Frankly, the kerfuffle regarding Roy Moore’s alleged dalliances with just barely legal teenage girls four decades ago smacks to this observer as a put-up job by out of-state media and out-of-state politicians of both parties who apparently regard his candidacy for national office as an affront to the Ruling Class. Suspect scribbles in an old school annual and Gloria Allred in full-throated accusatory mode are, as in the words of Gilbert and Sullivan’s character Pooh-Bah, “Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.”
Mind you, he might well have displayed, as a young thirty-ish male, a liking for female company somewhat more than ten years younger; such female company being somewhat easier to impress than those closer to his age at the time. (In previous centuries, such an age gap would hardly have raised an eyebrow. This was pretty much the ideal for much of history: thirty-year old man, well-established in a good trade, able to provide for a young wife of prime child-bearing age.) Frankly, though – the man has been in local politics for thirty years. If this is the worst that can be said about him, and the good people of Alabama don’t appear to have any problems repeatedly voting him into local office … then why does the national Republican party leadership feel obliged to intervene? It’s as if they (and others) are simply outraged at the concept of people actually choosing a candidate who is not totally Ruling Party-compliant. “We’ll make the important decisions for you, you poor deluded peasants.”
And if he as a much younger man made persistent romantic overtures to very much younger women, it’s still a vast improvement on doing a Weinstein – that is, whacking off and depositing the results on an innocent potted plant on a regular basis.
Which brings me around to the great Hollywood Sexual Assault meltdown … I’m almost afraid to look at the headlines first thing every morning of late; someone else whose movies I never watched is going to accuse or be accused of sexual harassment; that is anything from being a rude and abusive a-hole, all the way up to assault or rape, involving the same sex, the opposite sex, under-age sex of either or however many genders there are these days, or of any convenient plant life. The up side to this is that too many of them are consulting with their lawyers (the guilty), or their supportive “Me-too” group (the offended against) to take time to lecture the rest of us about our disappointing shortcomings – our failure to vote for Hillary, our global-climate-change skepticism, our unashamed racism, our failure to surrender our personal weaponry, and to separate the glass from the tin cans and the paper when putting out the recyclables. The next Academy Awards is going to be a real hoot, I’m telling you.
Any bets on where it is going to be broadcast from? San Quentin, Folsom, or Pelican Bay? Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.
Speaking of Gilbert & Sullivan, this passage from the Mikado seems apt in view of some of the more hysterical witch-burning efforts….
Our great Mikado, virtuous man,
When he to rule our land began,
Resolved to try
A plan whereby
Young men might best be steadied.
So he decreed, in words succinct,
That all who flirted, leered or winked
(Unless connubially linked),
Should forthwith be beheaded,
*snicker” Words for Hollywood to live by – and apparently for Congress Hill as well.
Doesn’t the idea that Congress pays off those accusing Congress people of harassment seem a moral hazard (not unlike Weinstein’s company’s contract)? Men might keep their hands (etc.) to themselves if they had to pay the fines and it might be a temptation to “victims” to yell pretty loudly if there was a source of payment of $15 million in 10-15 years? Having colleagues who made money from what certainly appeared to be quite phony charges, I may be less sensitive to this than I should be – but others are plenty sensitive for the rest of us. Both major parties seem sufficiently intent on appearing (being?) feckless to make one wonder if they aren’t hoping for a coup.
Long-time lurker; infrequent commenter here. I live in Alabama. Folks down here aren’t put off by the allegations against Judge Moore. If anything, it’s hardening their determination to vote for him next month. Heck, my wife who doesn’t bother voting except for the presidential elections, is going to make an exception for this one, just so she can send a giant “F-U” to the DC swamp.
And that’s what it boils down to. Folks down here know that Moore is flawed, but he’s our thumb in the eye of the Vichy GOP establishment.
I am getting too cynical I suspect but the timing of all this makes it suspect
Politically timed hit jobs can still be correct–see the LA Times attempted takedown of Ahnuld during the recall. The main problem with this is that there is no clear pattern. The stories just don’t add up to a picture that makes any sense.
Anonymous:
Your determination comports well with the final verse of Pish-Tush’s song, quoted above:
And so, we straight let out on bail
A convict from the county jail
Whose head was next
On some pretext
Condemnéd to be mown off
And made him headsman, for we said
“Whose next to be decapited
Cannot cut off another’s head
Until he’s cut his own off.”
And we are right, I think you’ll say
To argue in this kind of way.
And I am right and you are right
And all is right, too-looral-lay!
