Search Results for: chris collins

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? 

If you think that the appointment of everyman hero Reince Priebus to be Trump’s Chief of Staff is “draining the swamp”, you’re hilariously misinformed. 

If you think that the appointment of Stephen Bannon to any position in the White House is anything short of fundamentally alarming, you’re on the same side as the Nazis and the Klan. 

If you are wringing your hands over people protesting the election of Donald Trump, but had no similar reaction to the people who protested President Obama as part of the “tea party”, you’re a hypocrite. 

If you are hyper-concerned about an anarchist in Portland, Oregon breaking a window, but don’t have much to say about overtly racist acts intimidation and vandalism, I don’t think your priorities are correct. 

The new Republican majority threatens to privatize and ruin Medicare and Social Security. As many as 20 million people face the imminent loss of health insurance. Planned Parenthood, which provides free cancer screenings, contraception, and other healthcare services to women regardless of ability to pay is under assault. Our closest allies are afraid while our most pressing international threat is emboldened. We are poised to spend trillions more on an already massive military-industrial complex. Trump’s tax plan will not only bring about massive deficits, ultimately expanding public debt, but is designed most specifically to aid the superwealthy literally on the backs of, among others, middle class single parents. 

While there are some positive things that Trump is considering – trust busting perhaps, infrastructure modernization and spending – on balance it’s a huge leap backwards.

If you think that Carl Paladino belongs anywhere near the West Wing of the White House, you’re out of your mind. 

If you think for a minute that Donald Trump believes Obergefell v. Hodges to be settled law, you’re delusional. 

If you think that Obergefell is settled law, but Roe v. Wade isn’t, you don’t understand the law or the Supreme Court. 

If you think that Donald Trump can locate a potential SCOTUS nominee who would uphold Obergefell but overturn Roe, LOL. 

If you think that Russian meddling in the 2016 election was ok because it helped your guy, you’re not as patriotic as you think. 

More LOLs. Amazing what a week can do. 

If you think that Wikileaks is anything more than a front group for Russian intelligence, you’re not paying close enough attention. 

If you think Trump won in a “landslide”, you should look up what the term means and glance at the popular vote tally from a credible source. 

If you think it’s scandalous that professors gave students a day off after an election that was called at 2:30 AM, but don’t have much of anything to say about on-campus neo-Nazi recruitment efforts, you’re tacitly supporting the latter. 

If you think that it was ok for Trump to spend 8 years falsely accusing President Obama of being a Kenyan usurper unqualified to be President, you don’t really respect the office of the Presidency. . 

If you think that it was ok for people to protest and label President Obama a communist, a socialist as bad as Hitler and Lenin, a foreigner, someone who intended to destroy America, to depict him as a monkey – or, perhaps, to depict him and his wife as a pimp and ho – but it is beyond the pale and despicable for people to protest Donald Trump, you’re a hypocrite. 

If you think it was appropriate for Van Jones to resign his position as an environmental advisor to President Obama because of things he had once said, but that the outrage over Trump’s appointment of current white nationalist Stephen Bannon is ridiculous, you hold people to different standards depending on which team you’re on. 

If you think it was ok to view the stolen private emails of DNC staffers and John Podesta, but don’t demand to see the official emails of former Indiana Governor Mike Pence, LOL. 

A few things I’d like to add here. First of all, if you’re going around yelling that Trump isn’t your President, stop. He’s your President whether you like it or not, and this sort of thing is tea party asshole behavior of the highest form. What you’re trying to express is your outrage over the election of a buffoon who, in large part, appealed to people’s worst prejudices and instincts. I agree with you on that point. But just as Obama was the tea party’s President, Trump is yours. And mine. And we have to be mindful of what happens. We have to keep a close eye on what he proposes and what he does. But above all, we have to do what we can to promote the values and ideas which we believe are better than Trump’s. This is how you can best express that “not my President” thing – work to ensure that Republicans control fewer state houses, fewer Congressional seats, fewer Senate seats, fewer state legislatures, and vacate the White House. 

It was announced this week that Congressman Chris Collins (NY-27), who was the first Republican congressman to endorse the President-elect, will keep his seat and merely act as congressional liaison to the Trump transition team. What a shame, two more years of being unrepresented in Congress by an attention-seeking demagogue narcissist. After all, Collins has that seat for life, if he wants it. Ah, but on that point, Collins’ deputy Chief of Staff, Michael Kracker responded, “It also helps when you represent the interests of your district and work hard. But that doesn’t fit your narrative.” 

OK, but my point is that he doesn’t necessarily represent “the interests” of the district. Not all of them, anyway. To my knowledge, Collins – who has been in Congress since 2012 – has not held a single open and public town hall meeting. Hell, even Chris Lee held bullshit “telephone town hall” meetings, but Collins can’t be bothered to go out and listen to constituents who might confront him or differ with him on some issue in any way, in any forum, via any medium. Well, maybe once. This is a guy who is as establishment GOP as they come, playing a make-believe outsider. “I’m not a career politician”, he enjoys repeating, but he’s now been in elected office for 10 years, with only a brief interruption. 

Kracker’s response was, “2012: 72% 2016: 68% I think our constituents are happy with their representation.” Well, I guess about 2/3 of them are. Do the other 1/3 not count? Is he the Congressman only of the 2/3 who support him? Anyway, this didn’t answer my question about when the next (or last) town hall meeting was. Or when the next “Congress on your Corner” is being held. No one answered these questions, either:

Here’s a topic: House Speaker Paul Ryan’s most favoritest nocturnal emission has to do with the privatization of Social Security and the voucherization of Medicare, essentially leaving beneficiaries with poorer service and higher costs. It’s been voted on in the House no fewer than five (5) times, most recently in 2015. Chris Collins of Clarence voted in favor of effectively abolishing the foundation of America’s entitlements for the elderly; this is already his stated goal. For the record, Brian Higgins (NY-26) voted against this. 

