Tag Archives: New York City

The Cost Of Being A Liberal Mayor

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Open borders are expensive in many ways. A number of mayors of sanctuary cities have been forced to put their money where their mouth is, and it hasn’t been pretty. One recent example is Mayor Eric Adams in New York City.

On Wednesday, Front Page Magazine reported the following:

Want to know why Mayor Eric Adams is panicking? The numbers are ugly. New York City has no shortage of social problems, but Biden’s open borders crisis is really taking a bite out of the Big Apple.

Each illegal migrant costs NYC, over $10,000 a month.

New York City on average spends about $363 a day on each asylum seeker household receiving services in city shelters and emergency relief centers and is on track to spend a total of $1.4 billion by the end of the fiscal year in June, Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol said during a recent City Council hearing.

The cost for the “asylum seeker crisis” could double to $2.8 billion in the next fiscal year, Iscol told the panel during a hearing last week. He said the city cannot maintain that support.

That could be somewhere in the neighborhood of 2% of the city’s budget, but it piles on top of innumerable social problems that are already draining a city whose tax base is fleeing.

More than 30,000 newly arrived migrants are staying in city-run facilities. If those numbers continue to worsen, they’ll eat up even more of the budget.

I wonder what feedback the Biden administration is getting from the mayors whose cities are suffering because of illegal immigration. The negative impact of allowing children into the schools who have not been properly vaccinated for measles, chickenpox, etc., is being felt by all of the residents. The Democrats want voters and the Country Club Republicans want cheap labor, but meanwhile both groups are hurting average Americans and their children.

Green Technology vs. Cold Weather

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On Sunday, Pamela Geller posted an article at The Geller Report about the problem New York City is having plowing the snow from the recent snowstorm. Traditionally, garbage trucks with snow plows are used for snow removal in New York City.

The article reports:

Don’t count on seeing electric garbage trucks plowing snow from city streets any time soon.

The city Department of Sanitation’s goals to become carbon neutral are clashing with the limits of electric-powered vehicles.

The department aims to switch all 6,000 vehicles in its fleet from gas to electric as part of the state’s goal to reduce emissions by 2040. But city officials say they haven’t found electric garbage trucks that are powerful enough to plow snow.

The department has ordered seven electric rear loader garbage trucks, custom-made by Mack and costing more than $523,000 each, with delivery slated for the spring. Used for curbside trash collection, the department’s current rear loader truck fleet runs on diesel and is outfitted with plows to clear streets during snow season.

But officials say previous electric trucks tested by sanitation have not lasted longer than four hours plowing snow before running out of power, and the new electric trucks will be used for trash collection but not plowing snow.

The technology used in electric cars needs to be modified to deal with cold weather. Tesla does have a heater that can be installed in their cars to increase their range in cold weather. However, not everyone can afford either the Tesla or the heater. At some point in the future, electric cars may be a viable option to the internal combustion engine, but that time is not now.

 

How To Improve Election Integrity

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On December 30, Tom Fitton posted the Judicial Watch Weekly Update.

The Update reports some good news about election integrity:

New York City Removes 441,083 Ineligible Names from Voter Rolls Thanks to Judicial Watch!

We just settled a federal election integrity lawsuit against New York City after the city removed 441,083 ineligible names from the voter rolls and promised to take reasonable steps to clean its voter registration lists in the future.

We filed the lawsuit in July after the city failed to clean voter rolls for years. The lawsuit, filed under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), pointed out that New York City removed only 22 names under federal law over six years (Judicial Watch v Valentine et al. (No.1:22-cv-03952)).

Our suit detailed how New York City’s “own recent data concedes that there were only 22 total” removals under this provision “during a six-year period, in a city of over 5.5 million voters. These are ludicrously small numbers of removals given the sizable populations of these counties.”

Moreover, the “almost complete failure of Kings, Queens, New York, Bronx, and Richmond Counties, over a period of at least six years, to remove voters” under a key provision of federal law “means that there are untold numbers of New York City registrations for voters who are ineligible to vote at their listed address because they have changed residence or are otherwise ineligible to vote.”

The settlement details how the city responded to our notice about its voting roll deficiencies with a massive clean-up:

[The Board of Elections] notified Judicial Watch that, in February 2022, they removed, pursuant to Section 8(d)(1)(B) of the NVRA, 82,802 registrations in Bronx County, 128,093 in Kings County, 145,891 in New York County, 66,010 in Queens County, and 18,287 in Richmond County, for a total of 441,083 registrations.

[The Board of Elections] notified Judicial Watch that going forward they intend to cancel registrations pursuant to Section 8(d)(1(B) in each odd-numbered year in the months following a federal election.

Specifically, the city also agrees to track in detail and report its voter roll maintenance efforts through 2025:

For both 2023 and 2025 … the [Board of Elections] will notify Judicial Watch … on or before March 31, by means of separate excel spreadsheets for Bronx County, Kings County, New York County, Queens County, and Richmond County, of the number of removals, including removals pursuant to … the NVRA, made during the previous two years.

The NVRA requires states to “conduct a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove” from the rolls “the names of ineligible voters” who have died or changed residence. Among other things, the law requires registrations to be cancelled when voters fail to respond to address confirmation notices and then fail to vote in the next two general federal elections. In 2018, the Supreme Court confirmed that such removals are mandatory (Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Inst. (138 S. Ct. 1833, 1841-42 (2018)).

This historic settlement is a major victory for New York voters who will benefit from cleaner voter rolls and more honest elections. We are pleased that New York City officials quickly acted to remove 441,000 outdated registrations from the rolls. We look forward to working together under this federal lawsuit settlement to ensure New York City maintains cleaner rolls for future elections.

We are a national leader in voting integrity and voting rights. As part of our work, we assembled a team of highly experienced voting rights attorneys who stopped discriminatory elections in Hawaii, and cleaned up voter rolls in California, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, among other achievements.

Please follow the link above to read the entire post. There is some good news here about the future of America’s elections.

Which Police Are Operating In America?

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If you are an American living overseas, you don’t expect to be monitored by American police where you live. Unfortunately, that is not the expectation of Chinese citizens living in countries other than China.

