Perhaps an apt metaphor for ritual defamation is the gang rape of one’s character and good name. This episode represents a rape of the rule of law, and of Brett Kavanaugh’s character.

Federalist
Stella Morabito
SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Any rational observer of the Democrats’ non-stop character assassination machine can see that something is seriously sick in our republic. Instead of allowing Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were permitted to use trumped-up, hip-pocketed charges to stage a show trial more in tune with a totalitarian system.

Like Justice Clarence Thomas before him, Kavanaugh has undergone pre-meditated, well-coordinated attacks by Democrat elites who cling to the apron strings of an anti-human brand of feminism to justify this craft. There’s a good term for the practice they’re engaged in: ritual defamation.

Perhaps an apt metaphor for ritual defamation is the gang rape of one’s character and good name. Whatever the end result, this episode represents an underhanded rape of the rule of law, as well as of Brett Kavanaugh’s character.

Laird Wilcox’s Essay On Ritual Defamation Is a Must-Read

So in light of the travesty of the Kavanaugh hearings—the character assassination; the utterly uncorroborated accusations of sexual misconduct when he was a youth; the use of a disruptive mob to hijack the process; the utter disregard for basic common sense and fairness, much less the rule of law—we need to study the mechanics behind these gutless acts.

In 1990, a Kansan civil liberties advocate named Laird Wilcox wrote an excellent and cogent essay entitled “The Practice of Ritual Defamation.” The essay provides a major public service. It clarifies the mechanics of ritual defamation and lists its eight primary features. It’s a short must-read for any citizen with a shred of goodwill.

Please read the whole thing, and check out the Kansas University Library’s free speech collection named after him. We should all learn to detect the features of ritual defamation and call foul whenever we see them. If you don’t know what they are, learn them now. It’s a matter of self-defense. It will put much of what you’ve seen over the past few weeks in a new and deeply disturbing light, because ritual defamation by whim will only spread if not stopped.

Let’s begin. First, Wilcox’s definition of defamation is as follows: “Defamation is the destruction or attempted destruction of the reputation, status, character or standing in the community of a person or group of persons by unfair, wrongful, or malicious speech or publication. For the purposes of this essay, the central element is defamation in retaliation for the real or imagined attitudes, opinions or beliefs of the victim, with the intention of silencing or neutralizing his or her influence, and/or making an example of them so as to discourage similar independence and ‘insensitivity’ or non-observance of taboos.”

Well, yes, that definitely sums up what’s been happening, doesn’t it? The idea is not only to prevent Kavanaugh’s influence, but to prevent anybody qualified and like-minded from serving. Next, a condensed explanation of the qualifier “ritual”: “Ritual defamation…is ritualistic because it follows a predictable, stereotyped pattern which embraces a number of elements, as in a ritual.” Below are condensed versions of those eight elements of ritual defamation.

“In a ritual defamation the victim must have violated a particular taboo in some way, usually by expressing or identifying with a forbidden attitude, opinion or belief.”

No question about it, Democrats have taboos. You and I and everyone must hold certain attitudes, opinions, and beliefs in strict accordance with theirs. In their minds, Judge Kavanaugh has violated these taboos. His potential stance on abortion and reversing Roe v. Wade is really just the tip of the iceberg for them.

Yes, abortion is a sacred cow to the Dems, but they know that even if Roe is reversed, abortion would remain legal in practically all of the states. (Footnote: Kavanaugh seems to have also violated their taboo on sexual abstinence, a highly punishable offense in their eyes.) But mostly they consider Kavanaugh guilty because he reveres the U.S. Constitution as the law of the land and the protections it guarantees to individuals.

As a federalist, he would believe that unbridled centralized government power goes against the letter and spirit of the Constitution. That is the forbidden attitude that the Democrats seem to believe justifies their ritual defamation of Kavanaugh.

“The method of attack in a ritual defamation is to assail the character of the victim. . . Character assassination is its primary tool.”

Indeed. The character assassination has been non-stop. Kavanaugh went from Boy Scout to serial rapist literally overnight.

“An important rule in ritual defamation is to avoid engaging in any kind of debate over the truthfulness or reasonableness of what has been expressed, only condemn it. .. . . The primary goal of a ritual defamation is censorship and repression.”

Yes, the last thing totalitarians are interested in is arriving at the truth. Lost in the muck is any reasoned debate about Kavanaugh’s views. Indeed, the purpose of assassinating his character is to associate these views with sexual perversion and hypocrisy, i.e., to censor and repress him and those with similar views.

