TWGB: King Goon Found Guilty of All 34 Counts

 

Let's just take a beat to bask in what should be a solid moment for criminal justice: a trial concerning a former president with charges determined by a grand jury was brought before another jury, who, having weighed the evidence, found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying documents with the purpose of laundering the hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels with the intent to hide Trump's sordidness for the sake of election interference. 

Despite the jurors having to be held in anonymity for their own protection, despite Trump's repeated violation of his gag order, despite his traipsing of various political figures into the courtroom--it was demonstrated that they, the regular folks on that jury, could read the evidence and determine there was no reason but Trump's ambition to be president that accounted for these payments and the false business documents trying to cover up that a payoff had been made. It isn't rocket science, and the chain of evidence wasn't obscure. 

And because Trump is King of the Goons, the Goons are coming out to dismiss the entirety of our justice system, pretend King Goon was victimized and railroaded, and demonstrate that they are willing to destroy our faith in our Constitutional system if it didn't find their little adjudicated pussy-grabber, fraudulent, bankrupt, moron, knuckle dragger, racist pig purely innocent of what all the documentation involved, not merely the testimony of the witnesses, demonstrated quite factually he was guilty of. 

I've spoken before about the categorical error of the Republican Party that they confuse Identity Politics as being to blame for things when the reality is that people face consequences in the real world for their actions. Trump was not found guilty because he is the leader of the GOP or because he is the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee, He is guilty because he was the guy in the dock, who fucked Stormy Daniels and directed his "fixer" to pay her off, and then tried to launder it through his business. That is all. If this was the leader of the GOP and the presumptive nominee for the 2024 presidential contest and had not done that--he would not be in this situation.

He fucked up. He. Did. That. It is not the sin of other folks for noticing it and holding him to account. 

TWGB: Not Like King David, Either

 

This morning, while working out his deep feelings over how impecunious he was about to be, Trump shared with us a Psalm that, like 2 Corinthians, he had no context for, and as a matter of course, was funny to people who do know scripture. Trump didn't compare himself to Jesus, he was biting off old busy-shanks David. He was saying, though he didn't even know, the beginning of a harsh imprecatory prayer against one's accusers, that basically says, when God is on your side, they just let you do it, and your accusers will get fucked up in due time. 

You know why I know this one? Because it was deployed on President Obama not as the King, but as the evil overseer. And I knew when I heard it then, it was intended as a word of wrath being dripped in the ear of those listening like poison, asking them to act. And Trump is giving himself to "prayer"  (curses) against his foes. Because he wants others to carry out his wrath. Not God. Just...someone. 

Act against Judge Engoron. Act against the prosecutors.  Act as if God whispered it in your ear. 

He's as subtle as a sock in the face. 

Trump's Revealing Post

 

This morning, Trump made a post to his Truth Social that was almost certainly ill-advised. Probably because he consulted only the legal brain trust of Ego, Superego, and Id, LTD. After his lawyers took pains to try to get a stay of the judgment day for his fraud civil trial settlement by claiming the impossibility of putting up a bond, Trump is now telling everyone he has it in the form of cash. Which is just fine--I am sure no one would like to hear that more than Letitia James. It does make me ask some questions though:

1) Why did thirty companies refuse to give him a bond, including Chubb, the source of his defamation civil trial bond? 

2) If you just have the cash, why have one's lawyers pretend you don't just for a stay?

3) And per the post on Truth Social, since when does he spend his own money on his political campaigns? And how would Engoron know he was planning on this stunning change of heart regarding using his own money for anything, when even his legal fees are being picked up by OPM? 

There's a good chance, if I understand how Trump uses social media by now, that this was a reaction to comments like those from Anthony Scaramucci regarding his Big Bad Brokeness. But here's the thing, it's like this post happens in a separate universe from the one where the Truth Social merger with DWAC is supposed to make him $3 billion richer. It happened, and the IPO goes public in a very weirdly timed way--like if this was a soap opera, we'd be complaining about the writers just pulling this convergence of events together as being contrived.

