Hey CBS What’s Wrong With This Map?

This is Just the Violent Sutff

It's Trump Time in America

Hate is okay. After two of these people were captured,  our President - who should unite us - had partisan rallies where he lead cheers in "Lock Her Up" against a old woman he beat in an election 2 years ago - CNN Sucks right after 2 pipe bombs were delivered to CNN from his supporter and blamed Democrats for the problems in America.

He had no rallies planned last night - so no rally after the Pittsburgh mass shootings. But he did tweet after it. About how the Dodgers management sucked in a playoff baseball game.

Seriously.

Correction ...We Are, In Many Ways, The Richest Country in the World...

The United States is, in many ways, the richest country in the world.

Copyright shutterstock

We dominate the world economically, artistically and militarily. Yet, at home, our life expectancy is falling, we have some of the highest rates of infant mortality, gun deaths and incarceration in the developed world. Our income discrepancies dwarf any but the most repressive middle east regimes.

I understand why people voted for Trump for a change. But two years of Trump and Republican leadership hasn't solved any of our problems. Even with amazing economic growth, the current leadership has used hate, fear and division to drive Americans apart, not pull us together.

No big response in this post.  It is just very sad for our country.

UPDATE
Two women I find very smart (Shelly and Lynn) have both questioned me about this and I guess I completely mis-communicated. By "amazing economic growth" I meant that our economy is growing, but very little of that growth is trickling down to the working people. It congregates in the richest Americans and this trend is multiplied by the tax changes that locked in better rates the more you make.

A Current Look At My Mind

* a note

I can only look at the world through the eyes I have.  Which is too bad. I would love to see nothing sinister in Donald Trump.  I used to. I think Donald Trump WAS a simple capitalist, who wanted to run for President to expand his brand and make money. I don’t think he wanted or expected to win.

But he has grown to enjoy the power. He loves the stage and craves attention. It is normal.  And he is given a free hand by his supporters in this. He can lie (exaggerate) at will. He can call and response to them just like the Preachers of old, but without the word of God, only the power of themselves.

This is the power of the mob in the negative, but also the power of the crowd. True, it was the power of the Nazi’s and Italy’s black shirts, but it was also the power of Rome and the patriotic millions who marched for civil rights. The power of the people is only a mob when you are on the wrong side of it. They don’t see themselves as a mob.

The next few weeks are a minefield with possible problems. I suppose it is my nature to look at the problems, not the possibilities, but such is life. The first hurdle is the mid-term elections. If the party of Trump wins, it means that my country-men can look past a tax cut for the rich, trying to take away the health care of millions, daily lies and misogyny to vote for, in the best case, a good economy, in the worst case, a fear of brown people.

The second hurdle is if the democrats win, Trump and the Republican Party - who have worked hard to disenfranchise voters - put up a fight to not seat people. Given the lengths they have gone to in order to deny the vote to hundreds of thousands of people of color in Georgia alone, it is a reasonable - albeit it far-fetched - fear.

Say everything works though and the Democrats take the House of Representatives.  Hazzah.

The third hurdle, and possibly biggest, occurs when the economy finally turns negative. This will happen whoever wins. And how the President and the Republicans respond will be the test of the country. So far, Trump has reveled in blaming the Democrats and the “others” for anything that goes wrong. The truth has no part in his explanations (the Democrats are paying for the Caravan, George Soros hired the Kavaugh protesters, Obama electronically bugged me) but Fox News and his followers believe it and the Republican establishment falls in lie.

An economic challenge freaks me out. A strong man that can take care (or take advantage) of an economic problem is what kills democracies. Germany in the 1930s, Italy in the 1920s, Russia in the 2000s, the Philipenes in the 2010s. Trumps followers already screamed “Lock Her Up” for a woman that simply recounted her memory of a possible Supreme Court Justice (which Trump himself said was very believable). Imagine their vitriol and anger when an actual recession wipes out jobs!

