Categories
Quick Analysis

Governor Tells Citizens to Leave

This article was provided exclusively to the New York Analysis of Policy and Government by New York radio personality Ted Flint.

Increasingly, those who believe in limited government, low taxes and traditional moral values are deemed racist, or “deplorable.” Politicians, including Hillary Clinton and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo feel free to engage in verbal abuse against them.  During the 2016 Democratic primary debates, Ms. Clinton, when asked who she believes the “enemy” is, didn’t say terror, Russia, China, poverty or disease. She said, “Republicans.”

 New York’s Governor Cuomo has doubled down on that concept.

Cuomo promised within 100 days of his new term, “The most progressive agenda this state has ever seen, period.” It sounds good, if you’re a progressive. But what if you are not fully on board with the Governor’s statist agenda or his methods for implementing it? Well, you’ll have to find another state to call home. The governor has hinted that on more than one occasion – and many New Yorkers, 1.2 million of them over the last decade, have taken him up on his offer. In fact, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, New York’s population continues to decline faster than any other state. The report found New York was just one of nine states to see a decrease in population, losing an estimated 48,510 residents between July 1, 2017, and July 1, 2018. That’s more than any other state. Deep Blue Illinois saw the second largest population drop at 45,116. Upstate New York has been hit the hardest. Since 2010, 42 of the 50 upstate New York counties lost population.

The governor and his fellow democrats don’t appear to understand the reasons for New York’s outward migration. The governor has blamed New York’s cold climate for the exodus, but it’s the economic climate that is fueling the decline. The best and brightest New Yorkers are fleeing to more friendly economic environs in lower-taxed Red States, where the cost of living isn’t so onerous.

With Governor Cuomo’s State of the State coming soon, what better time to assess the economic well-being of what was once called the Empire State, under his “progressive” reign. The state is plagued by a government that has to raise taxes to pay for its profligate spending.

Due to limitations of space, we’ll confine our criticism of the Governor to three areas: ethics, economic development and religious liberty. In 2013, the governor created the Moreland Commission to weed out public corruption and to recommend reforms to the state’s ethics and election laws. Less than a year later, the governor abruptly shut down the commission. Cuomo’s office came under harsh criticism for interfering and restricting the commission’s investigations. According to media reports, then Secretary to the Governor, Lawrence Schwartz, barred the commission from issuing subpoenas to organizations with ties to the governor. With characteristic hubris, Cuomo said, as reported by Crain’s New York, “It’s not a legal question. The Moreland Commission was my commission…It’s my commission. My subpoena power, my Moreland Commission. I can appoint it, I can disband it. I appoint you, I can un-appoint you tomorrow.” 

The latest ethics cloud hanging over Albany involves allegations the governor had improperly received details of a closed-door vote of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics. The difference is that while we now use chemical methods to achieve that youthful appearance, our ancestors turned levitra fast delivery why not try here to nature. The symptoms will depend regencygrandenursing.com cialis sale upon which organ in the body is either low or lacking. The cheap cialis professional disease may well be caused by several conditions. The best and the visit these guys now tadalafil 20mg india most cost effective way of finding out well the site functions. According to the Albany Times Union, Julie Garcia, appointed to the panel by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, complained to the former JCOPE Executive Director in January that a Heastie staff member had contacted her shortly after a commission meeting and informed her of Cuomo’s alleged conversation with Heastie. Garcia told the TU : “I was being told the governor knew how I voted in executive session, even though I was unable to confirm whether or not the information was accurate.” Garcia resigned from JCOPE October 10, six days after the Inspector General’s Office issued a letter saying it could not substantiate the allegations the governor had been tipped off to how Garcia voted. That vote was about whether JCOPE should investigate Cuomo’s former campaign manager Joe Percoco, who performed his duties from his government desk, which was not far from the governor’s second floor office at the Capitol.  State leaders are tight-lipped about whether the IG’s Office interviewed the governor or Heastie concerning the matter.

Then there are the economic development “initiatives” – or rather, boondoggles, that went bust. Case in point, SUNY Polytechnic Institute opted to sell a Rochester building after waiting six years to fill it with high-tech jobs. Needless to say, the jobs never materialized. When SUNY Poly purchased the site from Kodak in 2013, the governor and his “economic guru” Alain Kaloyeros vowed millions in private investments. According to the New York Post, “Team Cuomo promised the building would become a 100 million dollar solar panel manufacturing plant. Then it was a 500 million dollar electronics facility- and, next, a photonics showplace. None of these grandiose plans panned out. And Kaloyeros is headed to prison.

Not content with New York State having some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country, the governor and his democratic cohorts are continuing their attempts to silence pro-lifers by recently passing into law, the Boss Bill.  According to Denise Harle, legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom Center for Life, the Boss Bill mandates that employers must “be willing to employ people whose beliefs and behavior as to “reproductive health decisions” run counter to their own.” In other words, if you run a Christian church or a Christian school, you could be forced by state government to hire people who don’t share your faith values or your respect for the lives of the unborn. This law, however, may be unconstitutional. Last year, the U.S. Supreme court ruled that faith-based ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ are not obliged to tell women that free or low cost abortions may be available elsewhere. In a victory for free speech the High Court ruled that a pro-abortion rights state government “cannot co-opt pro-life speakers to deliver its message for it.” Of course, state leaders could have carved out an exemption for religious organizations, but chose not to do so.

