What is wrong with MTA New York City Transit, the world's largest subway system ever built?
Plenty!
Don't get me wrong, the NYC subway system is one of the best deals around. You can travel from Eastchester in the Bronx to East New York in Brooklyn for only $2.50. Or if you really want to stretch your fare, how about Wakefield-241st Street in the Bronx to Tottenville in Staten Island via. a well timed ferry connection? The subway takes me to work and back home, I have no complaints about that. On-time performance is not like one of MTA's sister agencies, Metro-North Commuter railroad with a on-time performance of over 95 percent systemwide, but the subway runs very well compared to the dark days of the early 1980's when nearly half of all train runs were cancelled due to poor maintenance. MTA NYC Transit has also implemented new customer-friendly initiatives. such as the Weekender app, PA/CIS (Public Address/Customer Information Screens for the IRT numbered lines, the 42nd Street shuttle and the L line, Select Bus Service (SBS+) and Bustime. All this is so wonderful for customers to use in today's mobile world. But NYC Transit suffers greatly from a lack of oversight in disseminating information to the millions of customers who ride the subways and buses daily. Either NYCT is ignorant on what their publish or fail to monitor their operations. Sometimes they outright refuse to post certain service changes, hoping that no one will take notice. Other times they install a sign which has the wrong bus route or post a location which was closed years ago on their neighborhood maps and they fester for years, sometimes decades before they get fixed. It's a matter on how the information is distributed/posted, and how accurate the information is. More importantly, how deficient information is addressed and correct in a timely manner, which should be in a couple of days, not months and years.
This blog series will explore the many areas within NYC Transit (maps, timetables, service notices, event notices, announcements, etc.) and how they can improve on these areas. Due to the large amount of content, this blog post is divided into 5 parts:
Part 1 touches base with announcements and how NYCT fails to address this issue
Part 2 looks are some of the errors and how long they have been left unnoticed by NYCT employees and senior management.
Part 3 examines areas where NYC Transit fails to tell the millions of customers about certain palnned and unplanned service changes, many of then intentionally.
Part 4 explores the recent rash of major service disruptions, some from NYC Transit and other from LIRR/Metro-North and how there is an absence of communication or how .
Part 5 offers suggestions for NYC Transit to consider in their day-to-day operations.
I will try to publish at least two parts a week.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
24 Live another Day - - not the same 24 (SPOILER ALERT)
Last Monday was the conclusion to another bad day for Jack Bauer in the revived 24 franchise, "24: Live another Day". As much as I though the ending was better than Season 8, the overall show was definitely not up to par with the earlier seasons of 24. I think the low point of this day was the "planned" surrender and death of President James Heller by one of Margot Al-Harazi's reprogrammed drones, which really was pathetic that Jack and President plotted to access Al-Harazi's computer systems to loop the footage of Heller standing in Wembley Stadium while the real President Heller stealthy makes an exit with Jack (but would the missile take out one-half of the stadium, not just Heller?).
Also the finale shootout seems ripped right from the ending of Season 1 - - both locations are in the docks, Jack finds out that something terrible happened to a loved one (Nina Meyers lies to Jack about his daughter (Kimberly) drowned in the waters from Season 1, whom he later finds out that Kim was found alive - while in LAD, Jack's ex and President Heller's daughter, Audrey Heller was killed by a backup shooter), Finally, we see Jack seeking vengenace for the men responsible for the people responsible for those deaths (at least Jack thought so in Season 1). It seems like everyone is going through the motions - it's a matter of finding out who were the moles (Steve Navarro, played by the brilliant Benjamin Bratt from Law and Order - and Adrian Cross, the hacker whom Chloe O'Brian was working for.)
But for it's faults, 24 LAD still remains a good show to watch, with quite a few plot twists and surprises, including the series' first ever "silent clock" done twice in the same episode - - once for Audrey and another for Jack himself (I won't tell you why but it sure opens the door for Jack to come back for day 10.). The silent clock is used to introduce a commercial break after a major character is killed off or dies. If you take away the comparisons to Days 1, 2 and 5 (with the best 15 minutes of television watching, ever - - President Palmer's assassination in a hotel room), then 24 LAD is still appointment television.
