Jackson Heights Life

Ramos - definitely done with Peralta.

Dear neighbors,

Hope you already know we do regular wine tastings on Fridays and Saturdays at our Addictive Boutique Winery, and if you dont, stop by! Our knowledgeable wine reps are happy to pour you samples and any questions you might have. Also, bring along any used books. We do books exchange here. Drop off any used books and pickup some here at our wine shop.

Tonight's line up, we have Rosé, Albariño, Mencia and Tempranillo. Better yet, golden nose

  will be there!

Quote from: Jeffsayyes on June 23, 2018, 07:30:35 PM

I am so tired of fighting but isn't it strange that they don't put in elevators?  It's kind of obnoxious.

yes!

even if they can't put an elevator at every station -- which might be prohibitively expensive -- every second or third stop has to be workable.

There aren't elevators over there? Wow.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/opinion/joseph-crowley-alexandria-ocasio-cortez.html

Opinion
If You Want to Be Speaker, Mr. Crowley, Don’t Take Voters for Granted
By The Editorial Board
The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

June 19, 2018

When asking New Yorkers for their vote, most candidates would begin by showing up.

Not Representative Joseph Crowley. No, Mr. Crowley, a 10-term Democratic congressman who reportedly has ambitions of serving as House speaker, chose to skip a debate Monday night with his primary challenger, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He sent a surrogate instead, former City Councilwoman Annabel Palma.

This is the second primary debate in which Mr. Crowley was a no-show. A spokeswoman for Mr. Crowley said he had scheduling conflicts that wouldn’t allow him to attend the two debates, inevitably leaving voters to wonder — what are we, chopped liver?

Indeed, the snubs should be galling not only to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Crowley’s constituents in New York’s 14th Congressional District, in Queens and the Bronx, but also to anyone who cares about the democratic process.

Mr. Crowley, 56, is a powerful congressman who leads the Queens County Democratic Party. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 28, has presented him his first major primary challenge in years. Despite long odds, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a former Bernie Sanders campaign organizer, has garnered significant support, waging a high-energy campaign and positioning herself as a grass-roots alternative to Mr. Crowley.

The candidates have met once, in a Spectrum News NY1 debate last week at which both candidates held their own.

Instead of attending Monday evening’s debate, which was hosted by The Parkchester Times, Mr. Crowley visited a civic association meeting in Queens. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was left to debate Mr. Crowley’s chosen surrogate, Ms. Palma. Ms. Palma once represented the Bronx on the City Council and now serves in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration as a deputy commissioner at the Department of Social Services.

Mr. Crowley’s constituents might well now wonder whether he intends, if re-elected, to have Ms. Palma make his floor speeches and cast his votes as well.

Crowley aides said they had told the newspaper weeks ago that there was a scheduling conflict and had asked to change the event. The publisher of The Parkchester Times said he had no idea that Mr. Crowley wouldn’t attend.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter after the debate that in sending Ms. Palma, Mr. Crowley chose “a woman with slight resemblance to me” as his surrogate. Both Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Ms. Palma are Latina. Crowley aides dispute that Mr. Crowley chose Ms. Palma because of her ethnicity. A campaign spokesman, Vijay Chaudhuri, said Ms. Palma was chosen because she is a “phenomenal local leader.”

Mr. Crowley is far from the first candidate to decline to debate a challenger he is heavily favored to beat. But as a longtime incumbent with a powerful role as a party leader, he should relish, not shirk, a chance to make his case to voters. Mr. Crowley has decades of experience that can serve his constituents well in Congress. But his seat is not his entitlement. He’d better hope that voters don’t react to his snubs by sending someone else to do the job.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTOpinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

Wow what an article. Tells you where his priorities are. I never thought a sitting Congressman would play hooky for one debate, let alone 2?

It was definitely weird that he said those two things....

