Ramirez acknowledged that there are significant gaps in her memories of the evening, and that, if she ever presents her story to the F.B.I. or members of the Senate, she will inevitably be pressed on her motivation for coming forward after so many years, and questioned about her memory, given her drinking at the party.

In a statement, two of those male classmates who Ramirez alleged were involved in the incident, the wife of a third male student she said was involved, and three other classmates, Dino Ewing, Louisa Garry, and Dan Murphy, disputed Ramirez’s account of events: “We were the people closest to Brett Kavanaugh during his first year at Yale. He was a roommate to some of us, and we spent a great deal of time with him, including in the dorm where this incident allegedly took place. Some of us were also friends with Debbie Ramirez during and after her time at Yale. We can say with confidence that if the incident Debbie alleges ever occurred, we would have seen or heard about it—and we did not. The behavior she describes would be completely out of character for Brett. In addition, some of us knew Debbie long after Yale, and she never described this incident until Brett’s Supreme Court nomination was pending. Editors from the New Yorker contacted some of us because we are the people who would know the truth, and we told them that we never saw or heard about this.”

She says it took her six days of hard thinking and speaking to her attorney before she decided she believed that she was positive it was Kavanaugh. Again, no other witnesses are backing her up and the couple that did say they heard of some sort of incident involving a plastic penis and a party think they heard Kavanaugh's name mentioned but they weren't present at the party.

I have to say, there was far more credible information against Clarence Thomas and a panel led by Democrats voted to pass him on to the senate. It is worth investigation? Maybe, but how do you prove it? Both accusers admit they were heavily intoxicated at the time and both have no credible witnesses. If you do have an investigation and he is found innocent, would a Democratic senate even still consider him for SCOTUS? I'm pretty sure the answer is no. Sadly, it looks like he may be fucked even if he isn't guilty.

I agree, there's no proof the accusations happened.
There could easily be proof that contradicts her story, though, and if there is, it makes an FBI investigation dangerous for her.
If she/they can prove he lied under oath about details that can be proven, even if the underlying charge can't be, he should be disqualified to be a judge imo.

Far more worrying to me is the accusations he helped his mentor, Kozenski, hide his decades of sexual misconduct, abuses he was removed from the bench/forced into early retirement for but that Kavanaugh, his close friend and confidant, claimed to know nothing about, even though Kozenski had public websites dedicated to racially and sexually inappropriate materials and many accusations of inappropriate behavior at work, including forced pornography viewings in his chambers by female clerks.
Edit: if he's willing to hide one bosses crimes, what's he prepared to do for Trump?

Yes, I hope we've made some progress since the way Anita Hill was attacked for coming forward at great personal cost, but I doubt it. It's clear those in control are unphased by the accusations, true or not, because he's their only chance to drive the court far right. Nothing else matters to them. That is a sad state we find ourselves in.

Well you won't die early :-)

They can't do anything about death yet, but people seem confident it's just a matter of time before they solve that too. Who knows, if you make it to 120 like so many Okinawan's do then perhaps it'll get you there. Some people say that if you are able to live until 2060, then they'll have technology that allows you to extend your life for another 80 years - long enough until the next big breakthrough, and so on. It's of course sci-fi right now, but I like the idea of it :-)

@newtboy
Short sighted tribal reasoning was electing a lying cheeto with anger issues because it wore red.
Fair enough

"Objecting to using race as one of many criteria for admission in favor of a single test that clearly benefits your group..."
I see the misunderstanding, I specifically did not ask for a test benefiting a group, but instead specifically asked for one that did NOT. I'll quote myself again:"a color blind computational method of creating a qualification score for candidates."

Since the school admission examples seem to be encouraging misunderstanding, let's change fields. The NBA draft doesn't come down to a single score, but it does have a best effort by professional experts to select the top candidates based upon ability and projected ability at the sport of basketball. By all appearances, that process could be said to "clearly benefit 'a' group", but because I am confident the process is color blind and selecting candidates based upon ability I like it.

To introduce race as a consideration instead is racism, period. You can argue that fighting racism with racism is justified or even desirable, but at least have the honestly to call it that.

heretic, my concerns with the account being unused until extremely recently relate to the problem of trolls. It isn't uncommon for aged / unused accounts to a site to be sold for the sake of lending an appearance of authenticity to a user with negative intentions. Your account being a full 3 years old with no visible activity until now made me think you could simply be a troll, looking to foment discord. Videosift has a fairly pronounced agnostic / secular bias, so this is exactly the sort of topic a troll account could easily manipulate to cause arguing.

Having seen your subsequent comments in this thread, I'm fairly confident you're not a troll. Still seems odd to me you waited this long to put the account to any evident sort of use, but that's certainly not a problem in and of itself. Hell, my account is over 11 years old with thousands of votes and hundreds of comments, and I've not bothered to upload a user pic.

Thanks for the update.

