Trump’s war on the American democracy: The Kavanaugh case
Por Manuel Castro-Rodríguez
With Republicans in control of the Executive, the Senate and the House of Representatives, only lacks the GOP’s control of the Supreme Court so that a ruler with authoritarian aspirations achieve his dream. Because of this, President Trump leads aggressive, all-out GOP drive to save Kavanaugh.
On Friday, January 20, 2017, was the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW),
The first year of US President Donald Trump’s administration was marked by a sharp regression in government efforts to protect and promote a range of human rights, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2018. The Trump administration made policy changes that have harmed refugees and immigrants, undermined police accountability for abuse, and rolled back women’s rights, including access to important health services.
A position on the Supreme Court becomes available when one of the nine sitting justices resigns, retires or dies. With the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court, President Trump is set to cement his significant influence on the highest court in the world, with a majority of sitting justices nominated by Republican presidents.
If Kavanaugh is confirmed, Trump will have made as many appointments in two years as Barack Obama did in two full terms. This wind of change brings a conservative sway for decades that will only get stronger if Trump could secure a third pick.
On February 1, 2017, Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch as his pick to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. His nomination was marred by partisan battle in the Senate, during which Democrats attained enough votes to block him until Republicans employed the “nuclear option” to end floor debate on the judge by a simple majority rather than by 60 votes.
Figurative use of the term “nuclear option” is relatively new, it wasn’t until 2003. According to Merriam-Webster,
“nuclear option is a parliamentary procedure by which the requirement of the affirmative votes of a supermajority of senators is changed to require only a simple majority to invoke cloture in order to stop a filibuster and allow a vote on a matter (as a nomination) to proceed.”
We need to remember that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, defended his support of Priests for Life, an anti-abortion group, on the third day of his hearing. Besides, Kavanaugh wrote an email in March 2003 which was made public this month, questioning whether Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights decision. He acknowledged that the Supreme Court “can always overrule” Roe v. Wade.
“I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent,”Kavanaugh wrote, adding that some conservative justices then on the court “would do so.” Thus, the Supreme Court would heavily change birth control access if Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed.
The GOP is suffering a significant breakdown of civility and ethical behavior. For example, President Trump questions validity of Kavanaugh’ accuser,
“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!”
Trump received a lot of answers:
Susan Collins (R-ME) “appalled” by Trump’s tweet about Christine Blasey Ford.
Donald Trump May Not Have the Most Advanced Understanding of How Sexual Assault Trauma Works
What is victim blaming and what did Donald Trump tweet about Christine Blasey Ford?
Besides, after the president questioned why professor Christine Blasey Ford didn’t report the alleged sexual assault to the authorities, sexual assault survivors responded on social media with their own stories of why they didn’t report:
Sexual assault survivors respond to Trump with #WhyIDidntReport
#WhyIDidntReport Is A Gut-Wrenching Response To Trump’s Attack on Ford’s Credibility
Senate Republicans are pressing for a swift vote to confirm Kavanaugh at all cost. For instance, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the 11 Republicans who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, made it clear Sunday that while he is willing to hear out Professor Christine Blasey Ford about her sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh, he has not heard enough evidence to “ruin Judge Kavanaugh’s life over this.”
What can be said about what is to be done for some GOP women on Kavanaugh allegations: “What boy hasn’t done this in high school?” These ladies,including several Cubans, said that even if the allegation is true, they will support Kavanaugh joining the Supreme Court. Facts like this happen although thanks to a nationwide #MeToo movement an historic number of women will appear on general election ballots in congressional and Senate races, andfemale candidates are talking more about sexual misconduct.
More women than ever are running for Congress this cycle, and the dramatic increase comes mainly from one party. More than 200 of the 262 women running for House and Senate seats this cycle are Democrats, according to data compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics.
In a survey conducted in November and December 2017, women and men in both parties said that sexual harassment allegations reflect widespread problems in society: 69 percent of Republican ladies compared with 74 percent of Democratic women and 54 percent of Republican men. Nevertheless, in aVox/Morning Consult poll on #MeToo conducted in March 2018, only 22 percent of Republican women said they strongly supported the movement, compared with 55 percent of Democratic ladies.
But the GOP rush to confirm Kavanaugh backfired, because Senate Democrats are investigating a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. On Monday morning, the White House hastily arranged a conference call with surrogates across the country to address the latest sexual-misconduct allegations levied against President Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, speaking on ‘CBS This Morning’ Monday, said“it’s starting to feel like a vast left-wing conspiracy.”
Kavanaugh joked in 2015 lecture: What happens at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep. But The New York Times reported Monday that Renate Schroeder Dolphin, a woman who signed a letter supporting Brett Kavanaugh after he was accused of sexual assault earlier this month, called revelations from his high school yearbook that showed he and his friends reportedly boasted about their supposed conquests with her “horrible, hurtful”.
Kavanaugh included “Renate Alumnius” as an entry in his high school yearbook page, and two of Kavanaugh’s classmates told the Times the mentions of “Renate” were part of the high school football players’ unsubstantiated boasting about their conquests.
Renate Schroeder Dolphin said she never kissed Kavanaugh. “I think Brett must have me confused with someone else, because I never kissed him,” she said.
When Schroeder Dolphin, who attended a nearby Catholic girls’ school and was then known as Renate Schroeder, signed the September 14 letter, the Times reports, she wasn’t aware of the “Renate” yearbook references about herself on the pages of Kavanaugh and his football teammates.
“I learned about these yearbook pages only a few days ago,” Dolphin said in a statement to the Times. “I don’t know what “Renate Alumnius” actually means. I can’t begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way. I will have no further comment.”
Republicans mounted a combative, coordinated drive Monday to salvage Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination as they fought to keep a second woman’s allegation of long-ago sexual misconduct from derailing his confirmation. President Donald Trump leapt to his defense, the top Senate Republican accused Democrats of a “smear campaign” and an emotional Kavanaugh pledged to fight for his nomination and proclaimed, “I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone.”
Nearly six in 10 Americans say a vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court should wait until after more investigations and hearings are done. When Professor Christine Blasey Ford — who publicly alleged that the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school —requested an FBI investigation before she’ll testify about Kavanaugh, the president Trump immediately rejected it.
This was a crucial mistake, which the GOP seems poised to repeat now that a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh have surfaced. Senate hearing can’t possibly get at the truth; it is obvious that a Senate hearing is not a forum for rigorous fact-finding, because Lawmakers are not suited to the role of professional interrogators.
Why won’t President Trump ask the FBI to investigate the allegations against Kavanaugh? As history has shown, the FBI does do that if instructed to do so by the White House. There is precedent for this. In 1991, when law professor Anita Hill’s sexual-harassment allegations against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas were revealed at a later stage in his confirmation process, a spokeswoman for then-President Bush announced that “in consultation with the committee, the White House promptly directed the FBI to conduct a full, thorough and expeditious investigation.”
The FBI did investigate Anita Hill’s accusation. In regard to the Kavanaugh case, Anita Hill argues now that an FBI investigation is “absolutely…the right move.” She says: “The hearing questions need to have a frame, and the investigation is the best frame for that; a neutral investigation that can pull together the facts, create a record, so that the senators can draw on the information they receive to develop their questions.”
It is scandalous the President Trump’s assertion that there should be no additional investigation by the FBI because that “is not what they do.” That is precisely why the agency is called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As Judiciary Committee Democrats explain it,
“It is our understanding that the FBI conducts background investigations of nominees at the White House’s request. Accordingly, the President can request an appropriate follow-up, even after a background investigation may be closed. We ask that the President immediately do so here.
We take these allegations extremely seriously and believe it is in the best interest of all parties to have a thorough examination by FBI career professionals with the requisite investigative expertise. Since Dr. Ford has come forward there have been reports of medical documentation and other witnesses, as well as her own account. It is clear these allegations require a thorough examination and we request your immediate confirmation that the FBI will be re-opening its review.”
The investigation of Kavanaugh needs to be extended and expanded in response to mounting evidence of what former Judiciary Committee member Russ Feingold refers to as “the nominee’s disturbing willingness to avoid the truth.” The former Judiciary Committee member demonstrates in a Huffington Postessay that Brett Kavanaugh has lied under oath already. Why is this not a major problem for all 100 senators?
We need to remember that the Supreme Court is one of the majors pillars of American democracy. Therefore, its members should be guided by the proverb “Caesar’s wife’s admonitions to be above reproach”. What is the rush on the Kavanaugh nomination?
Estimado Montaner,
cual es el objetivo de esta publicación?
Informar a quien sobre este tema tan complejo y en inglés?
Su blog está destinado más bien al lector latino o hispano, correcto?
Que intereses se ocultan detrás de esta opinión partidista y tendenciosa?
Cordialmente
Arturo Romeu
Amigo Romeu
Tendenciosa es un understatement. Me parece mejor “asquerosa”.
