Thursday, April 30, 2020

Thursday post going up Friday

I came back to read over my "Ken Olin is disgusting trash" and saw that I did not post my Thursday post.  Sorry, here it is now:

Nick Gillespie.  I know him from Bill Moyers' PBS show.  Mr. Gillespie was a guest -- I believe a frequent guest.  He is a Libertarian.  This is from a piece he wrote today for REASON:


Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, should be disqualified from being president if he sexually assaulted a former staffer, says Rep. Justin Amash (L–Mich.), who is running for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination. "I think anyone is disqualified if they've engaged in some kind of assault, especially a sexual assault," the 40-year-old five-term congressman told Reason in an exclusive, wide-ranging interview.
At least 25 women have accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. When asked if he could state that he has never assaulted or behaved improperly toward anyone, Amash said, "Yes, I can say that definitively."
About a month ago, a former Biden staffer named Tara Reade told journalist Katie Halper that Biden, then a senator from Delaware, kissed her without permission, pushed her up against a wall, and penetrated her with his fingers. Reade's charges have been mostly ignored or dismissed by high-profile Democrats, even though Biden in the past has said that when women make such charges, "you've got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she's talking about is real." He also acknowledged in a video statement last year that he had invaded "the personal space" of women over the years. He released the video after several women complained that he had kissed their necks, sniffed their hair, and rubbed their noses without permission. The silence among many pundits and politicians who have championed the #MeToo movement has led critics to charge them hypocrisy and opportunism.

Mr. Amash is correct.  That is why I say Joe Biden needs to drop out.  He is not fit to be the president.  And we deserve better.




This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:" for tonight:

 
Thursday, April 30, 2020.  It's all just so disgusting.


March 24th, Tara Reade came forward with allegations that Joe Biden assaulted her in 1993 when she was working in his Senate office.  He made it through March without ever speaking on the topic and it appears he'll make it through April again.

It's disrespect.  It's disrespect and it's insulting to any survivor.  It's Joe Biden saying, "I want the most important job in the land but I don't have to talk about a rape allegation."  Why?  Because it's not a serious topic to him.  It never has been.  Forget the talking points, he's no friend to women.  Friends to women don't tell other senators that Anita Hill was lying.  Friends to women don't refuse to call witnesses who can support Anita Hill.  Friends to women don't refuse to apologize to Anita Hill.  Joe's just another Bob Packwood.  Maybe he got some on the side via consent but Tara's not the only woman he assaulted.  There are now three other women considering coming forward.

Over a month where he refused to address the topic because it's not a 'real' topic to him because he doesn't respect women.


At THE DAILY BEAST, Erin Gloria Ryan offers "I Take Tara Reade's Allegations Against Biden Seriously and I'm Still Voting For Him.  Here's Why."

Stop, Erin, we know why.  You're a whore. You're gutter trash.

If you take allegations of assault seriously, you don't then announce you're voting for the man accused of assault.  What you're saying is, "Every victim who thinks you survived?  You didn't.  Because you don't matter to me.  I will vote for your attacker because you mean nothing.  You think a rapist made you feel bad? I'm going to publicly support your rapist and drive home the point that a man can get away with any crime in the world."

Erin's a whore.

B-b-b-but these are our only choices -- Donald or Joe!!!!!

No they're not the only choices.  First of all, Joseph Kishore and Gloria La Riva have already won their party's presidential nomination.  Second of all, Howie Hawkins and Dario Hunter are vying for the Green Party nomination while Adam Kokesh is seeking the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination.

So there are other choices.  Even within the Democratic Party, there are other choices.  Joe Biden does not have enough delegates to win the nomination currently.  He was always a weak candidate.  People who take Tara's allegations seriously, pay attention Whore Erin, should be pressuring the Democratic Party leaders to line up behind another candidate.  We don't need Joe.  We don't want Joe.

At JACOBIAN, Andrew Sernatinger explains:

Days after Bernie Sanders announced that he was suspending his campaign in the 2020 Democratic primary, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) tweeted its position: “We are not endorsing Joe Biden.” Liberal journalists and prominent Democrats weren’t happy. Two full-length articles soon targeted DSA’s decision, including an open letter by members of the original Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and a polemic by Harold Meyerson suggesting that non-endorsement was the path to becoming “a sect of blinkered Trotskyists thrilled by their display of callous, moronic rectitude.”
But the decision was democratically decided by DSA after serious deliberation and debate, and it is the stance all socialists should take. Socialists should not endorse Joe Biden.
I say this as the author of the resolution that was proposed and approved at DSA’s 2019 biennial convention, the highest decision-making body of our organization, with over a thousand delegates representing roughly fifty-five thousand members. Leading up to the convention, members submitted resolutions for consideration. Among those resolutions was my own, R15: “In the Event of a Sanders Loss,” which stated: “Be it therefore resolved, the Democratic Socialists of America will not endorse another Democratic Party presidential candidate should Bernie Sanders not prevail.”
As I explained at the time, it was important to decide proactively what we would do in the likely scenario that Sanders was not the Democratic nominee: “When the pressure of the election season is in full swing, it will be tempting to fall in line with the host of organizations calling for support of the Democrats. There isn’t a win here. As an organization, DSA should make it clear that we will not endorse corporate politicians, especially as this will create divisions among our own membership.” 

