Gee, Why Would A Woman Hesitate To Testify About Sex Abuse?

Tucker Carlson Criticizes Rape Victims Who Don’t Report: ‘You’re Part Of The Problem’

By David Barden
HuffPost (9/26/18)

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has slammed sexual assault survivors who don’t report their abusers, labeling them as “part of the problem” for not fulfilling their “obligation to tell us.”

It’s the second time in as many weeks that Carlson has blamed victims of abuse for failing to protect “the other 320 million people who live here” while discussing the allegations leveled by research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The professor at Palo Alto University in California, who goes by Christine Blasey professionally, has said that she feared Kavanaugh “might inadvertently kill” her as he held her down and groped her while they were high school students in the 1980s. …

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Amid Effort To Ram Kavanaugh Through Senate, House GOP Refusing To Reauthorize Violence Against Women Act

By Julia Conley
Common Dreams (9/25/18)

While Republican lawmakers have attempted to push through a vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination amid multiple sexual assault allegations against him, none of the party’s members have signed on to support a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which expires at the end of September.

Democratic legislators have joined women’s rights and anti-domestic violence groups in calling for the law to be fully reauthorized and strengthened with proposals put forth in a version sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), while Republican leaders want VAWA to be extended only until December 7 as part of the House’s stopgap spending bill.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has not called for a vote on a full authorization of the the bill, despite calls to do so, including from 46 members of his own party, as well as Democratic leaders and more than 50 attorneys general.

“Republicans’ decision to include only a short-term VAWA reauthorization in the must-pass minibus spending bill is nothing short of an abdication of our responsibilities to women in our country,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to Ryan.

Jackson Lee’s bill includes a provision to make it easier for police to confiscate guns from domestic abusers, more funding for rape prevention programs, and eviction protections for victims living in public housing.

“We’re really hoping Congress takes seriously the importance of reauthorizing it with some key enhancements that we’re collectively asking for and a three-month extension does not get that work done,” Terri Poore, policy director of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, told the Washington Post.

VAWA has been reauthorized three times since the landmark legislation, which was the first federal law to combat domestic violence and has provided grants for victims’ services and prevention programs, was first passed in 1994—always with bipartisan support. As of Tuesday, 163 Democratic members of the House and zero Republicans had signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.

“It’s been really sad to me and I really hope before it is too late we will see members of Congress who have proclaimed support for survivors connect it to VAWA,” Jess Davidson, executive director of End Rape on Campus, told the Post. “I think that allowing VAWA to be brought to the brink like this when our country is having such an important national conversation to me really shows that Congress is not as with survivors of sexual assaults as they claim to be.”

On social media, a number of critics connected Republicans’ insistence on confirming Kavanaugh regardless of at least two allegations against him, and the hostility the party has shown toward his accusers, with its refusal to fully reauthorize VAWA.

“Republicans’ decision to include only a short-term VAWA reauthorization in the must-pass minibus spending bill is nothing short of an abdication of our responsibilities to women in our country,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to Ryan.

Jackson Lee’s bill includes a provision to make it easier for police to confiscate guns from domestic abusers, more funding for rape prevention programs, and eviction protections for victims living in public housing.

“We’re really hoping Congress takes seriously the importance of reauthorizing it with some key enhancements that we’re collectively asking for and a three-month extension does not get that work done,” Terri Poore, policy director of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, told the Washington Post.

VAWA has been reauthorized three times since the landmark legislation, which was the first federal law to combat domestic violence and has provided grants for victims’ services and prevention programs, was first passed in 1994—always with bipartisan support. As of Tuesday, 163 Democratic members of the House and zero Republicans had signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.

“It’s been really sad to me and I really hope before it is too late we will see members of Congress who have proclaimed support for survivors connect it to VAWA,” Jess Davidson, executive director of End Rape on Campus, told the Post. “I think that allowing VAWA to be brought to the brink like this when our country is having such an important national conversation to me really shows that Congress is not as with survivors of sexual assaults as they claim to be.”

On social media, a number of critics connected Republicans’ insistence on confirming Kavanaugh regardless of at least two allegations against him, and the hostility the party has shown toward his accusers, with its refusal to fully reauthorize VAWA.

(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.)

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A**holes of the world unite’: Twitter Hits Back At Fox’s Brian Kilmeade After He Defends Teen Attempted Rape

By David Edwards
The Raw Story (9/26/18)

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade felt the wrath of the Internet on Wednesday after he appeared to defend young men who sexually assault young women in high school.

While discussing the accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Kilmeade complained that anyone could “go back to high school and college” and destroy someone’s life over attempted rape allegations

Twitter users lashed out at the Fox News host after his remarks began to trend on the social media network.

“It seems that Brian Kilmeade sexually assaulted girls at school….why else would he approve of it?” one user wrote.

“So if what I’m hearing is accurate @Kilmeade just basically said its perfectly OK to sexually assault HIS kids as long as they’re in high school,” ShimmerCatMan noted. “There ya go perverts! Free meat! @FoxNews ‘Assholes Of The World Unite.’” …

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These Cosby Accusers Were Barred From Sharing Statements. They Read Them Anyway

By Alanna Vagianos
HuffPost (9/26/18)

NORRISTOWN, Pa. ― The judge who sentenced Bill Cosby to prison for sexual assault rejected a prosecution request to allow additional accusers to speak at this week’s sentencing hearing. But that didn’t stop some from telling their stories anyway.

“I’ve waited 32 years for this day hoping my nightmare would go away,” Chelan Lashan, who accused Cosby of sexually assaulting her in 1986, defiantly told a small group of reporters and advocates after the comedian was led away in handcuffs on Tuesday. …

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A Little Bit Shitty: Anita Hill GOP ‘hit man’ David Brock Eventually Recanted His Slimy Slur

By Mark L. Taylor
The Commoner Call (9/27/18)

Here’s a bit of history for you. Back during the 2001 hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas former aide Anita Hill was maligned and smeared by Republicans and conservative activists. Ten years later, GOP attack dog David Brock admitted he printed charges he knew were false, “dumping virtually every derogatory – and often contradictory – allegation I had collected on Hill into the vituperative mix.”

He was the one to pen the slur of Hill being “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty.”

You can read the story HERE.