Tag: assault

During a Senate hearing this afternoon, Republican senator Martha McSally (Ariz.) revealed publicly for the first time that she had been “preyed upon and then raped” by a superior officer when she was serving in the Air Force. Jill Filipovic, a progressive attorney and feminist writer, decided that McSally’s heartrending story would make a good launching pad for reminding her Twitter followers that conservatives don’t care about preventing violence against women: This is complicated by the fact that McSally is a member of the exact movement that is hostile to sincere and holistic efforts to combat violence against women, and that folds misogyny into much of its politics. But feminists do want all women to benefit from our gains. — Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) March 6, 2019 Filipovic went on to note that McSally supported the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, as if this is sufficient evidence that she doesn’t care about eliminating assault, and the entire thread implied that the senator is complicit in a culture of violence against women merely because she’s a conservative. This moment shouldn’t be “complicated” at all, nor should it be about left-wing politics, the conservative movement, or third-wave feminism. Had a conservative commentator attempted to use a Democratic politician’s account of sexual assault to make a political argument, surely feminist pundits would have been outraged. Filipovic pointed out, after I criticized her commentary, that she had called McSally “brave” and said that this is “an important moment.” But those qualifications in no way negate or alleviate the fact that she used someone else’s vulnerability to hammer home a political point, and an inaccurate one at that. “I think McSally is incredibly brave for speaking out,” she reiterated. McSally said that she observed “weaknesses in the processes involving sexual assault prevention, investigation, and adjudication” while in the military and that her experience led her to “make recommendations to Air Force leaders, shaped my approach as a commander, and informed my advocacy for change while I remained in the military and since I have been in Congress.” Debate over how particular policies and broader political optics affect the incidence of sexual assault is all well and good, though I’m highly wary of the third-wave feminist tendency to blame the conservative movement for violence against women without any effort to substantiate those claims. McSally’s story of having been raped is not an appropriate vehicle for the airing of those grievances.

(CNN)When Donald Trump ran for president, one of the core pillars of his pitch to the voting public was this: Political correctness is a cancer eating away at the body politic. "And this political correctness is just absolutely killing us as a country. There were a total of 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents reported in the US in 2017; in 2016 that number was 1,267. That's why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he's going to take our country back." (Trump initially claimed he didn't know who Duke was during the 2016 campaign and therefore could not disavow him. Get out and vote Republican November 6th. Aside from the obvious appeals by politicians and other leaders to anti-Semitic sentiments, there is a whole other class of speech that has turned incivility into some sort of rallying cry for their respective party bases. "You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. The rise of social media -- and the weak policing of hate speech on those platforms -- has allowed people with intolerant views to connect with others who see world in a similarly twisted way, and to amplify those views. And that, because it worked (and works) for him politically, he will continue to help lower the standards of political dialogue and provide further cover for the rise of hate speech in the mainstream.

With two weeks left before the midterm elections, Trump is amplifying a dark vision of what the country could look like if Democrats gain control in Congress. At campaign rallies, on Twitter and in his public commentary, he has issued urgent – if groundless – warnings about terrorists at the border, a socialist takeover and rampant crime. The so-called caravan has swelled to more than 7,000 Central Americans, many of whom have said they are fleeing poverty and violence in their native countries and dream of a better life in Mexico or the US. Yet without citing evidence, Trump has claimed the caravan is embedded with criminals, gang members and “unknown Middle Easterners”, an apparent attempt to exploit fear of terrorism and immigration. Are Donald Trump's claims about the caravan of 7,000 migrants accurate? Read more “That is an assault on our country and in that caravan you have some very bad people and we can’t let that happen to our country,” Trump said at a rally in Houston on Monday night. And then declared himself a “nationalist”, a term he typically avoids using directly about himself at such events. But in a sign that he wants to escalate the rhetoric, he shouted “use that word” to the cheering crowd. “Both in the Republican primaries and in the general election, white voters’ attitudes about African Americans, Muslims and immigration were more closely associated with how they voted than were any strictly economic concerns”. In an ad by the same name, Hunter accuses Campa-Najjar of trying to “infiltrate” the US government and accuses him of being supported by the Egyptian Islamist organization the Muslim Brotherhood.

Campaign ad for Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota named sexual assault victims without permission; Ellison Barber reports. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business…

North Dakota Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp says she will personally apologize to women she mistakenly identified in a campaign ad as victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and rape. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated…

Are the ACLU's principles of defending free speech and due process being washed away by Kavanaugh derangement syndrome? #Tucker FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business…

There's no evidence Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath. But there's now quite a bit of evidence that Julie Swetnick did. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and…

Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh delivers opening statement before Senate Judiciary Committee. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number one network in…

In February of 2018, State Senator Melinda Bush, State Representative Carol Ammons and State Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza formed the Anti-Harassment, Equality and Access (AHEA) Panel. The group spent the past half year collecting surveys, consulting with experts and touring the state of Illinois to hold listening sessions with hundreds of women working in politics. The 36 page document, which aims to serve as a roadmap for all political campaigns, provides specific anti-harassment training procedures, workplace culture expectations and detailed recommendations for promoting women into leadership positions. Specific examples include the “one ask rule,” which allows for peers to ask out colleagues one time and one time only, the suggestion that campaigns should monitor alcohol consumption of its team members and the recommendation that state parties establish an independent body, separate from party leadership, to receive all complaints of misconduct. We need to change it, by being unabashedly intentional about promoting women into leadership positions throughout politics and electing more women to office who will be establishing the new rules," explains Illinois Comptroller, Susana A. Mendoza. In my experiences, in the General Assembly, I have seen men from both sides of the aisle conduct themselves in an inappropriate manner and I’ve seen victims from both sides of the aisle. The report maintains that in order to see more women with a seat at the table, political leaders must change the way they call on women to want to be there in the first place. "We hope to see the report turned into policy for political campaigns. This report should be a roadmap for best practices to change a culture that has for too long subjected women to unacceptable treatment. I also hope this report serves as a catalyst for women to own their own power, stand in their own space and know when they report sexual harassment it's taken with the seriousness it always should have been treated with.

Bill Cosby is led out of courtroom in handcuffs after being sentenced to 3-10 years in prison for Andrea Constand sexual assault. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful…