Category: “Dead Skunk in The Middle of The Road”

Issues and events that stink to high heaven

More Yale classmates come forward claiming Brett Kavanaugh has been lying

The Independent

More Yale classmates come forward claiming Brett Kavanaugh has been lying

 Clark Mindock, The Independent      October 2, 2018

As the FBI marches forward with its investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a growing cohort of the judge’s former classmates are coming forward with contradictory memories of how the man behaved in his youth.

Mr Kavanaugh has denied any allegations of sexual misconduct, and suggested during Senate testimony last week that he was generally well-behaved in college – someone who liked beer, but did not let his drinking go too far.

The New York Timeshas reported that the FBI has at least four witnesses who are of interest to the intelligence agency as it takes a look at Mr Kavanaugh’s past.

However, several people who are not on the list have contradicted the nominee’s testimony about the nature of his partying and behaviour over three decades ago.

Chad Ludington, a Yale classmate of Mr Kavanaugh’s who said he frequently drank with the nominee in college, told The New York Times: “When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive.

“On one of the last occasions I purposely socialised with Brett, I witnessed him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer in the man’s face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail.”

Mr Ludington is joined by the likes of Kit Winter, who shared a dorm at Yale with Mr Kavanaugh; Liz Swisher, a college friend; and James Roche, a Yale roommate, in suggesting that Mr Kavanaugh was less than truthful when he told the Senate that he was never a belligerent drunk in college.

Others who claim to have known Mr Kavanaugh in college have said that he was often very drunk, in spite of his claims last week.

“I watched the whole hearing, and a number of my Yale colleagues and I were extremely disappointed in Brett Kavanaugh’s characterisation of himself and the way that he evaded his excessive drinking questions,” Lynne Brookes, a former roommate of Deborah Ramirez, who has accused Mr Kavanaugh of forcing her to touch his penis against her will, said during a CNN interview.

“There is no doubt in my mind that while at Yale, he was a big partier, often drank to excess, and there had to be a number of nights where he does not remember. In fact, I was witness to the night that he got tapped into that fraternity, and he was stumbling drunk in a ridiculous costume saying really dumb things”.

“I can almost guarantee that there’s no way that he remembers that night,” Ms Brookes continued. “There were a lot of emails and a lot of texts flying around about how he was lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee today”.

Mr Kavanaugh has denied Ms Ramirez’s accusations, and told the Senate Judiciary Committee that The New Yorker article detailing her allegations was the first time that he had heard the claim.

But, former classmates say that Mr Kavanaugh or his legal team began reaching out to them before the article was published on 23 September. Those classmates, a NBC News report says, were contacted as early as July about the allegations, and the classmates say they are in possession of text messages from that time. Kerry Berchem, one of those former classmates, says that she attempted to get those texts to the FBI several times.

“I am in receipt of text messages from a mutual friend of both Debbie and mine that raise questions related to the allegations,” Ms Berchem said in a statement provided to NBC. “I have not drawn any conclusions as to what the texts may mean or may not mean but I do believe they merit investigation by the FBI and the Senate.”

Mr Roche, Mr Kavanaugh’s college roommate, has also spoken up in support of Ms Ramirez, saying that Mr Kavanaugh was usually reserved but “a notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time, and … he became belligerent and aggressive when he was very drunk”.

“Based on my time with Debbie, I believe her to be unusually honest and straightforward and I cannot imagine her making this up,” Mr Roche continued in a statement. “Based on my time with Brett, I believe that he and his social circle were capable of the actions that Debbie described”.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Friday to send Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate for consideration. That measure was approved along party lines, but one Republican senator, Jeff Flake, suggested that he would not vote to approve Mr Kavanaugh before the full Senate without an FBI investigation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has meanwhile attacked what he has called Democrats’ delay tactics to undermine the confirmation, and has promised to bring Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination to a vote this week.

Brett Kavanaugh’s Lies Are Catching Up With Him

Brett Kavanaugh testifying Thursday. Photo: Matt McClain/AFP/Getty Images

When the second sexual-assault allegation came out against Brett Kavanaugh, I predicted Republicans would pull his nomination. I was wrong. Kavanaugh managed to rally the Republican base like a seasoned politician, changing the question from the specifics of the allegations into a broader cultural war, in which Kavanaugh is a stand-in for every conservative who feels unfairly maligned by smug progressive elites (i.e, every conservative).

Sticking with Kavanaugh made no sense, and still makes no sense. Sometimes people do things that make no sense, though. And Republicans may well decide Kavanaugh’s confirmation is a symbolic battle in the kulturkampf that overrides any cost-benefit analysis. That is certainly what the public posturing by the Republican Party, as epitomized by Lindsey Graham, seems to indicate. But there are real signs of weakness beneath the public bravado.

A pair of weekend reports from Axios’s Jonathan Swan conveys the White House’s outward-facing stance. According to administration officials, Kavanaugh is “too big to fail,” because “[t]here’s no time before the [midterm] election to put up a new person.” And if Democrats win a Senate majority, Trump would allegedly prefer to keep the seat vacant rather than compromise with Democrats.

