I’m sure most of you have been following the updates on Andrew Cuomo’s DARVO response to Tish James’ open-and-shut report of his harassment of 11 women. DARVO is an acronym for understanding abusers which means Deny, Accuse, Reverse Victim and Offender. Cuomo is doing all of those things.
The really ugly part of the DARVO response was his attorney’s Friday press conference, led by Rita Glavin, a former federal prosecutor. I could only stomach a couple minutes of that dreary, dismal show. I tuned in when she was making the point that one of his accusers kept her work appointments after Cuomo harrassed her. Of course she fucking did, why is that remarkable? From what I read, Glavin’s presentation stuck to the facts. This is telling:
Glavin did not address the report’s finding that Cuomo inappropriately touched a female state trooper on his security detail. According to the report, he ran his finger down the trooper’s spine while riding in an elevator, touched her stomach and hip without her permission, and asked her why she did not wear a dress. Glavin said the governor will address those allegations himself.
“I can’t give you a timeline, but I know he wants to do it soon,” she said.
“Soon,” ha! Probably in the year 2525 if man is still alive, by my reckoning.
Anyway, the late Friday afternoon timing of the news conference was interesting–that’s news dump time, not news making time. Also interesting: Saturday’s news conference by the Albany County Sheriff (a Democrat), where he announced that one of the victims had filed a police report, and where he commended her for coming forward. They’re going to investigate and charges may be filed.
On Wednesday, a local news show interviewed three area members of the New York assembly, all Democrats. None of them were sympathetic to Cuomo, and it was clear that they would all be “yes” votes for impeachment. One of them made the point that New York State’s impeachment works differently from impeachment in the US Congress. Once a majority impeachment vote passed the Assembly, Cuomo is removed pending the vote after a trial in the Senate. This means that Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul would become acting governor. At that point, it’s probably all over for young Andrew — If my local state Senator’s reaction to Cuomo’s deny and accuse response to the AG’s report is any indicator, I don’t think he’ll find too many sympathetic ears in that body:
Still, from all indicators, Mario’s oldest son is waiting for the miracle to come. I hope that trooper he harassed will be part of the team dragging him kicking and screaming from the governor’s mansion the moment after the Assembly votes.
Ksmiami
So we are all just waiting for the miracle to come?
Jerzy Russian
Thanks for the earworm involving the year 2525. I wasn’t sure who the singers were, so I looked it up and briefly went into a few rabbit holes.
germy
brendancalling
I hearken back to the sunny (lol) days of summer 2020, when Cuomo’s briefings sent a number of people I know into hero-worshiping tizzies. Low information voters all, the kind of people who loved Pete Buttigieg because he was just so adorable.
I tried to warn them that Randy Andy is a piece of shit, and had been fucking over his own party for years, but nope: he was the hero, and that was that.
Wonder how they’re doing today?
germy
A Ghost to Most
Coumo is toast. Agent Orange is burnt toast. Moving on.
Mike in NC
Just tuned in to MSNBC, where they show Marge Greene leading Alabama wingnuts in a cheer for having low COVID vaccination rates. Followed by some deranged comments by lying Florida Governor DeathSantis. Too early to start drinking. Picturing overflowing cemeteries in the Deep South.
Elizabelle
@brendancalling: I guess someone can only be all bad, all the time.
That’s really simplistic. People are complicated. The person who gave the Cuomo O’Clock briefings, sincerely and competently it seems, co-exists in the same body with the asshole who harassed women.
Deal with it.
I am grateful for the briefings that helped keep our sanity, while we had the most deplorable interloper in the Oval Office who was actively making a pandemic worse. Cuomo has a good and empathetic side. He is also a devoted father of three daughters who preys on other young women.
Letitia James and her team, though, have proved the existence of another side of Cuomo. That person should resign, soon please, and not drag his constituents and others through the mud for his own pride, and because he can.
Cuomo will end up a sum of all the good, and the heinous, things he did.
TFG is much less complicated.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The one I liked was Oliver Stones’ comment “I find my self liking Cuemo and it makes me feel uncomfortable”
Anyway, Cuemo is good at handling the pandemic even if he is a masher. So even crappy Democrats are better at thier jobs than republican’s. Who would have thought real life isn’t some stupid binary morality tale?
Elizabelle
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
You put it way more succinctly than I did.
germy
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/cuomo-impeachment-democrats-say-it-needs-to-be-perfect.html
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I can’t image flirting with someone who is entrusted with protecting my life much-less grouping them. Then again I would think someone in Cuemo position would have enough women throwing themselves at him that he wouldn’t feel the need to go creep on the people who work with him. That must be one hell of a bottomless pit he has in his soul that as a governor of prominent state he still feels the need to try and prove his power is such a creepy and petty way. Cuemo stumble out of an unfinished Shakespeare play or something?
West of the Rockies
@Elizabelle:
Well said.
geg6
Certainly, this all explains why Sandra Lee dumped his ass a couple years ago. Imagine living with that asshole. She liked being First Girlfriend but the bullying and assaulting of other women finally wasn’t outweighed by the perks.
cmorenc
@Elizabelle:
Another classic Jekyll-and-Hyde political figure is Bill Clinton, both a man of brilliant beneficial accomplishment and a sexually predatory scoundrel. In the nominally fictional but transparently biographical move “Primary Colors”, actor John Travolta brilliantly captured the angel/devil duality that simultaneously coexisted within Bill Clinton.
germy
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Boss’s son syndrome.
When you grow up in a powerful political family (or any powerful family) you quickly get used to saying and doing whatever you want to anyone, with little pushback.
PsiFighter37
Mario’s son isn’t waiting for a miracle to happen. Mario’s son is in denial that it’s very likely that not only will he fall short of beating Daddy’s term in office by winning a fourth election, but that he might very well be booted before he even gets a chance to match Daddy’s 3 full terms in office.
That, but also from what I have read, Andrew himself isn’t really all that wealthy (book deal aside) – he actually lives at the governor’s mansion and owns no other property aside from that.
germy
Ambrose Bierce defined “Man” as:
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@brendancalling: nah
the appeal of andrew cuomo & mayo pete are different
pete is a freshfaced but wellspoken guy who you can take home to mom n’ dad — a jejune, if greying, twink
cuomo is an older, burlier sort, havibg already lived a full life, & rather than needing your parents’s approval, will instead be your daddy — an otter (w/ pierced nipples)
PsiFighter37
@brendancalling: I am sure if you look back to whatever few posts I made then, I was quite clear that I thought Cuomo was a much-needed, calm, thoughtful presentation of facts vs. the abject disaster that was Cheeto spewing ridiculous shit at the microphone nightly. However, that still didn’t change the fact that he was a jerk who actively kneecapped state Democrats to keep the State Senate out of their hands.
