Posted on 06/12/2019 11:07:58 AM PDT by dead
On Tuesday afternoon, a CUNY professor sent out a series of tweets recounting Joe Bidens flagrantly horny interactions with women in the audience for his speech. As individual cringey lines began their echo chamber orbit through retweets and screenshots, one crucial piece of context was missing. The speech was from 1973.
The American people already know where Joe Biden is coming from with regards to women. We know how he treated Anita Hill. We know about the handsiness. And of course, we know about the recent almost-apology. (Well, the one for the handsiness, at least; Biden has pointedly never apologized to Anita Hill.) What the American people do not know yet is whether Biden has actually internalized any of the blowback hes earned over the years for his treatment of women.
So far, its not looking good.
Those tweets from that CUNY professor were widely circulated (irresponsibly, I might add) because they were believable lines from a guy who keeps attempting to make a clumsy joke out of the idea that he must treat women like people. Making matters worse is a tweet that emerged late on Tuesday and in some respects could be more damaging than if those 1973 comments actually had been from June 2019.
Told Biden we need someone stronger on reproductive justice, and after his reversal on the Hyde Amendment, we asked him to protect assault survivors, reads the tweet by a Wisconsin-based activist who goes by K.C. He said nobody has spoken about it, done more, or changed more than I have. I told him we deserve better.
K.C.s tweet references Bidens recent flip-flop on his support for the Hyde amendment, which would bar federal funds for abortion services in many cases. The former vice presidents reversal came only after he faced intense backlash from progressives. He may have landed on the pro-choice side his supporters would want him on, but the wavering along the wayhe had just reaffirmed his Hyde support only two days priorseems more significant than the outcome. Bidens decision on this issue smacks of twitchy political calculus, rather than a sense of moral obligation or empathy, and activists like K.C. are right to be suspicious of Bidens commitment to reproductive health.
Bidens response to her, as depicted in the photo above, articulates everything about where he stands on this and every other issue central to women. Lets start with the face. Its a hostages smile, cranked to 11. Theres a hint of playfulness in his eyes, a desperate need for it to be a light interaction he controls rather than a confrontation in which hes the subject. Those eyes mask a deep need to reiterate, in all seriousness, that Biden knows what hes doing and that what hes doing is right, and if only she knew the degree to which he was right, she would get off his back about it and maybe thank him.
Then theres the finger. Hes wagging it right in her face! A demonstration of dominance from the king of gesticulation. Nothing about his body language conveys any openness or curiosity. What could this non-powerful woman possibly tell him, after all, that he doesnt know? He spent eight years working in a little place called the White Housemaybe youve heard of it? Bidens energy here is the patriarchy itself as the one-sheet of a bad buddy cop movie; the crusty old vet standing back to back with his partnerwomencrooking a thumb their way like You mean I gotta work with this guy?
The silver lining in this photo, though, is K.C.s expression. She stares back, wide-eyed and undaunted, like she relishes the opportunity to puncture his self-image in the flesh. Seeing this photo through the lens of her tweet, on her terms, makes Biden look ridiculous in his own house, the way Katie Porters rebuke of Bill Maher did over the weekend. No modern emblem of the patriarchy should come without a corresponding portrait of a woman brazenly holding his gaze, eyebrows raised in mockery, unwilling to take his shit anymore.
The image has already become fodder for memes, and is destined to live on in infamy when we look back on the early race for 2020. As a followup tweet from K.C. makes clear, truly there is nothing funny about the moment this photo captures.
A clarifying point: this was absolutely and undeniably an intimidation tactic. He leaned forward, raised his voice, tried to grab my arm with his free hand. For a hot sec I thought he was going to hit me. Dont make excuses for his actions in my comments anymore pls & thank
OLD SLOW MO JOE!!!!
Virtue signaling convinces the left of its own unimpeachable morals. When push comes to shove, it rejects guilt for any of its wrongdoing and attributes such allegations to conspiracy theories.
Peter Daou, a Democratic strategist and former advisor to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, tweeted on Monday that Ford will be "attacked, smeared, and demonized" and that people must "BELIEVE WOMEN."
__________
......... and his health is wrecked.
He seems twenty years older than he was two years ago.
Bye, bye Joe.
What exactly is the beef with how he treated Anita Hill?
He, as Chairman the Senate Judiciary Committee, allowed Republicans to ask Anita Hill questions about her accusations. That is the totality of his crime, all though there may have been some finger pointing too.
sHillary will step in a the last second and save the day.
“The American people already know where Joe Biden is coming from with regards to women.”
Uh, er, well I try not to think about it.
Doesn’t she have to register by some date?
Not at a brokered convention
An empty Suit with Chicklets, Hair Plugs and Aviation Glasses.
Anyone using ‘the Patriarchy’ in anything other than an ironic way, is a blithering idiot who an be either ignored or ridiculed.
The Dems are going to have to pick from the ugly collection currently in the arena.
If a white guy wins, they will have to pick Kamala as Veep (nobody would pick Booker for anything.)
Bootygag is a no-go. Warren appears to be back from the Indian graveyard, with an outside shot. Biden is crumbling fast. Bernie keeps hanging around, with a pitbull-loyal fanbase. Maybe Bernie/Kamala.
The nutty slut ticket.
I don’t think he’ll be smelling her hair.
Unless he carries some real conservatives in with him, it may not make much difference.
Incredible.
Exactly what hes doing.
Oh please.
Like every single politician has done this including the female politicians. Feinstein and Boxer and Clinton and Fauxcahontas and AOC all pull the fingr wagging crap in their rants and replies.
Normally I use it when someone tries to reach into the car and aggravate the Dobes but its pretty universal. :D
The guy who bought my dads land above my house pulled that on me and had no idea how much being poked at pisses me off.
/side note: Im wearing a Walking Dead shirt today that says Beware I Bite
;)
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