long island – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

VIDEOS on 2 Great Unity Events

David Posnett — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 18:25:18 +0000

Perry Gershon speaks at the Democratic Unity Rally in Smithtown 6.28.18 Posted by Mark Ledzian: https://vimeo.com/277871509

Perry Gershon and all 4 primary Dem. opponents join forces at July 1st Unity Event in the Springs (East Hampton). Filmed by Nigel Noble https://vimeo.com/280783262

Introducing #MarchForOurLives Long Island

David Posnett — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 17:15:39 +0000

Gabrielle and James – youth leaders in MFOL at rally

Huntington Rally

Town Hall Project organized at Knox School

If you are like me, you probably don’t know what #MarchForOurLives has been doing right here in our home towns. I just found out. They are impressive and I will share.

Julia Fenster is Chair for “March For Our Lives Long Island” (or MFOL-LI). It originated out of the Huntington Rally on March 24th and has been extremely active. They have about 2000 youth in their network in some 60 schools. About 1200 signed up on their text service and around 750 people in their Facebook page. There is a core youth leadership team as well. They started a youth ambassador program at several Long Island High Schools. Julia Fenster says “It’s been tremendously exciting working with and mentoring these terrific young people.”

Past events:

Prior to the March 24th Rally we held 3 youth forums with guest speakers. This included the American Academy of Pediatrics for the LI region who spoke about gun safety as a public health concern. Also, Paul Guttenberg, from New Yorkers Against Gun Violence on state legislation, concerning Voter Registration/Voter Suppression/Gerrymandering.

Town Hall for Our Lives at Knox School in CD1 – Lee Zeldin was a no show, but all Dem candidates were there. This town hall included a voter registration drive. About 150-200 people were in attendance and the press as well. Guest speakers included; attorney Paul Guttenberg, representatives from the Center for Human Rights and Social Justice, and Darryl Richard St George who ran for Huntington Town Supervisor in 2017.

Bi-Partisan Town Hall at Kings Park High School on 19th Anniversary of Columbine, which was sponsored and co-organized by MFOL LI and Lead by Kings Park HS MFOL LI youth ambassador Ryan McKenna and other students. Attended by Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, Rep. Tom Suozzi, all CD1 Dem. candidates, and a Republican Assemblyman Fitzpatrick, and Legislator Trotta. Voter Registration was handled by ATLI (Action Together Long Island) a social action group.

March For Our Lives Long Island activated youth voters in the special election to elect Steve Stern to the 10th Assembly District, many voting for first time!

Fireside Chat with Tom Suozzi and Leadership team of March For Our Lives Long Island – this was live-streamed and reached over 4000 viewers & with lots of press coverage.

Mid Terms Kick Off Event: featuring presentations by the NY State Democratic Party, WFP, Swing Left, TASC, and Huntington Young Dems. This included voter registration, press coverage and about 50 attendees

March For Our Lives Long Island sponsored and co-organized the Great Neck North HS walk out. Guest speakers included; Anna Kaplan, Brad Schwartz, Paul Guttenberg, Rita Kestenbaum.

March For Our Lives Long Island leadership spoke at the Democratic Kick Off on Long Island, at the NY State Convention (seconding the endorsement for Cuomo) and at several other political events.

There are many upcoming events and initiatives. On June 16th there is a “Midterms 2018-State Level Lunch and Learn” in Old Bethpage.

The March For Our Lives Long Island Group has continued to expand their outreach to youth throughout Long Island. With the mentorship of their chair, Julia Fenster, they have managed to bridge relationships with political leadership as well as learn some of the key principles of successful organizing. Their goal is to continue to educate and empower soon-to-be and first-time voters on issues impacting gun violence, learn about the political process and empower them to make their voices heard at the polls to elect representatives that would support sensible gun reform. “We have a responsibility as adult advocates and activists to work with and support our young people. If we want real change in this country it will require not only changes in legislation and leadership, but also a fundamental cultural shift and that begins with our youth.” said Fenster.

To find MFOL- LI on Instagram – go to Marchforourlives.li

To sign up for their text service – text @mfolli to 81010

To find MFOL-LI on Facebook go to –
https://m.facebook.com/MarchForOurLivesLongIslandRally/

Youth Leadership Team includes:

*Founder and Lead Organizer – Avalon Fenster (16 year old HS Sophmore at Stony Brook School)

*Operations and Production Lead – Sara Frawley (17 year old HS Junior at Huntington HS)

*Political and Legislative Lead – Max Robbins (18 year old senior at Huntington HS)

Their extended team includes; Faith Quashi, Noah Morris, Rachel Moss, and a few others.

March for our Lives – SAG HARBOR

David Posnett — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 21:45:00 +0000

Today was another huge day with rallies across the country to protest inaction on gun laws and to protest for the very right to go to school without being afraid of being gunned down.

What have we become? A murderous society in which our children have to remind us to be adults.

CBS covered the rallies in DC and in NYCity: https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/march-for-our-lives-2018-03-24-live-stream-updates-today/

Powerful speeches by the kids from Parkland. And Paul McCartney in NYC remembering John Lennon.