No one is permitted to express doubt or ask for any evidence. If you do, well, you’re a vicious woman-hating, right-wing, good for nothing, blah blah blah.

“The victim is often somebody in the public eye – someone who is vulnerable to public opinion – although perhaps in a very modest way. It could be a schoolteacher, writer, businessman, minor official, or merely an outspoken citizen. Visibility enhances vulnerability to ritual defamation.”

So you don’t need to be a nominee to the Supreme Court to suffer from ritual defamation. At root, the treatment of Judge Kavanaugh is meant to be an example of how you—yes, you—will be crucified too if you ever express a taboo opinion.

Many will choose to lay low to avoid such treatment. But that’s the whole idea, because it means giving in to the bullying, and thereby allowing repression and censorship to grow. This enhances the trickle-down effect of ritual defamation, so that any unknown can get victimized for expressing an opinion considered taboo—i.e., politically incorrect—by bullies.

“An attempt, often successful, is made to involve others in the defamation. In the case of a public official, other public officials will be urged to denounce the offender. In the case of a student, other students will be called upon, and so on.”

Any nay vote on Kavanaugh from Republicans would suffice here as involving them in the defamation. Weak Republican senators such as Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins were always ripe for the picking, and having the show trial, complete with the optics of a soft-spoken victim who needs no evidence, certainly helps to pull such Republicans into the defamation process.

And we all know that bully-like swarming is the order of the day, whether in person or on social media. By the way, doesn’t this September 26 photo taken in a basement corridor of the U.S. Capitol look like Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein applying pressure to Republican Murkowski, who was said to be wavering on voting for Kavanaugh?


Anyway, the Dems have also been quite effective in stirring up the mob during the early confirmation hearings, orchestrating many loud and circus-like disruptions while Kavanaugh spoke.

“In order for a ritual defamation to be effective, the victim must be dehumanized to the extent that he becomes identical with the offending attitude, opinion or belief, and in a manner which distorts it to the point where it appears at its most extreme.”

I’d say that just calling someone a “rapist” on whim is a pretty good example of this. Or suggesting he’s a “killer,” in order to cast him as a monster. It’s all meant to dehumanize.

“Also to be successful, a ritual defamation must bring pressure and humiliation on the victim from every quarter, including family and friends. If the victim has school children, they may be taunted and ridiculed as a consequence of adverse publicity. If they are employed, they may be fired from their job. If the victim belongs to clubs or associations, other members may be urged to expel them.”

No question, this is happening as part of the smear job being inflicted on Kavanaugh. We don’t know what his children may have suffered, but the adverse publicity certainly creates pressure on the family. Even though his family remains loyal to him, those running the smear machine have been tirelessly trying to dig up any of his associates or friends who might join in the smears to add to the demoralization.

Political correctness already had the ball rolling on such tactics. Consider the hit job on Brendan Eich of Mozilla. Or Google’s hit job on its employee James Damore. Or the firing of Kevin Williamson from The Atlantic. All were basically mob hits meant to publicly punish with adverse publicity, in order to intimidate all people from expressing their opinions.

“Any explanation the victim may offer, including the claim of being misunderstood, is considered irrelevant. To claim truth as a defense for a politically incorrect value, opinion or belief is interpreted as defiance and only compounds the problem. Ritual defamation is often not necessarily an issue of being wrong or incorrect but rather of ‘insensitivity’ and failing to observe social taboos.”

In the smearing of Kavanaugh we can identify all of these elements of ritual defamation.

Let’s not forget this fact: Judge Kavanaugh is being defamed primarily because he really believes in the U.S. Constitution. If he was willing to kowtow to Dems and rewrite the Constitution consistent with leftist views, Democrats would have no problem whatsoever confirming him to the Supreme Court.

The previous ritual defamation of Justice Clarence Thomas involves another layer of taboo in the eyes of the Democrat elite: independent thought. Thomas provided the best description of the Democrats’ real reason for defaming him during his 1991 confirmation hearings: “It is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.”

Of course, Kavanaugh also deigns to think for himself, and conservative so-called “white males” have been out of fashion for some time now.

Ritual Defamation Has a Tendency Toward Overkill

Finally, Wilcox notes a few other characteristics of ritual defamation, such as: its universality, threats of ostracism to play on the primal human fear of social rejection, manipulation of words and symbols, and elements of primitive behavior, such as the act of putting a “curse” or a “hex” on someone.

