Thread by @kurteichenwald

This is going to be an ugly, angry thread. It's going to be about rape, written by someone who was violently raped in the early 1980s.

Tara Reade is a liar. Im now certain of that beyond a reasonable doubt. Her attention seeking or corrupt performance has demeaned people who../1

...have been actual victims. The willingness of Bernie Bros and Republicans and Russians demonstrates that this vicious, violent crime to be just something to exploit as a political tactic. gave this a lot of time, absorbing each new detail. I listened. I waited. NOW I am.../2

...angry as hell. These people keep pushing those like me back into our trauma by lying and games playing. For every Tara, there will be a million actual victims who will not come forward because she will have undermined all credibility....

...this is different than Ford - it is not "what party are they attacking? OK, that decides who I believe." I have never ever ever believed this "If someone accuses, believe them" crap. If someone accuses, *respect* them, listen, wait. But don't let frauds like Tara do this.../3

...why did I reach the end today? I read her latest change in her story. This one is the one that broke it. She is a fraud. Not only should she be ignored in perpetuity, she should be condemned and - if she actually filed a police report recently - arrest her.

Here's why../4

...as I said, this will be ugly. If descriptions of post-rape reality is too uncomfortable for you, stop reading here. I know my experiences are similar to those of other victims, and the complete opposite of Tara's.

If you are ok with continuing, read on.../5

...I was raped post seizure, while unconscious, in the early 1980s. Do I remember the exact date? No. That is not unusual. Things you see and feel and do remain forever, even with someone like me with severe memory problems. Markers like dates don't.

I remember the blood..../6

...I remember where it was, what each rivulet or blotch or puddle looked like. I remember trying desperately to wash it off. I remember being unable to cry. I remember my fear, my not wanting to tell anyone. I remember the beach towel I used to dry off and its pattern/colors.../7

...I remember the shapes of paint peeling on the ceiling of the room I was in. I remember deciding that, because the bleeding would not stop, I needed to take a cab to the hospital.

The memories stop. They resume again in the emergency room. I remember what the drape around../8

...my cubicle (if that's what its called) looked like. I remember the smock and appearance of my nurse. I remember how many doctors came to see me - first two of apparent age differences I remember, then a second one. I remember them pleading with me to file a police report.../9

...I remember shutting down. I remember a chair in the cubicle. I remember the last doctor trying to tell me about how I should be worried about STDs. I shut down, but I know he talked about AIDS. I remember leaving against everyone's request. I dont remember traveling. I.../10

...remember being home. I remember sleeping on the floor. I remember staring at the ceiling. I remember the next day going to the kitchen to get a garbage bag and putting everything bloody into it. I remember walking outside, hoping no one would see me and ask what was in.../11

...the bag (yes, that was irrational). I remember what the garbage can looked like. I remember fearing someone would open the garbage can and the bag, see all the blood-stained stuff and call the police. I remember I remember I remember. I remember this many nights of my..../12

...life in my sleep. I remember breaking down in tears, well into my 50s, about an attack that happened in my early 20s.

I discussing with counselors, and being told how my reactions - both at the time and in the decades since - were exactly how sexual assault victims react../13

....which brings us back to Tara, a horrible woman dining out on others' pain for attention or to advance her political interests in Bernie or to appease the man she praised forever - Putin - until she realized that looked bad in this circumstance so she stopped.../14

...she endlessly praised Biden for years - on tweets, in public, etc. If I could find the person who attacked me, even to this day, I would be hard pressed not to kill him. I wouldn't have praised him "Oh, I'm afraid to say what happened so I actively praised him when.../15

...no one asked." I would never have said - when no one asked - "That person rubbed my shoulders in a way I did not like" and then say - when no one asked me - "Oh no, he violently assaulted me." The problem is not revealing something happened. It's revealing ANYTHING at all../16

...so the changing story already made me suspect, particularly given this happened decades ago. You either get to the point where you are able to discuss it - which I did only in recent years - and say everything you can, or you say nothing. You don't make up a story that.../17

...minimizes it when *no one asked.* (And yes, her first story was made up - even if it is true - because of how dramatically different her second story is. A nuclear bomb cures the measles, and that is what you discuss. Rape overwhelms fears of harassment. )

Then there is.../18

...everything about her - stealing from a charitable group, her endless praise/then not of Putin, her Bernie obsession, her throwing this out there just when Biden became the presumptive nominee, her using the excuse that she was afraid then..../19

...but somehow ISNT afraid now when the person could well be the president of the United States, rather than just a senator or VP.

Then, today. Tara filed a request (to the wrong people) asking for this "sexual harassment then sexual assault complaint" she supposedly filed.../20

...then Biden said, "Great idea! Let's find it."

SUDDENLY, Tara goes "Oh, wait. That complaint I filed that now people might actually see if it exists, doesnt mention sexual harrassment. Or assault. My bad."

There is NO WAY IN HELL she would forget what.../21

...she filed, if there was anything she ever filed. Disclosing is a MASSIVE thing. I remember exactly when I told anybody - & that was very rare. I am only discussing it now because, in my book about my living with epilepsy, my wife - who I told years before - told me that.../22

...if I was going to write about having epilepsy, I had to tell the whole story. She said I had told her to push me not to keep any secrets in the book. I wrestled with this. I remember exactly where we were when she said that to me. Ultimately, I did it. I remember when I.../23

...was asked to narrate the audiobook, and that there was no way I could read that part out loud, so they hired someone else to do that.

You REMEMBER reporting. You NEVER say "Oh, oops. I filed a complaint about the assault, but the complaint didn't mention the assault. I.../24

...guess I just misremembered. Oh, & I only remembered when the guy who I am accusing of assaulting me asked for that document to be released." And this "I filed a complaint" doesnt start as - as the AP now found - "Oh, I went to speak to a counselor, but I chickened out so.../25

...i didn't say anything about being sexually assaulted. No WAIT! It wasn't a counselor. It was an office where you filed complaints like this, and I filed a complaint saying he attacked me. Oh, he wants that released? Well, damn. I just remembered!.../26

...I didn't chicken out from speaking to the counselor about the assault, and I didn't file the complaint I said I did because it was in filing THAT that I chickened out, not in the counselor.

BS! This. Is. A. Lie. And given that she changes her story with each development.../26

...it is a *knowing* lie.

Disclosure is almost as big a deal as the assault itself. There is absolutely no way you would believe you reported it, then - before the document comes out - say "oh wait, I didn't." ALL that changed is that Tara knew this "report" might.../27

...see the light of day.

I literally hate Tara Reade. I do not know what motive or mental illness she has that led to this nonsense, but I know she is aware that this is a lie.

And I hate the media on this. Despite the constant changing stories and motives, to make it.../28

..."Biden must prove this thing from someone who is not credible in any way, who said she considered reporting to counselor but chickened out, filed a report that said the rape but, when it might be revealed, say THAT was when she chickened out and didn't report it." How.../29

...is it POSSIBLE than the media thinks its valid to press someone on something like this that has so little credibility?.../30

...This has gone on too long, and it upset me to much. I will get to why this is different than Ford tomorrow. But Bernie types and GOPrs and Russians, I want you to know, you disgust me. Actual victims are not playthings for your political games. Drop it. You are not human.../31

...and as for you Tara, please know: You will be getting the attention you so dearly crave, and hopefully it will be when you have your perp walk for filing a false police report recently.

Real victims are also not toys for you to gain attention or political goals. Rot in hell.