The War on Women

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Apr 05, 2017 8:42 pm

Trump is spending Sexual Assault Awareness Month defending an alleged serial sexual harasser.

Trump just defended Bill O’Reilly — in the middle of Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has been repeatedly accused of sexual harassment.
http://www.vox.com/identities/2017/4/5/ ... harassment





New Criminal Charges Filed Against Anti-abortion Activists
April 03, 2017

Bill Morlin
Two anti-abortion activists now face criminal charges brought by the Attorney General of California, alleging they secretly and illegally made controversial videos subsequently blamed for a spike in abortion clinic violence.

David R. Daleiden, 28, and Sandra S. Merritt, 63, were charged Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court with 14 felony counts of eavesdropping and secretly recording conversations with Planned Parenthood representatives and other abortion providers.

In a related development, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the secret video tapes show no evidence of criminal conduct, upholding a lower court, civil case ruling barring Daleiden and his fake company from further dissemination of the material.

The video recordings, widely criticized for deceptive editing, were released in mid-2015 by the Center for Medical Progress, founded by Daleiden, with ties to some of the hardest-line anti-abortion extremists and groups associated with clinic and provider violence.

The videos accused Planned Parenthood of illegally selling “body parts from aborted fetuses,” prompting death threats to some healthcare providers and calls to discontinue all federal funding of Planned Parenthood. The issue crept into the 2016 presidential campaign.

The so-called “fetus body parts” videos also were believed responsible for an increase in violence and extremism, including arson fires that damaged or destroyed at least four Planned Parenthood clinics and a murderous rampage resulting in three deaths in November 2015 at an abortion clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Charging documents filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra allege Daleiden and Merritt set up a fictitious medical research company, BioMax Procurement, and obtained phony drivers licenses to attend the National Abortion Federation 2014 conference in San Francisco.

At that conference and later restaurant meetings in Los Angeles and Pasadena with women’s healthcare providers, the pair used secret recording devices to tape conversations with 14 individuals in violation of California law, the charges allege.

“The right to privacy is a cornerstone of California’s Constitution, and a right that is foundational in a free democratic society,” Becerra said in a statement. “We will not tolerate the criminal recording of confidential conversations.”

In January 2016, Daleiden and Merritt were charged in Texas by a grand jury initially empanelled to investigate whether a Planned Parenthood clinic had sold body parts of aborted fetuses. Instead, the jury panel indicted Merritt and Daleiden, but those charges later were dismissed for legal technicalities.

Merritt was represented in the Texas case by Liberty Counsel, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBT non-profit law firm headed by Mathew “Mat” Staver and his wife, Anita Staver.

Liberty Counsel also apparently also will defend her against the new criminal charges in California, although a notice of appearance hasn’t yet been filed.

“The California Attorney General has overstepped the law by bringing these baseless charges,” Staver said today in a statement. “Ideology should not trump the law, but I am afraid that is what happened in the state’s charges. Our client did not violate any law.”

The federal appeals court ruling in the civil case affirms the issuance of a preliminary injunction obtained by the National Abortion Federation (NAF). Importantly, the ruling also says the video tapes show no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

“Given the district court’s finding, which is supported by substantial evidence, that the tapes contain no evidence of criminal activity, and its recognition of several states’ ongoing ‘formal efforts to secure the NAF recordings,’ the preliminary injunction carefully balances the interests of NAF and law enforcement,” the 9th Circuit ruling said.

The injunction prohibits Biomax Procurement Services LLC, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), Daleiden, and Troy Newman from releasing recordings and materials they illegally obtained at NAF’s educational meetings.

Newman is a CMP board member and president of Operation Rescue, a hard-line anti-abortion group that claimed it aided the CMP in its “investigation” of the sale of body parts from aborted fetuses.

Vicki Saporta, NAF president and chief executive officer, said Daleiden and Merritt have engaged in a “long-running conspiracy” and a “smear campaign” that has put abortion providers at risk.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/201 ... rce=EOACLK


Massachusetts Attorney General: Anti-Choice Groups Can’t Spy on ‘Abortion-Minded Women’
https://rewire.news/article/2017/04/04/ ... ded-women/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Apr 10, 2017 7:33 am

Accuser's Lawyer Says Fox Will Probe O'Reilly Harassment Claim

Jeff Christensen
ByCAITLIN MACNEALPublishedAPRIL 10, 2017, 7:05 AM EDT
The parent company of Fox News will investigate a sexual harassment claim made against host Bill O'Reilly by a former guest on the network, the lawyer for the accuser told CNN on Sunday.

"On Friday, we received a return phone call from a couple of attorneys who represent Fox News, and they said they are indeed going to do an investigation based on Wendy’s complaint," lawyer Lisa Bloom told CNN's "Reliable Sources." "I'm told that they are taking it seriously, and they are going to do the investigation that's legally required of them."

Bloom represents Wendy Walsh, a former Fox News guest who has accused O'Reilly of denying her a contributor position at the network after she turned down his inappropriate advances.

Asked about Bloom's comments, a spokesperson for 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, told CNN that the company "investigates all complaints and we have asked the law firm Paul Weiss to continue assisting the company in these serious matters."

Walsh's accusations came after a New York Times report revealing that at least five women have taken settlements after accusing O'Reilly of sexual harassment. Several advertisers have pulled ads from his show as a result.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/b ... harassment


Bill O’Reilly hires Bill Clinton’s ‘Monicagate’ lawyer in frantic bid to stay on at Fox News
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/bill-or ... -fox-news/



Bill O’Reilly’s advertiser exodus is even worse than it looks
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... 5635f09631


Will Bill O’Reilly be fired amid latest sexual harassment scandal? Signs point in both directions
The cable news king is a proven survivor — but this time, he may have more trouble fighting back his critics
MATTHEW SHEFFIELD

Will Bill O'Reilly be fired amid latest sexual harassment scandal? Signs point in both directions

Top-rated Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has once again embroiled the cable news outfit in scandal. Even so, O’Reilly may be able to survive this, as he has on other occasions when he was accused of outrageous or offensive behavior.

