Author: buffalopundit

For the past several weeks, City of Buffalo Councilmember Ulysees Wingo has raised his fist in protest during the rote recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of council sessions. Wingo instead recites a prayer to himself. He began doing this after seeing the video of the homicide of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed African-American man with his hands up, who was shot by a Tulsa, Oklahoma police officer because of aggravated car breakdown while Black. 

“That could have been me,” Wingo said. “Enough is enough. I’m tired. This country is tired. My people are tired. When is it going to stop? And it needs to stop now!”

Wingo, 36, said later that the Pledge of Allegiance phrase “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” does not reflect the reality for many African-American citizens whom he said routinely face discrimination, racism and segregation in big and small ways.

“Clearly, the flag doesn’t mean the same thing to all people,” he said. “This is in response to every black person who has died without a weapon in their hand.”

It does seem quite astonishing that, for instance, the guy accused of setting off bombs in Manhattan can be subdued and arrested rather than killed, but Black men selling loose cigarettes on the street or for a traffic violation or being homeless or having car trouble end up shot dead, or arrested for sitting on their mom’s porch. 

This being a free country, Wingo is perfectly within his rights to substitute whatever he wants for recitation of the pledge to the flag. You don’t have to like it, and you don’t have to agree with it. But it’s pure, unadulterated political speech and anyone who believes in the ideals that flag represents – the “Republic for which it stands – should – must – support Wingo’s right to protest. 

On Thursday, Wingo posted an image of a letter he received from someone purporting to be a Buffalo Police Officer. It repeatedly calls Wingo a “nigger”. Wingo wrote this caption, 

I didn’t read your letter– and I won’t. But I’ll have my very resourceful and loving residents of Buffalo read this letter for me. My staff DID inform me that you are law enforcement. You, SIR, are the reason I won’t stop protesting. If my fist in the air offends you, then YOU readily need to take an immediate introspective analysis of your life.

Now, to my black, brown, and white WNY family who acknowledges the need for me to keep going… JOIN ME in council chambers on October 18th at 2:00pm and show this —- how Buffalo will lead the nation in showing unity and solidarity. There’s definitely a lot of work to be done! Let’s get this work!!! 

Here is the letter: 

Cowardly white supremacy in full effect. Racist. Councilman Wingo’s point proven. This person purports to be a cop and walks drives around a town with a large minority population with an attitude like this against the people he’s sworn to protect. Buffalo hasn’t had any police shootings like the ones in other cities, so it wasn’t about you, buddy. Put your fragile white identity away. He even said that it’s not about you. Maybe pay attention. 

As Mr. Wingo says, “there’s definitely a lot of work to be done”. 

When Trump fanboy Chris Collins is challenged by a journalist, he loses his cool. Brianna Kielar pressed Collins on Trump’s taxes. While Collins wanted to talk about how Putin fanboy Trump would be tough on Putin or about all the fresh misogynist energy and new white supremacist blood Trump brings to our polity, Kielar wanted to push back on Collins’ suggestion that only she – and no one else – cared about what was in Trump’s tax returns.

A CNN poll reveals that 73% of the electorate cares. So, Collins and Trump are way out of touch. 

This is really something to watch. Collins quite clearly isn’t up to the pretty light challenge. Some might remember that Collins, too, refuses to release his tax returns, preferring instead to “show” whatever he chose to the Buffalo News’ Jerry Zremski and Bob McCarthy. Transparency is anathema to Collins, who is too good to be bothered by the notion of an informed electorate. He thinks that his “competitors” would get sensitive information if he released his tax returns, but that never stopped other businessmen running for office from revealing their returns. This is what Collins said about his taxes and his refusal to release them, and it reveals everything you need to know about his attitude towards voters: 

“My federal return is probably 25 pages long,” Collins added. “It’s too much for the public to absorb.”

While the electorate in NY-27 may be made up, in Collins’ mind, primarily of innumerate hicks like the Tops store manager who’s “not paying federal taxes”, that’s why we have journalists, who can use tax accountants to help parse the information in tax returns to determine whether our elected officials have any conflicts of interests, and whether they pay any federal income taxes at all. 

