#all their employees are under NDA contracts so they can’t talk about what’s actually going on in V Tower

[randomly--accessed--memories]

Wonder if Val and Velvette would rebrand VoxTek to just VTek. It feels like a betrayal, but keeping Vox’s name on it makes people ask where he is. It’s just easier to lead the public to believe that he died during his encounter with Alastor rather than have to actually answer that question.

[wutbju]

The Times They Showed Their Quality: My own experience with Liberty University’s treatment of faculty BRIAN MELTON·MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2019 Clarification: This note was written in direct response to comments from Liberty’s provost in a recent Christianity Today article claiming that the relationship between the LU administration and its faculty staff is “healthy”, and that the faculty is “completely comfortable with what [the administration] is doing,” and it should be read in that context. I offer this as a simple statement of my experience to serve as a corrective in honor of the many people whom I know wish they could speak out but can’t. Thanks in advance for taking this as nothing more or less than it claims to be. --Brian Anyone who is paying attention to criticisms of Liberty University these days is well familiar with the charge of “Fake News.” It is a common and mindless refrain, parroted back in obedience to The Donald’s talking points and it somehow resonates with otherwise intelligent people. It is also an easy charge to levy, as most of the time when people not connected to LU hear about nefarious happenings and underhanded actions, it is as “something that happened to this guy I heard about” or the like thanks to LU’s use of non-disclosure agreements. I never signed an NDA. So, I thought I might skip the rumor mill and share my own direct, first-hand experience with the administration’s behavior. What I can attest to is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg and not as bad as what has happened to others, but it marked the transition when, after fifteen years, I finally came to the definite conclusion that the upper administration at LU wasn’t simply self-serving or even inept, but fundamentally duplicitous. Worse, it demonstrated to me that they acted this way intentionally and with malice aforethought.

In 2014 my family and I moved back to the Lynchburg area, where I occupied a position as an Instructional Mentor, acting as a bridge between the College of General Studies and the College of Arts and Sciences. Previously, I had worked for LU full time residentially for over ten years. I served as a professor, chair of the curriculum committee, and moderator of the faculty senate during that time. I liked and respected (I still do) the people in those schools I worked with directly, and at the time we intended to spend the rest of our lives there. I figured whatever else happened, we would muddle through it and I would retire from LU when the time came. My point is that though I of course had my frustrations with the administration on some issues, but there was no ill will and I hoped to keep working for them for years to come.

One peculiarity of my position at the time was that it was “part-time full time.” Technically, I was a part time worker and I received none of the benefits that other faculty did, while at the same time I was counted as a “full time” faculty with a terminal degree for SACS purposes via a “limited benefit” contract (the sole “benefit” was that after filling out paperwork I could receive up to $400 a year to join professional associations).  I knew there would be none of the standard health or life insurance, tuition assistance, etc. going into the position and was fine with it, as we were allowed to take extra classes and make a comfortable sum that allowed me to pay for all the extras out of pocket. I recall speaking with my associate dean as late as 2015 and telling him that I would be happy doing this job until I retired.

Of course, the lack of medical coverage in particular was a complaint that many had, but I did not see it as a significant obstacle. Yes, it was on the unfair side to be a second-class faculty member who did not get the coverage others did, even though I did as much work, and getting on the school insurance would be a significant boon to our family. Still, I worked from home, was paid well, and just accepted it as a known downside of the specific job I had agreed to do. There had been constant rumors that the administration appreciated us and was taking steps to give us coverage, but nothing ever came of it. Until the Fall of 2016, that is.

That fall I received an email on a Friday afternoon (when few people would be expected to look at it, of course) informing me that I had worked enough to qualify for medical coverage under the university. I had one week to respond. If I didn’t I would immediately and permanently forfeit any claim to coverage now or in the future. As you can imagine, I didn’t wait! I responded immediately that I was grateful for the opportunity and to put me down for it. I also contacted both of my bosses, who were happy to hear that I had received coverage. Both promised to do everything they could do to make sure I kept it by giving me the required amount of work.The next week I called Human Resources to find out more. I spoke with the benefits coordinator, and told him how much I appreciated the gesture. He replied that he was glad to hear it and that LU was always happy to help its people. As he explained the details of the coverage, he was careful to sneak in a comment that if I ever happened to fall below the required line, I would lose my coverage. “Well,” I thought, “that’s fair.” And so I asked what I thought would be the obvious question: “Where is the line? How much do I have to work in order to rate coverage?” His reply was shady, and you could tell by the uncomfortable tone of his voice that he knew it too. “That’s proprietary information,” he said, “I can’t release it.”  “You can’t tell me at all?” I asked. “No” was the answer. My bosses, good people that they are, also both followed up with HR and they were both given the same answer.