Do you figure all of those economically insecure people who voted for Trump in order to “drain the swamp” wanted a millionaire to take away their Medicare and Social Security? 

So, who’s up for planning a few Congressional town hall meetings? If we’re all about anti-establishment populism now, let’s have some fun with it.

It’ll be okay. 

If you’re white and speak English without an accent. 

And preferably male. 

So, let’s look on the bright side this Wednesday morning: 

On the bright side, Chris Collins will no longer be representing NY-27. He’s angling for a cabinet post. Look for a possible special election there. 

On the bright side, Erie County went 50-45 for Clinton. Suck on that, Carl Paladino. You couldn’t even deliver Erie County or Buffalo. 

On the bright side, Erie County Democrats won both judicial seats (although not a win overall), re-took A-143, and A-146 is in extra innings. John Flynn will be the next DA. Locally, party chairman Zellner mopped the floor with his Republican counterpart, Nick Langworthy. 

On the bright side, the national Democratic party will undergo an epic shake-up. There’s an opening for Bernie’s “revolution” here, if it wants it. 

But all the bright points notwithstanding, a Donald Trump presidency is not attributable to any one thing. It can’t be blamed on just racism, just Wikileaks, just Clinton’s own unlikeability, just “economic insecurity”, just a “whitelash”, just Obamacare, or any one thing. It is thanks to all of those things, and many others that we haven’t even begun to unpack. If nothing else, we see how elections turn out when the Supreme Court effectively emasculates the Voting Rights Act. 

How about that Supreme Court, eh? Just think of what a conservative court—Trump may have the opportunity to select as many as four Justices—can do to rights we’ve taken for granted for years. Remember: Trump’s base is all about taking the “country back”. Query from whom. 

I am exquisitely worried, however, for our immigrants, our Muslims, our migrant workers, our women, our minorities, our children, our women, and our LGBT community. I am fearful that we will undo a lot of progress that’s been made on equality and human rights. If we’re making America “great again”, how far back are we looking, exactly? What role will our most powerless, most vulnerable minorities play in Trump’s America? How will the promised withdrawal from the world – the rejection of “globalism” – affect our economy? Our military? 

It’s easy for upper-middle class, educated white males to say everything will be ok. The powerful in this country need to make sure it’s ok for everyone. 

But as we witness an electoral cataclysm that few people predicted, a vote is not a “message” to be sent; it is a tool to be used. If you don’t get your way in a primary, you use your vote not to send a negative “message” to the establishment, but as a tool to maintain the progress that has been made, and to affect the change you want from within. We failed at that very basic level. 

Not any of us is some special snowflake who can just drop out of the process when our preferred candidate is unsuccessful in a primary. We do not get to demand ideological purity—we don’t get a bespoke candidate who matches each of our viewpoints and beliefs. After all, there’s no such thing. If you believed in the progressive values of Bernie Sanders and rejected Hillary Clinton, I don’t know what to tell you. But, in my opinion, doing so was a betrayal to the most vulnerable members of the Democratic coalition. Sure, the people who actually voted for Trump will own whatever happens under his tenure, but so do you. 

As we “reject political correctness”, as Republican commentator Carl Calabrese said on Channel 2 last night, this means that it’s acceptable now to bully the powerless. To demean the other. To be cruel. 

This isn’t a bankruptcy he can discharge with other people’s money. 

At long last, a line appears to have been crossed with Donald Trump’s own boastful admission about his propensity to engage in sexual predation and unwanted advances towards women. On top of that, CNN revealed some excerpts of Trump interviews with Howard Stern that likely made for great radio, but the content of which is wholly unbecoming a serious political candidate. Every indication is that there is more – much more and possibly much worse – to come. 

The Trump campaign’s response is to claim that this was all “locker room” banter, and to try and pivot to Bill Clinton’s own history of sexual predation. The key difference is that Bill’s sexual predilections were litigated ad nauseum throughout the 1990s; Trump’s have never been relevant to a national political audience until now. To most, Hillary Clinton was one of the victims of Bill Clinton’s womanizing – not an enabler or proximate cause. Right-wing provocateurs claim now that she was somehow worse than her husband; that she viciously dealt with Clinton’s accusers in some poorly sourced and mostly false ways. 

This is the Breitbart wing of the Republican Party having its day in the light. The problem is, that light isn’t coming from the sun. 

For years, the extreme right wing – call them the tea party or whatever – have lamented that the Republican presidential candidate behaved presidentially; they slammed John McCain and Mitt Romney for not behaving more like they. The tea party came into existence in the wake of President Obama’s election as the global economy was in freefall. Things like the stimulus, cash for clunkers, and Obamacare signaled for this constituency that Obama wasn’t a real American, but instead a “globalist” or “socialist” Manchurian candidate hell-bent on destroying this country. Now, they’re literally claiming that Hillary Clinton is a “demon” – literally a supernatural being from hell, because such a thing apparently exists – and that, if elected, she intends to destroy the world. At the debate on Sunday, Donald Trump – the Republican presidential nominee – called Hillary Clinton “the devil” and said she has, “tremendous hate in her heart“. 

That is the foundation of the slimy pit, the mud and mire, occupied by right-wing talk radio, Drudge, Breitbart, World Net Daily, and all the other myriad outlets and commentators who push conspiracy theories about, e.g., Agenda 21, FEMA camps, 9/11 trutherism, and President Obama’s birth certificate. Before the internet, these people occupied the political fringes, relying on pamphlets and short wave radio to spread conspiratorial lies. In the waning days of the Reagan Administration, Rush Limbaugh breathed new life into this world, and when Bill Clinton was elected, it grew like a weed. It saw the advent of the militia movement and conspiracy theories galore; the Clinton “body count” and how anyone with a (D) after their name was coming for everyone’s guns. Fox News, ultimately, mainstreamed the fringe. 

