To COVID or NOT to COVID is NOT the Question. UPDATE JANUARY 10, 2025 CRIMINAL FELON TRUMP BECOMES OFFICIAL -1ST CRIMINAL IN THE WH

        COVID-19 Infection rates early on in 2020

I have learned to respect disease like never before since COVID-19 was allowed by the Trump administration to proliferate politically, and evangelicals and QAnon and Trumpers have eaten of the Tree of MAGADEATH, offering eternal corpse-time and suicide to all they attempt to influence. I have followed my faith in God and trust in Him to decide what to do. When credible leaders like former New York Governor Cuomo (forced to listen to guidance from the CDC) and Fauci and others early on announced that wearing masks was not necessary, I didn't dispute them. I dug up some N95 masks I used years ago, and wore them if I shopped or rode in the elevator of my congregate building. I cannot offer my faith in God to others; suffice to say two people in my building died of COVID. And I live 6 miles from the 2020 April epicenter at Elmhurst Hospital that made national news because of the numbers dropping dead in their ER or on lines waiting to be tested.

        Former Governor Cuomo announcing his resignation to the upset of his millions of voters

Cuomo, left holding the COVID bag, led and did a magnificent job for New York State. I listened to his wise briefings about daily COVID numbers and eschewed all the naysayers about COVID: the flu, a hoax, disappearing soon, blah, blah, lies, even discounting my family's take on it. Led by God, as I believe Cuomo was anointed by his faith to rise to the crisis, I stayed safe; friends stayed safe; I didn't travel or celebrate the holidays or go out much until the infection rate was down. The point is that I always followed my faith, used caution, did my own research and as a result got vaccinations and boosters (scientific analysis from experts).

The weapons to fight COVID early on, emphasizing cleaning and disenfecting when COVID was passed via the air transmission.

 

I realize the privileged position I have as a divorced older woman. I am not an essential worker; I am retired, a writer; my whole life was perhaps a preparation for this time. Or at the least my skill set, which includes my faith in God, prepared me to live with caution during a national health disaster with recorded deaths (851,000 on Worldometer) greater than the Civil War, to sustain the emotional, physical and psychic trials of a pandemic which whether engineered or fated, has brought misery, death, suffering and emotional duress to every person alive as I write this, many, without means or skill sets in more dire circumstance than myself.

   The former president who encouraged revenge against his former VP for not criminally giving him the 2020 election in a fraud supported by psychotic Republicans

Cuomo and head of the NYS Department of Health, now discredited, followed all of the Trump administration's corrupted CDC guidelines regarding COVID-19, set up to provide incorrect information that would make Trump feel better. Cuomo was damned because the nursing home debacle he was blamed for was based on CDC guidelines, my nurse friends told me. But the botch job of COVID was set in place as early as January 2020 and there was little Cuomo could do about that. Trump ignored doctors who sent messages to his administration about the virulence of the coming pandemic. By doing nothing timely, Trump exacerbated the spread which necessitated the country closing down. That act appalled all in business and on Wall Street. One imagines that the very next day, CEOS, their lobbyists, and especially Republicans in the corporate business community railed against the decision that would eat into their profits. 

Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick who advocated for business by asking seniors to die for opening up the economy. High infection rates produced high deaths in the senior population, until vaccinations.

That a dead populace would eat into their profits more than the closing down to safeguard hospitals and prevent overwhelming medical staff as happened in Italy was beyond their low IQs. The warfare regarding COVID-19 politicized began then, led by corporations and business. It continues today, making our country unnecessarily subject to a forever pandemic which kills and sickens to whatever extent an individual's immune system allows it. Albeit, with vaccinations a minimum of three, now, it doesn't wreak havoc as badly as with many unvaccinated. Important to remember, it is novel, unlike smallpox, polio or other viruses that have been coursing through human civilization for centuries or decades. NOVEL! We just don't know the long term effects. And all of us are the guinea pigs setting the records. All of us, even Marjorie Taylor Green, is subject to it. All!

    Even Q is subject to COVID and its strains

During the Trump administration (2020) Cuomo's encouragement was like no other before Trump/Republicans attacked him, trashed him because business interests and Trump behind the scenes demanded he be stopped. However, for millions globally and the hundreds of thousands of sane New Yorkers who didn't want to get sick or their relatives to get sick, he led us through Trump's selfish, evil breeding darkness of politicized COVID into the light of hope and faith.

Cuomo during his daily press briefings.

The wisdom he expressed in his briefings and in his book help me to this day. Too bad Trump and other leaders didn't read his book and take him to heart. No. They hated him and wanted him out because he showed up their negligence and incompetence. Too bad the Trumper CDC misled him with incorrect guidance on nursing homes; too bad Trump feared him enough to contribute and promote the smear campaign that "harmed" his career. Too bad the business community cared more about their bottom line (they bank on the stupidity of citizens to sell out to them their life and health) than the safety of the nation.Too bad that the NYC and NY police white supremacists and their QAnon brothers despised the concept of police reform.

     Rita Glavin, Cuomo's attorney, disputes the lies of omission and commission in Letitia James biased     investigation, during which she didn't announce her intentions to run for governor.

Too bad according to the research of Rita Glavin, Cuomo's attorney, that Lindsey Boylan, Ron Kim, Joon Kim and other liars and twisters of the truth bastardized the #metoo campaign to the glory of Republicans and twisted it against Cuomo. Too bad that then Letitia James ( Lucretzia Borgia James if you will) in her run for governor decided to push him over the edge with a bogus investigation with questionable conflicting testimony by "witnesses" to pronounce him guilty in the press. IRONY: HE WASN'T ON TRIAL! It was a hanging and a coup forcing Cuomo to drink the hemlock by resigning and not fighting the machinery of lies ranged against him. Cuomo resigned expecting justice to follow. No justice followed; COVID OMICRON followed. And Hochul was and is not up to the task of being the leader Cuomo was to corral the virus from morphing and destroying the victories won during Cuomo's administration, including a phenomenal testing, tracing, tracking program. 

If you look at Worldometer statistics, COVID infections rose in latter August and continued as did death rates after Cuomo left. That rise coincides with Governor Hochul's taking over the former Governor's position, a tragedy for all New Yorkers. I anticipated we were doomed because Hochul's attitude was never, ever, ever, ever to have a toxic atmosphere at the NYS Capitol. She was distancing herself from Cuomo. Tragedy. Apparently, the atmosphere at the NYS Capitol is sweet and clean, now. Whooppeeeee! But the state is now more toxic with COVID/OMICRON than Cuomo would ever present. 

