tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37617981012596859712024-02-07T04:40:16.192-05:00Hudson SunshineNo more corruption.glencadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867864386772102359noreply@blogger.comBlogger288125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-82011741139421064862020-07-02T08:42:00.001-04:002020-07-02T08:42:31.881-04:00The Story: Recap, Highlights<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Will here. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">I moved from NYC to rural Columbia County and started Glencadia Dog Camp. I ran into a corrupt and malicious local government that tried to use zoning law to silence and punish me for not continuing to pay bribes. I learned zoning, planning, and freedom of information law and beat the town in court twice pro see and the county once on appeal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Three pro se wins: </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/appellate-division-third-department/2014/516119.html"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Matter of Pflaum v Grattan 2014 NY Slip Op 02357 Decided on April 3, 2014 Appellate Division, </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Third Department</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.sampratt.com/files/mcgrath-pflaum.pdf">Hon. Patrick McGrath, May 21, 2012 decision in New York, Supreme Court</a></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Z_ynp6rzlWYloySHpsMklXaGM/view?usp=sharing">Hon. Henry Zwack, August 29, 2013 decision in New York, Supreme Court</a></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And <a href="https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Attorney-math-1-day-26-hours-4026701.php">this front page Time Union article</a> is based on my FOIL research.</span></span><br />
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We had dramatic hearings, vandalism, charges, and more than 15 lawyers prowling around. In the end, they didn't get me and I didn't get them. They're still running the government and stealing hand over fist and I'm still running my business in peace.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-57863313364289209282018-09-10T11:27:00.001-04:002018-09-10T11:27:28.728-04:00mediumI've been over <a href="https://medium.com/@willpflaum">here</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>glencadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867864386772102359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-46209883538526661082016-05-28T11:19:00.000-04:002016-05-28T11:32:41.859-04:00ethnic versus ideological axes of political power<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Talking about American elections in Germany lately, I usually said, by way of shorthand, that in the US we have winner-take-all elections, so we make coalitions before elections whereas in parliamentary democracies, as in most of Europe, you make coalitions after elections. In a system of proportional representation, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton would not be in the same party. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bernie supporters generally understand this. Hillary supporters and her infrastructure try to downplay or reject the idea that the Democratic Party is a coalition of progressives and corporatists with a healthy dose of ethnic identity politics. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With proportional representation let’s say you have 100 seats in the legislature. Let's say, for the sake of example, that you have three parties and each party gets a third of the vote, each party would get 33 or 34 seats. Then the parties would have to form a governing coalition. The majority would be 66 or 67 but only as long as the coalition lasts. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the US system, all of our elections are winner take all. If there were three ideologies or strains of thought, and one got 34% in every jurisdiction and the other two each got 33%, then only one out of three would dominate the legislature with 100 seats. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If 25% of American are very liberal or progressive, they may get, under winner take all, no representation in the government, unless they segregate themselves geographically and manage to have themselves gerrymandered into a majority progressive district, which rarely happens. Thus, although we see that Bernie Sanders would have little trouble getting a huge number of votes spread out all over the country, if he were the head of a third party, he would get nothing in terms of power. You have to get to 50% to get one bit of voice. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Both major parties are coalitions. They have to be. Half of the voters cannot be ideologically consistent enough to be a single faction. The democrats are many factions. These factions cannot be parties but they are quite different. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thus, the idea of a “closed primary” is flawed. In New York State, for example, only people who listed themselves as Democrats or Republicans 6 months before the primary could vote. But the respective parties are not really coherent visions with specific policies. Within both coalitions there are a variety of opinions. How are you supposed to know six months before the election which faction will dominate each party? Requiring you to chose a party for an inter-party affair might make sense in a system of proportional representation when a party can have a clearer agenda, but in our system, requiring factions to pre-coalition build before voting is illogical. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We can think about the election structure in terms of ideology or in terms of ethnicity, two different axes on which to turn a campaign. The Black Congressional Caucus only exists because of residential segregation and the voting rights act leading to gerrymandering that helps improve the ethnic diversity of the House while allowing a Republican majority. If Black people were evenly distributed among the general population, although about 14% of the voters are Black, you could easily have only a couple of rare Black congresspeople. In terms of ideological representation, Black people might yet have a better representation in some senses, as Democrats might then have control of the House, even with fewer Black congresspeople. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is nothing in the constitution mandating winner take all elections. A state with 20 congressional seats could hold a statewide vote, not create districts, and then allocate the seats based on the result. Any state legislature could institute a new system for the House of Representatives. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One problem with proportional representation can be that the individual legislators may be chosen by the party boss. So if the Liberal Party has 30 seats to divide up, someone choses who those 30 people are and they are less free to vote their conscience. Also, look at Spain right now: they could not find a coalition and have to vote again, having just voted a few months ago. But the problems with the winner take all alternative are at least as clear and negative. I think some of each system might be a good way to do politics. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, as to 2016, and the Democratic primary: Hillary Clinton has failed every important test of her career. As First Lady she was supposed to pass Hillarycare and screwed it up. As senator, she voted in favor of the Iraq War. As Secretary of State she killed Qaddafi and put an email server in her basement. As a private citizen from 2013-2015 all she had to do was avoid scandal and controversy and she couldn’t manage to do that (transcripts anyone?). I fully expect her to fail as nominee of the Democratic Party and end her career with an unbroken record of corruption, warmongering, cowardice, short sighted dependence on the advice of sycophants, etc. However, I would love it if she would surprise me and do something right. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">What she should do is form a coalition with Bernie Sanders. If he refuses to be her Vice Presidential candidate and will not name another person to serve in his place, then she should sweeten the deal by offering him his choices for various cabinet posts until he accepts the offer and forms a coalition with her. </span><br />
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bernie would overshadow Hillary in the general campaign and would remain independent of her in the administration, might even resign in protest or publicly disagree with her. But the Hillary-Bernie coalition would win the general election in a landslide and probably take the senate for the Democrats and maybe the House. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s nice of the corporate democrats to give progressives a lot of votes on the platform committee of the party to write a progressive platform for the convention. Hillary and her supporters can use the platform as toilet paper if supplies run low. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The only precedents I can think of for this kind of coalition cabinets are FDR, with real new dealers/socialist leaning leftist and rightists all arguing it out, and Lincoln’s cabinet of enemies. But those were pretty successful presidencies, wouldn’t you say? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead of ideology and coalition government, Hillary and her ilk would like to promote ethnic identity politics. Look at Kenya for example. In Kenya, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Kikuyu and related groups are 21 percent, the Luhya are 14 percent, the Kalenjin are 13 percent, and the Kamba and Luo are 10 percent each. An election is about coalitions of ethnicities and if the heads of the various ethnic parties are corrupt or whatever, members of each ethnicity have little choice but to support their leaders or face discrimination and being iced out of government services should they fail to join the winning coalition. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In America, about (rough numbers!) over 2/3rds of voters are White. Blacks and Hispanics are about 14 percent each and then the rest are other, Asian, etc. If the Republicans are the White Supremacy Party, as Trump has shown they are, then the non-racist Whites could be seen as an ethnic group with about 25%-30% left over to join the Democratic ethnic coalition. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So Hillary has been floating names for Vice President that are Mexican and Black, Cory Booker and Henry Cisneros. She doesn’t want an ideological coalition with a progressive that would not allow politicians such as herself to get rich and support oligarchs. She would like to do politics by ethnicity as much as possible so that policy doesn’t matter much and she can be as corrupt as her colleagues in Kenya, and she already fits right in with the Third World crooks in the Panama papers, so it all makes logical sense to her. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">See? A woman and a Mexican. That should do it. And we can vote about whether we put a white or male or Hispanic or Black face on leadership and leave the oligarchs in charge of a failing democracy with a strong strain of crony capitalism. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hillary’s supporters have been quick to label criticism of her sexist. Sexism does exist, so they should be allowed to level this charge when they feel it’s justified. Likewise, I call Hillary a corporatist and it’s not a compliment. Such people do exist -- basically hired guns for the 1% of rich people who have captured the government. She is not alone. Most of them are. Practically all of them. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you do coalitions on the basis of race or ethnic identity, it doesn’t matter too much what policies those politicians advance. This is why the super delegates of the Democratic Party nomination process were so quick to switch from Clinton to Obama in 2008 and so slow to change to Bernie in 2016. Obama is not an ideological progressive. He did not drive a hard bargain with the banks to get them a bailout, and as a consequence, the net worth, or total wealth, of African American households dropped 40% under his watch. He didn’t impoverish Black families because he is evil but because he has a corporate mindset and could not imagine standing up to the banks, breaking them up, jailing their directors and boards, and bailing out the mortgage holders, including Black families, instead of bankers. Obama exacerbated the wealth gap (not income but net worth) between Whites and Blacks, building on the 50 years of redlining in home mortgage loans. He didn’t mean to, but when your world view is corporatist, that stuff happens. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bernie Sanders would not have done it like that. He would have driven a hard bargain to save collapsing banks in 2008 and Black households would have more wealth and the gap between the races would have declined rather than increased. This is but one example of how the perception of ethnicity is a bad way to run politics while ideology is a good axis on which to turn politics. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So our two big parties have to be coalitions. They can be ethnic coalitions like in Kenya or ideological coalitions as in many European countries. Hillary could surprise me and make an ideological coalition but I would bet almost any amount of money against her salvaging her pathetic legacy. Trump has shown that majority of Republicans are cool with White Supremacy. Clinton would like to counter with an offer of corrupt ethnic coalition building. Bernie Sanders is trying to make politics revolve around an axis of economic power and actual policy. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, as almost a non sequitur, Margaret Thatcher. The appeal of Thatcher was not White Supremacy I don't think but a consistent ideological position in favor of liberalizing the economy to create more competition, efficiency, and wealth. Thatcher genuinely believed, I think, that more than 30 years of social democracy in the UK had created a stagnant mess of rules and webs between unions and the Labor Party that prevented the creation of new jobs. She had a point. Her world view was a legitimate ideology that she actually believed and was not paid to mouth. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If Margaret Thatcher’s ghost and the Spirit of Bernie Sanders were running against each other for President of France in 2016, I’m not sure who I would vote for. In other words, Bernie’s prescription for the US after 36 years of liberalization would not sound the same in France, where unions and their parties still have considerable power. Maybe France needs a bit of Thatcherism, I don’t know. I know the US doesn’t.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If the Republicans threw up a candidate like Thatcher who honestly presented a pro-liberalization ideology without dog whistles to racism, and the Democrats threw up a honest vision of redistribution and the common good in a Bernie Sanders kind of way, that would be a fine debate between honest rivals. As it is, Bernie is the only candidate with a legitimate ideology and has no competition in the ideological sphere. Since we don’t run campaigns on the basis of policy and ideology, this imbalance has not been a decisive factor in the 2016 race. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">America never had a labor party. Consequently, we’re 100 years late for the Bernie Sanders agenda. He himself seems to think he is left of FDR. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lastly, the primary election of Hillary Clinton was not fair and square and I would argue that the nomination was essentially stolen. But that’s another article. </span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-17084012222260341002016-04-01T21:50:00.001-04:002016-04-01T21:50:58.945-04:00this dress makes me look fat...<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ccJZIz5Hq9o" width="459"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-23291287195281975132016-02-16T17:36:00.000-05:002016-02-17T20:19:05.568-05:00the onion, not the onion<a href="https://charliehebdo.fr/en/">Charlie Hebdo</a> has a thing or two to teach the Onion about guts.<br />
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Here is The Onion article "<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "gandhi_serifregular" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.9px; line-height: 1.12;"><a href="http://www.theonion.com/article/female-presidential-candidate-who-was-united-state-52367">Female Presidential Candidate Who Was United States Senator, Secretary Of State Told To Be More Inspiring</a>"</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "gandhi_serifregular" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.9px; line-height: 1.12;"><a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/28/the-onions-new-owner-is-hill.html"><br /></a></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "gandhi_serifregular" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.9px; line-height: 17.92px;"><a href="http://boingboing.net/2016/01/28/the-onions-new-owner-is-hill.html">As you may or may not know, the Onion was purchased by a billionaire Hillary Clinton backer.</a> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "gandhi_serifregular" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.9px; line-height: 17.92px;"><br /></span></span>
The pro-Hillary Onion article should have been this:<br />
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<b>Investor Pays Millions and Demands Bullshit Article that is Almost Vaguely Amusing to Pretend to Be an Onion Article but is in Fact Propaganda</b><br />
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This is comedy... this blog post is some funny shit... wait for it... look for the ellipses...<br />
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Hillary Clinton, former board member of Walmart, spent the early part of her career fighting unionization at the biggest employer in the US. Not content to be a sycophant for an Arkansas business, she later created a market for private prisons, participated the push for banking deregulation, ended welfare as we knew it, and then took millions in "speaking fees" or kickbacks while claiming she was "under fire" in Bosnia then fucking up the countries of Iraq and Libya and leaving a trail of death and destruction and failure, surrounding herself with advisors who are afraid to tell she's wrong as she makes the same leadership mistakes, underplaying her enemies and tightening her circle until Hillarycare, Libya, Iraq, banking regulations, her campaigns of 2008 and 2016 all collapse in an implosion of idiocy and incompetence, never failing to kowtow to power, Kissinger to Cheney, and leaving an American and world much worse for it....<br />
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... but here comes the comedy...<br />
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... get ready...<br />
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The Onion was instructed by their masters to make this story INSPIRATIONAL!!!!<br />
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Making 100 million on "public service" is inspirational?<br />
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Invading Iraq is inspirational?<br />
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Saying 9/11 to defend her Goldman Sachs speaking fees? Inspirational?<br />
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We can do it boss! We're the Onion. We ARE FUNNY. Let's be funny guys.<br />
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"Well folks, we got our marching orders. They say make Hillary sound good but make it funny."<br />
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"Impossible! No way to make flip flopping, moderate, progressive, invading countries, warmongering funny!"<br />
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"How about this, we do the female candidate thing? She has TITLES like Secretary of State and Senator. People think they have to bow down to those."<br />
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"Not the Onion readers. They aren't Medieval peasants."<br />
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"Yes, they obey. We obey. Cash the check and make it funny, snappy and hope it gets shares."<br />
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Not the Onion. The Onion.<br />
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Here is what the article says, "<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.002px; line-height: 27.2034px;">Margolis added that Clinton was too much a part of the establishment she spent decades breaking down barriers to enter."</span><br />
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She broke barriers for herself, maybe, but even that is a stretch. Was she the first woman on the board of Walmart? The first female secretary of state? No, no. Did the heiress of Walmart break barriers?<br />
