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Liberal Groups and High-Powered Lawyers Swarm Detroit to Keep Dead Voters on Rolls

Liberal groups and high-powered New York attorneys swooped into Detroit this week to help the city fight a lawsuit over its voter roll irregularities, which included thousands of deceased individuals appearing on the rolls.

The League of Women Voters of Michigan and its Detroit chapter filed a motion to intervene on behalf of Detroit city clerk Janice Winfrey and Director of Elections George Azzouz. Winfrey and Azzouz were sued in December by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), an election integrity group. The officials had ignored PILF’s requests to inspect Detroit’s voter registrations after the group discovered thousands of ineligible voters on the city’s rolls.

The Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive policy institute at New York University School of Law, will help the League fight PILF’s lawsuit. Myrna Pérez, the center’s director of voting rights and elections programs, and Eliza Sweren-Becker, counsel in the center’s Democracy Program, signed on to the motion. New York-based attorneys from the Paul Weiss law firm, where former Obama attorney general Loretta Lynch is a partner, also joined the motion.

The liberal groups and attorneys are converging on Detroit as part of a broader campaign against alleged efforts to "purge" individuals from voter rolls. Democrats have built a massive network of nonprofit groups, funded by George Soros and other liberal donors, to oppose Republican-backed voting initiatives such as voter identification laws. Michigan is a significant target for such efforts given its "swing state" status; Trump won the state by just 10,000 votes in the 2016 election.

"The national 2020 elections will be held in less than nine months," the League states in its motion. "If a resolution of this matter—whether by court order or through a negotiated settlement—results in an aggressive purge and a heightened standard for voter list maintenance beyond reasonableness, the League may not have significant time to remedy the issue."

Logan Churchwell, communications director for PILF, said the groups still have to convince the court they belong in the room.

"This is yet more evidence of the left’s deep investments to preserve faulty voter registration records and the questionable procedures at the root of the problem," Churchwell said.

PILF filed suit after discovering 2,500 deceased individuals among the city’s rolls and 5,000 duplicate registrations. In a city where only 479,267 individuals are eligible to vote, PILF found 511,786 registered voters.

The League of Women Voters of Michigan did not respond to a request for comment. Robert Atkins, the top attorney from Paul Weiss listed on the motion, also did not respond.

Many of the attorneys working with the League have donated to Democratic presidential and Senate candidates this cycle. Atkins, co-chair of Paul Weiss’s litigation department, has provided contributions ranging from $250 to $3,000 to the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker.

Atkins also donated to the Senate campaigns of Cal Cunningham, running in North Carolina, and Theresa Greenfield, running in Iowa. The IA/NC Senate 2020 committee, a joint fundraising venture between Cunningham and Greenfield, is bankrolled by dozens of attorneys at the firm, including Atkins and Loretta Lynch. The committee has so far pushed $100,000 to each of the candidates. On Dec. 16, it disbursed $1,100 to Paul Weiss for catering and room rental.

Another attorney listed on the League’s motion, William Michael, has also given thousands to Democratic presidential candidates including Biden and Amy Klobuchar. Employees at Paul Weiss provided more than $1 million to Democrats and $180,000 to Republicans so far this cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Democrats began their attempts to chip away at Republican voting initiatives prior to the 2016 election. After Trump’s victory, however, they mobilized to build a more robust infrastructure.

Marc Elias, a top Democratic lawyer at the Washington, D.C., office of the Perkins Coie law firm, led efforts to combat voter identification laws during the 2016 cycle. Elias, who was Hillary Clinton’s top campaign lawyer at the time, brought lawsuits forward in a number of states, including Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. The campaign was heavily funded by George Soros, who expressed a goal of expanding the electorate by 10 million voters.

Following the 2016 election, Elias joined the board of Priorities USA to lead its nonprofit arm’s efforts against state voting laws. Priorities USA additionally absorbed Every Citizen Counts, a nonprofit created by Clinton allies that focused on mobilizing Latino and African-American voters. The group began to zero in on voting issues.

A number of organizations carrying the same mission sprang up around that time. Let America Vote, a nonprofit established by former Democratic Missouri secretary of state Jason Kander, was one. It works with other liberal outfits and contains dozens of high-level operatives on its advisory board, including Elias, Stacey Abrams, and Guy Cecil, chairman of Priorities USA.

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Boys Competing With Girls Won Track Meets. The Girls Just Filed A Lawsuit In Federal Court.

On Wednesday, a lawsuit was filed in federal court by three high school girls and their mothers against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), which has permitted boys to compete in events and win awards that would otherwise have gone to girls.

Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, and Chelsea Mitchell, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), were denied opportunities to compete at higher levels as boys took home the prizes. CIAC’s policy allowed two males to compete in girls’ athletic competitions beginning in the 2017 track season. Those boys have taken 15 women’s state championship titles (titles held in 2016 by nine different Connecticut girls) and have taken more than 85 opportunities to participate in higher level competitions from female track athletes in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons alone.

Mitchell, who is currently ranked the fastest biological girl in Connecticut in the 55m, lost four girls’ state championships and two all-New England awards. She recalled, “I knew that I was the fastest girl here, one of the fastest in the state. I remembered all my training and everything I had been taught on how to maximize my performance … I thought of all the times that other girls have lost. I could feel the adrenaline in my blood and hope that wafted from me. That just possibly, I could win this. Then, the gun went off. And I lost.”

