McMurray did, indeed, prompt this “elderly blogger” out of semi-retirement. It was things like this that prompted it. I don’t remember Nate calling me “elderly” when I gave him free promotion over and over again during his campaigns, but I am just a thing – a piece of shit – just one of McMurray’s many burned bridges.
When I ceased to be useful to him, he lumped me in with all of the other people whom he blames for his failures. He thought he could bully me and repeatedly call me names – even after I politely asked him not to – and he figured that I would be ok with that. I found him to be little more than a manipulative, gaslighting POS. FWIW, I still have the receipts.
I don’t think he’s viable so much as I think he’s unfit to be anywhere near elected office.
Remember early 2021 how you were going to have someone primary Higgins – was it Eddie Egriu? You were going to start a PAC. You were going to write a book – you know, that thing you just slammed Poloncarz for doing? I guess the difference is that Poloncarz’s book was about an accomplishment while yours would have been about failure.
What McMurray would like to change, if he can, is what he sees as conservative media’s wholesale demonization of Democrats.
“You hear people talking about Democrats in a way that sounds like they’re talking about Satan-worshippers,” he said. “I think we have to start to think on every level, the local level and the national level: How are we going to overcome this?”
Pot, kettle.
But what really sucks is that McMurray feeds his own poison to people. For instance, every Presidential election both parties enjoy a little burst of interest and activity from people who had formerly been on the sidelines. Do you think it helps or hurts Democratic recruitment to have a prominent but salty ex-candidate going around telling anyone who will listen how awful and corrupt it is?
When it comes to kneecapping Democrats, who needs Republicans?
I can tell from his Twitter feed he was recently somewhere in the UK. He posted a now-deleted photo of some books and they had the pound symbol on the pricetags.
It’s true – at Heathrow, American passport holders can use the e-gates. To use an e-gate, you line up, put your passport on a glass reader, look at a photo, and a computer figures out whether you are the same person as is shown in the Passport. In most cases, you’re allowed through and that’s it – collect your bags, go through customs, and on you go.
They’re not perfect. In December, we used e-gates in Munich for Schengen entry check, and one of my kids was pulled for secondary passport check. We used them again in London for UK entry, and my other kid was pulled for secondary passport check. Glitches happen.
Upon return to Toronto Pearson Airport, can you guess what they have? Well, it depends. At Terminal 1, if you have a NEXUS card, you use an e-gate and wave your NEXUS at a reader and you’re spat through to get your bag and then deal with Customs. If you don’t have NEXUS, you use a Kiosk that does most of the stuff automatically, and then you line up for an in-person check with a human CBSA officer. It’s quite efficient and speedy.
Did you know you could enter the US at the Toronto airport? You go through US passport control – again, there’s an expedited line for NEXUS holders – and boom, welcome to Mississauga, USA and when you arrive in the US, you do so as a domestic arrival. They have this in some Caribbean countries, and in Ireland.
So, there’s a big difference when you enter a country through a land border versus an airport. For starters, you’re not likely to be walking. You’re in a car. The car has stuff in it. The person in the booth is both passport control and customs. Now, you’ll be amazed if I tell you that the lanes at the land crossings in our area are all equipped with the same technology as e-gates – RFID scanners – and you can wave your Passport, NEXUS, or Enhanced License at them and they will scan the documents to be ready for the inspection officer.
I find in my experience that the questions asked at the border crossings seldom resemble a “blind date.” I don’t find the questions, “where are you coming from? Where did you go? What are you bringing back” to be especially “weird” nor does it send my “eye brows [sic] wriggling.” After all, it’s a hard border and you’re limited in terms of what you can take across. Usually, the officers are trained to detect oddball behavior and are probably likely to pull the people with weird answers and facial expressions over to secondary inspection.
Anyway, here’s my question – what does Nate’s flirtation with the border guard have to do with the number of lanes that are open? Is this going to be one of his platforms for the County Executive race, opening more inspection lanes at the border?