Also the finale shootout seems ripped right from the ending of Season 1 - - both locations are in the docks, Jack finds out that something terrible happened to a loved one (Nina Meyers lies to Jack about his daughter (Kimberly) drowned in the waters from Season 1, whom he later finds out that Kim was found alive - while in LAD, Jack's ex and President Heller's daughter, Audrey Heller was killed by a backup shooter), Finally, we see Jack seeking vengenace for the men responsible for the people responsible for those deaths (at least Jack thought so in Season 1). It seems like everyone is going through the motions - it's a matter of finding out who were the moles (Steve Navarro, played by the brilliant Benjamin Bratt from Law and Order - and Adrian Cross, the hacker whom Chloe O'Brian was working for.)
But for it's faults, 24 LAD still remains a good show to watch, with quite a few plot twists and surprises, including the series' first ever "silent clock" done twice in the same episode - - once for Audrey and another for Jack himself (I won't tell you why but it sure opens the door for Jack to come back for day 10.). The silent clock is used to introduce a commercial break after a major character is killed off or dies. If you take away the comparisons to Days 1, 2 and 5 (with the best 15 minutes of television watching, ever - - President Palmer's assassination in a hotel room), then 24 LAD is still appointment television.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Spending some time at a Vision Zero town hall meeting
EDITOR'S NOTE: The comments and observations in this blog (or any other blog I write) are my own personal viewpoints and are not the viewpoints or comments of NYC Department of Transportation. Also specifically for this blog post, I volunteered to visit this workshop on my own time and no one had asked or suggested to me in attending this or any NYC DOT workshop.
I attended a NYC DOT Vision Zero workshop inside Herbert H. Lehman College of CUNY last Tuesday, May 6th. There were plenty of wayfinding signs from the Bedford Park IRT 4 station, along Bedford Park Blvd and through the campus to the music building where the town hall took place. I checked in then was directed to a specific table, one of 30 inside this building. At table #28 where I was assigned to, a DOT employee was seated along with 4 other people. The employee provided a visual demonstration on what NYC DOT does to make NYC streets safer with a manual slide show along with explanations on the many traffic calming methods they use to reduce accidents and fatalities. Then he went on to explain how Vision Zero works. There was ample time for a Q and A session of which I raised the issue about STOP signs and how STOP sign running is not among the 10 reportable safety conditions in the Vision Zero homepage. (I should have also talked about cell phone use which is much more serious than disobeying STOP signs.) The DOT employee showed us some pictures which I could easily identify the locations, including Bruckner Plaza at White Plains Road and The Hub intersection. We also had an opportunity to fill out a survey form and a Vision Zero worksheet where I could write down the intersection or street and identify the appropriate safety conditions. Finally, we were directed to a workstation where different NYC maps were shown to pinpoint the offending locations along with a iPad station to record and share the issues on their webpage.
I cannot stress enough that safety is to be shared among all stakeholders: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, truck and bus drivers as well as engineers who redesign NYC streets, community boards and elected officials who raise certain issues to NYC DOT as well as the consequences who fail to drive or walk safely. Just see what happens when an impatient driver goes against traffic to cut in front of the left turn line on northbound Baychester Ave at Boston Road and end up kissing the KFC parking lot and store with 1 adult and 2 children injured in the chaos. At least that's what my reliable source tells me about the cause of that accident. Or last weekend when this drunk driver flips and slams his minivan into a flower shop, then runs away from the accident scene near the intersection of White Plains Road and the Cross Bronx Expressway. The driver was caught by witnesses chasing him and turned the soused driver over to police who arrived at the scene moments later. You can say anything negative about Vision Zero, including a new bill to the NY State Legislature authorizing NYC under NY State Vehicle and Traffic Law, Section 1642 as a city with more than 1 million residents (and the only city in NY State, so far) to lower the citywide speed limit from 30 to 25 MPH (unless otherwise posted, lower or higher than 25 MPH, of course), but we need safer roads for everyone. That and stiffer penalties for the most serious offenses like cell phone use or speeding, take their cars and licenses away from these idiot drivers - - permanently.