But the power of ritual defamation “lies entirely in its capacity to intimidate and terrorize.” Wilcox writes “it is not used to persuade, but to punish,” as well as to avoid the conversations and debates that a free society needs if it is to survive. So if we want to remain free, we must all learn to recognize the patterns of ritual defamation and summarily reject them.

Wilcox also offers this final analysis: “The weakness of ritual defamation lies in its tendency toward overkill and in its obvious maliciousness. Occasionally a ritual defamation will fail because of poor planning and failure to correctly judge the vulnerability of the victim or because its viciousness inadvertently generates sympathy.”

Any person who values freedom and our Constitution would hope that the attempt to ritually defame Kavanaugh would fail, but not only for those reasons. It should fail primarily because our nation is well overdue for a restoration of the rule of law.

Why It’s Crucial That We Stop This Dead in Its Tracks

If we don’t learn to spot and call out the features of ritual defamation, then there is no stopping our nation’s drive into lawlessness. This scenario will repeat itself over and over again in our institutions, with less and less evidence required, if we don’t get a grip on it.

History has shown that the practice of ritual defamation can lead to some pretty nasty things if left to its own devices. It feeds on itself, as the era of Joseph Stalin’s show trials and reign of terror in the Soviet Union demonstrated.

Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono gave us a strong hint of the false confessions of that era when she demanded that men “shut up” and basically confess to crimes without any evidence of wrongdoing. Her dismissal of due process and the rule of law is chilling—even more so because Democrats are no longer even giving lip service to those foundations of human freedom.

The surrealism here can’t be overstated, although it was totally predictable. No matter your political opinions, if you have any sense of real justice you can now see what lies beneath the mask of today’s power-mongering elites in the media and politics: the intention to destroy with impunity any person they decide to target. This means the destruction of any one of us, not just Judge Kavanaugh.

If we don’t stop this infection, we will only get more mob rule and become increasingly vulnerable to its whims. That is the system of “government” the Democrats now openly represent, and it will continue to be upheld by the practice of ritual defamation.

Link

I went to a few parties as a teenager and the music was always where the main group of kids were,not in a far away part of a house.

Also no one has asked her why she didn't use the bathroom on the main floor.

Why would that not be the bathroom being used?
It was not like there were 50 kids there tying up the bathroom.

During her testimony before the Senate she made an odd statement that google interns were using the second door at her house.

I wonder if they put in the second door to house boarders?

https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.ad1de93a8b2f

FEINSTEIN: … is claustrophobia?

FEINSTEIN: Is that the reason for the second door — front door…



FORD: Correct.


FEINSTEIN: I see. And do you have that second front door?

FORD: Yes.

FEINSTEIN: It’s…

FORD: It — it now is a place to host Google interns. Because we live near Google, so we get to have — other students can live there.


It would be hilarious if it comes to light they put in the 2nd door to rent out part of their home.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wcb6092,

quote:

Originally posted by Loaded Round:

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
Flake did not change his mind because a few woman yelled at him. He was offered something by Coons and the left. He entered the senate for wealth and power, and once Trump saw through that and called him out he was pissed. He figured he would spend the rest of his days getting rich in the senate and Trump took that away from him.

Maybe it was a nice cushy job offer when he leaves, maybe it was a "signing bonus" from CNN or MSNBC, who knows. He did it for the money, not because of those women.

The more I've watched the video and what Flake has said since, I think the whole elevator scene may have been staged. Flake is one evil SOB and I wouldn't put anything past him.

I agree wholeheartedly, and thought it was fake the first time I saw it. He stands like a contrite child, looking down and saying, "Thank you, thank you...."

Awwww. Such a humbled man... his compassionate eyes opened!

Asshole.

Also, thank you, HayesGreener. That was very helpful in understanding the polygraph results.

Fast forward one week.

Welcome to the court Justice Kavanaugh, congratulations on your confirmation. You're a good man, America is thankful and proud you stood up to the democrats and the sham they put on. Unfortunately, it was quite a despicable circus.

Here is your new office. We have only heard one case this first week, so lets get you robed up and on to the rest of our docket. Get comfortable, you are going to be here a long time.

quote:

The surrealism here can’t be overstated, although it was totally predictable. No matter your political opinions, if you have any sense of real justice you can now see what lies beneath the mask of today’s power-mongering elites in the media and politics: the intention to destroy with impunity any person they decide to target. This means the destruction of any one of us, not just Judge Kavanaugh.

If we don’t stop this infection, we will only get more mob rule and become increasingly vulnerable to its whims. That is the system of “government” the Democrats now openly represent, and it will continue to be upheld by the practice of ritual defamation.

