Support Your Local Police

In yet another example of how New York City Mayor Eric Adams' unqualified support for any excesses of law enforcement in the city, we have learned that New York City Police Chief of Department Jeffery Maddrey has resigned after sex abuse accusations.

Maddrey has come up here before, specifically because he, or his Evil Minions™ retaliated against an officer for ticketing a "Friend of Maddrey" who had a courtesy card. 

So, we already know that he was corrupt, but it's gotten bad enough that he was forced out:

New York City’s top uniformed police officer, the chief of department, abruptly resigned Friday night following allegations of sexual misconduct, setting off local and federal investigations and extending years of turmoil at the Police Department.

The former chief, Jeffrey Maddrey, submitted his resignation and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch accepted it, according to a statement from the department on Saturday.

Mayor Eric Adams had vocally supported Mr. Maddrey, a close ally, as recently as October. But on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the mayor, Kayla Mamelak Altus, said that he was working with Commissioner Tisch to conduct a “separate departmentwide review to ensure no high-ranking officers are using their power inappropriately.”

“We are deeply disturbed by these allegations and the N.Y.P.D. is investigating this matter,” Ms. Mamelak Altus said.

The New York Post reported Saturday morning that Mr. Maddrey had demanded sex from a subordinate, sometimes at Police Headquarters, in exchange for overtime.

………

Federal investigators have joined a city Department of Investigation inquiry into the provision of overtime and the allegations of misconduct against Mr. Maddrey, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The F.B.I. declined to comment.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is also looking into the matter.

………

Mr. Adams, a former police captain, has taken an outsize role in the department, and Mr. Maddrey was one of several of his associates who had reached its top echelon. In October, the mayor said during a podcast appearance that “everyone knows and loves” Mr. Maddrey.

But Mr. Maddrey rose despite a series of troubling investigations and allegations, including that he had once harassed a female subordinate. Throughout his three-decade career — and long before being elevated to the department’s highest-uniformed rank — Mr. Maddrey faced disciplinary charges and litigation.

What a surprise.  A cop rises through the ranks despite decades of reported misconduct.

This appears to be a feature of police departments everywhere.

Forget It Jake, It’s Texas

One might think that after a number of very public sexual harrassment cases popping up in the Texas state senate, that reforms to prevent this have been put in place.

You could think that, but you would be wrong:

Lila had been working late again. Her ballet flats pattered on the terrazzo floors of the Texas Capitol as she walked through the bowels of the building, up the stairs, and out its heavy, carved oak doors. Across the expansive south lawn, a few blocks away, she joined some fellow Senate interns who were enjoying the evening at a bustling rooftop bar. She looked forward to relaxing with Moscow mules and tacos under the glow of the string lights overhead. It was a beautiful March evening—until it wasn’t. 

A 21-year-old college senior, Lila worked for state senator José Menéndez, a San Antonio Democrat. Soon after sitting down with her friends, she started venting about the months of touching, after-hours texts, and questions about her dating life that she had been facing from the lawmaker’s 52-year-old chief of staff, Thomas “Tomas” Larralde. As she talked, her phone buzzed on the sticky high-top table. Larralde had sent an incoherent message to the office group chat—which included the district director and the senator. It appeared that Larralde, a brash and divisive figure, was drunk. If he’d spoken the jumbled words, Lila imagined they would’ve been slurred.

Someone else in the chat responded to ask if he was okay. Larralde didn’t reply, but five minutes later he sent a private message to Lila (who asked that we not use her real name, out of fear of retaliation). “How’s your night,” he texted. 

“Pretty good! Nothing too crazy, yours?” Lila responded.

“I’ve been drinking,” he said. “So on a scale of 1 to 10. It’s a 5.”

As her phone lit up, the other interns looked on in horror at the behavior they were witnessing in real time. “I remember showing my friends,” Lila told Texas Monthly. “I was like, ‘This is exactly what I was talking about!’ ” 

………

Menéndez decided to fire his chief of staff. “I was like, ‘Okay, this guy’s gone,’ ” he said. “It took less than twenty-four hours to get rid of him.”

Others in the Capitol, however, told Texas Monthly that he had known of Larralde’s misconduct for more than five years. By the time Lila came forward, three current and former statehouse employees had reported to Menéndez what they described as Larralde’s demeaning and sexist behavior, during incidents starting in 2015, Texas Monthly found. One former staffer said she repeatedly told the senator that she saw Larralde touch female colleagues inappropriately and also complained to Menéndez about the chief of staff’s lewd jokes. Another former staffer said she described Larralde’s conduct to Menéndez as flirtatious, creepy, and belittling. One former lawmaker told reporters she’d called out Larralde’s use of sexist language, and Menéndez had apologized for it. 

………

The complaints Menéndez received were about behavior consistent with the examples of sexual harassment detailed in the Senate’s policy, including “sexually oriented comments, jokes, or gestures,” “messages that are sexually suggestive, or in any manner demeaning, intimidating, or insulting,” “unwelcome physical contact,” and “repeatedly asking a person to socialize during off-duty hours when the person has said no or has indicated that he or she is not interested.” Other staffers said they left Menéndez’s office in part because they didn’t feel comfortable working with a man they described as misogynistic.

………

Menéndez’s failure to view these complaints as reports of sexual harassment is emblematic of breakdowns in the enforcement of the Senate’s sexual harassment policy, which was updated in 2018 and trumpeted as a deterrent to misconduct in the Capitol. In practice, the new policy has functioned to protect individual senators accused of misbehavior and the reputation of the institution rather than the women who work there.