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What a load of paid-off crap Shame on you Onion.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-77812643716886824762016-02-05T19:57:00.001-05:002016-02-05T19:57:49.463-05:00podcast<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/phlogiston/id1066087803">https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/phlogiston/id1066087803</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-56603364461962356422016-02-04T09:11:00.002-05:002016-02-04T09:11:37.331-05:00movement politics<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hillary supporters think Bernistas are pushy and rude. Bernie supporters think Hillarites are blind. I think I understand it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is the problem, I think: we Berniacs see his campaign as a movement, like the Civil Rights movement (1960s), anti-slavery (1850s), labor (1880s and on). All of the movements I can think that follow the pattern of the Bernie campaign of have to do with race and/or class. Gender and sexual orientation seem to follow a different pattern. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-bbbed9bb-ac9f-1a26-e70f-2402e3846d64" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have no trouble putting Bernie is this list: Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens, FDR, Martin Luther King, Eugene Debs, etc. They didn’t all agree and weren’t the same kind of figures but they were all movement leaders and Bernie belongs on that list, win or lose. Some of the people I mentioned lost. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hillary supporters see their candidate as super smart and capable. She is. She’s brilliant. Sanders supporters, such as myself, don’t care about that. We see that in 1918 when other countries elites gave up and let their labor movements into the political structure, we had Eugene Debs locked up and the red scare. When the Civil Rights movement was about to reach out to make it a class-race movement, if that would have worked, we got the assassination of MLK and dog whistle politics and residential segregation. We seem to have movements headed by one person. That isn’t smart, as even those leaders know, but there doesn’t seem any way around it. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The New Deal was more than an election campaign. There was no evidence of a New Deal movement in 1929 but by 1932 the whole country was swept up in the movement. Sometimes things happen big and fast like that. Sometimes it takes a long time, like the abolition, and then comes to a head quickly. In 1850 Lincoln could not have imagined where the world would be in 1860.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So that’s the problem between Hillary and Bernie supporters. We see movement, if not in the terms I outlined here but something like that, and they see people. </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-67398045832799260602016-02-02T15:45:00.001-05:002016-02-03T21:37:38.716-05:00prosecutions for public corruption by the Albany FBI 2015: 2 cases<div id="pressreleaseHeader" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12.144px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/phlogiston/id1066087803">Podcast 12</a> is kind of a companion document to this blog entry.<br />
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I used to say that the Albany office of the FBI had not initiated nor had any role in any convictions for political corruption for many years. 2015 changes that. Below the fold, the two cases I found on the FBI website. </div>
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There were 2 posted on their website. I don't know how many were initiated by the Albany office but at least the Albany office did have some role in three cases. The famous cases were all started downstate, many at the insistence of the US Attorney. If you have an FBI office in Albany you should be doing political corruption <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">cases. Well, there is a billboard up somewhere around Albany encouraging people to call. So I called and recorded the conversation.</span></div>
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Here is the billboard:</div>
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<span class="_3c21">ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Each workday, thousands of state workers commute from their suburban neighborhoods to the many state buildings scattered throughout New York's capital city. Based on Albany's remarkable penchant for corruption, odds are that a few of them have a story the feds would like to hear…</span></div>
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Former Assemblyman William Scarborough Sentenced on Fraud and Theft Convictions<br /><span id="subTitle" style="border: 0px; color: black; display: block; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif "important"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 18px; margin: 5px 45.75px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Defrauded New York State of More Than $54,000 by Submitting 174 False Travel Vouchers</span></h1>
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ALBANY, NY—Former New York State Assemblyman William Scarborough, 69, of Queens, New York, was sentenced today to 13 months in prison and two years of supervised release after being convicted of wire fraud and theft from a program receiving federal funds, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian of the Northern District of New York, New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, and Special Agent in Charge Andrew W. Vale of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division.</div>
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Senior United States District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy also ordered that Scarborough pay $54,355 in restitution to New York State and forfeit the same amount to the United States. Scarborough pleaded guilty on May 7, 2015 pursuant to a written plea agreement with the United States that required him to resign his position as a Member of the New York State Assembly.</div>
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Scarborough’s federal convictions relate to his wrongful receipt of per diem payments from New York State. Assembly members receive per diem payments when they spend time in, and travel to and from, Albany. Scarborough falsely claimed, and received, per diem payments for days that he was not in Albany or in transit to or from the city.</div>
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U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian said: “It is a sad day when an elected official is sentenced to imprisonment, but it is a serious crime when such an official steals the state funds he is sworn to safeguard. Former Assemblyman Scarborough betrayed the people’s trust when he repeatedly lied about when he had been in Albany to line his pockets. We hope that this prosecution helps bring an end to abuses of the state legislature’s per diem system.”</div>
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As a New York State Assemblyman, Scarborough was entitled to receive the following types of payments when he traveled to Albany for legislative business: an allowance for overnight stays in Albany (full per diem), which varied from $160 to $171 per day; an allowance for travel not requiring an overnight stay in Albany (partial per diem), which varied from $49 to $61 per day; and reimbursement for mileage incurred for travel between his home and Albany. To receive those payments, Scarborough was required to submit travel vouchers to the New York State Assembly Finance Department certifying his dates of travel to and from Albany; the number of miles he traveled to and from Albany; the purpose of his travel; the days he was in Albany; and his eligibility for payment for either full per diem or partial per diem on each of those days. He also had to certify that the claimed amount was “just, true and correct.”</div>
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From January 2009 through December 2012, Scarborough submitted 174 fraudulent travel vouchers to the assembly’s Finance Department, causing the State of New York to pay him $54,355 that he was not entitled to receive. In the fraudulent vouchers, Scarborough falsely certified that he had been in Albany for legislative business on specific days when he had not been in Albany at all, had been in Albany for less time than he claimed on a voucher, or had not stayed in Albany overnight.</div>
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On May 7, 2015, in a related case investigated by the New York State Attorney General’s Office and the New York State Comptroller’s Office, Scarborough pleaded guilty in Albany County Court to grand larceny in the fourth degree concerning his misuse of over $40,000 from his Friends of Bill Scarborough campaign account and is expected to be sentenced today to one year of jail time.</div>
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“Today’s sentencing of Assemblymember Scarborough on public corruption charges sends a clear message that those who abuse the public trust will be held accountable,” said State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. “Assemblymember Scarborough’s jail sentence resolves one unfortunate chapter in New York State government, but crystalizes the need for comprehensive reform to clean up corruption in our state.”</div>
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“Public service is a commitment, not a means for self-enrichment,” said State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. “Mr. Scarborough betrayed his oath of office. This case serves as a reminder: we are on the job, we are working together, and we will hold you accountable. I thank U.S. Attorney Hartunian, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Attorney General Schneiderman for their hard work on this case.”</div>
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“Today’s sentencing is the culmination of a vigorous and multi-agency investigation,” said Special Agent in Charge Andrew W. Vale. “No public official is exempt from law enforcement scrutiny; if they breach the public’s trust through stealing in the course of their official duties, they will be brought to justice.”</div>
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The federal case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey C. Coffman.</div>
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Prosecuting the state case is Assistant Attorney General Christopher Baynes of the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Bureau. The Public Integrity Bureau is led by Bureau Chief Daniel Cort and Deputy Bureau Chief Stacy Aronowitz. The state’s investigation was handled by Investigator Mark Spencer and Deputy Bureau Chief Antoine Karam of the Investigation Bureau. The Investigations Bureau is led by Dominick Zarrella. Forensic Auditor Jason Blair, Legal Analyst Sara Pogorzelski, and Supervising Investigator Edward Keegan provided additional assistance.</div>
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The New York State Comptroller’s Division of Investigations conducted the investigation for Comptroller DiNapoli’s Office.</div>
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Halfmoon Town Supervisor Sentenced to 12 Months in Prison<br /><span id="subTitle" style="border: 0px; display: block !important; font-size: 14px !important; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 18px !important; margin: 5px 45.75px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Melinda Wormuth Convicted of Extortion and Making a False Statement</span></h1>
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ALBANY, NY—Former Halfmoon Town Supervisor Melinda Wormuth was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison as a result of her convictions for extortion and making a false statement, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Andrew W. Vale, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.</div>
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United States District Judge Gary L. Sharpe also sentenced Wormuth to serve a one-year term of supervised release, to begin after her release from prison, forfeit $3,000, and pay a fine of $7,500.</div>
