Lock up Rudy, lock up Gaetz!

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2021

But also, News of the world: Last evening, Our Town's leading cable news shows were exploring the same old desires.

First, cable stars explored the possibility that we could get Giuliani locked up.  After that, they shifted gears:

They explored the possibility that we could get Gaetz locked up.

We thought about the many nights when cable stars assured Our Town that Mueller was going to get Donald J. Trump locked up, Surely, he already had the tax records, our tribe's leading hacks kept insisting. 

That was pleasurable tribal entertainment, as were last night's pseudo-discussions. Meanwhile, the desire to get The Others locked up dates back past the dawn of time.

As we look back through our notes of the past week, we come upon an array of topics and manifestations we haven't yet discussed.  For today, let's consider a chunk of a recent column by Nicholas Kristof.

Kristof had spoken with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization. What was on that gentleman's mind?

Dr. Tedros was very upset when they spoke, Kristof said. Part of Kristof's column went exactly like this:

KRISTOF (4/25/21): Dr. Tedros is from Tigray, a part of Ethiopia that since November has endured crimes against humanity by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has properly described atrocities in western Tigray as ethnic cleansing, but the world has largely been indifferent.

Tigrayan children are starving to death, men have been clubbed to death, and women and girls have been subjected to mass rape. Ethiopian opposition parties claim that more than 50,000 people have been killed—that is not verifiable, and the toll is unknown—and the scale of torture, starvation, murder and destruction in the past few months may have been the worst in the world. 

“Hunger is weaponized, rape is weaponized, there is indiscriminate killing,” Dr. Tedros said. “The whole region is hungry.”

[...]

I respect a man who loses it when contemplating war crimes. I wish more would. And I hope President Biden and other world leaders will hear that agony, on behalf of so many in Tigray who are being starved, raped and murdered, and will use their influence to end this catastrophe.

We won't be asked to think about this on Our Town's "cable news" programs. Nor will we be asked to think about something as tedious as this:

VON DREHLE (4/24/21): Of Ma’Khia, we have this shard that feels important, though we don’t know exactly how or where it fits. She was in foster care. Relatives describe her as an affectionate and loving person with hopes of being restored to her mother’s custody. Even so, any path to foster care is traumatic.

[...]

[W]hile we don’t know the specific needs of this particular child, we know that in 2018, in Franklin County, where Columbus is the seat, nearly 14,000 reports of children in crisis were received. Of those, some 6,000 involved reported physical abuse, more than 2,700 involved neglect, 1,349 involved reported sexual abuse and 1,500 involved multiple offenses. The numbers were rising, according to social workers, as a result of the epidemic of opioid addiction among parents.

The most-watched cable news shows of Our Town aren't built to visit such places. In the main, our shows exist to pleasure us with highly pleasurable tribal stylings, especially concerning various people we may soon lock up.

We can't help thinking once again, about punditworld's somewhat peculiar group reaction to the Oscar-nominated film, Promising Young Woman. We were especially struck, in the past week, by Monica Hesse's odd account of the film—though we aren't quite sure what Hesse was saying in this murky passage:

HESSE (4/29/21): Maybe my current frustration with “The Handmaid’s Tale” is that the show is giving us waterboarding scenes while other scripts move the conversation about women, violence and society into new areas. In “Promising Young Woman,” Carey Mulligan’s Cassie tries to avenge her friend’s sexual assault in a way that ends up exploring issues of guilt and culpability, in a way that shows how even a righteous desire for vengeance can erode the soul. In the world of that movie, bravery has absolutely nothing to do with how many discrete traumas episodes a character can endure, or even whether she survives in the end.

"Even a righteous desire for vengeance can erode the soul?" 

That's certainly true, of course. But are we really supposed to emerge from that dreamscape film with that realization? 

