In 1967, Jimi Hendrix on lead and rhythm guitar and vocals, Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Redding on Bass put out two albums and an outerworldly performance at Monterey. The albums, Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love changed the genre and format of rock and roll for the good of mankind.
Hendrix in retrospect is the Mozart of the last century including this one. As is mentioned by millions of scribes with more education than me, played and shredded his guitar neck with a classical style with his bandmates that fused rock, R&B, and traditional and free jazz into a amalgam that evolved and influenced future rock genres like heavy metal, art rock, alternative, etcetera, etcetera, (infinity).
This was the first rock and roll band of musical virtuosos. Hendrix’s playing is unquestionably unparrarelled that it’s easy to overlook the stupendous ambidextrous styles of Mitchell and fluid syncopation of Redding. All you got to do is play both albums after each other, which properly works as a double album. Or if you are a bit adventurous or blissfully stoned, play both at the same time.
Experienced? was the greatest album of the first renaissance year of rock music 1967. A year that also saw the release of the Beatles Sgt Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour Soundtrack and The Doors and The Velvet Undergound’s debuts. Experienced? is still louder than everything else and runs circles around everything released since, and that’s including Led Zeppelin. Axis is not as good, but that’s not even a factor since comparing to the debut, it’s still a spectacular album all the way through, even if it doesn’t have the aggression or experimentation of Experienced? (with the exception of EXP and If 6 was 9).
So instead of singing Auld Lang Syne for the whatever time and uncomfortably watching whoever the hell is lip-synching on New Years Suckin’ Eve. Just play the Jimi Hendrix Experience in the last 77 minutes of their first two albums of this old shit year instead. And if you have it, Hendrix’s Monterey Concert album too.
Left To right, Left to right: Guns ‘N Fuckin’ Roses, Prince, Rakim & Eric B., & Redd Kross (who? you’ll see soon enough)
Reading this year’s cultural polls have been absolutely frustrating. And in the field of music, actually abhorrent. There was absolutely no challenging, passionate, revolutionary (despairingly so in this age of divisive politics and an ignoramus president) or even good music in the year 2017. Not even catchy music.
I know, I know kids, this is just cantankerous complaining from an old misanthrope, but can you really argue about it. Where are the anthems? The rebel songs? The raging rockers and funky beats? There are none and you all know it. The most popular artists are Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift and Maroon 5, both corporate shills whose songs are fit for background music for chain drug stores, and they actually are.
Well, there is Kendrick Lamar, but he is like the only student in the classroom that raises his hand. And there is death metal, but you can’t understand the words. And the only bands that are actually essential are fucking cartoons, the Gorillaz and Dethklok.
In defense of this shitty bland state of music, downloading has ruined it. Having music on files is really not the same as having a physical piece of music in your hands. But that’s what the market has (d)evolved into and there is not much to be done in the time being about it.
But that won’t stop this digital publication to go back to one of the last great renaissance eras of popular music, 1987. That year was a watershed movement when all genres meshed and new ones began. A year where established acts made definitive classics. Of phenomenal debuts and fulfilled potential. Of stellar comebacks, great experimental risks and outstanding swan songs. And a year of the evolution of two genres that are still dominant even today, hip hop and alternative music.
Starting from the top; just like the best music to defy conventions.
Guns ‘N Roses, Appetite For Destruction.
The greatest debut rock and roll heavy metal punk album of all time and at this stage will remain in infinity the best . Every song on this album kills. It’s multi-platinum status most justified. This album fused every genre of rock music in each individual song. Influences on this album varied between hard rock, southern rock, punk, funk, rhythm and blues and glam rock into a perfect hardcore amalgam of heavy metal fury. Best songs are the ones everyone knows so well, even the kids of America today; the cynical urban dystopia of Welcome To The Jungle, the jamming utopian anthem Paradise City, the killer ballad Sweet Child Of Mine, and the rollicking ragers of defiance and addiction of It’s So Easy, You’re Crazy, Nighttrain, and Mr. Brownstone, the catchy Think About You and My Michelle and the creeping groove of Rocket Queen. An album of absolute perfection that no band, even including them, will ever be achieved again or surpassed.
Prince, Sign ☮ The Times.
The album he composed after dissolving the Revolution, one of the greatest bands of all time. This album is a tapestry, painting and sculpture piece set to music. Prince was channeling the Beatles, James Brown, and everything on Motown, Stax, Disco and the nascent genre of Techno/House music on this one. It kicks off with the raw minimalist title track, just a drum machine accompanying sparse bass, synth and guitar licks and powerful lyrics citing ghetto strife and the ill-advised and planned Challenger space mission, the song is sort of homage to Gil Scott Heron’s Whitey On The Moon. It’s also Prince at his most poetic, so include channeling Joni Mitchell too, who he mentions on the funky and weird “The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker”.
The album also gets wilder and funkier from there, Play in the Sunshine with it’s Sly And The Family Stone groove, Housequake and Hot Thing are two of his greatest dance songs and brutally hard sounding. Starfish And Coffee is so whimsical it’s like something Dr. Seuss never wrote. U Got The Look is one of his last great crossover singles. If I Was Your Girlfriend is a cool role reversal and explicitly vulgar song, I always wondered if this song was about Tipper Gore who started her pro-censorship panel on music based on Darling Nikki. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man and The Cross are straight up rockers, the latter a punishing garage metal song about self-sacrifice. And it ends with the quiet storm masterpiece Adore. The album is a pure soul and R & B rock’n’roll masterpiece
The Golden Age Of Rap Triumvirate: Eric B And Rakim, Paid In Full; Boogie Down Productions, Criminal Minded; Public Enemy, Yo! Bum Rush The Show.
Although the album era of rap started with Run-DMC in 1984 and their breakthrough with Raising Hell in 1986, along with the Beastie Boys Licensed To Ill (which came out late that year and is disqualified here despite ruling the airwaves in 87), these three debuts were the ones that shook the nation and the world from the enclaves of the Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens And Long Island.
These three albums brought the term hardcore into hip hop. The music on Paid In Full and Criminal Minded were minimal and limited but purely organic, even if they were records and samples. Yo! was actually well produced and defiantly aggressively political. All made massive impacts with songs that still stand out with quotable lyrics (pump up the volume), whether referenced or sampled.
The best of the lot is Eric B and Rakim’s debut. Rakim is the best M.C. of all time, lyrically and musically, which is difficult to ascertain because of his competition at that time (and with Big Daddy Kane debut a year later). I Ain’t No Joke is a anthem of vainglorious self-esteem that would inspire anyone, and Rakim not mentioning his name in the song gives it universal appeal, like a motivational speech set to 808 beats. He returns the favor to his audience with the participation songs I Know You Got Soul and Move The Crowd. The penultimate song is the title track Paid In Full, with the killer and unmistakable recognizable sampled beat and just a few verses about capitalism, self-preservation and sustainability from the M.C., Rakim’s style on this song (and the others) is almost like Clint Eastwood challenging a thug if he shot all his bullets. Then Eric B just shreds the song with vicious cuts showing why you don’t forget why he’s billed first in the group and why he’s proclaimed the President in a later song. This version is much better than it’s worldwide famous remix that featured a spooky sample of a famous singer from India.
Boogie Down Productions debut is essential for it being responsible for starting the gangster rap genre because of many songs focusing on gun violence, which made a lot of sense since KRS-One (greatest rap name ever, it was the only moniker at the time that was a nmenonic) and D.J. Scott LaRock were from the Bronx where the worst of the bad days was happening with high murder rates and crack at it’s apex. The album was funky documentary of the times in the South Bronx, even thought the song titled after their area was a rebuttal to rival Mc Shan’s ode to the hip hop scene in the Queensbridge Projects and a tribute to the confirmed seminal history of where the genre was originated, which was replicated in the sillier dis song “The Bridge Is Over”. The songs that did focus on the violence on the streets were detailed with seriousness, shock theatrics and dark humor like in 9mm Goes Bang, Criminal Minded and Remix For P Is Free. KRS was masterful with the braggadocio too, with innovative stylings on the songs Poetry, Elementary, and Word From Our Sponsor. The album had a huge reggae and dancehall influence that distinguished it from the other albums and a lot of other rap singles. Scott Larock’s beats and scratches were high up in the mix and had a real good ear for melody, who knows what music he could have made with better production, but it clearly rubbed off on his partner, who went on to produce by himself on followup albums.