And before I say good night - - look who I caught this morning, texting while driving, on State Street near Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan:
I attended a NYC DOT Vision Zero workshop inside Herbert H. Lehman College of CUNY last Tuesday, May 6th. There were plenty of wayfinding signs from the Bedford Park IRT 4 station, along Bedford Park Blvd and through the campus to the music building where the town hall took place. I checked in then was directed to a specific table, one of 30 inside this building. At table #28 where I was assigned to, a DOT employee was seated along with 4 other people. The employee provided a visual demonstration on what NYC DOT does to make NYC streets safer with a manual slide show along with explanations on the many traffic calming methods they use to reduce accidents and fatalities. Then he went on to explain how Vision Zero works. There was ample time for a Q and A session of which I raised the issue about STOP signs and how STOP sign running is not among the 10 reportable safety conditions in the Vision Zero homepage. (I should have also talked about cell phone use which is much more serious than disobeying STOP signs.) The DOT employee showed us some pictures which I could easily identify the locations, including Bruckner Plaza at White Plains Road and The Hub intersection. We also had an opportunity to fill out a survey form and a Vision Zero worksheet where I could write down the intersection or street and identify the appropriate safety conditions. Finally, we were directed to a workstation where different NYC maps were shown to pinpoint the offending locations along with a iPad station to record and share the issues on their webpage.
I cannot stress enough that safety is to be shared among all stakeholders: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, truck and bus drivers as well as engineers who redesign NYC streets, community boards and elected officials who raise certain issues to NYC DOT as well as the consequences who fail to drive or walk safely. Just see what happens when an impatient driver goes against traffic to cut in front of the left turn line on northbound Baychester Ave at Boston Road and end up kissing the KFC parking lot and store with 1 adult and 2 children injured in the chaos. At least that's what my reliable source tells me about the cause of that accident. Or last weekend when this drunk driver flips and slams his minivan into a flower shop, then runs away from the accident scene near the intersection of White Plains Road and the Cross Bronx Expressway. The driver was caught by witnesses chasing him and turned the soused driver over to police who arrived at the scene moments later. You can say anything negative about Vision Zero, including a new bill to the NY State Legislature authorizing NYC under NY State Vehicle and Traffic Law, Section 1642 as a city with more than 1 million residents (and the only city in NY State, so far) to lower the citywide speed limit from 30 to 25 MPH (unless otherwise posted, lower or higher than 25 MPH, of course), but we need safer roads for everyone. That and stiffer penalties for the most serious offenses like cell phone use or speeding, take their cars and licenses away from these idiot drivers - - permanently.
And before I say good night - - look who I caught this morning, texting while driving, on State Street near Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan:
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
NYCT's mess on May 2-5 - the F train derailment and Brooklyn 2/3/4 lines
MTA New York City Transit has a lot of questions to be answered for the incidents this past weekend of May 2-5, not only about the F train derailment in Queens but also for a General Order in Brooklyn (transit jargon for trackwork) which ended 90 minutes late.
On Friday May 2, at approximately 10:40 AM, six of the 8 cars of a Manhattan-bound F train derailed just west (railroad south) of the 65th Street/Broadway station in Queens, injuring 19 passengers. The first and last cars of the derailed train did not jump the tracks. The cause of the accident was a broken rail which was in one of the five most trouble-prone track hotspots in the NYC Subway system with 205 broken rail incidents between 50th Street/8th Ave in Manhattan and 71st Ave/Forest Hills in Queens, all along the busy 53rd Street and Queens Blvd corridors. The cracked rail was installed only 3 months ago, in February which is puzzling since the Track Inspection Car detected the crack shortly before the derailment.
Due to the F train derailment, from Friday afternoon through 5 AM Monday morning, E and F trains were running local in Queens, with overnight shuttle bus service between Queens Plaza/21st Street Queensbridge and Roosevelt Ave. R trains were not running north of 57th Street in Manhattan and 71st Ave/Forest Hills in Queens, while Friday afternoon/evening M service was running only between Essex Street and Metropolitan Ave. Weekend work on the 7 and J/M lines were cancelled due to a massive mobilization by NYC transit crews in re railing the derailed F train and making track repairs along the E/F Manhattan-bound express where the derailment occurred..
