The Supreme Court, bastion of conservatism

[falafel]

Yes, so she was doing that with the intention of making a false accusation later?

No, I don't think that was her intention. Just that the lack of a name can be exploited later.

[Uncle Ted]

I bet these two classmates of BK's are racist, nazi loving, SoBs... Ask Frank:

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[Uncle Ted]

And btw as a conservative (and never trumper!) I would love it if we could just swap BK out now. It is bad for the country to have this cloud over him and I think there are far better candidates. But assuming no corroborating evidence is presented, I can't accept the irreparable damage that will be done to our already broken processes if BK is destroyed on the basis of what is currently known and the tactics used by DiFi. We can't afford to teach the lesson that this is the way to win a nomination battle.

Agree on all counts.

According to Dershowitz the Dems may have created a new form of McCarthyism...

This Is No Mere ‘Job Interview’
Even in the court of public opinion, basic fairness should preclude conviction without clear evidence.


I don’t know whether Judge Kavanaugh is guilty, innocent or somewhere in between. I don’t know whether he told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Judge Kavanaugh wouldn’t have been my candidate of choice for the Supreme Court. I am a liberal Democrat who believes Republicans improperly denied Judge Merrick Garland a seat on the high court.


But this is no longer about who would make the best Supreme Court justice. It is about the most fundamental issues of fairness this country has faced since the McCarthy era, when innocent people were accused of trying to overthrow the government and had their lives ruined based on false accusations, while being denied all semblance of due process or fairness. The American Civil Liberties Union stood strong against McCarthyism by demanding due process and hard evidence. But the ACLU now argues that “unresolved questions regarding credible allegations of sexual assault” be resolved against the accused nominee.


We have come a long way since McCarthyism, but we now live in an age that risks a new form of sexual McCarthyism. We must not go to that even darker place. The best way of assuring that we don’t is to accord every person regardless of his status, the kind of fundamental fairness we would expect for ourselves if we were accused.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-is...iew-1538313919

[falafel]

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[Uncle Ted]

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Ginsburg: I wasn't '100 percent sober' at SOTU

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg blames falling asleep at this year’s State of the Union address on not being “100 percent sober.”
[...]

https://www.politico.com/story/2015/...ol-sotu-115172

OMG, RBG drank so much she blacked out at the SOTU.... Impeach RBG!

[old_gregg]

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https://www.politico.com/story/2015/...ol-sotu-115172

OMG, RBG drank so much she blacked out at the SOTU.... Impeach RBG!

lol. a strong pour of cabernet would knock her out.

[frank ryan]

Text messages suggest Kavanaugh wanted to refute accuser's claim before it became public
A former classmate of the Supreme Court nominee has reached out to the FBI but hasn't received a response.

WASHINGTON — In the days leading up to a public allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh exposed himself to a college classmate, the judge and his team were communicating behind the scenes with friends to refute the claim, according to text messages obtained by NBC News.

Kerry Berchem, who was at Yale with both Kavanaugh and his accuser, Deborah Ramirez, has tried to get those messages to the FBI for its newly reopened investigation into the matter but says she has yet to be contacted by the bureau.

The texts between Berchem and Karen Yarasavage, both friends of Kavanaugh, suggest that the nominee was personally talking with former classmates about Ramirez’s story in advance of the New Yorker article that made her allegation public. In one message, Yarasavage said Kavanaugh asked her to go on the record in his defense. Two other messages show communication between Kavanaugh's team and former classmates in advance of the story.

In now-public transcripts from an interview with Republican Judiciary Committee staff on September 25, two days after the Ramirez allegations were reported in the New Yorker, Kavanaugh claimed that it was Ramirez who was “calling around to classmates trying to see if they remembered it,” adding that it “strikes me as, you know, what is going on here? When someone is calling around to try to refresh other people? Is that what’s going on? What’s going on with that? That doesn’t sound — that doesn’t sound — good to me. It doesn’t sound fair. It doesn’t sound proper. It sounds like an orchestrated hit to take me out.”

The texts also demonstrate that Kavanaugh and Ramirez were more socially connected than previously understood and that Ramirez was uncomfortable around Kavanaugh when they saw each other at a wedding 10 years after they graduated. Berchem's efforts also show that some potential witnesses have been unable to get important information to the FBI.

On Monday, a senior U.S. official confirmed that the White House has authorized the FBI to expand its initially limited investigation by interviewing anyone it deems necessary as long as the review is finished by the end of the week. The New York Times first reported the change in scope.

