Links - 6th October 2018 (1)

'Bull---- investigation,' 'sham,' 'horrific cover-up': Democrats blast FBI Kavanaugh report - ""There is no corroboration of the allegations" made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford or Ramirez."
When the FBI investigation doesn't go your way...
Strangely the Anita Hill investigation only took 2-3 days (i.e. even shorter)

Prosecutor Who Questioned Ford Shreds Her Case In Five-Page Memo - "Rachel Mitchell, the prosecutor who questioned Christine Blasey Ford last week during a hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a five-page memo that was released on Sunday that outlines why she would not bring criminal charges against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Mitchell's memo notes nine significant problems with Ford's testimony and underscores that her case is "even weaker" than a "he said, she said" case... "Dr. Ford identified other witnesses to the event, and those witnesses either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them. For the reasons discussed below, I do not think that a reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the Committee. Nor do I believe that this evidence is sufficient to satisfy the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard...
Dr. Ford has no memory of key details of the night in question—details that could help corroborate her account... She does, however, remember small, distinct details from the party unrelated to the assault. For example, she testified that she had exactly one beer at the party and was taking no medication at the time of the alleged assault...
Dr. Ford’s account of the alleged assault has not been corroborated by anyone she identified as having attended—including her lifelong friend... Dr. Ford has not offered a consistent account of the alleged assault...
The date of the hearing was delayed because the Committee was informed that her symptoms prevent her from flying. But she agreed during her testimony that she flies “fairly frequently for [her] hobbies and … work.” She flies to the mid-Atlantic at least once a year to visit her family. She has flown to Hawaii, French Polynesia, and Costa Rica. She also flew to Washington, D.C. for the hearing."

Amid Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation Battle, Democratic Enthusiasm Edge Evaporates - "Just over a month away from critical elections across the country, the wide Democratic enthusiasm advantage that has defined the 2018 campaign up to this point has disappeared... In July, there was a 10-point gap between the number of Democrats and Republicans saying the November elections were "very important." Now, that is down to 2 points, a statistical tie... The results come amid the pitched and hotly partisan confirmation battle over Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court"

Opinion | For Once, I’m Grateful for Trump - The New York Times - "I’m grateful because Trump has not backed down in the face of the slipperiness, hypocrisy and dangerous standard-setting deployed by opponents of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. I’m grateful because ferocious and even crass obstinacy has its uses in life, and never more so than in the face of sly moral bullying. I’m grateful because he’s a big fat hammer fending off a razor-sharp dagger... “I’d rather be accused of murder,” he said, “than of sexual assault.” I feel the same way. One can think of excuses for killing a man; none for assaulting a woman... “Boo hoo hoo. Brett Kavanaugh is not a victim.” That’s the title of a column in the Los Angeles Times, which suggests that the possibility of Kavanaugh’s innocence is “infinitesimal.” Yet false allegations of rape, while relatively rare, are at least five times as common as false accusations of other types of crime, according to academic literature. Since when did the possibility of innocence become, for today’s liberals, something to wave off with an archly unfeeling “boo hoo”?... Swetnick’s claims border on the preposterous. They are wholly uncorroborated. But that didn’t keep Kavanaugh’s opponents, in politics and the press, from seizing them as evidence of corroboration with Blasey’s allegation, which is not preposterous but is also largely uncorroborated, and with the allegation of Kavanaugh’s Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez — uncorroborated again... Will a full-bore investigation of adolescent behavior now become a standard part of the “job interview” for all senior office holders? I’m for it — provided we can start with your adolescent behavior, as it relates to your next job... Listening to Richard Blumenthal lecture Kavanaugh on the legal concept of falsus in omnibus — false in one thing, false in everything — when the senator from Connecticut lied shamelessly for years about his military service. And then feeling grateful to Trump for having the simple nerve to point out the naked hypocrisy... Listening to Dianne Feinstein denounce Kavanaugh for failing to reflect an “impartial temperament or the fairness and even-handedness one would see in a judge.” This lecture would have gone down more easily if Feinstein hadn’t gamed the process for her own partisan purposes, and at huge personal cost to Kavanaugh and Blasey alike... the facile stereotype of “white privilege” that keeps cropping up in discussions of Kavanaugh’s background is yet another ugly tactic in the battle to defeat him."

