I am in several online discussions on this topic and the term “rapist” is used repeatedly. I agree about the Biden interview @bluebayou Still guilty until proven innocent. I believe if she couldn’t come forward before the 12th hour, she needed to just keep her mouth shut- if any of this is even remotely true. I get not saying anything in high school- but the past 3 1/2 decades have surely provided some opportunities. This is a political ploy. Period.
Online discussions is different than anyone publicly calling him a rapist. Haven’t seen that, so have great trouble with “he is being called a rapist in lots of places”. Can only imagine what she is being called in other online discussion groups. She is not a fervent politician. If her experience is being used as a “political ploy”, that may not have been by her choosing. To that degree, maybe she is being abused all over again. Certainly she is being attacked.
Again, there is no current “evidence” or “proof”, but all this character assassination on both sides is just painfully distasteful and IMO a sad sign of the times.
Not sure there is much further to be said at this point without rehashing/rebashing the circular discussions.
That Joe Biden who used to swim nude in front of female Secret Service agents, who has been very ‘handsy’ himself.
Agreed. But unfortunately, character is ALL that matters in a you said-I said with no other evidence. In other words, who ya’ gonna believe more? (And, as an attorney, Joe Biden would know that with certainty. Of course, the law doesn’t fit with his political narrative.)
His family is being threatened, too. My point is that the general public is quickly characterizing the assault she is now reporting as attempted rape and then to calling Judge Kavanaugh a rapist. Twitter is quite public and the term rapist has been used repeatedly.
And I am ok with that ^, @bluebayou. It is about believability and character. Personally, I have been trying to keep an open mind. I am aware that I view this though the filter of someone who has worked with abuse survivors and for whom it often takes a long time to find their voice. But the polarized comments are unfortunate.
I can only imagine what tweets have been said about her. Mainstream media has not AFAIK used the term “rapist” and neither has Ford. Enough about that.
@Iglooo “Kids group grind at dances these days.” If it is not consensual, it is assault. One of my Girl Scouts had a guy come up behind her when she was a HS frosh, grab her and “grind” on a dark dance floor at a school dance, then disappear into the crowd before she could see his face. She was in tears, and felt violated. It IS assault.
Interesting that the committee says they won’t call Judge to testify. They WANT he said/she said. Judge could just get up and say didn’t see it/didn’t happen. But I suspect he doesn’t want to be under oath saying it. And I suspect Kavanaugh doesn’t want Judge under oath on this. If it really never happened, why not have him testify to that?
Addressing an earlier comment:
“It also seems odd with thousands of federal judges on the bench, to be that concerned of the extremely remote possibility that they could make it to the Supreme Court.”
I clerked for two federal judges and worked for 5 years as a counselor helping law students at Northwestern and Harvard get clerkships. Kavanaugh was never a run-of-the-mill judge, even in the context of the DC Circuit, where all members are potential Supreme Court nominees. He was understood to be a Supreme Court feeder and conservative short-lister when he was nominated in 2003. His present nomination wasn’t guaranteed, but it was unsurprising.
Out of all the thousands of physicists, knowledgeable people have a very good idea who is a likely future Nobel prizewinner. These honors are not handed out at random.
There are posts on this very thread calling it attempted rape…
Heck, maybe Judge piling on STOPPED it from being an actual rape.
Still not seeing anyone calling him a rapist. So to say that strikes me as hyperbole. A. currently banned poster earlier called her a liar, lying for political purposes. That strikes me as hyperbole as well.
But what’s the point? Judge has already submitted a written “statement under penalty of felony” that he remembers nothing of the sort.
I, too have seen the word “rape” used for what happened in, for example, comments on a WaPo article, etc. Whatever happened was not rape, even if that was the intent. Assault, obviously.
Which, along with intparent’s comment about the possibility that the friend STOPPED it from being a rape, makes me want to ask the lawyers here about the question of intent. At what point can it be said definitively that what Kavanaugh did (if he in fact did it) was definitely the precursor to rape? How would a lawyer treat the question of intent here? (I’m not looking for a “Well what else WOULD his intentions be?!” kind of response–I’m curious how that would be approached legally…simply because I don’t know.) How would we know that he (allegedly) wasn’t simply being a drunken a-hole who just wanted to be a (scary) big-shot for a few minutes but had neither the intent (nor, perhaps, the ability, if he was that drunk) to actually carry out a rape?
Looks like Amy Chua (the subject of past long discussions around these forums regarding her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) and her husband Jed Rubenfeld have a peripheral connection to the whole Kavanaugh affair.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/20/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-yale-amy-chua
Note that if some act falls into the category of attempted rape, it is still a serious crime.
But that goes back to my question regarding proof of intent.
@bluebayou - Having just again listened to Biden’s interview, he said he believed Anita Hill , and that women asserting such allegations should be given the benefit of the doubt, and not abused again by the system. He didn’t say women accusers should always be believed. Its not quite the same to me. https://www.today.com/news/joe-biden-kavanaugh-accuser-christine-blasey-ford-shouldn-t-be-t137945
It appears this alleged event falls within the definition of sex offense category 4, intentional touching of another person in an intimate manner, without their consent.
I have yet to see any lawyer licensed in Maryland state the event, if all facts alleged are true, would qualify as a felony.