Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
The jury in Bill Cosby's retrial found the TV icon guilty of all three counts of aggravated indecent assault on Thursday for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in a Philadelphia suburb in 2004.
The 80-year-old comedian faces up to 10 years in prison on each count, but would likely serve them concurrently.
After the trial concluded, Constand left through a side door in the courtroom, walking into a hallway with her arms around two women and a huge smile on her face.
Cosby shouted at the prosecutor in court when his bail was discussed, observers said.
The case against Cosby centered on testimony from Constand, a former employee with Temple University women's basketball team. She testified that Cosby, a powerful trustee at Temple, drugged her and sexually assaulted her when she visited his home to ask for career advice.
Cosby's defense team argued that their interaction was consensual. Constand is a con artist, they argued, who wanted a piece of Cosby's fortune.
The case is the first celebrity sexual assault trial since the #MeToo movement began last fall, and as such, represents a test of how the cultural movement will translate into a courtroom arena. In closing arguments, defense attorney Kathleen Bliss positioned Cosby's legal team as standing up against "witch hunts, lynchings (and) McCarthyism."
"Witch hunt" where have we heard THAT before?
It can be argued that the Cosby allegations were actually the impetus for the #MeToo movement, and that this conviction is proof that powerful men who thought that their money and prestige would protect them from justice have another think coming.
Gee, I wonder who could be next to learn that lesson?
Rep. Blake Farenthold resigned abruptly Friday, months after sexual harassment allegations against the Texas Republican surfaced.
Farenthold, who has represented Texas' 27th District since 2011, said in December he would not seek re-election this year. The 56-year-old becomes only the latest member of Congress to resign in recent months following sexual misconduct allegations.
"While I planned on serving out the remainder of my term in Congress, I know in my heart it's time for me to move along and look for new ways to serve," Farenthold said in a statement Friday.
A 2014 harassment lawsuit brought by a former staff member against Farenthold was settled using $84,000 in taxpayer money. The congressman's former communications director, Lauren Greene, accused him of making sexually inappropriate comments. Other former aides have spoken to media outlets about a toxic work environment.
Pajama boy is out?
Aww. what a shame.
Personally I have no idea how he lasted as long as he did.
I mean the guy's like a poster boy for inappropriate sexual behavior.
Some of the allegations about the conduct in his office, and among his staff, are quite shocking.
Looks like we can chalk up another win for the #MeToo movement, and the Blue Wave.
Trump tells friends that he deplores the #MeToo movement and believes it unfairly exposes CEOs to lawsuits from their female employees. The fact that women frequently face sexual predation in the workplace doesn’t impact his view on this.
This is the strongest indicator yet that Trump will reflexively defend his male allies from any and all accusations, even when he thinks those accusations are true.
Well of course Trump hates the #MeToo movement.
They were formed specifically because of him, and clearly he is at the top of their list of targets.
New York Magazine writer Rebecca Traister, in a discussion with Chris Hayes and organizer Linda Sarsour, asked why the women's marches got so little media coverage.
"What do you want me to tell the crazy women talking about justice? They ignored us again but they will not ignore us at the ballot box," Sarsour said.
"This is right. This is symptomatic, the marches and the activism is not taken seriously. Why?" Traister asked.
"They are women's marches. We know last year single biggest one-day demonstration in this country's history, we heard how afterwards, it was okay but just a march, it's performance, fun, people get together and wear their cute hats, whatever. No one seems to have connected, still, a year later when there is a spontaneous demonstration almost the same size in some places like Chicago, bigger, without a centralized organization drawing everybody.
"I didn't know about the marches," she said. "I write about women and politics. I didn't know there would be women's marches until January and they were massive. They don't just have cute marches with the hats with the fact it's women clogging congressional phone lines and doing town halls, who have been organizing on the grassroots activist level around state and local office races around the country who have been winning in New Jersey, in Virginia and who are running in unprecedented numbers for the House, for the Senate and primarying Democrats from the left.
"And apparently, the media's failure to take this seriously as a political movement and not as some social weekend thing that women do once a year, has led Senate Democrats to think it's not a serious political movement," she said.
I have been saying for awhile that women are changing things, and that the #MeToo movement and these female driven rallies are going to be significant.
But I have to admit that even I may not have recognized just how important of this will be to the future of this nation.
