Small thoughts
Cohen: Supposedly, Cohen had his last of three days in front of Congress today. What a change from the past week! In the various news feeds/aggregators that I review, up until yesterday, Cohen was regarded like Alexander the Great riding in on his elephant to claim his slaying of Trump. Then, on Drudge, a headline appeared last night, quoting a convicted Mafia man, opining that he believed Cohen would be whacked in his upcoming three years in prison, due to start in a month or two. Actually, sounds credible to me. I don’t like Cohen…don’t know anybody that would. He stands for bald opportunism that would stab anyone in the back to get what he wants. But more so, what about the press? On the one hand, they’re just delivering the blue meat to their constituency, like any good business, but I can’t help but feel a little amused that they ultimately just stoked the underworld. Yes, they too watch the news. Suddenly today, day three of spectacular testimony; hardly a footnote. What happens to Cohen is none of my business and I’m not enough invested in his story to wish any particular outcome. On the other hand, I can’t help but wish to see the partisan American press take a slap up to the side of the head.
The United Methodist: For me, it’s an unusual trend to comment on Christian movements. When I started to post writings in the web, I basically swore it off as just a guaranteed way to make enemies. Nevertheless, here it goes, for the second time of late [also referring to a prior article.] The United Methodist voted to not ordain or marry gays. I will avoid my own direct opinion on that, but certainly, many American representatives are the most upset at the outcome, specific to the question at hand. (They’re all upset at the possible divide of the denomination). The churches constituencies outside of The United States, especially Africa, turned the tide against American progressivism. How ironic that the progressives found themselves pitted against developing and third-world people of color and suddenly are so morose for this one pet ideology. Forget the vote dynamic for a moment, I wonder to what extent that any of the progressives give serious thought to their opposition’s beliefs. If this was strictly an American matter, calls of ‘homophobia’ would be deafening. All this to say, I detect hypocrisy.
Robert Kraft and the hookers: Well really, maybe not quite hookers. Traffickers, or maybe not quite traffickers. You see, as the story ages, most of what you heard from the press was just hype, badly distorted hype, as it is coming out now. So while there is certainly some evidence that some shady commerce was in play, if you’re looking for a story about vile white men trampling actual sex slaves, this is probably not really your story. Here’s how this will play out. The businesses will be shut down. They have enough dirt on them, certainly for money laundering or tax evasion. The rich clients will get off. The poor ones won’t. The supposedly trafficked gals, if they’re not deported or imprisoned, will just take their grey-trade to another town, business as usual. As for causes, if you want to control trafficking, legalize prostitution, consensual transactional sex. Bring all sex workers, women, and men, out of hiding where they have legal protections for basic civil rights without fear of reprisal. There are models elsewhere for how to do it right in the United States.