Manhandled, men handling.

I was just thinking of all the women I know who have had an experience like the one Christine Blasey Ford describes having with a 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh. And I can’t count them all, not if you throw in all unwanted, sexual, rape-adjacent touching, pawing and manhandling. Mine were comparatively minor, but then, I’ve always been tall-ish and built fairly solidly, and maybe that discouraged some guys who might have been inclined to do so. For years, I envied those tiny girls whose boyfriends could hold them on their shoulders during the encore at the Elton John concert. I guess I shouldn’t have, although who knows whether that had anything to do with it? My point is: This is a common occurrence. It really is.

So now, Sunday afternoon, we can already see how it’s going to go. Senate Republicans will lash themselves to the mast; there’s no way they’ll back down now, not after they helped put a pussy-grabber into the Oval. And now, a few more women will contemplate their choices and decide they can do way better in November. This is a true dilemma, i.e., a choice between two equally bad outcomes.

I pause at this moment to remind you that Douglas Ginsburg was forced to withdraw from consideration for a seat on the Supreme Court because he smoked weed.

They’re not only not backing down, they’re going to be real pricks about it to the end:

A lawyer close to the White House said the nomination will not be withdrawn.

“No way, not even a hint of it,” the lawyer said. “If anything, it’s the opposite. If somebody can be brought down by accusations like this, then you, me, every man certainly should be worried. We can all be accused of something.”

I can’t even. So I won’t.

Speaking of bad men, though, do give a read to Sarah Weinman’s snappy riposte to John Hockenberry’s use of “Lolita” to explain his own bad behavior. It’s good. But man, between him and Jian Ghomeshi and Kavanaugh, it was kind of a Bad Men weekend.

Fortunately, none of them live under this roof, so it was mostly running errands, going to shows, eating good food and watching my only child drive away in her new car, which will help the overnight parking situation in our driveway. We went to the local contemporary-art museum Friday night to do something we never do, i.e., see a DJ set by Questlove, in town to promote a new book, something about food. I just wanted to hear him make music, and he didn’t disappoint — his knowledge of pop music is encyclopedic, and hearing him weave and blend deep cuts, decades-old Top 40 and about a million beats into one seamless, irresistible groove was great fun. However, after about an hour of this, it became steam-bath hot in there, so we booked.

Saturday, Kate and her new band — now a trio, after they lost their vocalist a few months back — played out for the first time. I couldn’t get close, so I mainly listened to Kate’s bass lines from the bar while Alan watched from a closer vantage point. Here’s their single, if you’d like to listen. And here’s a picture, because I thought she looked cute, but then, I’m prejudiced:

How was your weekend?

Posted at 6:01 pm in Current events, Media |
 

55 responses to “Manhandled, men handling.”

  1. brian stouder said on September 16, 2018 at 6:30 pm

    A marvelous photo; and the music link is not to be missed!

    Their sound strikes me as a bit grunge/Pearl Jammy, which is to say – as good as it gets!

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  2. David C. said on September 16, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    I tried to get ahead of my fall cleanup work this weekend. The mosquitoes ate me alive and OFF didn’t seem to help one little bit. It’s a smidge early, but right now I wouldn’t mind a nice hard freeze.

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  3. basset said on September 16, 2018 at 6:54 pm

    New band? What happened with the Deadly Vipers?

    Looks like there’s another Shadow Show out there, too: https://www.facebook.com/shadowshowtheband/

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  4. nancy said on September 16, 2018 at 7:34 pm

    Their vocalist quit, so the three of them changed their sound somewhat and took on a new name. But it’s basically the Deadly Vipers – 1.

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  5. David C. said on September 16, 2018 at 8:11 pm

    I saw the other band too, Basset. They’re in Australia, so they should be able to co-exist.

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  6. basset said on September 16, 2018 at 8:51 pm

    That makes three, then – the Shadow Show I turned up with a quick Google is in Asheville, NC.

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  7. Connie said on September 16, 2018 at 9:43 pm

    We went to my husband’s 50 year high school reunion. I was a total outsider, knew no one. The food was good. Everyone was nice. I note that I met my husband’s younger sister’s best friend’s older brother.

