Category: Uncategorized

Yesterday, acting Attorney General Sally Yates indicated that the Department of Justice would not defend President Trump’s executive orders against immigration and refugees. Trump promptly fired her. 

Flash back to her Senate confirmation hearing in 2015, when Trump’s current nominee for Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), inquired of Yates: 

He asked Yates if she would be willing to defy the orders of the President if he asked her to do anything illegal or unlawful. She replied that an Attorney General has an “obligation to follow the law and the Constitution, and to give independent legal advice to the President.” Trump fired her for doing just that. 

Cheektowaga Democratic operative Frank Max pled guilty in Albany Wednesday to two class-A misdemeanors relating to improper and falsified campaign finance disclosures for his “Progressive Democrats of WNY” political club. In recent years, Max has been closely aligned with the Steve Pigeon breakaway faction of nominal Democrats. This conviction falls squarely within the Preetsmas canon. 

Max’s guilty plea was detailed in an afternoon press release from Attorney General Eric Schneiderman: 

Max entered a guilty plea today before the Hon. Joshua Farrell in Albany City Court, Criminal Part, to two class A misdemeanors, including Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the Second Degree, in violation of Penal Law section 175.30, and one count of Knowingly and Willfully Filing a False Campaign Finance Disclosure Report, in violation of Election Law 14-126(4). He was charged after an investigation revealed Max’s failures to truthfully disclose to the New York State Board of Elections the financial activity of the Progressive Democrats of Western New York, a Political Action Committee Max both founded and served as treasurer of since its inception.

“Campaign finance laws exist for a reason-to protect voters and keep our democratic process honest and transparent,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “When well-connected political operatives fail to make proper disclosures, it creates widespread distrust in the system as a whole. Today’s plea sends the message that political committees, treasurers and candidates will be held accountable if they fail to obey the law.”

The maximum penalty for each count is up to one year in jail for each count. Sentencing is scheduled for May 5, 2017 at 2:00 p.m.

Under the Election Law, political committees and candidates are required to file periodic financial disclosure reports accurately disclosing their expenditures and contributions in order to maintain transparency in the election process.  According to documents filed in Court and Max’s guilty plea, Max failed to provide accurate information on two Campaign Finance Disclosure Reports. The inaccurate information included falsely claiming that donations received by the Progressive Democrats of Western New York in amounts over $99, which should have been itemized, were less than $99, thereby circumventing the reporting requirements. In addition, a $900 donation was reported as $400. Finally, corporate donations were not properly noted. This is particularly significant because corporations are subject to strict limitations on the amount of total annual contributions they can make to political candidates.

“Campaign finance disclosure ensures New Yorkers have confidence and transparency in the electoral process,” said Risa Sugarman, Chief Enforcement Counsel for the New York State Board of Elections. “The public has the right to know who contributes to political committees and how the money is spent. We will continue to work together with our law enforcement partners, including the Attorney General, to assure New Yorkers that violations of the public trust do not go unpunished.”

Schneiderman thanked not only the members of his own team and the State Police, but also agents from the FBI and the office of the acting United States Attorney for the Western District of New York, James Kennedy.

Longtime readers of my Preetsmas series regarding the campaign finance irregularities of people and entities with ties to Steve Pigeon will already be familiar with Max and his chronic, opaque electoral shenanigans.

Most recently, in November 2016, one of Max’s former allies/campaign workers publicly accused him of refusing to pay for petition gathering. The more important revelation was that Max’s group had clearly participated in the 2016 primaries, but failed to file requisite disclosures for same. In 2015, we had similar evidence of primary activity without primary financial disclosures being made; there was a definite pattern of deceptive non-compliance. 

In February 2015, Max’s club showed a balance of $2.00 despite having held a big Christmas fundraiser in December. Max’s allies created their own club in 2015, and to this day it remains out of compliance with election law. 

On the 7th Day of Preetsmas, June 2015, I detailed how Max’s club had donated well in excess of the allowed maximum to its preferred candidates for county legislature, apparently colluding with the WNY Progressive Caucus, or “AwfulPAC”, which was active in 2013 and is alleged to be at the center of an ongoing state and federal investigation. 

In 2016, Max and his club tried one last, Pigeonless gasp at statewide office, running the former AwfulPAC steward for state assembly. That campaign tanked as dramatically as it deserved, but not before first releasing its own emetically hilarious campaign finance disclosures. 

The Preetsmas story is ongoing, but progressed visibly last June with the guilty plea of Supreme Court Justice John Michalek and the indictment of Steve Pigeon. It was very clear then that the investigation was far from over, and Pigeon’s attorneys have been in court a few times since then to challenge the government’s evidence. 

Query whether Max’s plea is indicative of something larger, or the end of a relatively small matter. His sentencing may be dependent on how cooperative he’s been with related investigations into AwfulPAC and the charges pending against Steve Pigeon. 

Either unable to believe he actually won, or unable to stomach the fact that he dramatically lost the popular vote, President Donald Trump insists that there was rampant voter fraud affecting the 2016 election. Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, and his #1 congressional sycophant, Chris Collins (R-NY) go out of their way to explain this fantasy by repeating not that this is fact, but that it is what Trump “believes”. Dezinformatsiya is a Russian term for deliberately spreading false or misleading information (fake news?) in a calculated way to influence target audiences. 

Trump’s own lawyers representing him in several recount states averred in court documents that, “all available evidence suggests the 2016 election was not tainted by fraud or mistake.”

So, it’s not that rampant voter fraud actually affected the 2016 election, but that Trump “feels” it happened because he is embarrassed by his popular vote loss. This is snowflakeism at its most dangerous, because Trump is now one of the most powerful men in the world who has surrounded himself with sycophants: it’s not enough that people occasionally tell him “no”, but that he actually take the advice. 

Voter fraud isn’t a problem in the United States. The logistics of any group or party designing and implementing a 3 million+ voter fraud exercise would be overwhelming, and here’s the key: if Clinton or the Democrats had wanted to rig the election, they’d have done it in states where it mattered and won the whole thing. If voter fraud was a thing, you’d expect the person who overwhelmingly won the popular vote but lost the electoral college tally to complain about a rigged system. It isn’t, it wasn’t, and here’s a Republican law firm to explain why (back in October, when Trump first made the allegation): 

Yesterday on the radio, two afternoon conservative commentators wondered aloud why the Democrats were so opposed to Trump’s threatened “investigation” into voter fraud. I can give you several reasons: 1. It’s a waste of money and effort, because it’s already been studied and doesn’t exist in any statistically significant way; 2. we don’t trust Donald Trump or his minions or contractors to produce a credible or true report; 3. this is all an excuse for Trump and the Republicans to further erode, roll back, and eliminate the Voting Rights Act and to make it difficult, costly, or impossible for historically marginalized groups of Americans to vote. 

As it turns out, Trump tweeted about it: 

I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

This is funny, as it was revealed that Trump advisor Steve Bannon, Trump’s daughter Tiffany, and Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin are all registered to vote simultaneously in two states. 

