The sign at 82-28 Abingdon Rd. Sunday (Image by Aleda Gagarin)
Jan. 26, 2021 By Michael Dorgan
A local candidate for city council has taken issue with a large banner hanging in front of a house in Kew Gardens that claims Joe Biden’s inauguration marked the beginning of socialism.
Aleda Gagarin, who is running as a progressive to represent District 29, came across the banner at 82-28 Abingdon Rd. Sunday and posted an image of the house and the sign to Twitter.
The banner reads: “January 20, 2021, Death of Democracy, The Beginning of Socialism.” The date marks the day Joe Biden was sworn into office as the 46th President of the United States.
The banner also features a hammer and sickle as well as an image of Lady Liberty crouched over with her hands in her face. The banner drapes between two flag poles in the middle of the front garden that each fly the USA flag.
“It’s just so silly, the person is clearly misunderstood,” Gagarin told the Queens Post. “Joe Biden is certainly not a socialist.”
Gagarin noted that Biden doesn’t even support universal healthcare.
“The sign also uses communist imagery that shows a clear lack of understanding,” she added.
Michael Ricatto, who owns the house and put up the banner, disputed Gagarin’s claims and said he knows exactly what he is talking about. Biden’s policies are socialist, he said, and all hardworking taxpayers will have to pay more due to his left-wing policies.
Furthermore, Ricatto added that there is little difference between socialism and communism and he considers socialism as communism’s “little brother.”
“We worked hard for years to amass what we have and I don’t like being forced to support someone else,” Ricatto said.
Ricatto believes that American democracy is under threat and claims that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. He argues that the democratic process was upended.
“There were too many ambiguities that were never reported and most of the media lean left,” he claims. None were proven in court.
However, Gagarin says it was Trump who put democracy at risk.
“Trump was trying to kill democracy, he was trying to overthrow our actual government, that’s very clearly true,” she said, referring to the attacks on the Capitol on Jan 6.
Gagarin said that while she was offended by the sign she respects his right to free speech.
She said she was more offended by previous signs put up by Ricatto that expressed his outright support for Trump. She said that Trump’s policies targeted undocumented residents in Queens.
“I don’t agree with propping up a fascist whose policies terrified our immigrant brothers and sisters,” Gagarin said, referring to the rise in ICE arrests in Queens under Trump.
Trump’s wall, she added, was “a waste of money, stupid, childish and inherently racist.”
82-28 Abingdon Rd. (Image by Aleda Gagarin)
Ricatto has courted controversy relating to his signs in the past.
In 2016, his pro-Trump lawn signs were constantly stolen. In response, he stapled “wanted” signs on public trees in an effort to catch the people swiping them. The Parks Dept. fined him for damaging the trees.
Nevertheless, Ricatto said he will not let anyone deter him from exercising his right to free speech.
“They are not going to shut me up, they will never shut me up,” he said.
He also said that people are afraid to voice their opinions due to a fear of backlash from the left and that some people have thanked him for putting up his signs.
“There is a silent majority out there, not so much in Queens but there are enclaves of right-leaning people.”
Donald Trump saw his support in Queens rise in the 2020 election with 26.8 percent of citizens voting for him – up from 21.8 percent in 2016.
Ricatto said he has not received much trouble for putting up his signs but joked that a person has been sending him tissues in the post since Biden was elected. The tissues are for Ricatto to wipe his tears since Trump lost the election.
He said that while he disagrees with Biden’s position on a myriad of issues he wishes him well and is not hoping for him to fail.
“We are all one big airliner and Joe Biden is now pilot, I am not hoping for him to crash.”
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68 Comments
How many more executive orders this guy going to sign?!
Is this the part where Trump lovers pretend to care?
The US will always be a capitalist country. Marxist/Communist socialism is not going to happen here. The word “socialism” is just use as a scare tactic by conservative media because rich people don’t want to fork over taxes at the same percentage rate as non-rich people like me. Biden is not far-left. He and the majority of liberals simply understand that the survival of capitalism requires a robust purchasing class — something that has shrunk drastically in the past few decades because of the widening gap in income. Reagan’s “trickle-down” nonsense never trickled down (surprise!). So we need some regulation on Corporate America to force them to pay livable wages. And, no, the wealthy are NOT all going to leave the country en masse if their taxes go up.
