Search Results for: chris collins

Seven Things

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1. If Chris Collins or Dr. Barry Weinstein try to get between Iraq war vet David Bellavia and the Republican nomination for the NY-26 seat currently occupied by Kathy Hochul (or whatever it gets redistricted into), expect Bellavia to go absolutely nuts on them both, but especially Collins. Bellavia stepped aside to let Chris Lee take the seat in 2008, and was repaid with Collins and Paladino strong-arming him to give the seat to Collins neighbor Jane Corwin, who went on to lose convincingly.

2. There’s one thing we’ve learned about the drawn-out process to pick a successor to Mark Poloncarz as Erie County Comptroller – it’s the kind of job that no one wants, and is wanted by too many people, simultaneously.

3. It’s rumored that Erie County Legislator Lynn Marinelli, City Councilman Joe Golombek, and Attorney Mark Panepinto are all interested in taking on Mark Grisanti in SD-60. My feeling is that Grisanti has built up enough good will across the political spectrum by proving in his first term that he’s an independent and thoughtful legislator, that he’ll likely be a shoo-in for re-election.

4. Speaking of SD-60, Mickey Kearns’ clumsy foray into the A-148 race to replace Mark Schroeder is reminiscent of Antoine Thompson’s political fumfering. While Democratic candidate Chris Fahey has all the weight, support, and money of the Higgins team behind him, Kearns is rumored to find himself going door-to-door and answering uncomfortable questions from likely voters about why he’d take the Republican nomination after spending many weeks asking for Democrats’ support. Sometimes, political feuds are silly, especially when they force people to strike crazy deals just for a shot at power.

5. When Carl Paladino starts slinging mud at Higgins through his support of Kearns and whomever runs against Higgins for Congress, will he also have every one of his many corporate entities max out to these candidates? Will the self-proclaimed champion of clean politicking and tea party reforms in New York State continue his longstanding practice of obfuscating his financial support of certain candidates? Will Paladino start his own PAC?

6. David DiPietro is running for office again – this time for the newly reconstituted Assembly district that is currently occupied by Genesee County Republican Dan Burling. As might be expected, DiPietro will come at Burling from the tea party right, for instance, demanding that welfare recipients be subjected to Soviet-style invasions of privacy. There’s little love lost between DiPietro and the Republican establishment. Recall that Paladino famously stabbed DiPietro in the back in 2010 to back ECRC favorite Jim Domagalski for Volker’s SD-59 seat.

7. The entire Republican primary process is a depressing farce to see who can out-hate traditional Republican bogeymen like Muslims, Democrats, Obama, Clowns, people in clown makeup, Muezzins, Minarets, headgear, abortions, science, the weather, the notion of a generous and benevolent God, gay people, straight people who aren’t bothered by gay people, modern economic theory, contemporary society, video games, rap music, any non-country/western music, Mexicans, any Hispanics except Cubans, the prickles on roses, clean water proponents, clean air proponents, scientists, people who believe in evolution, bilingual people, Afghani cab drivers, the poor, blacks whom they perceive to be “uppity”, the First Lady, health, safety regulations, people who advocate for renewable energy, the 99%, Occupy activists, people who help the poor, people who help people who help the poor, anyone who isn’t disgusted by the poor, Catholics, Planned Parenthood, China, Asian people with accents, anyone with a foreign accent, public schools, teachers, college professors, Canada, Albanian doormen, people who ride bicycles, unions, people who work for a paycheck, people who get sick, people who need medical attention, swearing, cartoons, movies, salacious TV shows, and the fact that there are too many “Law and Orders”. I think it’s safe to say that President Obama is going to win re-election against these dummies.

Political Shorts

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1. I am hearing that ex-County Exec Chris Collins is telling people that he’s going to run against Kathy Hochul for Congress in 2012. The redistricting issue is not yet settled, so it’s unknown what Hochul’s district will look like. If true, it immediately reminds me of the story in the Buffalo News in early 2010 whereby Collins – angrily, his natural state – confronted Hochul over whether she would be running against him for County Executive. As we all know, wealthy unemployed person Chris Lee went looking for sex with transexuals on Craigslist, resigned his Congressional seat, and Hochul went on to defeat Collins’ neighbor, Jane Corwin in May.

