Author Topic: Liberal Sexual Assault Mega Thread - too many going on now - BB can you merge?  (Read 79206 times)

Dos Equis

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Re: Sanctimonious Liberal Matt Lauer fired by NBC for sex misbehavior.
« Reply #75 on: December 01, 2017, 05:20:38 PM »
No moron, I said by your standards 70's republicans would be considered liberals.  We all know comprehension isn't your strong suit but damn dude.  This was pretty brutal.

Don't try and get on an intellectual high horse.  You're not smart enough. 

So now it's my standards?  You don't even know what those are.  And you still don't understand how stupid your Obamacare reference was.  If Republicans had actually voted in favor of Obamacare, then that would provide some evidence in support of your dumb theory. 

But you gotta have a tad bit more analytical ability to figure that out. 

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Re: Sanctimonious Liberal Matt Lauer fired by NBC for sex misbehavior.
« Reply #76 on: December 01, 2017, 09:29:11 PM »
Don't try and get on an intellectual high horse.  You're not smart enough. 

So now it's my standards?  You don't even know what those are.  And you still don't understand how stupid your Obamacare reference was.  If Republicans had actually voted in favor of Obamacare, then that would provide some evidence in support of your dumb theory. 

But you gotta have a tad bit more analytical ability to figure that out. 

Feels like I'm talking to a child with ADD.  You must be having a bad day.


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Pelosi's daughter shakes up California harassment debate (Nancy knew)
SacBee ^ | 11/30/17 | KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Posted on 12/2/2017, 7:13:35 PM by Libloather

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's daughter Christine has taken the spotlight in the sexual harassment scandal enveloping California's Legislature with her claim there are rapists in the state Capitol and lawmakers are protecting them.

The younger Pelosi, chair of the California Democratic Party's women's caucus, produced gasps Tuesday when she made the statement at a legislative committee hearing on state sexual harassment policies.

While many testified, sometimes angrily, about a dysfunctional system they say protects the powerful and encourages silence from victims, Christine Pelosi's comments stood apart for their bare-knuckle boldness. They struck a nerve, with some taking to social media to express incredulity or to call on Pelosi to provide more information.

"As someone who works in the Capitol, I had NEVER heard that there are rapists in the building," Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher wrote on Twitter.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...

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Pelosi's daughter shakes up California harassment debate (Nancy knew)
SacBee ^ | 11/30/17 | KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Posted on 12/2/2017, 7:13:35 PM by Libloather

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's daughter Christine has taken the spotlight in the sexual harassment scandal enveloping California's Legislature with her claim there are rapists in the state Capitol and lawmakers are protecting them.

The younger Pelosi, chair of the California Democratic Party's women's caucus, produced gasps Tuesday when she made the statement at a legislative committee hearing on state sexual harassment policies.

While many testified, sometimes angrily, about a dysfunctional system they say protects the powerful and encourages silence from victims, Christine Pelosi's comments stood apart for their bare-knuckle boldness. They struck a nerve, with some taking to social media to express incredulity or to call on Pelosi to provide more information.

"As someone who works in the Capitol, I had NEVER heard that there are rapists in the building," Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher wrote on Twitter.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...

Another spoiled little brat who never worked a day in her life. Just like her mother.

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Pelosi's daughter shakes up California harassment debate (Nancy knew)
SacBee ^ | 11/30/17 | KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Posted on 12/2/2017, 7:13:35 PM by Libloather

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's daughter Christine has taken the spotlight in the sexual harassment scandal enveloping California's Legislature with her claim there are rapists in the state Capitol and lawmakers are protecting them.

The younger Pelosi, chair of the California Democratic Party's women's caucus, produced gasps Tuesday when she made the statement at a legislative committee hearing on state sexual harassment policies.

While many testified, sometimes angrily, about a dysfunctional system they say protects the powerful and encourages silence from victims, Christine Pelosi's comments stood apart for their bare-knuckle boldness. They struck a nerve, with some taking to social media to express incredulity or to call on Pelosi to provide more information.

"As someone who works in the Capitol, I had NEVER heard that there are rapists in the building," Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher wrote on Twitter.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Not very bold if you still don't name anyone. Same old, same old.

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Dos Equis

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Re: Sanctimonious Liberal Matt Lauer fired by NBC for sex misbehavior.
« Reply #82 on: December 04, 2017, 09:04:24 AM »
Feels like I'm talking to a child with ADD.  You must be having a bad day.

Yes I am just like an overgrown kid: easily amused, easily pleased, and always happy.  :)

But you?  You're a simpleton.  And you still don't understand how dumb your Obamacare example is. 


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Democrat Matt Dababneh Accused of Masturbating in Front of Lobbyist
« on: Today at 06:36:57 AM »
Reply with quoteQuote


Sacramento lobbyist Pamela Lopez has claimed that, in 2016, Democratic Assemblyman Matt Dababneh followed her into a bathroom, masturbated in front of her and urged her to touch him. Dababneh has strongly denied the allegation.