This may be what Trump officials are telling people, and it might even be what they are actually thinking, but the position makes absolutely no sense. If Kavanaugh fails, there might not be enough time to confirm a new justice before the elections, but there will certainly be enough time to confirm one before a new Senate takes over. There are almost two months between the elections and the new Senate. Yes, it would look ugly for Republicans to rush through a new justice after an election that gives Democrats a majority. (Democrats have a two-in-seven chance at the moment.) But this would never stop them from going ahead. The entire Republican caucus, including Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, blatantly violated historic norms by holding a Supreme Court spot vacant through all of 2016 just to give their party a chance to fill it. They obviously care a lot about giving their party control of the Supreme Court, and are willing to flout precedent and public opinion to do it. Why would they throw another vacancy away?

Unless the Trump administration is completely ignorant, it is broadcasting threats in order to shore up Republican support for Kavanaugh. Republicans senators may want to pull the damaged nominee and replace him with an equally conservative justice who was never accused of raping anybody, but the White House is shouting that the alternative is getting nobody at all. And why would they make such non-credible threats? Because they’re worried about getting the votes.

That worry also comes through in some of the other reporting. Republicans directing the Kavanaugh fight “conceded [it] to be an uphill battle in which time is not on their side,” reports Politico, also citing a person involved in the battle who puts the odds of confirmation at 50 percent.

The FBI investigation into Kavanaugh is now the key source of uncertainty. Multiple news outlets have reported over the weekend that the White House has dictated limits on the investigation. The FBI reportedly can’t even ask the supermarket that allegedly employed Mark Judge in 1982 for payroll records that would confirm his employment. (Christine Blasey Ford recalled seeing Judge working at the Safeway in Potomac after the alleged attack.)

If the White House chokes off the FBI investigation — or, more precisely, if wavering Republican senators allow the White House to do so and decide to treat an ersatz probe as legitimate — then Kavanaugh might be safe. But the fact that the administration is attempting to strangle the FBI is itself a sign of concern. And the fact that the FBI is obviously leaking about White House interference shows that at least somebody within the Bureau wants to conduct a legitimate investigation.

And what is there to turn up? Potentially a lot. Kavanaugh’s testimony was, at best, wildly misleading. You can find detailed accounts of Kavanaugh’s train of lies here, here, here, and (most thoroughly) here. Would it matter if this is proven? Senator Jeff Flake said on 60 Minutes it would, and provable testimony perjury would be disqualifying. (Obviously there is some cause to doubt whether Flake would follow through on this promise.)

[The New York Times reports this afternoon that the White House has authorized the FBI to interview anybody it deems necessary, as long as the review is complete within a week. The change appears to have come at the behest of Flake, who told an audience, “It does no good to have an investigation that gives us more cover, for example. We actually have to find out what we can find out.” This substantially increases the peril Kavanaugh faces. And Trump’s press conference remarks seemed to signal a willingness to cut Kavanaugh loose if the investigation turns up more damning evidence. “Certainly if they find something I’m going to take that into consideration,” Trump said, when asked if he would consider abandoning Kavanaugh under such circumstances. “Absolutely. I have a very open mind. The person that takes that position is going to be there a long time.”]

The issue of Kavanaugh’s lying is one his conservative defenders have only barely begun to acknowledge. It is probably the central weakness in his candidacy at the moment. Kavanaugh wrote his opening statement the night before his testimony. It was intended to rally his party with red-meat partisan rhetoric, and lead directly to a rapid vote in a flourish of tribalistic emotion. It was not intended to survive a week of close factual scrutiny by the media or potentially the FBI.

Republicans have already prepared a fallback position that Kavanaugh’s underlying offenses happened a long time ago and should not disqualify him. It will be interesting to watch them develop a defense of his perjury. The argument that exists so far simply treats the accusation that Kavanaugh has told lies as so damning that it is unthinkable. “To deny the allegations as he did—invoking his children and parents and so many others who know him—and be lying would mean that he is a sociopath,” editorialized TheWall Street Journal last week. “The logical implication of a ‘no’ vote is that a man with a flawless record of public service lied not only to the public but to his wife, his children and his community,” writes Kimberly Strassel today. “Any Republican who votes against Judge Kavanaugh is implying that he committed perjury in front of the Senate, and should resign or be impeached from his current judicial position, if not charged criminally.”

Well, yes. Kavanaugh has told many, many lies. This doesn’t make him a “sociopath.” Kavanaugh probably believes he did terrible things as a boy, but grew up to be a man who treats women respectfully. I actually accept his characterization of himself as a good father and mentor to girls in his community. The most probable account of his actions is that Kavanaugh (understandably) decided his youthful crimes should not prevent him from attaining the highest position in his career. He also calculated that any partial defense would come unraveled, and settled from the outset on a stance of total denial. This is why he has told lie after lie after lie.

But now Kavanaugh is caught in those lies. He is worried that two Republicans senators might decide they’d rather vote for a justice who hasn’t flagrantly perjured himself. And this fear has legitimate basis.

Jeff Flake Says Brett Kavanaugh’s Nomination Is ‘Over’ If He Lied to the Senate. So What Are We Still Doing Here?