And yet--it doesn't fix his little red MAGA wagon and send him on his way, does it?

TWGB: Nearly Nothing to Say

 

The death of Alexei Navalny is an example of how authoritarian power reacts to courage--the strongman is, at heart, a small villain. The warm voice of opposition is the thing that threatens his snowflake grip on power. In the US, we enshrined freedom of speech in the Constitution. In Putin's Russia, it is punished, sometimes fatally. The likelihood that Russia will call this "natural causes" is a laugh--naturally, we know what caused his death. 

But I'm not an expert in Russia politics, so there's only so much I can add to that discussion. I just want to note that the power to eliminate opposing voices was exactly the power that Trump's claim of total presidential immunity would result in. It would be the power of the thin-skinned and weak man to no longer have to argue his case, but to end the argument with one fatal command. 

I won't link to the sickos on the right who linked the imprisonment of Navalny and the straits of former president Donald Trump, except to note them by name, D'Souza, Zeldin, Mace (there's more, but linking to them hardly matters). Trump is not a crusader against corruption--he is corrupt. He is not downtrodden by political violence; he is an ardent encourager of it. This is the real Trump Derangement Syndrome: to never blame poor little Trump for anything, ever. Not even the legal troubles of a long-time crook. 

TWGB: It Should Cost Him More

 

The news that the jury in Trump defamation trial of E. Jean Carroll came back fairly swiftly with a verdict in the amount of $83 million gave me a sense of deja vu--it hadn't taken that long for a jury to decide the first defamation case in Ms. Carroll's favor, either. Now, our scandal-ridden former president owes her nearly $90 million. His not-especially good lawyer, Alina Habba, says they will appeal.

I don't think they should. I think they are the most unappealing bunch imaginable. 

Maybe delay has been a key strategy of Trump's with respect to his legal woes during an exceptionally legally contentious life, but this is wearing thin and is bound to have diminishing returns. Can he put up the bond for the amount of his judgments? Is he as liquid as he said he was (considering he's got the likely 9-figure judgment in his NY civil trial coming up)? And isn't he just bringing more and more attention to his miserable behavior?

As I've long covered here, his behavior doesn't diminish him in the eyes of the true MAGA believer. They can dismiss that Trump is a life-long sex pest because the real problem they have is with someone pointing it out. Take Elise Stefaniak or Nancy Mace--they don't care. And maybe TrumpWorld doesn't bat an eyelash that Trump's defenders include Matt Schlapp and Rudy Giuliani*--both under scrutiny for sexual misconduct. 

Intimidation is the Point

 

It's a beautiful thing, seeing Trump use a crime underboss with blood on his hands as his character witness calling for "strength and honesty in our New York courts." It really takes you back. Once upon a time in America, the specter of the NY mob and the menace of the Five Families might have fucked with a prosecutor or a judge. Maybe after Rudolph Giuliani and Gravano's own turn, this isn't as certain as it used to be. 

Am I being tongue in cheek? I recall when Trump was proud of a mob celeb at one of his South Florida businesses not so long ago. He's not shy about his associations with this kind of people--he has relied on it as a business fact. He was denied a casino license in Australia because of this business fact. 

Now, I don't pretend I've researched a lot into what degree Trump, the builder, had to ingratiate himself with the mafia consortium who owned everything to do with concrete back in the day, when he was supposedly changing the NYC skyline (I only expect those contractors, for sure, were the ones who got paid), but I do understand what he's doing here:

He's just letting people know he's got friends in all kinds of places. Loyal ones. Maybe dangerous ones.

TWGB: Seething Contempt

 

The former guy seemed a little confused about how he ended up with no jury. His attractive strip mall attorney who also does traffic beefs forgot to check a box! (So weird! By his own admission, Trump is always checking boxes.) But anyway, instead of being mad at his counsel (and really, they are what he can get) Trump trained his ire on the AG (of course) calling her a reverse racist again and the judge, which is exactly what you would do if the decision in this case came down to (checks notes) that guy. 

