Fine. I’ll bite.
Lately we find ourselves discussing the urgent and very serious current issues in our government, the sexual assaults, the investigation for conspiracy against the United States of America with Russia, the reverse Robin Hood the GOP has named “tax reform” in an effort to mislead the public. Instead of dealing with all that and with the irresponsible lifetime judicial appointments and all the goings-on that will directly affect us, our children, and their children, an involved party says. . . *record needle scratch* “But what about Bill Clinton?” (/facepalm)
Fine. This is old, settled news, but since you all can’t fucking get past this, I’ll bite. Let’s do this. No, seriously, we’re going to do this NOW so it can be laid to rest. What we need is a 1980-90’s era time machine. Too bad we don’t have the Delorean to hop in, feed the flux capacitor 1.21 gigawatts from old beer and a banana peel. We’ll just have to remember back to 1998 or 1999. Let’s put this bullshit “Whataboutism” to rest so we can get back to reality and deal with the mess we’ve made.
(Wish I knew who did this transparent image of the Delorean). I wouldn’t go back to the 90’s knowing what I know now. Remember what happened after? Bush. Yeah, best that I can’t go back and try to warn them, to keep him from sending so many to their deaths. 1990’s us would think I was nuts for sure.
I can’t go back in time, but I will be putting on some Loreena McKennitt to relax, get into the right state of mind, the right time frame. Off we go!
Never mind that William Jefferson Clinton is no longer in a position of power in the United States in 2017. Sure, he’s on the board of the Clinton Foundation and uses that position to raise funds for the family’s charity, but he’s not been in a government position for about 17 years.
Never mind that Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying about the blow job. Technically, the impeachment was for perjury and obstruction of justice relating to the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Clinton by Paula Jones. Two other impeachment articles – a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of power – failed in the House. The point is, the sexual harassment charges weren’t ignored. The House impeached him; the Senate acquitted him.
This post is partly about right and wrong and the traditions of this country, but it’s also about due process, about victims being heard, about us hearing them and recognizing when they give us information we need to get/keep a dangerous person out of office. You don’t have to agree with the results of Clinton’s impeachment. I’m pretty sure I don’t though, to be perfectly honest, I don’t remember it all. Back then I thought it stupid to fire a person for having an affair if it doesn’t affect his job – it is not our business – but if it was found he was abusing his power then the crime should be litigated. He probably was abusing his power (with the intern, anyway – she was an adult, yes, but she was an intern, and he was her boss, a powerful man, the POTUS, you know?). But the only legal system we have is the one we have. We work within it, and we try to improve it as we can.
The problem we’re having lately is partly with people believing victims in the first place and partly with people understanding how important sex crimes are. From sexual harassment to sexual assault to rape to sex crimes against a minor, these are very serious offenses. People who commit these crimes are criminals. They aren’t the people you want representing you in government regardless of your gender or sexual orientation or race. These criminals are abusing power, control, committing heinous crimes against those who are unable to defend themselves. Why would we ever choose to give people more power when we already know they abuse it?
The people who commit these crimes can be any sex/gender though statistically most of the perpetrators of sex crimes are men. They are usually white. Men are more likely to commit sexual violence in communities where sexual violence goes unpunished. (National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2004). Sex offenders minimize their number of victims, and they find ways to rationalize their behavior.
There were other charges against Clinton for various other assaults including exposing himself to a woman he worked with in 1991 when he was Governor of Arkansas.
There was also a rape charge against Bill Clinton from an incident that occurred in 1978. His accuser, Juanita Broaddrick, was interviewed in 1999 prior to the Senate acquitting Clinton on the impeachment charges. It’s entirely possible that Hillary Clinton knew of this charge in 1999. I might know if I’d read her books, but I haven’t, yet. I do not know if this rape went to trial or if the statute of limitations ran out. Maybe they settled it without criminal charges. I don’t know. I do know Mrs. Broaddrick was heard, and I know that many people believed her, and not just because of Clinton’s record of sexual harassment.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no outstanding charges or allegations against either of the Clintons for sex crimes or for anything else. We know that every aspect of Secretary Clinton’s life, personal and professional, was picked apart and investigated for something like 25 years at the taxpayer’s expense. She is a free woman; I know of no charges pending against her, and I know of no guilty verdicts for crimes. As far as I know, Bill Clinton is also not incarcerated or under investigation/charged with anything.