Powerful photographs here: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/march-for-our-lives-rallies/7/

The rally in Sag Harbor was organized by Pierson high school kids. Perhaps there were 300-400 people marching. They had two student speakers. There were scores of students with great signs. There was a voter registration desk. I got 5 people to register (the folks I was with). There were people getting petition signatures for the Dem. congressional candidates. I spoke with several students and thanked them.

and some of us were in NYC:

Zeldin Must Stand Up And Protect Long Island’s Health Care

David Posnett — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 17:27:26 +0000

Letter To Editor: Zeldin Must Stand Up And Protect Long Island’s Health Care

Published in “Smithtown Matters”, Friday, September 22, 2017 at 6:08PM

Dear Editor,

Next week, Senate Republicans will debate a cruel plan to take away health care from millions of Americans and tens of thousands of Long Islanders. Under the Graham-Cassidy bill, there would be a massive shift of federal support from “blue” states to “red” – especially from New York to Texas. In fact, New York could lose more than $45 billion dollars in federal funding. This would create enormous market uncertainty and devastate thousands of Long Islanders, particularly working families, the elderly, and the disabled.

Where is Rep. Lee Zeldin on the bill? Does he realize how much funding would be stripped from New York? Does he care? Even some New York Republicans, like Rep. Tom Reed and Rep. Peter King, have come out against Graham-Cassidy. I urge Rep. Zeldin – who voted to strip health care from millions of Americans earlier this summer – to stop playing politics with the lives of Long Islanders and oppose this bill for the good of his constituents.

Perry Gershon

Democratic candidate for New York’s 1^st congressional district

Also, check this out:

http://www.businessinsider.com/graham-cassidy-healthcare-bill-obamacare-insurance-2017-9

David Posnett MD

Trade Schools in Suffolk County

David Posnett — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 14:33:07 +0000

By Elaine DiMasi (exploring a run as Dem. candidate for Congress in NY CD-1)

Let’s Reach Our Full Potential!

I want to grow our Trade Schools, as a third strong pillar to stand beside our renowned K-12 system and our world class colleges and universities. I envision a network of trade schools that site programs in the high schools, so there’s a path that students can find easily and does not separate them from their peers. This is important for teenagers. They’re ready for work, but they need a path.

My commitment to Trade Schools comes from the heart. My high school in Pittsburgh had a connection to Beattie Tech. While I was a senior taking second year physics and looking at colleges, some of my classmates were spending a half-day in English and Social Studies with me, then getting on the bus to go to auto mechanics and technical chemistry. They couldn’t have known it, but I was proud to be their classmate, and even a little envious. The importance of work reached me.

Is Atlantic Oil Drilling In Our Future?

David Posnett — Fri, 19 May 2017 15:06:58 +0000

Published in Smithtown Matters on Thursday, May 18, 2017 at 11:35AM.

By Karl Grossman

[A similar Opinion OpEd appeared in the East Hampton Press, page A8, on May 17th, 2017]

Nearly 50 years ago I broke the story of the oil industry’s interest in drilling in the offshore Atlantic. Largely because of moratoria enacted by Congress, it didn’t happen in the U.S. Atlantic in the decades since. But now with President Donald Trump’s having just signed an executive order on offshore drilling in the Atlantic, Arctic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, it could.

Here in Suffolk, John V. N. Klein of Smithtown was a leader in the opposition to offshore Atlantic drilling—first as presiding officer of the Suffolk County Legislature and then when he became Suffolk County executive. Earlier, Mr. Klein, a Republican, was Smithtown Town supervisor.

“We’re opening it up,” said Mr. Trump adding that “offshore energy production will reduce the cost of energy, create countless new jobs, and make America more secure and far more energy independent.”

It was in 1970 that a Montauk fisherman told me that east of Long Island he saw the same kind of ship he observed searching for oil when he was a shrimper in the Gulf of Mexico. As an investigative reporter for the daily Long Island Press, I spent a day calling oil companies to be told by PR people from each that their companies were not involved in searching in the Atlantic. As the day ended and I was leaving the office, there was a return call from a Gulf PR man who said, yes, Gulf was out there looking for oil and gas as part of a “consortium” of 32 oil companies. These included the companies which all day had issued denials. It was an initial experience in oil industry honesty, an oxymoron.

I pursued the story up and down the Atlantic. In 1971, I visited the first drilling rig set up, off Nova Scotia. On the rig were capsules designed to eject workers. A rescue boat went round and round “We treat every foot of hole like a potential disaster,” explained the Shell Canada executive. It was obvious on the rig that offshore drilling is fraught with danger.

As to the booms proclaimed by the oil industry then and now as capable of cleaning up spills, the Shell Canada man said they “just don’t work in over five foot-foot seas.” In Nova Scotia or in the Atlantic off the U.S., five foot seas are common. So the oil could be expected in many, if not most, circumstances to hit shore.