Lila had made a verbal complaint to a supervisor, as instructed in the policy, but there are no public records of her complaint or of any investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by Larralde, according to Spaw, who serves as the custodian of all Senate records. Menéndez confirmed to Texas Monthly that at his direction Larralde signed a nondisclosure agreement barring him from discussing the circumstances of his termination. Then, days after Larralde was fired, Lila’s internship coordinator called her and asked her to sign a document that Lila understood would have given the internship program “cover” by outlining steps it had taken to handle the situation. Lila never signed anything. “I kept saying, ‘No, I don’t want to sign it, I don’t feel comfortable signing it,’ ” Lila told Texas Monthly. “I felt very alone and taken advantage of. I don’t have an attorney.” 

………

It would be easy to see Larralde’s case as an isolated incident—and one that was eventually solved with his firing. Most Texas lawmakers and their staffers have never been publicly accused of sexual harassment. But in the macho culture of the Capitol, where some legislators have famously watched porn on iPads on the Senate floor and forcibly kissed journalists, Lila’s experience is hardly unique, and harassment remains widespread. During nearly twelve months of reporting and more than a hundred hours of interviews with current and former elected officials, legislative staffers, interns, and lobbyists, Texas Monthly reporters learned about new sexual-misconduct allegations against Senator Borris Miles, a Democrat from Houston; Senator Charles Schwertner, a Republican from Georgetown; and former senator Carlos Uresti, a Democrat from San Antonio. (None of the three responded to multiple interview requests or to specific questions we sent them about the allegations.) We also spoke with the woman at the center of a headline-grabbing 2018 Title IX complaint against Schwertner. She agreed to her first-ever interview about a lewd photo and text messages she says she received from the senator (which he has denied sending), in part because of lingering frustrations she felt over the investigation he thwarted by refusing to cooperate.

 ………

The Senate’s revised policy removed a clear instruction that anyone with knowledge of sexual harassment should report it directly to human resources and the secretary of the Senate. It now says employees may report misconduct to their supervisor or chief of staff or submit an internal complaint to the HR director or the Senate secretary. In practice, Texas Monthly has found, only reports made to the latter two individuals are treated as “official complaints” that trigger an immediate investigation, with the probe to be handled by the director of human resources and impartial attorneys. The 31 senators are given leeway to handle sexual harassment complaints reported to supervisors within their offices as they see fit. The policy does not require that senators keep any record of complaints, investigate those complaints, report those complaints to any central office in the Senate, or hold anyone accountable for misconduct.

………

When asked why his office didn’t turn over records of complaints, Patrick’s press secretary, Steven Aranyi, wrote, “Our office released no records because there are no records to release, as no complaints of sexual harassment have been filed with Lt. Gov. Patrick’s office.” In a statement to Texas Monthly, Spaw, who did not respond to multiple interview requests but answered some written questions, acknowledged that she knew about Lila’s case. She wrote that she never “received and neither has Senate Human Resources received an official complaint regarding Senator Menendez’s office. It is my understanding that, as provided in the Senate policy, a matter was reported to and handled and resolved by the Senator, both expeditiously and appropriately.”

Spaw added that “no official sexual harassment complaints have been filed in the Senate since 2001,” an idea that Lisa Banks, an employment attorney and founding partner at D.C.-based law firm Katz Banks Kumin, called “utterly preposterous.” Banks represented Christine Blasey Ford when she testified to the U.S. Senate judiciary committee that Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were high school students.

“The fact that they say that shows they have a problem,” she said. “The clear inference is they’re making an effort to not have anything in writing, to cover themselves.”

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

In the case of the Texas state senate, the answer would be no one at all.

What to Lead With

2 pieces of Elon Musk news, and I'll think that I'll go with ……… The lawsuit against him alleging absolutely horrible sexual harassment by the Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy™.

It appears that he routinely hit on women who worked with him, and one case fired, or at least "constructively dismissed" a woman for not having his baby.

Even for musk, this is skeevy stuff:

When Elon Musk personally contacted a former SpaceX engineering intern to discuss a role on his executive staff in 2017, the woman spoke with excitement to her friends about a high-profile problem-solving role at the rocket company, a dream for someone a few years out of college.

………

Musk, who is more than 20 years her senior, attempted to restart their relationship but she rejected his advance. They remained close as she tried to establish herself in the new job.

He texted her often and invited her to come over to his Los Angeles mansion at night on multiple occasions. Sometimes she accepted his invitations, but friends said she told them at the time that his behavior made her job harder.

She eventually moved off Musk’s executive team, according to friends she told and to people familiar with her time at SpaceX. The woman left the company in 2019.

Her lawyers, who also represent Musk, provided the Journal with two affidavits signed by the woman. The affidavits disputed some aspects of the Journal’s reporting but confirmed many others, including that she had a romantic relationship with Musk in the past. She said she invited him to dinner near the end of her summer internship and broke things off the following year.

Note that bit at the end, "Her lawyers, who also represent Musk?"  That's a tell from the reporters that Musk paid her off, and is keeping her on a short leash via a payment and a non disclosure agreement.

………

She is one of several female employees at SpaceX who have told friends, family, or the company itself, that Musk showed them an unusual amount of attention or pursued them.

One woman, a SpaceX flight attendant, alleged that in 2016 Musk exposed himself to her and offered to buy her a horse in exchange for sex acts.

This is LITERALLY Musk saying, "Don't tell anyone, and I'll get you a pony," and yes, this has sexual predator written all over it.

Another woman who left the company in 2013 alleged in exit negotiations with SpaceX human resources and legal executives that Musk had asked her to have his babies.

This is some real Jeffrey Epstein sh%$ here. (For those of you who don't recall Epstein wanted to populate the world with scores of his progeny in addition to f%$#ing underage girls.

A fourth woman had a month-long sexual relationship with Musk in 2014 while she directly reported to him. The relationship ended badly, leading to recriminations over text and email as she left the company and signed an agreement prohibiting her from discussing her work for Musk.

Former SpaceX executives, as well as fired SpaceX employees who complained to the National Labor Relations Board in 2022, say a high-level group around Musk fails to apply his company’s own rules to the CEO, contributing to a culture of sexism and harassment.

