And America Continues to Show it's True Colors. . .

[MuppetsRule]

Oh my god what happened while I was away.

Couple things:

1) @MuppetsRule so currently, what are your thoughts on Trump?

I think he's been a disaster.

 

[Old Thunder]

I think he's been a disaster.

@D'Snowth your comment?

 

[jvcarroll]

Slightly off topic, but I'd love to know how to have that attitude with fandoms. After last year and the way the Ghostbusters fandom behaved, I shredded my geek card forever. No more fandoms, I don't consider them positive forces in the world anymore. And it's only slightly off topic because a lot of it mirrored the election and the division in this country, with fans ranting about an evil feminist conspiracy coming to get them, etc. And they're still at it a year later! I just don't know how this country can be saved at this point. Everyone seems so lost. I really could just cry.

Oh, I'm so with you on that. The Feig's Ghostbusters was pretty good and it was an else-world telling of it. My only issue is that he didn't stray enough from the source material. Hey, if you're gonna create something new that's based on something old - be creative. I fear the studio squashed that a bit. The cast was superb. I liked it so much that I bought the Blu-ray. It will never live up to the original, but what does? Don't burn your geek card, please! We need more people like you!! That's my take.

 

[jvcarroll]

So it turns out that congress has had a secret "shush" fund since 1995 to hush up and pay off their accusers of sexual harassment. It has been used to pay off 235 claims. 235!!! That's 20 years and 235 claims, over 10 a year. Now, to those that keep telling me that the Democrats are so much better at responding to and condemning these actions than the Republicans I ask:

Of those 235 claims what percentage would you say were by Republicans and what % were by Democrats? If the Democrats are so much better than the Republicans, then why the need for a secret "slush" fund?

http://thehill.com/opinion/finance/...can-taxpayers-answers-about-secret-shush-fund
Truth is that the Democrats (and the Republicans) have had an attitude of look the other way. Why else the need for a shush fund? I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's not a Republican thing or a Democrat thing. BOTH parties are guilty of sexual harassment and other such charges. Neither party has a right to stake their claim to the higher moral ground. Both parties have set up an environment that allows this type of behavior to go on without any real consequences.

And what happens when somebody files a sexual harassment claim on Capitol Hill? Check out this video:

https://twitter.com/KasieDC/status/932422379979939841

As the first comment says, it's a wait out the victim approach and protect the abuser. So does it really surprise anyone that sexual harassment is rampant in Congress?


And now a leading Democrat John Conyers is the latest. Turns out he paid off from this shush fund a former employee he fired when she resisted his sexual advances. He's described as a serial sexual harasser. Where was the Democrats condemnation when this happened?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that this makes the Republicans or Roy Moore's or President Trumps actions right or justify any of it! What I am saying is that sexual harassment knows no party lines. BOTH parties are guilty of it. I really don't care which party seems to respond better to it. One side does it and the other side cries foul. Then the other side does it and the first side cries foul. It's just another political football to them.

And I'll quote Jamie here:

"Integrity comes with a cost. Sometimes that cost is losing an election. Integrity means absolutely nothing if only employed when things are easy."

Although, I'd amend it to say "Integrity means absolutely nothing if only employed when convenient." I think that's more accurate.

I appreciate ya and I'm glad you mostly agree with my plea about integrity, but I hope you're not addressing me with much of the other things you've said here because I've said this too many times to count - Black, white, gay, straight, republican, democrat - sexual abuse/harassment knows no friggin party. What is different, however, is that in 2017, the time that we're living in right now, democrats are treating these allegations a heck of a lot more seriously than republicans. That's just a fact and facts aren't fungible no matter what Trumpian Era we're living in. There's no way to spin that.


It took McConnell 5 gosh darn days to absolutely refute Roy Moore once his behavior hit the front page. It took every mainstream democrat and democratic congressperson one friggin second to condemn Franken for his actions that were awful, but not child rape or child molestation. While I'm sure you can find a few exceptions to the rule, that is the honest big picture here! There's no way around it. Not all things are equal when it comes to this at this present moment. Both parties are guilty of committing this bad behavior and, in the past (particularly with Congress), the reaction has been anemic at best and horrifyingly inadequate at worst. That whole taxpayer congressional process of harassment is terrible and must be changed.


So many Dems are calling for Franken's head on a platter. Most of them, actually. Even his SNL alum are roasting the holy heck out of him right now. His peers could not be more outspoken or angry with him! There's no shortage of condemnation from the Left about Franken's behavior. I can't say he doesn't deserve the ire, but the White House is still encouraging people to vote for Moore, a "alleged" child didiler, because of the way he might vote once elected. That's the same BS that Trump supporters overlooked. It's barbaric and unexceptionable and something that we Dems no longer except. The age of Bill Clinton is over, as far as we're concerned.


