Imagine being raped & then seeing conservative law makers, Fox News, WSJ etc call your trauma a lie. Imagine if this 10 year old was your daughter.
In the post SCOTUS Roe world this is our “new” normal. Indefensible for Fox News, OH-AG, IN-AG, Gym Jordan, WSJ et al would call this heinous crime a lie. This isn’t about misogyny it’s soulless…
Past is not always Prologue…
I pondered writing and publishing this article now that “only in America” the Supreme Court of these United States took away rights from nearly half the population. I have written, edited and re-written this article about half a dozen times. I also didn’t think publishing an article where every other word was F you —would be all that productive. And it certainly wouldn’t add to the already combustible civil discourse. While my silence on SCOTUS overturning Roe v Wade is uncustomary, at least for me. I explicitly decided to wait before I speak/published. Sometimes I need time to think things through.
The goal of this article is meant to broaden the discussion, hopefully providing actual facts, and proffering a constructive way forward. Meaning I still have hope for America. I still believe America is the best country on earth. And as naive as this sounds, I fervently believe that at America’s core, we are kind, decent and compassionate people. That we have much more in common then we don’t.
As an individual who is proudly a naturalized American citizen, I’m mindful that my citizenship wasn’t born to me and it’s not something I take for granted. In fact I had to do a lot of studying and then I had to take an exam, as one of the many steps to lawfully obtain my American citizenship. Notwithstanding I had the good fortune of being raised in a truly patriotic American family. Serving our great country was a “duty” in my childhood household. And a duty I’ve often fallen incredibly short of.
Full disclosure this article is L-O-N-G but I did try to source as many documents as I could. There are a few plausible solutions that both Congress and the White House should consider. After all #ThanksTrump for your complete disregard for our three co-equal branches of Government. You’re predictable “cried like a fat Orange piggy all the way to SCOTUS” let me repeat #ThanksTrump.
The child was NINE YEARS old when she was repeatedly raped.
The local reporters in Ohio have done an exemplary job chasing the facts of this horrific story.. As if this American Horror could not get any worse (sorry for yelling) at the time of her rape, she was a NINE YEAR OLD child. And she was repeatedly raped by an alleged undocumented man. According to numerous local reports this child only recently turn ten. it is absolutely stomach turning. Even though I’ve done my share of pro bono work for sexual assault survivors, I can’t comprehend what this monster did to a nine year old little girl. And then to prove just how misogynistic and out of touch the MAGA-Republicans are, you assholes called this victim a liar. I genuinely mean this I pray to God that none of your daughters, sisters, aunts, mothers, grandmothers are ever raped and I also pray to God that they are never impregnated by their rapist.
Seriously (zero respect intended) what in the actual fuckity-fucking-fuck is wrong with you? As I said I really am going to try and refrain from cussing any point further in this article…. So grab a Red Bull and put your glasses on and I’ll hold your hand as we jump head first into the deep end of the deepest of deep stupid…
President Biden’s July 8, 2022 signing Executive Order
I will keep repeating this, an executive order does not supersede confided statutes. Meaning the next president could easily strike dow.
This Executive Order builds on the actions his Administration has already taken to defend reproductive rights by:
Safeguarding access to reproductive health care services, including abortion and contraception;
Protecting the privacy of patients and their access to accurate information;
Promoting the safety and security of patients, providers, and clinics; and
Coordinating the implementation of Federal efforts to protect reproductive rights and access to health care.
Moreover do you remember in 2019, when Trump used the power of the Office of the President of the United States and declared a “National Emergency” —simply because he could not break the legislative branch’s power of the purse. Trump contumely mislead his supporters, that: “Build that Wall…Mexico is paying for it” Yet Congress (wisely) repeatedly rejected Trump’s budget which had reallocated billions of dollars (specifically from the DOD & had a massive impact on the DOD’s capital improvements plans for dozens of military instillations) Trump’s pernicious obsession with “the wall” meant he would effectively steal Congressional appropriations (from the DOD) and when that didn’t work he cried like a mitch-boy all the way to SCOTUS. Initially SCOTUS said Trump’s “national emergency declaration” was lawful
See Trump Proclamation 9844 of February 15, 2019 Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States
See SCOTUS Docket for: Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, et al., Applicants v. Sierra Club, et al.