Are we supposed to emerge with the thought that Cassie represents some sort of real person who lets her desire for vengeance swing out of control? We'll offer out thought about that film, perhaps for the final time: 

In that jangly, dreamscape film, Cassie isn't simply outraged about a vast, apparently deadly injustice which has been done to a lifelong friend. She's also outraged about something she alone can see—she's also outraged about the fact that no one else actually cares.

Pundits have widely found this "divisive" film to be off-putting in some vague way. We've seen no one mention this second part of Cassie's perspective—her ability to see that no one actually cares.

In that dreamscape film, no one cares about what happened to Cassie's friend. In the real world of Our Town, no one actually cares about Tigray, or even about Franklin County. We'd rather talk dirty about Matt Gaetz.

Our pundits tend to sleepwalk through the real world. They perform their own righteous anger about the current preapproved topics, perhaps embellishing as they go, but they seem to notice little else.

Cassie noticed the world doing this. Our pundits are puzzled by her strange fury. Why is she so upset?


101 comments:

  1. "The most-watched cable news shows of Our Town aren't built to visit such places."

    What, places without oil, nukes, cheap and well-disciplined workforce, any kind of profit-generating shit?

    And why would anyone care about a place like that, dear Bob? Tsk. Oh well, Cuba might send their doctors, who knows.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you see where, Newsmax joined Fox News along with reality and said Biden won the Presidential election fair and square?
      All that remain are dead-enders like Cecelia.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "That was pleasurable tribal entertainment"

    Of course we care about getting Trump and his henchmen locked up. They stole the 2016 election, created an insurrection in 2020 that resulted in loss of life, looted our country while in office, and killed hundreds of thousands of people due to their mismanagement of covid. Of course we want them locked up!

    But this isn't "entertainment" to us. It is serious business, necessary because of the damage done by these people to our country. Further, justice demands this.

    That Somerby mocks this effort and trivializes it signals loud and clear where he is coming from. Hint: It isn't Our Town. His efforts here today and every day aid the forces of darkness.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ""Even a righteous desire for vengeance can erode the soul?"

    That's certainly true, of course. But are we really supposed to emerge from that dreamscape film with that realization? "

    Does Somerby not recognize that this film portrays vigilante justice, revenge? Are these manifestations of an intact soul in his book? Is he really so obtuse as to think that the solution to violence against women is for women to become more violent. What can he possibly mean when he says he doesn't understand this statement?

    ReplyDelete
  5. "We've seen no one mention this second part of Cassie's perspective—her ability to see that no one actually cares."

    In the real world, of course, this statement is untrue, unless you discount the women who have been fighting against these crimes forever, the family and friends of those injured, and the many decent human beings who are working to end the mistreatment of women via legislation, #metoo, counseling and mental health treatment, police, non-profit agencies (such as women's shelters) and other services. These people ALL care strongly and many have devoted their working lives to that caring.

    For Somerby, perhaps caring about how men treat women is a new idea. Not so to anyone else, especially women. That Somerby sees this theme alone and thinks no one has recognized it, suggests that perhaps it is his invention, especially given that it is so demonstrably UNTRUE!

    What kind of man suggests that our society does not care about what happens to women, on the strength of a film? An asshole like Somerby.

    ReplyDelete
  6. "In the real world of Our Town, no one actually cares about Tigray, or even about Franklin County."

    A response by the US to Tigray depends on our president. Does Somerby imagine that Trump would have done anything whatsoever to help those in Tigray? Of course not! That's why our local efforts to ensure that the right people are in office, from local to national levels, is important to making sure that our country responds to such crises. Or maybe Somerby is suggesting that we should each hop on a plane and go try to do something individually? And failing that, we have lost any right to watch any other topic being discussed on cable news?

    Somerby is being ridiculous. I'll bet he hasn't done anything himself, even as simple as donating to Unicef or some other hunger-fighting global organization.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'Somerby is being ridiculous. I'll bet he hasn't done anything himself,'

      He has though. He spent the last 4 years defending Donald Trump, Roy Moore, Ron Johnson, Guiliani, Matt Gaetz and Devin Nunes. In short, Somerby made a (fortunately) pathetic effort to make sure such places are completely ignored.

