Friday, October 5th, marked one year since The New York Times published its bombshell story on allegations of sexual misconduct against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. #MeToo was born.

It is now also the day that the GOP Senators celebrated because they knew they had succeeded in putting a second sexual predator on the Supreme Court. Today, they did the deed, and they laughed.

Trump started his counter celebration earlier in the week with a disgusting mockery of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in Mississippi, the woman who had accused his second nominee to the Court of sexual assault.

The fragile woman who testified before the Senate and the world became the fodder that a soulless, indecent and deplorable man used to amuse his cheering and deplorable followers.

We can only surmise that it is their lack of imagination that led to the familiar, even cliched, chants of " lock her up," this time directed at the vulnerable woman who had courageously spoken about the would-be rape trauma she has lived with for decades. It's seems, though, for a Trump crowd, any woman will do.

That is what some saw as a new low for even Trump, but how soon can we forget he mocked Senator McCain heroism and McCain dying, a disabled reporter, a judge of Mexican ancestry, a gold star family, female reporters. Should I go on?

There was also a second, perhaps even more bizarre message offered by Trump as part of his attack too - Kavanaugh is the real victim of this situation - said Trump, his life has been "shattered" and was "in tatters." "They destroy people. They want to destroy people. These are really evil people."

He continued this same message in multiple tirades all week, "I say that it's a very scary time for young men in America, when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of," he told reporters. Adding that "women are doing great."

As bizarre as this was, it is clear that the “Protect Men" Message was part of well conceived and executed Trump team plan. Yes, the male assailant is the real victim screamed Trump. Who would have expected Trump would assert the #MeToo movement was really about persecuting men.

#MeToo be Damned. It is men, not women, who are in danger, according to Trump.

We have all heard that Trump was angry when Kavanaugh first appeared in his Fox interview, offering the image of a man quietly upset and a bit chastised by the allegations. Never again, Team Trump decided. Coaching by them turned Kavanaugh into the rude, ranting disrespectful partisan who appeared before the Judiciary Committee last week, a man unfit by temperament as well as perjury for the Supreme Court (or any court). But built into Kavanaugh's display of temper in the Senate was the Trumpian first cry for an “abused male as victim."

The Trump “men in danger" message is, in the end, an appeal to Mothers: Were you yourself ever a victim of harassment, did you remember that when you watched Dr. Ford's testimony....forget that, forget yourself, Think only about-to-be the victimized son!

Oddly, turning males as potential victims of predatory females is the Trump/ GOP strategy for getting out GOP women to vote.

Mothers, stand with us, Trump says.

“And .... [GOP women ] are lining up to do so: Hugh Hewitt, the conservative radio host, devoted a segment of his program this week exclusively to female callers. "This whole fiasco has set women back over a decade," said one. Another exclaimed, "I am so angry I can barely breathe." (Source, New York Times, October 5, 2018)

The behavior we saw this week was in keeping with Trump's usual strategy for Messaging.

His method unrolls way this:

• Outrageous taunts and insulting tweets
• followedby even more outrageous and disgusting remarks
• lead to must-see television and social media attention
• that grab - and keep - the spotlight and
• set the Message of the national conversation.

What he next expects is implied, " Go for it, my slavish spokespeople. Yes, Lindsey, Sarah, Rudy, and Jr, I mean you, yes, and Mitch too.I want to hear the echoes." And you hear them everywhere:

• On October 1, Donald Trump Jr. said he was more worried for his sons than his daughters in Montana on October 1.
• Betsy Devos continued her efforts to disembowel college guidelines which seek out and act against campus rapists.
• Mitch McConnell begged for support of Kavanaugh, saying he was the "victim" of open "floodgates of mud and muck."

Trump's attack on Senator Al Franken on Thursday night in Minnesota was his most recent follow up: “Boy, did he fold up like a wet rag? Huh."

This too was sent out into the world in words offering a not too subtlety genderized and sexualized code. Al Franken's decency in stepping down becomes in Trump's dirty mouth proof of Democratic " softness."

Real men are predators and should be, proclaims Trump and they never need to say even sorry. He would surely agree with Kavanaugh's pal, Mark Judge, who wrote of the years he shared with Kavanaugh at Georgetown Prep:

“Of course, a man must be able to read a woman's signals, and it's a good thing that feminism is teaching young men that no means no and yes means yes. But there's also that ambiguous middle ground, where the woman seems interested and indicates, whether verbally or not, that the man needs to prove himself to her. And if that man is any kind of man, he'll allow himself to feel the awesome power, the wonderful beauty, of uncontrollable male passion."

According to Bob Woodward's book "Fear, “ Trump previously told a friend facing sexual assault allegations, “You've got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women,"

Republicans, that is now your legacy.

As of today you own it.

As of today, those voting have given a would-be rapist and self-declared male victim a life time seat in our Supreme Court.

Keep Trump's Message and the laughter of his supporters firmly in your mind as you vote on November 6th.

Let it resonate for you, as Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge's laughter has stuck in Christine Blasey Ford's mind all these years.

And may their laughter strengthen your resolve to stop Trump and those who support him and think like him.

We can make a better America, a better world in which men will no longer harass women or be predators, and women will no longer be their victims.

#NationalDayOfMourning #MeToo #Midterms2018 #TakeItBack Nov.6.

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October 6, 2018

Post script. In the grim shadow of yesterday's painful confirmation of an unfit man to our highest court, I wrote this analysis of Trump distorts & disfigures the truth. In the Kavanaugh case, he claimed men are the real victims of #MeToo. We need to learn how he works, to stop him and the GOP. #Midterms2018