Public Enemy was a pure anomaly. A militant political rap group on a major label. The first band with exposure and backing like that since The Clash. The album was spotty but makes up for it with strong lyrics from Chuck D, and kinetic performances by DJ Terminator X (especially on Rightstarter), and sidekick Flavor Flav (Too Much Posse) and live instrumentation and walls of noise supplied by The Bomb Squad. Hooks are supplied by car screeching and sirens on You’re Gonna Get Yours. A few ominous synth notes and brutal beat propel Chuck’s lyrical opus and first single Public Enemy Number One. To quote the hard rhymer, this and the other two above still rock the boulevard.
Redd Kross, Neurotica
This is the lost treasure album on the list. The record label, distributed by RCA, went bankrupt just a short time after it’s release, so it predictably didn’t sell that much. Which is a fucking shame, because this album is one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll albums of all time. Produced by Tommy Eldrydi (better known as Tommy Ramone), this album fused the proto-punk of the Stooges, L.A. hardcore, every cartoon and plush animal rock band from Saturday morning cartoons and junk food into a glorious messy fattening masterpiece. Every song rocks except the two sweet ballads ending the both sides of the record/cassette. Subject matter of the songs range from suicide cults in Neurotica, the drug addicted misadventures of One Day At A Time star McKenzie Phillips in the song after her first name, cereal as metaphor in Frosted Flake, vicious rockers What They Say and Ghandi Is Dead and the should have been a massive hit in the folky campfire style confection Love Is You.
Usually an album like this would sell a lot over time and get more popular like the Velvet Underground or grow an audience gradually like Big Star but unfortunately that hasn’t transpired. Yet the band has maintained a modest audience to be able to record music throughout the decades, even releasing a phenomenal album a few years ago. It’s still an injustice that Neurotica isn’t in the general rock classic pantheon as Appetite. For this was truly the first alternative rock album in that it didn’t sound like anything else. And that’s another thing lacking in music today, uniqueness.
The Breakthroughs: U2, The Joshua Tree; R.E.M. Document
Although they were already huge for a few years, U2’s Joshua Tree was still a revelation. . It would yield four big hits and multiple rock radio staples. The album’s atmospherics depicts the desert plains depicted on the cover thanks to the production by Eno and Lanois. From the fade in of the anthemic Where The Streets Have No Name, the hopeful I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, the breakup song With Or Without You, the doom laden and best song Bullet The Blue Sky, the evocative tracks Red Hill Mining Town and In Gods Country, to the fade out of the elegiac Mothers Of The Disappeared. It would be the last straight rock album to win the Album Of The Year Grammy Award (until they would do it again with the mediocre Atomic Bomb album).
R.E.M. was already charting high and going gold with their previous four albums, notably the universally hailed debut Murmur. But with Document is where they delved into the mainstream by wisely turning up the volume. The album’s notable hits were their biggest and still their best being the crossover labor themed Finest Worksong, the power ballad The One I Love, and the stream of consciousness doom theme It’s The End Of The World (As We Know It).
Indie Rock Swan Songs: The Replacements, Pleased To Meet Me; Husker Du, Warehouse: Songs And Stories
The Minneapolis punk rock legends put out two unrelenting perfect albums. Although not their last album, this actually was the last time the Mats would rock this hard and sloppy as a band that replicated their legendary live shows. Paul Westerberg expanded on the punk rock Springsteen (as well as Tom Petty and Bob Seger) comparisons at the time with the rave ups I.O.U. and I Don’t Know, the magnificent tribute song to Alex Chilton, the prescient anthem Nevermind (later an album title for you know what band), and evocative tracks like “The Ledge, Skyway and the closer Can’t Hardly Wait. Husker Du’s second double album didn’t become the commercial breakthrough that was probably expected, but it still was seamless and as perfect as their SST catalog and their prior album Candy Apple Grey.
Anthrax, Among The Living
This album by Staten Island rock heroes Anthrax immediately followed the trash metal triumverate of 1986; Metallica’s Master Of Puppets, Slayer’s Reign In Blood, and Megadeth’s Peace Sells and it’s just as perfect as the first two and miles ahead of the latter. Among The Living is a pummeling 50 minute slab of fist and head banging mayhem and strong songwriting. Best tracks are the title track based on Stephen King’s The Stand central character, I Am The Law about The Punisher, the slam dance classic Caught In A Mosh, the Native American awareness track Indians and the social criticism of Imitation Of Life and Skeletons In The Closet.
Metallica, The $5.98 E.P. Garage Days Re-Revisited
The greatest heavy metal band of all time released this after they filled the bass void left by the tragic demise of Cliff Burton in a tour bus crash. It’s called re-revisited because their first garage days was a 2-song B-side of the 12″ single of 1984’s Creeping Death (no it was not a disco extended version). But what a monster of a release. The band covers the still criminally overlooked Diamond Head again on Helpless, Killing Joke on The Wait, an obscure band called Holocaust on The Small Hours. The best covers come in the last 2 tracks in an abridged version of Budgie’s Crash Course In Main Surgery and The Misfits Last Caress/Green Hell. Well that’s actually three tracks. Actually it’s four because the boys end the song with a crappy rendition of the intro to Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills. This E.P. shows that Metallica is better band fucking around than most bands, especially today that take years to craft one song.
Gimme Indie Rock: Dinosaur Jr., You’re Living All Over Me; Sonic Youth, Sister
These bands were slogging it out for years, Sonic Youth a little longer in the indie rock circuit when it genuinely was one. With these albums, both bands made the big move to the major indie label SST and put out two definitive classics. Boston’s Dinosaur Jr. outdid their Lower East Side rivals though. You’re Living is a triumph, the first 8 tracks are a wall of glorious sound and stellar hooks and solos, just like the band Boston’s 1976 landmark album. J Mascis was arguably the second best guitar player in the nation at the time between Kirk Hammett and Slash. Sister was kind of the college rock and major mag rock critic breakthrough for the Sonic Youth, which had two hotshot guitar players in Lee Ronaldo and Thurston Moore and charismatic lady bass player Kim Gordon, all of whom sang lead, kind of like Fleetwood Mac. On Sister the band on some songs managed to temper the white noise with soft verses bridging it with a guitar freakout in place of the standard solo, which laid the groundwork for the alternative and grunge songwriting format in bands like The Pixies and Nirvana.
Midnight Oil, Diesel And Dust
This album is noteworthy for having the most unlikely top 40 hit Beds Are Burning, a song about the aboriginies in the band’s native Australia. The album itself is even better. Every song is brimmed with passionate political content from defiance of systemic injustice to the pernicious influence of corporations as depicted in The Dead Heart. Still holds up spectacularly well and unfortunately still relevant.
The Cult, Electric
Produced by Rick Rubin, this band went from new wave psychedelic rockers to, loosely quoting Spinal Tap, a straight up heavy metal and rock and roll creation. The lyrics were still hippyish, like Wild Flower and Peace Dog, but the music is all fury. This album came out at a time when AC/DC was floundering, so the band just took their sound and ran with it. Especially on the thundering single Love Removal Machine and the ravers Big Fun and Memphis Hip Shake. The band also wove elements of Zeppelin in their arsenal and literally Steppenwolf in their savage cover of Born To Be Wild. Aspiring bands today should really give this a few spins to get a clue on how to rock and roll if they would stop listening to Bon Iver for a month or two.
Def Leppard, Hysteria
The follow up to Def Lep’s outstanding Pyromania blows it away. This is the Thriller of metal albums for it contained 7 top 40 hits. The production and arrangements by Mutt Lange gives it a Phil Spector Wall Of Sound aspect. Standouts being the strip club anthem Pour Some Sugar On Me and the glitter rock homage Rocket. At the time it sounded like an album from the future, like it wouldn’t be out of place in sci-fi societies in Total Recall and Blade Runner, and it still does.
