Well, pilgrims, the man from the ivory judicial tower has stepped on his crank. He allowed a member of the Connecticut congressional delegation to inveigle him into denouncing the president who nominated him to the Supreme Court. Then, to make the situation even more delicious from the Democratic Party point of view, Gorsuch freely told Blumenthal that he should tell anyone he liked of Gorsuch's statements.
Gorsuch has been on the appellate bench for 18 years. It would seem that this is long enough to become fully insulated from reality.
Given President Trump's pugnacious personality it is hard to believe that he would see Gorsuch's statements to Blumenthal as other than disloyal and a betrayal. I would not be surprised to see Gorsuch's nomination end in a withdrawal.
The next nominee will probably have little to say to the Democrats. pl
Why would he replace him? Doesn’t he let T-Rex and Mattis contradict him about NATO?
It always astounds me that people allow themselves to be tripped up that way, but they do. Kinda sorta like Bill O’reilly’s “Putin’s a killer” gambit with Trump that went nowhere.
You’d think a judge with all his legal training would see that coming from a mile away, but people get nervous…
Col. Lang
It didn’t take long….
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-09/trump-defends-gorsuch-accuses-blumenthal-misrepresenting-what-judge-said
“Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?” the president tweeted Thursday morning.
Yeah, so long Gorsuch. That aside, didn’t Blumenthal fight in combat in Vietnam? Oh, that’s right, he made it up. http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265462/remembering-rich-blumenthals-vietnam-deception-lloyd-billingsley
My all-time hilarious Senator Blumenthal moment, at a government train safety presentation at a Connecticut train station:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/conn-sen-blumenthal-hit-train-rail-safety-press-conference-article-1.1762281
There’s another possibility. Trump tweeted this about Blumenthal:
Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Feb. 9, 2017
Pres Trump is saying that this is all fake news. It’s hard to tell if this is just posturing on his part or not. If Gorsuch goes, we’ll know. And if that happens expect the next nominee to be grilled on his/her commitment to an independent judiciary.
Sir
That sounds about right based on his hitherto behavioral trajectory.
Still, the talking heads now postulate that this was done on purpose, green lighted by Trump (?), to make the prospective justice more palatable to the liberal side of the isle. The theory is more of a speculation and probably too outlandish to be true. But it is (or was ) being chatted about on CNN etc.
Are we racing headlong into full
banana republic/balkanization
status, with identity politics as the
overriding factor? To borrow from the
illustrious NewYork politician of the late
19th century has our “Boss Tweet of Toomanyhalls(towers)”
lead us down to an irreconcilable
path of continued chaos?I know it’s early yet.
With expatriate numbers swelling any
suggestions to possible destinations?
Trump’s tweet: “Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?
The president’s “pugnacious personality” is the “reality” to which Gorsuch must adjust? I think that Gorsuch’s remarks were an attempt, futile though it might turn out to be and damaging to his own interests, to tell the president that under some governmental circumstances it is he who must adjust. Further, based on what I know of Gorsuch and his background, he doesn’t seem to me to be pugnacious himself nor someone who is insulated from political reality. (As we know, his mother lost her job at the EPA under Reagan in a battle over executive branch prerogatives — one in which she stood on the executive branch side. ) I would guess that Gorsuch thinks that his personal interests here are outweighed by broader ones. Maybe not a profile in courage but not a fight between two alley cats.
Dear Colonel, sorry I cant resist. He should have had a lawyer present during the interview.
Agreed, he will be pulled.
Judge Gorsuch just spoke truth. He would not have been in any position to do so if President Trump had spoken differently about the integrity of the Judicial Branch of government. Courage vs ignorance. Truth vs career. Truth vs “loyalty”. Good on him. How President Trump responds will again be illuminating.
Sir,
My guess is Trump will let it slide. IMO, he’d rather have his nomination – a good conservative – approved than get into an ego contest. He will have another nomination coming up soon to replace Ginsberg. He’ll make sure that one is more appropriately worshipful.
Gorsuch Team: Comments about attacks on judiciary were not specific to Trump Immigration EO http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/02/gorsuch-team-comments-about-attacks-on-judiciary-were-not-specific-to-trump-immigration-eo/
My first instinct was that Gorsuch must have been referring to attacks on the judiciary in general, not on Trump’s comments about the pending 9th Circuit case.
