Ed Notes Online

Norm Update: Where have I been, Where Am I going?

2026-04-01T10:48:00.002-04:00

April 1,

Wow, it's April 1 and I haven't blogged in 3 weeks. Happy Passover - we head to cousin in Jersey later for a festive meal and an eating frenzy. We bring the Haggadah and yarmulkas. And charoset. My belly is aching already.

Why haven't I been blogging? Some people were concerned enough to check on my health, which has been good so far (next scan is end of May).

And had a lovely lunch with a former student celebrating Chinese New Year and my birthday. Nothing I love more than meeting up with people I knew when they were 12 and seeing them all grown up. But more important, she's become a friend.

I haven't totally abandoned UFT politics - I got to all the meetings and am in chats with lots of people and organize a chat n chew in person meeting with people connected to the group formerly known as ICE when school is out for a week - so far have had two and holding another one next week at our favorite diner. Over 10 have showed so far - mostly retirees but some working - and I find people really like to meet in person rather than zooms. A lot of the talk is about the rift in the opposition, including retirees since the UFT election wrangles that began in the summer of 2024, which has led to my pulling away from Retiree Advocate for a number of reasons beyond the election, which I will delve into if I ever blog again after this one. (Meanwhile keep reading Arthur who I consult with often.)

I have been doing other stuff too. I entered an intensive guide training program at Brooklyn Botanic Garden back in September and my final "exam," a 50 minute rest tour, is April 8. There are 21 people in the group of trainees and we have been meeting on Saturdays all day -- a great group of people - you can't go wrong hanging out with people who love gardening. I also do tours in Murray Hill where I'm also taking private pilates lessons at a studio on Madison Ave and E. 39 St. I'm feeling real good from those. I hope to get back to hot yoga soon. And walk, walk, walk - ironically which I do when I am in Manhattan but don't do when I am in Rockaway. And going to a gym and lifting light weights. At the height of my chemo I looked like a skeleton. (It's been a little over a year since chemo - and remember I handled all the petitioning details for ABC in the midst of the chemo. I still have the neuropathy and of course the diabetes due to the deformed pancreas.

And I still work with the construction and video crew at the Rockaway Theatre Company where Man of La. Mancha opens for a 3 weekend run tomorrow night. No more attempt at acting for me. We have such a pool of enormous talent - the fourth person to hit Broadway from our crew is Baby Byrne, appearing in,

ANJELLICLE CATS. I remember her as Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls about ten years ago. (She's on the right). I was an aspiring gangster in that show (back row).

Oh, and also having fun with some UFT Si Beagle classes. In the fall I overdid it and registered for tours I couldn't make but did make the drawing and painting classes. This spring I limited myself to the latter every Thursday -- over 4 hours of relaxed drawing and painting. I went whole hog and brought lots of paints. I may sit in my garden and paint all summer.

My 81 Bd - gift:

I've been doing some other stuff too, but can't seem to remember what. I'm 81 after all.

Retired Teacher Chapter Exec Bd meets gets sad news, Analysis of Texas Dem Primary - Surprise - Real Progressive Won, Is Iran winning?

2026-03-09T10:38:00.002-04:00

The Kazansky/Brown race for TRS heating up as hundreds attend an ABC info zoom -- report coming soon.

Respect Means Retirement Security... David Kazansky Mar 7

Monday, March 9, 2026

I attended the March 3rd (my birthday) Retiree Teacher Exec Bd meeting on Tuesday after rushing back from a weekend jaunt to attend The Philadelphia Flower Show, the nation's oldest and largest horticultural event, held annually since 1829. Most people I know think that I'm nuts and after attending the meeting I agree with them.

There was an election taking place and I wanted to be there to stand up for the candidate I favored in a 4 way race. (She didn't win.) The RTC constitution gives the EB the right to replace any elected position, though when we try to replace the dozen delegates (out of the 300 we elected), the UFT says we can't -- you know, because they say we can't. We were told by a former Unity delegate that when they ran the chapter and had vacancies, Tom Murphy just replaced them. They make rules up as they go along.

The lack of aggressiveness by the RTC leadership only emboldens bullying by the UFT/Unity leadership. I think it goes beyond that and detect some fear by the ideologues in RA of adding new delegates who might not be pure enough ideologically --- but that's only my guess. One RTC Exec Bd member pointed out that adding a new batch of delegates would invigorate our contingent at the DA which has been shrinking to the point of irrelevancy, perhaps the major failure of the RA hierarchy.

There was an opening on the RTC Executive Board due to the resignation recently of Daniel Harkavy due to an illness - cancer that seemed to escalate quickly. We found out on Tuesday that he died on February 20, a real shock to many of us who had enormous respect for Daniel for his sense of humor, smarts, and judicious non-partisan advice. I wanted to touch base with him after he resigned and am kicking myself for failing to do so. Daniel taught chemistry at Brooklyn Tech for 26 years.

At the RTC EB meeting last Tuesday, Arthur Goldstein, who got to know Daniel, paid an impassioned tribute to Daniel and followed that up with this post.

RIP Daniel: Daniel Harkavy passes: Arthur Goldstein- Mar 06, 2026

I'm not sure how Daniel came to be part of the RTC EB - I didn't know him before. He tried to steer a neutral course during the UFT election follies last year, signing petitions for both ABC and ARISE, and attempted to run with both slates but was made to choose by ARISE. He ran with ABC because he felt ABC had the better chance to win but remained cordial with everyone.

When ABC had a petition signing in Bayside, where Daniel lived, he showed up and met Arthur and was introduced to one of our officer candidates who is also a chemistry teacher who graduated from Brooklyn Tech a year before Daniel began teaching there. He was thrilled to meet her.

For someone I barely knew, his passing was especially upsetting because when he posted he was in the hospital I intended to touch base with him as a fellow cancer patient who went through some tough days over the 6 months of chemo. To have been stricken with a deadly cancer at such a relatively young age - he was 63 but count the time leading up to it - is so sad and makes me feel relatively lucky at having reached 81 recently and still be fairly mobile and active.

I barely knew him but will miss him.

Daniel was open and respected for openly saying that if he felt ARISE had the better chance he would have run with them. The ABC crew respected him for that view and we felt that if he would have been allowed to run on the ARISE too, he would have gotten 46% of the vote, the highest total of any non-Unity person in history.

I advocated running hundreds of people on both slates and might have actually sneaked a few people in. At some point the people who made that decision for ARISE need to be held accountable. Actually, the entire leadership of ARISE.

As to the election for his replacement, as I said, my favored candidate who also ran with the ABC slate did not win and lost to someone who had no connection to the movement we built among retirees over the past 5 years. A very nice guy, by the way. But a message was sent by the New Action/Retiree Advocate dominated RTC EB and the result is not a positive development for a united front in the 2027 RTC chapter election. Details next time.

=======

The Texas Primaries

I'm a political nerd and follow both mainstream and alt media.

On the broader political front, I get some of the best political analysis at breaking points, an alt media outpost that includes the left and the right, with the great reporter Ryan Grim and Krystal Ball representing the left. But it's always good to see what the right is thinking, though this is not MAGA right.

I've been getting about 10 messages a day from Talarico -- I want to send him some money, but then I will get 20 messages a day.

Wednesday's discussion of the Talarico/Crockett primary was fascinating and for a deep dive I urge you to check it out: https://youtu.be/5ttTwSR60L0?si=ms2W31EGQwDyprjb

Not knowing enough beforehand, I did not have a dog in the race, other than the sense that Talarico had a better chance to win than Crockett, whose performance-based political acts has never resonated with me. Some view her as squad-oriented but and someone said to me she was like AOC. Far from AOC or the squad, she is more cultural than economic left. And in fact it turns out according to the analysys below that Talarico made the better economic left case.

Mainstream media painted the race as the left (Crockett) vs the center (Talarico) and therefore a lesson for Dems to stay to the center. This analysis actually paints Talarico as a sort of left because he ran an anti-corporate Bernie type campaign, albeit with some religious twists while Crocket despite her performativeness actually avoided the wealthy vs the rest of us and was more of a Dem cultural

Republicans already spent more than $71 million to try to push Cornyn over the finish line, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm. But all that money got him to only 42% in the primary against Paxton, who has been impeached, indicted, and rocked by multiple cheating scandals.

The New Yorker: In the Texas Primaries, a Good Night for James Talarico, and a Bad One for John Cornyn

Cornyn, still the establishment conservative, raised roughly sixty-nine million dollars; Paxton just four million. In the final stages of the primary, the incumbent, still trailing in the polls, released a spot for the ages, which opened, “It’s voting time, so let’s cut through the bullshit. Crooked Ken Paxton cheated on his wife. She’s divorcing him on Biblical grounds.” Paxton’s camp deployed the candidate’s daughter in a last-minute response ad, and called Cornyn “a desperate shell of a man clinging to power.” But, on Tuesday night, neither candidate managed to get fifty per cent of the vote, which means they’ll face off again in a runoff, in May. In theory, Republican voters might have been ready to throw out the last vestiges of the pre-Trump party. But not for Ken Paxton. At least not yet.

Crockett’s challenge to Talarico had less to do with ideological difference than with style—a somewhat repetitive January debate between the two candidates kept returning not to policy but to the question of whether it was better to establish common ground with some conservatives in the hope of winning their votes (Talarico’s position) or simply to rally your side by making clear what you opposed (Crockett’s). Crockett seemed to see enemies everywhere, and closed her campaign lashing out at certain political consultants and reporters. The congresswoman’s team expelled Elaine Godfrey, who’d published a critical profile of the candidate in The Atlantic, from an event for being a “top-notch hater.” The resulting back-and-forth on social media, between the campaign and its liberal critics, consumed much of the race’s final days.

Who's Winning the Iran War? A surprising view differs from mainstream media from the left and the right.

The left view - Ryan X Tim Dillon: https://youtu.be/3lTk2SOHeVM?si=TR1ZbwOmoACNLiI5

The right view from Saagar and Tucker on Iran winning - Saagar X Tucker: https://youtu.be/Dl78cDjOIRM?si=CTGDRVtSzXWTJYSJ

Cults: Unity Caucus Channels Republicans as UFT Delegate Assembly Echoes Trump State of the Union,TRS Election Adds Another Purged Unity Defector

2026-02-28T09:51:00.000-05:00

Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026

Watching the Republicans leap up for joy at every Trump lie and bit of misinformation at the SOTU brought echoes of recent UFT Delegate Assemblies where we see a similar reaction from (fake) jocularity from the Unity Caucus cheering committee. The longest SOTU and most boring speech in history reminded me of some of Mulgrew's long-winded reports at the DA.

There was no better example than the Feb. DA where the main item was the endorsement for TRS of Unity candidate Tom Brown as one Unityite after another rose to give praise - and oh the cheers when the vote was taken to endorse him. Oppo people, like the Dems at the SOTU sat on their hands. There just weren't many of them and even for those who were there, there was no coordination. More and more oppo people are just not bothering to attend -- a boycott of sorts, like the Dems who stayed away from the SOTU.

The only group that had a strategy - sort of - was ABC people, but I was lukewarm to not opposing Tom Brown on the grounds he was one of 3 Unity shills who would do whatever Mulgrew tells him to do. The argument for David Kazansky is that he would now be an independent voice - and yes, for 9 years he was a union leadership voice - publicly - but I suspect behind the scenes he was willing to ask questions about the fees we were paying, the role of private equity and investment strategy.

MORE on the whole has never felt the DA was an important venue. And the vaunted 300 Retiree Advocate delegates that replaced the Unity 300 in the June 2024 supposedly game-changing election which has not changed the game very much have been disappearing from the DA in droves, thus negating the impact of that election. MORE claims 100 DA. members but few show up, so the Unity staff and loyalist CLs dominate the room. Remember ARISE? No signs anywhere that they are alive since the embarassing 14% vote in the 2025 UFT election.

Even I, an over 50-year DA attendee, even when I wasn't a delegate, no longer see it worth it to hand out leaflets. I like to attend for social reasons to schmooze and hang out with my pals.

The real changes in the UFT are happening underneath the covers and I am glad to be part of the various fragments of people connected to ABC.

Mulgrew helps build the new opposition in the UFT

What the hell is happening at the UFT that 2 former pension reps are challenging the Unity candidate for TRS rep?

Former UFT special rep Frank Panebianco is joining former 9-year Teacher Retirement System rep David Kazansky, pushed out of the job by Mulgrew two years ago and fired last June, in the race for TRS rep against Unity loyalist Tom Brown. Panebianco was among those staffers fired by Mulgrew.

Is he a plant by Unity to divide the oppo vote? The guess is he is not but genuinely pissed off at the leadership. Is Unity cheering his candidacy against David? I'm thinking not as he is popular and may well draw votes from Unity and turn this into a 3-person race. And of course David is popular in Untiy and will also draw votes. In a secret ballot, no matter the pressure from the leadership, there will be defections. Unity may punish district reps who don't turn out the vote -- we get a post-election report on the vote breakdown for every school. The key for Kazansky is to build a strong network of schools that will vote for him - right now there are 6 weeks to get 1000 signatures for each candidate. He has a shot at winning no matter what, but even if Brown wins the network built in the campaign can be used in the future.

That two long-term Unity pension experts have challenged Unity candidate Tom Brown is indicative of the same kind of cracks we have been seeing in Uniy over the past few years. The massive retiree and para oppo wins in the 2024 chapter elections were clear indicators - the removal of Amy Arundell from Queens started a trend and her ability to bring some serious elements of Unity along with her in last year's union election has created a potential new oppo block in ABC outside the usual caucus suspects.

Despite the firings by Mulgrew last June, while scaring some of Unity back into the fold, has still left some people seething. (One well-known school-based Unity recently declared privately "I'm done with them." Are they ready to be openly part of an oppo group like ABC? That may take some time and also depends on how capable ABC looks over the next few years. And don't forget that Unity 54% vote in the election. It takes some time for people who have been in a cult to wean themselves off.

This look good for Unity - short term on the surface - but many of these people have actually learned some organizing skills, albeit in the rigid confines of Unity. But once freed, the creativity flows and excitement at the freedom grows. It is up to the legacy oppos to figure out how to join forces if they want to defeat Unity. There is a soft strucrure in place within the ABC coalition by the alliances built in last year's election and ties that bind continue to be built.

Learn more about David at WeTrustDavid.org

The Mulgrew reign of terror may work to keep staffers in fear and in line but the firing of well-liked and competent people also sends a message and degrades the structure from underneath. The firing of District 30 rep Ashley Rzonca has riled chapter leaders and rank and file in the district and is creating a cloud of resentment that will ultimately morph into open opposition. I never knew Ashley until she was fired last June and have come to see her abilities in various strategy sessions.

Then there is Pissgate where a photo of Amy was placed in a men's room urinal at the Delegate Assembly and the culprit wasn't found despite months of investigation by an outside lawyer and despite cameras.

There is a lot of residual fear and loathing of Mulgrew and his administration throughout the ranks. LeRoy Barr's retirement and the flippant way he announced it at the January DA that surprised Mulgrew won't help as he was able to keep many of the troops in line. Will LeRoy loyalists begin to jump ship too? He is still in charge of Unity Caucus so he will be a factor. Some say the simple solution for Unity is to replace Mulgrew and some see the Mike Sill rise as a solution. BTW- Mike was once a protege of Amy Arundell who was his boss.

The woim toins.

Do you want to build your caucus or do you want to win an election? That was a question asked of leaders of the RA caucus and unfortunately it looks like caucus first. The same with NAC and MORE -- they will gladly take 14% of the vote forever as long as they can control their caucus. At a recent meeting one non-UFT person told me "it's all about control - having power in a small fishbowl."

If the legacy caucuses wake up and join a movement like ABC, Unity would be in trouble.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-out-of-school/id1490313171?i=1000751049681

David Kazansky speaks about the responsibility of the TRS Trustees.

https://wbai.org/archive/program/episode/?id=63921

A substantive, no-spin conversation about retirement security for NYC educators and retirees.

Former three-term TRS Trustee David Kazansky.was interviewed by Daniel Alicea on WBAI in part 1 of a 2 part interview on Sunday.

• David’s storied career as an educator, unionist and trustee

• What really happens inside the TRS boardroom

• Private equity and pension transparency

• Fiduciary duty and divestment

• Tier 6 and what reform would actually take

• The upcoming TRS trustee election — and what’s at stake

Part 2 also drops here next week and will be aired the next time Daniel hosts Talk Out of School.

Let’s stay informed.

— Dan Alicea

Learn more about David at WeTrustDavid.org

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow While I Shovel and Shovel and Shovel and...

2026-02-24T21:41:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026 - noon

My backyard this morning

My front "lawn".

So it's been another busy week - or not - depends on your point of view. I've been loving the snow and the shoveling despite my wife's constant hocking me to hire someone. Why should I when I relish doing it - and besides I won't be 81 till next week?

Here's my backyard which I won't touch - snow might be gone by May. Why should the snow bother me? I'm retired and don't have to go anywhere, so I have the luxury of spending some time shoveling, going in to warm up and taking another round? But I will admit that yesterday as I was shoveling a young guy walked by with a shovel and offered to help so I paid him to work along with me and, yes, a 27 year old can do it faster than an 81 year old.

Only half done.

Speaking of which, the snow plows locked my driveway in again - I'm on the wrong side of the street - so I have go out and do a shift now.

Be back soon.

2 PM - I'm back. Look at the job I have to do and only half finished.

Had some tea and pretzels. Too tired to write.

Back out at 3:30 and finished the job so I can get my car out.

Back at 4:30. More tea.

----

For further reading:

If the Dem party cared about this country it would dissolve itself - Ryan Grim

Dem Party Ooops - For further reading, minutes before the State of the Union - I will be doing my hair.

DNC Finding: Biden’s Israel Backing Cost Harris Votes for President

Wenell Potter post on his Healthcare Uncovered substack:

Big Insurance Earnings 2025: Stock Buybacks, Earnings Per Share, Market Capitalization

https://healthcareuncovered.substack.com/p/big-insurance-earnings-2025-stock

The seven largest for-profit health insurance conglomerates took in nearly $1.7 trillion from their customers in 2025 ($175 billion more than in 2024) and they booked more than $54 billion in profits.

Why Labor Needs a Declaration of Political Independence

UFT Delegate Assembly and RTC Meeting Updates: Part 2 Script Revealed, TRS Election Staged Endorsement

2026-02-18T11:47:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026

It's been a few days since Part 1 - UFT Delegate Assembly and RTC Meeting Updates:

Too much Olympics and old movies. And trying to keep up with Marianne, Arthur and Daniel. And I'm about to leave for an in-person meeting with a group connected to the good ICE - which we are now referring to as Independent Educators (community). We will be talking about the TRS election, Is Unity weaker than a year ago or stronger?, and the state of Retiree Advocate and its new membership and "democracy" plan and the prospects for next year's chapter election.

We know from our Unity friends that they rehearse for the DAs through what they call the Speakers Bureau - Mulgrew fakes like he's looking around when he knows where the Unity plants will be sitting. You see, they prep for meetings while most of the oppo play it by ear, which is why they often look so ineffective. What used to be a 10 minute new motion period where rank and file get a chance is now dominated by feel-good leadership resos to use up the time.

This time to make sure, the Unity plant had a big arrow on her head and started reading the script she was given -- ooops - she actually said it was a script.

The big issue was the Unity push to endorse Tom Brown for TRS pension board. Former pension board member David Kazansky is running against him and some of his supporters attempted to get his name out there and succeeded but failed in their reso to get him to be considered -- in the past the claims that oppo people were not experienced won't work since David had 9 years experience.

Daniel Alicea was successful in asking for the union to put things in place so the DOE actually conducts an election that is competently run -- 2 years ago both sides sued the DOE over the way the election was run. As the vote for the endorsement ran past 6PM -- Mulgrew didn't manage the script by not finding the person who was to call the question in time - and a quorum call was made - you need 20% for a quorum and the seargent at arms must have done a super calculation with her immediate ruling. Daniel asked her afterward about that ruling and she said she does what Mulgrew tells her to do. Nice --

A lowlight of the Feb. 5 RTC meeting was the Leo Casey rant at Marianne to which she has responded.

Hypocrisy Roars: Leo roars, but there is no substance; it is purely a spectacle scream for relevance when that ship long sailed. Proud the retired unionists saw through that at the RTC meeting this past week. Bravo! Marianne Pizzitola Feb 08, 2026
Retirees Deserve Facts, Not Fear
Leo Casey’s posts accusing me of “union-busting” and warns of calamity if retirees are no longer treated as union members for healthcare purposes. That framing is emotionally charged — and fundamentally misleading and completely unsubstantiated, but when has Unity cared about any of that? What retirees deserve instead is an honest discussion of what rights we actually have, what protections actually exist, and what has actually happened in recent years. Not facing all that -you are still lying to yourself. Don’t worry, I will tell you and cite it and there is plenty to share on that in the next few posts!

When I posted one of her responses to Casey on the Retiree Advocate listserve, Jonathan Halabi, an officer of the RTC, wouldn't approve it and it was taken down. Funny, but when Leo went on his diatribe with 1000 people on line or in person, there was no objection - and as a believer in free speech, I do not object to whatever drivel he offers, but the attitude of some members of RA organizers to censor things they don't like, is offensive and counter to democracy.

