Partisan Groping

As if it wasn’t bad enough for Virginia and the state Democrats with two of the top three elected officials revealed to have worn “blackface” in the past, the other one of the three has been accused of sexual assault and now rape.

Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax was a rock star until a few days ago. On the day it was revealed by a right-wing website that Governor Ralph Northam had worn blackface while in medical school, Democrats were looking at Fairfax as though he was their savior. He’s young, talented, and would be the state’s second black governor after Douglas Wilder. If Fairfax took over Northam’s governorship, he’d be able to succeed himself in a state that only allows one term for governors. Democrats were tweeting and hashtagging “ImWithJustinFairfax.”

And then it all went away, thanks to the same website that exposed the blackface governor. Fairfax has been accused of sexual assault. The accusation is that he forced a woman to perform oral sex on him during the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. Fairfax claimed there was no corroboration to the story and that The Washington Post had even refused to publish it due to lack of support. Then, a second woman came forward and accused Fairfax of raping her when they both attended Duke University in 2000.

The second woman does have corroboration, and as it turns out, so does the first.

Republicans are jumping all over this, not so much as a call for justice and for what is right, but more as a partisan tool. They’re calling on Democrats to accept the women’s stories since in the past, Democrats have done the same for Republicans’ accusers (and there’s a lot of those). I had one conservative nitwit attack me last week on social media, accusing me of being a racist for not supporting Fairfax’s first accuser, ignoring the fact I wasn’t disregarding her allegations and that the alleged victim and perpetrator are both black.

Here’s the thing though; Democrats are buying these allegations. state and national Democrats are calling for Fairfax to resign. Even Fairfax has called for an investigation, which is something Brett Kavanaugh refused to do. Republicans only called for an investigation after they were pressured by just one of their colleagues, and only gave the FBI a week to work with…and even then, all but one Senate Republican voted to give a lifetime appointment to Kavanaugh, even the Senator who requested the investigation.

When multiple women accused Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore of pedophilia, he stayed on the ballot. Most Republicans continued to defend him. Donald Trump defended him with, “well he said he didn’t do it.” Roy Moore barely lost the election. Al Franken resigned from the Senate for pretending to grope a woman. PRETENDING!

The two women who have accused Fairfax are credible. They definitely should be heard and the charges should be investigated. I don’t think they’re lying. I also don’t believe that each of the 22 women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, ranging from assault, to harassment, to rape, are lying either.

If you believe two women accusing a Democrat, then wouldn’t you have to believe 22 who are accusing a Republican? How about believing the 22 after the Republican admits it?

Maybe Donald Trump’s “grab them by the pussy” and “they let you do it when you’re famous” was just locker room talk. We’re all familiar with how adolescent boys boast about their sex lives, and we all know the president of the United States is an adolescent. He’s also boasted about barging in on teenage girls undressing who were competing in his pedo beauty pageants. He likes them young. You haven’t heard him talk about his daughter’s body since she turned 37.

With Trump’s own admission and there being accusers, it’s hard to say that each of the 22 women are lying. One of them is an ex wife.

Justin Fairfax needs to resign. I believe the two women. Democrats are right in calling for his resignation. If you’re a Republican, you have no right to call for his resignation unless you’re also calling for Trump’s. You’re not doing that though, so shut up.

The #MeToo movement is not partisan. You’re not really getting it if you believe all Democratic accusers but say it’s OK when a Republican does it.

Frank

I get a lot of compliments on the blog. Some people tell me they like them better than the cartoons, which isn’t what I’m going for, but OK. While this production receives praise, a lot of credit should go to Frank.

Frank, who is based in California, has been proofing the columns for a couple of years, I think. I lose track of time. It takes a lot of work to help make me look good. Frank starts each column by receiving a notficiation in email, AFTER it’s been published. Then, he uses a couple of different programs (maybe more) to weed through it. He sends the suggestions on changes to me, some I make and others I ignore. The process takes a lot of time and Frank puts a lot of focus and professionalism into the work. If he ran an errand before the blog was published, he’d email and tell me he’d be away for a while. He’s really good at changing my “weres” into “was” and “who is” into “whose.” Frank never tried to rewrite the columns or inject his own personal bias into the changes. He never made a demand.

Frank did all of this on a volunteer basis. He started by pointing out corrections in the comments and would tell me to delete the comment after I saw it, then offered to email if he saw anything. Eventually, he offered to go through each and every blog as they were published. It all came about naturally and it wasn’t awkward at all or imposing (there was an editor in the past, where it was very imposing and kinda got stalkery). Frank was very generous to do this and a total breath of fresh air. I was very comfortable working with him.

I knew Frank wouldn’t do it forever because at some point he’d have to get tired of it, or eventually realize he has better things to do with his time than clean up after a sloppy cartoonist in Virginia. He is an older gentleman and retired. Frank decided that yesterday was as good of a time as any to call it quits, and has retired from being my copy editor. I totally understand and I can’t blame him. He has totally earned a break from this goofiness. Since Frank did this on a volunteer basis, I wanted him to leave when he made that decision. I never wanted this to be a burden for him, though at times I am sure it was.

Frank has become a friend over the past couple of years. We share jokes and recommened movies on Amazon Prime. He’s been very supportive and encouraging to what I do. On most days, I don’t even reply to his emails about changes. I just make the changes. He hasn’t received enough credit and appreciation for everything he’s given to me…and to you.

I’m very grateful and fortunate to have had Frank’s services and friendship for as long as I did. Thank you, Frank. I wish you the best of luck and happiness in all your endeavors. I hope you enjoy life. I’m sure you will be in touch. Try not to grimace too much in the future as you read the blog.

That last part was for Frank and you, dear reader.

Thank you, Frank, for catching all the goobs.

Be Complicit

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