The Federalist reports Kavanaugh Accuser Co-Authored Study Citing Use of Hypnosis to Retrieve Memories.
> Christine Blasey Ford, a California woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of attempted rape in the 1980’s, co-authored an academic study that cited the use of hypnosis as a tool to retrieve memories in traumatized patients. The academic paper, entitled “Meditation With Yoga, Group Therapy With Hypnosis, and Psychoeducation for Long-Term Depressed Mood: A Randomized Pilot Trial,” described the results of a study the tested the efficacy of certain treatments on 46 depressed individuals. The study was published by the Journal of Clinical Psychology in May 2008.
> While the paper by Ford and several other co-authors focused on whether various therapeutic techniques, including hypnosis, alleviate depression, it also discussed the therapeutic use of hypnosis to “assist in the retrieval of important memories” and to “create artificial situations” to assist in treatment.
> Ford’s paper cited a controversial 1964 paper on the use of hypnosis to treat alcoholics and claimed that “hypnosis could be used to improve rapport in the therapeutic relationship, assist in the retrieval of important memories, and create artificial situations that would permit the client to express ego-dystonic emotions in a safe manner.” The study by Ford and her co-authors also used “self-hypnosis” to help treat their randomized sample of patients.
> The 2004 text by Spiegel and Spiegel referenced by Ford and her fellow researchers discusses in detail the use of hypnotism, and even self-hypnotism, to recover memories from traumatic episodes.
> “Remember that all hypnosis is really self-hypnosis,” the authors of the referenced 2004 text on hypnotism wrote. “[T]herefore, therapists are only tapping into their patients’ natural ability to enter trance state.”
> The authors noted that hypnosis as a means of recovering traumatic memories could also lead to the “contamination” of those memories.
> “Patients are highly suggestible and easily subject to memory contamination,” they noted.
Ex-Kavanaugh Classmate Confirms FBI Interview
The Hill reports Ex-Kavanaugh Classmate Confirms FBI Interview
> The lawyer for Patrick J. Smyth, a former classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, confirmed on Monday that his client has spoken to the FBI as part of its investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh.
> Eric Bruce, the attorney representing Smyth, said in a statement that Smyth reiterated his previous claim that he does not remember the party where Christine Blasey Ford claims Kavanaugh attacked her.
> “He truthfully answered every question the FBI asked him and, consistent with the information he previously provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, he indicated that he has no knowledge of the small party or gathering described by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, nor does he have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh,” the statement concluded.
Kavanaugh Accuser Backtracks on Key Assault Claims in NBC Interview
ZeroHedge reports “I Don’t Know What He Did” – Kavanaugh Accuser Backtracks
> In an interview with NBC news, Swetnick said that while she saw Kavanaugh aggressively hit on women at parties, she denied that she actually witnessed him participate in the rapes. She also said Kavanaugh wasn’t a member of a group of boys who assaulted her during one of these parties.
> She added that Kavanaugh is an “admitted blackout drunk and drug addict.”
Excuse me for asking but when did Kavanaugh ever admit to either of those charges? And what about her changing story?
> Swetnick’s interviewer, Kate Snow, noted this before the interview and added that some details of Swetnick’s account differed from her sworn affidavit.
> “NBC News, for the record, has not been able to independently verify her claims. There are things she told us on camera that differ from her written statements last week.”
Her lawyer, Avenatti insists that his client has been 100% truthful.
Excuse me for asking, but is that now or then, or neither?
Carnival Continues
With nearly everyone’s mind made up, despite the inconsistencies, the carnival will continue culminating in a final vote later this week or next.
This Week Says McConnell
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Senate will hold a Vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court Nomination This Week.
Conspiracy Theory
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday accused NBC of being a “co-conspirator” in an attempt to bring down Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“They’ve been a co-conspirator in the destruction of Kavanaugh from my point of view,” Graham said during an appearance on Fox News’s “Hannity.”
Flake on 60 Minutes
The spotlight is on Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
It appears increasingly likely that the vote will come down to Flake. He likes being in the news. He gave a positive vote for Kavanaugh in the Senate Judiciary Committee only to immediately start questioning Kavanaugh.
Flake next said that if he was not retiring (some believe to run for president) that he would never have been able to question Kavanaugh.
Consider this 60 Minutes Exchange of Flake and Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes:”
PELLEY: Senator Flake, you’ve announced that you’re not running for re-election and I wonder, could you have done this, if you were running for re-election?
FLAKE: No, not a chance.
PELLEY: Not a chance?
FLAKE: No, no.
PELLEY: Because politics has become too sharp, too partisan?
FLAKE: There’s no value to reaching across the aisle. There’s no currency for that anymore. There’s no incentive.
Truthful Hypocrisy
Flake thus admitted that if he was running for Senate as a Republican, he would not be questioning Kavanaugh.
This is truthful hypocrisy at it finest.
Bear in mind that there are likely several Democrat supporters of Kavanaugh in the exact same position.
At least two Democrat Senators minds are not yet made up (or so they say). It could be a setup to make McConnell believe he has the votes when he doesn’t.
Lunch With Jeff Flake
Lights, Action, Camera
Flake now says he Took a Stand to Save a Broken Senate.
Please note that Flake was only willing to take a stand because he is not attempting re-election for the Senate.
