Sunday School 5/15/22: Extra Credit

For your Extra Credit, I'm continuing the discussions from the Sunday School classrooms on the shooting in Buffalo, NY which left 10 dead and three wounded.

I decided to see what the Meet the Press panel had to say about things. What's-his-name had Rev. Al Sharpton; Susan Page (USA Today); Matt Bai (WaPo); Al Cardenas, a GOP strategist, and Ashley Parker (WaPo) in for the chat.

Reverend Al started things off, describing where we start t0 address the "toxic stew" of white supremacy, guns, and a "permissive Internet culture" for sharing the toxicity and hate. He said we need to change the tone nationally, and relayed his first thoughts when he started hearing the news out of Buffalo.

President Biden needs to call a summit meeting of Black, Jewish, Asian leaders and sit down and talk about the growing problem of hate crimes, and that this government will not stand by and allow this to happen. 

The tone needs to be such that folks like the perpetrator know that the federal government is watching them, will not tolerate the hate that's being spread, and "will come down on them." And it's not just against Blacks, but Jews, Asians, LGBTQ, Latinos - "it's hate everywhere." 

Cardenas was tasked with talking about how there aren't "enough leaders on the right" to call out the hatemongers.

Listen, there used to be political parties...there used to be serious politicians who would step up and speak out against these kinds of things. When David Duke ran for office, hey, I spoke out as party chairman. Others did. It was well known that he was an individual on his own, not part of a family. Now, it's to the contrary. People keep silent, and that silence is interpreted in ways that are not healthy. I'll tell you this. I'm frustrated in America that we're so incapable of doing things.

He thought, after George Floyd was killed and we had all the demonstrations, things would change. He thought the same after Parkland, and the Pulse nightclub shootings. 

But when you look at this, the frustration in America has to do with the fact that horrific things are happening, government's not doing anything, and political leaders are not doing anything. And that's what the calamity is. 

Parker said "the other component of this, of course, is guns." Tone matters, as Sharpton said; it matters "incredibly."

But then you look at how all of these hate crimes are committed, and they are all committed with guns. And this is an area where Congress has been able to do absolutely nothing. There will be – you saw people you were interviewing talking about sensible gun reform. But you look at Sandy Hook. You look at kindergarteners massacred. You look at Mother Emanuel, a shooting in a church. You look at what happened in Las Vegas at the country music concert. Guns have now touched every aspect of society, and Congress has been able to do absolutely nothing.

Page spoke of the feeling of helplessness we have, after each of these incidents, and said "there are, in fact, things that we could do."

Law enforcement could do more to surveil these toxic sites. Social media companies could do more to bring them down. The news media could do more to cover them. Lawmakers could do more to find some kind of common ground on guns. And Americans could stand up and say, "These shootings, these hate shootings do not reflect America. This is a radical fringe." Americans need to stand up and say, "We won't stand for this anymore."

Bai, who covered Columbine back in 1999, said these mass shootings are "now a part of the culture. It's a recurring thing." And while he agrees with Parker that "Congress has done absolutely nothing," he might disagree with Reverend Al.

...I don't think – and we may disagree about this. I'm certain, you know, I can have a disagreement with a lot of people – I don't think this is a more hateful, more racist country than it was 25 years ago, certainly not 50 years ago. I do think we have a segment of our political leadership that has emboldened and legitimized a very extreme and dangerous segment of our political dialogue. And they have to take responsibility for that. There's a culpability for that. And it is tied to the violence. 

That's the problem, then: that no one takes responsibility for legitimizing the hate; or, the problem is, it's "an organizing tool", said What's-his-name; or, the problem is that it's been "normalized." That last one's what Reverend Al thinks.

You have to remember, this is an 18-year-old that is accused in Buffalo. When he was 15, Charlottesville happened. The president of the United States at that time said, "There are good people, or fine people, on both sides." So, this gives them comfort... a tone was set while this guy was a kid, being impressionable, that this is all right to be marching, saying, "Jews will not replace me." That's what he saw at 15 years old. And he saw it from the White House.

Parker reminded everyone that Joe Biden ran for president because of what happened in Charlottesville. "And now, you look at what's happening, and it feels like nothing has changed. The culture is the exact same." 

Another thing that's the same is that "...a whole bunch of Republicans in Congress" scream about free speech whenever anyone tries to deal with this kind of domestic terrorism, according to What's-his-name.

Page said that free speech is important - but, she said, it's "not a license to endorse things like replacement theory, this terrible, terrible theory that there's an elite, many of them Jews, trying to replace America with a Black and Brown nation to dilute the power of white people. That is un-American."