Until recently, the lack of a focused, paramilitary arm of Trump’s followers lulled me into complacency. But the recent Republican welcome of the Proud Boys has freaked me the fuck out.  In New York City, the Proud Boys we’re invited to a Republican Party function. This is a group that self-identifies as angry (usually white) men that promote political violence. They ran as a mob and beat up gay people after the function.

Whatever you think of analogies, we have a President that doesn’t value democratic norms, that doesn’t pretend to respect or like anyone who didn’t vote for him. He has the full backing of a major political party. At least some of his followers are organizing into a well ordered paramilitary organization.  He has already identified a minority group that is the target of his followers economic and social anger (the Hispanics in general and brown immigrants in particular).

It’s scary.

* This book, written in the 1800s, looks at the story of Jesus being intertwined with the politics of the moment. A beacon of Victorian values for England, a beacon of liberation for France and a beacon of teaching and order for Germany.

Only This President...

Think what you want, but only this President would be so confusing that reporters have to ask if the problem was the murder and cover-up, or only a bad job of a cover-up, which was what he said....

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump criticized the operation that led to the journalist's death as the “worst cover-up ever” and said whoever is responsible “should be in big trouble.”

“They had a very bad original concept. It was carried out poorly and the cover-up was one of the worst cover-ups in the history of cover-ups,” Trump said. “Very simple. Bad deal, should have never been thought of. Somebody really messed up.”

Asked later to clarify his comments, Trump said was condemning the entire Saudi operation and not just the cover-up.

Let’s Talk A Moment About the Migrant Caravan

There is a lot of noise about the migrant caravan - let’s talk about it for a moment.

In many ways, President Trump is right about this. No, there aren’t middle easterners in it. No they migrants are criminals. However, President Trump is right that we need to do something about the caravan.

Not because this caravan is a problem, but it is a harbinger of the future. By separating families, then not separating them. By not having a great single policy, we are encouraging the desperate to come to America at some level because out attitudes can change at any moment (from their viewpoint).  So giving a firm and consistent answer to migration - we could stop this. Of course, we don’t do that. We tell migrants they CANNOT enter - but then hire them when they show up for jobs.

Migration will only get worse. Not because (or just because) of politics in Central America, but because of climate change. A number of these migrants are from Guatemala and Hondurous and are small farmers. Small farmers that can no longer feed their families because of climate change - less rains that are predictable, and more storms that are destructive.  This will only increase and not just from Central America.  We need to figure out what to do long term.

Unfortunately, that isn’t even in the discussions here.  Ther President and Fox News are using this to drum up votes.  It is as transparent and will be as short lived as the Ebola Destruction scare of 2014. It is a transparent scare tactic that might just work.

No Proof - But Could Very Well Be

Also in the caravan, no proof but could be: Ursula the Sea Witch, ghost of Abraham Lincoln (a
good President, but not as popular as Trump), Stacy Keach (because have you seen him in anything lately) and Spanishg Leader Franco (still dead).

The Meaning Behind the Words

Donald Trump used the word nationalist to describe himself recently. I would like to think he doesn’t know the connotations, but I am afraid he does. His supporters may not.

“A globalist is a person that wants the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country so much,” Mr. Trump told a packed arena of 18,000 supporters. “You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, OK? Nationalist. Use that word, use that word.”

So “globalist”, in his interpretation, is someone that wants the world to do well, but not the country. It is normally a way to slur Jewish people who didn’t care about their country. Yes, it came to the popular lexicon with the National Socialist Party (the Nazi). This definition fits into his slurs of George Soros, who is Jewish, and in his mind, behind everything and every demonstration that doesn’t support him.

In fact, lots of people want the world to do well AND want the country to do well.  It isn’t an either or proposition. World poverty has dropped by over 1 billion people in the last 20 years. People who appalled that STILL care about our country.