Soule missed qualifying for the state championship 55m final and an opportunity to qualify for the New England championship by one spot in the 2018-19 season as two spots were taken by boys. She said, “It’s very frustrating and heartbreaking when us girls are at the start of the race and we already know that these [male] athletes are going to come out and win no matter how hard you try. They took away the spots of deserving girls, athletes … me being included.”

Smith, whose father is MLB Hall of Famer relief pitcher Lee Smith, won the 400m at the 2019 outdoor New England Regional Championships as a freshman and finished second in the 200m at the New England Regional Championships.  She stated, “Even before I get to the track, I already know that I’m not going to get first place, or maybe even second place . . . I know that no matter how hard I work, I won’t be able to have the top spot.”

ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb stated, “Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field. Forcing them to compete against boys isn’t fair, shatters their dreams, and destroys their athletic opportunities. Having separate boys’ and girls’ sports has always been based on biological differences, not what people believe about their gender, because those differences matter for fair competition. And forcing girls to be spectators in their own sports is completely at odds with Title IX, a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for women in education and athletics. Connecticut’s policy violates that law and reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women.”

The complaint filed in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools states that policies that permit boys to compete in girls sports threaten Title IX gains because “inescapable biological facts of the human species [are] not stereotypes, ‘social constructs,’ or relicts of past discrimination. As a result of these many inherent physiological differences between men and women after puberty, male athletes consistently achieve records 10-20% higher than comparably fit and trained women across almost all athletic events, with even wider consistent disparities in long-term endurance events and contests of sheer strength such as weight-lifting.”

The complaint adds, “In sum, the real-world result of the CIAC Policy is that in Connecticut interscholastic track competitions, while highly competitive girls are experiencing the no doubt character-building ‘agony of defeat,’ they are systematically being deprived of a fair and equal opportunity to experience the ‘thrill of victory.’ A transgender athlete advocate recently wrote that this should be accepted because part of competitive sports is ‘learning to lose.’ A policy such as the CIAC Policy that ensures that girls get extra lessons in losing, however, cannot be reconciled with Title IX.”

ADF Senior Vice President of U.S. Legal Division Kristen Waggoner concluded, “Girls deserve the same opportunity as boys to excel and chase their dreams. Allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports shatters those dreams and steals opportunities. Boys have physical advantages over girls. It’s dispiriting to girls competing against boys to know what the outcome likely is before the race even starts. The government shouldn’t rob these girls of the opportunity not only to win, but to earn college scholarships and launch their own careers in athletics, coaching, and more.”

via The Daily Wire

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The Glorious Alternative Reality of Leftism

In 1966, there were 654 murders in New York City. The next year, that number increased by about a hundred. Then two hundred. By the mid-1970s, nearly 1,700 people were being murdered every year in New York City. That insane level of violence maintained until the early 1990s. Then, in 1994, the level of murder in New York City began to decline. It declined from approximately 2,000 people killed in 1993 to 289 in 2018 — a level not seen since the end of World War II. Needless to say, on a per capita basis, the murder rate had never been that low.

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Three Female High School Athletes File Federal Lawsuit to Block Transgender Students From Competing in Girl’s Sports

Three female high school athletes have filed a federal lawsuit to block transgender students from competing in girl’s sports against them.

The girls behind the lawsuit argue that the biological male students prevent them from obtaining track titles and scholarship opportunities.

The girls are Selina Soule, a senior at Glastonbury High School, Chelsea Mitchell, a senior at Canton High School and Alanna Smith, a sophomore at Danbury High School. They are being assisted with their lawsuit by the conservative nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom. The suit names the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and the boards of education in Bloomfield, Cromwell, Glastonbury, Canton and Danbury.

“Mentally and physically, we know the outcome before the race even starts,” Smith, who is the daughter of former Major League pitcher Lee Smith, told ABC News. “That biological unfairness doesn’t go away because of what someone believes about gender identity. All girls deserve the chance to compete on a level playing field.”

An attorney for the girls told ABC that allowing trans students to compete against them reverses advancements in women’s rights.

“Forcing girls to be spectators in their own sports is completely at odds with Title IX, a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for women in education and athletics,” attorney Christiana Holcomb said. “Connecticut’s policy violates that law and reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women.”

The Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference says that they are simply complying with federal and state laws that say students must be treated as the gender they identify as.

The suit stems from two transgender runners, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, who have competed against all of the girls, winning 15 girls state indoor or outdoor championship races since 2017 between the both of them.

“Our dream is not to come in second or third place, but to win fair and square,” Mitchell said. “All we’re asking for is a fair chance.”

The post Three Female High School Athletes File Federal Lawsuit to Block Transgender Students From Competing in Girl’s Sports appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Global Warming Blamed For Evaporating Great Lakes; Now Blamed For High-Water Levels In Chicago’s “Climate Emergency”

Global Warming Blamed For Evaporating Great Lakes; Now Blamed For High-Water Levels In Chicago’s "Climate Emergency"

Authored by Mark Glennon via Wirepoints.org,

“What we are seeing in global warming is the evaporation of our Great Lakes.”

That was Illinois Senator Dick Durbin in 2013 when Lake Michigan was at a record low. You can find plenty of claims to the same effect from the time. Nobel Prize winner Al Gore chimed in around then, too, saying climate change was driving Great Lakes levels down by causing evaporation.

