How You Can Help Stop The Creep of American Fascism (Part 2)
The next installment in our ongoing series about why you should attend your local government meetings, and how to participate to stop the BS and help save the planet.
Before we begin: Yes. I'm aware of Senator Skoufis's factually deficient letter in The Photo-News.
Mr. Skoufis’s letter is, in actuality, a proposed gift to the Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum by doing away with much of Woodbury's municipal infrastructure. He even alludes to this by saying, “Some so-called leaders will, no doubt, try to lie about this proposal or fearmonger but, make no mistake, any attempts to do so will be thinly veiled efforts to preserve political power and a taxpayer-funded salary.”
In actuality, the senator is trying to imply that any concerns made about the annexation of ACE Farms into Kiryas Joel are antisemitic, as are concerns raised by Woodbury residents given Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum's increasing influence.
So, if you ever wanted to know who State Senator Skoufis “works for”, now you know. As Dr. Maya Angelou once said, When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
In this case, you should believe that the senator is a shill furthering the interests of the local theocracy at everyone’s expense. One using Trump-logic by accusing his enemies of doing the exact thing he himself is doing.
I will debunk the Senator’s letter, and its associated advertising campaign, later this week.
But real quick, I'd like to briefly address the residents of Woodbury before continuing with today's previously scheduled post.
If you don't live in the area, you can skip the following statement:
To Woodbury Residents:
The next Woodbury Town Board meeting is tomorrow (August 1st at 7:30pm).
If you are against Senator Skoufis's plan to merge the Town and Village, placing the Town in charge, you should go and share that opinion.
If you are against Woodbury Police Chief Watson making nearly $200,000 a year but also maintaining private security contracts with vendors in Kiryas Joel, you should go and share that opinion.
If you are against the Town amending its Code of Ethics to allow the Supervisor to employ members of her family and pay them with your tax dollars, you should go and share that opinion.
Too few people attend Woodbury Town Board meetings.
Since these meetings are the main english-language propaganda channel for Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum, used to create favorable narratives that will allow for him to easily annex ACE Farms next year, that propaganda needs to be met by community activism.
Supervisor Luciani should answer questions from residents about her fiduciary responsibility to the Town, which she is violating by acting on behalf of the Rebbe and the rest of Hanhallah (leadership.)
Not to mention, her behavior may be in violation of the federal establishment clause, which prohibits local governments (for example) from acting in such a way that preferences one religious group (Satmar) over others (everyone else.)
If you can't attend tomorrow's meeting but want to help stop what's going on with the Town Board, you can send this letter to the NYS Comptroller. Don't wait. Send it now.
I'll have more information to share with you soon. Now, let's get back to our regularly scheduled article.
We're back again with our weekly series on how to stop the creep of American Fascism. You can read the first part here.
It doesn't yet have an official name, but its goal is to get you—yes, you reading this—to attend meetings of your local government. I'm going to use the area I cover, Southern Orange County in Upstate New York, for most of my examples, but these points apply to everyone across the country.
My goal in Southern Orange County is to have all local municipalities provide time for the public to comment on any topic with no time limit before the meeting getting underway and then again before it closes to be the norm.
This is considered the Gold Standard for public participation, and all residents of America, regardless of where they live, should receive and expect nothing less from their local municipality.
Following The Gold Standard would allow for people with shit to do to ask their questions, have them answered, and then roll out if needed.
I'd prefer everyone stay, but life is hard in America now. 65% of Americans reported to CNBC that they are living paycheck to paycheck.
So most of us have to be at work the next morning and can't hang around to hear about the latest iteration of the Town of Monroe's Tree Code, for example.
The Southern Orange County community is an outlier to the rest of the State of New York. We're not pro-democracy down here, a lot of us are actually pro-theocracy as the above statement to Woodbury residents explains.
According to the New York State Coalition for Open Government, The Town of Monroe and the Village of Monroe are in the 28% of Towns and Villages that only allow public comment to occur at the end of the meeting.
Only 17%, according to the same study, of Towns and Villages in New York have a time limit on public comment. That places the Village of South Blooming Grove, the Town of Monroe, the Village of Monroe, the Town of Woodbury, and Orange County's Legislative meetings as extreme outliers.
In defense of the Village of Monroe and the Town of Woodbury, because nobody attends these meetings, the time limit is rarely enforced or even mentioned.
If you live in Woodbury, as already mentioned, you absolutely should be attending Town of Woodbury Board meetings and asking them to explain all of this.
