Tag: women
Why Trump's War Against Women Doesn't Really Disturb Bill Maher

Why Trump's War Against Women Doesn't Really Disturb Bill Maher

Last week, HBO comedian Bill Maher waxed effusive about Trump’s graciousness and charm at a White House dinner the president hosted for him, Kid Rock, and UFC head Dana White. On his Real Time show, Maher said: “You can hate me for it, but I’m not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured. And why isn’t that in other settings? I don’t know, and I can’t answer, and it’s not my place to answer. I’m just telling you what I saw, and I wasn’t high.”

I’m usually a Bill fan. I was on his show once, and I like that he brings together opposing views but also pushes back on lies and bullshit –unlike Joe Rogan, for example. Communicating with people whose politics differ from ours is good for a healthy democracy: D.C. dinner society once included people from most of the political spectrum – I wrote a book about it.

That Washington waned and then disappeared roughly around the time Newt Gingrich rolled into town on the coattails of the long game the right had been playing to foment public distrust and loathing toward the entire government. Now, while one side still plays by the old rules, the other mounts a fascist insurrection and hangs “Fuck Biden” flags on the lawn for school children to see.

But all the vileness Trump and the MAGA cult have unleashed in American political discourse pales compared with the damage done to women. The dreadful things happening to American women and girls in the abortion ban states are some of the most dramatic stories in the country today. Women are getting sepsis and losing their reproductive organs. Some are dying.

Every one of those individual horrors was caused by one man: The leader of the greatest misogynistic backlash in modern U.S. history is Donald Trump – yes, that gracious dinner companion.

This is the man who crafted a Supreme Court that has set women’s health back into the Stone Age. This convicted sexual abuser and famous public denigrator of females packs his cabinet with accused predators and sex pests. Accused rapist Russell Brand recently posed with White House officials Peter Navarro and RFK Jr. at some tropical hideaway. The Trump regime just invited into America – and granted safe haven, literally – to the rape-accused domestic abuse propagandists that are the Tate brothers.

More than any single man or woman in my lifetime, Trump ushered in the ongoing and vicious legal and cultural assault on women and girls. Banning abortion was only the beginning. The fanatic MAGA misogynists who engineered this situation want the Jezebels to suffer more. A lot more.

States are passing “fetal personhood” laws giving embryos more rights than the women carrying them and enabling hundreds of arrests already. States are considering and passing laws to make abortion data public. Many are considering and some are passing laws to imprison women and doctors over abortion. A few are even trying to institute the death penalty.

Feminist journalist Jessica Valenti publishes a phenomenal compendium of the maniacal proposals and new woman-hating laws, Abortion, Everyday. I consult it for my daily dose of rage. Here you will learn, for example, that state legislators in Texas want to start testing the water for birth control hormones because they might be harmful. These are the same legislators, of course, who seem to be opposed to federal clean water regulations).

Remember, this is not just a legal assault, it is cultural: Peter Thiel’s conservative women’s magazine Evie routinely spews nonsense about the dangers of hormonal birth control. Anti-abortion propaganda (in the form of a movie called “Baby Olivia” produced by anti-abortion fanatics) is now mandatory in North Dakota, Tennessee, and Idahoschools and is being considered in Florida, Kentucky, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

And the Trump administration recently yanked NIH funding for the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" recipient behind a major longitudinal study that examined the effects of unwanted pregnancy on women’s lives. The research found that abortion does not harm women’s health and well-being, in contrast to points made by anti-choice fanatics, but being denied an abortion results in worse financial, health, and family outcomes for women.

We are living through a time of truly crazy cultural assault on women’s agency rights, in addition to the violations of our bodily autonomy. Trump’s first election made misogyny cool again. His second regime is cementing that success into law and culture. Ideas that once festered in the incel basement chatrooms are now common currency in the mainstream. Maybe divorce is too easy for women. Maybe women shouldn’t vote (since they overwhelmingly do not prefer Trump).

The House recently passed a law that potentially disenfranchises 80 percent of married women by requiring voter IDs to have birth names, not married names. And states have been considering laws to repeal no-fault divorce, which has repeatedly been shown to reduce domestic violence.

Bill Maher was charmed by Trump, a disgusting oaf and abuser, who spent a full decade pal-ing around with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein per Michael Wolff’s tapes, competing for sexual access to pretty women before falling out, not over Epstein’s predations, as the deluded QAnon cult believes, but a real estate deal.

There’s a good reason why Maher is charm-able. Predations against women don’t trouble him too much. Like many left-ish cads, he’s not too bothered by “the woman stuff.” In fact, as Sophie Gilbert writes in her essay on women and porn in The Atlantic today, liberal - libertine - men in entertainment always promoted the hard-core sexualization of women and girls that preceded this Trumpy-Tate bro era.

