Great article again, Matt. One thing about Cuomo that should be mentioned is while groping a woman's breast at work is bad, launching a smear campaign against her when she complains reaches the true evil category.
Great article again, Matt. One thing about Cuomo that should be mentioned is while groping a woman's breast at work is bad, launching a smear campaign against her when she complains reaches the true evil category.
Matt makes a good point about the moral failures we choose to focus on.
Cuomo's sex scandal is unsavory, but doesn't approach the sinister criminality of knowingly forcing retirement homes to accept Covid positive patients, writing a waiver for the companies doing this so they would not be held liable, lying about the number of people this policy killed, then writing a book about how you beat Covid-19. It's almost comical it's so sinister.
Likewise, in Biden's 48 years in the Senate not only is he directly responsible for promoting endless war, growing the surveillance state and a primary architect of mass incarceration in the US, but also had a history of supporting laws like the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) that shifted all the burden from the lender to the borrower. All this and we hear about Tara Read.
I don't mean to minimize their poor behavior towards women, but it's like singling out Mussolini for his parking tickets while in office. Our society seems more offended by words than deeds and offending people has become a worse crime than actually killing them.
It's not just Biden and Cuomo who have a lot in common. Those who focus on the performative over the criminal have a lot on common as well.
The significant difference is that a sex abuse or similar allegation can, usually, be contained to the individual. If people started looking at Cuomo's COVID policies there are a string of other Governors (D) that implemented similar policies, as well as questions to be raised about why his staff didn't object. Focusing on sex abuse is a way of containing the damage.
I know. That's an important part of the context of this. But my comment about Biden goes to the question of why Cuomo and why now? Cuomo's behavior is in every way, including all those mentioned, are normal. So what's going on? Why did the party decide to get rid of him and launch the investigation?
Just a guess here. Al Franken got tko'd not because of one photo or accuser, but all of the others who came out of the woodwork. As well as the fact that some Dems were afraid that there were more on deck.
The Dems were already all in with Biden. But it seemed that there was only one accuser. And she was a bit dodgy, and a Bernie supporter (as am I), so they had cover.
Cuomo has a lot of accusers. The hypocricy of the Dems hits limits when it comes to losing a major seat. Whether that would be the NY governor's office, or potus.
Once accuser came forwards in defiance of the party, knowing what would happen. If an investigation against Biden had been conducted with suitable protection for accusers, I think there would have been plenty. He has a rep.
But anyway, my point is that it seems likely the party decided to ditch Cuomo for other reasons and used these scandals to do it (idk why or why now). And I think that even further devalues the cause of the millions of people who have to put up with creeps, bullies, gropers, quid-pro-quoers etc. at work.
I honestly have no idea about Biden. There are certainly enough creepy pictures of him on the interwebs. Do i think he's a pedo? Actually, i don't, but who knows. Do i think he has a major boundary issue. You betcha. Which is majorly problematic. But while unwanted hair sniffing and shoulder rubs are gross, it's still a ways from boob grabbing.
Good point. Alleged by one, nothing alleged by the other. So best to wait for some sort of testimony by the one, and in the absence of something similar alleged about the other, I see no reason to look for proof either way.
"We had a primary and somehow the two candidates the people (and I) wanted the least are now in office. I believe Tara Reade because she had nothing to gain by coming forward and knew she'd be destroyed in the press."
Same.
"I doubt he grabbed anyone's boobs without permission. People don't get into positions of power if they mindlessly grab random boobs."
I'll reply to you as the original post seems to have disappeared. To the boob thing, i'd say google Eric Schneiderman, for starters.
As to those two candidates people wanted least - well, what to do about that for next time? Because what's on offer can only be worse on the Dem side. And if not Trump, still nothing worth voting for on the R side.
What i propose is this. Bernie will be too old. And besides, any candidate that economic progressives propose knows exactly what kind of treatment they'll get from the Dems. So i say either a) get Nina Turner to run as an Independent or, failing that, b) move to get her cleared as a write in candidate.