They won't. They'll do that thing where they get really quiet and look at you like you're a Goldfish on its way to the last round-up in the nearest toilet bowl, but that's why you're there.
You're there to stare down a corrupt and unresponsive local government and tell them, fuck you, we're organized, and your days are numbered. (Maybe not in those words, please. It's essential that we remain as civil and respectful as possible, even when the people being asked these questions may not deserve it. Acting in any other way gives them an excuse, or an "out," from responding to difficult questions.)
Not to be outdone in terms of antidemocratic measures, The Town of Monroe requires people to sign-up in order to make a public comment.
The Town of Palm Tree / Village of Kiryas Joel / City of Kiryas Joel has little online presence and — at least as far as English-speaking residents are aware — does not advertise when their meetings are held, if they're held at all.
(Sometimes they are! Here's an example recorded by CUPON Orange County from April 10th, 2022. Blink while watching this meeting, and you'll miss it. Residents of South Blooming Grove should take note of Mr. Al Fusco, who is also the Village Engineer for South Blooming Grove and is running this meeting.)
This information concerning the City of Kiryas Joel is disappointing because, as Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum admonished his followers many years ago, the law of the land is the law. Dina d'malkhuta dina. And that law here in New York State says, where open meetings are concerned,
"It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that the public business be performed in an open and public manner and that the citizens of this state be fully aware of and able to observe the performance of public officials and attend and listen to the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public policy.
The people must be able to remain informed if they are to retain control over those who are their public servants. It is the only climate under which the commonwealth will prosper and enable the governmental process to operate for the benefit of those who created it."
Every governing body in Southern Orange County also asks for residents to provide their name and home address. You are not required by NYS law to provide this information, but under the law, the municipality may also not allow you to speak if you don't provide it.
So I always give my name and a fake address. You could do the same. No rule states you have to provide them with your actual address. So, I often give out the following, which you can use as well:
541 W 4th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501.
(That's the downtown Anchorage address for a great marijuana dispensary called Great Northern. They have excellent weed!)
If you attend a local government meeting anywhere in America, and someone asks you to provide an address, give them Great Northern’s.
Why do I want you to attend a local government meeting in your town?
Because the Climate Emergency is a clear and present danger to all of us. You. Yes, you. Are in danger.
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said, "The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss the brief, rapidly closing window to secure a livable future."
Translation? Hashem ain't going to provide on this one.
You have to fix it. And you have to do it right now.
Thankfully, there is an "easy" solution available to all of us: Land preservation.
To be more specific: Asking your local government to preserve land can help stop the Earth from warming any faster.
This isn't about being antidevelopment or anti-business.
I'm a big proponent of building high-density, affordable, and environmentally self-sustainable housing. We can and must do this, especially here in Southern Orange County, where there is a great need. However, it has to be done the right way and with input from the entire community, not just one portion of it.
What we see in places like South Blooming Grove is not the right way to do this.
If Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein 's efforts are successful in South Blooming Grove; it will be much harder to get the housing we all need to be built. That’s because their efforts have, and will continue, to create resentment and hostility among members of the community.
Antisemitism is created when a shady developer hires two guys (Stern and Ekstein) to terrorize an entire population using an unresponsive and uncaring village government to do so.
And people who don't live in South Blooming Grove also see what's going on, and not understanding the facts of the situation, make hateful assumptions which then sets all of us back from moving forward together.
Statements, like the one Senator Skoufis made in his letter, which dismisses legitimate concerns of an encroaching theocracy by implying those concerns are anti-semitic, also sets us all back from having a badly needed, open, and public conversation with Hanhallah about the future of this region.
But let’s get back on topic: Land Preservation = Good.
Any land not used for the specific purpose of high-density housing—complete with water recycling, rain capture mechanisms, and shielding so as not to otherwise obstruct the natural beauty of the area—should be set aside and left undeveloped.
According to the United Nations, undeveloped land acts as a carbon sink, lowering the amount of greenhouse gas emissions:
"The world's land — including its mountains, hills, plateaus, and plains — provides vital services, such as oxygen, food, and water, that are essential for life. The land is also home to much of the world's biodiversity.
Land "plays a key role in the climate system" as an essential carbon sink because its surfaces, such as forests, regulate the planet's temperature and help to store carbon. In the last decade alone, land-based ecosystems absorbed around 30 percent of the carbon emissions generated by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels.
