Jump to content


Senator Al Franken accused of sexual assault.


QMany

Recommended Posts

This is a good read and details how politics can put 'blinders' on us.  The political left of center is now coming to terms

with what Bill Clinton did and how it compromised Hillary.  The article concludes that Hillary was hamstrung

by Bill's past when any other candidate would have been able to cut Trump down to size when it came to his womanizing and abusive behavior.

I'm waiting for the blinders to fall off of those right of center in regards to Moore, Trump, etc. 

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/what-hillary-knew/546170/

 

A few quotes:

 

Broaddrick’s account—now accepted not just by a vast right-wing conspiracy, but also by a gathering number of liberal writers—is of an attack as brutal and unambiguous as the worst of the alleged assaults by Harvey Weinstein. Clinton, she says, manipulated his way into her hotel room, threw her down on the bed, yanked off her pantyhose, and raped her. She says he bit her lip hard enough to leave it bloodied. “You better put some ice on that,” she remembers him telling her as he walked out the door, headed off to his important work of feeling other people’s pain.

When I have talked about these matters with progressives over the past week, I have encountered a fairly consistent response. It is no longer a frank denial of the weight and gravity of Broaddrick’s testimony. Rather it is a frustrated and dismissive statement of fact, one that can be reduced to the following formulation: I feel sorry for Juanita Broaddrick, but Bill Clinton was an excellent president. It’s a sentiment that encompasses the bitter and irreducible truth about being female in this world. There is sympathy for a rape victim—but she shouldn’t go around destroying a man’s reputation or family or career. Rape, unlike murder, is accepted as such an unremarkable fact of the human experience that a woman who spends years seeking redress for the crime comes to be viewed as some kind of lunatic, rejected lover, or tool of a vast conspiracy.

 

Liberals seem almost giddy with relief, admitting what they believe—which is how it always feels when you finally decide that you’re going to say what you really think and to hell with the consequences. The truth does set you free, but it usually comes at a price, which is why it will probably take another 20 years to open The New York Times and read an editorial called “Hillary Knew.”

 

As first lady, Hillary Clinton created a children’s health-insurance program that continues to provide health care to millions of American children; as a U.S. senator, she secured the billions of federal dollars necessary to right the great damage done to New York City and its residents after 9/11.  But in addition to these great and good works, she must have looked at the facts about Juanita Broaddrick and decided to put them in the same locked box where she kept the truth of Bill’s consensual affairs. As a wife, she had every right to do that. But as a Democratic candidate for president—one whose historic campaign was largely centered on the glass ceiling and the rise of women—she had a Grand Canyon–size vulnerability, as she learned a year before the general election when she blithely tweeted out this corker: “Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported.”

 

Donald Trump, as a presidential candidate, posed the greatest existential threat to progressive goals and values of the past half century. He also had a long string of women come forward with very credible accounts of sexual harassment and misconduct. A different Democratic candidate would have cut him off at the knees for that, but Hillary had to be careful because of her husband’s past and because of her own widely believed complicity in helping to marginalize and silence his accusers.  

So maybe, in the end, she’s one more casualty of the truly vast conspiracy: the one that swings into action every time a woman stands up—usually alone, and almost always afraid—and says, “He raped me.”

 

 

  • Plus1 1
Link to comment

20 hours ago, TGHusker said:

 

I 100% believe Leanne Tweeden's story about the unwanted kiss, (and think it is unacceptible), I think the photo constitutes a violation of her rights, as well.  The characterization of "groping" is going into the realm of make-believe inflammatory speculation, IMO.  

 

And this revelation from Melanie Morgan is just plain opportunistic, hypocritical and purposefully inflammatory as well.  Is it true?  I'd like to see a little more corroboration.  Witnesses, phone records, etc.  Her track record in this area is extremely hypocritical:

 

https://player.fm/series/the-trevor-carey-show/update-on-sex-surveys-at-fresno-unified-melanie-morgan-on-roy-moore-allegations

 

7 days ago on a conservative talk show railing against Roy Moore accusers "rushing to judgement" and she discredits the victims extensively.

 

She has also been a loud proponent of Bill O'Reily's through his sexual misconduct issues.

 

 

Edited by Kiyoat Husker
  • Plus1 3
Link to comment
12 minutes ago, Kiyoat Husker said:

 

I 100% believe Leanne Tweeden's story about the unwanted kiss, (and think it is unacceptible), I think the photo constitutes a violation of her rights, as well.  The characterization of "groping" is going into the realm of make-believe inflammatory speculation, IMO.  

 

And this revelation from Melanie Morgan is just plain opportunistic, hypocritical and purposefully inflammatory as well.  Is it true?  I'd like to see a little more corroboration.  Witnesses, phone records, etc.  Her track record in this area is extremely hypocritical:

 

https://player.fm/series/the-trevor-carey-show/update-on-sex-surveys-at-fresno-unified-melanie-morgan-on-roy-moore-allegations

 

7 days ago on a conservative talk show railing against Roy Moore accusers "rushing to judgement" and she discredits the victims extensively.