On the issue of Trump’s tax avoidance, sure, no one pays more than they are legally required to pay, but that’s not the point. The point here is that this is a person who manipulates what amounts to a bespoke code for billionaire tax avoidance while dumb schmucks like you and I pay until it hurts. Remember: when Clinton confronted him with the probability that he didn’t pay any federal income taxes, he – uninvited – blurted that this made him “smart”. What it makes him is a freeloader. Not only is he such a piss-poor businessman that he lost a billion dollars in the casino industry and real estate during a growing economy with rising real estate values, but his completely absent business “acumen” allowed him to be worse than any “taker” Trump and his ilk have been denigrating for their low incomes and lack of federal tax exposure – the 47% Mitt Romney so casually denigrated in 2012. 

Donald Trump is awful, yes. His manipulation of the tax code, by the way, doesn’t make him a “genius”, as his surrogates would have you believe. If anything, the genius is his accountant. The issue is that Donald Trump die-hards have their decision already baked in. Ditto the Clinton Democrats. As always, these contests come down to undecided voters in swing states. When a Donald Trump – awful as he is – is revealed to be a guy who not only didn’t pay taxes, but thinks that the reason you and I do is that we’re stupid, that won’t play well where and with whom it matters.

Collins subscribes to the whole maker/taker class warfare. Literally. Chris Collins reckons a supermarket store manager is so privileged that she doesn’t pay federal income tax. That is an actual thing that an actual federal representative said to a TV reporter on the record, on the air. 

Go check out Diana Kastenbaum, the Democrat running in NY-27. She’s a businesswoman from Batavia who doesn’t treat the electorate as subjects or idiots. 

The town of Clarence’s Industrial Development Agency is doling out welfare to a multimillion-dollar development being planned on Transit Road. The IDA approved tax incentives for Russ Salvatore, Jr.’s plan for a mixed-use complex near Casey Road under its “adaptive reuse” policy. Unfortunately, however, Salvatore demolished all the structures on the parcel, thus rendering any “adaptive reuse” wholly impossible. 

Salvatore’s project may be laudable in every way, but here it invites public scrutiny because it is applying for an opportunity not to pay sales and property taxes that would otherwise be due. 

The town of Clarence is a sleepy exurb that has beautiful parkland, wide open spaces, quaint neighborhoods, and sprawling subdivisions. On its website, the Clarence IDA boasts having created 500 jobs in the last 10 years. A public benefit corporation, the IDA exists to assist businesses that locate and grow within the town. The IDA does this, in part, by offering tax incentives such as sales tax relief on construction materials and equipment, assistance with bonding and leasing, and other tax exemptions. 

New York has high taxes and thick red tape. Since no one is serious about changing the state’s business inhibition schemes, the incentives that IDAs like Clarence’s dole out are meant to counteract the general burden of “New York” in exchange for job creation and, usually, payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT). These incentives are not available to you as a member of the general public – there is a process that must be followed before an applicant is considered worthy of the tax breaks. From the IDA’s minutes from the public hearing held April 21st, 

This project is eligible for adaptive re-use and it is in the Transit Road Enhancement Area. It will be a 20,000 sq. ft. office mixed use building including residential and retail use. The project amount is approximately $2.5M. The assistance will include mortgage tax abatement and sales tax on materials and/or equipment purchased for incorporation into the Project. There will be no property tax abatement. 

The Erie County IDA defines “Adaptive Reuse” as, “rehabilitating buildings that have been empty for three years or more and are at least 20 years old.” The strategy behind this policy has to do with the large local inventory of distressed, aging properties and the unique – often prohibitively expensive – challenges companies face when considering the possibility of renovating a long-abandoned structure into something new. What adaptive reuse is not, is the demolition of existing structures and starting from scratch with a parcel of shovel-ready land.

Yet, that’s exactly what Salvatore has done on Transit Road, and the Clarence IDA has taken money out of your town’s and county’s coffers, and taken money away from the school district, in order to subsidize a private multi-million dollar project. The County Executive is threatening to sue, 

“When you tear the structure down and remove everything associated with it, that is not the adaptive-reuse policy contemplated by Erie County and others,” Poloncarz told the Erie County IDA board Wednesday. “I was very disappointed to see the Clarence IDA give a tax break for a project when the entire site was demolished.”

The $2.5 million project is two-thirds residential and one-third retail in nature, which also does not qualify for incentives under common policies developed and adopted by all of the area’s IDAs, Poloncarz noted.

Lawrence M. Meckler, town attorney for Clarence, disagreed with Poloncarz. “As part of adaptive reuse, you can demolish a building if that’s necessary. Nothing in the regulations would disqualify demolition as adaptive reuse,” Meckler said. “… The question is, does it or doesn’t it qualify for incentives? And it absolutely qualifies. … We did everything by the book.”

