Yglesias: "Bill Clinton should have resigned. What he did to Monica Lewinsky was wrong, and he should have paid the price."

I'm excising a few hundred words, but you're encouraged to click through and read the essay in its entirety. "Thought-provoking" may be a cliche, but it certainly describes this essay.

Bill Clinton should have resigned, by Matthew Yglesias (Vox)

What he did to Monica Lewinsky was wrong, and he should have paid the price.

Many years ago, when I was a high school student making my first visit to Washington for a two-week summer camp for weird politics dorks, the dominant news story was then-President Bill Clinton’s August 17, 1998, admission that despite earlier denials, he “did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate.”

“In fact,” Clinton conceded, “it was wrong,” and it “constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible.”

In the days before the admission, there was considerable conviction in the chattering classes that the allegations, if true, would end up leading to Clinton’s resignation. That proved to be incorrect. Clinton was not shamed into resigning, and senior leaders of the Democratic Party did not pressure him into resigning.

At the time I, like most Americans, was glad to see Clinton prevail and regarded the whole sordid matter as primarily the fault of congressional Republicans’ excessive scandal-mongering. Now, looking back after the election of Donald Trump, the revelations of massive sexual harassment scandals at Fox News, the stories about Harvey Weinstein and others in the entertainment industry, and the stories about Roy Moore’s pursuit of sexual relationships with teenagers, I think we got it wrong. We argued about perjury and adultery and the meaning of the word “is.” Republicans prosecuted a bad case against a president they’d been investigating for years.

What we should have talked about was men abusing their social and economic power over younger and less powerful women.

The United States, and perhaps the broader English-speaking world, is currently undergoing a much-needed accountability moment in which each wave of stories emboldens more people to come forward and more institutions to rethink their practices. Looking back, the 1998 revelation that the president of the United States carried on an affair with an intern could have been that moment ...

Skipping to the conclusion. The author was a "sophisticated high schooler," although I was 38 years old, and made exactly the same Euro/Mitterand argument numerous times from behind the Public House's bar. Problem is: apples versus oranges.

We can’t change the past, but we should be clear about it

Building a firm line around that kind of activity would give any organization a stronger, healthier culture. Our expectations for the conduct of the president of the United States should be high, and we should treat men’s abuse of authority over younger female subordinates for sexual purposes as a serious, endemic social problem, not a private marital issue between the boss and his wife.

My guess is that in the years to come, most left-of-center people born in the 1980s will say that if they’d been old enough to have a view on the matter back in 1998, they would have favored pressuring Clinton to resign. I hope that is the case, at least. Most young Democrats backed Bernie Sanders over Clinton in 2016 and are accustomed as a result to the idea of an emotionally and intellectually hostile attitude toward “the Clintons.”

Unfortunately for me, I’m a little too old to get away with claiming to have had no opinion on this at the time. My version of a sophisticated high schooler’s take on the matter was that the American media should get over its bourgeois morality hang-ups and be more like the French, where François Mitterrand’s wife and his longtime mistress grieved together at his funeral.

As a married 30-something father, I’ve come around to a less “worldly” view of infidelity. As a co-founder of Vox, I’d never in a million years want us to be the kind of place where men in senior roles can get away with the kind of misconduct that we’ve seen is all too common in our industry and in so many others.

Most of all, as a citizen I’ve come to see that the scandal was never about infidelity or perjury — or at least, it shouldn’t have been. It was about power in the workplace and its use. The policy case that Democrats needed Clinton in office was weak, and the message that driving him from office would have sent would have been profound and welcome. That this view was not commonplace at the time shows that we did not, as a society, give the most important part of the story the weight it deserved.

As the current accountability moment grows, we ought to recognize and admit that we had a chance to do this almost 20 years ago — potentially sparing countless young women a wide range of unpleasant and discriminatory experiences, or at a minimum reducing their frequency and severity. And we blew it.

Zirin on "Louisville Basketball and the NCAA’s Political Economy of Misogyny."

Former University of Michigan and NBA star Jalen Rose, as quoted in the Detroit Free Press on the topic of college athletic recruitment:

"Yes, there is drinking. Yes, there is members of the opposite sex that are present. Remember, they're trying to woo me to the campus ... and as a 17-year-old kid, first off, if I'm not getting laid, I'm not coming. I'm not signing. I'm not coming."

At times like this, as the fanatics rush to decry and defend the coach, I take a deep breath and remind myself that we're about the only country in the world to confuse sports with education.

In this, it's helpful to know that Dave Zirin is out there somewhere, writing about sports and those aspects of it embracing genuine significance. Zirin warns against moralizing and cynicism, and hits the center of the target.

