Good Morning!

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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers on Monday mornings.
This is an Open Thread forum, so if you have an off-topic opinion burning
a hole in your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.

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Justice cannot be for one side alone,
but must be for both.  

– Eleanor Roosevelt

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There’s a National Walk-Out today to show support for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Americans are being asked to wear black and walk out of work/school/home today at 1 pm EDT, which is 10 am PDT.

For those of us who were around for the Clarence Thomas hearings, it’s déjà vu all over again. A lot of parallels have already been drawn between Thomas and Kavanaugh. The thing I remember most from 1991 was the information circulating among feminists about Thomas’ track record at the EEOC which showed an obvious bias against women that somehow only we seemed to be talking about. We wrote letters pointing out the facts – email was still a few years away – I remember sending duplicate copies of letters, hoping at least one of them would get there in time.

I absolutely believed Anita Hill, but she became the victim of the “high tech lynching,” not Clarence Thomas.

Why is it that so many people, both men and women, fail to see that someone who is willing to trample a woman’s civil rights might also feel entitled to abuse her? Is it such a leap that a man who thinks women should not have access to birth control or abortion, that women’s lives are less “sacred,” might also be a sexual predator?

Brett Kavanaugh spent his sexually formative years in a white privilege, all-male environment, where money could make consequences disappear, and alcohol was used to excuse just about any behavior. If Kavanaugh had been the presiding judge in Brock Turner’s trial, would he have expressed the same concern as the actual presiding judge did about “ruining” a young man’s future over “one mistake,” instead of giving him the sentence the law and justice demanded?

The American Bar Association committee was split on Clarence Thomas, the majority gave him a “qualified” rating while two members found him “unqualified” and at least one member didn’t vote. “Qualified” wasn’t a ringing endorsement – you’d hope that anyone nominated for the Supreme Court would be rated “well qualified.”  The last time that committee had a split vote before Thomas, the nominee was Robert Bork, whose nomination by Ronald Reagan was defeated by 58 Senators who voted against him.

But the ABA committee has given Kavanaugh a unanimous “well qualified” rating. It would be interesting to know what criteria they use these days in making their determination. Obviously, his views on women’s rights under the law didn’t weigh against him.

And this time, the stakes are even higher than they were in 1991. This time, there’s also global warming, abuse of power and corruption in High Places in both Government and Business. The Rule of Law, Freedom of Speech, and Separation of Church and State are in peril. Probably the only thing in the Constitution which isn’t under threat is the Right-Wing’s mangled version of the Right to Bear Arms – as long as you’re a White “Christian” Male.

There won’t be anybody around to see me if I walk outside at 10 AM this morning in my working-class neighborhood.  So consider these words as my black dress and me walking out.

I absolutely believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.