What Used To Be A Beautiful City

On Sunday, BizPacReview posted an article about a business in Portland, Oregon, that put a sign on their door:

…Marcy Landolfo has shuttered her Rains PDX shop in the most conspicuous way possible — with a large note on the store’s front door.

“Rains PDX was a locally-owned small business. But, due to the constant, and unrelenting, criminal behavior, coupled with escalating safety issues for our employees, we have decided to permanently close,” the note reads.

Our city is in peril. Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business, in our city’s current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished. Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins… We have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd,” it continues.

The note concludes, “Portland has always been known for its thriving and abundant local, independently owned, small businesses. If small businesses are forced out, then our city will have lost a lot of what makes it a unique and desirable place to live. Please do your part to support small businesses, this holiday season, and beyond. Please be vigilant in voting to make our city safe again.”

The article notes that a local coffeehouse that tried to host a ‘coffee with a cop’ was smashed up & sprayed w/paint everywhere by 6 masked assailants using hammers & crowbars. #Antifa then celebrated the attack on social media.

However, there is hope. The article notes:

Dovetailing back to Landolfo’s note, take heed of how she urged people to “be vigilant in voting to make our city safe again.”

To their credit, some Portland residents have been doing exactly that. Indeed, during the midterm elections earlier this month, they ousted the city’s anti-police, pro-criminal commissioner, Jo Ann Hardesty:

…According to The Oregonian, she lost specifically to political newcomer Rene Gonzalez, a pro-police candidate who wants to re-fund the cops.

The voters are the people who can make a difference locally which will eventually make a difference nationally.

It is well to remember the words of Tip O’Neill–“All Politics is Local.”

 

 

Could This Happen Here?

On Tuesday, BizPacReview posted an article about the gun ban in Canada proposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The article reports:

The leftist Canadian leader made the announcement during a press conference and adamantly stated that the country’s citizens have no business carrying guns without the explicit intent to hunt with them or use them for sport.

“Two years ago, our government banned 1,500 models of assault-style weapons,” he intoned. Then Trudeau listed weapons that are now banned in Canada.

“We also expanded background checks to keep firearms out of the wrong hands. We did it because it is what responsible leadership required us to do. And now, as we see gun violence continue to rise, it is our duty to keep taking action,” the prime minister proclaimed.

So if the laws you already passed are not working, why are you adding more similar laws?

The article continues:

“Today, we’re moving forward. We’re introducing legislation to implement a national freeze on handgun ownership. What this means is it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer, or import handguns anywhere in Canada,” Trudeau declared.

“In other words, we’re capping the market on handguns,” he stated, indicating that Canada would go the way of Australia on guns with confiscation becoming a potential threat to armed citizens there.

“We recognize that the vast majority of gun owners use them safely and in accordance with the law, but other than using firearms for sport shooting and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives,” Trudeau said, according to the CBC.

“We need only look south of the border to know that if we do not take action firmly and rapidly it gets worse and worse and gets more difficult to counter,” he charged.

His wording eerily echoes that of President Joe Biden, who commented on Monday that 9 mm handguns are a threat in America that has to be addressed. He posited that there is no “rational basis” for such high-caliber weapons for self-protection, bluntly calling for a ban on them.

The article concludes:

Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) warned on Twitter, “The dystopian future Trudeau is manifesting in Canada is coming to America if U.S. citizens don’t get involved.”

“The U.S. Constitution is a gift from God. A bulwark against despotism. A unique advantage for Americans. The basis of American exceptionalism. Will it hold?” Representative Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) tweeted.

Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) wrote, “The True North strong and (less) free…” mocking the Canadian national anthem in regards to the stripping of gun rights.

Robby Starbuck, who is running for the House of Representatives in Tennessee, wrote. “Don’t let any leftist tell you that they’ll stop at AR-15’s. They won’t. Just look at Canada. In 2020 they banned AR-15’s. Two years and three weeks later they’re banning handguns too. This is the Dem’s plan. Don’t let them gaslight you. Our 2nd Amendment rights shall not be infringed!”

