Kavana(ugh)

[living sounds]

Again, why not let the FBI investigate?

Also, if you look at the pattern of people answering to questions from reporters, the way they evade clear answers, it seems very much there is something there...

After all the dirty tricks Republicans have now played for decades, even rather recently with a Supreme Court appointment, one could hardly blame Democrats if this actually were a stunt.

I have seen the video of Kavenaugh trying to delay an underage immigrant girl's abortion. Add in all the other stuff he did besides the things he got acused of recently. Ultimately, the majority of people in the US don't agree with him on most issues. He should not be on the Supreme Court.

 

[dmp]

I just got to the part where Kavanaugh went off on the political left and the Democrats in the Senate. He dropped all pretense of being a non-partisan judge. Completely disqualifying for a Supreme Court judge or even a lower court judge.
And the Republican's only defense of putting an attempted rapist on the court is that Democrats delayed it 45 days and are holding up the rushed confirmation. After Republicans in the Senate delayed Garland's confirmation 400 days.

 

[fazer]

attempted rapist

.

Now you sound like a cnn reporter.  Alleged with no evidence.  Guilty until proven innocent.  Have a great future.  Let’s repeal the constitution. 

You pick your facts and preview your reality. 

Pass is still in the air.  If he is approved.  The left will be furious.  The republican will get hit by women blaming men for eternity.  I’m sure you hated Graham but I loved his reply.   

Democrats need some kind of message, instead all they have is we don’t like Trump.    GDP at 4.2%. 2nd quarter.  The Dems want to go back to OB and let’s not expect over 1% GDP.    Where is the leader with motivation to succeed at anything besides get Trump.

 

[JohnRoberts]

That is several hours I can't get back....

Sadly it appears that both are victims. Ford didn't need a lawyer and polygraph test (?). She needed sexual assault counseling and maybe some serious therapy work on reconstructing her memory of what actually happened.

She clearly became a pawn of the Resist movement and was manipulated  to throw a wrench in the confirmation process instead of actually trying to help her or bring her peace (the timing after congress became involved is beyond suspicious).  Kavanaugh was angry and with good reason.

It became immediately obvious that the coordinated democratic questioning was trying to get a sound bite of Kavanaugh refusing to ask for a FBI investigation,  :  while that is not even his responsibility (not to mention he has already been investigated a half dozen times).

A FBI investigation just gathers together "he saids" and "she saids" into a report and does not draw any conclusions. We already got to see the headline "she saids" and "he saids". She said Kavanugh sexually attacked her, he said he didn't. Her supporting corroboration was sketchy to nonexistent, his defense and supporting evidence seemed more plausible (IMO).

I believe they both testified honestly about what they believe happened, but I an inclined to question her specific recollection because of the significant gaps in her account.

She needs to get some more therapy to work on her recollection of events, if and when she remembers more facts or where a smoking gun is buried, we can then investigate and maybe impeach Supreme Court Justice Kananaugh.

Once again I am embarrassed to be an American.. not by Ford or Kavanaugh (both victims IMO), but several of those senators need to slither back under their rocks.

JR 

 

[hodad]

She clearly became a pawn of the Resist movement

JR

Kavanaugh's a conspiracy theorist too.  No wonder you like him so much.

Your entire political party belongs in a mental institution.

 

[fazer]

Ya and your mother where’s combat boots. 

Take that.  LOL!

 

[Matador]

  I’m still good with Kavanaugh.  I fully agree with Linsey Graham’s, accessment of that procedings.  It’s America the Great Divide. 

Try as I might, I scoured quotes from Graham and couldn't find anything, so please help me out:  Graham raged about Dem's seeking "to hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020!".

Where was this outpouring of rage when Merrick Garland was being denied a hearing?  Oh right, I always forget...it's only "politicized" when your side isn't benefitting.

And guess what?  "Due process", "reasonable doubt", and "rules of evidence" have nothing to do with this confirmation process.  The only question before Senators is whether Kavanagh is "fit" to be on the Supreme Court.  Kavanagh isn't entitled to anything. Any contortions about "burden of proof" are just that, contortions.

I suspect the GOP is willing to pay any political price to get their guy in, even if they have to sacrifice the House and Senate, because they know Kavanagh will be wrecking damage for generations, well past the time this current generation of clowns are retired.

 

[sodderboy]

Dirty absolute filthy progressive reverb chamber media% politics at its best.  Rewind the clock, switch D and R, take sex out of it, and hodad would be gnashing and wailing about a final-minute release by SJC minority chair Chunk Gassley of a picture of SC candidate Sonya Sodomgomor wearing a Che hat and Lenin shirt.  The old vid of her admitting that the  judiciary is the real seat of Constitutional change in the US was totally ignored by the %PRCM at the time. . .  Nothing to see there, just a joke!&

I lost count of the phrase "old white men" as mentioned on National Progressive Radio during morning drive* this week.  The treachery of accusative politics is a powerful uncontrollable monster.

Mike
* morning drive talk radio is such garbage in NYC that I am reduced to NPR for anything intellectually engaging, even if it is as a dissenter.
& not a joke at all, which is why all the last minute scorched-earth politics run by the "party" out of power

 

[fazer]

Watch the video of I’ve had enough  and  I’m not going to take it anymore.  Don’t read quotes

Oh your probable looking at news channels that cut that out immediately.

I’m voting Linsey for president.  That was a powerful moment during 6 hours.  Only second to Kavanaughs. Expression of abuse by postpone at all cost and no concern for fords experience.  He’s a good man.  I’d fight too, the rest of the republicans sure weren’t helping.  Go Linsey Graham

 

[Bo Deadly]

Accusations and politics aside, it is worth pointing out that, for someone who is supposed to be so over-qualified, I think Kavanaugh exposed himself a little today. Those angry partisan outbursts could be a problem.

