Month: September 2017

On September 18, following Bill DeBlasio’s resounding win in the New York City Democratic Primary, Governor Andrew Cuomo endorsed him for re-election.

Sort of.

The topic of the endorsement came up during an interview with Cuomo on WNYC when Brian Lehrer specifically asked Cuomo if he would make an endorsement.

Cuomo’s response was that, “I am a Democrat. I support Democrats, and I’ll be support Mayor DE Blasio in the general.”

Lehrer found this to be less that overwhelming and followed up with a question, “Only because he’s a Democrat in that general kind of way? Nothing more enthusiastic than that?”

Cuomo doubled down on his anemic endorsement, replying, “No, I think in this contest, life is options, they say, right? I think in this contest, he is the better person to serve the city of New York as Mayor. Period.”

Earlier in September, Cuomo declined to endorse DeBlasio, because he isn’t a resident of the city and lives in Westchester.

He didn’t let that consideration stop him from making endorsements in other New York City races.

I will say, up front, that I find Bill DeBlasio completely underwhelming as Mayor of New York City.

I marvel at his tone deafness when it comes to crisis that occurs on his watch.

I was flabbergasted at his decision to fly off to Germany to give a speech to protesters at the G-20 summit despite the simaltaneous murder of a New York City police officer.

Still, Cuomo’s antipathy for DeBlasio is strange, considering that DeBlasio was responsible for the Working Families Party endorsing Cuomo in his re-election bid in 2015.

DeBlasio’s efforts then, forestalled a third party candidacy by Zephyr Teachout, who had garnered almost forty-percent of the Democratic primary that year without any financing.

In exchange for this designation, Cuomo pledged to work for the end of the Independent Democratic Conference, the eight elected Democratic State Senators who caucus with Republicans and restore Democratic leadership in the State Senate along with other measures.

Like most promises Cuomo makes, the statute of limitations ran out once it passed his lips.

State Senator, Jeffrey Klein, who leads the faction has described Cuomo as a “fantastic leader.”

To appreciate how little loyalty Cuomo has, all you have to do is recall the demise of the New York State Liberal Party.

The party was founded in 1940 and supported Franklin Roosevelt for President in 1944 and Harry Truman in 1948. In subsequent elections it endorsed both Democrats and Republicans alike, as well as some independent candidates, like 1980 presidential candidate John Anderson.

It provided ballot lines for Jacob Javits, Charles Goodell, John Lindsey and Rudy Giuliani.

Lindsay won a second term as Mayor of New York appearing only on the Liberal line.
It provided a ballot line for Mario Cuomo in the 1977 race for Mayor of New York, following his defeat in the Democratic primary by Ed Koch. Cuomo, like Lindsay, vigorously campaigned and turned in a credible performance.

The Party’s demise came in 2002 when it gave its endorsement to Andrew Cuomo in his challenge to Democratic Party designee, Carl McCall in the primary for Governor.

When it became apparent that Cuomo was going to lose badly, he discontinued his primary campaign.

Unlike his father and Lindsay who honored their commitment to the Liberal Party, Cuomo did not campaign and the Party fell short of the 50,000 votes required for it to have an automatic place on the ballot. It closed its offices and has never been a force in state politics again.

At this writing a host of Cuomo insiders await trial on corruption charges in the United States district Court in New York City.

Among them are Todd Howe, Joseph Percoco, assorted former state officials and large contributors to Cuomo’s campaigns.

Howe has pled guilty and is cooperating with the government in the probe.

Percoco, the lead defendant in the case, was Cuomo’s closest confidant and the man that Cuomo described as “Mario Cuomo’s third son and the one he liked best.”

When the arrests were announced, Cuomo tried to distance himself from Howe saying, “I wouldn’t call us close friends. He worked for the State for a number of years, but I had no knowledge of his personal situation.”

Howe served on both Cuomos staffs, rising to Andrew Cuomo’s chief of staff during the period that he served as Secretary of HUD in the Clinton Administration, where he recruited Percoco to work for Cuomo.

Cuomo has been silent on the subject of Percoco, venturing only that his arrest would have “broken” Mario Cuomo’s heart and offering a generic condemnation about political corruption.

I suppose that neither of those reactions should surprise anyone.

Andrew Cuomo has demonstrated, time after time, that he is only loyal to himself.

In the midst of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, EPA Director, Scott Pruitt, said we shouldn’t talk about climate change.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

Since becoming EPA Director, Pruitt has been busy rooting out climate change scientists at the EPA for dismissal, scrubbing its website of any studies supporting climate change and rolling back Obama Administration measures designed to address those issues.

While Trump’s FEMA Director appears to be doing a credible job in supplying relief to Houston, Florida and other parts of the nation hit by the storm, Trump, Pruitt and even some of the state officials in the hardest hit areas seem to be putting their residents at risk of future weather catastrophes by taking measures that would reduce the effects of unchecked climate change.

Scientists were nearly unanimous in their conclusion that while global warming did not cause Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, it worsened them.

