Andrew Cuomo is in political trouble, maybe real difficulty, for the first time in his years as governor because of the nursing home death coverup.
From the NY Post:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for withholding the state’s nursing home death toll from COVID-19 — telling them “we froze” out of fear that the true numbers would “be used against us” by federal prosecutors, The Post has learned.
The stunning admission of a coverup was made by secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa during a video conference call with state Democratic leaders in which she said the Cuomo administration had rebuffed a legislative request for the tally in August because “right around the same time, [then-President Donald Trump] turns this into a giant political football,” according to an audio recording of the two-hour-plus meeting.
“He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes,” DeRosa said. “He starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer.”
In addition to attacking Cuomo’s fellow Democratic governors, DeRosa said, Trump “directs the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us.”
“And basically, we froze,” she told the lawmakers on the call.
More on this from the Guardian:
It emerged earlier this week that New York’s nursing home coronavirus death toll was far higher than Cuomo’s administration had initially admitted. New figures were released following a court order in response to a freedom of information request by the Empire Center for Public Policy showed a significant rise from about 9,000 to close to 15,000 once the previously omitted deaths of nursing home residents who died in hospitals were factored in.
“Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died,” Cuomo said at a news conference in January after New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, released a damning report stating nursing home deaths were 50% higher than his administration had claimed.
DeRosa’s admission added fuel to growing calls for Cuomo’s resignation, impeachment or removal from office, and on Friday the New York congressman Tom Reed said he would pursue legal action against the governor’s aide.
For those interested in viewing the report Attorney General Letitia James put out in late January, here it is. This is from the press release:
Among those findings were that a larger number of nursing home residents died from COVID-19 than the New York State Department of Health’s (DOH) published nursing home data reflected and may have been undercounted by as much as 50 percent. The investigations also revealed that nursing homes’ lack of compliance with infection control protocols put residents at increased risk of harm, and facilities that had lower pre-pandemic staffing ratings had higher COVID-19 fatality rates. Based on these findings and subsequent investigation, Attorney General James is conducting ongoing investigations into more than 20 nursing homes whose reported conduct during the first wave of the pandemic presented particular concern.
“As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,” said Attorney General James. “While we cannot bring back the individuals we lost to this crisis, this report seeks to offer transparency that the public deserves and to spur increased action to protect our most vulnerable residents. Nursing homes residents and workers deserve to live and work in safe environments, and I will continue to work hard to safeguard this basic right during this precarious time.”
This blog has been critical of the anti-teacher Cuomo for years, including during the height of the first wave of the pandemic when Cuomo was at the height of his popularity. Having watched the UFT up close for years, we can say with a bit of confidence that we can usually spot BS when we see it and Cuomo is as phony as they come. NY's per capita COVID-19 death rate is the second-highest in the country. Cuomo may no longer be able to talk his way out of it. (Please no comments that we are a Democratic-controlled state. Plenty of Republican states, some with low population density, are at the top of the per capita COVID-19 death list.)
Now that Democrats and Republicans are calling for Cuomo's resignation, impeachment, or taking emergency powers away from him, it is the right time to demand that Cuomo waive the teacher evaluation law again for this year while he still can. No Danielson, no MOSL, no evaluation at all under these pandemic teaching conditions!
Randi Weingarten, Andy Pallotta, and Michael Mulgrew have buddied up to Cuomo for years. It's time to call in a favor. Demand no teacher evaluation. Blog readers can help by spreading the word.
When the pandemic put our economy in a self-induced coma and we fell into a deep depression we needed money fast; we needed state, city, AND federal dollars. Of course we got lucky as the fed and the congress pumped an unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus into the economy. No nation on earth has the capacity of the US. And our nation did more than any other to prevent a protracted depression. And more help is on the way. After the elections the congress quickly moved to pass more stimulus and the fed is keeping interest rates negative, inflating asset prices and slowly bringing people back into the labor force. MY state has been in the bond market and, although Cuomo has been hording money and has not allowed the mayor of NYC to borrow, we are recovering. But we need to raise taxes on the wealthy to backfill the huge holes blown in the state and city budgets. While it would be great if we could grow out of it with cheap debt and federal support, that's not possible given the size of these deficits. Ralph Nader floated this idea to Cuomo back when the pandemic depression was in full force and now we have a bill. The UFT should back this bill.