Now they have Al Franken:
http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-pol-essential-washington-updates-l-a-radio-anchor-says-al-franken-1510849767-htmlstory.html#nt=oft12aH-1gp2
Rom Moore liked to put on a nice button down shirt, nice slacks and go to the mall. Do you know anything about malls? The only people who hang out there are teens, drug dealers, the homeless and yer various types of predator. Lots of people shop in them, but apart from the food court, no one hangs out in em’.
The new development that will probably elect Moore is the fake yearbook story.
He was the judge that denied Nelson’s petition for a contested divorce and the decision was signed for him by his assistant whose initials are DA.
the signature on the yearbook was forged and the forger accidentally added the “DA.”
Thus we have the motive to lie, his denial of her case in 1999, and the opportunity, the signature on the court decision.
The lawyer for Moore is now asking that the yearbook be provided for forensic analysis of the ink, which is simple and determinative.
Who thinks Allred will give up that yearbook?
No one hanging out in malls, Penny? Only teens, perves, homeless and drug dealers? Sure, maybe where you live. But 40 years ago, they were where everyone hung out, especially in rotten weather. Fifteen years ago, I worked in an office building across the street from the most upscale mall in San Antonio, and it was always crowded – and not with teens, perves, homeless, etc. It still looks crowded, to judge from the parking lots.
The sex-harassment claim against Al Franken is hilarious. Guess he was just following in the footsteps of Ted Kennedy, the Lion of the Senate…
It was a brand new mall in a small town in northern Alabama hill country. It was probably the greatest thing since sliced bread.
PenGun never misses an opportunity to slam the hated United States.
He knows nothing, of course but that does not slow the nasty comments.
I expect a new mall in a small town would draw most of the residents.
The first indoor mall I ever saw was in 1965 in Tacoma WA. I thought it was a great idea in that climate.
I’m not sure, but I believe Pengun lives on the north shore of Vancouver, Island; somewhere near Port Hardy. They do have a mall of sorts at Port Hardy, the Thunderbird Mall, supported by a population of between 4-5 thousand.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/Thetbirdmall.jpg
It may indeed be a dangerous and sketchy area, with fewer people than in rural Alabama and them not being used to a monetary economy since they may have transitioned from beaver pelts for trade to the Canadian “Loonie” currency within the last generation or so.
The frozen north. All those empty malls whereas most Canadians come south the shop and get medical care.
We used to call them “Honkers” when they came to Spokane to shop. The Mall of America services the honkers east of the rockies. There is a big WalMart at St Johns, Vermont for the French Canadians.
As far as I’ve seen the mall story is fourth hand gossip being passed off as fact, while people directly in the know say it’s all BS. This is a travesty.
Bill Brandt:
I am getting too cynical I suspect but the timing of all this makes it suspect.
Agreed. This happened decades ago and now it is making the news. I am reminded of the sex misbehavior allegations directed against Herman Cain. Just by coincidence, the person making the charges lived in the same Chicago building as Obama operative David Axelrod.
PenGun’s knowledge of the US reminds me of the crack made about Argentines. How do you get rich? Buy an Argentine for what he’s worth and sell him for what he thinks he’s worth. Similarly, PenGun’s knowledge of the US is not as great as he believes it to be.
This is far from the first time that PenGun makes the assumption that because conditions were such at time A in the US, at time B the conditions were the same in the US. PenGun has trouble coping with the dynamic nature of the US- in this case the changing conditions of mall customers. I used to live near a mall that was very crowded. Several decades later, it was nearly empty. It wasn’t a case of decreased population. The mall got sold to a government entity for peanuts, which is what often happens to real estate losers.
I agree with Gringo vis PenGun’s knowledge of American cultural history. In the 70’s and 80’s, “the mall” was one of the favorite places for EVERYONE to “hang out”. It was safe, out of the weather, there was food and drink, had America’s favorite hobby (shopping) and everyone else was there too. Kids, teens, young adults, families–everyone was there. Even the elderly used “the mall” to do their daily power walks. They even made a movie about it in 1983, called “Valley Girl” starring Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman. The mall’s role in American life persisted, in most places, into the 90’s and aught’s. More recently, online shopping has decimated brick and mortar retailers and the malls have suffered disproportionally.
Regarding Moore: As an atheist, I’m about as far from a Moore supporter as you can get, but I too find the nature and timing of these accusations quite suspicious. A long time, highly controversial, political figure in Alabama, with multiple elections behind him and this only comes out now? The day after the deadline for changing the ballot? With accusations that are very flimsy and “documentation” that is laughable? I don’t buy it for a minute.
The claim that Judge Moore was banned from the Gadsden Mall kind of collapses when the manager of the mall, who would have done the banning, says he didn’t ban him and there is no record of such banning [which would have been documented].
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/former-mall-manager-doesnt-recall-banning-roy-moore-despite-reports/article/2640899
@Gringo: Don’t forget what they tried to do to Clarence Thomas
The country has entered “frenzied witch hunt” territory. This unfortunately still has a ways to go before running out of steam.
