Good Morning.
This Rob Porter situation should be difficult to process for anyone, male or female, with a lick of decency. Porter,
who was one of the closest aides to the president, has been accused of domestic abuse by two former wives, one of whom produced a photograph of a black eye. He is now romantically involved with Hope Hicks, White House communications
director, who previously dated Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager prior to Paul Manafort who is under indictment
for conspiracy, money laundering, and failing to register as a foreign agent. Lewandowski was accused by a reporter of bruising her arm during a campaign rally and has been cited by various women for all manner of misconduct. The president, of course, has been described as a sexual predator by at least a dozen women.
Reince Prebus, former Republican National Committee chairman, was replaced as White House chief of staff by John Kelly, a retired 4-star Marine Corps general. It was thought that Kelly would bring some order to the the West Wing, but clearly he has fallen short. First of all, trying to manage the president - this president - is an impossible task that couldn't be accomplished by anyone on the face of the earth. Secondly, military men may have organizational skills and the ability to
kick out orders but they tend to be lacking in political savvy. The atmosphere in the Oval Office appears to be more like hand-to-hand combat with everyone, including the president's daughter and son-in-law, trying to upstage everyone else.
So we've had this Popadopolous character who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, Manafort with his litany of trangressions, and Mike Flynn, a retired 3 star Army general who had to leave because he lied to the vice-president
and also the FBI. Sean Spicer checked out as press secretary, Steve Bannon caused so much upheaval that he finally
got the boot, and who knows what's going on at the justice department. The president is mad at the attorney general for recusing himself in the Russia investigation, another gargantuan mess, and is less than pleased with Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state who would like, for example, to negotiate with the North Koreans rather than have a nuclear confrontation with them.
Now comes the Porter thing that Kelly apparently knew about for months and chose to ignore. In addition to the issue of
domestic assault, there was the matter of this creep not having the proper security clearance, all the while having access to classified, top-secret materials with the potential for blackmail, given his personal behavior. What does Kelly do? He praises Porter's job performance, even his character, and when confronted with the black eye photo, has to drum up another statement about being appalled.
And what about the women on the staff - the presidential daughter, Ms. Hicks who needs to have her head examined, Ms. Conway who was on TV all weekend trying to explain her confusion about the situation, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, current press secretary, who has been offering excuses and fabrications about the chaos in the West Wing for months. Conway is a wife, a mother, and a practicing Catholic. Sanders, the daughter of preacher and erstwhile presidential candidate
Mike Huckabee, is an evangelical Christian, but hey, we shouldn't be surprised a bit at their inability to see the foolishness of
their employment. Women have been told for centuries to shut up about being mistreated, even by the clergy. Go home and make a pan of brownies, dear, and everything will be all right. Subservience is a good thing, a noble thing.
Not anymore. We're done with it.
Best regards,
Elisabeth
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