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cleolinda · 1 year

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Story time: yard chaos

[I told this story on Twitter today, 11/29/22, because I like to be as dramatic and ominous as possible.]

Friends, you may be aware that I often tell Neighborhood Gothic tales about the happenings on my street. I have another one.

So yesterday I look out the kitchen window and see about 15-20 fluorescent-vested workers (who do they work for? We just don’t know) hanging out about 1-2 houses down. Just chilling on both sides of the street, sitting on the storm drain, in the yards, what have you.

And they are more than welcome to; I just don’t know why. Tons of trucks around. Including multiple USIC trucks: People What Identify Your Underground Utilities. You may remember that I ran into one while I was tripping on yard nightshade. Good people, necessary, ideal.

I go about my business (cleaning out my tea kettle). Sometime later, loud machine noises. Bear in mind that I live in an area where there is always someone working loudly on something. Cutting down dangerous trees (RIP🌲), building new houses, eternally landscaping. I shrug.

I look out the window again. The corner of my neighbor’s yard is thoroughly dug up. Now, this summer, I watched a man cut down a whole-ass tree and every single bush (including two beautiful gardenias) of hers branch by branch. There are naught but stubs now.

Am I now that old lady who peers out the window at the doings of the street? Yes. Do I know Debra’s life? No. Do I have any idea why twenty workers are needed to dig up one corner of her yard? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Some hours later, my mom comes home for lunch. She is INCANDESCENT with rage. I assume it’s because our street is clogged with trucks. Why u mad tho? “WHY AREN’T YOU MAD?” After some confusion, my mom gets it through my placid head that the workers

are digging up

OUR YARD

I hadn’t looked out the FRONT window; our dog had been asleep and hadn’t needed to go out. There are three GIANT HOLES, like 3x3 and half a grave deep, at the street end of our yard, like prairie dog holes from hell. Nobody said FUCK ALL to me about this.

My mom’s higher self is a capable, savvy woman who knows her worth. My mom’s shadow self is a Karen. She marches out there to ask what the FUCK is going on. A foreman steps forward. “Oh, they didn’t put a letter on your door?” NO!!!!

I can’t tell if this [a tweet that did not in fact go through] went through or not, because they keep cutting off the wifi. There is a crane over my street now

What is GOING ON, asks my mom. “Something about fiber optic cables,” the foreman says. SOMETHING?? “Something about phones.” IN 2022??? We Just Don’t Know.

Holes begin to spread up the street.

By sundown, every single yard upstreet of mine has a minimum of three deep pits exposing Unknown Cables. Turf has been skinned off and thrown aside. I’m just like, this might as well happen. My mom now has a contractor’s business card. Neighbors are mad. Nobody was warned.

I’m out with Cooper on the deck (where he likes to chase falling leaves) in the dimming sunlight, and I happen to look around at the street.

Water is cascading down the road.

I live on a hill. You know how it looks during a hard rain, just little wavelets washing down the road? That. Water pouring down the entire width of the street, gutter to gutter. The deluge has already reached the intersection and shows no sign of stopping.

My phone has no wifi.

The Workers from Somewhere have hit a water main up the street. In front of a lawyer’s house, I’m told, so have fun with that. What I learn later is, despite there being 3-4 USIC trucks on the street, no one ever marked any utilities. Somebody told the workers not to wait.

Birmingham Water Works trucks, flashing their lights in the darkness, show up at 9 pm to fix the busted water main. Neighbors are wandering around fretting that the Great Flood of ‘22 is going to show up on their utility bills. The lawyer is very popular.

I get up this morning. By 6 am, they are back out there, doubling down. This is not the workers’ fault, btw. Honest day’s work, dishonest employer.

Every single house on my side of the street has a minimum of four (4) fiber optic prairie dog pits now.

I don’t know WHAT and I don’t know WHY. And now, there is a crane over my street for something happening underground. Orange cones and a giant wheel of orange and blue cable have appeared. Someone is brandishing a rake. End transmission for now.

