“You can: call, email, and tag state attorneys general and members of Congress on social media. They don’t have to be your own. It only takes one to step up and get this process moving. Remind them: They work for us.
Hold on to your hope. Because again—we don’t need permission to enforce the Constitution. We just need courage.”✊
All horrible stuff. Episodes of open-air corruption like this reveal how the ruling class really feels about all of us: We are too stupid to see their lies, too cowardly to speak against it, all too willing to lie for them on TV for some future reward, and too weak to fight back even if we cared to. Guess what- We are all of that! One can hardly advance in today's business or political world without an unstained loyalty to various American myths, so the status quo is mantained from the bottom up economically. If you fight it, you may end up screaming from a comment box on substack while the shitshow continues unabated.
I have no sympathy for Maxwell. She should serve her prison sentence. Yes, her behavior is sick and demented. I wonder, though, if there's room to see her as a sick product of our patriarchal culture...a special twisted case for her social echelon, a product of both extreme male power and wealth. Again, I'm not siding with any level of victimhood. But I do wonder if there's something to understand when we look at her crimes in the context of male power.
Defining patriarchy, Allan Johnson, a sociology professor, writes , “Patriarchy’s defining elements are its male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered character, but this is just the beginning. At its core, patriarchy is a set of symbols and ideas that make up a culture embodied by everything from the content of everyday conversation to literature and film. Patriarchal culture includes ideas about the nature of things, including men, women, and humanity, with manhood and masculinity most closely associated with being human and womanhood and femininity relegated to the marginal position of ‘other.’ It’s about how social life is and how it’s supposed to be; about what’s expected of people and about how they feel. It’s about standards of feminine beauty and masculine toughness, images of feminine vulnerability and masculine protectiveness, of older men coupled with young women, of elderly women alone. It’s about defining women and men as opposites, about the ‘naturalness’ of male aggression, competition, and dominance and of female caring, cooperation, and subordination. It’s about the valuing of masculinity and maleness and the devaluing of femininity and femaleness. It’s about the primary importance of a husband’s career and the secondary status of a wife’s, about child care as a priority in women’s lives and its secondary importance in men’s. It’s about the social acceptability of anger, rage, and toughness in men but not in women, and of caring, tenderness, and vulnerability in women but not in men.”
Exactly this! Of course Ghislaine Maxwell is a monster. A monster created by patriarchy. It is sad and distressing that the only person who is serving a prison sentence for these patriarchal crimes is a female. Sadly, she belongs in prison--it's all we have in this sick society to hold her accountable.
Maxwell will get her sentence commuted (not pardoned) in exchange for saying little or nothing. Unlike a pardon, a commutation is not an admission of guilt and she can retain her 5th Amendment rights. Then she can ride off into the sunset and not be compelled to testify truthfully before Congress or anywhere else. This Epstein BS is going to roll off Trump like water off a duck's back, and there has been very little in the way of new information. Trump controls all the levers of law enforcement except for the Grand and Trial Juries. There's nothing to see here folks, MAGA will just spin some other yarn and carry on with their pedophile in chief.
Outstanding work, Jim, thank you. I agree 100% with all you wrote here. The nightmare dystopia deepens, widens, grows more appalling with this new chapter. This is about as bad as it gets and he'll push this pardon or commutation through, in the process you describe here, with probably not much a ruffling of national feathers. As opposed to what the reaction should be. Imagine right-wing media were Harris to try to pardon G. Maxwell to save her image, though it's hard to imagine how that could come to pass. (taking Trump out of the scenario)...the uproar that would occur would be deafening and non-stop. It needs to be made clear how bad of a person she was/is. You're doing your part and I thank you for that. I am going to catch up on your other recent articles, I've fallen behind.
Sick and demented. The whole lot and scenario. Here the thing, they have been cultivating the religious crowd. They are one and same. Evangelical or their special brand of national Christianity? I can’t name it. Southpark got it right. Along with the flowing champagne, they hate the sin but love the sinner. There is no logic here. It will take decades if ever to rebuild.
Maxwell is a monster, I feel for the Women who have to live this trauma daily, and deserve justice,
Please remember!
14.3 of the Constitution
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/ex-cia-whistleblower-the-nsa-audited
Quote near the end of the article:
“You can: call, email, and tag state attorneys general and members of Congress on social media. They don’t have to be your own. It only takes one to step up and get this process moving. Remind them: They work for us.
