Litmus Test Garden

 

NY Post

They’re planting hate.

A community garden in Ridgewood, Queens, has morphed into a group of pro-Palestinian green thumbs who grow “Poppies for Palestine” and host “Free Palestine” poster making events.

Sara Schraeter-Mowers told The Post she can’t remember the last time she felt welcome in her own neighborhood, where she’s lived for 18 years.

She blamed the Sunset Community Garden, in part, for “creating an environment” in Ridgewood “that’s very hostile towards me and my family.”

Jewish Ridgewood residents are now afraid to go dig in the dirt at the garden, said Schraeter-Mowers, a teacher whose cousin was killed at the Nova Festival massacre on Oct. 7.

Schraeter-Mowers said she was profoundly offended by a July 28 post to the garden’s Instagram page, showing a painting that had been created during the “Free Palestine” arts and crafts event. 

 “They’re hosting events specifically designed to promote hatred toward Jewish people,” Schraeter-Mowers said.

“They don’t care that they’re alienating certain members of the community, even while putting on the mask of being inclusive.”

“I’d be safer in my home country [of Israel] than I am here,” Schraeter-Mowers added.

“I basically feel like we’re not allowed to be part of the community. I understand they’re trying to ensure people aren’t being discriminated against, but in doing so, they’re discriminating against an entire population in your community.”

 Steph Herold’s Instagram post accused the garden’s heads of pushing “out every Jew in the neighborhood who doesn’t conform to your narrow view of acceptable political opinion on Israel.”

In June, the group’s “community agreements” were first posted to the social media platform, and later updated in August.

They’re essentially 10 separate, brevity-challenged pledges all prospective members must make prior to joining the community garden.

One agreement required members to express “solidarity with the oppressed and marginalized people in our own neighborhood and across the globe, especially Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Hawaii,” and Puerto Rico, “as well as with the land and water protectors globally. Active genocides, ecocide, the rise in climate disaster and refugees, victims of class warfare, and others are a direct cause for action in our collective liberation against human rights and environmental justice violations.”

Fauxgressives need not apply

NY Post

The Democrats have a problem: They have run away from their core voters. And they are beginning to notice and worry.

Lefty blogger Kevin Drum noted this recently. He observes that Republicans have moved slightly to the right, but Democrats have moved way, way to the left on social issues.

Drum says he is “personally happy” about the Democrats’ move left. But he is worried, because while the Democratic Party has moved hard left, the voters it relies on to attain power haven’t.  

Thus, in the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump — despite being called a white supremacist and a Hispanic-hater by all the mainstream media — picked up black and Hispanic votes.

One reason for this is that racial polarization went down, but “education polarization” went up. The Democrats are increasingly the party of the college- and graduate-school-educated white gentry class. The Republicans are increasingly the party of the working class, which includes a lot of . . . blacks and Hispanics.

Just look at the issues the Democrats are pushing: defunding the police, which hurts mostly poor and working-class neighborhoods; critical race theory, which mostly interests woke white activists (and rich-and-guilty Dem donors) but which actually sends a message of inferiority to minority youths; gender ideology, which plays less well among the more traditional and more religious working-class minorities; environmental policies that produce higher gas prices and lower employment, while pushing food prices up; open borders that drive down wages for downscale workers; and so on.

Donors and activists love this stuff. They live in neighborhoods that are mostly insulated from urban crime and disorder. Their kids will still be privileged, regardless of what theories on race are popular. Transgender issues make them feel hip and cutting-edge. Higher gas and food prices won’t affect them. And illegal immigration makes sure they don’t have to pay too much for a nannies and gardeners.

For a long time, the Democrats were able to have it both ways, pretending solidarity with the working class while promoting policies that undercut it. But they have overdone things, and now people have noticed.

Andrew Yang's Underhanded Bribe Initiative

 

Impunity City 

Spring has thankfully arrived in the city of New York. And along with the blooming leaves and flowers along with an influx of (weaker) vaccines about to come to town while public spaces and streets are still barren public during this stubborn pandemic, the Democrat primary race for mayor to rid this town of de Blasio will truly commence until it’s final destination on the second day of summer. But one candidate has already taken over your city’s poltical zeitgeist, and according to corporate local news, that candidate is Andrew Yang.

