Home Blog Page 800

Trump Win is no mandate

Editor, Our Time Press
-
40
Trump Win is no mandate

By Walter Smith, Publisher of New York Beacon

 

There are those who think Donald Trump somehow won a mandate on Tuesday(Election) night. He did not.

This notion was proffered by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said that the president-elect had “earned a mandate”, a notion seconded by Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager.

In my opinion, a mandate is when one is elected by an overwhelming majority of the voters. In Trump’s case, that did not happen. The voters chose Hillary Clinton over Trump by nearly 1 million votes: Trump 60,371,193, and Clinton 61,039,676. Clinton polled 4,428,022 less voters than Obama pulled in 2012. Trump polled 562,311 less votes than Mitt Romney in 2012. A plus margin of 3.8 million for Trump in 2016. Hillary lost to the Electoral College. These numbers put the lie to the rhetoric that Trump brought out more Republican voters than any other candidate in the history of the party. If that was true at all it had to be true for the primaries only.

Winning the most votes may not get you the White House but it ought to spare you in the court of conventional wisdom from being deemed a scolded loser. Donald Trump is president because of a quirk in the system – that doesn’t undermine his legitimacy but it does demolish the idea of a mandate.

The vote for Trump was a strange one indeed.

Polls were consistently in favor of Clinton.

Polls do not lie, people creating polls lie.

Donald Trump’s rhetoric was not a popular public one but resonated with many voters. Many voters publicly denounced Trump but secretly supported him. When asked by pollsters if they supported or would vote for Trump, the answer was no but their true preference was Trump.

There seems to be a subtle desire by a faction of the voting public to reset the social, economic and political clock back to 1918. This equates to taking their country back and making America Great again. That is the era when America was ruled by white men of European descent. Minorities, women  and people of  color could not vote and had no say in the US Government.

Trump further emboldened this faction by declaring himself a “law-and-order” candidate, making it clear that as it regards the justice system his sympathies were entirely with the police and not at all with the “Black Lives Matter” movement – but 48% of the voters told exit pollers that the justice system treats Blacks unfairly.

Soon after Obama was elected in 2008, the call went out to “Take our country back”. And that the country, being led by a Black man, was going in the wrong direction. Trump’s remarks about Obama being “weak” and “inept” also resonated with these voters.

After the “Never Trump,” “Dump Trump”,  his racist statements and his brutal view of women was exposed, Trump polled 46% of women voters and 8% of Black voters. This group of voters was crucial to the Clinton campaign.

While Clinton was dependent on the votes from the nation’s big cities where the large electoral votes are, Trump racked up votes among the rural towns and hamlets of the US thereby defeating Clinton in the Electoral College.

So as Trump and his cabinet tries to convince America he is doing the will of the people or he has a mandate from the people to build a wall, or to ban all Muslims, or to repeal Obamacare, or to stack the High Court with conservatives, or to reinstitute “Stop-and-Frisk”, or to deport 11 million immigrants, that  just isn’t how the majority of the people voted.

The mandate dictated by the people is they want change managed and controlled by a bipartisan Congress. They want an end to the obstructionist policies practiced by the party of “NO”. They want legislation that promotes the interest of the taxpayers rather than that of the political party.

The mandate is that Trump has to listen and govern all US citizens equally and fairly.

Reporters & Bloggers Wanted

Editor, Our Time Press
-
84
Reporters & Bloggers Wanted

Our Time Press, a 20-year-old, award-winning newspaper in Brooklyn, is looking for reporting talent for both print and web.

 

If you have a journalism background and an itch to report on national, state and local issues you see affecting our neighborhoods as well as local events and recognition of local heroes, then you are invited to write a community blog at www.ourtimeathome.com.

 

We will pay for any article we select from the blogs to be edited by the writer for the weekly print edition of Our Time Press.

 

Content will be primarily hyperlocal to the neighborhoods of Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Brownsville and East New York.

 

Parenting, Education, City Politics, Health, Business and Local News are all areas of interest to the community.

 

If you are passionate about telling stories and finding the news that’s all around us, then send a resume and clips to:  dbgmedia@ourtimeathome.com.

