The Indignities and Mediocrity of Brute White Patriarchy
March 12, 2021 4:22 PM   Subscribe

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is under investigation by his own Attorney General and is facing possible impeachment for two colliding scandals: mounting allegations of sexual misconduct, and allegations that he deliberately under-reported COVID-related nursing home deaths. Today, New York Magazine published a lengthy, exhaustively researched, and incredibly damning exposé about the toxic culture of Cuomo's Albany. Despite calls for his resignation from a majority of state lawmakers and New York’s Congressional delegation, Cuomo says he's not going anywhere.
posted by showbiz_liz (134 comments total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
Saw this today. Noticed correlations with Weinstein. Nyorker has an insightful article.

Maybe it's time for Mr. Cuomo to take a break.
posted by firstdaffodils at 4:36 PM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]


Yeah, he needs to go.

WTF is wrong with these dudes, (other than the obvious)? How does power lead to this kind of shit behavior? I'm an old cis-het white man, and I can't imagine treating people in this way. Just, no...
posted by Windopaene at 4:49 PM on March 12, 2021 [14 favorites]


A friend of mine works in local media and has talked for many years about what a gross creep Cuomo is. None of this - certainly not the accusations but especially his behavior in the wake - should be even the slightest bit surprising to anybody.

That said, his dogged refusal to step out of the way makes me a little worried that he’ll run third party in the next race and really fuck everything up.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:51 PM on March 12, 2021 [5 favorites]


That said, his dogged refusal to step out of the way makes me a little worried that he’ll run third party in the next race and really fuck everything up.
Would he actually get many votes? I realize that my perspective on this is totally skewed, because all of the New Yorkers I know live in NYC or its vicinity, but I don't think that there are a lot of voters with any deep love of Cuomo. His power comes from his ability to bully people within the political system, and then voters vote for him because they don't have any better options. But maybe he has more genuine support upstate.

Anyway, he's a fucking creep (and also awful in all sorts of other ways), and he has to go, even if there are political consequences.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:58 PM on March 12, 2021 [4 favorites]


Yeah, who knows. I get the sense that, basically, many suburban Dems love him for some reason, but maybe it’s just the afterglow of this fall’s gross victory lap that will wear off by then.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:07 PM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]


"Everybody" (by which I mean people who pay more than passing attention to local politics, which is not the majority of people) knew he was a shitty bully. Now everybody knows.

Thing is, the whole state has been changing around him politically for several years, and many of the newer state legislators simply don't want to play his games anymore. Even so, he still had this aura of invincibility around him. He's been primaried from the left before and won handily, so everyone was like, ugh I guess he'll be governor until he decides not to be. But this time, there was blood in the water and enough legislators felt emboldened to say, "wait, we're allowed to say how much Cuomo fucking sucks now, like in public? In that case: CUOMO FUCKING SUCKS."

To be frank, I don't think that the calls for him to resign would have come so swiftly and grown so quickly if he was not already loathed by a huge percentage of New York's legislators. I would bet money that a fair number of them are jumping up and down with glee over the possibility that this will sink him for good. But then again, if he wasn't loathsome, he wouldn't have done all the loathsome things he's been accused of.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:07 PM on March 12, 2021 [41 favorites]


Oh good, I've been wanting to talk about this. The Anna Ruch photo has been lodged in my brain since it came out. This seems like it should become the iconic sexual harassment photo and I'm surprised there hasn't been more commentary to that effect. Everything about it is perfect. She's Everywoman trying to navigate a deeply uncomfortable moment, and he's the quintessential handsy creep. What woman can't relate to this? I can't get over how compelling it is.
posted by HotToddy at 5:09 PM on March 12, 2021 [48 favorites]


...oh my god, her expression. (Anna Ruch)
This is referenced in the New Yorker article as well.

Don't make her iconic unless you can honor her in some way. She's already mortified.
posted by firstdaffodils at 5:12 PM on March 12, 2021 [4 favorites]


Also my mom is having an appalling reaction to all of this, standing firm in her position that everyone is "overreacting."
posted by HotToddy at 5:14 PM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]


I've worked with so many older guys like this. Sadly, a serious percentage of the younger professionals see the behaviour and think to themselves " I'll know I've arrived when I can start treating other people like that!".
posted by LegallyBread at 5:14 PM on March 12, 2021 [6 favorites]


How does power lead to this kind of shit behavior?

It does not seem mysterious at all to me - to be a politician you must be comfortable with non-consent in general, why not expect to often see this manifest in the sexual realm?
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 5:16 PM on March 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


"Also my mom is having an appalling reaction to all of this, standing firm in her position that everyone is "overreacting."

This is suggestive of reverse patriarchal or misogynistic behavior, where women have been conditioned to defend or ignore these interactions.

You can ask her what she'd do if she were any of those women, and see how she responds.
posted by firstdaffodils at 5:19 PM on March 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


How does power lead to this kind of shit behavior? I'm an old cis-het white man, and I can't imagine treating people in this way. Just, no...

As was drummed into me virtually every day of high school, power corrupts, and most of the time, you can get away with whatever you want if you have power.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:21 PM on March 12, 2021 [4 favorites]


The "power corrupts" narrative tends to imply that this kind of shit is inevitable. It takes the blame off Cuomo, where it belongs, and places it on the abstract concept of "power." Screw that. Don't blame the power for his being an asshole. Some people are just assholes, power or no power.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:25 PM on March 12, 2021 [43 favorites]


I know. I just can't imagine behaving this way towards anyone.
posted by Windopaene at 5:26 PM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]


This early bit stuck out to me, because of what I do:
On a different day, in Manhattan, Cuomo asked her to come into his office and look up car parts on eBay. “He sat at his desk and angled his chair around.” It was a tight space, with Kaitlin standing between the seated governor and the computer he was asking her to work on. “So I was standing there, in a skirt and heels, having to bend over his computer, with him looking at me, and me looking up car parts.” (In response, Cuomo’s spokesperson noted: “The governor is notoriously technologically inept — male and female staffers have for years assisted the governor with his computer.”)
I'm a librarian, and over the years I have known people who genuinely have difficulty using computers and other types of technology, due to various learning and/or sensory issues, or because they just don't grasp the general paradigm behind computers, the internet, etc.... and I've also known people who feigned these things, or simply demanded that I do it for them, because they wanted the satisfaction of people doing things for them that they could easily do for themselves. eBay didn't become the early and huge dot-com success that it did because it was inscrutable to computer novices.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:27 PM on March 12, 2021 [38 favorites]


"Power" Its a false, or at least malleable construct. It's in the eye of the beholder. We're seeing a delightful number of people taking breaks or just getting out of positions where they no longer serve the regiment.