UPDATE: The crane is ripping out a small tree (RIP 🌳) near the top of the street. I do not know if this is related or not. Either shit just got real with the cable digging, or we have dueling contractors.

[Situation in progress, more later]

#story time with cleo #long post #text post #as told on twitter #wet chaos 2022

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hardtickettohomevideo · 2 years

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The Schlocktoberfest - Day 18: The Fog

The Schlocktoberfest – Day 18: The Fog

The Fog (2005) Trailer: *Spoilers Throughout* What’s This About: After a 100 Here are some of my observations as I watched the film: The music doesn’t suck. RIP Debra Hill Fallout Boy setting the scene. Take it away… This version keeps the young lady working at the radio station. In 2005 this is kinda a stretch. Were people, especially young people, still listening to the radio in 2005? The…

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#Debra Hill #Fallout Boy #John Carpenter #John Houseman #Lost #Maggie Grace #Nick Castle #Selma Blair #Smallville #The Fog #Tom Welling

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champnetx · 4 years

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rantshemlock · 5 years

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The Slumber Party Massacre

in a world full of low-budget Halloween rip-offs, The Slumber Party Massacre is one in millions. originally intended as a parody, the studio decided that they wanted a serious film instead. what results is a bit of mess; while the film has its honestly funny moments, it lacks enough camp to truly be funny without having any of the tension or extremity to make it actually frightening.

it’s a tale as old as time; an escaped murderer breaks into a house full of teenage girls and starts murdering them one by one until they finally dispatch him. there are some other events in this, but the core story is the same.

what makes The Slumber Party Massacre interesting is that, at the time of writing, it’s the sole horror franchise to be solely directed by women. the original movie was written by feminist writer and critic Rita Mae Brown, also known as the author of Rubyfruit Jungle. her intention was, obviously, to critique and parody the slasher genre tropes popularised by films like Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

so like... does it? is this a feminist movie? does it even qualify as parody? was it girl power when Valerie cut the murderer’s hand off with a machete?

i mean... man... i don’t know.

i wouldn’t, though, necessarily say this is a film that really says anything interesting about the genre. it posits the killer as being intensely masculine and sexually driven; the drill, his weapon of choice, is an overt phallic symbol. the girls in the movie are highly sexualised, far more gratuitously than in the fairly tame Halloween or even the more relatively extreme Friday the 13th. the film is self-aware about the tropes of the genre and where they should go, but is self-awareness parody, or is it just observation?

the film goes far more overt with the sexualisation than the violence; despite only having a 78 minute runtime, the movie devotes a huge chunk of time to showing as much of its female cast as possible undressing. one of the modern complaints that gets lodged at the original Halloween is that the script has very little apparent awareness of the behaviour of teenage girls -- though i think it’s important to note that Halloween was co-written by the legendary and deeply influential Debra Hill -- but Slumber Party Massacre doesn’t have anything particularly enlightening to say either. its cast of 18-year-olds played by 30 year olds are luridly sexualised and given little personality outside of their relative feelings about sex.

but then the violence of the movie is pulled back extremely -- the total lack of genuine suspense in the film means that the kills are generally extremely sudden and deeply unsatisfying, often cutting away from the violence completely or showing little more than someone with a blood splatter as the sole extent of their injuries.

if the extremity of the sexualisation is commentary on the genre, then why the pullback on the violence? is one more acceptable than the other?

the disconnection of the killer from most of the movie -- in a lot of it he might as well be an off-screen set of hands -- makes it difficult to understand what he is. the obvious is the phallic symbolism and his defeat at the hands of the final girls, but he so severely lacks motivation or drive or drama that he is the most uninteresting stock figure in a movie full of very two-dimensional filler.

in the end the joke is that the drill or knife, whichever, is a phallic object and it penetrates pretty women. that really runs the movie dry on its humour; if the original script said more it’s impossible to know, but the direction of the movie leaves a lot to be desired.

