Tea and Vitriol

 Short reigns among the ruling elite are not unknown in history. They are unusual, to be sure, making such rulers mere footnotes in history. Having briefly achieved ultimate power, whether in hereditary monarchies or in elective offices in republics, they didn't really have the time to make a reputation for themselves, good or bad. The "might have beens" or "what ifs" can tantalize the historian or political scientist, but ultimately can only lead to an airy void.  And such short-term rulers become the subjects of all sorts of trivia games and television game shows that have been so popular over the years. Take, for instance, King John I of France and Navarre. He was the posthumous son of King Louis X of France and, as such, was born king. He lived only five days. He reigned but never ruled. He was succeeded by his uncle, Philip V. Possibly the shortest reign in history was that of Louis XIX of France, though he was never enumerated or recognized as such. He was

 Last year, on May 30, 2020 Rochester had its first riot since 1964. Egged on by Free the People, ROC terrorists, a "peaceful protest" over the death of drug addict and career criminal George Floyd in Minneapolis became violent. Injuries, vandalism and looting stores in Rochester, spilling over into the Town of Irondequoit, took place over the next few hours, setting the pace for a summer of unrest here. The mayor, Lovely Warren, and her then police chief, La'Ron Singletary, did nothing except warn people to stay out of the rioters' and looters' way. They caved in. So did City Council days later They also stated that the violence was caused by "outsiders" who had "taken over" the "peaceful protest." ANTIFA was the scapegoat, one conveniently used by all the cities experiencing riots over Floyd's death while in police custody.  The reality was very different. Within a few hours, video evidence revealed no such thing. The rioters, v

And lo, there shall be an ending! Yesterday (October 4, 2021), in a courtroom in Rochester, New York, Mayor Lovely Warren and the legal system played "Let's Make a Deal." The mayor and her two fellow accused pled "Guilty" to knowingly violating the New York State election campaign finance laws. The court then dropped four criminal charges against the mayor and her fellows. In return, the mayor announced that she would resign on December 1, thirty days prior to the end of her term. If not an example of justice, it certainly looks like a pretty good deal and it doesn't involve jail time. And she gets to keep her license to practice law, since she pled guilty only to a misdemeanor and the court accepted it. She also keeps her pension. And the ability to run for public office. That's some punishment, right?  Not really. As I have frequently stated, she's like a cat, and has landed once again on somebody else's feet. Despite everything laid at her doo

The photo above is by Gino Fanelli. It has been exactly one year since the public was made aware of the mysterious circumstances regarding the death of Daniel Prude, a drug-addicted, mentally disturbed Black man, while under RPD custody. This occurred on March 23, 2020. All things told, the whole thing smelled like the Warren Administration was attempting to cover up the incident, because it took nearly six months before the public was made aware of it and that only occurred because Prude's family were going public with it. That forced the issue, and the Warren regime didn't like to be forced to do anything. 2020 was a bad year for the regime. The mayor and her then police chief, La'Ron Singletary, were either unwilling or unable to enforce government ordered mandates against public assemblies because of the Corona Virus Pandemic. Nor were they any more effective in dealing with the antics of Free the People, ROC's rabble rousing after the death of career felon, drug ad

David Gantt was a fixture in Rochester politics for fifty years. Starting out as an angry young Black man who was tired of Black folk being patronized by White politicians, he carved out a career of influence in the New York State Assembly, getting re-elected year after year. In Rochester, he became a power broker for politicians, usually Black, who sought election to public office. He was also a mentor to most of the current crop of Black elected officials in Rochester. To do so, he had a head-on collision with the White, elitist Morelle faction of the Monroe County Democratic Committee, since they exemplified the patronizing White politicians of Gantt's youth. The kindest thing I can say about the Morelle faction is that they resembled the British Liberal Party of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, whose patronizing attitude towards the poor and the working class forced those people into the Labour Party. It is that attitude that disrupted Rochester's political life for

Now that the smoke has cleared from Rochester's Democratic primary we are being treated to the usual, nauseating spectacle of the media glorifying the winners, especially in the race for mayor. We are being treated to the perfections of Malik Evans as a person and a politician that were never evident before, either in  his lackluster, nearly invisible, four years on City Council or his rather dismal ten years on the School Board. What the media has chosen not to concentrate on, in its rush to make nice with the probable Mayor of Rochester after the November general election, is how someone like Evans could win the primary against an incumbent mayor. Because the answer is rather embarrassing and blows to smithereens the praise they are heaping on Evans. People chose to vote "Not Lovely" rather than to vote for Evans. The voters were willing to choose anyone other than the mayor after her last disastrous 18 months in office. After she fired him last year, people were pushin

Flashback to the late 16th century. Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded on the orders of her cousin, Elizabeth I of England. A quatrain by an anonymous author, describing the event, was circulated throughout England, frightening the Virgin Queen. It served as an explicit example of the dangers facing political leaders everywhere. "The noble, famous queen, who lost her head of late Is proof that kings as well as clowns are bound to Fortune's fate. And that no earthly prince may so secure his crown That Fortune, with her spinning wheel, hath power to pull him down." Fast forward to 2021: Rochester's Democratic Mayoral Primary. Mayor Lovely Warren was defeated in her bid for a third term in office by a "landslide," although barely 25% of Rochester's registered Democrats bothered to vote at all. It was the worst defeat an incumbent mayor ever suffered since Rochester began to elect its mayors by popular vote forty years ago. Her opponent, Malik Evans, won sole

