Friday, December 26, 2025

Fred Smith Does it Again - with some help - SAInt Nick’s Visit to New York

Friday, Dec. 26, 2025
 
Every year since, forever, Fred Smith has posted his Xmas message. You can read them all at Ed Notes archives and they are all worth it being so topical. 
 
Another year, 
another poem from Fred.
Not a lot of cheer
in a dismal year. 
But do not fear,
We have Fred's Photo with NY Jets Dancers
For us to share
--- Norm's feeble attempt at rhyme

Fred Smith has been posting his xmas messages here and elsewhere for many years. The message may be a bit gloomy, but have no fear, Fred always has a cheer.

I first met Fred, a testing expert who used to work as a statistician for the old NYCBOE, when he contacted me about getting ICE members to assist in gathering data for his exposures of the evils of testing I think sometime around 2008. He then got involved with groups like GEM and Change the Stakes and was a co-winner with me and Danny Dromm of Leonie Haimson's Skinny Award in 2018 - (June 19 - I'm a Skinny: Honored to be honored by )

Fred Smith has done it again with his yearly Xmas special. 
 

If it's Christmas, it must be Fred at Ed Notes.

Here is Fred's message for 2025: 

I wanted to use AI to compose a spoofy version of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” that would focus on New York City politicos and the gifts Santa would bring them tonight.  I charged Chatgpt the task of creating couplets designed to incorporate snippets about each personality, hoping this faceless poet would parody the beloved classic. 

With impressive speed, the flash of a few seconds, Chatgpt returned rhymes based on its “understanding” of my choppy input.  These seeds required my limited intelligence to sprout.  Here’s the result of our collaboration.

SAInt Nick’s Visit to New York

Christmas Eve came and went, although Santa was sad.
There were good kids in Gotham but some who were bad;
His elves were tired, the deer a year older,
And he now bore his sack on a sore shoulder.
Why bother to make a list or check it twice;
His heart not in it, he sought AI’s advice.
When all at once, this burden turned into a game,
As rhymes and gifts appeared next to each person’s name.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
For Andrew Cuomo:
A book filled with the lessons he hasn’t yet learned,
Not bundles of accolades which he never earned.
A mirror for moments he’d rather not face,
And a clock ticking loud on man’s power and place;
A humility pill to swallow each day,
With a card from St. Nick: “Think of staying away.”
 
For Zohran Mamdani:
Energies to take on the battles ahead
Brought by enemies who fear he’ll do what he said.
He’ll need advisors tuned to his working-class call
For its fair share of the pie even if small.
And last from Santa, with a half-cup of cheer—
A phonetic name plate to start out the New Year.

For Curtis Sliwa:
Santa winked upon Curtis this Xmas eve,
Red beret blazing and without tricks up his sleeve.
From Guardian Angels to mayor’s debate,
This cat-loving crusader spoke to us straight.
While Cuomo grumbles and blames Sliwa for losing,
Nick gave him props—he was not merely amusing.
 
For Jessica Tisch:
He sent the Commish wishes this season of light,
Whose proud Chanukah heritage keeps burning bright.
When she and Zohran shared a meal of shawarma,
She soon warmed up to this prison reformer.
Claus hoped when their views about Israel burst,
They could differ but have city safety come first.
 
For Michael Mulgrew:
Santa has a weathervane that helps guide his sled.
Wryly, he gave it to Michael Mulgrew instead.
This gift fits his ever-quick shifts ‘tween to and fro,
For which way the wind blows Mulgrew always must know.
A rigged voting process ensures re-election;
Union members sold out can’t force his rejection.
 
For Eric Adams:
Hizzoner skipped town, so no Christmas visit,
Closing out his everyday fashion exhibit.
His record was dimmed by dishonest cronies
With one thing in common, they had big cojones.
Adams’ goodbye was sealed by a deal made with Trump;
Had he remained home, Claus would have dropped off a lump.
 
For former mayors:
Santa remembered gifts left ’neath past mayors’ trees:
A Prospect Y gym pass to adorn BdB’s;
Nothing for Bloomie—he had all he needed;
Anger control warnings Rudy unheeded;
Tennis white shorts Dinkins would look like new in;
A scorebook telling Koch how he was doin’.
 
For faithful civil servants:
St. Nick beamed for those who keep New York running,
Who do upright work, unsung without cunning.
In every job title, in every condition,
The public good is their hon’rable full-time mission.
Upholding the banner of orange and blue,
Santa’s uplifting peeps, “Merry Christmas to you.”
 
Chatgpt as told to Fred Smith, who retired as an administrative analyst for the NYC public school system.
 