And then there is this, which makes it even more creepy:

………

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, said the Journal’s reporting doesn’t reflect SpaceX’s culture.

“The untruths, mischaracterizations, and revisionist history in your email paint a completely misleading narrative,” she said. “I continue to be amazed by what this extraordinary group of people are achieving every day even amidst all the forces acting against us. And Elon is one of the best humans I know.”

If this sounds familiar, let me rephrase this, "Elon Musk is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." 

But don't worry about Elon, Tesla shareholders just voted to approve his $45,000,000,000.00 pay package, because the board of directors has their tongues so far up Elon's ass that they taste tonsils. (They also voted to move the HQ to Texas)

At a minimum, I hope that both moves are delayed in court for years.

That Sound You Here is Mario Spinning at 36,000 RPM

It appears that Andrew Cuomo's sister was running the smear campaign against those accusing him of sexual harassment.

I do not know how Mario Cuomo's kids ended up such irredeemably toxic dirt bags, but Mario's kids are truly awful people:

The menacing posts began cropping up on Twitter last September just hours after a former aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York sued him over sexual harassment claims.

The tweets attacked the aide, Charlotte Bennett, in starkly personal terms. “Your life will be dissected like a frog in a HS science class,” read one of the most threatening, which also featured a photo of Ms. Bennett dancing at a bar in lingerie.

The post was part of a thread written by Anna Vavare, a leader of a small but devoted group of mostly older women who banded together online to defend Mr. Cuomo from a cascade of sexual misconduct claims that led to his resignation in August 2021. But it turns out, her tweets had secretly been ordered up by someone even closer to the former governor’s cause: Madeline Cuomo, his sister.

………

Far from an isolated episode, the unvarnished exchange is part of a trove of more than 4,000 text messages, emails and voice memos between leaders of the group and Ms. Cuomo shared with The Times this summer. Together, they provide unusual insight into how far members of one of America’s most storied political families were willing to go to rehabilitate a fallen Democratic scion and humiliate those they believed had wronged him.

Made up almost entirely of women inspired by Mr. Cuomo’s handling of the Covid pandemic, We Decide New York rapidly joined forces in spring 2021 to defend an increasingly isolated governor as traditional allies abandoned him. The group swarmed his critics on social media, sold Cuomo swag and pushed for due process.

But four of the group’s current leaders said in interviews that even as their work appeared organic to the outside world, Ms. Cuomo, 58, began privately exerting control. Starting just weeks after the group was formed, she steered its volunteer activists — many in their 50s, 60s and 70s — to prop up her brother and hound his accusers ever more aggressively.

………

Ms. Cuomo was adamant her role be hidden. She repeatedly asked her interlocutors to delete messages. And when a reporter for The Times called some leaders of the group for an earlier article, Ms. Cuomo instructed the women to falsely claim they had no contact with the Cuomos, according to Sandy Behan, the founding president of We Decide. 

New York is fortunate to be free of this family.

F%$#ing Cancel Culture

A Texas A&M professor was just placed on administrative leave pending termination after saying bad things about the Lt. Governor.

Gee, fascism much?

Joy Alonzo, a respected opioid expert, was in a panic.

The Texas A&M University professor had just returned home from giving a routine lecture on the opioid crisis at the University of Texas Medical Branch in March when she learned a student had accused her of disparaging Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during the talk.

In the few hours it took to drive from Galveston, the complaint had made its way to her supervisors, and Alonzo’s job was suddenly at risk.

………

Alonzo was right to be afraid. Not only were her supervisors involved, but so was Chancellor John Sharp, a former state comptroller who now holds the highest-ranking position in the Texas A&M University System, which includes 11 public universities and 153,000 students. And Sharp was communicating directly with the lieutenant governor’s office about the incident, promising swift action.

Less than two hours after the lecture ended, Patrick’s chief of staff had sent Sharp a link to Alonzo’s professional bio.

Shortly after, Sharp sent a text directly to the lieutenant governor: “Joy Alonzo has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation re firing her. shud [sic] be finished by end of week.”

The text message was signed “jsharp.”

………

Alonzo has spent more than two decades as a pharmacist in Japan, Missouri and elsewhere, and has taught college students in Texas for more than a decade. She now teaches at Texas A&M while working as an ambulatory care pharmacy director at a free health clinic in Bryan.

She has helped bring millions of federal research dollars to the university, and last year Texas A&M’s pharmacy school named her the early career researcher of the year.

One of Alonzo’s recent projects focuses on training people to use Narcan, a nasal spray that reverses opioid effects and can save lives in overdose cases. She’s also advised state leaders on other public policies that could improve the fight against opioid overdoses.

………

But instead of backing other recommended strategies to reduce overdose deaths, such as legalizing test strips that can detect the presence of fentanyl in other drugs, lawmakers focused on a more punitive approach, approving laws that increase criminal penalties for providing fentanyl that leads to an overdose death.

Public health experts like Alonzo have largely supported harm-reduction efforts rather than increasing punishments for drug users. As the crisis intensified, Alonzo often received urgent emails from Texas school districts and law enforcement agencies eager for training and naloxone kits. In the past, she estimated she had given away more than $4.5 million worth of naloxone through her training sessions.

………

When students at UTMB received the email hours after the lecture, several started texting each other, trying to figure out what Alonzo had said that was so offensive.

According to one student who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the school, some students wondered if it was when Alonzo said that the lieutenant governor’s office was one of the reasons it’s hard for drug users to access certain care for opioid addiction or overdoses.

A second student who also asked to remain anonymous for the same reason said Alonzo made a comment that the lieutenant governor’s office had opposed policies that could have prevented opioid-related deaths, and by doing so had allowed people to die.

A third student who also spoke on the condition of anonymity said Alonzo talked about how policies, like the state’s ban on fentanyl test strips, have a direct impact on the ability to prevent opioid overdoses and deaths. A push to legalize the test strips died earlier this year in the Patrick-led Senate despite support from top Republicans, including Abbott.