It wasn’t that hard for Yang to conquer all the attention, he already ran for president of the United States and his unlimited basic income proposal from that campaign actually influenced national policy with the last three congressional budgets with checks of $1,200, $600 and most recently $1,400* given to every citizen during this pandemic (although incrementally, since Yang’s UBI was supposed to be for a check every month and the 1,400 payout was means tested and limited to an earned income cap, not to mention that Biden promised 2 grand and lied). And now with the celebrity and name recognition, jumping into New York City’s Democrat primary mayor’s race was an easy transition since the competition is pretty stale across the board with career city bureaucrats like current office holders Brooklyn BP Eric Adams and Comptroller Scott Stringer, Ex Sanitation Chief Kathryn Garcia, Big banker Ray McGuire and two ethically challenged candidates lawyer Maya Wiley and prodigal son bureaucrat Shaun Donavan. After Wang’s announcement on the Coney Island boardwalk, the first poll immediately put Wang at a commanding lead over his opponents at the time.

But after that auspicious start, reality and even logic has crept up to Yang in only a few months, revealing himself more as a dilletante huckster than the political outsider he’s being portrayed as.

As with his presidential campaign, there is nothing much or distinguishable from the other candidates about Yang’s mayoral platform to run this city except for his Basic Income proposal, which he marked down from a grand a month nationally to a one time payment for the city’s check to check working class. There is a lot to like about it because it does target residents who needs this money the most, even if it can barely pay the rent and utility bills but might be just enough to play lottery scratch tickets. The big hairy but to this is how as mayor is Yang going to come up with the city funding for this and his answer was quite startling but expectantly and obviously vague.

last week, Yang was talking to reporters about the movie he planned to see on the first day that New York City theaters reopened since the pandemic shut them down. He also fielded questions about he’d fund his basic income plan and gave an admittedly “vague” response, suggesting it’s still unclear if he’d rely primarily on existing city funds, hit up private investors, rely on a rollback of state tax breaks — or a combination of all three.

First, he said that even in its “diminished” state, the city has the “level of resources to commit to this, in part because it’s going to save us a lot of money on things like homelessness services and shelters that are very, very costly.”

“Keeping people in more secure and stable environments will actually, in large part, pay for itself,” he said.

But Yang did not say where in the ailing city budget he intends to draw the $1 billion it will take to pay for the plan.

He then added that he’s been in talks with “several New York-based philanthropists who are very excited about this program and so hopefully we’ll have some private sources of funding as well.”

When asked to name who those potential financial backers are, he replied: “Of course I’m not going to tell you right now after I just gave you, like, you know, like, this vague, like, several private sources because, you know, we have to have things to announce for later.”

NY Daily News

At least Yang’s fumbling and his campaign manager’s pathetic sop defense of the candidate’s ambitious program has a scintilla of honesty even if for the past 2 months they didn’t even have a solid budgetary plan to justify it, considering how it’s the main driver of the candidate’s platform.

Psychiatrist sues city for blackballing her for reporting discrepencies in prisoner releases from Rikers Island for it's shutdown

NY Post

A former psychiatrist for the city’s hospital system claims she suffered retaliation for complaining that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s push to close Rikers Island “politicized” the mental-health evaluations of inmates.

In a $3 million whistleblower suit, Dr. Melissa Kaye says she was slapped with bogus disciplinary charges and demoted for warning “that inmates were potentially being released from jail in an expedited fashion and [in] circumvention of the procedures and law.”

Kaye, former medical director of the Bronx Forensic Psychiatry Court Clinic, alleges officials with the Health and Hospitals Corporation committed “ethical violations” and “malfeasance” in connection with exams used to determine if defendants are competent to stand trial. Those found incompetent are committed to the state Office of Mental Health for care.

Under de Blasio, “these examinations have become politicized . . . in an effort to get inmates off Rikers Island more quickly,” her Manhattan federal suit charges.

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has to fire her chief of staff

 

George The Atheist

 Just Who Represents The Queens 14th CD?

Who?  Officially Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

So why is her Chief-of-Staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, mouthing off for her?  Referring to moderate members of Democratic groups in a Tweet last month as "New Southern Democrats" who are "hell bent to do black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s."   He sure p.o.'d Pelosi and many of the old school Dems, no?

Who elected this guy Chakrabarti? Seemingly the puppet-master of Ocasio?   AOC's string-puller?  And he doesn't even live in Queens but is a carpetbagger from Greenwich Village in Manhattan!!!