O’Reilly’s current troubles began after the New York Times reported on April 1 that since 2002, he and Fox had paid out at least $13 million to women who had accused him of sexually or verbally harassing them. That long history of payouts offers evidence that O’Reilly may be able to weather the current media storm.

That’s because the business model of Fox News is dramatically different from its cable competitors, CNN and MSNBC. While the latter channel is known for its left-leaning primetime lineup, MSNBC’s actual audience is actually more centrist than that of the New York Times, the Daily Show, NPR and the Washington Post, according to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center.

While CNN, MSNBC and their broadcast counterparts are striving for a large, center-left audience, Fox News has essentially cornered the market on conservative viewers. While some moderates do tune in, the most loyal FNC viewers are conservatives who largely distrust other media outlets.

The net effect of Fox fans’ isolation from other media is that news about the various accusations against O’Reilly (he has denied all of them) simply has not filtered down to his loyal fans.

Orlando Sentinel TV writer Hal Boedeker provided a perfect example of this in a column he published earlier this week discussing how his father, a regular “O’Reilly Factor” viewer, had not even heard about the millions in payouts to O’Reilly accusers.

While it might not be surprising that a senior citizen in rural Missouri hadn’t heard of the allegations against O’Reilly, on the same day that Boedeker published his column, House Speaker Paul Ryan also said he had never heard them.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Ryan said when he was asked for a comment about them in an interview. “I don’t read the New York Times all that often.”

Given O’Reilly fans’ low opinion of the mainstream media, it appears some of them might actually be more interested in tuning in. According to USA Today, “O’Reilly Factor” ratings for Monday and Tuesday of last week were up 14 percent compared to the week before.

While O’Reilly has managed to survive being accused of repeatedly masturbating during phone calls with a female producer and even a claim that he once dragged his ex-wife down a flight of stairs by the throat (“100 percent false,” according to him), his current scandal is a bit different from ones that preceded it.

What’s different about O’Reilly’s problems this time around is that his allegedly inappropriate behavior may be causing problems for Fox News’ parent company.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and founder of 21st Century Fox, has long wanted to exercise contractual rights to buy up all of the shares in Sky Media, a London-based media conglomerate in which he already owns a majority stake.

This is Murdoch’s second attempt at buying out the other Sky investors. In 2011, he had to cancel a previous effort after one of his British newspapers was revealed to have spied on murder victims, a scandal that led to the complete closure of the publication and months of horrendous coverage for Murdoch’s firm just as Ofcom, the British regulatory body, was deciding whether Fox would be a “fit and proper” owner for Sky.

Further complicating that Ofcom decision is a possible criminal case that may be brought against Fox News executives in New York for allegedly refusing to disclose millions of dollars in payments to sexual harassment claimants in mandatory public filings to the U.S. federal government and investors.

Another major challenge facing O’Reilly this time is that he has become the target of a progressive campaign to encourage advertisers to boycott his program. It’s an effort reminiscent of an earlier campaign that, by Fox News’ admission, contributed to the cancellation of Glenn Beck’s then-popular program.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Apr 11, 2017 10:33 pm

Bill O’Reilly is going on vacation and he may never come back
https://thinkprogress.org/bill-oreilly- ... 866a598919
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Apr 14, 2017 10:04 pm

full post in Data Dump


WH Immigration Hardliner Stephen Miller Adds ‘Women’s Issues’ To His Portfolio

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/s ... -portfolio
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby Iamwhomiam » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:00 pm

The One-Sided Gun War of the Sexes

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD APRIL 14, 2017

Image Rose Wong

One bit of woeful shorthand used in tallying the nation’s gun carnage is “I.P.V.” — intimate partner violence. This is a category in which each week close to 10 women are shot to death by their husbands, boyfriends or former dating partners. The victims and gunmen go unnoticed on the national scene unless the shooting turns into a larger tragedy, like the school invasion on Monday in California, in which a man murdered his wife as she taught class and, in his rampage, killed an 8-year-old student.

It turned out that the man, who ended his spree with suicide, had a history of domestic violence and threats that should have denied him ownership of a firearm. But, as with so many of the nation’s shameful gun control laws, weak enforcement and loopholes helped perpetrate another I.P.V. shooting.

The toll of hundreds of defenseless women shot to death each year by current or former partners is a tragedy crying out for more thorough and sensible gun controls. Law enforcement professionals bedeviled by routine domestic disputes know well how these disputes can escalate into gun tragedies. There are federal and state laws designed to rein in the problem, but they are spotty and need to be strengthened, particularly in specifying what authority and obligation the police have to confiscate the guns of abusers.

These supposedly isolated human agonies too often turn into wider gun carnage. About half of the mass shootings in recent years with four or more victims had at their core the shooter’s killing of a current or former partner or family member, according to an analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group.

Eighteen states have laws either requiring the police to seize guns at domestic abuse scenes or giving them discretion to do so. Twenty states have courts make the decision when they issue protection orders. (A few of these states take both approaches.) But varying circumstances and resources too often undermine enforcement. And 23 states have no confiscation protections.

Advertisement
Continue reading the main story

Polls show that most Americans — Republicans as well as Democrats — think it common sense to require gun owners to surrender their firearms upon a first arrest for domestic violence or a court order protecting fearful partners. The rights of potential gun victims, not those of aberrant gun owners, must be paramount.

The fright and danger are real, as abusers double back on their disaffected partners, using handguns in the majority of homicides. The I.P.V. deaths are driven by rage in which perpetrators stalk and hunt down women who flee to protect the lives of their children and themselves. Some women secretly arm themselves in self-defense, but the grim statistics of I.P.V. homicide show it’s a one-sided war of the sexes.