2. I’ve always been curious about the connection between Entercom and the SPCA – the hearts of some of the ultra-conservative hosts on Entercom bleed for animals while they have little compassion for down-on-their-luck humans. A tipster (actually, it’s the guy we all know as Doc Maelstrom, whoever he might be) emails the following with respect to the current controversy surrounding the Niagara County SPCA:

For the sake of disclosure it should be revealed that the President of the Niagara County SPCA, Brandy Scrufari, works for the President of the Erie County SPCA, Larry Robb, at WTSS radio. Robb is VP/GM of WTSS and several other Entercom radio stations where Brandy Scrufari has been working for the past 20 years. To have the Erie County SPCA scrutinize the claims of cruelty against the Niagara County SPCA is disingenuous considering the relationship Scrufari and Robb have had for two decades. Do not expect this investigation to reveal anything that Scrufari does not want revealed.

http://www.niagaraspca.org/Board%20of%20Directors_1

http://www.yourspca.org/page.aspx?pid=511

3. The atmosphere at yesterday’s Erie County Legislative reorg session was nothing like the last one, where the so-called “reform coalition” broke away to create a de facto Collins-friendly Republican legislative majority caucus. In 2009, when staffers were fired, Sheriffs were on hand to intimidate and impliedly threaten. Yesterday’s session, where Betty Jean Grant was unanimously elected chairwoman, was downright friendly. There was camaraderie among the legislators and their staffs, there were smiles, handshakes, and relief. The session took a little over an hour, whereas 2009’s went on for hours. While there is already some acrimony over borrowing versus spending from the general fund, yesterday’s session bodes well for a more functional and less acrimonious 2012 – 2014. There was some staff turnover yesterday, but I frankly detected more relief than anything even from those who didn’t know what their fate would be.

Here are some reminders from 2010:

Predictions 2011 Revisited

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In the current issue of Artvoice, notable locals give their predictions for 2012. I blew the deadline, but I found my predictions from last year, and thought now would be a good time to review them.

In 2011, nothing will change significantly.

• As in every year, Buffalo and Western New York will take two leaps backwards for every tentative step forwards—in all things. Incremental change (or more accurately, window dressing that masquerades as change) will take place here and there as the community’s attention turns to unproductive arguments over the Peace Bridge, the inner and outer harbors, casinos, and other longtime development projects.

• Chris Collins will rudely run roughshod over friend and foe alike in his re-election campaign, and a Democratic challenger will be far more competitive than in 2007. The Legislature will be downsized, and Collins will attempt to dictate the outcome.

• As Carl Paladino’s 15 minutes of fame elongates like Stretch Armstrong’s appendages, he will attempt to generate political buzz every few months by insulting people. A compliant local media will transcribe his every vendetta-fueled outburst and treat it as “news,” whilst asking its readers to weigh in through idiotic online polls. However, without Michael Caputo in charge of messaging, “clever” will be replaced by “disturbing.”

• In late 2011, the Erie County Legislature will again turn into a three-ringed circus whereby local cultural organizations do battle with Republicans over 0.1 percent of the total budget.

• The Statler will become a flashpoint for a civic discussion (re: blood feud) regarding buildings that have outlived their current usefulness, are historically significant, but unreasonably expensive to do anything with. This will become particularly acute when the preservationist conference comes to the renovated-but-still-just-awful Convention Center.

The last two didn’t exactly turn out that way, as Mark Croce pulled together an investment group to save the Statler and begin what appear to be earnest redevelopment efforts, and the 2012 budget didn’t become a circus because Collins lost and let Poloncarz step in with his priorities for funding. The preservationist conference gave Buffalo a boost of self-congratulation, as the local nostalgia industry continues apace.

Other than that, it was pretty damn spot-on.

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The Hospital Business

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When Chris Collins said that Erie County was out of the hospital business, he was being deceitful – in this year’s case, to the tune of $23.8 million.  That figure would have been $40 million, but for a credit that the hospital is holding to the county’s credit.

It may be a tough nut, and depending on to whom you listen, it may  be fair and lawful. But it’s a huge subsidy that goes disproportionately to assist poor families in a poor county, and the county remains decidedly in the “hospital business” as long as the payouts continue.

Irony

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I was unable to attend the Erie County Legislature’s final session of 2011, which was the last for six lawmakers, including Chairwoman Barbara Miller-Williams.