The trick, though, frankly is to ensure that you have a sensible progressive in the governor’s office next, and not some dumbass Justice Democrat who will wipe out the hard-earned gains that Democrats have won, especially in the NYC suburbs. Keep in mind that NY is not California, and that the margins that get put up in statewide elections are not at the 30%+ margins that CA Dems administer each election. There does need to be sensibility around just how far left NY Dems can push.
MattF
A bit of the inside politics going on in Albany (NYT). Apparently, if Carl Heastie says Cuomo has to go, then Cuomo has to go.
debbie
His attorney should have thrown in the towel after Cuomo gave that lengthy explanation about kissing every thing that was not tied down.
That, plus the photo in the bar, make this an open and shut case.
Edmund Dantes
It wasn’t about binary morality play.
it was people gushing over Cuomo when he was a guy that actively took steps to hurt democratic priorities. A man that was so busy running for the presidency that he actively enabled the GOP. It was always about him.
and people got called out for pointing out how bad he was because people got a thrill up their leg for the bare base minimum that any basically competent governor was pulling (and were).
coupled with being judicious as to how we praised Cuomo cause we didn’t want to raise his levels to the point of him becoming a viable presidential candidate because of his whole not actually good on democratic priorities and worked with gop to fuck over legislation he didn’t like.
so shut about about the binary morality play bulllshit. Cuomo was dangerous politically and it would have been a disaster if he kept riding that bullshit or wave that so many people helped add to with their lower information voters by going along with it so much. There were plenty of other governors out there doing just as much if not better that Cuomo at the time.
Rocks
@brendancalling: You know, Cuomo was/is a piece of shit, and New York will be far better with him out of the governor’s office. But even most of the worst of us (no pass for you, Former Guy) have our noble moments. The summer of 2020, when Cuomo was trying to get control of the pandemic while Trump was touting drinking Clorox, was Andy’s. Whatever else he has done, Cuomo served as a voice of reason and a counter to Trump when nobody else was able to.
PsiFighter37
@Edmund Dantes: I’m not convinced Andrew has ever yearned to be president. Over the past several years, it’s been clear that he wanted to be NY governor longer than Mario was. I could also see that he felt his father’s public genuflections around running really hurt his ability to run and remake New York in his image. If there is one lasting thing Andrew will leave us with, it is with public works (e.g. Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access, Moynihan Station, new Tappan Zee Bridge, a surprisingly good version of Laguardia Airport), all that have some varying degrees of success but that will be here long after we are all gone.
debbie
@PsiFighter37:
I don’t remember knowing this. I suppose he’s upset that they aren’t standing up for him now?
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@PsiFighter37: even as democrats, both in the state legi in albany & nationally, call for either cuomo’s removal or resignation, in almost uniform formation, i expect the gqp to tout the democrat party as propping up a sexual deviant (based on support rec’d by cuomo from the mayor of taos nm or some such), & the lamestream media (meet the press, face the nation, the cokie n’ broder bothsides memorial show, etc) to regurgitate that framing, with a soupcon of democrat party disarray
more specifically, i assume qlenn youngqin is already pitching former democrat party chair terry mc auliffe as an andrew cuomo democrat, as mc auliffe’s run at dnc was concurrent to cuomo’s service as bill climpton’s hud secretary
Elizabelle
@Rocks: Thank you.
Get after people for their flaws, for sure. But do not denigrate the good and even noble things they accomplished — or tried — so you can have a pat little
moralityfairy tale.Danielx
@Elizabelle:
Truth – TFG is a full time incompetent shithead. Makes things a lot easier.
Brachiator
@brendancalling:
What’s wrong with Pete? Should he not be in the Biden cabinet?
cmorenc
@MontyTheClipArtMongoose:
I’ll bet you naively paid $10 for that fancy word “jejune”, in order to try to impress us. It was rather simplistic of you to think that.
:=)
germy
Emma from Miami
@cmorenc: Good on you for taking the Republican pov. Ain’t we lucky that that pov lost us President Hillary!
Miss Bianca
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
What you said.
@Elizabelle: And you.
Ella in New Mexico
@Elizabelle:
i’m in your camp on this one. Totally.
Even aside of COVID, he did a lot of good things for NYS. But he’s not his Dad, for sure. I just wish I understood what made him cross those lines, take such stupid risks, certainly given he absolutely did not need to do so. I feel sad for this unnecessary, humiliating end to a relatively decent career in politics.
But then, I’m not a man with a huge ego and a chip on my shoulder and a ton of power at my fingertips.
This Opinion piece in the Washington Post was enlightening to read.
Elizabelle
@cmorenc: I am not comfortable with calling Clinton “predatory.” That is straight out rightwing framing.
An opportunistic hound dog who lied about his sexual activities: absolutely.
The Paula Jones case is problematic, to be sure. The Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers cases seemed quite consensual — Monica actively chased Clinton (who does not seem to have been running away) and was transferred to the Pentagon by Clinton’s loyal female gatekeepers, who were concerned about the appearances there. They recognized Monica for what she was attempting.
The Juanita Broderick case: the egregious Kenneth Starr could not make a case of that one. Broderick sounds like a liar, and at the very least an embellisher.
There is a whole industry devoted to propping up Saint Reagan. Kay (a commenter here) has mentioned it several times. If he’s totally this genial patriotic leadery guy, why the need to constantly burnish his reputation?
Clinton left office a rather popular president. In the decades since, he’s been turned into a sexual criminal by the rightwing. Enough.
germy
This is an article from last February.
Ella in New Mexico
@Elizabelle: Two for two, Elizabelle :-D
Nora
None of the New Yorkers I knew saw Cuomo, even at the height of last summer, as a hero. I never forgot how he basically enabled the Democrats who caucused with the Republicans in the state senate; we had a majority but we were never able to use it because these assholes pretended they were Democrats when they ran for office and then acted like Republicans, and gave Republicans a de facto majority, when they were in office. Cuomo could have shut them down. He didn’t because he didn’t want to; he didn’t want Democrats to accomplish Democratic goals, and he didn’t want his fingerprints to be on the failure to achieve those goals. Yes, he did a good job of keeping people’s hopes up with minimal competency when we needed it, but I never lost sight of who and what he was.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PsiFighter37:
If Dr Mary Trump were a friend of mine, I would have told her to write her second book on Daddy Issues in American Politics. Being a political junkie really opened my eyes to how true the “They Fuck You Up, Your Mum and Dad” poem is
germy
Heckuva job, Andy.
brendancalling
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: that was basically my POV as well, re: Oliver Stone/Cuomo quote.