Federal laws were passed in the 1990s to protect women by denying firearms to domestic abusers. But the states have not met a crucial obligation to provide adequate case histories to the federal data center where background checks are made on potential gun buyers.

With Republican majorities in Congress inert on the need for greater gun safety, statehouse politicians are becoming more responsive. In the last two years, more than a dozen states passed laws to constrain domestic abusers who own firearms, according to The Associated Press. This rare patch of bipartisan cooperation shows gun rights are not absolute. “Intimate partner violence” is a frightening term that should embarrass more lawmakers into action.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/opinion/the-one-sided-gun-war-of-the-sexes.html
User avatar
Iamwhomiam
 
Posts: 6572
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:47 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Apr 17, 2017 9:58 am

Full post in Data Dump



Margaret Atwood Reflects on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
The books 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale have topped Amazon’s best-sellers list in recent months.
By Theresa Riley / Moyers and Company April 16, 2017
http://www.alternet.org/culture/margare ... maids-tale


Read Attorney Lisa Bloom’s Letter About Fox News’ Toxic Culture And Why It Should Tank Murdoch’s Sky News Deal
Bloom, Who Represents O'Reilly Accuser Wendy Walsh: Fox Has Shown An "Utter Disregard For The Rights Of Women"
https://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/04/1 ... sky/216016




Maryland Will Protect Planned Parenthood From Trump's Cuts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wvzPSpzgCI
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Apr 19, 2017 7:25 am

IN AMERICA?
And Now, Female Genital Mutilation Comes to America
Last week, a doctor in Michigan was charged with performing genital mutilation on two of her young patients. That’s right—her patients.
Qanta Ahmed

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... erica.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Jun 01, 2017 3:31 pm

THE RIGHT WING
New Texas Anti-Abortion Law Could Jail Anyone Who Drives a Woman to a Clinic
Anti-choice activists are taking their well-established cruelty to new levels.
By Kali Holloway / AlterNet May 31, 2017, 11:20 AM PDT


Cruelty is the key weapon in the anti-choice movement’s war on women. The latest evidence comes in the form of Texas Senate Bill 8, legislation designed to violate women’s constitutional rights by outlawing abortion in all but name. This is not the first bill Texas’ anti-choice right wing has created to make abortion less safe and accessible, but it is the first that attempts to dole out jail time to everyone involved. It’s no longer enough for Texas Republicans to criminalize abortion. Now they want to ensure everyone who helps a woman get an abortion is an accessory to the crime.

The highly punitive nature of the new Texas legislation is tied to the state’s “law of parties,” which holds that “a person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another” if that person intentionally “solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense.” Under the rule, SB8 would make anyone who plays a role in an outlawed abortion party to a criminal act, as described by the Texas Observer:

The sweeping anti-abortion bill that passed the Texas House May 19 could allow nearly anyone involved in the process of an unlawful abortion to be charged with a state jail felony... That includes the doctor who performed the abortion, but also the person who drove the woman to the clinic, the receptionist who booked the appointment and even the bank teller who cashed the check that paid for the procedure.

Women who receive abortions are not targeted for legal action by the bill. And anti-choice activists claim intent is necessary, and ignorance—that is, unknowingly aiding in a woman getting an illegal abortion—will protect people from criminal prosecution. But Texas Democratic Representative Joe Moody, a former prosecutor, points out that while the bill does state providers who “knowingly perform” outlawed abortions will face criminal charges, that language doesn’t declare anyone else off the hook.

“Others don’t have to know what’s going on, they can just be part of the process,” Moody told the Observer. “The law of parties casts a wide net. Prosecutors have wide discretion on the charges being brought.”

Moody assumed SB8’s gross legislative overreach was an “unintended consequence,” of how poorly the law is written. So he drafted an amendment that specified who can and cannot be prosecuted. That bill failed, despite support from all but one Democrat. The bill's death on the House floor shows Texas GOP lawmakers are fully invested in the legislation being as viciously applied as possible.

“I think by rejecting my amendment, [opponents showed] their intent was not only to go after physicians. I guess I misunderstood,” Moody told the Observer. “[This bill] is so poorly drafted, so poorly worded, that I think it shows they’re not really concerned about making good policy.”

“If the goal is to prosecute people who perform these acts, what’s written here goes way beyond that,” he added.

The Austin Chronicle notes that “House Republicans spared women compassion by voting down an amendment by Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, that would have made an exception if the mother's life is in jeopardy and one by Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, that sought to carve out exceptions for survivors of rape and incest.”

The absurdities within SB8 are numerous. The law contains a requirement that fetal tissue be buried or cremated by providers. It bans dilation and evacuation (D&E), which is the safest way to perform second-trimester abortions. The legislation outlaws a form of abortion that was already prohibited by the Supreme Court a decade ago. The bill is proof that the high court’s decision to strike down part of Texas’ highly restrictive abortion law last year has had little impact on GOP state legislators’ efforts to take away women’s reproductive rights.

Having cleared the House and Senate, SB8 now sits on the desk of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who once wrote an op-ed condemning abortion using a bevy of anti-choice lies. He is expected to sign the bill. Without question, it will face challenges from numerous legal advocacy groups.

“Texas taxpayers will now have to pay for expensive litigation because lawmakers insist on passing bills they know are unconstitutional, simply to appease an extremist anti-choice lobby,” Heather Busby, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, told the Chronicle.

One Democratic legislator, Representative Donna Howard, was precise in defining the damage SB8 will cause. She also noticed the hypocrisy of an anti-choice GOP that has taken every measure to prevent access to family planning.


“There is no reason to come here session after session and drive women into the shadows for illegal abortion—but this bill will do that,” Howard said to colleagues, according to the Chronicle. “This is political interference in medicine at its worst. Politicians have no place in the medical exam room. We can sit here self-righteously and decide that we always know what's best for every person, but we do not. If you actually want to stop abortion, then help me stop unwanted pregnancies.”
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/new- ... man-clinic
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Nov 04, 2017 2:38 pm

Ex-Milwaukee inmate who says officer raped her awarded $6.7M
By Ivan Moreno | AP June 8 at 12:35 PM
MILWAUKEE — A federal jury awarded $6.7 million to a former inmate who said a Milwaukee County jail officer raped her several times while she was pregnant in 2013.