To make matters worse, the information about these service changes is fair on the MTA website - - at one point, they posted that certain bus lines were being diverted due to work related to the F train derailment, see my screenshot below
As you can see, all but the Q53 bus route would be affected since it runs partially on Broadway where the derailment took place (and the Q53 runs a few blocks away). The Q60 runs along the entire length of Queens Blvd while the Q1/2/36/43 and 77 bus routes run between Jamaica and points east - - about 6 miles away from the derailment site. Absent from his service advisory is the Q70, the new limited bus route between Woodside and LaGuardia Airport, which runs on 39th Ave. Therefore almost none of the bus routes listed above would be affected by any delays related to this derailment.
I was in the trenches Sunday evening on the weekend after the F train derailment and it was ugly - - no platform conductors or announcements at the Lexington Ave N/R platform (there was no R service at this station) and 6 line conductors mentioned nothing about no R service at 59th Street.
That's not the only thing which happened that weekend - on Monday morning, service on the well publicized Brooklyn 2/3/4 lines south/east of Franklin Ave were supposed to be restored by 5 AM Monday morning after a planned 55 hour weekend shutdown. Instead, the shutdown continued until 6:30 AM, 90 minutes late while shuttle buses had to be kept on the road - - along with very few of these buses because they didn't anticipate the trackwork to run past 5:30 AM. The overrun cause a ripple effect on the entire length of the 2/3/4/5 lines because the 3 line starts running from New Lots at 5:40 AM with a special 5 train from New Lots (the first 5 train originating in Brooklyn) shortly afterwards at 5:50 AM. Regular 5 service from Flatbush Ave would start at 6:07 AM. The problem with running this G.O. late is that many of the early AM trains which have to be placed in service from Flatbush or New Lots Ave are stored in Livonia yard which was cutoff due to the late trackwork as well as other trains from the Bronx and Manhattan are coming to Brooklyn with limited options to turn at Franklin or Atlantic Aves. My 5 train from the Bronx had to the turned at Bowling Green (through a loop track from the southbound side to the northbound side) because of the mess and chaos on the IRT mainlines, all caused by this late clearance.
Obviously, NYC Transit had nothing to say about why thousands of customers along the 2/3/4/5 lines were inconvenienced - - they should explain why the construction project didn't end until 6:30 AM.
And there are 4 four more weekends of this 2/3/4 Brooklyn shutdown, good luck.
On Friday May 2, at approximately 10:40 AM, six of the 8 cars of a Manhattan-bound F train derailed just west (railroad south) of the 65th Street/Broadway station in Queens, injuring 19 passengers. The first and last cars of the derailed train did not jump the tracks. The cause of the accident was a broken rail which was in one of the five most trouble-prone track hotspots in the NYC Subway system with 205 broken rail incidents between 50th Street/8th Ave in Manhattan and 71st Ave/Forest Hills in Queens, all along the busy 53rd Street and Queens Blvd corridors. The cracked rail was installed only 3 months ago, in February which is puzzling since the Track Inspection Car detected the crack shortly before the derailment.
Due to the F train derailment, from Friday afternoon through 5 AM Monday morning, E and F trains were running local in Queens, with overnight shuttle bus service between Queens Plaza/21st Street Queensbridge and Roosevelt Ave. R trains were not running north of 57th Street in Manhattan and 71st Ave/Forest Hills in Queens, while Friday afternoon/evening M service was running only between Essex Street and Metropolitan Ave. Weekend work on the 7 and J/M lines were cancelled due to a massive mobilization by NYC transit crews in re railing the derailed F train and making track repairs along the E/F Manhattan-bound express where the derailment occurred..
