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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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There’s one main message Brett Kavanaugh had for viewers in his interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Monday: He didn’t do it.

Kavanaugh and his wife, Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, spoke with MacCallum in the first press appearance he’s made since multiple women have brought allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Kavanaugh has unequivocally denied all allegations and continued to do so during the interview.

“I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone in high school or otherwise,” Kavanaugh said countless times within the first 15 minutes. It’s a pattern that continued throughout the course of the interview, which featured a repetition of several rote phrases.

“I’m just asking for a fair process where I can be heard where I can defend my integrity,” he said repeatedly. “I’ve always treated women with dignity and respect.” We looked at several key phrases he returned to throughout the interview and what each of them helped to signal as Kavanaugh strives to defend himself.

Again and again, Kavanaugh returned to this defense as MacCallum confronted him with allegations from Christine Blasey Ford — who said he forced himself on her in high school — and Deborah Ramirez — who said he exposed himself to her while they were in college. It’s a hardline denial he’s been repeating since Ford first came forward and it’s one that we’ll likely hear many times during the hearing this Thursday.

As Vox’s Andrew Prokop has pointed out, the act of repeated and vehement denials of such allegations is a move right out of Trump’s own playbook for responding to claims of sexual misconduct.

In the MacCallum interview, Kavanaugh also pointed to his own testimony with Senate Judiciary staff during a phone call that took place last week, when he also unequivocally denied these allegations. “Under penalty of felony, I denied this categorically,” he said. He noted that three other individuals whom Ford has said were at the party where the alleged assault took place have not been able to corroborate her story.

Although Kavanaugh said he believed that Ford was telling the truth about experiencing a traumatic incident of sexual assault, he reiterated that he was not the one involved. The idea that she may be “mistaken” or “mixed up” is one that’s been floated repeatedly by Republicans who argue that they believe her, but just think she could be confused about the perpetrator. Lawmakers have already used the same argument to push back against Ramirez as well.

When pressed on whether he had ever considered withdrawing from this process, Kavanaugh took a more aggressive tack and firmly said that he would not be doing so. “I’m not going to let false accusations drive us out of this process,” he said. “I’m not going to go anywhere.”

This emphasis on the false nature of the allegations is a thread that continued after Kavanaugh was asked about accusations teased by attorney Michael Avenatti, who’s said that he has “credible information” from a woman alleging that Kavanaugh and his classmate Mark Judge targeted women with drugs and alcohol, so that they could be gang raped.

“That’s totally false and outrageous,” Kavanaugh said.

MacCallum offered Kavanaugh numerous opportunities to criticize Ford and Ramirez, to speculate on their motives, or to express anger at his own situation, but he never took the bait. Instead, he fell back, time and again, on the phrase, “I’m just asking for a fair process.”

Many of his repeated statements were well-crafted for the current #MeToo moment, but this one felt particularly strategic. While polls show the Republican base doubts Ford’s account, Kavanaugh’s approval ratings with the American people at large are the lowest of any nominee in decades, and have fallen since Ford came forward. Kavanaugh and his team may have guessed that in the #MeToo era, it wouldn’t look good for him to directly challenge Ford’s account. A far better idea, from a public-relations standpoint: invoking “due process.”

Critics of the #MeToo movement have frequently argued that depriving men of powerful jobs after sexual misconduct allegations is a violation of due process — even though the right to due process applies to trials, not employment. While Americans have a constitutional right not to be deprived of liberty without due process, no one has a constitutional right to serve on the Supreme Court. But by invoking “due process,” Kavanaugh was giving ammunition to those who think #MeToo goes too far.

Fairness also came up a lot in the interview — Kavanaugh called for a fair process multiple times, and at other points said, “America is about fairness, and hearing from both sides.” Such statements allowed him to insinuate that he was being treated unfairly without directly saying so, and risking looking bitter or resentful.

Asking over and over for a “fair process” gave Kavanaugh a response to MacCallum’s more probing questions so bland it was almost meaningless — and yet one that has a specific meaning for critics of #MeToo. He was able to avoid saying anything to outright offend supporters of the movement, while at the same time giving its opponents something to cheer for.

Kavanaugh took an interesting approach in his response to Ramirez’s allegations, specifically. Ramirez has said that she was at a drunken dorm party as a freshman at Yale where Kavanaugh “exposed himself … thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away,” according to a report by The New Yorker.

In an attempt to cast doubt on the fact that this incident happened, Kavanaugh emphasized that if he had done it, “it would have been the talk of campus.”

What’s odd about this approach is that this incident was the talk of campus. As The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer — one of the reporters behind the explosive Sunday story — told NBC News, it was actually Yale alumni emails about the incident that first began generating a furor around it over the summer. That chatter eventually reached Congress and the media, she says.