As a retail project, it doesn’t qualify for any IDA incentive program.  Astonishingly enough, the developers should have to pay sales taxes and mortgage recording taxes like you or I. It is ineligible for any “adaptive reuse” program, because no existing structure is being adapted or reused. The town attorney says, “nothing in the regulations would disqualify demolition as adaptive reuse”. But it is completely antithetical to the policy itself. Meckler twists logic here by suggesting that the town is subsidizing the “adaptive reuse” of a structure by demolishing it. 

…he said the project qualifies because it’s an “adaptive reuse” despite the fact the developer is demolishing the building. Meckler said it’s an 85 year old dilapidated structure that would only be developed through incentives.

No one opposes the project – just its welfare handouts. The biggest recipients of welfare and taxpayer handouts in Clarence are developers and businesses. It is shameful and outrageous for the Clarence IDA to forfeit mortgage and sales taxes that benefit the town and the county – including school taxes to help fund education – to enable Russ Salvatore’s grandson to develop a parcel of land on Transit Road for private retail and residential use. To do so under a wildly disingenuous and impossible interpretation of the words, “adaptive reuse” is shameful. This is illegal and this is theft. This is the town’s business interests and one-party Republican rule stealing from you. Literally this is your family – your tax dollars – going to subsidize a wealthy developer’s project. The rich and powerful business interests scratch the backs of the Republican hegemony, and vice-versa, and you pay for it. 

That’s what happens when there exist zero checks and balances within a one-party dictatorship. 

Monday night, the world watched an adult female, who had spent time and effort preparing for an important meeting with her opponent, debate a petulant, unprepared child who eschewed preparation, relying instead on interruptions, one-liners, and lies. 

As the American right hastens its march to the depths of anti-intellectualism, it now denigrates hard work and preparation, likening it to “cheating”. Donald Trump’s embarrassingly cringe-worthy debate performance probably didn’t move the needle for him. With his rudeness, condescension, and incomprehensible word salad, he behaved like any similarly situated D student with disciplinary issues might. On the C-Span split screen – which was devoid of vapid anchors and hot takes – Secretary Clinton appeared calm, poised, professional – Presidential. She took the hits and interruptions with a smile. Understanding Trump’s brand of domination politics, she wouldn’t refer to him the way all of his sycophants are likely instructed to on their non-disclosure forms, “Mr. Trump”. She called him Donald, and the more she got into his head, he dropped the faux-respectful “Secretary Clinton” in favor of dismissive pronouns. The candidates didn’t need to play to their respective bases – they’re chasing after undecided voters in swing states, and Clinton was the better salesperson. Here’s a chart recording his interruptions: 

Trump kept up a running commentary while Clinton was speaking, although he seldom wrested the floor from her. https://t.co/loX3erQrYw pic.twitter.com/HoHf2ib0Qp

— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) September 27, 2016

He sounded okay when discussing trade deals, if ranting repetitiveness is your jam. But when the topic turned to race relations and temperament, Clinton was as cogent as Trump was weak. Clinton went after Trump for what she termed the “racist birther” issue, and it hit him hard, knocking him far off-balance. There were no raucous audiences to cheer him on, there was no array of right-wing demagogues for Trump to insult and demean – just one smart, prepared woman who was ready, willing, and able to hit back. President Obama released his long-form birth certificate in 2011, and Trump didn’t stop until August 2016 – for that he offered African-Americans, “nothing“. Trump never denied Clinton’s charge that he paid “no taxes”, ranting instead about how the government spends them in a way he dislikes, and claiming he’s “smart”. 

When asked what he meant when he said Secretary Clinton lacks a “presidential look”, Trump said he meant she doesn’t have stamina, all the while audibly sniffing, pounding back glasses of water, and losing his cool at the slightest provocation. When confronted on his refusal to release his tax returns, he got a cheer from his audience partisans when he said he’d do it, even against his “lawyer’s advice”, when Secretary Clinton releases the 33,000 emails she deleted. Maybe Clinton should demand that Trump then produce proof that he’s actually under audit – he keeps saying it, but doesn’t uphold for himself the standard he sets for everyone else. 

Meanwhile, the Clintons have released 30+ years’ worth of tax releases, and Trump is the first candidate in modern times to refuse to release any. I wonder why a lawyer is advising him not to show them? 

