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Second and Third Accusers against Kavanaugh come forward!
#31
Both accuser and accused are lying. In search of an explanation, I turned to the next best thing to God:

Quote:Bakker: Time-Traveling Demon' Implanted Ford With False Memories

https://bizstandardnews.com/2018/09/28/b...-memories/

By Mary Washington

Televangelist Jim Bakker has weighed in on the Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. And of course, he has a crackpot theory for it.

"After I watched the hearings, I had a dream and in that dream the Lord took me back to the party where Ford claimed she was raped," said Bakker. "God showed me that a demonic spirit entered her at that time and created this false memory. And that demon is still working within her. The Devil knew that Brett Kavanaugh was destined for great things and wanted to take him down in the future."

It's either Bakker - or George Webb.
"There are three sorts of conspiracy: by the people who complain, by the people who write, by the people who take action. There is nothing to fear from the first group, the two others are more dangerous; but the police have to be part of all three,"

Joseph Fouche
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#32
Just heard from a source that a Jesuit publication was on the internet calling for Kavanaugh to withdraw, but that it was soon taken down.

Since Gorsuch and Kavanaugh both attended this bizarre Jesuit High School (with the X-rated yearbook) and you put that together with the four Mormons on the Judiciary Committee, it starts to look like an "inside the beltway" Mormon-Jesuit conspiracy to take over the government or at least to gain tremendous influence way beyond their numbers.

Since the same type of array of influence from the same circles led to the JFK-Catholic Clergy showdown and the demise of JFK regarding Vietnam, one can only wonder when Trump will wind up face-to-face with this panoply of power.

Look on Wikipedia about Gorsuch. He and his wife list their religion as Episcopalian but he attended this very influential Jesuit High School. Maybe there is some slight-of-hand going on here! Where does the loyalty of Gorsuch lie?

Also sad, but it should be asked whether a libertine sexual environment is an appealing marketing device for "elite" private high schools among the "upper crust" in DC and elsewhere. I am of the opinion that without sex on campus and binge drinking, the population of major Universities would quickly dwindle to almost zero. Are there more "pure scholars" or are there more binge drinkers? I would suggest the latter.

More to follow.

James Lateer
Reply
#33
James Lateer Wrote:Just heard from a source that a Jesuit publication was on the internet calling for Kavanaugh to withdraw, but that it was soon taken down.

Since Gorsuch and Kavanaugh both attended this bizarre Jesuit High School (with the X-rated yearbook) and you put that together with the four Mormons on the Judiciary Committee, it starts to look like an "inside the beltway" Mormon-Jesuit conspiracy to take over the government or at least to gain tremendous influence way beyond their numbers.

Since the same type of array of influence from the same circles led to the JFK-Catholic Clergy showdown and the demise of JFK regarding Vietnam, one can only wonder when Trump will wind up face-to-face with this panoply of power.

Look on Wikipedia about Gorsuch. He and his wife list their religion as Episcopalian but he attended this very influential Jesuit High School. Maybe there is some slight-of-hand going on here! Where does the loyalty of Gorsuch lie?

Also sad, but it should be asked whether a libertine sexual environment is an appealing marketing device for "elite" private high schools among the "upper crust" in DC and elsewhere. I am of the opinion that without sex on campus and binge drinking, the population of major Universities would quickly dwindle to almost zero. Are there more "pure scholars" or are there more binge drinkers? I would suggest the latter.

More to follow.

