[Guardian] Judi Dench has defended disgraced actor Kevin Spacey, saying she "can’t approve" of the way he was removed from the recent Ridley Scott film All the Money in the World, about the J Paul Getty III kidnap, and replaced with Christopher Plummer.
Speaking to journalists at the San Sebastian film festival, where she received a lifetime achievement award, Dench said Spacey was "a good friend" and had been an "inestimable comfort" and "kept me going" while they worked together on The Shipping News after the death of her husband Michael Williams in 2001.
Dench said: "I can’t approve, in any way, of the fact that ‐ whatever he has done ‐ that you then start to cut him out of the films ... Are we to do that throughout history? Are we to go back throughout history and anyone who has misbehaved in any way, or who has broken the law, or who has committed some kind of offence, are they always going to be cut out? Are we going to extrude them from our history?"
#1
"...Are we to do that throughout history? Are we to go back throughout history and anyone who has misbehaved in any way, or who has broken the law, or who has committed some kind of offence, are they always going to be cut out? Are we going to extrude them from our history?"
If you're a lefty, Judi, that's exactly what your side's been doing for decades now. Time to live up to your own rules, as Kurt Schlichter says.
Besides, you don't have a penis, so you know he's not going to do this shit to you, don't you?
[Townhall] Judge Brett Kavanaugh's third sexual assault accuser, Julie Swetnick, seems to have a few skeletons in her closet.
Swetnick, who accused Kavanaugh of gang raping her in high school, sued her former employer, New York Life Insurance Co., for sexual harassment, the Daily Wire reported. Her attorney was none other than Debra Katz, who is currently representing Kavanaugh's initial accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. The company ultimately settled with Swetnick.
According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, she has had financial issues over the last few years:
Swetnick also claims to have a security clearance with the IRS despite having recently had a $40,000 judgement against her for unpaid taxes. She settled a $40,303 IRS judgement on March 23 of this year, according to a public records search. Maryland court records show a $62,821 tax lien filed against her on Oct. 2, 2015.
And, the icing on the cake? Swetnick's ex-boyfriend, Richard Vinneccy, filed a restraining order against her. She allegedly threatened to kill him after he broke up with her, POLITICO reported.
#1
She settled a $40,303 IRS judgement on March 23 of this year, according to a public records search. Maryland court records show a $62,821 tax lien filed against her on Oct. 2, 2015.
Of course no one at Koskinen's IRS would step forward and provide this information to the senate in defense of the president's nomination.
#2
It's documented that many IRS drones owe back taxes, so the claim that she held some sort of IRS clearance while there was a tax judgement against her is at least somewhat believable.
/sarc - I think...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/27/2018 9:20 Comments ||
Top||
[National Post] Pork is the most widely consumed animal protein in the world. Representing more than 36 per cent of global meat-eating, a hit to production could have devastating effects. As a new Scientific American report suggests, a warming planet may result in skinnier pigs that produce less meat. The potential outcome: a future where pork is scarce and strips of bacon will cost you dearly.
The National Pork Board in the U.S. has been monitoring the effect of high temperatures on pigs since 2013, according to Scientific American, due to the possible consequences for a US$20 billion industry.
Swine are particularly vulnerable to hot weather: they wallow in cool mud or water because their sweat glands don’t effectively regulate body temperature. Studies have shown that when the animals are exposed to temperatures in excess of 25 degrees Celsius, they produce less protein, with the added drawback of decreased fertility.
"And the impact is not limited to one generation ‐ if a pregnant sow suffers heat stress, she will birth fewer babies, which will grow slower, store less protein and have fewer and lower-quality eggs and sperm compared with pigs born to mothers raised at cooler temperatures," Scientific American reports.
[Townhall] The National Rifle Association (NRA) launched a new ad campaign defending Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The gun rights group utilized its president, Lt. Col. Oliver North, to send a strong message to the American people: the attacks against Kavanaugh are being substantiated by Democrats with an agenda. Those Democrats will do anything in their power to derail Kavanaugh's confirmation.
"Since the election of Donald Trump the character assassinations of good Americans, like Brett Kavanaugh, by those with half his intellect and a fraction of his virtue has been unconscionable," Oliver said in the ad. "I didn't hold dying Marines in my arms, defending freedom, so corrupt politicians could disgrace their heroic sacrifice. We the people denounce their character assassination, their hypocrisy, their lies and we proudly stand with Brett Kavanaugh."