Women have clearly found their voice, and they are no longer asking men for permission to join the conversation. They are already having a conversation to which men better pay attention.
Women’s March rallies are taking place in hundreds of cities across the world, galvanized by the #MeToo moment. Here’s the latest. https://t.co/zDbRq8TpPr
Across the world, people were coming together and hitting the streets on Saturday -- the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration -- marching against his policies and in support of the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment.
Protests in New York, Washington, D.C., and Rome were among the more than 200 such actions planned for the weekend.
In Rome earlier Saturday, dozens of activists gathered to denounce violence against women and express support for #MeToo.
People also gathered in Osaka, Japan; Frankfurt, Germany; and Kampala, Uganda, for boisterous demonstrations.
To me this is a beautiful thing.
But you have to know that if you are a powerful man used to treating women like objects, or second hand citizens, this has to be one of the most terrifying things imaginable.
But not for one powerful man, because I don't think he really understood what was happening.
Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!
Maher is making some very good points here, that I think a number of us have also discussed in the past.
The #MeToo movement is overall a very positive thing, but it can render itself completely ineffective if those participating do not exercise a little objectivity.
The Los Angeles Police Department has launched a sexual assault investigation against actor Steven Seagal, who in recent weeks has faced several allegations of sexual misconduct including rape, according to multiple reports.
A spokesperson for the LAPD told CBS News that the incident allegedly occurred in 2005. No other details of the case have been made public.
Several women, including actresses Portia de Rossi, Julianna Margulies and Rae Dawn Chong, have recently accused Seagal of sexual harassment. In a November tweet, de Rossi claimed Seagal “unzipped his leather pants” during an audition in the actor’s office. Margulies said Seagal had attempted to sexually harass her in his apartment when she was 23, and Chong accused Seagal of once showing her “his junk” in his hotel room and leaving her multiple “sex messages” on her machine.
A woman named Regina Simons, who worked as an extra on the 1994 film “On Deadly Ground,” which starred Seagal, told The Wrap this month that the actor raped her at his home.
All in all more than a dozen women have accused Seagal of sexual misconduct.
Now this is important. not so much because Seagal is a Hollywood star (He isn't.), but because of who he is now associated with politically.
In recent years Seagal has become besties with Vladimir Putin (He was even awarded Russian citizenship.) and has gone out of his way to defend him a number of times, including most recently against charges that he interfered in our election:
Seagal defended Russia by responding that “every country is involved in espionage,” and denied that Putin had “anything to do with fixing” the U.S. election – all while pronouncing Putin’s name with a hardcore Russian accent.
The actor concluded that the belief that Russia interfered with the U.S. election is the result of “astronomical propaganda,” and meant as some sort of “diversion.”
Seagal is also, of course, a Trump supporter, and has been a friend for years.
He has even been photographed hanging out with other Russian agents.
So yes this case will prove very interesting to watch for a number of reasons.
NEW -- Washington following Hollywood's lead: A group of female Democratic lawmakers is planning to wear black to President Trump's first State of the Union address in a show of solidarity for #MeToo and #TimesUp
A number of women in Congress are planning to wear black to the State of the Union later this month as a show of support for women affected by sexual misconduct.
The show of support echoes actresses who wore black to last Sunday's Golden Globes to support the Me Too and Time's Up movements.
NBC News was first to report Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., was calling for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to dress in black. President Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address on Jan. 30.
The movement is being championed by the Democratic Women's Working Group, which includes all female Democratic members of the House of Representatives.
I was planning to boycott Trump's SOTU speech, but now I am a little intrigued to see if this fucks with his head.
Looking out over a sea of women dressed in black, sitting next to victims of sexual assault, and knowing they are there to send him a message, could render Trump even more incoherent than usual.
People have been calling on the Democrats to start upping their game.
Well from Dianne Feinstein's brave actions the other day, their push back on the border wall, their call for a more comprehensive response to Russia election meddling, and now this. I would say they are doing exactly that.
Driven by outrage and a resolve to correct a power imbalance that seemed intractable just months ago, 300 prominent actresses and female agents, writers, directors, producers and entertainment executives have formed an ambitious, sprawling initiative to fight systemic sexual harassment in Hollywood and in blue-collar workplaces nationwide.