Bai, who said he's "as close to a free speech absolutist as you're probably going to find," believes that "free speech is threatened in a lot of corners of society," but that speech "demands leadership."

When you have a society that is free, you also have to have a society with leaders who stand up for morality and for the right instincts in the culture so that you don't take things that are on the margins of the society, as you say, and bring them into the mainstream and legitimize them. We have failed on that count. And we continue to fail. And these are the consequences. 

It's "now a part of the culture." "We're incapable of doing things." "The government isn't doing anything." "Political leaders aren't doing anything." "Nothing has changed."  "We have failed. And we continue to fail." "Americans need to stand up and say, we won't stand for this anymore." "And these are the consequences."

It's hard to disagree with them, isn't it?

See you around campus.

Sunday School 5/15/22

Unsurprisingly, the Sunday School classrooms were full of discussion on the mass shooting in Buffalo, NY. 

I'll start with my Governor Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, who gave several interviews. Here's a recap of her conversation with Dana Bash in the State of the Union classroom.

Bash described the state of the union as "heartbroken and horrified," not just because of the lives lost, but because the shooter apparently had published a lengthy, hate-filled, racist manifesto before embarking on his mission. 

Hochul talked about that a bit. 

... what is so bone-chilling about it, is that there is the ability for people to write and subscribe to such philosophies filled with hate, the white supremacists acts of terrorism that have been fermented on social media. And to know that what this one individual did has been shared with the rest of the world, as well as the livestreaming of this military-style execution that occurred... in the streets of my hometown, and that is what is so fundamentally disturbing about this, that this is not just a long time ago, members of the KKK would sit in a hall and plot what they're going to do in their community. This spreads like a virus.

She wants social media platform execs to "examine their policies and to be able to look me in the eye" and say they're doing everything possible to prevent the spread of this stuff, and that they're able to take it down immediately. (Twitch, the Amazon-owned gaming platform on which the shooting was streamed, said the video was removed in less than two minutes, but it was available on other platforms where it had been shared hours later.) 

Bash asked how this hate, things like the Great Replacement Theory, which was included in the published screed, is not just spreading online, "it's being pushed by some prominent right-wing voices, and it's been done so for years," can be stopped. The gov said the folks who spread this "need to be called out," and party officials need to

stand up at this moment and call it out and just shame it and to make sure that these people crawl back into their holes and stay there. This cannot be part of our mainstream dialogue here in the United States of America. So, leaders have a responsibility to call it out.

She also talked about her responsibility to protect people when it comes to guns. The laws here are "some of the toughest" in America, 

but the guns are coming in from other states, or the enhanced magazine, which is exactly what happened here, the high-capacity magazine that led to the slaughter of people in my hometown.

There are also illegal guns, purchased legally in other states and brought to NY.

... they end up in someone's trunk. They bring them up I-81. They head into New York State, head over to the Bronx, head over to Brooklyn, head over to the city, or they go to places like New York, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester. So, that's how it's spreading. Other states do not have the same laws that we have, and people are just crossing those borders.

Hochul's not the first to mention that problem. NYC Mayor Eric Adams mentioned the so-called Iron Pipeline in one of his recent classroom visits. It's an issue impacting cities in multiple states. Sadly, knowing these trafficking routes exist, and doing something about them, are vastly different things.

Down the hall, George Stephanopoulos led his panel in a discussion on the shooting and the hate that drove it in the This Week classroom. Sitting around the table were ABC regulars Donna Brazile and Chris Christie, along with Julie Pace (AP) and Molly Ball (Time Magazine). 

Brazile noted that FBI Director Chis Wray "warned us almost two years ago" that domestic terrorism by white supremacists was a big concern, but that we're not doing much about it. 

 We've got to talk about white supremacy. We've got to talk about the radicalization of -- of kids in this country. We cannot do a "both-sides" argument on this one here because, if we don't begin to address what is happening, it's going to continue to happen. El Paso, what we saw in Charlottesville, what we saw down in Charleston. We have to address it. We have to be vigilant. And we have to root out this type of extremism in our society. 

Christie said this wasn't on his radar when he was a US Attorney (from 2002 - 2008), but it was - "a little bit" - near the end of his second term (in 2018) as New Jersey's governor, where he said law enforcement folks 

started to see more people willing to act out violently, seemingly without any type of heads-up, because they're acting alone. And that's what makes it so difficult for law enforcement. Because, even with good intelligence work, it's really hard if someone is a crazy person who is not doing things overtly, publicly. It becomes harder.

He said it'll be interesting to learn why "we didn't see some of the stuff he was writing and...  posting, and why he wasn't flagged." And he said Wray pointed out the need for all levels of law enforcement to work together, "in a way that flags some of the stuff that's happening on social media and keeps a watch on some of these folks who are going to act out violently." 

