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Speaking from experience: Carlson and Dershowitz on false accusations — 36 Comments

1. I was falsely accused of rape.

   My denials carried absolutely zero weight with anybody.

   Then she recanted.

   What triggered the bitch? I refused to come on to her.

   Women kill you with their lies.

   I found out from my neice that this is classic feminine behavior.

   The girls do it to each other all the time… from an early age.

   So much so that most of their friendships don’t last.

   I was amazed to see the turn-over as her life progressed.

2. While I agree with Carlson and Dershowitz, I think they’re not addressing the big elephant in the room: main problem with rape allegations is that most of times they’re impossible to prove. Main problem with fake rape accusations is exactly the same.

   IF you ask for evidence beyond reasonable doubt when it comes to rape, women are not gonna be safe.

   HOWEVER, if you don’t, then you reach the current situation: legal uncertainty.

   Traditionally, this was solved through credibility: the more you were a respected citizen, the more your word was taken into account and accepted as evidence. The system was not perfect, but it worked well enough. Nowadays this is considered politically incorrect… but truth is there’s nothing to replace it, no plan B.

   Old values had their issues, but they solved this problem while modern society just can’t. And people will see countries collapse rather than acknowledge they were wrong.

3. I had forgotten about that Dershowitz accusation, Neo. Thanks for the reminder.

   It simply is not true that women don’t lie about sexual assault. Some of them do lie about this (and other matters). And sometimes an actual rape victim will misidentify her attacker, not deliberately but in error. DNA analysis has stopped some of those miscarriages of justice, fortunately.

   All I can say is that there are male sociopathic liars as well. Once someone tells you two or three lies, you need to stay away from that person entirely.

4. While I agree with Carlson and Dershowitz, I think they’re not addressing the big elephant in the room: main problem with rape allegations is that most of times they’re impossible to prove.

   No, charges of forcible rape (or forcible sodomy) are difficult to prove if the parties in question have an extant association and they carry certain properties you’d expect of people who were involved in a sexual / amatory way.

5. I’m an expert on false allegations… why not explore how having one false allegation even if proven false, means people worry you will have more… and being up for murder, having your kid taken, losing your home, all your money driven into bankruptcy, no work, and more… without any recourse, anyone to sue, a bright career out of bronx science killed off… children killed off…

   and all cause the corpse wasnt dead..

   if the corpse WAS dead, i would serve, get out in under 7

   while in there i could get college, something i had to be homeless living in a park to do without that – an full acrediation, not continuing ed at 19 after bronx science cause i wouldnt cut off my penis and make love to men.

   i would be favored, and there would be help for things like making a business

   the business would be on the 8a program which forbids white males from any of the near trillion for women.. .

   i would have been better off having done the dead than being accused falsely
   if a living body after murder is not enough to clean up things
   what is?
   

   this is the message from the mens boards:
   We have nothing to fight for… We do not belong… we have no rights… all this society does is take our money and forbid equal participation in the programs we pay for we have no reason to help… why would we help people who said we have no rights, demonized us, and made us the seat of their ills? To many of them, a stalin would be just for them to live under… dont ya think?

   As long as women have this nuclear weapon, is any public office safe?
   would you trust ladies self control? you know, the sex that yells, screams as a norm, hits while not wanting to be hit, throws belongings out the window (criminal but ok), false allegations, doenst like fair rules, and more..

   i say… let them have it all… they deserve it!!!

   better study up on ettiquiete, and if your a decent guy who would never do a thing

   then you better stay away from every and any lady you meet, as reasonable woman standard went out in the 80s and whatever she feels is ok, and hearsay is ok as evidence (i showed the statutes!)
   [edited for length by n]

6. According to the FAQ page of the website, “Make them scared UW” is a “communal rape list.”

   meaning that if you go to college and your male, you better NOT bother with women
   do NOT invite them to parties… do NOT hang out with them
   the ONLY protection you have to this kind of thing is NOT TO BE THERE!
   and have proof you were not there…

   It is “intended to be an online hub for anyone who wants to expose the names of their attackers and harassers, and to fill a gap left by inadequate treatment of these cases by formal institutions.”

   heck, all that has made sure i had office less than a prisoner would get if they killed somone… bad conditions… neo knew… but alas.. no difference between knowing or not knowing… worthless time spent at a hopeless outcome that could have been spent more productively, like learning origami.. at least now i would know that instead of what i know now

   “We do not have the ability to determine whether any accused party is guilty or innocent of the accused acts, so take all names listed with a grain of salt,” the site’s front page states.

   here is the fun part.. i knew a feminist who was a permanent college student in womens studies… she was a penthouse pet… she spent her free time dating men so she could hurt them… the more she hurt the more she liked what she did

   if you met her, you would have met a very attractive polite woman with a psychopathic agenda hidden underneath if you were at all wanting to be with her!!!

   Via Facebook message, The College Fix managed to contact one student on the list:

   “I was investigated by my school’s office and found that there was insufficient evidence of what she was accusing me of,” he told The Fix. He said the allegation stems from a night in which he and his accuser “both got pretty drunk,” after which he performed oral sex on her. After he attempted to initiate intercourse, his accuser said no, at which point he “backed off,” he said.

   “This girl gave the investigator at my school literally everything, our facebook messages, our snapchat messages (she saved all of them), text messages, and even my reddit account and I was deemed to be so not a threat to her that the investigator didn’t even care if I was in the same class as her,” the student said. He said that he wasn’t even aware he was on the “Make Them Scared” list until The Fix contacted him.

