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Al Franken is said to be resigning today (at the time I'm writing this, he hasn't resigned yet, but it is widely expected that he will). I would be surprised if there is anyone at NewGathering who would insist that he deserves to be in the Senate.
This article by Caitlin Huey-Burns offers some astute analysis:
Democrats face more reward than risk in pushing out Franken, who is expected to make an announcement about his future on Thursday. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is a Democrat, and would no doubt appoint a member of his party to fill the seat. Shepherding Franken out the door, then, puts the spotlight back on Republicans, many of whom have called for Moore to leave the race -- or want the chamber to expel him if he wins.
“It's not a good contrast for Republicans, coming in the wake of the president of the United States' endorsement of Roy Moore,” said GOP strategist Brian Walsh. “Senate Republicans have been put into a very difficult position by the president once again not putting the long-term interests of the party first.”
Should Franken try to stick it out and cling to his Senate seat, and then (as seems perhaps more likely than not), Moore is elected and is permitted to take his seat in the Senate, then Republicans could go to Democrats and say, "Neither of us has the moral high ground. Let's trade knights." (Or pawns. Or whatever the chess equivalent of a United States senator is).
I agree with Burns that Democrats have ascended to the moral high ground by pushing Franken out. And at least until that seat comes up for election, they lose nothing. It's even possible that Franken's appointed successor will be a more effective senator than Franken was.
Now that Franken is (presumably) gone, the Republicans have to figure out the next move. This Byron York article from last month presented six scenarios about what the GOP could do about Roy Moore, all of them (from the Republican point of view) varying degrees of bad. York's analysis was written before Franken's alleged abuse became known; if Franken is now gone, a couple of York's scenarios no longer are feasible because the election is now just a few days away, but his basic analysis remains sound. Although York doesn't explicitly draw the conclusion, it's difficult to consider his scenarios and not conclude that the least bad option for the GOP is that Moore stays in the race, wins and is allowed to take his seat. Overshadowing all this is the thinness of the GOP majority. That tiny margin for error/defection already has led to the failure of virtually every major GOP legislative initiative during the Trump era (the tax bill is the one exception, and it's not home yet).
The GOP of the pre-Trump era, faced with the prospect of Roy Moore, may have chosen some of York's other scenarios, such as refusing to seat him. That doesn't seem likely now. It's difficult to see how the GOP Senate would grow that kind of a spine, given that its party's own national committee is now funding(!) the alleged abuser of young women. And the Republicans need that vote in the Senate.
If the GOP somehow finds its conscience, it may let Moore take his seat, conduct an ethics investigation, and then expel him from the Senate. That is essentially the same outcome as Franken's: a governor from the ex-senator's party appoints the ex-senator's successor. The outcome would be that the same Republican majority continues to hold true. And it's difficult to imagine that any appointed successor would be as tainted and controversial as Moore.
But I wouldn't bet on the GOP finding a conscience at this late date.
My guess is that the Democrats will claim the human rights shining /high ground and the Republicans will get the power and votes to advance the agenda of wealth concentration and plutocracy which, of course, includes destroying climate and the ecosystem.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry Franken turned out to be a groper - I had liked him - but given all the women who have spoken against him. it seems clear he should go.
ReplyDeleteMcConnell has said Moore would face an ethics investigation if he wins. McConnell was the one who pushed Packwood out, so maybe he would do the same to Moore.
To me the creepiest thing about all this is that Republican voters seem to believe Moore is guilty but just don't care and still plan to vote for him.
Franken has announced he will resign according to the NYTimes. No doubt he is doing the correct thing, I say correct, because I have no idea whether it is the right thing--right for this issue, morally right, or politically right. It is expedient for the Senate Democrats, though I doubt that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who is leading the charge, will getting any votes for this if she runs for the Dem nomination in 2020.
ReplyDeleteSome things that keep popping up in my mind about the whole scandal:
1. None of the resigned or fired have been convicted of a crime...though no doubt some could have been if the "crime" had been reported at the time (Weinstein, Moore, and Bill Clinton). Due process and evidentiary questions are hanging out there.
2. There is a smell of mob rule, even at the NYTimes, which generally is more high-minded, at least in the past referring to allegations, rather than repeating the accusations.
3. At least some of the accusers remain anonymous, and even the accused does not/ or is not told who the accuser(s) is/are.
