Even after parsing down the Brett Kavanaugh news to the most important points, there’s still three huge stories. We will move through them chronologically as they broke yesterday/last night: First—Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of attempting to rape her in high school, has agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. This would have been the Big News today until a second accusation came along.
Second—Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer broke a story last night in the New Yorker with an entirely new allegation against Kavanaugh: Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of Brett Kavanaugh’s from Yale, alleges that at a dorm party during her freshman year, Kavanaugh stuck his penis in her face while she was inebriated after a drinking game where she was picked to drink repeatedly. Another big part of this piece has to do with Kavanaugh’s classmate Mark Judge, who could be an essential witness. It states that Judge’s girlfriend of three years at Catholic University “recalled that Judge had told her ashamedly of an incident that involved him and other boys taking turns having sex with a drunk woman.” This would actually seem to corroborate the next allegations that followed.
Finally, Michael Avenatti, best known for suing Donald J. Trump on behalf of porn actress Stormy Daniels and being the former owner of Tully’s Coffee, dropped yet another bombshell:
I represent a woman with credible information regarding Judge Kavanaugh and Mark Judge. We will be demanding the opportunity to present testimony to the committee and will likewise be demanding that Judge and others be subpoenaed to testify. The nomination must be withdrawn.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 23, 2018
And, in fact, Avenatti made a point to say his client is not Deborah Ramirez, and the accusations are crazy…
If his first tweet seemed like he was withholding something, it is because he was. He went on to tweet a screenshot of his correspondence with the chief counsel for nominations for the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which is absolutely jaw-dropping. It quite literally alleges that Avenatti is aware of evidence that “Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, and others would participate in the targeting of women with alcohol/drugs in order to allow a ‘train’ of men to subsequently gang rape them.”
My e-mail of moments ago with Mike Davis, Chief Counsel for Nominations for U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. We demand that this process be thorough, open and fair, which is what the American public deserves. It must not be rushed and evidence/witnesses must not be hidden. pic.twitter.com/11XLZJBTtY
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 24, 2018
Meanwhile, today President Donald Trump iterated that he plans to stand by Kavanaugh “all the way.”
A bus driver in Indiana was arrested for letting children drive the massive vehicle: She was caught on film by students doing just that. Yeah, there’s a bus driver shortage in Seattle, but let’s not get any ideas, folks.
An Indiana bus driver has been arrested and charged with felony neglect of a dependent after allegedly allowing three students to drive the school bus short distances.
Other students on the bus at the time recorded the incident. https://t.co/DJh7id60Yc pic.twitter.com/pHIp5FFoWA
— ABC News (@ABC) September 24, 2018
I used to think it was bad for the youth to have smartphones at too young an age, but apparently these are the checks and balances we need on incompetence. No word yet from the Republicans on if they’re going to tap this bus driver as their next Supreme Court nominee.
The news can only get better from here, right?: Maybe not, but at least we’re going to have nice weather this week.
One of the nicest weeks of the year lies ahead. Highs near 70 each day, with sunshine, cool nights and some morning fog. Beat that, ‘Merica!
— Seattle Weather Blog (@KSeattleWeather) September 24, 2018
Microsoft throws robots at the world’s problems: The Seattle Times‘ Rachel Lerman reports that Microsoft will invest “$40 million to apply artificial intelligence to humanitarian issues.” It’s part of a program Microsoft has dubbed, “AI for Good,” an initiative that totaled a $115 million commitment.
Three suspects take off in officer’s patrol car while officer arrests driver: After pursuing and pulling over a car on I-5, things went awry for police when three of the suspects in the car somehow managed to steal the police officer’s car, eventually ditching it in Tukwila near the Family Fun Center. The police searched for an hour but never found any sign of the three who escaped.
The moon celebrates fall equinox: At about 8 p.m. tonight there should (hopefully) be enough visibility to see a full harvest moon in the sky. This will nicely complement what should be perfect fall weather.
UN ambassador Nikki Haley defends President Trump’s mental stability: In an interview with ABC’s This Week, Haley said, “I can tell you never has anyone talked about the 25th amendment, never has anyone even questioned the president’s mental stability or anything.” Look, if you’re the sitting United Nations ambassador from the United States, and you have to legitimately defend the president’s mental stability, then there is something very, very wrong. The mental stability of the president of the United States should be a given, but sadly for us, we do not live in that reality, despite what Haley has attested.
Your daily dose of Gouda: It’s Monday, I don’t have to tell you that, but it does seem to be a particularly rank one. Here is a picture of Gouda trying to not read about Judge Kavanaugh today:
Tonight’s best Seattle entertainment options include: The opening of the floral print exhibition Orchids and Evergreens: Thai and Seattle Printmakers, Preti Taneja’s reading of her retelling of King Lear, We That Are Young, and a jazz show with former David Bowie collaborator Donny McCaslin (with Kneebody).