ganja spiffs meant prison was your fate.

Especially in times like these. A little empathy goes a long way, but their whole belief system takes a nice wide detour around that particular value.

Ask Botham Jean.
That Texas cop would have been dead already if that were a preppie's apartment.

What about the choir boy image Kav steadfastly maintains? These fuckers have NO SHAME.

And a whole lot of boys born, like me, in 1948, would turn 18 and graduate from high school when Kavanaugh was one year old. And many of them would get drafted and go to Vietnam, with some never making their 19th birthday.

I was 22 when I arrived in Vietnam. And I was lucky to survive a full tour of duty.

There is little doubt in my mind that, had Kavanaugh been draft age in the mid-60s, he would have been spared, one way or another (bone spurs?). I grew up with some wealthy prep-schoolers and frat boys, a couple of whom flunked out of college (one of those died of the drink at age 38) yet never spent a minute sweating the draft. Daddy took care of it.

End of rant.

Too many people in this country just flat-out suck at character judgment.

Then, when older, they award themselves the American flag lapel pin which apparently mitigates any entitled lack of duty as a youth. After that they are free to thump their puffed-up chests for "America", all the while pushing ill-advised interests. And then defending those interests often requires arranging for others, not themselves, to provide the ultimate sacrifice.

Puffed-up pukes make me sick.

They tried to sell him as someone who "flew aircraft during the Viet Nam war". I know people who translated that into W actually was in Viet Nam. They may have read a headline and that's what stuck in their mind. Slots in the reserves or National Guard were not easy to get if that was an option some men were considering. Then the entitled frat boy didn't even attend all the meetings that were required.

We can all name guys like him who knew they'd never be drafted. We also knew guys who, under any other circumstances, would never be accepted to college, but even though they were C, D students somehow they were able to get into college (had the money from parents) and get one deferment after another.

Patriots my ass.

He was given entry to a privileged unit, where he was AWOL when he wanted to be AWOL. During wartime. Absent from his post of duty.

On the first day of W's military service in Texas, another boy from the same home town of Midland was on his first day of military duty -- in the rice paddies of Vietnam. He was killed there, that first day. I have his name somewhere.

And then W's AWOL was covered over on the Friday before the General Election, by Karl Rove/FOX. Just as it was about to be revealed by Senator Bob Kerrey.

Never forget.

I was thinking the other day how we protected white make privilege in the past, when the draft was on and white males served in large numbers. Perhaps society felt something was owed to them. These little shits who are all privilege and no service are unbearable.

Anecdote: My sister attended my cousin’s funeral in Detroit a few years ago. He was Vietnam era but mostly safe on ship. The Detroit area suffered huge losses because blue collar guys were drafted while college kids skated. My cousin’s funeral was packed with veterans. Mostly Republican. To this day, they resent the college elites who are liberal but get right in line behind the Kavanaughs and the Trumps of this world. Unbelievable

If not for his "aristocratic inheritance" and the political dues he feels he has paid, he would never be a consideration for Justice of the Supreme Court. He just does not have the qualities necessary.

shift manager at Wendy's. He would have been fired long ago for assaulting female employees in the bathroom and would in all likelihood be a registered sex offender.

when studying the backgrounds of politicians. It would be interesting to see who in the Senate belonged to the same frat as Kavanaugh. And it doesn't have to be from the same era. These loyalties and connections transverse generations. These people stick together like a rat pack.

Remember when no one could figure why George H. W. Bush picked Dan Quayle as his VP? There were many more who would have been seen as more qualified and closer to the head of the line. Bob Dole, for instance.

You guessed it, same fraternity.

tethered to the evangelical right and other rw nut jobs to undermine democracy in support of the interests of the rich and corporations.

If not for that poison in our society since the 90s, I often wonder how different things would be today.....

I can't post links to this article enough. There should be more journalism on what went on at DKE.

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/09/20/a-flag-of-underwear-photo-from-kavanaughs-time-shows-dke-hijinks/

Many of us went to elite colleges in the eighties, where we saw future business and political leaders engaging in debauchery if not outright abuse of women.

Let's not forget all of the fraternities that have blackface or other rituals. One fraternity at a grad school I attended had a cross-burning every year. Another one - FIJI - dressed in grass skirts and brownface. Yet another was written about in the campus paper for chanting "Rape! Fuck! Shit!" on the front lawn of their frat house. These people are all working for banks or law firms or even the Republican Party now.

This is all common knowledge and fools no one who actually went to college, but Repug's supporters are not educated and have no idea. If they did go to college, they probably participated in this system. I'll bet every one of them knows about at least one or two rapes at a drunken party. When I was in college, the stories were so common. And it was always the sporty frats that were the worst.

Rod Dreher wonders "why the loutish drunken behavior (including attempted rape) of a 17 year old boy has anything to do with a 53 year old judge"????

"Privilege means that things like perjury aren’t wrong under one’s own private law".

I've felt for many years that most wealthy and privileged folks in our society operate in an almost completely separate sphere of existence - focused around gated communities, golf clubs, board rooms, elite clubs and societies and social events where common folks are excluded. And, they operate by their own set of rules and norms.

Sadly in our culture, this is celebrated as having climbed the ladder of success.

In the world I was raised in, separating myself from any of my fellow man is not considered success.

Thanks for the great post, lindysalsagal........

The Kennedy brothers grew up rich. I grew up with an abusive piece of crap for a dad. I consciously chose to not be him. It's a cop out to blame his childhood. He was born into advantage and abused that.

I've been fighting them all of my life.

Kavanaugh revealed his character on Thursday by letting loose his rage, self-pity, and political partisanship.

Regardless of what happened 36 years ago, last week's performance should absolutely disqualify him from consideration for a lifetime appointment to our nation's highest court.