New Order, Substance 1987. The Smiths, Louder Than Bombs.
These two albums are actually compilations but they count here. New Order’s Substance only had two new songs, True Faith and the stunning 1963, but it’s their best album because it compiles all their sensational 12″ inch singles, early 7 inches and their B sides which works as a chronological piece of the history of the band at it’s beginning and it’s peak. Louder Than Bombs is actually an E.P. of 8 new songs and eighteen previously released singles that appeared on import LP’s. It’s included here because the first side of this release is actually better than the Smiths official album that came out that year, Strangeways Here We Come. Morrissey and Johnny Marr wrote their catchiest and best songs on here like Is It Really So Strange, Sweet And Tender Hooligan (as good a critique of spoiled entitled upper class kids as Fortunate Son), Half A Person, the blistering London, and the gorgeous Ask and singalong anthem Panic. Essential
The Godfathers, Birth School Work Death
The title track is self-explanatory, to the point and simple as fuck. Birth. School. Work. Death. The Godfathers were well-dressed lads from England that created an album chronicling working class angst and young man blues comparable to the best of early Who. The album was actually a huge hit, thanks to supercatchy and universal cynical appeal of the title song, but it also had classic tracks like Cause I Said So and Love Is Dead. Even though it’s not recognized as a landmark or even considered for classic rock formats, the music speaks on it’s own.
Celtic Frost, Into The Pandemonium; Voivod, Killing Technology.
Two daring metal masterpieces from the legendary Noise label. Both bands challenged their fans with forays into unexpected genres in the case of Celtic Frost and the concept album format with Voivod and both pulled it off spectacularly. Pandemonium not only refers to the descent to hell but also the myriad music genres it dives into, like funk, new wave, industrial, middle eastern and classical music and opera. Killing Technology is as good and prophetic about the aspects of the subject matter it yearns to fight as the best sci-fi books and movies.
Michael Jackson, Bad
And then there was the yet to be King Of Pop. It was to easy to scoff at Michael when the Bad video was released with his new look and all and the dance rumble in the subway, even if it had great choreography. Aside that, Bad is a masterpiece and Jackson showed a lot of maturity lyrically and musically on this album. Quincy Jones again does a solid job producing, the guy is truly deserving of his legacy of one of the greatest chief studio engineers of all time. Just like in Beat It, Jackson actually recorded 2 rockers that outdid the hardness of that song in Dirty Diana and Speed Demon. It had the expected cool catchy pop of The Way You Make Me Feel, Smooth Criminal and Another Part Of Me. And two of his greatest compositions in the inspirational Man In The Mirror and the defiant Leave Me Alone, as both songs serve as testimony to the inner conflicts of the artist at the time. This would be the last album he would make that had a cultural impact before his descent into isolation and his vices.
And that’s it. These artifacts is how you make an everlasting influential infinite impact on music and culture. Which is sorrowfully non-existent today and for the last decade in fact, thanks to media consolidation and digital societal distractions. Here’s hoping it serves you well.
The rankings:
1. Guns ‘N Roses, Appetite For Destruction
2. Prince, Sign Of The Times
3. Eric B. And Rakim, Paid In Full
4. The Replacements, Please To Meet Me
5. Dinosaur Jr. You’re Living All Over Me
6. Redd Kross, Neurotica
7. U2, The Joshua Tree
8. Anthrax, Among The Living
9. Boogie Down Productions, Criminal Minded
10. Celtic Frost, Into The Pandemonium
11. The Smiths, Louder Than Bombs
12. Def Leppard, Hysteria
13. Michael Jackson, Bad
14. Midnight Oil, Diesel And Dust
15. Voivod, Killing Technology
16. The Cult, Electric
16.5. Metallica, The $5.98 E.P. Garage Days Re-Revisited
17: R.E.M. Document; Husker Du: Warehouse, Songs And Stories (tie)
18. Sonic Youth, Sister
19. The Godfathers, Birth School Work Death
20. Public Enemy, Yo! Bum Rush The Show
Actual best music of the year 2017: Kendrick Lamar’s Damn, and Metallica’s Hard Wired to Self Destruct and that’s fucking it.
It is with great alarm and displeasure that you have chosen to appear at the inauguration of the second term of Mayor Bill de Blasio. For this elected official is the antithetical embodiment of what you and the movement you inspired last year.
You have mentioned and further informed the nation’s citizenry the pernicious influence of money in politics and you are going to commemorate a person who has accepted massive donor cash from the real estate industry in this city with open arms. I’m not even referring to what he accrued when he was campaigning before winning the election but a P.A.C. he was running in city hall as mayor called the Campaign For One New York. He used this on the premise to promote Pre-K and affordable housing, but it was actually just a slush fund to bolster senate races for candidates upstate that wound up losing. You have mentioned the pernicious influence of lobbyists hired by corporations to shape zoning laws and civic services in their favor and this mayor allowed lobbyists to attend meetings involving city planning. Giving this collective instant access not easily available for the average constituent. Pay to play politicking hasn’t been this criminal and blatant since the early and mid-1980’s and in over a century since Tammany Hall.
You have illustrated how transparency is essential for government to function but this mayor makes it intentionally difficult to access his emails and shows absolute contempt for the press by refusing to answer questions that deviate from the narrative he zealously tries to control.
Mayor de Blasio in just the last few weeks since winning has seen a ghastly scandal involving the public housing organization NYCHA and their commissioner lying to HUD about annual inspections of lead contamination in the apartments and this mayor has staunchly continued to back her and was caught in a lie about not knowing about the cover up. In a current lawsuit filed by the tenants, de Blasio recently ordered his tax-payer funded city lawyers to get his name off the case after proclaiming leadership and responsibility for the running of the housing authority. As of right now, the egregious negligence by NYCHA is reaching criminal proportions, and this mayor is downplaying this like Trump downplayed the deceased body count after Maria hit Puerto Rico.
It’s perplexing why you feel the need to support and hail someone of such duplicitous nature, Senator Sanders. Especially in your overmatched battle with the current president, Donald Trump and your donor reliant peers in Congress. For this mayor is using the same tactics and relying on the same sources to support and finance his agenda. An agenda that is not progressive at all despite what it seems and all the right things that are said to mollify his base.
Under this mayor, homelessness has risen partly resulting from displacement by being unable to afford the rising rents that his real estate donors are responsible for. His affordable housing plan has zero credulity being that it’s not affordable and there is a scant amount of it.
Why you would come all this way to praise this mayor is confusing. If this mayor really wanted to stop Trump from winning the election, why didn’t he dedicate his support to you in the first place, Senator? Why did he straddle the fence and support your opponent Hillary, even though she wasn’t enthusiastic for his support according to the released e-mails?
This mayor is not to be trusted, Senator Sanders. He is not the one to lead the new progressive movement nor the resistance, which has now dwindled to a nub because of your colleagues feeble efforts and it’s distracting attention to unfounded election meddling. It would be better to use your holiday recess somewhere else than showing up at an event for this mayor, who only won with 14% of registered voters. A dubious victory and testimony to how jaded and cynical the city’s constituency has become.
Senator Sanders, if you show up for this unworthy inauguration, you yourself will be marred with the same skepticism and distrust by the public (the ones that are more informed anyway), mostly by the people that supported you and still do. Which can’t get anymore worse considering the wretched political climate the nation is going through now. And this mayor is a massive and blatant example of what’s obviously wrong with government these days.
Most of all, Senator Sanders, and if it’s a bit simplistic, this mayor is a liar. Just like Donald Trump and just as equally unsophisticated and blatant. Like Trump, he also rules like an autocrat and is vindictive towards his critics. This mayor is also a supreme incompetent as education, child services and transportation have all gone downhill under him also.
