I read a headline yesterday which said, “Trump tells woman to sit down”
Trump tells woman to sit down.
As always, the quote was taken out of context (not that one should be required) but the headline summed up the shocking new world we live in. Once such a headline would have drawn a response along the lines of “and?”
Now- the newspapers believe that those words say all that needs to be said. A man (and a white man too) told a woman to sit down.
Disgusting.
What a low life pig.
Scumbag.
Rape apologist.
Hater of females.
The Brett Kavanaugh debacle has not revealed anything we didn’t already know about the current status of men and women, but it has underlined in a very stark way, the frightening reality of the hatred of men we see in our most powerful institutions.
I am an Australian but I have followed the American political scene with a zeal only matched by my passion for the Collingwood Football Club. This new-found passion coincided with Trump announcing he would run for the presidency of the United States.
At first I found Trump amusing – but not in the CNN way where people laugh at him. From the beginning I found his self- awareness and comic timing hilarious. He is a funny man. I know AVFM has no time for politics but I cannot write this without treading on toes. I began to be drawn to this man for far deeper reasons. He didn’t back down when the rabid, feminist left attacked his every word. He spoke about women with a casual freedom which reminded me of days when anyone with a vagina was not considered to be an elevated, superior species, incapable of displaying any of the countless vices afflicting men.
He was rude to men and just as rude to women. Unlike many Republicans, he didn’t grovel or seek forgiveness from the people who despise and hate them. He stood by his words.
This was incredibly uplifting. He was the first man in the political world I had ever seen behave in this way. He made it clear then that he likes men and still does today.
His predecessor hated men. He grabbed any opportunity to denigrate, mock and dismiss them. He blatantly lied about the pay gap and he lied about sexual assault. He endeavored to widen the divide between the genders and feed the seemingly insatiable desire for victimhood so many women seem to crave with yet more fodder. He attacked fathers on a day set aside for families to express their love and appreciation for their dad. Many women lapped it up just as he knew they would. He threw men under the bus time and time again and no one – not one journalist with any clout called him out for this disgusting behavior.
During the press conference where Trump told the arrogant, rude, female journalist to sit down, he explained why he had sympathy for Judge Cavanaugh. In response to the female journalist’s question about his personal experience of being accused of sexual abuse, Trump spoke of the numerous occasions when the media quoted women’s unsubstantiated lies.
There were times when they literally made up quotes and attributed them to women who actually respect and admire Trump. When these women called out the lies there were never any retractions or apologies. Of course, these experiences made him sympathetic to Kavanaugh and reminded us all that some women lie for money and some for revenge and fame. He didn’t hesitate to make this point and when the woman continued to aggressively question him (after his lengthy response) he told her to sit down, just as he has done to countless male journalists.
Trump’s son spoke out about his fears for his own sons in this world where people who are accused of sexual assault are presumed guilty before a shred of evidence has been presented to corroborate the charge. He too was attacked for stating the bleeding obvious. Whoopi Goldberg screeched that only a man who thought his sons were likely to rape and abuse women would be concerned about them.
Goldberg entirely ignores the countless lessons history has taught us with regard to false accusations and the fact that the most exemplary men can be caught up in this hideous web and have their lives and sometimes their bodies torn apart on the basis of nothing but allegations, often proven to be false, but too often only after the damage has been done. How many black men were lynched because a white woman claimed he touched her or even looked at her with lust in his eyes?
There was a time when liberals would have viewed Atticus Finch as a hero and everything a young boy should aspire to be. If Atticus was not a revered fictional character but a real man of history, the left today would call him a victim blamer and a rape apologist.
Jeffrey Toobin is a regular on CNN. He is a lawyer. I watched in disbelief as this scumbag spoke with utter contempt about the notion that white men should be fearful of any injustice.
These words were in response to Don junior voicing his concern for his sons and the future they may have to face-a most reasonable and justifiable concern. But this creep reduced millions of individual white men to an amorphous tribe who are privileged and powerful. A group that never suffers hardship or injustice. A protected, pampered species.
As I sat there I offered up a prayer that this contemptible man would be confronted with false allegations from his own past and enjoy just a taste of the hell Brett Kavanaugh and many other men have endured. This is simply a wish for justice. This disgusting man made a mockery of the notion of innocent till proven guilty, and all that a person of his standing should hold sacred. He pretends that the whiteness of men’s skin protects them from any possibility of suffering at the hands of a false accuser when he knows without a shadow of a doubt that many men- many of them white men, have suffered that hideous fate. I believe all of the Duke Lacrosse team with one exception were white. Did that protect them from the lynch mobs who demanded their incarceration and would literally have lynched them had they been given the opportunity to do so?
Did their whiteness protect them from the endless character assassinations in the media? Does the whiteness of a man’s skin prevent the courts from ripping his flesh and blood from his life? Does the whiteness of a man’s skin make the biting chill of a winter wind any less painful as he huddles under a newspaper in a cold, concrete back alley?
And then we come to the supporters of Kavanaugh. Most of them trot out the same groveling words.
“I have no doubt Ms. Ford has suffered some trauma in her past and she is as much a victim as Judge Kavanaugh.”
Cowards. Sickening, spineless cowards. Hearing that woman’s testimony and calling her credible is simply insane. Only a partisan hack could say it and really mean it. These men know Kavanaugh is the victim of a political smear campaign of the most vile and disgusting nature but they are still terrified of being seen to impugn a woman’s word. So, they stumble and stammer and declare their belief in Kavanaugh while at the same time calling his accuser brave, credible and a victim. With friends like that who needs fucking enemies?
So we come back to Mr. Trump.
This week at a Mississippi campaign rally he questioned the veracity of Ford’s claims and simply quoted her very own words to the large crowd. After doing so he was savaged by the media for “mocking a sexual abuse survivor.” This confused me. If using the very words of a person’s testimony is considered mockery, what does it say about that person’s credibility?
Trump’s empathy for men has led to concrete action.
Trump acted to change the disgraceful Obama administration’s new approach to the way colleges and universities respond to allegations of sexual misconduct where it was decided that:
a “preponderance of evidence” is enough to establish that misconduct occurred, a less rigorous evidentiary standard than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” that applies in most criminal cases.
This disgraceful change in the way in which an allegation of sexual assault was investigated led to the ruin of many young men’s careers and reputations.
When Trump’s changes were implemented Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said:
“This interim guidance will help schools as they work to combat sexual misconduct and will treat all students fairly,” said DeVos. “Schools must continue to confront these horrific crimes and behaviors head-on. There will be no more sweeping them under the rug. But the process also must be fair and impartial, giving everyone more confidence in its outcomes.”
Trump Administration Rescinds Obama-Era Campus Sexual Assault Guidance
If this was all Trump’s administration did for young men during his presidency, it is already more than almost any president who has served before him.
Trump goes where no other man in his position dares to go.
I was once a wide- eyed lefty many moons ago. I am not trying to sway anyone or win political plaudits. I am simply acknowledging the one man with a powerful, public platform who gives a shit about men.
I recently ordered a Tshirt with an image of Abraham Lincoln wearing a Trump cap. I am reasonably brave, but not stupid. I wear it under my jacket or hoodie because flaunting it openly could cause me to come to physical harm even Down Under. That’s how far Trump derangement syndrome has spread its filthy tentacles. But knowing I have it under my hoodie gives me enormous satisfaction. It’s my secret, FUCK YOU, to all of the rabid, violent, feminist, man- hating humans on the planet.
Besides all that, he makes me laugh.
