How do people in the course of their work
day, their employment contract and responsibilities have time for this stuff? Even more, where are the rules, the standards, the ethics? And who or what
is enforcing (or failing to enforce) those standards?
Notorious Examples of a Couple of Decades
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ation’s Capital U.S. Presidency 1995,
1997, 1998
Forty-second U.S. President William “Bill” Jefferson “Blythe” Clinton
The Hon. Clinton involved in sexual relationship with a “22-year-old White House intern” and caught in a televised 1998 speech lying about his actions. Recorded for the history of his presidency, he said, “[I] ‘did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.’”Commander in chief note (conduct unbecoming): “Adultery in the military is prosecuted under Article 134, which is also known as the ‘General Article.’ Article 134 prohibits conduct which is of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, or conduct which is prejudicial to good order and discipline.” https://www.thebalancecareers.com/adultery-in-the-military-3354158
“Some believe” the 42nd “began a personal relationship with (Lewinsky)
while she worked at the White House.” Details were “later confided to … her
Defense Department coworker, Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded their telephone
conversations.”
Further: Four women publicly accused the 42nd of “sexual misconduct:
- Juanita Broaddrick accused Clinton of raping her in 1978 (her allegations became public toward the end of Clinton’s second term, 1999)
- Leslie Millwee accused Clinton of sexually assaulting her in 1980 (her accusations withheld until 2016)
- Paula Jones accused Clinton of exposing himself to her and sexually harassing her in 1991 (her allegations became public during Clinton’s first term, 1994)
- Kathleen Willey accused Clinton of groping her without her consent in 1993 (her allegations became public toward the end of Clinton’s second term, 1999).
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ew York State Governorship 2008
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer
Federal government arrests “four people in connection with an international online prostitution ring run by Emperors Club VIP,” an enterprise whose prostitutes serviced the New York governor.
The Hon. Spitzer (identified as ‘Client 9’) “had been ‘caught on a federal wiretap arranging a meeting with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington, D.C., hotel.’” (New York Times March 10, 2008).
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igh-placed Frenchman slumming in
New York 2011
Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn
At the time of his crime – committing sexual assault and attempted rape against a woman employed as a housekeeper (maid) at the Sofitel New York Hotel— this predator was “head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and considered to be a leading candidate for the 2012 French Presidency.”
Dominique Strauss-Kahn on May 19, 2011, “was indicted by a grand jury” for his crime; and though he had entered a not-guilty plea, he later said in a television interview “that his liaison with (the maid) was a moral fault and … ‘inappropriate.’”
The criminal case, “the People of the State of New York v. Strauss-Kahn,” was settled out of court “for an undisclosed amount” later reported as “$1.5 million.”
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ation’s Capital: United States House
of Representatives 2011
Seven-term Congressman (New York) Anthony Weiner
The Hon. Weiner was “involved in multiple sex scandals related to sexting or online exhibitionism.
The Congressman “used social media website Twitter to send to a 21-year-old woman” a link containing “a sexually suggestive picture of himself.”
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.S. Presidency 2018, New Yorker’s
road to White House 2006, 2016
Forty-Fifth U.S. President Donald John Trump
- Hush Money: In the “Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal,” the Wall Street Journal reveals payment of “$130,000 for signing a nondisclosure agreement” concerning a 2006 affair.
- “The scandal first broke with the Wall Street Journal revelations shortly before the 2016 United States presidential election. “Stephanie Clifford known professionally as Stormy Daniels is an American pornographic actress, stripper, and director.”
Forty-fifth’s abuse of office
From his official declaration of candidacy for the U.S. presidency through halfway through his occupancy in the Oval Office, the Hon. Donald Trump has “tweeted” often, “controversial or false statements,” more than “17,000 times.” His outbursts also often lodged as insults (including disparaging nicknames) to people, places and things within the United States and throughout the world. A New York Times report in 2016 showed that one in eight of Trump’s Twitter posts contained “a personal insult of some kind.”
