Wednesday, April 29, 2020

F**k you, Kirsten Gillibrand

Here's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Ridin With Biden."

biden gals

Now let's talk about Tara Reade.  Did you read this garbage:

Asked by reporters Tuesday, Gillibrand said she doesn’t see a contradiction between how Democratic lawmakers are handling Reade’s allegations and how they handled allegations levied against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford in 2018, which Kavanaugh denied during congressional testimony.
“No, and I stand by Vice President Biden. He has devoted his life to supporting women and he has vehemently denied this allegation,” the New York Democrat said.

Kirsten Gillibrand is no friend to women.  Not anymore.  She's a scared little bitch who regrets calling out Al Franken because men were mean to her after. 

F**k you, bitch.

As a rape survivor, I have no respect for a little titty baby who can't stand on her own two feet.

Tara's telling the truth.  Joe Biden is a rapist.  Kirsten is covering up for a rapist.  Bitch better not expect me to defend her.  You can be sure she's going to have a primary challenge.  There are too many people who hate her.  If they try to replace her, bitch is on her own.

F**k you, Kirsten.

She's a liar, a coward and a hypocrite.

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


Wednesday, April 29, 2020.  Joe Biden's been issuing talking points and that's apparently all Stacey can repeat publicly, shameful women in Congress refuse to speak out, and much more.


Tara Reade has accused Joe Biden of assault.  The dimmest of the dim is Nancy LeTourneau.  Where does she work?  THE DNC organ WASHINGTON MONTHLY.  She's not just a whore, she's really, dumb whore.  Apparently ignoring the evidence that has emerged over the last seven or so days was Nancy's guiding principle.  Whores like Nancy don't seem to grasp that they may fool some in the present but that women will not forget this and that she's destroyed her own career because this moment will be her defining moment when people look back.  "What Is Disturbing ABout Nancy LeTourneau's Allegations" -- to steal the title to her own bad article (no link to gutter trash) is that she's hoping you're stupid.

"After choosing to remain anonymous to other reporters, two of Reade’s friends confirmed to Rich McHugh that she had told them about the assault at the time."  Who writes that stupidity but a whore named Nancy?  They didn't choose to remain anonymous.  They were never asked by the press.  That's why they came forward.  Nancy's not just a whore, she's a lying whore.  Women will not forget.  Sure, some delusional bitches will applaud her right now (maybe her media crush Joan Walsh), but this is career suicide.  She better start penning some opus about how women are destroying the world because this article means her only future is as anti-woman writer who plugs her books on FOX NEWS.



Yesterday, Hillary Clinton endorsed Joe Biden and CNN's Chris Cilliza is heartbroken that Joe didn't use the opportunity to 'address' Tara's allegations:

Biden and his side are operating under the assumption that if they don't give Reade's allegations any more than the statement offered by deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield -- in which she denies Reade's claims -- then this will all go away shortly. There's plenty of reason to believe that is not, in fact, the case.

Talk about whoring.  You don't get to be a bigger whore than Chris without a lamp promising you seven wishes.  Joe refuses to speak publicly.  That doesn't mean he "and his side" are not doing anything.

Nancy LeTourneau's awful article reads like it was written by his campaign.  It was certainly shaped by them as so much of the coverage has been.  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.

It's time to stop that.  If you want to end rape culture, you end it.  That means no one who's accused gets to hide behind skirts and coordinate the coverage.

Every Thursday, we highlight women in Congress.  We didn't last Thursday.  I finally got around to doing it over the weekend.  I'm not sure if we'll bother this week.

Tara Reade is credible.  Not credible?  The various senators and reps who refuse to speak up.  That's Senator Patty Murray certainly.  That's also Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.  With Kirsten, I do get it.  She spoke out for survivors and took a lot of crap for it.  First from a female senator no longer in the Senate but on CNN constantly.  Then she got attacked for speaking out against Al Franken's outrageous behavior.  In fact, that harmed her a great deal when she was running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.  If Kirsten had run a stronger campaign, it wouldn't have.  Her enemies among the party were demonizing her.  She wasn't defending herself and she wasn't projecting strength.  Her weakest point was her speaking voice.  She sounded too young, too immature and if we're talking about what hurt her campaign, we need to start there.  But I get her being shy to step up to the plate again.  I do.  But that's no excuse if you believe in the cause.  I love Patty but there's no excuse for her to be silent.  Or for Hirono or any of them.  They weren't silent with regards to someone they were afraid would sit on the bench so why be silent about someone who might end up president?