COVID presents death and sickness at a rate greater than any harm Cuomo could have enacted against the twisted Miss Charlootte, the lying Lindsey Boylan and Ms. Cammisso's twisted, conflicting lies of commission; all are perfect icons of the fake #metoo brigade, demeaning women who are trafficked, have legitimate crimes committed against them. (Read my other articles citing Rita Glavin's discussion of the injustice of the twisted and discriminatory investigation and contradictory testimony by these witnesses mentioned, that James conducted with her "independent" hand picked toadies). That the investigation should continue, a conflict of interest, as she was fundraising to be governor of New York (until that plug was pulled) is not lost on all those who voted for Andrew Cuomo and are infuriated that he was couped and his voters were disenfranchised by a nefarious cabal that included James, Ron Kim, Joon Kim, Boylan, others and the piling on Democrats and of course, snickering, gleeful Republicans.  

Cuomo's ouster by sanctimonious Democrats led the way to the MAGAS attacking Biden mercilessly, his son, spreading about everything from Biden/Harris being responsible for the price of eggs, to Kamala being stupid. Cuomo, if still in power would have been a formidable power players. Democrats, once more, complicit with MAGAS, committed treason and bowed to Trump/Putin. The politicians in the nation are traitors.  (January 10, 2025)

  

These groups and Republicans and Democrats with their own agendas (not the safety of New Yorkers and the nation which Cuomo as head of the governor's association led in the battle to overcome COVID) clamored to get Cuomo out at the worst possible time, at the beginning of Omicron's South African spread.The warnings were light and few; no one was w watching. No one was prepared, not in New York, not in the nation. Biden's administration, focused on vaccines, was thwarted at every turn. He didn't prepare with billions of tests or n95 masks. (We will never see those, another tragedy.) He needed a loud, powerful Democrat on his flank; he told that loudmouth to resign. And now, "Henny Penny, the sky is raining COVID OMICRON!" Cuomo brought the infection rate down with his team. This is too horrible for Republicans and Trump to have acknowledged and it is an embarrassment to Democrats to acknowledge with Cuomo slimed by "trumped up" scandals.

However, New Yorkers and those globally who watched his briefings counted on his leadership skills to lead the nation through the Trump disaster of COVID. Democrats of New York loathe to praise him, happily welcomed Hochul because she was who she is: an incompetent who would "leave them alone away from "pauses" and enforcing mandates. Hochul allowed the superspreader event at NYC New Year's Eve. She is a walking disaster with no courage or strength to stand up to the MAGAS upstate like Elise Stefanek. Cuomo knew many in the legislature were incompetents who hated him; he got his team together and led us; for that he was ousted. Now the incompetents are running around in chaos pretending they lead. 

And Hochul is hated. My friend's daughter works remotely for the state. She told my friend that Hochul wanted state employees (represented by the unions) to go back to work live (they work remotely in safety) in the midst of OMICRON'S rise. What doesn't she understand that they were working effectively remotely? There was a backlash and another backlash when she tried to make them go in two times a week. She is incompetent, and that is toxic. Cuomo understood the essential workers who work at home were vital. They saw that he cared for them. The unions see that she cares for business, is not making rational decisions and doesn't know what she is doing. So, for every female happy Cuomo is gone at the Capitol...there are hundreds of other state employees infuriated at Hochul, despising her weakness and disconsolate and frustrated that Cuomo is not leading us through this COVID variant and additional variants that are coming down the pike. We are no way out of this pandemic. Cuomo knew that; Hochul didn't have a clue; she was too busy drumming up support for her run for governor as she criss crossed the state while Cuomo was under severe attack by criminal lying Barr, unethical incompetent James and the RED HATS.

 Democrats must stick together against Republicans especially if the smears are libelous and slanderous.

After Biden's mistake telling Cuomo to resign, which showed Republicans his weakness in not supporting Democrats, the entire agenda wallowed in the muddy reddish hands of the DINOS Manchin and Sinema; Biden wasn't about keeping Democrats strong and together; he was about bi-partisinship and ignoring accountability for the crimes of the previous administration. Republicans see this as open season on Biden. Not loudly smashing his enemies is in Trump's (current leader of the flies of the Republican party) perspective weakness to be attacked. Cuomo's voice of support was gone; Hochul is too cowardly to stand in Cuomo's shoes and indeed, she can't without his prodigious skill set and experience. Letitia James is weak and cravenly self-serving. NYS senators Gillibrand and Schumer, likewise are too weak and can't get out of their own way. Biden is a good man but he can't do this alone. Cuomo's absence is a hole that can't be filled.

    Cuomo would have been on top of OMICRON which was largely ignored until too late.

Throwing Cuomo over the cliff evidences the direction Democrats were and are heading in...stalled bills, division and COVID CHAOS. Without directed leadership we are looking into the pandemics of the future. When a powerful voice, a credible voice is silenced precisely because the person behind it can see and lead, then the "handwriting is on the wall." 

Omicron is many times more infectious than the other Delta and Alpha and Beta variants. Other variants springing off OMICRON because of the unvaccinated, may be not only more infectious, but they will probably be more deadly. Three, four and five "booster" shots will be an imperative and more unvaccinated with issues will die after spreading the new morphing disease, perfecting its attack against human immune systems. Regardless of who is at the head of the nation, this will occur. If Trump/ Republicans get in again, the death numbers will be exponential. They are rising now because the Democrats refused to acknowledge someone whose wisdom they should have followed. Instead, they chose to nullify his power and shut him down at the worst possible moment. The leader appointed to take his place is incompetent to the task and fearful to lead her state in a time of crisis, unlike Cuomo. Thus, NYE events happened; we will see the results in the middle of January and this will continue into March, etc. No leaders are anywhere on our horizon. Hochul is of the dead zone.