NBC News reached out to Berchem for comment after obtaining a copy of a memo she wrote about the text messages. In a statement to NBC News, Berchem, a partner in the law firm Akin Gump, said: “I understand that President Trump and the U.S. Senate have ordered an FBI investigation into certain allegations of sexual misconduct by the nominee Brett Kavanaugh. I have no direct or indirect knowledge about any of the allegations against him. However, I am in receipt of text messages from a mutual friend of both Debbie and mine that raise questions related to the allegations. I have not drawn any conclusions as to what the texts may mean or may not mean but I do believe they merit investigation by the FBI and the Senate."

On Sunday, Berchem emailed FBI agent J.C. McDonough her memo. After getting no response, she resent the summary on Monday morning along with screenshots of certain texts that she thinks raise questions that should be investigated. “I’m sure he’s really busy and expect that he’ll get back to me,” said Berchem.

Berchem’s memo outlining her correspondence with Yarasavage shows there’s a circle of Kavanaugh friends who may have pertinent information and evidence relevant to the inquiry who may not be interviewed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already set in motion a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination on the Senate floor for later this week.

Kavanaugh has strongly denied the allegation by Ramirez as well as accusations by Christine Blasey Ford that he sexually assaulted her when the two were in high school and by Julie Swetnick that Kavanaugh engaged in sexual misconduct at parties while he was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in the 1980s.

Berchem, 51, a graduate of Yale and a Connecticut resident, reached out to Sen. Richard Blumenthal's office last week. Blumenthal, a Democrat, sits on the Judiciary Committee.

“We heard from Kerry late on Thursday and submitted her summary to the Judiciary Committee early Friday,” a spokeswoman for Blumenthal said in a statement to NBC News. “After we were made to jump through several hoops that delayed our moving forward, it became clear that the majority Committee staff had not turned this summary over to the FBI and, in fact, had no intention of turning it over to the FBI. With our assistance, Kerry submitted her summary to the FBI herself.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...idence-n915566

[frank ryan]

Ok this one is pretty funny. Super dorky reason to start a bar fight.

Brett Kavanaugh Instigated Bar Fight After UB40 Concert, Police Report Reveals
Supreme Court nominee, then a junior at Yale, sparked altercation with man mistaken for UB40 singer Ali Campbell

British reggae band UB40 have found themselves ensnared in the latest probe into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s collegial drinking habits following a report that Kavanaugh and some Yale classmates were involved in a bar fight following a UB40 concert in September 1985.

The New York Times reports that the altercation took place at a bar in New Haven, Connecticut – where Yale University resides – during Kavanaugh’s junior year at the college.
According to the police report from the incident, Kavanaugh instigated the altercation by throwing ice at another man “for some unknown reason”; the New York Times states that Kavanaugh and his friends – which included future NBA player Chris Dudley – were trying to determine whether the man was UB40 singer Ali Campbell.
Chad Ludington, Kavanaugh’s Yale classmate and fellow member of the school’s basketball team, initially issued a statement Sunday that detailed the incident, however Ludington accused Kavanaugh of throwing his beer, and not ice, at the man.

“The guy swung at Brett,” Ludington said, adding that Dudley “took his beer and smashed it into the head of the guy, who by now had Brett in an embrace. I then tried to pull Chris back, and a bunch of other guys tried to pull the other guy back. I don’t know what Brett was doing in the melee, but there was blood, there was glass, there was beer and there was some shouting, and the police showed up.”

Neither UB40, which turned Neil Diamond’s “Red, Red Wine” and Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” into Hot 100-topping hits, nor former lead singer Ali Campbell have commented on the latest Kavanaugh report. A representative for Campbell did not respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...oncert-731781/

[All-American]

Ok this one is pretty funny. Super dorky reason to start a bar fight.

Brett Kavanaugh Instigated Bar Fight After UB40 Concert, Police Report Reveals
Supreme Court nominee, then a junior at Yale, sparked altercation with man mistaken for UB40 singer Ali Campbell



https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...oncert-731781/

Amazing. That sounds like almost the opposite of what the opinion in the Times reported.

[Non Sequitur]

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OMG, RBG drank so much she blacked out at the SOTU.... Impeach RBG!

But isn't it refreshing that she didn't lie about it? You don't see that much.

[Moliere]

Have they been able to corroborate the ice throwing incident?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Did he throw the ice overhand or underhand? Was it pebble ice or cubed?

[Bo Diddley]

Have they been able to corroborate the ice throwing incident?

Did he throw the ice overhand or underhand? Was it pebble ice or cubed?

All valid questions.

[Uncle Ted]

Ok this one is pretty funny. Super dorky reason to start a bar fight.

Brett Kavanaugh Instigated Bar Fight After UB40 Concert, Police Report Reveals
Supreme Court nominee, then a junior at Yale, sparked altercation with man mistaken for UB40 singer Ali Campbell



https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...oncert-731781/

LOL... I threw ice at my sister when I was like 8. I can never be trusted again.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right....