The Weinstein story is about the privilege of wealth
Since the Weinstein story broke, the GOP has been trying to spin it as a story about the Democratic elite.
There is a smidgen of truth to that spin, but only a smidgen.
The mainstream media has spun the Weinstein story as a story about male supremacy, and there is certainly valid points behind that spin.
However, the most accurate and honest way to look at the Weinstein story is as a story about a two-tiered justice system that allows wealthy people to avoid facing consequences for bad actions, but that narrative is mostly ignored.
What do Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., Harvey Weinstein, and the fine people of JPMorgan Chase have in common? None of them are in prison, nor have they been charged with a crime. That's not because they haven't done things that seem to be potentially criminal—it's because in America, it's better to be rich than innocent.
I obviously don't approve of anyone being sexually harassed.
While the interwebs hyperventilate over wealthy Hollywood starlets being groped, I think issues like poor, working class women going to prison because they can't pay a traffic ticket is an infinitely more important women's issue.
According to an investigation from the New Yorker, ProPublica, and WNYC, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. lied to potential buyers of condos in one of the Trump Organization's properties, only escaping prosecution after their dad's lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, intervened with Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance, to whom he had donated $25,000. (Vance returned that donation before meeting with Kasowitz, but then Kasowitz raised another $50,000 for Vance, which the DA now plans to return as well.) On Thursday, one day after that report dropped, the New York Times published an article detailing decades of sexual harassment allegations against powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who both apologized for his behavior and threatened to sue the paper for revealing it. Weinstein has never been charged with a crime—though in a sort of small-world coincidence, his lawyer reportedly donated $10,000 to Vance after the DA declined to bring charges relating to the producer allegedly groping a model in 2015.
The Weinstein bombshell came just hours after VICE contributor David Dayen published an exposé at the Nation about how JPMorgan Chase paid off a massive fine incurred for shady business practices in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis in part by forgiving mortgages it doesn't seem to have actually owned, apparently deceiving not just the government but homeowners and investors in the process.
That wealth protects people who might otherwise be called "criminals" from consequences shouldn't be a controversial idea but a simple statement of fact. Thanks to America's perverse cash bail system, money can literally get you out of jail in most cases. Beyond that, the rich can afford high-priced defense lawyers where the poor have to rely on public defenders—in Louisiana, indigent defendants are lucky if they even get that.
The news media is outraged that one of their own has engaged in a deviant manner against wealthy women, but there's nary a word against our military massacring poor women and children every day, all around they world.
Which is more important: a wealthy woman's dignity, or a poor woman's life?
That's not to say the former doesn't have value. The point is that our society has decided the latter doesn't have value.
In America's media today, there is no tolerance for racism and sexism.
Classism, on the other hand, well, we have absolutely no problem at all with that.
A Hollywood starlet being groped is an outrage. A poor, single woman being fraudulently evicted from her home and living and dying on the street, that won't even get a page 9 blurb.
It works in the opposite direction as well.
If it was Harry Weinstein instead of Harvey Weinstein, how many seconds do you think it would have taken Harry The Letch to be thrown into the deepest, darkest prison cell?
It would certainly be the same hour, at the most.
As opposed to Harvey The Wealthy Pervert who could continue his disgusting ways year after year.
Comments
breathe and exhale, gjohnsit, and take a nap - it helps /nt
My purpose here is to rant
Steam needs to be blown off.
But a nap sounds really good.
I do understand, just was worried about your emotional health...
...you produce one essay after the other at a pace I can't even keep up reading them. You know that there are just groping assholes among the male employers (there are females too in that category) who can't help abusing their power over females / and or males, who seek jobs in a business that's seductive to some women and too easy a work environment for the employer to not keep their dark sides under control.
Sometimes I wished women had more courage to reject those types right away, not years later. I know that those groping assaults, be they verbally or physically ones, stick with those who were the target a lifetime. It's difficult to judge and I shouldn't. But it would be better to deal with it when it happens or shortly after, not after years, when motives to bring it up are easier to question and trash as well.
I meant no offense, and I have compassion with rants. Just remembered some ranting people in real live and being in overdrive getting into a psychosis. I am not the person who should have made the comment I made. I am not a doctor. Sorry for that.
Peace.
thank you for your outrage, gjohnsit!
Your cries for class Justice are righteous, and they expose how, in today's Amerikkka, money covereth a multitude of sins!
Yet please do take mimi up on her advice. You're no good to us suffering a stroke. Please do take care of yourself; we need you!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
The National Enquirer Model
Gossip and soap operas. Car chases! Did you see the lipstick on Rachel Maddow's collar? Shiny shoes and glitterati. Give us dirty laundry! Chris Matthews hands out the Gravitas awards. Is the head dead yet?
The walking dead of our American media rule the airwaves.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
The lack of CONSENT is what bothers me the most...
but then, the Democrats are all about claiming that we have no right not to consent to their candidates, their policies or their lies.
I no longer consent to be ruled by these slimebags.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
@detroitmechworks Well, you can refuse to
Well, you can refuse to consent. But then you're a white supremacist, and probably a fifth columnist too. Have you been to Moscow lately?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The rich don't face justice in America,
they typically have a blanket immunity. The rare exceptions, like Bernie Madoff are people who have transgressed against other rich and powerful people. If Bernie had only ripped off poor widows, he's be walking around free today.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Read this article and see how true your statement is
The Consent of the Conned
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Spot on, Snoop! n/t
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
For some reason this popped into my head
Compare and contrast the Hollywood reaction to inveterate lech Harvey Weinstein to that towards fugitive child rapist Roman Polanski.
