Showing posts with label progressive reform agenda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label progressive reform agenda. Show all posts

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Blogger Louis Flores debuts Progress Queens, a new Web site about news and politics

Progress Queens : News and Politics

The evolution of online news

The Internet has allowed for many Web sites to publish news online, but the avalanche of information fails to connect with people. One of the biggest reasons that people are disconnecting from the news is that the mainstream media never gives people the whole truth about how our government is run. Progress Queens was created to address this problem.

Progress Queens upends mainstream media

Whereas the mainstream media fails to make the connections to lobbyists, consultants, and outside contractors in the many corruption scandals that impact government and big business, you can count on Progress Queens to always make that connection for you.

Progress Queens is fighting for a truly progressive reform agenda based on the values that we should each of use economic gains to help those with the least and keep our elected officials accountable to voters at all times. Follow us on Twitter : @progressqueens.

RELATED


Progress Queens : News and Politics (ProgressQueens.com)

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

After early ridicule, Tim Wu calls out de Blasio as "accomplice" in Hochul's voter deception

Gov. Cuomo's running mate, Kathy Hochul, supports the Keystone XL energy pipeline, which the fracking industry needs to keep expanding their water-poisoning extraction across North America

The Cuomo administration is under federal investigation for reportedly obstructing the anti-corruption work of the now-defunct Moreland Commission, and Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito don't care. They're endorsing the Cuomo-Hochul ticket.

Once it became clear that the self-anointed progressive Mayor Bill de Blasio was going to endorse former Rep. Kathy Hochul for lieutenant governor in this year's Democratic Party primary, the first reaction from the Teachout/Wu campaign was to give Mayor de Blasio and his enablers the room to double-cross progressive voters.

Many government reform activists see Mayor de Blasio's endorsement of Ms. Hochul's campaign as a betrayal of voters' progressive sensibilities. Not only is Ms. Hochul a supporter of the fracking industry, but she has also voted to limit or roll back regulations under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. She once earned the endorsement of the N.R.A., and she also voted to repeal Obamacare while she was in Congress. Even the specter of a federal investigation into the Cuomo administration's role in reportedly obstruction the corruption-fighting work of the now-shuttered Moreland Commission hasn't stopped Mayor de Blasio and his cronies from propping up the Cuomo/Hochul ticket. Nevertheless, the Teachout/Wu campaign initially didn't want to publicly question Mayor de Blasio's motivations for planning to endorse such an abysmal and conservative record as Ms. Hochul's. However, once government reform activists began to question the Teachout/Wu's silence, the Teachout/Wu campaign took a different approach.

Pressure on the Teachout/Wu campaign kept building this morning, especially after some wise political reporters began to notice the blatant contradictions in Mayor de Blasio's spin, leading Ms. Hochul's opponent, Tim Wu, to call out Mayor de Blasio for his duplicity.

In a press conference this morning, Mr. Wu reacted to news of Mayor de Blasio's impending endorsement of Ms. Hochul with some of the harshest words yet expressed of Mayor de Blasio's dishonest portrayal of Ms. Hochul as a "progressive."

"When it comes down to it, Kathy Hochul's record is out there. No one can look honestly and deeply at that record and say she's a progressive Democrat," Mr. Wu said at his press conference, adding that Mayor de Blasio was "serving as an accomplice" in "misrepresenting her record."

For her part, Zephyr Teachout, Mr. Cuomo's opponent in the gubernatorial race, said, "I'm thrilled that Bill de Blasio's my mayor, I supported him, but he's wrong on this. Kathy Hochul's a conservative."

RELATED


Tim Wu: Mayor de Blasio serving as ‘accomplice’ to Hochul (Capital New York)

Cuomo, de Blasio Panic As Progressive Candidate Tim Wu Gains Traction (The Gothamist)

Activists fear Teachout will back Cuomo in General if she loses in Primary (NYC : News & Analysis)

Monday, June 16, 2014

Sal Albanese Begins Examination Of Last Year's NYC Mayoral Race

Sal Albanese : "My opponents represented the who's who of political hacks, ineffective city officials, and faux progressives."

Sal Albanese photo Sal-Albanese_DeborahYun_2939-2012213_zps9bd815a0.jpg

RELATED


Sal Albanese :
"Can a campaign of substance prevail ?" (Sal Albanese : "Swinging for the Fences : How and Why I Decided to Run for Mayor" * The Huffington Post)

In a suspensful introductory examination of last year's mayoral race in New York City, former Councilmember Sal Albanese hurtles a proverbial cannon shot across the political bows of the permanent government insiders.

"... Can a campaign of substance prevail ?

In posts to follow, I'll discuss why that question went unanswered and why the issues debated and the people debating them are so relevant to the future of the five boroughs."

