The Commentariat -- November 19, 2017
Afternoon Update:
The Editors of Al.com, which is produced by Alabama's major newspapers, endorse Democrat Doug Jones for Senate. ...
... Brian Stelter of CNN: "The Alabama Media Group stripped the editorial across its Sunday front pages. The unusual step comes 10 days after misconduct allegations first surfaced against Moore, the Republican nominee for the state's Senate seat. The editorial doubles as an endorsement of Moore's opponent, Democrat Doug Jones. It appears in The Birmingham News, Mobile Press-Register and The Huntsville Times and it is prominently featured on the papers' shared website AL.com."
Jason Burke & Emma Graham-Harrison of the Guardian: "Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, is facing the end of his 37-year rule, as he prepares to address the nation after his party sacked him as its leader and told him to resign as head of state. Expectation was mounting that he would resign on Sunday night after Zimbabwean state TV said he would 'address the nation live from State House'. In an extraordinary meeting in Harare, the capital, on Sunday morning more than 200 Zanu-PF leaders voted to sack Mugabe as the party's leader and demanded that the 93-year-old 'resign forthwith from his position as head of state' or face impeachment."
*****
Steve M.: "We're now living in an era of post-popularity democracy. Republicans simply believe, with good reason, that they don't need popular proposals in order to retain power. They believe they can survive extraordinarily unpopular proposals [like their current tax bill], because gerrymandering, vote suppression, disciplined propaganda efforts by Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media, and massive amounts of money from the plutocrats who like what they propose will get them through.... Republican voters will put up with anything from their party's elected officials as long as those officials make clear that they're defying the wishes of the hated Democrats." --safari
Juliet Eilperin & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "A combination of public and private pressure prompted President Trump to overturn his administration's recent move to allow elephants shot for sport in Zimbabwe and Zambia to be imported back to the United States as trophies, according to interviews with several individuals briefed on the decision. Trump's announcement Friday that he was putting the decision 'on hold' until he could personally review it marked animal welfare activists' first federal victory since the president took office in January, and came just hours after the White House press secretary had defended the idea of renewing the controversial trophy imports.... Political appointees at Interior did press for [lifting the ban on importing trophy elephant remains], which is a top priority for hunting industry allies of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.... A similar change affecting African lion trophies had gone mostly unnoticed since it took effect last month, and it is not clear whether Trump was aware of that earlier decision.... It is unclear who will conduct the review of the import decision, since Trump vowed on Twitter to do it himself, and whether lion trophy imports will also face fresh scrutiny."
Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "The top U.S. nuclear commander said Saturday he would push back against President Trump if he ordered a nuclear launch the general believed to be 'illegal,' saying he would look to find another solution. Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), told an audience at the Halifax International Security Forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saturday that he has given a lot of thought to what he would say if a president ordered a strike he considered unlawful.... Hyten said he has been trained every year for decades in the law of armed conflict, which takes into account specific factors to determine legality -- necessity, distinction, proportionality, unnecessary suffering and more. Running through scenarios of how to react in the event of an illegal order is standard practice, he said." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: We'll have to wait to see what better-informed analysts than I have to say, but right now U.S. law gives the president the final say or whether or not to launch a nuclear strike. Hyten seems to be suggesting he has the final say -- based on a document that describes itself not as definitive law or even as the "official" Army position but as a "teaching document." On its face, Hyten's description of the scenario in which he would "school" the president on the law & the president would demur sounds ridiculous. It seems to me that if this President -- or any president -- told the nuclear commander to launch a strike & the commander declined, the POTUS could relieve him of his command & go down the line (Saturday-night-massacre style) until he found an officer who would comply with the presidential order. In any even, Hyten's claim does not make me feel all better about the what the Crazy Guy in the White House might do to "start World War III," as Bob Corker worries.
The Daily Beast: "President Trump's aides and advisers have made a habit of showing him only positive polls to cheer him up, Politico reports. Aides and advisers cited in the report said they show him polls 'designed to make him feel good,' usually those that focus solely on his base.... Several senior aides and advisers said the Trump administration only becomes concerned when support slips in his base." --safari
Jeremy Herb & Evan Perez of CNN: "The attorney for Jared Kushner ... is pushing back against the Senate Judiciary Committee after the panel accused Kushner of not disclosing key documents.... Attorney Abbe Lowell wrote that there were no 'missing documents' as the committee has alleged, while criticizing the panel's leaders for going to the media on Thursday with their accusations.... Lowell went point-by-point through the panel's letter to argue that Kushner was being forthcoming with the documents that had been turned over." ...