Cuomo seems as though he's settled on a lot of old money and false constructs. It may be that his house is built in sand.
posted by firstdaffodils at 5:31 PM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]


I just want to highlight this incident from the New York Magazine article (which is great, really, yall should read it):

In March 2019, Camille Rivera, former political director of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, who had a cordial — if delicate — relationship with the administration, was growing irritated by what she viewed as Cuomo adviser Rich Azzopardi’s habit of publicly directing vitriol toward women. When she saw him belittling Andrea Stewart-Cousins on Twitter, she lost patience and replied, “ ‘This is what happens with men of white privilege; someone else would have been called out for attacking the majority leader of the Senate, who is a Black woman.’ ”

It was not long before she heard from [top Cuomo aide] DeRosa, screaming at her to take her tweet down. The fight got so intense, Rivera said, that DeRosa was yelling, “ ‘What are you going to do about it?’ and I was like, ‘You’re the one with the black Suburban; you come over here and tell me what you’re going to do about it.’ ” In the midst of their argument, Rivera got a call from her boss, who was in Europe and extremely confused about why he was getting angry calls from high-level state officials. (They agreed that the tweet wasn’t worth it; she took it down.)


This is such a typical example of how Cuomo and his proxies operate - just fucking scream at people until they do whatever it takes to get you to stop.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:41 PM on March 12, 2021 [27 favorites]


that bullshit about Cuomo being computer-illiterate reminds me of this brilliant piece by Lili Loofbourow: The Myth of the Male Bumbler.

There's a reason for this plague of know-nothings: The bumbler's perpetual amazement exonerates him. Incompetence is less damaging than malice. And men — particularly powerful men — use that loophole like corporations use off-shore accounts. The bumbler takes one of our culture's most muscular myths — that men are clueless — and weaponizes it into an alibi.
posted by suelac at 5:50 PM on March 12, 2021 [51 favorites]


I have a suspicion that a high-powered official who uses the term "cancel culture" to defend themselves is guilty as fuck.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:58 PM on March 12, 2021 [41 favorites]


One might have thought that watching the me too movement topple creep after creep would put the rest of them on notice that this bullshit is not consequence-free anymore. Evidently not.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 6:00 PM on March 12, 2021 [8 favorites]


Narcissistic traits, groupthink, and affluence are a hell of a drug.
posted by firstdaffodils at 6:02 PM on March 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


Also my mom is having an appalling reaction to all of this, standing firm in her position that everyone is "overreacting."

It no longer surprises me that ostensibly good people (i.e. who vote Democrat, value education and the arts etc.) can still be massive sell-outs. Middle-class, professional culture values conformity and going along to get along, and people are very reluctant to value an idea over the comfort of the status quo.

Personally, the notion that Cuomo might run for a fourth term gives me the willies. He could still win a primary and get plenty of votes. If you look at any mainstream news outlet the majority of comments still defend him.
posted by anhedonic at 6:25 PM on March 12, 2021 [4 favorites]


I like Atrios' nickname for Cuomo: Blue Trump
posted by JackFlash at 6:28 PM on March 12, 2021 [7 favorites]


Just a side note, Tish James isn't Cuomo's attorney general. New York's attorney general is elected, not appointed. That said, she was generally seen as a Cuomo ally in the past.
posted by praemunire at 6:30 PM on March 12, 2021 [8 favorites]


Nobody writes about terrible men like Rebecca Traister. I've known Cuomo was Blue Trump for years and this article still blew me away.
posted by Mavri at 6:58 PM on March 12, 2021 [5 favorites]


People defended Weinstein a bit as well. After a little time, their defenses meant nothing.
posted by firstdaffodils at 7:28 PM on March 12, 2021


It is not that power corrupts but rather that power enables. You probably still have to be an asshole to start with though.
posted by piyushnz at 7:56 PM on March 12, 2021 [18 favorites]


Incompetence is less damaging than malice. And men — particularly powerful men — use that loophole like corporations use off-shore accounts. The bumbler takes one of our culture's most muscular myths — that men are clueless — and weaponizes it into an alibi.

I am sure it gets weaponized, but I'm not sure it's an excuse. I'm starting to believe that the more your job involves directing/managing people, the less domain capability matters, and a lack of it can not only be weaponized as a plausible deniability but also as a kind of shield against being told why something is hard, why pressure is unreasonable, why something isn't possible, until people just give up trying to help you understand and try to go as close to along with what you want as they can because it's a bother to do otherwise.

I'm also not sure there's a reason to accept this, but if someone's figured out how to solve this problem, I'm not among them.
posted by wildblueyonder at 8:36 PM on March 12, 2021 [9 favorites]


I wonder if the Trump years have destroyed the political resignation at high levels. Trump, lacking shame or any notion that anyone should have it, ignored all the calls for his resignation. His ideological larvae, such as Cawthorn, Boebert, and Greene, will never resign. And if only Democrats resign, what’s the good of it? — or at least, some people think that that follows. I don’t. The hell with this guy. I am embarrassed that I ever liked him, back in the days when he seemed to be doing things about COVID in his daily briefings.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:46 PM on March 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


Blue Trump is a good term. Asshole narcissists may sometimes end up on the same side as us by accident, but will discard all their professed ideals at a moment's notice for power. We shouldn't put up with them in the workplace or government.
posted by benzenedream at 9:16 PM on March 12, 2021


You can blame him personally.
You can also blame society.
You can also blame the power.
You can also blame the party.
You can also blame his allies.

You don't ever have to stop blaming, it isn't pie.
posted by poe at 9:32 PM on March 12, 2021 [55 favorites]


"Also my mom is having an appalling reaction to all of this, standing firm in her position that everyone is "overreacting."

- This is suggestive of reverse patriarchal or misogynistic behavior, where women have been conditioned to defend or ignore these interactions.

-- It no longer surprises me that ostensibly good people (i.e. who vote Democrat, value education and the arts etc.) can still be massive sell-outs.

It's possible that your mom is comparing the sexual misconduct allegations to her own experiences with harassment, or to what close friend or family shared with her. (If "all of this" includes the nursing home death portion, that's also terrible, and I'm sorry.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:34 PM on March 12, 2021 [4 favorites]


Iris is not wrong.

Women are shifting away from these experiences in younger generations, the older generations deserve a lot of respect for essentially internalizing and somewhat neutralizing these behaviors.

It's never okay, but certain generations or waves of women in culture had been unofficial harbingers and shock troops for these experiences. These roles have been evolving for some time, when you hear a person say, "It isn't the worst-" it may not be to intentionally diminish the other experiences: it may be the phrase they told themselves in their own experience of the kind.

All expressed, it does not* need to echo within newer generations.
posted by firstdaffodils at 9:50 PM on March 12, 2021 [11 favorites]


I am not impressed by Cuomo at all, but he in spite of all of this, he is way better than Trump. That is a low bar, and NY should get a much better person as its Gov. Cuomo should step down, but calling him blue Trump implies a parity that is simply not there. Trump is a much worse person than Cuomo.
posted by coberh at 10:12 PM on March 12, 2021 [12 favorites]


The "power corrupts" narrative tends to imply that this kind of shit is inevitable.

Power attracts the corruptible.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:30 PM on March 12, 2021 [13 favorites]


As a European about the only thing I know about Cuomo is the speech about his daughters boyfriend (as lampooned by Maria DeCotis) and that already feels like too much.
posted by Lanark at 1:57 AM on March 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


channeling the Simpsons Kang/Kodos election ep...
don't blame me, i voted for Zephyr
posted by kokaku at 2:09 AM on March 13, 2021


What's Zephyr's inclination to pardon Trump for state charges?