The right-wing tea party extremist fringe used to be something the Republican Party could control. Not anymore. Apologists for this new phenomenon like to say that this is a reactionary jettisoning of the Washington (and other) elites. Not so much. This isn’t about regular folks taking their country back – that was what Bernie Sanders‘ movement was about. Trump’s may be anti-elite, but that’s masks an ugly movement founded on hatred – of immigrants and minorities, and based on fear of pretty much everything. Real leaders would take people’s economic insecurities and channel them into positive change; demagogues direct them towards rage. 

Late last week, audio emerged of Donald Trump talking to Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush, discussing his technique and prowess with respect to committing sexual assault. From the New York Times: 

Unknown: She used to be great. She’s still very beautiful.

Trump: I moved on her, actually. You know, she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it.

Unknown: Whoa.

Trump: I did try and fuck her. She was married.

Unknown: That’s huge news.

Trump: No, no, Nancy. No, this was [unintelligible] — and I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping.

She wanted to get some furniture. I said, “I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.” I took her out furniture —

I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.

Billy Bush: Sheesh, your girl’s hot as shit. In the purple.

Trump: Whoa! Whoa!

Bush: Yes! The Donald has scored. Whoa, my man!

[Crosstalk]

Trump: Look at you, you are a pussy.

[Crosstalk]

Trump: All right, you and I will walk out.

[Silence]

Trump: Maybe it’s a different one.

Bush: It better not be the publicist. No, it’s, it’s her, it’s —

Trump: Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

Bush: Whatever you want.

Trump: Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.

Bush: Uh, yeah, those legs, all I can see is the legs.

Trump: Oh, it looks good.

Bush: Come on shorty.

Trump: Ooh, nice legs, huh?

Bush: Oof, get out of the way, honey. Oh, that’s good legs. Go ahead.

This exchange resulted in days’ worth of chaos for the Trump campaign, even compelling the candidate to release a middle-of-the-night non-apology apology explaining that his “locker room talk” wasn’t as bad as whatever Bill Clinton had done. 

At Sunday’s debate, Trump seemed more prepared than at his first outing, but he wasn’t prepared meaningfully to address issues brought up by the undecided voters asking questions. He came instead prepared to humiliate Hillary Clinton and re-litigate 20 and 30 year-old accusations against Bill Clinton. This was the Breitbart gambit – the Roger Stone moment of the campaign; the primal WorldNetDaily style reintroduction to 90s Clinton bashing, and I have no doubt that it pleased Trump’s base of support. The same people who dismiss admissions of sexual assault as mere banter, and stand by while their candidate defames Mexicans, Muslims, war heros, Gold Star parents, African-Americans, immigrants, women, etc. 

As Republican leaders and candidates distanced themselves from Trump over the weekend, the defiant candidate and his cult found themselves like a cornered animal, lashing out in whatever way conceivable with whatever was at hand. 

Locally, Trumpist Congressman Chris Collins had nothing whatsoever to say for about 24 hours after the sexual assault tape came to light. Trump’s first congressional endorser told the Buffalo News’ Jerry Zremski that Trump’s remarks were, “frankly unacceptable,” but added: “There is no change in my support of Mr. Trump as our nominee because he remains the only candidate who will bring our jobs back, secure our borders and stand up to our enemies.”

But Trump’s remarks weren’t merely “frankly unacceptable”; they were an admission of a crime. How does a sitting Congressman face female constituents after expressing continued support for someone who cavalierly admitted to assaulting women without their consent and “grab[bing] ’em by the pussy”? This isn’t some one-off “locker room banter”, but evidence of a pattern of behavior. 

Earlier this year, the New York Times interviewed dozens of women who’ve worked with Donald Trump. Temple Taggart, a former Miss Utah who was 21 when she met Trump in 1997, described Trump behaving exactly as he boasts in the recording.

“He kissed me directly on the lips. I thought, ‘Oh my God, gross.’ He was married to Marla Maples at the time. I think there were a few other girls that he kissed on the mouth. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s inappropriate.’”

and

“That’s exactly what Trump did to me,” [CNN anchor Erin] Burnett said, quoting her friend. “Trump took Tic Tacs, suggested that I take them also. He then leaned in … catching me off guard and kissed me almost on the lips. I was really freaked out.”

In 1997, Jill Harth sued Donald Trump for sexual harassment, claiming he attacked her and groped her without her consent. In a deposition, Trump’s first wife, Ivana, accused him of rape during the marriage. An anonymous woman recently sued Trump, accusing him of tying her up and raping her when she was just 14 years old. 

Trump’s response to all of this is to say that Bill Clinton is bad, too? Despite all this, Chris Collins supports Trump for President.

Not to be outdone, local alt-right degenerate Carl Paladino went on TV with Chuck Todd and, appearing as what can only be described as a sedated, scheming right-wing Teddy Ruxpin, spouted rote recitations of far-out conspiracy theories. FBI Director Comey suppressed evidence! Benghazi was part of an arms deal Hillary cut to aid ISIS! This man is not a serious person and frankly has no business overseeing the education of Buffalo schoolchildren. 

It redefines insanity. Trump may be unqualified, but Paladino is just nuts. Inexplicably, he’s loving this. Finally! A candidate not afraid to be hyperaggressive! 

PALADINO: (laugh)  You know, it is not a big deal to me.

TODD: Why? He talked about unwanted sexual advances.

