Posted on 09/29/2018 3:32:05 PM PDT by StAnDeliver
Brit Hume said on Friday that he knew both Kavanaugh's father and Blasey-Ford's father. Easy to understand how Hume would have known Kavanaugh's father (attorney and trade executive Everett Edward Kavanaugh, Jr.) and mother (Judge Martha Kavanaugh).
But Blasey-Ford's father? Ralph Blasey? At first one would think, well maybe through academia, or maybe another mid- to high-level functionary in the federal government.
Nope.
Ralph Blasey is a Republican's Republican. A GOP old boy described by the Washington Post as an éminence grise at Burning Tree Country Club, where Blasey was elevated over decades from legacy member to finally President of the all-male Burning Tree from 2004 to 2006.
Men-only Burning Tree Country Club has been a bastion of reclusiveness as one of the most-favored DC golf retreats for Presidents up until Ford.
Burning Tree has been in the news time to time for the Club's discriminatory practices against women.
Just earlier this year, Vox sub-sub-site The Ringer managed to work in Burning Tree in a remembrance of Augusta's Hootie Johnson squaring off against Martha Burk:
"In the case of a purely private institution, there was nothing to be done. If an all-male club like Burning Tree, near Washington, D.C., wanted to discriminate, and it stayed private year-round, it could do whatever it wanted with constitutional protection..."
But there was a far more revealing expose about Burning Tree in '03, just one year before Blasey-Ford's father Ralph was President of Burning Tree Country Club (excerpts by fair use):
"The Club opened in 1923 after, the story goes, a male foursome from the Chevy Chase Country Club was stuck behind a slow-playing group of female golfers.During its salad days in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, Burning Tree reeked of political power. Presidents were extended honorary membership: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, later Nixon, Ford and George Herbert Walker Bush (along with his impressive 11-handicap).
Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger played at Burning Tree, as did House Speaker Tip O'Neill.
Today ('03), easing into its 81st season, Burning Tree Club is a timeless place. That is to say, the past is omnipresent. There is a faded, sepia-tinged tone to the grounds; the antique clubs of famous men are displayed on the walls. The attitudes and prevailing world view are of a different time as well.
Burning Tree, you see, is an all-male organism, the classic old-boy, blue-blood men's club. The initiation fee is $75,000 and membership -- capped around 600, including honorariums and golfers past their playing days -- is by invitation only. The membership list never has been made public. But if you are a woman with the financial goods and the game, forget about it.
When Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981, she ended a streak at Burning Tree; previously, Supreme Court justices had always been extended honorary memberships to the club. Despite her polished 12-handicap, cultivated on the challenging layouts in Scottsdale, Ariz., O'Connor never crossed the threshold.
Among those that pass for the club's high-profile members...CBS newsman Robert Schieffer...and [the late] Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Most of the members are more anonymous lawyers, lobbyists and businessmen. The club, not surprisingly, tends to attract more Republicans than Democrats.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) was still amped. Winding into her seventh (or eighth) paragraph about the insidious nature of all-men's clubs, a reporter tried to wedge in a word edgewise.
"I haven't finished my thought," Maloney continued last week from her Washington office. "I think it is wrong. Some of our colleagues are members of these clubs and they should be pushing to change their policies. If the major national leaders of this country don't understand that belonging to these clubs is wrong … it sends the wrong message about values of discrimination and fairness."
While the press conference, attended by the now notorious Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations, was aimed at Augusta National and this week's Masters golf tournament, the House resolution introduced by Maloney and 14 co-sponsors also applies closer to home: Burning Tree Club in Bethesda, Md.
The non-binding resolution calls on top federal employees -- those in Congress as well as the executive and judicial branches -- not to join private clubs that discriminate on the basis of race or gender. Neither Augusta National nor Burning Tree were named in the wording of the resolution but it is well known that Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.) [was] a member at Augusta National and Senators John Warner (R-Va.) and Don Nickles (R-Oklahoma) [were] members at Burning Tree.
There are no women's facilities at the club. Female taxi drivers are not allowed inside the gate. When a woman flying a small plane crashed near the 18th hole in the 1950s, Burning Tree employees quickly secured an area around the pilot and wreckage until the police arrived, when she was removed from the barbwire-protected grounds. When a female Secret Service agent announced herself at the gate in the mid-1980s -- she was working a security detail for the visiting Australian prime minister -- she, too, was turned away.
Each December, however, wives of members are permitted to visit the pro shop -- so that they might select gifts for their husbands. The hours are 9 to 11 a.m. on weekdays, by appointment only. There are cashmere sweaters, with the imperial Burning Tree crest, golf equipment and Christmas figurines.
Jane Vieth, wife of member G. Duane Vieth, a Washington lawyer, told the newspaper's Style section, "I don't know what wives would do without it. It's such a great day-care center. It's simply wonderful for them to have a place to go, even if they can't play golf any more. There are a lot of them who've gotten sort of decrepit. They go to have lunch, visit with their friends and play gin rummy."
