It’s not alternative facts; it’s merely speculation, which is what pretty much everyone on this thread is doing to one degree or another.
Look, I’m still very much a Biden supporter. I’m not resolving to look or not look at anything. I’m anything, I’m predisposed to not want to believe her. I wasn’t there in 1993 - I don’t truly know one way or another. I’m airing my thoughts like practically everyone else here. But (until the last 24 hours)*, the evidence that we had in the public domain was that Biden had multiple complaints of unsolicited touching that made other women uncomfortable. The evidence also seems to indicate that she had disclosed her issues with her time on Capitol Hill long before now - at least from what I’ve seen.
*Having said that, there is the matter of new evidence coming to light that appears to call into question her motives, such as the fact that she had been charged with check fraud and the fact that she’s represented by a republican hack. So that absolutely casts doubt on her claims.
Regardless, I seriously doubt there’s anything that’s going to get me to change my vote for Biden.
And sniffing hair. He also finds very questionable resting spots for his hands when he’s in camera.
Women didn’t start speaking out against George H W Bush until about a year before he died. I admit - I don’t know one way or the other, and I’m only speculating. I’m not circulating fake news or giving credence to her claims; I’m just speculating based on available facts. And I’m happy to change my opinion when new facts surface.
is a very specific scenario that, while not as the same level of crime as forcible digital penetration, is still a crime and is at odds with his behavior as otherwise detailed. The notion that there is some threshold of behavior that is actually assault but is still acceptable to as a candidate for president is ethically unsound and politically unsustainable, because unlike Trump, a Democratic candidate can’t appeal to the base by making the barely obscured argument that getting away with assault makes him a stronger candidate.
If Joe Biden forcibly “grabbed her ass” or otherwise made some overtly sexual physical contact, he should be held accountable for that. And if there is no evidence and no pattern of behavior, while Reade and her corroborators display changing stories, that should go to credibility, as should alternative motivations by Reade calling for Biden to step down. This notion that he did ‘something’, but that it should be overlooked for political expediency is going to have people–not all of them Trump boosters–making legitimate claims of hypocrisy, which is ultimately just as destructive as the divisiveness of having to delve into Biden’s behaviors.
The problem here is that the available facts about Biden’s touchy-feely tendencies (shoulder and neck rubs, hair smelling, leaning in) don’t match your speculation (he musta grabbed Reade’s ass).
Yes, both sets of actions would make a woman (or anyone) uncomfortable at least, but one set, the one we have video evidence of and all of the other women complain about, is a collection of overly familiar physicality like the one clingy aunt who smothers you in a kissy hug every year at holiday time. Your speculation just doesn’t go with that set of behavior; you’re describing the uncle no one with any sense leaves their kids in the same room with.
Not exactly, no, and I acknowledge that. But his behavior definitely displays an obliviousness to personal boundaries, which is also what underlies more serious behavior like groping. It’s not at all unreasonable to suggest that if he’s capable of sniffing hair, running fingers through hair, giving creepy massages, and placing his hand right underneath women’s (not to mention underage girls’) breasts that he at least might be capable of taking it a step further. In fact, a lot of sexual assault and sexual harassment progresses in stages, from questionable transgressions of boundaries to outright groping. I repeat: I don’t know for sure what Biden did or didn’t do, but at least some of the evidence doesn’t look good for Biden, and I’m far from the only one who thinks it. Ass grabbing is just my hunch - I could be wrong and maybe nothing happened, and I’ve said that before.
Not that we know of yet - I agree. But a person could be forgiven for wondering if Reade’s claims are the tip of another iceberg.
Look, I want Biden to win probably more than you do, but I’m not going to live in a bubble and pretend he’s not at least a middling creep. No person would get away with the shit that he’s photographed doing. He gets away with it because people want to 'splain it away as goofy Uncle Joe - you can do that if you want. I choose to live in the real world.
Just as an example of some of the defenses that have been used to defend Biden recently, consider Axelrod’s claims that there was a thorough vetting that surely would have pinged their radar had there been any serious behavior. If that’s the case, how come he sailed through 2 terms as vice president before anyone knew that women stepped forward to complain that he made women feel uncomfortable with his hair sniffing? If you want to believe that the stresses of the vice presidency broke him and that he started this behavior after 2009, that’s your choice. I speculate he’s had a life long tendency to touch and grab and only now are women feeling comfortable enough to step forward and complain about it.
I think it’s more plausible that he simply hasn’t done anything that would have struck anybody as seriously wrong in 2009. People take the ideas of personal space and bodily integrity way more seriously now than they did even ten years ago. I think, on the whole, this is a positive cultural shift, but it is a shift. Tara Reade’s recent allegations would have been clearly and unambiguously wrong, even then; “he’s a little too touchy-feely with women and it makes me uncomfortable” would not.
You made up an assault scenario that no one reported and which is just marginally better than what Reade has most recently claimed, and then decided that your invented scenario was not bad enough to prevent you from supporting Biden with no real rational basis whatsoever.
