I agree that the Access Hollywood tape is probably not 'locker room talk'. But let's be charitable and say it is. What sort of creep would want to falsely brag (he was clearly bragging) about repeatedly sexually assaulting women? A sort of creep who is utterly unfit for any sort of elected office. The people who voted for him in 2016 should hang their heads in shame,
"...contempt and mistreatment of women is a core theme of Trump’s life and politics. Both the press and Democratic opponents have struggled to make this issue central to 2024, even though abortion rights and women’s health care are the key issues of the campaign. " It's not just a core theme for Trump but also for many Republicans who support Trump, and silence is complicity. As most women know, this attitude is directly related to abortion rights. Women are secondary to men; they are breeders who have no independent rights. Women who die while pregnant or soon after are simply collateral damage. Those who publicly claim women kill their children after birth should be publicly shamed to prove it. There's more outrage at Kristi Noem killing a dog (which is horrid) then women dying while pregnant. Make America Great Again wants to go back to the days when women had few economic and social rights, and few choices. Vote Blue to protect yourself, your sister, your cousin, your niece, your aunt, your children, your grandchildren and all pregnant people. I'm 72, well past child rearing, but this issue is about all women in the US.
Trump's disturbing sense of entitlement and violence towards women translates into his reign as president as a malignant leader who abused his office and created a culture of misogyny that was rampant in his White House as Cassidy Hutchinson points out. It really is a black mark on the history of the GOP that they enabled this man to become president.
Very well stated and very sober. I have read a few accounts and opinions of this testimony. There of course is the salaciousness of the details, but they and Daniel's demeanor confirm that this happened and how upsetting it was. So it's been proven over and again about how Trump treats and feels about women: disrespectful and a means to show dominance, how great he is (which is un quenchable apparently). But more than that it's about the person as a whole. Those who have lied to themselves about Trump the candidate, perhaps will find it harder to want this character as President of the United States, not because of the way he mistreats and thinks about women (which is enough) but more broadly because this case shows who he is is totally, not only about that. He is, in so many ways as he shows, very mentally unfit. Dangerous. This is really about the electorate. This trial is more important than I thought it would be.
My understanding (and I follow this fairly closely) is that the fines are earning interest but it's going to appeal. When the appeal fails he'll have to pay up including the accrued interest. Word is that he'll struggle to over turn the judgement given the written documentation his organization committed fraud (like lying about how big his properties were and grossly inflating their value).
I've read the transcript of May 7th. Sadly, Stormy Daniels isn't giving herself enough credit for why the episode was not considered rape in her mind or I guess criminally. (Did you say no? I didn't say anything.) When she came out of the bathroom, she had to make a decision: consent or try to deny/refuse. In her mind, she might have predicted that if she refused, even if there was a guard outside the room, there was chance that she could have suffered injury. She did not want that humiliation plus injury so she chose consent instead, to suffer a different type or level of humiliation, but humiliation nonetheless, because she ended up doing something she had absolutely no desire to do.
Sadly, the testimony of the witness just before Stormy, a publisher representative, is pretty damning and has been completely ignored by the media for the most part. She was asked by the prosecution to read excerpts from two of Trump's books from 2004, 05, all quotes revealing what a truly nasty, brutish person Trump has been, right in plain sight. That 74 million people in this country refuse to acknowledge this truth is still the most tragic aspect of our time.
I keep thinking about why Stormy Daniels keeps saying it wasn’t a rape even though it very clearly was a rape. Rape is a spectrum, while sexual consent should be full on and enthusiastic. It was a tactical decision to not try to escape or cause a scene or to call for help. For sure.
But yes even without her calling what happened a rape, he continually flat out denies her and their encounter. It has haunting similarities with what happened with E. Jean Carroll and the statement that Trump told Billy Bush that I can only accept it all as true.
It had to have happened dozens of times if not hundreds. And it had to have happened pretty much exactly like it happened with E. Jean Carroll or Stormy Daniels, regardless of the specifics and what each person so accosted chose to do and chose to label their choices and their experience.
And I circle back to how Stormy Daniels saw what was happening and when it was about to happen, and she blamed herself in advance, and that’s what really sticks in my craw and makes clear that it was a rape, managed in what she saw was the safest manner possible.
I know this is a little off topic, but this is also Matt Taibbi who wrote his own version of the Access Hollywood tape he was so proud of it (and then years later when that was a problem claimed it wasn’t a memoir but rather a “novel”). Remember this next time you see something by him
I agree that the Access Hollywood tape is probably not 'locker room talk'. But let's be charitable and say it is. What sort of creep would want to falsely brag (he was clearly bragging) about repeatedly sexually assaulting women? A sort of creep who is utterly unfit for any sort of elected office. The people who voted for him in 2016 should hang their heads in shame,
Matt Taibbi would brag about such things.
https://chicagoreader.com/blogs/twenty-years-ago-in-moscow-matt-taibbi-was-a-misogynist-asshole-and-possibly-worse/
"...contempt and mistreatment of women is a core theme of Trump’s life and politics. Both the press and Democratic opponents have struggled to make this issue central to 2024, even though abortion rights and women’s health care are the key issues of the campaign. " It's not just a core theme for Trump but also for many Republicans who support Trump, and silence is complicity. As most women know, this attitude is directly related to abortion rights. Women are secondary to men; they are breeders who have no independent rights. Women who die while pregnant or soon after are simply collateral damage. Those who publicly claim women kill their children after birth should be publicly shamed to prove it. There's more outrage at Kristi Noem killing a dog (which is horrid) then women dying while pregnant. Make America Great Again wants to go back to the days when women had few economic and social rights, and few choices. Vote Blue to protect yourself, your sister, your cousin, your niece, your aunt, your children, your grandchildren and all pregnant people. I'm 72, well past child rearing, but this issue is about all women in the US.