      Delete
  7. "Lock up Rudy, lock up Gaetz!"

    Yes, please!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Solving real problems is complex and complexity taxes the brain and doesn't draw viewers. Solutions to problems require time and mental energy. For mass media profiteers, it's far better to keep things simple and emotional, hence the endless scandal-mongering and the endless stream of scandalous incidents between Blacks and police. No thinking is required, only emoting, and each incident gets quickly forgotten as we move on the next one.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Has Somerby volunteered to care for a foster child? How does he think the crisis in Franklin County should be addressed?

    ReplyDelete
  11. 'The most-watched cable news shows of Our Town aren't built to visit such places.'

    Your town of hardcore malignant Trumptards refers to such places as 'sh*thole' countries. But that doesn't bother, you continue to defend Donald Trump, Roy Moore, Ron Johnson, Guiliani, Matt Gaetz and Devin Nunes.

    Somerby is a hypocritical, malignant, Trumptard

    ReplyDelete
  12. It is funny how after all these years, Somersby still does not seem to understand the purpose of a for-profit, billionaire-run mass media. When a society is as addicted to profiteering as this one is, problems are not solved, but rather, they become areas of exploitation. The corporate mass media is a prime example of this, and the American people expect nothing better. America is all about making everything in life a profit center. You can tell just from the commentators on this blog that Americans have zero interest in solving problems. So it hard to blame the mass media corporation for profiting from them.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Unsurprising that Somerby would think that Gaetz shouldn't be locked up, despite statutory rape of a 17-year old girl (for money).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. President John F. Kennedy groomed and raped his teenage intern.

      It was Camelot.

      Delete
    2. This is the kind of story that circulates on the right.

      Mimi Alford was 19 and she insists that her encounter with JFK was neither rape nor date rape. She wrote her book in 2012 at age 68, when the principals involved were no longer alive to contest what she said. By her account, he didn't "groom" her. He ordered his staff to bring her to him (that's her own version).

      We have no way of knowing whether anything she said was true, but even if every word was true, it doesn't excuse the behavior of the men currently accused of sexual assault. It also doesn't demonstrate hypocrisy since such things were largely hidden in that time period. That is no longer true either.

      But the right just loves to make these accusations. So many of them are not true, that I tend to disbelieve even JFK, an admitted womanizer, was this bad.

      Delete
    3. Well thank you, and it is good to know you approve of philandering men of great power stalking the corridors of their workplaces looking for teenage virgins to deflower and cheat on their wives with and even possibly have group sex with - all while at work.

      Just as long as just as long as the powerful man has the consent of his young teenage virgin adultress.

      And is a Democrat. ;)

      Delete
    4. 1;46,
      Admit it. They're better than the Republican parade of closet cases, cheating on their wives, AND making it harder on the LGBT world;)

      Delete
    5. Obviously the young teenage virgin Alford had no choice but to let her boss penetrate her repeatedly while on the job. But I guess she's just one of the lucky ones right? She enjoyed it. She suffered no traumatic effects. He must have had a great cock or something.

      That makes it okay according to you which is good to know. To put an intern in a position of having no choice but to be penetrated repeatedly at work by her superior behind the back of his wife.

      According to you, that's okay because she enjoyed his aged cock in her teenage body. Time after time and time after time. Pounding and pounding and pounding the teenage intern again and again and again. No problem here. After all, he's a Democrat. ;)

      Delete
    6. I agree with the commenters here that Kennedy's preying and conquest of his teenage virgin intern was justified because she didn't consider it rape. Let's worry about more serious topics.

      Delete
    7. No one here said any of that.