"It was Matt Dababneh," Lopez told The Times in a November interview.

Lopez jolted the California political world seven weeks ago when she first shared her account of an encounter in Las Vegas, joining more than 140 women as they denounced in an open letter a "pervasive" culture of sexual harassment and misconduct in the state Capitol.

Lopez had not publicly accused Dababneh until Monday, when she formally filed a complaint with the Assembly and named him at a news conference. The Times had been preparing a report on her accusations against Dababneh, and sought the assemblyman’s comment late last week.

A group of engineers from the 2018 Ford Mustang team did a little after-hours work to develop some new go-fast equipment that turned out so good, they convinced management to put it on sale.

Dababneh told the Times on Monday afternoon that he “100%” denies Lopez’s allegation.

“I am utterly shocked and blown away,” Dababneh said in an interview. “This is a career-ending charge based on no facts.”

The accusation against the assemblyman comes as a public reckoning over sexual harassment has upended the worlds of politics, entertainment, media and tech. In Sacramento, Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra (D-Pacoima) resigned last week after allegations from multiple women that he made unwanted sexual advances throughout his career in state government. State Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Los Angeles) lost his leadership positions and faces a legislative investigation after multiple allegations of misconduct toward female staffers.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-matt-dababneh-harassment-20171204-story.html

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LOL at the updated thread title..."too many going on now - BB can you merge?"  ;D :D :)


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New York City Ballet Investigates Sexual Harassment Claim Against Peter Martins
By ROBIN POGREBINDEC. 4, 2017



Peter Martins of New York City Ballet. Credit Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images

Peter Martins, the longtime leader of New York City Ballet, has been removed from teaching his weekly class at the School of American Ballet while the two organizations jointly investigate an accusation of sexual harassment against him.

The accusation against Mr. Martins, 71, was made in an anonymous letter, both organizations confirmed on Monday. Mr. Martins is the artistic director and chairman of the faculty of the ballet school. He has led City Ballet, the company founded by the famed choreographer George Balanchine, since the 1980s.

“The safety and well-being of our students is our absolute priority,” the school said in a statement, adding that it “recently received an anonymous letter making general, nonspecific allegations of sexual harassment in the past by Peter Martins at both New York City Ballet and the school.”

“We, together with New York City Ballet, promptly engaged an independent law firm that specializes in such matters to conduct a thorough investigation, despite the anonymous nature of the letter and the lack of specifics,” the statement continued. “Thus far, the investigation has not substantiated the allegations in the letter or discovered any reason to be concerned about student safety.”

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City Ballet issued a similar statement, which said, in part, “the ongoing inquiry has not substantiated the allegations.” Rob Daniels, a spokesman for the ballet, said on Monday night Mr. Martins remained in his position as head of the ballet.

Reached by telephone on Monday, Mr. Martins said in response to the accusations, “The company has already addressed it.” Asked if he had anything to add, he said, “At this point, no.”

The two organizations have retained a lawyer, Barbara Hoey, to conduct the investigation. Ms. Hoey, the chairwoman of Kelley Drye’s labor and employment practice group, declined to comment.

As part of the investigation, Mr. Martins is believed to have discussed romantic relationships he has had with female dancers, according to a former official at City Ballet with knowledge of the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Mr. Daniels, the ballet spokesman, said that since 2010 the company “has had a policy precluding a reporting relationship between a supervisor and subordinate where a romantic relationship exists.”

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Along those lines, Jed Bernstein was forced out last year as president of Lincoln Center — which has such a policy — after an anonymous complaint revealed that he had been involved in a consensual relationship with a woman who worked for him, and whom he had twice promoted.

In recent interviews, two former City Ballet dancers and three former students at the school described a culture in which Mr. Martins was known for sleeping with dancers, some of whom received better roles because of their personal relationships with him.

The world of ballet is a fuzzy area, those involved say, in which people are regularly touching one another through choreography and instruction. An artistic leader like Mr. Martins looms large — particularly among up-and-coming, young dancers — as a producer who decides which ballets are performed; as a casting director who determines which dancers land the best parts; and as a father figure who designates dancers for promotion.

Balanchine, who was known as Mr. B, wielded tremendous power over the lives of the dancers in his company. He famously discouraged female dancers from marriage and from having children; he insisted that their boyfriends leave them at the stage door — not enter the theater — and that dancers wear different perfumes so that he could easily identify them.

In a 2012 article on Balanchine in Psychology Tomorrow, Wilhelmina Frankfurt, a former City Ballet dancer, said: “The only way that Peter rivaled Mr. B. was as a Casanova. However, where Mr. B. was charm incarnate, Peter was a basher.”

In 1992, Mr. Martins was charged with third-degree assault against his wife, Darci Kistler, then a principal dancer in the company. Ms. Kistler told the police that her arms and legs had been cut and bruised. The misdemeanor charge was later dropped.