We need to strategize a bit bigger, bolder and longer term than that.
The left-wing of the Democratic party needs to organize into a formal faction, lets call it, for the sake of discussion, the Social Democratic Faction. It's goal is to get power by taking control of the Democratic Party.
The two party system has the power to prevent a 3rd party from getting much power and we can be sure they will always use it. But the SDF will switch its allegiance to a 3rd party whenever it chooses.
In this way the SDF will destroy the Democratic Party electorally (with the consequence of Republican wins) as often as needed until the right wingers die, retire or switch to the party that properly represents their interests.
The SDF needs to be a national movement operating at every level in electoral politics and direct action.
It need a charismatic leadership appealing to both partisans and the electorate. Idk who to suggest. But it absolutely must have no qualms whatsoever about being hated by D party members and loved by Rs. Without being ready to destroy and accept the consequences of that, it will have no power.
I am embarrassed to admit that up until now I thought Neil was singing "repaint" instead of "repay." It made sense to me as a person who badly needs to repaint his house.
Neil's original is something like 6 down on Youtube. The algorithm prioritizes covers.
They could afford to throw him under the bus, they had a Dem governor to pick his replacement. Guy had presidential ambitions too, but wasn't going to be annointed. Ultimately no great loss.
My guess would be to look to the NY AG's office to see if there's a beef. I don't see a benefit to "the party", i.e . ruling class as a whole, that would be a reason to push this now.
The progressive wing of the Dem party has always hated the machine wing. And as that machine wing pulled all hands on deck to get rid of Trump, they are now paying the piper, in that all of those progressives who were put in office are now looking for blood and to advance the progressive agenda.
As Matt points out, there are only a couple of semi-serious allegations here, most fall into the same category that the allegations against Trump fell, unsubstantiated BS. But there is blood in the water, and you never let a crisis go to waste.
Don't stop to think that Cuomo, if his reputation is left (ahem) unmolested, would be a potential candidate for 2024, and the party knows it. They want to clear the deck now.
If Trump is riding a wave of MAGA again, and Joe has more than one piece of breakfast on his face... the Dems will need an alpha male to slug it out with the Donald. Cuomo is one of the few with the (D) next to his name who could dish it out as well as take it.
Forgot to mention the whole fucked up rent moratorium was driven by the progressive branch of the party, not to mention all of the various UBI in all but name programs that are currently driving our economy straight into a ditch, along with the cancellation of the fuel pipelines. Those are all progressive wet dreams and are putting the working class, who used to be the backbone of the D's, straight into the arms of Republicans.
Focusing on the performative is by design - doing it on the criminal part would necessarily start conversation not about the failings of particular human but the failings and injustices of the system as a whole.
Areslent - Your commentary is excellent. It is by design -how else could it be that a crime is no longer a crime, and a non-crime is a crime ? People entertain insane rationalizations all day long, and therefor no longer have plain common sense. My 5$ is about to run out, but I am glad to find people like yourself posting here. These are not matters of entertainment, and we do not need/want gate keepers.
many are starting to see that these are matters of objective fact and morality - and beginning to realize it is not about being on one side or another. Bless you.
As a Leftist, my wake-up call about the duplicity of Dems occurred back in 1994 when "esteemed" Rep. Pat Schroeder repeated Jim Carville's line about "waving a dollar bill through a trailer park" after Paula Jones came forward with her accusation. Certainly as obscene as many things Republicans have been crucified for.
I tried to explain to many Democratic friends - not stupid people at all, otherwise pretty smart ones - back in '16 about how nauseatingly hypocritical it was for Hillary Clinton to say "believe all women" about Donald Trump, but not about her husband. They just couldn't make that connection, or understand that it was the exact same energy. At that point i really totally despaired of the ability for critical thinking of our Democratic electorate. If they had admitted - yeah, but Trump, so she gets a pass on Bill here - i could have at least mustered a scintilla of respect.
Ya know, now that I'm in my 60's I find myself, out of necessity, "taking a wide stance" to urinate (Prostate troubles). Makes me think back on that accusation with a bit of rueful understanding, or at least that it wasn't entirely a silly defence.