As Democrats, in fact, it's their duty to stop this nominee so that a stronger nominee can represent the party.




It's shameful that so many women in Congress refuse to speak out.

It's shameful that Hillary endorsed Joe as all this is going on.  But it's Hillary's pattern.  She put up with Bill's lying and cheating and she let herself be publicly humiliated more than once.  She saves her real rage -- to this day -- for Barbra Streisand and continues to believe that Bill slept with her. Why that woman, Barbra, is the breaking point, I have no idea.  But she also backed Brett McGurk -- a Bully Boy Bush loyalist who couldn't keep it in his pants.  Then there's Philippe Reines who, as the late journalist Michael Hastings noted, had a history of harassment.  There's Hillary's close ties to Harvey Weinstein and the way she tried to bully Ronan Farrow into not pursuing the Weinstein story.  In fact, most of the men around Hillary have one scandal after another of their abuse of women.  She's attracted to them and they to her.  So it's not real surprise that Hillary would endorse Joe.

But the silence from these other women is shocking.

Marty Johnson (THE HILL) reports:

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) on Tuesday night defended presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden when asked about sexual assault allegations from Tara Reade, a former Biden aide who has alleged that the then-senator sexually assaulted her in a secluded part of Capitol Hill in 1993.  
"I believe that women deserve to be heard and I believe they need to be listened to, but I also believe that those allegations have to be investigated by credible sources," Abrams, who is said to be on the shortlist to be Biden's running mate, told CNN's Don Lemon.
 "The New York Times did a deep investigation and they found that the accusation was not credible," she added. "I believe Joe Biden."

Oh, look, she's using the talking points -- Ruby and Rosie publish the talking points at the end of their article about the talking points.  Oh, Stacey couldn't do her own work.  There's a surprise, right?

Is Stacey a lesbian?  46 and never married?  There's nothing wrong with being a lesbian but, as Olivia Pope told the unmarried politician on SCANDAL, people can relate to gay, they can't relate to celibate.  And if she's a closeted lesbian, that is an issue.  We don't need closet cases a heartbeat away from the presidency.  We also don't need some loser who can't even win a statewide office as vice president.  I think even Amy Klobuchar would agree with that.  Certainly, Kamala Harris would as well.  Both women have won statewide races.

Stacey's a state legislator.  That's all she's ever been.  She doesn't have the experience to sit in a Cabinet, let alone be a vice president -- especially to a man in poor health.

Stacey on the ticket means Joe's campaign spends weeks and weeks defending her.  They don't have the time, they don't have the energy.  But Joe is stupid enough to ignore that warning -- same way he's ignored every other.

And when Stacey spits up known talking points?  She needs to be challenged on it.  She needs to be told, "Yes, Stacey, we've read that talking points.  Do you have anything yourself to say or do you need to be programmed ahead of time?"




MJ Lee (CNN) reports:

A former neighbor of Tara Reade, a woman who has accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, has come forward to say that Reade told her about the alleged assault in the mid-1990s. The account, purportedly told to the neighbor within a few years of the alleged incident, marks the first detailed and on-the-record corroboration of Reade's allegation against the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
Lynda LaCasse told CNN in a phone interview Monday that she remembers stepping out of her two-bedroom home in Morro Bay, California, to sneak in a cigarette break away from her children. It was 1995, perhaps even early 1996, based on her recollection. LaCasse said she often sat outside on her stoop smoking Virginia Slims, and that on this particular day, she cried as she discussed with Reade a custody battle for her kids.
Reade began to cry too, LaCasse said.
"She started talking about Joe Biden. And I didn't really know much about Joe Biden," she said. LaCasse said that Reade told her that when she was working in Washington some years prior, Biden "had pushed her up against a wall and he put his hand up her skirt and he put his fingers inside of her, and she was dealing with the aftermath of that."





Sam notes Rebecca's Traister's article at THE CUT.  We'll quote from the article tomorrow, I'm just short on time this morning.

