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This Week and Next
In the grand tradition of small-time autocrats everywhere, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who wants to govern New York, has taken the noble art of self-promotion to dizzying new heights. His name, emblazoned across every county sign from Eisenhower Park to the Museum of Art, greets residents like a persistent relative who won’t leave the family reunion. Christopher Morley Park? More like Blakeman’s billboard. The jail? Branded. Old Bethpage Village? You guessed it.
Blakeman’s branding obsession reminds us of another man who can’t resist plastering his name on things-the president who just illegally slapped “Trump” above “Kennedy” on the Kennedy Center, despite Congress naming it by law as a memorial to JFK. Perhaps Blakeman sees in Trump a kindred spirit, a mentor in the fine art of self-aggrandizement. Both men understand that in politics, humility is for losers.
In his quest to out-MAGA the MAGAs, Blakeman has managed the impressive feat of making Elise Stefanik look moderate. He’s organized a private militia-excuse me, “Provisional Emergency Special Deputy Sheriffs”-offering gun-toting civilians $150 a day to train for undefined emergencies. When pressed about what crisis necessitated armed civilians when…
