Why New Yorkers Need A Real Mayoral Race In 2017?

Crowley Treasurer Probed for Court Appointment Violation

Joe Crowley’s treasurer being probed in possible pay violation (NYP) Scott Kaufman, who has served as Crowley’s campaign treasurer for 17 years, earned more than $75,000 from state court appointments in 2013 and continued to get jobs the next year despite a rule that says a person earning that much in a year “shall not be eligible” for any new paid court appointments in the next year.  But Kaufman took home $89,982 in 2013, and got more work in 2014, earning at least $12,450 for new assignments — and more than $172,000 total for that year, records show.  Kaufman said an exception allowed him to take on the cases of former clients in 2014 and that the amount of fees from 2012 appointments “could not be reasonably anticipated at the time of appointment.”

 


Heastie's Assembly Got Silver Ethics Guy

Good government groups are criticizing Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s selection of former Assembly Counsel Jim Yates to serve as a representative on the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, since Yates served under the disgraced former Speaker Sheldon Silver, the Daily News writes.

Albany End Game

There are several lingering issues on which Cuomo may help. Democrats who dominate the Assembly and Senate Republicans are split on how to reauthorize mayoral school control and what to do about legislation for childhood sexual abuse victims. But for Cuomo, the biggest issue is whether he can find a win to engage on, and if not, whether it's worth his time (and the danger of political awkwardness) to dive in. As Bob Bellafiore told Jimmy for his overview of seven things to watch over the next two weeks, "In the Capitol, you're dealing with other people's issues. When you're on the road, you can deal with the issues you want to deal with."

 




Buffalo Billion Trial A Gathering Cuomo Storm 

Prosecutors gather bank, phone records of Cuomo aides(Newsay)

NY's Fake Democrats 

New York Democrats Aren’t Trying Very Hard To Elect NewYork Democrats (Village Voice)
The New York State Democratic Party, believe it or not, doesn't do a whole lot to get Democrats elected

 

 

 

Mayor Who to Newspapers You Published Fake News Bullied The Once Mighty NYC Papers to Silence? 

deBlasio Right Media Obsessed With His Gym While They Ignore Things That Effect People's Life Like His Administration Failed Affordable Housing Plan, Homeless Crisis, ACS Crisis, Closed Hospitals, Subway Crisis 

De Blasio tries telling journalists how to do their jobs (NYP) de Blasio said it was odd that he keeps getting asked why he travels 12 miles a day in a two-vehicle caravan just to exercise on a stationary bike in Park Slope, Brooklyn, instead of the Upper East Side near Gracie Mansion. “I think it’s kind of strange to obsess over a gym routine or who’s marching in a parade compared to all the things that actually affect everyday life. I just don’t get it,” the mayor said during the interview with BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith.  “I think people really are interested in the stuff that affects their lives. I would urge journalists to try it.”  His comments came as he’s being hammered for what he characterized as minor issues that regular folks don’t care about. * De Blasio's latest pathetic gym excuse (NYP) Traveling the 12 miles to Brooklyn instead of frequenting a gym near Gracie Mansion helps him “stay connected to the neighborhood I come from,” de Blasio said Friday on Brian Lehrer’s radio show. Plus, “I don’t want to be someone who is seeing the world through the prism of Gracie Mansion.”  Yes, he long lived in Park Slope, and likely will again when he leaves Gracie Mansion. But that’s hardly the neighborhood to go to connect to working-class, salt-of-the-earth New York, as his comment implies. These days, it’s as limousine-lefty as the Upper West Side. (Or Cambridge, for that matter.)  We deal below with why so many care about Oscar López Rivera marching in the Puerto Rican Day Parade. But here’s why the gym issue matters: It’s sheer hypocrisy to indulge in the gas-guzzling trips when you say people “need to change our habits to start protecting the earth.”

