New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo sexually harassed current and former state employees, creating a hostile work environment for women in violation of state and federal law, state Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday.
James released the results of a months-long investigation that included interviews with 179 individuals, including women who accused the governor of misconduct, Cuomo himself and a coterie of his top advisers.
“This investigation has revealed conduct that corrodes the very fabric and character of our state government,” she said at a news conference.
And good luck with this:
Even before it was released, Cuomo and his team tried to undermine the report, claiming that James has been using the probe to burnish her standing for a possible gubernatorial run. They also have accused the attorney general’s office of disclosing information to the news media, without providing evidence of such leaks.
This fucker needs to quit, but he won’t, and there’s a good chance he’ll run again. That said, impeachment proceedings are underway, and there are plenty of knives out for him, so there’s always hope.
Nicole
I can’t believe I didn’t vote for her in the primary because I thought she was too close with Cuomo. Mea culpa, AG James. Keep doing the good work.
Baud
Who would be governor if he did resign?
Nicole
@Baud: Kathy Hochul.
(And MM is correct, below; I think she’d do a fine job, too. And be the first woman governor of NY).
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Baud: Kathy Hochul, Lt Governor. Former US rep from the Buffalo area. She’d be a fine governor.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: Huh, I thought she had a decidedly mixed (as far as progressives are concerned) history . Glad to be wrong.
Still surprised Cuomo survived the gross video from that wedding that pretty much confirmed, at least in my mind, what his accusers were saying. (edited)
JMG
Cuomo will never resign. He’s as bad a megalomaniac as Trump, just way smarter and more or less a Democrat.
Mike in NC
The various books about the downfall of the Orange Clown all mention that he was convinced that Biden would be brushed aside, to be replaced by a ticket made up of Andrew Cuomo and Michelle Obama. Dick Morris was one of the imbeciles who encouraged him to believe this.
TheTruffle
NYS resident here. I have never liked Cuomo. Ever.
I was afraid he would run for president in 2020. Thankfully, that did not happen.
I voted for AG James and I’ve been so happy with her.
Cuomo needs to step down.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She ran (and won) in the special election for the very red House seat that was vacated after the guy holding the seat resigned after being caught in extra-marital affairs. The seat was later held by Chris Collins, who beat her in the general (remember him? convicted for insider trading, Trump pardoned him.)
That district is right next to mine. I watched the campaign and she ran a good one. She didn’t find the need to run away from being a Democrat or from Democratic policies.
That said, it’s very unlikely that she’d be re-elected since she’s from Buffalo and downstate Dems usually pick the statewide office holders.
JPL
@TheTruffle: Can she please go after trump now?
germy
Boss’s son syndrome.
Andrew spent his entire life saying whatever he wanted to anyone. No pushback because people were terrified of displeasing the boss.
Andrew had his enablers like Melissa DeRosa who intimated employees on his behalf.
I’m relieved he most likely won’t be president. I always suspected that was his ambition.
Nicole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hotchul’s not hugely progressive; she’s definitely a more middle-of-the-road Dem, but she’s competent and NYS isn’t really a blue state; it’s more a red state with a very, very blue metropolis. She’ll do fine. If she gets the opportunity. I’m a screaming liberal but I have made my peace over time with moderate Democrats in office. As long as they’re competent they generally will be just fine.
Betty Cracker
Woweee! This will be an awkward for Chris Cuomo on CNN tonight!
Nicole
@Betty Cracker:
Man. Now I regret cutting the cable cord.
rikyrah
I said wait for the investigation by AG James.
Dude gotta go ?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That’s how the system is supposed to work “ambition meets ambition” and all that crap. Maybe don’t give your’ rivals weapons to use against you by indulge in crap that’s been a firing offense since the fucking ’90s, Cuomo?
JPL
@Nicole: This is a link to Cnn
frosty
News flash: almost all the blue states are like this.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
I’m listening to the press conference and the report has detailed allegations from 11 women, including a state trooper. The accusation includes unwanted groping of breasts and butt, from woman who was terrified of speaking out and only did so after Cuomo claimed he never touched a woman inappropriately. He also groped a female trooper on his protective detail.
I don’t see how an impeachment doesn’t move forward after this.
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker: I don’t follow CNN very closely, but didn’t Chris already announce that he wouldn’t be covering this story due to the huge, inescapable, visible-from-space conflict of interests?
Nicole
@frosty: #truth
LongHairedWeirdo
Sucks to be Cuomo, but when you hear numbers like 179 interviews – I mean, even if each woman told five others on average, that’s 30 incidents – it sure seems it wouldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Talk about making Republican heads explode – do they want to defend sexual harassers, and insist that what guys do to get their jollies should vanish without consequences the instant the behavior has stopped since the last time? Or do they want to bash a Democrat who tried to do some of the right things during the pandemic?