   Did she have an agenda?
   how would you know?

   did you notice how the womens magazines advise girls to collect evidence upon meeting someone, and the right evidence for a case that sustantiates hearsay? they have classes on doing that? you didnt know that? too bad

   maybe you will find in a year or two, that someone you dated in your past, pissed off you dropped her for your wife, or someone else… realizes they can get you back 20 years or 30 years later for some inner mental grudge she held all her life…

   good luck with that

7. are we starting to learn why in the past the men made spaces without women?
   whats fair about such accusations? and what could one do once one was in the room?

   nothing..
   so dont let her in the room..
   it WAS as simple as that

   men with families, and businesses and political power had and have too much to lose and so kept putting women out till they were all out… agripina could clue you in, etiquette should have…

   abandonment of such by women was also abandonment of queensbury rules
   why is it funny when women kick men in the balls on tv or video?
   or hit them with shovels, etc?

   the ladies have abandoned that!!! and without that, there is no way for the honest women to participate as long as there is one bad apple in the batch!!!!!!!!!

   since you cant tell which is the ranjou
   you better just not go dancing in that minefield
   avoid it completely

   welcome to the new matriarchy
   where women are alone, men are in feral gangs, progressis halted by socialism, children are feral, and so on
   [edited for length by n]

8. To me, the worst seems to be that these false accusations carry not consequences for the woman. There was a case in California, Brian Banks was a 16 year old football star when he was accused.

   Brian Banks was 16 years old in the summer of 2002, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound linebacker with speed at powerhouse Long Beach Polytechnic High in Southern California, as promising a football player as any high school kid in the country.
   As one of the most highly recruited middle linebackers in the nation, he had a verbal commitment to play on full scholarship for Pete Carroll at USC.

   Instead he spent five years in prison. The girl was paid $2.5 million by the city.

   He languished in juvenile hall for an entire year before his case came up. He was to be tried as an adult and if found guilty, faced 41 years to life. His football dreams effectively died that summer day in the stairwell of his school.
   Life isn’t fair.
   Brian Banks was an innocent man.

   Eventually he tricked the woman into admitting her accusation was a lie but it was five years later.

   He underwent the 90-day observation. The psychologist and counselor recommended probation. The judge gave him six years. He had never been in trouble before, not even a speeding ticket. He sat in the holding cell, held both hands up, shaking uncontrollably as he figured out that he would have to serve 85% of the six years. He had already served one year. That meant he still had just over four years remaining.

   Three years ago, Banks was checking his Facebook account and got a start. He had been home for four years working odd jobs, still carrying the label of sex offender. But there, staring him in the face, was a friend request.
   “It was her,” Banks says, “the girl who had accused me nine years ago.”
   Banks still doesn’t know her reasoning for selling him down the river when she knew they never had sex and there was no DNA trace on her underwear. Maybe it was the $1.5 million she collected from the Long Beach school system, claiming it was an unsafe environment (the city is trying to recoup $2.6 million from her now). Banks thinks maybe Gibson was afraid her older sister, who went to the same high school, would find out she made out with him and tell her mother. Or that he would brag to friends.

   He asked why she would request him.
   “I was hoping we could let bygones be bygones,” Banks says Gibson wrote. “I was immature back in the day, but I’m much more mature now. Let’s hang out. I’d love to see you. I’ve seen your picture on Facebook. You look real good. I would love to hook up.”
   Banks obviously had no interest.

   He risked going back to prison if he contacted her.

   He invited Wanetta Gibson to the investigator’s office. They spoke with the investigator monitoring in another room. Banks wanted her to understand what she did to his life. He asked her to come back the second day to speak to the investigator.
   “Did he rape you? Did he kidnap you?” the investigator asked.
   Banks said she laughed it off and said, “Of course not. If he raped me, I wouldn’t be here right now. We were just young and having a good time, being curious, then all these other people got involved and blew it out of proportion.”
   It was all on tape. Banks took it to the California Innocence Project, which took his case and appealed it.

   A lot of these college fake rape stories involve white girls and black males. Nobody talks about that.

9. A lot of these college fake rape stories involve white girls and black males. Nobody talks about that.

   actually they do!!!
   they basically say its like the past, and never happens, so now it doesnt happen

   The same way in the past the fee for voting was bad, but now they claim the same for a drivers licesnse or free id that all need to function..

   in fact, one thing in sweden was the argument that this fear of blcks higher crime rate and the immigrants actions like gang raping in a ring of three… were all scare stories

   ok
   fine..
   not like we get to freely read the paper without games like “teens” “asians” etc
   if you cant call people pointing to actual events as racists, then you cant stop people noting the events.

   here is an example:
   The “Black Beast Rapist”: White Racial Attitudes in the Postwar South

   you know they are going to bring up the young lad who a lady falsely accused and got murdered
   they blame hte men that killed him
   but the lady who blamed him gets a free ticket!!!!

   The Biggest Lie in the White Supremacist Propaganda Playbook

   and so. thats why unless your black, you cant say anything
   next week, we find out nazis used hammers, so all construction workers are nazis

   its also why men cant be heard on feminist or family issues

   its also why you cant be heard in lots of things

   it took 40 years for them to construct that
   and it REQUIRED people like neo to avoid the conversation tiil its wall too late
   doesnt matter if it was concious, unconcious, not even on the map, accidental, or coinkydinks
   the outcome is the same… these points do not change the outcome
   they are all excuses as to why an outcome has to be accepted!!!!!!!!!!
   when it wasnt negated

10. Briffault’s law

    Briffault’s law maintains that “the female, not the male, determines all the conditions of the animal family. Where the female can derive no benefit from association with the male, no such association takes place.” Today we would say “relationship” rather than “association.”

    For this bit of wisdom we have Robert Briffault (1876-1948), an English surgeon, anthropologist, and author, to thank. I do not present Briffault’s law as fact, nor do I dismiss it as fiction. It is something to think about – and Briffault gives us even more to ponder.

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/machiavellians-gulling-the-rubes/201610/briffaults-law-women-rule

    this old knowlege is gone, which is why we thought nothing when the communists took over the womens movement

    but how would incurious people know or care about this past knowlege that would help them? they do not care enough to find it know it, use it or what..

    too bad
    they gonna hate united states of venezeula economics… [despite lowest unemployment since 1969, the left is protesting with fists up and its the daughters of politicians like schumer leading the way!!!!!!!!!!]

11. If you have been following the face-off between Blasey Ford’s Bestie McLean and her ex-boyfriend, there are some new, very troubling developments.

    J E Dyer connects the dots that Sundance put on the page.
    I am only excerpting “new” data that I haven’t seen before, having been occupied with the Flake’s coy teasing of the Senate GOP (what is that man thinking???) and the Daines wedding (best wishes to the family, and get that plane chartered and ready to get back to DC asap).