Chris Palombi (R-Md.) tweeted, “O Canada… Trudeau is turning our neighbors to the north into a totalitarian dictatorship. Just wait until the slippery slope continues and they begin seizing guns… Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Does anyone actually believe that when legal gun owners surrender their guns, criminals will surrender theirs? If legal gun owners surrender their guns, criminals with guns will have a country full of unarmed victims. That’s not really a good thing.

Have The People In Congress Ever Studied Economics?

On Sunday, BizPacReview posted an article about a recent statement by Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey. I lived in Massachusetts for a long time, and I am sorry to say that what the Congressman said is not unusual for a Massachusetts Democrat.

The article reports:

Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat, has claimed that, despite an abundance of evidence showing that “clean” energy is currently neither as reliable nor as efficient as traditional energy, America should invest in it right now instead of the latter.

He made this bold but dubious assertion while delivering a speech this weekend at the Democrat National Committee’s winter meeting.

“Republicans and their oil-soaked cronies … want to feed the American people one of the biggest lies of all – that drilling for more oil and more gas is the path to energy independence,” he said during his speech.

“Republicans say that they have an all-of-the-above plan, but it’s really an oil-above-all plan. The GOP always has stood for the gas and oil party. And its argument of drilling equals energy independence is leakier than an old oil tanker.”

I beg to differ, but America achieved energy independence under President Trump. We were also in a position to send fuel to Europe to lessen their dependency upon Russia. Had we continued on that path, the combination of the lower cost of energy and Europe’s not feeding the Russian treasury, we would not be currently funding Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

The article concudes:

The evidence consists of data and polls showing that prices were on the rise long before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Republicans are not alone in their push for more oil/gas investment. Even Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur renowned for his successful development and promotion of “clean”/”green” technology and solutions, has argued that oil and gas investments are mandatory at this juncture in time.

Everyone, it would appear, recognizes this point except for Democrats, who keep doubling down on “clean” energy, even as the American people double down on their complete disgust with what they say are controlling party’s skewed priorities.

If you actually believe that green energy will provide for our energy needs, please read this article at The Daily Caller. Until we have the technology for green energy (which is most likely to be brought about by a return to a free market economy), clean fossil fuel is possible and efficient.

I long for the return of $2 a gallon gas–I can easily ignore any mean tweets that appear.

Policies Have Consequences

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced that he would end the Gifted & Talented (G&T) program in the New York City Schools. BizPac Review posted an article yesterday detailing the consequences of that decision.

The article reports:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio may have inadvertently started a religious revival in the Big Apple after announcing the elimination of the Gifted & Talented (G&T) program for the city’s schools.

The Diocese of Brooklyn, which serves 1.2 million Catholics in Brooklyn and Queens, cited that their Catholic elementary schools’ enrollment grew by 2.4 percent for the current school year, according to a report by the New York Post.

The increased interest in religious education comes after more than a decade of decline in enrollment for parochial schools in New York.

But this year the tables are turned as public schools in the city have been plagued by low attendance and steep declines in enrollment with nearly 18 percent of New York City school children failing to show up on the first day of instruction. A risqué drag queen performance at a 2017 New York City elementary school talent show probably didn’t help enrollment numbers either.

“The families that came to us last year stayed with us,” Dr. Thomas Chadzutko, superintendent of the Diocese of Brooklyn’s schools explained. “This is a positive time for Catholic education within the diocese […] It is an alternative for families.”

Many parents do not believe that drag queen performances in elementary schools are appropriate. Unfortunately, that is not the only inappropriate thing going on in some of our schools. Parents are beginning to realize that in recent years our public schools have forgotten their mission to teach children how to read, write and do mathematics. Somehow the schools have instead adopted the idea of undermining the values many of the parents are trying to teach their children. The past year or so of remote learning educated parents about what their children were being taught. As parents wake up, we are seeing more children going to religious schools, private schools, or being homeschooled. Parents should be applauded for the actions they are taking to protect their children and making sure that their children will have the chance to excel in the things they do well.

Why Parents Are Getting Involved In Schools

BizPacReview posted an article today about Scott Smith, who was forcibly subdued by police, handcuffed, and arrested at a Loudoun County, Virginia school board meeting in June. It seems there was a valid reason Mr. Smith was upset.