The initiative includes:
— A legal defense fund, backed by $13 million in donations, to help less privileged women— like janitors, nurses and workers at farms, factories, restaurants and hotels — protect themselves from sexual misconduct and the fallout from reporting it.
— Legislation to penalize companies that tolerate persistent harassment, and to discourage the use of nondisclosure agreements to silence victims.
— A drive to reach gender parity at studios and talent agencies that has already begun making headway.
— And a request that women walking the red carpet at the Golden Globes speak out and raise awareness by wearing black.
Called Time’s Up, the movement was announced on Monday with an impassioned pledge of support to working-class women in an open letter signed by hundreds of women in show business, many of them A-listers. The letter also ran as a full-page ad in The New York Times, and in La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper.
“The struggle for women to break in, to rise up the ranks and to simply be heard and acknowledged in male-dominated workplaces must end; time’s up on this impenetrable monopoly,” the letter says.
During the holidays my mother asked me what I thought it was that triggered the #MeToo movement.
I told her that was simple, Donald Trump.
My mom thought it was the Harvey Weinstein scandal, but I told her that Harvey Weinsten would very likely have kept right on treating women like shit and getting away with it, if women had not been shocked, angered, and mobilized by an admitted abuser of women defeating the first viable female candidate for the job of president.
That was why the day after the inauguration we saw women lead the biggest protest in this country's history, and that is why we are seeing women coming together to not only protect themselves from the Donald Trump's of this world, but to chase them out of positions of power and influence forever.
Time Magazine had it exactly right when they chose the #MeToo movement for their "Person of the Year," and I think we are only seeing the very beginning of what this movement is capable of achieving.
Not surprisingly, the end-of-the-year political news coverage has been dominated by midterm election predictions. They usually point to the abundance of surveys showing Democrats with a big lead in generic congressional polls. Other pundits predict the public's response to the GOP tax reform law will play a key role in the November results.
But leave it to those pundits to miss what could be the top "x-factor" in the midterms: sexual harassment. Sexual misconduct has already been dubbed the top story for 2017: Complaints against the Department of Justice's handling of many sexual harassment cases is just the latest scandal to arise.
Potential cases could likely hit both the House and Senate throughout 2018. But it's the Senate where the impact is likely to be greatest, and the reason is simple math. The GOP majority in the Senate is already a dramatically low 51-49 margin post Doug Jones' victory in the Alabama special election. Just one lost seat either pulls the Senate into a tie or gives the Republicans some much needed breathing room.
Those 260-plus settlements yet to be unsealed hang like a sword of Damocles over all of Capitol Hill.
Sources say that pressure is leading to a widespread fear factor on Capitol Hill. Dozens of staffers have told CNBC they're starting to make contingency plans in case their elected bosses get ensnared in the next sexual misconduct allegation to go public.
There is no real reason to think that more Republican than Democrat politicians will necessarily be affected by this, after all men are still men despite their political point of view.
However if I were a betting man I would think that the Republicans would probably fear this more than members of the other party, simply because the GOP's attitude toward women is a little more Cro-Magnon and even their propaganda network (Fox News) is rife with allegations of sexual misconduct.
In the end I think this might mean that it benefits the Democrats a little more, but I am absolutely certain that it means we are soon to see a huge influx of female Congresspeople and Senators.
At least four senators are urging Al Franken to reconsider resigning, including two who issued statements calling for the resignation two weeks ago and said they now feel remorse over what they feel was a rush to judgment.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who urged Franken not to step down to begin with — at least not before he went through an Ethics Committee investigation — said the Minnesota senator was railroaded by fellow Democrats.
“What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats,” said West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin in an interview for POLITICO’s Off Message podcast to post on Tuesday. Subscribe here.
Franken's unusual timeline — in his departure announcement he said he’d go “in the coming weeks,” without setting a date — has fed the fleeting hopes that there’s still time to reverse course. However, Tina Smith, Minnesota's Democratic lieutenant governor, was named last week as his appointed successor.
People familiar with Franken's plans said he has not changed his mind and intends to formally resign in early January. He praised the selection of Smith and has begun working with her on the transition.
Look I like Al Franken just as much as the next progressive, but he can't go back on his word without damaging not only his reputation for all time, but also damaging the Democratic party in 2018.
There are no "take backs" when it comes to allegations of sexual misconduct.
Yes I think Franken was railroaded, yes I doubt the veracity of the statements by some of his accusers, but that really does not make a difference in the larger scheme of things.