Pace responded to George's question about the apparent amount of planning in advance of this, pointing out that it "seemed to happen in spaces where other people were, you know, these online communities right now are really robust" and where, as Christie said, often out of sight of law enforcement. And, she added,

I think it's going to be really interesting to see where the debate goes in terms of what the responsibility of the tech companies will be here but also other people that just exist online in these communities, what is their responsibility? We all get so used to flagging things when we see them in person, but this is sort of the next space, I think, where people need to be more alert. 

Ball, who's a political correspondent, talked about the conversations she has with "everyday voters" and how many bring up how "mad" and "divided" we are.

And this is something that, I think, politicians see it as sort of just cheap, political rhetoric, everybody says, oh, well let’s come together. But people are really taking this seriously, this sense of division and hatred and just all of the strife that we feel. And I think particularly, you know, coming out of COVID, reemerging, trying to come back together as a society, there's so much we need to be doing just to try to knit people together and feel like a country again, feel like a community together...

Christie seemed to suggest we probably won't hear a lot of kumbaya over the coming months, noting that "midterms are particularly divisive." The typical midterm voters are the "true believers" on both sides, which means the pols are talking to folks who aren't as likely to be looking for unity or healing the divide. Rather, we'll likely see candidates doing more hardcore progressive or hardcore conservative communication over the next few months, but said

I definitely sense from being out there and talking to voters, that as we turn the clock from '22 to '24, I think there's going to be a new desire among voters to say, I want to hear from people who have the ability and the record to be able to bring people together rather than divide us. I think there is a desire for that in the country.

Brazile mentioned one of my least favorite things about politicians - "they speak in sound bites. They don't speak in the everyday ordinary language..." 

They're not speaking to open the hearts and minds of a young man, 18 years old -- what drove this child to write a 110-page manifesto where he talks about his hatred of Jews, he talks about starting a war, Jews against non-Jews, and then he starts talking about black people? I'm, like, have you met one? Have you talked to anybody unlike anything you’ve ever seen? No, I don't want politicians to control this conversation.

She thinks the conversation belongs in the hands of teachers, business leaders, and the like, and said "the media has to understand that they cannot be complicit in this conversation. "

We need to have a conversation that doesn't go about the next election. It's just like on abortion. People call me, what do you think about Democrats and abortion? I said, before I was a Democrat, I was a human being, and why not talk about that and not just the next election? No, we need more than politicians to have this conversation. 

Christie's next comments have me wondering what the heck he's smoking. He said he really believes there'll be

a different desire come '24 in terms of hearing something different from people who want to pursue high office because of the violence that we're seeing, because of the division that you are talking about. People are feeling it. They're feeling it at their dinner table. They're feeling it with their own children. They're feeling it at cocktail parties, at sporting events. They don't want to see it. 

Um, does 2020 ring a bell, Governor? The Big Lie? Or 2021, and the insurrection? We've got the former president still spouting the former, and we've got Republicans still denying the latter. Current Republican officeholders, and wanna-be Republican officeholders traipse off to Mar-a-Lago to kiss whatever he demands them to kiss, looking for endorsement, or at least not opposition. And, he's a threat to what Christie's suggesting. Pace seems to agree, saying

-- it's great to think about the prospect of a 2024 campaign that is focused around unity in this country, but, I think, the reality is that we will have some very powerful forces, potentially the former president who doesn't really speak that language and has enormous support from within the Republican Party. So, I think there's a long way to go before we get to that place where we might really have that national conversation that is more focused on unity.  

She's spot 0n with that thinking. After all, we just had a campaign in which the winner, Joe Biden, ran on trying to unite us, and ran into the other party's fully-dug-in position of stopping his administration.  

There's a long way to go, for sure. See you around campus

Quick Takes (v43): WNY OTB's Gamble

Quick Takes

Regular readers know how excited I am that New York State gambles so heavily on gambling to help fund our government.  

We've got four new-ish casinos, which have been getting a lot of attention - they've all been troubled with lower-than-expected revenues, bad credit ratings, at least two have had ownership changes, and so on. 

Most industry experts attribute the poor performance to our very over-saturated market, which includes several Indian Nation casinos, thoroughbred and harness tracks, and Off-Track Betting (OTB) outlets. You can read my coverage on this topic over the last five years here.

One thing I haven't covered all that much is the OTB stuff. There are five regional OTB corporations, with multiple betting parlors around the state (none here in Onondaga County, which is fine with me). Money earned is supposed to be distributed to the municipalities that fall under each corporation's jurisdiction. Unless, of course, that money goes for other stuff.  