      Delete
    8. President Kennedy ordered his staff to bring a teenage virgin who worked for him to him and he preceded to have sex with her time and time and time again, keeping her in back rooms so he could go in for a poke whenever he felt like banging a teen.

      More men should emulate the Democratic stalwart Kennedy and summon teenage virgins who work for them into their private chambers so they can be seduced, fondled and sodomized over and and over and over and at will. These teens will probably even say it's "not rape".

      President Kennedy has given us an example of how politicians should behave sexually. Extra martial sex with teenagers is something he did so, so often while at work with his employees/interns. I'm sure everyone here agrees. Who could disagree?

      Delete
    9. Kennedy even got his teenage intern/sex toy to give his friend a blowjob while he watched. According to her anyway.

      Delete
    10. Did Gaetz get his teenage sex toy drunk before he sodomized and had a group sex with her like President John F Kennedy did? Did Gaetz give his teenage lover drugs like President John F Kennedy did? Has Maddow confirmed if that is true? Maybe the brilliant Rude Pundit has written about it.

      Democratic and Republican politicians have shown us very clearly: men need sex with teenagers. A lot of sex. And when they want it they need to have it right away. Over and over and over for hours and hours and hours. And if it takes a few drinks to loosen them up, so be it! That's how Democratic and Republican politicians roll!

      Delete
    11. 12:13,
      What would one expect from men?

      BTW, my broad brush makes yours look like a pencil.

      Delete
    12. @12:13 -- Don't you have some porn that needs watching?

      Delete
    13. 128 p.m.

      Oh did you want to change the subject? Did you want to talk about me instead of talking about President John f Kennedy's seduction and sodomization of his teenage intern in his wife's bedroom? Let's stay on topic if that's okay.

      Delete
    14. It was wild when President John f Kennedy asked his teenage intern to suck his little brother's cock. She described it in detail. So he was kind of pimping her out. Which is very interesting. Do you have any thoughts about that?

      Delete
    15. For all anyone knows, this is made up smut to attack a national icon admired by both political parties. A 68 year old woman wrote a money-making book in 2012, so long after JFK's death that it is impossible to refute or confirm anything in it.

      Delete
    16. It's true. So, let's please not forget JFK's seduction and pimping of teenage virgins while in office when making moral judgments about the dalliances of politician's from other parties.

      Delete
    17. @10:56 -- are you seriously trying to say that if JFK did something majorly wrong, then it is OK for anyone else to do it too?

      Delete
    18. No junior, I am saying making moral judgements along party lines is ignorant.

      Delete
    19. Making moral judgements along color lines is ignorant, too.
      And it's deadly when cops do it.

      Delete
    20. Yes, the prime driver is class. But neither party will touch that issue with a 10 foot pole. That's why they keep you focused on color. And you don't care about class or color anyway. You just care about making the right look bad so you can feel better about yourself.

      Delete
    21. "But neither party will touch that issue with a 10 foot pole."

      Nice try, but Biden and the Democrats are shoving higher tax rates down the throat of the rich to shovel money to the working class.
      It must be exhausting to pretend you can't see that.

      Delete
    22. We'll see how that works out. At this point it's talk - but you're right - it's great that he even talks about it. Police violence - it's a class issue, but all you're given is race. Class is never mentioned. Class is the main driver across the spectrum of American political problems and yes, it is ignored by media and government and media by design for decades. (Only in America by the way.) You may be pretending not to see that or unaware of it. It's never discussed. It's an invisible issue. Biden trying for tax cuts is great but is not some sort of grand answer to the purposely hidden and extremely important American issue of class disparity.

      Delete
    23. Class may be the main driver, but race is a distinct additional problem that contributes as well. Ignoring race in favor of focusing only on class is racist.

      Delete
    24. You've made a perfect straw man argument. No one is ignoring race in favor of focusing only on class. Class is totally ignored in favor of focusing only on race. That's the whole point.

      It's by design. The focus on race divides us and takes the subject off of class, the main driver.

