New from me and @MarkMorales51: Cuomo said 'he can destroy me': NY assemblyman alleges governor threatened him over nursing homes scandal

@MarkMorales51 Democratic NY Assemblyman Ron Kim told CNN that Gov. Cuomo called last Thursday to “threaten my career if I did not cover up for Melissa [DeRosa] and what she said.” Cuomo also said “I hadn't seen his wrath and that he can destroy me,” according to Kim. https://t.co/w4Y2CPPUsY
@MarkMorales51 Kim's wife told CNN she overheard parts of the phone call and heard Cuomo say, "Who do you think you are?" as well as the words, "my wrath," and that immediately after the phone call, her husband told her: "The governor threatened to destroy my life." https://t.co/w4Y2CPPUsY
@MarkMorales51 CNN first reached out to Cuomo's office for comment on TUESDAY. In a written statement, his communications director did not directly respond to or deny Kim's allegation of threats from the governor in a written statement. https://t.co/w4Y2CPPUsY
@MarkMorales51 Ultimately, Cuomo's office sent another statement from senior adviser Rich Azzopardi late Wednesday morning that said: "Kim's assertion that the governor said he would 'destroy him' is false." https://t.co/w4Y2CPPUsY
@MarkMorales51 Around the same time that Azzopardi's statement was sent to CNN today, Cuomo began a previously scheduled press conference call on the coronavirus, and discussed his office's "long and hostile relationship" with Kim. https://t.co/w4Y2CPPUsY
@MarkMorales51 Importantly from our story: CNN also spoke with three other New York legislators who said they were aware of outreach from Cuomo in which he clearly suggested or explicitly threatened political retaliation if they did not stand by him. https://t.co/w4Y2CPPUsY
@MarkMorales51 One NY state senator said they heard directly from multiple colleagues whom Cuomo had reached out to, and that the governor threatened some by warning he could ruin their political careers if they supported weakening his executive powers.
https://t.co/w4Y2CPPUsY
@MarkMorales51 More on the Kim/Cuomo phone call: Azzopardi also said in a statement to CNN: "The Governor has three witnesses to the conversation. The operable words were to the effect of, 'I am from Queens, too, and people still expect honor and integrity in politics." https://t.co/w4Y2CPPUsY
@MarkMorales51 Kim says he didn't recall Cuomo making specific reference to Queens, but that Cuomo had asked him: "Mr. Kim, are you an honorable man?" before proceeding to suggest that the honorable thing for Kim to do would be to put out a statement of support. https://t.co/w4Y2CPPUsY

More from Government

Parents in cities, please pay attention to the reopening details from the Whitehouse.

Biden says "small classes". What we need to understand is how they plant to accomplish this.

Through "childcare programs in schools". We see this all over states w/ closed schools.


We need to grasp that the AFT, NEA, & local unions are systematically working to decouple education from childcare.

Their vision is your child sitting on a device all day, watched by a childcare worker, being "taught" from a Teacher working from

This isn't a paranoid conspiracy theory - it is already happening in the majority of districts across the US where schools are closed.

"Learning Hubs" open, supervised by childcare workers, sometimes in the same "unsafe" school

There is NO OTHER WAY to get "small classes" without Hybrid + wraparound childcare. Your child will spend 2-3 days per WEEK supervised by low wage workers and sitting on a laptop.

Here's

Fairfax,

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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x