Trump, Kavanaugh, and America’s Deplorable State
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
His bluster, bravado, consistent dissembling, and other disturbing antics make it easy for critics to slam him.
Nothing he says is credible, once an exposed liar, always perceived this way.
Along with being unapologetically racist, Islamophobic, belligerent, as well as shamefully hostile to Palestinians, other oppressed people, and immigrants from the wrong countries, he matches or exceeds the duplicity, mendacity, hubris and arrogance of the Clintons, Bush/Cheney and Obama.
He broke every populist promise made. Instead of draining the swamp as pledged, he filled it with neocon extremists, Wall Street predators, hawkish generals and billionaires.
Like his predecessors, he assured government of, by and for its privileged class exclusively, the way it’s always been in America from inception, the nation a fantasy democracy, not the real thing.
After restraining himself in comments about Christine Blasey Ford’s searing testimony against Brett Kavanaugh, he viciously mocked her on Tuesday saying:
“How did you get home? I don’t remember. How did you get there? I don't remember. Where was the place? I don't remember.”
“How many years ago was it? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know,” adding all she remembered was drinking one beer, “and a man's life is in tatters. A man’s life is shattered,” referring to Judge Kavanaugh.
He also mocked his accuser Julie Swetnick, asking: “Did you see (her TV) interview? “This woman had no clue what was going on. No clue. Yet she made the most horrible charges against a…great father, great husband” - an unacceptable ideological extremist, he failed to explain.
Former Justice Department prosecutor Michael Bromwich slammed Trump, calling him “a profile in cowardice (for making a) vicious, vile and soulless attack on” Ford, describing her as “a remarkable profile in courage.”
An open letter to the US Senate by over 500 law professors from more than 90 law schools, including Yale, Kavanaugh a 1990 YLS graduate, slammed his “lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land,” adding:
“We have differing views about the other qualifications of Judge Kavanaugh. But we are united, as professors of law and scholars of judicial institutions, in believing that (he) did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of our land.”
In response to Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, hundreds of YLS students, dressed in black, demonstrated against him last week in silent protest, supporting his accusers.
Some professors cancelled classes to accommodate and support them, including any wishing to protest outside the Supreme Court in Washington.
In July, a YLS press release called Kavanaugh an expert legal mind and an “incomparable mentor.” Liberal students and faculty members objected, signing a petition calling him “a threat to the most vulnerable.”
After Ford’s testimony, opposition to his nomination increased exponentially.
The late distinguished people’s historian/activist Howard Zinn once said “(y)ou can’t be neutral on a moving train,” the title of one of his books, stressing the importance of avoiding neutrality “on the crucial issues of our time,” adding:
“Events are moving in…deadly directions. To be neutral means to accept” the unacceptable.
He accused US leadership of lacking vision, boldness and will to break from the past. He died at age 87 in 2010, long before the worst of Obama’s tenure and Trump’s since taking office.
Presidential nominations to the federal bench, especially its highest court, is one of numerous key issues, none more important than America’s permanent war agenda, governance serving privileged interests at the expense of most others, and the nation’s money-controlled fantasy democracy, not the real thing.
America is an increasingly totalitarian plutocracy, run by powerful figures serving privileged interests and their own - waging endless wars at home and abroad, an agenda “for the defense of the rich against the poor,” according to Adam Smith.
Michael Parenti once called the Supreme Court America’s “aristocratic branch” of government, “the activist bastion of laissez-faire capitalism,” most often siding with imperial and corporate interests, along with increasingly authoritarian rule.
It largely “oppose(s) restrictions on capitalist power (overall)… support(ing) restrictions on the civil liberties of persons who agitate against that power,” said Parenti, adding:
“(T)he threat of revolution in the United States has never been as real or harmful as the measures taken to ‘protect’ us from revolutionary ideas.”
“The real danger comes from those at the top who would insulate us from ‘unacceptable’ viewpoints. No idea is as dangerous as the force that seeks to repress it” - the Supremes and lower federal courts most often supporting what demands opposition.
The High Court reflects “the climate of the times” - notably hardline belligerent policies under Republicans and undemocratic Dems since the neoliberal 90s.
Kavanaugh’s nomination reflects today’s sentiment in Washington on issues mattering most.
If he’s not confirmed, someone as extremist or worse will be nominated and approved by either or both wings of America’s one-party rule.
That’s key for whoever gets to serve on the highest court in the land - not the best and brightest, the most accommodative to nation’s extremist agenda.
Kavanaugh skeletons are disturbing. Hidden things about other nominees, current High Court justices, along with executive and congressional branch members may be just as disquieting and unacceptable.
Most often, the best, brightest, most ethical and honorable don’t get to serve in Washington - just the most accommodative to nation’s extremist agenda.
America’s system is the problem, governance of, by, and for the rich, well-born and able, the way John Adams described things.
The nation’s first Supreme Court chief justice John Jay believed the nation should be run by the people who own it. It’s been this way from inception.
Kavanaugh and numerous others like him come and go. The dirty system remains unchanged - whether Republicans or undemocratic Dems run things.
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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
