Wednesday, August 11, 2021

What Exactly Is Andrew Cuomo Guilty Of?

 https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/cuomo-michael-tracey

 Among the “less overtly sexual” behavior cited in the report as being unlawfully “gender-based” was Cuomo’s apparent habit of “allowing senior staff members to sit on his lap at official functions” and “lying down with his head on the lap of staff members who are women.” This, the report alleges on page 148, was a key component of the overall “hostile work environment.”

 But parsed out elsewhere in the report—evidently causing it to be missed by frenetic pundits—is the revelation that “none” of the staff involved in the lap-sitting activity “reported feeling uncomfortable with this behavior.”

In fact, the report’s authors concede, “a number of witnesses we spoke to informed us that all of this behavior led to a sense among staff members in the Executive Chamber that personal attention from the Governor, even if flirtatious … was not only normal, but to be valued.” This would seem to be exculpatory information of a kind—but a search across Google and Twitter suggests it’s been omitted almost entirely from the ensuing press coverage. Instead, these exculpatory testaments were somehow reconfigured by the report’s authors as evidence of Cuomo’s guilt. In the rush to axe Cuomo, media accounts appear to have wholly glossed over this discrepancy.

18 comments:

  1. Wow, fascinating article. He's both a creep, a terrible governor, & embodies some of the worst stereotypical politician traits. Not to dispute that, likening his workplace conduct to unambiguous, genuine predators (Weinstein, O'Reilly, Trump) seems more than a little difficult.

    Despite accusations leveled by James at her TV press conference that Cuomo “violated federal and state law,” no charges of any kind were brought against the governor, which makes this episode an extreme rarity in the annals of American due process. “For a prosecutor to say the things she did ... would be a violation of the code of ethics,” Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University, told me. “In New York state, I can’t think of another situation where an attorney general went so far,” he added. “A lot of her statements were quite inflammatory, and highly prejudicial.”
    And...
    But parsed out elsewhere in the report—evidently causing it to be missed by frenetic pundits—is the revelation that “none” of the staff involved in the lap-sitting activity “reported feeling uncomfortable with this behavior.”

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  2. Does consent make it correct behavior?
    Regardless, this was one small component and the other things this womanizer did were offensive and perceived as offensive. No mitzvah to judge him favorably. Next time they should call 1800-DISCRIMINATION

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  3. Bottom line: the Left eats its own.

    Ultimately, Joe Biden's abandoning Afghanistan and the drubbing of Andrew Cuomo, along with more covid "mandates", is going to seal the fate of the Democrats in the mid-terms.

    Trump remains powerful and popular.

    The Left had a golden opportunity to solidify their power. But they can't. Because they are too fractured.

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  4. Left eats Republicans also.
    Yes Trump remains a symbol of Banana Republic America to those who prefer facism

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  5. In a way you're like the classic anti-Semite. Let's talk about North Korea. Well gotta mention Israel. China is imprisoning Uighers. Don't forget Israel!
    And there's you - turns out the Dems are just as scummy. No, no, Trump!

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  6. Anti-trumpite

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  7. Nope! Trump is in a class by himself


    Why aren't you demanding comparable assertions regarding by Trump - who alleged crimes are much more serious than Cuomo. Your nonsense false equivalence is that they all are scummy

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  8. Not my point. My point is that focusing on Trump as if he is the only source of evil misses the bigger picture. Turning everything around to "But, but Trump!" misses the point.

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  9. Nobody says trump is the only source of evil - but to simply dismiss his evil acts and focus on lesser figures is nonsense

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  10. Torah thought this week’s parsha שפטים
    “You must be whole-hearted תמים with the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 18:13)
    דברים י"ח י"ג
    תָּמִים תִּהְיֶה עִם יְקֹוָק אֱלֹקֶיךָ:
    רש"י
    תמים תהיה עם ה' אלקיך - התהלך עמו בתמימות ותצפה לו ולא תחקור אחר העתידות, אלא כל מה שיבא עליך קבל בתמימות ואז תהיה עמו ולחלקו:
    Pesachim 113b
    “Rabbah b. Bar Hanah said in the name of R. Samuel b. Martha in Rab's name on the authority of it. Jose of Huzal: How do we know that you must not consult astrologers [lit. Chaldeans, who were we versed in astrological arts]? Because it is said: Thou shalt be whole-hearted with the lord thy God.”

    My theory. We turn to God. Please God give us guidance on what to do. We believe that prayer to God will bring God's miracles.