      Delete
    25. And you got to use the R word, the Holy Grail. The ultimate gift to the oligarchy. It's employment divides us and takes the subject off of class, the main driver, better than anything they could invent. I'm not saying you are an asshole or anything. Just acting by the oligarchist design. Divide and conquer.

      Delete
    26. You'll get no complaint from me, if the cops start shooting billionaires, like Kyle Rittenhouse.

      Delete
    27. Are you going to be a jackass your whole life or are you going to grow up and be a man?

      Delete
  14. Apparently it never enters Somerby’s head that the people who watch cable news in “Our Town” also read Kristof (NY Times) and von Drehle (Washington Post), just like Somerby does, thereby taking advantage of the fact that Our Town offers such insights.

    And cable news was busy reporting on the Republican vote suppression efforts around the country, Biden’s speech, the infrastructure bill, the attempts to pass a voting rights bill, etc. Last night, Ali Velshi even had a segment on child hunger in America. But of course Somerby zeroes in on the Giuliani and Gaetz stories, because he has no interest in any of the others.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The Giuliani and Gaetz stories are important because they represent the current state of the Republican Party and their support for corrupt liars, lunatics, insurrectionists, and sex traffickers, and, what is worse, cult-like autocrats like Trump.

    The news media for too long has failed to speak the truth about the GOP.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I’m just wondering when it happened that men wining, dining, and spending money on women they find attractive, turned those women into prostitutes and the men into Johns.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you're still wondering go back and check your diary. You should at least be able to narrow it down.

      Delete
    2. I burnt all the diaries after my daughter was born.

      I don’t know what I thinking.

      Delete
    3. I burnt all the diaries after my daughter was born.

      I don’t know what I thinking.

      Delete
    4. I burnt all the diaries after my daughter was born.

      I don’t know what I thinking.

      Delete
    5. I burnt all the diaries after my daughter was born.

      I don’t know what I thinking.

      Delete
  17. I’m just wondering when it happened that men wining, dining, and spending money on women they find attractive, turned those women into prostitutes and the men into Johns.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you think these were romantic dates, then you don't know enough about what Gaetz was doing.

      There is a name for relationships that involve a woman trading sex (or marriage) for money. It is "transactional." This is the kind of marriage that Trump and Melania had, and it characterizes all of his previous marriages too. The basis is not love or caring but an exchange of favors for financial support. In a transactional marriage, the woman cooks and keeps the house and tends the children while the man works and pays the bills and fixes things and mows the lawn. A prenup or marriage contract spells out the financial part. Sometimes prenups specify how many lbs the wife can gain without voiding the arrangement. There are people who cannot have a relationship without thinking about it in such terms. Note that these are not the vows of most marriage ceremonies, which talk about respect, cherishing, love and devotion. None of that is part of a transactional marriage. If the husband loses his job and can't pay the wife's bills, she is gone.

      People who value property over people tend to turn wives into trophies, symbols of the husband's worth that can be displayed to the envy of other men.

      This is not exactly prostitution, and it is legal, but you can see how someone who thinks in transactional terms might be confused about why outright prostitution is wrong and against the law.

      Trump is too emotionally stunted to have any other kind of relationship. Teaching teenage girls to regard their own worth and their bodies as commodities is harmful to them. If you think Gaetz was dating them for any reason other than sex, you are being naive. Gaetz is as stunted as Trump.

      Delete
    2. Anonymouse 11:01pm, there are men who shower women with attention and various niceties because they want to sleep with them.

      That’s been the way of the world for quite a long time the dynamic has been called wooing and seduction and generally a nice time may be had by all.

      Sometimes deeper feelings result and the relationship turns into something more.

      So I’m informed.

      If Gaetz has done something creepy, let him answer to the voters.

      If he’s done something illegal, he should answer to the legal authorities.

      Either way, I’m still going to wonder how it is that an age old dynamic got turned into prostitution.