... Benjamin Hart of New York: "Either Jared Kushner is trying to hide something, or his memory is very poor for a 36-year-old. On Friday, the New York Times and NBC News reported that the 'Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite' Kushner failed to disclose to Senate investigators involved a banker with close ties to Vladimir Putin.... Kushner's failure to disclose the records is just the latest example of his consistent evasiveness on all things Russia-related.... Kushner continues to dissemble about which Russians he spoke to and when he spoke to them."
Trump's Russian Rendezvous? Tony Doris of the Palm Beach Post: "Days before President Trump flies into town for Thanksgiving, one of the world's most expensive yachts, owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, sailed into the Port of Palm Beach Friday afternoon. The 533-foot Eclipse, valued at $400 million to $500 million, comes equipped with a pool, helipad, submarine and room for a crew of 92, according to marine websites.... According to the MarineTraffic app, she plans to head south on the Intracoastal Waterway, toward downtown West Palm Beach. Note to Transportation Security Administration: That would put a Russian submarine within a mile or so of the winter White House. Bloomberg Politics has reported that presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner has met Abramovich one-on-one and with their wives on a number of occasions. No word on whether Abramovich, 51, said to be a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has met President Trump or will spend time with him during the stay."
Caroline Orr of Shareblue: "Despite repeated denials, it is now clear that the Trump campaign had extensive and prolonged contact with Russians, and that senior officials -- including Corey Lewandowski and recently indicted Paul Manafort, two of the campaign's three managers, as well as Trump's son and son-in-law -- were aware of it. According to a count by the Washington Post, Trump campaign officials interacted with Russians at least 31 times throughout the campaign, including at least 19 known meetings. These contacts involve at least nine members of the Trump campaign -- at least, that's how many have been made public. All of this occurred as Russia was also manipulating social media, paying U.S.-based activists, and weaponizing hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee in an effort to influence the 2016 election. 'The Russians were all over the Trump campaign,' wrote Adam Goldman, one of the authors of the latest New York Times piece [on Trump campaign contacts with "Alexander Torshin, a leading figure in Russian President Vladimir Putin's party who has been linked both to Russian intelligence services and organized crime.]. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Also yesterday, Ken Delanian of NBC News was reporting on MSNBC that Donald Trump, Jr., met with Torshin at an NRA dinner, after Kushner sent out a campaign memo saying Torshin's efforts should be squelched. According to Delanian, the White House (or Junior's attorney; I forget) said that Junior & Torshin were not sitting at the same table at the NRA meeting & the two just happened to stop & chat at some point during the event. Okay, then; everything's good. I cannot find a print version of Delanian's on-air reporting.
Tany Basu of The Daily Beast: "Beyond making graduate education impossible for the foreseeable future should it pass, the new tax bill has the potential to stymie fundamental science research in labs. Here's how. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that passed the House by 227 Republican votes on Thursday repeals Section 1204 of the new bill, which, under the current tax code, offered an exemption for 'Interest Payment on Qualified Education Loans, Tuition & Related Expenses, Interest on United States Savings Bond, Qualified Tuition Reduction, and Employer-Provided Education Assistance.' In plain English, that means that tuition waivers were not considered taxable income and were therefore exempt. The proposed new tax code, however, views that waiver as taxable income." --safari ...
... AND here's how the GOP "tax reform" bill will also raise unemployment among well-educated young people. Jessica Silver-Greenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "... in 19 states, government agencies can seize state-issued professional licenses from residents who default on their educational debts. Another state, South Dakota, suspends driver's licenses, making it nearly impossible for people to get to work. As debt levels rise, creditors are taking increasingly tough actions to chase people who fall behind on student loans. Going after professional licenses stands out as especially punitive. Firefighters, nurses, teachers, lawyers, massage therapists, barbers, psychologists and real estate brokers have all had their credentials suspended or revoked." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is much like debtors' prison, which -- although it has been illegal in the U.S. since some time in the 1800s -- persists in municipalities that jail people who can't afford to pay fines (Ferguson, Mo., for instance). It's a Catch-22. Can't afford to pay off your education loans? Then you can't work in the field in which you're trained (and would probably pay you more than the crappy jobs you could get outside your area of expertise). Obviously, as the punitive GOP tax bill would make the cost of education appreciably higher, the number of grads who can't pay down their student loans will increase. The GOP "tax reform" bill is an anti-jobs bill designed to hurt the best workers the most. ...
