Before I get into the actual blog post here…Neil said he needs to take over the keyboard for a bit…feel free to skip a few paragraphs if you want.

Neil here…

I gotta tell ya…I’m really, really disappointed by this whole Supreme Court nomination nonsense.

Now let me tell you I’m not really a great fan of the president and I think I would have picked a nominee for SCOTUS with a little less potential baggage since Judge Kavanaugh was on both Ken Starr’s team that prosecuted President Clinton and on President Bush’s White House staff.

Now I understand that liberals would be against a conservative judge on SCOTUS…but the last time I checked any debate over a judicial nominee was about his or her qualifications and not about un-provable allegations.

Judge Kavanaugh has shown remarkably calm demeanor on the bench the past 12 years on the DC circuit…and understandably got pissed at the ongoing character assassination being conducted by the Democrats in the Senate.

I watched part of Dr. Ford’s testimony and she appeared reasonably credible…but I also watched Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony and he was equally as credible. The simple truth is that unless there is a witness to the contrary…any claim that she makes and any denial that he makes reduces to a simple he said/she said situation.

Dr. Ford, her attorneys, and the FBI have produced exactly zero evidence of any sort that corroborates her claim…affiliates from her husband and people who say she told them about it in the past few years aren’t evidence at all.

Senator Feinstein deliberately withheld Dr. Ford’s letter from the rest of the Judiciary Committee until the last minute simply because it was to the Democrat’s political advantage to do so. Her sole purpose…and that of all of her Democratic colleagues…was and is to delay the confirmation vote until after the mid-term elections in the hopes of taking control of the Senate. Sure…they’re pissed that Garland didn’t get a vote by the Republican majority senate during the last year of President Obama’s term…but there was some precedent for that and the Republican’s emphatically did not essentially make up un-provable accusations against him…they simply chose not to bring him to a vote. This was wrong in my opinion…elections have consequences…and he should have been given an up or down vote. The Democrats have a good reason to be irritated about that…but descending to the current charade will simply encourage the other side to respond in kind the next time there’s a Democratic President nominating a justice for SCOTUS.

Senator Hirono said last that week that we should believe Dr. Ford’s story and disbelieve Judge Kavanaugh’s denials simply because she is a woman and “women never lie about sexual assault. Excuse me? Remember Tawana Brawley and her rape allegations…and the Duke Lacrosse team case? Women do lie about sexual assault sometimes…and to demand that she be believed just because she is a woman is wrong.

Senator Hirono also said last week that “innocent until proven guilty”…doesn’t apply in this case. Excuse me? That principle of law has been in effect since the 3rd or 4th century in Rome…the burden of proof falls on the accuser.

So let’s talk about the evidence Dr. Ford claims exists.

Her story has changed 3 or 4 times.

She can’t remember where the party was, when it was, how she got there, or how she got home…and she admittedly  was drinking…but she’s 100% certain that it was Judge Kavanaugh who groped her.

She remembers witnesses who were there and gave their names…each of these witnesses has submitted statements under penalty of perjury that it either didn’t happen or that they have no knowledge of it and do not know Judge Kavanaugh.

The Democrats demanded…and received…an additional FBI inquiry. Last week…they were praising the integrity of the FBI. The FBI was tasked with investigating credible allegations of sexual assault against Judge Kavanaugh. The FBI interviewed every person save one (who declined to be interviewed) who might have relevant first hand information. They did not interview either Dr. Ford or Judge Kavanaugh as both of them had already testified under oath and had no further information to provide. I would have had the FBI interview both of them…but I can understand why they did not. The FBI investigation found no…zero…none…corroborating evidence to any of the allegations they investigated.

Now the Democrats have stated that the investigation was a sham and that the FBI intentionally ignored the facts to report what they were told to report. Excuse me? That is nothing other than political BS…the Democrats don’t like the outcome of the investigation…so naturally it’s a sham.

Sorry folks…even if you don’t like Judge Kavanaugh or his interpretations of the constitution…this entire circus has been nothing but a political stunt to ignore the results of the election in 2016 and get their way. As President Obama said…elections have consequences…and no matter how much the Democrats stamp their feet…they lost and the other side won.

“Activists” on the Democratic side have threatened the families and grandchildren of Republican Senators. Senators were hounded out of restaurants.

I would not be surprised if this entire circus hurts Democrats on Election Day in a few weeks…I’ve seen a lot of talk about a blue wave and a red wave…but I’ve also seen regular everyday people who admit they don’t like the President or Judge Kavanaugh who say they’re disgusted by the way this went down.

I would also not be surprised to see something similar the next time a Democratic President nominates a judge for SCOTUS…although I hope the Republicans will act like adults instead of kindergartner children…unfortunately with today’s tit for tat political payback environment I don’t hold out a lot of hope that they will.

Again…this screed is not about whether or not Judge Kavanagh should be on SCOTUS…it’s about the process and the complete lack of decorum, civility, and common decency Democrats have shown in it…and it’s about their demands that he’s guilty until proven innocent. That’s just wrong folks…plain wrong.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post…passing the keyboard over to Gunther. 

Ima back folks…

Lessee…what’s happened since my last post. We were originally going to go to the Connecticut state capital on Thursday…but decided to change and go Friday instead. With that we headed out about 1000 or so for the 25 mile trip over to Hartford…intentionally taking the back road. We spent an hour or so doing a self guided tour around and taking pictures…then headed over to Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ…the Connecticut entry on the Southern Living “Best BBQ in Each State” article we’ve been using. Our plan was to get takeout for dinner…but by the time we got to the counter everybody was pretty much starving…so we got takeout pulled pork and cornbread for dinner and also a half pound of beef brisket which we declared would be lunch on the way home.

I can report that the brisket was excellent…nay, outstanding…juicy, smokey, and tender…we didn’t even put any sauce on it. Unfortunately…the pork was a bit dry when we warmed it up for dinner…definitely not Good Eats. It was a bit better the next day when we made Nachos out of it.

On to the photos.

Looking up at the window in the ceiling of the east wing.

The rotunda and underside of the dome.

The Connecticut State Heroine…a school teacher who opened a school for black children before the Civil War.

Some famous Connecticut resident named Nathan Hale.

This is the Cannonball Tree…during the battle of Chicamauga in the Civil War it was struck by a cannonball fired by a Connecticut artillery battery…then after the war the tree was brought back to the state.

This is the USS Hartford…the flagship of Admiral Farragut…he of the “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”. Carved by a one armed crewman who lost his arm during the battle after the war.

We did spot one nicely colored tree out on the adjacent park.

This is the best shot Neil could get of the capital building itself…simply no place to get a decent one.

Interesting things found on the net.

Genius.

Even more genius…how a husband gets out of shopping with his wife like a BOSS.

Cyas.