WATCH: Kavanaugh Accuser Swetnick Walks Back Some Of Her Explosive Allegations - "Julie Swetnick, the Kavanaugh accuser represented by sensationalist lawyer Michael Avenatti, changed parts of her story during an interview with NBC News that aired on Monday, appearing to walk back some of her most explosive claims about the Supreme Court nominee. NBC News' Kate Snow noted that the network could not verify any of Swetnick's salacious claims before she highlighted how Swetnick's claims during the interview varied from her written declaration... Swetnick's credibility has come into question amid recent reports concerning multiple unsubstantiated sexual misconduct claims she's made against employers, one of which has accused her of lying about her education and workplace experience"

Could Brett Kavanaugh be angry because maybe — just maybe — he has been wrongly accused? - "Could he not also feel entitled to some measure of fair play? Before these allegations surfaced, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) insisted that Kavanaugh’s nomination was “evil.” Since then, Kavanaugh has been accused of orchestrating rape gangs. And yet we’re supposed to believe his anger derives not from such accusations but from some abstract idea of white male powerlessness? Kavanaugh’s critics have fallen into an argument built on a narrative of bigotry. Men from his background have done bad things in the past, and since he fits the stereotype, he is a symbol of their collective guilt. Women have been treated horribly when they’ve made allegations, so now we must believe all women. Never mind that there were times in America when “believe all white women” was the rule. When they made allegations against black men, it led to some unspeakable evils. “To Kill A Mockingbird” is in many ways a modern allegory about those times."

Rifts Break Open at Facebook Over Kavanaugh Hearing - The New York Times - "“I want to apologize,” the Facebook executive wrote last Friday in a note to staff. “I recognize this moment is a deeply painful one — internally and externally.” The apology came from Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president for global public policy. A day earlier, Mr. Kaplan had sat behind his friend, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, when the judge testified in Congress about allegations he had sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford in high school. Mr. Kaplan’s surprise appearance prompted anger and shock among many Facebook employees, some of whom said they took his action as a tacit show of support for Judge Kavanaugh — as if it were an endorsement from Facebook itself. The unrest quickly spilled over onto Facebook’s internal message boards, where hundreds of workers have since posted about their concerns, according to current and former employees. To quell the hubbub, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, last Friday explained in a widely attended staff meeting that Mr. Kaplan was a close friend of Judge Kavanaugh’s and had broken no company rules... Mr. Kaplan’s show of support for Judge Kavanaugh hits a particularly sensitive spot for Facebook. It has been weathering claims from conservatives and Mr. Trump that Facebook is biased against right-wing websites and opinions. The company has denied this, saying it is a neutral platform that welcomes all perspectives. By showing up at Judge Kavanaugh’s side, Mr. Kaplan essentially appeared to choose a political side that goes against the views of Facebook’s largely liberal work force... Mr. Zuckerberg defended Mr. Kaplan’s appearance as a personal decision that did not violate company rules. Mr. Zuckerberg also said he trusted Mr. Kaplan’s judgment, even though he himself would most likely not have chosen to attend the hearing, said two people who were at the meeting. The messaging backfired. Some employees — particularly women — said it came across as if Mr. Zuckerberg was shrugging off Dr. Blasey’s comments about sexual assault, saying that the chief executive’s remarks had caused “stress and trauma” and were “painful to hear.”"
What happens when you hire SJWs