Thank you !! There are also bipartisan taboo themes though.
Much reported, including Ed Snowden "Topic of this year тАУ Pegasus, etc.", is disclosure of continuous over time surveillance ability of all smart-phones of all conversations and pin-point location-accuracy even when phone is turned off.
Therefore, certainly many governments (certainly of Israel and the US) know EXACTLY and for ALL Epstein's associates and "guests" -- who, when, where, how long, and why they were with pedophile Epstein !! Yet we still don't know, after all this time, for example, even what Epstein's multiple passports show.
As courageous Eric Weinstein stated -- Epstein was "a construct" - by one or more intelligence services. And тАУ the buck for these spywares for authoritarian governments stops -- at Israel apartheid government.
No, man, phone possession isn't like being physically microchipped.
If street drug dealers know how to use burner phones, and most people with a subscription to Wired magazine know what a Faraday cage is, it's easy to figure out that if someone really NEEDS to go out of the loop of being physically tracked by the phone(s) associated with their personal ownership, there are ways to effectively confound that sort of remote surveillance.
Since i brought up physical microchipping: it's a much more difficult proposition than the ignorant assume; the notion of "GPS nanochips" infused into the human circulatory system without prompting a stroke or an immune reaction- or operating without a power supply- is Spec-Fi at its worst. Look up the Inverse Square Law; there's no way around it. Without a sufficiently ample power supply for the transmitter chip, you got nothing. No grid can pick up the signal, not even 5G. Whatever the legit objections to 5G might be, humans being bugged by "nanochips" is not one of them. The power supply is the sticking point for all sorts of technologies, because Moore's Law does not apply to it. Moore's "Law" (not really a law) is a shorthand way of describing the exponential advances in the sophistication of digital technology- but that's entirely about switching transistors. Not power transistors, or any other sort of power supply. There's no way to shrink power supplies, storage capacitors, and power transistors down to the size of a grain of salt. Not now, not on the horizon. I mean, never say never; but I think science will unlock the mysteries of antigravity and nuclear fusion before Moore's Law applies to electrical power generation and storage.
There are of course microchips being used to identify pets- one of them is branded as the "NanoCHIP", despite the fact that it's fairly large in comparison to true nanochip technology; the NanoCHIP is about the size of a grain of rice. It's implanted subdermally or subcutaneously, under the surface of the skin, not in the circulatory system. Pet microchips provide identification only, in response to being wanded by a receiver; they are not tracking devices.
around 1991? I would agree. But 30 yrs later they are still respected leaders of the establishment. Should make us think on what our leader class really is.
Factcheck? LOL. Even if you trust this political propaganda site, there are lightyears of difference between off-hand unspecified counterclaims & the leaking of confidential damaging documents. You seriously can't see that?
Great article again, Matt. One thing about Cuomo that should be mentioned is while groping a woman's breast at work is bad, launching a smear campaign against her when she complains reaches the true evil category.
Like Biden did to Tara Reade. Those two have a lot in common. They both get off on bullying and pushing the boundaries of their impunity.
Matt makes a good point about the moral failures we choose to focus on.
Cuomo's sex scandal is unsavory, but doesn't approach the sinister criminality of knowingly forcing retirement homes to accept Covid positive patients, writing a waiver for the companies doing this so they would not be held liable, lying about the number of people this policy killed, then writing a book about how you beat Covid-19. It's almost comical it's so sinister.
Likewise, in Biden's 48 years in the Senate not only is he directly responsible for promoting endless war, growing the surveillance state and a primary architect of mass incarceration in the US, but also had a history of supporting laws like the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) that shifted all the burden from the lender to the borrower. All this and we hear about Tara Read.
I don't mean to minimize their poor behavior towards women, but it's like singling out Mussolini for his parking tickets while in office. Our society seems more offended by words than deeds and offending people has become a worse crime than actually killing them.