“Nationalist”, like the Nationalist Front, or the National Socialists are coded words meant to include only those people that meet what the speaker defines as part of the Nation. So when Alt-Right users say nationalists, they mean white, straight people. Not blacks, not gays, not hispanics, not feminists.

Trump may not mean white straight people, but he does mean his voters. He has slurred over half the Americans that did not vote for him. We are not part of his “nation”. The press is not part of the the nation (he calls them the enemy of the people).

Heading up the Hudson

Review: Lifespan of a Fact

The Difficulty of Finding Balance: Lifespan of a Fact

Three actors, at the top of their game, are inhabiting Studio 54 and tearing into our assumptions about truth. It’s easy in the abstract to draw a line underneath truth, but it is less easy in reality. In Lifespan of a Fact trying to draw that line is complicated and hilarious.

Bobby Cannavale plays John D’Argata, an essayist / journalist who has written a moving essay on a young man’s suicide. Cherry Jones is the publisher who wants to publish this great piece, but runs a quick fact check first to cover her bases.   

Daniel Radcliffe plays young Jim Fingal, whom Ms. Jones has authorized to do a fact check of the article. The play is based on a book by the real Misters Fingal and D’Argata, which covers the same ground. With nothing else to go on, you might conclude this would be a dry and esoteric piece. It is not. It is quick moving, witty, very funny and surprisingly relevant in our times.

The essay in question looks at the impact of this suicide on the community. It tries to capture the world at this moment in time. To do so to the greatest affect, the writer has taken some literary licenses. Mr. D'Argata not only doesn't disagree, he defends the actions. 

Fact-checking Mr. Fingal has been diligent to the point of absurdity. He has a 130 page spreadsheet of questions for a 13 page article. Sure, many of these are nit-picky, but a few are key exaggerations of the truth, which gives the article a deeper meaning, but does so by stretching the truth.

Both of the men get extremely defensive about their work. Mr. D’Argata is defensive of changing the work to alter the flow and underlying emotional impact. Mr. Fingal is adamant that if they don't correct some details, the reader won’t ever get to the feeling of the piece. When Daniel Radcliff drops by Bobby Cannavale’s house to have an impromptu discussion, tempers rise quickly. Cherry Jones strides into this rather testosterone-fueled flare up, to calm things down and try to get an essay that everyone can agree with.

Even though these are 3 famous actors, you forget who they are pretty quickly as their characters take over. Jim Fingal and John D’Argata both admire and despise each other. Cherry Jones comes in as a publisher who cares about selling magazines for the right reason, to move and inform the reader. Her support, like the audience's swings between the two men.

The Lifespan of a Fact clocks in at a brisk 90 minutes, which echoes the deadline in the play. Leigh Silverman keeps the momentum moving and the stakes amped up. Lifespan of a Fact is an intimate show, and Studio 54 wraps it in the right space.

Lifespan of a Fact | Playwright: Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell | Director: Leigh Silverman | Cast: Bobby Cannavale.  Daniel Radcliffe, Cheery Jones

I BLAME YOU

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It’s not denial if it’s Magic

The Oath - WTF

Wow, we watched "The Oath" yesterday. And by watched I mean we went out and paid good money to see it in a theater.

I feel bamboozled.

If you watch the trailer on YouTube, particularly the Red Band trailer, this look high-larious. Ike Barinholtz and Tiffany Haddish are a married couple, who have Ike's family over for Thanksgiving.  They are good liberals and some of their family members are good conservatives.  This leads to hijinks as they debate whether to sign a new loyalty oath to the President and USA (in that order).

I am sure when this was written and mainly filmed it was very lighthearted. Somewhere along the line, it changed into a possible reality and shit got real.

I love a black comedy! War of the Roses is my favorite Christmas movie. But this swung from Black Comedy to uncomfortable projection of the future and back way to often. Shooting a civilian enforcer of moral values accidentally - funny. Having the sister stomp on his face repeatedly - disturbing.