Let one of his agents of the city, like Jon Rosen or James Capalino introduce him, for they have benefited more individually than anyone else sans the neo-Trump real estate magnates running this city via this mayor. Hell, the perfect tool would be his money grubbing au pair Ross Offinger.
Please, I implore you Senator Sanders. Avoid this inauguration, de Blasio is a pariah in this town. I assure you are going to lose a lot of your base nationally when they get wind of this and it would be a colossal waste of all that effort and support you built last year and currently continue to maintain.
It’s not too late. Just walk away from this mayor.
Yours truly,
JQ LLC, another working poor, aggressive progressive and miserable liberal.
Good morning commuters from your dutiful servants at the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
This fucking transit system, the worst in the fucking universe, somehow managed to crash two service trains into each other right at the crack of dawn in the East River tunnel just hours before the morning rush. As of now, the MTA’s website’s service schedule is not revealing anything regarding delays in a wretched display of obfuscation from paying customers.
The MTA seems to be going against their spanking new policy of being honest with their service announcements. Or maybe this jibes with their other new policy of addressing riders acknowledging both genders. Petty jokes aside, this is just another fucked up disruption causing much unnecessary damage and more deleterious inconvenience to the city and it’s paying citizens and the throngs of tourists in town for the holiday week.
With this figuratively literal train wreck, the MTA has become a real life parody of a transit system. More like a cartoon, for this reminds me of Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam playing chicken with two freight trains. (go to the 5:29 mark)
The fact that this occurred to hasten improvement is even more abominable and with a new transit commissioner to boot. There is really no fucking hope for this fucking subway. This is the last goddamn straw. Fuck The MTA.
In Times Square at 4 a.m., a man leaving a sports bar noticed two women arguing and tried to intervene when the woman, who was intoxicated, fell on the ground. As he tried to aid her, one of the men attacked him, pulled out a gun and shot him to death on the street.
In Chinatown, a man and woman attempted to rob a jewelry store by spraying pepper spray at two clerks, but ran off with nothing when one of the clerks pushed the alarm button.
Also in Chinatown, a 17-year-old boy was killed instantly when his friend who was driving drunk was speeding coming off the bridge then hitting a curb and crashing into a lamp pole and a fire hydrant.
In East Harlem, a 68-year-old man was kicked twice in the head and chest for no reason by some stupid cowardly asshole.
In the East Village, a man walked into a bank, gave the teller a note and robbed $1,900.
In the Upper West Side, a man going through a divorce attempted suicide by blowing up his house by cutting a gas line, leading to an explosion.
In the Upper East Side at the 86th St. Station, a man attempting to kill himself by jumping in front of a train was stopped by an off-duty police detective.
In Soho, a cop making six figures a year being a glorified livery driver for NYPD top brass got caught shoplifting in a clothing store.
In Rockerfeller Center on the F train, a church deacon repeatedly groped a woman in her private parts.
In Chelsea, a construction worker got killed on the job when a piece of metal scaffolding fell from a building being developed that’s charged with multiple code violations.
In Gramercy Park, two teenage males mugged a pedestrian for his wallet and a man punched a clerk in a deli when he was told he there was a limit for debit card purchases.
Queens
In South Ozone Park, a man parked on South Conduit Ave. was shot at four times in the chest and killed.
Also in South Ozone Park, package thefts from deliveries left outside of people’s homes has been on the rise.
In Maspeth, a food delivery bike rider got killed when a tractor-trailer ran him over as it was turning then kept going.
In Flushing, a 4-year-old girl was abandoned on a school bus by a stupid matron after it arrived at her school and was left alone for nearly 5 hours. The contractor Coky Transportation tried to buy the frightened girl’s silence with candy bars.
Also in Flushing, two men invaded a home and beat up a man with sticks when he answered them knocking on his door.
In Rikers Island, an inmate attacked two correction officers with a ballpoint pen, slashing both in the face.
In Rego Park, a handicapped man crossing Woodhaven Blvd. was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver.
In South Jamaica, a man driving recklessly coming off the Van Wyck smashed into another vehicle causing it to collide into another car and two that were parked.
In Forest Hills on the R train, a man whipped out his little jimmy and masturbated in front of woman.
In Bayside, a 75-year-old man crossing the street by a exit road on the Cross Island Expressway and a poorly thought-out bike lane was hit by a car.
In Elmhurst, a fight between two men in a nightclub escalated when one of them slashed the other with a razor blade.
In Jackson Heights, a man was found dead hanging from a tree.
In Astoria, two armed men posing as UPS workers broke into a man’s home and shot him the leg as he fought them off.
In Woodside, two men robbed a 7-11 at gunpoint, stealing $300 from the register, lottery tickets and $40 and a cellphone from the clerk.
In Sunnyside, a man crashed into a police vehicle after making a sharp turn and running a red light and then pulled a gun on the officer who tried to arrest him.
In Woodhaven, a man attempted to hold up a grocery store with a toy gun.
In Richmond Hill, a fire engulfed a house on Christmas Day, leaving 3 families homeless.
In Queens Village at Wayanda Park, a gang of men driving lame ATV’s and motorcyles are causing major damage on the grass.
Brooklyn
In Crown Heights, a man was shot in the head and killed in front of a bodega at 1:40 a.m.
In Bed-Stuy, a 19-year-old man was shot twice and killed a block away from his home, three men are suspected.
Also in Bed-Stuy, a man hanging outside with friends was shot and killed in front of the Breevort Houses
In Flatlands, a man driving recklessly sped through an intersection and collided into two cars and crashed through a brick wall.
In Bensonhurst, a man who exploited an ill child and manipulated his son to feign sickness in a charity scam snatched a purse off a 66-year-old woman.
In Fort Greene in the early afternoon, a man holding up a bodega shot at the cashier twice, hitting him in the foot and robbed the register.
In Downtown Brooklyn at the Hoyt St. train station, a man jumped the turnstiles was caught by two cops. As they tried to question him, he tried to flee and then he threw his backpack on the tracks as the 3 train arrived. The cops retrieved it and found a loaded gun.
In Coney Island at a beer garden, a man shot another man three times. The victim was found to have been possessing an illegal gun.
In East New York, a man lured a 15-year-old girl to a basement where he beat, raped and robbed her.
In Cypress Hills by the Jackie Robinson Expressway, a dog was found in a garbage can bounded in trash bags and his mouth duct taped shut.
In Canarsie, three goons trying to ride the bus for free ganged up and all threw punches at the driver, then caused damage to the door when the driver shut it on them.
In Williamsburg, a man got killed after losing control while riding his bike then got hit by a tractor-trailer truck driving beside him
In Brighton Beach, a skimmer placed by 2 men in November was found in an ATM inside an Apple Savings Bank
Bronx
In Soundview, a 92-year-old woman was attacked and robbed by a man who knocked her down in front of church. The man is suspected of a mugging and purse snatching of a 72-year-old woman in a apartment building a few days before.
Also in Soundview, two men held up a bodega at gunpoint and robbed it of $1,000 and two cellphones early Christmas morning.
In Claremont, an 18-year-old man was shot and killed standing on a street corner blocks from his house.
Also in Claremont, a woman was found dead, naked and beaten, on the floor in the kitchen of her apartment on.
In the South Bronx, an autistic 9-year-old boy was found alone on the subway platform at the 161st station because his mother was passed out drunk on the couch in her apartment. She works for the MTA.
At a charter school in Concourse Village, a teacher courted a twelve-year old student for naked pictures of herself to send to his social media account and then molested her and sent her pictures of his genitals via the same platform, keeping up the lurid perverted sharing for 5 months.
At Pelham Bay Park, people are taking trash from their homes and dumping it in the parks garbage cans
In Norwood, a four alarm fire spread through an apartment building around 4:30 a.m.
Staten Island
In Port Richmond, a man shot his pregnant wife to death in the hallway by their apartment after an argument.
In Fox Hills, a 90-year-old man was awoken at 3:00 a.m by a burglar who broke into his home who robbed him of $35 after a physical struggle.