Locally, Republican elections commissioner Ralph Mohr talked with WGRZ, 

Ralph Mohr, the Republican Election Commissioner overseeing 591,000 registered voters in Erie County, said he’s encountered maybe three or four cases of voter fraud in his 24 years on the job.

“There has never been a situation where any type of fraud would affect the outcome of the election,” Mohr said.

Mohr said Trump’s call for an investigation is “unnecessary,” adding that he doesn’t believe it will even materialize at the federal level. The Department of Justice would likely handle such a situation, but it has not yet commented on Trump’s false accusations of voter fraud.

We’d be able to say two or three were it not for the ongoing allegation of blatant voter fraud by local tea party agitator Rus Thompson. Thompson was evicted from his home on Grand Island in 2014, and in October of that year, his wife notified the Erie County Board of Elections that they were moving out of the county at to remove them from the voter rolls. You don’t get to vote where you feel at home, but where you are actually domiciled. That means Thompson was eligible only to vote at his new home in Niagara County. Instead, when Thompson showed up to vote – improperly – on Grand Island, where he didn’t live – he completed a sworn affidavit averring that he was eligible to vote there.

This was, however, a lie made under oath. He is under indictment for felony voter fraud – something Thompson considers to be treason. Thompson was offered a plea, but rejected it despite the overwhelming evidence against him. His defense seems to be: 1. it’s not like he voted twice!; and 2. he just did what the election inspectors told him to do. The real question is whether Thompson committed voter fraud out of stupidity or malicious intent. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t vote twice; he voted to influence elections that have nothing to do with him, and the election inspectors undoubtedly recognized Thompson when he showed up at his former polling place on Grand Island and certainly would have helped him with a provisional ballot – that’s because how are they supposed to know that he no longer lived there? 

Voter fraud is not a problem in WNY, and it’s not a problem nationally. This is a huge waste of time and effort designed to distract from more important things that the Trump administration is up to. In fact, the most prominent instance of voter fraud locally was allegedly committed by one of Trump’s loudest local supporters. 

Irony is dead. 

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry is nominated to be the next Secretary of Energy. 

Until a few weeks ago, Perry had literally no idea what the Secretary of Energy does, and it wasn’t too long ago he had called for its abolition. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Whether Rick Perry does his best Mr. Magoo, stumbling obliviously into running the Energy Department is one thing, kids’ education is far more important, and under direct assault. 

Betsy DeVos belongs to one of the wealthiest families in Michigan – they own the Amway pyramid selling multi-level marketing cult scheme. She and her husband simply do not believe in secular or public education. Mrs. DeVos is Donald Trump’s nominee to head up the Education Department – a cabinet-level position that Republicans, including Trump, have frequently expressed a desire to abolish altogether, ostensibly to ensure that the quality of public education can vary wildly from state to state. She had once led a ballot initiative to permit public funding of parochial schools, which is violative of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause. She was instrumental in creating Michigan’s series of for-profit, unregulated charter schools. They have spent their billions funding so-called “Christian conservative” candidates and causes, most notably spending big money to combat same-sex marriage initiatives in Michigan and California. But for DeVos’ current nomination, this is key: 

Deep into his first term, [then-Michigan Governor John] Engler wanted to show progress in his signature proposal to reduce the state’s onerous property taxes by 20 percent. Property taxes being the funding source for Michigan’s public school system, Democrats ruled out any plan that did not include a replacement for the lost revenue, and since any new revenue would require legislators to vote for new taxes or fees, that option had little appeal heading into the 1994 campaign. On July 19, 1993, Democratic state Senator Debbie Stabenow proposed an amendment that was interpreted as an attempt to point out the absurdity of Engler’s plan: Why not cut them by 100 percent without having any replacement revenue source?

Democrats were dumbstruck by what happened next: Engler whipped the state Legislature into action, and in the course of a 24-hour period, the Senate and House eradicated property taxes—in the process completely defunding Michigan’s $6.5 billion public-education system. In the ensuing crisis, Engler legalized charter schools.

That wasn’t all. In 1998, DeVos pushed a proposition to legalize statewide school vouchers, which failed overwhelmingly. 

When you really looked at it, the parents weren’t the ones with the choices; the parochial schools were the ones with the choices. If all you do is transfer the money, you don’t transfer any of the other requirements that are put on public schools. Public schools are required to take everyone who comes through the door. But private schools, parochial schools, get to pick and choose. … It’s not really the parents who have the choice, it’s the schools. And people ultimately understood that.

The DeVos family has been expert in setting up PACs throughout Michigan – and the country – to push their religious and political agendae. 

Today, 16 years after the DeVoses’ failed constitutional amendment, this constant push has totally remade Michigan education. The cap on the number of charter schools eliminated and attempts to provide public oversight have been defeated, making Michigan’s charters among the most-plentiful and least-regulated in the nation. About 80 percent of Michigan’s 300 publicly funded charters are operated by for-profit companies, more than any other state. This means that taxpayer dollars that would otherwise go to traditional public schools are instead used to buy supplies such as textbooks and desks that become private property. It is, essentially, a giant experiment in what happens when you shift resources away from public schools…

…While a charter school cannot be religiously affiliated, many walk a fine line, appointing, for instance, a preacher as head of the school board or renting school space from a church. “They have a couple ways of getting around it,” says Gary Miron, a professor of education at Western Michigan University who specializes in charter school evaluation and research. “I’ve been in charter schools where I’ve seen religious prayers to Jesus Christ—they mention Christ by name—and prayer circles with students, teachers and parents.”

What’s the result? Not great. 

Most Michigan charters perform below the state’s averages on tests, even while their enrollment has grown to include more than 110,000 students, nearly half of whom live in the Detroit area. A 2013 Stanford study that compared Detroit’s charters with its traditional public schools found that the charter students gained the equivalent of more than three months’ learning per year more than their counterparts at traditional public schools. But that doesn’t mean they’re performing at a high level, simply that by some measures, certain charters marginally outperform the historically challenged Detroit public schools.

This is the way it’s done: this is the Republicans’ best bet: 

1. Defund or otherwise siphon money out of a public program; 

2. Allow the public program to fail and declare it as such – manufacture an artificial crisis; 

3. Push for your so-called “free market alternative”, with bonus points awarded for appeals to God and capitalism. Maybe throw in some cracks against “socialism”, while you’re at it. You can make even your kid’s kindergarten teacher seem evil if you throw “socialist” at her. 

Now, you’re free to “solve” the crisis you’ve created by inaugurating a privatization of a public right and need. You and all your buddies get to profit off of something that no American family can go without. It is literally an enrichment bonanza – a transparent but politically safe scheme to do palpable harm to the poor and middle class in order to enrich the already wealthy, or in Trump’s case the politically obedient. This is shaping up to be the biggest redistribution of wealth in American history, only backwards as the working and middle classes subsidize massive tax cuts for the rich. There is a class war underway, but it’s being waged against you – not against the millionaires. 

It’s not for nothing that local Representative Chris Collins (R-Spaulding Lake), now under fire for alleged insider trading, boasted about all the “millionaires” his stock tips made in Buffalo. 