NY Times Failed Kingdom Last Mission Protect Real Estate Developers

How the NYT Cherry Picks the News to Help Those They Support
NY Daily News 

Journalism Disconnect

Brain-Washing: TV Ads, Emails

How Local TV News Make Millions Rehabilitating Candidates and Cleaning Up Policies Harmful to the Public

Blasting the Press, de Blasio, Sharpton Over Noerdlinger and Racial Divide

NY Post
Newspaper Publishers

Bubble Mayor No Town Hall de Blasio Spins and the NYC Press Defining Journalism Down

Pay to Play Local Media Nussabaum King

The Media Cover Up of Citizens United

Why New Yorkers Don't Vote, Voter Suppression, Sucking Power Out of Neighborhoods, Walmartization of Campaigns 

de Blasio Using PAC Lobbyists Consultants To Get Around the Elections Law and Control Elections and the Press 

De Blasio, media critic (Politico) Media is too busy trying to “sell something,” and is controlled by “wealthy individuals” de Blasio said. He complained that local media doesn’t focus on real news, and he predicted the demise of the tabloids.  “It’s arcane. The tabloid style of journalism of yesterday, does not make sense anymore, and it will not last,” de Blasio said.  The mayor has made no secret of his disdain for the local press — in October last year, he attacked the New York Post as a “right wing rag,” and refused to call upon the paper’s reporters. He routinely rejects the premise of reporters’ questions, and has come under fire for limiting his availability to answer questions from the press corps that covers him.  But on Friday, he delivered one of his longest critiques of the media in general, and virtually none of New York City’s local media institutions were safe.  Rupert Murdoch, the owner of NewsCorp, which publishes the New York Post and Wall Street Journal, is “a right-wing media baron who is consistently trying to undermine progressive governments and progressive movements all over the world," de Blasio said.  He also criticized the Daily News’s owner, Mort Zuckerman, calling the paper, although more "balanced" than the Post, “corporate media owned by a major real estate baron.”  “I’m greatly disappointed in the New York Times that they have greatly reduced their focus on New York City news," he said.  “Bluntly, a lot of the media in this town spends a disproportionate time on all sorts of other things, that are not the things affecting people’s lives” de Blasio said.  "The thing that fascinates the mainstream media is not the substance," he said. "It’s the spectacular, the scandalous, or the flavor of the moment."*

BONUS QUOTE: " I'm very disappointed in the New York Times that they have greatly reduced their focus on New York City news." - Mayor Bill de Blasio, via BuzzFeed.

@harrysiegel  Mayor hiding a propaganda team of writers, videographers & photorgraphers on public payroll says the tabloids are "becoming irrelevant."

de Blasio Shames the Media Owners Will They Take Revenge or Shame As Journalism Professionals or Reelect the A Mayor Who is A Puppet to the Real Estate Media Bosses?

De Blasio has occasionally tried to make an end-run around the print and online media assigned to cover him, and prefers to conduct less-filtered one-on-one interviews with broadcast outlets. Last year, he also hired a 15-person “creative communications” team to create videos and tweets, and to promulgate his message across social media.  “I can’t tell you how many people in this city have abandoned the mainstream media in various ways,” the mayor said.  Corporate media must be undermined and made “more ‘small-d’ democratic,” he said. “Corporate media often doesn’t challenge corporate power structures,” de Blasio said, arguing that it was necessary to create a counterbalance to corporate media hegemony, which he said was invariably controlled by people who are right-wing or wealthy, and whose goal is to create a “more unequal society.”   Smith pointed out that de Blasio’s critiques of the “mainstream media” and distrust of traditional press outlets form a kind of mirror to similar criticisms made by President Trump. De Blasio said the comparison didn’t bother him, and was reductive, because he means what he says when he bashes the media and Trump doesn't.  "When [Trump] rails against the media it's to fake appeal, a cynical ploy to appeal to a right wing base," de Blasio said.