It should be noted here that because of the ……… peculiarities ……… of state government in Texas, the Lt. Governor is arguably a more powerful position than the Governor.

Among other things, he dictates the agenda and the budget drafting in the state senate.

………

On March 21, two weeks after she was placed on paid leave, Alonzo received an email saying her leave had been lifted.

The following day, pharmacy school Dean George Udeani said in a memo to Alonzo that during the lecture she “related an anecdote and an interaction with a state official.”

This is f%$#ing reign of terror sh%$.

Can we give Texas back to Mexico?

But She Went to Harvard!

You may have heard of Tina Tchen.  She was President and CEO of Time's Up, a charity dedicated to holding sexual harassers to account.

At the same time, she was running a side business, where she was reputation washing serial sexual abusers' reputations, which led to her being forced out.

This included her being deeply involved in attempts by then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his Evil Minions™ to smear the Governor's accusers.

So, you are thinking that there are consequences?

Not so much.  She's been hired by the Obama Foundation as their Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Impact Officer.

This is kind of like being a "Made Man" in Martin Scorsese's classic film Goodfellahs:

Nearly a year after Tina Tchen resigned amid controversy from heading a national charity aimed at fighting sexual harassment, the Obama Foundation on Wednesday announced it has tapped the longtime Chicago attorney to serve in a new leadership role.

Tchen will lead the “development, implementation, and monitoring of the foundation’s strategy,” as well as working with alumni from President Barack Obama’s White House and a program that seeks to empower adolescent girls around the world, according to a foundation release.

………

The move to hire Tchen follows local and national controversies, most notably her role advising disgraced New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo during a #MeToo scandal that ultimately led to her resignation as president and CEO of the nonprofit Time’s Up.

Tchen was criticized following reports that Cuomo and his aides sought her advice on how to handle a growing harassment scandal while she simultaneously led the nonprofit, which was founded to help those who have been sexually harassed or assaulted.

………

Tchen also faced criticism from some Chicago-area #MeToo advocates for endorsing Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle when she ran for Chicago mayor in 2019. Preckwinkle faced scrutiny over her handling of sexual assault accusations against her former chief of staff. The Tribune revealed Preckwinkle knew about an alleged assault for six months before firing that staffer one day before launching her mayoral bid. Tchen said the endorsement was made in her personal capacity, not as the head of Time’s Up.

………

Asked why Tchen was tasked with this program given the controversies, Obama Foundation spokesperson Courtney Williams said, “Tina has spent a career fighting for positive change for women. Her life’s work has been geared toward making workplaces fair and equitable and safer for women.” 

Putting the fox in charge of the hen house.  Smooth move.

This is not surprising though.  Soaring rhetoric and hypocrisy are really on brand for Obama.

Drip, Drip, Drip

I've always viewed Elon Musk as an abusive fraud.

• PayPal was an exercise in regulatory arbitrage, not innovation in either finance of technology
• Tesla does a very bad job of making cars.  (Injury rates and fit and finish are the worst in the industry)
• His tunnel mass transit proposals don't work.
• He has engaged in blatant and illegal stock manipulation. 
• Extensive self dealing in his financial transactions.  (The Tesla bailout of SolarCity)
  

Also, his behavior both as a boss and as a human being have been abusive, whether it be his tolerance of racism at Tesla, his extensive use of NDAs to silence his critics, etc.

Now, we have reports that Elon Musk sexually assaulted a stewardess on his private jet.

Color me unsurprised, though, given Musk's reputation for savage retribution, I am surprised that this came out:

SpaceX, the aerospace firm founded by Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man, paid a flight attendant $250,000 to settle a sexual misconduct claim against Musk in 2018, Insider has learned.

The attendant worked as a member of the cabin crew on a contract basis for SpaceX's corporate jet fleet. She accused Musk of exposing his erect penis to her, rubbing her leg without consent, and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage, according to interviews and documents obtained by Insider.

The incident, which took place in 2016, is alleged in a declaration signed by a friend of the attendant and prepared in support of her claim. The details in this story are drawn from the declaration as well as other documents, including email correspondence and other records shared with Insider by the friend.

The next paragraph strongly indicates that this was not an isolated incident, and that Musk had exploited his company to facilitate his sexual predation:

According to the declaration, the attendant confided to the friend that after taking the flight attendant job, she was encouraged to get licensed as a masseuse so that she could give Musk massages. It was during one such massage in a private cabin on Musk's Gulfstream G650ER, she told the friend, that Musk propositioned her.

So, they asked her to get certified as a masseuse on her own dime.  Everyone involved in the operation of his $70 million jet has to be aware of this, or they would not have asked his victim to get massage lessons.

………

The flight attendant told her friend that the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla founder asked her to come to his room during a flight in late 2016 "for a full body massage," the declaration says. When she arrived, the attendant found that Musk "was completely naked except for a sheet covering the lower half of his body." During the massage, the declaration says, Musk "exposed his genitals" and then "touched her and offered to buy her a horse if she would 'do more,' referring to the performance of sex acts." 

Really classy, Elon.

SpaceX places a special emphasis on massages, going so far as to employ in-house massage therapists as a perk for executives. According to the friend, the flight attendant was encouraged by her superiors to purchase her own professional massage training for her sessions with Musk.

"They encouraged her to get licensed as a masseuse, but on her own time, on her own dime," the friend said. "They implied that she would get to fly more often if she were to do this because she'd be able to give Elon proper massages. I thought that was kind of strange because — you weren't hired to be a masseuse. You were hired to be a flight attendant. And if Elon likes massages, then he should be paying for you to go to masseuse school. But she was just so happy and eager to have the job and be able to travel."

In 2018, after becoming convinced that her refusal to accept Musk's proposal had diminished her opportunities at SpaceX, the attendant hired a California employment lawyer and sent a complaint to the company's human resources department detailing the episode. Around that time, the attorney's firm contacted the friend and asked her to prepare the declaration corroborating the claims.

