Since he's been in the news this week, let's talk about Brett Kavanaugh. There's lots to say. @LincolnsBible and I covered it extensively in our five-part series, which I'm highlighting here.
1/ Part One: The Justice & The Replacement
We show the curious connections between Justice Anthony Kennedy’s family, Trump, & the criminal underworld—including the fact that Kennedy’s son, Justin, headed the real estate division for shady af Deutsche Bank. gregolear.substack.com/p/who-owns-kav…
2/ We outline the strange circumstances that created an opening on the Supreme Court for Brett Kavanaugh.
Characters: Anthony Kennedy pere et fils; Justin Kennedy; Judge Alex Kosinski; Leonard Leo/Federalist Society.
3/ Part Two: The Financials & the Red Flags
A painstakingly detailed examination of the red flags concerning his finances, which show 2 enormous & random influxes of revenue just before his nomination to the D.C. circuit court, in 2006, & SCOTUS, in 2018. gregolear.substack.com/p/who-owns-kav…
4/ Plus: what’s with the baseball tickets?
Characters: Brett & Ashley Kavanaugh; Everett Edward “Ed” Kavanaugh; the unnamed friends who bought the Nationals ticket packages with him.
5/ Part Three: The Basketball Coach & The Devil’s Triangle
The odd nature of his confirmation hearings, which included the presence of the Catholic middle-school girls’ basketball team he coached and friends of his signaling to white supremacists. gregolear.substack.com/p/who-owns-kav…
7/ Part Four: The Operatives & The Op
We spotlight Brett’s intimate association with the seedy world of political ops, revealing the connection between his old friend Mark Gavreau Judge and a rogue’s gallery of dirty tricksters. gregolear.substack.com/p/who-owns-kav…
8/ Characters: Mark Judge; Chuck Johnson; Ed Whelan; Squee (remember him?)
9/ Part Five: Closing Arguments & Next Steps
We summarize the case against Brett Kavanaugh, discuss the stakes of leaving him on the bench, and explain how he can be made to resign. gregolear.substack.com/p/who-owns-kav…
10/ Characters: Leonard Leo; Richard Neal; Janet Yellen; Merrick Garland
11/ Further Reading: “Leo the Cancer”
Leonard Leo, Opus Dei, and the radical Catholic takeover of the Supreme Court. Essential in understanding the danger of Brett Kavanaugh on the bench, and why his benefactors want him there. gregolear.substack.com/p/leo-the-canc…
On January 19, 2021, in the last hours of his presidency, Donald Trump wrote a memo in which he announced that the “binder of materials” received from the FBI via the DOJ a month prior was “declassified to the maximum extent possible.”
This was less than a week after Trump’s second impeachment—just 13 days after his MAGA horde besieged the Capitol in a failed attempt to thwart the peaceful transition of power.
Trump’s presidential Sharpie was busy that morning. On January 19, 2021, he issued pardons for, among many others: Steve Bannon, Elliott Broidy, Jeanine Pirro’s ex-husband Alex, and the disgraced art dealer Helly Nahmad, who had run an illegal gambling operation at Trump Tower.
Elaborating on #DebateNight thoughts that I shared on last night's Five 8 show.
[THREAD]
1/ Why the Dem freakout after the debate? We are all traumatized by 2016, and Biden's performance in the debate triggered our collective trauma. "No! Not again!" Hence the panic.
2/ Where does the panic come from? Is it fear that Joe can't do the job? No. Because we know he can. He's done it for 3.5 years at the highest possible level. The government is in good hands with Joe/Kamala. No worries there. None.
Alito's comments here are similar to remarks made by Rev. C. John McCloskey, Opus Dei priest and spiritual godfather to the Catholic extremist Leonard Leo cabal, to Charles Pierce 21 years ago. He, too, regarded the so-called culture wars as a Manichean struggle.
"Do I think it’s possible for someone who believes in the sanctity of marriage, the sanctity of life...to choose to survive w/ people who think it’s OK to kill women & children or for—quote—homosexual cpls to exist and be recognized? No, I don’t think that’s possible,” he said.
"But, unfortunately, in the past, these types of things have tended to end this way. If American Catholics feel that’s troubling, let them. I don’t feel it’s troubling at all.”
Like many leaders of the reactionary right—Mike Johnson, Mike Davis, Stephen Miller, and so on—the current head of the Heritage Foundation has a dull, forgettable name: Kevin Roberts.
[THREAD]
2/ Roberts has a winsome smile, a PhD in U.S. history, a background in academia, & a well-earned reputation as a nice guy. Who could have imagined that this bright, friendly Gen Xer would be leading a Christian conservative counter-reformation—a crusade to end American democracy?
3/ In 2013, Roberts, who is Catholic, became the second president of Wyoming Catholic College, a strict, almost monastic institution est. in 2007 that provides “a rigorous immersion in...the spiritual heritage of the Catholic Church”—and that will throw you out if you hook up.
If action is character, as F. Scott Fitzgerald proposed, then it is instructive to look at the life of Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson in reverse, Benjamin Button style. . .
[THREAD]
1/ It is the night before Veteran’s Day, 2021. On his primetime Fox News program, Tucker Carlson argues that the U.S. should back Russia, and not Ukraine, in the escalating conflict between the two countries. “Why would we take Ukraine’s side and not Russia’s side?”
2/ He insists that choosing Putin’s dictatorship over Zelensky’s democracy is a no-brainer because of “energy reserves.” This is either breathtaking ignorance of the region’s history or straight-up Kremlin propaganda. Or, I suppose, both.