The rise in water temperatures in the Gulf by as little as four degrees created pressure cooker conditions for the ingredients of the storms, i.e. extreme winds, rainfall and storm surge.

The increase in the water temperatures are unquestionably the result of greenhouse gases, the largest of which is carbon dioxide.

The gases are caused by many everyday activities but the two largest producers are industry and transportation.

The result is global warming which results in rising sea levels causing the polar ice caps to thaw, longer and more damaging wildfires, more frequent and intense heat waves, increased air pollution, greater flooding and more severe droughts.

Earlier this year, Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate accords in which most of the world joined and agreed to take steps to combat climate change and reduce global warming.

He was encouraged to do this by Pruitt and other Administration officials in his administration including alt=right advisers, Steve Bannon Stephen Miller and Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

Perry’s inclusion in the climate change denial faction seems almost incomprehensible.

One would think that as a former Texas Governor, whose state has been ravaged by storms and hurricanes as recently as Hurricane Harvey, he would be conversant with the science of climate change and global warming if only to learn what Texas should be vigilant about .

Yet, southern governors with large swaths of coastal land and beaches seen particularly resistant to learning those facts that might avert repeated catastrophes.

Florida Governor, Rick Scott, dismantled the Florida Energy and Climate Commission, walked away from his predecessor’s initiatives to protect the coastlines and forbade state scientists and employees from using the phrase “climate change.”

Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, like Rick Perry is a climate change denier.

Indeed, he has plenty of company in Texas.

Both Texas Senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn along with almost the entire Republican congressional delegation from that state voted against supplying aid to New Jersey, Connecticut and other northeastern states to repair and rebuild following Hurricane Sandy in 2012, contending that the assistance was “pork.”

In the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma they have shown no compunction about bellying up to the trough with their hands out for disaster aid.

Fortunately, members of the congressional delegations from the northeast are a forgiving lot and have voted for the aid package proposed by the Trump Administration.

At this writing, the Trump Administration is steadfast in its withdrawal from the Paris Climate agreement.

Apparently, neither he nor anyone around him has stopped to consider that if global warming continues unchecked, large parts of the world, especially near the equator, could be rendered uninhabitable leading to a large migration of (gasp!) refugees.

Scott Pruitt continues to shill for the oil and gas industry as he guts every program and regulation designed to ameliorate global warming.

Governors Abbott, Scott and their congressional delegations will continue to beg for their disaster relief while putting their heads back into the ground at the same time Trump continues to rant and tweet that the “concept of global warming was made by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing Non-competitive.”

We will be expected to foot the bill for all of these “fake” storms and hurricanes until something occurs to alter Trump& Co.’s views on the matter.

It might require Mar-A-Lago being swept out to sea.

We can only hope and pray.

I’ve arrived at a point in my life where I wonder what kind of country we have become.

Americans, in times of crisis, always united and pulled together.

In the midst of the Great Depression, we united behind President Roosevelt as he passed legislation establishing public works projects that put people back to work.

Sixteen years ago, in the days and months following the attack on September 11th, we united behind the leadership of President Bush and supported appropriations to rebuild lower Manhattan and provide compensation for the families of the victims and the rescue workers who developed illnesses from the clean-up.

Somewhere or sometime after that, we lost our concern for the health and well- being of one another.

When the “Great Recession” occurred in 2008, some advocated allowing the banks and the auto industry to fail.

They didn’t care that millions of people would be left destitute or that the jobs in one of our major industries would be wiped out.

Legislation entitled the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, it was initially voted down when it was introduced by President Bush’s Treasury Secretary in September, 2008.

Following that vote, the stock market dropped by over 700 points, the largest in its history.

Both houses of Congress passed it a short time later.

The following year, as the economy and job markets continued to struggle, President Obama proposed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to save existing jobs and create new ones.

It was enacted with almost no Republican support.

This was a prelude to Mitch McConnell’s stated goal, which was to make president Obama a one-term president.

I won’t go into the passage of the Affordable care Act i.e. Obamacare.

Suffice it to say that there has been a seven year effort to gut health care for over twenty-million people without any viable plan to replace it.

What I have found truly amazing is the way that partisan indifference to human suffering has become so embroidered into our national fabric.

In 2012, when Hurricane Sandy struck twenty-four states on the eastern seaboard causing 71.4 billion dollars in damage, partisan and regional resistance to relief efforts abounded.

When President Obama traveled to the Jersey Shore and was praised by Republican Governor, Chris Christie, Christie was pilloried by others in the Republican Party.

The entire Texas Republican congressional delegation, with one exception, voted against federal aid to the areas damaged by Sandy.

Even earlier, in 2005, Pence proposed offsetting the cost of Hurricane Katrina relief against other programs, including highway projects and the new Medicare prescription drug program, opining “We simply can’t allow a catastrophe of nature to become a catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren.”

This past week, Hurricane Harvey struck Houston, Texas and its surrounding area causing over 100 billion dollars in damage to flooded homes and businesses.

