Trump has to know that many more women are in the wings trying to overcome their stage fright so they can come forward with accounts of how he molested them. He probably won’t remember many of them. There were so many, how could he?
He may be ignorant enough, so consumed with hatred of the media, to think that when day or two passes without another woman leveling a charge through a newspaper or her lawyer he can rest easy.
As was noted on Lawrence O’Donnell by a Washington Post reporter this evening, Karen Tumelty (the reporter who broke the story about Kristin Anderson in the nightclub) and other reporters there are working on allegations brought to them by other women.
Trump may not grasp that before such stories are made public by a newspaper or lawyer, arduous investigation is done to assure the story can be verified at the least by the victim contemporaneously reporting the incident to friends or family. The hope of course is that there were witnesses, but it is unlikely Trump would have risked this behavior in front of anybody.
Newspapers and lawyers like Gloria Allred, who has offices in New York and Los Angeles, have large enough staffs experienced with cases like this. Allred is representing The Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos.
What we know from the Bill Cosby case, and the case of the Boston priests who abused boys, is that after the first victims come forward the floodgates are gradually opened and before long there is a many more instance are revealed. If you saw the movie “Spotlight,” which is about how the Boston Globe’s Spotlight reporting team we see how they first learned of a few cases, and during the course of an extensive investigation discovered to their shock that sexual abuse among Boston priest was rampant.
What we don’t know is whether there is a woman, or women, holding back now because they were actually raped by Trump. It would be most difficult to reveal this for several profound reasons, including being attacked for not reporting it when it happened. Read “Why I waited Decades to Tell Anyone I was Raped” by Goldie Taylor. When she revealed this publicly on CNN a flurry of other women came out to reveal they were also raped by the same 48 year old man when they were in high school
There are lots of reasons a woman may be reluctant to put herself in the public eye. Shame is probably the main reason. Fear is another. Already it’s been reported that Mindy Macgillivray, the woman he groped at Mar-a-Lago, says she and her family have been harassed to much since she gave her interview to the Palm Beach Post she’s leaving the country.
My guess based on what we know about Trump, about what he brags about, and about how the instances with the women who have made allegations mirror his claims, is that when the numbers come out Trump may very well have exceeded 51, the number of known victims of Bill Cosby.
We only have a short time before the election. This may spur women who haven’t come forward to do so. I think by election day the number will be in the 50-60 range.
The awful irony of all this is that when you read my title, you knew exactly what I meant.
Addendum: Read the two stories today about Trump and narcissistic rage because as these stories overwhelm the news and the women Trump may very well have such a reaction. My story is “The escalating danger of Trump’s narcissistic rage” and WeeMama’s story is “Narcissistic rage on the national stage.”
Saturday, Oct 15, 2016 · 2:39:54 PM +00:00
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HalBrown
Recommended comment:
A Cosby Unit(CU) is the number of female accusations of sexual assault, harassment and related misconduct which have to be leveled at a male celebrity or public figure before a supermajority of men will believe the allegations to be essentially true. Generally a number between 40 and 60. A Savile, named after Jimmy Savile, is a number which represents the maximum height of depravity by a male celebrity or public figure. One Savile is roughly equal to 10 Cosby Units.
My prediction is that Trump will reach at least 1/3 of a Cosby Unit by the date of the final debate and at least half to 2/3 of a Cosby Unit by Election day. Ultimately he may have 2 or more Cosby Units worth of accusers.
A Ryan Unit is a measurement of political courage. It is roughly equal to 1/1000 of the political courage of legislators who voted for the ACA or against the Iraq War Resolution, knowing they would lose their seats over it.
Saturday, Oct 15, 2016 · 5:24:47 PM +00:00
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HalBrown
Since telling her story to the press, however, McGillivray says she has come to fear for her and her family’s safety. According to the Post, she’s been staying at a hotel, but when she returned to the house she shares with her daughter and stepfather, she was frightened by the attention her story has garnered.
“I look out the window and there are cars just driving around the house and looking, slowing down right at the house,’’ she said. “I don’t live in a gated community. This is dangerous. There could be people out there who want to hurt us.’’ from thinkprogress.org/...