Tara Reade was charged with check fraud on August 2, 1993, and the Biden office offered her a chance to resign in lieu of termination. She resigned, but to save face, she started the sexual harassment complaints (only to friends, though).
This is why she was terminated on August 6th, 1993. Because she was kiting checks or something.
Actually fired for check fraud, as it turns out. Represented by a Chump crony. And we now know she became an ardent Bernie supporter. It’s becoming clearer and clearer that this is just the last desperate gasp of the Bernie Bozos. I like Bernie, but his supporters are shit. He deserves better followers. Hell, it would not surprise me if any day now Linty Fresh and Unreconstructed Man try their hand at leveling their own personal rape accusations against Biden.
This simply isn’t true. Even in 2001, anyone on this board would have been paper-trailed and fired within a month for doing half of what Biden has been doing. Women could and did make their feelings known about their personal space and dignity being infringed upon very well. While in the Army, I personally witnessed both NCOs and officers converted into instant civilians for this kind of shit, and that was in the early 90s. Bill Clinton was accused of sexual harassment in the mid-90s for this kind of shit–rightfully so.
The last time this argument might have held water would have been in the VERY early 90s. Even then, the fact that everyone else was doing it has never really been a good excuse.
Unless I’m missing something, the only factual part of that is the court case against Reade for check fraud and her termination date. Everything else is just guesswork by the Twitter guy? Like, he doesn’t have anyone saying Reade was fired because of the charges, he’s just assuming it happened?
(I think Reade’s story has a lot of issues but I don’t want to start spreading stuff that isn’t supported)
Given the frenzy to discredit Reade at all costs, you’ll forgive me for wanting a little more evidence of criminality than a couple of screenshots posted some random on Twitter.
Even if she’s guilty, guess what? Women who commit crimes do, on occasion, get raped. I know. It blows your fucking mind, doesn’t it?
I didn’t make up anything; I supposed that based on what we know about Biden and the admittedly limited amount of evidence that has come to light about Reade’s allegations, I thought it was probable that Biden has probably done something. In retrospect, I acknowledge that pinching asses was probably too specific, but I didn’t once claim I had proof or facts - I think I’ve tried to make it clear that I didn’t and that it was just my sixth sense.
I never thought I’d be saying something that aligns me with UltraVires, octopus, and Shodan, but I think we know that if this were Senator Rubio or some other Republican, we wouldn’t stop at assuming that he’s only sniffed hair, given creepy shoulder rubs, and inadvertently put his hand near breasts during photo ops (speaking of things that are only “marginally better”). He’d be getting the third degree. I’d be piling on, too.
You don’t need a cheap-ass excuse like that to vote for Trump-just admit that you are voting for him.
“You MADE me do it!!” crap doesn’t fly any more, and neither does posting waves of unsubstantiated crap about Biden with the obligatory “But I’M not voting for Trump” tag at the end.
I’ve posted nothing, crap or otherwise, regarding the truth of the rape accusations. If you want to poison the well and throw a rape accuser under the bus before the investigation even starts, be my guest.
I have said twice in this thread that I’m not voting for Trump. But if you want to scream and curse everyone who doesn’t immediately fall down and join you in kissing your candidate’s gnarly, harassing ass–with tongue–knock yourself out.
Just don’t be too surprised when enough Americans take a look at this shit, shake their heads, and either vote Trump to piss you off or stay home.
And don’t be too quick to blame them, either. I certainly won’t. You’ve had four years to figure out that people aren’t necessarily going to vote for a shit candidate just because he or she isn’t quite as shitty as the other guy. You’ve also had four years to come up with someone better. And Biden is the best you can do? BIDEN?? Aren’t you the one who continues to shriek about how Biden is our only option, and we should just recognize the reality and vote for him? Maybe if you’d posted a little less after November 2016 and paid attention to reality a little more, you could have come up with something better.
Maybe the reason no one really posts here anymore is that we have better stuff to do. Like learn how to live with the fact that Trump is here to stay, because the people who might have made a difference were too busy whining about the electoral college and how politics was so unfair to actually–you know–come up with someone a little better than Biden. Or Franken. Or Bernie (I’ve already said that I’m not a fan of his.).
But hey, you’re right. It’s all about voting for the less shitty candidate while fucking over anyone and everyone who might get in his way, regardless of their right to be offended or even heard. Who cares if he still smells like shit, right?
Biden isn’t “the best you can do”. Biden was the guy who did the best job of getting votes in the primary. Everyone else did a worse job by a significant degree. Everyone else did a worse job, with four years warning, of coming up with policies and arguments that would appeal to the voters and convince them to come out and vote for them. That’s how elections work. Biden did the best job of getting nominated, everyone else – from Bernie Sanders to Pete Buttigieg to Tulsi Gabbard – did a frankly shitty job based on how quickly Biden sewed it up.