I have lots more to say but have to catch the subway for the IE (formerly ICE) lunch. And sorry, no rice pudding photos of me today as my blood sugar spiked last time.

Arthur's recent post:

Can UFT Welfare Fund Afford to Eliminate Retiree Prescription Premiums?

It sure looks like it.

Here is an excerpt from his DA report:

I am flabbergasted at how Mulgrew tripped all over himself saying how fair the elections for trustee are. The fact is that the last election did not take place at all. This is because Mulgrew’s Very Smart People had Ben Morgenroth tossed from the ballot on a technicality. Last I heard, Morgenroth was pursuing legal remedies, but I’ve not spoken with him for a while. I have to admire his calmness tonight while addressing the guy who screwed him.
Leo Casey’s resolution to protect Social Security and Medicare from everyone (except Michael Mulgrew) has now, for the second month in a row, not come up. Casey would’ve had retirees believe that we ought not to spend one moment protecting ourselves from the person who already tried to take our Medicare away—Michael Mulgrew, his cult leader. Casey’s criticized retirees for trying to protect ourselves rather than blindly endorsing his Great Leader’s agenda.
Clearly, the leaders of the UFT do not share Casey’s priorities. Most important to them is keeping their peeps in power. That’s why Unity member after Unity member got up today to endorse Tom Brown, who comes to retiree meetings to tell us how wonderful things are, who makes it a point to speak as long as possible so as to join Casey and other Unity Cult Members in their never-ending mission to preclude our actual business—protecting retirees.
I tend to believe Mulgrew when he claims he isn’t telling the trustees how to invest UFT money. If that’s the case, though, it’s likely because investing is not his thing. Every single sitting trustee is bound by the Unity Loyalty Oath. They will golly gosh darn do whatever Mulgrew tells them to, financially or otherwise, or they will be purged, just as David Kazansky was.
Kazansky will be running against Tom Brown. Like most retirees, I’m very interested in the pension. As Unity hack after Unity hack got up to tell us how wonderful Brown was, none bothered to mention that retirees, alleged union members, get no vote on who our trustees are.
I didn’t hear anything about Tom Brown, or Michael Mulgrew, or any Unity member working to get us a vote. Of course, Unity indulges its members when they float ageist memes at the DA, and rather than censure them for their blatant bigotry, applauds them.
So it surprises me not at all that they can’t be bothered extending us the vote, even as they lecture us on how we’re full union members.
Emily ?—Most of you know what’s going on. 2750 people signed to go to rally, still growing. When link stops working we get calls. Will try to make registration push. Members will get texts tomorrow. Try to get one more person. Whole class of people against this, think public workers bankrupting city. Use memes and post online. CL hub shows names of people in your school who have registered. Have pom poms and t shirts you can wear in school.

UFT Delegate Assembly and RTC Meeting Updates: Part 1 The Thread Runs Through It - How can we save the city money?

2026-02-14T17:15:00.003-05:00

The late, great James Eterno saw exactly where this was heading and said so in 2009, when it still mattered.
He called it what it was:
A billion-dollar giveaway to save the City money — paid for by future educators.
He was right then. He’s right now.
Tier 6 didn’t come out of nowhere. The runway was built in 2009 by Randi and Unity...Educators of NYC

An LOL comment at the Feb. 5 retiree meeting was a Unityite arguing against restoring the 8 1/4% enjoyed by our supevisors because ending the 7% Randi giveaway would make us look greedy and besides the city doesn't have the money. The crux of the Unity Caucus positions come down to the purpose of a union is to find ways to save the employer money.

Unity/UFT Leadership History of Sell-Out argument to save city money while screwing members --- EONYC - Feb 14, 2026

Daniel hits all the bases in this post
Why “Fix Tier 6” Stops at 25/30 — and Not 25/55: Because 25/55 was already given away in 2009. All roads lead back to Randi Weingarten. - Educators of NYC

The above chronicling the sellouts was posted today so make sure to click and read it. The link - https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/why-fix-tier-6-stops-at-2530-and

Saturday, Feb. 14 - Happy Valentine Day - Taking my woman out to dinner in the city tonight - don't tell my wife. Actually, I have a surprise Neuhaus box of dark chocolates waiting for her in the city- since she would rather sleep on a bed of nails than read my blog, no worries she will won't be surprised.

I'm going to have to do this in two parts because I have to leave soon - tii much time watching olympic snow and ice after doing my daily shovel of snow and ice.

My political life is managed by meetings related to the UFT, most recently the Retired Teacher Meeting on Feb.5, the Feb. 10 Retired Teacher Exec Bd Meeting and the Feb. 11 DA. People complain they are all boring but I am a junky and engaged.

I just can't keep up with the prolific Daniel Alicea, Marianne Pizzitola and Arthur Goldstein - here are his reports of the Feb. 5 RTC and DA.

Feb. 11 UFT Delegate Assembly--We Endorse Tom Brown
Protecting Medicare and Social Security not that vital to UFT bosses after all.

Feb. 5 Unity Says, "No 1096 for You!": We say otherwise, by a huge margin.

I have some different angles and where do I begin? Of course the major news is the David Kazansky run for TRS against Tom Brown and that dominated the DA --- speaker after speaker in favor of Brown while a few tried to get David's name out there as a candidate without opposing the Brown nomination, which I would have done - and I had some reasons which I will share one day -- but I wanted to be a team player.

Both meetings sort of have a common theme. Unity totally controls the DA and absolutely don't have control of the RTC. But their goals at both is to degrade the ability of the opposition to influence union policy.

There were 2 resos pushed by the non-Unity RTC leadership - support for 1096, calling for the Randi Weingarten giveaway of 8.25% in 2008 to be reversed and two Unity sponsored resos - Keeping retirees Safe from Scams and support for the NY Civil Rights Act. At every meeting they introduce another feel-good distraction -- for this meeting on The Importance of Building and Providing Affordable Workforce Housing for NYC Educators, Healthcare Professionals and Essential Workers. James Eterno used to mock these type of resos as "Mom and Apple Pie" resos. We've also seen similar virtue signaling resos from those opposed to Unity --- when you don't have a clue how to make a dent in the power of Unity, resort to calling for support for issues outside the union.

Unity pushed back on the RTC resos on 1096 and 8 1/4% that actually improve our conditions while their own feel good resos, offered as a distraction from addressing their years of failure are difficult to oppose - like who doesn't support protecting retirees from scams or supporting the NY Civil Rights Act? And they are clever resos -- putting the RTC leadership on an impossible position -- though I get what Unity is doing and am willing to do the dirty work of calling them out -- except I get bad looks from my RTC leadership colleagues that standing opposed to a feel-good reso designed to distract from issues that won us the election.

Leo Casey came off a sick bed to lose his marbles in a rant against Marianne Pizzitola at the RTC meeting -- so sorry, Leo can't be at the DA because Unity lost the RTC election.

The battle between Leo and Marianne is all about healthcare and the Unity attempt to distract people. Leo will defend any Unity policy, as do the Unity faithful as we saw at the last RTC meeting when they opposed the 8.25 reso because it will cost the city money and make us look greedy. 7% also looked greedy when everyone else was getting 1% so making that case is anti-union. Getting raises and lower class sizes costs the city money.

But for we retirees the worst was the attempt to put us in medicare adv -- our victory, due on no small part to Marianne -- which is why in advance of next year's election which Unity expects to win - Casey is the designated hit man to degrade Marianne's influence and bring Unity back to it's 70% majority before the 2024 election. A lesson on her influence is the low amount of votes the ARISE Coalition received in the last election while the ABC supported by Marianne received 3x as many, a lesson Leo Casey clearly has learned -- beat up Marianne to help Unity win.

I will get to part 2 maybe tomorrow but now turn it back to Daniel:

Unity Didn’t Just Accept Givebacks — They Normalized Them
This wasn’t a one-off mistake. It was yet another banner moment where Unity institutionalized concession bargaining.
Every giveback was sold the same way:
“Necessary”
“Responsible”
“For the common good”
“ We achieved “cost savings for the City” while “improving our benefits”
And no one embodied that thinking more than Unity’s chief apologist, Randi’s longtime personal assistant, Leo Casey.
For decades, Casey has faithfully defended:
The disastrous 2005 contract
The 2009 pension concessions
And now, copays imposed on retirees
Different issue. Same message:

Suck it up—for the common good.
His 2009 defense of the Bloomberg–Weingarten pension deal is still archived online, frozen in time, and devastating in hindsight.
While the Ground Was Being Given Away, There Was No Fight
Fast-forward to 2011–2012.
Bloomberg and Cuomo push through Tier 6, the worst pension tier in state history.
And where was Unity?
There was no mass mobilization.
No sustained organizing.
No serious resistance.
Now—13 years later—the same leadership claims they’re “fighting Tier 6,” while refusing to admit that:
Extended years of service
Lifetime pension contributions
Reduced retirement security
…were already conceded on their watch.
James Eterno Warned Us — In Real Time
The late, great James Eterno saw exactly where this was heading and said so in 2009, when it still mattered.
He called it what it was:
A billion-dollar giveaway to save the City money — paid for by future educators.
He was right then. He’s right now.
All Roads Lead to Randi
This is why “Fix Tier 6” stops at 25/30.
Not because 25/55 is unrealistic. Not because it’s impossible.
But because Unity already surrendered it — quietly, strategically, and proudly — while calling it “responsible unionism.”
The same concession logic that gutted pensions
is now being used to gut healthcare.
Different decade. Same playbook.
These are not the values of unionists.
These are Proxies for Management.
Morticians of our hard-earned benefits.
James Eterno on the 2009 giveback
https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/billion-dollar-days-off.html?m=1
https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/june-da-report-farewell-randi-tier-v.html?m=1
Leo Casey defending the Bloomberg–Weingarten pension deal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150606054122/http://www.edwize.org/uft-and-city-reach-agreement-on-pension-ending-two-days-before-labor-day

Retired Teacher Exec Bd Meeting and Upcoming DA - At least there are potato chips

2026-02-11T14:49:00.004-05:00

Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2:50PM

I've been remiss in trying to write about some of the meetings I attend - I finally did so the other day - UFT Exec Bd Update: Kazansky Announses for TRS, LeRoy says Goodbye, Sill Replaces Him, Tom Brown Endorsed for TRS - and will try to do so after the DA later today, for which I have to leave pretty soon. If you are coming to the DA show your love for Unity by wearing red. Maybe Mulgrew will call on you.

Unity rushed through the Tom Brown TRS election endorsement Monday night and made sure to put it up first at today's DA. I've contended for years that we make Unity defend every single position. They got away with the TRS elections free of charge for years and now we are making them defend it. I even wanted someone to put an opponent up against Mike Sill for Secretary to make them hold an election. Anyone up for Assistant Secretary?

At the RTC EB meeting Tuesday afternoon Brown's name came up over his embarasing performance at one of our meetings and his pity me performance over his initial support for a Kathy Hochul pension refinement plan and the subsequent backtracking. Brown did not make many friends at that meeting but retirees can't vote so it may have no effect.

At the RTC EB meeting as usual there is some level of frustration over what I perceive to be a lack of militancy. Lots of complaints over Mulgrew's not calling on retirees who have passed numerous resos at their meetings yet are not allowed to present them at the DA. For instance, we have a dozen vacancies on the RCT delegates - we elected 300 in June 2024, this shutting out every Unity retiree. We now have a dozen vacancies (deaths, dementia, people who didn't expect to win) and people waiting to replace them but the Unity machine claims we don't have a right to replace them. By "we" I mean the RTC Exec Bd. Read this from the RTC constitution:

"A vacancy in the exec bd OR in an elective office -- the DA delegates are an elective office - shall be filled by the Exec Bd. And we have been filling vacancies on the EB and are in the process of holding an election on March 3 - my Bday -- for a vacancy with 4 candidates running. We held nominations yesterday. What bothers me is the apathy of the people on the board over the vacant delegates. We get a ruling we can't replace them and Bennett Fischer just seems to accept that ruling without pushing back - or if he pushes back it is never public. Like how about putting this in his newsletter to the 70k members or at the very least in his CL report at RTC meetings which are attended by about 1200 people in person and remote?

How about amending the constitution to protect democracy from Unity domination if they win next year's election? No sense of urgency. The focus is on the political battles outside the union. There is a front group of sorts called the Labor Solidarity Group and I support that work though I chose to engage in political activity with other groups. I think RTC needs to focus on the UFT.

Then I hear some officers argue that a major goal of ours is to pressure the union and suggestions to bring in union officials to address the RTC and give them a forum makes me want to scream. I see our purpose is to organize to change the union leadership - (and the decisions to align with ARISE and split the retirees was a massive failure. I don't have the time to go into the details but will follow up.)

Unity has hijacked our meetings either from the floor with their former retiree delegates or by taking time and not giving up the mic. Unity hates Marianne with Leo Casey leading the insane charge but they are joined in backbiting by some in the leadership of RTC who seem to resent the fact she not only made it possible for us to win but also helped ABC win retiree votes over ARISE by a 3-1 margin. This lack of unity among retirees will almost guarantee Unity's election next year.

See: Are We Union? I hear both sides - Arthur Goldstein

The RTC EB is dominated by New Action -- I'm guessing at least 6 or the 25 - maybe more. ABC has Arthur and me and a few neutrals. The upcoming election with 4 candidates will indicate whether the RTC leadership is interested in forming a united front for the chapter election. But either way, the Unity machine needs to be challenged and Bennett wants to play neutral. They clearly organize and all we do is react - and I react rather passionately by going after their throats and that seems to bother the "civility" crowd running RTC --- the old adage of bringing a feather to a knife fight.

I have other issues too over what has been a lack of transparency - almost more of a fear of our own delegates and supporters.

One bone of contention between the ABC crowd and the RTC leadership was over their initial support for the new healthcare plan with some of the leaders offering full-throated endorsement. It was the ABC people who pointed out danger signs and here Daniel Alicea at EONYC pointed out in this post today how part of the deal is giving our data to the United Health Monster.

We Warned You: The MLC’s Quiet Push to Hand Over Our Prescription Data to United Healthcare

The City and MLC's push to save an extra $100m in "healthcare cost savings" includes sharing your welfare fund prescription data and history with Big Healthcare's United Healthcare/UMR

Educators of NYC

Feb 11, 2026

UFT Exec Bd Update: Kazansky Announses for TRS, LeRoy says Goodbye, Sill Replaces Him, Tom Brown Endorsed for TRS

2026-02-10T12:18:00.003-05:00

I was trying to write this up last night but was seduced by the Olympics. Tonight or tomorrow morning I will report on the 1PM RTC Exec Bd meeting which I am leaving for ASAP. Oh, and before I forget - they served shrimp scampi last night.

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, 12:15 PM

Leaving my warm and cozy Rockaway abode, I reluctantly attended only my second exec bd of the school year last night because I had an early appointment at MSK to have my port flushed. I love a port flushing and if you don't know what that means, you're lucky. It was a brisk 15 block walk from my apartment but not that cold. I walked back downtown through Grand Central where I had coffee and an almond croissant before stopping at Neuhaus chocolate for a Valentine gift. Now that I've taken care of the important stuff, here is a report on the info-packed UFT Exec Bd. meeting last night.

LeRoy Barr made an appearance and was greeted warmly. I posted Rebel Teacher's analysis where the author surmised LeRoy was pushed out in a dispute with never teacher Ellie Engler who was backed by Randi Weingarten. Or possibly LeRoy just got sick of dealing with the lunatic fringe at 52 Broadway. No longer being a member of the UFT Exec Bd, he spoke from the mic in the ten-minute pre-meeting time. He followed former TRS pension rep David Kazansky, who was pushed out of the position two years ago when he was in Unity, but is now running as an independent and was endorsed by ABC.

Kazansky announcement.
A Better Contract-UFT unanimously endorses David Kazansky for NYC TRS Trustee; Ben Morgenroth tapped as alternate: We must put rank and file educators back in charge of $130 Billion pension fund. David Kazansky is the real and only choice.

David, who is back teaching 5th grade in the Bronx, was also greeted warmly by his former Unity comrades. To learn more, visit: http://wetrustdavid.org

LeRoy enthusiastically endorsed his successor, Mike Sill and said there have been only 10 Secretaries in the history of the UFT, the longest running being Jules Kolodny under Shanker - yes, Virginia, I'm old enough to have been there when Kolodny was Secretary. I'm sure Mike Sill is looking forward to breaking Kolodny's record. The betting line on Sill being the next UFT President immediately went up at Kalshi. Get your bets in now.

Speculation began on who would replace Sill as Assistant Secretary, a road to UFT President in the past (Randi and I think Sandy occupied that position). Some said Mary Vaccaro who is already a member of AdCome and would also need replacing. Others are thinking more widely. One dark horse: Emily James, who is serving her first term on the Ex Bd as a high school rep who no longer teaches but is based at 52 as a key Mulgrew advisor.

The other issue that came up was the endorsement of Tom Brown to run against Kazansky for TRS rep that will come up at tomorrow's Delegate Assembly where expect the Unity crowd to immediately start petitioning as soon as the endorsement goes through. Some David supporters will be there to petition for him. IMPORTANT NOTE: Anyone who signs both petitions will have their sig cancelled. One thousand sigs are needed but it pays to get double because there will be cancellations. There has been only one TRS election in the past 40 years - that was 2 years ago when Ben Morgenroth ran. ED NOTES covered that election.

Unity Caucus sent out this update at 8PM, one hour after the Ex Bd endorsed Brown:

The Unity Caucus Steering Committee met and voted to recommend endorsing Tom Brown for another term as trustee of the Teachers’ Retirement System. That recommendation was then brought to the full Unity Caucus membership and just after 8:00 p.m., members voted to endorse Tom Brown.

I guess they had to mimic ABC. It's nice to see Unity no longer hiding that they exist as a machine to run the UFT.

After the meeting I congratulated Sill and Barr, both of whom I like personally and have had a good relationship with. LeRoy mentioned that in his Facebook post with his pics, he made sure to include the late Ellen Fox. He also said he disagreed with Rebel Teacher's analysis that he was pushed out. I said I didn't totally agree either - I think Unity (which LeRoy headed) will miss him as will the UFT and his retirement weakens the machine. But on the other hand, I think in the short term the Mulgrew repression and firings and threats has brought people into line in maybe stopped the Amy Arundell like defections. We will see.

and I could see the case for his leaving at this time though did mention that some couldn't understand why someone so relatively young and making so much money would give it up. "Living life," he said. "They say you should have the same number of retirement as working years." Hmmm. That's a tough one - I need another dozen years. Maybe LeRoy will make it. I asked why he wasn't at the RTC meeting last week and he said he will be there in the future. Some think he might be a candidate for Ch ldr against Bennett Fischer next year. If LeRoy is serious about retiring it makes no sense for him to take on that position. The Kalshi betting has been on Sterling Roberson, with a minority going for Leo Casey, who is not loved within Unity but is spending his time attacking Marianne Pizzitola who is a hero even to some Unity after saving them money.

Read her latest response to Leo:

There is one highfalutin blogger named Leo Casey who insists retirees are in unions. And not matter the case law, the PERB or OCB cases, City, State or Federal we post against that theory- he resists. This is not debatable; retirees are not in union collective bargaining units. They are in retiree chapters like auxiliary members and their own bylaws show that their DA can vote with the support of their Executive Board as to whom can be included - but they are not full members. Even though retirees can vote - not every retirees’ vote counts as ONE full vote per person of more than 23,500 retirees vote as Arthur my retired union brother wrote yesterday in, “Are We Union.” The reason he fears the UFT losing the support of retirees is money. It’s why Leo attacks our organizations’ grassroots funding, our legal strategy, and the support we have because we are literally front and center fighting for retirees. Leo cannot say that about the UFT, like I cannot say that about DC37. This will be a future post very soon!
So let’s dive into history.

Some UFT History and the Retiree Connection
Marianne Pizzitola
Feb 10

Norm Update - so you know I'm still here

2026-02-09T15:37:00.004-05:00

Officer Vacancy

The executive board declared a vacancy for the position of Secretary, with nominations expected at the February 9 meeting and, if necessary, an election on February 23rd.

Monday, Feb. 9

UFT Update: LeRoy Retirement Implications, Mike Sill to replace him, Leo Casey Goes Wilding at RTC Meeting, Kazansky Runs for TRS (ABC endorses) and more goodies

Oy! So much happening and so far behind.

Leroy Barr's retirement came home to roost when I called his office to sign up for tonight's Exec Bd meeting and was told to email Mike Sill who is replacing LeRoy.Leaving soon for UFT Exec Bd meeting so this will be short - for a change. So all that headline stuff -- later.

Let's see what's been going on going back to the last time I blogged on Jan. 23

The Outrage: Blogging About Nothing, Blogging About Everything - Or Not Blogging at All

But I did post a guest blog last week:

Inside UFT Update: Unity’s Grip Weakens as Members Are Left Behind - By Rebel Teacher

Jan. 23 rally at Union Sq. and walk to Bryant Park.