The attendant's complaint was resolved quickly after a session with a mediator that Musk personally attended. The matter never reached a court of law or an arbitration proceeding. In November 2018, Musk, SpaceX and the flight attendant entered into a severance agreement granting the attendant a $250,000 payment in exchange for a promise not to sue over the claims.

The agreement also included restrictive non-disclosure and non-disparagement clauses that bar the attendant from ever discussing the severance payment or disclosing any information of any kind about Musk and his businesses, including SpaceX and Tesla.

You know, for someone who says that they favor free speech, Musk seems to love NDAs to prevent people from talking about him.

Given numerous other reports about his personal behavior, including a truly essay about his bizarre behavior from his first wife, I am inclined to believe that this is true.

File Under Corrupt Elites

Harvard University has had a lawsuit filed against it for failing to take action against anthropology professor John Comaroff for sexual harassment.

The above is probably the most positive bit of this news, because:

• He was hired by Harvard despite his behavior being an open secret.
• The "Harvard’s Title IX officer and the chair of the anthropology department urging the complainants to go to the press because Harvard’s process would not work."
• “During the process, Harvard obtained Ms. Kilburn’s private therapy records without her consent and disclosed them to Professor Comaroff.” (emphasis original)
• 73 Harvard faculty wrote a letter supporting Comaroff.

It appears that Harvard and professor John Comaroff  are giving Yale and professors Amy "Tiger Mom" Chua and Jed Rubenfeld a run for their money.

This really is disgraceful, though I want to know who texted Daniel Drezner the following, "Never start a land war in Asia, never sign a letter of support about a colleague credibly accused of sexual misconduct." (emphasis mine)

That is an impressive level of snark.

How Absolutely Meta

And by "Meta" I mean Facebook's efforts to create a virtual world.

It appears that, much like on Facebook, harassment is a problem that they have neglected to consider, so they are looking to stick on a few band-aids:

Meta Platforms Inc, better known for its controversial turn as Facebook, says its mission is to, "Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together." But not too close, it seems.

………

Henceforth, avatars in its Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues will be able to approach no closer than four feet – as that distance would be rendered to whatever scale fits the viewer's display screen – to prevent virtual molestation.

Vivek Sharma, VP of Meta's Horizon group, refers to the company's grope gap as a "Personal Boundary."

"Personal Boundary prevents avatars from coming within a set distance of each other, creating more personal space for people and making it easier to avoid unwanted interactions," he explained in a blog post on Friday.

………

"This builds upon our existing hand harassment measures that were already in place, where an avatar’s hands would disappear if they encroached upon someone’s personal space," Sharma explained.

………

And it's a problem today. As the MIT Technology Review put it two months ago, "The metaverse has a groping problem already." The word "already" here might be better interpreted to mean "since forever."

………

So strap on your VR headset and enjoy a romp in a pixelated world, secure in the knowledge that between the hand-hiding and invisible barriers no one will "reach out and touch someone," as AT&T used to suggest. Just be careful not to injure yourself, which happens occasionally, and if you experience nausea, eye strain, or loss of balance, discontinue use immediately. The Health and Safety warning documents for Meta Quest (Oculus) headsets are extensive [PDF].

This was foreseeable, of course, but Facebook is scrambling because they don't do the right thing unless they are forced to.

Republican Family Values

The Republican's, "Great White Hope," for the 2022 Senate race in Pennsylvania, Sean Parnell, has ended his campaign after a judge ruled that he had abused his wife, and so will not share custody with his ex-wife.

Between him, and Hershel Walker, and Eric Greitens, (see here) it appears that partner abuse is now a requirement for office:

Republican Sean Parnell, who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump in a closely watched Pennsylvania Senate race, said Monday he will not continue with his campaign, hours after it was made public that a judge had granted his estranged wife primary custody of the couple’s three children.

The judge’s order last week, made public in court documents Monday, outlined in detail the allegations of domestic and other abuse Laurie Snell had made against her estranged husband, and concluded that “Parnell did commit some acts of abuse in the past.” Parnell has denied the allegations.

In his decision to award primary physical and sole legal custody of the children to Snell, Senior Judge James Arner deemed Snell “the more credible witness” who “can truthfully give regular status reports to Sean Parnell and, as may be needed, to the court.”

Snell will have the sole right to make major decisions on behalf of the children, Arner said. Parnell will have partial physical custody of the children on three weekends each month. Parnell and Snell separated in 2018, according to court documents.

………

Snell has accused Parnell of multiple forms of abuse before their separation, including choking her and hitting one of their children so hard he left a “full handprint” mark on the child’s back. She testified that Parnell has thrown chairs across the room toward her; pinned her down and screamed profanities at her; called her crazy in front of the children; and once dropped her off on Interstate 79 when she was six months pregnant and told her to get an abortion.

Parnell has denied her allegations as “complete fabrications.” In a court hearing earlier this month, he countered with claims under oath that she physically abused him, although he declined to offer specifics.

In his decision, Arner wrote that he found Parnell’s testimony “less credible,” citing his demeanor and dress in the courtroom and his tendency to focus on his attorneys and the news media while testifying, rather than looking at the judge.

………

Arner said he also considered testimony under oath from all three children, as well as mental and physical assessments of the children and the parents, which would remain confidential.

The level of entitlement required for people to run for major public office after doing thisngs like this is not limited to Republicans, ***Cough*** Rat-Faced Andy Cuomo ***Cough*** but it does appears to run rampant among Republican men.

According to Elon, You Need to be "Thick Skinned"

Tesla has been targeted by a lawsuit alleging "nightmarish" sexual harassment on its shop floor at its Fremont, California plant.

It should be recalled that in response to credible allegations of racism on the same shop floor, Elon Musk's response was to send out a company wide email telling people to be "thick skinned".

