I’ve been silent thus far on the trial taking place in New York to decide the lawsuit brought against Donald Trump by Ms. E. Jean Carroll on the charge that he raped her some years ago. My silence is not for lack of an opinion, but merely because I preferred to wait until the jury renders an opinion before weighing in. Personally, I believe Ms. Carroll. One doesn’t put something this personal in public view if it isn’t true. And with more than 20 women who have accused him of either rape or sexual harassment, I think there can be no doubt that he has zero respect for any woman and her bodily autonomy. Where there’s so much smoke, there’s bound to be a fire somewhere.
Trump first said he would not attend the trial, would offer no defense other than the video deposition he had already provided, but there are rumblings that he may now have changed his mind, and the judge has given him until 5:00 p.m. on Sunday to decide. More than generous, if you ask me. Trump has also been cautioned by the judge more than once for snide/crude remarks he posted on social media since the start of the trial.
But the one thing I read today that actually made me chuckle was the response to something Trump said in his video deposition about Ms. Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan …
Ahhhhh … poetic justice! I’m guessing it won’t take the jury long, if they have any sense of fair play, to return a verdict next week. Hopefully it will be the right one.
Filosofa's Word 
I believe her, and hope she wins. High time Trump was convicted of something, if only a civil case. However, I doubt it will damage his reputation with his cult of followers. I imagine most of them will be happy to think ‘she deserved it’.
Best wishes, Pete.
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The good thing about a civil trial as opposed to a criminal trial is that the prosecution does not have to prove that it happened beyond a reasonable doubt, only that it is likely to have happened. I think there can be no doubt of that! You’re right, his cult will applaud him all the more. Sigh.
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This is just a civil suit, right? Not a criminal one. The worst that can happen to him is a fine, no jail time, and hopefully getting Trump put on a sexual offender list. But it won’t even stop him from running for government office, will it?
For Ms Carroll a guilty verdict will be a victory, but for Trump it may even be another feather in a very holey hat.
His followers are liable to increase their love for him.
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It is a civil suit, and no, it won’t send him to prison or keep him off the ballot next year as the ones for his role in January 6th attempted coup or the theft of classified documents might, but it isn’t without importance. He has flaunted his “invincibility” where his abuse of others, especially women, is concerned, and this case could well prove that there are consequences for actions. If nothing else, it will definitely be a blow to his ego, not to mention his bank account. You may be right about his followers … they are an uneducated, racist, bigoted bunch, so I cannot predict what they will do.
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A guilty verdict may be a blow to something, but it won’t be to his ego. He won’t change one bit in his attitudes towards women. He knows no shame. His “genius” ego will find a way to put a positive spin on it, or he is not “the” Donald J. Trump!
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You’re probably right.
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Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News.
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Thank you so much, Ned!!!
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I can’t see how it’s possible at this distance from the event to say whether he did or he didn’t. Obviously I’d like Trump to be marched off in chains but for the Jan 6 thing, preferably. That said, my personal opinion is that he more than likely did rape her.
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His role in the events of the January 6th attempted coup, and his theft of classified documents are definitely the two cases most likely to keep him off the 2024 ballot and stand the best chance of sending him to prison. That said, I want to see E. Jean Carroll win this case, for I fully believe that he did rape her, she has suffered for her entire life from it, and he needs to be shown that actions have consequences. He has made no secret that he believes his “fame & fortune” give him “special privileges”, especially where we “2nd class women” are concerned. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr …
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His habit of insinuating that any woman who criticises him is unattractive is, well, extremely unattractive.
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I fully agree. And what … does he think he’s some handsome Romeo??? Frankly, that creature atop his head, and his pocky skin are a turnoff, and then there’s his personality! I’d have to wash my hands in bleach 100 times if I even shook hands with him!
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He is not really a standard, is he? 😉
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No, but neither is he an anomaly. He’s just more brazen about it because he believes his “fame and fortune” gives him special privileges.
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That is true. What I meant was more that he is not setting standards for women, the ugly mess he is.
But as things are going in the US with regard to women, they should really find their female solidarity instead of fighting over males or try to get wealthy through one (Melania among others). Women’s rights might get totally lost again, if that solidarity is not being found. I would agitate for women to move to other states as much as possible, then the males in those reactionary states could fxxx themselves. But I guess then the politicians would make laws that women alone are not allowed to cross state borders or something.