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/05/christine-blasey-fords-doj-fbi-connection/

    By J.E. Dyer October 5, 2018

    “McLean’s history with the DOJ and FBI tends to corroborate the claim by Brian Merrick that she needed to take a polygraph test in the 1990s. Again, McLean denies that Ms. Ford coached her on that.

    It’s worth noting as well that Merrick would have a good idea what he was talking about, as the son of a distinguished California jurist, Judge John Merrick, who has often been called the “First Citizen of Malibu.” In his statement, the younger Merrick spoke specifically of McLean “interviewing for jobs with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office.” Perhaps he was coached by a lawyer on that language himself, but he probably doesn’t need to be. Most ordinary people might not refer to a federal D.A. as the “U.S. Attorney” – but the son of a longtime judge would.”

    “Ford and McLean had been roommates in California 25 years earlier, and classmates at Holton-Arms before that. A lifetime friendship is apparent. But sundance also discovered by reviewing video of Ford’s Senate appearance that McLean was present for Ford’s hearing on 27 September. The comparison with a photo from a community event in Rehoboth Beach (see sundance) shows that it is indeed Monica McLean in the C-SPAN video.
    …
    We would expect a good friend to be supportive in such an effort. But not all good friends are lawyers from the U.S. federal justice system.

    That’s why a dot that may connect is particularly interesting. The reason for following this through is that it sheds light on several things, starting with what the Democrats and Ford’s lawyers have been trying to do. It suggests a key to their strange insistence on getting an FBI “investigation,” on parameters that they are determined to dictate themselves, while yet withholding from the FBI documents that might bolster Ford’s testimony.

    The dot – which may or may not connect, but shouldn’t be hard to look into – is something uncovered by Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit earlier this week. He discovered in an online search of Ms. Ford’s 30-plus-year-old arrest record in North Carolina (a record that seems to have been fairly minor, and is not the point here) that the most recent update to the record had been made on 7 July 2018.

    For some reason, the screen captures Hoft posted in his article are missing. They have been scrubbed from archived copies of the article as well. But they still existed on 4 October at other sites that link to the Gateway Pundit post. I include here the first of the screen caps, showing that the last update to the record of arrest on a criminal charge was made on 7 July 2018. The case is shown as “disposed.”
    ..
    [I looked at the link, and copied the post; you never know when Google or Blogspot or whoever will decide to deep-six your account]
    ..
    “Jim Hoft pointed out originally that the July 2018 update was made about three weeks before Ford sent her letter to Feinstein, which she appears to have done while she was in Rehoboth Beach visiting her friend Monica McLean (see sundance).

    But an even more interesting data point is that the records update on the old arrest in Catawba County, North Carolina was made the day after Ford contacted her U.S. representative, Anna Eshoo – that is, the representative for the district where the Ford home in Palo Alto, California is located.

    That was the first notification Ford made to a government official that she wanted to come forward. According to the timeline assembled by prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, Ford made contact with Eshoo on 6 July 2018. That was also the day Ford initially texted the Washington Post.
    …
    The old arrest was from June of 1985. What are the odds that an update would be made to the North Carolina county’s arrest record one day after Ford contacted Rep. Eshoo, for a reason unrelated to that contact?

    The odds seem slim. Here is where we don’t know if the dots connect, but dots that do connect would offer the best explanation.

    The county in question (Catawba) is a red county, and the clerk of court a Republican (a Ms. Kim Sigmon). Both U.S. senators for the state are Republicans, as are both of the U.S. representatives whose districts include portions of Catawba County. Favors being done for congressional Democrats in the matter of old local arrest records for non-residents are not that likely, at least not on a one-day turn-around basis.

    But there is a federal agency that could independently prompt the county to update its old arrest record in some way, without having to give much of a reason. That agency is, of course, the FBI. The FBI makes extensive use of local law enforcement records, and has a chartered interest in those records being updated and accurate. It probably wouldn’t raise eyebrows for the FBI to make a query that resulted in the update of an old arrest record.

    We don’t see on the records what the update to the record was (although I note that the second screen cap — not included here — shows no category code for the crime(s), which may be what the update was about). My assumption is that the arrest record was never for anything very serious. Christine Blasey would have been 18 at the time, and whatever it was can no doubt stay in the past.

    The real point is that someone was able to get the record updated in July 2018, at a time that clearly shows it was related to the decision to tell her story. Getting that record updated indicates there was a team on this from the very beginning.

    That’s the point. With Monica McLean in the mix, we know there was someone with a longtime FBI connection on the team.
    …
    But the FBI connection on Ford’s team – a close, personal one – is important in its own right. It raises anew the question: what exactly was expected to come of getting the full-blown “FBI investigation,” on the insistent terms of Ford’s Democratic handlers, that they have been seeking so vocally and repetitively.”

12. I totally believe Dersh, but what the heck was he doing hanging out with Epstein at all??

    “Dershowitz said Jane Doe #3—later identified by Buckingham Palace officials as Roberts—was not on the plane or the island at the same time as him.”

13. MikeK on October 5, 2018 at 11:15 am at 11:15 am said:
    To me, the worst seems to be that these false accusations carry not consequences for the woman. There was a case in California, Brian Banks was a 16 year old football star when he was accused.
    * * *
    That was horrifying, and sadly not unique, as we are learning.
    “Trust but verify” and don’t believe anybody without evidence.
    And your feelings are not evidence.

14. Sundance has expanded the matter of the FBI role today. The lawyer for Mclean is David Kaufman, who was DOJ National Security chief.

    David Laufman was the Department of Justice, National Security Division, Deputy Asst. Attorney General in charge of counterintelligence, cyber security, counterespionage and export controls.

    As most people are now aware the epicenter of the DOJ/FBI Clinton-Steele operation against candidate Trump stemmed from a collaborate “small group” effort of Main Justice officials within the National Security Division (John P Carlin – head), and officials within the FBI centered around the Counterintelligence Division (Bill Priestap – head).

    The plot thickens. Early on, I thought she might have recovered memories but now I think this was an operation run by the Deep State.