Miller-Williams led a breakaway faction of three Democratic legislators who aligned themselves with the Republican majority, thus helping Chris Collins move forward with an agenda that was oftentimes at odds with that of Miller-Williams’ constituents.

Chris Smith and I did this video two years ago to explain it all (language NSFW)

The Buffalo News reports this:

“I implore you to please put people before politics,” Miller-Williams told her colleagues as the meeting wrapped up. “It’s always the right thing to do.”

Ironic, seeing as how Ms. Miller-Williams seldom took her own advice on that point. Unless, of course “putting people before politics” has something to do with ensuring political jobs for certain people.

Reacting to Miller-Williams, Joseph N. Welch had this to say:

Electoral Hijinx of ’23 and the #NY26 Dems

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Mark Poloncarz coasted to re-election by a wider margin than in his last outing. This despite all of the hatred and scorn hurled at him for daring to carry out Covid restrictions to keep people well and alive. This despite a desperate, viscerally negative campaign from a woefully unprepared and unqualified opponent. This despite accusations thrown his way about county handling of the December 2022 blizzard. In and through all of it, he offered Erie County calm and steadt competence in contrast to wild and extreme unpreparedness.

As usual, Ken Kruly has a great run-down of election 2023. Also worth a gander is this analysis from the team at the Buffalo News, which shows how Mark Poloncarz grew his base of support as compared with 2019, especially in the suburbs.

The history of Poloncarz’s opponents for County Executive is colorful indeed. One went on to become a congressman, a shill for Trump, and a convicted felon – later pardoned. Another became a Supreme Court Judge. Chrissy Casilio can go back to Clarence, where her father is Supervisor, landlord, benefactor, and rainmaker. She will be just fine, and maybe even see some political reward for taking one for the team.

In private life, Ms. Casilio-Bluhm has mostly resumed her Twitter/X musings about various and sundry right-wing tropes of the day. She is free again to pine for the day when Donald Trump can finally end the American experiment in self-governance and implement the “conservative” dream of authoritarian dictatorship where immigrants are thrown into camps and political rivals are shot, or dropped from helicopters.

Brian Nowak squeaked out a win in Cheektowaga, despite being subjected to a malign barrage of literal libel. Accused of bribery, support for Hamas, and supposedly “defaming” a person who flew a Confederate flag outside her home by pointing out that she flew a Confederate flag outside her home, he nevertheless stayed above the fray and wore out his soles by speaking directly to voters. Brian is a great guy who truly has his community’s best interests at heart, and he will undoubtedly do a great job.

The biggest news, however, came after the election itself. Congressman Brian Higgins announced that he intends to retire, which will trigger a special election. So far, Senator Tim Kennedy has announced that he will run for that seat. Others have dipped their toes in the water, with varying degrees of credibility. Byron Brown is going to stay put as Mayor until some better exit plan emerges. Poloncarz just handily won re-election, so he’s not going anywhere.

So, we’re left with Plan D for dumb: Nate McMurray is running. For Congress. Again. I’ve seen a lot in the last 20-odd years, but never have I seen a once-credible political figure so quickly and dramatically devolve into self-parody. He tells the Buffalo News’ Charlie Specht that he has “to be in the race. I couldn’t sit still with nobody talking about Trump. This isn’t rhetoric or this isn’t Democratic talking points. This is a danger to the country.”

As McMurray lurches between his claimed saintly outsider status, his animus for anyone and everyone who has not reflexively followed his orders or done his bidding, and his professional Tweeting, the thing that really crystallizes is that Nate McMurray has to be in the race for Nate McMurray. His ever-waning relevance runs counter to his supreme sense of self-importance as the multilingual better-than-you savior of western New York.

McMurray is just a small-town, leftist mini-Trump. Everything all about him and his greatness and how all of his opponents are evil or dumb. While Trump wishes for an economic crash in the next twelve months, McMurray has already told us that “Erie County sucks“. And it’s not just that he felt comfortable enough to express that in public, where people could hear him – it was that he said it within the context of him having the audacity to stand before a group of people whom he had spent the previous months demeaning, insulting, and denigrating all while asking them for an endorsement that he knew would never come. He said “Erie County sucks” because these people did not fall in line behind him. Because they saw through his bullshit. Because they questioned him. They were critical of him. Because after lending monetary, logistical, and boots-on-the-ground support to him in three previous races, he was little more than a loudmouth ingrate. As the chairman of the party committee said,