James Lateer

Somewhat along the lines you speak of.....speaking more to the Catholic/Jesuit angle and not the Mormons, people might find interesting this interview: https://soundcloud.com/user-830442635/th...s-kissling However, it is obvious that the Judiciary Committee and the Supreme Court [and other high Courts in the USA] are imbalanced on their gender, their religious background, and their political/social/ethical views vis-a-vis the average USA citizenry. This addresses the powerful dark money behind Kavanaugh - and those interests do NOT care if he did or did not abuse women - as women are not important in their pre-Enlightenment world view. Such a secondary role for women in society is baked into Mormon society too. The separation of Church and State has long ago gone out the window. As our democracy crumbles powerful religious forces on the far FAR Right are muscling in to head up the burgeoning policestate and Oligarchy. This also explains the Jihad against Muslims going on in and outside the USA now. The 'holy war' is being fought against women, non-ultra-conservatives, non-whites, the poor and others inside the USA - but also those not either ultra-conservative and who consider themselves highly religious - who while having their differences all hate the same progressive forces and are determined to wipe them off the face of the Earth by any means necessary.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#34
SinceMichael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick, who claims she witnessed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assault girls in high school and says he was at a party where she was gang raped, came forward, they have insisted they want an FBI investigation into her claims. Now the FBI is probing "credible allegations" against Kavanaugh but that appears to leave out Avenatti and his client.
The FBI is probing the claims made by Ford and Deborah Ramirez, who says Kavanaugh exposed himself to her while they were both drunk at a party in college. But according to reports from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, the agency isn't reaching out to Swetnick.

Swetnick has had and still has security clearances, and has worked for USG agencies at fairly high levels....wonder what truth they are afraid of from her?!?! ::bowtie::


Michael Avenatti: White House, Senate GOP too 'afraid' to let FBI talk to Julie Swetnick

by Naomi Lim
| September 30, 2018 09:21 PM


[Image: ?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmediadc.brightspotcdn...282110.jpg]"They don't want to talk to my client because they're afraid of what she may say," said Michael Avenatti.(AP Photo/Richard Drew)


Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing Brett Kavanaugh's third accuser, said Sunday "many" witnesses could substantiate his client's sexual misconduct allegations against the Supreme Court nominee.
"I've been clear for the last week that there are corroborating witnesses," Avenatti said during an interview on MSNBC's "Kasie DC." "We just didn't make this up out of whole cloth. I didn't just reach into the ether and find some woman to sign a false declaration."
Julie Swetnick, Avenatti's client, accused Kavanaugh in a sworn affidavit last Wednesday of behaving inappropriately toward women as a teenager, including spiking their drinks and touching them without their consent. She claims Kavanaugh and his friends attended parties in the 1980s where girls, including herself, were gang raped. She does not allege Kavanaugh himself committed the alleged rape.

Swetnick is yet to be approached by the FBI as it conducts a supplemental background investigation into the accusations leveled at Kavanaugh. The bureau has to complete its probe within the week before the Senate is tentatively expected to push forward with the judge's confirmation process to the country's highest court.
"How difficult is it for a couple of FBI agents, or even one, to call me on the phone and ask to speak to my client for an hour or two? That's not a lot of resources," Avenatti added Sunday. "They don't want to talk to my client because they're afraid of what she may say."


"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#35
McGahn is obviously telling the FBI what they can and can not do to his personal pick.....reports are that so far Dr. Ford has NOT been contacted, nor has Judge, nor has Swetnick [against whom there is a massive negative propaganda campaign going on]. Only Ramirez can be confirmed as having so far been contacted by the FBI.

Quote:FBI agents 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 a 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.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#36

A background check or an 'alibi for Republicans to vote for Kavanaugh'?