On Saturday, The Daily Caller posted an article about a Chinese police station in New York City.

The article reports:

The U.S. government must immediately investigate and shutter the recently discovered overseas Chinese government police station in New York City for potential violation of U.S. laws, several experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In 2022, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established secret police stations in over 100 cities around the world to conduct intimidation and harassment operations against overseas Chinese, human rights organization Safeguard Defenders revealed in a September report. While other countries have announced probes into the alleged police stations, the location within American Changle Association — a Chinatown community organization in New York City — continues to operate outside legal boundaries and should be shut down, experts told the DCNF (Daily Caller News Foundation).

“This is a disgrace. How in God’s name could they openly have these communist police stations in our country?” Beau Dietl, a retired NYPD detective and current head of Beau Dietl & Associates private investigation firm, told the DCNF.

The article continues:

“There has been a noticeable uptick in incidents where the Chinese government is targeting people on other nations’ soil,” Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch of Idaho, who also serves on the Senate’s intelligence committee, told the DCNF. “This shows the Chinese Communist Party is not afraid to exert its will outside of China, and we should do all that we can to counter this behavior.”

China’s overseas police stations enable the CCP to illegally monitor and oppress dissidents across the globe, Conor Healy, director of government research at the video surveillance research organization IPVM, told the DCNF. “I have met many individuals who have fled China fearing for their lives, who go on to be harassed and threatened in Canada and in the U.S.,” said Healy, who provided testimony on China’s surveillance state during the 2021 Uyghur Tribunal proceedings.

Americans have an option, we can either defend freedom when it is threatened on or shore or we can simply ignore the threats. If we continue to ignore the threats, no one will be safe in America, Please follow the link above and read the entire article. The Chinese police station in America is not a unique event.

Is It Finally Over?

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In a recent “60 Minutes” interview, President Biden declared that the Covid pandemic is over. Other powers-that-be in the administration quickly walked that statement back. What happens if the pandemic is over? Well, you can’t have a state of emergency for something that no longer exists. You can’t require masks and vaccines without the emergency declaration. You can’t shut down churches, schools, and businesses without an emergency declaration. Ending this emergency will end the need for more money being spent on Covid. Generally speaking, ending the emergency is not good news for those in Washington seeking to increase their power.

On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported:

New York City will be ending its private sector vaccine mandate starting Nov. 1 as the city continues to lift pandemic-related restrictions.

Democratic Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday the mandate will end Nov. 1 for private employees but will remain in place for public employees, according to NBC 4 New York.

“Our vaccinated workforce kept the city open and operating, with over 300,000 employees it was crucial to put it in place and we’re keeping it in place,” Adams reportedly said. “Our vaccinated workers have carried out their jobs and stepped up when the city needed them the most and we think it’s imperative to send the right message and lead by example.”

Adams said the lifting of restrictions would provide businesses, as well as families, with more flexibility.

The article concludes:

The city will also be ending the vaccine requirement for schoolchildren to play in sports and other extracurricular activities, NBC 4 New York reported.

The announcement comes just after the New York City Department of Education recently fired more than 800 educators who were not in compliance with the city’s vaccine mandate.

I don’t want to read too much into this, but I suspect that the teachers who refused to get the vaccine might also be the teachers who objected to teaching Critical Race Theory. What a convenient way to make them go away.

It’s Different When It Happens In Your Own Backyard

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Democrats in blue states have strongly supported President Biden’s lack of security on the southern border. They have frequently stated that America is a nation of immigrants while somehow neglecting to mention that the immigrants who built America came here legally to help build a nation–they were givers–not takers. Some mayors and governors have proudly claimed that their states or cities would be sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. Well, some of the chickens have recently come home to roost.

On Sunday, The New York Post reported the following:

Hundreds of migrants — at least some bussed to the Big Apple by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — lined up outside Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx on Sunday to get healthcare coverage, food and other items including school supplies and free phones.

The event, organized by the city hospital system, was billed as a “resource and family fun day” for the migrants and their children, many of whom have come to New York City in droves in recent weeks.

“I came to New York about three days ago. I am a welder, and I am looking for work here,” Venezuelan refugee Adrian Medina, 32, said through a translator.

I wonder how the unions who supported the Mayor feel about illegal immigrants willing to work jobs for less money.

The article concludes:

At least some of the migrants had been bussed to New York City by Texas’s Republican governor, who has raged about what he calls Dem President Joe Biden’s out-of-control lax border policies, while also targeting Democratic city mayors.

The migrants crossed the Mexico border into Texas illegally, then said they were seeking asylum, which allows them to legally stay in the US while their cases wind through the courts.

MetroPlusHealth said it was offering at least temporary healthcare coverage for the migrants at Sunday’s event.

The line to get into the event on the hospital’s Great Lawn stretched down the block.

Migrants were also provided library cards and back-to-school supplies for their kids.

City Hall estimates more than 4,000 migrants have arrived in the city in recent weeks.

The city Department of Homeless Services on Friday asked Big Apple hotels to help find 5,000 rooms to house newcomers — on top of a previous request of 600.

New York City is getting a taste of what Texas and Arizona have been dealing with since President Biden took office.

Common Sense From The Judiciary

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On Tuesday, NewsMax reported that San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer struck down a law that allowed non-U.S. citizens to vote in school board elections in San Francisco.

The article reports:

The law permitting noncitizen parents of school-age children to vote in school board races was approved in 2016, took effect in 2018 and was extended indefinitely last year 

The law was challenged by California attorney James Lacy in March of this year, with numerous groups joining the lawsuit, including the California Public Policy Foundation and the U.S. Justice Foundation.

The plaintiffs argued: ”The State of California has a long-standing requirement that voters must be United States citizens. This requirement applies to every election in the state, even those conducted by charter cities, because determining voter qualifications is a matter of statewide concern where state law supersedes conflicting charter city ordinances.”

The suit also argued that since the San Francisco Unified School District receives money from state taxpayers, the whole state has an interest in its voters’ qualifications and that the board is elected in accordance with California law. In addition, it argued that the city does not have the authority to redefine who is eligible to vote, which would override the California Constitution.

