South Blooming Grove, ICE, and the Moral Cowardice of Kathy Hochul
The latest on the Chester Concentration Camp, whether or not Letitia James will do her job, and the Gov. prioritizing big tech over us, the little people.
Pictured Above & Throughout: Photos provided by the Mid-Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists of America from the protest at 843 Union Avenue in New Windsor, New York. Location of an, until recently, secret ICE office.
Hi. This is a very brief post. Or, as brief as we can make it here at The Monroe Gazette, when our weekly stories typically run over 5,000 words.
Why are our articles so long?
Because outside of Edie Johnson, there’s very little actual news coverage here in Southern Orange County (Warwick-Chester-Tuxedo-Blooming Grove-Monroe-Woodbury-Palm Tree.) We love what Blaise Gomez does at News 12, but remember that News 12 (and any television news channel) requires a lot of visual elements to tell their story. And sometimes there just aren’t any. The other thing is that News 12 is a corporate media outlet, so they have a budget and limited resources to cover stuff that their reporters would otherwise love to cover.
Such is life in the new media ecosystem. You’re either slowly starving to death like I am in exchange for covering local news, or you’re working for a corporation that only wants to cover stories based on their budget. If it covers that story at all because of the political affiliation of the media outlets owner.
For example: Mid-Hudson News is owned by the Trump Regimes EPA Region 2 head, Mike Martucci. The man subject of an ongoing Monroe Gazette FOIA, that the EPA has delayed for almost a year now.
Have you seen any coverage on Mid-Hudson News about all of the damage Martucci is doing to the environmental rules and regulation that protect us?
They’re also using AI generated video in their YouTube stories, which is wrong and deeply offensive. Nobody should be using slop to report the news. Definitely not anyone who wants to be taken seriously as a journalist:
Pictured Above: You know it’s AI because the cop hasn’t shot anyone yet.
But then again, Mid-Hudson News also regularly runs news stories on behalf of State Senator James G. Skoufis, so it can’t be trusted.
(I’m also easily offended by corporate media, generally speaking. For example, if the Department of Homeland Security and ICE makes a statement, at this point I feel it’s journalistic malpractice to take what either department says as the truth. But many still do. Or if you’re like our other local newspaper chain, Straus News, you are constantly trying to “Both Sides” fascism, by quoting people who support things like a concentration camp in the Village of Chester.
The job of every journalist is to protect their readers and answer their questions. You can’t protect your readers by giving cover to a dangerous, authoritarian movement that actively calls their enemies domestic terrorists and cheers on the deaths of people like Renee Good and Alex Pretti like MAGA does.
Also, a lot of the news stories tend to intersect with each other. For example: South Blooming Grove’s “Co-Mayors” Yitzchok “Isaac” Ekstein and Joel Stern were involved with both the Woodbury mayoral race last year — supporting current Woodbury Town Board member, Brandon Calore — and the Monroe mayoral race this March in the form of Alex Melchiorre — interestingly enough, the Town of Blooming Grove Police Chief — and his friends, Joe Mancuso and Nancy Peifer.
Because there’s not a lot of news coverage, what ends up happening is that I not only have to report what’s happening, but I also have to provide all the context behind those news stories.
So … The articles are long.
I’m telling you this because there are A LOT of new readers here, and I don’t want you to be surprised when you get the next installment of the helicopter story (coming next week), which is easily going to be another 5,000 words. If not more.
If I could do 900 words a day, Monday through Thursday, like the legendary Mike Royko did for the Chicago papers once upon a time, I would. But if I did, I’d be leaving so much stuff out. So I’m on the Hunter S. Thompson at Rolling Stone schedule of 5-10,000 words twice a month.
It’s what works for me, and according to most of our current subscribers, it’s what works for them too. The Gazette posts tend to be so long that they want time between posts.
Anyway …
I want to, very quickly update you on three items that we’re tracking.
ICE in Chester, New Windsor
The latest from South Blooming Grove on the phantom election Attorney General Letitia James refuses to do anything about.
The Moral Cowardice of New York’s Governor, Kathy Hochul.
