Handsy Andy: In continuing fallout from last week’s devastating sexual harassment report on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Roberta Kaplan, a nationally prominent lawyer who tried to help Cuomo discredit one of his accusers, resigned from Time’s Up, the organization founded by Hollywood women to fight sexual abuse and promote gender equality. 

  “Unfortunately, recent events have made it clear that even our apparent allies in the fight to advance women can turn out to be abusers,” Kaplan wrote in her resignation. “We have felt the raw, personal and profound pain of that betrayal.”

  During the inquiry Kaplan had represented Melissa DeRosa, the Cuomo aide who had drafted a letter discrediting adviser Lindsey Boylan. DeRosa resigned Sunday night.

  The Cuomo scandal is rippling outwards. The board of the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest gay rights group, is investigating its  president Alphonso David, a former Cuomo adviser, who had also helped to undermine the claims and reputation of Lindsey Boylan.

  With his staff thinning and no one speaking up for him, Cuomo appears to be digging in for a fight. Rita Glavin, a lawyer for Cuomo said on MSNBC that the accusations by some of the governor’s 11 accusers “don’t rise to the level of sexual harassment.”

Code Red: Global warming is dangerously close to spinning out of control, a United Nations climate panel said in a bombshell report, warning the world faces increasing climate disruptions for decades, if not centuries, to come.

  U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres described the report as a “code red for humanity”.

“The alarm bells are deafening,” he said in a statement. “This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet.”  

  Humans are “unequivocally” to blame, the report from the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said. The report says that immediate action to cut greenhouse gas emissions could limit some damage, but permanent changes to the environment may be locked in.

  The report says heat waves, monster hurricanes and other weather extremes already occurring will only become more severe.

Viral News: A Florida conservative radio host who criticized and dismissed the coronavirus vaccine has died of complications following Covid-19. 

Farrel Austin Levitt, known on the airwaves as Dick Farrel, died at 65 of “severe damage” caused by Covid his fiancée told The Washington Post. Farrel had said on his Facebook page that inoculations had been “promoted by people who lied all along about masks, where the virus came from and the death toll.”

  Taking up the campaign of ignorance, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, tweeted:

                “No mask mandates.

                 No vaccine mandates.

                 No vaccine passports.

                 No COVID mandates!”

   But as schools prepare to reopen, some school districts are gearing up to defy bans on mask mandates imposed by law or executive order. The Dallas public school district will require everyone on school property, including students, employees, and visitors, to wear masks. 

  In Florida, where the Delta variant is surging, hospitals are filling up again, and only half the state is vaccinated, Gov. Ron DeSantis is threatening to withhold salaries from local superintendents and school board members who enact mask mandates.

  Also on the Covid front, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says he’s going to ask President Biden for permission to require all members of the military to be vaccinated. Infections are rising in the ranks. Austin needs to get permission because he can’t require a vaccine not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The Spin Rack: Virginia Giuffre, who as a teenager was one of financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex posse, filed suit against Britain Prince Andrew in New York, claiming raped and sexually abused her when she was 17. Giuffre is now 38. The now 61-year-old prince says he doesn’t remember her. — The Biden administration says it will release some long-classified documents that the families of victims think could reveal connections between the government of Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 hijackers. — The Dixie fire, the second largest in California, has burned 873 homes and structures and grown to 482,047 acres and is only 22% contained. — European soccer star Lionel Messi is leaving Barcelona, the only team he has played for, to go to France. Considered one of the greatest players every, the 34-year-old made an emotional announcement that he could reach a new deal with his club, Barca.

Soap Suds: With everything going on in the world, the latest meaningless controversy is over the declaration by some celebrities that they don’t shower frequently.

  Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, as well as Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, said they don’t find it necessary to bathe their children every day. “Once you catch a whiff, that’s biology’s way of letting you know you need to clean it up,” Bell, said on “The View” last week.

  Kutcher told another interviewer, “If you can see the dirt on them, clean them. Otherwise, there’s no point.” 

  “Brokeback Mountain” star Jake Gyllenhaal said, “There’s a whole world of not bathing that is also really helpful for skin maintenance, and we naturally clean ourselves.”

  So, “Do you shower?” has quickly become a standard question in celebrity interviews. Aquaman star Jason Momoa assured Access Hollywood  that, “I’m not starting any trends. I shower, trust me.” 

  Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson tweeted,  “Shower (cold) when I roll outta bed to get my day rollin’. Shower (warm) after my workout before work. Shower (hot) after I get home from work.”

  He’s compensating for everyone else.

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