It's not just Biden and Cuomo who have a lot in common. Those who focus on the performative over the criminal have a lot on common as well.
The significant difference is that a sex abuse or similar allegation can, usually, be contained to the individual. If people started looking at Cuomo's COVID policies there are a string of other Governors (D) that implemented similar policies, as well as questions to be raised about why his staff didn't object. Focusing on sex abuse is a way of containing the damage.
https://www.theonion.com/cuomo-increasingly-desperate-to-shift-focus-back-onto-n-1847423866
I love The Onion.
Thanks for the laugh.
"You are dumb."тДв┬о
"Make checks payable to "The Onion." ("America's Finest News source).
Who knew then that one day those words would be literally true?
I know. That's an important part of the context of this. But my comment about Biden goes to the question of why Cuomo and why now? Cuomo's behavior is in every way, including all those mentioned, are normal. So what's going on? Why did the party decide to get rid of him and launch the investigation?
Just a guess here. Al Franken got tko'd not because of one photo or accuser, but all of the others who came out of the woodwork. As well as the fact that some Dems were afraid that there were more on deck.
The Dems were already all in with Biden. But it seemed that there was only one accuser. And she was a bit dodgy, and a Bernie supporter (as am I), so they had cover.
Cuomo has a lot of accusers. The hypocricy of the Dems hits limits when it comes to losing a major seat. Whether that would be the NY governor's office, or potus.
Once accuser came forwards in defiance of the party, knowing what would happen. If an investigation against Biden had been conducted with suitable protection for accusers, I think there would have been plenty. He has a rep.
But anyway, my point is that it seems likely the party decided to ditch Cuomo for other reasons and used these scandals to do it (idk why or why now). And I think that even further devalues the cause of the millions of people who have to put up with creeps, bullies, gropers, quid-pro-quoers etc. at work.
I honestly have no idea about Biden. There are certainly enough creepy pictures of him on the interwebs. Do i think he's a pedo? Actually, i don't, but who knows. Do i think he has a major boundary issue. You betcha. Which is majorly problematic. But while unwanted hair sniffing and shoulder rubs are gross, it's still a ways from boob grabbing.
Do you have proof of boob grabbing or non-boob grabbing by either person?
Good point. Alleged by one, nothing alleged by the other. So best to wait for some sort of testimony by the one, and in the absence of something similar alleged about the other, I see no reason to look for proof either way.
Alleged *about*, not by.
"We had a primary and somehow the two candidates the people (and I) wanted the least are now in office. I believe Tara Reade because she had nothing to gain by coming forward and knew she'd be destroyed in the press."
Same.
"I doubt he grabbed anyone's boobs without permission. People don't get into positions of power if they mindlessly grab random boobs."
I think you might be a little na├пve here.
I'll reply to you as the original post seems to have disappeared. To the boob thing, i'd say google Eric Schneiderman, for starters.
As to those two candidates people wanted least - well, what to do about that for next time? Because what's on offer can only be worse on the Dem side. And if not Trump, still nothing worth voting for on the R side.
What i propose is this. Bernie will be too old. And besides, any candidate that economic progressives propose knows exactly what kind of treatment they'll get from the Dems. So i say either a) get Nina Turner to run as an Independent or, failing that, b) move to get her cleared as a write in candidate.
We need to strategize a bit bigger, bolder and longer term than that.
The left-wing of the Democratic party needs to organize into a formal faction, lets call it, for the sake of discussion, the Social Democratic Faction. It's goal is to get power by taking control of the Democratic Party.
The two party system has the power to prevent a 3rd party from getting much power and we can be sure they will always use it. But the SDF will switch its allegiance to a 3rd party whenever it chooses.
In this way the SDF will destroy the Democratic Party electorally (with the consequence of Republican wins) as often as needed until the right wingers die, retire or switch to the party that properly represents their interests.
The SDF needs to be a national movement operating at every level in electoral politics and direct action.
It need a charismatic leadership appealing to both partisans and the electorate. Idk who to suggest. But it absolutely must have no qualms whatsoever about being hated by D party members and loved by Rs. Without being ready to destroy and accept the consequences of that, it will have no power.