TrumpWorld has poisoned my brain. I start looking for the obvious fuckery every time. Is Trump baiting the judge so he can declare everything was biased against him? Is he baiting him to get contempt ruled on him? Is he just pretending he doesn't know how he ended up with no jury so he can turn around and waste time with an incompetent counsel appeal? 

I have no idea at all. Maybe none of the above (I don't think any of that would pass the smell test, anyway) and it is really just a sad, farcical clusterfuck where the stable genius is watching his life pass in front of him. But he says he's going to testify on his own behalf, and goddamn if that doesn't sound worth the price of admission!

And maybe he also wants to duck the deposition for the Michael Cohen libel trial he initiated because he realized he'd incriminate himself because he's a big flipping dumbass. Because at some point, isn't somebody gonna ask: But wasn't he working for YOU? Like, Michael Cohen didn't get himself into the shit for you without you, hon.

TWGB: Trump's Loss

 

Seems like just yesterday when Donald Trump was coming down that escalator in the iconic Trump Tower to announce his bid for the presidency, and we all heard he paid people to show up. He was already fantastically famous due to his reality tv program which depicted him as a very successful businessman, albeit with an entire fuckton of editing. The reality has always been a lot more complicated.  As in, very legally complicated. Just so, so, so complicated.  Trump was already knee-deep in litigation over Trump University--a fraud. 

Since then, he's had to pay $2 million and shut down his fraudulent Trump Organization charity, his business has been found liable for tax fraud, and now, in a summary judgment, NY AG Leticia James' bank fraud case against him has been substantially bolstered--Trump and his family loses their business, and Trump even parts with that golden escalator. 

TWGB: Here's to the Losers

 

Once upon a time, in a far-off land called TrumpWorld, a would-be king promised there would be "so much winning" that people would get bored of winning.  I still don't know what that means, and I've studied it like it was my job. It sounds like something a conman would say. But lately--there has not been a lot of winning. One term, two impeachments, three marriages, four indictments, five deferments, six bankruptcies  (six point drop after missing the first GOP primary 2024 debate), seven trials, probably going on eight (Arizona? Michigan?) or even nine. 

The losers for August 30th include Pete Navarro, who can't claim executive privilege that Trump didn't claim for him and will go to trial in a whole minute for contempt. He seems to have thought Trump won in 2020, (or alleged to), but the sign held up behind him reminds us Trump most certainly did not. And any rational person would realize that, by the utter lack of Trump in the White House right now. Navarro tried to wrest the sign away from the protester and was advised he was on camera and you know. 

Loser. 

TWGB: It's A Bad Week. For Trump, That Is.

 

This is a short one, but Trump got told to shut his face, he really is considered a rapist by regular folks, and also, too, he can't move his hush money trial to federal court because why even?  

So, I know, I know, these aren't the biggest things on the big old list of Trump fails, and especially not while we're awaiting the 1/6 indictments or looking forward to his charging in Georgia, and so on. But I just wanted to point out that Trump is definitely getting his time in court for his huge, big, being a sleaze stuff. 

Which people are noticing more and more. 

UPDATE: You know it's bad when he's like this:

Donald Trump says that it would be "very dangerous" for Jack Smith to put him in jail because of his "passionate" supporters. pic.twitter.com/DsWNbRMWZR

— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) July 20, 2023

Is that a threat? Maybe he should be charged for making threats. It really feels like all the more reason why he, and the unreasonable and violent people who like him, should be held accountable, right? Because he's going off.  Off like old raw bacon in the sun. 

UPDATE: If Trump was going to do something he never did before, what would it be? Please a woman? Tell the truth? Give to charity? Be entirely honest? Act like an adult? Pick up the tab? I am sure he's trying to be threatening, but um. There's an awful lot Trump can be trusted to have not ever done before.