“McMurray’s behavior at last night’s Executive Committee meeting was appalling,” Zellner said. “Despite past support for Congressional runs from this committee and its rank and file, McMurray was inexplicably hostile to committee members throughout his presentation, insulting leaders and committee members alike with outbursts previously unseen at our meetings. McMurray claims to love Buffalo and WNY, but his uncalled-for outbursts demonstrate that he is temperamentally unfit to govern a county of nearly 1 million people. You cannot successfully lead this community if you take shots at it when things don’t go your way,” Zellner added. “By declaring that ‘Erie County sucks’ simply because he faced questions he did not like and could not answer, Nate McMurray has shown that he is simply wrong for the office of Erie County Executive.”

WIVB

McMurray is going to have to seek money and support from his Twitter stans. How any of that translates into actual people collecting petition signatures or contributions is anyone’s guess. I suspect he’ll have to pay people to do it.

Tim Kennedy has been around a very long time. He dabbled in the dark arts, aligning himself with Pigeon and Collins in a brazen coup some 15 years ago, but that catapulted him eventually into the Senate, where he is respected if not for his legislative, then his fundraising prowess.

Because again, for people taking notes at home, there is governing and there is politicking. Mark Poloncarz has proven himself adept at both. He is a competent and skilled executive, and also a shrewd and effective politician. McMurray aligned himself with Rus Thompson, got elected to a town supervisorship and hasn’t been elected to anything else since. As I said almost a year ago, right here:

It’s interesting how when one decides to wage war and insult an entire institution, that the rank and file who do the actual work that keeps the institution running are the ones who decide you’re not worthy of their help, time, work, and money. It’s easy to selectively edit secretly recorded audio to make your enemies look bad, but why wouldn’t you just release the whole thing? It’s easy to feign victimhood at the hands of the big bad old party which is, in your estimation, so well-organized in its malign corruption that it will prevent you even from running for office, but simultaneously so incompetent and inept that it cannot win elections or improve our region.

Nate will get the attention he’s ordered, and that’s about it.

ELECTION ’21: THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD

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Byron Brown is running a scorched-Earth campaign of lies and mud against India Walton, the woman who defeated him in the Democratic primary for Mayor of Buffalo. Brown’s campaign is seemingly managed by the Buffalo News’ editorial board.

Walton is the only Democrat in that race, and hers will be the only name on any ballot for that office. She has good and novel ideas about running a poor city that has been run by the current Mayor’s vast, entrenched political machine for 16 years. Despite hyperventilation to the contrary, Walton’s experience managing a large municipal organization is essentially equal to what Byron Brown’s was in 2005. Arguably more. (Citistat, anyone?)

In June, Democratic voters in the city of Buffalo decided it was time for a change, but Byron Brown could not be bothered simply to concede. He has instead aligned himself with the rich, the connected, and the right-wing. Faced with an end to his tenure that is earlier than he anticipated, but by no means premature, every chit and every favor is being called. In his desperation, he forgets himself.

But that is not what this is about. We are not here to contemplate Byron Brown’s alignment with the Buffalo power structure with which he has always had a symbiotic, mutually beneficial existence. Consider, for a moment, if the occupant of the mayor’s office put the least fortunate and powerful first. That is the inherent appeal of India Walton and what she stands for.

Instead, we have been treated to a crash education. What we have learned in the last several days is that the Republican Party in Erie County – the party of authoritarian cult and insurrection – has completely jettisoned any pretense of conservative small government values in favor of a platform of grift, lies, and racism. We are here to talk about nominal Comptroller candidate Lynne Dixon, sheriff candidate John Garcia and – of all things – Hamburg supervisor candidate Stefan Mychajliw.

As you may be aware, early voting in Erie County started on Saturday, October 23rd and runs through Halloween. (Polling places are listed here). I cannot urge you strongly enough to please vote for Kevin Hardwick for Comptroller, Kimberly Beaty for Sheriff, and Randy Hoak for Hamburg Supervisor. Hoak and Beaty each has an inspiring story, history, and platform. They are both exceptionally good and qualified candidates in their own rights. As for the office of Comptroller, few people know more about county government than Kevin Hardwick, and even fewer care as much as he about its proper functioning.

We are here instead to condemn the clumsy and stupid lies of Lynne Dixon, and to denounce the blatantly racist prevarication and propaganda from Garcia and Mychajliw.

