Sunday, July 28, 2013
Sex and the City
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Sex and the City
In a recent Shouts and Murmurs page, the department of The New Yorker magazine devoted to take-no-prisoners sarcastic tales and unloading about contemporary people of fame, we were treated to three morality stories, called Bloomberg's Fables. First, about a thirsty mouse who fatally tapped a sixty-eight ounce soda bottle, with a horrifying moral conclusion, threatening horrible death for anyone engaging in such excesses? Then, about a builder named Ratner who saved a raccoon's life by boldly removing a glass shard from the potentially bacteria ridden animal's paw. The moral was not to underestimate the kindness of billionaire magnates who make our city great. What touched me most was the third tale, about the famous large hawk living on the ledge of a Fifth Avenue coop building, who had trouble catching pigeons, until he gathered them and offered his leadership in protecting them from other predators. Thereafter he could catch the gullible foolish birds at will, and eat them, feathers and all. The moral here was twofold, not to elect potential tyrants, and to rescind the term-limit restriction once more, giving the Mayor a chance for four more years of rule.
This, an imagined wish for four more years of Bloomberg becomes almost real for some New Yorkers, looking at the several sorry and disgraceful candidates who want to represent New York City, the pride of the US and the financial capital of the world. Ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner, who resigned two years ago after discoveries of sexual exhibitionism, almost had a t distinct majority of Democrats , at 52% topping the next ranking Mayoral candidate, Speaker of the City Council Christine Quinn, at 20%, and leaving Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, former City Treasurer Bill Thomson and the invisible George McDonald in low numbers. Now after a disclosure of some 10 more sex incidents, Weiner is down to 16%, and Quinn leads at 25%; nevertheless, he intends to continue running, armored with his poor wife Hana Abedin's forgivance, despite the pols' and news media asking, almost begging him to quit. Another, City Comptroller John Liu has faded from the Mayoral candidates list in the pollster ratings, with the Feds investigating fundraising irregularities, for which his young woman campaign treasurer was arrested. Similarly, Democratic NYS Senate leader Malcolm Smith is in trouble for allegedly bribing NYC GOP leaders to be designated a Republican Mayoral candidate, expecting to make mincemeat of the legitimate ones, Joseph Lhota and supermarket magnate. John Catsimatidis . In that context, an interesting Rep candidate would be Jamie Dimond aka Jimmy Diamond, CEO of JPMorganChase, but he has enough trebles of his own, and needs no ego graft, having been offered and rejecting the Secretary of Treasury post in the Obama cabinet.,
That's all for Mayoralty; there's another rehabilitated sex case asking for pardon, ex-Governor Eliot Spitzer who resigned in 2009, after having found to be a regular patron in a bordello, and taking a paid prostitute to out of town government conferences and meetings. A last minute candidate for Comptroller, with his populist reputation of the Sheriff of Wall Street and a huge personal fortune spent in petitioning and advertising, he easily outscores the regular, Manhattan BP Scott Stringer. Yet one more, Brooklyn Dem leader, Assemblyman Vito Lopez, age 72 (nicknamed Gropez), forced to resign by the Ethics Committee, will run for a safe set in City Counsel. How’s that for sticking it in your eye, New York!
Why are we New Yorkers gifted with such a surfeit of misbehaving politicians? Well, blame it on history. New York City always attracted the best and the brightest, generous givers and greedy takers, and also the most daring and adventurous men and women, from all over the US if not the world. NYS legislature has always been subject to manipulators and there may be at times as many as a small handful of elected lawmakers in jail and another such number under state and federal investigation, Democrats as well as Republicans. Right now, remember the Tres Amigos around Pedro Espada. Jr. and the leaders implicated by Malcolm Smith. For starters we had land grant weaseling soon after Henry Hudson sighted shore, with both Dutch and English settlers, then Boss Tweed and “ honest and dishonest graft,” as defined by the fictional Plunket of Tammany Hall; more recent graft has been checked by the frequently revived Moreland Commission, As for discovering politicians’ sexual peccadilloes,, your main hounddogs seem to be the super market print media news trackers.