Impunity City

 A few weeks ago on the heels of the congressional hearings of the Senate's border funding bill, a brash man in his 30's  decided to take to social media and rail against the establishment very old guard and "moderate" Democrats for their support of it. And the social media storm came from the chief of staff of the most pop-centric elected official of our time (and arguably maybe all time since the young Kennedys) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Saikat Chakrabarti. Although he made salient points about the congressional hacks constant cave-ins, he made a boneheaded analogy comparing Speaker Pelosi and the other Dems voting for it to the Dixiecrats of nearly a century ago, which he immediately deleted. 


Even though these are atypical reactions from an electorate body of officials that are cognizant of their weakening status in office and of the growing and widening disdain of them by their constituencies to undermine a young and immensely popular upstart like Ocasio-Cortez, their vindictive accusations of her being dependent on her obnoxious chief of staff does have merit.

But in actuality, it's not only because of his tweet conflating the current shitty Congress and the shitty racist enabling one back in the day or even wearing a very stupid t-shirt, it's mostly because he's a dishonest person and a multi-millionaire feigning to be a revolutionary, trying to become a player in D.C.. He also could have underhanded reasons to personally profit from what on the surface are progressive policies that are being pushed.

Chakrabarti, or Chak as he will be referred to here for the sake of brevity and it sounds better, got filthy rich in Silicon Valley developing a web tool called Mockingbird and participated in Bernie Sanders miraculous yet defeated presidential campaign, followed by hooking up with the current representative of New York's fighting fourteenth district in Northeast Queens and the South Bronx with the Justice Democrats PAC he co-formed.

But since that victory, he's been pulling some very shady and non-progressive stunts

Inside the Queens Machine

Very interesting series on WNYC! Worth a listen with your Sunday muffin & coffee.

Queens targeted with homeless shelters thanks to Joe Crowley deal

With each passing day, this is becoming more clear. Someone I know from Borough Hall broke this down for me yesterday:

Congress Member Joe Crowley is the head of the Queens Machine. A political kingmaker. He endorsed Christine Quinn when she ran for mayor against de Blasio in the primary. De Blasio was very unhappy with that, as Queens was the only borough that did not back him. Queens therefore is going to relentlessly be dumped on, including the placement of 10+ homeless shelters in 2 years.

It all makes sense once you connect the dots.

Now, where the hell is Queens Borough President Melinda Katz while the borough she represents is getting dumped on? Painting the NYS Pavilion?

Someone is finally facing reality

From the Daily News:

Anthony Weiner is done with politics.

The disgraced former congressman issued his surest statement yet that his career in public service is finished.

“Realistically, my political career is probably over,” Weiner told Politico.com in an interview published Tuesday. “The only job I ever wanted more than Congress was mayor, and I don’t think that either of those two jobs are going to be available.”

“So, no, it’s not like, ‘OK, how do I get back in?’ I’m not thinking that anymore. I think I kind of took my stab at that,” he added.

Bloomberg plans to stay out of it

From Capital New York:

In an appearance on The View this morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he has no plans to intervene in local politics after he leaves office at the end of the month.

“I won’t get involved in New York City politics," he told the panel of co-hosts.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Bloomberg will establish a consulting firm, staffed by several of his current commissioners, to advise cities on how to effect Bloomberg-like policies, but the outgoing mayor has consistently said he plans to avoid any undue interference with his successor, Bill de Blasio.

Bloomberg thinks he's helped the poor

From the Daily News:

Times are tough — but hang in there. 

That was Mayor Bloomberg’s message Friday as he railed at the “bums” in Washington who don’t know how to fix the economy, and faced off criticism that his administration hasn’t done enough to help the poor.

 “You should not be that depressed, we grow out of these things, we have been through these cycles many, many times before,” Bloomberg said. On his weekly radio show, Hizzoner noted that not only the economy — but also the politics will renew. 

“People will get frustrated and they will say this new wave of people who came in, they’re wrong, and you’ll throw the bums out and bring in a new group who are great and wonderful until they become the bums, and they get thrown out.” 

Despite painting a gloomy picture of the nation’s elected officials who “don’t know how business works,” the mayor then sought to reassure New Yorkers it was not all bad. When it came to evaluating his own success at tackling the city’s economy and poverty levels, Bloomberg’s outlook was rather more optimistic despite new figures showing the number of city residents living below the federal poverty line rose to 4.5%, or nearly 1.7 million people, in 2011. 

“The nice thing about New York is we don’t walk away from the poor,” he said.