Jan. 24 - Botanic Garden guide training review of conservatories and a Naked Tree walk -- i teen temp. 12 layers helped.

Wife B-Day Jan. 25 ruined by snowstorm -- no fancy restaurant but frozen pizza. 3 bouts of shoveling with wife yelling for me to hire someone.

Jan. 26 - more shoveling in the cold.

Jan. 27 - ditto after Plantorama trade show postponed at BBG.

Jan. 28 - Brooklyn Museum Monet in Venice - super crowded. Now that I'm taking painting classes - how the hell did he do that?

Jan. 28 - ABC Retiree zoom.

Jan. 29 - BBG - Plantarama trade show- all day - as volunteer had to be there at 8AM - sort of cold.

Jan. 31 -- BBG Guide training full day - I do presentation on one of conservatories.

Feb. 1 -- wife at all day mah jong in Manhattan. I read papers and watch TV - and some shoveling.

Feb. 3 -- Rockaway Theatre Co with construction crew - we build 4 12'x6' flats for Man of La Mancha and store them outside since Pre-teen show opens on Friday.

Feb. 4 - David Kazinsky announces he is running for Teacher Retirement System in May election. Ben Morgenroth running as alternate.

Feb. 5 - Retired Teacher Meeting at 52 -- I could write 3 blogs.

Feb. 5 - ABC who ran for Exec Bd have Zoom with David and Ben as guests and endorse them.

Feb. 6 Back to Rockaway Theater - most work outside. Later that night attend pre-teen opening of Annie Jr. Olympics Opening night. Study for presentation next day at BBG.
Feb. 7 - BBG guide training canceled due to cold.

Feb. 8 - coldest day - still had to go to gym. Morning political shows. Olympics and Super Bowl.

Kazansky announcement.

In the meantime, Arthur and Marianne have been prolific as they both mash Leo Casey's Pizzitola Derangement Syndrome.

Marianne responds to Casey PDS: Hypocrisy Roars

And Arthur hits Unity for their performance at the Feb. 5 RTC meeting:

Unity Says, "No 1096 for You!"

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Union Membership, Representation & Retirees

Employees NEED Unions for collective bargaining for wages and work place safety. Retirees are no longer employed and do not need the union for bargaining.

Marianne Pizzitola

Feb 6

READ IN APP

Ill-educated blogger Leo Casey, pontificated on labor law recently and asserted that claims regarding retiree union membership are “fabricated” and contrary to law. That assertion mischaracterizes both the substance of the issue and the nature of the arguments that have been raised.

A Real Choice for NYC TRS Members: Why I'm Running for Trustee

What’s at stake for 230,000 public educators and $130 billion in retirement assets

David Kazansky

Feb 4

∙

Guest post

Inside UFT Update: Unity’s Grip Weakens as Members Are Left Behind - By Rebel Teacher

2026-02-02T23:04:00.002-05:00

This anonymous missive dropped over the Ed Notes headquarters' transom. I don't agree with all of it but am too lazy to go into the details. I will comment in a future post. I did some light editing to smooth out some edges.

Unity’s Grip Weakens, Members Left Behind!

By Rebel Teacher

February 2, 2026

Leroy Barr Abruptly Out—

Leroy Barr, long-time Staff Director and head of the Unity Caucus, suddenly announced his retirement at the last DA, saying it would be his last one. No warning. No fanfare. Just poof, gone. Even Mulgrew expressed some surprise at the time and place of the announcement.

Behind the polished speeches, the Unity leadership machine has been showing cracks going back to the major Unity defections in last year's elections where Unity received 54% of the vote, the lowest in history. Mulgrew responded, like the authoritarian he is, with firings and threats.

Was he pushed or did he jump?

LeRoy Barr was considered a powerhouse in the UFT, one of the three men in the room along with Mulgrew and Mike Sill, with many considering Barr as a possible successor to Mulgrew. So his sudden retirement came as a shock given his relatively young age and high level position - and his salary. Speculation began soon after his announcement as to whether he was going willingly or was pushed.

There have been leaks about internal conflict at the top levels of the UFT to the extent that even ex UFT president and current AFT President Randi Weingarten intervened, not on the side of Barr, thus leading to his leaving.

Purges are designed to use fear of going back to the classroom for full-time UFT employees and loss of income to part-timers as a method of control while attempting to manage the membership. If a certain age, retirement is an option.

Membership interests ignored as Leadership get the perks and Members get the short end.

For everyday members, this is just another reminder that Unity’s leadership engages in internal power plays while the members suffer.

Meanwhile: The promised Para Pay is still a mess and Tier 6 reforms are stalled.

LeRoy Barr has been a leader of a prominent African-American contingent in Unity, including officers Janella Hinds, Karen Alford and Leo Gordon, and the influential Anthony Harmon, among others. But with the subtraction of Barr, the real decision-makers in the UFT comes down to Mulgrew, Emily James, Mary Vaccaro, Mike Sill and non-UFT member and never a teacher, Ellie Engler, who seems to have won out in her battle with Barr. Racial dynamics tend not to be subtle.

Members are right to ask who really runs this union, whose voices matter, and whether the broader national attack on DEI and racial equity is creeping into UFT decision-making. When leadership won’t answer these questions, distrust fills the vacuum.

Bennett, Fischer, and the Retiree Chapter

UFT Retiree Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer, and the Retiree Advocate caucus which took power in the last chapter election continue to struggle as leaders of the chapter. Instead of going to the members, being transparent, and using their position to expose Unity’s mismanagement, they close ranks and hope Mulgrew tosses them a few crumbs. Their decision to run in the UFT general election with the ARISE coalition, instead of being neutral, led to a split among retirees that has still not been healed. They’re supposed to build power for retirees—but instead, they seem to fear Mulgrew and Unity retaliation if they get too militant in challenging them. Instead of reminding retirees at every opportunity that the Unity retirees worked hard to move them out of Medicare and into Medicate Advantage, they play footsie with the leadership even when they are pushed around and instead of going public write strongly worded letters, ala Chuck Shumer and the Democratic Party.

The year and a half old retiree chapter leadership seems to be exhibiting the same pattern we see in Unity: secrecy, closed-door meetings, and a focus on protecting the RTC leadership from criticism, rather than fighting for those who elected them. Some RTC members are getting increasingly restive, while leadership scrambles to preserve its control with performative feel-good virtue signalling resolutions.

TRS Teachers Trustee Election: Time to Stand Up

Here’s where it gets interesting.

In last May's union-wide election, Unity won with 54 percent of the vote, their lowest total in history, not exactly a mandate. Just as we watch the outcomes of bi-elections, like the recent Democratic win in Texas in a district where Trump won by 17 points, a 34 point flip, we also have elections in the UFT that can be a sign of member sentiment. And don't forget the massive shift in the 2024 retiree chapter election where Unity dropped from 70 to 37%. But if the RA/RTC leadership doesn't get its act together, this margin won't hold and Unity threatens to regain control.

The UFT elects three members to the Teacher Retirement System to three year terms with a member being elected every year in early May, with the election being run in the schools by DOE, not UFT, rules. Unity has controlled all these positions for decades with no opposition. There has been only one election and that was two years ago. Last year Unity petition challenges managed to get the opposition candidate knocked off the ballot. This year promises to see a serious campaign and the outcome will be a serious sign of just how much Unity's grip has weakened. Look for announcements in the coming days.

Questions we should be asking:

Will A Better Contract run a candidate?

Will independent members finally push back against Unity’s control?

Will ABC, New Action, and MORE work together for the betterment of our union?

This isn’t just another vote—it’s a chance to say enough. Unity can’t keep running things behind closed doors while members get ignored.

Bottom Line

Unity leadership keeps purging, scheming, and protecting itself. Meanwhile, members lose out on pay, benefits, and even basic wins. The cracks are showing—and the upcoming trustee election could be a significant moment where members take back some control.

If leadership won’t represent members, maybe it’s time we elect people who will.

The Outrage: Blogging About Nothing, Blogging About Everything - Or Not Blogging at All

2026-01-23T13:14:00.013-05:00

Friday, January 23, 2025

I haven't been blogging too much in the past few years, especially since Arthur has been prolific and covering a lot of the same ground. I have a different take on some issues but not enough of a difference to take the time to write about it. It's not that I have nothing I want to write about but I have too much to write about and start around 5 blogs a day that I don't get to finish.

I'm not big on going to rallies, marches, picket lines, etc because I see doing so as not organizing, but feel-good events. When we are helpless to do much about events, at least we do something to make us feel better. But I do have a level of outrage at everything Trump and Israel that forces me to act. The ICE (not UFT) mayhem is driving me out today for the Union Sq rally and march to Bryant Park at 4PM. And I hate the cold so I will be layering up like Raphies' brother Randy in Christmas Story.

I'm not sure I will make it to Bryant Park and do have to catch the ferry back to Rockaway as I have an early Saturday morning call at Brooklyn Botanic Garden where I've been in the garden guide training program since September. If we pass a diner I might try to convince Arthur to join me for a bite. Oh, and it's my wife birthday week and we went to the matinee of Hell's Kitchen the other day and loved it -- it is closing in late February and TDF is available -- we were in last row of orchestra.

We had dinner in Grand Central Station, a spectacular setting, but cancelled The River Cafe for Sunday evening as I hear there is some kind of snow storm coming. Mamdani better make sure to have the streets in front of every synagogue cleaned or he will be accused of anti-semitism.

Don't get me wrong. There's plenty to be outraged about the Trump-like Mulgrew at the UFT and the abusive behavior at the Delegate Assembly by Unity hacks where I witnessed the outrageous behavior of District 9 rep Aqeel Williams who didn't like it that long-time CL Thomas Hasler took a seat in a mostly empty row Williams was reserving for his minions and when Thomas didn't leave, moved over to sit next to him and invade his space by crossing his leg.

Thomas raised the issue in a fabulous speech at the DA exposing Williams' behavior and criticizing the Mulgrew firings of Amy Arundel and David Kazansky but left off Ashley Rzonca and Leah Lin. I was sitting two rows behind and witnessed the entire episode and when I called to Thomas it was Aqeel who was harassing him, Williams turned around and yelled at me that he doesn't want to see his name coming out of my mouth. "Aqeel, Aqeel, Aqeel," I responded. "I pay your salary," which is far above what the teacher top salary.

Another outrage has been the legal threats by Unity directed at ABC for including "UFT" in the name, which Unity and all legacy caucuses do, clearly showing they have no fear of legacy caucuses but do fear ABC.

"We previously shared back in December that Michael Mulgrew and the rest of UFT’s Unity leadership decided to waste YOUR dues money on having a white shoe law firm harass ABC with frivolous cease and desist letters intended to intimidate us. Unity Caucus has a long history of sending these letters to members who criticize Unity’s abject failure to deliver raises that beat the cost of living, protect our healthcare, and fight back against toxic administrators. These letters invariably warn of legal action if the criticism continues. Well guess what? We’re calling Unity’s bluff. ABC has retained legal counsel — paid for out of our own pockets — and sent the UFT’s attorney the letter pictured below. We DARE Mulgrew and Unity to file suit against ABC. We have already beat them in arbitration and are more than happy to replicate that outcome in court. Mulgrew and Unity have bullied the UFT membership for far too long. This is only the first step in putting a stop to that behavior for good".

Read the entire letter:

A Letter to Unity from ABC's Lawyer
A Better Contract
Jan 22, 2026

ABC has also taken the lead in a petition campaign calling for fee-free healthcare - almost 5,000 have signed. https://stopchargingretirees.org/

Unity Caucus Favors Co-Pays: NYC Educators Penalized for Retiring - Sign the Petition

Then there is the outrages Marianne Pizitola exposes almost daily.

Debunking the WHW Part 3 with Evidence!: Medicare Advantage is NOT Medicare and NOT an Advantage

Marianne Pizzitola

I'm not finished with my outrages. I have not been happy with the performance of the Retiree Advocate and it's control of the Retired Teacher Chapter Executive Board and delegates, both of which I am a member of. The unwillingness to confront Mulgrew publicly but they are willing to write a strongly worded letter, which they then claim has scared Mulgrew. They remind me of the Dem Party leadership scaredy cats. Schumer for next RTC leader?

I have too much to say about why but have to start bundling up for today's rally and march.

Speaking of strongly worded letters. A final outrage of the day is toward the Democratic Party - where the Republicans criticiee healthcare officials and the Dems defend them- this from Politico

Defending Healthcare Execs: Why Democrats Lose

Politico: A MESSAGING TWIST ON HEALTH INSURERS — Republicans and Democrats swapped their typical positions on health insurers in back-to-back hearings Thursday as they laid the groundwork for midterm messaging, Kelly Hooper reports. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees went on the attack against five insurance CEOs for prioritizing profits over patients. Meanwhile Democrats sympathized with the executives, arguing that they served as useful scapegoats for the GOP amid the fight over reviving expired Obamacare subsidies. “This is not your fault — this is the Republicans’ fault,” Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone said to the leaders of UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, The Cigna Group, Elevance Health and Ascendiun. “Don’t let them drag you in here and blame you for what’s going on.” Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith later chastised Pallone for the comments. “Instead of demanding answers, a senior Democrat reassured our CEO witnesses this morning, saying, ‘It’s not your fault,’” Smith said at his committee’s hearing. “Maybe because Democrats know it’s their fault.” While Democrats were keen to blame Republicans for failing to address spiking insurance premiums, the two parties found common ground on hammering the executives for their lavish salaries.

Final Note:

In 2013 I posted 827 blogs. In 2025, 78. So far this year, 2. The numbers began to drop off in 2019 and took a big hit during the pandemic years. Am I too busy? I was busier from the time I retired in 2002 through 2019. Does less busy = less blogging? I find myself doing everything I can to avoid blogging. Night time is out due to evening fuzzy brain syndrome and I watch trash TV, which means political shows 'till 11:30 followed by old movies.

My brain works better in the morning - theoretically. I watch Morning Joe, then listen to Brian Lehrer, then Sam Seder Majority Report -- which takes me followed by Breaking Points, which takes me to the evening. So UFT politics, which has been the essence of this blog, takes second or tenth place. I've also been working out a bit. And physical therapy for my knee and I've had a big belly hernia due to weakened muscles from my operation. I'm debating another operation to fix it but that would knock me out of being super active for up to 3 months.

Just count yourself lucky I'm not including a photo of my hernia.

Unity Caucus Favors Co-Pays: NYC Educators Penalized for Retiring - Sign the Petition

2026-01-13T09:40:00.002-05:00

Tell Michael Mulgrew and Unity to stop charging retirees premiums while claiming our health plan is premium free. Let’s send Unity a message to respect us. Let’s tell them we demand what other unions have. The UFT Welfare Fund is sitting on over a billion dollars. Let’s tell them how we’d like it used. Let’s tell them that the very worst time to impose premiums on us is when we retire. Let’s tell them if other unions can better support retirees, we can too. DC37 doesn’t charge members for prescription insurance when they retire. Firefighter and police unions don’t do it. Sanitation, and other unions don’t do it.... Arthur Goldstein

Sign the petition. 1,575 have signed in 24 hours - let's hit 5k.

Imagine a world where UFT would fight like the Nurses Union. Those nurses don’t play around. They are standing on business!! I love it....Anon. FB quote

ABC's Leah Lin tells it all: Paying more in retirement just doesn't make sense.

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026

I just finished 3 months of physical therapy for my knee, twice a week, at $15 co-pay a pop -- that's $30X12 weeks = $330 for my "premium free" healthcare. Plus all the other doctors I go to --- It's probably close to $500 given visits for my cancer and diabetes (due to removal of over half my pancreas). Listen, I can handle it all financially at this point, but for many NYC retirees these co-pays are a real burden. I've even heard stories of people who expected to retire are forced to hold off.

I'm proud of my colleagues at ABC are at least making a stink of this while other supposedly opposition groups are fundamentally silent. My sense is that the non-Unity leaders of the RTC, many of whom defended the new healthcare plan, seem reluctant to be openly critical.

Today is an RTC Executive Board meeting and I'm looking forward to some action beyond a lot of whining over Mulgrew not calling on them at the DA. I detect a hint of fear that if they are too publicly critical of the Unity leadership and Mulgrew, who has elements of Trump-like vindictiveness, he may turn off the lights and heat to their offices at 52 Broadway. I'll bring candles.

Arthur Goldstein authored a summary cross posted on the https://stopchargingretirees.org/ site: Should NYC Educators be Penalized for Retiring? Do you want to pay at least $180 a month, forever, when you retire? If not, please sign and share our petition. Please sign our petition demanding UFT stop charging retirees, some of whom are already struggling to get by. Please tell your friends to sign and share widely.

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Here's a message from on the new PPO Plan. I logged on and found that one of my diabetes meds is not on the forumulary as a 1MG but is as 2 MG. We were promised the new plan would not result in changes.

York City Municipal Employees & Retirees

January 1st the new NYCE PPO plan was implemented for all active workers, and Pre-Medicare Retirees. In a few weeks, we will roll out a survey to see if you are having any concerns that need to be addressed.

January 1st also began the new Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) for those in the NYCE PPO plan, or those who are on the City Drug plan, the optional rider. The new PBM is "Prime Therapeutics" - no longer Express Scripts. They are the MANAGER... Think of them like the middle man to your drug access. A simple way to understand their job - they get you access to the drugs.. You have the drug manufacturers, the PBM and the Pharmacy.

This was prepared by Bob Pfefferman as a briefing report prior to a meeting with newly elected City Council member Virginia Maloney. He invites questions and comments.

Briefing paper, January 7, 2026, V3

The unions’ claim that they can negotiate for current retirees is specious for all of the following:

· There is no such thing as a collective bargaining certificate for retirees.

· Except for UFT retirees, we have no say in electing the union leadership. Even then UFT retiree votes are capped at a certain number.

· To my knowledge, neither OLR or the MLC have cited a specific section of the Taylor Law that 1096 violates. Any legal memo the city or the unions have is not public so no one can comment. Would you accept an unsupported allegation like this in a high school debate class?

The unions don’t mean this as a policy discussion. It is meant to intimidate any city council member that asks too many questions and threaten with a primary challenge.

· When a union does negotiate, at least in my local, 371, AFSCME (DC 37), the members approve the collective bargaining demands. No such vote was held.

· The results of any collective bargaining from an AFSCME entity holding a collective bargaining certificate must be approved by the membership. No such vote has been held.

· Christopher Marte’s office has cited a US Supreme Court ruling Chemical Workers V Pittsburg Glass, 1971, in which it ruled that retiree benefits are not negotiated by a union

· Marte also points out that in the past DC 37 and the UFT have supported city council legislation protecting retiree health care and never cited the Taylor Law. Because unions cannot bargain for retiree health care, the city council must pass legislation to change it.

Status of Lawsuits (Brentkowski case; I don’t know how to spell it)

· Marianne’s group filed a lawsuit in September 2021 saying that the city cannot only offer one health insurance plan for retirees and must offer traditional Medicare and a wrap around. They cited 12 “causes of action” why the city could not do what they wanted.

· The trial judge ruled “irreparable harm” and issued a TRO. He only ruled on one of the 12 causes of action. The city appealed and four years later, the Court of Appeals overturned the trial judge’s ruling and sent it back to the trial judge for ruling on the other 11.

· Should the city and/or the unions (one entity for this purpose) be so reckless as to try this again, the trial judge would likely issue another TRO and the city and the unions will be wandering in a judicial morass for another two or three years with an uncertain outcome.

· Retiree will not accept a Medical Advantage Plan as the only option for health insurance. We will fight this politically and legally. The city council has already seen what we can do. Do you really want to try it again?

The Comptroller’s Audit

· The audit confirmed what retirees have been saying since 2021: that the fund was knowingly misused by the MLC and OLR and lacks transparency.

· OLR tried to cover this up by submitting false annual certifications to the Comptroller’s Office, asserting in writing that the Fund is in compliance with Directive 27 requirements, that Fund balances are accurate, and that the Fund will be used for its stated purposes.

· The audit also found that HISF lacks transparency and has inadequate governance and decision-making capacity. HISF does not maintain meeting agendas, materials distributed at meetings, or records of discussions held at meetings—such as recordings, minutes, or notes—and stated that it relies on HISF’s monthly reports which include only the Fund’s revenue, expenses, and cash balance.

· Furthermore, while the $600 million would have improved HISF’s financial position somewhat, it was not sufficient, on its own, to keep HISF solvent

· As detailed in Table XV in the audit, OLR and the MLC did not report significant HISF liabilities as required by Comptroller’s Directive 27 and GSAB Statement No. 54.

Garrido Speaks Untruths

· In February of 2021, Henry Garrido reported to his delegates (I am one) that he was shocked, absolutely shocked, to discover that the HISF was bankrupt and retirees would have a new, improved health plan.

· I spent almost two years plowing through federal legislation and virtually nothing he said checked out. The HISF did not suddenly go broke, and the new plan was only better in the warped minds of Garrido and Michael Mulgrew.

· For example, they touted free gym membership but never reported on how many retirees not currently belonging to a gym would enroll. I believe that the number would have been miniscule and almost everyone who would enroll would drop out after a few months of basically not using it. And which gym? Not Equinox.