Betsy DeVos’ Senate hearing took place this week, and her performance was emetic. DeVos has wide and deep experience spending her fortune on political causes, but she is bereft of any experience – direct or otherwise – with teaching, much less administering a school or district. Sure, DeVos thinks that schools shouldn’t be “gun free zones”, and fell back repeatedly on that right-wing trope; she would leave things up “to the states”. To Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, DeVos claimed that, for instance, a school in Wyoming might need a gun to keep “grizzlies” at bay, evidencing that she has no respect for what’s being discussed – the Sandy Hook massacre of first graders. The fact that she lacks even a scintilla of qualification for the job she seeks soon became evident. 

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren took DeVos to task for her utter lack of professional or personal experience with public education or higher education debt, Pell Grants, and the like. 

Minnesota Senator Al Franken revealed that DeVos lacks even a passing knowledge of one of the great debates underway in contemporary American education – the challenge of growth vs. proficiency. It’s an obscure debate if you’re not in the business, but Franken here highlights his preference for growth, which measures how much students improve, versus proficiency, which merely records whether and how many students meet a testing threshold. It was clear that, for DeVos, Franken might as well have been speaking Mongolian.  

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine challenged DeVos on whether all schools who accept federal funding should adhere to federal statutes and regulations concerning disabilities. DeVos didn’t just punt with a “leave it to the states” answer, but revealed a fundamental ignorance about the workings of our federal system itself .

Betsy DeVos fails @timkaine‘s test at Senate hearing: pic.twitter.com/qnyFZgc52X

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 18, 2017

These weren’t gotcha questions. They instead revealed a person who is woefully unqualified for the post for which she has been nominated. Not only that, it is quite evident that the only reason why she was nominated in the first place was to advance the goal of school privatization and parochialization, and because she and her family are big political donors. This might be well and good for an appointment as Ambassador to some friendly principality, but isn’t good enough to shepherd the education of millions of American children. 

Hearings are now underway for Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Representative Tom Price. Like Collins, Price is also under fire for having made apparently fortuitous equities transactions that comported with Congressional action. Price and the Trump transition had claimed that this was impossible, because a broker handled all of Price’s trades without the congressman’s direct input. 

Except when it came to Price’s investment in Innate Immunotherapeutics, the Australian drug manufacturer on whose board Chris Collins sits, in which Collins owns a majority share of stock, and in which Collins’ children and chief of staff are also heavily invested.

We are entering a dangerous period where government is used to enrich the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of the average working and middle-class American. We are entering a world where it will be easy for the federal government to de-fund and privatize the very foundation of our democracy. This isn’t making America great or putting America first – this is a recipe for devolution into a kleptocratic oligarchical right-wing despotism. The dilettantes are in the castle. The only thing at stake is everything you hold dear. 

Afternoon WBEN talker David Bellavia ran in a Republican primary against Chris Collins to win the right to battle incumbent Kathy Hochul for the 27th Congressional District seat. He wrote this analysis of the allegations against Chris Collins’ alleged insider stock trading. 

In a world where I get political advice from The Financial Guys, Mike Lomas and Glenn Wiggle, it would only seem only fair that we get stock tips from Rep. Chris Collins. This week, HHS nominee Rep Tom Price (R-GA) was asked by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) during his confirmation hearing:
 
“Congressman Chris Collins, who sits on President-elect Trump’s transition team, is both an investor and a board member of [Innate Immunotherapeutics]. He was reportedly overheard just last week off the House floor bragging about how he had made people millionaires from a stock tip,” she said. “Congressman Price, in our meeting, you informed me you made purchases based on conversations with Rep. Collins, is that correct?”
 
So what is the big deal you ask? The Cures Act was a bill signed into law this past December 2016. The bill was originally sponsored by Fred Upton (R-MI). Chris Collins wrote three amendments to the bill. Two of which are alleged to have benefited companies like the one he invests in and sits on the Board of Directors: 

Section 3021, which encourages the broader application of innovative clinical trial designs, including the use of Bayesian  statistics and adaptive trials, to enhance and accelerate effective clinical trials. These changes to the way the FDA approves clinical trial designs will help unleash new, groundbreaking therapies by allowing researchers to efficiently change their trials to meet the individual responses of their participants. 

Section 3071 will expedite and improve the drug approval process by increasing the number of senior biomedical researchers the FDA is allowed to hire and also making the salary of those individuals more competitive with private industry. This will help ensure that our best and brightest scientists will remain with the FDA to review and approve drug applications, and get cures to patients more quickly.

With respect to Price, however, this isn’t the big deal; the big deal is that the Trump transition had publicly stated that a broker made all the decisions concerning the purchase and sale of equities on behalf of Dr. Price, with no input from the Congressman. This turned out to be false, as Price clearly at least retained control over the decision to purchase shares in Innate Immunotherapeutics. According to the New York Times, “[l]ast summer, Mr. Price, [Collins Chief of Staff Michael] Hook and [former WNY Congressman Bill] Paxon bought the stock at a discount as part of a private offering organized by Innate aimed at ‘sophisticated U.S. investors.’ They have since quintupled their money, at least on paper.”

Innate Immunotherapeutics would ostensibly benefit directly from Collins’ amendments to the 21 Century Cures Act, if it decided to enter the U.S. market with its only product, a treatment for M.S. that is now undergoing clinical trials in Australia and New Zealand. Collins sits on the Innate Immunotherapeutics board, and is its largest shareholder. LittleSis.org has prepared this chart showing the various personalities at play: 

view this map on LittleSis

Which brings us to this current allegation.
 
Collins is overheard on a cellphone conversation bragging about how many “millionaires he has made in Buffalo” with this alleged stock tip in the last month.
 
This is key, because the law was signed in December and directly implies that money was made since President Obama signed the bill.
 
Now, let’s be honest, the People’s House is not the arena to be talking about stocks, girlfriends or real estate. You are there to do the job of the people. And this is at best unprofessional and at its worst in violation of the Stock Act, passed in 2012, which limits the trading that elected officials can profit from with regards to their position and insider information.
 
The company in question is an Australian based corporation called Innate Immunotherapeutics, which tests trial drugs for serious diseases such as MS. Collins is a board member, has held the stock for 15 years and two of his children and Michael Hook, his longtime advisor and Chief of Staff are amongst the largest stockholders of the small biotech firm.
 
Yeah, it’s gross. Collins making the phone call and acting like a big shot is gross too. Has the law been broken? I don’t think so. Is Collins doomed because of this behavior? Not a chance.

Well, not so fast. There simply isn’t any evidence to conclude whether the STOCK Act was or was not broken; any such opinion is based merely on conjecture. If one were to proceed simply on the basis of an “appearance of impropriety” standard, there would be grounds to investigate further. In a nutshell, the STOCK Act exists to prevent members of Congress from using their knowledge as lawmakers in order to personally profit through the purchase or sale of securities. 

Bellavia’s argument, below, is that it’s far-fetched to accuse Collins of unjustly enriching himself in a company with which he has been involved for 12 years. That’s a fair point, taken without any context. Here, however, the company in question has been something of a failure during that entire time. This article explains how Collins came upon the stock in 2005 when its investors were desperate to stay afloat, and that Collins has lent the company money in later years when it seemed doomed. The M.S. drug now undergoing trials is its inaugural product, and its CEO is pretty up-front about the fact that he’s really just fishing for some large pharma firm to buy Innate out. 

