TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Die-Hard Fans Of Melanie Martinez Are Burning And Ripping Her Merch After She Was Accused Of Rape. Well, not really “die-hard fans.”
Archive for 2017
December 8, 2017
THEY DIDN’T REALLY WANT HIM GONE, THEY JUST NEEDED THE APPEARANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY: Democratic senators and staffers shed tears during Al Franken’s resignation speech. Of course, he didn’t resign, merely announced his intention to resign at a later date. We’ll see what happens after Roy Moore is elected, or not.
Even CNN’s Chris Cilizza is calling it “Al Franken’s totally unapologetic resignation.” “Franken’s speech was defined primarily by his lack of any real apology and the clear bitterness he carries for being pushed out amid allegations that he had groped several women and forcibly tried to kiss others.”
But does a promise to resign at an unnamed later date establish the moral ascendancy the Democrats are after here?
SHE’S LIVING IT: The Upside of Office Flirtation?
Allison Benedikt:
When I was 23 years old, my boss would look down the gap at the waistband of my jeans when he walked past my desk. I was an entry-level fact-checker at my first magazine job, and he was an older and more powerful editor. My career, at the time, was in his hands. Once, when we had finished working on a story together, he suggested we get a drink to celebrate. It was a Friday night, and I remember feeling extremely nervous as we sat across from each other in a dark bar. He was flirting with me, I could tell. The next weekend, he asked me out again. A few days later, he kissed me on the steps of the West 4th subway station without first getting my consent. We’ve now been happily married for 14 years and have three children.
It is an understatement to say something has shifted in the culture. And that shift is unquestionably to the good. Men like Harvey Weinstein and Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer and their less famous counterparts deserve to be kicked out of polite society, ruined, and, in certain cases, indicted. Women (and men) feel safer coming forward with stories of abuse and are being believed. But a byproduct of these welcome developments has been an expansion of our collective definition of harassment. Reading accounts of others’ experiences since the great outpouring began, I’ve vacillated between horror at the abusive situations so many women have endured and alarm at some of the interactions being considered misconduct. I’ve felt a rift with many of the younger women I know, who claim to understand exactly where to draw the line between legitimate behavior and abuse and seem to view harassment as any interaction with a man that has made them uncomfortable. For all the power of the #MeToo moment, it’s been a bit bewildering too.
It’s necessary — and belatedly satisfying — to expose devils like Weinstein and Rose and Lauer. But before this new normal settles down, it’s likely to take some innocent reputations along with it. To some “feminists,’ that’s a feature, not a bug.
But even after the dust settles down, the new normal may put a permanent kibosh on happy office romances like Benedikt’s.
KIMBERLEY STRASSEL: Obstruction of Congress: Mueller, the Justice Department and the FBI aren’t helping the lawmakers’ probe.
The media echo chamber spent the week speculating about whether Special Counsel Robert Mueller can or will nab President Trump on obstruction-of-justice charges. All the while it continues to ignore Washington’s most obvious obstruction—the coordinated effort to thwart congressional probes of the role law enforcement played in the 2016 election.
The news that senior FBI agent Peter Strzok exchanged anti-Trump, pro-Hillary text messages with another FBI official matters—though we’ve yet to see the content. The bigger scandal is that the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Mr. Mueller have known about those texts for months and deliberately kept their existence from Congress. The House Intelligence Committee sent document subpoenas and demanded an interview with Mr. Strzok. The Justice Department dodged, and then leaked.
The department also withheld from Congress that another top official, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, was in contact with ex-spook Christopher Steele and the opposition-research firm Fusion GPS. It has refused to say what role the Steele dossier—Clinton-commissioned oppo research—played in its Trump investigation. It won’t turn over files about its wiretapping.
And Mr. Mueller—who is well aware the House is probing all this, and considered the Strzok texts relevant enough to earn the agent a demotion—nonetheless did not inform Congress about the matter. Why? Perhaps Mr. Mueller feels he’s above being bothered with any other investigation. Or perhaps his team is covering for the FBI and the Justice Department.
