...on the other hand, there is news out tonight that every woman connected with this hearing, meaning female Senators and all their female staffers, are being viciously trolled via phone and email. Susan Collins, though not on the committee, spoke out to say she was "appalled" at Trump's tweet-attack on Dr. Ford -- and now she and her staffers are also being threatened with bodily harm.

I expect Lisa Murkowski began to get the same treatment the very moment she stated she "would not vote" until a real hearing was held.

As of this evening, I finally have some doubts about whether the GOP can cram this rapist through all the way to SCOTUS. Way to go, sexist pigs.

First and foremost for thugs like these, they will learn the negative consequences of their racist behavior include consequences up to and including loss of employment. They will learn to modify their behavior or they will be gone.

For managers and Commissioners in my county (I was a County Commissioner for years) diversity training has devolved from day-long training sessions into a required annual online training course with Q&A, at the end of which the trainee has to electronically sign the thing and print out a certificate which they must ensure ends up at Human Resources.

That is a document that can be referred to in case of disciplinary action. They know you know the rules. Ignorance is no excuse. And in the case of managers and supervisors, they are responsible for their employees.

All employees, from street sweeper on up, get a copy of a manual outlining rules pertaining to their employment. Don't set the building on fire by carelessness, do your particular job well, don't disgrace your department to the public, don't pat the butts of female employees, don't use racial slurs... And they sign that they have received it and understand it. They get some hands-on training. Ignorance is no excuse.

For those capable of learning and willing to learn, diversity training well done is all to the good. It says something about the corporate culture. It's a tool in changing the corporate culture. It's a tool in creating a workplace that is welcoming to all qualified people and aids in their retention.

Committment is not the same everywhere, needless to say. The nation has been experiencing a slow backlash of white resentment for a couple of decades, and under Trump it is measurably worse. But not everyone has given up, and I applaud the Mayor who decided on swift action against the unacceptable racist behavior of these cops. To ignore it would be to condone it, to condone it would be to ensure its triumph.

...Lyndon Baines Johnson, Harry Truman...

It isn't "socialist," kids -- it's been a solid Democratic idea for decades, crushed again and again by the GOP, who love to smear it as a "socialist" idea. You know, the way they turned "liberal" into a smear?

So you (plural, general) can go ahead and keep trying to use the word "socialist" if you want to and waste a lot of time explaining your intentions -- or you can proudly claim and reclaim what is ours, as Democrats.

I've always heard it in religious contexts -- Mormons, Evangelicals, or Roman Catholics who have bowed out of the authoritarian religion of their parents. They have reached some personal breaking point, and can't abide it any more. They cannot bring themselves to sit in the pews any more and be lectured at, to perform ceremonies they no longer believe.

Their parents and siblings don't know what brought it on and to varying degrees are hurt, alarmed, or angry. Explanations don't help.

The "recovering" person still loves their family (absent abuse), and all their deepest memories of love and belonging are wrapped up in shared events that go back to their birth. But they are alienated forever, even (or especially) when they go home for the holidays, Holy Days, for weddings, christenings, and funerals.

I have known folks like that, and the bind is that it hurts to be in that space but it hurts worse to deny your own authenticity and your own conscience, to deny the evidence of your own eyes.

I hear all those echoes when Nicolle refers to her own family, whom she loves. "When I go home for Thanksgiving, it's still Trump-land. They don't get it." And when Steve Schmidt says declaratively that he is no longer a Republican, that there is moral rot at its core and the best thing is for it to be wiped out over the next several election cycles and start over, Nicolle murmurs, "I'm a recovering Republican," I hear the pain of betrayal.

Thus sayeth Hekate; end of sermon.

...talking to a bunch of GOP interns in D.C. That's when I learned he'd been a seminarian. I think he is deeply principled, and deeply conservative. But the Gospel he lives by is rooted in compassion, love, and above all, intelligent self-reflection -- my words, not his.

One of the youngsters asked him something about the GOP and moral authority (mind you, with a straight face). Steele burst out, "OH HELL, NO!" and words to the effect that the GOP had spent decades telling him and everyone else who they could love, how they could love, what was evil, etc etc etc, the whole catalog of their hypocritical moralizing -- "So DON'T TELL ME" -- my gods, the man was passionate.