PALADINO: Chuck, Chuck, listen for just a moment what matters to me and the middle class of America what matters to me is what Hillary has done to America. The negatives of Hillary. The unindicted felon who, under subpoena, erased tapes, gave Gennifer Flowers $800,000, who we know found out was complicit with Obama in starting the Iranian/ISIS thing, who we know know Benghazi has something to do with her shipping weapons over to the ISIS people. This untruthful government has got to stop and that is a lot more important than listening to Trump talk about women 15, 10, 11 years ago.

TODD: You just talked about Benghazi was about a secret arms deal. You are trying to mainstream a whole bunch of speculation and innuendo, none of which are factually correct here. 

PALADINO: You guys missed it. Do you really feel James Comey did a great job for the American people and maintained the integrity of the FBI?

TODD: So let me ask you this, do you assume that because he didn’t bring charges he did a bad job? Why don’t you assume that he didn’t bring charges because he didn’t find enough evidence?

PALADINO: Oh, oh, he gave Mills a walk. He gave Heather Sandstone a walk…

TODD: is it possible he didn’t have evidence to bring charges?

PALADINO: He destroyed the evidence. Part of the agreement was that he wouldn’t look at evidence was January 15th…

TODD: You are accusing the FBI director of destroying evidence?

PALADINO: The man should resign. The man is a parasite on the American people. He has destroyed the integrity of one of the greatest institutions. 

TODD: I will let you go. I know you are full of passion. But you can’t just do this, throw this out there.

PALADINO: The press is out of control….

TODD:  I will let it go there….

TODD: You are accusing the FBI director of destroying evidence?

PALADINO: The man should resign. The man is a parasite on the American people. He has destroyed the integrity of one of the greatest institutions.

TODD: I will let you go. I know you are full of passion. But you can’t just do this, throw this out there.

PALADINO: The press is out of control….

TODD: I will let it go there….

Carl Paladino doesn’t think sexual assault is a big deal probably because it doesn’t even come close to the equine stuff he’s into. He also thinks that Infowars is news. To the Washington Post, Paladino reacted to Trump’s proclivity for sexual assault thusly, 

Carl Paladino, Trump’s New York state co-chairman, a former gubernatorial candidate who had his own scandals over sexism and racism, said Trump’s “gutter talk” was something “all men do, at least all normal men.” 

The only people concerned with this are Hillary people right now and the treacherous ones in the Republican Party,” Paladino said. “The people in America look at this and say it’s another day in the life of Donald Trump. It doesn’t matter to them.”

Get that – Carl Paladino says that “normal men” – query what, precisely, he means with that adjective – boast about unwanted sexual advances against female strangers. Remember that Paladino is an elected official in a school district overseeing, among other things, issues relating to inappropriate sexual misconduct. As of right now, an online petition demanding Paladino’s removal from the school board has over 1,600 signatures. Channel 4 got a hold of this faux moralist, 

“I think I was probably misstating when I said that all men do that. I meant to say a great deal of men do that. I think it’s very unfortunate, unfortunate that it happened. I think Donald Trump apologized. I think in 99 percent of the cases, it’s exaggerated.”

The petition also references the proposed gender identity policy in Buffalo schools. It would allow a transgender student to use the restroom and locker room that corresponds with their gender identity. Paladino has spoken out against the policy.

“I don’t think that the notice of parents is adequate. I don’t think we should expose the sensitive and gentle minds of children at young ages. ..that’s what they’re upset with. they have another agenda here,” Paladino said.

The “sensitive and gentle minds of children” are ill-served by degenerate rape apologist Carl Paladino. 

But back to Sunday’s debate – seriously, leave it to these morons to once again transform Hillary Clinton into a sympathetic figure. Trump says that if more audio of him being misogynist or racist come out, he’ll hit Bill Clinton even harder. Trump, it should be noted, lied repeatedly throughout the debate. He is a liar and a huckster trying to argue that Hillary Clinton is dishonest. He is an admitted sexual assailant whose best defense is that Bill did it, too. Trump is a guy who doesn’t pay taxes that pay to make “America great”, makes our allies nervous and our enemies excited. This is bizarro world stuff. 

The debate itself was a contrast in tone and demeanor. On the one hand, you had an intelligent and informed woman answering questions from the audience and responding to challenges from the moderators and the predator with whom she shared the stage; and on the other hand, you had an uninformed man whose only play was to try and humiliate his opponent, and accuse her of being a criminal or worse. 

Much has been made of Trump’s pledge to throw Hillary Clinton in prison should he become President. Rightly so. It is the stuff of banana republics. It is not strong, broad-shouldered American strength, but politically weak dictatorial threats. It’s no surprise Trump so admires Vladimir Putin; they’d be birds of a feather if Trump had even a fraction of Putin’s experience playing this game. Donald Trump is the guy who literally kicked off his campaign by tweeting a picture of Waffen SS with an American flag overlay. One of his first pronouncements was that he would ban birthright citizenship. This campaign is founded on race hate. 

Last December, in the wake of Trump’s Muslim ban announcement, I wrote that his campaign was nothing more than a hate group. In July 2015, I wrote, “Trump is one of about 15 Republican Presidential hopefuls, and he not only threatens the viability of his own brand, but the Republican brand in general. The more nonsense that comes out of his unfiltered mouth, and the more he beats up on the most vulnerable and powerless in our society, and the more he demeans his fellow candidates, you’d not be crazy to think that he might actually be a liberal plant setting up the GOP for self-immolation. Enjoy the ride, Republicans, but remember that whatever Trump’s doing, he’s only in it for Trump.”

