Free Republic

Yesterday I caught a bit of the impeachment theatre en route to a lunchtime speaking engagement. To be honest, if they'd come round and performed it live in my hotel room, I'd still have fled. If universally respected eminent lifelong career foreign-service bigshots Bill Taylor and George Kent are Adam Schiff's star witnesses, their chief purpose seems to be to get Democrats pining for the charisma of Bill de Blasio and the self-effacement of John Kerry. In a functioning system, the head of the government sets foreign policy and the diplomats enact it. So naturally there's not a chance of...

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and a utility that provides gas to New York City and Long Island have been locked in a standoff since May, when New York regulators blocked the construction of a $1 billion natural gas pipeline that would have run from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and New York. The utility, National Grid, says the pipeline is crucial to meeting the rising energy demand in the region and has imposed a moratorium, refusing to activate gas hookups for both new and returning customers. On Tuesday, the fight took a sharp turn after Mr. Cuomo threatened to revoke National...

The best thing Bill de Blasio has ever done in his life was when he dropped out of the 2020 presidential race.* He stayed in just long enough to inspire the best political heckle of our time -- "Come clean my roof, you monster" -- and then he went crawling back to New York. But America's gain was NYC's loss. Now they have to put up with him full-time. They hate his guts, and they never miss an opportunity to let him know. Rich Calder, Elizabeth Rosner and Natalie Musumeci, NY Post: Mayor Bill de Blasio was booed and jeered...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Saturday gave her backing to a New York City anti-police protest, in which demonstrators jumped subway turnstiles and yelled anti-cop slogans to protest a crackdown on fare evasion and allegations of police brutality. “Ending mass incarceration means challenging a system that jails the poor to free the rich,” the left-wing freshman congresswoman tweeted, retweeting a video of protesters jumping subway turnstiles in Brooklyn Friday night. "Arresting people who can’t afford a $2.75 fare makes no one safer and destabilizes our community." "New Yorkers know that, they’re not having it, and they’re standing up for each...

In the tweet confirming he switched his official residency from New York to Florida, President Trump said, “Despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state.” As if on cue, those leaders instantly proved his point. “Good riddance,” thundered Gov. Cuomo. “Don’t let the door hit you on your way out,” chimed in Mayor de Blasio. Their sneering hostility is yet another example of how Cuomo and de Blasio are failing to take advantage of having...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn't mince words when he learned Thursday that President Donald Trump had filed paperwork to change his permanent residence from New York City to Palm Beach, Florida. "Good riddance. It's not like Mr. Trump paid taxes here anyway," Cuomo said in statement. "He's all yours, Florida...”

Close to a thousand anti-police protesters descended on Downtown Brooklyn Friday night, blocking traffic, vandalizing a city bus and shouting obscene insults at NYPD cops. The demonstration formed soon after 7 p.m. on the streets near the Barclays Center, with protesters unfurling large banners that read “— the police” and “Don’t let these pigs touch us.” The crowd began dispersing by 9 p.m. The demonstration was in response to a planned crackdown on fare evasion by the NYPD — and two controversial police actions in Brooklyn subway stations in recent weeks. In one of the incidents, an NYPD cop sent...

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Brooklyn on Friday night to protest police violence after a teen was seen in a viral video being punched by an officer in a subway brawl. Video of the incident posted on social media showed an altercation breaking out on a subway platform in Brooklyn late last week, with an officer seen punching 15-year-old Benjamin Marshall. Marshall and his parents say he was not part of the fight and was instead looking for his backpack on the platform when he was punched. Protesters responded by swarming streets in Brooklyn on Friday night,...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) on Thursday questioned the details surrounding the death of billionaire financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying, “Something doesn’t fit here.” “It just doesn’t make sense that the highest-profile prisoner in America, you know, someone forgot to guard him,” de Blasio told reporters, Politico reports. “I want to understand, I think everyone wants to understand, what really happened.” He added: “I just don’t know what the nature of the death was. I just know it should never have happened, and we still don’t have good answers.” De Blasio’s comments come a...