But our land is under increasing pressure from deforestation, urbanization, industrial development, agricultural expansion and unsustainable farming practices that are undermining its ability to sustain food production, maintain freshwater and forest resources, as well as regulate the climate and air quality.
And a changing climate, in turn, exacerbates land degradation through drought, desertification, and other extreme weather events that are increasing in frequency and intensity as the planet gets warmer."
There are also additional benefits, such as land allowing for flood mitigation. This is a serious issue in New York State as, according to the State DEC, Climate Change predictions indicate we will have both more severe flooding and more extreme drought as the planet warms.
In New York's Hudson Valley, we've already seen historic flooding over the course of the last year. Part of the reason I started working on The Monroe Gazette was that when visiting my Dad in Monroe, New York, we were caught in one instance of life-threatening extreme flooding.
Now, listen: I've had a heart attack and almost died. Let me tell you, the situation driving in Monroe in the Fall of last year? That was much, much scarier.
Undeveloped land also provides shade and helps to lower temperatures, especially in developed areas, which we need as our planet gets hotter and hotter.
So, if you feel an existential bit of dread when it comes to climate change, the simplest, easiest, and most effective thing YOU can do to keep this planet inhabitable is to advocate for your local government to purchase land and leave it undeveloped.
THAT is why you go to your local government meeting.
But, and the reason this series exists, is that a lot of people don't know what to do or say at these meetings once they get there.
So, the first step in that training revolves around sharpening our critical thinking skills. Something you exercise every day.
And again, if you'd like to follow along with the textbook I'm using for this unit of our "class," you can help support The Monroe Gazette by purchasing McLaughlin's How to Think Critically: A Concise Guide" using this link from BookShop.org.
Using this link doesn't cost you anything extra, and if you buy the book using it, BookShop.Org will kick some dollars my way, which helps keep the lights on.
You can also help keep the lights on by becoming a Subscriber to The Monroe Gazette here.
And now, let's continue our lesson ...
Clarity Matters
Above: Marshall Rosenberg, the author of Non-Violent Communication, explains how to resolve conflicts. The key is to make sure everyone is on the same page about the terms and definitions being used. This allows for a bridge to be built between two conflicting parties to find common ground on which to build. Today, we’re going to talk terms and definitions when it comes to critical thinking skills.
This week, we're going to start with some terms you're already familiar with, such as argument, premise, and conclusion.
It's important that we're on the same page regarding the definitions behind these terms, so I hope you don't mind if we do some vocabulary. It's usually the least exciting part of stuff like this, but since every lesson builds on top of the next, it'll be helpful to understand the terms and their definitions in terms of how I'm using them here.
As Professor McLaughlin points out in his book, it is incredibly important to ensure that everyone understands what you mean when you refer to something.
For example:
When you say that the dissident group that lost their lawsuit to dissolve the Village of South Blooming Grove formed a company called Keen Equities, and Keen Equities led a "takeover" of the Village government, "takeover" might be misinterpreted or misunderstood by people unfamiliar with the situation.
People may think you're simply referring to a change in population, which led to the election of people who now represent that new population. But that's not what happened in South Blooming Grove.
After declaring bankruptcy in 2013, Keen Equities formed a new plan which involved two men, Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein. These two men found a pliable candidate, Mayor George Kalaj, and engineered what at first appeared to be an excellent get out the vote campaign.
But the reality is much different, with rampant accusations of voter fraud. Accusations returned later in 2021 when Mr. Isaac Ekstein verifiably attempted to register over 700 voters to the address he was living at over at 2 Arlington Drive, often without the knowledge of the people he and Lazer Schwimmer, who owns 2 Arlington Drive, registered for absentee ballots according to the New York State Board of Elections.
So, "takeover" is vague and leads to misunderstandings. It needs to be clarified, and it needs to be more specific.
In our area, the lack of specificity is what often leads to claims of anti-semitism when people say "They" or "Them" or other things like "The Black Hats." If we are to move forward and have constructive conversations, we need to be very specific as to who the bad actors are within the Satmar community, for example, so as not to defame the community as a whole, which is not the intention of most people who raise concerns about development in Southern Orange County.
In his book, McLaughlin uses an example involving someone suggesting that we tax the rich and how people can't come to an agreement on that proposal because "rich" means different things to different people.
If you're rich like Elon Musk, you absolutely should be taxed.