Here's just another case in point from today's news. It well exemplifies what JALLEN's above article describes. It's completely outrageous and evil in it's intent.



USA Today hit piece says Kavanaugh should 'stay off basketball courts when kids are around'

http://www.foxnews.com/enterta...kids-are-around.html

quote:

Originally posted by justjoe:

quote:

Originally posted by Loaded Round:

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
Flake did not change his mind because a few woman yelled at him. He was offered something by Coons and the left. He entered the senate for wealth and power, and once Trump saw through that and called him out he was pissed. He figured he would spend the rest of his days getting rich in the senate and Trump took that away from him.

Maybe it was a nice cushy job offer when he leaves, maybe it was a "signing bonus" from CNN or MSNBC, who knows. He did it for the money, not because of those women.

The more I've watched the video and what Flake has said since, I think the whole elevator scene may have been staged. Flake is one evil SOB and I wouldn't put anything past him.

I agree wholeheartedly, and thought it was fake the first time I saw it. He stands like a contrite child, looking down and saying, "Thank you, thank you...."

Yes, I'm sure all that is much more likely than Flake simply being an indecisive, pathetic weakling with zero conviction whatsoever. A conspiracy makes much more sense.

^^^ ??

A setup is not a "conspiracy."

On another subject, it is odd that Ford's parents and siblings have not signed any of the letters, have made no public statements of support-- nothing from them. It might be very interesting what the FBI learns when they talk with her family.

People keep taking about the elevator but not the private meeting he had with Coons and Klobuchar. Right before he changed his mind, right after Coons was told he said yes. He is no where near as nieve as people make him out to be.

He requested the first hearing "to hear her out". Got it. He requested the week for the FBI because its "fair". Got it. He was conviently in Africa when Mitch wanted people there in August to vote.

He may be a weak man, but he is not nieve. He is in the senate for the money and power, not to serve. He has gone against virtually everything he promised while campaigning. We know he has already been interviewing with CNN and MSNBC. He wanted in and nothing else.

Just one article.

https://www.delawareonline.com...tigation/1456659002/

previosuly posted about the polygraphs:

the poly guy said

"You don't give polygraph tests to victims, you represent victims, you believe them unless you have some corroborating evidence you don't believe"

What BS. Everyone Ford said was at the "gathering" has submitted letters that they don't remember it.

What does Mr polygraph guy have to say now ?

Is this the kind of poly that the DEMs want Brett Kavanaugh to take? ... me neither

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by Loaded Round:

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
Flake did not change his mind because a few woman yelled at him. He was offered something by Coons and the left. He entered the senate for wealth and power, and once Trump saw through that and called him out he was pissed. He figured he would spend the rest of his days getting rich in the senate and Trump took that away from him.

Maybe it was a nice cushy job offer when he leaves, maybe it was a "signing bonus" from CNN or MSNBC, who knows. He did it for the money, not because of those women.

The more I've watched the video and what Flake has said since, I think the whole elevator scene may have been staged. Flake is one evil SOB and I wouldn't put anything past him.

Honestly, I think Flake is just a naive, weak little man. I think he really believes that this olive branch he's extended to the dems will somehow help save the process and appease the leftist radicals in the senate and out. Truly he believes that. And truly he is that stupid. That and he has no fortitude whatsoever.

Nah...Flake went to DC to get rich but that plan went south and he blames PDJT. Soros has deep enough pockets that he can give Flake fuck you money w/out even missing it. Flake is a Judas that sold out his country for personal gain.

I'm a gambler and I'll put money on BK getting confirmed. Trust the turtle to pull the strings and don't bet against President Trump.

quote:

I'm a gambler and I'll put money on BK getting confirmed. Trust the turtle to pull the strings and don't bet against President Trump

This

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
People keep taking about the elevator but not the private meeting he had with Coons and Klobuchar. Right before he changed his mind, right after Coons was told he said yes. He is no where near as naive as people make him out to be.

He may be a weak man, but he is not naive. He is in the senate for the money and power, not to serve. He has gone against virtually everything he promised while campaigning. We know he has already been interviewing with CNN and MSNBC.

I agree. I don't trust Flake. I think he's only looking out for himself. He's using his position of trust in the US Senate for his own personal gain. And he's out soon, so he's in a hurry.

Remember, he had announced earlier that same day that he would be voting "yes" on Kavanaugh...
That may have been intended to up the ante.
He didn't have a sudden change of heart after bumping into a couple of liberal activist women, he was promised something.