Ken Kruly has covered Dixon’s rank idiocy quite well:

It is not unusual for some people in politics to drop scurrilous attack materials or ads near the end of a campaign when such action leaves little time for a responsible response from the candidate being attacked.  Such is the case with a mailer delivered today, Friday, October 22nd, the day before early voting starts.

Republican-Conservative candidate for Erie County Comptroller Lynne Dixon did just that today, sending out a mailer to Buffalo Democrats suggesting that her Democratic opponent, Kevin Hardwick, is a “pro-Trump Conservative.”  How ironic that is sent just as the Buffalo News on their website has posted an editorial endorsing Hardwick.  The editorial says that Dixon “sets herself apart from the current comptroller in style and temperament …”   NOT.

Ken Kruly in an email blog

Suffice it to say that Donald Trump is what finally convinced Hardwick to leave that fetid cesspool of a “Republican” party, and Dixon – (whose daughter Erin can, this year, spare me her semi-coherent, overwrought direct messages) – is the Trumper di tutti Trumpists. She offers nothing but lies and the Mychajliw continuum of failure, absence, and mediocrity.

Garcia is the successor whom long-embattled incumbent Sheriff Howard has hand-picked for himself. Just this past week, Garcia began airing this ad (FB). I won’t embed it here because I think that it is, frankly, evil.

It starts out with stock imagery of Black Lives Matter protests from 2020, which happened in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. It portrays only images of rioting and cities burning with someone holding up a “defund the police” sign. The ad states that “socialism” is what brought about those images, which is laughably idiotic.

If we’re being temporally accurate, after all, the protests we saw in 2020 occurred under the current right-wing malign incompetence of Byron Brown and Tim Howard.

Predictably, the imagery in Garcia’s ad changes to a side-by-side black-and-white picture of India Walton (against whom Garcia is not running) and Kim Beaty. There are exactly two things about Walton and Beaty that are similar, and one of them is that they’re each the endorsed Democrat for public office. Garcia accuses Beaty and Walton of an intent to “dismantle the pillars of community protection in Erie County.”

So, are we to believe that Garcia has just randomly lumped in two completely unrelated candidates for office – both of whom happen to be women of color – to accuse them of planning to get rid of police departments? His ad says that you have to vote for him to prevent Erie County from becoming “another failed socialist public safety experiment.” Garcia’s inclusion of Walton in his ad is that old Republican standby of gratuitous fearmongering, misogyny, and racism. He sets Ms. Beaty adjacent to Ms. Walton to smear them both to his audience as women of color. The intended audience is racists and misogynists. Gotta turn out the base.

Garcia is implicitly endorsing excessive force and police brutality for people who like to see that sort of thing happen to minorities. With his racist lies, Garcia in one stroke disqualifies himself for any office whatsoever. Ever.

Now let us turn to Stefan Mychajliw, whose expulsion from the public sector will be especially gratifying. Mychajliw has all but abandoned the job for which taxpayers pay him big bucks in order to troll the libs on Twitter full time. His only platform is the culture war. His abandonment of his elected post has enabled him to traipse around the east coast cosplaying as a more ethnic Jim Jordan.

Mychajliw, who has lived in Hamburg for about two minutes, has literally nothing to run on so he attacks his opponent, Randy Hoak, as some sort of socialist. (I’m detecting a weak theme). But Mychajliw, who for a couple of years has been flirting with white nationalism, finally settled on a race to run – in Hamburg. But as the Buffalo News wrings its hands over India Walton’s qualifications, it ignores the fact that Stefan Mychajliw is barely qualified to be Stefan Mychajliw.

Now, at last, Mychajliw tells on himself. Pursuing white nationalist Trump voters is easier when you are one.

Someone leaked something to Stefan, and he pulled a quote so out of context it is almost meaningless. Stefan’s point here is clear, however – it is to scare whitey, full stop. Mychajliw, perpetually out of substance or ideas, accuses Hoak of – what, exactly? Respecting America’s diversity?

The Buffalo News got a hold of the elected Comptroller and he tried unsuccessfully to backpedal.

When asked if he has any problem with people of color moving into Hamburg, Mychajliw said, “No. That question should be asked of Randy Hoak. He’s the one who brought up the issue in this race.”

