After today’s very ugly display by the bullignorant (obvious to all) drunken (allegedly) rapist (allegedly) otherwise known as Brett Kavanaugh, it is unbelievable that anyone could still support his nomination, yet Repubes of every stripe do. Did you listen to the way he talked, shouted, and screamed? Was he drunk? I haven’t seen every minute of his testimony, but in what I have seen, he seemed drunk to me. The only thing missing was slurring his words and wobbly balance. Maybe he’s a dry drunk. Gawd that’s the only “positive” explanation to be plausible. What a comment on his nomination.

I had wanted to write a post about the various psychological reasons Repubes support such an oblivious anus, but events both personal and public got in the way. Now, all I want to do is join the growing chorus of WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK?

Seriously, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Where’d My Chin Go?) actually tweeted this bullshit:

This is America. Evidence matters. Facts matter. We have never been – and do not wish to be – a society in which a single, uncorroborated allegation can wield veto power over somebody’s life. Everyone deserves better than this. pic.twitter.com/lPazbl1crl

— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) September 25, 2018

The only reason the allegation isn’t corroborated is because the REPUBES wouldn’t allow any other witnesses to testify! Holy fucking shit conman! She submitted her evidentiary documentation — except for therapy notes and, gosh, do you wonder why? — including lie detector test results. If you want credible witness statements… oh, wait, here’s another outrageous tweet from @senatemajldr:

Here are the facts before us: This is an allegation of misconduct which all four supposed witnesses either flatly contradict or are unable to back up. It’s not just one alleged witness disagreeing with the allegations — it’s literally every person who was supposedly there.

— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) September 24, 2018

Yeah, like anyone trusts you to make that determination. Shouldn’t we be hearing directly from the witnesses testifying before the committee under oath before we conclude that they are contradictory or unable to back up Dr. Ford’s story?

And here’s Chuck Grassley (R-Drowned in Corn Syrup) claims about investigating the allegations:

Abt 20 of my cmte investigators are tracking down all allegations/leads & talking to all witnesses & gathering all evidence. We have experienced fed agents on detail from ATF+ICE along w seasoned congressional investigators from my nominations & oversight teams +temp SCOTUS staff

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) September 26, 2018

And who is going to trust your Repube committee “investigators?” You probably don’t even trust them, but that’s because you know they’re lying. Seriously, weren’t you on the Judiciary Committee during the infamous Manuel Miranda led Memogate in which Kavanaugh knowingly received stolen Dem documents (they were marked by the words “spying” and “mole,” which, according to Kavanaugh’s current testimony, means bipartisan sharing), and aren’t some of the current Judiciary Committee staffers also linked to that incident? Seriously, isn’t it convenient that the Ol’ Pussy Grabber has sufficiently smeared the FBI that even if they did investigate, partisans wouldn’t believe their findings.

Doesn’t this shit just drive you crazy?

And, here’s a tweet of an editorial written by David French of the Repube punditry class:

Important from ⁦@DavidAFrench⁩

“He fought with passion, evidence, and compassion. And absent any new, substantiated revelations, he united the conservative movement. Any Repub who abandons him now will abandon the electorate that put them in power.” https://t.co/N4yyoc3wUJ

— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) September 28, 2018

That’s a good spin: passion. Spittle inflected, weeping, repetitive,  incoherent outrage is not passion. It is someone who cannot manage their emotions and lashes out — “I don’t know. Have you [ever blacked out]? — and sarcastically turns questions back on Dem senators as if that is refutation enough — “I like beer, do you like beer, senator?” Sweet baby Jesus suckling a dry teat is that a teenager arguing with his parents or what?

If it had been any other nominee by any other president — other than Clarence “Show My Wife the MONEY” Thomas — the nominee would’ve withdrawn by now. But, we have the incredible narcissist paying pee-hookers to piss on the Resolute Desk and American values nominating another narcissist to figuratively piss on the Supreme Court and American values. Neither one of them can accept blame for their own indiscretions and crimes. Both of them feel exceptions should be made for them — Kav thinks he should be able to perjure himself at will before the Judiciary Committee, and commit rape (alleged rapes, but that goes without saying, right?).

