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Things seem to be going quite well for Joe Biden


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7 minutes ago, Orale said:

You think it's likely Biden has sexually assaulted many times? Or are you referring to the more benign hair sniffing stuff?

i think if the reade story is accurate, there's a good chance that he's been aggressive with women before.  not fingering in the hallways of the senate aggressive, but in the context of dates, "business" dinners and drinks, and other semi-intimate settings with women that he has some sort of "relationship" with.  the world has changed a lot from the 70's-90's to where we are now with the hyper-sensitivity of consent.  he probably did stuff in the 70's/80's that wouldn't be totally cool today and for all we know the woman was fine with it.  i don't think he has a would-be rap sheet of jailable offenses, if that's your question.

but to hear her interview, the hair sniffing stuff we've seen on video was worse that what she supposedly complained about, which was mostly saying inappropriate things and the occasional shoulder touch.

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6 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

how long before we hear "that heavy guy, the orange one, who's saying all those things on camera and on twitter, i've never met him before, i don't know who he is, a lot of people look like me and do impressions, the best impressions, but i don't know him at all"?

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30 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

i think if the reade story is accurate, 

Well I guess my issue is with the very first part of your post. You're making really damning conclusions about the guy based on a really presumptuous assumption. Every woman who has ever worked with Biden says they've never seen a hint of this behavior in over 40 years of him serving in the highest offices in this land. Yet you say he's likely a repeat sexual assault offender based on one very questionable accusation. I'm sure you mean well, but I hope you're never on my jury if I'm ever falsely accused of something.

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7 minutes ago, Orale said:

Well I guess my issue is with the very first part of your post. You're making really damning conclusions about the guy based on a really presumptuous assumption. Every woman who has ever worked with Biden says they've never seen a hint of this behavior in over 40 years of him serving in the highest offices in this land. Yet you say he's likely a repeat sexual assault offender based on one very questionable accusation. I'm sure you mean well, but I hope you're never on my jury if I'm ever falsely accused of something.

i've said several times that i don't have a strong feeling one way or the other on who is telling the truth, or if the truth lies somewhere in the middle (which is typically how it goes).  but while we're speculating, i was offering my perspective on "if her story is accurate". 

i'm also more inclined not to go overboard with digging into both sides of the story because the details are not material to me.  i'm voting for biden, i've contributed to biden, i'll be making sure everyone i know is voting for biden.  i'm more making generalizations about "someone who has acted this way", moreso than anything i think i 'know' about biden, or reade.

shit, biden could come out and admit it, and give the play-by-play of exactly what happened, and i'd still have no problem voting for him.  none.

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22 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

you seem to be clinging to this article and newfound take that "oh, movies and tv make it seem like every assaulter has a pattern of repeated behavior". 

The article in question cites actual studies and this take isn't "newfound".

Your very confident assertion that someone who commits sexual assault almost certainly does it many times isn't based in data or experience. I have no idea why you would expect me to take it seriously against contradicting, real evidence.

You said that prison might make people less likely to reoffend sexually; that they will have learned their lesson. If that's the case, why doesn't that work for virtually any other crime?

sex_offense_recidivism_2019.png

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 that article did not ring relevant to me, yet now you seem to be doubling down on it.

What does "yet" even mean here, why would whether or not it seemed relevant to you matter?

It's data. It's relevant data.

All you're giving me in response is your personal confidence which, apologies, isn't worth much.

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you seem to be using the notion that recidivism is unlikely as a reason to believe reade.

No, I'm just responding to the inaccurate and fact-free assertion that sexual assault perpetrators are naturally people who do it all the time. It doesn't appear to be true and if it isn't true (which it doesn't appear to be) then it needs to not be said.

1 hour ago, Orale said:

Every woman who has ever worked with Biden says they've never seen a hint of this behavior in over 40 years of him serving in the highest offices in this land.

This is false. You know this is false.

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This is false. You know this is false.
There are other instances of him sexually assaulting women? Or are you conflating rubbing shoulders and encroaching personal space with forcefully penetrating women? I don't think any rational person would conflate those behaviors. But you do you.
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Depends on what you mean by "hint".

I would consider a long string of milder violations a hint at a larger one.

A man who doesn't respect or even recognize normal sexual boundaries even in public and, when confronted, literally says he's not sorry for anything he's ever done is not someone who thinks of what he might do as "forceful penetration".

If the Biden way of saying hello to a strange female child is to get a nice smell of hair, a kiss, and maybe a quick nipple brush, then what is the Biden way of instigating a tryst with a hot young staffer who shows off her body and is (in his mind) sending the right signals?

