Friday, October 07, 2016

RICHARD REICHARD FOR CONGRESS? UNQUALIFIED!

UP FRONT News   October 7, 2016
"The paper that won't be bought and can't be sold."
Published by Tom Weiss
Andrew Mazzone - Media Representative and Economics Advisor
Steven Gradman - Religious and Community Liaison
Allen Smith - Economics Reporter and Internet Advisor
www.tomsupfrontnews.blogspot.com   tomfreejournalist@gmail.com   tomsupfrontnews@yahoo.com
  The views expressed in UP FRONT News are those of the publisher or of the contributing writer and do not necessarily represent the views of staff.

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RICHARD REICHARD FOR CONGRESS? UNQUALIFIED!

  Although it is the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who is known for disrespecting reporters whose questions and views he doesn't like, Richard Reichard the Democratic candidate for Congress in New York's 11th congressional district (Staten Island and the neighborhoods of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Gravesend in Brooklyn) obviously has some Trump in him - at least when encountering this reporter. Several weeks ago I called Mr. Reichard's campaign office and spoke with his campaign manager Roy Moskowitz, with whom I've been politically and journalistically acquainted for several years and who either talks politics with me in whispers or avoids me entirely. It was some years ago that, during a conversation Mr. Moskowitz and I had about prominent Staten Island Democratic Association member David Jones, who was NYC Councilmember Debi Rose's 2009 corruption-tainted campaign manager and for years a big shot at Peace Action of Staten Island (PASI, of which his wife Sally was President) that he acknowledged that Jones is an "Israel basher". Given Jones's record in PASI of consistently demonizing Israel and sometimes depicting Iran as a beacon of peace, Moskowitz's reference to Jones as an "Israel basher" was approximately 100% correct. Moskowitz, however, was - and is - unwilling to say anything about Jones's history of making threats against me and his attempted assault on me some years ago at a candidates forum when I was running for the U.S. Senate as a Federal Elections Commission-registered candidate for the U.S. Senate against then incumbent Hillary Clinton. Being critical of Israel about some of its policies and actions against Palestinians (as I am) is not the same thing as anti-Semitism. As far as I am concerned David Jones blurs that distinction.
  During my phone conversation with Mr. Moskowitz in response to my request for information regarding Mr. Reichard's position on some issues (e.g. self-determination for Communist China-occupied Tibet), he asked me to send an email. I did and got no response.
  Mr. Reichard was one of two congressional candidates (Green Party candidate Henry Bardel was the other) showing up at the October 5 candidates forum at the Fort Hamilton Senior Center (of which I am a member) in Brooklyn. The meeting was chaired by Staten Island Democrat Peter Killen of the Bay Ridge Council on Aging. (At last year's forum, when I was a candidate for Congress, it was with considerable reluctance that Mr. Killen allowed me to participate; he was much more small "d" democratic this time.) When, during the Q&A, Mr. Killen called on me to question the candidates I had two questions. In my first question I cited some of the facts about the brutal genocidal Chinese Communist occupation of Tibet and asked whether the candidates would support a congressional resolution (such as I've proposed) calling upon the U.S. to formally acknowledge the nationhood of Tibet and to call for the withdrawal of all foreign (i.e. Chinese) military and police personnel from Tibet. Mr. Reichard, not acknowledging the human rights issue, said "I'd have to read the resolution first." I then asked if he would introduce such a resolution (which he would obviously read) and I got no answer.  I then asked him his views on the responsibility of candidates to respond to reporters' emails and elected officials to assist constituents on government related problems. His answer: "I won't answer your emails."
  That is what Strom Thurmond might have said to an African-American reporter or constituent.
  Richard Reichard is the candidate of a thoroughly corrupt Staten Island Democratic Party Machine that includes NYS Senator Diane Savino (D.-S.I./Bklyn.) and her Chief of Staff, Robert Cataldo, a known criminal and perpetrator of a major violation of my civil rights when he attacked me at my scheduled appointment with him in Ms. Savino's S.I. district office on an urgent constituent matter. At the time, as already noted here I was an announced Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate against Savino's pal Hillary Clinton. That attack (NYPD complaint # 2006-120-8244) occurred without witnesses, inasmuch as Mr. Cataldo, anticipating my scheduled arrival, had emptied Ms. Savino's office of all other staff. And so, when Democratic Party official Mendy Mirocznik last April told me that Cataldo had committed a similar crime against another victim and that "Robert Cataldo is a member of the Sicilian mob" I was not surprised.
  Since then the criminal and identified mobster Robert Cataldo has been enjoying the protection of Ms. Savino and the Staten Island Democratic Party machine, which includes Roy Moskowitz, Richard Reichard, NYS Assemblymember Matthew Titone, NYC Councilmember Debi Rose, David Jones and even some religious leaders such as Savino pals Rev. Tony Baker and Deacon John McBeth of St. Philips ("No Apostrophe") Baptist Church in S.I., among many others as well as the Staten Island Advance, a paper with a long record of protecting the politically entrenched regardless of Party.
 U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the FBI at their respective requests, have received detailed emails from me on this matter.
  No wonder that Reichard won't answer my questions.
  Regarding Tibet, Green Party candidate Henry Bardel said nothing about the human rights disaster in Tibet or about self-determination for the people of that occupied country and said only that the U.S. should not use military force against China.
  I am in contact with Republican Congressman Dan Donovan (who was not at the forum) on the Tibet issue and other matters.
  I am not a betting man. If I were I would not bet on Richard Reichard.