    Yes we do our best analysis of the situation. I’m a chess player. I played Bobby Fisher when I was captain of the YU chess team some 55 years ago.. Iran is our enemy today. Please, dear God, guide us on how best to deal with our enemy Iran that wants us dead? The Abraham Accords: Trump and Netanyahu and others --- good moves. Thank you God. I just heard Caroline Glick 1 hour podcast analysis on Lebanon and Iran: brilliant.

    Who are to be our teachers to teach us God’s ways that we can be whole-hearted תמים with the Lord our God.?

    “Those nations that you are about to dispossess do indeed resort to soothsayers and augurs; to you, however, the Lord your God has not assigned the like. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your own people, like myself, him you shall heed; This is just what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb, on the day of the Assembly, saying: Let me not hear the voice of the Lord my God any longer or see this wonderous fire any more, lest I die. Whereupon the Lord said to me: They have done well in speaking thus. I will raise up a prophet for them from among their own people, like yourself. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I will command him, and if anybody fails to heed the words he speaks in My name, I Myself will call him to account.” (Deuteronomy 18:14-19).

    Beautiful Hertz Chumash p.827 “18.command him. The office of the Prophet is thus conceived not so much as a foreteller, but in spiritual succession to Moses as the teacher and religious guide of his age, though the gift of predicting the future, where this serves a moral purpose, cannot be denied him 19.require. I will seek out his disobedience, and judge him for it. ‘the rigorous punishment would deter anyone from coming forward as a prophet, who had not an absolute conviction of his Divine call’ (Dillmann).”

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  11. George Orwell's 1984 had a character named Emanuel Goldstein, who was the enemy of the Party. All wrong was attributed to him. The same kind of worldview as Turkey's Erdogan takes towards Gulen.
    In any case, one daily practice of the Party in Orwell's masterpiece is the "2 minute hate". This is a daily ritual aimed towards the fictional character of Emanuel Goldstein.
    Before Trump, the 2 minute hate on this blog was aimed at Rav kamenetsky. B'H that has been transferred to Trump, who at least is a menuval.

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  12. You say Trump is the only source of evil. Any time some posts a comment pointing at dreck somewhere else you reliable shout Nope! Trump!

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  13. The Biden Administration's handling of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is endangering millions of people living in Afghanistan. People are being killed as the Taliban establish their rule. The ramifications will reverberste for years.

    American prestige is severely damagely. The ability of the U.S. to deal with future hotspots will be hampered by the callous way the Afghan civilian population, civil servants, and government military personnel have been treated.

    That impacts American national security.

    Compare this to how Donald Trump defused the tension on the Korean Peninsula.

    Was Trump evil? That's quite a stretch. He projected U.S. power and might. He gained power and wielded it. That doesn't make him a fascist nor a dictator. Protecting the borders kept people safer.

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  14. But Trump also said he was withdrawing from Afganistan.

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  15. you can't spell because you're mentally retarded

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  16. Right the point is evil should only be commented regarding that which someone other than Trump, Republican or Conservative figures.

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  17. For the past five years this blog has pounded and drilled into us that Donald Trump lies.

    And now the Rav seems to assume that Donald Trump would have kept his word.

    Even if Donald Trump kept his promise, I don't think he would have botched the withdrawal. And if he did botch it, it would be a stain on his reputation.

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  18. I just found this beautiful midrash on a piece about Adam HaRishon . The enitre article is a bit academic, but the midrash is just amazing, i had never heard this variation before:




    "The Rabbis, however, connect these verses to Israel after the sin of
    the golden calf, suggesting that when they accepted the Torah at Sinai,
    all of Israel regained the immortality that Adam had before he sinned.
    (For the origin of this conception, see below.) Yet, Israel once more
    lost this Adamic immortality when the people committed idolatry with the
    golden calf:

    אלו המתינו ישראל למשה ולא היו עושים אותו מעשה לא היתה גליות ולא מלאך המות שולט בהן,

    Had Israel waited for Moses and not
    perpetrated that act, there would have been no exile, neither would the
    Angel of Death had any power over them.



    The translation is from the Soncino edition with some occasional tweaks
    where needed to clarify things or be a bit less archaic. Midrash Rabbah: Exodus (trans. S. M. Lehrman; London: Soncino, 1939), 404–5."


    https://www.thetorah.com/article/attaining-and-forfeiting-adams-immortality-at-sinai




    The Golden Calf was a second fall of Man or Israel, and faith in Hashem would have given us immortality - according to this particular midrash! On a hashgacha pratis level, I see things like this, on an individual scale, where lack of faith led to aveiros - and needn't have done !

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