In Iraq, the protests against the Iraqi government continue.  MEMO reports:
Iraqi protesters gathered in Tahrir Square in the capital Baghdad after the government scaled back some of its anti-coronavirus measures during the month of Ramadan, Anadolu Agency reported
The protesters held photos of Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Kadhimi with a red “X” on his face in rejection of his candidacy for the role.
Activist Ghassan Adel told the news agency that “any transitional government that brings with it party quotas is rejected not only in Tahrir Square, but in all the country’s protest arenas”.
Adel, who had been protesting in Tahrir Square for months, said: “The masses are stronger than tyrants, parties and politicians,” adding that “this government will not pass. If it is passed, we will overthrow it with escalatory measures.”






The following sites updated:





Tuesday, April 28, 2020

I support Howie Hawkins and I support Tara Reade

As noted many times before, I am a Green Party member.  My parents are Greens and I'm old enough (young enough?) to have been raised in the Party.  I've also noted that I'm supporting Howie Hawkins for the Green Party's presidential nomination.  Howie has an essay at CounterPunch:

Climate activist Bill McKibben took to the New Yorker recently to advise me and the Green Party to stand down our presidential campaign and instead work for ranked-choice voting (RCV) so we don’t “spoil” the election for Joe Biden (“Instead of Challenging Joe Biden, Maybe the Green Party Could Help Change Our Democracy,” April 15).
The problem with McKibben’s advice is that the Green Party’s demand for replacing the Electoral College with a ranked-choice national popular vote for president will not even be raised in the presidential campaign if the Greens are not in the race.
If McKibben wants RCV to be an issue in the 2020 presidential election, he should support the Green Party. As a climate activist, he should support the Green Party because we are the only option on the ballot for a full-strength Green New Deal to zero out carbon emissions with 100% clean energy by 2030. RCV is not anywhere on Joe Biden’s agenda. Biden’s “all-of-the-above” energy policy is what McKibben has devoted his life to opposing. If we don’t vote for what we want, how are we ever going to get it?
The Democratic Party has been complaining about the Green Party and trying to keep us off ballots since Ralph Nader ran for president in 2000. Both Republican presidents in the 21st century lost the popular vote when they were first elected. It is the Electoral College, not the Green Party, that installed losers like Donald Trump and George W. Bush in the White House.

The Greens have been offering RCV as a proven nonpartisan solution to the spoiler problem for 20 years. One would think that by now the Democrats would have embraced that reform in order to address the institutional reason why they have lost presidential elections despite winning the popular vote.


Bill McKibben is a fraud. He pretends to care -- about voting, about the environment -- but he's always just distracting you and never offering real solutions.  He's a fake ass. 

Here's a video of Howie Hawkins taking questions.



Howie is an outstanding choice for president.  And, unlike Joe Biden, he's not accused of raping anyone.  Sarah Jones (The Intelligencer) reports:

Two women told Business Insider that Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer who has accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, mentioned the alleged incident to them in the mid-1990s, around the time she says it occurred. Lynda LaCasse, who once lived next to Reade, and Lorraine Sanchez, who worked with Reade in the California legislature, both say that Reade told them she had been fired from a job for reporting sexual harassment. Though Sanchez didn’t recall Reade telling her that Biden was the perpetrator, or that the misconduct in question was a sexual assault, the story LaCasse heard lines up closely with the one Reade has taken to the press.
“I remember her saying, here was this person that she was working for and she idolized him,” LaCasse told Business Insider. “And he kind of put her up against a wall. And he put his hand up her skirt and he put his fingers inside her. She felt like she was assaulted, and she really didn’t feel there was anything she could do.” Reade was in tears as she told the story, LaCasse added.
Reade has told reporters that in 1993, Biden pushed her up against a wall in the Senate complex, put one hand under her shirt and another her skirt, and penetrated her with his fingers. By the time of the alleged assault, she had already complained of a sexist atmosphere in Biden’s office and of sexual harassment. Reade also says that her superiors removed some of her key professional responsibilities after the assault; a former Biden intern has previously confirmed to the Washington Post that Reade was indeed abruptly removed as their supervisor, though they could not confirm the assault or that sexual harassment occurred in the office.
On Friday, the Intercept confirmed that a woman matching the description of Reade’s mother called into the Larry King Show to ask advice for her daughter, who had experienced “problems” in the office of a “prominent senator.” After the right-wing Media Research Center published a clip of the episode in question, Reade confirmed to Holly Otterbein of Politico that the woman sounded like her mother. The Business Insider report provides further, and arguably even more significant, corroboration of Reade’s story. Reade has said consistently that she informed her mother, brother, and a friend of the assault at the time. Previous reporting by the New York Times and the Post confirmed that Reade did disclose the story to her brother.