... The Hits Just Keep on Coming. Here's another winner in the "Worst Part of GOP 'Tax Reform'" contest: ...
... Washington Post Editors: "MONEYBALL POLITICS took a great leap forward when the Supreme Court opened the door to campaign contributions from corporations and unions in the 2010 case Citizens United v. FEC. Now the Republican-controlled House has passed a tax bill that, should it become law, would unleash another tidal wave of change. It would permit churches, charities and foundations to engage in candidate-specific politicking and enable donors to reap tax breaks for political contributions for the first time.... Churches and church-affiliated groups generally don't even have to file IRS returns, so there will be no information about who these contributors are.... Churches, charities and foundations already enjoy the right to advocate for issues. There is no need to give these groups a new cash window and make them servants of special interests seeking to further warp the nation's electoral politics."
Kathryn Watson: "Outspoken Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona was heard on a hot mic Saturday saying the Republican Party will be 'toast' if it is defined by figures like President Trump and Alabama Republican Roy Moore. Flake, whose comments were caught on a microphone of ABC local affiliate KNXV, was speaking with a friend at the time after finishing a town hall on tax reform. '[If we] become the party of Roy Moore and Donald Trump, we are toast,' Flake is overheard saying to Mesa, Arizona, Mayor John Giles." ...
... Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Saturday declared there was 'no news here,' after reports surfaced of the Arizona Republican warning that the GOP will be 'toast' if it aligns itself with President Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R). 'No news here,' Flake tweeted. 'I've been saying this to anyone who will listen.'"
Senate Race
William Saletan of Slate: "... many of [Roy] Moore's supporters ... believe that if you have the right principles, all other truth follows.... With God, and with a good man like Moore, there can be no error. This mentality, known in Christian scholarship as 'presuppositionalism,' sustains evangelical support for President Trump, according to Molly Worthen, a professor at the University of North Carolina.... People who think this way dismiss inconvenient facts.... Anyone who claims that Moore is innocent, or that it's impossible to know who's telling the truth, is up against a mountain of evidence." Saletan runs down the evidence, along with Moore's self-incriminating remarks.
Bob Brigham of RawStory: "A South Carolina preacher is continuing to support Republican senate nominee Roy Moore in Alabama, an apparent reversal of his previously claimed focus on wanting to protect children from sexual predators. Pastor Franklin Raddish of the Capitol Hill Independent Baptist Ministries has dismissed recent allegations of powerful men as attacks that are part of a so-called 'war on men.' 'More women are sexual predators than men,' Rev. Raddish claimed. 'Women are chasing young boys up and down the road, but we don't hear about that because it's not PC,' Rev. Raddish alleged." --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry I haven't done much today. But I'm all tuckered out because I always spend Saturday nights chasing young boys up & down the road. (Medlar has a tendency to get aggravated about this, but as I've explained to him again & again, it's all good because on Sunday I go to Rev. Raddish's church & confess my sins, which of course washes them away.)
Daniel Politi of Slate: Tony Perkins, "the head of the Family Research Council, allegedly kept quiet about claims that an Ohio Republican lawmaker assaulted a teenage boy in a hotel two years ago. Perkins was told that then-candidate for the Ohio legislature Wesley Goodman's allegedly fondled a supporter's son during a conference in Washington, according to the Washington Post.... The apparent actions by Goodman apparently didn't come as a surprise to Perkins who referred to 'similar incidents' in a letter. Perkins called on Goodman to step down from the race, but he continued and eventually won a seat in the legislature in November. Goodman, now 33, resigned his seat earlier this week after state lawmakers learned about 'inappropriate behavior related to his state office,' according to Ohio's House speaker. Goodman, who is married and repeatedly touted his faith and anti-LGBT views, was reportedly seen having sex with a man in his office."
Gubernatorial Race?
Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neill apologized on Saturday for posting on Facebook a day earlier bragging about his sexual exploits. O'Neill, who is running for Ohio governor as a Democrat, received massive backlash Friday for detailing his sexual history with '50 very attractive females,' in response to mounting sexual misconduct allegations against prominent political figures.... [However, he qualified his apology.] 'If I offended anyone, particularly the wonderful women in my life, I apologize,' he wrote on Facebook Saturday. 'But if I have helped elevate the discussion on the serious issues of sexual assault, as opposed to personal indiscretions, to a new level ... I make no apologies.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: You think you've "elevated the discussion" in boasting about your "blondes" & "redheads"??? You were a pig on Friday & you're a pig today ... AND you're toast. Pulled pork on a hot bun, maybe, with a side of anus of oinker.
Katie Rogers & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "A day after the latest in a dizzying series of sexual assault revelations enveloped Senator Al Franken and rattled the Capitol, politicians and comedians were left trying to assess the line between predatory behavior and an inexcusable mistake, as calls mounted for him to resign." The reports cites numerous former colleagues -- all women -- who said Franken was not sexually abusive. Mrs. McC: We might want to bear in mind, of course, that women at Fox "News" said the same thing about Roger Ailes., who definitely was a sexual predator. ...
... Mark Stern of Slate writes a compelling case for Al Franken's resignation from the Senate: "The hypocrisy of Franken's reaction is galling. Following the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the senator wrote an impassioned Facebook post declaring that sexual harassment is 'appalling' and 'far too common.' He added that it 'takes a lot of courage to come forward, and we owe them our thanks.' Franken then praised Gretchen Carlson for writing about 'the disappointing responses women often face when they go public both embolden harassers and encourage victims to stay silent.' Now Franken has issued the exact kind of 'disappointing response' that Carlson bemoaned, attempting to dismiss the accusation against him as a botched joke that his victim misremembered."
Mark Townsend of the Guardian: "The Observer has gained access to a secret hitlist of almost 100 prominent individuals targeted by Harvey Weinstein in an extraordinary attempt to discover what they knew about sexual misconduct claims against him and whether they were intending to go public. The previously undisclosed list contains a total of 91 actors, publicists, producers, financiers and others working in the film industry.... The names, apparently drawn up by Weinstein himself, were distributed to a team hired by the film producer to suppress claims that he had sexually harassed or assaulted numerous women." --safari ...
... Wherein Maureen Dowd argues that rampant sexual assault by powerful men like Harvey Weinstein is all the Clintons' fault.
The Source of Their Rage? Rank Hypocrisy. David Ferguson of RawStory: "The New York Times Nicholas Kristof reported Saturday on the results of the annual Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which found that people living in so-called blue states have lower rates of teen pregnancy, divorce and prostitution than their counterparts in conservative states.... In a survey of 32 states, the states with the highest percentage of teens who are sexually active were Mississippi, Delaware, West Virginia, Alabama and Arkansas. As Kristof noted, 'All but Delaware voted Republican in the last presidential election.'... Of the 10 states with the highest teen birth rates, nine voted Republican in 2016. Of the 10 states with the lowest teen birth rates, nine voted Democratic.... Red state marriages are more likely to end in divorce, the survey found. Furthermore, rates of marital infidelity and prostitution are higher in conservative states." --safari ...
... Kristof's column is here. Among the reasons for the red state/blue state dichotomy Kristof reports: "When evangelical kids have sex, they're less likely to use birth control -- and that may be a reason (along with lower abortion rates) that red states have high teen birthrates.... [In blue states, parents] believe in comprehensive sex education and reliable birth control.... Statistical analysis suggests that religious conservatives end up divorcing partly because they marry early, are less likely to go to college and are disproportionately poor. So the deeper problem seems to be the political choices that conservatives make, underinvesting in public education and social services (including contraception). This underinvestment leaves red states poorer and less educated -- and thus prone to a fraying of the social fabric." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This phenomenon has been evident for a long time. It's bad news for the Republican/libertarian view of social services. The fact is that liberal values, translated into programs that tend toward equalizing opportunities, have myriad social & economic benefits. Young people who have reasonable hopes of a sunny future are much more likely to take the precautions necessary to ensure that future. Most Reality Chex readers know that because, to some degree or another, that's what they did.
Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Navy said a Japanese tugboat 'drifted into' a destroyer during a scheduled exercise Saturday, causing 'minimal damage' to the warship and no reported injuries. The USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, appears to have sustained scrapes on its side and remains at sea, according to the Navy's 7th Fleet, which is based in Japan. The tugboat lost propulsion before drifting into the warship, the Navy said in a statement.... This incident occurred amid heightened scrutiny of the 7th Fleet in the wake of numerous embarrassing accidents, including two fatal collisions involving guided-missile destroyers.