    I also note that the six year difference in age sort of makes us different generations. He had classmates killed in Vietnam. As seniors my class saw the end of the war.

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  8. Deborah said on September 17, 2018 at 12:34 am

    We went to a dinner party with friends in Miller Beach, with about 8 people. I met a woman there that I got along with famously, she and her husband have a place in Chicago near us and a place at Miller Beach. I know this may sound odd, but when you get to be my age it’s really hard to make new friends, at least it is for me. So when I find someone that I feel a really good vibe with, it’s rare and invigorating. We’ll see if it goes anywhere.

    We had a building maintenance guy at our place today while we were out cleaning our blinds and windows. It’s a side job for him, that’s why he wanted to do it on a Sunday. I usually do it, but that’s what I was doing last year when I ruptured my disk after having shoveled dirt in NM for days. So we decided it’d be worth paying someone to do it from now on. It looks so good now, I feel like I have to spiff everything else up to measure up to it.

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  9. Suzanne said on September 17, 2018 at 8:57 am

    We have never been to Miller Beach. I hear it’s lovely.

    This Kavanaugh accuser is sounding more and more credible. Same old story. Privileged white bro-man gets drunk and disorderly and gropes but what the heck? Why not? He knew all along there would be no consequences and there probably still won’t be. Meanwhile, millions of women nod in solidarity with the accuser, remembering similar situations they were in, knowing their tormentors, however brief the encounter may have been, are now upstanding citizens, lawyers, doctors, accountants so why even bother to bring it up.

    There is noting new under the sun, is there?

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  10. diane said on September 17, 2018 at 9:24 am

    I was at Costco yesterday and in the checkout line I saw an older white guy who has been there forever and is always friendly and very helpful lightly pat a young Hispanic employee on her butt, give her a fake punch in the arm and play with her hair in the space of about a minute and a half. He turned away, I looked at her and said he should not be touching you at all, in any way. She nodded but I couldn’t tell quite why, the very young Hispanic guy boxing my stuff nodded in complete agreement and looked appreciative. The old guy had to have heard me and he stayed clear. Now I’m wondering if that’s enough. Should I have said something to management? I really think the old white guy will stay clear but I’m sure he is telling himself it was all just teasing fatherly fun and that I’m just a frumpy old lady out to ruin other people’s innocent fun. When will all old white men understand that you don’t touch someone in the workplace, whether you think they mind or not. You don’t light up a cigarette and you don’t touch women’s bodies. How hard is that to understand?

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  11. Peter said on September 17, 2018 at 9:29 am

    Yeah, I think there’s some stink about our fine Brett Kavanaugh that is going to be leaking in the next few days. While “some people” have questioned why did it take so long for this to come out, don’t you think it’s the least bit suspicious that there’s a letter signed by 65 women who attest to Brett’s character?

    Once again, it’s the sheer arrogance of this group that just galls me. He could have said that he doesn’t really remember it that way, but he made some poor decisions in his youth that he’s not proud of and wouldn’t think of doing today, yada yada yada, and he could be given the benefit of the doubt, BUT NO, he has to go into full denial. What a turd.

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  12. Bitter Scribe said on September 17, 2018 at 9:56 am

    Never heard of this Hockenberry, but apparently he identifies with Lolita, not Humbert? That’s just weird. Apparently his reasoning is that the book couldn’t have been published today because we’re more sensitive about adults having sex with children. Or something. I truly don’t get it.

    I’d forgotten about Ginsburg. Thanks for reminding me. Republican double standards ride again.

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  13. JodiP said on September 17, 2018 at 9:58 am

    We’re having July redux in Minneapolis, so I didn’t get gardening tasks done. I did manage to douse the porch with the sprinkler, so a win there. I love summer, but I’m ready for the coming break in 90s temps.

    The weekend was lovely. Friends for dinner on Friday to bake their dish that they couldn’t due to the mouse issue on Thursday. Master gardener volunteer thing Saturday, then gift shopping for our sweet neighbors who got married. We took care of their very fun dogs during the day, and left the gift inside the house.

    We went to an architechts’ home tour Sunday. Many of the homes were way out in the burbs so we just saw 5. The builders and architechts are so generous explaining things. I know it’s part of the marketing, but it’s really fun.

