[Peace-discuss] When establishment goals, ethics, and identity politics collide

Tue Mar 31 00:48:42 UTC 2020

Aaron Maté retweeted a now uncomfortable reminder of the obligation that goes along 
with the phrase "believe all women" -- one must carry this burden even when it 
directly conflicts with one's choice to push establishment values. Hollywood 
celebrity Alyssa Milano's Twitter post from September 18, 2018 is coming back to 
haunt her and so many other people who have made comparable sentiments:

> You 👏 can’t 👏 pretend 👏to 👏 be 👏 the👏 party 👏 of 👏 the 👏 American
> 👏people 👏 and 👏 then 👏not 👏 support 👏 a 👏 woman 👏 who 👏 comes forward 👏
> with 👏 her 👏#MeToo 👏 story. #TuesdayThoughts

Now this post comes up again in the context of the establishment's silence around 
allegations of Sen. Joe Biden's sexual assault history. The most recently-discussed 
chapter of this history -- Alexandra Tara Reade's allegation of what happened to her 
in 1993.

Some background: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14tfnIkQ-qU -- Sen. Joe Biden's 
former staff assistant Alexandra Tara Reade accused Sen. Joe Biden of sexual assault. 
Reade was one of 7 other women who shared stories about Biden's sexual advances, 
assaults, and other forms of inappropriateness or illegality. Lucy Flores is another 
one of the women whose names you might have come across before. This clip from Jimmy 
Dore & co. explains the situation and replays an interview with interviewer Katie Halper.

According to Katie Halper's description from 
https://soundcloud.com/katie-halper/joe-bidens-accuser-finally-tells-her-full-story :
> She [Reade] told part of her story-- about how Biden would put his hands on her 
> shoulders and run his fingers up and down her neck-- in the spring of 2019 after 
> Lucy Flores accused Biden of kissing the top of her head and smelling her hair 
> inappropriately. But Reade didn't tell her full story. As Ryan Grim reveals at
> The Intercept, Reade asked for help from Time's Up, but the organization said it
> could not support her because a case taking on Biden would jeopardize their
> non-profit status. Tara is finally telling the story she's been trying to tell for
> decades. While there were no witnesses to Biden's alleged sexual assault of Tara
> Reade, her brother and close friend, both of whom I've [Katie Halper] spoken to,
> recall Reade telling them about it at the time.

Under any other circumstances, given only this retelling of the allegations, Biden 
would be considered persona non grata. Major American corporations would do what they 
could to quickly distance themselves from Biden. This is how things happened for many 
other men accused of doing horrible things to others (mostly women) without consent, 
often under circumstances where one is expected to behave professionally.

But serving the establishment matters more: establishment-serving media have 
apparently chosen to remain silent on the matter. Biden continues to be the 
Democratic Party frontrunner (the presumptive nominee, in fact) and it is up to 
non-compliant media outlets to cover what is going on. There are so few such outlets 
that I've listed what I could find below. The stories of other women seem to have 
stopped even from media previously believed to be progressive in their support of 
sexual assault victims.

References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14tfnIkQ-qU -- Jimmy Dore & co. on this story.

https://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/783742165-katie-halper-tara-to-post.mp3
https://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/782795578-katie-halper-joe-bidens-accuser-finally-tells-her-full-story.mp3 
-- Katie Halper's Lucy Flores interview in which Flores describes her assault.

https://twitter.com/kthalps/status/1242691746561167360 -- Katie Halper's tweet thread 
about this story.

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/joe-biden-metoo-times-up/ -- Ryan Grim's 
Intercept article describing the Flores allegations.

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/26/headlines/the_intercept_times_up_legal_defense_fund_refused_to_support_metoo_allegation_against_joe_biden 
-- The only Democracy Now story I could find and it's nothing but a brief headline story:

> The Intercept is reporting that the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, set up to help
> survivors of rape and sexual assault, refused to fund a #MeToo investigation into
> allegations against Joe Biden. The charges were brought by Tara Reade, who worked
> as a staff assistant for then-Senator Biden in 1993, when she was in her
> mid-twenties. Reade told journalist Katie Halper in an interview published Tuesday
> that Biden repeatedly touched her without her consent and sexually assaulted her.
> A warning to listeners and viewers: Her account is graphic.
> 
> Tara Reade: “And then his hands were on me and underneath my clothes. And yeah,
> and then he went — he went down my skirt but then up inside it, and he penetrated
> me with his fingers.”
> 
> Reade approached the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund in January looking for
> assistance, but was reportedly told the fund could not help her because Biden is a
> candidate for federal office, and pursuing a case could jeopardize the fund’s
> nonprofit status. The Intercept reports the public relations firm representing
> Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund is SKDKnickerbocker, whose managing director, Anita
> Dunn, is top adviser to Biden’s presidential campaign.

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/4/1/headlines/ex_nevada_assemblywoman_accuses_joe_biden_of_inappropriate_touching

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/4/2/headlines/second_woman_alleges_inappropriate_touching_by_joe_biden

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/4/4/headlines/joe_biden_promises_to_respect_personal_space_after_inappropriate_touching_accusations 
-- 3 other headline stories from DN on women accusing Biden of "inappropriate touching".

If 3 stories published on almost subsequent days constitute a drumbeat, this drumbeat 
began and ended rather quickly (from 2019-04-01 through 2019-04-04). There is 
slightly more to be found with the search 
https://www.democracynow.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=biden+inappropriate+touching&commit=Search
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Screenshot_2020-03-30 Aaron Mat? ( aaronjmate) on Twitter.png
Type: image/png
Size: 22290 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20200330/05dd6445/attachment-0001.png>