Amnesty International Monday called on a halt to a vote on President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States. The human rights organization wrote in a Monday letter that Kavanaugh might have been involved “in issues related to torture and rendition after 9/11.”
https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Letter-to-Senators-in-re-Kavanaugh.pdf
Why Trump is a ruler with authoritarian aspirations
Donald Trump’s history of praising dictators
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-s-history-praising-dictators-n604801
Sen. John McCain: “That’s how dictators get started”
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/-that-s-how-dictators-get-started-mccain-defends-the-free-press-880252483608?v=raila&
El poder judicial es la pieza clave de cualquier estado de derecho fundado en la observancia de la ley, ya sea una república o una monarquía parlamentaria. No existe ningún elemento dentro del Estado que acerque más a los ciudadanos al modelo de gobierno que tener la seguridad de que no serán aplastados por los poderosos, ya sean o no funcionarios. Pero, por la otra punta del razonamiento, no hay un factor que aleje más a las personas del sistema en el que viven que saber que no todas las personas son iguales ante la ley, y que el discurso oficial es una soberana mentira. Ésa es la madre del cinismo generalizado y el factor que más pudre la convivencia.
http://www.elblogdemontaner.com/el-circo-ha-terminado/
President Trump just seems to have a thing for strongmen
https://www.npr.org/2017/05/02/526520042/6-strongmen-trumps-praised-and-the-conflicts-it-presents
Trump really wishes he were a dictator
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-dictator_us_5b23c3c3e4b0d4fc01fdb2b0
What the post-democratic American regime would be
We cannot deduce, from the Trump administration’s destructive chaos and ideological incoherence, what the post-democratic American regime would be. We can be sure, however, that we would miss being free. The prospect of children and grandchildren growing up under tyranny is terrifyingly real. History can remind us of the fragile fundaments of our own democracy. But what follows now is up to us.
http://time.com/4690676/donald-trump-tyranny/
Trump’s admiration for Putin has made him stunningly easy to manipulate
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-admiration-putin-has-made-him-stunningly-easy-manipulate-ncna893436
Nine notorious dictators, nine shout-outs from Donald Trump
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/trump-xi-jinping-dictators/554810/
Donald Trump has always expressed love for authoritarian leaders, but we failed to listen
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/06/20/donald-trump-authoritarian-leaders-north-korea-russia-turkey-column/712221002/
Donald dreams of dictators
In the three years since he first descended his golden escalator to announce his presidential bid, Trump has made clear he yearns for fealty along with authority.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/15/trump-dictators-authoritarians-strongmen-649635
How This Will End
Sooner or later, tyrants are always abandoned by their followers
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/08/the-end-of-trumps-reign/568480/
Trump is taking US down the path to tyranny
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/opinions/trump-is-taking-us-down-the-path-to-tyranny-sachs/index.html
Trump insists on a Stalinist line of discipline. For example, with Senator Lisa Murkowski ― the only Republican who acted like a Senator ― who Friday morning in voting against moving ahead with Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Murkowski said her decision was probably the most difficult she has made as a Senator. “In my conscience,” I could not vote for him. “This has been agonizing for me with this decision,” she said Friday. “It is as hard a choice, probably as close a call as any that I can ever remember.”
“We are at a time when many in this country have lost faith in the executive branch,” Sen. Murkowski said. “And here in Congress, many around the country have just given up on us. They’ve just completely said, ‘We’ve had enough.”
“I hope and I pray that we don’t find ourselves in this situation again. But I’m worried. I am really worried that this becomes the new normal, where we find new and even more creative ways to tear one another down,” Murkowski lamented.
This provoked the president’s fury. “I think she will never recover from this,” Trump said. “I think the people from Alaska will never forgive her for what she did.” Alaska GOP to weigh potential action against Murkowski
Trump, Alaska GOP take aim at Murkowski over Kavanaugh vote
There was just one. During the debate over Brett Kavauagh’s Supreme Court nomination, opponents of the Republican jurist hoped to find two or three GOP senators who would vote “no,” but in the end, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) of Alaska stood alone.
Her willingness to break ranks was ultimately inconsequential – the new justice was confirmed anyway – but some of Murkowski’s fellow Republicans are not prepared to let their sense of betrayal fade away.
In a brief telephone interview with The Washington Post, Trump said voters in Alaska “will never forgive” Murkowski for voting against confirming Kavanaugh, and he forecast her defeat in a Republican primary should she run for reelection in 2022.
“I think she will never recover from this,” Trump said. “I think the people from Alaska will never forgive her for what she did.”
Donald Trump’s whining was bolstered by partisan grumblings from Murkowski’s home state. The Associated Press reported last night:
Alaska Republican party leaders plan to consider whether to reprimand U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for opposing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
The party has asked Murkowski to provide any information she might want its state central committee to consider.
Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock says the committee could decide to issue a statement. Or he says it could withdraw support of Murkowski, encourage party officials to look for a replacement and ask that she not seek re-election as a Republican.
There are a few angles to this to keep in mind. The first is that Murkowski’s future is probably on firmer ground than her intra-party critics care to admit. In 2010, the GOP’s far-right base defeated her in a primary, forcing Murkowski to run for re-election as a write-in candidate. Despite having a tough-to-spell last name, the senator won by four points – and then won a landslide victory six years later.
Murkowski isn’t up for re-election until 2022, when last week’s developments will be pretty far in the rear-view mirror. If I had to guess which Republican is still in elected office in January 2023, Murkowski or Trump, I’d bet on Murkowski.
Second, the idea that the Alaskan “will never recover” is predicated on the idea that the GOP senator did something wildly unpopular. That’s backwards – most of the country wanted the Senate to reject Brett Kavanaugh. Trump and his allies are effectively arguing, “How dare you do what a majority of Americans hoped you would do!”
But even putting all of this aside, it’s amazing to see Murkowski face this kind of blowback from her own party over one inconsequential vote. When Democrats directed similar rhetoric at Joe Lieberman after he voted with Republicans on the war in Iraq, the party faced a significant amount of criticism from the Beltway media about their demands for “a Stalinist line of discipline.”
I suppose it’s possible the GOP will face related criticism now, but I’m skeptical.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-alaska-gop-take-aim-murkowski-over-kavanaugh-vote
Tiene toda la razón señor Romeu,los intereses partidistas y tendenciosa lo conocemos,mas claro ni el agua.
The cost of Kavanaugh’s confirmation
Poll upon poll has shown that Americans respect the Supreme Court more than Congress or the presidency. It is seen — and its legitimacy depends on its being seen — as a trustworthy, more or less neutral, arbiter: not apolitical, necessarily, but not tied to the partisan fray, like the other two branches.
https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2018/10/06/justice-brett-kavanaugh
Former Justice Stevens changes mind on Kavanaugh
Former Justice John Paul Stevens, in highly unusual remarks, said that Judge Kavanaugh’s openly expressed prejudices should disqualify him from serving on the court.
The retired U.S. Supreme Court justice cited the “potential bias” Kavanaugh showed in his recent Senate confirmation hearing.
Stevens said he started out believing that Kavanaugh deserved to be confirmed, “but his performance during the hearings caused me to change my mind.”
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/10/04/supreme-court-justice-john-paul-stevens-kavanaugh-tsr-vpx.cnn
En un EE.UU polarizado, la confirmación de Kavanaugh sirvió para asomarse a la brecha que divide el país y comprobar que es más profunda que nunca. Para una parte de la sociedad, la investigación de las acusaciones por parte de Christine Blasey Ford -que se ofreció a testificar delante de la Comisión Judicial del Senado- y de Deborah Ramírez fueron una pantomima: solo se entrevistó a nueve personas y apenas duró cinco días. Muchos de los testigos que ofrecieron las acusadoras no formaron parte de la investigación. Kavanaugh, además, demostró ser un juez que se deja llevar por las emociones -sollozó y lloró en su intervención ante el Senado- y tuvo un arrebato partidista poco habitual para alguien que debe ser apolítico e imparcial: calificó las acusaciones de agresiones sexuales de «golpe político calculado y orquestado» y de «venganza en nombre de los Clinton con millones de dólares de grupos opositores de izquierda», en referencia a Hillary Clinton, la candidata que perdió por sorpresa las presidenciales de 2016 frente a Trump.
https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-senado-estadounidense-ratifica-brett-kavanaugh-como-nuevo-juez-tribunal-supremo-201810062207_noticia.html
Señor, decir la verdad no es un arrebato partidista. Los jueces deben atenerse a la verdad. Pero sabe usted qué, despuěs de ver la actuación vergonzosa de los “democratas” no me importaría un juez un poquito parcializado que los neutralice para salvar este gran país.
The wrenching battle over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the high court left the public with sharply negative impressions of the new Supreme Court justice and raised questions about his truthfulness, his temperament to serve and whether his partisan views would influence his work on the bench, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS in the final days of the fight over his confirmation.
Beyond overall impressions, the poll finds a majority of Americans express doubts about Kavanaugh’s truthfulness and freedom from political influence when considering cases.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/08/politics/cnn-poll-kavanaugh-confirmation/index.html
No es posible que la nación más poderosa del mundo y de la historia se comporte de esa vergonzosa manera en un asunto tan delicado como escoger a sus jueces principales. El país no llega a los excesos del Cartel de la Toga en Colombia, Perú o Ecuador, donde algunos magistrados superiores han sido sorprendidos vendiendo las sentencias, o como en Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia o Cuba, donde los jueces carecen de independencia en sus funciones y están al obsecuente servicio del gobierno. Pero si continúa por esa senda es posible que la degradación sea total. Todo camino se puede andar.
http://www.elblogdemontaner.com/el-circo-ha-terminado/
If the investigation has been as superficial as some reporting suggests — despite calls from GOP Senators Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins for it to be thorough — and if Kavanaugh does manage to squeak through, Democrats are not likely to let it go. Indeed, it is entirely possible—no, likely—that, if they win control of the House in November, the new majority party will consider articles of impeachment against Kavanaugh before his seat on the high court is warm. The course of such a proceeding has the potential to be so perilous and unpredictable that wavering Republican senators should consider that possibility before casting their votes to put Kavanaugh on the court in the first place. Facts that come to light in impeachment could come back to haunt senators who vote to support him.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/10/03/democratic-house-impeach-kavanaugh-220921
Kavanaugh: ¿cuál será el costo de su confirmación a la Corte Suprema?