I'm of the mind that we're still not out of the Trump forest, so the NY governorship concerns me as an important issue to protect. Doesn't mean there won't be consequences, it's "justice delayed.." but...I don't know. I just find the timing suspicious and the Trump-risk incredibly high.
posted by rhizome at 2:41 AM on March 13, 2021


As a 59 year old cis het white man, I would just like to say that

watching the me too movement topple creep after creep

has been hands down the best thing to have come out of the 21st century so far. May they continue to topple until everybody understands that creeping is over.
posted by flabdablet at 2:52 AM on March 13, 2021 [31 favorites]


Mediocrity of Brute White Patriarchy

This is perfect.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:50 AM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


This is suggestive of reverse patriarchal or misogynistic behavior, where women have been conditioned to defend or ignore these interactions.

You can ask her what she'd do if she were any of those women, and see how she responds.


And politics. My mom recently posted on FB some meme about the hypocrisy of the Trumpers not waiting for a trial to accuse him of being guilty, sooooo...if you ask her what she'd do if this were Trump being accused, the outrage would be posted all over.
posted by waving at 3:51 AM on March 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


I'm of the mind that we're still not out of the Trump forest, so the NY governorship concerns me as an important issue to protect. Doesn't mean there won't be consequences, it's "justice delayed.." but...I don't know. I just find the timing suspicious and the Trump-risk incredibly high.

1. If Cuomo is pushed out or resigns, he will be replaced by his Democratic lieutenant governor until the next scheduled election. The Attorney General Tish James will not change, and she is the person actually working on prosecuting Trump.

2. Practically every elected Democrat in the state is eagerly calling for him to resign.

3. This is frankly insulting to all the women (and men, like Ron Kim) who finally feel emboldened to speak out about Cuomo. And tbh it’s something that only a person who doesn’t live here or understand the local context would think.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:10 AM on March 13, 2021 [35 favorites]


RE where Cuomo's support came from: in the last primary, downstate (NYC, Long Island) and western NY (Buffalo etc.) went solidly for Cuomo. The counties around Albany voted for his challenger... we've seen a lot more of the dude and we don't like him.
posted by metasarah at 4:57 AM on March 13, 2021 [6 favorites]


What's Zephyr's inclination to pardon Trump for state charges?

yr profile says yr in SF so maybe the joke didn't land..
she's about a close as we've come to a decent socialist candidate for governor in a long time (and she lost big in the primaries)

anyone reading more into this should really reread showbiz_liz's comment a couple above, especially point 3

Cuomo is just one or no doubt many missing stairs in NY politics (one well connected to the machine with significant name recognition) - as with that other guy, this is who he's always been and if people would stop overlooking that from the get go and believe people when they show us who they are then we wouldn't get to this place
posted by kokaku at 5:06 AM on March 13, 2021 [7 favorites]


Who Is Kathy Hochul?(SLNYT) Short Version; She's a moderate Democrat from Buffalo. She'd be the first female Governor of New York. She would probably run again in 2022. She would not pardon Trump. And she would be competent. Beyond that, well, we'll just have to wait and see.
posted by dannyboybell at 5:20 AM on March 13, 2021 [14 favorites]


Wasn’t it a woman that said re power corrupts, that power reveals?
posted by prefpara at 6:01 AM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


Wasn’t it a woman that said re power corrupts, that power reveals?

Robert Caro, re: LBJ:

Although the cliché says that power always corrupts, what is seldom said, but what is equally true, is that power always reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is necessary: to hide traits that might make others reluctant to give him power, to hide also what he wants to do with that power; if men recognized the traits or realized the aims, they might refuse to give him what he wants. But as a man obtains more power, camouflage is less necessary. The curtain begins to rise. The revealing begins.

posted by showbiz_liz at 6:22 AM on March 13, 2021 [35 favorites]


I am not and have never been a big fan of Andrew Cuomo. I will say that he handled the pandemic in New York quite well. His record on that stands, the Nursing Homes issue not withstanding. During the 90's I had indirect experience of the manner he treated subordinate people while working at what was then the NYSDSS in the Office of Shelter and Supported Housing. Andrew was at HUD during that period. However the timing of these accusations is suspect. We all know that Trump faces criminal charges in NY State. There are two people whose names I cannot recall who are vying for office of Governor of NY State in the upcoming 2022 election. They are both Republicans who would I am sure squash the pending criminal charges that Trump faces.
posted by DJZouke at 6:46 AM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


If it's Republican sting operations which help Democrats get rid of their assholes then... good? Bring on more?
posted by clawsoon at 6:48 AM on March 13, 2021 [7 favorites]


First of all, fuck off andrew

Ah shit, he invoked cancel culture? Shut the fuck up andrew. I think cancel culture is a problem. Let me finish. To pick an arbitrary start point, I think it was a problem when they wanted to ban rock'n'roll and bikinis. FFS take the stick out of your ass, your daughter dancing in a miniskirt is not the downfall of civilisation. It's a very right wing thing to take something which is not a problem, like comic books and d&d, and tell people that satan will destroy us all unless we ban them.

Now, andrew, what is happening to you is not that. Those things I mentioned above are not problems, they shouldn't be cancelled. But you have real problems. If you like, lets call your problems 'crimes' and what is happening now 'justice'.
posted by adept256 at 6:57 AM on March 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


I will say that he handled the pandemic in New York quite well. His record on that stands, the Nursing Homes issue not withstanding.

That is certainly a version of the story he would like people to believe.

Guardian: Andrew Cuomo is no hero. He's to blame for New York's coronavirus catastrophe.

Atlantic: Democrats gave a hero’s welcome to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo despite his mistake-filled early response to the coronavirus pandemic.

WSJ: In Worst-Hit Covid State, New York’s Cuomo Called All the Shots: Governor overrode mayor on shutdown timing
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:59 AM on March 13, 2021 [28 favorites]


Also: There are two people whose names I cannot recall who are vying for office of Governor of NY State in the upcoming 2022 election. They are both Republicans

Last election, the Republican candidate for governor got around 36% of the vote. Cuomo is not the single bulwark standing between New York State and a Republican takeover. In fact his support of the turncoat coalition of IDC "Democrats" handed control of our legislature to the Republicans for much of his tenure, until a slate of extremely non-Cuomo-approved candidates took the IDC down.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:03 AM on March 13, 2021 [15 favorites]


The idea that we should look away when it's one of our 'own' accused because of reasons, is evil and wrong and causes harm far beyond just the immediate people who don't get justice.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 7:11 AM on March 13, 2021 [23 favorites]


Cuomo did not handle the pandemic well, and handwaving away the nursing homes disaster shows callousness toward all the folks in nursing homes and their loved ones and their staff of those facilities.

The timing seems the opposite of suspicious to me: We have a democratic supermajority in the state legislature which came with the wave of progressives who were just elected. They have power in numbers and political power, so it is finally safety to speak out.