4. Getting even. One story in today's (12/7) NYTimes about the resignation of the editor of the Paris Review (who does sound slimey) quotes a woman who says she was having a consensual affair with him. It ended badly (doesn't say how or who was responsible). She claims that she then feared for her career (doesn't say what it was).
Link to the Times Story:
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/07/us/politics/al-franken-senate-sexual-harassment.html
It is a little unpredictable where the moral high ground on groping will take us. We may have taken a step forward as Time suggests. But we also have a groper in the White House. Everything the Republicans do to take a stand against groping whether by Democrat or Republican puts the White House in danger.
ReplyDelete"None of the resigned or fired have been convicted of a crime..."
ReplyDeletePart of the problem is the general lack of ethical guidelines.
The American Psychological Association of which I am a member says that you cannot have dual relationships. You cannot have an ethical sexual relationship with a student or a client, or a person you supervise no matter how consensual the parties might claim it to be.
In the workplace, it is questionable whether an ethical sexual relationship is possible between persons that have a great difference in status and power whether or not the one person is a direct supervisor.
Jim, the chess equivalent of a United States senator is a bishop. Each a baron on his own turf.
ReplyDeleteIf I were Franken, my announcement would have been this: "President Trump has twice as many accusers as I have. Accordingly, I will resign my seat exactly one minute and thirty seconds after he resigns his." This would infuriate the Senate ladies, I know, and it would play badly with the pundits who think that by shedding Franken and Coyners the Democrats have reached some kind of "high ground." Nevertheless, since November of 2016 this country is being run on the basis not of what is good or makes sense but on the basis of what makes some voters happy. I am a voter, and if Franken had done that it would have made me happy. So there.
Third thought: MOS's olfactory sense matches mine. I haven't sensed this much unnuanced outrage since the "recovered memory" of little children closed one child care center after another back in the '90s. That story didn't pan out well in the end. We know the early practitioners of outing pigs have been scrupulously careful. The WaPo's exposure of the honey trap Project Veritas tried on it, with the fake rape victim, was reassuring as to Post methods. But now new accusers are appearing so fast and so many places that Breitbart, O'Keefe and the Russians are sure to slip some false charges past Johnny Come Lately gatekeepers. Remember how CNN vetted the Bernardin "case."
Given the fact that there are many unidentified pigs remaining in both parties, and given the current state of ethics among political junkies, I can't imagine the high ground holding any longer than a gazebo in a Category 4.
"If I were Franken, my announcement would have been this: "President Trump has twice as many accusers as I have. Accordingly, I will resign my seat exactly one minute and thirty seconds after he resigns his."
DeleteTom: You shouldabeen his speech writer!
P.S. Excellent headline, Deacon.
DeleteI remember that "recovered memory" fiasco back in the 80s. Also the false accusation suffered by Cardinal Bernardin. Of course there is the possibility of false accusations; why would we think that there wouldn't be? But when there are corroborating witnesses and multiple accounts of a person's bad behavior it becomes more of a smoke-and- fire scenario.
DeleteI don't think it is about "high ground". IWe're hoping this signals a recognition of the unfair way many women are seen and treated by many men. It's not about whether these are crimes that can be proven in court. It's about standards of behavior.
ReplyDeleteThe level of "high dudgeon," this has reached should require a little more "high ground" than I'm seeing. Otherewise...it all goes into the swamp.
DeleteTom, Peggy - regarding mob rule: would referring the cases to the Senate Ethics Committee be preferable? It seems that is what McConnell is planning to do if Moore lands in his lap. And it was what Dick Durbin was calling for regarding Franken until the stampede for ouster started.
ReplyDeleteThat would be the assigned and appropriate body to examine the case. As Jack points out above: the APA has an ethics committee and ethics rule to adjudicate "unprofessional" behavior. The Senate Ethics Committee may not be exactly equivalent. I'm guessing that they would take forever with a lot of log rolling among the senators. Mitch McConnell's sending Moore, should he win, to the ethics committee does seem like not really getting rid of the guy. But, does McConnell have any authority not to seat the "duly elected" senator from Alabama? Probably not.
DeleteIsn't Senate ethics an oxymoron?