Otros tres hechos que deberían impedir dicha nominación:
1) Como confirmó la Casa Blanca el 25 de septiembre que se debe confirmar sin que quede ni una una nube de duda sobre el juez Kavanaugh. Esa nube de duda no debería existir sobre un juez de la Corte Suprema.
2) Hay dos profesiones en particular donde ni un juez, ni un piloto de avión deberían ser tan emocionales en reaccionar frente a una crisis o todo su trabajo y nuestras vidas o libertades estarán en juego. El juez Kavanaugh demostró en su testimonio una gama de emociones y conflictos.
3) Un juez de la Corte Suprema no debe ser partidario de ninguna causa en particular y menos de un partido político o politizaremos aún más la justicia. En el testimonio del jueves, Kavanaugh demostró sus intereses y perspectivas de un partido político. Eso es devastador para la justicia y por lo tanto la democracia.
https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2018/10/05/kavanaugh-cual-sera-el-costo-de-su-confirmacion-a-la-corte-suprema/
Collins and Kavanaugh: The Post-Truth Republican Party
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-10-06/collins-kavanaugh-and-the-post-truth-republican-party
La mayoría de los norteamericanos se opone a Brett Kavanaugh como magistrado de la Corte Suprema.
The Brett Kavanaugh travesty will breed a formidable backlash
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/07/thbrett-kavanaugh-travesty-formidable-backlash
Kavanaugh’s sexual resume (In Spanish)
http://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2018/09/28/5bac9c4bca47411b648b4629.html
La mayoría de los norteamericanos se opone a Brett Kavanaugh como magistrado de la Corte Suprema
51% de los estadounidenses rechazan la confirmación de Kavanaugh como magistrado de la Corte Suprema, según una encuesta realizada por The Washington Post y ABC News, que muestra también que 53% asegura que apoyaría que el Congreso realizara nuevas investigaciones a Kavanaugh a pesar de que puedan llevarlo a una potencial destitución.
https://webapp.univision.com/noticias/politica/51-de-los-estadounidenses-rechazan-la-confirmacion-de-kavanaugh-como-magistrado-de-la-corte-suprema-segun-sondeo
Women lead support for further investigation of Kavanaugh (POLL)
Led by discontent among women, Americans by a 51-41 percent margin disapprove of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court -– and a majority favors further investigation by Congress that could lead to efforts to remove him from office.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/women-lead-support-investigation-kavanaugh-poll/story?id=58461716
La mayoría rechazó a Kavanaugh, según una encuesta de CNN realizada por SSRS en los últimos días del debate para su confirmación
https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2018/10/08/brett-kavanaugh-encuesta-cnn-corte-suprema-mayoria-rechaza-popularidad-republicanos/
Kavanaugh did not have majority support during confirmation, says pollster
https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/411152-kavanaugh-did-not-have-majority-support-during-confirmation
Los republicanos han aislado a la presunta víctima sexual del juez Kavanaugh, pero lo pagarán
https://www.eldiario.es/theguardian/republicanos-aislado-presunta-vicitma-Kavanaugh_0_819268785.html
Human Rights Watch Opposes Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/10/05/human-rights-watch-opposes-nomination-brett-kavanaugh-us-supreme-court
Churches opose Kavanaugh nomination
Major coalition of Christian churches denounces Kavanaugh
NCC calls for withdrawal of Kavanaugh nomination
The National Council of Churches (NCC) calls for the withdrawal of the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States. We believe he has disqualified himself from this lifetime appointment and must step aside immediately.
We note several reasons. During his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Kavanaugh exhibited extreme partisan bias and disrespect towards certain members of the committee and thereby demonstrated that he possesses neither the temperament nor the character essential for a member of the highest court in our nation. We are deeply disturbed by the multiple allegations of sexual assault and call for a full and unhindered investigation of these accusations.
In addition, his testimony before the Judiciary Committee included several misstatements and some outright falsehoods, some in relation to accusations of sexual misconduct. All citizens must be expected to speak truthfully when under oath, however, this is especially true for anyone who seeks a seat on the Supreme Court.
Moreover, Judge Kavanaugh’s extensive judicial and political record is troubling with regard to issues of voting rights, racial and gender justice, health care, the rights of people with disabilities, and environmental protections. This leads us to believe that he cannot be an impartial justice in cases that are sure to come before him at the Court.
Therefore the National Council of Churches calls for the withdrawal of Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court immediately.
http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/ncc-calls-for-withdrawal-of-kavanaugh-nomination/
Jesuits urge withdrawal of Kavanaugh nomination
Magazine of Jesuits urges withdrawal of Kavanaugh nomination
The Editors: It is time for the Kavanaugh nomination to be withdrawn
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/09/27/editors-it-time-kavanaugh-nomination-be-withdrawn
Why ACLU opposes the confirmation of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court
For nearly 100 years, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has worked in courts, legislatures, and communities to protect the constitutional rights of all people. As a matter of organizational policy, the ACLU does not support or oppose candidates for political or judicial office. Under its current policy, the ACLU does not take formal positions on judicial nominations. Recently, the organization did not endorse or oppose the nomination of Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch.
The ACLU’s national board of directors passed a resolution stating:
“The ACLU opposes the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. There are credible allegations that Judge Kavanaugh has engaged in serious misconduct that have not been adequately investigated by the Senate. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s credible testimony, subsequent allegations of sexual misconduct, the inadequate investigation, and Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony at the hearing lead us to doubt Judge Kavanaugh’s fitness to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
“This is not a decision taken lightly. We cannot remain silent under these extraordinary circumstances about a lifetime appointment to the highest court of the land. The standard for such an appointment should be high, and the burden is on the nominee. That burden is not met as long as there are unresolved questions regarding the credible allegations of sexual assault.”
https://www.aclu.org/news/rare-move-aclu-oppose-kavanaugh-supreme-court-0
Trump se burla de la mujer que acusa a Kavanaugh de abusos sexuales
Donald Trump cruzó este martes una de esas fronteras invisibles que rodean a una acusación abusos sexuales: se burló de la presunta víctima.
https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/10/03/estados_unidos/1538531549_294970.html
Why Trump is a ruler with authoritarian aspirations
Donald Trump’s history of praising dictators
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-s-history-praising-dictators-n604801
Sen. John McCain: “That’s how dictators get started”
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/-that-s-how-dictators-get-started-mccain-defends-the-free-press-880252483608?v=raila&
President Trump just seems to have a thing for strongmen
https://www.npr.org/2017/05/02/526520042/6-strongmen-trumps-praised-and-the-conflicts-it-presents
Trump really wishes he were a dictator
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-dictator_us_5b23c3c3e4b0d4fc01fdb2b0
What the post-democratic American regime would be
We cannot deduce, from the Trump administration’s destructive chaos and ideological incoherence, what the post-democratic American regime would be. We can be sure, however, that we would miss being free. The prospect of children and grandchildren growing up under tyranny is terrifyingly real. History can remind us of the fragile fundaments of our own democracy. But what follows now is up to us.
http://time.com/4690676/donald-trump-tyranny/
Trump’s admiration for Putin has made him stunningly easy to manipulate
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-admiration-putin-has-made-him-stunningly-easy-manipulate-ncna893436
Nine notorious dictators, nine shout-outs from Donald Trump
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/trump-xi-jinping-dictators/554810/
Donald Trump has always expressed love for authoritarian leaders, but we failed to listen
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/06/20/donald-trump-authoritarian-leaders-north-korea-russia-turkey-column/712221002/
Donald dreams of dictators
In the three years since he first descended his golden escalator to announce his presidential bid, Trump has made clear he yearns for fealty along with authority.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/15/trump-dictators-authoritarians-strongmen-649635
How This Will End
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/08/the-end-of-trumps-reign/568480/
Trump is taking US down the path to tyranny
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/opinions/trump-is-taking-us-down-the-path-to-tyranny-sachs/index.html
Trump insists on a Stalinist line of discipline. For example, with Senator Lisa Murkowski ― the only Republican who acted like a Senator ― who Friday morning in voting against moving ahead with Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Murkowski said her decision was probably the most difficult she has made as a Senator. “In my conscience,” I could not vote for him. “This has been agonizing for me with this decision,” she said Friday. “It is as hard a choice, probably as close a call as any that I can ever remember.”
“We are at a time when many in this country have lost faith in the executive branch,” Sen. Murkowski said. “And here in Congress, many around the country have just given up on us. They’ve just completely said, ‘We’ve had enough.”
“I hope and I pray that we don’t find ourselves in this situation again. But I’m worried. I am really worried that this becomes the new normal, where we find new and even more creative ways to tear one another down,” Murkowski lamented.
This provoked the president’s fury. “I think she will never recover from this,” Trump said. “I think the people from Alaska will never forgive her for what she did.” Alaska GOP to weigh potential action against Murkowski
Trump, Alaska GOP take aim at Murkowski over Kavanaugh vote
There was just one. During the debate over Brett Kavauagh’s Supreme Court nomination, opponents of the Republican jurist hoped to find two or three GOP senators who would vote “no,” but in the end, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) of Alaska stood alone.