But first …
As some of you know, my car was wrecked. So we’re doing a subscriber drive. Our goal is to hit 500 people who are either new paid annual subscribers — It costs $120 a year, you get to comment on posts, and you’re invited to join the “Behind the Scenes” private Facebook group — or 500 of our subscribers who have decided to become paid subscribers instead of free subscribers. All the money goes to my Dad.
If you’d like to join us, here’s the button to subscribe:
ICE in Chester, New Windsor
Great turn out at the anti-ICE protest in New Windsor on Monday, February 16th.
My favorite sign (which was held up by a teenager at a recent walkout in the city of Newburgh) did not make an appearance: “Don’t Deport Latina Baddies.” Long may they reign.
Sorry.
Trailed off there for a minute, thinking about the Latina Baddies.
Where was I?
Right. So, there were 200 or so people out on a day when most were celebrating a holiday they know very little about.
(George Washington: Didn’t have wooden teeth. Had teeth extracted from slaves. Also didn’t chop down that cherry tree. Bad General, Good President. Owned slaves but is the only president to have freed the slaves he owned; and as he grew older, his views on slavery changed to where he expressed his desire for a method to abolish it to a close friend. Demonstrating the capacity in all of us to grow and change when our old views are wrong. The only president to not be elected by the people, Washington also established the precedent that no president should serve more than two terms and he warned against foreign interference in our elections like we’ve seen with Russia and Israel (via organizations like AIPAC) There. You now know more about George Washington than most people.)
ICE was not there. The offices were closed for the holiday. So there thankfully wasn’t any sort of incident. I doubt this will remain the case.
Speaking of …
Recently, I was asked by a few Indivisible groups across the State to give a Burner Phone 101 style presentation. I don’t really have a lot of free time these days because of * points to everything we’ve been covering * so I went ahead and recorded my entire one-hour presentation and made it available here for free.
Everything you need to know about what to bring to a protest, how to interact with law enforcement safely, getting that burner phone anonymously, and then knowing what to do with it in terms of filming ICE safely and organizing your neighborhood via Signal is in that presentation.
The latest on 29 Elizabeth Drive and how to contact Sen. Schumer and Sen. Gillibrand
After posting the above video, many of you asked whether I think ICE is lying about their “mistake.” The answer is yes: They are lying. ICE / DHS murdered Ruben Ray Martinez, a US citizen, last year, and we are only now hearing about it.
So. As I said earlier, it’s journalistic malpractice to take statements by ICE and DHS at face value.
Always assume DHS & ICE are lying. The important thing regarding 29 Elizabeth Drive in the Village of Chester is to remain vigilant. Until Congressman Pat Ryan, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand issue a letter stating conclusively that the project is dead, it ain’t.
I find Schumer’s and Gillibrand’s silence on this disquieting. Don’t you?
Where is the condemnation from both of them? Schumer has time for press conferences in Buffalo this week, yet apparently not to stop in Chester with Gillibrand and Ryan to say, “We are putting a detention facility here over my dead body. Fuck you.”
Pictured Above: Senator Schumer in Buffalo this week for an important announcement. But, if you’ve got time to go to Buffalo dude, you got time to come here to Chester. And I’m saying that as a man who loves the Buffalo Bills, the Buffalo Sabres, and Buffalo wings.
Yes, Schumer should step down as the Senate Minority leader and retire.
Yes. I know he’s useless. I’ve heard all the jokes. “Why bother calling that guy?”
And I know. He’s not going to say “Fuck you.” He’s going to, at most, say “Fudge you.”
But …
There is something you can still do here.
After you send Neuhaus your ice scraper, call the U.S. Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Ask to be connected to Sen. Schumer’s Washington office, then read the script below. When finished, call the switchboard again and ask to be connected to Sen. Gillibrand’s Washington office and read the second script.
Script for Sen. Schumer
Hi. My name is _______________ and my ZIP code is __________. I am a constituent of Sen. Schumer. I am disappointed in him for many reasons. For example, instead of demanding all $75 bilion in ICE funding be frozen, he’s giving ICE more money for body cameras. Body cameras did nothing to stop ICE from murdering US citizens Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and Ruben Ray Martinez.