[BellingCat via HotAir] Posted in Opinion as it's not a normal news source, but interesting
Bellingcat and its investigative partner The Insider – Russia have established conclusively the identity of one of the suspects in the poisoning of Sergey and Yulia Skripal, and in the homicide of British citizen Dawn Sturgess.
Part 1 and Part 2 of Bellingcat's investigation into the Skripal poisoning suspects are available for background information. In these previous two parts of the investigation, Bellingcat and the Insider concluded that the two suspects – traveling internationally and appearing on Russian television under the aliases "Ruslan Boshirov" and "Alexander Petrov" – are in fact undercover officers of the Russian Military Intelligence, widely known as GRU.
Bellingcat has been able to confirm the actual identity of one of the two officers. The suspect using the cover identity of "Ruslan Boshirov" is in fact Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, a highly decorated GRU officer bestowed with Russia's highest state award, Hero of the Russian Federation. Following Bellingcat's own identification, multiple sources familiar with the person and/or the investigation have confirmed the suspect's identity.
This finding eliminates any remaining doubt that the two suspects in the Novichok poisonings were in fact Russian officers operating on a clandestine government mission.
While civilians in Russia can generally own more than one passport, no civilian – or even an intelligence service officer on a personal trip – can cross the state border under a fake identity. The discovery also highlights the extent of the effort – and public diplomacy risk – Russia has taken to protect the identities of the officers. President Putin publicly vouched that "Boshirov" and "Petrov" are civilians. As it is established practice that the awards Hero of the Russian Federation are handed out by the Russian president personally, it is highly likely that Vladimir Putin would have been familiar with the identity of Colonel Chepiga, given that only a handful of officers receive this award each year.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
h/t Instapundit
Please tell me that I’m not the only one who is trying to catch their breath after a day like today. Today, we entered the Twilight Zone of politics, and witnessed the full-on borking attempt of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
The gateway to this dimension was flung wide open by one Michael Avenatti, most commonly known as Stormy Daniels’s lawyer and Trump nemesis. As covered by Nina this morning, Avenatti released his grenade this morning, revealing his mystery client as one Julie Swetnick and blasting her name and face all over the internet while demanding her privacy.
Well, let’s just say that the day did not go as planned for Team Avenatti, whose client has some substantial credibility gaps in her story of gang rapes and teenage partying. Among those problems:
1) Swetnick alleges that she attended "at least ten parties" where these gang rapes occurred, and Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge were present.
2) Swetnick graduated from Gaithersburg High School in 1980. Kavanaugh graduated from Georgetown Prep in 1983. She alleges these parties happened over the course of two years, from 1981 to 1983, and she herself was a victim of a gang rape at one of these parties in 1982. She does not allege that Kavanaugh or Judge participated in her rape. Promoting a comment Erick Erickson
✔
@EWErickson
To review the Avenatti claim: a woman claims that when she was a college aged adult (graduated high school in 1980), she went to high school parties where high school girls were drugged and raped and she, as the adult present, did nothing but avoid the punch.
3) Kavanaugh has been subject to SIX PREVIOUS FEDERAL BACKGROUND CHECKS by the FBI and NONE of these claims have ever been made before.
...Also, Julie Swetnick has some serious personal issues ‐ including tax liens in her past, and a story of a restraining order that does not sound good.
..."Right after I broke up with her, she was threatening my family, threatening my wife and threatening to do harm to my baby at that time,"
... I think hiring Michael Avenatti to represent her damages her credibility more than anything else, but that’s just me.
Oh, but the fun wasn’t over yet! Christine Blasey Ford released her opening statement and her polygraph "results" today. It’s fair to say that this supposed "polygraph" is a piece of junk. The polygraph exam consisted of only two "relevant" questions: "Is any part of your statement false?" and "Did you make up any part of your statement?" (Ordinarily examiners ask a series of irrelevant questions to establish a baseline physiological response, which helps detect deception when relevant questions are asked, experts tell Fox News. According to Hanafin, Ford was also asked some questions to establish this baseline.)
...Dr. Ford's polygraph letter contradicts letter she sent to Feinstein. Polygraph letter says "4 boys and a couple of girls" were at party. Letter to Feinstein says "me and four others." No way to reconcile the two‐irrespective of whether she's counting herself in polygraph letter.
...But we’re not done! Kavanaugh was then accused of raping someone on a boat in Rhode Island in 1985!
...But we had one more allegation to go! Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado got an anonymous letter in the mail accusing Brett Kavanaugh of assault in 1998! And when I say "anonymous," I mean that it looks like the Unabomber addressed the envelope.
