Why are Jessica Scarcella-Spanton and Ari Kagan still working together like they are in the same political party and have similar positions on key issues

 
This is a little odd, but it seems that North Shore Staten Island and Graves End-Coney Island Democrat State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton might not have gotten the word that Ari Kagan is no longer the Democrat City Councilman representing the part of Brooklyn that is within her state senate district.....

How else might one explain how she seems to be co-sponsoring events with Ari Kagan ???

One would expect that their differences on key issues, now that Kagan says he is a Republican, would preclude any practical cooperation on any legislative agenda ---  and, especially now that Councilman Justin Brannan is overwhelming better able to work on things for State Senator Scarcella-Spanton in the NYC Council, the new state senator's poking at him might not be the smartest move 

Contrariwise, Republicans like Joseph Tirone would seem to be more than a little put out by his recently converted co-partisan Ari  ---  because Tirone was only very narrowly defeated by J S-S in the 2022 election just past  ---  and the highly competitive make up of the Staten Island-Brooklyn state senate district would make any strong evidence of Jessica's bi-partisanship with a Republican City Councilman like Ari would make her much tougher to beat in 2024

So, the way things stand, Jessoca Scarcella-Spanton doing any common events with Ari Kagan, and vice versa, would appear to be problematic for both, from the POVs of others in their respective parties. At very least, Ari and Jessica should have some splainin' to do around their respective Republican and Democrat campfires, about their being together lately, and whether that means some coochee-coochee is going on with somebody on the other side.

Is the Brooklyn GOP actually going to try to go out in this strange weather --- and petition among real Republicans with Ari Kagan's name on the tops of their petition sheets --- and as their posterboy ???

 

Now, that seems like Ted Ghorra's best plan yet.....

What could possibly go wrong  ?????

Wait a minute  ---  let's put Liam McCabe into the mix near the top of the chain of command  ---  now it's perfect  ---  nothing could possibly go wrong.....  

But who knows  ---  Ari Kagan just might be the wrong man at the right time  

Then again.....    Does anybody know what tomorrow might bring  ---  !!!  ???

In the 2023 election cycle and campaign season, this is when the rubber meets the road.  So far, we have seen what the candidates, and their "prom dates" of supporters, consultants, party-hack insiders, and other assorted back-slappers and name-droppers have said  ---  now it's time to see what they will do.....

PETITIONING STARTS IN LESS THAN A WEEK.....

The Ari Kagan party switcheroo from Democrat District Leader and City Councilman to Republican City Council candidate is a very interesting "wild card."  ---   His decision to run against Justin Brannan as a "Republican" is very problematic for the current leadership of the Brooklyn GOP, who seems to be ready willing and able to play the game with this joker in its deck.

Several members of the Man in the Iron Wig  --- Ted Ghorra's ---  current leadership team still don't like Kagan at all; and several other Brooklyn GOP folks, who aren't current leadership team players, see this as a good lever to pry away the chairmanship from Mr. G.....  

Well, let's see exactly who has the wherewithal to get an army of their ants to go out there with clip boards, pens, lists, properly formatted petitions, and comfortable shoes to do what is called for in times like these  ---  gather valid petitions with enough signatures to qualify for whatever party or public office is their real target in 2023.  Ah ! Good times !!!  Good times !!!!!

So, let's all get non-binary and sing a Broadway tune together as we go out there with clip boards and pens, and pieces of paper with all of our favorite friends' names on them in hand:

The best of times is now.
What's left of Summer
But a faded rose?
The best of times is now.
As for tomorrow,
Well, who knows? Who knows? Who knows?
So hold this moment fast,
And live and love
As hard as you know how.
And make this moment last
Because the best of times is now,
Is now, is now.
Now, not some forgotten yesterday.
Now, tomorrow is too far away.
So hold this moment fast,
And live and love
As hard as you know how.
And make this moment last,
Because the best of times is now, is now.
So hold this moment fast,
And live and love
As hard as you know how.
And make this moment last,
Because the best of times is now,
Is now, is now
Is now, is NOW!