Esquire

Jeff Flake Says Brett Kavanaugh’s Nomination Is ‘Over’ If He Lied to the Senate. So What Are We Still Doing Here?

 Jack Holmes, Esquire          October 1, 2018 

Photo credit: Andrew Harnik - Getty Images

Jeff Flake rounded out a tumultuous 24 hours by voting yes to advance Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, but with the caveat that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against him must be investigated by the FBI. The scope of the investigation wasn’t exactly clear-except that it could not take longer than a week. The New Yorker already reports there are questions about how the probe is being conducted, as multiple people with relevant knowledge about Kavanaugh’s behavior have been unable to get in touch with anyone at the Bureau to tell their stories. “I thought it was going to be an investigation,” a Yale classmate of Brett Kavanaugh and Deborah Ramirez told the publication. “But instead it seems it’s just an alibi for Republicans to vote for Kavanaugh.”

All that remains to be seen. But we did get a bit more insight into how Flake and his colleague on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrat Chris Coons, think it all could play out when they joined 60 Minutes Sunday. Specifically, they weighed in on the prospect that Kavanaugh lied to the committee:

So…what are we still doing then?

Kavanaugh’s nomination has sparked outrage among much of the left leaning population. Here’s some reactions from the confirmation hearing.

Kavanaugh said many things that were not true, both at the hearing Thursday and in previous testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The question, as it often is in this particular era, is whether they were “lies” or merely misleading. Many related directly to Ford’s allegations:

  • Kavanaugh repeatedly claimed some version of this statement: “Dr. Ford’s allegation is not merely uncorroborated, it is refuted by the very people she says were there, including by a longtime friend of hers.” He added an extra “refuted” for emphasis. Except, as a piece in Current Affairs points out, this is a lie: Ford’s friend, Leland Ingham Keyser, said she didn’t remember being at the party and didn’t know Kavanaugh. But she didn’t “refute” the story. In fact, Keyser said she believes Ford. Two other named witnesses-Mark Judge and someone named “P.J.”-also did not “refute” Ford’s charges. They said they didn’t remember the gathering, which Ford suggested was to be expected in all but Judge’s case. (Ford alleges he was in the room for the incident.) It wasn’t a particularly eventful night for anyone else. Kavanaugh misrepresented two witnesses’ statements and almost directly contradicted Keyser’s.
  • “I never attended a gathering like the one Dr. Ford describes in her allegation,” Kavanaugh said. But as that same Current Affairs piece makes clear, this is absurd: “He never attended a small gathering in Bethesda where people were drinking beer?” In fact, Kavanaugh submitted calendars showing he routinely went to small gatherings at friends’ houses to have some beers. Again, there’s reason to believe no one might remember that night specifically except Ford, Kavanaugh, and Judge. It was otherwise unremarkable. But Kavanaugh went to gatherings like the one Ford describes all the time.

Photo credit: Andrew Harnik - Getty Images

  • Kavanaugh said he didn’t hang out with the people Ford says were there, either: “[N]one of those gatherings included the group of people that Dr. Ford has identified. And as my calendars show, I was very precise about listing who was there; very precise.” But Ford named two guys-Judge and P.J.-and said another whose name she didn’t remember was also there. On Kavanaugh’s calendar, a July 1 entry said he went “to Timmy’s for skis w/Judge, Tom, PJ, Bernie, Squi.” There are two of the three guys Ford named, at a small gathering with Kavanaugh drinking beer.
  • Kavanaugh also repeatedly downplayed his drinking, suggesting he rarely drank to excess. He also lashed out at Senator Amy Klobuchar when she asked if he ever blacked out, and said explicitly in his opening statement that he never drank to that point. All that has been rendered absurd by his classmates at Yale, who have said he drank to excess regularly and became belligerent and destructive when he did.
  • He lied repeatedly about details in his yearbook, including “Renate Alumnius,” “boof,” “ralphing,” and “the Devil’s Triangle.”
  • Kavanaugh lied about whether his high school drinking was legal, suggesting “seniors” were legal because the drinking age in Maryland was then 18. Except Kavanaugh was not yet a senior during the summer in question, and he was not yet 18. According to The New York Times, the drinking age was actually raised to 21 before he turned 18 as well.

Photo credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI - Getty ImagesOthers were not directly related to Dr. Ford’s allegations, but still blatantly untrue:

  • For some reason, Kavanaugh lied and said he had “no connections” but still got into Yale by “busting his tail.” In fact, his grandfather attended the school, making Kavanaugh a legacy. Again, it seems like a small lie-but why tell it?
  • Kavanaugh almost certainly lied when he said he had no idea that emails he got as a Bush administration staffer working on judicial confirmations were stolen from Democratic senators and their staffers. He also made this claim in his 2006 confirmation hearing.
  • Kavanaugh’s statement that he did not “personally” work on the controversial appointment of Judge William H. Pryor appears to have been false. Emails showed he was part of the “Pryor Working Group.” He suggested he did not “primarily” work on the nomination of Judge Charles W. Pickering, another controversial case. According to The New York Times, “emails also show that he worked on the Pickering nomination, and was called by one colleague ‘much more involved in the Pickering fight.’”

