Supreme court nominees

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When U.S. senators badger a nominee about high school yearbook code language, you know we are in a different era. When media analysts like ABC’s Matthew Dowd express hope against another “sexual predator” on the high court, smearing both Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas, you know media venom has reached grotesque levels. When a cartoonist portrays Kavanaugh’s daughter praying for God to forgive her “lying, alcoholic father for sexually assaulting Dr. Ford,” you know that the darkest and cruelest attacks are now welcomed into the marketplace if the target is right.
We live in an era in which many have risen up to address the pervasive problem of sexual abuse.
Part of that advance is that complaints are taken seriously, rather than simply dismissed. In this context, both the accusation and the denial were probed by questioning both Ford and Kavanaugh and assessing their credibility. That Kavanaugh gave answers about his actions at that time that were hardly credible show how fall something has fallen, but not the system.
 
You are right in one respect. My comment about statistics did differentiate between the targets. It showed that as a group, men have not suffered from false accusations nearly as much as men have gotten away with assaults without being accused at all. There is no reason to think that bias has changed. But if it does, I’ll join your cause.
Let’s assume your statistics are accurate; what does it matter in this specific case? Are you suggesting that because men unjustly got away with assaults in the past that it doesn’t matter if Kavanaugh is unjustly treated in this case? We’re still talking about bias, and it’s still wrong whether it harmed women before or harms men now. How do you justify injustice?
 
Part of that advance is that complaints are taken seriously, rather than simply dismissed. In this context, both the accusation and the denial were probed by questioning both Ford and Kavanaugh and assessing their credibility. That Kavanaugh gave answers about his actions at that time that were hardly credible show how fall something has fallen, but not the system.
“Credibility” again. This is a claim that facts are irrelevant, and all that matters is whether you believe this person or that one. It is how one justifies choosing winners and losers without having any standard by which to choose one or the other save personal preference. It is why the same people who today say “believe the woman” were the same people a generation ago who dismissed a different set of accusers as “trailer trash” when it was the man they preferred.

Either there are standards or there aren’t, and it is quite clear that the only standard today is the outcome an action produces.
 
Are you confusing Kavanaugh’s appointment hearing as belonging to our justice system?
No. Are you suggesting that it is only in the court system that justice and fairness are relevant concerns? Is this how you justify the treatment Kavanaugh has received?
 
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LeafByNiggle:
You are right in one respect. My comment about statistics did differentiate between the targets. It showed that as a group, men have not suffered from false accusations nearly as much as men have gotten away with assaults without being accused at all. There is no reason to think that bias has changed. But if it does, I’ll join your cause.
Let’s assume your statistics are accurate; what does it matter in this specific case? Are you suggesting that because men unjustly got away with assaults in the past that it doesn’t matter if Kavanaugh is unjustly treated in this case? We’re still talking about bias, and it’s still wrong whether it harmed women before or harms men now. How do you justify injustice?
I don’t. And I would not apply statistics to justify a decision in this case either. I only mention them now to counter the implication that this “believe the woman” thing is part of a pattern that has gone too far. Or, as Trump has said, “It’s a scary time for men.”
 
When considering the balance between men being falsely accused and men truly assaulting women and not being charged, I will be convinced of your admonition when the statistics show the numbers in the first group rival the numbers in the second.
You are unique in requiring an even balance. Also, we have no way to measure how many women were assaulted and said nothing, it’s not recorded.
 
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LeafByNiggle:
When considering the balance between men being falsely accused and men truly assaulting women and not being charged, I will be convinced of your admonition when the statistics show the numbers in the first group rival the numbers in the second.
You are unique in requiring an even balance. Also, we have no way to measure how many women were assaulted and said nothing, it’s not recorded.
I said nothing about an even balance, just not extremely out of balance.

There are statistical methods to estimate how many women have been raped without the rape being reported to the police. They are estimates, but even treating them as estimates, the conclusion is obvious. Men get away with rape far more often than are falsely convicted of rape.
 
I am reminded of the Duke University Lacrosse players who were falsely accused of rape.