The Democratic party has to be as squeaky clean, and as scandal free, as possible moving forward.
That is how they defeat the Republicans in the long term.
Donald Trump ran on "draining the swamp" in Washington, which of course never happened.
This time the Democrats need to run on draining the Washington sewer of pedophiles, sexual predators, and habitual pussy grabbers.
Andrea Ramsey, a Democratic candidate for Congress, will drop out of the race after the Kansas City Star asked her about accusations in a 2005 lawsuit that she sexually harassed and retaliated against a male subordinate who said he had rejected her advances.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the case told The Star that the man reached a settlement with LabOne, the company where Ramsey was executive vice president of human resources. Court documents show that the man, Gary Funkhouser, and LabOne agreed to dismiss the case permanently after mediation in 2006.
Ramsey, a 56-year-old retired business executive from Leawood, was one of the Democratic candidates vying to challenge Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder in 2018 in Kansas’ 3rd District.
She was running with the endorsement of Emily’s List, a liberal women’s group that has raised more than a half-million dollars to help female candidates who support abortion rights.
Ramsey will drop out on Friday, her campaign said.
It was really only a matter of time before a Democratic female candidate was taken out by the #MeToo movement as well.
And in some ways this is the very example of gender equality.
Of course women can sexually harass male co-workers, hell it's happened to me.
However they are typically not as crude, and certainly not as physically threatening while they do it.
But still it happens, and when it does we need to respond to it just like we would if it were a Republican male.
By the way I was first tipped to this story by a tweet from the Wasilla Wendigo, who has been largely silent about charges directed at Donald Trump and Roy Moore, but can't resist going on the attack when it's a Democrat in the crosshairs.
Democrats are brooding over another one of their own who is being forced to drop out of a congressional race due... https://t.co/wtR7JuGxOM
As the country grapples with a national reckoning over sexual misconduct allegations against powerful men, three women who accused the most high-profile man in America again questioned Monday why their claims did nothing to stop him from winning the presidency.
It was “heartbreaking” for women to go public with their claims against President Trump last year, only to see him ascend to the Oval Office, said Samantha Holvey, a former Miss USA contestant who in October 2016 said Trump inappropriately inspected pageant participants.
“I put myself out there for the entire world, and nobody cared,” Holvey said Monday on NBC's “Megyn Kelly Today” show.
During the television appearance and a news conference, Holvey sat alongside Jessica Leeds, a New York woman who said Trump groped her on a plane, and Rachel Crooks, who said he kissed her on the lips at Trump Tower, to renew their allegations against the president.
The women also called for Congress to investigate these allegations amid the dramatic shift happening nationwide in response to charges of sexual misconduct against men from Hollywood to Capitol Hill. Claims have erupted across industry after industry, against lawmakers and movie stars alike, as the country has shown a sudden, newfound willingness to take such accusations seriously.
Democratic US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says President Donald Trump should resign over allegations of sexual misconduct: "These allegations are credible; they are numerous" https://t.co/XNPhM9obx2pic.twitter.com/KRiPAoxkle
That apparently pissed off Donald Trump according to the AP:
Haley’s comments infuriated the president, according to two people who are familiar with his views but who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about private conversations. Trump has grown increasingly angry in recent days that the accusations against him have resurfaced, telling associates that the charges are false and drawing parallels to the accusations facing Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Poor baby.
Today Sarah Huckabee Sanders' attempts to change the subject seemed especially strained and ineffective.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders addresses allegations of sexual conduct against President Trump:
"The American people knew this and voted for the president, and we feel like we're ready to move forward" pic.twitter.com/Oj7NHOcV9o
Question on accusations of sexual misconduct against Trump: “You said he has denied them. Can you say whether or not they are false?”
Sarah Sanders: “I'm not going to respond.” pic.twitter.com/BTOvF82yQ1
Let's face it, as this #MeToo revolution continues moving forward the fact that Donald Trump, a man accused by at least 16 women of sexually abusing or harassing them, remains in the White House becomes more and more conspicuous.
At some point soon it may simply be impossible for him to continue in that job as more and more people demand an investigation, or that he simply be removed from office.
Fox News host and Trump cheerleader Laura Ingraham is concerned about the growing number of women who are coming forward to report incidents of sexual assault and harassment.
