2018 American Political Scene

[tbm3fan]

So,she could have filed charges,but went into politics.Mhh,nice.I suppose it is illegal to make false/unprovable accusations.

I love this line. Seen it many times already. Took a colleague to task over this same line and he didn't like my reference to his lack of thought.

I will say the mild version and that is "I love how an mature adult male mind is telling a traumatized, no doubt incoherent, 15-16 year old girl what to do after such a sexually aggressive attack."

[DOR]

So he is saying the controversial (as I have read) vote count in Florida that made Bush #2 President lead directly to ISIS? Not sure I follow that myself.

Vote count.
Dubious becomes President.
Cheney/Wolfowitz/Rice invade Iraq for no good reason.
Iraq destroyed and oh-so-badly occupied.
ISIS rises from the ruins.

[DOR]

Hold on a bit.So you say you believe an allegation 30 years after the fact,without any evidence whatsoever.

Pardon me,but as I recall,it is innocent until proven guilty.Proven being the key word.Otherwise,sorry,but it is just a story.

Your nation goes that way,you'll find rapists every week,with everyone.Nothing will work.
Next level is probably ''hate crime''.X said nasty words 30 years ago.

Insanity does not even start to describe this thing with a ''rape'' from 30+ years ago.Geez,that is older than me.

First, people do tend to remember horrible events decades later. It's called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and it is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event.

Second, Kavanaugh isn't on trial, so 'innocent until proven guilty' doesn't apply. He's in a job interview, and if you've ever interviewed someone who made your skin crawl, you know you really don't want to have that person working for you.

Third, it takes a very sick mind to suggest that finding rapists every week is somehow a bad thing.

[GVChamp]

I was thinking about this bit late last night. In my opinion this is looking at it incorrectly. Blacking out is not the issue. The issue is alcohol and it's effects on the human brain. The first effect of alcohol is to lower a person's inhibitions. This can result in a Jekyll and Hyde effect in some people and not in others.

I am generally an introvert except in my office or around people I know well. However, when I get really drunk which has been three times in my life, I become an extrovert. The first time in college my dorm room mate said I was so funny last night which of course I didn't recall as much as waking up in the bathroom stall. The third time, last New Year's after shots of Jameson's, I actually sang karaoke with my wife and I hate karaoke. I remember everything that night.

On the other hand there are those who become belligerent and aggressive after some drinks. I knew one who was a friend in high school. During my third year in college I had a party in my condo where most got drunk enough to fall off retaining walls and roll down the hill. My friend was very drunk and when I had to break up my brother and his brother for getting into something he followed me into my bedroom. When I turned around he shoved me down and right then I knew something was going to happen from his manner. The only problem was I wasn't drunk and when I rose up I hit him square in the nose and blood splattered everything. He stumbled out, went down the stairs to the entry way, smashed his head twice into the drywall, and headed to the front door. I leapt from the top floor down to the entry way and landed on his back and smashed his face into a solid wood door. Two offensive lineman pried me off. I hear he needed 43 stitches as I never saw him again.

He was drunk and belligerent. I wasn't drunk and acted in self defense. It has been mentioned that Kavanaugh was also belligerent and aggressive when drunk. Maybe so. He was very well controlled through his time in front of the Senate panel. However, he came out extremely aggressive after Ford as though he had lost some of his control, ergo inhibitions that constrain our behavior. His friend Judge saying it never happened yet having written a book on going through high school in a drunken haze isn't the best reference for either of them on that point.

No real disagreement with any of this. It's totally possible you can become an asshole while intoxicated, remember everything, and just lie about it later. I think Snapper mentioned something about blackouts speciifically though, and it DEFINITELY was a topic on Twitter among the political pundits. I think Matt Y (vox writer) specifically said something along the lines of "if a girl accused me of sexual assault, I'd have to take it seriously, because I black out when I drink," with the implication that this happens to everyone. And...it doesn't.

[astralis]

mihais,

It ceased being a job interview when the man was accused of being a serial rapist.

actually none of the accusers said he was a rapist.

and yes, it's still a job interview. absent an investigation actually proving he lied or did commit assault, he'll still keep his current job.

As for the FBI,meh,whatever.The goal seems to be delay and obfuscation.

quite odd. with one hand you ask why she hasn't filed charges or bring evidence, with the other you say "meh whatever" when she does ask for an investigation.

''credible but unproven allegation of sexual assault and heavy drinking on your record'' ...yeah,right.I declare you guilty without ever bothering to check anything.I declare everyone guilty of that.Show me one who hasn't touched a woman's breasts and butt in high school.Even while dancing at a party.As for drinking at that age,everyone does it.It's a rite of passage.Men generally chill out after 21.

that's not what he's accused of.

in HS i certainly didn't get belligerently drunk, force a woman into a bedroom, try to take off a woman's clothes, and put a hand over her mouth.

that's not a rite of passage, that's sexual assault and attempted rape.

note -Republicans- and DONALD TRUMP called her credible.

