Swalwells That Ends Well?

 I am always at least a little suspicious of sex scandals involving politicians or celebrities. You should be too. Fame is a dirty game played with sketchy people on the fringes trying to manipulate those on the pedestals of life, for fun and profit. The legitimacy of accusations should come into question. There should be investigations. There should not be lynchings, out on the range or on social media. 

Congressman Eric Swalwell is a leading democratic candidate to be the next governor of California. That's a pretty serious gig. Timing being everything in life and politics, you do have to question the timing of this woman coming forward and of those that followed her revelation with their own tales of untoward encounters with Swalwell. Why now, when he's leading a governor's race? Why didn't this happen when he was a mere congressman? That's still a pretty big target. Did someone hold onto this info for better timing or was this woman a victim who could no longer be ignored? It does happen that rape is ignored or not taken seriously by the authorities. Victims are shamed or fail to report because of shame. "What were you wearing? Why were you alone with this man? What did you want?" They can be overwhelmed if their assaulter was a famous, powerful man. It happens. It also happens that a famous, powerful man could be shaken down by an enterprising Jezebel for money. Yep. The Bible tells us that there is nothing new under the sun. That's true!

I'm not fond of Swalwell. It's just a mixture of lookism and my suspicion that he seems like another disingenuous, opportunistic politician. And he looks like Johnny V. a guy I used to run the streets with back in high school. That's not a good look. Swalwell never came off as a playboy like Trump portrayed himself as for all his life, where you could look at any accusation of sexual assault towards him as tracking. That guy admitted on tape that he grabbed women by the pussy because, when you are a star, they let you do it. His defense against a SA claim by E. Jean Carrol was that she wasn't attractive enough for him to assault. Oh. Standards. That didn't work, of course, but it's excruciatingly telling about him that he thought it should work. 

It's coming out that Swalwell may have had some affairs while married and that's not good. It's also not rape. I don't like or respect cheaters, but the victim there is only the cuckolded spouse. Whether he or she stays married to the tramp is their business. Children and the desire to keep an intact family is often at stake. Been there; made that call myself. It happens.

So, these things need to be adjudicated, preferably in court. The highest court in the land is actually the court of public opinion and is where these things generally begin and end- if they are to ever end. They never get properly 'solved' there though. On sites like Bluesky and Facebook (where the great unwashed gather to discuss- EVERYTHING) you may see people saying, "BELIEVE WOMEN!". OK. ALL of them? All the time? Yes. 

No. I'm not going to blindly believe anyone about anything. I'm certainly not going to believe an entire gender- or race, religion or etc. or etc. on everything they say or do. That's pretty fucking dumb. That can only lead to abuse and control that no one needs. Look at Maga. Question authority. If your mother says she loves you, check it out. 

The accusation alone should never be enough. Would you want it to be enough against you? We don't really know Eric Swalwell. Do we really know anybody and what they are capable of in weak moments or powerful ones? "A hard dick has no conscience" is an expression, not an axiom. You don't know unless you were there. This is why we have trials in courtrooms. Swalwell's political career may be over now. We'll see. Better men than him- Al Franken immediately comes to mind- have been brought down for a lot less. The various verdicts are already coming in though. Remains to be seen which one's stick. I'll keep my mind open for business, thank you.