That obviously makes things much different and worse. But "criminal homicide" would be a murder charge, right? Manslaughter would be a slightly lesser charge, so sounds like they are going full tilt.

That's a good sign I'd say, although still too early to be confident that it will stick.

Past Correspondents dinner roasts had much more bite than Wolf's and nary got 1/10th of the "controversy."

If I understand the situation correctly, the MOST "divisive" joke Wolf told was the "Smoky Eye" joke. The Right claims it's divisive & disgusting because it's a physical attack on Sanders? What the hell? In what context it's physical? The punchline is all political/fake-news rebuttal, not physical to me. It's not a comment of Sanders' physique/appearance. Wolf's not that cheap. IMO that joke was brilliantly delivered, unique and all hers. Most of the rest are not Wolf's best though. I've seen her jokes that are far more biting, I honestly think she toned it down already for the dinner.

Wolf made fun of her own body ALL THE TIME at Trevor Noah's Show and other comedy venues. That's a sign of self-confidence.

Besides, past Presidents (Dem AND Rep) also got chances to roast many people (themselves, others and a bit of self-loathing too) at these dinners too.

Comedy roasts ARE suppose to be non-PC. Taking the punches well actually humanizes the POTUS.

An employee confided in me how her mother's funeral and burial would have cost roughly $60k to be interred next to her father at the cemetery. She ended up having the remains cremated and bought a nice urn. Then with the help of her boyfriend she went into the cemetery at night and dug a hole on top of her father's grave, placed the urn and buried it. Final cost about $1,800.

from link:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/year-one-list-81-major-trump-achievements-11-obama-legacy-items-repealed/article/2644159

Below are the 12 categories and 81 wins cited by the White House.

Jobs and the economy

Passage of the tax reform bill providing $5.5 billion in cuts and repealing the Obamacare mandate.
Increase of the GDP above 3 percent.
Creation of 1.7 million new jobs, cutting unemployment to 4.1 percent.
Saw the Dow Jones reach record highs.
A rebound in economic confidence to a 17-year high.
A new executive order to boost apprenticeships.
A move to boost computer sciences in Education Department programs.
Prioritizing women-owned businesses for some $500 million in SBA loans.
Killing job-stifling regulations

Signed an Executive Order demanding that two regulations be killed for every new one creates. He beat that big and cut 16 rules and regulations for every one created, saving $8.1 billion.
Signed 15 congressional regulatory cuts.
Withdrew from the Obama-era Paris Climate Agreement, ending the threat of environmental regulations.
Signed an Executive Order cutting the time for infrastructure permit approvals.
Eliminated an Obama rule on streams that Trump felt unfairly targeted the coal industry.
Fair trade

Made good on his campaign promise to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Opened up the North American Free Trade Agreement for talks to better the deal for the U.S.
Worked to bring companies back to the U.S., and companies like Toyota, Mazda, Broadcom Limited, and Foxconn announced plans to open U.S. plants.
Worked to promote the sale of U.S products abroad.
Made enforcement of U.S. trade laws, especially those that involve national security, a priority.
Ended Obama’s deal with Cuba.
Boosting U.S. energy dominance

The Department of Interior, which has led the way in cutting regulations, opened plans to lease 77 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling.
Trump traveled the world to promote the sale and use of U.S. energy.
Expanded energy infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline snubbed by Obama.
Ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to kill Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
EPA is reconsidering Obama rules on methane emissions.
Protecting the U.S. homeland

Laid out new principles for reforming immigration and announced plan to end "chain migration," which lets one legal immigrant to bring in dozens of family members.
Made progress to build the border wall with Mexico.
Ended the Obama-era “catch and release” of illegal immigrants.
Boosted the arrests of illegals inside the U.S.
Doubled the number of counties participating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement charged with deporting illegals.
Removed 36 percent more criminal gang members than in fiscal 2016.
Started the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program.
Ditto for other amnesty programs like Deferred Action for Parents of Americans.
Cracking down on some 300 sanctuary cities that defy ICE but still get federal dollars.
Added some 100 new immigration judges.
Protecting communities

Justice announced grants of $98 million to fund 802 new cops.
Justice worked with Central American nations to arrest and charge 4,000 MS-13 members.
Homeland rounded up nearly 800 MS-13 members, an 83 percent one-year increase.
Signed three executive orders aimed at cracking down on international criminal organizations.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions created new National Public Safety Partnership, a cooperative initiative with cities to reduce violent crimes.
Accountability

Trump has nominated 73 federal judges and won his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
Ordered ethical standards including a lobbying ban.
Called for a comprehensive plan to reorganize the executive branch.
Ordered an overhaul to modernize the digital government.
Called for a full audit of the Pentagon and its spending.
Combatting opioids

First, the president declared a Nationwide Public Health Emergency on opioids.
His Council of Economic Advisors played a role in determining that overdoses are underreported by as much as 24 percent.
The Department of Health and Human Services laid out a new five-point strategy to fight the crisis.
Justice announced it was scheduling fentanyl substances as a drug class under the Controlled Substances Act.
Justice started a fraud crackdown, arresting more than 400.
The administration added $500 million to fight the crisis.
On National Drug Take Back Day, the Drug Enforcement Agency collected 456 tons.