ReplyDeleteSenate Bill S3980
2021-2022 Legislative Session
Relates to the imposition of tax on certain financial transactions
Cares Act was the greatest upwards transfer of wealth in history. We did more for corporations and the wealthy than any other nation. We did not do more for the people than any other nation though.
DeleteMany nations put through UBIs and are covering people's full salaries for unemployment for the length of the pandemic. Meanwhile we got what 1800 bucks?
Because you jackasses keep paying dues.
ReplyDeleteWe're still going to need this guy to sign off on the ERI bill once it finally gets through the legislature. That can be an one of many issues the union is taking into account.
ReplyDeleteCUOMO MUST GO!!!! PRESSURE HIM THE SAME IMBECILE WHO BOTCHED SCHOOL CLOSINGS AND NURSING HOMES! Mulgrew should not allow any ineffective teachers this year, developing ehhhhh maybe but no chance there should be an ineffective on the table!!!
ReplyDeleteTo anyone and everyone who thought Cuomo was doing a good job (mostly liberals) wrong again!!!!! Hoodwinked again, wake up!!!! BIDEN IS THE DICTATOR 52 EXECUTIVE ORDERS!! Pretty quiet about that. Transgender to join women's sports, ruin it all, pipeline done,gas prices up 40 cents. Psaki clueless as secretary maybe she will circle back and figure it out. Do people not see this????
This POS wrote. book lol 😂 😆 😝 🤣 . Beyond a joke take his emmy and his job away and take his idiot brother oFF CHINA/CLINTON NEWS NETWORK,
Anon Cuomo must go is where you should've ended your post. Your trans exclusionary view should also go. Tying China to CNN, though genuinely hysterical for the level of willful ignorance that takes, also should go. Seriously, stick with only Cuomo should go.
DeleteMaybe Wooden Randi can be Andy’s Zoom aerobic instructor in the big house and Mulgrew his visiting barber. A veritable rogues gallery of corruption. DeBlasio is on a celebratory binge.
ReplyDeleteBecause the UFT is weak .
ReplyDeleteYet so many here still defend uft and yell at the "scabs." Where has that gotten you?
ReplyDeleteEasy and true answer to the headline question: Because he's a Democrat and UFT leadership are quislings.
ReplyDeleteTrump’s been acquitted. Now it’s time to impeach and convict Cuomo.
ReplyDeleteArticle in the Post about the Maspeth grade fraud scandal and how the principal and asst. principal have not even been interviewed yet even though the allegations came out a year a half ago. Typical DOE. (Death Of Education).
ReplyDeleteThe UFT leadership wants evaluations to resume.
ReplyDeleteWhy would they ask Cuomo to waive them?
Because waiving evaluation is the right thing to do for the members. Supporting their members is thei UFT's job.
ReplyDeleteA good union leadership, or even a mediocre leadership, would be asking to get evaluations waived for this year. Or just waiting for State Ed to do it on its own.
ReplyDeleteBut the current leadership is heavily invested in converting the Danielson teacher improvement framework into an evaluation tool, and, at least on this issue, will not behave like a good, or even a mediocre leadership.
If there were term limits for NY Governors—just like in New Jersey and about 30 other states—Cuomo would have been gone 2 years ago as he never really had the backs of teachers, anyway. Now, let’s see who will run in 2022–and see who the UFT will endorse—probably the losing candidate.
ReplyDelete626,
ReplyDeleteAre you really shocked? If you want to get technical, how many of us have fudged grades? The answer is all of us to some extent. That’s the game! I’m fine with it as long as admins don’t annoy me.
No shows passing?
DeleteThe evaluation system has always been incomprehensible, confusing, almost impossible standard to meet. How some teachers are rated as highly effective and some as ineffective often doesn't make sense because, in many instances (not all, but many) it is clear that a mediocre or not very good teacher is getting consistently high ratings while good teachers are getting poor ratings. Why? Because there is bias against or favoritism towards certain teachers based on whether a teacher tows the line or doesn't, whether they step in line and do all the little (and big) things outside of actually teaching well in the classroom that makes the supervisors happy. I think Shelley's comment above hits the nail on the head; an acute characterization of the fear, I think, many teachers have about job security. It's the system that's in place that has invented a job where its employee (the teacher) often lives in a state of fear. It has been mostly a psychologically singular, on your own, kind of experience from day one to be a teacher. But I am still here and it's been the students who've kept me here.