To imply that Chris Collins held a stock for 15 years, ran for County Executive, lost, ran for Congress, in a wild scheme to make $3 million dollars in stocks is absurd. He is worth well north of $120 million. Collins has many businesses involved in the medical field. Are we saying he is disqualified from every authoring legislation or amendments because he may profit from them in the future?
 
Here is what no one is saying, “Chris Collins’ amendments to the bill were actually really good amendments.” The issue here is the behavior of what is expected of our elected officials.
 
Collins behaved poorly. Should never be on a cell phone near journalists bragging about his stock tips. Tom Price, should not be taking stock advice from his peers on the floor of congress.
 
This is a Tom Price problem, not a Chris Collins problem.

That’s only part of the issue, however. The Times points out that Paxon, a lobbyist, could appear before Collins not just to peddle influence, but also as a co-investor in Innate. A bunch of Collins’ friends and associates participated in a special, private offering of Innate stock just last summer – as the Cures Act was wending its way through committee. Price’s investment was between $50,000 and $100,000 – one of the largest investments he made since 2012. The Buffalo News’ Jerry Zremski noted Collins’ investment in Innate in his piece reporting on the passage of the Cures Act. Collins argued that his investment wasn’t a conflict of interest, but instead evidence of the “business knowledge” he brings to Congress. 

It’s also quite possible that it is both reflective of his savvy, and also of his conflict of interest; that his involvement in the amendments and passage of the Cures Act resulted in personal gain. 

What Collins did was the equivalent of picking up the back up quarterback in a fantasy league when the star QB is injured. Anyone who was following the market could have made the same decision and made more money on other companies that do the same thing bigger and better. The stock opened the day at $1.50 and closed at $1.46.

Unless other evidence surfaces, he did not appear to use his position and leverage as a Board Member to offer shares at a reduced cost. If there was a new product the company was going to market with and he told his friends to invest, that too is murky, but not illegal. The market turns on new drugs as quickly as it rewards the early bird for jumping first. For every Viagra, there is a thalidomide. This is not insider trading. Board members have to follow the SEC. They can’t purchase bulk stock until announcements are made and rules are followed. If Collins broke any of those rules, we will know quickly.

More significantly, the stock was priced at around AU$0.30 (30 cents) per share last summer for special investors like Price and Collins, and is now worth AU$1.55 – a five-fold increase for stock in a company that has zero products on the market. In the interim, Price and Collins advocated for a law that would benefit companies like Innate. 

More to the point Collins reportedly threw $4 million into Innate during the special summer friends & family stock offering – an investment that is now worth close to $20 million.  

But can we be honest? Confirmation hearings are not court proceedings. There is a lot tossed at the wall. Most slides off and onto the floor.

I have been very vocal in my criticism of Mr. Collins in the past. I have no issue calling him out when and if he does something wrong. In this case, his only sin is quite frankly, being Chris Collins. He is the same brash, self-congratulating man that we have known for over twenty years. The truth is he is a good and decent man. His flaw is that he will the first one in the room to remind you of that. He is calculating, self interested above all other concerns (ask Carl Paladino about his statement of support during his recent BPS issue) but he is not a bad person. Tom Price will be a great HHS secretary with a lot of work to do usher in the new healthcare plan in the wake of the Obamacare disaster.

To me, unless we are hit with a meteor of new information, this is much ado about nothing.

It doesn’t matter whether someone thinks that Chris Collins is a “good and decent man”. Good and decent men commit bad acts all the time. People who believe in good government, the rule of law, the appearance of impropriety, and in the notion that our elected officials should not be colluding to personally enrich themselves through legislative action, should all be demanding a thorough investigation of what transpired here with Rep. Collins and Price. 

What do you call it when a sitting member of Congress drafts legislation, which passes and then results in a direct personal financial gain? I call it “Corruption 101” and it’s the stuff that 3rd world kleptocracies are made of. 

On Thursday, Washingon ethics watchdog Public Citizen released a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics and the Securities & Exchange Commission alleging that Republican Representatives Tom Price and Chris Collins (NY-27) may have acted unethically and engaged in possible insider trading.

According to Public Citizen and its analysis of news reports and financial disclosures, Collins is a “prolific trader of health care investments on the stock market.” Collins, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, is a board member and the largest shareholder of a major biotech company, Australia’s Innate Immunotherapeutics Limited – a company in which both Price and Collins made major stock purchases within days of each other, according to financial disclosure reports.

“Collins purchased 4 million shares in August in the company whose board he sits on, and Price followed up with his own major stock purchase in the company two days later,” said Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “The stock value doubled in the three months following their investments. That’s quite good luck. This is worthy of investigation to determine whether any wrongful conduct occurred.”

Price is alleged to have traded over $300,000 worth of stocks in about 40 health care companies while “sponsoring and advocating legislation that could potentially affect” the value of those stocks. The Wall Street Journal says that since 2012, Price sponsored 9 and co-sponsored 35 bills in the House that could have resulted in direct, personal financial gain. In August, Price bought between $50,000 – $100,000 in Innate Immunotherapeutics, the value of which has since doubled. 

Price is President-Elect Trump’s nominee to be the director of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Collins is the Trump transition’s Congressional liaison. Public Citizen bills itself as “protecting democracy from corporate greed.” 

Since passage of the STOCK Act in 2012, members of Congress have been subject to the same laws against insider trading that apply to everyone else. Additionally, congressional ethics rules warn members to avoid substantial conflicts of interest that may cast aspersions on the integrity of their office. Rules also mandate that members may not use their office for personal gain. Public Citizen’s letter asks that the OCE and SEC investigate the stock trading activity of Price and Collins for potential violations of insider trading laws and conflict of interest rules and regulations. 

Request for Investigation Price Collins by Alan Bedenko on Scribd

“Extensive stock trading activity in industries that Price and Collins oversee as congressmen, and unusually good timing and financial benefits of those stock trades, raise red flags about the potential use of insider information,” said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “The public information available falls short of hard evidence of insider trading, but the patterns of trading activity certainly warrant further investigation to determine if it occurred.”

The letter specifically asks, 

These patterns of extensive trading activity in businesses and industries that Reps. Price and Collins oversee in their official capacity, and the beneficial timing of these trades, raise legitimate questions concerning both potential insider trading and conflicts of interest. Some ofthese questions include:

• Did Price and Collins have access to nonpublic material information accounting for adoubling in value of their investments in Innate Immuno? Collins sits on the board of thecompany, a company which is placing its bets on an experimental drug currently inclinical trials, and both members of Congress made substantial purchases in the company’s stock at almost the same time.
• Does pharmaceutical and health care legislation sponsored by Price and Collins run afoulof conflicts of interest concerns in that the legislation could directly and substantially benefit the lawmakers’ own investments beyond the benefit to the public generally? These legislative vehicles could well produce windfall profits for Price and Collins

The Wall Street Journal adds, 

Innate Immuno’s chief executive, Simon Wilkerson, said at investor presentations this year that its future depends on an experimental drug to treat an advanced form of multiple sclerosis, which is currently in clinical trials.