15. art – sorry, Briffault’s Rule is very one-sided, lacking in empirical substance, and an example of one of the reasons I quit taking Psychology Today.

16. This part of the Carlson story is one that chilled me the first time I heard it, and the failure by the Left, Womyn, and the Dems was one of the steps that ennabled the charges against Judge Kavanaugh.

    “Of course, crushing the innocent may also be the point of the exercise and we are seeing that. Last week a feminist called Emily Lindin announced on Twitter that she was quote, “not at all concerned about innocent men losing their jobs in the search for perpetrators of sexual harassment.” Quote, “If some innocent men’s reputation have to take a hit in the process of undoing the patriarchy, that is a price I’m absolutely willing to pay.””

    Think about the kind of pathological mindset that is “willing to pay the price” so long as someone else actually takes the hit.

    Socialism in a nutshell

17. I totally believe Dersh, but what the heck was he doing hanging out with Epstein at all??

    Epstein was a client. I believe Dershowitz has averred he was with his wife and daughter on his travels to Epstein’s resort.

18. Ford’s legal team are predators, and they are working for a sociopath.
    Or allegedly working for her — it is becoming increasingly apparent that this was an elaborate and deliberate hit job on Kavanaugh.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6235463/amp/Christine-Fords-high-school-friend-blindsided-named-corroborating-witness.html?__twitter_impression=true

    “Christine Ford’s high school friend, Leland Keyser, was ‘completely blindsided’ and left ‘reeling’ when the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of attempted rape named her as a corroborating witness.

    Speaking exclusively to DailyMailTV a family member close to Keyser, 52, said: ‘Christine didn’t give her so much as a heads up – as far as I know they haven’t really spoken for several years and they’re certainly not close anymore.

    ‘Leland was completely blindsided by her name being thrown into it all. The first thing she knew about it was when she woke up on Thursday morning and her name was just everywhere. It was crazy.’
    …
    Keyser’s attorney, Howard J Walsh III, last night confirmed that his client has spoken with the FBI and that when she did so she could not corroborate Ford’s account.

    Instead she doubled down on the statements she has already given to the Senate Committee in which she has denied all knowledge of the supposed party, the alleged assault or of Kavanaugh, 53.”

19. Art Deco on October 5, 2018 at 12:51 pm at 12:51 pm said:
    I totally believe Dersh, but what the heck was he doing hanging out with Epstein at all??

    Epstein was a client. I believe Dershowitz has averred he was with his wife and daughter on his travels to Epstein’s resort.
    * * *
    Thanks for the info – this is what I mean by channeling Reagan “I trust Dershowitz’s account, but would like some explanation.”

20. This remark of Ford’s (quoted in the Daily Mail) puzzled me at the time, and so far as I know was never pursued.

    “Ford attempted to brush aside Keyser’s statement telling members of the Senate Committee: ‘Leland has significant health challenges, and I’m happy that she’s focusing on herself and getting the health treatment that she needs, and she let me know that she needed her lawyer to take care of this for her, and she texted me right afterward with an apology and good wishes, and et cetera.

    ‘So I’m glad that she’s taking care of herself. I don’t expect that P.J. and Leland would remember this evening.

    ‘It was a very unremarkable party. It was not one of their more notorious parties, because nothing remarkable happened to them that evening. They were downstairs.’ ”

    Either she is implying that PJ and Leland have prior experience of notorious parties (what kind of people was she friends with, here?), or Ford has no idea what the word actually means and was looking for “memorable” instead.

21. Something new to me from the Mail article, about the depths to which bystanders will involve themselves in public controversies (tv-Western bar fights come to mind).

    “Speaking in her defense Keyser’s loved one noted: ‘I think it’s quite convenient that she named the person who is frankly probably the least physically capable of all of them to stand up and be subjected to questioning or give her account.’

    The family member went on to explain that the ‘health challenges’ faced by Keyser have not impaired her memory.

    But they admitted that being caught up in the Kavanaugh scandal has proved physically trying at a time when Keyser is not in good health.

    The relative said: ‘Leland is not a well woman. She has had years of injuries that have seen her have 14 operations on her neck and back. She just wants to get better.’

    She is also under enormous emotional stress.

    An open letter to Keyser published on Tuesday in The Daily Caller dragged up a tragedy from her past in a bizarre attempt to cast doubt on Keyser’s insistence that she remembers nothing and push her to confront past memories, however painful.
    The letter, written by Sara Corcoran, publisher of National Courts Monitor who knew Keyser in her youth, recalled the day in July 1988 when Keyser’s boyfriend dived into the shallow end of the swimming pool at Columbia Country Club. He broke his neck and died.

    Corcoran wrote: ‘I remember how you suffered…. sometimes it seems like it is easier to remain silent, but I also feel you know where the house was and who was there.’

    She stated: ‘There was nothing you could have done to save Bill from the fate that awaited him, but you can save Christine.’
    …”

    This is bullying, straight out, by someone who professes to be a psychic — how else could she “feel” that Keyser knows something NO ONE ELSE can remember?

    These people are sick.

22. Ok, we’ve moved out of the John Grisham novel back to Le Carre territory.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-official-linked-to-natalia-veselnitskaya-the-trump-tower-lawyer-is-dead

    Russian Official Linked to Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Trump Tower Lawyer, Is Dead
    Russia’s Deputy Attorney General Saak Karapetyan was exposed this year for running a foreign recruitment operation with Natalia Veselnitskaya.

    Nico Hines
    10.04.18 1:15 PM ET

    “Media reports in Russia say he died Wednesday night when his helicopter crashed into a forest during an unauthorized flight in the Kostroma region, northeast of Moscow.

    Karapetyan, 58, was intimately familiar with some of the most notorious operations carried out under the orders of Vladimir Putin. He worked closely with Veselnitskaya as well as running some of Moscow’s most high-profile efforts to thwart international investigations into Russia’s alleged crimes.

