One would think that, n’est pas?
What is the report about Kavanaugh and Ms. Ramirez was false when it was first going around? Then hearing about it was only hearing about something that didn’t happen. That is my point.
It s true that Appold confirms that Ramirez did not make up the story last week, which is a good thing.
Again, as I’ve said out here a number of times, Kavanaugh’s lies and his temperament make him unfit for any court. That should be the center of attention now, not how much he drank in high school or college, or whether he abused women, disgusting as that is.
3 Likes
I’m with you on that score. There’s no serious debate about whether he lied to the committee, and his hyper-partisan, quasi-hysterical performance as a witness was on display for all to see.
4 Likes
You can’t spell “shame” without “sham”.
2 Likes
In isolation, of course, that one piece of hearsay doesn’t prove anything and might have been based on a false rumor. Certainly it happens. People say and believe all kinds of nonsense. But again, this is not a trial and we’re not considering things in isolation, we’re looking for patterns. I think in the end I’m just reluctant to adopt the criminal proceeding rules of evidence since the applicant doesn’t risk fines or jail. The risk is more to the society if we’re overly protective of the applicant.
5 Likes
And yet, today, we’re seeing Republicans putting the blinders on and ignoring the lies.
Well, I agree with you. But when you start using legal terms like “corroborate,” you imply that legal standards are relevant. Like when people talk about the presumption of innocence, which is totally inappropriate here. But I think that at this point the larger lesson is that Democrats got misled by the sexual assault–horrific as it was–and have not concentrated enough on Kavanaugh’s lies and his partisanship.
2 Likes
I wonder how much traction the Democrats would have gotten with other flaws and bad actions Kavanaugh could be tarred with—they demanded records and got just a fraction, and in the end it could have come down to another party-line vote.
And not to be argumentative but more as a word nerd, terms such as “corroborate” can have one meaning in a courtroom and another outside it. And anyway it was the damn GOP that started using the term to reframe a discussion about claims the women knew they couldn’t prove but felt they had to make anyway.
3 Likes
Stonewalled By FBI
What I have come to expect from the FBI, they sure don’t seem to be the same FBI from even 5 years ago. They seem to have progressively become more partisan, at least more openly partisan. Respect for all LEOs has been going into the toilet since the 70s. Over last couple of years as the slope has become steeper the speed of loathing has become zephyr speed.
2 Likes
More like a human smelling something rank. (Is there such a thing as an “odor selfie”?)
Most dogs I know loooove to smell dog shit and other effluvia.
Although I did have a (much missed) Labrador Retriever who would give us a look of reproach and leave the room if a human farted.