By Steve Benen
10/01/18 12:40PMIt may seem like ages ago, but it was just last week that we learned of Brett Kavanaugh's second accuser. Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer reported for the New Yorker on an allegation from Deborah Ramirez, who was a classmate of the Supreme Court nominee at Yale.
Ramirez, who is now a board member at a non-profit group that helps victims of domestic violence, described a dorm-room party in which there was a significant amount of drinking. In her version of events, he exposed himself to her at the gathering, "thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away."
Ramirez asked that the FBI examine her claim, and it now appears she is one of four people the bureau will speak to as part of the re-opened background check. But in a new piece for the New Yorker, Mayer and Farrow report that other fellow classmates have related information to share -- and they're running into some trouble.
A Yale classmate attempting to corroborate Deborah Ramirez's account ... has struggled unsuccessfully to reach the F.B.I. The classmate, who asked to remain anonymous, recalled hearing about Ramirez's allegation either the night it happened or during the following two days. The classmate said that he was "one-hundred-per-cent certain" that he had heard an account that was practically identical to Ramirez's, thirty-five years ago, but the two had never spoken about it. He had hoped to convey this to the F.B.I., but, when he reached out to a Bureau official in Washington, D.C., he was told to contact the F.B.I. field office nearest his home. When he tried that, he was referred to a recording. After several attempts to reach a live person at the field office, he finally reached an official who he said had no idea what he was talking about. At this point, he went back to the official at the F.B.I.'s D.C. headquarters, who then referred him, too, to an 800-number tip line. (He eventually left a tip through an online portal.)
"I thought it was going to be an investigation," the Yale classmate said, "but instead it seems it's just an alibi for Republicans to vote for Kavanaugh."
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#37
Just heard the third Kavanaugh accuser in NBC. She was assaulted by multiple men at a party where Kavanaugh was in the vicinity.

She reported that Kavanaugh and his friends proudly wore their Jesuit school uniforms to the parties where they were drugging and assaulting girls on a group basis.

Why hasn't anybody from the media asked these retired teachers from this school if they were aware of these activities? My information about a Jesuit publication asking for Kavanaugh to withdraw seem so ring more and more true with every new item that comes out. And we have gotten not one, but two Supreme Court Justices from this debauched High School (a/k/a Deep State Academy).

Also on NBC tonight is that Kavanaugh has been heavily engaged in witness tampering with FBI likely witnesses with whom he is "friends". These creeps will undoubtedly try to get their phony stories to line up. But it will be like trying to sweep back Lake Michigan.

Doesn't anybody think that something is very wrong here?

James Lateer
Reply
#38
You can watch parts of Ms. Swetnik's interview here https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme...ns-n915641

Remember, she was NOT on the list of 4 persons the President through McGahn and the Repubs on the Judiciary Committee listed to be interviewed - and as far as anyone knows up to my writing this she has not been by the FBI [I'm sure because her lawyer is also leading up a case directly against Trump's sexual adventures]. Even thought twice now the President has said he has 'expanded' the number of persons the FBI can investigate and even implied they can investigate anyone they desire, this seems to NOT be true and behind the scenes the number/exact persons and the number of days for this have not changed.