In Stapleton, a woman and her son that were being followed by a black SUV were shot at in her car coming from it.
Two cultural events involving dreadful government decisions happened in a kismet sort of way just days apart. A memo leaked from the Center of Disease Control pointed out words that were declared banned from documentation and discussion. The chosen words were equally arbitrary and bizarre; Diversity, entitlement, evidence-based, fetus, transgender, and vulnerable, and science-based.
Maybe not so bizarre, because these words are in the way of the Trump administration’s draconian cuts to studies regarding climate change, the drawing down of regulations concerning mining for non-renewable energy resources, the irrational battle to ban abortions, and the relentless pursuit to destroy the affordable care act and to atrophy funding to social security and medicaid. Of the 7 words, my personal favorites are evidence-based and science-based, which are generally known as proof and facts. Also vulnerable, which is what the majority of the working poor and middle class citizenry of this nation have become with the recent passage of the Oligarch Welfare Law. It looks like the word that would fill the void left behind the banishment of these terms would be “expendable”
Left to my own devices, if there was a word that should truly be forbidden considering this Orwellian blacklist with this bureaucracy under the Dotard it would be “control”.
Fortunately, it turns out that the leaking of this irrational Orwellian list is that it might have been a diversion by embittered long term staffers at the agency so that their programs won’t get defunded. It even got uproarously debunked by Trump’s appointed and soda pop industry conflicted director.
The story of the language rules at CDC has quickly broken free of underlying facts. Despite what you may have heard, the alleged “ban” of seven words does not reveal a secret “War on Science” carried out by thought police in Washington; nor is it some evil plot to “enforce a political and ideological agenda,” as the Washington Post editorial board suggested. A more sober measure of this soggy crumb of news—one that’s, well, evidence-based rather than reflexive—suggests it should be understood as a byproduct of the Trump administration’s much-less-secret war on science funding. It appears that the ban is an attempt by bureaucrats to save their favorite projects from unforgiving budget cuts.
That explanation would be consistent with what’s been reported to this point. According to CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, “There are no banned, prohibited or forbidden words at the CDC—period.” Meanwhile, anonymous sources at the Department of Health and Human Services told the National Review’s Yuval Levin this week that any language changes did not originate with political appointees, but instead came from career CDC officials who were strategizing how best to frame their upcoming budget request to Congress. What we’re seeing, his interviews suggest, is not a top-down effort to stamp out certain public-health initiatives, like those that aim to help the LGTBQ community, but, in fact, the opposite: a bottom-up attempt by lifers in the agency to reframe (and thus preserve) the very work they suspect may be in the greatest danger.
It appears that the ban is an attempt by bureaucrats to save their favorite projects from unforgiving budget cuts. Reports about the seven dirty words at CDC should be understood in light of that budgetary process. Right now, the Trump administration is in the middle of preparing its fiscal 2019 request, to be submitted to Congress this coming February. It’s likely that the staffers at each agency at HHS have already submitted their proposals for how much money they think they need, for which specific projects, along with “budget narratives” explaining why. These, in turn, have probably been passed up to the budget team for the whole department, aggregated and sent on to the Office of Management and Budget in the White House. Now the OMB is trying to combine proposals from across the federal government into one colossal document to be reviewed by lawmakers.
Like a sign of overcompensating for, you know, the signature gets hyuger every time he writes it.
Washington D.C., United States Of America Under Financial Totalitarianism
Lucy Van Pelt: I know how you feel about all this Christmas business, getting depressed and all that. It happens to me every year. I never get what I really want. I always get a lot of stupid toys or a bicycle or clothes or something like that.
Charlie Brown: What is it you want?
Lucy Van Pelt: Real estate.
Charles Schulz
It was written, rewritten and rewritten, then it was signed (wow was it signed), and it is done. The Oligarch Welfare Bill is now the unadulterated law of the land.
It was done with relative ease, since it didn’t even require a thorough reading by the establishment Republicans or the cooperation nor the presence of the establishment Democrats and Bernie Sanders in the final days of crafting this Piece Of Shit bill. All it took to barrel it through was to bribe Bob Corker by adding a last second provision tax break for pass through income via LLC’s, virtual company entities that work more like tools in making revenue in the business of real estate, which the retiring Senator accrued millions of dollars in while he has been a public servant.
It turned out the reason for Corky’s nay vote the last time was that this provision was not in the despicable bill’s house version and was added and authored by Utah’s Sen. Orrin Hatch, a man from the poor people and the chicken coop. So much for the senator taking a moral stand against Trump and massive deficits.
Senator Hatch was not only thinking of Corky and his aide, but himself and his wife and a posse of other GOP senators and house representatives with collectively millions of dollars accrued from real estate and equity holdings to profit immensely even more from the Oligarch Welfare Law (haven’t heard much reporting on how or which elected Democrat members will profit from their real estate holdings if they have them though). Including standout young’n house speaker Paul Ryan, who has been champing at the bit to get this bill created and ratified so the donors he sucks up to can now repatriate their massive tax avoiding wealth, collectively worth 3 trillion dollars, that have been trapped on their island shelters and lower taxed nations at the generous lower rate now instituted.
With all that hoarded money free at last, it can then flow through their LLC’s untouched by the Feds. Leading to more gentrification of the cities where they have invested properties in, which will cause more high end speculation. It will also kill small businesses like restaurants and bars, for LLC’s are also involved in dining and nightlife establishments too.
Now that their collaborated powerball winning legislation is now law, they are now (the only ones) celebrating. And since the Oligarch Welfare Law also includes massive tax breaks for alcohol distribution, they will surely doing shots with 100 year old scotch, bathing in 50 year old wine, and showering each other with the finest high end champagne.
The biggest winner is of course the elected and currently serving President (and his plutocabinet members). Continuing his lifelong streak since birth of privileged good fortune. And it’s a good thing too, since some of his branded properties have removed his ubiquitous name off of their buildings, which might have cost him quite a lot of cash (it’s the only evidence that he has divested from his businesses, by being forced to). With the passage and his ridiculous giant signature, which resembles a pathological liar’s lie detector chart pattern, ratifying it, the money will continue to flow through his world wide web of shell companies, ensuring and his billionaire status and a nice tax payer funded nest egg for his next of kin and their next of kin.
As for everyone else, the first year might be fine if you don’t own a home in New York, New Jersey or California, with the doubling of the standard deduction, but all those minor token tax cuts come to a screeching halt in a little less than a decade to justify the exorbitant costs of Oligarch Welfare Law, which with all the speculation on how it will make up for the 6 trillion dollars with all of the cash concentrated for the top earners by happenstance does not account the costs of future military conflicts or the catastrophic effects from hurricanes, sea level rise and land erosion and the long promised trillion dollar infrastructure plan Trump touted days after the white power siege of Charlottesville, will effect the nation’s budget in the next 5 years as these cuts get bigger for the top. Maybe the reason why they have not ended DACA is because, well, they need those kids to contribute to the redistribution of wealth with their weekly paychecks when they become adults. Maybe that will put a stop to build the new Wall Of Mexico (Nah).
So once you get your returns in 2019, don’t spend it too fast. Hell, don’t spend it at all if you are able to avoid sickness or injury, or from a climate disaster, no matter how impossible it is. For it’s the same logic that the avaricious, self-serving and donor-serving members of Congress utilized to craft this odious, rancid law. And they are not even done, for they are now concocting their B plan to fund it if these tax cuts cost the nation’s budget to implode. In fact this plan was implemented 2 weeks before they wrote the bill, knowing full well they won’t have the funds, current and speculative to finance them.
Republican lawmakers are preparing plans to restructure America’s welfare system, including putting new limits on who’s eligible for anti-poverty programs such as food stamps and housing benefits.
The details of the planned overhaul are still being determined, but congressional Republicans have already introduced policy proposals that would impose new work requirements on some of America’s welfare programs. Last year, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) unveiled a poverty plan as part of Ryan’s “A Better Way” agenda, which also called for the imposition of new work requirements.
The plans at the time were largely markers of future intention, signaling the party’s vision but not indicative of an imminent push for legislative action.