DeleteThe Ethics Committee is as good as anything else, and maybe better than a gaggle of politicians consulting the polls and telling their peer what to do. The big knot in this thing is that the people senators and House members work for do not have the power to fire them for cause. And if those people think it's OK for the president to have more than a dozen women saying bad things about them, or if the people of Alabama don't choose to believe the women of Alabama, there isn't a heck of a lot anybody can do about it. What can we do-- organize a consumer boycott of Congress? I mean, the official answer to the harasser-in-chief is that the charges against him were "litigated" last November and he was found fit to serve. Thus it will probably be with Roy Moore. Lesson: Get accused first, and then run.
People *should* be upset. Men preying on vulnerable women/men has been taken for granted for too long. It's still being taken for granted by many, like the people who are willing to vote for Moore or who voted for Trump. If we want to flip this thing for good, we can't be wishy-washy.
ReplyDeleteHelter-skelter isn't going to work either.
DeleteActually, I don't expect any of this to really work. We can get better at holding people who assault accountable, but the reason why they assault in the first place isn't being addressed.
DeleteI can't help but have this image of the (remaining) Democrats up on the hill, standing tall and proud, breeze blowing through their hair, the sun from behind illuminating their angelic figures. Meanwhile, the Repubs are down in the town at the base of the hill, burning, raping and pillaging the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteStanley, that's how it's always been, it's just that now everyone can finally see the truth revealed :)
ReplyDeleteSomething about this bears a whiff of mob rule. Franken asked for an ethics committee hearing. Now he's summarily told to leave by a contingent of female lawmakers as well as Durbin and Schumer. Maybe party insiders know that a hearing would do more damage than a departure. Or maybe they think that it's worth losing seats in special elections in order to look Holier Than the GOP and that this will make them the Party of Morals in 2018. Good luck with that. Strange, strange times we're living in.
ReplyDeleteJean, There are people in Hell who look holier than the GOP.
DeleteI think it's that a hearing could take a very long time. It lasted for 3 years before Packwood was forced to leave. McConnell made him cry ... Mitch McConnell Handling Of Past Sex Scandal A Warning For Roy Moore: Rachel Maddow
ReplyDeleteYes, justice runs slowly. Is that a reason to deny someone a hearing and simply move straight to the penalty phase?
DeleteIf Franken wants to resign to spare his family or himself what he knows would come out in an investigation, fine.
But the presumption of guilt troubles me.
Up until now in these situations where there would probably be only allegations but no proof, it would be the opposite ... the guy would be treated as if he was innocent since he couldn't be definitively proven guilty, like Woody Allen who was credibly alleged to have raped his seven year old daughter. Or look at Roman Polanski - he admitted to and was found guilty of raping a 14 year old and people still treat him like a celebrity. I think this new attitude is much more fair.
DeleteFair how? It is never fair for someone to be deprived of livelihood and reputation without process.
DeleteThe problem is that sexual wrongdoing is not a Republican or a Democratic issue; whereas economic wrongdoing is more a Republican issue.
ReplyDeleteReal reform about sexual wrongdoing takes time and effort. When I was in graduate school in the 1960s it was acceptable for clinical supervisors to suggest to the women clinical graduate students that a sexual relationship with the supervisor would improve their ability to function as clinicians. It took about a decade and several studies documenting the reverse until the APA adopted its ethical standards about inappropriate dual relationships. We are not going to have real reform by publicly shaming a few people for their behavior. People need to know before they engage in the behavior that they are in trouble if they are found out.
Jack - there seem to be at least two or three sets of behavior under discussion. Your example of male clinical supervisors and their female grad students is, as you note, clearly an inappropriate dual relationship. The possibility of a similarly inappropriate relationship extends into any boss/employee setting. John Conyers', Bill Clinton's and Roger Ailes' incidents would be in this category, but the possibility of this sort of inappropriate power-imbalance relationship has gone on in every office I've ever worked in. An inappropriate doctor/patient relationship would be another variation on the same theme. I am sorry to say that there may be a whole new set of scandals waiting out there for clergy who have entered into sexual relationships with adults who were supposed to be under their pastoral care.
ReplyDeleteA second "case" might be men who essentially commit sexual assault. Franken's forcible kisses, and Trump's charming deeds, not to mention Bill Cosby's chemistry experiments, would fall into this category. A power imbalance may exist between perpetrator and victim, but that aspect is not crucial; *any* instance of this type of assault is wrong.