    We also began watching Ordeal of Innocence, an adaptation of an Agatha Christie story on Netflix. Very good, creepy family dynamics without a lot of gore.

    Also finally got my grubby car to the wash, which makes me insanely happy.

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  14. Deborah said on September 17, 2018 at 10:13 am

    On the previous thread I left a link in a comment I made, it was a Twitter thread about abortion and men. Here’s another link from the blog of the woman who wrote the thread, she repeats it and expands on it in the blog post. I really hope you all read it. I thought it was a fascinating perspective that I’ve never heard anyone make before. So here it is https://www.designmom.com/twitter-thread-abortion/. Please read it if you haven’t already. Again the comments on the blog post are interesting too. https://www.designmom.com/twitter-thread-abortion/

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  15. Dave said on September 17, 2018 at 10:49 am

    I don’t know what anyone expected, Trump supporters have shown that they’ll look the other way for almost anything and Trump himself probably thinks, what’s the big deal, I did that all the time. Disgusting times we live in.

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  16. Heather said on September 17, 2018 at 11:02 am

    Saw someone on Twitter say something like, oh, if this is the standard for high school behavior, we’re all in trouble. Well, yeah, people who tried to assault someone SHOULD be in trouble. Honestly, I knew women were hated in this country but even this feminist is constantly surprised by how much. (And this guy is coaching teenage girls??)

    I have a friend, well more a friend of a friend, who lives in Miller Beach in a beautiful mid-century modern home. I wish I got invited more often! She has a pool too. It’s really nice there. I guess there were some good deals there on houses, but it’s being discovered, so not so much anymore.

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  17. Deborah said on September 17, 2018 at 11:16 am

    We have two different couple friends who have places in Miller Beach. The husband of one couple is a prominent architect in Cleveland (retired now). He designed their cottage and it sits on a beautiful site on an inlet, that’s where we were on Sunday. They are in residence at their Miller Beach place in the warmer months and then for only a week or so at a time about every other month. The other couple we know are not designers, they live in Chicago and go out to their Miller Beach cottage on weekends even in the winter months. You can see the lake from their back deck but their view is limited between other houses behind them. The drive from Chicago to MB is hideous, I wouldn’t want to have to do that very often. It’s interesting how different the two places are, two completely different lifestyles but both couples are fun and interesting people.

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  18. Sherri said on September 17, 2018 at 11:35 am

    John Hockenberry is formerly of WNYC and NPR, where he got booted for sexual harassment. He’s been in a wheelchair since his teens. Maybe this is his attempt at a comeback?

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  19. Jeff Borden said on September 17, 2018 at 11:46 am

    I continue to marvel at the differences between the two political parties when it comes to unwanted sexual advances. Sen. Al Franken was driven from the Senate in a movement led by Dem women, notably the senator from New York, for actions that were boorish, immature and stupid, but certainly fell well short of what Brett Kavanaugh is alleged to have done. Not our Republican buddies. They’re circling the wagons for Brett, tut-tutting about how this is more than 30 years ago and it’s the kind of thing high school boys do, etc. How can women support the GOP? I get the anti-abortion argument, I guess, but still. Sheesh.

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  20. Jeff Borden said on September 17, 2018 at 11:48 am

    Oh, I forgot to mention. This is a relatively recent occurrence for the Dems. They were happy to sit silently during the raft of accusations directed at Bill Clinton. James Carville was as vicious as any rightwing rat, sneering “you never know what you’ll get when you drag a $20 bill through a trailer park.” And feminists were put in the uncomfortable position of staying out of the fray. Ugly times.

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  21. Scout said on September 17, 2018 at 1:12 pm

    Rebecca Solnit on the Kavanaugh travesty. https://lithub.com/the-fall-of-men-has-been-greatly-exaggerated/

    Deborah, I started following Gabrielle Blair as a result of her Twitter thread.

    All of this is proving that women are sick of this shit and we’re not going to take it anymore. We’re gonna call these misogynistic creepers out and we’re not backing down. Welcome to 2018, ya bastids. (All male present company excluded, of course.)

