Cuomo - why does it take so long from this sort of stuff to come out?

[Mabouya]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/n...smid=url-share

"Dozens of current and former employees of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s executive chamber described the office as chaotic, unprofessional and toxic, especially for young women."

I'm probably going to be hammered for this, but I have to ask, why do people like Cuomo (and the hundreds of other men just like him who've done that sort of thing, and as we all know, a lot worse) get away with it for so long? I'm not implying that accusers are inventing this, I just don't understand why this can go one for years and years without the truth ever coming out.

Does no one ever speak out? Do they speak out but are ignored?

Especially in this day and age, thirty years since the Anita Hill spoke out during the Clarence Thomas hearings, four years after Harvey Weinstein was exposed, and men are still getting away with it? I realize that the men are typically in a position of power and the victims are not, so it isn't easy to speak up, but wow, something has to change. Ideally men would stop acting like the leches so many are, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that.

[Tom]

Before I start with my tin hat theory, let me say that the behaviors are inexcusable. I'm not making excuses for the guy.

Why don't people say something sooner? It's complicated. People will work with the executive chamber, agree with policy and actions and dislike the man intensely because of how he is but the job needs to be done to serve the state. I know of people like that. That's not everybody but it is part of it.

Realize that if NYS was a country it'd have like the 8th largest economy in the world. That's a lot of power and if you're weak it goes to your head.

And then you negotiate the twin crises. The biggest public health crisis of our lifetime where I am convinced that without immediate decisive and difficult action to lock things down fast we'd have like a 30% death rate in the city. Then the resulting fiscal crisis where state revenues crashed. Everything froze and worse, school funding gone, you name it. The revenues are still running at least 5-10 percent behind normal. This while dealing with a federal government that was alternately incompetent and adversarial.

The guy did a fantastic job. People I know from other states telling me they wish they had a governor like that. Maybe too fantastic a job.

Tin hat: this makes the man too dangerous to people on both sides of the aisle. What was known but swept under the rug is exposed. "Et tu, Brute?"

[rwsaunders]

Fear, retribution, surprise, disgust, power of position, his word against mine, who is going to believe me, who cares what I say...When the term sexual harassment first made the HR rounds in the 80’s, I had a client who stated to me in a sarcastic manner, that in her bank, some of the men in the C-suite considered sexual harassment to be a fringe benefit.

[classtimesailer]

He was useful as Dem. governor. And he is now useful as Dem. perpetrator.

[vertical_doug]

It is very simple. In most instances if you make the charge, you are making a decision to end your current career and career prospects going forward. You may win the battle, but the establishment will rage war on you. Until this stops, I see little change in behavior.

The part you never hear about regarding Anita Hill:
n 1992, a feminist group began a nationwide fundraising campaign and then obtained matching state funds to endow a professorship at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in honor of Hill.[10][39] Conservative Oklahoma state legislators reacted by demanding Hill's resignation from the university, then introducing a bill to prohibit the university from accepting donations from out-of-state residents, and finally attempting to pass legislation to close down the law school.[10] Elmer Zinn Million, a local activist, compared Hill to Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy.[10][39] Certain officials at the university attempted to revoke Hill's tenure.[40] After five years of pressure, Hill resigned.[10] The University of Oklahoma Law School defunded the Anita F. Hill professorship in May 1999, without the position having ever been filled.[41]

If you recall, Hillary went on national TV and slandered Monica Lewinsky. It really wasnt until about 20 years later, that Monica is really back on her feet fighting a good fight.



If you want it closer to home, my daughter's friend who is American of Chinese descent and a senior in high school was harassed last summer by local boys in the same high school with chinese slurs, and etc etc. She was very upset, and I asked why don't you report it. Her response was who are the police going to believe? A couple of white boys or a chinese girl? Besides, the boys parents will then wreck my life.
(We live in a wealthy area where people have resources.)

[gregl]

Why did this take so long to come out? The same reasons it took so long for Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein to be brought to justice. Vertical_doug provided a great example. It’s extraordinarily difficult to publicly accuse a sociopathic bully in a position of power. The bully will fight back with every weapon they have. Cuomo has always been an autocratic bully. Those outside New York are just learning that now. His handling of nursing home fatality data during the pandemic was the first significant chink in his armor. While I personally don’t care for Mr. Cuomo, I hope that a rigorous, thorough investigation is conducted into the claims against him. I hope he is treated fairly under the law and is appropriately censured or criminally charged if the evidence is clear. All citizens should be treated equally under the law, regardless of their politics or position as an elected or appointed official.

Greg

[j44ke]

Power.

[johnmdesigner]

Years ago I worked in an office with a rather toxic environment.
My office mate was a young woman. The rest were male.
I watched her being constantly bullied, harassed and hit on by the staff and the bosses. Even the lowlife female freelancer who came in twice a week came to be involved in her abuse.
One day one of the employees exposed himself to her in the hallway. She immediately complained to the bosses who refused to remove the man from his post (his job was too important). I went to her bosses to discuss the problem. Then I was labeled a troublemaker.
Two weeks later, they fired her.
She got an attorney.
Then the bosses circulated a pledge demanding that current employees should have no discussions with her attorney and required you to sign it. I was on vacation at the time so I didn't.
A year later I quit. I gave a detailed deposition to her attorney about the working conditions there.
She won her lawsuit.
So yes, not only does it take a long time but it takes a lot of courage. And sometimes other people get hurt in the process.

