While we have been agonizing over the 2016 Presidential election cycle, Mayor DeBlasio and the City Council of New York City have been hard at work making our city just better and better. Well, better for themselves anyway. Let's see where to begin...
1. On February 5, the City Council voted themselves a 32% raise retroactive to January 1, 2016. Our City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverto (Socialist) said that the poor, poor council members who already made a 6-figure salary, just could not live on $112,000 a year even though the average pay of workers in NYC is somewhere around $55,000-ish. In their defense, they have not had a raise since 2006 (neither have I, btw), so raising their pay to $145,000 just seems like a no-brainer to them. Oh, the Speaker goes from $145,000 to $165,500 and the Mayor gets a bump from $225,000 to $258,750. The main reason for this raise is so they won't feel so inclined to steal from the taxpayers. Really.
2. The City Council have decided that there is just too many people going to jail. More specifically to Riker's Island, our city lock up that is by any description a hell hole. It is so hard to fix the problem, so their idea is to just shut it down. Just as an aside: I live my life so that I don't ever have to go to Rikers, but hey, whatevs.
3. Let's see then there is "Broken Windows" policing. That was a very effective plan instigated in the early '90's to stop early stage criminals before they escalated to the bigger crimes. Now the City Council has decided that those little quality-of-life crimes like public urination, public intoxication, graffitti, and breaking windows that could once result in arrest and a trip to Rikers, will now be downgraded to a summons.
Unfortunately for the City Council, they won't get credit for this one. Our Police Commissioner Bill Bratton decided that it was time to undo all that he started in the early 90's that cause crime to drop to almost unheard of low levels for a city the size of NYC. Oh, did I tell you that crime has gone up dramatically since DeBlasio and our City Council took control of our fair city?
4. Next...raising the minimum wage to $15 @hour. Gov. Cuomo is pushing this very hard with our Mayor and City Council. As a matter of fact, it is probably the only issue in which they all can agree. I am all for it except no has been able to rationally explain what will happen to those current employees who worked hard, improved their skills who already earn $15 @hour.
5. Today, Mayor DeBlasio signed a executive order all city-owned buildings—schools, city offices, gyms and recreation centers, some museums and public parks—that have single-sex facilities allow people to us the bathroom or locker room of the gender with which they identify. Yeah...'kay this is going to fun.
And finally -
6. Now comes the final blow of our City Council...they are seriously considering giving voting rights to non-citizens including illegals (Yeah, "illegals" get over it!). The reasoning is that they live here (illegally) and deserve a vote. We are a sanctuary city after all. This is still in the early stages, but no doubt they will vote to approve this on some Friday afternoon with no imput from the actually citizens of the city.
Yes, fun times in NYC these day. One question keeps coming to my mind though. If the City Council can unilaterally give themselves a raise, change the law with no imput from the citizens, and allow non-citizens the right to vote, shouldn't I have the valid right to unilaterally decide not to pay local taxes? Just a thought.
Comments?
I am sure that Trump has probably done something today that will render all of this irrelevant, so feel free, as always, go change the subject.
1. On February 5, the City Council voted themselves a 32% raise retroactive to January 1, 2016. Our City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverto (Socialist) said that the poor, poor council members who already made a 6-figure salary, just could not live on $112,000 a year even though the average pay of workers in NYC is somewhere around $55,000-ish. In their defense, they have not had a raise since 2006 (neither have I, btw), so raising their pay to $145,000 just seems like a no-brainer to them. Oh, the Speaker goes from $145,000 to $165,500 and the Mayor gets a bump from $225,000 to $258,750. The main reason for this raise is so they won't feel so inclined to steal from the taxpayers. Really.
2. The City Council have decided that there is just too many people going to jail. More specifically to Riker's Island, our city lock up that is by any description a hell hole. It is so hard to fix the problem, so their idea is to just shut it down. Just as an aside: I live my life so that I don't ever have to go to Rikers, but hey, whatevs.