...Borking became a verb because the attack on Robert Bork succeeded. If the Republicans fail to stand firm now, what on earth will we end up calling what has been done to Judge Brett Kavanaugh, his reputation, and his career?
#1
We need a large balance scales so we can weigh Judge Kavanaugh, *Live* on National TV, and determine if ... He weighs more than a duck?!? (With thanks to Monty Python)
There is a World out there outside SCOTUS conformation hearings - a strangely familiar World
Noted Middle East expert and commentator Dr. Guy Bechor accuses Israel’s media of turning itself into an "occupying force" within Israel and behaving like an unelected, yet all-powerful, political machine.
In an article entitled "Down with the Occupation" that appears on his Hebrew-language website, Dr. Bechor ‐ one of Israel’s top experts on Middle Eastern affairs and a popular lecturer and interviewee ‐ identifies a process that he says began after 2000.
"With the collapse of the Left in Israel’s political system... and the tremendous disappointment from the ’peace process’," he says, "a strange process began gathering force in Israel’s media, which was, to begin with, a closed club numbering about 20 movers and shakers. Strange as it may sound, this media, which is supposed to cover events and report them, took a step forward and took upon itself to represent the Left which had collapsed in the Israeli populace. It became a political party."
We're next. Yes, I mean us ‐ the American people. At least the Christians, Jews, Muslims, conservatives, Republicans, libertarians, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, LGBTQ folks, immigrants, rich, poor and middle class and everyone else among the 63 million people who voted for President Trump. (And we may as well toss in the never-Trumpers and those who have since #WalkedAway from the howling maw of anarchy that is the Democratic Party).
In the off-chance Christine Blasey Ford actually shows up and testifies ‐ I give it under 50% ‐ the wussy GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee are going to treat her with kid gloves, which is awful. No one making an accusation with such potentially catastrophic consequences for the accused (here, the accused may properly be called "the victim") should escape harsh, penetrating cross-examination. This is particularly true when the Jenga tower that is her lunchmeat story is teetering on the edge of collapse.
...Our GOP senators are more concerned with their reputations in the Beltway Bubble, while Normal people just want to get at the truth. And to get at it, their questioning would be very different than the kind of "We want to nurture and support you in this difficult time" garbage we’re likely to hear from people who should be shredding her flimsy fabric of lies.
Here are questions I’d ask if I were a senator doing the questioning, along with some anticipated colloquy with my distinguished colleagues.
Ford is still unclear about where the house was and exactly what date the alleged assault happened.
She claims that after the alleged attack she ran to a first-floor bathroom and shut the door. After that she says that Kavanaugh and Mark Judge came banging down the stairs laughing at her and talking about her. When pressed about what they said, she admitted she couldn’t hear them and IN HER WORDS she “assumed they were.” Well, which is it, Dr. Ford? They were talking about you or you heard people from behind a closed door that you couldn’t possibly identify just talking and laughing at the party? There were other people there because it was a “party.” That requires more people than the good doctor and two boys. She has no way of knowing who she heard on the stairs from behind the closed door (assuming this alleged event even happened).
She’s not clear how she got home but didn’t have her license yet so who drove her home? She can’t recall
What she DOES want is for someone to go access Mark Judge’s employment records from that time to verify when he worked at Safeway so that she could then inform the world of the exact date she was attacked.
She claims Mark Judge was one of her attackers, but then went out of her way to try and talk to him at his job several weeks later?
She admits in her testimony that the WaPo ignored her first tip.
She admits in her testimony that she texted the tip line again but still wanted things kept confidential.
She admits in response to questions that the quibbling over the second door in the home remodel ended up being more about curb appeal rather than about memories of a long buried sexual assault.
She admits in response to questions that she isn’t sure exactly how or where or with whom she viewed her therapy records and isn’t clear as to whether she could recall exactly how the WaPo reporter got hold of those records for the article.
She has claimed that she only told her husband and her therapist about the attack. But NOW during testimony she states several times that she talked to people on the beach?
#11
What genius did decide on that kind of questioning format?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/27/2018 14:40 Comments ||
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#12
Because this is Kabuki theater EC. The demoncrats are giving campaign speeches before each question and this is giving the eGOP cover to vote against him.
#13
I don't think she remembers correctly what she had for breakfast.
Who refers to an airport's IATA in a manner as casually as picking out a soda for lunch? People who fly a lot and enjoy it, that's who.