Beyond the Beltway
Election Results. AP: "LaToya Cantrell, a City Council member who first gained a political following as she worked to help her hard-hit neighborhood recover from Hurricane Katrina, won a historic election Saturday that made her the first woman mayor of New Orleans. The Democrat will succeed term-limited fellow Democrat Mitch Landrieu as the city celebrates its 300th anniversary next year." ...
... The Times-Picayune story, written before most results were in, is here.
Max Greenwood: "A former Oklahoma state senator has pleaded guilty to a child sex trafficking charge, The Oklahoman reported Saturday. Former state Sen. Ralph Shortey, a Republican, had been accused of offering to pay a 17-year-old boy for 'sexual' stuff' earlier this year. Federal prosecutors will drop three additional child pornography charges against him in exchange for his guilty plea.... Child sex trafficking carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, and a maximum sentence of life in prison." --safari
Way Beyond
Puppets. Julian Borger in the Guardian: "The same patterns were apparent in the Brexit vote, Donald Trump's shock victory, the surge of the Front National in France and the dramatic ascent of Five Star Movement in Italy, from the pet project of a comedian, Beppe Grillo, to the second most powerful force in Italy. In all cases, libertarians [Assange, Snowden, Farage] viscerally opposed to centralised power made common cause with a brutally autocratic state apparatus in Moscow, an American plutocrat with a deeply murky financial record, and the instinctively authoritarian far right. All in the name of disruption of government and liberal norms in western democracies. So why are the pioneering crusaders of total transparency and freedom of information lining up alongside the most powerful exponents of disinformation and disruption?" --safari
News Lede
Tennessean: "Country Music Hall of Famer, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee and Grand Ole Opry member Mel Tillis died early Sunday morning at the Munroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala, Florida...."
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Reader Comments (16)
I don't understand how using a modern weapon to shoot an animal hundreds of feet away qualifies for 'trophy'. Pathetic.
CW: "the GOP "tax reform" bill is an anti-jobs bill designed to hurt the best workers the most."
Unfortunately in Washington the definition of "best" workers has morphed into who can create algorithms to make more money, push money around the world the fastest, and of course count other people's money, preferably safe from the IRS. Doctors, nurses, teachers, firefighters are all pawns in Washington's big game. Nothing new here. But scientists used to have their pedestal as those pushing innovation and industry. Now they've joined the pawns and have been replaced by the Carnival Barking salesman. That's where the money changes hands. That's where the money's at.
More and more I feel like the US has slipped into a new malaise of "over-development". Previous generations' sweat and brainpower laid the groundwork and infrastructure for what would become the world's biggest economy by far, all major scientific breakthroughs have been exploited to put us at least towards the top of those reaping the benefits worldwide, and we theoretically have largely enough resources to easily take care of all of our people.
With seemingly nothing else to do but make sure the machine stays on track (not a simple task) and growing up in a system that seemingly creates wealth effortlessly, forgetting that it took decades to come together, a significant part of our population has decided that it's Manifest Destiny that the system will thrive. No more need for science. No more need for public investments. No more need for a highly-educated populace. No more need for better public services. No more need for public schools. No more need for immigration.
Of course, all developed nations are in the same boat, but you don't see Norway or Germany shooting itself in the foot by sabotaging their education systems by selling it off piece and parcel to fanatical donors. We're exceptional in so many ways, and more so in the lack of vision for our future beyond where my donor money is coming from or what lie I need to tell to throw smokescreens to the public.
I remain torn about the revelations about Al Franken. I do understand why many people think he should resign; several liberal commentators have made good arguments for it.
Like them, I am inclined to believe Leeann Tweeden's account rather than Franken's "defense" of "that's not how I remembered [the rehearsal]." (paraphrase) Victims of sexual abuse -- or other crimes & misdemeanors, for that matter -- are much better able to recall an offending incident than are the perps.
It is probably relevant that the incidents here occurred to a USO tour where both Franken & Tweeden were the talent. I'd guess the majority of jokes in these tours -- which are designed to entertain young men & women -- are about sex. The skits were bound to be sex-oriented. That's no excuse for abuse, but it does put the incident in context.
Franken was not running for political office at the time, but he certainly was involved in politics, & I'll bet he had already considered a run for some public office, which he did pursue only a few years later.* It's not as if he never heard of Anita Hill or Tailhook or that his abuse of Tweeden occurred when he was a young comedian. (He was 55!)