JPL
Someone needs to have a talk with Andrew, and explain to him that he should resign.
JPL
@CaseyL: He’s been counseling his brother, so maybe a leave of absense while someone else covers it in his time slot.
Tazj
I hope Cuomo resigns very soon but we’ll see. I really like Hochul and she’s from my neck of the woods(Hamburg) but I have my doubts about her winning a state wide race also. I’d be happy with any competent Democrat winning the governor’s race in the end.
Betty Cracker
@CaseyL: He did. It was a feeble attempt at a joke.
RaflW
So what do we do to increase resignation pressure? Cuomo brazening it out would be a terrible fking gift to Trumpublicans, and turnoff a lot of voters.
The Democratic Party has to stand for things that have meaning. Resigning shows he — and the money people in Dem politics — get this.
LongHairedWeirdo
@Betty Cracker: Awkward feeling, of course, but any editor with any sense would keep him far from the story.
Family shouldn’t have to say (or, really, even hear) words like “disgusting scum” nor should family be suspected of soft-pedaling because they can’t make themselves say words like “disgusting scum”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I don’t watch a lot of CNN but they got too cute by half, or a whole, with that whole “Ay! when ayoo gonna call Ma!” shit
and I lost track of how many times they tried to launch anti-Rachel Maddow shows with the premise “We’re the sensible center, not like ol’ whackadoo Rachel!” Catherine Crier, Campbell Brown (now lobbying for charter schools), I think maybe a couple others.
trollhattan
Cuomo seems to know one thing, which is Cuomo is great. Anybody getting in the way of the Cuomo must be defeated with great prejudice. The end.
Good luck, New York, this will not end well.
germy
And now Elise Stefanik is calling for Cuomo’s immediate arrest.
Geminid
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: If the legislature impeaches Cuomo, I hope they get it over as quckly as fairness allows. This matter would be bad one to drag out.
Spanky
@germy: What? Not summary execution? She’s getting soft.
germy
@Spanky:
She’s gotten so Trumpy, I expect to see her in a bulky blue suit and red tie any day now.
JKC
@germy: Stefanik is just grandstanding. I would ignore her. Watch what happens in the state legislature.
Benw
@Nicole:
@frosty: I think of states like NY and IL as lovely cities with all this extra land around them…
laura
Testosterone poisoning seems to be an all too common side effect of power- especially power without accountability. Men hate women; not all men, but too damn many and regardless of whether they are married, have daughters or sisters or mothers; and they treat women as anything other than people, just an attractive array of holes. There’s so many reasons to dislike Cuomo that had nothing to do with his taking his unasked for penis out for a good time whenever the setting provided some measure of cover or the power imbalance was to his liking.
And where are the good men who should be calling this bullshit out and demanding he step aside? Smh.
germy
Just Chuck
They cover up. We clean house. Bye Andy.
West of the Cascades
Buffalo?
No, seriously: Buffalo will be electing a socialist as mayor this year (India Walton, who won last month’s Democratic primary). The New York congressional delegation has 19 Democrats and 8 Republicans. As someone who grew up in Buffalo and lived in Ithaca and Utica at various times (and and lived three years in Manhattan), I’m heartily sick of New York State being called “not a blue state” and references to the state having a single “metropolis.”
PST
@Mike in NC: No one likes to be reminded that Dick Morris exists.
cmorenc
@Nicole:
That’s true of many states – whether the state is predominately blue, red, or swing depends on the relative population dominance of its blue areas. Outside of Portland and Eugene, Oregon is every bit as red as rural South Carolina, but because a substantial majority of its residents are concentrated in Portland and Eugene, it is a reliably blue state. Colorado transitioned from red to swing to blue precisely as metro Denver similarly has grown to dominant size relative to the rest of the state. Even notoriously red Utah would be at least a swing state if Salt Lake City had as predominate a share of its state’s population as Portland or Denver do. Back east, take somewhat swingy North Carolina as an example of a state where the heavily blue metro areas (Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, Greensboro etc) are frustratingly just a couple of % shy of outweighing the Trumpy rural areas and small towns.
J R in WV
@TheTruffle:
Nope, Cuomo needs to be put in prison for what he’s done. Let him try governing from his cell~!~
What a prick, a psycho-sexual clone of TFG, SFB.
Roger Moore
@frosty:
Even a fair number of the purple and red states are like that. It’s getting to the point that the thing dividing red and blue states is how big the cities are in relation to the hinterlands. That’s not 100% true- the cities are bluer in some places than others, and the rural areas redder- but that’s the trend.
