Category: New York City

Obama’s Lost Army | New Republic

But they never got that chance. In late December, Plouffe and a small group of senior staffers finally made the call, which was endorsed by Obama. The entire campaign machine, renamed Organizing for America, would be folded into the DNC, where it would operate as a fully controlled subsidiary of the Democratic Party. Plouffe stayed on as senior adviser, and put trusted field organizers Mitch Stewart and Jeremy Bird in charge of the new group. Bird says the OFA team was never even told about the idea for Mov

Source: Obama’s Lost Army | New Republic

Divisions in My Dorm Room – The New York Times

As a student at New York University and the daughter of a civil servant at the United States Department of State, I am familiar with political unrest and its potentially disastrous outcomes in the arms of ignorance and hysteria. I did not hold any particularly strong opinions about Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. If I had voted, however, I would have picked Mr. Trump. I was focused on school. I had no idea that a few days later I would be dismissed as a “Trump supporter” and a person of “privilege” who “reflected an us versus them mind-set” in an essay by my college roommate in this publication — an essay that would go viral and change my life.

Source: Divisions in My Dorm Room – The New York Times

Using Campaign surrogates puts CNN on the defensive | The Charlotte Observer

One Lewandowski appearance Tuesday night, where he sparred with Atlantic editor Peter Beinart over polls, became so heated that Beinart raised the question of loyalty.”Don’t give me this nonsense, OK?” Beinart said at one point. “Corey, listen. I’m not getting paid by one of the candidates, OK?””Neither am I,” Lewandowski shot back. “You know what? And I think you couldn’t get paid by one of the candidates because you have no talent to get paid by one of the candidates.

Source: Use of campaign surrogates puts CNN on the defensive | The Charlotte Observer

Written by Comments Off on Using Campaign surrogates puts CNN on the defensive | The Charlotte Observer Posted in New York City

35 and Over NBA All-STAR TEAM

The fabled draft class of 1996 that produced superstars and Hall of Famers such Allen 1996-NBA-Draft-ClassIverson, Kevin Garnett, Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant may quite literally be on its last legs now that Bryant is likely sidelined for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.  Similarly, the toll of 10+ seasons is beginning to show on some of the stars of the 2003 class as LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony endured their first prolong stints on the injured list this season.  Chris Bosh, who along with James and Anthony have virtually been iron men when compared to their draft mate Dwyane Wade, also saw time due to injury very early in the season.

As the league slowly begins its slow transfer of power from the two greatest draft classes of the last twenty years some of the NBAs elder statesmen are showing that they still have what it takes to compete.

Moreover, the group of 35 and over stars listed below  are showing that they’re not ready just yet for the Legends portion of all-star weekend, and that they’re worthy of some all-star votes themselves:5f87ac5f348bc744e5942f544c9c2328_crop_north

Vince Carter (F)
Dirk Nowitzki (F)
Tim Duncan (C)*
Jamal Crawford (G)
Manu Ginobili (G)

Honorable Mention
Steve Blake (G)
Elton Brand (F)
Kobe Bryant (F)**
Caron Butler (F)
Rasual Butler (F)
Kevin Garnett (F/C)
Kenyon Martin (C)
Andre Miller (G)

B613f08CMAAx8p6-300x297Jermaine O’Neal may eventually work his way to this list by season’s end if he signs with one of the western conference superpowers as many have speculated.  The top half of this roster is faring pretty well and one is hard pressed to think that a team sporting Nowitzki and Duncan as its starting forwards couldn’t give one of the top teams a run for their money.  They have a deep reservoir of heady guards, but this squad’s downfall might be its lack of quality big men behind Duncan and Nowitzki.

Still, looking at this list does a lot to make an old man like myself feel as if I can still go out there and push myself to see what I got.

* Duncan made the 2015 squad as a reserve.
** Bryant was voted among the 2015 Western Conference starters by fans.

21 days sans sucre

Inspired by my good friend Ibrahim Abdul-Matin who himself was inspired by Adrienne Marie Brown I have decided to do a 21-day sugar fast. As a Catholic I’m in the midst of the Lenten season so one might presume I’m giving up sweets for lent, but I had already given something else up so this is a personal pursuit. Reading Ibrahim’s post reminded me of my recent airport experiences where I was surprised to find that most of the new stands and snack shops carry 2x candy bars.

To put that in perspective that’s a 480 calorie bag of peanut M&Ms, or about 1/4 of a persons recommended calorie intake-give or take.

Rushing to one’s gate is exasperating at times, but unless airport lounges have hidden treadmills that I’m unaware of, there’s no real reason for anyone to snack on 500calories while waiting for a flight.

And as a parent I’ve grown tired of the disruptive candy placement at checkout lines. Every time I take my 3yo to the grocery store I’m having to either work overtime to distract her from the piles of candy bars by the register, or just brace myself for a tantrum when I say no.

Look, I know the candy industry knows it good some good product and when fiends like myself procreate they see my offspring as their inalienable right, but it’s not like by the time I get to the register I hadn’t already re-upped, so why hit me over the head? Weren’t the cookies I purchased in aisle 6 enough?

So over the next 21 days I’m going to spend some time thinking about my sweet tooth, the way that the sugar industry has sunk its claws into so many facets of our lives, and why is it that as we become more sedentary the candy bars are getting bigger?

“Manhattan has become a gated community”

word….

If the lust to acquire and consume is one defining feature of the city, so too is its complement–deprivation and economic disparity. David Harvey, author of Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution, describes Manhattan as “one vast gated community.” He describes the process by which the rich push the city’s less well-off to its peripheries and take hold of urban life. Tracing the history of urban uprisings from the 1870s to Occupy Wall Street, Harvey argues that cities have long been contested spaces, where the interests of money collide with the public good. Beginning in the late nineteenth-century—when modern New York took shape—one finds the dawning sense that for the city to be made safe for consumption and its contented, bourgeois destiny, it needed to be purged of the blemish of the poor.

via Rebel Cities by Kanishk Tharoor – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.

Sean Eldridge Running For Congress

Mashable reports that Sean Eldridge, husband of facebook co-founder and New Republic publisher Chris Hughes will be running for congress in 2014.  An Eldridge victory would inject much needed youth-and not just in terms of age-into the democratic caucus.

via Husband of Facebook Co-Founder Running for Congress.