He got lucky when President Obama nominated him as his vice-president.

But it doesn’t sound like she doesn’t believe Jackson’s a child molester, it sounds like she thinks Jackson should get a pass because they got to be in his presence and Jackson as much a victim as them because... the parents?

She’s talking about it like it’s just some weird fetish. I just wish the interviewer would…

Same reason that free college scares them. No one complains about the “free” education we get through HS, because a HS diploma really doesn’t get you very far these days. But add on those extra 4 years, which might allow the poors to have a chance, and everyone goes nuts because that financial advantage might be taken…

when rich people hear that we want everyone to get equal access to healthcare, they naturally assume that means they’ll have to suffer the way we do, because they know that their extreme wealth depends fundamentally on our poverty

Addiction is a numbing device, an antiseptic for trauma, and it’s a slippery road from there into desensitization from your better self. Shows a lot of humility to open up about it, wish her the best.

I am confused though, didn’t we all know this was already going on? I always assumed if a kid was a “legacy” that meant $$ was being pumped to get them in. Doesn’t this make college donations the same thing, but without a slimy middle man?

Yeah I was thinking this as I read the article. Like - what is the author’s voice here? The title suggested ‘La Toya was right all along and maybe we should have listened and isn’t that a little bit sad’, but the content of the article is much bitchier, snipier and cutting, still basically alluding that La Toya still…

I remember her first book and the massive press she did for it very well. I do not remember the 900 telephone number thing at all though. Of course back then there were lots of 900 numbers. I remember thinking at the time that she was probably mentally ill but also telling the truth. In fact I figured that it was the…

Yup, I kind of agree. The cult of the ideal family is so strong in society that even when it patently doesn't exist in your world (by virtue of abuse) you still have to force it. No matter what your parents do, it seems to be your job to kind of ‘make it go away’ by forgiving them and ‘moving past it’. It is similar…

I don’t get the whole “forgiveness” thing in this situation. Why is it a societal expectation or even a question that people should be forgiven for perpetrating horrific crimes?? Like, I get if you had absent parents who had to work a million hours a day to keep you fed and clothed but sexual abuse? I can’t imagine…

All I can think whenever I hear that is how Macaulay had that really rough patch where he looked like he was on the edge of deaths door and presumably on drugs.  These child stars don’t turn out that way in a vacuum.  

I’ve forgiven my dad (who died in 2007) for being a kind of crappy father, but I can’t imagine forgiving sexual abuse. That’s not meant as a judgment of O’Donnell - do what you need to do and I obviously don’t know what that sort of betrayal is like, so I’m not going to judge. I guess in my mind it just totally rips…

Rich, thanks so much for this look back at LaToya. She was always the “weirdest” Jackson, not as polished as the others, whose megawatt talents blinded us to their personal demons. No one wanted to go snooping around behind the curtain when the show was so dazzling.

I remember how La Toya was the crazy one in the media at the time. Then it became a big joke that Michael was a pedophile. Nobody took her seriously, though. Now you look back and it seems pretty obvious the whole family was messed up. I remember being a teenager or pre-teenager and trying to explain to my mom…

Horrific abuse is really the only thing that can explain the state of everyone in that family.

The public labeling someone speaking about abuse and airing family secrets as “exploiting a personal matter” is why so many people stay quiet about abuse, rape and incest. Who wants to open themselves up to criticism and questions about one of the most painful periods of their life, especially when they feel they…

I imagine there was no cash incentive - just being that iced out by your family - no matter how toxic had to hurt.

It’s hard to believe but for a time, the biggest scandal that rocked the family was her 1989 Playboy spread

I remember this entire thing. Everyone thought she was just Jackson’s crazy sister, trying to piggyback his fame...talking like him, looking like him, ect. The talk shows and tabloids (which if you weren’t around then, it was the be-all-end-all of pop culture and celebrity news) had a field day talking about her, and…

Yes - she was right. Her brother was a pedophile. I can only imagine what kind of cash incentive she must have been given to make her try and take back the claims in later years.