Even if Cuomo were a good governor (he is not!), I'm baffled at this perception that New York state has no other Democrats who can be governor?? His lieutenant will take over, and then there will be many Democratic candidates in the next election. Almost certainly one of them will win. We do not need Cuomo. We need to be rid of Cuomo.
posted by (Over) Thinking at 7:11 AM on March 13, 2021 [30 favorites]


The are two other words that should be taken into account within NY State: "Northwell Health". No one here including myself really knows the whole story. I make no claims to be knowledgeable about the whole fiasco, from Idaho (where children burned masks recently in public) to NYC to upstate NY. This entire divided country is still in dire straits and arguing futilely here is not going to bring back those 520,000+ lives. I am not saying that all of them could have been saved but more than a few could have survived. You all know that. We can thank all those people who called the virus a hoax and behaved accordingly. The fools who disregard the sanctity of life are still at it as we all debate the fate of Andrew Cuomo.
posted by DJZouke at 7:30 AM on March 13, 2021


Cuomo should step down, but calling him blue Trump implies a parity that is simply not there. Trump is a much worse person than Cuomo.

It implies similarities that are definitely there. They're both abusive narcissists who don't believe in anything but their own power. Who would Cuomo be if his father hadn't been Mario? I don't see a single thing about the man that suggests he couldn't just as easily be a Republican. What will he do now? It wouldn't surprise me in the least if he ends up a Fox News grifter. He's already invoking cancel culture. Once Democratic power is no longer available to him, he'll pursue other avenues.
posted by Mavri at 7:43 AM on March 13, 2021 [12 favorites]


Perhaps my wording should have been more clear. I did not mean to "brush aside" the nursing homes deaths. Each and every one of those individuals had a family who mourned their loss. Their lives are no less important because they were elderly and in a nursing. This is what happens on the web when people read into words and how they are used. I just would like to make this very clear.
posted by DJZouke at 7:48 AM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


I will say that he handled the pandemic in New York quite well. His record on that stands.

He did not handle it well, and the "record," as many perceive it, is based on his own self-aggrandizing bullshit and a media that let him get away with it.
posted by Mavri at 7:50 AM on March 13, 2021 [10 favorites]


and a media that let him get away with it.

Do they do that because Cuomo and his minions just fucking scream at people until they do whatever it takes to get you to stop, I wonder?
posted by clawsoon at 7:55 AM on March 13, 2021 [8 favorites]


I will say that he handled the pandemic in New York quite well. His record on that stands, the Nursing Homes issue not withstanding.

Disagree. The extent to which he handled it well was that he had daily briefings in which he projected a somber tone. The nursing home situation and its coverup was catastrophic. He chose to bait Bill de Blasio into petty turf wars instead of collaborating, and the delay that resulted from their cocksizing lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths. He declared victory prematurely. Throughout this fall and winter's wave two he's been prematurely re-opening things, prolonging the wave, which in New York State and New York City has not subsided anywhere near as fast as in the rest of the country. He's focused on self-aggrandizement and the functioning of profiteering, not on sensible policy, public health policy, good pandemic schools policy, or functional and effective government based on collaboration.

He's a bully who denies the losses and claims them as victories. Sound familiar?
posted by entropone at 8:01 AM on March 13, 2021 [17 favorites]


I haven't wanted anything to do with cuomo since I 1st learned about his 180° with Farkas. The slimeball used to be my neighbor
posted by brujita at 8:12 AM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


What is happening now is that fans of Andrew Cuomo the television character are being introduced to Andrew Cuomo the newspaper character.

People who think the timing of this is suspicious or that Cuomo handled coronavirus well are meeting Cuomo the newspaper character for the first time.
posted by Mavri at 8:26 AM on March 13, 2021 [16 favorites]


The "power corrupts" trope continues to fascinate me, because it's just so obviously, transparently wrong. Wielding power doesn't magically change who you are and what you want to do; like the quote upthread about LBJ, it means you're no longer vulnerable to facing consequences for being an absolute shitheel. The cause-and-effect arrow actually goes the other way: corrupt or evil people are drawn to power, because it offers a shield against being held accountable for their actions. Cuomo was never a boy scout, but he had to pretend he was in public until he'd made it far enough up the ladder to wield the unspoken cudgel of "if you try to call me out for being a predatory bag of dicks, I'll ruin your life."

Like, we have five thousand years of history to look to for examples, and no one noticed all the counterexamples of leaders wielding power without becoming unrepentant assholes? Or the much-more-common case of men rising to positions of middling influence and becoming utter shitgoblins, and everyone they've ever known nodding contemplatively and saying "yeah, we've pretty much known what he was since he was torturing wildlife in his backyard at age 5"?
posted by Mayor West at 8:28 AM on March 13, 2021 [10 favorites]


"He declared victory prematurely. Throughout this fall and winter's wave two he's been prematurely re-opening things, prolonging the wave, which in New York State and New York City has not subsided anywhere near as fast as in the rest of the country."
Then you have just as many people saying that Cuomo has not opened fast enough. I'm done commenting on this thread.
posted by DJZouke at 8:41 AM on March 13, 2021


The timing seems the opposite of suspicious to me: We have a democratic supermajority in the state legislature which came with the wave of progressives who were just elected. They have power in numbers and political power, so it is finally safety to speak out.

Remember that in the past Cuomo had a hand in coordinating the IDC, four Democrats in the Senate who defected to caucus with the Republicans, depriving the Democrats from majority control. Why would Cuomo do that? It seems that he preferred having a divided legislature so that he had more control of the flow of legislation rather than a Democratic majority dictating to him.
posted by JackFlash at 8:43 AM on March 13, 2021 [10 favorites]


I honestly feel that this clip of Biden addressing an 8 year old girl constitutes the same kind familiarity - at best - that Cuomo extends to actual assault. I am surprised that Biden addressing a girl he has never met before as 'honey' and 'baby' is not gaining traction as a story. (I, a SWM, am entirely comfortable being addressed as baby and even using the word affectionately once a level of trust and intimacy has been established). I find Biden's un earned familiarity condescending at least, and actually creepy in the same way, if not degree, as Cuomo's behaviour. This behaviour definitely comes from the same place of white male privelege.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 8:50 AM on March 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


The "power corrupts" trope continues to fascinate me, because it's just so obviously, transparently wrong.

As you know, I never gossip, but-

I knew a woman back in the eighties who had gone to law school with the man. She had nothing good to say about him even then. For what it’s worth.

(BTW, not sure I agree with the premise, though it is an interesting take. One could also argue that lack of power can also corrupt - insofar as corrupt behavior can lead to power. Food for thought, if not heated argument.)
posted by BWA at 9:04 AM on March 13, 2021


Then you have just as many people saying that Cuomo has not opened fast enough. I'm done commenting on this thread.

I just really am not sure where your info is coming from. Did you know that nine top state health officials quit during the pandemic specifically because of Cuomo's handling of it?

The deputy commissioner for public health at the New York State Health Department resigned in late summer. Soon after, the director of its bureau of communicable disease control also stepped down. So did the medical director for epidemiology. Last month, the state epidemiologist said she, too, would be leaving.