ReplyDeleteare any caucuses within the uft circulating a petition to waive APPR since the lame quacks of the DA and their puppet master mulpew are establishment lackeys?
ReplyDeleteYeah Anon 2323. Ignore the fact that many commenters here and elsewhere agree with you and side with communist China sympathizers like CNN and other scum instead. Ignore the fact that people with male biology and muscle mass are beating the shit out of biological females on the playing fields and learn to enjoy watching biological women get their asses beat by biological men like the rest of the misogynistic left. As for yet again this blog asking a why question about Mulgrew's motivation... because he is loyal to the democrat party not us. I would think y'all would have that figured out by now.
ReplyDelete9:03.. Many commenters here and elsewhere are completely wrong about China. They are victims of capitalist media, and with that, I sympathize.
DeleteAlso, read up on the Five Sexes, specifically Anne Fausto Sterling. There is no dichotomy in our biology. Trans exclusionary views must go.
Overwhelmed Border Patrol fears ‘mass migration’ under Biden’s catch-and-release policy
ReplyDeleteBIDEN MAKES HISTORY: First President in 40 Years to Refuse Contact with Israel in First Days of Administration --White House declines to list Israel as American ally
ReplyDeleteYes, james, it IS the right thing for Cuomo to do.But when does he do what is right?He murdered thousands of poor seniors in nursing homes and lied and blamed.i dont expect anything good from a guy with no moral compass and no respect for those who served and worked for years.maybe NyS ed dept might appreciate those who go in despite the risk, the freezing rooms, etc.glad I finally went remote.having open windows during arctic blast is not good ventilation.should have stayed closed, upgraded remote and ventilation and plexiglass instead of wasting money on busses for one student,masks, double teaching staff for kids who dont show up, blahs blah... why are we villains for wanting safe working conditions?glad I can retire if I want.and, why should people get Eric for 55 when we paid for that option?either make them pay or refund the 55/25 contributions.i am browsing sites of where to retire on a lower budget.never considered international until now...taxes will go up here, no reason to stay here post retirement after what is happening here...
ReplyDeleteLet's all come together and opt-out come June. I know James is so against this but this is what they need to see (members coming together). I know James will tell you, you will lose your SHIP benefits if you retire as a non-Uft member. What he forgets to tell you is you CAN opt out in June BUT CAN rejoin the union any month of the year to get your union benefits again. Let's just prove a point and all opt-out in June and lets give the leaders of the UFT the summertime to get their SH*t together that supports us, members. If leadership does actually help us for once, we the members will come back in September and rejoin the UFT!!
ReplyDeleteIf there are teacher evaluations in NYC this year, then the Democrats can kiss my vote goodbye in 2021 and 2022.
ReplyDelete10:47 there are 2 sexes not 5. I don’t really give a shit about any athletes but male athletes are most often bigger, stronger, faster. If the male has acquired his athletic body and then decides he is a woman, it’s absurd to allow such trans women to compete against those who were born female. I’m not against trans people. Do your thing. But physical competition is where I call foul. As usual the left takes things too far and the result is women getting their asses beat by men while the left cheers them on.
ReplyDelete1047. You’re a communist sympathizer. Accept the fact that some of us are going to reject your ideas outright because of it.
ReplyDeleteHey @12:33 — Cuomo is a DINO- he is not a Democrat.
ReplyDeleteStopping the evals:
Are you calling Cuomo’s office and people in power in NYS to try to get evals waived?
Are you calling the UFT and NY AFT to have them push them to fight evals waived?
Are you tweeting everyone to stop evals? (You don’t have to use your name to set up a twitter account.)
Or, are you just whining here?
Freaking do something useful.
You can read and feel the seething hatred toward Mulgrew in the messages on this blog. It is real.
ReplyDelete1:50 Cuomo was on the democratic ticket, he’s a democrat. He may not be your kind of democrat but you and he are on the same team. I’m not 12:33 but I think all he does is whine. I mean you disagree with him so he must be a total loser who’s never done anything. Condescend much?
ReplyDeleteI am 150 and I have did not vote Cuomo his last two elections and i'm would never vote for a GOP politician (labeled or not). I also don't vote for anti-public school politicians. Cuomo isn't going to run for Gov, again. Hopefully, after all this he will be out of politics because he is so toxic. (You would really think that politicians would realize that 3rd term (Gov, Mayor, etc) seems to destroy their careers. They should just look at other politicians' careers to see the damage of a 3rd term- but their egos are too big.)