Read the whole thing for a promising overview of the need to overhaul the broken political system in New York City.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

UK corporate governance reform proposal being gamed even at its ideation ; small business, porn, and pot banking crackdown

When I reviewed due diligence for a large Wall Street Bank, I got good at spotting traps and black holes in customer documentation. But the Bank I worked for wouldn't press for due diligence if such requests would upset the customer or the trader, who was on boarding the customer. Ultimately, the Front Office controlled the due diligence collected by the Legal Department, just like big business interests control all legislative attempts to regulate reforms in corporate governance.

Meanwhile, Chase is closing all bank accounts held by porn stars, and HSBC has been on a scorched earth campaign to close down all small business banking accounts. Whereas banks are instructed by regulators to put classes of customers on "watch lists" if there is a potential for exposure to money laundering, organized crime connections, drug-running, arms sales to terroristic states (like Iran), other sanctions lists, etc., the truth is that many big banks are situational in how they comply with their watch lists. Recently, many large American banks (wrongly) initially refused to accept customers tied to the (now) legal marijuana business in the states that just legalized small quantity sales. Is the crackdown on legitimate small business, sex workers, and legal marijuana businesses just slimy PR stunts intended for banking compliance departments to show regulators that the banks are minding their watch lists ?

How are small businesses supposed to transact business ? How are porn stars expected to deposit pay checks, pay bills, use their credit card, and pay their publicists and agents ? How can people buy space cakes, if legal marijuana businesses can't deposit sales receipts, pay suppliers, pay taxes, and otherwise maintain their enterprise as a going concern ? This is all cookoo !!

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Skepticism Meets Mayor de Blasio, Commish Bratton Announcement on Disbanding of Illegal NYPD Muslim Spying Unit

Another slight of hand press release tricks The New York Times, but not the rest of us.

Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio authorised NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton to disband an unconstitutional police unit that stalked New York City's Muslim community. Predictably, The New York Times fawned over this token public relations move, but other media have expressed doubt whether the New York Police Department would voluntarily end its use of racial and faith-based profiling to surveil innocent citizens.

The mayor and the police commissioner made such a public display of their "progressive" reforms to a police force battered by never-ending charges of unconstitutional tactics. "However, talk has circulated that the NYPD has little intention to stop deploying officers into Muslim areas in the city — it merely plans to do so without an official label," reported Washington Square News.

The true intention of the police department's continued violations of the Handschu Agreement is worrisome. Based on the mayor's other cosmetic changes in policy, the fact that some large, entrenched mainstream media outlets continue to accord the mayor and his police commissioner with the liberty to propagate so much political spin should raise serious concerns amongst government reform activists.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Bratton seeks to continue Kelly's police policies, in spite of civil rights concerns

Why does the New York City Council fund police tactics that violate the Civil Rights Act ?

NYPD Commissioner William Bratton "has signaled few dramatic changes in policy from his predecessor," Capital New York reported last week, but he has focused "his efforts on boosting the department’s image in the eyes of the City Council... ."

In his first testimony before the New York City Council, Commissioner Bratton expressed a desire to boost the number of police officers, saying that he though the size of the police force was "too small," which represents a contradiction to statements he made upon his formal appointment, when Commissioner Bratton had said that he was satisfied with the number of NYPD officers.

Some police reform activists note that Commissioner Bratton has notified the City Council that "continuity" of former Commissioner Ray Kelly's controversial policies is the primary goal of his administration. As if to gut the hopes of police reform activists, who had pinned their dreams of ending controversial police tactics, Commissioner Bratton observed in gratitude that the City Council, which is led by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, was the most friendly municipal legislature with which he's ever worked.

Police reform activists have expressed concern that the City Council will abdicate its duty to hold the police commissioner accountable for enacting reforms.

At a town hall meeting last week of the Police Reform Organizing Project, it appeared that PROP Director Robert Gangi, pictured, kept saying that it was incumbent upon community groups to hold Commissioner Bratton accountable for enacting reforms that would end the police force's violations of civil liberties and civil rights, but Mr. Gangi seemed to avoid embracing any call to actually hold the commissioner's, the mayor's, or City Councilmembers' feet to the fire, even as some panel members at last week's town hall urged police reform activists to focus on continued civil rights violations apparent in NYPD tactics. After hearing Mr. Gangi congratulate Mayor Bill de Blasio in absentia for having a "progressive" record, one audience member pointed out during the question-and-answer period that Mayor de Blasio arguably made the most "regressive" police commissioner appointment by selecting Mr. Bratton.

Each year, the mayor and the City Council approve the NYPD's budget, usually with little to no oversight, thereby funding the police force's most controversial tactics and programs, even the ones that are eventually ruled by federal courts to violate the civil liberties and civil rights of innocent New Yorkers.