Her willingness to break ranks was ultimately inconsequential – the new justice was confirmed anyway – but some of Murkowski’s fellow Republicans are not prepared to let their sense of betrayal fade away.
In a brief telephone interview with The Washington Post, Trump said voters in Alaska “will never forgive” Murkowski for voting against confirming Kavanaugh, and he forecast her defeat in a Republican primary should she run for reelection in 2022.
“I think she will never recover from this,” Trump said. “I think the people from Alaska will never forgive her for what she did.”
Donald Trump’s whining was bolstered by partisan grumblings from Murkowski’s home state. The Associated Press reported last night:
Alaska Republican party leaders plan to consider whether to reprimand U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for opposing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
The party has asked Murkowski to provide any information she might want its state central committee to consider.
Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock says the committee could decide to issue a statement. Or he says it could withdraw support of Murkowski, encourage party officials to look for a replacement and ask that she not seek re-election as a Republican.
There are a few angles to this to keep in mind. The first is that Murkowski’s future is probably on firmer ground than her intra-party critics care to admit. In 2010, the GOP’s far-right base defeated her in a primary, forcing Murkowski to run for re-election as a write-in candidate. Despite having a tough-to-spell last name, the senator won by four points – and then won a landslide victory six years later.
Murkowski isn’t up for re-election until 2022, when last week’s developments will be pretty far in the rear-view mirror. If I had to guess which Republican is still in elected office in January 2023, Murkowski or Trump, I’d bet on Murkowski.
Second, the idea that the Alaskan “will never recover” is predicated on the idea that the GOP senator did something wildly unpopular. That’s backwards – most of the country wanted the Senate to reject Brett Kavanaugh. Trump and his allies are effectively arguing, “How dare you do what a majority of Americans hoped you would do!”
But even putting all of this aside, it’s amazing to see Murkowski face this kind of blowback from her own party over one inconsequential vote. When Democrats directed similar rhetoric at Joe Lieberman after he voted with Republicans on the war in Iraq, the party faced a significant amount of criticism from the Beltway media about their demands for “a Stalinist line of discipline.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-alaska-gop-take-aim-murkowski-over-kavanaugh-vote
President Trump mocked Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford at a Mississippi rally
http://time.com/5413480/donald-trump-mocks-christine-blasey-ford/
Is not this another case of Trump’s misogyny?
Three Republican Senators condemn Trump’s comments on Christine Blasey Ford
http://time.com/5413785/donald-trump-christine-blasey-ford-mocking-susan-collins/
Sen Murkowski: Trump mockery of Ford “unacceptable”
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/409694-murkowski-trump-mockery-of-ford-unacceptable
Republicans Flake and Collins denounce Trump for mocking Kavanaugh accuser Ford
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/democrats-denounce-trump-mocking-kavanaugh-accuser-ford-n916141
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) chastised Trump for mocking Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who accused his Supreme Court nominee of attempted rape in the 1980s. “We all know that the president cannot lead us through this time,” he said. “We know that he’s dispositionally unable to restrain his impulse to divide us.”
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1047704842993459200
There are many reasons that victims of sexual assaults don’t immediately or ever make reports, as many people pointed out after his statement. We must to remember that on Twitter thousands of women began recounting why it took them many years to talk about their attacks, after President Trump questioned Dr Christine Blasey Ford’s credibility.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/whyididntreport?lang=en
“No American citizen deserves that treatment from the head of state, from the commander-in-chief, from the president of the United States of America, a steward of an office once inhabited by men like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln,” Steve Schmidt said, a veteran of the George W. Bush White House.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/10/02/steve_schmidt_on_trump_attacking_dr_ford_contemptible_as_he_is_vulgar_cruel_as_he_is_dishonest.html
Trump’s raw misogyny lit the Brett Kavanaugh Fire
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-09-26/kavanaugh-trump-bears-blame-for-outrage-at-supreme-court-pick
Our President Has Always Degraded Women — And We’ve Always Let Him
http://time.com/5047771/donald-trump-comments-billy-bush/
Human Rights Watch Opposes Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/10/05/human-rights-watch-opposes-nomination-brett-kavanaugh-us-supreme-court
The head of Amnesty International said that some of the Trump administration’s more controversial policies had energized campaigns on climate change, woman’s equality, and other rights issues.
https://apnews.com/4940a9642ee2442ca8f764699416247e
Churches opose Kavanaugh nomination
No puedo entrar a mi patria porque denuncio los crímenes de la peor tiranía que ha sufrido Occidente: la dictadura de la familia Castro. Lo invito a comprobarlo
https://profesorcastro.jimdo.com/
No puedo entrar a mi patria porque denuncio los crímenes de la peor tiranía que ha sufrido Occidente: la dictadura de la familia Castro. Lo invito a comprobarlo en
https://profesorcastro.jimdo.com/
Rachel Mitchell violated national prosecutorial standards
Prosecutor Rachel Mitchell was selected to question Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearing. This was the first time that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee hired an active state prosecutor to question a witness — and the nominee — in front of the world. Generally, the consensus amongst prosecutors was that Mitchell had a good reputation, there was no precedent for this, and we would wait and see what happened. What ultimately did happen is that leading up to, during, and after the hearing, Mitchell improperly leveraged her position as a prosecutor to further the goals of a private client.
https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2018/10/12/rachel-mitchell-violated-national-prosecutorial-standards/?slreturn=20180913092058
No sé si este artículo se merece un comentario pero, ante la posibilidad de que algún lector de este blog no esté al tanto de los hechos, voy a vencer mi repugnancia. Trataré de ser lo más breve posible. Una respuesta apropiada a esta asquerosidad sería muy larga.
Comienza el artículo con la ridícula afirmación de que el GOP, ¨en pleno¨ se ha decidido a defender a Kavanaugh. No, señor. El GOP tiene una mayoría de 51 a 49 en el Senado. El circo que han montado los Demócratas se desplomaría como un castillo de naipes si los 51 votaran a favor de la nominación. Algunos le dan a la Doctora Ford el beneficio de la duda, pese a que sus acusaciones, negadas por los testigos que ella misma menciona y llenas de impresiciones, no se sostendrían ante ningún tribunal.
Agregemos a eso que los Demócratas conocían de dicho alegato desde muchísimo tiempo antes, que lo sacaron a última hora cuando todos los números circenses que habían montado durante la nominación fracasaron, que aplazaron el testimonio de la Dra Ford todo lo que pudieron, agregando más y más ridículas condiciones, que después se sacaron de la manga otras dos ¨acusaciones¨, cada una más absurda que la anterior (me imagino que la próxima será que Kavanaugh pertenece a los Illuminatis y mató a Robin Williams o controla el clima y ha sido la causa del calentamiento global)
No, señor, los Republicanos no están haciendo ¨todo lo posible¨ por poner a Kavanaugh en el Tribunal Supremo. Son los Demócratas los que, de una forma bochornosa, están tratando de ganar tiempo con la esperanza de recuperar el control del Senado en Noviembre y oponerse a ésa y a todas las nominaciones de jueces conservadores que la sigan.
Y pido disculpas por haber escrito mal imprecisiones. Lamentablemente, este blog no permite editar los posts. Me di cuenta después de postearlo. No dudo que haya otros errores. Escribí rápido y muy enfadado.
Si Jorge Luis Borges aún viviera, le dedicaría un nuevo capítulo de su ¨Historia Universal de la Infamia¨ a lo que están haciendo los Demócratas en el caso Kavanaugh. Son ellos, y no Trump, los que le han declarado la guerra (desde hace tiempo) a todo lo que representa este país.
Yo no soy exactamente un fan del Presidente Trump. Apruebo muchas de las cosas que está haciendo y el saldo me parece muy positivo, pero desapruebo profundamente su personalidad. Pero, comparado con esto, Trump es un santo.
Roommate: Kavanaugh drank heavily
James Roche, a Yale graduate who says he was Kavanaugh’s roommate in 1983, describing Kavanaugh as “a heavy drinker” who became “aggressive and belligerent” when drunk. Roche in a statement posted on Twitter that they didn’t socialize together much, but would chat at night after Kavanaugh would return from outings with his friends.
“It is from this experience that I concluded that although Brett was normally reserved, he was a notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time, and that he became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk,” Roche said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kavanaugh-yale-roommate-drunk_us_5baa0c62e4b0375f8fa04108
What most disqualifies Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court?
Despite wide opposition to Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination from churches, lawyers, major human rights organizations, conservatives, and even his own friends, Senatores Susan Collins, Jeff Flake, and Joe Manchin voted to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.
GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski explains no vote on Kavanaugh. She admited that the reasonable doubt standard does not apply to Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Senator Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, broke with her party Friday morning in voting against moving ahead with Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Murkowski said her decision was probably the most difficult she has made as a Senator. “In my conscience,” I could not vote for him.
“This has been agonizing for me with this decision,” she said Friday. “It is as hard a choice, probably as close a call as any that I can ever remember.”
“I hope and I pray that we don’t find ourselves in this situation again. But I’m worried. I am really worried that this becomes the new normal, where we find new and even more creative ways to tear one another down,” Murkowski lamented.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/10/06/murkowski_explains_kavanaugh_no_vote_in_my_conscience_i_could_not_vote_for_him.html
Kavanaugh’s attack on Democrats
Kavanaugh gave a closing argument of sorts in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. He said he is an “independent, impartial judge”. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court nominee called the sexual misconduct allegations against him a “calculated and orchestrated political hit” by Democrats. Kavanaugh suggested allegations are part of “revenge on behalf of Clintons.”