You have to shift all of it away from what you consider normal. He feels entitled to women's bodies and has little conscience about it and little ability to regulate it.

Whether or not that matters is a different question.

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First off, the quote that b_t highlighted is absolutely true.  But there's some interesting stuff in that article:

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The PBS NewsHour spoke with 74 former Biden staffers, of whom 62 were women, in order to get a broader picture of his behavior toward women over the course of his career, how they see the new allegation, and whether there was evidence of a larger pattern.

None of the people interviewed said that they had experienced sexual harassment, assault or misconduct by Biden. All said they never heard any rumors or allegations of Biden engaging in sexual misconduct, until the recent assault allegation made by Tara Reade. Former staffers said they believed Reade should be heard, and acknowledged that their experiences do not disprove her accusation.

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Ben Savage, who said his desk was next to Reade’s in the Biden mailroom, disputed her charge that she was forced out of her job in retaliation for a sexual harassment complaint she claims to have filed.

Savage, who worked as the office’s systems administrator, overseeing computers and information processing, told the NewsHour that Reade was fired for her poor performance on the job, which he witnessed — not as retaliation for her complaints about sexual harassment.

But according to Savage, Reade had been mishandling a key part of her job and an essential office task — processing constituent mail, something they worked on together. Savage said he recalls reporting these issues to his boss, deputy chief of staff Dennis Toner. After that, Savage said he began diminishing Reade’s duties, taking over some of her tasks and rerouting parts of the process to exclude her.

“Of all the people who held that position, she’s the only one during my time there who couldn’t necessarily keep up or who found it frustrating,” said Savage, who worked in the office for three years, from 1993 to 1996.

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Reade’s attorney told the NewsHour that Reade recalls the assault happening “in a semiprivate area like an alcove” and that it was “somewhere between the Russell (building) and/or Capitol building.” He pointed out that survivors often have difficulty with specifics about trauma.

Reade’s description aligns with other staffers’ recollections of Biden’s short indoor route between his office and the Capitol. It is a roughly 10-minute walk that consists of one flight of stairs and one long hallway inside the Russell Building, followed by a wide tunnel through which he could walk or take an internal subway train to the Capitol.

The layout of that route and building has not changed. A recent walk through that area showed the subway tunnel contains no out-of-view areas, like an alcove. The remaining portion of the route includes multiple stairwells as well as corridors lined with offices. It is a main thoroughfare for senators and staffers.

Some former staffers told the NewsHour that if Biden did assault Reade in any of these places, it would have been a brazen attack in an area with a high risk of being seen.

Quote

In interviews, staffers have also raised doubts about Reade’s claim that she was asked to serve drinks at a fundraiser, an incident she said she included in an official complaint of sexual harassment submitted while she worked in the office.

But more than 50 former staffers said they didn’t remember ever attending a fundraiser for Biden in Washington, D.C., when they were on his Senate staff. And some recalled an office policy banning most of Biden’s Senate staff from doing campaign work.

“Never would have happened,” said Melissa Lefko, who was a staff assistant in Biden’s office during the time Reade was there. “We all knew there was a very hard line there.”

Dozens of staffers, from different eras, said Biden rarely attended any events in Washington, racing to catch his train home to Wilmington, Delaware, as soon as Senate voting ended each night.

Further, two men who worked as junior staffers for Biden said the senator specifically did not want women to serve beverages, like coffee, or perform other menial tasks in his Senate office or on the committees he chaired. Men were typically asked to perform such tasks.

“He didn’t want an image of a young woman staffer serving him,” said John Earnhardt, who took over Reade’s duties. Reade left the office in mid-1993, after working there approximately nine months.

 

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First off, the quote that b_t highlighted is absolutely true.  But there's some interesting stuff in that article:

The PBS NewsHour spoke with 74 former Biden staffers, of whom 62 were women, in order to get a broader picture of his behavior toward women over the course of his career, how they see the new allegation, and whether there was evidence of a larger pattern.

None of the people interviewed said that they had experienced sexual harassment, assault or misconduct by Biden. All said they never heard any rumors or allegations of Biden engaging in sexual misconduct, until the recent assault allegation made by Tara Reade. Former staffers said they believed Reade should be heard, and acknowledged that their experiences do not disprove her accusation.

Ben Savage, who said his desk was next to Reade’s in the Biden mailroom, disputed her charge that she was forced out of her job in retaliation for a sexual harassment complaint she claims to have filed.

Savage, who worked as the office’s systems administrator, overseeing computers and information processing, told the NewsHour that Reade was fired for her poor performance on the job, which he witnessed — not as retaliation for her complaints about sexual harassment.

