Could not resist. Surgery tomorrow.
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When radical Democrats are not busy firing police, standing on the corner encouraging rioters and allowing the entire nation to be overrun by illegals, coming from all over the world, they are either being thrown out of office, resigning or being indicted for crimes.
The current Democrat president is mentally challenged, the Saudi's mocked him recently in a Saturday Night satire, their ruler won't even take his telephone calls and our Vice President is the "cackling" stock of the entire world. As for the domestic economy, we have the highest inflation in 40 years and the deficit is moving towards a crippling range.
How did we get into this mess? There is no one cause but an accumulation. Our enemies have been assiduous in attacking our institutions and undermining our republic through intimidation and spreading discord for decades. These Trojan Horses have been aptly assisted by a mass media that has also been both encouraging and supportive.
Yes, the pandemic and personality of the previous president served as trigger mechanisms to launch an effective counter action.
I have several friends who joined in lockstep with the anti-Trump Crowd and now remain silent.
What was once deemed rotten in Denmark is now occurring in America.
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New York Lt. Gov. Benjamin resigns following arrest in bribery scheme
By Christopher Wilson
New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin resigned Tuesday, just hours after being indicted on bribery and fraud charges tied to an illegal campaign finance scheme.
“I have accepted Brian Benjamin’s resignation effective immediately,” Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in a statement late Tuesday afternoon. “While the legal process plays out, it is clear to both of us that he cannot continue to serve as lieutenant governor. New Yorkers deserve absolute confidence in their government, and I will continue working every day to deliver for them.”
When Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned last year after several women accused him of sexual misconduct, the sitting lieutenant governor, Hochul, was elevated to replace him. She then appointed Benjamin as her lieutenant governor. Hochul had expressed her support for Benjamin last week.
The former state senator turned himself in Tuesday morning and was charged with five counts in connection with his failed bid for New York City comptroller last year. Benjamin is accused of working with a real estate developer in order to arrange for thousands of dollars in illegal campaign donations for which, in exchange, Benjamin is alleged to have directed state funds to the investor.
The developer, Gerald Migdol, was arrested in November and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft relating to a scheme to misrepresent and conceal the sources of political campaign contributions. Justice Department officials noted that another individual involved was a candidate in the New York City comptroller race, but did not name Benjamin at the time.
Then a state senator, Benjamin finished fourth in the Democratic primary for comptroller.
According to the indictment, he is facing counts of bribery, honest services wire fraud and falsification of records. Last month, the New York Times reported that Benjamin was the focus of a federal probe.
“Exploiting one’s official authority by allocating state funds as part of a bribe to procure donations to a political campaign and engaging in activity to cover up the bribe is illegal,” Michael J. Driscoll, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the New York field office, said in a statement Tuesday. “As we allege today, Benjamin’s conduct in this scheme directly circumvents those procedures put in place to keep our systems fair.”
Earlier this month, the New York Daily News reported that a subpoena had been issued to Benjamin and members of his campaign staff to release fundraising records from last summer, before he became lieutenant governor. The 23-page indictment accuses Benjamin and others “acting at his direction or on his behalf, also engaged in a series of lies and deceptions to cover up his scheme, including by falsifying campaign donor forms, misleading municipal regulators and providing false information in vetting forms” that were submitted when he was under consideration for the appointment.
Benjamin told Politico last week that he had not told Hochul about the subpoena before she chose him for the position.
“The state police did a thorough investigation. I participated in that,” Benjamin said last week about the vetting process at a press conference on the state budget. “The state police gave a recommendation to the governor. That was process. And that’s typically the process for appointments. So I followed the process as it was supposed to be followed.”
Benjamin, who will likely remain on the ballot due to state election law, was already facing competition in the June primary from former New York City Councilwoman Diana Reyna and progressive activist Ana Maria Archila. Hochul, who is seeking reelection, is facing multiple Democratic challengers, including Rep. Tom Suozzi and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
“Today’s bombshell is an indictment on Kathy Hochul’s lack of experience and poor judgment,” said Suozzi and Reyna, who are running together, in a joint statement, adding that Hochul had “fostered a culture of continued corruption with months of fundraising from pay-to-play insiders and people doing business with the state, and secretive budget deals that resulted in the billion-dollar Bills stadium and little else.”
“Our elected officials should be held to the highest ethical standard to preserve the public trust, and Brian Benjamin has violated that compact,” Archila said in a statement following the arrest. “Albany has been plagued by corruption for too long, with politicians trading favors for the money of the wealthy and powerful. This must stop now.”
Lee Zeldin, the likely Republican nominee for governor, issued a statement calling Benjamin a “bad pick” who was “forced” upon the state by Hochul.
“She owns this ... all of it!” Zeldin concluded. “Terrible judgment!”