      Delete
    3. You're a Right-winger, doesn't this mostly take place in bathroom stalls for you folks?

      Delete
    4. Cecelia, if you believe that women should be sold to men (and their families) for their services, then this is an "age-old dynamic". The modern world however has decided that women are people and should have some say in things, not be sold by parents into chattal slavery.

      So, this "age old dynamic" has always been prostitution when it sells just the sex services and slavery when it sells the cleaning, cooking, child-bearing and tending services along with the sex.

      It changed around the time when some countries decided that marriage should be about love and choice, not economics and property. There are still places in the world where sex is an act of war and women are taken as wives against their will. For example, the Prince of Dubai, whose horse is entered in the Kentucky Derby, is holding one of his wives as a prisoner, against her will. There are girls stolen by Boku Haram and by other radical groups, and there are 12 million child marriages worldwide (80% to adults). The US protects girls from this stuff and those are the laws Gaetz has broken.

      Gaetz has done quite a bit of illegal stuff, so there is nothing left for you to wonder about.

      Delete
    5. Can we officially stop referring to the GOP as the Family Values party now?

      Delete
    6. Are these the same outhouses where Republicans will find a bigger piece of shit than Trump, to be their Presidential nominee in 2024?

      Delete
    7. Anonymouse 8:35am, I don’t know what has happened to you to make it an endorsement of prostitution and slavery to wonder how it is that men chasing women because they actually like women (gasp!) has now become criminally suspect

      Very likely nothing has ever befallen you and it’s just more of the hyperbolic cant you folks pull out at the drop of a Somerby post.

      All it sans common sense, sans proportionality, and invariably sans honesty.

      Delete
    8. Cecelia, your mother must have taught you that there is a $ limit on the size of gift you can accept from a man without it becoming too compromising. This isn't about men "liking" women. If men liked women, they wouldn't coerce them, financially or otherwise.

      If you cannot tell the difference between a financial transaction and genuine liking, it is your problem, not mine. Go re-watch the film Gigi.

      Delete
    9. On the contrary. It’s you who can’t tell that difference.

      Otherwise, my question wouldn’t have generated a computer generated lecture predicated upon the assumption that I am championing predation.

      Delete
    10. Actually its predicated on the assumption that you're a priggish fascist twat.

      But you always give yourself too much credit.

      Delete
    11. I give myself enough credit to know that equating the game of seduction between the sexes with believing “that women should be sold to men (and their families) for their services...”is the essence of priggishness.

      It’s the essence of hissy prim prudishness.

      However, I am also perceptive enough to know that this “argument” was pulled out of the Anonymouse’s butt in order to be disagreeable and scolding.

      And I know too that you’re the twat.

      Ascertaining that doesn’t take a psychological study.

      Delete
    12. I give myself enough credit to know that equating the game of seduction between the sexes with believing “that women should be sold to men (and their families) for their services...”is the essence of priggishness.

      It’s the essence of hissy prim prudishness.

      However, I am also perceptive enough to know that this “argument” was pulled out of the Anonymouse’s butt in order to be disagreeable and scolding.

      And I know too that you’re the twat.

      Ascertaining that doesn’t take a psychological study.

      Delete
    13. Cecelia, Matt Gaetz was sending money to women he hadn't even met yet. That isn't seduction or romance. It is just prostitution.

      Delete
    14. Cecelia, Matt Gaetz was sending money to women he hadn't even met yet. That isn't seduction or romance. It is just prostitution.

      Delete
    15. Jake Winkman, I suppose that’s because he hooked up with them online because he like likes what he saw and laterheard via FaceTime and wants to get into their pants.



      Delete
    16. No, it is because his friend acted as a pimp and found girls selling sexual services. There was no "romance". You apparently having been following this scandal. Gaetz sent the money to his friend and his friend made the arrangements. Another way you know that this was not romance but sexual trafficking is that the girls were passed around among several men.