But according to Savage, Reade had been mishandling a key part of her job and an essential office task — processing constituent mail, something they worked on together. Savage said he recalls reporting these issues to his boss, deputy chief of staff Dennis Toner. After that, Savage said he began diminishing Reade’s duties, taking over some of her tasks and rerouting parts of the process to exclude her.

“Of all the people who held that position, she’s the only one during my time there who couldn’t necessarily keep up or who found it frustrating,” said Savage, who worked in the office for three years, from 1993 to 1996.

Reade’s attorney told the NewsHour that Reade recalls the assault happening “in a semiprivate area like an alcove” and that it was “somewhere between the Russell (building) and/or Capitol building.” He pointed out that survivors often have difficulty with specifics about trauma.

Reade’s description aligns with other staffers’ recollections of Biden’s short indoor route between his office and the Capitol. It is a roughly 10-minute walk that consists of one flight of stairs and one long hallway inside the Russell Building, followed by a wide tunnel through which he could walk or take an internal subway train to the Capitol.

The layout of that route and building has not changed. A recent walk through that area showed the subway tunnel contains no out-of-view areas, like an alcove. The remaining portion of the route includes multiple stairwells as well as corridors lined with offices. It is a main thoroughfare for senators and staffers.

Some former staffers told the NewsHour that if Biden did assault Reade in any of these places, it would have been a brazen attack in an area with a high risk of being seen.

In interviews, staffers have also raised doubts about Reade’s claim that she was asked to serve drinks at a fundraiser, an incident she said she included in an official complaint of sexual harassment submitted while she worked in the office.

But more than 50 former staffers said they didn’t remember ever attending a fundraiser for Biden in Washington, D.C., when they were on his Senate staff. And some recalled an office policy banning most of Biden’s Senate staff from doing campaign work.

“Never would have happened,” said Melissa Lefko, who was a staff assistant in Biden’s office during the time Reade was there. “We all knew there was a very hard line there.”

Dozens of staffers, from different eras, said Biden rarely attended any events in Washington, racing to catch his train home to Wilmington, Delaware, as soon as Senate voting ended each night.

Further, two men who worked as junior staffers for Biden said the senator specifically did not want women to serve beverages, like coffee, or perform other menial tasks in his Senate office or on the committees he chaired. Men were typically asked to perform such tasks.

“He didn’t want an image of a young woman staffer serving him,” said John Earnhardt, who took over Reade’s duties. Reade left the office in mid-1993, after working there approximately nine months.

 
That is some pretty damning circumstantial evidence that the assault didn't occur.
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"damning circumstantial evidence" is one HELL of a phrase.

We've got multiple witnesses who say Reade told them at the time. Reade herself says it happened. A court filing in 1996 referencing sexual harassment. Her mother calling in to Larry King Live immediately afterwards. Joe's history of handsyness with women and profound and deep dishonesty and arrogance.

While I understand the internal need to believe that you are pure, you need to abandon that, because it's not true. If we accept that the people we are going to vote for are imperfect (and we have the courage to openly acknowledge those imperfections and not incessantly apologize for them) then perhaps we can set a standard that makes sense. Because the need to believe we are the good guys in a sea of bad guys makes us blind to a lot of things.

7 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

And it was very thorough.

Sure. It's good that interviews are being done. But what does this actually tell us?

Even pure psychopathic mass murders can lead lives that fool even their closest family and friends (see: BTK Killer Dennis Rader), so for something like what Biden is accused of, which is factors of 100 less terrible than Rader, why would there be corroboration from people Reade wasn't close to? No one is accusing Biden of decades of sexual assault or running an Epstein/Weinstein rape scheme. He's accused of sexually assaulting one woman one time.

Why would any of these staffers have any idea about it?

1 minute ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Man. What are the odds that the one person to ever not be able to sort mail at joe Biden’s office is the one accusing presumptive democratic nominee joe Biden of harassment?  

She's ugly. She's crazy. She's dumb. She's attention-seeking. She dressed like a whore.

What other pointless and irrelevant character assassination do we need? It's POWERFUL evidence!

The playbook to protect powerful men from even criticism is so predictable.

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new to this discussion;  used to be a democrat, was a democratic delegate to the Collin County democratic convention one year, the year I saw the beautiful actress Heather Tom.  Voted for Obama once.  

Biden's major weakness:  Inability to speak clearly, inability to know where he is- just listen to parts of his roundtable with governors yesterday.  Didn't know who briefs him for an hour per day.  He tried to call the Doctor's name, gave up and said "Docs"  He thought the country had lost 86,000 jobs and millions of people killed!  And this was a roundtable he organized. 