The most effective part of Clinton’s presentation, however, was after a particularly ugly and ill-informed swipe Donald Trump took at our friends and allies in various military alliances – Germany and Japan, in particular. He insulted them as deadbeats whom America shouldn’t protect if they won’t pay for the protection. Clinton didn’t respond to Trump, looking instead at the camera and reassuring our friends and allies around the world that she knows the election has caused them a lot of consternation, but that they can be sure that America will uphold its commitments under our various military alliances, then reminded Trump that the only time NATO invoked its mutual self-defense clause under Article 5 of the treaty was after September 11th, and our NATO allies continue to fight terrorism around the world. 

Trump? “I haven’t given a lot of thought to NATO”, he said before launching into his spiel about how the other members need to pay up. 

Clinton also came prepared with the story of Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe from Venezuela, whom Trump had derided as “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping”. 

Donald Trump called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.”

Her name is Alicia Machado. #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/0wrISjJe6z

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 27, 2016

If “telling it like it is” means being unable to handle 90 minutes’ worth of predictable questioning from a network anchor, and coming across as a ranting, lying lunatic, then I guess Trump’s base came away satisfied with his performance. But if you think being President is an important job that demands thought, good temperament, information, and preparedness, then there’s only one candidate who showed up Monday night to meet that standard. Amazingly enough, being President is more complex than calling in to “Fox and Friends”.

The Republican Chairman of the Erie County Legislature, John Mills, impels me to post this question. The word, “bribery” and “bribe” has come up recently in two instances; the first involving Governor Cuomo’s body man, Joe Percoco, and the second where Mr. Mills accused County Executive Mark Poloncarz of attempting to “bribe” him. 

Bribery, as you might imagine, is a criminal offense. A felony, New York’s Penal Law generally defines “bribery” as a situation where a person, “confers, or offers or agrees to confer, any benefit upon a public servant upon an agreement or understanding that such public servant`s vote, opinion, judgment, action, decision or exercise of discretion as a public servant will thereby be influenced.” What’s not clear there for Mr. Mills is the “benefit upon a public servant” part, I suppose. 

In the case of Mr. Percoco, he allegedly solicited “ziti” – payoffs and bribes – from an energy company and a Syracuse developer. For instance, the energy company allegedly sent Mr. Percoco on a vacation, paid for a fancy meal, and gave Percoco cash payouts, all amounting to almost $300,000. Those are items from which Mr. Percoco profited personally. Likewise, Percoco, with a help of a friendly lobbyist, allegedly pressured the energy company to secure a $7,500/month job for Percoco’s wife. 

So, bribery is conferring a benefit upon a public servant from which he profits personally – a payoff, a kickback, a well-remunerated no-show job. 

Here’s what bribery is not. 

No one really knows how the game is played
The art of the trade
How the sausage gets made
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in
The room where it happens 

It’s not a government executive fashioning a budget soliciting a deal from an adversary. Hell, in Hamilton, there’s a whole song about it – Room Where it Happens, which musically dramatizes the Compromise of 1790. Hamilton was desperate to get Congress to pass his plan for the federal government to assume the various states’ Revolutionary War debts via an excise tax, and to issue new bonds to refinance the national debt. Southern agrarian interests, led by Representative James Madison, were staunchly opposed, as they had largely paid off their debts. On the other hand, the Southerners wanted the capital moved further south from New York City. 

Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton appealed to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson for help, and Jefferson arranged a meeting between Hamilton and Madison. In exchange for Madison backing off his opposition to Hamilton’s debt plan, Hamilton agreed to move the seat of national power to the banks of the Potomac, shared between Maryland and Virginia. 

No one really knows how the
Parties get to yes
The pieces that are sacrificed in
Ev’ry game of chess

This was political horsetrading – you have a thing you want for your people, I have a thing I want for my people, let’s work something out. This is how things happen every day. Compromise is at the very heart of American democratic government where there exists an adversarial, two-party system, and a checks and balances on power. 

So, John Mills ran to the media with an audio recording. 

In the voicemail, Poloncarz mentions $800,000 available to repave a major road in Mills’ district and also mentions his desire to speak with the Orchard Park Republican about several other issues of importance to him, including pending legislation and union contracts.

“That, to me, is a bribe,” Mills said. “He made the call to do this, and it was wrong.”

No. It is not a bribe. Not objectively, not legally, not ethically, not morally, not linguistically. Had Poloncarz offered to transfer $800,000 to Mills’ bank account, that would be a bribe. Had Poloncarz sent the money to Mills in bags of cash, that would be a bribe. Had Poloncarz offered to coerce some donor to give Mills’ family member a no-show job, that would be a bribe. 