The Management Benefits Fund offers gym reimbursement but it is capped at $50 per month. Someone claiming such a benefit has to keep records and file a claim.

· I then discovered that the new plan would be administered by a for-profit private insurance company accountable only to its shareholders. The newspapers over the past year or two have been bursting reporting on the fraud riddling these plans. In the 2006 amendments to the Medicare Act (best known for creating Medicare Part D), it was an experiment to see if private for-profit companies could deliver high quality health care and have cost-savings as well. It’s no secret that this experiment has failed.

· Unanswered is why the union leadership was comfortable consigning retirees to a fraudulent system where the profits depended on denying care recommended by medical professionals.

· Garrido got one thing right: the HISF was created to cover health insurance expenses for actives and retirees. I incorrectly thought it was created only for retiree health care.

· I have an incurable but treatable neurological disease and I go three times a month for infusions. The price per infusion for the uninsured is $45K. Medicare pays about $7K. You can imagine the lack of enthusiasm that a private for-profit insurance company will have for such treatment.

Other reasons we need 1096:

· The initial number cited by the city and the unions was $600M, however that was calculated. Henry Garrido reported to his delegates in the spring that because of DC budget actions that number was now $300M, however that was calculated.

· Assuming that $300M has not vaporized further, we know from years of reports delivered to his delegates by Henry and from other sources that whatever number is being conjured by the MLC’s consultants, was going right back into the same slush fund bankrupted by the city and the unions.

The Thieves Have a Falling Out:

· Now there is a falling out among the thieves over an alleged $4B, give or take $1B, in health care savings that the parties failed to generate in allegedly contractual commitments.

· Henry Garrido has publicly and privately reported that he has in writing that the unions have been relieved of any commitment to save the $600M (or $300M. Or whatever number they are flying this week) by forcing retirees into a Medicare Advantage Plan. So the current $$$B squabble has absolutely nothing to do with retirees and we will not take the fall.

The Thieves Open The Backdoor

· Frustrated by their unsuccessful attempt to steal health care directly from retirees, they have resorted to slapping $15 co-pays on every medical interaction after the deductibles are satisfied. This piles fees on top of one another so prevalent that retirees cannot afford them; you can’t tell where one stops and another starts.

· The “lucky” ones have incomes so low that they are dual eligibles (Medicare and Medicaid) if you are callous enough to call being living in poverty “lucky.”

· The rest of us have to pay deductibles that are not reimbursed, Rx drug co-pays that are not reimbursed, transportation, vision above what is reimbursed, dental above the cap, and front $2430.80 for 12 months’ premium before being reimbursed. This comes to about $5,000.

· The 27% of city retirees who exist on pensions of $15K or less (even with a reasonable amount for social security added) simply can’t afford it. The 57% with pensions of $35K or less, with an appropriate amount for social security, aren’t doing so great either.

· The contract for the wrap-around, currently GHI/Emblem Health Senior Care, will be re-bid this year. I an working on a table, not straightforward, showing how devastating the co-pays have become. I will forward when ready later this week.

· I, personally, begin the year with 86 co-pays: 36 for the above mentioned infusions and 50 for weekly psychotherapy. That’s $1290 (minus the deductibles.) Now, I’m in physical therapy twice a week. This is a heavy hit. There is no indication that the unions will reduce the out-of-pocket in the bid document. I wonder who they think they represent: the taxpayers or their former members.

They have no shame:

· DC 37 ought to be ashamed. Most low-income retirees are their former members. They are stealing money from those who can least afford it to subsidize taxpayers. (If not for the co-pays, the premiums paid by the city likely would be higher.)

· While DC 37 and other unions’ welfare funds provide an Rx benefit (with co-pays), many other retirees have to purchase city of New York Rx Part D with a 2026 monthly premium of $180 (some of which is reimbursed by the city or various union welfare funds). They also may face a Part D surcharge that is not reimbursed.

What can the city council do?

· Enact 1096 which will end any discussion of a Medicare Advantage Plan or co-pays.

Bob

917-733-0925

Trumpezuelian Invasion -- Nothing New - Congressional Approval? Give me a break - A Bit of History

2026-01-04T14:53:00.003-05:00

Anti-Trump pundits and Marjorie Taylor Green whine about how Trump is violating America first which he ran on -- they don't get it - he meant the entire North and South America First. Look for a name change for Venezuela, in gold leaf. Maybe Trump sees Putin being popular after starting a war and thinks he can turn around his numbers.

Remember United States invasion of Grenada in the 80s?

Maurice Bishop, who sought to prioritise socio-economic development, education and true black liberation, was murdered: Too much collectivism, not enough dog-eat-dog rugged individualism. Funny thing is Mamdani wants to put Bibbi in the same place. They could room with Luigi.

1898–1935: The United States launched multiple minor interventions into Latin America, resulting in U.S. military presence in Cuba, Honduras, Panama (via the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty and Isthmian Canal Commission), Haiti (1915–1935), the Dominican Republic (1916–1924) and Nicaragua (1912–1925) & (1926–1933).
This goes way beyond Epstein

Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026

Consider this post a history lesson. I've become a political junkie -- no more sports for me - politics is the real sport. I spend too much of the day listening to podcasts.

I am having trouble focusing on UFT politics and Unity Trump-like behavior. UFT and oppo politics is getting boring. The Delegate Assembly is blah and the RTC Meetings are getting close to blah with the RTC leadership not fighting back against Unity to my satisfaction, though both meetings are opportunities for social interaction. I'm also in close touch with the ABC and former ICE crew, which I will write more the great in-person meeting we had last week with about 15 people.

I'm not justifying or endorsing the Trump invasion(s), as so many Dems are doing, just putting them into historical context. Trump, like most presidents, has to pull a Putin and invade somewhere. His invasion is an endorsement of sorts for Putin's invasion of Ukraine due to Russian sphere of influence. And gives China justification for invading Taiwan. Since Trump is incapable of standing up to both of them, he decides to do what they do --- pick on the weak locally. He stays out of their spheres.

Anti-Trump pundits and Marjorie Taylor Green, who actually is making some sense, whine about how Trump is violating America first which he ran on -- they don't get it - he meant the entire North and South America First.

The Trump agenda: Panama canal, Canada 51st state -- Israel an exception, is the de-facto 51st state. How about Greenland? And next to come Cuba and Columbia? Trumpies don't have to worry about the left in Argentina and Chile and pretty much the west coast of South America. Only Columbia and Brazil is left and too big to invade but isolation would be a goal. In Central, maybe Nicaragua which is quasi left with another dictator.

Nations run by the left are always a danger to capitalists -- what next? Invade NYC and deport Zohran? Only if he's successful.

All the hand-ringing and rending of garments, as if this Venezuela thing is something new. How many times have we sent troops or intervened in Haiti, Nicaragua, the DR, wars with Mexico? This is not about the Monroe Doctrine, which was directed at European intervention in our "sphere."

The war of 1848 and the invasion of Mexico, which brought us Texas, unfortunately. Remember how France tried to take over Mexico during the Civil War when we were otherwise engaged?

Any leftist government led to neocon dreams of regime change. This was not just Republicans but both parties. Vietnam anyone? Some think Kennedy was killed because he was going to pull out of Vietnam and as retaliation for not supporting the Bay of Pigs. I don't believe the son of Joe Kennedy would be an anti-imperialist.

Almost every president since McKinley has pretty much had to invade somewhere to establish tough guy bona fides. Some Dem presidents were only marginally better.

The Dem response has been so weak -- let us vote to endorse the Trump intervention. Dems are OK with regime change if they can vote YES as they did with Iraq. And remember the murder of Patrice Lumumba? And Dag Hammerschold? I'm old and was a political junkie in HS.

Dem President Wilson forced us to get involved in WW1 and people were put in jail for opposing the war. I did a blog on him: Woodrow Wilson: The More We Know About the History of the Democratic Party, the Sicker They Look

Only FDR seemed to change policy toward Latin America but I'd bet there were some hidden factors and some interventions. From AI:

Key Aspects of FDR's Approach:
Ending Military Occupations: FDR withdrew U.S. Marines from Haiti (1934) and Nicaragua, and renounced the right to intervene unilaterally in internal affairs.
Respecting Sovereignty: The policy, articulated in his 1933 inaugural address, pledged the U.S. to be a "good neighbor" that respected others' rights.
Economic Cooperation: The focus shifted to promoting trade agreements and economic partnerships, aiming to build goodwill.
Abrogating Interventionist Clauses: The U.S. abrogated the Platt Amendment, which had allowed intervention in Cuba
Examples of Continued Influence (Interference)
Despite the official stance of non-intervention, the FDR administration used diplomatic and economic pressure to shape Latin American outcomes:
Cuba (1933): Assistant Secretary of State Sumner Welles orchestrated the resignation of Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado. When a revolutionary government followed, FDR withheld diplomatic recognition, which indirectly led to the rise of Fulgencio Batista.
Economic Diplomacy: The administration used the Export-Import Bank and reciprocal trade agreements to tie Latin American economies more closely to the U.S..
World War II Security: During the war, the U.S. pressured nearly every Latin American nation (except initially Argentina) to align with the Allies, crack down on Axis sympathizers, and provide strategic materials.

Reagan used the excuse of protecting American medical students to cover for the real reason:

Following the execution of Marxist Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and the seizure of power by hardline Marxists, the U.S. cited imminent danger to approximately 1,000 American citizens, many studying medicine, fearing they could become hostages.

Containing Soviet/Cuban Influence:
Grenada, under Bishop and then the new regime, had growing ties with Cuba and the USSR, with a large airport under construction by Cuban engineers. Reagan feared this could become a Soviet military base in the Caribbean, challenging U.S. dominance

Wikipedia: Foreign interventions by the United States

The United States has been involved in hundreds of interventions in foreign countries throughout its history, engaging in nearly 400 military interventions between 1776 and 2026, with half of these operations occurring since 1950 and over 25% occurring in the post-Cold War period.^[1]

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U.S. intervention in the Americas spans from 19th-century expansionism (Monroe Doctrine, Mexican-American War) to 20th-century Cold War actions, often driven by strategic/economic interests, with
congressional approval varying significantly; while formal declarations of war are rare (e.g., Mexico 1846, Spain 1898), the War Powers Resolution of 1973, requiring President notification and limiting troop deployment without Congress's authorization, emerged from Vietnam-era conflicts where presidents acted without explicit approval, leading to ongoing tension over executive vs. legislative war powers.

Early Interventions (19th Century)
Monroe Doctrine (1823): Asserted U.S. opposition to European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere, setting a precedent for U.S. regional influence.
Manifest Destiny & Expansion: Driven by economic opportunity and continental ambition, leading to conflicts like the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), where Congress declared war.
Punitive Expeditions: The U.S. Navy conducted numerous interventions, often involving Marines, for protecting trade or punishing actions, such as in Sumatra or Argentina.
Rise of U.S. Hegemony (Late 19th - Early 20th Century)
Spanish-American War (1898): A formal declaration of war by Congress following the sinking of the USS Maine, resulting in U.S. control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
Roosevelt Corollary (1904): Expanded the Monroe Doctrine, justifying U.S. intervention in Latin American countries to prevent instability and European debt collection.
20th Century & Cold War Interventions
"Big Stick" Diplomacy & Banana Wars: Numerous interventions (e.g., Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic) to protect U.S. interests, often without formal declarations, blurring lines of power.
World Wars: The U.S. entered WWI and WWII following Congressional declarations, joining global conflicts.
Cold War Era: Interventions in Latin America (e.g., Guatemala, Chile, Grenada) often supported anti-communist forces, with varied congressional involvement, sometimes covertly (Iran-Contra affair).
Post-Vietnam Era & The War Powers Resolution (1973)
Context: Secret bombings in Cambodia and prolonged Vietnam conflict without formal declarations spurred Congress to act.
Key Provisions: Requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops into hostilities and mandates withdrawal after 60-90 days unless Congress authorizes the action or declares war.
Ongoing Debate: Presidents have often bypassed or interpreted the Resolution loosely, citing funding as implicit approval, highlighting the persistent struggle over war powers.
Contemporary Examples
Panama (1989): Invasion to depose Noriega, authorized under different legal frameworks, bypassing typical WPR procedures.
Syria (2017): Missile strikes occurred without explicit Congressional authorization, sparking debate over the Resolution's application
The U.S. has imposed regime change in the Americas numerous times, beginning with overt military actions in the early 20th century (like in Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua) and shifting to covert CIA-backed coups during the Cold War (e.g., Guatemala 1954, Brazil 1964, Chile 1973), often citing anti-communism or protecting U.S. interests, with historical examples also including the 1893 overthrow of Hawaii's monarchy
. These interventions, ranging from direct invasions to clandestine operations, have occurred across Latin America and the Caribbean for over a century.
Key Examples in Latin America & Caribbean:
Cuba (Early 20th Century): Multiple interventions and occupations to install or support governments favorable to U.S. interests during the "Banana Wars".
Mexico (1914): Invasion of Veracruz to oust President Victoriano Huerta during the Mexican Revolution.
Dominican Republic (1916-1924): Eight-year military occupation to force government reforms.
Guatemala (1954): CIA-organized coup overthrew President Jacobo Arbenz, who enacted land reforms affecting U.S. business.
Brazil (1964): CIA supported the coup that deposed President João Goulart.
Chile (1973): U.S. involvement in the coup that overthrew democratically elected President Salvador Allende.
Grenada (1983): U.S. invasion to prevent a Marxist government from consolidating power.
Panama (1989): U.S. invasion to depose military dictator Manuel Noriega.
Other Notable Cases:
Hawaii (1893): Overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani by U.S.-backed businessmen, leading to annexation.
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December 18, 2025

The United States’ Hidden History of Regime Change—Revisited

The truculent trio—Trump, Hegseth, and Rubio—do Venezuela.

Barbara Koeppel

Since the early 20th century, the United States has commandeered coups around the world, helping opposition figures and their mutinous militaries topple leaders whose policies they abhor. Why? These heads of state launched programs to redistribute land; strengthen labor unions, health and education systems; and nationalize industries. Washington insists they are “communist” or “socialist” and will threaten American dominance and corporate interests.

In the good old days, the hanky-panky was hidden, since the United States signed both the United Nations and Organization of American States charters, which stated that forced regime change was illegal.
But by the 1990s, US politicos scrapped the secrecy and told it like it was. For example, right-wing thinkers such as William Kristol and Robert Kagan, pilots of the Project for a New American Century, had no qualms writing a 1998 New York Times op-ed about the US and Iraq: They insisted that the US should overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime “to ensure America’s greatness.”

Since then, everything has been on the table. Along with Kristol and Kagan, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and Richard Perle joined the Bush II team. Finding no need to pussyfoot around, they insisted that the US should intervene wherever regimes rejected Washington’s road map.
Venezuela is just the latest country the US considers a threat. Since it sits on the world’s largest oil reserves (five times that of the US), former president Hugo Chávez and, after him, Nicolás Maduro chose an independent course. Despite US sanctions, Venezuela has sent its oil to countries such as China (which gets the lion’s share) as well as India, Cuba, Turkey, and even small amounts to Italy and Spain. Such goings-on cannot continue.

Though the geography has changed, none of this is new. During the Cold War, the CIA cast cloaks and daggers to remove regimes, bankroll opposition figures, and train forces, as it did with the Nicaraguan contras in the early 1980s.

The number of interventions is huge. In some countries, the CIA meddled in elections. Dov Levin, a political scientist at the University of Hong Kong, wrote that since the end of World War II, the United States interfered in 81 countries’ elections. He added that if the list were backdated to the end of the 19th century, it would be twice as long. Russia, he noted, came in second, interfering in 36 elections.
For example, before the 1948 elections in Italy, the CIA sought to discredit candidates who were Communists (the party was legal). Since they were the backbone of the resistance in World War II, many could have won. Thus, the CIA circulated millions of embarrassing forged letters and aired broadcasts warning of the catastrophe to come if the Communists won. The tactics mainly succeeded.

But election meddling was the least deadly of the CIA’s cloaks and daggers. For the next seven decades, it helped topple or kill both elected and non-elected leaders in Panama (in 1941 and 1989), Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), the Congo (1960), Brazil (1964), Indonesia (1965–67), the Dominican Republic (1965), Bolivia (1971), Chile (1973), Argentina (1976), Grenada (1983), Haiti (1991), Libya (2011), and Ukraine (2014).
For example, in Indonesia, the CIA helped oust President Sukarno and install General Suharto. It financed opposition groups and anti-communist propaganda, trained military factions, and ran psychological operations to create instability—and revealed the names of insurgents. It also produced a pornographic film in which the lead wore a mask of Sukarno. After the coup, the Suharto regime killed between 750,000 and 1,000,000 individuals.
In Brazil, the CIA supported the generals’ coup, since it and the US thought President João Goulart was a leftist threat that had to be squashed. This led to a 24-year military dictatorship that killed or “disappeared” at least 1,000 political dissidents and activists. It also promoted the broader US strategy of intervening in the region.

In Chile, Richard Nixon, the CIA, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger supported the 1973 Pinochet coup that toppled Salvador Allende, the democratically elected president, who committed suicide during the attack. Kissinger warned President Nixon that “the example of a successful Marxist government in Chile would surely have an impact on other parts of the world and significantly balance our own position in it.”
Similarly, in Argentina, the US supported the 1976 military coup to counter “leftist” threats. Here, the CIA provided intelligence and logistical support to the military junta to destroy its opposition. And the tactics succeeded. Afterward, at least 30,000 people were “disappeared” as the generals systematically abducted, tortured, and murdered them—even tossing some out of airplanes. The US looked the other way because it wanted the junta to stabilize the region and protect American interests.

On very few occasions, the schemes failed. For example, the CIA tried to kill Fidel Castro for decades. Through Operation Mongoose, the agency sent him explosive cigars or poisoned food, ballpoint pens, and scuba diving suits. But Castro survived until his death in 2016 at the age of 90.
Decades earlier, the United States, Britain, France, and Japan sent troops to Russia in the 1918 civil war to block a Bolshevik victory. They failed, and the Soviets retained power until 1989.

Interestingly, when Smedley Butler, a US Marine Corps general, retired in 1935, he famously announced, “I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for big business and the bankers. I was a gangster for capitalism.”

In April 2025, Dr. David Kirk, an assistant chair of intelligence studies at the American Military University, frankly said the US will “engage in denial and deceptions” to hide its plans from its enemies. However, over the past few decades, secrecy strategies have been scrapped.

But fine-tuned secrecy habits die hard. When I asked the Pentagon’s spokesman, Lt. Col. Bryon McGarry, about the weapons the US has sent to Israel and Ukraine since 2023, he said, “We don’t comment on specifics.”

As Kurt Vonnegut often wrote, “and so it goes.”

Trump and His Cronies Want a War in the Western Hemisphere

Don’t be fooled by the anti-interventionist language. The Trump administration is only too eager to use military force.

William D. Hartung

MulgrewCare Update: We Owe $3.1 Billion - Explosive Audit Urges Dissolving Insolvent City Employee Health Fund

2025-12-30T11:25:00.001-05:00

They (the City + MLC) lied to us and misused the Healthcare Stabilization Fund. This has ultimately affected our healthcare benefits and us paying more and more out of pocket.
Contact the NYS AG’s office, the DOL and Congress representatives.
Name the fish and win a free sub to Ed Notes

Demand further investigation, increased transparency, and increased oversight and regulation. These are our dues and tax dollars. Now they want a self-funded NYCEPPO plan? Why would anyone trust them to manage this properly?
This vindicates our reporting abt the bulk transfers of cash to @DC37nyc & @UFT’s welfare funds. Both now sit on a billion $ in assets — while members not seeing much more in benefits.
https://thewire.educators.nyc/.../the-fund-is-about-to...

Also from the audit: The new self funded NYCEPPO plan is still not enough to pay for how much they are in the RED!
Why would anyone trust these 2 parties as constituted to manage this new self-funded plan properly?
Meanwhile @UFT and @DC37nyc sit on a billion dollars in their welfare funds from HSF?!
Read the audit here:
https://comptroller.nyc.gov/.../audit-of-the-financial...

Daniel Alicea, EONYC and ABC

What next? $1000 dollar co-pays?

Lander Confirms Unity and MLC Frittered Away Stabilization Fund

Now as then, they demand we TRUST them

Arthur Goldstein

Dec 30

They took a fund designed to keep member health costs down, made ridiculous deals with the city to fund raises with it, and watched it dwindle down to nothing. This has now been confirmed in an audit by city Comptroller Brad Lander. In 2014, MLC geniuses decided to fund raises by giving the city a billion dollars from the Stabilization Fund.

Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025

This broke today and luckily we are having an in-person group getting together for lunch this afternoon and can reaffirm the history even as Mulgrew will claim a "false and biased probe from the comptroller." I remember him mocking us for claiming he wiped out the stabilization fund --"You think cops would let me take out millions?" Apparently they did.

This is what RTC/RA should be raising hell about but most of them do not see Unity as an enemy. And when I get up and scream at the Unity gang that have stabbed us in the back while defending Mulgrew at every turn -- like the Trumpies do for their leader no matter what he does --- I get yelled at by both Unity and some of the leadership of RTC for being "uncivil." I intend to be uncivil to people who tried to kill me.