This is not a comprehensive list. It is exceedingly clear that Kavanaugh did not tell the truth at many points while testifying under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In many instances, he misrepresented or completely fudged details relating directly to Dr. Ford’s allegations. In others, he seemed to lie when he didn’t even need to-because he could, and because, as some analysts have suggested, he and the people he needs to support him believe this is all the means to a greater end.

But a lack of concern for what is true is a dangerous attribute for any judge-much less one who seeks to help wield the definitive, crushing power of the Supreme Court. If anything can be true, especially in service of a perceived higher aim, anything can be justified. History tells us that the Court has often found a way to justify the indefensible.

Kavanaugh Yale friend remembers heavy drinker

Associated Press

FBI interviews accuser; Yale friend remembers heavy drinker

Darlene Superville and Michael Balsamo, AP      October 1, 2018  

Washington (AP) — FBI agents on Sunday interviewed one of the three women who have accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct as Republicans and Democrats quarreled over whether the bureau would have enough time and freedom to conduct a thorough investigation before a high-stakes vote on his nomination to the nation’s highest court.

The White House insisted it was not “micromanaging” the new one-week review of Kavanaugh’s background but some Democratic lawmakers claimed the White House was keeping investigators from interviewing certain witnesses. President Donald Trump, for his part, tweeted that no matter how much time and discretion the FBI was given, “it will never be enough” for Democrats trying to keep Kavanaugh off the bench.

And even as the FBI explored the past allegations that have surfaced against Kavanaugh, another Yale classmate came forward to accuse the federal appellate judge of being untruthful in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the extent of his drinking in college.

In speaking to FBI agents, Deborah Ramirez detailed her allegation that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party in the early 1980s when they were students at Yale University, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of a confidential investigation.

Kavanaugh has denied Ramirez’s allegation.

The person familiar with Ramirez’s questioning, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said she also provided investigators with the names of others who she said could corroborate her account.

But Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, has not been contacted by the FBI since Trump on Friday ordered the agency to take another look at the nominee’s background, according to a member of Ford’s team.

Kavanaugh has denied assaulting Ford.

In a statement released Sunday, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s said he is “deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale.” Charles “Chad” Ludington, who now teaches at North Carolina State University, said he was friend of Kavanaugh’s at Yale and that Kavanaugh was “a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker.”

“On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive,” Ludington said. While saying that youthful drinking should not condemn a person for life, Ludington said he was concerned about Kavanaugh’s statements under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Speaking to the issue of the scope of the FBI’s investigation, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said White House counsel Don McGahn, who is managing Kavanaugh’s nomination, “has allowed the Senate to dictate what these terms look like, and what the scope of the investigation is.”

“The White House isn’t intervening. We’re not micromanaging this process. It’s a Senate process. It has been from the beginning, and we’re letting the Senate continue to dictate what the terms look like,” Sanders said.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said the investigation will be “limited in scope” and “will not be a fishing expedition. The FBI is not tasked to do that.”

Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., requested an investigation last Friday — after he and other Republicans on the panel voted along strict party lines in favor of Kavanaugh’s confirmation — as a condition for his own subsequent vote to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.

Another committee member, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday that testimony would be taken from Ramirez and Kavanaugh’s high school friend Mark Judge, who has been named by two of three women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

“I think that will be the scope of it. And that should be the scope of it,” Graham said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called on the White House and the FBI to provide the written directive regarding the investigation’s scope. In a letter Sunday, she also asked for updates on any expansion of the original directive.

Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday she is confident in the investigation and “that the FBI will follow up on any leads that result from the interviews.” The Maine Republican supports the new FBI investigation and is among a few Republican and Democratic senators who have not announced a position on Kavanaugh.

Republicans control 51 seats in the closely divided 100-member Senate and cannot afford to lose more than one vote on confirmation.

Collins and Flake spoke throughout the weekend.

Senate Republicans discussed the contours of the investigation with the White House late Friday, according to a person familiar with the call who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had gathered Judiciary Committee Republicans in his office earlier. At that time, the scope of the investigation was requested by Flake, Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said McConnell’s spokesman Don Stewart.

Murkowski is not on the committee, but also has not announced how she will vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Republicans later called the White House to discuss the scope of the probe, the person said.

McConnell’s office declined to elaborate Sunday on which allegations would be investigated, reiterating only that it would focus on “current credible allegations.” Stewart said the investigation’s scope “was set” by the three GOP senators Friday and “has not changed.”

But Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a Judiciary Committee member, doubted how credible the investigation will be given the time limit.

“That’s bad enough, but then to limit the FBI as to the scope and who they’re going to question, that – that really – I wanted to use the word farce, but that’s not the kind of investigation that all of us are expecting the FBI to conduct,” she said.

Trump initially opposed such an investigation as allegations began mounting but relented and ordered one on Friday. He later said the FBI has “free rein.”

“They’re going to do whatever they have to do, whatever it is they do. They’ll be doing things that we have never even thought of,” Trump said Saturday as he departed the White House for a trip to West Virginia. “And hopefully at the conclusion everything will be fine.”