Something tells me this is going to take some filibustering from the Dems to nip this and kill this in the bud if they have the spine (nah.) Extreme filibustering.
Figurehead Trump did not even wait to sign this. In all certainty he also didn’t fucking read it. In his golden ukelele string maned covered head, he wanted to fulfill his promise to sign the bill before Christmas. The thing is of course that the promise he was most concerned about, after all the other failed ones regarding immigration and travel bans, was the promise to enhance his personal wealth. This is the fleshed out, current reality based adaptation of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, except that Scrooge sleeps through the four ghosts that invade his dreams and continues hoarding his wealth siphoned from the masses. As the timid elected Democrats, collectively resembling the meek assistant Ratchett, let him get away with this shit without true assertion and protest.
So forget about any Christmas cheer and gift giving in the lower and middle classes in the near future. Don’t want to forget those that yearn for higher education. For we have to pay their fair share now and our children and their paychecks are the future. Extreme fair share. Hopefully us proles will be able to hoard our money as well as the higher society populace of corporate executives, shareholders and of course our chosen members of legislative and executive public service did.
Piece of what? You can’t mean P-E-A-C-E Cause I’ve seen people on the streets Shoot the next man and turn around and say peace
Brooklyn
In East New York, an 80-year-old manager of a bodega was shot 11 times and killed by a man who hours earlier got angry with a clerk who wouldn’t let the asshole haggle him for a discount of a can of beer for 50 cents.
In East Flatbush, a man that arranged a trick with a prostitute got shot and killed by her pimp after an argument in his home.
In Prospect Park, a woman jogging in a path got hit by an 18-year-old man driving a stolen car. The dumbshit later stole another car left idling by another woman and smashed it into a police vehicle that pulled it over. He ran away and then knocked a 61-year-old woman to the ground and jacked her car and ran over her while in reverse. The doofus revealed his psychotic episode plan on his social media accounts.
In Bushwick, a man ran up to a woman from behind and grabbed her tote bag trying to steal it, then dragged her on the sidewalk as she refused to let it go.
Also in Bushwick, a man held up a 17-year-old boy at gunpoint at 8:20 a.m. then pistol whipped him and tried to take his cellphone.
Again in Bushwick, a man shoplifted a bird worth 500 bucks from a pet store.
In Do or Die Bed-Stuy, a 17-year-old boy was shot dead in cold blood on the sidewalk at 3:30 a.m. by a suspected couple conspiring a ruse of the crime scene. The victim told his family he was shot at the night before.
Again in Bed-Stuy, a man hanging outside with his friends at 10 p.m. was shot multiple times in point blank range and died later at a hospital.
In Sunset Park, two burglars broke into a supermarket side door and robbed the registers of $600.
Again in Sunset Park at the Gowanus Canal, where the market rate rent is over $3,000 and nearby the bland utopia of technology and dubious innovation Industry City, a dead decomposed woman was found on the rocks by the rancid watery muck.
In Boerum Hill, a woman walking on the street on Thanksgiving was attacked from behind by a man who punched her and stole her cellphone.
Also in Boerum Hill, a livery driver got held up at gunpoint by his passenger and was robbed of $200
Also in East New York at the Broadway Junction Terminal, a man grabbed a woman’s ass on the escalator, then punched her in the face when she tried to confront him.
Again in East New York, a man got killed crossing the four lane Linden Blvd as traffic was moving.
In Coney Island, groups of high school students rumbled on the street, leading to 3 teenage males getting stabbed and slashed.
In Crown Heights, a man was shot in the head and killed in front of a bodega
In Cobble Hill, a man stepped into a nativity display at a church and knocked over the statue of Joseph, Jesus’s stepfather.
In Flatlands, a fight between neighbors over a parking space being moderated by arriving police officers escalated when one of the men was found to be possessing a gun. The suspect tried to flee in his car as he nearly hit 5 cops then crashed into a vehicle and tried to run away.
In Bensonhurst, on the D train at the 79th St. Station, two people having an argument on the train escalated when the man put his hand on the woman’s face and shoved her against the window.
Also in Bensonhurst, a man sleeping in his car was jacked by six men holding him up at gunpoint, kicking him out and robbing him of 80 bucks and his ride; Three men and a woman ganged up on another woman to unlock and steal her cellphone.
In Brighton Beach, two pieces of shit placed a skimmer in a bank ATM machine.
In Bay Ridge, a man robbed an apartment of $16,000 worth of jewelry after the building’s super changed the locks on the door.
But that’s leaving people in pieces
It’s not what the meaning of peace is
To me it means absence of all confusion
Not the oozing and bruising
That we’re oh so accustomed to
Your friend got beef? I’ll bust him too
Manhattan
In Kips Bay at the Aser Levy Recreation Center, an mentally ill homeless man attacked two park police officers with a 2X4 and flung his arms and elbows at them resisting arrest after they tried to ask him to leave the building. The man previously threatened workers there with a knife and challenged the cops to arrest him by claiming he will return there regardless of trespassing charges against him. The rec center has been sidelined with lax security guards and the parks dept. as a whole with budget cuts to the parks police dept from under-staffing and old and incompatible patrol cars. This is an incredible story of city indifference and bueraucratic neglect of services and it’s harmful ramifications.
In the Fashion District, a man tossed a bottle at a parked police car and smashed the windshield. The culprit destroyed three other patrol cars, the last time using a chair, in the last week before he finally got arrested. Something just ain’t right about this, no one can just go around and vandalize police or even regular cars on a daily basis.
The real kick is that this area is one of the most massively populated parts of the city, it would be impossible for this guy not to get noticed destroying government property like Paul Newman did in the opening of Cool Hand Luke. And what the fuck is up with these people? Meaning commuters, shoppers and tourists, how do they miss this guy in the act, surely those windows are tough to break and requires a certain amount of time to destroy. And weren’t these windows suppose to be more fortified after the horrific murder of a police officer in the Bronx? (or was it just for the command post vehicles?)
The main obvious thing is the slow reaction of the NYPD, who are quick to be deployed for mass protests against economic fascists, systematic abusers of authority and entrenched government corruption and of course after a terrorist attack or attempt, no matter where it took place or even if it’s a confirmed threat, took a procrastinating response to this violent mentally ill vandal.
What happened to “broken windows”? Well, now you got real ones, not hypothetical ones.
What’s the answer then? The cynical consensus might presume it’s too keep crime stats or the population at Rikers down. Or maybe that these certifiable lunatics roaming around are mascots in the theme park of New Fun City 2.0.
In East Harlem, a man having an argument with two men inside of a bodega, was killed instantly when a point-blank shot in the back of his head by another man who entered the store and then ran off.
Photo by David McGlinn (N.Y. Post)
In Downtown by City Hall where the Vision Zero traffic program was crafted, a speeding town car attempting to swerve around a standing SUV collided into it, forcing it to run over a passing cyclist from the impact. The town car kept going and ran over a woman crossing the street, smashed into a luxury car, jumped the curb and hit another car, leaving 6 people injured including the driver
Also in Downtown by F.B.I. headquarters at Federal Plaza, an agent had her car broken into overnight and was burglarized of a safe containing $7,800 and bullet-proof vests.
Again in Downtown at the Fulton Street Station a man slashed two men during a fight on the 4/5 train platform.
In Harlem, a woman being savagely beaten and raped by her boyfriend in her apartment broke the window and escaped through the fire escape, half-naked, bleeding and bruised.
Again in Harlem, a homeless man dozing on the subway awoke and lashed out at a woman with a pair of scissors, stabbing her hand after she was trying to ask him about his well-being.
In Morningside Heights, a man was shot point blank three times in the chest in front of the restaurant he owns with his wife then died from his wounds.
On the Upper West Side in Central Park, two muggings by two groups of teenagers took place within hours of each other. The first by 75st and West Drive when 4 teenagers assaulted then knocked a man down and stole his belongings, and the second by 65th street as a man walking his dog got knocked down by two teenage males and a man who demanded his wallet.