And let's give some credit to the gang at ABC who have been digging at the healthcare issue from the very beginning while some retiree leaders bought the Mulgrew line hook, line and sinker.

Arthur:

remember all that talk about how this scheme was better than Medicare, which city employees had for years? Remember Mulgrew, lying that all the doctors who took Medicare would accept it? It’s now official—this whole dance was about covering their dumb asses for the stupid deals they made behind our backs. Meanwhile, as the Stabilization Fund is broke, our Welfare Fund sits on a billion dollars. Mulgrew and his MLC cronies oppose 1096, claiming they need to negotiate our health care for us. After all, who else but they have had the vision to run it into the ground?

And more from Daniel at Educators of NYC also posted

The Healthcare Fund They Quietly Decided to Kill
Leaked audio featuring MLC lawyer, Alan Klinger, leaves many asking: Did ‘Three Men in A Room’ collude to kill the NYC Healthcare Stabilization Fund?
For years, city workers and retirees have been told a familiar story:
Healthcare concessions were necessary, painful but unavoidable, and required to generate “cost savings” for the City. We were told these sacrifices were about sustainability. About protecting benefits. About avoiding worse outcomes.
We needed to save and replenish the depleted NYC Healthcare Stabilization Fund – or it would collapse, and we would have no choice but to pay healthcare premiums.
But buried in plain sight is an admission that turns that entire narrative on its head.
In a recent closed-door Municipal Labor Committee meeting, MLC and UFT attorney Alan Klinger acknowledged that a central goal of the City–Union Tripartite Health Committee was not to save the Healthcare Stabilization Fund (HSF)—but to eliminate it altogether.
Not through open debate. Not through a vote of the MLC body. But through a quiet, structural decision made by a tiny group of three individuals operating far from rank-and-file eyes and ears.

And THE CITY SCOOP.

by Claudia Irizarry Aponte Dec. 30, 202

Dear New Yorkers,

An explosive audit from City Comptroller Brad Lander released today urges dissolving a fund that helps finance city employees health benefits, concluding that it is billions of dollars in the red after being tapped for years by municipal unions and mayors in labor bargaining.

Declaring the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund "insolvent," Lander’s auditors determined that the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund owes the city $3.1 billion, not counting obligations to vendors that have yet to be tallied for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

The probe paints a picture of the city and municipal unions using the fund as a virtual piggy bank, authorizing $4.3 billion in payments from 2001 to 2024. Meanwhile a 2014 labor deal reduced the city’s obligations to pay into the health fund — ultimately shrinking the fund’s balance by $3.3 billion.

And it reveals that the city unions scrambled to set up Medicare Advantage as a cost-savings health plan for retirees as part of a gameplan to replenish the rapidly depleting

The audit’s existence spilled into public view when THE CITY obtained audio of an internal union meeting — and prompted the municipal unions in an internal memo to decry what they called a "false and biased" probe from the comptroller.

Read more here about the billions of dollars in the balance.

Fred Smith Does it Again - with some help - SAInt Nick’s Visit to New York

2025-12-26T22:51:00.003-05:00

Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

Every year since, forever, Fred Smith has posted his Xmas message. You can read them all at Ed Notes archives and they are all worth it being so topical.

Another year,

another poem from Fred.

Not a lot of cheer

in a dismal year.

But do not fear,

We have Fred's Photo with NY Jets Dancers

For us to share

--- Norm's feeble attempt at rhyme

Fred Smith has been posting his xmas messages here and elsewhere for many years. The message may be a bit gloomy, but have no fear, Fred always has a cheer.

I first met Fred, a testing expert who used to work as a statistician for the old NYCBOE, when he contacted me about getting ICE members to assist in gathering data for his exposures of the evils of testing I think sometime around 2008. He then got involved with groups like GEM and Change the Stakes and was a co-winner with me and Danny Dromm of Leonie Haimson's Skinny Award in 2018 - (June 19 - I'm a Skinny: Honored to be honored by )

Fred Smith has done it again with his yearly Xmas special.

If it's Christmas, it must be Fred at Ed Notes.

Here is Fred's message for 2025:

I wanted to use AI to compose a spoofy version of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” that would focus on New York City politicos and the gifts Santa would bring them tonight. I charged Chatgpt the task of creating couplets designed to incorporate snippets about each personality, hoping this faceless poet would parody the beloved classic.

With impressive speed, the flash of a few seconds, Chatgpt returned rhymes based on its “understanding” of my choppy input. These seeds required my limited intelligence to sprout. Here’s the result of our collaboration.

SAInt Nick’s Visit to New York

Christmas Eve came and went, although Santa was sad.
There were good kids in Gotham but some who were bad;
His elves were tired, the deer a year older,
And he now bore his sack on a sore shoulder.
Why bother to make a list or check it twice;
His heart not in it, he sought AI’s advice.
When all at once, this burden turned into a game,
As rhymes and gifts appeared next to each person’s name.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Andrew Cuomo:
A book filled with the lessons he hasn’t yet learned,
Not bundles of accolades which he never earned.
A mirror for moments he’d rather not face,
And a clock ticking loud on man’s power and place;
A humility pill to swallow each day,
With a card from St. Nick: “Think of staying away.”

For Zohran Mamdani:
Energies to take on the battles ahead
Brought by enemies who fear he’ll do what he said.
He’ll need advisors tuned to his working-class call
For its fair share of the pie even if small.
And last from Santa, with a half-cup of cheer—
A phonetic name plate to start out the New Year.

For Curtis Sliwa:
Santa winked upon Curtis this Xmas eve,
Red beret blazing and without tricks up his sleeve.
From Guardian Angels to mayor’s debate,
This cat-loving crusader spoke to us straight.
While Cuomo grumbles and blames Sliwa for losing,
Nick gave him props—he was not merely amusing.

For Jessica Tisch:
He sent the Commish wishes this season of light,
Whose proud Chanukah heritage keeps burning bright.
When she and Zohran shared a meal of shawarma,
She soon warmed up to this prison reformer.
Claus hoped when their views about Israel burst,
They could differ but have city safety come first.

For Michael Mulgrew:
Santa has a weathervane that helps guide his sled.
Wryly, he gave it to Michael Mulgrew instead.
This gift fits his ever-quick shifts ‘tween to and fro,
For which way the wind blows Mulgrew always must know.
A rigged voting process ensures re-election;
Union members sold out can’t force his rejection.

For Eric Adams:
Hizzoner skipped town, so no Christmas visit,
Closing out his everyday fashion exhibit.
His record was dimmed by dishonest cronies
With one thing in common, they had big cojones.
Adams’ goodbye was sealed by a deal made with Trump;
Had he remained home, Claus would have dropped off a lump.

For former mayors:
Santa remembered gifts left ’neath past mayors’ trees:
A Prospect Y gym pass to adorn BdB’s;
Nothing for Bloomie—he had all he needed;
Anger control warnings Rudy unheeded;
Tennis white shorts Dinkins would look like new in;
A scorebook telling Koch how he was doin’.

For faithful civil servants:
St. Nick beamed for those who keep New York running,
Who do upright work, unsung without cunning.
In every job title, in every condition,
The public good is their hon’rable full-time mission.
Upholding the banner of orange and blue,
Santa’s uplifting peeps, “Merry Christmas to you.”

Chatgpt as told to Fred Smith, who retired as an administrative analyst for the NYC public school system.

Last year I missed Fred's missive probably due to chemo brain. He did not do his usual xmas but an election pre-quel in Sept that did not turn out exactly as he wished. He shoulda used AI then.

The Weeks Before Christmas
by Fred Smith – September 16, 2024
The days are swift passing until it’s December,
But Christmas will dawn on the 5th of November.
Two months ‘fore Election Day and throughout the land
Joy has been stirring, hopeful relief near at hand.

As late as July, there was a sense of despair.
Optimism was fading and breathing foul air.
Then Biden withdrew; ‘twas all of a sudden.
Harris stepped up, and light started to flood in.

Cheerful Kamala smiled without missing a beat,
Catching a bone-spurred bully off guard on flat feet.
She’s a Black-Asian woman who married a Jew.
See your priest or your rabbi if that troubles you.

So, Karma took over when Joe lost a debate;
Poetic justice, at last, dictating Trump’s fate.
Running strong against Donald whose gospel is hate,
Whose bloody rage keeps him in a constant red state.

She picked as her running mate, Governor Walz,
A true everyman, who responds to all calls.
When fast off they flew to swing states and rallied,
As Trump more and more scowled and dilly dallied.

He who had chosen JD Vance as his veep,
Whose obeisance displayed how much he’s a creep.
A wide-eyed senator dreaming on his love couch;
A perfect match partner for the impious grouch.
And as Grumpy campaigns with his sidekick Goofy,
This ragged tag team has been double down doofy.

Years back, there were signs Trump was non compos mentis,
Strutting ruthlessness skills on the Apprentice,
Firing everyone at his ultimate whim
With unchecked power reserved only to him.

And twenty years ere that reality show,
Wayne Barrett mapped the deets of Donald’s M.O.:
His deep-seated racism; the shield of Roy Cohn;
Dirty dealing and cheating, these all were well known.
This self-proclaimed titan whose casinos went bust;
A big entrepreneur no contractor could trust.

Now Trump’s mainly consumed by the size of each crowd,
Ranting in blue whale-ish suits that fit like a shroud.
Carrot-faced, his puss locked into a grimace,
Stewing up gripes in a big steamy tsimmes
That he feeds to his base in a crock full of lies,
Which he always refills with unending supplies:

About how he built walls to bar immigration
That’s turning us into a third world nation;
And why it made sense to oppose vaccination;
Or how he lowered our high rate of inflation.
Try figuring where he stands on abortions,
As he twists yes – no – maybes into contortions.

And he’s only become more misogynistic
With a baseline temper that starts at ballistic.
Who’s used the court system to dodge Judgment Day;
But like Yertle, he’s doomed to crash down the same way.

While Karismatic Harris along with the Coach
Continued to roll out, facing minor reproach.
After last month’s convention billowed their sails,
Felonious Trump pondered his choice of jails.

Then Trump and JD took their road show on tour.
We got a chance to suffer each faux pas du jour.
Effronteries and distractions almost non-stop:
Making losers at Arlington serve as a prop;
Blaming incomplete women for going bats
For not birthing children, who instead adopt cats.
And if he debated, would the show be on FOX,
With no questions allowed about man-eating sharks?

With the big DEBATE looming he put out new stuff,
Pulling ugly assertions straight out of his duff:
Haitians dining on take-out (kidnapped dogs and geese),
A claim debunked by Springfield’s Chief of Police.

And then the DEBATE—Trump unable to face her;
Harris owned this coward who’s tried to debase her.
He fumed when she treated his rallies with scorn,
And went off on killing babies once they were born.

Harris scored point after point ad infinitum.
Her words and her “looks” combined to smite him.
A minute later Trump spun that he’d won the night
But refused to give Harris a second fight.

It’s hard to keep up with the stream of offenses;
The barrage of untruths that assault our senses
With conspiracy theories that come abounding,
Each one more bizarre and beyond astounding.

Countless the lies exceeding verses and rhymes.
The volume and scope of his numerous crimes;
Perverting O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,”
Trump’s Christmas tale is, The “Grift of the MAG Guy.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Be careful Kamala! Victory’s not in the bag
With twisted judges flying the upside-down flag,
Abetting Trump, concocting legal protections
Re the insurrection and stealing elections.

We know the one Harris Poll that counts most of all,
Is when people show up to cast ballots this fall,
And tell Donald Trump what they think of his fury.
Voters render the verdict. We are the jury.

Fred Smith retired from the New York City public school system
as an administrative analyst. His occasional poems and op-eds
have appeared in the New York Daily News and other newspapers.

Here is my post from two years ago, Dec. 25, 2023:
The Nightmare Before Christmas 2023 - Fred Smith Does it Again

December 25, 2023 --
Another year,
another poem from Fred.
Not a lot of cheer
in a dismal year.
But do not fear,
We have Fred's Photo with NY Jets Dancers
For us to share
--- Norm's feeble attempt at rhyme

Fred Smith has been posting his xmas messages here and elsewhere for many years. This year's message is a bit gloomy but have no fear, Fred ends with a cheer.
I first met Fred, a testing expert who used to work as a statistician for the old NYCBOE, when he contacted me about getting ICE members to assist in gathering data for his exposures of the evils of testing I think sometime around 2008. He then got involved with groups like GEM and Change the Stakes and was a co-winner with me and Danny Dromm of Leonie Haimson's Skinny Award in 2018 - (June 19 - I'm a Skinny: Honored to be honored by )

Fred Smith has done it again for 2023 with his yearly Xmas special.
If it's Christmas, it must be Fred Smith at Ed Notes.
Here are his previous years, each with a different theme. 2019 seems to be absent.
Fred Smith with his annual XMAS Poem - 2022 version
Fred Smith 2021 edition of his Annual ‘Twas the night before Christmas
Fred Smith with his annual The Night Before Xmas—2020
Fred Smith - The Day After Christmas - 2018 Version
2017: Fred Smith: Dispirit of the Season

2016: Fred Smith's Annual "Night Before Christmas"
2015: Fred Smith, Poet Laureate of Opt Out - 'Twas the night before...
And then there’s Mulgrew who must choose who is winning
To claim he was backing them from the beginning.
In (2014) Fred Smith gave us this gem.
Fred Smith: The Day Before Xmas (With Arne Duncan ...
Fred is also a statistician for the NY Jets - don't blame him for their absence from the Super Bowl for over 50 years.

Fred Smith convincing Jets dancers to boycott field tests - he's the one in the middle

Christian White Nationalism is a hot item -- and reeks of anti-semitism while there are major shifts in support from Dems and now some Republicans

2025-12-24T23:28:00.092-05:00

How about this xmas song? I'm dreaming of a white Christian Nation

December 24 - Christmas Eve - in the old days this would be a joyous day for me, not because of religion, but because school is over. In the years when I had my own classes - grades 4-6 - I spent a hectic few weeks organizing gifts and a class party. More than once, I remember getting into my car on the last day of schools and my throat started hurting which led to being sick for the vacation. It was due to the body let down after intense activity and a lesson for me on how to avoid getting colds when your body reacts to over-activity.

Jews and Xmas: Now the last day of school is just another day for me - but - We already booked a movie and Chinese restaurant for tomorrow. You have to book a movie in advance on Xmas day? We did and it's sold out.

This post is likely to get me in some trouble. It is a mess as I change my views every few minutes in trying to see various points of view - a way to get in trouble in today's world where being morally unequivocal is required.

I've been working on this since I heard Vance spouting his nonsense and in the process my views are evolving. Or devolving. I was about to finish this up this morning but Brian Lehrer opened his show by talking about some of the issues I raise here regarding the repeated declaration that this is a Christian nation, which it is in a sense in that Brian pointed out only 6-7% are religiously identified non-Christians -- that includes Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. But -- 22% identify as no faith. Jews make up 2.4% of the total population - 7.5 million of us. Yet Jews occupy a lot of the conversation with attention focused due to what is happening in Israel.

Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing aa anti-semitism - always has been and always will be. It is made to seem worse than ever. There has been an uptick but pogroms have not been. My school district leadership - Italian and Irish in the 70s, while allied with the Satmar Hasidics, definitely had an anti-Semitic bent. Even between the Irish and Italians there was friction, with the Italians ultimately winning out. When someone became a principal or AP, they were considered "made" and taken out to a restaurant known as a mob joint. My friend was Jewish and a principal in that crowd and the Supt once told him he doesn't trust anyone who is not Italian. And how interesting that at one point Italians, Irish and Jew were attacked as not being pure enough to be in this country. White Christian nationalism goes back almost 200 years. Remember how Al Smith was attacked for being Catholic in the 1928 election and even Kennedy in 1960?

Has anyone looked at the crucifixion of Christ as as anti-antisemitism, Roman style?

I identify as Jewish without the religion - so the line is fuzzy -- but in this "Christian" nation, 30% do not id as practicing Christian. And then among Christians, there are so many sects - Catholic is the largest - I can imagine the battles for primacy because as we become more intoletant of political differences, how far behind are intolerance to other religious sects, even within Christianity? But there is a common denominator - Jesus Christ -- yet as I heard on Brian Lehrer, the "love everyone" message of Jesus often gets lost. The theory of progressive Christians is that Jesus would be a leftist - probably DSA today.

If they had their pure white Christian nation how long before one sect attacks the others? Like Christians never went to war against each other? Henry the 8th I am I am. England was a religious war zone in the time of Shakespeare.

Here is the vice-president:

Speaking today at Turning Point USA’s annual “AmericaFest” conference, Vice President J.D. Vance said, to great applause: “The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God we always will be, a Christian nation.”

Whenever I hear the "we are a Christian nation" trope, I see an ethnic state and

dangers to non-Christians, though ironically, the basis of Christianity was a Jew. I often think that one root of anti-antisemitism is resentment at praying to a Jew. How can one love Jesus and not love Jews? I don't get it. I see all this festive stuff Jews don't take part in and it's all about a guy who was killed because he advocated a sect of Judaism - and there were many sects at that time, one of the lovely things about religion -- they split more then Trotskyists -- and Trotsky was also a Jew that many on the left pray too - and he was sort of crucified - or ICE Picked - by Stalin, who had his own brand of antisemitism.

Ethno states faced opposition for ages. I don't care what religion people have -- I am opposed to ethnic states - Saudi Arabia or Israel or the United States. The founding of this country was based on being tolerant of other religions since so many came here to run away from persecution - yes mostly Christian -- but Jews too.

Armenians also suffered a genocide after WW1 and also want their own state. Their arguments seem to make sense but that is another slippery slope. I would agree with some critics of the left for ignoring situations around the world to focus on Israel. A guy I know who is involved in the NYC based Educators for Palestine told me there was a discussion to broaden beyond the focus on Israel and include other states oppressing populations but that position was rejected --- the focus on Israel alone is one of the major arguments Zionists use to claim people on the left are antisemitic. I say they are more rigid ideologues.

The extremes on the right are outright bordering on fascism -- which seem to becoming more and more mainstream- this is a white Christian nation - which means Jews (who they don't consider to be white), are a target --- the major antisemitism is coming from the right, which generally supports Israel while on the left we see a lot of anti-Israel which is not anti-semitism but Zionists try to brand that as anti-semitism.

My thinking has evolved from being a mild Zionist to having had enough.

The Vance Christian stuff has lots of baggage when it comes to women.

Going back to Germany in the 30s when there was enormous unemployment, Hitler "solved" the problem not only with massive rearmament but also ordering woman back to the home to raise babies for the Reich.

And in this country, raising white babies to counter the possibility the majority of people will not be white one day is part of the ideology.

Note the calls from Vance and others for women to not work and have babies to keep this nation white by banning immigration from non-white places. South African whites are hot. Why won't people from Scandinavia who have all sorts of healthcare and other protections come here to die in emergency rooms? I have a friend from Japan who has been here 25 years on a visa and won't become a citizen because she doesn't want to be subject to the harshness of a weak safety net that she has in Japan.

Irony in that Vance has non-white kids and his Indian wife has been trashed by the Groypers.

The Nick Fuentes-led Groypers want a pure white Christian nation - which means the Jews have to go - and where can they go? I was brought up thinking that a holocaust can come to us here and used to see Israel as my escape route. No longer. I don't want to go from one fascist to another, even if it's my sect that's being fascist. There is no free speech in Israel, even for Jew. And it's not just an ethnic Jewish state but increasingly a religious state as the power of ultra Orthodox grows.

Israel wants to be a pure Jewish nation. Fuentes wants the same for this nation - just substitute Christian for Jewish.

Fuentes on a recent broadcast said he admired Israel for being the same kind of place he wants America to be. And why not he asks? Why do Jews get to have an ethnic state and Christians don't?

On an episode of his show in March, he summarized his politics as: “Jews are running society, women need to shut the fuck up, blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part, and we would live in paradise. It’s that simple.” He has also repeatedly described Hitler as “cool”. Support for an ethnic and religious hierarchy with white Christian men at the top; a belief that black people are inclined to criminality; opposition to legal as well as illegal immigration; vehement anti-feminism; respect for authoritarianism; disdain for democracy.

What next? A revival of the Ku Klux Klan to enforce Christianity? And don't forget, the racist KKK was also anti-Catholic because it was not the right sect of Christianity.

Republican outing

So, Fuentes says he admires Israel for its ethnic centric policy -- he has said that in 50 years Israel will still be a Jewish state while America if it doesn't reverse direction will be totally bastardized. He wants us to be like Israel. But Christian.

Zionists say Israel has has to be a Jewish state and most Jews seem to go along with that and if you object you are branded anti-semitic and if you are a Jewish objector, you are a self-hating Jew. There is a massive Zionist lobby pushing these lines and of course they will be focused on anything Mamdani does to attack him -- note the extreme scrutiny of his appointments -- like the woman married to a Jew with two Jewish kids who made some anti-semitic comments in 2011 when she was a teen. Rabid Zionists will do anything they can to make Mamdani fail and emphasize any negatives they can because of a Muslim who is critical of Israel succeeds it is a threat to them. The Anti Defamation League will do anything it can to undermine Mamdani.