A third category is sexual activities, consensual or otherwise, between adults and minors. This is the Roy Moore category. It is true that Moore was a powerful official, and used that position to intimidate at least some of his victims into silence, but even if he didn't have that power, an adult male having sexual activity with a teen would always be problematic. It seems that some of the women now coming forward about Moore would have reached the legal age of consent at the time of the "date"; but I think that voters can still deem a man in his 30's or 40's having a relationship with an 18 year old to be inappropriate, even if it isn't illegal.
Perhaps there are other "cases", but it seems to me that these three cover the instances that I am thinking of that have been in the public eye.
One other thought on this: Tom pointed out that the instances that have been reported by the media recently all have been of men who have a recurring pattern of inappropriate behavior: reporters have documented multiple instances of violations with multiple victims. There seems to be a widespread consensus, with which I strongly agree, that men who exhibit this pattern of behavior shouldn't be allowed to remain in whatever position allows them to commit these improprieties. That would mean that Matt Lauer, John Conyers, Roger Ailes, Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby should be fired (or whatever the equivalent is in their particular field). This would be in addition to whatever criminal and civil penalties they would be subject to.
ReplyDeleteI haven't studied every accusation against every alleged perpetrator, but I have the impression that Franken, Trump and Moore have moved on from whatever position they were in when they committed their alleged improprieties. In Moore's case, I heard or read somewhere that he committed his abuse during a particular stage of his life. Whether it continued during his years on the bench, I am less clear on. In Franken's case, I believe all the accusations against him were during his years in the entertainment business; I haven't heard that any happened while he has been in the Senate. Nor have I heard that Trump has assaulted any women while on the campaign trail or in the White House. I think we can all agree that, even though they have moved into other roles, they should still be subject to criminal and/or civil punishment. But should their pasts disqualify them from holding their present or future positions? Clearly, many or most people think that it should.
Hmm, after my discourse above on three types of inappropriate behavior, I ran across a news alert kicking around in my inbox from earlier this evening. Headline: "Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, who asked staffers if they would bear his child as a surrogate, says he will resign."
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, that one may defy categorization.
Inasmuch as surrogate parenting is a thing that some people have agreed to do, presumably there is a right way is to ask someone to be a surrogate parent; apparently whatever Franks did or said wasn't it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-trent-franks-of-arizona-is-expected-to-resign/2017/12/07/479d156a-db9f-11e7-b859-fb0995360725_story.html?utm_term=.c60404a2094c&wpisrc=al_news__alert-politics--alert-national&wpmk=1
Hahaha!
DeleteI can only imagine how that went down.
"I don't want to touch you or anything, but I've noticed you are young, bright, reasonably attractive, and seem to have a wide pelvic girdle. So would you agree to be artificially inseminated and have a baby for my wife and me? I mean, your taxpayer provided congressional insurance would pay most of it, and I'd pick up any co-pays for you. And you'd be working for me, so I would make sure you could take time off when you needed it. It would sure mean the world to us, and I've done it before, so I know all the legal ropes. There's probably a big bonus we could find in the office budget for you, extra if the baby's a big strapping boy. And with that money, you could set yourself up with that craft shop you've always wanted after you hand over the kid. I don't see a downside here! Whaddya say?"
What a maroon.
Oh, and, "We promise to raise up the child to be a good Christian."
DeleteAre you saying that pitch would be a problem? :-). Why, any girl can only dream of the opportunity of having the boss's baby ...
DeleteRe: the whole subject of surrogacy, even leaving aside the moral issues, there isn't enough gold in Fort Knox. It is exploitation to the nth power, not to mention stupidity to agree to it. To quote Alfred E. Newman, "What? Me worry?"
DeleteI remember seeing a movie about this way back when I was a teen - The Baby Maker. It just seem like asking for trouble. Of course, now there's IVF but if that Republican's a religious conservative, maybe he's against that.
DeleteCrystal, if you like sci fi you might enjoy Ember from the Sun by Mark Canter. The whole story revolves around a surrogacy which didn't quite go according to plan.
DeleteThe value of the APA notion of prohibiting dual relationships is that it creates a high and relatively objective standard, at least in psychology where products such as therapy and class hours are relatively clear. It would include Rep Franks.