And that’s what happens when you wound a narcissist by insisting that they account for their own behavior. It is an ugly gaslighting mess. Why defend it?

Cognitive Tom Fuckery

Congressional Repubes have a number of reasons for their defense of Kavanaugh. For the rank-and-file, it is groupthink and motivated reasoning. I’ve written about both before. Today, I’ll borrow heavily from past posts and summarize each: groupthink here and motivated reasoning later when we’ve moved on to include the rank-and-defiled.

Groupthink

Groupthink or Group Cluster…

Groupthink was an idea thought up by Irving Janis in his own little academic pointy head to try and understand why seemingly intelligent people can make extremely fucked up self-destructive decisions when working as a group. It is the great sin of committee decision making and it always leads to unmitigated disaster. We’re on the train, our next station is 8 November, let’s hope we can get off before it runs off the rails and plows up the entire country. From Groupthink or Group Cluster… Explaining the Modern GOP:

Janis (1982) defined groupthink as ―a mode of thinking people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action‖ (p. 9)

Diverse Perspectives on the Groupthink Theory

Let’s consider the eight symptoms of groupthink from What is Groupthink from the same blog post:

1. Direct pressure on dissenters – Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views.
2. Illusion of invulnerability –Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.
3. Collective rationalization – Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions.
4. Belief in inherent morality – Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.
5. Stereotyped views of out-groups – Negative views of “enemy” make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.
6. Self-censorship – Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed.
7. Illusion of unanimity – The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous.
8. Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ – Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions.

Obviously, Senator Lindsey Graham (R- Kompromat) has ascended to the dubious yet illustrious role of “mindguard” for Mitch and the gang. And, if that don’t sound like the modern GOP, I don’t know what does. All I can say is hold on to your asses, we’re flying into the eye of the hurricane… and this one is a superstorm. Groupthink leads to disaster every fucking time.

Motivated Reasoning

Wolf, Sanders, Motivated Reasoning

Motivated reasoning is like confirmation bias on steroids. Both start with a conclusion. In confirmation bias, we search one-eyed like some kind of demented Egyptian hieroglyph only accepting evidence that supports our conclusion. Motivated reasoning takes this tendency and dials it up to eleven!

You start with your conclusion — usually based on emotion, since human beings are emotional decision makers, meaning that we instantly know whether we like something or not and then rationalize any decisions we make from there — and fight like hell to defend it no matter how barmy the goddamn thing is.

Please note, very little of this post is based on the highly entertaining, informative, snarky, sarcasticky, and profaney blog post, The Faux Outrage over Michelle Wolf’s WHCD Remarks and Motivated Reasoning and Other Cognitive Tom Fuckery, but I did re-read it, correct a couple of typoes — there are always typos, amiright? — and actually used some of it.

Identity Politics

For rank and defiled conservatives, it works like this: (1) They super identify with being Repube and conservative and Christian and white. You realize that conservative Christian white is the original identity politics, right? (2) You are inclined to like anything that gets labeled Repube, conservative, Christian, or white or some combination of thereof. And (3) now that you like it and accept it, you have to defend it by any means necessary. It is the snapping turtle of logical fallacies: it ain’t letting go ever even if there is a loud clap of thunder issuing from some gonorrhetic thighs.

Applied to this case, since the GOP faithful believe that Kavanaugh is a conservative white Christian guy, so he is eminently qualified to be on the Supreme Court, oh and he can rooffie me and my friends and grab me by the pussy all he wants; therefore, any and all attacks against him are scurrilous and unfounded.

Motivated reasoning: conclusion first, defend at all costs, second. It is the exact opposite of science and our idealized criminal justice system which state, follow the evidence. I say idealized criminal justice system because, you know, how many corrupt DAs have convicted innocent people, put them on death row, and watched them be executed? How many people have been exonerated by DNA evidence revealing their original trial and conviction to be little more than a kangaroo court? But, we are supposed to follow the evidence. The Congressional Repubes clearly ain’t doing that with regard to Ol’ Brett “Renata Alumuni of the 100 Kegs” Kavanaugh. Those high school epitaphs are going to haunt him for the rest of his life… why would he want to expose himself to such ridicule… oh yeah, he’s a narcissist.