Not sure what I'm actually saying except the contrast seems striking.
They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway
They say that life's a game and then they take the board away
They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story
And leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret-- A. Moore
Well, both have been protected
in varying degrees by their wealth and privilege. Pulanski seems to have had a somewhat more difficult road, but possibly only because Weinstein's case hasn't matured yet we'll have to see where it goes.
Being forced to live in exile in Switzerland is probably considered a grievous punishment in the circles of the well-connected, but any normal human would have gone to prison.
Weinstein might not even get that much penalty, as he's likely got more influence than Pulanski ever had. That's where we're at, justice is meted out based upon the influence and connections of the accused.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
That is what the unlamented Marc Rich used to say.
He apparently thought it a great injustice that he could no longer stroll down 5th Ave. in New York City.
Mary Bennett
Two quick comments
First, there's a huge number of non-wealthy, unknown men who get away with sexual harassment and assault every day. I'm not sure why you think non-wealthy abusers would go right to prison, but let me assure you, they don't. The vast majority of sexual predators and abusers never face any consequences, regardless of their station in life.
Two, Weinstein's targets were not wealthy stars. In fact it appears he preyed primarily on young women who were trying to break into the business. After they became successful or powerful stars, he left them alone. (e.g., Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rosanna Arquette, and others have said they were his victims when they were young and just getting into the movie business.) He went after young, powerless women who needed work and were trying to make it, not "wealthy starlets" who had any status. He used his position of power over women who had none. And several women have said he raped them, not "just" groping or coercion.
You write off his behavior as "groping wealthy starlets" ... so big deal, who cares. I strongly disagree. Being raped or sexually assaulted by a man who has power while you have none is a big deal. It changes you for life, forever. Minimizing this behavior as insignificant is really unsettling to me.
"The casting couch" ought to be a grotesque anachronism,
a footnote in a lurid period of Hollywood history.
But it isn't just history, it's still going on. Weinstein is - no, nothing as respectable as a dinosaur - a trilobite. He's that far out of synch.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Sort of similar to steroids and sports.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
@CS in AZ The point is, I think,
The point is, I think, not the wealth of the target, but the wealth of the perpetrator. For me, anyway.
Wealthy perpetrators get protection, no matter what their crime. The wealthy are notable because there's so few of them and so many below them, that it's really bleeding obvious that they are unaccountable pretty much all the time. But of course, that works for most higher/lower status relations: whites get protection if they're attacking blacks, men get protection if they're attacking women, etc.
This is complicated, these days, by the fact that the narrative of female and minority victimization is highly popular with the mainstream press and with the powerful in politics, so if there's any political use that could be made out of the spectacle of a woman or a minority being victimized, there's a chance that that "side" would be given precedence over the traditionally powerful one.
Few seem interested in determining what actually happened in any given case, and attempting to deal out a reasonable and appropriate punishment for wrongdoing.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Best duscussion on the Affaire Weinstein is
from Of Two Minds
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct17/oligarchy10-17.html
Note Smith's point that every now and then the oligarchy will expel a sacrificial goat, which is supposed to reassure us that everything is all fine now, problem taken care of.
Mary Bennett
Then there's this
Lorne Micheals tells reporters SNL chose to ignore the Weinstein story because " its a New York thing ". Whatever the fuck that means.
Really?
I thought it was a Hollywood thing.
Mary Bennett
An excellent quotation from that article:
What's truly noteworthy here is not the sordid allegations and history of payoffs--it's the 27 years of intense protection the Hollywood/ media /D.C. status quo provided, despite hundreds of insiders knowing the truth.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Weinstein is the guy who suggested to Hillary that
she use the Sandy Hook murders to smear Bernie Sanders as being "on the side" of the child murderer and against the families (because he had the gall to say gun control meant different things to urban and rural people, and also said he didn't think gun companies should be sued for making and selling guns to the general public if making and selling guns to the general public was legal. Obviously, this means he supports blowing away large numbers of elementary school children with high-caliber weapons).
Since then, I have avoided watching any movies produced by his company. I watched one by accident--missed the fact that it was a Weinstein movie till the end. I wouldn't have watched it had I known.
Given that he has no problem using the murder of elementary school children as tool for character assassination, nothing he says or does surprises me.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
powerful Hollywood producer
powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who both apologized for his behavior and threatened to sue the paper for revealing it.
That sounds about right for a hypocritical person with no moral compass.
The real news here is that the NYT went after a Hollywood producer and a Democrat. I wonder who he pissed off?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Smith's article
suggests that he might be being sacrificed because of loosing his golden touch. I don't keep up with the movie biz but apparently his latest have disappointed investors, and maybe he declined to retire gracefully?
He is now undergoing "sex addiction therapy"???? How about, at a certain age you retire from the fray and leave such matters to the young and beautiful?
Mary Bennett
@Nastarana Poor guy, with his
Poor guy, with his addiction problems. It's not that he was abusive of younger, less powerful people and abused his professional power over them. It's that he has a psychological disease.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver