A Mayoralty, Slipping Away
Mayor Adams and the pursuit of San Francisco
Happy Thursday all! Hang in there — the weekend looms.
First: Please join yours truly for a fun time tonight (Thursday) on the nation’s highest-rated late-night show, Gutfeld! Always a good time, and the guests tonight are stellar (you’ll have to tune in to see who…!).
Also: Am joining the gang of Lawrence Jones’s Cross Country this weekend, with a special broadcast from Miami.
It’ll be Saint Patrick’s Day, on a Friday, in Miami, during Spring Break... What could go wrong?
With LJ at the helm — nothing.
It promises to be great tv.
In The Kingdom of the Blind
As bail reform, discovery reform, parole reform, prison reform, raise-the-age measures, etc, continue to wreak havoc on New York State, the geniuses in Albany continue to contend that “crime can be addressed without bail changes.”
Translation: New York’s deterioration will continue. This, despite this new report showing that bail reform has led to an increase in recidivism (um, duh).
Shockingly, even Governor Hochul — generally petrified of the legislature — has begun gently pushing back on this. But the big question remains:
Where is NYC Mayor Adams?
The purported presidential hopeful seems content to sit this one out (I mean, it’s only his signature issue…).
This, as NYPD hemorrhages cops (the PD is down, literally, thousands of bodies, with retirements set to spike).
The muttering in the public sphere is growing — Eric Adams’ mayoralty is sliding into irrelevancy. I’ve been warning of it.
I defended the Mayor early on, stating on the air that he needed time “to pull a U-turn on an aircraft carrier” (video here — and boy, did I take some heat for that one).
I no longer can defend him. The Mayor has the bully pulpit. He needs to use it for more than just advocating for drag shows for children….
Or for simply creating new agencies. As per this report, the Mayor has stood up all of the following new agencies and positions:
Office of Asylum Seeker Operations
Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships
Mayor’s Office for Child Care and Early Childhood Education
Mayor’s Office of Innovation and Emerging Markets
Mayor’s Office of Risk Management and Compliance
Mayor’s Office of Municipal Services Assessment
Cannabis NYC
Public Realm Officer
Chief Pension Administrator
Chief Efficiency Officer
Director of Rodent Mitigation
Yeah, I don’t know what they do either. But that’s a lot of bureaucracy there….
And all it’s done is make NYC more San Franciscan.
Even The NY Times (!) is declaring that, “The Era of Urban Supremacy is Over” and that we may be in “an urban doom loop” (to The Times, it’s covid’s fault, of course, not lunatic progressivism).
Let’s be blunt: Mister Mayor, you’re running out of time. And as of now: you’re blowing it.
Why Isn’t This A Bigger Story?
We’ve all heard plenty about online censorship. But according to The Foundation for Freedom Online (a moniker guaranteed to scare Washington down to its socks), a terrible threshold was recently crossed. This was
the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) quiet move to establish, for the first time in US history, an explicitly inward-facing domestic censorship bureau.
According to The Intercept — not exactly a right-wing mouthpiece — and the follow-on investigation by The Foundation, millions upon millions of tweets and social media posts were censored before they reached “virality.”
All this was carried out by 120 DHS analysts, working up to 20-hour shifts.
And all in the run-up to the 2020 election.
What. The. Actual….
Folks, as any first year law student worth his salt will tell you, the First Amendment is the bedrock of our Constitution — and so our nation. We cannot lose it.
And we are.
Congress seems disinclined to pursue this. So: Where’s the class action? Because from where I sit, I can only think of, oh, maybe 30 million or so plaintiffs.
This is a big story. Look for it to grow.
Department of Uncomfortable Revelations
According to this report, Brian Kohberger, the accused Idaho quadruple murderer, spends his days obsessively watching news reports of the case. Which perhaps means: he has seen your humble narrator opine on his likely guilt. A strange feeling.
Will there be a plea deal? It’s not out of the question. While the families (reportedly) want the death penalty, a plea spares everyone the burden of reliving the events at trial. And as we all know, juries can be unpredictable.
But the main impetus for a plea deal (from the prosecution side) is the allocution. Kohberger would have to not only admit what he did — he would have to say, in open court, why. And right now, motive remains the big question mark.
The “Why?” is always what the families want to know, as they try to make sense of tragedy and achieve some closure. I’m not sure we get it without a plea. He’ll obviously admit nothing at trial.
That said: I agree with a learned colleague of mine. A deal is probably unlikely. Which means another high-profile trial on the horizon.
Earth’s Most Insufferable Conversation…
… was discovered today, when Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Senator/identity fraudster Elizabeth Warren held some sort of dinner summit (jeez — wonder who funded that?).
Billed as “bi-partisan,” have a look at the video:
I guess “bi-partisan” means “left” and “even more left” (with Joni Ernst held hostage mid-sofa) (she knows what the mean girls say about whoever leaves first…).
And while John Boehner may have cried at every dinner keynote, it was nothing compared to Kamala’s perpetual case of the giggles. This woman needs to lay off the edibles. My word. She’s the Joker in a pantsuit.
Obscure Metaphor Department
And finally, today in NYC…
This means something. I just can’t quite reach what it is.
(But, true story: I once, years ago, saw a dog on a nearly empty subway car I was riding in. He passed several stops before finally getting off at one, calm as could be. I always wondered about the story behind that).
Enjoy your day, all. And as we glide into the weekend… stay safe!
and btw yes, the analogy of bringing a huge aircraft carrier to come about , pull a one eighty, as opposed to a 20 ft. long speedboat ? . . . , that has always been an apt description of the dilemma a newly elected pol faces when he or she inherits a flaming shipwreck. we have seen some infusion of the 'office of asylum seekers' creeping into sullivan county, etc. , , it's a mighty interesting expansion of the bureaucracy, as u point out.
agreed that a plea is unlikely in kohlberger. he's got nothing to lose at a trial, plus his kind of guy enjoys the spectacle , similar to murdaugh recently. perhaps they can call this the 'chapman syndrome', ( re; murder of john lennon. )... i respectfully disagree with counsel on the allocution contents. he will not be REQUIRED to speak of his motive in allocuting. of course, the DA might
"drift " there in his questioning of the deft. under oath, and he might get k-berger to ' take the bait " and state some sort of INSIPID AND INCREDIBLE motive ....but as far as being statutorily
r e q u i r e d , i'm pretty sure that it is not. he DOES have to admit, with some specific narrative detail, all of the elements of the crime, yes of course, but...just the same as the DA is never required to PROVE motive ( but it's nice...and deliciously probative when he can),,,, ditto for 'mr. knife-hider', in that he does not h a v e to say why he did such a ridiculously horrible astonishing series of things. personally, i am amazed his fam. is not pursuing the hinkley insanity play / ploy, which helped 'the hinkster' to avoid a long super harsh prison stint. IN ANY EVENT, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, PAUL ! .... THE WRITING IS AS CRISP AND LIVELY AS EVER.