The drumbeat of high-level departures in the middle of the pandemic came as morale plunged in the Health Department and senior health officials expressed alarm to one another over being sidelined and treated disrespectfully, according to five people with direct experience inside the department.

Their concern had an almost singular focus: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.


Please, at least consider reading this. I promise I am not a Republican operative when I say that Cuomo did not in fact "handle this well."

And this is not the first time Cuomo's intransigence and refusal to listen to his own expert staff has driven those experts away - see also Andy Byford, one of the world's preeminent transit planners, whose hiring by the state was seen as a coup and who then left after two years because 1. his advice was utterly ignored and 2. his staff were regularly screamed at.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:18 AM on March 13, 2021 [35 favorites]


Right, he scrapped years of planning by public health experts and did stuff like this instead:

"The state designated as a regional vaccination hub in New York City not the city’s 6,000-person Health Department, but rather the Greater New York Hospital Association, a trade group with a multimillion-dollar lobbying arm that had been a major donor to the governor’s causes."

That article is detailed and damning.
posted by Mavri at 9:30 AM on March 13, 2021 [22 favorites]


I just noticed this odd little detail from the first link:

June 5th, 2020: Bennett is allegedly subjected to a second conversation with Cuomo in which he told her he was lonely, looking for a girlfriend, and was comfortable dating women over the age of 22.

Uh, I would hope he'd be comfortable dating women over the age of 52. Not sure if this is implying he preferred to date women under the age of 22 (but was OK with an "older one" if he had to be), or it's just an odd way of saying that he was "comfortable dating young women" -- which, I mean, duh, I'm sure he's quite comfortable with that.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:31 AM on March 13, 2021


I read that as "I'm comfortable dating women as young as 22."
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:44 AM on March 13, 2021 [3 favorites]


I wanted to amplify Mavri's point here, because it's not getting enough play in general.

This seems to be about television.

As Alex Pareene notes, people who read about Cuomo learned about all kinds of awful things in his administration in general, around corruption and abuse of power. Wrt COVID, Propublica offered a devastating account way back in May. This has been pretty thoroughly established.

But on tv? People who watched Cuomo were won over. Cuomo's repeated broadcasts made him into a star. The contrast with Trump was terrific. This is where some of the fan base came in, including the Cuomosexuals.

The On The media podcast did a good episode on this. The discussants argue that you can tell complex stories on tv, like about state corruption, but that tv news tends to avoid even trying.

This feels like tv watching vs newspaper/internet reading.
posted by doctornemo at 9:50 AM on March 13, 2021 [19 favorites]


None of this surprises me about Andrew Cuomo. He fit right into the corrupt political structure of NYS and despite having a democratic legislature he systematically thwarted progressive Democratic policies in the state throughout his tenure by aligning with the so-called Independent Democratic Caucus. I admit I watched his pandemic news conferences and found the focus on data highly calming, but the weird congratulatory book and poster that came out from his office *during the pandemic* seemed grotesquely out of touch.

I have so enjoyed living in a state (Virginia) with a Governor and legislature (finally all blue) who have enacted such a bold progressive set of state policies. This is what New York could've been under Andrew Cuomo.
posted by bluesky43 at 10:02 AM on March 13, 2021 [3 favorites]


"comfortable dating women over the age of 22." What a prize.

I actually think it's totally okay to age mix (based on context), but that phrasing is remarkable (in that it's pretty implicative).
posted by firstdaffodils at 10:06 AM on March 13, 2021


That guy is an asshole, his administration or at least his aides are a bunch of assholes, and I cannot wait until somebody better replaces him. The people of the state of New York deserve so much better and there are so many better choices. People like Cuomo convince everybody around them that screaming insults and yelling at people is normal. It is anything but normal.
posted by Bella Donna at 10:28 AM on March 13, 2021 [5 favorites]


I am amazed at anyone who is surprised to discover that Cuomo is a raging asshole. He was ever thus, all the way back to his father's time as Governor, when Andrew got his start as a bullying enforcer.
posted by PhineasGage at 10:53 AM on March 13, 2021 [8 favorites]


How does power lead to this kind of shit behavior?

I'm not convinced power leads to it at all.

I think a lot of men are inclined to act like this with or without real power. All the power does is give some men the chance to get away with it until the list of abuses grows, where others would get labeled trash & pushed away.

Because honestly, all the low-power trash keeps on being trash, too. They just don't get headlines until they kill someone. We've got all too much of that, too.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 11:01 AM on March 13, 2021 [9 favorites]


Nth-ing everything that showbiz_liz has said. I don't think Cuomo is exactly "Blue Trump," but Cuomo and Trump certainly share an arrogant, egotistical, smug, insecure, sexist, spoiled, shout people down to shut them up, "do you know who my father is?" awful New York guy vibe. For the love of god, I hope that, in the future, people will listen at a national level when someone's entire hometown or home state stands up to say, "No. Absolutely not. This guy stinks."

To both Cuomo's credit and detriment, he is more competent than Trump. He's a savvier political operator with a more refined taste for dirty tricks. He can actually get things done when he wants to, with the key phrase being "when he wants to." If it's something he can paternalistically grandstand about, put his name on, or stand in front of for a photo op, it might get done. And we've benefitted from that! Meanwhile, if a project is important but doesn't afford him any of those opportunities, chances are he'll actively shoot it down. Heaven forefend anyone else get credit for doing a good job (and rip Train Daddy).

The daily COVID briefings were Cuomo's time to shine because they fall squarely within his wheelhouse. He got to play the strong, brave leader steadfastly standing at the forefront in a moment of chaos. There was value in that and in the regular messaging it produced, especially given the void of leadership at the federal level. Problem is that, on a practical level, he was still doing all the same petty, self-serving bullshit. The backbiting between Cuomo and De Blasio, alone, likely cost thousands of people their lives. One year ago this week, De Blasio (after arrogantly downplaying the risk of the pandemic) called for a shutdown. Cuomo loudly refused, only to come back two days later with a rebranded "pause" named after his mother. In the middle of an emergency that was exponentially spiraling out of control, we could only save lives if it was his idea.

Which is not to mention the corruption commission that Cuomo dismantled as soon as it started looking into his friends, or the IDC, or the political party for women that he cynically set up to draw votes away from a progressive female opponent, or the fact that his allies just sunk a ton of cash into trying to defeat Democrats running for state offices because Cuomo saw his own party as a threat to his veto-proof power.

I can see how, from outside of NY State, this might seem like this is all coming out of left field or like it's a Trump-related hit job, but it's the end result of years of this guy bullying and alienating people and treating staff like shit and getting in the way of progress. It's also the result of years of organizing, from the defeat of the IDC, to Democrats retaking the state Senate for the first time in a decade in 2018, to a narrow supermajority of the guy's own party coming into place in January 2020. I'd wager the timing has far more to do with that supermajority than anything else, and if it has anything to do with Trump, it's that Trump's awfulness boosted the election of progressive candidates who are more than ready to do something about Cuomo, too.

