For days I’ve been trying to write a post about Professor Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were teens. And for days I’ve been deleting everything I wrote and starting again.
I want to be fair. I want to get it right. The problem is we can’t know what the truth of the situation is. On top of that, there are the unavoidable political ramifications.
I know virtually nothing about either of the protagonists. All I can do is go on what seems most likely from the evidence we have. At the same time, how can I be sure that my own opinions, beliefs, and prejudices aren’t affecting my judgement?
We all like to think that doesn’t happen to us, but we can all probably think of situations where we were proven wrong. The one I always come back to is all the years I was sure God was real, even long after I was sure all religion was man-made. (And by “man” I mean “man”, and not “people”!)
But I’ve come to a decision that Kavanaugh should not be confirmed. He does not deserve a lifetime appointment to a position where he can make laws, especially laws relating to what control women have over their own bodies.
Republican Corruption
The way the GOP is reacting to Ford’s allegation absolutely horrifies me. There was a second person present when Kavanaugh allegedly attacked Ford. Mike Judge. But he’s not going to testify. Why not? Because he doesn’t want to and the GOP-led committee isn’t going subpoena him. It seems to me they don’t want to put Judge in a position where he has to admit Ford is telling the truth.
Other than that they have attacked Ford in multiple ways. There are many ways they have done this. Some say she’s making the whole thing up and she’s just a political operative. Some say she’s mentally unstable and therefore confused – that there was an incident but it wasn’t Kavanaugh. There are many other things they are saying. Some are so bizarre it’s hard to imagine how anyone thought them up.
President Trump is amongst the worst!
I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
In other words, she’s lying. This is the one of the most outrageous things I have ever read in a Trump tweet, and that’s saying something! He clearly has absolutely no understanding of why women don’t report such attacks. Further, in the early 1980s, because no actual rape took place and she was drunk, any complaint would receive short shrift. Just ask any young woman who was in that position in those days. I’m a little over a year older than Kavanaugh. I would not have even considered reporting this incident to my parents, let alone the authorities, in the early ’80s.
The GOP Want a Quick Confirmation for Kavanaugh
That Trump tweet was a follow-up to this one:
Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a fine man, with an impeccable reputation, who is under assault by radical left wing politicians who don’t want to know the answers, they just want to destroy and delay. Facts don’t matter. I go through this with them every single day in D.C.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
The truth is, it’s the Republicans who want to get this through without delay. The only reason many Republicans voted for Trump was his promise to make abortion illegal at least in Republican-run states. Thus, I can understand why they want to get the seat on the Supreme Court filled with another ultra-conservative judge.
It’s the Republicans who don’t want to check to make sure this man is a suitable candidate for the Supreme Court. They are refusing to investigate the allegation, and are bullying Ford into testifying in a situation where it will come down to, “he said, she said.”
Many Republicans are even saying that even if the allegation is true, a teenage “mistake” shouldn’t ruin Kavanaugh’s life. While it’s true that a teenage “mistake” shouldn’t ruin someone’s life, there are three problems with that argument in this case:
1. A seventeen-year-old knows rape, or attempted rape is wrong;
2. If this is a lie as Kavanaugh says, shouldn’t he be calling for an investigation to clear his name?;
3. A seat on the Supreme Court is about as important as it gets. Should someone who, even as a teenager, tried to rape someone, get to decide the country’s laws?
There must be an investigation by the FBI to see if more light can be shed on matters. Especially since there is now genuine reason to believe Brett Kavanaugh may have a history of not treating women as equals and even sexually attacking them.
“‘No accident’ Brett Kavanaugh’s female law clerks ‘looked like models'”
The president’s refusal to let the FBI investigate has meant other people have come forward with their own knowledge about Kavanaugh.
Firstly, a Yale law professor says that she would advise women who wanted to clerk for Kavanaugh that when they went to their interviews, they should present themselves as models. From the Guardian:
A top professor at Yale Law School who strongly endorsed supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as a “mentor to women” privately told a group of law students last year that it was “not an accident” that Kavanaugh’s female law clerks all “looked like models” and would provide advice to students about their physical appearance if they wanted to work for him, the Guardian has learned.