One law enacted this month that could benefit Innate Immuno is the 21st Century Cures Act, which authorizes spending $6.3 billion for medical research, including $500 million for the FDA to speed up drug approvals.

A key provision that would permit clinical trials of new medical treatments to proceed more quickly was written by Mr. Collins as a member of the health panel of the Energy and Commerce Committee…

…[Collins told the Buffalo News that] his authorship of legislation wasn’t a conflict of interest, but rather an instance of bringing his business knowledge to the Congress.

A spokesman for Mr. Collins said he used his business experience and meetings with patients and regulators to write legislation that “will put patients first and get cures more quickly to those who need them most.” The statement added that Mr. Collins “has followed all ethical guidelines related to his personal finances.”

Both Mr. Price and Mr. Collins voted yes for the bill’s final House vote in November, just three months after they bought more stock in the company.

In August 2015, Collins bought between $500,000 and $1 million worth – 4 million shares – of Innate Immuno stock. Collins was an author of a law that has a direct positive benefit on that investment and Collins’ wealth, but dismissed these concerns to the Buffalo News. The value of that stock doubled after passage of that law. Collins has relentlessly pushed for repeal of a tax on medical devices, which would have a direct benefit on two of his stock holdings. 

Earlier this week, House Republicans held a secret vote with no advance warning that would have changed congressional rules and effectively abolish the Office of Congressional Ethics. Public outcry and a Tweet from the President-elect quickly prompted the Republican majority to abandon this first, tone-deaf act of the new Congress. As of this writing, no one knows how Collins voted. Ask him on Facebook, Twitter, or at 

Later this month, the Conservative Fusion Party – a club for people who care deeply about guns, abortion, defeating the homosexual agenda, and patronage jobs – will be holding its annual statewide fundraiser. Here is the mail piece they sent out in mid-December: 

On December 28, however, they sent out a mass email with one notable omission from its list of promised conference speakers. 

I wonder what happened between December 16 and 28 for the Conservatives to drop Buffalo’s own bestiality and racism enthusiast Carl Paladino? It’s not like the Conservative Fusion Party is in any way distinguished, reasonable, or professional. 

Local attendees of this sham “party” congress include former Attorney General Dennis Vacco, incoming State Senator Chris Jacobs, and Congressman Chris Collins. 

Incidentally, on Tuesday the Republican congressional majority voted overwhelmingly, and with no warning, to gut Congressional ethics oversight as literally its first act of the Trump era. Public outcry led them quickly to abandon that plan, but we still have no idea how Chris Collins voted at that secret conference. Is he for or against aggressive, independent ethics oversight of Congress? 

The Buffalo Board of Education held a special meeting Thursday afternoon to take up a resolution seeking Carl Paladino’s resignation from the board, and his removal by the state Education Department should he refuse. The resolution, which was introduced by its author, new board member Hope Jay, passed 6 – 2; Paladino was not present. 

The meeting was held in a packed Common Council chamber, and got raucous at times. Both Paladino allies remaining on the board – Patti Pierce and Larry Quinn – condemned Paladino’s statements, but preferred instead to offer him an opportunity to apologize to the board, to students, and to the city. On its face, this would not seem unreasonable. 

Board President Barbara Seals Nevergold kept the meeting orderly, asking spectators to not heckle Pierce or Quinn. Anti-Paladino board members, especially the African-American females who have borne the brunt of Paladino’s arrogant belligerence on the board, spoke passionately about how Paladino’s hatred reflects poorly on the schools, the city, and students; a student who used words such as Carl’s would be disciplined for violating the various anti-bullying rules and codes of conduct. 

Pierce’s presentation was reasonable, but went went far off the rails when she called on Buffalo to show the same sort of compassion and forgiveness as Charleston, SC in the wake of the church massacre by a white supremacist in June 2015. While Pierce likely didn’t mean to compare Carl Paladino to mass murdering neo-nazi Dylann Roof, many in the crowd howled with derision at what they termed Pierce’s use of this tragedy to protect her “racist friend.” 

Quinn told a heartwarming story about his childhood African-American nanny crying at night wishing she could be white. The crowd laughed, and Quinn didn’t know what was so funny, oblivious to the fact that it’s not common for families to retain the services of strangers to raise their kids. It nicely punctuated the sense of privilege emanating from Carl’s weak support during a debate over racism. 

I could have done without Theresa Harris-Tigg referring to Paladino as “orange Cheeto” in an obvious dig at the President-Elect. She prefaced that with a statement about how Paladino “craves infamy,” and she will “not say his name again” or “continue to empower him”. It seems disingenuous to me, however, for someone to complain about dehumanizing language by using dehumanizing and insulting language. I have no doubt, however, that Harris-Tigg especially has been in Paladino’s relentlessly bullying crosshairs for months, and this was her chance to give him a taste of his own medicine. Either way, it was unnecessary; when they go low, we go high. 

Every other board member also spoke convincingly about Paladino’s pattern of hostile and disruptive behavior. It was clear that this was more a victim impact statement than a board debate. 

There was no show of support for Carl Paladino at the meeting. At the chilly rally earlier in the day, about three showed up. One lady had a bizarre sign with fetuses on it and kept yelling about abortion. Two older men showed up, and one had a sign in support of Carl that he tried to display directly under the podium. There was about a minute where protesters and Carl’s lonely supporter danced around each other, avoiding contact, to cover up the pro-Carl sign. 

But there were 2 – 300 people, some who brought their children during this vacation week, who expressed their outrage at this man who governs their school district and thinks that Michelle Obama is a male gorilla. 

Significantly, the story about Paladino’s comments has now gone international and every non-Buffalo media outlet refers to Carl as a Trump surrogate or state co-chair. While Trump will probably continue to take Carl’s calls, chances are that people like Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, and Reince Priebus have no use for Paladino or his list of prospective White House hires. This “joke” of his has blown up in Paladino’s face in a way he likely never could have foreseen. 

As for Paladino, Jim Heaney at the IP notes that Paladino’s speech is protected by the 1st Amendment and demanding that the state remove him from the board sets a dangerous precedent.  It’s a valid point, and one that I’ve thought about, as well. If the state sanctions Paladino for his racist words, the 1st Amendment is definitely triggered. Carl Paladino absolutely has a 1st Amendment right to call Michelle Obama a male Zimbabwean gorilla; however, Paladino doesn’t have a concomitant Constitutional right to be on the school board. If he violates the rules of conduct as they relate to the board, he can be removed. 

The state can remove a board member if his conduct hinders the board’s ability to function, and the Buffalo school board is making that very allegation. Paladino’s relentless, oft-racial bullying does not advance the board’s work in any way. Indeed, expressing death wishes or threats against the President, which Paladino did in his “wish list”, is also not necessarily protected speech and could very well invite a Secret Service investigation. Either way, if the state chooses to remove Paladino, he has already indicated a willingness to fight that in court – Carl Paladino has cost the board thousands in legal fees already, what’s a few more?