      Delete
    17. Sorry, left out the word not. You have NOT been following this scandal. You seem to be unfamiliar with the details and are making stuff up (you are supposing things you don't actually know to be true).

      Delete
    18. Cecelia, you also seem to be assuming that because men naturally like and want sex, it doesn't matter how they get it.

      Delete
    19. Anonymouse 6:40pm, I assume that it’s none of my business if friends find him dates and that he gets around.

      I assume that behavior is not illegal and that the women are not under duress.

      I assume that the voters will decide whether they want to elect a playboy.

      Uncommitted sex is not something I approve of, but single guys getting it on is not something that I’m going to lose sleep over and I’m certainly not of the attitude that of-age females need to be protected as was thought in 1821.

      Delete
    20. Your assumption that such behavior is not illegal, is wrong. He broke the law. That is why they have charged his friend, and that is why they are investigating him. He will be charged. And yes, women who engage in sex for money are generally under duress. Do you think it is a natural act otherwise?

      Gaetz is not a "playboy" but a criminal.

      There is a huge difference between uncommitted sex between consenting adults and sex for money with underage girls. Your willingness to conflate the two doesn't say anything good about you.

      You keep ignoring that at least one of the girls was not "of-age" as you put it.

      If you consider it none-of-your-business that a Republican congressman breaks the law in major ways, that explains why you dismissed the many charges of sexual assault against Donald Trump. I can see how you would also consider it none of your business if someone participates in an attempt to overthrow a valid election because the other party won. In fact, you perhaps consider it none of your business how elected officials misuse their offices to accumulate wealth at taxpayer expense. What is your business then when deciding who to vote for?

      Delete
    21. QAnon didn't want to accuse Democrats of running sex slave pedophile rings, but they're forced to by the "every Right-wing accusation is a confession" rule.

      Delete
    22. Anonymouse 10:39am, I said from jump that if Gaetz has committed a crime he should answer for it in a court of law. Acts that are legal, but of bad character must be addressed by voters.

      My question was how is it criminal for a woman to sleep with a man for some sort of personal gain? Prostitution is a crime. How do we put well-heeled-male trophy seeking by women on the same level as the criminal act of prostitution? How do we turn men into sex traffickers for offering women such prestige and lifestyle for sex and being in the company of pals willing to do the same?

      Who is being used when both adult parties attempt to benefit from each other in this manner?

      In reply I got lectures based upon the immortality of such actions (by men, the women were automatically assumed to be bereft children) rather than the criminality.

      Your post is an accusation that by asking my question I show that I don’t believe that misogyny exists and that I don’t care about actual crimes. It’s the “Somerby doesn't believe that racism exists because he questions our logic on some point” canard.

      Put that willful idiocy where the sun don’t shine.

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    23. You don't get it. These women were not acquaintances of Gaetz and his associate. They were strangers. Further, the men were passing them around to each other. That isn't romance.

      Who is being used in prostitution? The women. They are generally used by some 3rd party who is coercing them via drugs or threats or dependence. The majority of prostitutes are not "businesswomen" but underage runaways from dysfunctional families (often involving sexual abuse by a father or step-father). The girls are controlled via drug addiction. They are too young to work and have no other way of supporting themselves. The men who control them offer some protection from the outside world and their "customers". Adult women are also controlled via drug addiction and threats. Sometimes the women are from other countries and are working off a debt for smuggling them into the U.S. That is why this is called sex-trafficking.

      The point is that "both adult parties" are not benefitting. Some male third party is benefitting from the sexual abuse of the women they are pimping. And this is true even when the women seem to have themselves advertised on a webpage.

      So, this is not a situation in which Gaetz has been generous to a girlfriend, as you insist on imagining it. This is a full-blown crime and there is no excuse for Gaetz and none for you, if you excuse his behavior.