    This tweet: https://twitter.com/rmayemsinger/status/1041383334687862784

    The other thing happening these days is the not-so-surreptitious flashing of the white power hand signal. People tried to play it down when Kavanaugh staffer Zina Bash did it twice on camera during the hearings. This happened over the weekend:
    https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/1040996732820176896

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  22. Jakash said on September 17, 2018 at 1:13 pm

    Yeah, Deborah, that thread (from #14) is getting a fair amount of notice, as in 74,000 retweets. I happened to see it yesterday, too, and thought about posting it here, but you already had by the time I visited nn.c last night. It’s very well composed and compelling. She writes:

    “No matter how many orgasms she has, they won’t make her pregnant. Pregnancies can only happen when men have an orgasm. Unwanted pregnancies can only happen when men orgasm irresponsibly.

    What this means is a women can be the sluttliest slut in the entire world who loves having orgasms all day long and all night long and she will never find herself with an unwanted pregnancy unless a man shows up and ejaculates irresponsibly.

    Women enjoying sex does not equal unwanted pregnancy and abortion. Men enjoying sex and having irresponsible ejaculations is what causes unwanted pregnancies and abortion.”

    But that implies that many men are irresponsible and, further, that a large component of anti-abortion rhetoric has to do with slut-shaming women. Oh, right! ; )

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  23. Sherri said on September 17, 2018 at 1:43 pm

    It implies that men are fully autonomous human beings, allowed to make choices irresponsible and responsible, while women are not given the same agency, but are meant to be controlled by others.

    That’s inherent in the argument that a teenage boy should not have his life ruined by a bad decision, while a teenage girl should not have gotten herself in that situation. It’s at the base of the abortion argument. It’s the very heart of the argument about MeToo “ruining” the lives of men.

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  24. Scout said on September 17, 2018 at 2:00 pm

    One of Kavanaugh’s biggest defenders is the guy who was allegedly in the room during the rape, Mark Judge. This is a fascinating read.
    https://twitter.com/hankstuever/status/1041729523304165376

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  25. Sherri said on September 17, 2018 at 2:23 pm

    Roy Edroso examines the oeuvre of Mark Judge in his latest newsletter. You can subscribe here: https://edroso.substack.com

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  26. Deborah said on September 17, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    I’ve thought all along that Kavanaugh has one of those punchable faces. Knowing that he was a preppy asshole makes it even more so. How do guys like that get so much power? Is it because they feel and act so entitled everyone just assumes they deserve it? Of course we all remember guys like that in high school, we called them soshes (I don’t actually know how we spelled that). They weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer but they sure thought they were.

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  27. Deggjr said on September 17, 2018 at 2:34 pm

    Deborah #14, that’s column is definitely worth the read. I’m saving it for the next abortion comment I see on Facebook.

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  28. beb said on September 17, 2018 at 3:21 pm

    There has been a lot of discussion about Ms Ford’s allegations, Feinstein’s delay in revealing her accusation and Kavanaugh’s numerous defenses over the weekend and I didn’t save a link to any of them. History has shown that it takes 20 to 30 women accusers to be taken seriously. And that woman are brutally treated when they make accusations so it’s no wonder the woman didn’t report it then and hesitated about reporting it now. And that Feinstein was also reluctant to break her request for confidentiality. Was it timed to derail Kavanaugh’s vote. Only in the sense that if she didn’t reveal it now Kavanaugh’s attempted rape would never be reported and who wants an attempted rapist on the Supreme Court? (OK all the Republican party would.)

    Kavanaugh’s first line of defense was his co-attempted rapist, a man named (ironically) Judge. Judge’s career has been detailed in one of those essay’s I didn’t bookmark. The man’s a misogynist’s misogynist. His hatred of “uppity” woman is so intense that nothing he says should be trusted. Then there’s the 65 woman classmates of Kavanaugh, who went to an all-boy’s school. The affidavit was produced almost overnight, almost as if the R’s had known about this problem and had prepared for it. Then there’s Kavanaugh’s denial that while clerking for another misogynist judge he never heard anything untoward or offensive.

    And if that wasn’t disqualifying enough what we know of his public activities in the 90s and 00s — a political operative for Ken Starr, activities in Gore v Bush, his turn in the Bush White House paints him as a political hack and not an unbiased judge.

