Americans can overlook sexual assault, but dogs must not be harmed

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a conspiracy theories, Fact-hating idiot whose job is to spread lies about vaccines led directly to the death of childrenHowever, he is still politically smart enough to Vanity Fair ran a story on July 2 claiming he had eaten a dog, Kennedy hastened to deny it.

While Kennedy denied eating a dog, he did not deny the other part of the Vanity Fair story – the part where he claimed he sexually assaulted a former nanny. In fact, Kennedy seemed to both confirm the story and find the whole thing amusing.

“I’m not a church boy,” Kennedy told the host of the “Break points“ podcast, adding that he has “a lot of skeletons in the closet.”

The news about Kennedy in recent days has focused on his reputation in the polls and his commitment to 9/11 conspiracies. And of course there were many more stories about Kennedy denied that he had eaten the dogWhat seems to escape any scrutiny is that other dirty allegation uncovered by Vanity Fair.

Because America, or at least the American media, seems to care more about dead dogs than living women who are victims of sexual assault.

As South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has vividly demonstrated, you can be a terrible person who is terrible to others and get away with it—but if you kill a dog, the nation will notice. Noem’s political prospects were pretty good after she hired Hells Angels to intimidate protesters and behaved so disrespectfully toward Native Americans that she was banned from setting foot in a fifth of the state she was supposed to govern. But one little story about the pleasure she took in gunning down a naughty puppy, and suddenly the woman once was being hailed as the favorite for vice president. became a political pariah.

Dogs feel empathy immediately.

But when it comes to the other half of this RFK Jr. story, here is the entire exchange from this “Breaking Points” interview:

Moderator: Vanity Fair published a big profile today. I want to give you a chance to respond to that. There’s a photo circulating where you’re posing with, I think, what looks like a dog, and also – a grilled dog. I’m not going to show the picture. I’m a dog lover and I know you have pets yourself. And also, there’s an allegation of sexual harassment from one of your former nannies. So I want to give you a chance to respond to that.

Kennedy: The article is a load of nonsense. The picture of me that they said was eating a dog is actually me eating a goat in Patagonia many years ago, on a whitewater rafting trip down the Futaleufú River. They have an expert who identified that as a dog carcass. That’s just not true. You know, as for the other allegations, listen, I’ve said that from the beginning. I’m not a church boy. I’m not running like that. I got it in my – I had a very, very wild youth. I said in my inaugural address that I have so many skeletons in the closet that if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world. So Vanity Fair is recycling 30-year-old stories and I’m not going to comment on the specifics, but you know, I am who I am.

This is not a rejection. This is the Opposite a rejection. This is a rejection of sexual assault as something very wild. As a byproduct of youth. Because “boys will be boys.”

The story about the nanny actually dates back to 1998, so Kennedy’s claim about the age of the story is only wrong by about four years. But when it comes to be Kennedy was 44 years old at the time. Does anyone seriously believe that a 44-year-old married man represents a “wild youth”?

If Kennedy’s extremely disturbing actions attract little attention, he is far from alone.

Donald Trump is a convicted felon who was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to protect his 2016 campaign. That’s a real crime. It’s truly shocking that a former White House occupant was found guilty of a crime, and it’s not surprising that both the Democratic campaign team and pundits like to use the “convicted felon” label when talking about Trump.

But he is also a convicted sex offender.

As The Washington Post As reported a year ago, the judge in that case, Lewis Kaplan, reacted sharply to the claim that the jury had only found that Trump had “groped” the writer E. Jean Carroll.

“The finding that Ms. Carroll could not prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of New York criminal law does not mean that she could not prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people generally understand the word ‘rape,'” Kaplan wrote. “In fact, the jury found that Mr. Trump did just that, as the trial evidence below makes clear.”

Why is the simple fact that Trump a convicted sex offender mentioned so rarely when it comes to reasons why he should not run? His criminal conviction is bad and should certainly be disqualifying. But It should be that way.

A dead dog can prevent anyone from running for high office. But it seems that plenty of living women who are victims of sexual assault can be overlooked or trivialized as juvenile pranks of the kind Men talking in locker rooms.

As much as we all love dogs, something just seems wrong about them.

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