Zionists think Jews are special and due so the Holocaust they must have their own state - which is where I have been at most of my life but draw the line that that state is entitled to do anything it wants. Now I have to question the very nature of a fascistic, apartheid state. I talk to all levels of Zionists. Some are rabid --- no kids are dying in Gaza and if they are they are being used as shields by Hamas which then justifies Israel to wipe out an entire building to kill one Hamas. One relative recently used the argument that Jews are moral while Muslims are not. I know too many Jews to make that judgement. I never say Hamas is good -- though some I argue with on the left defend them and compare them to the Irish IRA resisters to Britain -- I was always disturbed by them too.

On the other hand, Jews have been a minority for 2000 years wherever they have been and that has not turned out so good for them. So when people say Israel should just be a peaceful multiethnic state and let the chips fall where they may, history does not look good if they were to be a minority -- people seem to think Palestinians in the majority would just live and let live. That is dreamland. Remember when Nasser expelled Jews from Egypt?

He also expelled Greeks. Probably too many diners.

I could see a reversal over decades if Jews became a minority where the shoe is on the other foot. The left will say good riddance -- they are settler colonialists.

So I am confused as I try to see all sides.

Recently, we saw Ken Burns American Revolution and I was a history major and took a one semester course in that period and that was a political, and not a social revolution - mostly - though supporters of England were often exiled and had their property seized. The Declaration states: "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...." Can you name one such separation without violence?

Around the same time as the founding of Israel, the India/Pakistan partition took place and they are still having issues, as is Israel and Palestinians. Religion played a part there too - Muslim and Hindu friction. There was massive forced migration in both cases. In Israel the idea that if Palestinians would just disappear, their problems would be solved. Oct. 7 made this possible by making life so miserable people would have to leave -- at least those left alive.

A growing number of Jews and Democrats have turned against the Israeli government. Remember the reaction against Amy Arundell when she announced she was running for UFT president last February because of her views on Palestine? ABC still got 32% of the vote and I'd guess we lost 2% while she was a key to making ABC viable. I'd guess that between February and the election in May minds were changing as the atrocities piled up. And a month later Mamdani won the primary and views like Amy's were becoming mainstream in NYC, even among Jews.

But it's hard to let go if you think Israel is your out when this place goes full fascist. And now a portion of MAGA has also turned against Israel, but I suspect there is more antisemitism than in the Dems.

Most Zionists I know support the idea of Israel -- if only we got rid of Netanyahu - which is a mistake as there are even more far right people in Israel -- there will be no going back to more tolerant days. They are moving toward removing or killing as many Palestinians as they can - killing children is part of the plan to prevent future opposition -- one Zionist told me she doesn't care how many kids they kill as they are all future terrorists. The idea is to make conditions so bad people will leave - but where will they go? Probably the Ellisons will throw a few billion to some desperate nations to take them.

The Mamdani win in the biggest Jewish city, considering his position on Israel, has sent shock waves throughout the nation -- a crisis of sorts for zionists, a number of whom are critical of the Netanyahu government, but still defend the concept of a Jewish state. However, it looks like the Israeli population on the whole are fine with whatever is done to Palestinians - look at the West Bank outrages - and the fact that Israel will never treat Palestinians decently is resonating deeply and causing even some zionists to question the validity of a Jewish state continuing in an apartheid situation - or eliminating the Palestinian people as a solution. Maybe a final solution.

They don't see the dangers to themselves as they did see when many Jews were forced to leave Muslim states and declare that if Muslims have states, Jews should too. But why not Christian states too? Which is a point Fuentes makes when he says he admires Israeli Jewish nationalism and says he wants the same thing for this country,

In this video, Krystal Ball and Segar Enjeti delve into the Fuentes issue and tie to the Israeli situation and how the calls for an Israeli ethnic state lead inevitably to a Christian state here.

https://youtu.be/HGvq_1PLhr4?si=MM1qDlkT81fUa9eI

The United States was founded on being a non-single religion state.

Let's not forget that many of the earliest settlers going back to 1620 were escaping religious persecution in Europe. The ultimate outcome of the Vance position of Christian nationalism is, of course, more antisemitism. Jews were place the fault on the left are certainly ignoring 500 years (at least) of history of right wing antisemitism and pogroms. Does anyone think that

Heather Cox Richardson goes into some details on our history, but Christian white nationalists will call it fake news.

In 1790, the year after he took office as the nation’s first president, George Washington assured a Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, that in the United States of America, “[a]ll possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.” The government of the United States, he wrote, “gives to bigotry no sanction” and “to persecution no assistance.” He wished that Jewish Americans “continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants— while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.” The next year, the states ratified the First Amendment to the Constitution. In order to ensure men had the right of conscience, it reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson called this amendment “a wall of separation between Church & State.” In a letter of January 1, 1802, he explained to a group of Baptists from Danbury, Connecticut, how that principle made him refuse to call for national religious days of fasting and thanksgiving in his role as head of the government. Like Madison, he maintained that “religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship.” “[T]he legitimate powers of government reach actions only,” he wrote, “[and] not [religious] opinions.” “[T]hat act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’” he wrote, built “a wall of separation between Church & State.” In the early years of the nation, Americans zealously guarded that wall. They strictly limited the power of the federal government to reflect religion, refusing even to permit the government to stop delivery of the U.S. mails on Sunday out of concern that Jews and Christians did not share the same Sabbath and the government could not choose one over the other. The Constitution, a congressional report noted, gave Congress no authority “to inquire and determine what part of time, or whether any has been set apart by the Almighty for religious exercises.” But the Civil War marked a change. As early as the 1830s, southern white enslavers relied on religious justification for their hierarchical system that rested on white supremacy. God, they argued, had made Black Americans for enslavement and women for marriage, and society must recognize those facts. When reformers in the United States tried to change the preamble of the U.S. Constitution to read, “We, the people of the United States, humbly acknowledging Almighty God as the sources of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Ruler among nations, and His revealed will as of supreme authority, in order to constitute a Christian government, and in order to form a more perfect union,” the House Committee on the Judiciary concluded that “the Constitution of the United States does not recognize a Supreme Being.” That defense of democracy—the will of the majority—continued to hold religious extremists at bay. Reformers continued to try to add a Christian amendment to the Constitution, Foster explains, and in March 1896 once again got so far as the House Committee on the Judiciary. One reformer stressed that turning the Constitution into a Christian document would provide a source of authority for the government that, he implied, it lacked when it simply relied on a voting majority. A religious amendment “asks the Bible to decide moral issues in political life; not all moral questions, but simply those that have become political questions.” Opponents recognized this attempt as a revolutionary attack that would dissolve the separation of church and state, and hand power to a religious minority. One reformer said that Congress had no right to enact laws that were not in “harmony with the justice of God” and that the voice of the people should prevail only when it was “right.” Congressmen then asked who would decide what was right, and what would happen if the majority was wrong. Would the Supreme Court turn into an interpreter of the Bible? The committee set the proposal aside. Now, once again, we are watching a minority trying to impose its will on the majority, with leaders like Vice President J.D. Vance trying to rewrite American history. Letters from an American December 21, 2025 Heather Cox Richardson

Seeing the Trains Go Choo Choo at NY Botanic Garden and A Chance Meeting With the Younger Generation

2025-12-13T10:53:00.000-05:00

Saturday, December 13, 2025 -

Don't get run over by a faux Santa today

I love trains - and gardens. So Thursday I went up to the train show in the Bronx Botanic Garden, which is so far out of my normal range of travel - I've barely been in the Bronx - though I used to distribute Ed Notes to the big high schools, before they were wiped out by Bloomberg. Years ago I drove up to the train show with a friend but I hear they change it somewhat every year. And now with my training as a tour guide at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, I wanted to see what the competition looked like in the green houses.

I had signed up to go on a tour with one of the UFT courses a few weeks ago but had a conflict that day.

I stayed over in my apartment after the Ugly sweater Delicate Assembly on Wednesday, so I was leaving from Grand Central and had two choices - Metro North which I had never used before or the subway and bus.

I began looking for Metro North timetables but switched to the 4 train. I spent the entire trip standing at the front window of the train, like I used to do as a kid, watching the tracks fly by. I had the same thrill I always have when we emerge into the daylight as we hit Yankee Stadium, but had never taken the 4 past that station before and got to see a slice of the Bronx. I got off at Bedford Blvd and waited in the cold for a bus, which then dropped me off near the gate and I had a bit of a walk - did I say it was cold?

Okay, so I'm finally in the warmth of the train show - but the trains and their routes were not as interesting - I was waiting for a crash. The major interest are the buildings and I posted a few pics below. I loved the Penn Station building and at the end of the show we see the view I posted above of major Manhattan buildings. But I was also fascinated by the plants - the 200 million year Cycads display, the desert greenhouse. I have an assignment for the BBG to go to the greenhouses so I can do a tour and until my knee started bothering me, I could have spent hours there. But I was also hungry and had to find the cafeteria which happened to be a bit of a walk. After eating, I had a longer walk back - did I say it was cold -- and my knee ached, so I decided I would try to take Metro North which was across the street.

So I got there and asked a guy how to get to the station to Grand Central and he said I had to go up the stairs, walk across the tracks and down the stairs and a bit of a walk to a temporary station because of construction. Oy, my aching knee.

A Serendipitous meeting

I got to the top of the stairs and there was woman walking in front of me and I asked her where I had to go. She said she was not going to the train but taking a short cut to the other side and was walking to the subway. I said I thought the subway was far away and she said it was only 10 blocks or so to the D train, so I decided to do that too and walked with her since she knew the way.

So it turns out she is a second year law student, comes from Colorado (she no longer skis) and turned out to be a delightful companion through our walk and the train ride to Grand Central where we parted and I walked home through the holiday goodies at Bryant Park. But my knee ached less and the cold was no longer so bad.

What does an 80 year old man have to talk about with a 24 year old woman? How about everything. She was interested in gardening, she goes to BBG often, she likes trains - naturally - she had a day off after finishing her courses so going to the train show was a priority -- she had done some theater work on a construction crew like I do, she likes cats through her boyfriend's family, she is a Zohran fan and into social justice and is focused on health issues --- I expect her to become a factor as a lawyer in the health care struggle.

In addition to the train show, meeting this young lady added so much to the day. I told her that we had just finished Hair at the RTC and she said she'd come to shows next year at the Rockaway Theater. I feel awkward about asking a young lady for her contact info, so I gave her mine. I don't really expect to hear from her, but was happy to spend an hour with her.

You hear people say so many negative things about her particular generation, but I have a lot of contact with young people in her age range at the Rockaway Theater and they have been delightful too. It is important for people my age to engage with younger people and most do so with their kids. But I don't have kids to sponge cultural contact with, so interacting with people at the theater or in the younger crowd at ABC is important. But when you run into someone accidentaly and the meeting turnedsn out to be so enriching, I'd say that the cold and aching knee seemed to disappear.

Here are some pics from the day:

Unity Caucus Threats Against ABC and its Members Continue - I Get Reported to HR for Fighting for the Right to Put Lit on the Table at the Delicate Assembly

2025-12-10T13:40:00.003-05:00

“The delicate assembly.” It sure is delicate. A bunch of “snowflakes” in Unity Caucus. Anyone who asks their dear leader a question is “rude.” Or a liar. That’s their favorite adjective. .. Comment of a not delicate Delegate

Is a cornered party as dangerous as a cornered rat? We should be sober: the political winds are blowing hard against the "ruling party". Unity is staring at a meltdown... defections may mount and internal chaos spreads throughout leadership. ... Tom Hartmann

More Mulgrew Purges as District 30 Parents, Teachers, and Local Politicians Rally to Defend Fired UFT District Rep As Internal Resistance Grows... ed notes
the attorney’s letter states they will sue each UFT member individually, for having publicly stated we are UFT members.

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025 -- Delicate Assembly Day - Ho Hum

Mulgrew and crew have been rehearsing, probably all day, for the DA so he knows where to point for the required sneak attack Unity reso to start the new motion period. But he has to act like this is all spontaneous, and he was absent for the acting lesson. One of the fun things is to pick out their reso from the stack. The goal is to waste as much of the 10 minute New Motion time as possible. And monitor how much speaking time goes to staff or Unity apparatchiks.

Frankly, I'm getting a bit bored by the DA, but the chance to engage with Unity slugs is too delicious to miss plus seeing lots of old and new friends. But I need an umbrella to keep from getting wet from the snowflakes.

The answer by authoritarians when cornered is repression and increasing attacks to try to suppress voices of opposition. Or just put a photo of the leading oppo candidate for president in a urinal in the mens room at the UFT during a delicate assembly: Misogyny at the UFT Delegate Assembly

We are sure to hear bragging today on how effective they are on the para pay issue which has been locked up in the city council, thus forcing them to hold "massive" protests in front of the Adrienne Adams' office, who was scared to death at this turnout.

Now this is organizing.

PissGate Report

The union issued a report of its 6 month investigation of Piss Gate, (see here), that led to nothing. Apparently some strange guy they cannot identify was hanging around the men's room that day but the cameras can't seem to identify him. Probably just prostate problems.

They are actually trying to pin it on me or someone from ABC - I think I was the only man from ABC there that day - because, you know, Unity people have such integrity.

I was told to go in and check the bathroom around 6PM after the first photo at 5:12 was found and I removed it so they can claim my fingerprints are on it. Like there's no Unity hack capable of doing this? There is video footage and there were only so many guys at the meeting. I shared my suspicions of the possible culprit with the lawyer.

I entered the men's room to find the photo in the urinal, the second one that day and extracted it after taking a photo. I still have it and the investigator wanted me to turn it in so they could check for prints but I wasn't giving them the evidence unless I could observe the taking of the prints.

Unity motion to muzzle chapter leaders

Don't forget this gem from the Nov DA where they wanted to gag school chapter leaders like they gag CLs of functional chapters, notably Bennett Fischer of the RTC. This was their sneak attack reso.

It was voted down by a slim margin, which means even some Unity CLs voted against it, which must really piss them off since the clicker we use allows for anonymity, something we didn't have in the past as the District reps had their CLs sit near them so they could monitor how they voted.

Fighting for the right to put lit on the table

I got a call from a union official that an HR complaint had been filed over my confrontation with a Unity hack over the restriction of needing LeRoy Barr's permission to put lit on the tables in. the lobby. She should have filed the HR complaint against LeRoy who gave her such a ridiculous assignment.

Historical note: We had a table for non-official UFT lit for 25 years until the increasingly authoritarian LeRoy Barr barr-ed the oppo table and any lit he doesn't want displayed on the official table. When asked why, be first blamed Covid and then enemies of the UFT. You see, if you dare to criticize their worships you are an enemy -- Trumpism comes to 52 Broadway.

I posted a photo of the Barr henchwoman using our dues to guard the table in a recent post Growing Authoritarianism at the UFT as Unity continues to take Lying shots at ABC

Fact is she has been nasty and arrogant (confirmed by others in the UFT) and she complains to UFT HR about me? As if I work for her and the UFT when in fact she works for me. But the UFT leadership act as if the membership works for them, so maybe they are confused.

Talk about delicate snowflakes. She goes whining because an 80 year old 58 year member of the UFT spoke to her in a loud voice? If she can't deal with that she need to get a new job. These are the people who are supposed to defend us against Trumpism?

Unity views ABC as the real threat, the legacy oppo as supplemental - but they need to find ways to stay relevant

I wrote about the increasing repression at the UFT the other day in this post: Growing Authoritarianism at the UFT as Unity continues to take Lying shots at ABC

.... where I made the point that the biggest threat to Unity hegemony is coming from within the caucus, as the numerous defections to ABC in the last election proved. ABC only existed for months but garnered 32% of the vote while the 3 legacy caucuses, with 100 years of combined experience, of trying to organize in the UFT, got only14%, thus not constituting a threat to Unity, but a necessity for Unity to keep around as a counterweight to ABC. Thus, the "Unity light" label applied by some to elements of ARISE - remembering that for a dozen years, New Action was Unity light.

A key to the vast difference between ABC and ARISE was, I believe, the infusion of defecting Unity CLs who brought their staffs along to vote for ABC. Since the ARISE coalition will never get Unity defectors en masse, the demonstrated ability of ABC to do so is what makes ABC such a threat and has led to the constant attacks in Unity lit -- look for another one today at the DA.

Unity threatens to sue ABC and all its members individually

Thus, the latest round is threats and more threats for daring to say ABC is an active group in the UFT, while other groups that use the UFT logo are ignored. The geniuses at the UFT in full force where

the attorney’s letter states they will sue each UFT member individually, for having publicly stated we are UFT members.

The letter from the lawyer also states:

“Further, throughout your website and on your social media, you refer to the A Better Contract organization as "A Better Contract - UFT" and "A Better Contract - UFT Members," signaling that the organization is a faction within the UFT when it is not.”
Mulgrew should look up the word faction -
a small organized dissenting group within a larger one, especially in politics.

On the other hand, Unity Caucus using the UFT logo is fine:

And how about MORE?

Here is the ABC post where you can get details of the threats.

Unity UFT Leadership Threatens to Sue ABC-UFT
And they're using your UFT dues to do it.
A Better Contract
Dec 09, 2025

https://abettercontract.org/p/unity-uft-leadership-threaten-to?
Michael Mulgrew and Unity UFT leadership, a political group that has controlled our union for more than sixty years and who continue to preside over diminishing returns for educators across the city, have hired the corporate law firm Norton Rose Fulbright to threaten legal action against A Better Contract (ABC-UFT). Their claim is that we, the committed educators and proud UFT members of ABC, do not have the right to refer to ourselves as UFT members.
This is not the first time Mulgrew and Unity UFT have used our dues money to threaten UFT members. In June 2025, Unity UFT hired the same law firm to file a complaint accusing A Better Contract of infringement for referring to themselves as UFT members. That complaint was rejected by an independent arbitrator, who determined that ABC-UFT’s statement of being UFT members, which we are, is legitimate and protected.
Rather than using dues to improve working conditions or strengthen our union, Mulgrew and Unity UFT leadership have chosen to use those dues to attack UFT members who are advocating for a more democratic and responsive union.
Members can read more about that decision here: ABC Wins Arbitration

I will close with a comment on Arthur's substack:

When Mulgrew lays on his phony tough guy shtick, it does have an air of wannabe third-rate mob boss. It's pretty ineffective, though. I don't feel intimidated at all. Maybe it's working better with UFT staff at 52 Broadway. They all seem to be running scared.

Growing Authoritarianism at the UFT as Unity continues to take Lying shots at ABC

2025-12-06T17:41:00.006-05:00

The more restrictive people in power get in an attempt to tamp down critics, the more likely their crackdowns spike greater opposition and more critics.

How do you distinguish between fascism and authoritarianism? And how do you fight fascism when you yourselves are authoritarians?
Authoritarianism allows limited freedoms but maintains strict control over political processes.

A Unity initiative to make chapter leaders sit down and shut up was voted down. This was remarkable—the exception that proves the rule. It would have mandated top-down messaging from UFT at all levels. -- Arthur Goldstein Notes on the Nov. DA

Unity leaflet attacks DSA claiming they are infiltrating the UFT with MORE as an instrument but also attacking Marianne Pizzitola. Then months later they endorse the DSA candidate for mayor.

Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025

The line between fascist and authoritarian rule can be fuzzy, but there is a difference.

I'm not referring here to the Trump MAGA crowd, which clearly leans fascist. I don't like to call people fascists and prefer the label of "fascistic-type behavior" but the MAGA crowd is clearly beyond wanna-be fascists.

Is authoritarianism and fascism the same thing?

I Googled the question:

Authoritarianism is a general form of governance defined by the centralization of power and limited political freedoms. (A check for both Unity and other Caucuses in the UFT)

Fascism is a specific, far-right, and highly ideological form of authoritarianism that includes elements such as extreme nationalism and often racism. All fascist regimes are authoritarian, but not all authoritarian regimes are fascist.

Authoritarianism is a form of government where power is concentrated in a single leader or small group, and there is little to no accountability to the public. It suppresses political freedoms, limits individual rights, and often uses control, fear, or violence to maintain power, with citizens expected to show blind submission to authority. (Check)

The theme here is UFT/Unity Caucus and authoritarianism.

When people engage in authoritarian-like behavior it's OK to call then authoritarians, and that is an appropriate label for the UFT leadership, as I will offer examples below.

I would not term the behavior of our UFT/Unity Caucus leadership fascistic - that is pure hyperbole. But "increasingly authoritarian" is more apt.

The prime directive of authoritarian led organizations is to maintain power - often at all costs and that fits the Unity machine perfectly.

Think of these characteristics of authoritarianism and compare them to the UFT/Unity crowd.

Has the UFT/Unity leadership shown indications of this behavior? Let me count the ways. Call them authoritarians. Just don't call them fascists.

Key characteristics of authoritarianism (as related to the UFT/Unity leadership):

Concentrated power:
A single person or a small group holds most of the power, with little to no accountability to the people.