Delegates first moved to include this resolution on our agenda in July, then heard the motion at convention, debated, and passed it. The floor overwhelmingly voted in favor of the resolution.
The convention affirmed that this was an important question to consider in 2019, and then democratically decided that the position of Democratic Socialists of America is that we would support Bernie Sanders but no other Democratic nominee. Far from blocking the will of the membership, DSA used the highest decision-making body with the most representatives of the organization to decide on its position.

The process for making this decision was a democratic one. But beyond a question of process, there’s the more basic political question: Why would a socialist organization endorse a neoliberal, warmongering politician like Joe Biden?


The resistance to Joe was always tremendous.  That was before Tara came forward, long before.  He is not a good choice.  He can't speak coherently in an interview.  Despite being 'rested' for weeks now, he still loses it and stumbles and fumbles through friendly interviews.  He's not up for a presidential campaign.  It's time to dump him.  If the party fails to, don't come whining after the election about how Joe lost because of this or that -- Joe's a loser and that's a known right now.




Again, he's a loser.

And when you factor in Tara Reade -- and you do have to factor her in -- there's no reason to stick up for Joe Biden.





Over at NPR, the laughable Asma Khalid tries to act like she's a reporter -- this after her failures (intentional) last week.  This go round, she's 'reporting.'  How?  She interviews one of the women Rich McHugh spoke with last week who was told about the assault by Tara.  That's 'reporting' for Asma.  She also notes -- without crediting Ryan Grim -- the phone call Tara's late mother made to THE LARRY KING SHOW back in 1993.  In other words, she gathers up the work of others and passes it off as her own.

Most laughable moment?  When she declares, "A lot of the women speaking up here defending Joe Biden are echoing the message that we've heard from Biden's campaign. They point to his strong legislative record of supporting women, and they say that women have a right to be heard, but they believe this specific allegation just did not happen."


Are they echoing it, Asma?

As we noted yesterday,   Ruby Cramer and Rosie Gray (BUZZFEED) report:

While Joe Biden has remained publicly silent about a sexual assault allegation made against him, his presidential campaign has sought to coordinate and unify Democratic messaging on the matter, advising surrogates earlier this month to say that the allegation “did not happen.”
The Biden campaign circulated talking points among top Democratic supporters shortly after the New York Times published a story earlier this month about the allegation by Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office who says he assaulted her in 1993.
With good news and bad, talking points are standard fare on presidential campaigns. In substance, the private guidance largely hews to the sole public statement on the matter from Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield.
But the messaging shows that while Biden has stayed quiet on the allegations on the eve of his nomination, aides were taking the claims seriously enough behind the scenes to coordinate messaging among other Democrats to try to cast the matter as one that’s been thoroughly vetted and determined to be unfounded.

They're not "echoing" it, Asma, they're reciting the talking points -- written talking points -- coming out of the Biden campaign.  Why is it so hard for Asma to tell the truth?

I know she blames rape on the victims.  I know that.  NPR friends have explained just how ridiculous she is.  She should have been pulled from the story long, long ago.  Hell, she never should have been assigned to it in the first place based on comments she's made about rape victims to her co-workers.


Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is not working for New Yorkers.  She has made that clear.  We're no longer interested in press releases from her office.  She stated yesterday, "I support Vice President Biden."  Thanks for clarifying.  You don't support women.  You don't support victims.  You're seat in the Senate is nothing but a position for you to use to advocate on behalf of Joe Biden.

Thanks for clarifying.  I'm sorry now that I had your back when Claire was going after you.  Trust me, I won't have your back again.  You've made your choice.

It's not a feminist position, let's be clear.  The feminist position for those sympathetic to Joe Biden would be: I'm not supporting anyone at this point because these allegations need to be addressed, vetted and deliberated over in the public square.

Saying, "I'm voting for him anyway"?  That's saying that Tara doesn't matter.  Your sister doesn't matter. Your daughter doesn't matter.  Your mother doesn't matter.  No woman matters.  It's saying that our job, as women, is to support a rapist.

The hideous Alyssa Milano has an interview with DEADLINE.  Why?  To pretend her career isn't over.  Alyssa has been under pressure for her hypocrisy.  After the low, low numbers for her recent podcast, she realized she'd damaged her 'brand.'  So on Monday, she wanted to insist to Tara "I see you, I hear you."  But she's still supporting Biden.

That's the very definition of rape culture.

A man is accused and women rush to prop him up.  They are the zombies who stand by their husbands at press conferences while the men explain why they cheated or raped or did whatever they did.

Alyssa can't maintain this position and pretend to care about women.

We're not going to do a lengthy quote again from my comments regarding Bob Filner.  I considered Bob a friend.  I did not rush out with, "I'm supporting Bob!"  I said the women deserved to be heard and I didn't put my finger on the scales by saying, "I support Bob!"  I made clear that if what was accused happened that there was no excuse for it.

Alyssa's not doing that.

