Homophobic vulgarian accuses incumbent council member of preemptively colluding with the GOP

  

Gothamist

Juan Ardila, a challenge in the Democratic primary race for the 30th Council District seat in Queens, is claiming that incumbent Robert Holden plans to pull the same trick he used to win in 2017: running on the Republican line as a Democrat for the November election, thanks to an old state law in the books.

Ardila says that the current Democratic council member will once again be placed on the Republican line for a second term should he lose the June 22nd primary. He claims that the Republicans in the district are coalescing around Holden because he's the best shot in representing their interests.

“There's no other Republican that has nearly enough name recognition or the support that he has," Ardila said of Holden.

While it might seem implausible for a longtime Democrat to run on the GOP line, this is actually how Holden won his seat back in 2017. That year, Holden lost the Democratic primary to then-incumbent Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, but then ran as a Republican during the November general election, where he defeated Crowley for the Council seat by 137 votes. Holden, at the time, said he’d “be stupid not to” get on the Republican line to win.

Ardila’s team believes Holden will pull the same stunt through the Wilson-Pakula Law. The obscure state provision allows a party to place a non-party member on the ballot so long as they file the correct paperwork. In the case for the 30th Council District, the Queens Republican Party will play that card and place Holden on their line, Ardila contends.

 Holden and Ardila are the only ones on the Democratic primary ticket. And their line of endorsements underscores their brand of politics. Ardila, a progressive Democrat, has been endorsed by 1199 SEIU, and state senators Jessica Ramos and Michael Gianaris. Holden has received backing from a handful of Democratic legislators, he’s also garnered support from police unions, including the Police Benevolent Association. The PBA made its politics known last year when the group endorsed Trump for his failed re-election bid.

Joann Ariola—the head of the Queens Republican Party, who Holden backed during her unsuccessful bid for Queens borough president—confirmed Spataro is running as a Republican. “He is our candidate," she said, "so I'm not quite sure what Mr. Ardila is talking about."

"I think that Mr. Ardila should pay more attention to his own primary, rather than what the Republicans are doing,” Ariola said. “He's running against a very popular Councilman, who I think can win this seat on the Democratic line outright. [He] wouldn’t need a Republican safety net."

Kevin Ryan, a campaign spokesman, denied such collusion would take place.

“There’s no need for the Councilman, a lifelong Democrat, to consider a contingency plan for losing a primary that he’s going to win,” Ryan said. “He’s been a Democrat twice as long as his challenger has been alive.”

él no es bueno

 

Update:

 

Gothamist is running protection for Ardila by censoring comments criticizing him and his high profile supporters.

 

Their disqus comment section is now closed.

 

What's interesting about how they did this is that disqus usually indicates why and how the comment was deleted, a good example is how Gersh Kuntzman deleted all my comments on Streetsblog weeks ago. Gothamist found a way to erase them entirely

 

 

 

 What a disgrace.

 

The city named a boulevard after Floyd Flake

 

QNS

  The name of Merrick Boulevard in Queens was taken from the word “Meroke” mean oyster bed. So a portion of it in St. Albans was appropriately renamed Saturday for what admirers say is the “pearl of the community,” in honor of the Rev. Dr. Floyd H. Flake. (Blech, what a write up)

Nearly a thousand residents and city elected officials jammed the streets near his beloved church, the Greater Allen African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Cathedral, on Oct. 3 for the dedication.

Elected officials and the community fully supported the renaming of the street “Floyd H. Flake Boulevard,” passed by the City Council and signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to honor the former Congressman and civil rights activist. Saturday’s huge ceremony was full of speeches by top leaders and filled with the pomp of powerful gospel music and dancing that is the hallmark of his 23,000-member church.

 A marching band led a long white limousine with his family to the open field where he was accompanied by his wife Margaret Elaine McCollins and his four children — his two sons Robert Rasheed, Harold Hasan and his two daughters Aliya and Nailah Flake-Brown — who held his arm right up to his seat.

The city is broke and taxpayer money was set aside for a ostentatious and undeserved parade for and lionization of a crooked politician. Also a ceremony of collective democrat establishment cognitive dissonance. 

 

And don't forget that this city approved gathering was arranged and happened as schools and restaurants are closing in districts where covid cases rose and there's the arrogant defiant Floyd walking around with his mask under his nose and then off in close proximity with his adoring allies and fans.

Disgusting. 

Update:

A commentator of a recent post brought up a story that makes this street renaming in the honor of Floyd more unjustified and reprehensible. Two men were involved in teenage sex trafficking, holding two girls hostage and pimping them out in a senior citizen residential building tied to the Allen Church where this dedication took place that was attended by the current mayor of New York City and New York State attorney general and the minority leader of the U.S. Senate.

Queens Chronicle

Two Queens men have been arrested in separate cases in which they are accused of kidnapping teenage girls and forcing them to work as prostitutes.