Fantastic Lies chronicles how the controversy exploded into a national firestorm as Durham’s prosecutor, its police, Duke’s campus community, and sympathetic journalists took the accuser’s distressing claims to heart. She had been assaulted by three Duke players in a bathroom, she claimed. Later, when investigators had her review photos of the team’s players, she identified two of them. How sure was she, they asked? She replied: “100 percent.”

"The entire time that we were reporting the piece, we were going against the grain," Radutzky tells 60 Minutes Overtime. "It seemed like most of the media and the public and government leaders had already made up their minds that the players were guilty."

“I don’t think it really will ever be over," one of the players, David Evans, told Stahl. “No matter what, you can try to move on, but ‘rape’ will always be associated with my name. ‘Innocent’ might be a part of that, but when I die they’ll say, ‘One of the three Duke lacrosse rape suspects died today. He led a life and did this, but he was one of the three Duke lacrosse rape suspects.’”
 
There are statistical methods to estimate how many women have been raped without the rape being reported to the police. They are estimates, but even treating them as estimates, the conclusion is obvious. Men get away with rape far more often than are falsely convicted of rape.
There is also huge bias in those ‘estimates’ Better to do what we already do, we report and investigate whenever they occur. And by investigate I’m referring to law enforcement, not the media.

Neither the police nor CPS are dismissive of such claims, they are all documented so they can even spot a pattern of weak/unchargeable allegations.
 
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LeafByNiggle:
There are statistical methods to estimate how many women have been raped without the rape being reported to the police. They are estimates, but even treating them as estimates, the conclusion is obvious. Men get away with rape far more often than are falsely convicted of rape.
There is also huge bias in those ‘estimates’ Better to do what we already do, we report and investigate whenever they occur. And by investigate I’m referring to law enforcement, not the media.
That is where the huge bias is - in law enforcement.
 
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dvdjs:
Are you confusing Kavanaugh’s appointment hearing as belonging to our justice system?
The last thing I am likely to do is confuse the Kavanaugh hearing with anything having to do with justice. Again, the fact that a hearing is not a trial does not excuse condemnation based on unsubstantiated allegations. We used to have a basic understanding of fairness, but we appear to have lost even that.
Worth reposting.
 
I have to wonder how many of the women calling for Kavanaugh’s head have husbands and or brothers,sons,grandsons?Would they want their loved one to be assulted in the manner the ,left has done to Judge Kavanaugh.🤨
 
I have a husband and a son. I wouldn’t want either to be accused unfairly. Unfortunately for my daughters, it’s far more likely that they’ll experience sexual assault.
 
Not sure about that it may be a wash as to who is effected re incidents like this.Particularilly he said she said situations with no credible facts.
 
I have to wonder how many of the women calling for Kavanaugh’s head have husbands and or brothers,sons,grandsons?Would they want their loved one to be assulted in the manner the ,left has done to Judge Kavanaugh.🤨
That assumes of course, that Dr. Ford was not assaulted by Kavanaugh. No one wants their loved ones to be attacked unjustly. But let us assume for a moment that Dr. Ford was assaulted by Kavanaugh. In that case I wonder how many of the people criticizing Ford have wives, sisters, daughters, granddaughters? Would they want their loved one who was assaulted to be dismissed? I am not saying Ford is right and Kavanaugh is wrong. I am just pointing out that the stakes are equally high on both sides for deciding incorrectly.
 
That assumes of course, that Dr. Ford was not assaulted by Kavanaugh. No one wants their loved ones to be attacked unjustly. But let us assume for a moment that Dr. Ford was assaulted by Kavanaugh. In that case I wonder how many of the people criticizing Ford have wives, sisters, daughters, granddaughters? Would they want their loved one who was assaulted to be dismissed? I am not saying Ford is right and Kavanaugh is wrong. I am just pointing out that the stakes are equally high on both sides for deciding incorrectly.
I know you don’t like to read … but read anyway:


Rachel Mitchell’s report.
 
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I have a husband and a son. I wouldn’t want either to be accused unfairly. Unfortunately for my daughters, it’s far more likely that they’ll experience sexual assault.
But not by Kavanaugh, and to treat him as if he responsible for what other males might do is guilt by association, just the opposite of presumption of innocence.
 
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