    NYE Times Square 2021, a potential superspreader event

Doctors state that Omicron is milder than Delta based upon information from South Africa. That is specious. The United States has been a runaway train of COVID variants morphing through its citizenry who travel globally (we have no vaccine mandates-ridiculous). Doctors state that OMICRON doesn't often land folks on respirators, if they are vaccinated and boosted with either Moderna or Pfizer. There are exceptions and caveats because the situation is novel. The vaccines are novel. OMICRON is novel. Delta is still in the population. Doctors are making their guesstimation based on the best available reports. Before Trump got rid of Obama's pandemic playbook, there was no such thing as COVID-19, DELTA, OMICRON. Trump will go down in history as the botch job of COVID, with his failed autocratic, criminal presidency. Too bad we are still witnessing the botch job as COVID morphing variants can duplicate and spread under the radar until it is too late, as they cleverly evade every mitigation we set up: Regeneron is ineffective against OMICRON. Omicron also blows through the vaccines and boosters if they are not recent. What more variants lurk in the populace spreading because folks don't get vaccinated and can "handle" this disease. No they can't. It's novel, it is handling them and they are strengthening it so that more not less will be subject to future variants.

We don't want hospitalizations to be overwhelmed; rural hospitals have few beds for surgeries

This should strike fear in all citizens' hearts. However, since this is the first crisis that many Americans have faced on this mammoth scale, they are emotionally unfit to deal with fear in themselves during the stresses of a pandemic. And RED Putin communist supporting media (also weaponized against Democracy) encourages them not to fear or have respect for COVID. Thus, in denial, they are angry that there are those with the audacity to care about their own bodies and others' bodies to mitigate. And instead of dealing, they are distracted. All of the neuroses and issues and problems that they had hidden from themselves, including their inherent death wishes, are now coming to the fore via that anger and distraction. They are finding the pandemic untenable. According to leaders and doctors, the people "can't handle another pause." This is a weak, coddling position that tickles Corporate CEO's ears. 

Folks who are emotionally fragile like QAnoners, Trumpers and antivaxxers rebel like children. The rebellion is their death wish. Too bad they take others with them in their insistence not to wear masks, not to get vaccinated, not to quarantine or socially distance. Who has more rights, the people they potentially infect and kill or their right to refuse to wear a mask, be unvaccinated and untested, making themselves a weapon to kill? When does protecting the rights of QAnon ask the rest of us to sacrifice our health and safety? Those are not rights; that is giving them the license to kill. And that is criminal. When will this be litigated by those who have died of COVID because of Fox and other radical right news pushing MAGADEATH RIGHTS? Using the constitution to defend one's impulse to kill another is criminal; it is also the destruction of democracy, a warped infusion of brainwashing by the likes of Russian Military propaganda.

Love your neighbor give him COVID? Insurrectionists take that stance.

That this rhetoric rose to the insanity it has for QAnon Republicans to not want to keep themselves and their neighbors safe reveals the psychotic extent that they crave suicide. They need to be entered into psychiatric wards across this nation. Tucker Carlson, the host that pushes them to stand for "their rights to kill others" needs to be sued as Fox, Trump and Republicans need to be civilly/criminally sued and held accountable for crimes against humanity. At the least there should be a class action lawsuit for they lied to American citizens. If one person listened to Fox/Trump/Republicans and as a result didn't wear a mask or didn't get vaccinated on their word because COVID was a hoax, that is negligent heart murder. Trump's decreasing the testing so that the numbers wouldn't look bad is criminal. (Florida Governor Desantis follows Trump's lead believing he can ride on Trump's incompetence coattails.) Trump's using the PPP money to give to his friends in incredible malfeasance is criminal; Kushner's botch with the respirators early on, malfeasance. For every fraudulent act, people died. And we know through anecdotal reports that many who listened to Fox, et. al., ended up in the hospital; those who live are impaired with long haul syndrome.

  A lovingly macho white supremacist for Jesus? A scriptural insurrectionist, surely.

Macho is not the way to go if one's life and health can be upended by a virus. Many in our culture are being exposed by white supremacist suicides wearing the mask of machismo. Proudly they wear macho, proud to weaponize their bodies for Jesus and Q and Trump; proud and defiant they are weapons that potentially kill. As such these criminals should be in jail or fined for willfully spreading a potentially fatal disease. As long as this suicidal nature is untreated, the death spirals of viruses in this era will continue because QAnon/Fox/Republicans see no need to take the proper step to mitigate or influence others to mitigate the danger of variants. White conservative males have died swearing they didn't have COVID, when they did. Now with OMICRON, middle aged white males are dying at a faster rate than the other races. Meanwhile, all who work at Fox and the other conservative TV stations, Trump and Republicans are vaccinated and boosted, keeping that fact secret. And most probably Putin has gotten access to the most effective vaccines Pfizer and Moderna. These leaders are hypocrites who hate and fear the QAnon, white supremacist monsters they encouraged and created. These monsters will devour them, surely.

        (Reuters)

Viruses are a way of cleansing the culture and building up humanity's immune system. The plagues that wiped out half of Europe were viruses. Our ancestors endured them. What didn't kill the family made it stronger; but this occurred over generations because there were no mitigations. Thus, even with an environment that is truly heavenly with basic needs met and iPhones at the ready, some are adamant about MAGADEATH. Getting COVID and its variants should not be one's mission as the antivaxxers, antimaskers and Republicans propound. Respecting their own bodies and those of their neighbors' should be why getting COVID is not an option. 

    President Biden needed Cuomo on his flank, not Hochul. Resignation should not be an option.

Thus, this resignation that there is nothing that can be done and perhaps all will get it is nihilistic. This attitude of flying blind without instruments to fight a novel virus is patently unscientific, stupid and vengeful. It is almost as if Democrats, while taking all precautions of masking, vaccinations, boosting, are encouraging Republicans and the unvaccinated to come down with it and kill themselves or make themselves sick, weakening their immune systems. Indeed. If you can't lead a horse to water, kill it and the problem is solved. The COVID crises is taking an interesting turn for dying QAnoners and Republicans. For them, death by any means necessary over being a Democrat or getting vaccinated? #gobrandon The readiness is all. We cannot stop a determined suicide if he doesn't infect anyone. But a willful COVID CARRYING MURDERER must be held accountable.

