Don, Bill, & Harvey: Am I The Only American Thinking?
When I read that politically incorrect, sexually explicit Jewish writer Philip Roth had died, I assumed he died from disgust at the state of American culture and democracy during this absurd moment in American history. In 2004, Roth published a novel, THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, which imagined America if Charles Lindbergh had beaten FDR in the 1940 election. As I pointed out in an earlier blog (1/7/18), his novel now seems psychic. Roth had a healthy sense of the absurd, and I am convinced that this period is the most absurd one in American history. Fortunately, he died before seeing a rich, powerful Jewish man in handcuffs for sexual misconduct while a rich, now too powerful half-German man, who thought some Nazis were fine people, was in the White House campaigning to win a Nobel Peace Prize and watching his poll numbers rise. I don't know what the now late Jewish writer thought of this fake media-generated METOO movement, but I believe that anyone who doesn't feel ashamed that a black man who gave millions to mostly black colleges and did more to enhance the black male image (whatever he was doing privately) than even Reverend Martin Luther King Junior and President Barack Obama is facing jail time for having freaky sex with a foreign white woman who had previously collected three millions dollars from him and a Jewish man who produced many award-winning movies, often starring white women who won awards for being in those movies, and who apparently kept the AIDS charity AmfAR thriving after Elizabeth Taylor died has been indicted for using his power to force beautiful actresses to have sex with him while a white supremacist who bragged about sexual assault and about peeping at sometimes teenage beauty contestants in the organizations that he owned, a greedy, corrupt con man who believes that charity begins at home, is sitting in the White House, put there by white women and white evangelicals, must be either as bigoted as Trump or a fool, incapable of thinking.
As I was watching white women celebrate while the Jewish guy was being taken into the courtroom in handcuffs, I was also reading about another black man--the dignified, award-winning actor Morgan Freeman, the man who actually played God--being accused of sexually harassing women on movie sets. They didn't say what race his accusers are, but I'd be surprised if the majority of them were nonwhite. Let's count how many black men have already been caught up in this sexual misconduct witch hunt: Tavis Smiley and former Representative Harold Ford lost their jobs. Record producer and mogul Russell Simmons is being investigated. Dirty, but powerful singer (I have most of his CD's; sue me) R Kelly has been targeted by the powerful black women in the METOO movement. Here are the shameful facts. There are not as many powerful black men in America as there are powerful white ones. So each black man who is taken down by this absurd witch hunt is a greater loss for our community. Also, using sexual misconduct to attack powerful black men (see Jesse Jackson, Clarence Thomas, and Hoover's spying on King) and to kill or lock up not at all powerful black boys and men (Emmett Till, the Scottsboro Boys, the Central Park Five) is as old as racism in America. Once white women voted for a rich, insane, racist white man who was heard bragging about sexual assault before the election instead of his competent, sane white female opponent, the prosecutor who campaigned on locking up Bill Cosby should have dropped the charges. And Anthony Weiner and all other men or women being investigated or in jail for any sex crime other than violent rape or child molestation should be allowed to continue their freaky sexual behavior in peace. Probably the media should have apologized to previous victims of public shaming and humiliation for sexual misconduct like Gary Hart, Monica Lewinsky, and Bill Clinton.
That Bill Cosby was prosecuted twice after Trump became President, and relatively decent (compared to the rich, white bigot in the White House) men like Matt Lauer, perhaps the most decent Al Franken, Charlie Rose, Tom Brokaw, and Morgan Freeman are losing their jobs and/or being publicly shamed is a national disgrace. I will always believe that the media-generated METOO movement was at least subconsciously an attempt to create an atmosphere where a jury would find Cosby guilty. But I thought the strategy might backfire. What if the jurors decided that since so many men, including Franken, Rose, and Lauer, were sexually freaky, Cosby shouldn't have to go to jail for his bad behavior? Probably if Cosby had been white or his accuser and the majority of his other "victims" black, he would have gone free. One juror claimed the use of drugs was the problem. But that foreign white bitch voluntarily took the drugs; Cosby didn't slip them into her drink. The drug excuse is actually one of those fake excuses that generally decent people use to explain bad behavior. It's like the excuse that some white folks are giving for moving out of too "diverse" California. It's not white flight; they're not fleeing the nonwhites. It's the weather or the high cost of housing. White folks, bye!