July 26, 2019 - granting writ & subsequently vacating the 9thCCOAs ruling
See Biden Administration Jul 19, 2021 SCOTUS filing —to wit SCOTUS said Biden could end Trump’s (phony) National Emergency Declaration/
…acted within his authority when he unilaterally appropriated $2.5 billion in military funds to build 100 miles of his long-promised border wall
Application (19A60) granted by the Court. The application for stay presented to JUSTICE KAGAN and by her referred to the Court is granted. Among the reasons is that the Government has made a sufficient showing at this stage that the plaintiffs have no cause of action to obtain review of the Acting Secretary’s compliance with Section 8005. The District Court’s June 28, 2019 order granting a permanent injunction is stayed pending disposition of the Government’s appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and disposition of the Government’s petition for a writ of certiorari, if such writ is timely sought. Should the petition for a writ of certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event the petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate when the Court enters its judgment. JUSTICE GINSBURG, JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, and JUSTICE KAGAN would deny the application. JUSTICE BREYER, concurring in part and dissenting inpart from grant of stay
Binding legal precedent Declare a National (health) Emergency… (Trump gave you a SCOTUS precedent)
And while most might have the opposite reaction or point of view, I tend to be an optimist and always look for some silver lining. The reason I’m pointing you to the SCOTUS case regarding Trump’s misappropriations; well in my industry we call that “binding legal precedent” — meaning SCOTUS (unwittingly) emboldened and gave POTUS the legal stamp of okay…irrespective of the century honored position of “separation of powers” and the whole “sword and purse”
“The judiciary . . . has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither force nor will, but merely judgment.”. See Library of Congress Federalist # 78
Again the “rationale” of Trump’s National Emergency at the Southern Boarder, which thereafter redirected billions in appropriations/funds from several federal agencies to the Department of Homeland Security. Trump opted to tap into the Pentagon funds which held more than $2.5 billion in Pentagon funds. Trump used the powers of declaring a “national emergency“ to unilaterally (and arguably unlawfully) reappropriate funds towards building (it was actually replacing existing portions of the wall) about 80 miles of barriers in California, Arizona and New Mexico. The rational Trump proffer to SCOTUS, was those funds would help block the flow of drugs across the border.
In a hilarious twist of sweet, sweet irony, earlier this week, Mexico pledged more than $1.5B in 'smart security' at the border — see Joint Mexico & United States July 12, 2022 Joint Statement — so my point is: President Biden should and could declare a “National Health Emergency for Women’s reproduction rights” and in doing so this would free up multiple buckets of appropriations.
But you should also know that earlier this week, over 80 House Democrats, in a letter this week, urged President Biden and the Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to
“use emergency public health powers to address what they calleda full-scale reproductive health crisis across our nationthreatens patients' lives."
Increase SCOTUS bench to 13 seats…
Some of you might recall in October 2021 -I opined on why raising current SCOTUS Bench from 9 to 13 seats… should be the goal. I further explained the rationale behind my assertion, it was exclusively based on facts, not emotion or feelings but actual agnostic facts.. The primary basis for my argument was/is at the time we only had eight US Circuit Court of Appeals (USCCOAS). And that means each Supreme Court Justice is assigned a specific USCCOAs —our currently judical system now has upwards of 13 unique circuits.
Setting the MAGA-Republicans right.
(full disclosure the next subsection of this article will likely include pure unbridled rage) —I do think it’s important for my readers to start with the IndyStar’s July 1, 2022 article; Patients head to Indiana for abortion services as other states restrict care. And for the record I’m cringing that I’m embedding a Town Hall YouTube Video but that “news” outlet is only one who has the full 27+ minute arraignment hearing and I would recommend that you take the time to watch at least the first six minutes of the video.
We are now at the point that MAGA-Republicans are actually advocating for the insane notion that a ten year old child should have carried her pregnancy (which was the vile product of rape) to term. See July 14, 2022 National Right to Life Statement, below I’ve embedded various news articles and videos.
July 6, 2022: DeWine reacts to 10-year-old who traveled to Indiana for abortion: Assault is 'tragedy'
July 11, 2022 Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, appeared on Fox News and publicly raised doubts about this 10 year old child’s rape. Galling is Yost said “he’d gotten ‘not a whisper’ about the case”
July 11, 2022 Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita ran to the MAGA-Republicans Propaganda Network (colloquially known as Fox “news”) and pounded his chest, saying that his office would seek criminal charges against the OB-GYM Doctor who preformed the medical abortion, for the 10 year old rape victim. Irrespective that the doctor complied with Indiana’s mandatory reporting.
July 11, 2022 during Jesse Watters opening segment, he unequivocally stated this 10 year old’s traumatic rape and subsequent abortion “was a hoax” and then had the temerity to imply he was responsible for the arrest of Gerson Feutntez
July 13, 2022 The Wall Street Journal published, on its editorial page featured entitled “An Abortion Story Too Good to Confirm,” in which the editorial board claimed “there’s no evidence the girl exists” and concluded that it was “an unlikely story from a biased source.”