“What happened was, the classmates at Yale were talking to each other about it, they were emailing about it. We’ve seen the emails, back in July before Christine Blasey Ford came forward, and eventually word of it spread. It spread to the Senate. It spread to the media. And we [the New Yorker] reached out to her,” Mayer said in her interview.

Ever since his first confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh has touted his positive relationships with women, as well as his promotion of women as clerks in his office. “There’s a pipeline problem,” Kavanaugh said during one day of the hearing where he described how he was recruiting more women for clerkship opportunities. “As I’ve said, I’m breaking through that problem.”

Shortly after rumblings began to emerge about sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh, a group of 65 women who attended high school with him signed onto a letter attesting to the decency of his character.

Kavanaugh referenced the women who’ve support him through his schooling and this process again in both the Monday interview and a letter that he’s sent to the Judiciary Committee. “Women from every phase of my life have come forward to attest to my character. I am grateful to them. I owe it to them, and to my family, to defend my integrity and my name,” Kavanaugh wrote.

His frequent references to these women as part of the interview and throughout this confirmation process, appeared intended to signal that he could broadly be perceived as an ally to women. It’s a tactic that’s been used time and time again in cases related to sexual assault allegations even as it obscures the impact of potential sexual misconduct on the specific women who are alleging it.

Kavanaugh also sought to downplay what’s been described as a raucous drinking culture at Georgetown Prep, an all-boys private high school he attended. He seemingly aimed to counter this narrative in the Fox News interview with examples of a “wholesome” upbringing.

In both Ford and Ramirez’s allegations, Kavanaugh is described as heavily intoxicated and his drinking is mentioned by others as a factor that significantly affected his behavior. While speaking with MacCallum, Kavanaugh strove to paint a different picture.

“I was focused on academics and athletics, going to church every Sunday at Little Flower, working on my service projects, and friendship,” he said.

Kavanaugh also described being a virgin in high school and said he remained that way for “many years thereafter.” “I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years there after,” he said.

Original Source -> Brett Kavanaugh’s Fox News interview, explained in 5 phrases

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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jacknicholson1963 · 7 years

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Royal Navy parts cannibalisation – a concern or a crisis?

Taking spare parts and equipment from one Royal Navy vessel for use on another has always been standard practice on a modest scale. The National Audit Office recently published a report showing this ‘cannibalisation’ has increased in the past 5 years by 49%, an unsustainable growth rate that could further threaten the strength of the RN.

Parts ‘borrowed’ from other vessels, known as stores robbery (STOROB) only amount to around 1% of all the parts actually issued to RN vessels. Between 2016-17 there were 795 instances out of the approximately 80,000 parts the fleet received in that time. Recent media headlines have suggested “the RN is eating itself” which is clearly an exaggeration, by the standards of most navies the RN still has a good logistic support chain, but it is being significantly weakened.

Concerns that cannibalisation was getting out of hand were raised as long ago as 2005, at the time the MoD admitted: “this trend is likely to continue and we expect to rely heavily on this practice in the future”. It was reported that, even while HMS Bulwark was completing her construction in 2004, she was being robbed of parts to for her older sister HMS Albion. The practice has continued and during the completion of the final Type 45 HMS Duncan, the ME department produced a T-shirt with a long list of the equipment robbed from them for use on sister ships. Between 2004-05 there was a dramatic increase in STOROB across the RN, going from around 10 per month to 30 per month. Now in 2017, with a fleet 30% smaller, the average is around 66 cases per month.

STOROB may be the sensible or only possible solution in some circumstances. For the sake of speed, it can make sense to borrow parts from a nearby vessel rather than delay sailing or accept a critical defect. Delayed sailings can have knock-on consequences down the line as another ship cannot be relived on time. Today, as the RN is striving to keep promises to its people about leave and more predictable programmes, borrowing a spare part maybe a better solution than disrupting schedules. For older vessels, some parts may no longer be available or the manufacturer no longer exists, although this excuse is less plausible for the newer Astute class submarines and Type 45 destroyers.

A vicious circle

Borrowing parts from one vessel to fix another may be a pragmatic solution in the very short term but in the long run can cause other problems and is symptomatic of a fleet being allowed out by both large and small cuts to its budget. SDSR 2015 was seen as signalling a positive future but pressure on the RN budget has remained overwhelming. Since 2015 the Navy has cut about 34% (£92 million) from its maritime support in-year budgets, a decision of desperation as this was sure to lead to problems down the road. These budget cuts have inevitably led to a reduction is spares being purchased and in some cases full technical documentation for complex items has not been purchased form the manufacturers.