To clarify, I wasn’t referring to any hero worship on BJ—this site doesn’t do that. I was thinking primarily of an acquaintance who declared loudly that Cuomo should have jumped into the 2020 primary, and another who is currently in denial that Cuomo did what he’s accused of.
Immanentize
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I do not understand your repeated misspelling of Cuomo’s name.
Please to explain?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Even when Cuomo isn’t groping women, he’s sending off creepy vibes in the way he talks to them. I’d stay well out of his reach if I were working with him.
Elizabelle
@Ella in New Mexico: Thank you, Ella. Happy Sunday!!
MagdaInBlack
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes!. Thank you. He has always had “creep factor” for me.
craigie
Nice. I actually still have this 45.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I also remember when a lot of people were comparing Obama unfavorably to Cuomo after that hedge fund Republican (Stringer?) told him and a handful of R legislators to legalize same-sex marriage.
Spanky
@debbie:
The cop down on 34th and Vine?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Nora: This right there is why Cuomo is amazing, in the that was oddly out character sense. He is otherwise a Republican asshole who acted like a sane human being during the pandemic.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Immanentize: I am dyslexic and I associate him with a crude sex act since he is such an out of control perv, thus it comes out in the spelling.
Now aren’t you glad you ask?
Kay
I don’t have any opinion on Cuomo as a pol, but to the extent that they’re paying attention I think it’s good for the public to see a competently and professionally conducted investigation of a powerful person where the allegations were taken seriously and followed up on and where the accused has an opportunity to defend himself. This is how it’s supposed to work.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle: To add to your great comment —
The (western?) World is certainly vastly changed in terms of so many norms even in my lifetime. And Clinton (and Trump) are older than I am by a fair bit. (I’m an Obama contemporary, which I define as anyone of an age to have played pinochle with me and my friends in the high school cafeteria at lunchtime).
Sexual norms, male/female relationships, drunk driving, race and diversity acceptance, role of women, gender identity, child abuse including corporeal punishment, etc. all are better understood than when I was young to college age. Yes of course backlashes)
It is right to critique (and even punish) people for their bad behavior but it should be tempered with some understanding of the times. What Cuomo has done is completely unacceptable. But forty years ago it would not even have been remarked upon other than perhaps, as whispered evidence of his odd fetishes (pushups? Really?)
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: +1
Clinton met JFK at the White House. JFK was (apparently) screwing around for years, but he’s not tarred as a sexual predator by most.
People are complicated. Politics changes.
The outer side beats our side up at every opportunity. We don’t need to help them.
Cuomo must go.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mai Naem mobile
I cannot believe they’re comparing Ralph Northam’s blackface pics from decades ago to Andrew Cuomo and his problems.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: s /outer / other
(Though I guess outer kinda works too.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Citizen Alan
@cmorenc: Jejune is a funny word. You can’t use it without becoming an example of it. Sort of like pedant.
Sure Lurkalot
@Ella in New Mexico: I’m trying to get your people are complicated riff but “take such stupid risks” as a description of sexually harassing women and playing the victim when confronted with copious evidence is a bit beyond the pale.
West of the Rockies
Without defending Cuomo, I’d prefer a thread where it was Trump or Pompeo or Gaetz or Greene or Carlson who were being shredded.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@cmorenc: remnant of my longago 12th grade immersion in pervert norman lewis’s word power dictionary
so i guess my parents’s property taxes helped pay for it
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Mai Naem mobile: that’s not even ralph northam in the pictures
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Citizen Alan: quite a perqueer observation
Yutsano
*sigh*
Cuomo is a handsy asshole with boundary issues.
Cuomo did a decent job with communications during the first couple phases of the pandemic.
These are not mutually exclusive propositions.
(Side note: thank you WaterGirl and Avalune for the refined pie filter!)
satby
Uh, no actually. That’s for the people of NY to sort out. And I have a reasonable amount of faith it will be, even without attention from me.
Immanentize
@Citizen Alan: not sure it applies to jejuene, but I am totally stealing that re: pedant.
Nicole
@Immanentize: It’s true that 40 years ago it wouldn’t have been remarked upon, but people shouldn’t forget that the reason the norms are changing is because the minority groups that were the powerless object of the abuse 40 years ago are less powerless now, and less afraid about speaking up that it’s not okay. And wasn’t ever okay, except in the minds of white heterosexual men. Women and racial and ethnic minorities shrugged things off then (in public, at least) because that’s what we had to do to survive; we didn’t have the “make a stink” option; it wouldn’t have ended well for us.
Immanentize
@Nicole: I agree completely. I am not defending the old ways and I am happy we have come so far relatively so quickly!
Also, I did not come here to praise Cuomo but to bury him.
Now I have to go practice pronouns related to my incoming 1L students.?
Scout211
While I find these Cuomo posts very interesting and informative, I find myself wishing for a front pager from the West Coast who can post on our Governor here in California who is looking like he could be out of office next month and not for sexual misconduct. Everyone seems to be mad at him right now for everything and anything and could take that sentiment to the polling booth (or rather, in their living rooms since the ballots are being mailed very soon) and vote him out. I know I should be more positive, but I am not feeling positive right now.
I don’t see Newsom’s team is doing much of anything except sending more emails asking for more money. Are there ads on TV? Is he doing campaigning? I don’t see much of anything. Argh!
I would love to hear from someone in California who knows better about this and has a better handle on what is happening and what can be done to help.
Can any of the front pagers help? Can we get a smart Californian to guest post on our Governor?
Denali
I still cannot get beyond the fact that the New York Times called for Cuomo to resign and never called for Trump to resign.
germy
Markie Post has died.
She was 70.
Another Scott
@Scout211: There’s an old saying in some quarters:
“It’s easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission.” – Adm. Grace Hopper.
Thanks for volunteering!! Looking forward to it. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@Denali:
This front page:
Yutsano
@Scout211: I’m in Washington, but I’m really worried that Newsom could get voted out and that idiot Larry Elder gets voted in. I believe he would be the first California governor of colour, but at the same time he would be beyond clueless. Not to mention my grift senses are strong with that one. But one step at a time I guess.
Jackie
@West of the Rockies: Sadly, there ARE Democrats who aren’t without sin. Thankfully, there seems to be a lot less.
