Tag Archives: the Green Party

NY Mysteries March 21, 2020

 

God has a sense of humor. In the midst of the corona virus pandemic, the stock market wobbling and the current administration, we have had wonderful weather. Remember 9/11? It too was a perfect day, weather wise.

Books to start reading in quarantine: George Eliot’s Middlemarch. After the first chapter buy the audio. Naxos has a wonderful and pricy edition read by Juliet Stevenson. Years ago, BBC had a wonderful presentation. If you can find it, I recommend that you glue yourself to the TV and watch it.

Another book that’s usually read when stranded on a desert island is Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. I can read a chapter or two and have tried listening to an audio. For me, it’s deadly. Right up there with Joyce’s Ulysses of which I didn’t understand a word. 

Minister Micah Busey leads a daily meditation group during these troubling times.  It’s on video so I can see everybody’s living interior but they can also see mine. I tune in promptly at 9 am but before I do, I comb my hair, put a sweater on over my night gown and make sure underwear isn’t hanging from a door knob.  It’s a self-affirming 45 minutes. It’s gentle and kindly. That also describes Micah.  

I found Governor Cuomo amazingly down-to-earth when he gave a recipe for alcohol wipes. “So buy some alcohol,” he snarled, “and put it on some cotton. That’s it.” He’s an able politician but I disagree with his  attempt to kill off New York’s Third parties.

Killing off New York’s Third parties – Not Today!

03/13/20 — The New York State Green and Libertarian Parties applaud the State Supreme Court ruling that stopped the Democratic Party’s attempt to assassinate smaller political parties.

Justice Ralph Boniello Thursday tossed out the law establishing a commission purportedly set up to create a system of publicly financed campaigns, but instead deviated into attacks on third party and independent candidates. The Judge ruled that the measure creating the panel was “an improper and unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority.”

Officials from both parties vowed at a December press conference that a joint lawsuit against the commission’s overreach would be forthcoming if the State Legislature did not act and the commission’s recommendations became law in 2020. The lawsuits brought by the Working Families and Conservative Parties in state court have now turned the tide against the Democratic Party’s heavy-handed attacks against their independent and third party competition.

“In the age of Trump, it is sad to see the Democratic Party use their control of the state government to suppress political debate and electoral challenges by true national third parties. Democracy is on life support in New York and our country. It was a slap in the face to everyday New Yorkers for Governor Cuomo and the Democrats to unilaterally rig the system in an attempt to crush any political party who challenges them,” said Green Party of New York Co-Chair Gloria Mattera.

The Green and Libertarian Parties are prepared to file a lawsuit in federal court to prevent further attacks on third parties and independents if the lawsuits in state court by the Conservative and Working Families do not ultimately prevail against appeal.

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

NY Mysteries February 28, 2020

Coppelia: Welcome to Cuba on West 14th Street. It’s named after a favorite restaurant in Havana and is an ongoing 24 hour party, festive decor, cosy booths, delicious Latin food with a Cuban slant.  All Day Breakfast is a marriage of the best in Latin American and North American food.Snacks? Sure. Croquetas de Queso are yummy cheese croquettes. Don’t forget the oxtail and the cocktails.

As their cheerful yellow and red neon sign says: Vive y bebe que la vida es breve.

 

 

Coppelia Restaurant
Street of Hunger
Coppelia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Governor Cuomo wants third parties to increase their number of votes if they’re to remain on the ballot. I belong to the Green Party and received this disturbing letter from the Green Party. Howie Hawkins, our presidential nominee, is quoted. 

In an open letter, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, and other progressive luminaries insisted that Howie Hawkins and the Green Party vote Democrat for president in battleground states.

They condescendingly describe Green votes as a self-indulgent “feel-good activity” as if Green votes are not votes for urgent climate action, real social and economic justice policies, and peace policies.

Don’t they see that the Democrats have joined the Republicans in supporting pro-corporate economic policies and pro-war foreign policies that have generated growing inequality at home and endless wars abroad?

As Howie said, “The left cannot outsource fighting the right to the Democrats.”