No. Mychajliw outs himself as having a problem with people of color moving to Hamburg, and he is trying to pander to other townsfolk who do. Most likely, it’s both. If, as he claims, Mychajliw is for diversity, then why would he cherry-pick part of something Hoak said that is pro-diversity and then attack him over it? The supposed logic only works if you’re a moron and a fraud.

The list of reasons to relegate Mychajliw to the private sector is deep and wide. His campaign disclosures reveal unpopularity and incompetence so significant that it likely crosses the line into illegality.

No wonder his own family members won’t vote for him. The people closest to him know what he is.

Between Dixon’s defamation, Garcia’s racism and misogyny, and Mychajliw’s no-show, no-ethics race-baiting, WNY can do much better with Hardwick, Beaty, and Hoak. It seems like this year is a unique opportunity to leave a lot of really bad prejudices and malign politicians behind.

Totalitarianism, Texas Style

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New State Emblem of TexasSetting aside the fact that the new Texas state statute effectively banning all abortions, (but purporting only to ban them after 6 weeks’ gestation – well before most women even know they are pregnant), the way in which the law is set to be enforced is especially egregious and anti-American in all its facets.

The law does not make an exception for cases of incest or rape.

This means that a school in Texas cannot protect young women against catching Covid-19 through a mask mandate based on “body autonomy”, but the Texas state government can force, say, a 14-year-old victim of statutory rape to carry her tormentor’s baby to term. It is distinctly unconstitutional, based on 50 years’ worth of jurisprudence. It is, truly, medieval and barbaric. It is literally a leap backwards to women being mere chattel with no right to control their bodies.

The same people screaming about not being told by the government whether to wear a mask or take a vaccine during a deadly pandemic based on “choice” are literally legislating away every Texas woman’s right to reproductive healthcare.

Well, not every Texas woman’s. Those with money and connections can always fly to a blue state for a procedure. The men in the Texas legislature who accidentally impregnate their mistresses will undoubtedly find a way to flout these restrictions. So, it’s really a law designed to punish the poor and the underprivileged.

The technical, stated reason why the Supreme Court majority of anti-Roe activists refused to block this patently barbaric law has to do with how it is to be enforced. The statute empowers literally anyone to simply call in a tip and inform on any person who performs, aids, or abets an abortion procedure that is violative of the law. Texas requires women seeking abortions to get “counseling” to discourage abortion, and then wait another 24 hours. This requires two trips to the clinic with the state requiring that the provider ply the patient with propaganda.

This law also empowers private individuals to make anonymous reports to the government about abortions. The law specifically creates a private cause of action allowing people who otherwise have no standing to sue individuals, groups, and institutions that “aid and abet” in providing abortions. This sets up a lucrative incentive for people to lie and engage in punitive behavior and harassment, obviously. But it also empowers average citizens to form anti-abortion bounty hunting posses. That will further act to chill any abortions from being performed – including a D&C of a miscarriage. Yep, a woman with a dead fetus inside of her will be required by law to birth it and not have it surgically removed because there will be no medical providers willing to risk fines or jailtime to do it. Like I said, barbaric. Medieval.

The reason why the right-wing court majority did not enjoin enforcement of this distinctly un-American piece of legislation? Because no one had yet dropped the dime on anyone, so the issue is not ripe. How convenient.

Why do I say this is un-American? Barbaric? Medieval? Because it comes directly from the “my first totalitarian dictatorship” playbook. Under both communist and fascist totalitarian regimes, secret police have regularly recruited and encouraged average citizens to inform on their friends and neighbors. This sort of institutional snitching would result in the informer receiving money or perks, like a citizen of East Germany being granted permission to visit the west. Totalitarian regimes regularly consolidate their illegitimate power through denunciation.

This is how the Texas abortion ban is designed – to institutionalize and legitimize denunciations and to subject women and medical providers to civil and criminal penalties, harassment, and possibly personal harm.

This was predicted when Clinton lost in 2016, and it was predicted when Trump got to pick Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement on the Court. People like Susan Collins and a bunch of male pundits and leftist Clinton haters told people not to worry.

Fully a third of this country – the Trumpers and the political Christianists – no longer support freedom or democratic institutions. They have transformed themselves fully into totalitarian ultra-nationalist one-party authoritarians. This Texas bill is not even the beginning.