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The sentence follows Wormuth’s August 10, 2015 guilty plea, during which she admitted that she accepted money in return for her official actions. She admitted that she received $7,500 in cash, which was characterized as “consulting fees,” in return for using her official positions as Town Supervisor and member of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors to lobby for the legalization of professional Mixed Martial Arts (“MMA”).</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">“Public service is about dedication to community and country, not the use of official position for profit,” stated U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian. “Taking money to lobby for legislation is illegal corruption that betrays the public trust. We will continue to work with the FBI, the Attorney General of New York, and the New York State Comptroller to identify and hold accountable officials who commit such crimes.”</span></div>
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“Ms. Wormuth exploited her position and the faith of those she swore to serve,” said Special Agent in Charge Andrew W. Vale. “This kind of criminality drains the public’s confidence in our leaders. The FBI stands determined with our law enforcement partners to investigate those who would further erode the public’s trust."</div>
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The charges were the result of an investigation by the Federal-State Anti-Corruption Task Force that includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New York Attorney General’s Office, the Internal Revenue Service, and the New York Comptroller’s Office.</div>
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“When elected officials misuse their office for personal gain it betrays the public’s trust,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “This case shows that when elected officials break the law, they will be held accountable. I’m proud to have worked with my partners in state and federal government to bring this defendant to justice.”</div>
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“Ms. Wormuth abused her office and betrayed the taxpayers she was elected to serve,” State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said. “I hope this sentence sends a clear message that this misconduct by an elected official will not be tolerated. I thank United States Attorney Hartunian, Attorney General Schneiderman, the FBI and the IRS for their continued partnership to fight corruption.”</div>
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Between April 10, 2013 and August 10, 2013, Wormuth sent letters on her official letterhead to state legislators in New York, requesting legislative action in favor of professional MMA. Wormuth performed no legitimate consulting work for the $7,500 payment, and she accepted this money understanding that she was expected to use her official position to promote legislative action in favor of professional MMA.</div>
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Wormuth also admitted that she lied to FBI agents during an interview on August 7, 2013. Wormuth stated that she had consulted with “K.T.,” a former Town Justice in Saratoga County, to obtain approval for her actions before taking the $7,500 payment. This statement was false because she had not consulted with “K.T.”</div>
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This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ransom Reynolds and Jeffrey Coffman, and by former Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-64395134346144074692016-01-27T12:56:00.000-05:002016-01-27T16:40:47.495-05:00letter to the town of stuyvesant<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Z_ynp6rzlWUXJQSEVOcW0wVGJaSGh6bmRnS1NuUG1Ga3lF/view?usp=sharing">revised here</a> or if that doesn't work, try <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tq0bVCqGRI3g0Wye3dX9tZo7ng52pUN05_S6bFef_5A/edit?usp=sharing">this</a> but I think <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zmvY_s5QV2WrH8WdamKhBEg8VMUAcAgBQ_pk4SlXZ9o/edit?usp=sharing">THIS VERSION</a> is the best and now the town has uploaded a pdf...<br />
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Basically, after losing in state court twice, the town seems to be trying to re-write the law and start the dog war back up. I think it's a mistake and would prefer peace. Here is my letter to the town:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Wednesday, January 27, 2016</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Town of Stuyvesant</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Town Board, Planning Board, ZBA, ZEO</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">5 Sunset Drive</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">P.O. Box 33</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Stuyvesant, NY 12174</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">To the members of the boards of Stuyvesant and the zoning officer:</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">In 2013, New York Supreme Court Judge Hon. Henry Zwack, ruling against the town of Stuyvesant noted that, “It is well established that inasmuch as a violation notice is akin to a criminal proceeding, the notice must comply with the requirements of Criminal Procedure Law ... Every element of the charge must be supported by non-hearsay allegations, and an improper information is a jurisdictional defect, warranting dismissal of the notice.”</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">The court further criticized the town’s handling of the matter of Glencadia Dog Camp, finding, “Stunningly, not one of the procedural requirements of the zoning ordinance were followed. This, in and of itself, requires dismissal of the Notice of Violation… With respect to petitioner's charge that he has been unfairly targeted by the Town because he has been vocal in his criticism of it through his blog, there does appear to have been a disproportionate amount of time and money spent on this violation notice... What the records do not reveal is a real issue with dog-barking.”</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">In 2012, Hon. Patrick McGrath found, also pertaining to the same general matter, “The general rule is that a determination or a zoning board of appeals should not be set aside unless it is illegal, arbitrary and capricious, or an abuse of discretion… As a matter of statutory construction and based on the case law cited above, the Court finds that the ZBA’s determination was made in violation of lawful procedure and is affected by an error of law.” The error of law in this decision pertained to the town’s claim that the ZBA and ZEO had the right to revoke a permit issued by the Planning Board under New York State Town Law. In the 2012 finding, the court did not allow the town to making a finding as to a matter not on appeal to the ZBA.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Thus, in two decisions, in 2012 and 2013, New York State Supreme Court judges have rendered rulings on Stuyvesant zoning. Notably, Hon. Zwack criticized the actions of the zoning officer Gerald Ennis (if not by name) as “stunningly” outside the law. Hon. McGrath found that the ZEO and ZBA acted illegally.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Subsequent to two lawsuits and the expenditure of more than $300,000 in legal fees over two years by a town with an annual budget slightly over one million, the town of Stuyvesant took no action to reprimand or re-train Gerald Ennis to assure that future enforcement is not so far beyond the law. The town also did not address the failings of the ZBA to assure more narrow and legal findings in the future.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Now, in 2016, the town proposed to change the zoning law in the exact areas addressed in the aforementioned decisions. Rather than address the shortcomings in the process identified by two New York State judges to make the process more fair and open, the proposed changes to the local zoning law seemed designed to allow the ZBA and ZEO to act in an arbitrary and unfair way without being tripped up by the local law.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">One proposed change would allow the ZEO to accept anonymous complaints (see draft page 44 item number 4). This change directly challenges the spirit and letter of the Hon. Zwack’s decision. The court was “stunned” that the ZEO revoked my permit without any complaint by any neighbor. The current ordinance does not allow anonymous complaints. The new change would empower Mr. Ennis, already rebuked by the court and the instigator of a process that caused some $300,000 in needless expenditures, to be more arbitrary than he was before.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Another proposed change would make it easier for the ZEO and ZBA to revoke home occupation permits, the subject of the two decisions above. Given that two illegal revocations, once by Mr. Ennis in August 2010 and once by the ZBA in September 2011, gave rise to multiple lawsuits that the town lost, the town seems to have gone back to the drawing board to make sure they can act as arbitrarily as in the decisions above but without running afoul of their own ordinance. Please see proposed changes on the draft on page 45 and wherever the work “revoke” might appear in the draft document.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">The other provision that I am concerned about is on page 33 of the draft pertaining to noise. The copy in the draft reads, “No noise emanating from the business which is excessive, unnecessary or unusual due to volume, intermittence, beat frequency or shrillness, such that the same shall be perceptible outside the property from where it originates, shall be permitted.” You tried to prosecute me under an “unusual noise” provision and couldn’t get very far since dog barking is not unusual nor is it, at 1000 feet, at all loud. In that process, I sent you copies of the noise provisions of many jurisdictions, all of which have decibels written into the law. A noise ordinance without a DB reading is an arbitrary invitation to abuse. Coming off two loses in court based on a provision that was too vague to be enforced, you seem to be re-writing the provision to be even more vague. If you put a decibel reading in a noise provision, then you could probably find a way to enforce it. As written, and given the Zwack decision, this provision may no more enforceable than the current provision. Obviously, none of these provisions of the zoning law would apply to my facility if passed into law, given the law and science as provided to you in the course of various lawsuits. Thus, I am speaking about a hypothetical enforcement of some other issue in the future.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Rather than trying to wiggle out of New York Supreme Court rulings and continue to operate in an arbitrary and illegal manner, the town should seek to comply with the letter and spirit of these decisions. The provisions as to revocation with only cursory appeal seem not to conform to the decision in the Zwack ruling. The noise provision only exacerbates an unenforceable law pertaining to quantifiable phenomenon, noise, that you chose not to quantify. A permit holder needs to have a constitutionally valid process in terms of non-arbitrary statues and legally valid processes. Evidence cannot be secret or anonymous. This provision is asking for more trouble and encouraging more false, malicious and racially motivated accusations. Please consider the words of the Zwack ruling as to Mr. Ennis' behavior in the instant case. The permit holder must be allowed to cross examine witnesses, and all the other equal protection provision specifically mentioned by Hon. Zwack in his decision that was written precisely for the town of Stuyvesant. Given the above history in enforcement in town, these changes to open up more apparently unfair procedures seem ill advised in the extreme.