But that was then and this is now.

What’s causing today’s record high levels? Climate change, naturally.

So now, citing “catastrophic lakefront erosion” from high water, Chicago just declared a climate emergency. It’s radical, and is reproduced in full below.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Durbin want the federal government to help Chicago pay for damage to its shoreline. Lightfoot’s accompanying statement is reproduced below. You’ll be relieved to see that she’s putting “equity” at the center.

Given that Lightfoot hasn’t exactly been friendly to President Trump, you might be concerned about what reception her request for federal help will get. Per the Chicago Tribune, Lightfoot acknowledged “some concern, of course,” that President Donald Trump won’t see the urgency in sending help to Chicago – a city he has treated as a public antagonist for years — to combat climate change, an issue he hasn’t deemed a high priority.

Why, yes, I’d have some concern, too, of course. She called Trump’s visit to Chicago “insulting, ignorant buffoonery.” Not that he’s vindictive or anything.

And since sustainability is emphasized in Lightfoot’s statement, I’d also have some concern about sustainability of claims about the causes of Great Lakes water fluctuations. I confess to being old enough to remember exceptionally high lake levels in the late 1970s when global cooling was blamed. Going back much further, levels were way up where today’s Ridge Road is in the northern suburbs, which created the ridge (but, no, I’m not that old).

*  *  *

The climate emergency resolution:

RESOLUTION DECLARING A CLIMATE EMERGENCY AND EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION EFFORT TO RESTORE A SAFE CLIMATE

WHEREAS, in April 2016 world leaders recognized the urgent need to combat climate change by signing the Paris Agreement, agreeing to keep global wamiing, “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and to “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”; and

WHEREAS, the death and destruction already wrought by current average global warming of 1 °C demonstrate that thc Earth is already too hot for safety and justice, as attested by increased and intensifying wildfires;floods,rising seas, diseases, droughts, and extreme weather; and

WHEREAS, according to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty, 1.5°C of global waming could expose 500 million people to water poverty, 36 million people to food insecurity because of lower crop yields, and 4.5 billion people to heat waves; and

WHEREAS, in October 2018, the United Nations released a special report which projected that limiting warming to even the dangerous 1.5°C target this century will require an unprecedented transformation of every sector of the global economy by 2030: and

WHEREAS, the United States of America has disproportionately contributed to the climate and ecological emergencies and thus bears an extraordinary responsibility to rapidly solve these crises; and

WHEREAS, climate change will continue to make basic human necessities such as food, housing, health care, transportation and energy more expensive and difficult to obtain; and

WHEREAS, in July 2019, members of Congress introduced a concurrent Congressional resolution to declare a national climate emergency in the United States, calling for a “national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization of the resources and labor of the United States at a massive scale to halt, reverse, mitigate, and prepare for the consequences of the climate emergency and to restore the climate for future generations”; and

WHEREAS, restoring a safe and stable climate requires a Climate Mobilization, an emergency mobilization on a scale not seen since World War 11 in order to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors ofthe economy; to rapidly and safely drawdown and remove all the excess carbon from the atmosphere at emergency speed and until safe, pre-industrial climate conditions are restored; and to implement measures to protect all people and species from the consequences of abrupt climate breakdown; and

WHEREAS, such necessary measures to restore a safe climate include:

a)  A rapid, just, managed divestment and phase-out of fossil fuels; and

b)  Ending greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible to establish a zero-emissions economy; and

c)  A widespread effort to safely drawdown excess carbon from the atmosphere; and

d)  A full transition to a regenerative agriculture system; and

e) An end to the Sixth Mass Extinction through widespread conservation and restoration of ecosystems; and

WHEREAS, justice requires that frontline and marginalized communities, which have historically borne the brunt of the extractive fossil-fuel economy, participate actively in the planning and implementation of this mobilization effort and that they benefit first from the transition to a climate-safe economy; and

WHEREAS, the massive scope and scale of action necessary to stabilize the climate and biosphere will require unprecedented levels of public awareness, engagement, and deliberation to develop and implement effective, just, and equitable policies to address the climate emergency; and

WHEREAS, to slay within 1.5 degrees Celsius, niajor cities throughout the world will need to significantly reduce their per capita emissions by 2030, and as a global city, Chicago is obligated to lead by example; and

WHEREAS, lhe 2008 Chicago Climate Action Plan slates that. “Without rapid local and global action, impacts on Chicago’s climate could be adverse,” and thai “[l]he benefits of early action will improve quality of life and preserve Chicago for future generations”; and

WHEREAS, in 2017, the City ofChicago organized global leaders to sign onto the Chicago Climate Charter, with more than 50 cities worldwide, pledging to reduce carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement and committed to reaching 100% renewable energy for all electricity used in municipal buildings by 2025; and

WHEREAS, the City of Chicago continues to endure myriad effects of climate change, including bul not limited to catastrophic lakefront erosion, citywide fiooding.and severe unseasonal weather; and

WHEREAS, in 2019. members of City Council have called for the re-establishmenl ofthe Department of Environment to oversee the implemeniation of climatc-relalcd policies and programs: and

WHEREAS, our communities can display their resilience by creating and executing emergency planning that is tailored to address direcily the irue scope of the challenges we face; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED, the City of Chicago hereby declares a state of climate emergency that threatens thc health and well-being of Chicago, its inhabitants, and its environment; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, City Council will work with the Mayor’s office and city departments to develop a budget that promotes urgent climate action; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the City of Chicago calls on the State of lllinois, the United States Congress, the President of the United States, and all govemments and people worldwide to declare a climate emergency, initiate a Climate Mobilization to reverse global warming and the ecological crisis, and provide maximum protection for all people and species of the world; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, in furtherance of this resolution, the City Clerk shall submit a certified copy of this resolution to elected officials at the federal, state and county levels and request that all relevant support and assistance in effectuating this resolution be provided.