Hold on to your hope. Because again—we don’t need permission to enforce the Constitution. We just need courage.”✊
https://www.naag.org/find-my-ag/
From Canada
Excellent parallels drawn to Trump's horrible past behavior.
All horrible stuff. Episodes of open-air corruption like this reveal how the ruling class really feels about all of us: We are too stupid to see their lies, too cowardly to speak against it, all too willing to lie for them on TV for some future reward, and too weak to fight back even if we cared to. Guess what- We are all of that! One can hardly advance in today's business or political world without an unstained loyalty to various American myths, so the status quo is mantained from the bottom up economically. If you fight it, you may end up screaming from a comment box on substack while the shitshow continues unabated.
I have no sympathy for Maxwell. She should serve her prison sentence. Yes, her behavior is sick and demented. I wonder, though, if there's room to see her as a sick product of our patriarchal culture...a special twisted case for her social echelon, a product of both extreme male power and wealth. Again, I'm not siding with any level of victimhood. But I do wonder if there's something to understand when we look at her crimes in the context of male power.
Defining patriarchy, Allan Johnson, a sociology professor, writes , “Patriarchy’s defining elements are its male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered character, but this is just the beginning. At its core, patriarchy is a set of symbols and ideas that make up a culture embodied by everything from the content of everyday conversation to literature and film. Patriarchal culture includes ideas about the nature of things, including men, women, and humanity, with manhood and masculinity most closely associated with being human and womanhood and femininity relegated to the marginal position of ‘other.’ It’s about how social life is and how it’s supposed to be; about what’s expected of people and about how they feel. It’s about standards of feminine beauty and masculine toughness, images of feminine vulnerability and masculine protectiveness, of older men coupled with young women, of elderly women alone. It’s about defining women and men as opposites, about the ‘naturalness’ of male aggression, competition, and dominance and of female caring, cooperation, and subordination. It’s about the valuing of masculinity and maleness and the devaluing of femininity and femaleness. It’s about the primary importance of a husband’s career and the secondary status of a wife’s, about child care as a priority in women’s lives and its secondary importance in men’s. It’s about the social acceptability of anger, rage, and toughness in men but not in women, and of caring, tenderness, and vulnerability in women but not in men.”
Thanks for taking the time to write that....very interesting. :)
Exactly this! Of course Ghislaine Maxwell is a monster. A monster created by patriarchy. It is sad and distressing that the only person who is serving a prison sentence for these patriarchal crimes is a female. Sadly, she belongs in prison--it's all we have in this sick society to hold her accountable.
100% agree. JFC I fucking hate all these people.
The only consolation is knowing Trump and Ghislaine will eventually, like everyone, be gone from the earth.
Maxwell will get her sentence commuted (not pardoned) in exchange for saying little or nothing. Unlike a pardon, a commutation is not an admission of guilt and she can retain her 5th Amendment rights. Then she can ride off into the sunset and not be compelled to testify truthfully before Congress or anywhere else. This Epstein BS is going to roll off Trump like water off a duck's back, and there has been very little in the way of new information. Trump controls all the levers of law enforcement except for the Grand and Trial Juries. There's nothing to see here folks, MAGA will just spin some other yarn and carry on with their pedophile in chief.
Sadly, I agree.
So depressing
This makes me sick to my stomach. 🤢
I think that when Trump frees Maxwell it will make him look worse. I also think that this isn’t going away when Congress comes back in September.
Hope you're correct that this won't be going away come fall.
It was in the bag from the very beginning. Maybe she'll end up on a small yacht like her father.
You got that right. :)
Yeah, she will be a loose end
Outstanding work, Jim, thank you. I agree 100% with all you wrote here. The nightmare dystopia deepens, widens, grows more appalling with this new chapter. This is about as bad as it gets and he'll push this pardon or commutation through, in the process you describe here, with probably not much a ruffling of national feathers. As opposed to what the reaction should be. Imagine right-wing media were Harris to try to pardon G. Maxwell to save her image, though it's hard to imagine how that could come to pass. (taking Trump out of the scenario)...the uproar that would occur would be deafening and non-stop. It needs to be made clear how bad of a person she was/is. You're doing your part and I thank you for that. I am going to catch up on your other recent articles, I've fallen behind.
Sick and demented. The whole lot and scenario. Here the thing, they have been cultivating the religious crowd. They are one and same. Evangelical or their special brand of national Christianity? I can’t name it. Southpark got it right. Along with the flowing champagne, they hate the sin but love the sinner. There is no logic here. It will take decades if ever to rebuild.
Sad but true.
Shared.