The article reports:

A father named Scott Smith, who was forcibly subdued by police, handcuffed, and arrested at a Loudoun County, Virginia school board meeting in June, is claiming his daughter was raped by a gender-fluid boy wearing a skirt who assaulted her in a high school bathroom.

Smith’s daughter is in ninth grade and attends Stone Bridge High School. The incident reportedly occurred on May 28, 2021, according to the Daily Wire. The father also asserts that the school district is trying to sweep the assault under the rug.

Smith’s attorney Elizabeth Lancaster stated that the boy has been charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of anal sodomy, and one count of forcible fellatio.

The article continues:

Right before Smith was taken down and arrested, the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) superintendent had addressed the district’s transgender policy asserting that the school system had no record of any assault occurring in any school bathroom. That enraged the father because he claims it is a blatant lie.

The arrest occurred after a leftist told Smith she did not believe his daughter was raped. They got into a heated argument. Police intervened and before Smith knew what had happened he was hit in the face, handcuffed, and dragged out of the room with his pants pulled down. The images went viral. Smith is now being charged with two misdemeanors.

The boy who allegedly attacked Smith’s daughter is on house arrest. Lancaster contends that this same 15-year-old boy was also charged with sexual battery and abduction after he forced a girl into an empty classroom, then held her against her will, and touched her inappropriately.

After Smith’s daughter was allegedly assaulted, the school called him to tell him. They claimed they were handling it in-house.

Police were called to the school because Smith was furious over the handling of the matter.

“I went nuts. I called the principal a p**,” he admitted. “Six cop cars showed up like a f***ing SWAT team” to respond to the school’s complaint about an assertive parent, he stated.

“Thank God that I drew enough attention to it, without getting arrested, that we got an escort to the hospital and they administered a rape kit that night,” Smith recounted.

That same day, the principal sent out an email claiming that nothing jeopardizing student safety had occurred, and instead, purportedly made Smith out to be the bad guy.

Please follow the link to the article to read the statement put out by the principal.

The pushing of the transgender movement on our children has consequences. It removes the girls’ room in school as a safe place for young girls. It exposes our young girls to risks that they have not been previously exposed to. There is no rational reason to allow a biological male into a girls’ restroom or a girls’ locker room.

This Would Be Funny If It Were Not So Serious

One of the problems with the political left’s claim that January 6th was an insurrection is that none of the ‘insurrectionists’ had weapons. The only person shot was an unarmed civilian by a policeman, and there are a lot of questions surrounding the incident. I somehow think real insurrectionists might have been armed. I also wonder why they are called insurrectionists when there is public video showing the police waving them into the building. But a narrative is a narrative I guess. At any rate, the political left is not done with January 6th. Their next step is somewhat unbelievable.

Yesterday BizPacReview posted the following:

The FBI has previously stated that no firearms were found in connection to the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, but despite that contention, the media is now breathlessly reporting that authorities have found guns in the homes of protesters.

“Numerous people arrested in connection with January 6 have also had weapons in their homes, including this latest case just today — 3 pistols and an AR-15,” Mother Jones explosively tweeted in reference to an NBC report.

“Some January 6 defendants, including additional Oath Keeper members charged with conspiracy, have lied to investigators and went to significant lengths to destroy evidence of their communications related to the insurrection, according to court documents. Others have kept weapons in their homes in violation of pretrial orders. And some defendants have threatened future attacks,” they reported.

The defendants have not been found guilty of anything yet. They still have Second Amendment rights. I seriously doubt the part about future attacks since there was never an attack to begin with.

The article continues:

NBC New York is reporting that a man named Antonio Vuksanaj was arrested Thursday in connection with the Jan. 6 protest on federal trespassing-related charges. An AR-15 as well as three other guns were allegedly found in his home. The media outlet notes that it is unclear if these were his and if they were possessed legally. It should have been fairly simple for a major media outlet to find out if that was or wasn’t the case but it apparently doesn’t make for as good a headline.

