Sexual harassment is apparently a problem in California’s State Capitol, despite voluminous binders of sexual harassment rules and training guides. However, the ‘casting couch’ is used in many industries besides Hollywood, and especially in politics.

“Me Too” is Growing

More than 140 women working in and around the California State Capitol have written a letter claiming to have been sexually harassed inside the Capitol by lawmakers and staff. The list has now grown to 300.

“For four years in a row, the Democratic-controlled Legislature has quietly buried a bill—sponsored by a Republican assemblywoman—that would give legislative staff expanded whistleblower protections,” CalMatters reported. “Now legislative leaders have said they’re reviewing personnel procedures to see if they can be improved; the Senate is expected to announce in the coming days that it is appointing an independent investigator to look into complaints.”

The legislative history on that bill, AB 2065, authored by Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, and the legislative gymnastics exercised, should be a deal breaker as well as an embarrassment to the Democrat leadership. But it is not. They will do what they’ve always done, and cover up the worst of it.

I’ve discussed this numerous times with Assemblywoman Melendez who has always found it ironic that employees of the Legislature are not covered by the California Whistleblower Protection Act, because lawmakers don’t want them to be.

‘Crickets’ Coming From Feminists

Where is NARAL, NOW, and the many other feminist groups who claim to be champions of women’s rights? The letter makes clear that sitting Assemblywomen can’t report abuse, and have to join hundreds of other sexually harassed women in a letter. How corrupt does that make the State Capitol and its leadership? These are powerful women who won’t come out against, or name their abusers.

Democrats have dominated in California for four decades, and now have a supermajority in the State Capitol. This latest “revelation” will undoubtedly reveal large numbers of Democrats as offenders. Republican perverts and bragging philanderers tend to get drummed out of the biz as they say.

Women’s liberation has really brought us a long way, hasn’t it?

Hollyweird

More than 47 women have now said they were sexually harassed and/or assaulted by the big-time Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. That number is certain to grow.

Now, 200 women have come forward to expose movie director James Tobak, another corpulent swine, as a Harvey Weinstein type of abuser, using his casting couch to lure women. “Toback’s alleged behavior was whispered about enough in Hollywood that his name became a verb: “You got Tobacked.” Glamour reported.

Imagine how much better today’s movies would be if these prominent producers and directors actually used actors with talent, instead of basing their decisions on sexual favors.

Democrats ‘Hold their noses’ When Voting

Hollywood and California’s political Capitol is full of people devoid of morals, who are, through their daily actions, interactions and legislation, turning this state and country into a hedonistic hellhole.

Monday over at Sacramento’s Around the Capitol ‘Nooner’ report (really? that name?), proprietor Scott Lay writes this:

“My point is that an extension of the ‘men’s club’ is the protection of colleagues, which often supercedes the bad behavior of their colleagues for political/legislative advantage. (This happens in most industries, particularly academia.)

I’ve “held my nose” to vote for people who I liked on policy but not on personal characteristics. I voted for Paul Tsongas in the 1992 primary, but then Bill Clinton in the general. (I then became a Clinton fan boy, which was probably unethical. Although that seems trivial now.)

The casting couch was a permanent fixture in former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown’s office for decades. As I wrote in my new book, “California’s War Against Donald Trump,” California’s former Attorney General and now Democrat U.S. Senator Kamala Harris benefitted from that casting couch:

Harris first came into public view in 1994 when then-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, provided Harris, known as Brown’s “frequent companion,” a high-paying appointment to the California Medical Assistance Commission.[i]

“Harris, a former deputy district attorney in Alameda County, was described by several people at the Capitol as Brown’s girlfriend,” the Los Angeles Times reported.[ii] “In March, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen called her ‘the Speaker’s new steady.’” Harris accepted the appointment after serving only six months as Brown’s appointee to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, which paid $97,088 a year.[iii]

In his comments, Scott Lay highlights only former Democrat Assemblyman Kevin Shelley, who was notorious for “both physical abuse and sexual harassment against him. Many people witnessed an event where he threw a staffer against a wall,” Lay wrote. “However, people who knew the allegations well were quick to support in his election to Secretary of State. He finally resigned from that office two years in after accusations that he misused Help American Vote Act Funds, allegedly using them for politically purposes.”

Shelley was an interesting choice of example because Republicans who are sexual philanderers, abusers or just general scum, are forced out of office. Shelly also was eventually forced out of office, but only after being elected to higher office.

Republicans leave office or are forced out; Democrats are reelected and promoted.

All Campus Sex is Rape, According to the CA Legislature

Sen. Pres. Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles — also a candidate for U.S. Senate — announced Monday that the Senate will hire an independent firm to investigate allegations of sexual harassment, rather than handling such complaints internally. The spokesman for Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, said the Assembly had an ongoing policy of referring “serious cases to independent counsel.”

Ironically, while women were apparently being harassed inside of the Capitol, De Leon authored the 2014 “Yes Means Yes” bill SB 967, signed into law by Gov. Brown, which reclassifies consensual sex on college campuses as “rape.” The bill now allows California colleges and universities to bypass proper police procedures and deal internally with campus sexual violence. California is the first state in the U.S. to require public colleges and universities to adopt a “yes means yes” standard of affirmative sexual consent when dealing with sexual assault crimes on campus.

Yet, a better method to address the issue of rape would involve having the universities adhere to proper criminal police procedure. University disciplinary panels are not made up of trained judges, police officers, legal mediators or attorneys, and instead are made up of university employees. They have an interest in protecting the university, and not the rights of the accused, and victim.

What many in the state want to know is when will the women will name names. Some of the women have told horrific stories of revolting abuse and harassment. The abusers need to be named and dealt with legally. Immediately.

The same goes for the sacred LGBT Caucus, as years of stories of overly aggressive harassment of staffers and interns by some LGBT members and colleagues also need to be addressed. Harassment is harassment, regardless of sexual persuasion.

Harassment vs. Assault

There is a fine line between real assault and claiming every encounter, glance,  creepy lingering hand shake, comment or touch, which a woman decides she did not like, as sexual harassment. And girls in college who consume large quantities of alcohol and have regrettable sex, are being encouraged by ludicrous legislation like de Leon’s to call their sexual partners “rapists.”

This is a problem for many women, who find themselves in bars after work with colleagues, potentially sending signals that are misinterpreted. This is why it’s important to know thy audience. And “locker room talk” is not a crime, but excessively done can feed into a culture of harassment.

Now we have willing participants eager to cash in on “Me-Too” status in the California State Capitol, where this has gone on for decades – and everyone knew it.

And yet, the media and Democratic talking heads mocked and derided Mike Pence for saying he does not dine with women without his wife present.

The elephant in the room in all of these discussions, including the political set, is that women participated, and some eagerly. In many cases, even if they were creeped-out by the perpetrators, many accepted their lumps, and climbed the ladder with the men.

Women have a choice. Many of these women remained silent about the brutal humility they endured in exchange for fame, money, power, kismet, clout, prestige, and influence.