I just read on NPR’s health blog about a new study that found that “an estimated 3.3 million [women] nationwide said that their first sexual experience was rape.” And this is likely an underestimate, because the data for the study predates the very new #MeToo movement, and only women age 18 to 44 were included.
That’s a lot of women and a lot of rape. And it’s both shocking and completely unsurprising considering that we live in a country where President Trump has been accused of rape and sexual assault many times, and all of his accusers have been dismissed as liars. And then, president rapist appointed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and the Republicans enthusiastically supported him despite very credible testimony by Christine Blasey Ford that he’d sexually assaulted her in high school.
And lo and behold, what’s this trending now on Twitter? Brett Kavanaugh’s penis. Because that’s the horror show we’re living in right now.
To be clear, it’s not a dick pic of Kavanaugh on Twitter. It’s more allegations of him using his penis to be a sexually assaulting trash heap. The latest allegations refer to incidents that happened while he was in college, and they star his penis being thrust at women who didn’t want that to be happening to them.
Trump, of course, came to Kavanaugh’s defense.
“Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue,” Trump tweeted, indicating yet again that he has no idea what the Justice Department does. “The lies being told about him are unbelievable.”
Trump’s very Strange and Random capitalizations aside, Trump doesn’t know if what’s being said about Kavanaugh is true or not, because the FBI didn’t bother to investigate the allegations at the time of Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Of course, that’s according to the Liberal Media, so … .
The next day Trump tweeted: “I call for the Resignation of everybody at The New York Times involved in the Kavanaugh SMEAR story, and while you’re at it, the Russian Witch Hunt Hoax, which is just as phony!”
That’s journalism in America, folks. The goddamn president calls for the resignation of reporters he doesn’t agree with.
Other, much smarter, people (Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris for example) are calling for resignations, too — or, more specifically, impeachments.
“Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing,” Warren tweeted. “Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.”
Would the Senate go for it? Well, no. Of course not. It’s still Republican-controlled (though you can help that by volunteering for a U.S. Senate race in your neck of the woods), and Mitch McConnell, who said the new allegations “felt a little like Groundhog Day,” is calling the shots.
But that doesn’t mean a full investigation shouldn’t happen. Impeach Trump. Impeach Kavanaugh. Let the proceedings begin, because Democracy is heading toward an iceberg, and if we don’t do something this ship is going down.
Americans deserve the truth. Granted, a number of them will choose only to believe their dear leader. But winning over the mindless isn’t the point.
The point is we should be taking seriously charges of sexual assault and saying, “Gosh, maybe men who have credible accusations against them shouldn’t be allowed to hold the most powerful positions in the land.”
Look, it was clear that Kavanaugh wasn’t a good person before his confirmation hearing. It’s also clear that he wasn’t a good person during his confirmation hearing. And that means he isn’t a good person now that he’s a sitting Supreme Court justice.
This is a man who, for the rest of his life, will be making decisions that govern the bodies and lives of women and LGBTQ people in this country. This man who thought that pushing his penis into a woman’s face was a funny joke in college.
I can’t stop thinking about those 3 million women in this country were raped as their FIRST sexual experience. Their first! This doesn’t count the many more who were raped after that.
And still, our default is to not believe women, to dismiss them as liars, especially when they accuse powerful men.
The idea that there are all these women out there who will stop at nothing to destroy a good man’s life is absurd. Sexual assault isn’t something the majority of women lie about.
The idea that there are all these men out there who will stop at nothing to destroy a good woman’s life by assaulting her and then calling her a liar? We see that played out over and over again. And it has to stop.
D’Anne Witkowski is a poet, writer and comedian living in Michigan with her wife and son. She has been writing about LGBT politics for over a decade. Follow her on Twitter @MamaDWitkowski.
Here is what you FAILED to report…because of your bias article. Stop spinning lies (like FAKE NEWS) does all the time…It’s more like Dallas Voice is nothing more than a smear and blame organization.
Here ARE FACTS you failed to FIND OUT, before you bashed our current President or SCOTUS Kavanaugh. I for one pray Kavanaugh will SUE the crap out of these two idiots. That’s what needs to start happening when liberals think they can shame or intimidate conservatives.
The New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly wrote that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when he was a freshman in college, allegedly had his pants down at a party and exposed his privates to a female student; then his friends pushed his privates into the hand of the female student.
What’s noteworthy is that this new allegation appeared in the 11th paragraph on Page 2 of the Sunday Review section of the Times. (For the record, The Times added to its story that the alleged victim refused to be interviewed and that friends say she does not recall the episode.) Yet, why wouldn’t these two left-leaning NYTs so-called reporters GET the person to COMMIT to the story…because it never happened..PERIOD!
So let’s get this straight: There’s another never-before-heard allegation involving a Supreme Court Justice who has been accused of sexual misconduct in the past and it’s — with all due respect to the Sunday Review section — buried deep inside the Times? How is this not a front-page story?
There was such bewilderment on Sunday that The New York Times’ communications department felt the need to release a statement on Twitter. It explained that the new information was part of an excerpt from the upcoming book “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation.”
“The new revelations contained in the piece were uncovered during the reporting process for the book, which is why this information did not appear in The Times before the excerpt,” the statement said.
That’s not an adequate explanation. Why wasn’t a bigger deal made out of this latest allegation, especially because the excerpt was from a book written by reporters who work for the Times? This allegation — along with more details about a similar allegation involving a former Yale student named Deborah Ramirez — is troubling on its own, as well as possibly suggesting that Kavanaugh perjured himself during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
Was it a case where the Sunday Review section wasn’t in communication with the national desk? Should there be a concern that serious allegations involving a Supreme Court justice uncovered by Times reporters appeared in a book excerpt before appearing as a news story in the Times?
These are questions the Times should be asking today.
A bad tweet, then a presidential reaction
The Kavanaugh story led to two notable tweets over the weekend. In an attempt to tease and link to the story, the Times Opinion section tweeted (then deleted):
“Having a penis thrust in your face in a drunken dorm party may seem like harmless fun. But when Brett Kavanaugh did it to her, Deborah Ramirez says, it confirmed that she didn’t belong at Yale in the first place.”
Harmless fun? What was the person who wrote that thinking? When it deleted the tweet, the Times called it “poorly phrased.”
On Sunday, the Times communications department tweeted:
“Also, a tweet that went out from the @NYTOpinion account yesterday was clearly inappropriate and offensive. We apologize for it and are reviewing the decision-making with those involved.”
In the meantime, President Donald Trump reacted on Twitter about the Kavanaugh story, tweeting:
“Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue. The lies being told about him are unbelievable. False Accusations without recrimination. When does it stop? They are trying to influence his opinions. Can’t let that happen!”
It’s unclear what Trump would expect the DOJ to do, but whatever it is, it would seem troubling.
One more thing …
It shouldn’t go unnoticed that the Kavanaugh book appears as if it’s going to be a must-read. Pogrebin and Kelly will appear on NBC’s “3rd Hour of Today” this morning for their first TV interview ahead of the Tuesday release of their book.
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