Trump has obviously been lying about this...no wonder he just loves Kavanaugh - thought they come from different backgrounds they are birds of a feather on the disrespect of women and bold-face lie factors. Flake a a few of his Republican friends are really calling the shots here, I think...if they give a thumbs down to the process or the result, Kavanaugh is going to be job hunting very soon.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#39
NBC reports Brett Kavanaugh tried to obtain a photograph from a 1997 wedding, quote, "in order to show himself smiling alongside Ramirez 10 years after they graduated," unquote. While the two did appear in the same group photo, a friend of Ramirez said she attempted to stay far away from Kavanaugh and his friends during the wedding. Kavanaugh reportedly initiated the contact with former classmates before The New Yorker published its report about Ramirez on September 23rd. This seems to contradict his testimony Thursday, when he was questioned by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch.
SEN. ORRIN HATCH: When was the first time that the ranking member or her staff asked you about these allegations?
JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: Today.
SEN. ORRIN HATCH: When did you first hear of Ms. Ramirez's allegations against you?
JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: In the lastin the period since then, in The New Yorker story.
SEN. ORRIN HATCH: Did the ranking member or any of her colleagues or any of their staffs ask you about Ms. Ramirez's allegations before they were leaked to the press?
JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: No.
SEN. ORRIN HATCH: When was the first time that the ranking member or any of her colleagues or any of their staff asked you about Ms. Ramirez's allegations?
JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: Today.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: This comes as The Washington Post reports the slightly expanded investigation will now include a look into allegations by a third Kavanaugh accuser, Julie Swetnick, who says she observed Kavanaugh at high school parties in the 1980s joining efforts to inebriate girls so they could be gang-raped. Recently resurfaced 1983 yearbooks from Georgetown Prep show students bragging about the use of "killer Q's" during Beach Weeka possible reference to quaaludes, the sedative Bill Cosby used to drug women in order to rape them.
AMY GOODMAN: Now a group of alumni from Brett Kavanaugh's all-male private high school has issued a call for fellow graduates of Georgetown Prep to come forward if they have information about any sexual assaults possibly committed by the Supreme Court nominee, saying in a petition, quote, "Please do not remain silent, even if speaking out comes at some personal cost." In a minute, we'll be joined by one of those alumni, but first I want to turn to comments of Judge Kavanaugh made about Georgetown Prep. He was speaking at Catholic University's Columbus School of Law in 2015.
JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: Fortunately, we had awe had a good saying that we've held firm to to this day, as the dean was reminding me before, before the talk, which is, "What happens at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep." That's been a good thing for all of us, I think.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we're joined by Bill Barbot. He was a freshman at the all-male Georgetown Prep high school when Brett Kavanaugh was a senior. After Kavanaugh's testimony Thursday, Barbot co-authored the petition calling on fellow graduates to come forward if they have any information about any sexual assaults possibly committed by the Supreme Court nominee. Bill Barbot is joining us by phone from the Washington, D.C., area.
Bill, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you talk about why you started this petition and how many people have signed on so far?
BILL BARBOT: Yeah. I waswe were first moved to do this because we felt that it was stunning to me that we, as a community, I believe, know so much about what was going on during the '80s in Prep's party culture and that there were many graduates of the class of '83 who were close to Brett but who have not shown their faces. They have notthey have not spoken out about what was going on, either in his defense or in Dr. Ford's defense. And so, I was stunned by that silence and felt we have to try to do something to shake my classmates and my schoolmates up and get them to think: This is an opportunity for you to do the right thing. And if our little petition and our drive to get them to speak gets even one of them to say something, then I feel it's been a success.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Bill Barbot, you were a freshman when Brett Kavanaugh was a senior at the school. Did youhow well did you know him? And when you saw the testimony, how did that jibe with your recollections of what he was like?
BILL BARBOT: Well, I didn't know Brett personally, and I think it's important to note that I don't consider myself a witness in this case in any way, shape or form. Again, I was a freshman, he was a senior. He was a very big personality on campus. He was a football player. He was captain of the basketball team. It was hard, in a roughly 400-person school, not to know who the real social leaders were, even as a freshman. So I knew him and his crew more by reputation than personal observation.
However, it just struck me during his testimony that given what I know about Prep's party culture in the '80s and knowing that he bragged openly on his yearbook page about his participation in that party culture, that he would rule out categorically the possibility that something untoward or downright illegal could have happened when he was under the influence of alcohol. And that just felt wrong to me. And I know that there arethere must be people who are closer to him, closer in age and closer in social commingling, that have to know more about what was going on. And I think we've been seeing that from his Yale classmates, and I would like to see that from his Prep classmates.