Last year I missed Fred's missive probably due to chemo brain. He did not do his usual xmas but an election pre-quel in Sept that did not turn out exactly as he wished. He shoulda used AI then.
 
The Weeks Before Christmas
  by Fred Smith – September 16, 2024
The days are swift passing until it’s December,
But Christmas will dawn on the 5th of November.
Two months ‘fore Election Day and throughout the land
Joy has been stirring, hopeful relief near at hand.

As late as July, there was a sense of despair.
Optimism was fading and breathing foul air.
Then Biden withdrew; ‘twas all of a sudden.
Harris stepped up, and light started to flood in.

Cheerful Kamala smiled without missing a beat,
Catching a bone-spurred bully off guard on flat feet.
She’s a Black-Asian woman who married a Jew.
See your priest or your rabbi if that troubles you.

So, Karma took over when Joe lost a debate;
Poetic justice, at last, dictating Trump’s fate.
Running strong against Donald whose gospel is hate,
Whose bloody rage keeps him in a constant red state.

She picked as her running mate, Governor Walz,
A true everyman, who responds to all calls.
When fast off they flew to swing states and rallied,
As Trump more and more scowled and dilly dallied.

He who had chosen JD Vance as his veep,
Whose obeisance displayed how much he’s a creep.
A wide-eyed senator dreaming on his love couch;
A perfect match partner for the impious grouch.
And as Grumpy campaigns with his sidekick Goofy,
This ragged tag team has been double down doofy.

Years back, there were signs Trump was non compos mentis,
Strutting ruthlessness skills on the Apprentice,
Firing everyone at his ultimate whim
With unchecked power reserved only to him.

And twenty years ere that reality show,
Wayne Barrett mapped the deets of Donald’s M.O.:
His deep-seated racism; the shield of Roy Cohn;
Dirty dealing and cheating, these all were well known.
This self-proclaimed titan whose casinos went bust;
A big entrepreneur no contractor could trust.

Now Trump’s mainly consumed by the size of each crowd,
Ranting in blue whale-ish suits that fit like a shroud.
Carrot-faced, his puss locked into a grimace,
Stewing up gripes in a big steamy tsimmes
That he feeds to his base in a crock full of lies,
Which he always refills with unending supplies:

About how he built walls to bar immigration
That’s turning us into a third world nation;
And why it made sense to oppose vaccination;
Or how he lowered our high rate of inflation.
Try figuring where he stands on abortions,
As he twists yes – no – maybes into contortions.

And he’s only become more misogynistic
With a baseline temper that starts at ballistic.
Who’s used the court system to dodge Judgment Day;
But like Yertle, he’s doomed to crash down the same way.

While Karismatic Harris along with the Coach
Continued to roll out, facing minor reproach.
After last month’s convention billowed their sails,
Felonious Trump pondered his choice of jails.

Then Trump and JD took their road show on tour.
We got a chance to suffer each faux pas du jour.
Effronteries and distractions almost non-stop:
Making losers at Arlington serve as a prop;
Blaming incomplete women for going bats
For not birthing children, who instead adopt cats.
And if he debated, would the show be on FOX,
With no questions allowed about man-eating sharks?

With the big DEBATE looming he put out new stuff,
Pulling ugly assertions straight out of his duff:
Haitians dining on take-out (kidnapped dogs and geese),
A claim debunked by Springfield’s Chief of Police.

And then the DEBATE—Trump unable to face her;
Harris owned this coward who’s tried to debase her.
He fumed when she treated his rallies with scorn,
And went off on killing babies once they were born.

Harris scored point after point ad infinitum.
Her words and her “looks” combined to smite him.
A minute later Trump spun that he’d won the night
But refused to give Harris a second fight.

It’s hard to keep up with the stream of offenses;
The barrage of untruths that assault our senses
With conspiracy theories that come abounding,
Each one more bizarre and beyond astounding.

Countless the lies exceeding verses and rhymes.
The volume and scope of his numerous crimes;
Perverting O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,”
Trump’s Christmas tale is, The “Grift of the MAG Guy.”
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Be careful Kamala! Victory’s not in the bag
With twisted judges flying the upside-down flag,
Abetting Trump, concocting legal protections
Re the insurrection and stealing elections.

We know the one Harris Poll that counts most of all,
Is when people show up to cast ballots this fall,
And tell Donald Trump what they think of his fury.
Voters render the verdict. We are the jury.

Fred Smith retired from the New York City public school system
as an administrative analyst. His occasional poems and op-eds
have appeared in the New York Daily News and other newspapers.