You will at first be annoyed that Tiffany Haddish doesn't get to be as funny as she should be allowed to. But then, you notice ... she is a hell of an actress. It is impressive. Not impressive enough to save the movie, but impressive.

We were asked to give feedback after the movie - and the one question that totally stumped me was "who is the prime target audience for this movie?"  I can't think of one. It should be me or a conservative me - but it isn't. It isn't a black comedy - the world changed as it was made. It is a bit of the Marx Brothers mixed with A Clockwork Orange - but not in a good way.

Harari does Immigration and Gets It

My new academic loadstone is Yuval Noah Harari. I gotta say, I love this guy.

Now I already told you this as I read Homo Deus, but now I am reading 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. He sold me as a thinker when he first taught me new stuff, and now as he agrees with me, but states it better.

Regarding Immigration, he says that there are 3 major immigration conditions and we need to discuss them individually. Then, maybe,  WE ALL (liberals and conservatives) could compromise.  They are

1. The host country allows immigrants in.
2. In return, the immigrants must embrace at least the core norms and values of the host country, even if that means giving up some of their traditional norms and values.
3. If the immigrants assimilate to a sufficient degree, over time they become equal and full members of the host country. "They" become "us".

Different sides can then argue or compromise as to how many, if any, immigrants we let in. What is the criteria we choose to allow entry. The rest follow naturally, and I would say the US does better than most countries, although the prohibition of mixing of the sexes by some Muslim and some Orthodox Jewish immigrants strains our system in a new way.  But we could figure this out.

So why can't we have a discussion.

Yuval Noah Harari says that we can't have an honest discussion about this, if we are lying about the first part. We cannot have a rational debate about letting immigrants in, if we are saying one thing (like no more Mexicans) and doing a completely other (hiring them under the table to work).

Think about it: it is hard for me personally to support getting rid of all immigrants - while farms and chicken processing and Mar a lago all depend on cheap, usually illegal foreign labor.  It is hard for a anti-immigrant person to argue about letting some / any / more people in - while farms and chicken processing and Mar a lago all depend on cheap, usually illegal foreign labor.

I think the difference is I blame the farmers, owners of the chicken processing and owners of Mar a lago, while the anti-immigrant person blames the illegal immigrant. And because we don't start from the same baseline, we can't have the conversation going forward.

The world you missed while watching the Trump Variety Hour

I will admit, the Trump Variety Hour has been hugely entertaining this week - what with Krazy Kanye and Triumphant Trump.

But, seeing as I just got back from Europe, I need to tell you there are other, very important stories out there. Yes, even more important that Mr. Kim Kardashian going rouge in a news conference and Apple store.

Let's start with the most important and move down. These were all discussed during my time by news organizations in Bosnia Herzegovina and Turkey....

On November 4th, lost in the news cycle of the midterm results, the US is imposing serious new sanctions on Iran and any company that does business with Iran. We will be shutting on access to payment systems to any company working with the regime.

We are doing this unilaterally, which pisses off our allies quite a bit. Iran has not violated the agreement which all parties made, Trump just doesn't like it because Israel doesn't like it and Obama did it. So he cancelled a treaty that brings Europe great security.

I said long ago, the problem with limiting access to our banks, if used to often, means that the world will find another system to clear funds. If this happens AND it works, then the US Dollar stops becoming the world's currency, our debt is going to choke us all. Well, it is happening now.

China is working to find a way to buy Iranian oil using secret clearing systems. Worse, the European Union is working to find a way to buy Iranian oil or do business with Iran that bypasses the dollar market. Sure, we get big companies that want to work in the US to leave (like TOTAL Oil from France) - but smaller EU companies that find a way to bypass the dollar will lead to other countries doing it also. Neither the Remembi nor the Euro is powerful enough, but bit-coin like electronic systems might be.
-------------------------------------------------------

Brexit seems to be falling part on the issue of the Northern Ireland border.

