New Albany is a state of mind … but whose? Since 2004, we’ve been observing the contemporary scene in this slowly awakening old river town. If it’s true that a pre-digital stopped clock is right twice a day, when will New Albany learn to tell time?
Showing posts with label undemocratic Democrats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label undemocratic Democrats. Show all posts
The Green Mouse received this shocking note from an attendee at Slick Jeffie's campaign kickoff Saturday, which was held at Warren Nash's neglected downtown building on Bank Street, where generations of right-wing Democrats have gathered to plot the division of the patronage spoils, and an occasion for the many assembled municipal employees to gladly sing love songs to their beloved benefactor far into the night.
The note received by the Green Mouse has been edited slightly to protect the Mouse's source.
"At some point I saw (former mayor) James Garner, and I thought good, this means we're past the primary, and the party can get back together again, but then the mayor's son-in-law (Chris Gardner) and police chief (Todd) Bailey went over and started barking orders at Garner. I could only hear some of what they were saying -- they were telling him to leave! I couldn't believe it, chasing an ex-mayor and a lifelong Democrat away from the kickoff. I mean what have we become? Are we Democrats or some sort of gangsters?"
That's a good question.
You'd think Adam Dickey would see the merit in Garner's presence, so maybe the Don Corleone "offer to leave which you can't refuse" routine was Gahan's own feeble idea. He's prone to fits of rage, you know.
Heaven forbid, is Dickey's iron grip on the party apparatus finally fading?
“Send her back” is what Trumpism has been all along
WATCHING A VIRTUALLY ALL-WHITE CROWD of viciously angry, red-faced people chanting “Send her back!” at the mention of Representative Ilhan Omar during the President’s latest herrenvolk rally was horrifying. But the real horror is that this, sixteen months out from the election, is just the tip of an iceberg. This is bad and it will get worse. Much worse.
The Democratic Party has little to offer in terms of solace, merely a promise to fail in the same way as before.
It will get worse because the Democratic Party still believes that the mushy center is the place to campaign against Trump, that white votes are the only votes worth winning, that people of color or young people will never vote so why bother giving them a reason to, and that, in the brilliant words of Chuck Schumer, “for every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia.”
The following passage cuts closest to the bone. I may have arrived at the tail end of the Boomers, but in the final analysis, their narcissism wins out.
It will get worse because an entire generation of people under forty has already been written off to a life of lowered expectations and debt peonage—a generation that might get more riled up by the politics of Social Security and Medicare had they not already resigned themselves to the reality that neither will exist when, if, they reach old age. None of the relevant social, political, or economic institutions are undergoing an intergenerational transition of power; instead, Boomers have decided simply to stay at the helm until death comes, and since nobody except them has ever mattered it’s no big deal if everything burns down on their way out.
The Green Mouse had been under the impression that Tuesday's redevelopment commission meeting would be the occasion for David Barksdale to learn why his new pals at City Hall have allowed the Moser Tannery to sit unattended for two years, with the roof now caving in.
Well, we can't blame the Schmitt Family for THIS purposeful dilapidation. Maybe Barksdale's Reisz Mahal fawning bootlicker bonus included a handy gag order for the eventuality of a quid pro quo, but at any rate, the newspaper's reporter seemed only to notice bravely bold Sir Adam, recording the DemoDisneyDixiecratic chairman's canned pieties about soil testing.
... Redevelopment Commission Vice President Adam Dickey said this is a step that will help the city return the property to a productive use that fits the community.
"This is us as a city doing the right steps and doing our due diligence to make sure it's safe," he said. "We don't want to create a site that years later we determine we didn't do an effective job cleaning up."
Even as Dickey spoke, the Moser Tannery was crumbling. Our pillars are big wankers in a tiny and fast evaporating puddle, each and every one of them.
Party chairman Adam Dickey's really been on a roll lately.
Here's Dickey's statement about the Axis of Evil: Honest, Able and Knable. As loyal Gahan flunky Pat McLaughlin once said, "This resolution is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen -- and I wrote it."
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Republican Al Knable distorts truth to advance political agenda Councilman spat chewing gum on public sidewalks and did not separate recyclables from household waste Did you see the week's headlines? There was one that was just too important to miss. The crux of it - Republican City Councilman Al Knable keeps doing things to advance his political agenda. The story began in 2015, when Knable and two other Republicans were elected to at-large council seats, defeating the Democratic Party's three genetically superior candidates -- except John Gonder, who we had to knee-cap because he kept thinking independently, but we won’t talk about THAT. Knable stated to the News and Tribune that he recently prepared for work by breakfasting on a banana, brushing his teeth and leaving the house, but the banana Knable claimed to have eaten never happened. Speaking on behalf of Gahan4Mayor personnel Friday, New Albany Police Chief Todd Bailey cleared up the incident: “After an extensive investigation into Knable's household trash bin, including the building inspector’s inspections of his house’s wiring and HVAC, we learned President Knable ate an apple, not a banana, as he previously claimed.” Bailey went on to say that there was no record of a Gahan4Life campaign donation coming from the location in question, and that the state fire marshal and Democratic national Committee have been contacted as a professional courtesy. The fact Knable insists on having heretical viewpoints of his own in contrast to a proper reverence for Dear Leader is disturbing enough, but to use them in support of a political party that threatens the Democratic Party’s monetization machine is more troubling. It illustrates Knable’s willingness to lie and distort the truth to advance his political agenda in spite of what is in the best interests of the Mayor and his only true, right, Christian and shopworn political entity, which Knable should be deferring to, as has been customary for city residents since the sainted FDR called the shots. If Al Knable is willing to lie about something as important as a banana, can we really trust him to cook the pork chops to 145 degrees?