Perhaps.
THE HILL: Ethics panel clears Intel chairman of disclosing classified info.
The House Ethics Committee on Thursday cleared Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, of allegations that he disclosed classified information to the public.
In a statement, the committee said it is closing the investigation into Nunes after consulting with experts on classification rules.
“Based solely on the conclusion of these classification experts that the information that Representative Nunes disclosed was not classified, the Committee will take no further action and considers this matter closed,” it said.
Nunes during a press conference earlier this year announced that intelligence agencies had incidentally collected information about associates of President Trump.
Or maybe not so incidentally, as it is appearing now.
December 7, 2017
ISN’T IT IRONIC? DON’TCHA THINK? Millennials: Calling Us Snowflakes Hurts Our Fragile Feelings.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Visual Guide to Lock Picking.
ASHLEY MCGUIRE: Worried about sexual harassment? Don’t force nuns to buy other people’s birth control. “Coming out in the midst of this, the Becerra-Shapiro suit to rope nuns into contraception has the same icky feel of men pushing women around. . . . Becerra and Shapiro are powerful men with political ambition and a track record for bullying the little guy.”
PEOPLE SEEM TO LIKE THESE, SO HERE’S ANOTHER OPEN THREAD. Talk about whatever you want.
Social media mobs are jackals with the memory of gnats. This advice goes for the bosses of people who are being ganged up on social media, too, but most of them don’t have enough backbone.
THE EAST IS . . . KINDA THIN AND WATERY: Anheuser-Busch makes a big bet on China — to the tune of 1.5 million tons of beer.
AT AMAZON, 12 Days of Christmas Deals.
SO WE HAVE THE VICTORIANS’ VICES WITHOUT THEIR VIRTUES: Rep. Franks resigning after discussing surrogacy with female staff. “Due to my familiarity and experience with the process of surrogacy, I clearly became insensitive as to how the discussion of such an intensely personal topic might affect others.” Either there’s a lot more to this story, or we’ve really gone crazy.
UPDATE: Ah, the initial bare-bones story has been updated to indicate that he asked them to be surrogates for him and his wife. Still, not exactly Harvey Weinstein stuff.
KURT SCHLICHTER: Liberals Have Turned The FBI Into A Disgrace.
YOU CAN’T TRUST THE MEDIA: Layers Of Deceit: Why do recipe writers lie and lie and lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions?
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The ‘Wandering Eye’ is Just Part of Human Anatomy.
CUE THE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: Western Jihadists Who Joined ISIS Fear for Their Lives, Beg to Be Sent Home.
MODIFIED LIMITED HANGOUT? If Moore wins and Franken un-resigns, will Senate Democrats back him up?
Seems awfully Nixonian for a guy who spent his glory days writing scripts for Dan Aykroyd to trash Nixon on a weekly basis.
AT AMAZON,on sale, AT-A-GLANCE Daily Appointment Book / Planner.
JOHN PODHORETZ: Trump’s truth-telling on Jerusalem marks an all-new Middle East.
THEY ALL KNEW: Women enable men like Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose.
Roxanne Jones:
In some cases, these women are the personal assistants, executives and co-workers who have benefited from the harasser’s success. They’ve gotten promotions, recognition and raises.
They may commiserate with other women in the ladies’ room about the awful boys’ club culture. But if you ever accuse a co-worker of sexual harassment or abuse, the last thing they will do is support you. If they have the power, these women may even fire you for causing a stir.
This week, NBC star Matt Lauer became the most recent man to fall amid sexual harassment allegations, which ranged from castigating a woman for not having sex with him after he dropped his pants in the office to sending women sex toys. On Thursday, Lauer apologized: “… there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed,” he wrote. “I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish dearly,” his statement said.
When his “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie broke the news of Lauer’s firing on air, she was clearly devastated.
Given that Lauer’s proclivities were no secret, that last bit hasn’t gotten nearly the scrutiny it deserves.
ANDREW MOSEMAN: How To Build A City On The Moon.
AT AMAZON, 12 Days of Christmas Deals.