Chronicle keeping tabs on the Trib

From the Queens Chronicle:

...we have to again take the Tribune to task for favoritism in its coverage of a race for public office, favoritism that likely has both politics and money behind it. Coincidentally, it’s again a race that involves Halloran, the winner of that 2009 contest and now a candidate for the Congressional seat that Rep. Gary Ackerman is giving up at the end of the year.

But this time it’s not Halloran the Tribune is showing bias against — at least not yet. Instead it’s Assemblyman Rory Lancman of Fresh Meadows and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley of Middle Village. They’re the two Democrats vying for the congressional nomination against the party’s choice, Assemblywoman Grace Meng of Flushing. Whoever wins the primary will then face GOP designee Halloran.

The Meng campaign just hired Multi-Media, the consulting firm the Tribune claims acts independently of the newspaper, even though it’s headed by the paper’s associate publisher, Michael Nussbaum.

So what does she get for hiring Multi-Media? Political advice, mailers and, just maybe, last week’s Tribune front page, which focused on Meng’s “making history” with her campaign (she’s Asian, you see), and relegated her competitors to inset-style photos.

We hope the Tribune — a storied newspaper that does also produce quality journalism —will play it straight this time around and be fair to all the candidates. We’ll be watching for this, since we read the Trib, and most of our competition, on a regular basis. And if we find the paper is showing favoritism again, we’ll report on it.

No room for first responders

Good zinger!

From the Daily News:

Senate Democrats didn't take kindly to Mayor Bloomberg calling their time in the majority "a disgrace" earlier today.

"The actual disgrace is failing to manage a fatal blizzard because you and all of your top aides were on vacation and nobody was left in charge," a Senate Democratic source told our Ken Lovett.

Yeah, baby! I think he looks good in orange...

Corrupt pols should lose pensions

From the Daily News:

State Controller Thomas DiNapoli has seen enough shenanigans, and now believes that corrupt state officials should lose their pensions.

DiNapoli told the Daily News on Wednesday that he will publicly push for a law that bars pols busted on felony corruption charges from getting their pensions.

DiNapoli said he changed his long-held opposition to such a law after a spate of indictments and convictions - including his predecessor, the disgraced Alan Hevesi - that have tarnished the Capitol in recent years.

"We don't have anything now that's a deterrent," DiNapoli said. "We need to do something to build in some kind of penalty to get people to think twice before they do some of those things."

He's now researching ways to crack down on current lawmakers from collecting pensions if they commit a crime.

At least 21 other states have laws stripping pensions of legislators convicted of felonies related to their official duties.

Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo supports such a law.

Johnny's living the high life

From the NY Post:

It's good to be the comptroller.

As the pension time bomb ticks, city Comptroller John Liu took in the Yankees' home opener, a whiskey tasting with the British consul- general and countless photo ops with community groups.

A 250-day schedule of the city's top financial watchdog -- obtained by The Post under the Freedom of In formation Law -- suggests he spends more time chasing his mayoral dreams than sniffing out budgetary waste and confronting the city's mounting financial troubles.

While Liu attended just one of the dozen meetings of the city's biggest pension fund in his first eight months in office -- and ducked out of that single NYCERS meeting after just 15 minutes -- he did find time to attend two stickball parties and a dragon-boat event, meet with foreign diplomats, take in a preview of MoMa's Matisse exhibit, drop by the grand opening of the restaurant Valentino's on the Green, and hit an endless circuit of galas, award dinners and press conferences.

In fact, Liu regularly showed up to as many as seven grip-and-grins a day that had little or nothing to do with his comptroller duties.

Elected comptroller last year, the Flushing-based Democrat is custodian of the city's five pension funds and their $100 billion in assets. Underfunded, snakebitten by years of stock-market losses and with mounting annual obligations -- $6.8 billion this year and expected to double in six years -- the pension system threatens to bankrupt the city.

"The absence of business groups, academics, and financial-service professionals on his schedule is startling," said a fellow Democrat who has met with Liu this year and reviewed his schedule. "He's showing no intellectual curiosity. There are a lot of labor meetings, but that's it."

Political observers say Liu's schedule is less about auditing agencies and managing pensions than about crafting a campaign strategy for a possible mayoral run in 2013.

In particular, it shows an interest in rallying support from gay and Irish New Yorkers -- two constituencies thought to support City Council speaker and potential mayoral-race rival Christine Quinn.