    It was Karapetyan who signed a letter from the Russian government refusing to help the U.S. in a civil case it was pursuing linked to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was trying to expose a $230 million fraud in Russia. Leaked emails have since shown that Veselnitskaya helped to draft the document sent with that letter.
    …On Wednesday night, the wreckage of a helicopter believed to have been carrying Karapetyan was found near the village of Vonyshevo. Video purported to be from the scene shows the chopper mangled and burnt out amid twisted tree trunks.

    It is not known why experienced pilot Stanislav Mikhnov, 54, reportedly decided to take off after nightfall in adverse conditions without authorities’ approval. A third man, Arek Harutyunyan, was also killed, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.”

    (h/t Liberty Unyielding)

23. https://www.thedailybeast.com/kavanaugh-on-the-brink-of-confirmation-after-key-senate-vote?ref=scroll

    “Judge Brett Kavanaugh took a large step toward getting on the Supreme Court on Friday after clearing a Senate procedural vote, 51-49.

    Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted no, but Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) joined Republicans to advance the nomination. The vote doesn’t guarantee Kavanaugh’s confirmation as undecided senators have been known to vote to advance a nomination even if their minds aren’t made up. But prospects of a meaningful vote flip remained small. By noon, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), had said he’d support final nomination barring something explosive breaking.

    It was Flake whose call for an FBI investigation into sexual-assault allegations against Kavanaugh delayed the procedural vote until today. The Arizona Republican said he was ultimately satisfied with the bureau’s findings.

    Murkowski indicated she will not support the nominee on final passage, telling reporters she changed her mind on advancing him on the chamber.

    “I believe he is a good man,” she said, but “in my view, he’s not the best man for the court at this time.”

    Susan Collins (R-ME), who voted to advance Kavanaugh, said she will announce how she plans to vote on his confirmation at 3 pm.

    Manchin has not said how he plans to vote.”

    * * *
    If not Kavanaugh, who?
    If not now, when?

24. This is the fight the Democrats think they are waging (I would say good riddance to bad rubbish). This is also the “one movie, two screens” effect in triplicate, an embarrassing hagiography from the left.

    I won’t raise my blood pressure by fisking this, other than bolding a few spots.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/if-dems-lose-again-obamas-legacy-is-gone-forever?ref=scroll

    Jonathan Alter
    10.04.18 6:30 PM ET

    “It’s one of this autumn’s pleasant surprises. Two years after Donald Trump’s election as president and 10 years after his own, Barack Obama is gracefully re-entering our consciousness, reminding us of what we have lost and may yet recover.

    The contrast between Obama and Trump—decent vs. despicable; incisive vs. ignorant; honest vs. humbug; classy vs. clownish—is now the critical subtext of the 2018 campaign. With Obama’s current approval ratings more than 20 points higher than Trump’s, the aching memory of his presidency will help energize Democrats in the midterms.

    But Obama’s return is also a reminder that some of his admirable qualities—modesty, prudence, deliberateness—have inadvertently helped Republicans endanger everything he built.

    If Obama’s reputation is secure, his legacy is not. Many of his accomplishments in office are in danger of being wiped out in November. The personal stakes for him and his place in history are high.
    …
    Obama’s arguments are welcome, but they raise the question of why he didn’t make them more aggressively when he was in office. Michelle Obama, whose post-election book tour means she won’t be stumping this fall for candidates who have invited her into their districts (she will work instead on voter registration and turnout), famously told the 2016 Democratic Convention, “When they go low, we go high.” In hindsight, this looks noble but a tad naive. When they went low, why didn’t her husband at least ridicule them, as he did so mercilessly to Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner?

    [well.. can’t let this one go.. why is such a decent, honest, classy man mercilessly ridiculing another person in public?]

    The answer is that as the first black president, he thought it was important not to sound strident or excessively partisan. And he didn’t want to demean his office and risk his reputation by descending to Trump’s level. Even now, he’s reluctant to mention Trump’s name, for fear of becoming a useful foil for the president. If Democrats fall short, historians may fasten on his reluctance to mix it up more when he had the chance.

    [emphasis on the MORE, you bitter clingers, you]
    …
    It was here, in the last year of his presidency, that “No Drama Obama” most failed to fight for himself—and for the rest of us. Why didn’t he dramatically travel down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Senate with Judge Garland in tow and inform McConnell before the cameras that he was violating his constitutional duty and must meet with them? It probably wouldn’t have changed anything, but he needed to try harder to exploit the theater of the presidency. He didn’t turn pugnacious because he—like so many others—was confident Hillary Clinton would win.

    [ it’s a lost cause: First, McConnell would have publicly put him in his place as meddling in Senate business (I hope!) and displaying once again his total ignorance about the Constitution that he supposedly was an expert teacher of; Second, the author implicitly admits Obama exploited the theater of the presidency, because it’s obviously true. He didn’t have to turn pugnacious; he already was. And they all thought Hillary would win and no one would ever know how badly they had subverted the government’s power.]
    ..
    Most important, perhaps, Obama’s definition of the rule of law would return, even if Trump is not impeached. As president,Obama so believed in an independent Department of Justice that he wouldn’t even discuss prosecutions of bankers with his friend, Attorney General Eric Holder, for fear of being seen as interfering in cases beyond his authority. A Democratic House could restore the independence of law enforcement agencies with a blizzard of subpoenas and splashy hearings. If Trump fired Robert Mueller, House Democrats could immediately hire him and a large staff to continue his investigation.

    [no comment needed here]

    When he was a candidate, Obama liked to quote Martin Luther King saying that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” He doesn’t talk that way so much any more. The arc of the last two years has been bending toward tragedy, for the world and for one man—a student of Shakespeare—watching much of his handiwork turn to dust.

    [ Except the tragedy was for a different man altogether — why in the world is the Beast publishing this with not reference to the character assassination of Judge Kavanaugh? Hint: that’s a rhetorical question]

    Now, just weeks away, comes a fork in road. One way leads to the validation of Donald Trump and makes his reelection more likely. Six more years of him as president would mean the extinction of nearly everything Barack Obama achieved beyond becoming the first black president.

    [ ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wish’d]

    The other path offers a chance at redemption. If enough Democrats stop knocking on wood and start knocking on doors, the president they revere may yet live large in history for more than the content of his character.”

