Little, racist Bill was scared and, once again, it was time to sacrifice women.
2004. The Democrats were running against Bully Boy Bush. And no female politician was scheduled to be a "principal speaker" (meaning during prime time) at the DNC convention. There were two reasons for that. The first was concern that John Kerry, the nominee, might be outshone since personality wasn't a big feature for him. The second was that recurring flame out of 'we don't want to be the party of girls.' Periodically, the party frets that they're seen as indebted to women -- you know, the group that gives them enough votes to win the White House.
The way to win, they just knew, was to go 'macho' -- or what passes for manly among the neutered DLC (now New Democrats and still just as disgusting) -- and shove women to the side.
They just knew this was a winning strategy -- apparently, running mate John Edwards was supposed to appeal to the women like Republicans had previously insisted Dan Quayle would win women voters on the 'cute' factor.
This no-woman stance was rather odd since the party had used Senator Hillary Clinton as a major fundraiser around the country for the last few years. The rank sexism in the decision didn't bother the likes of Bill Maher but it did bother many men and women and became a problem for John Kerry's campaign -- a big problem -- so two days after announcing their scheduled speakers, Hillary Clinton was added to the list -- to the list of "principal speakers."
In the months that followed the 2004 loss, the loss was frequently blamed on women -- the party was too 'soft' on them, giving in to their demands. This led to the push to move the party away from abortion rights. All the nutless boys came out to praise such a move -- including the thankfully no-longer blogging Chris D. Andersen -- because what helps the impotent finally get a hard on more than bashing women.
And we're back to that again.
'Women don't matter. Women shut up. Women stop whining. Women your response do not matter.'
Man. Man. Man. Man. Man.
That's all it about for the Bill Mahers.
Women shut up.
And he can get away with that, can't he? At HBO, he can get away with that. It's biggest series 'for' women was a show created by a gay man that every critic in the world -- even THE SIMPSONS -- felt portrayed four women as four gay men. For years, Bill has been the network's only funny person. And then they added John Oliver. What woman have they added? None. Just comedians Bill and John.
With his announced guests for next week, so far this year Bill will have had 60 guests -- only 18 of which are women. For those who are math challenged, that's 30%. In 2019, it's acceptable to have 30% of your guests be women -- if you're a host on HBO -- a network, again, which has no talk show hosted by a woman.
For those who missed it, last weekend, Lucy Flores shared her discomfort when, campaigning for Lt Governor of Nevada, she encountered 'supporter' Joe Biden -- whom Ruth has dubbed "Boundary-free Biden." That should have been enough to have a serious conversation about boundaries.
But Joe Biden and his friends couldn't be mature. So Joe got Stephanie Carter to write a column insisting she was never grossed out by his public mauling of her while her husband Ash Carter was sworn in as Secretary of Defense.
'Joe lost his wife to cancer!'
To which we respond, "In 1972!" He's been married to the beautiful Jill Biden since 1977. That's forty-two years of marriage. Few can make that claim.
In the accident that claimed his first wife, he also lost a daughter. He and Jill later had a daughter.
Life is full of losses -- especially when, like Joe Biden, you've lived 76 years (he'll be 77 in November).
Michael Jackson lost his childhood, remember? Some -- Barbra Streisand among them -- seem to see child molestation on Jackson's part as a natural response to such a loss. Similarly nutty, some see Joe's loss of his first wife and a daughter over 47 years ago as an excuse for him to press his nose against a woman's nose, as an excuse for him to run his hand up down a woman's back, for him to grab their sides, their chests, you name it.
Instead of addressing the issue, some chose to slam the women.
Women.
Plural.
It is no longer just Lucy Flores, it is also Amy Lappos, Caitlyn Caruso, DJ Hill, Vail Kohnert-Yount, Sofie Karasek and Ally Coll.
It's time for a conversation.
Naturally, a variety of pigs are trying to stop that conversation.
Unwanted sexual advances is a needed subject of national conversation. I submit you can’t punish both murder & jaywalking with a death sentence. Joe Biden has addressed the issue of personal space discomfort. Time to move on & focus on #1 priority. 86 The Liar!
Rob Reiner? Seriously? He's rude to actresses -- including Diane Keaton on the set of AND SO IT GOES -- and with the exception of Nora Ephron's script for WHEN HARRY MET SALLY . . ., he's never shown much interest in them unless he can demonize them (MISERY).
Which makes him so good for the so-called 'resistance.' They're a group of do-nothings who pretend to care about women when it benefits them. Any other time? They're the ones attacking women. So many of the 'brave' 'resistance' members -- look at Keith Olbermann -- were, in 2008, using non-stop sexism to try to tank Hillary Clinton's run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Keith said someone needed to take her behind the barn, for example, and take care of her. Keith Olbermann declared Katie Couric the "worst person of the week" for daring to note the sexist attacks on Hillary. We've never trusted the 'resistance' because they are at heart anti-woman -- that's true of the male figure heads in the so called 'movement' and true of the men.