Though his social media presentations are within the context of occupancy in the Executive Office and the “Presidential Records Act” requires preservation of presidential content with the National Archives and Records Administration, this Forty-fifth is in violation of the act having often deleted his comments.
This flagrant abuse of office has caused the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the National Security Archive to file a lawsuit against the president for “destruction of presidential records in violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1981.”
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olice Shadow Threat online 2019
- University campus Police 2019
Campus police officers on Facebook have been discovered presenting “‘misogynistic, racist and other offensive remarks.” Officers and supervisors were reported “engaged in a ‘Meme War,’ the construct, “‘Meme Wars,’ …described as a jovial release of photographs and captions designed to levy insults at others in the group as well as persons outside the group.” Hampton University is said to employ “25 officers.” Nine were fired.
Within the same time frame—
- The Philadelphia Police Department reports suspension of “13 officers with intent to fire them following an investigation into offensive and sometimes threatening Facebook posts.
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports “62 current and eight former Border Patrol employees … under internal investigation (after exposure) of a secret Facebook group that mocked lawmakers and migrants.”
Engaged in slander
United States Government employees undisciplined with time on their
hands
- US Border Patrol’s Facebook “Family” “I’m 10-15” 2016 – 9,500 members
- A ProPublica report discovered agents frequently posting “commentary or sharing memes illustrating a community-wide hatred for undocumented immigrants, liberals, and Democrats. … Others cheered or shared mocking GIFs in response to posts about migrant children dying in Border Patrol custody.”
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.S. Colony Governorship 2019
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló
Conducting “public business” and other stuff in an online “chat,” Puerto Rico’s governor Ricardo Rosselló was a member of an online “Telegram messaging service” group chat in which he slandered others
A transcript of the chats showed “Rosselló (and other government officials) … conspiring to operate an internet troll network to discredit the press, journalists and opposition politicians” (news sources).
- using “vulgar and homophobic comments,”
- attacking “… other politicians such as former Speaker of the New York City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito (calling her “a ‘puta’, Spanish for whore),”
- “joking about shooting San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz; attacking “local journalists and celebrities.”
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hy this prevalent condition (on and off social media)? Why this seemingly
ingrained condition of ugliness, of disrespectfulness, of deliberate injury to
so many in so many sectors — including the cultural and moral fabric and law-abiding
structures of society itself?
Perhaps because the people are indifferent We who constitute a truly influential body, the
masses of us—look the other way. As we let priests and politicians get away
with child abuse and murder — without even questioning — we place our faith in
charlatans and creeps.
- We laugh at or are silent to what should be called out.
- We civilize the uncivil and normalize what is truly sick and sickening.
- We accept the unacceptable.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton_sexual_misconduct_allegations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton%E2%80%93Lewinsky_scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Spitzer_prostitution_scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_v._Strauss-Kahn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Weiner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Weiner_sexting_scandals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormy_Daniels%E2%80%93Donald_Trump_scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Political_sex_scandals_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormy_Daniels
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_on_social_media
ProPublica “Secret US Border Patrol hate group exposed on Facebook” by
Tristan Greene July 1, 2019 https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes
https://thenextweb.com/facebook/2019/07/01/secret-us-border-patrol-hate-group-exposed-on-facebook/
Ricardo Rosselló https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Rossell%C3%B3
USA Today “9 campus officers fired for sexist, racist posts,
historically black university says” Elinor Aspegren July 26, 2019 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/26/hampton-university-virginia-firing-police-officers-offensive-social-media/1835941001/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/20/72-philadelphia-cops-off-streets-over-alleged-racist-posts/1506837001/
Star Tribune “Group reveals offensive Facebook posts by cops and dozens
are being fired nationally” Ben Finley Associated Press July 26, 2019 http://www.startribune.com/university-fires-9-officers-over-social-media-posts/513242872
https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes
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