Politics – Page 5

Mika Brzezinski wants to know if it’s cool to attack accusers we don’t like.

Yesterday, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken announced his pending resignation after a seventh woman has come forward to accuse him of sexual harassment and dozens of Senate Democrats have called on him to step down. This morning, on Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski stood up for Franken by identifying his first accuser, Leeann Tweeden, as a Playboy model and a Republican, and asking if maybe “I believe women” doesn’t have to apply to all women. Y’know, like women who are accusing a man you like.

Quick Hit: TIME’s 2017 Person of the Year is women who speak out

TIME magazine has announced their Person of the Year, and it’s actually People: the silence breakers who have come forward about the sexual harassment and assault they’ve experienced — as TIME calls them, “the voices that launched a movement.”

The lighter side of sexual harassment

The women of Saturday Night Live bring us a scathing bubblegum pop anthem letting those men bewildered by the recent sexual harassment allegations know that WOMEN LIVE IN A HELL OF MEN WHO CAN’T KEEP THEIR HANDS OR THEIR LIBIDOS TO THEMSELVES, AND NOW YOU’RE INVITED.

What men need to know about discussing sexual harassment

I was talking with a group of guy friends recently, the sole woman amid a collection of dudes as they stream-of-consciousness workshopped their way to understanding the ongoing storm of sexual harassment accusations. It’s not a pleasant position to be in — I was glad to be able to help them understand things, but thinking about that stuff at that level and having to articulate it that way was exhausting and also made me want to go home and take, like, twelve showers. But they and others have asked what they need to know and what insights they need to have when discussing sexual harassment with women. So here’s some.

Quick Hit: Trump fails to not be racist as he “honors” Native American code talkers

On Monday, Donald Trump once again gave it the ol’ college try to not be racist at a special event. He failed, because he is constitutionally unable to not be a racist asshole any time he stands in front of people without a script. This time, it was an event to honor World War II Native American code talkers, which wouldn’t be complete if he didn’t invoke the name of Pocahontas as a slur.

Why Women Don’t Come Forward

Supporters desperate to defend Roy Moore against accusations of child molestation and predation — and justify their decision to vote for him despite said accusations — love to try to discredit his accusers by asking why they didn’t come forward 40 years ago, when the offenses allegedly occurred. Well, why didn’t they? For the same reasons thousands of women suffer their victimization in silence.

5 Super-Fun Ways to Handwave Child Sexual Assault

[Trigger warning for child sexual assault]

If you’ve been looking for tips on how to pretend child sexual assault is okay, don’t miss the current parade of excuses against accusations that Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore molested a teenager when he was in his 30s.

I am not my reproductive organs.

I don’t want to have kids. I don’t need or want to be defined by a biological process and a couple of organs that I don’t even need. Reproductive organs don’t define womanhood, and I am not my ladyregion, and conflating them doesn’t do anyone any good.

Yes, Trump attacks white guys. That doesn’t mean he isn’t a bigot.

Anyone who ever predicted that we’d have a president who was celebrated for being an equal-opportunity asshole, stop lying, because there’s no way you predicted anything that specific. But that’s what we’ve got. Our president, who’s a fighter! and who’s going to hit back! and the people knew what they were getting into when they voted for him! might be a complete and utter dickhole, but he’s not a bigoted dickhole because he’s a dickhole to everyone.

Birth control pills are for healthcare. And other stuff.

Passage of the Affordable Care Act provided a major benefit to women of reproductive age: Employers with religious or moral objections to birth control weren’t allowed to exclude those benefits from health plans just because they thought birth control was wrong. When Trump rolled back that mandate — effective immediately — he removed that protection, meaning that women whose prescriptions had been covered could now have to pay out of pocket for medication crucial to their lives. And it can be crucial — hormonal birth control is essential to treatment of conditions like endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, fibroids, and debilitating periods.

It’s also good for other stuff.