Gorsuch’s team, led by Senator Kelly Ayotte, just confirmed what I suspected. The comments were taken out of context to the extent portrayed as a specific criticism of Trump’s comments on the Immigration EO.
Here is the statement:
“Judge Gorsuch has made it very clear in all of his discussions with senators, including Senator Blumenthal, that he could not comment on any specific cases and that judicial ethics prevent him from commenting on political matters. He has also emphasized the importance of an independent judiciary, and while he made clear that he was not referring to any specific case, he said that he finds any criticism of a judge’s integrity and independence disheartening and demoralizing.”
—————
So either this is a case of backpedaling or statements from Democrats regarding Trump should not be trusted until verified (or both). Pulling a sentence out of a larger comment, or reframing it to make it mean something different is a typical trick used by both sides.
My current rule is to be skeptical of ALL political news headlines. The percentage of “truth” is awfully low.
Col–Dissing the federal judicial system and its judges is not a great strategy for a President. Gorsuch is a federal judge and, therefore, not thrilled. The third branch isn’t one to dismiss and denigrate. DT will be caught between “I’m never wrong” and “You’re fired.” Interesting times.
It would be sad, if he withdrew. I don’t think the dems will get anyone “better” in his place. And the court needs to be filled ASAP.
The President also took on McCain and Blumenthal’s Vietnam and military service. Inappropriate to me who was not in the military, what would someone who actually volunteered think?
Pete Deer
This is not a question regarding Gorsuch’s honor or integrity. That seems unquestionable. It is a question as to whether or not Gorsuch’s nomination will survive he incident. I see that you creatures in Charlottesville have decided to remove Uncle Bob’s statue from a park. Shame! pl
Another Souter, Kennedy?
Looking like it.
So much for Trump’s love of “extreme vetting.”
If I said what I thought I’d get banned again.
At least he didn’t have 5 deferments for heel spurs that were so severe he can’t even remember which foot was involved.
She will hang in there until Trump is gone.
Rambo and Pocahontas (Blumenthal and Warren) make a great team.
Pete Deer
Well, Pete, I revere Robert Edward Lee as the best a man can be and so do not share your motivation. If you wish to criticize his character that would be your choice but please do not try to feed me the treason meme. Perhaps any favorable mention of his name should be discouraged so that safe zones free from of micro-aggression can be created for the “snowflakes.”
FND
Richard Blumenthal served in the USMCR in the states. He could have been sent to VN. As for Warren the temptation to add a bit of family lore to her resume must have been terrific. pl
Eric Newhill
I am pleased to learn that DT will stick with Gorsuch. Given the present balance in the federal judiciary due to Harry Reid’s application of the nuclear option couple of years ago I would think that DT will urge the Senate leader to apply that the SCOTUS appointments so that they can stop liberal opinions flowing upward to them.pl
NancyK
You should know by now that I despise draft dodgers. pl
Nancy K
You will like Pence. He has a merit badge on his Eagle Scout sash for dinosaur hunting. pl
raven
Good for you. pl
That is classic.
Me too, Colonel!
mike
And what do you think of Uncle Bob? pl
It is Senator Ayotte’s job to walk Judge Gorsuch through the nomination process.
“He got pretty passionate about him, about it, I asked him about the ‘so-called judges’ comment, because we don’t have so-called judges or so-called presidents or so-called senators, and this was a guy who kind of welled up with some energy and he said any attack on any of — I think his term to me was, brothers or sisters of the robe — is an attack on all judges, and he believes in an independent judiciary.” Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska told MSNBC on Thursday.
Colonel –
If he had stayed in the Union, the war would have been over at leat two years earlier.
Pete,
Let me know when the good citizens raise a statue to Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown.
Loose Lips Sinks Ships!…………….He did not have to respond…………………On the other hand I was not there and I do not believe there is a tape of the conversation………….”The Pure and Simple Truth” about almost anything ,is that the Truth is Never pure and Seldom simple……………..
1000%
Colonel,
I doubt that the President will pull Neil Gorsuch’s nomination. He needs to get a 9th Justice on the Court as soon as possible, particularly if he decides to delay an immediate appeal of the 9th Circuit’s opinion to t the Supreme Court, start the EO process again from scratch, curing the legal and procedural deficiencies, and take the case with a good evidentiary record and a good legal team to a Supreme Court with nine justices. Gorsuch is as conservative as they come and will most likely provide the 5th vote in such a case.