Vuksanaj was turned in by a tipster and has pleaded not guilty. He’s facing trespassing and disorderly conduct-related charges which don’t appear to have any connection to possessing firearms. Nevertheless, outlets such as Mother Jones are seizing on the fact that he had guns at home which may or may not have been perfectly legal.

The article also notes:

Sanborn (Jill Sanborn, an FBI official) contended at the time that nobody from the riot was facing weapons charges, though a firearm was recovered from a van containing Molotov cocktails found near the Capitol. It is not publicly known whose van that was and if those involved were actual protesters taking part in the riot.

Please follow the link above to the article. The tweets in response to the Mother Jones article are hilarious. Mother Jones needs to go back to her days of Acapulco Gold and give up on the magazine.

It Might Have Been Wise To Consider Cultural Differences Before Bringing Thousands Of Unvetted Refugees Into America

Yesterday BizPac Review posted an article about one of the situations America is encountering in bringing into our country the thousands of refugees from Afghanistan. There are significant cultural differences between America’s culture and that of Afghanistan. For instance, pedophilia is very common in Afghanistan and rarely addressed. Child marriage is also very common and considered acceptable. We are bringing in people who routinely engage in both of these practices.

The article reports:

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is demanding answers over a bombshell report that sex traffickers and their victims may have been among the 120,000 people evacuated from Afghanistan.

The problem is that the administration doesn’t really seem to know who was evacuated. All that’s known for certain is that few of the Afghan allies who’d worked alongside America’s veterans and thus earned the privilege of being evacuated actually got out.

“[A] small percentage of the Afghan citizens who got out are the ones the U.S. pledged to place at the top of its priority list: the thousands who had worked for the U.S. and its allies as well as employees of nongovernmental groups and media organizations,” Bloomberg reported Friday.

“In fact, many of the Afghans who were most vulnerable to the Taliban — applicants for the Special Immigrant Visa program intended for translators and others who aided the American war effort — didn’t make it out because the U.S. told them going to the airport would be too dangerous. And they never got a call to come before the last U.S. plane departed to meet President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 departure deadline,” the outlet added.

And so who did make it out of the Middle Eastern nation? According to the Associated Press, some of the evacuees may have been elderly sex traffickers.

…“There have been multiple cases of child brides and polygamous families from Afghanistan arriving at military bases here in America as part of their botched evacuation,” he (Texas Senator Ted Cruz) said.

“Reports even suggest that some of the exploitation was a direct result of the Biden administration’s chaotic evacuation process, a process that has enabled and incentivized coercion and abuse to the point where Biden Administration officials may well be complicit in child trafficking,” the senator added.

The article concludes:

Concerns about the government’s screening measures have once again become an issue because of the Biden administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal and the subsequent rushed evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.

And just like in times past, the left has begun to reflexively accuse anyone who broaches screening standards of being a racist.

It is truly unfortunate that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was handled so badly. An orderly withdrawal would have saved those who helped us and prevented what is currently happening. Now we need to take the time to sort out who we evacuated and do what we can to prevent pedophilia and child trafficking from becoming even more prevalent in America than they already are.

Two Systems Of Justice

Yesterday BizPac Review reported that Kevin Clinesmith, who was found guilty of falsifying a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) court document will not spend any time in jail.

The article notes:

An FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to falsifying a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) court document in an application seeking a warrant to spy on a 2016 Trump campaign adviser will not spend any time behind bars.

Rather, Kevin Clinesmith will serve 12 months of probation and perform 400 hours of community service as part of the only criminal case thus far linked to Special Counsel John Durham’s probe into the origins of the so-called ‘Russiagate’ case.

In August, Clinesmith pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement within the jurisdiction of the Executive Branch and Judicial Branch of the federal government. The offense carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

But the former FBI lawyer did not receive a sentence remotely as serious.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge for the D.C. District James Boasberg, an Obama appointee, said ahead of sentencing that Clinesmith had already suffered enough from losing his job as well as his status due to intense media scrutiny.

Federal prosecutors pressed Boasberg — who, ironically, has served as a member of the secretive FISC and was named its Presiding Judge Jan. 1, 2020 — to sentence Clinesmith to at least several months in prison, Fox News reported.

Clinesmith was referred to the Justice Department for potential prosecution by the DoJ’s inspector general after the office conducted its own review of the origins of the Russiagate operation which targeted former President Trump’s 2016 campaign. A foreign policy adviser to the campaign, Carter Page, was the subject of at least four FISA court spy warrants.

Though not by name, the inspector general accused Clinesmith of changing an email about Page to say he was “not a source” for another government agency. However, Page has said he was an asset for the CIA.

This infuriates me. Contrast the way Clinesmith was treated with the way Roger Stone was treated.

In January 2019, The American Thinker noted:

After news broke of the pre-dawn raid on Roger Stone’s home Friday morning in Florida by twenty-nine heavily-armed agents in nineteen vehicles, lights flashing, CNN serendipitously on hand to film the raid, millions of us realized once and for all that we are no longer living in the America we knew and loved.

Those same millions of us have known for over two years that the Mueller “probe” is a huge and well orchestrated cover-up.  There are now at least two books, Gregg Jarrett’s and Dan Bongino’s, and well researched investigative articles that prove this beyond doubt.

Mueller was appointed by Rod Rosenstein not to investigate Trump collusion with Russia.  The principals all knew that was not remotely true.  He was appointed to conceal and obliterate the volumes of evidence of crimes committed by Hillary Clinton; her campaign; and a group of higher-ups in the FBI, DOJ, and CIA, all of whom were involved in a scheme to prevent Trump from being elected.  All of them have lied under oath and before Congress.  Mueller himself was involved in the Clinton scheme to sell 20% of U.S. uranium to Russia.

All of these felons are walking free; their homes are not being raided in the wee small hours of the morning, but their crimes are far more serious than anything Roger Stone or Paul Manafort might have committed.

That such an aggressive show of force could be visited upon a non-violent person accused of alleged verbal crimes is truly frightening.  That so many in the media are celebrating the use of such a Gestapo tactic is horrifying.  Suddenly, it is catastrophically clear that America is no longer a constitutional republic, a nation of laws and justice.  An unelected, tangential officer of the DOJ has for two years abused his position of power to destroy many lives in the cruelest of ways with impunity.  No one is stopping him and his band of legal bullies. 

The article at BizPac Review concludes:

In December, then-Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham as a special counsel so he could continue his investigation into the origins of the Russiangate operation.

In a scope order leaked to Fox News, Barr wrote that Durham “is authorized to investigate whether any federal official, employee, or any other person or entity violated the law in connection with the intelligence, counter-intelligence, or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns, individuals associated with those campaigns, and individuals associated with the administration of President Donald J. Trump, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III.”

As the November election drew close, Trump grew increasingly frustrated that there would not be at least a report from the DoJ and Durham regarding his findings.

It’s not clear whether Durham is planning to charge anyone else in connection with the Russiagate scandal.

Our Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves.

Ignoring The Backbone Of The American Economy

The Democrat party used to be the party of the working man. I am not sure they ever represented the American entrepreneur, but some recent statements by Marie Harf suggest that the small businessmen in America have been willingly thrown under the bus by today’s Democrat party.

BizPac Review posted an article yesterday about some recent comments by Marie Harf on Fox News Sunday.

The article reports:

In response to a statement from host Chris Wallace that, while 66,000 people have died from coronavirus tens of millions have lost their jobs, Harf appeared to suggest that reopening small businesses wasn’t going to produce much in terms of bolstering the economy.

“We are about to embark on a situation where we’ll see if people can, on their own, social distance, if people independent of government regulations or stay-at-home orders, can act responsibly,” she began.

“And if they can’t, and if we see spikes in some of these places, will these governors be willing to change course in midstream? That’s something we will all see together in real-time,” Harf continued.

In fact, some experts have predicted there will be “spikes” on coronavirus infections because they maintain that keeping Americans at home prevented the formation of “herd immunity” that is necessary to prevent recurrences of the outbreak.

