My prediction for the Epstein fallout, and I hate.myself for it

[maxrandb]

First, can I get a big "eff you"! to ALL the people who said, implied, or thought that the "Me Too" movement "went too far". If anything, this Epstein fiasco shows that it didn't go far enough.

I am kind of cynical. I am quite sick of the media and others pretending that this is some kind of "new" phenomenon. This shit has been going on since mankind crawled out of the muck and learned to walk erect.

Rich, powerful connected men...AND WOMEN, using their wealth, power and connections to subjugate young women and sexually abuse them?...I'M SHOCKED! SHOCKED!!! I TELL YOU.

The Epstein files are full of despicable and deplorable behavior. It is also full of people who think the Me Too movement "went too far."

If history repeats itself, the fallout will be that EVERY person on the "left", no matter how innocuous their affiliation, will be forced to resign their position. It won't matter if it's a political, business, or academic position, just the "appearance of impropeiety" will be enough.

On the other hand, those on the "right" will hold their positions, no matter if there are video of them dancing with Epstein and oogling 12 year olds. Retrumplican voters are simply NEVER required to hold their politicians accountable.

The only bipartisanship that exists in America today, is the bipartisanship where both the left and the right will demand the person on the left resign.

I love being a Democrat, but I hate myself for being in the only voting bloc in America that is required and expected to hold their politicians accountable.

If only one set of voters is required to hold their politicians accountable, not only do you drive people out of positions where they could impact the balance of power, but you piss off the people that want those positions to impact the balance of power.

The right will elect a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, fraud and, most likely, a pedophile to the highest office in the land.

The left will drive someone out on a technicality.

That's not taking a knife to a gun fight. It's taking a knife to a gunfight, while your own voters tie your hands behind your back.

I feel like I am in a Catch-22. I am a Democrat because of the values, policies, morals and standards of my party. I laugh whenever I hear someone say; "could you imagine if a Democrat did the same thing Donnie Dipshit is doing?" I laugh because I know and am proud of the fact that if a Democrat acted like Donnie Dipshit, the very first people that would run them out of town on a rail, are the very voters that put them in office....and I would join them.

So, I predict that the Epstein fallout will hit the "left" in a harder proportion than the "right"...and I hate that I am OK with that.

Oh, the other fallout is that the rich and powerful will continue to use their wealth and power to subjugate and sexually abuse young women

To change that would require a cultural change that even the young MAGAt women aren't prepared to support. They benefit too much from the current circumstances.

[walkingman]

1. It is frustrating but the reality is that "wrong is wrong" ....

and it really should have nothing to do with a political party. It reminds me of what several of my friends always say to me when we are discussing political wrongdoing...."It has always been that way, throughout history!" Well, that certainly does not mean it is right or acceptable behavior.

I can only hope that if the GOP continues to look the other way when their party does wrong - they will pay a price at some point.

I do realize that there are many narcissists in our society that think if it doesn't affect them they just don't care. That says more about them than anything else.

[maxrandb]

4. Its certainly frustrating

Recently, the Democratic AG candidate in Virginia said some heinous stuff in private texts while clearly in a fit of rage. Who amongst us hasn't said dumb stuff when angry.

Like Bob Dylan sang "if my thought dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head in a guillotine".

Anyway, there were calls for him to withdraw 10 days before the election.

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and he won.

Here's the thing. The Retrumplican that was running for AG is a straight-up Christofascist. He supported an abortion ban in Virginia. Thought Donnie Dipshit sending the National Guard into Richmond, Norfolk, Newport News and Hampton would have been "hunky-dorey" and would have rubberstamped every deplorable thing Donnie Dipshit wanted.

I used to be a Naval Officer. I always used to emphasize this one truth.

We set high standards. Part of the reason for that is because there are going to be times we will need to lower them. It's easy to set high standards and temporarily lower them...it damn near impossible to set low standards and raise them.

This Donnie Dipshit era is a time to be more concerned about saving our democracy, than nit-picking about whether or not a candidate is good enough to date my daughter.

[Janbdwl72]

2. It's sad and terribly unfortunate that things often go this way

I just hope the old adage proves true with regard to the despicable handling of this by the Felon and the Republicans in Congress: the cover-up is worse than the crime itself.

This should result in the loss of the very slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. I disagree

We have not even begun to see the impact of what has been revealed in the Epstein files, and likely won’t until Dems regain control of at least congress and perhaps the White House,

[Bettie]

5. Thanks for this, you have managed to put all that I am feeling

into words that are more coherent and much less profane than I can manage.


This especially:

The only bipartisanship that exists in America today, is the bipartisanship where both the left and the right will demand the person on the left resign.

I love being a Democrat, but I hate myself for being in the only voting bloc in America that is required and expected to hold their politicians accountable.

If only one set of voters is required to hold their politicians accountable, not only do you drive people out of positions where they could impact the balance of power, but you piss off the people that want those positions to impact the balance of power.

It is so frustrating that one side is expected to follow rules that the other side has NEVER actually followed.

