Andrew cuomo

Following Cuomo’s numbers

‘Follow the numbers,’ Gov. Andrew Cuomo likes to say, as if the numbers made a run for it and we all gave chase. ‘Follow the numbers!’ as if data can also make decisions. Follow the numbers. But what numbers? On October 6, during one of his regular scraps with Mayor Bill de Blasio in which the mayor wanted to implement shutdowns by zip codes and the governor wanted to use a color-coding system, Cuomo made the following remark about why he was shutting down schools in areas with elevated COVID positive test rates: ‘The schools are important because you will very often see the schools be a place of transmission.’ Gov. Cuomo never lacks for confidence so this comment was uttered with his usual certainty. You will very often see schools be a place of transmission.

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Every business is essential

Governors across the country are deploying their unilateral power to institute draconian measures which close small businesses, mostly those in the service industry. They use outright Orwellian language to justify doing so, all in the name of the greater good of halting COVID-19 cases. But it’s not working anymore. Total cases are higher now than they’ve been since the spring and people are losing their livelihoods. No federal relief has come and there is a nationwide feeling that the dam is about to break. When people were told they had ‘15 days to slow the spread’, they listened. While they obliged, they watched crowds gather in protest of their personal causes and politicians ignore their own rules.

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Finally America is realizing that Andrew Cuomo is a putz

In a sane world, Andrew Cuomo would be America's least popular politician, a welcome target for a primary campaign or a robust Republican challenge in 2022. Yet the anti-Cuomo chorus has included precious few voices this year. The New York Post has been unrelenting in its criticism, as have conservatives in publications such as this one. ProPublica and the Associated Press rigorously reported out the nursing home debacle. But Cuomo's performance has been largely been lauded by liberal New Yorkers and pundits in the mainstream media. In July the New York governor was the 'politician of the moment', according to the New York Times.

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Sorry Cuomo, we’re doing Thanksgiving

New York governor Andrew Cuomo took the last can of Who-hash by announcing a ban on both indoor and outdoor private gatherings larger than 10 people. It is just the latest flash of insanity from our nation's leaders in trying to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, but it provoked an even larger backlash than usual because it attacks two sacred American institutions: Thanksgiving and the family. Cuomo's order is insulting to our intelligence and is disgustingly authoritarian. COVID science suggests gathering outdoors is relatively safe (it's why so many states have offered restaurants money to winterize their patio dining), yet Cuomo tells families they cannot do it for Turkey Day. What if you live in a rural area and have a large backyard that makes social distancing possible?

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Andrew Cuomo’s revisionist history

‘I normally don't turn off my cellphone when I sleep,’ writes Andrew Cuomo in his new book American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic, ‘because the work of being governor is literally 24 hours a day, and the phone pings all night long.’ Wait a minute. Is he joking? If Cuomo is so busy, how on Earth has he found the time to write a book in a matter of months? I can't find the time to write a book. How in Hell can he? A few pages later, Cuomo is at it again:‘I don’t have what you call a balanced life either. I work all the time. Enjoyment for me is when I’m with my daughters or my family, and in the summer I spend time on the water with my brother and friends, but usually I just work.

andrew cuomo

How to lose the abortion debate

The abortion movement is facing a long overdue reckoning — and it's not the right’s fault. Trump’s anti-abortion assault may be powerful, but it's not why many pro-choice advocates are now questioning their morality.Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett is the culmination of his administration's four-year attack on the pro-choice camp. Trump is the first sitting president to attend the annual March For Life, sign the Born Alive Executive Order and block Planned Parenthood funds. His bold stand should ignite pro-choice defiance and bolster the pro-choice camp. So why are so many in it doubting their view of abortion?The problem comes from within the movement itself: the abortion lobby let radical, extreme voices take center-stage.