In June, a New York City court struck down a law allowing noncitizens to vote in city elections (article here).

As more illegal aliens enter the country, there will be a move by Democrats to allow these non-citizens to vote. Hopefully the courts will continue to uphold voting rights for citizens. Are there any countries in the world today that allow non-citizens to vote in their elections?

When Reality Shows Up

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One America News posted an article on Tuesday about what appears to be a change of attitude on the part of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. It seems that New York City is being overwhelmed by the surge of illegal immigrants looking to make a home in the city.

The article reports:

New York City Mayor Eric Adams sounded the alarm on the surge of illegal aliens coming to the Big Apple. During a press conference Sunday, Adams warned the city about the massive influx.

One of his campaign priorities was standing up for “undocumented New Yorkers” by making sure NYC remained a “sanctuary city.” He doubled down on that promise by informing residents that right now “this is an all hands on deck” moment.

Adams went on to say residents must all be on board after asking the administration for help last week while calling the migrants a “real burden on New Yorkers.” Border towns are familiar with NYC’s plight as more than 3 million migrants have surged into the country since Joe Biden took office.

Adams pleaded with the White House to provide aid to help accommodate the more than 2,800 people who recently entered the city’s shelter system. The Mayor was quick to blame migrants sent by Texas and Arizona, but also acknowledged federal migrant flights have contributed to the total sum. Adams listed a number of services for migrants he would like to be financed by federal tax dollars.

The problems New York City is encountering have been an everyday challenge for cities along America’s southern border since the Biden administration took office. These problems have been ignored by Democrat leaders in other parts of the country. Now that the illegal aliens are moving north, some Democrat leaders are beginning to notice the problem.

On July 17th, Fox News reported:

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday to discuss the persistent homelessness problem plaguing her city.

Host Margaret Brennan brought up a Washington Post report that suggested homeless shelters are now being filled with illegal immigrants being bused in from Texas and Arizona.

Bowser admitted that it’s a “significant issue” and called on the federal government to get more involved as she fears illegal immigrants are being “tricked” into traveling to her city.

On April 6th, I quoted a report from The New York Post:

The White House has quietly resumed its after-dark charter flights of underage migrants to a suburban airport north of New York City — after a Post expose led to their suspension last year.

The Post watched as a group of migrant teens got off an Avelo Airlines plane that arrived at the Westchester County Airport near White Plains at 9:25 p.m. Thursday. The group then boarded three waiting buses that drove off about 50 minutes later.

The Democrats are all for illegal immigration until it comes to their city.

 

Politics Or Medicine?

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On Friday, The Epoch Times reported that New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced that the vaccine passport system and school mask mandates will expire on March 7th. That is good news for New Yorkers. However, don’t get too comfortable–once a system of passports to enter restaurants and entertainment venues is set up for any reason, it can be resurrected for any other reason.

The article reports:

The mayor’s decision comes as a number of other Democrat-led cities, municipalities, and states have dropped COVID-19-related rules in recent weeks. They have cited a drop in the number of COVID-19 cases nationwide.

“This is about giving people the flexibility that is needed to continue allow not only safety, but we have to get our economy back on track,” Adams told reporters during an announcement at Times Square. “It’s time to open our city and get the economy back up and operating.”

New York City, under the de Blasio administration, became one of the first places in the United States last year to impose a vaccine passport system, impacting restaurants, gyms, sports venues, concerts, and similar businesses.

Critics say that the mandate created a two-tier society of vaccinated and unvaccinated people and also led to the unfair demonization of people who haven’t received the shot. A number of protests erupted across the city with thousands of demonstrators walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and other bridges in protest of the rules.

Starting in late 2021, New York City also has laid off thousands of workers, including police officers and firemen, who did not comply with the city’s vaccine mandate.

The mandates were probably illegal in the first place, and some have been struck down by the Supreme Court. However, I suspect the larger issue here is the approaching mid-term election. The Democrat party is associated with the mandates. States like Florida and North Dakota, run by Republicans, have abandoned mask and shutdown requirements very early in the epidemic and have fared as well or better than the states with strict lockdowns and mandates. States with Republican governors have recovered economically more quickly because they have loosed many of their Covid restrictions that were put in place nationally early in the pandemic. The elections are approaching, and even Democrat-run states are trying to recover their economies before November (even though President Biden’s economic and energy policies are going to make that very difficult).

Just remember, the freedom Americans gave up during the Coronavirus has not yet been won back. Mandates and shutdowns are still possible. What we need is a Supreme Court case that will make it clear that mandated masks and shutdowns are a violation of individual liberty and are thus unconstitutional.

A Definite Step In The Wrong Direction

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New York City has a new mayor. It was hoped that Mayor Eric Adams would change the direction of the city–the city is not the safe, wonderful tourist attraction it has been in the past. Unfortunately, one of Mayor Adams’ first steps is in the wrong direction. The Western Journal posted an article on Sunday about a recent decision by Mayor Adams.

The article reports:

American citizenship is no longer required to vote in New York City’s local elections.

Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday he supports a plan to allow non-citizens to vote in Big Apple municipal contests, saying it was the “best choice,” according to the New York Post.

The bill was passed by the City Council last month and took effect Sunday because neither Adams nor former Mayor Bill DeBlasio vetoed it, according to The New York Times.

About 800,000 people who are not U.S. citizens can now vote for New York City mayor, council races, and local ballot propositions. Although the law is aimed at legal citizens, it also allows gives the vote to participants in the Deferred Action for Childhoods Arrivals program — who were brought to the U.S. illegally as young children.

At the moment, the law does not apply to state and local elections.

The article notes:

New York City’s board of elections must develop rules to implement the plan by July, with it taking effect in the 2023 round of local elections, the Guardian reported.

There is a lawsuit that has been filed. I believe this law is unconstitutional. Hopefully, the judges who hear the case will follow the constitution in making their decision.

What Has Happened To Our Constitution?

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On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about a recent incident in New York City.

The article reports:

New York City was the first large metropolitan area to require vaccination identification cards to enter restaurants, bars, dining establishments and various public and private venues. Now comes the enforcement part.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has started deploying vaccination police, and making arrests of people who do not present papers to prove their status.