    [And if they don’t succeed, he will live large in history precisely for the content of his character: the biggest traitor to America since Benedict Arnold, who is looking good in comparison.]

    * * *
    This sounded like something I’ve read months ago, but it was only published on-line yesterday.
    Seriously asking — is this a retread or a new piece from the same mold?

    The fact that they can’t let Obama’s legacy stand or fall on its own, but have to sink to unprecedented depths (in our lifetime, anyway) to prop it up just proves to me that they need serious psychological help.

    Or they could throw Obama in the water and see if he floats.

25. https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/04/irans-ayatollah-khamenei-explains-to-western-women-how-to-solve-their-metoo-problem/

    “[Ed. – You guessed it: wear a hijab. Patrick Goodenough points out that this doesn’t seem to protect Iranian women all that well.”

    Some of the other benefits of the hijab:

    “Earlier U.N. reports noted that under Iran’s Islamic penal code, “a woman’s testimony in a court of law is regarded as half that of a man’s” and that abuses of female prisoners include forced marriages, sexual violence and torture, and the rape of virgins awaiting execution.”

26. New from Sundance:
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/10/05/report-fords-fbi-friend-monica-mclean-pressured-witness-to-modify-testimony-and-statement/#more-154939

    “Posted on October 5, 2018 by sundance
    If you thought it was sketchy that Ms. Christine Blasey-Ford’s life-long best friend was a recently retired FBI agent and DOJ official, Monica McLean {Go Deep}; and if you thought it was sketchy that McLean and Ford were together on July 30th when Ford was writing a letter to Dianne Feinstein, likely making the friend Ms Ford’s “handler” for the operation against Kavanaugh; then it’s even more sketchy today with a report that McLean was pressuring witness Leland Keyser to shape her statements and testimony to the FBI.
    According to the Wall Street Journal the FBI has text messages from Ms. McLean to witness Ms. Keyser, directing her to modify statements more favorable to Ms. Ford.
    …
    (WSJ) “On Thursday, a day after sending to the White House the report on its investigation into the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh, the FBI sent the White House and Senate an additional package of information that included text messages from Ms. McLean to Ms. Keyser, according to a person familiar with the matter.”
    …
    If there was any doubt the “small group” of connected DOJ and FBI officials were behind the use of Ms. Ford, you can put that doubt away now that Ms. Ford’s handler, Monica McLean, has enlisted David Laufman as her legal defense.

    They’re not even trying to hide it any more.

    Michael Bromwich is representing Ms. Ford, and David Laufman is representing Ms. McLean. The concentric Lawfare gang is working overtime, likely pro-bono.

    It is beyond obvious now that Ms. Christine Blasey-Ford was not just some random ancillary high school acquaintance of Brett Kavanaugh; Ms. Ford appears to have been selected by a group of politically connected FBI and DOJ officials for the purpose of targeting Judge Kavanaugh.

    All of these DOJ and FBI people are part of a tight network.

    “Beach Friends”? Rohoboth Beach friends?
    …
    Additionally, In his former DOJ-NSD position, Laufman would have held knowledge of the FISA “Title-1” surveillance program initiated on Carter Page and the “incidental” Trump campaign officials. Laufman would also have close contact with former Asst. Deputy Attorney Bruce Ohr; husband of Fusion GPS employee Nellie Ohr.”

    * * *
    “Trust but verify” when anonymous sources leak anything, but WSJ is not a tabloid, and Sundance always includes lots of interesting charts and graphics.
    Let’s say, it could use some more investigation.
    I would like to know why the texts were not in the formal report, for one thing.

27. WSJ is not a tabloid – yet – but Senator Grassley’s remarks about the fake news that didn’t want to interview any pro-Kavanaugh protestors seem relevant here.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/protesters-raise-voices-over-kavanaugh-1538752711

    Hundreds of demonstrators crowded a Senate office building to oppose his confirmation
    Oct. 5, 2018 11:18 a.m. ET

28. https://www.peoplespunditdaily.com/video/2018/10/05/chuck-grassley-witnesses-told-fbi-they-were-pressured-to-corroborate-allegations/

    “Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Ia., said Friday during an interview that FBI form 302s from the investigation indicate multiple witnesses were pressured to change their stories so that they’d corroborate accusations. The chairman was responding to a report in The Wall Street Journal claiming a friend of Christine Blasey Ford told FBI investigators that she felt pressured to change her initial statement that did not corroborate the alleged sexual assault.

    “There is evidence I can’t speak about because it’s in the FBI report. But there’s evidence about other people that have been questioned — that they were led into it, as well,” Chairman Grassley said. ”

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/read-the-executive-summary-of-the-fbis-supplemental-investigation-into-kavanaugh-allegations

    “At the Senate Judiciary Committee’s request, the FBI opened a supplemental background investigation into Judge Kavanaugh. It’s his seventh FBI background investigation in 25 years, going back to 1993. The request was for an investigation into current credible allegations against Judge Kavanaugh.

    In the course of its investigation, the FBI decided to reach out to eleven people, ten of whom agreed to be interviewed. The FBI reached out to all witnesses with potential firsthand knowledge of the allegations. The FBI provided to the Senate 12 detailed FD-302 reports summarizing their interviews with the witnesses as well as supporting materials cited by the witnesses during their interviews.”

29. This is Grassley’s Conan moment.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/grassley-demands-correspondence-between-ford-legal-team-and-dem-senators

    “Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley demanded lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford turn over records of communications between their legal team and the offices of Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Mazie Hirono “in light of recently uncovered information.”

    Grassley, R-Iowa, penned a letter to Ford’s legal team late Thursday, renewing requests for evidence. Grassley said the evidence in question had been referenced numerous times to support Ford’s allegations that Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party 36 years ago.

    “I urge you once again, now for the third time in writing, to turn over the therapy notes, polygraph materials, and communications with The Washington Post that Dr. Ford has relied upon as evidence,” Grassley wrote, following up on his initial letter sent on Oct. 2. “In addition to the evidence I requested in my October 2 letter, in light of recently uncovered information, please turn over records and descriptions of direct or indirect communications between Dr. Ford or her representatives and any of the following…”

    Grassley requested communications between Ford’s legal team and senators and staffs—“particularly the offices of Senators Feinstein and Hirono,” and <b?communications with the “alleged witnesses” identified by Ford—Mark Judge, Leland Keyser and Patrick “P.J.” Smith.