AMY GOODMAN: In 1990, The Washington Post reported that headmasters from seven prestigious Washington, D.C.-area private schools, including yours, Georgetown Prep, and Kavanaugh's, had sent a letter to warn parents about a party culture among their children which included heavy drinking leading to, quote, "sexual or violent behavior." The article quotes the headmaster at Holton-Arms saying, quote, "[A] number of parents and kids have expressed dismay over some of the situations at weekend parties. … We're concerned about the potential for tragedy." Bill Barbot, can you respond to that?
BILL BARBOT: Yeah. I, unfortunately, wasn't familiar with that article when it was printed in 1990. That was when I was graduating from college. But what I read yesterday, when it was first forwarded to me, shocked me in some way, because it was an acknowledgment on the part of the administrations of the schools that we all went to that there was a severe problem. And it was a severe problem. But what is shocking and upsetting to me is that, as I understand it, not much institutionally has been done to really put a stop to it. And I know that there is a very, very steep hill to climb for educators in managing teenage kids. I know that, as a parent of a teenager myselfmy son's 17it's not easy for parents to get involved. But I just feel like, wow, that was a long time ago, and we're still fighting the same battle with underage drinking and drug use, with a culture, a party culture, that seems to be accepting of illegal behavior and dangerous behavior. And I just wish that there was something more that we could have done in the 28 years-plus that have transpired since that letter came out.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, you have close to 70 names on this letter that you issued. What do you hope to do with it? And what are youare all the people who have signed the petition willing to go public with their names?
BILL BARBOT: Well, it's closer to a hundred now. I actually didn't look at the number this morning. I should have. It's been growing sincewe released it on Saturday, which is probably a tricky day to try to get people to pay attention to it. But since we've started to get some news coverage on it, we've been getting more and more signatories.
And we've been very judicious with how we're going to proceed, because there are a number of folks who signed who, for various reasons, such as they're employed by the federal government, can't have their names released publicly, but didthey did sign it in that they wanted to indicate support. So, we're having to be very thoughtful, and we're contacting everyone individually to make sure that they are aware that we intend to go public with their name, make sure that they are who they say they are and that we didn't end up with some false entries.
But the concern that I have right now is that I am not all that sure how interested the FBI is in our list. They have their hands full. And that's what is so urgent about the situation to me, is a week is not very much time for the FBI to conduct a very thorough investigation. They have to identify, locate and interview a lot of people if they really want to get to the bottom of this. So they may have their hands full, which leads me to believe that the press may be a more effective way to get the word out and to get our letter to see the light of day and for, then, fellow Prep alumni to take the action of saying, "You know what? I do have a story, and I do think it's important that it be heard."
AMY GOODMAN: Bill Barbot, you said in an interview with the Washingtonian, "Consent as a concept did not even exist. It was not in our lexicon at Georgetown Prep." Explain.
BILL BARBOT: Well, I feel, culturally, it's important to recognize that the '80s were a very different time and place for the country at large, not just in private schools, private all-boys schools. Everywhere, we weren't talking a whole lot about the sexual dynamic between boys and girls at the high school level. It just wasn't part of the conversation. When you compound that by having an all-boys private school that's Catholic, the likelihood of meaningful conversations between administrators, between parents and kids, coming up to try to recognize the fact that there are thousands of shades of greys between the gentlemanly conduct, which was the shorthand at the time to tell us how we were supposed to behave around girls, and down-and-out rape, there's so much nuance in there, and it's a lot to cover. And there needed to be, in retrospecthindsight is always 20/20a more concerted effort on the parts of parents, administrators, the school itself, to lock horns with the fact that good kids do do bad things, especially when alcohol is involved. And I think it's easy to criticize them now, through the lens of 2018, but just to be very honest about the milieu in which we were operating at that time, we weren't talking about the subtleties of sexual dynamics. We were barely talking about the mechanics of sexuality. I learned most of what I knew about sexuality from my middle school health and sex education class, not from conversations that I was having in high school about how you know when it's OK to have sex and how you know when and how to stop yourself when it's not OK.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Brett Kavanaugh's senior yearbook page refers to him as, quote, "Keg City Club (Treasurer)100 Kegs or Bust," and says he was the, quote, "biggest contributor to the Beach Week Ralph Club," as well as a reference to the "Renate Alumnius." Could you talk about these references that you saw in the yearbook and what they would mean to you, as someone who was part of the schoola part of that school?