    The worst of it is that even if the Senate does reject Kavanaugh the Federalist Society will just promote another candidate that more of a blank slate. Only if the Democrats take over the Senate will they be able to stop the string of extremist right-wing judges the Rs will continue to send up

    Republico delenda est.

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  29. ROGirl said on September 17, 2018 at 3:21 pm

    How many other women are there who he did this to? Will they come forward?

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  30. beb said on September 17, 2018 at 3:41 pm

    Dahlia Lithwick has been great on this:

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/christine-blasey-ford-brett-kavanaugh-accusation-timing.html

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  31. Sherri said on September 17, 2018 at 4:49 pm

    Petri dishes again: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/17/every-man-should-be-worried-at-least-im-worried/

    Beb, you left out Kavanaugh’s lying to Congress, both in this confirmation process and in his earlier confirmation process.

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  32. Deborah said on September 17, 2018 at 4:58 pm

    Beb, the Dahlia Lithwick link is excellent. Haven’t women been explaining this for years now? Why is this so hard to sink in for some people? They just don’t want to believe it I guess.

    LB had a job in a specialty grocery store when she was in her twenties, she was the wine manager and liked the job, it was the only time she had healthcare because she was in a union. She told me at some point what some of the managers were saying to the young women who worked there, really inappropriate stuff. She had an opportunity to work at Whole Foods at some point and I encouraged her to take it to get away from the inappropriate male managers. That was a mistake because WF wasn’t unionized and getting healthcare there was a challenge. Should she have reported the inappropriateness at the job she had and maybe stay there unharrassed. Yes, for sure, but back then we thought it was best just to get the hell out of there. We didn’t even consider that something might be done about the situation. I look back on that now and can hardly believe it. Times have changed, sort of, but they still have a long way to go.

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  33. David C. said on September 17, 2018 at 6:12 pm

    I’ve read the letter from 65 women Kavanaugh didn’t rape is like a letter from all the people Jeffrey Dahmer didn’t eat.

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  34. alex said on September 17, 2018 at 6:37 pm

    Having been the victim of hate crimes a few times many years ago, I understand completely why people who have been violated don’t come forward. When I did I wasn’t taken seriously by the police and in fact felt victimized by them all over again watching them contain their smirks. I and two friends had been assaulted by a mob of drunken straight boys who also kicked a bunch of huge dents into the sides of my car. It was a very traumatizing experience at the time but I got no support or sympathy from anyone. I’d like to think that it would be handled differently these days but I wouldn’t bet on it. The local police can be horrible, and I’ve heard plenty of stories from others that make mine pale by comparison.

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  35. susan said on September 17, 2018 at 6:46 pm

    Yesterday, I pulled out from the bottom of a dresser drawer, a tee-shirt I designed with a friend, and had printed up, almost 25 years ago, as a fund-raiser for the local NOW chapter. It was time to start wearing it again, to show that this crappola, the more it changes, the more it stays the same. The shirt is black cotton. Printed on the front, right where one’s boobs would be located, are two very large white hand prints, one on top of each breast. Below that, in very bold, very large sans serif all caps letters: BOB PACKWOOD WAS HERE. On the back is one large white handprint over the right buttocks. It was a hit when we sold them in 1995! But so far, this time around, no one has made any comments. People might be too young to remember that guy. (Or too old…) Turns out that the name is STILL interchangeable. Could make millions of versions of that shirt. Where to begin, though.

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  36. Sherri said on September 17, 2018 at 10:27 pm

    Anybody else notice that while Kavanaugh is all “it never happened”, his defenders aren’t taking that line? Instead, they’re going with “eleventh hour” and “17 year old high school stuff doesn’t count”.

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  37. Dexter Friend said on September 18, 2018 at 3:59 am

    I watched Rachel Maddow interview the reporter who broke the story, telling details of how in therapy the accuser, now a doctor, reported Kavanaugh’s attempted rape several times over the years. Then Lawrence O’Donnell showed how Orrin Hatch , on the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas hearings, asked how Ms. Hill even knew about Long-Dong Silver…now Hatch says Christine Blasey Ford , “whoever she is, is all mixed up”. Kicker: Fucker Hatch is still on the same Senate committee. I remember the Anita Hill testimony so vividly…she was so professionally astute and so damn believable I thought she had knocked Thomas to the canvas for an 8-count. I am so fucking naive.