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


Tuesday, April 28, 2020.  ISIS grows more active in Iraq while we all need to ponder how a man accused of rape can claim he's 'eletable'?


March 24th, Ryan Grim (INTERCEPT) reported on Tara Reade going to Times Up to get assistance as she came forward to accuse Joe Biden of assaulting her.  One month and four days later and Joe Biden has still not made a public statement to any news outlet.  Instead, he's hid behind a series of women including the nut job who should have been disqualified by a working press.  (I noted her conflicts in the "Tara Reade and coronavirus roundtable" we did.)  The media has assisted Joe by refusing to ask him when they interview him.  There is nothing else newsworthy about Joe's campaign currently but people like Anderson Cooper ignore the topic over and over.  In fact, Anderson has interviewed Joe twice since the allegation surfaced and both times refused to ask a question about it.

The media has practiced a double standard and wallowed in hypocrisy.  Of THE NEW YORK TIMES smear job on Tara, April 12th, Naomi Wolf Tweeted:

As a feminist I just note that the wording around this accusation in
@nytimes
is more skeptical and guarded than in the same paper’s reporting on women accusing Trump. Should be a nonpartisan single standard for reporting allleged sexual abuse.



The hypocrisy was noted on FOX NEWS.



Lara Logan: Well, to me, Sean, it says something very disappointing: That people who claim the moral high ground, claim to have some degree of moral authority, don't really care about the principles at all because the principles should survive politics, they should survive ideology, they should survive everything.  And I know, in my own case, it's hard, in a way, even listening to it. Not because I haven't come to terms with it but because I know as someone who was raped, I know all the people, men and women, over the years, who've come to me with their own stories of what they've been through.  And the one thing I was concerned about through the entire MeToo movement and Kavanaugh and everything else is that the voices of the real victims would be lost as everybody was rushing in the frenzy to use this moment for their own gain.  



Yesterday, Rich McHugh (BUSINESS INSIDER) reported:


In March, when a former aide to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden accused the candidate of sexually assaulting her in 1993, two people came forward to say that the woman, Tara Reade, had told them of the incident shortly after it allegedly occurred — her brother, Collin Moulton, and a friend who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
Now two more sources have come forward to corroborate certain details about Reade's claims. One of them — a former neighbor of Reade's — has told Insider for the first time, on the record, that Reade disclosed details about the alleged assault to her in the mid-1990s.
"This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it," Lynda LaCasse, who lived next door to Reade in the mid-'90s, told Insider.
The other source, Lorraine Sanchez, who worked with Reade in the office of a California state senator in the mid-'90s, told Insider that she recalls Reade complaining at the time that her former boss in Washington, DC, had sexually harassed her, and that she had been fired after raising concerns.


Each day, Tara's case gets stronger and yet no one wants to ask Joe Biden the question they need to.  Is that a ground rule?

Are they getting access by guaranteeing not to ask Joe about the rape allegation?

The media watchdogs are largely napping.  The right-wing NEWSBUSTERS has followed this story.  The left-wing CJR has.  But FAIR, COUNTERSPIN?  They won't say a word.

Joe won't say a word.  We know why.  He fears litigation.  He's pulling the Bill Clinton strategy.  Juanita Broadrrick accused Bill of rape (I believe her).  Bill hid behind a spokesperson and never himself spoke to the allegation.  That's what Joe's doing now.

With Bill, he was a lame duck president.  It was 1999.  He could ride it out and did.  Joe's asking people to vote for him.  This isn't something he can ride out.

Tara's case gets stronger with every day.

The calls for Joe to drop out mount.

This is not a strong candidate for November.  Joe needs to go.  He was never more than an empty suit and now he's facing credible charges of assault.  He's been unable to defend himself for over a month.  How does this argue for him doing well in November?

He's offering nothing but tired plans from the past which failed.  His only argument has been that he's 'electable.'  He's now accused of rape and does not look like a sure thing at all.

