Party...

Dossier

No Swet-Nick...

Julie Swetnick, accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and a friend of attending house parties where women  including herself  were sexually assaulted, had a restraining order filed against her years later in Miami by her former boyfriend.

A Miami-Dade County court docket shows a petition for injunction against Swetnick was filed March 1, 2001, by her former boyfriend, Richard Vinneccy, who told POLITICO the two had dated for four years before they broke up. 

“Right after I broke up with her, she was threatening my family, threatening my wife and threatening to do harm to my baby at that time,” Vinneccy said in a telephone interview with POLITICO. "I know a lot about her.” "She’s not credible at all,” he said. “Not at all.”

Swetnick does not accuse Kavanaugh himself of sexually assaulting her in the sworn statement. But she asserts Kavanaugh was present when she was the victim of a “gang rape” by multiple boys at one party.

Swetnick's sworn statement asserting that she met Kavanaugh in the 1980-1981 time period and subsequently attended more than 10 house parties where she said Kavanaugh and a close friend of his, Mark Judge, attended.  

UFO...

Congreve...

William Congreve's 1697 poem The Mourning Bride 
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned/Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.

In our society, where you have the right to express yourself, some just try anything and in the process, may hurt themselves more.

Psych...*

Kathy Griffin will not be back as co-host of CNN's annual New Year's Eve program.

CNN's decision comes one day after photos were released of Griffin that showed the comedian holding up a bloody head.

"CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year's Eve program," the network said in a statement.

Griffin has apologized for the photos.......
"I beg for your forgiveness. I went too far," she said. "I made a mistake and I was wrong."

Admitting the images were "too disturbing," ......
Griffin has co-hosted CNN's annual New Year's Eve program alongside Anderson Cooper since 2007.   And who is this Photographer any way?

Feed the...

Less than 48 hours after being nominated to the supreme court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh quietly joined a group of volunteers to hand out food to Washington D.C. homeless.

Even though he had so recently been thrust into the national spotlight by being named on Monday by President Trump to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, Kavanaugh still kept the commitment to serve at the event at Catholic Charities in downtown Washington D.C., which he had signed up for months earlier.

Kavanaugh was greeted by Monsignor John Enzler, the president and CEO of Catholic Charities in Washington who has known the judge from the time he was an altar boy. “He’s a man for others,” Enzler said. “It’s all about service.”

In his remarks at the White House, Kavanaugh said volunteerism, including feeding the homeless, plays a huge role in his life.

Toddlers...

Hillary Clinton is back, this time denouncing civility.

Talking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour this week, she defended the unprecedented protests, threats and harassment that roiled the Brett Kavanaugh nomination.

“You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about,” Clinton said. “That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and/or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again.”

In other words, sure, we’re acting like toddlers now, but we’ll be grown-ups once we’re in charge.

It’s true that Democrats took a heavy blow when the Senate approved Kavanaugh’s promotion to the high court. For the first time in two generations, the Supreme Court has an originalist majority. These conservatives actually believe that the judiciary is only there to determine if laws are constitutional or not and that it isn’t their place to legislate from the bench.

Territory...

Much like humans, birds tend to be socially monogamous: they find  partner to mate with and remain socially exclusive with this partner. 

But, also much like humans, they are often cheat on their partners, or separate to mate with someone else and this often happens when the social partnership is not optimal.

The mating choices of birds are naturally affected by their social environment, because it determines the number and availability of potential partners they can choose from.  

The researchers have studied a breeding population of great tits.   

The results show that male birds with a high proportion of female acquaintances are less likely to divorce their partner between breeding seasons. Interestingly, the absolute number of female associates isn’t important — just the ratio of females to males in the social group. The results also show that males are less likely to divorce if the strength of the association with their partner is higher than their association with other females, and if they are experienced breeders.

'In great tits, males hold territories,' . 'That means that females that divorce their males also change territory. We wonder if females might pay more attention to the territory they want to live in than the social dynamics of the group when it comes to changing partners.'

Sympathatic...

Just because Kavanaugh is a privileged white male does not make him guilty of sexual assault.  Just because he wrote asinine things in his high school yearbook and joined a fraternity in college does not make him a sexual predator. And as many Americans can attest, just because he drank beer to the point of vomiting does not mean that he ever blacked out.

There is no doubt that Ford was a sympathetic witness. Being sympathetic is not the same as being truthful or credible. And Ford’s case against Kavanaugh is looking less credible by the day.

Arizona sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell exposed serious inconsistencies in Ford’s testimony.  

Ford testified under oath that the reason she finally told a therapist in 2012 about the alleged assault three decades after she says it happened was because, during a renovation of her Palo Alto, Calif., home, she “insisted on a second front door,” and her husband disagreed.

So, during marriage counseling, she testified, “in explaining why I wanted a second front door, I began to describe the assault in detail.” She confirmed to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that the reason for the second door was “claustrophobia.” She also never said when the renovation took place, leaving the impression that it coincided with the counseling.

But RealClear Investigations uncovered real estate records which reveal the door was installed years before as part of an addition, and has been used by renters and even a marriage counseling business.” RealClear quotes an attorney familiar with the investigation who said, “It appears the real plan for the second front door was to rent out a separate room.” 

Additionally, building permits for Ford’s second home, in Santa Cruz, Calif. — which she applied for in July, the month that she wrote to Feinstein about the alleged attack  include a front porch and decks, but not a second front door. 

Her claims of ability to fly to Washington to testify, about her familiarity with polygraph tests and about the therapist notes’ whereabouts, this revelation further calls into question Ford’s credibility.

The FBI has completed additional interviews for an expanded background investigation of Kavanaugh.  But the FBI gathers information  it does not make judgments about the information’s credibility. That is the job of the Senate. Perhaps, in the end, facts will prevail over feelings, due process will be honored and the principle that one is innocent until proven guilty will stand.  

[Marc A. Thiessen Columnist oct. 4th. 2018]