Merchant war in Jackson Heights

From the NY Times:

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, was dark this year in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Stores along 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, usually string lights for Diwali, a Hindu festival. But this year, the shop owners were too busy arguing to decorate.

The owners of the jewelry shops, grocery stores and sari boutiques who usually string multicolored bulbs along 74th Street for the fall celebration were too busy fighting one another to bother.

They are battling for control of the local merchants’ association, in a dispute that has cleaved the business community in two with accusations of election fraud, ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation. The cast includes a father feuding with his son-in-law, two rival grocery stores and at least one private detective. Five judges in State Supreme Court in Queens have worked to settle the quarrel, which still rages.

To many people outside the community, and even some inside it, the stakes seem far too meager to justify all the bad blood. The merchants’ group, made up mostly of South Asian business owners, is a nonprofit enterprise devoted largely to mundane matters like street parking, garbage pickup, arrangements for Diwali and for a springtime religious festival, the highlights of the year.

But to those involved, the association is a source of prestige, a vehicle to gain respect in the neighborhood, to host mayors and senators for ghee-soaked lunches, and to play a role, however minor, in the swirling jumble of New York politics.

Some trace the ill will back decades, but the real drama began in the run-up to the Aug. 1, 2009, election for the board of directors. (The date had been set by the State Supreme Court in response to a lawsuit calling for fresh elections.)

The campaign was marred with such heavy-handed manipulation that Justice Charles J. Markey, in his decision that November to invalidate the election, quoted the former Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev: “The trouble with free elections is, you never know who is going to win.”

YES!!! We have a mini-Queens Machine in Jackson Heights!!!

And you thought Paladino-Cuomo was bad!

Bloomie's gal for public office?

From the NY Times:

Ms. Taylor, the companion of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, was not only intrigued by the idea, but also eager to delve into the details of a potential campaign and future career in the Senate. She mused about how much influence she could have as a freshman Republican in a Democratic-controlled Congress, and the kind of relationship she would have with the state's senior senator, Charles E. Schumer.

''She was very serious about it,'' said Bill Paxon, a Republican former congressman from New York, who participated in the previously undisclosed meeting in March at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manhattan.

Ms. Taylor, 55, a woman known best not for what she has done, but for whom she lives with, is beginning to make unmistakable forays into New York politics, shedding her reputation as a glamorous sidekick and becoming closely watched in her own right. Her actions suggest that as Mr. Bloomberg enters the twilight of his mayoralty, the heir to his political legacy may be the woman he has dated for a decade. ''If she wants it, she has a political future,'' said John J. Faso, the Republican candidate for governor in 2006.

Not everyone was enthusiastic about the Senate idea: Mr. Bloomberg expressed reservations about her running, according to those close to the couple, in part because of the inevitable awkwardness that would accompany a senator and a mayor living under the same roof.

Let's get rid of all the bums

From the Daily News:

In times past, we could gaze across the Hudson River and give thanks that it separated us from the cesspool of corruption known as the State of New Jersey.

Lately, the bridges and tunnels span two realms that no longer seem so different.

Every day seems to bring word of some new investigation into yet another New York official.

New Yorkers convicted of corruption include former state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, former state Controller Alan Hevesi, former Liberal Party head Ray Harding, former Brooklyn Democratic boss Clarence Norman, four former state legislators and a former city councilman.

Another city councilman, Larry Seabrook (D-Bronx), has been charged with a crime spree involving more than $500,000.

Among those under investigation are Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), along with former Rep. Floyd Flake, state Senate President Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. (D-Bronx), Assemblyman Peter Rivera (D-Bronx), Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo (D-Bronx) and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall. Hevesi is being eyed in a “pay-to-play” scandal unrelated to the crime for which he has already been convicted.

Our own former assemblyman and labor leader Brian McLaughlin of Queens out Jersey-ed Jersey by stealing $95,000 from the Eastchester Little League. McLaughlin also pocketed more than $2 million in taxpayer funds and he is presently serving a 10-year federal prison term.

He would have gotten 15 years, but he agreed to introduce an undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman to then-Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio (D-Queens).

The result was that Seminerio got an 11- to 14-year term for shaking down various businesses and nonprofit groups for over $1 million in “consulting fees.”

In further proof that we can sink as low or even lower than Jersey, former City Councilman Miguel Martinez (D-Manhattan) was convicted of pocketing money intended for a children’s arts fund.

What we want is such a full accounting that all the bums go to jail.

The Jersey-fication of New York needs to end.

Now.

Astoria blackout money debate gets political