He revisited the “scope” question later Saturday on Twitter, writing in part, “I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion.”

Sanders said Trump, who has vigorously defended Kavanaugh but also raised the slight possibility of withdrawing the nomination should damaging information be found, “will listen to the facts.”

At least three women have accused Kavanaugh of years-ago misconduct. He denies all the claims.

The third woman, Julie Swetnick, accused Kavanaugh and Judge of excessive drinking and inappropriate treatment of women in the early 1980s, among other accusations. Kavanaugh has called her accusations a “joke.” Judge has said he “categorically” denies the allegations.

Swetnick’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, said Saturday that his client had not been contacted by the FBI but was willing to cooperate with investigators.

Ford also has said Judge was in the room when a drunken Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. Judge has said he will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that will “confidentially investigate” sexual misconduct allegations against him and Kavanaugh. Judge has also denied misconduct allegations.

Sanders spoke on “Fox News Sunday,” Conway appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and Graham and Hirono were interviewed on ABC’s “This Week.”

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.

Kavanaugh ‘lied’ in Fox News interview, drank to excess frequently, classmate from Yale says

Good Morning America

Kavanaugh ‘lied’ in Fox News interview, drank to excess frequently, classmate from Yale says

Acacia Nunes, Cameron Harrison, GMA        September 28, 2018
Kavanaugh ‘lied’ in interview, drank to excess, classmate from Yale says

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Kavanaugh ‘lied’ in Fox News interview, drank to excess frequently, classmate from Yale says originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com

Brett Kavanaugh “lied on that Fox News interview” about who he was, a former Yale classmate said, adding that the person he professed to be wasn’t the one she knew.

Hours after the Senate Judiciary hearing ended on Thursday, Lynne Brookes told ABC News’ Cameron Harrison that she frequently “drank to excess” with Kavanaugh.

“We were in the same social circles,” Brookes said. “When he would drink, he would get obnoxious.”

Brookes told Harrison that Kavanaugh “mischaracterized himself” during the hearing on Thursday at which Christine Blasey Ford, who’s accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, also spoke.

Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied Ford’s accusations and defended his drinking habits in Capitol Hill testimony Thursday, telling senators repeatedly that he does not drink to excess.

“I like beer,” Kavanaugh testified. “I still like beer. But I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone.”

(MORE: 5 key takeaways from the Ford-Kavanaugh hearing)

PHOTO: Lynne Brookes, a former Yale classmate of Brett Kavanaugh appeared, on 'Good Morning America,' Sept. 28, 2018. (ABC News)But Brookes pointed to a broader issue. “This is about the integrity of the Supreme Court,” she said. “I know that Brett mischaracterized himself, and it’s incredibly disappointing that despite that this man could be elevated to the Supreme Court.”

Brookes said she was frustrated listening to Kavanaugh’s comments on Thursday and that he dodged too many questions, emphasizing that hard partying and succeeding in the classroom or athletically were mutually exclusive.

“He was trying to portray that it’s one or the other, and at Yale there are many people for which it was both,” she said. “I played two sports. I got good grades. I went to Wharton. And I drank in excess many nights with Brett Kavanaugh.”

Brookes later described a time when she saw Kavanaugh on the library green as a fraternity pledge.

“From something I witnessed personally,” she added, “I find it very hard to imagine that he never blacked out or had memory problems.”

When Brookes was asked if she ever felt unsafe around him, she clarified that she wasn’t speaking to the sexual-assault allegations discussed Thursday on Capitol Hill. She said she never witnessed his making untoward sexual advances.

Brookes said during her junior year she was roommates with Deborah Ramirez, another woman who’s accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, which he has also denied.

(MORE: Christine Blasey Ford sparks Democratic fire, but who carries the torch?: ANALYSIS)

Brookes told ABC News that she didn’t attend the party in question, pertaining to Ramirez’s allegation, but that she doesn’t know why her former roommate would fabricate such a story.

“I don’t know why Debbie would make that up,” Brookes said.

A registered Republican, Brookes said she isn’t part of any left-wing conspiracy, rather that she’s concerned for the integrity of America’s highest court.

“Our judicial system is based on the foundation of truth,” she added. “And if you have a judge that lies to you, how can you trust the judicial system?”

A Republican Yale drinking buddy of Kavanaugh’s tells CNN he lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee

The Week

A Republican Yale drinking buddy of Kavanaugh’s tells CNN he lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee

September 28, 2018

When Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh told Fox News he never drank to excess, several of his Yale classmates were so outraged they decided to set the record straight. One of them, Lynne Brookes, also accepted Chris Cuomo’s invitation to join him on CNN after Kavanaugh repeated his claim of relative sobriety under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Cuomo asked Brookes — a Republican who admires Kavanaugh’s judicial record — why she changed her mind.