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  38. Suzanne said on September 18, 2018 at 6:43 am

    I watched old clips of the Anita Hill hearings as well. It still, after all these years, struck me that the men questioning her, and probably many of the men watching the hearings, weren’t shocked at things she said because they did Not, and do not, see it as anything out of the ordinary. Because it isn’t.
    I believe it will be the same with Kavanaugh and his activities. It’s ordinariness will be what allows the confirmation to go forward. In my mind, if Kavanaugh was the decent man he claims to be, he would withdraw his nomination rather than put his family and his country through this. But he won’t. He probably doesn’t remember the incident because of his drunken state and the commonness of the act in his world. Just another day with the guys.

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  39. Deborah said on September 18, 2018 at 10:28 am

    This is one of the best teenage survivor pieces I’ve read so far https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/570520/?__twitter_impression=true

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  40. Little Bird said on September 18, 2018 at 11:56 am

    It’s kinda hard to report inappropriate behavior when it’s not just the store manager but the CFO as well. I did make a lot of noise about and received a half-assed apology of sorts. WF is probably a great place to work… if you know how to conform and play the game. I didn’t.

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  41. Julie Robinson said on September 18, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    LB, isn’t every job like that? All of mine have been.

    This whole last year has been painful for me as memories that had been repressed have emerged, and I wonder if that’s true for every single woman I know. I don’t really want to drag those memories out, and I can’t imagine having to answer intimate questions in front of strangers.

    During college I was on a rape task force and we attended a rape trial. It should have been an open and shut case; a man waited until a young woman was at a store by herself during lunch hour, walked in, overpowered and raped her. She was a bitty little thing, he large and powerful.

    And yet, and yet, and yet…the defense pulled out the underwear and bra she had been wearing, questioned them not being sufficiently prudish, and paraded them around the courtroom showing them closely to everyone. What did her underwear style have to do with the case? It infuriated me then and now. I think that wouldn’t be allowed now, some 40 years later.

    What a brave woman. I applaud her but have been haunted by the trial ever since.

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  42. Heather said on September 18, 2018 at 12:38 pm

    Julie, that is awful and makes me angry on behalf of that woman even though it was so long ago. While that particular defense (surely?) wouldn’t pass muster today, the mindset is unfortunately still entrenched.

    This is probably obvious to lawyers, but one thing I realized when writing my thesis, which dealt with in part our culture’s attitudes toward sexual harassment/assault and touched on how it is dealt with legally, is that laws and their interpretations don’t automatically change with the times. Existing law has to be challenged, usually via a case about assault, and that’s often a difficult and onerous path. So while it may be obvious that something is assault, it takes a lot of effort for it to be acknowledged legally. And of course our legal system was built by white men, so it’s not exactly built to be sensitive to the experiences of anyone who isn’t one.

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  43. beb said on September 18, 2018 at 12:56 pm

    We apparently have dueling affidavits: Kavanaugh has his 65 and Ford has her 200
    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/christine-ford-high-school-alumnae-letter-support

    Sherri@31: I’m sorry. There is so much wrong about Kavanaugh that its had to remember all of them. Yes, his lies to Congress ought to be enough to sink his nomination, but also should lead to an impeachment for his current judicial position.

    Ford wasn’t sure which party she was attack at, but Kavanaugh is sure, absolutely, positively, that he wasn’t there.

    I wish that Sen. Collins and Murkowski would end this charade be declaring that Kavanaugh is just too unacceptable to them. But they won’t.

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  44. Sherri said on September 18, 2018 at 1:59 pm

    Of course he should be impeached; he should never have been confirmed. Lifetime appointments for judges need to end; our political system just can’t support such a notion.

    If, when, in 2020, the Dems manage to gain control, I believe they should add SCOTUS justices. The number is not set in the Constitution, and post-Garland, it’s clear that Republicans will do anything to grab power. Lifetime appointments require Constitutional change, I believe, but they should pursue that as well. That limits the damage extremists can do.