Take a look at this reporting from Investigative Post, noting that there's a federal grand jury nosing around into the Western Regional OTB corporation, investigating possible corruption including free health insurance for board members, vendor contracts going to politically-connected businesses, and issues with tickets to Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres games.  Not only that, the report notes,

In addition, the state comptroller has started a previously announced audit and sources said the state Gaming Commission is engaged in some sort of review, as well.

According to the paper's reporting, no one was paying much attention to WNY OTB until about a year ago, when they reported on the free health insurance offered to the part-time board members (employees have to pay for theirs), and that NY's AG seemed to suggest that was prohibited. The AG's opinion and the state comptroller, and the attorneys hired by the OTB, all said it was wrong. An estimate, based on 'normal usage' would put the prohibited program's cost at between $250K and $500K annually.

The ticket issue stems from an accusation that OTB officials give tickets to "family, friends, and political allies," although there have been changes made in how ticket distribution is handled, including "the frequency and method of ticket giveaways." 

The contracting issue has to do with politically-connected vendors getting healthy contracts, including a contract extension given, even after it was reported the contract in question was under FBI scrutiny.

New York has a history of good intentions gone bad, and sadly we seem to excel when it comes to situations where public corporations, boards, and authorities are given freedom to do their own thing - because that almost always ends up with politically connected companies and people receiving benefits they are probably not entitled to, or that are way beyond what's reasonable for the work done, and that regular folks have no way to access.

Kudos to the reporters who have been chasing these stories. Ideally we'll find that there's nothing untoward in how the OTB handles its benefits and other practices, but if there is, the practices need to change - or cease - and the municipalities who are supposed to benefit from WNY OTB need to be made whole for any lost revenue.

And if nothing else, I hope these investigations will put the hundreds of other authorities, corporations and boards that engage in similar shenanigans on notice that, as the saying goes, the house always wins.

The Update Desk: Don't Let The Door Hit You...

It's been a while since we've heard any news about Erie County's embattled Congressman, Republican Chris Collins.

In fact, it was back in May that we checked in on Collins, the insider-trading, call-your-son-from-the-Rose-Garden (but don't call your daughter) wheeler-dealer.  Here's what was going on back then:

Collins is in the news again, for a couple of reasons. First, the House is going to reopen their ethics investigation into his case, which was suspended back when he was indicted on federal charges. But not to worry -- the House has promised the Department of Justice that they'll not interfere with the criminal case against him.

But the more interesting news about Collins has to do with infrastructure, and taxes. That's right, two things Republicans like to talk about, for different reasons. Infrastructure is good, particularly if it's public/private partnership, which helps their donors, or if it's block grants to states, which the Rs love. And taxes? That's another good topic to talk about too, of course, particularly when they're going down, not up - or not being introduced at all. You know what happens to Rs who get that part wrong. I mean, who can forget "Read my lips - no new taxes!"

Well, he's back, and now news is breaking from his hometown newspaper, the Buffalo News:

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins resigned Monday, a day before he is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to federal charges stemming from an insider trading scheme that prosecutors first detailed in an indictment nearly 14 months ago.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her office received Collins' resignation letter Monday. The aide said Collins' resignation will become effective Tuesday.

A new court filing in the case, filed in federal court in Manhattan, shows that U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick scheduled a court hearing where Collins – who had pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him – will change his plea.

A new entry on the docket in the case read: "As to Christopher Collins: Change of Plea Hearing scheduled for 10/1/2019 at 3 p.m."

Moments after that docket entry was filed, a second appeared, indicating that Collins' co-defendants – his son Cameron Collins and Cameron Collins' prospective father-in-law, Stephen Zarsky – plan to change their not-guilty pleas as well. A hearing in their case is set for Thursday.

No one has any comment on whether the gang will plead to the original changes, which were scheduled to go to trial in February, or if there are lesser, more palatable charges on the table. Either way, it's good that (after the court date on Tuesday), we'll no longer have Rep. Collins to kick around any more.

You can read all of the veritable pastiche coverage of Collins here.

The Update Desk: Another Look at Albany Pay Raises

We've got another update on the already updated plan to raise the pay for elected executives, legislators, and appointed commissioners in New York.

Some background: NY has commissions decide on pay raises; in 2016, salaries for judges were increased but not for the governor and legislators.You can follow that process by starting at the end, with this post from December 2016. A new, smaller commission took another look this year. A raise was a forgone conclusion; the only question was how it would work. This post talks addresses some of that.

The Commission recommended getting rid of 'leadership lulus' for all but 15 of the legislators, as well as strict limits on outside income (beginning in 2020). In return, there are  pretty significant increases - $50,500 over three years for the legislators, with the governor, other executives, and appointees also get a significant bump on the same schedule.