Although the fall of decent men like Lauer, Rose, and Franken didn't help a black man accused of having freaky sex with white women, it undoubtedly has helped born-rich, white Trump. Remember how we weren't supposed to normalize that freak? Why hasn't someone realized that the more we show other men behaving badly, the less disturbing his behavior seems? Maybe his poll numbers are creeping up not because of the economy or whatever is happening with North Korea, but because the more we focus on seemingly normal men's bad sexual behavior the less abnormal he seems. On the other hand, the fact that so many men, and especially really powerful men like Weinstein, Cosby, Lauer, and Rose, have been so easily destroyed, in the latter two men's cases, by anonymous accusers, may make Trump seem bigger and better than normal, like the most powerful man in the world and not because he's the electoral college, illegitimate President of the most powerful country. Forget Teflon Don. He's a superhero, a god, if not the God. After all, God's son Jesus hung out with prostitutes, so even Stormy helps promote the Trump the All Powerful God narrative. I said when this insane bigot was beating all of those mostly respectable Republicans that non-thinkers who watched his reality show believed he could push around Congress, NATO, the UN, and other world leaders, because they saw him bully and fire well-known celebrities. The Oscar and Grammy winners, retired superstar athletes, and reality stars would attack each other, but the star of "The Apprentice" was always called Mr. Trump by the celebrities he bullied and fired. During the Republican primaries, he pointed out truthfully that the candidates who attacked him usually went down in the polls. And he won the Republican nomination easily despite being despised by almost all establishment Republicans; he also defied all odds, the polls, and the pundits to win the electoral college. And now he's strutting in the White House while Harvey and Bill had to pay a million dollars to stay out of jail and wear ankle monitors. Why wouldn't his ignorant supporters think he's God? Am I the only one thinking right now?
Let's play a what if...what would they do game. What if Trump was running against Obama in 2016, and he won the electoral college because a majority of nonwhites joined white men in voting for him while most white women voted for Obama? What if when he got into the White House, he and his Cabinet/staff/followers started attacking women (there was a brief period of that ugly behavior among some of his deplorable male followers right after the defeat of Hillary), what if he was raping Hope Hicks and calling KellyAnne Conway and Sarah Sanders the kind of names he called Rosie O'Donnell? What if instead of shoving that male NATO leader, he shoved May or Merkel? What if the number of rapes and physical assaults on women increased, and what if he pardoned Bill Cosby? And what if while all of that was going on, the nonwhite folks who put this sexual assaulter in the White House started complaining about racism? What if they started accusing white people, including white women, of discriminating against them, and white women started losing their jobs? What if Kristin Gillibrand was run out of the Senate because of her comments about mostly black NFL players? What if Andrea Mitchell, the MSNBC anchor I once called castrator of black men for attacking both Obama and Eric Holder as weak, lost her job? What if David Duke and some other out-of-the-closet racists were arrested and tried for hate crimes while mostly white women were being raped and beaten? What would white women do? Would they join the nonwhite people's anti-racism movement? Would a white woman serve as an assistant prosecutor to a black man in Duke's trial the way the female Christopher Darden did in Cosby's? Would an unknown white woman allow famous nonwhite women to use the name of a movement she created to promote their anti-racism cause? Would white women create their own anti-racism movement?
If you think they would, you don't know white women, and you don't know Americans. I've written multiple blog posts (11/24/13, 11/26/17, 4/29/18) about Americans' preference for discussing sex instead of race. And I've also called out white women for being weak whiners, too willing to embrace the victim role (6/19/16,10/15/17, 2/4/18). I'm not sure if the death toll from natural causes has creeped up among nonwhites, but many white women would not be able to survive in the atmosphere that I just described. After all, some of them are supposedly permanently traumatized by dirty jokes, French kisses, and being pawed while sloppy drunk or drugged.