What Paladino wrote in Artvoice is not dissimilar from the words that saw a West Virginia mayor resign and an IDA member removed. Is Buffalo at least as responsible as Clay County, West Virginia? 

In an annual Artvoice survey, local developer and bestiality fan Carl Paladino was asked what he wished for 2017. He replied that he wanted to see President Obama killed, Presidential advisor Valerie Jarrett beheaded by a “jihady”, and that First Lady Michelle Obama undergo a sex change operation to – somehow – revert to being a man, and go back to Africa to live in a cave with “Maxie the gorilla”. 

Paladino’s anti-Obama animus wasn’t new. Neither was the overt, blatant race hate. What was new here was how brazenly he expressed it. After all, he had said awful things about racial, ethnic, and religious minorities in the past without consequence. For at least six years, I have railed against Carl Paladino every time he said something racist. To his shame, it’s a long list of posts. To his shame, he could have done positive things for Buffalo were it not for his vicious hatred. That, to me, is the tragedy of this failed creature. 

March 2010: Paladino’s racist and pornographic emails
October 2012: Paladino denies he’s a birther, but is birther. 
August 2014: Paladino’s homophobic reaction to a 419 scam letter
February 2015: Paladino rejects civil rights assessment of Buffalo schools. 
March 2015: Paladino threatens school board “sisterhood” with libel suit (which never came)
July 2015: Paladino demeans “damn Asians” at UB. 
July 2015: Paladino offers fake apology to “damn Asians”
July 2015: Paladino’s supporters: hey, he could have said, “damn Ukrainians”. 
July 2015: Paladino defends Joe Mascia’s n-word outburst
July 2015: Sandy Beach calls Paladino out on Joe Mascia
August 2015: Paladino digs a deeper hole on Shredd & Ragan. 
August 2016: Paladino claims Obama is Muslim. 

Kudos to the politicians who came out publicly to reject and denounce Paladino – Governor Cuomo, Mark Poloncarz, Darius Pridgen, and Pat Burke come to mind. Brian Higgins said of Paladino in 2013 that he is, “the worst kind of coward this community will ever know,” adding, “he hides behind his dirty money and sits in his Ellicott Square cave spewing his venom and hateful emails every day. He’s pathetic, disgraceful and a broken man…Carl has all the moral arrogance without the moral integrity, It’s very, very sad what’s become of him.”

Thanks also to the activists and organizations who have called for Paladino to face some fallout for his racism. We should be grateful for School Board President Barbara Seals-Nevergold for speaking out, and for Jamie Moses and Artvoice for publishing Paladino’s 2017 wish list. While Artvoice has come under attack for this, that is misplaced. Were it not for this listicle, Paladino’s racial animus would not be a topic of conversation. It’s not that Paladino likes the sound of his verbal turds hitting the punchbowl – he is the turd, and we are the punchbowl. How many more of these stories will it take before Buffalo rejects this guy? What does he need to say that he hasn’t already said to deserve to be evicted from polite society, or what passes for it in Buffalo? 

You may have seen my Christmas poem analysis of this, but let’s examine the Artvoice “2017 wish list”: 

Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. 

“Herford” is spelled wrong. It alludes to bestiality, which you would think Carl “horse porn” Paladino might eschew. I think he’s also calling Michelle Obama a cow here, but it’s not clear. 

He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture

You know, people just shouldn’t wish other people dead. This is especially true in cases where it might provoke a Secret Service investigation. 

next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.

Apart from the fact that Valerie Jarrett – a Presidential advisor – is an African-American female, I have no clue what would prompt Paladino to accuse her of “sedition and treason,” or to wish a “Jihady” – also spelled wrong – to decapitate her. This is beyond disgusting, at least until we get to the question of whom Paladino would most like to be rid of in 2017. 

Michelle Obama.  I’d like her to return to being a male

Is this him repeating conspiracy theories, or a commentary on Mrs. Obama’s looks? Too much Alex Jones, or just Carl being an insufferable, misogynistic asshole? Either way, (a) Paladino is one to talk about looks; and (b) it reveals just how sick and depraved he is. 

and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe

“Let loose” – like a caged animal. “Zimbabwe” – go back to Africa, rephrased to be more specific. 

where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.

Gorillas don’t live in caves. He’s simultaneously calling Mrs. Obama uncivilized and a male gorilla. He can’t just express how and why he dislikes her, or disagrees with her – he has to take away her femininity. He has to strip her of her dignity, and her humanity. She is not a person whom he doesn’t like – he argues here that she isn’t a person at all. 

I don’t think Paladino knew – or cared – how racist his wish list was, and was taken aback by how forcefully the shit hit the fan this time. When your own son has to react to boycott threats to disavow you, you’ve got an issue you need to address. Good, I suppose, for William Paladino for rejecting his father’s words, but the storyline that Carl has had little day-to-day influence over Ellicott Development business “for many years” rings hollow. 

It was Carl Paladino who complained to the media about the possibility that the Department of Social Services might move out of an Ellicott Development building. In September, Carl Paladino confirmed to Channel 4 that Ellicott Development was interested in buying Mickey Rat’s. Carl Paladino represented Ellicott Development in connection with a Bills season ticket giveaway. In July, when Paladino’s Twitter account called on Attorney General Loretta Lynch to be lynched, Paladino blamed an “error” on his employee, Jackie O’Bannon, who works for Ellicott Development. Carl Paladino was involved with Ellicott’s purchase of a Ganson Street property. The many massive “Trump/Pence” signs found outside local Ellicott Development-owned properties throughout the region were no accident. 

“Tough Luck”: Paladino Doubles Down

So, Paladino has now issued two follow-up press releases regarding his 2017 wish list, and spoke to a couple of pretty pliant reporters from Channel 7 on camera. Let’s fisk them. Here’s the first: 

It has nothing to do with race.  That’s the typical stance of the press when they can’t otherwise defend the acts of the person being attacked.

You called the First Lady a gorilla who should go back to Africa, right after you called her a “Herford” [sic]. It has everything to do with race. 

It’s about two progressive elitist ingrates who have hated their country so badly and destroyed its fabric in so many respects in 8 years.

Here comes a listicle of fake news, resentments, and thinly veiled race-hate. 

It’s about them diminishing the respect for their country on the world scene, surrendering its status as the protector of human rights, disgracing the memory of its veterans who gave so much.

Europe & Asia agree: they have more respect for the US under Obama than his predecessor. Obama’s current favorable/unfavorable is 55/40. 

It’s about demeaning and weakening what was the most powerful military in the world, firing hundreds of good soldier Generals and Admirals who refused Barack’s illegal and irresponsible dictates.

I think he means “diktats”, but this is just online conspiracy theories with no basis in reality. Imagine an email from your racist uncle, replete with WND links, and you’ll be on the right track. 

Michelle hated America before her husband won.  She then enjoyed all the attention, the multi -million dollar vacations, the huge staff and other benefits.  Then when Hillary lost, she and Barack realized that without Hillary, there was no one to protect the little, if any, legacy he had.  That’s when Michelle came out and said there is no hope for America.  Good, let her leave and go someplace she will be happy.