 Bill De Blasio Says He Knows He Sounds Like Donald TrumpWhen He Talks About The Media (Buzz Feed)  But the mayor said he believes Trump doesn't actually mean what he says.  Bill De Blasio Says He Knows He Sounds Like Donald Trump When He Talks About The Media (Buzz Feed)  But the mayor said he believes Trump doesn't actually mean what he says.  De Blasio also seemed to indicates at the festival that any negative coverage of him is just the media focusing on minutiae, and that there are more important issues to tackle. He cited issues people care about such as the cost of higher education or if people want bike lanes in their neighborhoods.  "The thing that fascinates the mainstream media is not the substance," he said. "It’s the spectacular, the scandalous, or the flavor of the moment."  De Blasio said he prefers broadcast media as it tends to be "more straightforward and more substantive."Democrats are justas guilty as Trump of demonizing the media  (Newsweek) *
DE BLASIO CRITIQUES THE MEDIA - POLITICO New York's Laura Nahmias: Mayor Bill de Blasio, who rarely grants one-on-one interviews to local print or online media outlets, sat for a public conversation on Friday with BuzzFeed, using the forum largely to attack local media. De Blasio's interview with BuzzFeed's editor in chief, Ben Smith, was part of a series of discussions entitled "'You Are Fake News': Truth, Lies, and Politics in the Age of Trump." ... Rupert Murdoch, the owner of NewsCorp, which publishes the New York Post and Wall Street Journal, is "a right-wing media baron who is consistently trying to undermine progressive governments and progressive movements all over the world," de Blasio said. Of Newscorp's media outlets, he had this to say: "Anyone who thinks that's objective journalism is kidding themselves." He also criticized the Daily News's owner, Mort Zuckerman, calling the paper, although more "balanced" than the Post, "corporate media owned by a major real estate baron." He also wasn't happy with the New York Times. "I'm greatly disappointed in the New York Times that they have greatly reduced their focus on New York City news," he said. "Bluntly, a lot of the media in this town spends a disproportionate time on all sorts of other things, that are not the things affecting people's lives" de Blasio said. "The thing that fascinates the mainstream media is not the substance," he said. "It's the spectacular, the scandalous, or the flavor of the moment." It's a criticism de Blasio has made of the media frequently, pointing to the monthly town halls he attends where he rarely gets the same kinds of questions he fields from the reporters who cover him. Read more here.
NYC Mayor de Blasio: I Can Rip Legacy Media but ‘Fake’Trump Can’t Because He ‘Doesn’t Actually Mean It’ (Brightbart)

Media "Nattering Nabobs of Negativism"

Spiro Agnew and de Blasio

De Blasio thinks homeless crisis is a case of ‘fear-mongering’ (NYP) Mayor de Blasio on Monday ripped The Post’s coverage of the homelessness crisis — and touted an estimated drop in the vagrant population based on a single-day census conducted in sub-freezing temperatures. * The Agnew de Blame the Press "Fear-Mongering" Edition * De Blasio 12/3/14: I had 2 “train” son "how 2 takespecial care w police." Today: “media...likes 2 look backwards”  (Capital)

Now Seabrook Lawyers Looking to Weaken His Case Fed Rat Rechnitz, de Blasio Donor to Campaign for One NY is A Ponzi Schemer
Witness in de Blasio probe might be linked to Ponzi scheme (NYP)  The government’s public-corruption cases involving two NYPD cops and a city union official could be in trouble — thanks to the feds’ star witness, sources told The Post.  New court documents reveal that Jona Rechnitz, a Mayor de Blasio campaign donor who’s the feds’ key witness against two NYPD cops and ex-union ­official Norman Seabrook, may have been involved in a Ponzi scheme while he was cooperating with the feds.  If true, the feds could be forced to rip up his cooperation agreement, putting their cases in jeopardy, sources said.  According to newly unsealed state-court documents, Rechnitz was a recruiter for a $70 million Ponzi scheme involving Jason Nissen, a former math teacher busted last week and charged by Manhattan federal prosecutors with duping investors in his wholesale-ticket business.  It’s unclear whether Rechnitz knew Nissen was paying old investors with money from new investors, but court documents filed by Diamond wholesaler Taly USA Holdings suggest that he may have kept recent concerns hidden from the government — and that he may have used his relationship with the feds to benefit one of his wealthy pals.* The federal government’s star witness in a series of pending municipal corruption cases in New York City, Jona Rechnitz, is now entangled in an unrelated criminal prosecution of a ticket broker charged with running a Ponzi scheme, the Times reports.



Why Was Lobbying Flat In NY in 2016?  PREET BHARARA 
The Joint Commission on Public Ethics released its annual report, finding that lobbying spending was relatively flat in New York last year, with the Rent Stabilization Association as the top spender, and Kasirer Consulting as the top lobbying firm, the Times Union reports.