It is very difficult to be a thinking black woman right now. In fact, I suspect this absurd period is difficult for all thinkers, no matter their race, gender, religion, or political leanings (white male conservatives David Frum and George Will aren't enjoying this period either). But maybe Roth gave up too quickly. I have some hope. MSNBC seems to be responding to my frantic tweets (and hopefully commentary from other sensible Americans; I can't read and watch everything). Joy Reid's show was spectacular yesterday. She and her guests never mentioned Weinstein, Stormy (except in a disparaging comment about the need to talk about her), or sex, while focusing quite a bit on race (the NFL anthem nonsense, the horrific treatment of nonwhite immigrants). And on Tuesday, Joy and Chris Hayes will spend an hour discussing race. I'll be watching.
Come on, America, let's start thinking. Let's focus on the issues that matter: racism, Russia's interference in our election, mass murder/gun violence, insanity, including in the White House, income inequality, climate change, mass incarceration, and the media's absurd, dangerous obsession with sexual misconduct.
RIP Philip Roth
As I was watching white women celebrate while the Jewish guy was being taken into the courtroom in handcuffs, I was also reading about another black man--the dignified, award-winning actor Morgan Freeman, the man who actually played God--being accused of sexually harassing women on movie sets. They didn't say what race his accusers are, but I'd be surprised if the majority of them were nonwhite. Let's count how many black men have already been caught up in this sexual misconduct witch hunt: Tavis Smiley and former Representative Harold Ford lost their jobs. Record producer and mogul Russell Simmons is being investigated. Dirty, but powerful singer (I have most of his CD's; sue me) R Kelly has been targeted by the powerful black women in the METOO movement. Here are the shameful facts. There are not as many powerful black men in America as there are powerful white ones. So each black man who is taken down by this absurd witch hunt is a greater loss for our community. Also, using sexual misconduct to attack powerful black men (see Jesse Jackson, Clarence Thomas, and Hoover's spying on King) and to kill or lock up not at all powerful black boys and men (Emmett Till, the Scottsboro Boys, the Central Park Five) is as old as racism in America. Once white women voted for a rich, insane, racist white man who was heard bragging about sexual assault before the election instead of his competent, sane white female opponent, the prosecutor who campaigned on locking up Bill Cosby should have dropped the charges. And Anthony Weiner and all other men or women being investigated or in jail for any sex crime other than violent rape or child molestation should be allowed to continue their freaky sexual behavior in peace. Probably the media should have apologized to previous victims of public shaming and humiliation for sexual misconduct like Gary Hart, Monica Lewinsky, and Bill Clinton.
That Bill Cosby was prosecuted twice after Trump became President, and relatively decent (compared to the rich, white bigot in the White House) men like Matt Lauer, perhaps the most decent Al Franken, Charlie Rose, Tom Brokaw, and Morgan Freeman are losing their jobs and/or being publicly shamed is a national disgrace. I will always believe that the media-generated METOO movement was at least subconsciously an attempt to create an atmosphere where a jury would find Cosby guilty. But I thought the strategy might backfire. What if the jurors decided that since so many men, including Franken, Rose, and Lauer, were sexually freaky, Cosby shouldn't have to go to jail for his bad behavior? Probably if Cosby had been white or his accuser and the majority of his other "victims" black, he would have gone free. One juror claimed the use of drugs was the problem. But that foreign white bitch voluntarily took the drugs; Cosby didn't slip them into her drink. The drug excuse is actually one of those fake excuses that generally decent people use to explain bad behavior. It's like the excuse that some white folks are giving for moving out of too "diverse" California. It's not white flight; they're not fleeing the nonwhites. It's the weather or the high cost of housing. White folks, bye!