Wednesday, October 05, 2016

PFLANZER'S PFABLES: THE HUMMINGBIRD VS. THE ELEPHANT

UP FRONT News   September 30, 2016
"The paper that won't be bought and can't be sold."

Published by Tom Weiss
Andrew Mazzone - Media Representative and Economics Advisor
Steven Gradman - Religious and Community Liaison
Allen Smith - Economics Reporter and Internet Advisor
www.tomsupfrontnews.blogspot.com   tomfreejournalist@gmail.com   tomsupfrontnews@yahoo.com
  The views expressed in UP FRONT News are those of the publisher or of the contributing writer and do not necessarily represent the views of staff.

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PFLANZER'S PFABLES: THE HUMMINGBIRD VS. THE ELEPHANT
               
   Although playwright/poet Howard Pflanzer -  known to many audiences in New York, San Diego (where the suburb of El Cajon is in the news over another cop killing of African-American), India, Spain and elsewhere - has told me that he did not, prophetically, have either Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump or Green Party longshot Jill Stein in mind when he wrote "Dead Birds or Avian Blues", a play recently performed at the Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan, the encounter between the elephant and the hummingbird, presumably intentionally, defies the play's title, as the hummingbird confronts a "terrified" "pusillanimous pachyderm", emerging triumphant with the culminating punchline, "What you can't kill, you gotta live with. Too bad." "The Sparrows" is a very serious "poem" about birds "on the roof of Auschwitz" that "chirp happily" because "they do not know and cannot read" - and will be encountered via this newspaper by the even longer shot presidential candidate from upstate New York known as Sparrow.
 While the play, which is illustrated by Juliane Pieper, includes nineteen encounters between birds and other wildlife and eight avian poems, was published some years ago by Fly By Night Press and predates this election, it addresses political issues. The reading last August at the Bowery Poetry Club - which hosts musical, theatrical and political issue events - featured Mr. Pflanzer and Zoe Anastassiou, who is from Greece and speaks Australian-accented English.

THE CLINTON/TRUMP DEBATE. TIME FOR A REBATE?

UP FRONT News   September 27, 2016
"The paper that won't be bought and can't be sold."

Published by Tom Weiss
Andrew Mazzone - Media Representative and Economics Advisor
Steven Gradman - Religious and Community Liaison
Allen Smith - Economics Reporter and Internet Advisor
www.tomsupfrontnews.blogspot.com   tomfreejournalist@gmail.com   tomsupfrontnews@yahoo.com
  The views expressed in UP FRONT News are those of the publisher or of the contributing writer and do not necessarily represent the views of staff.