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    24. Anonymouse 4:/2pm, how is an adult woman not benefitting from a relationship with a man she has decided to date (or to simply party with) because he buys her stuff, facilitates her acquaintance with other influential people and flies her the country?

      Wouldn’t make me a proud mama for my daughter to to seek this lifestyle, but I’d still have to concede that she had made her own choices.

      I’m her mother, but I wouldn’t treat her like she was a hapless simpleton and unaccountable dupe by virtue of her not being rich or influential too.

      I’d hold her as accountable for her own decisions as I would any male.

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    25. I hate to break it to some of you guys, but sex with 17 year olds is perfectly legal in almost all of the South and the Bahamas.

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    26. Cecelia,
      Re: "must be addressed by voters"

      Even if the voters are black? Asking for a Right-wing political party who doesn't think that's fair at all.

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    27. No, you’re asking for a claque of militant simpletons who have to gouge on their thighs just to get thru a meal with half their family.

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  18. It is amusing to watch Republicans embrace corruption and debauchery. And all it took was the “liberal media” reporting on the corruption and debauchery.

    I suggest Democrats proclaim themselves anti-tax and pro-life, then the GOP will have no choice but to oppose those positions.

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  19. The next good faith argument made by a Right-winger will be the first.

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  21. Let me know when the president, members of his administration, and Democratic party convention speakers began promising to lock up political opponents. Then I will take more seriously talk of such parallels between our "tribe" and theirs.

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  22. No Cissy it was to demonstrate my contempt. Had nothing to do with giving you a priggish scolding. That would be daddy's job.

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    1. V of R, learn to read. I quoted the Anonymouse who gave the scolding.

      I don’t think women need to be treated like they’re helpless little children. Not by their daddy or by liberals.

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    2. Cecelia,
      Great news. DeSantis says we can run anti-abortionists over with our cars now.
      Pedal to the metal, folks.

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    3. Turn in your voting card, Cecelia.
      The entire Republican Party believes women can't be trusted with adult decisions.

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    4. Nah. Republicans treat women as if they are 2nd class citizens for some other unexplained reason.

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    5. Anonymouse 11:18am, you don’t even trust or concede to women using whatever benefit they possess in their own interest.

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    6. Hey babe when your daughter was a junior in high school my buddy and I took turns with her. She said it was ok because mom considered her a woman who could make choices about marketing her body. We didn’t check her age. What was the point?

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    7. Unamused, and since you did it as the elected head of roadkill clean-up in Massachusetts, were you jailed for sex trafficking or voted out of office for being the creep that you are?

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    8. Why would it make any difference whether I was JFK, his brother, Trump or the dumbass of today? I have no moral compass as such. That you justify the conditions allowing my activities makes you a bad mom, an enabler here.

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    9. Why would it make any difference whether I was JFK, his brother, Trump or the dumbass of today? I have no moral compass as such. That you justify the conditions allowing my activities makes you a bad mom, an enabler here.

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    10. Why would it make any difference whether I was JFK, his brother, Trump or the dumbass of today? I have no moral compass as such. That you justify the conditions allowing my activities makes you a bad mom, an enabler here.

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    11. Why would it make any difference whether I was JFK, his brother, Trump or the dumbass of today? I have no moral compass as such. That you justify the conditions allowing my activities makes you a bad mom, an enabler here.

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    12. Right, Einstein. And I was also arguing that misogyny doesn’t exist.

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    13. As usual, you did well until it came time justify your position.Making blanket statements about high school students and their abilities to appropriately navigate the adult landscape was not your finest hour. The asymmetry of the transaction between an adult male and a teenager was too much for you to grasp.

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    14. I didn’t make blanket statements about high schoolers. I made statements as to women who are considered of age by law, and that in the context of asking how is that such dynamics are now called sex trafficking.

      It’s you and yours who have been unable to answer that question without lecturing on immoral sexual conduct. Insisting on sticking to my original question is not yet same as not grasping that it’s not the avenue that you’re interested in discussing.

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