As I noted in that post, we've not heard the last of this. And we haven't, as we saw in the local papers in Syracuse and Buffalo.

First, from the Post-Standard article,

Three state lawmakers from the Syracuse area say they will oppose a plan to make the state Legislature the highest paid in the nation because they don't like the strings attached to the deal.

Assemblyman Will Barclay (R-Pulaski, first elected in 2002), noted that the "whole thing is a little dubious" and that an unelected commission shouldn't have been the decision-makers. He also noted

I do have a philosophical problem with a full time legislator. We don't need a professional legislature. I do like the diversity we have now; it allows people to have outside experiences. Once you have a full-time legislature, that becomes your job and you have to justify your existence by passing more bills. 

Senator Bob Antonacci (R-Onondaga, just elected in November) and Assemblyman Gary Finch (R-Springport, serving since 1999) were of like minds on the issue.

Antonacci: We want people to come up, do their work, and go back to the private sector. To ask people to give up their private sector interests could be tough to do. You're going to end up with professional legislators. 

 Finch: It prevents a enormous amount of talented people who know what it's like to work in New York, and meet a payroll, from serving in the Legislature... 

Where do other CNY lawmakers stand?  Senators Patty Ritchie (R-Oswegatchie, elected in 2010) and Rachel May (D-Syracuse, just elected) and Assemblywoman Pam Hunter (D-Syracuse, serving since 2015) generally support it.

Out in Buffalo, there were similar concerns.  Here's Senator Michael Ranzenhofer (R-Amherst, in the Legislature since 2009, with prior elected office back to 1989) on the outside-income ban:

It's reflective of an attitude which is elitist and doesn't appreciate the fact that there's a value to individuals with real world experience working in government.

The commission was composed of longtime Democratic Party insiders, and, according to the article,

Some were privately wondering whether this wasn't part of a plan to drive more Republicans out of Albany and put their legislative seats into the hands of Democrats. 

Assemblyman Andy Goodell (R-Jamestown, elected in 2010) believes that only the Legislature and the governor can give lawmakers a pay raise, and that having 'current' real-world experience is necessary:

So, those unemployed other than their legislative position with no business background or private sector employment would be eligible to serve and everyone who's a successful business person and who understands the challenge of operating in the private sector would be banned from serving unless they gave up their business. 

For his part, Buffalo Senator Chris Jacobs (2017) thinks the focus should be on full transparency on outside income.

Here are some thoughts from someone who has real world experience living, working, and voting in NY:

• No one mentioned the inherent risk with legislators being able to pass laws that can directly influence their outside income. If not limits, what?

• No one mentioned that that the legislators have long told us that they work full time on our behalf, and we have no idea how busy they are when they're not in Albany. If they're working full time, they wouldn't need outside income; conversely, if' they're not working full time, why do they need a raise?   

• Assemblyman Finch noted that he wouldn't have been able to support his family on just his legislative salary (some $17,000 higher than NY's median income, not counting lulus and per diems). But that kind of 'real-world experience' - making ends meet when you simply don't have enough money - is not the kind of experience that our leaders should have?

• As to Sen. Jacobs' suggestion that we focus on 'full transparency' rather than limits, would he support a move to stop reporting income in overly broad, multiple-hundred-thousand-dollar ranges, which in and of themselves are far beyond what many New Yorkers earn?

Barring a miracle, the initial pay increase - and the elimination of lulus - goes into effect on Tuesday.

We'll have to wait to see if any of this is challenged, if anyone actually refuses the raise, and whether they'll pass bills that allow them to work around the outside income limits as recommended by the Commission. 

Collins to Run Again After All

Buffalo-area congressman and Trump first responder Chris Collins is going to be on the ballot for his congressional seat in November after all.

Unfortunately, it seems, trying to get off the ballot under some grand scheme being worked on by Erie County Republicans and Collins could jeopardize his defense against the federal criminal charges filed against him mid-summer, and could have led to a lawsuit by NY Democrats fighting against the plan to replace him on the ballot. It might even have jeopardized his bail, attorneys thought, which negated his earlier statement that he would suspend his campaign:

After extensive discussions with my family and my friends over the last few days, I have decided that it's in the best interests of the constituents of NY-27, the Republican Party, and president Trump's agenda for me to suspend my campaign for re-election to Congress it's in the best interests of the constituents of NY-27, the Republican Party, and president Trump's agenda for me to suspend my campaign for re-election to Congress.

Part of this is because of NY's convoluted election law; he'd only get off the ballot if he was no longer a resident of NY, or nominated for another office, or dead. Something we might want to think about changing in the future,  fellow NY voters...

