This is why I love Hillary Clinton, in the final analysis:
“Look, we just elected someone who admitted sexual assault to the presidency.”
— Hillary Clinton, in an interview with the U.K.’s Channel 4 News, when asked about assault allegations against Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein.
SiubhanDuinne
Fuck yeah.
Say it loud, say it proud. FUCK YEAH!!!
sharl
Good for her, even though my Twitter TL is now going to be awash (again) by photos of her with that creep. (I don’t follow MAGA chuds, but they manage to sometimes leak in anyway via people I do follow RT’ing such crap.)
Death Panel Truck
What she was thinking but did not say: “So shut the fuck up about Weinstein already, goddamnit!”
SiubhanDuinne
Just heard on radio that the Academy has kicked Weinstein’s ass out. Baby steps.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
I love all the right-wingers who are suddenly so concerned about sexual assault. Where were these motherfuckers on Election Day?
(I know the answer: IOKIYAR. Everything is OKIYAR. Bastards.)
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Got my absentee ballot today.
EVERY SINGLE ELECTION EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
Fight on.
Emerald
If the presidency hadn’t been stolen from her it would have been like this every day. Every single day, a constant barrage of hit pieces and gotcha interviews, like this one.
The media cannot admit what they did to her (deliberately, I think, because they wanted those crunchy good tRump ratings). They will never admit it and they’re going to keep doing it. It’s going to take historians, especially focusing in Women’s studies, to tell the story of this “election.”
That won’t happen for decades. I hope she lives to see it.
(And BTW, someone in an earlier thread questioned whether we should nominate another woman, because she would get hit by the same shitstorm that hit Hillary and we really need to win back the presidency. I’ve been wondering that for a long time too.)
sharl
Here’s a heart-warming account from the ever-growing public HW files:
The Diet Coke in a pig trough bit cracked me the hell up.
This account is entirely plausible, given what else is known about the creep. On the other hand we may have reached the point in the story arc where self-promoting “heroes” start to slither in from the woodwork. In this case there are some details that should be verifiable by anyone with the resources and interest to do so. The Indian news outlet also provided just the right amount of skepticism in their account for alert readers to make their own judgment call.
Mnemosyne
@Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA):
Ditto. They didn’t give a shit until they could use it as a club against Democrats.
And they will never see the difference between Weinstein being exposed and punished and Trump being exposed and elected president.
Mnemosyne
@Emerald:
She would have to be an Obama-level woman. Someone who manages to bust through the prejudices somehow.
I still think that Obama was able to do it in part because he was the son of an immigrant, and having a (voluntary) immigration story gave him an entry point with white people that doesn’t exist for a lot of Black politicians. I’m not sure what the equivalent would be for a woman.
tobie
She’s right, she’s spot on, and she will be pilloried for this as she is for anything else she says. The constant reminder that we could have had a smart woman as President instead of the Pig-in-Chief is just so painful some days.
schrodingers_cat
@sharl: NDTV is full of bogus crap AFAIK. They even have a Shaun Hannity like lying blowhard.
cthulhu
Anybody get the feeling Weinstein fled to Europe for “treatment” as opposed to checking into one of the many US facilities because he’s concerned he’s going to be indicted soon. I would think NYC could still pursue charges at this point, perhaps some other localities. Not that it will necessarily happen but maybe that is part of his calculus. I don’t get the sense he has much remorse; he’s merely trying to avoid as much punishment as possible.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: When allegations against Ailes came out, T hired him for his campaign. Where was the outrage then? Every D should turn this question around and say ask R office holder about Ailes then I will talk about HW.
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: Good point. Dems usually seek to defend themselves when attacked. Republicans use it as an occasion to attack the questioner. This is a skill that, however sociopathic, Dems will have to learn pronto.
sharl
@schrodingers_cat: Haha, I was hoping you’d be around and would know something about the source. I first saw it on Twitter as a screen-capture (Facebook maybe?):
I then went to Google to look for an original source, and that link I used showed up near the top of the list of results. A number of the other top-ranked hits also look like they are from Indian media, but you’d know far better than me which ones are more trustworthy.
gene108
@Emerald:
What worries me is not the shit the woman candidate will get hit with. It is the shit her husband will get hit with.
Bill got a pass on “who wears the pants in the house” shit because he was President. Any other prospective First Gentlman will have to defend his masculinity against the bullhorn cries of being pu$$y whipped.