Replying to me is always a mistake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSWxU-mirqg
I am embarrassed to admit that up until now I thought Neil was singing "repaint" instead of "repay." It made sense to me as a person who badly needs to repaint his house.
Neil's original is something like 6 down on Youtube. The algorithm prioritizes covers.
Timing was FrankenтАЩs enemy. It was in the beginning of the metoo trash. Today he would be up 20 points in his bid for reelection.
Laws only work when they are enforced. The swamp picks and chooses what and when to enforce.
They could afford to throw him under the bus, they had a Dem governor to pick his replacement. Guy had presidential ambitions too, but wasn't going to be annointed. Ultimately no great loss.
My guess would be to look to the NY AG's office to see if there's a beef. I don't see a benefit to "the party", i.e . ruling class as a whole, that would be a reason to push this now.
The progressive wing of the Dem party has always hated the machine wing. And as that machine wing pulled all hands on deck to get rid of Trump, they are now paying the piper, in that all of those progressives who were put in office are now looking for blood and to advance the progressive agenda.
As Matt points out, there are only a couple of semi-serious allegations here, most fall into the same category that the allegations against Trump fell, unsubstantiated BS. But there is blood in the water, and you never let a crisis go to waste.
Don't stop to think that Cuomo, if his reputation is left (ahem) unmolested, would be a potential candidate for 2024, and the party knows it. They want to clear the deck now.
If Trump is riding a wave of MAGA again, and Joe has more than one piece of breakfast on his face... the Dems will need an alpha male to slug it out with the Donald. Cuomo is one of the few with the (D) next to his name who could dish it out as well as take it.
I think the total overkill of Nina Turner shows there is no such piper. Progressives who havent been coopted have been neutered.
Quite sadly, i agree.
With the reelection of the squaddies, the takeover of most blue wall AG and DAs, we are far, far from rid of the progressive menace.
Indeed, Leticia James who is running this operation is one of their "finest" members.
Forgot to mention the whole fucked up rent moratorium was driven by the progressive branch of the party, not to mention all of the various UBI in all but name programs that are currently driving our economy straight into a ditch, along with the cancellation of the fuel pipelines. Those are all progressive wet dreams and are putting the working class, who used to be the backbone of the D's, straight into the arms of Republicans.
Focusing on the performative is by design - doing it on the criminal part would necessarily start conversation not about the failings of particular human but the failings and injustices of the system as a whole.
Areslent - Your commentary is excellent. It is by design -how else could it be that a crime is no longer a crime, and a non-crime is a crime ? People entertain insane rationalizations all day long, and therefor no longer have plain common sense. My 5$ is about to run out, but I am glad to find people like yourself posting here. These are not matters of entertainment, and we do not need/want gate keepers.
many are starting to see that these are matters of objective fact and morality - and beginning to realize it is not about being on one side or another. Bless you.
And Bill Clinton before them, arguably quite a bit worse than Biden and Cuomo. Yet he reigns as a Democratic Party elder statesman.
And don't forget his wife, who was front and center on smearing his accusers.
As a Leftist, my wake-up call about the duplicity of Dems occurred back in 1994 when "esteemed" Rep. Pat Schroeder repeated Jim Carville's line about "waving a dollar bill through a trailer park" after Paula Jones came forward with her accusation. Certainly as obscene as many things Republicans have been crucified for.
Let's aim for some balance, eh? It's not just Ds that hike the Appalachian trail. And I'm sure that more than one R senator has a wide stance.
How come it's more funny when Rs are caught?
I tried to explain to many Democratic friends - not stupid people at all, otherwise pretty smart ones - back in '16 about how nauseatingly hypocritical it was for Hillary Clinton to say "believe all women" about Donald Trump, but not about her husband. They just couldn't make that connection, or understand that it was the exact same energy. At that point i really totally despaired of the ability for critical thinking of our Democratic electorate. If they had admitted - yeah, but Trump, so she gets a pass on Bill here - i could have at least mustered a scintilla of respect.