Helping veterans

Signed the Veterans Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act to allow senior officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs to fire failing employees and establish safeguards to protect whistleblowers.
Signed the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act.
Signed the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act, to provide support.
Signed the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017 to authorize $2.1 billion in additional funds for the Veterans Choice Program.
Created a VA hotline.
Had the VA launch an online “Access and Quality Tool,” providing veterans with a way to access wait time and quality of care data.
With VA Secretary Dr. David Shulkin, announced three initiatives to expand access to healthcare for veterans using telehealth technology.
Promoting peace through strength

Directed the rebuilding of the military and ordered a new national strategy and nuclear posture review.
Worked to increase defense spending.
Empowered military leaders to “seize the initiative and win,” reducing the need for a White House sign off on every mission.
Directed the revival of the National Space Council to develop space war strategies.
Elevated U.S. Cyber Command into a major warfighting command.
Withdrew from the U.N. Global Compact on Migration, which Trump saw as a threat to borders.
Imposed a travel ban on nations that lack border and anti-terrorism security.
Saw ISIS lose virtually all of its territory.
Pushed for strong action against global outlaw North Korea and its development of nuclear weapons.
Announced a new Afghanistan strategy that strengthens support for U.S. forces at war with terrorism.
NATO increased support for the war in Afghanistan.
Approved a new Iran strategy plan focused on neutralizing the country’s influence in the region.
Ordered missile strikes against a Syrian airbase used in a chemical weapons attack.
Prevented subsequent chemical attacks by announcing a plan to detect them better and warned of future strikes if they were used.
Ordered new sanctions on the dictatorship in Venezuela.
Restoring confidence in and respect for America

Trump won the release of Americans held abroad, often using his personal relationships with world leaders.
Made good on a campaign promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Conducted a historic 12-day trip through Asia, winning new cooperative deals. On the trip, he attended three regional summits to promote American interests.
He traveled to the Middle East and Europe to build new relationships with leaders.
Traveled to Poland and on to Germany for the G-20 meeting where he pushed again for funding of women entrepreneurs.


see link above for more complete

Good article
Sounds like the normal scenario.
Cop violates someone's rights violently. Department pays victim some taxpayer's money. Bad cop transfers to another department so they can claim he was fired, and the scenario repeats.
I think when a civil servant like a cop is fired for cause, they should be blacklisted from the profession like any other professional criminal is, and should lose any pension or other benefits they "earned". That might make them less confident that their actions won't come back to hurt them.

Classic "I'm a pro drug guy" comments here. "I've never been that high so they must have been on some other drug". Guess what dumbass, everyone is different and reality is subjective. I've heard of many people having similar experiences on edible marijuana. Just because it didn't happen to YOU, does not mean it cannot be that way for others!! And how can you say "with confidence" about a situation you have no facts from? You can't. And to top it off you dismiss this person's experience by suggesting they could be mentally Ill. Pretty weak man.

Rule 6: know what drug(s) you are taking.
I'm pretty certain this was not just marijuana. As a person who has ingested over an oz of AAA quality marijuana in a single sitting, I will confidently say there was something else in those brownies to have this effect....unless he has a mental disorder. This is not a normal reaction to excess thc. I expect he unintentionally just got wet (pcp).

He seems excessively confident that:
1) the road hasn't washed out (if there was a road) and
2) The intake system snorkel is truly water proof.

But I suppose the proof is in the pudding; and he was ok this time.

I 100% agree, but at some point it moves from acceptable to immoral, and that point varies. That's why I gave examples that I think many/most people would not consider rape (pretending you're rich), and what I suspect is its counterpart (pretending you're their partner).

Note that I'm not arguing whether or not this was rape, I'm just making the point that there's a valid argument to be made. I know that's cravenly copping out, but I'm not confident enough to make either case 100%.

I'm a follower of the George Carlin philosophy that says you can only take offense, you can't give it. i.e. offence is in the eye of the beholder, and so any judgement needs to take into account things like intention, and should err on the side of free speech. Any psychological attack - from being cut off when driving to being told you have cancer - will damage you only to the level that you let it (which is largely out of your own control), but that doesn't stop the source of the attack from being in the wrong.

This is why I looked at this case in cost-benefit terms. We can't know for sure how this affected those involved, but it's reasonable to suspect that the woman was psychologically scarred through little or no fault of her own, and sexual violation is one of the most cruel and personal. This is amplified by the public nature of it. Yes, maybe - hopefully - she chalked it down to a bad decision, but I think it would be completely understandable if she was significantly damaged by what was unarguably a malicious action against her (even if the malice wasn't directed towards her).

"If you don't make the right choice, I am confident the American voter will"

Really? 'Cos it seems like that ship has already fucking sailed back in November.