From nojo at Stinque:
We have been here before, of course. We have been here many times in the past year, and the story always involves power, and the lengths to which people will go to achieve and sustain it.
And if that were the entire story, we could understand it, the corruption of the individual, the stuff of novels and movies. But the real story is never about one person; it is always about the infrastructure of power, the aiders and abettors, people whose silence can be bought, people whose fear keeps them silent, people whose own power depends on staying in line.
This is how you get rape apologists.
This is also how you get traitors.
And this we understand as well, these networks of corruption, this cancer on the body politic. The lies, the deceit, the psychopathic cynicism, all this is understandable, human nature being what it is, power being what it is. People are assholes. We get that.
We mention the past year, because this is the story of the past year, as well as a generation ago. The power is the same, what people will do in possession of unaccountable power is the same: They will try to get away with it. Always have, always will.
But what makes this unlike stories from the past year, and more like the story from a generation ago, is that people do get away with it. The evil is not vanquished.