Last week I heard Clara Bingham read from her best-selling new oral history, The Movement, on women behind the so-called “second wave” of the fight for women’s equality in America between 1963 and 1973. The changes those women were able to effect are nothing short of epochal. In 1963, American women couldn’t open bank accounts or get credit cards without men, couldn't serve on juries, and were generally limited to work in nursing, teaching, or, until the wizened age of 32 or earlier if pregnant or married, flight attendants. Women earned 59 cents for every dollar men earned. Contraception was hard to get, limited to married women and secret terrifying back alley abortions were the norm.

The women in that generation who fought for equality were subject to endless public ridicule - from men on the left and the right. But, by 1973, everything had changed. The lives of those women’s daughters and granddaughters are unrecognizable. Their achievement was epochal, making women and girls first-class citizens for the first time in history.

That didn’t sit well with many men, who spent the following decades relentlessly denigrating these heroines and downplaying their success. Men like Bill Maher -- nominally left-center but well-known habitué of strip clubs and serial dater of young women -- belong to the great cohort of American men who, while not MAGA, are simply not as horrified as they should be by what Trump has inflicted on half the American population.

Reprinted with permission from COURIER's American Freakshow.

'Grab 'Em' Trump Fills His Cabinet With Alleged Sex Abusers

'Grab 'Em' Trump Fills His Cabinet With Alleged Sex Abusers

President-elect Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by 26 women, has appointed at least three men to his cabinet who have also been accused of sex crimes.

Trump’s 2016 electoral victory is often cited as an inciting event for the MeToo movement, a social phenomenon that resulted in the ousting of abusive men, particularly sexual predators, from positions of power and influence. For some, Trump’s return to power and his embrace of alleged sex offenders is seen as a repudiation of that cause.

On November 12, Trump chose Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense. Hegseth is a decorated veteran, but otherwise has no experience in foreign policy or national security.

Hegseth was investigated for sexual assault by the Monterey Police Department in California in 2017. A Republican operative claimed Hegseth raped her following an event at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa. Hegseth’s accuser went to a hospital following the alleged incident and was tested with a rape kit that detected the presence of semen.

Hegseth does not deny having a sexual encounter with his accuser, but maintains that it was consensual. Hegseth entered a settlement agreement with his accuser in February 2020, in which she was paid an undisclosed sum to not go public with the allegations.

No criminal charges were ever filed against Hegseth.

Trump nominated Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General on November 13. Gaetz attended law school and had a brief stint as a lawyer, but, like Hegseth, has minimal relevant experience for the top law enforcement job.

The Department of Justice investigated in 2021 whether Gaetz was involved in the sex trafficking of a 17 year old girl. Despite evidence that Gaetz had sex with the victim, the trafficking investigation was dropped in 2023.

The House Ethics Committee launched its own investigation into Gaetz in 2021. The inquiry was supported by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, some of whom claimed Gaetz had personally boasted to them about engaging in deviant sexual behavior.

In October 2023, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin claimed Gaetz had shown fellow legislators photos and videos of women he had slept with and would “brag about how he would crush ED (erectile dysfunction) medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night.”

The ethics committee was preparing to publish the findings of its investigation when Trump nominated Gaetz to be Attorney General. Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress the same day. Under House rules, the report is not required to be released if Gaetz is not serving in Congress.

Politicoreported on November 18 that a woman testified to the ethics committee that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with an underage girl. Other witnesses said Gaetz attended several sex parties in 2017 and 2018 where illegal drugs were used.

Gaetz denies these allegations.

Senators from both parties have called for the Ethics Committee’s findings to be made public, but House Speaker Mike Johnson has signaled he will prevent that from happening.

Trump nominated lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services on Nov. 14. Kennedy initially ran for president in 2024 as a Democrat before switching to become an independent. He suspended his campaign in August and endorsed Trump.

In July, Vanity Fair reported that Kennedy had allegedly groped his children’s babysitter in 1998. Kennedy denied the allegations, but also sent a text message to his accuser apologizing for any behavior he engaged in that made her feel uncomfortable.

At the time of the alleged incident, Kennedy reportedly kept a “sex diary” in which he detailed extramarital affairs with 37 different women. In excerpts published by the New York Post, Kennedy wrote that he was a slave to “wild impulses” and “powerful demons.” It has been suggested that Kennedy’s serial philandering contributed to the suicide of his ex-wife Mary Richardson in 2012.

Kennedy is currently married to actress Cheryl Hines. In September, a political reporter for New York magazine said she had an emotional affair with Kennedy while he was campaigning for president. Kennedy denies this allegation as well.

Trump is reportedly considering appointing business executive and Republican donor Charles Herbster to be his Secretary of Agriculture. Hebster ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for Governor of Nebraska in 2014 and 2022.

During his 2022 campaign, nine women accused Hebster of forcibly groping and kissing them. Hebster claims all of his accusers are lying.

Hegseth, Gaetz, Kennedy, and, if nominated, Hebster, would all need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate in order to serve in Trump’s cabinet. Trump has pressured the Senate to let him do recess appointments, which would allow him to install cabinet officials without senate approval.

On May 9, a New York jury ruled that Trump had sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the dressing room of a Bloomingdale’s department store in 1996. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages. That amount increased when a separate jury ruled that Trump had defamed Carroll by accusing her of lying about the incident.