But today I am calling about his silence concerning the concentration camp ICE reportedly wants to place at 29 Elizabeth Drive in the Village of Chester. Sen. Schumer has not released a statement condemning this facility or pledging to do everything in his power to stop it from opening. He has not visited Chester to speak with concerned residents, despite recently appearing in Manhattan, less than an hour away. I demand that Sen. Schumer come to Chester with Sen. Gillibrand and Rep. Pat Ryan, publicly condemn ICE’s and DHS’s plans for 29 Elizabeth Drive, and pledge to do everything in his power to stop the facility from opening. Thank you.
Script for Sen. Gillibrand
Hi. My name is _______________ and my ZIP code is __________. I am a constituent of Sen. Gillibrand. I am disappointed in her for voting in favor of the GENIUS Act and for not using that opportunity to demand stronger oversight of cryptocurrency markets; and the enrichment of the Trump family through crypto. But that’s not why I’m calling.
Today I am calling about her silence concerning the detention facility ICE reportedly wants to place at 29 Elizabeth Drive in the Village of Chester. Sen. Gillibrand has not released a statement condemning this facility or pledging to do everything in her power to stop it from opening, and she has not visited Chester to speak with concerned residents. I demand that Sen. Gillibrand come to Chester with Sen. Schumer and Rep. Pat Ryan, publicly condemn ICE’s and DHS’s plans for 29 Elizabeth Drive, and pledge to do everything in her power to stop the facility from opening. Thank you.
The latest from South Blooming Grove on the phantom election Attorney General Letitia James refuses to address
Above: The Monday, February 16th South Blooming Grove Village Board meeting. Pay close attention to George Kalaj’s shirt. At the end of the video, Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein make it a point to call Mrs. Rum’s attention to the shirt. Video comes courtesy of Bonnie Rum’s Preserve Blooming Grove.
Thank you to everyone who emailed about suing Attorney General Letitia James. I will reply soon; I am way behind on email. It’s a problem.
But, yes, the plan is to sue James for her inaction — a suit that will likely fail because New York law does not compel the attorney general to bring certain actions, even when she should. That’s fine. The failure of the first lawsuit is part of the plan: the next step is to take the case to federal court, which I fully intend to do.
Letitia James has failed as New York’s attorney general to act against an ongoing criminal conspiracy. One to deprive the village of South Blooming Grove of its residents’ right to vote. She has been aware of this conspiracy for at least four years, going back to FBI involvement in 2022.
I will pursue this process until charges are brought against Joel Stern, Isaac Ekstein, George Kalaj, Kerry Dougherty and others. Letitia James is up for re-election this year. While I appreciate her work against the Trump Regime and her support for smaller attorney general offices nationwide as they fight Trump too, I’m going to be all over her.
Every media appearance she makes, I will inform those outlets of her failure to act in South Blooming Grove.
Every conservative media outlet will hear that she cannot credibly claim to uphold election integrity in New York while allowing what happened in South Blooming Grove to continue.
Every day until she charges (at minimum) Stern and Ekstein, I will press this issue.
Why?
You must understand something: much of the current turmoil in America stems from the collapse of two beliefs Americans like to assume are true, but aren’t:
- There is a separation between church and state.
- Everyone is treated equally under the law.
The law of the land, like it says in the Talmud, is the law of the land. No exceptions. But if you live around these parts, you know there are some exceptions. And when you look at the bigger picture with the Christian Nationalists behind MAGA, there’s definitely exceptions.
We need to fix this.
The federal government should not be in the business of telling anyone what to do with their body with one exception: If there’s a pandemic, you get your ass vaccinated or go to jail. 1.1 million people died in America, that we know of, because a whole lot of people didn’t. And many of whom didn’t on the grounds of their religious beliefs.
And do I need to say more to you right now than measles?
The movement known as MAGA is composed of white supremacists, religious fanatics and the brainwashed. You cannot reach the brainwashed. All you can do is offer them a safe place to land. They’ll either figure things out, or they won’t. But you can and must confront the other two groups. The first step is restoring the wall between church and state, not only federally but right here in New York too.
The second truth Americans should embrace is that we’ve never had equal treatment under the law. The Epstein files demonstrate that wealth can buy impunity: if you are rich, you can evade consequences for horrific acts. Some involving victims as young as nine-years-old. Those revelations matter. We will spend years untangling and prosecuting that network of abusers, traffickers and enablers. Including the people who funded it and covered it up.