BILL BARBOT: Sure. As with many private schools that have a whole page dedicated to each kid, it is a place for you to commemorate your time at school. It's your way of writing your name in the wet cement so that you're, for all eternity, locked down. It's a way to commemorate inside jokes that you have with your friends and just to basically have a laugh. Because we didn't have Instagram or Facebook then, so you couldn't go back and take a look at the old photos by any other means besides looking at your yearbook. So, collectively, we all made up a lot of stuff. Some of it could have been exaggerated. Some of it could have been entirely faked.
But what I saw on Brett's page was a championing of the drinking culture. And you don't, if you're an innocent choirboy who occasionally likes to have a beer, call yourself the captain of keg city, or whatever it was that he said. These are things that just don't sit right with me and struck me as very much at odds with how he portrayed himself in his interview on Fox and how he portrayed himself in front of the Senate on Thursday.
AMY GOODMAN: Bill Barbot, the editors of America magazine, the national weekly published by the Jesuits of the United States, called for Kavanaugh's nomination to be withdrawn. Your school, Georgetown Prep, where Kavanaugh was a student when he allegedly assaulted Christine Blasey, is a Jesuit high school. Can you talk about what that meant to you when the Jesuits came out against Kavanaugh?
BILL BARBOT: I felt it was a very powerful statement. I think that there are a lot of folks who are probably listening to me speak right now who are saying, "Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to take down your school?" I'm not trying to take down my school. From my perspective, I'm trying to stand up for my school. I'm trying to stand up for all the good men who have gone through that school. I'm trying to stand up for what I believe were the values that were instilled in us as students there, of truth, of honesty, of integrity.
And so, I felt vindicated, in a way, by the Jesuits choosing to withdraw their nomination, because I think they recognized, as do I, that, in Brett, we have, like all of us, a flawed human being, but he's not acknowledging those flaws, and he's not embracing the fact that we all have pasts, we all have the ability and capacity to make mistakes, but you atone for them, you lock horns with them, you acknowledge them, you realize that you could have caused pain for another human being. You don't run away from it. You don't hide behind verbal gymnastics, as he was doing on Thursday. And I felt proud that the Jesuits chose to recognize that and realize that we, as a community of students, and coming from that history and that legacy, can do better and should do better.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Bill Barbot, you've gone out publicly with this petition. You've done interviews. But you're declining to be on air or seen publicly. Can you talk about why?
BILL BARBOT: Well, Dr. Ford has received death threats. And she is obviously the key person in all of this, so I don't like to overstate that I'm somehow on equal importance as she is. But I am very concerned that this battle for Judge Kavanaugh's nomination is seen by many in the community as a proxy battle for other larger wars, such as the war against Roe v. Wade. And there are, obviously, numerous historical precedents for violence being done to those who are willing to speak out against these things. I'm a parent of three kids. I've got a teenager and two small children. I've got a wife who I love dearly. And putting them in danger simply because my face needs to be seen on television just doesn't seem wise. And I'd really rather my voice carry the message that we're trying to get across.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, Neil Gorsuch was also a student at Georgetown Prepis that right, Bill?between you and Brett Kavanaugh, Kavanaugh a senior, you a freshman. Was Gorsuch a year above you?
BILL BARBOT: Yes. He was a sophomore when I was a freshman.
AMY GOODMAN: Any comments?
BILL BARBOT: When Neil was first nominated and then put onto the court, I accepted it as a pretty vanilla nomination on the part of the president. He wants to pack the court with reliable conservatives. And for as long as I've known Neil, he was a conservative. He made no bones about that when he was in high school.
I think that the process through which Neil was nominated and the words that he used to describe his past and his experience are very different from how Brett has been acting and what he's been saying. And I am no fan of Neil's. I really would love to see a much more progressive Supreme Court, personally, but I accept the fact that we didn't win the election, and it's the prerogative of the president to nominate whoever he wants. But what I do want to see is someone of the deepest and most unimpeachable character and integrity on the court. And I feel that Neil can embody that, even if his politics differ from mine, in ways that I have very big concerns about Brett's.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we want to thank you for being with us, Bill Barbot, freshman at the all-male Georgetown Prep high school when Brett Kavanaugh was a senior. After Kavanaugh testified Thursday, Bill Barbot co-authored a petition, now of over a hundred names, calling on fellow graduates to come forward if they have information about any sexual assaults possibly committed by the Supreme Court nominee.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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#40
Brett Kavanaugh was socialized in a culture of unchecked misogyny at Yale