Mayor Lightfoot’s statement:

“Mayor Lightfoot is committed to a proactive environmental agenda that puts equity at its center and prepares Chicago to protect all of its communities, especially those most vulnerable, from pollution and other threats to our shared environment. In order to meet an ambitious climate agenda, the administration is currently in the process of hiring a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) who will ensure a dedicated focus on current climate and environmental issues from the Mayor’s Office. The CSO will work alongside the Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy as well as community stakeholders to develop forward-looking policy solutions that focus on equity and which will focus on protecting the environmental health all of our communities for the future.”


Tyler Durden

Wed, 02/12/2020 – 17:45

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While Democrats are duking it out, Trump is quietly breaking records

The results are in: Bernie won New Hampshire, with Buttigieg trailing closely behind. Meanwhile, Klobuchar is tenaciously hanging on to third place, Warren and Biden are rapidly becoming has-beens, and Yang and Bennet are out.

As always, Trump’s takes on the Democrat presidential candidates are amusing and extremely pointed:

Surprisingly, though, despite Trump running unopposed, the really interesting news is coming from the Trump campaign. Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, and chief data tracker, is tweeting out some truly amazing statistics. First, they show that Trump is overperforming wildly in New Hampshire when compared to past incumbent presidents:

This surging enthusiasm shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s been watching Trump’s rock-show rallies. The crowds are, if anything, even more enthusiastic than they were in 2016.

On Monday, Trump and Pence held a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire at the SNHU Arena, which seats up to 11,770 for concerts (and, presumably, for political rallies). Despite subfreezing temperatures, some of his more fervent supporters camped out the night before to ensure that they got into the rally:

The rally itself, as has been the case with every Trump rally during this campaign season, was packed to the gills with wildly happy people:

Contrast the above footage with Elizabeth Warren trying to glad-hand in a New Hampshire restaurant:

But here are the numbers that should strike fear into the heart of all those Democrats shaking hands, pounding the pavement, and counting votes in New Hampshire and, soon, in South Carolina:

You read that right: 52,559 people sought tickets and, of that number, 25.4% were Democrats and 17% were people who couldn’t get up the enthusiasm to vote in 2016. As a reminder, Trump lost New Hampshire in 2016 by only 2,736 votes.

Here’s one other thing to keep in mind. President Trump recently tweeted out that he suspects his real job approval is 62%:

What do you bet Trump knows something the rest of us don’t know? Glenn Reynolds always warns against not getting cocky. He’s right, but one can certainly be intrigued.

The results are in: Bernie won New Hampshire, with Buttigieg trailing closely behind. Meanwhile, Klobuchar is tenaciously hanging on to third place, Warren and Biden are rapidly becoming has-beens, and Yang and Bennet are out.

As always, Trump’s takes on the Democrat presidential candidates are amusing and extremely pointed:

Surprisingly, though, despite Trump running unopposed, the really interesting news is coming from the Trump campaign. Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, and chief data tracker, is tweeting out some truly amazing statistics. First, they show that Trump is overperforming wildly in New Hampshire when compared to past incumbent presidents:

This surging enthusiasm shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s been watching Trump’s rock-show rallies. The crowds are, if anything, even more enthusiastic than they were in 2016.

On Monday, Trump and Pence held a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire at the SNHU Arena, which seats up to 11,770 for concerts (and, presumably, for political rallies). Despite subfreezing temperatures, some of his more fervent supporters camped out the night before to ensure that they got into the rally:

The rally itself, as has been the case with every Trump rally during this campaign season, was packed to the gills with wildly happy people:

Contrast the above footage with Elizabeth Warren trying to glad-hand in a New Hampshire restaurant:

But here are the numbers that should strike fear into the heart of all those Democrats shaking hands, pounding the pavement, and counting votes in New Hampshire and, soon, in South Carolina:

You read that right: 52,559 people sought tickets and, of that number, 25.4% were Democrats and 17% were people who couldn’t get up the enthusiasm to vote in 2016. As a reminder, Trump lost New Hampshire in 2016 by only 2,736 votes.

Here’s one other thing to keep in mind. President Trump recently tweeted out that he suspects his real job approval is 62%:

What do you bet Trump knows something the rest of us don’t know? Glenn Reynolds always warns against not getting cocky. He’s right, but one can certainly be intrigued.

via American Thinker Blog

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Andrew Cuomo: Criminals’ Best Friend

Thirty-five years ago, as a late teen, I came to New York to attend yeshiva.  As an avid follower of news and politics, I recall cringing every time I heard then–New York governor Mario Cuomo on the radio, as he pontificated on the issues of the day, spewing forth liberal platitudes as if they were divine truths that no one dare question, while failing to say anything of substance, as the state was falling apart.  It was a disgrace.

