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“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

You can’t love your country only when you win.

The lights are all blinking red.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Democrats are back in array!

Let me file that under fuck it.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Something’s Weird in Buffalo

Something’s Weird in Buffalo

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Something's Weird in Buffalo

Why is it that politicians from Buffalo think they can get away with saying and doing stupid things?  I lived within an hour of the town for almost 30 years, and the politicians in my home town of Rochester, for the most part, didn’t have that problem.  Still, here we have Kathy Hochul, proud daughter of the home of the Bills:

Gov. Kathy Hochul apologized on Friday night after making a tasteless joke about Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza while speaking to the UJA-Federation of New York.

“If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,” Hochul said during an address to the UJA on Thursday. “That’s a natural reaction. You have a right to defend yourself and to make sure it never happens again.” The governor’s comments were first reported Friday evening by The Forward.

Collective punishment is a war crime, and Hochul once again shows what a tone deaf and kinda terrible politician she is.  It’s no accident that she barely squeaked by in the last election.  (And I say this as someone who had high hopes for her doing better than Cuomo.)

Then we have Brian Higgins.  He quit his Buffalo seat in Congress to run a non-profit.  His resignation was effective Feb 2, and on Feb 13, the vote to impeach Mayorkas succeeded by 1 vote after the previous vote failed due to the absence of Steve Scalise.  Pastor Mike wisely held the vote on the eve of the special election to replace George Santos, to get it in under the wire of Suozzi’s expected election.  Here’s Higgins, in the hometown Buffalo News, in an interview published the next day:

“Think about it. You have members of the majority party in the House wanting to impeach a cabinet secretary, the secretary of Homeland Security, because of the problems at the border,” Higgins said in a recent meeting with The Buffalo News Editorial Board, referring to his Republican colleagues in the House.

“It’s the most dysfunctional Congress in the history of the nation,” he said.

Yeah, think about it:  what would have happened if you had stayed in Congress, Brian?  No impeachment, motherfucker!

The whole interview is full of Higgins pointing out the dysfunction in “Congress”.  Do I need to explain how bad that is for Democrats?  Republicans cause dysfunction in Congress, then a Democrat points out how dysfunctional Congress is, as if it is a collective effort on the part of everyone in both parties, except for them. (It’s never them–even after almost 20 years, Higgins apparently was sort of like a Mr. Smith who just happened to travel to Washington, got stuck there in a mud puddle, and couldn’t leave.)

Anyway, the special election to replace Higgins is April 30.  NY-27 is a D+9 district, so hopefully we’ll retain a Democrat there.

Reader Interactions

67Comments

  2. 2.

    Alison Rose

    I mean, if he had said “Republicans have made this the most dysfunctional Congress” or something, sure. If the Dems were in the majority, we would have gotten so much stuff done, and none of this bullshit the GOP is doing would be happening.

  3. 3.

    A Ghost to Most

    There’s a big reason we haven’t been back to WNY since 2007, and likely never will. This is my surprised face.

  4. 4.

    Marmot

    The whole interview is full of Higgins pointing out the dysfunction in “Congress”.

    Goddamn I cannot abide.

    There was some (Spike Jonz?) YouTube video circa 2003 portraying “Congress” as a demanding, unreasonable, bratty adult man, and I haven’t been able to find it since. Back then I could not abide either.

    Just what makes some folks so spineless?

  5. 5.

    Kristine

    Could be Higgins doesn’t want to alienate potential donors to his non-profit by singling out either party. Not a good reason for failing to stick around to finish his term or at least take care of the Mayorkas vote.

    Or he’s just a butthead.

  7. 7.

    Geminid

     

    @elliottg: A tempest in a tea pot. The Mayorkas impeachment will go nowhere in the Senate, and it has hurt House Republicans more than it’s helped them.

  10. 10.

    West of the Rockies

    @Geminid:

    I hope you are correct.   Earnest question:  how has/will the impeachment hurt Republicans?  Do you think fence-sitting Independents will vote Blue because of the Mayorkas debacle?

  11. 11.

    JDM

    The problem with Buffalo? Severe downturn in fortune over the past 50 years. They may be doing okay financially, I don’t know, but I know that in the old days people from Toronto would go to Buffalo for a big night out. Buffalo was the bigtime; Toronto rolled up its sidewalks at night.  Been a long time since that was the case, and some people in NY have never recovered.

