Sexual Assault/Harassment/Misconduct

Have you ever been sexually harassed?

  • Yes, more than once.

    Votes: 14 77.8%

  • Yes, once.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I'm not sure.

    Votes: 1 5.6%

  • No, never.

    Votes: 3 16.7%
  • Total voters
    18
There's no justice in Franklin resigning when Alabama gets to vote on a pedophile with far more credible victims. I don't even see the point
 
I seriously believe half the males in government should resign if sexual harassment or unwanted advances are grounds for dismissal.

What angers me is that we're been a society that encouraged woman to tease and flirt and threaten to call wives in efforts to move up the corporate ladder, as well as overlooked men who wield their power to abuse and hold back women.

Women are still stereotyped in movies, films, and colleges and high schools. I can't even formulate what I'd like to get across because I don't to sound like I'm victim blaming, but honestly there is another side that many women are guilty of, and I just don't know if this is being handled correctly in Washington right now. I fear backlash
 
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silva said:
There's no justice in Franklin resigning when Alabama gets to vote on a pedophile with far more credible victims. I don't even see the point
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The question is whether what Franklin did was morally OK and the question of whether he should resign ought to be largely independent of anything else.

You can't justify doing something bad because someone else is doing something worse.

In the long run, the Democrats may benefit by gaining the moral high ground (while not even being in danger of losing this seat). Even if they don't, the party are doing what's right in calling him to resign.

Your comments about teasing, flirting and another side to women are, as you know, irrelevant to the Franklin groping claims. Putting your arm round someone for a photo is not teasing or flirting. And the women that was asleep when her photo was taken was hardly teasing or flirting at the time.
 
Jamie in Chile said:
The question is whether what Franklin did was morally OK and the question of whether he should resign ought to be largely independent of anything else.

You can't justify doing something bad because someone else is doing something worse.

In the long run, the Democrats may benefit by gaining the moral high ground (while not even being in danger of losing this seat). Even if they don't, the party are doing what's right in calling him to resign.

Your comments about teasing, flirting and another side to women are, as you know, irrelevant to the Franklin groping claims. Putting your arm round someone for a photo is not teasing or flirting. And the women that was asleep when her photo was taken was hardly teasing or flirting at the time.
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I wasn't justifying bad behavior, I was justifying his keeping his seat. The US has a lengthy history of money and power keeping people from jail and felonies while lesser crimes can carry the label of felon. It's a power grab and the republicans will play this to the hilt.
Moral high ground my ***- they just may be that stupid, it's seems they are.
This is not a good time for a side show and it looks like that's what it's becoming
 
I am so sick of seeing Harvey Weinstein on my phone almost every morning.:hurl:

silva said:
I seriously believe half the males in government should resign if sexual harassment or unwanted advances are grounds for dismissal.
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I don't know if the culture is very different over there, but I doubt half of all men act in that way. :confused: I have known many men who wouldn't dream of acting like that, even if they were in a position where they thought they could get away with it.
 
So Time named women speaking up against harrassment as "persons of the year" ... hmm, no wonder they wanted to interview Dump, he's something like an expert in the harrassment area :mad:
 
Franken is resigning. The effective date of the resignation hasn't been announced; presumably, it will be coordinated with the governor's appointment of a replacement.
 
This has made me very angry. Al Franken was swiftboated by the Republicans because they wanted him out of the Senate, and it worked. All those Democrats who should have been standing by him turned on him and stabbed him in the back. The Senate is losing one of their biggest defenders of women, and his own party let it happen.
 
I don't think he was swiftboated; I think that at least some of his accusers are credible.

I do think that we need to have a conversation about responding with a range of consequences to a range of misconduct; i.e., not all sexual misconduct should have the same consequences.

However, as a practical matter, Franken's days as a compelling voice for women's issues and as a spokesman generally have been over for several weeks.

The outrage on the right over Franken's "lynching" is a sign that they realize their own vulnerability.
 
Ever since the advent of dt, I've been enjoying the opinion pieces of Jennifer Rubin, who is one of the WaPo's regular conservative opinion columnists (she despises dt). This is from her column of this afternoon, and I'm quoting it because she expresses my thoughts much better than I can:
First, it is not “irony” that President Trump remains and Roy Moore may join the Senate, but an outrage, an offense to decency, a moral stain on the GOP. This is not “what-aboutism,” which would excuse Franken because Trump stays. It’s a glaring injustice that Republicans and voters should not ignore. There is no reason Trump’s alleged crimes shouldn’t be investigated and why he should not step down if some or all of the approximately 20 women accusers are shown to be credible. And for giving Moore money and endorsement, the GOP should earn the permanent enmity of decent Americans.
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Second, good people do bad things, and bad people do bad things. They both should be punished. However, the former is cause for sadness and regret but not for clemency. Franken should go, but I find no joy in seeing him disgraced. We should be prepared for people we like, admire and respect to be laid low by the rolling thunder of the backlash against sexual harassers. Some will insist they played by one set of rules in one profession and now are being held to another. That ignores a central point: There must be a universal standard for decency. The fact that they did not recognize it at the time does not mean they should get off the hook now.
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If the whole Franken episode leaves you sad and/or disgusted, you’re in good company. Now that has to be turned into righteous anger to remove other, more serious alleged sexual predators.
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Opinion | Don’t celebrate Franken’s disgrace. And don’t let Trump and Moore off the hook.
 
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Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) is resigning from Congress, according to two Arizona Republicans with knowledge of the decision.

One source said Franks would resign in the face of what the source described as forthcoming claims of inappropriate behavior.

Franks was mobbed by reporters as he left the House floor on Thursday evening but did not respond to questions.
"I'll let the statement speak for itself," he said.

As the news of his resignation broke, fellow Republicans approached Franks on the House floor, all stone-faced.

Several fellow conservatives sat with Franks, bent their heads and prayed.

Franks represents a safe GOP district northwest of Phoenix.
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Rep. Trent Franks to resign from Congress

ETA: Apparently, he asked several staffers to act as surrogate mothers for him and his wife, since they have fertility problems. However, Arizona papers are saying there's more to the story, that rumors about him have been swirling for years.
 
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MadamSarcastra said:
I'm just going to place this delicately here and OMFG.... :fp:

FACT CHECK: Bernie Sanders' 1972 Essay on Rape

Here we go.... :dismay: Is Bernie going to be forced out because of this?
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This--
CNN also covered the controversial essay in a piece that quoted Sanders’ campaign spokesman describing it as “stupid” and a “dumb attempt at dark satire”:

Michael Briggs, Sanders’ campaign spokesman, said the article was a “dumb attempt at dark satire in an alternative publication” that “in no way reflects his views or record on women. It was intended to attack gender stereotypes of the ’70s, but it looks as stupid today as it was then.”
I can't get my points across without sounding as though I'm victimizing, but theres so much more to address if we want to change. Gender neutrality being key
 
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Mischief said:
I don't think he was swiftboated; I think that at least some of his accusers are credible.
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Sorry, I’m not convinced they’re credible. The whole thing surrounding these accusations is really fishy. Most of the women accusing him are Republicans with an ulterior motive using the #MeToo movement as a cover to rid the Senate of one of its most reliable progressives. The Democrats in the Senate went from calling for an ethics committee to demanding his ouster. Of all the people who would want to protect their own, you’d think these Democratic women would insist on an ethics probe, but they were blinded by their own foolishness. They should have demanded that if Al Franken has to resign, Donald Trump should too, because he has way more accusers and what they alleged is way worse than what Al Franken was accused of doing.
 
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