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| Bill Clinton |
It took the president cheating with an intern before the American people finally got off their collective fundaments and got involved in the political process. Shrewd politics unfold daily behind closed doors across the country, right under our noses, and we remain clueless. Our legislators carve up a trillion in taxpayer funds each year while the nation's astronomical debt grows out of control, and back then voters were more concerned with flag burning. The President gets his pipes cleaned in the Oval Office, and suddenly everyone wants to voice their opinion.
I used to argue with my father all the time over Bill Clinton's antics including lying to independent councilor, Kenneth Starr, about his involvement with Monica Lewinsky. My dad felt the president should be a moral pillar for the country to follow, and I thought the presidency was just a job, a crummy one at that. I didn't really care that Clinton cheated on his wife. In fact, I prefer a dude with his finger on the nuclear button to be as relaxed as humanly possible. Turns out that Clinton couldn't launch anything anyway because when he was president, he lost the nuclear codes.
Bill Clinton did lie to a federal prosecutor, something which would land you and me in prison where we would most likely end up a much larger person's special friend. Starr was assigned to investigate the Clintons over a land deal gone bust called Whitewater and a sexual harassment allegation when Bill was the Governor of Arkansas. After not finding anything to indict Clinton on, Starr went after his relationship with Lewinsky which, however inappropriate as well as a violation of workplace rules, wasn't illegal. Starr's office leaked scandalous details of Clinton's involvement with the young, unpaid, intern chiefly to smear the President in hopes of getting him removed from office. The Starr Report was chock full of sordid details like,
"At one point, Ms. Lewinsky and the President talked alone in the Chief of Staff's office. In the course of flirting with him, she raised her jacket in the back and showed him the straps of her thong underwear, which extended above her pants."
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| Monica Lewinsky |
The graphic nature of the Starr Report, co-authored by Brett Kavanaugh, really pissed off the American people. Having a mild mannered lawyer like Kenneth Starr, a guy who just seemed like a creep himself, go after the 49 year old President for messing with a 22 year old intern didn't sit well with the American people. My attitude was along the lines of "who gives a shit" as I reminded my father that his generation looked the other way when JFK and his brother took turns boffing Marilyn Monroe. President Kennedy also employed two women in the West Wing to do nothing more than swim naked in the pool with him. I think they were also in charge of the nuclear codes.
A prominent republican said on the news,
"America ought to know that when they send their children to Washington that their President is not going to molest them."
Lewinsky was not a child. She was fully aware of what she was doing. In fact secret service agent, Gary Byrne, who stood guard outside the Oval Office described Lewinsky as relentless in her pursuit of the President. Byrne was the last person Lewinsky had to circumvent to reach Bill, and she did it often always showing up in places in the West Wing where she was not allowed to be. In his tell all book, Crisis of Character, Byrne writes,
"What (if anything) she did all day as an intern mystified me. Some days she seemingly had nothing better to do than play I Spy the President."
It was only when Lewinsky became aware that her friend and confidant, Linda Tripp, secretly recorded phone conversations did she cave to Starr's threats of a lengthy prison sentence for not cooperating with his investigation. Years later in 2015, Lewinsky delivered a TED talk focusing on cyber bullying and slut shaming. She rambled on about how the episode scarred her tragically focusing on her profound humiliation. Lewinsky also revealed that she was invited to speak at the "Forbes 30 Under 30" event, billed as a search for inspirational "youthful visionaries." I'm not sure exactly how the then 41 year old Lewinsky got in as a keynote speaker since her youthful vision was a bit myopic.
In her TED speech, she referred to her White House indiscretions as "falling in love with my boss" and being "swept up into an improbable romance" even though she performed a recital on the presidential trombone while Bill was on the phone with a member of Congress. Now, I'm no prude by any stretch, but I'm pretty certain that love includes a bit more than what Bill and Monica were doing. Lewinsky expressed that she learned a lot from her youthful mistakes which I'm sure included what's under the Resolute desk.
Back then during the impeachment hearings, I hated watching the news because conservatives were simply attempting to mess with the President while liberals were trying to make excuses for Clinton's behavior. I watched two democrats, one a Black man and another a white woman, try to explain the cigar incident by saying,
"Any of our sexual behaviors would look scandalous if scrutinized by the public."
I suppose this is especially true when it occurs at work with someone who is half the age of our spouse.
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| Donald Trump |
In 2010, we fouled up Iran's uranium enrichment centrifuges with a virus spread via thumb drives. We have a history of supporting military coups only to insert our own guy into power after a bloody takeover. We purportedly hacked China's mobile phone companies to spy on the Chinese government and research institutions. In 1982 the CIA inserted a logic bomb in a computer control system stolen from a Canadian company which caused a Soviet gas pipeline to explode. We shutdown North Korea's internet for a weekend when they cyber attacked Sony over the movie, The Interview.