According to the office of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, Joseph Gilbert, 24, of St. Albans was indicted on an 87-count complaint charging him with holding a 15-year-old girl at a senior housing complex, which has been identified by the Daily News as the Greater Allen Cathedral Senior Residence.

Gilbert was charged with first- and second-degree kidnapping, compelling prostitution, sex trafficking, second-degree promoting prostitution, second- and third-degree assault, third-degree rape, third-degree criminal sexual act and endangering the welfare of a child.

Brown added that Gilbert is accused of threatening and beating the girl, and allegedly forcing her to take drugs to stay awake in order to bring in more money.

Church officials did not respond to a request for comment prior to the Chronicle’s deadline.

In a separate case, Reagan Conception, 28, of Jamaica, was arraigned on June 2 on a 76-count indictment accusing him of kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old girl and forcing her to work as a prostitute between September and November of last year.

Conception was charged with first- and second-degree kidnapping, first- and second-degree rape, first- and second-degree criminal sexual act, sex trafficking, compelling prostitution, first-, second- and third-degree promoting prostitution, second- and third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

“I want to stress that prostitution is not a victimless crime and that sex trafficking is an incessant act of brutality and degradation,” Brown said in a statement issued last Friday. “This teenage girl was finally freed but she will have to live with this horrible experience for the rest of her life.”

 I repeat, disgusting. 

The battle for Queens civil court: John "The Canopy" Ciafone vs. Jessica "ex Machina" Earle-Gargan

 

City Limits


Judge of the Civil Court: Queens

Jessica Earle-Gargan: A St. John’s Law School grad like her opponent, Jessica Earle-Gargan is a former Assistant District Attorney who specialized in prosecuting domestic violence crimes, according to her campaign site. A Bayside resident, Earle-Gargan’s other law experience includes serving as court attorney for two Supreme Court justices, where she worked on divorce and child custody cases.

John J. Ciafone: A trial attorney and lifelong Queens resident, John Ciafone studied at St. John’s Law School and has worked as an hearing officer for the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) and as a small claims court arbitrator. In a campaign ad posted to YouTube, Ciafone described himself as “independent” and criticized the current judicial establishment as beholden to special interests. He made headlines last year when he was fined for advertising his legal services on buildings he owns without a city permit.

Everybody knows about The Canopy as Crapper came back to remind you. But Jessica has, um, quite a machine backing her up.

 Queens County Democratic Organization

Congressman Gregory Meeks

Former Congressman Joe Crowley 

 Found "Qualified" by the Independent Judicial Qualifications Commission

State Senator Toby Stavisky

State Senator Leroy Comrie

Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal

State Assemblyman Ed Braunstein

State Assemblyman Michael DenDekker

NYC Council member Francisco Moya

NYC Council Member Rory Lancman

NYC Council member Danny Dromm

District Leaders: Ari Espinal, Ellen Raffael, Carol Gresser, Deirdre Feerick, Martha Taylor, Jacqueline Boyce, Yanna Henriquez

Supreme Court Justice Jeremy Weinstein, Ret. Former Administrative Judge Civil Term, Queens County.

Supreme Court Justice, Agustus Agate, Ret.

"Better Call" Saul Weprin Democratic Club

I know I have a proclivity to refer and defer to the Simpsons when I see shit like this, but another one won't hurt. (Yes I know it's one party, but it's still two bad choices)

Vote your conscience comrades.

Fire through dry grass; Governor Cuomo's directive sent 4,500 coronavirus patients to nursing homes and gave immunity to them stemming from the industriy's donations to his last re-election campaign

 AP

 More than 4,500 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to New York’s already vulnerable nursing homes under a controversial state directive that was ultimately scrapped amid criticisms it was accelerating the nation’s deadliest outbreaks, according to a count by The Associated Press.

AP compiled its own tally to find out how many COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals to nursing homes under the March 25 directive after New York’s Health Department declined to release its internal survey conducted two weeks ago. It says it is still verifying data that was incomplete.

Whatever the full number, nursing home administrators, residents’ advocates and relatives say it has added up to a big and indefensible problem for facilities that even Gov. Andrew Cuomo — the main proponent of the policy — called “the optimum feeding ground for this virus.” 

“It was the single dumbest decision anyone could make if they wanted to kill people,” Daniel Arbeeny said of the directive, which prompted him to pull his 88-year-old father out of a Brooklyn nursing home where more than 50 people have died. His father later died of COVID-19 at home.

“This isn’t rocket science,” Arbeeny said. “We knew the most vulnerable -- the elderly and compromised -- are in nursing homes and rehab centers.”

Told of the AP’s tally, the Health Department said late Thursday it “can’t comment on data we haven’t had a chance to review, particularly while we’re still validating our own comprehensive survey of nursing homes admission and re-admission data in the middle of responding to this global pandemic.”