We’ve looked back. You asked me “But what about Bill Clinton’s assaults?” You have my undivided attention: what about them?
What do you want from me? If you have evidence of something that needs investigating, give it to the authorities. Otherwise, what needs to be addressed now? Whatever it was, were you screaming all through Bush’s presidency to get someone to deal with it? and all through Obama’s presidency? Why do you think we should ignore all that is happening now – the sex crimes coming to light, the conspiracy against the USA, the current regime edging us ever closer to fascism and nuclear war – and deal with Bill Clinton? What do you think America needs to do about Bill Clinton?
Nothing? Never mind? What about Seth Rich? (okay, we’re done here if you said or thought that because that answer is too stupid for anyone other than a propagandist like Hannity or one of his stupid, gullible little sheep)
Seriously. When these followers of “Whataboutism” – the ninnies who go out of their way to divert attention away from current events/crimes to blame anything and everything on the Clintons – are pressed to answer “what the fuck do you want us to do about Clinton?” they come back with something about Seth Rich (I feel for his poor family – what Hannity and these other dumb suckers put them through. . .) or CNN or Julian Assange (who trusts anything that comes out of this guy’s mouth?!) or any of various other crazy conspiracy tales.
Okay. We looked back into history. As far as we ALL know, there are no outstanding issues that we need to deal with. There is no reason that either of the Clintons would be immune should some new wrongdoing or crime come out into the open. Nothing is stopping anyone.
So. . . we’re done here, right? I’m going to get my head back to present day. I hope all these followers of “Whataboutism” will drop their sick Bill and/or Hillary Clinton obsessions and join us in the here and now.
Roy Moore, who so far is the subject of nine allegations of sexual assault/rape/attempted rape, some against minors, is still in the race for the Senate representing Alabama. He was actually banned from a local mall and the YMCA for harassing young girls, and apparently, it was well known that he “dated” very young girls. Anyway, these are credible allegations against Moore though I don’t know if any of them can be official charges. At this point, that’s not the voter’s concern. It is highly unlikely that all nine are invalid, and consider the likelihood of there being more than these nine out there. The concern is that a person who clearly has a history of sex crimes is still in the race and that a lot of people in Alabama still support him. Alabama officials have threatened the victims. Knowing Moore has at least nine serious allegations against him including sexual assault of minors, the people of Alabama might vote Roy Moore into the Senate, anyway. People of Alabama say they believe the victims, yet they’re making excuses for Moore’s actions and declare they’ll still vote for him. Why?!
Why are people supporting a pedophile to represent their state in the Senate? What happened to a person stepping out of a race when it’s found out they’ve committed a crime? especially sexual assault/attempted rape of minors? And how is it okay that government officials have made threats to Moore’s victims? They’re the victims for fuck’s sake; the state should be defending victims of their own District Attorney (and possible future Senator since he doesn’t have the decency to step down and apologize for being a child-raping piece of shit).
A current Senator, Al Franken of Minnesota, is also dealing with allegations of sexual assault. Franken has apologized for his actions, and his victim accepted his apology; she doesn’t want him to step down. There is more to it in the back and forth, the he said/she said, but at this point, the plan is there will be an ethics investigation (he suggested it). Franken will remain in the Senate for the time being. So, at least, this charge is not going to be ignored by the government or by the voters of Minnesota who put Franken in the Senate. And the government isn’t threatening that victim, as far as I know. She will be heard. If only the others were.
Now we have Rep. John Conyers in the news because our tax dollars paid for a sexual harassment settlement with no investigation? Did they intend to hush up his victim(s) and not inform his voters in Michigan? Even though we are all paying for him to pay off his victim?