From that moment, I knew that this was, in reality, nothing but an intentional set up. The reason they would tell no one where the line lay was because it was mobile--no one would ever cross it again. No matter how much we worked, it would always be “unfortunately” short of the goal. In fact, Liberty had obfuscated on Obamacare as long as they could, and now they were being forced to offer coverage to all full time workers. Rather than be frank about it, they were playing the situation off like this was a friendly and helpful boon to their employees, all the while laying plans to revoke the coverage at the first opportunity and blame it on said employees. It was as dishonest as it was obvious.

Sure enough, within a month, we began to get notifications of sudden “policy changes” that cut the financial rug out from under whole classes of faithful employees. My own turn at this came in December. In a move worthy of the counting house of Ebenezer Scrooge, four days before Christmas, I received an email informing me that I was to be locked out of any and all overload teaching effective January 1. For me, that amounted to an immediate pay cut of approximately a third of my yearly LU income. I was given approximately two weeks--including Christmas Eve and Day--to make adjustments. Never was an apology expressed, regrets offered, or even an acknowledgment made by anyone beyond my immediate superiors (who had no say in the matter) for the obvious effect this had on people’s lives or for the manner in which it was rolled out.  Over the next quarter, chaos ensued as the administration waffled back and forth about what to do next and my hapless bosses could only report what the whim of the day happened to be. One day I was looking at a 50% pay cut. A week later, the rumor was that my position was being eliminated. A week after that, it was 20%. Then 30%. etc. etc. etc.The following Fall, things finally settled out--as much as they do at Liberty, where things are constantly in flux as the latest disposable “rock star” tries to leave his mark. I ended up losing about 25% of my previous income potential and we were limited to a theoretical 30 hours per week of work. I emphasize “theoretical” because in fact no effort was made to track anything outside of teaching hours, which represented the hours for which we were actually paid. At the same time, Liberty’s “Co-Provost” announced sweeping changes to our positions requiring substantially more administrative work. Since administrative hours were never counted or totaled nor paid individually, in fact our workload as a whole went up substantially while our overall pay potential dropped significantly. Perhaps worse, we were now charged with tracing faculty compliance via a tool called the “FAR” which tracked and logged every single time a faculty member was late doing anything. While that information had been available to chairs and deans for years, now it was forced down to even the adjunct level and I, as an Instructional Mentor, was required to contact the faculty under me and ask for an explanation any and every time I saw a “red flag.” Miss posting your Monday announcement by five minutes this week? I have to demand a justification that I would log with the university on your record. Are you a little late in grading the papers the university suddenly required you to return to the students two days earlier than before? I’ll be checking up on you for an excuse why you shouldn’t be fired. And with the “Co-Provost” (What the heck is that, anyway? The real provost pretending to not be? The actual provost’s personal assistant?) constantly haranguing us with threats that there were “hundreds of people lined up for your job”, threats so thinly veiled that they insulted your intelligence as much as they frightened you, there was plenty of angst to go around.And so I found myself in an interesting position: I was working full time hours at a part time job that had at least full time expectations, being told that I could get in trouble if I didn’t accomplish my full time work in my part time hours. I operated on a one year contract with no job security under implied threats of “non-renewal” delivered via smarmy video messages that tracked how much of each you watched. I was part of an increasingly Orwellian surveillance system that meant I was party to inflicting all of this onto others. (Let us not forget academic standards that had fallen dramatically over recent years and about which I could perhaps write another whole article.) And I was supposed to be happy about it--sacrificing my time and my family for the university, but not being able to expect a scrap of loyalty or genuine appreciation out of anyone above the deans’ level in return. The only safe words that could be used to express serious dissent were, “Thank you sir! May I have another?” All of this was happening in the name of Christ, and every complaint was expected to be excused for the sake of the mission, a mission that it was increasingly clear the school’s own president regarded as secondary to making money and winning football games (since confirmed directly in a recent tweet). It should come as no surprise, then, that in the summer of 2017, when I was approached about an opportunity to teach in Europe, I decided to leave. And the medical coverage? In September of 2017 I received the equivalent of a medical “Dear John” letter, regretfully informing me that since I simply hadn’t worked hard enough in the past year, the university had no choice but to end my medical coverage. At the time, my wife and I were actively being treated with expensive anti-biotics for Lyme Disease and a malarial-type infection she had picked up on a mission trip. My new chair in LUO (my previous one had quit in disgust) went on the line for me to try to reverse the decision, but was told to sit down and be quiet--the administration didn’t care and he was risking his own position by speaking up.  In the final tally, I most likely could have made ends meet on the new salary they were offering, but money wasn’t the central problem. Neither was the still-absent medical coverage; we had lived without it before and could again. The most important issue for me was character. I had to be able to rely on Liberty University to treat me and others fairly and honestly if I were to bank my family’s welfare on working for them. My own personal narrative aside, I knew of many other people treated worse than I was--a whole list of persons I liked and respected. If the last few years had taught me anything, it was that while there are still many excellent people to be found there, Liberty University as a whole was as shifty, dishonorable, unprincipled, and hypocritical a work environment as could be offered. I could not trust my family to them, and I increasingly found it hard to have my reputation associated with an organization that had proved itself so often without honor. (Yes, I’m old fashioned that way.)  It was a hard decision. We love our friends in the Lynchburg area very much and we love the Virginia mountains. We love our church, and, as I said, we planned to grow old and die there. We miss them all badly, even as we travel and experience Europe. Unfortunately, Liberty’s behavior and lack of honor made it virtually impossible to stay--for us at least.