Rich people would love to pay taxes at the same percentage rate as non-rich people.
People are so gullible. This is just Fox News talking to hold on to viewers.
The US is a capitalist country and will remain so. Those of us working toward “Democratic Socialism” just want capitalism to be better regulated so more of the 320 million people in this country get a fair shake. I, for one, am sick of working looooong hours just to scrape by so a few fat cats can stay ultrawealthy. Time to change that.
And I would bet my right arm that capitalism will function MUCH better with a larger middle class that has increased purchasing power.
Whoa. You just made the case for MAGA movement. This is about the middle class, elevating all Americans with jobs and opportunities for Americans first, through capitalism, fair trade and energy independence. The Socialist rhetoric is coming directly from the mouths of AOCs, Andrew Youngs, de Blasio with communistic connotations and propaganda, calls for redistribution of wealth, communistic imagery and slogans propelled by the ‘fighters for justice’ groups. Democrats like Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Cuomo are the establishment, the political elite with different set of rules. Attacks from democrats and left wing media calling Trump supporters to be deprogrammed, cleansed, cult, deplorable, equating them to neo nazis and domestic terrorists IS inciting violence and division. Attacking your fellow neighbor, a passerby, a student, because they’re wearing a red hat, physically assaulting them is violence. No need for Fox News, there are plenty of videos online. Your CNN MSNBC NY Times perpetuating propaganda against people who happen to support MAGA movement and the US Constitution. Democrat’s open borders policies allowing undocumented migrants to stay in US will not help you get your fair share, it will only drive income inequality. Calling those policies racist it’s just what the establishment does. Even a non politician Billionaire was not able to take on the system. MAGA is not about TRUMP it’s about WE The People.
@Tge establishment- MAGA is about none of those things. MAGA is about ignorance, misplaced anger and manipulation.
How’s that $2000 check coming?
We literally just had a President who attempted a coup after not accepting the overwhelming will of the voters, and this guy thinks Biden will be the end of democracy?
Remember when words actually meant things?
Suddenly walls matter if you are the political elite. Remember when receiving kickbacks from foreign countries was an actual crime and the constitution meant to protect basic rights of citizens?
There’s already a wall around the Capitol. Trump commanded the US Army, but was too weak to stop some kids from smashing our Capitol and killing 5 people. Sad!
Now we have the anti Biden people doing essentially the same thing…
Just go already!!!
No one’s making you live here!!!
When did they promise to leave?
People whining as usual.
unsubstantiated
This article is Sunnyside Post cancel culture at its finest. Let this comment also be deleted.
Oops they published your comment. Looks like you were completely wrong ?
I’ve had quite a few of my comments not make it onto the comments section. Admittedly they’ve had a bit of a bite to them or were a little politically incorrect by liberal standards but nothing worse then many posts I read by others. In fact sometimes I’m surprised that they were censored when other posts I see that are pretty inflammatory and propagandists make it.
You will not be laughing when all your rights are taken away. Welcome to the New World Order. The house is 100% accurate.
I can’t believe people go through the trouble of having a sign made and erecting it on their property.
What did the old Soviet Union and Nazi Germany have in common?
They were both socialist.
Actually, far more people have been murdered under the hammer and sickle than the swastika. Fact.
@Past is prelude – Talk about cherry picking historical facts and data. The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945, that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers’ Party (DAP), existed from 1919 to 1920. The Nazi Party emerged from the German nationalist, racist and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, which fought against the communist uprisings in post-World War I Germany.The party was created to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism.Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalist rhetoric, although this was later downplayed to gain the support of business leaders, and in the 1930s the party’s main focus shifted to antisemitic and anti-Marxistthemes.A wide variety of leaders coming to power in different kinds of regimes, such as military juntas, one-party states, dominant-party states, and civilian governments under a personal rule, have been described as dictators. They may hold left or right-wingviews, or may be apolitical. Joseph Stalin of Soviet Union, Adolph Hitler of Nazi German, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Idi Amin of Uganda, Mao Zedong of China , Benito Mussolini of Italy and Donald J Trump of USA do all have one thing in common and it’s called “Totalitarianism”.
You must be posting misinformation here because you got banned from Twitter like the mypillow guy
Sorry to confuse you with facts but…
USSR = Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics.