The Tesla deal was negotiated by the State as part of Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion initiative, and it was originally struck with SolarCity/Silevo, which Tesla bought in 2016 for $2.6 billion. (The owners of SolarCity were Musk’s relatives).
But our plucky young propagandist is banking on you not knowing that, and will fling his rhetorical dung wherever necessary.
By the way, the article to which that McMurray tweet is linked talks about microloans in Bangladesh and how such an initiative might help untraditional entrepreneurs in Korea. What a great idea, said the WEDI and ECIDA/SBA.
Someone was busy lashing out at all of his enemies on Twitter. As usual, they’re all Democrats. He derides the party apparatus as a “country club” that you have to “pay to get in” with “cash or your independence.”
This is another way of saying that party politics is hard work and takes lots of moving parts to run. In the unlikely event that those parts are moving somewhat in sync, things still go wrong. The party committee and rank & file members overwhelmingly support Poloncarz and Zellner. And Hochul. And Hardwick, whom Nate denigrates as a “Trumper”.
Nate should tell all of the hard-working people who do genuinely tough jobs in the private and public sectors that they’re just paid-for lackeys who have no independence. If ECDC is a “country club” it’s a pretty easy one to get into, and it has the charm and appeal of an Arby’s.
Ask literally any Democrat who does work for the party and its candidates if they’re proud of the work they did for McMurray. Then ask them if they’re still on speaking terms with him.
So many people did so much for him and if they’re not in the Cult of Nate, they’re garbage to him. They’re sellouts. They’re bought-and-paid-for. They’re part of a “gravy train.” Did Nate lash out at you and call you names, or accuse you of having worked against him? We want to hear your story.
Make no mistake. It’s not that this guy hates the gravy train – it’s that he burned too many bridges to benefit from it and now he wants to fashion his own gravy train from scratch.
I see he’s at least gotten a bit more accurate about how long Poloncarz has been in office as CE. I wonder where he gets his information that Mark “hates his job”. That’s just insane levels of gaslighting. I guess it’s easy for the former counsel for Delaware North, with which he is still (barely) in litigation, to shit all over the Bills stadium deal, but does he realize that the downtown Seneca casino has been there since 2007? Last time I checked, it would have been opened under Joel Giambra’s tenure. But, as usual, Nate doesn’t know what he’s talking about even as to the details – the Seneca deal was negotiated by Governor Pataki and the County exercises no control or authority over any of it.
I’ve been to London and there’s no stadium downtown. I hardly think LA is a place for Buffalo to emulate any more than it already has. I mean, pick an example that backs up your argument!
Nate – you are in for a fun time as you go around to all the committeepeople whom you’ve insulted and denigrated. Have a great time!
If you are inclined to entertain him, ask Nate what this means:
Yes, we know about health coverage as a human right in other countries but to suggest that the Democratic Party “thinks think saying that is dangerous” is such gaslighting BS.
The Democratic Party has had some form of national health insurance cover as part of its platform for probably 80 years. There is only one impediment to that happening, and that is the Republican Party. Leave it to Larry Scott of the Buffalo School Board to fact-check this blatant misinformation.
It is shockingly dumb and factually wrong and merely underscores the lack of any rationale for this campaign except to settle scores with perceived enemies who supposedly stabbed him in the back.
I remember being signed up for updates from the Nate McMurray Democrat-running-against-a-Republican-for-Congress campaign. I do not ever remember signing up for updates from the Nate McMurray Democrat-primarying-one-of-our-most-effective-local-Democratic-politicians campaign.
In fact, I’m sure I never did. So, let’s take a look at this spam folder reject, which seems only slightly more poorly targeted than the letters he sent to the committeepeople earlier this week seeking their support against Mark Poloncarz for County Executive.
I ran for Congress in rural New York—in the reddest district in New York State, where Trump won by over 20 points. Despite the odds, I stood proudly for democracy, for healthcare as a human right, for choice—and I almost won, defying convention and without national party support… TWICE!
