* Weekend Things To Do NYC
Go Africa Carnival, Bastille Day Festival, Carnaval de la Cultura Latina, Astoria Park Carnival, The Giglio Festival and Bayridge Summer Strolls, Eric Adams & Curtis Sliwa win Party Nominations for NYC Mayor, U.S. Completes Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan, Chinese Dictator President Xi Jinping is the New Nazi-like Fuhrer, Free Concert Lincoln Center, Free Theater around the City, St Fairs & NYC Parade for First Responders
July 9, 2021 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Government & Politics / / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.
Weather. The temperature highs will be in the mid 80's and the temperature lows about 70. The winds will be 3 - 5 mph all weekend. The humidity will be between 65% - 80% all weekend. There will be scattered thunder showers dropping less than a quarter inch of rain between 4 and 11 pm Friday, and Sunday after about 12 noon there will be more chances of scattered thunder showers dropping about a quarter inch of rain. Saturday is the best day of the weekend when no rain is expected.
Things To Do This Weekend NYC
In the Bronx -
The Pregones Theater is hosting Sunday night concerts.
UNCONFIRMED BUT BELIEVE IT'S HAPPENING _ Sunday, July 11, 2021 from 12 noon - 6 pm / Free - Carnaval de la Cultura Latina - Along Southern Blvd between 163rd St and Westchester Avenue in the Fox Hurst & near the Hunts Point neighborhoods in the Bronx. This event includes live music and dance entertainment, food and shopping [www.carnavalculturalatina.com].
- CLICK here to read the rest of our report about things to do this weekend in NYC, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island including Bastille Day in Manhattan, Go Africa & Giglio Festivals Brooklyn, Carnaval Cultura de Latina & Astoria Park Carnival & SI.
In Brooklyn -
Wednesday thru Sunday, July 7 - 18, 2021 - Times vary but oftentimes starts in the afternoon & goes into the night. The Annual Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast / The Giglio Festival began in 1903. Havemeyer at 8th Street. An Italian food festival with music and dance entertainment and kiddie rides, as well as the cultural hoisting of the Giglio. Williamsburg Street Fairs / St Festivals in Brooklyn. Organized by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church. See olmcfeast.com.
Friday, July 9, 2021 from 10 am - 6 pm _ Bay Ridge Summer Strolls. Along 3rd Avenue from 80th to 90th Streets. Bay Ridge street fairs / street festivals Brooklyn. Food, shopping and entertainment. Bay Ridge 3rd Avenue BID?
In Manhattan -
The Harlem Night Market reopened on Thursday, July 8th and will continue through the summer.
UES _ Sunday, July 11, 2021 from 10 am - 6 pm - Bastille Day Festival - Along 60th Street between Fifth Avenue and Lexington Avenue - Upper East Side Neighborhood NYC street fair Manhattan. This fair is a bit different from most others - much more French [https://fiaf.org].
HARLEM _ Saturday, July 10, 2021 from 10 am to 6 pm - 6th Annual Go Africa Carnival - Along West 116th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard [7th Avenue] and Frederick Douglass Boulevard [8th Avenue]. The epicenter is at 216 West 216th Street. This fair is also a bit different from many of the traditional street fairs as there are three stages, food, art and shopping. Street fairs in Washington Heights & Harlem [http://goafricacarnival.org].
And on Saturday evening there's an event in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and another classical concert in Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center.
There are a number of theatrical events in parks which we'll post later this weekend.
In Queens -
On Saturday, July 10, 2021 from 10 am - 6 pm - Junction Blvd / Rego Park Summer Fair - Along Junction Blvd between Queens Blvd and 62nd Drive.
There's also the Astoria Park Carnival from July 7 - 11, at Hoyt Avenue and 19th Street. The hours are 4 pm - 11 pm on Saturday, and from 12 noon - 11 pm on Saturday and until 11 pm on Sunday.
On Staten Island -
There are things to do at the Lighthouse Museum, Snug Harbor, the Conference House in Tottenville and in Historic Richmond Town - not to mention many beautiful beaches along the east coast of the island.
NYC Mayor Race - Eric Adams Wins Democratic Nomination, While Curtis Sliwa Wins Republican Nomination
On Tuesday, July 6th, Eric Adams won the NYC Mayoralty Democratic primary with 403,333 [50.5%] votes to Kathryn Garcia's 394,907 votes [49.5%], while Curtis Sliwa won the Republican primary with 40,751 votes [70%] to Fernando Mateo's 16,545 [30%].
As you can see by the numbers, Adams is favored to win in the general election. According to an NYT report earlier this week Adams wanted to start transitioning now, even though Bill de Blasio has another half year left to his term as Mayor. Adams needs to respect de Blasio's right to govern to the end of his term, as well as the voters right to make the final decision in November. I hope this sort of implicit disrespect of de Blasio and the voters and democratic system is not an unfavorable omen of things to come.