* Oh, update! Franken wrote in "Giant of the Senate" that he decided to run for public office during the USO tour. Was that before or after the kiss & photo, Al?
Tweeden says that Franken demanded they practice a "real kiss" in rehearsal, and that the demand was made privately. Since Franken was well-known & Tweeden was not, it's fair to say he was far more powerful than she. He may have been the show's headliner. If she resisted, as she says she did, Franken should have immediately seen he had to respect her wishes, even if it "compromised his artistic integrity."
Another problem is the Mrs. Huckleberry Sex Abuse Standard. According to Mrs. Huckleberry, only men who have admitted to sexual abuse should be held accountable for it. Ergo, Trump & Moore are A-okay. Since Republicans are way better liars than Democrats in all matters, including sex abuse, that will cut way down on Democratic elected men & up the number of Republican sex abusers.
I'd like the Senate ethics committee to interview witnesses to the rehearsal, tho if the witnesses are men who thought the rehearsal was way funny, their testimony would not be dispositive, in my estimation. I'd also like to know what Roger Stone has to do with all this.
As for the photo, it is pretty disgusting, but I can see where Franken -- and other men -- might think the joke was on Franken; that is, the only way he can get his hands on a woman was if she was comatose. A riff on a date-rape joke is not exactly hilarious in my book, but probably a lot of sex jokes that men find funny aren't that hilarious to me.
Still, given the input from many women who have worked with Franken for years, I think the jury is still out, even though I view Tweeden's claims as credible. Franken should have an opportunity to contest or at least mitigate her claims before the "will of the voters" is overturned.
BTW, I was one of the few liberal women I ever came across who thought Bill Clinton should resign. I walked out of a dinner party once when all the other guests (& the hosts) ganged up on me in defending Clinton. (I remember it because I didn't have any money in my evening bag, & I had to walk home from the Upper East Side to the Village. Of course I was pissed off for 100 blocks or whatever it was.) I never thought Ted Kennedy should be elected to public office. (Got in an argument with Betty Friedan over that.) Maybe I should feel vindicated by Kirsten Gillibrand's remarks about Bill Clinton, but I don't. I always thought I was right!
TRUMP'S FOREIGN POLICY IS CONFUSED BUT IT ISN'T REALLY TRUMP'S:
Patrick Lawrence from Salon who sees a vacuum of ideas...a nation adrift, unable to think clearly and with little idea how to confront what the 21st. century has to offer. He also reminds us of our cozy handshakes with despicable foreign leaders through the years––a history we seem to want to forget.
https://www.salon.com/2017/11/19/trumps-foreign-policy-is-confused-but-it-isnt-really-trumps/
I'm bringing up what I wrote yesterday late in the day since Bea has brought up the subject today. Am I doubting Leeann's accusations? No. What I am questioning is the timing. Was this political?
Something that has been my mind ever since I read Marie's comments from yesterday regarding the Roger Stone involvement with LeeAnn Tweeden––specially this last paragraph:
"But there's another, darker possibility, and that is that Tweeden herself was in contact with Roger Stone. Even worse, Tweeden could have showed him the photo & Stone could have coaxed her into inventing the story about the unwanted kiss. I want to think that's not what happened. Whatever the case, the (oxymoron warning!) Senate ethics committee should seek an explanation for Stone's curious foreknowledge of the post."
When I listened to her many renditions of the unwanted kiss planted on her during a skit rehearsal with Franken I detected a kind of rehearsed rendition that made me uneasy. Here is a woman who worked at Hooters–-was actually one of the top Hooters of the Year–-was pictured nude in Playboy and I wondered about those experiences––the possible sexual harassment that must surely accompany those endeavors. And I wondered why she would come out now about her anger at what she claims was this unwanted kiss. I also wondered why after seeing the picture of Al with his hands on her breasts she didn't immediately lay it on the line with him––he really wasn't in a position to interfere with her jobs. Why now? She is a known conservative and I can't help wondering if indeed there is "a darker possibility" to all this. Given our atmosphere of asininity I'm leaning towards the dark.