UPDATE as of January 10, 2025, the official date illegitimate, disqualified Donald Trump is a recorded criminal felon:

Thus far,Worldometer calculated that COVID-19 killed 1 million 200 thousand in the US. Then all bets were off and they stopped counting in 2023.. The DOJ under Trump that spread lies about Cuomo has since been exposed. See the Times Union January 2025 about the weaponization of the DOJ lying that Cuomo killed 55,000 elderly in nursing homes. Meanwhile, the MAGA governors in obedience to Trump stopped counting COVID deaths in nursing homes. The exact figure of those dead from COVID-19 in nursing homes, which most probably far surpasses anything imaginable since no precaution was taken in those states to, monitor and contain the virus (check the death totals in the MAGA states). Indeed, the dereliction and negligence of MAGA governors lifting any regulations for masking, etc., directly  impacted the exponential spread of COVID in their states which they denied. But it is known that the greater the percentage spread in the infection rate of a population, the greater the death rate among the elderly, those with co-mobidities, and those with weakened immune systems.will never be known. The exact numbers will never be known of the number of elderly dead because of Trump and the MAGA governors massive negligence, dereliction of duty and manslaughter.

My nephew, who is a compromat and MAGA for the Florida Health Department, protects Florida's corruption by stating that doctors lied about COVID deaths to get money. Maybe in Florida; DeSantis took the vaccines given by Trump and doled them out to people who paid for them. By the time President Biden was finally allowed to start transitioning to the presidency..., as Trump refused to allow his people in and delayed out of hatred because he is a loser (he also lost to Kamala Haris-check out Jessica Denson on YouTube...about this), even more people died from COVID. As soon as they could the Biden administration moved up the Defense Production Act and fast-tracked the vaccines...something Trump never did because  COVID didn't exist. It was just the flu. It would go away by Easter, and every lie the Putin media spread while wearing masks behind the scenes and running to get vaccinated ASAP.  But according to lies, he never got it. Fox folks never had it. It was a hoax and the vaccines killed people.  Anthony Fauci has been lied on and defamed and insulted and probably needs to move to another country as the MAGAS want him and others dead.

Is AG Letitia James' Run for Governor The Machinations Behind the Cuomo Character Assassination and Withholding of Evidence to His Attorney Rita Glavin?

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo the day he announced his resignation (msm)

Rita Glavin, Former Governor Cuomo's lawyer last week sent  out a comprehensive letter to New Yorkers who subscribe to her emails. The letter had three attachments informing them of Letitia James' conduct with regard to the supposedly "independent" investigation done by two highly partisan individuals who "adjudicated" the sexual allegations against the governor and then pronounced Cuomo "guilty." The debacle exemplifies one of the worst examples of overreaching by the legal profession and using the press to hatchet job a politician. The report which determined Cuomo "guilty" was released to the press who spread the "guilty" verdict far and wide. Interestingly, even Rudolph Guiliani commented that the former governor, who was not on trial, had been convicted and punished in the press of crimes he hadn't committed.

This slander and libel was egregiously structured to force Cuomo's resignation. One of the alleged grievous acts of harassment occurred before 50 million global viewers when a doctor, bundled up like a mummy against COVID, gave the governor a nasal swab test. His infamy was to tell her ironicaly "she looked good," an obvious joke that was latched onto as sexual harassment. The doctor was counted as one of the "11" who came out against the former governor in a bizarre mixture of impropriety contorted into sexual untowardness by Cuomo haters.

The cabal against the governor (most probably Democratic and Republican) want him out of the running for president or governor or anything. Character assassination was Letitia James intent and this week with the announcement that Glavin predicted would come a few months ago, came. James is running for governor. Gee, really? She wants to be governor? 

Letitia James (courtesy Roy Rochlin/Getty)

VICTORY! James couped Cuomo, disenfranchising over 3 million voters with the help of the salivating long time enemy of Cuomo, Joon Kim. That Letitia James has committed an abuse of her office right out of Donald Trump's playbook, effecting a coup during a pandemic and delivering herself a "clear path" to the governorship appears more and more obvious as details come to light and as James refuses to send Glavin evidence supporting the allegations. Nor will James send the transcript testimony of the full 179 witnesses; the report in glaring lies of omission only included 40 witnesses much of it with incomplete information, dates and conflicting information. 

I and many others smell the body odor of smear campaign and will never, ever vote for James or Hochul for governor under such questionable circumstances. Indeed, with this demeaning of #metoo in a greedy bend for power proving women also can embody the worst of human behavior, I would rather see a Republian in office. At least I know they are against me and for themselves. James, Kim and their cabal have birsmirched the sanctimony of Democrats' virginal purity and decency . In their lust for power Democrats and Republicans are the same. Citizens are the losers.

 James, Kim, Boylan slimed and character assassinated the one man who led the nation through the darkness of COVID-19 when the duck-billed platypus crater brain former president was too busy worrying about polls and his reelection to properly conduct an attack plan against COVID to save the nation. Instead, it was Cuomo who delivered the nation and the world with almost 60 million global listeners. But now, all folks can remember is what Cuomo said during a nasal swab. How momentous...how terrible, what a sexually degenerate comment. 

Rita Glavin, Former Governor Andrew Cuomo's Attorney (courtesy of the Cuomo Team)

James warped and biased investigation and smear campaign to get Cuomo are unforgivable. Has the current governor led us reasonably? The jury is out; Cuomo would have done more. In the transition process between Hochul and Cuomo, precious time was wasted regarding COVID DELTA infections. Only now has Hochul begun to give the types of reports that Cuomo got up with lightening speed to help New Yorkers through the darkness and death. She simply rode on his coattails; the apparatus was there.

How have Cuomo and Attorney Glavin answered the James coup? Glavin has been prodigious in her attempt to have James respond to her letters which ask for the witnesses testimony. She brings many questions to bear but James has ignored Glavin. James' abject stupidity in not responding suggests James has something to hide. What seems more and more clear is that  as former Governor Cuomo said from the outset, the smear campaign was designed for political purposes. Instead of recusing herself from having any hand in the investigation, James maintained a close watch over it, picked a plaintiff's attorney predisposed to harassment lawsuits, and an enemy of Cuomo who would attempted to investigate him and find something on him for a number of years. The selection of them and James' involvement belies "outside" and "independent" investigation. It has James, Kim's and unseen others' filthy hands all over it.