all throughout the film i was constantly wishing it would be more over the top, more campy, more extreme. it focuses so deeply on one aspect of the genre in neglect of all else, and doesn’t seem to have much more else to say than that slashers are often a mixture of sex and violence. there’s some humour that lands and a lot that doesn’t, and the stuff that doesn’t is generally more focused on the idea that these bitches be HORNY, when the humour that works is more specifically about playing with audience expectations. i just found myself disappointed that, for a maybe parody, the film was never allowed to embrace that enough.

i think Slumber Party Massacre is a fascinating artefact, but the meddling behind the scenes makes it hard to know exactly what it was aiming for or if it was truly successful in reaching it. films like Scream, It Follows, The Final Girls and Halloween (2018) are generally more developed, complex takes on the genre, but The Slumber Party Massacre was out here doing it first. and you have to respect it for trying. if it was trying? maybe? hey, who knows. i certainly don’t know shit.

#rantsfilmwatch #my writing #the slumber party massacre

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allykat4416 · 5 years

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Meme Trip 2k19, Pt. 1

Dates: May 16 and 17th

Park: Kings Island in Mason, Ohio

I didn’t make trip reports for my second meme-trip in August of 2018. At the time, I thought I was doing myself a favor. Now, I incredibly regret not sharing that stuff straight away. I missed the chance to talk about my first visits to two parks that have very unique spots in my life. The first of those, obviously, is Six Flags New England, a park I’d been dying to go to because of one certain Superman. {And I did leave Massachusetts as a Super Stan.} The other of these parks is Kings Island.

Kings Island and I have a long, storied history filled with intense emotions. Like Carowinds, a lot of my plans to visit KI fell dead along the way— Dad didn’t win the tickets, I didn’t like my classmates enough to justify the trip, I wasn’t able to make the drive up, etc. It’s a park that means a lot to my dad, and he took my mom there when she came to meet his family for the first time. He was one of the first riders of Beast, there for her birthday as a gift for his own.

I cried in 2018 because I didn’t want it to be my home park when I thought I would be going to Northern Kentucky University. I used to crusade hard as hell for KI to never get a giga. The park gave me the largest heebie-jeebies when I visited in August of 2018. I don’t think I feel emotions as intensely for theme parks as some of my comrades, but Kings Island is one of those parks that almost makes me believe I can.

It was a rainy Thursday after a day of nothing but car-riding [and driving for Casie, bless her soul] when we pulled up into the parking lot. We saw that infamous “HELL IS REAL” billboard about an hour out, and I found it quite ironic. For a park that’s been so full of death and negative energy, it was fitting that that’s where we saw the iconic sign.

When we got into the park, both of the Not-Evil Wooden Coasters [NEWC, as it is] were down. We didn’t know why regarding Beast, but we did find out later that Mystic was struggling from electrical issues that day. We liked to think they were conspiring to make the 2020 giga not suck and help everyone else with half a soul say “fuck off” to Steve. Enemy of the enemy is my friend and whatnot.

Instead, we decided to get a snake in our boot since we were already in Rivertown. Diamondback has always been a solid ride—I maintain that B&M hypers are like ordering chicken tenders at a new restaurant because it’s very, very hard to mess them up and even 232 is fun when the trims don’t hit—but she was running really well that day. Diamondback ended up being our final ride of the day in the pouring rain. Rain at 80 mph doesn’t feel very great, but it was a laugh riot and worth it. I keep meaning to get a front-row ride on this, but the back row is such a tantalizing experience that I can’t quite pull myself away from it.

As far as B&M hypers go (and I’m not counting Fury), Diamondback is now my favorite. At any other park, it would probably be my second favorite in the overall roster, but Snek is actually my third at KI because of the aforementioned NEWCs. I wish we were able to get a ride in the following day, but Coasterstock had her queues slammed. Oh well.

