Kavanaugh, Ford, and Things That Can Both Be True

Last updated on: October 4, 2018 at 3:58 pm by Jane the Actuary

Kavanaugh, Ford, and Things That Can Both Be True 2018-10-04T15:58:10-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

With apologies for the lack of citations, here is a list of things that can simultaneously be true, notwithstanding claims in the media to the contrary:

Kavanaugh can be guilty of one or more of these acts AND the Democratic Senate leadership can be abusing the process.

Yes, the Democrats are, from all appearances, acting in bad faith. The opposed Kavanaugh from the start, and many of them have professed opposition to any individual Trump would nominate. In some cases, one might say that they declared their opposition while being simultaneously aware that their vote would be in the minority, but in other cases, there are statements on record that suggest an intention, from the start, to do whatever is possible to delay the seating of a nominee until after the midterm elections, and, if they should retake the Senate, until after the 2020 elections. Some Democrats are suggesting that if the Kavanaugh vote goes through, they will impeach him after gaining control, others are proposing a court-packing scheme in 2020 so as to gain the Supreme Court majority. And while some people are pushing back on concerns that Democrats are themselves partisan by citing the fact that no such fuss was raised about Gorsuch, I do think that a significant driver in the current opposition is that Democrats were at least more willing to accept a conservative replacing a conservative, but have now gotten themselves into a frenzy over Kavanaugh because Kennedy was, if not a consistent liberal, then at least a hoped-for swing vote.

But the degree to which they are exercising bad faith in the process, and the degree to which Ford’s lawyers are likewise trying to manipulate the process (claiming inability to fly, seemingly keeping from Ford the information that investigators were willing to come to Ford in California), does not have anything to do with whether Ford was attacked. And the desire to avoid giving the Democrats a victory is not sufficient reason to discard questions on the suitability of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court appointment.

Kavanaugh can be a heavy drinker, have grown up in a “rich private school kids” environment, have been friends with an admitted alcoholic AND be innocent of sexual assault, AND even have been a virgin as claimed.

Something that’s really starting to bug me is the claim of guilt by association. Private schools were dens of iniquity, to such an extent that the administration (at both Georgetown Prep and Holton-Arms) didn’t even bother censoring the yearbooks. Therefore, Brett Kavanaugh is guilty as charged.

Of course, Neil Gorsuch also attended Georgetown Prep. Was he one of the dorks who was never invited to parties?

The fact that alcohol flowed freely is not proof. The fact that Mark Judge wrote a book about being a teen alcoholic proves nothing about Brett Kavanaugh. Likewise for the fact that Mark Judge’s last name is “Judge” and Brett Kavanaugh is a judge.

Oh, and it can also be true that Kavanaugh was a heavy drinker AND that he did not black out. Again, with apologies for lack of links, I’ve read multiple articles saying that blacking out when drinking is a phenomenon that depends on the person, and the nature of their drinking. Someone that gets bombed very quickly on hard alcohol is more likely to black out than someone who drinks beer such as Kavanaugh, and there are genetic predispositions as well. It is not merely a matter of probabilities, and one cannot say that, for someone who drinks and gets drunk, he or she will inevitably black out.

I would also speculate that the reason why the conventional wisdom is that blacking out is an inevitable result of drinking, is in part that people use the explanation of “blacking out” as a way of avoiding consequences of behavior while drunk. “I can’t believe you did X last night!” “Really? I don’t remember any of it.”

Ford can be completely sincere and have no intention to deceive anyone AND can be stating factually untrue things.

There are experts peddling their expertise on the internet that when something traumatic happens, you never, ever forget the key details. This is Ford’s position (though it is hardly appropriate to cite her as an expert on something in which she is clearly not impartial). There are other experts saying that the reverse is true, that our memories do deceive us, even when we are convinced that said memory is crystal-clear and unambiguous (see this article, but there are more like it).

It seems to me entirely possible for something traumatic to have happened, and for Ford, in retrospect, to have latched onto Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge as perpetrators. After all, the initial Post story says that the therapist’s notes say “late teens” and “four boys,” and the reports are that it was her college years, not the remaining high school years, which were troubled. Reports have circulated that her 2012 therapist’s visits coincided with news reports that Kavanaugh was a likely Romney pick.

And none of this is to say that I have a solution to the present difficulty. Some further investigation may provide clues as to the probability of the incident having occurred, but there is so little to go on, that it seems unlikely that any evidence will turn up that will alternately persuade Kavanaugh supporters that Ford’s account is true, or persuade Kavanaugh opponents of his innocence, especially now that they are claiming (on twitter anyway) that his high school and college drinking likely means that he is to this day an alcoholic and thus unsuitable for the Supreme Court, and are even threatening, when Democrats get control, to impeach him not merely from the Supreme Court but even, should he not make it there in the end, from his current judgeship.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Judge_Brett_Michael_Kavanaugh.jpg; By U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

We want to know what you think about the upcoming midterm elections. Vote in our poll below!

Uncategorized

Brett Kavanaugh

Previous Post

September 28, 2018

Pot, qat, and normalization

Next Post

October 2, 2018 Why is the Kavanaugh nomination tearing us apart?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I am the wage you've earned through sin, but my opposite is a gift freely given. What am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Separation Death Punishment Hell