Some video clips from last Wednesday’s gun owners meeting in Putnam.
Go away already
The thoroughly detestable Carolyn McCarthy is retiring from Congress in a few weeks. She has lung cancer which she blames on alleged asbestos exposure and not the 40 years of smoking like a chimney.
There’s no good times to remember with her so here is her (hopefully) last message on gun control:
AD-116 race over
Addendum to my Nov. 5 post: After hand counting the ballots incumbent Addie Russel has defeated challenger John Byrne in the AD-116 race. Had there not been a 3rd party spoiler in the race we would have been rid of another SAFE voter.
Cuomo’s second term
Some thoughts by George Marlin on Governor Cuomo’s second term:
“… The next four years will not be happy ones for our governor. Vengeful Democrats, led by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and labor union bosses, will be plotting comebacks and counting the days until the Cuomo era ends. Republicans will strive to build on their gains and will block Cuomo’s leftist agenda at every turn …”
A prominent elected Democrat (who I will not name, but is from the Capitol region) made a statement to other party people along the lines of Cuomo is too powerful to challenge now, but when he falls the knives will come out. Andrew screwed a lot of Democrats over this past election and is nowhere near in the same position as he was four years ago.
As for Republican’s blocking his agenda, I would not put a lot of faith into that. They still lack leadership and want to preserve their unholy alliance with Jeff Klein.
“… There are two things you can bank on. First, there will be no third term for Cuomo, who is smart enough to know that in his weakened position, he’ll face a serious primary challenger in 2018. He also knows, from his father’s experiences, that third terms are not fun …”
This is the same impression I got from one of Cuomo’s post-election interviews. There was a finality to the way he was talking and a seeming realization that a ’16 presidential run was out.
“… Second, Cuomo will devote most of his time to settling scores. He’s a man who never forgets or forgives a slight. He mastered the role of hatchet man during daddy Mario’s 12 years in office, and doesn’t fear utilizing those skills …”
No argument here, but I suspect it will be a lot more the other way around with Cuomo’s enemies settling scores with him.
Not likely
“Flipped-flopped control in the state Senate during recent years sent upstate New York on a bad path, State Sen. Catharine Young, R-Olean, told the Allegany County Board of Legislators earlier this week. She added the recent elections results will lead to positive changes for the area now that the Republicans have regained a majority … Ms. Young said the state Senate will also re-examine the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (S.A.F.E.) Act, a gun control law which the Allegany County Board of Legislators opposed earlier this year. Republicans already negotiated some of the terms presented in the initial S.A.F.E. Act, the senator said, and the current law would have featured more restrictions in it — pistol permit renewal every two years instead of every five years — had the Republicans not won the majority of the seats during this year’s election …”
Bullshit. The reason SAFE was voted on in the first place was because the Republicans wanted it to be voted on. The agreement Dean Skelos had with Jeff Klein was that either of them could have blocked any bill from coming to the floor. Skelos didn’t do that. So now Young is saying Skelos & Co. is going to change the very law that they wanted instituted in the first place? Yeah, right.
More on the election fix
I knew eventually more details would come out:
“… In September 2013, more than a year before Cuomo was up for reelection, Tishman Speyer President and Co-CEO Rob Speyer summoned a select group to discuss the 2014 election: State Republican Chairman Ed Cox, Republican Senate Conference Leader Dean Skelos, then–state GOP Executive Director Michael Lawler and Republican Senate Counsel Robert Mujica … The governor had asked him to call this meeting, Speyer explained, because like them, Cuomo wanted to keep the State Senate in Republican hands. If the party ran a candidate who could potentially beat Cuomo in 2014, however, the governor would spend $40 million to defeat that candidate and Senate Republicans. Skelos responded first: The person they were considering was Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, he said. At this point, Astorino had not yet won re-election in Westchester. “Well, that is the one candidate you can’t run,” said Speyer … After a heated back-and-forth, the meeting ended with no agreement …”
That means the agreement came later after more was put on the table.
Finger off the trigger
The accidental shooting in a NYC hosing project can be attributed in no small part to poor firearms handling skills:
“… “The strong assumption is that [Liang] had his finger on the trigger” as he and Landau, who did not draw his weapon, conducted a “vertical patrol” of the stairwell, according to a law-enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation. “When you keep your finger on the trigger, it’s a lot more likely that you will fire accidentally if you are startled or frightened.” … Police Commissioner Bill Bratton conceded Friday that rookies shouldn’t be paired up for dangerous housing-project patrols. But neither of these issues was as cataclysmic as Liang’s apparent decision to keep his left index finger on the trigger of his 9mm Glock as he descended the pitch-black stairwell of one of the city’s most notorious projects, NYPD veterans and critics agree. “No one can tell a cop not to draw his weapon, but the one thing they do tell you is not to put your finger on the trigger unless you are firing. Otherwise, if you’re startled, there can be a grasping response,” the source said …”
What makes this less tragic and more infuriating is that it highlights the fact that the NYPD has known for decades that many officers lack even the most basic skills to handle firearms safely. That’s why they came up with the “New York” and “New York Plus” triggers for Glocks 20-something years ago. This is something city officials have turned a blind eye to for years. Unless, of course, they thought they could get some political mileage out of it. Speaking of which:
“… “I don’t believe he should return to law-enforcement capacity,” said Borough President Eric Adams, a former cop …”
Here’s a video Adams made a few years ago while in the State Senate. Jump to the 4:05 mark. He’s got his finger on the trigger while pointing the gun at his chest.
The status quo
The legislators voted to keep the same “leadership” in place for the 2015-16 session, including the shifty GOP-IDC deal in the Senate.
The status quo is assured for another two years.
Cash is king
The real reason the Republicans endorsed Governor Cuomo can be found in this article by Capital New York:
“Governor Andrew Cuomo’s top donors contributed six times as much to help elect Republicans to the State Senate as they did to similar efforts to help Democrats, a Capital New York analysis shows … The analysis by Capital shows Cuomo’s network of wealthy donors actively contributed to keep Republicans in power in the Senate. Many of those donors have long given to Republican candidates, but the analysis shows Cuomo’s top donors gave an increasing percentage of their contributions to Republicans, even after the governor promised to help his party recapture the Senate …”
God bless Tammany Hall.
Dissention in the ranks
A handful of Assembly Republicans think their conference should actually have principles and stand for something. Repealing the SAFE Act is mentioned.