In 2011, Mr. Martins was arrested on New Year’s Day and charged with driving while intoxicated.

Mr. Martins was a star of the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen when he joined City Ballet in 1970. In 1983, he became co-ballet master in chief with Jerome Robbins, taking over that role entirely in 1990.


www.nytimes.com


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he Sexual-Abuse and Harassment Scandals Blowing Up on Broadway


At a powerful event at New York City’s Public Theater, actors and theater makers from Broadway and beyond told stories of sexual abuse and harassment, and how best to fight back.


Tim Teeman
TIM TEEMAN
12.05.17 5:00 AM ET


The young woman said she did not have stage fright. She was looking around the room to see if the alleged perpetrator of the sexual assault she had endured was there.

“I don’t say that just as a victim, but also a witness of an assault,” she said.

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The alleged perpetrator made “a ton of money” for a theatrical organization. The young woman did not. She had felt guilty about not coming forward as both a victim and a witness of abuse, she said, but “the biggest impact” of an assault was felt by victims rather than by perpetrators.

“Sometimes the only sense of power in these situations was in choosing when to come forward,” she added, speaking of those she knew who had yet to speak about what had happened to them. “I am outing myself as a witness to a crime,” the woman said. “I want to say to the other witnesses, ‘I am one of you.’” When they were ready to come forward, she would be there to support them.

In the space of two intense hours, the stories flooded forth.

In the audience of the Anspacher Theater of New York City’s Public Theater, people—the majority of them women—who work within the city’s theatrical industries gathered Monday afternoon to discuss sexual abuse, harassment, and assault on and off Broadway, and sometimes far from Broadway, at a “town hall” event.


Two microphones had been set up. There was no panel of experts but rather a sharing of experiences, memories, stories, advice, pain, courage, bravery, and strength. Only one man stood up to share his experience of assault and harassment.

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The event was organized in the wake of the sexual-abuse and harassment scandals assailing so many industries and as rumors swept New York’s theater community that an exposé or exposés on Broadway abusers and harassers was about to be published. After the recently revealed scandals involving James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera and Peter Martins at New York City Ballet, theaterland appears to be the natural next focus.

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Casting director Justin Huff was fired from Telsey + Co. last week following allegations of sexual misconduct. In early November, Variety reported the Actors Equity Association reminded theatrical employers that harassment policies should be addressed on the first day of work.

Broadway, one woman said at the Public's town hall, was “the Wild West. You just take your chances.” She had been sexually harassed, she said, by a famous person. Her mother had told her not to make a fuss. Well, she said drily, if that was her mother’s advice she would obviously not follow it. So she began to make a fuss and reported the incident. Her colleagues, she said, had pleaded with her, “Please don’t. It will be bad for us.”

The woman paused in her recollection and said, disbelievingly, “Bad for you?”

As a preschool teacher, she had tried to “raise kids not to be assholes.” Working on Broadway, it had been “terrifying” to see people “not being decent to each other.” Just as in preschool, punishments had to be enforced to show accountability, she said.

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She had been fortunate: The two men who oversaw her sexual-harassment complaint had listened to her and acted quickly and positively. “Now I’m going to take my HR [human resources] experience, and where there isn’t HR, I will be the HR people,” she said.

The “town hall” structure of Monday’s “(Mis)Conduct” event, inspired by the Quaker tradition of “deep listening and sharing,” forbade the mentioning of specific names or organizations, said Stephanie Ybarra, director of special artistic projects at the Public. (The Public has also published a list of resources relating to sexual abuse and harassment for those working in theater.)

Ybarra said the Public had held a similar event after the election of President Trump, with the question—shared with this event—of “What next?” as the theatrical community confronted “decades and decades of insidious behavior, sexual abuse, and misuse of power.” People would be limited to speak for two minutes.

Mary, a stagehand, said she was one of four women working with 200 men.

“They talk about what they want to do to their girlfriends. There are microaggressions, like them telling me I’m not strong enough to move a box, then they tell me they like watching me push a box so they can watch my ass.”

Mary had complained. Her boss’ solution was to say she wouldn’t have to work with that person, or “I could walk away and find a job at Starbucks.”

Mary was incredulous that this “solution” would see her leaving a job she loved and was qualified for to work in a job she worked at when she was much younger and unqualified. This was the “solution” to somebody’s harassment of her.

“So I can’t pay my rent and student loans because some guy can’t keep his pants zipped,” Mary said angrily.

Why were there so few women working in technical areas, why were there so few female stage designers? Mary asked. “I’m so tired of comments about my boobs, about the way I walk, about not being strong enough, but then that it’s ‘nice to see something while they’re working.’”

A staff member from Signature Theatre noted that when scandals break and organizations choose to fire people, those decisions are financial ones: The organizations worry that the scandal will adversely affect ticket sales. Those decisions are also far too late. “As theater artists, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that we don’t hire people who hurt other people,” the woman stated, to applause.