Claims like those of Donald Trump and the January 6th protesters that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulently influenced --- and that the January 6th 2021 Certification of Biden & Harris by Congress was not properly conducted are again being put before the U.S. Supreme Court

The SCOTUS is about to reconsider an application to hear a lawsuit naming  President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and naming and alleging that former Vice President Mike Pence, 291 House members, and 94 senators violated their oaths of office by refusing to investigate evidence of fraud in the 2020 election before certifying Biden as the victor on Jan. 6, 2021, thus allowing for Biden and Harris to be "fraudulently" inaugurated as President and Vice President..... 

Chances of any success by the moving petitioner to have the matter reconsidered are quite remote ---  this particular litigation has gotten no traction whatsoever at the U.S. Supreme Court, the Federal Court of Appeals, the Federal District Court, and in the state courts in Utah

The named plaintiff in the case is Raland J. Brunson, and among other relief, he is seeking the removal from office of those who committed breaches of their duty by failing to investigate open disputes prior to certifying the vote of Presidential Electors on January 6, 2021   --  questions related to the selection of electors prior to January 6, 2021, and a variety of alleged fraudulent acts and conduct by many prior to and during the 2020 presidential election.

Last month the Court had declined to hear the case, but Brunson  filed a petition for reconsideration  ---  and the Supreme Court has scheduled a private conference for a review of that petition. Four of the nine justices must vote in favor of granting the petition to review for any additional briefs or hearings to be scheduled.

Part of the factual claims presented to the High Court is that a total of 147 Republican Members of Congress had objected to the certification of the election results favoring Biden and Harris,  after several Senators and Congressmen had requested and were refused an "emergency audit" of the 2020 presidential  election results for several disputed states.

Abandonment of their top issue against Brannan --- Are the Republicans really endorsing a "Defund the Police" candidate like former Democrat Ari Kagan to run as THEIR candidate for City Councilman for the 47th Council District ???

 

In spite of open grumbling by some leaders and activists in the Brooklyn GOP  >>>  it looks like most of the top guys in the Brooklyn Republican Party have decided to back the incumbent 47th City Council District representative Ari Kagan  ---  as their best shot to beat Councilman Justin Brannan in 2023 

However, in order to back Kagan's run against Brannan, Republicans like Brian Fox, Liam McCabe and their ilk will have to abandon their favorite line against Brannan  >>>    because their new man Kagan ran and won that 47th Council District seat just two short years ago as a strong Democrat advocate for and defender of the 2021 "defund the police" budget.....

As a matter of fact, several of today's top Brooklyn Republicans openly confronted Kagan about that during Kagan's 2021 campaign to take over the council seat being vacated by Kagan's boss, Mark Treyger  >>>  who openly, even proudly, touted his part in crafting that 2021 "defund the police" budget  ---  especially his hand in diverting a very large tranche of 2020 and earlier NYPD-budgeted funding to the city's 2021 budget for the NYC Board of Education 

For his own part on that particular issue in the 2021 campaign, Kagan strongly defended his work with Treyger as his top staffer  ---  including sharing credit for the 2021 diversion of NYPD funds to the Education Department 

One has to wonder how Republicans like Mark Szuskiewicz and Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny and other key 46th AD and 47th Council District Republicans will be able to back Ari Kagan's run for the City Council in 2023 when they pounded Kagan so hard on issues like >>> defunding the police <<<  just two short years ago during Kagan's first run for the 47th AD Council seat as the Democrat nominee.

But we suppose that is no stranger than the complete volte-face of the biggest grifters at the top of the Brooklyn GOP right now, Liam McCabe and Brian Fox.  In 2021, they were saying that Justin Brannan's support of the 2021 NYC budget, with some decreased funding for the NYPD,  was disqualifying for Brannan's continuing on the NYC Council, but now in 2023 it isn't disqualifying for their man Ari Kagan, who probably had a bigger hand in crafting those portions of the 2021 budget that actually "defunded" big parts of the NYPD 2021 budget  ---  and who, both as a candidate in 2021 and a top Treyger staffer during the 2021 budget process  ---  openly supported Mark Treyger's work on that budget, the diversion of NYPD funds to the Board of Ed.,  and his Council vote for the 2021 budget in 2020.