It’s only fair to admit and willing to discuss both.
billcinsd
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Anyway, Cuemo is good at handling the pandemic
I guess if you leave out the lying about the nursing homes stuff, this might be true
dnfree
@cmorenc: I used to work with a woman who was an Adult Child of an Alcoholic. There’s a lot of research into the various personality types that having an alcoholic parent can lead to. One of them is a “hero”, who seems to overcome the difficulties of their upbringing, but at times of stress may revert to being more impulsive in damaging ways. My former co-worker recognized that in Clinton almost immediately, and it made her wary of him.
PsiFighter37
@Nora: To me, Cuomo still acted like New York was the nation circa mid-1990s, where he needed to triangulate the hell out of things to stay in power. An overreaction to Mario losing to Pataki in 1994, IMO.
@Scout211: The problem for Newsom is that cases are going back up, and the Democrats in the state will turn out for regularly-scheduled elections, but far less so for special elections. There’s a huge component of the base in California that is low turnout, and the rich stiffs and assholes who feel the most offended by the pandemic restrictions (namely all the conservative rich people in the OC) will most definitely come out.
If Newsom wins the recall by any margin, though, it will convince me that even on a terrible turnout day, Democrats would still win a statewide election – and that would be really bad news for the state GOP, which has to resort to tactics like this to even have a reasonable shot of sniffing statewide office. Newsom, frankly, also didn’t help himself with his French Laundry dinner party. That was idiotic on the highest level of political malpractice.
artem1s
I’d prefer the process take hold and Andrew be ousted by legal means, rather than resignation. It’s important that the investigation has gone forward and so far, isn’t holding anything back to protect someone who in decades past would have been shielded from public shaming and being held accountable for their behavior. Letting the process go to its full conclusion may the the only way to stop enabling those who are weaponizing sexual behavior to attack their political opponents. It’s become the weapon of choice to get someone removed from office that the GQP (and other extremists) has decided they want out of the way. I really hate it when the Dems use sexual behavior as a means of last resort to block someone like Kavanaugh too. It’s a weakness that those in power aren’t willing to spend their own political capital to oust someone. Instead they put the pressure on the victims of sexual abuse to do all the heavy lifting and relive their abuse all over again – not to mention become the target of death threats.
This is an opportunity to show that the Party believes in the justice system and that it’s preferable to trying someone thru the press. Lately the Dems have done a good job of ousting their sexual predatory assholes and not allowing them to keep failing upward because someone thinks they might be a good candidate for President some day (Edwards). The GQP on the otherhand keeps doubling down on white washing their candidate’s past (W, Kavanaugh, TFG) as long as they keep the money flowing into the party and winning elections. I still think forcing Franken to resign was a misstep by the Party. A full hearing would have been better and may have actually taught the country about how to deal with sexual harassers in the workplace. Resignation does nothing for the victims in the long run anyway – it’s just part of political theatre to shelter those who are standing too close to perp when they finally get caught.
cmorenc
@Emma from Miami:
@Elizabelle:
I agree, “sexually opportunistic hound dog” is a a more apt description of Bill Clinton than “predator” – except to note that Bill was not inclined to pass up on potential opportunities, however indiscreet. And had Hillary won in 2016, the same forces in the GOP which willfully looked past Trump’s history of egregious sexual behavior toward women would have relentlessly hounded the Clinton II Administration over her purported tolerance of his hound-dogging habits. Which Emma correctly reminds us that they would indeed have blasted Hillary’s FMA (first man of America) as a predator at every opportunity.
sab
@Jackie: I think you missed a “not” in there.
Another Scott
@artem1s: You make a good case.
The problem for me with “let the process work” is that it’s a very flawed process. It takes too long (months or years in famous examples), too much is behind closed doors, members of Congress and the like are policing their own and the quality of justice depends on the politics of the moment, etc. We know that the GQP would have fought to keep Franken in the news for months, with increasingly lurid accusations that he couldn’t rebut. They fought for 6 months to keep him from even taking his seat, for crying out loud…
Sometimes, often, it’s best to cut bait and move on. In a heathy political system, nobody is irreplaceable. (A wise person once said, “If you can’t be fired, you can’t be promoted.”)
Cheers,
Scott.
Peale
@PsiFighter37: yep. The party in CA never seemed to think it needed to handle its actual turnout problem. And I think we’re not talking about the recall more because we kind of know that Newsome is toast. If California ends up with a Trumpist governor because of its recall rules though, I will be sick.
Earl
@cmorenc: I disagree that Clinton is just a hound dog and not a predator.
Fucking your reports, or people entangled in Democratic politics (or just politics) who *have* to deal with senior political leaders is predatory. Sicking your aides on a 22 y/o is predatory. Using your job as governor to facilitate access to a stream of fresh women who all need things from the governor or his party is predatory.
One of the few gifts of the 2016 election is we don’t have to defend the clearly unacceptable for the next 4-8 years.
Earl
@Peale: Newsom keeps earning this.
Getting caught flaunting his mask rules wasn’t enough, he had to allow his kids to do it too. Just amazing.
VeniceRiley
Don’t worry about California. We’re all getting a mail in ballot.
Yutsano
@artem1s: @Another Scott: There’s a criminal allegation. While it is just the one, any decent prosecutor is going to bring as much to light as possible in order to establish this was a pattern and not just her allegation alone. I don’t see this dying quietly even if Cuomo resigns. And the fellow New York jackals all seen to think no way he resigns. So we’ll see this play out one way or another, but I don’t see much getting swept under the rug.
sab
I am finding it interesting how much my husband hates hearing about Cuomo these days. He wants it over already. I think decent men are getting really tired of hearing about what the creeps have been up to.
Sister Golden Bear said last night or the night before (paraphrasing here) that until she transitioned she had no idea how relentless and how commonplace the creeps activities are. I rarely brought home my complaimts, but in 40 years of working I have only worked in one office where sexual harrassment wasn’t a problem at some level.
The decent guys need to start taking this seriously a whole lot earlier in the process. They are out there with eyes. Start noticing stuff.
Geminid
@artem1s: I can see the value of having a trial over Cuomo’s misconduct. But I suspect there will not be one. It looks like there are more than enough votes to impeach and convict him. What could Cuomo do or say to turn this around? His attorney’s recent defense of him just made people madder. Cuomo might stick it out for a few more weeks, but when the New York State Assembly begins their fall session I think he will bail.
DB11
@cmorenc: I think it’s hard to excuse Bill’s behaviour regardless of the label applied to him for it.
Whether actually predatory or simply problematic, the fact remains that his inability to keep it in his pants crippled his presidency (along with the partisan and self-serving assists from SCOTUS and Starr).