If you're a Democrat, and it's still difficult for you to imagine Donald Trump in the Oval Office, don't forget that your nominally democratic mayor placed David Duggins in charge of real living people in public housing.
It's like Homer Simpson in a nuclear plant, just without the laughs.
Is Duggins still being paid two salaries, one at NAHA and another at Redevelopment?
Jesse A. Myerson is an activist and writer. He recently moved to Bloomington and is a community organizer with Hoosier Action.
Hoosier Action is a new project focused on building the political power of working families and individuals in the state of Indiana. Hoosier Action emphasizes robust community organizing, where campaigns are built around economic and social issues that impact people and communities across the region. Hoosier Action will work to increase voter participation, lift people out of poverty, and build a new political voice for the residents of Indiana who have been left on the margins.
The New Albany segment begins roughly one-third of the way through, although the opening portion is worth a listen, too.
With respect to Jeff Gahan's machinations v.v. public housing and the New Albany Housing Authority, this podcast is the gold standard. Gahan may be able to coo sweet nothings into the ears of enduringly gullible local media sources, but his ethically and morally bankrupt ongoing actions against New Albany's low-income residents are explicated in full by Myerson.
Expect Gahan to burrow even more deeply into his bunker, and make time this weekend to listen to this podcast.
First, a look at Hoosier Action's political plan between now and the 2018 midterm elections. Then, a special report from New Albany, Indiana, where public housing residents are waging a campaign to save their homes from demolition.
Last evening, 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps formally and publicly capitulated to Cool Papa Gahan, and the News and Tribune's Elizabeth Beilman was there to record the moment for posterity. Following is an excerpt, but you'll want to read it all.
NEW ALBANY — One section of New Albany's 150-page comprehensive plan brought public housing advocates to the city council meeting Monday to voice their opposition.
They say the 20-year plan, passed unanimously by the council, will displace low-income families and leave some with few options for affordable housing alternatives.
"This would create a disparate impact that is negative on people in protected classes under the fair housing law, leaving the city vulnerable to a fair housing claim," Cathy Hinko, executive director of the Metropolitan Housing Coalition, told the council.
The comprehensive plan calls for reducing the number of project-based public housing units and replacing it with voucher-based housing dispersed throughout the city. Vouchers subsidize a family's rent through federal funding, if the landlord is willing to accept them.
According to the document, the goal is to decentralize public housing, creating neighborhoods with mixed incomes and de-stigmatizing low-income communities.
However, housing advocates who spoke Monday are skeptical the switch between public housing units to vouchers wouldn't be equivocal.
Wendy Helterbran, a New Albany resident who was a member of Southern Indiana's Homelessness Task Force, believes many people will be unable to use housing vouchers because of a lack of homes with affordable rent.
The New Albany Housing Authority calculates how much assistance a family with a voucher receives, but that doesn't limit how much a landlord can charge.
"It means families will have no place to go," Helterbran said. "It means that homelessness and the risk of it will increase in this community."
Hinko believes the comprehensive plan's public housing recommendations, if acted upon, would have a "draconian effect" on city residents as well as the workforce.
In the Louisville metro area, 42 percent of all jobs pay a wage that won't support renting a modest two-bedroom rental unit "without significant burden to the household," Hinko said.
"You should be adding, not subtracting, units that accommodate people," she said.
City Councilman Greg Phipps said demolition of housing units won't happen without the New Albany Housing Authority Board's approval first. "If we do eliminate public housing, we do need to make affordable housing available," Phipps said.
Last night's city council meeting surveyed the bottomless depths of the ongoing depravity of New Albany's political culture. Council "Democrats" stared at their shoes while Dan Coffey described the proper mission of the housing authority (the wizard's thoughts on the kinetic theory of matter would have been next, but time elapsed), and of course there is no reason for Republicans to object to an opposing political party intent on self-destruction.
If you're a Democrat expressing fury at the absence of democracy in Washington DC, then at least spare us the blatant hypocrisy. You have your own tinhorn despot right here in River City, your own vacuous cult of personality, and your own group of slobbering bootblacks pretending to be economic development directors and council representatives.
Suggested coda to this council recap,
courtesy of Elbow (and Richard Hawley):
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