  12. 12.

    Another Scott

    People quit politics for lots of weird reasons, but how it will affect their party seems to be really low down on the list of considerations.  [ Insert stories about state legislators switching parties. ]  Here’s hoping someone good replaces him!

    Meanwhile, …

    (((Tendar)))
    @Tendar

    Czech President Petr Pavel made the the statement that the Czech Republic found 500,000 pieces of 155mm artillery shells and another 300,000 pieces of 122mm shells which can be delivered within weeks to Ukraine. He is now asking for the funding.

    #Ukraine #Czech

    Maybe the MotUs thinking about bailing out TIFG can send the money to Czechia instead.

    Slava Ukraini!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  13. 13.

    RevRick

    My mother grew up in Buffalo and her mother lived there all her life. It, like many cities in the Northeast, is a shadow of its former self.

  14. 14.

    Yutsano

    @Another Scott: ​ Sounds like a minor shakedown of the European Union. Ursula von der Leyen might just abide by the Czechs since no one is actually making the shells in Europe like they promised. This is undoubtedly good news for Ukraine although they’ll have to burn through those quickly. Leader of the Johnson is probably going to get squeezed once the House is back in session.

  16. 16.

    Geminid

    @West of the Rockies: To the extent the Mayorkas impeachment hurts Republicans, it’s in the same way tanking the Senate border compromise did: it showed their lack of seriosness about solving real problems.

    But the Senate bill hurts them more, and Tom Suozzi hit Republicans hard on it in the last few days of the NY03 special election. I doubt if anybody’s vote will be influenced by the Mayorkis matter. If you asked voters “What do you think about the Mayorkis impeachment?” most would answer, “Who’s Mayorkis?”

  17. 17.

    Another Scott

    @KenK: “Move to strike as unresponsive.”

    What’s wrong with the post or his take? Show your work.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  18. 18.

    Will

    This was pretty stupid thing to crap on Hochul about. She was being honest. If you read Balloon-Juice, you should be somewhat intelligent, but if you don’t think the United States would happily deal out collective punishment if some equivalent to 10/7 happened, you are a fucking idiot. Iraq is still dealing with our collective punishment for 9/11 and they weren’t even involved.

  19. 19.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Yutsano: I dunno.  I think re-naming the Speaker as Leader of the Johnson sends a rather more….virile….message than warranted.

  20. 20.

    Ascap_scab

    If I were Trudeau, I’d retweet her quote then say, ‘WTF?! Effective 12:01am on Sunday, all bridges to Buffalo are hereby closed. Fix this NOW!’

  21. 21.

    MattF

    OT. Can someone PLEASE fix the ligature problem in the blog post headline? That big space after ‘ff’ drives me crazy every time I see it.

  23. 23.

    Anoniminous

    @JDM:

    Difference between Buffalo and Toronto: Jane Jacobs

    After the St. Lawrence Seaway was completed Buffalo lost the transit businesses that had previously underlay its economy.   Then the regular course of the 1960/70s: ignorant hick city government, loss of manufacturing jobs, white racism, cockamamie “Redevelopment” (sic) schemes etc., was followed leading to a positive feedback loop in the negative direction.

  24. 24.

    John S.

    @Ryan:

    Also too, governors are not in charge of foreign policy.

    The governor of Texas disagrees with you. He seems to think he has the right to not only enact his own foreign policy, but openly defy the federal government.

    And he’s getting away with it.

  29. 29.

    jimmiraybob

    All this impeachment drama and roll play is really just about kicking the can of chaos around until they get positioned for the real impeachment of that pesky US Constitution.  The actual US Constitution.  Not the alternative one of Trump/MAGA/GOP imagineering.

    On a side note, the the Confederation Congress established March 9, 1789 as the date to begin operating under the US Constitution.  We’re both Pisces. Laissez le bon temps roulette!

  30. 30.

    $8 blue check mistermix

    @MattF:

     That big space after ‘ff’ drives me crazy every time I see it.

    All I did was type in “Buffalo” so it’s something to do with the theme, which I am not touching with a 100 foot pole.

  40. 40.

    glc

    You can give to pay off Trump’s unjust and indefensible fine here. (And for $5 you can say anything you like, if that appeals to you.)