[UpInArms]

6. I wrote this back in 2002

Scandals and Lies

When is a scandal not a scandal? When a scandal appears to be connected with a member of the Republican Party, it is not reported as a "scandal." Only when a member of the Democratic Party has involvement in anything that broaches the questionable grey area is something "determined" to be a "scandal."

After an eight year-long investigation of William Jefferson and Hillary Clinton was concluded with "no evidence," it is still reported as a "scandal." That $70 million in taxpayer dollars and untold hours were devoted to finding something, anything, to throw at the Clintons has shown that there was nothing to throw. The media (and I mean the major corporate media) still consider it to be a "scandal." One that just won't go away. One that has to be lied about and drummed constantly into the psyche of the American public until something resonates. What is resonating are the words that have been repeated endlessly until almost everyone can recite them verbatim.

But let me tell you what was not a "scandal."

There was no "scandal" when Republican President George Herbert Walker Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger with an indictment filed against him, thus avoiding any questions regarding the involvement of that same Republican President in the Iran-Contra Affair. There was no "scandal" when a partisan court appointed the highest elected official in this country.

There was no "scandal" when an intern was found dead of mysterious causes in Florida Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough's office. There was no "scandal" when Republican Mayor Philip Giordano of Waterbury, Connecticut was caught and charged as a sexual predator of young girls.

There was no "scandal" when the Republican President George Walker Bush nominated Theodore Olson (investigated for obstruction of justice and lying to Congress during the Superfund investigation) to the office of Solicitor General. There was no "scandal" when Florida Governor Jeb Bush's daughter, Noelle Bush, was charged with felony fraud in obtaining a controlled substance.

There was no "scandal" when Republican President George Walker Bush's daughters, Jenna and Barbara Bush, then 18, were convicted with using illegally obtained and false identification to obtain alcohol. There was no "scandal" when Mark A. Grethen, a Republican activist, nominated for "Republican of the Year" was convicted and is serving a more than 20 year sentence in prison for six counts of sex crimes involving children.

There was no "scandal" when Wendy Gramm, the wife of prominent Republican Senator Phil Gramm, approved illegal partnerships and waived the code of ethics for those partnership formations while on the Board of Directors of Enron. There is no "scandal" when Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay (Enron and Lay contributed $2.16 Million to Republicans in the 2000 election cycle) the largest contributor to the sitting Republican President, George Walker Bush, currently being investigated for leading one of the largest American companies, Enron, into bankruptcy following fraudulently filed earnings reports.

There was no "scandal" when Enron was allowed to price-gouge consumers and the sitting Republican President George Walker Bush refused to allow the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) to impose price caps to control excess profiteering. There was no "scandal" when the current sitting Republican President George Walker Bush appointed Elliott Abrams (convicted of lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair) to the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations.

There was no "scandal" when John Ashcroft, the current Republican Attorney General, spuriously gave a "reprieve" and discontinued the lawfully entered agreement for damages to The Adams Mark Hotel, owned by Fred S. Kummer Jr, a personal friend and $25,700 senatorial campaign contributor, for charges of serious violations of racial discrimination.

There was no "scandal" when key figures, John Negroponte (complicit in the Honduran Death Squads), Richard Armitage (linked to illegal arms transfers and CIA drug-running operations), Otto Reich (propaganda operative), John Poindexter (convicted of conspiracy {obstruction of inquiries and proceedings, false statements, falsification, destruction and removal of documents}; two counts of obstruction of Congress and two counts of false statements) of the Iran-Contra Affair have re-appeared in official governmental positions by appointment by George Walker Bush, the sitting Republican President, the son of the former Republican President, George Herbert Walker Bush, for whom these men worked.

There is no "scandal" when the current Republican Vice President Richard Cheney refuses to release what should be public records of meetings held in the formulation of public policy (The Energy Policy) after being ordered to do so by three Federal Judges (U. S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan and U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman). There is no "scandal" when the personal fortune of George Walker Bush, the sitting Republican President, is being bolstered by governmental war contracts to The Carlyle Group, partially owned by his father, former Republican President, George Herbert Walker Bush.

The only exception to this "scandal" rule that you will be able to easily recall is the Watergate scandal presided over by Republican President Richard Milhouse Nixon, who was forced to resign his office in disgrace.

Don't worry about those "scandals," you know the "liberal" major media corporations (Rupert Murdoch of FOX - $30,033 to RNC... AOL/Time Warner/Walter Isaacson of CNN - $6,150 to RNC... GE/Jack Welch of NBC - $160,350 to RNC... Disney/Michael Eisner/ABC - $208,052 to RNC) are surely going to tell you every "scandal" that they want you to know.

They do not want you to remember Republican "scandals." It makes it easier to demonize Democrats. They do not want you to look around. They do not want you to question their version of the news. There are only Democrat "scandals". You can recite them as easily as you can recite the Pledge of Allegiance: Whitewater. The Blue Dress. Chandra Levy. Chappaquiddick. You know the drill.

As citizens of this once great country, we must demand the truth from our media. We must demand the truth from our politicians. We must demand our country back. Each of us, you and I, has that power and the right to make these demands. Call your local television station. Write your representatives. Our voices must be heard. And we must hear the truth.