“I’ll tell you, Chris, I watched the whole hearing, and a number of my Yale colleagues and I were extremely disappointed in Brett Kavanaugh’s characterization of himself and the way that he evaded his excessive drinking question” and “was lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee today,” Brookes said. “There is no doubt in my mind that while at Yale, he was a big partier, often drank to excess, and there had to be a number of nights where he does not remember.” She said she can “almost guarantee” he doesn’t remember a night she witnessed where he was “stumbling drunk, in a ridiculous costume, saying really dumb things” to pledge a fraternity.

Brookes also dismissed Kavanaugh’s defense that his studies and sports precluded heavy drinking, noting she played two varsity sports. “I studied really hard, too,” she said. “I went to Wharton business school, I did very well at Yale, I also drank to excess many nights with Brett Kavanaugh.” She recounted a party where Kavanaugh and Chris Dudley, one of his character witnesses, humiliated a female student by barging in on her in a compromising position.

“I’m not saying it’s wrong that he drank,” Cuomo concluded after the interview, but “if he’s going to be the ultimate judge of truth in our society, a Supreme Court justice, and at 53 years old he’s going to lie about what he did when he was 15, what else will he lie about?” Watch below. Peter Weber

Brett Kavanaugh Showed Us Who He Really Is

GQ – Politics

Brett Kavanaugh Showed Us Who He Really Is

Jay Willis, GQ       September 28, 2018

Two weeks after the first of several bombshell sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh became public—and just a few hours after his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, delivered several hours of compelling and heart-wrenching testimony before a national TV audience—Kavanaugh took his seat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and absolutely lost it.

There were two basic alternatives available to him here: He could present as reflective and thoughtful, demonstrating that even under immense professional strain and personal humiliation, he nonetheless understands both the seriousness of the accusations against him and the importance of getting the confirmation process right. Or, he could lash out: angry, combative, defiant, and speaking only in absolutes, denying everything and attacking everyone. He could interrupt senators, laugh sarcastically at questions, and allege the existence of a vast left-wing conspiracy designed to take him down, just for good measure.

Guess which route the man who Donald Trump tapped for the Supreme Court elected to take?

“I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process,” Kavanaugh barked, his voice at a shout, addressing the Committee’s Democrats in a fiery opening statement. He dismissed the allegations as part of an attempt to get “revenge on behalf of the Clintons” for the 2016 election, and a “calculated and orchestrated political hit.” He vowed to see the process through to its conclusion, whatever the result may be. “You may defeat me in the final vote, but you’ll never get me to quit. Never.”

He spoke with the pent-up rage of a man who had never been held accountable for his behavior like this until the moment he reached the precipice of what would be his life’s most significant achievement. He snapped at Dianne Feinstein, the first Democrat to question him, when she asked if he’d be open to an FBI investigation. “You’re interviewing me, you’re interviewing me. You’re doing it, senator,” he said. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but you’re doing it.” When Dick Durbin suggested that he call for the law enforcement inquiry that Senate Republicans had refused to seek, Kavanaugh sat back in his chair, silent. “I said I would welcome anything,” he said at last. But he wouldn’t take the next step. “I’m innocent.” When Amy Klobuchar asked if he had ever blacked out while drinking, he grinned, taunting her. “I don’t know. Have you?” (He apologized for this remark after a break.)

The White House’s unofficial-official defense of Kavanaugh came from Lindsey Graham, who once positioned himself as a proud moderate voice in Washington and now serves as one Donald Trump’s most dependable marionettes. “Boy, you all want power,” he snarled across the aisle, his voice shaking, abandoning whatever pretenses of seeking the truth during this process that he had intended to maintain beforehand. “God, I hope you never get it. This is hell.” Any senators who vote no on the nomination, he concluded, will be complicit in “legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics.”

His audience of one immediately expressed its pleasure with his performance.

After Thursday’s debacle, it is difficult to see how Brett Kavanaugh can ever serve as the somber, dignified ninth member of an institution that depends so heavily on earning and keeping the public’s trust. He was at his fullest Republican self, betraying a worldview and temperament more akin to that of a Fox News panelist than an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. He proved that he is manifestly unfit for the job he seeks, and it is a damning indictment of this country that he may get it anyway.

Iowans Unite to Stop Hog Farms From Polluting Their Community

Civil Eats

Iowans Unite to Stop Hog Farms From Polluting Their Community

Families in the Hawkeye State are joining together to stop the spread of large-scale farms that they say are polluting the environment and destroying their way of life.

By Wyatt Massey, Animal Welfare, Food Justice, Health   September 27, 2018

Sue George never intended to be an activist. The soft-spoken, retired elementary school teacher was content on her century farm near Lime Springs, a town in the rolling hills of northeast Iowa with a tad under 500 people.

Then, the hog operations moved in.

George lost the need to be “Midwest nice,” she said. “I’m not willing to let our way of life go by the wayside for these people who are coming in and putting all of this manure and all of this pollution into our area. I’m not.”

So George organized her neighbors and created a legal document to protect her farm, and town, from the large-scale hog operations she said are destroying a way of life and polluting the environment.

The state, already leading the nation in pork production, is experiencing a rapid rise in large-scale hog operations. Between 1982 and 2012, the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture census, total hog production in Iowa rose from 14.3 million a year to 20.5 million. During the same time period, the number of farmers producing hogs dropped from 45,768 to 6,266.