After that, we headed over to see our favorite little anxiety boy, Flight of Fear. I don’t get the hate these rides receive. I find both this and his twin at KD to be fine, upstanding rides that are always worth at least one lap when I go. It’s one of those rare rides where stopping on the MCBR actually works in its favor. We were also assigned to the front row, which gives me the biggest uwus. We came up with a really cool character concept if Orion/Polaris sucks in the queue for FOF, and even if the ride is underwhelming, we’re happy Felix has a vaguely-powerful ally. There’s not a whole lot else about FOF to say- the transitions were nice and whippy, the little alien as you pull into the exit station is adorable, and I like the enclosure of it. I hope FOF is around for a nice long while.

(Obligatory RIP Firehawk comment here as well. Thanks for being a good flyer. Piss off, Nighthawk.)

Since it was the only wooden coaster open, it’s time to talk about Racer. I don’t want to talk about Racer. But sadly, I have to talk about Racer. Everything about this ride feels wrong- the aerial view of the turnarounds, the tunnels on the brake runs, the way almost literally everyone else universally adores this ride… Racer holds a lot of energy, and all of it is cryptic. It makes me wish I’d ridden Thunder Road, because Rebel Yell does not have this sense of permanent creeping dread. Ride-wise, Racer is inoffensive. But the vibe that ride gives me isn’t good. At all. We rode twice, red and blue. We raced Deb, Kat, and Brandon while in red and lost. We were the only people on red train, but we did not feel alone in the worst possible way. We won when we rode blue to peek at construction. The cheering in the tunnels had us fucked up.

I hate that, if there are any personifications that have a chance of being real, it’s most likely Abraham and Thaddeus. I’ve never been so wrong about a coaster’s personification before I rode it in my life.

We needed an exorcism after that ride on blue train, so we went to Banshee next. Again, while not my favorite invert, I don’t understand why so many people seem to hate this ride. I think a B&M invert complements their park nicely, and that slow roll at the end is nothing short of fire-hot. It’s also tons of fun to flip off Outpost 5 while you’re on it. It’s what Brynn would want us to do. Plus, missing the pre-drop never fails to give me butterflies! I do wish they had played the audio scream before we dropped though.

We got to ride this with one of our Insta friends, Wild, and we were both really happy to see her. She’s a great kid, and Banshee is a fun ride. We love our pastel goth icon, and we love our Junkrat Stan of a little sister. We also befriended a Banshee ride operator, and their group chat is called “Banshee’s Hot Topic” and that makes me want to cry in a good way.

Bat is awful in the sense that it breaks my heart. Yes, Tanner as a character is very sad (especially so in the Project Shooting Star universe), but it always hammers home how badly I miss Big Bad Wolf. What I’d give for one last ride on the Rhine with my lupine friend… Bat’s in a beautiful area, but that queue makes me feel like I’m at Camp Crystal Lake and Jason’s about to have some fun. Also, can we all say how much we hate seeing SOB’s old station? Because I hate that! A lot!!

Again. Like Racer, Bat as a ride is objectively inoffensive. But there’s so much energy around it, and I’m not sure if it’s residual garbage leftover from Son, the gunpowder factory, and the safari or what. Bat feels so detached from the rest of the park, but I don’t think there’s a more perfect place than KI for a ride that feels this full of sorrow.

Vortex was a one-and-done for us after some sinfully delicious blue ice cream, but I do admit it was better in the rain. The drop actually provided some decent air, and while the transitions are pretty janky, it’s an Arrow from the 80s. You can’t go into it expecting something butter smooth like B&M. That isn’t fair. It’s still not my favorite Arrow looper, and it wasn’t even my favorite one of this trip, but I do think I might have judged it a tad too harshly before. Like FOF, there isn’t much else to say about this ride.

The people we met also made the day phenomenal! Wild, Brandon, Kat, Debra…this one’s for you. I raise my Raisin’ Cane’s tea to ya’ll, stay funky and ride on.

But one day at that cryptic-ass park is never enough, shit’s like Hotel California. Being gluttons for punishment, we returned to Cursed Island.

