How do YOU avoid sexual assault?

From Wonkette Commenter Petunia Cat:

Here is a list of things women do to avoid sexual assault compared to things men do on a daily basis. It’s from a sociology professor. 

Legal to Rape in KY, As Long As the Bitch Had a Drink First

This is fucking bullshit.  Shame on you, Lexington grand jury members.

From the Herald:

Rape and sodomy charges against the son of Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton were dismissed by a Lexington grand jury this week, according to court documents.

Patrick Melton, a 22-year-old University of Kentucky student, was accused of “sexual and deviate sexual intercourse” without the consent of the alleged victim on July 7 at his residence on University Avenue in Lexington, his citation stated.

He was arrested in August. The woman allegedly tried to squirm, push and kick Melton, according to his original arrest citation.

Multiple witnesses confirmed the victim’s statements that she was intoxicated and passed out prior to the incident, his citation stated.

The grand jury met Tuesday and dismissed Melton’s first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy charges, according to court documents.

It's Justice Rapey McLiarFace's world now.  We just live in it.

Bevin Picks Fight With Wrong Black Woman

There is one and only one black female legislator in the Kentucky General Assembly.  She is Attica Scott.  She took that seat in the 2016 Democratic primary, took it away from longtime wingnut freakazoid Tom Riner, who was so entrenched that the repugs didn't even bother to field a candidate.

Don't mess with Attica Scott.

But Governor I Got Mine Fuck You is a moron.

From Deborah Yetter at the Courier:

State Rep. Attica Scott checked Twitter early Monday hoping to read a post praising charter schools by Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican who relies heavily on social media to spread his message.

Instead, Scott — a Democrat and the only African-American woman serving in the Kentucky General Assembly — was shocked to find herself among the growing body of people blocked from Bevin's social media accounts.

And Scott, who believes she is the only one of Kentucky's 138 legislators to be blocked from Bevin's account, said she knows why.

"It's pretty clear to me that it's gender and race," Scott said.

By Monday afternoon, Scott's access to Bevin's Twitter account had been restored.

And in a claim that appeared to raise even more questions, Bevin spokeswoman Amanda Stamper said that no one from the governor's office "knowingly blocked" Scott from the  Twitter account, @GovMattBevin. Scott's access was restored and the password to the account was changed, Stamper said in an email.

More: Bevin's office broke law after not saying how it blocks people on Facebook, Beshear rules

Scott said she discovered Monday afternoon that she was no longer blocked but isn't buying the explanation that no one "knowingly" blocked her.

The temporary block triggered a flurry of tweets, most condemning the governor.

"It would not have changed had they not felt the heat," Scott said.

Further, Scott says, it raises questions about how many people have access to the Twitter account that appears to come directly from Bevin.

"At no point do I recall seeing any posting or messages from him that his account was being managed by others," Scott said. "As far as I know and am concerned, he manages that account."

Stamper did not immediately reply to further questions about how many people have access to the governor's Twitter account and who might have blocked Scott.

Scott said she was especially concerned about being blocked because as a lawmaker representing Louisville's 41st House District, she needs to keep up with official announcements and other pronouncements by the governor. Because Bevin often eschews other media in favor of Facebook and Twitter, that's the best way to keep herself and her constituents informed, she said.

Sexual Harassment and the Pension Bill Repugs

Maybe if they concentrated on what their constituents want instead of on which ass they're going to grab next, they could get some work done.

From the Herald:

Kentucky lawmakers still have “a lot of work to do” on Gov. Matt Bevin’s proposal to overhaul the state’s ailing public pension systems, House Speaker Jeff Hoover said Tuesday after meeting for nearly two hours behind closed doors with his Republican colleagues in the state House.

“It’s clear we got a lot of work to do to move forward on this issue,” said Hoover, R-Jamestown.

He said no vote was taken on the bill during the GOP caucus meeting and that he does not know if a special legislative session to approve pension legislation is likely to be held in the next two weeks.

