Domestic Abuse

Christine Blasey Ford Spoke For All Women, And Men, Who Have Been Sexually Abused, And Brett Kavanaugh Proved He Is Unfit For Supreme Court

The testimony of Christine Blasey Ford was gripping and convincing, and she proved to be so genuine that even Republicans avoided attacking her, and Donald Trump stated words of praise for her performance.

At the same time, Republicans and Donald Trump called for moving forward on Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, until two courageous women confronted Arizona Senator Jeff Flake in a Capitol Hill elevator, and convinced him to call for time out, and an FBI investigation to be conducted, which now is moving forward.

Christine Blasey Ford was articulate, and her education and career as a college professor of psychology gave her the ability to overcome her nervousness at speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee. She knows how to speak, how to deliver ideas and points, but even this professor, the author and blogger, as much as he can speak before hundreds of people, wonders if he could do as fine a performance if he had to face a Senate committee.

Imagine if Christine Blasey Ford was NOT a professor, but rather one of millions of ordinary women, not educated, not professional, not having the kind of family and moral support that she had.

Imagine if it had been a poor, minority woman, someone not good at expressing herself, or had been a man of similar lack of education and speaking ability and economic station, who had been abused as boys and men also are, and terrified to speak out, even including those who are gay or lesbian, and suffer sexual abuse every day, and yet remain silent.

Those people, men and women, who dispute CHristine Blasey Ford for waiting so many years, look at the case of Bill Cosby, or look at the cases of the men abused by the Catholic Church over decades, or look at the women abused by their mother’s boyfriends or their stepfathers, which happens so often after failed marriages.

Those men and women who have no heart, no concern, and always back white male privilege, and powerful male privilege, reveal themselves for what they are: despicable, disgraceful human beings who have no compassion, no empathy, no concern for anyone unless they are wealthy, white males, and whose wives who go along with them, reveal they have no minds of their own, and are “Stepford Wives”, who do not realize they are being manipulated by their dominant husbands who most likely are cheating on them. There is so much domestic abuse that never is reported, or is overlooked historically by legal authorities, when it is reported by courageous victims.

Brett Kavanaugh proved in his tirade against Democrats and Senators on the Judiciary Committee, that he is unfit for a lifetime position on the Supreme Court, and that he is too partisan and too supportive of Donald Trump, to be an objective, open minded member of the high Court, His drinking problem is a severe one, and he is too cocky, and self serving, much like Donald Trump, to have so much power and authority over Constitutional law for the next thirty to forty years. His performance was a disgrace, that should open the eyes of the eight members of the Court for lack of dignity and decency, and the American Bar Association and other groups which had endorsed him, have withdrawn their support.

It is time for decent Republicans, including Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Bob Corker, and Ben Sasse to show they have guts and principle, and reject this nomination!

31 GOP Senators Vote Against Reauthorization Of Violence Against Women Act: Absolutely Amazing!

The US Senate yesterday voted overwhelmingly for reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, originally passed in 1994, during the Bill Clinton Presidency.

The vote was 68-31, with the opposition all being Republicans!

Those who voted against the legislation included such disgraces as:

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
Jim DeMint of South Carolina
Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
Charles Grassley of Iowa
John Cornyn of Texas
Roy Blunt of Missouri
Orrin Hatch of Utah
James Inhofe of Oklahoma
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin
Jon Kyl of Arizona
Mike Lee of Utah
Richard Lugar of Indiana
Rand Paul of Kentucky
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
Marco Rubio of Florida
Jeff Sessions Of Alabama
Richard Shelby of Alabama
John Thune of South Dakota
Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania

These and the others not mentioned are either right wing ideologues, Southerners (heavily), or gutless wonders who refuse to show courage (Hatch and Lugar)!

Those Republicans who voted for the legislation include all five women Senators: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Susan Collins of Maine, Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, plus the following and a few others:

Scott Brown of Massachusetts
Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
Bob Corker of Tennessee
Daniel Coats of Indiana
Dean Heller of Nevada
John McCain of Arizona
David Vitter of Louisiana
Rob Portman of Ohio

Some of these voted YES because of upcoming election races, and others because they have a sense of decency on the issue of violence against women.

The opposition rose to the fact that the law would be extended to cover illegal immigrants who are victims of violence and domestic abuse, as well as LGBT victims, and those on Indian reservations who are non Indian being forced to be judged by tribal justice on the reservations.

The Republican majority in the House of Representatives will strip the bill of the new changes, and it will be a massive battle to get the legislation renewed without these modifications.

Its effect, whatever ultimately happens, will make the GOP reassert itself as engaged in a war on women!