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As we forecast when the COVID War broke out in 2020, the rich would get richer, the middle class would shrink, and poverty levels would climb.
Indeed, individuals and businesses have suffered enormous financial damage, and many may never recover. Some businesses, not to mention entire industries, have been devasted.
As George Carlin, the legendary comic, accurately noted, “It’s one big club, and you ain’t in it.” One of the “club’s” members, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, has reaped big rewards as people and businesses leave the state and its budget deficit climbs.
A Big “Payday” (but Not for the Publishers)
The New York Times reported that Cuomo’s proceeds from his book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic, despite sales described as “anemic” (with only some 50,000 copies sold), now total more than $5 million! The bulk of that is from the hefty advance he received; a number of publishers had driven that up in a bidding war for the rights to publish it.
It’s said that The Crown Publishing Group, the “winner” of the “auction,” has made an “investment” they likely will never recover.
While Cuomo’s “payday” still pales in comparison to the $15 million Bill Clinton received for his autobiography or the $65 million or so Barack and Michelle Obama received for their books, Cuomo’s book deal still eclipses those of most other well-known politicians.
Denials and More Denials
Cuomo has adamantly denied allegations that staff members, working on state time, assisted in the writing and promotion of the book (which would be a clear violation of his state’s ethics rules); he insists that any assistance rendered by his aides was strictly voluntary.
The governor also continues to deny allegations that some of those same aides altered or withheld data on the number of nursing home residents who had died as a result of his actions, which we have detailed in the Trends Journal. (See our 2 February article, “KILLER CUOMO: MISREPRESENTED COVID NURSING HOME DEATHS” and our 4 May article, “CUOMO COVID COVER-UP CONTINUES.”)
What Was He Thinking?
Of course, Cuomo dismisses any suggestion that his 25 March 2020 executive order, which mandated that nursing homes accept some 4,500 COVID-19 patients from hospitals, was a colossally negligent blunder that, directly or indirectly, dramatically raised the number of COVID-19 fatalities in nursing homes to some 13,000… out of a total nursing home population of approximately 100,000. That number represents about 25 percent of all the COVID-19 deaths in New York State, despite nursing home residents constituting a statistically tiny fragment of the state’s population.
That compulsory order seemed to willfully ignore the plain-as-day logic that the elderly, especially those with pre-existing medical issues, were the most at risk from COVID-19, and that nursing homes were, across the nation, already the epicenter of COVID-19 fatalities.
TRENDPOST: How low can you go in America? Despite many holding Governor Cuomo personally responsible for the deaths of their cherished elderly relatives, he can write a book lavishing praise upon himself for his “leadership” – for which he got paid $5.1 million… and also received an Emmy for his “leadership” in fighting the COVID War.
Five million dollars will surely go a long way in easing the beleaguered third-term governor’s discomfort (although he may be incapable of experiencing actual embarrassment) in dealing with his other scandals, from claims of inappropriate touching and sexual harassment to fostering a toxic work environment and allegations he arranged for friends and family members to “jump the line” for COVID-19 testing. (See our 9 March article, “ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER CHARGE OF CUOMO HARASSMENT.”)
Despite the negative press and last month’s Siena College poll showing that Cuomo’s ratings had fallen to the lowest level of his tenure, in the blue state of New York, 57 percent of Democrats say he is doing a good or excellent job as governor.
Nick Langworthy, New York’s Republican Party chair, called the book deal “disgusting” and said Cuomo is “a national disgrace” for his handling of 2020’s crisis.