This isn't some kind of Republican op related to the Trump investigation, and Tish James will have every incentive to push hard, especially since there are rumblings about her running for governor in the next round of elections. I feel like people really need a hero right now, and I'm sorry that's getting taken away from them, but Cuomo ain't it and his comeuppance is long past due.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:29 AM on March 13, 2021 [31 favorites]


Because honestly, all the low-power trash keeps on being trash, too.

As someone who waited tables for way too many years - this. There are people who cannot responsibly handle the power of dining in a table-service restaurant. It's not the power that necessarily corrupts, it's that often, corrupt people seek power.
posted by elwoodwiles at 11:30 AM on March 13, 2021 [19 favorites]


Even if you didn't pay a lot of attention to Cuomo before the pandemic, you could spot those Blue Trump moments in many of his daily briefings. "No one's ever done this before" or words to that effect, rather routinely. You could also spot a bit of overfamiliarity with certain reporters--a little too personal--not crass, just a little too chummy that made me wonder if there was a story there.

And yes, Albany is an absolute cesspool that has improved only slightly. I know a number of people who served in office or served those who did, who report that sexual misconduct and drinking are completely out of hand.

And as far as Andyboy's misbehavior--he denied it, halfheartedly, as I recall, but absolutely everyone knew he was responsible for the slogan "Vote for Cuomo, not the homo" when Ed Koch ran against his father.

All those things said, there seems to be some orchestration of news about these complaints--a new one drops about every two days, people in office are coordinating their calls for him to step down, step aside, be impeached. It does not feel as if this situation is happening organically, which is not to say I think the women are lying. I believe them. It just feels as if someone is directing the action.
posted by etaoin at 11:41 AM on March 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


I think it's probably a mix of political organizing, elected officials who aren't organizing against Cuomo so much as reading the political winds and belatedly turning their boats around, and people coming out against Cuomo simply because there's an opening to do so.

I have occasionally worked with jerks who have a strong public followings. When stories about their jerkiness gained traction in the public discourse, people really did come forward organically to say, "Oh, finally, as long as we're on the subject here's a story about that how that guy sucks that I have only told to friends before."
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:59 AM on March 13, 2021 [6 favorites]


I can see how, from outside of NY State, this might seem like this is all coming out of left field or like it's a Trump-related hit job, but it's the end result of years of this guy bullying and alienating people and treating staff like shit and getting in the way of progress.

Exactly! So why is it suddenly an impeachment-worthy issue right now? What mechanism of action does the current Republican party have other than hit-jobs? Is this honest dealing in their ethical concerns? I'm not proud of it at all, but I have a certain "devil you know" vibe with this.
posted by rhizome at 12:02 PM on March 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


What mechanism of action does the current Republican party have other than hit-jobs? Is this honest dealing in their ethical concerns?

What does any of this have to do with Republicans? The women who accused him are Democrats. The elected officials calling for him to resign are Democrats. The detailed and corroborated stories are coming from reputable, mainstream news organizations.

All those things said, there seems to be some orchestration of news about these complaints--a new one drops about every two days, people in office are coordinating their calls for him to step down, step aside, be impeached.

Cuomo has ruled by fear and intimidation. Once the cracks start to show, the dominoes start falling. He lost the IDC to a group of progressive legislators who are women and people of color. That made him vulnerable. The Boylan accusation, and then the Kim accusation, and then the nursing home cover up which had been simmering in the background: if you'd been abused and manipulated by a powerful and untouchable man for years, this is when you'd come forward. You coordinate with other people to protect yourself. Once the fear is gone, the floodgates open.
posted by Mavri at 12:20 PM on March 13, 2021 [23 favorites]


Guys guys Cuomo might get superpowers one day and save the world from a meteor so is all this hubbub really necessary

Assholes always make sure they are thought of as special and irreplaceable, usually by quashing more talented people, so their own mediocrity stands unchallenged
posted by benzenedream at 12:37 PM on March 13, 2021 [11 favorites]


It's weird to me that people find the timing weird. This is a pretty standard for powerful abusers. The cracks start to show, an accusation gets traction, people feel safer to come forward, and "suddenly" there are all these accusations.
posted by Mavri at 12:40 PM on March 13, 2021 [17 favorites]


Like Mavri said, if it's a hit job (which it probably is!) it's a hit job by Democrats. Cuomo has spent years thwarting elected Democrats and progressive policies, but as of January 2021, after years of organizing, there are finally enough progressive Democrats elected to state offices to mount a strong opposition to him.

Some people are undoubtedly involved because of personal grievances or because they see it as an opportunity to grab power and further their own careers, but a lot of the animosity against Cuomo is coming from progressive reformers who have watched him actively undercut efforts to tax the wealthy, fix the MTA, legalize marijuana, prosecute corruption, promote housing rights, and reform the criminal justice system. Most recently, Cuomo's premature reopening measures have caused NY COVID cases to flatline near the winter peak, even as they drop nationwide and as we hit the one-year anniversary of our tragic failure to take action to protect people.

In short, a whole lot of Democrats are interested in sidelining Cuomo because he has been a bully and a thorn in everyone's side for years and people finally see an opportunity to move on.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 12:50 PM on March 13, 2021 [18 favorites]


No, I understand why people would move in groups, to feel safe. And the first crack wasn't the sex harassment, it was the AG investigation of how nursing home deaths were counted. I think that probably encouraged people to see that he wasn't invulnerable. But the pacing feels odd to me, as if someone was stage managing it, and while I thought I was the only NY who had this sense, I'm hearing the exact thing from a lot of people. Doesn't mean we're right and again, doesn't mean we doubt them. Also, no, the latest is from Democrats but there were Republicans in the legislature demanding impeachment more than a week ago. It's just that I think they're quieting a little and letting the Democrats go after him.
posted by etaoin at 12:51 PM on March 13, 2021


Has some politician's son ever gone into politics and not turned out to be a shittier version of their parent?

Like, I feel sure there is one, but I can't think of anybody off-hand. Maybe Bobby Kennedy?
posted by box at 12:51 PM on March 13, 2021 [5 favorites]


Richard M. Daley was not as bad as Richard J. Daley, but that's a pretty low bar.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:56 PM on March 13, 2021 [10 favorites]


Also, no, the latest is from Democrats but there were Republicans in the legislature demanding impeachment more than a week ago. It's just that I think they're quieting a little and letting the Democrats go after him.

A week ago there were already five accusations of sexual harassment and at least one of intimidation. If the state Republicans were calling for impeachment before Democrats, it's not the Republicans who were the problem.
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 1:16 PM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


A week ago there were already five accusations of sexual harassment and at least one of intimidation. If the state Republicans were calling for impeachment before Democrats, it's not the Republicans who were the problem.
I'm not arguing that. But I cover news in the suburbs of NYC and the first state legislative voices out here that he should be impeached were Republican. However, a Democratic member of Congress, Kathleen Rice, was demanding he resign well before that.
posted by etaoin at 1:59 PM on March 13, 2021


Whoever was "first" to call for impeachment is irrelevant. This is emphatically not a cooked up Republican plot, but rather a large farm's worth of angered chickens finally coming home to roost.
posted by PhineasGage at 2:19 PM on March 13, 2021 [15 favorites]


The "suspicious" (seriously, overdue) timing is because there are enough people with enough power to do something about it, as noted above... and also because Gov. Cuomo the television character (see above; thanks, Mavri) was getting such great ratings outside NY that the star & his crew started seriously a presidential spin-off show.