Amy Chua, a Yale professor who wrote a bestselling book on parenting called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, was known for instructing female law students who were preparing for interviews with Kavanaugh on ways they could dress to exude a “model-like” femininity to help them win a post in Kavanaugh’s chambers, according to sources.
Once Again, the GOP Supports a Sexual Predator
Then, a few hours ago, a second woman came forward with sexual allegations against the judge. She is saying he exposed himself to her when they were both students at Yale.
From the Washington Post:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called late Sunday for a delay in further consideration of Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh after a second woman accused him of sexual misconduct.
“I am writing to request an immediate postponement of any further proceedings related to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh,” Feinstein wrote in a letter to Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the committee’s GOP chairman.
Her letter came after the New Yorker magazine reported that Debbie Ramirez, a classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Yale University, said he exposing [sic] himself at a party when they were both first-year students.
Kavanaugh has denied this as, “a smear, plain and simple.” Of course he does, and it may be true.
But it gets worse.
There’s Never Just One Victim
A sexual predator rarely has just one victim, and there are now more allegations about Kavanaugh’s sexual behaviour as a teenager.
“We are aware of significant evidence of multiple house parties in the DC area during the early 1980s during which Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, & others participate[d] in the targeting of women with alcohol/drugs in order to allow a ‘train’ of men to subsequently gang rape them.” https://t.co/KLAoxUCNFz
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) September 24, 2018
“There are multiple witnesses that will corroborate these facts and each of them must be called to testify publicly.”
Holy. Shit. https://t.co/JZBvdjmTVH
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) September 24, 2018
Gang rape parties & Mark Judge’s ex girlfriend says he told her about a gang rape of a drink woman while he was at Georgetown Prep per the Jane Mayer/Ronan Farrow story pic.twitter.com/3uQhOn0mvY
— KD (@Fly_Sistah) September 24, 2018
If the Republicans continue to refuse to investigate this, I don’t know if I’ll be able to find words to express my shock and horror at their blatant corruption.
At the very least, Kavanaugh should deny the charges but withdraw his name from contention because of the trouble it’s causing for the party. I’m sure the Federalist society has plenty more names of anti-choice judges they can submit. From a conservative point of view, if they’re quick enough they could get this sorted before the Democrats take over the Senate in November.
Of course, the best thing for the country would be if conservatives don’t get control of the US Supreme Court. They should not be able to force their ideology on a country that no longer wants it.
Addendum 25 September 2018
These emails are very difficult to read in Caroline O.’s Tweet above. I would note that Michael Avenatti has so far always come through with public claims of evidence. (I have reversed the order so they are in the order they were sent.)
Mike Davis Email
From: Davis, Mike (Judiciary-Rep)
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2018 4:42 PM
To: Michael J Avenatti
Subject: SCOTUS — Avenatti claim of evidence
Dear Mr Avenatti
According to your Tweet from 7.33 p.m. E.T this evening, you claim to have information you consider credible regarding Judge Kavanaugh and Mark Judge. Please advise of this information so that Senate investigators may promptly begin an inquiry.
Thank you,
Mike Davis
Mike Davis, Chief Counsel for Nominations
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Michael Avenatti Email
From: Michael J Avenatti
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2018 6:06 PM
To: Davis, Mike (Judiciary-Rep)
Subject: RE: SCOTUS — Avanatti claim of evidence
Dear Mr Davis
Thank you for your email. We are aware of significant evidence of multiple house parties on the Washington D.C. area during the early 1980s during which Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge and others would participate in the targeting of women with alcohol/drugs in order to allow a “train” of men to subsequently gang rape them. there are multiple witnesses that will corroborate these facts and each of them must be called to testify publicly. As a starting point, Senate investigators should pose the following questions to Judge Kavanaugh without delay and provide the answers to the American people:
1. Did you ever target one or more women for sex or rape at a house party? Did you ever assist Mark Judge or others in doing so?
