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[Executioner]

Confirmed! Brett Kavanaugh was caught naked with three nurses only moments after his birth!

[FlyingPenguin]

My opinion:

- Was this an 11th hour tactic on the part of the dems? Yes. Doesn't mean it didn't happen, but they definitely waited until the last minute.
- Is there anything that can be meaningfully done after all this time? No. (Statute of limitations, memory of those involved, etc).
- On the other hand, people who are saying "Hey, even if he DID commit attempted rape in high school, it's no big deal. Kids will be kids." Will those assholes please replace the word "rape" for "murder" and tell me THAT would be okay?

All I can say is both sides should have their day, but ultimately it's a "he said - she said" situation and nothing will come of it after all this time EXCEPT unless these idiot politicians try to insult her during questioning, in which case the Republicans lose 96% of the women's vote in the mid-terms, which is why they sure as hell better have an attorney question her instead of those idiots.

Treat her with respect and they can probably move on. Treat her like crap and they'll pay a price.

Oh, and hope Trump doesn't tweet something stupid, but that's a hopeless cause.

[wvjohn]

Pretty much what FP said. When I was working in the criminal courts, this stuff (old allegations) came up from time to time, and it was always problematic. In my work, it usually came up in the context of some kind of current sexual assault case where the state was trying to introduce allegations of past misconduct as evidence in a trial of recent misconduct under rule 404(b) of the rules of evidence. In a nutshell, if the state is allowed to this type of evidence it is highly prejudicial to the defendant in the current trial - the jury hears about it and conlcudes he did it before and he's done it again. Game, set, and match.

There is a lot of research out there on memories and how they change over time and how (especially with younger children) they can be manipulated). I have no idea what happened in this case - seems there is one, or more, new allegations. Let everybody have their say, and then decide from there. The whole issue of unreported assault is real.

Politics is even more of a blood sport than it used to be. On the national level, it's the worst looking crew I've ever seen.

[Err]

I think a Justice ought to be as clean as possible. However, this ought to be a message to Democrats that sit on their asses during midterms and elections to get out and vote. They also should run candidates that appeal to independents. Hillary wasn't that at all. Many can't get it through their heads that Trump won because people hate Hillary.

Even if it comes out that Kavanaugh did attempt to rape a girl and has a history of harassment and gets his nomination withdrawn, we're getting a conservative Justice whether we want it or not. That's how our system works.

[Genom]

For a innocent man looking to be appointed to the supreme court, he sure looked pissed off about something.

[Err]

I noticed that too. His demeanor doesn't seem like Supreme Court Material in my book. I caught the end of the proceedings where he was asked if he'd seen Ford's testimony. He said he hadn't because he was busy preparing. I thought, "What? Why wouldn't you watch your accuser?" I also love how a calendar is supposed to be proof he wasn't at the party because he didn't pencil it in and that he forgot the drinking age was 21 in Maryland in 1982.

This seems to be a pissing match at this point. IMHO, move on to the next candidate. He's still going to be a conservative but maybe without the baggage.

[Genom]

I am sure there will be, but they will probably find someone with less of it, or much better hidden.

[Executioner]

I really don't know, but if she cannot prove her allegation, then he remains innocent of the charge. Graham sure delivered a headed rebuttal. In the previous tries that Kavanaugh moved up the latter, the FBI could not uncover Ford's story? He was already thoroughly vetted from the FBI for his previous work with the President Bush. So for me, I don't believe Ford's story, and I really don't care what happened in high school.

[FlyingPenguin]

My opinion:

- I think Ford sincerely believes that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her, and that she definitely didn't want to be at that hearing today but felt she needed to be.

- I also think this was a long time ago, and despite her compelling testimony, there ARE doubts about the accuracy of her memory during a traumatic incident like that.

- REALISTICALLY, this happened so long ago that LEGALLY nothing could be done about it anyway. There IS a presumption of innocence in this country until otherwise proven guilty.

- Frankly I support Kavanaugh because I think he's BY FAR one of the better picks that Trump could make. There were some real WACK JOBS on his short list. Liberals need to understand that SOMEONE is going to be selected during Trump's term, and there are FAR worse options out there.

- Yeah, I agree, Kavanaugh's little rant today really disappointed me. He didn't come off as non-political or as a level headed judge with that rant. I understand he's upset and pissed (doubly so if these allegations really have no merit) but he could have and should have taken the high road. He sounded like a Donald Trump surrogate. Maybe he was trying to appease Trump because it's reported Trump thought he was "weak" in his Fox News interview.

I really don't care what happened in high school.

Replace the phrase "attempted rape" with "attempted murder" and tell me you still feel that way. Attempted rape is a crime. Doesn't matter if it happened in high school, college or when he was 45. I am really disgusted by people who are blowing this off with the "Boys will be boys" bullshit. This is not acceptable if it happened. PERIOD.

Oh, and if I hear one more person ask "Why didn't she report it back then?" I'm going to slap them silly.

FINAL NOTE: The Republicans may think they got through this okay, but I and a lot of people believe that if they try to rush through a vote now, they're going to pay for it in loss of votes from women. All they have to do is pretend to do some kind of investigation (after all this time it's not going to come up with anything anyway) and that at least would show they were respecting the accuser. Might slow things down a few weeks is all. But no, they are so hell-fired to get him voted in, that these clowns are going to rush this through and pat each other on the back, and alienate 15% of the voter base that's already on the fence. Watch and see.

[Genom]

I agree that this is all just a shitshow. Hypocrisy in staggering quantities on both sides of the fence, and the only ones that are gonna suffer is once again, the rest of us.

That said, Kavanaugh is acting shady as fuck, and if this is the best Trump has to offer (and he really, sadly, is except for maybe the Colorado judge), I shudder to think wtf is going to happen.

[Losbot]

I personally believe Ford is convinced that something happened to her but I believe it's mistaken identity.
I also believe that they should do an investigation, just to shut a lot of people up. It'll most likely prove nothing but whatever. Another week is nothing.

I'm mostly disappointed in how the far left are threatening the lives of Kavanaugh, Trump and Cruz now. WTF is wrong with people. On their websites, they're asking their followers if they'll agree to violence if Kavanaugh gets into the SCOTUS.

People suck.

[FlyingPenguin]

Not just people on the left. Ford and her family have received death threats as well. Too many wack jobs out there on both sides.

[Losbot]

True. I'm thinking of how it's become increasingly common for the far-left crazies to go harass people out of restaurants and other venues.
I'm just sick of how people think it's perfectly acceptable to do shit like that. Of course if you were to do that to them, they'd lose their collective shit.

[Genom]

Like Bob said, the extremists are not just the left. They are on both sides, and their all shit, don't pretend the extremist conservatives dont exist.

[FlyingPenguin]

I can tell you stories about people here in the Villages during the 2012 election (usually retirees) going on rants at people in parking lots, to the point police had to be called, because they had pro Obama bumper stickers on their cars or golf cars. The far left doesn't own crazy town.