Sweet Land of Liberty

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christian

Kathy Griffin, best known for directing homo jokes at Anderson Cooper every New Year’s Eve, and who plays club dates most of the remainder of the year, is a comedian about whom few people think. An image of her holding a fake severed head of Donald Trump caused a furore yesterday. She claims she was trying to do comedy, and went over the line. Clearly she crossed it – joking about murdering the President is never funny. 

It is never funny or appropriate. At best, it’s tasteless. At worst, it could get you a visit from the Secret Service. 

But I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about or seeing Kathy Griffin, so I’m not going to pretend like I care, beyond what I wrote above. 

What I want to focus on instead is something that happened in Oregon. 

Last weekend, a man stabbed three men, killing two, on a commuter train. The killer had been harassing two African-American girls, one of whom was wearing a hijab. The victims stepped in to ask the man to shut up and leave the girls alone. The killer, it turns out, is a big fan of the idea of a white ethnostate called “Cascadia”. 

At a right-wing “free speech” rally held on April 29th, the killer had shown up, yelling “Hail Vinland!” and giving the Hitlergruß hither and thither. 

At the park, a Trump supporter carrying a baseball bat (quickly confiscated by police) tried to fight people, and yelled “fuck all you n****rs.” He’d later give the Nazi salute. 

The Portland Mercury has pictures, video, and excerpts from the killer’s social media showing his outspoken hatred for Jewish people, black people, and a variety of other types of people. The killer was a devotee of terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Anders Breivik, and was a Hitler enthusiast, too. 

In the squad car after his arrest, the killer said, 

“I told him, ‘You ain’t gonna heal punk,'” Christian said, according to the affidavit. “And he still wants to put his hands on me. Die bitch. Fucking die. Stupid motherfucker. That’s what liberalism gets you.”

The killer was arraigned Tuesday, and had an outburst in court. 

“Free speech or die, Portland. You got no safe space. This is America, get out if you don’t like free speech. You call it terrorism, I call it patriotism,” he continued. “You hear me? Die.”

I have a much bigger problem with Jeremy Christian than with Kathy Griffin. In her tasteless picture, Kathy Griffin hurt nothing except people’s feelings. Jeremy Christian stabbed in the neck three men who stepped in to try and stop his racist outburst. He did it – by his own admission – because “that’s what liberalism gets you”. The Jeremy Christians of the world, who suddenly feel empowered and emboldened to harass black girls and kill in the name of “free speech” and “patriotism”, are a clearer and more present danger than tasteless comedians. Similarly, I have a much bigger problem with the Niagara Falls Nazis than with what some edgy B-list comic might have to say. 

Which brings us to this: 

I went to look and see whether Mr. Langworthy had Tweeted anything to denounce the murder of two men – and the assault of a third – who were attacked because, “that’s what liberalism gets you”.

I didn’t find anything.

I looked to see if he had any words to reject or condemn the murder of two men who stepped in to protect two innocent women from a racist, bigoted attack.

I didn’t find anything. 

Right wing media are replete with literally hourly attacks on “liberalism” as un-American, supportive of terrorism (especially jihadist terrorism), and otherwise in opposition to our values or our nation. It has been a constant drumbeat for decades – liberals were attacked in the 70s and 80s for being Sandinista or Soviet stooges. 

How did the Portland killer become radicalized? What about the guy who murdered Richard Collins, III? How did Charleston terrorist Dylann Roof become radicalized? According to the Anti-Defamation League, right-wing white supremacist terrorism is as great a threat as jihadist terrorism, yet I don’t see Nick Langworthy wringing his hands over the apparently racially targeted murder of a black Army lieutenant by a kid who spent a lot of time wanking to the hatred on an “alt-reich” white supremacist Facebook group. 

It seems as if something has happened in this country over the last few years where white supremacy has become normalized, as incidents – mostly non-fatal – seem to pop up every week. The radicalized alt-right has a friend in the White House, and to that extremist group, any violence is justified against blacks or Muslims or “that’s what liberalism gets you”. Fascinating that Nick Langworthy has a bigger problem with Kathy Griffin than with the targeted murder of liberals by a fan of Mr. Trump’s. The latter seems like a much bigger problem than what some washed up comic did in a photograph. 

The San Diego Connection and O’Loughlin unloads

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Mazurek

They say a person is known by the company she keeps. With respect to Kristy Mazurek, who is running in the Democratic primary race for the 143th Assembly seat about to be vacated in disgrace by Conservative Angela Wozniak, who replaced Democrat Dennis Gabryszak – who also vacated it in disgrace – the news from her current and former company isn’t good. 