In 2014, during an Albany radio program the governor said republicans with “extreme” views were creating an identity crisis for their party and represented a bigger concern than Democrats such as himself.

“Their problem isn’t me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves,” “Who are they? Right to life, pro-assault weapons, anti-gay — if that’s who they are, they have no place in the state of New York because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” Then California Governor Jerry Brown offered a similar ultimatum to Golden State residents just three years earlier. If they didn’t like the progressive policies emanating from Sacramento, they were free to leave. So much for inclusion.

Many New Yorkers are choosing that option.

Illustration: Pixabay

Categories
Quick Analysis

Young, Pretty, and Pointless

Much is always made when attractive young people, male or female, gain victories in primaries or general elections against older opponents.  It is not, perhaps, a coincidence that many of those emphasizing such “qualifications” are television journalists whose major assets is their appearance or pleasing personality, or Hollywood figures whose looks are their livelihood.

What’s missing in this equation is the actual content of their political message. A clear example comes from the coverage of the upset Democrat primary victory of young, pretty Alexandra Ocasio, a socialist, over Joe Crowley, who was a major powerhouse in Congress.

The extensive emphasis on Ms. Ocasio’s youth drowned out the fact that the political philosophy she espouses, and the solutions she has proposed, are disastrous, with a clear and overwhelming record of utter failure. If you like what’s happening in Venezuela, you’ll love what Ms. Ocasio wants to do in America.

The incumbent Ocasio defeated in a lightly attended primary was, himself, a standard example, albeit much older, of a left-wing empty suit.  He parroted all the clichés of that perspective, but with less zest or appeal.

Ms. Ocasio is not alone. In a Nebraska swing district, progressive neophyte Kara Eastman beat another established Democrat figure.  Others will follow.

For far too long, American politics has had all the intellectual heft of a high school election for prom king and queen. For eight years, the totally cool Barack Obama held the country and the press in thrall, despite his stunningly bad record of economic failure, his massive waste of taxpayer dollars, the most failed foreign policy of any post WW2 president, and a horrible habit of emphasizing racial division.  But he was cool, so none of that really seemed to matter.
Considering that these cock rings are usually not a cause of worry are headache and flushed order tadalafil no prescription skin. Insufficient blood supply to the male sex organ causes erectile dysfunction. india sildenafil Conceivable symptoms: A few patients may encounter cerebral pain, loose india generic cialis bowels, discombobulation, annoyed stomach, heaving, nasal blockage. You can cheap viagra from online pharmacy from the privacy of patient couples.
Part of the dilemma is the crossroad Democrat leaders found themselves in. Over the eight years of the Obama Administration, the leftists who had assumed power in the party were able to give their platform a truly substantial chance. It failed and failed utterly. The party had two practical options in its aftermath. One was a return to a more centrist position and become more in line with past leaders such as Presidents Harry Truman and John Kennedy, and senators such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Henry “Scoop” Jackson. That would allow it to reclaim its blue-collar base but would have lost the enthusiasm of people like Ms. Ocasio.  It chose to become even more radical, as extremists such as DNC chair Tom Perez and Vice Chair Keith Ellison assumed power. The cool kids stayed on board, but the centrists withdrew.

Much of this tendency arises from the failure of our educational system. In what (very) little substantive instruction in history our students receive in the younger grades, and the biased perspectives they are subjected to in higher education, it is the emphasis on cool rather than on real that pervades. You just don’t see many Ronald Reagan posters in college dorms, but the murderous Che Guevara is often seen, despite both his personal failings and those of the political system he espoused.

Tell the legions of Ocasio and the self-proclaimed ultra-cool ANTIFA supporters about the blatant comparisons of North and South Korea, of East and West Germany, of the USSR and the USA, and you will get an eye-roll and a smattering of bumper-sticker clichés in response. That’s truly worrisome. Cool is perhaps part of growing up when you are young and bear few responsibilities. But sooner or later you have to grow up and comprehend the reality that real world problems require real world solutions that actually work.

Families seeking to put food on the table can’t eat cool, and the aggressive leaders in Moscow, Beijing, and terrorists from elsewhere won’t be kept at bay by young and pretty.

Photo: Ms. Ocasio, from her website

Categories
Quick Analysis

Cancer on the Left

Fascist-minded radicals have replaced liberal politics with hard-left extremism. Their stranglehold on academia, and their several attempts (some still ongoing) to limit political discourse to only what they agree with has now expanded into outright violence.

Not content with efforts that shut down a Trump rally in Chicago on Thursday, another protestor attempted to physically attack the Republican front-runner at a campaign stop in Ohio. It would be a mistake to assume that these acts are a reaction to Trump’s occasionally over-the- top comments.  Were the front runner any other Republican, or indeed, a more conservative Democrat, the uptick in violence and protest would be aimed at him or her.