As a reminder to some Republicans who might not have been watching Kagan during his  2021 campaign for the City Council in the 47th Council District  ---  a "REPUBLICAN" made this statement at the time  >>>  "...  thoughts on 'Brook-Krasny Asks Ari Kagan To Stop Lying'...   Anyone who is endorsed by Mark Treyger is not worth saying good morning to. Mr. Treyger voted to defund the New York City Police of one billion dollars then had the gall to post his smiling face on Facebook showing how delighted he was in his stupidity....  I am a registered Republican... my vote goes to Alex Brook-Krasny...." 

  

, 

The Brooklyn take on a dog that didn't bark up in Albany --- "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown...."

For some, the life and legend of Brooklyn Democrat Assemblyman Peter Abbate is already part of campfire stories about what used to be "Once upon a time in a kingdom by the sea..."  

However, maybe in this case, life after political death might mean a process of eternal death with a lingering life of its own   

There isn't anybody named "Mulwray" in this telling of a fireside tale, and certainly no "She's my sister, she's my daughter..." ickiness  ---  but there is a local "Chinatown" connection, an old warhorse still remembered all around the state, even a former cop with his nose well into it pursuing his second career  ---  and of course, lots of fresh water under the bridge 

They say that there are no second acts in politics.  For many in the Brooklyn GOP, that is the fervent hope and prayer for many of those in-on the grift and graft associated with that "Great White Hope" of the Brooklyn GOP  ---  Assemblyman Lester Chang  >>>  because they don't want to have to deal with Peter Abbate ever again, especially in the same way that Marty Golden and Jerry Kassar had to for about three decades,  and folks like John Quaglione, Georgia K and RR had to for a long time, but somewhat less than three decades.

Last night an article came out that was supposed to be all about sex, drugs and rock & roll with a big time Albany insider twist involving Peter Abbate and his former top aide. Instead, upon a quick read, it looked like all sizzle and no steak. However, what goes for books and their covers, applies to political articles as well; and this one is no exception.

This tale started like this:  "In 2020, Joseph P. Brady, the legislative director for then Brooklyn Assemblyman Peter Abbate Jr., was arrested for felony sex abuse after an 18-year-old woman accused him of drugging and raping her at his home in Watervliet, N.Y., a small town near Albany....  Brady’s arrest sparked widespread media attention because of a subsequent investigation by the Albany-based Times Union exposing the top aide to a powerful elected official’s double life as a leader of a violent motorcycle gang....  But last December, more than two years later, Brady’s felony charge was dismissed, and authorities have been silent about why...."  (See: "Ex-Albany Aide With Biker Gang Ties Escapes Felony Sex Abuse Charge -- Joseph Brady, legislative director for former Brooklyn Assemblymember Peter Abbate, still faces multiple misdemeanor counts in alleged upstate assault" by George Joseph. 2/13/2023, The City    [https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/2/13/23598691/joseph-brady-peter-abbate-felony-sex-abuse-biker-gangs-grand-jury]).

But the important part of that article for us here in Brooklyn is this:

"....   'Did He Flip?’...  In a phone call, Abbate, an influential former Democratic lawmaker who lost his Assembly seat last year after more than three decades of service, said that he had not heard from Brady since his arrest, but added that the charge reduction raised questions about whether his former aide was cooperating with authorities in a larger investigation related to biker violence....  'Did he flip?...' asked Abbate, a lifelong resident of Bensonhurst and the longtime head of the Assembly’s Committee on Government Employees....  'My thought was, since he never called me or anything, that they threw the book at him, just so he would talk,' he continued...."

Something is very NOT RIGHT sounding in what that part of the article says, especially what Abbate is quoted as saying.....  There is so much more that Brady could talk (or could have talked) about other than "biker violence".....

The reporter/author, George Joseph, also noted that  "....  The Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to requests for comment about whether Brady was cooperating with law enforcement. In an email, Stephanie O’Neil, a spokesperson for the New York State Police, said it could not comment on questions about the charge modification...."  