So as not to appear the craven, James kept quiet her intention to run for governor. Her behavior selling to the press the report's lies of omission and comission over and over is unjustified without answering the questions and amending the report as Glavin has suggested. Sadly, the lies and the coverup she is effecting is as corrupt as Trump's coverups. The brief investigation whose testimony she will not share with Cuomo or the public smacks of Bill Barr's pronouncement of Trump's Russia conspiracy as a "vindication." Vindication was a lie; Russia interfered in the 2016 election. This is James smear campaign and she is hiding the highly unjust nature of the smear. Both are egregious examples of abuse of power. 

     (L to R): Attorney Patricia Clark, AG Letitia James, Attorney Joon Kim, press conference to announce the results of the highly partisan James' led investigation, contrary to what has been "advertised." (courtesy of PBS New Hr, AP)

James is witholding evidence from Glavin and Cuomo who have a right to it. There was never a trial yet Cuomo is "guilty" and has had no ability to publicly refute the allegations except via his attorney Rita Glavin who has incomplete information. Truly, James' behavior and character assassination demean her office and vitiate the public trust of the AG. And now she wants to be governor? Her lack of judgment, not recusing herself from the investigation, not investigating the false allegations and conflicting testimony is behavior not worthy of the governorship.

Cuomo won't be a silent mouse. The slime in the press achieved a new level of muck, as news spilled out that Cuomo is being charged with a misdemeanor for alleged sexual harassment. However, no female has charged him; no lawyer of the plaintiff charged him. The Albany County DA didn't charge him. No! The Sheriff's office charged him. Who is behind this? There are no details and a misdemeanor is a nothingburger. However, the headline scandal mongered by the GOP'S NY Post is enough for James to justify herself; she announced her run for governor. 

 

        Letitia James at a World Pride NYC and Stonewall 50th celebration in 2019 before COVID (courtesy Alamay)

Indeed, it is obvious she plans to ride into the governor's mansion on the oil slick eminating from possibly malfeasant abuse against the former governor. Why don't we know the details? More lies of omission? Who is the woman? Her lawyer? The specific charge? And how did the Sheriff get the complaint and then blow it up into a misdemeanor, keeping the details hidden? And who leaked it to the press? Oh, and at the same time, she announces her run for Governor? She does not fear even the very appearance of evil. This shameless behavior is Trumpy Republican. Where are the Democrats to point this out? Crickets. For their not standing with the foremost official who led the country through the darkness of COVID, I am staying independent and have stopped giving Democrats money.

Joe Scarborough on Friday's morning show on MSNBC pointed out that if it weren't Cuomo, the sheriff would not be bothered to file such a charge if the offender was Joe Schmo. Indeed, speculation which is tantamount to libel and slander once more hits the air waves about Cuomo. All the media is setting themselves up for lawsuits. As Letitia James attempts to lumber over his "dead" career to get to the mansion, the New York Democrats are looking more pathetic and weak by the minute. Bravo Republicans. You will be able to put up a dog catcher and he/she will win against such slimers.

The abject bungled stupidity of the "charge," James' obvious attempt to set herself up for the catbird seat is laughable. Pull back the veil to see the spiders pulling the levers of power: Kim, James and the cabal who fear and hate Cuomo's competence. James' announcement that she is running for governor in tandem with the misdmeanor charge smacks of craven arrogance as if to say, "I don't care if you think I'm low in using Cuomo to feather my nest. That is the way of the world now." Is it? Then the next governor will be Republican and we will lose the state to the RED. Congratulations. Cuomo was the most powerful voice for the progressive line that succeeded in convincing moderates of the efficay of progressivism. Suburban women supported Cuomo as a result of COVID, as did city women. James' stunts will not be tolerated by them. 

        Joon Kim a long time antagonist of Andrew Cuomo hand picked by Letitia James, one of the partisan attorney's on the investigation with Sex Harassment plaintiff attorney Anne Clark and Letitia James, herself. (courtesy PBS News Hour, AP)

The Democratic Party in New York has fallen to a new low. It takes leadership to restore it, the type of leadership demonstrated during the pandemic by CUOMO. It remains to be seen who  can bring it together. It certainly will not be James or Hochul or De Blasio or others who have the scent of smear  campaign and slime muck all over them. New Yorkers are not as dumb as Democratic politicos think.

The following is a letter to subscribers of Team Cuomo. You will not find this readily on the news, a form of censorship that is tragic. However, I am posting it here because New Yorkers deserve hearing and seeing something other than scandal sheets that have no basis in the law or fact, but are slanderous, libelous and defamatory. 

Rita Glavin, Former Governor Andrew Cuomo's Attorney (courtesy of the Cuomo Team)

“Governor Cuomo’s reputation was destroyed on August 3rd at one of the most prejudicial and unprecedented press conferences I have ever seen in my career.  And what happened there was not meant to be independent, it was meant to be an ambush.  Tish James cannot make these allegations and disavow having to defend them in a forum and then refuse to give the evidence.  It's not right.  It’s not fair.  And as a New Yorker I’m outraged by it.”

- Rita Glavin

 

Rita Glavin, attorney for Governor Andrew Cuomo made a formal submission to the Attorney General outlining countless errors, inconsistencies, glaring omissions and distortions riddled throughout her August 3rd report — including new information about the AG's motivations, conflicts of interest, and — by her own admission — James' personal violation of the terms of the investigative referral.

 

The Attorney General's personal interference and violation of the referral made to her office, combined with the resulting inexplicably flawed and biased report raise serious ethical questions amounting to prosecutorial misconduct.

 

Read the Cover Letter here: www.andrewcuomo.com/glavinlettertoAG

Read the Full Submission here: www.andrewcuomo.com/glavinsubmission

Watch the Submission Presentation here: www.andrewcuomo.com

 

Eight weeks ago Attorney General Tish James issued a one-sided report presented to exact maximum political damage, generate scathing headlines and purposely mislead the public.  Tellingly, since then, the AG has refused to answer any specific questions regarding the report while herself mulling a run for Governor.

 

Today's presentation and submission makes clear that the Attorney General's motivations and subsequent actions were political.  She must now appoint a truly independent body to review her report, her violation of the referral order and today's formal submission.  New Yorkers deserve the truth.