 
 
 
 
Here is my post from two years ago, Dec. 25, 2023:

The Nightmare Before Christmas 2023 - Fred Smith Does it Again

December 25, 2023 --

Another year, 
another poem from Fred.
Not a lot of cheer
in a dismal year. 
But do not fear,
We have Fred's Photo with NY Jets Dancers
For us to share
--- Norm's feeble attempt at rhyme

Fred Smith has been posting his xmas messages here and elsewhere for many years. This year's message is a bit gloomy but have no fear, Fred ends with a cheer.

I first met Fred, a testing expert who used to work as a statistician for the old NYCBOE, when he contacted me about getting ICE members to assist in gathering data for his exposures of the evils of testing I think sometime around 2008. He then got involved with groups like GEM and Change the Stakes and was a co-winner with me and Danny Dromm of Leonie Haimson's Skinny Award in 2018 - (June 19 - I'm a Skinny: Honored to be honored by )

Fred Smith has done it again for 2023 with his yearly Xmas special. 

If it's Christmas, it must be Fred Smith at Ed Notes.

Here are his previous years, each with a different theme. 2019 seems to be absent.
Fred is also a statistician for the NY Jets - don't blame him for their absence from the Super Bowl for over 50 years.

Fred Smith convincing Jets dancers to boycott field tests - he's the one in the middle 

 

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Wednesday, December 24, 2025

Christian White Nationalism is a hot item -- and reeks of anti-semitism while there are major shifts in support from Dems and now some Republicans

How about this xmas song? I'm dreaming of a white Christian Nation 
 
December 24 - Christmas Eve - in the old days this would be a joyous day for me, not because of religion, but because school is over. In the years when I had my own classes - grades 4-6 - I spent a hectic few weeks organizing gifts and a class party. More than once, I remember getting into my car on the last day of schools and my throat started hurting which led to being sick for the vacation. It was due to the body let down after intense activity and a lesson for me on how to avoid getting colds when your body reacts to over-activity.

Jews and Xmas: Now the last day of school is just another day for me - but - We already booked a movie and Chinese restaurant for tomorrow. You have to book a movie in advance on Xmas day? We did and it's sold out. 
 
This post is likely to get me in some trouble. It is a mess as I change my views every few minutes in trying to see various points of view - a way to get in trouble in today's world where being morally unequivocal is required.
 
I've been working on this since I heard Vance spouting his nonsense and in the process my views are evolving. Or devolving. I was about to finish this up this morning but Brian Lehrer opened his show by talking about some of the issues I raise here regarding the repeated declaration that this is a Christian nation, which it is in a sense in that Brian pointed out only 6-7% are religiously identified non-Christians -- that includes Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. But -- 22% identify as no faith. Jews make up 2.4% of the total population - 7.5 million of us. Yet Jews occupy a lot of the conversation with attention focused due to what is happening in Israel. 

Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing aa anti-semitism - always has been and always will be. It is made to seem worse than ever. There has been an uptick but pogroms have not been. My school district leadership  - Italian and Irish in the 70s, while allied with the Satmar Hasidics, definitely had an anti-Semitic bent. Even between the Irish and Italians there was friction, with the Italians ultimately winning out. When someone became a principal or AP, they were considered "made" and taken out to a restaurant known as a mob joint. My friend was Jewish and a principal in that crowd and the Supt once told him he doesn't trust anyone who is not Italian. And how interesting that at one point Italians, Irish and Jew were attacked as not being pure enough to be in this country. White Christian nationalism goes back almost 200 years. Remember how Al Smith was attacked for being Catholic in the 1928 election and even Kennedy in 1960?
                                                                     
Has anyone looked at the crucifixion of Christ as as anti-antisemitism, Roman style?
 
I identify as Jewish without the religion  - so the line is fuzzy -- but in this "Christian" nation, 30% do not id as practicing Christian. And then among Christians, there are so many sects -  Catholic is the largest - I can imagine the battles for primacy because as we become more intoletant of political differences, how far behind are intolerance to other religious sects, even within Christianity? But there is a common denominator - Jesus Christ -- yet as I heard on Brian Lehrer, the "love everyone" message of Jesus often gets lost. The theory of progressive Christians is that Jesus would be a leftist - probably DSA today. 
 
If they had their pure white Christian nation how long before one sect attacks the others? Like Christians never went to war against each other? Henry the 8th I am I am. England was a religious war zone in the time of Shakespeare. 

Here is the vice-president: 
Speaking today at Turning Point USA’s annual “AmericaFest” conference, Vice President J.D. Vance said, to great applause: “The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God we always will be, a Christian nation.” 
Whenever I hear the "we are a Christian nation" trope, I see an ethnic state and
dangers to non-Christians, though ironically, the basis of Christianity was a Jew. I often think that one root of anti-antisemitism is resentment at praying to a Jew. How can one love Jesus and not love Jews? I don't get it. I see all this festive stuff Jews don't take part in and it's all about a guy who was killed because he advocated a sect of Judaism - and there were many sects at that time, one of the lovely things about religion -- they split more then Trotskyists -- and Trotsky was also a Jew that many on the left pray too - and he was sort of crucified - or ICE Picked - by Stalin, who had his own brand of antisemitism. 
 