I’m always a bit surprised that California is getting to be at least a bit less like this. The agricultural areas in the Central Valley are still pretty red, but some of the very rural counties outside the Valley, like Imperial, Mono, and Alpine, are actually pretty blue.
Nicole
@West of the Cascades: Apologies; I don’t mean to sound like I’m dissing Buffalo (I like Buffalo; it’s a great city!), but I don’t know that the other blue islands in our great land of Excelsior would be enough to carry the whole state without NYC. Maybe they would; I haven’t looked enough into the voter population.
Immanentize
@germy: I am sorry to report that she has already beefed up considerably in the last two or three years. Maybe your reason is why?
JPL
OMG Cuomo said it’s not who I am, and disputing one person in particular
He apparently forgot about the wedding tape where’s he groping around
I have never wanted to kick someone in the balls before, but for Cuomo I’m making an exception.
germy
JPL
@germy: How does his comments make you feel? OMG I learned how to kiss people on the cheek from my mother and father.
Immanentize
@J R in WV: That is a bit hyperbolic. I am now proposing everyone who wants to see another human being put in a cage first ask:
What’s the crime? When did the act happen? What’s the statute of limitations? Is it a misdemeanor or a felony? What is the mental state necessary to prove the crime? Does a prosecutor have enough admissible evidence to convince a jury of guilt? Do people charged with and convicted of this imagined crime go to prison for it?
It upsets me when good liberal and caring folks immediately go to incarceration as the answer to all our problems.
Peale
God, Cuomo. Just go away and don’t make me have to choose between voting for you and Andrew Giuliani. And don’t make me have to worry that voters will find Giuliani a palatable alternative.
topclimber
BTW, Kirsten Gillibrand is not up for re-election to the Senate until 2024. She certainly has the rep for zero tolerance of predatory male activity, even to the point of pissing off lots of Dems for putting the screws to Al Franken.
Just saying, she can run for governor and fall back to Senate if she fails. She started out in a district that has the last Metro NY rail stop, so maybe not under the same upstate handicap as Hochul.
Betty Cracker
Cuomo put out a taped statement.
frosty
@West of the Cascades:
The quote was from Nicole. I agree there may be more than one metropolis: PA: Philly and Pittsburgh; CA: LA, SD and SF; MD: Baltimore and the DC suburbs. Etc etc. Some of those states, if you take away one of the two or three cities, the whole state turns red.
Fake Irishman
@Nicole:
something to keep in mind is that that blue metropolis makes up more than half the population of the state in and of itself.
Fair Economist
@West of the Cascades: Buffalo is pretty blue, but NYC has 40 times as many people. If NY lost NYC Buffalo would be swamped worse than Louisville in KY is.
Gravenstone
@germy: Wonder if she’s (now) seeing visions of herself in the Governor’s Office? Maybe just delusions…
burnspbesq
This is the difference between red and blue states. Cuomo is in the shit and probably won’t survive. Comparable revelations about Abbott or DeSantis would be mostly ignored; if anything, it would increase their chances of re-election.
Betty
@LongHairedWeirdo: You had to ask? Stefanik is on it already.
germy
@Gravenstone:
She sees herself as the First Woman President.
VeniceRiley
@Betty Cracker: Wow. What a tool. I had to ff through most and, he was a tool at each point I stopped.
Gravenstone
@germy: Winged monkeys will fly out of my ass before that pipe dream comes to fruition.
Immanentize
@JPL: They make me feel like he is dishonest, in extreme damage control, and knows he is likely finished.
I’d prefer a Jimmy Swaggart “I sinned.”
Immanentize
@Fake Irishman: There are a lot of MAGA asshats downstate too. Think Staten Island…
germy
@Gravenstone:
If someone like trump can win… then she’s got a shot.
That’s what people like her learned from the catastrophe. Any Republican can make it, if they talk ugly enough.
Nicole
@frosty: Back in the 1980s or early 1990s, James Carville said that Pennsylvania was Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in the middle. I grew up in the south-center of the Keystone State and I find that description very accurate.
JPL
@Immanentize: After he said he watched his mom, and dad, I expected him to add Mad Men too. If Chris is still counseling him, CNN should fire him for incompetence.
Betty Cracker
@burnspbesq: You think this will bring Cuomo down? Maybe. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Immanentize
@germy: She is a house member from an odd extremely north upstate New York district. She will never be a Senator from that State. There is no way she will ever be President unless she gets elevated as a Vice President first, but that won’t happen because she doesn’t have the money connections or constituents to help a Pres. Candidate (See: Palin, S.)