The woman also said in her 2014 lawsuit that she was shackled while giving birth during her incarceration, but jurors on Wednesday rejected her claim that the practice violated her constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

The county expects to appeal the jury award.

Sheriff David Clarke, who oversees the jail, defended the practice of shackling inmates in a 2015 deposition, saying it’s necessary to protect hospital staff and that doctors can ask for shackles to be removed if medically necessary.

Clarke, a conservative firebrand who said last month the Trump administration offered him a job in the Department of Homeland Security, still faces a separate lawsuit from another pregnant inmate who said she was shackled while giving birth. The practice of shackling inmates precedes Clarke’s time as sheriff and dates back at least to 1994.

County prosecutors charged Xavier Thicklen with several counts of sexual assault of the inmate but dismissed the charges in 2014 in a plea deal where he was charged with felony misconduct in public office. Thicklen pleaded no contest to the charge, but the court ultimately found him guilty. He was sentenced to 3 days in jail and fined $200.


Jurors found Wednesday that Thicklen was acting as a county employee when the alleged assaults happened. He’s no longer employed by Milwaukee County.

“Thicklen’s abuse of his authority went wholly unchecked by the Sheriff, or any of the supervisors to which the Sheriff delegated his supervisory responsibilities,” the lawsuit stated.

Clarke, who has been one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters, said last month that he was taking a job as assistant secretary in DHS’ Office of Partnership and Engagement as a liaison to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies. However, the department immediately declined to confirm the job offer and has not made an announcement to date.

___

An earlier version of this story was corrected to reflect that Thicklen did not plead guilty to the felony misconduct charge. He pleaded no contest, but the court ultimately found him guilty.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... a426c5c3f5
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Dec 09, 2017 5:43 pm

Trump Justice Dept. Launches Investigation Into Planned Parenthood Based On Debunked Conspiracy

Sean Colarossi

Thu, Dec 7th, 2017 at 9:59 pm

Trump Justice Dept. Launches Investigation Into Planned Parenthood Based On Debunked Conspiracy
When a conspiracy theorist is elected President of the United States, these are the things you can expect to happen.


According to new reporting on Thursday, Donald Trump’s Justice Department is now going after Planned Parenthood based on an already-debunked conspiracy theory that the health organization illegally profited from aborted fetuses.

More from The Hill:

In the letter obtained by The Hill, the department requests unredacted documents from the panel’s 2016 probe into Planned Parenthood over claims that the organization profited off the transfer of tissue and body parts from aborted fetuses to research firms.

(Continued Below)

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the committee, referred Planned Parenthood to the FBI last December, saying at the time that his committee had uncovered enough evidence for the FBI to investigate the claims.



The letter sent Thursday states that the Justice Department intends to conduct a “thorough and comprehensive assessment” of Grassley’s report.

The investigation into Planned Parenthood is just the latest assault on the organization by Republicans who have been pushing to have it defunded for years. What’s particularly puzzling about this investigation is that the claims have already been investigated and debunked more than a dozen times.

As Planned Parenthood Vice President of Government Affairs Dana Singiser said last month, following Grassley’s recommendation, this GOP fantasy has been investigated multiple times in Congress and in more than a dozen states.

“Planned Parenthood strongly disagrees with the recommendations of the Senate Republican staff to refer this matter to the Justice Department, especially in light of the fact that investigations by three other Congressional committees, and investigations in 13 states including a Grand Jury in Texas, have all shown that Planned Parenthood did nothing wrong,” she said.

But again, this is what happens when a conspiracy theorist is elected President of the United States. Facts don’t matter. It’s the same reason why the president launched an utterly ridiculous investigation into “massive voter fraud” in favor of Hillary Clinton that never happened last year.

Instead of being guided by a reality-based view of the world and implementing practical public policies that could actually help the American people, Trump and his administration choose to listen to tin foil hat fantasies – all because it will appeal to their base of misinformed voters.

This is a dangerous place for America to be.

https://twitter.com/politicususa/status ... 0127433731
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby DrEvil » Sat Dec 16, 2017 4:58 pm

Motherfuckers.

Word ban at CDC includes 'vulnerable,' 'fetus,' 'transgender'
By Jessica Ravitz, CNN
Updated 1738 GMT (0138 HKT) December 16, 2017


(CNN)Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the very agency tasked with saving and protecting the lives of the most vulnerable, are now under order by the Trump administration to stop using words including "vulnerable" in 2018 budget documents, according to The Washington Post.
In a 90-minute briefing on Thursday, policy analysts at the nation's leading public health institute were presented with the menu of seven banned words, an analyst told the paper. On the list: "diversity," "fetus," "transgender," "vulnerable," "entitlement," "science-based" and "evidence-based."

Alternative word choices reportedly were presented in some cases. For instance, in lieu of "evidence-based" or "science-based," an analyst might say, "CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes," the source said. But those working on the Zika virus's effect on developing fetuses may be at a loss for appropriate -- or acceptable -- words.
The reaction in the room was "incredulous," the longtime CDC analyst told the Post. "It was very much, 'Are you serious? Are you kidding?'"
As news of the word ban spreads at the CDC, the analyst expects growing backlash.
"Our subject matter experts will not lay down quietly," the unnamed source said. "This hasn't trickled down to them yet."

