After using his rally last night in Mississippi to ridicule Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony of sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump has doubled down on his “rich and powerful white men are the real victims” theme by suddenly proposing two new laws.
Trump explains that the purpose of these laws is to, “Stop the epidemic of women abusing their power to dominate and destroy the lives of innocent, honest, beer-drinking-but-never-throwing-up-or-getting-violently-angry-or-rapey-because of it-and-oh-yeah-being-virgins-too men.”
Continuing to introduce these bills, Trump went on to say, “This is a time I think we should call the ‘#MeFirst’ era, a time when men are no longer treated like they are less than the superiors that they are. All those women out there who think they can destroy the lives of men who have earned their white male entitlement to greater power and wealth by working their asses off to be born, your time is up, baby!”
The first bill that Trump will bring to Congress for passage is the “Gender Accusations Guard” (GAG) law.
It would provide for prison time similar to that for federal perjury against any woman who privately or publicly accuses a man of sexually assaulting them without providing multiple eyewitnesses, a selfie of the incident and/or a signed affidavit by the alleged assaulter confessing to the attack and stating unequivocally that he was never enrolled in a private school with a golf course.
As a companion bill to reign in the “out of control” power of “the weaker sex”, Trump will also be proposing the “Authorization for Boys Using Self Expression” (ABUSE) act.
According to Trump, “This law will stop the criminalization of boys just being boys! Girls can express themselves anyway they want to without it being a crime, whether its drinking punch with Quaaludes secretly mixed in it or fighting with boys to keep their clothes from being pulled off, or not, whatever they want to do no matter how drugged they are! It’s time that all the Bretts, Chads and Dicks were treated equally with the Christines, Debbies and amanamous…anomomiss……women who don’t give their names. I mean, Dicks Lives Matter too,” Trump insisted.
The ABUSE Act would decriminalize what are now classified as sexual assaults, by a boy or man against a girl or woman (Trump stated that sexual assaults against same sex people is “disgusting anyway” and should be illegal even when consent is given).
The ABUSE bill goes on to say that “rape is just a matter of opinion, girls just have to agree to disagree with boys instead of, for example, using it to prevent them from being confirmed to the Supreme Court and taking away women’s power over their own bodies.”
The bill redefines the crimes of “rape, molestation and sexual abuse” as “horseplay” and changes the unwilling restraint of women from “kidnapping” to “playing house”. “Pedophilia” will also be conditionally downgraded from being a crime to being a “youthful indiscretion” but only for Republicans when running for office.
Trump said that he believes that by making it legal to GAG and ABUSE to women, he will be protecting the most vulnerable and defenseless among us…the men he nominates to the court and his cabinet.
It’s just a matter of time before the Republicans redefine murder as youthful indiscretion with a weapon.
Nazis are good people, rape survivors who speak out are evil and liars, pedophiles are great Senate candidates, a federal criminal and aspiring tyrant is their leader, would murder by a white, privileged Republican just be “a witch hunt”?
Yep. Trump has the deaths of many Puerto Ricans and immigrants seeking sanctuary on his hands. He wants to have the deaths of tens of millions of Americans by ending their healthcare. I’d argue that murder is already acceptable to Republicans if done by one of their own.
AdLib, I didn’t have a chance to read this terrific article until today. And maybe that’s just as well, because today — the day after Kavanaugh was sworn in — it means more than ever.
There’s no denying that this weekend feels grim. And the smirky victory dances that people like Trump and McConnell are doing really add to the creepiness factor. It’s as though they’re cheerfully abandoning every last vestige of dignity and decency.
They’ve created an economy that works for the very wealthy and — to some extent– for people who wear hard hats and steel-toed boots to work. But people who change diapers in day care centers, who teach second graders, who help 90 year old nursing home residents to the bathroom are worse off than ever. And they’re invisible and silent.
Women who’ve been molested and assaulted have been reminded over the past week of why so many women (70%) don’t report it. And more and more states are enacting laws that will ultimately force women to bear children because there’s no other option — even if the “woman” is 12 years old and the father is a relative.
But instead of giving in to discouragement, we have to mobilize, vote, run for office, talk to our daughters and sons and refuse to give up.
Kes, this feeling of pain that the majority of Americans felt after the Kavanaugh vote and swearing in is temporary. It’s already fading and as it does, it will be replaced with greater resolve.
As we see that election day is nearing and recognize that we have the power to push back against all we’ve endured under Trump including Kavanaugh, The Blue Wave will crest.
I’ve been following the FiveThirtyEight.com projection on the probability of Dems taking back the House, the latest one is below. What I noticed is a slight drop for Dems when we were losing the Kavanaugh fight but now it has risen back up to its highest level. And the Cook Political Report, which ranks House races, has just moved five more towards the Dems.
So folks have been justifiably saddened by watching our government steamroll over us as the majority but they are bouncing back while the sugar high that Repubs got from “winning” the fight will be a memory in 4 weeks.
