No harm
Unless you follow Michigan politics, you have probably never heard of Peter Lucido, Republican whip of the state senate. This is your lucky day.
Allison Donahue was trying to interview Lucido for the Michigan Advance and I guess he didn't appreciate the young lady's tone. So he more or less suggested that a nearby group of leering schoolboys could "have some fun" with her, you know, adjust her thinking. Of course he meant no harm. When will these career gals stop taking everything so seriously? It was a compliment. That's how Republicans compliment their women. It was "nothing disingenuous," whatever that means, because he talks to groups of girls the same way. Allison is 22, and if she did something with her hair and makeup and smiled more, she'd be much better at getting the guys to open up, especially alpha males like Lucido who are being investigated for sexual harassment by the Senate Business Office.
Donahue wanted to talk to Lucido about the now-deleted Facebook page "People vs. Governor Gretchen Whitmer," which sounds like a legal action or site for policy criticism. Actually, it was a spot where various Trumpanzees could share thoughts about the governor, Rep. Rashida Tlaib and others, mostly involving rape, murder and dark alleys. (In one of the more poetic images, a certain Michael Buschert fantasized about making "that pink mist spray from [Tlaib's] skull." Buschert probably should have used a screen name like "Trump4Ever" because this exercise in free speech cost him his job at the Pleasant Moose Lodge in Newberry. Liberal fascists.) Anyway, they never got that far. Donahue wrote this story instead. Rashida Tlaib should be glad so many men think she's pretty enough to rape. Not like E. Jean Carroll, who Trump described as "not my type." I'm still waiting for a reporter as brave as Allison Donahue to ask him what type woman he prefers to rape.
Women in politics, and in public life generally, even (or especially) online gaming and sports, are used to this kind of crap. Every time they express an opinion or celebrate an achievement, they are Jackie Robinson, showered with abuse and forbidden to respond in kind, or at all. They can turn it aside with a joke, like Greta Thunberg or Elizabeth "Go Cougars" Warren, but they can never offer to use Peter Lucido's asshole as a storage facility for nuclear waste. To do so would be "emotional," or "weak," or "immature." The prohibition follows party lines: Sarah Palin could threaten Bernie Sanders with an assault rifle as Ted Nugent has threatened Hillary Clinton, because right-wing women are honorary men. That's their choice, and good luck to them. In Virginia, the female-led (Democratic majority) legislature has finally ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, and I'm glad I don't have to answer the phone or deal with the emails in Speaker Filler-Corn's office. As the Thug-in-Chief would say, she's going to go through some things.
In spite of the #MeToo backlash presently under way, all women go through some things every day, whether they work in the million-dollar media or a burger restaurant. A lot of women who don't work at all (for wages) go through them at home or on the street. This has characterized "civilization" for thousands of years before Margaret Atwood's trenchant observation, "Men are afraid women are laughing at them. Women are afraid men will kill them." And fear is bullying's dirty little secret. It would be nice if we could all stop living in fear.
Allison Donahue was trying to interview Lucido for the Michigan Advance and I guess he didn't appreciate the young lady's tone. So he more or less suggested that a nearby group of leering schoolboys could "have some fun" with her, you know, adjust her thinking. Of course he meant no harm. When will these career gals stop taking everything so seriously? It was a compliment. That's how Republicans compliment their women. It was "nothing disingenuous," whatever that means, because he talks to groups of girls the same way. Allison is 22, and if she did something with her hair and makeup and smiled more, she'd be much better at getting the guys to open up, especially alpha males like Lucido who are being investigated for sexual harassment by the Senate Business Office.
Donahue wanted to talk to Lucido about the now-deleted Facebook page "People vs. Governor Gretchen Whitmer," which sounds like a legal action or site for policy criticism. Actually, it was a spot where various Trumpanzees could share thoughts about the governor, Rep. Rashida Tlaib and others, mostly involving rape, murder and dark alleys. (In one of the more poetic images, a certain Michael Buschert fantasized about making "that pink mist spray from [Tlaib's] skull." Buschert probably should have used a screen name like "Trump4Ever" because this exercise in free speech cost him his job at the Pleasant Moose Lodge in Newberry. Liberal fascists.) Anyway, they never got that far. Donahue wrote this story instead. Rashida Tlaib should be glad so many men think she's pretty enough to rape. Not like E. Jean Carroll, who Trump described as "not my type." I'm still waiting for a reporter as brave as Allison Donahue to ask him what type woman he prefers to rape.
Women in politics, and in public life generally, even (or especially) online gaming and sports, are used to this kind of crap. Every time they express an opinion or celebrate an achievement, they are Jackie Robinson, showered with abuse and forbidden to respond in kind, or at all. They can turn it aside with a joke, like Greta Thunberg or Elizabeth "Go Cougars" Warren, but they can never offer to use Peter Lucido's asshole as a storage facility for nuclear waste. To do so would be "emotional," or "weak," or "immature." The prohibition follows party lines: Sarah Palin could threaten Bernie Sanders with an assault rifle as Ted Nugent has threatened Hillary Clinton, because right-wing women are honorary men. That's their choice, and good luck to them. In Virginia, the female-led (Democratic majority) legislature has finally ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, and I'm glad I don't have to answer the phone or deal with the emails in Speaker Filler-Corn's office. As the Thug-in-Chief would say, she's going to go through some things.
In spite of the #MeToo backlash presently under way, all women go through some things every day, whether they work in the million-dollar media or a burger restaurant. A lot of women who don't work at all (for wages) go through them at home or on the street. This has characterized "civilization" for thousands of years before Margaret Atwood's trenchant observation, "Men are afraid women are laughing at them. Women are afraid men will kill them." And fear is bullying's dirty little secret. It would be nice if we could all stop living in fear.
posted by Buttermilk Sky at 12:49 PM
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