Jim Jordan is Defending Putin's Puppet

 

"I could see that he loved it" -- Trump on what Putin said to him about Ukraine in private discussions pic.twitter.com/bn6Frny9Al

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 12, 2023

Donald Trump has always just been a tool for Putin, just a dopey, underinformed somewhat ineffectual businessman who has been handled because of his wealth by foreign influence from the beginning. There is credible reason to believe that if Trump won a second term instead of massively losing, he would have finally "winked" at Putin to do his damnedest with respects to Ukraine.

I don't know why GOP Representative Jim Jordan thinks he needs to protect Donald Trump from all threats as if he was his very own smol bean--but Jordan is a sketchy guy himself. Maybe Trump has dirt on him, maybe not. Maybe he seriously does believe Trump is his smol bean. I never succumbed to whatever charisma Trump is supposed to have, but maybe this is his influence on his supporters, they see him as their hero and also as a small baby who needs to be protected.

MAGA doesn't want us to fool around with their sweetheart, Donald J. Trump. Because he puts America first? Heh! While he's talking up the dictators in China and Russia we are supposed to believe he's strong on. He says the US radicals are the greatest threat--to the whole country, or just to his political future? Anyway, Jordan hasn't got any right to interfere in New York business, and Bragg isn't about to let him.

Alivin Bragg is suing Jim Jordan for using federal US dollars to fuck around with state business to prevent a lawful investigation into a one-time NY citizen. In the meanwhile, Trump's support is cratering because America is tired of his act. 

I'd love to see Trump's dogged supporters go down with their Titanic leader. They seem dead set on putting him, not this country, first.

TWGB: It's Bad

 

The conviction of the Trump Organization for 17 counts of assorted tax fraud charges is, to put it mildly, a bit of a setback for the presidential candidacy of former president Donald J. Trump, although of course, he's appealing it. And we can look back and note that the sad ends of Trump University and the Trump Foundation didn't scathe Trump's image as a successful (and definitely not a con artist) businessman. (They totally should have.) It's hard to say that what should be a bit of a (to use a term) legal coup against a corrupt real estate scion is even the beginning of the end of Trump--the man, the myth, the mofo. 

But why not say it is? Because whatever is going down around him--it isn't good. 

I wonder about little gestures in TrumpWorld, like the revelation that Trump's lawyers have a team investigating whether there were still classified government documents to be found on Trump properties, and while they did find a couple in a storage unit, they are pretttttttyyy sure Trump's usual haunts are clean. 

My favorite bit is where the FBI decline to watch the search:

The team also offered the FBI the opportunity to observe the search, but the offer was declined, the people said. It would be unusual for federal agents to monitor a search of someone’s property conducted by anyone other than another law enforcement agency. Federal authorities have already searched Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s primary residence, and he spends almost all of his time at those three properties, advisers say.

They would like to watch a search at Trump Tower or Bedminster, is my guess, but doing it when expected is not how this is going to go down.  I just have the vague suspicion that this story is Team Trump trying to get out in front of something.  I mean, Trump;s lawyers say he's got all the clasified docs out of his sstem but they've been wrong before, right? 

The Big What-if?

 

Trump: I'm going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday November 15 pic.twitter.com/EmpMcqYVt0

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 8, 2022

Ooooohhhhhh! A big announcement, is it? At Mar-a-Lago (the site where, two times, now, multiple boxes containing assorted government paper Trump had no business still having, were carted out--and this is important). The Winter White House. Much Florida Guy energy!

Not to overshadow the important message of the midterms, mind you-but whatever, whatever, whatever could it be? Did he strike oil while rustling up some food in the backyard at Bedminster? Does he have one weird trick for eliminating stubborn grout stains? Has he had a vision of the Blessed Virgin with several important prophecies for our future? Does he want you to know that you can donate your unwanted old vehicle to 1-877-kars 4kids? 