Health and Human Services spokesman Matt Lloyd disputed the report in a statement to CNN.
"The assertion that HHS has 'banned words' is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process," Lloyd said. "HHS will continue to use the best scientific evidence available to improve the health of all Americans. HHS also strongly encourages the use of outcome and evidence data in program evaluations and budget decisions."
Others, outside the agency, are already responding with their own choice words.
"To pretend and insist that transgender people do not exist, and to allow this lie to infect public health research and prevention is irrational and very dangerous," Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a written statement.
"The Trump administration is full of dangerous science deniers who have no business near American public health systems like the CDC," she continued. "They are actually going to kill Americans if they do not stop."
Calling the order "reckless" and "unimaginably dangerous," Dana Singiser, vice president of public policy and government affairs for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, also weighed in.

"You cannot fight against the Zika virus, or improve women's and fetal health, if you are unable to use the word 'fetus.' You must be able to talk about science and evidence if you are to research cures for infectious diseases such as Ebola," Singiser said. "You must be able to acknowledge the humanity of transgender people in order to address their health care needs. You cannot erase health inequities faced by people of color simply by forbidding the use of the words 'vulnerable' or 'diversity'."
"Here's a word that's still allowed," added Rush Holt, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "Ridiculous."
The Office of Management and Budget did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.


http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/16/healt ... index.html
"I only read American. I want my fantasy pure." - Dave
User avatar
DrEvil
 
Posts: 3972
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:37 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Dec 21, 2017 7:29 pm

^^^^ yes they are

NEW: A federal court in California just issued a nationwide injunction halting the Trump administration’s attacks on birth control access.
Image
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Dec 22, 2017 10:02 am

A Trump admin official blocked a detained immigrant teenager from leaving a shelter to receive an abortion even though she had been raped, arguing it would be curing “violence with further violence,” according to docs unsealed as part of a lawsuit.

POLITICS 12/21/2017 06:00 pm ET
Trump Official Blocked Immigrant Teen Rape Victim’s Abortion Because He Personally Opposed It
ORR director Scott Lloyd wrote that rape does not justify “violence against an innocent human life.”

By Elise Foley and Laura Bassett

A Trump administration official blocked a detained immigrant teenager from leaving a shelter to receive an abortion even though she had been raped, arguing it would be curing “violence with further violence,” according to documents unsealed as part of a lawsuit on Thursday.

Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Scott Lloyd, who has taken the unprecedented step of requiring a sign-off for any abortion of an immigrant teen in custody, wrote in an internal Dec. 17 memo that the 17-year-old girl had been raped in her home country, that the rape had resulted in pregnancy, and that she had threatened to harm herself if she was unable to have an abortion. He also wrote that she was 22 weeks pregnant at the time.

″[W]e are being asked to participate in killing a human being in our care,” he wrote. “I cannot direct the program to proceed in this manner. We cannot be a place of refuge while we are at the same time a place of violence. We have to choose, and we ought to choose protect life rather than to destroy it.”

The document was the first to reveal that Lloyd has barred victims of rape from obtaining abortions, as he has done with other teens in government custody, and one of the clearest descriptions yet of how his ideology is shaping the agency’s treatment of pregnant girls. The government previously refused to tell HuffPost whether it was barring rape victims from obtaining abortions.

The teen was ultimately able to have the abortion she sought after a district court blocked the Trump administration’s decision to deny her the procedure.

Lloyd wrote in the memo that he was ”mindful that abortion is offered by some as a solution to a rape,” but did not see it that way and believed it was “perhaps likely” that allowing the teenager to receive an abortion would create “additional trauma on top of the trauma she experiences as a result of her sexual assault.”

″[S]ome would suggest that, by declining to assist in the abortion we are in some way engaging in a form of violence against the mother, as in the notion that ORR is forcing her to carry her pregnancy to term,” he wrote. “I disagree. Implicit here are the dubious notions that it is possible to cure violence with further violence, and that the destruction of an unborn child’s life can in some instances be acceptable as a means to an end.”

“To decline to assist in an abortion here is to decline to participate in violence against an innocent life,” he continued.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of the teen and on behalf of others in similar situations, said the government agency abused its power and acted inappropriately by denying abortion access to an immigrant in a country where the procedure is legal. The additional revelations that the teen was raped, and that the administration’s decision was driven by Lloyd’s personal opposition to abortion, has outraged reproductive rights advocates.

“This story continues to get more unreal,” Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement. “This latest revelation exposes the Trump administration’s extreme anti-abortion ideology: it seeks to force women to continue pregnancies against their will.”

Subscribe to the Politics email.
How will Trump's administration impact you?


Under Lloyd, the Office of Refugee Resettlement has taken the extreme step of requiring the director’s approval for all abortions for immigrant girls in custody; in previous administrations, the ORR required such approval only for use of government funds in cases of rape, incest and threats to life of the mother.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the ORR, declined to comment on the memo or its policy for whether it makes an exception in abortion decisions for girls who are victims of rape or incest or for health reasons.

Rape is a common occurrence for migrants on the way to the U.S., according to multiple reports. Amnesty International estimated in a 2010 report that as many as 60 percent of women and girls are raped on their journey, while an investigation by Fusion (now called Splinter) in 2014 put the percentage at closer to 80 percent.

But it’s not only victims of rape for whom the ACLU is fighting. Other girls have similarly been blocked from leaving shelters to obtain abortions. On multiple occasions, Lloyd or other officials have even personally urged teens to change their decisions about whether to terminate a pregnancy, according to the ACLU.

The Trump administration has argued it isn’t forcing girls to continue unwanted pregnancies, but rather is simply declining to facilitate them. A government attorney said in court that minors could just agree to leave the U.S. for their native countries ― some of which outlaw abortion ― or be released to a sponsor and then obtain the procedure.

Those aren’t reasonable options, the ACLU has argued. Being released to a sponsor isn’t in a minor’s control ― that decision is up to the government, and in some cases can take weeks or months. Agreeing to a voluntary removal, even to a country where the girl could receive an abortion, could mean declining to pursue a legitimate legal case to stay in the U.S., such as asylum or other relief.

Planned Parenthood is calling for Lloyd to step down.