It is said the action at the cribbage table is sometimes more lively than on the course itself, which is neither long nor a particularly challenging par-71. The active local golfers, according to reports, constitute about half of the total members. There is no employee charged with making tee times; even on a Saturday morning in the spring, there are no lines. Members simply warm up and walk to the first tee.
The estrogen-free atmosphere comes at a dear price -- something approaching $1 million a year.
Back in 1983, Maryland's Attorney General, Stephen H. Sachs, filed a lawsuit against Burning Tree Club, claiming that its policy of excluding women was "arbitrary, invidious and irrational." The suit called for the Montgomery Country Circuit Court to revoke the real estate tax abatement granted in exchange for preserving open space. The state's complaint essentially argued that the tax break made the government a partner in sex discrimination, a violation of Maryland's constitution.
Before a woman judge ruled six years later against the club, Burning Tree paid only $13,000 of $186,000. After the judgment, members -- who declined to change the membership policy -- picked up the considerable tab which has reportedly risen to nearly $1 million per year for the property that is assessed in excess of $20 million."
Now in the present. There have been unsourced reports that Blasey is concerned that he would lose his Board position with another country club -- Columbia Country Club in Maryland.
In a statement to the Washington Post, Blasey-Ford's mother-in-law said she had "no idea" why the Blaseys have not shown public support for Christine.
But her blockhead husband couldn't keep his mouth shut:
"She didn’t always get along with her parents because of differing political views," Russell Ford said. "It was a very male-dominated environment. Everyone was interested in what’s going on with the men, and the women are sidelined, and she didn’t get the attention or respect she felt she deserved."
Wow.
…”why are there so few images of CBF on the web?”
Maybe because that person who ‘testified’ at the hearing wasn’t Christine Blasey-Ford. Therefore the persons who wanted to use her testimony to sink Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment removed almost all the pictures of the ‘real’ Dr. Ford, so they could bring in that ringer when CBF refused to come forward to repeat the allegation in the letter(s) in public and under oath. Remember, the first letter supposedly said that the writer wanted to remain anonymous. The person who did testify looked 20 years older than CBF; “she” looked like a man in a wig and in drag. That person spoke in an artificially falsetto, ‘little girl’ voice, and seemed to throw around technical jargon without understanding it, while showing limitations in vocabulary and grammar one would not expect from a person with advanced degrees. So maybe CBF’s pictures have been removed so that the Committee members and the public wouldn’t realize the she did not come forward in public, that as she was quoted as repeatedly saying that she never intended to come out publicly, and that her attorneys brought out an imposter to read the script they had written for her; maybe the imposter was not even a woman, but a female impersonator.
Well, it could be so. ;-) Prove that it isn’t. s/
Thanks to you both for answering. That puts the brothers 3 and 5 years older than Ford. Both in range to have known the Kavanaughs. Landon School seems of better quality that Holton.
Jeepers. Not a single blonde serving wench or ball scrubber to be found anywhere??
Late in my high school teaching career I picked up the AP Psych class. That meant certification training.
I noticed that many of my students that took AP and planning on being a psych major in college, we dealing with emotional issues. I also found that many of the professionals in the field that I met, and many famous psychologist, were really screwed up.
The emotional fragility Ford showed didn't surprise me.
So well said. I'm jealous, that I didn't think of ALL your plain to see TRUTH'S!
Oldest brother Ralph is 57. How can you compare Langdon and Holton Arms both single sex schools?
How can you compare...
You really can’t, especially looking over three decades into the past. My subjective judgement was based on an extremely limited comparison of internet data posted by each school, but that can reflect PC marketing more than reality. Both offer inexpressibly better academics and atmosphere (for those who take advantage of them) than the gigantic public schools I attended.
Burning Tree us mens only
She would not be there. Women can use gift shop a few hours to buy mens gifts
Did it ever occur to the libs that a club that excludes women would be the best thing for wives to send their husbands without fear of them getting into an affair?
I was a psych major in the 70s, Pre Med, great grades, had to take Honors for some reason that still isn’t clear to me. I guess there were about 12 of us in the honors class. I never did understand WTF that was about. Why did I have to take the class I still don’t know. In my senior year, twice a week 12 of us met with a couple fairly famous professors who had been grad students of a couple originals. All we did was sit and listen to their stories. It was the easiest class since kindergarten. They were raging drunks. I mean drinking at 10 AM drunks.
“Kavanaugh’s mother, the Judge, saved your family from the humiliation of foreclosure, after having been brought to the brink of losing your house by. your. father?
Never happened, already debunked and quite the opposite...........”
Actually stan is saying the same thing your are. BK’s mother did sign off on ending the foreclosure as an agreement was worked out. Which is what Stan posted.
apropo of nothing:
DID YOU SEE THIS?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3691968/posts?page=1#1
not this, but I remember reading something about that.
DID YOU SEE THIS?
Do we "have" to?
It's all too exhausting.
Photo - argh!
You’re right.
Unfortunately for everyone, she will be back.
Those kinds of people “never” shut up and go away.
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