In Kips Bay, a woman killed herself as she jumped off the roof of an apartment building onto a scaffold.
In Penn Plaza by the 34th St. 1 train station, a woman stabbed a 18-year-old man in front of his mom and the throngs of commuters and ran off.
In the Upper West Side, two men working for a co-op apartment building broke into the home of a woman who recently died stole stocks worth $2,000,000.
In the East Village, the sidewalk in front of a nail salon collapsed under the feet of a worker about to open the door. The building the salon is in consists of expensive condos.
Also in the East Village, a man sneaked into an apartment building and robbed a bunch of mailed packages in the lobby.
In Union Square at the Q train station of the same name, a man who was yelling at two men across the platform was attacked by them and repeatedly punched him, knocking him down to the edge as his head got hit by the arriving train. The thugs are still at large.
In Times Square, a man who arranged to sell his sneakers through social networking got held up at gunpoint by the buyer who didn’t have enough cash to buy them.
In NoMad, a doctor died in his luxury apartment from a heroin overdose.
In Midtown, a man named after the son of all alleged creation on Earth saw Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and yelled at her, accusing her of being the devil then was tackled by her security detail. The soon to be ex-speaker reacted accordingly, resembling somewhat like Jack Black with a wig and a cabal of consultants:
Little kids think that peace is a word that you use to sound down And I frown Cause that’s what I was told at eight years old And now I’m trying to break the mold So stop the dominoes Because I think it’s about time that everyone knows
Queens
On Rikers Island, a corrections officer trying to guide a prisoner back in his cell was attacked by him and two other convicts who knocked the C.O. to the floor as all of them repeatedly punched him in the face. Inmate arrests have rose 41% at the prison island ripe for deranged real estate speculation.
In Ozone Park at the Rockaway Blvd. train station, a man peeing on the wall was caught in the act by cops. As the cops tried to cuff him, the pisser resisted arrest shoving a cop to the platform and ran down the stairs. Turned out he was on parole yet unaware of the decriminalization of answering nature’s call in public.
In Jamaica, a worker at the 502 bar used his van as a weapon to chase a man who stabbed a patron at his bar with his own knife and ran him over, just like the lunatic who killed his own friend on Liberty Ave. a week ago.
Also in Jamaica, three men are suspected in three muggings, slashings and stabbings in three weeks
Again in Jamaica, a 16-year-old boy got run over crossing the street from a hit-and-run driver at 12:30 p.m. Then a reporter of the NY Daily News got arrested when he tried to access the intensive care unit under the influence of alcohol in an attempt to interview his family.
In Hollis, 2 men attempted to break into a home pretending to deliver a package and shot the resident with a BB gun during a struggle.
Also in Hollis, a man was shot and killed sitting in his car at 4:30 a.m.
In St. Albans, a man was stabbed profusely and died from his wounds on a street corner following an argument with his brother.
In Flushing, a man has been pick-pocketing wallets from eight women since late October. Using their debit cards to make personal purchases.
Also in Flushing on the Main St. Station, a man snatched a woman’s cellphone from her hand as she was about to board the train.
In Astoria, a woman was found dead floating in the east river by the park by the Triborough Bridge.
In Kew Gardens at the Union Turnpike Station, a woman and a man attacked a 66-year-old man who bumped into her, punching him on the train and punching him again on the stairwell when they got off at the same stop.
Also in Kew Gardens, two men robbed a 7-11 of 3 grand worth of cigarettes.
In Long Island City, a man broke into a hair salon and robbed it of $1,500 of electronic items at 5 in the morning.
In Sunnyside, a man burglarized a 99 cent store of 49,500 cents by finding enough room to enter under the rolldown gate.
Also in Sunnyside, a man driving an BMW crashed into a NYPD cruiser, injuring an officer, then ditched his car and ran off.
Again in Sunnyside, a man walked into a take-out restaurant and robbed a tip jar containing $30 off the counter
In Ridgewood, a man has burglarized four apartments in two months with ease because tenants are properly locking their windows, robbing over $10,000 worth of electronic items and jewelry.
In Jackson Heights, a woman was robbed of her wallet as she was tricked by a man impersonating a cop who asked for her I.D.
Also in Jackson Heights, a man was caught on video attempting to break into an ATM and inside the bank with a crowbar.
In Queens Village, a man sitting in his car with a passenger was killed as he was shot in the neck.
In Woodhaven, a man was wanted for stealing packages left behind by delivery services in various homes in the northeastern areas of the borough.
In Maspeth, a warehouse being used as a nite club was raided by the NYPD.
In Elmhurst, a man was found stabbed to death in his apartment.
Peace! But everybody’s in terror We’re going back to the caveman era Where people got killed, without the chance to build Shame how the plane is filled With so many so-called intellects That can’t use a word in its proper context
Bronx
In Fordham Heights, a 61-year-old man was stabbed to death inside his apartment.
In Mott Haven, a man got arrested trying to buy a chicken dinner from the restaurant he robbed in July.
Also in Mott Haven, a 69-year-old man waving a machete at officers conducting a search of the apartment, was shot dead by a cop after ordering him to drop his weapon.
In Mount Hope, an off-duty cop leaving a party was jumped, hit with a bottle and assaulted by four men at 3:40 a.m. and robbed of his gun which was recovered later stashed in a spot by Yankee Stadium.
In Highbridge, a woman was accosted by two teenagers who accused her of being a supporter of Figurehead Trump and proceeded to take her groceries and throw it at her and robbed her cellphone when she told them she was calling the cops.
Also in Highbridge, a man was stabbed multiple times on the street by a 16-year-old boy.
In Belmont, a man killed himself falling off the fire escape after he threatened to stab his girlfriend and was chased out of her apartment by two men.
In Unionport, two gangs got into a street hassle that escalated into a gun battle after one man laid a punch on another and other men drew their guns and shot at each other and fled.
Somebody screwed up the diction You might die looking for the right definition Cause “peace” nowadays means “gun,” or “gotta run” 30 years from now we’ll wonder how the younger generation got foul Look at what we teach them today Peace is not the word to play
Staten Island
In St. George, a college professor noticing a gang of kids playing with fire in a playground got attacked as they sucker-punched him then beaten him to the ground with kicks after he told them to stop it
The incorrect usage of the word “peace” has got to cease Stop fronting (Stop fronting) Stop fronting, like you know what I’m saying and on that note I leave you with this…
Incisive lyrics written by the Large Professor, Main Source
It was forty years ago when this cinematic masterpiece was released and introduced the world to a working class town, a rising musical genre and a young man working in a paint store for minimum wage transformed into an legend and icon on Saturday Night.
The movie had the same gritty feel of Taxi Driver, dancing rivaling An American In Paris, and the angst of Rebel Without A Cause. The film not only had cool dance moves, choreography and that immortal dance floor; it had a great arc of the character Tony Monero. John Travolta’s great and underrated portrayal shows his evolution from cocky street kid to brooding, disillusioned adult. The storyline and plot is not just mere filler as it contains genuine Italian family interaction, Tony’s awkward yet professional courtship of Stephanie, those classic and currently fading from existence Brooklyn accents and the wild, spontaneous though obnoxious antics of Tony’s gang. The White Castle scene is one of the funniest scenes of all time.
It also had great quotable lines. The favorite might be when Stephanie’s boss chided her for using the word super.
If it needed to be reminded, the film consists of one of the three greatest soundtracks of all time (number 2 behind Purple Rain and ahead of Superfly). Bee Gees greatest songs, great instrumentals (also underrated and overlooked), and contemporary hits by The Trammps and Kool & The Gang.
The film’s impact is still solid and everlasting. They, meaning Hollywood, don’t make them like this anymore and probably never will, which is a good thing (they have avoided making a remake, so far) in addition to the fact that the industry is more willing to churn out superhero garbage like sausage.
The films legacy has been Stayin’ Alive for 40 years. And there ain’t no stopping it now or ever.
The governor of New York, expressing victimization from his latest visit from the feds.