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">I personally would not be subject to any of these changes as my permit is a nonconforming legal use allowed by case law. Please note, in particular, the matter of Town of Orangetown v. John F. Magee et al., (88 N.Y.2d 41 (1996), 665 N.E.2d 1061, 643 N.Y.S.2d 2) pertaining to a change in a zoning ordinance prejudicial to a permit holder, the court held that “the permit was revoked solely to satisfy political concerns” and restored the permit as a nonconforming legal use with costs to the permit holder. Case law is quite clear more generally, as long as I continue the approved use, which I am not doing and plan to continue for many years to come, and as the use involves considerable investment and is consequential to me economically, the town cannot arbitrarily change the law to prejudice an ongoing use.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">In short, I hope the town board considers avoiding changes to the zoning ordinance that may lead to more unnecessary conflict and expense and the the town. The zoning law should be consistent with basic constitutional principles of fairness. The court decisions should guide the town’s revision on matters adjudicated so as to assure an enforceable, fair law. Tranquility, fairness, and peace would be served by a less punitive, more open, approach that seriously considers the words of two judges and attempts to honestly put the spirit and letter of those decisions into practice as town policy. Let's try to get along. </span><br />
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<br />Thank you for your consideration.<br /><br /><br /><br />Will Pflaum<br /><br />PO Box 40<br /><br />3 Rybka Road<br /><br />Stuyvesant Falls, NY 12174<br /><br />518-470-3981</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>glencadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867864386772102359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-48073496394226110752016-01-19T22:08:00.001-05:002016-01-19T22:08:21.644-05:00moody's rating of Columbia Countyhttps://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-assigns-Aa3-to-Columbia-County-NYs-141M-GO-bonds--PR_903067386<div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-44416358857943798152016-01-19T07:20:00.004-05:002016-01-19T07:20:38.992-05:00points on bernie<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.5636px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Three points.</div>
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One, the period in Bernie's life from the University of Chicago until his election as mayor of Burlington is actually interesting. That young guy, living in the the 1960s and 70s, is not the guy running for president. Still, he was political and devoted to a vision the whole time, in many ways the same vision. He was never motivated by money. He barely scraped by. He experimented with ideas, lifestyles, personal relationships. He wrote articles for $15, which he badly needed, that included language of the 1970s, logically. He constantly criticized himself and learned.</div>
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You mean straight out of college he didn't go straight into corporate law? Get married and have a stay at home wife? He didn't start planning his ascent like an egomaniac psychopath? He wandered and explored? He tried stuff? He thought about things? He has a strong personality? SCANDAL!</div>
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Okay, he's also a stubborn SOB. I mean, this is one stubborn old lefty we got on our hands here. Now, in Sweden where policy discussion is actually reasonable (they have school choice, free market education and socialized medicine, non ideological environment except on immigration), being as stubborn as Bernie for 50 years would be excessive and uncalled for-- unnecessary. But Bernie Sanders lives in the mutherf-cking U S of A and you have to be titanically stubborn if you want to move this son of a bitch even a millimeter. No wonder it took him 20 years to move slightly from hard left to smart left. He's a fricken rock. He's hard to move -- a big old rock -- until it gets going down a steep hill, then watch the f out!</div>
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Two, the idea that his health care plan, for example, is too sweeping and ambitious (as per Krugman in the NYT yesterday) for the current political environment is nonsensical. The incremental argument says that Democrats have been trying to get a national health care system since Truman and have only now succeeded in getting a better but still flawed plan through. They agree Obamacare is second rate. They've been trying incrementalism for 70 years and still think it's going to work. Bernie's sin is trying something different. If he wins and can't get single payer through, he should should get most of the rest of his agenda through: free college for all, post office banking, $15 minimum wage, infrastructure, etc. Then people will vote. Then congress will turn left. Then you can get a health care plan through that will actually work. Now this plan might not work but it's a hell of a lot better than continuing to do that same stupid shit that hasn't worked for 70 years again for four more years.</div>
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When he was elected as mayor of Burlington, Bernie could count on 2 votes out of a board of 13. So, after two years, he campaigned with others in his movement and captured 6 more seats. Then he could implement his plan.</div>
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That's the plan. Might not work, but you don't go into battle with a shitty plan B that is guaranteed not to work (incrementalism) when you have a perfectly good plan A that's never been really tried.</div>
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Republican lite in the 90s.<br />The fish didn't bite.<br />In 2016 let's do it right.</div>
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Dems heads on walls and do not learn.<br />Fire to your head lumps: feel the Bern.</div>
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Third Point: Abraham Lincoln said he was always against slavery and always knew it was the key issue of his day. But, he slept on the issue right through the 1840s. He figured it would disappear naturally. Only when he (and many other) figured out that people do not tend to give up profitable enterprises voluntarily in the 1850s did he decide he had to act. From that point on, he was determined to win elections and stop the spread of slavery and counter the rising pro-slavery movement.</div>
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Bernie identified the issue of the concentration of wealth and undemocratic concentration of militaristic power as the key issue. If he thought he could advance an agenda to change this issue by not running for president, he would quit. That's integrity and sincerity.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-58896371200403869292016-01-19T07:18:00.001-05:002016-01-27T13:11:11.655-05:0019th congressional race<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.5636px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
This article is an endorsement for congress of the <a href="http://will4congress.com/">Will Yandik</a>, environmentalist, farmer and writer. <span style="line-height: 17.5636px;">Also, check out his facebook page </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Will4Congress/" style="line-height: 17.5636px;">here</a><span style="line-height: 17.5636px;">. </span><br />
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We have an open seat in the 19th congressional district, a district which consists of the rural parts of several counties in the lower parts of upstate New York State, Hudson Valley. Note I said the "rural parts." If New York and California were as ruthless in gerrymandering as Texas, this district wouldn't exist and congress would already have a democratic majority. To change the district form sing to solidly democratic, all you would need to do is to add a couple of blocks of either Troy or Poughkeepsie, just a few hundred more dems. It was designed to be a Repub<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">lican district but it changed and New York State did not go back and fix the districts (gerrymander) in order to eliminate about four or five Republicans. </span></div>
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The seat is open because the current Republican congressman, Chris Gibson, is standing by his pledge to only serve two or maybe three terms. He was pretty popular and could have kept the seat in the R column but seems to be getting ready to run for governor or something.</div>
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Now, two candidates on the D side I know about are Zephyr Teachout and Will Yandik. Teachout moved to the district to run for the seat because it is open. She rented an apartment in Dover or somewhere in the southern most tip of the county that is commutable to New York City. Other parts of the district are three or four hours away from the city and more rural. The area she moved into is really the only solidly affluent part of the district. Will has been here his whole life and is on the town board. Teachout is better known in the state because of her challenge to Cuomo in the primary race for governor.</div>
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They both seems like good candidates. If Teachout had moved to the district, say, two years ago for some other reason than to run for office and if she had not chose to rent the apartment in the part of the district closest to New York City where she lives and how long she has lived in the district wouldn't matter. But it bothers me to think that she has to swoop in. We want people who understand that this is special place. Also, that fact that she chose the corner of the district closest to the city isn't a good sign, if I know anything about the people who live here.<br />
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Why didn't she move somewhere out near Cooperstown? </div>
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Will Yandik is very strong on using our proximity to the city to build agro tourism. We want people to come here from the outside. We just want them to come to build our community, not to run for office right away. At least, I think that's the community sentiment.</div>
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I hope Will stays in the race and we have a primary. He is the kind of candidate that can win in this district. If we didn't have a great local candidate, I guess a new one could fly in.</div>
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Bernie Sanders moved from Brooklyn to Chicago to Burlington and ran for mayor, about 15 years after moving to Vermont, not two months.</div>
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My opinion!</div>