In the time leading up to last year's mayoral campaign, police reform activists staged numerous protests against the police force's unconstitutional program known as stop-and-frisk. At one protest in Jackson Heights, Queens, activists highlighted former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's practise of fully funding controversial police tactics that appeared to violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with complete impunity.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Government Budget Transparency Suffering In Albany, New York City

Gov. Cuomo defends shady, closed-door budget negotiations

Andrew Cuomo photo andrew-cuomo-smiles-jpg-alg_zps9d0cdc97.jpg

Gov. Andrew Cuomo defended his closed-door budget negotiations, saying, “Just because something is done behind closed doors, doesn’t mean the process isn’t transparent,” the Politics On The Hudson blog is reporting, adding, “You can’t do everything in the public view always and have frank, candid meaningful conversations.”

In further remarks, Gov. Cuomo called past attempts at budget transparency, "silly theater."

Many politicians, once elected, cease acting on behalf of voters and, instead, become captured by big business interests. Gov. Cuomo has apparently crossed over to the "dark side." Within days of his inauguration in 2010, Gov. Cuomo proposed radical cuts to Medicaid that would lead to a further push to close a series of hospitals in a scorched earth approach to make healthcare cuts to the poor. Now, he's being accused of making tax cuts to benefit the wealthy, aggravating income and wealth inequalities in New York state. That the neoliberal governor is now trying to obfuscate the state's budget negotiations comes as no surprise. Gov. Cuomo is trying to control political blowback to his shady neoliberal machinations.

Mayor de Blasio has outsourced opaque negotiations of city labor contracts to an unpaid advisor, who is not accountable to voters

Further enshrouding government budgets behind a cloak of secrecy, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed the political insider Stanley Brezenoff to be the city's "special unpaid adviser on 152 municipal labor contracts," The New York Daily News reported, noting that Mr. Brezenoff's choice was a "poor" one, given Mr. Brezenoff's history of driving Long Island College Hospital into bankruptcy.

When elected officials want to hide the government functions, they usually hide the business of government behind closed doors or special appointments.

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew told The New York Daily News that he had "promised Mayor de Blasio not to negotiate in public," according to the news report. When Mayor de Blasio was later confronted by the media about his decision to set aside budget reserves in preparation for the costly city union labor negotiations, Mayor de Blasio refused to answer questions about cost savings, telling Politicker, "I’m not going to answer any specific question," Mr. de Blasio said, in part.

On one hand, you have a governor hiding the business of negotiating the state's $90 billion budget behind closed doors, and, on the other, you have the mayor, refusing to discuss details about the negotiation of what is being estimated to be $7 billion in union contracts, and that is just in back bay demands.

What happened to the Democratic Party's commitment to progressive values, like transparency ?

Attacking or "controlling" bloggers as a way to thwart scrutiny

To further thwart government transparency, the governor and mayor have been taken alternate approaches with respect to bloggers. Over the week-end, Gov. Cuomo discredited bloggers, who are not subject to corporate-controlled editors, for their critical observations of government and elected officials. For his part, Mayor de Blasio has tried to control parent bloggers, forcing them to reprint his political point-of-view in his campaign for universal pre-kinder.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Quinn joins Cuomo in Lifeboat rushing to save sinking U.S.S. Crowley Party Boss

Holy Shit In The News : Quinn helps Queens make the case against Mark-Viverito

As one of my activists friends said, "This does NOT mean that Melissa Mark-Viverito is bad or that Garodnick is good." I want to add to that by saying : This is all about the great lengths that corrupt political insiders go to, to strike backroom deals to determine the who becomes selected to be the next Council speaker. In this insider race, the people have absolutely NO say. The same machinations that former Council Speaker Quinn is using, each of Mayor de Blasio and Councilmember Mark-Viverito are using. How is this making "progress" ? How is this consistent with ending the rubber-stamp City Council that we had during the Bloomberg-Quinn era ? All the people, who say, "Let's reform how we pick the Council speaker ‪#‎nexttime‬," you give former Council Speaker Quinn free license to do her shit right now. How is this ‪#‎winning‬ ? Me, I've lowered my expectations. Instead of hoping that people will come forward to make a demand for reforms, I'm just hoping that one side will get so desperate to win this Council speaker race that they will break so many laws that it will trigger a federal corruption investigation. We've got about 7 days to go. Let's see who gets burned ?

Quinn's involvement augments earlier reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo was also answering Queens County Democratic Political Boss S.O.S. signal.

It would be one thing if the Queens County Democratic Party was moving in a truly reform direction vis-à-vis Mayor de Blasio and Councilmember Mark-Viverito, but that's not been explained. If the Queens County Democratic Party were going to serve as a check on the mayor's expansive influence over every corner of city government, that would be great. There's room for a populist check to emerge to balance the mayor's anticipated neoliberal bent, all his fake "progressive" talk notwithstanding. But it remains to be seen how the Queens machine "evolves" in a new political landscape, where the mayor has emerged to be so dominant.