Whether you think Brexit is a great or stupid idea doesn't really matter. It is most probably happening. And it will most likely be the worst of all possible worlds. Britain will have to give up money and control over laws and migration to the EU to be allowed to exit the decision making process over those rules. What they get out of the deal is access to the common market (which is why they have to play by the rules, but not make them).

This is not horribly uncommon.  Norway and Switzerland have very similar agreements.

But the entire thing hinges on the border between Ireland (in the EU) and Northern Ireland (in Great Britain). The EU (and England) do not want a return to a hard border with guards and checkpoints. Entry into the EU basically help in stopping the Republican Irish attacks in both Northern Ireland and London. A hard border has every chance of starting that war again - in addition to spiking the economy.

BUT, the UK government is a minority government and the balance of power is held by 10 Northern Irish politicians that refuse to go along with this plan. Which they call a soft annexation of Northern Ireland.  And, truth be told, they are right.

It is a game of chicken, where the British Conservatives have given the driving wheel and the accelerator to a testosterone fueled 15 year old. (That is an analogy that makes the most sense if you've seen East of Eden).
---------------------------------------------------

Bosnian had an election. The super-nationalists won. And I mean super-nationalists! Trump is a lightweight next to these guys. The Bosnian Serb President and the Sparsk Republic President both want the Serbs and the Serbian majority lands to leave and join Serbia.

That is what caused the last war that left 10% of the population dead.

Bosniak and Croat leadership is just as nationalistic. Except for the new Croat President. The nationalist party won the Croat vote, but the also elected a moderate Croat President. So, of course, the people are demonstrating against him.

The USA is oddly in this because they are still operating under the Dayton Accords. These were a short term based system of sharing power after the civil war that was suppose to expire after no more than 5 years as the Bosnian parties (Bosniak, Serb and Croat) agreed on a new constitution. That was 25 years ago.

Finally, something you might have heard a bit about. A journalist from Saudi Arabia, but critical of the regime seems to have been murdered inside the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul. He went to get the paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancée.

This is a big deal of Saudis throwing their weight around in a 3rd country - nominally a friendly country to both Saudi Arabia and the United States.

You might have heard about it because President Trump was asked about it (seems our spy agencies knew this murder might happen). President Trump said it was kind of important but he wasn't going to do much because Saudi Arabia is buying $110 Billion dollars of military hardware and complaining would just make them buy from China or Russia. That is pretty disgusting, but I really do appreciate the dead honest of it. There is a price we are willing to pay for international justice, and $110 Billion to too high. It is a fair comment. Heartless and blunt, but fair.

Now in reality (because the Trump Variety Hour isn't hemmed in by truth), the $110 Billion was really only $100 Billion. And only $14.5 Billion was actually ordered (link), so the life is worth less that $14.5 Billion, not $110 Billion - but we are quibbling. 

Well - THAT was no fun

I have flown between Sarajevo and New York many times. Usually through Istanbul on Turkish Airlines.

There are, as near as I can see, 3 (three) Turkish Airlines.  1) The business class Turkish, which is fabulous. 2) The economy Turkish Airlines, which is pretty good for economy. And then 3) Economy to New York, which is a nightmare.

First that are tons and tons of kids. Usually Orthodox Jewish children. Oh yes, and tons of Orthodox Jewish people, and tons of Muslim people. Now they all get along pretty well on the flight, but it still worries me that any little blown up might turn ugly in a heartbeat.

Yesterday the flight to Istanbul was delayed due to "weather in Sarajevo". Somehow other airlines were able to make it to Sarajevo, but not Turkish.  Okay.  4 hours later - and 2 hours past my connection to New York, the flight left.

We got to Istanbul and parked and this happened!

Doyyy de doyyy

That is a bunch of people hanging out on the tarmac!  "Waiting for the bus to the terminal?" you ask. No, just being idiots. The picture was taken by me FROM the bus. And the gaggle just got bigger. Finally even the driver was pissed and drove off and they had to wait for another bus.

