constituents, has no place in a civil, respectful society. Americans have been discouraged watching our nation’s institutions be debased during this avoidable spectacle. We all deserved better than this
“We are thankful that the end result protects due process and objectivity. Welcome to the Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.”

That was from Independent Women’s Voice

NAACP President Calls Kavanaugh Confirmation “Devasting Blow”
Move Signals Dark Days Ahead for Civil Rights Communities – America Deserves Better
BALTIMORE (October 6, 2018)—NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson released the following remarks regarding the Senate confirmation of nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
“The U.S. Senate’s decision today to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is devastating blow to our democracy. It threatens the integrity and legitimacy of the Senate and the Supreme Court as institutions, and the nation may never recover. This day will go down in infamy for the Senate’s abject failure to exercise its constitutional duty to advise and consent.
“The NAACP condemns this reckless & deeply partisan rush to confirm Kavanaugh after critical issues were raised about his integrity, temperament, impartiality, history of sexual assault, and judicial record. There is far too much at stake for every community not to have fully reviewed this nominee for the highest court in the land who will chart our future for a generation.

“The American people deserved better than this. Now more than ever we must harness our frustration and use our voices at the ballot box in November so this grave injustice of historic proportion never happens again. We must vote: our freedoms, our protections, and our lives depend on it.”

That was from the NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. And reminds me of a Saturday Night Live joke Michael Che issued:

“America may have gained a new member of the Supreme Court, but a part of our nation’s soul was lost during this toxic process. The zero-sum-game environment we are in today, where many are focused on winning at all costs instead of what’s best for our country, must end if we ever wish to begin healing these partisan divisions and tackling some of the most serious problems facing our nation.”

That was from Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and I think he’s completely spot on.

Buckle up.

Stay tuned.