JPL
Did CNN have on Jeffrey Toobin to explain the legal implications for Cuomo?
just wondering
JoyceH
@Betty Cracker:
One thing all politicians have learned from Trump is ‘just wait it out’. It worked for Northam here in Virginia. (Though I wonder if it would have if his Lt. Gov. wasn’t dealing with sexual harassment allegations at the same time.)
Soprano2
@Immanentize: What I say is that Cuomo needs to be held accountable for his actions, in whatever way is possible. If that means impeachment by the legislature, than that. If some of these things would merit arrest and a trial, then that.
germy
@Immanentize:
She’s chair of the House Republican Conference. Her goal has been to be as visible and loud as possible.
I can see her being a VP candidate someday, and then a presidential candidate.
She’s horrible enough for the base to fall in line behind her. The big donors love her because she advocates for them (fewer regulations, lower taxes, etc.) and the beltway media loves that she’s a woman “You go girl!”
Immanentize
@JPL: hopefully not on camera…
Immanentize
@germy: Stefanic’s test will definitely be fundraising strength. That is why Pelosi and Warren have some of the power they have. I wonder what Liz Cheney’s fundraising strength was and how much the GOP sacrificed defenestrating her.
MisterForkbeard
@JoyceH: This is actually one of the most damaging things from the Trump Presidency (and candidacy): If you have no morals or ethics, the thing to do is just refuse to resign or meaningfully apologize. No one will actually kick you out, and you’ll get bad news cycles for awhile and then it’ll go away.
Trump took this to the maximum and his base really liked it. Democrats don’t do that nearly as much – Northam had one bad problem decades ago and apologized for it and then moved on. Republicans regularly commit huge ethical breaches (if not felonies) and just brazen their way through. Look at Matt Gaetz right now, who’s fundraising off the fact that he’s probably going to be indicted for child sex trafficking and prostitution. His voters love him.
Cuomo’s voters don’t love him. They sort of tolerate him. He should go. He probably won’t, and I hope the legislature ruins him.
Chief Oshkosh
@RaflW:
I get your drift, but since I’m not an NYS resident, I don’t think I’ll be doing anything. I for sure won’t be worrying about what any Republicans say, think, or do about this.
JoyceH
@MisterForkbeard:
Yeah, even at the height of the Northam thing, I didn’t consider it resignation-worthy. As for Gaetz, arggh! – indict the guy already! Yeah, I know they’re building the Best Case Possible, just geez, it’s so provoking to see him prancing around bellowing that he’s got the Freedom Variant. Jackass.
As for Cuomo, I’ll always appreciate those news conferences he had at the depths of the pandemic – it was nice to think that SOMEBODY understood what was going on and what should be done about it.
Sherparick
I am afraid Cuomo has learned to well from Trump and the Republicans. Just Gaslight and Bullshit until the press finds the next shiny thing to attract them. It will be “Deny, Deny, Deny!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN2gU0XU5FU
A Ghost to Most
Anybody surprised? Anyone? Bueller?
The sex trafficker of minors, Matt Gaetz, whined that people are meaner to him than Cuomo. So that was fun.
Roger Moore
@JoyceH:
Honestly, I thought the stuff about Northam was a nothingburger. It wasn’t entirely clear the picture was of him, and it was from before he went into public service. I believe we should judge public officials more strongly on how they behave in office than in private life, and more strongly on what they’ve done recently than what they did a long time ago. Even assuming the picture was of Northam, it’s not representative of how he’s going to perform as governor today, so it’s not really relevant.
JoyceH
@Roger Moore:
Same here. The Fairfax allegations were a lot more problematic, but they seemed to just… go away? He ran in the Democratic primary for governor this year, but didn’t get anywhere with it.
Technocrat
@frosty:
And that’s strange, because the population of those cities doesn’t necessarily dominate the population of the state as a whole.
Philly and Pittsburgh combined have something like 15% of Pennsylvania’s population, yet essentially counterbalance the politics of the vast rural (maybe exurban) majority.
New York City has less than half the population of New York State (8 mil to 19 mil or something).
dnfree
Remember Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois, tried to sell Obama’s senate seat, sentence commuted by Trump? HE had presidential ambitions. It really chafed him that Obama got there before he did. He had absolutely no qualifications either, just ambition.
JPL
@Immanentize: Baud would be proud of that comment. ?
Gravenstone
@dnfree: Speaking of, I see where he’s currently complaining about the ban against running for office again. Think he wants his old grift back.
trollhattan
@Gravenstone:
Laughed out loud when I read that. Who does he think he is, a Daley?
PsiFighter37
Cuomo will resign if he thinks he has a real chance of getting perp-walked. Otherwise, count me as real skeptical that Carl Heastie actually wants to try and boot him from office.
