Tag Archives: New York City

Having The Courage To Tell The Truth

Posted on by

On Wednesday, The Conservative Review posted an article about the screening of a film called “Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre.” The screenings will be held in Los Angeles and New York City.

The article reports:

Hollywood superstar Gal Gadot will help host uncensored screenings of footage laying bare the atrocities that Hamas committed in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Screenings of the film, which has been titled “Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre,” will be held in Los Angeles and New York City, according to the Wrap. Hollywood celebrities, journalists, and other influential figures are being invited to attend the events.

The Israel Defense Forces are providing 47-minutes of footage for the private screenings. The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee are also helping organize the screenings.

The article notes:

But the backlash against her has been fierce. The Quds News Network, a Palestinian “news” organization with connections to Hamas and Islamic terrorism, posted about the screening on social media, generating more than 50 million views and a ton of reaction.

“When we say these are not harmless opinions or individuals or careers to support, we aren’t exaggerating. Gal Gadot is a former IDF soldier using her access in Hollywood to push propaganda for an ongoing genocide,” said UCLA professor Nour Joudah.

The current spin by the ‘Palestinians’ is that Israel is committing genocide by going into Gaza. Israel is attacking military targets. What was Hamas doing when it went into Israel on October 7?

This Really Isn’t A Surprise

Posted on by

Yesterday MSN posted the following headline:

New York abandons electric snow plows

The article explains the reasons why:

This winter, New York won’t be using electric snow plows. Failure of vehicle tests has caused the local snow removal company to revert to diesel-powered vehicles.

The New York Department of Sanitation had three years ago, requested several Mack electric trucks. Primarily intended to clean streets and remove garbage, one of these trucks had been fitted with a snow plow as part of an experiment. This decision was unsurprising since in the “Big Apple”, it’s standard practice to fit garbage trucks with plows.

The experiment was not successful. The plow, dragging across the road and the snow buildup in front of it, created substantial resistance. Moreover, the plow required almost constant movement, eliminating the option for loading pauses. Consequently, the electric vehicle’s power supply was insufficient for the demands of a New York winter, known for its heavy snowfall, as reported by the website.

…The report further detailed that after nearly two hours, the electric plow had to discontinue the route for recharging. While the truck was efficient for garbage collection, its performance significantly dipped when facing snow removal tasks.

I have a problem with one of the statements above. A New York winter does not have really heavy snowfall. The average yearly New York City snowfall is 40 inches (source here). The average yearly snowfall for Boston is 52.7 inches (source here). The average yearly snowfall for Concord, New Hampshire is 67.7 inches and for Mount Washington, New Hampshire 281.8 inches (source here). If electric snow plows are too wimpy for New York City, imagine how useless they would be in New England.

Dealing With Crime In New York City

Posted on by

Mayor Adams has released his plan to deal with crime in New York City. On Saturday, Hot Air posted an article about the plan.

The article reports:

New York, as with other Democrat-run cities, is experiencing a crime wave. Retail theft–shoplifting–has gone through the roof. Gangs of people go into stores and steal with impunity, leaving with thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. It is both organized crime and disorganized. Thousands of people engage in the practice, with hundreds at least who do it as a living.

The article reports the plan:

The new crackdown includes giving first-time offenders intervention programs instead of prosecution, de-escalation training for retail employees, establishing neighborhood retail watch groups to share information about a theft in real-time with one another and the police, and installing kiosks in stores to connect would-be thieves with social service programs.

No, this isn’t the Babylon Bee.

The article concludes:

Kiosks offering social service programs. Neighborhood groups to watch the crime happen–nobody, after all, is authorized or encouraged to interfere. We all know what interfering with a crime will get the good samaritan: time in Riker’s.

De-escalation training? Now that is funny. Expect to wind up on YouTube being smeared as a White Supremacist for not allowing yourself to be victimized. Oh..you don’t have to imagine it. It happens, and the MSM and the Left work overtime to destroy you.

…It took 6 months to come up with this plan.

Six months.