What I find interesting is to imagine how much regret he must now feel at the squandering of his unparalleled political talents — and the opportunity to become a president remembered for his (substantive) political accomplishments — instead of sordid tales of a blue dress and a cigar.
If Clinton had had one tenth of Obama’s self-discipline and self-possession, he could have been remembered as one of history’s greatest presidents. Instead, he finds himself in his twilight years explaining away his flights and friendships with Epstein (a la Bill Gates).
I also lament the immense damage that he visited on Hillary, both personally and politically — and wonder what might have been if Hillary had cut bait post-presidency…
(Oh, and I concur with your opinion of John Travolta’s performance perfectly capturing Clinton’s exasperating duality in Primary Colours).
Scout211
@Earl:
So this is what makes me worry. Of course he flaunted the mask mandate dining at that trendy restaurant and then more recently his kids attended a sports camp that didn’t require masks when masks were recommended (not mandated). But is this really why he should be out of office and replaced by a Republican? I hear too many people say he’s an arrogant ass but is he a bad Governor? Should we remove him for being an arrogant ass only to replace him with another arrogant ass who happens to be a Republican?
I agree that turnout (or returning the mail-in ballots) is crucial but why are the Democrats not campaigning? They think it’s in the bag? I just don’t understand politics, I guess.
WhatsMyNym
California: Newsom won 61.9% of the vote in 2018.
DB11
As for Cuomo, he has to go. His political competence and intelligence doesn’t excuse his abusive behaviour.
Given who he is, I doubt that he can either be enticed or cajoled to resign. If that is indeed the case, then he needs to be impeached.
PsiFighter37
@Earl: Kind of crazy that, given how Democratic California is, Newsom will likely win reelection easily in 2022. In ‘normal’ times, his flubs would have gotten him kicked off the ballot for a normal election. I am very surprised to see that the recent polling shows him to be underwater on the recall – and yet some freakin’ YouTuber (who is a Democrat) is the leading choice to replace him. A 29 year-old!! Good grief.
That said, I think this is the end of the road for Newsom politically – after this, I’m not convinced that he is going to be the candidate who ends up replacing Feinstein, and he is term-limited anyways.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
When I read the opportunist GQP congresscritter’s comment, what’s her name, Stefanek?, that Cuomo should be arrested for those accusations, my response was: “Much as I hate to admit it, the fascist has a point. Give him the cell next to TFG’s.”
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Some people just like the power. They may or may not do the job OK or even well, but what they like is the power over other people. If they have it, they will likely abuse it. In many situations the difference boils down to abuser or competent at whatever, but those lines are not always one or the other. Respect is always earned and competency isn’t the measure of that. Humanity is.
The Thin Black Duke
@sab: What I found so subversive about the recent remake of The Invisible Man was the premise of a woman (the amazing Elisabeth Moss) being stalked and terrorized by a brutal sociopath that nobody can see. You couldn’t ask for a better metaphor to illustrate how often male predatory behavior is ignored until it’s too late.
Ruckus
@Rocks:
Andy is the governor of a state whose primary business is money. That is why he was able to counter SFB, his state operates around the business that SFB wants desperately to operate in but only does a rather crappy job hanging around the edges. He did a reasonable job with Covid. So did other governors. He had a bigger bullhorn.
eddie blake
@Elizabelle:
late tot the party, but damn straight. broderick was deemed sans credibility by starr, kavanaugh and the rest of those predator-prudes. figure she’s not worthy of anyone’s attention.
and yeah, cuomo was a shitty governor who enabled the right wing for a very long time. he made the IDC happen SPECIFICALLY so he wouldn’t have to deal with progressive legislation.
the IDC was SOO fucked up. state is functioning SO much better with an actual democratic majority in actual control.
eddie blake
@Elizabelle:
late tot the party, but damn straight. broderick was deemed sans credibility by starr, kavanaugh and the rest of those predator-prudes. figure she’s not worthy of anyone’s attention.
and yeah, cuomo was a shitty governor who enabled the right wing for a very long time. he made the IDC happen SPECIFICALLY so he wouldn’t have to deal with progressive legislation.
the IDC was SOO fucked up. state is functioning SO much better with an actual democratic majority in actual control.
@Nora:
exactly.
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
My only question is does that timing make the actions right?
Acceptable yes, but right?
I’m 9 yrs older than Andy and I’ve always understood that the things he’s done are unacceptable. Just because a lot of people in/with power got away with them never made them OK.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Scout211: Dan Pfeiffer (Pod-casting O’Bro) was surprisingly (to me) agitated about this recall vote. He lives in CA. Part of the problem is a ballot that requires people to pay careful attention to exactly how they’re responding. He had a pithy piece of advice that somewhat surprisingly I don’t see on his twitter feed. I wanna say, “Vote no on the first question, leave the second blank”, but I haven’t seen the ballot.
Another Scott
@Yutsano: Aren’t there noises on twitter that the criminal complaint against Cuomo hasn’t actually been filed yet? (I thought I saw something about that on Popehat or nycsouthpaw, but of course I can’t find it now.) The lawyer(s) seemed to be parsing what had been done (being one/few steps short of an official complaint). Surely Andrew knows it’s a sword dangling over him and presumably it’s entering into his calculations.
Dunno.
Cheers,
Scott.
Emma from Miami
@cmorenc: What I am actually saying is that if Democrats had played hardball at the proper time, we would not have had the problem. Even though a lot of their “witnesses” were skeevy, we were not willing to fight because we were afraid to be seen as evil for protecting a “predator.” And we ended up with several decade of cowering in front of the Republicans.
zhena gogolia
@sab:
I wouldn’t be as tired of hearing about it if TFG had suffered any consequences whatsoever for the same or worse behavior. Since he didn’t, I’m not interested. Call it whataboutism or whatever you please, but I’m not interested
ETA: And yes, I’m a woman, so have experienced all sorts of this kind of stuff.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I thought the second question was the vote on the replacement.
Jeffro
OT but…did I miss something, or have the Republicans completely folded on trying to hold the debt ceiling hostage?
Last week, it looked like it was gonna be an issue and now I am hearing jack/squat anywhere about it.
laura
What more need to be said about this idiot with his for shite policies, occasional bouts of pandemic competence (questionable), his public-private reputation laundering by his corporate media coddled sibling not to mention his raging ego boner fever? Enough already.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@VeniceRiley: inshallah
Ruckus
@Scout211:
Newsom is a competent governor of a large state with some massive problems. One of the effects of that is he is never going to appease everyone, it’s absolutely impossible, especially in the face of an unparalleled pandemic and over 10 percent of the nations population. There are still a large number of republicans in this state and many of them would like to see him fail, they’d like to see him fail rather than the state do well. He’s not perfect, of course no one is but he does a very acceptable job as governor. Replacing him with any of the assholes running against him would be a disaster of epic proportions. He’s a better human being than any of them, a better leader than any of them, a better politician, and he does a far better job than any of them could.
