Carl Paladino is Gross

My opinion that Carl Paladino of NY is not a well person isn't really related to his aberrant behavior fairly recently as a Trump campaign persona.  Oh heck no, I was following his very weird self back in 2010 when he was running for NY Governor as the GOP candidate.  He was quite obviously loathsome six years ago, so I don't find his current outburst all that astonishing.

Of course he still thinks using racist or sexist invective amusing and doesn't care who hears him use it. He didn't win as NY Governor in 2010, but he was a trusted campaign official in Trump's rise, right? That is a kind of validation, isn't it?

But his recent comments are really quite something else:

Mr. Paladino’s comments were published in Artvoice, a weekly Buffalo newspaper. They came in response to an open-ended feature in which local figures were asked about their hopes for 2017.

“Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford,” said Mr. Paladino, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2010, making an apparent reference to the Hereford cattle breed. He said he hoped the disease killed the president.

Asked what he most wanted to see “go away” in the new year, Mr. Paladino — who has a reputation in New York political and business circles for speaking in an unfiltered manner reminiscent of Mr. Trump’s — answered, “Michelle Obama.”

“I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla,” he said.

That is appalling and distinctively bigoted. I understand not all Trump followers might recognize it as being quite the disgusting hate speech it is.  But it is flagrantly bigoted. It isn't really my business to suggest the Trump near and dear remove him from their circle--oh hell no! But I think they should explain why he was in their inner circle for a wee while. This guy. This obvious and assholish actual guy. Whose opinions would not have ever been unknown to them.

Senator Sessions Is Not Sure

I've pointed out the misogyny of the Trump campaign with respects to Secretary Clinton before, but I think it's helpful to note that there is a strain of misogyny in general (I mean, take Mike Pence, please!) that reveals itself in subtle and not so subtle ways. But this isn't peculiar to the Trump campaign at all--look, things like trying to redefine rape to only refer to forcible rape, or rejecting any kind of enforceable equal pay bill, have been mainstream Republican thought for awhile.

It's just that, as with the Trump Effect in terms of bullying, Islamophobia and racism, it's likely that the way Trump off-handedly talks about grabbing women "by the pussy" will be simply assumed to be ordinary. Take that nice family man in the picture above with his very special "She's a cunt, Vote Trump" shirt. He's wearing that and I'm sure he doesn't care who sees it. People have brought their children to this rally, and he thinks it is fine and dandy for the word "cunt" to be splashed out before the eyes of young people. This is another word for "pussy". These are somewhat vulgar slang terms for female genitalia. He is there to support a candidate for president who has suggested that it is ok, if one is rich and famous, to grab women by just this body part. Just reach out and touch someone. Maybe because you are moving in on them "like a bitch". And want to fuck them, even though they are married people?

Is that what he's raising his kids to think? That it's ok for his sons to be "pussy-grabbers", use the word "cunt" out loud in public, and be carefree fucking about? That it's ok for his daughters to have their pussies grabbed (probably by their employers, and if they don't like it, they can change jobs) and possibly be called "cunts"? (You'd hope not. But that isn't what he's wearing on his shirt, is it?)

But why should I rag on this anonymous John Q. Citizen and his profound lack of taste, when I can talk about the honorable gentleman from Alabama, Senator Jeff Sessions? Who simply does not know if he would characterize grabbing someone in the pussy as being a sexual assault. Why, whatever do the laws on the book say? Oh me, oh my, how do we ever sort out whether grabbing a person by the crotch without their consent is wrong?

Am I supposed to entertain the notion that, were an individual to aim their mitts at the crotch of any of the persons of female identity within Senator Sessions' household, he would not actually know whether he was honor bound to sock the blighter in his miscreant face? It seems to me that if put to the real-world test, he would consider it cowardly if he didn't throw down on a molester--but maybe he's confused about whether women are just public sex toys that sometimes do housework and answer the phone. I certainly hope he doesn't think the latter, and as culturally one is taught to respect women, he would assist any human being who was getting rough and unwanted handling--because that's just the decent thing to do! But when confronted with the choice in the hypothetical "Does this answer hurt my candidate?" sense--really? Suddenly because vocally molestation-positive Trump is at the top of the ticket, Sessions doesn't know whether crotch-grabs are ok?

This is Trump's "leadership" in action. His example is "go low".  And he takes people down with him.

EDIT: No, really. This is an open question for conservatives now. Is it ok to grope people? Who knows?

Here's a Deplorable!

This lovable old codger just wants you to know that the world would be a better place if Hillary Clinton actually was married to a spousal abuser with homicidal tendencies as in--he thinks it's great when uppity women are killed by their partners because: bitches.

Bask in the knowledge that in the Trump milieu  this is probably not that uncommon a sentiment, going right along with the "Lock her up" and "Firing squad" comments. These are the simple sons of the night soil who think that Clinton "did" Benghazi, as in, pulled on her camouflage pantsuit and sensible combat ballet flats, and went to town on a US embassy which housed a friend of hers.  These are the people who think she probably invited other women to do stuff to her husband, because she was too busy assassinating business associates to get around to being wifely.

Yeah. That's actually deplorable. That's actually sickening. It's ignorant-on-purpose. These are the people I want to deliver the world's biggest "Shush, mature folks are speaking" to. This old-ass man who thinks domestic violence that leads to murder is fun, fun, funny? Is anything but funny to me. This is the story of women in unhappy homes too much of the time, and no one should wish it on anyone.  This is the story of women dying because they are deemed disposable when they cease to please.

This is a white man exulting over the concept of a black man killing a liberal woman because he ascribes to some deeply wrong ideas about how social justice works, how race and gender disparities should be pitted against each other, how women need to shut up because worse can happen to us.

This is probably a guy who thinks being "deplorable" is funny, too. If only he knew how true it was! He's ridiculous, and deplorable. And too old, most likely, to fix any of it. A pity. Does his wife know he thinks spousal abuse and killing women is funny? Ach! Maybe she hates Hillary too! And it's just fine, if it's just Hilz.

I can't wish worse on anyone than being this. This is the worst. This man is maybe someone's grampy, and he is the worst.