The article includes the video below:

The article includes a warning for all of us:

Many police and law enforcement officers will tell you they will not comply with such orders. However, when those orders actually materialize, the police compartmentalize their behavior and do exactly what they are told.

The local police in your town will do exactly the same if they are ordered to carry out the rules of the city officials in your area. Your local police will do this regardless of what they might say right now.

As we witnessed in Australia, once the police officers start carrying out these types of operations, the only way to make it stop is to make them uncomfortable. That requires mass non-compliance by large numbers of citizens to overcome the mental barrier the police use to justify their conduct.

Then, after the police start getting uncomfortable arresting moms, dads and children, it takes open and vocal public shaming on a large scale toward the officers on a community level to get them to stop.

Remember, when the Chinese government first told the regular army to open fire on the students in Tiananmen Square, the soldiers would not shoot. The Chinese Communist government then brought in the Mongolian divisions who had no connection to the local community. You know what happened next.

This is frightening.

Letting Even Non-citizens Vote

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Just the News is reporting today that New York City lawmakers are set to vote on a measure that would amend the city’s charter and allow green card holders and those with work authorizations visas to vote in citywide elections.

The article reports:

Mayor-elect Eric Adams, a Democrat, supported the idea and campaigned on it during his election earlier this year.

“We cannot be a beacon to the world and continue to attract the global talent, energy and entrepreneurship that has allowed our city to thrive for centuries if we do not give immigrants a vote in how this city is run and what are priorities are for the future,” he said while on the campaign trail.

However, Mayor Bill de Blasio, also a Democrat, feels differently.

“I don’t believe it is legal. Our law department is very clear on this,” he said during an interview on “The Brian Lehrer Show.” Adding that the second issue with the proposal is that it undermines efforts to get immigrants to become citizens.

“I think there’s a real set of mixed feelings it generates in me about what’s the right way to approach this issue,” he also said.

The bill stipulates that residents must be living in the city for at least 30 days prior to an election and will apply exclusively to municipal elections, not any state or federal ballot questions.

Anyone willing to make a wager as to how long it will be before the thousands of illegal immigrants streaming into our country will be given some sort of status that allows them to vote in local elections. Even if they can’t vote in federal elections, the true power is in local elections–the local candidates who win their primary elections are the ‘farm team’ for Congress and the Presidency. Laws like this will dramatically change our country from a Constitutional Republic to a place where people who may not understand either our history or how our government is supposed to work are in charge.

Notes On The Kyle Rittenhouse Trial

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At some point in the next day or two we will probably get a verdict or a decision on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Whatever the verdict or the decision, it will probably be followed by some rioting or violence. Why would there be rioting or violence if the Antifa or Black Lives Matter (BLM) people get the verdict or decision they want? Because it’s not about the verdict or the decision–it’s about chaos, intimidation, and destabilization of society.

There is a drama being played out here, and it will continue to be played out until Americans and the courts put an end to it. The drama includes what is happening in Kenosha and it also includes the recent threatening of the Mayor-elect of New York City by an activist. The activist essentially told the Mayor-elect that if the Mayor-elect chooses to enforce the laws in the city when he takes office, there will be riots. There are those among us who would rather destroy what others have built than successfully build things themselves.

At this point I need to mention that if I were Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother, I would have tied him to the bed to prevent him from going to Kenosha during the riots regardless of how noble his intentions were. However, that is not the question. The fact that he was open carrying a weapon in a riot (legal, but probably not smart) is not the question. Just for the record, of the four people in the incident who were carrying guns, Kyle Rittenhouse was the only person legally entitled to own a gun. The legal question (and the only question that should be asked at this trial) is whether or not Kyle Rittenhouse had the right to defend himself when threatened. During the trial, it was revealed that one of the men shot drew his gun to fire at Kyle Rittenhouse. That evidence alone should be enough for the jury to protect Kyle Rittenhouse’s Second Amendment rights.

So why are we going on day three of jury deliberations? Let’s back up and look at the whole picture. The mainstream media (with no evidence) has portrayed Kyle Rittenhouse as a white supremacist (despite the fact that the three people he shot were white). The media has failed to mention that Kyle Rittenhouse’s father and much of his family lives in Kenosha and that Kyle Rittenhouse when to Kenosha after being asked to help protect private property. Neither of these facts should have any bearing on the verdict, but the omission of these facts is being used to manipulate public opinion. Since the members of the jury have not been sequestered, it is quite likely that they are aware of the media spin and the unrest that spin is fomenting.

Remember, the verdict should be determined by the facts and the law in any case brought before a jury. A verdict should not be influenced by threats of violence against the jury, the judge, or the city. To bow to those threats of violence is mob rule and will only result in future verdicts based on fear of the mob rather than the evidence and law.

Pettiness On Parade

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Mayor de Blasio will be leaving office soon. His term in office has not been without some pretty major scandals (generally ignored by the media). In March 2019, The Federalist Papers reported that the Mayor’s wife, Chirlane McCray, was given $850 million for a mental health program she was spearheading. The second major scandal involved the horse-drawn carriages in Central Park.

The article reports:

The program, ThriveNYC, has fallen far behind its goals and appears to be a massive failure for the city.

But even in spite of that the city has decided to increase the budget of the program which is expected to spend $5 billion in the next five years.

The program was set up to screen 78,000 new mothers for post-natal depression. What actually happened between 2016 and 2018 was that slightly more than 28,000 patients were screened and 570 were offered help. Narcan kits were also handed out, but there are no statistics saying how many were used. When an attempt was made to acquire a budget, they received two budgets with very different numbers. No one seems to know exactly how the money was spent.

There was also the matter of the horses in Central Park (article here). In early 2014, Mayor de Blasio announced that he was going to put a high priority on removing the horse-drawn carriages from Central Park. After all, asking horses to pull carriages in a world of automobiles is cruel. Animal rights groups backed him up. Well, not so fast. It seems that Steve Nislick, chief executive officer of a New Jersey-based real-estate development company, Edison Properties, has an interest in removing the horses–Edison Properties owns multiple properties in the area where the stables for the horses are located. New development of those lots could be quite profitable.