Kavanaugh went further than Clarence Thomas, who in 1991 attacked the confirmation process but didn’t single out a person or political party, when he confronted allegations that he sexually harassed Anita Hill.
https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/video/kavanaugh-suggests-allegations-are-part-of-revenge-on-behalf-of-the-clintons/vp-BBNDDKk
The presumption of innocence is not for everyone
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-presumption-of-innocence-not-universal_us_5bb393efe4b00fe9f4fafa8b
Kavanaugh is an instrument of Trumpism
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-most-disqualifies-brett-kavanaugh-for-the-supreme-court
Brett Kavanaugh and the G.O.P.’s bargain with Trump
Once the Senate Republicans decided to countenance demagoguery, one step led to another.
The problem of bystanderdom here goes well beyond the sexual-assault allegations against Kavanaugh. It was on display during the first part of his hearings, when Republican senators, in the interest of getting a conservative nominee confirmed, discounted the apparent lies that he told about his role in Bush-era torture and detention policies and in judicial nominations. And it extends to their decision to tolerate the excesses of Donald Trump, in return for his promise to nominate a conservative. When you decide to countenance demagoguery, one step leads to another.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/brett-kavanaugh-and-the-gops-bargain-with-trump
With the report completed, it became clear how limited the FBI’s scope had been. Agents did not interview Kavanaugh or Swetnick, despite Trump’s comments on Monday, nor did they interview Ford. (The stated rationale was that both Kavanaugh and Ford had testified under oath in public.) They did interview Deborah Ramirez, who says Kavanaugh exposed himself to her, but they did not speak to a range of potential witnesses who tried to get in touch.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/10/trumps-unusual-kavanaugh-nomination-strategy-patience/572179/
Creo que lo que realmente importa es si el candidato a ocupar el cargo de juez de la Corte Suprema de Justicia es un ciudadano moral y éticamente intachable y además con probada instrucción académica respecto de la función que le ocupará.
Si es más o menos liberal no tiene demasiada relevancia ya que deberá ajustarse siempre a la ley y la constitución. Y lo que garantiza que así será es su integridad personal y profesional, no su inclinación ideológica (aunque alguna importancia en algunos casos pueda ser relevante, pero para lo que define el futuro de la Nación seguro que no).
Pero muchísimo más importante que estos requisitos necesarios para aprobar a un candidato propuesto por el ejecutivo, es la reacción de la ciudadanía ante las circunstancias en que se elegirá al nuevo juez.
Si para la ciudadanía en general no implica más que cualquier otra noticia irrelevante y por tanto incapaz de mover el amperímetro electoral en caso de que suceda una elección fraudulenta por ocultamiento de antecedentes reprochables que deben inhabilitar necesariamente al propuesto para el cargo, entonces SÍ que se está en un enorme problema.
Si así fuere, la decadencia la tendrán asegurada más tarde o temprano.
Es exactamente esto lo que sucede en los países subdesarrollados y pobres.
En mi provincia (Estado para EEUU) por ejemplo, la Corte Suprema de Justicia está totalmente cooptada por jueces total y absolutamente corruptos y socios de los gobernantes de turno y en las elecciones este hecho no modifica ni siquiera el 0.000001% de la tendencia electoral.
Obviamente, así estamos.
Desconozco cuál es la reacción mayoritaria de la ciudadanía estadounidense en estos casos pero sin dudas es lo que realmente deberían vigilar.
Finalmente sale publicado lo que uno no quiso escribir.
Es una lástima.
Classmate: Kavanaugh drank heavily
Liz Swisher, former Yale classmate of Brett Kavanaugh, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo she never saw Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh be sexually aggressive, but said that he lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his drinking habits.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/09/29/liz-swisher-yale-classmate-sloppy-drunk-bts-cuomo-vpx.cnn
Amnesty International Monday called on a halt to a vote on President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States. The human rights organization wrote in a Monday letter that Kavanaugh might have been involved “in issues related to torture and rendition after 9/11.”
https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Letter-to-Senators-in-re-Kavanaugh.pdf
Jesuits urge withdrawal of Kavanaugh nomination
Magazine of Jesuits urges withdrawal of Kavanaugh nomination
The Editors: It is time for the Kavanaugh nomination to be withdrawn
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/09/27/editors-it-time-kavanaugh-nomination-be-withdrawn
For women and survivors of sexual assault, the Brett Kavanaugh allegations have reopened wounds that run deep.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-worst-week-brett-kavanaugh_us_5babf7fce4b091df72ed14be
Lamenting the ways she sees Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination as “not normal,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., laid out an argument for why a “finite” FBI probe into the sexual assault allegation presented by Christine Blasey Ford is necessary. “Where is the bravery in this room?” she implored the Senate Judiciary Committee ahead of its vote, suggesting Republicans were afraid of what they might find out. “This isn’t a he said-she said. This is a he said-they said,” she said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-oIV81WVzM
President Donald Trump on Friday ordered an FBI investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, after Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona joined Democrats in calling for a delay in the confirmation vote.
“As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week,” Trump added.
The scope of the investigation that FBI agents will undertake now is unclear. We need to remember that the Supreme Court is one of the majors pillars of American democracy. Therefore, to grant him a lifetime seat on the nation’s highest court, someone who will shape our civil rights and liberties for decades, it requires a full investigation. Can the FBI really investigate the Kavanaugh accusations in just one week?
On Friday, I sent this letter to Sen Marco Rubio: “Why do not you support a full investigation?”
Senator Marco Rubio, the American Bar Association urged senators late Thursday to postpone any vote until the FBI could conduct an investigation,
Deciding to proceed without conducting additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senate’s reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court.
As you are aware, Professor Christine Blasey Ford gave her testimony yesterday, and we saw a woman show incredible bravery — going into painstaking detail to recount, in front of the nation, what she saied was the hardest moment of her life.
Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, reveals she was sexually assaulted, calls Christine Blasey Ford “brave”. For many Republican women, the issue of sexual misconduct knows no party,
They’re frustrated with the support Roy Moore received after multiple women accused him of pursuing them when they were teenagers and with the fact that President Donald Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by 19 women and has yet to face consequences.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee had a heated exchange yesterday about whether the hearing over an alleged sexual assault would be better served by an FBI investigation. “Why would you resist that kind of investigation?”, Durbin asked and leaved Kavanaugh silent.
According to Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore, “Brett Kavanaugh showed himself today to be a partisan hack in a robe, utterly lacking the temperament to be a justice of the Supreme Court. And his repeated refusal to request an FBI investigation speaks volumes.”
Like all women, Dr. Blasey Ford deserves to be heard. But for the Senate to fully perform its constitutional duties of thoughtfully considering this lifetime appointment — and for us to truly say that all of the assault allegations were taken seriously — the examination into Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s past cannot end with Thursday’s hearing.
Yesterday, Professor Christine Blasey Ford had to relive her trauma. Not because she wanted to, but because she felt that it was her civic duty, ”
I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school.”
Now, it is our civic duty to ensure that Thursday’s painful testimony was not made in vain. According to Martin Luther King Jr, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
As José Martí taught us, “To view a crime calmly is to commit it.” Therefore, good people will not tolerate anything less than a thorough, comprehensive, and transparent investigation of the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Senator Rubio, I would like to thank you in advance for your consideration of this request. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. I would appreciate your prompt response,
Manuel Castro-Rodríguez
Why Sen Rubio does not want to know the truth? Without even knowing the results of the investigation about the sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, “Marco Rubio confirms he will vote yes on Kavanaugh nomination”.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article219171510.html
FBI has not contacted dozens of potential sources in Kavanaugh investigation. With the investigation winding down, multiple individuals who have tried to contact the bureau have not heard back.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/dozens-potential-sources-information-have-not-been-contacted-fbi-kavanaugh-n916146
Was the FBI’s investigation into Kavanaugh a trick?
The FBI’s limited investigation into the Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations, explained.
The FBI’s query may be mostly in service of getting the votes for Kavanaugh, not really for getting to the bottom of the allegations.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/1/17916254/kavanaugh-fbi-investigation-ford-trump
Democratic U.S. senators expressed concern on Sunday over reports the White House was working with Republicans to narrow the scope of an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-kavanaugh/white-house-says-not-micromanaging-fbi-probe-of-kavanaugh-idUSKCN1MA0M5
Protesters in WPB call for full FBI probe of Kavanaugh allegations
https://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/national-govt–politics/protesters-wpb-call-for-full-fbi-probe-kavanaugh-allegations/7lG01fJNJSBWgstFta8ikO/
With the report completed, it became clear how limited the FBI’s scope had been. Agents did not interview Kavanaugh or Swetnick, despite Trump’s comments on Monday, nor did they interview Ford. (The stated rationale was that both Kavanaugh and Ford had testified under oath in public.) They did interview Deborah Ramirez, who says Kavanaugh exposed himself to her, but they did not speak to a range of potential witnesses who tried to get in touch.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/10/trumps-unusual-kavanaugh-nomination-strategy-patience/572179/
Sen. Bob Menendez on Kavanaugh FBI Probe: “If That’s An Investigation, It’s A Bullsh*t Investigation”
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) called the FBI probe into Judge Brett Kavanaugh a “bullshit investigation” on Thursday after reporting the report.
“If that’s an investigation, it’s a bullshit investigation,” Menendez said. “The reality is, that is not a full and thorough investigation. Evidently, the Republicans who gave the direction to the FBI of what could be investigated was extremely limited.”