What is the point? When the tough-on-crime ex-cop suggests that kiosks with social service information are the solution to an ongoing crime wave, there really isn’t a point in sticking around. Pick up and leave.

As long as actions don’t have negative consequences, they will continue.

The Food Police Are Coming

Posted on by

On Tuesday, Breitbart posted the following headline, “Nolte: NYC to Track Household Food Consumption to Fight Climate Change.”

The article reports:

“The Adams administration has announced a plan to begin tracking the carbon footprint created by household food consumption,” reports the Gothamist. This will aid the fascist mayor’s goal to “reduce their food-based emissions by 33%” by 2030.

Please note that the 33 percent goal is specifically related to “food”— the food the people of New York choose to consume.

Further note that if you live in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams will track your food consumption.

I should add that Climate Change is a hoax.

Who would have thought New York City would elect a mayor that made Big Gulp Bloomberg look like a raging libertarian?

The sad thing is that you know the slaves of New York will be A-OK with the government monitoring and manipulating what foods they eat and then shaming them over anything that tastes good:

Mayor Eric Adams announced the plan on Monday along with the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice as part of the city’s ongoing pledge to reduce the impact of climate change. At the same event, the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice published a new chart in the city’s annual greenhouse gas inventory that publicly tracks the carbon footprint created by household food consumption — primarily generated by meat and dairy products.

…

For Adams, who was once diagnosed with diabetes, the recognition that food choices affect climate change dovetails with his push for New Yorkers to eat more plant-based meals. During his tenure, the city’s public hospital system has made plant-centric foods its default offering for patients. Public schools last year added a second day of vegan offerings — although initial reviews were not great.

I am glad that Mayor Adams has his diabetes under control, but that does not give him the right to tell me what I can or cannot eat.

The article notes:

All of this over a hoax.

If Climate Change were real (it’s not), we would not be talking about reducing New York’s greenhouse emissions because the *** “experts” *** told us New York would be underwater eight years ago.

So, as you read above, New York school kids are already forced to eat two vegan meals a day—which is a perfect example of how you lose your rights if you’re dependent on the government.

Families not dependent on the government don’t have to eat two yucky, disgusting, unsatisfying vegan meals a day. Instead, if they wish, they can pack their kids a lunch with a big slab of healthy red meat stuffed between two Twinkies.

If Americans do not wake up soon to the dangers of government overreach at all levels, we will not recognize our country in three years.

A Very Unsurprising Statistic

Posted on by

On Wednesday, Breitbart reported the following totally unsurprising information:

Felony suspects released without bail thanks to New York’s bail reform law are more likely to be rearrested for more felonies, including violent crimes, than suspects who were given bail before the law went into effect.

A study by researchers at John Jay College of Criminal Justice reviewed cases prior to the New York law taking effect and cases after the law was implemented where most suspects arrested for crimes are not required to pay any bail to be released from jail.

Overall, the study found that 47 percent of New York City suspects previously charged with felonies were rearrested for crimes — including more than 31 percent of whom were rearrested for felonies, more than 17 percent rearrested for violent crimes, and almost four percent rearrested for firearm charges.

…Of the more than 1,000 violent crime suspects reviewed by researchers, more than 72 percent were rearrested compared to fewer than 62 percent who were rearrested before the bail reform law.

Similarly, these violent crime suspects were rearrested for felonies at a more than 50 percent rate after being released without bail and rearrested for violent crimes at an almost 36 percent rate. Compare that to before the law when these suspects were rearrested for felonies at a 38 percent rate and a 24 percent rate for violent crimes.

The research on New York’s bail reform law echoes research in other states and cities that have nearly identical bail policies.

In Yolo County, California, for instance, 70 percent of suspects released without bail went on to be rearrested for additional crimes. Many of those suspects were rearrested for violent crimes like homicide, rape, kidnapping, robbery, carjacking, attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, and domestic violence.

Who would have thought that letting criminals out of jail results in more crime?

The Cost Of Being A Liberal Mayor

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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?

Posted on by

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?

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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?

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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?

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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?

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.