Moving into 2018, I learned that more cuts were likely. (Despite what Provost Hicks asserts, it is a relatively recent thing for faculty to be completely surprised by their non-renewal. At one point there was a written agreement that faculty would be notified by January if it were a possibility, and even later people were unofficially informed.) I approached my bosses and let them know I would be leaving at the end of the year in the hopes that if they knew it, someone else’s job might be secure (I was told that it did save a position). In true LU style, I later received official notification in a boiler plate email that they had regretfully decided not to renew the contract I had already informed them I wasn’t seeking. I arrived at LU in the Fall of 2003 to find an earnest, if humanly fallible university making its very best effort to transform itself into the Notre Dame of Evangelicalism. I left a financially successful behemoth where real ministry and Christian charity is carried out by earnest believers in spite of the effort and example of its upper administration to the contrary. Increasingly, LU is becoming more the Harvard of Evangelicalism than the Notre Dame (academic standards definitely not withstanding). It is a university where the original mission has been sacrificed in favor of a political agenda and a secular system of situational morality, Liberty falling to the right wing in counterpoint to Harvard’s left. Though the campus may be bigger and more beautiful than ever before, sadly, thanks to the trajectory of its current administration, its reflection of Christ is not. 

[davidcarner]

The Kiss Ch 14, The Talk, Part II

A/N: In a shocking upset that I didn't see coming this was voted the fic to post on the Chuck fanfiction Facebook site. Do you want to tell Ellie? I don't want to tell Ellie. Someone has to tell Ellie. I give you The Kiss Ch 14, The Talk, Part II

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck, and we fanfic writers had kinda made Ellie a force to be reckoned with….I'm good with that.

Chuck was about to bite the nail off of his finger. Ellie was signing documents, along with Devon. Chuck had forgotten how many NDAs had to be signed each time someone became a part of this mission….well, he was the only one so far that he had watched do paperwork and he was a little numb at that point about becoming the Intersect.

"This is so exciting," Ellie said finishing her stack and grinning at them. "You must have a lot of government contracts to need this much paperwork."

"You'd be surprised," Sarah said. Chuck let out a nervous laugh and she gave him a look to hush him. Maybe Chuck was right. Maybe she wasn't ready for this like she thought she was. "So let's go show you some things." She led them to the back room, put her hand on the scanner, and it opened to Castle. They went in, Casey lagging behind.

"Awesome," Devon muttered.