To make matters worse, the information about these service changes is fair on the MTA website - - at one point, they posted that certain bus lines were being diverted due to work related to the F train derailment, see my screenshot below
As you can see, all but the Q53 bus route would be affected since it runs partially on Broadway where the derailment took place (and the Q53 runs a few blocks away). The Q60 runs along the entire length of Queens Blvd while the Q1/2/36/43 and 77 bus routes run between Jamaica and points east - - about 6 miles away from the derailment site. Absent from his service advisory is the Q70, the new limited bus route between Woodside and LaGuardia Airport, which runs on 39th Ave. Therefore almost none of the bus routes listed above would be affected by any delays related to this derailment.
I was in the trenches Sunday evening on the weekend after the F train derailment and it was ugly - - no platform conductors or announcements at the Lexington Ave N/R platform (there was no R service at this station) and 6 line conductors mentioned nothing about no R service at 59th Street.
That's not the only thing which happened that weekend - on Monday morning, service on the well publicized Brooklyn 2/3/4 lines south/east of Franklin Ave were supposed to be restored by 5 AM Monday morning after a planned 55 hour weekend shutdown. Instead, the shutdown continued until 6:30 AM, 90 minutes late while shuttle buses had to be kept on the road - - along with very few of these buses because they didn't anticipate the trackwork to run past 5:30 AM. The overrun cause a ripple effect on the entire length of the 2/3/4/5 lines because the 3 line starts running from New Lots at 5:40 AM with a special 5 train from New Lots (the first 5 train originating in Brooklyn) shortly afterwards at 5:50 AM. Regular 5 service from Flatbush Ave would start at 6:07 AM. The problem with running this G.O. late is that many of the early AM trains which have to be placed in service from Flatbush or New Lots Ave are stored in Livonia yard which was cutoff due to the late trackwork as well as other trains from the Bronx and Manhattan are coming to Brooklyn with limited options to turn at Franklin or Atlantic Aves. My 5 train from the Bronx had to the turned at Bowling Green (through a loop track from the southbound side to the northbound side) because of the mess and chaos on the IRT mainlines, all caused by this late clearance.
Obviously, NYC Transit had nothing to say about why thousands of customers along the 2/3/4/5 lines were inconvenienced - - they should explain why the construction project didn't end until 6:30 AM.
And there are 4 four more weekends of this 2/3/4 Brooklyn shutdown, good luck.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
How the Patriot lies to their conservative audience
When America's news media is dominated by liberals, the select few conservative media outlets often take a different approach in reporting the news from a right wing spin which few people may know. It's one thing to report the news differently, but it's another to make it look like a person in the minority of a major news event like his defense of Dennis Sterling's comments when it's exactly the opposite of what the outlet wants us to believe.
The Patriot has (once again) lied to their conservative audience by posting a story about NBA hall-of-fame player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar coming to Sterling's defense of his taped comments and racism in an direct commentary in Time magazine on April 28. The basketball great had this to say
"[N]ow the poor guy’s girlfriend (undoubtedly ex-girlfriend now) is on tape cajoling him into revealing his racism. Man, what a winding road she led him down to get all of that out. She was like a sexy nanny playing “pin the fried chicken on the Sambo.” She blindfolded him and spun him around until he was just blathering all sorts of incoherent racist sound bites that had the news media peeing themselves with glee.
They caught big game on a slow news day, so they put his head on a pike, dubbed him Lord of the Flies, and danced around him whooping" - - excerpted from Time magazine (see link below)
From what you read from the Patriot's link, it seems like Kareem said that Sterling was a victim of unfortunate circumstances and his girlfriend took advantage of her 15 minutes of fame while the one-sided liberal news media is already set on crucifying Sterling. That's only half of the story as the Patriot doesn't want you to see the other half which is in the link to the full Time Magazine story link to the full Time interview.
What bothers me about this whole Donald Sterling affair isn’t just his racism. I’m bothered that everyone acts as if it’s a huge surprise. Now there’s all this dramatic and very public rending of clothing about whether they should keep their expensive Clippers season tickets. Really? All this other stuff I listed above has been going on for years and this ridiculous conversation with his girlfriend is what puts you over the edge? That’s the smoking gun?
He was discriminating against black and Hispanic families for years, preventing them from getting housing. It was public record. We did nothing. Suddenly he says he doesn’t want his girlfriend posing with Magic Johnson on Instagram and we bring out the torches and rope. Shouldn’t we have all called for his resignation back then?
Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? Didn’t we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizen’s privacy in such an un-American way? Although the impact is similar to Mitt Romney’s comments that were secretly taped, the difference is that Romney was giving a public speech. The making and release of this tape is so sleazy that just listening to it makes me feel like an accomplice to the crime. We didn’t steal the cake but we’re all gorging ourselves on it.
Make no mistake: Donald Sterling is the villain of this story. But he’s just a handmaiden to the bigger evil. In our quest for social justice, we shouldn’t lose sight that racism is the true enemy. He’s just another jerk with more money than brains.
So, if we’re all going to be outraged, let’s be outraged that we weren’t more outraged when his racism was first evident. Let’s be outraged that private conversations between people in an intimate relationship are recorded and publicly played. Let’s be outraged that whoever did the betraying will probably get a book deal, a sitcom, trade recipes with Hoda and Kathie Lee, and soon appear on Celebrity Apprentice and Dancing with the Stars.
The big question is “What should be done next?” I hope Sterling loses his franchise. I hope whoever made this illegal tape is sent to prison. I hope the Clippers continue to be unconditionally supported by their fans. I hope the Clippers realize that the ramblings of an 80-year-old man jealous of his young girlfriend don’t define who they are as individual players or as a team. They aren’t playing for Sterling—they’re playing for themselves, for the fans, for showing the world that neither basketball, nor our American ideals, are defined by a few pathetic men or women.
Let’s use this tawdry incident to remind ourselves of the old saying: “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.” Instead of being content to punish Sterling and go back to sleep, we need to be inspired to vigilantly seek out, expose, and eliminate racism at its first signs.
The Patriot has (once again) lied to their conservative audience by posting a story about NBA hall-of-fame player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar coming to Sterling's defense of his taped comments and racism in an direct commentary in Time magazine on April 28. The basketball great had this to say
"[N]ow the poor guy’s girlfriend (undoubtedly ex-girlfriend now) is on tape cajoling him into revealing his racism. Man, what a winding road she led him down to get all of that out. She was like a sexy nanny playing “pin the fried chicken on the Sambo.” She blindfolded him and spun him around until he was just blathering all sorts of incoherent racist sound bites that had the news media peeing themselves with glee.
They caught big game on a slow news day, so they put his head on a pike, dubbed him Lord of the Flies, and danced around him whooping" - - excerpted from Time magazine (see link below)
From what you read from the Patriot's link, it seems like Kareem said that Sterling was a victim of unfortunate circumstances and his girlfriend took advantage of her 15 minutes of fame while the one-sided liberal news media is already set on crucifying Sterling. That's only half of the story as the Patriot doesn't want you to see the other half which is in the link to the full Time Magazine story link to the full Time interview.
What bothers me about this whole Donald Sterling affair isn’t just his racism. I’m bothered that everyone acts as if it’s a huge surprise. Now there’s all this dramatic and very public rending of clothing about whether they should keep their expensive Clippers season tickets. Really? All this other stuff I listed above has been going on for years and this ridiculous conversation with his girlfriend is what puts you over the edge? That’s the smoking gun?
He was discriminating against black and Hispanic families for years, preventing them from getting housing. It was public record. We did nothing. Suddenly he says he doesn’t want his girlfriend posing with Magic Johnson on Instagram and we bring out the torches and rope. Shouldn’t we have all called for his resignation back then?
Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? Didn’t we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizen’s privacy in such an un-American way? Although the impact is similar to Mitt Romney’s comments that were secretly taped, the difference is that Romney was giving a public speech. The making and release of this tape is so sleazy that just listening to it makes me feel like an accomplice to the crime. We didn’t steal the cake but we’re all gorging ourselves on it.
Make no mistake: Donald Sterling is the villain of this story. But he’s just a handmaiden to the bigger evil. In our quest for social justice, we shouldn’t lose sight that racism is the true enemy. He’s just another jerk with more money than brains.