In Howard County, where George lives, 427 hog farms existed in 1982 and just 54 in 2012, according to census data. Those 54 farmers are producing 197,113 hogs a year, or about 3,650 hogs a farmer.

To continue increasing hog production, the remaining farm owners build specially designed facilities to keep the animals indoors where their food and waste can be controlled. People are divided about whether these concentrated animal feeding operations, also known as CAFOs, either are the future of American farming or symbolize profits trumping concerns for rural livelihoods, the environment, and animal welfare. In Iowa, this is more than a mere disagreement about farming techniques. It is a fight over what the Iowa landscape will look like, a fight between rural residents and industrial agriculture.

Large-scale hog operations are prevalent throughout western and central Iowa and have begun moving into the northeast. One CAFO operation expanding into northeast Iowa is Reicks View Farms. George’s group campaigned against the operations moving into her region of Iowa, including Reicks View Farms. (Representatives at Reicks View Farms have not replied to requests for an interview.)

George’s group, founded in early 2017 and called Northeast Iowans for Clean Air and Water, includes farmers, local business owners, and Amish families. Through weekly meetings at homes and farms, conversations over potlucks and on front porches, they organized, advocated, and supported legislation to stop the construction. They placed signs along the highway opposing the new operations. They asked the Department of Natural Resources not to approve the facilities. George testified before the state legislature. She even met with one of the new owners, a man she taught when he was in elementary school.

“We did everything right,” George said. “And it still didn’t work.” The confinements went up and the hogs moved in.

When campaigning state and local government failed, George and dozens of other Iowa families turned to the law instead.

More than 40 families joined George in forming a covenant—a binding legal document in which all the members agree to a set of terms. A local lawyer donated his time to draw up the terms, which stipulated that none of the properties in the covenant—more than 5,500 acres total—would ever house a CAFO or allow a CAFO to spread liquid manure on their land.

CAFO is a catchall term for production facilities housing more than 1,000 animal units, defined by the USDA as the equivalent to 1,000 pounds of animal weight, which is 1,000 beef cattle or 2,500 swine. CAFOs keep animals inside for more than 45 days a year and fall under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act. However, each state regulates the operations differently.

Concentrating animals in one location requires more strict manure management than animals raised on pasture. Large farms produce millions of gallons of manure a year, which is more fecal waste than is produced in some American cities, according to the National Association of Local Boards of Health. The manure in most hog facilities falls through slatted floors into holding tanks. Then it’s hauled off and spread as fertilizer for crops.

Manure from CAFOs can contain E. coli, MRSA, antibiotics, and animal growth hormones. When the manure is not spread properly, these contaminants pollute waterways and private wells, as well as contribute to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. According to Local Boards of Health group, “states with high concentrations of CAFOs experience on average 20 to 30 serious water quality problems per year as a result of manure management problems.” All CAFO manure lagoons leak, according to the EPA, though certain designs can lower leakage to acceptable levels.

Water quality is a chief concern for members of Northeast Iowans for Clean Air and Water and something the covenant cannot necessarily protect. Some local facilities are near rivers, where manure runs off when a tank leaks or heavy rains fall. The area’s natural hills and karst topography—made up of limestone and especially susceptible to sinkholes—increase the likelihood that improperly applied liquid manure will run into waterways. The area is known for its natural trout streams, too. Trout fishing generates $1.6 billion annual revenue for Iowa and surrounding states. The fish need clean water to reproduce.

Several Lime Springs residents will drink only bottled water. A hog confinement sits a half-mile from Russell Stevenson’s farm, where he has lived and worked for decades. As a member of the covenant, Stevenson is concerned not if his private well will be contaminated, but when, he said. “It is not pig farming,” Stevenson said of CAFOs. “It’s a pig factory, and they ought to be regulated like one.”

Members of the covenant and activists throughout the state say CAFOs should be treated like the factories and corporations they resemble, instead of being given pollution tax exemptions and land zoned for agriculture. The operations can claim they are traditional family farms. John Ikerd, agricultural economics professor at the University of Missouri, said CAFOs are free from many of the environmental and public health regulations other operations generating similar amounts of waste must follow. The EPA’s Clean Water Act only regulates confinements of more than 2,500 hogs. Otherwise, the EPA does not regulate the confinements unless they dump waste directly into a waterway.

If the burden of proof was on the CAFO operator to prove the operation was not a threat to public health, no CAFOs could be built, Ikerd said. “Under the existing regulations, the burden of proof is on the public in general to prove that somebody is going to get sick from a particular CAFO, and that’s very difficult to prove.”

Bill Goetsch has farmed the area since he graduated from high school in the early 1980s. His wells were already contaminated when neighbors approached him about the covenant. A CAFO is a short walk up the valley from his home.

Goetsch said he was already concerned about his water, but now smells are coming down the valley. A study from Iowa State University and the University of Iowa determined air emissions from CAFOs “constitute a public health hazard.” About one in four CAFO workers in the U.S. suffers from a respiratory disease, such as bronchitis and asthma-like symptoms. A study of North Carolina residents found people living near CAFOs faced an increase in the same respiratory diseases suffered by CAFO workers. Lime Springs resident Joann Wangen said her adult children make comments about the smells when they visit her and her husband, Rick. Her guests had to stay inside during a recent Thanksgiving because the smells were so bad, she said.