3. Let's see then there is "Broken Windows" policing. That was a very effective plan instigated in the early '90's to stop early stage criminals before they escalated to the bigger crimes. Now the City Council has decided that those little quality-of-life crimes like public urination, public intoxication, graffitti, and breaking windows that could once result in arrest and a trip to Rikers, will now be downgraded to a summons.
Unfortunately for the City Council, they won't get credit for this one. Our Police Commissioner Bill Bratton decided that it was time to undo all that he started in the early 90's that cause crime to drop to almost unheard of low levels for a city the size of NYC. Oh, did I tell you that crime has gone up dramatically since DeBlasio and our City Council took control of our fair city?
4. Next...raising the minimum wage to $15 @hour. Gov. Cuomo is pushing this very hard with our Mayor and City Council. As a matter of fact, it is probably the only issue in which they all can agree. I am all for it except no has been able to rationally explain what will happen to those current employees who worked hard, improved their skills who already earn $15 @hour.
5. Today, Mayor DeBlasio signed a executive order all city-owned buildings—schools, city offices, gyms and recreation centers, some museums and public parks—that have single-sex facilities allow people to us the bathroom or locker room of the gender with which they identify. Yeah...'kay this is going to fun.
And finally -
6. Now comes the final blow of our City Council...they are seriously considering giving voting rights to non-citizens including illegals (Yeah, "illegals" get over it!). The reasoning is that they live here (illegally) and deserve a vote. We are a sanctuary city after all. This is still in the early stages, but no doubt they will vote to approve this on some Friday afternoon with no imput from the actually citizens of the city.
Yes, fun times in NYC these day. One question keeps coming to my mind though. If the City Council can unilaterally give themselves a raise, change the law with no imput from the citizens, and allow non-citizens the right to vote, shouldn't I have the valid right to unilaterally decide not to pay local taxes? Just a thought.
Comments?
I am sure that Trump has probably done something today that will render all of this irrelevant, so feel free, as always, go change the subject.
Bev,
ReplyDeleteAll that sounds incredibly crappy, but it could be worse. There are two towns in Utah which until recently punished you if you weren't a pedophile polygamist and threatened children with arrest for playing in public parks.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/polygamist-towns-discriminated-against-non-church-members-federal-jury-finds-n533611
The Justice Department argued that town Marshals had acted as the "enforcement arm" of the fundamentalist church: non-church members had their crops burned, their property vandalized and, in one case, a runaway, underage bride was returned to a home from which she had fled, according to the complaint.
Non-believers were also denied (or delayed) water, power and building permits, and children were banned from a public park.
"A Marshal's Deputy told the children that they could not play at the park and threatened them with arrest," the complaint says.
Bev, I love to leftists when they have full control. They get to enact their unicorn fart dreams as fast as they can conjure them, consequences be damned! No conservatives to provide a backstop. It gives me hope that the consequences will have a chance to play out on a small scale before the rest of us are subjected to it.
ReplyDeleteAnthony, I can't help but notice the big difference between NYC and Podunk, UT is that the latter was rightly put to a stop, while the former won't probably stop without running hard into reality.
ReplyDeleteTryanmax & Anthony - You are right. The citizens in NYC really have no say in what they do at all...except by term limits and to stop giving them money Except they will just spend what isn't there anyway. I am pretty sure that anyone who is on the city council now who voted themselves a raise won't be around including the Mayor.
ReplyDeleteNYC sounds like it's being run by the Marx Brothers or Governor William J. Lepetomane. I can't get over the arrogance of some elected officials. As small as our town is, we had a good cleaning of our city council about a year ago, we got rid of some real corkers...but it took some effort.
ReplyDeleteCritch - We keep putting them in jail, but they multiply like cockroaches. All this is making the infamous Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall gang downright saint-like.
ReplyDeleteI found this very much worth reading.
ReplyDeletehttp://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2016/03/07/sympathy-for-the-donaldites-n2129660
Mr. Bee - thanks for the article. But where were all of you when we had real candidates? Do any of you understand that politics is not about total control or a dictatorship? The game is about working to make the best compromise so that everyone gets something they want and has to live with something they don't want. Legislation should be incremental. IT IS NOT WINNER TAKE ALL!
