Peter's Place

NYC Council Elections, Bronx CD #18, Part 4 I would be remiss as a journalist were I not to include the candidate whom everyone in The Bronx's Council District #18 has been talking about in today's NYC Council primary race: Michael Beltzer . I am sorry that family obligations prevented me from completing this Part 4 of my series of articles on the candidates in this race until the morning of the election, as opposed to last week when I had planned to release it. Beltzer is the third millennial in the race who is fighting the establishment's pick and who by far is the furthest removed from them. A Long Islander, he has made the Soundview  section of The Bronx his home for the past decade. There, he raises his daughter, Isabella Rose, who attends public school, which is one of many reasons why Beltzer is such a strong advocate of public education. In this way, Beltzer stands out from his opponents in that he supports free public education, including free public hig...

Amanda Farias NYC Council Elections, Bronx CD #18, Part 3 It took less than ten minutes from the time I'd sent the email to the time my phone rang. This can't be possible, I thought to myself. It must  be a bill collector. But on a Sunday afternoon? A short while later, it didn't take long for me to spot the maelstrom of information working its way down the block. There was a very familiar feeling here, not quite one of déjà vu but certainly one of comfortable familiarity. There was an ease with which the central figure I was focusing on worked with the people, not apart from them. "Yes, that must be her," I thought as I approached whom in fact turned out to be the person I was seeking, Amanda Farias . We had only a brief moment to meet so that I could observe her in action on the campaign trail. Which, to be honest, looked not much different than her in action at work, or at home in her community. She engaged with people, spoke with them, cared about ...

NYC Council Elections, Bronx CD #18, Part 2 One freezing frost-filled February night in 2013, I first met Elvin Garcia in the back corner of a too-small greasepit of a Bronx diner to enlist his support in our work to build a new LGBTQ community center for The Bronx, he with his friend, I with mine. If it weren't for my friend, I never would have known what actually had been said during that meeting. Thus was my introduction to the insane world of Bronx politics. Both it, and the turkey burger (my standard diner fare) left a bad taste in my mouth. At the time, Garcia worked for NYS Senator Gustavo Rivera as an aide. More importantly, Garcia was an out gay man in Bronx politics, something of a rarity (even to this day). Garcia declined to join our efforts to build an LGBTQ community center. In fact, when he moved to NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio's office to a position where he would have direct influence representing LGBTQ Bronxites' interests, he did little—if a...

NYS Senator Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr NYC Council Elections, Bronx CD #18, Part 1 It was a hot, steamy, sultry summer afternoon in 2014 and we were having difficulty finding the entrance to the building using the address given to us while the batteries on our mobile phones were limping by on emergency power. We feared we would miss the meeting—one everyone and their drag queen mother had warned us against—but we were obstinate and determined to make it succeed. Finally, we got through to the office and learned that the entrance was around the block. Somehow, in the heat visibly rising off the sidewalks, this made sense. We were ushered inside into the refreshing respite of the 20th centuries' greatest technological miracle: air conditioning. It looked to be like any other ordinary office, with piles of papers strewn about and desks haphazardly arranged into working spaces, workers frenetically going about their business—hardly what one might imagine to be those of a state senator...

Bernie Sanders' Address to the DNC Convention on July 25, 2016 July 26, 2016. PHILADELPHIA, PA: Congressmember Keith Ellison, a self-declared "proud" supporter of Bernie Sanders and one of his delegates, came out onto the stage at the DNC Convention after Elizabeth Warren's speech. He spoke for a few minutes about voting and some of Bernie's more progressive issues, and then introduced the star of the event, US Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders spoke at the Democratic National Committee's 2016 Presidential Convention on Monday, July 25, 2016 at approximately 10:30 pm. Prior to his appearance, a modified version of his "America" campaign ad played with the ending modified to include Clinton. He walked out on stage while "America" continued to play and was greeted with the evening's most energetic applause and cheers in the convention hall. His supporters refused to subside their cries and thunderous applause in a standing ovation t...

Selected tweets. Click to enlarge. Monday, July 25, 2016 – NEW YORK:  On Sunday, July 24, 2016, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced her resignation to the Democratic National Committee as its chair effective at the end of this coming week, according to numerous reports in the mainstream media . Reports about whether or not Schultz would be participating in the upcoming Democratic convention this week bounced back and forth throughout the day. Early morning reports indicated that she would "gavel in the convention" but early afternoon reporting once again had DWS completely removed from having any role in the convention. Supporters of US Senator Bernie Sanders, who has endorsed Hillary Clinton to become the next President but who has yet to pledge his delegates to Clinton or even suspend his campaign, became livid and took to social media, expressing their anger over Schultz's continued participation in the convention, as shown in the sampling of...

WikiLeaks logo Before the last 16 states concluded their primary process, a leaked email —part of the DNC Email Archive published by Wikileaks —shows that planning for former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the Democratic nominee  had begun long before one-third of the nation even had a say in the matter. The email below shows that the DNC had already completed content proclaiming their nominee to be Hillary Clinton on the morning of April 26, 2016—before 16 states had completed their primary voting process. The sender of the e-mail, Eric Reif , is a DNC staffer. The email contains content written to be sent out by various members of the DNC, including DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC CEO Amy K. Dacey, and President Barack Obama: Hi all — We are starting to plan ahead with messaging to our supporters for the end of the primary and transition to the general. Below are a handful of emails and graphic copy for the initial few days of that change, arra...