For us in western New York, we hold an especial responsibility here, because the Trump ascendancy was largely spawned by our local ultra-right politicians, consultants, and media. Trump skulked behind Clinton like a predator, interrupted her, and otherwise fed the Breitbart beast that makes up his base. He had to reassure them that he was still in this fight, and that he would fight as dirty as necessary. The problem for Donald Trump is that he can’t win with just his base, and polls are showing a precipitous drop in his support right now. Sure, this could all change on a dime, but the trend right now looks very bad for him. That’s why he’s irresponsibily claiming that the polls are “rigged” and that if he loses, it’s due to voter “fraud”. Because, in his mind, he can’t lose fair and square – it has to be a fix. That’s dangerous talk that’s, frankly, un-American. 

Donald Trump is not running for President of the United States. He’s running for dictator of some other country – one without long-standing functioning institutions of state and the rule of law. 

If he loses, after so many years of the hard right demanding that their candidates talk and act like Trump, what will they say next? The only thing happening here is the hastening of the dismantling from within of the Republican Party. 

Flaherty’s Push Poll

Earlier this week, someone – likely the Flaherty for DA campaign itself – “leaked” the results of a poll showing Flaherty absolutely crushing his Democratic primary opponents, John Flynn and Mark Sacha. But the law states that any campaign releasing the results of any poll must release the entire thing, in its entirety, and also file it with the Board of Elections. Flaherty’s campaign, which has already engaged in cheap and unbecoming shenanigans such as buying “FlynnforDA.com” and redirecting it to Flaherty’s own site, then did just that – released and filed the entire poll. But as people looked at the way in which this poll was conducted, this ploy has blown up in the campaign’s face. 

The poll was conducted by David Binder research in late July, surveying 401 likely voters. It used language to confirm for people that Flaherty was the incumbent, “your District Attorney”, and fed people a barrage of negative messaging against Flynn – three separate attacks, while similar attacks on Sacha and Flaherty were very inside baseball. It falsely linked Flynn to Pigeon, called Flynn a “perennial candidate”, and falsely accused Flynn of supporting a wife-beater. That’s one way to suppress the vote and underhandedly attack your opponent with falsehoods. 

The Flaherty campaign didn’t release this poll from a position of strength, but of fear. It is desperate to destroy Flynn and, by extension, Democratic Chairman Jeremy Zellner, and will go so far as to conduct – and publish – a blatant push-poll, but not before trying illegally to leak it. Flynn’s fundraising has been very successful, while Flaherty’s has lagged. Flaherty is trying to portray himself as inevitable in order to bolster his own fundraising efforts, despite his campaign being objectively outperformed in support and cash. County Executive Mark Poloncarz will enter the fray at a press conference scheduled for 2pm on Thursday. 

60th Senate District Shitshow

Republican Kevin Stocker is going to court to prevent his removal from the Conservative fusion line based on the elimination of just enough petition signatures. He accuses Conservative fusion party boss Ralph Lorigo of retaining private investigators to pose as law enforcement and intimidate people into renouncing their signatures in some way. Given that Republican County Clerk Chris Jacobs, who has not yet told voters whether he supports his party’s Presidential nominee, will almost certainly get the (R) line, Stocker’s removal from the (C) line would leave him effectively out of the November general election. 

The Republicans have also tried to take over the Green Party line again, and that, too, is going to court due to some apparent petition irregularities in an effort led by Todd Aldinger, who was most recently the chairman of the Erie County Charter Revision Commission. 

Second Amendment Solutions

As for the Presidential campaign, you’d think it was October. Hillary Clinton is running a professional, competent campaign effort. She is discussing the issues, traveling the country, and inundating swing and battleground states with advertisements. The same can’t be said for the Republicans, who find themselves backing an authoritarian charlatan with a mouth as big as his experience and knowledge are microscopic. We have learned in the last few weeks a few things – 1. Clinton Derangement Syndrome is an acute affliction that becomes more desperate with each passing day, appears to be a virus that can lay dormant for as many as 16 years before recurring; and 2. the entire campaign has become an exercise in “what insane thing will Donald Trump say next?” 

Just when you think Trump has said the most outrageous lie, he tells another. It’s comical that, in order to do battle with a Democratic candidate whom they wish to portray as “crooked”, the Republicans have selected a serial, inveterate liar. 

Earlier this week, Trump went too far, exhorting his cult to commit acts of violence. It came after Trump claimed – falsely – that Hillary Clinton would repeal the 2nd Amendment. Presidents don’t have the power to repeal Constitutional amendments, so Trump’s lie isn’t even especially clever. Here is what Trump said, within its full “context”: 

So here, I just wrote this down today. Hillary wants to raise taxes — it’s a comparison. I want to lower them. Hillary wants to expand regulations, which she does bigly. Can you believe that? I will reduce them very, very substantially, could be as much as 70 to 75 percent. Hillary wants to shut down energy production. I want to expand it. Lower electric bills, folks! Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick –if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day, if — if — Hillary gets to put her judges in.”

“Bigly”, for fuck’s sake. They nominated a guy who talks like a 1st grader. But forget the “substance” of Trump’s cretinous stream of consciousness, let’s look at the remarks. The Trump people have claimed that what Trump really meant was that 2nd Amendment “people” should wield their political power, not their guns. OK. But if Hillary Clinton is President, she’s already won and there’s no voting power to be wielded anymore. Sure, the Senate could block a Clinton nomination – assuming it’s got enough Republicans left in it. But “2nd Amendment people” don’t do that – Senators do. What happened here is that Trump suggested that gun owners, many of whom already believe that their right to bear arms is wholly unrestricted, and that the 2nd Amendment was somehow designed by the nation’s Founders specifically to enable guys like accused election fraudster Rus Thompson to do battle with law enforcement and the government; “tyranny”, as defined by idiots. 