“He is unfit to serve in government,” said Dana Singiser, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood. “Lloyd is imposing his personal beliefs on the young women in his agency’s care ― to control their bodies and violate their constitutional rights. His overreach and abuse of power puts these young women’s lives in danger.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sc ... 30381?ruje
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:15 am

Image


Planned Parenthood unveils 'My Body, My Choice' license plate
http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/plan ... 330c1.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: The War on Women

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 09, 2018 5:00 am

Ted Lieu‏Verified account
@tedlieu
Follow Follow @tedlieu
More
Ted Lieu Retweeted Ryan Grim
There are two significant reasons senior @realDonaldTrump Administration Official Rob Porter resigned:

1. Brave women told their stories
2. The free press reported them

Because apparently the White House knew the truth & was fine employing Porter until the public found out.


Ryan Grim‏Verified account
@ryangrim
Follow Follow @ryangrim
More
Senior White House aide Rob Porter physically assaulted two ex-wives, they tell @theintercept. Full story to come in the morning.
Image
His first wife, Colbie Holderness, provided these photos from a vacation they took together in Florence, Italy:


Image


Shaune Arnold

3h3 hours ago
I know Rob Porter's rage well. Everyone LOVED my father. Harvard law graduate, handsome man, world on a string. Everyone loved him; except his family. He didn't beat his boss. He beat his wife. He didn't beat the guys at the bowling alley. He beat his daughters.




Terry K

3h3 hours ago
We left in our '57 Ford station wagon as well in the middle of the night. Dad was out drinking at the bars. Mom packed us into the car, along with our clothes, and we drove to my aunt's house and stayed for two weeks while she tried to get him out of the house.



Debbie Taft

3h3 hours ago
That happened to me as well. I can still see my sweet baby boy jumping on his back as he was trying to get to the car keys from me when he was too drunk to drive. I left the next day I will never forgive him


port41919

5h5 hours ago
18 yrs.old attempting to keep father from hitting mother father hit me in my mouth and started choking me older brother stepped in to stop it community thought my father was an 'ok' guy took place in 1972 mother refused to leave no self esteem etc.


‏@JennyRa89964244
5h5 hours ago
I left with the clothes on my back with my two babies. In custody court the judge gave HIM custody of my kids because I didn’t have a house and he did. He always controlled EVERYTHING. I had NOTHING.



I finally overcame my childhood abusive conditioning after nearly succumbing to my own abusive spouse who had a 45 at my forehead. Good friends who shielded me and helped me work through all of that abuse made me stronger and I don't take shit from anybody any more!




brownsk

11h11 hours ago
I am 65 & one of those children who stayed up at night trying to break up fights. I watched as my dad punched my mother’s pregnant belly. & when it wasn’t her, it was me and my siblings, with a belt or the buckle. Never knew why, but still damaged.


I remember a night when my mom finally called the cops on my abusive dad. We stood in our pjs, on the street, in the middle of the night while the officer explained that my dad was the "man of the house" and my mom would have to take the kids and leave b/c he wouldn't stop my dad



jan luber

13h13 hours ago

My ex abused me and when I announced in 1966 I was getting a divorce my mother was horrified not because I was abused but because "you will be the first divorce in both sides of the family". That Was Bullshit And I Got A Divorce!!


carlett Rabe
13h13 hours ago

This destroys a person’s ability to speak out about horrific things that happen to them. The man who broke my body and spirit is the same man who ridicules women for “waiting so long to speak up about so-called rape”. Oh, and he was also a bishop. These monsters are the problem.


Whitley Trillbert

4h4 hours ago
My mother, the strongest, most beautiful woman I know, stayed until she earned her law degree. It took 2+years, commuting 4 hours 3-4 days/wk never knowing what storm (or anything else my father might pick up) break over her head.


Karla Davis


@kdfree07

He was driving, I was in the passenger seat, the back of his big hand slammed right into my face. Both eyes instantly swelled and blood gushed out of my nose. I went silent after that.


Nanette JWC‏

Police use to take my husband for a ride, drop him 2 miles away causing him to be more angry when he got home! Enough for me to just shut up the next time... my kids have fortunately blocked out memories of hiding under their beds....



@realdawndue
14h14 hours ago

My ex-husband went to the ER with a boxer's punch fracture. He told them what happened: went to punch my face, I moved, and he hit a stud in the wall. Nobody called police. He came home hours later more angry than when he left. Valentine's Day 1998


ggalocialist

14h14 hours ago

Drunk ex destroyed everything in a room I was renting, threw 40lb weights at mirrors and almost through my windows. Thought he was about to hit me with one of them. Neighbors heard me yelling for help. Cops came. Knew he was hammered. & let him DRIVE away to a friends house.


More

My father beat my mother, sister and I when I was a tike and the the bishop sent her home for more. They asked him to pray with them and to not hurt his wife/kids. He kept beating us until she finally scooped us up and left the state after the ward chastised her for leaving him.



Kate McAleer
15h15 hours ago

When I was a teenager at church my mother landed in the hospital. I was told she fell down the basement stairs. How did she get a severe black eye and battered face instead of breaking her neck? @Lawrence retrieved that memory for me and I'm wiser now (by the way, she stayed)


seemslikeadream » Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:03 pm wrote:not only is Kelly a fucking racist...he is down with wife beaters

Ex-spouses are interviewed during background checks - somebody had to decide to ignore it.


West Wing
“BEYOND DISBELIEF”: JOHN KELLY’S DEFENSE OF ROB PORTER ROILS THE WEST WING
Staff Secretary Rob Porter, who has been accused of abusing his former wives, is Kelly’s right hand—and dating Hope Hicks, one of Trump’s closest confidantes. But Kelly’s declaration that Porter is a man of “true integrity and honor” was seen as deeply tone deaf.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02 ... -west-wing




FORMER WIVES OF TOP WHITE HOUSE AIDE ROB PORTER BOTH TOLD FBI HE ABUSED THEM
Ryan Grim, Alleen Brown
February 7 2018, 12:33 p.m.
AS THE FBI conducted a background check on an incoming senior White House official last year, the bureau learned of the man’s history of domestic abuse. Rob Porter, a top aide to President Donald Trump, physically assaulted both of his previous wives, according to the two women. Porter’s first wife said she was physically abused for years, providing a photograph she took of herself after she said Porter hit her while on vacation in Florence, Italy — a photo she also shared with the FBI.