In any event, Harf continued with Left-wing talking points, claiming the country needs “more testing” and “contact tracing” of people who are infected, — the latter of which is code for ‘invading privacy’ with a government-mandated tracking app.

“So, the economy, even if we open nail salons, hair salons Chris, the economy isn’t really going to get going again until we can travel, until we can move around the country,” she claimed. “It will not get going in a really meaningful way by opening small businesses in certain places, and so we have to get all of those things I just mentioned to eventually get to a place where the economy really can open back up.

“That is not happening anytime soon,” Harf said.

Just for the record, Inc. posted an article that illustrates how many Americans are employed by small businesses.

The article reports:

As of the 2010 Census, there were 27.9 million small businesses registered in the United States, compared to just 18,500 companies of 500 employees or more. Included in that total figure are sole proprietorships (73.2 percent), corporations (19.5 percent), and franchises (2 percent). 52 percent of small businesses are home-based. The most important thing to note? 99.7 percent of U.S. employer firms are small businesses.

I am not convinced that anyone in the Democrat party has studied either economics or the American economy.

When Your Weapon Backfires

BizPacReview posted an article yesterday about a recent Rasmussen poll.

The article reports:

A new Rasmussen poll shows more voters believe it is Crooked Hillary Clinton rather than President Trump who is guilty of colluding with foreign operatives during the 2016 election campaign. Of likely voters polled, 47% believe the Clinton campaign was involved in collusion, as opposed to 45% who still buy the fraudulent Trump collusion story.

The worm is turning in spite of a non-stop, years-long onslaught of lies from the never-Trump media about it all. The tipping point is now … with the majority finally discerning the truth and slowly more and more rejecting the coordinated MSM disinformation campaign.

…The March 25-26 survey found 50% of voters satisfied with the conclusions reached by Mueller. About one-third, or 36%, are not satisfied and 13% are undecided.

The article also includes the following:

On March 25th, Yahoo News reported the following:

After 16 months of investigation, the cost had ballooned to $25 million, CNBC reported. Based on those figures, that works out to approximately $1.5 million spent per month. And that’s just working from September 2018, the 16-month mark. The cost has very likely gone up since then. If the $1.5 million figure remains static, taxpayers have paid another $7.5 million between October 2018 and February 2019.

In Mueller’s latest filing, released in September 2018, he reported “spending nearly $3 million on compensation, $580,000 on travel and transportation, $1 million on rent and related expenses, and $300,000 on contractual services, primarily related to IT,” according to CNBC.

The Democrats might want to keep all of these numbers in mind as they pursue their subpoenas of the Mueller Report. After the government spent some serious money and the mainstream media claimed that President Trump was a Russian agent, many Americans were not fooled.

When You Give To A Charity, Know Where Your Money Is Going

Yesterday BizPac Review posted an article about the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Inc., a group of black New York State legislators who run a charity to provide scholarships for black and Latino youth.

The article reports:

The caucus of black New York state lawmakers run a charity whose stated mission is to empower “African American and Latino youth through education and leadership initiatives” by “providing opportunity to higher education” — but it hasn’t given a single scholarship to needy youth in years, according to a New York Post investigation.

The group collects money from companies like AT&T, the Real Estate Board of New York, Time Warner Cable, and CableVision, telling them in promotional materials that they are “changing lives, one scholarship at a time.”

The group — called the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Inc.  — instead spent $500,000 on items like food, limousines, and rap music, the Post found.

The politicians refused to divulge the charity’s 2017 tax filing to the Post despite federal requirements that charities do so upon request.

The article provides some insight as to where the money collected goes:

State. Sen. Leroy Comrie of Queens, the group’s number two, refused to come out when Post reporter Isabel Vincent stopped by his office. All of the politicians mentioned are Democrats.

“The real purpose (of the charity) is to bring people to get over their apathy and out to Albany and get motivated,” the charity’s former chairman, Assemblyman Nick Perry of Brooklyn, previously said.

There has been no money used for scholarships in that past two years, the Post reported, citing sources. That’s even after the Albany Times-Union called outthe charity in January 2017 for meager spending in prior years.