Howie points out that the Democrats have helped to normalize Trump by joining with him to overwhelmingly support military budget increases, the US Mexico Canada Trade Agreement (NAFTA 2.0), and the prosecution of Julian Assange and persecution of Chelsea Manning.

 

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

NY Mysteries February 7, 2020

Last week I attend the Grolier Club’s exhibit, Five Hundred Years of Women’s Work. It’s a vast collection and highlights the tragedies endured by women to achieve goals. It reminded me of John Stuart Mill. He was a British philosopher who lived from 1806- 1873. What most impressed me was his belief in the equality of women. In his teens he came upon a dead infant in a London Park. It motivated him to distribute contraceptive pamphlets.  When the British Empire made the buying and selling of slaves illegal, Mill stated in Parliament that women were also slaves. His book The Subjection of Women ( published 1869)  attempts to make a case for female/male equality.[53] He went to jail during his life because of his beliefs and was caricatured in many periodicals. This caricature is by SPY and was published in Vanity Fair in 1873. Its title is “A Feminine Philosopher.”

 

 

 

 

 

I’m honored to have been asked by the Green Party to once again be a State Committee Representative.

Now for a stern note. Governor Cuomo wants third parties to increase their number of votes if they’re to remain on the ballot. I belong to the Green Party and received this disturbing letter from the Green Party. Howie Hawkins, our presidential nominee, is quoted. 

If you thought Bernie Sanders was the only one facing the wolves this election season, let us inform you that he’s not.

It’s become pretty obvious that there’s all-out war against Bernie Sanders, and the DNC’s picks for the committees that will oversee nomination convention business certainly underscores this reality. And now with Barack Obama threatening to “go public” on his opposition to Sanders, you know the fix is in.

Last week in an open letter, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, and other progressive luminaries insisted that Howie Hawkins and the Green Party vote Democrat for president in battleground states.

They condescendingly describe Green votes as a self-indulgent “feel-good activity” as if Green votes are not votes for urgent climate action, real social and economic justice policies, and peace policies.

Don’t they see that the Democrats have joined the Republicans in supporting pro-corporate economic policies and pro-war foreign policies that have generated growing inequality at home and endless wars abroad?

As Howie said, “The left cannot outsource fighting the right to the Democrats.”

Howie points out that the Democrats have helped to normalize Trump by joining with him to overwhelmingly support military budget increases, the US Mexico Canada Trade Agreement (NAFTA 2.0), and the prosecution of Julian Assange and persecution of Chelsea Manning.

 

New York City Blog Oct. 30 – Nov. 5

I love so many aspects of opera: its history, its backstage drama, the composers’ lives but I don’t appreciate sitting through performances. The solution is to attend recitals and master classes. Last week I attended two sessions of a Joyce DiDonato Master Class at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Room. The room was electric with anticipation. Promptly at 4 p.m. each day Joyce DiDonato soared into the studio. She’s about 5’ 2” and packed with energy. The four gifted, brave participants sat in the front row of the 100 seated room. Maestra DiDonato had already worked for one day with Suzannah Waddington, soprano, Sophia Fiuza Hunt, mezzo-Soprano, Raphaella Medina, mezzo-Soprano and Haô Ting, tenor. The singers were accompanied by Justina Lee and Djordje Nesic. DiDonato referred to the Weill Music Room as a safe playground for magic to happen. She is bubbly, engaging and deadly serious about music. Some of her remarks were: Technique, discipline and desire. Talk to us. Show us who you are. If something is 99% true, it’s false. It has to be 100%.

To loosen up tenor Haô Ting she had him take off his jacket and shoes and sing while doing push ups. She told the four singers to get off the hamster wheel by traveling for three months. During that time, not to sing. Instead, learn a foreign language well, eat the food, sit in cafes, imbibe the culture. When you return, after two weeks of warm ups, your voice will be better than ever.

Joyce DiDonato is a musical activist who exhorted us, her mesmerized audience, to make it an active part of our lives.You can see this dynamo in action on YouTube.

Weill Music Room
Weill Music Room

Off to the Green Party in Thompkins Square Park. Isn’t democracy dangerous?