Michelle Obama’s point – a few times poorly worded – had to do with how proud she was that so many people were hopeful and participating in political life. Surely someone like Carl Paladino, who seemingly has to explain away his own intemperate statements every few months, can sympathize. As for the “no hope” quip she told Oprah, who cares? How does that affect Carl Paladino to the point where he gets to call her a gorilla? 

As for Barack, he’s a yellow-bellied coward who left thousands to die in Syria and especially Aleppo and he gets on TV and says he feels bad he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Yellow-bellied coward” who didn’t want to risk starting World War 3 over the overthrow of a Russian client state, and is now providing arms and personnel to the fight against ISIS. 

He supported the mass migration without vetting of people from Muslim countries and the open borders, not for the people, but to expand the democratic base to a permanent majority.

This is a lie. No one gets a visa to come here – refugee or otherwise – without undergoing vetting through the State Department. You can’t wash ashore here from Turkey like you can in Greece. The suggestion that the US takes in refugees for political purposes is just another lie. 

He couldn’t care less about the people.  He just commuted the sentences of another 650 drug pushers responsible for selling poison to our kids.

Many of these commutations were life sentences for marijuana offenses. Paladino’s anti-drug feelings are informed by the same events that inform his support for moving closing time to 2:00 AM in Erie County. 

It’s about the middle class, silent majority, rising up to destroy the Republican and Democrat establishment in America.

What’s that got to do with calling Michelle Obama a gorilla, or wishing the President dead, or wishing Valerie Jarrett beheaded? 

It’s about the end of an era when the people took all their information from the main street media, letting them tell us what the issues are and how to resolve those issues. People no longer trust the press.

Except when they need to press release the latest Ellicott Development project. 

It’s about that fraudulent, shadow government with a lazy ass president who allowed non-Americans like Valerie Jarret to run the government on a day to day basis and order the Stand down in Benghazi and the later cover-up that does matter.

Lies. There was no “stand-down” in Benghazi. Valerie Jarret [sic] is “non-American”? She was born in Iran in 1956 to American parents; her father was a prominent physician, and her mother was an expert in early childhood education. Jarrett is not Iranian, but African-American. Jarrett lived in Iran for the first five years of her life, before settling in Chicago. Valerie Jarrett is as American as Carl Paladino – perhaps more so, because her parents were natural-born Americans. Can Carl Paladino write a truthful sentence? 

It’s about Lois Lerner and the head of the IRS and the other criminal officials who haven’t been prosecuted or even investigated because the leaders of the progressive movement are above the law.

The IRS investigated whether certain political groups were justified in claiming non-profit status. There was no crime here. 

It’s about the end of the progressive movement and reset of the direction of America for the next 30 years.

That’s code for, we won and now I can be as racist as I want, f__k you. 

It’s about a president who interfered in a presidential election for his successor so flagrantly that he called Trump unfit for office.

So? Lots of people feel that way. Lots of people think Paladino is unfit for office, too. 

It’s about a president who for eight years did absolutely nothing for black children in our urban centers held prisoner by the cycle of poverty and illegitimate black leadership more interested in power and preserving their voting base by keeping them hungry and uneducated in the inner cities.

Did nothing? What has Paladino done, except demean anyone who disagrees with him – using racist or otherwise offensive rhetoric when the opponent happens to be something other than a white male? 

And yes, it’s about a little deprecating humor which America lost for a long time.  Merry Christmas and  tough luck if you don’t like my answer.

Haha he showed us! It was all a joke. 

The Fauxpology Sequel

Then on Christmas Day, Paladino’s own kid rejected his Artvoice verbiage. So, a new set of word-vomit was needed on Tuesday. The latest one – billed as an “apology” – is worth a look. 

I never intended to hurt the minority community who I spent years trying to help out of the cycle of poverty in our inner cities. To them I apologize.

He apologizes, I assume, to Black people here and whines about how he has spent “years” trying to “help” them. That would, under normal circumstances, be enough – to apologize and stop. But no. 

I thought about them every day as I fought against unqualified and incompetent superintendents, administrators, teachers and School Board members, unfair union contracts, broken homes and children who can’t get the education they need to break that cycle of poverty because our school system is a failure, for reasons that needn’t be. I have shown those who chose not to watch but to enter the arena how to fight the demons. Nevertheless, I won’t be judged by those timid souls who sit uninvolved in the gallery always prepared to criticize.  Nor do I have any respect or regrets for the insane education activists who hover over and defend the dysfunction of the BPS.

Here, he justifies what he’s done on the school board, which is fine. But his actions on the school board aren’t the issue – it’s the whole wishing Obama dead and Michelle is a gorilla thing that’s on the table. He doesn’t bring that up. 

I received Jamie Moses’ emailed survey at an emotional moment after I had just listened to Obama’s statement that he regretted the slaughter in Aleppo that, in fact, resulted from his failed and cowardly foreign policy. His policy is to look the other way while innocent people were murdered and starved.  I view Barack Obama as a traitor to American values. We don’t stand down and leave soldiers to die on a battlefield when we can send help. We don’t lie to the American people and the parents of our fallen to get re-elected.  Obama has not led America to a better place by disregarding the rule of law and standing with his elitist brethren as above the law; nor has his wife Michele Obama who told our children and the world after the election that now there is no hope for America.

Interesting pivot here from Aleppo to Benghazi to Obama is a traitor and Michelle said a thing to Oprah he didn’t like. No matter what you might think about the Syrian civil war, the alternative Paladino suggests here would have cost the country trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives, and there isn’t a politician alive who had the stomach to do that again after the Iraq quagmire. Paladino’s fever dreams about Benghazi as some sort of cosmic Obama-led stab in the back is false, and repeatedly proven to be so. The rest of it is an old man worrying about what’s on the TV equivalent of the cover of Us Magazine. 

Even if you take that at face value – that he’s upset about Aleppo, Benghazi, and an Oprah interview, he could have just expressed that anger in an appropriate way. That he instead wished the President dead and called the First Lady a male gorilla doesn’t advance any reasonable argument, and is simply racist. 

Those survey questions provided me with the spark to vent and write deprecating humor about a bad President for whom the main stream media continues to seek an undeserved legacy. I wanted to say something as sarcastic and hurtful as possible about the people who are totally responsible for the hurt and suffering of so many others. I was wired up, primed to be human and I made a mistake. I could not have made a worse choice in the words I used to express my feelings.

You know, “wired up, primed to be human” doesn’t mean anything. What Paladino is saying here is that he regrets having publicly written those words – not the sentiment behind them. That makes this no apology at all; sorry I got caught saying another racist thing, in essence. Here comes the weakest dog-ate-my-homework excuse a grown man ever wrote:

It’s all too easy to make mistakes when you’re emotional about the rigged teachers’ contract by an incompetent Board of Education majority who sold out the school district as payback to teacher’s union leader Phil Rumore for his election support. They couldn’t care less about the children of Buffalo. I’m bewildered about the Supreme Court Judge who tried to dismiss a lawsuit to recover $450 million fleeced from the children of Buffalo by LP Ciminelli during the $1.4 billion schools building project.