This year, perhaps because Hurricane Harvey fell on Trump’s watch, Pence unconditionally called upon Congress to appropriate disaster relief.

Even before the storm struck, Senators Cruz and Cornyn, both of whom opposed the Sandy relief, were calling on the federal government to supply disaster relief.

The phrase “what goes around, comes around,” sticks in my mind.

Fortunately, congressional representatives from New York, New Jersey and other areas damaged by Sandy aren’t going to punish the residents of Texas for the actions of Cruz, Cornyn and their other representatives.

New York Congressman, Peter King, has tweeted, “NY won’t abandon Texas. 1 bad turn doesn’t deserve another” and “Above all true Americans must stand together.”

I wish the ability to put aside grievances and appreciate how much we need each other was more infectious.

In the week that Harvey ravaged Houston, the Muslim community opened their mosques and offered food and shelter to anyone who needed it for as long as they needed it.

Those who embrace a travel ban on Muslims might want to reconsider the justice and wisdom in that.

In the middle of that hurricane, thirty-one year old Alonso Guillen, was killed during a rescue effort for people trapped in an apartment complex in a Houston suburb.

He was a Mexican immigrant and a “Dreamer” under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

That is the program that Trump ended on September 5, one week after Guillen’s death.

We forget that both Muslims and “Dreamers” serve in our military and fight and die for our country.

In 1858, three years before the Civil War and two years before being elected President, Abraham Lincoln said “That a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

We are moving further and further apart from one another, demonizing each other based upon caricatures and prejudices while ignoring the good in each other.

We need to ponder Lincoln’s words if we are going to survive.

It should come as no surprise that Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff, Joe Arpaio, before he was sentenced for his Criminal Contempt conviction.

They are, after all, two of a kind.

They bonded during the joint campaign to spread the racist “birther” lie that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States and therefore not eligible to be President.

Both claimed to have sent investigators to Hawaii who turned up evidence to support that claim, although neither ever disclosed the evidence they claimed to have found.

In Trump’s case the claim he sent investigators to Hawaii was probably a lie.

In Arpaio’s case it was true.

You have to wonder how Arpaio could justify using a public employee and public money for such a fool’s errand.

Maybe Maricopa County had a crime free week.

Arpaio’s contempt for the court processes and his abuse of Latinos spans a greater time frame than Trump’s but that is because he was in office longer.

The Phoenix New Times chronicled his abuses throughout his years in office.

He proudly called his jail a “concentration camp” and if you were a Latino inmate, it probably was.

As a publicity stunt, he marched Latino inmates into a segregated pen surrounded by an electric fence.

He erected a tent enclosure and marched inmates through the streets of Phoenix to the tent jail forcing them to wear pink nightgowns and pink underwear.

Once they were housed there, they were forced to live and sleep outside in below freezing temperatures in the winter months and temperatures that soared to over 120 degrees in the Arizona summer.

Over 160 inmates died in Arpaio’s jails during his tenure.

34 of those deaths were the result of inmates hanging themselves.

39 more died in the county hospital without the cause ever being classified.

Twice, the Federal Courts ruled that medical treatment is so deficient that it violates the Constitution.

A paraplegic inmate had his neck broken while being forced into a “restraint chair” because he asked for a catheter.

Another inmate died while deputies were trying to stuff him into the chair.

Pregnant inmates suffered miscarriages and still births because of the lack of medical attention and care.

Arpaio had the reporters from the Phoenix New Times that were covering him arrested, costing the taxpayers of Maricopa County 3.75 million dollars.

The federal Judge hearing the racial profiling case, G. Murray Snow and his wife, were subjected to an investigation by Arpaio’s agency.

The case was ultimately resolved against Arpaio.

It cost Maricopa County 44 million dollars.
Throughout his time in office Maricopa County has paid over one hundred million dollars in claims against his Sheriffs’ Office.

While Arpaio was devoting these resources to his crusade against Latinos, hundreds of sexual assault cases involving child victims were allowed to languish and die.

Despite Judge Snow’s ruling that Arpaio must cease the racial profiling, he continued to engage in it.

That led to the finding of Criminal Contempt by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton.

Perhaps it was the thought of Arpaio being forced to wear a pink nightgown, pink underwear and having to live in one of his tent jails for six months that motivated Trump to pardon him.

Perhaps he viewed him as a “patriot” and one of those “many fine people” that marched through Charlottesville, Virginia chanting “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil.”

I don’t know what motivated him to do this.

What I do suspect is that Trump is testing the pardon waters to see what the Congressional, media and public reaction to his use of the pardon power is.

I think it’s a prelude to more pardons being granted to people named Flynn, Manafort, Kushner and Trump Jr.

I can’t help but believe that if Arpaio had been born in Germany at the turn of the last century, he would have been prosecuted with the others for crimes against humanity at Nuremberg.

I also wonder if Trump had been born at that time and ascended to the office he now holds, whether he would have pardoned all of them.