That would be this Jeff Hoover:

Kentucky House Speaker Jeff Hoover has reached a confidential settlement over sexual harassment allegations by a woman who works on his legislative staff, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke with Courier Journal.

Hoover, the leader of the powerful Republican majority in the House of Representatives, reached the agreement last week after receiving a demand letter from the woman’s lawyer over allegations that date to 2016, the sources said, speaking under the condition they remain unnamed because they fear reprisal if identified.

Y'all think it's tough keeping up with the non-stop shenanigans by the Orange Menace, you should try keeping pace with Kentucky's repug majority and Governor Why Won't These Guys Do What I Want.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article181945376.html#storylink=cpy

Kentucky House Speaker Jeff Hoover has reached a confidential settlement over sexual harassment allegations by a woman who works on his legislative staff, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke with Courier Journal.

Hoover, the leader of the powerful Republican majority in the House of Representatives, reached the agreement last week after receiving a demand letter from the woman’s lawyer over allegations that date to 2016, the sources said, speaking under the condition they remain unnamed because they fear reprisal if identified.

Repug Women Don't Know What Sexism Means

Or they do, but are happy to lie to protect the cowardly guv hiding behind the curtains. A Democratic official stated facts about a female repub offical, therefore sexism. Because reasons. 

From the Courier:

After Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear suggested Senate President Robert Stivers faces political pressure because his wife, Regina, works for Gov. Matt Bevin's administration, a few prominent Republican women have criticized his comments as sexist.

"Women have been standing on their own merit in the workplace for decades. We earned our spots in the Bevin admin," Republican Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton said Thursday on Twitter.

Regina Stivers earns $118,000 a year as deputy secretary of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet.

On Wednesday — just before Beshear announced that he plans to sue companies for illegally marketing and selling opioids in Kentucky — her husband, a Republican, publicly questioned whether Beshear has a conflict of interest in a similar case against the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, which the state settled for $24 million right before he became attorney general.

In response, Beshear criticized the Senate president for politicizing a drug crisis that has devastated thousands of Kentuckians.

"I know that that $100,000 job that the governor has provided to your spouse, who he could let go at any time, creates pressure," Beshear said, directing his comments at Stivers during a Wednesday afternoon press conference. "But this is far too important."

Either Regina Stivers is  a strong professional woman doing her job, or she's a melting snowflake who must be coddled and protected from the heat of professional politics.

Make up your damn minds, ladies - and that's not a compliment.

Dead Wrong Then, Dead Wrong Now, Dead Wrong Forever

I grew up with these motherfuckers, too, and shame on Bill Clinton for absolving them of guilt for their crimes.

The Nation:

To be sure, the country still counts. America surely must hear the voice of the “forgotten” voters who put Donald Trump in the White House: the angry rural whites and the neglected high-school dropouts and the women for whom race and class weigh more heavily than gender. Bill Clinton spoke prophetically about them back in 1995, in the wake of an earlier revolution that became known as Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America.” Back then, a wave of disgruntled rural voters elected 60 new and deeply parochial members of Congress, flipping the House of Representatives to Republican control and blocking most of what Clinton was trying to enact. The president spoke wisely at a Camp David confab I attended back then, where he took on angry liberal staffers and even his own wife:

I know how you feel. I understand Hillary’s sense of outrage. It makes me mad, too. Sure, we lost our base in the South; boys voted for Gingrich. But let me tell you something. I know these boys, I grew up with them. Hardworking, poor white boys who feel left out… Think about it, every progressive advance our country has made since the Civil War has been on their backs. They’re the ones asked to pay the price of progress. Now, we are the party of progress, but let me tell you, until we find a way to include these boys in our programs, until we stop making them pay the whole price of liberty for others, we are never going to unite our party, never really going to have change that sticks.

No, no, no, a million times no. If you took every whining white boy in the country, stripped him of every civil, constitutional and human right, forced him to work without pay, to starve and freeze and suffer rape in horrific conditions, and continued that punishment for him and all his descendants for five hundred years, you would not even begin to scratch the surface of what those white boys should have to suffer for what they inflicted on people of color, on women, on immigrants, on gays, on jews and muslims and everybody who is not them.