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/10/04/menendez_on_kavanaugh_fbi_probe_if_thats_an_investigation_its_a_bullshit_investigation.html
White House Lied About How FBI Would Conduct Kavanaugh Investigation
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/10/05/anderson_cooper_white_house_lied_about_how_fbi_would_conduct_kavanaugh_investigation.html
FBI ends Kavanaugh probe without talking to dozens of witnesses
https://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/fbi-ends-kavanaugh-probe-without-talking-to-dozens-of-witnesses-1336347203706?v=railb&
IU professor who lived in same dorm as Kavanaugh says FBI never called back
https://www.facebook.com/wtiupublictv/videos/2132129233714082/
Kavanaugh classmates ignored by the FBI speak out, reveal new text message
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/battle-over-accusations-goes-kavanaugh-nomination-advances-n917136
Ford’s friend criticizes FBI for not interviewing him
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/keith-koegler-christine-blasey-ford-corroborating-witness-fbi-investigation-brett-kavanaugh/
What Christine Blasey Ford’s witness has to say after being left out of the FBI probe
https://qz.com/1415990/read-letter-of-blasey-fords-witness-after-fbis-kavanaugh-probe/
The FBI investigation of Kavanaugh was doomed from the start
The investigation was inherently limited, setting it up to disappoint
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/5/17940738/fbi-investigation-kavanaugh-thorough-limits
FBI investigation into Kavanaugh was a “sham,” say Ford’s lawyers
“You cannot have an FBI investigation where you don’t interview both the accused and the accuser,” Debra Katz said. “That’s not a credible investigation, and we’re all the worse for it.”
https://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-investigation-kavanaugh-sham-fords-lawyers/story?id=58317743
Kavanaugh FBI probe was a cover-up
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/05/opinions/kavanaugh-fbi-probe-cover-up-opinion-ghitis/index.html
New evidence of a Kavanaugh cover up
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/new-evidence-of-a-kavanaugh-cover-up-1338060867730?v=railb&
Sen. Feinstein: FBI probe was incomplete
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said: “It looks to be the product of an incomplete investigation that was limited perhaps by the White House.”
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/10/04/democrat-presser-kavanaugh-fbi-report-sot-ath-vpx.cnn
Sen. Schumer: Those fears have been realized
“We had many fears that this was a very limited process that would constrain the FBI from getting the facts. … Those fears have been realized,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Thursday.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/409900-senate-dems-slam-incomplete-limited-fbi-report
Sen. Wyden: This investigation was a whitewash
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/sen-wyden-on-kavanaugh-this-investigation-was-a-whitewash/283-601358326
Sen. Brown: Senate Republicans, White House ‘straightjacketed the FBI’ on Kavanaugh investigation
https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/sen-brown-senate-republicans-white-house-straightjacketed-the-fbi-kavanaugh-investigation/uQQ3T2LB9iS8CxhJMp2cmN/
American Bar Association reopens Kavanaugh evaluation
The nation’s largest legal organization is reopening its evaluation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh based on his performance during a Senate hearing last week.
https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/uncategorized/GAO/2018-10-05ChairtoGrassleyFeinstein-reEvaluationofBrettKavanaugh.authcheckdam.pdf
Who talked to the FBI in the Kavanaugh case — And who didn’t?
https://www.npr.org/2018/10/04/654345903/who-talked-to-the-fbi-in-the-kavanaugh-case-and-who-didnt
Amnesty International Monday called on a halt to a vote on President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States. The human rights organization wrote in a Monday letter that Kavanaugh might have been involved “in issues related to torture and rendition after 9/11.”
https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Letter-to-Senators-in-re-Kavanaugh.pdf
Brett Kavanaugh and I have a lot in common
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/28/opinions/kavanaugh-hearing-brought-back-assault-jennifer-taub/index.html
Christine Blasey Ford Didn’t Have The Luxury Of Being Angry
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/christine-blasey-ford-brett-kavanaugh-courtesy-rage_us_5bad53f5e4b09d41eb9fe35a?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=__Entertainment__092818&utm_content=__Entertainment__092818+Version+A+CID_e618fa4cb46d60d68fcbf0a76d027bf6&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=Christine%20Blasey%20Ford%20Didnt%20Have%20The%20Luxury%20Of%20Being%20Angry&ncid=newsltushpmgentertainment__Entertainment__092818
Kavanaugh misled Congress on his drinking habits.
There’s no problem in drinking beer in college, the problem is lying about it
Professor Chad Ludington: Kavanaugh misled Congress on his drinking habits. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Kavanaugh denied that he had ever drunk alcohol to the point of blacking out. But North Carolina State University professor Chad Ludington has joined a handful of other former classmates of Brett Kavanaugh in contradicting the Supreme Court nominee’s claims about his past drinking habits.
Ludington told the New York Times in a statement Sunday that Kavanaugh played down “the degree and frequency” of his drinking to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. He said he often saw Kavanaugh “staggering from alcohol consumption.”
Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by three different women, denied in his testimony that there was any possibility he ever drank so much alcohol that he may have lapses in his memory.
Ludington called Kavanaugh’s answers about drinking a “blatant mischaracterization” based on his experiences around the judge when they attended Yale University together. Ludington claimed he often saw Kavanaugh “belligerent and aggressive” while drunk.
“It is truth that is at stake, and I believe that the ability to speak the truth, even when it does not reflect well upon oneself, is a paramount quality we seek in our nation’s most powerful judges,” Ludington said in a statement to the Times. Ludington told the Times he wants to take his “information to the FBI.”
And Ludington’s not the only one countering parts of Kavanaugh’s testimony.
Former Yale classmates Liz Swisher, James Roche, and Lynne Brookes have also made public statements about Kavanaugh’s excessive drinking during their youth. Swisher told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Friday that though she never saw Kavanaugh be sexually aggressive, the judge was a “sloppy drunk.”
“There’s no problem in drinking beer in college, the problem is lying about it,” Swisher told CNN. “He drank heavily, he was a partier, he liked to do beer bongs, he played drinking games, he was sloppy drunk.”
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who goes by Christine Blasey professionally, claims Kavanaugh forced himself on her at a high school party more than 35 years ago. Blasey testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that she was certain Kavanaugh was the one to pin her down, force himself on her, attempt to take off her clothes and then hold a hand over her mouth when she tried to scream when they were teenagers.
Deborah Ramirez alleges Kavanaugh took off his pants and thrust his penis at her face at Yale party during their freshman year. Julie Swetnick wrote in a sworn declaration that Kavanaugh was present at high school parties where boys engaged in raping girls. Swetnick claims she saw Kavanaugh drink excessively at these parties, “press girls against him without their consent” and attempt to remove or shift their clothing.
Roche, a roommate of Kavanaugh’s during freshman year, told the New Yorker he found Ramirez’s claims to be credible. Roche added that he saw Kavanaugh “frequently, incoherently drunk.” Another unnamed classmate told the New Yorker Kavanaugh could be “aggressive and even belligerent” when he drank.
Brookes, who also attended Yale, told CNN Thursday that Kavanaugh was “lying” to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his drinking. “There is no doubt in my mind that while at Yale, he was a big partier, often drank to excess and there had to be a number of nights where he does not remember,” Brookes told CNN.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asked that the FBI investigate Kavanaugh’s old drinking habits, as well as several other statements by the Judge Sander’s believes may have been lies. Lying to Congress under oath is a federal crime.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-classmates_us_5bb157bce4b027da00d46d72
Al rendir testimonio ante el Comité Judicial del Senado, Christine Blasey Ford conmovió hasta las lágrimas de reconocimiento a miles de mujeres estadounidenses en todo el país.
Su testimonio notablemente creíble de que Brett Kavanaugh, nominado para la Corte Suprema de EEUU, la agredió sexualmente cuando eran adolescentes, no fue solo un hito crucial en la historia judicial del país. Fue un huracán cultural para mujeres y hombres solidarios que también alzaron sus voces en las redes sociales y en el Congreso para decirle a la doctora Blasey Ford: Yo te creo. Eres una heroína por venir y dar testimonio ante los ojos del mundo entero. Eres una patriota por hacer, como ella lo llamó, “mi deber cívico”.
Cuando se le preguntó qué tan segura estaba de que el hombre que la inmovilizó en la cama, que trató de desgarrar su ropa, y le tapó su boca con la mano para amortiguar sus gritos fue Kavanaugh, la psicóloga investigadora y profesora dio una respuesta inequívoca: “100 por ciento”.
Este pudo haber sido el momento que finalmente cambió la forma en que se trata a las mujeres en este país, como dijo la senadora Dianne Feinstein, demócrata de California, que era su esperanza.
Pero, desafortunadamente, a pesar del conmovedor testimonio de Ford y de las exigencias de una investigación independiente, por parte de organismos que antes habían apoyado a Kavanaugh como el American Bar Association y la universidad de Yale, los republicanos están avanzando para confirmar a Kavanaugh. Solo al último momento del voto 11-10 para mandar la nominación al Senado accedieron a una investigación muy limitada por el FBI, que ya esta siendo criticada por todo lo que no abarca.
Es un vergonzoso abuso de poder.
Al Partido Republicano no le importa que dos mujeres más de sus épocas de preparatoria y universidad, Deborah Ramírez y Julie Swetnick, hayan presentado denuncias también y quieran ser escuchadas. ¿A qué le tienen miedo? ¿A que más mujeres profesionales y creíbles rindan valientes testimonios como el de Ford?
