Bill de Blasio's two terms as Mayor of New York City have shown a
certain consistency. A very fast-talking con man (he can talk his way
around even the most pointed question that nails him dead to rights- for
examples, listen to his weekly appearances on a certain radio program [1]),
de Blasio's modus operandi is to gaslight people with grandiose
"liberal" rhetoric while instituting reactionary policies behind
people's backs. In this, he is in the mold of the Democratic Party's
poohbah's, Obama and The Two Clintons. Indeed, de Blasio comes from the
Clinton's machine, having managed Hillary Clinton's first campaign for
U.S. Senate from New York State. If anything, Bill de Blasio is Bill
Clinton on steroids, a guy who talks faster and is more disingenuous. An
expert sophist, de Blasio manages to rationalize away any damning
evidence against him.
Another consistency: he mostly did the
opposite of what he promised to do as a candidate (and what he
continually claims to be doing). His positive accomplishments are mainly
one: pre-K school for children. Give him credit for that, and that's
pretty much it. Otherwise it's betrayals and attacks on people's
well-being.
Perhaps his most egregious crime has been his
full-throated defense of police brutality. The city police (NYPD)
brutally assaulted for months on end the protesters who took to the
streets in the wake of the graphic murder of George Floyd by four
Minneapolis, Minnesota police. De Blasio consistently vilified the
victims of NYPD violence.
Now what is this Excellent Public Relations Adventure of which I spoke in the title? First this introduction to the theme.
One
de Blasio scam was baiting people to get COVID vaccines by offering a
$100 "incentive." Only they don't pay up. To illustrate the point, I
could relate one person's attempt to get paid, an exercise in utter
futility, but that story is too lengthy for this essay. Just briefly,
the contractor that is supposed to pay, an outfit called "akimbo,"
doesn't mail the debit cards, doesn't respond to emails, and is
unreachable by phone. City employees for their part put people on a
runaround treadmill and tell the victims to inform "akimbo." To add
injury to injury, "akimbo" makes extra money selling the emails of the
vaccinated to spammers. Immediately after getting vaccinated, the
vaccine-related spam starts arriving- the $100 debit card never does.
I
have a suspicion that de Blasio never had any intention of paying
people. At the least, he doesn't care. He just wants to be able to
boast about how he got people to submit to vaccination.
Now, de Blasio's Excellent PR Adventure:
He pulled a similar stunt to the "vaccine incentive" trick the first
week of December, when he announced- informing nobody in advance, and
consulting with no one, according to the New York Times- that henceforth
businesses would be required to insist that their employees be
vaccinated. And that everyone, even children as young as five, would
have to be vaccinated if they wanted to eat in a restaurant or enter any
other public place. All 184,000 New York City businesses were now under
Mayoral orders to REQUIRE all their employees to be vaccinated for the
new coronavirus, and to screen all people entering their premises for
COVID vaccination status. No exceptions, and no option to be tested for
infection in lieu of vaccination.
The fact that there was no plan
for any of this, and that he never even discussed it with city officials
before announcing it, gives the game away. It's not real, but typical
de Blasio smoke and mirrors.
Self-styled caudillo de Blasio's edict nominally takes effect December 27. De Blasio will stop being mayor on January 1st, 5 whole days later.
His successor has been coy on whether he will enforce the decree of his
predecessor. Even though there is no mechanism to enforce this imperial
ukase, media in New York City has given a platform to the frenzied
overreactions of a few selected individuals from "the business
community." Thus adding to the illusion that de Blasio actually DID
something, as opposed to ANNOUNCING something. ANNOUNCING things that
never actually happen has been a hallmark of de Blasio's mayoralty. He's
very big on making Grand Announcements, such as there will be "zero
traffic fatalities" in New York City, and how he'll build- indeed IS
building, "affordable housing," a phrase he must have uttered hundreds
of times.
De Blasio has reaped national media attention for
several days running so far for his latest stunt. He even got some
international media coverage, for example by the BBC, the main global
propaganda arm of the British government. That is the payoff.
But
what is the point? Is de Blasio merely a political exhibitionist? Does
he have an insatiable need for attention because of a swollen ego?
Actually he's running for Governor of New York State (state
capital is the city of Albany, a nothingburg far to the north). He's
been term-limited out of the Mayoralty of New York City because of a law
passed by the city's voters in a referendum, a law that a previous
Mayor, Michael Bloomberg Billionaire, ignored and illegally ran for a
third term, which he won. His opposition includes the current Governor,
Kathy Hochul, who inherited the seat after Governor Andrew "The
Molester" Cuomo was forced out and his mousy lieutenant governor, Ms.
Hochul, was automatically elevated to the top job. Also vying to grab
the top political rung in the state was state attorney general Letitia
James, until she announced on December 9th she was quitting. On the same
day, Hochul publicly endorsed James' reelection for state AG,
indicating prearrangement between the two. Long Island Congressman Tom
Suozzi is also running. (Another announced candidate for Governor in the
2022 election is Jumaane Williams, who was just elected last month as
New York City Public Advocate. Ambitious, no?) These are all Democrats
competing in the upcoming June Democratic Primary. [2]
Cuomo
was finally exposed as a compulsive molester, and for his role in
causing the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents and
covering it up. Those things, along with the media finally reporting
what they knew for years, that Cuomo is a rage-filled, abusive bully,
finally pried his fingers from the levers of power.
De Blasio is
deeply unpopular in New York City, with 8 million people has almost half
the state's population. Outside of the City, the state is quite
reactionary, so de Blasio will have to jettison his fake-liberal outer
garb. His opponents will try to keep him from getting away with it. But
de Blasio is probably thinking back to how he won the city mayoralty.
Low in the polls, he ran in a crowded field, which enabled him to emerge
on top.
And de Blasio has "raised his profile" with his latest high-handed "mandate."
If
de Blasio were somehow to climb up the next rung of the political
ladder, he only good thing would be Andrew Cuomo damaging his teeth by
gnashing them. Cuomo as Governor had a hobby of making de Blasio's life
miserable. It appeared he did it just for sport, as a cat tortures a
captive mouse. What poetic justice that would be for the venal,
execrable Cuomo!
My latest scam is working like a charm! Albany Governor's Mansion, Here I Come!
1]
For years, de Blasio has been hosted every Friday for an hour on "The
Brian Lehrer Show" on "public" radio station WNYC, in New York City.
WNYC.org. Brian Lehrer, a classic dweeb, always lets the Flim-Flam Man
get away with his evasions. Callers who call in to complain about being
screwed by the de Blasio regime would be parried with some
Clintonian-like "I feel your pain" verbal jujitsu. No matter what he
did, nothing could ever be de Blasio's fault.
De
Blasio is more slippery than a greased eel and can seemingly fast-talk
his way out of anything. While Trump could shoot someone dead on Fifth
Avenue in broad daylight and not lose any support, as he boasted, de
Blasio could do it and talk his way out of it with a gusher of verbiage.
2]
Letitia James gave as a reason to remaining in theattorney general spot
ongoing important cases. These cases are a civil suit against the crook
Donald Trump, who inflates the value of his assets to get bank loans,
and deflates them on his tax returns. She is also working to strip the
National Rifle Association of its registration as a charity in New York
State, stemming from the major corruption by its top officials who have
used millions of NRA funds for personal expenditures. The NRA tried to
evade liability by filing a frivolous bankruptcy claim, which the courts
rejected.