He has got to go. Franken, a far more gifted pol who also had to go, left the stage with far less pushing.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:34 PM on March 13, 2021 [7 favorites]


Cuomo has spent years thwarting elected Democrats and progressive policies, but as of January 2021, after years of organizing, there are finally enough progressive Democrats elected to state offices to mount a strong opposition to him.

If this is what's going on I'll be happy to see the change! Perhaps it's TDS that has me focussing on defense rather than a rising Democratic party in the wake of Biden's inauguration, but there are (currently...) so many critical loose ends from Trump that sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees. Couple that with historical Democrat wimpiness -- I know I'm not the only one to have complained about a lack of active Democratic Party strategy -- and a benefit of the doubt can still appear out of reach.

If James Woods winds up replacing him, though, I'll be quite bummed.
posted by rhizome at 3:47 PM on March 13, 2021


For those saying the pace of the denouncements feels orchestrated - I think it is! It’s just that it’s being orchestrated by Democrats. The denouncements are escalating as the public response has escalated, in a way tailored to grab and maintain media attention. And... fine! Good! Why not use those tools to get rid of a guy who needs to be gotten rid of? That’s politics!

Couple that with historical Democrat wimpiness -- I know I'm not the only one to have complained about a lack of active Democratic Party strategy --

Rest assured, the people at the forefront of this effort are the most active and strategizing Democrats this state has seen in a long time. (Also it’s already set in stone who would replace him, and she seems fine.)
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:51 PM on March 13, 2021 [10 favorites]


I don't take any pleasure in saying "I told you so," but I and many others were on to this guy for years.

It was maddening to see so many people line up to support him (Cuomosexuals, anyone?) because he was a good communicator during COVID-19, even as he presided over one of the world's worst outbreaks and responses.

He's been a jerk and a creep for years. It goes to show it really doesn't work to say "well, he's an asshole but he's our asshole." Karma is real and I do take pleasure in the fact that he will soon be gone and someone. better will take his place.
posted by chaz at 4:05 PM on March 13, 2021 [5 favorites]


If James Woods winds up replacing him, though, I'll be quite bummed.

I think someone *other* than Cuomo running in 2022 against a theoretical James Woods has a better chance of winning, no matter what happens now.

As a non-New Yorker, I don't understand how Cuomo resigning (I think he clearly should) and the Democratic lt. governor becoming governor could possibly help the GOP or Trump more than Cuomo with all of his problems now staying as governor and being the probable dem nominee in 2022.
posted by skynxnex at 4:21 PM on March 13, 2021 [6 favorites]


Yes, it likely is being coordinated - as said above - by progressive Democrats! How much complaining has happened on this web site about Democrats not being able to coordinate and get things done? Well we’re coordinating and getting something done!
posted by (Over) Thinking at 5:02 PM on March 13, 2021 [23 favorites]


I guess everyone in Western New York was right. In northeast Ohio, Cuomo was the evil man who didn't want anyone to go on Ski trips.
posted by greatalleycat at 5:14 PM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


Thanks, OverThinking, I completely agree. After he leaves office by resignation or by impeachment, I am looking forward to the news stories that figure this out -what law firms, what organizations or individuals, etc. brought it all together. It's going to be fascinating.
posted by etaoin at 7:29 PM on March 13, 2021


he was a good communicator during COVID-19

Pandemic:Cuomo::Terrorists:Giuliani
posted by flabdablet at 12:20 AM on March 14, 2021 [14 favorites]


So that means in twenty years we’ll get to watch Andrew’s head melting during a press conference?
posted by nickmark at 10:22 AM on March 14, 2021


the speech about his daughters boyfriend (as lampooned by Maria DeCotis)

ohmygod

DeCotis does a wonderful lampoon of it but I could only bear to listen to 20 seconds at a time. I can not imagine having to endure that live. And that's the least of his crimes.
posted by straight at 10:48 AM on March 14, 2021


Back in 2018, we New Yorkers went with Cuomo over Cynthia Nixon (who had an amazing platform). This thread helps lend some insight to those times. I saw some comments that the Trump era was a lesson on choosing experienced politicians over inexperienced celebrities.

I believe the real lesson was to say no to bullying sexual harassers that engage in corruption to protect their reputations, but hey, what do I know? I can almost guarantee you that both the reasons that Cuomo should resign (hiding nursing home data and sexually harassing employees) would not have happened if Cynthia Nixon won.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 4:54 PM on March 14, 2021 [5 favorites]


The "no celebrities" standard was/is legit. Hindsight is 20/20.
posted by rhizome at 5:55 PM on March 14, 2021 [1 favorite]


No celebrities, and no scions of political dynasties. Public service isn't genetic.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 4:16 AM on March 15, 2021 [2 favorites]


No celebrities, no scions of political dynasties, and no rich people.
posted by box at 4:59 AM on March 15, 2021 [3 favorites]


Keep going, MeFi gonna endorse sortition to avoid admitting they were wrong about Cynthia Nixon
posted by Space Coyote at 5:09 AM on March 15, 2021 [6 favorites]


Cynthia Nixon had a pretty solid background of activism and advocacy before her run, but there’s another reason she was his only serious primary challenger last time, the same reason it was Occupy-adjacent Zephyr Teachout before that: they were both outsiders to the New York political establishment.

Because the general perception was that, if you were an established Democratic elected official and you tried to primary Cuomo, he would take it very fucking personally and would go out of his way to destroy your career afterward. So only political outsiders would take him on, because he had less ability to ruin them. No one else was willing to risk it.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:25 AM on March 15, 2021 [18 favorites]


Keep going, MeFi gonna endorse sortition to avoid admitting they were wrong about Cynthia Nixon

I'm more trying to get ahead of Chelsea Clinton, but fair
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 6:40 AM on March 15, 2021 [2 favorites]


they were both outsiders to the New York political establishment.

Everything I think I know about politics in Albany I've cribbed from William Kennedy: (that it is hilariously corrupt and boys-club, all of which is borne out everyday Cuomo has been in office. I always wondered why his father never ran for President, back in the day. (He was an amazing speaker, like, Obama-level gift for oratory). Somewhere along the way someone whispered to me to use my noggin' - he was as corrupt as the day was long. That's heresy, of course. But it explained the duck-like quacking noises.)
posted by From Bklyn at 7:48 AM on March 15, 2021 [2 favorites]


Back in 2018, we New Yorkers went with Cuomo over Cynthia Nixon (who had an amazing platform). This thread helps lend some insight to those times.