Kathy Hochul – bleh. Unremarkable politician and someone who is in that position to do nothing and be invisible next to Cuomo. Missed a real chance by not having Juumane Williams in as LG in 2018.
prostratedragon
@trollhattan: !?!
Lyrebird
@Immanentize: Doc Imm I so appreciate your comments here and your work. I also think it’d be great if you could provide some colorful, pithy but not carceral expressions that carry the same emotional energy as “may he rot in jail”.
I’ve been thinking about this throughout the Trump disaster and beyond, because I hope Trump does serve time for his crimes, but I also believe in what you say and in some of what Popehat says.
Lyrebird
That’s not apples and oranges, that’s apples and sepia tone photos of ugly plastic fruit. Northam is a blockhead* from VA. Cuomo has repeatedly harassed people. Not the same.
*ETA by blockhead I mean he may be a competent governor, but he is a blockhead, and the rank racism he and his classmates showed was awful and very common. Yes I am from a nearby place.
Roger Moore
@Lyrebird:
If you want to avoid saying someone should rot in jail, you could just ask that they “get what they deserve from the criminal justice system” or “answer for their crimes”. It conveys the same idea that they’ve committed a crime and deserve to be held accountable for it, but it doesn’t specify exactly what the correct punishment is.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Today in snark, someone described Senator Ron Johnson – R, Wisconsin as “The rubber tip of the spear that is the US Senate” ROFL
Lyrebird
@Roger Moore:
Thanks!! “should answer for his crimes!” is great, safe for work, and usable in front of children.
My children want to know why they can’t get special permission to use the f bomb just because they know Trump is that awful, but I am a mean mommy, no dice.
mrmoshpotato
@Gravenstone: Hahaha! Well done!
Also, FUCK BLAGO! (and, on an unrelated note, fuck Rauner too!)
Ken
Unless said while carefully sharpening a knife, or cleaning a gun. Context is everything.
StringOnAStick
@Immanentize: I want to say how much I appreciate your legal explanations and expertise. I’ve learned a lot reading your comments over the years.
Lyrebird
@Ken: Indeed!!!!
Mild content warning, this includes the horrid governor’s words, from the report:
In most cases, the main way I want crime doers to answer for their crimes is to realize that they hurt others and to do something to make the world better. Cuomo, like the poisonous orange toad, would make the world better by resigning, for starters.
If we’re going to have a criminal as a governor can’t we have Spitzer back darnit! From what I hear he was all about consent and paid well too.
dnfree
@Gravenstone: yes, he remains just as convinced of his own worth as he was before he went to prison. He has great self-esteem.
dnfree
@Technocrat: generally speaking, even smaller cities tend Democratic, so they help the large cities overcome the total rural vote.
Almost Retired
Even though I am on vacation and vowed to ignore the news, I had to listen to the press conference and Cuomo’s response because about 20% of my employment law practice is conducting workplace investigations (often sexual harassment matters, but on a far, far smaller scale).
When I interview the alleged harasser I usually get one of several responses: emphatic defiance, aggressive victimhood, fake contrition for some of the least serious offenses while denying the rest, an attempt to ingratiate himself with me since I match the demographic of most harassers (“you know how it used to be – how do we know where to draw the line,”) and/or some variation on the theme of “you should talk to all the women I didn’t harass.”
Cuomo to his “credit” hit them all in a pre-recorded 15 minute statement. Masterful. But in a case of pure clueless creepyism, his claim to be helping the young sexual assault victim under his supervision overcome her resistance to dating, or whatever rambling defense he was trying to make, was a new one on me. Impeach the motherfucker already.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Seriously? That is deeply creepy.
guachi
@Almost Retired: Eww. I’m glad I didn’t watch it.
And again, for the record, eww.
Almost Retired
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He claimed he had a family member who was an assault survivor. So, he was empathetic and reaching out to the young assistant (which….again…..your boss…..three times your age….the Governor). He claimed he asked about her dating life for therapeutic purposes, and not to groom her for a relationship. Yuck. Ick. Gag. etc.
Nicole
Mayoral candidate Eric Adams called on the Legislature to impeach Cuomo if he doesn’t resign. For the first time I’m thinking Cuomo may actually not be able to survive this.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-03/nyc-mayoral-nominee-eric-adams-calls-on-ally-cuomo-to-resign
Just Chuck
@Technocrat:
The greater metro area of those cities trends blue, modulo the rich neighborhooods, until it hits the exurbs. It’s pretty much a gradient. Those extra popular votes don’t come from dead people.
Just Chuck
@Nicole: Yah, the dam is breaking. If it were just a few going for his head that’d be one thing, but pretty soon it’s going to be very unpopular to be on Cuomo’s side. I hope it doesn’t come to a goddam impeachment tho.
