Party Abandons Franken, Jerusalem After 70 Years

Joke’s Over: After another woman accused him of sexual misconduct, Sen. Al Franken’s support in his own party crashed and burned with 30 Democratic senators calling for his resignation, spearheaded by seven female senators

Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, NY, Patty Murray, Wash., Claire McCaskill, Mo., Mazie Hirono, Hawaii, Kamala Harris, Calif., and Maggie Hassan, NH, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin all called on Franken to fold his cards. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told him it’s time to go.

“I believe it would be better for our country if he sent a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn’t acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve,” Gillibrand said.

The latest accuser said that back in 2006 Franken tried to kiss her saying, “It’s my right as an entertainer.” He was still a comedian at the time. Franken issued a statement saying that was “preposterous,” but he also said he’s going to make an announcement today.

Messing with the Middle: Breaking with 70 years of foreign policy, President Trump yesterday said the US formally recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. That makes the US the only country to do so, ditching  a policy of neutrality to keep the peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, both of whom claim Jerusalem as their historical capital.

Trump said at the White House, “This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.”

The president described it as “a long overdue step to advance the peace process,” but how he would accomplish that in a move that angers the Arab world, he didn’t say.

He explained it as delivering on a campaign promise that was intended to attract fundamentalist Christian and Jewish votes he said, “While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.”

He’s still hedging. He didn’t mention that he signed a waiver, also signed by previous presidents, delaying the decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem for another six months.

It’s About Time: Well, Time Magazine didn’t name Donald Trump “Person of the Year” after all. The magazine honored all the women who have come forward to speak about sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, calling them, “The Silence Breakers.”

The magazine says, “Women have had it with bosses and co-workers who not only cross boundaries but don’t even seem to know that boundaries exist. They’ve had it with the fear of retaliation, of being blackballed, of being fired from a job they can’t afford to lose. They’ve had it with the code of going along to get along.”

President Trump, who recently claimed the magazine was considering him once again, is an accused serial groper himself. It’s clear from the article that all the while, Time was working on a story about the women who’ve spoken up.

They mention the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape on which Trump speak crudely about women. “That Donald Trump could express himself that way and still be elected President is part of what stoked the rage that fueled the Women’s March the day after his Inauguration.”

Wildfire: Los Angeles commuters yesterday drove past flaming hills on the 405 Freeway near the Getty Center museum and not far from the UCLA campus. To the northeast, fire has burned close to 100,000 acres.

A smaller fire struck in tony Bel-Air, home to some of the richest and most famous people in Los Angeles. It’s small by wildfire standards, but in November 1961, the heavily developed area last 485 homes in one of Southern California’s biggest disasters.

The Russia Thing: Legislators in the meeting with Donald Trump Jr. say he repeatedly answered questions with “I don’t remember,” while at other times displaying perfect memory.

Also, former national security adviser Michael Flynn told a Russian associate the US economic sanctions on Russia would be “ripped up” if Donald Trump were to be elected. The report attributed to an anonymous whistle blower indicates Flynn stood to make money on a big business deal with the Russians if the sanctions were lifted.

The whistle blower told a congressional committee that on inauguration day that Flynn messaged a Russian associate that a nuclear power project in the Middle East was “good to go.”

Gotta Have Art: A Saudi Prince is reported to be the man who paid a record $450 million for the Leonardo da Vinci painting, “Salvator Mundi.” It may hang in the new extension of Paris’s Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi.

The Obit Page: Christine Keeler, the siren of Britain’s notorious sex and espionage scandal of the 1960s known as “The Profumo Affair,” has died in a British hospital at age 75.

The stunningly beautiful Keeler with pouty lips was simultaneously dating British war secretary John Profumo and a Soviet military attaché in a Cold War tabloid meltdown that brought down the Conservative government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

Keeler said she was a model, but she was often described as a call girl. A photo of her sitting naked in a chair had Britain’s tabloid papers flying off newsstands.

The Washington Post says the two met while Keeler was swimming in the pool at the home of Lord Astor. “He was 46, married and wearing a dinner jacket; she was 19, free-spirited and wearing a smile.”

The Society Page: Both the disgraced “Today” host Matt Lauer and his wife Annette Roque have been seen around their Long Island town without wedding rings. Roque’s Dutch father Henri told the Daily Mail, “She is not going to stay with him and work it out. He said, “I have no words for her husband.”

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It's Been Said

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