Brett Kavanaugh and the Problem With #BelieveSurvivors - "If believing the woman is the beginning and the end of a search for the truth, then we have left the realm of justice for religion. Whether an investigation takes place at a school, at a workplace, or in the criminal-justice system, neutral fact-finding must apply, regardless of how disturbing we find the offense, the group identity of the accused, or the political leanings of those involved. History demonstrates that ascribing honesty or dishonesty, criminality or righteousness solely on the basis of gender or race doesn’t increase the amount of equity in the world. The best reporting of the #MeToo movement has shown that when journalists examine all the possible holes in an accuser’s account, find corroborating witnesses and documentary evidence, and give the accused the opportunity to respond, they make the victim’s story more powerful... the Republican questioning of Ford was not particularly harsh, and while it was intended to knock her credibility, that’s the purpose of adversarial proceedings... the Senate Judiciary hearings echoed the quasi-trials that regularly take place on college campuses... I have yet to talk to an accused student, even one who was eventually cleared, whose life wasn’t profoundly damaged; every one has told me that at some point he considered suicide. So I understand that Kavanaugh’s anguish was real, and I believe he was entitled to express it... In one sense, the hearing was theater, not fact-finding, because except for a handful of undecided senators, the rest had already made up their mind about the accusation based entirely on their desire to either seat or thwart Kavanaugh... We don’t even have to imagine the dangers of a system based on automatic belief—Britain recently experienced a national scandal over such policies. After widespread adoption of a rule that law enforcement must believe reports of sexual violation, police failed to properly investigate claims and ignored exculpatory evidence. Dozens of prosecutions collapsed as a result, and the head of an organization of people abused in childhood urged that the police return to a neutral stance. Biased investigations and prosecutions, he said, create miscarriages of justice that undermine the credibility of all accusers. The legitimacy and credibility of our institutions are rapidly eroding"

Harvard Law Students Filed Title IX Complaints Claiming Brett Kavanaugh’s Presence Was Sexual Harassment - "Kellogg and fellow student Julia B. Wiener, also a senior, filed complaints claiming Kavanaugh’s presence on campus would create a “hostile environment” for women because of the uncorroborated and thin sexual assault allegations against him... Law professor Janet Halley also dismissed the strategy, telling the Crimson: “I urge the students to divert their energy from this implausible claim that he’s going to create a sexually hostile environment by teaching at the Law School to the really grand issue of whether he’s fit to be in his current judgeship or promoted to the Supreme Court.” Kavanaugh has already withdrawn from teaching another course at Harvard, even though he has taught for more than a decade with mostly “glowing praise.”"
Maybe Title IX should just go

(PDF) The Prevalence of False Allegations of Rape in the United States from 2006-2010 - "Approximately 5% of the allegations of rape were deemed false or baseless. That was at least five times higher than for most other offence types... The researchers who conducted the other studies reported prevalence rates varying from 3 to 90%... The FBI has NEVER said that false accusations of rape are only 8%. The FBI, in all of its crime reports, has a boilerplate phrase which states: “Law enforcement determines that 8% of rape complaints are false every year.” That does not mean the other 92% are true. It simply means that law enforcement does not refer 8% of cases to prosecutors because those 8% are so obviously false that they do not meet the low test for “probable cause.”"
Wikipedia: "Cases of disputed consent were not included in the results as they were subject to judicial review in court"

Does the FBI Say that Only 8% of Rape Accusations are False? - "Let’s examine the myth that only 2–8% of rape accusations are false. Loyola University Law School did an exhaustive study on this myth. They traced the myth back to a feminist novelist in the 1970’s who stated, without any basis, that the rate of false accusations of rape were only 2%. [Ed: "The Truth behind Legal Dominance Feminism's Two Percent False Rape Claiom Figure"] In reality, we know that in the 1980’s and 1990’s, before rape hysteria took hold of our mainstream media, the rate of false accusations of rape were between 50% and 60%.

Logic, Empathy, Honesty - "Paul Joseph Watson has been suspended for 12 hours, just as Alex Jones is permanently banned. The reason? Sharing a video about Alex Jones. Pretending this isn't political censorship is now beyond stupidity and into complicity. These organizations are out to control the landscape of political speech, and we can't be silent while they control us."

Sarah Baker - Kamala Harris: "The government should not tell women what to do with their bodies"
"A new movement to legalize prostitution faces a fight with Kamala Harris"
"“The government should not tell women what to do with their bodies, except when I am the government and they have unauthorized consensual sex with other adults—and then they should go to jail.” Kamala Harris, I guess."