    Grassley also called for records of communications between Ford’s legal team and the other women leveling allegations against Kavanaugh—“Deborah Ramirez, Julie Swetnick, or their representatives.”

    …
    It is unclear at this point what the “recently uncovered information” is.
    …
    “The U.S. Senate doesn’t control the FBI. If you have an objection to how the FBI conducts its investigation, take it up with Director Wray. But don’t raise that objection as a reason not to respond to this Committee’s demand for relevant evidence,” Grassley wrote. “Even if the FBI never interviews Dr. Ford, or interviews her ten times, this Committee has a constitutional obligation to investigate Dr. Ford’s allegations, and that’s what we’ve been doing since we became aware of her allegations.”

    Grassley said that Ford’s team’s refusal to provide evidence prevented the Senate from considering Ford’s allegations.
    …
    “I don’t know what other interference we should draw from your refusal but that the withheld evidence does not support Dr. Ford’s allegations in quite the way you have claimed,” Grassley wrote.”

    * * *
    A Treehouse commenter recommends subpoenaing the therapist’s notes directly from her, as Ford’s team might have tampered with their copies.

    57 Alpha says:
    October 5, 2018 at 1:23 pm
    I don’t get why Grassley is asking Ford / her lawyers for the therapy notes. In fact, they should NOT obtain the notes from Ford because she or others may well have modified the notes. All she needs is the therapist’s name and Ford’s permission. Unless the therapist has also been corrupted (I suppose that would be easy for all these former FBI/DoJ people to do), the notes would follow a more valid chain of custody.

30. Next up: Senator Daines is inappropriately accepting gifts and needs to be charged on the “Emoluments Clause” or something.

    https://twitter.com/KatieSchoettler/status/1048249865317376001/photo/1

    To all reporters asking about @SteveDaines’ arrangements this weekend IF NEEDED back in DC for a vote:

    (graphic doesn’t copy, but he has a friend that offered a private plane to help)

31. Another Treehouse denizen makes this observation:

    TheLastDemocrat says:
    October 5, 2018 at 1:23 pm
    My wife pointed out that Dr. Ford had said this about Keyser when Ford was on the hot seat.

    I had just recently been telling my wife that I suspected that the Progs wanted more FBI investigation because they had planted a sleeper bomb out there somewhere, and were waiting for the FBI to seemingly stumble across it.

    It would have to be someone very likely to be interviewed or re-interviewed, if this additional FBI investigation was not too narrowed. When my wife mentioned this, I said, “that’s the kind of thing. Maybe they have had time to get Keyser to agree to something, and to say she was very afraid to be fully truthful, initially.”

    So, now, I suspect that Ford’s beach bums had tried to work over Keyser to give a specific story to FBI in this recent investigation.

32. FWIW:

    Someone from my law school class called me this morning to let me know that Ricki Seidman, Esq. (who was a year ahead of us in law school) has been advising Dr. Ford. I didn’t know Ms. Seidman in law school but when I Googled her name I did recognize her from her photos. It looks like she’s been working on these kinds of situations — for the Left — ever since the Bork affair in 1987. She worked against the Clarence Thomas nomination as well.

    Her CV per Wikipedia is here (it’s worth looking at):

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricki_Seidman#cite_note-KeyPeople-3

    From the Daily Caller:

    “According to the Weekly Standard:

    As legal director for Norman Lear’s People for the American Way, she was responsible for the infamous attack-ad on the judicial record of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork. She next moved to Senator Edward Kennedy’s office shortly after Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court, and she is credited with pressuring the reluctant Anita Hill to come out with her harassment story. When the Judiciary Committee failed to listen, according to David Brock’s The Real Anita Hill, Seidman helped leak the story to the press.

    Seidman was so instrumental in the promotion of the Anita Hill story that HBO cast her in its dramatic series.”

    https://dailycaller.com/2018/09/20/kavanaugh-accuser-working-with-former-clinton/

    She’s had a very impressive career and it sure looks like she must be good at what she does.

    This is just one more bit of evidence that this whole thing is being professionally managed….

33. Carl, I hope you didn’t go to any parties with her….

34. I love this from the Politico story underlying the DC post (how did I miss this? well at the beginning (barely 3 weeks ago now) it didn’t look like anything of a muchness — silly me):

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/20/kavanaugh-accuser-democratic-operative-advice-833013

    “Democratic operatives in Washington, D.C. have been cautious about linking Ford and her claims to partisan activists working on her behalf over concerns about further politicizing an already complicated case. “[Ford] didn’t come at this through anyone political and needs to keep her distance from it,” said one Democratic operative.

    [Just through the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee – nobody political there!]

    …

    Even though Democrats have purposefully proceeded cautiously with Ford, the news that she is working with an experienced political operative was interpreted by Republicans close to the process as a sign that Democrats are trying to leverage the accusation to derail the Kavanaugh confirmation process.

    “This feels more like a Democratic super PAC than a legal effort to get at the truth,” said a senior Republican official of Seidman’s role working with Ford.

    “If you’re concerned about an appearance of partisanship, hiring a Democratic operative with a history of smearing conservative judges doesn’t exactly mitigate that,” said Cassie Smedile, press secretary for the Republican National Committee.

    Seidman says she does not currently do political work.”

35. I too was falsely accused of rape while I was in the Navy. It was shortly after Tailhook back in the ugly days. Clearly after watching the Kavanaugh hearings I can’t say things have gotten any better.

    The Irony, the blessing, was the woman we supposedly gang raped wouldn’t accuse me and my friends of rape. These two men had recieved the message loud and clear that if you wanted to get promoted BELIEVE ALL THE WOMEN! And if the women aren’t cooperating threaten to court martial them for conduct unbecoming because they got drunk at a command function. My friends and I noticed she had wandered off and we formed search parties and made sure she got home. I poured her a glass of water and put it on her nightstand with a couple of aspirins (It was a Navy apartment building on base, so we’re basically talking about a studio apartment). I was the last one out the door,. As I was shutting it she grabbed it asked if she had embarrassed herself. I told her not to worry about it.