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<a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fimby.com%2Fhudson%2Farticle%2Fdemocratic-county-chairs-in-ny-19-endorse-teachout-for-congress%2F&h=SAQEX4qrhAQF3SdnpPqfOxHX05Yv7Piq5O6dlvNdJ_Z1o3Q&enc=AZPPZ3_kHqgb2jArkDkhFB2Zz-2a4LlEaL6HXlbOwcRhzMwvDF2EBBl0zH0kx1WvRMwd6eIr20o0UDCONXnSDqKfciEC8gDoh6BEMwglG320QmFf6daDEIfNBsEZeWXdFgxtr-cXP3z1i0PyNdWWBSBiDYS8Sx-mW2dRVitvhNKo2_ITZqcFott73-cC4-B4_UA&s=1" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://imby.com/…/democratic-county-chairs-in-ny-19-endors…/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FZephyr_Teachout&h=MAQE2HxWzAQEpSvyoVrTsSA379PYHLP_qfW-pIpR-CXQ44A&enc=AZO3GOfEDHGtxgUf2n_qT_v2OvHUAwPQ044hTQBS0owx_iJB4Yzsg9ll6uL2qSURGnq1E61FC8LGil41Cu90Ea40b0HbZGkVbxpKChCaSNo7BkeQnUtIRFUjoyBrAiMHJ8CV7jfxKZWRHyTmQSNq5XufFrMbd8bgjuspLkOD_IaDMpBezU8_jGzAJf0f4jTZ2gc&s=1" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_Teachout</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Will4Congress/" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/Will4Congress/</a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-22307812407284367032016-01-12T15:26:00.000-05:002016-01-12T15:29:28.796-05:00new episodes of the podcastCheck them out on itunes <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/phlogiston/id1066087803">here</a>. Or <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/phlogiston-podcast">stitcher</a>. Or <a href="https://soundcloud.com/will-pflaum-1">soundcloud</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-32039283994355773032016-01-02T00:24:00.003-05:002016-01-02T00:52:06.925-05:00meet FRED, an educational philosophyPrivate schools often seem to need a philosophy (Montessori, Waldorf, Democratic School, etc.). This is especially true if they have not existed for 100 or more years or if there are several private schools close to each other. Public schools, on the other hand, cannot have a philosophy, at least not in New York, although they can in Oregon. Charter Schools can have a philosophy.<br />
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Is the philosophy marketing or does it help with education? Let's consider.<br />
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If there are true believers in the philosophy, even if the philosophy is not really effective in any systematic way, you sometimes see a placebo effect and the institution prospers because the people working in the school THINK is should prosper. If the philosophy is merely marketing and no one really believes it -- maybe it was instituted top down long after the school was up and running and was imposed on the staff -- then it won't work very well even if it is good.<br />
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I homeschool 4 kids, my own, 6 years. I have also founded and participated in many homeschool groups. I taught in the public school in the Bronx and worked as an adjunct professor of anthropology in the CUNY system in New York City. I have two masters degrees (M.Ed. and M.A.) from Columbia University in New York in education. All of that might or might not matter to the discussion that follows.<br />
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I kind of don't believe in explicit educational philosophies intrinsically. Yet I just said that a philosophy, if truly believed, can help achieve results.<br />
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Maybe I'm a true believer in not believing in any one idea, so it works for me. Nevertheless, I will now offer my formula for education so others can believe it and make it work (but it won't work if you don't believe it and I offer no particular proof, as philosophies don't tend to offer proof).<br />
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These are things I thought of regarding my recent experience teaching, and looking around at what I see. I don't know how well these aphorism really apply anywhere else. It's in no way systematic. I am sure that my approach is skewed to young kids working with adults, as that has been my recent experience.<br />
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And these points contract each other. But I'm pretty sure of these few points. Not sure of much else. But I think, at least initially, I can go with these:<br />
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<b>1. Education is not a kid thing.</b><br />
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Point one is absolutely critical. If you as the educator are not actively educating yourself as you claim to educate others, you're definitely doing it wrong. We all need more education. If you have three PhDs and speak 12 languages, you know need more education. The educator must be educating him or herself and loving learning what he or she is learning, even if what s/he is learning is not what s/he is teaching. It's a little like the "if you believe" it hypothesis above: you have to believe in education to educate and if you believe in it, you'll be doing it.<br />
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On the policy level, everyone should be learning all the time and this "I'm in school" and then "I'm out of school" dichotomy is a problem. You don't go back to school because you lost your job. You should be in some kind of class all the time -- everyone, all the time. Continuing education should be happening at town halls, libraries, job sites, police stations, factories, and be paid for by the government if necessary. It should all be voluntary. Education is never a waste of money. You might learn art history when you're 60 and somehow that increase in the community of knowledge might lead to a new computer program by your cousin six years later. How can that happen? I don't know -- by chance. All kinds of change ideas and projects will come out of a generally better educated community.<br />
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<b>2. Don't kick tradition to the curb. </b><br />
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The past is full of all kinds of horrors, as is the present. There is no reason to think the people of the future won't judge us very harshly, as well they might, if we leave them a shitty planet. So, we need to listen to the people of the past. Realize that they are different. Try to understand and sympathize with them more than you judge. Do not write them off. Do not write off their wrong ideas about science. Do not write off their religion, even if you do not accept their religion.<br />
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Without a past, you can't really have any education. You will be adrift in the cultural moment and find your mind stuck on trivia, or gossip, or jealousy, or arrogance. You will need to feel the past to be full and happy, even if you learn nothing that makes money. You will learn much that is useful.<br />
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<b>4. As a people, our race is in it's adolescence. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>You hopefully noticed I skipped 3 and went to 4. That was too prove how immature we are as a people (okay, as I am).<br />
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But really, we've only come up with the systematic search for knowledge a couple hundred years ago. We need to be careful about what we don't know.<br />
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It's best to have kids know how much we don't know. Doing research should be a huge industry. If you know three lawyers, two teachers, and a doctor but don't know anyone in your intimate personal circle who is professionally employed in the expansion of knowledge, that's because you live is a head up its ass culture.<br />
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There should be five researchers for every lawyer and three for every doctor and two for every teacher.<br />
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And these jobs should change around, and be mixed up. We're going to live longer and longer, hopefully, and have better and better health, hopefully, and should have time to have two or three careers each.<br />
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I listed my educational credentials above. I almost never do that and you should not have been impressed. Not too important.<br />
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<b>3. Love is best, but fleeting and hard to work with.</b><br />
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If you teach children you love, it's quite magical for all involved. These children do not have to be your own. But in an institution, such as a school, you can't do this. It's impossible. You won't love all the kids. You will be professional. So, what can I say, go ahead and be a professional. But, if you can teach with love, it's magical. But like all magic, it is also dangerous and can disappear in an instant.<br />
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But there is proof of the work of love. Take <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> for example. Lewis Carroll wrote it for his colleague's daughter, Alice. There was a real Alice. Carroll and Alice were lifelong friends: she at 7, him over 40, then she in her 40s and he in his 80s, dying.<br />
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It would be a stretch to call <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> a collaboration but the 7-year-old Alice was quite a bit more than a bystander or audience.<br />
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<b>5. "What is education?" is as profound a question as "what is justice?"</b><br />
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Figuring out what education should be is no trivial matter. It's profound. It's about what it means to be human.<br />
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Nevertheless, to make it really work, at some point, you'll need some data. Data is great. If the justice system was more based on data and peer reviewed papers than "expertise" and "professional judgement" there would be less bias and more fairness.<br />
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The same is fundamentally true with education. Some kind of data is ultimately necessary and, if interpreted in an open way with a truly democratic process, likely to be better than a philosophy, I just don't know what data and how to look at it.<br />
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<b>6. The mirror will know. </b><br />
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Powerful and rich people steal at will and never get arrested or otherwise punished or even stopped. Poor people get in a pipeline to prison while crooked and stupid DAs and judges prance around a strut and feel good about themselves as they break hurting and broken people into a fine dust. No one notices that there should not be urban ghettos, that should never happen, and they aren't an accident. Schools have slogans on the wall of the library, like "excellence." And there is no excellence, thus killing excellence. They have to line up. We don't have a functioning democracy. The people don't get what they need. They take away more and more. We have an infinite number of styrofoam cups that will be our legacy to the future. We keep on dividing up the farm land and woods and paving them and then driving more and changing the climate to live in unhappy communities with no sidewalks. Ammosexuals care more about stroking their guns than the lives of children. The president, like Zeus with a lightening bolt, can order a strike to kill a person or someone who fits the pattern in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afganistan, and maybe Cleveland, without any legal justification and without having to answer to anyone, or, if he wants to, invade. Cops and presidents get away with murder. No law to protect you now. No plan to protect the future. How many planets in the Milky Way have liquid water? We don't know. How does the brain work? Why do we sleep?<br />