As in every other article written about this Joseph Brady case, there is something there  ---  but there are always lots of questions left unanswered.  Read this latest one [cited above], and see what you think. Real oldtimers might well descibe it as a real "hogan's goat" of a story.

[[[  FYI  ---  Faye Dunaway, who played Evelyn Mulwray in the Roman Polanski, Robert Towne movie "Chinatown" got her start as a "star" in "Hogan's Goat," a play by William Alfred about family secrets and Brooklyn politics.....]]]

Did high officials in the Biden Administration violate the "Espionage Act" and endanger "National Security" in an attempt to get political cover for President Biden's mishandling of the Chi-Coms spy balloon

 

The release of information about UNDETECTED prior incursions of U.S. airspace by PRC balloons confirmed prior deficiencies in our aero-space detection systems  --- AND --- additional information that the U.S. had learned about those incursions by OTHER INTELLIGENCE SOURCES compromised our intelligence practices, methods, and sources..... 

During an interview aired on Friday, Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo presented Tennnessee Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, who said that he was stunned that a senior Pentagon official disclosed  there had been Chinese spy balloon overflights during the Trump administration. 

According to Senator Hagerty  >>>  doing so dangerously revealed a lack of U.S. capability that had led to those flights going undetected.  He added that an attempt to deflect blame from the Biden administration’s handling of the recent Chi-Com spy balloon's transit across the U.S.A., and over several sensitive strategic bases “for political purposes,” demonstrated Biden Administration weaknesses, and its tendency just to look at politics, to make excuses, and to attempt deflection when confronted with its failures.

These were Haggerty's words to Bartiromo  >>>   "....  I’ll tell you what else shocked me, Maria, to hear this Pentagon — ‘a senior official’ from the Pentagon, an unnamed official, coming out and trying to deflect blame, to say that this had happened in the Trump administration. Again, if it did happen, it went undetected. This is seriously classified information. It reveals a lack of capability that should have never been used in that manner. Using classified information in that manner for political purposes, again, reflects this administration’s weakness and their tendency just to look to political excuses and to deflection."

BOMBSHELL --- Top investigative journalist accuses Predident Biden of ordering U.S. Naval assets to engage in a potential >>> Act of War <<< against Russia --- and even some of our own NATO allies

 

Charges were placed on Nord Stream pipelines by specialized deep water U.S. Navy Salvage Divers earlier in the Russia-Ukraine War  ---  then months later they were activated to destroy the profitable natural gas link

Planning had actually begun during the run-up to Russia's attack on Ukraine ---   at that time, Biden and other top "deep state" officials saw the original operation as a strategic necessity to possibly eliminate that source of Russian revenue from --- and influence over ---  Germany and other NATO nations in the event of war

Seymour Hersh, a well-respected Pulitzer-winning senior reporter has written that last June while operating under the cover of a "widely publicized" NATO exercise called BALTOPS22  >>> U.S. Navy divers "planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipes".....

According to the Hirsh report,  "Biden's decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington's national security community about how to best achieve that goal. For much of that time, the issue was not whether to do the mission, but how to get it done with no overt clue as to who was responsible."  

The Hersh article stated that  the confirmation of the facts came from "a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning."  And according to Seymour Hersh's reporting  >>>  it was a team from the U.S. Navy's Diving and Salvage Center in Panama City, Florida, that actually did the job on the Nordstream pipelines.

The Hersh report has been picked up and put on much of the media around the world, including major news services, however the U.S. media has largely been mum.  

According to Reuters, which has carried the Hersh report:  

"The White House on Wednesday dismissed a blog post by a U.S. investigative journalist alleging the United States was behind explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines as 'utterly false and complete fiction.'...  Reuters has not corroborated the report, published by U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, which said an attack was carried out last September at the direction of President Joe Biden....  'This is utterly false and complete fiction,' said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council. Spokespeople for the CIA and State Department said the same...."

