I actually think Bill Gates probably didn’t, but I’ve never researched the matter.
Well, it’s been going on for at least five years now:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb///showthread.php?p=16529113#post16529113
You win the thread. 
Unless it’s being caught with a dead hooker in bed or a live (underage) boy or girl in bed, I don’t give a shit who a politician does The Sex with. I abhor Trump, he could and should probably be tried for sexual assault based on other incidents, but I also don’t see the long game here - everybody knows he’s a disgusting, spectacularly stupid lecher.
I don’t care that Clinton came on Monica’s dress or that JFK had a stream of consenting women running through the White House. They were good presidents and I don’t care where they inserted their dicks, so long as it’s between consenting adults.
Sane people know he’s a turd pile, his diehard supporters will support him no matter what. This isn’t a teachable moment.
The media, at least on the left, cries that this is a referendum on Trump’s character; news flash! We already know he’s a despicable character. As above, I’m reasonably sure assault charges could be pressed against Trump by other women, but I don’t know that these two women are cases of assault. They are leveraging their 15 minutes of fame, I’m sure their books are probably coming out this Friday.
And, I think, this circus damages the cases of women who Trump DID assault.
I feel bad for Melania. Perhaps they have an understanding that Trump can sex up anybody he wants and Melania gets $$$. Whatever the case, it’s still public humiliation. I predict she’s outta there the moment he vacates the throne.
Amazing how far these Republicans will go to excuse this and pass it off as normal, when the same behavior out of a Democrat would be*** THE WORST CRISIS AMERICA HAS EVER FACED!!!***
Right Aceplace57?
Or is this just a total non-scandal and you’re willing to admit your error where Bill Clinton’s blowjob was concerned, apologize for pressing for his impeachment and never bring up any future sex scandals because rich and powerful men deserve whatever pussy they can get, right?
Just like the Trump Circus, eh?
Somebody opined to the New York times that, amid the scandal of Russian election meddling, people seemed to have lost sight of the fact that Putin’s team felt that putting Trump in the oval office would be the best way to undermine the nation and, in fact, it was working beautifully.
It’s important to note, however, that the United States of America hasn’t been a Democracy, or even a Democratic Republic, since the end of the second world war. It has been steering toward plutocracy and the Citizens United decision probably sealed the deal. In other words, we have been undermining Democracy in the United States for a lot longer than you estimate.
Only twenty? Well, perhaps Glasnost and Perestroika were pretty big distractions to their observation, but it has been unraveling since 1776.
Is this a complaint or bragging? Refusal to compromise or cooperate has been a Republican party strategy for decades, through mixed Senates and Houses and under both Republican and Democratic presidents. And it has been the Republicans shutting down Washington due to budget impasses, not the Democrats. In fact one of my major complaints, as a Democrat and to the party in several letters, is that the party’s tendency for being notoriously warm, fuzzy, kind, and gentle is simultaneously the founding ideal that makes the party the better champion of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness as well as the key weakness that leads them to back down and cave in when the Republicans play hard ball, dig in their heels, and let the average citizens suffer from government shutdowns.
Such outcomes should be considered when candidates are trimming their lists of running mates. And if the potential president’s first choice for a back-up leader is so deplorable, then the party should reconsider the qualities and qualifications of that number one candidate as well.
Position duly and respectfully noted.
In contrast, I believe if it was important to impeach Bill Clinton on sexual harassment charges which he denied, then it is more important to impeach Donald Trump on sexual harassment and battery charges which he brags about. I believe if moral condemnation was heaped upon Bill Clinton for secret trysts, then the same moral condemnation should be heaped upon Donald Trump (in greater quantities) for his much-publicized blatant affairs.
I believe the current wave of social and media condemnation of Hollywood’s elite for sexual abuse should be showered, ten-fold upon the nation’s figurehead in the wake of his bragging about similar deeds. As the embodied representative of the United States, both domestically and abroad, his mere boasting of similar abuse brings shame upon the nation as a whole and each claim that is true undermines the United States’ claim of integrity more and more. Furthermore, the hypocrisy of condemning entertainment moguls for immoral and illegal actions while simultaneously snickering and dismissing the United States’ President’s mere claims of doing the same things makes this nation a laughingstock, an embarrassment among all nations – not just those in the First World core. The fact that he has clearly engaged in the abuse he brags about, the fact that he has tried to hide that abuse from the media (why try to hide what never actually happened?) destroys his credulity, stains his image as an upstanding leader and, by association, enmires the nations image as an industrialized world leader with any integrity. It serves up the United States and its leader as a giant examples of sexual and moral corruption – it says al Qaeda was right and fully justified for attacking this land and its population of ungodly deviants.
If for no other reason, Donald Trump should be impeached and convicted so the rest of our nation’s representatives can say, “We may not agree with al Qaeda’s extreme views or methods, but even we will not stand for our number one figurehead and world representative to be so much of a degenerate scumbag. We reject him and remove him from office in order to distance ourselves from his corruption and sin.”
Mine too!
I’ve been keeping it pent up for about six months now.
Firearms manufacturers?
Sorry, wrong thread. :smack:
On the other hand, this is, after all, the land that worships unrestrained Capitalism, considers Atlas Shrugged to be some kind of a scriptural document, and thinks of Ayn Rand as the prophet of profit. And which party is unerringly against regulation of capitalist activities?
–G!
Clinton was in office. Trump’s affair was several years before he entered politics.
Everything changes if Trump is currently seeing somebody. Seems unlikely because the press are watching him so closely. But anything is possible in Trump’s circus.
Is there some part of the presidential oath that I don’t know of? What the fuck difference does it make if a president is unfaithful to his wife while he’s in office or not?
For a lot of us, it is more his voters. We’ve had to listen to evangelicals pretend they were morally superior to the rest of us, and then they go out and support Trump and Roy Moore. It is infuriating if they ever pretend to care about morality again. The wool has been pulled from everyone’s eyes and now everyone can see all they care about is power and white nationalism.
Also in some of these situations Trump may have broken laws. Campaign finance laws, etc. Using campaign funds to pay off your mistress is a felony.
Plus not all of Trump’s interactions were consensual. We’ve barely scratched the surface of Trump’s alleged sex crimes, and whether any of his NDAs were illegal.
Also there is the issue of blackmail. There is speculation one of the tools that Putin is using to control Trump is a sex tape.
It’s the public reaction to any public official’s private life that can be a concern.
The public outcry can make it impossible for them to serve in office. It nearly cost Clinton his job.
I’m a bit ambivalent. What someone does in private is their business. Roosevelt and JFK’s secrets were not reported. I’ve heard LBJ had a mistress. Eisenhower and Kay Summersby allegedly had an affair while he was the Allied Commander.
We live in a different world. The press has no respect for anyone’s privacy. I don’t see that ever changing.
Does their private life open them to blackmail? Does it involve them committing felonies? Was someone involved not a consenting adult? If so, it becomes a public concern.
Clinton faced outcry due to republican hatred of democrats, if it hadn’t been his sex life it would’ve been something else.
George HW Bush supposedly cheated on his wife too. Was she a consenting adult? Did he commit felonies during the affair? Was he open to blackmail because of it? If no, then I agree it isn’t really a public issue. But none of these is the case for Trump.
When you apply for an important government job (other than politician for some reason) they do a thorough background check and the look for these things. If they think you have committed serious crimes or are open to blackmail, you probably won’t get a security clearance.