“I will allocate this county money to fix a road in your district, rather than using it to pay for any one of a number of other public priorities that others like you have presented to me as pressing, in exchange for your assistance on moving legislative matters and union contract negotiations along” is not a bribe in any sense or under any definition. 

Poloncarz replayed the voicemail for a Buffalo News reporter. In it, he mentions the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees blue-collar union and Erie County Medical Center.

Poloncarz tells Mills: “I know you’ve got a number of things to talk on, not the least of which is the charter, but I want to talk about AFSCME, I want to talk about ECMC borrowing, and also roadwork.

“You saw the letter that was sent over by Loffredo,” Poloncarz continued in the voicemail, referring to Public Works Commissioner John C. Loffredo. “We have about $800,000 that’s not allocated right now for roadwork. As I said to you before, I can do Boston Springville Road, but I want key commitments on a couple things, then I’ll sign over that stuff to get that road done. Give me a call when you get a chance.”

Mills said that $800,000 had been committed for repaving of Boston Springville Road four months ago by the Department of Public Works.

Poloncarz said that he doesn’t save personal voicemails from legislators asking him to consider their various pet projects in exchange for their support on other issues, but that he receives such requests regularly. When the county executive sought the release of money to boost his efforts to prevent lead poisoning or respond to the opioid crisis, he said, legislators wanted commitments from him to pave their district roads first.

“Hey, John, I’ll make the road in your district a priority over other roads in other districts that are in worse shape if you’ll work with me on these other initiatives.” is not a bribe. I don’t think John Mills knows what a bribe is. I don’t think he knows how bribery works, or why it’s inappropriate to publicly release a private voice mail – or, better yet – stupid to release one that quite clearly contradicts the very point you’re purporting to make. Two things: 1. I guess voice mails are now subject to public consumption; and 2. New York is a one-party consent state. 

Perhaps, like Hamilton in 1790, if Mr. Mills wants to get county crews fixing that road in Springville anytime soon, he should take a piece of advice from Aaron Burr: Talk less. Smile more. 

Nine people were arrested across upstate and western New York, indicted for allegations of bribery and bid-rigging in connection with Governor Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion initiative. Cuomo’s own deputy, Joe Percoco, stands accused of bribery, soliciting a $90,000 no-show job for his wife in exchange for exerting his influence in the capital on behalf of a Syracuse power company and developer. Lobbyist and Cuomo family confidante Todd Howe pled guilty and is cooperating with authorities. Howe’s firm handled lobbying for the Syracuse power company and developer, and for local development firm, LPCiminelli. SUNY Polytechnic’s Alain Kaloyeros, local developer Lou Ciminelli, and executives Michael Laippe and Kevin Schuler all stand accused of rigging bids for construction that unfairly and illegally favored LPCiminelli. 

All of this speaks to the culture of quid pro quo in Albany – private firms spending big money to lubricate the gears of government to win big contracts and earn big profits on the public’s dime. It was pretty open and rather brazen, as it happens when the alleged gangsters in question are unencumbered by omerta. 

It was as comically bad as this: with respect to the Percoco bribery charges, the parties involved referred to the bribes as “ziti”, harkening back to the mafia series The Sopranos, whose characters used the euphemism “boxes of ziti“. 

Perhaps, on the bright side, this episode might lead Unshackle Upstate and other business-entity advocacy groups to dummy up. They’re doing just fine in New York’s “anti-business” climate, because they know better than anyone how to navigate and exploit political money and speech for private gain. 

More seriously, however, good job, defendants. Nice work destroying and degrading something that had/s the potential to do so much good for so many people in this region. Thanks so much for taking an initiative that perhaps balances as much risk as it does hope for economic activity and jobs and turning it into an abbreviation for bribery, graft, and typical upstate corruption. Sure, they’re “innocent until proven guilty” in court, but the public relations damage is already complete. The Buffalo Billion is no longer a risky public investment in private enterprise, but a corrupt public scandal. The Watergate Hotel sympathizes. 

Here’s what this means. Buffalo and New York are run by a mafia. Not mafia in an ethnic sense, nor in any sense strictly parallel to what you find in a Scorcese movie. It’s not based on neighborhood or nationality, or even political partisanship. It’s a mafia based solely on money and power, and it is allowed to thrive within a system that has been especially designed to incubate it; that no one has the political will – or ability – to smash.