Yale's DKE fraternity and its decades-long hostility towards women


DIANA OFOSU OCT 2, 2018, 2:27 PM
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BRETT KAVANAUGH'S YALE YEARBOOK PHOTO, VINTAGE DKE YALE CHAPTER PLACARDIn his testimony last week, Brett Kavanaugh mirrored many troubling, familiar behaviors of arrogant and hostile men. He relied on the bullying rhetoric common of abusers. He employed the incredulous whining of an entitled man potentially denied entry. And he demonstrated the bizarre lack of awareness I first encountered during a sit-down meeting with the DKE bros of Yale University, of which Kavanaugh is an alumnus.
In 2010, I served on the board of Yale University's Women's Center, a hub for feminist organizing on campus. That year, Delta Kappa Epsilon was embroiled in controversy after its misogynistic rush activities were caught on camera and quickly went viral. The fraternity had blindfolded its pledges and navigated them to the Women's Center and around freshman dorms while they chanted: "No means yes / yes means anal." The chant continued, "I f*** dead women / And fill them with my semen."
After being met with backlash from the rest of campus, DKE fraternity leadership invited the Women's Center to a meeting to formally apologize to "The Feminists." They wore suits. They seemed a little annoyed. And it seemed like they thought that the extent of their responsibility ended with an apology and a promise to be better.
Shortly after this meeting, 16 women filed a Title IX complaint against the university with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. Campus activists began working with the administration on reforms to protect and support survivors and to address the toxicity of the campus' sexual culture. Eventually, the university imposed restrictions on DKE, effectively banning the fraternity.
Like today, pledging Greek life in the 80s wasn't as popular at Yale as perhaps other universities where it dominates campus culture.
Kavanaugh joined DKE as a sophomore in 1986 and remained active through his time at Yale Law School. Founded in 1844, DKE stands out among the few fraternities at Yale. According to its website, the fraternity has produced more American presidents than any other, including both Bushes. DKE is also reputed, both in the 80s and today, to be especially drunk and especially hostile toward women.
Kavanaugh himself hasn't spoken much about his time in the fraternity, though we have gotten snapshots from elsewhere.
Recently, the Yale Daily News published a photograph of Kavanaugh's contemporaneous fraternity brothers flying a flag made from women's underwear. While one brother claims the panties were acquired consensually, alumnae quoted in the Yale Daily News describe DKE as an "animal house" and "demeaning to women." One woman wrote in the YaleWomen Facebook page that members "would ransack women's rooms while they were in class to collect undergarments."
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[Image: cb1f11945ceb1d69d0d7a4a39c98fd09_normal.png][URL="https://twitter.com/yaledailynews"]Yale Daily News
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A photograph that appeared in @yaledailynews on Jan. 18, 1985, shows Brett Kavanaugh's fraternity brothers waving a flag woven from women's underwear as part of a procession of DKE initiates marching across Yale's campus, via @Hailey_Fuchs@BrittonDalyhttps://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/09/20/a-flag-of-underwear-photo-from-kavanaughs-time-shows-dke-hijinks/ …
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A male graduate of '88 describes DKE as having a heavy-drinking reputation, and being attractive to conservative gender roles. An alumna of '89 told CNN the fraternity was "widely regarded as drunks and jocks. Joining a fraternity like that was at the time, a way of saying no to Yale's overall culture."
Yale became co-ed in 1969, just 15 years before Kavanaugh arrived. The failures of complete assimilation were reportedly everywhere like in the women's bathrooms that were located on just one floor in an entire building.
Since Deborah Ramirez came forward and said that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her during their freshman year, a chorus of former students who attended Yale at the time have described a toxic sexual culture at the university and at Kavanaugh's fraternity specifically.
"It became obvious that women at Yale were worried about rape and that rape was an aspect of university life."