So, if we’re all going to be outraged, let’s be outraged that we weren’t more outraged when his racism was first evident. Let’s be outraged that private conversations between people in an intimate relationship are recorded and publicly played. Let’s be outraged that whoever did the betraying will probably get a book deal, a sitcom, trade recipes with Hoda and Kathie Lee, and soon appear on Celebrity Apprentice and Dancing with the Stars.
The big question is “What should be done next?” I hope Sterling loses his franchise. I hope whoever made this illegal tape is sent to prison. I hope the Clippers continue to be unconditionally supported by their fans. I hope the Clippers realize that the ramblings of an 80-year-old man jealous of his young girlfriend don’t define who they are as individual players or as a team. They aren’t playing for Sterling—they’re playing for themselves, for the fans, for showing the world that neither basketball, nor our American ideals, are defined by a few pathetic men or women.
Let’s use this tawdry incident to remind ourselves of the old saying: “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.” Instead of being content to punish Sterling and go back to sleep, we need to be inspired to vigilantly seek out, expose, and eliminate racism at its first signs.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Donald Sterling and the NBA
Donald Sterling has managed to put both feet in his mouth, and his arse as well. Sterling today was given the full wrath of National Basketball Association Commissioner, Adam Silver, of a lifetime ban of being in any NBA game, visit any LA Clippers facilities, attend any NBA sponsored events or conduct any business dealings with the NBA in any capacity, except the possibility of being forced to sell his ownership with the LA Clippers plus a $2.5 million fine for his comments made on April 9 and posted by TMZ on the 27th that Sterling allegedly made comments to his mixed race girlfriend, V. Stivivano about her Instagram photo of Magic Johnson. The audio comments which were recorded on tape and released by TMZ appear to show that Sterling made racist remarks, such as "You can sleep with [black people], you can bring them in...not to bring them to my games" and also "...Don't put him [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don't bring him to my games."
I really am appalled that after years of progress in racial harmony, we have a moron who has managed to show that the Ku Klux Klan movement is still alive and well. Sterling has fueled racial hate and bigotry in America to a new low. With ignorant pigs like Sterling, Paula Deen, Melissa Harris-Perry (for making fun at Mitt Romney's adopted black grandson), and others then we may all face the ultimate wrath one day....from an much higher authority who created different races among men and women.
I really am appalled that after years of progress in racial harmony, we have a moron who has managed to show that the Ku Klux Klan movement is still alive and well. Sterling has fueled racial hate and bigotry in America to a new low. With ignorant pigs like Sterling, Paula Deen, Melissa Harris-Perry (for making fun at Mitt Romney's adopted black grandson), and others then we may all face the ultimate wrath one day....from an much higher authority who created different races among men and women.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
More of the U.S Patriot's Lies on Facebook
As I posted last week, the The U.S Patriot's Facebook page is clearly filled with hate and terrorism. I also wanted to point out the lies and deceit the Patriot does about President Obama. On March 30, they posted a Facebook page titled "Should the U.S. abandon Obamacare?" along with a picture of President Obama and signer (and now jailbird) Justin Bieber kissing each other. The caption reads "Obama and Justin Bieber Make Out to push Obamacare?". Actually, that picture of Obama and Bieber kissing was taken from a Saturday Night Live skit with two actors portraying Obama and Bieber who kiss each other. Of course it's satire and not real but the Patriot makes it look like Bieber and Obama did it. The link to the new article also mentions them as actors in the SNL skit - and it was mysteriously removed from the Patriot's website just to keep the lie going...
On the same day as the Obama/Bieber article appeared, another Facebook post shows First Lady Michelle Obama having an addiction. When you actually open the link, it's Michelle having an open addiction to......(drum roll). watching Scandal. Really??? Like watching TV is a crime. Do people really care about this addiction? Is it wrong for the FLOTUS to be a hardcore Gladiator?
Please, spare us.
On the same day as the Obama/Bieber article appeared, another Facebook post shows First Lady Michelle Obama having an addiction. When you actually open the link, it's Michelle having an open addiction to......(drum roll). watching Scandal. Really??? Like watching TV is a crime. Do people really care about this addiction? Is it wrong for the FLOTUS to be a hardcore Gladiator?
Please, spare us.
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