Total War

Yesterday after work I briefly attended an anti-Kavanaugh rally. The rally organizers had failed to secure a PA. Amplified sound was provided by a bullhorn. I couldn't hear anything the speakers were saying. So I scurried home to watch Thursday Night Football. 

It seemed to me that the crowd was a healthy size, similar to a rally I attended opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. The mood was morose, even more morose than the campaigners who were trying to halt burrowing under the Missouri River for Bakken Shale crude oil.

The die appears to be cast. Collins and the odious, grandstanding Flake are poised to confirm Kavanaugh. Murkowski has been off the radar. Manchin is dancing on the fence. Let's hope for a robust display of civil disobedience today and tomorrow. "Scores" of arrests were reported yesterday. According to Elizabeth Williamson's "Singing, Chanting and Rage on Capitol Hill as Kavanaugh Vote Nears":

Chanting “Whose court? Our court!” and “We believe survivors,” they marched to the Supreme Court in a demonstration that began with emotional testimonials by sexual assault survivors on the steps of the court and culminated in a sit-down protest in a nearby Senate office building that generated scores of arrests.

[snip]

Warning “November is coming,” a reference to the midterm elections on Nov. 6, they directed pleas, and warnings of political consequences, at three wavering Republicans: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jeff Flake of Arizona, at whose behest the F.B.I. investigation was initiated last week. 

Early on Thursday the police closed off the hallway outside Ms. Collins’s office, preventing journalists from interviewing her, and protesters from buttonholing her. On the court steps, three women from Maine told their stories, imploring her to believe the survivors of sexual assault.

A group of more than 100 Alaskans planned to visit Ms. Murkowski’s office on Friday, some with their children in tow. Several Arizona residents were among those who spoke on the Supreme Court steps, seeking to keep the pressure on Mr. Flake.

In the Capitol, Democrats denounced the F.B.I. interviews as incomplete and insufficient, while nearly all Republicans said they were thorough but unnecessary, given what they said was extensive vetting of Judge Kavanaugh.

This chasm was reflected in street confrontations around the Capitol, as demonstrators faced off with supporters of President Trump and his nominee, some of them men wearing bright pink polo shirts and “Make America Great Again” caps.

One man carried a homemade sign that read “#MeToo Fraud,” before a protester tore it in half. He called out “God bless Trump; God bless Kavanaugh,” as rape survivors told their stories and two women, Michela Vawter, of Burlington, Vt., and Kiki Hackett, of Phoenix, quietly asked him to stop.

"November is coming" rings hollow to me. The polling is a wash, though I think ramming Kavanaugh through will juice Dem turnout somewhat next month. The fundamentals regarding the midterms were against the GOP to begin with. MAGA magic can't strike twice because the voting environment has been drastically altered in two year's time. In the fall of 2016 Trump depended on neoliberal complacency to squeak into the White House.

Today the United States has declared total war -- on China, Russia, its own people. Kavanaugh is a continuation of that. The Supreme Court will sow discord for a generation.