Seventeen years later, Cuomo’s son, Andrew, was sworn in as the 56th governor of New York.  Although none of my friends or family members voted for him, people commented at the time that Andrew Cuomo was better than his father — pro-business; anti-crime; not as politically correct; and willing to take on ultra-progressives, such as NYC mayor Bill de Blasio.  The crime rate in New York State was not escalating, the rate of businesses leaving the state was not increasing, and things seemed sort of OK for a state led by a Democrat (although issues of morality, with Cuomo’s infatuation with “gay pride” and his non-marital domestic relationship, left much to be desired).

For whatever reason, starting two years ago, Andrew Cuomo started getting totally unhinged, with his May 2018 restoration of voting rights to over 24,000 parolees.  (This just happened to occur a few months before Cuomo’s reelection — no coincidence, of course…)

Then came the July 2019 Bail Reform Law, gleefully promoted and signed off on by Cuomo, which lets people accused of committing over 50 types of major crime go home after arrest until trial and reduces jail sentences for many crimes.  Along with this came New York State’s discovery law reform, which requires, among other things, that prosecutors disclose personal contact information to accused perpetrators within 15 days after arraignment, and that the accused can be granted access to the private premises where the crimes were committed.  To quote from the New York City Daily News:  

Prosecutors will no longer be able to assure witnesses that their identity will be protected, even in the case of grand jury testimony, which the new law will now require be disclosed.  (While there’s a provision to ask a judge for a protective order to shield a name, that would come after cops and prosecutors talk to witnesses to make an arrest and build a case.)

Manhattan DA Cy Vance put it this way: “Having to hand defendants a roster of who has spoken out against them just 15 days after their first appearance, absent a protective order, is a seismic change that undoubtedly will dissuade witnesses who live in all neighborhoods from reporting crime.”

It gets worse.  The new law increases the likelihood of defendants being granted access to the locations — stores, bank vaults, bedrooms — where they are accused of committing crimes.  In a section entitled, “Order to grant access to premises,” the law stipulates that the defense may apply for “access to an area or place relevant to the case in order to inspect, photograph, or measure same.”  A judge can exercise discretion about access, but the provision appears to establish a presumption of material necessity for “preparation of the case” by the defense.

Acting Queens DA John Ryan asks, “How do we tell a burglary complainant that the defendant may have the right to come into her house with an investigator to take pictures?”  Beyond taking pictures, the law seems to permit the defendant to “inspect” the premises, presumably to undertake his own investigation of the crime scene.  Thus a suspected home invader and rapist could be permitted to poke around the same room where he committed his crimes.

As an apparent result of these insane reforms, MS-13 gang members clubbed a man to death last week; this man was slated to testify against these ruthless beasts for a 2018 violent assault on three people, but his identity had been recently disclosed to the MS-13 members’ defense team, as required by the new law.  Immediately after this disclosure, the gang members started to pursue and attack their accuser, whom they then killed. 

Accused criminals let free on the spot under the new Bail Reform Law have gone straight from the police stations where they were released to immediately commit more crimes, such as attempted rape, anti-Semitic attacks, and bank heists.  Among the many people released immediately back into society under this brilliant new “progressive” law is a twice-convicted bank-robber and drug-dealer, who the Nassau County D.A. declared is a menace to society.

Since the Bail Reform Law took effect on January 1, major crimes in New York City have experienced an unprecedented spike. 

One would expect that, seeing the death, crime, and chaos ushered in by the Bail Reform Law and discovery reform, Governor Andrew Cuomo would convene the state Legislature for an emergency session and invoke repeal or major overhaul of these lethal new laws.

What has Cuomo done?  Basically nothing.  The best we could get from him is this:

Reform is an ongoing process.  It’s not that you reform a system once and then you walk away.  You make change in a system, it has consequences.  And you have to understand those consequences[.] … We need to respond to the facts but not the politics, we need to act on information and not hyperbole[.] … Let’s understand facts, understand the consequences, discuss it intelligently, rationally and in a sober way, and then let’s make the decisions that we need to make. And we’ll do that as we move forward over these coming weeks.

People are being killed and attacked.  Crime is skyrocketing.  It is clear that Cuomo does not really care.  

Two weeks ago, violent anti-police rioters vandalized and ransacked subway stations across New York City.  The cost of the damage (and fare evasion committed by the rioters) to New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) was $100,000.  Since the MTA is a state agency, one would expect Governor Cuomo to weigh in, condemning the violence and calling for the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators and charging them for the gross monetary damages.  What did Cuomo say or do?  Nothing.

Cuomo has become the best friend of criminals, turning a blind eye to their deeds and abetting them in ways never before imagined.  (Not to mention Cuomo’s silence on New York State’s record population decline and other massive problems.  Or his irresponsible “Green Light Law,” authorizing driver licenses to illegal aliens and banning federal law enforcement agencies from accessing these people’s information from the state DMV database, resulting in the well understood suspension of Global Entry and Trusted Traveler Programs for New York, due to serious security concerns.)

As I listen to Cuomo bark out rash and vague platitudes these days, lacking substance and dripping with clichés and offenses, sounding like a bully as he blames others and fails to address the issues, I realize that he has become an incarnation of his late father — only much worse.

