I said this after the Montana special election, but it bears repeating. Republicans don’t support people in spite of crimes. They support them in part because of their criminality. They supported Trump more after grab them by the pussy. They rallied around Kavanaugh because there were multiple sexual assaults.

There is a criminal class in America. We let them get away with sexual assault, with punching reporters, with financial crimes. Even many people who wouldn’t get away with those things, who in many cases are its victims, still support letting a criminal class exist. Just as many poor people consider themselves temporarily embarrassed millionaires, so to do people complaining about lying bitches want their own chance to rape women without consequences.

Congratulations to Amazon workers on your future raises. I still think that Amazon half owned by the workers and half owned by Prime members makes more sense than owned by shareholders. But still, it is undeniably good. For the workers. For the locations where people got more spending money. Ultimately for the company itself.

Finally, the permadrizzle returns to Western Washington. The leaves are changing, but it’s still nice out. The best time of the year.

I am very glad to live in a country with the presumption of innocence. It is a foundation of our criminal justice system.

The part of the Constitution that deals with giving people lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court is not that. The presumption of innocence also is coupled with trials and investigations, not whatever sham we saw yesterday.

It’s not my stop, but I have used the Capital Hill Station enough times that I should know what escalator to take. But no, it’s still mostly just take one or the other. And the exits are several blocks away from each other. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s kind of embarrassing that I haven’t figured it out.

So you’re telling me that Matt Manweller might be a bit of a piece of shit? Well I never! How could anyone see this coming? Why next you’ll tell me that sometimes he can be a bit of a shouty asshole.

Happy Park(ing) Day. Did Santa get you anything? Did you sing Park(ing) Day carols? I just hope that the War on Park(ing) Day assholes will calm down. But the most important thing is to keep Park(ing) Day in your heart all year long.

There’s something perverse about boys-will-be-boysing of Kavanaugh. I mean many of us managed to be shitty teenage boys without attempting to rape anyone. Seems like the minimum standard.

And I believe that people can change. And they deserve second chances (although they don’t deserve lifetime appointments). If that isn’t him today today, he could at least take some effort to make amends.

So, last week New York had state primaries. I think that most of the people who I follow online were pretty disappointed. I make it a policy to assume that people in other states have it. So I didn’t take a side. But after the election, come the fuck on, my dudes.

2/3 of Democratic voters in New York are sellouts and corrupt? Maybe they like that Cuomo was the first (only?) governor to support the fight for a $15 minimum wage. Or they think the fracking ban is great.

My point isn’t Cuomo qua Cuomo. My point is that Democratic primary voters in New York are some of the most liberal voters in the country. You can be upset about the results without shitting on the voters.

Still kind of under the weather. But at least I’m back to work. Hope there isn’t too much backlog.

I am feeling a bit blah, so this is all from me today.

I would like to apologize. In Friday’s Open Thread, I said that Republican Supreme Court nominees had been lying to Congress since Thomas. That was before John Dean’s testimony. It was at least since William Rehnquist. I apologize for any undue benefit of the doubt that I gave to GOP nominees and the Presidents who nominated them.

Since Justice Thomas, there has been an expectation that Republican nominees for the Supreme Court lie during their confirmation hearings. Thomas pretending that he wasn’t sexually harassing Anita Hill. George W. Bush’s nominees pretending that they didn’t have an opinion on roe. That kept going under Trump.

But yeah. Kavanaugh is worse. Just brazenly lying about who he talked to about the Muller investigation. Knowable facts. At this point, not only should the Senate not support him, the House should probably impeach him.

You get what you pay for. Except teachers. Obviously we should nickle and dime the people who spend hours teaching children. That’s why we should oppose the teacher strikes: Because who needs children, what have they ever done for me?

Oh man! Rain now clearing out the remaining smoke, and a forecast of a good long weekend. What a time to celebrate labor.