As the old saying goes, a fish rots from the head:

Tesla Inc subjects female workers to "nightmarish" conditions of rampant sexual harassment at its main factory, and supervisors turn their backs when complaints are brought, according to a new lawsuit.

Jessica Barraza, 38, said she has endured "near daily" catcalls and inappropriate touching in her three years at the electric vehicle maker's factory in Fremont, California, where she works night shifts as a production associate.

……….

Barraza said Tesla's human resources department has not addressed complaints she filed in September and October, and even disabled its hr@tesla.com email address for receiving complaints.

……….

The automaker run by billionaire Elon Musk is not unfamiliar with claims of mistreatment at the Fremont factory.

A federal jury in San Francisco on Oct. 4 ordered Tesla to pay Owen Diaz, a Black former elevator operator, $136.9 million because he faced racial harassment there.

………

Barraza is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for violations of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

She also said that like many "tech employers," Tesla requires many workers to sign arbitration agreements, keeping workplace disputes out of court, but that her agreement's "unconscionable" terms make it unenforceable.

This is what happens when you have a sociopath running a company.

No, Not Suspect at All

When interviewed by investigators, former New York Governor Andrew "Rat Faced Andy" Cuomo spent much of his timd arguing over the defintion of terms like, "Date," "Girlfriend," and "Butt."

This sort of rhetorical hair splitting is not consistent with a witness who is being forthright, to put it mildly:

Three months after Attorney General Letitia James’ office issued a scathing report detailing sexual harassment by Andrew Cuomo, her office on Wednesday released transcripts of interviews with the former governor and 10 women involved in the inquiry.

The more than 2,300 pages of interviews offer a glimpse into how Cuomo and top aides interacted with underlings — and how he pushed back on the 11-hour, mid-July interrogation by a former federal prosecutor and a workplace misconduct attorney.

Despite denying the allegations, Cuomo resigned in August under threat of impeachment by the state Legislature. He was charged late last month with a misdemeanor sex crime stemming from an allegation he forcibly touched an aide in the Governor’s Mansion.

In his interview, a defiant Cuomo questioned the motivations of the investigators hired by James’ office to conduct the inquiry, offering meandering answers or obtuse responses, while flexing his legal acumen.

………

Like his former boss [Bill Clinton], Cuomo deployed a similar tactic with investigators hired by James’ office, questioning at great length the definition of “girlfriend” and “date” when asked about a former actress he had been rumored to be seeing who resembled aide Lindsey Boylan.

………

On a separate occasion, investigators asked Cuomo if he ever intentionally touched any woman on the butt, which he denied. They asked if he ever touched a woman “near the butt,” which prompted Rita Glavin, Cuomo’s lawyer, to request a definition of what “near the butt” means.

“Do you understand where a human’s butt is? And anywhere near there?” Cuomo was asked.

“Well, ‘near the butt’ now becomes an expansive area,” he replied.

I don't think that Cuomo will ever see the inside of a jail cell, but it is clear that his political career is over, which is an unalloyed good for the people of the great state of New York.

Another Cuomo Crony is Defenistrated

The Human Rights Campaign has fired Alphonso David as its President.

This is no surprise, more than most LGBTQ groups, the HRC strives for connections with politically connected figures, and since Cuomo has resigned in disgrace as Governor of New York, the HRC no longer has any use for him.

This is a good thing:  The that Cuomo's former goons are excluded from could ironically be called, ""olite society," the better the world can be.

I would also note that if you are inclined to give money to an LGBTQ group, perhaps the Human Rights Campaign should not be at the top of your list:

Alphonso David, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy organization, was ousted by the group’s board on Monday night over a report revealing that he had advised former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on how to handle sex harassment allegations.

Mr. David, the group’s first Black president, was terminated “for cause” in separate votes by the boards of the Human Rights Campaign and its affiliated foundation after the two boards held a joint meeting. Beyond two abstentions from the foundation board, the votes were unanimous.

Mr. David’s removal is the latest fallout from the report by Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, describing allegations of sexual harassment by Mr. Cuomo, and efforts by his aides to retaliate against the former governor’s accusers. Mr. Cuomo resigned in August after the report outlined 11 allegations and described a toxic work environment.

Mr. David, who had worked as a lawyer in Mr. Cuomo’s office, was identified in the James report as involved in efforts to undermine Mr. Cuomo’s first accuser, Lindsey Boylan. Despite no longer working there, Mr. David had a memo in his possession containing confidential information about Ms. Boylan’s employment history. He shared the memo with one of Mr. Cuomo’s communications advisers who were hoping to release details to reporters. Mr. David has maintained that he had an obligation as a lawyer to do so.

Mr. David also suggested edits to a letter intended to malign Ms. Boylan that was being circulated among Mr. Cuomo and his aides, and said that he would collect signatures for it from former aides. He declined to sign it himself, however, and he later said that he did not know the extent of the allegations against Mr. Cuomo. He called for Mr. Cuomo’s resignation after the report came out.

A person familiar with the deliberations among the board of the Human Rights Campaign said that Mr. David never told the organization that he was helping to advise Mr. Cuomo when the accusations came to light. The person said Mr. David did not consult the group’s counsel, or tell them that he was going to be interviewed by Ms. James’s office.

Mr. David said he would fight his firing. “As a Black, gay man who has spent his whole life fighting for civil and human rights, they cannot shut me up,” he said in a Twitter post late Monday. “Expect a legal challenge.”

(emphasis mine)

Mr. David colluded with the Cuomo administration to smear a victim of sexual harassment, and then he lied to his organization about his involvement.

It appears that, "His whole life fighting for civil and human rights," has an unpleasant addendum, "Only when it is beneficial for him."

Good luck with that lawsuit. 

Missed this Yesterday

Yesterday, when I mention that Tina Tchen had been forced out as CEO of Times Up, I did not notice, though the reporters at The Washington Post did, that she, and her partner in covering up for Andrew Cuomo, Roberta Kaplan, had a racket going.