“His tactic was to prey on directly-out-of-college actors, not in the industry, not in the union, with no resources or institutional help”
The stories kept coming.

Kristin, an actor of 11 years’ standing, had been sexually assaulted while preparing a scene. She asked if some of the silence around sexual abuse and harassment in the industry was down to the dreams held by aspiring actors, “and the fragility of those dreams and how vulnerable that makes you. You put up with the behavior in pursuit of them.” You may lose your dream if you speak out, she said.

A playwright said that one thinks one might feel unsafe on the subway or the street, but you can feel unsafe in a rehearsal room. How can one make performing love scenes safer? she asked. “Not everyone wants a hug all the time,” she said. “Not everyone wants a massage. This is not to say to walk on eggshells, but an unwanted physical thing can make people feel unsafe.”

Leah stood up to say she had been assaulted by her acting coach two years ago. He did the same to two of her peers. “I am finally at a place where I want to tell people.” The coach had worked with the Public, she added. “His tactic was to prey on directly out of college actors, not in the industry, not in the union, with no resources or institutional help.”

Another woman said she had had an awful experience reporting the alleged perpetrator of her sexual assault to theater bosses.

She was not given the opportunity to be anonymous but was told her name was not shared with the perpetrator.

“It felt like everyone in the office was looking at me. It felt like the whole meeting the HR woman was covering their [the company’s] ass, as if she did not understand something bad had happened to me. A couple of weeks later I was told ‘appropriate action’ had been taken ‘to ensure this conduct does not repeat itself.’”

The woman laughed drily: “There was no person connected to that action.” She was told the alleged perpetrator had been granted anonymity, even though his name had been discussed in meetings and written in emails. “I don’t know if he’s been fired. I don’t know anything. She [the HR representative] has closed my case, but I don’t have closure. I won’t go back there to see shows in case he is there.”

Every news alert about sexual abuse and harassment is like a “gut punch,” the woman said. Initially she had a tendency “to process alone” what had happened to her but had found the benefits, and recommended to others the same, of speaking to loved ones and friends, “instead of just living with it—that sucks even more.”

One young woman, a carpenter at the Public, said how valuable the event was, but not to forget that so many people who would benefit from it, and from the advice and strength to be gained from it, couldn’t be there. They had to work.

“How can we show love and compassion to people who have made mistakes?”
Younger women had spoken first at the meeting, one asking “as a cis woman” how would she not be silenced by non-binary and trans activists urging her not to “gender sexual assault.”

A survivor of sexual assault herself, she had been told by a female DA that there was no way to prove her assault had been different from the sex she had been having.

She said lawmakers, even liberal ones, “could not be trusted” to enforce positive change. That change came from “culture” and from everyone making themselves “a little less comfortable” in speaking up and challenging wrongdoing. “We are in this room, and the people who have the means will change it,” she said.

Another woman said she had been one of those whose story had led to The New York Times highlighting the alleged sexual misconduct of Israel Horovitz. He had “stolen” a year and a half of her life, she said.

She asked why the Actors Studio or Columbia University had not taken action against Horovitz sooner.

“I don’t have a good sum-up, but fuck him,” she concluded. (Beau Gravitte, artistic director of the Actors Studio, stood up to say he had just taken over running the institution, having inherited an organization of “non-action. It can happen. It can change,” he said.)

A 19-year-old stood up to say she felt a lot of guilt over how and if she could cut an alleged abuser (of two friends) out of her life.

Another young woman, Sierra, cautioned against responding too “violently” to rumors and accusations, which could prove “toxic and dangerous.” If the pendulum was swinging extremely in favor of those now speaking out about abuse and harassment, she could imagine a time when it would swing back, just as violently, against them.

Sierra asked what was gained if people simply lost their jobs and livelihoods as a result of being accused or prosecuted. “How can we show love and compassion to people who have made mistakes?” she asked.

It was important, she said, to “have both sides”: to punish those who have committed wrongdoing, and for there to be the just repercussions flowing from that, but also “remembering our love and compassion” for people who are still human beings. “I want people to do better,” she said.

Another speaker earned a cheer, and a round of clicked-finger applause, by stating simply, “We can’t afford to be assholes to each other anymore. If someone has told you you’re an asshole, check it out, because maybe you are.”

A male survivor of rape said compassion was wasted on abusers. “We want to think sexual assaulters and rapists are like us, and that education works, but my experience is what they did is a final degree in a number of steps they have taken to treat someone inhumanely.”

The young man recommended "zero tolerance and mandatory firings" for all abusers.

One woman wondered if a “truth and reconciliation commission,” akin to what had been used in South Africa and Bosnia, would be a useful model to emulate in addressing sexual abuse and harassment.