Curiosamente, el juez Kavanaugh admitió que no vio el testimonio de su acusadora. Estaba demasiado ocupado preparando el suyo, dijo. Una mala decisión. Podría haber aprendido algo valioso sobre decoro, humanidad y aplomo bajo la presión del dolor, del interrogatorio y de los recuerdos de dos amigos que la emboscaban y se reían a costa de la joven de 15 años a la que estaban atacando.
En contraste con las respuestas mesuradas de Blasey Ford y la manera cuidadosa con la que trató de ceñirse a los hechos, Kavanaugh fue combativo, partidista, defensivo y excesivamente emocional. Lo que transmitió fuerte y claramente fue su sentir de que él tenía derecho al máximo cargo de la justicia, para el cual, según nos recordó, trabajó toda su vida.
La frase tácita: ¿cómo se atreve ella a atacarme? ¿Cómo se atreven los senadores a preguntarme sobre mi consumo de cerveza, una broma del anuario que menospreciaba a otra mujer, y sobre las otras dos mujeres que han presentado más acusaciones de que era abusivo cuando estaba borracho?
No hubo momentos gloriosos para Kavanaugh, aunque sentimos inmensa pena por sus hijas, su esposa y sus padres. Su angustia por someterlos a esta experiencia fue real, sin duda.
Pero, ¿quién tiene el mayor incentivo para mentir?
No es la mujer que ha sido vilipendiada por los conservadores y cuya familia ha tenido que mudarse dos veces por razones de seguridad. No es la mujer que pasó la prueba del detector de mentiras que los senadores republicanos y el fiscal asignado para interrogarla desmenuzaron, pero no pudieron invalidar. No es la mujer que estaba tan dispuesta a tener en cuenta a la gente que la interrogaba y humildemente confesaba: “Estoy aterrorizada”.
Si ella hubiera callado, la vida de Ford aún estaría llena de las mismas ansiedades de los sobrevivientes de trauma que ella describió tan bien, pero el bien habría permanecido inalterado, ajeno a esta agitación nacional.
El hombre que compite con todo lo que tiene para el cargo más codiciado entre los juristas, sin embargo, es otra historia.
Con sus respuestas, Kavanaugh demostró lo irrespetuoso que puede ser con las mujeres.
Cuando la senadora Amy Klobuchar, demócrata de Minnesota, quien lo trató con el mayor respeto, le preguntó si alguna vez había bebido tanto como para perder el conocimiento, Kavanaugh respondió: “¿Y usted lo ha hecho?” No lo hizo una, sino dos veces, olvidando que no es ella quien está siendo acusada de actos criminales.
También fue combativo con el senador Sheldon Whitehouse, demócrata de Rhode Island, quien igualmente cuestionó a Kavanaugh sobre su consumo de cerveza.
“Senador, ¿a usted qué le gusta beber?” le dijo.
No es exactamente el comportamiento que se espera de un juez de la Corte Suprema. ¿Y se está quejando de esta investigación? Necesita mucho más escudriñamiento por parte del FBI.
En sus comentarios, Kavanaugh calificó su proceso de confirmación como “una vergüenza nacional” que ha llevado a su familia al infierno.
Pero la desgracia nacional es que los republicanos avancen para confirmarlo a pesar de las acusaciones no investigadas de que abusó de las mujeres en la escuela secundaria y la universidad.
El testimonio de Blasey Ford debería haber frenado la rápida carrera de Kavanaugh hacia el tribunal más alto de la nación.
FABIOLA SANTIAGO
https://www.elnuevoherald.com/opinion-es/opin-col-blogs/fabiola-santiago-es/article219313085.html
The White House is fighting to regain control of the confirmation of Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh, as a controversy is widening over its role in an FBI investigation into allegations against the nominee of sexual assault and misconduct.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/kavanaugh-fbi-investigation-oct-18/index.html
Brett Kavanaugh says “We’re loud, obnoxious drunks” in 1983 letter
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-beach-week-letter_us_5bb412a5e4b01470d04c9ed9
Kavanaugh misled Congress on his drinking habits.
There’s no problem in drinking beer in college, the problem is lying about it
Professor Chad Ludington: Kavanaugh misled Congress on his drinking habits. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Kavanaugh denied that he had ever drunk alcohol to the point of blacking out. But North Carolina State University professor Chad Ludington has joined a handful of other former classmates of Brett Kavanaugh in contradicting the Supreme Court nominee’s claims about his past drinking habits.
Ludington told the New York Times in a statement Sunday that Kavanaugh played down “the degree and frequency” of his drinking to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. He said he often saw Kavanaugh “staggering from alcohol consumption.”
Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by three different women, denied in his testimony that there was any possibility he ever drank so much alcohol that he may have lapses in his memory.
Ludington called Kavanaugh’s answers about drinking a “blatant mischaracterization” based on his experiences around the judge when they attended Yale University together. Ludington claimed he often saw Kavanaugh “belligerent and aggressive” while drunk.
“It is truth that is at stake, and I believe that the ability to speak the truth, even when it does not reflect well upon oneself, is a paramount quality we seek in our nation’s most powerful judges,” Ludington said in a statement to the Times. Ludington told the Times he wants to take his “information to the FBI.”
And Ludington’s not the only one countering parts of Kavanaugh’s testimony.
Former Yale classmates Liz Swisher, James Roche, and Lynne Brookes have also made public statements about Kavanaugh’s excessive drinking during their youth. Swisher told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Friday that though she never saw Kavanaugh be sexually aggressive, the judge was a “sloppy drunk.”
“There’s no problem in drinking beer in college, the problem is lying about it,” Swisher told CNN. “He drank heavily, he was a partier, he liked to do beer bongs, he played drinking games, he was sloppy drunk.”
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who goes by Christine Blasey professionally, claims Kavanaugh forced himself on her at a high school party more than 35 years ago. Blasey testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that she was certain Kavanaugh was the one to pin her down, force himself on her, attempt to take off her clothes and then hold a hand over her mouth when she tried to scream when they were teenagers.
Deborah Ramirez alleges Kavanaugh took off his pants and thrust his penis at her face at Yale party during their freshman year. Julie Swetnick wrote in a sworn declaration that Kavanaugh was present at high school parties where boys engaged in raping girls. Swetnick claims she saw Kavanaugh drink excessively at these parties, “press girls against him without their consent” and attempt to remove or shift their clothing.
Roche, a roommate of Kavanaugh’s during freshman year, told the New Yorker he found Ramirez’s claims to be credible. Roche added that he saw Kavanaugh “frequently, incoherently drunk.” Another unnamed classmate told the New Yorker Kavanaugh could be “aggressive and even belligerent” when he drank.
Brookes, who also attended Yale, told CNN Thursday that Kavanaugh was “lying” to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his drinking. “There is no doubt in my mind that while at Yale, he was a big partier, often drank to excess and there had to be a number of nights where he does not remember,” Brookes told CNN.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asked that the FBI investigate Kavanaugh’s old drinking habits, as well as several other statements by the Judge Sander’s believes may have been lies. Lying to Congress under oath is a federal crime.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-classmates_us_5bb157bce4b027da00d46d72
Ex-Senate Aide: Judge Brett Kavanaugh has lied every time he has testified under oath
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/judge-brett-kavanaugh-should-be-impeached-for-lying-during-his-confirmation-hearings.html
Chris Dudley and Brett Kavanaugh accused of assaulting man.
Chris Dudley’s college relationship with Brett Kavanaugh included an alleged bar fight that left a man hospitalized after being hit in the head with a beer glass, according to a police report published by the New York Times Monday. Dudley, an NBA veteran who retired in 2003, came to the defense last week of Brett Kavanaugh. Dudley refuted reports about his drinking habits,telling the New York Times last week that he “never ever saw him blacked out.” “That’s just not Brett,” Dudley said. “That’s not his character.”
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/report-chris-dudley-allegedly-threw-glass-man-college-bar-fight-brett-kavanaugh-010709078.html
New York Times: Police questioned Kavanaugh after bar fight in 1985
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was involved in an altercation at a bar when he was an undergraduate student at Yale and was accused of throwing ice on another patron, according to a police report obtained by The New York Times.
Kavanaugh was frequently “belligerent and aggressive” after drinking and had lied to senators about his experience with alcohol, Ludington said in a statement released to the news media Sunday.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-01/kavanaugh-college-visit-to-bar-erupted-in-fight-classmate-says-jmqwga1s
The confusing start of the FBI’s investigation into Brett Kavanaugh. New memos showing Kavanaugh may have anticipated the Ramirez allegation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UItAXm10klc
NBC News is reporting Kavanaugh and his team worked behind the scenes to refute claims of sexual misconduct by his former Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez —before her claims went public. This contradicts Kavanaugh’s sworn testimony to Republican Orrin Hatch at Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that he only learned about Ramirez’s allegations from The New Yorker article.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/mutual-friend-ramirez-kavanaugh-anxious-come-forward-evidence-n915566
Kavanaugh classmates rescind names from statement rejecting second accuser’s allegation
Those classmates were named in a joint statement released by Kavanaugh’s attorneys, along with the wife of another male student allegedly involved and another classmate, insisting that they would have seen or heard about the event “and we did not.”
Louisa Garry and Dino Ewing signed that statement, but later contacted The New Yorker following publication of the article and requested their names be removed from the statement.
“I never saw or heard anything like this,” Garry said. “But I cannot dispute Ramirez’s allegations, as I was not present.”