Ethno states faced opposition for ages. I don't care what religion people have --  I am opposed to ethnic states - Saudi Arabia or Israel or the United States. The founding of this country was based on being tolerant of other religions since so many came here to run away from persecution - yes mostly Christian -- but Jews too. 
 
Armenians also suffered a genocide after WW1 and also want their own state. Their arguments seem to make sense but that is another slippery slope.  I would agree with some critics of the left for ignoring situations around the world to focus on Israel. A guy I know who is involved in the NYC based Educators for Palestine told me there was a discussion to broaden beyond the focus on Israel and include other states oppressing populations but that position was rejected --- the focus on Israel alone is one of the major arguments Zionists use to claim people on the left are antisemitic. I say they are more rigid ideologues. 
 
The extremes on the right are outright bordering on fascism -- which seem to becoming more and more mainstream- this is a white Christian nation - which means Jews (who they don't consider to be white), are a target --- the major antisemitism is coming from the right, which generally supports Israel while on the left we see a lot of anti-Israel which is not anti-semitism but Zionists try to brand that as anti-semitism. 
My thinking has evolved from being a mild Zionist to having had enough.
 
The Vance Christian stuff has lots of baggage when it comes to women.  
Going back to Germany in the 30s when there was enormous unemployment, Hitler "solved" the problem not only with massive rearmament but also ordering woman back to the home to raise babies for the Reich.   

And in this country, raising white babies to counter the possibility the majority of people will not be white one day is part of the ideology.  
 
Note the calls from Vance and others for women to not work and have babies to keep this nation white by banning immigration from non-white places. South African whites are hot. Why won't people from Scandinavia who have all sorts of healthcare and other protections come here to die in emergency rooms? I have a friend from Japan who has been here 25 years on a visa and won't become a citizen because she doesn't want to be subject to the harshness of a weak safety net that she has in Japan.
 
Irony in that Vance has non-white kids and his Indian wife has been trashed by the Groypers. 
 
The Nick Fuentes-led Groypers want a pure white Christian nation - which means the Jews have to go - and where can they go?  I was brought up thinking that a holocaust can come to us here and used to see Israel as my escape route. No longer. I don't want to go from one fascist to another, even if it's my sect that's being fascist. There is no free speech in Israel, even for Jew. And it's not just an ethnic Jewish state but increasingly a religious state as the power of ultra Orthodox grows.
 
Israel wants to be a pure Jewish nation. Fuentes wants the same for this nation - just substitute Christian for Jewish.
 
Fuentes on a recent broadcast said he admired Israel for being the same kind of place he wants America to be. And why not he asks? Why do Jews get to have an ethnic state and Christians don't? 
On an episode of his show in March, he summarized his politics as: “Jews are running society, women need to shut the fuck up, blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part, and we would live in paradise. It’s that simple.” He has also repeatedly described Hitler as “cool”. Support for an ethnic and religious hierarchy with white Christian men at the top; a belief that black people are inclined to criminality; opposition to legal as well as illegal immigration; vehement anti-feminism; respect for authoritarianism; disdain for democracy.
What next? A revival of the Ku Klux Klan to enforce Christianity? And don't forget, the racist KKK was also anti-Catholic because it was not the right sect of Christianity. 
 
Republican outing


So, Fuentes says he admires Israel for its ethnic centric policy -- he has said that in 50 years Israel will still be a Jewish state while America if it doesn't reverse direction will be totally bastardized. He wants us to be like Israel. But Christian. 

Zionists say Israel has has to be a Jewish state and most Jews seem to go along with that and if you object you are branded anti-semitic and if you are a Jewish objector, you are a self-hating Jew. There is a massive Zionist lobby pushing these lines and of course they will be focused on anything Mamdani does to attack him -- note the extreme scrutiny of his appointments -- like the woman married to a Jew with two Jewish kids who made some anti-semitic comments in 2011 when she was a teen. Rabid Zionists will do anything they can to make Mamdani fail and emphasize any negatives they can because of a Muslim who is critical of Israel succeeds it is a threat to them. The Anti Defamation League will do anything it can to undermine Mamdani.
 