Great point, Patricia
💙❤️💙❤️💙
"We don’t know if Trump ever had any intention of keeping his promises or of helping Daniels." Of course we do.
Trump's disturbing sense of entitlement and violence towards women translates into his reign as president as a malignant leader who abused his office and created a culture of misogyny that was rampant in his White House as Cassidy Hutchinson points out. It really is a black mark on the history of the GOP that they enabled this man to become president.
Misogyny and self-serving Election Interference. The man's a walking tornado.
Much of his shenanigans has been designed towards "election interference" of his own making.
• Pay off Stormy Daniels to avoid affecting '16 election
• Get Zalenskyy to probe Biden to affect '20 election
• Minimize Covid-19 to avoid affecting '20 election
• Call Brad Raffensperger to affect '20 election
• Encourage Jan 6 to affect '20 election
Discourage Border Bill to affect '24 election
Yeah but it is still all too conceivable that tornado might make it to the White House this November.
Very well stated and very sober. I have read a few accounts and opinions of this testimony. There of course is the salaciousness of the details, but they and Daniel's demeanor confirm that this happened and how upsetting it was. So it's been proven over and again about how Trump treats and feels about women: disrespectful and a means to show dominance, how great he is (which is un quenchable apparently). But more than that it's about the person as a whole. Those who have lied to themselves about Trump the candidate, perhaps will find it harder to want this character as President of the United States, not because of the way he mistreats and thinks about women (which is enough) but more broadly because this case shows who he is is totally, not only about that. He is, in so many ways as he shows, very mentally unfit. Dangerous. This is really about the electorate. This trial is more important than I thought it would be.
Where are we with the half a billion he owes in fines?
As far as I last heard, his bonds were no good.
My understanding (and I follow this fairly closely) is that the fines are earning interest but it's going to appeal. When the appeal fails he'll have to pay up including the accrued interest. Word is that he'll struggle to over turn the judgement given the written documentation his organization committed fraud (like lying about how big his properties were and grossly inflating their value).
My understanding is, he is unable to appeal unless he comes up with the down payment, the guaranteur of which has since been deemed illegitimate.
AG James accepted the reduced bond. I have no idea why, it's obviously fake.
She accepted the reduced bond because the judge said so, but even that reduced bond was not legit, as I understand it.
It's a fucking Blizzard of Bullshit, and we're getting snowed in.
I don’t think she had any choice about accepting the reduced bond. I don’t think she was happy about it.
Stroke or Heart Attack can’t happen fast enough….
R'Amen. I didn't believe in any gods, but I throw that thought out into the universe every goddamn day.
I wish it would change some voters’ minds.
I've read the transcript of May 7th. Sadly, Stormy Daniels isn't giving herself enough credit for why the episode was not considered rape in her mind or I guess criminally. (Did you say no? I didn't say anything.) When she came out of the bathroom, she had to make a decision: consent or try to deny/refuse. In her mind, she might have predicted that if she refused, even if there was a guard outside the room, there was chance that she could have suffered injury. She did not want that humiliation plus injury so she chose consent instead, to suffer a different type or level of humiliation, but humiliation nonetheless, because she ended up doing something she had absolutely no desire to do.
Sadly, the testimony of the witness just before Stormy, a publisher representative, is pretty damning and has been completely ignored by the media for the most part. She was asked by the prosecution to read excerpts from two of Trump's books from 2004, 05, all quotes revealing what a truly nasty, brutish person Trump has been, right in plain sight. That 74 million people in this country refuse to acknowledge this truth is still the most tragic aspect of our time.
I keep thinking about why Stormy Daniels keeps saying it wasn’t a rape even though it very clearly was a rape. Rape is a spectrum, while sexual consent should be full on and enthusiastic. It was a tactical decision to not try to escape or cause a scene or to call for help. For sure.
But yes even without her calling what happened a rape, he continually flat out denies her and their encounter. It has haunting similarities with what happened with E. Jean Carroll and the statement that Trump told Billy Bush that I can only accept it all as true.
It had to have happened dozens of times if not hundreds. And it had to have happened pretty much exactly like it happened with E. Jean Carroll or Stormy Daniels, regardless of the specifics and what each person so accosted chose to do and chose to label their choices and their experience.
And I circle back to how Stormy Daniels saw what was happening and when it was about to happen, and she blamed herself in advance, and that’s what really sticks in my craw and makes clear that it was a rape, managed in what she saw was the safest manner possible.
It all says volumes, everything and every detail.
You are spot on
I know this is a little off topic, but this is also Matt Taibbi who wrote his own version of the Access Hollywood tape he was so proud of it (and then years later when that was a problem claimed it wasn’t a memoir but rather a “novel”). Remember this next time you see something by him
https://chicagoreader.com/blogs/twenty-years-ago-in-moscow-matt-taibbi-was-a-misogynist-asshole-and-possibly-worse/