Tough Election Year Arguments: One on the Right, One on the Left
I’m headed into a couple of difficult conversations with this column, one local, one national in their implications. I’ve been troubled by these issues, and thought it would be worthwhile to share my thinking.
A lot of people will, no doubt, disagree with me. I am perfectly willing to hear those viewpoints.
Bring facts, not name calling, to the table and we can talk.
Conversation number one concerns Naomi Soria, aka Naomi Israel, the person taking credit for organizing the local protests over stay-at-home and similar orders.
Two is Tara Reade, aka Alexandra Tara Reade, aka Alexandra McCabe, the woman who is alleging that former Vice President Joe Biden sexually assaulted her..
The “aka” are important because they serve as guideposts into the intentions of each person, in case you want to do your own Googling.
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I received a press release this morning from City Attorney candidate Cory Briggs urging the city’s current legal beagle not to trample on the First Amendment rights of “coronavirus-related protesters.”
Note that I’m not arguing against his candidacy. I think he has a point about how the City Attorney’s office is broken.
Several people received tickets for driving around the Otay Mesa concentration camp while honking their horns. I’m presuming Briggs' argument includes these folks.
It’s notable that the press release comes in the wake of publicity about the SDPD requesting a review by the City Attorney for possible charges against Soria.
I agree with Briggs that prosecuting people for protesting is a slippery slope. The part that gets me thinking this is a publicity stunt is:
Jails everywhere are being ordered to release non-violent offenders to limit the spread of coronavirus. So why is the City Attorney even thinking about putting peaceful protesters in jail?”
Soria was told by police she could potentially face misdemeanor charges resulting in up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Briggs has been around long enough to know the chances of her seeing the inside of a jail are slim and none.
The police and authorities know these folks are hoping for martyrdom because the facts they bring to the table for their cause are bullshit. Typhoid Mary’s right to assembly disappeared the minute she walked out in public.
It’s not very funny how the “right-to-life” types get so cavalier on the topic when the victims are all-too-often elderly or people of color.
Meanwhile, Soria’s in the thick of a May 1st event with a very real potential of some bad people doing some bad things. Far right groups around the country are calling for activities on that day designed to provoke what they like to call the “boogaloo.”
https://twitter.com/HeidiNBC/status/1255915945576542210?s=20
Governor Newsom’s order closing the beaches will no doubt add fodder to the fires these folks hope to stoke, and similar protests around the country have included wackos who think carrying a (potentially) automatic weapon will influence public opinion.
I’m deliberately not publicizing the location of the San Diego version of these protests lest curiosity seekers get caught up in any melee. The right wingers choice of a location is already a ghost town, so I can only hope it amounts to a nothingburger.
Should Soria be prosecuted? Maybe, depending on a dispassionate view of the evidence, the context of the infractions, and discernable motives. Certainly there should be some consequences for endangering the lives of others.
After all, endangering the lives of others is part of these people’s brand. Soria (or someone who is a dead ringer for her) has a second Facebook page documenting her exploits in Sacramento fighting for the rights of the unvaccinated.
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Tara Reade has accused presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden of pinning her up against a wall and digitally penetrating her during an encounter on Capitol Hill in 1993.
Her decision to go public came in the wake of public realization that Senator Bernie Sanders campaign was likely to go nowhere.
There are plenty of bits and pieces of evidence lending credibility to her story. She told other people, who now remember those conversations. Her now deceased mother called into the Larry King show to complain about how her daughter was treated by an unnamed U.S. Senator in August, 1993.
The conspiracy mongers at InfoWars started a rumor saying CNN (or Google, depending on the version) removed a video of this show to protect Biden. A host of other wacko/pro-Trump sites have jumped on the “Joe Biden assaulted Tara Reade” bandwagon.
Hard core Bernie Sanders supporters are using social media to further this story, their argument being that Biden can’t possibly be the nominee with this hanging over his head.
Should Joe Biden be prosecuted? I have no way of knowing what happened nearly three decades ago. But I do not think her case as I’ve read about it would make it very far in a real court of law.
She should be heard and it should go to court, rather than be tried by a social media mob. Her best bet would likely be a civil case.
What I do believe is that giving Tara Reade what she wants at this point in time all but guarantees another four years of That Evil Man in the White House.
It will be a hell of a lot easier to rid the White House of an elected Joe Biden should it come to it than the sociopathic klan surrounding Donald Trump.
Biden wasn’t in my top ten choices to be nominee, and I’ll be taking a leap of faith when I’m called to vote for him. But it is what it is.
For better or worse, this accusation is being used to create despair and dysfunction in a time of crisis. What I do know is that a Biden administration can only be a better future than what we face right now.
And there are things about Reade that I’d like to hear more about, like how she altered a post from April 2019 on Medium alleging inappropriate contact of a non-sexual nature (Biden’s handsyness) to say she was assaulted on the day she went public with the accusations.
Original: https://www.theunion.com/opinion/columns/alexandra-tara-reade-a-girl-walks-into-the-senate/
Updated: https://medium.com/@AlexandraTaraReade/a-girl-walks-into-the-senate-dd9ebdfce31b
Read about these changes and why they are significant here. (Code embedded in the piece shows when it was edited)
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I invite readers to learn more about Tara Reade and her background.
Here’s the podcast where Reade made accusations.
Here’s the Intercept article with Reade’s account.
Here’s the Intercept article with the correct account of the Larry King phone call.
Here’s the New York Times story, which contrary to what the Biden campaign says, does provide further validation.
Here’s a Daily Kos post with links to some not-good things about Reade’s background.
I’ll close with a quote from Alyssa Milano as published in Hollywood Deadline that resonated with me:
It falls upon women to navigate within the system of men’s design to make pragmatic choices that we hope will lead us to a more equal future. I still support Joe Biden because I believe that’s the best choice for that future, and again it is not up to women to absolve perpetrators. How do progressive women choose between the pussy grabber in chief who has done so much damage to our country and a man who has allegations made against him? In any black and white world, we’d have a woman to rally behind to replace Trump instead of an electoral college which says white men are the people driving the charge yet again this year.
The allegations against Joe Biden concern me, deeply. He’s a man I know, respect, and admire, and who I can’t picture doing any of the things of which he’s accused. But I’ve thought that before, and been wrong. And sexual assault is always wrong. This is the shitty position we are in as women but make no mistake: it’s not because of women. We have to suss out the one truth between two opposites, and either one puts us in an impossible position.
The Biden campaign’s only statement said that he believes every woman should have the right to tell their story, and that the media is obligated to rigorously vet those claims. And of course, I agree. Now, nobody’s asked me, but if he did, I’d advise him to face the allegation head-on, answer every question, and admit any wrongdoing, and to be the example for all men who face these kinds of accusations whether founded or not.
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Points of order:
If you submit a comment on this article and you have not done so before, my spam filter will hold it until I read it to be sure it’s not a Nigerian prince offering up fabulous wealth.
You don’t have to agree with my point of view to get a comment published, but if you’re shitty about saying it, I’ll trash it. (See Rules of the Road)
(Censorship is when the government says something can’t be published, FYI.)
Also, I have a life away from the internet. It might take an hour or three before I pop in to read comments.
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Lead image: kalhh via Pixabay