The book this week is relevant to the E. Jean Carroll case against the former American president, and is a good read for people interested in the legal system, the way in which judges were appointed to the American Supreme Court, as well as the subject in general.
This week’s blog is very late because of technical problems. I apologise.
Leigh Gilmore The #MeToo Effect What Happens When We Believe Women Columbia University Press, 2023.
Thankyou NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.
Leigh Gilmore has written a clear and understandable argument, underpinned by thoughtful discussion, on the impact of Me Too and its relevance to all debate about sexual harassment and rape.
She gives value to survivors’ narratives that underpin the arguments to apply the law without the sexism apparent in its application to sexual harassment and rape. These stories are shown to have been instrumental in producing a social environment in which believing women, making their stories part of the authority on which law is based has propelled changes in which demands for sexual justice includes women’s right to be heard. Again, the thoughtfulness Gilmore applies to her assertions gives them a weighty impact – they must be heard, they cannot be easily dismissed. Speaking out is studied in depth, drawing attention to all the factors that prevent women from doing so and reiterating the importance of recognising a woman’s right to be heard. See Books: Reviews for the complete review.
Covid update for Canberra: At 12 May there were 870 new cases, with 36 hospitalised and 1 in ICU. Rat cases numbered 721. There were 3 deaths in this period. Vaccinations numbered 8,963, with 5,910 boosters. Recoveries numbered 828 in this period. The results of PCR tests are not available. These now require more than just going to get the test, possibly making them less likely to be undertaken unless the person has serious symptoms. The encouragement for people with symptoms to remain at home, social distance, and wear masks remains an important way of dealing with Covid in Canberra.
Cindy Lou has breakfast at Edgar’s, Ainslie
Edgar’s options were very nice indeed – creamy scrambled eggs on nicely buttered sourdough for one and a warm scone with jam and cream for the other. The latter would have been improved with thick rather than whipped cream. However, nothing was as deserving of the pained looks from Leah. She clearly disapproves of her home baked apple and peanut oat biscuits, and kibble! Even the froth from Edgar’s coffee was licked up half-heartedly with some remaining on the ground.
E. Jean Carroll
Leigh Gilmore suggests that the legal system will not help (but outlines very effectively how it can be changed to do so). E. Jean Carroll’s civil case demonstrates that in her case the law worked well. The following excerpts are an indication of some of the media responses to the trial and aftermath.
ISABEL FATTAL
Isabel Fattal is a senior editor at The Atlantic.
Could last week’s verdict in E. Jean Carroll’s sexual-violence case affect Donald Trump’s standing with primary voters? I checked in with the Atlantic staff writer David Frum, who has been thinking for the past few weeks about what he calls “the X factors of the 2024 presidential race.” …
… week, David followed up on that essay by thinking through some of the unexpected “X factors” that could derail the “conventional wisdom” of Joe Biden being reelected. He reminds us that the 2016 election cycle was punctuated by two last-minute surprises—Trump’s Access Hollywood tape and FBI Director James Comey’s announcement that he was reopening an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email practices. “One proved damaging; one did not,” David writes.
What are 2024’s possible X factors? Biden’s health could certainly be one, David notes. Only about a third of Americans are confident that Biden is up to the physical and mental tasks of the presidency, according to recent polling. And Trump, should he maintain his current position as the GOP front-runner, has X factors of his own—primarily legal ones. David writes:
Trump’s indictments have, thus far, generated a rally effect among his co-partisans, widening his lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to 30 points in the month after … But the emphasis here is on thus far. More indictments may be coming … As president, Trump could rely on some political cover because the sheer number of allegations of wrongdoing got jumbled together, confused people, and often canceled one another out. Whether accumulating indictments will now cancel out in the same way is not so clear—even less so if they turn into accumulating convictions, followed by sentences.
After David wrote that article, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll. It would be fair to wonder if this verdict could be its own potential X factor for Trump’s candidacy; as David noted in his story, an April 2023 poll showed that a quarter of Republicans want a nominee who isn’t distracted by his personal legal issues, and although that isn’t a majority, Trump doesn’t start this presidential contest with a large margin to spare. However, the New Hampshire audience for Trump’s CNN town hall following the Carroll verdict last week—which consisted of New Hampshire GOP and undecided voters—laughed and cheered at Trump’s performance, including his mockery of Carroll, suggesting that his base is still holding strong.
David is unconvinced that Trump’s primary-election supporters would necessarily be deterred by the Carroll verdict. “It’s a civil, not a criminal, action; Trump was found liable, not convicted,” David told me today. “But a jury finding of sexual abuse is now inscribed on the Trump record—and opponents can remind voters that another two dozen accusations never got their hearing in court. And still there’s more to come.”
Although David acknowledged that “we may never know” if the verdict will hurt Trump’s prospects in the primaries, he noted that this is largely because “Trump’s primary opponents are terrified to talk to voters about it.” As Trump’s legal battles continue to unfold, the general election may prove to be a different story.
“In 2016, we were talking about allegations against Trump,” David continued. “In 2020, he’d been impeached, but not removed. Now he’s indicted. He’s been found liable. Very possibly, by November 2024, he could be convicted and sentenced.” And with 18 months until Election Day, new X factors for any of the candidates could still surprise us.
Heather Cox Richardson
From HeatheIsabel Fattalr Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American May 10th 2023
…Trump was speaking at what CNN billed as a “Town Hall” in front of a crowd of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents, but the event quickly turned into a Trump rally. Trump played to the audience, which laughed at his attacks on E. Jean Carroll and cheered on the constant stream of lies that are by now a set performance. He steamrolled journalist Kaitlan Collins, who tried but could not counter his stream of lies. When he finished, the audience gave him a standing ovation.
A CNN media personality told Daily Beast media reporter Justin Baragona, “It is so bad. I was cautiously optimistic despite the criticism. It is awful. It’s a Trump infomercial. We’re going to get crushed.” A senior Trump advisor told senior NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Haake that the campaign team “is thrilled with how the night went.” The person called the event a “home run” and said “when the lefts melting down, we know it was a good day.”
Maybe. But according to legal analyst Andrew Weissman, Trump’s embrace of the January 6 rioters and promise to pardon them if he’s reelected feeds a potential case against him. He made similarly revealing comments about his theft and retention of documents marked classified. It was that very kind of indiscretion that enabled Carroll’s lawyers to beat him in court…
A fantastic night at The Mousetrap (Commentary in a later blog).
By the time the play began, this section of the theatre was filled to capacity.
Robin's Room 