[astralis]

GVChamp,

Well, I haven't, but in the culture of "schrodinger's rapist," "believe women," and "why would anyone lie about this," these accussations are unfalsifiable. An FBI "investigation" into a high school party from 3 decades ago will yield almost nothing, particularly since it's not a real investigation and they don't have subponea power, IIRC. Only the Senate could issue a subponea.

if it was as non-threatening as all that, the Republicans would have readily agreed to it on the spot, vs a singular retiring-Jeff Flake doing it after feeling bad after getting cornered by some activists.

even looking at it from a political timeline perspective, one week or even two would hardly throw off the nomination timeline, because either way this will be resolved before the new Senate sits down. if the investigation does come up with nothing, then that would weaken Blasey-Ford's claims and give political cover for Republicans to vote Kavanaugh in.

that the GOP fought it tooth-and-nail, and with the reports that the WH is limiting the extent of the investigation even within this one week window, indicates that they're clearly concerned about something. which is odd, because i thought Kavanaugh was a choir boy who just cultivated friendships, did service projects, studied, and volunteered.

[TopHatter]

DONALD TRUMP called her credible.

Given his grasp of the English language, on par with a not-very-bright 6 year old, someone might want to find out if Donald Trump knows what the word "credible" actually means.

Alternately, we all know exactly how Donald Trump feels about casually assaulting women.

But hey, his policies, right?

[astralis]

yeah, just the fact that Trump thinks that him sharing his opinions about sexual assault will help the GOP in any way...

[Albany Rifles]

i love this line. Seen it many times already. Took a colleague to task over this same line and he didn't like my reference to his lack of thought.

I will say the mild version and that is "i love how an mature adult male mind is telling a traumatized, no doubt incoherent, 15-16 year old girl what to do after such a sexually aggressive attack."

bingo!!!!

[Wooglin]

quite odd. with one hand you ask why she hasn't filed charges or bring evidence, with the other you say "meh whatever" when she does ask for an investigation.

She didn't. Her lawyers did. Not the same thing.

Not sure who saw the hearings, some of you obviously didn't, but I watched the whole thing. One thing that was abundantly clear during the testimony is that this woman was used and thrown under the bus to create the situation we're in.

She struck me as a credible witness. I believe something happened to her. I also found her to be rather meek, with emotional issues. Weather this is from her experience or was already present and amplified her experience is impossible to say. One thing was certain though, after Feinstein got involved and got her lawyered up, the truth of this womans story, and her wishes on how this was to be handled, were the least of their concerns. They (either the lawyers or Feinsteins office) leaked the letter she wrote in confidentiality to create the political circus we have today. They sat on it, ignored her wishes, withheld information from her, and then threw her under the bus to drop this at the last minute before the confirmation, publically. It was calculated and she was the sacrificial lamb. Her testimony made this all abundantly clear. It could have been dealt with many weeks ago, confidentially, as Ford wanted. But that wasn't in the playbook for Feinstein and the lawyers. It takes a special breed of slimeball to do what they did to her.

As to the truth of her story, there's just too many holes and missing details, and is refuted by every person named as witness. That's kind of hard to ignore. She certainly seemed believable to me, but that's it. I think of the cases that started with a believable story that turned out to be false. It's not good enough to just sound convincing.

In the end they got their FBI investigation and managed to stall the process a bit longer. Now look at the news today. The narrative is already changing. It's largely about some college roommate and Kavanaugh's drinking. They've already moved past Ford and the other allegations. They served their purpose and are no longer that useful beyond the disingenuous talking point. They need something new to attack. Anything will do.

[snapper]

It ceased being a job interview when the man was accused of being a serial rapist.

I wish it had ceased to be a job interview but sadly some of those who support an imbecile President still want "one of the boys" on the Supreme Court so he can judge the actions of a traitor. If he cannot tell the truth how much he drank when 18 like any normal person - is he the right person for the job?

[snapper]

Vote count.
Dubious becomes President.
Cheney/Wolfowitz/Rice invade Iraq for no good reason.
Iraq destroyed and oh-so-badly occupied.
ISIS rises from the ruins.

Yes... but necessary cause from A to D? It rains in Kerala and woman gets run over outside my side in Kyiv.... Should I stop it raining in India?

[Mihais]

And the attacks on her are some of the very reason she never came forward before.

Much like we have seen with the Catholic Church scandals. may people who were sexually assaulted to not come forward for decades.


And no she became a psychologist, not a politician.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Blasey_Ford

Sorry,Sir,but if it's that so,she should have bypassed the politics entirely.Who the heck sends a Senator a letter about his/her personal trauma?

I love this line. Seen it many times already. Took a colleague to task over this same line and he didn't like my reference to his lack of thought.

I will say the mild version and that is "I love how an mature adult male mind is telling a traumatized, no doubt incoherent, 15-16 year old girl what to do after such a sexually aggressive attack."

Yeah,you are really a thoughtful one,ain't you? It's not a young girl we're talking about,but a grown-up woman.And even more so,it's about the way your politics are going.The lady in question is already yesterday news.
I can understand bias.I cannot,however,understand the wish to condone stupidity.And the Dems are taking their electorate for imbeciles.Even more than is usually the case in politics.

[GVChamp]

I wish it had ceased to be a job interview but sadly some of those who support an imbecile President still want "one of the boys" on the Supreme Court so he can judge the actions of a traitor. If he cannot tell the truth how much he drank when 18 like any normal person - is he the right person for the job?

I don't think normal people are under oath for those questions.

[snapper]

Fine but suppose someone is interviewing you (or I) for a job and asks what sort of time we had as undergrads... Do you snarl at them and accuse someone - anyone - of having it in for you? Bang your fist on table? Personally it wouldn't bother me - yea sure we got drunk sometimes and we ALL inhaled so what? But then I did not go around sexually assaulting drunk boys (or girls!).