"That's one," she heard Chuck say under his breath. She elbowed him in the gut. He hadn't forgotten that last night she said Awesome would say awesome about forty-five times. Chuck cleared his throat. "So, Ellie we have this computer program that has been created by the government and put in someone's head. It must have frequent updates but we're not sure of the material in it, or if it's even safe. We have reason to believe different agencies might try to sabotage this project to get sole access to it." Chuck hit the clicker and the Intersect schematics popped up on the screen.

Ellie studied them, her eyes wide. "Chuck, this is so wild. This is like something out of your and dad's sci-fi movies."

"Awesome," Devon muttered. Chuck held up two fingers and Sarah, trying to look mad, but grinning, grabbed those two fingers.

"You need to stop," she said softly. She turned to Ellie. "We think you can help us figure out the neurological part of the Intersect. Chuck is probably best suited for the software part."

"I mean this would take a lot of work," Ellie said pouring through the schematics. "I just wouldn't have the time."

Chuck grabbed two folders slid one to her and one to Devon. "Sis, we'd like you to come work with us. Please, just take a look." She opened the file, glanced at it, and her eyes widened. "You'd be working with us, it would be family." Ellie closed the folder and looked at Chuck. Chuck gulped.

"What aren't you telling me?" She glanced at the schematics. "Who made this, and whose head is it in?"

"Chuck me," Casey muttered and fled.

Ellie pinched the bridge of her nose. She hadn't yelled yet, but that hadn't stopped Chuck from hiding behind Sarah. Several times she told him to get out from behind her, but he reminded her he was under her protection.

"You don't know who created this program?" Ellie asked again muttering.

"Not awesome," Devon agreed. Sarah felt Chuck's fingers in her back trying to count and she had to fight off the simultaneous grin and grimace. Her head shook a little and Chuck's fingers quickly pulled away. "Do you know where he is? How to find out?" Sarah stared at Devon, if they could find the creator, they could get it out of Chuck's head. Make sure the Intersect was safe and not hurting him. That needed to be the lead mission. Find the creator of Intersect.

"No, but it is going to become our main priority." She turned to Ellie. "Ellie, we need you, this project needs you."

"This program could do damage to someone's head, are you going to let me fix it? Do I get full control over the Intersect?"

Sarah sighed. She started to speak when she heard the words behind her.

"I'm the Intersect, Ellie." Ellie's eyes got wide, as she walked toward him. Sarah stepped in front of her. "Sarah, she's not gonna hurt me."

Sarah nodded. "Sorry," she murmured.

Ellie stared at Sarah. A slight grin played on Ellie's lips. "So you protect him."

"Always," she replied, her voice low but confident.

"Because…it's your job?"

"If you mean my job as his fiance, then yes. If you mean my actual job, yes to that to, but I'd quit my job with the government tomorrow if he'd ask me." Chuck was stunned at that. "I have a lot to explain, I get it. But I love your brother and no one gets to hurt him."

"Good," Ellie replied, her eyes dancing. She turned to Chuck. "Why?"

"It kinda wasn't my fault." Ellie tilted her head to the side and crossed her arms.

Sarah winced and decided to save him. "Bryce Larkin sent it to him. He's a spy in the CIA."

Ellie's eyes got wide, again and turned to Sarah. "Bryce Larkin was a spy?"

"Is," Chuck said softly. Ellie turned toward him. He cleared his throat. "Bryce Larkin is a spy, and he's currently running around the world making the bad guys think he has the Intersect in his head." He watched Ellie's reaction. "Listen, he's a jerk, but, he didn't trust the government with the Intersect, so he sent it to me."

"So it's in your head?" Ellie asked for clarification. Chuck nodded. Ellie grabbed the paperwork and began to sign. Chuck saw Awesome give him a thumbs up and mouth, "awesome!" Chuck turned to Sarah who gave him a glare and grin all at the same time. Ellie finished signing, and smacked down the pen. "Now," she said, pointing at the two of them. "What exactly is going on, and don't tell me it's complicated."

Sarah took a deep breath. "It all started when I was supposed to approach Chuck at the Buy More after Bryce had sent him the program." She stopped and looked at him, a warm smile on her face. "As I was hitting on him, trying to get him to ask me out, a dad came up and had screwed up his daughter's dance recital. He looked at the dad and little girl, and then he looked at me, and mouthed, 'sorry.' He went and had his crew setup a stage, so this girl could dance. He told her real ballerinas were tall, and I was in freaking love and didn't know what to do about." Ellie smiled at them as Sarah continued their story.