But, he’s the conservative white Christian allegedly drunken narcissistic rapist, so they’ll love him nonetheless… that’s the halo effect, y’all!

The Halo and Horns Effect

Moore, Franken, Halos, and Hive MindsMoore, Franken, Halos, and Hive Minds

Because Kavanaugh emerged long enough from the Devil’s Triangle to vomit on our judicial system, most white Christian conservatives accept him as one of their own. Just like they did Roy Moorelester, the Ol’ Pussy Grabber, Mother Pence (the high-breasted fussy closeted queen that stares disdainfully out from Number One Observatory Circle and not his wife that he calls Mother), and the whole lot of rotted evil mo’fo’s who are selling their electorate and the rest of us like so many cheap natural resources to the donor class.

They like him no matter how nauseating that notion is. When you like someone, you halo them. You extend your like for them to everything they do. It is why finding out that a favorite entertainer is an SOB is so hard. You think that everything they do is as good as the reason you like them and that they’ll never disappoint. Fun fact for all of you going off to college: knock your profs out with your first paper and ride the halo effect to a low A while turning in sub-standard work.

The horns effect is the opposite. If you dislike someone, think libs and Kav, then there is nothing he can do that is acceptable. Everything he does is evil — that the libs are right about the narcissistic drunken rapist (allegedly) is immaterial to the horns effect.

You can read more about it in the exceptionally snarky, sarcasticky, and profaney post, Roy Moore, Al Franken, Halos, Horns, and the Hive Mind.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Louise Linton Social Media Brouhaha

Why do people blame the victim, especially when it comes to sexual assault? There is a healthy dose of misogyny in that particular blame game, but there is an equally healthy heaping helping of fundamental attribution error, too. FAE as it is fondly called by psychologists and psychologist wannabes everywhere is the tendency to blame a person’s personality for their shortcomings. All the typos in my blog posts must be because I’m an idiot or so reasoned my mother… god rest her soul. I promise ma, I’ll quit tormenting your eternal rest with my ridiculous typos, meandering run-on sentences, and nonsensical non sequiturs just quit glaring down at me from heaven or hell or wherever your eternal resting wanderings take you.

If you see someone spill their coffee, its because that person is clumsy inconsiderate unobservant oaf. It’s not because of the any one of a number of external causes that could account for it. It’s them.

So, Dr. Ford up and grabs the bull by the horns and accuses Brett Boofing Kavanaugh of rape and the screaming flying-monkey squad comes screaming down to roost upon her doorstep and scream profanity laced death threats at her and her family because patriotism. If you had already haloed the forever juvenile Kav — alcoholics get stuck in their development at whatever point in their lives their alcoholism took hold — then you figured Dr. Ford’s personality is to blame for her attempted rape and the manner in which she’s brought her story forward.

And that boys and girls and my dearly departed mother is all the cognitive Tom Fuckery behind the brouhaha that is the Brett Gaslighting Alcoholic Narcissisitic Rapist (allegedly) Kavanaugh’s ill-fated nomination to the Supreme Court.

And, just in case you’re worried that Dr. Ford has ruined his life by causing him not to get to be a Supreme Court justice, let me disabuse you of a couple of things: (a) Kavanaugh is the rapist; he is responsible for any ruination of his life. Dr. Ford is not. She’s just doing her civic duty. And (b) not attaining the highest position for your profession does not ruin your life. Those highest positions are reserved for our absolute best. If you were nominated to the Supreme Court, you were already in the upper echelon of our society, and if you didn’t succeed, you’re still in the upper echelon of our society. Something tells me that the hard drinking, angry, dry (hopefully) drunk that Brett Kavanaugh is will be bitter but just fine if his nomination is not approved.