Zionists think Jews are special and due so the Holocaust they must have their own state - which is where I have been at most of my life but draw the line that that state is entitled to do anything it wants. Now I have to question the very nature of a fascistic, apartheid state. I talk to all levels of Zionists. Some are rabid --- no kids are dying in Gaza and if they are they are being used as shields by Hamas which then justifies Israel to wipe out an entire building to kill one Hamas. One relative recently used the argument that Jews are moral while Muslims are not. I know too many Jews to make that judgement. I never say Hamas is good -- though some I argue with on the left defend them and compare them to the Irish IRA resisters to Britain -- I was always disturbed by them too. 
 
On the other hand, Jews have been a minority for 2000 years wherever they have been and that has not turned out so good for them. So when people say Israel should just be a peaceful multiethnic state and let the chips fall where they may, history does not look good if they were to be a minority -- people seem to think Palestinians in the majority would just live and let live. That is dreamland. Remember when Nasser expelled Jews from Egypt? 
He also expelled Greeks. Probably too many diners.
 
I could see a reversal over decades if Jews became a minority where the shoe is on the other foot. The left will say good riddance -- they are settler colonialists. 

So I am confused as I try to see all sides.

Recently, we saw Ken Burns American Revolution and I was a history major and took a one semester course in that period and that was a political, and not a social revolution - mostly - though supporters of England were often exiled and had their property seized. The Declaration states: "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...." Can you name one such separation without violence?

Around the same time as the founding of Israel, the India/Pakistan partition took place and they are still having issues, as is Israel and Palestinians. Religion played a part there too - Muslim and Hindu friction. There was massive forced migration in both cases. In Israel the idea that if Palestinians would just disappear, their problems would be solved. Oct. 7 made this possible by making life so miserable people would have to leave -- at least those left alive.
 
A growing number of Jews and Democrats have turned against the Israeli government. Remember the reaction against Amy Arundell when she announced she was running for UFT president last February because of her views on Palestine? ABC still got 32% of the vote and I'd guess we lost 2% while she was a key to making ABC viable. I'd guess that between February and the election in May minds were changing as the atrocities piled up. And a month later Mamdani won the primary and views like Amy's were becoming mainstream in NYC, even among Jews. 

But it's hard to let go if you think Israel is your out when this place goes full fascist. And now a portion of MAGA has also turned against Israel, but I suspect there is more antisemitism than in the Dems.
 
Most Zionists I know support the idea of Israel -- if only we got rid of Netanyahu - which is a mistake as there are even more far right people in Israel -- there will be no going back to more tolerant days. They are moving toward removing or killing as many Palestinians as they can - killing children is part of the plan to prevent future opposition -- one Zionist told me she doesn't care how many kids they kill as they are all future terrorists. The idea is to make conditions so bad people will leave - but where will they go? Probably the Ellisons will throw a few billion to some desperate nations to take them. 
 
The Mamdani win in the biggest Jewish city, considering his position on Israel, has sent shock waves throughout the nation -- a crisis of sorts for zionists, a number of whom are critical of the Netanyahu government, but still defend the concept of a Jewish state. However, it looks like the Israeli population on the whole are fine with whatever is done to Palestinians - look at the West Bank outrages - and the fact that Israel will never treat Palestinians decently is resonating deeply and causing even some zionists to question the validity of a Jewish state continuing in an apartheid situation - or eliminating the Palestinian people as a solution. Maybe a final solution. 
 
They don't see the dangers to themselves as they did see when many Jews were forced to leave Muslim states and declare that if Muslims have states, Jews should too. But why not Christian states too? Which is a point Fuentes makes when he says he admires Israeli Jewish nationalism and says he wants the same thing for this country,
 
In this video, Krystal Ball and Segar Enjeti delve into the Fuentes issue and tie to the Israeli situation and how the calls for an Israeli ethnic state lead inevitably to a Christian state here.
 
 

The United States was founded on being a non-single religion state.
Let's not forget that many of the earliest settlers going back to 1620 were escaping religious persecution in Europe. The ultimate outcome of the Vance position of Christian nationalism is, of course, more antisemitism. Jews were place the fault on the left are certainly ignoring 500 years (at least) of history of right wing antisemitism and pogroms. Does anyone think that 

Heather Cox Richardson goes into some details on our history, but Christian white nationalists will call it fake news. 