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Like those people in the past, you have to know who you want to be, look in the mirror, and then be that person.<br />
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Okay, there you go, a philosophy. I think I'll call it Fred.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-28288896799226866302015-12-26T10:53:00.001-05:002015-12-26T10:53:56.653-05:008th annual Christmas Day fetch competition<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;">2008: Brooklyn 5, Manhattan 4</div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;">2009: Manhattan 5, Westchester 4, Brooklyn 1</div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;">2008: Brooklyn 5, Manhattan 4</div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;">2007: Manhattan 4, Brooklyn 3</div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;">2011? Connecticut? CT 5, Manhattan 2, Westchester 2, Brooklyn 1</div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;">2012: forgot to hold competition</div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;">2013: Brooklyn 4, Manhattan 3, Up there (Westchester & CT), 1</div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;">2014: CT 2, Brooklyn 1</div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;"><b>2015: Manhattan 3, Brooklyn 1</b></div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></div><br /><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xF4foL8Km8c" width="459"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-51908822864528221052015-12-14T22:20:00.002-05:002015-12-18T10:12:03.261-05:00<a href="https://soundcloud.com/will-pflaum-1/phlogiston-podcast-4-came-out-of-nowhere-theory">Podcast about people who came out nowhere</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-7666061149577872542015-12-12T12:03:00.000-05:002015-12-14T09:38:29.581-05:00Was local government designed by a maniac who hated the residents?In response to gun violence, <a href="http://imby.com/hudson/article/columbia-county-sheriff-supports-ulster-county-sheriffs-call-to-arm/">two upstate New York sheriffs call for more people to walk around with guns</a>. Let me explain why I think people who are charged with protecting public safety would advocate something that will make everyone more unsafe. "Responsible" offices does not mean "rational" policies. Not at all. Not here anyway.<br />
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First, arming people with no special training to police everyone else because they get off on walking around with a gun is irrational and counter productive, obviously. For every case where someone justifiably shoots someone (attempted break in, murder, etc.) there are 30 cases of suicide, murder, accidental shooting, etc. <a href="http://www.bradycampaign.org/key-gun-violence-statistics">Here you go</a>.<br />
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Yet, someone in authority says that more people who get into road rage situations should be armed, more depressed people should have a loaded gun nearby, etc. How can that happen?<br />
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Sheriffs are elected. Elections in the area are polarized, with Republicans tending to be people who grew up the in area and Democrats tending to be either 1) people who moved in later in life or 2) who are disenfranchised and rarely vote, with many exceptions, but in general, that's the pattern.<br />
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Local elections depend on three factors: 1) corruption (patronage, no show jobs, favoritism, such as reduced tax assessments for cronies and letting friends slide in court when accused of crimes, etc. and outright stealing of tax money); 2) demographics (more of a census than an election); 3) stirring up resentment of one group against another in order for leaders to continue to engage in corruption. So, the less qualified you are for a position, in this corrupt environment, the more likely you are to be elected.<br />
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Local elections are never rational considerations of what is the best public policy. The state has no system to arrest or otherwise remove from office flagrant thieves. The federal government is uninterested in local public corruption. Thus, in every aspect of life that has anything to do with government in this area -- schools, hospitals, roads, zoning, development, everything -- the outcomes are irrational, expensive, and worse than in other places even within the same general area of Third Worldish upstate New York. Nothing here is up to snuff when it comes to government.<br />
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This is true of law enforcement absolutely. In Columbia County, for example, we have 5 police departments for a population of 60,000. There are many police officers who serve only this county that make more than $100,000 a year.<br />
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Yet there is almost no street crime on a per capita basis. There is a lot of crime -- but that is done by the police's friends in county and town government and is not visible with the naked eye. You need to look at lists of numbers to see why they are stealing. It's not rocket science and many of the elected and appointed officials should be in jail. Yet local guys never get arrested, even as the heads of both the state senate and state assembly go to jail. Politicians getting arrested is good sign, unless the prosecution was personal or ideological.<br />
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Anyway, while the cops sit around sometimes making a lot of money with often nothing to do, they cannot target areas that do have street crime because they cannot coordinate between the various organizations -- state police, county sheriff and local police per town, village or city. We could have 50% fewer cops, making less money, and crime would fall if the system were organized rationally, with all the police in one department and the resources targeted at actual problems.<br />
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But that would be rational. If rationality broke out, taxes would drop and services would improve and elections might revolve around policy. That would be a disaster for those in charge. If the area were to improve and become more attractive, more people who are not cronies and cannot be stirred up against "them" or bought off with jobs and favors, etc. would move in and the machine would be worse off. The government authorities want conditions to be unattractive locally. Taxes high. Services bad.<br />
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So, the sheriff says walk around with guns. It's stupid, as anyone teaching criminology at a college would tell you, but the sheriff has no intention of learning how to do his job efficiently and cheaply. He would like those who vote for him to be stirred up against "them" -- those people who think walking around with a gun is unlikely to reduce gun violence. Those outsiders. Then people feel better psychologically, the sheriff is self-satisfied and feels important (he is an official after all). His voters feel better because they showed "them" who's boss, "they" can't push me around.<br />
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Meanwhile, small government Republicans preside over a government that spends more per capita by orders of magnitude than big government Democratic parts of the state. Taxes extremely high, services all mediocre at best. Corruption rampant. State Democrats won't say peep, those that are not yet in jail anyway, as they have similar arrangements with Democratic local crony machines. Local Democrats are only vaguely awake at best and/or disliked because they are tainted by crooked Democrats at the state level.<br />
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So we have 21 highways departments but not very good roads, expensive schools with brand new school buses and high tech blackboards and yet not one public high school graduate getting into any Ivy League college, some schools ranking dead last in the Hudson Valley in math, five police departments, with cops where they aren't needed, while crime is rampant in government and in a couple of unprotected hot spots, mediocre community college, overpriced mediocre hospital, ugly development that hinders economic growth, destruction of the environment, no public transport, no bike paths, no support for local agriculture, counter productive tourism campaigns, etc...<br />
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21 highway department superintendents<br />
5 police chiefs<br />
6 school superintendents, assistants, transportation departments, etc.<br />
more municipals lawyers than you can shake a stick at<br />
maybe, what, 40 judges, meeting all over the place, with cops attending hearings, assistants, etc.<br />
population tiny: 60,000<br />
taxes as high as anywhere<br />
results terrible<br />
no complaint from populous?<br />
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The state spent hundreds of thousans to prove that the county could save one million a year by consolidating all property assessments in one office. 2001 I think -- looking for link. Anyway, the officials in the county appreciated the state spending the money on an efficiency study. The cronies in Columbia County think it's inefficient for them to spend their own dollar for two rolls of toilet paper when the state can provide them the same service with a tax payer funded efficiency study.<br />
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Go figure.<br />
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But get yourself a gun. Welcome to Columbia County.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>glencadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867864386772102359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-30941938724835016382015-12-11T20:58:00.001-05:002015-12-11T21:05:28.512-05:00Phlogiston Podcast and other audio linksI have a new podcast: <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/phlogiston/id1066087803">here</a>.<br />
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My old audio uploads are still <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/re-direct-to-main-site-here./id552601113?mt=2">here</a>. This includes audio of meetings with the DA, complete, etc. Lots of raw audio.<br />