Oh man that is bittersweet. She would have been so much better. Misogyny is one of the biggest reasons we can't have nice things.
posted by schadenfrau at 7:51 AM on March 15, 2021 [11 favorites]


Keep going, MeFi gonna endorse sortition to avoid admitting they were wrong about Cynthia Nixon
posted by Space Coyote at 7:09 AM on March 15


Paging Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon, Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon please report to the thread.
posted by Reverend John at 8:05 AM on March 15, 2021 [4 favorites]


Public service isn't genetic.

So much this, there ought to be a law against it even. The only thing "same last name" younger daughter/son/whoever brings to the table is:
  • They are already set up with all the shady backroom dealers from dad, so they can ramp up the hidden corruption and sleaze from day 1
  • Strong incentive to obstruct and cover up their predecessor's sleaze and crimes
  • Sense of entitlement, no drive to actually be informed and effective in the job
Don't care if it is Trump or Clinton or Bush or Kennedy, politics should not, never ever, be a family business.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:01 AM on March 15, 2021 [5 favorites]


Then you had better ask Nancy Pelosi to leave the Capitol. (For those who don't know, her father was a U.S Representative and Mayor of Baltimore.)
posted by PhineasGage at 10:04 AM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]


I would be okay with that, yes.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:18 PM on March 15, 2021 [3 favorites]


Then you had better ask Nancy Pelosi to leave the Capitol.

Oh, gladly, enthusiastically second the motion.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:25 PM on March 15, 2021 [3 favorites]


Oh, right - I forgot some here fantasize that a socialist utopia would have magically appeared by now if Pelosi weren't Speaker.
posted by PhineasGage at 1:55 PM on March 15, 2021 [5 favorites]


While I'm always looking for the next socialist movement and cheering it on, it's also a certain level of silliness to suppose only the specific person named Nancy Pelosi could have risen as high and argued as well as her. No one is irreplaceable, and though she's low on my list of nepotistic politicians and dynasties, she's not really the trump card to prevent people from arguing that they in general do far more harm than good.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 2:09 PM on March 15, 2021 [3 favorites]


Mod note: Your choice if you want to turn this into MeFi on Pelosi, but I might suggest no?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:10 PM on March 15, 2021 [20 favorites]


As was drummed into me virtually every day of high school, power corrupts, and most of the time, you can get away with whatever you want if you have power.

This kind of thing is sad to me because it was drilled into me growing up that true virtue is doing the right thing when no one is looking. Treating people barbarically just because you can get away with it is the precise opposite of virtue.
posted by drstrangelove at 9:24 AM on March 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


Here.
"On another matter, Biden also told ABC that New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) should resign if an investigation by the state attorney general confirms the allegations of sexual harassment leveled by several women."

“If the investigation confirms the claims of the women, should he resign?” Stephanopoulos asked Biden. “Yes,” the president answered. “I think he’ll probably end up being prosecuted, too.”

The president’s comments represent his harshest to date on Cuomo, who has been a political ally."


The weather is improving.

(this commenter understands the intricacies of Bidens history)
posted by firstdaffodils at 12:35 AM on March 17, 2021 [5 favorites]


I do want to point out that “wait to see what the investigation says” is basically what Cuomo has been saying, in opposition to the calls for him to resign now - but yes, this is definitely good news. (And it’s not like Cuomo would ever, ever actually resign without being forced to, the calls for that are rhetoric.)
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:45 AM on March 17, 2021 [3 favorites]


Cuomo is trying to use the "wait until the investigation to conclude" to stall until next year, when he hopes everyone will move on. He knows that an impeachment will remove him while the trial is happening, and without him exercising the power of the governor, he won't be able to bully pols into silence and support.

Oh, and in other gross news, Cuomo supporters are trying to compare calls for accountability to the lynching of African Americans like Emmitt Till.
Both assemblywoman Inez Dickens (D-Manhattan) and the attorney, who worked with Cuomo in the executive chamber for more than two years, feel the governor is being railroaded.

Historically, white women whose unsubstantiated claims that Black males were propositioning, whistled at or "recklessly eyeballing" them led to hundreds, if not thousands, of Black males being brutally lynched and murdered—most notably 14-year-old Emmitt Till.
🤮
posted by Lord Chancellor at 10:26 AM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


I feel like the push to legalize marijuana in NY is a case study in the cognitive dissonance around Andrew Cuomo, who does a great job of promoting himself as a progressive stalwart even as he actively undermines progressive initiatives.

People looking at headlines could easily see Cuomo as standing at the vanguard of marijuana legalization, but if you've been following the process, it looks a whole lot more like Cuomo has been the main thing standing in legalization's way.

Cuomo opposed legalizing marijuana and was referring to it as a gateway drug as recently as 2017. In 2018, his electoral opponent and the entire state party called for legalization, but Cuomo waited until December, after the election, to change his tune. In early 2019, lawmakers put legalization in the state budget, but Cuomo removed it. (We did get a decriminalization bill later that year.) Cuomo claimed he was on board again in Janaury 2020, but once again got in the way.

Fast forward to January 6, 2021, and in the middle of, you know, everything else, Cuomo's office put out a press release announcing his proposal to legalize marijuana. Press outlets ran with it. However, this means that rather than signing onto existing legalization that has evolved and been presented five times since 2013, Cuomo was dropping a competing plan, allowing him to take credit and gum up the process all at once. Bonus: his bill offers less to communities affected by overpolicing of marijuana and actually increases some criminal penalties.

And now? Legalization might actually go through, but that's in part because of the pressure on Cuomo to resign. So I guess it's also an example of why Democrats have an incentive to strongarm Cuomo, even though they all belong to the same party.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 2:44 PM on March 17, 2021 [5 favorites]




Honestly, if Ronan Farrow is publishing columns about you and "harassment" is a theme, it's probably a bad fucking sign 👹
posted by firstdaffodils at 11:01 PM on March 18, 2021 [3 favorites]


So, it turns out Cuomo also engaged in a lot of very pronounced nepotism by getting his relatives COVID vaccines when they were very rare. Is there any act of skullduggery that this guy won't do?
posted by Lord Chancellor at 5:10 AM on March 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


He got them testing, not vaccines, but yes; still a dick move!
posted by metasarah at 9:36 AM on March 25, 2021 [3 favorites]


Not to encourage a race to the bottom, but it's nothing Ron DeSantis hasn't done and he skates free of consequences.
posted by rhizome at 10:33 AM on March 25, 2021


That is both true and perhaps beside the point. This thread has been about Cuomo. I don’t think any flavor of whataboutism is a gift to the discussion.
posted by Bella Donna at 12:40 PM on March 25, 2021 [4 favorites]


What matters isn’t whether something is a crime - what matters is whether it’s a crime you have a chance of being convicted of. The NY legislature is actively gunning for Cuomo at this point. That’s not the case in Florida is it?
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:54 PM on March 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


My underdeveloped point wasn't that Cuomo should get away with it, but that vaccine favoritism is or feels common. I should have given more examples, but at this point it's apparent that it's a separate topic.

That’s not the case in Florida is it?

No, it isn't, but frankly I'd like them all swept out.
posted by rhizome at 1:30 PM on March 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


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