How does the democratic party deal with Biden exposed during debates?  Maybe they refuse to debate?  

                                       

                                       

 

Edited by orangecat92
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1 minute ago, orangecat92 said:

Biden's major weakness:  Inability to speak clearly, inability to know where he is- just listen to parts of his roundtable with governors yesterday.  Didn't know who briefs him for an hour per day.  He tried to call the Doctor's name, gave up and said "Docs"  

You know who he'd be debating, right?

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5 minutes ago, orangecat92 said:

new to this discussion;  used to be a democrat, was a democratic delegate to the Collin County democratic convention one year, the year I saw the beautiful actress Heather Tom.  Voted for Obama once.  

Biden's major weakness:  Inability to speak clearly, inability to know where he is- just listen to parts of his roundtable with governors yesterday.  Didn't know who briefs him for an hour per day.  He tried to call the Doctor's name, gave up and said "Docs"  He thought the country had lost 86,000 jobs and millions of people killed!  And this was a roundtable he organized. 

How does the democratic party deal with Biden exposed during debates?  Maybe they refuse to debate?  

                                       

                                       

 

Biden is bad, Trump is worse.  

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2 minutes ago, orangecat92 said:

so, they have equal dementia? just curious.  

I'm not a Biden fan, but one of the big differences, is that he know his weaknesses and will bring in people to compensate for them...Trump thinks he's the world's foremost authority on everything...when in fact, he's one of the dumbest people I've ever witnessed.

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21 minutes ago, orangecat92 said:

new to this discussion;  used to be a democrat, was a democratic delegate to the Collin County democratic convention one year, the year I saw the beautiful actress Heather Tom.  Voted for Obama once.  

Biden's major weakness:  Inability to speak clearly, inability to know where he is- just listen to parts of his roundtable with governors yesterday.  Didn't know who briefs him for an hour per day.  He tried to call the Doctor's name, gave up and said "Docs"  He thought the country had lost 86,000 jobs and millions of people killed!  And this was a roundtable he organized. 

How does the democratic party deal with Biden exposed during debates?  Maybe they refuse to debate?  

He mixed up the job and death numbers.  Disqualifying, IMO.   Meanwhile, Trump just claimed in the Rose Garden that truckers who are protesting low shipping rates are actually honking their horns in support of him.  But damn, can you imagine what it would be like to have a President that gets tongue-tied?!

Edited by Chuckie Finster
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All of this "Biden is going to get clobbered in debates" plays to his advantage by lowering expectations.  We saw a little of that in the primary.

When the expectation is that Biden's going to be a disaster, that bad-to-average debate performance just seems better.

So go ahead, continue to lower expectations.

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12 minutes ago, orangecat92 said:

so, they have equal dementia? just curious.  

Borrowing from the trump camp and attacking the opponent with your own problem, eh?

trump doesn’t even need a sharp mind to do what he did in the debates 4 years ago, he just needs to still have a huge ego and a breathtaking lack of class and decorum. Checks notes...no problem there. 
 

no idea how joe will be prepped, but joe’s machismo could easily pull him down to the slop where trump is most comfortable. He may just have to start every answer with “well President Obama and I...” and something vaguely relevant to the question. And hope that anybody but trump  is good enough in November, when he can then lean on staff and advisors and whichever lucky lady wins the vp lotto. 

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Biden has undoubtedly declined. A Joe voter just has to accept that they're voting for an entire administration and trust that he'll have the best and brightest in the key positions who will run the day-to-day government, which I'm confident and satisfied he will.

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first off, i'd put the odds at an actual traditional debate at 50-50.  and i'd put the blame for not having one on trump before biden.

but if it happens, i agree that the lowering of expectations plays squarely in biden's favor.  and since trump likes to drop nicknames on him, let's see how it looks when he calls biden sleepy or makes fun of stuttering or stammering on national tv.  bet it plays really well with the olds and women - two demographics that will make this election an absolute blowout.

the genius with the age we live in, where 30-120 second videos make the difference, is that all you need is a 3 second clip to make have an impact (you make a difference, you have an impact).  the clip from february, of biden confidently declaring what we should've done with the cdc, with china, with having people on the ground in their country - that one clip of him looking like a competent leader, looking presidential, is already playing big. 

not sure trump has any clips like that in 3+ years of actually being president.

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3 hours ago, Orale said:

Since you like to write long responses, why not address the factual issues raised in the article.

Which "factual issues" do you want me to respond to? You're referring to an entire article and you want me to read your mind about what exactly you want me to talk about?

