Crooked Media - What A Day: Cuom Alone II

An investigation by the New York attorney general’s office has confirmed what multiple women alleged last year: Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), a creepy little worm, is unfit for public office.
 

• Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women, including members of his own staff and other state employees, created a hostile work environment “filled with fear and intimidation,” and violated state and federal law, according to the report that New York Attorney General Letitia James released on Tuesday. The five-month probe also found that Cuomo had retaliated against a former employee for speaking publicly about his misconduct. 
   
• In addition to substantiating earlier allegations, the report included a harrowing new account from a state trooper who was assigned to Cuomo’s security detail at his request, even though she didn’t meet the experience requirements for the role. (When questioned about that, Cuomo tried to play it off as a noble push for diversity on his staff; just a fun bonus fuck-you to women, people of color, and progressives everywhere!) The trooper told investigators that after she joined his detail in 2018, Cuomo sexually harassed her on multiple occasions, making creepy, demeaning comments and repeatedly touching her without her consent. 
   
• Cuomo has of course announced his resignation and slithered into the sewers, never to be seen again denied everything in a victim-blaming statement with no Q&A portion: “I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances.” You can tell Cuomo’s telling the truth because he prepared this berserk slideshow of himself kissing people on the face, as well as an 85-page defense mostly made up of pictures of him and other politicians hugging people. Can’t be an inappropriate creep to the women in your employ if you’re an inappropriate creep to absolutely everyone! Checkmate, idiots!

Astoundingly, Cuomo’s rock-solid “I’d have to be a real psycho to be this much of a psycho” defense might not be enough to get him out of this jam.
 

• President Biden has called on Cuomo to resign now that an investigation has confirmed the allegations, and he’s lost any remaining support he had in Congress: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) reiterated their calls for Cuomo to step down on Tuesday, and for the first time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined them. The final three holdouts from New York’s Democratic congressional delegation, including House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, have also seen enough. 
   
• Cuomo has given no indication that he’ll heed anyone’s demands to get lost, but Democrats in the state Assembly held an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss the next steps in their impeachment probe. Dozens of Democratic state lawmakers said in the spring that they would wait for investigations to conclude before taking action, and that moment may have come: Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said that the conduct described in James’s “gut-wrenching” report “would indicate someone who is not fit for office.”

The pattern of Cuomo’s misconduct has been nauseatingly clear for months, but James’s report provides the necessary final evidence for New York Democrats to remove him from power. If he stands by his Innocence PowerPoint and refuses to resign in the next few days, they’ll have no other defensible option. 

The COVID-19 pandemic showed us just how much more there is to learn about society’s biggest threats. Former Detroit health commissioner Dr. Abdul El-Sayed hosts America Dissected, and each week he talks to the doctors and policy leaders who are working to protect us. On the latest episode of America Dissected, Abdul is joined by Climate Policy Director at the Roosevelt Institute and author of the Green New Deal, Rhiana Gunn-Wright. For more conversations like this, listen and subscribe to America Dissected wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Tuesday. 

In much cooler New York news, New York City (“The Big Jabble”) has become the first major U.S. city to require proof of vaccination for indoor dining, gyms, and performances. The mandate will go into full effect in September. And as major corporations continue to issue new vaccine requirements, President Biden praised them for stepping up and urged other businesses to follow suit: “Even Fox has vaccination requirements.” The White House has also put new pressure on Govs. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to reverse their pandemic-prolonging bans on vaccine and mask mandates in their states, to no avail. As Florida broke its hospitalization record for the third straight day, DeSantis continued his anti-mask crusade: “I’m sick of the judgmental stuff.” Floridians are probably pretty sick of the getting-sick stuff, but it’s smart not to let that distract from the real issues.

• The CDC has issued a new eviction moratorium to protect renters in 90 percent of the country through October 3, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ruled out bringing the House back from recess to extend the expired ban. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he “particularly applaud[s]” Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) for her activism on the issue.
   
• A fourth police officer who defended the Capitol from insurrectionists has died by suicide, the Metropolitan police department confirmed on Monday. Kyle DeFreytag was 26.
   
• A Pentagon police officer died after being stabbed in a flurry of violence outside the Pentagon on Tuesday, which included gunfire and resulted in “several casualties,” according to Pentagon security. Police shot and killed a suspect at the scene. 
   
• The Biden administration has decided to leave in place the Trump-era public-health rule allowing it to turn away migrants at the border, citing overcrowding at border facilities and the spread of the Delta variant. 
   
• Donald Trump will fight the release of his tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee, after the Treasury regrettably said it would give him a chance to raise objections before complying with the Justice Department’s directions to fork them over.
   
• The Buffalo Common Council is considering a plan to do away with mayors altogether, just weeks after socialist candidate India Walton won the Democratic mayoral primary. 
   
• A Belariusian activist who ran a group in Ukraine helping Belarusians flee persecution was found dead in Kyiv on Tuesday, a day after he went missing.
   
• Tucker Carlson will broadcast his show from Budapest all week before speaking at a far-right conference backed by authoritarian Hungrian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday.
   
• Simone Biles won bronze on the balance beam in her return to Olympic competition, tying Shannon Miller as the most decorated Olympian in U.S. gymnastics history.

Between an unanswered wave of GOP voter-suppression laws, the looming redistricting process, and the latest round of worrisome polling, Democrats have begun scrambling to protect their House majority on multiple fronts. Unless Senate Democrats can all rally around legislation to ban partisan gerrymandering in, uh, the next few minutes, Democrats will be reliant on litigation to try to hold back the GOP’s redistricting advantage. Those efforts have started early this year, with lawsuits filed in nearly a dozen states before the new maps have even been drawn. And House Democrats’ campaign chief Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) privately warned vulnerable incumbents last week that their majority would be toast if the midterms were held now, according to bleak polling in battleground districts, and recommended stronger messaging on Biden’s economic gains. Pro-Biden groups have just such a messaging blitz planned, in the hopes of getting voters to understand that Democrats deserve the credit for their wildly popular proposals.

In 2021 mental health is finally a thing, especially as people are not feeling like their normal selves. Let’s support one another and talk openly. Whether or not therapy is your thing, knowing it’s available and affordable is important, for you or perhaps a loved one.  

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It’s always a good time to invest in yourself, because you are your greatest asset. See if online therapy is for you by heading to BetterHelp.com/crooked for 10% off your first month.

The FDA now aims to fully approve the Pfizer vaccine by Labor Day.

Daisy Veerasingham will become the first woman and the first person of color to lead the Associated Press in its 175-year history.

Florida A&M University has become the latest HBCU to forgive millions in student debt for the graduating class.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has passed out of a Senate committee in a near-unanimous vote.