How is it ‘clearly’ sexual harassment? The picture itself clearly shows he is not touching her while she is asleep, just being creepy. That does not constitute sexual harassment. Additionally, I agree, offenders don’t tend to do it just one time, it tends to be a pattern seen throughout their life (note Roy Moore). The kiss claim? Credible. The groping claim? Not so much.
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What I want to know is did the woman do the sketch with Franken. After he kissed her she said forcefully after she gave him permission to practice kissing did she tell him she would not do the sketch? I mean if she was disgusted surely she would not have done the sketch after that.
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WTF? How did he get back on Twitter?
https://twitter.com/StoneColdTruth/status/931042351459504128
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The photo is low-grade sexual harassment. In my opinion it would win in civil court, but only barely.
Her description of the photo, which shows his hands not touching her flak jacket, which holds a thick layer of solid metal or ceramic between his hands and her breasts, as “groping” (not “pretending to grope” or “degrading me” etc, which would be far more accurate and what would win that theoretical sexual harassment case) is utterly incorrect. If anything, the fact that she is exaggerating what is plainly shown in the photo significantly degrades her credibility in the rehearsal account.
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So hey, wasn’t there supposed to be a vote on some tax thingy today in the house? Where do I go for news on that?
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I don’t know what context CNN intended to put that footage into.
But I do know that CNN kept counting how long it would take for Hillary to issue a statement after the Weinstein thing broke --that idiot Cillizzard tweeted and even wrote a stupid article about how many days it took.
Is CNN counting days of the fuckin’ moron’s silence as passionately since Moore (actually running for federal office!) thing broke?
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If memory serves, after the first anti-hate-crime bill was passed by the US Congress sometime around the early eighties, the first person to be charged under the then new law was a black dude in Michigan.
Republicans know how to play this game.
Much better than Democrats.
Democrats: Impeachment is off the table.
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You cannot win this argument on such technicality.
Let the other side make arguments about handwriting and such.
Hmm. Yeah, suspicious that the GOP / Tea Party media insider knew of this woman’s allegations before she made them public. It is almost as though she made efforts to ensure maximal political impact of her allegations. Odd.
On your question:
He is using an alternate account. Twitter can’t ban an actual person from their service, from a practical perspective; they can only disable accounts.
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The point is not a technicality, but that all signs point to the accuser having political motivations, which does absolutely degrade credibility of her statements. If we had a half dozen witnesses to a string of similar acts, this would be a story. This is one act (the ill-conceived and degrading photo), which the Senator has already apologized for. And now we’re supposed to be surprised that the Senator who never claimed he did not recall what happened eleven years ago talked about it and his cohost glowingly seven years ago?
This is just a non-story. It might develop further into a real story after some background reporting, but wake me when it does. There is more important stuff (like losing mortgage deductions and state income tax deductions and raising my income tax bill by thousands of dollars a year) happening today.
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It would interesting to hear the rest of speil to see what the context was.
That said Yeah I’m sure Republican’s have been working 24/7 to find any dirt they can on democrats.
That fake robo call supposedly looking for dirt on Roy was probably used for real to find folks willing to say something against Al and every other national democratic politician.
How is this aspect to the story relevant to anything?!? Trying a little too hard, TPM. I expect better from you.
Here we go…
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I know I will annoy some people. But had it up to here with all these women coming out years later alleging some kind of sexual grope. Sexual assault is attacking or raping someone. Prez Bush 91 about ready keel over has to put of with accusations. That woman was a freaking Hooter’s hostess when she was younger. Yeah Franken was outta line but you bring chit up from years later…
It’s BULLCHIT in my book. Either report it at time or make a big scene out of it or shut the F UP. It’s a 2 way street. I seen some women do some horrible chit to guys. A friend of mine’s now ex wife screwed a guy in his own bed with their 1 year old baby in the room in a crib.
Meanwhiles McConnell and Ryan and the Republicans giv e Trump and total pass on raping a 13 year old girl! And on top of that, Trump has several others who accuse him of groping, assault, and sexual harrassment.
Funny how the Republicans jump all over Democrat Franken…even after he publicly apoligized. Trump on the other hand gets to remain in the White House when he should be in the jail house.
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I like Al Franken. He’s a good guy on the right side of issues I care about. That said, yes, it’s a form of assault to “pretend” to grope a woman’s breasts while someone immortalizes this in a photograph. She fell asleep. This does not give anyone permission to make sexual gestures or take photos of her without her consent.
You might not know this, but many women will not sleep on flights because of fear that this happens-- someone takes advantage of the unconsciousness to make sport of you (and then it shows up on Youtube. Exactly how much are we supposed to restrict our lives so that men don’t get the opportunity to do what they shouldn’t do?
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She performed the skit some 100 times after the alleged “forced kiss”.
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Enough with this… On two separate stories now.
You are not female are you? Were you around during the Anita Hill - Thomas scandal? How she was treated is exactly why women stay silent. This is a systemic, patriarchal power issue that is being toppled. That the GOP is hopping on the bandwagon with what appears to be a hit job, is straight out of their dirty tricks playbook. Thank goodness Roger Stone is mixed up in this. Like his BFF in the White House, he destroys everything he touches.