ReplyDeletePlease tell me exactly what you see in Trump that makes you believe that HE will be the Moses to lead you out of the desert. Because if he is elected over Hillary, he will just disappoint you like every single politician who has ever lived throughout all human history no matter what party or era.
See above to find out exactly what happens when a very small majority takes over and you get a dictatorship. Oh, yeah, this is the leftist version, but I don't want to see what right-wing conservatives can do either. We saw that in the 20th Century.
Bev, I don't understand. Why would a socialist want more money? Don't they want a world where everyone is all equal? Or is that all BS? Hmm.
ReplyDeleteAs for crime, think of it as government redistribution in its most direct and least bureaucratic form! Either they take it directly without the middle man, or they go on welfare and then you need to hand it over to the system to support these people. This saves you money. It's called privatization! :)
I just read the Schlichter article. What a load. The GOP did not drive the fringe nutty. The fringe has always been nutty. They've just gone nuttier and in that they've had the help of talk radio which has exploited their paranoia to whip them into a frenzy for ratings. The GOP had nothing to do with that except that they were the easy target talk radio (and guys like Schlichter) used to make the paranoids feel helpless.
ReplyDeleteTrump, btw, has just learned to exploit the fringe better than their prior saviors.
Just for the record, I am hurt that no one here (i.e. "men") has honored the women of CommentaramaPolitics on "International Women's Day". What's up with that?? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ReplyDeleteAll hail Bev... woman! :D
ReplyDeleteBTW, Bev, do you know how I knew it was International Women's Day? I recently bought my wife some of that there women's underwear stuff (the world's softest PJs in fact) and now the company spams the heck out of my email. Apparently, International Women's Day, to them, is a day to buy a bra. I wonder what 60's radical feminists would think of that? Ha ha.
Not to make fun of this event, but I love this headline:
ReplyDelete"American tourist, 29, stabbed to death by Palestinian in Tel Aviv stabbing spree as Vice President Joe Biden starts visit to Israel"
Tell me that doesn't sound like Biden stabbed him!
Ah, yes, that is probably to make up for the group of women who espouse the "We Will Take Off All Our Clothes And Rally Naked Until We Get Full Equality"
ReplyDeleteHow truly illogical is that? Do they not understand that, well, men WANT to see naked women any way they can, so as long as women take off their clothes...yeah, you get my drift.
Did they ever think to take a page from Lysistrata and NOT take their clothes off until they get equality and see how fast that equality happens!
Now now, let's not get crazy, Bev! Don't listen ladies... naked is good. :)
ReplyDeleteBiden's advance team working overtime...
ReplyDelete"...don't understand. Why would a socialist want more money?
ReplyDeleteAndrew - Yeah, hmmmm, I can't imagine. Oh, and they really did get the raise so they would be less inclined to steal. That is no joke.
They gave up special $$$ that came directly from a fund given out by the Speaker randomly to be used any way they wanted. Of course these funds were originally imagined to be used for programs to help the people of each council district. I know you would be shocked to learn that is not how it went.
I'm on a business trip so I got to start my day with a complementary edition of USA Today. Headline: International Women's Day - 37% say women are supportive of each other in all areas of life "most of the time." You go, girl!
ReplyDeleteAnd I just noticed the subheading: Madeline Albright is taking names. ;)
ReplyDeletePS that is USA today's smiley, not mine
ReplyDeletetryanmax, That's a pretty awful and yet oddly hilarious number and headline. So 37% of women are supportive of other women sometimes. Hence, 63% are out there hoping other women fail... as are the 37% at times. You know what? I would believe that.
ReplyDeleteAs for the smiley, USA Today will become nothing but emoticons by 2024.
ReplyDeleteTryanmax and Andrew - Okay, let's just say it out loud. Women are horrible to each other. I could tell you stories. Frankly, I'm surprised that it's it is as high as 37%!
ReplyDeleteWith apologies to Sex Panther, more than 50% of the world's population: 10% supportive of each other a third of the time.
ReplyDeleteScrew them and all hail Bev!
Another NYC cop shot, condition apparently still unknown. Bravo, Mayor Billy. Bra-vo.
ReplyDelete