Speaking of attorneys, it probably shouldn't be shocking to learn that Collins had used campaign funds to pay legal fees related to the insider trading. From this report  in August, we learn (emphasis added)

Since July 2017, Federal Election Commission records show Collins' campaign has been paying up to $60,000 per month in legal services to prestigious law firm Baker Hostetler. The firm is representing Collins in the case.

While it is legal to use campaign funds to pay for legal fees, it's not clear whether Collins' constituents and supporters were aware that donations were being used to assist his legal fight.

Those legal fees covered the time period of two separate House probes, including one by the Office of Congressional Ethics and another by the House Ethics Committee. 

A spokesman for the Collins legal team confirmed that the payments from the campaign were for the investigation by the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics and an ongoing inquiry by the House Ethics Committee. Going forward, the congressman will pay for his legal bills out of his own pocket, the spokesman added. 

That's right -- like a lot of other ridiculous expenses, including steak dinners and golf outings, legal fees can be paid out of campaign funds.

I mean, from an ethical perspective, isn't Collins using campaign funds to pay legal fees kind of like the president using donations to his charitable foundation for his own selfish purposes?

Collins recently did an interview with a Buffalo TV station, noting that he welcomed the FBI when they showed up at his house early one morning back in April, and that he thought when he was talking to them that it was related to the ethics investigations (that started in 2016, he noted). In the interview, he was asked whether he thought he had let his constituents down.

No, again, no allegations against me have a thing to do with my role as a member of Congress. Nor did I ever sell any stock, so I'm holding my head high.

He's right on the latter point -- as his stock is in a trust, he couldn't actually sell any specific stock.

But on the former, I can't disagree more: with two separate ethics investigations, the first finding good reason to refer him for the second one, his ethics have everything to do with his role as a Congressman.

 And voters seem to understand that, apparently; for example, residents in Eden, the likely spot to drop Collins so he wouldn't have to run for his Congressional seat, were not at all excited about that idea.

Car horns honked, eliciting cheers as they drove past the group of protesters standing outside the Eden Town Hall. Signs labeled "fraud," "Collins is a swamp monster," and "Eden not bossed, not bought, not Collins," waved in the air as the crowd marched down to the intersection at Route 62 and East Church Street... The protest is the latest in a series of protests revolving around the Republicans' attempts to get Chris Collins off the November congressional ballot after the congressman suspended his campaign following an indictment for federal insider trading and fraud charges. 

Hopefully, voters in the 27th district will do the right thing in November and not give him a single vote.

The Update Desk: TGIF 8/11/08

In last week's TGIF post, I mentioned Buffalo-area Rep. Chris Collins, who was the first member of Congress to climb aboard the Trump train all those months ago.  And, he was just indicted for insider trading.

When the indictment came out, Collins was adamant that these were false allegations - meritless was the word he used in this press conference in which he outlined his general business acumen, his history of saving jobs for western NY, his political career, and his plans to vigorously fight the allegations while continuing to serve in Congress.

He even brought his wife to the press conference; she waved clumsily, then stood by his side, a fixed expression on her face, looking as if for the life of her she couldn't figure out why she was there. It was strangely reminiscent of the Eliot Spitzer presser after the whole Client #9 stuff broke ten years ago, except that in that case, it was a 'stand by me while I admit to being a cheating cad who doesn't take off his socks' thing, vs. a 'I saved our son a few million bucks' thing. 

Yesterday, however, Collins had a change of heart. He is suspending his campaign for re-election, throwing the race to hold the most Republican district in NY into turmoil. Here's his official statement, done in the usual fashion - toss around a few trigger words, and focusing attention on himself as a savior of the world. They must go to school to learn how to do this.

Democrats are laser focused on taking back the House, electing Nancy Pelosi Speaker and then launching impeachment proceedings against President Trump. They would like nothing more than to elect an 'Impeach Trump' Democrat in this District, which is something that neither our country or my party can afford.

After extensive discussions with my family and my friends over the last few days, I have decided that it's in the best interests of the constituents of NY-27, the Republican Party, and president Trump's agenda for me to suspend my campaign for re-election to Congress.

I will fill out the remaining few months of my term to assure that our community maintains its vote in Congress to support president Trump's agenda to create jobs, eliminate regulations, reduce the size of government and lower taxes.

I will also continue to fight the meritless charges brought against me and I look forward to having my good name cleared of any wrongdoing.

We'll have to see whether there's time to get his name off the ballot before November.

And maybe we'll hear from the president on this when he makes his trip to New York on Monday.

The Update Desk: An Ignoramus for Christmas

This just keeps getting better and better, this Carl Paladino 2017 Wish List.