Although the fall of decent men like Lauer, Rose, and Franken didn't help a black man accused of having freaky sex with white women, it undoubtedly has helped born-rich, white Trump. Remember how we weren't supposed to normalize that freak? Why hasn't someone realized that the more we show other men behaving badly, the less disturbing his behavior seems? Maybe his poll numbers are creeping up not because of the economy or whatever is happening with North Korea, but because the more we focus on seemingly normal men's bad sexual behavior the less abnormal he seems. On the other hand, the fact that so many men, and especially really powerful men like Weinstein, Cosby, Lauer, and Rose, have been so easily destroyed, in the latter two men's cases, by anonymous accusers, may make Trump seem bigger and better than normal, like the most powerful man in the world and not because he's the electoral college, illegitimate President of the most powerful country. Forget Teflon Don. He's a superhero, a god, if not the God. After all, God's son Jesus hung out with prostitutes, so even Stormy helps promote the Trump the All Powerful God narrative. I said when this insane bigot was beating all of those mostly respectable Republicans that non-thinkers who watched his reality show believed he could push around Congress, NATO, the UN, and other world leaders, because they saw him bully and fire well-known celebrities. The Oscar and Grammy winners, retired superstar athletes, and reality stars would attack each other, but the star of "The Apprentice" was always called Mr. Trump by the celebrities he bullied and fired. During the Republican primaries, he pointed out truthfully that the candidates who attacked him usually went down in the polls. And he won the Republican nomination easily despite being despised by almost all establishment Republicans; he also defied all odds, the polls, and the pundits to win the electoral college. And now he's strutting in the White House while Harvey and Bill had to pay a million dollars to stay out of jail and wear ankle monitors. Why wouldn't his ignorant supporters think he's God? Am I the only one thinking right now?
Let's play a what if...what would they do game. What if Trump was running against Obama in 2016, and he won the electoral college because a majority of nonwhites joined white men in voting for him while most white women voted for Obama? What if when he got into the White House, he and his Cabinet/staff/followers started attacking women (there was a brief period of that ugly behavior among some of his deplorable male followers right after the defeat of Hillary), what if he was raping Hope Hicks and calling KellyAnne Conway and Sarah Sanders the kind of names he called Rosie O'Donnell? What if instead of shoving that male NATO leader, he shoved May or Merkel? What if the number of rapes and physical assaults on women increased, and what if he pardoned Bill Cosby? And what if while all of that was going on, the nonwhite folks who put this sexual assaulter in the White House started complaining about racism? What if they started accusing white people, including white women, of discriminating against them, and white women started losing their jobs? What if Kristin Gillibrand was run out of the Senate because of her comments about mostly black NFL players? What if Andrea Mitchell, the MSNBC anchor I once called castrator of black men for attacking both Obama and Eric Holder as weak, lost her job? What if David Duke and some other out-of-the-closet racists were arrested and tried for hate crimes while mostly white women were being raped and beaten? What would white women do? Would they join the nonwhite people's anti-racism movement? Would a white woman serve as an assistant prosecutor to a black man in Duke's trial the way the female Christopher Darden did in Cosby's? Would an unknown white woman allow famous nonwhite women to use the name of a movement she created to promote their anti-racism cause? Would white women create their own anti-racism movement?
If you think they would, you don't know white women, and you don't know Americans. I've written multiple blog posts (11/24/13, 11/26/17, 4/29/18) about Americans' preference for discussing sex instead of race. And I've also called out white women for being weak whiners, too willing to embrace the victim role (6/19/16,10/15/17, 2/4/18). I'm not sure if the death toll from natural causes has creeped up among nonwhites, but many white women would not be able to survive in the atmosphere that I just described. After all, some of them are supposedly permanently traumatized by dirty jokes, French kisses, and being pawed while sloppy drunk or drugged.
It is very difficult to be a thinking black woman right now. In fact, I suspect this absurd period is difficult for all thinkers, no matter their race, gender, religion, or political leanings (white male conservatives David Frum and George Will aren't enjoying this period either). But maybe Roth gave up too quickly. I have some hope. MSNBC seems to be responding to my frantic tweets (and hopefully commentary from other sensible Americans; I can't read and watch everything). Joy Reid's show was spectacular yesterday. She and her guests never mentioned Weinstein, Stormy (except in a disparaging comment about the need to talk about her), or sex, while focusing quite a bit on race (the NFL anthem nonsense, the horrific treatment of nonwhite immigrants). And on Tuesday, Joy and Chris Hayes will spend an hour discussing race. I'll be watching.
Come on, America, let's start thinking. Let's focus on the issues that matter: racism, Russia's interference in our election, mass murder/gun violence, insanity, including in the White House, income inequality, climate change, mass incarceration, and the media's absurd, dangerous obsession with sexual misconduct.
RIP Philip Roth
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