Trump knew exactly what he meant, when he suggested that the 2nd Amendment people’s intervention would lead to a “horrible” day, before quickly pivoting to make it not about assassination but judicial selection. This wasn’t a dog-whistle, but Lucille Bluth’s rape horn. This is how assassinations happen. It doesn’t matter what Trump says he meant, or what his supporters try to explain away – what matters is how one well-armed, poorly hinged lunatic interprets Trump’s constant delegitimization of Hillary Clinton, and his calls to “lock her up”, and “crooked Hillary”, whom he would “indict” on his first day in office. It’s come to this: Trump conspiring with Julian Assange to accuse Hillary Clinton of somehow ordering the murder of a young DNC staffer in Washington DC, because reasons.

Maybe Carl Paladino, the worst person in the world, can’t comprehend what Trump meant, but the Secret Service sure did. 

Maybe Nick Langworthy has nothing to say about it, but this is a country where a person can bring a Hillary Clinton effigy in a coffin to the Hamburgfest car show and win a fucking award. HAHA IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE HELLARY HITLERY KLINTOON IS A [insert misogynist epithet here]. They’re losing to her, so they want to kill her. It’s really quite simple. 

Trump’s is the InfoWars campaign. Hillary Clinton is an easy mark for right-wing lunatics to project whatever they want. But as Trump pivots from his “2nd Amendment people” incitement to accusing President Obama of “founding” ISIS, to – what’s he going to say today? That he’ll nuke Chappaqua? All Secretary Clinton has to do is get out of the way of her opponent’s self-destruction. Even the bullshit about the Orlando shooter’s father attending her campaign rally blew up in Trump’s face, when former Congressman Mark Foley was seen prominently behind Trump at a rally last night. Foley, a pervert, was caught propositioning underage Congressional pages. 

The only thing at this point more glaring than the Trump campaign’s relentless death spiral is the silence of key surrogate Congressman Chris Collins, who will sell out every principle he ever pretended to have in order to get a cabinet post in America’s first neo-fascist regime. Donald Trump’s campaign began in earnest in 2012, with Trump’s relentlessly racist birther campaign against Hawaiian-born President Obama. He is an appalling disgrace in every conceivable way. 

When the history of Donald Trump’s political rise and fall is written, the Erie County Republican Committee will feature prominently. Few political organizations have done more to enable him than it, and its official party organ, WBEN. 

This entanglement dates back to the unsuccessful 2014 effort to convince Trump to run for governor against Andrew Cuomo. WBEN slavishly tripped over GOP apparatchiks jointly to promote and puff the “draft Trump” effort. Nick Langworthy and Carl Paladino were at the helm, joined by Conservative Fusion Party chair Ralph Lorigo and tea party Assemblyman David DiPietro, as WNY-based right wing leaders shuttled to 5th Avenue to deliver their pitch. 

Trump decided not to run for Governor, but repaid his flatterers with a fundraiser appearance at Salvatore’s in Depew. Despite Trump’s reluctance to run for state office – possibly due to financial disclosure requirements not found in federal races – local Republicans remain among his loudest cheerleaders. It was reportedly Carl Paladino who led RNC jeers against Ted Cruz. 

In the past week, as Trump has run through a gauntlet of gaffes and poorly considered and clumsily executed feuds with Gold Star parents and others, the Republican nominee has proven himself wholly unqualified to be President of this country. Perhaps to deflect from that, or maybe due to the GOP-led Erie County Water Authority controversy, the Republicans found what they though was a perfect nontroversy with which to distract attention – someone in County Hall mistakenly sent a political tweet late in the night, and quickly deleted it. That went nowhere. 

All the while, Carl Paladino has quietly forwarded Trump propaganda to his vast email list, and Congressman Chris Collins has gone out of his way to parrot Trump in his battle against the Gold Star Khans, even at the apparent expense of veteran support. Collins’ weak emesis of Trump talking points is notable; while Paladino has no soul, scruples, or real accountability, Chris Collins is currently running for re-election in a district that is overwhelmingly conservative, but also respectful of our military and veterans. The Buffalo News reported that vets have noticed Collins’ defense of Trump’s defamation of the Khans, and most aren’t pleased. It takes a lot of stupidity and hubris for a conservative politician to so fundamentally insult a core constituency – one deeply rooted in decency and patriotism. 

Collins’ support of the Trump defamation could very well be his undoing. After all, he’s not especially liked. He wins because of the (R) after his name in a district custom-designed for him. But as a person, he’s distant and aloof, and isn’t especially concerned with the affairs of average, middle-class wage earners. His personality is abrasive, his tone caustic. He’s as political as they come. As the Trump campaign reveals its core ugliness, this could have adverse effects on a party that already holds a widespread enrollment disadvantage in western New York. 

It becomes more evident by the day that Donald Trump doesn’t really share western New York’s values. He’s an entitled billionaire with a cabbie’s demeanor, quite unlike most of us here. 

As Republican politicians and donors watch the headlines about Donald Trump’s latest shocker, and as Trump’s poll numbers continue to sink, voters should really ask downticket GOP candidates their positions on what is quickly revealing itself to be a mere facade of a presidential campaign based around white nationalism. 

Ask people like County Clerk Chris Jacobs what he thinks of Donald Trump, his positions, and his antics. Go read this insightful and revealing interview with a pretty despondent Republican intellectual about what’s happening not only to the Republican party, but the conservative movement specifically. Donald Trump is not an accident or aberration – he is the culmination of a half century of movement conservatism. He is bold enough to lay it all bare. 

When the history of Donald Trump’s political rise and fall is written, subsequent generations will be asking you what you did about it. 

Our man in Cleveland, Marquil from EmpireWire, transmits his sketches from day two of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. 

NYS Delegation whip Nicholas Langworthy interviewed before breakfast Tuesday.