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nursing homes

Duty of care: the trouble with America’s nursing homes

We can debate the value of sacrificing normal life to COVID-19. Personally I think the measures are increasingly destructive — but nobody can deny their scale. Social and economic activity has been tightly limited. Jobs have been lost. Businesses have collapsed, and boredom and anger set in.Yet Western politicians have done a bad job of protecting the most vulnerable. In Europe and the US, COVID has torn through nursing homes. Sometimes, as in New York under Gov. Andrew Cuomo, infected elderly patients were knowingly returned to them.The failure to anticipate this crisis — by politicians, public health authorities and, yes, the media — reflects a broader indifference towards the state of nursing homes.

Leading vs lying

At his short Thursday news briefing, President Trump laid out the many successes that the United States has enjoyed in its battle against the Chinese virus compared with the record in Europe and other parts of the world. Trump’s decision to end air travel between China United States at the end of January was roundly derided as overkill and 'xenophobic' by the entire Democratic establishment from Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi on down. But that decision is now widely credited with saving tens of thousands of lives.

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In many ways, Andrew Cuomo is just a metaphor

With the United States lurching from crisis to crisis, the Democrats want their convention to present them as the tough, mature, serious bunch who will clean up the mess the President has caused. Few men are as integral to this guise as Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York — whose popularity soared throughout the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the care and seriousness he appeared to be displaying. But how much does reality match up with the image?‘In many ways, COVID is just a metaphor,’ said Cuomo on the opening night of the DNC. ‘A virus attacks when the body is weak and when it cannot defend itself.’ This can be true, of course. Undoubtedly, COVID-19 is far more dangerous for the old, the sick and the obese than for the young, the healthy and the trim.

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michelle obama

Michelle Obama goes low on the first night of the virtual DNC

What was that? That was the question the internet was asking as the disjointed first night of the Democratic National Convention kicked off in Milwaukee. ‘It’s time to let them know what we stand for,’ said Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in the made-for-MTV montage that opened the virtual convention. This night did not accomplish that. The night started out calm. Actress Eva Longoria spoke in muted tones as if she were hosting a telethon raising money for children in Africa. The first major speaker was New York governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo has been on a victory tour touting his COVID-19 accomplishments and tonight was no different: ‘Our way worked and it was beautiful.’ ‘Our’ way was losing 32,000 New Yorkers.

Cuomo’s nursing home death blame game

A major Associated Press report this week dove into New York’s nursing home COVID-19 death count and found the numbers outright wrong. The story was shocking. Reporters Bernard Condon, Matt Sedensky and Meghan Hoyer noted that ‘unlike every other state with major outbreaks, New York only counts residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there.’ But it wasn’t new. In fact, AP had sounded the alarm on the miscount as early as May. They learned New York’s Health Department wasn’t even trying to count the numbers: ‘New York's Health Department told the AP May 8 it was not tracking how many recovering COVID-19 patients were taken into nursing homes under the order.

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Has Trump turned you into a masochist?

Welcome back to the Red Room, Democrats. On Thursday morning President Trump fired off a stream of consciousness tweet tinkering with the idea of delaying the election. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1288818160389558273 Imagine how your typical online Democrat seizes on that garbled statement. It’s a chance to release all her tension, under the guise of fighting a big bad tyrant. She feigns rage publicly — but deep down she is truly titillated. The President has created a class of masochists, and she is one of them. ‘Please daddy, don’t delay my election,’ she thinks, biting her lower lip as she taps out ‘#OrangeManBad’ on her keyboard and prepares to max out her donation to the Amy McGrath Senate campaign.

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Andrew Cuomo’s Midsommar

Andrew Cuomo has turned his governor’s office into Pee-Wee’s pandemic playhouse. He has giant cotton swabs and foam mountains that I half expect his brother Chris to pop out from behind, declaring he has once again beaten the coronavirus. Now, for the low price of $14.50, you can purchase an Andrew Cuomo commemorative Summer of COVID poster. It takes a lot to outshine Donald Trump, the king of marketing, whose campaign infamously sold its own line of black markers after the President was busted doctoring a hurricane map with a Sharpie. But Cuomo has managed it, with the help of a complicit media desperate to whitewash New York’s disastrous COVID-19 response.

