Sarah Palin misses the point: Forget scoring points on Obama, think about the women and girls in Track’s life

www.salon.com|Mary Elizabeth Williams

Even within a week in which the entire family seems incoherent at best and abusive at worst, let’s remember that not every person with the Palin last name is reprehensible. So spare a kind thought this day for Kyla Grace Palin — Sarah’s grandchild and Track’s five year-old daughter.

There’s been a deluge of headlines about 26 year-old Iraq veteran Track Palin this week, thanks to his arrest for “fourth-degree assault, fourth-degree misconduct involving a weapon and interfering with a report of domestic violence” after an incident involving his current girlfriend. Police reported finding Track, who tested with a blood alcohol level of 0.189, “uncooperative, belligerent, and evasive,” and his girlfriend with “bruising and swelling around her left eye.” They also found an unloaded AR-15 on the premises. The girlfriend claimed Track had brandished it and threatened suicide.

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Can a Photoshopped picture of a battered Kim Kardashian help stop domestic violence? Artist Alexsandro Palombo thinks so. To raise awareness for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Palombo posted photos to his Facebook that depicted female celebrities including Kardashian, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Miley Cyrus, and Madonna as abuse victims. Their faces appear bloodied and beaten—with blackened eyes and swollen jaws.

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“Rowdy” Ronda Rousey is an incredible fighter, an Olympian, a movie star, maybe even a burgeoning fashonista and — if you go by countless Internet headlines about the UFC women’s bantamweight champion — an icon and a role model.

Rousey started fighting in 2011 and quickly captured the attention of MMA fans. She joined the UFC in 2013, but didn’t ascend to international superstardom until recently, in part thanks to roles in “The Expendables 3,” “Entourage” and “Furious 7.” When she finally did become a crossover hit, it was massive. Not many MMA fighters receive coverage in The New Yorker and The New York Times, nor do they get shoutouts from celebrities like Beyoncé, Chris Pratt, Shaq and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. And the people of Brazil don’t start crying upon the sight of other celebrities and sports stars like they did with Rousey.

Fox News’ resident “doctor” Keith Ablow blames co-ed sports and the gender equality movement for perpetuating a culture that tells people like Florida State University quarterback De’Andre Johnson that it’s okay to hit women. Just this week, a bar surveillance video surfaced showing the quarterback punching a female student in the face after she “provoked” him.

Florida State University freshman quarterback De’Andre Johnson was suspended and charged with misdemeanor battery last month after he allegedly punched a 21-year-old woman in the face at a Tallahassee bar. Johnson turned himself in that same day and was released on $500 bond on Thursday, however the woman reportedly plans to move forward with battery charges. On Monday, the state attorney’s office released security footage of the incident illustrating why.

Bill O’Reilly issued a short statement on Monday responding to allegations that he physically assaulted his ex-wife, Maureen McPhilmy, refuting the claims as “100 percent false.” Then, apparently, he went on with his day. Giving no additional air-time to a Gawker report that claims the Fox News host dragged McPhilmy down the stairs of their home by her neck, O’Reilly discussed the U.S. ground attacks on ISIS on the Monday edition of his program, and engaged in some light bickering with columnist Charles Krauthammer about…the Vietnam War? And Hillary Clinton?

Gawker has uncovered new details today concerning the at-times brutal three-year custody dispute between Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly and ex-wife, Maureen McPhilmy. In one instance, court documents say, O’Reilly violently attacked McPhilmy and dragged her down a staircase by the neck. According to a “source familiar with the facts of the case,” O’Reilly’s 16-year-old daughter allegedly told the forensic examiner assigned to the case that she’d witnessed the attack. Gawker was not able to confirm the date of the incident but speculates that it happened well before the formalized divorce in 2011.

Most of us have read the stats—that 25 percent of women on American college campuses report surviving rape or attempted rape; that it will take 75 years for all American women to receive equal pay for equal work; that the U.S. ranks 98th worldwide in the percentage of national legislative seats held by women. Very few of us have done so, however, and thought of the Shakers. Yes, those Shakers — the ones who made furniture and hated sex. On the practical side, in late 18th and early 19th century New England, Shaker settlements were well known for sheltering victims of abuse. Then as now, alcoholism, poverty and isolation were powerful abettors of domestic crime — except that it wasn’t considered crime in those days, thanks to common-law “rule of thumb,” which allowed a husband to beat his wife as long as he employed a rod no thicker than his thumb. “Legal” or not, many women were pummeled, whipped, stoned and raped. Joining a Shaker community promised safety.

That day, May 16, or two days before Brown died in a fight with Baldwin, he texted her 36 times. At first, he profusely apologized, but then he wanted her to give him money and to have sex. She tried to ignore him and replied that it was time to move on. The next day, he began texting again at 7:30am, and did not stop until after midnight when Brown texted that he was following her car. “I’m behind u lol [laugh out loud],” he wrote. On June 18, he started again at 6:36am, accusing her of lying. After 12 texts, she wrote, “Leave me alone!!!!” He replied, “N u will see how crazy shit will get today.” When the police, firefighters and ambulances arrived two hours later, they found Brown crushed between Baldwin’s car and a cement wall at the end of the driveway.