 

She has also been a loud proponent of Bill O'Reily's through his sexual misconduct issues.

 

 

I didn't know anything about her until I saw the article.  But it is a more than a bit hypocritical for her to be defending Moore/O'Reily or not taking seriously charges against them seriously.   I wonder if see had made more comments about Moore since coming out with her story.  Maybe her better angel got a hold of her and she started to think differently - reflecting back to her situation and comparing it to the Moore situation.  I can only hope.  Otherwise, one could say she was 'standing by her men' just like Hillary stood by Bill when she knew better.

Link to comment

Here's where we start to talk about Franken resigning.  Not after one disputed allegation, but now there's two. One person accuses you, it may just be a difference of opinion.

 

Two people accuse you, and it starts to look like a pattern. 

 

 

Quote

 

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A second woman has accused Minnesota Sen. Al Franken of inappropriate touching.

 

Lindsay Menz tells CNN that Franken placed his hand on her bottom as they posed for a photo at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010, two years into Franken’s first term.

 

The 33-year-old Menz told CNN that the interaction made her feel “gross.” She says she immediately told her husband that Franken had “grabbed” her bottom.

 

Franken told CNN he didn’t remember taking the photo with Menz, but that he feels badly that she felt disrespected.

 

Los Angeles broadcaster Leeann Tweeden accused Franken last week of forcibly kissing her during a USO tour in 2006, before he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

 

Franken’s office has not responded to Associated Press messages seeking comment Monday.

 

 

Link to comment

Franken doesn't agree that he assaulted Tweeden, says it was misinterpreted. The photo doesn't show him groping her, the photographer says Tweeden was awake faking sleep and in on the joke - and it was a joke. The script calls for a kiss in that scene. 

 

Yes, there's dispute there.  Every instance where a woman claims sexual harassment isn't sexual harassment. 

  • Plus1 4
Link to comment

I stand corrected. I had heard on multiple platforms that it was staged, and I (obviously) hadn't seen a direct quote from the photographer.

 

I agree - what I should have said is it's questionable if Tweeden was truthful - but the same is true of Franken.  Now, with two women saying the same/similar things, Franken's denials get more difficult.

 

I wasn't on board with a resignation before. But if more - and more credible - stories come out, then the probability of his innocence/this being a witch hunt to counter the Moore story diminishes. 

  • Plus1 2
Link to comment

Knap may have mistakenly used a fake quote about the photographer, but there is still the matter of Mrs. Tweeden stating that "he groped me" while simultaneously admitting that she was not aware of the situation (she was sleeping) until she had seen the photo.  She was basing her assumption that she was groped solely on the photo, according to her own account.

 

I'm not saying it did or did not happen, but that is an awfully big assumption to make based on that photo, IMO.  Especially when she has repeatedly stated she was groped.  She has talked about being groped on Twitter, on CNN, on The View, on her radio show, etc.  

 

That language is very inflammatory, considering that neither she, nor the media that uses it as a headline, can reasonably assume that anything more than that photo happened.  There is no apparent physical contact in the photo.  She was wearing a flack vest and layers of clothing.  If "groping" actually occurred, why did it not wake her?  Maybe we should all make the assumption that she had been drugged, too?

 

Again,  The kiss happened, the photo happened.  The photo definitely constitutes some form of harassment, no question.  I just feel like the assumptions and characterizations of "groping" are unfair.  Language matters, and its being used as a weapon here.

  • Plus1 3
Link to comment
On 11/20/2017 at 3:08 PM, Kiyoat Husker said:

She was wearing a flack vest and layers of clothing.  If "groping" actually occurred, why did it not wake her?  Maybe we should all make the assumption that she had been drugged, too?

 

 

I'm making an assumption here that you're a man. On top of that I've never talked to other women about this.

 

But speaking as someone who has boobs, there is only one part of them that's sensitive. I would say they are one of the least sensitive parts of the body unless there is a lot of pressure (in which case it can be very painful). Even just wearing a tshirt I can't feel anything unless there's a lot of pressure. There's really not a lot of pleasure out of booby touching for the woman (other than the sensitive part I suppose) except that you're happy and turned on because you're making your partner happy and turned on. I know I'm not speaking for all women here but that's how it is for a lot of women.

 

So, there is your daily lesson on boobies.

Edited by Moiraine
  • Plus1 1
Link to comment

Another thing to add to Morianes comments ... they get in the way, and they're sometimes where you don't expect them to be.  There are many times that I've been brushed up against, or touched there when it was not intended, and not what I'd consider groping.

 

Now I agree with Kiyots comments, and I also want to add that I can not count how many times the same scenario (being inadvertantly touched on the backside) has happened during photos and the like.  Al Franken has admitted to inappropriate behavior with Tweeden, and has apologized for that and all the others.  He may very well be guilty of these, but to me his scenario smells a lot different than Clinton, Trump, Moore, etc, etc, etc.  I think he's getting strung up.

  • Plus1 2
Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...