Not to bigfoot J.D. Puffenstuff's (who he does not own, he says) rally, or whatever, but Trump wants you to know you would be safer with him in charge of the nuclear codes because he'd know when to use'em! And also, Nancy Pelosi impeached him twice, which makes her just as much an animal as MS-13. That's serving some serious presidential vibes and doesn't at all sound like a sad self-important has-been about to be indicted for lots of things. He sounds like a sad, self-important has-been about to be indicted for lots of things who got told announcing he was running for the 2024 GOP presidential race would 1) possibly turn out the vote--against the GOP, 2) sever his legal fees being paid by the RNC and 3) end his Save America fundraising grift. 

He doesn't want to announce right now, but maybe--after he knows whether Lee Zeldin will be able to pardon him for anything he's maybe in trouble for in NY--then he might announce. When he's guaranteed that the 1/6 Committee goes away and we see Jim Jordan or (holy jumping jiggery-fuckery) Margarine Tater Grease having the gavel in the Oversight Committee, why, then, wow! His glidepath back to the "dump" feels so much more stable. Very legal and very cool. 

I have all the obvious questions and reservations you might think I have, especially in light of "Putin's chef" admitting screwing about in US elections has been on the menu for a long while and still is. And also, I think about the threat GOP wins might have on the future of support to Ukraine. And what it means to have election denialism become the default, not election security. Not one person, one vote, but one election, hordes of lawyers. 

He has basically already announced that he wants to announce. Our Democracy better batten down its ever-loving hatches. 

Comeuppance

 

When your day started out like:

New York Attorney General Tish James announces a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and his three adult children for alleged fraud and misrepresentation. https://t.co/CQT6q6yZEY https://t.co/Cb3nAnqKOe

— POLITICO (@politico) September 21, 2022

(And she said it like, "SDNY, Manhattan DA, DOJ, you follow?")

and then the Eleventh Circuit went:

BREAKING: Appeals Court panel *grants* DOJ request for a stay of parts of Judge Cannon’s ruling. pic.twitter.com/dx2aGZGjDU

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 21, 2022

(I mean they cut Judge Cannon up over jurisdiction and the declassification canard and the whole shebang. Turns out, when national security is at stake, the concerns of the USG are more important than the ego of a former president.) 

And now you're sitting on Hannity's show like:

Oh my God!

Trump says that there doesn't have to be any process in declassifying documents. In fact, he can do it just by thinking about it!

Then he wonders if the FBI was looking for Hillary's emails when they raided Mar-a-Lago. pic.twitter.com/vmmVnYI309

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) September 22, 2022

(2016 was six years ago. The FBI was finished with Hillary Clinton's emails six years ago. There are more important things Trump was hoarding in #Docugate or whatever we are calling this scandal.) 

That's a bad fucking day. Absolutely no notes required.

TWGB: Soon to be Deposed.

 

The decision today (to be appealed--hopefully unsuccessfully) that Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump should sit for deposition in the NY AG civil case regarding "copious financial fraud" sounds like the gentle rumble of the accountability train, coming at long last.  I think. I mean, I've had my head on this track listening for fucking ever. 

The case that was put on by Trump's lawyers to quash the subpoenas for his documents (is someone pouring ketchup on Trump Organization papers even as we speak?) and the deposition of Trump and family was absurd, but then again, TrumpWorld is a funhouse mirror universe where things always look bizarre. Is NY AG Tish James unduly biased against Trump? It would hardly matter given that the actual case against him based on copious available documents suggests justice would be served by giving him his day in court--why does Trump have a problem with that?  

And isn't Trump in a protected class? While obviously, former one-term twice-impeached presidents are rare, no, he isn't a protected class just because he used to have some vague kind of immunity (which should never have covered shit he did before assuming the office of POTUS, anyway). 

In a bit of weirdness, one of Trump's lawyers even pulled out "Why aren't you investigating Hillary Clinton for spying?" This is the sort of thing a badly-overmatched attorney might bring up if her briefcase were stuffed with notebook paper with unhelpful suggestion from the client scrawled in Sharpie marker. This is exactly how I imagine it, and how it will be portrayed in the screenplay. 

Another argument--won't it look bad? Was knocked down by the obvious answer: well, what if it is bad? If Trump pleads the Fifth Amendment, yes, it does work against him in the civil trial, and he should obviously consider whether telling the truth might be one way of avoiding that disaster. But if he obviously would incriminate himself if he told the truth and that information is shared in a criminal context--

Why are we doing this? Look, Trump has history. He had to settle Trump University cases and his Trump Foundation was scattered to the winds. It isn't that he isn't known to be crooked, it's that his fan club doesn't admit it to themselves because they are enjoying the ride he's taking them on and the system hasn't figured out how to shut him all the way down yet. NY AG Tish James is doing something very important here: the hard work of bringing a lawless business to account. Trump having been president should not exculpate him or his dumb kids. If anything, that and his potential for running again makes inspecting his morality and concern for the law more important, not less. 

Especially because there is every reason to expect that he ran the office of the presidency, from the very first day, with the same lawless attitude he engaged in his business practices. Especially because even his exit from that office is marred by lawlessness and involves the complicity of his family.  

Should Trump continue to benefit from the same luck he's experienced all his gifted, grifting, and corrupt life after all we know now? (Shouldn't his lease to his Washington DC hotel be voided because of fraud before he can sell it and get an ill-gained cash infusion for his suffering business?) 

Trump's party always likes to talk about being in favor of the rule of law, against crime, and for personal responsibility. Well, Trump is being made responsible. You gotta love it. 

I mean, unless for some stupid reason you put all your eggs in a deplorable handbasket, or something. But who is that dumb? 

Mazars: It's Not Us, It's You

 

The Trump Organization's longtime accounting firm Mazars said it no longer wants Trump's business, as it doesn't trust the financial documents the Trump Org has given them. https://t.co/2DJrMmR7bY

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 14, 2022

There's a little joy in reading this "Dear Donald" letter only once you really entertain the implications: Mazars is saying we relied on information the Trump Organization provided to us and after looking at everything in a new light, we can't stand by the financial statements that lending institutions were basing their estimation of your financial ability to pay loans back on. They have apparently also turned over more than a half million docs to the NY AG's investigation.

Turning it over a little further, the Trump Organization has to find accountants that will want to deal with a sprawling business that seems to have multiple sets of books, and lend their reputation to sorting out Trump's. That could be a problem, you think?  Even if current loans weren't in jeopardy, refinancing them in case several were about to come due in the near term could be an issue, perhaps? 

This is the sort of thing that should have been obvious in 2016, if not before: Donald Trump is financially corrupt and corruptible and had come to use foreign lenders more often.  Does he separate his own financial interest from the interest of the US? Can he make that kind of moral judgment?

Who knows if his secret document stash was a kind of collateral for potential foreign investors, so to speak?  That this person was ever in the White House will never not shock me.

That he is still considered a GOP leader and likely 2024 front-runner is a disgrace.

TWGB: Sometimes You Need A National Security Emergency, Is All

 

Former Trump COS Mark Meadows might not actually be the sharpest ball in the ball pit, because damn, he seems to have incriminated himself by giving "just the tip" of information to the House January 6th Committee, because it looks like the "but her emails" crew learned nothing about properly digitally maintaining and giving over records required to be kept. Also, they may have just gotten enough to pretty much nail Meadows' involvement down, anyway. And you, know, besides all that, he did undercut himself about wanting to keep privilege about certain details by a) Writing a book and b) going on news shows to talk about just what he wasn't willing to talk about. 

And all this before he knows exactly how the courts are going to come down ultimately on the executive privilege claim--but it doesn't look great for him. Because we only have one president at a time, Trump isn't it right now, and OMG YOU ASSHOLES TRIED TO STEAL AN ELECTION. And left a detailed PowerPoint about what the fuck?