That’s quite a “stand”, no doubt fitting of one with higher aspirations.
Man Without a Party
Flake now says I Sometimes Feel Like I’m ‘Without a Party’
Damn. Is he running for president as a Democrat?
What better way than to vote out Kavanaugh?
Well, who knows? I sure don’t. But I don’t trust admitted hypocrites.
If the Vote Fails?
Why not start the process all over? With a new candidate?
Don’t be silly!
Lindsey Graham says If Kavanaugh Vote Fails, Trump Should Re-Nominate Him.
Demagoguery Zoo
Were Trump to renominate Kavanaugh, I believe that would constitute the ultimate political circus.
Strike that. This is neither a circus nor a carnival.
This is a purposeful media- and politically-sponsored demagoguery zoo with no cages and no zookeeper.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Just the Kavanugh thing is a circus ? Everything else is just fine? I’m sure Republicans never would do what the Democrats are doing and vice versa right Mish ?
So, Ford never earned her Doctorate, why do the Communist-Democrats give her that title?
Libertarians should be concerned about Kavanaugh. See
Flake proves again the utterly unbounded scope of human ambition. Megalomania in a nice suit, with a finger in the wind. If there was ever a poster child for picking all candidates for political office by random selection, surely he is it. Pick from tax rolls, test screen for a modicum of critical thinking skills and…very important…term limit them. Serving the people in an elected office should be viewed in the same regard as a jury summons: Somebody’s got to do it.
Other option would be to remove all money from politics so no more Koch Brothers funded Republican creeps that fool voters with some tough talk and massive advertising and then vote for amnesty and open borders like Koch Brothers want.
How much did “Meditation With Yoga, Group Therapy With Hypnosis, and Psychoeducation for Long-Term Depressed Mood: A Randomized Pilot Trial,” cost the taxpayer? Sheesh…
Also, according to Wikipedia, Flake has “not ruled out a GOP primary challenge to President Donald Trump in 2020”, so perhaps explains why this Republican is acting like a Democrat or perhaps there is something in the Arizona air which makes this happen to their Republican politicians.
This story aside, prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, who questioned Ford during the hearing, released a memo indicating that Ford impeached herself several times, which Karl Denninger had noted on his blog, prior to the Mitchell memo.
“Flake now says he took a stand to save a broken senate.”
There is no saving a broken senate. One only has to look at the Roman Empire to see the handwriting on the wall. Past is prologue.
How do Dems pick up more seats in Nov? It is not by getting more left wing nut jobs – there are only so many people with CTE. A better way is to get Republican voters to turn on their establishment candidates or not show up at the polls at all out of disgust, if Kavanaugh is not voted in.
I agree with Armstrong – this is a tipping point for our Republic. Conservatives may not get off the couch to stop the Cavanaugh circus from taking down a good man, but after the economic reset (crash and burn), that has been caused by self-interested establishment fraud and corruption, they will be grabbing their pitchforks and guns and hunting down a villain to blame – and a couple of dozen names in CONgress, FBI, DOJ, and media come immediately to mind.
The main conclusion from this debacle created by the extreme Leftists — it is time to amend the Constitution by eliminating the Senate.
Back in the 1780s, the Anti-Federalists were afraid the Senate would degrade into some kind of aristocratic body with no concern for the general populace. Today we see the Anti-Federalists were right. There are disreputable individuals everywhere in the Senate – McCain holding grimly onto his seat until death at last removes him; nasty Feinstein spending so much of her life in the Senate, and doing harm to the country; Murkowski inheriting her father’s seat as if it were a dukedom.
It is time to flush the Senate and the Senators down the toilet of historical mistakes. Replace it with a Convention of the State Governors meeting in Oklahoma City for no more than 30 days each year. The Governors would have no power to write laws or approve laws — only to veto laws passed by the House and any regulations implemented by Federal bureaucrats.
You could apply term limits. And in the house perhaps sweeping boundary reform might be needed. That could destroy a few rotten boroughs.
Term limit of 12 years max and no more Murkowski style “daddy chose me” style access to Senate and instead demand that all senators get there through primary if a senator leaves in the middle of the term.
The WaPo has a front page story about how Kavanaugh is simply a manifestation of white male republican fear.
Sechel, how can this not be important? At this point any vote against Kavanaugh is a vote for tyranny. If hysterical politics are allowed to lower the threshold at which a man’s life can be ruined to an uncorroborated accusation of a 36 yr old event to which the time and place cannot be established or remembered, mob rule will prevail. No decent human being will bother to accept public office.
Mish you have a terrible blind spot, an inability to read people.
Great for ratings though.
Watching Hannity is like watching a repeat of the preceeding Tucker Carlson show, with Sean repeating the same things he has said so many times before. I’m amazed that Tucker can still get lefties to come on his show to debate.
I have become tired of this circus and cannot wait until this vote is over. I care not which way it goes but I feel sorry for all that Cavanaugh has went through because this whole affair has absolutely no evidence backing up the claims and witnesses even deny they were at such a party. This appears to be straight up Leftist tactics, although the Republicans might now do the same when the roles are reversed. People who want a Democratic wave this fall can look at this show to see what they will get. Both parties are trash. There are very few good Congress members left on either side.
Republicans have gone along with leftist democrat SCOTUS nominations in the recent past. I’m sure they regret being nice guys now. Game on.