Several of Trump’s advisers have also been accused of sexual assault or misconduct.

Corey Lewandowski was an adviser on Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaigns. In 2017, a woman filed a police report alleging that Lewandowski slapped her buttocks at a holiday party.

Billionaire Elon Musk was an informal adviser on Trump’s 2024 campaign and has reportedly played a role in staffing Trump’s cabinet. In June, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had sexual relationships with several of his employees, engaged in sexual harassment, and once exposed himself to a flight attendant.

Musk denies these allegations.

Reprinted with permission from American Journal News.

Donald Trump

Trump's Win Is A Presidential 'First' In So Many Embarrassing Ways

If Vice President Kamala Harris had won the 2024 election, inauguration day in 2025 would have seen several landmark firsts in American history: the first woman, the first Black woman, and the first Asian woman—sworn in as president.

Instead, Donald Trump won, and he will be the “first” in far more embarrassing ways.

Trump will be the first president in American history who will be sworn in after having been impeached. Twice. Trump was impeached for his plot to use the powers of the presidency to pressure Ukraine into smearing President Joe Biden. Later, Trump was impeached for his role in whipping up his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump will also be the first inaugurated U.S. president with two federal indictments under his belt. He has been indicted for attempting to interfere in the electoral process in the 2020 election following his defeat against Biden. Trump was also indicted for improperly taking classified documents and keeping them at his Mar-a-Lago estate, notably in the bathroom next to the toilet.

At a more local level, Trump’s conviction in New York on 34 felony counts will go with him into the Oval Office. Trump made history when he was convicted by a jury of his peers for trying to influence the outcome of the 2016 election via hush payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

That presidential first will be paired with Trump’s upcoming sentencing for those convictions—the kind of thing even former President Richard Nixon did not have to contend with.

Trump will also be the first president to be found liable for sexual abuse. In 2023, a New York jury awarded writer E. Jean Carroll $5 million for Trump abusing her in 1996. The jury also found that Trump had defamed Carroll in repeated public statements personally attacking her and her allegations.

There has never been a president sworn in with racketeering charges hanging over their head, but Trump has broken through that barrier. He is currently facing charges in Georgia related to his schemes to subvert the 2020 election in that state. The Georgia prosecutor who brought the case against Trump, Fani Willis, was reelected on Tuesday night.

These blots on Trump’s record were known for months and in spite of them—perhaps even because of them—Republicans chose him as their nominee and never backpedaled even as more details of his actions became public.

Now he and the party are breaking new ground ahead of his second inauguration, but it is a far cry from breaking the glass ceiling.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Republicans Enraged Their Wives Might 'Secretly' Vote For Harris

Republicans Enraged Their Wives Might 'Secretly' Vote For Harris

Right-wing Republicans are up in arms over a new campaign ad that reminds women their vote is private and they do not need to vote for former President Donald Trump just because their husbands want them to.

"In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want, and no one will ever know," actress Julia Roberts narrates in the ad. "Remember, what happens in the booth, stays in the booth. Vote Harris-Walz."

Pastor Doug Pagitt, the executive director of Vote Common Good, the group that made the ad, told The Wall Street Journal that he often hears from evangelical women that they feel obligated to vote the same way as their husbands. This ad, he said, gives those women the permission structure to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The ad has Trump-supporting Republicans pissed.

Charlie Kirk, whose Turning Point USA organization is working on the turnout operation for Trump’s campaign, said it's horrible that women would “undermine their husbands” even though the husband “works his tail off to make sure that she can have a nice life.”

Fox News' Jesse Watters went even further, saying Wednesday night that he would consider it a form of cheating if his wife voted for Harris.

“If I found out Emma was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that's the same thing as having an affair,” Watters said of his wife, who at one point was his mistress during his first marriage.

After seeing the Julia Roberts ad, John McEntee, a former Trump White House aide and Project 2025 author joked that giving women the right to vote should be repealed.

“This video has made me rethink the 19th Amendment,” McEntee said.

Trump-supporting “Christian influencer” Dale Partridge explicitly said women must vote how their husbands tell them. “In a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction. He is the head and they are one. Unity extends to politics. This is not controversial,” Partridge wrote on X.

The Republican rage that women would dare to vote Harris over Trump is yet another sign that they still do not understand that women are angry about Trump abortion bans across the country.

The Associated Press reported that women worried about reproductive freedom could swing the election to Harris in battleground states. Polling shows that women are supporting Harris by large margins, while men are backing Trump.

“In modern presidential politics, the gender gap has never been wider,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake and Republican pollster Amanda Iovino wrote in a joint New York Times op-ed published Wednesday.

Democratic strategists added that the male reaction to the Julia Roberts spot is evidence that the ad needs to exist.

“This type of sentiment is likely not new, but it's troubling that they're so willing to be out there with it,” Christina Reynolds, communications director of EMILY’s List, which backs female candidates who support abortion rights, wrote on X. “This is why we are reminding people their vote is private.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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