Just when you think things can't get any worse

It's Thursday and our weather here in central Kentucky is still of two minds, apparently.  But we all know that the groundhog is never wrong, so best to brace for more cold.

It seems that hardly a day goes by that we don't learn something about a White House or Trump Administration employee at some level that makes us shake our heads.

Not much question that the overarching news of the last few days is that of the sudden revelation that the White House staff secretary has a history of abusing women, that this history was known to White House staff, that this individual rose through the ranks of White House staff to his current (and soon-to-be former) position as high-ranking members of the administration knew of this history, that prevented this individual from obtaining an appropriate security clearance to do his job (the staff secretary apparently is the person through whom all official paper makes its way to the Oval Office for the review or signature or approval of the President), and that the White House Chief of Staff fought to keep this person in his job, despite all of this information that became public in the past 36 hours.

It also was revealed that this staff secretary was known to be currently dating the White House Communications Director, a close ally and favorite of the President, complicating this situation even further.

It's well documented that the President was accused of sexual misdeeds by a number of women during his campaign for his current office, accusations which have been uniformly and repeatedly denied.  An adult film star was recently reported to have had an affair with the President some years ago, shortly after the birth of his youngest child, an accusation that was also denied in the same terms.  The very possibility of the President having had questionable contact with members of the opposite sex other than his wife is something that I don't think our society has ever contemplated, at least not while that person was in office.

Yet here we are.

So I suppose it follows that those in authority in the White House would view the accusations against the outgoing staff secretary a bit differently than past administrations might have.  And it's doubly disappointing in the wake of all of the reports of sexual misconduct by famous men in politics and business and show business, with the #metoo and #timesup movements fully in motion.

I should note here that I have a great many women whom I count as friends, and I am certainly the better for it.  I know from  conversations with a few of them that they have been the victims of abuse at the hands of a man close to them, and that such abuse, whether physical or emotional or both, changes a person forever.  Knowing each of them, I am always stunned to learn that they were ever abused and, even more, impressed that they have in most every case overcome these situations and not allowed them to govern their lives.

I suppose that this salacious story will be pushed downward in our newsfeeds soon enough, as yet another scandal or misstep or controversy will take its place at the top of the headlines.  That appears to be normal in our current situation.





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