Louisville Basketball and the NCAA’s Political Economy of Misogyny, by Dave Zirin (The Nation)

 ... both of these reactions miss the most urgent issue—the NCAA’s political economy of misogyny. There’s a lesson in this scandal if we’re willing to learn it. It starts with Louisville Basketball, whose use of transactional sex as a method of recruitment produced results and made a small number of people very rich. Louisville has now been at the top of Forbes Magazine’s list of most valuable NCAA hoops programs for four consecutive years. Pitino won an NCAA title in 2013 alongside a new contract that pays him well in excess of four million dollars a year. The connective tissue before us between the political economy of amateurism and misogyny has been written in a neon script. It also shines a harsh light on how the use of women as currency links many of the public relations crises that plague sports and the psychological pain that plagues ex-athletes.

ON THE AVENUES: Got spa? Time for CM Zurschmiede to reel in the years.

ON THE AVENUES: Got spa? Time for CM Zurschmiede to reel in the years.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

This isn't about politics. It's about common human decency. 34 is the average age of death for women who work in the sex trade. The biggest cause of death? Murder. Time to stop looking the other way as a community and do something.
– Amanda Beam

Earlier this week in Amanda Beam’s newspaper column, she provided a clear and concise reminder about the toll of human trafficking in the context of the sex trade.

For years, I’ve heard rumblings about local “spas” and how the female workers are rarely seen entering or exiting the establishment. Rumors circle that the ladies provide sexual favors to their customers for the right price. Polaris, a nationwide organization dedicated to combating human trafficking, notes prostitution can occur in these establishments.

Do we know for certain that the females in these spas are victims of human trafficking? No. But given the ties between the sex trade and this offense, every suspected case must be investigated, which is not an easy task for law enforcement.

Even without the slavery component, the average age of death for those employed in the sex trade is 34 with homicide being their highest cause of death.

Yes, that’s the motif: “For years.”

One of these local spas is prominently located at the corner of Main and Pearl, in a building owned by councilman and mayoral candidate Kevin Zurschmiede. He has owned the building and been the spa’s landlord … yes, you guessed it.

For years.

Upon the publication of Amanda’s column and her subsequent posting on Facebook (later reprised at NAC), some portions of the New Albany body politic were seized with inexplicable Casablanca nostalgia. They were shocked to learn of such untidy matters, just shocked, and then they were angered, too.

After all, hadn’t Zurschmiede declared his candidacy for mayor only last week? Wasn’t the exposure politically motivated?

No.

---

As Tricky Dicky used to say, let’s make one thing perfectly clear.

This story wasn’t written for the very first time in February, 2015. Rather, the issue of whether or not “full service” activities have been offered by Zurschmiede’s spa tenant has been a topic of conversation for years, long predating his decision to seek the city’s highest office.

At NAC, the spa is mentioned as far back as early 2012. It flared at regular intervals, and the impending publication of Amanda’s newspaper column has been the worst kept “secret” in town. Seemingly everyone knows, save for Zurschmiede himself.

Then, as now, this is important primarily for the reasons Amanda so capably explained in her column, with an important corollary: Do reasonably informed adults have any excuse for not being familiar with the existence of human trafficking and sex slavery, whether in Sao Paulo, Shanghai or Silver Hills?

And, is Kevin Zurschmiede reasonably informed?

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In a letter written last year to the Bored of Works in anticipation of impending complaints against the spa, the landlord Zurschmiede acknowledged an incident in which pornography on the spa’s television was visible from the public sidewalk, duly forwarding the spa’s apologetic explanation: Sorry, but a customer picked up the remote and switched to the explicit sex channel.

You know, the explicit sex channel that all downtown businesses select as part of their cable television packages.

Hey, who hasn’t walked past a café, gas station or accountancy firm and not seen accidental porn?

That clarity thing, again: Yes, we’ve been talking about this for years, and for years we’ve been trying to determine how Zurschmiede might possibly be unaware of the reputation of spas for illegal hijinks – and for years, the pieces simply have refused to fit together.

Now that Amanda has undertaken to pry reluctant eyes a bit further open, it seems shocking to some. Perhaps they should change the channel. As Amanda has noted, it isn’t about politics, but about human decency and doing something – and recognizing the problem is the first step.

Except that while the sex trade truly is a global scourge, Tip O’Neill’s fundamental adage still applies, and all politicking is local. As such, Zurschmiede’s years-long tone deafness about the spa is both breathtaking and relevant.

What, he had no idea? Spare me. A businessman and elected official in his fifties simply could not be that naïve. If he is, it doesn’t bode well when surveying his suitability for office – as a precinct committeeman, much less as mayor.