Letter to the Editor: Sick With Rage

Editor, Our Time Press
-
19

I called in sick the day after so that I could devote myself fully to wallowing. I avoided all news outlets. I was shell-shocked. I wanted to cry but lacked the energy for tears. It just didn’t seem possible. I was sad and disappointed. I’d cast my vote for Hillary Clinton with such joy and optimism. I smiled as the couple in front of me with their infant daughter signed in to vote. I got teary-eyed seeing the elderly black gentleman with the walker waiting patiently in line.

And then the returns rolled in.

I felt foolish that I thought my country was better than this. But this is how they feel about me as a woman and as a person of color.

The next day, I returned to work and made donations to progressive causes.

The following day (today), rage began.

F__k this whole “economic anxiety” bullshit. What has Trump ever done that indicates he gives a shit about helping the poor, the middle class or anyone not named Trump?

Half the country either agrees with the things he’s said about women, Muslims, Mexicans, immigrants, black people, the disabled…. or they think these things don’t matter. I suppose one explanation is worse than the other but neither is comforting.

The calls for us to come together and seeing things from the other side are premature, bullshit and insulting.

The most flattering version of people that voted for Trump is that they were frustrated people who wanted to be heard. But they’d damn the whole world to be heard. They’d choose a man who would do nothing to address their concerns.

Come together my ass. What has Donald Trump done to earn my respect? Or the benefit of the doubt? Nothing. What has he done to apologize or reach out? Nothing. No, they want us to fall in line behind an unqualified, bigoted man who didn’t even win the votes of a majority of the voters.

The hell I will.

The finger-pointing has begun. Black voters didn’t turn out at Obama levels. As though it’s surprising that black voters didn’t turn out at the same level they did for the first black president. As though it’s surprising black turnout was affected by the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. It’s Hillary Clinton’s fault for not responding to the concerns of disaffected voters… She did, but that’s no match for a demagogue enabled by the media and rogue elements in the FBI.

Ultimately, Donald Trump won because he saw the worst in people and appealed to their worst instincts. And he was right. And they voted for him. Over a flawed, imminently qualified woman who has endured 30 years of misogyny and attacks but who still wanted to work hard and serve her country.
I am sick with rage.

A. Russell

Free WI-FI is in Bed-Stuy!

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0
Free WI-FI is in Bed-Stuy!

Brought to you by LinkNYC and it’s 100% free! You can use the high-speed Wi-Fi, make a phone call to anywhere in the U.S., USB outlets to charge your phone or use any of the pre-installed apps on Link’s touch-screen tablet at no charge.

It will provide access to city services, maps and directions, and a 911 Emergency. LinkNYC generates its own revenue through advertising, sponsorships and partnerships, ensuring that LinkNYC will come at no cost to users or taxpayers and will be well-maintained.

LinkNYC will also generate more than half of a billion dollars in revenue for the City of New York.

Two of the first active kiosks are in Bed-Stuy at the intersections of Fulton Street/Rochester Ave. and Fulton Street/ Buffalo Avenue. More locations like Lafayette/ Fort Greene Place will be operational very soon.

To find more Link locations in the city visit https://www.link.nyc/find-a-link.html.

Deed Theft Hits Home Hard

Editor, Our Time Press
-
21
Deed Theft Hits Home Hard

Flateau Realty brokers fall victim to heinous act; Cornegy, Community Leaders putting “all engaged in process on notice”

The number of property owners falling victims to illegal transference of property ownership through deed theft is out of control. Since 2015, the New York City Department of Finance has investigated hundreds of cases. And some have gone so far as to call the crimes acts of terrorism.  Earlier this year, New York City Council Member Robert E. Cornegy Jr. and other community leaders called attention to the problem by hosting a very successful Town Hall on the incidences of deed theft in Bedford Stuyvesant. One of the major event partners was Flateau Realty, Inc. Following up on the educational initiative, Flateau Realty held successful one-on-one sessions for private homeowners to advise them of their rights and offer preventive measures to protect themselves from future theft.

At a press conference today, Cornegy was joined by Gloria Sandiford, President of the Bedford Stuyvesant Real Estate Board, and Vice President and Corporate Broker, Flateau Realty, Corp., and Richard Flateau, Founder an Broker of Flateau Realty, Corp. – who, during last week, became victims of property theft when someone forged documents to illegally obtain their property at 1424 Fulton Street, Brooklyn.

“Hitting home” at 1424 Fulton Street took on a whole new meaning in the last few days as news spread about the attempt to grab the property; community residents were stunned. The building is special – from the history and memories that live there to the number of Black political and business leaders who grew from there. Also, Flateau and Sandiford have been actively working in the community to warn residents of property fraud and educate them as to what to do to save their legacies.

On Friday, November 12, they saw that the locks to the building had been changed; the property vandalized and more.

What follows are Mr. Flateau’s comments at Cornegy’s conference highlighting the incident and the pervasiveness of Deed Fraud in Brooklyn. For more information, contact Flateau Realty Corp. (718) 953-2732 or visit www.flateaurealty.com. (Bernice Elizabeth Green)

Richard Flateau Speaks

Thank you Council Member Robert Cornegy for organizing this urgent press conference concerning property fraud and continued scams affecting our community. This one hits home personally.  On the morning of November 11th, I received an email notification from the City’s Registers Office alerting us that a Power of Attorney had been recorded in the City Register’s Office on November 10th, on our property at 1424 Fulton St.  The document, which was filed on November 8th by a company with the name of Elganto Management Inc., was the company that applied for the Power of Attorney. This company had been formed with the Department of State only a day or two prior to submitting the fraudulent POA.   They created the company using a similar name to our company, Elganto LLC.

 It appears that the criminals forged my name on the document that authorized the Power of Attorney.

 My partner and I have no knowledge of or affiliation of any kind with Elganto Management Inc. To be clear, we have not nor have we ever had, to our knowledge any business relationship with them, or affiliation of any kind and we have not granted them Power of Attorney over our property or any other business. What looks like my signature on the document is a forgery.

Coincidental to this false Power of Attorney, on November 12th when my partner and I came over to our building, we discovered that the all the locks on the gate and on the mail box had been changed. We quickly got the police and other authorities involved. Upon gaining access to the building we discovered that our office door had been shattered and that someone had gained access to our building by breaking through the skylight. Our things had been rummaged through and a few items were missing. In addition, we observed an electrical cord coming from the second floor of 1426 Fulton, directly adjacent building, which was plugged into our exterior electrical outlets in the backyard. We later realized that the electrical extension cord that they were using was stolen from our basement.                                   

1424 Fulton Street is replete with historical significance in Bedford Stuyvesant, with a long list of community leaders who have owned or occupied it including: the Procope family, former publisher for the Amsterdam News—now on Wall Street; and the Vanguard Independent Democratic Association. We are proud to be the new owners and our vision for this mixed use property upon completion of renovation, is to make it a space that continues service the community at the highest level.

This rapid and heinous series of events which have been perpetrated are ironic, surreal, hard to fathom.

Flateau Realty offers a broad portfolio of services and we have been serving the NYC Metropolitan area since 2000. We are experts in commercial and residential sales, leasing, apartment rentals and specialty transactions. We also provide real estate education to the community at no cost. This year alone we’ve conducted more than eighteen seminars and public meetings on a number of important topics including property fraud. Earlier this year, Gloria Sandiford and I participated in an educational panel organized by the Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant raising awareness about this issue as residents complained of rampant occurrences in the area. And now my company has been victimized by property fraud.

We want to thank many groups for their invaluable support which we have received to help us “put out this fire” created by fraudsters and tricksters. We especially want to thank — our elected officials, Council Member Robert Cornegy and Assembly Member Annette M. Robinson; Community Board 3- Henry Butler;

the NYC Finance Dept- Sheriff’s Office; The Kings County District Attorney, NYPD – 79TH Precinct and its Commander and Chief Minch; The Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant, The NAACP and the Business Improvement District which represents the Fulton Street corridor, the media including DNA Info- Bed-Stuy, and Our Times Press.

We also strongly recommend that all property owners register with the Automated City Register Information System, or ACRIS, which will alert them to any new documents filed on their properties.  Thank you for giving us this opportunity to publicly speak out on this critical issue and for your advocacy in its successful resolution.

According to Cornegy, the press conference “puts individuals and corporations engaged in this process on notice that deed theft will not be tolerated by authorities and/or members of the community.”  Others attending today’s press conference include: Shelton Jones, Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, Judge Betty Staton, President Brooklyn Legal Services; L. Joy Williams, President, Brooklyn NAACP, Michael Lambert, Executive Director Bedford Stuyvesant Gateway Business Improvement District.

1...799800801...1,292Page 800 of 1,292