It’ll be worse than the shit Hillary has to deal with in 1992, because she had a career outside of her hubbies political ambition.
SiubhanDuinne
@Emerald:
I do too.
The absolutely worst thing we could do is to hold off nominating a woman because she’d be subject to horrible sexism and misogyny. That’s a given, and any woman even toying with the idea of someday running knows that. Of course we work to get rid of these attitudes, but there are always going to be crude, terrified males (and their female enablers) bullying their way into a disproportionately powerful role in our political discourse.
The day I can die happy is the day both national political parties (whatever they may look like by then) field entirely female POTUS-VPOTUS tickets. And I’ll depart in utter bliss if those tickets are at least 50% racial/ethnic minority. Simply because those four women are the absolute best of the best.
gene108
I just want to say the shit a woman takes as the nominee of a major party will only apply to Democrats. If for example Haley* clears the field, the right-wing media howler monkies will quiet down.
* She will get her share of it, while trying to clear the field, but the sexist right-wing attack dogs will be held on a leash during the primaries
mike in dc
There may be a second wave of victims: women who succumbed to the pressure and slept with Weinstein. The original victimization may be compounded by a naming-and-shaming in media/social media, though thankfully that hasn’t yet happened.
Duane
Might as well say it. IOKIYAR.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
My computer is gummed up somehow. Lots of sites won’t open. Frex msnbc. Luckily BJ works!
Patricia Kayden
Secretary Clinton isn’t taking it anymore. Good for her. What has she got to lose?
Jeffro
@gene108: Nothing will be worse than the shit Hillz got hit with…the Right spent what, three decades attacking her, making shit up about her, and demonizing her? Nobody short of Pelosi could or would get hit with that kind of shitstorm.
VOR
@mike in dc: In my book, those women are also victims.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Women running (and I hope it’s plural) will enter the fray with eyes open. Nobody’s going to say “Hey, maybe this time it will be different!” (Is there a Senator or Governor Pollyanna I’ve missed?)
trollhattan
@gene108:
Snowbilly Snookie is still the prototype Republican woman candidate, full of piss, vinegar and the willingness to lie about anything at the drop of a stylish hat paid for by somebody else. She’s past her sell-by date but there are others….
Patricia Kayden
@gene108: Many Conservative Christians don’t believe in women in leadership positions — especially where they would be over men. I wonder how Christian Conservatives would react to a Republican woman running for President. Not sure if there support for her would be as clear cut as you think. I’m around Christian Conservatives and they are very much into that “women better know their role” and “men are the head of the home” mentality.
Inventor
He didn’t really admit it so much as brag about it.
Villago Delenda Est
I’m sure Uday is just totally outraged.
Fuck Uday, Qusay, and Lolita.
SatanicPanic
Oh yeah, that’s how we need to do it
geg6
She is a vastly better person than this damned country deserves.
Mike J
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Every seat. If you don’t know the name and they haven’t swung by your LD’s Democrats meeting, call those fuckers up and ask pointed questions.
When the way downballot people are out door knocking, I always like to ask, “are you a liberal?” and tell them to fuck off and slam the door if they respond with anything other than an enthusiastic, “Yes!”
mai naem mobile
@cthulhu: I had the local.news on this AM and they said Weinstein was getting treatment here locally in Phoenix . I wasn’t paying 100% attention to it, it was more on in the background, so it’s possible I got it wrong. I vaguely remember some sports guy coming here for similar kind of treatment.
Mike J
@Mike J: And a follow up to that:
ThresherK
@trollhattan: Robin DeSanto, (fictional) GOP congresscritter from IN-9, knows what it takes for a conservative woman to get ahead,
Duane
@Patricia Kayden: Christian conservatives gladly supported Trump. They would support Satan if he said the correct tea bagger rot.
Mary G
Still plenty of things to complain about in my state, but there are a lot to be proud of, also too:
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, one of my fears is that the unfortunately ubiquitous misogynists on our side will work against women nominees. But I remember 1992, when my very Democratic neighbor put up a yard sign with a quarter of it cut out. The top half cheered for Bill Clinton, the quarter left on the bottom for Dianne Feinstein, but Barbara Boxer was a bridge too far. He earnestly informed me that two women senators was too much, doncha know.
Yet here we are 25 years later, we still have two women as senators and no one says boo about it. I want Kristen Gillibrand as our next nominee, not some dudebro.
Citizen_X
@sharl:
“I don’t know, since ‘stop being a supercreep and get her to like you’ is apparently a crazy suggestion to you.”