Kings Island is so different in bright sunshine. It almost feels like a normal amusement park. Almost. We went for the first couple of hours, since Coasterstock people were there and it was a Friday on top of that. It was also hot as a ghost pepper outside. I’m still really sad we missed Tristin and Plummy!! Maybe next time. We did, however, finally get to meet Stephanie in real-life, and she’s pretty chill. We did the dumbest shit for our picture. However, I’m 99% sure the ride operator said “Enjoy your ride on Son of Beast!” when she was with us and I heavily dislike that.

We’d done basically everything else that we had wanted to the day prior. We already had the credits for Backlot, Invertigo, and Adventure Express, and none of those really warranted waiting in the lines. Vortex and Bat had been ridden already this visit. We have mad love for Banshee, FOF, and Diamondback, but those waits were gnarly. We didn’t want to even look at Racer again, let alone ride it. So now, we went to the NEWCs.

Since Five is dead, we rode Beast three times that morning. She was over her alcoholic shitfit, I suppose, and was running very well. Brandon called Beast a good noodle. From a ride standpoint, you can make the case that until that final helix, Beast doesn’t do very much. I personally like how it’s a bit more speed-oriented, but I understand why some others might not. Like Boulder Dash, I think a lot of the ride experience comes from the scenery. I also think knowing Beast’s history makes it the marvel it is. We got some pretty good air on the first hill after the main drop, and that helix is always so damn scary to me. Top 10 coaster moment for sure.

Beast has a TON of energy to it, but unlike Racer or Bat, it isn’t malicious. You may not like Beast, but you WILL respect Beast, you feel? And that energy is why I think Beast will always be my favorite in the park, even over the giga (and especially so if those blueprints are real.) Beast isn’t just a coaster. It’s an experience, and one that makes the park so worth visiting. My only regret is we didn’t get one of those fantastic night-rides.

If those blueprints are real, it’s time to talk about what will most likely still be my second favorite coaster at KI come 2020. Since Thunderhead was my first major coaster, I always have held a soft spot for GCI. And while I do still believe Thunderhead is better, boy howdy do I love Mystic Timbers. It’s a shitshow of a name for a kickass ride. Lines only allowed us to ride once, but we were lucky enough to be assigned to row one. Mystic is definitely better towards the front, I believe. You feel better air there, and while I still don’t think MyTi’s got ejector, it’s stronger floater in the front. (The truck out front played Survivor and I had to scream “WOW I LOVE SIX FLAGS”, so maybe she was just pissy over that.)

I understand why people were disappointed with the shed. Holograms can’t hold a candle when you’re expecting a Verbolten-style drop track. But the shed is cute for what it is, and it’s better than being stacked in the sunshine. We saw the snake scene this time, which is probably my favorite since Tatzelwurm doesn’t even exist in PSS universe anymore. Killer Cat was the best shed scene, but snakes will do.

Also, fun fact about Mystic. When we visited in October, I kept saying how badly I wanted to hear Bonnie Tyler in the shed. We hear it. Friday, I jokingly went “oh booooy I hope I hear my girl Bonnie again!” Lo and behold, we hit the shed and it plays Total Eclipse of the Heart. I lost my goddamn mind. Mystic Timbers said 80s retro. Hate that name, but man oh man, do I love that ride. We love our GCIs with big tiddys and bad personalities.

We rode the train to snag some pictures of Mystic and Snake Friend, but then we dipped and hit Taco Bell as one does. It was better that way. Kings Island had told us all it wanted to for now, and it let us take our time to mosey to the next park and really digest what we’d seen. We also had the opportunity to meet back up with Bee and spend some time with her since we left!

All in all, KI is such a cursed park. I know saying that makes it sound like I really dislike KI, but that’s not the case. I adore Kings Island BECAUSE it’s so cryptic. Their lineup is solid, and even though we can’t truly judge the giga before it opens, I don’t think it’s going to elevate them any but it won’t necessarily bring the park down. There’s so, so much in Mason to unpack, especially in the months to come. I can’t wait to see them again.

