Yesterday morning Ms. Cenceria Edwards woke up to find human excrement at her door. It is another in a long chain of events, which have unfolded since Ms. Edwards started collecting signatures, for a petition to run against Assemblywoman Annette Robinson -in Brooklyn’s 56th Assembly District (Bedford-Stuyvesant). Not only did the shit stink and smell up the place, it also made another psychological impact on her two kids (daughters); again. It has been an emotional roller-coaster for the Edwards family since June folks. This is traumatic. 

This is so unfair; and all because one brave lady chose to run for the state assembly. Look people; seats are not owned by any clan or kin; not in Bed-Stuy nor in Bed-Room. It’s a democracy (at least that’s what they tell you in ivy-league universities). So why the heck is all this being allowed to go down?  

Readers may recall my alarm that the city and state pension funds were moving into “alternative investments” such as hedge funds right when those funds were likely to tank. Many don’t hedge at all; they just leverage investments with debt, meaning a small loss in reality is a 100 percent lost for investors, with the possibility of similar gains if things go well, and massive fees in either case. A knowledgeable person told me it was no problem, because legally pension funds may only invest a few percent in such risky investments.

But now I read that the state pension funds already have received permission from the state legislature to increase the share in alternative investments fromo 15 percent to 25 percent, and State Comptroller DiNapoli, undoubtedly encouraged by Wall Street, is asking the legislature to remove any limits at all. The reason — the pension funds don’t have enough money to pay the promised benefits, so they have to take more risks to increase the rate of return.

Like most of the frequent posters here on Room Eight, I’m more interested in writing about the facts that aren’t generally made available and telling the stories that no one is willing to tell, rather than merely commenting on what is already being reported by others. I assume that anyone who actually reads my essays is also well read in what is being reported by the mainstream media, and is more interested in their own interpretation of those reports than mine. But today’s news has a number of items that I can’t resist calling further attention to.

The Wall Street Journal, in a front page article, reports something I have alluded to but do not have the facts to tabulate — that top executives are paying each other more and more money in pension income, copying the raid on the future perpetuated by public employee unions and state legislatures, to avoid taxes, disguise their outsized pay and, in the end, siphon off all the money from their companies. The New York Post reports a State Comptroller finding that “New York is wasting tens of millions of dollars annually by paying the medical expenses of thousands of former residents who have long since moved out of state, an explosive new audit has found.” That’s their interpretation. I’d bet they weren’t state residents to begin with. And according to Reuters, compensation experts expect Wall Street bonuses to fall by 30% to 40%. The special session of the New York State Legislature called by Governor Paterson is based on the disastrous consequences of a 20% decline. I expect 50%-plus, so with this report, we’re getting closer.

As I have described in as many ways as I can, an inevitably rising share of public spending will be going to debts run up by past generations, rich pension and other retiree benefits for those cashing in and moving out, workers with seniority who are no longer required to work, and those in places like New York’s suburbs and upstate New York who need a “job” to be able to live the way they “deserve.” At the federal level, thoughtful people of all political views understand that the “debt” implied by having younger generations provided with the same health care and Social Security benefits that older generations have handed themselves is so high that it can ever be paid — the financial debts are on top of that. If you live in New York State, the situation is actually much worse, because it is necessary to anticipate future increases in benefits for those with deals on top of those that have already occurred. At the same time, more and more potential tax revenues are lost to special tax deals and breaks, and as a result of similar self-dealing and future-selling in the private and personal sectors, people are about to get a whole lot worse off, reducing tax revenues overall. Actual public services, benefits, and infrastructure will be crushed between these two pincers.

The last column I wrote relative to Barack Obama and this upcoming presidential election didn’t go down well with some of his sycophants, as I received more than my share of quiet protests through various channels. As I said in that qualified column, I really don’t want to give Republicans more ammunition for November, and I have started to feel that if I don’t keep my big mouth (well in this case: “big typewriter”) shut, I will be helping to load any Republican’s gun, as he or she canvasses the nation in obvious desperation and distress, come October. So I cringe while watching a series of mistakes being made by a campaign that should be slam dunking its way to another victory and more glory. 

When I write my some of my columns many folks get angry, but most times all I am trying to do is highlight the trials and tribulations of innocent challengers to the political status quo, while listing the affronts to democracy which take place everyday, and which gets more pronounced during primary (silly) season. Maybe someone needs to go to the federal court under the Ricco statutes, and show that the New York City county organizations are no different to the friggin Mafia. The way they try to keep people off the ballot is nothing short of criminal. 

In Queens (34th AD) Marlene Tapper challenged Ronald Reagan’s elder brother Ivan Lafayette. Word on the street was that residency issues were involved with the incumbent. Maybe someone got wind of whatever Ms.Tapper was cooking up, so they got Lafayette to resign and take some job with the current administration. Ms.Tapper was then shafted because the Queens county political machine did a substitution. I am told that they have put up a former garbage-collector as their candidate now. He was put up over the objections of Lafayette’s faithful and loyal female Chief of Staff (COS), who had worked with him for more than 20 years. It looks like she was good enough to be COS, but not good enough to handle the reigns of the district. Or maybe the garbage man had been collecting dirt on the organization for enough years, to turn the dirt into gold. 

"In the end, Powell laughed off the “bring home the bacon” line as merely his way of saying that he would fight hard for Jewish concerns including affordable housing, health care, and the improvement of Yeshiva and technical education — community issues that he said Towns hasn’t addressed."

The Brooklyn Paper on Kevin Powell's meet and greet with a groups of Williamsburg Hasidim.  

Actually, the problem is not merely with that pesky Bill of Rights. 

I remember the sense of frustration and injustice I felt back in 2000, as the dot.com bubble burst and it was clear that we were heading into a fiscal crisis. Even though certain interests had gotten far more out of New York State’s budget that was justifiable based on any fair principles during the boom, and others were permitted to put in far less in taxes, I assumed that spending in all categories and for all groups and places would suffer equal cuts, and all would be drained by equal increases in taxes. That is an easier road to take, politically, than asking those who have benefited disproportionately from government policy to sacrifice first. Taking the easy road, making the non-decision, is what our politicians do.

The reality was far worse than even I had expected. There would be no equal sacrifices, even after grandfathering existing inequities. Those who were behind would end up further behind, those who were ahead would end up further ahead. And that is exactly what I expect is about to happen again. It isn’t even worth wasting bandwidth talking about alternatives. Let’s just review what they did, and try to project what they will do, in Albany.