In the real world, this is a real issue. Not in your little bubble of 'anything to defeat Trump!' -- your paranoid little world that's especially shaky these days after you've spent over two years invested in a lie that Donald Trump colluded with Russia and stole the election.
In the real world, we need this conversation. Joe Biden is invading people's space and making them uncomfortable and he thinks he can get away with it because he thinks a lot of Bully Men and Lacky Women will go along with him -- anything to defeat Trump, they cry!
Their paranoia is indication of a highly fantasy life -- drug induced? We have no idea. But we do know that Joe is not a sure thing. It is 2019. One year away from the election. This time in 2007? Hillary Clinton was the front runner. How did that work out?
Joe has name recognition. That's the only reason he's polling highly. He is a very poor campaigner, he has a very poor record (he is not the protector of women -- he's the death toll of abortion rights, he betrayed Anita Hill and women on the issue of harassment in the work place, etc) and he's done nothing since leaving the vice presidency to justify a run four years later. Mainly, though, he's Walter Mondale showing up four years after the Democrats lost an election to insist that he can win.
Based on what?
The 'resistance' is in a panic and screaming that the media is treating this like 'e-mails!' (referring to Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal). This is a story, this is news and the 'resistance' only knows how to belittle it.
So are we going to have two years of the Democratic Party's cry baby section trying to carry an unfit candidate to victory or is the Democratic Party going to get serious about winning?
Lat Wednesday, Joe made news for a video he released. It was after efforts on his part to kill the news cycle by getting various women (Stephanie Carter was the first) to step forward and insist that they were not offended that Joe pawed them in public.
And in fairness to Stephanie and other women who came forward, some women do love public humiliation, they get off on it. So do some men. It's why they go to S&M dungeons or to sex clubs with their masters pulling their leashes.
And, if that's your kink, honey, go for it.
Just don't tell the lie that we all want to be humiliated in public, because we don't all want that.
And we don't all get off on being treated like inferiors.
We have every right to expect that when we meet with a politician, they will not run their hands over our bodies. The political game has always been shake hands with adults and kiss babies. Not sniff the hair of women as you wrap yourself around them from behind.
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE chose to parody Cobra Joe in their opening skit with Kate McKinnon playing an expert brought in to teach Joe (Jason Sudeikis) how to interact appropriately with women. While that skit worked, WEEKEND UPDATE really didn't. By Saturday, seven women had come forward and yet, according to WEEKEND UPDATE, it was only four.
Three women got disappeared?
That's not the rule of three we know of when it comes to comedy.
And the rule of an apology? When you make a mistake, you say so and you say that you are sorry.
But even with women coming forward last week, Joe Biden could not do that, refused to do it. He made his Wednesday video that did not address the issue or include an apology. Then, on Friday, he gave a speech to a group described as mostly male and, in that speech, made a joke out of touching a man present and a boy present. It belittled the seven women who had come forward and anyone who's ever been uncomfortable with or harmed by that sort of paternalistic and sexist behavior.
Harmed by? 'The women aren't saying it was harassment!'
Emily Peck (HUFFINGTON POST) spoke with Liz Stapp ("a business ethics professor at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado") about the issue:
Former Nevada state Assemblywoman Lucy Flores has described being in a crowded room preparing for Biden to introduce her at a political rally. He came up behind her, sniffed her hair and kissed the back of her head, Flores says. He didn’t ask if he could touch her. They didn’t know each other very well.
“He stopped treating me like a peer the moment he touched me. Even if his behavior wasn’t violent or sexual, it was demeaning and disrespectful,” Flores wrote in New York magazine last week. “I wasn’t attending the rally as his mentee or even his friend; I was there as the most qualified person for the job.”
The context was egregious, Stapp said.
“A woman can hardly be seen as strong, powerful and intelligent minutes after ‘Papa Joe’ rubs noses with her or kisses her on the top of her head like an infant,” Stapp said. Such treatment is damaging to her credibility as a leader. And women already struggle with this, particularly in politics, Stapp noted.
It needs to stop. A number of people rushed to rally behind Joe before the Wednesday video. Then they rushed to insist that it was all settled. What kind of a statement is that? More to the point, his mocking the situation on Friday undermined everything else.
It is an issue, it is a very real issue and thank goodness, on Bill Maher's crappy show, Julian Castro was present to note that it was "bulls**t that people say they can get away with it by just laughing it off" and that "women have been told to just be quiet about stuff like this" over and over again. Julian Castro is one of the declared candidates running for the presidential nomination. He, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobucher were among the ones making sense last week. Joe Biden? As has so often been the case in the political career of Joe, he made no sense at all. No what else doesn't make sense? Trying to turn time back and trying to set women back. Fortunately, it's not 2004.