So, before I go all Stringer Bell about taking notes on a criminal conspiracy (again! because I'm pretty sure I did that reference before) I have to note there are similarities between the PowerPoint and the Claremont war games. The really hilarious things are how the PowerPoint definitely leans on the Chinese Thermostat/Italian satellite kind of conspiracy theories for what happened to give the election to Biden (instead of like, the COVID-19 disaster, the unemployment and the fucking constant drama) and relies on "a national security emergency" on or about January 6 that means the military totally has to take over. So sad!

It Will Be an Awkward 14 Days

 

The decision to schedule his resignation announcement to coincide with the results of the Senate vote on the infrastructure bill was yet another of Governor Cuomo's failures to, as they say, "read the room". While finally having an end to the running joke of Infrastructure Week always coming off with no actual infrastructure legislation, surely he didn't think that the bill, however much of an accomplishment it is, was going to offset the press his resignation announcement got?

Are you kidding? Of course, it was going to be the big news of the day regardless of whatever other big things happened today, and actually, it took a little of the shine that should have gone to the legislative achievement. Yay--bipartisan things are happening in government. Also: man vents petty bullshit before leaving major office amid multiple scandals.

And yes: that's what he did. Just like the very best time to make his resignation announcement was 1 pm EST last week, the very best thing he could have said was, "Yes, I'm leaving for the good of the state's business and I'm leaving it in very capable hands", and absolutely not appear for several harsh moments like he was about to swear to dig in his heels forever.  Making statements that he was the one being wrongly persecuted and seemingly certain that he was sure his behavior was right, it was the women who were wrong (as if understanding only that he was no longer getting away with behavior that had gone without correction for some time), he seemed like a person confident that he'd leave, but he'd be missed.

And here's the thing I can harp on regarding leadership endlessly: no matter how competent a leader is, there just isn't anyone so indispensable that corrupt or abusive behavior needs to be tolerated. In fact, the test of leadership sometimes is not being indispensable at all, but in having brought together a team united in purpose and communication to continue doing the work when you're not even there because they are empowered and motivated to do that.  And corrupt and abusive behavior actually impair the work and hurt the trust that needs to exist in a good system.

We don't have to settle for or tolerate abusive behavior in the workplace or from our government leaders--period. We don't have to look at people starry-eyed and forgive them for completely egregious screw-ups when good people exist who won't do those things.  

Cuomo has given himself 14 days to wrap his affairs up before moving on. It was not the legitimate stories of the 11 women he knows he behaved inappropriately to that I think motivated his resignation, but the final understanding that this was not his only failing, and that others would surely cast doubt on the aura of steady leadership his COVID-19 press conferences last year created. He cut his losses late. He might hold out hope for a second act, but I doubt it would feel triumphal. 

Arrogance and Andrew Cuomo

 

There was a moment today when I thought, very briefly, upon hearing that Andrew Cuomo was going to make a statement at 1 p.m. after the details of the investigation into the allegations of his sexual harassment had been made public, that maybe, just maybe, he was going to do the right thing. Surely, I thought, like a poor innocent fish, he's just taking a minute to draft his resignation comments and will be getting his ass out of office with some basic dignity intact because if he tries to hang on, shit is going to get nasty from here on. 

He certainly did no such thing. He made a disgusting appeal to his age and ethnicity and tried to maintain that no, everyone just misunderstood him: actually, he is a big supporter of women. The current throughout--these lying women are just trying to jam me up. With no explanation of what set them off (other than the simple truth) or how their coming forward about what they went through benefits them in the slightest, except that he not be in a position of power anymore, and not be able to continue to do harm.

And here's the grotesque thing--this was a prepared statement that came along with a montage of Governor Kissyface showing physical affection to a wide assortment of people, as if to say, see? This is just how he is. How can you imagine that any of this was inappropriate? 

Well, thanks to the visual representation, I can imagine it a bit more vividly, so thanks for that. It's astounding. Someone cut that together and thought "This is helping." But clearly, that was put together before AG James' announcement.