Climbing for Dollars
I read that, was reminded of the fictional gameshow Climbing for Dollars from the movie The Running Man and thought of a piece I wrote previously elsewhere:
To whatever degree the US was on track to become some version of the dystopian future portrayed in The Running Man but did not, this movie played some role to some degree in making sure America made better choices.
The star of that movie and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is talking about the assassination of Charlie Kirk and how America has lost its way. Current reality is looking like the plot line of his Terminator franchise of movies where Sarah Connor keeps trying to avert judgement day and future movies tell you she failed to do so, it just got pushed back to a different date.
Donald Trump ran on a catch phrase of Make America Great Again. I don't think he's succeeding.
I don't think he has any clue how to do that and things are so ugly that the current talk is people speculating that Trump had his own ally -- Charlie Kirk -- assassinated to try to distract people from the Epstein files and what those files say about him.
The past isn't dead; it isn't even past.-- William Faulkner
In some sense, no one really cares what Trump did in the past and sex crimes aren't anything most people REALLY want to try to litigate.
The definition of rape hinges on the detail of consent and statutory rape -- in other words having sex with someone underaged which is defined as rape even if she very ENTHUSIASTICALLY said yes -- is a worse he said, she said thought experiment for total strangers who were not there to judge after the fact than date rape.
These are typically crimes with little to no clear cut, hard evidence that he hurt her in some substantial material fashion.
The difficulty involved in determining what happened for a crime that may leave no physical evidence is one reason people are reluctant to prosecute child molestation which is a vastly more serious crime than statutory rape.
I don't think people REALLY REALLY care about the Epstein files or if Trump is in them.
Trump has said on camera that the election was rigged and that's a good thing because it means he gets to be president.
Meanwhile, his presidential record has me speculating that he probably ran for office HOPING to be assassinated as a Christian nutter version of death with dignity because Christianity says suicide is a very bad thing.
I think the public interest in the Epstein files isn't genuine interest in those apparently gruesome sex crimes. I think it's a desperate attempt to try to find some means to stop a man who was convicted of multiple felony counts for election tampering in the two previous presidential elections he ran in who has said on camera this election was rigged and that's why he is president.
If this were an episode of Law and Order, a day or maybe an hour after broadcasting that confession on camera he would be toast politically speaking and his presidency would be over.
Sadly, this isn't a fictional TV show where the good guys are on top of it and fight the good fight and get their man in a timely fashion. This is reality and it's an increasingly dystopian reality that long ago jumped the shark, gets more insane with each passing day and no one seems able to course correct and find any means to get this guy out of office while comedians desperately try to make the point that he's methodically destroying this country intentionally and we are letting him even though he shouldn't be president at all.
And IF anyone reads this post AT ALL, I'm imagining Trump intentionally twisting my words into a rebuttal that the Epstein files don't matter and you people don't really care how many underaged girls he had sex with.
That's not my point. My point is that I think the focus on the Epstein files scandal is a desperate attempt to drag a man who shouldn't be president at all because no one seems to have any idea how to stop him from intentionally destroying the country.
The world doesn't REALLY care that much about sexual assault of women and children and never will. It's in the past. It doesn't matter though lots of people continue to hurt their entire lives.
The world does care about an insane tyrant dubbed the WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL MAN in the media damaging the US -- dubbed the WORLD'S RICHEST COUNTRY or something -- and dropping bombs on Iran without bothering to do his homework and regularly read the daily reports he's given as president.
He's a problem for the planet and people are desperately hoping to find some means to stop his path of destruction and the Epstein files is a metaphor for "His behavior is completely OUTRAGEOUS and he doesn't belong in office. He's not fit to serve."
And I wish someone would find some other means to go after him that is actually effective and less likely to defacto be soft core FREE porn for perverts to whack off to without even HIDING the fact that they read this material.
Rest assured I'm strongly anti rape and I have no interest in reading this garbage. I strongly suspect some people interested in this scandal have ZERO interest in stopping Trump and are just thrilled to pieces his presidency is making it socially acceptable to openly go on at length about the lurid details in the name of trying to pursue justice under circumstances where it seems highly unlikely to accomplish any such thing.
Footnote
This opinion shaped by more than two decades of fighting with a husband who resented me bringing up past incidents and me being frustrated as all hell that he wasn't getting the fucking memo that the PROBLEM I'm complaining about isn't IN THE PAST.
You are still doing this bullshit to me and it's still a problem, even if it isn't as obvious as it used to be. This is THE SAME fucking problem as this old incident that is more glaringly obvious than your current bullshit.