However, some might think "that being rich" means earning more than $100,000 a year. I think that's a great example as well because it highlights that "rich" means different things to different people.
Let me give you one more example, this time on the national level:
When Democrats have control over Congress, the Senate, and the White House, they'll often blame "gridlock" for not getting all of the things done that people voted them in to do. A great example of this is the public option that was removed from the Affordable Care Act because of the objections of Senator Joe Liberman. The Public Option would have allowed anyone to purchase affordable health insurance through the federal government.
"Gridlock," like "takeover," is vague and can mean different things to different people, allowing Democrats to skate by and continue running political campaigns that basically boil down to, "Look at that fucking guy. We don't want him in office, do you?!" (That's been the national slogan for the Democratic party since 2016, and I can say that as someone who reliably votes Democrat.)
In December of 2021, West Virginia Senator, Joe Manchin, could have been the deciding vote on the original version of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan.
That plan would have provided our seniors with dental coverage and other necessities like hearing aids. It's easy to blame Manchin for this, and we all should because fuck that guy, but this was just the latest in the long history of Democrats doing this.
(If it's not Manchin, it's Sinema. if it's not Sinema, it's Blue Dog Democrats. If It's not Blue Dog Democrats, it's schmucks like Joe Liberman. You get the point. They, as a national political party, tend to do the minimum so as not to upset their corporate and wealthy donors.
Here in Southern Orange County, we can see Senator Skoufis doing the same, offering the minimum when it comes to intervention in South Blooming Grove and then attacking people who question him for not doing more, like asking the DEC to revoke the permits granted to Keen Equities for being a bad actor. Something the DEC has a broad legal lattitude to do.)
So, you can understand why clarity is important when having a successful conversation with someone. In order to teach you critical thinking skills successfully, we need to be clear about what these terms mean when we use them.
With me so far?
And yes, if it seems like I'm picking on my former political party—I changed my voter registration back to the Working Families Party after observing State Senator Skoufis's behavior and encourage other fed-up Democrats to do the same—you're right.
We know who the Republicans are at this point.
But what we need from the Democrats isn't "Look at this fucking guy!" we need "This time it's going to be different. Here's what we're going to do, and here's how we're going to get it done."
Trump is a symptom of a more significant disease. Even if he loses this Fall, that brand of American Fascism won't simply "go away." That's because the South won the propaganda war that followed the active military phase of the Civil War, and that shit needs to be stamped out all across America, both on the national level and here with places like Monroe.
Definitions
So, in terms of being on the same page, when I use the following terms, I'm using the following definitions as provided by Professor McLaughlin:
Argument: "A set of statements in which some statements (known as premises) are used to support another statement (the conclusion)."
For example: My argument above is that the Democrats tend to do the minimum. The statements (or premises) I'm using to support that argument is that the Democrats blame "gridlock" when they have power, and blame the Republicans when they don't have any power. This allows for them to only get done the minimum needed for re-election.
Another statement, or premise, is using Joe Manchin, that dick, as the most recent example, but he's not the only example we've seen in the 21st Century of a Democrat — once key legislation gets to the finish line — holding it up or killing it.
Why? My conclusion is that this happens because the Democrats really want to protect the party's corporate donors first and the rest of us second.
A Premise is just a reason I'm giving to back up my argument.
Joe Manchin cost millions of American seniors affordable access to hearing aids and dental coverage by voting against the original version of Build Back Better.
As of now, Medicare does not entirely provide dental coverage. It's better than it was, but it still leaves seniors paying thousands of dollars they do not have, all out of pocket, for dental care that they DO need.
The Conclusion is the "part of an argument that the premises are meant to demonstrate by means of evidence or justification." Fuck Joe Manchin.
So, in this broader example, the conclusion is that the Democrats do the minimum for people because doing anything more would upset their corporate donors.
As Professor McLaughlin says:
"Once you understand what is being argued, you need to identify each premise and the conclusion and see how they work together.
Only after you understand the entire argument can you go on to evaluate it and respond to it.
Obviously, you have to know what the other person is trying to claim — before you can determine whether they are right or not. Accordingly, you need to learn about the structure of arguments, how to standardize them, how to determine if the premises are satisfactory, and how to figure out whether they offer sufficient support for the conclusion."
And THAT is what we will discuss shortly, when we examine the recent claims made by State Senator James Skoufis in his letter, and advertising campaign, aimed at Woodbury residents to garner support for a merger.
I'll catch you soon to discuss that one.