Bill Brandt
@Gringo: Don’t forget what they tried to do to Clarence Thomas
I remember that all too well. David Brock had an article, “The Real Anita Hill,” in the March 1992 issue of The American Spectator. The article is behind a paywall. About three years ago I downloaded the article from the University of Iowa website, but that link is no longer there. Further search engine queries indicate the article is no longer at the University of Iowa website.
However, there was a recent discussion of the Clarence Thomas- Anita Hill kerfuffle at Ann Althouse’s blog. “I keep seeing articles mentioning that Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of ‘sexual harassment,’ and lumping him in with Harvey Weinstein et al.” The comments are very informative.
Here is an excerpt from Brock’s article, which I downloaded 3 years ago, but I don’t believe is currently available without payment on the Web.
Anita Hill stated the harassment first occurred in December 1981 or January 1982, but according to Hoerchner’s deposition, she had a conversation with Anita Hill about the sexual harassment when she was living in DC- and she moved out of DC in September 1981. More information in the Althouse comments.
LOL. I throw in both sides and still get castigated, one of my favorite words BTW.
We have a lot of malls, they seriously overestimated how fast the north Nanaimo area would grow. Now I know there are different cultures all over the world, but malls kind of cut right across all of em’.
It’s known that high power people, those who want power, are somewhat oversexed. It might be possible to bring almost any of em’ down if this “me too” crap takes hold. I like that idea.
That last one from First Bernd must have been directed to Penny, from someone who couldn’t recognize high quality content if it groped him while he was asleep.
Death6
Cry wolf too much and you simply will not be believed. Denigrate a population enough, and they’ll force you to be polite to the worst that they can stomach just to humiliate you right back. Decades of “dance of the low sloping foreheads” gets voters to come out and vote Moore.
Why is this so hard to understand? Why are our elites so socially retarded?
Gringo – Here you go:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130304140032/https://uiowa.edu/~030116/153/articles/brock01.htm
Thanks, TMLutas. I should have thought of Web Archive when searching.
There are now color photos of the yearbook signature and the ink is in two colors.
The top sentiment with no signature is black. The bottom with the signature is blue. That is amazing incompetence, if true.
Gloria Allred is not permitting any forensic examination of the book. She is also backing away from the signature issue, saying her client did not actually see him sign the book.
We are going to a benefit for Brian Terry’s family tonight in Tucson. The speaker is Steve Bannon and we are going to an earlier reception to meet him.
If I get the chance. I will ask him about the theory that McConnell is behind this to teach Bannon that he cannot choose primary opponents for GOPe Senators.
Given the lengthy collaboration between Hollywood and Democrat Party, the numbers of readers of gossip tabloids, and the numbers of fans who respond to actors as if the actors were their characters, I’m surprised we aren’t more dominated by Democrat politics.
In previous centuries, such an age gap would hardly have raised an eyebrow
Or in contemporary entertainment: Lewis, Berry, Seinfeld, Tyler, Nugent,….
Roy Moore is not my kinda guy. But: his principal accuser has tendered forged evidence; she may have suppressed evidence too. In some jurisdictions it might well be reckoned that she’s committed a crime.
If so I hope she is jailed and that that twerp Moore is successfully elected. If it can be proved that Dem (or Republican) politicians are guilty of conspiracy I hope they can be jailed too.
Would I be too cruel, however, if I assumed that this sort of dirty politics is in fact a long established American tradition?
I think we are in another hysteria similar to the day care hysteria and the recovered memories scandal.
The furor over a supposed supposed giant penis in the sky drawn with contrails is another example.No doubt the pilot will be punished with no consideration of the psychology of fighter pilots and the current massive shortage of such pilots.
This is just more hysteria.
Would I be too cruel, however, if I assumed that this sort of dirty politics is in fact a long established American tradition?
It goes back at least to the election of Jefferson in 1800 when Sally Hemmings first became an issue.
Given the intense rivalry and conflict involved, it is not surprising that the 1800 election reached a level of personal animosity seldom equaled in American politics. The Federalists attacked the fifty-seven-year-old Jefferson as a godless Jacobin who would unleash the forces of bloody terror upon the land. With Jefferson as President, so warned one newspaper, “Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes.” Others attacked Jefferson’s deist beliefs as the views of an infidel who “writes aghast the truths of God’s words; who makes not even a profession of Christianity; who is without Sabbaths; without the sanctuary, and without so much as a decent external respect for the faith and worship of Christians.”
It all goes way back.
Of course, we have not yet had a Charles I episode.
Mike K
Of course, we have not yet had a Charles I episode.