Now to today’s scandal. Mayor de Blasio wants to break the Trump organization’s contract to run the Ferry Point golf course in the Bronx by Nov. 14 – a move that could cost the city over $30 million. As if the city didn’t have enough financial challenges.

Red State reported yesterday:

Former President Donald Trump got a reprieve from the city’s efforts to evict his company from the Ferry Point golf course.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Debra James granted the Trump Organization a temporary stay from Mayor de Blasio’s effort to break the company’s contract to run the Bronx course by Nov. 14 – a move that could cost the city over $30 million.

After the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, de Blasio ended contracts for Trump’s company to operate the Central Park Carousel, the Wollman and Lasker ice rinks in the park, and the Bronx golf course.

The city’s Parks Department quickly picked new operators for the ice rinks and eventually found a new company to run the the carousel. It also awarded a new license for the golf course to a Georgia-based company, Bobby Jones Links.

The Trump Organization sued over the golf contract, maintaining in court papers that the deal was nixed over politics.

Judge James granted a stay…

Stay tuned for more foolishness out of New York City.

 

Actions Have Consequences

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On Friday The U.K. Daily Mail reported that dozens of cargo ships anchored off the coast of New York City and Los Angeles are experiencing waiting times to unload as long as three or four weeks. The ports lack the manpower to unload the ships.

The article reports:

Dozens of cargo ships anchored off the coasts of Los Angeles and New York face shocking wait times of up to four weeks and railyards and trucking routes are hopelessly clogged due to the lack of manpower to unload goods – with an expert warning that the government needs to intervene or face spiraling inflation and unemployment.

The backlog of billions of dollars of toys, clothing, electronics, vehicles, and furniture comes as the demand for consumer goods hit its highest point in history as consumers stay home instead of spending money on travel and entertainment.

Supply chains have lagged far behind consumer demand due to a lack of manpower at American ports and the restrictions that came with the COVID-19 outbreak early last year. These constraints, which include social distancing and mandatory quarantines, have severely limited the number and ability of port workers to do their jobs.

This is another example of the bad things that happen when the government gets involved in business.

As Milton Friedman once stated:

“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

The article concludes:

In an open letter on Wednesday, the workers groups warned that fragmented and inconsistent pandemic restrictions around the world have thrown global shipping into chaos.

The letter was signed by the union bosses of IRU, the world road transport organization; IATA, the International Air Transport Association; ICS, the International Chamber of Shipping; and ITF, the International Transport Workers’ Federation.

‘We are witnessing unprecedented disruptions and global delays and shortages on essential goods including electronics, food, fuel and medical supplies,’ the shipping workers warned.

‘The impact of nearly two years’ worth of strain, placed particularly upon maritime and road transport workers, but also impacting air crews, is now being seen,’ the group said. ‘Their continued mistreatment is adding pressure on an already crumbling global supply chain.’

‘At the peak of the crew change crisis 400,000 seafarers were unable to leave their ships, with some seafarers working for as long as 18 months over their initial contracts,’ the letter said.

‘Flights have been restricted and aviation workers have faced the inconsistency of border, travel, restrictions, and vaccine restrictions/requirements,’ it added.

‘Additional and systemic stopping at road borders has meant truck drivers have been forced to wait, sometimes weeks, before being able to complete their journeys and return home,’ the workers said.

The groups called on governments to grant freedom of movement for transport workers and prioritize them for vaccinations. 

It may be that the coming shortages are being accidentally created by our government, but there has been so much discontent sown by the Biden administration during their time in office, I am beginning to wonder what it accidental and what is on purpose. Is it possible to mess up our country so thoroughly in nine months accidentally or does it have to be intentional?

Doesn’t Anyone Here Know How To Count?

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The New York Post posted an article today about the ongoing saga of the New York City Democrat primary race. There seems to be an unusual amount of difficulty in getting the votes counted and figuring out who the Democrat candidate for New York City Mayor will be.

The article reports:

The city’s bumbling Board of Elections said Wednesday that Eric Adams maintained his lead in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary — one day after officials threw the race into chaos with a botched count.

Preliminary results posted on the embattled election agency’s website showed Adams narrowly ahead of Kathryn Garcia, 358,521 votes (51.1 percent} to 343,766 (48.9 percent).

In an ironic twist, the percentages are identical to the ones reported Tuesday, when Garcia overtook Maya Wiley to vault into second place pending the counting of absentee ballots.

But the vote spread between Adams and Garcia shrank to 14,755 from 15,908.

In a statement, Adams’ campaign called the results a “simulation,” adding: “Our campaign was the first choice of voters on Election Day and is leading this race by a significant margin because we put together a five-borough working class coalition of New Yorkers to make our city a safer, fairer, more affordable place.”

The article notes:

In a public apology late Tuesday night, the BOE said those results included a test run of 135,000 fake votes that weren’t cleared from its computer system.

The error marked the latest in a series of screw-ups that have plagued recent elections in the city.

But the corrected count is far from complete, with more than 125,000 mail-in, absentee ballots that arrived ahead of Tuesday’s deadline still being counted.

…Tuesday’s epic fail has sparked calls for reform that include disbanding the 10-member Board of Elections, which is composed of five Democrats and five Republicans — one each from the city’s five boroughs — who are hand-picked by their local party leaders.

“We’ve seen some pretty bad errors before, but this one seems to be a national embarrassment,” city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said Wednesday.

“Hopefully, the national nature of this will finally spur some change.”

It’s time to consider making some changes to our election process. It is clear that in some places, it is not working. I don’t know whether this is the result of incompetence or if someone is trying to change the results, but American voters need confidence in their elections. If the current officials do not inspire that confidence, we need new officials.

Unfortunately This Is Not An Isolated Incident

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On Thursday, PJ Media posted an article about a resident of New York City who attended the rally for President Trump in Washington on January 6th.