Ocasio's answer to the question of working together after the primary was also a little disturbing to me because her response was basically that she answers to her network of activists and they will decide what she does. But what if she wins? Do those same groups decide what she does once in office? That's not really the job. She also didn't really answer the question about other pacs that she works with. It's not like those groups don't lobby politicians...

I had the same reaction (said as much in my earlier post) -- but after reflecting on it a bit, I think that question might ring differently to her than it does to you or me, judging on her answer.

Here's what I think she was thinking: "I can't in good conscious stand for a candidate that has enriched himself & his family/ friends off of foreclosures and lobbying. That said, this is also a Democracy, and I am representative of the people's wishes, not the other way around - and so my endorsement will reflect the will of the people whom have lifted me to this point."

IMO, in this day and age, what this country needs on both sides, is the political courage to stand not just with your tribe, but for what's right. Republicans in Congress have chosen to enable Trump again & again because he's got the R next to our name. We ask them to stand up to him, stand for the values our country has stood for, but what good is that request if we can't do the same?

Speaking of endorsements -- MoveOn just endorsed her.

Been to Addictive so many times, can't wait to see this next evolution!!

I watched it.

It was so short I felt like it wasn't much of a debate. Ocasio was prepared (which I expected). But, also more polished than expected. Which was cool. Crowley definitely winged it. He's on TV often and this didn't seem like his greatest appearance. They each lied about something. Crowley about board approval for the Target condos, Ocasio for her response on a Reddit thread where she said she does not believe in federal laws the for guns. Meaning each state should decide for themselves. For me that was disappointing because she tried to make a fool of him and say he trolls reddit but, it came right from an ask me anything session she participated in.

The response online was overwhelmingly boosting her but, very oddly from people outside the district and even the state! Like who watches inside city hall in Detroit or California. A lot of twitter profiles from elsewhere repeatedly posted about her. Weird....

So I checked the AMA - here's the link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SandersForPresident/comments/6ftvhu/hey_reddit_i_am_alexandria_ocasiocortez_us/dikxy1u/

The impression that Joe Crowley tried to pass off (to me at least) was that she's against gun reform on the national level. But her exact words from the AMA are "I happen to support NYC's more strict take on gun control. But I also believe that there needs to be flexibility on the national level".

Flexibility =/= "I don't believe in federal gun laws" in my eyes. It reads more like "there should be more gun laws, and they'll probably be different in different states. Because it's a Democracy".

Re: Twitter -- that's not surprising. She's had a ton of media attention in the last couple of weeks, mainly becuase she's very intelligent, grew up in the district, has liberal cred (protested at Standing Rock), and is unapolegitcally progressive + going up against one of the most powerful politicians in New York. She's the kind of Democrat that a lot of people want to see more of.

Here's how I felt: I through Crowley did better in the debate itself, but nothing about his performance motivates me to get up & vote for him - he's still a 'par-the-course' candidate & my feelings aren't particularly strong for him, nor did he give me a reason apart from "Donald Trump is bad" and "Democrats are good". His performance doesn't motivate me towards action on election day. Crowley really should be winning this given that he's been here for 20 years...but I've honestly never really knew much about him until this race, which says a lot considering the amount of news I read.

Alexandria was energetic, **really** knows the issues, spoke to my pains & made the choice very clear. She gave one answer that I didn't like: the 'unity' answer. Alexandria's is fiercly against a lot of what Crowley has benefitted from (massive donations, a lot from the same folks that donate to Trump), but people will be reminded of the "Bernie or Bust" stuff, which pissed off a lot of Democrats in 2016. That'll almost certainly turn off some Democrats; whomever thought of that question is a mad genius.

But, she's very clearly an organizing force, and she reflects my feelings towards politics on the local & national levels -- nothing's getting better. Crowley has accumulated all this power locally (head of the Queens Democratic Caucus, makes & breaks candidacies) but the achievements he tauts are on the national level (voted for ObamaCare, voted for Dodd Frank, etc). He's had 20 years to make more of a direct impact in the community, and yet before this election I've never heard of him.