Roy Moore supporter tries to move conversation away from underage girls

Left to her own devices, religious right talking head Janet Porter (yet another person affiliated with the the anti-LGBTQ industry whom I really don't care for) tends to go haywire.

However, she is rather savvy in media interviews, as shown by this recent one on MSNBC with hosts Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle. Watch how she bogarts the conversation about the controversy by attacking Gloria Allred, the attorney of one of the women accusing Moore of impropriety.

The hosts generally let her go on her tangent, but then when they break to ask questions about Leigh Corfman, the woman who claimed Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 14 (or Moore and underage girls in general), Folger isn't so quick to speak all that confident.

And the confidence she does display in talking about Moore's supposed Christian stance should scare you. Particularly when you take a gander at the video below taken from 2010. If anything should make you aware of what Folger and folks like her want via supporting Moore, it would be this video.

This is the real face of Moore; the one she didn't show in the above interview:

'Transgender Day of Remembrance 2017, how Roy Moore is taking down the evangelical right' & other Mon midday news briefs

OutFront: 'We need to keep fighting,' Transgender Day of Remembrance founder pleads - Today is a sad day but let's use it as motivation to make our futures better. 

This powerful film about being a young trans person is a must-watch - Wonderful film. We need more things like this to tell our stories. 

Lucy Meadows was a transgender teacher who took her own life. Her story must be remembered - Speaking of which, this is a power and sad story. 

 On Transgender Day of Remembrance, These Are 25 Trans People Killed, So Far, in 2017 - We have to do better in order to protect our own.

Roy Moore And The Dangerous Rise Of Christian Nationalism - Yep. It's been like this for years.

Why evangelicals are again backing a Republican despite allegations of sexual misconduct - Take what you will with this quote from the article: 

"Allegations that Roy Moore sexually assaulted teenage girls decades ago have turned many Republicans against their party’s Senate candidate in Alabama, but one bloc of conservative leaders is standing by their man: evangelicals. It is the latest example of a shift in attitude among Christian conservatives, who polls show are increasingly willing to overlook sexual misbehavior if a political leader is firmly committed to opposing abortion, gay marriage, and transgender rights. In today’s hyperpartisan environment, ideology trumps personal transgressions for these religious leaders, who years ago called on President Clinton to resign over his liaisons with White House intern Monica Lewinsky." 

The danger of the #MeToo movement on the presumption of innocence

Something a little different for this morning.

The #MeToo movement is a wonderful tool to highlight the havoc which sexual harassment plays on people's  lives. However, I've had a fear that it could cause us to veer from one extreme to another i.e. from ignoring or belittling the victims of sexual harassment to presuming that everyone accused is automatically guilty.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one, as this wonderful piece by Brendan O'Neill proves:

The “Weinstein contagion,” as a Guardian columnist refers to it, has seen members of Parliament branded sexual predators for such small fare as a fleeting hand on a female journalist’s knee or flirtatious letters written 20 years ago. Earlier this month, a Welsh Labor MP, Carl Sargeant, committed suicide. He stood accused of sexual misconduct. His party refused to tell him what the allegations were, and yet he was suspended from his job as a Welsh minister on the basis of them. Sargeant’s lawyers said the mysterious accusations had plunged him into black turmoil. Although people refer to #MeToo as a progressive movement, it is starting to look like an exercise in public shaming, a rash extrajudicial application of stigma to supposedly wicked individuals. We need to recover the benefit of the doubt, just like Piven said. 

Some have argued that the presumption of innocence is a legal standard that does not apply in everyday life. The law must not prejudge someone, but we can. In fact, that’s how Mitt Romney framed his condemnation of Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate who stands accused of molesting teenage girls. 

“Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections,” Romney wrote on Twitter. 

In a narrow sense, that’s perfectly true. But Romney’s line of argument can lead us astray. Legal standards aren’t cold, abstract ideas. They embody what communities over time have agreed is a more civilized way of doing things. People are brushing aside the presumption of innocence as mere legalism so they don’t have to feel bad when they tweet: “George Takei is a pervert.” They’re saying that while judges should exercise restraint, mere mortals don't have to. What spectacularly low self expectations.

Definitely something worth thinking about.