In 1790, the year after he took office as the nation’s first president, George Washington assured a Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, that in the United States of America, “[a]ll possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.” The government of the United States, he wrote, “gives to bigotry no sanction” and “to persecution no assistance.” He wished that Jewish Americans “continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants— while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.” The next year, the states ratified the First Amendment to the Constitution. In order to ensure men had the right of conscience, it reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson called this amendment “a wall of separation between Church & State.” In a letter of January 1, 1802, he explained to a group of Baptists from Danbury, Connecticut, how that principle made him refuse to call for national religious days of fasting and thanksgiving in his role as head of the government. Like Madison, he maintained that “religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship.” “[T]he legitimate powers of government reach actions only,” he wrote, “[and] not [religious] opinions.” “[T]hat act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’” he wrote, built “a wall of separation between Church & State.” In the early years of the nation, Americans zealously guarded that wall. They strictly limited the power of the federal government to reflect religion, refusing even to permit the government to stop delivery of the U.S. mails on Sunday out of concern that Jews and Christians did not share the same Sabbath and the government could not choose one over the other. The Constitution, a congressional report noted, gave Congress no authority “to inquire and determine what part of time, or whether any has been set apart by the Almighty for religious exercises.” But the Civil War marked a change. As early as the 1830s, southern white enslavers relied on religious justification for their hierarchical system that rested on white supremacy. God, they argued, had made Black Americans for enslavement and women for marriage, and society must recognize those facts. When reformers in the United States tried to change the preamble of the U.S. Constitution to read, “We, the people of the United States, humbly acknowledging Almighty God as the sources of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Ruler among nations, and His revealed will as of supreme authority, in order to constitute a Christian government, and in order to form a more perfect union,” the House Committee on the Judiciary concluded that “the Constitution of the United States does not recognize a Supreme Being.” That defense of democracy—the will of the majority—continued to hold religious extremists at bay. Reformers continued to try to add a Christian amendment to the Constitution, Foster explains, and in March 1896 once again got so far as the House Committee on the Judiciary. One reformer stressed that turning the Constitution into a Christian document would provide a source of authority for the government that, he implied, it lacked when it simply relied on a voting majority. A religious amendment “asks the Bible to decide moral issues in political life; not all moral questions, but simply those that have become political questions.” Opponents recognized this attempt as a revolutionary attack that would dissolve the separation of church and state, and hand power to a religious minority. One reformer said that Congress had no right to enact laws that were not in “harmony with the justice of God” and that the voice of the people should prevail only when it was “right.” Congressmen then asked who would decide what was right, and what would happen if the majority was wrong. Would the Supreme Court turn into an interpreter of the Bible? The committee set the proposal aside. Now, once again, we are watching a minority trying to impose its will on the majority, with leaders like Vice President J.D. Vance trying to rewrite American history. Letters from an American December 21, 2025 Heather Cox Richardson

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Saturday, December 13, 2025

Seeing the Trains Go Choo Choo at NY Botanic Garden and A Chance Meeting With the Younger Generation

Saturday, December 13, 2025 - 
Don't get run over by a faux Santa today
 

 
I love trains - and gardens. So Thursday I went up to the train show in the Bronx Botanic Garden, which is so far out of my normal range of travel - I've barely been in the Bronx - though I used to distribute Ed Notes to the big high schools, before they were wiped out by Bloomberg. Years ago I drove up to the train show with a friend but I hear they change it somewhat every year. And now with my training as a tour guide at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, I wanted to see what the competition looked like in the green houses.
 
I had signed up to go on a tour with one of the UFT courses a few weeks ago but had a conflict that day.  
 
I stayed over in my apartment after the Ugly sweater Delicate Assembly on Wednesday, so I was leaving from Grand Central and had two choices - Metro North which I had never used before or the subway and bus. 
 
I began looking for Metro North timetables but switched to the 4 train. I spent the entire trip standing at the front window of the train, like I used to do as a kid, watching the tracks fly by. I had the same thrill I always have when we emerge into the daylight as we hit Yankee Stadium, but had never taken the 4 past that station before and got to see a slice of the Bronx. I got off at Bedford Blvd and waited in the cold for a bus, which then dropped me off near the gate and I had a bit of a walk - did I say it was cold?
 
Okay, so I'm finally in the warmth of the train show - but the trains and their routes were not as interesting - I was waiting for a crash. The major interest are the buildings and I posted a few pics below. I loved the Penn Station building and at the end of the show we see the view I posted above of major Manhattan buildings. But I was also fascinated by the plants - the 200 million year Cycads display, the desert greenhouse. I have an assignment for the BBG to go to the greenhouses so I can do a tour and until my knee started bothering me, I could have spent hours there. But I was also hungry and had to find the cafeteria which happened to be a bit of a walk. After eating, I had a longer walk back - did I say it was cold -- and my knee ached, so I decided I would try to take Metro North which was across the street. 

So I got there and asked a guy how to get to the station to Grand Central and he said I had to go up the stairs, walk across the tracks and down the stairs and a bit of a walk to a temporary station because of construction. Oy, my aching knee.

A Serendipitous meeting
I got to the top of the stairs and there was woman walking in front of me and I asked her where I had to go. She said she was not going to the train but taking a short cut to the other side and was walking to the subway. I said I thought the subway was far away and she said it was only 10 blocks or so to the D train, so I decided to do that too and walked with her since she knew the way. 
 