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      THE CLINTON/TRUMP DEBATE. TIME FOR A REBATE? GENOCIDE (IN CHINA-OCCUPIED TIBET) STILL A SILENT ISSUE. THE CORRUPTION ISSUE: HILLARY CLINTON/NYS SENATOR DIANE SAVINO/ROBERT CATALDO/MOB VS. ME. THE STATEN ISLAND, NYC ANGLE.

    "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump...came to the stage at Hofstra University sharing the burden of being the best-known and least liked candidates to run for the White House" as reported by Janet Hook, Peter Nicholas and Reid J. Epstein in the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ article also reported that Mrs. Clinton has a 1.5 percentage point lead over Trump and that Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is at 7.2% and that Green Party candidate Jill Stein is at 2.3%.
     As pointed out previously in this paper, among the distinguishing features of the Hillary vs. Donald contest is that, related to the reality that most Americans can't stand them, is the ironic fact that, when they accuse each other of lying, which is often, they are telling the truth. Donald lies about his taxes, about his history of discriminating against African-Americans seeking to rent apartments in buildings owned by him and or his father, about "Trump University" etc., etc. Hillary continues to lie about her decision to privatize much of her email correspondence when she was Secretary of State. Among the few compelling points made by Trump in the "debate" was his reference to Hillary's complaints about alleged foreign government (Russia?) hacking into Democratic National Committee emails. Trump correctly pointed out that what was really upsetting to Mrs. Clinton is that the hacked DNC emails documented the Clinton machine machinations to make certain that the Democratic National Convention did not nominate Bernie Sanders for president. Mrs. Clinton claimed that her decision to set up a private email account for State Department correspondence was a "mistake". Previous U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, understandably angry over Mrs. Clinton's claims that she had gotten some sort of email privatizing okay from Powell, has claimed that he had advise her to the contrary. .
    Among the patterns employed by politicians who tend to lie is to avoid lying all the time, and, in that regard, telling the truth at times. Persistent lying renders the perpetrator predictable, diminishing his or her credibility with the voters. And so some reporters compare Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump in quantitative terms, i.e. who has told more lies. It appears to be Trump.
   With Hillary Clinton and me, however, it's both political and personal. The Clintons' attacks on me actually began in December, 1992 after I managed to get the facts of the Chinese Communist Genocide in the formerly independent nation of Tibet to President-elect Bill Clinton via my telephone conversations with - and faxed articles to - Bill Clinton's secretary Betty M. Currie (some years later involuntarily very famous during the Monica Lewinsky drama). Bill Clinton, his Secretary of State Warren Christopher and his Communications Chief George Stephanopoulos responded by burying the documents, including several UP FRONT News articles describing some of the gruesome tortures inflicted by the Chinese Communists on Tibetan monks and nuns. And when I was invited to attend (and presumably testify at) the January 19, 1993 hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on President-elect Bill Clinton's nomination of Mr. Christopher to be Secretary of State I was arrested. Bill Clinton & Co., already beholden to the mega-corporations of the China Lobby who extract gazillions in profits from their investments in China, were not about to let the facts of China's Genocide in Tibet become public - e.g. with my testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
  The Clinton Administration attempted to buy me off by offering me a plea bargain if I would admit that I broke the law by coming to the Committee hearing. Citing my Constitutional my rights, I turned down the plea bargain offer and went to trial and on July 26, 1993 I was acquitted (Case # 1993 CMD 000772) by a jury before Judge Leo Satterfield in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Criminal Division.
  Hillary Clinton continued the attacks on me when she became a U.S. Senator. She refused me constituent assistance, had an aide send a defamatory letter about me to my brother Jim and placed me under surveillance. Her political vassals in Staten Island such as NYS Assemblymember Matthew Titone refused to assist me on constituent matters. And when, in consideration of the Clintons silence on the Tibet Genocide issue and Mrs. Clinton's unsatisfactory legislative record on issues relating to the poor and homeless, I announced my U.S. Federal Elections Commission-registered Democratic write-in candidacy for the U.S. Senate against Mrs. Clinton, the response was intimidating.
