@ChaosEngine

I fully agree with you that rape/sexual assault is a bigger problem (in magnitude and frequency) than false accusations. And that being an actual victim of sexual assault would be worse than being falsely accused of sexual assault, although it seems a bit pointless to debate the relative extent of how much these things could fuck up lives when they are both horrendous.

That being said, there's a reason that presumption of innocence and requiring proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt are the law of the land. And assuming that we follow through on those things (which I think we largely do), that's all well and good. BUT, that's all pretty strictly just in the legal realm.

False accusations of sexual assault don't need to get as far as the actual legal system to seriously fuck up a person's life. Employers, partners, friends ... these connections might choose to sever ties without requiring the same rigorous proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt that the legal system does.

As much as I personally tend to believe Ford as opposed to Kavanaugh, I think that given the span of time since the incident it is nigh on impossible to prove that her version of events is true beyond a reasonable doubt. On the other hand, the hearing put his current demeanor and partisan/biased attitude on blatant display in a way that seemed to me should be disqualifying with regards to the sort of standards we require for Supreme Court Justices. Apparently the GOP disagrees, and we can hold them to account for that at the ballot box.

That's rather cold comfort given that Justices serve for life. There'd be some constitutional crisis drama if Agent Orange gets removed from office as a result of some proof-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt of misdeeds. Robert Kennedy's quote about the ancient Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times" seems apropos. Things have been entirely too "interesting" for my taste for the past 2 years...

It's far more honest and honorable that outright stealing a nomination, neglecting their constitutional obligations for pure partisan gains, degrading and abusing our system of government. Wanting a full vetting of a lifetime appointment to the highest court is the norm, making these appointments pure political spectacle and obstructing procedure is 100% the methodology of Republicans....you're just pissed the Democrats are finally learning to play the game republicans have been playing for decades. I can only hope they continue that MO when the Democrats seize congress next month.

Republicans are now insisting on an FBI investigation or they'll vote no. We will have a new justice, but it may not be Kavanaugh....it might not be a right winger.

I believe there's a question about who to believe. I believe that question disqualifies the nominee. Justices should be above reproach and their morality unquestionable, he fails on both counts. If you have just a reasonable doubt about his innocence, and no reasonable person wouldn't at this point, that's enough to disqualify any nominee.

When the obvious partisan Huber investigation into possible Trump alleged FBI misconduct finds (and fails to hide) FBI misconduct that benefited Trump (something that's undeniable thanks to Comey) will you be chanting "lock him up!"?

WARNING, readers, don't click links to documents you aren't certain aren't viruses.

Really? Jimmy Carter said that?!

Seriously, please quote where in the bible Jesus said any such thing. I think you're misquoting the holiness code for Jews from Leviticus and attributing them to Jesus. Those same rules disallow cotton poly blends and shellfish, but you probably never considered boycotting Red Lobster or the Gap, and allow slaves from neighboring countries but you probably don't have a Canadian house slave. Learn about the difference between Christian and Jewish laws don't just watch fake news. ;-)

Really, Bob, you want to say banging kids is liberal after Republicans supported Roy Moore?! Lol. *facepalm
Looting and other crime is not a liberal idea, that's nonsense. Bat shit crazy, hyper partisan nonsense. Some liberals want it to be so easy to cross borders legally that illegal immigrants would cease to exist, I've never heard a sane one support illegal immigration, only illegal immigrants.
Crime could more reasonably be said to be a religious thing, atheists are vastly underrepresented in prison populations. You might say atheists are statistically far less likely to be missing out on life.

No actual science has ever pointed to a creator God....or any god. Anyone telling you different is lying to you about what science is. The closest science ever comes to saying "...so there must be a God" is when it says "we don't know" to a question, often followed by unraveling the mystery and never by finding God hiding behind a corner.

Christians have a much longer and more storied history of ruthless torture and murder in the name of faith than Muslims. Their motto is also convert or die. Learn about them before attempting to make comparisons, maybe?

Obedience to the law like the recently pardoned terrorist group, the Bundys, practiced? Obedience to the law like the bakers allowed by law to display their intolerance against whomever they deem unclean? Obedience to the law like Trump, who's been found guilty of multiple frauds....admitted them in fact? Obedience to the law only when it's convenient or self serving, intolerance whenever it can be gotten away with is what the right practices today.
Maybe you're still a kid who has yet to take critical thinking classes? ;-)

Yeah, except all the pesky convictions and pending felony charges....zero, zip, nada, except all them.
But of course, it's the left lying, not you, of course...has to be.
*facepalm

How long was the Ken Star investigation? Of course you denounced it as a never ending unfounded partisan witch hunt when it didn't get Clinton (or any) convictions in the first year....or the second....third....fourth....fifth....or ever for the crimes it was formed to investigate....zero, zip, nada, null set, nothing, nunca. Witch hunt, witch hunt, witch hunt.
See how imbecilic that sounds?

I've gotta say that putting a Conservative majority on the Supreme Court has to rank as the least concerning thing Trump can really do. I mean, can you really imagine any president who wouldn't, given the chance, get their party a majority there? That's about as Status Quo as it gets.

Furthermore, choosing what hill to die on is important over abortion as well. You gotta be very careful not to imply that support for a pro-life opinion is the worst thing Trump has done yet...

You've got lots of bi-partisan horrible things to pin on Trump, you don't need to alienate more and more people every time Trump does something the left hates...

@bobknight33 you and my dad must be drinkin the same kool aid.

The stuff from OAN is straight Russian propaganda & Idk how much more proof one needs than this, striaght from the horse's mouth: https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/884789839522140166

"This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump - helped along by Aras and Emin."

"Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump"
"Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump"
"Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump"
"Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump"
"Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump"

What part of that is confusing?

?

The IG report is perhaps damning of the FBI to an extent, but it seems like it's a story of a failure to follow protocol. They may have been apprehensive about it given the agency's usual staying-out of politics amid an election, or considering they didn't find anything on the first go-round, they suspected there wasn't anything else to find in subsequent emails (which their wasn't).

It IS worth pointing out in the IG report that Comey and other FBI used a private email server to conduct gov business. But it seems there are people doing that on both the left and the right anyway: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/02/pence-used-personal-email-state-business----and-hacked/98604904/

The emails story seems like a lot of hot air, the undermining of our Democracy through hyper partisan Russian propaganda networks is, on the other hand, very real.

@bobknight33, anything on the One America News Network is not news, so putting it in the news channel is bad channel assignment. It's at best uninformed biased opinion, and more often (like this one) it's misleading hyper partisan propaganda and faux outrage. Like Faux and infowars, it's just not news or journalism, it's "entertainment" dressed up as news. There was no honest history here, and no education, but she did spread fear and fail.

If this idiot actually listened to Oliver, he was pretty clear about why it wasn't simply socialism that destroyed Venezuela, in fact it was mostly reliance on oil for nearly all of the countries GDP that tanked them.

I note she didn't disagree when he said that many other socialist countries are doing well, just harped on that this one bad example of dictatorial socialism proves socialism is a failure....I guess Somalia and Haiti doubly prove that capitalism is an utter failure then? *facepalm

It's not a partisan issue, Bob. The "debate" is being stifled by the NRA - a prime example of pure capitalist interest infringing on public policy. The NRA doesn't truly care about gun owners' rights, or the 2nd amendment. It only cares about the money it gets from the gun companies. Conservatives' voices are being taken away from them by this industry lobbying group. You should be angry about that.

Are you an FBI investigator ? Because they are the only one's with access to any "proof" of Trump collusion or other crimes at this point....but to be clear there's a ton of indicators that they have "proof" of serious malfeasance.

There is abundant proof that Trump is a repeatedly convicted and admitted (he plead guilty) fraud, however....which is what I referenced. Not long ago that would have been plenty to disqualify him from running at all. Today, multiple convictions for running fraud schools, selling fraud investments, charitable fraud, etc. aren't even on the list of worst 10 things in his history.

The republican created dossier is another nothingburger.

Once again, since you need things explained multiple times to grasp it, the memo is nothing, it's not evidence, it's a disputed republican provocateur's inflammatory notes based on....nothing according to the Democrats that have read the actual classified evidence, which is not being released. The ridiculous partisan memo probably won't be released either, the DOD is clear it could harm our national interests and law enforcement capabilities, and republicans refuse to allow them to screen for secret information it may contain, so releasing it as planned would intentionally be doing what they're (and you're) irate Clinton could possibly have done unintentionally with her less secure email servers, releasing harmful secret information, this time intentionally and for pure short term political gains and nothing more.
Good luck with that.

Keep in mind, the author of your memo is the same idiot who claimed the recent email and "missing" emails was absolute proof of a secret anti Trump society having taken over at the FBI..until the missing emails were recovered, then he moved on to this next BS ploy.

Trump will veto that, hide and watch....but I hope not so you can see that this memo is nothing but republicans making accusations, not evidence, just inferences drawn from implications based on not reading reports. The classified report they claim to reference isn't being released, just the partisan Republican memo...while the Democrat version of that interpretation memo was kept classified.

Funny, Trump's people claimed McCabe stepped down of his own accord, a few months before his scheduled retirement. He's not fired, he didn't quit, he wasn't even asked to leave, much less forced out. He just switched positions...ostensibly to avoid any further contact with Trump who acts like a bully on the phone, taunting the man's wife then hanging up.

Only one falling here. This should cause even republicans to vote to protect Mueller from removal. That will be Trump's death nail.

Argument: The roots of this issue in the US go deeper than partisan "Dems vs. Reps" politics.

"I gave it 2 minutes..."

Let me know when you finish the talk. Please listen with an open mind. I think you'll like what he has to say, though some what he says may be things you have heard by now. Do bear in mind that this talk by Lessig is a few years old now.

Wait...your post didn't contain your argument? ;-)

If you read that as a mere partisan argument, you fail to grok my position.
As I wrote, I do not choose terrible vs less terrible, but for those who do, I suggest it's clear which is which.

As I often reiterate, finance reform is the number one issue that must be tackled in order to make any other political reform. That's why I backed Sanders, and still do but less so. I just wish he would leave the democratic party.

"[I] didn't watch the Ted talk, sorry. Too long to make a point for me."

Then you missed the entire argument.

Everything you said is moot in the face of Lawrence Lessig's talk.

This kind of thinking: "Granted, neither choice is usually good, but one is definitely less bad....and far more sane and rational."Is completely missing the point.

If you are continuing to see this this as a partisan problem, you do not grok this issue.

You should not be choosing between "terrible and slightly less terrible." You should be choosing between "good and better."

I reiterate: The roots of this issue in the US go deeper than partisan "Dems vs. Reps" politics. This issue is money in politics.

"I want you to take hold, to grab the issue you care the most about. Climate change is mine, but it might be financial reform or a simpler tax system or inequality. Grab that issue, sit it down in front of you, look straight in its eyes, and tell it there is no Christmas this year. There will never be a Christmas. We will never get your issue solved until we fix this issue first."

Here's a video referencing a Princeton study that backs up Lessig's arguments pretty well.



As an aside, Lawrence Lessig tried to run for president last year...