She's making clear the opposite.

There is an excuse for it -- that's her argument.  The excuse is that we 'need' Joe.  No one needs Joe Biden.  And for her to refuse to say, "I'm stepping back"?  That's outrageous.  She's outrageous.

She is not a leader of anything.  She is not a feminist.  She is not a friend to survivors.  She's made it clear that if a woman steps forward, she will lie about them.

Alyssa did lie about Tara.  She smeared Tara.

And her attempt to rescue her 'brand' by saying, "I see you . . . I hear you"?

That's nonsense.  Where's her apology?  Where's her, "I'm sorry I lied to Andy Cohen and told the world that Times Up and I discussed you and we agreed that you were not telling the truth."  That's what she did.

Alyssa's a whore.  After Joe's next assault, Alyssa will probably show up offering to clean Joe's penis of any physical evidence -- knowing Alyssa, to clean it with her mouth.


Rose McGowan is a truth teller.  Alyssa is not.  From Rose McGowan:

I’m really sad, and I’m really tired. I normally share thoughts, but tonight it’s emotion.




I agree with Rose.  This is an awful time.  Women are being devalued yet again and by other women.  We are told that the Democratic Party is the party of women -- and certainly women make up a significant number of voters in the party -- but it's time to shut up and support a rapist?

I don't think so.

The Democratic Party needs me, not the other way around.  I am not a servant nor a slave to a political party.  And I'm certainly not going to take orders from politicians -- people, who please remember, are our servants and work for us.


At POLITICO, an adviser to a woman being considered as Joe Biden's running mate states, "The #MeToo movement was an over-correction to decades of ignoring women and not believing them. And what we’re seeing now is a result of that over-correction."

It's the death of #MeToo.  What a proud moment for Alyssa Milano and the other hacktresses who tried to hop that train.  They didn't help real victims.  They tried to spin it around and make it about money -- why, oh, why can't I get millions for a movie even though no one ever pays to see me in any movies and I'm older and uglier and had to flee to TV?

The real women in the real world got no help because the Mira Sorvinos aren't about helping women.  They're about justifying their bad choices.  As Ava and I observed in 2018's "MEDIA: Male norms, Russia hate and lots of excuses -- it's the 90th Academy Awards:"

But we couldn't ponder that too long because Mira Sorvino was insisting that "everyone is getting a voice to express something that's been happening forever -- not only in Hollywood, but everywhere."

Really?

Everyone?

Because the victims without money and fame still have to struggle, Mira, you know, the way you struggled after winning an Academy Award for comedy, struggled to become a dramatic actress and were soundly rejected because you didn't have the chops for it or the smarts to stick to comedy?

Harvey destroyed Mira's career?

We kind of think THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS, SUMMER OF SAM, MIMIC and WISEGIRLS beat him to the punch.



So the already famous and well off got to ride the #MeToo train to further attention and now that a person with an actual assault comes forward, Tara Reade, it's time for Alyssa and others to shut the movement down.

Rose had skin in the game, Alyssa never had anything.  She tried to ride it and anything else to give her failed career some traction.  When a woman really needs MeToo, when she needs actual support, it's time to say, "I hear you but I'm still voting for Joe."

Which says it doesn't matter.  Rape doesn't matter.  Assault doesn't matter.  None of it matters.  It's a hideous message to send to women.  It's appalling and outrageous.  It's shameful.

You do that to pimp Joe Biden all you want, but don't you dare tell me or any other survivor that because you're whoring that we have to too.  No, I don't have to whore.  And I'm not going to.  I understand Rose's frustrations and I share them.




The MeToo movement should mean that we do not have to stake our political salvation on silencing survivors. That's a lousy bargain for everyone — and survivors should not be shamed into accepting it. I am not at all convinced we sacrifice the greater good of maintaining Biden’s candidacy by sacrificing a willingness to hear Tara Reade. That is a feel-good untruth — a lie based in a political calculation that we are stronger when survivors are silent about the harm men do. This bad faith is far worse than bad timing.
Many have questioned Reade’s motivations, including those who don’t want to push her allegations back into the shadows that MeToo has done so much to illuminate. After all, the allegations are not new. So why are we hearing about them now? If her claims were investigated when Biden was vetted as Obama's VP pick, why were they not disqualifying?
Reade's allegations recall the belated airing of Christine Blasey Ford's claims about Brett Kavanaugh and why FBI background checks failed to follow up on the whispers around the Supreme Court justice's youthful drunken behavior. And Blasey Ford came forward, as did Anita Hill, when the timing was both political and urgent.
Does anyone believe such allegations are unlikely to come forward in the future? How will we deal with them then? Will it be any better if we don’t figure out how to hear Reade now?


No, it won't.

Jeffrey St. Clair Tweets about Stacey Abrams ridiculous repeating of the Biden campaign's talking points:


Stacey has passed the first phase of her audition. For her next challenge, she will explain why Biden's vote for the Iraq War was actually a vote against the Iraq War.


American women don't matter to Joe Biden supporters, why should we be surprised that they don't care about the Iraqi people who have seen their country destroyed?


The following sites updated: