Being asked to join the control room inside The Ellen DeGeneres Show is a coveted spot in Hollywood, but according to dozens of men and women who work behind the scenes, the office is a place where sexual harassment and misconduct by top executive producers runs rampant.
One ex-employee said head writer and executive producer Kevin Leman asked him if he could give him a hand job or perform oral sex in a bathroom at a company party in 2013. Another said they separately saw Leman grab a production assistant’s penis.
In May 2017, another former employee also said she saw Leman grope a production assistant in a car and kiss his neck.
Nearly a dozen former employees, who range from longtime, senior-level employees to production assistants, said it was also common for Leman to make sexually explicit comments in the office, like pointing out male colleagues’ bulges in their crotches, or ask them questions like, “Are you a top or a bottom?”
“It’s masked in sarcasm, but it’s not sarcasm,” a former employee said.
Many of his targets, employees added, were lower-level and younger employees who felt they lacked any power to speak up.
President Donald Trump met Thursday with the family of Spc. Vanessa Guillen, who disappeared from Fort Hood in April and whose remains were found earlier this month.
“It’s an incredible story. It’s a terrible story,” Trump said to the family in the Oval Office. “So we’re going to look into it very powerfully. We already have started, as you know, and we’ll get to the bottom of it. Maybe things can come out that will help other people in a situation like Vanessa. We’ll be in touch with you constantly.”
A funeral has not been held because Guillen was dismembered and relatives are awaiting her remains, the family’s lawyer, Natalie Khawam, told Trump.
“If I can help you out with the funeral, I’ll help you out, financially, I’ll help you,” Trump said.
“I want justice for my Vanessa,” Guillen’s mother said through tears.
During the meeting, Khawam explained Guillen’s death to Trump and asked him to consider the circumstances surrounding it as the reason to pass the #IAmVanessaGuillen bill.
One of Guillen’s sisters said that the troops who are willing to serve and protect need protection, which is why they are asking for the bill.
Trump said the DOJ and the FBI are investigating the case.
“We are going to look into it very powerfully,” Trump said. “... We will get to the bottom of this.”
Guillen’s mother said her daughter is a part of history and she pleaded with Trump to join with the family and be a positive part of Guillen’s story.
During the meeting, Guillen’s family said they have not had a funeral, yet, because the military still has Guillen’s remains because the investigation is open.
Trump responded that he would help Guillen’s family with costs for the funeral should they need it, and he would intervene to help her family get the remains from the military in order for them to have a proper funeral in Houston.
A New Jersey resident, Gloria Estrela La Riva of Harrison, filed 1,589 signatures to run as the Socialism and Liberation candidate. She has designated Leonard Peltier as her running mate.
Also filing as independent presidential candidates: Rocky De La Fuente (Alliance Party); Don Blankenship (Constitution Party); Howie Hawkins (Green Party); Jo Jorgenson (Libertarian Party); and Bill Hammons (Unity Party).
GREENVILLE, S.C.; July 27, 2020— Dr. Jo Jorgensen, Libertarian for president, has released the following statement, warning of the danger of another massive COVID-19 bailout bill being negotiated in Congress:
I’d advise you to hold on to your wallet, but it won’t do you any good so long as Democrats and Republicans remain in power. To fund their bailout bills, the Federal Reserve is printing trillions of dollars out of thin air, which will tap your wallet, whether you hang on to it or not.
Democrats
want to spend another $3 trillion for so-called economic stimulus.
Donald Trump wants to spend another $2 trillion. Joe Biden wants to
spend $2 trillion just on green energy.
We may soon see another $2 trillion spending package signed into law.
That’s in addition to the $3 trillion that Democrats and Republicans spent on the C.A.R.E.S. Act and other stimulus bills just in the last four months.
And that’s on top of the $1 trillion deficit they created by spending far more than they took in for this year’s budget.
That comes to at least $6 trillion in new debt in less than a year. To put this in perspective, $6 trillion buys half of all the gold in the world, even at today’s high price per ounce.
Where do Democrats and Republicans get the money to pay for this?
They can’t borrow it, because the Federal Reserve has kept interest rates artificially low. At these low rates, they can’t find enough buyers of Treasury bills to fund the debt.
Instead, the Federal Reserve buys T-bills from the government by printing trillions of dollars out of thin air. Poof!
Why should counterfeiters bother to print fake bills that might be worth a few thousand dollars when they can work for the Federal Reserve?
But won’t someone have to pay for all this, you may ask? Yes — you!
Politicians will take your wealth in the form of inflation. Prices will rise, making your dollars worth less.
How much will they bleed from your wallet when this bill comes due? Six trillion dollars in new debt amounts to an average of $36,689 in new debt for every working American (including those who are seeking work).
That is to say, politicians’ reckless new spending this year alone will likely cost you, on average, $36,689 in inflation, along with other forms of loss, which include future tax increases, lower wages, cuts in government benefits, or a combination thereof.