2. Did you ever attend any house party during which a woman was gang raped or used for sex by multiple men?
3. Did you ever witness a line of men outside a bedroom at any house party where you understood a woman was in the bedroom being raped of taken advantage of?
4. Did you ever participate in any sexual conduct with a woman at a house party whom you understood to be intoxicated or under the influence of drugs?
5. Did you ever communicate with Mark Judge or anyone else about your participation in a “train” involving an intoxicated woman?
6. Did you ever object or attempt to prevent one or more men from participating in the rape, or taking advantage, of a woman at any house party.
Please note that we will provide additional evidence relating to the above conduct to the Committee and the American public in the coming days.
Regards,
Michael Avenatti.
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Thanks for that post. Indeed we tend to lose our objectivity when it comes to such outrageous nominations and machinations. I also note that Mr McConnell has no qualms about pushing through a SC nomination a few weeks before a midterm, but would not even consider a nomination in a Presidential election year.
I think that even without the allegations of sexual assault, Mr Kavanaugh should not be confirmed, although I would put it at No 2 on the list of reasons.
(1) There are serious charges of him having lied about not being involved in the reappointment of Mr Pickering and he appears to have been ‘misleading’ (aka lying) under oath in 2006 in his answers to Mr Leahy and Mr Durbin about his knowledge of the treatment of suspected terrorist detainees. “I was not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants.” while it has been established now he actually did participate in at least one meeting about just that.
That alone should disqualify him.
(2) I tend to believe Ms Ford though, the fact she already confided to her therapist in 2012, long before Mr Kavanaugh was nominated to the SC, even long before Mr Trump’s Candidacy, gives her high credibility. And she took and passed a lie detector test. I know lie detector tests can be deceived, but only by mythomaniacs and other compulsory liars, and possibly some rare professional actor. Ordinary humans get caught out.
Moreover, your point about the 80’s is valid. One would not have come out, even (in many cases, I would think) if an actual rape took place, not just an attempted one.
As usual, if one had the courage, more accusers and allegations come out of the woodwork. Apparently it was not an isolated incident.
Had it been an isolated incident, had Mr Kavanaugh owned up, expressed regret and apologised, I think he could possibly be forgiven, but he did not.
(3) The third reason he should not be nominated is that he has expressed a very peculiar view on executive privilege. A president cannot be indicted, etc, in other words: a POTUS is above the law. It makes us suspect he is nominated because he is Mr Trump’s ‘stay out of jail’ ticket. The fact his name was added at the last moment to the infamous list of SC candidates only reinforces that suspicion.
(4)The fourth reason you touch upon is that he is a reactionary hack, who indeed wants to cut down on women’s rights and -as important in my modest opinion- wants to reinstate Jim Crow in one form or another (of course he’s not alone there).
Curiously, Mr Mc Connell was not in favour of Mr Kavanaugh’s candidacy, he thought his nomination would give problems. Does he know more than we already do?
The best case scenario is that the Republican Senate committee will try to keep Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination going, and that he will withdraw at the last moment, when his position becomes untenable, or that, if put to the vote, those 3 senators will vote against him. That way the Democrat voters will stay tails up and the most devastating f… up’s of the Trump administration can be curtailed after the November elections, especially if they regain the Senate.
And (I know this is kinda far-fetched) if democrats regain House and Senate, Mr Trump will choose the easy way out and go with House an Senate.
Yes, as they say: keep dreaming…
“And she took and passed a lie detector test. I know lie detector tests can be deceived, but only by mythomaniacs and other compulsory liars, and possibly some rare professional actor. Ordinary humans get caught out.”
Please just stop, “lie detectors” are known pseudoscience akin to dowsing. [See how NAS has rejected it based on the majority of studies being flawed so there is no scientific – fact based – justification: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygraph#National_Academy_of_Sciences Or see here for more: https://www.popsci.com/polygraph-test-science for example.] I fail to see the US continued fascination with these types of folk beliefs/wishful easy outs/publicity stunts.