@ Bea
For what it's worth, some other pictures have come out from the tour, one apparently showing the angelic Tweeden squeezing the ass cheek of a guitarist. You see? Pastor Franklin Raddish is right. It's a war on men, girls can just bootygrab and guys can't even speak out about it. Another photo is about the scripted kiss which occurred onstage, and they both appeared to be playing along. If Tweeden was really so repulsed the first time that each subsequent kiss was torturous for her then that is indeed very unsettling. But if it was really that bad, I'm surprised that she couldn't demand a modification in the script where they cut out/modify the kiss. I know pictures only reveal the surface of what's happening, but while we're all fretting about unwanted kisses and brushing body parts, the ass grab picture doesn't play in Tweeden's favor.
Beyond that, I'm of the opinion that if the charge isn't so egregious, and the perpetrator admits and sincerely apologizes, that people deserve second chances in life. Finding the line between egregious/unsettling is obviously the difficult part, but I'd give it the smell test. Sen. Franken's worst offense is unsolicited kissing a woman once. The photo is obviously odious and ridiculous but it's more evidence of a dumb-joke-gone-wrong than serious sexual assault.
The argument that if we don't show Franken the door then the GOP will just elect pedophiles and shield themselves behind the both-siderism argument is laughably naive. The GOP base will vote for fellow deplorables regardless of what liberals do, and they would love for us to take a zero-tolerance litmus test to these sort of issues because they'll be able to swell their ranks while we pull some of our brightest talent and their oppo research teams can pull up the slightest sexual misconduct and rings the alarm bells calling us hypocrites if we'd nominate him/her after seeing off comparable candidates.
I'm in no way defending sexual predators and they need to be called out and face their consequences, but Franken has taken all the necessary steps to try to right his wrongs, including inviting an ethics investigation into himself. In this particular case I don't see how kicking him out of the party while leaving intact the other rot we know exists in Washington furthers anything besides Republican ambitions.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/18/1716798/-More-Photos-Emerging-From-Franken-Tweeden-s-USO-Tour-They-speak-for-themselves
@PD Pepe: Thanks for repeating your comment. I haven't actually heard Tweeden on the teevee, & some people may come off as insincere when they're sincere, but I just feel that we should not give up a good senator, who's one of a handful who actually seem to spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to handle issues, if the Tweeden incident turns out to be a one-off that is less than it seems. If Franken really does have a history of honoring his female colleagues as the testimony so far indicates, then I'm willing to call him an asshole for the stunts with Tweeden & move on. It's not as if I've never made any stupid mistakes in my own life.
If further investigation changes the story & Franken turns out to have made a practice of making "jokes" about about abusing women, then certainly I'll change my current position, too.
As for Trump & Moore, it looks as if they've both been serial abusers (Trump probably more so than Moore). While their behavior toward women makes them both unfit for office, their are plenty of other aspects of their characters that also make them unfit.
Marie
Huh. Here are the photos safari refers to. They appear to be part of a live performance, but they could have been taken during rehearsal too.
Update: You can see soldiers in the wide shot, so I'm assuming now that the pictures were taken during a performance.
Glad to see a little uncertainty from Bea about the Franken episode. I'm taking that uncertainty as permission to essay a few thoughts of my own about this highly charged topic.
I'll begin by saying this male approaching elderly is a bit mixed up too, and not just about Franken.
But in the midst of my general confusion, I am certain about one thing. I see a distinct parallel between bedroom behavior (or behavior that used to be confined to the bedroom) between and among the sexes (genders? I'm so confused) and the daily struggle in our politics to define and dispense equality. Are we all truly equal both under the law and in our personal relationships? Obviously, we're not. Whether we can arrange a society in which we are remains an open question.
Much of our political struggle, sexual and otherwise, comes down to dominance. I grew up hearing the old say, "All's fair in love and war," which never quite made sense to me unless I understood love to be some kind of war, a thought that made me as queasy as the stories I heard about JFK during his summer at the university I attended and the reports and investigations about his brother, Ted's behavior, which I found inexcusable. Queasy, I'm now embarrassed to say, with to my teen mind an admitted tinge of envy.
To add to my confusion, if to no one else's, sex and power relationships have long been linked along multiple vectors. Among them are the males' usual physical dominance, which in itself can be attractive to some women. How about the attraction of power and money, a set of attractions that cuts both ways and always carries with it the implication of inequality? Then, too, girls and women have been known to use their inherent charms to gain what they wish, a perennial dance further complicated in a culture that bombards both males and females with products and methods guaranteed to increase their sexual allure.