 

 

Cuomo Report by Investigators Joon Kim and Ann Clark Overseen by AG Letitia James is Biased, Defamatory, Unworthy of Democrats

Rita Glavin's YouTube presentation about the investigation into Governor Cuomo by Joon Kim and Ann Clark, overseen by AG Letitia James, is nothing short of exculpatory. For days, the media 24/7 uplifted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's "sexual harassment of various women." Headlines stated that the investigation found him "guilty." This is libelous, slanderous and calumnious. The governor was not on trial. He is not indicted. And no criminal charges had been filed. Indeed, one of the women's lawyers would not refer them to the Sheriff's Office. When he didn't, someone else did.

                                                             https://youtu.be/otxfPhSoBkc

However, the slanders, lies, obfuscations and distortions were meant to make life so difficult for Governor Cuomo that he would resign. Democrats clamored and caterwauled and hooted and hollered. It was so loud and egregious, he finally did resign. And everyone shut up. They had gotten what they wanted. They have left it to late night comics to further perpetuate the slanders, libels and calumny.

                    Governor Andrew Cuomo announces his resignation (Governor's website)

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report (Governor's website)

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report (Governor's website)

The fact remains that New Yorkers are left in the shadows. Many did not want him to resign. The contrast with Republicans like Trump, Gaetz, Kavanaugh, Justice Thomas, "Gym" Jordan, Madison Cawthorne and many more over the years is deafening. They have done much worse, than was falsely alleged about Cuomo. As the irrational clamor grew without substantiation or evidence presented, just allegations, many New Yorkers suspected a hatchet job by a combination of Republicans and Democrats, using the women as their tools, a form of abuse to them and demeaning of the #metoo movement. 

The most jarring calls were from Democrats who wanted him out. We are left with questions about the backroom politics, the chicanery, malfeasance, injustice and vengeful smear campaign which has effected a coup to dispose of a great leader who kept New Yorkers safe through the worst pandemic we've seen in a century: a pandemic which the ruling party of Republicans abdicated containment of to the states. This time the coup is by Democrats on trumped up accusations with little credible proof that corroborates the women.

The Governor has not been a sexual harasser like Republicans. He is not even a sexual harasser as underscored by Attorney Rita Glavin's point by point explanation of the incomplete, preconceived and shoddy "report" by Letitia James' office which was a rush to judgment. Attorney Glavin discusses the background nature of the events that brought us to this place in time. These include vengeance, spite, malice, Republican and Democratic politics and Democrat's pushing forth their "Holiness brand." 

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report (Governor's website)

The allegations began with lying Lindsey Boylan (who ran for Manhattan Borough President and lost). To smear the governor, she threatened that a witness must change his testimony. Glavin states that Boylan said that Cuomo said, "Let's play strip poker," which the witness denied. Because he called it a lie, Boylan threatened to smear him to coerce him to smear Cuomo. In other words, this upstanding woman who wants to run for office, witness tampered. Then, to secure her vengeance, she beat the bushes day and night to find females who might support her smear campaign. She even called for them to come forward frequently using free media coverage (in the vein of Trump). Her mission was revenge because the Governor didn't support her. 

Indeed, the Governor was right not to support a vengeful, spiteful liar who would stop at nothing to vilify another for political purposes. She should be sued for defamation of character and calumny by Cuomo, who can call up the witness who she threatened to testify. This represents the antithesis of #metoo, in fact represents a #hetoo! Her plan most probably backed by Republicans and Democrats alike, was to search high and low for women to take down the governor on sexual harassment charges. 

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report (Governor's website)
 

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report. After Beverly Camisso took a selfie with the governor and posted it on Social, her friend Alyssa McGrath said, "I'm jealous." The next photo below, McGrath's jealousy was assuaged with a photo of the two of them (Governor's website)

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report (Governor's website) Left is Beverly Camisso and right is her friend Alyss McGrath who got her picture with the governor. Camisso provided contradictory and uncorroborated testimony about the groping incident.

It was slim pickings, however. The testimony of the women to appear credible had to be skewed, distorted and fabricated, and even then it doesn't rise to the level of harassment. It was rather like old world political behavior after the days of Lyndon Baines Johnson who kissed, back-slapped and was touchy feelie with men and women, like a glad handing politician was then, like Chuck Schumer is now and like Joe Biden was until a woman screamed at him and accused him of sexual harassment which was quickly forgotten by the DNC, along with other untoward allegations against Cuomo (the women who said he came on to her, QAnon allegations of pedophilia).

New Yorkers who supported and voted for the Governor stood with him through the initial allegations screamed out daily in the press with furious increasing enumerations. Interestingly, Lindsey Boylan lost, receiving a vote of no confidence by New Yorkers who "got" her "campaign." And few will vote for her in the future. Her actions speak for themselves. She is not to be trusted; Glavin gives evidence to this effect. Listen to Glavin on YouTube.

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report. (Governor's website)

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report. (Governor's website)

As a result of their actions in writing the narrative and clamoring and screaming for Cuomo to resign, Joon Kim and possibly the Lieutenant Governor and Letitia James and Bill De Blasio and others who were vengeful against Cuomo, do not have the confidence of New Yorkers. This entire episode of not supporting the governor to allow him to respond indicates their bias, and strongly indicates their malice toward him. Together with the other Democrats, though they say they look for justice, if they can't met it out with a member of their own party to allow them to respond when accused, they cannot be trusted with anyone else, least of all citizens. 

Democrats took the low ground with a great ally of Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ, the Disabled, indeed all groups underrepresented by the Republican party. They did this injustice for questionable reasons. In their rush to judgment and blanket condemnation vitiating Cuomo's attempt to respond, all of them are even more untoward and backward then the spurious allegations of harassment leveled against Governor Cuomo. 

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report (Governor's website)

Globally, millions watched as Governor Cuomo mentored that taking the swab test was not something to be afraid of. He joked beforehand that the doctor looked good in the gown. I didn't know that I was watching sexual harassment. I was thankful that the governor joked in a nervous situation to encourage the hesitant to get a COVID test to monitor the infection rate. Sexual harassment? This doctor was one of the infamous "11" written up as sexual harassment by Kim and Clark in their narrative gone off the rails to "convict" the governor in the media. Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report (Governor's website)

I guess I am used to allegations like those made by the victims of Kavanaugh, Thomas, Gaetz, Trump, Roy Moore, Bill Cosby, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein and other charges that have arisen during #metoo. The Cuomo allegations do not rise to any level of credibility because in the report, there is little proof given. The report is not the point. The point is the conclusion, which was "guilty."  Those who wrote the report did not intend for the press to investigate and read it. The lame media wanted to spread their "guilty" titillations simply because of what they implied: the governor was a "perve." Indeed, by not allowing the truth to be told, only the allegations, the media proves itself corrupt, wanton, lying, manipulated and paid off in a perversion of justice and extreme bias. 