The UFT has had four presidents over 60 years. Just think of that. The faces may change, but the political machine remains the same. Thus, when people attack Mulgrew as the problem, I point out the problem is Unity - when Mulgrew goes, only the face of the machine will change. While the leadership often seems incompetent, they have proven very competent at keeping control, managing the membership and holding on to power, though recently they have been lucking out due to the lack of an effective opposition, a situation going back decades.

Right now we see that even inside the Unity machine, whereas there may have been some sense of people being consulted in the past, we now have 3 Men in the room: Mulgrew, Barr, Sill - and at times a woman: Mary Vaccaro. But the ABC campaign with many Unity defectors indicated some cracks in the machine for the first time. One of their complaints was that there was a sense of being consulted in the Randi years - though not all that much but she knew how to play the game -- but now even the officers in Ad Com are ignored - other than the gang of 3+1. Below that level, there is some unrest and recent aggression has been aimed at tamping it down. A sinking ship may be kept afloat with vigorous pumping but ultimately that is a losing battle.

Suppressed freedoms:
Individual rights, such as freedom of speech and the press, are limited or denied to prevent opposition and maintain control.

Limited political opposition:
Opposition parties are often discouraged, prohibited, or have their legitimacy attacked.

Look at the control of the DA. Barr must approve all leaflets put on the table at the DA, after cancelling the 25 year old history of having a table for non-official materials, granted by Randi Weingarten in 1998. We had a battle with a UFT employee guarding the table during DA to make sure no scurrilous lit goes on, violating decades of policy. That is her assignment at the DA. She and LeRoy claim Covid as an excuse. Jeez. I called them out on this policy at the November DA.

Unity Attempts to Bennett Fischerize chapter leaders

A Nov. DA Unity backed reso, defeated, called for limits on free speech of chapter leaders and their freedom to communicate with their members, following the example of the suppression of RTC Chair Bennett Fischer's ability to communicate with RTC members. Many of us have urged Bennett to make a big deal of this censorship and in fact send in his report and if Mulgrew censors it make a big deal of it, but instead he is circumspect in those reports. The RTC leadership seems worried that Mulgrew will turn off their electricity if they push back too hard. The RTC leadership has already turned off any vestige of militant resistance. I get lectured all the time that UFT leadership are not enemies and we must stick together to fight fascism. Hard to fight fascism when you have to work with authoritarians who want to suppress democracy. Some in RTC argue that Unity is not an enemy but fellow UFT members and we have to work with them in a bipartisanship way. That's how the Democratic Party has operated while Republicans smash them to bits.

Arthur in a recent post addresses the November DA and that ugly Unity reso.

Unity Fails to Erode Democracy (or Control Class Size): Then, they try to blame ABC for their shortcomings.

You won't find a Unity leaflet or social media post that doesn't try to slime ABC, demonstrating where they see the real threat to them.

Every Unity leaflet and social media post attacks ABC and makes false claims ABC opposes increasing para pay or decreasing class size, false claims of course. They brand critical comments over the inept methods they use as an attack on the union. Recently they held a demo at the city council over the para reso - 3 staffers showed up and they considered that a success. Jeez.

Control and fear:
They may use various methods like corruption, misinformation, propaganda, or violence to ensure compliance and discourage dissent.

How about the June massacre firings and more that came in September?

See every Unity leaflet and social media post attack ABC and make false claims they oppose increasing para pay or decreasing class size. Have you checked their propaganda machine where everything they do is wonderful? -- Trump uses their bragging playbook.

Undemocratic practices:
Authoritarian systems often ignore or subvert democratic processes, sometimes even while holding elections.

Yes Virginia, there was some playing around during the elections but not enough to make them lose --- they were confident of winning due to the two oppositions running against them but if the day comes when and if there is one strong opposition, watch for the dirty tricks. The 54% they got is a big threat to them and they need ARISE to stay alive to make sure ABC doesn't win.

Remember electronic voting? They formed a committee to study it that has started meeting with ABC and ARISE reps - naturally the committee is packed with Unity. Do you want to wager on Polymarket whether the committee will vote for electronic voting at future elections?

Emphasis on obedience: Members
are expected to show obedience to authority, sometimes referred to as "blind submission".

The 54% Unity got in the election plus the losses in the RTC and para chapter are warning signs. They are lucky so far due to the divisions in the opposition, and I will get into these divisions in upcoming posts.

But expect further crackdowns on democracy, which often has the opposite effect of spurring open and hidden opposition. (Think of the fall of the Soviet block, which lasted 70 years as Unity control of the UFT approaches that number.)

Is a cornered party as dangerous as a cornered rat? We should be sober: the political winds are blowing hard against the "ruling party". (Your favorite group in power)______ are staring at a meltdown... defections mount and internal chaos spreads throughout leadership. ... Tom Hartmann

Gee, ya think?

District 30 Cls Revolt

The big firings were meant to send a message to the Unity rank and file. From what I'm hearing, there is fear - but also resentment. The firing of D. 30 rep Ashley Rzonca who was loyal to Unity but fired for perceived friendship with Amy Arundell, is having repercussions. A batch D. 30 CL are refusing to attend district rep meetings and are meeting on their own at the same time. The union went whining to the Dist Supt about these alt meetings in the schools. Perfect behavior of a cornered party. Go ask the boss to help you beat down a revolt.

So far internal chaos has not spread and they have weathered the threat to the Delegate Assembly they were facing from the 300 delegates from retirees plus the 100 MORE delegates. We've seen a withering away of the retiree delegate impact, due to the incompetence of the Retiree Advocate/RTC leadership, as we will see in upcoming posts and the work Arthur has been doing to expose them. And the MORE 100 have had zero impact and have not shown much interest in the DA. And so far the ABC crowd has gotten off to a slow start this year and also has not organized at the DA. Some on all sides are talking about giving up at organizing at the DA. I think the DA for at least through next year has potential if all the delegates from RA, MORE and ABC managed to put something together. Go bet on Polymarket if you think that is possible.

I'd sooner bet on a meteor like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.

But change might come from another direction outside the caucus structure.

District 30 Cls Revolt

Unity's best chance of maintaining power is the divisions in the opposition. I think ABC has the most potential but don't expect the legacy caucus driven groups to join the party as the same principle of oligarchy driven organizations operates with them as it does with Unity:

The prime directive of authoritarian led organizations is to maintain power - often at all costs.

Retiree Advocate has become the power in the Retiree Chapter - at least until the next election in May 2027 and has been losing its way, which Arthur has been chronicling.

Beware of old boss becoming the new boss - the dangers of a loyal opposition seeking alliances with authoritarians in power.

A Tale of Two Meetings - Plus Two More to Come - OY!

2025-11-19T13:25:00.003-05:00

I'm getting more interested in the snacks than the agendas at the DA and RTC meetings.

Wednesday, November 19, 2023

Today is a Delegate Assembly (HO) and tomorrow is a Retired Teacher Chapter (HUM) meeting and I have no interest in handing out a leaflet, a rare occasion for me. I'm going to both but less and less I hold these meetings to be as important as I once held them to be. I'm more interested in the snacks than the agendas and I give props to RTC officer Michele Ravid for improving the snacks at the RTC meetings by 200% over the Tom Murphy regime. See, there is value in winning elections.

The ABC organizationally has not put a lot of organizational energy into the DA, though some individuals have.

To outsiders, A Better Contract seems to have gotten off to a slow start this year. After a brutal election campaign, people needed a rest. I appreciate some of the thoughtful discussions in trying to find some structure that keeps the idea of a loose affiliation of individuals, but looking for ways to act as an organization when necessary.

I'm somewhat on the fringe of ABC, more observer than activist.

There is still a lot of interest in ABC as demonstrated when ABC held an open mass meeting a few weeks ago and 1000 registered and hundreds attended.

So, last night a quick (45 minutes) meeting was held to talk about the working groups -- and

Last night I attended a quick (45 minutes) meeting of those who attended the mass meeting and volunteered for various working groups - a bottom-up structure that fulfills a member-driven agenda. If some people don't find a working group they are welcome to start one. I love that sense of freedom. There is also a need to have some way of touching base between the working groups and I have confidence in the people who are doing the work. Someone always seems to pick up the ball. If a ball doesn't get picked up that is a sign of lack of interest. One unstated rule -- no gnashing of teeth.

As long as the groups adhere so some basic member-driven principles driving ABC, they have autonomy to act as they see fit with no central body to answer too. After decades of working with caucus top-down organizational structures, it was a breath of fresh air that satisfies my libertarian mentality which so seems to rile some of my comrades in other groups.

As I rummaged through my basement recently I came across materials from groups I worked with in the 70s when we had a loose confederation of school and district level groups. Even the ICE/UFT group of 2003-10 had no organizational structure, something that drove some of the more politically oriented people, who have a built-in need for top-down organizing, crazy.

It was made clear that we were not there to talk about elections or caucuses or share gripes but to move forward. It was reiterated that ABC invites any individual, whether in a caucus or not, to work with us. If a caucus wants to talk, ABC will do so.

Chad Hamilton, a CL in Brooklyn chaired the meeting from his car - he wasn't driving at the time - I think. Super multi-media champ Leah Lin, a CL from D. 30 in Queens, is also playing a major role. These are mid-level career classroom teachers, as are most of the players.

As a retiree, I believe we need to play a secondary role in ABC and not make our issues primary. There is a retiree working group to focus on those issues and I will play a role with them.

I found the meeting exciting and looking forward to working with so many interesting people.

A Tale of Two Meetings

Monday night Retiree Advocate organizers held a meeting and spent an hour discussing how to moderate the listserve and who should moderate the listserve (I am one of 4 moderators) with the goal of controlling attacks on Retiree Advocate. If any of the moderators object to a post, it will not go up.

Hmmm, I wonder if this one will go up without objection. Maybe I'll object to my own post.

----

A bit of good news. It's been a tough few days waiting to get my 6 month scan and blood test for the tumor marker. Though the marker went up 2 points to 34 (below 40 is normal) it was 230 when I was first diagnosed, my scan came back Ok just as I was finishing this. So expect to put up with me till the next scan.

Election Thoughts - Mamdani and ABC Organizing, Finally, a UFT Win in a Mayoral Race, My Interview with Daniel on the '75 UFT Strike

2025-11-06T09:16:00.000-05:00

The most important outcome of the Mamdani win, and why he represents a threat to the right and the corporate Dems, is the potential for building a movement of people ready to act using the 100k volunteers for his campaign.

Full disclosure: I was one and am ready to take more action if called upon. People are reminded of Obama in 2008 and the movement he built - and then let dissipate after he won and thus had no way to call out troops to battle the rise of the tea party in 2010. The Majority Report with Sam Seder, my fave, talked about this yesterday, speculating it was the influence of authoritarian Rahm Emanuel, the anti-left, corp Dem supreme who will run for president, who made sure the voice of the people wouldn't interfere with the usual suspects who want to run the world.

The theme of this post touches on a theory of organizing related to elements of the Mamdani campaign and how I relate it to the ABC campaign on the fly last year where I find certain similarities based on not prioritizing personal and organizational ideologies over checking the pulse of those whose votes you are trying to get. I compare that approach to that of the legacy caucuses, and I include Unity, where the ideology of the leadership - and make no mistake, they all are leadership run, some for decades by the same people.

Mamdani is a socialist but he didn't run on his socialism, though his socialism certainly has influenced his thinking. But no matter the attacks, you won't see him trying to take over the means of production, though I wouldn't mind it if the entire healthcare industry was taken over - wait, wait - like the NY Health Act.

My contention here is that ABC was member-driven in the recent UFT election and expects to continue on that track.

Thursday, November 6, 2025

Hey - big news -- the UFT leadership finally got one right - though it would have been nice to see an endorsement before the primary. But the way the endorsement went down has led many UFT members to object and there was a lot of push back from non-Mamdani supporters ---- and this dovetails with the theme of this election analysis: Listen to people first - check the pulse and be guided by what you hear.

Mamdani is being credited, even by some on the right, with doing exactly that and shaping his campaign around listening. There is some irony in the out and out support for Mamdani

YES, the UFT won one and let's give some credit for jumping on a DSA train despite the previous attacks (Will UFT Endorse Mamdani after their attacks on DSA).

Check out some of my commentary over the endorsement in July:

UFT DA Tidbits - Endorsing Mamdani, ABC and ARISE/...

Today's DA and Yesterday Town Hall -- Ode to Hot A...

But first, a plug.

The 1968 strike gets all the attention, but the 1975 strike was in many ways more consequential.

Here is a link to Sunday's interview with Daniel for "Talk Out of School" on WBAI.
https://wbai.org/archive/program/episode/?id=61621. I finally listened to it this morning and I didn't make a total fool out of myself, so I'm sharing.

It was my third strike with the UFT but my first as an activist. Sunday Daniel and I covered a lot of ground, including the opposition to Unity leading up to the strike, its impact - short and long term, my guess that the lessons were never to strike again, how the UFT descended from the most militant union in the early 60s, the 1995 and 2005 contracts, the divided opposition post-strike that continues today. Daniel's questions were excellent guides into a deep dive in my memory.

I still want to write in more detail using some of the resources from the 70s buried in my basement.

Now on to some election thoughts related to our union work.

Mamdani Listened - Similar to ABC's Member-driven agenda --

Over a year ago, before anyone heard of Mamdani, A Better Contract/UFT decided to listen to the members and came under criticism from some members of the ARISE coalition. Ken Klippenstein touches on the Mamdani touch.

Ken Klippenstein - Mamdani's Magic

People’s comments were insightful for anyone who cared to listen. They were the message.
Zohran Mamdani won by literally meeting people where they’re at — in bodegas, subway stations, busy sidewalks, even at the New York Marathon. He met people on the streets, not to pitch them, but to listen and learn. These conversations informed his successful campaign more than his charm, social media prowess or any of the other superficial explanations major media are offering. ...
The video stood out from usual campaign content in how little of it focused on the candidate. He didn’t “approve this message.” There were no gotchas, no fact checking his opponents, no issue-oriented rejoinders. Virtually every shot focused on the interviewee rather than Mamdani, whose face you could not even see at times. He just stood there, quietly listening to what people had to say.
As Mamdani sees it, facing the public, even if it might heckle you, is part of the job of being an elected official. Obvious as this may seem, it is a more genuine and humble attitude ofthe Washington national figures who believe that their role as philosopher kings is to reign over and above the public.
Mamdani’s view of a politician’s job contrasts sharply with the political establishment’s zero tolerance attitude toward risk. Mamdani’s magic is his understanding that the masses are the message.

Yes. Fundamentally, Mamdani didn't emphasize his own ideology, though that played a part in his activism, but listened to people - yes, even those who voted for Trump.

Horrors.

How often was ABC attacked by ARISE for "listening to people who voted for Trump" -- we were accused of trolling. And yes, there are some people (a few it seems) who may be Trump backers, and at times there may be some tension, but so far they don't feel shunned. ABC people seem to believe that the way to build a winning coalition if you aim to win an election in the UFT, is to be broad-based and non-judgemental.

Yet Mamdani, the darling of the leftists in ARISE, did the very same thing and built his campaign around the issues people were telling him concerned them. Trust me, they will not learn a lesson. The ideology of most people on the left is baked into their DNA.

In the recent UFT election and beyond, an ARISE steering committee member and a caucus co-chair has persistently criticized ABC for not taking political positions on certain issues ABC deemed divisive and outside the bounds of a UFT election sphere - it was termed being "apolitical" rather than what it was -- member driven.

In other words, we would focus our campaign on what we detected in the pulse of rank and file in our schools and out surveys - our colleagues - and beyond. Rather than apolitical, we would try not to let our personal ideological views take precedence. The election results showed that was a potential winning strategy when we got 32% in a 3-way race, especially notable for a group of individuals that had existed for only a few months.

My criticism of the ARISE coalition and how they operated was that they took an opposite tack -- the ideologies of the leadership of the 3 groups in the coalition -- MORE, New Action and Retiree Advocate - would drive their campaign. If you weren't somewhere on the left, you wouldn't be very comfortable - and they did pretty much attract the left to run with them and in the election, leftists in the UFT were more likely to vote for ARISE. And 14% of the voters did vote for them. Does 14% give us an accurate picture of the left in the UFT? Since only 28% voted think of what that 14% represent.

Part 2

Well, I'm glad my usual pessimism didn't work out as I guessed

43% Mamdani

39% Cuomo

18% Sliwa

The Sliwa collapse was significant and those votes had to go to Cuomo, so think of this -- Cuomo was probably in the low thirties and there may have been a late Trump bump.

Yes Mamdani went over 50%, but barely and the combined vote against him would have made this a nail biter in a two person race.

NYT Election Map - Look up your neighborhood - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/11/04/us/elections/results-new-york-city-mayor.html

My Rockaway neighborhood in Belle Harbor voted 10% for Mamdani, surpassed by Breezy Point's 7%, 186 votes, and I think I convinced a bunch of friends. That little blue area in Rockaway is Arverne (53%) Edgemere (57%) where I canvassed with 40 other mostly local volunteers. Note the solid Cuomo blocks in Staten Island through south Brooklyn, though Bay Ridge went for Mamdani and the northeastern Queens block. Also note the east side of Manhattan. My Murray Hill area went 59-36 for Cuomo. My politics are not safe anywhere.

I pushed back against the NYC Retiree attacks and pro-Cuomo position. He had stated he was opposed to Medicare Adv --and I trust a socialist on that issue more than his opponents. But now is a time to try to get our issue in front of him as 1096 will expire on Jan. 1 and a new bill will be needed. Some of his allies on the City Council do back the bill. However, DC37 and the UFT are opposed and he does owe them -- I have a lot more to say on the election but I have to catch the ferry for my painting class at the UFT - I'm shlepping a bunch of acrylic paints and art supplies - this artistic stuff can tire one out.

A Mayoral Mess: Is Mamdani Support Fading Despite Cuomo Massive Transgressions, Sliwa Hangs In, UFT Retirees Battle Each Other

2025-11-03T20:49:00.007-05:00

Which is the bigger threat to Mamdani's winning? Cuomo/Bloomberg/Trump - an unholy alliance - or the UFT's perpetual loser mayoral endorsement?
I just got a call from some of the few liberals in Breezy Point asking my advice on the propositions and I informed them on what an awful person Cuomo is -- I put him in Trump personality territory and may have won two votes for Mamdani.

Who knew, that Orthodox rabbis support and defend Mamdani for speaking truth to power? Their defense is so very smart and compassionate. https://youtu.be/7NmGPStXWl0?si=enDu0QNRIEphOZUU

While Mamdani has some big enthusiasm but there is not a lot of enthusiasm among some voters for either candidate - who do you hate more - Cuomo or Mamdani? No one really hates Sliwa.

NY Daily News: Trump backs Cuomo for mayor, says NYC must vote for him and stop Mamdani

President Trump urged Republican voters in New York City late Monday to cross party lines and support Andrew Cuomo for mayor as part of an 11th hour bid to stop Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani from taking over the reins at City Hall.

Wow - looks like Trump is getting desperate - why is he threatened by Mamdani? My guess he fears his ability to mobilize people - imagine if he has 90K volunteers, imagine a million people on the street. Oh, and Eli Musk just joined the anti-Mamdani crowd. Even Trump backers admit Mamdani has run a disciplined effective campaign. That scares them.

Monday, Nov. 3 - Election Eve

I wanted to get this out before tomorrow and I hope to have a follow-up by tomorrow night. Surprise, surprise - It might be rambling just a bit.

Even as I finish this up, polls show the election tightening to 4 points and tomorrow it could be 2 points. Bloomberg has tossed millions joined by other billionaires in a desperate attempt to stop Mamdani -- thus joining Trump who endorsed Cuomo. The negative ads seem to be working. I hope he not only wins but wins big. 45% to 40% with Sliwa dropping to 15%.

Yet another poll shows: The most recent polls place Mamdani 14.7 points ahead of Cuomo, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average.

The voting so far looks good for him -- especially this weekend's young people turnout, while last weekend it was the older folks which might favor Cuomo.

Given the attacks on Zohran, ask yourself why Trump is so desperate for him to lose? One would think he would be happy to have a foil. To me that is the best sign of the threat Mamdani represents ideologically to Republicans and the corporate Dems who run the party. And to the billionaires. Just looking at the line-up against him should get him votes.

The joy Mamdani's backers felt in June, though, has been morphing into some jitters, as his machine begs his 90k volunteers to go out and canvass to the last minute. (I hate canvasing but forced myself to do some.)

Today's NYT takes one more swipe at Mandani with this headline:

Questions of Readiness Persists for Mamdani: Even some of his backers worry about his thin resume. "He is not ready," said Maria Fattore (from his Astoria territory), saying she had unhappily switcher her vote from Mamdani to Cuomo. And in Manhattan, an old hippy who was leaning Mamdani, admitted to misgivings. I'm not sure he has the experience to deal with what's going on in this city..."

I'll admit to some worries, especially based on my conversations with liberals who are voting for Cuomo - mostly non-Jews by the way, so Israel is not a factor, though one close Jewish friend from Long Island is very concerned and told me Rabbis in many synagogues are railing against him.