FWIW, I liked the rest of the analysis (especially since I had forgotten about the year Ford first confided).
I based myself on Paul Ekman who estimated that polygraphs were accurate in 80 to 85% of cases. However, that was a book from the 80’s.
Fair enough! Science progresses, albeit slowly in some cases.
I agree that Kavanaugh shouldn’t be confirmed even before all this came up. It seems quite obvious in any fair analysis that he’s a liar. That should disqualify him whether or not these other allegations are true.
He’s there to protect Trump from a subpoena (as well as force through pro conservative Christian/anti-womaen legislation), and I suspect the GOP were hoping other parts of his history would go unnoticed. Because of the way they view Democrats, they thought all they would care about was Roe vs Wade. I bet it came as a bit of a shock to them that there was more tho their analysis.
I am afraid things are moving faster than anyone can write. Last night we hear that a second woman has come forward. This event took place at Yale, after the Ford attack. And now we have a third, believe it or not so while I only said he was toast much earlier, I think now he is toasted on both sides. Very good article on this whole matter here at Heather’s.
Thanks Randall. When I saw the developments yesterday I was hoping that it would put the kibosh on the Kavanaugh confirmation, but it seems not. However, perhaps that’s not a bad thing right now. It can’t possibly go ahead now, and the longer it takes for the GOP to admit that, the closer it gets to the election. If they take too long to admit they have to find someone new, there’s a good chance the new person will have to face a Democratic Senate.
Exacly!
Republicans, as of this morning, are calling for an expedited vote on Kavanaugh. I have a great idea for a fundraiser: T-shirts, caps, and mugs which say, “If you don’t have something to hide, then why are you acting like you do?”
I agree with Nicky above that the main reason for the big rush is that Kavanaugh would be the definite fifth vote to close down the Mueller investigation. The Federalist Society has a long list of other far-righters who would vote to overturn Roe, but only Kavanaugh has been explicit about protecting the President from the rule of law.
Interestingly, my mother had a similar experience in 1945. She was cornered in a supply closet at her place of work by a 17 year old punk, the scion of a prominent local family, and groped. She told my father, and one coworker, and the consensus was that if she said anything, nobody would believe her, so she dropped it. Several years later, the kid became a NM State senator, and was “well-respected”. My mother questioned her decision to stay silent, but at that point, she really would have been disbelieved.
This is why women don’t come forward, and why the problem doesn’t ever get any better.
L
Your poor mother. I bet her experience is far from unique though. It takes a certain amount of arrogance to run for public office, and in men that often translates to aggressive and entitled sexual behaviour. And in a way no one can blame them in the culture they were brought up in. You basically had to have parents that explicitly taught you respect for women in order for a confident, intelligent, good-looking man to behave well.
I’ve been watching the TV series Bewitched again recently. I loved it when I was a kid, so there’s all sorts of nostalgia. Darren Stephens is supposedly one of the good guys, but the way he treats Samantha is absolutely appalling!!!!!!! I’m constantly shocked and disgusted by what was considered being a good husband, and most of the men in my life in those days (the 60s and 70s) were not a patch on Darren.
Great piece, Heather. But things are moving so fast you weren’t able to include the latest allegations from the weekend. And now, more seem to be about to appear.
https://www.politicususa.com/2018/09/23/michael-avenatti-kavanaugh-gang-rapes.html
Those were in one of the tweets I included at the end – perhaps they didn’t show up on your device? The way Twitter reacts in different environments can be problematic.
#Kavanaughty
An excellent summary Heather. I was going to point out that it’s wildly unlikely that Dr. Ford told her therapist and husband about a “fake” incident just in case Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court years later, but Nicky already did. And also covered the other substantial reasons Kavanaugh should not be confirmed. In summary, congratulations Heather and Nicky.
Thanks Abe.
Jeez, dunno about a spot on SCOTUS, but if there’s credence to any of the allegations against him, Kavanaugh oughtn’t to be coaching girls’ sports teams, the way he’s constantly reminding everybody he does.
