Nominee Brett Kavanaugh

inishowen, would you keep quiet if other women came forward for incidents later in life for those men? I’d feel duty bound then because it might show a pattern of behaviour. Many other men behaved inappropriately in my younger days and I wouldn’t bring it up now because I didn’t feel a victim then or now. I put their behaviour down to them not being able to hold their drink or not being able to read my signals correctly.

inishowen Just thinking, if I decided to come forward and tell about incidents that happened to me between the ages of 12 and 18, by various males, I could ruin many lives. So I'm keeping quiet.

That doesn't make it right, though ...

GabriellaG As ffinocchio said earlier, she was wearing a swimsuit under her clothes because she had been to her swimming club earlier.

She did keep quiet until her attacker was likely to become a supreme court judge. A step too far. Fair enough. Time to take a stand. How much easier would it have been for her to say nothing? She's put herself and her family at risk now. There are very daft Americans out there with guns...
Brave woman.

Ridiculous.

Why was she wearing a bathing suit under her clothes? Was she planning on going for a swim later? Did she have underwear with her, to put on later after the swim?
If she wasn't going to swim, why was she wearing it, if not to prevent any teenage 'fumbling'? That in itself means that she put herself in a situation she knew might end in tears.
Case dismissed.

Just thinking, if I decided to come forward and tell about incidents that happened to me between the ages of 12 and 18, by various males, I could ruin many lives. So I'm keeping quiet.

Bluebells, I agree with your post from yesterday at 10.31. I was assaulted, actually quite a serious assault, by a member of my own family, well by marriage anyway, when I was a student and 19 years old. About a year later I did tell, needless to say, I was not treated sympathetically, I think the general consensus was I should have kept quiet. I didn’t go to the police, the thought never crossed my mind. I put it down to experience and got on with my life, with the thought that these things happen.
Despite this I have little sympathy for this woman, if she was all that upset she would have told someone or reported it. He wasn’t a member of her family, which makes it reasonably easy to report, no family politics to negotiate. This is all about revenge, not justice. If she was that upset she would have reported it years ago. I’m fed up of the ‘me too’ brigade, they are pathetic old women reporting incidents that may or may not have occurred, but which weren’t so desperately upsetting at the time otherwise they would have reported them, and no one today can prove happened or didn’t happen. I think the police have more important things to do than investigate every historic sexual assault case. I think most people would have preferred to see a robust investigation into the hundreds of girls recently assaulted and raped by groups of mainly foreign men in places such as Rotherham, and all the other places where this has happened.
Obviously this latest event is not in the UK, but for me, it’s not important and I would prefer not to see the amateur dramatics on every news bulletin at the moment.

MargaretX You say " She must have been expecting it she had her bathing costume on underneath."

I don't follow your train of thought with this comment, Margaret.^
^Sparklefizz she herself says that she had her bathing costume on underneath and that's why nothing more intimate happened.
Because when lying on a bed you can't get a bathing costume off if there's a struggle going on. It works like a chastity belt. ^

Yes, this is what I thought you must mean, MargaretX but wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt because I found it hard to believe that you seriously thought a 15 yr old would deliberately wear her swimsuit as a chastity belt because, as you say, she was "expecting it". I take issue with that.

To me, the decent thing would have been to admit to adolescent fumbling, apologise, express sincere regret, admit he was drunk and show by his attitude that he both means it and has been a better person since.
(And, if necessary, take the consequences. )
Remember John Profumo who spent many years in the wilderness after his resignation, but achieved rehabilitation both with society and possibly his conscience by a blameless
life (after politics) in charitable work.
He earned our respect, which seems to be a commodity in short supply in DT’s America.

eazybee. Why wait 30 years until the guy gets that far before confessing to the world you were violated by him all those years previous.? Do we know the woman's circumstances at that time ?. Was she threatened or paid to keep quiet?More to this than meets the eye.

MawBroon fantastic vid had me laughing.

I can't remember who said on this post earlier that it happened such a long time ago, so let it go (or words to that effect). The abuser's age now doesn't come into it. It's the age they abused that matters. The person abused wants justice, whatever the age.
[Rant over]

There are only 8 Supreme Court Justices, with the Chief Justice making it 9, in the USA, all with a life time tenure. This makes them enormously powerful. Although they are trusted with bipartisan views in how they do their job, it is rife with political juggling when a new appointee is chosen. BK is a staunch supported of Trump, who carries his favour.

It is this that prompted Dr.Ford to stand before the Council, seeing it as her civic duty. In my view, a very brave thing to do. If BK we’re not standing for the role of Supreme Court Justice, then her experiences would probably never have seen the light of day.

I sorely doubt there are many women and men who, with such personal experiences, would be prepared to stand in such a world media spotlight for their political beliefs.

So good for her! Whether it will make a difference .... who knows? Yet she has tried, and certainly has my admiration for that.