Turning to Iraq, Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports, "A militant wearing a suicide vest struck an intelligence bureau in northern Iraq on Tuesday, wounding at least three members of the security personnel, Iraqi officials said, blaming the attack on the Islamic State group."  Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) adds, "ISIS attacked the Rutba home of a district councilman. Talal Al-Absi was killed, and his son was abducted."


As ISIS grows more active, Iraq has no real prime minister.  The 'acting' prime minister resigned last year.  Adil Abdul Mahdi was inept and resigned at the end of November.  All these months later, Iraq still does not have a prime minister.

And let's be clear, the post is supposed to be filled long enough for elections to be called.  No one is saying that the new prime minister needs to serve a lengthy term.

Struan Stevenson (UPI) offers:

Iraq's prime ministerial merry-go-round continues to spin apace. Spy chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi, director of the country's National Intelligence Service, is the third prime minister designate this year, following the withdrawal of Adnan al-Zurfi, the previous prospective candidate, after he failed to secure enough support to form a government.
Al-Zurfi had tried to step into the shoes of Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, who suffered a similar fate, leaving Iraq under the tremulous caretaker control of Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the crooked former prime minister and puppet of the Iranian mullahs, who was forced to resign last November amidst widespread protests. 
Under the Iraqi constitution, a prime minister designate has 30 days to secure the backing of parliament for his new government. This has been the stumbling block for each of Abdul-Mahdi's chosen successors so far, as they have attempted to gain the approval of the wide range of deeply divided and sectarian factions that make up Iraq's Majilis.

Recently, former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki hosted a 'party' at his house where various Shi'ite politicians plotted how to defeat Allawi.

Khaled Yacoub Oweis (THE NATIONAL) reports:

A parliamentary supporter of Iraq’s latest Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Al Kadhimi cast doubt on whether he could form a Cabinet, in the first acknowledgement from the allied camp of the secular nominee that he is in political trouble.
Shirwan Mirza of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) told Iraq’s official news agency late on Sunday that Mr Al Kadhimi, an intelligence chief supported by Washington, could fail like his two predecessors.
Mr Mirza said Mr Al Kadhimi was hoping to be approved by parliament before the month of Ramadan.
“The Cabinet talks are ongoing but have not reached a result so far,” Mr Mirza said. “Al Kadhimi was supposed to present his cabinet before Ramadan but some political groups withdrew their support for him.”
The Kurdish parliamentarian was referring to pro-Iranian Shiite players linked with militia powers who dominate the legislature and who had initially indicated that they would let Mr Al Kadhimi form his Cabinet.

Mr Mirza said if Mr Al Kadhimi does not suffer “the same fate” as his predecessors”, parliament could convene a physical vote-of-confidence session despite the coronavirus.


The following sites updated:




Monday, April 27, 2020

No one wants to vote for a rapist

Rapist Joe Biden Tweeted tonight.  Rose McGowan Tweeted back:


Let me guess?
@MichelleObama
is endorsing you? Answer your taxpayers, answer Tara Reade, stop speaking through your manager. You are a creep. You know it. We know it. I know it. Tara definitely knows it. #DropOutBiden
Quote Tweet

Rose is the real deal.

And Joe really needs to go.

From The Daily Mail:

  • Tara Reade has accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 when she managed interns in Washington when he was a senator
  • Neighbor Lynda LaCasse said about the conversation: 'He kind of put her up against a wall. And he put his hand up her skirt and he put his fingers inside her'
  • LaCasse said Reade was 'crying' and 'upset' but doesn't recall details about the alleged location or specifics of what Biden allegedly said
  • Lorraine Sanchez, who worked with Reade in the office of California Sen. Jack O'Connell, said Reade said 'she had been sexually harassed by her former boss'
  • The new article is written by Rich McHugh, a former NBC producer who has blasted the network for killing Ronan Farrow's stories about Harvey Weinstein 
Joe Biden needs to drop out.  This is nonsense.  Tara has made a credible accusation that has only grown more credible.  Joe needs to drop out.  It's over.  No one wants to vote for a rapist.


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


Monday, April 27, 2020.  Support for Tara Reade builds, calls for Joe Biden to drop out continue, one of the fallen is remembered in California, protests continue in Iraq, and much more.

