New SCOTUS Judge

[Andy_Ross]

Trump tweets

"Senator Feinstein and the Democrats held the letter for months, only to release it with a bang after the hearings were OVER - done very purposefully to Obstruct & Resist & Delay. Let her testify, or not, and TAKE THE VOTE!"

 

[Segnosaur]

The problem is that the nine people making judgments that directly affect all our lives come from a tiny, insular, self-selected world of wealth and privilege.

So do almost all politicians.

But people have the opportunity to directly choose their politicians, and can do so on a fairly regular bases (every 2/4/6 years). If they decide "This guy's policies do no benefit me or the majority of the country" they can vote them out of office.

Supreme court justices can be on the bench for decades. There is no way to remove such a judge if voters decide "This person is interpreting the constitution in a way that benefits a certain social class".

That is one of the reasons Trump is such a breath of fresh air.

Ummm... hate to tell you this, but while Trump may not have gone to an ivy-league school like Harvard or Yale, he is from a wealthy family, born into a life of privilege. (How many people on this board had the benefit of millions of dollars thanks to family connections when starting their careers?)

He's certainly not a "self made" man, and he seems to have no clue about how the average middle or lower class person lives.

 

[tyr_13]

The FBI had jurisdiction in the Hill/Thomas case, since they were both federal employees working in a federal office for the alleged events. It does not have jurisdiction in this case. Do you not see the potential problem of allowing the President to order the FBI to investigate allegations it has no jurisdiction over?

Given the accusation that Trump is an aspiring dictator, it's actually amusing that Democrats want to give him more power.

No, that is not why they investigated in the Hill/Thomas case and every one of your lines of reasoning here only make any sense if it were a criminal investigation. This is not a criminal investigation. The FBI does have 'jurisdiction' over background checks. They routinely reopen them when new information comes to light, and have for other cases of nominations for positions that require Senate advice/consent. Those times just have not, as far as I'm aware, involved sexual misconduct.

Specifically with the Thomas hearings, Senator Biden asked the White House to have the FBI reopen the background check with the new information and the White House gave the FBI the go ahead.

If the White House had given the go ahead, chance are good the check would probably be over by now, unless they found more threads to chase.

 

[tyr_13]

It's not racist. It's a description of one man.

No, it's racist. Specifically it presupposes that black people are all 'supposed to' act in a narrow range of ways or else they are 'not black'.

 

[Bob001]

So do almost all politicians. That is one of the reasons Trump is such a breath of fresh air.

Not true at all. Do you think Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton -- five consecutive presidents -- had much in common? Of thousands of people who have served in Congress, you will find varied backgrounds of all kinds, sometimes to the harm of their constituents. And Trump is no "breath of fresh air," unless your air is from Beijing. He's a thoroughly corrupt con artist, and Trumpers are suckers.

 

[theprestige]

The only reason the FBI is involved with Kavanaugh is that they conduct background checks of federal appointees. They are not running a criminal investigation.

Essentially, the FBI's background check turned up an unsubstantiated accusation of criminal conduct. Against a minor. Thirty years ago. It seems to me their due diligence was completed in July, when Senator Feinstein forwarded them Ford's letter, and they put it in the file.

Now it's up to the Senate to decide how much this particular bit of background - the accusation - matters, and how deeply they wish to dig into it.

One question I have, is, if Senator Feinstein and others believe this accusation is so important as to delay a vote and require additional hearings, why wasn't she talking about it back in July?

 

[tyr_13]

It was certainly a lie, but that's not stopping the press from reporting it as a confirmation of the incident.

How do you know it's 'certainly a lie'?

 

[Bob001]

.....
The FBI does have 'jurisdiction' over background checks. They routinely reopen them when new information comes to light, and have for other cases of nominations for positions that require Senate advice/consent. Those times just have not, as far as I'm aware, involved sexual misconduct.
....

Speaking of those background checks, from someone who directed them:

The FBI, which would already have performed an extensive background check on Kavanaugh in connection with his nomination to the Supreme Court, can pick up its investigation — and check into the issues that the woman accusing Kavanaugh of assault has raised — more quickly, more effectively and more sensitively than untrained Senate committee staffers can.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...check-kavanaugh-again/?utm_term=.89aa3a635daf

 

[Stacyhs]

The only reason the FBI is involved with Kavanaugh is that they conduct background checks of federal appointees. They are not running a criminal investigation. Ellison isn't nominated for anything. A domestic violence allegation would be a matter for local police, if the complainant press charges. So far she has not.