The charity gave $36,000 of its $565,000 in revenue to scholarships in 2015. That year, it spent $85,000 on a concert with Eric Benet and Regina Belle, and $157,000 on food, according to the Times-Union’s analysis of its tax filings.

The group said that year it planned to double the amount of scholarships it gave, but it didn’t happen.

In 2017, its annual event featured the rap artist Big Daddy Kane.

Hopefully the Attorney General of the State of New York will decide that the spending habits of this charity are inappropriate and require this group to actually fund some scholarships. However, it’s New York, so I am not optimistic.

Not Here. Not Now.

Yesterday BizPacReview posted an article about something new on the streets of New York City–the Muslim Community Police.

This is a picture of one of their cars:

The article reports:

Some New York City residents were shocked last week to see vehicles with the words “Muslim Community Patrol” emblazoned on them cruising the streets like police squad cars.

The article includes a number of tweets by people concerned about this community patrol.

This is the response to those tweets:

These tweets reflect a belief among some Americans that the Muslim community wants to usurp America’s constitutionally based system of law and replace it with that of Sharia, a religious law derived from the religious precepts of the Islamic religion.

While these fears may sound outlandish, they stem from actual examples of Sharia being practiced in the United States. A perfect example of this occurred in 2010, when a federal judge appointed by former Democrat President Bill Clinton ruled that it was unconstitutional for Oklahoma to bar state courts from considering the application of Sharia law in their rulings.

Another example happened just last year, when a Minnesota Muslim man intent on imposing Sharia law in his local community reportedly began patrolling his neighborhood and confronting anyone who dared to violate Islam’s strict rules and dress codes.

At the time local authorities received reports about a mob of Muslim men walking around with uniforms that read “Muslim Defense Force” and “Religious Police.”

How is this legal and who is paying for the cars? Please read my article on The Holy Land Foundation Trial if the idea of a Muslim Community Patrol is acceptable to you. This could easily be the start of some very bad things.

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie…

Until recently it was understood that if you immigrated to a country, you learned the language and adopted the culture. You might keep the traditions of your culture alive in your own home, but for the most part, you tried to assimilate into the culture of your new home. Unfortunately, there are many immigrants who have recently arrived in America with the idea of transforming America into the country they left. If you are happy with the culture of the country you left, please stay there–do not attempt to bring that culture here.

BizPac Review posted an article today that illustrates one of the problems immigration without assimilation creates.

The article reports:

group of Muslims who work for Amazon would rather pray than work, and because the multinational tech giant refuses to grant them this entitlement, the Muslims are now fighting back. How? By protesting and airing their grievances to sympathetic ears in the left-wing media.

On Dec. 14 the group of Minneapolis-based East African Muslims held a protest outside the Amazon warehouse where they work to demand longer break times.

…At the moment the Muslim warehouse workers receive two 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute break per shift. According to Somali immigrant Khadra Ibrahin, these breaks are too short. Why? Because they make it impossible for her and her peers to both use the restroom and pray.

“And so most of the time we choose prayer over bathroom, and have learned to balance our bodily needs,” she said to Vox, adding that to do otherwise would affect their production rate.

Each employee must pack at least 240 boxes per hour, or 4 per minute, which is possible so long as their breaks are short, i.e., under 15 or 30 minutes. But to use the restroom and pray, Ibrahin and her coworkers would need longer break times. And that’s exactly what they want.

“Workers and the community want respect,” Abdirahman Muse of the Awood Center, which reportedly organized the protest, said to Vox. “Responding to our demands for basic fairness and dignity are things we shouldn’t have had to even push Amazon on. We don’t want charity; we want respect and a fair return on the hard work that brings Amazon their profits.”

A spokesman for Amazon noted, “Associates are welcome to request an unpaid prayer break for over 20 minutes for which productivity expectations would be adjusted.” To me that seems like the perfect solution–you may have all the prayer breaks you want but you will only be paid for the breaks other employees are also paid for. Amazon has a responsibility to allow for religious practices–it does not have a responsibility to pay someone to practice their religion on company time.

I hope that Amazon stands strong on this–caving would set a very bad precedent.