I threaded together some reporting and commentary I've done for the blog into a piece for this week's Brooklyn Downtown Star, headlined Democracy Now? Ratner Plays Hardball When It Counts.
It covers the Atlantic Yards gag order, Michael Ratner's political contributions, Forest City Ratner's contribution to the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee's Housekeeping account, and the New York Times's editorial standoffishness.
It covers the Atlantic Yards gag order, Michael Ratner's political contributions, Forest City Ratner's contribution to the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee's Housekeeping account, and the New York Times's editorial standoffishness.
The last paragraph of Norman’s article on the link talks about how we shape ourselves in whether we tolerate the “worst excesses”of society. While I want to be ultra ultra clear that I agree with Norman Oder’s conclusion at the end of his article that “the Atlantic Yards tactics cataloged here are obviously not on the level of Guantánamo, they are significant excesses,” - - They are nowhere near it- - I have wondered at how the Atlantic Yards excesses remarkably parallel in shape and form excesses of George W. Bush when he built the Texas Rangers Stadium with tax dollars and condemned 200 acres for windfall profit when he only needed 17 for his stadium. I have further wondered if we had been vigilant and not tolerated George W. Bush’s early excesses whether the world would have been spared some of his later ones. If only the world could have been spared from Guantánamo by vigilance.
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