There are way too many stories unfortunately but it seems to make sense to put them in one thread as they seem to come out on an hourly basis.
I am glad so many women are speaking out. This story just popped about Stallone.
I think this is so, so important. As I’ve said, my abuser never saw justice and I was labeled a liar. I understand what these women are going through and I can’t imagine how much more it hurts seeing all the other people being believed.
http://people.com/politics/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-want-justice/
He seems to be immune to everything, I’m not getting my hopes up.
So I’m puzzling over the revelation that $15 million has been paid out in settlements for harassment by house members. These were public tax dollars paid, yet no one seems to know who was paid/why. That seems nuts to me. I’m wondering how we are going to get our hands on that info – because I think the info belongs to “we, the people”.
@intparent me too. I did hear that all of the payments were not necessarily for harassment but included discrimination as well.
If you sign an NDA over a settlement, can you still testify under oath?
This is probably a really stupid question but I’m just checking.
The article said that the $15 million included all types of labor complaints and there is no record of which were specifically sexual harassment. It includes other categories such as age discrimination, hiring discrimination, racial discrimination, etc
Is there any legal reason a victim with a NDA could not announce that they have signed a NDA and can’t talk about it? Could that be a backdoor way to exposing this?
“In April, law enforcement from Georgia’s Worth County descended on a high school and, without a warrant, conducted body searches on an estimated 900 students, touching some students’ genitals and breasts. They said they were searching for drugs. They found none.
A class-action federal lawsuit soon followed, and the sheriff and two deputies were indicted in October in the raid on Worth High School in Sylvester, which is about 170 miles south of Atlanta. On Tuesday, a legal advocacy group, the Southern Center for Human Rights, said a proposed $3 million settlement had been reached in the lawsuit, pending a judge’s approval.
Earlier this week, Gov. Nathan Deal suspended Sheriff Jeff Hobby by executive order pending the outcome of his legal case or until the expiration of his term of office, whichever comes first. Hobby faces charges of sexual battery, false imprisonment and violation of oath of office, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.”
A lawyer writing such an NDA would write it so that the mere existence of the NDA is covered under the NDA. I.e. the parties agree not to disclose that an NDA exists on the subject, among other things.
@emilybee is this an affluent school district? I’m shocked at the settlement, not to say it I isn’t justified. Lower socioeconomic groups treated far worse many times receive nothing nor are the officers punished.
@romanigypsyeyes it seems someone spoke (tweeted) about Franken. The hypocrisy…
I heard that Franken said he would quit if the tweeter quit. Haven’t seen the source of Franken’s quote, though.
Rather than continuing to list the myriad of accusations of sexual harassment that have and will come out, I think it’s more important to discuss the reality of misogyny in our culture and how we change that. What I’ve realized over the last few days is the extent to which jokes about the sexual abuse of women are part of our culture. I myself have laughed at more than a few of those jokes, but I’ve changed. I now see that any and all of those “jokes” simply further the assumption that it’s OK to make women second class citizens and continue the myth that men are the norm.
We’re still learning that people who aren’t white heterosexuals are deserving of respect. A culture shift that changes how we view women is going to take decades.
@partyof5, I have no idea - I don’t live in Georgia.
So this morning US Rep, Debbie Dingell was interviewed on one of the morning shows and she talked how she has been harassed, groped under the table, had colleagues not allow her to be left alone with certain men, some of which are STILL IN CONGRESS. I still don’t understand why all these congresswomen refuse to name their harassers. Are they worried about their reelection chances? I can’t think of a better time to give up names.
Dingell isn’t afraid of re-election. I used to live in her district until I got gerrymandered into another district. She is in a safe blue district and someone with the name Dingell has had the seat for nearly a century.
That said, I can think of well over a dozen reasons why someone wouldn’t want to name abusers/harrassers.
@romanigypsyeyes I understand why some women don’t name abusers and their fears are very legitimate and understandable.
When I continue to hear about men in D.C that felt up women or things like that , those are the ones that I don’t understand why women wouldn’t out them.
If someone signed an NDA in exchange for a settlement payment, they can decide to breach the agreement it if they want. The recourse for the person/company who paid them would be to sue to get the money back. I think in many cases it would no be in the payor’s best interest to do that.
I think a lot of these instances didn’t involve payouts so they are free to speak about them.