During the background interviews for Porter’s security clearance related to his senior White House role, FBI agents interviewed the two women. The former wives told the FBI that Porter was abusive during their marriages, according to interviews with the women. For Porter, the FBI interviews marked a collision of his professional ascendancy and his sometimes violent private life.

Colbie Holderness, Porter’s first wife, provided her correspondence with the FBI to The Intercept. (The FBI did not respond to a request for comment, and the agent involved in the exchange declined to speak about the case.) In an interview, she said the pattern of violence in her marriage to Porter began on their honeymoon in the Canary Islands in 2003 and continued from there.

Image
Photo was taken shortly after the alleged incident, in the hotel room in Florence. Photo: Colbie Holderness

“He only punched me once, in the eye,” Holderness said. It was during a vacation in Florence in 2005. She said, “He threw me down on the bed and punched me in the face. I think he was shocked that he had lost control to that extent.”

Porter resigned Wednesday, with an undetermined effective date, amid the allegations.

Porter did not respond to requests for comment from The Intercept made through phone calls and text messages. Nor did White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders provide a comment in response to a query about Holderness’s detailed allegations and photo. In remarks to the British tabloid the Daily Mail, which reported some of the allegations of spousal abuse, Porter denied some of the charges and a raft of White House officials and one U.S. senator spoke to the strength of Porter’s character — all before Holderness detailed her part of the allegations to The Intercept.

Porter has kept a low public profile but is reported to be a powerful figure in the White House, a gatekeeper of the flow of information to Trump. According to Politico and the New York Times, Porter, the White House staff secretary, has been part of a two-man team, alongside Chief of Staff John Kelly, who decides what makes it to Trump’s desk.

In Florence, Holderness took photos of her face and emailed herself copies, which she shared with The Intercept.

Get The Intercept's best investigative journalism emailed to you each week
Sign Up
“Up until then, he had always done it in a way that didn’t leave marks,” Holderness said. “I don’t know if that was conscious or not. He would get angry and throw me down on a soft surface — to his credit, it was always a soft surface like a couch or a bed — and he would lay on top of me shaking me, or rubbing an elbow or a knee into me. He graduated to choking me, not ever hard enough to make me pass out, or frankly to leave marks, but it was frightening and dehumanizing.”

“He threw me down on the bed and punched me in the face.”
“He was always a hair-trigger away.”

Porter’s second wife, Jennifer Willoughby, wrote about her abusive relationship in a blogpost on April 24, 2017, but did not name Porter. After finding the blogpost, The Intercept independently identified Holderness as Porter’s first wife and approached her for an interview.

The blogpost detailed what Willoughby said was Porter’s abuse. “The first time he called me a ‘fucking bitch’ was on our honeymoon,” Willoughby wrote. “A month later he physically prevented me from leaving the house. Less than two months after that, I filed a protective order with the police because he punched in the glass on our front door while I was locked inside.”

On Tuesday, the Daily Mail published an article linking to the blogpost, which Willoughby confirmed to the British tabloid was written about her marriage to Porter. Willoughby and Porter’s marriage ended in 2013.

Before this report detailing Holderness’s account of her marriage, the White House offered broad support for Porter in the Daily Mail article. Porter told the tabloid, “I will not comment about these matters, beyond stating that many of these allegations are slanderous and simply false.”

Kelly praised him to the Daily Mail. “Rob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor and I can’t say enough good things about him,” Kelly said. “He is a friend, a confidante and a trusted professional.”

Sanders, the White House spokesperson, offered equally effusive praise in his defense. “I have worked directly with Rob Porter nearly every day for the last year and the person I know is someone of the highest integrity and exemplary character,” Sanders told the Daily Mail.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, one of Porter’s previous employers, told the Daily Mail that the allegations against Porter came from “character assassins.”

“It’s incredibly discouraging to see such a vile attack on such a decent man,” Hatch said. “Shame on any publication that would print this — and shame on the politically motivated, morally bankrupt character assassins that would attempt to sully a man’s good name.”

Image
Shortly after the attack in Florence, Italy. Colbie Holderness
COLBIE HOLDERNESS, WHOSE maiden name is Paulson, met Porter when she was a freshman at Wellesley College. At the time, Porter was a student at Harvard University, where he served as a leader with the Harvard Republican Club and Harvard Students for Bush, according to Harvard Magazine. Porter had gone on a Mormon mission before returning and meeting Holderness. The relationship made a brief appearance in a 2001 Rolling Stone article about Wellesley, a women’s school.

“Of course, Romantic life depends largely on the individual,” said the Rolling Stone article. “For junior Colbie Paulson, a Mormon and the president of the Wellesley Alliance for Life, a pro-life group, Wellesley’s single-sex environment means taking a step back in time. ‘For me, I find that the fact that our school is single-sex makes it more of a traditional dating experience. The guy comes to my school, he comes to my door, he picks me up, he takes me out, he makes a real effort to get here. So for me, it just reinforces my conservative upbringing.’”

The couple wed two weeks after graduation, following three years of dating. The marriage went bad quickly, she said. On their honeymoon on the Canary Islands, they were standing face to face, arguing, and he kicked her, Holderness said. She was stunned, and also puzzled.

“I don’t know why I remember this so vividly. Many of the physical incidents blend together, but I remember this one so clearly. My mother used to always say about my father that if he ever hit her, she was gone, she was out the door,” said Holderness. “Her saying that flew through my mind when that first happened.” She recalled her reasoning for staying with Porter: “What am I to do? I just married this man. It’s not as if he punched me in the face.”