Avrohom Gordimer is chairman of the Rabbinic Circle at Coalition for Jewish Values, and he serves on the editorial board of Jewish Action magazine, is a staff writer for the Cross-Currents website, and is a frequent contributor to Israel National News and a host of other publications.  He is also a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and the New York Bar.  By day, he works as an account executive at a large Jewish organization based in Manhattan.

Image: Pat Arnow via Flickr.

Thirty-five years ago, as a late teen, I came to New York to attend yeshiva.  As an avid follower of news and politics, I recall cringing every time I heard then–New York governor Mario Cuomo on the radio, as he pontificated on the issues of the day, spewing forth liberal platitudes as if they were divine truths that no one dare question, while failing to say anything of substance, as the state was falling apart.  It was a disgrace.

Seventeen years later, Cuomo’s son, Andrew, was sworn in as the 56th governor of New York.  Although none of my friends or family members voted for him, people commented at the time that Andrew Cuomo was better than his father — pro-business; anti-crime; not as politically correct; and willing to take on ultra-progressives, such as NYC mayor Bill de Blasio.  The crime rate in New York State was not escalating, the rate of businesses leaving the state was not increasing, and things seemed sort of OK for a state led by a Democrat (although issues of morality, with Cuomo’s infatuation with “gay pride” and his non-marital domestic relationship, left much to be desired).

For whatever reason, starting two years ago, Andrew Cuomo started getting totally unhinged, with his May 2018 restoration of voting rights to over 24,000 parolees.  (This just happened to occur a few months before Cuomo’s reelection — no coincidence, of course…)

Then came the July 2019 Bail Reform Law, gleefully promoted and signed off on by Cuomo, which lets people accused of committing over 50 types of major crime go home after arrest until trial and reduces jail sentences for many crimes.  Along with this came New York State’s discovery law reform, which requires, among other things, that prosecutors disclose personal contact information to accused perpetrators within 15 days after arraignment, and that the accused can be granted access to the private premises where the crimes were committed.  To quote from the New York City Daily News:  

Prosecutors will no longer be able to assure witnesses that their identity will be protected, even in the case of grand jury testimony, which the new law will now require be disclosed.  (While there’s a provision to ask a judge for a protective order to shield a name, that would come after cops and prosecutors talk to witnesses to make an arrest and build a case.)

Manhattan DA Cy Vance put it this way: “Having to hand defendants a roster of who has spoken out against them just 15 days after their first appearance, absent a protective order, is a seismic change that undoubtedly will dissuade witnesses who live in all neighborhoods from reporting crime.”

It gets worse.  The new law increases the likelihood of defendants being granted access to the locations — stores, bank vaults, bedrooms — where they are accused of committing crimes.  In a section entitled, “Order to grant access to premises,” the law stipulates that the defense may apply for “access to an area or place relevant to the case in order to inspect, photograph, or measure same.”  A judge can exercise discretion about access, but the provision appears to establish a presumption of material necessity for “preparation of the case” by the defense.

Acting Queens DA John Ryan asks, “How do we tell a burglary complainant that the defendant may have the right to come into her house with an investigator to take pictures?”  Beyond taking pictures, the law seems to permit the defendant to “inspect” the premises, presumably to undertake his own investigation of the crime scene.  Thus a suspected home invader and rapist could be permitted to poke around the same room where he committed his crimes.

As an apparent result of these insane reforms, MS-13 gang members clubbed a man to death last week; this man was slated to testify against these ruthless beasts for a 2018 violent assault on three people, but his identity had been recently disclosed to the MS-13 members’ defense team, as required by the new law.  Immediately after this disclosure, the gang members started to pursue and attack their accuser, whom they then killed. 

Accused criminals let free on the spot under the new Bail Reform Law have gone straight from the police stations where they were released to immediately commit more crimes, such as attempted rape, anti-Semitic attacks, and bank heists.  Among the many people released immediately back into society under this brilliant new “progressive” law is a twice-convicted bank-robber and drug-dealer, who the Nassau County D.A. declared is a menace to society.

Since the Bail Reform Law took effect on January 1, major crimes in New York City have experienced an unprecedented spike. 

One would expect that, seeing the death, crime, and chaos ushered in by the Bail Reform Law and discovery reform, Governor Andrew Cuomo would convene the state Legislature for an emergency session and invoke repeal or major overhaul of these lethal new laws.

What has Cuomo done?  Basically nothing.  The best we could get from him is this:

Reform is an ongoing process.  It’s not that you reform a system once and then you walk away.  You make change in a system, it has consequences.  And you have to understand those consequences[.] … We need to respond to the facts but not the politics, we need to act on information and not hyperbole[.] … Let’s understand facts, understand the consequences, discuss it intelligently, rationally and in a sober way, and then let’s make the decisions that we need to make. And we’ll do that as we move forward over these coming weeks.

People are being killed and attacked.  Crime is skyrocketing.  It is clear that Cuomo does not really care.  

Two weeks ago, violent anti-police rioters vandalized and ransacked subway stations across New York City.  The cost of the damage (and fare evasion committed by the rioters) to New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) was $100,000.  Since the MTA is a state agency, one would expect Governor Cuomo to weigh in, condemning the violence and calling for the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators and charging them for the gross monetary damages.  What did Cuomo say or do?  Nothing.