Almost won. Didn’t win. Despite going up against an insurrectionist. Despite going up against a felon. And you didn’t have “national party support?” That will come as news to the DCCC. But, as usual with a malignant narcissist, a failure cannot be his, but must be blamed on someone else. It is literally the driving rationale behind this primary campaign itself.
Now I’m back again. I see the creep of right-wing radicalism on school boards, state legislatures, and in our small-town councils. And I know that the only way to combat threats of extremism is through grassroots leadership. So,I’m running for Erie County Executive.
How does running for County Executive stanch the ills cited earlier in that paragraph? The County Executive, as I’m sure he knows, has no authority to alter school boards or other governmental bodies. Perhaps he means he would use his bully pulpit – something he already has with his name recognition and verified Twitter account.
Erie County boasts the nation’s second-highest arrest rate for January 6th insurrectionists. And although Democrats outnumber Republicans here, our problems extend beyond MAGA fundamentalism.
One would think that a guy who ran in the former Collins/Jacobs district would realize that there are a lot of very conservative, nominal Democrats in this region.
Erie County is home to the City of Buffalo, where on May 14, 2022, a gunman entered a busy grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood and murdered 10 and wounded three others in a racist attack. And late last December, nearly 50 people died in a brutal blizzard—most by hypothermia in historically disinvested neighborhoods—because our local leaders failed to properly warn and prepare residents.
Chalk this up as the first overt politicization of the Tops massacre and the blizzard. It’s pretty grotesque for him to blame the mass murder by a racist lunatic on the failure of “local leaders”. Each story of death and deprivation from the blizzard is entitled to more than clumsy, slapdash accusation of governmental negligence within the context of the County Executive race, but the crass exploitation of tragedy is right up this guy’s alley. I think Nate believes he’s running for Mayor of Buffalo, a city which does actually operate a housing authority. But let’s keep it simple and see this for what it is.
I have never taken corporate donations, and I’ve consistently been an independent voice in the Democratic Party fighting for change. I believe that true change starts locally, where you have the ability to touch and change the lives of those who need it most, and that’s why I’m running for Erie County Executive. Will you chip in $7.16 to help make my vision for Erie County a reality?
Corporate donations are not allowed in federal races – they’re usually filtered through 501c4 special interest charities, PACs, and SuperPACs. There’s always the $500 he received in 2019 from the Erie County Town Chair’s Association. There’s $500 he received in 2017 from Hodgson Russ, LLP – a partnership. Higgins for Congress supported McMurray in every one of his races. On September 20, 2020, he received $40.40 from now-defunct Maroon Technology, LTD. He also received $400 from Montana International, LLC that same month. On October 30, 2019, SolarPark Energy – a Delaware LLC – donated $500. ECDC Chair Jeremy Zellner gave McMurray $750 in October 2019, $150 in 2015, and $150 in 2012. An LLC is not technically a corporation, but something called “Ltd” probably is, so let’s chalk this up as a bit of a stretch.
If true change starts “locally, where you have the ability to touch and change the lives of those who need it most” why would you run to be executive of a million-person county? Why wouldn’t you run for the town board of wherever you live? Or Mayor? Make it make sense. And no, I will not chip in $7.16 or even another cent of my family’s money.
It’s interesting because nothing in the earlier paragraphs really builds a proper foundation to end on “disrupt the status quo.” We don’t need an Elon Musk type character “disrupting” government, because the last guy who tried that was an utter disaster. Next thing you know, we’ll be hearing about Six Sigma again.
It’s easy for a candidate to solicit prime Democrats for aid and financial support in a close race against a genuinely repugnant Republican candidate, as McMurray had the privilege of doing a few times. It’s a whole different ballgame for you to challenge one of the most respected and competent, winningest Democrats in the region and set out to kneecap him. There is not a syllable uttered here to explain even a mild – much less a compelling – reason to get rid of Poloncarz in favor of McMurray.