It is a system that is self-perpetuating, too. Like Matt Damon in The Martian, we plant potato seeds of corruption, graft, and bribery to yield bountiful and plentiful kickbacks, no-show jobs, and phantom profits. The mafia bosses are the three men in the room. Their staffs are the underbosses. The appointees are their caporegimes. Sometimes they co-opt other, smaller families, like the IDC, for their mutual gain. The dictatorship of the bureaucracy – those are the soldiers; the countless people who close their eyes, do their jobs, and shut their mouths until pensions vest. 

New York government is populated with gangsters, and the whole operation is a racket. How else do you explain, for instance, paying $50,000 for an actual person to man a toll booth and act as a human ticket dispenser in the year 2016? 

It’s tough to bring down a mafia family. Preet Bharara and his US Attorney’s Office, as well as Eric Schneiderman and his AG’s office, are the New Untouchables.

Last weekend, a New Jersey man planted myriad bombs throughout the tri-state area, intending to kill innocent passers-by.  A couple of the bombs went off, and although no one was killed, dozens were injured on 23rd between 6th and 7th. This New Jersey man, Ahmad Rahami, was born in Afghanistan in 1988 and came to the United States with his family in 2000; when he was 12 years old. His father opened up a fast food stand in Elizabeth, which ran into some flak with neighbors and there was activity within the city council and in the courts over its operation. Rahami was a naturalized American citizen.

In the aftermath of an act of terrorism perpetrated by an Afghani-American, the Republican presidential nominee’s son Tweeted this: 

This image says it all. Let’s end the politically correct agenda that doesn’t put America first. #trump2016 pic.twitter.com/9fHwog7ssN

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 19, 2016

The image “says it all”, how? Not only is this facile Skittles analogy all wrong, it’s right out of Julius Streicher’s Der Stürmer. 

That’s the cover of Der Giftpilz, or the “Poisonous Mushroom“. This children’s book taught German kids in the 30s and 40s that, “just as it is often hard to tell a toadstool from an edible mushroom, so too it is often very hard to recognize the Jew as a swindler and criminal”. Streicher was tried and hanged at Nuremburg. 

But aside from the clear regurgitation of some of the most insidious Nazi racial propaganda, how are Skittles like people; from what war or conflagration are these Skittles seeking refuge? What “politically correct” agenda was being served? If the bombings were the thing that prompted Trump to Tweet this, what does Syria have to do with Rahami? What the hell logic is going on here in this heir-head’s mind? 

By all accounts, Rahami was a grade-A scumbag before he tried to maim and kill people with shrapnel propelled by homemade bombs. He allegedly beat and stabbed his own sister. He traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent years, and may have been radicalized while on one of those trips – he spent a year in Pakistan. But he lived with his mom and dad and had a job at the family business. What he attempted to do in New York and New Jersey is abhorrent, and he deserves fully to be prosecuted. 

But how does this sick act by one perverse asshole lead to the conclusion that accepting Syrian refugees is our misfortune? The immigrant story – indeed, the refugee story – is not tragedy for the United States, but a triumph. It’s not for nothing Rahami’s father could open up a fast food business in New Jersey and make some sort of living in a new world. It’s not for nothing the manhunt for Rahami ended when the Sikh owner of a bar called “Merdie’s Tavern” called the cops. It’s not for nothing that it was an American Cypriot refugee who took the picture of Skittles that Trump, Jr. Tweeted. 

I’ve already written that Trumpism is not dissimilar from fascism. From its very creation, the Trump campaign has been founded on the notion of white resentment – against Mexicans, against Muslims, against any minority group who can reasonably be scapegoated. The world is changing in many ways – socially and economically. Not only aren’t the coal mines coming back, but neither are steel mills. By the way, gay people can get married to a same-sex partner, to boot. For many people, this is all too much. America is gone. Obama and Hillary have taken it away. The liberals and Nancy Pelosi must be stopped. 

On top of that, the immigrants. The refugees. They’re coming for your jobs; your children; your lives; your women. 

They’re here. And I’ve been saying. This is going to be like the Trojan horse. We’re letting tens of thousands of people flow into this country and they are bringing in, in many cases, this is cancer from within. This is something that’s going to be so tough and you know they stay together, so nobody really knows who it is, what’s happening. They are plotting. They keep plotting, and this has been going on for so long and everybody knows it and the good law enforcement, we have such great people. That’s the best thing we have going is that we have great law enforcement. They know about it.