I hope you realize how absent Bill is in everything Hillary does. You also should realize that Hillary's campaign showed no ads outlining the countless allegations against Trump because they feared he'd do the same with Bill. Both Bill and Trump super suck, but I never voted for either of them under some guise of a mythical "greater good" umbrella. I can't state this any clearer. Again, watch Primary Colors and you'll understand why. It's a good film that roasts the Dems mercilessly.


As someone who's been abused and harassed as adult myself, I accept NONE OF IT and I have quite a few words for anyone, REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT who make lame excuses for this behavior in ANY WAY. I am passionate about this because it's something very close to me. I won't explain that in public, but my friggin' gawd, I cannot and will not accept the "all things are equal" argument when it comes to both party's REACTION to these allegations in 2017. I will not. It an argument that nobody can honestly win. I'm not mad at any particular person, but I'm livid at this particular anemic argument. I really am. I want to make sure that all y'all know this is not personalized against any of you. I just can't stand that argument no matter who makes it to me and what their politics are.

PS. I think Hillary Clinton, even though I see her as another one of Bill's victims of his lies, deeds and deceit, should shut the heck up right now when talking about sexual misconduct. I'm downright adamant about it. It's a free country, but even MORE Bill accusers are now coming forward with deplorable stories about him. Hillary, honey - I voted for you, would do it again, but what you're doing now is ignoring these awful allegations about your husband while throwing criticisms at others who are accused of the same things. Clean your own friggin house first or STFU. I mean absolutely every word of that.

I hope you'll excuse the passion here, but OMG! There's just so much awfulness from both parties. Again, the way Dems are handing this at the present moment is different. I'm reiterating this like a parrot with special needs because it's obvious that something hasn't been clear. Dems are just about cutting and running when it comes to offenders in our party while Republicans are trying to save their votes by supporting these horrible people like Moore and Trump no matter what. I say NO to any party doing that. Right now, it's just the Republican party, the White House and Trump behaving that way, along with their voters/supporters.

 

[jvcarroll]

I'mma have to say this too: In all honesty, our nation is like a toxic dumpster fire right now. We get the government we deserve. While I still don't believe all the blame is equal (it never really is) every single one of us, regardless of belief, party, or station in life, is guilty of making it that way. The change starts with every single one of us. Burying our heads in the sand and casting blame without compromise or solutions is not how a mature and functioning adult behaves if they want to get ahead in life. It's not okay not to vote, yet still complain. It's not okay to think that the greater good means throwing people under the bus. For the Republicans, they need to get rid of Trump and Moore. For the Democrats, we need to move on from the Clintons and the passive-aggressive condescension toward Americans that see different parts of the big picture than we do. We all need to fill in those gaps of the bigger picture. It doesn't really matter who needs to do more work on what. We all need to DO BETTER!

 

[D'Snowth]

So since Republicans are saying that pedophilia is okay (and I'm assuming beastiality too), I'm going to go back to harassing this little cutie:

And after I finish doing unspeakable things to her, I'm going to blame her for my own misconduct because it's her fault - she shouldn't be so cute. And the best part will be that I will still have people who will defend and support me. What a wonderful time to be alive.

But in all seriousness, in an interesting turn of events, turns out a bunch of female writers from SNL are actually rallying in support for Al Franken in the midst of his own pedophilic allegations.

And the biggest shock is now, even Charlie Rose of all people has been accused of sexual assault, and PBS has dropped him altogether because of it.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I'll join Snowth with this one.

 

[jvcarroll]

So since Republicans are saying that pedophilia is okay (and I'm assuming beastiality too), I'm going to go back to harassing this little cutie:

And after I finish doing unspeakable things to her, I'm going to blame her for my own misconduct because it's her fault - she shouldn't be so cute. And the best part will be that I will still have people who will defend and support me. What a wonderful time to be alive.

But in all seriousness, in an interesting turn of events, turns out a bunch of female writers from SNL are actually rallying in support for Al Franken in the midst of his own pedophilic allegations.

And the biggest shock is now, even Charlie Rose of all people has been accused of sexual assault, and PBS has dropped him altogether because of it.

We need to be VERY careful about stuff like this. I know Franken has a second accuser, but where in the world did you read it involved an underage victim? I've been searching through all media, conservative, liberal and objective, and could not find what you are talking about. There is this ARTICLE from the Post talking about the different degrees of harassment and abuse. It mentions Al, but it doesn't say anything about what your post accuses. I'm a little freaked out by that word being thrown around. Roy Moore, Kevin Spacey, Donald Trump, and now Bill Clinton, all have teenage/underage accusers now. Al Franken, however, does not. Just the accusation of that, even mistakenly, can ruin a person's life forever so I just want to see if you'll link me to where you heard that. Thanks.

 

[D'Snowth]

Wasn't his first accuser who claimed he kissed and groped her under-aged (at the time)? I thought she was. I could be mistaken, because a lot of this stuff is really getting muddied and murky as it all comes spilling out at the same time.

 

[scooterfan360]

speaking of all this sexual harassment talk, two more famous Hollywood men accused to add to the list, Jeffery tambor from muppets from space, and Russell Simmons. boy the list just gets longer and longer.