Cuomo has become the best friend of criminals, turning a blind eye to their deeds and abetting them in ways never before imagined.  (Not to mention Cuomo’s silence on New York State’s record population decline and other massive problems.  Or his irresponsible “Green Light Law,” authorizing driver licenses to illegal aliens and banning federal law enforcement agencies from accessing these people’s information from the state DMV database, resulting in the well understood suspension of Global Entry and Trusted Traveler Programs for New York, due to serious security concerns.)

As I listen to Cuomo bark out rash and vague platitudes these days, lacking substance and dripping with clichés and offenses, sounding like a bully as he blames others and fails to address the issues, I realize that he has become an incarnation of his late father — only much worse.

Avrohom Gordimer is chairman of the Rabbinic Circle at Coalition for Jewish Values, and he serves on the editorial board of Jewish Action magazine, is a staff writer for the Cross-Currents website, and is a frequent contributor to Israel National News and a host of other publications.  He is also a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and the New York Bar.  By day, he works as an account executive at a large Jewish organization based in Manhattan.

Image: Pat Arnow via Flickr.

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Dems Want Local Mayor to Resign for Calling Ilhan Omar ‘Anti-Semitic Socialist’

A local Democratic party is demanding a Florida mayor resign after he called Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) an "anti-Semitic socialist" in a campaign advertisement.

"Yep, that’s me giving Ilhan Omar the key to the city. I didn’t know her politics then, nor that she is an anti-Semitic socialist," mayor and congressional candidate Randy Henderson says in the advertisement. "Watching that now makes me sick. I’ve had to show respect to all kinds of people as mayor. I even had to welcome Bill Clinton to town. But I’m done playing nice with people who won’t show respect to President Trump."

Henderson, the mayor of Fort Myers, is running to replace retiring Rep. Francis Rooney (R., Fla.). The chairwoman of the Lee County Democrats called on Henderson to resign from the mayorship, calling the advertisement inappropriate and shocking.

"As mayor of Fort Myers, I have relied on conservative principles to oversee our booming city," Henderson says in the ad. "I’m running for Congress because President Trump doesn’t need more radicals in Congress pushing partisan impeachment."

"If you send me to Congress, I’ll represent your values, be an ally to President Trump, and I’ll get that key back," Henderson says.

Henderson gave Omar an honorary key to the city before she was a member of Congress. The African Network of Southwest Florida requested Henderson give Omar a key to the city when she visited as a guest of the group.

Henderson’s campaign defended the ad, saying a "liberal mob" was distorting facts.

"As the liberal mob continues to distort the facts and manufactures false stories, the people of Fort Myers know that Mayor Henderson will never stop fighting against the socialism and anti-Semitism that is being peddled by Ilhan Omar and her supporters," a campaign spokesman told the News-Press.

Henderson may have to resign from the mayorship regardless of Democratic backlash to the ad because of Florida’s "resign to run" law.

The organization StopAntiSemitism.org named Omar the 2019 "Anti-Semite of the Year."

"Among Rep. Ilhan Omar’s transgressions, she perpetuated anti-Semitic tropes on Twitter to nearly two million followers and introduced an anti-Semitic resolution in Congress that promoted boycotts of the State of Israel and likened them to boycotts of Nazi Germany," the organization said in a statement.

Omar’s history of offensive comments includes references to Israel hypnotizing the world. She also suggested criticisms of her resulted from the anti-Semitic "dual-loyalty" trope and tweeted that pro-Israel politicians were being paid off by a pro-Israel lobbying group.

Omar said she does not regret her comments.

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Giuliani: Trump Will Be ‘Totally Vindicated’ After Biden ‘Smoking Gun’ Revealed

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Giuliani: Trump Will Be ‘Totally Vindicated’ After Biden ‘Smoking Gun’ Revealed

President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, addresses the crowd at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on Dec. 19, 2019, in Palm Beach, Florida.Saul Martinez / Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, addresses the crowd at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on Dec. 19, 2019, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Saul Martinez / Getty Images)

By Jack Davis
Published February 11, 2020 at 10:43am

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Saturday he has the “smoking gun” as it relates to what he says is Hunter Biden’s connection to alleged corruption in Ukraine.

Giuliani, who is now the personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, spoke on the Fox News show “Watters World” about his long-running personal investigation into the activities of Hunter Biden and his father, Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Giuliani said that despite Trump’s acquittal on impeachment charges in the Senate, the full truth must be told.

“I want to prove what happened, because I believe if we prove what happened, he will be totally vindicated,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani referenced a January 2016 National Security Council meeting that he said may have been attended by the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the months-long controversy over Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president.

TRENDING: Nearly 3 Years Later, FBI Director Admits Surveillance of Carter Page Was Illegal

“Obama and Biden representatives tell Ukrainian officials, ‘Get me dirt on Manafort.’ I have three witnesses to that,” Giuliani said, referring to Paul Manafort, who was Trump’s campaign chairman during part of 2016. Manafort was later convicted on fraud charges for his previous activities in Ukraine that were not part of his association with the Trump campaign.

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“Three witnesses are willing to get on the witness stand and say that in January 2016, members of Obama’s NSC violated the law Mueller was investigating Trump for violating,” Giuliani said. From 2017 to 2019, then-special counsel Robert Mueller investigated alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, only to report that none could be found.

The crux of the issue, Giuliani said, is that under former President Barack Obama, those NSC members “asked foreigners for dirty information on an American citizen who was going to be involved in a political campaign.”