The article reports:

Joseph Bolanos doesn’t wear horns, isn’t a crackpot, and isn’t a terrorist. He has been a neighborhood watch leader in New York City’s Upper West Side for 23 years. In 2012, as president of the West 76th Street Block Association, Bolanos put up signs reading “rat xing” to shame the city into cleaning up the garbage. The neighbors loved him. Now the 69 year old is a neighborhood pariah. One neighbor who brought him Thanksgiving dinner recently wrote him a nasty-gram wishing him death. “I hope Antifa gets you,” the note read.

What changed? Bolanos attended the Trump speech on January 6. He did nothing wrong. He didn’t breach the U.S. Capitol. He never even went inside. He watched the former president deliver a “boring” speech, left early, went back to his friend’s hotel (where he has geotagged photos to prove it), and later went to the Capitol building, where he stood outside with friends after it was all over.

His Leftist neighbors, shocked that he went to see Trump and “had those views,” called the FBI January 6th tip line to report him.

“I opened the door and there’s about 10 tactical police soldiers and one is pointing a rifle at my head. [They had] a battering ram and a crowbar.”

It could have been worse. He could have been raided and then rounded up and imprisoned in solitary confinement for little to no reason as hundreds of other people have following the Capitol riot on January 6.

The article continues:

NBC, tipped off about the raid in advance, was there when the FBI Terrorism Task Force raided the apartments with battering rams and carried out box after box of items taken from the homes. The NYC affiliate reported in February:

Several neighbors claimed the man boasted of being at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots and took video of the event. Some said he called it a great day on the street, at a local cafe and on social media.

“I was walking down the street and I overheard him bragging about having been there and having taken video,” said neighbor Dennis Regan.

[…] One neighbor said that Bolanos had been “a great leader of the block and helped us in all kinds of ways,” but also said he didn’t know Bolanos “had those views.” Some some said the man who had become a face of the block had changed from the man they once knew.

“I used to talk with him a lot, but lately he never said anything,” said Luis Aguilar, a superintendent in the area. “He would walk by, he wouldn’t say hello like he used to do before.”

Although he has not been charged, sources familiar with the investigation say charges could come in the coming days. Sources told NBC New York the FBI wants to look at his electronics as prosecutors in D.C. decide on specific counts.

The article notes:

It has been four months and Bolanos hasn’t gotten back his devices, nor have any charges been filed against him.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. I know someone personally who attended the rally (did not enter the Capitol because she became aware that the people urging the crowd on were not part of the pro-Trump rally), had her PayPal account canceled, and had an employee quit, calling her a traitor. This is not acceptable in our Republic. Holding an opposing political view is not grounds for arrest or losing freedom. We need to stand up against this regardless of which party is doing it. Otherwise we will never have the open debate we need to find the best answers to America’s problems.

An Heroic Policewoman

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Yesterday The Daily Wire posted an article about the shooting in New York City’s Times Square on Saturday.

The article reports:

Footage of the Times Square shooting on Saturday, when three innocent bystanders were shot, including a four-year-old girl, shows a heroic female member of the NYPD running through the chaos that erupted, carrying the little girl in her arms to safety.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller tweeted, “Whether [officers are] rushing toward the danger to help save a little girl or rushing home to family after their tour this #MothersDay — the dedication of NY’s Finest knows no bounds.”

Please follow the link to the article to see the video of the policewoman’s actions.

The article notes:

“Police did not recover a gun at the scene, but three shell casings from a .25 caliber were found on West 45th Street,” PIX 11 reported. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, deeply upset, ripped New York City’s softened criminal justice policy, including ending cash bail, ending “broken windows” policing, and various police reforms, snapping, “How many kids have to be shot before we take this seriously?” Fox News reported.

The New York Post reported on Sunday that a suspect has been identified in the shooting and that he was reportedly attempting to shoot his brother when the three bystanders were shot. “Farrakhan Muhammad, a 31-year-old CD peddler, was identified as the alleged shooter in Saturday’s horror,” the Post reported, adding, “Two sergeants with the Manhattan South Detective Bureau were then working a fatal overnight stabbing at a West 31st Street single-room-occupancy hotel when they spotted a man who looked almost identical to the alleged shooter, even down to his clothes, hanging around, sources said.”

When the police queried the man, he claimed that his brother had aimed for him. “The suspect has been busted before, including last year for allegedly assaulting a random passerby who tried to intervene when Muhammad started hassling a couple on the street, sources said,” the Post noted.

All of us need to remember that our police are there to help and do a good job of keeping order and helping people. It’s time we weeded out the bad apples in the profession and praised the heroes who are policemen who go to work every day to maintain law and order.

Pettiness On Parade

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The cancel culture’s attack on President Trump has soared to new heights since he left office. We have reached the point where in some circles it is probably a crime to mention his name in any positive way. This is not only ridiculous, it is not helpful in building unity in America. Half of the country (at least) voted for President Trump. Those in the media might do well to remember that.

Hot Air posted an article today that illustrates how ridiculous things have gotten.

The article reports:

We learned last month that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was cooking up a plan to cancel all of the Trump organization’s contracts with the city. Those contracts involve the operation of a golf course, the carousel in Central Park and two skating rinks. The contracts were set to expire in April anyway, but apparently, the city’s showboating mayor couldn’t wait that long. It was just announced that de Blasio wants the Trump-owned operations shut down and moved out by February 26. (In one week.) That means that operations will end tomorrow to give them time to pack everything up. So any children showing up to go skating this week will find the rinks closed for business.

First we keep the children out of school, then we deny them outdoor recreation, and then we wonder why they might be depressed.

The article continues:

This pathetic move by de Blasio is being done for partisan political reasons and he’s not even trying to hide it. One of his spokespeople said three weeks ago that “Trump has been impeached from operating the ice rink.”

Like a bad dart player who always misses the bullseye, Bill de Blasio has misfired yet again and hit the wrong target. He’s not doing all that much “punishing” of the Trump organization because they were going to be out in less than ten weeks anyway. But in his haste to generate another headline as a hero of the #RESISTANCE, the Mayor shut down the skating operations without having anyone lined up to take over and run them. So the rest of the skating season in Central Park has been “canceled” rather than Donald Trump.

As we discussed here when Bill’s plan was originally announced, Hizzoner has probably set the city up for some legal and financial problems while simultaneously icing out anyone who enjoys skating. Eric Trump had already made it clear that he would be going to court if de Blasio made good on his threat and terminated the contract early.