Good point! I wish I’d remembered that because I sure as hell would have mentioned it!
Does he? Didn’t know that. Let us hope he didn’t follow the example of his priests. ????
Speaking of following the example of his priests, There’s a weird and disgusting “priestly” connection to the SF Bay Area. Several days ago, one Bernie Ward, an ex-priest, was quoted in a piece in the WaPo recounting what life was like at Georgetown Prep when he was the sex-ed teacher there
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/100-kegs-or-bust-kavanaugh-friend-has-spent-years-writing-about-high-school-debauchery/2018/09/21/a8e0fe22-bb55-11e8-a8aa-860695e7f3fc_story.html?utm_term=.517dd4b21dfe
— however, he’d left or been driven out of the priesthood (perhaps for sexual indiscretion) by this time. Some time later, Ward moved back to the Bay Area, had a talk show on KGO, a local AM radio station here, and became a fixture on AM radio, until he was arrested convicted and imprisoned for distributing child pornography.
Some years before his arrest, I heard him declare on air that he taught his children how to masturbate???!!! HOLY COW! I got the distinct impression that this wasn’t just a lecture class, but a practicum. For years, I thought that my ears must have deceived me, until the revolting facts came out after Ward’s arrest. It should be noted that Mark Judge writes about attending a “masturbation class” at Georgetown Prep. Ward was the sex-ed teacher at that time, so the inference is clear about who led the class (I doubt this was an adjunct of a physics class). After Ward was arrested, audios of conversations he had with a dominatrix (who turned him in) were released by the cops, wherein he graphically describes his nauseating sexual activities with his teenaged children and their friends (both sexes). Now, all the pieces of that jigsaw puzzle fall into place.
Absolutely shocking, but unfortunately not surprising.
I was already getting the impression that Mark Judge was pretty badly damaged by something that happened when he was a teenager. I thought it was guilt over his activities with Kavanaugh, but maybe it was a lot more than that. It seems he took refuge in alcohol and became addicted. It may be that he’s pretty fragile and couldn’t stand up to lying for Kavanaugh and that’s why he’s been hidden away.
Thanks for this reasoned analysis Heather.
The Republican party has become a party of evil intent. Their level of immorality and craven behavior matches that of a mafia. I can only hope these hypocrites will get what they deserve come November…a Blue deluge. Trying to push Kavanaugh through at any cost, with all the mounting baggage he carries is an act of supreme desperation and stupidity. Do they not understand that a SCOTUS judge can be impeached? If dems gain control of Congress, they need to impeach Trump, Thomas and Kavanaugh (if nominated). Oooh, I don’t think I could contain the schadenfreude.
Thanks Mark. As I said, I can’t get over the bahaviour of the GOP here. Now that this is all coming out, they’re trying to make the vote go more quickly instead of slowing things down! What are they thinking? Clearly power is the most important thing to them, and they have a darn good idea that they’re going to struggle to win elections from here on out (without Russian help). Their only recourse to power will be SCOTUS, and so they’re desperate to get control of it for as long as possible. They want to be able to force their views onto others, no matter what the majority want.
Only one SC judge was ever impeached by the House, Justice Chase in 1804, but he was absolved by the Senate in 1805.
Justice Fortas resigned (after 4 years on th SC) in 1969, facing imminent impeachment.
So history is not really on your side.????
I tells ya, when it comes to politics, history never seems to be on my side. 😉
Here was my opinion when I heard Ford’s accusation. No one knows whether she or Kavanaugh is telling the truth. If Ford is truthful, Kavanaugh clearly does not belong on the supreme court and he should have gone to jail for his actions. Is she a credible person? Yes. Is there any corroborating evidence that she is telling the truth? No, for over 20 years there was no indication that she had been attacked by Kavanaugh of anyone else.
So there is a dilemma.
1) Do we risk allowing a sexual predator on the supreme court?
2) Do we set a precedent that a totally uncorroborated claim can prevent a person from being appointed to the supreme court (or any other political office)?