“We can’t be surprised. If I opened the Times and read that the pope was a sexual predator, I would not be surprised.”
T. Oliver had worked on Broadway for 18 years and now taught young people. He wanted to know how the theater world could start afresh. If it was impossible to change “the last 100 years of theater,” how could the industry construct a new code or way of working?

A second man, a playwright, stood up to say the “tissue” around sexual abuse and harassment” could not be separated from other oppressive social systems upheld by “reticence and an inability to say and speak the things we see. People we all know stay quiet.” The issue was not just about sex but also race and class. The challenge was to oversee change “without burning down everything.”

An older woman stood up to ask why “we are acting as if we are surprised. We can’t be surprised. If I opened the Times and read that the pope was a sexual predator, I would not be surprised.”

Another theater practitioner said she had worked in the theater communities of Chicago and Austin, “so tiny” that everybody is friends or linked and there is “no one to hear you.” There should be a coalition of theaters within which it was possible to submit anonymous complaints, too, she added, deriding, to cheers, the effectiveness of “a fucking Human Resources department.” Whisper networks were powerful, she said. “But now it’s time for a speaking network.”

The dancer, producer, and activist Robin Sokoloff—who works as a volunteer for the Crime Victims Treatment Center–said most of the sexual harassment and assault she had experienced had been on stage.

It was vital that people in theater spoke about what had happened to them, Sokoloff said. It might be uncomfortable, she said, “but you have to be right and wrong about it, and everything in between. The only thing that works is a constant conversation involving everybody. The more talk there is about it, the more we create a culture where it is unacceptable everywhere.”

One actor noted the power imbalances on sets, of what a woman risks if she challenges a male playwright or director. Playing by the rules of the male-dominated game, Katie, a freelance director, noted that she had “craved” attention from older men she worked with, and got it. (She had used both her relative youth and her whiteness, she said.)

Was what she experienced harassment, she wondered aloud. “Probably,” but she was getting a validation from it at the time. She wanted to ensure she was “in” rather than “out” when it came to getting work, and so—as many others may do—had to work within a warped set of power dynamics to advance.

Another woman also spoke of the “blurred boundaries” in theater—the relations and friends who end up employed on productions, and the boundaries between “making personal connections and what happens when that becomes unwanted attention.” The woman asked how one could have a close relationship with a supervisor that was intimate without being abusive.

Another actor, Diane, told a story of blatant gender discrimination, about a theater company firing her in 2011 when she became pregnant and then finding a sneaky way to deny her severance pay. Sexual harassment, Diane said, did not exist in isolation but rather alongside more general inequality and the wage gap.

An actor of six years’ standing said that as well as being sexually harassed, she noticed “the chronic dismissal of females in the rehearsal room,” contrasting the “privilege of being a man to collaborate freely” with how a woman is “perceived of being a diva. Sexism can be boiled down to the silencing of women. My industry is one of emotions, but if a woman emotes in the rehearsal room, she is seen as crazy.”

“When we give up hope that change is not possible, change is never possible”
The event ended with some stirring words of hope. A 21-year-old accepted, to laughter, that while it was normal for people her age not to believe they are wrong, that they also believe that change is possible. Whisper culture—“avoid this dude on the first day of a job”—was positive, she said.

“When we give up hope that change is not possible, change is never possible,” she said to applause from young and not-so young alike.

Raquel, an African-American woman, had felt empowered to be around other women of color in a rehearsal room, only to have a male actor attempt to undermine that power by hitting on her and being crudely suggestive.

The other women in the room let Raquel know they could see what was going on and that it was not OK, she recalled.

Every time the actor offered her a croissant she made a strange, inhuman sound, she said.

This, as desired, put him off.

“Be angry, stay angry, keep doing it,” Raquel said. “Yes, it hurts, but let’s keep moving together. Any time someone makes you feel uncomfortable, make a sound.” The audience applauded and laughed.

As theater professionals, Raquel said, “we love people, but we’ve got to make sounds, to say, ‘No, this is not cool.’ We are powerful.”

—With additional reporting by Robert Silverman

If you work on Broadway, or in theater more generally, and want to talk about your experiences of sexual abuse, assault, and/or harassment, please email tim.teeman@thedailybeast.com


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Conyers Retires, Family Feud Ensues
www.thedailybeast.com ^ | 12.05.17 10:36 AM ET | Gideon Resnick Gideon Resnick
Posted on 12/5/2017, 12:26:54 PM by Red Badger

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the longest serving member of the House of Representatives and the subject of a flurry of sexual-misconduct allegations in the last few weeks, said he was "retiring today" during a radio interview Tuesday.

"I'm in the process of putting my retirement plans together and I'll have more of that very soon," Conyers said in an interview with the station, Praise 102.7.

No sooner had he announced plans to vacate his seat, however, than an intra-family feud erupted into public view over who would take it over.

The embattled Michigan Democrat said on Tuesday that he wanted his son, John Conyers III, to replace him when he departs. But earlier in the morning, Conyers' nephew, Ian Conyers, said that he would be seeking the seat.