So it turns out she is a second year law student, comes from Colorado (she no longer skis) and turned out to be a delightful companion through our walk and the train ride to Grand Central where we parted and I walked home through the holiday goodies at Bryant Park. But my knee ached less and the cold was no longer so bad.

What does an 80 year old man have to talk about with a 24 year old woman? How about everything. She was interested in gardening, she goes to BBG often, she likes trains - naturally - she had a day off after finishing her courses so going to the train show was a priority -- she had done some theater work on a construction crew like I do, she likes cats through her boyfriend's family, she is a Zohran fan and into social justice and is focused on health issues --- I expect her to become a factor as a lawyer in the health care struggle. 
 
In addition to the train show, meeting this young lady added so much to the day. I told her that we had just finished Hair at the RTC and she said she'd come to shows next year at the Rockaway Theater. I feel awkward about asking a young lady for her contact info, so I gave her mine. I don't really expect to hear from her, but was happy to spend an hour with her.
 
You hear people say so many negative things about her particular generation, but I have a lot of contact with young people in her age range at the Rockaway Theater and they have been delightful too.  It is important for people my age to engage with younger people and most do so with their kids. But I don't have kids to sponge cultural contact with, so interacting with people at the theater or in the younger crowd at ABC is important. But when you run into someone accidentaly and the meeting turnedsn out to be so enriching, I'd say that the cold and aching knee seemed to disappear.
 
Here are some pics from the day: 
 
 










 
 
 
 
 
 
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Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Unity Caucus Threats Against ABC and its Members Continue - I Get Reported to HR for Fighting for the Right to Put Lit on the Table at the Delicate Assembly

“The delicate assembly.”  It sure is delicate.  A bunch of “snowflakes” in Unity Caucus.  Anyone who asks their dear leader a question is “rude.” Or a liar. That’s their favorite adjective. .. Comment of a not delicate Delegate
Is a cornered party as dangerous as a cornered rat? We should be sober: the political winds are blowing hard against the "ruling party". Unity is staring at a meltdown... defections may mount and internal chaos spreads throughout leadership. ... Tom Hartmann   

More Mulgrew Purges as District 30 Parents, Teachers, and Local Politicians Rally to Defend Fired UFT District Rep As Internal Resistance Grows... ed notes

the attorney’s letter states they will sue each UFT member individually, for having publicly stated we are UFT members. 

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025 -- Delicate Assembly Day - Ho Hum

Mulgrew and crew have been rehearsing, probably all day, for the DA so he knows where to point for the required sneak attack Unity reso to start the new motion period. But he has to act like this is all spontaneous, and he was absent for the acting lesson. One of the fun things is to pick out their reso from the stack. The goal is to waste as much of the 10 minute New Motion time as possible. And monitor how much speaking time goes to staff or Unity apparatchiks.

Frankly, I'm getting a bit bored by the DA, but the chance to engage with Unity slugs is too delicious to miss plus seeing lots of old and new friends. But I need an umbrella to keep from getting wet from the snowflakes. 

The answer by authoritarians when cornered is repression and increasing attacks to try to suppress voices of opposition. Or just put a photo of the leading oppo candidate for president in a urinal in the mens room at the UFT during a delicate assembly:   Misogyny at the UFT Delegate Assembly 

We are sure to hear bragging today on how effective they are on the para pay issue which has been locked up in the city council, thus forcing them to hold "massive" protests in front of the Adrienne Adams' office, who was scared to death at this turnout.

Now this is organizing.

PissGate Report

The union issued a report of its 6 month investigation of Piss Gate, (see here), that led to nothing. Apparently some strange guy they cannot identify was hanging around the men's room that day but the cameras can't seem to identify him. Probably just prostate problems. 

They are actually trying to pin it on me or someone from ABC - I think I was the only man from ABC there that day - because, you know, Unity people have such integrity.

I was told to go in and check the bathroom around 6PM after the first photo at 5:12 was found and I removed it so they can claim my fingerprints are on it. Like there's no Unity hack capable of doing this? There is video footage and there were only so many guys at the meeting. I shared my suspicions of the possible culprit with the lawyer.  

I entered the men's room to find the photo in the urinal, the second one that day and extracted it after taking a photo. I still have it and the investigator wanted me to turn it in so they could check for prints but I wasn't giving them the evidence unless I could observe the taking of the prints.

Unity motion to muzzle chapter leaders

Don't forget this gem from the Nov DA where they wanted to gag school chapter leaders like they gag CLs of functional chapters, notably Bennett Fischer of the RTC. This was their sneak attack reso. 