  Among Hillary's pals in the Democratic Party machine-run North Shore Staten Island is the very powerful NYS Senator Diane Savino (D.-S.I./Bklyn.) Ms. Savino's Chief of Staff was - and is - Robert Cataldo. Because of a serious constituent matter warranting Ms. Savino's intervention I contacted her office and was given an appointment with Mr. Cataldo, whom I had never met but who certainly knew about my already media-reported candidacy for the U.S. Senate against Hillary Clinton.
  Inasmuch as literally thousands of people, in Staten Island and beyond, and plenty of reporters (especially at the multi-billionaire Donald Newhouse's Staten Island Advance) know the details of what occurred at the appointment I will only summarize here. During the several minutes I was with Robert Cataldo in Ms. Savino's Staten Island district office, Cataldo went berserk. He backed me up against a wall, bellowing threats of violence and arrest, accusing me of incest and necrophilia, i.e. having sexual relations with my late mother, and spit at me. This psychosis went on for several minutes before I was able to escape without physical injury.
  The entire attack took place without witnesses - inasmuch as Cataldo, anticipating my scheduled arrival, had emptied Ms. Savino's office of all staff. Mafia tactics!
  Savino's response, when I subsequently spoke to her on the phone, was to say, "Oh. don't worry about Cataldo." She has been protecting this psychopath ever since.
  And when the then politically controlled 120th precinct refused to take my complaint against Cataldo, I contacted an honest cop I know, Sgt. Det. Al Fiore, who in his capacity then with the NYPD's intelligence unit, knows me and knows politics, who, at my request, came to S.I. and filed what is NYPD complaint #2006-120-8244 for me.
  And when Staten Island Democratic Party official (and Council of Jewish Organizations President) Mendy Mirocznik on April 23, 2015 told me that Robert Cataldo had committed a similar crime against another victim and added that "Robert Cataldo is a member of the Sicilian mob", it made it necessary for me to contact the FBI. I had already contacted the U.S. Department of Justice via then U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Loretta Lynch by phone, pursuant to a detailed telephone conversation with Ms. Lynch's assistant, sent her a report by email. Following my conversation with Mendy Mirocznik, while I was in Washington, I contacted the FBI and spoke by phone with a staffer in the D.C. office and sent the requested report by email. The FBI replied, advising me that, inasmuch as the incident occurred in New York, I should contact that NYC office. I did so and a detailed report has been sent there by email.
 In the 1930's much of the American political establishment, including folks in FDR's Democratic Party, covered up the developing Nazi Genocide against the Jews. The Nazis had plenty of corporate friends in America, who saw Adolf Hitler as a bulwark against the Soviet Communists.
 Genocides and corruption survive thrive via coverups. The Savino/Cataldo/Mafia NYPD complaint #2006-120-8244 coverup includes at least one "house of worship", St. Philips ("No Apostrophe") Baptist Church, in Staten Island, where the Pastor Rev. Tony Baker, who knows all the details, is a pal of Ms. Savino and Robert Cataldo and who, along with one of his deacons, John McBeth, has harassed me on several occasions
 The Dalai Lama has said that over one million Tibetans have died as a direct consequence of the Chinese occupation.
 That is Genocide!
  I don't expect Hillary, with her ties to the China Lobby, to call for self-determination for Tibet (as Bernie Sanders announced in his May 21, 2015 email to me).
  Donald Trump often criticizes China's trade war against the U.S. With his words of praise for dictators, e.g. Saddam Hussein and Vladimir Putin , I don't anticipate Trump calling for independence for Tibet from totalitarian-ruled China.
  The Green Party Press Secretary has sent me a copy of the Party's platform, which calls for "national self determination."
  He has assured me that the Tibet issue, involving both self-determination and Genocide will be considered by the Green Party's Platform Committee.
  There are lots of Tibetan-Americans registered to vote. Most, if not all of them, want China out of Tibet.
   If and when Jill Stein confirms what I assume to be her uncompromising opposition to governments that practice Genocide and calls for self-determination for Tibet, which I will of course report in UP FRONT News, her poll numbers will rise.