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You can here many years of audio <a href="https://soundcloud.com/will-pflaum-1/sets/phlogiston">here</a>. Here is <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/this-pound-of-flesh/id206699992">an album</a> that is not in that list from 2005.<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pazzis?_rdr=p">Here</a> is where I will and have posted info on the book I'm doing about Pazzis Sureda.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>glencadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867864386772102359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-18166387011674646902015-12-09T21:09:00.000-05:002015-12-11T21:10:06.263-05:00entry by Ollie<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zYWmV2l4QhA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>glencadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867864386772102359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-29404663209255953182015-11-29T22:11:00.000-05:002015-12-11T22:12:41.348-05:00viola growling<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D4UUATH_O-w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>glencadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867864386772102359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-33928950219303035152015-11-26T21:12:00.000-05:002015-12-11T21:12:20.757-05:00lotta dancing<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NmnZ3FZWdgc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>glencadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867864386772102359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-61904298104494521192015-11-24T10:09:00.002-05:002015-11-24T10:12:50.415-05:00No Dinosaur Courts: amendment to end life time tenure of federal judgesImagine a supreme court appointed by Woodrow Wilson, a confirmed racist. That is something we should imagine because such a gap between the court and the society at large is inevitable. Democracy demands we limit the terms of federal judges. We can do it now with a constitutional amendment or we can wait until the supreme court become intolerable and has to be undermined more completely in another way. We need to tame the court to save it.<br />
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Ray Kurzweil, now handing out billions in Google research and development grants, thinks we will conquer death. In the near future, we will live to be 200 hundred, 300 years old.<br />
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In that case, lifetime appointment of judges would mean we would have judges on the supreme court that were, to imagine the future scenario as if it occurred today, appointed by Woodrow Wilson, who supported the Klu Klux Klan.<br />
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That is one reason to amend the constitution to limit the terms of judges, say to 20 years. This reason won't matter until some time in the future, although the fact that we already live much longer than in 1790 when the constitution was written is relevant.<br />
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Another reason is that in the modern era judges are chose for their relative youth. A candidate has to be younger than 50 but with enough credentials to get through the senate. This limits the types of people who get on the bench, all lawyers, judges, ambitious from the start. Nothing wrong with the type per se but in the past we've had ex-presidents, people with a variety of experience. Like Bill Clinton: he would have been good. Or Barack Obama now. But he's too old. <br />
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Lastly, the supreme court has a history of making terrible decisions: gutting the civil rights amendments that followed the civil war, Dred Scott, Citizens United, shooting down the New Deal, Bush v. Gore 2000. We have hundreds of years of the supreme court doing more harm than good. They picked the worst president of the modern era and installed him on the throne. They said that northerns had to put up with slavery. They stopped progressive governments from trying to make society more fair with social welfare programs. And, occasionally, they made a few good decisions too.<br />
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If they were limited to 12 or 20 years, the amount of harm they could do would be limited. Like right now: rather than spending the time to get a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, why not put the energy into an amendment to limit the terms of judges. Then overturning Citizens United will happen in time, along with other changes.<br />
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Future dinosaur courts, like the one we have now, undermine the credibility of the court. If they become more and more out of step with their eras, more and more hold overs from the past, even now they are and this will get worse, then we will have to find a way to overrule the court, pack the court, something to stop the equivalent of Woodrow Wilson's appointees insisting that black and whites cannot marry, even as the president is mixed race.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-42396562305573481862015-11-21T12:54:00.000-05:002015-11-24T10:14:45.691-05:00diamonds on the sidewalkThe propensity in the human mind to not see diamonds on the sidewalk where a diamond should not be, is not supposed to be, and on the rare occasion when it is there, right where is is not supposed to be, so, obviously, is are not there... and it gets kicked to the curb. Happens every day.<br />
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Lewis Carroll actually knew a girl called Alice. She was the daughter of a colleague and he wrote Alice in Wonderland for her originally, then decided to publish. For awhile the book was something of a collaboration between a man in his 40s and girl about 7.<br />
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They remained friends their entire lives and she visited him when she was in her 40s and he in his 80s as he was dying. Carroll also got in trouble for taking pictures of naked children -- with the parents present to display on the walls of Victorian homes -- as one of the early photographers in England. A relationship that from the outside might seem strange, a friendship between and 7 year old girl and a 40 year old man, produced a great work of literature and two lives greatly enriched.<br />
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William Tecumseh Sherman was a failure at real estate in San Francisco before the American Civil War. He himself could not understand why he had a mental breakdown over property sales and could not take the stress of money but had no trouble ordering thousands to their deaths. Grant, Sherman and Lincoln: none of them looked like great leaders in 1850, yet by 1865 they were all unquestionable among the greatest figures of the age.<br />
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George McClellan should have been a great general, given his resume. He just wasn't. Tens of thousands of people died for nothing until reality outweighed people's pre-existing assumptions.<br />
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Oliver Cromwell (in a much earlier Civil War in England) was an ordinary country squire until the necessities war turned him into the greatest calvary commander and eventual near dictator of England.<br />
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War seems to open cracks in society and shake up people's lives. In some cases, they become different people and people do not respond as you would have predicted by reading their resumes.<br />
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The common thread with these examples is that our way of going about things, putting people and stories into categories, and making assumptions about who people are and what they should do, carries inherent bias in favor of what already is even when what already is isn't working very well.<br />
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That people tend to prefer the familiar is understandable and in many situations logical. When you have little data or little time, preferring a story that sounds like one you've heard before or a song that is like one you liked or a politician that reminds you of another one or a food that you've eaten before without getting sick or the type of person who seems like the type that you liked before all makes sense. But bias in favor of the routine creeps into everything and distorts the world because the unexpected is almost always the most important and best stuff that can happen to you.<br />
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Finding the diamonds in the unexpected or deviant is hard work. Most of the unexpected is not brilliant. So you have to learn how to recognize or even expect the unexpected... and that seems tricky.<br />
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On the internet there are many diamonds on the sidewalk that get thrown out with the litter of plastic potato chip bags, as in every area of life, due to the bias in favor of the expected.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-82051737617718303912015-11-10T10:05:00.001-05:002015-11-21T11:44:16.812-05:00le pen v mujicaTrump is a nativist, unpredictable, egomaniac wild card, more like Le Pen than anyone in American history. Sanders maybe a bit like Pepe Mujica of Uruguay.<br />
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If they both somehow get nominated by the Republican and Democrats, all the major powers in American politics would have no one to support -- no finance puppet, no one to pretend to care about the religious right, no reliable corporatist.<br />
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That would leave a huge hole in the center that some Democrat or moderate Republican would like to fill as a third party candidate.<br />
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If the centrist were a Democrat, the left of the Democratic party would be furious. We went along with Clinton, although we didn't really like his Third Way policies, we endured a compromised Obama who had to make due with what he could get, while expanding the imperial presidency and continuing permanent war, and then the minute we get our guy on the ticket, the other side splits. It would ruin the Democratic party. And we love Sanders.<br />
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In the centrist were a Republican, it wouldn't matter that much. They would be no more divided than they are already and could keep going more or less on the same trajectory.<br />
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Would the Democrats tolerate and Sanders win? If he won, would the NSA let him defund them? Would the CIA put up with him?<br />
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Bernie himself seems to think he can just say the truth, stick to his guns, win on the basis of the truth, and then institute sane policies, as if we lived in a constitutional democracy governed by the rule of law. If he thinks that's all true -- our democracy isn't completely a sham, there is no deep state, etc. -- maybe he's right. We'll see, hopefully.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>Glencadia Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702911505654172537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761798101259685971.post-2777588207960442362015-11-03T21:11:00.000-05:002015-12-11T21:11:20.756-05:00by Ollie<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lHMeumE1R40" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Written and maintained by Will Pflaum, aka William Pflaum. Covering corruption and other government issues in the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County New York.</div>glencadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867864386772102359noreply@blogger.com0