    There is however a small risk that some of that money might actually go to Trump. I reported this as possibly fraudulent. On the one hand, one hopes it is fraudulent, but even so …

    Unlike Kickstarter, the fundraisers get to keep the money whether or not the goals are reached. In fact GoFundMe instructions  to fund raisers boast about one’s ability to change the goal instantly, at any time.

    Disclaimer: the above does not necessarily represent the views of my employer, myself, or any functioning adult (three distinct categories be it noted).

  41. 41.

    karen marie

    @TBone:  I was hoping that was some enlightening commentary on TFG’s apparent decision to forgo an appeal to SCOTUS on the immunity thing.

    I don’t understand how the court can rule that the cases can’t be dismissed on the basis of immunity yet somehow he can use immunity as a defense.

  42. 42.

    AWOL

    @MattF: Do bulleted orphans in the gutter distress you? Widows meandering through rivers? Is your cat named Em-Dash?

    Dems da bad breaks . . .

  43. 43.

    Geminid

    In  other New York political news, the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission produced a new Congressional map Thursday. Many Democrats were disappointed in the map, and some including Hakeem Jeffries are urging State Assembly Democrats to redraw it. I follow this type of news on “Tom Watson Twitter,” but I expect there are other sources as good or better.

    And, oh yeah. Tom Suozzi won the NY03 special election by 7.7%. That was a 15.2% swing from the result in the 2022 midterms.

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    @MattF: It’s an issue with the font itself.  There is no space after the two Fs.  There is nothing we can fix.  Does it look like that whenever there are two Fs, or or is it only ff followed by an “a”?

  46. 46.

    Betty Cracker

    @Will: It was stupid when Ron DeSantis said it, and it was stupid when Hochul said it too. Politicians shouldn’t joke about attacking allied countries. That’s probably especially true when the politician is from a country that, as you pointed out, has a not so distant history of bombing and invading a country that had nothing to do with an attack on it. Seems pretty easy to wrap one’s mind around, even if one has never been invited to bring the noodle salad to the Mensa picnic.

  47. 47.

    hueyplong

    @karen marie: The likely answer is that some particular fact patterns fit an immunity defense for public officials (thereby making a defense available) but he doesn’t have a blanket immunity for any and all acts regardless of their relationship to his public duties (thereby making dismissal inappropriate).

    I expect that his immunity defense, while asserted, will not prevail.

  48. 48.

    MattF

    @WaterGirl: Yes, I guess. The ‘ff’ in the headline is a single glyph, but appears to be given the space for two ‘f’ glyphs. Which is not how a ligature is supposed to work. A bug, I guess, in the typesetting software.

  50. 50.

    sdhays

    @Will: No, it wasn’t “being honest”, it was ugly and stupid. All the more stupid considering DeSantis got there first.

    Sure, the US itself is hardly innocent, but saying “Buffalo” would strike back is pathetic bravado. And suggesting that Canada/Toronto would attack Buffalo is just being an asshole.

  51. 51.

    $8 blue check mistermix

    @Geminid:

    In  other New York political news, the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission produced a new Congressional map Thursday. Many Democrats were disappointed in the map, and some including Hakeem Jeffries are urging State Assembly Democrats to redraw it. I follow this type of news on “Tom Watson Twitter,” but I expect there are other sources as good or better.

    I looked at the map ( https://www.lohud.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/02/15/nys-congressional-redistricting-panel-approves-new-map-what-to-know/72594573007/ ) and my first response was, welp, Syracuse is never going to have a D representing them again.  I’m sure Hakeem Jeffries has a more nuanced response and knows more about the downstate districts.

  53. 53.

    MFA

    Life-long friend of mine worked for Hochul when she was Lt. Gov.; she’s a horrid person, well beyond the kind of horrid it takes to become Gov. of NY. Never trust her to do/say/believe in the right thing.

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    @$8 blue check mistermix: In his statement, Jeffries said the new map violated the state constitution and named the section(s). One of the Democratic Assembly leaders, Greg Gianaris argues similarlarly.

    One analysis showed upstate Democrat Rep. Ryan’s district gaining 3 points on the D side while Republican Rep. Molinari’s district was 4 points more favorable for Republicans. There is a downstate district held by a Republican that (I think) gained 4 points in his favor. One critic called the IRC map an incumbent-mander.

  55. 55.