You remember his comments, right? He was one of the Buffalo-area businessmen asked to complete a little survey for Artvoice, an artsy-newsy-entertainment mag. Paladino wanted President Obama to die of mad cow disease, and Michelle Obama to go back to being a man and live out her life in a cave with a gorilla. Good stuff, there, from your school board member, right?

Then, after some backlash when his comments went bigly viral, he added fuel to the fire by issuing a lengthy comment, again to Artvoice, about his 'deprecating humor', explaining his reasoning.

...he attacked the press; he attacked the Obamas as two America-hating progressive elitist ingrates; he mentioned hundreds of fired soldier generals and admirals; he talked about Michelle's hatred of America; Barack's yellow-bellied cowardice; unvetted immigration of Muslims; drug pusher commuted sentences; the silent-majority middle class rising up against Democrats and Republicans alike; the end of an era of mainstream media; a fraudulent shadow government and a lazy-ass president; the end of the progressive movement; Trump being called unfit for office; and a president doing nothing for black children.

Now, you could be forgiven for thinking that maybe he didn't really believe what he said, and that he really thought he was being funny, until you read his explanation on why he made the comments. I mean, if a person really thinks that the President and First Lady are America-hating progressive elitist ingrates and all, you would not expect that person to apologize for his sense of humor, right?  And I would not demand that he apologize. As I noted the other day, we have a First Amendment which allows a person to make a total ignoramus of themselves - no apology required.

Apparently the backlash was all too much for him, though.. Disavowal by the Trump team, for whom Paladino was a chief ally. Slapdown from our Sonofa Guv Andrew Cuomo, who crushed Paladino in the gubernatorial race in 2010, and from OnJoanie Mahoney, a Republican Paladino accused of being a liberal. Mahoney called upon others to also speak up or, in effect, agree with Paladino by their silence, and she, like many others - dozens of others - referred to his comments as racist. And so, even though he did not have to, Paladino apologized.

Sort of. I think. In a statement on his Facebook page, he poured out his heart and soul. Take a  look:

I never intended to hurt the minority community who I spent years trying to help out of the cycle of poverty in our inner cities. I apologize. 

If he had actually intended to apologize, that would have done the trick. It responded to the hurt many in the minority community may likely have felt, hearing an old white guy talking about the death by horrible disease of the first African-American president, and the gender and gorilla comments about the president's wife. But he did not stop there.

About the minority community, he added this.

I thought about them every day as I fought against unqualified and incompetent superintendents, administrators, teachers and School Board members, unfair union contracts, broken homes and children who can't get the education they need to break that cycle of poverty because our school system is a failure, for reasons that needn't be. 

And then he sort of blamed Obama and Syria, saying that he got the survey at the wrong time.

(It came at) an emotional moment after I had just listened to Obama's statement that he regretted the slaughter in Aleppo that, in fact, resulted from his failed and cowardly foreign policy. I view Barack Obama as a traitor to American values...

And then he sort of blamed being a human being, after starting to blame the media.

I wanted to say something as sarcastic and hurtful as possible about the people who are totally responsible for the hurt and suffering of so many others. I was wired up, primed to be human and I made a mistake, I could not have made a worse choice in the words I used to express my feelings.

Which makes no sense, if he was in fact trying to be as hurtful as possible, right?  And then he sort of blamed the Board of Education, or the teacher's union.

It's all too easy to make mistakes when you're emotional about the rigged teachers' contract by an incompetent Board of Education majority who sold out the school district as payback to teacher's union leader Phil Rumore for his election support. They couldn't care less about the children of Buffalo.

But no, that second slam of his School Board counterparts wasn't the reason, either. Nope -- it was an accident!

I did not mean to send those answers to Artvoice, Not that it makes any difference because what I said was inappropriate under any circumstance. I filled out the survey to send to a couple friends and forwarded it to them not realizing that I didn't hit "forward"I hit "reply." All men make mistakes. 

Well, that stinks. I mean, most of us have sent emails we wish we hadn't, or responded to all when we shouldn't have, or forgot to step away from the keyboard and clear our heads before actually sending an emotional email, right?  Of course, I don't think most of us who did that then add insult to injury by doubling down, proudly doubling down and taking credit for our words, do you? Only to then apologize/defend/excuse the words by adding more fuel to the fire?

After going back to a more humble declaration of stupidity, about having to explain to his daughter how he could be so stupid, he lit a match.