U.S. Department of Interior records I examined acknowledged spillage being chronic in offshore oil drilling. And, it was admitted by the federal government that the Atlantic is a far more problematic place to drill. The President’s Council on Environmental Quality declared:
“The Atlantic is a hostile environment for oil and gas operations. Storm and seismic conditions may be more severe than in either the North Sea or the Gulf of Mexico.”

The 2010 blowout and massive spill from BP Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf provided an exclamation point to the accident-prone, indeed disaster-prone process. It’s drill, baby, spill.

In the wake of Mr. Trump’s order, 16 U.S. senators put forth the Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling Act which would ban oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic. They include: Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; Bob Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey;

Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut; Dianne Feinstein of California; Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland; Bill Nelson of Florida; all Democrats; and Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

From the House of Representatives, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Miami, declared: “The potential damage to our world-renowned coral reefs, robust fisheries, pristine beaches and tourism-supported small businesses should far outweigh any short-term benefit anticipated in the administration’s plan. Tourism is the driving force behind our state’s economy and offshore drilling threatens the very resources that these visitors come to Florida to enjoy.” .” Congressman Charlie Christ, a former Florida governor, a Democrat, asked Mr. Trump to reverse course and put “the well-being of our coastal communities above oil industry profits.”

In South Carolina, Frank Knapp, president of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic, said: “President Trump referred to offshore drilling creating good jobs and showed no concern for those who will lose their jobs due to oil spills and leaks,”

A coalition of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit challenging it. These include the League of Conservation Voters—its first lawsuit in its 50 years, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace, Center for Biological Diversity, Wilderness Society and Defenders of Wildlife. Defenders of Wildlife President Jamie Rappaport Clark said: “We do not need and cannot use the oil that may lie under these waters if we ever hope to meet our nation’s commitment to addressing climate change.”

In fact, the order comes while there is a glut of petroleum in the world—why the price of gasoline at the pump here in Suffolk these days has dropped to $2.45 a gallon and less.

And why spend many millions for exploration and test-drilling for unneeded oil instead of advancing the further implementation of solar and wind energy? These clean, green, renewable sources are the fastest-growing energy sources worldwide.

The only part of the Atlantic off North America where there’s been drilling has been off Nova Scotia, the site of my visit to a rig decades ago. A report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation earlier this year was headed: “Nova Scotia offshore oil and gas ‘doesn’t look good’ after Shell seals two wells.” It began: “Shell’s decision to seal two exploration wells off Nova Scotia has set back the province’s dream of offshore riches.”

Turns out the dream of a barrel of oil “gold” in the Atlantic could be an illusion.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.

Trump’s Support on Long Island

David Posnett — Thu, 18 May 2017 14:13:20 +0000

Carol Polsky published a nice report of interviews with 6 Long Islanders in Newsday. These are people that voted for Trump but maybe having second thoughts at least on some issues. We posted a similar analysis of working class voters in Ohio. What you can see by reading these reports carefully, is some erosion in voter’s confidence that Trump will live up to his campaign promises, i.e. will he lead us into war in the near east? Will health care insurance costs actually decrease as promised? Will he save healthcare for those with pre-existing conditions? Will L.I. construction businesses suffer if Latinos are all sent home, etc.

We must listen carefully to these people. Just as an example, I have reprinted one of the 6 case histories:

Bitakos, 52, has driven a taxi on Long Island for 15 years. He is an independent who “goes with the flow” and has become almost a one-man predictor of success in the past seven presidential elections. He voted for Democrat Bill Clinton, Republican George W. Bush, Democrat Barack Obama, and most recently, Republican Donald Trump.

Bitakos said he was drawn to some of Trump’s stances, even though he’d initially liked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who lost the Democratic primary race to Clinton.

Not long after the collapse of the first legislative effort in late March to repeal and replace Obama’s signature health care achievement, the Affordable Care Act, Bitakos gave his verdict: “He failed. They don’t have anything to replace it with so what are they going to do?”

Bitakos gets his health insurance through the expanded Medicaid program put in place under the ACA. “I need it . . . I’m diabetic, I get my blood pressure pills. If he throws everybody off and starts doing his own thing, we’re dead.”

For now, Bitakos is sorry he went with Trump. “I should never have voted for him,” he said. “I regret voting for him, honest to God.”

Trump had promised jobs and a stronger military and, “I like respect for the military and law enforcement,” said Bitakos, who hangs an American flag outside his home. “There were a lot of things I liked about him: I liked the patriotism about him, I liked the America thing, the America first.”

But he has quickly become anxious and frustrated. His complaints range from Trump’s frequent trips to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, to his possible connections with Russia.

“I don’t see anything happening with anything he’s doing,” Bitakos said of Trump.

“I just hope he doesn’t cause any serious problems with the Middle East,” Bitakos said. “I hope he doesn’t open up a big war because guys are going to get killed. And who knows what is going on with him and Russia. That’s the big question. But it’s too soon yet.”

It is not obvious how will translate into lack of support for downstream candidates (Zeldin for example, or local candidates). But as voters become increasingly frustrated, I assume they will want “the other party” in Nov 2017 and Nov 2018.