"Ellie," Chuck began, looking around at how he was strapped into a machine.

"Hush, Chuck. I need some scans and you need to be quiet or we have to do it again, and if I have to do it again I'll tape your mouth shut." Ellie waved for Sarah to follow her and the two left the room.

"Tape his mouth shut?"

Ellie shook her head grinning. "No, but I needed him to be quiet. I need to ask you something and it may upset you."

"Anything," Sarah replied.

"Are you really that good of a spy?" Sarah's mouth dropped. "I mean I've known you've been in love with my brother for a while now." There was a grin on Ellie's face. "Sarah," her voice was softer, and she took Sarah's hand. "You promise you'll keep him safe." Sarah nodded. "Good, because if you don't you'll have me to answer to."

"You know I'm trained in all…" the look on Ellie's face stopped her cold. "You know what. You're his defacto mom and sister, and I'm not trained in that, so point and threat taken, not necessary, but taken."

"Which makes you soon to be my sister." Sarah grinned. "Sarah, do you want it out of his head?"

"Only if it's unsafe and you can't fix it. We've effectively taken him out of the field, but he does manage to do things now and again."

"What if we gave him some physical move sets?"

Sarah grinned. "I like the way you think."

"So, I'm an emergency doctor for CIA or NSA agents, but I am basically here for you guys?" Devon and Casey had slipped away from everyone. Casey and Devon had a weird kinship. They were both part of the family, but they knew sometimes, Chuck and Ellie just had to work things out by themselves.

"And other medical tests or any tests you can run. You'd be surprised how often we could use your knowledge."

"John, thank you for keeping him safe." Casey studied the doctor. "I know you probably have a military background and Chuck, while I love him to death, must try your patience with how he acts sometimes."

Casey was silent for a second. "I've seen a lot of brave men, but Chuck Bartowski takes the cake. He's had all of this thrown on him and he's done the best he can with it. He drives me crazy but I'm proud to be on his team."

"What about the other two employees?"

Casey grunted. "They were codenamed Gretta, but Chuck decided to give them names so he quit confusing himself saying Gretta all the time." Casey shrugged. "All he did was treat them like human beings and they've basically sworn their loyalty to him."

"Chuck does that," Devon agreed nodding. "He's unlike anyone I've ever met." Casey could only nod in agreement.

"It's made too much like a computer program," Ellie said to the group. "I can tweak it, but we need to find the designer of the program. We need whoever created it, because we need to get it out. It's going to eventually drive him crazy." Sarah glanced over at Chuck, concern covering her face. "Sarah, he's okay, we've got time, but we need to figure this out."

"Well, if we don't at least dad won't be the only crazy person in this family." Ellie stared at Chuck. "I know, bad joke." Ellie looked at the schematics again. "Ellie?"

"Nothing, just thinking. Sarah do you think you can begin looking into the creator of the Intersect?"

"As of right now, it's our main mission."

That night found Ellie digging in the top of her closet for a box. She pulled it out, dug around and found the old notebook she was looking for. She studied the drawing, read the notes, and then closed the notebook. She chewed on her thumbnail for a moment, before she grabbed the notebook and took off across the courtyard. She looked at the door in front of her, took a deep breath and knocked. Sarah opened the door.

"Ellie, come on in, Chuck's in the shower."

"Actually I want to talk to you, can we sit at the fountain?"

"Sure," Sarah chirped, shut the door and followed Ellie. Ellie didn't say anything, but thrust the notebook into Sarah's hands. Sarah opened it, flipped through it, looking at parts, and then saw notes on subliminal imagery. Sarah looked at Ellie. "This was the class at Stanford." Ellie nodded. "These drawings…"

Ellie cleared her throat. "They're part of the schematics that I found in the Intersect. I think my dad may have worked on the Intersect, Sarah. I think my dad might have made the Intersect."

Sarah looked over at the door to her apartment. "We can't tell him yet." Ellie gave her a look. "Ellie, we find your dad and we find out if he is the creator of the Intersect. If we tell Chuck what we think then he'll think he's going crazy just like your dad. We know nothing right now."

"Sarah, this is a bad idea."