Specifically while running the organization, both of them were scoring serious fees to protect problematic people and organizations from that same organization.

Atrios noted this, and observed, "This is how the mafia operates. ……… Hire HABIT Advisors (run by me) to tell you how to deal with nasty organizations like Time's Up (also run by me)."

He called it, "Pizzo," the term for Mafia Protection money:

A former Chicago corporate lawyer who became first lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, Tchen has led the advocacy group focused on fighting workplace sexual misconduct since 2019. She co-founded the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund with the attorney Roberta Kaplan, who resigned this month after New York Attorney General Letitia James uncovered some of her consultations with Cuomo advisers about the governor’s response to his first sexual harassment accuser, Lindsey Boylan.

Tchen also co-founded with Kaplan a private consulting company, HABIT Advisors, which focused on advising companies about how to handle sexual harassment. The website for that firm was taken offline in recent weeks.

It's quite a rabbit hole, and even to my jaded eyes, the corruption of these two stalwarts of the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) absolutely buggers the mind.

Corruption Among the Elites

Tina Tchen, the CEO of Time's Up, a charity formed to defend women from sexual abuse and harassment has been forced to resign after it was revealed that she was colluding with Andrew Cuomo to conceal his abusive behavior towards women who worked with him.  (She also served as, "Chief of Staff to First Lady Michelle Obama; and Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls.")

It's a level of hypocrisy that would be embarrassing for any woman in the political sphere who is not firmly a part of the Talibaptist right, but even more so for the head of an organization dedicated to supporting victims of sexual harassment.

Additionally, her entire legal career has been centered around addressing issues of sexual discrimination in the workplace, so her entire professional life has been revealed as a lie.

Given her background, the White House Position, major fundraiser for the Obama Campaign, and Ivy League education, I am not surprised at the revelation that she is, after all, just another grasping snollygoster.

This toxic combination was an identifying characteristic of people who thrived in the Obama administration.

The chief executive of Time’s Up, the prominent anti-harassment charity, resigned on Thursday, the latest fallout in a crisis that threatens the organization’s survival.

For weeks, the group has been in upheaval over what some survivors of sexual abuse have called a fundamental betrayal: Its leaders appear to have allied more closely with former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who faces sexual harassment allegations from 11 women, than with the first accusers to come forward.

Tina Tchen, who had led the group since 2019, said in a statement that her “position at the helm of Time’s Up has become a painful and divisive focal point.”

 By, "Dainful and divisive focal point," she means that she has been revealed to be a complete hypocrite, and that she was forced out.

………

Founded in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, backed by influential women including Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, Time’s Up has been in what its own vice chair recently called an “existential crisis” over its mission. The board chair, Roberta Kaplan, also resigned over the Cuomo matter. Powerful backers like Shonda Rhimes have tried to rally support and reboot. Staff members have complained about lack of direction, and outside critics have questioned whether the organization has strayed from its founding motives.

………

The departure of Ms. Tchen — who served as Michelle Obama’s chief of staff in the White House — raises as many questions for Time’s Up as it resolves. She was a proponent of the organization’s initial, bold mission: for female power players to use their connections for good. In her departing statement, Ms. Tchen endorsed that approach again. “We cannot just shout on the outside for change without helping companies, government leaders and policymakers find the solutions to do better,” she said.

It hasn't strayed from its founding motives.  It was about protecting, "Female power players," who, "Use their connections for good," people like ……… well ……… Tina Tchen, not lower level interns,  staff, or members of the security detail  for the powerful, and vengeful, governor of New York.

………

But when dealing with Mr. Cuomo’s office — and in other instances [WHAT OTHER INSTANCES?  I WANT TO KNOW!] — that strategy proved compromising. Ms. Kaplan and Ms. Tchen provided feedback on an unpublished opinion column that smeared Mr. Cuomo’s first accuser, Lindsay Boylan. Ms. Kaplan, a lawyer, also consulted with a top Cuomo aide about how strong a stand Time’s Up should take on the allegations, The Times recently reported. And Ms. Tchen told colleagues to “stand down” from releasing a statement in support of Ms. Boylan, according to text messages obtained by The Washington Post.

This is why the hypocrite wing of the Democratic Party loses elections:  It is painfully obvious that when it gets down to brass tacks, they talk the talk, but they will NEVER walk the walk.

 

The Cuomo Affair Reminds Me of a Story from Middle School

Unless you have been living in a cave, you are aware that New York State Attorney General Letita James released a report confirming sexual harassment and retaliation against women working for Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Letitia James, the New York attorney general, unveiled the findings of her office’s sexual harassment inquiry into Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Tuesday, describing the report in stark terms and declaring that “we should believe women.”

As she revealed that two outside investigators found during a five-monthlong inquiry that Mr. Cuomo had sexually harassed at least 11 women, Ms. James said the state had “an obligation to protect women in their workplace.”

That, she concluded, was the most important takeaway of the report, which supported their accusations and provided them in detail.

“I believe women, and I believe these 11 women,” she said at the conclusion of a nearly hourlong news conference Tuesday.

………

Many of Ms. James’s competitors in her election criticized her ties to Mr. Cuomo, raising concerns that she would not investigate allegations of misconduct against him. But in January, Ms. James’s office reported that the governor’s administration had underplayed coronavirus-related deaths of state nursing home residents, undercounting them by the thousands..

James' support for Cuomo in during her election was an artifact of arm twisting by the Governor.

This is why we are seeing aggressive, and aggressively scrupulous investigations of Cuomo:  Like many of his allies, her support was never driven by mutual respect or a common ideology, but by a purely political calculus.

One of the facts of New York State politics is that people fear (now past tense) Andrew Cuomo, but they detest him.

Now that he's wounded, multiple district attorneys are investigating him, (the State AG cannot initiate a criminal investigation without authorization from the Governor) the Speaker of the New York State Assembly is openly mooting impeachment, numerous other former allies are distancing themselves, and the New York Times editorial board has called for his immediate resignation.