They first make mad. Yesterday (June 18, 2021), Rochester experienced its fourth gang-style execution in a week. What distinguished this murder from the others was that the victim was a woman. She was killed by gunshots in her car in the presence of her two daughters, aged three and eight. The children were uninjured. But that the murderers would undertake an execution under those conditions says a great deal about the sort of monsters who are members of those gangs. The reaction to this latest homicide, the thirtieth in Rochester so far this year, was surprising. Or maybe not. Mayoral candidate Malik Evans issued a terse, probably ghost-written, statement of sorrow. Incumbent mayor Lovely Warren said nothing about it at all. Instead, she called a press conference to complain that the Monroe County Board of Elections was conspiring against her in the Democratic Primary Election. There are priorities, after all. Earlier in the week, after the second such gangland slaying took place just

Next week, Rochester will endure the farce of the local Democratic Primary. There is already early voting for people who fear they might be murdered in our fair city before they can get their vote in. Since Rochester is a one-party city dominated by the Democrats, whoever wins the primary will most likely win the general election in November. While there are a surfeit of unworthy candidates vying for the party's line in November and all of them are using the same political rhetoric to get themselves elected, this writing will only concentrate on the mayoral primary. For all intents and purposes, there are only two candidates "worth" considering: The incumbent, Lovely Warren, seeking her third term in office; and her challenger, Malik Evans. Their political rhetoric, as stated previously, is similar. Evans has agreed with much of Warren has done and proposes to do. So why even consider him? To do Warren some justice, she was adequate to the task during her first six years

By now, everyone in the Rochester area has heard that Mayor Warren's husband, Tim Granison, had been arrested on drug trafficking and illegal weapons charges. The New York State Police, after a seven month investigation, raided their home, confiscating $100 thousand in cash, 2 kilos of cocaine and 2 firearms. There were also two other illegal firearms found in the course of the investigation besides the two found in the mayor's home. Six other people were arrested that day, including the mayor's cousins, the Siplins, pere et fils. Mayor Warren has gone on record as saying that she and Tim  have been separated "for years," despite sharing the same home for their daughter's sake; that she didn't know anything about what was going on; and that she was innocent of any wrongdoing. Methinks the lady doth protest too much. She didn't know what was going on under her own roof? And in her own bedroom? There is a difference between not knowing what is going on a

On May 30, 2020 Rochester experienced its first full-blown riot in over fifty years. That was a year ago. This explosion of violence, vandalism and looting was detonated by the death of a Black ex-con, George Floyd, while being detained by the police in Minneapolis, Minnesota the week before. Rochester's "peaceful protest" was orchestrated by Madame Ashley Gantt, leader of the local terrorist organization, Free the People ROC, which is part of the nationwide BLM movement. It was NOT peaceful. Beginning as as assembly at Martin Luther King Park during the height of the pandemic, Madame Gantt and her speakers whooped up the attendees into a frenzy, chanting obscenities at and about the police. Then they chose to march to the Public Safety Building, where they set fire to or vandalized vehicles, throwing objects at the police, hoping to injure them as the police guarded the building. Then, they dispersed, proceeding to vandalize and loot stores in their paths. Even the Town

  Mayor Warren whupped Evans' ass in the debate. She was the consummate political performer. He, a dismal  amateur who is a tad too old to play the ingenue. The best Evans could come up with were glittering generalities:  "Restoring, rebuilding, trusting transparency, and building bridges that have been broken." Whatever the Hell that is supposed to really mean. Their statements revealed that neither are playing with a full deck and that both believe in federal subsidies paid for by people who work. Whoever wins the General Election in November, Rochester loses.

Political opinion polls are conducted to gauge the public's reaction to certain events or politicians, especially during as election year, and also to influence unsure members of the electorate. Rarely are they unbiased and usually they are flawed. Take, for instance, the results of a poll conducted by Emerson College and release by Channel 8 News yesterday. The opening question was: If the primary election were held next week, who would your vote for, Warren or Evans? There was no "Neither" option offered, only "Unsure." That was the first flaw. Evans ranked ahead of Warren by 10 percentage points, 49 to 39, with 12% "unsure." Before Warren's detractors start to celebrate prematurely, they need to be reminded that she did poorly in the polls against the Great White Father, Tom Richards, in the 2013 election, yet trounced him in the primary, beating him out for the Democratic Party endorsement. The second flaw was a biggie. The Democratic Primary i

 On May 19, 2021 the husband of Rochester mayor Lovely A. Warren was arrested for drug trafficking and illegal weapons charges. Their home was also raided by the NYS Police that day. On May 20, Mayor Warren called a press conference and stated that she would not offer her husband support regarding the criminal charges against him. She also stated that they were "separated" (not legally) for years and that they were residing together to provide a family atmosphere for their daughter. In a home with illegal drugs and illegal weapons? She also stated that she didn't know anything about her husband's activities (questionable) and that she hadn't done anything wrong (also questionable). Then she launched into one of her usual diatribes, stating that it was part of a plot against her and that her husband's arrest was political and really an attack on her, not him. We can ignore that last part, because the Warren administration has been obsessed with plots against th

During the mayoral campaign of 2017, one of her other candidates for mayor accused incumbent Rochester mayor Lovely Warren of knowingly violating campaign funding rules and regulations.. The public was assured that the District Attorney's office took these allegations very seriously and would investigate them, very slowly, as it turned out. Meantime, Mayor Warren won re-election, easily trouncing her Democratic opponents in the primary election, including the candidates who accused her in funding improprieties, and defeating the Republican candidate in the General Election. During the next three years, not much more was said publicly about these accusations, except that occasionally the DA would state that she was still investigating them. Finally, on October 2, 2020, three and a half years AFTER the initial accusations were made, Mayor Warren was indicted on charges of knowingly committing campaign funding fraud.  Three days later, she was arraigned, after having her own photograp