Hard to believe it but yes, the photo above is of me, in drag as I'm getting ready to head out to a Halloween costume party at my boss's house.
The date, well, Halloween, of course, so October 31st. The year was 1998.
And for those of you around that year, you may recall a huge news item that took up countless hours of on-air time and pages upon pages of newsprint (as newspapers still had some pertinence in them days) was the whole Monica Lewinsky / Bill Clinton sex scandal.
That's who I'm trying to be. I bought some cheap women's clothing from Walmart which had to include the blue dress I'm in since it had made the headlines. I don't remember where I got the wig and the string of pearls but they were just costume quality so no big cost. The whole get up only cost me about $40, hose, bra and high heel shoes included. My roommate Claudia let me borrow her make-up and I did my face myself. Oh, I did find a small tube of sparkle white acrylic paint which I used a dollop of to smudge onto my right upper chest -- it's the faux spurt of Presidential Jizz.
Kiddies too young to remember may think this whole Epstein Files debacle right now is stunningly new and unheard of. Not so much, really. I mean, there are some amazing similarities of shit these days to that bruhaha of almost thirty years ago.
1. Like now, the president denied any wrongdoing from the get go and blamed any suspicious relationships with target subjects as just coincidental or merely casual.
2. Like now, the press, pressured by both past clear and present documented evidence of a pattern of behavior and accusations, as well as a mounting cry from the public for more information and clarity, dug deeper and deeper, practically haranguing the president into discussing the matter at hand at every news conference and press brief.
3. Like now, the president tried ardently to avoid discussion of the topic and deflected the subject as much as possible attempting to change the narrative or outright ignore it away.
4. Like now, it just wouldn't go away, and, as more evidence came to fore, the president needed to take more drastic measures to get a handle on things.
Here's where, at this time, the stories start to diverge:
Back then, the president's measures to address the situation included swearing both before a grand jury deposition and on national television to the American people directly, that he "did not have sexual relations with that woman -- Miss Lewinsky." Of course, famously, it would be proven that indeed he lied and they had been conducting quite the torrid affair including lurid sex acts a number of times -- albeit, according to both testimonies, not including genital to genital penetrative coitus which, according to Bill Clinton, formed his alleged explanation for his denial in that he, apparently at the time, considered anything but not to be defined as "sexual relations."
And, of course, the other big thing is, the former scandal was a scandal in so far as it was wrong or illegal (since it involved two consenting adults) only in so far as:
It was technically adultery since the president was a married man.
It was quid pro quo -- Lewinski received gifts, promotions and favors as a White House staffer as a result of their affair.
The president lied to the grand jury and to, well, everyone else.
This shit though:
Facts in the form of hard evidence regarding crimes against children up to and including coercion via "grooming," trafficking, sex abuse, rape and likely assault and battery, neglect, and imprisonment -- are undeniably being not only ignored and/or denied they exist, but out right covered up (and likely destroyed).
This is much, much worse.
And no-one's going to be dressing up in any costume depicting any of this in three month's time.
Unless we get the cold hard facts by then and finally, yes finally -- maybe this can be the new Halloween costume they'll all be sportin' this year?