 
It was voted down by a slim margin, which means even some Unity CLs voted against it, which must really piss them off since the clicker we use allows for anonymity, something we didn't have in the past as the District reps had their CLs sit near them so they could monitor how they voted. 

Fighting for the right to put lit on the table 
I got a call from a union official that an HR complaint had been filed over my confrontation with a Unity hack over the restriction of needing LeRoy Barr's permission to put lit on the tables in. the lobby. She should have filed the HR complaint against LeRoy who gave her such a ridiculous assignment. 

Historical note: We had a table for non-official UFT lit for 25 years until the increasingly authoritarian LeRoy Barr barr-ed the oppo table and any lit he doesn't want displayed on the official table. When asked why, be first blamed Covid and then enemies of the UFT. You see, if you dare to criticize their worships you are an enemy -- Trumpism comes to 52 Broadway.
 
I posted a photo of the Barr henchwoman using our dues to guard the table in a recent post  Growing Authoritarianism at the UFT as Unity continues to take Lying shots at ABC 
 
Fact is she has been nasty and arrogant (confirmed by others in the UFT)  and she complains to UFT HR about me? As if I work for her and the UFT when in fact she works for me. But the UFT leadership act as if the membership works for them, so maybe they are confused. 

Talk about delicate snowflakes. She goes whining because an 80 year old 58 year member of the UFT spoke to her in a loud voice? If she can't deal with that she need to get a new job. These are the people who are supposed to defend us against Trumpism?  
 
Unity views ABC as the real threat, the legacy oppo as supplemental - but they need to find ways to stay relevant
 
I wrote about the increasing repression at the UFT the other day in this post: Growing Authoritarianism at the UFT as Unity continues to take Lying shots at ABC

 .... where I made the point that the biggest threat to Unity hegemony is coming from within the caucus, as the numerous defections to ABC in the last election proved. ABC only existed for months but garnered 32% of the vote while the 3 legacy caucuses, with 100 years of combined experience, of trying to organize in the UFT, got only14%, thus not constituting a threat to Unity, but a necessity for Unity to keep around as a counterweight to ABC. Thus, the "Unity light" label applied by some to elements of ARISE - remembering that for a dozen years, New Action was Unity light.

A key to the vast difference between ABC and ARISE was, I believe, the infusion of defecting Unity CLs who brought their staffs along to vote for ABC. Since the ARISE coalition will never get Unity defectors en masse, the demonstrated ability of ABC to do so is what makes ABC such a threat and has led to the constant attacks in Unity lit -- look for another one today at the DA.
 
Unity threatens to sue ABC and all its members individually
 
Thus, the latest round is threats and more threats for daring to say ABC is an active group in the UFT, while other groups that use the UFT logo are ignored. The geniuses at the UFT in full force where

the attorney’s letter states they will sue each UFT member individually, for having publicly stated we are UFT members. 

The letter from the lawyer also states:

“Further, throughout your website and on your social media, you refer to the A Better Contract organization as "A Better Contract - UFT" and "A Better Contract - UFT Members," signaling that the organization is a faction within the UFT when it is not.”

Mulgrew should look up the word faction - 

a small organized dissenting group within a larger one, especially in politics.
 

On the other hand, Unity Caucus using the UFT logo is fine:

 

And how about MORE?


Here is the ABC post where you can get details of the threats. 

Unity UFT Leadership Threatens to Sue ABC-UFT

And they're using your UFT dues to do it.

A Better Contract
Dec 09, 2025
 

Michael Mulgrew and Unity UFT leadership, a political group that has controlled our union for more than sixty years and who continue to preside over diminishing returns for educators across the city, have hired the corporate law firm Norton Rose Fulbright to threaten legal action against A Better Contract (ABC-UFT). Their claim is that we, the committed educators and proud UFT members of ABC, do not have the right to refer to ourselves as UFT members.

This is not the first time Mulgrew and Unity UFT have used our dues money to threaten UFT members. In June 2025, Unity UFT hired the same law firm to file a complaint accusing A Better Contract of infringement for referring to themselves as UFT members. That complaint was rejected by an independent arbitrator, who determined that ABC-UFT’s statement of being UFT members, which we are, is legitimate and protected.

Rather than using dues to improve working conditions or strengthen our union, Mulgrew and Unity UFT leadership have chosen to use those dues to attack UFT members who are advocating for a more democratic and responsive union. 

Members can read more about that decision here: ABC Wins Arbitration

I will close with a comment on Arthur's substack:
When Mulgrew lays on his phony tough guy shtick, it does have an air of wannabe third-rate mob boss. It's pretty ineffective, though. I don't feel intimidated at all. Maybe it's working better with UFT staff at 52 Broadway. They all seem to be running scared.
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