Just watched the Kavanaugh hearing and am embarrassed for my country. Flip-flopping between "it's just a job interview" and "this is an allegation of crime", holding onto testimony and failing to participate in the investigation, arguing over political agendas, asking trap questions that don't relate to the job, etc...

It's very simple: is there evidence? If not, you have no case. And since sexual assault *is* a crime, it should be heard in front of a court, not a minority of Senators in a circus. Senators had authority and access to the FBI to bring this up, and didn't. What would Kavanaugh asking Trump to (re)open the investigation do that the Senate couldn't do themselves? That gave away the agenda.

The court of public opinion is not a legitimate court. It has no standards for veracity of claims, thresholds for reasonable doubt or evidence, and is granted no authority by law. It's the very definition of a mob. For that, I'm glad that we're not 100% a democracy because clearly the public cannot think rationally and examine a situation without prejudice.

Giving credence to accusations without evidence is damaging to public discourse, because it gives social power to bad actors. These bad actors abuse the colloquial "assume good faith" mantra and use accusations to incite conflict. People go in with, "let's believe them and *then* verify," while the damage is done and people are distracted with the drama of the day. It might be a good time to check if any new bills were passed recently or are being considered in the near future! Distraction has historically worked very well on America, and we ought to know better.

The facts are what matter, and I didn't see any conclusive facts or evidence. Neither did anyone else in the unwashed masses, so anyone coming to a conclusion is delusional.

It looks like the two parties are fighting over a delay in this process rather than establishing any facts and making decisions based on them. In the mean time, two peoples' lives (and that of their family's) are being paraded in front of the country, free for the uninformed, irrational judgment of the public to pick them apart and argue over he-said, she-said.

If we're going to judge Kavanaugh, it ought to be in the frame of his performance as a judge, and the decisions he's made in that capacity. *That* is something that has bearing on and is relevant to the prospective promotion.

Before any partisans come out of the woodwork, I'm an independent moderate so I have no dog in this situation. It's just embarrassing to watch.

#uspol #politics