Some people just don't care for him - they see phony charm and a child of privilege - intellectual privilege for sure but also economic - if he hadn't been accepted to Bronx Science, he would have never gone to a public school - and a college few could afford. While he is adored by many, we need to keep some level of skepticism.

I have fallen for his charm and love his interactions on long interviews - see the one he did with John Steward on The Daily Show last Monday. He was also on Sam Seder's Majority Report last Wednesday - he has no fear of talking to anyone.

I voted Brad Lander #1 and Mamdani 2 in the primary, though my left-leaning instincts pushed me towards the latter and still does. But if it were Lander running instead of Cuomo at this point, I think he might win.

Even some leftists see Zohran as a privileged scion, reaching above his head, as we see in this comment from a mid-career NYC teacher:

I say this as someone who voted for Mamdani twice; with all due respect, I think he’s an arrogant little prick who thinks really highly of himself for little reason. But, given the alternative, he’s got my vote. My frustration with Mamdani is that he has accomplished almost nothing in his life. But, he talks big. That’s all fine. But, when he’s finally at the moment of actually accomplishing something big (for himself), he turns his back on pretty much one of the only people (Marianne Pizzitola) I’ve seen in this city who has actually done something for working people. [I will delve deeper into the Zohran/Marianne controversy in a follow-up).

I don't agree with his assessment but it shows how some of his voters are thinking.

On the other hand, much of the left is still glowing, as this In These Times Oct. 31 piece indicates where so much of his support is coming from.

“Why are you so excited to show him to everyone?”

“Because we love him,” says Alam, who works the night shift from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

It’s a sentiment I hear from taxi drivers, nurses and restaurant workers.
Zohran Mamdani on the Night Shift for Mayor: As Election Day nears, the Democratic mayoral candidate returns to his base among New York City’s multiracial working class.

The article points to how many city unions support him, including our own beloved UFT - and that has caused more than a little rancor in the ranks -- but that gets complicated, which I will try to untangle further down.

Based on my political instincts, conversations with liberals, and my usual pessimistic outlook, I'm worried. The continuous fear-mongering attacks on him with the influx of billionaire money has had an impact - their goal is not just to make him lose, but to weaken him and make him ineffectual to prove socialist thinking doesn't work is their goal.

Last weekend most voters were on the plus side of 50, which did not look good. But this past weekend the younger people came out -- so maybe it's a wash.

Warning signs ahead.

I will feel more nervous than elated if he wins.

I see him as a unique political talent - his thoughtfulness in interviews even as he duck some issues and his likeability and sense of humor will carry him - but only so far. Thought and ideas are good, but as John Stewart pointed out to him last week: If you fail to deliver on the basics of running the city, there will be a harsh reaction -- remember Mayor Lindsay and the Feb. 1969 snow storm.

I believe that the honchos in both parties have a big stake in seeing a socialist failure as a way to put a stake into the heart of any progressive move to take over the Dem Party. That is what makes me nervous --- he will turn into Hope and NO CHANGE. Or worse, will be as unpopular as Chicago left wing mayor Brandon Johnson - though I don't follow Chicago very much nowadays and was proud when a Chicago union teacher was elected - but some of his speeches turn me off.

I've been working on a piece on this election for over a week and the more I talk to people the more confused I get. I voted and canvased for Mamdani, but I go from enthusiastic support to questions. What keeps me in line are his opponents - the awful Cuomo and the Republican Sliwa, who I would actually prefer to Cuomo, who is an awful human being and not to be trusted, especially around women.

I found the attacks on Zohran over the Medicare issue coming from retirees disconcerting because those attacks pointed us to Cuomo.

Can I make a guess based on my own personal contacts or my own "feelings"?

For instance, my sense of the Jersey gov race is that the Dem is an awful candidate and may lose - today's polls show a dead heat -- in some ways I think a loss for a center/right corporate anti- progressive Dem would not be the worst thing, though the Virginia gov candidate seems much better and will win. But I think Trump's cancellation of the Hudson tunnel helps the Dem.

In my circle of liberal friends I see danger signs. Last night I ran into a liberal friend (not many in my area), who is a neighbor. I reminded her of election night 2008 when she invited us over to celebrate the Obama victory. She is voting for Cuomo because she doesn't trust a guy as young as Mamdani. Another Rockaway liberal friend has mocked Mamdani and a couple we know from Brooklyn feel the same way -- even having a level of disgust towards him. None of these people are Jewish, so Israel is not a factor. My sense it is more about how young he is, their feelings he hasn't done much and is arrogant for running. In other words, his age and lack of a resume are resonating as much as the issues.

I get this from people -- they view Mamdani as a rich kid playing politics. So, how many people are voting for Mamdani or against Cuomo?

If Brad Lander has run as an independent instead of Cuomo, I'd give him an even chance -- he would gather votes from the Cuomo haters and more Republican votes.

Last week, in conversations with people I met in some of my classes and tours I gave, including some UFT retirees, there was clear support and even enthusiasm for Mamdani. But I had lunch last week with a guy who was on my Murray Hill tour -- from Riverdale with an 11 year old daughter - not a teacher but a businessman running his own business in the city -- and he brought it up - he was excited at Mamdani -- he looked to be in his early 50s.

So, personal conversations are a mixed bag -- and I have to adhere to this dictum: judgments based on snippets of conversation may not reflect a person's considered, complete, or public stance, leading to misrepresentation.

NYC Retirees attack retirees who back Mamdani.

Zohran Mamdani & his followers disrespect Retirees -- headline on NYC retirees

WTF - I'm a Mamdani follower, so I, who have fought for retirees from the day the attack on Medicare began in April 2020, before the NYC Retirees even existed, am now someone who disrespects retirees? That's so fucked up.

I was about to get into the retiree battles in the UFT over the anti-Mamdani position Marianne Pizzitola has taken and the reaction to it, but let's wait until tomorrow or the next day -- but I will say, she has taken a risk in dipping too deep into divisive politics and even some her most loyal supporters are disturbed -- Did she fail to follow her own advice she gave to UFT retirees to stick to the issue? Well, in some ways she did and in some ways she did not. I may even dip into my changing views on Israel -- which reflects growing feelings in the Jewish community, 30 or more % going for Mamdani.

I will attempt to untangle it all tomorrow - or maybe never.

Meanwhile check out these NYT articles:

Mamdani’s Candidacy Roils Jewish Communities Across the Country
Who Should Be Mayor of New York City?
Trump’s Greatest Ally is The Democratic Party - The Chris Hedges Report
The Democratic Party and its liberal allies refuse to call for mass mobilization and strikes — the only tools that can thwart Trump’s emergent authoritarianism — fearing they too will be swept aside.

The 1975 NY Teacher Strike: Its History and Impact - Norm on Talk Out of School Tonight at 7PM

2025-11-02T17:52:00.002-05:00

I spoke to Daniel this morning for almost 2 hours that he has to squeeze into one hour. His questions had me going deep, not only into the history -- I actually got up early this morning to visit the archives in my basement and discovered new information on the organizing efforts in the years before - and after. I have an engagement at 7 so can't listen but when I have a link I will elaborate further.

Tuesday Musings: A Film on Medicare, Retired Teacher Chapter Exec Bd, Plus a Drawing Class

2025-10-22T12:00:00.001-04:00

Boy I had a busy day on Tuesday, taking an 8:15 AM ferry to get to my drawing class at the Manhattan UFT, followed by an RTC Ex Bd meeting and then off to view "The Power to Heal" sponsored by NYC Retirees with Marianne Pizzitola at the Tribeca Viewing room with some city officials and some fellow retirees.

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

NOTE: Tomorrow is the ABC Big, Beautiful Mass Meeting, with Over 800 registered so far. ABC retirees will be doing a brief (very brief) presentation. A bunch of us attended the film yesterday.

I've been too busy to blog. I'm doing the BBG tour guide training which lasts until the end of March. Saturdays have been tied up and I actually have homework. So I missed the massive No Kings rallies on Saturday which I hear had 400 people in Rockaway. I joined 40 people in Edgemere on Sunday to canvas for Mamdani. Luckily I was teamed with a young lady I know from the Rockaway Theatre Company who is an experiened DSA canvasser and led me through the process.

The RTC Ex bd meeting had a number of interesting elements but I am in a rush as I have to get to MSK for a vaccine shot for Meningitis which I need because I no longer have my spleen. So I will deal with the RTC situation, which I am not happy with, another time and will focus a bit on the film and discussion afterwards.

Listen, I have been involved in the fight over Medicare and the attempt to push us into Medicare Advantage, the movie and discussion afterwards made things clearer than every. I can't remember some of the people on the panel and Marianne was on target as usual but they all made so many great points. Medicare is social insurance while Medicare Advantage is corporate for profit insurance, which led me to think back to the Mulgrew arguments that they were the same. Was Mulgrew duplicitous or just plain stupid? You chose.

We saw only the sort version of the movie and Marianne will arrange a showing of the full version of The Power to Heal, the essence of which was that many hospitals, especially in the South, either banned or minimized care for Black people and it was the new Medicare program in 1966 that forced them to integrate in order to be eligible for the federal funds.

I had never made the connection before.

It was pointed out in the discussion that Medicare is not an entitlement - we pay for it throughout our working and retirement lives. It is never free and then we have to over for the 20% not covered and while most people have to pay for that, NYC retirees were guaranteed free coverage, which Mulgrew and Co tried to take away.

Of course now we face the biggest threat to Medicare from the Trump administration, not that the Dems had no role in promoting the privatized MedAdv programs, which by the way are dropping people who might get older and sicker. Risk pools without younger and healthier people will leave Medicare in an untenable situation and healthcare in this nation will get worse and worser, a reason I know people who are seeking dual citizenship if they can. I have one Japanese friend who travel back to Japan every 3 months for treatments she cannot afford here.

It was pointed out that the badly managed MedAdv plans cost many lives through denials of service and nit-picking, often now being done by AI. Under Medicare, doctors make decisions while under MedAdv doctors are second guessed. And MedAdv plans cost the governement a lot more money, especially due to the 15% paperwork charges vs. 3% for Medicare.

We also talked about the NYC Health Act and flaws were pointed out. A retiree said that some younger teachers are yelling at her for fighting for Medicare instead of for the NY Health Act but it was pointed out that out of state retirees would not get the same coverage and since they make up a significant portion of retirees, their being cut out would raise prices.

There's a lot more to say about the film and the discussion which went so deep and I didn't get back to my apartment until after 8PM. Keep an eye out for Marianne's notice to post the full film and I hope the political people in the room get fully invested in the battle.

From the website:

ABOUT THE FILM

POWER TO HEAL is an hour-long public television documentary that tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was used to mount a dramatic, coordinated effort that desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country in a matter of months.

Before Medicare, disparities in access to hospital care were dramatic. Less than half the nation's hospitals served black and white patients equally, and in the South, 1/3 of hospitals would not admit African-Americans even for emergencies.

Using the carrot of Medicare dollars, the federal government virtually ended the practice of racially segregating patients, doctors, medical staffs, blood supplies and linens. POWER TO HEAL illustrates how Movement leaders and grass-roots volunteers pressed and worked with the federal government to achieve justice and fairness for African-Americans.

Through the voices of the men and women who experienced disparities and fought against them, POWER TO HEAL will introduce a broad, prime-time national audience on PBS to a missing link in the Civil Rights Movement -- a struggle over healthcare from a half-century ago, that raises questions that resonate today: is healthcare a human right? Must the federal government intervene to ensure equality?

Join Me When I Lead: OCTOBER WALKING TOURS OF MURRAY HILL’S 14 DESIGNATED LANDMARKS and TWO HISTORIC DISTRICTS 11 am to 1pm

2025-10-22T05:23:00.005-04:00

I love the Murray Hill neighborhood in mid-town east. But oh those hills. Yes, there are hills in Murray Hill. I'm doing the tours this weekend.

I've been too busy to blog since I started, also training as a Brooklyn Botanic Garden tour guide, which is pretty intensive with full days on Saturdays and learning different areas of the garden. But I do know Murray Hill and looking forward to this weekend and hopefully good weather.

OCTOBER WALKING TOURS OF MURRAY HILL’S 14 DESIGNATED LANDMARKS and TWO HISTORIC DISTRICTS 11 am to 1pm

Timings: October 25 @11am – 1pm and October 26 @11:00 am – 1:00 pm

60th ANNIVERSARY OF NEW YORK CITY LANDMARKS LAW (1965-2025)
2025 WALKING TOURS OF MURRAY HILL (OCTOBER)

A specially curated Walking Tour of Historic Murray Hill covering all 14 of Murray Hill’s.

Click Here For Tickets

designated landmarks and its two historic districts has been developed as part of the Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the NYC Landmarks Law. Tours will be conducted each month over two weekend days. The next weekend tour is Saturday, October 25 and Sunday, October 26 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm each day. Total cost per weekend: $60 MHNA members, $70 non-members. Tours are limited to 10 guests. (For continuity and completeness, we encourage full weekend participation but understand if this is not possible. Cost for one-day tour: $40 MHNA members and $45 non-members.)

In addition to a copy of the Historic Murray Hill Walking Tour brochure, participants will also receive a copy of Murray Hill’s special Landmarks60 Commemorative Booklet containing full-page color photos and histories of all 14 of Murray Hill’s designated landmarks. The booklet also includes the history of Murray Hill and the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association, and information about other preservation groups.

The total tour area will extend from 34th Street to 40th Street and Third Avenue to Madison Avenue covering both the four-block Murray Hill Historic District, the Sniffen Court Historic District (one of Manhattan’s few remaining mews), and all 14 designated landmarks.

The inception of NYC’s Landmarks Law, challenges to the law, and current landmarking efforts will be discussed. The tours will also focus on several of the architects who designed some of Murray Hill’s magnificent buildings, and some of the famous people who lived here.

Guides are neighborhood residents and members of Murray Hill’s Preservation & Design Committee, passionate about the character and history of New York City, and well-versed in Murray Hill lore.

The Preservation & Design Committee’s mission is to preserve Murray Hill’s historic buildings and districts and to communicate to the public the history and beauty of the neighborhood. The walking tour fees provide funding towards the publication of walking tour maps, brochures and booklets, programming of lectures and educational programs, and special projects.

There will be a 20% discount for Walking Tour participants at Björk Cafe & Bistro at 58 Park Avenue when they dine after 2:30 PM on Saturdays or Sundays. Please note that Björk’s last seating on Sundays is at 4 PM and on Saturdays at 7:15 PM

CLICK HERE To reserve a place on the October tour, or for information on future weekend tours, group tours, or private, custom, or special occasion tours, contact preservation@murrayhillnyc.org

Ed Notes Online

Norm Update: Where have I been, Where Am I going?

Retired Teacher Chapter Exec Bd meets gets sad news, Analysis of Texas Dem Primary - Surprise - Real Progressive Won, Is Iran winning?

Respect Means Retirement Security... David Kazansky Mar 7

RIP Daniel: Daniel Harkavy passes: Arthur Goldstein- Mar 06, 2026

Cults: Unity Caucus Channels Republicans as UFT Delegate Assembly Echoes Trump State of the Union,TRS Election Adds Another Purged Unity Defector

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow While I Shovel and Shovel and Shovel and...

UFT Delegate Assembly and RTC Meeting Updates: Part 2 Script Revealed, TRS Election Staged Endorsement

Hypocrisy Roars: Leo roars, but there is no substance; it is purely a spectacle scream for relevance when that ship long sailed. Proud the retired unionists saw through that at the RTC meeting this past week. Bravo! Marianne Pizzitola Feb 08, 2026

It sure looks like it.

UFT Delegate Assembly and RTC Meeting Updates: Part 1 The Thread Runs Through It - How can we save the city money?

Daniel hits all the bases in this post Why “Fix Tier 6” Stops at 25/30 — and Not 25/55: Because 25/55 was already given away in 2009. All roads lead back to Randi Weingarten. - Educators of NYC

Protecting Medicare and Social Security not that vital to UFT bosses after all.

While the Ground Was Being Given Away, There Was No Fight

James Eterno Warned Us — In Real Time

All Roads Lead to Randi

Retired Teacher Exec Bd Meeting and Upcoming DA - At least there are potato chips

The City and MLC's push to save an extra $100m in "healthcare cost savings" includes sharing your welfare fund prescription data and history with Big Healthcare's United Healthcare/UMR

UFT Exec Bd Update: Kazansky Announses for TRS, LeRoy says Goodbye, Sill Replaces Him, Tom Brown Endorsed for TRS

A Better Contract-UFT unanimously endorses David Kazansky for NYC TRS Trustee; Ben Morgenroth tapped as alternate: We must put rank and file educators back in charge of $130 Billion pension fund. David Kazansky is the real and only choice.

Norm Update - so you know I'm still here

Employees NEED Unions for collective bargaining for wages and work place safety. Retirees are no longer employed and do not need the union for bargaining.

What’s at stake for 230,000 public educators and $130 billion in retirement assets

Inside UFT Update: Unity’s Grip Weakens as Members Are Left Behind - By Rebel Teacher

The Outrage: Blogging About Nothing, Blogging About Everything - Or Not Blogging at All

Debunking the WHW Part 3 with Evidence!: Medicare Advantage is NOT Medicare and NOT an Advantage

Unity Caucus Favors Co-Pays: NYC Educators Penalized for Retiring - Sign the Petition

York City Municipal Employees & Retirees

Trumpezuelian Invasion -- Nothing New - Congressional Approval? Give me a break - A Bit of History

Remember United States invasion of Grenada in the 80s?

MulgrewCare Update: We Owe $3.1 Billion - Explosive Audit Urges Dissolving Insolvent City Employee Health Fund

Now as then, they demand we TRUST them

The Healthcare Fund They Quietly Decided to Kill

Leaked audio featuring MLC lawyer, Alan Klinger, leaves many asking: Did ‘Three Men in A Room’ collude to kill the NYC Healthcare Stabilization Fund?

Fred Smith Does it Again - with some help - SAInt Nick’s Visit to New York

Christian White Nationalism is a hot item -- and reeks of anti-semitism while there are major shifts in support from Dems and now some Republicans

Seeing the Trains Go Choo Choo at NY Botanic Garden and A Chance Meeting With the Younger Generation

Unity Caucus Threats Against ABC and its Members Continue - I Get Reported to HR for Fighting for the Right to Put Lit on the Table at the Delicate Assembly

More Mulgrew Purges as District 30 Parents, Teachers, and Local Politicians Rally to Defend Fired UFT District Rep As Internal Resistance Grows... ed notesthe attorney’s letter states they will sue each UFT member individually, for having publicly stated we are UFT members.

the attorney’s letter states they will sue each UFT member individually, for having publicly stated we are UFT members.

The letter from the lawyer also states:

On the other hand, Unity Caucus using the UFT logo is fine:

And how about MORE?

Here is the ABC post where you can get details of the threats.

And they're using your UFT dues to do it.

Growing Authoritarianism at the UFT as Unity continues to take Lying shots at ABC

A Tale of Two Meetings - Plus Two More to Come - OY!

Election Thoughts - Mamdani and ABC Organizing, Finally, a UFT Win in a Mayoral Race, My Interview with Daniel on the '75 UFT Strike

A Mayoral Mess: Is Mamdani Support Fading Despite Cuomo Massive Transgressions, Sliwa Hangs In, UFT Retirees Battle Each Other

Zohran Mamdani on the Night Shift for Mayor: As Election Day nears, the Democratic mayoral candidate returns to his base among New York City’s multiracial working class.

Zohran Mamdani & his followers disrespect Retirees -- headline on NYC retirees

WTF - I'm a Mamdani follower, so I, who have fought for retirees from the day the attack on Medicare began in April 2020, before the NYC Retirees even existed, am now someone who disrespects retirees? That's so fucked up.

Who Should Be Mayor of New York City?

Trump’s Greatest Ally is The Democratic Party - The Chris Hedges Report

The Democratic Party and its liberal allies refuse to call for mass mobilization and strikes — the only tools that can thwart Trump’s emergent authoritarianism — fearing they too will be swept aside.

The 1975 NY Teacher Strike: Its History and Impact - Norm on Talk Out of School Tonight at 7PM

Tuesday Musings: A Film on Medicare, Retired Teacher Chapter Exec Bd, Plus a Drawing Class

Join Me When I Lead: OCTOBER WALKING TOURS OF MURRAY HILL’S 14 DESIGNATED LANDMARKS and TWO HISTORIC DISTRICTS 11 am to 1pm

OCTOBER WALKING TOURS OF MURRAY HILL’S 14 DESIGNATED LANDMARKS and TWO HISTORIC DISTRICTS 11 am to 1pm

Timings: October 25 @11am – 1pm and October 26 @11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Daniel hits all the bases in this post
Why “Fix Tier 6” Stops at 25/30 — and Not 25/55: Because 25/55 was already given away in 2009. All roads lead back to Randi Weingarten. - Educators of NYC

More Mulgrew Purges as District 30 Parents, Teachers, and Local Politicians Rally to Defend Fired UFT District Rep As Internal Resistance Grows... ed notes
the attorney’s letter states they will sue each UFT member individually, for having publicly stated we are UFT members.