James E Powell
@RaflW:
Send Kirsten Gillibrand. According to the internet, she can single-handedly bring about a Democrat’s resignation.
James E Powell
@Nicole:
Back in those days in Cleveland , I used to say that Ohio, south of the turnpike, was Kentucky. There’s been some change with the growth of Columbus, but it’s mostly still like that.
JPL
Biden just said Cuomo should resign
Nicole
@JPL: Whoa.
Roger Moore
@Just Chuck:
And even very red areas aren’t 100% red. I think the bluest areas of cities tend to be even bluer than the reddest rural areas are red. This is one of the things that makes it comparatively easy for Republicans to gerrymander effectively.
There are classically two parts to partisan gerrymandering: packing and cracking. In packing, you create a handful of districts that lean overwhelmingly toward the other party. Then you crack by dividing up the remainder of their voters into districts that favor your party. By congregating in extremely blue cities, the Democrats have done the work of packing for the Republicans.
markregan
@James E Powell:
That would describe J.D. Vance, wouldn’t it, from Middletown, Ohio, halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Lovely, and this the stuff he thinks will make him look like a good guy?
Just Chuck
@JPL: Stick a fork in Andy. When the Pres says you have to go, their respective national and state committees will speak with the same voice. Call it the Bully Sandbag.
Another Scott
Of course Cuomo should resign. And NY Democrats need to make it clear that he must do so.
Issa needs to go too.
Compelling story. Good ad.
(via harrisonjaime)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mary G
This is happening the way it usually does. One or two brave pissed off women speak out, the offender circles his wagons, usually denying the behavior and insulting the complainers, which sparks rage in other victims, because there’s never just one or two, so they speak up, and when the volume and proof get big enough, the asshole goes down. It’s Andy’s turn to go away.
Roger Moore
@Nicole:
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Biden is just following through on previous comments saying Cuomo should resign if the investigation found against him.
Nicole
My husband just emailed me, “Has anyone checked in on Randy Rainbow?” I laughed.
janesays
@frosty: Yeah. Illinois says hello.
Elizabelle
LOL. I didn’t read it yet, but here is Alexandra Petri’s WaPost column (she’s their satirist) on Cuomo:
‘Stabbing People Is Just How I’ve Always Greeted Them,’ by Jack the Ripper
Elizabelle
@JPL: Yep, he did. Banner headline on NY Times right now. Breaking news alert:
President Biden called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York to resign after the state’s attorney general found that Mr. Cuomo had sexually harassed women.
Tuesday, August 3, 2021 5:01 PM EST
Mr. Biden, a longtime friend of Mr. Cuomo’s, had initially avoided addressing the accusations, and at first seemed content to stay on the sidelines of a growing rift between the Democratic Party and the increasingly isolated New York governor. But on Tuesday, the last of Mr. Cuomo’s allies began distancing themselves.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
So this is how the NYT is portraying awaiting the completion of the investigation?
JPL
@Baud: So does this mean that Andrew is no longer going to ask his brother Chris for advice?
janesays
@Nicole: As noted by several others, that’s pretty much true of almost every blue state in the country, though. Take away Chicago and Illinois is reliably Republican.
JMG
@Roger Moore: In Pennsylvania, it was the Philly suburbs that got Biden elected. He even won Chester County, which I think voted for Alf Landon over FDR.
Nicole
@JMG: In that long stretch of days before Biden was declared winner, the Gritty memes from Philly kept me going. I still go back and look at them sometimes and they still make me laugh.
Geminid
@James E Powell: Ohio has been that way for a while. In his Memoirs, Ulysses Grant said that his southern Ohio hometown of Georgetown would have voted for Jeff Davis over Abe Lincoln at any time during the Civil War, except perhaps the day after John Hunt Morgan’s Confederate raiders came through. Grant could have been exaggerating, but maybe not by much. While the settlement of Northern Ohio was largely a Yankee affair, a lot of southerners moving west made southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois their home.
JPL
TONIGHT: Former Gov. Cuomo aide Charlotte Bennett sits down with us for an exclusive interview on the
@CBSEveningNews
following an independent investigation that concluded the governor sexually harassed multiple women, including Bennett.
and so it begins.
Princess Leia
If Cuomo resigns, who is the new Governor? What are they like?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’ve been informed the New York Times is garbage.
Roger Moore
@Geminid:
Remember that for all Abe Lincoln is associated with Illinois, he was born across the Ohio in Kentucky. There were a lot of people who migrated that way.
janesays
@Technocrat: The cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have about 1.9 million people, but the combined metropolitan areas of those two cities make up 2/3 of the entire state population.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I have seen as much to complain about recently. I knew it had to end.
BlueStater
@frosty: Not Massachusetts, thank God.