“I also was not present and therefore am not in a position to directly dispute Ramirez’s account,” Ewing said.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/kavanaugh-classmates-rescind-names-from-statement-rejecting-second-accusers-allegation
Kavanaugh in 2015: “What happens at Georgetown Prep, stays at Georgetown Prep”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/18/kavanaugh-what-happens-geogetown-prep-828420
The issue is potential lying. CNN’s Anderson Cooper discusses the testimony of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the multiple classmates who have spoken out about his drinking habit in college.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/10/02/cooper-kavanaugh-truth-beer-trump-kth-ac-vpx.cnn
Kavanaugh’s classmate gives details of 1985 bar fight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L00vrguUwA
More Yale classmates come forward claiming Brett Kavanaugh has been lying
https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-yale-classmates-come-forward-153941633.html
Jesuits urge withdrawal of Kavanaugh nomination
Magazine of Jesuits urges withdrawal of Kavanaugh nomination
The Editors: It is time for the Kavanaugh nomination to be withdrawn
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/09/27/editors-it-time-kavanaugh-nomination-be-withdrawn
Incongruencias entre el relato de Kavanaugh y la realidad. Mentir al Congreso, sea o no bajo juramento, constituye un delito.
https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/10/02/estados_unidos/1538497250_819337.html
El oscuro pasado de Kavanaugh se vuelve en su contra
La juventud de Kavanaugh, como él mismo la describía, era la de un joven ambicioso, estudiante aplicado y amante del deporte. También puritano hasta el punto de que se ha visto obligado a sostener en una entrevista en televisión que perdió tarde la virginidad. Sin embargo, las acusaciones de las cuatro mujeres, el relato de excompañeros suyos y sus propias descripciones en el libro escolar lo dibujan como un joven amante del alcohol y la diversión, que en ocasiones bebía demasiado en la burbuja elitista en la que se movía y en la que parecía tolerarse la misoginia. Todas las presuntas víctimas aseguran que las agresiones sexuales ocurrieron cuando Kavanaugh estaba muy embriagado.
https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/09/27/estados_unidos/1538007429_768385.html
The Presumption of Innocence
In her speech on the Senate floor announcing her support, Sen. Collins mentioned her belief in the “presumption of innocence” for Kavanaugh, despite numerous accusations of assault and harassment against him. Nevertheless, “the FBI’s supplemental investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh was limited in scope from the beginning.”
The meaning of “presumption of innocence” has evolved, due in part to decades of effort by American conservatism
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has defended Kavanaugh on the principle that he is innocent until proven guilty, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has made the point that the hearings are not a lawsuit and thus the legal presumed innocence rule is basically irrelevant. The two senators, despite working within the same system, are able to find very different guidance from the same concept. But that gap isn’t what’s surprising, says François Quintard-Morénas, a lawyer and the author of a 2010 article on the history of the presumption of innocence in The American Journal of Comparative Law.
What he does find “ironic” is which senator is on which side, as the narrowing of the concept is due in part to decades of effort by American conservatism.
“Schumer is not technically wrong,” Quintard-Morénas tells TIME. “Over time, the principle in the United States has been weakened considerably, for various reasons and mostly by conservative justices who didn’t want to expand the principle beyond the court of law.”
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/04/politics/fbi-investigation-parameters-kavanaugh/index.html
Kavanaugh reminds us the presumption of innocence is not for everyone
Boyhood is a precious commodity. With it comes innocence, boundlessness and permission to explore. But in America, some people are granted the benefits of boyhood well into their adult years, while others never receive these benefits ― a fact made stark once again by the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
In the two weeks since Christine Blasey Ford went public with her claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were in high school, two other women have come forward with detailed allegations of sexual misconduct by him.
At the same time, many supporters of the conservative nominee have leaped to his defense, suggesting that the assault, if true, was in keeping with the benign traditions of boyhood. According to these supporters, groping a woman without consent is simply “no big deal.”
Many more have claimed that Kavanaugh’s accusers and any corroborating witnesses are remembering incorrectly or lying outright, and there are already signs that these beliefs, espoused by no less than the president, may be tipping the investigation in Kavanaugh’s favor. Shortly after Republicans in the Senate begrudgingly urged the White House to open an FBI investigation into assault allegations against Kavanaugh, reports revealed the White House was working to limit the investigation’s scope (and by consequence, its findings).
On the whole, Kavanaugh has been granted a considerable amount of deference and goodwill for someone accused of a violent crime, and it is difficult not to notice the contrast between his defense and others less fortunate, like Kalief Browder.
At 16 years old, Browder was incarcerated in New York City’s Rikers Island correctional facility for three years awaiting a trial that would never come. Accused of stealing a backpack containing money and entertainment devices, he pleaded not guilty and repeatedly maintained his innocence. In 2013, after spending significant time in solitary confinement, he finally saw his case thrown out for lack of evidence. But two years later, in an act that many attribute to the traumas he experienced while jailed, Browder killed himself.
Browder’s death was widely lamented in progressive media, yet his experience while alive was representative of what tens of thousands of Americans without Kavanaugh’s advantages go through every day. There has been a great deal of study supporting the notion that people of color don’t benefit from this presumption of innocence. And anecdotally, it is hard to imagine a black person awash in the sympathy has Kavanaugh received.
Unlike black and brown people accused of a crime, Kavanaugh has a cadre of powerful people affording him tenderness and the presumption of innocence.
At one point during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Kavanaugh bemoaned how the assault allegation would affect his role as a youth basketball coach. At another, he boasted of his acceptance into Yale, as if academic achievement precluded him from misbehaving in the ways alleged by witnesses. And in one exchange during Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) likened Kavanaugh’s experience answering questions to hell:
Graham: Do you consider what you’ve been through a job interview?
Kavanaugh: I’ve been through a process of advice and consent under the Constitution, which —
Graham: Would you say you’ve been through hell?
Kavanaugh: I ― I’ve been through hell and then some.
Graham: This is not a job interview.
Kavanaugh: Yes.
Graham: This is hell.
Before a scheduled procedural vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination the next day, Graham blasted his Democratic colleagues for wanting to silence single white men.
“I know I’m a single white male from South Carolina, and I’m told I should shut up, but I will not shut up,” Graham said.
In channeling the trope of the forgotten white man, he projected his angst onto Kavanaugh. It was a travesty, according to Graham, that a Supreme Court nominee would have to answer a customary inquiry ― not even a criminal one ― into his past, even if that past might have included a sexual assault.
For privileged white men, inconveniences can seem like oppression.
There was no conservative movement protesting on Browder’s behalf — no throngs of Republican policymakers and pundits speaking of the injustice that spelled his death. Nor was there any such movement for Tamir Rice or Rekia Boyd, who were fatally shot by police officers, or for Dajerria Becton, who suffered under literally the full weight of the law.
The message in this selective outrage is clear: If you are not a white male, you will forever be tasked ― at your own peril ― with policing your body and defending others from the threats it’s thought to pose.
But if you are white and male, childhood and the presumption of innocence is your right for eternity. You, not your victims, will be believed. You will be permitted to harm, holler, cry, berate and offend with impunity because adulthood and its responsibilities are not your burden.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-presumption-of-innocence-not-universal_us_5bb393efe4b00fe9f4fafa8b
Jimmy Carter Says Brett Kavanaugh ‘Unfit’ To Serve As Supreme Court Justice
https://www.yahoo.com/news/jimmy-carter-says-brett-kavanaugh-194911637.html
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, honored Sunday night with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, took a few moments to slam Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in her acceptance speech.
The star of HBO’s “Veep” was lauded by the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Stephen Colbert, Kumail Nanjani, and Tina Fey before she gave her politically charged speech at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
“I attended Holton-Arms, a girls school in the Washington area,” said Louis-Dreyfus of the private girls school in Bethesda, Maryland, that Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford also attended. Ford and Louis-Dreyfus were there at the same time.
“It has been in the news lately. Back in fourth grade, as a matter of fact, I was in a very serious Holton-Arms production of ‘Serendipity.’ You know it’s funny with us Holton girls — I remember every detail of that play. I could swear to it under penalty of perjury. And yet, I don’t remember who drove me to the show or who drove me home. Or if Squee or Tobin were there. Or if Brett put it on his weird wall calendar.”
Louis-Dreyfus was one of nearly 200 women who went to Ford’s high school and signed a letter supporting her after she came forward to accuse Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school.
“We believe Dr. Blasey Ford and are grateful that she came forward to tell her story,” says the letter from alumnae of Holton-Arms. “It demands a thorough and independent investigation before the Senate can reasonably vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to a lifetime seat on the nation’s highest court.”
The women also said Ford’s accusation “is all too consistent with stories we heard and lived while attending Holton. Many of us are survivors ourselves.”
The Republican-led Senate brushed aside the misconduct allegations by Ford and two other women, and voted to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Many GOP senators said they believed Ford had been sexually assaulted, but because she couldn’t remember some details, it probably wasn’t Kavanaugh who did it. Some, joined by President Donald Trump, sympathized with Kavanaugh.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/julia-louis-dreyfus-slams-justice-brett-kavanaugh-in-mark-twain-prize-speech_us_5bcdc46fe4b0a8f17eee9816
Kavanaugh once lobbied for judge now handling ethics complaints against him
Revelation raises concerns about politicization of the supreme court and whether Trump nominee will face disciplinary action
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/22/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-tim-tymkovich-ethics-complaints