The fact that they can DARE to whine about their slightly-less-than-perfectly-privileged existence today is proof they have learned nothing and never will.

Or as the Rude Pundit put it to the irredeemable residents of Beattyville, KY:

But for the poor who voted for Trump, you are going to be punched in the face repeatedly by your own fists. And you'll come running to Democrats to help you, and we will, 'cause that's who the hell we are, and then you'll run right back to the racist pricks because that's just who the fuck you are: ungrateful, uneducated bastards who have been brainwashed so thoroughly that you don't realize who is stabbing you and who is trying to get your wounds healed, willing victims asking, "Please, may I have another" as the knife is twisted in your gut.

Fuck the Yokels. Liberals are Real Americans.

The Rude Pundit:

What you're calling "elitism" is just simply not being ignorant. We don't have our heads shoved up Jesus's ass. And when the left gets angry because of how fucking dumb some of the shit coming out of rural and red mouths is, we're told we need to understand what they believe. No, we're just gonna say that stupid is stupid.

You can stop explaining the white working class rural conservative Christian farming folk, hot-takers and self-justifiers. Instead, why don't you explain liberalism to them? Why don't you explain that jobs are drying up and communities are dying not because of abortion and same-sex marriage but because of Republican economic policies that have favored the wealthy, most of whom live in cities, including a certain president-elect they voted for who took advantage of those very policies in order to stay rich? Ultimately, though, it won't matter. Because despite every fucking word to the contrary, the real problem is that those who voted for Trump are racist. They are sexist. They are Islamophobic. They are ignorant.

The whole thrust of these "let's learn about the yokels" articles is to imply that there are real Americans and there are coastal elites. Sorry, motherfuckers. We're all Americans. And if I have to suffer under your stupid, you have to hear about our smarts.

Where Trump Rules Don't Apply

Lucky bastard, living in a blue state.  But those of us hanging on in red states need to put our envy and desperation to work.  There are people like Dylan Orr in Kentucky; they're just not in positions of power.  Yet.

Let's get them there.

Dennis Hartley at Hullabaloo:

This is why I love living in a city like Seattle:
[from an email I received from Seattle’s Labor Standards office]

Our Commitment to
Equity, Inclusion and Openness 

As Mayor Ed Murray stated last week, Seattle remains a city guided by the values of equity, inclusion and openness. “Seattle is a city that supports women and the LGBTQ community, that welcomes our Muslim brothers and sisters, that embraces immigrants and refugees, and that believes that Black Lives Matter.” 

As the Director of the Seattle Office of Labor Standards, and an openly transgender individual, I assure you that we in the Office of Labor Standards are deeply committed to upholding these values, and ensuring that we continue to be a supportive resource and partner to Seattle’s most vulnerable communities. We will re-double our efforts to advance labor standards through thoughtful community and business engagement, strategic enforcement and innovative policy development with a commitment to race and social justice. 

To our immigrant community partners, Mayor Ed Murray has promised that the City of Seattle will remain a welcoming city, committed to serving all the residents of Seattle regardless of their immigration status. Under a local law passed in 2003, Seattle city employees are NOT allowed to ask about people’s immigration status when providing city services, unless required by law or a court order. We in the Office of Labor Standards are proud to enforce labor standards for all of Seattle’s workers, regardless of immigration status. We also have strong anti-retaliation provisions across all our labor standards ordinances. 

If you have any questions about our work or services, feel free to contact us. We look forward to our continued work ahead. 

In solidarity, 

Dylan Orr
Director, Seattle Office of Labor Standards

We’re circling the wagons, folks. We have to stay strong.

 Right here in Kentucky, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray ran for U.S. Senate as an openly gay Democrat. And nobody cared about his sexuality.

Tiny progress, but I'll take it. And run with it.

How to Respond

No Quarter. No being nice to people who are publicly promising to kill you.