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  45. Deborah said on September 18, 2018 at 2:27 pm

    Sherri, I had not heard of adding Justices, that’s brilliant. All the rules are down the toilet anyway, and the Republicans don’t play fair (i.e. Garland, gerrymandering, voter suppression, need I say more?). Look at the different way the Democrats acted when the issues regarding Franken came to light, they did the right thing (even though it broke my heart that it had to be done).

    And Julie, wow that is disgusting, that would be hard to forget.

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  46. Jakash said on September 18, 2018 at 2:32 pm

    That was a good Caitlin Flanagan piece @ 39, Deborah, except for her disclaimer paragraph about being “agnostic” about the nomination before Sunday and her conclusion that “If it’s not true, Kavanaugh should be confirmed without a cloud of suspicion.”

    Any port in a storm — if this is what it takes to get a couple tweet-big, act-small Republicans to vote against him, then I guess this is what it takes. But his chances should be completely obscured by the “cloud of suspicion” that *already* had developed around his nomination, as referred to up-thread. You know who could easily be confirmed without a cloud of suspicion — Merrick Garland.

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  47. Sherri said on September 18, 2018 at 3:00 pm

    Caitlin Flanagan is one of those centrist moderate types who is virtually indistinguishable from a Republican, though I doubt she identifies as such. I think of her as sort of like Susan Collins as a writer: starts off interesting, but afraid to really follow through on the implications. So if even she is unhappy with Kavanaugh, that’s something.

    Of course, it takes personal experience for her to get it.

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  48. Brandon said on September 18, 2018 at 4:30 pm

    “Of course we all remember guys like that in high school, we called them soshes (I don’t actually know how we spelled that).”

    Deborah, I know that from The Outsiders.

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  49. Deborah said on September 18, 2018 at 4:57 pm

    Brandon, I see from the Wikipedia entry for The Outsiders, they spell it socs. To be honest I thought of that first when I made the comment but I thought people would think it was pronounced socks. But socs makes perfect sense because it comes from socialites.

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  50. Bitter Scribe said on September 18, 2018 at 6:14 pm

    Isn’t Flanagan’s thing bitching out working mothers?

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  51. LAMary said on September 18, 2018 at 6:18 pm

    Julie, I keep thinking of an incident in college. Every time a new me too accusation comes up. I remember when Anita Hill was testifying pretty much every woman I knew had her own story. It really stays with you.

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  52. Jeff Borden said on September 18, 2018 at 7:59 pm

    Anyone here ever read the Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr? I just bought a volume that contains his first three novels. “March Violets” is set in the Berlin of 1934, when the National Socialists have seized control of Germany. It’s a fast, exciting but disturbing tale of life under the iron fist of a nation in thrall to a figurehead. (No. I’m not comparing Adolf Hitler to the Orange King. tRump is more analogous to Charlie Chaplin in “The Great Dictator.”) The main character cracks wise like Marlowe, but this Berlin is far more depraved than his L.A.

    I almost never recommend books, but this one really caught me by surprise.

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  53. Sherri said on September 18, 2018 at 10:21 pm

    I really don’t get this whole “should a bad decision made at 17 ruin my life” argument. In the first place, if you’re not a well-off white man, that’s just the way the world works. In the second place, if you want to overcome it, then do something to overcome it. Be accountable for your actions and make some amends. Don’t expect that the mere passage of time wipes the slate clean.

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  54. Dexter Friend said on September 19, 2018 at 2:15 am

    Poignant , brilliant, Sherri….and I hope they just nail this bastard’s coffin shut by bringing forth a few more witnesses , therefore proving Kavanaugh is also a fucking liar to go along with being a perpetrator. This stuff sticks…I think of Anita Hill every time I see that creep Long Dong Thomas’s mug.

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  55. JodiP said on September 19, 2018 at 9:26 am

    Sherri’s question about a bad decision affecting the rest of one’s life: in the criminal justice system, it sure can. My 18 months in the public defender’s office was eye-opening. There are so many collateral consequences for being convicted, and the biased nature of the system ensures POC pay the highest price.

    And this bill passed the House, expanding what constitutes violent crime. Pod Save the People is such a treasure, sharing the news which is so buried but critical.

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