What is horrible is watching my family and friends react to the rabid hordes of attacking parasites we now call activist progressives... And for the vanquished progressive haters out there spewing their venom at anything that is a reminder of their humiliating defeat, irrelevance is tough to chew on...For the mean-spirited, disoriented press trying to find grounding and recover legitimacy on my back, pray that you still have a job next year because you have lost all credibility with the people... I certainly am not a racist. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

Damn -- that is one emotional, wired up, primed to be human excuse of an apology of a poor substitute for standing up for what you believe in, who's passing on to his teen-aged daughter that having the courage of your convictions only matters until you get yelled at for having them, at which point the best thing to do is load up your word bazookas and fire in every conceivable direction at once, not worrying about who else you antagonize in the process.

I Want an Ignoramus for Christmas

Lori Van Buren/Times Union photo

Buffalo NY has the Buffalo Billion, and they have the Buffalo Bills, and they have the Buffalo Buffoon, Carl Paladino.

Paladino ran for governor of NY and lost; he led the state Republicans for a while; he's currently on the Buffalo School Board; and he led the charge for Donald Trump here in the Empire state, having his picture taken with the POTUS-elect as seen here, and even going so far as to threaten New York Republicans who did not agree with him.

The Buffalo businessman said in an interview that he will use email to rally his supporters against New York's Republican members of Congress who have remained neutral in the presidential race.  Paladino...said the emails will become increasingly personal in the coming weeks, targeting individual members of Congress.

How very Trumpian of him -- personally attacking people, even people in your own party, who were elected by people, and who are supposed to serve, their actual constituents - not Carl Paladino. And Chris Collins, the former Erie County Executive and current representative for parts of Western NY and the Finger Lakes in Congress - and member of the Apprentice transition team - chimed in back in back then, too.

I know Carl Paladino has been aggressively pushing all of you to endorse Trump. And I know he has indicated he will start 'attacking' NYers who don't endorse Trump. You may or may not care, but he does have a formidable email list.

Yeah, Collins is a stand-up guy, helping threaten fellow elected officials, and yeah, that Paladino, he's a heckuva guy. 

Paladino was selected by ArtVoice, "Western New York's smartest news, arts, and entertainment," along with several others, to answer a few questions about what they wanted for 2017. Here are two of the questions, and Paladino's answers.

1. What would you most like to happen in 2017?  Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford (sic). He dies before his trial and is burned in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady (sic) cellmate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her. 
2. What would you like to see go away in 2017? Michelle Obama. I'd like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.

The other two questions asked who should run for mayor in Buffalo, to which Paladino appeared to answer Donald Trump, and about a proposed $50M Amtrak station, which Paladino believes is unnecessary, and he also said that we are the laughingstock of America because of the intelligence of our elected leaders. And, remember, he is one, as a member of the School Board...

Not surprisingly, there's been a lot of backlash on his responses to the first two questions -- they were so out in right field that the Trump team had to distance themselves, if you can believe that. And you can believe that, because I read it on Breitbart.

Carl's comments are reprehensible and they serve no place in our public discourse.

Wow -- is that kind of like being sent to bed without any supper by your billionaire father?

Equally unsurprising is Paladino's doubling down in response to the response to his ignoramusness, which included calls for his removal from the school board, accusations of racism, and even a beat-down from St. Bonaventure University, his alma mater.

It is true that a university is a place that encourages political discourse, but a civil discourse that, as Lincoln said, speaks "to the better angels of our nature." Such racist and demeaning comments have no place in civil society. As in the America we all love, so too at St. Bonaventure - we're better than that. 

Paladino took 14 paragraphs, not counting the opening "This is in response to my comments published in Artvoice" and the closing, shown here, to make his case.

And yes, it's about a little deprecating humor which America lost for a long time. Merry Christmas and tough luck if you don't like my comments.

In between those two statements? Well, let's see: he attacked the press; he attacked the Obamas as two America-hating progressive elitist ingrates; he mentioned hundreds of fired soldier generals and admirals; he talked about Michelle's hatred of America; Barack's yellow-bellied cowardice; unvetted immigration of Muslims; drug pusher commuted sentences; the silent-majority middle class rising up against Democrats and Republicans alike; the end of an era of mainstream media; a fraudulent shadow government and a lazy-ass president; the end of the progressive movement; Trump being called unfit for office; and a president doing nothing for black children.

Now, I have to say, if you didn't get all of that out of Barack Obama having relations with a cow and Michelle Obama going back to being a man and living in a cave with a gorilla, you're not alone. I didn't get all of that either - not even close.

I appreciate and hold dear our God-given right to speak freely. Oh wait - the God-given right is the one to freely hold guns, sorry. Anyway -- I truly believe we have the right to say what we want to say, even when what we say makes us look like an ignoramus. And so I'm personally OK with Paladino's choice to firmly cement his ignoramus credentials, in case anyone doubted that he was a card-carrying ignoramus already.

And, in the spirit of the holiday, I'm happy to be able to check one more thing off my Christmas list.