Fun fact: Maryland has no statute of limitations on certain felonies, including attempted rape. Nothing prevents Ford from filing a report about Kavanaugh with Montgomery County police, who would be obligated to investigate throughly.

I'm well aware of that. My point was in response to S and A's implication that Dems are being hypocritical regarding Ellison; that they wouldn't support Ellison being investigated.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I'm not sure you're clear on what racism is. Do you really think that calling a single black person a n-word somehow escapes the accusation of racism?

In any case, it's a silly thing to say, as if a black man should necessarily vote or think a certain way or be labeled 'white'. In fact, it's racist against BOTH black people and white people, because in this case the 'white' part of the oreo is seen as a negative.

I'm not sure you understand what's wrong with this whole picture: old rich white men running the country.

If I posted that someone would immediately post that Thomas isn't white. Citizen's United et al begs to differ.

 

[tyr_13]

I still believe that, while this allegation certainly has yet again shown many issues Republicans and Trump supports have with sexual conduct, the far more damning thing for Kavanaugh were the stolen documents.

Either he knowingly used them, making him too unethical to be a judge, or he honestly didn't know, making him too lacking in good judgement to be a judge. There are many positions even in high office that don't require one to have the awareness needed to tell that the documents labeled 'spying' that were explicitly said to have been obtained from a 'mole' were obtained unethically, but JUDGE is CERTAINLY one of them.

Still waiting for some answers on the, 'would you still support him if it can be shown he committed perjury about a salient issue' question.

 

[Bob001]

...
Ummm... hate to tell you this, but while Trump may not have gone to an ivy-league school like Harvard or Yale, he is from a wealthy family, born into a life of privilege. (How many people on this board had the benefit of millions of dollars thanks to family connections when starting their careers?)
.....

Digression: U. Penn is literally part of the Ivy League.

The Ivy League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising sports teams from eight private universities in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group beyond the sports context.[2] The eight members are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League

 

[sylvan8798]

I heard the other day that Kavanaugh, if confirmed, will be the second person from Georgetown Prep currently on the Supreme Court.

So two supreme court judges from the same high school.

This is what Trump was talking about when he said, "Drain the swamp", right?

Kavanaugh was 2 years ahead of Gorsuch at G-Prep. Did they know each other? That would make Gorsuch and Ford the same age +/-. Did THEY know each other? Did Gorsuch hear any rumors about an assault on a girl from a sister school at a party that summer? All very interesting.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

No, it's racist. Specifically it presupposes that black people are all 'supposed to' act in a narrow range of ways or else they are 'not black'.

It depends on my definition of an oreo. Not all rich old white men are part of the problem. Thomas isn't a white black man. He's one of those ******* old rich white men like the rest of them.

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

Trump is indeed showing his ignorance.

Roughly 2/3rds of sexual assaults are never reported to the police. And when they are, they very rarely result in an actual conviction in court.

Assuming that "if it was a bad assault it would have been reported" shows that Trump is just ignorant of statistics. (Not that that will matter to Trump and his base of supporters.)

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system

Trump's not ignorant. He's a repeat offender. He has strategies for how to confront accusations. It's purely about trying to discredit her.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

*Thomas is an oreo for all intents and purposes.

Black on the outside, white supremacist on the inside?

 

[theprestige]

I don't begrudge the Dems almost any tactic to delay the vote on Kavanaugh given what the Reps did with Garland, almost anything would be fair came.

"Almost any" seems a little too broad, the way you're using it. Procedural shenanigans are one thing. Character assassination is something else.

 

[The Big Dog]

It depends on my definition of an oreo. Not all rich old white men are part of the problem. Thomas isn't a white black man. He's one of those ******* old rich white men like the rest of them.

This "argument" is racist and misandrous as one is ever likely to see.

wow...

 

[Belz...]

It depends on my definition of an oreo. Not all rich old white men are part of the problem. Thomas isn't a white black man. He's one of those ******* old rich white men like the rest of them.

He's a white man? What?

 

[Stacyhs]

Trump's not ignorant. He's a repeat offender. He has strategies for how to confront accusations. It's purely about trying to discredit her.

True. The oldest tactic in the world used against rape victims is to discredit them with accusations of being promiscuous and/or a liar.