Locker room banter…

The Republican candidate for President of the United States of America and leader of the free world continued this week, in what has really just become a status quo spin around the drain of human filth and indecency. Do we call it “The Billy Bush tapes”? “The Incident on the Bus”? What is the proper tagline for the words caught on a hot microphone in the back of a bus 11 years ago?

Team Drumpf settled upon “locker room banter” as their chosen descriptor for the exchange with Bush, who said very little in the conversation, aside from giggling like an idiot and cheering the exploits of the Drumpf. I thought it somewhat harsh when Bush lost his job over the incident, until seeing the entirety of the video/audio. Drumpf continues bragging about being able to get away with whatever he wants physically with women, specifically saying that he just starts kissing them and can grab them by the pussy, without the threat of retaliation, simply because he’s famous.

They are actually talking about a woman they are driving to meet.

This is the part where Bush’s complicity in the activities becomes disgusting. He seamlessly transitions from the giggling idiot, awestruck by the big Don, to providing the perfect wingman hookup by suggesting that she hug them both as soon as they exit the bus. Drumpf kisses her on the cheek as he’s hugging her. “Don’t worry, it’s ok with Melania.” I thought Bush had gotten a pretty rough shake for being a bystander in the exchange until I heard what Drumpf had said, smoothly turned into an opportunity at physical contact with the woman under discussion, provided by Bush.

Those hugs when they got off the bus meant different things to the men than they did to the woman.

“Why don’t you hug Donald, he just got off the bus?”

I doubt the woman really cared, nor gave it a second thought.

Sure, a hug. Whatever.

But to the men it was an inside joke. It was an opportunity to finish the prior conversation by objectifying this woman just a little bit further, getting her to reward their behavior with physical contact. At Bush’s suggestion. See what we can do to you? Ha, ha. We were literally just talking about what Drumpf could do to you without reprisal, and then the door opened and you hugged us both for it.

He deserves what happened to his employment status.

Locker room banter. If you are a woman, and you believe this, your opinion of men must be horribly low. Do you view us that poorly? Do you hate half the species? Have the men in your life been that callous and prone to objectification in your experience? Do you believe this is how we talk when you’re not in the room?

Locker room banter. If you are a man, and you’ve actually talked like this — most of us think you’re fucking disgusting. Some kind of Cro-magnon, throwback, club-them-over-the-head Neanderthal pervert. Truly. There is this hard to define, hard to qualify delineation between saying that you’re attracted to a woman and going to go after her, and saying that you’re going to “move on her like a bitch” and just “grab them by the pussy” because you’re famous.

At 59 years of age.

I’ve objectified women. I have, but I think the psychology is different. I hope it is. I’m preparing to argue that it is. At the same time I’ve looked at a woman while thinking something inappropriate, it is joined with the idea, “if she’d let me”. Allow, condone, bless, permit, sanction, authorize, grant… Consent.

Damn, she is HOT. I’d like to… But I don’t have a prayer because she’d never let me.

Consent would not be given.

(Not to mention that I’m married. We’re talking psychology, and mental games, not activity here. If my betrothed hasn’t watched Magic Mike and been like, “Damn!”, then I’m worried about her and don’t take it personally if she did. Drumpf has publicly acted on his expressed thoughts.)

The psychology is different. When normal men objectify women (and women objectifying men, I’d argue), there is the concept of reciprocity. Perhaps we could objectify each other for a few hours? It lacks the brute force of doing what you want because you are devoid the fear of response; behaving however you want because the idea of negative repercussions are foreign to your mental schema. It lacks the quality of the exchange being purely one-sided.

Ironically, I hope somebody out there has objectified me as a big hunk of man, at least once in my life…

This wasn’t typical locker room banter. Normal men do not conjoin the overt sexual objectification with the clearly stated belief that it is your right and privilege to just run amok, doing whatever you can get away with. We’re dirty, but we’re not evil.