Roger Moore
@cthulhu:
Has anybody with functioning brain cells failed to reach that conclusion?
sharl
We were giving the NYT a well deserved slagging a couple threads earlier, which makes me extra sad about all the attention-worthy stuff they still publish that will go unread due to their corporate atrociousness. Case in point – and I’m sure someone here has linked to it by now – is writer/director/actor Sarah Polley’s opinion piece The Men You Meet Making Movies. It’s worth a click if you’re a subscriber, or – like me – your counter for # of remaining free articles is stuck on a non-zero positive integer. Otherwise, here are some excerpts:
Here’s hoping.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Mike J: Also, sniffing out the party affiliation for the non-partisan races. Gotta do your due diligence.
LosGatosCA
@Citizen_X:
He knew his odds with that approach and why would he waste all that time?
That could take weeks and maybe even some money before getting to ‘No fucking way in Hell!’
Shana
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): VA or NJ?
My college daughter, who has always had to vote absentee, got a card in the mail yesterday urging her to request an absentee ballot from a House of Delegates member who isn’t even our district. We’ve never been in his district so I’m curious what kind of crappy list he bought. The card itself was preprinted but the name and address were hand written, so it should have been obvious that we’re not in his district.
Beautifulplummage
OT – Seattle area meetup tomorrow at 2pm at Elliott Bay Brewery in Burien. Just south of the transit center. Look for green balloons. Would love it if a front pager threw up a reminder post!
Brachiator
@Emerald:
This is called politics. Shitstorms are part of the deal.
The US ain’t that goddam special. Other nations have women leaders and Germany’s Angela Merkel is arguably the most powerful person in the world. Person, not woman, especially given Trump’s weaknesses.
America probably didn’t think a black man could be president until they elected Obama.
A woman will run. A woman will win. And people will wonder what the fuss was all about.
Mike G
@Patricia Kayden:
There’s a lot of hate and suspicion against Mormons in those circles but they lined up behind Rmoney in 2012. They voted for Trump in record percentages despite his non-Xtian lifestyle.
The right-wing garbage media machine can reliably whip them into fear and hate of the Dem candidate and they’ll march to the polls like good little authoritarian-follower tools. Their cult makes a virtue of following commands of authorities without thinking or evidence.
rikyrah
Paul KrugmanVerified account @paulkrugman 21h21 hours ago
Right now, I’m feeling more terrified than at any point since the 2016 election. Why? It’s time for some game theory! 1/
Start with a clear-eyed assessment of Trump’s character: he basically has negative empathy — that is, enjoys seeing others hurt 2/
Normally, however, one would expect him to pretend to care and maybe even do some good things out of ambition and self-aggrandizement 3/
At this point, however, it’s clear to everyone — probably even him — that he just can’t do this president thing, and won’t get better 4/
The prospect that he will be removed, say by 25th amdt, getting realer by the day. And again, he probably knows this at some level 5/
So we’re getting into the end game. He can’t save his presidency. He can, however, still hurt a lot of people. And he surely wants to 6/
So from now on, until he’s gone, I’m going to fire up my computer every morning in a state of existential dread 7/
TS
@SiubhanDuinne:
Waiting to hear that the congress has kicked trump’s ass out of the white house.
Brachiator
@Patricia Kayden:
They would vote for her in a heartbeat. Just like they voted for Trump and ignored everything that might make him objectionable.
Whenever faced with a decision that might contradict their supposed values, they pull out the card that says, “I don’t know. Must be God’s will.”
Beautifulplummage
@Beautifulplummage: And I see above that Casey has already got it going! Look for the purple & blue lantern.
rikyrah
THREAD – BACKLASH FOR THAT WOMEN’S MARCH.