[Bob Ross]

I hope that a rigorous, thorough investigation is conducted into the claims against him. I hope he is treated fairly under the law and is appropriately censured or criminally charged if the evidence is clear. All citizens should be treated equally under the law, regardless of their politics or position as an elected or appointed official.

^^^This.
And until that happens, I hope Cuomo stays in his position as governor and doesn't voluntarily resign. Because Al Franken and Gary Hart did, and Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas didn't, and all we got from those episodes is confirmation that Dems are pushovers and that there is no political capital to be gained from taking the moral high ground.

[72gmc]

There need to be legal protections for the accused, yes. But let’s not forget that our society punishes accusers of powerful men automatically. To the cases already mentioned you can add so many more where legal rights of accusers were trampled on, often without the powerful man even having to ask for it. What mechanisms have been added to protect accusers since Anita Hill testified?

[vertical_doug]

There need to be legal protections for the accused, yes. But let’s not forget that our society punishes accusers of powerful men automatically. To the cases already mentioned you can add so many more where legal rights of accusers were trampled on, often without the powerful man even having to ask for it. What mechanisms have been added to protect accusers since Anita Hill testified?

You mean was someone like Christine Blasey Ford able to resume your teaching career? The answer was no.

After Anita Hill, changes were made to EEOC regarding pay etc.. But that is just the work environment. There are no real options to prevent unrelated trolls from Harassing you and destroying your life.
Toxic male culture runs deep.

[72gmc]

Related: Marina Hyde’s latest column for the Guardian. My wife agrees with her, that women have to dismiss this as “nothing” because it’s not worth the effort to try to make it something. Nothing is done about it. And it’s just the street, not the workplace.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...arassed-street

[funcrusher]

I'm just glad there is support to change the name of the bridge back to tappan zee...

[j44ke]

There is an accused rapist in the Australian government, members of the French government who are accused or convicted of assault, the British House of Parliament (very large building in London) is an abusive work place, heck even Prince Andrew been implicated in international sex trafficking and now the governor of New York has been accused of abuse and assault.

Obviously this is a women's problem. They need to do a better job reporting assault and abuse to the authorities as soon as something like this happens.

^Sarcasm^

[e-RICHIE]

This cat can lose his job yet for four years Trump was untouchable?

Regardless of the facts or severity of accusations, I don’t understand why one is possibly gone when the other remained.

[Bobonli]

^^^This.
And until that happens, I hope Cuomo stays in his position as governor and doesn't voluntarily resign. Because Al Franken and Gary Hart did, and Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas didn't, and all we got from those episodes is confirmation that Dems are pushovers and that there is no political capital to be gained from taking the moral high ground.

I'm going with "yes and..."

His aggressive behavior hasn't been a secret for years. He made himself out to be a hero for the past year despite (almost certainly) sending people to their deaths without having the decency to admit he made a difficult decision, without owning his decision. And he treats people poorly, even those close to him. Not a secret. So my "yes and" is that he should step aside and let the Lt Gov conduct business while due process is carried out. Not resign but take a break because this is a major distraction even if he is ultimately exhonerated of criminal or civil liability.

[Bobonli]

This cat can lose his job yet for four years Trump was untouchable?

Regardless of the facts or severity of accusations, I don’t understand why one is possibly gone when the other remained.

Oh come on now, you know...

One political party will defend its members to the end of the earth even when there's audiovideo evidence and the accused's own attorney testifies against him. The other party will eventually cave in and canabalize their own team member even before the due process they claim is so important is carried out. I'm surprise it took the Jr Senator from NY so long to speak up. She didn't waste that much time with Al Franken!

[johnmdesigner]

Oh come on now, you know...

One political party will defend its members to the end of the earth even when there's audiovideo evidence and the accused's own attorney testifies against him. The other party will eventually cave in and canabalize their own team member even before the due process they claim is so important is carried out. I'm surprise it took the Jr Senator from NY so long to speak up. She didn't waste that much time with Al Franken!

Sad but true.
And what did all that hand wringing get them? Zip.

[Too Tall]

You mean was someone like Christine Blasey Ford able to resume your teaching career? The answer was no.

After Anita Hill, changes were made to EEOC regarding pay etc.. But that is just the work environment. There are no real options to prevent unrelated trolls from Harassing you and destroying your life.
Toxic male culture runs deep.

As an aside...as an adjunct duty I was trained by EEOC as an ADR officer and prior to that served as a EEO officer. I added this to my duties becuase, well...the workplace is toxic and too many people getting away with cr@p for too long. Long story short. It was, still is, shocking as hell that me as an white male was able to sit down with other white (possibly) criminally indictable managers who would easily relate their abuse of workplace laws/norms. It was as if I was a buddy they would tell this to over a few beers???? WTAMFF??? I'd diligently write down all the details,try not to blink sometimes asking them to repeat for clarity. It's like this, what Doug said full stop. It gets even worse, behind closed doors ADR officers settle scores between children no sh!t. Grown arse adults had to be told how to be ADULTS and the consequences.

Anywho, it is difficult to hear? Imagine being her.

[johnmdesigner]

Politically speaking New York is a cesspool.

Spritzer
Wiener
Patterson
Schneiderman (AG)
Cuomo

And the hypocracy of an idiot like De Blasio telling him to resign.
And who are you going to replace him with? Some upstate Republican? Or are they going to open up the dusty box of old dry turd Democrats past their prime.
Despite everything I consider myself lucky to still be alive.