Phil McGrath
@Nicole:
You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about. NY has some red strongholds, but your claim is not grounded in reality.
VeniceRiley
INFURIATING!
laura
Shiny nickel wager he resigns before the clock strikes midnight. There’s too much momentum building to salvage this shite-bag.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Nicole: This blue islands in a red sea conversation makes me wonder…what went right in Vermont? I was just there visiting relatives and it doesn’t have a large city and mostly is full of small towns and farmlands or national forest land…it should be beet red but is super blue. Is there a way to replicate the rural liberalism that exists there elsewhere? If we could just make that happen in ND and WY one other State and we’d have a pretty good shot at taking long term control of the Senate if nothing else.
NotMax
@BlueStater
The vicious anti-busing protests revealed Massachusetts has a blue veneer. Also too, the state which elevated Mitt to political prominence.
Time was “Bahstan” was synonymous with “petrified Puritanism” when it came to social evolution.
WaterGirl
PSA: It’s not too late to RSVP for the Four Directions zoom tonight at 7:30 Eastern.
Please send me an email and I will reply with the zoom link.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Some voters see that the left side of the aisle actually does work better for them and change over. Take Orange county for example. Most of the CA red areas are not all that red, a few points can push them onto the correct side of the aisle.
Mary G
I just sold my beloved 2013 Suburu Forester because I can not manuever a mobility scooter onto the lift on the back and must go to full wheelchair van. It’s a sad day; I loved that car, but sitting around gathering dust wasn’t fair to it. Now I come to find out vans are hard to buy.
prostratedragon
@Just Chuck: Blue metro areas, rather than just blue central cities, seem to be more and more common. Illinois used to be driven mainly by a blue City of Chicago, but now many of the collar metro counties are trending that way as well. Lauren Underwood’s district is centered on what was Dennis Hastert’s, and solidly Republican, not that long ago.
JPL
@Mary G: I’m so sorry, and I hope that you find a van soon. BTW when does your household become fully vaccinated.
CaseyL
@Mary G: I’m so sorry; it’s hard to give up a car you’ve had a long time. They get to feeling like an extension of your own body.
Best of luck van-shopping. Are you shopping on line? There are a number of very good sites, often with CarFax and inspection reports posted for each vehicle.
Elizabelle
@Baud: OMG. Why we call it Fuck the Fucking New York Times.
Guilty. Me. Of not reading the alert before I slung it onto BJuice. I was looking for confirmation of JPL’s post about Biden — the WaPost had nothing on that at the top of the website. But the FTF NY Times did send an alert. And I was heading out of the house the minute after that.
Silly me. I had ASSUMED (I know) that the print said something like “after Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation concluded that Cuomo had committed numerous instances of sexual harrassment, President Biden this afternoon ….”
But no. FTF NYT has to make it “Biden had a finger in the wind.” Biden has no guts. Democrats in disarray.
Fuck the fucking Sulzbergers. And fuck the fucking Dean Banquet.
Daily giving me reasons to feel bad about paying for my subscription to the Greyed Lady.
Good eye, Baud.
raven
@Mary G: I just bought a Dodge Grand Caravan to replace the 2006 we had. It’s a 2015 but only has 60,000 miles and the old one had 250000 when I sold it to the kid across the street.
Nicole
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Vermont is excessively white. Whites are more likely to skew liberal if they think benefits aren’t going to “those people.”
I once had a doctor from Europe who told me no way would universal health care pass in Europe today (this was 15 years ago) because people would be too outraged at the thought that immigrants from Africa might possibly benefit from it.
Ruckus
@MisterForkbeard:
I think that if you watch TV news that will make a difference. You think you are getting actual news but often you are getting a distortion of reality, by the way and who presents the info. And it comes at you non stop 24 hrs a day, with a lot of repetition, which reenforces the presentation you see/hear. So you hear something bad about a governor and then a car crash and then a protest and then grocery prices rising and then the weather and ……. It’s over load, it has an ability to make everything sound bad, so it’s harder to know what is or isn’t. A lot of people never see the entire story and if you live in a rural area you likely don’t have a lot of differing viewpoints even available. So many likely want to go back to a simpler time. If you live in a rural area where you only hear faux news or sinclair stations……
Nicole
@Mary G: Oh man, that sucks; I’m sorry. I wish you lots of good luck in finding the perfect new van for you!
Roger Moore
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: @Ruckus:
I have long had an idea that cities tend to be blue because living close together puts people in a situation where they want and need a strong government. It’s easy to say that everyone should be free to do their own thing when your closest neighbor lives on the other side of the hill, but not so much when you share a wall. Almost everything you do in a city has the potential to harm one of your neighbors, so there’s a real need for a strong government that can step in and tell people what they can and can’t do. When you absolutely need a good government to protect you from your neighbors, the nihilistic right wing approach to government just doesn’t work.
prostratedragon
@Nicole: That was my first thought, but it does leave a lot of places out West unexplained. Maybe it’s as simple as the large number of ex-Confederates who migrated that way.