In addition, now that Senator Sessions has been confirmed, the AG will be around to counsel the President to take the long view in preparation for one and, perhaps, two more vacancies—Kennedy and Ginsburg. Towards that end, the President has blamed Senator Blumenthal, not Judge Gorsuch for the miscommunication. At this point, the President would not want to anger Justice Kennedy for whom Gorsuch Clerked and with whom Judge Gorsuch maintains a warm friendship. If the President were to withdraw the Gorsuch nomination and continue on with his criticisms of the judiciary, Justice Kennedy might decide that it his constitutional and patriotic duty to remain on the bench until the end of the Trump presidency to block the President’s effort to delegitimize and emasculate the judiciary.
Yes sir, Agreed. The release of Gorsuch’s comments was clearly an attempt to bait Trump. And the turn around on the nuclear option is delicious irony. To dodge the former and enjoy the latter is in line with my theory that Trump is a well beyond the simple narcissist that the media and lefties want to believe he is. Bonus is that Gorsuch appears to be, objectively, an excellent choice. So we all win.
I know Trump has feet of clay, but his opponents are abject idiots. He doesn’t have to try all that hard to feel superior and help America win at the same time. That’s domestically. We will see how FP works out for us and for him.
Warren did not lie about her heritage. She simply repeated the family lore (as confirmed by a relative). No man knows his true family tree. Cuckoldry rates are at least 1% (perhaps > 3%) across the entire population and adoptions –especially in the past– can be silent. Contrary to reports in the right-wing echo chamber, Warren did not benefit from the claim. It is important to consider what Warren herself has said, rather than what detractors claim that she has said. As to the Gorsuch brouhaha, I find it to be another example of Trump allowing himself to be seen as a buffoon, while Gorsuch gets an unearned reputation for being “independent.”
Pete Deer
Ah, c’mon! I haven’t had a good fight over the WBS for a while. BTW where were you raised? pl
bks
I said she was probably voicing family lore. pl
Oops. Sorry, did not know a Senator could lie — so publicly — and get elected, probably twice.
Off to the penalty box, apologies to the forum
Well, if you want some WBS stuff check out how they are moving the Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama.
http://www.ajc.com/news/the-cyclorama-how-move-ton-painting/w2Dq3JspX6QySp9qtn2FHI/
If someone was never drafted how can they be a draft dodger? Is getting deferements a form of draft dodging? Trump was in college and got 4 deferment for his education. The fifth deferment was medical, he failed the Armed Forces Physical Examination.
Apologies, I was not attacking our gracious host. Blumenthal is also being maligned:
http://www.theday.com/article/20100519/NWS12/305199926/1018
Gorrsuch should have kept to the Trump script advertising Ivanka’s product lines and he would have had no problem. Smarty pants judges think they always know best.
I do not think that Trump is going to un-nominate and withdraw Gorsuch from the Supreme Court appointment. It should not be a surprise that Senator Richard Blumenthal is the leaker — whether or not accurate — of what Gorsuch supposedly said.
My grandmother and mother swore we were Native American, from a tribe in Northern CA where my great, great, greatgrandparents were from, Ferndale CA. I have straight dark hair and eyes, high cheekbones, so it seemed possible I recently had my DNA tested and no Indian blood at all. All Europeon 67% from Great Britan. I didn’t care but mom still refuses to believe it.
Nan K
We had a similar family legend on my mother’s side (French Canadian) As with you DNA tests have proven decisively that we are altogether Northern European except that I have trace amounts of Mediterranean World DNA. pl
robt willman
Do you think this was a set-up a Schumer says? pl
jake S
IMO if you evaded the draft using deferments, or shifty medical disqualifications, you were a draft dodger. pl
bks
Fine but as I said she was probably repeating helpful family lore. People were really big on Indians back then, something like “save the whales.” When I was a captain or something I absent mindedly mentioned to a personnel clerk that my family believed itself to be part Indian. He put it in my personnel file against my wishes because they were enjoined at that time to identify anyone who was part Indian. See how inclusive we are! It took days to get them to take that out of my record and even so the EEO people called me up every year or so wanting me to give talks as a successful Indian officer. It took a long time to get them to give up. come to think of it I should have let them keep it in the record. pl
Colonel –
I will stick with the lore on our family’s connection to the First Nations. My understanding of DNA ethnicity testing advertised on TV is that they are overstating the case. Easy to determine in large percentages, but not definitive when dealing with snippets. Maybe this blogs resident microbiologist could weigh in on that? But for me, why spoil a good family yarn.
