Maria is Maria.
Tony is Tony.
That would be City Councilwoman Maria Pereira and leader of the New Movement Party Tony Barr, two political personalities who rarely suppress opinions.
They have been political enemies for years, yelling at each other, filming each other, filing complaints against each other, even court restraining orders. So when they agreed to run on the same slate for political control of the Upper East Side 138th District that Pereira asserts she controls it seemed a rather peculiar arrangement.
When Barr was asked about the dubious alliance he said: “No permanent friends and no permanent enemies in politics. Pereira came to me, I didn’t come to her.”
Bam.
Then, days later this happened:
Pereira, chairing the meeting, became quite animated about what should and should not appear on the Miscellaneous Matters Committee agenda. The meeting was such a mess, committee members lanced Pereira as chair of the meeting and replaced her with former City Council President Aidee Nieves to move along city business.
The real time comments of folks watching the live Facebook feed by City Councilwoman Eneida Martinez, directed at Pereira, ranged from “unbelievable” to “she is so disrespectful” to “what a shit show” to “she supports her half truths, always and absolutely!”
The “unbelievable” comment came from Tony Barr.
Days before OIB chronicled how, prior to the vote for City Council president between Aidee Nieves and Jeanette Herron in late December, Pereira drafted a quid-pro-quo demand letter, with 15 specifications, of “Requirements in order to Commit to Vote for Jeanette Herron.”
So, Pereira had another self-inflicted bad week.
Some of the slate members, including Barr, intoned, do we really want to be part of this?
In a chat on Tuesday, Barr was reticent to get into the weeds of what happened that led to an entire slate withdrawal. “I don’t wish Maria ill will, she’s got some stuff going on.”
By Monday all nine slate members resigned. See list of slate members withdrawing followed by the slate that has no primary and joining the 90-member Democratic Town Committee that endorses candidates for public office, conducts party business and churns out the vote.
Political ‘explosions’ are a thing to be noted and favored or flavored with comments.
Why no comments so far? Is it because the second word used in the title, ‘dissention’, sounds like ‘dissension’ defined as “a disagreement giving rise to discord”. Or perhaps it was confused with another word, ‘distention’, a medical term used to describe an occasion where an internal organ swells up from within, from internal pressure. Distentions, painful as they may be, can be relieved by the rapid release of the pressure from within.
Lennie, Whatever was intended to introduce the subject matter, it seems that air was there, though it was not heard round the world, and was not a mortal shot at anyone. Perhaps when there is a Casual Civics Conversation in the 138th Council District, what really concerns the thousands registered to vote, but who will not likely be at the polls on March 3 can be listened to. Time will tell.
John, perhaps our host was checking your decoder skills. 🙂
Though perhaps I doubt Lennie was confused with another word, ‘distention’, with a medical term used to describe an occasion where an internal organ swells up from within, from internal pressure. Distensions, painful as they may be, can be relieved by the rapid release of the pressure from within.
Though I am sure Maria can be a pain in the “tushy.”
As to Lennie’s intent, I lean on “Dissenting” over “Dissention”.
However, according to Google. 🙂
Dissension (ending in -sion) is the correct and standard spelling for the noun meaning strong disagreement, discord, or contention. While sometimes used as a variant, “dissention” (ending in -tion) is generally considered nonstandard or a misspelling. It signifies deep, often public, disagreement, such as within a group or organization.
BAM 🤣
P.S John, at your next Civics Discussion, tell that Library dude, if he shows up. The Port’s digital Library (Hoopa) is lacking, to say the least. Not one Grisham
Who do I blame for that, Jeff’s Gold Coast? 🙂
RT,
No answer from Lennie about the rapid expulsion of air from a body.
Nor from any fans of mine for identifying a malaprop of ‘dissension’.
But instead of making me a messenger for your personal wants or needs, why not come to the next CIVICS discussion on Saturday morning, 9am at URSA Gallery & Coffee Roasters. Perhaps we can talk about how ‘disingenuous’ City leadership has been regarding HOUSING and ENERGY planning and policy within the City and how that leads to poor ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT execution.
Casual Civics Conversations fill one hour, have no video, agenda, or minutes, and often do have one or more organizational leaders in attendance just to see what is happening. It is certainly grass roots. Time will tell.