Category: News and Opinion

Right now, I aim to hit my favorite targets: the somnambulant black elected officials of Brooklyn. So I will aim, shoot and duck (maybe). Here goes. Let’s see what the responses will look like. Later this week, I will hopefully tackle a few more controversies, so stay tuned.

If you have been reading this blog, then you know that education spending in the rest of the state is off the charts, that school districts there have been hiring tens of thousands of new employees even as enrollment falls.  Meanwhile, the City of New York continues to have a level of staffing, and (if the cost of living is adjusted for) spending and pay that is lower than the national average, and far lower than the rest of the state.  (Send me an e-mail at vampire-state@att.net if you require proof of these assertions, and I’ll send you a report).  Because school districts in the rest of the state hire and spend so much, the STAR program — which diverts education money away from New York City — was developed to pay for it.  And now that spending, and property taxes, outside the city have increased even more, both Faso and Spitzer want to expand STAR once again.

I’m surprised that there hasn’t been more comment about the Democratic political boss who got indicted for sexual abuse. You know the one with the patronage job and the wife who is a judge.

Oh wait – it’s not a New York City Democrat, it’s an upstate Republican!

I forgot. New York City newspapers couldn’t be bothered to print stories like this.

Last week wasn’t a great week for me for a variety of reasons. Apart from making a major blunder on this site, I saw some things on another blog which really disgusted me. Of my faux pas, I will refrain from discussing here at present, but of what disgusted me, well, that’s the topic of this post. I say this because I am in a “Gatemouth” moment; I will refrain from posting after the end of this month. I just have a few loose ends to tie up, and then I will reassess the utility/efficacy of my posts here. So I will be on hiatus before month’s end, or will be permanently gone thereafter. I am sure there will be many who would cheer this info.

Before and since the recent State conventions, there have been many comments on The Politicker and Daily Politics blog about who votes at the Democratic State Convention –   asking  who they are, how they are chosen , are dissidents purged, etc.

(For some reason, there is really letter comment about who votes at Republican conventions)

Many of the questions and comments reflected the fact that most people, even political junkies, don’t know a lot about this position.  Here are some facts:

The members of the State Committee are not delegates like those who pick Presidential candidates.  Delegates are selected to take in part in a single convention.

I have a modest proposal for Bloomberg.  That is Bloomberg LLC, the business media company.  I propose that it implement a huge pension enhancement for existing staff and those already retired.  Huge enough to push pension costs up to 25 percent of wages, force it to dramatically increase what it charges its customers, and cut back on some services.  Then, since its labor costs would be high, I suggest that the company drastically reduce starting salaries for all new hires, and their benefits, to the point where virtually everyone else in their industry in the New York area pays more to those they are recruiting.

Thursday night on Inside City Hall, Andrew Cuomo presented a pretty weak defense when asked about a charge made be Mark Green.

Here’s the exchange started by Dominic Carter –

“When you left HUD, Mr. Cuomo, did you receive any honorarium from companies that while you were at HUD they received HUD grants."

Cuomo: "Dominic, after I left HUD I’ve given lectures, speeches, etcetera to companies, its part of what I do. I may very well have spoken before a company that directly or indirectly received HUD funding. But so what?"

Carter: "But is that ethical?"

Dear Mr. Suozzi:

You probably won’t remember me, since we have met only once, at Sharpton’s MLK-day event last February. However, I have been admiring your political activities from a distance, for many years now. You have built a powerful resume. I am very impressed with you as a leader in our political party. I find you refreshing. I have even spoken to Ms. Devlin (your manager) about working with you, especially on your “fix Albany” initiative. I have spent the last year defending your potential candidacy on the blogs, and I have publicly admitted to leaning towards voting for you in the upcoming primary. I have impressed countless others to give your candidacy a serious look, and they have. Most are impressed. With all this as a backdrop I write this letter, since today the petitioning process starts. This is the time to make real hard decisions.

Saturday’s NY Times has a column by John Tierney, advocating the end of rent control. (Can’t be linked to because it’s part of the Times’ pay per view section.) 

Tuesday’s Times had letters defending rent control, the gist of the argument was spelled out in one letter – “Tell me, John Tierney, if you were an 83-year-old widow living on your Social Security in the same apartment, now rent-controlled, for 49 years, and the apartment became decontrolled, what would you do? “

I don’t think Tierney wants 83 year olds to be homeless and neither do other opponents of rent control.

I know that I said I would update this segment every 2 weeks, but I am coming in a few days early this time, since it seems that I have pissed–off many people, and as such I need to clarify a few things.

So fasten your seatbelts, here goes.

Firstly; Eric Adams is going to win the 20th Senatorial race. I have said this before and yet his “peeps” are still angry at me. Even if 1199( union) hadn’t endorse him, he was still going to win this race. Anthony Alexis couldn’t even get an endorsement from his political club, and his former boss-lady (Rhoda Jacobs) is carrying Adams on her petitions to booth. Two other opponents (Elizabeth King and Bill Phillpotts) seem to have been running stealth-candidacies, and Moses ‘Musa’ Moore, the only challenger (to me) who could have made it a lil difficult for Eric, has withdrawn, as far as I know. Plus, Eric had has been wracking-up endorsements like nobody’s business. Plus, he has raised the most money in the field, and has the highest name-recognition by far. I know it is real early, but you can stick a fork in his opponents. This is not even a tough call folks. You can bet the rent-money on this race.