#trip reports #cursed island makes me do the big uwu

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go-redgirl · 5 years

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Whoopi Goldberg Rips Debra Messing for Trump Donor Shaming

"The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg on Tuesday ripped actress Debra Messing for suggesting donors to a fundraiser for President Donald Trump be publicly identified, saying the move amounted to a "blacklist."

The "Will & Grace" co-star tweeted the suggestion to The Hollywood Reporter on Friday along with a post announcing an upcoming Trump fundraiser at in Beverly Hills during Emmys week.

"The public has a right to know," Messing said.

However, Goldberg called Messing's suggestion publicly dangerous.

"Listen, the last time people did this, people ended up killing themselves," Goldberg said on Tuesday's show.

"This is not a good idea, OK?" she added. "Your idea of who you don't want to work with is your personal business.

"Do not encourage people to print out lists because the next list that comes out, your name will be on and then people will be coming after you."

Goldberg continued: "We had something called a blacklist and a lot of really good people were accused of stuff. Nobody cared whether it was true or not. They were accused. And they lost their right to work.

"In this country, people can vote for who they want to," she added. "That is one of the great rights of this country."

President Trump bashed Messing for her post Sunday — and at least one of the president's visible African-American supporters, Dr. Darrell Scott, senior pastor and co-founder of the New Spirit Revival Center in Ohio, clapped back at the actress Tuesday.

"Put my name on the list," Scott declared. "Better yet … come see me."

___________________________________________________________

OPINION: DEBRA MESSING SEEMS TO HAVE SOME VERY HATEFUL ‘EVILNESS’ IN HER SOUL.

MUST STAY AWAY FROM HER!

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autumnsredglaze · 6 years

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Debra Hill. RIP

#debra hill

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usauknews · 5 years

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Trump rips Debra Messing for wanting to shame his campaign donors President Trump tore into actress Debra Messing in a Sunday tweet after the “Will and Grace” star called for outing those who show up for the president’s big-money fundraiser later this month in Beverly Hills.

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duranduratulsa · 2 years

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Spooktober Book 📖 of the day: Halloween by Curtis Richards (1979) #book #books #fiction #novel #horror #halloween #curtisrichards #70s #johncarpenter #debrahill #ripdebrahill #RichardCurtis #michaelmyers #theshape #BantamBooks #spooktober #Halloween #october

#book #books #novel #fiction #horror #Curtis Richards #Richard Curtis #halloween #John Carpenter #debra hill #rip debra hill #Michael Myers #the shape #70s #Spooktober #october #Spotify

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todaynewsstories · 6 years

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Under pressure, Trump orders FBI Kavanaugh probe, causing week delay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump, under intense pressure from moderates in his own party over his Supreme Court nominee, on Friday ordered an FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh at the request of Senate Republicans, a move that will delay the contentious confirmation process by a week.

The key player in a day of dramatic and unexpected developments was Senator Jeff Flake, a moderate Republican retiring from the Senate in January who provided the decisive vote to approve Kavanaugh’s nomination in the Judiciary Committee and send the matter to the full Senate.

But Flake, after urgent consultations with colleagues including Democratic Senator Chris Coons, cast the vote only after asking the Republican-led panel to request that the Trump administration pursue an FBI probe lasting up to seven days of the explosive allegations against Kavanaugh.

Trump, who had previously rebuffed Democratic demands for an FBI probe, granted the request, ordering the “supplemental investigation” to be “limited in scope and completed in less than one week.”

Flake’s move came a day after an extraordinary hearing in which university professor Christine Blasey Ford detailed her sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh. Flake’s action also came only hours after two protesters who said they were sexual assault survivors cornered him in an elevator and castigated him for announcing he would vote for Kavanaugh in the committee.

“That’s what you’re telling all women in America – that they don’t matter, they should just keep it to themselves,” one of the protesters shouted at Flake, a frequent Trump critic who looked shaken by the encounter.

Flake, who had a pained expression when he made his request for an FBI probe in the committee after forcing a brief delay in the scheduled vote, was supported by two other Republican moderates, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, both of whom have not announced whether they would support Kavanaugh.