And please understand I’m not his biggest fan, but I like competency and he’s got more than enough of that, and none of the people who recalled him, nor the people hoping to replace him have any. This is a disaster of our state constitution, meant to protect us from the kinds of people trying to boot him out and the losers running against him if he is recalled.
Vote No on the recall. Tell all your friends to vote No on the recall.
I’m old enough to remember the republican governors that we’ve had over the last 50+ yrs, please, please, please let’s not go through that again.
Baud
@Jeffro:
I think the drop dead date is sometime next month.
smith
It absolutely was remarked upon, clearly and in public (you remember second wave feminism?). The problem was, it was women doing the remarking, and it took a while for people to pay attention.
When men did start listening (because, as a commenter above remarked, women gained enough power to make themselves heard), we established laws, policies, channels for complaints, mandatory training. All this happened 20+ years ago. Cuomo has had plenty of time to absorb the new norms. What creeps like Cuomo misunderstand is not the norms, but the fact that they are not too important to have to follow them.
germy
@Another Scott:
See comment #5 above.
Scout211
@Baud:
yes, that is correct.
https://ballotpedia.org/Gavin_Newsom_recall,_Governor_of_California_(2019-2021)
Geminid
@Baud: The recall election is September 14. I wonder when the ballots come out. Maybe the Democratics are waiting until closer to then to start their advertising push. Republican candidates are trying to build their name recognition, but Newsome does not need to.
Nicole
@The Thin Black Duke: The Invisible Man was the last film I saw in a theater, right before everything closed down. I agree about the metaphor. And yeah, Moss was great.
Baud
@Geminid:
“The Democrats” is ok. The “Democrat Party” is not.
Kent
Buyt was he actually GOOD at handling the pandemic? I’m on the opposite coast so haven’t followed NY Covid all that carefully. But I recall all manner of NY-Covid scandals related to nursing homes, distorting numbers, schools, and I don’t know what all.
He was definitely good at Covid PR, no doubt helped by the fact that his brother had a show on CNN. But I’m not sure that actually made him good on Covid itself. Unless we are using the 2020 bar set by Trump himself.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: Right, that’s what I recall him saying– I wish they published transcripts– that the way the ballots are counted it’s not enough to vote “no” on recall, it’s important to leave that second one blank.
Sounds like the whole process is fucked from hell to breakfast, too easy to initiate by goons and astroturfers, too complicated for actual voters
Scout211
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I have a post in moderation for too many links, but ballotpedia says the first question needs a majority to pass but the second one (choosing a replacement) only needs the most votes, so leaving it blank doesn’t sound like a good strategy.
https://ballotpedia.org/Gavin_Newsom_recall,_Governor_of_California_(2019-2021)
Geminid
@Baud: Proofreader laying down on the job again! I’d fire him, but the feral cat says she’s dyslexic and can’t proofread, so I’m stuck with this idiot.
DB11
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Isn’t that generally the case for the various mechanisms of direct democracy: recalls, referenda, ballot initiatives?
They sound like a really good idea in the abstract, but (especially in the current communication environment of weaponized disinformation) the reality is that the electorate is too easily manipulated/confused through FUD for the public interest to be well-served.
Which would suggest that these mechanisms (if they are to remain) need significantly higher thresholds for enactment, plus simplified, more easily understood process in execution (as you suggest).
I’m trying to think of positive examples of liberal initiatives that broadly improved things — but mostly I come up with Republican / Christian / Corporate mischief and rat-fucking as the most memorable examples.
TriassicSands
Cuomo should not resign. He should take his bloated, toxic ego to his impeachment trial and if the evidence is sufficient, which it certainly sounds like it is, he should be removed from office. Then, he can never claim he wasn’t given a fair hearing (yeah, he still might) and there would be true accountability.
Ruckus
Politics is trying to run an insane asylum by, for and with the inmates.
No one is going to do a perfect job, no one is going to be the perfect governor or president, perfect does not exist. No one will ever do the job the same way as you would, likely even if you don’t think they did it well or OK they may in fact be doing the job as well as possible. CA is a great example of a difficult to run state. It’s big. It’s got the biggest population. The conservative side of CA politics is a bigger number than quite a few states total population. I don’t believe that there is a larger percentage of nuts in CA than any other state, but it’s still a big number. CA is the 5th largest economy in the world, has the largest state population, has extreme fire issues, especially given global warming and it’s water issues, it’s largest county has a bigger population than 41 states. We have county sheriffs who think they are god. Etc. None of this makes being governor easy. Add a pandemic on top of all of that and redo the math, it just got harder. No human is going to be perfect – in any job – but especially in this one. We could and have been in far worse hands, with far less going on. Look at FL. Compare and contrast. Enough said.
zhena gogolia
@laura:
Bingo!
Kent
It is really harder than you might think. I’m 57 and have had several careers and have been around the block a few times. So I’ve encountered plenty of shitty guys in my life who are racist, sexist, and just plain bullies. But never in a context where I have had much actual power to do anything about it. Guys like that usually create their own little impervious fiefdoms and surround themselves with lackeys. So, for example, in the past decade some of the guys who come to mind:
Coach of my daughter’s soccer team when she was 10 was a flaming abusing asshole who happened to also be the parent of one of the big football stars at Baylor which made him and his family sort of local celebs. He owned his own local insurance agency so answered to no one. What did I do? I volunteered to coach and took over the team and pushed him aside. What authority does one complain to about general assholery? There isn’t one.
Friends of friends you sometimes encounter while in bars at viewing parties for football teams and such. I’ve ran into guys like this who can be drunk sexist assholes in bars. They don’t know me, I don’t know them. How far do you go beyond saying “Dude…give it a fucking rest, that’s not cool” when they are just spouting off bullshit and verbally harassing waitresses but not actually doing physical hands-on sexual harassment? Start an actual fight?
When I was younger I had actual bosses who were flaming racists and assholes. What does one do when you are 22 and your 40 year old supervisor or owner of the company is a flaming asshole?