To be honest, I do not expect Cuomo to resign in the near term, either because he thinks that he can wait this out, or because he intends to use his resignation as a bargaining chip to avoid criminal charges.

As to why everyone is coming out of the woodwork gunning for him now, it's what happens when the mass of the bullied have the opportunity to retaliate against a bully.

This reminds me of something that happened in my middle school in Charlottesville in the mid 1970s:

• A jock-bully by the name of Timothy (never Tim) was acting up in school in a gym class (not mine class, but my best friend was in the class).
• He did something very wrong, and was given three options, get paddled by the teacher, be sent to the principal and get paddled, or allow his classmates to mete out justice.
• Tim chose door number 3.
• 25 or so middle schoolers surrounded him and gave him a beat down that put him in the hospital, and the gym teacher got fired. (My best friend was quite happy to get his licks in)

What is going on right now is analogous to the beat-down that Timothy got.

In Timothy's case, it was wrong, and should never have happened, though at the time I felt schadenfreude about it. (I was in middle school, which is when most people are the worst people they ever will be)

In Cuomo's case, his comeuppance is long overdue.  (Just no beat-downs, OK)

3000 Year Old Revenge Pr0n

Technology these days has made revenge porn too easy. We need to return to tradition where you literally had to carve several statues for the same effect pic.twitter.com/f2HY5hEhqS

— CONCEPTUAL KNK (@AnnieKNK) July 25, 2021

The idea that a 3000 years ago, Assyrian King Ashur-bel-kala commissioned hundreds of statues of a naked woman, and sent them across his empire, to embarrass some specific woman is mind blowing.

Revenge pr0n was a lot more involved in the old days.

This Reminds Me of Bush and Hurricane Katrina

By August of 2005, Karl Rove had managed to manipulate the public discourse in such a way as to make meaningful criticisms of George W. Bush almost unthinkable.

Then came Katrina, and much like New Orleans and its levees, the ensuing backlash washed away Rove's carefully constructed barriers intended to protect bush, and everything started coming out.

The same is going on with Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo right now, and here is an update:

• We have another claim of sexual harassment, this one from a current aide, "He called her and her co-worker “mingle mamas.” He inquired about her lack of a wedding ring, she said, and the status of her divorce. She recalled him telling her she was beautiful — in Italian — and, as she sat alone with him in his office awaiting dictation, he gazed down her shirt and commented on a necklace hanging there."
• Also, we have reports that the  FBI is investigating ties between campaign donations from nursing homes and his inserting immunity provisions in legislation, "FBI investigators probing the Cuomo administration’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic last spring are seeking information about a state budget provision that gave operators legal immunity, THE CITY has learned. ……… FBI officials started to make house calls this month, showing up at people’s residences and leaving business cards, according to the three sources."
  

FWIW, I don't think that "Rat Faced Andy" is going to resign except perhaps as part of a plea deal, because he wants to make sure that he has this chip in his pocket until it is certain that he won't be going to jail.

I so hope that he goes to jail.

Drip, Drip, Drip

Thinking about how we wouldn't need an Andrew Cuomo reckoning if prestige media and elite pundits just reported on him accurately in the first place

— Ross Barkan (@RossBarkan) February 27, 2021

A lesson for the press

One of the things about serial harassers and abusers is that it almost never happens just once. Once someone comes out to the press, people start coming out of the woodwork.^*  

This means, you guessed it, we now have a second aide who has accused Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment.

The reason that this happens is because typically harassment victims feel isolated, and are terrified of going out on a limb and being there alone.

Once someone else makes an allegation, they realize that they are NOT alone, and come forward as well, and so now we have Charlotte Bennett, former:

A second former aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is accusing him of sexual harassment, saying that he asked her questions about her sex life, whether she was monogamous in her relationships and if she had ever had sex with older men.

The aide, Charlotte Bennett, who was an executive assistant and health policy adviser in the Cuomo administration until she left in November, told The New York Times that the governor had harassed her late last spring, during the height of the state’s fight against the coronavirus.

Ms. Bennett, 25, said the most unsettling episode occurred on June 5, when she was alone with Mr. Cuomo in his State Capitol office. In a series of interviews this week, she said the governor had asked her numerous questions about her personal life, including whether she thought age made a difference in romantic relationships, and had said that he was open to relationships with women in their 20s — comments she interpreted as clear overtures to a sexual relationship.

………

Ms. Bennett said that during the June encounter, the governor, 63, also complained to her about being lonely during the pandemic, mentioning that he “can’t even hug anyone,” before turning the focus to Ms. Bennett. She said that Mr. Cuomo asked her, “Who did I last hug?”

Ms. Bennett said she had tried to dodge the question by responding that she missed hugging her parents. “And he was, like, ‘No, I mean like really hugged somebody?’” she said.

Mr. Cuomo never tried to touch her, Ms. Bennett said, but the message of the entire episode was unmistakable to her.

“I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” Ms. Bennett said. “And was wondering how I was going to get out of it and assumed it was the end of my job.”

………

Ms. Bennett said she had disclosed the interaction with Mr. Cuomo to his chief of staff, Jill DesRosiers, less than a week later and was transferred to another job, as a health policy adviser, with an office on the opposite side of the Capitol, soon after that. Ms. Bennett said she had also given a lengthy statement to a special counsel to the governor, Judith Mogul, toward the end of June.

Ms. Bennett said she ultimately decided not to insist on an investigation because she was happy in her new job and “wanted to move on.” No action was taken against the governor.

It never happens just once.

I'm expecting to see a few more.

The only question is whether people still fear Cuomo the way that they used to.  

If not, he is toast.

^*This statement is offered only in the context of the current story regarding Andrew Cuomo, and not on the allegations involving Woody Allen, which I have not, and probabably never will, have a public opinion on.