If he wasn’t being naïve, and actually had an inkling of what spas like this customarily represent … isn’t that far, far worse? New Albany is a daily public relations challenge, and now this.

Yonder stands a successful straight white male mayoral candidate of a certain age, eyes averted from messy human rights concerns, wondering why violence and riots and protests ever happen because, gee, can’t those lazy and felonious people just work harder and try to be like the rest of the successful straight white males of a certain age, even when they’re impoverished, gay, black, female or young?

I forgot one part: Eyes averted … and monthly rent check protruding from suit pocket.

Our topics are human trafficking, sex slavery, prostitution and spa shams, and I haven’t done enough, myself. Amanda’s column chastened me. It’s been happening a lot lately, but I know that sometimes that’s what it takes to grow and improve. By writing her column, Amanda has done more to bring light to a legitimate social problem than Zurschmiede, Jeff Gahan, David White and Roger Baylor, combined -- and those are only the mayoral candidates.

But clearly Zurschmiede is the one who needs to answer for it, and soon. It’s his building, his dubious tenants and his profound mistake in thinking that it didn’t matter.

For years.

Hitchens on the Pope.

Hitchens is a great favorite of mine.

The Great Catholic Cover-Up: The pope's entire career has the stench of evil about it, by Christopher Hitchens

... Concerning the most recent revelations about the steady complicity of the Vatican in the ongoing—indeed endless—scandal of child rape, a few days later a spokesman for the Holy See made a concession in the guise of a denial. It was clear, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, that an attempt was being made "to find elements to involve the Holy Father personally in issues of abuse." He stupidly went on to say that "those efforts have failed."

He was wrong twice ...

"Green Porno" -- it's a bug's life, after all.

Green Porno (at the Sundance Channel).

Thanks to Diana and Elizabeth.

Self-described “mouthpiece” for right-wing dogma crashes and burns. Can the Christian re-education camp be far behind?

Up until recently, I was sure that the following description of life in America was the official slogan of the excremental George W. Bush reign of error, although I’ll readily concede that it might be better used as an epitaph for the most futile presidency in our nation's history*:

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

But now, given hilarious breaking local developments, I’m leaning toward another statement of bedrock-solid, right-wing principle:

Young Republicans: Their members interact, jack ...

There’ll be no trashing the messenger, because I’m not making this up. Visit the website of the Young Republican National Federation and read the text for yourself:

While the YRs are best known for political activism and service to our communities, YR events also provide a great opportunity for interaction amongst membership. This interaction allows for the exchange of ideas, networking, and friendships that will last a lifetime.

Ah, the good old summertime.

The deliveries are floating toward the plate as big as beach balls, and the bat feels as light as the ideological content of Mike Sodrel’s briefcase.

WHACK … sure got all of that one, and there goes another Republican hypocrite slamming face first into the outfield wall, but to be perfectly honest, it’s just no challenge when it’s this easy.

No steroids - honest. Viagra's another matter.

It would be positively joyful for me to mock the fallen wunderkind’s best available plea of consensual fellatio, and yet there is precious little happiness to be derived from any of it, and I greeted the news with equal measures of resignation and sadness. As the scandal broke, Murphy’s own political peer group managed to erase his name from the Young Republican website faster than Uber-Mensch-Super-Man’s speeding bullet. That’s positively Orwellian, isn’t it?

But seriously.

It is vital to understand that whatever Glenn Murphy Jr. or any other American does on their own time in the company of like minded and consenting adults matters not one jot, but of course it all goes out the window when politics comes into play. Ludicrously, Murphy and others of his expediently ideological “values” ilk have forged careers cynically parlaying baseless fears and prejudices into ready-made political platforms for persecution of people who, as the remarkable irony turns, are actually just like themselves.

For proof that the hypocrisy is a nationwide epidemic, here’s another recent case: Operation Yellow Elephant.

It is neither pretty to look on as unchecked hubris claims another victim, nor enriching to observe the flailing and disassembling that accompanies the ritualistic public lashings to follow, as we scream, howl, and learn absolutely nothing from the experience, our attention spans having been reduced to the length of 30-second television blurbs, the grammatical brilliance of Steve Price’s collected fireside chats or the velvet case for a microchip -- whichever's smaller.

Sadly, I suppose the endlessly repeated spectacle remains necessary in some pitifully human way, perhaps reflecting a desperate hope that someone, somewhere might seize upon equilibrium, compassion, understanding and respect as hopeful ways of making sense of our fellow human beings and co-existing in a community with them.

I’ll not be holding my breath. People hereabouts are plainly too willing to embrace nonsense for me or anyone else to be optimistic any time soon.

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* That's right, Millard Fillmore. You're officially off the hook.