DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalPoll shows split views on Kavanaugh, Ford after dramatic hearing
Source: The Hill
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 09/29/18 04:37 PM EDT
A poll released Saturday shows that Americans are deeply divided over testimony given by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford at Thursday's dramatic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
According to the YouGov survey, 41 percent of Americans said that they "definitely" or "probably" believe the testimony of Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a house gathering when the two were in high school in the early 1980s.
A slightly lower percentage of respondents, 35 percent, said that they "definitely" or "probably" believe Kavanaugh's testimony, in which he vehemently denied the claims against himself while rebuking Democratic members of the Senate panel for not pushing for a hearing sooner.
When asked if they believed one side had lied at the hearing, 38 percent of respondents said Kavanaugh "probably" or "definitely" lied at some point during his testimony while 30 percent said the same about Ford's testimony.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/409093-poll-shows-split-views-on-kavanaugh-ford-after-dramatic-hearing
Cristiano Ronaldo Rape Accuser Seeks to Void Settlement
Source: The Daily Beast
An American woman who has accused soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo of rape has spoken out publicly for the first time and moved to void a 2010 settlement agreement that kept her silent about the alleged assault. Kathryn Mayorga, who was previously identified in the press only under the pseudonym Susan K., told Der Spiegel that she’d previously been too afraid to speak out against the powerful sports star but now wants to tell her story to help other sexual assault survivors. Mayorga alleges that Ronaldo ambushed her and raped her at a Las Vegas party in 2009, forcing himself on her after she’d curled up into a ball and said, “No, no, no, no.” She alleges that he anally raped her without a condom and then wouldn’t let her leave the room until he could convince her he was really a “good guy.”
Mayorga’s comments come after the paper unearthed an out-of-court settlement last year that reportedly saw the soccer star pay her $375,000 on the condition that she’d keep her accusations to herself. Mayorga’s new lawyer, Leslie Stovall, has now filed a complaint in Nevada over the alleged rape that seeks to void that agreement. Stovall claims to have a document that, according to Der Spiegel, “contains a version of how Ronaldo experienced that night, including the following quote: ‘She said no and stop several times.’” Mayorga has said she regrets ever signing the agreement in the first place and hopes that her decision to come forward now will reveal whether other women have similar allegations against Ronaldo. “That question never let me go,” she told Der Spiegel. Ronaldo has denied the accusations, and his lawyers on Friday threatened to sue Der Spiegel for the “blatantly illegal” claims.
READ IT AT DER SPIEGEL
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Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/cristiano-ronaldo-rape-accuser-seeks-to-void-settlement?ref=home
Kavanaugh supporter claims 'economy of $20 trillion is brought to a standstill' by FBI's invest...
Kavanaugh supporter desperately claims ‘economy of $20 trillion is brought to a standstill’ by FBI’s investigationJerry Falwell Jr.: 'Nice Guys' May Make Great Christian Leaders, But We Need More...
Jerry Falwell Jr.: ‘Nice Guys’ May Make Great Christian Leaders, But We Need More ‘Street Fighters’ Like Trumpby Josh Feldman | Sep 29th, 2018, 12:45 pm
Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. has been an unapologetic supporter of President Donald Trump‘s, and last night he said the GOP can no longer afford to go for “nice guys.”
Falwell has been critical of what he once referred to as “Fake Republicans,” even going after Jeff Sessions on more than one occasion.
“Conservatives & Christians need to stop electing ‘nice guys’. They might make great Christian leaders,” he tweeted last night, “but the US needs street fighters like @realDonaldTrump at every level of government b/c the liberal fascists Dems are playing for keeps & many Repub leaders are a bunch of wimps!”
https://twitter.com/JerryFalwellJr/status/1045853333007798272
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https://www.mediaite.com/online/jerry-falwell-jr-nice-guys-may-make-great-christian-leaders-but-we-need-more-street-fighters-like-trump/
Jeff Flake, Chris Coons Set to Appear on 60 Minutes to Talk 'Last-Minute Compromise' on Kavanaugh
Jeff Flake‘s public call for a one-week delay on the Brett Kavanaugh final vote was ordered by President Donald Trump yesterday, and now he and one of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee will be on 60 Minutes to talk about the behind-the-scenes negotiations.
Flake and Chris Coons will be sitting down with Scott Pelley, the show announced this afternoon, to discuss the “last minute-compromise.”
https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1046095715984965632
Flake told The Atlantic last night that he spoke with Coons before making his decision:
Just these last couple of days—the hearing itself, the aftermath of the hearing, watching pundits talk about it on cable TV, seeing the protesters outside, encountering them in the hall. I told Chris, “Our country’s coming apart on this—and it can’t.” And he felt the same.
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https://www.mediaite.com/tv/jeff-flake-chris-coons-set-to-appear-on-60-minutes-to-talk-last-minute-compromise-on-kavanaugh/
Spokesperson for pro-Kavanaugh group says they won't accept FBI findings in manic rant
Kavanaugh booster flames out spectacularly on MSNBC after calling accusations about judge's ...