Of course, when we’re bringing up all of these allegations we can’t leave out the President of the United States. No, I’m not going back into the past to some other president; I’m talking about now. This would be the very same president who’s setting up nuclear war with North Korea. Also the same guy who is one of the subjects of an investigation into conspiracy against the USA with Russia, a hostile foreign power run by an ex-KGB agent. Rape charges against a minor were already filed before 45 was elected, and he was the subject of at least 11 allegations of sex crimes before the election. Trump called his accusers “liars” at his campaign rallies, and he’s threatened them with law suits.
People voted for this repugnant human being for president knowing he’s a rapist, knowing he’s sexist and racist, knowing he’s a liar and a grifter, and suspecting he was colluding with the Russians to get elected. They voted for him anyway.
At this time, I am aware of 19 incidents of sexual assault/harassment/rape by Donald J. Trump, including the rape of his first wife and the pending rape charges (victim was 13 years old when the incident occurred). There are various other assault allegations that are mostly the things he already bragged about doing:
Trump’s bragged repeatedly over the years about doing this stuff to women, to grabbing them and kissing them without consent and to walking into their dressing room to look at them when they’re naked (even the children), and the women have corroborated his story. He said he does it. They said, “yep, he does it all and more.” But now “they’re liars.” Obviously, they’re not all liars, but the point is, this cannot stand. Our country, our society, cannot stand as long as we silence victims and as long as we make sure they remain victims.
‘The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members’ – Mahatma Gandhi
I understand that the Gandhi quote is specifically about the poor, and we do have issues with poverty in the USA, too, but our society conspires to keep many vulnerable including children, women, and minorities. What we do, what our government does about our most vulnerable, matters. By the way, I recently posted Hello, Kettle? about Trump’s silence regarding Roy Moore’s allegations while pointing a finger at Al Franken. There are some similar themes in the post with less of the “Whataboutism.”
All over the country, courageous women and men are speaking out about their assaults and harassment. It’s not just in government but in Hollywood, in journalism, everywhere. If we’re ever going to change society’s attitudes sexual abuse, we owe it to all of the victims to listen to them, to believe them, to give them their day in court (or hearings, investigations, whatever is appropriate). And on that note, we need to review the statutes of limitations for horrid crimes like these. In my opinion, there should be no statute of limitations for such an abuse. In some cases, the time limit runs out while victims are still juveniles. This also cannot stand.
Enough of Americans supporting/defending rapists and pedophiles. Enough of supporting criminals of one party but condemning those of the other. There was a time when it was a no-brainer that Nazis and pedophiles were the worst. Everyone knew these people were the scum of the earth. Political affiliation was unimportant; scum was scum. Period. Now people, especially members of the GOP (#GrabbyOldPervs), celebrate this scum, make excuses for them. This cannot stand.
Maybe that time machine isn’t such a bad idea. I could go back to just before we put (W.) Bush in and everything went to Hell. I’m not saying Clinton didn’t help nudge us that way with his NAFTA and sex crimes and “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” and his throwing people in prison (especially minorities) for any fucking thing and marriage is only between a man and a woman, etc. . .
You know what? Never mind. I talked myself out of it again.
So are we good now? We’re both over our walk down memory lane? We’ve cured our nostalgia? Wiped the fog out of our memories? Removed our rose-colored glasses? Can we see our current situation clearly? see what we need to do?
Good. Roll up your sleeves, people; we have to get back to damage control and get these criminals out of our government. We need to get our government working for us again.
Feature Image: Official White House photo taken Nov. 17, 1995 from page 3179 of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s report on President Clinton, showing President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky at the White House. (AP Photo)
Link: “Understanding the Perpetrator” – Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, University of Michigan
Link: “Listening to What Trump’s Accusers Have Told Us” – by Jia Tolentino at The New Yorker
Link: Roy Moore Was Banned From A Mall And YMCA – The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (video, 3 minutes 55 seconds, 15 Nov 2017)
Link: Truth Ism – by E. Brooks of Gray Matters
Link to original tweet from Amy Siskind (include the graphic from Facebook).
Link to original tweets from Matt McDermott.
Edited a few hours after original post to include information about Rep. Conyers. What is this country coming to?!
Help put up this billboard outside Roy Moore’s office:
#WhatAboutClinton #Whataboutism #TrumpSexualPredator