American Politics: A Brand New Day

[RoboBlue]

Perhaps I'm splitting hairs here, but...innocent until proven guilty. Innocence doesn't need to be proven.

I'm sympathetic to that way of thinking, but it's just not how we handle sex crime allegations against politicians in this country.

If it was Bernie he'd be demanding a resignation.

When something like this happens I tend to think of it from two perspectives:

First: how will it affect policy and the balance of political power?
Cuomo is an abatross around the neck of the Democratic Party and he's likely going to fall sooner than later.
His lieutenant governor is also a Democrat (and a woman), and while I haven't done any real research on her it's hard to imagine she'd be as bad as he's been for the last five months.
Cuomo has put me and my family in real mortal danger so there's almost no risk for me in losing him as governor.

Second: what treatment does our society expect high-ranking politicians accused of sex crimes to get, and how will the treatment of this specific accused politician affect that expectation going forward?
Frankly, we have a major problem with politicians getting away with literally anything and the more people we make examples of (as long as it doesn't hurt our policy goals), the better.
Politicians are not civilians, and I have yet to meet one that deserves the pity and empathy that you'd give to an average person. They should not have an inherent presumption of innocence, because we know they live and work within an extremely corrupt system and their accusers quite literally risk their lives to make these claims. They will be threatened and harassed, and face retaliation in some form.

[Green_vs_Red]

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/27/eve...a-of-the-f-35/

aMeRiCuN eNgInEeRiNg aT iT’s FiNeSt

[Robby]

Perhaps I'm splitting hairs here, but...innocent until proven guilty. Innocence doesn't need to be proven.

There's a difference between rpresumed innocence when it comes to a court sentencing, and presumed innocence in letting powerful figures stay in power while they abuse it.

When you are in a position of power and it's possible there's been abuse of power, cover ups, or potential blackmail, then yes it IS appropriate to step back for a moment. Especially if you're innocent and know the facts are on your side that you'll be cleared shortly. Cooperate fully, you have nothing to hide, easy.

If they are innocent, that's usually pretty easy to prove in cases like this since politicians have their schedules down to the hour going back years and its pretty easy to poke holes in the story of the accusers, and because they interact with a LOT of assistants so lots of people end up knowing the dirt even if they stay quiet about it..

Once there are *multiple* sexual assault claims you start to give benefit of the doubt to the victims. One claim could be a crazy or an attention or money seeker or political attack, and you side with the accused at one accustation... but after there are multiple you lose some of that benefit of doubt.

No don't end a man's career and put them in jail without checking, especially in politics where its real easy for the opposition party to just make shit up to smear people... but if the evidence is at all credible you lean towards the victims since coming out with such allegations is so so heavily weighted and traumatizing.

Innocent until proven guilty, yes, don't met out punishment in advance, but if there's more than one claim, throw some doubt towards someone's crediblity until they're cleared, especially if their trackrecord speaks towards abuses of power.

It's a fine line but there IS a line when it come to those in power who can continue to abuse that power against others while left unchecked.

[Green_vs_Red]

Elliot Spitzer one of the two Governors that preceded Cuomo resigned for much less.

As mentioned even without the sexual assaults Cuomo has too many issues surrounding him it's shitty that of all the Governors whose fucked up he's the only one being held accountable for their horrible response to Covid and other issues but it is what it is.

[Dorobō Neko]

Yeah this is a pattern now. The first one you could have made a case that timing and giving who the victim was (a GOP operative), it was a GOP stunt since Cuomo was showing up Trump. But even then there was talk about him and this one allegation, while far more tame the first one, is pretty damning.

Looks like an investigation will be done by the AG by request. Though I would prefer the AG actually run instead of him.

I fear like it will be like what happened with the Virginia Governor, no matter the outcome, he'll still be in there, run and win giving just how popular he is in New York.

[RoboBlue]

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/27/eve...a-of-the-f-35/

aMeRiCuN eNgInEeRiNg aT iT’s FiNeSt

If only we knew about this years ago, our leaders could have prevented this massive waste of taxpayer money.

Thanks Bush and Obama and Trump.

[Jabberwok]

If only we knew about this years ago, our leaders could have prevented this massive waste of taxpayer money.

Thanks Bush and Obama and Trump.

Yeah the F-35 has been a disaster for years and the perfect example of the sunk-cost fallacy.

[Zeorn]

Yeah this is a pattern now. The first one you could have made a case that timing and giving who the victim was (a GOP operative), it was a GOP stunt since Cuomo was showing up Trump. But even then there was talk about him and this one allegation, while far more tame the first one, is pretty damning.

Looks like an investigation will be done by the AG by request. Though I would prefer the AG actually run instead of him.

I fear like it will be like what happened with the Virginia Governor, no matter the outcome, he'll still be in there, run and win giving just how popular he is in New York.

Just in case you don't know, in Virginia, Governors can only serve for 1 term. It's the only 1 term Governor state. After that, they usually run for Senator and then drift into obscurity.

Although currently, Virginia has 2 Democratic Senators and the current Governor is also a Democrat.

[Lord Gaimon]

The promise of the F-35, that they could develop what amounted to 3 cutting edge jets for the price of 1.5 was overly ambitious and they ended up developing 3 cutting edge jets for the price of 3.

Otherwise, all the murmurs about teething issues or it being ineffective are a complete fabrication, or blowing issues experienced by every aircraft totally out of proportion. The F/A-18 was also seen as an expensive, overly multi-purpose boondoggle. The F-16 was called "the lawn dart" and everyone thought a single-engine fighter was a deathtrap based on some early crashes. Those two are now gobally-accepted and incredibly successful aircraft. The only difference is that those happened before the age of massive foreign disinfo ops on social media.

Nearly every American ally with money wants the F-35, including countries with their own aviation industries like Japan. China's flagship 5th Generation fighter is built in large part on stolen F-35 technology. That isn't because of the sunk-cost fallacy.

Edit: The Eurofighter is the disaster people act like the F-35 is. It’s purchase price is ridiculously high for what’s essentially a worse F-15 and it’s per-hour operating costs are by most metrics roughly as expensive as 5th gen fighters.

[Dorobō Neko]

Just in case you don't know, in Virginia, Governors can only serve for 1 term. It's the only 1 term Governor state. After that, they usually run for Senator and then drift into obscurity.

Although currently, Virginia has 2 Democratic Senators and the current Governor is also a Democrat.

Oh I know. Next door neighbors with the state.

I should have been more clear with what I am talking about, the current governor had that racist picture scandal that came out but it really didn't force him to resign.

I could see this happening with Cuomo.