ReplyDeleteSome might object that the standard is too high. I know of at least one professor who married a woman who did an honors undergraduate research project with him. Obviously there was a time when he was likely writing letters of recommendation while in the midst of a dual relationship. The value of the notion is that it flags these relationships, and creates an automatic presumption against them. It places the male in the position of having to defend his behavior, rather than being able to rely on the murky "consensual" concept.
"I am sorry to say that there may be a whole new set of scandals waiting out there for clergy who have entered into sexual relationships with adults who were supposed to be under their pastoral care."
ReplyDeleteYes, spiritual direction and confession need to be rethought. The modern practice of private confession originated out of the lay practice of spiritual direction by non-ordained monks. It wasn't so bad when confession was once or twice a year at Christmas and Easter. But when Pius X authorized frequent communion it implied frequent private confession. I think the sacrament is in great need of reform. I think we should return to the practice of only public confession (declaring oneself to be a sinner in general) and public absolution.
Not quite comfortable with that version of public confession, but maybe that's just me. Let's not take away a good sacrament because some people have abused a confessor-penitent relationship, lets correct the problems. To an extent that already has been done. With penance services we have a communal preparation, and a communal penance, with an opportunity for short private confession. But it takes place in an open area. There are also regularly scheduled times for private confession, or by appointment if people want. The confessionals in our parish were redesigned. There are frosted windows in the doors, you can't see who is in there but it allows some visibility. Plus there is a screen if people desire anonymity. Some priests say that they prefer the screen because it protects both priest and penitent. A lot of people go to the sacrament as a matter of devotion and an occasion of grace, not because they are in a horrible, deal-breaking state of sin. Yes Reconciliation has evolved over time, but so has everything else.
DeleteI agree with Jack about confession and spiritual direction. A lot of past cases of clerical sex abuse had to do with priests preying on children during confession. At my church, confession happens in a small room with just the priest and parishioner - no screen and completely private. It was a bit creepy.
DeleteIt is important to recognize that what some think of as the classical era of confession pre-Vatican II existed only for about 50 years, from the time Pius X emphasized frequent communion until Vatican II.
DeleteI am glad and grateful that Pius X emphasized frequent Communion. Though I am not quite so grateful for some of his other legacies.
DeleteOK, I'm just gonna let loose with my gut here:
ReplyDeleteMy main concern with Roy Moore is that he is an A-grade jackass who rode his horse to the polls in a cowboy hat and waved a gun around when he won the primary, vowing to support Trump's sicko agenda. His feeling up the kids in the mall is just icing on that whole sick cake. I do not want him in the Senate because he won't vote for things I care about.
Al Franken has had the guts to confront Trumps ill-considered appointees (DeVoss and Sessions), has voted for things I care about. As an entertainer, he got fresh with a lot of women, some of whom told him off and he stopped. He has done nothing unbecoming of a senator. And I believe him. And I also believe that a Republican will have his Senate seat when whatever appointee Dayton makes has served out Franken's term. Minnesota is a battleground state.
Now a bunch of women are coming out of the woodwork claiming any number of Congressmen misbehaved. They are basically telling women, don't give him a good slap or kick him in the hoo-hoo and call the cops or tell the ethics people. Take a pay off and then wait 20 years and cry on TV. These scenes of women dabbing their eyes with a hanky and jabbering about fear and shame is the most UNempowering crap I have ever seen. It plays right into the conniving woman stereotype.
It also ticks me off because a real and provable abuse of male privelege--pay equity--is getting buried under all these allegations and innuendoes.
Yahoo!! Second the motion.
DeleteGood points, Jean.
DeleteI don't know. It seems as if the coming out by Gretchen Carlson -- who once occupied the Fox couch between Steve Doocy and the one who isn't Steve Doocy -- was what a lot of people needed to go public. After all, until just a few minutes ago, relatively, they would have run into the he-said/she-said razor that always cut toward the man's version because there are so many ways a woman (being a woman) can be wrong. Now the woman has more than a fair chance of being considered right because so many have been able to prove it.
DeleteAnd incidentally, despite current GOP belief, it all began not with Willie Clinton but with Clarence Thomas. That's "Justice Thomas" to you.
But I do agree with the three of you that there are dangers lurking in having "more than a fair chance" of being believed.
Jean--I couldn't agree more. You are one hundred percent right. Short term gain for long term loss. I don’t think the Democrats are are a real political party--they just play one on TV.
DeleteBob, I'm not sure what the gain is in the short term. None of us is privvy to the full story re Franken. Maybe he is way worse than we know. But we don't know, and is getting canned anyway.