I agree with paddyann. Apart from anything else, no one with even a shadow of doubt over them should be given such significant high office. His own performance was very poor and not deserving of respect. Respect is at the heart of this. If people can't respect the supreme rule of law and those who administer it who can they respect?

there are very good reasons why people wait a long time before coming forwardQuizqueen not just women but a lot of men who were historically abused in institutions in the 50's and 60's. Sometimes it takes something to trigger their need for justice,such as this man running for high office which IF he's a serial abuser would be very wrong.What chance would any complainant have of justice with him in charge if he thinks he did nothing wrong?
I watched local news recently where men in their 60's cried when they told of the abuse in a childrens home .Should they just forget about it? Its not something that can conveniently be put in a box ,it will jump out every now and then and cause them problems in every day life.I think she has done the right thing,not only for her sake,but for other women in the same position and of course for the justice system in her country .

She is and was brave.

He - and joke president Trump- were both bullies. Mister Trump already declaring that it was lies and she was trying to get money out of it.??

Clearly not worthy of holding office such as USA President!

I don't know whether this man is guilty or not but I have no patience with women (mostly) who wait 30 years or more to accuse someone of something. A lot of posters on here are probably in support of rehabilitation so if someone did behave badly when younger but has led an exemplary life afterwards what should the outcome be? I haven't followed the details of this case or know much about the man or the life he has led up to now ( he could have turned out be a good man or he could be a right sh*t)but there are usually two sides to every story and, as usual, it's an excuse for Trump bashing when he wants someone in high office of his choice. I can't recall many men ( mostly) connected to other presidents who have had such scrutiny and all because Democratic supporters can't accept the results of an election. Does that remind any of you with what's going on with Brexit here!!

This is so difficult, I want to be supportive of other women, but also feel I can't just agree with someone because of their sex. Surely their should be some evidence before accusations can be made public. He came across as bullying but she came across as acting the frightened young girl. Who to believe?

I doubt she made it up in that I think that something happened and that she didn't like it but she did seem to be acting. I am not sure how one woman talking about such a thing before a horseshoe of disbelieving elderly white right wing males could deal with it without gearing herself up in some way so it seems unfair to judge her on her manner and occasional lapse into something close to psychobabble but it is also hard to ignore it when his career and reputation (such as it is) are at stake.
There is so much politics at stake, particularly them not wanting to delay in case he doesn't get appointed before the balance of the House may change. If not for that, they would probably adjourn and give the FBI time to investigate properly.

The two women who corralled Flake (a very unfortunate name) in the elevator were screaming banshees. He had nothing to do with their purported assault. Apparently Kavanaugh attempted to kiss her, not rape her. That was all in her 15 yr old mind. If she was daft enough to drink beer in the company of legally entitled young men, knowing that her parents and family would be horrified, then she should suck up the fact that one of them tried it on.
I'd also question why no-one is up in arms about Flake being denied room to exit the lift.
If it was a woman being hemmed in by two angry young men shouting and screaming in her face and blocking her exit...that would certainly be front page news and the two males would, almost certainly, be sued.
It's wholly distasteful that the 'victim' drags this up 30+ years down the line. What young men have never tried it on after a few beers at a party?
I have no time for these women, none at all.

I don't care what he did in the 80's aged 16 when drunk, and I didn't find her testimony very convincing although I did believe her story just not the lifelong PTS.
As far as I'm concerned Trump backs him so that's enough for me to reject him.

I find it very uncomfortable that people expect to be believed after such a long time, and destroy someone else's life as a consequence. I heard her saying she had a duty to tell her story. After thirty-six years? Utter tripe! The statute of limitations should have shut her up years ago. If he did indeed commit the offence her duty was to tell the police at the time, when there were people around who could corroborate her story.

It is the same with some of the Harvey Weinstein stories. If some of those women were abused why on earth did they go back, or meet him alone again? Perhaps they are bitter now because their careers didn't get the boost they expected. It is all rather unseemly. When I was a young woman you learned how to deal with such behaviour, maybe life was simpler then!

Wendywoo I get your reasoning, but unless he did that to other girls there would be no proof. I know of two men who had parts of their lives ruined by accusations that had no proof to them at all and I believe did not happen.

Absolutely brilliant!

I agree with ezybee. I was attacked by a boy on a first date and he throttled me. I remember thinking that I was going to die. As I lost consciousness, he let go and ran away. If I told that story, my voice would not shake and quiver due to the many years that have passed since it happened. If I went to the police now,if I saw him, how on earth could anybdy know he was guilty?? I felt both Kavanaugh and the woman were putting on a show.Netfix The Staircase shows how staged trials are in America. I think where there is evidence of past crime, such as corroboration, prosecution is appropriate. It seems unjust and dangerous that any woman accusing any man is automatically given a degree of credence.