Depends on the president
Women who read The Atlantic must be a little confused about all that #MeToo stuff.
The left-wing magazine, in an article published last week titled "The First Porn President," describes former President John F. Kennedy, a known womanizer, as "the king of cool, the ironist-in-chief." The 35th president is painted as an "urbane, sophisticated" man who was "able to handle a wide variety of amorous," high-profile women, according to writer Caitlin Flanagan. She recounts, for instance, the president's 1962 birthday party at Madison Square Garden, where actress Marilyn Monroe cooed "Happy birthday, Mr. President."
Then there's the "frat-boy president," Bill Clinton, she writes. "He could cheerfully reach into an enthusiastic intern's pants, and then without washing his hands, pick up the phone and conduct the nation's business. He was careless, self-confident, a winner." Yet, the writer says, he "was humbled and embarrassed" by his mistreatment of women.
Actually, we don't remember him talking much about his mistreatment of women.
However, she writes the current occupant of the White House is a boor, is unattractive and apparently considers any previous alleged liaisons with women only transactional in nature. It's only about money with him, she concludes.
Women, Flanagan seems to be saying, can allow themselves to be used and abandoned, but they just need to be sure those who perpetrate them are high class or are just a little sorry about what they've done. Or maybe it's that the first two are Democrats and the third a Republican.
Nevertheless, we don't believe this is what most 2018 women have in mind.
New excuse: I'm not a socialist
Hillary Clinton trotted out a new excuse for her 2016 presidential loss last week. Admitting she is a capitalist when many of her constituents are socialists may have cost her, she said in a conversation with Alan Murray, the chief content officer at Time Inc.
"It's hard to know," she said, "but I mean if you're in the Iowa caucuses and 41 percent of Democrats are socialists or self-described socialists, and I'm asked, 'Are you a capitalist?' and I say, 'Yes, but with appropriate regulation and appropriate accountability.' You know, that probably gets lost in the 'Oh my gosh, she's a capitalist!'"
Clinton actually may be on to something if she has perceived a large majority of Democrats are no longer capitalists but socialists. Despite the 2016 Democratic primary appeal of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a Democrat running in a national campaign as a full-fledged socialist is not about to get anywhere. This isn't Western Europe - yet.
However, as the Democratic Party slides farther and farther left, it may be difficult for the party to convince people it has any capitalistic thoughts and that it has not become a textbook socialist group that advocates the means of production, distribution and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
Your taxes? I'll decide
A year ago, Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown said his state was in dire need of a 12-cent increase in its gas tax and higher vehicle registration fees. He needed $52 billion to repair roads and bridges over a decade, he said.
It was time "to belly up to the bar and start spending money," he said.
The legislature gave him what he wanted, and his administration has started spending, but it pulled the ol' bait and switch.
A few roads may get some repairs, but $2.4 billion is going to dozens of non-road transit projects such as $80 million for one particular effort to increase rail ridership in the northern part of the state and millions of dollars for zero emission buses.
Golden State voters are not amused and have sent in nearly a million signatures to the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters office to repeal the gas tax and increased vehicle fees on the November ballot.
Gov. Brown? He plans to fight the repeal effort.
Bias battle
After Starbucks came under fire recently when one of its managers called the police on two black customers who refused to leave the store, the company said it would mandate its employees undergo "implicit bias" training. It chose the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish organization, to head the training.
Black Lives Matter activist Tamika Mallory and others, though, claim the organization isn't qualified because it supports Israel, which some in the organization say is guilty of genocide in its relationship with Palestinians, and has a history of "attacking black people."
The activist may not have done her homework. As a Jewish organization, the ADL does support the Jewish state of Israel. And rather than attacking black people, it has been supportive of the black organization's platform on police shootings and education equality, and maintains a good relationship with the NAACP.
On the other hand, Mallory recently attended a speech by racist and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.
"[Martin Luther] King's message was about building bridges, bringing people together, and joining forces to fight hate and oppression," Kenneth Jacobson, deputy national director for the ADL, wrote recently. "Comparing American racism and Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, by contrast, seems driven by individuals more invested in undermining the Jewish state than in furthering race relations in America or working toward a solution to the conflict the Middle East."