“I’m absolutely going to file for his seat, Ian Conyers, a state senator, told the New York Times. "The work of our congressional district, where I come out of, has to continue."

The confusion over Conyer's replacement reflected the frantic final chapter of the congressman's storied-turned-controversial career.

The House Ethics Committee announced last week that it had opened an investigation into allegations against Conyers following a BuzzFeed News story revealing that the Democrat from Michigan had settled a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015 after a staffer allegedly that he had sexually harassed her.

Another woman, Melanie Sloan, who served as the former executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told The Washington Post that she experienced inappropriate behavior from the congressman that stopped short of sexual harassment. In one instance, Sloan said, Conyers summoned her to his office, where he was in his underwear.

And on Tuesday, yet another woman came forward with a story of his inappropriate behavior to The Detroit News — the third allegation against Conyers to be made public in the last two weeks. The woman, Deanna Maher, worked for Conyers from 1997 to 2005 and detailed three instances of his advances and misconduct in the late 1990s.

While Democrats struggled with how to handle the damage control, pressure mounted behind the scenes. Eventually, Democratic House leadership all called for Conyers to leave office immediately.

“The allegations against Conyers, we have learned more since Sunday, are serious, disappointing and very credible,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said last week. “Congressman Conyers should resign.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who had been dismissive of questions about Conyers’ conduct, echoed the sentiment. The third-ranking Democrat in the House also told reporters that it would be in the “best interest” of Conyers and his colleagues for him to step down.

Through it all, Conyers’ attorney remained defiant that the elder statesman would not resign, compelling House Democratic aides to float the idea of removing Conyers entirely from the House Judiciary Committee if he remained in office.

Conyers is heralded as a civil rights hero, having introduced the first bill in Congress that honored Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday after his assassination in 1968. He has long been a proponent of a single-payer health care system, reintroducing the United States National Health Care Act each session since 2003. He has served in Congress since 1964 and co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969.

On Tuesday, he defended his legacy , saying it "can't be compromised or diminished in any way by what we're going through now."

He added, "This too shall pass."

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Vanity Fair cancels Bruce Weber’s Art Basel bash
By Mara Siegler December 4, 2017 | 9:37pm
Modal Trigger Vanity Fair cancels Bruce Weber’s Art Basel bash
Bruce Weber Getty Images


ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH

The hottest parties coming to Art Basel Miami

20,000-pound piece of granite sculpture dropped from crane

Even Art Basel Miami Beach is feeling the fallout from the recent whirlwind of sexual-harassment allegations.

An event for fashion photographer Bruce Weber — who’s been accused of forcing himself on male model Jason Boyce in a lawsuit — has been canceled.

Vanity Fair and car brand Genesis were set to hold the intimate dinner on Tuesday in Miami Friday to celebrate Weber’s book “All-American Volume XVII.”

But a rep for the magazine tells us: “Vanity Fair and Genesis, the dinner’s sponsor, have agreed to cancel.” A rep for Weber did not get back to us. The suit alleges that, three years ago, Weber forced Boyce to rub his own genitals and that he sucked on the man’s fingers.

FILED UNDER ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH ,  BRUCE WEBER , 

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NEW YORK (AP) — The top editor for the National Enquirer, Us Weekly and other major gossip publications openly described his sexual partners in the newsroom, discussed female employees’ sex lives and forced women to watch or listen to pornographic material, former employees told The Associated Press.

The behavior by Dylan Howard, currently the chief content officer of American Media Inc., occurred while he was running the company’s Los Angeles office, according to men and women who worked there. Howard’s self-proclaimed nickname was “Dildo,” a phallus-shaped sex toy, the former employees said. His conduct led to an internal inquiry in 2012 by an outside consultant, and former employees said he stopped working out of the L.A. office after the inquiry.

Howard quit soon after the report was completed, but the company rehired him one year later with a promotion that landed him in the company’s main office in New York. It was not clear whether Howard faced any discipline over the accusations. AP is not aware of any sexual harassment allegations involving Howard since he was rehired.

The AP spoke with 12 former employees who knew about the investigation into Howard’s behavior, though not all were aware of every detail. The outside investigator hired to examine complaints about Howard’s behavior also confirmed to AP that he completed a report.

In a brief phone interview with the AP, Howard characterized the ex-employees’ claims as “baseless.”

A lawyer for American Media confirmed Tuesday that an outside investigator was hired to look into two employees’ claims about Howard’s behavior.

The lawyer, Cam Stracher, said the investigation did not show serious wrongdoing. Stracher confirmed that one employee had complained that Howard said he wanted to create a Facebook account for her vagina, but Stracher said Howard said that never happened.

“It was determined that there was some what you would call as horsing around outside the office, going to bars and things that are not uncommon in the media business,” Stracher said, “but none of it rose to the level of harassment that would require termination.”

