Starring: The Punk Ass and The Dumb Ass

New Normal, New York

The recent announcement of the lockdown of the city schools and it’s undetermined re-opening coinciding with the marginal rise of coronavirus infections among the citizenry has led to a veritable collision of worlds involving our two executive officials of the state and city of New York, Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio; exposing again the depthless void of partnership  between the two men and their administrations and the back and forth deferring of accountability regarding the economic and societal impacts that are being disrupted by the pandemic.

Beginning with the megalomaniac tin horn autocrat in Albany.

Immediately after fielding the first question from reporter Jimmy Vikeland about imminent public school closings in New York City based on the ague vagaries of Cuomo’s color coated area datas where COVID-19 is mostly spread to reinforce restrictions, the governor’s eyes bulged and accused the intrepid reporter of speaking untoward him with an “obnoxious tone” which the insecure governor reciprocated  with his trademark condescending tone and proceeded to spew a fusillade of condescending retorts and juvenile mimicries to go along with his indignant accusations against Vikeland’s credibility. When another reporter got rightly offended with how he insulted Vikeland, Cuomo let him and his constituency know that he doesn’t give a shit what he thinks about the press’s questions regarding his pandemic policy.

Cuomo continued to respond to other reporters with self-righteous indignation and unadulterated hubris because they wouldn’t accept his gaslighting as gospel, considering that the luvguv knew that Mayor de Blasio was going to close the schools the very second that the 3% infection threshold was achieved. This outburst was a total 180 degree turn from the measured and more informed response about the closings that Cuomo said a few days earlier when he pointed out that if the infection rates were low in the schools compared to the test results from the general population, it wouldn’t justify the closures and he mused that schools could be a safer environment from contagion than being at home. Which makes Cuomo’s sudden adamant tantrum about the city shutting down the schools so full of shit because he has the power to shut down the schools which he did when the virus first took hold of the city.

Another thing which makes his freak out suspect is that he has ruled New York with a paternalistic iron fist since Albany gave him his unquestioned emergency executive powers back in March. But suddenly with the schools he has been doing his damnest to disassociate himself from them, preferring to let Mayor de Blasio handle them.  Plus Cuomo was actually told by de Blasio that he decided to shut down the schools before he held his press conference and subsequent tirade and blatantly misinforming the press of his knowledge.

The worst thing about this disgraceful display and his inner contempt towards the press that wasn’t executed by the exiting POTUS is that Cuomo is continuing to exploit the social distancing protocols against the press trying to make him accountable for his policy decisions (or in this case, his non-decision). The governor/biographer is fortunate he has to deal with professionals with limited access and time to be around him while the pandemic is having a resurgence. He may not be so lucky when the vaccines are approved and the six feet barricades and face mask rules get rescinded, because Cuomo is due for another verbal lashing…

As for the worst mayor of NYC and any other city in the last century, the way de Blaz condescends to the press inquiring about his COVID responses is comparably polite. Instead of yelling at reporters he meekly dismisses their questions with deflections and brazen lies. And because of the pandemic guidelines, he doesn’t even convey any effort when he gaslights them about his policies because he won’t let the press do their jobs in the same room with him and they can only access him and ask questions over the phone.

And the Blaz actually has valid reason to be standoffish, the list of how he royally fucked up the pandemic response would result in a scroll that would transverse the planet about 3 times (going with the 3% lockdown measure theme here). But regarding the schools, de Blasio, along with his comic relief DOE Commissioner Carranza, were screwing around for months planning the new school year to adjust for the pandemic.

His rollout of the remote learning program was and continues to be a disaster, especially for the poor and homeless children with the distribution of faulty computer pads forcing them to rely on the tiny screens of cellphones to learn. That’s if they even get reception for it, being that these lower area median income neighborhoods don’t have free wifi.

After a few weeks of delays, the schools have been open and the blended learning program seem to be working until the weather got chillier and positive cases began to rise. Predictably de Blasio waited till the last second to warn parents about shutting down the whole system as he did when he kept rescheduling opening the schools at the start. Even though most school buildings didn’t have enough ventilation to prevent the contagion and the cap to make partial opening work was set low at 3% even though CDC regs and Cuomo set it at 5%. plus the inevitability of cases rising again when the weather got colder and of stupid selfish people gathering maskless in clusters, which continued to happen across the city. Then the 3% threshold hit and the Blaz closed them down for an indeterminate amount of time with Cuomo’s hands off blessing, collectively pissing off parents and teachers after a little over a month of utter incompetent leadership and shoddy services.

The interesting thing about the Blaz insistence to have kids return to schools for in person learning is that he made it an issue that he was the only mayor in the nation to attempt this. It still seems that he’s still obsessed with being some kind of national figure than governing the city he was elected to run. Twice. And the chaotic logistics behind the schools reopening and reclosing truly conveys a mission supervised by other interests and distractions.

And it definitely applies to Cuomo too with his pressers, because his belligerence with the NYC press is just a withdrawal symptom after getting months of fawning butt massaging praise and unconditional (and maladjusted) worship from the corporate news press (which includes his little brother), celebrities and social media for being an alleged alternative resource against COVID information coming from the Trump administration even though Cuomo refused to meet with Trump’s health commissioner 17 times when called for emergency meetings regarding the virus. So Cuomo had 17 chances to yell and make condescending snide insults at Trump and Health Secretary Azir about his expertise to their faces on handling the pandemic like he did to these reporters and chose not to. Pussy.

Even after that the senseless praise for Cuomo continued as he rejected vaccines that are almost ready because it was made possible from Trump’s warp speed initiative. Of course the worst aspect about Cuomo and his rock star status is that it translated into an autobiography he remarkably found time to write an autobiography of how he handled the virus that is still spreading and an International Emmy Award that was made up out of the blue.

It’s understandable why Cuomo and de Blasio are being so difficult and so vague governing this crisis, because it’s just a reaction how they initially fucked up against the novel coronavirus when they both dillydallied and were at loggerheads with shutting down the city in March and continued to be at loggerheads in the ensuing months. But now they are finally in sync (so it seems) with the new lockdown as the holidays approach.

Although it’s imperative to implement these lock downs and restrictions now because of the rapid rise of covid infections, the governor and the mayor’s horrendous lack of correspondence and cohesion and their proclivity for gaslighting about their policies  and data while dismissing accountability for them has manifested a universal reaction of no confidence and universal contempt and ridicule from the citizens of New York City, who all really have no choice but to deal with these regulations and these two incompetent and insufferable megalomaniacs and deal with their shitshow follies.

Remotely of course.