I have never actually worked around anyone who I knew was a grabby sort of sexual harasser like Cuomo. But I’ve worked around PLENTY of general-issue equal-opportunity assholes who are sexist, racist, and abusive to everyone not in their own small circle. And often abusive to those in their own small circle as well in that male-dominance way that Trump shows so well. What does one do with these sorts? Fire their asses if you have the power. But if not? Trust me, management generally knows who they are. It is tough.
I’m not trying to make excuses. But it isn’t so easy
Ruckus
@smith:
What they really don’t understand is that NO ONE is not too important to have to follow them.
Another Scott
@germy: D’Oh!!
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I was once on a committee charged with deciding whether to fire a tenured professor for sexual harassment. Based on our report, the school did fire him, but it should have happened long before.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Truth??????
Peale
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I know the Democrats in California don’t want to campaign, but seriously, the GOP will know how to fill out those ballots. You can’t rely on enraged voters to be smart. You need to message them on what you want them to do. Right now you want Democratic voters to have requested ballots and know what to do when they get them. Not “fundraising” messages. Instructions. It’s not going to go away.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I did a twitter search of “California recall ballot blank” and found this, which jibes with what I remember Pfeiffer saying on that podcast, but I don’t know who this person is, nor the couple of other people who had tweeted similar things. Nothing from any Dem organ or journalist or whatever
ETA: Nothing on google that I could find, I assume because my search terms are too broad. My fu is weak
Scout211
@Peale:
Every registered voter will be mailed a ballot.
https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/statewide-elections/2021-recall/recall-calendar.pdf
Geminid
@Peale: So are ballots only going out by request? I thought maybe they were sent to everyone, like Oregon (I think).
Edit: now I see active voters get ballots. Whew!
Kent
In the early 90s I was a grad TA for an oceanography professor at the UW. So thirty years ago now. He informed me that part of my job was to come to all of his Friday evening happy hour student-professor sessions at the local brew pub a block up the street from our campus office. He didn’t want to be in the position where only a lone female student might show up. Just for appearances sake, not because he didn’t trust himself not to be an asshole.
Even back then we had a lot of conversations about how it was challenging for women to break into the academic sciences and how attention to sexual harassment (this was the Clinton era) made it harder for women students to build informal social networks when a lot of it was happening around after hour drinks and such.
This professor of mine was a great guy and was making a very serious effort to bring women into the sciences hence part of my informal job description was to attend every Friday happy hour just to “chaperone” and make it comfortable for women students to show up too.
That was 30 years ago. None of this is new. The idea that someone like Cuomo, who is 6 years older than me didn’t know better or is from a different time is patently offensive bullshit.
sab
@Kent: They do it when no one important is watching, but they do it a lot. I remember walking down the hall with another young employee and a boss. He threw a casual arm on her shoulder and she cringed. I asked her about it afterwards and she said he had been pawing her for months, and at that stage in her career she couldn’t really leave. Asking around, she wasn’t alone.
Casual touchimg like that should never be okay. Other partner would have been horrified, but we didn’t think he would believe us about the bad intentions. And splitting up a partnership is like splitting up a marriage.
That is the problem. Stuff has to be stopped very early or it just escalates.
It was a small firm and a bunch of us left, and the senior partner never knew why. We didn’t want to stay there as it was, and we didn’t see how to fix it.
I think we need a lot more public blow ups so that young men grow up thinking this could be dangerous for their careers and reputations. So far the onus has all been on women to show there is a there there.
Scout211
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t understand what this accomplishes. If the first question ends up 51% for recall, then the voters who choose no one to replace Newsom will throw away their vote for the replacement Governor. Can you explain what this strategy will accomplish? There doesn’t need to be a majority for question #2, only a plurality, so it makes no sense to me.
Yutsano
Way too much stupidity on Twitter right now. I know that’s about the norm but I swear it’s worse this afternoon. I need to shower and solve my peanut butter craving anyway.
Kropacetic
If both sides were the same, elected Democrats would only refer to themselves as “elected Democratics” and you wouldn’t be able to go out in public without some hazmat-suited individual accosting you with the story of the deplorable victimization of Andrew Cuomo.
sab
@Kent: That professor sounds like a great guy and a rare bird. I think a lot of this needs to be stoped at the undergrad level. People need to network, but that shouldn’t throw women into a social free for all.
I read about Amy Chua and her husband and it just makes me ill. They were socializing these students to behave this way. Yale Law School encouraged it. And another group of students goes out into the world thinking this is and should be normal and acceptable behavior. And then they become judges.
Kent
@sab: In my experience, assholery is usually broad-spectrum. I don’t recall knowing anyone who was generally a great guy in every other way except that he was “grabby” or whatever. The same people who are sexist are also generally racist and abusive and just general assholes to everyone. Either overtly, or in passive-aggressive ways.
The only exception I can think of was one principal I had many principals ago at a different school who seemed to surround himself with “yes women” types who were more or less his ‘groupies’. The whole thing was vaguely creepy but never in a way you could put your finger on. But there was definitely an in-crowd at that school and then the rest of us. Of course he was a shitty supervisor.
I don’t know how you cure assholery. But we definitely need to be less tolerant of it. I think organizations need to be more astute about weeding it out in their ranks. That is why I am cheering zero-exception vaccination rules in companies. It just might weed out a small handful of the worst assholes in some organizations.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kent: Your prof was a good guy
ETA: My male colleagues who were not on the committee were worried the guy had been fired for something trivial that they too had done. Obviously, we couldn’t share a lot of information about what happened, but they settled down when I said the committee vote was unanimous
WaterGirl
@Scout211: I released your comment.
Scout211
@WaterGirl:
Thanks!
lowtechcyclist
@Elizabelle:
I dealt with it at the time by realizing that this was the same guy who screwed New York but good, in the face of a ton of evidence piling up that NY needed to shut down, before he started giving those stupid briefings.
He had the blood of thousands of New Yorkers on his hands already when people were getting crushes on him. I never could understand why people wanted to hear what he had to say.
Sure, he was better than Cheetolini, but that bar is so low, it’s somewhere down near the Earth’s mantle.
Elizabelle
WRT California: which is in the midst of a pandemic, and the Dixie Fire is now the second largest in California history. Whole small towns are being consumed.
I just don’t see the voters ignoring the recall ballot and thinking: what the hell, why not go with a Republican for shits and giggles?
Californians: do you think you could rein in the recall process? It is used by Republicans as a Hail Mary and for political mischief.
It is sinful for a state which is on fire to have to pay for this ridiculous recall election. Sinful.