American Media publishes the National Enquirer, RadarOnline, Star and other gossip publications and websites. In March the company purchased the glossy Us Weekly magazine for a reported $100 million, significantly boosting its readership among women.

In his job, Howard oversees those newsrooms.


AMI spokesman Jon Hammond described the two employees who had formally complained about Howard’s alleged behavior as “disgruntled.”

“The investigation described an environment where employees mixed socially outside the office — sometimes at bars — but found no direct support for the allegations of harassment made by the two complainants,” Hammond said in an email.

Most of the former employees spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they had signed nondisclosure agreements, sometimes as part of severance packages.

Two former employees, one a senior manager and another a reporter in the L.A. office, agreed to be publicly identified to discuss Howard’s behavior.

“The behavior that Dylan displayed and the way he was and the way the company dealt with it — I just think that it has to be made public because it’s completely unacceptable,” said Maxine “Max” Page, a former senior editor at RadarOnline. She complained to the human resources department about Howard’s behavior on behalf of two female reporters.

Howard made inappropriate comments to and about one of those women, Page and six other ex-employees said. Howard told employees in the newsroom he wanted to create a Facebook account on behalf of the woman’s vagina, commented on her sex life and forced her and other female employees to either watch or listen to graphic recordings of sex involving celebrities despite there being no professional rationale for doing so, they said.

A former senior editor recalled Howard wrongly claimed during a newsroom meeting that the woman had had sex with a journalism source and praised her for it, saying she needed to “do what you need” to get a story.

The editor said: “He encouraged her to have sex with people for information.”

The woman Howard was discussing confirmed these and other incidents to the AP but declined to be identified.

Page and four other employees recounted instances in which Howard talked about his own sexual exploits, including descriptions of his partners’ physical attributes.

Stracher, the company lawyer, said no one interviewed by the outside investigator complained about Howard’s handling of pornographic material. Stracher said there was nothing inherently inappropriate about that in the celebrity news business.

Stracher also said no one complained to the investigator about Howard’s alleged encouragement of a reporter to sleep with news sources.

Another former reporter, Liz Crokin, said she was also harassed by Howard, including once when he asked whether she was “going to be walking the streets tonight” on a day she wore heels to work.

Page and Crokin, like many of the other former employees who spoke to AP, were laid off by the company during waves of downsizing at AMI. The others who left the company said they did so by choice.

American Media regularly asked exiting employees to sign nondisclosure agreements that prohibit them from disclosing confidential information or disparaging company executives.

Many of the former employees who described Howard’s behavior said they decided to do so after the New Yorker and other news organizations published emails in recent weeks showing that Howard had worked with movie producer Harvey Weinstein to undermine allegations of sexual misconduct by Weinstein.

The emails showed that Howard had dispatched a reporter to uncover derogatory information about an actress who had accused Weinstein of rape, and then shared that information with Weinstein. Howard has said he pursued the information as part of due diligence before entering into a business relationship with Weinstein. Weinstein, who has denied allegations of non-consensual sex, has maintained he was passing along a news tip to Howard that was never published.

After the 2012 investigation into Howard’s conduct in Los Angeles, two of the ex-employees said they were told by a manager that Howard was barred from the Los Angeles office. The employees said he worked from home after that. Stracher, the company lawyer, said Howard was given no such order to stay away from the office.

Shortly after the report was issued, Howard took a new job with another company.

It’s unclear what the report concluded or whether Howard faced any disciplinary action.

The AP was unable to obtain a copy of the report. Its author, Philip Deming, confirmed he wrote a report but said he could not talk about what he found or the recommendations he made.

Page, the manager whose complaint prompted the company to hire Deming, said she was skeptical the company properly investigated Howard’s behavior.

Deming said he produced a 25- to 35-page report with 18 exhibits, and interviewed between 15 and 20 employees. He declined to describe his findings without AMI’s authorization. Stracher, the company lawyer, declined to release the report.

Deming said he was not aware that American Media re-hired Howard a year after his report.

“I did have recommendations and I don’t know what happened after those recommendations were made,” he said.

Stracher said Howard was “cautioned when he returned that what I would characterize as horsing around was not appropriate.”

Howard openly discussed the investigation with some reporters and editors, one former employee said. A January 2012, email provided to the AP by another former employee said, “There is an investigation going on of my boss right now and it’s made everyone awkward and uncomfortable. You could cut the tension with a knife.”

Crokin, the former reporter, said she believed Howard retaliated against her after Deming interviewed her, taking away serious work and assigning her menial tasks. She was laid off a short time later.

The company lawyer, Stracher, said any employees who witnessed or had concerns about Howard’s behavior should have raised them at that time.

Another ex-employee who was interviewed by Deming recalled being anxious about speaking with the HR consultant.

“I told the investigator I didn’t know anything,” said the former employee, acknowledging that answer was not true. “It’s almost like I had Stockholm syndrome.”