 

Shakezula at LGM:

Donald Trump won the election, but there’s more economic anxiety than ever and it is causing people who would otherwise be well-behaved and polite to act up cranky. This FAQ will clarify some matters.

Q. I’m against harassment and assault. Will empathizing with the economically anxious help?

A. Certainly. It will keep the focus off what the bigots are doing and help normalize bigotry and violence motivated by bigotry.

Q. I meant, will stop them from hurting people?

A. LOL! Next question.

Q. What about wearing a safety pin?

A.

Q. I am not a white heterosexual Christian, but I haven’t worked in two years. Am I allowed to feel economically insecure?

A. Please lie face-down on the floor with your hands behind your head until police come to collect you.

Q. May I empathize with them by mooning ’em?

A. NO MOONING!

Searching for an Affirming Flame

Here's mine:  We're right, they're wrong, and any compromise is collaboration and anathema.

 

Via digby:

Neal Gabler:

America died on Nov. 8, 2016, not with a bang or a whimper, but at its own hand via electoral suicide. We the people chose a man who has shredded our values, our morals, our compassion, our tolerance, our decency, our sense of common purpose, our very identity — all the things that, however tenuously, made a nation out of a country.

Whatever place we now live in is not the same place it was on Nov. 7. No matter how the rest of the world looked at us on Nov. 7, they will now look at us differently. We are likely to be a pariah country. And we are lost for it. As I surveyed the ruin of that country this gray Wednesday morning, I found weary consolation in W.H. Auden’s poem, September 1, 1939, which concludes:

“Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.”

I hunt for that affirming flame.

Fuck Your Fresh Start

Kevin Drum:

David Frum is persuading me this morning that the tweetstorm can be a valuable medium after all. He is not buying Michael Smerconish's suggestion that we should all give Donald Trump a fresh start:

David Frum Verified account ‏@davidfrum

Slicing away one’s memory lobes an excellent basis for decision-making, so sure (he said with heavy sarcasm).

Read the whole dead-on thing.

For the Non-Crime of Emailing While in Possession of a Vagina

Amazing how they don't know or care what their hate reveals.

Digby:

Meanwhile, the FBI is leaking like the Titanic. Right wing authoritarian thugs want to put Hillary Clinton in jail not only for a crime she didn't commit but for something that isn't even a crime. They just hate her --- for reasons that have nothing to do with politics and everything to do with something dark and ugly inside themselves and their institution.  And this country.

Taliban Matt Hits the Burka Trail

Skirts below the knee?  Are you fucking kidding me?

Let's see if we can figure out the real goal here.

Shame female employees?  Check.

Shame low-paid employees who can't afford the new fascist "professional" look?  Check.

Vague guidelines that make it easy for Bevin appointees to fire non-repug, non-freakazoid, non-white, non-straight and non-male employees without just cause?  Check.

From the Courier:

No flip-flops. No bare midriffs. No camouflage. And watch the hemline on that skirt.

Gov. Matt Bevin's administration is rolling out a new dress code for state workers, but some departments' individual tweaks to the rules – including a ban on  "extremely low necklines" – are raising eyebrows at the state workers' association.

Employees recognize that employers have the right to set standards, said David Smith, executive director of the Kentucky Association of State Employees, but who's to say what the proper length for a dress is? "You're dealing with a fashion issue, and fashion changes," he said.

Personnel Cabinet Secretary Thomas Stephens said in a recent memo announcing the new guidelines that the executive branch's roughly 31,000 employees should maintain "a neat, professional appearance" because they represent the commonwealth.

SNIP

However, agencies are free to tweak their dress codes since different departments do different kinds of work, and people can request accommodations if they have a medical, religious or disability-related need. Violations could result in employees being asked to leave the premises or being subjected to disciplinary action, including possible dismissal.

Stephens also is instituting several additional rules that only apply to the Personnel Cabinet's 206 employees.

Personnel Cabinet employees can wear casual dresses and skirts only if they are knee-length or longer and cannot wear spaghetti-strap dresses unless they're covered by a sweater, according to an early-October memo from Stephens. Tops with "extremely low necklines" are prohibited, as are pajama pants, exercise pants, camouflage-patterned clothes and shorts. Men must keep their dress shirts tucked in, although polo shirts don't have to be.

