Friday, December 01, 2017

Why Now?

Harvey Weinstein, Roy Moore, Matt Lauer, Al Franken, Charlie Rose and lots more. Most of these accusations are old: 1990's for Weinstein and 40 years old in the case of Moore and they were largely known, at least to insiders. So why is this all coming out now?

Here are three theories, which are not mutually exclusive:

1. A chaotic and unstable system will eventually fall. There was plenty of harassment happening and at the same time, there was universal acceptance of the norms against this kind of behavior. Ronan Farrow's dogged pursuit of the Weinstein story was the grain of sand which started an avalanche.

2. Hillary lost. Now that the Clintons are done as a political force in America, it is finally safe to attack this social ill. It would not do to make a big issue of this while the first He and his primary enabler were living in the White House.

3. I will call this the paranoia theory: Roy Moore was in trouble, so Trump has used the intelligence powers at his disposal as President, to leak damaging information on a bunch of Democrats. Now the only way they can kill off Moore, is by throwing a bunch of their own under the bus.

Added: Why was there such rampant harassment going on in the first place? Laziness. That's my theory. I don't know the percentages, but plenty of women make themselves very accessible to rich and powerful men. These men get used to a veritable all you can eat buffet and start to act like whatever they want is free for the taking. The one thing they would not take is NO!

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Rider Pick-Up Follies

A couple of weeks ago, I was leaving work and there was a black SUV in front of the building, with a driver in front of it holding a sign that said Batra. Somehow, I thought this was hilarious. It is like if Air Force 1 landed and the Secret Service limo driver was holding up a sign that said Trump. Batra, in case you do not know, is the CEO. So the driver is the only person around who does not know what he looks like.

Then yesterday, a group of three young people were leaving the building with suitcases. Right outside was a silver Rav4. A young lady in the group took out her phone and said, "we are looking for a silver Toyota Rav4". They looked at the car confusedly and finally realized that this was their ride.