Giuliani has said the extent of corruption related to Joe Biden and his son is vast:

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Host Jesse Watters asked Giuliani about documents on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine, and noted that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, has said he will be investigating Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine.

“Lindsey, get started,” Giuliani said.

“I have what I used to call when I was U.S. attorney, a smoking gun,” he continued, outlining what he said are documents sent from the Latvian government to the Ukrainian government that show “Hunter Biden is under investigation for corruption.”

“This should have been investigated,” Giuliani said. “Look, the government has been so lax in investigating this, it’s pathetic. These are crimes that when I was a U.S. attorney, the day Joe Biden made that boastful announcement about how he bribed … the investigation would have begun the next day for bribery.”

“He violated the bribery statute, announced it.”

Giuliani was referring to 2018 comments that Biden made about a 2016 visit to Ukraine when he demanded that nation’s government fire a prosecutor who had investigated the company where his son served on the board if it wanted to receive U.S. aid.

Biden has defended his actions by saying other governments also wanted the prosecutor, who Biden said was corrupt, fired.

He has claimed he did not act because of his son’s connection to Burisma, the company that had been investigated.

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Cali Considering Another Travel Ban, This One Targeting Trump Hotels

The state of California doesn’t like Republicans. With plenty of problems to solve — what with a mass demographic exodus and a huge homelessness problem — the Golden State nevertheless decided to take some time out in 2016 to prohibit official state travel to states that have laws it deems to be anti-LGBT.

The imminent collapse of these states, if indeed such a condition is to be induced, has yet to be reported.

Undaunted, state Assemblyman Evan Low — from Silicon Valley, because of course — plans to strike at the Trumps next.

Late last month, Low introduced a bill that flew under the radar as the impeachment of President Donald Trump raged on. The legislation “would prohibit taxpayers from funding or reimbursing state employees’ travel and lodging expenses at businesses owned by current or former Presidents of the United States.”

Low, according to The Sacramento Bee, is also the author of the 2016 travel ban, so this is clearly a man with a history of efficacious legislation in this department.

TRENDING: Nearly 3 Years Later, FBI Director Admits Surveillance of Carter Page Was Illegal

“Public officials, at any level, should not profit off the constituents that they were elected to serve and represent,” the assemblyman said in a statement.

“No branch of government is above the Constitution, and this legislation will ensure that California taxpayers are not further exploited by Donald Trump’s violations of the emoluments clause,” he said.

“Further exploited” is an interesting way of putting it.

As Fox News dryly noted in its report, Trump properties “are not popular with state workers in California — especially since the average going rate for a room at one of his resorts far exceeds the $90 per night state employees are authorized to spend on a hotel room.

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“Since 2016, only one state worker has booked a stay at a Trump hotel through the state’s contracted travel agency or its online booking tool, according to the Department of General Services.”

This doesn’t mean the hotels aren’t popular with individuals from other states — usually Republican, and usually of high station.

“The president’s hotels and resorts are frequented by lawmakers and officials from other states, with 47 state officials — including 20 Republican governors — making 64 visits to Trump properties since the president took office and at least 90 members of Congress visiting his properties 188 times since January 2017,” Fox reported.

And Assemblyman Low’s bill will address absolutely none of that.

Nor is this a case of Republicans flouting the emoluments clause of the Constitution. It’s like putting a Trump bumper sticker on your car, except it’s staying in a hotel. No one has stated they’ve broken any laws through the arrangements.

RELATED: Court Delivers $243,000 Lesson To College That Discriminated Against Pro-Lifers

But I digress, because Low’s legislation is so fatuous that it’s not just Fox News poking fun at it.

In an editorial published Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times noted that “some of the proposals aimed at President Trump [in California] seem designed solely to score political points, not to improve the state in any real way.”

“The 2019 law requiring presidential candidates to show their tax returns to be allowed on the state’s primary ballot was one example. That measure was obviously unconstitutional as well as partisan and pointless,” the Times’ editorial board wrote. “Even if it hadn’t been struck down by the state Supreme Court last year, it wouldn’t have changed Trump’s behavior — he would have just skipped the primary.

“Now, a bill by Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) follows that churlish example by prohibiting state employees and officials from being reimbursed for the cost of staying at a hotel or resort owned by Trump — or any president in the future. That might be meaningful if there were lots of state travel involving Trump’s hotels. There isn’t.”

Lest you have doubt as to where the Times stands, the editorial board concluded, “We agree with the spirit of the bill, which objects to the president’s brazen disregard of conventions and laws meant to protect the integrity of the nation’s highest office. But it is not up to California to police the restrictions the U.S. Constitution places on the president. We don’t need another meaningless, partisan gesture from Democrats in Sacramento to know how they feel about Trump.”

Sacramento, by the way, is the capital of California. I say that for the benefit of our liberal readers who think this will actually do anything.

This is how California sees itself: as the corporeal home of #TheResistance. And like #TheResistance, things don’t seem to be working out quite the way everyone planned.

In an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom showed just how real the disconnect is.

“We are the most un-Trump state in America. We’re also the most diverse state in America. … We’re also prospering together across every conceivable difference,” Newsom said.

He went on to claim the president is “scared of California.”

Oh, I bet. I’m sure he’s waiting for his hotel empire to collapse like the social systems California has in place to deal with its homelessness problem any day now.

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