Trump says, “Cancer from within”. Like this Nazi Russian-language propaganda from 1943 branding Jews as “people of contagion”. 

‘They are plotting; they keep plotting”, says Trump. Like this 1942 cartoon accusing Jews of a “conspiracy against Europe”? 

But racial animus isn’t enough – Trump also has to attack our fundamental principles. The bomber was shot; we have a duty to provide him with medical care, and even if you think he doesn’t deserve it, it keeps him alive to face justice.

But the bad part: Now we will give him amazing hospitalization,” Trump continued. “He will be taken care of by some of the best doctors in the world. He will be given a fully modern and updated hospital room. And he’ll probably even have room service knowing the way our country is.”

We have a constitutional duty to provide him with legal defense if he can’t afford his own lawyer. Again: it’s not our race hate, but our Constitution that makes America great. 

“On top of all of that, he will be represented by an outstanding lawyer,” Trump added. “And his punishment will not be what it once would have been. What a sad situation. We must have speedy but fair trials and we must deliver a just and very harsh punishment to these people.”

The Constitutional guarantee of a right to counsel doesn’t just protect people whom you think are guilty, but all people who stand accused of a crime. “His punishment will not be what it once would have been” – what, exactly, does that mean? Guillotine? Hanging? Is that what will make “America Great Again?” 

Stoking the fires of racial and class resentment isn’t going to turn back the clock to a happier time, when it was “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve”; when women and minorities knew their place, and, ironically, trade unions succeeded in the working class into the middle class. Railing against “political correctness” so that white millionaires can feel more comfortable using racial epithets, isn’t going to lead to any great regression, either. 

Within the Trump campaign, all of the hallmarks of a fascist movement are there; authoritarianism; scapegoating of immigrants and minorities for real and perceived social and economic ills; disregard for the Constitution and rule of law; spouting lies and falsehoods with impunity; “stab in the back” mythology; “take our country back” jingoism; appeals to class warfare, here inciting the working class to blame the pointy-headed liberal elites for their own economic misfortunes in a changing economy, etc. Mussolini blamed the socialists. Hitler blamed the Jews. Fascism was a perverse reaction to Marxist collectivism; while Marx emphasized class over the individual, fascism holds that national and/or racial identity take precedence over the individual. Toil for the good of the proletariat; toil for the victory of the Volk. 

Trump (so far) has blamed the Mexicans and Muslims – especially the Syrian refugees. But they haven’t done anything. Their only crimes are that they’re not like Trump. From Vox, 

A report released last week by the Cato Institute measured the risk to Americans posed by refugees. The report found that an American’s chances of being killed by a refugee in a terrorist attack in any given year are 1 in 3.64 billion. America’s murder rate — at 4.5 per 100,000 capita — is about 163,800 times higher.

Therefore, math being a thing, if three Skittles are deadly terrorists, you’d need a bowl of 11 billion Skittles to match the statistical likelihood of harm. Aren’t Republicans better than this? Shouldn’t they be? 

At this point, the only difference between Naziism and Trumpism is that Hitler believed that all the Skittles were poison. 

The defeat of Mazurek, Flaherty, and Coppola don’t just mean triumph for Wallace, Flynn, and Small. Erie County Democratic Committee Chairman Jeremy Zellner and his party apparatus were also big winners last night. The 2016 primary saw the utter collapse of the Steve Pigeon faction, which goes to show you that nine felony indictments count for something. 

Assembly 143

Political newcomer Monica Wallace absolutely humbled “Crybaby Kristy” Mazurek by a gaping margin of 76 – 24%. This was a colossal blowout, and was the centerpiece of this year’s defeat of Pigeonism. Wallace – who has never been involved in party politics or factional squabbles – came to this race with an appeal to ethics, good government, and restoring trust in Albany after the previous two Assemblypeople left office in disgrace.  

Mazurek tried to ride that same road, but it was an impossibility. For that district, capability and integrity matter more than ever, but she instead ran on her family name and ethnic identity, glossing over her many problems by blaming her illness, or how mean her opponents are. Yet she and her treasurer couldn’t – or wouldn’t – competently navigate campaign finance requirements, and Mazurek has $30,000 in federal tax liens, which she never addressed or explained to voters. In a year where ethics in Albany is a big deal, she revealed herself to be Steve Pigeon’s power of attorney for matters arising out of the sale of his downtown apartment. In the end, her surname and ethnicity couldn’t compete with a mild-mannered, soft-spoken, multitasking mom, wife, lawyer, teacher, and taxpayer. 

