Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Tread Lightly

Joe Biden is the presidential nominee for the Democrats.  When he became the nominee, and Bernie Sanders withdrew, I wasn't surprised Tulsi Gabbard also withdrew, a candidate who only looked to be running in case there was a need for a third party moderate Democrat candidate (it remains to be seen if she was coordinating with the Russians/Trump or not).

I also wasn't surprised there was suddenly an allegation of sexual misconduct against Joe Biden.

I'm not here to negate Tara Reade's story.  She makes an allegation and the allegation deserves to be heard.

Reade's story is all over the place. In April of 2019 she specifically claimed Biden mistreated her by demeaning her, adding that her allegations were not a "sexualization."  Compare that with the story she told in March 2020 where suddenly it was an actual sexual assault allegation.


Inconsistency is a hallmark of Tara Reade.  That is still not negating her story, only stating a fact.  If you want to read the eyebrow raising inconsistencies yourself, check out the Medium story which leaves you with FAR more questions than answers. https://medium.com/@eddiekrassenstein/evidence-casts-doubt-on-tara-reades-sexual-assault-allegations-of-joe-biden-e4cb3ee38460

Also you can read the New York Times story on the allegations.  Although they just reiterated this doesn't prove Reade's lying, they found no evidence to back up her claims.  To quote their story:
Once again, this isn't saying she's lying, but she needs to clear up the bountiful inconsistencies in her story.

There are a few other issues I have with Reade's allegation.  Once again, I'm not discounting her, just stating facts.

The Obama Administration - You're telling me, in a time when right wing organizations were paying TOP dollar for anything that could smear the Obama Administration, no one came forward with this?  Not one friend, not one co-worker, not an ex-boyfriend, not a family member, NO ONE?  That by far is the hardest element of this story.  There was such pressure to find dirt on Obama and Biden the media made outrageous claims about dijon mustard, chewing gum, umbrellas, mom jeans and bowing too deeply in an effort to tarnish them.  There was a constant spotlight on that White House, with thousands of Republican operatives trying to dig up dirt.  It seems impossible this could've been missed.

Let me go back to how inconsistent her story is - She can't remember anything about the assault. She allegedly told one friend who will not go on the record.  She allegedly also told her brother, but he's being coy with interviews.  Another person who says she told her of this 'incident' was a former landlord.  Really?  Once again, facts might get blurred in a high stress situation, and it's easy to understand why a person would not tell too many people.  Her story on why she left DC is also all over the place, talking about job offers, then talking about getting blacklisted and then saying she had become disinterested in Democracy itself.  Plus she was outright praising Biden as recently as 2017, and her initial allegation specifically said she was not assaulted sexually.  You don't dismiss Tara Reade, but she needs to give a credible timeline.  She also needs to have others who supposedly can back her up to do so publicly, on the record.  

The House and Senate Republicans are being VERY quiet - This tells me a lot.  You can't have these hearings without Democrats being able to ask questions themselves.  The second they do, Reade's entire story will likely fall apart.  The Republicans don't want to look like they're pushing a trumped up allegation in an effort to discredit a candidate.  If Reade is telling the truth, they potentially could have a weapon to ruin the Democratic challenger to Trump, but so far they reluctance to use Reade tells me they themselves already know the allegations have issues.

This undeniably helps Trump - Like I mentioned earlier, much like Tulsi leaving the race when a third party moderate could no longer help Trump win (speculative), this allegation is incredibly convenient for Trump.  Trump has DOZENS of far more credible allegations against him.  Would Trump and the entities who want to see him win (Russia) fabricate an allegation as a way to take Trump's sexual assault allegations off the campaign table?  Of course they would!

The Russia Connection - Reade needs to do a FAR better job at explaining her Russia connection, and her never ending praise of Putin over the last few years (something explored in the Medium story), but this isn't the only Russian connection I've seen.  With my radio show I have a social media presence.  Like all major stories, I've posted links to articles about these allegations.  That was weeks ago.  Almost every morning I wake up to find comments on these weeks old stories, comments which are posted at 1 or 2 in the morning (9 -10 AM Moscow time).  The comments are always a 'How dare Democrats claim to be #MeToo and not believe Reade's story 100%.  I guess your outrage is one sided!'  When you click on the accounts posting theses comments, they're all troll accounts.  There's no content to them at all, featuring names like 'Steve Smith' and 'Mary Andrews,' claiming to be wholesome Americans, with stock images as their banner and avatar.  One of them even had Russian letters on their page.  The Russians are CLEARLY trying to push this story, and that alone is enough for me to question it.

Pro-Trump elements are desperately trying to make this story stick.  Much like the Russians, they imply Democrats are frauds because we aren't throwing Biden off the ticket.  These same people never demanded Trump be thrown off the ticket, even though we have definitive proof of his sexual deviance.  Nor did they demand Brett Kavanaugh's SCOTUS nomination be withdrawn.  The people pushing this story are demanding Democrats double down on their Democratic standards, remove Biden and concede the 2020 election, while at the same time they're embracing the non-existent Republican standards, never having any intent at EVER holding their politicians accountable for their FAR MORE credible allegations.  

I've repeatedly said you give Tara Reade her moment.  Let her speak.  If she wants to clean up her timeline and her story, by all means.  If she wants to testify under oath, I think that would be a good idea.  I won't dismiss, but that doesn't mean I won't ask questions.

If you never once demanded Trump or Kavanaugh be fully investigated, or demanded they needed to step aside until we find out the truth, you can officially shut the hell up.

Part of the Trump strategy is to get the Left to focus on Reade's allegations, to make the 2020 Election about Biden's faults, and not the horrific presidency of Trump.  Part of this effort will be to encourage Democratic voters to stay home and not vote.  I was hesitant to even write this piece, as I didn't want to give this story far more attention than it currently deserves, but here we are.

Supporting #MeToo and supporting women means you don't dismiss, but it doesn't mean you do ask questions.  I won't revisit this unless something FAR more concrete develops.








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