Politics as usual no longer exists for the left.  It is no longer a contest of ideas. It is an open battle for power, no holds barred. Common sense, the rule of law, and common decency has no place in their game plan. Constitutional restrictions are nowhere on their radar.

The replacement of what had been liberal politics with the type of radicalism was seen in the 20th century in Russia, where the post-Czar government of Alexander Kerensky was shattered by Bolshevik Communists, and in interwar Germany, where a democratic government was replaced by the Nazi regime.

The once broadly supported Democrat Party has been reduced to supporting bizarre candidates, one of whom is openly socialist and the other bearing a track record of corruption, failure and lies. Neither has presented concepts that are economically viable in the domestic arena or attentive to national security concerns internationally.

Even among those two, the concept of fair play is missing.  The Democrat Party apparatus is warped, in a fashion common to less than free regimes, so that the candidate favored by the party bosses is dealt an ace up her sleeve.  Consider New Hampshire: Sanders beat Clinton by a 61-39 margin, but the “super delegate” process gave both the same number of delegates.  The party leadership has tilted towards Ms. Clinton in a manner that induces one to wonder whether the Sanders camp will at some point file a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against it.

While, unfortunately, it is rarely the case that presidential candidates are individuals with perfect backgrounds, neither Clinton nor Sanders possesses an attractive personal history for the vast majority of voters.

Sanders, whose supporters were reportedly active in the recent Chicago action that closed down a Trump campaign event,  has authored articles that are clearly misogynistic, and are a consistent part of his unusual collection of writings far out of the mainstream of sexual relations. He has a history of extremist involvement. He once worked on a Kibbutz, the National Review reports, that mourned the death of Stalin, flew the Communist red flag and played the international Communist anthem. He honeymooned in the Soviet Union.
The condition is caused by djpaulkom.tv cheap viagra insufficient blood flow in to the penis during sexual stimulation. Inability to undergo erection entails being impotence and this does not happen then you simply assume the on line levitra fact that the generation that have problems with erectile dysfunction use oral medicines to get back their lost erection power. In this case of patients with erectile dysfunction, this problem can be easily avoided by men. online order for viagra It usually takes 30 minutes to an hour before any sexual activity cialis without to experience the best results.
The New York Post writes: “he’s not even a socialist. He’s a communist. Mainstreaming Sanders requires whitewashing his radical pro-communist past…While attending the University of Chicago, Sanders joined the Young People’s Socialist League, the youth wing of the Socialist Party USA. He also organized for a communist front, the United Packinghouse Workers Union…he produced a glowing documentary on the life of socialist revolutionary Eugene Debs, who was…hailed by the Bolsheviks as ‘America’s greatest Marxist’…This subversive hero of Sanders, denounced even by liberal Democrats as a ‘traitor…hailed the ‘triumphant’ Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Those Russian comrades of ours have made greater sacrifices, have suffered more, and have shed more heroic blood than any like number of men and women anywhere on Earth,’ Debs proclaimed. ‘They have laid the foundation of the first real democracy that ever drew the breath of life in this world.”

Sanders’ Democrat Party opponent, Hillary Clinton, is the very personification of corrupt political practices.  Her dismissal for inappropriate practices from a Congressional Committee in the 1970s, her involvement in the Whitewater scandal, her knowledge of Communist China’s involvement in the Bill Clinton presidential campaign (Clinton rewarded Beijing with sales of Cray supercomputers and favorable trade deals) and her alleged role in the cover-up of her husbands’ forcible sexual misconduct were precursors to her recent felonious actions.

Questions abound about her pay for play politics, in which her position as Secretary of State may have been misused for personal enrichment via the Clinton foundation. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Kimberley Strassel questions whether revelations from the FBI’s probe into Ms. Clinton’s unlawful private server may not only turn up major breeches of national security, but also evidence of how she became personally and illicitly enriched by abusing her cabinet post.

It is, however, the very open and well known arena of overt policy failures that may prove most damning. It can be argued that the Obama/Clinton “reset” with Russia is one of the greatest missteps in American foreign policy.   And, of course, there is Benghazi.  Information from Clinton’s emails has already revealed that Clinton knowingly and repeatedly lied about the cause of the attack.  It is also evident that she failed to respond to repeated and urgent request for more security at the site.

With candidates that are clearly deficient, and who have acted in a manner that demonstrates support for political philosophies incompatible with American culture and Constitutional law,  the left has now resorted to attacking the opposition, both verbally, and now, physically.

The Chicago and Ohio incidents are not about Donald Trump, although the disreputable leftist organization Moveon.org has labelled their effort as a “Stop Donald Trump” campaign.   They are part of a pattern of actions by the hard left to prevent a civil and intelligent focus on the utter failure of their philosophy in every nation in which it has been adopted.  It is an attempt to distract from the jobless recovery and international drubbing that America has endured under Barack Obama’s leftist policies.

It is the attempt to bring down America’s rich history of hard-fought but open presidential campaigns with, as Bernie Sanders states at almost every debate, a “political revolution.” That brand of revolution has caused vast misery to nations such as Russia and Germany. It should not be tried again in the United States.