WRT Twitter: why do you suppose it is so crazy today? The August heat? Bots trying to get out in front of some big news that is about to drop; flooding the zone??
lowtechcyclist
@Denali:
I still can’t believe that by September 1998, over 100 newspapers had called for Clinton to resign, but hardly any news orgs ever called for Trump’s resignation.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Oh, that’s sad! I loved Hearts Afire.
zhena gogolia
@lowtechcyclist:
It’s disgusting.
lowtechcyclist
@Elizabelle:
Maybe I just hang out on the wrong parts of Twitter. I just got through with a fascinating thread about how all this anti-vax, anti-mask stuff has happened before, with seat belts, with drunk driving laws, with no smoking on airplanes, with no-smoking areas in restaurants, etc. Very informative, good discussion. And haven’t seen any craziness at all.
zhena gogolia
@sab: When I was in college, a friend of mine had a crush on an English professor. She got me to call him from a bar in late afternoon and invite him to come discuss As I Lay Dying with the two of us. He chuckled and politely declined, and never made any reference to it afterwards. I look back on him as a very wise fellow (and quite unusual for the time and place).
Kent
@lowtechcyclist: To be fair, the NYT most definitely did call for Trump’s impeachment and conviction and removal from office.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/14/opinion/sunday/trump-impeachment.html
I can’t find any direct evidence that they similarly called for Clinton’s impeachment and conviction back in 1998.
Elizabelle
@lowtechcyclist: it was actually Yutsano who made the crazy Twitter observation.
Yutsano: what were you seeing? I’m curious. Never on Twitter except for the links people share here
James E Powell
@Peale:
I don’t know of anyone in the business who thinks this. And I haven’t heard anyone but Republicans say it.
zhena gogolia
@Kent: But not in response to the many, many credible accusations of sexual harassment and assault that their own reporters documented.
sab
@zhena gogolia: My freshman year of college was a summer session in south central Ohio. It was very hot. I wore shorts all summer. Half way through the term my econ professor, following me up some stairs, said I had nice legs. He was married with a baby!
I never wore shorts again. At the end of the term he said ” I never saw your legs again.” I said ” That should be a lesson to you. It was to me.”
Ruviana
@Earl: it’s FLOUT. I make this point because FLAUNT is basically the opposite so Newsom would be promoting the mask rules. Sometimes pedantry is important.
Ella in New Mexico
@Sure Lurkalot: context matters
Nothing I said was “beyond the pale” TBH
James E Powell
@Peale:
I don’t know whether you’re deliberately spreading false information or you’re just poorly informed. Do you live in California?
The Stop the Republican Recall Campaign is currently running TV ads. Volunteers – including me – have been making phone calls.
If you’re truly worried and want to see the recall fail, go to https://stoptherepublicanrecall.com/ and volunteer.
The real work of the campaign begins after voters have received their ballots. Phone calls and other contacts will be used to get our people to vote.
Are you going to help or just complain from the bleachers?
sab
@dnfree: That is interesting to know. At 67 I should have known, but I didn’t.
zhena gogolia
@sab:
You were precociously smart!
James E Powell
@Ruviana:
What’s more, Newsom wasn’t flouting the mask rules, he just didn’t follow them every time.
People who refuse to wear a mask and get into loud confrontations with the workers at grocery stores or restaurants are flouting the rules.
sab
@zhena gogolia: I was a prude and not shy about it
ETA: Fool around with your own age but adults and faculty ( and later management) are off limits. Useful for the young and their potential predators to keep in mind.
Another Scott
@James E Powell: Thank you.
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@dnfree: That also explains a lot about Klobuchar.
Another Scott
@Ruviana:
“That’s it, baby, when you’ve got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it!”.
;-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
MagdaInBlack
@Kent: I’ve known several of those type. They surround themselves with the ” well, he’s never an asshole to me” groupies. And they’re right, he isn’t, to them. Therefore, if he’s doing it to you, you must be doing something to cause the assholery. The groupies are cover.
Edmund Dantes
@Scout211: I get ads all the time in YouTube for Newsome and on Facebook.
maybe you aren’t in their target group due to whatever demographics you are throwing off?
edit – also get text messages from his campaign too but those seem to have died off. Can’t remember if I unsubscribed to those though.
Edmund Dantes
@James E Powell: Yeah. I don’t understand that post at all. I have seen plenty. None on tv as I cord cut.
The one I can remember the most for YouTube was a Warren one.
Scout211
@Edmund Dantes:
Thank you for saying that. It makes me feel better.
It does make sense because I live in a very red county so my targeted ads might be because of my location. The only targeted ads I have seen are the ones put out by Elder and those super PAC ones with the pics of Newsom making him look like a monster.
I don’t watch much TV, so those ads I have missed, too.
Kent
Oh, I agree. Trump was the walking personification of a double standard in the media. In every fucking conceivable way, not just sexual harassment.
Yutsano
@Elizabelle: Between the hashtag #ObamaVariant and Antifa trending because of really stupid reasons. I dared to look. Learn from my experience please.
EDIT: sorry for the delay. I took care of a few things for myself after typing that.
Elizabelle
@Yutsano: It’s appalling how often it’s rightwing clickbait that is trending.
Obama variant. LOL.
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
I think that the recall and the ballot initiative process were the result of elected officials loudly, publicly and gleefully being corrupt and not even pretending to give a rat’s ass about the will of the people. From the Wiki.
I believe that in California a state senator, Marshall Black, was recalled in 1913 in the first use of the process. He had authored a bill in 1911 to extend the recall to local officials.
But you are absolutely right that this is ripe for political mischief. And it is extremely difficult for any Republican to win statewide office in California, so recall gives them a chance to sneak into office via a side door.
Ksmiami
@Ruckus: I just donated. Literally this recall is a shitshow
sab
@sab: I was also a rich kid in a private school. Schloarship kid in a public school I can guarantee I would have kept silent.
J R in WV
@brendancalling:
Baud is our hero — screw you if you don’t recognize that!!!
Ruckus
@Scout211:
I just read the CA secretary of state website for the recall election.
A) If the vote is 50% or more no, then the governor is not recalled.
B) Who ever wins the most votes (part B of he election) becomes the governor if the no vote in part A is less than 50%. Only a plurality is required.
It’s that simple. I believe there needs to be a larger number of signatures than 12% of the number of votes in the last governors race, which is the current required number. I think it should be 25%. Not impossible to do but a lot less likely to be successful and it’s only been successful once in 110 yrs. I think the people saying it’s highly likey that he will be ousted are the republicans that want to once again not have a successful state government. Or any government for that matter.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@smith: god bless the fathers of daughters!
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@sab: & after that, prof. d. lee roth left academia to join the band.
your choice in legwear gave us 1984. thank you!