Flake left the room with Coons and Sen. Amy Klobuchar before a scheduled vote to advance Kavanaugh's confirmation out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. When the senators came back, Flake said he wants a "short pause" to allow federal investigators to look into claims made by Christine Blasey Ford.

"It would be short and limited in scope to the current allegations," he said. "I would encourage the Democrats we spoke to before to endorse that kind of thing and then we can move on."

He's trying to appear to be a statesman, walking the middle ground, trying to unify the two sides. I'm not buying it. It's an act.

quote:

Flake went to DC to get rich but that plan went south and he blames PDJT. Soros has deep enough pockets that he can give Flake fuck you money w/out even missing it. Flake is a Judas that sold out his country for personal gain.

Yep. He's been promised his 30 pieces of silver.

This article, appearing almost a year ago in The Atlantic, paints a picture of Flake not only as a traitor to the Republicans and the conservative issues he campaigned on, but also of a man with a visceral hatred of PDJT.

'I Will Not Be Complicit'
https://www.theatlantic.com/po...0/jeff-flake/543843/

good article by Andy McCarthy

long, but a few snips

https://www.nationalreview.com...-the-kavanaugh-vote/

Republicans Should Not Have Delayed the Kavanaugh Vote

You have opponents whose first and only objective is delay. From the start of the confirmation proceedings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, those opponents, Senate Democrats, have thus pushed for delay. At every turn. Of course they never come out and say that’s what they’re doing — they never come out and say, “We’ve abused the confirmation process and dropped a bomb at the eleventh hour, an uncorroborated, 36-year-old allegation of sexual assault, because we’re trying to delay the vote until after the midterms.” But delay is what they want.

It doesn’t matter what sheep’s clothing the wolf comes in; the wolf is always delay. When they say, “We’re protecting survivors,” they mean, “We want delay.” When they posture that “women must be believed,” their aim is more delay. When they say, “The FBI must investigate to remove any cloud over the nominee,” the translation is: “Give us a delay so we can come up with new reasons for delay.”

The Constitution assigns the advice-and-consent function to the legislative branch. The FBI is a component of the executive branch. The constitutional powers of the legislature are not contingent on the cooperation of the executive. Moreover, the FBI did not exist until it was created by statute at the start of the 20th century, meaning the Senate was quite capably vetting judicial nominations for over a century before there was an FBI.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which is charged with assessing judicial nominees, has one of the largest professional staffs of any committee on Capitol Hill. The staff includes many former federal prosecutors and investigators. The committee never needs to wait for the FBI; it can conduct its own, very thorough investigation of any judicial nominee.

it is the Senate, not the FBI, that decides whether a nominee is fit for the responsibilities of the office to which he is nominated.

Observing that the GOP majority is giving Democrats exactly what they want does not adequately convey how incompetently Republicans have performed. In announcing that the floor vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination will be delayed, the Senate Judiciary Committee, under Republican control, issued a press release Friday afternoon, which states (my italics): “The supplemental FBI background investigation would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee.” But there are no credible allegations against Kavanaugh; there are incredible allegations that stand uncorroborated and convincingly denied.

And why are they “credible”? Because Christine Blasey Ford, Kavanaugh’s principal accuser, was widely deemed credible in her testimony at Thursday’s hearing — even though her story has no support from independent evidence, is rejected by the witnesses she named, and is incoherent because she cannot recall and relate rudimentary details.

How did such an account get labeled “credible”? Well, to question Dr. Ford at the hearing, Judiciary Committee Republicans retained Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell. In principle, this was not a bad plan, but somebody forgot to tell Ms. Mitchell that this was a high-stakes hearing in need of searching cross-examination, not the rambling, information-gathering questioning typical of a deposition.

Mitchell invited Ford to wax scientific about how “the etiology of PTSD is multi-factorial,” and to school Mitchell on the topography of Montgomery County. But if you were listening for basic questions about the alleged sexual assault, you listened in vain. This isn’t hard. A lawyer could have been completely respectful of Dr. Ford’s emotional distress and still have asked elementary questions :

Isn’t it a fact that you don’t know where or when this purported assault happened?

Isn’t it a fact that you can’t tell us how you got there?

You just know the house was several miles from your home, but it is a fact, is it not, that you can’t tell us how you got home?

You’ve told us that you were terrified running out of the house after the attack, but you can’t tell us who rescued you and drove you away?

You remember 36 years ago that you had exactly one beer at the party, you remember hearing your alleged attackers go downstairs, you remember exactly the route you took to get out of the house, yet you can’t tell us what happened after you left the house?