The Mayor claims that the contracts contain a provision allowing for early cancellation if the contractor is found to be engaged in “illegal activity.” The entire basis for his claim of illegal activity is the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill. But Donald Trump hasn’t been convicted of any crime related to that, nor even charged in a court of law. (Impeachment doesn’t count and he wasn’t convicted in that “court” either.) On top of that, Trump doesn’t personally operate the division of the company that runs the skating rinks. His son does.

The article notes that if Eric Trump sues the city and wins, the taxpayers will be on the hook for the damages. New York City has paid a high price for electing Mayor de Blasio, and it appears that the price is about to go higher.

 

Ruining Education Even In Private Schools

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In many areas of America, private schools are still doing in-person learning while public schools are on either mixed schedules or total remote learning. A few public schools are doing in-person learning, but they seem to be a minority. Unfortunately this will create a major divide in American society in five to ten years. Children that are learning remotely are failing at a much higher rate than those that are learning in person. There is also the issue of children that may not have access to the broadband they need for remote learning. The school shutdowns have done a major disservice to our children. Private schools have been there for some children to fill the gap, but not everyone can afford private school.

Meanwhile a private school in New York City has decided to make some changes that are not sitting well with some of the parents of the students. Today, Hot Air posted an article about The Dalton School, an expensive private academy on Manhattan’s posh Upper East Side.

The article reports:

The school counts many celebrities and other famous folks among its almuni, including Anderson Cooper and Christian Slater. Parents who manage to land their children in the college prep academy shell out more than $50K per year for the honor. But now they’re running into a bit of a problem. The school is experiencing what the New York Post describes as an “uproar” after a number of faculty members signed off on an antiracism manifesto” that includes a list of demands for the school to meet so they can combat systemic racism or whatever else they’re complaining about. And many of the parents aren’t having it.

The article includes the list of demands:

So what has everyone so up in arms? The list of “demands” from the teachers who signed the manifesto aren’t simply decrying what they perceive as raism. They’re looking to overturn the entire social order of the school. Some of the bullet points seem fairly reasonable, such as ensuring a more diverse hiring policy and expanding the curriculum to cover a more inclusive range of subjects. But some of the others are simply out of this world. Here are a few of the lowlights:

    • Hiring 12 full-time diversity officers, and multiple psychologists to support students “coping with race-based traumatic stress.”
    • Paying the student debt of black staffers upon hiring them.
    • Requiring courses that focus on “Black liberation” and “challenges to white supremacy.”
    • Abolishing high-level academic courses by 2023 if the performance of black students is not on par with non-blacks.
    • Donating 50 percent of all fundraising dollars to NYC public schools if Dalton is not representative of the city in terms of gender, race, socioeconomic background, and immigration status by 2025.

Hiring dozens of “diversity officers” and psychologists should drive up the tuition a good twenty percent or more. I wonder how well that will go over? But that’s hardly the worst of it.

There are a few things here that stand out. It seems a little unfair to pay the student debt of black staffers and not white staffers. If both groups are paid the same salary, why should one group get an extra benefit? Isn’t that racist? I particularly like the idea of abolishing high-level academic course if the performance of the black students is not up to the performance of the other students? Don’t people send their children to private school to take these advanced courses? Even public schools have not abolished advanced placement courses, although I should be careful not to give them any ideas.

The article concludes:

Small wonder that some of the parents are already bailing out. And as they leave, the school will be losing even more of the revenue they would need to meet this list of demands. If enough of them vote with their feet, the school won’t be able to cover its costs and none of them will have a job. Wouldn’t that just be a shame?

Would you pay 50k a year for that?

 

American Ingenuity At Work

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Zero Hedge posted an article today about a New York City pub owner who has had enough of Governor Cuomo’s shutdown orders that have closed his business.

The article reports:

In what is a hilarious bit of irony for Democrat politicians in New York, a pub that had its liquor license yanked due to Covid rules has now declared itself an “Autonomous Zone” and is continuing to do business.

The bar, called Mac’s Public House in Staten Island, said publicly: “We refuse to abide by any rules and regulations put forth by the Mayor of NYC and Governor of NY State.”

They also painted “AUTONOMOUS ZONE” on the sidewalk outside the bar and put signs in the windows claiming “As of November 20, 2020, we hereby declare this establishment an AUTONOMOUS ZONE”.

The pub had its liquor license revoked by the state and was slapped with thousands of dollars in fines after defying New York’s latest move to “orange zone status” (whatever that means) thanks to the very huge brain of “Emmy nominated” Governor Andrew Cuomo. 

Co-owner Danny Presti told The Post: “At this point, we’re OK with it, because we’re not paying it. [The Sheriff’s Department] is issuing us $1,000 fines, so they keep coming back. We’re still here. We’re not letting them in.”

Co-owner Keith McAlarney said in a recent YouTube video: “We’re not backing down. You think you scared me by . . . saying I don’t have a license now to serve liquor now? Well guess what? That liquor license is on the wall. If that liquor license is gonna come off the wall, it’s gonna be done by Cuomo. You wanna come down here and pull that license off the wall?”

To me, the interesting thing about the lockdowns is who they impact. Many small businesses have been forced out of business while big box stores and Amazon are making huge profits. Most of the people who frequent bars are not in an age group that is at high risk of complications from the coronavirus.

My husband and I have recently recovered from the coronavirus. We have no idea how or when we became infected–we wore our masks when required and we not generally in large groups of people. We continually interacted with the same ten or so people that we generally interact with. No one in that group of people has been infected by the virus. When we began feeling like we were coming down with a cold, we went into isolation because we didn’t what to share whatever we had. We didn’t find out it was coronavirus until five days into it. However, during those five days, we self-isolated. Closing down businesses is an overreaction. Years ago when I took a course on food safety, one of the things mentioned was that if a restaurant employee showed up at work with a cold, he could be assigned to chores that did not involve food preparation or interacting with customers. A little bit of common sense would solve a lot of the spread of this virus.

 

Is This Really A Good Idea?