Just like in the Mueller Report, the result was the point for the media to run with it, the antithesis of investigative journalism. Getting ahead of the report, Barr made up his own summary and "exonerated" Trump  a lie. As in that instance parallel to this, the lie was blathered in the media. The truth was buried for over a year and getting at it has been like digging for gold in the Artic without equipment and a compass.

Unless you actually read the transcripts that had to be released from their redactions you believe the corrupted media lies. Trump committed impeachable offenses as Robert Mueller later stated when the media lied about the report. Likewise, the "guilty Cuomo" in the headlines is the point. That no one will read the report to see how shoddy, incomplete, biased, discriminatory and defamatory it is, is also the point. 

Investigator Ann L. Clark who wrote a damning narrative of guilt that is shoddy, incomplete and skewed against the governor with conflicting details, omitted evidence and testimony as per Rita Glavin's credible presentation on YouTube. ( 

What is worse, of the 179 testimonies taken of which only 41 are reported (because they are negative) the other 138 testimony transcripts which most probably are positive, supporting that witnesses never saw or heard any harassing behavior by Cuomo, are omitted from the report. And Kim and Clark refuse to give those transcripts to Glavin, though she has repeatedly requested them. Thus, Kim and Clark omitted 77% of the testimony transcripts from the report and chose 23% which is less than 1/4 of those interviewed. And of the testimony transcripts reported, they were twisted to serve Kim's and Clark's personal agenda over the welfare of New Yorkers. This is doubly so when the Delta variant numbers are rising and the infection rate is worse than this time last year because CDC guidance and President Biden are afraid to declare a mask mandate because it is partisan. Cuomo was never afraid of the RED STATE MAGAS, the NY KKK, insurrectionist and QAnon Biden hater Elise Stefanik, the Proud Boys or any thugging groups who protested his mandates. That is the problem. Cuomo is beyond cowardice and the QAnon control.

Taking this into consideration, Cuomo must sue for defamation and get his day in court. The media has prosecuted him, tried him and unjustly sentenced him to oblivion, as Rita Glavin and others, even Rudy Guiliani, have suggested.

Seque about the Southern District of New York where Joon Kim was once a prosecutor hell bent on "getting" Cuomo (like Trump and others). Barr vitiated all the investigations against Trump in the Southern District of New York. Supposedly Barr was looking into Ron Kim's nursing home allegations and wacked numbers smearing Cuomo. But Trump was the one responsible with overwhelming deaths from his COVID botch job. The nursing homes weren't a slimy enough allegation since the Republicans advocated no vaccinating, and no wearing masks or protecting the elderly. The reason why it couldn't stick was that Cuomo tried to make the elderly safe; Republicans told the elderly to sacrifice themselves for the economy and die (see my previous article). Trump and Republicans are easily identifiable as COVID KILLERS. Cuomo saved lives. As much as Boylan, Kim, Clark and others hate to admit it, especially since they are negligent incompetents who can't lead out of a paper bag, Cuomo brought the infection rate from the highest in the world to the lowest, daily encouraging New Yorkers to do all those things which Trump and Republicans refused to do (get tested, wear masks, get vaccinated).

If not for Cuomo's daily briefings and instructions, the COVID infection rates that were the highest in the world would have killed many more people. His encouragement, wisdom and his brilliant team held New York, the nation and the world uplifted. This cannot be diminished by false allegations and a twisted narrative by little minds and hungry ghosts who are vengeful and filled with hate. New Yorkers remember and so do those across the world who wonder at the likes of this smear campaign.

Kim, Ron Kim and his like-minded cabal of Democrats and Republicans needed something more salacious than nursing homes since Barr's investigation was blown up because Barr was blown up. Lindsey Boylan and perhaps those in the Southern District where he attempted to investigate Cuomo for years finally provided a venue that would sully him. They came up with the notorious "11" women (one of whom was the gowned doctor who gave him the swab test in view of millions watching globally).

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report (Governor's website)

Supporting the defamatory, one-sided report without even reading it, Democrats cannot be trusted. Their calls for Cuomo to resign prove why he needed to establish Executive Powers to martial forces to combat COVID. The other incompetents wouldn't work with him to bring down the infection rate; they would have been negligent obstacles. He selected a brilliant team. They worked with him. And he rallied the most sensate and smartest of congressmen and senators to stand by him to protect New Yorkers (Hakeem Jeffries, Leroy Comrie, Andrea Stewart Cousins, Carl Heastie). 

It is clear, those who voted down his move to have Executive Power are the same negligent, malfeasant and malicious group who called for his resignation. They put their own venal hatreds and political agendas first, and damn New Yorkers' lives. Governor Cuomo knew that. It is why he was forced to give himself Executive Power to bring down the infection rate to .1% from the highest in the world and keep it low, which he did until the September holidays. (This year the infection rate is higher with the Delta variant than last year, and I doubt that Hochul knows what to do to lower it as Cuomo did).

Ron Kim and Boylan are the epitome of the hungry ghost psychotic politicians who mirror the vengeful Donald Trump. They are willing to sacrifice New Yorkers for the sake of "getting" Cuomo. It is a THING, especially with Kim, the congressman. It is downright pornographic that he has a Jones for character assassinating Cuomo. To defame Cuomo over New Yorkers well being because of some psychotic urge is egregious. As justification, he points the finger at Cuomo as a bully. 

Attorney Rita Glavin presenting a response to the one-sided findings in the report (Governor's website)

How laughable. Joon Kim in his behaviors toward Cuomo over the years has bullied, stalked and indeed sought to molest and harass Cuomo. Kim is a regular Javert from Les Miserables, only without the nobility of cause. Too bad he doesn't put that same pornographic urge toward Trump who truly is deserving of excoriation and indictment for his jeopardizing the nation with his COVID botch job and minimizing it as a hoax, his advocating killing the elderly with herd immunity (before vaccination) his financial malfeasance, quid pro quos, insurrection to overthrow Joe Biden's win supported by QAnon Elise Stefanik and his admitted sexual pussy grabbing, rape, sexual molestation, etc.