Cuomo, a Democrat, on May 10 reversed the directive, which had been intended to help free up hospital beds for the sickest patients as cases surged. But he continued to defend it this week, saying he didn’t believe it contributed to the more than 5,800 nursing and adult care facility deaths in New York — more than in any other state — and that homes should have spoken up if it was a problem.

“Any nursing home could just say, ‘I can’t handle a COVID person in my facility,’” he said, although the March 25 order didn’t specify how homes could refuse, saying that ”no resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the (nursing home) solely based” on confirmed or suspected COVID-19.

Over a month later, on April 29, the Health Department clarified that homes should not take any new residents if they were unable to meet their needs, including a checklist of standards for coronavirus care and prevention. 

Remember, Andrew Cuomo named this directive after his mother.

A directive influenced by a profit-driven health and hospice care industrial consortium that gave Cuomo millions to his last re-election campaign:

TMI

As Governor Andrew Cuomo faced a spirited challenge in his bid to win New York’s 2018 Democratic primary, his political apparatus got a last-minute boost: a powerful health care industry group suddenly poured more than $1 million into a Democratic committee backing his campaign. 

Less than two years after that flood of cash from the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), Cuomo signed legislation last month quietly shielding hospital and nursing-home executives from the threat of lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. The provision, inserted into an annual budget bill by Cuomo’s aides, created one of the nation’s most explicit immunity protections for health care industry officials, according to legal experts. 

Critics say Cuomo removed a key deterrent against nursing home and hospital corporations cutting corners in ways that jeopardize lives. As those critics now try to repeal the provision during this final week of Albany’s legislative session, they assert that data prove such immunity is correlating to higher nursing-home death rates during the pandemic — both in New York and in other states enacting similar immunity policies.

New York has become one of the globe’s major pandemic hot spots — and the epicenter of the state’s outbreak has been nursing homes, where more than five thousand New Yorkers have died, according to Associated Press data. 

Those deaths have occurred as Cuomo’s critics say he has taken a hands-off approach to regulating the health care industry interests that helped bankroll his election campaign. In March, Cuomo’s administration issued an order that allowed nursing homes to readmit sick patients without testing them for COVID-19. Amid allegations of undercounted casualties, the governor also pushed back against pressure to have state regulators more stringently record and report death rates in nursing homes. 

And then came Cuomo’s annual budget — which included a little-noticed passage shielding corporate officials who run New York hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities from liability for COVID-related deaths and injuries. 

GNYHA — a lobbying group for hospital systems, including some that own nursing homes — said it “drafted and aggressively advocated for” the immunity provision. The new law declares that top officials at hospital and nursing-home companies “shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, for any harm or damages alleged to have been sustained as a result of an act or omission in the course of arranging for or providing health care services” to address the COVID outbreak. 

Prior to the budget language, Cuomo had already temporarily granted limited legal immunity to doctors and nurses serving on the medical front lines. But the carefully sculpted passage buried in the state’s annual spending bill expanded that by offering extensive immunity to any “health care facility administrator, executive, supervisor, board member, trustee or other person responsible for directing, supervising or managing a health care facility and its personnel or other individual in a comparable role.”

New York is now one of just two states to shield those corporate officials from both civil lawsuits and some forms of criminal prosecution by the government, according to an analysis by Syracuse University law professor Nina Kohn and the University of Houston’s Jessica L. Roberts. 

“New York is an outlier and has the most explicit and sweeping immunity language,” Kohn said.

Judge orders presidential primary election back on, Bernie Sanders back on ballot

 NY Post

A federal court judge has ordered New York Democrats to reinstate the presidential primary election for June 23 after one-time candidate Andrew Yang challenged its cancellation.


Judge Analisa Torres in her decision Tuesday ruled that the New York Board of Elections’ decision to cancel the vote was unconstitutional and that all qualified candidates as of April 26 must be on the ballot.

“[T]he removal of presidential contenders from the primary ballot not only deprived those candidates of the chance to garner votes for the Democratic Party’s nomination,” Torres wrote in her opinion.
“…but also deprived their pledged delegates of the opportunity to run for a position where they could influence the party platform, vote on party governance issues, pressure the eventual nominee on matters of personnel or policy, and react to unexpected developments at the Convention.”

Yang sued the New York State Board of Elections last week, claiming the cancellation “fundamentally denie[d] [voters] the right to choose our next candidate for the office of President of the United States.”

Arthur Schwartz, an attorney for plaintiffs in the case, called the decision an “extraordinary victory for the democratic process.”

“This decision is not a win for Andrew Yang or Bernie Sanders. It is a win for democracy,” Schwartz said in a statement. “And it is also a warning to President Trump not to mess around with our right to vote him out in November.”