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Yeah, cuz we’re all fighting over men. Like that’s what E. Jean was doing. Gimme a break already.
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I don’t know who E. Jean is. My experience with women is that they get along fine as long as they are a group of only women, but as soon as a man enters, they all try to please the man sometimes at the cost of the other women. I am glad if your experience is different.
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Oh, let us hope not!!! If all men were like him, I would have lived a life of celibacy … might have even become a nun! But, I am always amazed by the women who do pander to him. His current (3rd) wife married him for his money, nothing else. But you can see the women at some of his rallies, begging for a touch of a hand from him, smiling and cheering him on. Where’s the self-respect??? Already, women’s rights are being chipped away, in part with the Dobbs decision and its aftermath … states are racing to completely ban all abortion, even if the life of the mother is at stake. But now, one state has changed its divorce laws such that a woman must show cause and must wait 6 months after filing for her divorce to be complete. We still don’t have equality in the work place, though it is certainly better than it once was. But I will always believe the single biggest factor that kept Hillary Clinton from winning the electoral vote in 2016 was her gender. It’s no coincidence that sales of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” soared last year!
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Jill, in Donald Trump’s own words, he has bragged on audio tape on his bent to grope women with impunity, calling it later “locker room talk” when the tape aired embarrassing him. Mike Pence believed the tape and resigned from the presidential ticket at his wife’s urging and had to be talked into remaining before it became public. He should have listened to his wife as it would have saved our country from this illicit acting person.
On more than one occasion, Trump bragged to Howard Stern, that as sponsor of the Miss Teen USA pageant, he loved the license it gave him to walk in on partially dressed pageant contestants. Remember, these were teenagers. Stern may have polished his act for the America’s Got Talent show, but he made his fame exhibiting the worst type of “Beavis and Butthead” humor on his radio show. I will let you decide on which character Trump played when on the show, as he often was.
Then there are the many words of other women who spoke of Trump’s alleged unwanted groping, kissing, and even raping of them. One of his wives, testified in court at their divorce trial, that he raped her after he got a bad haircut from someone she recommended, although she later recanted that testimony for some reason.
Maybe these women were just doing “locker room talk.”
Keith
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Exactly! And in his videotaped deposition for this case he even doubled down on his words from the Access Hollywood tape! And said that maybe it was unfortunate or maybe it was fortunate. He is a sexual predator, no two ways about it. I don’t think I realized, else I’ve forgotten, that Pence actually pulled his name from the ticket. Too bad he didn’t stick with his guns back then.
Some day, I figure either Melania will become a widow or will divorce him once she has what she wanted, and it will be interesting to read her “tell all”, which I’d bet money she will write. I hope to see Ms. Carroll win her suit … somewhere, somehow, Trump must be taught that actions have consequences.
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Jill, while it is a Civil suit, a guilty verdict will hold a sexual predator to account. Women of all politically persuasions need to recognize this. Those who equate Donald Trump with being Jesus-like have done more damage to their religion than they possible know. This untruthful, bullying, denigrating and sexual assaulting (in his own words) acting person is the polar opposite of the actions of Jesus. Keith
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PS – The story is Pence decided to leave the campaign and during the weekend was talked out of so doing. This is when Pence officially became Trump’s puppy dog. What ticked me off as well as Donald Trump’s handlers had Bill Clinton’s accusers sitting in the audience at the next debate. Bill Clinton was not running for office and just because Clinton was also a philanderer like Trump that did not mean he bragged on groping women. By the way, in Trump’s video testimony of the Carroll rape trial, he did not disavow those same Access Hollywood Tapes which were played for the jurors.
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Pence has done a few good things, like standing for what was right on January 6th, but he is not a man I look up to or respect. No, he didn’t disavow the Access Hollywood tapes, but in fact doubled down on what he said then!
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Yes, the money he may have to pay Ms. Carroll won’t likely bother him, but the mere fact of being held accountable for some of his wickedness will, for remember his brag about being able to stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot someone without suffering any consequences? I sincerely hope he loses this case, and then onto the ones in Georgia and ultimately the ones from the Justice Department that, if filed timely and thoroughly prosecuted, could remove his name from the ballot next year. Fingers crossed.
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