No, “rigged” teachers’ contracts and losses in motion practice don’t make someone say racist things. Being racist makes someone say racist things, and Paladino rejects that he’s a racist, so he has to cast blame elsewhere – literally just throwing things out there to see what might stick. 

I publicly took responsibility for what I said and confirmed those were my answers, but believe it or not, I did not mean to send those answers to Artvoice.  Not that it makes any difference because what I wrote was inappropriate under any circumstance.  I filled out the survey to send to a couple friends and forwarded it to them not realizing that I didn’t hit “forward” I hit “reply.” All men make mistakes. 

So, Paladino claims he leaked his own email. He says he didn’t mean to send to Artvoice a wish list expressing his belief that Michelle Obama is a male gorilla. If what he wrote was “inappropriate under any circumstance”, why bring up this pathetic excuse? Frankly, I don’t think it’s real. I’ll bet Jamie Moses contacted Carl before he published his responses to make sure he really meant for that to be in the paper. Anything less would be dramatically irresponsible. 

What is horrible is explaining to my 17 year old daughter how her hero could be so stupid. 

What is horrible is watching my family and friends react to the rabid hordes of attacking parasites we now call activist progressives. 

See? It’s not Carl’s racism that’s the problem; it’s that “attacking parasites” have things to say about his racism. 

It’s been a sick, combative year for America. We changed the direction of our country and beat back the demons for a few decades. I am proud to have been a part of the making of history.

As for the vanquished progressive haters out there spewing their venom at anything that is a reminder of their humiliating defeat, irrelevance is tough to chew on. 

It was a “sick, combative” year mainly because of the irresponsible rhetoric of Paladino’s chosen candidate. Paladino can crow all he wants here, but there’s real projection in that passage: the irrelevance that is truly “tough to chew on” is the voters’ rejection of Paladino’s school board majority, now defeated into feckless minority loudmouth status. 

For the mean-spirited, disoriented press trying to find grounding and recover legitimacy on my back, pray that you still have a job next year because you have lost all credibility with the people.

Let’s see: he’s blamed Aleppo, Benghazi, Oprah, the Buffalo Teachers’ Federation, Phil Rumore, Ciminelli, “progressive haters”, “activist progressives”, and now the “press”. His only failing? Having (allegedly) inadvertently hit “respond” instead of “forward”.

No, I’m not leaving the school board, not when it’s time to help implement the real choice elements of Trump’s plan for education reform.  I’ve spent years dedicated to the mission to defeat the thought that the liberal progressive elitist establishment can continue to hold our minority children captive in the cycle of poverty simply to provide their voting base. I don’t intend to yield to the fanatics among my adversaries.  I certainly am not a racist.

Saying it doesn’t make it so. We can see what you are thanks to the things you say and write when you think no one’s looking. When you call a black woman a gorilla, you’re racist – full stop. Literally no other examples – and there are many – are needed. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

It will be, once our civic discourse is rid of you. 

Carl Paladino is a racist person. Don’t let anyone tell you he’s not. Don’t let anyone tell you that Paladino’s age or generational status is an excuse for racism – they’re not. I know lots of baby boomers who don’t think Black women are gorillas, and I know plenty of 70 year-olds who don’t email around racist things to their friends. Just because Paladino may be too much of a coward to tell a Black person what he thinks of him to his face doesn’t mean he “doesn’t have a racist bone in his body”. The things he writes and says when he thinks no one is paying attention reveal his true heart. To him, anyone not like him is someone to demean for that very fact. To him, disagreement – even hatred – isn’t just about political ideology or policy, but you have to “deprecate” the person’s race, to boot. 

We’ve heard it all before – all the faux “apologies” when he went after Asian students at UB, or when he calls Obama a Muslim, or says Obama wasn’t born here or isn’t sufficiently, “American”.  He claimed he wasn’t racist when he sent around emails depicting the President and First Lady as a pimp and whore in Blaxploitation garb. He claimed he wasn’t racist when he sent around Chimpanzees dancing as part of the “Obama Inauguration”. Piss on our collective civic legs and tell us it’s raining again, Carl.

He makes excuses for his race-hate by suggesting that it’s the only way he can get the media – whom he denigrates anyway – to pay attention to him. Yeah, but if you say, “I am Carl Paladino, a Trump surrogate and I don’t like Obama policy X” it makes you sound less like a racist asshat than, saying, ‘Obama is a Kenyan murderer who did these things that this right-wing website I read says he did, and I’d like him dead’. 

Carl Paladino is a racist no matter what he and his apologists say. He doesn’t belong in elected office of any sort, but especially not as a steward of children’s educations. Buffalo must – once and for all – reject him and his hatred, and show the world that he doesn’t speak for us. He and his ilk must be marginalized into irrelevance. 

‘Twas two days before Christmas, when all over Twitter, 
Carl’s awful “wish list” left people embittered.  
He ignored all the stockings and chimneys and such, 
instead listed things that he hated, so much. 

He brought up Obama, and wished he was dead, 
then considered Michelle, and here’s what he said:
“return to being a male,” then this kicker – 
she should go back to live with Zimbabwe’s gorillas. 

“Holy shit”, we all thought, “what the fuck” we all texted, 
as if Carl’s overt racism wasn’t expected. 
Remember the emails?  The n-word and porn? 
We’ve known for a while and were long ago warned. 

White supremacist hatred? That’s not a surprise.
He said horrible things about Asians, you guys.
And black people know that Carl isn’t their friend.
On this point, in fact, we can’t even pretend. 

Jim Pitts, when he served on elected committees, 
said Carl Paladino sits “on top of the city…,  
…like a vulture on dry bones” and he wasn’t wrong. 
It’s amazing we’ve put up with this for so long. 

This creature who wishes the President dead, 
and Valerie Jarrett, he’d have ISIS behead, 
reveals that his character is simply depraved,
when he tells the First Lady to live in a cave.

He went to the radio and then on TV, 
to confirm his sick wishes – a racist set free. 
He didn’t say sorry, or temper his hate,
instead “retarded liberals” made him irate. 

His eyes – how they darted! His visage, askew!
His cheeks like a corpse’s, his nose, how like Gru!
With his sick little mouth, he was evil and sinister,
absent of joy, with no makeup administered.
No hint of a smile, and no glimpse of his teeth,
is there any humanity there, underneath?
With a few ugly paragraphs, a racist outburst, 
we saw years’ worth of civic promotion reversed. 

We demand his removal from Buffalo schools,
and aver that he’s broken their series of rules,
and now, see him suffer this massive indignity, 
of all people: Trump denounced his malignity. 

It’s Christmas, and we should be filled with good cheer, 
and hope for a far less eventful new year. 
This angry old racist does not speak for us.  
The only thing that we should feel is disgust. 

I heard what he said last night on channel 7, 
that ramping his rhetoric up to eleven 
drives media interest right up through the roof,
as if all of this nonsense was some kind of a goof. 

Carl could have just slammed all the Washington policies,
and avoided gorillas without qualm or apology. 
He’s out of his mind, and he has no contrition,
So, everyone: please share and sign this petition. 

It has nothing to do with PC run amok; 
it’s obvious Carl is a racist old schmuck.
Buffalo students don’t need the alt-right. 
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”