No puede ser – that was my first thought after hearing from several good puertorriqueños and a Jewish mensch who had collected goods for Puerto Rico. The problem now is who gets to ship what has been collected for the island. Drum roll here, por favor, for what one bochinchero said … “Do I give it to the governor or the mayor?” What? Yup, one month since Hurricane Maria devastated my island, that’s what political insiders and bochincheros were asking me. I don’t have enough space for the pendejadas that I was hearing as to which of the two would get the credit for doing the right thing for my compatriots. So, as petty as this mierda sounds, it’s a bad sign when even the shipping of desperately needed lifesaving essentials like agua gets caught up in the immature political war of Cuomo vs. de Blasio. No jodan, please!
RELATED: "Revenge is coming": How everything fell apart between Cuomo and de Blasio
Will the mayor send Polly trotting?
In a Friday morning email to B&B on various subjects, a bochinchero wrote: “Upon his re-election, the No. 1 replacement begins with Polly Trottenberg. The snafu over not telling the mayor that the governor was going to test driverless cars in lower Manhattan is the last nail in her coffin.”
But one bochinchero from inside New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s camp told B&B, “That’s bullshit.” However, the insider went on to say, “The mayor is not happy to learn that Polly was given a heads-up by a Cuomo person and she didn’t share that info.” That heads-up came from Jamie Rubin, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s state operations director. He is said to have discussed this pilot program with the Trottenberg. So, it appears that this may be the last traffic violation (pun intended) that Polly commits and it may be adiós for her.
RELATED: Could congestion pricing save the subway?
Díaz Sr. aiding “bullied stabber” Abel Cedeño
State Sen. Rubén Díaz Sr. raised some eyebrows with the news that he’s assisting high school student Abel Cedeño, who was indicted last week after allegedly stabbing and killing a classmate. “He doesn’t want to talk about it,” one bochinchero said of Diaz.
RELATED: Will Ruben Díaz Sr. fit in on the City Council?
In what can only be described as another scratch your cabeza kind of moment in the polemic political life of the senior Díaz, a Bronx bochinchero told me that he “doesn’t want his concern for justice to be perceived as him taking political advantage of this case.” The bochinchero told B&B that the family of the accused stabber sought help from Díaz. “The religious side of Rubén doesn’t permit him to walk away from a request like this.” The bochinchero assured B&B that “Rubén just wants justice for this young man.”
“What about the family of 15-year-old Matthew McCree?” I asked.
“He knows the murdered victim’s family also deserves justice. That’s why he’s not talking about this case or his role in helping the family of the accused 18-year-old.”
We were told that it was Díaz who called his amigo attorney Christopher Lynn and asked him to take on the defense of the bisexual teenager who was indicted on first-degree manslaughter. Cedeño was initially charged with murder in the Sept. 27 stabbing at the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation.
RELATED: Why Rubén Díaz Sr. wears a cowboy hat
Remember, gente, it's all bochinche until it's confirmed.