Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Murray has been accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old who was interning the summer after high school at the law firm where Murray worked after graduating from law school, the Casper Star Tribune reports.

The allegations where revealed by Tatiana Maxwell in a #MeToo Facebook post.
“As this issue of sexual harassment and assault has grown, my daughters have asked about my experience. As I described it, they asked what I did about it and the answer is, nothing,” Maxwell explained, of her motivations. “I did not know what to do and I don’t believe there was really any option available that would have properly addressed the problem. But it is a different time and they have encouraged me to speak up.”

The #MeToo post explains the incident allegedly occured the summer after Maxwell graduated from high school, when she was an 18-year-old intern at the law firm of Dray, Madison and Thompson in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

“What did happen is that Ed wrestled me down to the carpet in front of the receptionist desk, opened his pants, lifted up my blouse and ejaculated on my stomach,” Maxwell charged. “I was disgusted and horrified. One of the unforgettable memories was of him handing me the box of Kleenex from the receptionist’s desk to clean myself up after after he was finished.”

Recent events have brought to mind some terrifying days I experienced growing up in the Bronx. As a 6th grader, I was painfully shy with a pronounced stammer.

One day, two uniformed policemen came into the classroom, looked around, and pointed to me while declaring, “We want that boy.”

While I am not always in agreement with Senator Al Franken, I firmly believe in due process which is a cornerstone of our democratic way of living. Whenever in history we abandoned it, we severely damaged ourselves. Just think about the lynching of Blacks in the South, the internment of people of Japanese descent in World War II, or the era of McCarthyism when lives were destroyed based solely on allegations.

The simple fact is that Al Franken has been the Senate’s most effective challenge to Trump and his subordinates. The possibility of any rigging by Roger Stone and his associates should cause all of us to call for a rescinding of the Franken resignation and a prompt and thorough review of all allegations by the Senate Ethics Committee.

A new book by fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and top aide David Bossie gives an inside look into the chaotic workings of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, according to the Washington Post, which got an advance copy. Although the authors of Let Trump Be Trump seem to take pains to paint a “largely admiring portrait” of Trump, they still reveal details that illustrate how “a cast of mostly neophyte political aides learn on the fly and ultimately accept Trump’s propensity to go angrily off message.”

Some of the key revelations include:

—Trump loves his fast food: “On Trump Force One there were four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza and Diet Coke,” the authors write. Trump loves his McDonald’s and has a killer of a standing dinner order— “two Big Macs, two Fillet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted.” And it’s clear the president takes his meals seriously. Campaign staffers spent lots of time making sure hot fast food would arrive on his plane after rallies.

—Trump loves to snack (but hates germs): It isn’t just fast food. It seems Trump loves all kinds of snacks and the campaign plane’s cupboards were filled with “Vienna Fingers, potato chips, pretzels, and many packages of Oreos.” Trump’s well-known germophobia means he won’t eat from a cookie packet that has already been opened.

Trump has a horrible temper (and tends to lash out): It seems everyone who works for Trump will experience his wrath at some point. Although it isn’t meant to be personal it’s difficult not to take it that way. “The mode that he switches into when things aren’t going his way can feel like an all-out assault; it’d break most hardened men and women into little pieces,” the authors write.

To get an idea of what a flu season in the U.S. will look like, scientists like Schaffner observe what happens in Australia, which experiences winter and the flu while Americans are having summer. In the summer of 2017, the flu was diagnosed in more Australians than the previous season — 168,337 versus 91,000 — with H3N2 predominant.

How effective is the 2017 flu vaccine?

Unfortunately, the flu vaccine in Australia, which is the same one available this fall and winter in the United States, was only 10 percent effective in preventing illness from H3N2.

“Typically in years when the predominant strain is H3N2, there are more hospitalizations, more severe disease and people tend to get sicker,” said Dr. Michael Ison, a professor of infectious disease and organ transplantation at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Also, the vaccine protects against other flu strains.
“The protection against the others is much higher — 50 to 70 percent,” Schaffner said.

One of the key functions of the Democratic Party is supposed to be to protect its constituents and the nation from attacks by the Republican Party. They are supposed to have an exhaustive list of narratives strong enough to counter the most complex of political accusations, in addition to this predictable, rookie-level attempt to lump Al Franken into the same category as Roy Moore. They are supposed to have the media and legal prowess attuned enough to protect both the leaders and the members of the Democratic party from these predictable but incredibly dangerous attacks. The Democratic Party is supposed to ensure that a pussy grabber and a party of pedophiles don’t get to control how we talk about sexual violence let alone what we do about it.

And they have failed to execute their duties. In fact, they’re carrying out the agenda of the Republican Party for them.

The Democrats and members of the left have called for the removal of Senator Franken and an investigation into Tweeden’s right wing backed accusations. They have failed to protect true victims of sexual assault from Republican exploitation. They refused to counter the narrative that Al Franken’s completely legally, nonviolent and consensual interactions with Leeanne Tweeden should be equated with sexual harassment, assault and pedophilia. And they have all but totally succumb to calls for the investigation and removal of Al Franken.
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There is no shortage of Tweedens standing in line to gain 5 minutes of fame and a right-wing paycheck to be used as a grenade to blow up the next Democratic target. And there is no shortage of targets. If the Democratic party continues to let the Republican Party beat them with the most obvious and low hanging strategies, what hope do we have that they can counter any of the more complex attacks on this nation and the people in it? If the Democratic Party keeps allowing the Republican Party to blur the lines between sexual violence and sexualized behavior, they are putting more women and children in the hands of unthinkably powerful predators — and they are paving the path for the destruction of the entire Democratic Party at their violent and perverse hands.