Kristy Mazurek is a close confidant of Steve Pigeon, who is under federal and state investigation and has been indicted on nine state felony charges relating to Pigeon’s relationship with former State Supreme Court Justice John Michalek. For his part, Michalek has already pled guilty to crimes related to the same set of facts, resigned his office, and awaits sentencing in September. 

While Mazurek pulls the Buffalo News’ leg attempting to distance herself from Pigeon, he grants her power of attorney to sell off his condo. As it happens, Pigeon executed the document in San Diego. 

“I am not Steve’s keeper,” she said. “Just because I’m associated with someone. … does that make me a bad person?”

Not necessarily, but when you have power of attorney over someone’s business transactions you are, in a way, their “keeper”; at least for the purpose(s) described. But no one is arguing whether or not Mazurek is a “bad person”. There are plenty of “bad people” who are concomitantly qualified or competent to be elected to public office. Mazurek isn’t one of them. Look, if Mazurek doesn’t have a problem being associated with Pigeon, she shouldn’t crop him out of pictures she uses on her lit. 

I have no idea what Pigeon might be up to in San Diego, but that locale doesn’t seem to be an accident. Pigeon’s erstwhile protege and former State Senator Anthony Nanula lives there, and in 2012 he co-founded American Coastal Properties with Buffalo developer Nick Sinatra. WGRZ recently reported on the appendices to the warrants that enabled law enforcement to enter and search Pigeon’s condo. From Channel 2’s story: 

One of them was the search warrant in question. In it, it states the search is looking for evidence related to “Steve Pigeon’s unlawful lobbying on behalf of Nick Sinatra”.

Sinatra is a former Republican operative who is now head of Sinatra & Company, a growing real estate development company in Buffalo.

When 2 On-Your-Side reached out to Sinatra, this statement was offered on his behalf:

“While Mr. Sinatra has had previous business relationships with Steve Pigeon, he has no knowledge of Steve Pigeon lobbying on his behalf. Mr. Sinatra has no connection to the Western New York Progressive Caucus. He is not part of this investigation and has not been contacted by investigators for many months. Mr. Sinatra has never been under investigation nor does he expect to be under investigation.”  

Then there’s another document the Pigeon defense team would like the jury not to see. It is a report of a police interview with Pigeon from August of 2008. The interview was conducted by investigators from the Erie County District’s office and the FBI. 

According to the report, Pigeon acknowledges he is owner of a business called Landon Associates. Named as his business partner is Roger Stone, who Pigeon reportedly describes at the, “Darth Vader of the Republican Party.”

Seeing “Landon Associates” in a campaign’s filing is like a coded beacon that the Pigeoning of an election is underway. (E.g., here, here, here). Sinatra’s company was somehow caught up in the 2013 financing of the WNY Progressive Caucus (“AwfulPAC”). On August 19, 2013, AwfulPAC reported receiving $4,000 in one lump sum from Frank Max’s Progressive Democrats of WNY. Yet for some reason Max’s group didn’t report it that way, instead showing three separate amounts. AwfulPAC also says that it received money long before Max’s group says it contributed it, which is truly psychic in its prescience. The money orders were supposedly purchased by an employee of Sinatra’s, who denies having done so; his name was allegedly improperly substituted for the actual purchaser, and anyone purchasing a money order for more than $3,000 must show ID. That Nanula/Sinatra venture may explain G. Stephen’s visit to sunny California. 

As for Mazurek’s fitness for public office, her former co-worker, Bill O’Loughlin, deserves a hearing. O’Loughlin took his morning political talk radio program from WECK to Channel 2, and brought on Mazurek as a Democratic foil on the show known as “2Sides”. O’Loughlin quit 2Sides, and reveals on his new radio program that Mazurek was the reason he left; that he could no longer work with her. O’Loughlin spent a good portion of his August 28th program explaining why he thinks Mazurek is not qualified for public office, which he boiled down to, “drunk in Albany, drunk in Georgia, lawyered up.” Mazurek continued 2Sides with co-hosts including current Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw, former Collins Chief of Staff Chris Grant, and political consultant and PR flack Michael Caputo.

These are ringing endorsements indeed. 

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