Smith said the association has members who work in every state cabinet and every state agency, and some employees – the majority of whom have been women so far – have reached out with concerns about the new dress codes.

SNIP

And the Personnel Cabinet cannot oversee how each agency and manager enforces these rules, Smith said. Supervisors potentially could use a dress code violation as an excuse to discipline or fire someone they dislike.

"Is it too interpretive, and do we believe it could cross a line? Absolutely," Smith said.

If someone has religious or personal views about what is modest or appropriate and what isn't, those ideas shouldn't be forced on employees, he said.

He also said state workers may have to buy new clothes to meet their agency's dress code if, for example, their skirts fall above the knee. Employees will make an effort to meet whatever requirements their agencies institute, Smith said, but professional clothes can be expensive.

Especially for employees hired since Governor Fascist Dictator cut the state employee minimum wage from $10.10 to $7.25 about 10 seconds after he was inaugurated.

When Hillary Crushes Trump, She Won't Get Any Credit

She could take all 50 states plus D.C. and her place in history will be just one giant asterisk.  From even her supporters, I can hear it now:

"Anybody with a pulse could have beaten Trump."

"She got only 65 percent of the popular vote. That's the highest ever, but she should have gotten 70."

"She piggy-backed on Obama's popularity."

"She only won because Bernie forced her to tack left."

"She only won because people still love Bill and were really voting for him."

"She only won because women went for one of their own."

"She only won because of black voters."

You think the conservatards and the haters and the repugs went all out to de-legitimize first black president?  That'll seem like applause compared to what they'll unleash against the first president without a dick.

Because in twenty-fucking-sixteen, this shit still happens.  

Make It Like Starbucks

Thanks to commenter memzilla at Wonkette:

Fake Libertarian Massie's Got His Hand Up Your Vagina Just Like All the Other Freakazoids

Northern Kentucky repug congress critter Thomas Massie loves to flash his teabagger, faux-libertarian creds: He has a solar-powered-house!  That runs his electric car!  He's hip and with-it!

Unless you're poor, black, gay, muslim ... or female.

Digby:

Yeah, sure those culture wars are definitely over:

The House on Wednesday voted to ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, approving a revised version of a bill that Republican leaders abruptly pulled in January amid objections from some of their own members.

The measure passed in a 242-to-184 vote, with one member voting present. The bill dropped a provision in the original version that would have required women who became pregnant through rape to report their assault to law enforcement authorities to be eligible for an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Under the new bill, such women would have to receive counseling or medical treatment at least 48 hours before having an abortion. In cases involving minors, abortion providers would have to alert the authorities for the girls’ protection. The bill, known as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, would also make it easier to sue a noncompliant abortion provider.

“No matter how it is shouted down, or what distortions, deceptive what-ifs, distractions, diversions, gotchas, twisting of words, changing the subject or blatant falsehoods the abortion industry hurls at this bill and its supporters,” said Representative Trent Franks, the Arizona Republican who introduced the measure, “this bill is a deeply sincere effort, beginning at their sixth month of pregnancy, to protect both mothers and their pain-capable unborn babies from the atrocity of late-term abortion on demand.”

Thank you daddy for protecting women from themselves.

Meanwhile, with their hands firmly implanted in women's vaginas, they went on to denounce big government and federal interference in their wallets.

"Her qualifications are superb"

Go ahead and say it, Mr. President: she's not get confirmed because she's a ni**er without even a penis. You know that deep in the repug cloakroom they're calling her what they called Barbara Jordan in the Texas lege: "that ni**er mammy washerwoman."




Full transcript here.

Office Sex Is The Most Pathetic

Seriously.  The only way new Kentucky House Majority Whip Johnny Bell could figure out how to bone his latest victim was to hire her? Somebody tell him there's this amazing new invention called the motel.

From the Herald's Jack Brammer, who is either having the time of his life covering this story or shopping his resume all over the planet.