Ari Kagan thinks that picking a fight over the discriminatory fines in the destructive green agenda Local Law 97 will help defeat Brannan in November

 

Kagan says that he wants to hold back discriminatory fines that only target certain privately owned residences for failing to meet carbon/energy targets

Kagan has thrown his personal support  behind Queens Republican Vicki Paladino's recently announced plan to introduce legislation in the New York City Council  [[[ the Paladino-Kagan proposal would delay for seven years the implementation of those parts of Local Law 97 that would fine certain "owners" who failed to reach targets in reducing greenhouse gas emissions ]]]  

Kagan is already stumping in co-ops and condos in the 47th Council District on this issue  ---  and look for targeted mailings and robo-calls to various co-op and condo residents throughout the 47th Council District

This is just the start of these kinds of media moves by Councilman Kagan in his push back against the discriminatory Local Law 97 residential fines:   

"Ari Kagan...   Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 11:28 PM...   'I am very grateful to Councilwoman Vickie Paladino for pushing this bill,'  Councilman Kagan said. 'My hope is as many colleagues as possible, Democrats & Republicans, will sponsor this legislation. It’s not about [being] against the environment. I am for New York City.'...”  [[[ w. link to article in local paper that says this: "....  The steep fines will be financially ruinous for our already struggling middle class and small business community.... These costs will certainly be passed onto residents, potentially ending middle-class ownership of co-ops and condominiums in New York City and further increase rents for everyone across the board....”]]]

and before that:

"NYC Council Member Ari Kagan...   Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 7:02 PM ...   Thank you, Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, for inviting me to your press conference in Bayside, Queens, about serious dangers of the Local Law 97 passed by NYC Council in 2019! I joined Councilwoman Linda Lee and many community leaders to express grave concerns about this unfunded mandate for zero emissions that will negatively affect tens of thousands of New Yorkers in co-ops and condominiums. Warbasse Houses in my district would be forced to close its own power station and to pay more than $100 mln to implement this law or face millions in penalties every year.... The new bill proposed by CM Paladino delays penalties by seven years to allow for a better planning and technological improvements of our aging city infrastructure. I strongly support this bill...."

Seriously. this is somebody's idea of a good idea --- and his initials must be the same as those for "Michael Ragusa".....

 

Yessirrreeee !!!  Mike Ragusa proudly posted this a little while ago on his Meta-FB page:

"Michael Ragusa...   Sunday February 5, 2023 at 8:09 AM...  Check out my Op-Ed.... [w/ link to "This Is Why I'm Running For City Council  -- 'The Manhattan'..."]

How many errors and omissions, lies and just made-up bad information can you find with just a simple quick read of what Mikey said about himself and why he is running for the CIty Council for the 47th Council District ???

Here it is for everybody to peruse at their heart's content before they might try to answer our query above.....

From "The Manhattan"  2/4/2-23.  a guest post by Michael Ragusa, Candidate for City Council District 47..... At  [[[https://themanhattan.press/2023/02/04/this-is-why-im-running-for-city-council/?fbclid=IwAR3E_A881PDwgF-Wd0MrhJ61qo_Z-3M1q3l4ivjVSnVOECfKRmvx4cuaxYY]]]

When I first stepped on to an FDNY Ambulance in 2015 to serve the City of New York, I saw the decline of this city firsthand, at the helm of Bill DeBlasio. Fast forward to 2017, a City Councilman named Justin Brannan was elected in my lovely neighborhood of Bay Ridge and used his progressive tactics to ruin what was once, one of the most coveted places to live in NYC. 

My name is Michael Ragusa, and I am running for City Council in District 47 (formerly 43). I am currently an investigator for New York Health and Hospitals on the infamous Rikers Island. I protect our beloved healthcare workers from violent inmates that progressives like DA Bragg want to release. I never was one to get involved in politics until 2020- after I saw the government’s overreach with Covid-19. Between the extended closings of small businesses, vaccine and mask mandates (even when the virus wasn’t considered to be a ‘threat’), it seemed that these types of politics were only helping one party move their narrative forward: the progressives. 

