Recommended Reading, July 8, 2024

Robert Cox

08 Jul 2024 — 4 min read

Zeke at Dublin Airport IAG Cargo facility, July 4, 2023 after 15 hours in a crate coming from JFK.

DUBLIN, IRELAND (July 8, 2024) — What to do with a four-day weekend in the United States when you live and work in Ireland? After all, while July 4th was Independence Day in New York, it was just another Thursday in Dublin.

What tipped me towards holding off on new stories was the transparent attempt by the New Rochelle government to do a “Friday news dump” — on a Wednesday.

Let me borrow a few phrases from Noam Bramson’s longtime friend Taegan Goddard, partner of Sustainable Westchester Board of Director Co-Chair and Rye Councilmember Sara Goddard.

Government agencies especially often choose to “release bad news or documents on a Friday afternoon in an attempt to avoid media scrutiny”; the timing is chosen to “minimize media coverage, public attention, and potential scrutiny that may arise from the news being released.” The idea is that “news cycles tend to be slower over the weekends, with fewer journalists and news outlets actively covering breaking stories.”

At the end of business (EST) on July 3rd, I was sent documents that had clearly been withheld for days if not weeks in the hope that stories about them would be published over the long holiday weekend when America was firing up their barbecue grills or heading to the beach or even firing up their barbecue grills at the beach.

Rather than play into that game — which only works at places like the White House or on Capitol Hill where there are a significant number of media outlets covering them and might run a story on a weekend or holiday weekend — I chose to defer acting on the released documents until the following week.

I am just going to proceed as if I got them the following Monday.

I believe all of this is part of the Dawn Warren Slow Walk which is part of the Lawless Regime of Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert, sometimes but not always under the guidance of Noam Bramson in his floundering effort to do damage control on my now 10-month investigations into him and his co-conspirators at or supporting Sustainable Westchester.

I hope readers enjoyed their holiday. Expect stories based on these documents starting today.

In the meantime, I put together a set of photo montages as a summary of my time since moving to Ireland: Our First Year in Ireland in Pictures. As you will see, my wife and I (and Zeke) have kept busy since we purged our belongings, packed everything left into six duffel bags and arrived in Ireland on July 4, 2023.

A few personal notes…

Folks back in the USA and here in Ireland have asked me many times whether I would do investigative reporting here in Ireland like I have done in New York for the past 16 years. My response is always the same, that I would wait a year so I could understand Ireland better: the way the government operates, the political parties, the politicians, the media outlets, and more broadly, the lay of the land and day to day living. That year is now up and I kept my promise to keep my trap shut. I am not sure what I will investigate or whether I will but once I figure that out you will know if you start seeing stories here about corruption in Ireland.

Independence Day reminded me to register to vote as a U.S. citizen living abroad. The process is odd to me because the federal government refers citizens abroad back to the state of their last address in the United States, then that state refers citizens to the local county board of elections. I sent my paperwork to the Westchester County Board of Elections in White Plains, based on last living in New Rochelle. Hopefully, everything will get sorted so I can vote in the fall USA elections.

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Articles from Words in Edgewise, Talk of the Sound and Elsewhere on the Web.

Our First Year in Ireland in Pictures

New Rochelle Man Charged with Pandemic Fraud and Identity Theft

Rye Firefighter Injured Battling July 4 Guesthouse Blaze

Officials: Two-alarm fire rips through New Rochelle home

New Rochelle NY alleged torture killing gets first-degree murder charge

Mamaroneck Trustee Ticketed 2 Months Earlier Near Site of Fatal Crash

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