And she farking lied about the who paid questions; anyone who has played bullshit (card game) against a first time player could see that.
This farce, this sham. I'm not sure what is worse: that this is the best the anti-justice league could come up with (even after the flying ploy to stall for coaching) or that people are believing it, or playing along.
#17
Why is this such a problem? There should be enough other conservative judges.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/27/2018 15:04 Comments ||
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#18
It isn't about the depth of the bench. The demoncrats now will know they can sink any nominee with accusations and feelings. Trump won't get anyone right of Stalin on the court.
There is also a real risk of rage from the red state voters and them staying home this election cycle. The house will definitely be lost and most likely the senate as well.
The left will be rewarded for its bad behavior and will continue to harass, bully and be even more violent to those that oppose them.
It is truly win or go home time and the Republicans, like usual, will pick defeat.
#21
Its the precedent it sets. Liars lie, and they lie greatest when they know they can get away with it.
Whatever mind Ford may have had, it is so smoked on adderall she can't remember whether she hates flying or not.
And to answer your babysitting question - it depends on the credibility of the women making the accusation. The gaggle of meth whores were going around time claiming I snuck out to the park at night and was having an affair. Everyone who heard this, including my wife, laughed in their faces. Joys of a small town, where people will just make stuff up for the sake of making stuff up.
#35
"Imagine you wanted to hire a babysitter and several women told you - without evidence - that he's molested children."
A better way to put it, imagine you wanted to hire a babysitter and one woman claimed without evidence that he molested children but couldn't provide any details at all and nobody backed her claim, not even her own family, and everyone that had anything to do with the incident in question said the the claim was false. Would you hire them or believe the one person was mistaken.
Modern life has broken too many women. They have been on birth control pills for 30 years, their hormones are shot, they have had multiple abortions, they live with the regret of killing their own children. They drove away any man who ever loved them or tried to love them.
Their grown children (if they have any) can't stand them. They are pleasant to their face but they feel like strangers.
They tried to find love in wild sex and found it hollowed them out like empty shells. They take medication for their depression.
When the vegan restaurant down the street gives them food poisoning they are all alone, with no one to care for them. They vomit into an apartment toilet among silence.
They own nothing. They have built nothing.They cry every day. They look at younger women who didn't take the feminist path and fume with hatred. They can't stand their sweet children, their loving husbands, or their happy life. Their hate consumes them. Co-workers and family members whisper behind their backs.
These people avoid the woman's phone calls and mute them on Facebook, sick to death of their ranting and lunacy. They have become a joke. They are desperate to hear the words "mama" and "grandma" but the words never come and so they fill the empty place with binge eating and more hate.
They thought they fought all their lives for "love" and for women to have it "better" than it used to be. They cannot confront the truth and so they double down, becoming more extreme, more irrational.
The tradmoms grow happy in their old age, wrinkles do not dull their rosy cheeks, but the bitter women look around and see only people who are waiting for them to die. They are a burden and they know it. It eats at them every day. One more check, one more group, one more protest, one more Tweet, one more lie and they will finally feel whole.....but the wholeness never comes.
That nice, successful husband and father she knew in high school...ya, he wanted her so bad, he tried to rape her. That's it. Ya, that makes her feel better. For the moment.
#2
What I find so interesting is men have changed so little. Not so easily programed.In the industrial world we are witnessing a culling of the herd. Books are now written on this subject but their impact will not effect change. Survival of the fittest in play. Dealing with the public as I do every day shows me how things have changed over the years. Being older also allows me a perspective of seeing before and after. Will women change, no. They have neither the will nor the desire to correct their actions. Their bonds to animals have become so much stronger.Then of course the drug route is another alternative.
#4
Mr. G at a distance. A curiosity more than anything. Far less drama. We just had a high class wedding in the area. 400 guests. Small bump in the road so to speak. I turn the page and move on.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Townhall] Judge Brett Kavanaugh's third sexual assault accuser, Julie Swetnick, seems to have a few skeletons in her closet. 
She settled a $40,303 IRS judgement on March 23 of this year, according to a public records search. Maryland court records show a $62,821 tax lien filed against her on Oct. 2, 2015.
[National Post] Pork is the most widely consumed animal protein in the world. Representing more than 36 per cent of global meat-eating, a hit to production could have devastating effects. As a new Scientific American report suggests, a warming planet may result in skinnier pigs that produce less meat. The potential outcome: a future where pork is scarce and strips of bacon will cost you dearly.