At breakfast Tuesday, US Senate candidate Wendy Long soft boiled Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton.  

After a full opening day, delegates reflected quietly on Wendy Long’s breakfast comments Tuesday.

Addressing the NY delegation, Congressman Chris Collins (R-NY 27th District) praised Rudy Giuliani’s Opening night convention speech with an incendiary metaphor and projected on the diversity of President Trumps cabinet.

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The RNC Sketchbook: Day 1

Our man in Cleveland, Marquil from EmpireWire, sends back pages from his sketchpad. 

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Sunday afternoon: NYGOP Chairman Ed Cox greets the press

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NY delegation’s breakfast guest, former Speaker of the House and VP candidate honorable mention, Newt Gingrich.

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Ohio’s “open carry” gun policy does not extend to Cleveland’s Marriott Renaissance Hotel, home of the New York GOP delegation.

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Monday morning: Economist & Media personality Lawrence Kudlow delivers applause lines at NY delegations “Make America Safe Again” breakfast

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Representative Chris Collins (R-NY 27th District) took calls while waiting for breakfast. 

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Open carry (and lowered flags) on display in Cleveland’s Public Square

Pigeonism is over. No longer can that individual credibly participate in any electoral process, anywhere. He owes more than three Teslas’ worth in unpaid federal taxes, he is under arrest – although free on bond – accused of nine felony counts, including grand larceny by extortion. Right now, two races are testing the scattered Pigeonistas’ ability to continue the patronage gravy train without their depraved guru. In the Assembly 143 race, the former treasurer for the WNY Progressive Caucus (“AwfulPAC”) is running as a Democrat, despite being a major player at the epicenter of the events that led to Pigeon’s downfall. The acting District Attorney, Michael Flaherty, has surrounded himself with Pigeon operatives, and had the nerve to comment on the Michalek conviction Wednesday despite the fact that Flaherty and his predecessor/mentor failed and refused to prosecute the alleged crimes that led to the Pigeon/Michalek bribery counts. 

The word is chutzpah, and we have a glut of it here in western New York. Flaherty has the chutzpah to comment on a conviction his office could have – and should have – prosecuted. Mazurek has the chutzpah to try and make it a scandalous trifecta in the A-143, after the disgraces of Gabryszak and Wozniak. Pigeon and Michalek had the chutzpah not only to devise a jobs-for-fixing-cases arrangement, but were so brazen as to memorialize it all in writing, believing they’d never be seen or caught. Sure, you can tell in some of what’s been released that Pigeon was uncomfortable discussing the ongoing corrupt behavior in emails, but Michalek had no similar qualms. These were two men who were sure this would never be revealed. 

What it says to me is that this was likely how people generally operated with Pigeon. All of it was corrupt horse trading of influence for jobs. It all boils down to how the patronage gets dealt, and to whom.

You scratch my back, I subvert one of the foundations of our pluralist democratic republic – an independent and impartial judiciary. 

Ultimately, this all reveals quite clearly that Steve Pigeon was the strongman of a shadow banana republic that operated quite freely and openly for a couple of decades. Pigeon might have been deposed, but his diehards continue their insurgency in A-143, with Flaherty, and perhaps even with Republican state Senate candidate Kevin Stocker, based on rumors I’ve heard. 

I think that it’s becoming clear that what’s left of the Pigeon faction is not going to find great success this election season. They are rudderless and will find it harder to fund their campaigns without Uncle Steve miraculously coming up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in shadily-sourced, seldom properly disclosed funding. The best Flaherty’s Pigeonista ally Jim Eagan can do is buy a Flynn-sounding URL and redirect it to Flaherty’s own site. Weak sauce, shady, savage, salty, are all terms the kids would use for that idiot tactic, and it does nothing to promote the candidate. It simply demeans the office and the process. 

The Republicans, who so often conspired with Pigeon to screw the Democrats, have been uncharacteristically silent, given the disgraceful fall of two prominent local (nominal) Democrats. You’d expect them to be howling, but in this case, Pigeon was oftentimes the greatest gift they could ever have. For instance, it was Pigeon who engineered the 2010 coup in the County Legislature, that transformed a majority Democratic body into a rubber-stamp for the execrable Chris Collins. Just months earlier, he had manipulated a similar coup to transform a Democratic state Senate Majority into a Republican one. That one earned Pigeon a patronage job under convicted felon Pedro Espada. 

In the Preetsmas series of articles, I coined the phrase, “Pigeoning: pi·geon·ing ˈpi-jən-iŋ: (n) the action of using money and influence, oftentimes pushing the election law envelope, to actively sabotage and undermine the Erie County Democratic Committee.” As you might imagine, this oftentimes required the Republicans, but especially the obsequious fusion parties – “Independence” and “Conservative” alike – to conspire with Pigeon to advance not just candidates, but their committees’ access to patronage jobs.

Nothing that Steve Pigeon ever did brought about real reform or good government. Nothing he touched had anything to do with policy, or helping the community – it was all about enriching Pigeon and the pilot fish who clung to him. Western New Yorkers of every party, of every race, of every nationality, of every class deserve so much better than what Pigeon and his cult offered. 

For many, including me, the Michalek bribery charges were anti-climactic. There’s got to be more. What happened to the election law crimes? Former DA Mark Sacha, who is also running for DA, and was instrumental in pushing the allegations of Pigeon’s criminality to the authorities, says that there remain election law-related felonies that could still be prosecuted. He suggests that they’re being swept under the rug because of politics. I hear rumors of other state court judges who have lawyered up. The FBI confirmed yesterday that a federal investigation is ongoing, and Attorney General Schneiderman made it clear that the state’s own investigation is also “ongoing”. There will no doubt be more. In fact, the FBI called this bribery investigation as only “one prong” of a multi-faceted, ongoing investigation. 