By the way, Mazurek claimed she ran a relentlessly positive campaign. False. Mazurek attacked Wallace for not giving up enough time for public or charitable service. Working for a federal judge is defined generally as “public service”.  Not only did Kristy Mazurek lose by a huge margin, her brother and sister-in-law lost their Cheektowaga committee races. Not at all a good day for that family. Kristy Mazurek is unqualified to be anywhere near elective office, and the voters knew it. 

I hope that all of Mazurek’s and AwfulPAC’s victims from 2013 enjoyed a chilled glass of something bubbly last night. You deserve it. 

Senate 60

This year was – what, the tenth (?) time Al Coppola tried – and failed – to return to the State Senate, where he served from February 2000 – January 2001, after winning a special election to replace Anthony Nanula, and then subsequently lost the primary to Byron Brown. He’s well-liked in some corners of Buffalo’s West Side, but the Senate District is more than just one neighborhood. Parkside community activist Amber Small raised an impressive amount of money, ran a professional and competent race, won herself – after much delay – the endorsement of the party hierarchy, and soundly defeated Coppola 67 – 33%. 

Small’s real challenge comes over the next six weeks, as she goes up against multi-millionaire Chris Jacobs, who overwhelmingly defeated his own perennial candidate, Kevin Stocker. The margin of victory in that Republican primary was Mazurekesque in its decisiveness. Jacobs and the state committee, however, revealed that they will not play nicely – they will be relentlessly negative and lie if they have to. Jacobs and the Republicans spent ridiculous amounts of cash on radio ads slamming Stocker and accusing him of corruption and criminality. They even slammed Amber Small in a last-ditch effort to harm her and lift up Coppola. It became quite clear that Jacobs is afraid of going up against Small. She is young, smart, a political newbie, and enjoys a pretty wide enrollment advantage. If Jacobs and the GOP are willing to lie, accusing Small of campaign finance irregularities that don’t exist, they’re going to make October very ugly. 

District Attorney

John Flynn defeated incumbent acting District Attorney Michael Flaherty last night 45 – 40%. Mark Sacha earned 14% of the vote, as well, which means the anti-Flaherty vote was pretty overwhelming. Flaherty wasn’t incompetent, and he indicated a willingness to address election law crimes by prosecuting alleged vote fraudster Rus Thompson. But Flaherty didn’t show any willingness to go after public integrity overall. For instance, Mazurek’s own campaign finance disclosures were an absolute shambles from day one. Investigate that – Mazurek’s finances were being handled by people with years’ worth of experience, yet the newcomers were the ones who followed the law. 

Democratic Headquarters pulled out all the stops for John Flynn, and their efforts paid off. They got their message out, they got their vote out, and Flaherty’s campaign was being run by people who have a blood feud going with Zellner’s HQ – Jim Eagan and Rich Horner, to name a couple. They went so far as to hijack a “Flynn for DA” URL to redirect to Flaherty’s website, and stuck a crime victim in front of a camera to politicize her brother’s murder. 

With their ringleader under indictment and further investigation, the Pigeon faction of nominal Democrats is in dramatic decline. The money spigot has been largely shut off, the patronage jobs have dried up, the friendly vendors, consultants, and hangers-on are exposed as incompetent, and left high and dry. The hacks who relentlessly puff people like Mazurek, Stocker, and Coppola are left embarrassed. 

What’s left of the Pigeon forces’ efforts this year weren’t just about trying to defeat the HQ-endorsed candidates so they could crow about how ineffective Jeremy Zellner is, and how he should go back to fetching coffee for the big kids; their efforts were supposed to bring about a competitive race for the county party chairmanship. There might be a race, but it won’t be competitive. 

Three great Democrats defeated their insurgent opponents last night, and all of Bob McCarthy’s yellowed, Pigeon-fed, hand-wringing columns about Zellner’s youth, inexperience, and ineffectiveness will have to be filed away once and for all. 

 

Ken Block is a drifting, rally-racing daredevil. Each video from his Gymkhana series routinely earn tens of millions of views on YouTube, each. “Gymkhana” is basically running a car through an obstacle course in the fastest possible time. Drifting is encouraged. 

Here’s episode nine, which Block filmed in Buffalo and Eden this past summer.