"You are exactly right, it's a terrible idea, but a worse idea is to tell Chuck that his dad, who you both think is a little crazy, might be the creator. You know what Chuck will do with that information. He'll go worse case scenario. When we get some facts we'll tell him. All we currently have is speculation. I hope to tell him tomorrow, and if we see this may take some time then, we'll tell him." Ellie nodded.

"I don't like this, but you're right, he'll think up something ridiculous, or worse." Sarah took Ellie's hand. "God, Sarah what if dad did make it and what if he can't fix it?"

Sarah gave Ellie a reassuring smile. "Ellie, there are two other Bartowskis that I know and love, and if anyone can figure this thing out, they can. Now go, I'll get to work in the morning figuring this thing out." Ellie nodded, gave Sarah a hug, and went back to her apartment. Sarah slumped over, her elbows on her knees and her hands on her face. They had to figure this out, because there was no way in hell she was losing Chuck Bartowski.

A/N: Uh, David, dude…..wha? Hoped you liked it, reviews are always welcomed…til next time.

DC

[jackwibbe]

How to fix Hollywood after Weinstein

I’ve written a thing called the Weinstein rules.

Let me know what you think.

I may need to post it in two pieces.

 THE HOLLYWOOD RULES.

We all need to learn the rules: California has laws on rape, harassment and discrimination -- zero tolerance.

This includes demanding sex for employment, even when the messaging is not overt.

Every company needs a code of conduct, and all executives need contract clauses saying they’re fired if they violate the code, or the law.

Stricter rules on auditions.

Update SAG rules on auditioning and shooting nude scenes and sex scenes; and an actress’ approval for those scenes does not mean cancelling the harassment rules.

No hotel meetings, no bikini auditions, no naked police lineups, no “massage meetings”, no casting couches, no “hey, can you drop me at my hotel?”

Apply workplace rules anywhere co-workers or potential co-workers meet: sets, trailers, hotels.

Professionalism 101: no yelling, threatening, throwing things – the kind of thing domestic abusers do.

Beef up the rules on workplace romances.

Men are allowed one form of contact with women: a handshake.  

 When women speak out, they need a reporting system that prevents retaliation.

The includes the soft blacklist of “she’s in the news too much” or “her message interferes with our marketing”.

We need women to know they can speak out and their voices are being heard, in meetings, on sets, when harassment happens.

 There are some anonymous blacklists of creepy guys, fed by anonymous sources.

This is a bit dangerous: there’s no accountability and it can easily be abused.  

However, Callisto is a new system that allows victims to not only report assaults, but to find out whether he’s done it before.

A system like that, with some accountability and due process, could revolutionize Hollywood.

 Contracts: the National Labor Relations Act says employers can’t silence employees; state courts allow firms to violate this.

Settlements: the Civil Rights Act bans settlements which prohibit employees from filing harassment charges.

Contracts and settlements should not involve private arbitration or ban public speech.

The EEOC and other agencies need money to enforce all this, and state laws need to back this up.

 Weinstein staff people are seeking permission from TWC to toss their NDAs so they can speak out.

How about ALL the studios and production companies do that?

 We need a mechanism to protect child performers from predators.

Like anywhere else you find young girls – gymnastics, fashion, pageants.

More oversight whenever kids are anywhere near alcohol.

  EVERYBODY IS RESPONSIBLE.

Studio chiefs, corporate directors, board members, producers, you own everything that happens under your corporate flag.

Everyone with control over hiring or careers needs vetting, training and oversight: don’t let abusers move laterally from company to company.

All six majors need external audits: Amazon just tried it.

Find the other Weinsteins, and executives who encourage victims to shut up and go away, and fire them all.

There are two kinds of men, those who respect women and those who don’t: have you hired any of the latter kind?

 Agents and managers: you don’t represent the producers, you represent your client.

Don’t protect the abusers when they assault your client.

If you ever give the “it would be bad for your career” speech, do us a favor and quit.

Courtney Love isn’t the only one with a scary story about CAA.

 Casting directors, you are responsible for calling out executives and directors who assault actresses and who retaliate against actresses that don’t “cooperate”.  

Guild leaders and union heads, make sexual harassment a priority.

Cops and doctors: you’re required to report signs of abuse. Why aren’t you doing it?

 Enablers, security guys, drivers, staffers, the lawyers who clean up the messes after the abuse is over.

Handing out Kleenex, checks and nondisclosure agreements.