Old Lady Dem @oldladydem
This is a lie. There was no announcement. As of 2pm on 10/12, the ONLY “headliner” announced was Bernie F**king Sanders. Receipts follow. 1/
They’ve lied, obfuscated, and attempted to gaslight us ever since their press release on Sanders’ role caused a well-deserved backlash. 2/
Here, Mallory even tries to deny she ever said Sanders was a headliner. But someone brought receipts. 3/
Mallory had USAToday update by removing “headliner” & inserting this statement. “also coming” doesn’t scream “Maxine is the headliner!” 4/
Even though “headliner” was removed, giving a speech on opening night certainly implies it. No other speaker’s slot has been announced. 5/
14 paragraphs in, the article does say Maxine “also is expected to address …” But “also” sure sounds secondary to Sanders. 6/
As for their claim that Maxine was announced as THE headliner WEEKS ago, let’s check WM’s TL. Such important news would be there, right? 7/
Here’s their first mention of Maxine. An announcement of their theme. Period. No mention Maxine is even speaking. 8/
In fact, they specifically state that speakers are TBD. 9/
Here they link to an article that Maxine “will attend.” WooHoo! She’ll be there. “Joining us” Big whoop. 10/
Doing what is unclear. As the article pointed out: “Waters’ office did not give details about what she will be doing.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 11/
In a post highlighting Amber Tamblyn, they link to an article where Maxine’s at least listed as a speaker, after 5 others. So, progress. 12/
Other than linking to a couple of articles, nowhere on their TL did they announce Maxine as a speaker, never mind THE headliner. 13/
There’s no speaker’s schedule on the convention’s website either. The ONLY slot they’ve publicly announced is Sanders. The only one. 14/
Even after all the backlash, their pinned tweet doesn’t NAME a single person. And “morning” is NOT for headliners. 15/
Now they want to blame MSM. For not giving attention to an alleged “announcement” that Women’s March NEVER MADE. 16/
Emerald
@Duane:
Well of course, that’s basically what they’re doing now.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
It would mean we’re doing their dirty work for them.
debbie
@rikyrah:
I’d bet that’s what he’s wanted all this time. Look what he’s doing to Obama’s legacy. That’s probably just the beginning of his plans.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Shana: NC.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Yup.
debbie
@Emerald:
And also why Trump’s suddenly so pious in their presence. They’re soon to become his only base. Nothing but Christian Sharia coming our way.
SiubhanDuinne
@TS:
As are we all, my friend. As are we all.
The Lodger
@Beautifulplummage: Add two to the list. Coming up from Oregon, so we may be a few minutes late.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mary G:
I had almost forgotten the foofahrah there was about the horrifying concept of two women senators from the same state!
Ladyraxterinok
@Patricia Kayden: So true. Evangelicals have increased the emphasis on female subordination since the early 90s. It’s probably no coincidence this was when HRC, a non-traditional woman, became nationally prominent. She was attacked before Bill was.
Evangelicals have even rewritten the doctrine of the Trinity. Instead of there being 3 equals – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – leaders claim Jesus was not just subordinate while on earth. They claim he wss subordinate from the beginning. This new doctrine is termed the Eternal Subordination of the Son (ESS). Leaders then claim that since Jesus was joyfully subordinate women should be too.
They have gone so far as to claim women will be subordinate to men in heaven.
glory b
@rikyrah: What’s this?More details please? Link?
JanieM
@Mnemosyne:
I’ve thought about this in relation to Obama too. Being the son of an immigrant rather than the descendant of African Americans who were slaves, he was outside the usual dynamic somehow. (And yes, I know it’s much more complicated than that, but I suspect that did play a role.)
So … a lesbian? ;-) (Being one myself, I’m only half kidding.)
From another angle, I’m pretty sure this country would elect a gay president before it would elect an avowed atheist. Not that we’re going to have either choice any time soon.
Kay
I just saw an ad for a House Republican claiming a ” middle class tax cut”- this isn’t even his district or near his district so I don’t know why he’s running ads on a local station.
JanieM
@JanieM: Although I know some young people who think a lot of Pete Buttigieg, and so, for that matter, do I. He’s young, he’s articulate, he’s a veteran…who knows.
[Edited for clarity.]
schrodingers_cat
@sharl: In general, Indian MSM, especially the English language media makes our media look good, they are the definition of pathetic.
ETA: They cover movies and cricket as much as they do politics. News also has a big city bias.
Kay
When the Ivanka and Jared email story came out many of you said it wouldn’t be covered. I said it would be because the double standard would be too obvious so they would have to cover it.
You-all were right and I was wrong. No one gives a shit about emails, no one ever gave a shit about emails, and Hillary Clinton will be the only person ever pursued on email crimes.
Fair Economist
@Ladyraxterinok:
Wow, they’ve revived the Arian heresy? They don’t want to go back to the sixteenth century, they want to go back to the fourth.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: Hell she and her idiot brother were almost indicted for fraud before what looks a hell of a lot like a bribe to the Manhattan DA and that’s already down the memory hole
edited
debbie
@Kay:
Don’t beat yourself up. We all feel hopeful from time to time.