I do not have a good answer. I personally would have voted for Kavanaugh with little enthusiasm. IMO, If you are over the top defending or attacking Kavanaugh you are letting your bias overcome your reason.
Has Ramirez changed anything for me? No, because, unlike Ford, Ramirez is not credible in any way. She had gaps in her memory until “six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections.” When I hear about recovered memories, I immediately think about the bogus Satanic abuse scandals from the 80s and 90s. I am actually confident that Ramirez believe what she says but that does not mean it is the truth.
I understand why someone would come to that conclusion. It’s true we don’t know for sure, and can’t know without an investigation. I think though that we need to remember that there wasn’t all this fuss over Gorsuch, much as Dems disliked him and complained about his nomination. (I agree with them that the seat should have gone to Merrick Garland.) I think that there are plenty of other judges who fit the Republican criteria and do not have the same baggage as Kavanaugh.
As Nicky points out below, Kavanaugh already disqualified himself in the eyes of many by lying earlier. Ford, Ramirez, and the allegations that come via Avenatti are extra.
There is a problem with recovered memory, and we don’t know what, if anything, was done to guard against that in the case of Ramirez. We need to know more, and that’s why there should be a proper investigation by non-partisan professionals imo.
I guess that one other reason the Dems were not so adamant about Mr Gorsuch is that he replaced another reactionary, Mr Scalia.
See, this is why it never gets any better. Allow me to translate your analysis into plain English.
“Sorry ladies, unless you can show any physical marks, you’ll just have to suck it up and live with it, since you don’t have any proof.”
Full disclosure: I have never been raped. I have been grabbed, groped, and weenie-wagged, once when I was ten or eleven years old.
It is estimated that of every 100 statements of sexual violence, 96 women are telling the truth, and 4 are lying.
I’d be willing to be that if there were a parallel situation where 96 men were being thrown to the wolves to protect 4 women, you’d be looking a lot harder for a solution than to just sit back and smugly evaluate women’s credibility.
I believe them. Look how hard the Republicans are working to not follow up with an investigation. Look at the perjury Kavanaugh has already committed, not just in this hearing, but in his previous confirmation hearings for lower positions. Look at all the hyperbolic statements of “ruining his life”, for what, not getting a promotion?
Nobody gives a shit about how women’s lives are ruined, first by being attacked by a predator, and then by subsequently attacked by his defenders.
So, if some random dudebro is unjustly accused, cry me a river.
L
I think you will lose that bet, attacking the victim has nothing to do with gender. I have been groped, mostly by women and consistent with the 80/20 gender ratio of #metoo poll results, and when I write about it *I get downvoted every damn time*. Not even responded too, because cowards.
Attacking the victim has to do with maintaining power, and the thrill of getting away with it.
There is no justification for allowing that, no matter who the victim is, and no matter who the perp is.
I believe you, too. But I don’t agree that it has “nothing” to do with gender. The power imbalance mostly favors men. The knee-jerk denial is performed because it works. But men abuse power more often than women, simply because they HAVE power more often than women do.
L
That is likely correct; besides the power balance that can be seen in the frequency of events there is a similar power balance when attacks happens, and you said “harder”.
I suspect that the attacks happens because of denial; we will need more #metoo.
I will respond dispassionately to most of of your post but I hope you do not really believe this part: “If some random dudebro is unjustly accused, cry me a river.” Imagine your son/father/brother going to jail for something he did not commit. I hope you actually have empathy.
For the rest of your post, to some degree, it is true because we should assume innocence. It’s not fair to people who have been raped but have no evidence. Any other action is not fair to people who have been falsely accused. As I said, it’s an unsolvable dilemma.
I care about of people’s lives being ruined by sexual assault. I also care about people’s lives being ruined by false accusation. I also care about truth.
Full disclosure, I know people whose lives have been ruined by false accusation. For example, my wife’s brother (whom I hate) spent 10 years in jail because his ex-wife falsely accused him of raping his step-daughter. I had doubts before the trial but the testimony clearly showed his innocence (unbroken hymen after dozen of supposed rapes plus lots of other lies) This man is despicable and probably a psychopath but he did not rape his step-daughter. I do not care about him but the false accusation affect my wife and in-laws whom I care about.