Don Levin, a political science professor at Carnegie Mellon University has determined that the US intervened in 82 elections between 1946 and 2000. The Washington Post reported that the CIA forged "documents to besmirch communist leaders via fabricated sex scandals."
The US has a long history of messing with other countries. So why are we so angry that another country did to us what we do everyday as a matter of foreign policy? The reason is simple, to obstruct the president. Any party with a majority in the House has the power to call for a "special investigation." The minor party relies on charges filed by the House Ethics Committee to attack the major party players.
Back in 1997 the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, leading a republican controlled Congress was hit with 84 ethics charges with only one resulting in an investigation for tax fraud involving a college course Gingrich was teaching. The problem was that he was spreading a conservative political philosophy with tax exempt funds. While the IRS exonerated him, the House reprimanded Gingrich for failing to hire a tax lawyer. They fined him $300,000, part of the cost of the investigation. It was the first time a house speaker was disciplined for ethics violations.
During the subsequent mid term elections, republicans lost five seats. Gingrich, who was reelected himself, was held responsible by republican leaders who maneuvered to give him the boot. Gingrich's private polls indicated that investigating the Lewinsky affair would tank the President and bolster republicans in the House, but the plan backfired costing him his seat.
The partisan attack on Gingrich was countered by a special congressional investigation of Clinton. They appointed Kenneth Starr, a republican to go after the President in an act of revenge for unseating the speaker. Starr leaked all sorts of scandalous sexual details to the press concerning Clinton's fling with Lewinsky. When the infamous blue dress surfaced, Lewinsky initially claimed the stain was spinach dip. Starr must have worked in a dry cleaners in college because he sent that dress to a FBI lab.
So if all these personal attacks were motivated by partisan politics, why did the Department of Justice appoint a republican special counsel, Robert Mueller, to go after a republican president when Congress is controlled by republicans? Mueller came on the scene after Trump shit canned FBI Director, James Comey, presumably to derail his investigation of the Trump campaign's alleged involvement with the Russians. Trump claims he fired Comey for his last minute election shocker indicating Hillary's emails were, yet again, under investigation.
Trump's twitter feed pisses off many people, but elected officials couldn't give a crap about what the President says on social media. They leave the outrage for the small stuff to the small minds. What tanked Trump with both parties was his first budget which made sweeping cuts in efforts to save $54 billion dollars. Trump said,
"We are going to do more with less, and make the government lean and accountable to the people."
This is not how Washington works. Both parties spend big when their candidate is elected. When democrats win the presidency, republicans roll out the Balanced Budget Act to hobble spending. When a republican is in the Oval Office, the democrats talk about "the rich not paying their fair share" in attempts to increase taxes.
Republicans were unhappy because they were not going to get their share of the federal money for their pet projects. Trump reduced spending across the board as any business person would do if they had access to the government books. Bonehead tweets about Mexicans don't really anger politicians. That superficial stuff spurns on mock outrage from our lawmakers. What galvanized both parties to support a DOJ investigation was a change in the way business is conducted in Washington.
Now, a porn star who took a payoff to keep her mouth shut over an alleged affair with Trump wants to give the money back so she can tell her story. Mueller backed an FBI raid on the New York offices of Trump's lawyer looking for information pertaining to hush money, which could be considered an illegal campaign contribution. My attitude towards Trump is the same I had for Clinton twenty years ago. Who gives a shit? Apart from being on Wife Version 3.0, Trump has always been known as a playboy. He didn't lie to a federal investigator about his extra marital relationship like Bill Clinton did. The smear campaign is designed to herd the American public into believing that a self professed germaphobe who doesn't like to shake hands and medically vetted potential girlfriends in the 80's would come in intimate contact with a forty year old adult film star.
And as far as the recording of Trump describing the anatomy grabbing benefits of celebrity, he said,
"...I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, 'I'll show you where they have some nice furniture.'"
Furniture shopping? The only thing I learned from this exchange is that Trump is a geek because only a true nerd would think that the path past a women's underwear is through a Raymour and Flanigan showroom.
The Starr Report cost $80 million in taxpayer funds. Mueller's DOJ witch hunt will likely cost even more as a team of lawyers tries to link Trump to something the government has done for decades. The American people remain painfully ignorant as we are swayed by false news reports written by journalists more interested in celebrity than the truth. During her TED talk, Monica Lewinsky said it best when asked why she was speaking out now. She answered,
"Because it’s time. Time to take back my narrative."
Then she asserted,
"You can insist on a different ending to your story.”
Isn't that what it comes down to? A different ending, that is, wait a few years then reimagine the facts until the American people favor the outcome. That's what public relations people do, leverage our forgetfulness against us. Bill Clinton did just that when he gushed about Hillary in his "I Met a Girl" speech delivered at the Democratic National Convention during the 2016 election. All you got to do is wait fifteen years when the average American has forgotten the past, then rewrite the final scene.