The allegations against Kavanaugh, with the backdrop of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault that has toppled a succession of powerful men, have riveted the country even as they have imperiled his confirmation chances.

Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge, for a lifetime job on the top U.S. court had appeared to be going along smoothly until Ford’s allegation surfaced last week. He has denied her allegation and accusations of sexual misconduct made by two other women.

The committee vote followed a jarring and emotional hearing on Thursday in which Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in 1982 when both were high school students in Maryland. Kavanaugh denied the accusation and accused Democrats – who have opposed his nomination from the outset – of a “calculated and orchestrated political hit.”

In a statement issued by the White House, Kavanaugh said he would cooperate with the FBI investigation.

If confirmed, Kavanaugh would consolidate conservative control of the nation’s highest court and advance Trump’s broad effort to shift the American judiciary to the right.

The controversy has unfolded just weeks ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to seize control of Congress from the Republicans.

‘RIPPED APART’

“This country’s being ripped apart here,” Flake told his fellow senators about the nomination fight. “I think we can have a short pause,” he added.

“We ought to do what we can to make sure that we do all due diligence with a nomination this important,” Flake said.

Even before Flake’s move, it was unclear if Republicans had the votes to confirm Kavanaugh on the Senate floor. Republicans hold a slim Senate 51-49 majority, making the votes of Murkowski and Collins crucial. Trump can afford to lose the vote of only one senator in his own party if all the Democrats vote against Kavanaugh and Vice President Pence casts a tie-breaking vote.

Trump said Murkowski and Collins must do what they think is right. Moderate Democrats Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp, who have not yet announced how they will vote on Kavanaugh, also supported Flake’s move.

Trump indicated he was sticking with Kavanaugh, saying he has not thought “even a little bit” about replacing him.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S., September 27, 2018. Win McNamee/Pool via REUTERS

With tempers flaring, the committee advanced the nomination 11-10 along party lines. The Senate formally moved to open debate on Kavanaugh’s nomination later on Friday in a move agreed to by both parties, setting the stage for a planned final vote on confirmation at the end of next week.

“This is a nomination that deserves to move forward,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

Ford’s lawyer, Debra Katz, welcomed the FBI investigation and thanked the senators who pushed for it but decried the limits imposed on it. “A thorough FBI investigation is critical to developing all the relevant facts,” Katz said.

The timing of the panel’s session gave committee members little time to digest Thursday’s remarkable testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford. Trump said he found Ford’s testimony “very compelling” and Kavanaugh’s angry and defiant response “incredible.”

Before Flake’s move, committee Republicans voted down a Democratic motion seeking to subpoena Mark Judge, a Kavanaugh friend who Ford said witnessed the assault. Judge had told the committee in a written statement he does not recall any such incident. He is likely to be central to any FBI probe.

Judge’s lawyer said he would cooperate with the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.

As the committee set its vote, some Democrats left the room in protest. “What a railroad job,” Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono said. One Republican, Senator John Kennedy, called Kavanaugh’s confirmation process “an intergalactic freak show.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s senior Democrat, called Kavanaugh’s testimony unseemly for a judicial nominee.

“This was someone who was aggressive and belligerent. I have never seen someone who wants to be elevated to the highest court in the country behave in that manner. In stark contrast, the person who testified yesterday and demonstrated a balanced temperament was Dr. Ford,” Feinstein said.

The American Bar Association, which earlier endorsed Kavanaugh, and the dean of Yale Law School, which Kavanaugh attended, also called for an FBI probe on Friday, the first indication of the legal profession turning on the nominee.

Slideshow (11 Images)

Kavanaugh could be the deciding vote on contentious legal issues if he is confirmed to the nine-member court, with disputes involving abortion, immigration, gay rights, voting rights and transgender troops possibly heading to the court soon. The court begins its next term on Monday.

Reporting by Richard Cowan and David Morgan; Additional reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Amanda Becker, Andrew Chung, Roberta Rampton Susan Heavey and Bernie Woodall; Editing by Will Dunham

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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