A few hours later, as I border the Airbus 330 (i.e. death plane) for New York I was appalled. You see MY original flight was on their lovely Boeing 777. A wide body wonder. This piece of crap Aribus - well here is a stock photo of it in Turkish colors.

It is a 2 - 4 - 2 configuration. I sat on an inside aisle (pretty much exactly from the angle of this shot) Turns out the aisles are not wide enough for any human to make it through without knocking me. They have special beverage carts for this beast.

I was in 21 D and there was a family in 21 EFG. I try to understand families, I really do. But in this one mom actually but a pillow ON ME to use as a backstop, Dad curled on the other edge and junior a five year old stretched between them like a hammock.

And while this plane looks clean - image it after a 10 hour coach flight with screaming children, people dragging their hajibs over me and some idiot New York across from me constantly doing stretches. About the 8th time he banged me, I said "HEY. Watch it." I figured I could yell at a guy loud enough to make the moms stop hitting me.  He said sorry, but he had no choice trying to confront leg blood clots.

==== ommmmmm  ====

But yes, the work in Sarajevo went great.

AS WE LANDED, deep vein thromboses starting getting his luggage out of the over head.  Repeated requests for him to sit down were ignored. Then he tried to shove ahead of me to get off. In that he was unsuccessful and I did actually say, "Hey, we are all in a hurry here! Back off."

The good news - it was late and traffic was light and I got home quickly.

Bosnian National Museum

Went to the National Museum today. It has only been reopened a few years.  They have a huge collection of Roman artifacts. There is also a nice garden in the courtyard.
These are stecci, 14th century funeral stones 

  

The building from the courtyard

Overlook of Roman Hall.

Roman headstones, 4th century.  Bosnia was the Roman Provence of Illyrium. Lots of land was given to soldiers.

Above are mosaics from the 3rd century near Stolac. 

Welcome Back to Bosnia

I am back in Bosnia for the non-profit. I am pretty excited as we have 3 new goals and new partners.  We are training people for work as Big Data Scientists - with help from a team at the UN.

We are also working with women and water issues here in Bosnia.  It will be fun.

Today was mainly sleeping to get into the right time zone and work starts tomorrow.  Some sights...

This is the clock tower in the city.  It is very old and one of the few (only?) moon clock tower still being used in Europe.  It doesn’t help me at all, but it is pretty

I had a little coffee here.  In the cafe, not the grave yard.  It was lovely till the rain poured down.

This is looking at the mosque from the cafe.

This is just an old building.  The Ottoman old town (where I had coffee) butts right up to the Austrian Hungarian old town. Much of the turn of the 1900s AH old town is very decorative.



This is the streetcars, left over from the communists. In most cities of the old east they have been updated with new cars or replaced. Sarajevo has a few refurbished ones, but most are still Tito era - and usually full.

We have the same record as Nebraska!

Usually that is good news. Now not so much.

Šibenik

ON the day of the Krka National Park visit in Croatia, we started in Šibenik.  Our tour guide in Split told us to visit, and he was right.  It was on of our favorite cities in Croatia.

It was founded in 1066 and so is one of the youngest cities on the coast (yes, you read that right, one of the youngest). The architecture was beautiful, and the harbor to small for large cruise boats, so it was relatively quiet.

The old mayor and bishop's palace.

Decorative carvings on the church walls.

The most recent Bishop

Mascot of the Month: Acceptable Anger?

I listened to a Vox podcast with Rebecca Traister, and I have to say I stopped listening to it in the beginning. I found it to be a bit infuriatingly liberal. ....  But it was a long drive and I listened to the rest and I found it infuriatingly true. Which is worse in so many ways.

Ms. Traister had written a book that dealt with anger. Specifically, who's anger is acceptable. We have a long history, a national backstory in fact, built on acceptable male anger. The founding fathers dressed like native Americans and dumped tea into the Boston Harbor. American declared war against tyrants.