Now, Kim has won. He must be leaping for joy! His investigation is a hatchet job to oust his long time enemy. Such behavior is not worthy of the Democratic Party. Nor is Ron Kim's going on Fox News to excoriate Cuomo. NYPD Sergeant Steven Lee should have won. He most probably would have proved himself more worthy, than to enact unethical, malfeasant and anti-investigatory behavior. Cuomo should sue him, Boylan, James and others for defamation, liable and slander in addition to congressional malfeasance and misconduct in allowing false allegations to be narrated and represented as though they were unimpeachable and credible.

John L. Lewis who Cuomo admired was a towering example of a Congressman who would not stoop to such machinations as Boylan, RonKim and other Democrats have enacted. The report is a defamatory, one-sided disgrace that Democrats must call down and reveal what happened and why.

Ousting Cuomo comes at a price to the reputation of the Democratic Party. These events with James, Kim, Boylan and Democrats' malice and injustice toward the governor make them exactly like Republicans in fostering their own vengeful agendas and putting themselves first. Governor Cuomo protected us. The other Democrats would have us sacrificed for themselves. Democrats are not to be countenanced accepting lies, distortions, false allegations to coup a popular governor and make him so discredited for 8 days, he was unable to respond. They know better; Republicans have smeared them and lied on them. Now they do the same to members of their own party?  When they didn't support him, when they told him to resign, they betrayed themselves, the justice the party is supposed to stand for and the sound, progressive leadership of Cuomo.

Why is no one investigating behind the investigation by Kim, Clark and their influencers, Democrats as well as Republicans? New Yorkers deserve an explanation why a competent and skilled leader who helped other states get up the necessary testing programs while Trump and Republicans sat and did nothing, is out on harassment charges that are flimsy and hyperbolic at best and outright lies, contradictions and distortions at worst. Regardless, these do not, according to Glavin rise to the level of the report's conclusion which is spurious, because allegations are not proof. Evidence is proof.

Did the investigators show brilliant skill and in-depth analysis as they pieced together witness corroboration, triangulations of time, place, testimony and solid evidence to prove that the Governor did indeed harass the women as the report specified? Nope. Watch Rita Glavin's YouTube presentation and listen carefully. This was a three month rush to judgment so that folks could get their campaigns up and running for the governorship. New Yorkers are not stupid. Whether agreed upon by Republicans and Democrats, those who plan to run for the governorship are not beyond reproach. And those in power during this debacle of investigatory malfeasance, who obviously want the governor out because they did nothing to stop it, look vengeful, ignorant, negligent and incompetent, even more so than Republicans, for whom this malfeasant investigation is heaven sent and surely partially supported and funded (though I have no proof).

The investigation was not worthy of the ethos of the Democratic Party, a tragedy.

Why is the investigation malfeasant? Because only one side was investigated, and cursorily at that. There was no evidence. No corroboration. No supporting testimony. Just allegations. And then the allegations have contradictory information, for example the date of the supposed groping. Two dates were given. This is most probably so because there is no eye-witness testimony of the woman (Camisso) being in the mansion when she alleged the governor scared her and slammed the door, a lie. The other date, she was under observance constantly and was writing a speech. Why did she lie? Who forced her to lie? Was she paid off to lie about the governor in this smear campaign? Is she a dupe of forces ranging against him? And if she comes forward to the press and tells them the backstory, will they print it? If she goes to Senator Schumer or Gillibrand and tells them she felt coerced to incriminate Governor Cuomo, will they listen to her? Or is it in their best interests to let Cuomo die a death? Democrats must look into the report. Or they are not to be trusted.

Because Democrats called for his resignation without reading the report, without examining the way it was written up, they assumed he was guilty. Democrats give New Yorkers the impression that they are happy and this serves their purpose. Serve up Cuomo and they can join with Republicans and be bi-partisan. Except, in their behavior, from the liars like Lindsey Boylan to the vengeful, like Joon Kim, to the #metoo hypocrites Kirsten Gillibrand and touchy feelie Chuck Schumer, Democrats have erred. Where are the Democrats who still support him like me and all in my sphere of acquaintance, friends and family, save my family members in Florida who think DeSantis and Trump are the macho men to be like.

Not standing with Cuomo damns Democrats more than he is damned by twisted allegations. It proves them to be lazy, shoddy, sanctimonious, negligent and self-serving. That Democrats did not come out and say that the report was a rush to judgment and that they had to look it over before supporting it, damns them. It also damns Letitia James. If this is an example of her investigatory overseeing (she also got the nursing home investigation wrong, or rather Ron Kim, once again, got it wrong) she is negligent and incompetent.

She does not have my vote for Governor if she runs. If I were a betting person, I would bet she does along with those Democrats like De Blasio and the socially distanced from Cuomo... Lieutenant Governor Hochul. The investigators Kim, Clark and James must be called into question. Their investigatory skills, acceptance of lies, missed dates, incomplete testimony, shoddy mishandling of information and vitiation of one side that corroborates the falsehoods of the women, cannot be allowed to stand. It blackens the Democrats who called for his resignation, divides New Yorkers and discredits the investigators for their hatchet job, bias, predetermined result and encouraged unjust character assassination of Cuomo in the media. 

The media, too, must be held to account and sued for defamation, like Dominion is suing Fox News for defamation. The media's irresponsible presentation of lies, misinformation, bias, discrimination and defamatory libel and slander must be reckoned with. They can't make the excuse that they just presented what the report said. They didn't even question any of it which is bias in the extreme and rises to libel, slander, calumny and defamation. Certainly, Cuomo's career has been grievously damaged by the slander, libel, calumny and defamation.

Two questions come to mind. Why was Cuomo  treated so abominably when he saved lives, leading New Yorkers through the worst pandemic in a century? See my previous articles on how Republicans actually spread it and killed many more seniors in nursing homes by allowing the infection rates in their states to remain high. Second question, who benefits from this character assassination besides Republicans? And I'll suggest one more question: did quid pro quos occur and did Bit Coin or dark money change hands? If I were a betting woman and I'm not, I bet yes. Follow the money.

                The ideals represented here are not to be trashed by political expediency by callow, hateful and wicked politicians. Yet they are for the sake of greed, power and personal weakness.