07 October 2018

DEPRESSED? IF NOT, SEE A DOCTOR AT ONCE


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Two related subjects today:
1. The total decline of truth in our national conversation, and

2. The unlawful amendment, indeed abandonment, of Constitutional norms.

1. What is the truth of the factual basis for the confirmation of Mr. Justice Kavanaugh?

Only two witnesses testified at the final confirmation hearing. First was Dr. Ford, who presented such a powerful and believable recollection of Kavanaugh's sexual assault that even Trump remarked that she was believable, and Kavanaugh's nomination was in trouble.

The second witness was Judge Kavanaugh.

(Permit this boastful digression: Of Kavanaugh's testimony, I wrote in my blog dated October 1:

"Judge Kavanaugh's lawyer is an intelligent, experienced litigator, but I have the sense Kavanaugh was not prepped by her, or in any event ignored her advice. I believe instead he was managed by White House counsel Don McGahn, who channeled Donald Trump."

Today's NYTimes has a front-page article headlined, "A Nomination Saved By Rage." The text: Kavanaugh met privately with Don McGahn, who told him that the only way to save his nomination was to project rage and anger.  

Oh yeah, I also predicted:

 "McConnell will bull-rush ahead with confirmation of this obviously impaired candidate."

Save your applause until the end, please.)

After his fulminating opening, replete with absurd conspiracy theories about the Clintons and threats to get even against the Democrats ("What goes around, comes around!"), -- a screed that in itself disqualified him for a position on the Supreme Court,-- Kavanaugh proceeded to tell so many obvious lies that his integrity rapidly became indefensible. No reasonable person could accept his obviously insincere definitions of words that signaled his teenage obsession with drunkenness and sexual adventurism.

 Whether those aggressions and misbehaviors ought to have barred his confirmation is irrelevant: every senator, Republican and Democrat, who made public statements on the subject, agreed that perjury, any perjury, would disqualify him. While no Senator who voted "Yes" remarked he or she believed Kavanaugh's obvious lies, they nevertheless said exactly that by their vote confirming him. It is simply not possible that any prescient senator could have believed that Kavanaugh was not guilty of felony perjury.

Instead, the R's focus was on the details of Ford's testimony. The most prominent comment, from all the "Yes" voters, including that of the nauseatingly insincere senator from Maine, was that Dr. Ford's testimony was "uncorroborated." 

That was the R's major talking point. We all read and heard it over and over again. It was the classic Trump approach: tell a big lie, say it over and over again, and the public will accept it as true. (I refer to it as the "Trump approach," but we all know enough history to remember an earlier national leader who boasted of the success of that technique.)

In fact, it was Kavanaugh's testimony that was totally uncorroborated, while Ford's testimony was corroborated again and again.

To be sure my understanding of what "corroborated" means, I looked it up.

Black's Law Dictionary:  "Corroborate":  "To "strengthen, to add weight or credibility to a filing [or statement] by additional confirming facts or evidence."

and

"Corroborating circumstances : "Facts that support the testimony that is given by a witness."

Ford provided several corroborating facts that strengthened her testimony: her prior consistent statements, as far back as 2012, and her specific prior consistent statement before he was nominated, identifying Kavanaugh as her attacker. Prior consistent testimony is considered, in court and out, as powerful corroboration.

And her polygraph results certainly added weight and credibility to the truthfulness of her testimony. Indeed, Kavanaugh had written an opinion certifying the usefulness of that evidence.

Finally, the massive evidence of Kavanaugh's drunken behavior in high school years, and his and his buddies obsession with sexual conquest, add weight and credibility to Ford's description of a very inebriated Kavanaugh attacking her.

Kavanaugh, in turn, not only failed to offer to take a polygraph, he offered no corroboration for his obviously false testimony that when he "ralphed" after drinking it was because he put ketchup on his spaghetti, that "Devil's Triangle" was a drinking game, when all his contemporaries agree is means a menage a trois, that "boofed" means farting when all his contemporaries agree it refers to anal sex, etc., etc.

Bottom line, it was the statements of Kavanaugh and fifty United States Senators that were totally uncorroborated. A farce, a show trial, a low point in our history.

And just in case all the foregoing does not make you want to spend the day in bed hiding under the covers, a Don McGahn constrained faux FBI investigation ought to seal the deal.

2. Article VI of the Constitution, reads as follows:

"The Senators and Representatives ... shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support the Majority Leader of their Party."

As a result, every national legislator, must take following oath:

"I so solemnly swear that will defend my Party's Leader ... that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same ... and will faithfully discharge the duties of the office ... ."

What, you think there is a misquote there? Nah.  
Forty-nine  Republican Senators complied with that oath yesterday.

Did they all believe Kavanaugh belonged on the Supreme Court, and thus they faithfully discharged their Constitutional duties?  Of course not. No such startling coincidence is possible. They ignored their real oath, they ignored Article VI of the Constitution which requires them "to support this Constitution," not Mitch McConnell. They voted their selfish interests of party loyalty and likelihood of re-election, not the interests of fealty to the Constitution.

In their real oath, they promised they would "defend the Constitution ... and bear true faith and allegiance to the same ... ."

Let's not fool ourselves. That oath is now officially declared meaningless by the Kavanaugh confirmation. If you want direct evidence, look at the Flake admission.  He dared to disobey his party's leadership by asking for an FBI investigation.  Afterward, when asked if he would have done so were running for reelection, he basically said, "Are you kidding? Of course not!"

Bottom line, kids.  If you are depressed, you should be. And if you are looking for encouragement that relief is just around the corner, find another source. You won't find it here.

A bientot.