So in each case, I would ask these simple questions (which I understand to be far more simply stated than applied): If one of the two is in a socially or physically dominant position, has he or she taken advantage of it? And which transactions between the sexes are acceptable (because some surely are) when the power of whatever kind between the two is as unequal as it most often is?
By those squishy standards (applied in 2017, not the 1960's or even the 1990's) definite thumbs down on Moore, uncertainty on Franken, embarrassment with a dab of pity for the senescent Bush, a residue of discomfort for much that has come before, and gratitude I don't have to negotiate the sexual politics on today's college campuses. It was tough enough for me in the 60's.
I expect that discomfort will increase in the days to come, because I interpret the barrage of stories about male misconduct, whether they have an immediate political purpose behind them or not, to be part of the larger struggle for equality by all who have lived in inferior social positions for a long time and are flat tired of it.
That may be one of the reasons there are so many stories about varying degrees and kinds of sexual abuse and why they resonate so much differently today than they would have decades ago.
Oh, wait. There's more to the butt-grabbing than the photo shows. Here's an 11-second video worth 11 seconds of your life. Tweeden was definitely willing to use her sexuality to entertain the troops.
Also, too, watch the beginning of this video of an earlier USO tour Tweeden did with Robin Williams. The sex part appears to be unrehearsed, & Tweeden plays right along, wrapping her leg around Williams when he embraces her (inappropriately, to say the least).
Also, too, she did the Howard Stern show, & she sure didn't mind his comments.
Holy shit. This afternoon my wife and I looked into re-enrolling in our ACA coverage. OMFG. Rates for the same policy went up 43.3% compared to last year. Time to rethink our options.
@unwashed: That's horrible. Medicare for all. Public option. Something.
Reading widely on the current sex/predator controversies, Liberal Progressives are so vastly different from the other side. So many LP's are demanding Franken's resignation (without any kind of investigation) where Con commenters won't even admit to wrong doing, and don't care what their candidates are guilty of, but proudly vote for them. The contrast is amazing and should put to complete and utter rest forever that these are "Values Christian" voters. We never see admission, abject apology, and eagerness for investigation on the other side, no matter how heinous the verified crime. I read many LP's saying Franken wouldn't be missed, anyone can take his place - where are these people's heads? Franken only just won his seat the first time and has retained it based on hard work and effectiveness for his constituents, a generic Dem could lose that valuable senate position. So few senators have his laser like accuracy and speed of wit to run down the Cons in hearings. I too am suspicious, the people involved, the timing, everything about this smells. Moore's accusers should be prosecuted for waiting with their stories, but Tweeden waiting till now is fine. Franken set up Sessions in his confirmation hearings. Have Moore and Sessions, and Stone, cooked this up in retaliation? I wholeheartedly agree with Safari's comment above, the Cons are just going to pick off our best and brightest, one by one with smear campaigns, and we aid this kind of dirty politics. We stupidly jettisoned Acorn - on the basis of slimy James O'Keefe. There are so many LP's who think that removing Franken will remove the Cons talking points - you've got to be kidding! They talk about old Dems, young Dems, dead Dems, investigated to bits Dems, innocent Dems, any Dems, and they'll keep doing it because we let them win these games. We need to retaliate with the "whataboutism" of truly guilty Cons, with a three to one from the never ending list. They've go to start feeling that their attacks are not worth the pain that we can inflict on them in return.
Ken, I don't think things are as bad or difficult as they might seem. I have sons, eldest in his early twenties. They think the way you "come on" to a woman is to politely ask if she'd like a coffee! If that's a yes, then maybe dinner or a movie, and so on, each time working out the next mutually agreeable step. Slobbering over someone at a party or behind the photocopier is just not in their lexicon. I was intrigued to overhear a conversation some time ago that at a party there is a code about drunk women - she is TDTF. Young lads do have boundaries, and understand consent, and I'm sure different lads have different boundaries but they do discuss it amongst themselves. I'm sorry this is long and poorly written.
Excellent postings. I really don't want to look at any of the videos because I heard the original interview, and Tweeden was very self-assured, did NOT sound damaged by this, and was enjoying herself far too much, if you ask me. This kiss was not a central feature of that tour. It's only become more important now. Something is deeply fishy here. This is supposed to be a major distraction and weighted to compete with the wrongs done by both Moore and Dolt45. He must NOT resign, no matter his regrets. If he does, we have lost more than Franken-- we have knuckled under to moral midgets, the so-called family values cretins.