Well, she’s not actually concerned about the women — she’s worried that they might ruin office Christmas parties this year.
“Is the #MeToo movement becoming a spoiler for this season’s Christmas parties?” Ingraham asked Friday evening during a segment on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle.
Speaking with comedian Jimmy Failla, Ingraham said she was worried that women who feel empowered to report sexual misconduct might ruin the holiday season by making office Christmas parties less festive.
“I can see this year it might be — a little less festive, let’s say that. No alcohol and no fun and no lampshades and, I don’t know, maybe that’s better,” she said.
“Is this just killing all the fun of Christmas?” she wondered absurdly.
Yeah, what a shame that male employees can no longer drunkenly grope their female counterparts or attempt to drag them into a dark corner to sexually molest them.
Keep in kind that this idiot is currently employed at Fox News, which had to fire both founder Roger Ailes and top cable news host Bill O'Reilly for being perverts, as well as paying out millions of dollars in settlements to keep the female victims quiet.
#MeToo rose to prominence as a social media campaign in the wake of high-profile accusations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. After actress Alyssa Milano popularized the hashtag, thousands of women began sharing their stories about the pervasive damage wrought by sexual harassment and by "open secrets" about abuse.
The movement's empowering reach could be seen in the platform on which Time announced its choice: the Today show. It was just one week ago that NBC fired the morning program's longtime and powerful co-host, Matt Lauer, over a detailed complaint of "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace."
While the most high-profile #MeToo stories have come from women and men who work in the movies and media, the Time article also features women who work hourly jobs, some of whom want to remain anonymous. The magazine's cover portrait includes strawberry picker Isabel Pascual, lobbyist Adama Iwu and former Uber engineer Susan Fowler along with Ashley Judd and Taylor Swift.
"The reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries," Time's Stephanie Zacharek, Eliana Dockterman and Haley Sweetland Edwards write. "Women have had it with bosses and coworkers who not only cross boundaries but don't even seem to know that boundaries exist."
Actually when you think about it, and take into consideration how effective this movement has become, it would be an injustice to have given this honor to anybody else.
And that includes Donald Trump who, while he certainly has had a massive impact on the world, has been overshadowed by this movement which some day may even claim his wild unkempt mane among the scalps that it takes.
Speaking of Donald Trump's disappointment he will surely not be terribly happy that another foe of his was also honored recently.
After he accepted Sports Illustrated's Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick said he will continue combating racial injustice in America whether or not he returns to the NFL.
"I say this as a person who receives credit for using my platform to protest systemic oppression, racialized injustice and and the dire consequences of anti-blackness in America," Kaepernick said at SI's Sportsperson of the Year ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
"I accept this award not for myself, but on behalf of the people. Because if it were not for my love of the people, I would not have protested. And if it was not for the support from the people, I would not be on this stage today.
"With our without the NFL's platform, I will continue to work for the people because my platform is the people."
Yeah, Trump's Twitter fingers must be aching to respond to all of this.
Representative John Conyers Jr., who faces allegations that he sexually harassed former employees, announced Tuesday that he will leave Congress immediately, and he endorsed his son, John Conyers III, to replace him.
Mr. Conyers, the longest-serving current member of the House and the longest-serving African-American in history, called into a local radio show on Tuesday to announce, “I am retiring today.”
“I am in the process of putting together my retirement plans. I will have more about that very soon,” Mr. Conyers said from a hospital in Michigan.
He continued to deny that he had harassed any of his former employees and said he did not know where the allegations came from.
“My legacy can’t be compromised or diminished in any way by what we are going through now,” Mr. Conyers said. “This too shall pass. My legacy will continue through my children.”
Rep. Conyers had a long and illustrious career in Congress much of it involved in fighting for civil rights.
However there are multiple accusations, and even though Conyers is still denying them, this is undoubtedly the best decision for him to make.
In the meantime Rep. Blake Farenthold says he will pay back the $84,000 of taxpayer money that was used to settle his sexual harassment case, but has no plans to leave Congress.
And that is even after the woman he harassed went on television to say that after the settlement she was blackballed, is now able to find only part time work, and has been reduced to babysitting for extra cash.
Let's also not forget that Roy Moore has now been endorsed by both the GOP and Donald Trump, and that Trump still occupies the White House.