Growing up as an Italian- American in Brooklyn, my family, friends, and I mainly kept to ourselves as things in the neighborhood were great- block parties, kids playing baseball in the streets…no one had a care in the world. Fast forward to 2020, I watched as our current councilman single handedly blacklisted businesses in the district because they didn’t agree with his outlandish COVID rules. He would announce on Twitter, telling his followers to avoid these businesses and that they should not support them. Why you ask? Well, one could easily blame it on the fact that they didn’t want to check patron’s “vaccination statuses,” but that wasn’t the case.  Most of these small business owners didn’t vote for him or donate money to his campaign, as they knew what the outcome of his victory would be. Suffice it to say, this felt like a direct retaliation to these constituents- all because they did not agree, politically. 

That’s when I said enough is enough- and started calling him out via social media and in person. People in Bay Ridge started approaching me and thanking me for standing up to this bully; explaining that no one has ever called out his one-sided, bullying ways. My whole life, I have been an anti-bully, stemming all the way back to high school. I felt (and feel) my district is being bullied and there is no end in sight. 

Bay Ridge once was a Republican strong hold until 2018. We saw our beloved senator Marty Golden, who held office for 18 years, succeeded by another progressive named Andrew Goundardes. This was the beginning of the end of the Republican regime in Bay Ridge, much to the dismay of many. Joe Biden won our district in 2020, and Justin Brannan was re-elected the same year (albeit not by many votes), due to the local GOP putting up a weak, Ultra-MAGA candidate with a shady past. Since then, crime has been on the rise in the district and the current councilman denies it and even mocks constituents who ask about it. He also voted to DEFUND the police in 2020, resulting in a $475 million dollar budget cut to our beloved NYPD. As a first responder who works with the NYPD daily, this infuriated me. How can the best and most diverse police department in the world, pay the price for something that happened in Minneapolis? If you want to know the answer, ask him. When BLM and Antifa came to Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights to protest and loot our “Mom and Pop” storefronts, I was out on the front lines with likeminded people defending our neighborhood. What did the current councilman do to stop these protests? Absolutely nothing.  In fact, one could argue he encouraged it. He stated in a tweet,  “Antifa means you are anti-fascist, if you’re anti-antifa, you are a fascist.” Yikes.

I was approached in May of 2022 about running for City Council and announced my run in July  of 2022. Since then, I’ve stood in alliance with Lee Zeldin in protecting our schools from the wild liberal agendas, supported Rudy Giuliani in helping fix the issue of crime, stood with my fellow City workers in getting the pay they deserve, and conducted Toy Drives for local orphanages and more. My platform is simple: fix our quality of life, lower the crime, FUND our police, fix the DOE, and get our fellow New Yorkers the mental help and quality of life they need and deserve. No one wants to see a guy defecating in the middle of 3rd avenue, right? I have the resources to make this happen: many connections to law enforcement, the support of America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani (whether you like him or not, NYC saw its best times under his guidance), and have developed sound relationships with other city entities and workers. We need to give ALL city employees a raise and show them we are thankful for them. Never once did I hear someone call 911 and ask if a Police Officer, Firefighter, or EMT was vaccinated when I was on the job.  I will clean up this district, literally and figuratively, like the days of Rudy Giuliani. If most of you have been following my campaign, you know I tell it like it is, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. 

Ragusa takes a turn as a 'weatherman" --- and --- Anna decides that some more confusing messaging will get her balloons aloft in 2023

 

Mike Ragusa posted this singularly tone deaf item on his "political"/ "campaign" Meta-FB page yesterday:

 

"Michael Ragusa... Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 7:28 AM ... Hey everyone is it cold out? I couldn’t tell with all your posts...." 

[[[We guess he never heard the Bob Dylan line, "...  You don’t need a weatherman...  to know which way the wind blows...."  --- or ---  Just maybe, Mr. Ragusa doesn't know the difference between a cold wind or a cold shoulder.....]]]

Later in the day, Anna Belfiore-Delfaus turned crime reporter and posted this on her Meta-FB page:

 

"Anna Belfiore-Delfaus for NYC City Council... Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 5:42 PM...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ...." 

 

How are either of those postings supposed to do anything good for either of these folks' campaigns ???

 

 

 

Why not make support of Ilhan Omar a litmus test ???

