It kind of meshes with what the one juror who got excused said… she was pro menendez, and said that it seemed like the government was trying to railroad him.
I fear that in cases like this, it’s virtually impossible to find an untained jury pool, given today’s political climate.
This is why I think the Trumplings will mostly hold their ground- they’re going to bet that some juror lets them off then puts on a MAGA hat.
This seems likely, if not virtually certain. None of these assholes will ever go to jail. We can hope they lose their jobs, though, and discredit the GOP.
It’s a scary thought, because it means rule of law in the US is over, and that would lead to a wave of vigilanteism.
I’ve change my mind on Franken resigning. Typically abusive men have patterns of behavior, and where there is one, there’s almost always more. That was my initial reaction when the Franken story broke. I think from now on, regardless of who ends up “in the barrel,” I’m just going to refrain from judgement.
This statement was on MSNBC (it’s impossible to google, I had take a picture from the TV.) Along with seven staffers also defending Franken, and his apology, I’m (hoping) this is an isolated incident.
(edit: warning, auto play with audio on this Hill piece.)
Predators tend not to stop. Either they physically stop being able to do their assaults or they don’t have the opportunity. The picture was in poor taste and done by two grown men who should know better. If that’s all he did, inappropriate pictures with women in full clothes without their consent… it’s not in the same ballpark as the others. I would say the same for anyone, regardless of their political camp. And if they’re adults, consenting… it have to be pretty extreme, like I can’t think of it, to be on the same table as these others.
The whole rumor about Trump and some Russian prostitutes in watersport videos… I couldn’t careless if that came out.
If it actually occurred I’d like to see that come out just to hear his supporters, particularly the evangelicals, try and explain how that is perfectly normal and acceptable behavior.
I mean… everything else has been.
The only way they might turn on him is if he did something gay and then they’d just revert to “Fake News” anyway.
More information and why it might be premature to call for Franken’s resignation.
https://twitter.com/yottapoint/status/932486700743323648
Edit:
Unsure if I should post this or not, but someone looked at the metadata on the ‘grouping’ phone (where Franken is pretending to grope her. Take a look at the shadows, he’s not touching her. Doesn’t mean it’s not in poor taste, but that’s not groping.)
[–]3lfg1rl 15 points 15 hours ago
To be fair… There are some indications that this photo was altered. I found this really interesting twitter thread where the guy talked about the metadata of the photo and hints of photoshop on it. I don’t know anything about photoshop, but I can do photo metadata. I downloaded the photo from the original news site where she went public and checked his claims on that, and he was right. According to the metadata, the photo was taken at 5:30pm-ish on December 21st 2006, not at night on Dec 25th when they were flying home like she claimed. Also, the metadata says that the photo was last modified in Photoshop 7 the day after that Franken was announced to have won the election: July 1st, 2009. Finding photoshop fakes is an art, and even when it’s pointed out I am really bad at seeing what was altered in them, but metadata is all easily verifiable, and you can download the photo and check for yourself. That all just seems super suspicious.
Add in that Roger Stone seemed to know it was going to happen before it happened it gets even muddier.
Newsweek is already equating Franken to Moore and Weinstein. Republicans are really masters at this stuff.
HILLARY CLINTON DEFENDS AL FRANKEN AFTER SEX ASSAULT ACCUSATIONS, BUT DOESN’T HAVE KIND WORDS FOR DONALD TRUMP AND ROY MOORE
What you’re posting is being debunked as fake news judging from delving into Twitter some more.
I believe an incident happened, or else Franken wouldn’t have apologized. Right now based on what I’ve seen, I believe the incident just rises to a common level of inappropiate- nothing criminal.
I don’t know for sure, and my mind is open to changing on this if other evidence comes out.
I’m not posting about a photographer saying the photo was staged. I’m talking about the metadata of the photograph with the date being the 21st, not the 25th. (The person who took the photograph has not been contacted.) Edit: The date is the issue here for me (the data in the EXIF section. Created 12/21/2006 at 5:19pm, not the date she claimed.), not that it’s been altered. In hindsight I should not have posted that though.
As far as the USO show, Tweeden said Franken wrote in the kissing scene so he could kiss her, but that’s not true as it was already in the 2003 skit (that did not include Tweeden.) There are also reports from the USO tour that Franken and Tweeden were never alone. That doesn’t necessarily mean something inappropriate didn’t happen, but as you say I don’t think this incident rises to the level of criminal behavior in my mind. If other victims come out against Franken I’ll change my mind, but right now I would not put him in the same bucket as the other offenders who have been outed.
Edit: Welp, never mind. Another accuser.
Leeann Tweeden told multiple people at FOX about the incident with Franken months ago, and that’s how Stone heard about it and knew that Franken’s time “in the barrel” was coming. Tweeden had told them that when she was ready to speak up, she would, and to their credit those who knew said nothing until she was ready to speak up first.
Democrats have to be hard on Franken or else they look like hypocrites. Republicans don’t care about appearing hypocritical because their voters don’t punish them for it (see: White House on Trump’s 12 accusers, nothing to see here).
It’s the old ‘perils of being the grownup in the room’ problem. To put it another way, Democrats are Lawful, Republicans are Chaotic. If the constituency doesn’t punish its representatives for being Chaotic, guess who wins in a bar fight?
Democrats: “Our former presidents can meme like mothaf******”
And my heart grew three more sizes that very day…
Dear god do I miss them.
Indeed.
Just having a grown up in the white house would be nice at this point.
This is exactly what Democrats need to be doing right now. Mobilizing scientists, educators and leaders from the tech, research, medical and environmental fields to run for state senate seats, governorships and Congress. I would vote for Jess Phoenix in a heartbeat if I lived in California because she’s smart, dedicated and motivated by a concern for the environment, education and the betterment of all Americans, not just her donors. She’s also cute as a button, not that it has any bearing on her ability to be an effective member of congress, but it does give her an edge over Mitch McConnell. ;-)