 

[fazer]

Could be. 

 

[john12ax7]

The supreme court should be a non-partisan impartial decider of law.  The fact that people's opinions on this whole thing  is based on R or D just shows how much of a political s*** show the US has become.

I listened to snippets from both sides,  and it's not easy to sort out what actually happened.  Regardless,  the fact that Kavanaugh himself is so partisan should in and of itself disqualify him from the position.

 

[Gold]

Who wants to run for office after this spectacle.

Democratic women.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I watched the whole thing and it was a cluster fsk....  Neither side won, we all lost something.

It was several hours of both sides trying to coax out useful sound bites (those are the short clips being repeated on TV to persuade low information voters one way or the other.) There were a few fairly bizarre moments, like when a senator questioned Kavanaugh about fart comments in his HS yearbook. :-[ Then there was Sen Feinstein awkwardly trying to explain how Ford's accusation leaked to the press (she blamed Ford, the victim  ). Expect instead to see the shorter PC sound bite of Sen Feinstein vehemently denying that she leaked it.  : 

Indeed SCOTUS wasn't always so politicized but the entire judiciary has become weaponized as a way to change the country without having to control the legislature and WH (judicial activism), so both sides load the judiciary with philosophically friendly judges when they can, not just SCOTUS.

In recent history Robert Bork (nominated by President Regan for SCOTUS) is most remembered not for his good work but because his name became a verb.

Bork has a word named for him in the Oxford English Dictionary. The verb “bork” is used as slang, to "defame or vilify (a person) systematically, esp. in the mass media, usually with the aim of preventing his or her appointment to public office; to obstruct or thwart (a person) in this way."

While Bork was an early example of using a political litmus test to decide for SCOTUS, it was also coincidental with live television broadcasting the hearing (politics has been downhill ever since IMO).

Clarence Thomas was similarly attacked ("Borked")  by accusations of sexual harassment toward Anita Hill  (leaked by FBI). Despite that he was confirmed in a close vote. 

The Kavanaugh hearing is following that familiar pattern. There is vote scheduled for tomorrow, but I have given up predicting future vote outcomes, so we'll see what happens.

JR

 

[pucho812]

I caught most of it today. shit show does not begin to describe it.  I have never seen more grandstanding in my life  by people who seemed so unprepared.

 

[DaveP]

I started to write a response to this but decided to delete it instead. I hope you didn't mean what this sounds like.

No I have never sexually assaulted anyone, if that's what you mean.

What I'm saying is that children do things that are unacceptable as adults, it's part of growing up.  When I was in the second year of the infants aged about 6, a girl announced she would be pulling her knickers down after school for anyone who cared to look.  There was a queue of boys as you can imagine, this was 1956.

I remember girls with developed breasts being touched-up (today read sexually assaulted) at school around 1962 aged 12.  Afterwards, they had expressions on their faces that showed a mixture of irritation mixed with satisfaction at being the centre of attention.  No-one ever reported these events or was traumatised in those days.  Bullying of boy on boy was damaging for a few but that was another issue.

While I think the FBI could investigate the matter, I'm not sure its appropriate for a government agency to be investigating what is basically drunken childish adolescent behaviour.  Dr Ford seems like a thoroughly nice woman who is probably too sensitive for the world she found herself in and has been damaged as a result.  I'm not sure that what we do as children should define our reputation as adults, if it does then the verb "to mature" has no relevance in today's world.

Obviously, the election of judge k to the supreme court has enormous implications in your weird legal system  (personal politics are not relevant in the UK supreme court), so disproportionate weight is given to stories/facts like this, the #metoo movement has added further heat to the  atmosphere.  Are there women in the resist movement who would perjure themselves for the cause? Probably.  Would a judge lie to protect his reputation?  Probably.  If it were not for the implications of the appointment nobody would give a damn about what happened when they were minors.

Certainly, both Clinton and JFK would have failed miserably on any integrity test devised in today's fevered climate.

DaveP

 

[living sounds]

No-one ever [...] was traumatised in those days. 

And how would you know that?

I think there is the problem of making things worse by pathologizing certain behaviour, and certain discussions for a long time now have had a tendency to turn hysterical.

But that doesn't mean there was or is nothing there.

 

[DaveP]

And how would you know that?

From daily observation over the school years.  I would say that girls with flat chests probably suffered more than the girls with breasts who were molested.

The stress of threats and bullying was a much bigger deal at school in those days.  I could name a few kids whose life was made a misery back then, I hated it then and even more so now.

DaveP

 

[DaveP]

Just out of interest, the word "trauma" was not really known or in common parlance in the UK back in the day.

I first came across it when trying to write down the lyrics of the US group "The Association's" hit  "Along comes Mary"  in 1966.......

"The psychodramas and the traumas gone"

We had to look it up in the dictionary, I guess it was much more common in the US.

DaveP

 

[living sounds]

"One thing that Ford said that no one rebutted is that she was so traumatized by the alleged rape attempt that 20 years later, when she and her husband remodeled their house, she insisted (and got) two front doors, something that her husband, the contractor, and others thought was nutty beyond belief. Her fear was being trapped again, as she was in the bedroom where the alleged attempted rape occurred. One has to ask if someone who the Democrats had set up to lie in order to shoot down the nomination would have thought to make an apparently absurd architectural decision 20 years ago in order to appear more credible now. If so, that person had the same foresight as the alleged individual who thought to put birth announcements in Honolulu newspapers when Barack Obama was born in 1961, knowing that he would need cover when running for president 47 years later."

https://electoral-vote.com/evp2018/Senate/Maps/Sep28.html