Tip Jar for: Chris Coons (who helped broker the deal with Flake), Patrick Leahy, Sheldon Whitehouse, Dick Durbin, Amy Klobachar, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, and yes, Dianne Feinstein.

And my hat is off to Dr. Christine Blasley Ford. What an incredible testimonial she gave yesterday.

Meantime, the Dems should also go back on their agreement about rubber stamping the federal judges for this reason:

Congressional Democrats’ lawsuit alleging Trump’s private business is violating the Constitution can proceed, federal judge rules

Trump is already facing a separate emoluments suit filed by the attorneys general of Washington, D.C. and Maryland that is moving forward. In addition, he is contending with the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian interference, a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General that alleged “persistently illegal conduct” at his charitable foundation and a defamation lawsuit brought by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos.

In his ruling, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan wrote that the members of Congress “appropriate seek relief in federal court” because they have no way to address their concern about Trump’s alleged violation of the emoluments clause with legislation.

“The Clause requires the President to ask Congress before accepting a prohibited foreign emolument,” Sullivan wrote. If the allegations made by Democrats are true, he said, then “the President is accepting prohibited foreign emoluments without asking and without receiving a favorable reply from Congress.”

By not asking Congress, Sullivan said, Trump could have effectively “nullified their votes” — which, he said, meant legislators could seek the unusual remedy of filing a lawsuit against the president.

Although Trump has given up day-to-day management of his businesses, which include residential, office, hotel and golf properties in the United States, Europe and South America, he still owns them and can withdraw money from them at any time.

This is not about power or winning. This is about Congress’ and the Judicial Branch’s job of keeping the Executive Branch in check.

Kavanaugh has a history of treating rape-victims like they don't exist.https://t.co/kLLxilEZhG

— The Nation (@thenation) September 28, 2018

'Look at me': Women confront Sen. Flake over his support for Kavanaugh https://t.co/LT6VdptbMd

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) September 28, 2018

Too bad they can’t investigate this:

Don’t forget Brett Kavanaugh’s murky financial situation. https://t.co/zNrOSXIUsV

— Nancy Schwartzman (@fancynancynyc) September 28, 2018

This is a brutal reminder of what's at stake and just how whiny and entitled Kavanaugh was at his hysterical hearing.

Fred Guttenberg is the man whose hand Brett Kavanaugh refused to shake at his confirmation. AFTER Fred introduced himself as the father of a Parkland victim. https://t.co/P6tmJBpXQ3

— subir grewal ? (@subirgrewal) September 28, 2018

One sees the ridiculous ways law is enforced…

"For casting a vote that was not counted, she will now serve 10 months in the federal system. While locked up it is likely that her final appeals in state court will be exhausted, which means she could be passed to state custody for a further five years." https://t.co/pVjC9JVRin

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) September 29, 2018

Congressional Dems standing silently in protest at the Judiciary Committee meeting this morning. Among them, Pramila Jayapal, Barbara Lee, Shelia Jackson Lee.

Have Politicians Learned Anything Since Clayton Williams’s Campfire Rape ‘Joke’?

Clayton was an obsessive talker. He began a patter about the weather and the fog as he filled a blue tin cup with beans. He sat down on a metal folding chair and rocked back on the hind legs as he spooned beans into his mouth, chattering between each bite. The roundup had to be delayed, he said, because of the fog. The calves would get down in ravines and low areas and be missed, forcing a repeat of the roundup. Nope. Nothing to do but wait until the fog lifts. Get another cup of coffee, another cup of beans.

Bad weather is like rape, he said; “if it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.”
By that evening, Clayton Williams’s remark had spread all across the nation via the Associated Press, and he begrudgingly apologized without fully understanding why he was doing so. “If anyone was offended, I apologize deeply,” Williams said with the news media huddled around him in an Alpine steakhouse. It was “just a joke” made at a campfire in a man’s world. “That’s not a Republican women’s club that we were at this morning,” he said. “It’s a working cow camp, a tough world where you can get kicked in the testicles if you’re not careful.”

snip

Almost 30 years later, have politicians learned a thing? We have a president who boasted on tape about feeling so privileged that he could grab women “by the pussy” any time he wanted. The #MeToo era is in full swing, and now allegations of sexual misconduct in high school and college by Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, threaten to upend the Republican voter advantage in places like Texas. Kavanaugh has been accused of molesting one woman at a high school party, wagging his penis in the face of another woman during a college party, and of possibly participating in the gang rape of drunk girls at parties—allegations that Kavanaugh has denied and that likely can’t be proved.

Read the entire thread…it contains several tweets by Matt Stoller.

1. Kavanaugh's clearly on display anger and pain was quite confusing to millions of Americans. Many saw authenticity in his voice and thus in some way believed he is telling the truth. It is time for us to wake up to what aristocracy is. Aristocracy is a moral system.

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) September 29, 2018