So we should ask ourselves this: Who better to talk to young Republicans? They sure won't listen to any of us.

...you didn't think could ever be our ally. Except -- there is that notion that love of our country and its foundational institutions can and should transcend the politics of the day. He had it, in spades.

Professor Glaube, who appears on MSNBC as a commentator, was somewhat uncomfortable the other day as he listened to his fellow panelists speak kindly of our conservative foe while they tried to analyze why so many on the Democratic side were going all out in praise of the man. But when the question was put to him, you could see him shift gears -- and he said he believed it was because in this moment McCain's death reminds us all of what we as a country have lost, so it isn't all about McCain, but about us. (I paraphrase.)

If you don't believe me, perhaps Joe Biden will get through. Find a link to his full eulogy, and grab a box of kleenex for the first half. Joe's empathy for all who have lost a family member runs deep. Your tears will dry in the second half, though, as he goes into a full-throated cry against the division wrought by the GOP. He doesn't need to name names, but he names the year they made the cleavage official: 1996.

Thanks as always, Babylonsister, for bringing us Charles Pierce.

The ones in wheelchairs weren't in public school because there was no ADA, believe me.

When the Salk vaccine became available, my parents took the 4 of us to the evening clinic that had been set up at my elementary school. I will never forget that the line stretched from the classroom all across the playground and through to the sidewalk outside. My little sister threw a screaming tantrum because she was afraid of needles. Fck that noise. My mother held her tightly and gave the nurse a clear view of her little arm.

Worst thing I ever encountered though was a teenager who had survived mumps encephalitis -- a complication of a common childhood disease. She was blind, on crutches and leg braces. Years later when the MMR vaccine became available, I put it at the top of my To Do list for my future babies.

My granddaughter died of SIDS. The anti-vaxxers -- well, you know the story. As a consequence, my daughter absolutely refuses to have her other children vaccinated. She believes all the lies the anti-vaxxers peddle.

I joined FB and ended up regretting it. For one thing, I got exposed to all he shit she reads. Being a DUer, I was accustomed to expressing myself pretty freely, researching the hell out of issues and posting the results-- and it was a very bad mistake in that setting. I learned how to cut off the flow of most of her "tribe." What with one thing and another, however, I ultimately got unfriended by my own daughter.

My granddaughter died of SIDS. Her mother is now a warrior in the battle against vaccinations. My feelings can scarcely be described.

...shit. This country is not entirely what we hoped or imagined.

BUT: this nation elected both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and it took an almighty act of treason to keep her out of the White House. This is not a majority-Trumpist nation. Remember that.

We are in the deepest trouble of our national existence, I would argue worse than WWII, because led by a traitor who is enabled by a Party who refuse to acknowledge that we are at war with a foreign power. They hasten to undo and redefine our Constitutional freedoms and that of "the strangers in our midst."

But we are also a nation resisting evil. Every time a federal judge says "No" to a Trump edict, that is resistance. Every time we hold a protest, every time we write to our Senators and Congressmen, that is resistance. Every time a newspaper stands up for the First Amendment, that is resistance. Every time the pundits and journalists on cable speak out, that is resistance. Every time someone records horrible words and video in their cellphone -- that, too, is resistance.

I don't know where this ends, and I feel the stain and stench will stay with us a long time. But I try to remind myself -- we are not Trump Nation. Not yet, and gods willing, not ever.

Just sayin'

...use the word "hysteria" connected with his name. When the vast majority of those participating in his complaint are themselves Christian, and one of the aspects of the complaint is that all sects of Christianity except the General's own are being viciously denigrated, one has to wonder how you came up with your choice of words.

For those who don't remember, Michael Weinstein is a graduate of the Air Force Academy, loved his time there, loved his experience in the USAF. His son followed in his footsteps to the Academy, and discovered a much different culture had arisen. As the Weinsteins are Jewish, it concerned them personally. Weinstein began with the raw anti-Semitism growing at the Air Force Academy during his son's time there, and has broadened his scope to include all those being harmed by what can only be called a very narrow version of Christianity, one tied closely to race (white), gender (male, straight), and nation, bigoted, exclusionary, cruel, unConstitutional.

When any part of our military, especially the officer class, embraces and proselytizes this kind of religion, we as a nation are on very dangerous ground.