There has to be more. I suspect that the Michalek bribery case is just the amuse bouche – the low-hanging, easy to reach fruit that can be pushed through quickly to reassure an impatient public that progress is being made. All the while, law enforcement continues to build its other cases against Pigeon and others. 

(Bonus: read Ken Kruly’s retrospective and analysis here). 

This is all great for western New York generally, reasserting control over our political process and restoring some integrity to the process. But don’t overlook what a huge victory this is for the Erie County Democratic Committee and its chairman, Jeremy Zellner. Every time he’s been disrespected, dismissed, insulted as “young and inexperienced” by Pigeonistas and pundits, he’s maintained his professionalism. He’s taken his licks, and he’s come out on top. Every time someone disrespects him as a “boy”, he can simply wave a copy of the Pigeon indictment around and silently claim victory. Not victory as in, he’ll win every race he backs, but the victory of being the only chief of a Democratic faction who’s not under arrest facing nine felony counts of bribery and extortion. 

Pass the popcorn, because we’re just watching the trailers. 

Unc Steve, how’d you do with the Gov???? – former Supreme Court Justice John Michalek asking G. Steven Pigeon about his efforts to help Michalek ascend to the Appellate Division, 4th Department

Bombshells fell on Buffalo’s legal and political circles Wednesday when it was announced that Supreme Court Justice Michalek would plead guilty to charges relating to bribery and filing a false instrument, and that former Erie County Democratic Chairman and Pedro Espada patronage hire G. Steven Pigeon would appear in court on similar allegations on Thursday. 

On May 28, 2015, state and federal law enforcement executed search warrants at the homes of Pigeon, former Buffalo Deputy Mayor Steve Casey, and Chris Grant, former chief of staff to Congressman Chris Collins. The raids stemmed from allegations of campaign finance illegalities arising out of a failed political committee run by Assembly candidate Kristy Mazurek in 2013 called the “WNY Progressive Caucus”, or as I call it, “AwfulPAC”. (Click this link to see the complete compendium of Preetsmas/AwfulPAC posts since 2015).

Since then, Western New Yorkers have wondered what was going on with this investigation, especially as the statute of limitations for campaign misdemeanors came and went. We now have part of the answer: The first domino to fall will be Judge Michalek, a well-regarded straight-shooter of a judge. A huge cache of emails from Pigeon’s computers revealed a scheme to engage in bribery: 

State prosecutors will contend that an “understanding” existed between Michalek and Pigeon that the judge would engage in “official misconduct which advanced Pigeon’s interests,” according to the source who is familiar with the felony charges. The charges will accuse Michalek of “accepting and agreeing to accept benefits from Pigeon,” the source said.

In exchange for Pigeon’s help in finding jobs for two of Michalek’s relatives, and Pigeon’s help recommending Michalek for a seat on the Appellate Division of the 4th Department in Rochester, Michalek would make rulings on cases that were favorable to Pigeon’s interests, and went so far as to have Pigeon appointed referee on an Amherst foreclosure, which would have netted Pigeon a few hundred dollars. 

Here, it should be noted that it was Pigeon’s once supposedly tight relationship with Governor Cuomo that likely would have prompted Judge Michalek to reach out for help getting an “App Div” appointment in 2012, and Pigeon responded, “I will start talking u up.”  

According to one of the seized emails, Michalek assigned Pigeon to work on a foreclosure, with more emails between Pigeon and Michalek illustrating the judge’s official misconduct and the benefits that Pigeon provided to the judge and his family members, the source said.

In March 2012, Michalek emailed Pigeon regarding a lawsuit pending before him, providing Pigeon with nonpublic details concerning a motion filed by a nonparty to the litigation seeking a protective order from a subpoena served by one of the parties, the source said.

In a written decision issued about two weeks later, Michalek denied the motion for a protective order, just as Pigeon had requested. Michalek then sent Pigeon an email with a copy of the decision attached and thanked Pigeon for “his efforts” on behalf of his first relative looking for a job, the source said.

Pigeon responded by email a short time later with an offer of additional assistance to the relative.

Small potatoes stuff—this is the political equivalent of nabbing Al Capone on tax evasion. But it’s a start, and we’ll wait and see what’s in the Pigeon indictment, and whether Schneiderman might have more cases still left to unpack. 

Statement on today’s public corruption proceedings in #Buffalo: pic.twitter.com/n3e5n27cVd

— Eric Schneiderman (@AGSchneiderman) June 29, 2016

While at first blush a lot of this seems like just a guy helping his buddy’s relative get a job or two, there are concrete allegations that there was a series of quids pro quo between Michalek and Pigeon—at least enough to get them both disbarred. This is the tip of a massive iceberg—think of all the petty corruption you suspect or know about that never gets reported, much less prosecuted. Michalek has pled guilty, so it’s safe to say that Michalek agreed to manipulate the outcome of cases before him in exchange for the use of whatever influence Steve Pigeon might have had at the time regarding a handful of jobs and patronage appointments. 

A sitting Supreme Court Justice just pled guilty to two felonies related to bribery, and will be sentenced in late September. He is cooperating with law enforcement, and Steve Pigeon is next to appear in court regarding charges arising out of the same set of facts—possibly more. 

Query why then-DA Frank Sedita didn’t pursue the complaints made by his deputy Mark Sacha around 2009, or the AwfulPAC allegations in 2013. 

It looks like Preetsmas is finally here, and that there’s quite obviously much more to come. And it’s been a long time coming. 

Here, courtesy of WGRZ, is the text of the indictment against Michalek. 

Michalek Indictment – From New York State Attorney General’s Office by WGRZ-TV