If you help the Harveys commit or conceal their crimes, you go to jail.

Everyone is entitled to a lawyer to defend him, but a lawyer who enables a client’s crimes should be disbarred.

Somebody chat with Rick Schwarz, Weinstein’s staffer-turned-producer.

 How many people saw guys like Harvey rape women, knew he would do it again, and said nothing?

Let’s chat with the staff and security at the Ritz in Paris, the Savoy in London, the Peninsula in LA.

If everybody knows, why isn’t anyone going to the police?

 If you hear a guy making a disgusting sexist comment, and you laugh and bro along with it, you’ve given him the green light.

Say something: protecting the career of his victims, and their safety, is more important than the career of a toolbag who needs to be fired.

Believe the victims, support the victims, speak out.

 ON THE SET.

End the era of directors who are abusive toolbags.

Showing up unprepared, demanding endless takes, unsafe conditions, firing live weaponry at actors, cutting off bathroom breaks, confiscating phones, harassing women.

In any other work environment, there would be strikes and lawsuits.

A lot of the abuse has been directed at women: just ask Katharine Ross what it was like shooting Butch Cassidy, or any actress who came within a mile of Hitchcock.  

A director can be the boss and keep to the schedule without being an abusive jerk.

Also, directors: are you hiring department heads who are abusive jerks?

If you’re the director, you’re responsible for everything anyone does on that set.

 Everybody on set, cast and crew: are you aiding and abetting crimes by executives and directors?

Did you see something and ignore it?

Any big-name actors with your hands in the cookie jar?

We need a process to stop on-set harassment: directors, DPs and actors with patty-fingers.

And a female crew member minimizing her gender with a big coat and a hat: she’s seen something and knows something.

 Female surgeons keep more patients alive because they follow the rules and listen to others: in other words, respect.

What if we had female directors showing us what female leadership looks like?

 BUILDING A NEW HOLLYWOOD.  

We need women running corporations with enough cash and leeway to launch projects.

Chairmen, CEOs, board members, producers.

More women, and more oversight, at the big and small studios, production companies.

Same for television, cable and online producers; likewise guilds and agencies.

When a company has at least one-third women in the power suite, change happens, so make it happen.

Raising a generation of female leaders will take time and commitment, so start now.

We need women mentoring other women.

 We need all six major studios to draft policies to protect and empower women.

HR departments must protect victims, not the companies.

More jobs for actresses: enough male-oriented action franchises – women drive the domestic box office.

Fire any director or producer who measures a woman’s worth by whether she’s “f***able”.

We need women working on set, particularly as department heads; female DPs can show us what the world looks like through a woman’s eyes.

Also, non-sexual abuse is an everyday occurrence for junior employees of both sexes: stop it!

And EQUAL PAY.

 Above all, women who call out abusers: hire them!

That is the best way to stop the abuse.

If abusers can’t threaten the careers of their victims, their victims go to the cops.

 VICTIMS.

Like it or not, the victims are the necessary first stage in the process.

Dorothy Carvello, a longtime staffer in the entertainment industry, said “we must come forward and name our abusers”.

Claudia Eller at Variety said the same: “Victims can no longer stay quiet; if you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem.”

 Know the rules for harassment and retaliation.

Sexual harassment in California: don’t touch the girl, don’t look at her strike zone, don’t say anything sexual, no sexy pictures, don’t try to wrangle her into sex or retaliate against her.

Sexual discrimination: treating a woman or a group of women differently, hostile work environment, harassment, intimidation, using job pressure to get sex.

Sexual assault: don’t touch the girl’s strike zone; don’t force her to touch your junk or hers, or touch her when she’s intoxicated or unconscious, or use threats.

In California the statute of limitations is a year for harassment and ten years for rape, although they’re changing it; the rules are better in places like New York and London.

 If you’re harassed, tell him to stop; write down what happened, tell the firm and HR, get a lawyer.

If you want to sue, you must go to the DFEH or EEOC within a year: it’s actually called a “right to sue” letter. Seriously.

 Also for the victims: if you have nightmares, flashbacks, triggered panic attacks, that’s PTSD.

It isn’t just for soldiers: I’ve seen hundreds of cases in my work with survivors of domestic violence.

Talk to a good therapist about cognitive behavioral therapy.

And build yourself a support system: this is when you find out who your real friends are.