Democratic Party to New Yorkers: Drop Dead!
There’s a lot going on this week. But first, a reminder and request. If you drive stop speeding! Stop honking your horns. Stop giving dirty looks to your fellow drivers. Walkers, look for crosswalks and take your damn headsets off so you can hear and see what’s going when you are crossing the street. We don’t need to fill hospital beds with injured driver or pedestrians!
DEMOCRATIC CONTROLLED STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS CANCELS PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY
4 years ago it was the nasty shenanigans of Hillary Clinton that hurt the Bernie Sanders presidential bid. Sanders made it explicitly clear he was suspending his candidacy for President this year but wanted to accumulate delegates to have a say in the Democratic Party Platform of ideas. Governor Cuomo made it easy for people to apply for an absentee ballot so that they could get the Election Day Ballot mailed to them. All was good in America.
Then on Monday, the State Board of Elections consisting of 2 Democrats and 1 Republican voted to cancel the New York Primary for President. They didn’t cancel primaries for Congress, the State Legislature or other local elections. Just the Primary for President. Former Westchester County Executive Andy Spano was one of the 2 Democrats to kill Democracy voting to cancel the Democratic Primary.
Many people haven’t a clue what the Democratic Platform is. For the Bernie Sanders ( who by the way is supporting Biden) folks it is their way to shape Democratic values in a political system where there are few values. Like in Westchester and Yonkers where it’s the good old boys and now girls network. Wait til budget negotiations in Yonkers start and the trading of jobs for votes by council members on the budget starts so it can be a unanimous positive consensus.
This year is the year of the insider in New York politics. No write-ins if you are unhappy with the candidates, no Opportunity to Ballots and now no Democratic Primary for President.
My hope is that this will be overturned by the National Democratic Party Leadership or through the courts. Democrats need to be united if they want to defeat Trump in November. This is no way to do it!
PUT CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY CENTER NOT NURSING HOMES
There is a blame game going on in New York State. On March 24 the New York Health Department under the leadership of Dr. Howard Zucker appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Administrators to admit or readmit patients with the Coronavirus.
These facilities are not properly equipped to handle these patients. They don’t have ventilators or proper equipment or training, and limited space to segregate the Coronavirus patients from the general population. So what do we have? The coronavirus spreading like wildfire in the nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The elderly dying. Staff getting sick. A mess.
Attorney General Letitia James is looking into this. Her investigation doesn’t have too far to look. In the meantime, why not put these people in the empty Westchester County Center Hospital set up ready, willing and able to accept patients until they are ready to return home or passed the incubation period or healthy?
CLOSED CEMETERIES?
My mother’s yahrzeit (anniversary of her death) was last Thursday. I would normally go to visit her grave. She is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery. The day before I would normally visit her grave there was an article in the Journal News by Peter Kramer that said Mount Hope was closed to visitors. I would not believe it until I saw it, so I visited the Cemetery. I get there, the gates are closed with a big sign CEMETERY CLOSED.
Through my radio show and listeners I learned that the closure was not a problem for just Jewish families but also Christian families with relatives buried there. Again using the radio show, our listeners, elected officials, social media (Facebook and Twitter) and public outcry we were able to get the cemetery gates open to visitors on Sundays from 9:00 am-4:00 pm. Hopefully if people stay 6 feet apart, don’t come to the Cemetery if they are ill and limit their time and the number of visitors Mount Hope will remain open through Mother’s Day and Fathers Day in June.
MAYOR SPANO WONT STOP THE ENFORCEMENT OF PARKING METERS
ASSEMBLYMAN Nader Sayegh asked him to do it. So did some members of the City Council. But Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano refuses to stop enforcement of parking meters on city streets in the middle of the pandemic.
The meters are meant to keep cars turning over in commercial areas. But credit Mayor Spano. He said the truth! It’s all about the $13 million in collections and overtime fines the city collects from people using the meters!
JUDGES AND JUDICIAL CANDIDATES USING A PANDEMIC TO GET VOTES
Yonkers has hit a new low in politics. 2 sitting judges and a candidate for the Judiciary donating Personal Protection Equipment, in this case masks to the staff at a local hospital. Picture sadly on the front of this newspaper last week.
Let’s be clear. I support those on the front lines whether they be doctors and nurses, EMT’s, police fire and sanitation workers, grocery store employees and all of those helping to keep people alive. We have a shortage of PPE equipment for all of our first responders and health care workers. How did these judicial candidates obtain masks that medical facilities are having a hard time getting for a photo op? Let’s take the politics out of the pandemic!
IN CLOSING: how the hell are they going to do contact tracing of people who have been in contact with those affected by the coronavirus?
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