In her blogpost, Willoughby, the second wife, noted that Porter had kicked his first wife on their honeymoon. Holderness confirmed she had told Willoughby about the incident.

While Porter was at Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, Holderness landed a job with the governor of Idaho, her home state, which she said she taken partly to escape Porter’s abuse and further her own political career. She became friends with Trish Stack, who worked with her in the office in 2004 and 2005 and is now a marketing executive in Boise. Holderness confided in Stack about the abuse, telling her how it began on their honeymoon.

Holderness was eventually accepted to the Kennedy School and moved there with Porter in 2005. Stack said Holderness continued to confide in her. “She was trying to get help, and nobody would help her,” Stack said.

Spencer Paulson, Holderness’s brother, roomed with Porter’s younger brother at Harvard for three years. He was interning on a sheep ranch in Idaho in the summer of 2006, he said, when Holderness abruptly flew out to see him. She told him about the honeymoon and the incident in Florence, and showed him the photos. They discussed filing a police report but decided it wouldn’t do any good. “I encouraged her to separate,” he said, but the pull of the institution of marriage was still strong, and other considerations loomed. “There’s just a very warping effect when you think you can’t say things for career reasons, and that’s very sad, but it’s true.”

“I was too afraid to call the police during the entirety of our marriage.”
Holderness, who now works for the Government Accountability Office in Washington, explained that she ended up not going to the police out of fear. “I was too bewildered by the whole thing,” she told The Intercept. “Plus, I was too afraid to call the police during the entirety of our marriage, thinking they would consider the whole thing ridiculous and wouldn’t take me seriously.” She added, “Believe me, not calling the police is something I regret.”

One summer, when she was interning at a federal agency, she had access to a counselor through her job. “When I explained to him what was happening, he had a very different reaction from the Mormon bishops,” she said. “It was weirdly validating to hear that from somebody else.” Speaking about the counselor, she said, “He was very concerned to hear Rob was choking me.”

The counselor had helped her see the situation more clearly. She said, “Rob was constantly blaming me for every problem in my marriage.”

PORTER BLAMED HIS first wife for his abuse of his second, according to Willoughby. “In the first weeks and months, his explanation for his anger was that his first marriage had been very toxic, rooted in arguments, accusations and manipulation and he was carrying over from that relationship,” she told the Daily Mail. “He would say that he was so used to being treated this way by his ex-wife that he was projecting that on to me. That was the explanation.”

Willoughby and Porter met through the Mormon church in 2009 and married after a romance of less than six months. She said that, within two weeks of their marriage, “it was very clear Rob had a temper that was inappropriate for the trigger.”

Willoughby said the first year of their marriage was the most volatile. During a period of separation that spring, Porter showed up at her apartment and refused to leave. According to a protective order, which the Daily Mail published and Willoughby confirmed to The Intercept was authentic, “I asked him several times to leave with his things, but he did not until I picked up the phone to call our clergy member. While he was gone, I took his clothes and put them in a suitcase on the front porch. When he returned a few minutes later, he punched in the glass on the door. I called the police, afraid he would break in.”

In her blogpost, Willoughby wrote, “When I tried to get help, I was counseled to consider carefully how what I said might affect his career.” She told The Intercept that she had described Porter’s anger issues to a lay official in the Mormon church. She said the official had told her to think carefully about what she said publicly about Porter’s behavior. “Keep in mind, Rob has career ambitions,” she recalled the official saying. (The press office at the Mormon church’s headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, declined to comment for this story.)

Willoughby said the couple’s fights only once resulted in a physical attack against her. “We were yelling in each other’s faces. I disengaged and went to take a shower. Rob was not done fighting. He came to the shower and grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me out of the shower to continue arguing,” she said. “I think he saw the look on my face, and immediately released me and apologized. But it happened and there was no coming back from it.”

After their first year of marriage, Willoughby said, things de-escalated but didn’t dramatically improve. “There was name-calling but also insidious commentary on how thin I was or how he liked a look that I didn’t have. There was arrogance about comments I would make or some knowledge I would have and condescension of how would I know that or someone must have told you that,” Willoughby said. “It was low-grade, constant.”

“Slowly, over that first year, I gave up being myself. I prioritized emotional survival.”
“I was a ghost of a person,” Willoughby said, noting her robust social life before her marriage. ”That was very drastically no longer allowed to be part of my life, because the anger or the stress and argument that I would have to endure wasn’t worth it. Slowly, over that first year, I gave up being myself. I prioritized emotional survival.”

By the end of 2012, the couple had separated again and divorced the following year.

Willoughby said she has no regrets about putting up the blogpost. She works as an educator and writer, speaking on issues of compassion and resilience. With that as her platform, she said, “I wrote the post because I wanted people to see that I had been through this and I did have compassion for a man that I loved who was part of that story, and that I was resilient, and I wasn’t seeing myself as a victim.”

Willoughby said Porter repeatedly asked her to take down the post, but she declined.

“For me, it is more compassionate to bring someone to awareness of weaknesses than to scapegoat or tear someone down because of weaknesses,” Willoughby said. “Rob now has awareness if he didn’t before.”

“I have the utmost respect for him professionally,” Willoughby said. “If there was to be a staff secretary in the Trump administration I hope to God it is Rob. However, being charming, intelligent, charismatic, capable at work, and able to be angry and manipulative and antagonistic at home — they’re not mutually exclusive.”

Update: February 7, 2018
This post has been updated to reflect that Porter announced his resignation Wednesday from the White House, with an undetermined effective date.
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/07/rob ... rump-aide/



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdVq27tVnus

In a 2004 interview with Howard Stern, Donald Trump explains how "deeply troubled" women are "always the best in bed," according to a CNN KFile review.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

PreviousNext

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 26 guests