Breathe.

Dramatic change never comes without drama. Or trauma, evidently. We just got plenty of both.

At Thursday’s wrenching Kavanaugh hearings, we learned two very important and not mutually exclusive things:

  1. A woman armed only with the truth and the courage to speak out can cow a room full of some of the most powerful old white men on the planet into cowering behind another woman. She can move people to tears, and she can rouse them to action. She can serve as an inspiration to a new generation and to survivors of all ages. She can do it despite her own fears. She can do it in the full knowledge that it may not be enough.  And she can do it all without shouting or whining, by simply and calmly telling the truth.
  2. If anybody tries to keep Brett Kavanaugh from his God-given seat on the Supreme Court, he is going to yell and cry until he gets what he wants. And he’ll lie like a motherfucker.

Over the course of the hearings we saw a beautiful and brave response to the Ugliness. And then we saw the Ugliness ratcheted up to unheard of levels in an attempt to drown that out.

We knew this was going to happen. We just didn’t realize how truly ugly it would get. All week long we talked about the need to believe survivors and STOP KAVANAUGH, to call out the creeps and the predators everywhere and STOP KAVANAUGH, and most of all, the need to STOP KAVANAGH.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford did her part, in a forum purposely stacked against her. It was designed to give the impression that she was being “heard” even as it was meant to make sure that she could be ignored by the Republicans on the committee. But tens of millions of other people DID hear her. And we’re going to remember.

Then Brett Kavanaugh barged in with full unearned swagger, with the obvious mission of yelling and blustering his way onto the Supreme Court. It’s the M.O. of powerful predators when they don’t get their way. It worked in 1992 for Clarence Thomas with his angry indignation over his supposed “high tech lynching.” It’s the “Deny! Deny! Deny!” mentality. They think that if they’re loud and demanding and entitled enough, they’ll get their way, just like young Brett Kavanaugh was certain he could force his limp beer dick onto a 15-year-old girl simply by holding her down and willing it so. Thankfully, that woman escaped, though not without being damaged for life. Let’s hope that the Supreme Court and this whole country can escape Brett Kavanaugh’s latest and worst predation.

It’s going to happen or not on the very edge of the razor. If you need to vent and be with like-minded people while doing something worthwhile in the process, come on out to a gathering to celebrate some good news in the world of repro rights at NYC Won’t Hyde this Sunday, September 30th. And breathe free.

And also consider donating to Abortion Funds today, because amid all this nonsense, 40 Days 40 Life, a hate group hating, started up again. So drink a 40, because Brett Kavanaugh will NOT ruin beer for us.