Wally Dobelis thanks The New Yorker and Jim Windolf,. The NYTimes and local media,
Sex and the City
In a recent Shouts and Murmurs page, the department of The New Yorker magazine devoted to take-no-prisoners sarcastic tales and unloading about contemporary people of fame, we were treated to three morality stories, called Bloomberg's Fables. First, about a thirsty mouse who fatally tapped a sixty-eight ounce soda bottle, with a horrifying moral conclusion, threatening horrible death for anyone engaging in such excesses? Then, about a builder named Ratner who saved a raccoon's life by boldly removing a glass shard from the potentially bacteria ridden animal's paw. The moral was not to underestimate the kindness of billionaire magnates who make our city great. What touched me most was the third tale, about the famous large hawk living on the ledge of a Fifth Avenue coop building, who had trouble catching pigeons, until he gathered them and offered his leadership in protecting them from other predators. Thereafter he could catch the gullible foolish birds at will, and eat them, feathers and all. The moral here was twofold, not to elect potential tyrants, and to rescind the term-limit restriction once more, giving the Mayor a chance for four more years of rule.
This, an imagined wish for four more years of Bloomberg becomes almost real for some New Yorkers, looking at the several sorry and disgraceful candidates who want to represent New York City, the pride of the US and the financial capital of the world. Ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner, who resigned two years ago after discoveries of sexual exhibitionism, almost had a t distinct majority of Democrats , at 52% topping the next ranking Mayoral candidate, Speaker of the City Council Christine Quinn, at 20%, and leaving Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, former City Treasurer Bill Thomson and the invisible George McDonald in low numbers. Now after a disclosure of some 10 more sex incidents, Weiner is down to 16%, and Quinn leads at 25%; nevertheless, he intends to continue running, armored with his poor wife Hana Abedin's forgivance, despite the pols' and news media asking, almost begging him to quit. Another, City Comptroller John Liu has faded from the Mayoral candidates list in the pollster ratings, with the Feds investigating fundraising irregularities, for which his young woman campaign treasurer was arrested. Similarly, Democratic NYS Senate leader Malcolm Smith is in trouble for allegedly bribing NYC GOP leaders to be designated a Republican Mayoral candidate, expecting to make mincemeat of the legitimate ones, Joseph Lhota and supermarket magnate. John Catsimatidis . In that context, an interesting Rep candidate would be Jamie Dimond aka Jimmy Diamond, CEO of JPMorganChase, but he has enough trebles of his own, and needs no ego graft, having been offered and rejecting the Secretary of Treasury post in the Obama cabinet.,
That's all for Mayoralty; there's another rehabilitated sex case asking for pardon, ex-Governor Eliot Spitzer who resigned in 2009, after having found to be a regular patron in a bordello, and taking a paid prostitute to out of town government conferences and meetings. A last minute candidate for Comptroller, with his populist reputation of the Sheriff of Wall Street and a huge personal fortune spent in petitioning and advertising, he easily outscores the regular, Manhattan BP Scott Stringer. Yet one more, Brooklyn Dem leader, Assemblyman Vito Lopez, age 72 (nicknamed Gropez), forced to resign by the Ethics Committee, will run for a safe set in City Counsel. How’s that for sticking it in your eye, New York!
Why are we New Yorkers gifted with such a surfeit of misbehaving politicians? Well, blame it on history. New York City always attracted the best and the brightest, generous givers and greedy takers, and also the most daring and adventurous men and women, from all over the US if not the world. NYS legislature has always been subject to manipulators and there may be at times as many as a small handful of elected lawmakers in jail and another such number under state and federal investigation, Democrats as well as Republicans. Right now, remember the Tres Amigos around Pedro Espada. Jr. and the leaders implicated by Malcolm Smith. For starters we had land grant weaseling soon after Henry Hudson sighted shore, with both Dutch and English settlers, then Boss Tweed and “ honest and dishonest graft,” as defined by the fictional Plunket of Tammany Hall; more recent graft has been checked by the frequently revived Moreland Commission, As for discovering politicians’ sexual peccadilloes,, your main hounddogs seem to be the super market print media news trackers.
Wally Dobelis thanks The New Yorker and Jim Windolf,. The NYTimes and local media,
Labels: Anthony Weiner, automobile destroyed, Bill de Blasio, Bloomberg, Bloomberg'sFables, Carlos Danger, Christine Quinn, John Liu, Ratner