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And:
Your Guide to How Biden, Pelosi, and AOC Messed up the Economy
From runaway inflation to gas prices
By DOV FISCHER
A Day That Will Live in Infamy
Biden, Pelosi, and AOC screwed up the economy, causing runaway inflation and skyrocketing prices at the gas pump. Democrats deny it. Here’s how the world works:
Democrats entered the White House on January 20, 2021, a day that will live in infamy. Biden immediately issued executive orders. He canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and issued severe green-climate regulations restricting exploring for oil and gas. No more Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling. He announced he is hell-bent on putting the oil-and-gas industry out of business. A week into his presidency, he issued Executive Order 14008: “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad — Putting the Climate Crisis at the Center of United States Foreign Policy and National Security.”
Soon, Pelosi and Biden orchestrated a $1.9 trillion climate-change and social-spending cash infusion into the economy: “The American Plan.” Looking back, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, has observed: “The American Rescue Plan was a major policy error that haunts us to this day. Biden signed it into law when the economy was growing 6.5%. There was no need to sign that.”
2. Easy Money Ain’t
As trillions in paper money filter in, each person finds his bin laden with cash. People on unemployment receive more for staying home. We feel richer and eager to spend. We’re in the money.
I own a house. I ask $100,000. I have received five purchase offers, all below my asking price. As the “American Rescue Plan” is enacted, one couple among the five potential buyers discuss their bid privately and decide, now that they have more cash, to increase their offer. When they call, I share with them that all the others also now have upped their offers because everyone has more cash. I end up selling for $112,000.
My neighbors also are selling. They planned to ask for $100,000 as I initially did, but now learn I sold for $112,000, so they up their ask and sell for $117,000. Word spreads that “prices are rising, and buyers are paying. It’s a ‘Seller’s Market.’ The next seller tests whether he can get $125,000 and accepts $123,000. The next selling neighbor gets $126,000. This phenomenon spreads throughout the neighborhood, city, and country. Inasmuch as everyone now has more cash, and sellers — including you — always seek to profit, all prices go higher. The department store and fashion boutiques expect people will pay a bit more for clothes because they now have more cash. The hardware store. The stationery store. The supermarket. The coffee shop.
This explains partly how government cash infusions fuel inflation. When everyone has more cash, sellers know it — so they charge more. People either have to pay the increases or lose the opportunities to purchase because others with the added cash will pay the increases. Runaway inflation always accompanies runaway government “stimulus” spending.
Meanwhile, at work, employees demand new raises because they know employers have more cash. They successfully negotiate salary increases of five percent. However, by now inflation has spread throughout the economy at seven percent. Thus, although their prior $100 salary that sufficed to buy $100 of goods and services now leaves them “richer” with $105 to spend, the same goods and services now cost $107. Unlike the Trump years, when “real wages” rose faster than inflation — because those wage hikes were fueled by a rise in productivity and by reduced taxes and regulations — workers now actually fall behind despite a bigger payday.
As more dollars are printed, each dollar has less value. A single dollar that once could have bought a sandwich now requires two, so each dollar loses half its value. By now, pennies have lost all value. Nickels, pretty much too. These are the dimes that try men’s lives.
3. Tilting at Windmills and Outta Gas
I also own an oil and gas company. We have several government leases to explore for oil, but I still need permits to drill. I finally get a permit, but I still may not drill because new green-climate regulations stymie me. Furthermore, a green activist group gets an Obama judge’s injunction restraining my drilling. That litigation will tie me up for three years. When— if — I ever get my permit, defeat the injunction, overcome the regulations, and finally can drill, I must invest the enormous costs of drilling. After all that, my drilling comes up dry. I need to explore another parcel. “Better luck next time.” Maybe.
It is called “exploring” because it is not guaranteed. My bankers have gone bonkers, concerned about lending to me because Biden announces he will destroy my industry. Therefore, because lending to me suddenly entails increased risk, the interest rates on my bridge loans for drilling rise. I pass those increases to the consumer because, like everyone else, I am in business to feed and house my family, not to run a charity. That is why Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, and Buffet remain rich. Taxes on billionaires? They will pass them to me. Mom-and-Pop will pass them to you at the pump.
So Biden has me drilling less. Also, I need pipelines to transport any oil I find. But he is denying or restricting pipelines. My costs go higher as I seek transport alternatives, and I pass those costs to you, too.
Fortunately, we have devised an amazing new method to extract fossil fuels out of shale by hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). We inject a mixture of water, chemicals, and sand at intense pressure into the ground to shatter bedrock formations, thereby releasing embedded oil and natural gas. Fracking means seriously reduced costs to obtain fossil fuel, dramatically less pollution here and throughout our planet as we extract it, and we have enough in our terrain to render us energy independent — with so much excess that we can emerge as the world’s largest net exporter of fossil fuels. We thus can lower our consumer prices, improve our trade balance, and replace Putin and Iran’s ayatollahs as Europe’s and Japan’s key energy sources. But we still need pipelines. And Biden’s regulations aim at replacing us with windmills and solar panels. All’s well does not end well when there are no wells.