Several alumnae told HuffPost they avoided DKE due to its reputation. One called its members "pigs" and "horrible men." Almost all of the women HuffPost spoke with said "DKE brothers in those years were known as heavy drinkers who often degraded women and themselves while partying especially during pledging and hazing rituals." One sexual assault activist and organizer of "Take Back the Night," a march meant to demonstrate support for survivors of sexual assault, admits the march's route would avoid the DKE house for fear of harassment.
One alumna said there was an overall feeling that women "were only [at Yale] by the graces of men" and that "there was this sense that we were responsible for what men did to us." For those who had been assaulted, fears of a ruined reputation, retraumatization, or not being believed contributed to a culture of silencing.
While the Women's Center was active and organizing at the time, one woman told HuffPost the center felt alienating as their politics were viewed as "militant." In an essay published in a yearbook, Beth Morrow '87 wrote, "It became obvious that women at Yale were worried about rape and that rape was an aspect of university life."
Accounts of Kavanaugh by collegiate peers range. The worst of these accounts parallel the characterization of his fraternity, and the culture the women who attended Yale at the time describe. One classmate calls him an "aggressive, obnoxious drunk, part of the crowd he hung out with." Kavanaugh's freshman roommate, James Roche, remembers him similarly as a "notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time. (H)e became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk."
Regarding Ramirez's accusation, Bryan Cole, a 1987 alumnus, told HuffPost, "That it would happen to a woman and she would not feel comfortable to speak about it doesn't surprise me." He continued, "Unfortunately, guys like Kavanaugh still felt they could behave that way, especially when drinking […] There did not appear to be consequences for your actions."
Thirty years later, DKE's reputation is devastatingly similar.
"There's always been this sort of vibe about DKE that upperclassmen women warned me of," a woman, currently a junior at Yale, told Business Insider in January. Members are reported to sit on their porch and harass women on the street. Women's sports teams and sororities are disinclined from holding mixers with them.
"Every time I hear a girl say she's going to DKE, I feel indescribably sad and angry. But I feel like I can't say anything because I want to graduate."
Since the university lifted sanctions on DKE in 2014, and the fraternity was permitted to socially reintegrate into campus life, Business Insider reports over a dozen women witnessed or experienced sexual misconduct by its members, including unwanted kissing and groping. The report also indicates eight distinct, corroborated accounts of sexual misconduct.
Predictably, in 2017 the Yale chapter president, Luke Persichetti, was suspended (for just 3 semesters) for "penetration without consent." A few months prior, Persichetti commented on the enlightening effects the university's ban had on the fraternity: "Our current members understand the history of the ban and have played an important part in the cultural shift that has taken place since then."
The university took five months to investigate his accuser's claim. As part of the university's adjudication process, a confidentiality agreement prevented Luke's accuser from feeling that she could safely speak publicly about her experience. She told Business Insider, "Every time I hear a girl say she's going to DKE, I feel indescribably sad and angry. But I feel like I can't say anything because I want to graduate."
Earlier this year, DKE International told Business Insider it would open an investigation into its Yale Chapter regarding the reported sexual assaults. It also said it would suspend events with alcohol. Doug Lanpher, DKE's Executive Director, however, has previously questioned whether the severity of a ban was appropriate following the pledge controversy in 2010.
It is this culture of misogyny that socialized Kavanaugh.
Since the FBI has launched its investigation into Kavanuagh's sexual misconduct, several more classmates have come forth refuting Kavanaugh's claims of never drinking to excess or disrespecting women.
One Yale classmate corroborates Ramirez's allegation, while others attest to partying with Kavanaugh in ways previously described. One classmate recalls an admission of sexual misconduct.
These accounts will seemingly not be taken into consideration by the FBI, as the investigation is directed by the White House to restrict its questioning.


"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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