Nazis = NationalSOZIALISTCHE Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National SOCIALIST German Workers Party).
Is it any wonder liberals run away from the label?
The Nazis were not socialists. While their name did include the word “socialist”, their policies and treatment of left-wing opponents show they were not socialists in any meaningful sense. https://fullfact.org/online/nazis-socialists/
https://www.britannica.com/story/were-the-nazis-socialists
Eh, actually what he wrote is true so how is that misinformation? Have the definitions changed… again?
Nazi Germany was socialist the same way North Korea is a Democratic Republic.
The fact is Nazi Germany was a right-wing authoritarian nation, and the Soviet Union was a left-wing authoritarian nation. The problem isn’t right or left, it’s authoritarianism. And if Trump’s coup attempt succeeded that’s exactly where we’d be right now.
Velvet knight – You’re one of the few guys posting here who has it right. Thank you!
If you see the capital riot as an attempt coup yet blm/antifa as protests then your part of the problem. The woke movement is a slow moving coup which has been more dangerous then the boobs that trashed the capital or trumps presidency. The worst part of all this is it just keeps escalating. Nobody tones it down. It might be decades but we will look back at this and be ashamed of where we took this country. This has made enemies out of each other and IMO will set race relations back greatly. The only winners here are our foreign enemies that probably look with amazement to see political divisions can accomplish what high jacked airplanes and bombs couldn’t.
If you’re anti Antifa then you’re pro fascist.
‘Can’t Legislate Through Executive Orders Unless You’re a Dictator’ said Biden about Trump while signing 24 executive orders first week in office. Trump signed 4 and Obama 5. So who is the dictator? Democratic politicians harassing small businesses with fines and fees, not protecting business owners when their stores got destroyed during blm riots, bailed out rioters who threw Molotov cocktails at government vehicles and police officers, blm mob harassed and killed innocent civilians. Democrats have been inciting violence by their words and actions. Anyone not agreeing with them have been censored, prosecuted, fired, harassed. That’s the definition of Totalitarianism and that’s what what democrats are doing.
Biden will put his pen to his 87th executive order tomorrow condemning banners in front of homes.
1. Deficits suddenly matter again.
2. Executive orders are suddenly bad again.
3. It’s suddenly important for the President to work with the other party again.
4. The economy improves for most Americans.
This guy would rather have a totalitarian and corrupt regime then possibly pay more in taxes.
The sad part that it’s both
The most successful economies and societies in the world all have some degree of socialistic properties. Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden and Norway for starters.
Right on! Oh and can someone tell this banner making homeowner that socialism is an economic system and democracy is a form of government and they are not mutually exclusive? There are many social democracy’s in the world.
Totalitarian socialist regime. Can’t you see the banner? Biden’s totalitarian administration.
Fined by the parks department for putting signs on trees. Ok, I’m guessing BLM must be swimming in fines for all the property damage they caused to city property alone. If not it would appear the city protects some and punishes others based on political opinions.
Sure. But you’d need their name and address to send the fine to. It’s not like all conservatives are getting fined for this individual’s banner.
Actually the collective punishments against conservatives is worse then any monetary fine. Your personal safety is at risk, your job is at risk, and your financial security is at risk. It amounts to a level of real persuasion that others have immunity from. As for blm there are tons of videos and photographic evidence available over the past year or so that actions can be taken against individuals but they seem to choose not to as everyone is in fear of the racial backlash and attacks that would follow if you challenge them. Even the organization itself could be held responsible for the actions of its members but again that would take courage and impartiality, something our leadership lacks.
When in doubt, support the candidate who doesn’t have Nazis at their rallies, or supporters trying to kidnap governors, assassinate senators, or hang a vice president.
So what’s so bad about socialism?
Do tell.
nothing. lived in Toronto for a decade on a work visa. the quality of life was substantially better and so are the people, but its hard to get permanent residence. they don’t just take anyone. that’s how they keep the trash out. they look for young professional talent, mostly engineers and medical professionals.
Canada and Western Europe have been economically viable because Uncle Sam foots the bill for their defense. Europe would have been an economic basket case without those capitalist Marshall Plan dollars after the war.
Wealth cannot be distributed until it is created. Basic logic.