    Was I ever wrong. There was a guy from a different command who who was watching the whole thing and really, really wanted to bed her and thought this was his big chance. Apparently she didn’t lock her door. So, one of the department heads I mentioned earlier walked in while he was making his move and demanded to know what was going on. The Blue Falcon (look it up) decided his only defense was to defecate all over everyone he could think of and say he had just broken up an orgy that was about to break out.

    She refused to break. She told me later she knew that we would never do what these two department heads wanted her to say we did. The executive officer of the command, also a woman, told the two dirtbags to drop it. There was nothimg there.

    Then I read Yanni from a couple of days ago that the elephant in the room that NOBODY is talking about that rape allegations are almost impossible to prove if we require evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. So therefore no woman is safe. Huh?!! False rape or sexual assault/harassment claims are common. One woman told me to my face that she was going to “throw a grenade through the door” as she transferred out of the command. She thought she should have gotten a Navy comm as an end of tour award, but she had just received a Navy Achievement Medal a couple of months earlier and there was no way anyone could justify an additional award. No matter, she filed a sexual harassment complaint with the Navy IG.

    And Yanni thinks no woman is safe if we require evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. If we don’t maintain that standard, no one is safe including women. Hillary Clinton lost the white woman vote for a reason. Hillary was running around declaring the men in their lives deplorables and hateful misogynists. And the women in my neck of the woods got angry. Because she wasn’t just saying nasty things about their husbands, sons, father, uncles, grand dads, and so on. She was saying nasty things about them. And it has only gotten worse. Witness the Kavanaugh hearings.

    I know women (and men too) who cried looking at what the Dems were willing to do to that man. They don’t want that to happen to any man in their life.

    Shove it, Yanni. Go sell crazy somewhere else because we’re all stocked up here.

36. Nobody owes anyone any respect. Civility, yes. But nobody owes me respect, I don’t owe you any respect. If I want your respect I’ll earn it, and I expect the same from you. That said I can’t tell you how much respect I have for most of the women I served with. Not all. The woman who transferred out of that command telling the world she was going to toss a grenade back through the door on her way out, and ruined a Navy Captain who started out as a Corpsman with the Marines in Vietnam, gets no respect from me. I can think of a few others.

    For instance, a Navy lawyer and a female civilian supervisor from the Naval Supply Center San Diego gave us a lecture on just how seriously the Navy takes sexual harassment and assault charges. Very, very, seriously. So they didn’t name names, but they told us of a tale of woe about a guy who even by their telling was a decent guy.

    He, too, was a mid grade civilian supervisor. A woman who worked for him dressed very provocatively. The other employees in his office found it a distraction, irksome, even infuriating. Those were the other women.

    I was reminded of something that happened when I was still in college. A local bar was having a “best legs” contest. It involved the ladies getting on stage and dancing. I was talking to a girl who was going to compete and she confided she was really nervous. I’m a team player. I bought her a couple of shots of tequila.

    When she got up on stage I realize why was nervous. Everyone could see why she was nervous. As her skirt rode up we all realized she wasn’t wearing any underwear. I guess she really wanted to win. But the reaction from the other girls was priceless. “Legs? LEGS? Those aren’t legs. I’m willing to dance in a ‘best legs’ contest but I’m not going to do that.”

    So, anyhoo, the other ladies who wanted to be evaluated by something other than the physical features they were willing to expose demanded that their supervisor tell her to dress more professionally. So he did.

    She accused him of sexual harassment for even bringing up the subject of her clothing or more accurately the lack of it. The Navy took it very seriously. The transferred him out of that section, basically demoted him, and put a note in his personnel file that he was never, ever to be alone with that woman.

    A couple of months go by. The man out of the goodness of his heart relieves a Sailor working the requisition desk so he can go get some lunch. So, a sailor from a ship comes in with a requisition that the guy doesn’t really know how to fulfill. So the man goes looking to see if there’s someone around who does know. Again, this is lunch time and just about every office is empty. Except one. He walks into it around the cubicle partitions and there at the other end of the room is the woman. He doesn’t say a word, he just walks out.

    Somehow she finds out that he walked into the office and demands that he be fired. So the Navy Supply Center fires him.

    As the story comes out bit by bit there areb gasps 0f shock coming from my shipmates in the audience and occasional explanations of disbelief. “Oh my God, that poor man!” And it’s all coming from the women in the audience.

    He didn’t do anything wrong. The ladies are sitting there with their mouths agape at how he got railroaded, and more to the point how proud these two women lecturing us are of railroading him. The facts weren’t in dispute. They weren’t presenting a shred of evidence that this guy had said anything ever rude to that woman let alone put a hand on her.

    After they got done with the lecture it was time for the Q & A portion of the circus. So I raise my had and asked why the Navy didn’t do more to fight false accusations of sexual harassment and assault. The bar is pretty low for an accusation. The Navy used to talk about green, yellow, and red lights. I was establish that there is no such thing as a green light. If you say “good morning” to the wrong woman and she decides to take offense you’ve entered the yellow light zone.

    Things aren’t going how the supervisor and their command JAG thought they would. So she asks me if I thought sexual harassment and assault were serious issues that I needed to protect my Sailors from.

    I told her, “Lieutenant, your a danger I need to protect my Sailors from.”

    The first, last, and only standing ovation I ever got in my Naval career ensued. Followed by the skipper shutting the entire event down. I had committed the crime of saying what every man and woman in the auditorium had been thinking. What these two women had described was a monstrous injustice. What the Democrats did to Brett Kavanaugh was a monstrous injustice.

    And thank God the vast majority of women I have ever known don’t look favorably on injustice.

    P.S. Back during the first decade of the 21st century when I was still in and I believe Hillary was a Senator touring the sand box, every single man and woman I knew in the armed forces referred to whatever aircraft she was riding in as “Broomstick One.”

    Have I mentioned she will never be President? And that I’m pretty giddy about that fact?

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