U.S. Troops Withdrawn from Afghanistan
The U.S. has removed its troops from Afghanistan, reportedly completing about 90% of its withdrawal from that nation. Some are questioning the wisdom of that withdrawal, negotiated in part started during the Trump Administration. My response to that critique is that the U.S. withdrawal isn't the right policy decision to be questioning, but rather why the Bush Administration, aided and abetted by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News & NY Post, took us into the Afghanistan War in the first place. The Bush / Murdoch wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cost the American taxpayer $815 billion and $1.9 trillion, respectively. It may not have been good for us, but it was a ratings winner for Murdoch's Fox 'News' and his media assets in Britain where he holds the lion share of media and in Australia where he has a traditional media monopoly.
Meet the 21st Century Chinese Equivalent of the Nazi Fuhrer - Xi Jinping
Chinese Dictator 'President' Xi Jinping appears to show signs of becoming the 21st century equivalent of the Nazi Fuhrer of the 20th century. Xi has reportedly incarcerated an estimated two milliion Uighurs, a minority in China, where he's 'reeducating' them on what it means to be Chinese while reportedly using them for forced labor. The last time this level of mass incarceration took place was by Hitler of the Jews in Nazi Germany.
In the photo at right, to which I added the moustaches, you can see Rupert Murdoch of the Fox Nation, meeting with Xi Jinping of China. Fox Nation Chairman Murdoch reportedly wanted rights to develop what inevitably would have evolved into his classic Goebbels-style news and propaganda media outlets. But Xi Jinping seemed to have plans of his own. In the years following their meeting, Xi managed to legislate himself China's dictator president, possibly for life, and decided to develop his own Goebbels-style media outlets without Murdoch's help.
But that's not all folks. In March of 2018, during the Trump Administration, Xi not only declared he could be 'President' [that means dictator or authoritarian in the Communist world] for life by removing term limits on the Chinese 'presidency', but Xi also began tamping down largely peaceful protests in Hong Kong. The protests were over Xi's attempt to override the deal made to transition Hong Kong back to China when it was agreed that China would be one nation, with two systems, and that China would continue respecting the democratic traditions of Hong Kong.
And that's not all folks. The Chinese declared a unilateral annual fishing moratorium in parts of the South China Sea from May 1 to August 16 in 1999. The Chinese have laid claim to territorial rights based on their own methodology, which is at odds with the rights claimed by other nations, like the Philippines, whose territory is adjacent to the South China Sea. In 2016 a tribunal in the Hague ruled in favor of Filipino fishermen. Xi's Jinping's government lays claim to about 90% of the territorial waters of the South China Sea through which about a third of global maritime trade passes [estimated to be $4.5 trillion], and under which huge oil and gas reserves are believed to lay dormant. And in recent years present a Chinese 'merchant militia' has begun intimidating Filipino fishing vessels and fishermen in the area.
Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was the U.S. Transportation Secretary during the Trump Administration. During Chao's four years as Transportation Secretary, the Chinese navy surpassed the U.S. Navy in the number of ships deployed. It's worth noting that Chao's father is an American Chinese shipping magnate, who has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party Leadership. Click the link above to see our report how McConnell & Chao are a Clinton-style power couple. They raise millions of campaign dollars through Chao's father and family, which enables McConnell to stay in office, and subsequently provides McConnell with the opportunity to get his wife Chao appointed to key jobs, that coincidentally appear intertwined with Chinese interests of the time.
Lastly, Xi's government has not provided the world with much transparency vis a vis the origination of the Corona Virus which is believed to have come out of either a wet market or a lab in Wuhan, China. If it came out of a lab, it may be part of Chinese 'Defense' department effort to develop biological weapons of mass destruction. We're not likely to know for certain how the virus originated for a very long time - perhaps not in our lifetimes.
In bringing this news to you, I feel it's important to remind folks, that those with control of a national government apparatus like a Xi or a Hitler, are not necessarily supported by the people of that nation [certainly by some of them, but never by all of them, like the folks living in Hong Kong, the Uighurs and Tibetans, and the Jews, Communists and resistance in Germany]. It's also worth noting that someone who is of Chinese descent but is living in another nation, is more likely to share the views of the nation in which they reside [like the U.S.], than those of Chinese nationals or the Chinese dictator 'president'. This was also true of German Americans, who were the largest ethnic group in America when Hitler came to power, and yet many German Americans went to war against the German dictator, the Nazi party and ultimately what was in prior decades or centuries, their ancestoral homeland.
At some point, let us hope, the Chinese people will stand up for themselves. The Chinese people need to begin asking themselves why they are not allowed to participate in their own governance, nor allowed to voice their own opinions, nor have the right to demand due process vis a vis governance in general like billions of people living in other nations around the globe. The Chinese people are a strong people, and yet the government of Xi Jinping treats them like they are dumb peasants, and disrespects them treating them like they are children who should have no say in public affairs.
We'll be adding more about what's doing this summer throughout the weekend. Have a good one.