Another family yarn my Mom always teased my Virginia father about was a possible strain of mulatto blood in her family roots. She and my aunts on a trip to the Maritimes to trace those roots had found a family gravestone where the first name was Freeborn. So she would badger Dad with that when he went off on tirade about the NAACP. She claimed Freeborn had used the Underground Railroad to escape from a plantation run by Dad’s ancestors. That would keep him quiet for a while, until my aunt would weigh in with the fact that the Underground Railroad never went up thru northern Maine, and that Freeborn was more probably christened by a family that had been brought to the new world as indentured servants.
I always listed “other” when asked for race. None of the governments business is my contention.
This could all be a gambit to show that Gorsuch is “independent” which is one of the major stated concerns by Democrats.
Col Lang:
What is your opinion of the thousands
who joined National Guard and Reserve
units including celebrities professional
athletes and future president,W, during
the VN era to “hide out” from the draft?
As was well known at the time, deployment
to VN was almost nil.
Yes they did fulfill their obligation for six
years. Would their duty be comparable to
the disdained REMFS as you could not get
any further from combat than that.
There were all kinds of “evasion”. The National Guard was one very popular one despite the fact that 8 guard units were federalized and sent to the Nam. Hell, I’ve been accused of “hiding out” in Korea even though I did a tour there and then went to Vietnam. It’s often in the eye of the beholder who dodged what.
raven
you served in the military then and you are obviously not an evader nor a draft dodger. You could easily have been sent to VN. The NG? the number of NG units that went to VN was quite small as a % of total Guard force. This was a deliberate political decision on LBJ’s part. Some NG units volunteered to go to VN, i.e., the three battalion artillery group from NH. OTOH I knw a number of USAFNG people like GW Bush who certainly hid in the NG. pl
steve G
REMFs in VN (Rear Echelom Mother Fuckers)like Fobbits in Iraq were at least in country and could have been killed or wounded by indirect fire or in ambushes. People who hid out in the Guard and Reserves are just another kind of draft evader. pl
I did serve in Vietnam and half my tour was in the 107th Signal Company, RI National Guard. We were part of the 972nd Sig Bn, the unit I shipped with. We had Signal Shots all over 3 and 4 Corps and I was just a schlub who drove trucks to the various installations.
Hi Nancy,The rules of inheriting DNA do not work the way most people think they do .We all inherit 50 % of our chromosomes from each parent but we do not necessarily inherit 25% of our chromosomes from each grandparent.Take your mom’s father and mother for example, the breakdown at the grandparent level could be 40%/10% or any combo to make 50%.If one of your grandparents was for all practical purposes100 % Nigerian going back forever and all 3 other grandparents were NW European going back forever for our discussion here.You could possibly be anywhere between 1% and 49% Nigerian or sub Saharan African.People can have 1 grandparent 100 % Native American and show up quite a bit more or less than 25%.You could have 15% Indian chromosomes and your sister 40%.
Col. Lang,
I wonder if Gorsuch was trying to sucker folks into thinking he’s a moderate. Or, Dems are floating this to cover their lack of spine when they vote for him.
This IS the man who wept when he learned of the of death of Scalia.
pl,
I looked for Schumer’s editorial today, and his version is: “Judge Gorsuch told it to me in private; when Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and I asked him to say it in public, he refused. Clearly he wanted this to be seen as a marker of his independence, because his handlers immediately told us, `You can tell this to the press’.” —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/opinion/sunday/charles-schumer-judge-gorsuch-we-wont-be-fooled-again.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chuck-schumer-neil-gorsuch-criticism-trump_us_589e1951e4b094a129eafb68
Whatever version may be the truth, I think that Trump is not bothered by it and might well think that what Gorsuch said was just like the bulls**t that he, Trump, would say to other parties in a transaction when his goal is to make the deal go through.
Thank you for info, very interesting.
You are welcome.
I have a question that perhaps you can give some insight to. My husband’s DNA shows 96% eastern European Jew but also 2% Italian and 2% Greek. His family history is Russian/Polish/Austrian. How far back does DNA testing go?
Nancy K
It does not “go back” It differentiates among your present strains and the idea is to match that up with good genealogical research among the ever growing mass of records. pl
That is probably where it is helpful to have a Mormon in the family or access to their records.