 

Since the Democrats in congress largely suffered meltdowns over the vote to remove Congresswoman Ilan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee  ---  maybe all Democrats at all levels of government should now be asked  >>>  are you now or have you ever been  >>>  a supporter of Ilhan Omar

Maybe we should even have a jingle to chide any and all Democrats while they think about their answer  ---   "Which side are you on, boys ?  Which side are you on ???"  ---  or  ---  "When a commie meets a commie, coming through the rye..."

After all, isn't it time for ALL good Democrats to come to the aid of "The Squad" and one of its key players  ---  after all, today it's Ilan Omar, but tomorrow it could be Rashida Tlaib  ---  or even A.O.C. 

Besides, as Republicans, it is so much fun watching the Dems and their supporters have joint and several cases of the vapors over stuff like this.....

By the way, which side are YOU on ?????  

And  >>>  are YOU now or have you ever been  >>>  a supporter of Ilhan Omar ???????

 

Why the Brooklyn GOP still hasn't figured out how to handle the 47th Council District --- that means how to handle Brannan, Kagan and Kassar --- and a few other "players" with much less swing & sway --- or any real shake, rattle and roll

 

If we were Dickens, we would start off with this   
>>>   "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way ---  in short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only...."  <<< 

That was the front end of a 19th Century story by Charles Dickens about imminent and eminent things happening in 18th Century England and France  ---  we live in less literary or literate times  ---  however, things are no less restive or revolutuionary in 21st Century Southwest Brooklyn

For a variety of reasons, the crown of "Boss of Bay Ridge" doesn't sit on Justin Brannan's head comfortably or unchallenged  ---  that's because Brannan's current base of power, as the principal incumbent Councilman in the 47th District spills over the boundaries of Bay Ridge in multiple directions

One of those directions is a little bit toward the old stomping grounds of another "Demorat Boss" and incumbent City Councilman  ---  Ari Kagan  ---  who has become a "Republican" City Council candidate in the 47th District as a result of more twists and crosses than a three-ring pretzel

Add to that a Brooklyn GOP and Conservative Party that lost to Brannan twice in a row in NYC Council elections that they should have won  ---  with some "home grown talent" thinking it might be their turn to take on Brannan again

So, what's a girl like Ted Ghorra to do ???

If history is any guide, Ghorra will again make any Faustian deal that the agent of the devil, Jerry Kassar, puts in front of him.  As a result of that, Brannan will remain the "Boss of Bay Ridge" and stay in the City Council to finish out his term-limited tenure.

The facts are clear and the analysis is there for eveybody to make. The Brooklyn GOP and Conservative Party see things though Jerry Kassar's disease--ridden eyes; and they function through Kassar's acolytes, whose extremities are as palsied as Kassar's.

That out-of-date world view with equally outdated campaign tactics and techniques, have left and continue to leave the Brooklyn GOP and the Conservative Party completely out of touch with most of Bay Ridge, and increasingly alientated from the folks in surrounding areas.

Just as important, neither Kassar, the Brooklyn GOP nor the Conservative Party have ever figured out how so many Democrats over the years have beaten GOP and Conservative candidates in their Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights stronghold, including folks like Marty Golden and Mike Long.

That leaves us a little time to look at that wolf of a Democrat Boss in sheep's clothing  ---  Ari Kagan.....

Nothing in local politics can be as cynical as Ari Kagan's deal to switch parties after realizing that he had no seat of his own in the redrawn NYC Council  ---  and seeing that he couldn't beat "Bay Ridge Boss" Brannan in a Democrat primary..... Nothing except for that deal with the devil move to accept Kagan by a desparate GOP Council Minorty, as well as the Brooklyn GOP and Conservative Party hungry for a win against their nemesis Brannan.....

Don't look at the Lester Chang fiasco for any reason or justification, the Chang thing worked because he was a proper ethnic fit  ---  among his other problems,  Ari Kagan is not a good ethnic fit for the 47th Council District.

Once again lookout for Kassar of the disease-ridden eyes, palsied manipulations and Faustian deals, to swoop in and snatch certain defeat from the jaws of a possible victory by real Republicans and Conservatives   >>>  by backing Kagan.