July 13, 2022: confirmation the Indy Star’s July 1, 2022 reporting was indeed horrifically correct. Report: Columbus police arrest man accused of raping 10-year-old girl who sought abortion in Indiana, that 27-year-old Gershon Fuentes was arrested on Tuesday July 12, 2022 and that he confessed, to raping the child, on two separate occasions
July 13, 2022: Ohio AG Dave Yost cast doubt on 10-year-old rape victim case, now 'rejoices' at arrest
July 13, 2022 -Jim Jordan’s now infamous deleted tweet. A day later CNN’s Manu Raja pressed Jordon on his disgusting tweet. See video here
July 14, 2022 Washington Post OpEd: A 10-year-old rape victim’s plight shows why politicians should stay out of abortion
If any of these “so called” educated white men had done a basic google search then they would have known, statistically speaking these misogynistic men need to shut their filthy mouths. The unapologetically cast doubt on the veracity of this ten year old child’s trauma. So let me help you understand what the data says:
U.S. Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey 2008-2012
Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence states that the younger the victim, the narrower the window is for collecting forensic evidence of sexual assault
“Evidence collection (a ‘rape kit’) is a voluntary part of the sexual assault exam,” the group’s website says. “Evidence collection is available up to 96 hours (4 days) after an assault for patients who are 16 years of age or older, and up to 72 hours (3 days) after the assault for patients who are 15 years of age and younger.”
The 2020 Report: Induced Abortions in Ohio Ohio Department of Health notes that in the State of Ohio: 52 girls aged 14 and younger had abortions.
Also see National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) Dashboard (N-DASH) Tool and see DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) “…is the nation's primary source of information on criminal victimization…” —one thing to keep in mind the data collected is voluntary and the NCVS data is not all inclusive…however according to RAINN: “One in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault at the hands of an adult.”
Every 2 minutes, another American is sexually assaulted.
There is an average of 237,868 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year.
There are 525,600 minutes in a non-leap year.
That makes 31,536,000 seconds/year.
31,536,000 divided by 237,868 comes out to 1 sexual assault every 133 seconds, or about 1 every 2 minutes
Children are most vulnerable to CSA between the ages of 7 and 13.
According to a 2003 National Institute of Justice report, “3 out of 4 adolescents who have been sexually assaulted were victimized by someone they knew well..” I should note I’m not a subject matter expert on child sexual assault —notwithstanding the research for this particular article came in just under 16 hours with an added 22 hours to read every single embedded/linked document contained herein. Assuming arguendo that I really am a “bored chain smoking alcoholic stay at home mom” (who’s never cheated on my spouse -snort) every document contained in this article was open sourced yet somehow the two top “law enforcement” officers for Ohio and Indiana, respectively couldn’t conduct a basic and I mean basic google search (full disclosure I have access to WestLaw and LexisNexis) about childhood sexual violence in their respective states. Maybe these impotent mealy mouthed men should do a scintilla of research before they embarrass themselves on the National Stage. Just a thought, not a sermon
Defendant Gerson Fuentes:
Franklin County, Ohio Municipal Court records database — and look I’ve been a staunch anti-doxing person and yes I did redact this defendant’s PII. Not that I wanted to be ethics something something —only intellectually stunted aholes dox people for fun or sport. And unlike those individuals I do not condone doxing of any kind.
Case No 2022-CR-A- 010238 DEFENDANT GERSON FUENTES —the date of the first offense occurred on May 12, 2022 (see Scribd link for a recent docket report) and as you’ll note during Defendant Fuentes’ July 13, 2022 arraignment Detective Jeffrey Huhn informed the Court (see minute marker 2:23 of Arraignment video via YouTube
….the mother indicated her 10-year-old daughter was pregnant. She is no longer pregnant because she had a medically terminated abortion, the victim had the consultation on June 29. “I believe the procedure was initiated on the 30th. The products of conception were picked up on the 2nd of July,”
Furthermore according to Detective Huhn’s affidavit it’s not just stomach turning it is a horrific and unspeakable trauma inflicted on a nine year old child that was raped (she only recently turned 10) and that victim, along with her mother, her doctors made the life altering decision to cross state lines and obtain a medical abortion…
On June 22,2022 - Columbus Police Force reporr was generated for Rape-Child Under, l5-.. listing HVN age l0 as the victim' On July 6 2022 HVN referrenced Gerson Fuentes M/H 4/05/1995 as the suspect iho raped her. On July 12, 2022 Dctectives Jelfrey Huhn #745 and David phillips served Gerson Fuentes with a search warrant for a Baccula Swab (saliva DNA) …After obtaining the buccal swab Detectives brought Gerson Fuentes to police headquarters for an interview where he confessed to raping.