DeleteFranken shouldn't have to be as bad or worse than Moore to be let go. This is the very argument of those Alabama voters who will vote for Moore even though they believe he's done bad things .... he'll vote for my interests and that's what matters. Isn't this part of what you hated about Hillary - that she stuck with her husband when he was a womanizing jerk? Keeping Franken is an 'ends justifying the means' idea.
ReplyDeleteThe problem, Crystal, is that YOU AND I DON'T KNOW EXACTLY HOW "BAD" THESE GUYS ARE BECAUSE THERE HAS BEEN NO TRIAL OR HEARING.
DeleteDone yelling now.
So, yes, Franken might be a jerk, but he's MY jerk, and until you can show me how he is bad for my interests, I want him in there and not Tim Pawlenty back in there. Exactly like the Moore voters.
Hillary staying with Bill was not my objection to her. It was her Rich Lady desire to throw money at poverty and inequality rather than to stop making cozy little speeches to the One Percenters and get real about the concerns of labor.
Don't mean to make you yell :)
DeleteEven with a trial, there often is no entirely convincing proof - courts make a judgement call and that's what the senate did with Franken.
He is bad for our interests because it is clear from his behavior on numerous occasions(8 women so far) that he doesn't respect women but thinks they are his personal squeeze toys.
"There is no entirely convincing proof ..." Exactly.
DeleteThe Senate made no call at all. Some individual senators in his own party asked Franken to leave. He chose to accede. This is far different from a trial or hearing Roman impartial judgment.
The senate has a code of behavior for senators. That's why there are ethics investigations and why guys like Packwood were forced out even though he wasn't charged with a crime and didn't have a trial where he was found guilty. That seems reasonable to me. Franken could have stuck around for an ethics investigation but he chose to do what other senators asked and left. He did grope a bunch of people - he's not the victim here.
DeleteYes, Franken could have chosen to stay. I wish he had. Instead, various people called for his resignation publicly and privately, and then he made a speech during which all the women who wanted him gone cried and cried.
DeleteWhat scares me is that some of those ends are needed to avoid THE End.
ReplyDeleteIt's tempting to go there - like the idea of Democrats appealing to the Trump voters by diluting their message - but in the end I think it's self defeating. You can't defeat badness if you become it in order to defeat it.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats diluted their message years ago when they became neoliberal. If I wanted to stand up for my precious principles, I would have voted for Jill Stein. Maybe I will, next time.
ReplyDeleteYou probably wouldn't have voted for her if you had seen John Oliver's episode on her and what's his name :)
ReplyDeleteWell, nobody accused Stein of sexual harrassment and she's pro-abortion so that's all that counts, right?
ReplyDeleteThen there's this opinion about the moral high ground.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.salon.com/2017/12/09/sacrificing-al-franken-in-order-to-capture-the-moral-high-ground-is-not-a-strategy/
Everybody needs to read Truscott's piece. Snip:
DeleteThe Atlantic magazine published a story this week by a woman who claimed that at an inaugural party in Washington some years ago, Franken had “put his hand on my waist, grabbing a handful of flesh. I froze. Then he squeezed. At least twice.” How is that going to read 10 years from now, or even one or two years from now? Al Franken “squeezed . . . at least twice”? How are we going to look back on the allegations against Al Franken after Roy Moore has voted some fascist theocratic loon onto the Supreme Court? What are we going to think of Al Franken after the Republican congress has refused to stand up to Donald Trump when he fires Special Counsel Mueller? How is Al Franken going to look when an alleged serial sexual abuser who conspired with a foreign adversary to steal the election of 2016 conspires to steal the election of 2020 from the American people?
Maybe they didn't do it to capture the high ground, maybe hey just didn't want to serve with a sexist.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to work with people who assault my nostrils with a quart of cheap cologne. (Not a joke; this stuff screws with my vision and often triggers a massive migraine). But I know how to discuss this problem with them in some way other than making speeches in staff meetings about how they should be fired.
DeleteGroping people is like wearing bad perfume?
ReplyDeleteSexual harassment and assault has been going on forever, as long as people in power, usually men, could get away with it. Up until recently it has been taken for granted and people who complained were shamed or ignored. I don't think that's going to be acceptable any more and it should never have been.
ReplyDelete