ReplyDeleteCuomo has done a few good things, but he has done a lot of bad things and has harmed public school education and harmed public school teachers and students.
My issue is that people come here and complain, but I don't believe the majority does anything other than that. And, there are bunch of anti-union trolls that get paid very little to write garbage.
Your rating is often based on the school where you're teaching also. I was in a school where most teachers were rated effective and many highly effective because they had students who wanted to learn. I was also in a school where it was tough to get effective on your MOTP because so many students were problematic. The teachers in both schools were not much different and I saw that in the school where most teachers were rated well, most teachers were doing teacher centered lesson and almost no group work. Most kids were sitting in rows. It also depends if the administrator is observing and AP or honors class or gen ed or ENL class or collaborative class.
ReplyDeleteThat's racist
DeleteLooks like Cuomo’’s gig is up—the curse of the 3rd term and the lack of the truth as you cannot fudge data, DeBlasio is starting to believe that this guy is almost incompetent as he is—although that’s nearly impossible. Even Ed Koch is chucking from above—assuming he is up there.
ReplyDeleteThere really should be a 2 term limit—just like in a majority of state governorships.
It’s no secret that Cuomo wasn’t exactly a teacher ally, based on pushing the Common Core and ridiculous evaluations down teachers throats.. However, there are no politicians these days.—Democratic or Republican.—-although Democrats are still the lesser of 2 evils,
at least with their rhetoric. Just wish Cuomo still has some influence left with the Albany leaders to push for a decent early retirement incentive—although he’s almost like a lame duck -with 21 months left in office.
Seems like Cuomo’s biggest accomplishments the past few years were: writing a book about leadership and transparency (how ironic), getting the Tappan Zee Bridge renamed after his father- and changing the NYS license plates back to the white color—with ‘Excelsior’ in bold print—which is a term he may have to revisit.
For his legacy, the best that Cuomo could hope for is that NYC and NY State to get back to some relative norm by the end of 2022–but that is still a big uncertainty—even right now.
Perhaps down the road, he can sub on his baby brother’s TV program and spend each appearance apologizing. Maybe he can become a regular contributor to MSNBC.
Finally, here’s the big question: will Chelsea Handler still want him?.
Cuomo has never been held accountable for his deception with education statistics regarding high stakes testing. We all know that the grading charts for the Regents are exemplars of fraudulent grading which misrepresent failing grades as passing grades.
ReplyDeleteCuomo's deceptive practices with education emboldened him to engage in fraud with the NY state nursing home death statistics. Cuomo has never been held accountable for his mismanagement of education in NY state. Mulgrew is anticipating that Cuomo will not be held accountable for his fake nursing home statistics.
Furthermore, Mulgrew and the UFT have collaborated with Cuomo and continue to do his bidding. The UFT is not a union. The UFT leaders are quislings.
All teachers of good conscience should be appalled by the UFT's collaboration with Cuomo.
read Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," and you will understand how fraudulent the presidency election actually is or any election for that matter. When it finally gets down to the two candidates, we're not voting for who we want as president, we're actually voting for who we don't want as president or the lesser of two evils.
ReplyDelete"An increasing number of children have been hospitalized due to coronavirus and, more often, the complications that can follow.
ReplyDeleteIsraeli health experts had seemed sure that children were not at risk from coronavirus during the first and second waves of the pandemic, but have since revised that assessment."
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/post-covid-pediatric-pandemic-heartbreaking-to-watch-your-child-suffer-659081
Thoreau's point is not that elections are all fraudulent, but rather that citizens must resist governments that strip them or attenuate the free exercise of the conscience. He would certainly support those that would refuse to taxes or dues to a corrupt government or union. That said, he would not advocate the end of government or unions, but better government, better representation.
ReplyDeleteTo the road to better government or representation, according to HDT, is a road less traveled, a road of resistance, or disobedience.
Like Thoreau we should resist by refusing to pay dues. Not because we are anarchists or anti-unionists, but because we know that the only way to make progress, to reform our corrupt union, is to stop contributing to its abuse of us.
“Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” ― Oscar Wilde.