Albany, N.Y.
Looks like Mario’s son Andy Cuomo is having another ethics debacle and again abusing his position giving to him by the voters who entrusted him with it.
The FBI is investigating the Cuomo administration’s practice of hiring employees to work in the governor’s office while actually paying them through various state agencies and public authorities, the Times Union has learned.
Hiring pricey political appointees to work for the Executive Chamber — but paying them through other entities — has allowed Cuomo and prior governors to increase the size of their staffs while escaping criticism for inflating the Executive Chamber budget.
One type of evidence being explored by the FBI, sources said, are the written notifications that are sent by agencies or authorities to the governor’s office informing them of a new hire.
An analysis by the Times Union a year ago found that more than 40 percent of the Executive Chamber staff was actually on the payroll of public authorities or agencies. At the time, 89 of 209 Executive Chamber employees were on agency or authority budget lines.
That trend accelerated when Cuomo announced 27 new hires or promotions last March. All but a handful went to Executive Chamber jobs, but the Executive Chamber was actually paying just five of those people.
Many of the well-paid new political appointees announced in March were veterans of the Obama administration or Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential campaign that needed new employment. The moves also sparked further speculation about Cuomo gearing up for a 2020 presidential run.
Under Cuomo, in some instances the positions held by Executive Chamber officials have had a correlation with the entity paying them. In other instances there seems have been little link between the work being done and an employee’s source of income.
Take well-paid Cuomo speechwriters, Tom Topousis and Jamie Malanowski. Although paid to pen speeches for the governor, Topousis was hired in 2015 at a $125,000 salary as a “special assistant” at the Office of Children and Family Services, a child protective services agency.
Malanowski’s $120,000 salary, meanwhile, has been paid by the Affordable Housing Corp., a quasi-governmental agency that helps subsidize affordable housing projects.
One of the March hires announced by Cuomo was Joel Wertheimer, who in his prior job in the Obama White House was coordinating and reviewing briefing materials sent to the president.
In his new post as staff secretary for Cuomo, Wertheimer was hired at a $120,000 salary on the budget of the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, an agency which helps people recover from addiction. He left the Cuomo administration in September, seven months after being hired, payroll records show.
In March, Cuomo also announced the hiring of Robert Gibbon, a former state Republican Senate staffer and an attorney. He was retained as assistant counsel to the governor for transportation at a salary of $105,000.
Yet Gibbon was hired for a budget slot on the payroll of the Justice Center, an agency meant to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect at homes for the disabled. After the Times Union inquired about Gibbon’s status, a Cuomo spokesman said he would be moved to the payroll of the quasi-governmental Thruway Authority.
These hires from the wracked DNC forms quite the cabal. Mario’s son again proves adept at spreading tax dollars like it’s coming out of his ass like diarrhea on patronage hires. How these generously well overpaid officials qualified for these positions absolutely don’t matter to a man with such lofty goals beyond his horrendous two terms as governor.
Nothing strange or unusual considering where these dubiously talented folk came from considering how much campaign money was accrued and spent by the partisan political organization. In fact lots of it by Figurehead Obama in his 2012 campaign virtually bankrupted it with the over-staffing of all this primo talent and candidate Manifest Hillary 2016 campaign ethically bankrupted it according to Donna Brazille and Wikileaks.
It’s an absolute certainty that the positions and the policies they are tasked with as not resulted in any proactive or positive gains or progress at all when it comes to services the constituency relies on. Like transit, transportation and housing. Even a basic thing to keep governing functioning honestly and efficiently like ethics. For these appointees seem more distracted with primping the Prince Andy for the high office than with the conditions of the roads, the subways, schools, elderly care and stemming the crises of cost of living and rental affordability, child abuse, homelessness and heroin and fentanyl addiction. The only thing these hacks specialize in is boosting their clients hollow profiles and watered-downed disingenuous promises and policies. No need to wonder why these problems still exist and persist.
As for ethics, these career politicos said fuck all to that certainly when they started their careers in government service. For it’s has always been about survival of the fittest, and have found a nice safe place from the man who betrayed his promise to stifle in house corruption and abolished the Moreland Commission when it was found to be in his palatial office.
All this falls in direct line with his atypical lousy judgement when it’s comes his choices of funding programs and of course the people he’s willing to associate with, like his honorary brother Joe Percoco, just recently busted taking bribes from a developer and hooking up his son with a plum job:
The Cuomo hiring practice is also a sidebar to the January corruption trial of former top Cuomo aide Joe Percoco and three others.
The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office alleges Percoco accepted bribes from Syracuse developer Steven F. Aiello, a co-defendant in the upcoming trial. One government favor done in exchange for bribes, according to prosecutors, was Percoco facilitating a $5,000 raise for Aiello’s son in a new job in Cuomo’s office in 2015.
The son, Steven L. Aiello, was actually paid his $62,000 salary through the Division of Military and Naval Affairs, which manages New York’s military forces, records show. He has since left the administration.
Clear to see a pattern there. But with Mario’s son’s unquenchable appetite for more loftier heights and stupidly distracted with it that he let his shithead friend engage in nepotism hiring, he recklessly went into overkill with his executive office hires, leading to this FBI investigation.
And Andy is clearly feeling the heat up his ass as he’s in snowflake victimization mode.
Team Cuomo called the Times Union’s report “absurd” and said the practice has been going on for decades.
“The agencies are all part of the same executive branch, and this administration follows the exact same lawful hiring process we inherited from previous administrations stretching back decades. If there are questions about it, call George Pataki,” said Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi.
“In this environment, anyone can ask about anything, but the fact is the longstanding practice of detailing staff from agencies to work in the Executive Chamber dates back over 50 years to at least the Rockefeller administration and extends to the White House and the federal Department of Justice,” he said.
Or we can ask Governor Andy’s dad.
“Given that the Federal Department of Justice and the White House have a long history of utilizing this practice, perhaps the FBI can investigate them when this is charade is over.” The paper reported that some employees do have some connection to the agencies or authorities they are paid by while in others they do not.
“Have you been in Albany?” Cuomo sternly asked the reporter who asked the question. “Have you covered government? Do people who have political experience get hired by government or is it a new fact for you?”
“You have it going on in journalism,” Cuomo said. “What are you going to do different?”
Nothing like good old deflection and projecting. And the classic childish antidote of “they did so we can do it too”. With a sprinkle of the pervasive fascist trend of bashing and intimidating journalists.
The pressing thing about this for Andy is that he is the only one left from all those previous corruption cases in the last few years serving the state. Which makes him the only target or in his mind an easy scapegoat. The timing is pretty shitty considering his comfy seat in Albany is up for grabs this year, but it serves him right for having such shitty judgement in the first place.
Although it’s wishful thinking, an indictment against Andy would be sweet but it’s a long shot considering the precedence of a century of entrenched unethical political wheeling and dealing in New York. It is nice and karmic that he is feeling the same frustration and aggravation that his policy decisions have levied on his constituents, especially in the 5 boroughs, who continued to be subjected to it day after day, year after year.
Here’s hoping charges materialize, that way a new precedence can begin to get money and marketing out of politics and government. But mostly drop the bomb on this jerk’s deluded higher office ambitions.
If not, at least the nation can be secure in the knowledge that Mario’s son appointed a bunch of political mercenaries that couldn’t get their megalomaniac candidate Manifest Hillary to beat a boastful ignoramus manchild like our current President Figurehead Trump.
They fucking did it. It’s going to get more frustrating communicating, mining for information, reading news and doing business on the internet now. Regardless of the cajoling statements of the scheming commissioner and the more superpowered I.S.P.s.
Left To right, Left to right: Guns ‘N Fuckin’ Roses, Prince, Rakim & Eric B., & Redd Kross (who? you’ll see soon enough)
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To quote 
“Rare” murder crime scene in Times Square.
Like a sign of overcompensating for, 
I Peace New York. What?
Photo by David McGlinn (N.Y. Post)
The governor of New York, expressing victimization from his latest visit from the feds.
Impunity City 