I am sensitive to false accusation. I once had a group of Biblef-ers try to frame me for a crime I didn’t commit (which three of them had), so believe me, I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that.
I am unwilling to shrug it off and say that the problem is not solvable, though. Maybe it’s not completely solvable, but a change in attitude would go a long way to making things better.
Accusers in general should not be disbelieved. Accusers in general who are the victims of other crimes are not automatically disbelieved. If you are the victim of a robbery, for example, the police don’t come at you with snide skepticism as their first response. They don’t ask if you’ve been drinking, or why you’re wearing what you’re wearing.
Many years ago, when I first moved to Albuquerque from Las Cruces, my future housemate and I stayed with some friends for a few days while we house-hunted. Our friends lived in a bad neighborhood, which we were not aware of, having only arrived a few hours earlier. We made the mistake of walking a few blocks to a nearby restaurant for dinner. On the way back, we were stopped by a guy with a knife, who asked for a cigarette. We both said we didn’t smoke. I think it went no further because the guy didn’t think he could get both of us. Anyway, we made it safely back to our hosts’ house.
A little later, our hosts returned, and the wife told us that there was a weird guy out on their front lawn. Our accoster was still out there!! So, we called the cops. While on the phone, giving our location, the cop asked me if the guy was my boyfriend. Huh? I told him, no, I’d never seen the guy before in my life.
What if it had been my boyfriend? Who f-ing cares?
That’s the attitude that has to change. I think such a change would go a long way toward getting at the truth.
L
I agree Linda. Another thing I notice is there is often a difference between the way boy and girl child victims are treated. I’ve heard several people state, including people who should know better, that it’s worse for boys being abused by a man than girls because that’s not “natural”.
(I’ve also heard a politician state it’s not as bad to be raped with an implement because you can’t get pregnant.)
It’s not an easy subject, but we seem to have worked out how to handle false reports in other crimes. If we had more experience in dealing with sex crimes, we might be a lot further down the path of weeding out the few liars. I’ve seen stats, but I can’t remember where, that sex crimes are far less likely to be falsely reported than any other crime like other assaults, robbery, burglary, etc.
Professor Ford would like to talk to the FBI. Kavanaugh and Judge do not. Lying to the FBI is a crime so could it be their protestations that nothing happened are lies? This travesty playing out in the Senate will have consequences and the GOP may find their defense of this man may affect the midterm election,
I think that the number of people who do not want to lie under oath in support of Kavanaugh, including Mike Judge, is telling. They’re fine with saying nothing happened until that condition is put on their testimony. It’s another reason that I come down on the side of Ford which I should have mentioned in the post.
Note: I’ve transcribed the text from the Avenatti and Davis emails in Caroline O.’s tweet and added the result to the bottom of the post, just above the cartoons. (Sorry – I should have done this for the original post as they are illegible due to their size.)
I expect you’ve already heard about this case, Heather:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/09/24/man-accused-kidnapping-masturbating-woman-got-pass-now-people-want-judge-out/?utm_term=.b7f2048dbd15
Not about Kavanaugh but another fine example of justice for white males.
I hadn’t heard about that, and it’s pretty appalling. I just don’t get why, given all the evidence, they think this is a one off and it will never happen again. No one commits such an offence as their first – it’s too violent – they work their way up to something like this.
Choking one to unconsciousness should be considered attempted murder or at least aggravated assault.
The fact he needed her to think she was going to die to get sexual gratification shows we have a very sick puppy here. I cannot understand why he was not treated as a potential serial killer.
Well, in fact I can: he’s a middle class white male, while is a homeless native woman. It appears that in Alaska the SC is not even needed to deprive women of their rights and have some kind of Jim Crow.
I concur on all counts!
Did it never even occur to the judge to wonder how he’d feel if he’d been attacked and choked to unconsciousness?