Steve in the ATL
@Beautifulplummage: wish I could make it but I’m stuck in Atlanta. And by “stuck” I mean “had no plans to be anywhere near the West Coast this weekend.” But one day there will be a meetup where I am! A boy can dream, right?
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We need some kind of list we can keep adding to so this stuff isn’t forgotten.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Right. It’s hard to focus on one incident of Trump Family sleaze since there are so many of them.
The fraud was documented in emails on that one! It’s such a shame that DA is apparently cruising to re-election.
How did that happen, anyway? The Manhattan DA is a blatant crook and no one knew? He buried that right at the height of the Trump Family birther campaign.
germy
@Kay:
He’s being challenged, though it’s a long shot.
Ladyraxterinok
@Mike G: There wss a lot of bizarre double-think going on in those circles over Palin. IMHO once again IOKIYR
Mike J
@Beautifulplummage: Thanks for the reminder! I’ll try to be there!
Wasn’t there someone from Tacoma who needed a ride? I’m almost certainly doing dinner at the ‘rents tomorrow night so the return trip is no problem for me.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I really believed that. I thought “even if they don’t give a shit about emails they’ll PRETEND they do since we just came out of 16 months of their email campaign”
Nope. Not even an effort to appear credible.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wonder if evidence of Fredo’s fraud will fit into some kind of pattern of lying in Mueller’s obstruction case
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Watch the so called serious PBS News Hour, where the anchor and the guests can’t stop giggling when they are discussing politics be it PR or the gun tragedy in Las Vegas. Politics is a fucking joke to the R toadies at the news desks.
Gretchen
@Kay: That’s the same Manhattan DA who made the case of a model groped by Weinstein go away. Weinstein groped her, she went to the police, they fitted her with a wire, she went back and got him to admit what he’d done on tape. The police thought they had a great case but someone above quashed it.
chris
@MomSense: There is a list here:
https://medium.com/@Amy_Siskind/week-48-experts-in-authoritarianism-advise-to-keep-a-list-of-things-subtly-changing-around-you-so-e8a21132e25a
That’s this past week, at the bottom there are links to the past 47 weeks.
Yeoperson work by Amy Siskind.
ETA: The lists are going into the Library of Congress archives.
msdc
@SiubhanDuinne:
Well… two of them will be the best of the best. The other two will be Bristol and Ivanka.
JerryRich
@SiubhanDuinne: Not only that, they were two Jewish women.
Kay
One nice thing for me is my two older children came up during Bush so they weren’t tempted to become Republicans. It could happen! This is a very conservative area. You wouldn’t believe the things I hear at that school of theirs. My daughter and one other girl were the only two people in her high school science class who would confess to “believing” evolution.
My youngest was developing an alarming libertarian streak but he’s come to really loathe Donald Trump -Trump is mean and he’s opposed to mean people- so I feel like that threat has passed. He’s too young to vote though.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: How is your book club coming along. Are the T voters crowing about him or they quiet?
The Lodger
@Fair Economist: They thought it was really the Aryan heresy, and they couldn’t wait to get it back.
But her emails!!
@Kay:
The media is just a bunch of tools. The Republicans now how to put these tools to work for them. The Democrats and more importantly their base have to learn how to do the same thing.
artem1s
@Jeffro: I disagree. It’s going to take nominating someone completely asexual in appearance like Janet Reno. Even then she will be raked over the coals for every single thing that happens as proof that women just can’t take it. And the GOP will never get there. FFS the current VP has such distain for women he won’t sit in a room alone with one. This is considered normal behavior among conservatives.
Betty Cracker
I follow Fox News on Twitter, and they’re clubbing Democrats with Weinstein 24/7, via the network founded by gross degenerate Roger Ailes, from the chair until recently farted into nightly by serial groper Bill O’Reilly, in the service of nasty old lecher Donald Trump. “Hypocrisy” and “chutzpah” are too mild to describe it.
mainmata
@Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): Bingo!! Projection and hypocrisy are core wingnut characteristics.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
There is a thought that Wienstien was brought up by conservatives as revenge against the Trump accusations, if so I think they made a horrible mistake because it just drags Trump’s own behavior back into the news eventually.
