Ford testimony is history in the making --- men take heed

In one of the most moving testimonies, in recent memory, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, on Thursday, gave amidst fright, and the threat of tears, one of the most moving accounts, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, providing, in detail, her experience of near rape by Supreme Court Justice nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, when they were high school students in suburban Maryland.

Speaking in a winsome, almost girlish voice, the now professor of psychology at Palo Alto College, and research psychologist at Stanford detailed, not only the events, but also the subsequent psychological effect on her life, her academic struggles in college, and later her insistence on a second front door of her California home.

PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder, was first given professional psychological examination after soldiers returning from war and combat experiences, experienced symptoms of rage, and despair, and sometimes violent behavior -- and now, as most of the public knows, it can be extended to those who have experienced trauma, such as rape, or attempted rape.

Her credibility was evident to many, and later that afternoon, it was reported that President Trump chastised his staff, with the words, “Why didn’t you tell me that she was so credible?”

"This was extremely emotional, extremely raw, and extremely credible,” Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said of Ford's testimony during a break. “She obviously was traumatized by an event. This is a disaster for the Republicans."

Claiming that it was her civic duty, as an American, to give testimony before the lifetime appointment, Ford was nothing less than sincere, as viewers witnessed one of the more dramatic episodes in American legislative history since Watergate, and many sided with the 51-year-old academic, while Republicans cringed in anxiety that not getting Kavanaugh on the Court could imperil the midterm elections, and their majority status in Congress, not to mention the long sought goal of revoking Roe v. Wade.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Ford, at one point, if she was sure that it was Kavanaugh who had forcibly straddled her and attempted to remove her clothes, as he ground his hips into her body. She answered: “The same way that I’m sure I’m talking to you right now,” Ford said. “Basic memory functions, and, also just the level of norepinephrine and epinephrine in the brain, that sort of, as you know, encodes-- that neurotransmitter—encodes memories into the hippocampus, so the trauma-related experience is kind of locked there, whereas other details kind of drift.”

As any undergraduate psychology student knows, this was a valid definition, and Ford who teaches graduate students, knew her testimony would be examined.

While Democrats praised Ford’s testimony, and Sen. Kamala Harris portrayed her as a patriot, her place in history, not just today, but from now on, noted many observers, is the capstone of the #MeToo movement, and a year where, after the marches women moved into the legislative arena as candidates, and their voices have been consistent, and insistent,

Republicans in contrast, tried to say that she was mistaken and Fox News noted that two other man had been interviewed, and that it was they, not Kavanaugh, assisted by his friend Mark Judge, who participated in Fords’ assault.

The aura in the chamber seemed tense and strained, despite the general air, of portent, and the chair, Charles Grassley, seemed irritated and even combative from the beginning as he tried to talk over Feinstein for the introduction of Ford.

On another occasion, when Sen. Klobuchar asked for more information, he snapped, “You got what you wanted: followed by, “You’d think you would be satisfied.”

It can be noted that many women, both of his own party, and that of the minority may have adjusted their voting intentions for the November midterm elections, as a result of behavior that another generation would have called boorish.

During his remarks, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., read a letter sent late Thursday by the president of the American Bar Association urging the committee to postpone the vote until the FBI could conduct an investigation, and asked again for such a delay.

Grassley responded, in turn, by dismissing the request, claiming that the the president of the American Bar Association doesn’t necessarily “represent the members of the Bar.”

With heads shaking, and murmurs of discontent about the lack of an FBI investigation, by the Dems it was the tide of the day.

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said, “This is sickening to watch. I'm sorry. I just find this excruciating," during a CNN panel discussion Thursday while Ford testified.

GOP leaders are getting worried, and especially that Ford, and other accusers, such as Debbie Ramirez and Julie Swetnick could topple them from power. And, even more so that these women are not porn stars, or escorts, but professional degreed women, (and one with several levels of government security clearance), makes them worry even more that their charges cannot be easily dismissed.

They had even more to worry when Kavanaugh appeared, with the air of entitlement, and alternating fury, and pain, at the possible lack of being promoted.

He also spewed forth a torrent of partisan hatred, and even, managed to squeeze in another blow on poor old Hillary Clinton as being behind a set-up, or a con job, as he denied the allegations, as if he was drawing from the Trump playbook.

Many who might have given him the benefit of a doubt turned a refuel eye to what appeared to be a frat boy rant, and not that of a candidate of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Looking at the big picture we see the following: "In the 25 years on this committee, I have never seen a nominee for any position behave in that matter. Judge Kavanaugh used as much political rhetoric as my Republican colleagues," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said. "She was poised, she was credible and she should believed."

After a vote along partisan lines -- 11-10 --  the Committee voted to proceed and some, such as Sen. Jeff Flake, who voted to put the judge up for a floor vote, received some blowback as he gave a Solomon-like decision, that day, to bring Kavanaugh out of committee, but that a subsequent floor vote had to be preceded by a weeklong  investigation by the FBI; something that the Democrats had demanded, and now they have conceded to, but not before he was verbally assaulted by two women in an elevator at the capitol.

“The women could be heard on CNN as Flake stood in the elevator for about five minutes from 9:31 to 9:36 ET.

“You’re telling me my assault doesn’t matter,” said one. “You’re letting people who do these things into power. That’s what you’re telling me when you vote for him. Don’t look away from me,” one woman said through tears.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., meanwhile, said Kavanaugh's confirmation, after his partisan display Thursday, would be a disaster for the Supreme Court.

“The court is flying all the warning flags of a captured agency, dancing to special interest tunes and rampaging through precedent and principle to get there,” he said. “This will be a disaster for the court and I believe Kavanaugh will contribute to that disaster. His partisan screed yesterday was telling,” reported NBC News.

It also seems, according to an article in The New Yorker, that GOP officials tried to smother another witness in a wealth of pseudo regulations to prevent them from coming to light and in an exchange between the lawyer for Debbie Ramirez, and Mike Davis, a senior Republican committee staffer, it seemed that the former was stonewalling the latter.

“Heather Sawyer, the Democratic staffer who was copied on the e-mails in accordance with committee policy, wrote to Davis, “As you’re aware, Ms. Ramirez’s counsel have repeatedly requested to speak with the Committee, on a bipartisan basis, to determine how to proceed. You refused. I’ve never encountered an instance where the Committee has refused even to speak with an individual or counsel. I am perplexed as to why this is happening here, except that it seems designed to ensure that the Majority can falsely claim that Ms. Ramirez and her lawyers refused to cooperate. That simply is not true.”

As events raced at breakneck speed --- the White House stated, in a reversal of his earlier opine, that, “President Trump said Friday he will sign an order authorizing an FBI background check into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“I’ve ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh’s file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week,” the president said in a statement.

The statement came after the Senate Judiciary Committee said it would ask him for “a supplemental background investigation of Kavanaugh over allegations of sexual assault.”

But Republicans had refused to seek one until Friday when  Flake made that as a condition of his committee vote.

With the extraordinary stakes on both sides it seems almost impossible for either the Republicans, or the Democrats, to back down, from what has become a moral crusade on the part of the latter, but also as part of the larger women’s movement that has gripped the country and who has its zenith in Dr. Ford’s testimony.

On Saturday we learned that the White House is limiting the scope of the FBI investigation and that it will not consider Swetnik’s affidavit, or the drinking patterns of Kavanaugh, giving suspicion that the White House is not an honest broker.