“they don’t just take anyone” “they keep the trash out” Seems like a sound immigration policy. I’d swear it sounds familiar.
On paper looks good, in practice it’s a disaster. People are not created equal, do not confuse with equal rights. No middle class, only political elite with special privileges, not so much for the rest, everyone else is equal.Maybe a sports analogy will help you. Lebron should get paid same as a janitor, doctor, cashier, construction worker. All athletes should get the same pay, they are not competing for the money and endorsements. Will they? How about another. Why would someone want to learn how to be a surgeon, you get almost same pay working at a job that requires less skills and education. How many will want to be surgeons? Will the entire population go to the same surgeons? How long will you wait in line for a much needed surgery free of charge when there are only a few surgeons available. Did you ever live in a socialist country?
Yes, Canada, Sweden, Singapore, UK, Australia, New Zealand. People there are healthier and better off, on average, than here. The US has slipped to second world status.
70 Americans have more money than 200 million. Tax the rich at Reagan levels.
To the same degree those countries are also capitalist. People who lived in socialist countries, under government controlled totalitarian socialist regime, know it doesn’t work. Biden administration of canceling culture, censoring conservatives, accusing the opponent of exactly what they are doing is directly form a socialist dictatorship playbook. This man is very brave, next thing Gagarin will accuse him of, is inciting violence, she has the same mentality as most Biden’s administration, excuse the pronouns, or should we start saying comrades yet?
@Flawed Comparison- The so called “cancel culture” was fine with so called conservatives like you when they cancelled the Dixie Chicks back in the early 2000’s.
Communism overlooks the individual. No gov’t in history can or will ever know what the personal needs of every individual are. It’s impossible. Communism is somewhat like Monarchy in which it takes the property of the individual; a violation of the 4th Amendment.
In the US it’s all about Natural Rights meaning the rights you have are the same rights the first cavemen had +100,000 years ago. Rights that existed well before the USA ever did. Where do they come from? The Creator of It All.
@Natural Rights – Please explain more about “rights the first cavemen had +100,000 years ago.” Cavemen had rights? Even the first cavemen? Do you know the first cavemen existed 2.5 Million years ago. We have the same rights as those cavemen? It’s not the Flintstones, they didn’t use bathrooms and killed each other at incredibly high rates. Just read about the wild tribes of people in the Amazon, Asia and Africa who exist today. Just take a trip to North Sentinel Island.
@The God Delusion: you’re missing the point thus the spirit of Natural Rights. I haven’t the slightest clue on what you’re trying to talk about or trying to prove. Try again?
Natural rights – There is no such thing as natural rights. Rights are made and granted by man.People in authority grant rights. Man created god.
@Natural Rights. – There is no surprise in your response.
The only right “god”gives is the right to die and organized religion has even tried to claim that right as theirs.
You subscribe to positivism. I wonder whats your view on yourself…? Do you have rights only because a group of people said you do? Or do you have rights because you say you do. Your concept of Spirit (God, whatever) is elementary. Like Santa. Nonetheless you’re needlessly combative thus lost the debate.
Should be changed to “communism”. There, fixed it!
Understand what is happening
https://fb.watch/3gNJg_01Ao/
Yes, the dude who authored the 1994 Crime Bill, and who voted for the Iraq War, the 2004 Bankruptcy Bill and who has said he wouldn’t sign Medicare for All if it passed Congress and landed on his desk is definitely a socialist.
…And Biden also contributed to the Patriot Act that initiated a larger decline of human rights than ever seen before. If anything, he is a war-monger, racist, and downright evil.
VP Harris, under her A.G. appointment in CA, imprisoned a HUGE number of minorities for petty drug crimes.
What about any of this is not socialistic either?
Socialism is not about being peaceful or anti-war, so these comments are not relevant. And if you have ever seen how power corrupts, then you would understand how socialism is a slippery slope to full-on communistic fascism.
Exactly. He might as well be another Bush.
This ignorant gentleman has a right to say what he wants.
…ya can’t cure see you next Tuesday.
I want that banner for my house.
@queens lady- If you want one then buy one after all it is a capitalist society. Socialism for rich capitalism for the rest of us.
This is hilarious. Really, the hard left WISHES Biden was a socialist. He’s not.
He’s just a puppet of the CCP.