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Yesterday The New York Post posted an article about a recent statement by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio about one of the things that will happen if Joe Biden is elected President.

The article reports:

Mayor Bill de Blasio is hoping a federal stimulus package akin to FDR’s New Deal will help curtail crime in the Big Apple, he said Monday.

Speaking to NY1’s Errol Louis, Hizzoner said if Joe Biden is elected president, New Yorkers should expect a stimulus deal that will help get the city “back on its feet” and combat a spike in murders, shootings and burglaries.

“If Joe Biden’s elected president, the most likely time for a major stimulus is February, and I’m thinking along the lines of the New Deal, and he’s obviously talking about emulating FDR,” the mayor said.

“The second we have that, New York City’s in a position to address a whole host of issues, avert layoffs, but also to do a lot of positive things,” he added.

The mayor also said a coronavirus vaccine that is expected in a matter of months will help reboot the city’s economy — and drive crime down.

Let me do a little translating here. What the Mayor is looking for is a stimulus package that will undo the bad fiscal management that has plagued New York City for some time. One of the reasons the stimulus package has not passed is that the Democrats in the House of Representatives want to use the stimulus to bail out Democrat-controlled cities that have huge budget deficits. The Republicans in the Senate want to use the stimulus bill to help businesses and their employees get back on their feet. It should be noted that in a well run city, getting businesses and employees back on their feet will increase tax revenue; and if the city is run well, help deal with any budget deficit. We have a number of cities in America that need to get their spending under control. A federal bailout will not help curb their excessive spending and should not happen.

When Facts Get In The Way Of A Good Talking Point

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The Washington Examiner posted an article today that highlighted one of many lies told by Joe Biden in last night’s presidential debate.

The article reports:

Former Vice President Joe Biden said during the final presidential debate Thursday night that there is “no evidence” raising the minimum wage kills businesses.

“There is no evidence that when you raise the minimum wage, businesses go out of business,” Biden told Trump. “That is simply not true.”

The article notes a few statistics:

In 2017, a Harvard study concluded that a San Francisco minimum wage increase resulted in some businesses closing their doors.

According to the Heritage Foundation, minimum wage increases not only kill jobs, up to 400,000 in California alone, but also “disproportionately hurt low-income, low-skill workers and families.”

The article also includes some screenshots of some tweets. Here are a few lines from those tweets:

.@JoeBiden: “There is no evidence that when you raise the minimum wage, businesses go out of business. That is simply not true.”
A new study shows his plan to do just that could kill 2M jobs by 2027.

…Joe Biden just lied again. After raising minimum wages, fast food restaurants fired a lot of people after raising minimum wages

The above tweet notes that a bill to be introduced to the New York City Council would require employers to provide a justifiable cause to fire fast food workers.

Another tweet states:

The city’s (Seattle) escalating minimum wage has meant a slight increase in pay among workers earning up to $19 per hour, but the hours worked in such jobs have shrunk, a study commissioned by the city found. It estimates there would be 5,000 more such jobs without the Seattle law.

Part of the problem is the misunderstanding of the purpose of the minimum wage. The minimum wage was never meant to be an income that would meet the needs of an independent working person. The minimum wage was meant to allow young people to enter the workforce and learn the basic skills of being a productive worker–courtesy, working as a team, showing up on time, leaving on time, developing a work ethic. These are the skills that allow workers to move past minimum wage. If we have a society where people are remaining at minimum wage, maybe we need to look at our education system that produces those workers.

How Voter Fraud By Mail Works

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On Saturday, The New York Post posted an article exposing how mail-in voter fraud works.

The article reports:

Mail-in ballots have become the latest flashpoint in the 2020 elections. While President Trump and the GOP warn of widespread manipulation of the absentee vote that will swell with COVID polling restrictions, many Democrats and their media allies have dismissed such concerns as unfounded.

But the political insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears prosecution, said fraud is more the rule than the exception. His dirty work has taken him through the weeds of municipal and federal elections in Paterson, Atlantic City, Camden, Newark, Hoboken and Hudson County and his fingerprints can be found in local legislative, mayoral and congressional races across the Garden State. Some of the biggest names and highest office holders in New Jersey have benefited from his tricks, according to campaign records The Post reviewed.

“An election that is swayed by 500 votes, 1,000 votes — it can make a difference,” the tipster said. “It could be enough to flip states.”

The article explains the method used:

The ballot has no specific security features — like a stamp or a watermark — so the insider said he would just make his own ballots.

“I just put [the ballot] through the copy machine and it comes out the same way,” the insider said.

But the return envelopes are “more secure than the ballot. You could never recreate the envelope,” he said. So they had to be collected from real voters.

He would have his operatives fan out, going house to house, convincing voters to let them mail completed ballots on their behalf as a public service. The fraudster and his minions would then take the sealed envelopes home and hold them over boiling water.

“You have to steam it to loosen the glue,” said the insider.

He then would remove the real ballot, place the counterfeit ballot inside the signed certificate, and reseal the envelope.

“Five minutes per ballot tops,” said the insider.

The insider said he took care not to stuff the fake ballots into just a few public mailboxes, but sprinkle them around town. That way he avoided the attention that foiled a sloppy voter-fraud operation in a Paterson, NJ, city council race this year, where 900 ballots were found in just three mailboxes.

“If they had spread them in all different mailboxes, nothing would have happened,” the insider said.

…“You have a postman who is a rabid anti-Trump guy and he’s working in Bedminster or some Republican stronghold … He can take those [filled-out] ballots, and knowing 95% are going to a Republican, he can just throw those in the garbage.”

In some cases, mail carriers were members of his “work crew,” and would sift ballots from the mail and hand them over to the operative.

In 2017, more than 500 mail-in ballots in New York City never arrived to the Board of Elections for races that November—leaving hundreds disenfranchised. They eventually were discovered in April 2018. “For some undetermined reason, some baskets of mail that were bound to the New York City Board of Elections were put off to the side at the Brooklyn processing facility,” city elections boss Michael Ryan said at the time of discovery.

The article continues with details on how those intent on voter fraud target nursing homes and states without voter ID laws. Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It is frightening to know that this has gone on for years. It is time for voter fraud to end.