After Friday's snapshot posted, hours after, this was added to it:

Ryan Grim has a scoop at THE INTERCEPT:

In interviews with The Intercept, Reade also mentioned that her mother had made a phone call to “Larry King Live” on CNN, during which she made reference to her daughter’s experience on Capitol Hill. Reade told The Intercept that her mother called in asking for advice after Reade, then in her 20s, left Biden’s office. “I remember it being an anonymous call and her saying my daughter was sexually harassed and retaliated against and fired, where can she go for help? I was mortified,” Reade told me.
Reade couldn’t remember the date or the year of the phone call, and King didn’t include the names of callers on his show. I was unable to find the call, but mentioned it in an interview with Katie Halper, the podcast host who first aired Reade’s allegation. After the podcast aired, a listener managed to find the call and sent it to The Intercept.
On August 11, 1993, King aired a program titled, “Washington: The Cruelest City on Earth?” Toward the end of the program, he introduces a caller dialing in from San Luis Obispo, California. Congressional records list August 1993 as Reade’s last month of employment with Biden’s Senate office, and, according to property records, Reade’s mother, Jeanette Altimus, was living in San Luis Obispo County. Here is the transcript of the beginning of the call:

KING: San Luis Obispo, California, hello.
CALLER: Yes, hello. I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.
KING: In other words, she had a story to tell but, out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it?
CALLER: That’s true.

King’s panel of guests offered no suggestions, and instead the conversation veered into a discussion of whether any of the men on set would leak damaging personal information about a rival to the press.



Tara Reade has accused Joe Biden of assault.  Along with telling her brother and a friend in real time (both have verified they were told in 1993 when the assault happened), Tara had stated she told her mother who has since passed away.  Now we have the above.

The allegations are not going away and Tara's case is only getting stronger.




Daniel Ponti (SLATE) explains:

A video that has recently come to light from 1993 appears to show the mother of Tara Reade, who has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexual assault, calling the Larry King Show to discuss problems her daughter experienced while working for “a prominent senator.” The Intercept was first to report on the video and the conservative Media Research Group later quickly published the relevant clip. Reade then confirmed that it was her mother’s voice on the call. “I’ve been crying because I haven’t heard my mom’s voice in a few years. So it’s been a little emotional,” Reade told CNN. “I miss her. I miss her voice.” Reade’s mother died in 2016. 

Liz Peek is a name familiar to the community when wowOwow was an active website (Women On the Web, was what the site was known on).  She weighed in on Tara Reade this morning:

The liberal media has naturally tried to minimize coverage of the Reade accusation; she leveled the charge on March 25, but most major news outlets ignored it until April 12, fully 19 days later. Criticized over the delay, the New York Times’ editor Dean Baquet explained that the paper wanted to have enough information about the charge that readers could “understand” the story.
But the Times even edited its own story about Reade. It originally reported that, “The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable.” In later editions it dropped the last (and most damaging) part of the sentence.
Baquet explained, “The campaign thought that the phrasing was awkward and made it look like there were other instances in which he had been accused of sexual misconduct.” Since when do newspapers run a story by a “campaign” for approval?
Nonetheless, the new video has given Reade’s allegations new legs. In part, that is because Joe Biden has a troubling history of inappropriately touching women – a record his backers ascribe to his “folksy” manner and old-fashioned “tactile” politics.
But, one also wonders whether Democrats are beginning to face up to what many have seen for months: Biden is not a strong candidate.



Daniel Molina (THE FLORIDIAN) observes:

In a recent interview with Vice President Biden, CNN’s Anderson Cooper discussed a wide array of topics, but one issue that was not addressed is the allegations aimed against him, This, Tara Reade says, made her lose respect for the journalist.
Speaking to Fox News, Reade expressed that “it’s shocking that this much time has passed and that he is an actual nominee for president and they’re not asking the questions.”
Reade added that Biden has “been on ‘Anderson Cooper’ at least twice where he was not asked.”
She further questioned, “if this were Donald Trump, would they treat it the same way? If this were Brett Kavanaugh, did they treat it the same way?”

Reade concluded that “it’s politics and political agenda playing a role in objective reporting and asking the question.”