As we decide right from wrong along party lines with journalists creating rather than reporting the news and social media censoring anything that doesn’t conform to the acceptable narrative, we have evolved into a society in which the truth is no longer relevant.
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| Newt Gingrich |
Back in 1997 the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, leading a republican controlled Congress was hit with 84 ethics charges with only one resulting in an investigation for tax fraud involving a college course Gingrich was teaching. The problem was that he was spreading a conservative political philosophy with tax exempt funds. While the IRS exonerated him, the House reprimanded Gingrich for failing to hire a tax lawyer. They fined him $300,000, part of the cost of the investigation. It was the first time a house speaker was disciplined for ethics violations.
During the subsequent mid term elections, republicans lost five seats. Gingrich, who was reelected himself, was held responsible by republican leaders who maneuvered to give him the boot. Gingrich's private polls indicated that investigating the Lewinsky affair would tank the President and bolster republicans in the House, but the plan backfired costing him his seat.
The partisan attack on Gingrich was countered by a special congressional investigation of Clinton. They appointed Kenneth Starr, a republican to go after the President in an act of revenge for unseating the speaker. Starr leaked all sorts of scandalous sexual details to the press concerning Clinton's fling with Lewinsky. When the infamous blue dress surfaced, Lewinsky initially claimed the stain was spinach dip. Starr must have worked in a dry cleaners in college because he sent that dress to a FBI lab.
So if all these personal attacks were motivated by partisan politics, why did the Department of Justice appoint a republican special counsel, Robert Mueller, to go after a republican president when Congress is controlled by republicans? Mueller came on the scene after Trump shit canned FBI Director, James Comey, presumably to derail his investigation of the Trump campaign's alleged involvement with the Russians. Trump claims he fired Comey for his last minute election shocker indicating Hillary's emails were, yet again, under investigation.
Trump's twitter feed pisses off many people, but elected officials couldn't give a crap about what the President says on social media. They leave the outrage for the small stuff to the small minds. What tanked Trump with both parties was his first budget which made sweeping cuts in efforts to save $54 billion dollars. Trump said,
"We are going to do more with less, and make the government lean and accountable to the people."
This is not how Washington works. Both parties spend big when their candidate is elected. When democrats win the presidency, republicans roll out the Balanced Budget Act to hobble spending. When a republican is in the Oval Office, the democrats talk about "the rich not paying their fair share" in attempts to increase taxes.
Republicans were unhappy because they were not going to get their share of the federal money for their pet projects. Trump reduced spending across the board as any business person would do if they had access to the government books. Bonehead tweets about Mexicans don't really anger politicians. That superficial stuff spurns on mock outrage from our lawmakers. What galvanized both parties to support a DOJ investigation was a change in the way business is conducted in Washington.
Now, a porn star who took a payoff to keep her mouth shut over an alleged affair with Trump wants to give the money back so she can tell her story. Mueller backed an FBI raid on the New York offices of Trump's lawyer looking for information pertaining to hush money, which could be considered an illegal campaign contribution. My attitude towards Trump is the same I had for Clinton twenty years ago. Who gives a shit? Apart from being on Wife Version 3.0, Trump has always been known as a playboy. He didn't lie to a federal investigator about his extra marital relationship like Bill Clinton did. The smear campaign is designed to herd the American public into believing that a self professed germaphobe who doesn't like to shake hands and medically vetted potential girlfriends in the 80's would come in intimate contact with a forty year old adult film star.
And as far as the recording of Trump describing the anatomy grabbing benefits of celebrity, he said,
"...I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, 'I'll show you where they have some nice furniture.'"
Furniture shopping? The only thing I learned from this exchange is that Trump is a geek because only a true nerd would think that the path past a women's underwear is through a Raymour and Flanigan showroom.
The Starr Report cost $80 million in taxpayer funds. Mueller's DOJ witch hunt will likely cost even more as a team of lawyers tries to link Trump to something the government has done for decades. The American people remain painfully ignorant as we are swayed by false news reports written by journalists more interested in celebrity than the truth. During her TED talk, Monica Lewinsky said it best when asked why she was speaking out now. She answered,
"Because it’s time. Time to take back my narrative."
Then she asserted,
"You can insist on a different ending to your story.”
Isn't that what it comes down to? A different ending, that is, wait a few years then reimagine the facts until the American people favor the outcome. That's what public relations people do, leverage our forgetfulness against us. Bill Clinton did just that when he gushed about Hillary in his "I Met a Girl" speech delivered at the Democratic National Convention during the 2016 election. All you got to do is wait fifteen years when the average American has forgotten the past, then rewrite the final scene.
As we decide right from wrong along party lines with journalists creating rather than reporting the news and social media censoring anything that doesn’t conform to the acceptable narrative, we have evolved into a society in which the truth is no longer relevant.