And that anger was just on display again in the Senatorial Kavanaugh hearings. Dr. Ford was believable because she was composed about her own trauma. Had she acted anything at all like Kavanaugh, she would have been laughed out of the room as a hysterical woman.  Just look at what Trump, the angriest man on the planet, sad about the woman trying to convince Senators.

"The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers," Trump tweeted.

As for Judge Kavanaugh, his anger was understandable to all involved. The White Men on the Republican side that wouldn't even address Dr. Ford (after she asked them to even), leaped in ever angrier defense of Judge Beerfest.

The Acceptable Anger of Old White Guys

And look at our history.

The Civil Rights protest only worked as non-violence. Any anger was seen as black rage.

Even now, the big knock against Black Lives Matter is that they are angry. Angry about unjustified killing of black citizens at the hands of police. But if a white person happens to be harassed or killed by the police, the families are allowed to be furious on television.

The anger and fury of Trump rallies are acceptable. After the 2016 election, media went to great lengths to explain "white male anger" with Hillary Clinton. And yet, in the same breath, peaceful Black Lives Matter rallies were called riots of thugs.

White Male Supremacists tore up Charolettesville and killed someone, and the President called them good people on both sides.

I didn't originally find this believable. But the more I thought about it and looked, the more the truth of it hit me.

I don't expect this post to change anyone's mind. Hell, I feel very open-minded, but it took me a while to see this. It is easy to call out exceptions here, but in general, the anger of White Men in America is understandable or needs to be understood. The anger of women is hysteria. The anger of minorities is criminal rage. The anger of people over immigrant rights was over-reaction. The quietest kneeling of sports figures is disrespecting the flag.

Even headlines show this...

I have some thinking to do.

No Winners Here

Let us, for a moment, step out of believing either Dr. Ford or Judge Kavanaugh. Let us, for a moment, examine if we believe them both.  There are no winners, and this should not have been a fight.

If you believe Dr. Ford, that she was attacked and she is sure the attacker was Brett Kavanaugh, this has been a mockery. She has faced death threats for owning up to a story she did not want to share - and went out of her way not to share. She has been shamed by Senators - Ben Sasse called her "hysterical" without meeting her and Senator Grassley now wants to supenna her therapy records. She has been attacked in the media on talk radio and Fox News. I was much happier with the original Republican line that "Clearly something happened to Dr. Ford, we just don't 100% trust her memory from thirty years ago after she had a few drinks." It was rude, but it gave us an out.

But instead we have a process that has convinced more people that Senators in general and Republican Senators in particular actively disbelieve and  rhetorically abuse women who stand up for themselves.

If you believe Judge Kavanaugh, then this has also been a mockery. A good and righteous man has had his reputation shattered so that liberals can prevent the ascendancy of a Judge to the Supreme Court that liberals disagree with. His reputation has been tarnished. He family has been hurt and there is no coming back.

Both Ed and I wanted a simple response from Judge Kavanaugh, the answer we would have given (and believed). "I am positive that I did not attack Dr. Ford. However I was a kid and drank and there may have been times in my past I screwed up. I don't remember everything I ever did. But I am sure I did not attack Dr. Ford."

That gives an out. But by claiming certainty he didn't do anything wrong, ever - there is no compromise. And no man that has ever been 17 believes we were all choir boys.  So. we are left that either a smart, intelligent believable woman is lying OR Democrats are lying in wait.

Even if Kavanaugh acknowledged Dr. Ford's pain or attack (still claiming he did not do it), there is a chance of a compromise. Dr. Ford did acknowledge that Judge Kavanauagh might not remember correctly, without claiming he was lying.

Instead, we are left with no bridge to try to build. He will (or might not) get on the court believing that women lie to sabotage men - and 1/2 the country believes that same thing.

And when he joins the four other white men to outlaw abortion, things turn ugly.