Dear MAGA-Republicans & SCOTUS …
Apparently none of you Bible thumping, gun toting, alcohol soaked, impotent men are aware of this inconvenient fact: forced pregnancies are a UN Human Rights violation… you are under zero obligation to take my word for it. I assume the 2020 United Nations INFORMATION SERIES ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS has the prerequisite authority…
..the right of a woman or girl to make autonomous decisions about her own body and reproductive functions is at the very core of her fundamental right to equality and privacy, involving intimate matters of physical and psychological integrity, and is a precondition for the enjoyment of other rights…. the Special Rapporteur on the right to health has stated that laws criminalizing abortion “infringe women’s dignity and autonomy by severely restricting decisionmaking by women in respect of their sexual and reproductive health.”
And that’s me saying that I certainly hope the Civil Rights legal community takes a hard look at filing suit on behalf of nearly one half of the American population because what SCOTUS did in overturning Rov v Wade —I’d argue they I fringe on numerous civil rights of women, specifically of women of childbearing age. You might think I’m being hyperbolic, I’m not —I am telling you that a solid civil rights argument could be made. But I’m not an attorney nor have I ever played one on TV. I’m the asshole that attorneys turn to when they need to tighten up their arguments or feel the need to a session of intellectual sadomasochism because I tend to not hold back and I love poking holes in arguments…
Lastly it’s been 80 days since his suicide, this was the sunset I filmed the day I was told you had died by suicide. And I’m not at all ashamed to admit that shortly after filing this, I jumped into the Sound to release countless primal screams. I had intended to keep this video for my own pain but I realized (with the help of my grief counselor) that the pain doesn’t go away by ignoring it…also Substack is being weird for some reason I’m unable to embed the Instagram Reel
And with that I think (assuming) you had the stamina to read this entire article. As you can see there are at least two paths to move forward but if you think a judicial Hail Mary is the panacea to fix the supremely nuts SCOTUS ruling. I regret to inform you, it is not. The way to effectuate real and meaningful change is to use your power at the ballot box. If you don’t vote then in my view you don’t have the right to complain but as of publication there’s not a chance in hell that I’d ever vote for a Republican (applicable to State, County and Federal) elections.
From what I’ve seen the moment my “fathers party” crawled into bed with a thrice divorced, credibly accused sexual predator, who subsequently had three anchor babies. That is the precise moment that I walked away from my “father’s political party” —this belief was further solidified by the recent SCOTUS nonsense and then the MAGA-Republicans grotesque shaming of this ten year old victim. Seriously folks like Jim Jordon, Yost et al —they need to seek immediate help to fix their obviously damaged souls. I can’t wrap my head around the MAGA-Republicans who decided a ten year old child, who was repeatedly raped when she was nine years old, should be “forced” to carry the pregnancy to term.
Be Well -Filey
PS I’m taking the weekend off -so I’ll see you on July 18, 2022 or
Happy weekend! I am starting with a big hug to help you with your ongoing journey of grief 💜.
The way you begin this reminds of when I get a nasty email from a parent and have to respond. This usually means writing two replies, one no one will see, laden with profanity and commentary on their parenting skills, and the other professional one I send.
It's fascinating, sad, weird that Biden could use the same powers and reasoning trump used for his BS wall in order to protect women's rights. Our system is broken, so expanding the court is one very helpful solution. As we know, the only way to do this is to have a clear majority, now and in 2024. Plus, we really need to vote out every single POS who promoted propaganda about the 9 year-old rape victim. (I have had students who are survivors of sexual assault. It takes a lot of love, support, and therapy for them to recover.)
Have a great weekend! Here, it's the annual Deep River muster, the largest gathering of fife and drum corps in the country. Senator Blumenthal always marches in the parade too. Love him!
Filey, First a huge thank you for your efforts and energy and continuing public service! I've been an avid reader and follower since the early Sean Spicer days, and your multiple erasures and reincarnations, and I'm delighted that you're still with us... Now, to the matter at hand. I have two concerns with your proposals; the first is that while there may be excellent logistical and judicial reasons for expanding the bench, it will only ever be seen as a political move in the current climate, and while it might fix the former problems it will never fix the root cause of a politicized bench, which is dirt, or more clearly, the Senate. I wrote my own article on that, here https://infinite8horizon.wordpress.com/2022/07/06/dirt-liars-and-roe-v-wade/
The second issue is using precedents set by Trump (and endorsed by the Supremes) to address newer problems. The danger here, I think, is that you can easily become engaged in a race to the bottom. Just because Trump got away with it doesn't mean the Democrats should happily now abuse the same mechanisms for their own ends, because in the end the loser is democracy, not one party or the other... I'll admit that desperate times may call for desperate measures, but the reductio ad absurdum conclusion of that is "the end justifies the means", and then you have lunatics in furs and horns storming the barricades... I'm not suggesting your proposal will inexorably lead to that, but I'd urge caution in using any of Trump's dirty tricks. My $.02 anyway.