NotMax
FYI, speaking of New York.
Elizabelle
@Mary G: Look far afield for your new van. They are hard to find. Especially since “van life” lifestyle is taking off.
But: you have a jackal community, several of whom might volunteer to help get your new to you vehicle to you. It could be possible.
And, as you know, the dealer can often arrange to get the vehicle to you. Might be expensive, but maybe not that bad. No idea.
JPL
@Elizabelle: Just in case you didn’t see the news,
TONIGHT: Former Gov. Cuomo aide Charlotte Bennett sits down with us for an exclusive interview on the
@CBSEveningNews
following an independent investigation that concluded the governor sexually harassed multiple women, including Bennett.
Elizabelle
@JPL: Thank you.
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
It might be…..
Elizabelle
CNN item, in its entirety:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls for Cuomo to resign
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign in a statement today.
Here’s her statement:
Some background: Pelosi’s statement is a turnaround from her remarks on the allegations against Cuomo in March. At that time, Pelosi told ABC’s “This Week” in an interview that women should be believed but stopped short of calling for Cuomo’s resignation amid sexual harassment allegations against him.
trollhattan
@Geminid:
Grant’s dad was an abolitionist (and a showboater) and he married into a slave-owning family, which made for…interesting relations with his FIL. His was a life of tests and contrasts from start to finish.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle: When the nation’s most-powerful politician tells you “It’s over” it’s over.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: I hope so. There is no benefit to dragging this one out.
I appreciated the Governor Cuomo of “Cuomo O’Clock.” But he co-exists with a serial harasser.
Interesting to me how Cuomo must compartmentalize. Father of three young women, whom he would never want to see treated this way. But his personal behavior, and numerous instances of it.
debbie
@NotMax:
Good. If that doesn’t keep Staten Islanders out of Manhattan bars, nothing will.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Well, I have lived in more rural OH for a decade and in semi rural norcal for 6 yrs so I do think you certainly have a point. Hell my house in OH didn’t even have a fence between my neighbors, left, right, or behind. And every other place I’ve lived has been urban socal (the navy doesn’t count!) I fear that there is likely a bit more to it than that though, but I don’t have any ideas why the divide – city to rural.
NotMax
@Mary G
Know of a couple of people who have had luck finding used airport shuttle vans, some of which may be already wheelchair ready. Lotta mileage but well maintained, innards-wise.
Don’t have clue #1 as to how to go about finding one, however.
debbie
@James E Powell:
The west side of Columbus used to be West Virginia.
Patricia Kayden
Martin
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Vermont is the least religious state in the US.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Seems part of the required mentality. I know Trump [ptooey] voters who admit they would not let him alone with their wife or daughter. “But you voted for him?” “Better than the alternative.” “Okay, then.”
Edmund Dantes
@BlueStater: keep electing Republican governors. Might want to check your statement.
JPL
@Elizabelle: So do we lose both Chris and Andrew? I’d be fine with that, but I do have to wonder if CNN regrets letting Brooke Baldwin go now.
debbie
@JPL:
They can dig up their father and take him with them. //
Elizabelle
@JPL: I have not followed any of the Cuomo allegations or fallout, beyond the headlines.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Honestly, I didn’t need to follow anything. That photo of him cradling an assistant’s head in his hands and her look of polite but fearful disgust at his doing so was more than enough to decide that smarmy bastard needed to go.
sab
@laura:Re testosterone poinoning. My newly adopted cat is so much better since he got neutered. He didn’t seem upset, except that he’d missed some meals. Only caught him spraying a window once since then, and its early still.
Another Scott
@JPL:
True? No idea. Problematic? Sure looks like it to me.
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@trollhattan: Seriously? I would have left Hillary alone with any daughter. Poor child would have come out feeling that she was not applying herself enough, but she wouldn’t have been pawed by a creep.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: Vote for Cuomo, not the homo.
VeniceRiley
@Another Scott: The knives are out for Chris from the right …. Drudge has a link up to National Review claiming he wrote the latest ish
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@LongHairedWeirdo: i think the precedent to hit cuomo hard (whereas the associate supremes thomas & kavanaugh were victims of a technological lynching) is the treatment of andrew gillum… he takes a beating from a gqp that previously coddled ted haggard, roy moore, & mark foley
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@JoyceH: i still am shocked the photos in the yearbook weren’t him
I still call him gov. jolson, though