Nancy K
Ancestry.com has access to nearly all the Mormon records. I would think that the foreign language hand written records that you can reach on ancestry.com would be more of a barrier. pl
Ma’am,
Just a few things to be aware of when interpreting your DNA sequencing results and how they are interpreted for genealogy.
1) First thing to be aware of is the fact that most companies do not do a full genome sequencing and only a portion of SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) are sequenced. Usually the SNPs that are sequenced are the ones which change more often through generations so this is a pretty reliable method but not a “complete” method.
2) The percentages that you see on your results indicating how much you resemble a certain ethnic and national group is pretty subjective. Most sequencing companies take samples from ethnic groups and populations and treat these samples as reference. In some cases these sample sizes are quite small. 23andme was using 10 samples for certain groups which caused a bit of controversy. Even bigger problem is that there is no such thing as 100% French or Russian or Italian genome. There is usually a lot of structure within these groups as well (North Italian vs Southern Italian and so on). So your percentages can change drastically based on the databases used.
If you have access to your dna sequencing raw data file (if you did your sequencing with 23andme.com , ancestrydna.com or family tree dna), you can download your raw data files and upload them on following site:
https://www.gedmatch.com/login1.php
This site has a lot of tools and databases to compare and analyze your results. For example, the best database for South Asians is harappaworld and for Europeans it is Eurogenes. There are other tools that compare your results with ancient dna extracted from skeletal remains of neolithic people in various parts of the world.
There is another new project which you can try at following site:
https://dna.land/
You will notice that your results will vary across these different tools and databases due to the fact that they all use different reference points.
3) Detecting number of generations which i believe is what your question was about is again not a very exact science at this point. Usually this is calculated on the basis of dna chunk sizes. When you do relative search most companies us eat minimum 7CM(centimorgan) as the default setting. A larger shared dna chunk usually means that the dna chunk has been inherited more recently from a common ancestor and has seen less fragmentation due to meiosis. If the shared dna fragments are small than this means the inherited dna fragment has been broken dna due to meiosis over generations.
The relationship between dna chunk size and how many meiotic events (1 meiotic event per generation) is again an inexact science as far as i can tell.
4) Lastly, the best and most reliable way to know descent is by using Y-chromosome mutations(haplogroups) for males(passed from fathers to sons) and mitochondrial mutations (haplogroups)for females(mothers to daughters and sons).
But it gives a very broad brush picture. For example i have a Y Haplogroup J2 which probably originated in Anatolian region around ~20k years before present and spread over a large geographic area and different populations like Turks, Armenians,Albanians, Ingush, Greeks, Both Ashkenazi and Sephradic Jews , Iranians , Italians and present day Subcontinent.
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/j2-arab/about/background
Nancy,I going to read all of Farooq reply.He seems to know a lot.I believe Family Tree DNA uses your 16 great,great grandparents or your 8 great grandparents to do their ethnic analysis.And also connect you to your Family Tree.It is definitely interesting.As Farooq writes there are no “French” or “Italian” ethnic groops.It is spread over a much larger area.People moved around a lot in history………….Southern Italians are more likely to share DNA with Greeks than Northern Italians. .However some groups such as Jews ,Gypies ,perhaps Native Americans etc married a lot more within their groups……………….The Haplogroups tests are more expensive and are interesting and many times surprising .If my memory serves me correctly Obama,Einstein and Hitler all have the same male Haplogroup………….Thomas Jefferson Haplogroup is Phoenician or Jewish…Napoleon’s male haplogroup originated in the middle east….near present day Jordan I believe……….In a way the male Haplogroup could mean literally nothing as far as looks,ability etc etc…………..If my great grandfather,50 greats lets say, left the Island of Gotland,near Sweeden, 2000 years ago, and moved south over the years as a GOTH,fighting and plundering.His great ,great grandson (50 greats) would carry the male Haplogroup I1…………….the “Viking” haplogroup .Even though the last 20 generations had intermarried with Middle Eastern peoples and for all practical purposes was a middle easterner.THe Haplogroup “marker” shows you where your great grandparent (times MANY greats) was living before the last great Ice Age..Hope this is not too much info.
Thank you for such an in-depth informative reply, it is very much appreciated.
Thank you for information, it is so fascinating.
Nancy K.
See if you can find a group like this for your ancestral background. I haven’t started digging like you or Colonel Lang have, but this page has certainly primed my interest.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lithuanian.genealogy/