The dam might have held, I suggest, had Trump not been elected president — but his win after more than a dozen women’s sexual-abuse allegations and his own confession on the Entertainment Tonight outtake, provoked a wave of anger and solidarity among abused women… Trump’s election turned out to be the catalyst for women speaking publicly about other men, starting with the largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history the day after his inauguration. In the Epstein case, the legal system could no longer bear the weight of all the public shame. Unlike his old friend, the Abuser-in-Chief can dismiss women’s allegations, and fear no investigation, thanks to the power of the office. That won’t last forever. The clock ticks on the dirty old man.
July 23rd, 2019 at 7:59PM
He’s lasted longer than many predicted, has considerable help from supposedly independent parts of the government, and may not be one-and-done. It is quite possible that the perversity will get normalized before any repercussions, at least for those above some net financial worth.
July 24th, 2019 at 7:21AM
Ravi: I’m interested in the whole idea of perversity getting normalized. I’m a libertarian sort on sex (and drug) issues, and I like literature (Lolita, Tropic of Cancer, Elementary Particles, anything by Lawrence Durrell) that mixes things up a bit in terms of sexual morality – for the obvious reason that human beings are a bit more complicated along those lines than Mike Pence seems to think (what an amazing coupling, by the way! Pence and Trump…). We can be cruel, obsessed… great literature (I think I mentioned Portrait of a Lady in a recent post) exists to tell us the truth of who we are in ways we can accept, so okay. The great social satirist of our time – Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of the Vanities – told us all about Epstein and Dershowitz and Maxwell and company long before they strutted and fretted their hour upon the stage – their fascination with their own and others’ criminality; their dark coupling of great wealth and radical freedom, radical exemption from constraint; the Sadeian self-reflection they bring to their perversities…
One can be uninterested in this stuff and just deal with the criminality as such (child sex trafficking) as it arises; but I think we should also take very seriously what you mention – the normalization (and what precisely does this mean?) of perversion (ditto!) …
July 24th, 2019 at 2:45PM
The belief was that 45’s support would drop “Once his supporters realize…” . A lot of things were known and have since come up but his supporters rationalize it and it becomes the baseline. I don’t know what evidence will convince that mob but I strongly doubt that sexual harassment or even sexual crimes would do it. A lot of the first wave of #metoo perps are being rehabilitated and that is a consistent pattern of multiple chances that money can buy. 45 tells the base what they want to hear and that’s the country that they want.
Normalization: I haven’t read the books or authors you mentioned except for Nabokov and then again only Pale Fire and Pnin. I have read and seen some Shaw and I’ll refer to Major Barbara’s Andrew Undershaft. His religion is being a millionaire, he never asks for what he can buy, and for his views on government I suggest the 1 hour 11 minute mark of https://beta.prx.org/stories/89314
There are lots of perversions including perversions of justice. Would we have thought the US capable of the current inhumanity at the border? Yet here it is and since there’s money in it, it will continue. There are of course more examples. This gang writes and enforces the laws on others and buys itself out of trouble on the rare cases it gets into it. There’s probably a way to codify “Boys will be boys” into law as opposed to judges cutting deals case-by-case and I am sure that there’s a team of experts working on it.
Aside: I think that Shaw might actually approve of this descent into chaos as progress since an unreasonable man is behind it
July 25th, 2019 at 11:43AM
You all are setting yourselves up for disappointment re Epstein. When the venue changes from TV interviews, where air-headed reporters pitch softball questions to alleged victims, the latter tightly leashed by their attorneys, to courtrooms where said alleged victims will need to provide specific dates and times, and to explain past contradictory statements, it may not be so fun. A couple of Ep’s accusers apparently have had some difficulty nailing down even the year. Was I, like, 15 when I met the dude? Or like 17? It may also be interesting to see what happens when the parents are placed on the witness stand and asked to explain whether it was normal for them to let their young’uns jet off to the Virgin Islands with a stranger. Did they, well, notice that their pride and joy was missing for a day or ten? It may also be enlightening to hear wannabe actresses attending Wannabe Actress High in Manhattan explain when they figured out that Ep was up to no good. After ten massages? Twenty massages and two tugs? Did $300/session strike them as, well, a bit high?
Seriously, my sisters at age 12, Catholic schoolgirls growing up in the deep flyover would have figured out what Ep was about in around 20 milliseconds.
July 25th, 2019 at 12:24PM
tp: Well, in the aftermath today of what was probably a suicide attempt on his part (and my guess is that he’ll keep trying until he manages it), I think everyone’s going to be disappointed re: Ep.
On the parents of the girls: As I understand it, he tended to target girls who came from dysfunctional homes — i.e., I doubt most of the parents knew/gave a shit.