The republicans were so desperate last night they put Kavanaugh on Fox TV with his wife. Never has this been done before and it was not good. MSNBC went over this on the Lawrence show and it was not pretty. Prior to that Avenatti interviewed with Maddaw on her show to give us the third woman to come forward along with more witnesses. They better withdraw this clown before they simply take him off to jail. How bad does the republican congress want to look before this is over?
Same subject but different people, today is one to mark in history as Bill Cosby was sentenced – 3 to 10 years in jail. I believe this is really the first victory for the ME TOO movement and many more to come. There is hope out there for sexual assault and sexual harassment victims when we reach this outcome. The ditches of America will soon be filled with the remains of such people as we have in our congress and white house.
By the time I saw your previous post on the subject, the other women were already coming out of the woodwork, along with reports of Kavanaugh’s other peccadilloes, and that he was mean and belligerent when drunk. Now, every time I start to comment on your follow-up post, the news changes dramatically, and I can’t keep up with it. I woke up this morning (Friday in the US), only to hear that the Dems had just walked out of the morning’s proceedings.
The one thing that remains a constant is that the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are shameless in their crass manipulation of the process, and will do anything to ram Kavanaugh through, due process be damned. And Kavanaugh has shown his true colors. As someone on the radio opined, “He’s belligerent when drunk and he’s belligerent sober.” The soi-disant virgin altar boy, is, as the bible says, a “whitened sepulchre,” a corrupt, narcissistic sonofabitch, demonstrably Trump’s bitch; and the fact that he has no compunction about lying like a rug when it redounds to his favor is as alarming as his sexual aggression — that corrupts justice at its core, and he’ll be called a “Justice.”
As I’m going to say in the next post I write about this, if it gets finished (my back’s pretty sore today), is that whether or not the allegations against him are true, his demeanor was not that of a SCOTUS justice. Further, if he were a woman, that is the first thing that would be said about his testimony.
For what it is worth, Susan Collins agreed with me that Swetnick’s accusation was absurd and used it as a reason to vote for Kavanaugh. While her logic may not be the best, the left’s desire to believe the unbelievable may have caused their own defeat.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/susan-collins-blames-michael-avenatti-in-speech-defending-kavanaugh
Susan Collins Blames Michael Avenatti in Speech Defending Kavanaugh
While she said she found the testimony from Christine Blasey Ford “sincere, painful, and compelling,” it was another allegation against Kavanaugh that seems to have convinced her that he could not possibly be the sexual predator his critics were making him out to me.
“Some of the allegations levied against Judge Kavanaugh
illustrate why the presumption of innocence is so important,” Collins said. “I am thinking in particular not of the allegations raised by Professor Ford, but of the allegation that when he was a teenager, Judge Kavanaugh drugged multiple girls and used their weakened state to facilitate gang rape.”
…
“This outlandish allegation was put forth without any credible supporting evidence and simply parroted public statements of others,” Collins added. “That such an allegation can find its way into the Supreme Court confirmation process is a stark reminder about why the presumption of innocence is so ingrained in our American consciousness.”
The thing is, and I was going to write a post about this but events keep overtaking me, none of us can ever know the truth about the sexual assault allegations. No matter how many people come forward on either side, we’re absent proof. However, I don’t think that’s why he shouldn’t be on the Supreme Court.
There are two major problems I have with him. (Three if you count his sense of entitlement that the seat should be his.)
1. He has lied under oath more than once.
2. His rant about the attack from the Dems being “revenge for the Clintons” and for their unhappiness that Trump beat them in 2016.
I can’t remember the way he put it, but in his Op-Ed he also said that his judicial record has been made out to make people worry when they have no need to. However if I was a USian, the thing I would worry about the most is that a woman’s right to choose might be lost, at least in red states. I don’t think that is an unjustified worry. He is there to stop abortions.
And I’m disgusted with Susan Collins. Any fu€ki₦g excuse. If it wasn’t Swetnick, it would have been something else.
Yep, a Putin Puppet Puppy.