For years I told teachers not to vote for Mulgrew. He does not teach, he did not write lesson plans, in fact the truth is I do not know what he does No one ever listened to me. But now I am retired. And I will vote for Mulgrew. Why. Because I want to see all teachers continue to suffer under fail leadership. And believe me with Mulgrew at the helm that is exactly what you are going to get and deserve.
ReplyDelete3:52: watch what you wish for!I understand your sentiment.Newbies wanted this woman as an AP.those who knew her told it like it was.she can be mean and vindictive.now they see the truth.i am out of there, but yes, I want them to see why they should have listened to people who had been around.newbies think they know it all...BUT WHO IS TO SAY THAT MULGREW WONT SELL OUT THE RETIREES TOO? I hope to be able to retire in a few years without giving up what retirees today have.i hope I live long enough to afford to retire, even if I have to go international to survive.
ReplyDeleteBtw, we absolutely have CLs on this blog who are in bed with their principals, literally and figuratively-one is on this blog.i know because she shares info from here with membership.point being there are spies here who are not for their members.how can these traitors be weeded our when elections are fraudulent-overseen by principal's spies...many said they voted the cl out, but magically, she remained.cl should take lie detector tests in order to serve!sad.
ReplyDelete@ 3:52
ReplyDeleteYour SHIP has sailed. We won't pay your passage when we opt out. No worries.
How is this possible? Saint Andrew of Albany, Emmy winner, author on Covid leadership. Maybe the tidal wave of bullshit is finally receding.
ReplyDeleteRandi is in bed with Mulgrew and Cuomo.
ReplyDeleteThey make for strange bedfellows.
It is also called a menage a trois.
SCOOP: The principal of East Side Community School in New York sent white parents this "tool for action," which tells them they must become "white traitors" and then advocate for full "white abolition."
ReplyDeleteThis is the new language of public education.
This clown principal was arrested on schools grounds a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteThey left out at least a couple kinds of white people.
white suckers: spout the liberal line on race, and actually believe it. never actually been around real black people, only the carefully selected ones on elite college campuses. claim "diversity is out strength" but live in all-white neighborhoods.
white exploiters: just like white suckers, but these know better than to actually believe what they spout. they know the problems in the black community aren't the fault of working-class whites. they actively work to keep lower-class blacks on the plantation, and use them for moral/political cover.
any others??
@10:35 pm
ReplyDeleteKey takeaway:
New Racists posing as Anti - Racists.
Mulgrew won’t sell out retirees because they are the reason Unity wins elections. Retirees vote at twice the rate of active teachers. Retiree dues are a lot less so most retirees don’t even think about opting out.
ReplyDelete10:35 - Make sure to cite your sources. Help people discover things on their own.
ReplyDeleteChris Rufo
https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1361370106283003907
@6:57
ReplyDeleteYour comment is accurate and explains the way the UFT system is rigged.
538, they are anti white racists, so it is acceptable.
ReplyDeleteHe could make us all pay in to health care
ReplyDeleteanti-union trolls who are paid very little-
ReplyDeleteorganize! form a union!
First of all, CNN is constantly asking about opening schools and implying that teacher's unions are stonewalling this. It's totally understandable that teachers are hesitant. Also totally understandable that parents want kids to be in school. It's hard work to take care of people, even if they are family.
ReplyDeleteNYS just posted that we cannot require covid testing for students. Good luck getting help from uft.
ReplyDeleteSee NY Post Article:
ReplyDeleteStudent Covid-19 Testing no longer required by state.
https://nypost.com/2021/02/16/state-bars-de-blasio-from-requiring-covid-19-test-consent-forms-for-students/
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/ny-nyc-schools-covid-test-requirement-20210216-gxk3nzklfrge5bpb4rndln6rh4-story.html?fbclid=IwAR0zyvapV00LxNYXBQlHOIL0FYp64f1e6uHj2L8XhJTx_l4B_jFafkRc05Q
ReplyDeleteThis is the same NY State that lied about the nursing home deaths.
ReplyDelete"State education officials on Tuesday barred administrators from requiring COVID-19 testing consent forms for kids to participate in any school-related activity.
ReplyDelete“The Department hereby clarifies that parent/guardian consent for COVID-19 testing of students may not be a condition of in-person learning or other school activities,” she wrote."
https://nypost.com/2021/02/16/state-bars-de-blasio-from-requiring-covid-19-test-consent-forms-for-students/