Yet another former employee, who said she was present when Howard showed a handful of reporters pornography that was not newsworthy, said Deming never interviewed her.

Howard, 35, came to the U.S. in 2009, months after being fired from a sports reporting job in Australian television news, following a police investigation about how he had obtained athletes’ medical records. Police did not bring charges against him. He was then hired by Australian broadcaster Craig Hutchison’s CrocMedia to report in the United States.

In a recent podcast, Hutchison praised Howard’s talent but said he quickly parted with Howard under rocky circumstances.

“His methods make me uncomfortable, that’s probably the best way to put it,” Hutchison said.

Howard then began working for American Media Inc. in Los Angeles.

During his time there, Howard blurred the lines between his role as a manager and his personal life, throwing parties in Las Vegas and in Malibu, inviting female reporters to accompany him in the evenings and regularly discussing his late-night partying in the newsroom, six former employees said.

For his 30th birthday party, Howard invited a dozen employees to Las Vegas in January 2012 for an all-expenses-paid, three-day party he dubbed “Dildo’s Dirty 30,” according to a copy of the professionally designed invitation obtained by the AP.

A week later, ex-employees said, Deming, the HR consultant, began conducting interviews.

___

Horwitz reported from Washington.

___

Submit a confidential tip to The Associated Press at https://www.ap.org/tips

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Conyers Retires, Family Feud Ensues
www.thedailybeast.com ^ | 12.05.17 10:36 AM ET | Gideon Resnick Gideon Resnick
Posted on 12/5/2017, 12:26:54 PM by Red Badger

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the longest serving member of the House of Representatives and the subject of a flurry of sexual-misconduct allegations in the last few weeks, said he was "retiring today" during a radio interview Tuesday.

"I'm in the process of putting my retirement plans together and I'll have more of that very soon," Conyers said in an interview with the station, Praise 102.7.

No sooner had he announced plans to vacate his seat, however, than an intra-family feud erupted into public view over who would take it over.

The embattled Michigan Democrat said on Tuesday that he wanted his son, John Conyers III, to replace him when he departs. But earlier in the morning, Conyers' nephew, Ian Conyers, said that he would be seeking the seat.

“I’m absolutely going to file for his seat, Ian Conyers, a state senator, told the New York Times. "The work of our congressional district, where I come out of, has to continue."

The confusion over Conyer's replacement reflected the frantic final chapter of the congressman's storied-turned-controversial career.

The House Ethics Committee announced last week that it had opened an investigation into allegations against Conyers following a BuzzFeed News story revealing that the Democrat from Michigan had settled a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015 after a staffer allegedly that he had sexually harassed her.

Another woman, Melanie Sloan, who served as the former executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told The Washington Post that she experienced inappropriate behavior from the congressman that stopped short of sexual harassment. In one instance, Sloan said, Conyers summoned her to his office, where he was in his underwear.

And on Tuesday, yet another woman came forward with a story of his inappropriate behavior to The Detroit News — the third allegation against Conyers to be made public in the last two weeks. The woman, Deanna Maher, worked for Conyers from 1997 to 2005 and detailed three instances of his advances and misconduct in the late 1990s.

While Democrats struggled with how to handle the damage control, pressure mounted behind the scenes. Eventually, Democratic House leadership all called for Conyers to leave office immediately.

“The allegations against Conyers, we have learned more since Sunday, are serious, disappointing and very credible,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said last week. “Congressman Conyers should resign.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who had been dismissive of questions about Conyers’ conduct, echoed the sentiment. The third-ranking Democrat in the House also told reporters that it would be in the “best interest” of Conyers and his colleagues for him to step down.

Through it all, Conyers’ attorney remained defiant that the elder statesman would not resign, compelling House Democratic aides to float the idea of removing Conyers entirely from the House Judiciary Committee if he remained in office.

Conyers is heralded as a civil rights hero, having introduced the first bill in Congress that honored Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday after his assassination in 1968. He has long been a proponent of a single-payer health care system, reintroducing the United States National Health Care Act each session since 2003. He has served in Congress since 1964 and co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969.

On Tuesday, he defended his legacy , saying it "can't be compromised or diminished in any way by what we're going through now."

He added, "This too shall pass."

Good riddance "icon."  And no we don't want anyone from your family to take your place. 

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Good riddance "icon."  And no we don't want anyone from your family to take your place. 

A few decades too late. We need term limits.

Conyers and others like him have benefited from practices like straight ticket voting.

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A few decades too late. We need term limits.

Conyers and others like him have benefited from practices like straight ticket voting.

Yep.  Sad truth. 

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Woman accuses Franken of trying to forcibly kiss her in 2006 - POLITICO

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/06/al-franken-accusation-sexual-harassment-2006-281049

The former staffer ducked to avoid Franken’s lips. As she hastily left the room, she said, Franken told her: “It’s my right as an entertainer