Probably because Republicans used to be the ones obsessed with screeching about sexual purity.
How the tables have turned.
Ya know, now that I'm in my 60's I find myself, out of necessity, "taking a wide stance" to urinate (Prostate troubles). Makes me think back on that accusation with a bit of rueful understanding, or at least that it wasn't entirely a silly defence.
And murdering Gaddafi, so now Libya is a free-for-all with open slave markets and yet another portal for a gargantuan refugee crisis.
But but but what about any criticism of her is sexist!!!
Cry harder, lib ;)
Clinton is a rapist.
Maybe. Maybe not. Idk. But he liked to drop bombs on foreigners to distract the media from his wee willie.
Thank you !! There are also bipartisan taboo themes though.
Much reported, including Ed Snowden "Topic of this year тАУ Pegasus, etc.", is disclosure of continuous over time surveillance ability of all smart-phones of all conversations and pin-point location-accuracy even when phone is turned off.
Therefore, certainly many governments (certainly of Israel and the US) know EXACTLY and for ALL Epstein's associates and "guests" -- who, when, where, how long, and why they were with pedophile Epstein !! Yet we still don't know, after all this time, for example, even what Epstein's multiple passports show.
As courageous Eric Weinstein stated -- Epstein was "a construct" - by one or more intelligence services. And тАУ the buck for these spywares for authoritarian governments stops -- at Israel apartheid government.
No, man, phone possession isn't like being physically microchipped.
If street drug dealers know how to use burner phones, and most people with a subscription to Wired magazine know what a Faraday cage is, it's easy to figure out that if someone really NEEDS to go out of the loop of being physically tracked by the phone(s) associated with their personal ownership, there are ways to effectively confound that sort of remote surveillance.
Since i brought up physical microchipping: it's a much more difficult proposition than the ignorant assume; the notion of "GPS nanochips" infused into the human circulatory system without prompting a stroke or an immune reaction- or operating without a power supply- is Spec-Fi at its worst. Look up the Inverse Square Law; there's no way around it. Without a sufficiently ample power supply for the transmitter chip, you got nothing. No grid can pick up the signal, not even 5G. Whatever the legit objections to 5G might be, humans being bugged by "nanochips" is not one of them. The power supply is the sticking point for all sorts of technologies, because Moore's Law does not apply to it. Moore's "Law" (not really a law) is a shorthand way of describing the exponential advances in the sophistication of digital technology- but that's entirely about switching transistors. Not power transistors, or any other sort of power supply. There's no way to shrink power supplies, storage capacitors, and power transistors down to the size of a grain of salt. Not now, not on the horizon. I mean, never say never; but I think science will unlock the mysteries of antigravity and nuclear fusion before Moore's Law applies to electrical power generation and storage.
There are of course microchips being used to identify pets- one of them is branded as the "NanoCHIP", despite the fact that it's fairly large in comparison to true nanochip technology; the NanoCHIP is about the size of a grain of rice. It's implanted subdermally or subcutaneously, under the surface of the skin, not in the circulatory system. Pet microchips provide identification only, in response to being wanded by a receiver; they are not tracking devices.
I donтАЩt think Clinton is worse than Cuomo. Cuomo seems to be purely ass whereas Clinton does seem to be a little better.
I want to smell your hair Tom
Please change the tag--very annoying.
So the ClintonтАЩs attained pure evil
around 1991? I would agree. But 30 yrs later they are still respected leaders of the establishment. Should make us think on what our leader class really is.
Well, not as evil as killing thousands of the elderly, but I take your point.
Does this apply to Trump? https://www.factcheck.org/2018/09/trumps-distorted-attacks-on-his-accusers
Using factcheck as a source is like using cnn or msnbc as a source for russiagate nonsense.
Factcheck? LOL. Even if you trust this political propaganda site, there are lightyears of difference between off-hand unspecified counterclaims & the leaking of confidential damaging documents. You seriously can't see that?