Another interesting piece of audio surfaced this week, with Drumpf talking to Howard Stern. They are discussing the Miss America Pagent, which Drumpf owns. He is bragging about his ability and proclivity for walking around the changing rooms, and seeing all of these beautiful, scantily clad women at various stages of nude, while excusing his behavior as “inspecting the pagent” he owns. In the Stern tape, he makes it very clear that he is inspecting the women, not anything else happening in their changing rooms.

How did we get here?

The previously demonstrated lack of respect for women wasn’t enough. The xenophobia wasn’t enough. The religious intolerance wasn’t enough. The neverending torrent of lies and fabrications weren’t enough. The racism wasn’t enough. The executive incopetence required to lose $1B in a year wasn’t enough (I don’t fault him the tax thing, he did lose a billion dollars). The adultery wasn’t enough. The lack of anything resembling a cogent plan for any piece of government wasn’t enough. The desire to commit war crimes wasn’t enough. The desire to burn the Constitution, save the Second Amendment, wasn’t enough. The inciting of violence wasn’t enough. The ignorance of not only foreign policy, but of international law, wasn’t enough. The ignorance of not only domestic policy, but of United States’ law, wasn’t enough. The repeated sexual objectification of your own daughter wasn’t enough. The mystery of his taxes, even as the GOP has built the mystery of Hillary’s emails as the lynchpin of their party’s platform, hasn’t been enough. The defrauding of college students via Drumpf U wasn’t enough. And on, and on, and on — not enough.

The Drumpf faithful — the loyalists, accepted all of those things. They would turn a blind eye and say “that’s ok”, over and over and over again. Yet, for some reason, his words on the bus were finally the straw that broke the camel’s back for some. He finally disgusted some who had been excusing him for over a year now.

The Incident on the Bus was nothing new. It was an extension of decades of behavior, not something out of character or some “gotcha moment”. That is who the guy is. All of the time.

Human filth.

But a growing slice of the GOP has finally had enough. Having accepted all of those other things, they’ve finally hit the wall. Damn. You’re a forgiving lover! All you have to do is claim to be a member of the team. And let’s not forget one of the initial dings against Drumpf. The core, conservative Republicans have never liked him, because he’s been a Democrat when it served him and a Republican when the same was true. He’s a Republican now because it suits him. He put on the red tie and declared himself a member. That was all that it took. All he had to do was claim to be playing for their team and he’s been forgiven every transgression under the sun.

He’s defended, even as he’s openly demonstrated that he’s not going to play well with the GOP, either. One nice thing about the guy, he isn’t going to be anyone in Washington’s lap dog. He’s too goddamned crazy for that. Besides, Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz are fighting over who gets to sit on which leg already. Drumpf doesn’t need your blessing. You don’t need to condone his behavior because he’s going to do whatever the hell he wants anyway. The concepts of reality and other humans (this man actually is an island) don’t confuse his mental calculus.

A final irony — the GOP would have to forgive Hillary about 1/1000th as many transgressions to rally behind her, yet they remain behind the Drumpf, just because of that red tie.

Enjoy losing the Supreme Court. Enjoy losing senators. Enjoy losing representatives.

Paul Ryan is enjoying losing his soul. The Speaker of the House has chosen to maintain his endorsement of Drumpf, lest he accidentally win (hell literally freezes over) while at the same time ceasing support of him in case he doesn’t. The first pussy Drumpf needs to grab is Paul Ryan. He’s already demonstrated a willingness to let him do whatever he wants. There is consent. They’d make a beautiful couple. Drumpf and Ted Cruz would make another nice pair, though Ted would have to bring along his wife, because they appear to be a package deal when allowing Drumpf to do and say whatever he pleases. A ménage a trois. That’s nice, Drumpf told Stern he’s into those, too.

Let’s find out where the bottom of the GOP really is.

Just spare America the opportunity to ride shotgun on the way down.