Time magazine’s shortlist for the 2017 Person of the Year was announced on the “Today” show on Monday, and the #MeToo movement is in the running.
Time has been selecting a Person of the Year since 1927, using the title to recognize “the person or group of people who most influenced the news during the past year, for better or for worse.”
This year’s list is a smattering of everyone from business moguls to world leaders to political movements. The finalists are:
Colin Kaepernick
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Donald Trump
The Dreamers
Jeff Bezos
Kim Jong Un
The #MeToo movement
Patty Jenkins
Robert Mueller
Xi Jinping
Okay let me just say that if the #MeToo campaign beats out Donald Trump for this award, that Trump will quite literally lose his shit.
And since I imagine that all of Trump's accusers will be included in the accompanying article, his twitter response will be epic indeed.
Actually if Kaepernick, The Dreamers, or Robert Mueller win it will also inspire a fairly awesome response from Tangerine Twitler.
The #MeToo campaign has taken down predators from both the Right and the Left, from both Hollywood and Washington DC, and both famous and infamous journalists as well.
However while Sarah Palin has been all too willing to jump onto stories about liberal Hollywood or media figures, she has been largely silent when it came to allegations concerning predators on the Right.
Now yesterday we had her ghostwriting stand in for Bristol attempt to attract a little of that sweet #MeToo attention their way by writing up a sad little blog post suggesting that the Palin family has also been the longtime victims of sexual harassment.
This of course is nothing new as the Palin family has been blowing their rape whistles virtually from the moment that they burst onto the scene.
Bristol even had a book written for her that suggested Levi raped her in a tent. (I actually asked him about that directly, and let's just say her version in no way matches what really took place.)
In that post yesterday Bristol's paid ghostwriter went to some rather amazing lengths to prove that the Palins are long suffering victims.
For instance she wrote that this comment by Chris Wallace, in which he was asked by Don Imus if Sarah Palin would be sitting on this lap during their first interview, was an example of sexual harassment.
As you can see Wallace was called out for making a somewhat sexist remark by other Fox New hosts, and of course the interview that took place was purely professional, so to use this as an example of sexual harassment seems incredibly weak.
The Bristol ghostwriter then goes on to use the Letterman joke as a further example.
The actual joke, if you remember, was "Sarah Palin went to a Yankees game yesterday. There was one awkward moment during the seven minute stretch when her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."
Of course Dave thought that the daughter she brought was the previously pregnant Bristol, and not Willow who was actually accompanying her mother and father to New York.
The joke may have been in poor taste (Made me laugh however.), but it was not a pro-rape joke which was the accusation made by the Palin family.
The next examples are Azeala Banks, who made some rather indefensible remarks about black men "running a train" on Sarah, and Mike Tyson suggesting that she needed a black man like Dennis Rodman to "push her guts up into her head," after learning that she had bedded the very gentlemanly Glen Rice.
Now yes it could be argued that these are tasteless comments, but this ghostwriter needs to remember that tasteless comments are constantly being made about public figures, and since they were not made directly to her that it is still a stretch to think of them as the same type of sexual harassment suffered by the victims of Matt Lauer, Bill O'Reilly, or Roy Moore.
However it is the last example that is truly remarkable in it tone deafness.
In this example Bristol's ghostwriter feigns outrage over the fact that former Fox and Friends couch warmer, Alisyn Camerota, asked Palin if she had had breast surgery after this photo started making the rounds.
Since everybody by this time had come to realize that Palin was essentially flat as a board up on top, as illustrated by this photo,...
...this was not really such an outlandish question.
After all Palin had clearly wanted to draw attention to her chest which is why she wore what we now suspect was a water bra, with a tight white top.
And then when somebody noticed, and asked her about it, they are suddenly sexually harassing her?
At the end of this pathetic post the ghostwriter suggests that there is a double standard, and that liberal women's accusations are taken more seriously than those made by conservative women.
To that I would respond with the fact that the Roy Moore accusers have stated that they are lifelong conservatives, and some even admitted to voting for Trump. (Al Franken accuser Leann Tweeden has also been identified as a conservative.)
No this is NOT a partisan issue, and all accusers should be treated equally.
However if they, like Bristol's ghostwriter, are going to try and compare the terrible experiences of those who have suffered actual trauma to incidences like those listed above, they are likely going to find that they are laughed at and dismissed as simple attention seekers.