CNN?  They finally mentioned Tara on air Saturday.  As Ava and I explained in "TV: Journalism isn't supposed to be melodramatic or provoke belly laughs," they did so because Ryan Grim reported Friday on the clip from the 1993 episode of CNN's LARRY KING LIVE where Tara's mother called in.  But they forgot to note that Ryan Grim had reported on the clip and instead acted as though CNN had just suddenly discovered the clip all on their own.


Over the weekend #DropOutBiden began trending.  Brandon D. Jones (ABC 14 NEWS) reports on Rose McGowan who has joined those calling for Joe to drop out:


The Charmed actress may perhaps not feel like a heavyweight who could inflict injury on a big political vocation. But because previous Biden staffer Tara Reade alleged that the prospect sexually assaulted her almost 3 decades ago, McGowan has turn into a 1-woman military contacting out the hypocrisy of Hollywood and media elites, in particular Alyssa Milano, who have backed the #MeToo and #TimesUp actions but are nevertheless supporting the presumptive Democrat nominee.
The actress has now added her voice to the #DropOutBiden groundswell, demanding this weekend in an excoriating community statement that the applicant stop the race. “Fellow citizens, use your electric power, use your social media voice,” McGowan tweeted late Saturday. “Tweet at Joe Biden to close his marketing campaign efficient right away.”
In her assertion, McGowan called out the mainstream media, women’s groups, LGBTQ information retailers, Oprah Winfrey, and even feminists like Gloria Steinem for their continued backing of Biden’s marketing campaign.



As support builds for Tara, the people notice not just the silence of the media and various celebrities but also the silence of Joe Biden himself.  March 24th is when Katie Halper's interview aired with Tara.  It's now April 27th and Joe Biden has refused to make any statement to the American people on this topic.  He has hid behind campaign staff -- hid behind female campaign staff.

Joe hides a lot.  He's got a lot to evade -- that includes the destruction of Iraq and the many dead.  34-year-old Diego Pongo was killed in Iraq March 8th.  Pongo was a Gunnery Sergeant in the Marines.





WTHR reports:

Due to coronavirus restrictions on large gatherings, his family couldn't honor his life with a formal funeral or memorial.
After Diego’s brother Andres and his wife Andrea posted online asking for support from the community, the city showed up in a big way.
Thousands of people drove past the family's home to pay their respects to the fallen hero.
Numerous emergency vehicles cruised by the home to honor Sergeant Pongo's life, too.







Meanwhile, at Carnegie Middle East Center, Oula Kadhum offers:

The Iraq protests are not a flash in the pan. Rather, they represent a historical turning point for a new generation that has tired of government ineptitude, politicized sectarianism, corruption, and an unequal society. As long as these symptoms persist in Iraqi society, so will the protests. The movement has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic however, though its spirit continues in smaller sit-ins in Tahrir Square in Baghdad and smaller gatherings in Nasiriyya and Basra. Those still holding the fort are helping to sanitize public spaces and distribute provisions to those in need. The message from these camps remains resolute: Once the threat from the coronavirus is contained the revolution will be back bigger and stronger.

Yet two threats represent the greatest impediments to the movement’s survival. First, repression by the state and militias continues, including the targeting of activists and assassinations. Only recently a female activist was killed in Nasiriyya. Second, the unknown longevity of the coronavirus will test the ability of the movement to maintain its momentum. For now at least the protests have certainly been stalled, but they most certainly have not been silenced.

Even with the coronavirus, protests continue in Iraq.  See "Editorial: Protests continue in Iraq" for more on that.


Meanwhile the third prime minister-designate this year, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, struggles as much as the previous two.  MIDDLE EAST MONITOR ONLINE reports:

Shia parties in Iraq have rejected the ministerial nominations of Prime Minister-Designate Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on Sunday. The London-based website said that Al-Kadhimi had agreed to at least 12 ministerial nominees proposed by the Shia party officials.
According to one anonymous Iraqi MP, the leaders of the Shia parties met on Saturday night at the home of former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, and then told the PM-designate that they rejected a lot of his nominees. The MP said that they would nominate new candidates for each ministry from which Al-Kadhimi can choose.
The same source claimed that Al-Maliki, the leader of the State of Law Coalition, and Hadi Al-Ameri, the head of Al-Fatah Coalition, are the “prominent obstacles” in the efforts to form a new government in Iraq.


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