“A WHOLE DIFFERENT WAY OF LIFE”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 18, 2020) — On Saturday morning The Post & Email was forwarded an email distributed to a wide number of upstate New York residents regarding a “Gridlock Buffalo” event to be held on Monday to protest New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s blanket “New York State on Pause” policy which on Friday extended the closure of businesses and other “non-essential businesses” to May 15.
The email was originally sent by Carl Paladino, Cuomo’s 2010 gubernatorial opponent, who is not an organizer of the event but was willing to speak with us about the impetus behind it.
In 2013, Paladino was elected to the Buffalo Board of Education, a position he held through August 2017. Founder in 1973 of Ellicott Development Company and a lifelong Buffalo resident, he is an ally of former Trump informal adviser Roger Stone and co-chaired Trump’s 2016 New York State campaign.
We asked Paladino if the organizers are coordinating their efforts with other protests which have recently taken place in Michigan, Minnesota, Kentucky and Ohio, to which he responded, “I think there’s a national day set aside for May 1, and the local one here in Buffalo is Monday, and across the state they’re talking about doing it a day earlier on Sunday, but I don’t know.”
“Operation Gridlock Annapolis” took place as this article went to press.
Protesters will assemble in Niagara Square, Paladino said, and the event’s Facebook page states the start time as 11:30 a.m. and the end time as 1:00 p.m. Information for those interested in attending reads, “Circle Niagara Square with your cars, trucks or other vehicle to send a message to Cuomo, WE ARE NOT NEW YORK CITY ! Buffalo and WNY are ready to get back to business and work, we are dependent on it for our survival. Stop dictating the Cities policies for the whole state.”
The organizer, Rus Thompson, also posted, “Let’s stay in our respective vehicles. No public gathering please.”
According to WKBW on Friday, “Buffalo Police are aware of the planned protest and are hoping there will be no problems or need for arrests.”
The Post & Email was unable to reach Thompson or a second organizer prior to press time.
“Are you finding the media does not cover these things?” we asked Paladino, to which he replied, “I’m finding the media very much in bed with the liberal thinking, that they can make one rule for all. We live in a state where you have a massive city that has its own particular problems, and then you have Upstate, which is like Wyoming. Applying the same rules of restrictions to Upstate is a denial of reality because Upstate is a whole different way of life. The [coronavirus] problem up here is not as bad per capita as in New York City, so why are you treating us the same way? Why have you completely shut down our economy? You’ve closed barber shops; you’ve closed bowling alleys; you shut down construction, which is absolutely stupid, because they know enough to keep their social distancing. They’re not dealing with a bunch of idiots. These liberals think everybody out there is an idiot and they have to micromanage their lives.
“That’s the problem with Andrew Cuomo; you add to that his power-hungry mentality. He’s a narcissist; he loves himself, and he loves being on TV; they’re giving him national TV; he plays it coy and wants to get drafted at the Democratic Convention. So he’s going to get on TV every chance he gets with his sing-song voice and putting his brother ‘Fredo’ on and making a complete fool of himself in front of the people of the State of New York. We don’t want him; we would love him to run for president and get out of here.”
“Fredo” refers to Andrew Cuomo’s brother Chris, a CNN anchor diagnosed with COVID-19 late last month. His wife, too, has reportedly tested “positive” for the virus.
The governor’s office states that residents who “are aware of any non-essential gatherings or any non-essential businesses or entities operating in violation of ‘New York on PAUSE'” may call or complete one of two “complaint” forms.
When we asked Paladino if he had “inside” information as to Cuomo’s plans, he said, “No, I understand politics; I understand how this man thinks, especially. I ran against this man for governor in 2010. I know him like a book; I know how he thinks. He’s very diabolical; he has this cunning way about him; I know he just relishes the idea of being president.”
To Sean Hannity on his Thursday radio program, Cuomo said he has no ambition to seek the presidency now. “Cuomo has already stressed he has no desire to run for president in 2020, but he outright rejected the hypothetical scenario of being recruited on Sean Hannity’s radio show,” The Washington Examiner reported on Thursday. “The governor told Hannity he would not accept a last-minute nomination from the party, even if something were to go wrong with Joe Biden’s clear path to the nomination.”
When we raised that point to Paladino, he responded, “And I can sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.”
We asked Paladino how COVID-19 is affecting Upstate New York. “It’s afflicting everything, everyplace,” he replied. “My point is not that we shouldn’t have any reasonable restrictions. We should not have mass gatherings of people where it could be conveyed. Yes, we have people in the hospital and yes, we’ve had people die of this. We have people die every year of the flu in much greater numbers than COVID. By telling people, ‘This monster is upon us,’ you’ve scared the **** out of the American people, who are just basically unaware that every year, we have many more deaths due to the flu. Elderly people tend to be unable to handle it. But you can have reasonable restrictions; you can let people return to work as long as they keep their social distances so others don’t catch this thing. The idea here is that it’s overkill with these liberals who want to micromanage lives because that, they feel, is their God-given responsibility.”
Hawaii H2O, I worked for the Federal Government for a long time. I do not take ANYTHING the government tells me,at face value. I take everything with a POUND of salt. If a lie can get them what they want, they WILL do so. That said, there are, thank God, a few people that I do trust. Very sad state of affairs.
Though it may not seem pertinent, I don’t know if anyone caught any of the segments on the supposed coup perpetrating US special forces people “caught” in Venezuela.
I just want to say, isn’t it nice they brought their ID’s with them? Did they organize that mission on facebook? Please, you’re there to stage a coup and you bring your veterans benefits card? Sam’s Club in there too?
“They” stop at nothing. And they show us that they’re doing this. While we pick it out, their base just nods along. The base made up of poorly educated (but very well indoctrinated) “smart” KIDS…basically.
I think that one day the true nature of this entire covid thing will come out, and be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the world…except the devil convincing everyone he doesn’t exist.
Take a look on your worldometer numbers for Vietnam. I’ve been watching this since the beginning. This is a country where the people live on top of each other, it’s a playground for Chinese (and other, including Italian) tourists, it’s six microns from China…yet they have 40-something active cases…and brace yourselves…ZERO DEATHS.
But Wyoming…10,000(?) miles away, with far fewer Chinese and Italian tourists has, probably, 10 deaths or more, at this point, ATTRIBUTED to covid.
When Obama Sim Laden was “taken down” by Barack Osama, I was NOT convinced that this had actually happened, nor have I ever been convinced that B. Osama would do such a thing.
A couple of years later, I was in a hostel in Paris and had a few drinks with a Canadian girl who worked for CBC. She TOLD me that she was there, where Bin Laden was found, at the time, in order to cover the thing, but all they could get was a staged event. The CBC literally paid a group of people holding a celebration 40 miles away to have it in another place, so they could shoot their report with celebrations as a backdrop. They paid for their celebration, paid them, paid for transport, etc.!
And here’s the extent of the irresponsibility (read intentionality) of what “they” do.