What will you get for your $36,689 loss? That depends on who you are.
If you’re a “too big to fail” corporation, K Street lobbyists have your back. You’ll probably see billions.
If you’re fortunate enough to own stock in those giant corporations, you’re seeing a stock market rise, thanks to the Fed. If you’re in the richest ten percent, which own 81 percent of stocks, you just saw your net worth increase an average of $220,000 since the stock market bottomed out in March.
If
you’re a small business, you may get a loan. But for many, it won’t be
enough. The Partnership for New York City estimates that one-third of
all the employers in that city will be closing their doors because of
the pandemic shutdown. It’s not much better elsewhere.
And if you’re an average American worker, for your $36,689 loss, you might get back another $1,200 stimulus check and a few more weeks of unemployment benefits.
Sound like a good deal to you?
Under a Jorgensen administration, none of this would have happened.
Instead of quashing coronavirus testing early on, I would have enabled rapid, widespread testing by lifting all related FDA restrictions. With knowledge of who has the virus, those who were infection-free would have likely returned to work months ago.
The economy would be in far better shape; many jobs and businesses would be saved; and there would be no justification for massive government bailouts.
How do we get out of the mess that the Democrats and Republicans have created?
First,
deregulate. We can take pressure off struggling businesses by relieving
them of burdensome government regulations that waste their time and
deplete their profits.
As
president, I will go way beyond the deregulation we’ve seen under
President Trump, which still leaves many businesses bogged down in miles
of red tape. In many cases, it’s easier to put up a shingle in
communist China than in the United States. That will end under my
administration.
By making it easy to do business in our country, we can compete successfully in a worldwide marketplace. More jobs will result.
Second, cut taxes.
I will work to end the federal income tax, and with it, the IRS. If you’re an average American family, you’ll get back over $12,000 that you now pay in federal income taxes every year. When you’re allowed to keep the money you earn, your spending and savings will stimulate economic growth well beyond anything Congress can do.
Last, stop government overspending.
We must dramatically cut federal spending and resist all temptations for phony stimulus bills that cost most people much more than they will ever get back.
As president, I will cut total spending dramatically. I’ll bring our troops home and cut unneeded spending in the military budget, as well as every other area of the federal government.
Appropriations bills that fail to substantially reduce government spending, or that add a dime to the national debt, will be met with my veto pen.
And I will demand a full audit of the Federal Reserve, so every taxpayer can see the damage it’s doing to your dollars.
By forcing politicians to be financially responsible, we’ll put buying power back in your wallet — where it belongs.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Keivn Zeese, Press Secretary
KZeese@HowieHawkins.US
303-996-6582
Hawkins Says HEAL Act will “spread the pandemic and deepen the economic collapse”
Urges Both Parties to Rewrite Bills So They Are Adequate for the Crises
The Green Party candidates for president and vice president, Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker have published Red Lines for COVID and Economic Recovery, which describes the Republican and Demoratic proposals as a danger to public health and the economy.
“The bill proposed by the Republicans will turn schools and workplaces into superspreaders in their communities. It fails to include the essential steps of rapid testing, hundreds of thousands of tracers, and fully-funded COVID treatment, which are needed to safely re-open the economy,” said Howie Hawkins. “The Democrats have put forward an inadequate bill and failed to alert Republicans to red lines that are essential in a successful bill. The two parties’ proposals will spread the pandemic and deepen the economic collapse.”
The campaign has published Red Lines For COVID and Economic Recovery. The Hawkins/Walker Red Lines will (1) Ensure the November Election, (2) Not Make Schools Super Spreaders for More Illness, (3) Protect Workers and Employers, (4) Stop the Pandemic, and (5) Stop Job Loss and Business Destruction.
“Failure to properly act now will mean more than 250,000 people in the US will be dead by Election Day and the economy will have sunk from a deep recession into a long-term depression. We will see mass evictions and foreclosures on levels never seen before along with record unemployment and rising poverty,” sad Hawkins. “By the time of the election, the fact that the two governing parties are presiding over failed state will be evident to all.”
# # #
Two Iraqi commanders were killed in attacks claimed by the Islamic State in Sunni tribal-dominated areas in the second half of July.
The first was just north of Baghdad in Tarmiya, where a sniper shot a popular general on July 17. The second came on July 29 near the western Anbar town of Hit, where the commander of the 29th Brigade of the Army’s 7th Division was killed.
The 7th Division seemed generally well liked among the local population in Anbar when this journalist accompanied it on operations to liberate western Anbar in late 2017. Many of its officers have received training from the international coalition.
On July 25, when a mukhtar from a village near Samarra in Salahhuddin province and members of his family were killed, parliamentarian Muthanna al-Samarraie, whose family also hails from Samarra, called for arming local tribes to deal with security threats themselves.
IS has long focused much of its efforts on attacking Sunni provinces and fostering insurgency in them.
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