Every time a part is robbed from another vessel there are impacts. 71% of the items are valued at less than £5,000 but cost of cannibalisation can be more than the price of the part. Removing a part that is in-situ may cause damage to the donor vessel as other parts have to be removed to gain access and important cables or pipes disconnected. Around 11% of cannibalised parts are damaged during removal or transit, potentially doubling the defect problem. Removing some parts may also void manufacturers warranties which adds to the costs if problems develop in future. The confined spaces of submarines can make access difficult and the job time-consuming, diverting resources from scheduled maintenance. Besides the time used to access and remove components, the donor vessel must then conduct testing to assess the impact of the missing item. Most seriously the ability of the fleet to send additional ships to sea in an emergency is undermined. If vessels alongside have donated spares to their sisters to get them to sea, either they cannot sail or must deploy with defects if required at short notice.

The deterrent effect and power of a navy is not just the ships at sea on the frontline at a given time, but the availability of other ships ready to join or replace them. Manpower and spares shortages mean that the ‘paper’ strength of the RN is increasingly divorced from actual strength.

There is plenty of evidence that STOROB undermines the morale of engineers, particularly those serving on donor vessels who may be working hard to keep their vessel in peak condition, only to be told to remove working components. With an already serious shortage of engineering personnel, the last thing the RN needs are additional demoralising pressures.

Astute submarines

The cannibalisation of the Astute class submarines is perhaps the issue of greatest immediate concern highlighted by the NAO report. Costing well over £1Bn each, it is surprising that the active boats (the oldest of which has been in service for just 7 years) have had an annual average of 59 instances of cannibalisation. This is the equivalent of a part being removed or installed once every two days. In the past five years, the 3 boats recorded 506 defects, with 28% of them fixed through cannibalisation in 2016-17. The collision damage to HMS Ambush in 2016 has not helped the situation but it is clear that the problem existed long before this. Failure to purchase sufficient spares is another compounding factor in the troubled programme, boats under construction are being raided for spares need by those in service. Further cost-inducing delays undermine the availability of the critical SSN fleet which, during at least one week in 2017, was unable to put a single boat to sea.

The cannibalisation merry go round in the submarine fleet 2012-17. Clearly, an unhealthy situation that has contributed to the low availability of attack submarines. (NAO Analysis of MoD Data)

Civil Service cuts have consequences

The report highlights the complexity of warships and support required to keep them going. The logistic and maintenance requirement for warships is consistently underestimated and often leads to questions about the amount of time ships have to spend alongside. Many people are dismissive of the Civil Service support provided to the forces. These “pen pushers”, doing important jobs behind the frontline, have suffered major reductions in manpower since 2010 but without a matching reduction in workload. The MoD Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) agency which is responsible for the logistic support of all three services, maintains an inventory of parts valued at £2.7 billion for the RN alone. DE&S has serious staff shortfalls and is 21% below strength at present. In 2014 The RN even seconded 30 personnel to DE&S to improve the situation, although staff numbers are slowly recovering. While it is popular to talk of cutting support jobs to “focus on the frontline”, the navy cannot function without competent and dedicated people managing the equipment supply chain.

HMS Diamond loads Sea Viper missiles at the Upper Harbour Ammunitioning Facility in Portsmouth. Just how many of these expensive high-performance missiles the MoD has stockpiled are classified. It is widely understood that, like the stocks of spare parts, missile stocks are inadequate for a sustained conflict.

Strength in depth

If resolving the manpower shortage is the RN’s most serious problem, the next priority must be increasing stocks of spare parts, portable equipment, ammunition and missiles. This is another symptom of a ‘peacetime mindset’ that would quickly be exposed if the RN had to fight in a real conflict. We need a new emphasis on contingency planning, strength in depth and resilience both in manpower and logistics, even if it comes at the expense of new kit. Unfortunately with more cuts and “efficiencies” on the way it seems unlikely that the hollowing out of the RN is likely to be reversed anytime soon. Expenditure on mundane behind-the-scenes activity may not get the headlines but is the difference between a showpiece navy and a credible fighting fleet.

Investigation into equipment cannibalisation in the Royal Navy (National Audit Office)

MoD ‘approving cannibalisation of ships to keep the Royal Navy afloat’ (Civil Service World)

Royal Navy Is Eating Itself: ‘Cannibalization’ Up by Nearly 50 Percent (Sputnik – Russian Propaganda Channel)

from Save the Royal Navy http://www.savetheroyalnavy.org/royal-navy-parts-cannibalisation-a-concern-or-a-crisis/

#Save the Royal Navy

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