Jesus.

3 hours ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

Biden is bad, Trump is worse.  

This.

2 hours ago, Chuckie Finster said:

But damn, can you imagine what it would be like to have a President that gets tongue-tied?!

Joe Biden is profoundly and deeply dishonest. He had to abandon a presidential campaign because he lied constantly. He's a liar.

It's not a matter of getting "tongue-tied". He's a liar.

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3 hours ago, orangecat92 said:

new to this discussion;  used to be a democrat, was a democratic delegate to the Collin County democratic convention one year, the year I saw the beautiful actress Heather Tom.  Voted for Obama once.  

Biden's major weakness:  Inability to speak clearly, inability to know where he is- just listen to parts of his roundtable with governors yesterday.  Didn't know who briefs him for an hour per day.  He tried to call the Doctor's name, gave up and said "Docs"  He thought the country had lost 86,000 jobs and millions of people killed!  And this was a roundtable he organized. 

How does the democratic party deal with Biden exposed during debates?  Maybe they refuse to debate?  

                                       

                                       

 

Uhm.... he'd be debating Grandpa Simpson.  They've both clearly lost their fastballs.

 

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41 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

Sprinting headlong into the arms of neo-cons who have spent their careers maligning feminism, PC culture, and multiculturalism to defend Joe Biden.

lol fucking pathetic

Are you still pretending to be a dem or have we left that stage now?

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58 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

Sprinting headlong into the arms of neo-cons who have spent their careers maligning feminism, PC culture, and multiculturalism to defend Joe Biden.

lol fucking pathetic

Good for you!

Never let the facts get in the way of your strongly held preconceived notions.

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6 hours ago, Message Board User said:

All of this "Biden is going to get clobbered in debates" plays to his advantage by lowering expectations.  We saw a little of that in the primary.

When the expectation is that Biden's going to be a disaster, that bad-to-average debate performance just seems better.

So go ahead, continue to lower expectations.

Didn’t they lower expectations for Trump at his debates? He was clueless when it came to details and did no research that I could tell. 

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PBS, Politco, and now New York Magazine. All in one afternoon.

 

I mostly feel sorry for her but I’m starting to get angry after reading her lawyer’s comments.

 

They’re using the horror of sexual assault as a cloak of credibility and to frighten reporters and voters from examining her story.

 

It’s bullshittery and is doing even more damage to survivors and the gains made with MeToo.

 

All it takes is one very high profile fake accusation (see Jussie Smollett) to damage the perception of people coming forward in the future.

 

Her money issues, grifting behavior, and record of allegations (against ex-husband, against a horse rescue woman) are constant behaviors, going back decades.

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3 hours ago, bad_teammate said:

Which "factual issues" do you want me to respond to? You're referring to an entire article and you want me to read your mind about what exactly you want me to talk about?

 

Wow.  You post paragraphs of diatribes without the least bit of evidence and when someone posts an article that clearly and definitively contradicts your lies you demur like a Trumpkin asking for specifics. What a pussy. 

Well,  the article says that 60 women who have worked for Biden never ever saw this type of behavior. Another section says there is no where in the halls of the Senate where this type of brazen behavior could have actually occurred. Another section says she was incompetent and fired for that.  Another employer says she was dishonest and a thief.  Another section says she held herself out as a high level policy staffer who was responsible for high level policy decisions. She was a mail sorter. Another employer says she was manipulative and abusive. Every woman that worked for Biden says he treated them with the highest respect and put them in positions of power when that was still rare on the Hill.  A friend of hers in 2018 says she bragged about how close she was to Biden and what an amazing guy he was. 

But go ahead and dismiss all this you Russian troll. 

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10 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

PBS, Politco, and now New York Magazine. All in one afternoon.

 

I mostly feel sorry for her but I’m starting to get angry after reading her lawyer’s comments.

 

They’re using the horror of sexual assault as a cloak of credibility and to frighten reporters and voters from examining her story.

 

It’s bullshittery and is doing even more damage to survivors and the gains made with MeToo.

 

All it takes is one very high profile fake accusation (see Jussie Smollett) to damage the perception of people coming forward in the future.

 

Her money issues, grifting behavior, and record of allegations (against ex-husband, against a horse rescue woman) are constant behaviors, going back decades.

People who falsely accuse others of sexual assault, while definitely the small minority, do far more harm to the legitimate claims than anything else anyone else does. I put it at around 5 percent or so, give or take. But the harm they do is immeasurable. 

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  • immamac changed the title to Things seem to be going quite well for Joe Biden


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