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How conservatives sustain CNN

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is on a publicity tour to cover up his disastrous handling of the COVID-19 crisis in New York and point the finger at red state governors for managing it differently. Puff pieces on his administration have appeared in People magazine and on the website for the governor’s favorite television station, CNN.  Chris Cillizza’s interview with Cuomo did not include any mention of the fact that the New York death rate was not just the highest in the country but one of the highest in the world. That a significant portion of New York’s population dying from the virus can be considered a win for the governor is a true liberal privilege.  Cillizza let Cuomo say absurd things like ‘We tested both theories. We have the evidence. It's numbers. It's irrefutable.

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Cuomo and de Blasio’s unearned lap of honor

After weeks of state-mandated lockdown, thousands of preventable nursing home deaths and days of angry protests and looting, New York officially reopened today, all thanks to the so-called leadership of its Mayor and Governor. With the economy in tatters, store-fronts boarded up or broken and citizens in the street demanding justice, Bill de Blasio and Andrew Cuomo speak with one voice as they say to New Yorkers: you're welcome. 'New York City’s restart begins today,' tweeted Mayor de Blasio. 'It’s been a long road to get here. New Yorkers have earned it day by day.' 'New Yorkers bent the curve by being smart,' said Gov. Cuomo at his daily press briefing. 'We’re celebrating. We’re back. We’re reopening. We’re excited. Our mojo’s back.

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Bill de Blasio unites cops and protesters — in disgust

New York City is crumbling into shambolic lawlessness and its citizens are growing more afraid and frustrated by the day.Why?Because Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have once again proven to be categorically incompetent leaders incapable of working effectively together in a time of crisis.On Tuesday, the Governor was forced to confront the glaring issue that the state’s top concern had shifted from COVID prevention to the demolition of its biggest metropolis by unruly riots. During his daily press conference, Cuomo took the opportunity to chastise the Mayor and the NYPD for the turmoil, calling Mayor de Blasio’s handling of it a ‘disgrace’.

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Five more conspiracy theories Trump can use to distract the media

Donald Trump’s go-to tactic for hijacking the news cycle is simple: bash enemies, mercilessly, and insinuate that they are part of a terrible conspiracy.The President has spent the last few days again tweeting conspiracy theories about the mysterious 2001 death of an aide to then-Rep. Joe Scarborough, who now hosts Morning Joe on MSNBC. Cue outrage and the news cycle shifts in the President’s direction. He does it every time. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265624335898869760 But Cockburn has noticed that the President is straining for something shocking or strange enough to flip the world’s attention. As November approaches, he will become ever more desperate for electoral outrage-fodder.

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Andrew Cuomo is a deadly failure

Have we reached peak Cuomo? I think that the climacteric came when the media was aflutter with rumors that the governor of New York wore nipple rings. Alas, it turned out to be only a rumor, or so we have been assured. There are two questions that continue to bedevil Cuomo watchers. The first is whether his handling of the Wuhan Flu is the absolute worst of any governor or only among the worst. The second question is how, given how appalling his leadership has been, he has managed to float along with such high approval ratings (some say 80 percent). As to the first, we have a veritable litany of failure, much of it deadly.

NY Gov Andrew Cuomo

New York has mismanaged COVID-19 from top to bottom

Andrew Cuomo is having the time of his life. His approval ratings are through the roof and he’s being talked about as a replacement for Joe Biden should Joe wander off somewhere without his Visiting Angel, never to be found again. Hipster merchandise featuring his face is exploding on Etsy and he’s getting a nightly hour with his own brother on CNN to chat about oh, this and that, and whatever is happening in his day at the given moment. It’s quite the arrangement!

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Sovereignty rules

Washington, DC At the end of March, about two weeks into the coronavirus emergency, I looked out my window onto the street below and saw something that made me uneasy about the future of the country. There was a commotion down there. Two white teenagers were standing in the street with their hands up. A man — who looked and sounded like an East African immigrant — had stopped his car in the middle of the road and sprung out. I squinted to see what it was he was holding in front of him that made the kids look so alarmed. It was a pizza. The kids had ordered it. The car was marked with a Domino’s insignia. ‘Whoa, whoa, man!’ said one of the kids. ‘Take it easy!’ He was grotesquely corpulent.

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