    Princess

    I keep thinking that NY State is going to be the first blue state to surprise us and flip red in some state wide and/or presidential races, and the NY Democratic Party (plus the preponderance of the dirt bag left in the state) is why.

  56. 56.

    different-church-lady

    “If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,”

    I mean… she’s not wrong about that…

  57. 57.

    glc

    @WaterGirl:  No. For some reason “Raffle” looks wonderful.

    It makes one wonder what font metric can do that. But on second thought I think you probably have an “ffl” ligature too.

    By the way, I was fine with it, till it was pointed out that something actually is weird in “Buffalo.” My.

    What font is that exactly? The body text is fine.

  58. 58.

    Geminid

    @$8 blue check mistermix:

     

    @Geminid: Hakeem Jeffries’ statement as released by his office:

       The map adopted by the Independent Redistricting Commission should be meticulously scrutinized by the New York State Legislature, particularly as it relates to compliance with provisions in the State Constitution designed to protect historically under-represented communities. There is reason to be concerned with the failure of the IRC to address many of the flaws in the current maps drawn by an unelected out-of-state special master in 2022. Instead of remedying several of the substantive issues raised by good government groups related to communities of interest, the IRC map ignores or exacerbates them in parts of New York State, including the upper Hudson Valley.

    The IRC map breaks apart six additional counties, including one that appears gratuitously designed to impermissably benefit an incumbent in the 19th Congressional district that will be a clear violstion of New York State Constitution. Now that the Independent Redistricting Commission has completed its work, it is important that the legislature ensure- as the Constitution contemplates- that the people of New York State be afforded a fairly drawn Congressional map.

    New York journalist David Lombardo posted yesterday:

       I wouldn’t have thought this 48 hours ago, but after talking with Democratic lawmakers and politicos, it seems like the legislature is inclined to take another stab at drawing Congressional maps

    As to how an “unelected out-of-state special master” ended up drawing the 2022 map: that is a long and frustrating story.

  59. 59.

    Citizen Alan

    @Will: hell, we didn’t even collectively punish the right country after 9/11 or else Saudi Arabia would be under new management today.

  61. 61.

    Geminid

    @$8 blue check mistermix: You are very welcome!

    I think Lombardo’s speculation will prove out. As someone put it, Albany Democrats have nothing to lose by shifting the maps some. At worst they’ll end up with the IRC map. But Jeffries lays out the rationale for some modest but meaningful changes that could pass legal challenges.

    It’s too bad Democrats can’t import Illinois’ supreme court to review their map. Those folks let Springfield Democrats get away with a very aggressive gerrymander for 2022. They knew that Rodney Davis had gotten on WaterGirl’s last nerve and they had to let her have a Democratic district or face serious consequences.

  62. 62.

    wjca

    @Citizen Alan: hell, we didn’t even collectively punish the right country after 9/11 or else Saudi Arabia would be under new management today.

    Consider if we’d done that, while taking Iran up on their offer of free passage to and from Afghanistan (rather than paying Pakistan big bucks so they could subsidize the Taliban).  The Middle East today would look a whole lot different.

    Actually, far more widespread than that.  Without Saudi oil money subsidizing the Wahabi fundamentalist version of Islam (to whom the bin Sauds are beholden for getting and keeping power), a whole lot of wars and rebellions in Muslim countries worldwide simply wouldn’t be happening.

  64. 64.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Will: Hochul was not speaking as a dispassionate analyst of world events, she was performing as apologist for Israeli conduct in Gaza, & far from the only Dem politician doing so.

    @Ryan: Governors are not in charge of foreign policy, but they are in charge of their own moral compasses, & many of them have national level ambitions.

  65. 65.

    Chris T.

    @WaterGirl:

    It’s an issue with the font itself.

    Kerning strikes again!

    ETA: for the curious (kur-nious?), “kerning” refers to adjustments in inter-letter spacing to be made when particular things are combined. There’s supposed to be some negative kerning after an ff ligature before a lowercase letter like (lowercase) A, but whatever is rendering the font doesn’t have it. Since browsers use common fonts with common (shared) font metrics, the problem is likely in the font metrics for whatever the bold font is in use here.

  67. 67.

    Ken

    That s not fair on Higgins.  If someone wants to leave, leave. If they don’t we end up with 90 year old Dianne Feinsteins, who are constantly told they have to stay.

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