While there hasn’t been a Charles I episode when the United States was an independent country, there are connections between America and the execution of Charles I. Three of Charles I’s hanging judges, a.k.a. regicides, fled to America after Charles II made it clear he wanted them similarly executed. They were never caught. Friends from my New England hometown were direct descendants of one of the hanging judges. But true to the Yankee self-effacing style, they never made a deal of it. I found it out years later doing independent research.
“we have not yet had a Charles I episode.” Maybe you should. Slick Willie is available.
““we have not yet had a Charles I episode.” Maybe you should. Slick Willie is available.”
The closest we have come, I think, is Lincoln cut down by a southern sympathizer who, whilst indulging his hatred, damaged the South for 100 years.
Charles I led his followers on a fatal trek. Maybe by inadvertance,
Foolish Charles got himself topped because he established that he’d honour no agreement he made. So nobody could risk a compromise with him.
The gist of the complaints about him is well summed up in an Act of the Scots Parliament directed against his son, James VII and II:
… the king … is obliged to … rule the people according to the laudable laws; and [he] did … invade the fundamental constitution of this kingdom and altered it from a legal limited monarchy, to an arbitrary despotic power …”
That’s pretty much what the English thought too. It is also, I suspect, what some Americans think of some of their recent Presidents.
“Three of Charles I’s hanging judges, a.k.a. regicides, fled to America after Charles II made it clear he wanted them similarly executed. They were never caught.”
Is that true? How interesting. Do you have a link with more information by any chance? I have this fantasy of writing an alternative history novel where the infant son of James II is smuggled to America instead of France…
There is an amusing conversation alleged between Charles II and his brother James.
Charles was about to go riding in St James Park when James remonstrated with his brother about riding without escort. Charles is then alleged to have said to his brother, “Brother, there is not a man in England who would kill me to make you king.”
James learned the truth of this in 1688.
Brian
Wiki:The regicide of Charles I of England. Has further Wiki links regarding the regicides- the hanging judges- and the trial of Charles I. Some of the regicides escaped, some died of natural causes before Charles II could get to them, and some Charles II caught and executed. At the regicide link. I fear too many links will get this comment spammed.
Books:
Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I, by Charles Spencer.
The King’s Revenge: Charles II and the Greatest Manhunt in British History, by Michael Walsh and Don Jordan.
Brian
Had the infant son of James II been smuggled to New England, he would probably been smothered in his cradle. James II was not highly regarded in New England, as he was trying to increase royal control over the colonies. See the Wiki article on the Charter Oak. Maryland would have been more hospitable.
Gringo: Hey, man, let me have my fantasy. It’s not like I’ll ever write the book. That’s why it’s a fantasy. And yes, Maryland is the obvious place for him to go.
And …. down goes Charlie Rose:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-20/charlie-rose-accused-8-women-nudity-groping-and-lewd-phone-calls
A retired Marine Colonel has now announced he is running a spoiler write in campaign against Moore.
Busby told The Daily Beast on Monday he is launching his long-shot bid to stop Republican nominee Roy Moore from reaching the Senate.
“I have no idea if the allegations against him true or not, but I don’t see anything within his experience as a judge that qualifies him for the job.”
Busby said his state needs a choice other than Moore or Democrat Doug Jones.
“Alabama is not happy with the two choices we have down here. They are not appealing.”
Busby said he spent 31 years in the Marine Corps and on his last tour of duty was vice chief of staff to then-Gen. John Kelly, who is now White House chief of staff.
I’d like to know who is funding him. It’s either McConnell or the Democrats.
I doubt he can tip the election to the Democrats but that is what he is about. A lot of retired military live in southern Alabama and maybe that is his target constituency,
Mike K:
Look to the clarifying power of the word “and”. McConnell and Schumer are almost certainly working in concert on this. From reports I have heard, McConnell has since the primary campaign began spent $30 million of the National Republican Party’s money [contributed by both corporate donors and the rank and file] to oppose Judge Moore. The GOPe desperately wants to lose one or both Houses of Congress so that they cannot be held responsible [they think] for anything. Turning the seat Democrat benefits both McConnell and Schumer. If Jones wins, and with McCain voting against anything the voter base wants, and a rotating cast of turncoats voting against anything they had promised, they can all go home and just let the Democrats run things.
Another problem that McConnell sees. It takes “unanimous consent” to keep the Senate in technical session during recesses to prevent recess appointments. Judge Moore just may well prevent that “unanimous consent” and enable President Trump to do recess appointments to allow him to get his administration finally staffed. It is a year after his election, coming up on a year after his inauguration, and most of the sub-cabinet posts and US Attorney offices still have not had Obama’s people replaced because the “Republican” Senate likes it that way.