McMurray is, in the end, no different from the Republicans from whom he once sought to distinguish himself. He gleefully parrots their anti-Poloncarz talking points and is like the dime store version of Mychajliw or some hackneyed Pigeonista. His “disruption” would come at great cost. The best argument he can muster is to blame the Tops shooting on Poloncarz? I doubt even Chris Collins would have stooped so low.
The next time this guy “listens” will be the first.
To rebut his anticipated attacks, I don’t do business with the County of Erie, I don’t derive any income from the County of Erie in any way, I do not work for – nor am I on the payroll of – Mark Poloncarz, I am not a contractor for or otherwise retained by the Poloncarz campaign, etc. I am not an ECDC Committee member, nor a member of any local Democratic committee. I do not owe my job to Mark Poloncarz or Jeremy Zellner or any other political person or entity. I am a private citizen who has known Poloncarz for about 18 years and who has also had dealings with Nate McMurray over the last five or so.
I think it’s definitely important for politicians to listen, but it’s more important for them to think. To have humility. Humor. To have empathy and have a capability of seeing things in different ways. I know Poloncarz has those abilities. His opponent does not.
In the last 5 or so years, I have given McMurray much more of my time and money than I have to Poloncarz, which honestly isn’t saying much. I’m older and it’s not 2006. As to McMurray, I regret every nanosecond and every penny. It was wasted on someone who fixates on a daily compendium of Quixotic battles with enemies real and perceived. (Usually, perceived until he gets going, then they’re real).
Never had I heard from an adult public figure such a broad but shallow collection of grievances and victimhood. Want a well-documented example? Here you go. How many times, and how many different ways, can this intemperate man scream about all the people who supposedly won’t help him and are, thereby, out to get him?
Literally I cannot think of one Democrat whom he has badmouthed – in public or private – who has not at least begrudgingly lent to him their vocal and financial support. Kathy Hochul, Mark Poloncarz, Jeremy Zellner, Brian Higgins – all of his many bêtes noires have dutifully lined up to get people to vote for him and to give him money. He thanks them by hurling at them an endless reserve of rhetorical feces, e.g., getting his surrogates to demean hard-working campaigners for other candidates as “errand girls” and the like. Heaping scorn and derision on Kevin Hardwick for being an ex-Republican when Nate himself relied on under-employed fascist convicted vote fraudster Rus Thompson to get him elected to the one government post he ever held, in a town where you have to cross a bridge and pay a toll to get to a hospital.
As an aside, you know to whom I owe an apology? Natalie Baldassarre. She and her family were right all along and they had his number when the rest of us were too busy thinking there was something there.
Buffalo doesn’t have a Costco. But one is coming to Amherst soon. We also have at least a couple of Sam’s Clubs and a handful of BJ’s clubs. Suffice it to say, there is no shortage of places to get your fleet of candy bars or platoon of cheese snacks.
We do not, alas, have a “real Nike store.” There’s an outlet in the Falls, and another in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Last time I checked, they sell Nikes at Laux and Dicks. Also, y’know, the internet.
There’s a Tops we all know on Jefferson, but there’s also an Aldi and a couple of Sav-a-Lots. Obviously, this is not ideal, but it’s hardly a County Executive’s job to do site selection for supermarkets.
But the best response of all is this:
As of today… Buffalo doesn’t have any buildings over 2000ft tall Buffalo doesn’t have a saltwater port Buffalo doesn’t have a downtown ski slope Buffalo doesn’t even have a real elephant roaming the northtowns
All you need to have “clean subways” and have your place look like a “sci-go” movie is have an enemy bomb your country to smithereens ~ 70 years ago so you have to re-build it all, and mix in a completely different culture!
Also, make sure you’re talking about a very small island or peninsular country!
Nate McMurray thinks that the Erie County Executive – who has not been in any office for “20 years” – has the authority to magically introduce a train service into a different country.
