For two days, the Right held a blogswarm, shedding voluminous crocodile tears for one “Tara Reade” over a position that they themselves DO NOT HOLD! Now this:
Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
So, Tara Reade . . . — Did Joe Biden sexually assault Tara Reade in 1993, as she claims? I don’t know. As is so often the case, there were no witnesses and no physical evidence, so it’s literally her word against his.
Meet the new Leann Tweedon, the Sean Hannity contributor who kicked off the media and political frenzy that drove Al Franken from office without even the semblance of due process, but which panicked the Democratic establishment so much that THEY crucified Franken, saving the GOP the trouble.
Rather than Jeff Sessions being referred for criminal prosecution for his perjury in Senate testimony, his questioner, Al Franken was unceremoniously exiled to Minnesota.
Reade is at least as questionable a witness.
She claims an “assault” (OK, fingering, or, in media parlance, “digital penetration”) in 1993.
I was MARRIED in 1993, and my wife and I will celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary this year*. The statute of limitations has long since run out on Ms. Reade’s complaint, but those who have followed Russian and GOP coordinated media and trolling will see the bloody handprints of both gaggles all over this allegation.
For instance, on April 25, the Twitter hash tag #DropOutBiden appeared, but began trending at 8 AM Moscow time — but the wee hours of the morning USA time! That ought to make SOMEONE sit up and take notice.
*[For some perspective, consider: there are 69.7 million MORE Americans (who weren’t alive at the time) since 1993. That’s net, not gross.]
For TWO DAYS, they put forth a coordinated blogswarm (and a Russian ‘bot swarm on Facebook and Twitter) waiting for the guileless mainstream media to take the bait.
Here. And Here. And Here. And Here.
Note that almost NO mainstream media outlets are piling onto these stories. These are COORDINATED attacks, aimed at pushing Joe Biden out of the race. The GOP has perfected this technique, seemingly without any notice whatsoever of the manipulated mainstream.
Unable to win by cheating, slander, and by shaking down the President of Ukraine* and every other dirty trick, this “amazing” allegation surfaces at the PERFECT time to mobilize sullen Bernie fanatics and perhaps scare the Democratic establishment AGAIN, but NOT A PEEP has been heard from the “watchdog” press about how this just seems “too good to be true” for candidate Trump — who has been accused of at least the same crime tenfold and more than Biden’s sole, strange, Russian-besotted accuser.
[* Led to SOMEONE’S impeachment, I recall.]
Her internet record has been sanitized and scrubbed, but screenshots remain, like this one:
If that doesn’t raise a truckload of flags, I don’t know what will. But, of course, all public references to her love of Putin have been scrubbed. Suspicious:? Of COURSE not!
Here is a tweet that I replied to on Twitter:
[Name withheld]
Biden’s gotta address Tara Reade’s allegations, even if it’s an outright denial. It sucks sometimes to be better than Republicans. But we are. [emphasis added]Replying to [Name withheld]
Hart Williams
Just as soon as we give equal coverage to the same allegations against Trump.Because all the coverage is on the Right right now. Or do you wanna Franken him?
We aren’t “better” than they are when it comes to gullibility, sir.
If past experience is any indication, the ONE candidate that Trump fears will be taken out in a last-ditch smear, dependent on the gullibility of Democrats in holding themselves to a standard that NO REPUBLICAN is held to, for the purpose of handing the Republicans the election. Assist: Putin.
Here’s a special meme for you, and an old journalistic saw: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
If we’re going to have a serious discussion of this, then Trump’s double-digit accusations ought to be just as fairly added to the mix. As in: even if, worst case scenario, what Reade alleges is true, then Biden STILL has the moral high ground over Trump in this regard and it should be no impediment to voting for the former over the latter.
But the perfect must be the enemy of the good and this transparent manipulation will be guilelessly swallowed by a comatose (re) public, surfeited with nonsense, superstition and fake GOP news.
The circular firing squad lives.
And those who have NEVER considered this sort of thing wrong (the GOPs) will snigger all the way to November.
Consider this: how many GOPs were forced to resign over #MeToo!?
And how many Democrats were taken down on very flimsy accusations?
Courage.
Cross posted from his vorpal sword
A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog, His Vorpal Sword (no spaces) dot com.