Since Biden obstructs expansion, NATO countries continue paying Putin 35 million euros ($38 million) for his oil amid the Ukraine war crimes. Despite “sanctions,” they fund his war and Iran’s terror, supporting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in South Lebanon. That money buys murderous rockets and missiles, builds underground terror tunnels, finances Houthi rebels in Yemen at war with Saudi Arabia, and buys the IEDs (improvised explosive devices) that blow off the legs and faces of American soldiers in Iraq. Our Green New Deal pays for that. Contented cows.
As we reduce our supplies by over-regulating, we have to import energy from dictatorships like Venezuela and Arab Islamic sheikhdoms. We ultimately need to raid our emergency National Petroleum Preserve, our life-or-death supply if ever facing perilous shortages amid world war. We deplete one-third of the emergency supply — say, 180 million barrels — for the self-imposed shortage we have foisted onto ourselves.
Thus do Biden’s helter-skelter green-energy policies cause prices to rise. Each of 10 “oil buyers” needs five gallons apiece, and each is willing to pay $1 per gallon to meet needs. The seller aims to come home with $50 gross. However, Biden-Pelosi-AOC policies now have raised oil prices, as per above. Three of the five oil buyers cannot afford the increases, but they have no choice. They cannot operate without oil. One files for bankruptcy. As a result, all companies to which he owes money (his “creditors”) will get zero. Some of those companies were relying on his payments for themselves to remain economically afloat. Now, however, with his debt discharges, they also must file for bankruptcy soon after. And those discharges lead to more bankruptcies.
The other two, though they cannot afford increases, pay as demanded anyway. They have no choice. They pass along their increased costs to you. One of the two companies produces a great or vital product, and you willingly pay their new higher price. The other’s product is mediocre, not worth the increase, so you decide to stop buying it. In time, they file for bankruptcy, too.
The remaining two companies pay the increases; they can afford it. But the seller, meantime, still needs to bring home $50. Actually, with inflation now impacting, he needs $54 to buy what used to cost him $50. Two of his five buyers are gone; they went bankrupt. So he needs to recoup $54 from his remaining three buyers. He has buyers now for only 30 gallons, not 50, because his buyers still need ten gallons each. Consequently, he now must charge $1.80 a gallon, no longer one dollar. Those costs and increases ultimately get passed along to you at the pump. Blame Putin for war crimes but not for pump shock.
Inflation and soaring energy prices already had erupted in Biden’s first months, fueled by his green agenda, executive orders, and “rescue plan” — well before Putin’s invasion.
AOC majored in economics at Boston University where she graduated with honors. Must have missed class that day.
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Finally:
SHOCKING: Jewish Woman in Critical Condition After Being ...
10 hours ago — In what is nothing short of shocking, appalling, and downright disturbing, a Jewish woman is in critical but stable condition at University ..
Suspect charged with attempted murder for running down ...
2 hours ago — Suspect charged with attempted murder after running down Jewish woman in predominantly Orthodox neighborhood, running over her repeatedly.
NYC Setting New Record In Antisemitic Crimes
NYC Setting New Record In Antisemitic Crimes
Crime is up in general. With Democrats eliminating bail and diverting criminals to all sorts of non-penal programs, thugs have nothing to fear and they can get arrested, be out again, and then arrested again. This has obvious consequences for a range of crimes, including antisemitic attacks which, in New York City, tend to be the work of a criminal or aspirational criminal population of the kind that Democrats have labored to shield from the penal system.
The NYPD says there were 86 anti-Jewish hate crimes in the city in the first three months of this year. At this rate, annual totals would far exceed the 242 reported in 2019 – itself a record before the number dropped during the COVID lockdown.
I don't doubt that the numbers will keep on rising, beyond the general increase in crime, our society is only becoming more broken.
In an incident that took place on a Saturday evening earlier this month, which is the end of the Jewish Sabbath, teens armed with a sword threatened and made anti-Semitic remarks to six yarmulke-wearing boys on the Upper West Side, according to the NYPD
The day before in Williamsburg, police said, a Hasidic man was assaulted in the sort of unprovoked attack that has become increasingly common in recent years -- Brooklynites who are visibly identifiable as Jews, due to their garb and hair coverings, are often the victims of anti-Semitic attacks.
While there’s been a surge in anti-Asian crimes in the city, statistics show that Jews are still the most targeted hate crime victims. Of the 524 hate crimes recorded in the city last year, 198 were designated as anti-Jewish and 131 as anti-Asian.
But of course only one of those groups was formally targeted by former Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, blaming them for the spread of the virus, with the widespread backing of the media. And yet that subject, the most widespread form of targeted religious discrimination, still can't be discussed
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Could not Populism also be a negative way of saying patriotism?
Trump-Style Populism Rises in U.S. and Europe
By Stephen Collinson, CNN
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