So, you’re sure the party happened, but you can’t say when it happened, you can’t say where it happened, you don’t know how you got there, you don’t know how you got home, and every person you’ve identified as a witness says that they have no memory of the party and that they never saw Brett Kavanaugh act the way you’ve described, isn’t that right?

It would not have taken very long. Certainly Democrats demonstrated to Ms. Mitchell that five-minute rounds can be used very effectively if you have a plan. But the only plan Republicans seem to have had was not to offend anyone by asking questions that were, you know, about the subject matter of the hearing that the whole country was watching. A witness can seem awfully credible if she’s not asked about the incredible aspects of her story.

^^^^ All excellent questions. I'll add:

You say you ran out of the house to escape. How did anyone know to pick you up or take you home? Did you call someone from someone else's house?

Kavanaugh also pointed out that none of the people alleged to have been at / hosting the party lived in the area between the Country Club and her home.

To further prove Flake is a, well...flake, he's joining John Kasich on a panel on "The Future of the Republican Party."

http://www.bostonherald.com/ne...to_more_secure_venue

Boston panel featuring Jeff Flake moved to more secure venue

Alexi Cohan Saturday, September 29, 2018

Forbes is moving a panel that is scheduled for Monday featuring Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona to a more secure location.

Flake was slated to participate in a panel discussion called “The Future of the Republican Party” with Ohio Gov. John Kasich at Forbes 30 Under 30 summit at the Emerson Colonial Theatre. Emerson College originally sought to cancel the panel, citing security issues.

However, Forbes spokesman Matthew Hutchison said in a statement last night, “Pending ongoing scheduling, we are in the process of moving the discussion with Sen. Flake to a larger and more secure location, the Under 30 Village at City Hall Plaza.”

A Facebook event popped up yesterday signaling a protest of Flake’s participation in the panel and quickly gained a page interest of about a thousand people as of last night. The page encouraged people to “peacefully hold signs” and provide a “space for survivors” outside the theater. Now, the page says, “There are plans being discussed for other action items.”

Flake was cornered by protesters on a Washington elevator yesterday just after announcing he would vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Two women, Ana Maria Archila Gualy and Maria Gallagher, tearfully confronted Flake, claiming he was insensitive to the pain of sexual assault survivors.

One of the women said, “What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them.”

The women, who said they were sexual assault survivors, held the elevator door, stopping it from closing while they spoke to Flake for about five minutes.

The other woman said, “I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me. I didn’t tell anyone and you’re telling all women they don’t matter.” Flake looked awkwardly at the ground, not responding to the emotional comments. The woman continued, “Look at me when I’m talking to you, you’re telling me my assault doesn’t matter.”

Following the interaction, Flake said he would no longer support Kavanaugh’s confirmation unless an FBI investigation is conducted.

quote:

Certainly Democrats demonstrated to Ms. Mitchell that five-minute rounds can be used very effectively if you have a plan. But the only plan Republicans seem to have had was not to offend anyone by asking questions that were, you know, about the subject matter of the hearing that the whole country was watching. A witness can seem awfully credible if she’s not asked about the incredible aspects of her story.

Yeah, I got the sense during her questioning that she was almost unwittingly helping Chrissy Blasey Ford to clarify, or to bolster her story. She didn't want to appear to be "mean" in an attempt to rip it apart so she threw up a few softballs and helped Ford run out the clock.

^^^ How many times have cops told "interviewees" that they're merely trying to help clarify the story? Ford didn't appear stressed at all when the staff attorney was questioning her, and cheerfully admitted - without seeming to be conscious of the consequences for her credibility - flying on a regular basis. The staff attorney was a good move; people are frustrated because putting her in charge of questioning obviated the possibility of any "gee whiz" moments.

quote:

Republicans Should Not Have Delayed the Kavanaugh Vote

This is a debate for the next confirmation. It's utterly irrelevant now.

Polygraphs are such hokey nonsense. What's next, a Ouija test or reading chicken bones?

quote:

Do you happen to follow Q

Is this a serious question? Surely not.

Sure it it. If you're into Ouija boards and chicken bones, then interpreting inkblots is science.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Polygraphs are such hokey nonsense. What's next, a Ouija test or reading chicken bones?

quote:

Do you happen to follow Q

Is this a serious question? Surely not.

Actually it was? I'm guessing you are a skeptic?

I guess I assumed wrong. Q said to expect "the sky is falling" narrative over the next week. Following q is quite interesting.

Btw, I don't believe in oiuja boards.