Betty Cracker
@chris: Speaking of memory holes, I feel obligated to mention that Siskind was one of the most idiotic PUMAs to ever wear the label back in aught eight. After Obama won the primary, she went all in for Sarah Palin, writing columns, yapping on TV about what a sexist Obama is, etc. I’m glad she’s finally found a target worthy of her bile.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Brachiator:
Yes, all she would need to say is “Jesus told me to do this” and they would worship as the second coming. I am pretty sure because Trump announced his bid you can find the Evangelicals attacking him for being some big city libertine, but Trump said the magic words and kissed the right ring fingers of the leading Evangelicals so they are fine with him now.
chris
@Betty Cracker: I agree that she was, and maybe still is, an awful person, but the list is true and useful. In these parlous times one takes what one can get.
Betty Cracker
@chris: Agreed!
mainmata
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Are you VA or NJ?
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
Barack Obama is not the son of an immigrant. Barack Sr. was a foreign student who concluded his studies in the US and returned to his country.
J R in WV
@Mike G:
4 years ago I was doing phone work for a well qualified woman running against Shelly Moore Capito for the US Senate. I was a little surprised at how many people told me they couldn’t and wouldn’t vote for either candidate in the Senate race “Because the Bible tells us that no woman should be put above a man!”
Natalie lost to Shelly Moore Capito, who is the daughter of Arch A Moore Jr, convicted felon, who solicited and received bribes for funneling state business to his fellow criminals. The apple is not far from the tree.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@mainmata: NC.
No Drought No More
Yes, but has Hillary ever called for the Bush family to be studied like medical researchers study a disease?
Because I have.
Chris
@SiubhanDuinne:
I wish.
One of the things I think isn’t discussed enough about JFK: the election of a Catholic is usually discussed as ushering in a new age, but actually? He was a fluke. It took us nearly another fifty years to get another candidate who wasn’t a WASP.
That’s not to say that Catholics are still a marginalized group, we’re very much not. But it says something about the homogeneity of the American power elite (and/or the public expectations of what a president should look like) that, even decades after it should have become completely unremarkable, we’ve never had another president, and only one other president has broken the WASP mold.
Chris
@trollhattan:
Mmm… The key words there are “past her sell-by date.”
I’ve always thought the biggest part of Palin’s appeal was that to a certain type of male (the type that breaks Republican by a very wide margin), she’s the ideal woman. Pleasantly hot, unthreateningly dumb, and adoringly telling them how awesome they are and how mean the unappreciate world is to them.
Chris
@Kay:
Happens. I can relate. I had a conservative/libertarian streak as a teenager when I first got interested in politics. My teenage self was a peckerhead on a lot of things, but even he would have been repelled by Trump and, really, the entire Republican Party post-2008. Bush and McCain’s “we are not at war with Islam” routine and platitudes in favor of tolerance, as inadequate as they were in reality, were key to what made the GOP tolerable for me. Trump’s brand of overt sociopathic racism would’ve driven me away fast.
Also, I think libertarianism is kind of a natural ideology for teenagers, at least for white male teenagers middle class and above.
Chris
@Betty Cracker:
The fucking surreal thing is that there’s not even an equivalence between Weinstein and Ailes/O’Reilly. Ailes and O’Reilly make a living from politics. Weinstein is a fucking entertainer in an industry that, as John Rogers wrote pointed out years ago, has no coherence and no particular agenda other than making money. If this was Jon Stewart or John Oliver, they’d have a case that this is an important liberal opinionmaker equivalent to Ailes or O’Reilly. Shoving Weinstein in that role is a fucking joke.
Brachiator
@Chris:
I keep seeing this kind of stuff and I think it is largely nonsense, and also sexist.
Palin was a governor (even if a poor one and ultimately a quitter), so people voted for her to be the chief executive of their state. They did not vote for her to simply look good.
Your comments deliberately ignore or dismiss the women who like and admire Palin. I remember before she became a conservative shill, even liberal women were curious about her and hoped that she would be more than she turned out to be.
Brachiator
@Gretchen:
Perhaps a little more complicated. The DA says that they were not consulted, and that they would have been able to better coach the model to get Weinstein to confess, but they were not consulted and the police acted independently.
On the audio you can hear Weinstein asking, pleading with the model to just “sit there,” and watch. But it is unclear whether he ever exposes himself or specifically asks her to watch him perform a sexual act. I do not know what the law requires, and the implication of Weinstein’s actions seem pretty clear.
Still, it is not unreasonable to suggest that someone made the case go away, if there was one.
Tehanu
@Chris:
You’re absolutely right. Cf. the great Susan of Texas, 7 years ago (5/22/10), commenting on alicublog:
Ithink
@Emerald:
I’m confident & hopeful she will!