Remember: The true “welfare queens” are the billionaires. The people who extract government subsidies and contracts while avoiding accountability and taxes.
Elon Musk is Exhibit A.
If everyone were held to the same legal standard — whether it be in South Blooming Grove or Idaho — where armed white supremacists would not roam as freely as they do now. I’m not advocating confiscating weapons from responsible gun owners who secure them properly. But I am absolutely talking about repealing the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment was reinterpreted starting in the 1980s into what we know it as today, where everyone can have any kind of gun they want. Or as many guns as they want. It wasn’t always that way. The original intent of the law was to allow Slave owners to put down slave rebellions. Evil. Plain and simple. So let’s throw the whole damn thing out and come up with a better system that lets responsible gun owners obtain weapons while protecting the rest of us from some crazed white supremacist. Probably the greatest domestic terror threat this country has ever faced, especially given they’re responsible for more attacks than the people we used to assume were terrorists.
If we restore separation of church and state and ensure equal application of the law, we will significantly weaken MAGA. Fascism will always exist in some form, but those reforms would make future movements easier to spot and destroy.
If these two principles prevailed today, South Blooming Grove residents might disagree with their village government’s structure, but at least they would all have had the opportunity to vote — something they have been denied since 2023.
The Moral Cowardice of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul
1.2 million New Yorkers are about to lose their health insurance — me included. That starts in July. By Dec. 31, all of them will be without coverage. Insurance premiums for everyone else will continue to skyrocket. Hospitals will close. Property taxes will rise. This is an emergency. And what is Gov. Hochul highlighting in her State of the State address? Self-driving cars.
SELF. DRIVING. CARS.
Which aren’t really self-driving: as it turns out, there’s a man in the Philippines being paid to play out his own version of the Wizard of Oz every time someone rides in a so-called “driverless” car.
Driverless cars are a bogus technology. We do not need it. We do not need more cars. Period.
We need mass transit. All those existing rail lines in the State of New York that carry freight? They should be carrying passengers too.
This is a planetary climate emergency.
The fewer cars on the road, the safer we are. It really is that simple. I know it sounds dramatic, but that’s where we are with how fast the planet is warming. We are no longer in the “we can stop this” stage. We are in the “fuck around and find out” stage.
And I don’t know if you know this, but the most important federal agency of the 21st century? Guess who’s in charge of that.
Kristi Noem.
And guess who has to authorize any expenditure over $100,000?
Kristi Noem.
So when we get another historic flood like we did in 2023, or a Jennings Creek Fire–level event like we did in 2024, guess who’s going to pay for it?
It’s not going to be FEMA.
It’s going to be your local municipality.
And it’s going to be you.
Do you think the Town of Monroe has a budget for helping residents out with damages to their homes, let alone repairing Town infrastructure, in the event of a Jennings Creek Fire–level disaster?
How about if we’re hit head on by an extra strength tornado or hurricane?
The DEC also says our region is at increasing risk for forest fires.
But we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about self-driving cars — a technology that doesn’t work as advertised, is provably unsafe, does nothing to address the climate emergency, and only serves to enrich the tech companies. You know, the ones funding the Trump regime right now?
That is what Kathy Hochul chose to highlight, and continues to highlight as we push toward this year’s state budget.
Not New York for All. Not the New York Melt Act. Not Dignity Not Detention. Not the Privacy Act. And not the New York Health Act — which would go a long way toward helping not only the 1.2 million New Yorkers about to lose their health insurance, but also those who can’t afford ever-rising premiums.
That’s cowardice. And in a functional political system, it would be grounds for a recall, let alone several publicly funded choices running for governor. And using rank choice voting to ensure one voting bloc can’t dominate anyone else.
That’s the New York State we can live in. But not with the current set of corporate Democrats all at the wheel.
P.S. If you want to join the fight against the Trump Regime here in the Hudson Valley, make sure you join us at the new Hands off Hudson Valley Facebook Page, and join us at our next standup event on February 28th at the corner of Lake Street and 17M in the Village of Monroe at 1pm.
P.P.S. WTF?