Kavanaugh is a knife that cuts both ways, they may have hurt the majority of Americans by seating him but the knife is coming right back at them to cut them off from their monopoly on power on November 6th.
http://planetpov.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screenshot_2018-10-11-2018-House-Forecast.png
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2018-midterm-election-forecast/house/?ex_cid=midterms-header
One of the best elements of the approximately 10 year history of PlanetPOV has been your consistent sense of optimism, AdLib. And in the vast majority of cases your optimism has turned out to be well-founded. (Recalling your predictions of both Obama victories and the passage of the ACA, to name just three.)
So I’m heartened to read that you can see better times ahead even after the Kavanaugh debacle. I’ve taken some comfort in having spoken with other women (including the now-17-year-old Fave, who is a spunky feminist in her senior year of high school) and discovering that they felt depressed and dismayed — especially over this past weekend, when the swearing in ceremony took place.
But as you say — and they confirm — the feeling is temporary. And their determination is even more pronounced now. The Five-thirty-six numbers are encouraging. I also have to remind myself that white male voters are only about 31% of the population. And there are plenty of those white male voters who are not on-board with mocking and laughing at women like Dr. Blasey Ford. It’s good to hold the thought that — however noisy Trump and his fanboys and girls might be — they don’t speak for a majority of Americans.
Part of what powers my optimism is knowing people like you, Kes. We are not alone, we’re not even a minority. Most Americans, like most people, have good intentions and aren’t hateful, amoral people. Some may be a bit less motivated to be involved as citizens in politics but nothing motivates people more than seeing terrible wrongs.
There is a rhythm to society and events, an ebb and flow. The Kavanaugh approval was inevitable, Repubs control The Senate and they almost never stand up against what Trump wants (except on the ACA, thank goodness!). But most Americans have never seen and couldn’t imagine a likely attempted racist and perjurer being voted onto the SCOTUS. Still, Republicans voted how they have been so we kind of set ourselves up to be devastated (me included!).
But the natural evolution here is that, as happened after Trump’s election with the record-setting Women’s March, we work through the painful feelings of loss and re-channel our energy into purposeful action.
And Repubs will not be able to sustain their phony outrage over Kavanaugh’s “mistreatment” for four more weeks. As with everything else in the Trump era, it will be quickly left behind as new outrages against Trump come up.
So I think, in four weeks, Dems will be even more energized and intent on winning back power over Trump while Repubs will coasting on the afterglow of having added the SCOTUS to the other institutions Trump has tainted.
Motivating the young to get out and VOTE is vital. If they want to be living in a free country and have control over their futures they must get involved. We old farts can’t hold off this take over by our selves.
You’re right, the older folks can’t do it all by themselves but the younger folks are registering and becoming involved, thanks especially to the #NeverAgain gun control movement they’ve built up. Thought their overall numbers are still lower than older Americans, the data I’ve seen is that registration and desire to vote is up 50% in young people, that could absolutely make a big difference.
McConnell is calling for a halt to protesting our elected SENATORS, Trump wants to gag the press and women. People need to re read the history of 1933 and 1934 under Hitler in Germany. Press arrested for publishing opposing views, protests outlawed, then came the internal camps and then the slaughter of millions. I know this is the ‘bleakest’of the bleak but the intellectuals of Germany thought it couldn’t happen there either. Americans better wake the hell up!
gyp46, your warnings are very legit. No question that the entire GOP, with maybe a couple of exceptions, are anti-democratic, anti-Constitution and are trying their best to steer the country into a tyranny.
It is the worst of times in my lifetime but I do think Americans who value our democracy and decency are activated. Looking at the growing protests against Kavanaugh, the bravery of the women publicly sharing the sexual attacks they endured despite personal risk, the big shift to Democrats in all special elections and the polls for this November, I think many Americans are very woke.
It can’t ever be taken for granted though, despite the polls and recent history of Dem over-performance, everyone who wants to save this democracy has to work to motivate others to action and to vote. GOTV is critical especially because the majority of the nation wants Trump stopped. Hubris is defeating, people need to stay humble and working as hard as if Dems were behind in the polls.
It is an existential matter, Dems have to win back power at least in The House to preserve our teetering democracy. I believe we will do it but only if we remain energized and punching it out until Election Day.
And let me add that Trump and the GOP are now lawless. This is not a country of laws or morals to these reptiles. They are no different than their ally, Putin, in wanting to crash our democracy.
They use our system against Americans by taking away the ability to vote of Democratic voters, gerrymandering Dems out of the seats they should have and drowning out the voices of the majority with billions in campaign contributions by the greedy minority.
If Dems can not only win back half or all of Congress, Governorships and state legislatures this year and in 2020, the next redistricting in 2021 could cement the Repubs into the minority status they truly are for a very long time.