A legislative staffer fired last week by state House Majority Whip Johnny Bell alleged in court documents Monday that Bell's decision was motivated in part "by his desire to have an intimate sexual relationship" with another woman he wants to hire.

Yolanda Costner, one of three legislative staffers who alleged sexual harassment in 2013 by a former state lawmaker from Western Kentucky, also said Bell, D-Glasgow, had illegally obtained a controlled substance —Xanax — from the other woman when she worked for him previously.

Costner also alleged that Bell, a lawyer, kept moonshine in his office and was seen in possession of a marijuana cigarette in front of the Capitol Annex.

Bell did not return phone calls to his cellphone Monday evening seeking comment.

 Also, never smoke pot in front of people you may want to fire someday.

New KY House Dem Whip Not Just Racist, Sexist Pig; He's STOOPIT

Bell, the dusky-skinned lady you just fired is going to sue your ass right out of office, you moron.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

New state House Majority Whip Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow, fired a female staffer in the office Wednesday who alleged she had been sexually assaulted by a former state lawmaker from Western Kentucky.

Louisville attorney Thomas Clay said Yolanda Costner received a letter earlier in the day from Bell that said her service was no longer required.

No other reason was given for the termination that is to take effect Thursday, Clay said.

Clay said Costner, who has 25 years of government service, will amend a complaint filed in Franklin Circuit Court on the sexual harassment scandal that will include Bell as a defendant.

He claimed Bell violated the state law to protect whistleblowers and Costner's civil rights.

Vessels Have No Rights

We're about an inch away from Gilead.

Digby, citing the New York Times:

Anti-abortion measures pose a risk to all pregnant women, including those who want to be pregnant.

Such laws are increasingly being used as the basis for arresting women who have no intention of ending a pregnancy and for preventing women from making their own decisions about how they will give birth.

How does this play out? Based on the belief that he had an obligation to give a fetus a chance for life, a judge in Washington, D.C., ordered a critically ill 27-year-old woman who was 26 weeks pregnant to undergo a cesarean section, which he understood might kill her. Neither the woman nor her baby survived.

In Iowa, a pregnant woman who fell down a flight of stairs was reported to the police after seeking help at a hospital. She was arrested for “attempted fetal homicide.”

In Utah, a woman gave birth to twins; one was stillborn. Health care providers believed that the stillbirth was the result of the woman’s decision to delay having a cesarean. She was arrested on charges of fetal homicide.

In Louisiana, a woman who went to the hospital for unexplained vaginal bleeding was locked up for over a year on charges of second-degree murder before medical records revealed she had suffered a miscarriage at 11 to 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Florida has had a number of such cases. In one, a woman was held prisoner at a hospital to prevent her from going home while she appeared to be experiencing a miscarriage. She was forced to undergo a cesarean. Neither the detention nor the surgery prevented the pregnancy loss, but they did keep this mother from caring for her two small children at home. While a state court later found the detention unlawful, the opinion suggested that if the hospital had taken her prisoner later in her pregnancy, its actions might have been permissible.

In another case, a woman who had been in labor at home was picked up by a sheriff, strapped down in the back of an ambulance, taken to a hospital, and forced to have a cesarean she did not want. When this mother later protested what had happened, a court concluded that the woman’s personal constitutional rights “clearly did not outweigh the interests of the State of Florida in preserving the life of the unborn child.”

Anti-abortion reasoning has also provided the justification for arresting pregnant women who experience depression and have attempted suicide. A 22-year-old in South Carolina who was eight months pregnant attempted suicide by jumping out a window. She survived despite suffering severe injuries. Because she lost the pregnancy, she was arrested and jailed for the crime of homicide by child abuse.

There is no way to escape the logic that if you assume that a blastocyst is a full human being with all the rights conferred by "personhood" then this is a possible consequence.

No, it probably won't happen every time a woman miscarries. But it could happen. And it could be you or your daughter or your best friend or your wife.

The risk of pregnancy is going up and up and up in this country.