Many advocates point out failures in the design of the state’s master matrix, which guides the siting of proposed operations. The process awards points depending on the building’s distance from homes, schools, and water sources; the overall point score determines whether a project is approved and where it’s sited. Critics of the current matrix point out how equal points are awarded to CAFO owners for doing things with vastly different implications. For example, proposals that include tree planting or that provide enough space for a truck to turn around in are weighted the same as having an emergency containment area for manure spills. A 2018 study found the DNR approved 97 percent of requested building permits.

Confinements of up to 1,249 hogs—considered a small operation—do not need to create a manure management plan or file a construction permit. Confinements of up to 2,499 hogs do not need a construction permit, either. According to DNR data, 3,745 sites in Iowa have fewer than 2,499 hogs. But the total number is likely much higher than that. A 2017 report using satellite imagery identified more than 5,000 hog and cattle lots in Iowa the DNR did not know about. More than 1,000 of those facilities are believed to require state oversight.

Weak state regulations mean CAFOs can move in wherever they please, members of Northeast Iowans for Clean Air and Water said. They point to an operation being approved on an environmentally sensitive site in Allamakee County. Former Iowa DNR director Chuck Gipp said if a CAFO could be built there, then a CAFO could be built anywhere. The hog facility was approved.

Tyler Bettin, public policy director for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, said the matrix system removes the burden from county supervisors to approve the building of each new operation and allows the DNR to better enforce regulations. “The master matrix continues to be very effective,” he said. “It’s a stair-step approach to regulation, so it requires our larger farms to go above and beyond the minimum requirements.”

George is among the advocates in Iowa wanting to revise the matrix to be more rigorous in assigning points. She’d also like it to give more control to counties and local supervisors, who can account for community desires and unique geographic features, like karst terrain or wetlands.

State Sen. David Johnson is among the political voices calling for stricter CAFO regulation. He helped design the state’s matrix in 2002. Johnson introduced 15 state bills related to CAFOs, such as stopping all CAFO construction until the number of impaired waterways in Iowa drops from 750 to 100 and the matrix is redesigned.

None of the bills Johnson introduced made it out of the agriculture committee.

George’s covenant is intended to fill the gap left by these failed state and federal legislative attempts at increasing regulation of CAFOs. By ensuring that confinements will not be introduced onto designated lands, the covenant is protecting a small area of Howard County.

This fall, the group may look to expand the number of people and properties involved in the covenant. The agreement gives George some freedom from worrying about whether another hog operation will move into her backyard. Creating the covenant took a lot of time and hard work, she said, but it strengthened local connections in ways she did not expect. “We have a common bond between us,” she said. “I feel that we’re a tighter-knit community, and we’re all on the same page.”

Individuals and groups across the state have contacted George about the covenant. She has information ready for them—an example of their covenant, a timeline of their process, and important questions to ask the group.

Iowa isn’t the only state with a growing CAFO presence. Trouble with CAFOs and environmental damages got national attention in 2016 in North Carolina when Hurricane Matthew flooded manure lagoons into waterways and the Atlantic Ocean; Hurricane Florence has flooded manure lagoons again. Similar battles between local communities and CAFO operators are playing out in Kansas,Wisconsin, Michigan, Arkansas, Illinois, and Minnesota. According to the USDA, the United States has more than 45,000 CAFOs.

For many consumers, the farms are out of sight and out of mind. People need to know the price that small communities are being forced to pay to produce these goods, Stevenson said. “It boggles my mind that there are so many people who live in towns and cities and they have no idea what’s going on [on] these farms.”

Time for Brett Kavanaugh to withdraw!

NowThis Politics
September 26, 2018

‘The safety and dignity of women is no longer secondary to the needs of powerful men.’ — Time’s Up is calling for Brett Kavanaugh to withdraw his nomination to the Supreme Court

Times Up Is Calling for Brett Kavanaugh to Withdraw From His Nomination to the Supreme Court

'The safety and dignity of women is no longer secondary to the needs of powerful men.' — Time's Up is calling for Brett Kavanaugh to withdraw his nomination to the Supreme Court

Posted by NowThis Politics on Wednesday, September 26, 2018

It’s clear who the GOP-led Congress works for

MoveOn
September 24, 2018

It’s been 10 years since the financial crisis, and banks are making more money than ever. Who is being held accountable for their crimes? Where is the reform?

It’s clear who the GOP-led Congress works for and it’s time this government starts working for all, not just the privileged few. #VoteThemOut. (via U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders)

Gary Cohn Says "What Laws Were Broken?"

It's been 10 years since the financial crisis, and banks are making more money than ever. Who is being held accountable for their crimes? Where is the reform?It's clear who the GOP-led Congress works for and it's time this government starts working for all, not just the privileged few. #VoteThemOut. (via U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders)

Posted by MoveOn on Sunday, September 23, 2018