Kavanaugh booster flames out spectacularly on MSNBC after calling accusations about judge’s temperament ‘racist and sexist’Sen. Graham: From McCain's Wingman To Trump's Stooge
Alex Henderson
September 29, 2018 3:42 am
When Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s embattled nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, addressed members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC at a hearing on Thursday, September 27, the Committee’s Republicans were not shy about stridently coming to his defense—including Utah’s Orrin Hatch and Iowa’s Chuck Grassley. But the Committee’s most over-the-top political theatrics, hands down, came from Sen. Lindsey Graham, who painted Democrats as a lynch mob full of tyrants who had no qualms about destroying a decent, honorable man. Graham, during his shameless rant, pointed the finger at senators who have been on the fence about whether or not they will vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation—declaring that a vote against Kavanaugh would be tantamount to a vote for lynching and mob rule. And Graham’s comments were so cartoonish that Joe Scarborough, one of the anti-Trump conservatives at MSNBC, denounced the South Carolina senator as having “gone from being John McCain’s wingman in politics to becoming Donald Trump’s carnival barker.”
Graham, angry and emotional during his outburst at the September 27 hearing, declared, “To my Republican colleagues: if you vote ‘no,’ you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing I’ve seen in my time in politics.” Though he didn’t mention them by name, Graham’s heavy-handed comments were obviously aimed at Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Jeff Flake—three GOP senators who have often been cited as possible swing votes in Kavanaugh’s nomination. Graham was determined to shame and coerce them into voting for Kavanaugh whether they liked it or not. And Flake has announced that he is a “yes” vote on Kavanaugh.
Scarborough isn’t the only conservative who has been critical of Graham’s tactics. The evening of September 27, veteran GOP strategist Steve Schmidt was interviewed by Brian Williams on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour” and said of Graham, “He’s corrupted by ambition, corrupted by politics—and it’s tragic, because this country could use a statesmen right now.”
Schmidt went on to say that Graham has been “corrupted by the Trump era. To see him become sycophantic, to see him become dishonest and angry and sneering is just tragic—certainly not the person I once knew. But again, if you hang around politics enough, you tend to get disappointed by people, and he is a profound disappointment.”
Kavanaugh’s appearance at the September 27 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing followed the gut-wrenching testimony of 51-year Palo Alto University college professor Christine Blasey Ford, who alleges that Kavanaugh attempted to her rape her at party in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC in 1982. In contrast to the overwrought and tearful Kavanaugh, Ford was composed as she recalled the alleged events of 36 years ago. Graham, during his outburst, avoided attacking Ford—who he tried to paint as being a victim not of Kavanaugh, but of a Democratic Party smear campaign.
more
http://www.nationalmemo.com/sen-graham-from-mccains-wingman-to-trumps-stooge/
Right-Wing Media Exploding Over FBI Investigation
Zachary Pleat
September 29, 2018 3:43 am
Conservative media personalities are attacking calls by a bipartisan group of senators for the FBI to investigate allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh following Thursday’s hearing with the nominee and Christine Blasey Ford, who testified that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her in the 1980s.
A day after Thursday’s hearing, where Ford’s testimony was widely acknowledged as “credible” and Kavanaugh misled the senators in his own testimony, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Senate floor for a final vote. Following some last-minute drama,Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) announced he was voting to send Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate for a vote under the condition that the FBI spend up to a week investigating current allegations against the judge. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) also voiced support for Flake’s call for a delay on the floor vote so that the FBI can investigate.
Conservative media personalities, a couple of whom had smeared or discounted the women who reported sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh, quickly attacked the calls for the FBI investigation and called for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to ignore the request and quickly hold a vote to confirm Kavanaugh:
Fox News host Sean Hannity: “Now we need one more week, why so another 15 people can be brought up by Democratic operatives?”
more
http://www.nationalmemo.com/right-wing-media-exploding-over-fbi-investigation/
An Injudicious Man, Unfit for the Supreme Court
This was a job interview, not a criminal trial. Kavanaugh, in his fury and pathos, failed the test.
By Roger Cohen
Opinion Columnist
What America saw before the Senate Judiciary Committee was an injudicious man, an angry brat veering from fury to sniveling sobs, a judge so bereft of composure and proportion that it was difficult not to squirm. Brett Kavanaugh actually got teary over keeping a calendar because that’s what his dad did. His performance was right out of Norman Rockwell with a touch of “Mad Men.”
This is what you get from the unexamined life, a product of white male privilege so unadulterated that, until a couple of weeks ago, Kavanaugh never had to ask himself what might have lurked, and may still linger, behind the football, the basketball, the lifting weights, the workouts with a great high-school quarterback, the pro-golf tournaments with Dad, the rah-rah Renate-ribbing yearbook, the Yale fraternity, and the professed sexual abstinence until “many years” after high school.
“Sometimes I had too many beers,” Kavanaugh said. “In some crowds, I was probably a little outwardly shy about my inexperience; tried to hide that,” Kavanaugh also said. Christine Blasey Ford, his steady accuser, made a persuasive case that, in the summer of 1982, she paid the price for the teenage aggression and insecurity linking those two avowals.
Kavanaugh swears under oath that he never “sexually assaulted anyone.” To entertain even the possibility of it would be to dismantle the entire edifice of his holier-than-thou life. He’s the all-American jock, the model only child. For God’s sake, he contingently, and a little presumptuously, hired four female law clerks to work with him at the Supreme Court, the first (prospective) justice to have “a group of all-women law clerks.”
The words that resonate for me are the very words Kavanaugh used about his mother, Martha, the Maryland prosecutor and trial judge, whose trademark line was: “Use your common sense. What rings true? What rings false?”
more
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/opinion/kavanaugh-supreme-court-temperament.html
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Name: DonGender: Male
Hometown: Massachusetts
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Member since: Sat Sep 1, 2012, 03:28 PM
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