Previously directed detail to help his daughter move New York mayor and failed presidential candidate Bill de Blasio ordered his New York police security detail to drive his son to Yale University on multiple occasions. The New York Police Department detail transported Dante de Blasio to and from school seven or eight different times during his freshman year, and also took him to visit his uncle who lives near the school, according to the New York Daily News. A former member of the security said the decision had little to do with the younger de Blasio's safety. "There was no...

The sale of foie gras looks set to become illegal in New York City with city council members expected to pass a bill on Wednesday that bans the sale of the fattened liver of a duck or goose at restaurants and grocery stores. Under the bill, vendors and restaurateurs caught selling the French delicacy could be slapped with a $1000 fine and a year behind bars. Animal welfare advocates have long supported banning the sale of foie gras, claiming the practice of force-feeding a bird by sticking a tube down its throat is inhumane. However, farmers who produce the specialty...

Mayor Bill de Blasio doesn’t “understand how on earth” a German porn star got deep inside sensitive areas of NYPD headquarters, he said Thursday, as an NYPD boss vowed to find answers. “I’ve only heard the beginning of this, and I don’t like what I hear,” fumed Hizzoner of Annina Ucatis’ private tour of the Lower Manhattan cop shop — first reported by The Post — where she was free to film inside the clandestine Real Time Crime Center, and even outside Commissioner James O’Neill’s office. “I don’t understand how on earth this could have happened,” continued de Blasio of...

Thursday, the New York City Council will vote on the latest proposal to close the centralized detention facilities on Rikers Island and replace them with a borough-based jail system. The baseline estimate of how many inmates that system will be expected to accommodate by 2026 was recently revised down to just 3,544 — about half of its population today. When one considers (1) the seriousness of the charges most city jail inmates are facing, (2) the level of violence those inmates engage in behind bars and (3) the potential for future crime increases, one thing becomes crystal clear: There is...

“We’re a little upset that Mother Cabrini wasn’t included for a statue dedication,” the Diocese’s Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello told The Post. “If the city won’t honor Mother Cabrini, we will will honor her.” ..." "a group controlled by [Chirlane] McCray [New York mayor De Blasio's wife] passed over Cabrini in favor of seven other women. Now she will be front and center at Manhattan’s Columbus Day Parade, with her float replacing one that typically promotes Catholic education. It will be two or three car-lengths long and include 40 to 50 kids and adults — with more walking alongside it.

The latest push by the Left-wing Communists in the Garbage Party to destabilize our cities and our country is to attack law enforcement on the local level. That means electing “progressives” to the position of mayor and prosecuting attorney while attempting to get similar people hired on as police chiefs. The effort is already paying dividends. Big cities from coast-to-coast are experiencing record disrespect for the law as well as the law enforcers — the men and women who occupy the thin blue line between civil society and total chaos.

Love him or hate him, President Donald Trump has stood with law enforcement officers, vowing to bring them back to a position of honor and respect.  A far cry from others who have created an environment that has allowed for the current war on our police to reach critical levels.If you take some time and wade through the many inaccurate news stories regarding the President, and tune out the news stations that are continuing to dredge up the same narratives, you will find one major positive consistent message- President Donald Trump loves and respects the men and women in law...

Chirlane McCray said she’s backing a program to help LBGT youth because she was a lesbian before marrying Mayor de Blasio. “When I came to New York City, long ago back in 1977, I identified as a lesbian so I know intimately the struggles that young people have had,” McCray said on NY1 Tuesday morning.

The propaganda, surveillance, and censorship of Big Brother in George Orwell’s novel “1984” has now arrived in New York. The city’s Commission on Human Rights recently released new legal enforcement (...Discrimination on the Basis ofImmigration Status and National Origin) guidelines that ban the use of the term “illegal alien” by employers, housing providers (including hotels), and law enforcement as “discriminatory.” Violators can be punished with exorbitant and punitive fines—up to $250,000 per offense.In other words, the city will now censor and penalize anyone for using the correct legal term that has been used in both federal immigration law and numerous...

Noxious language online is causing real-world violence. What can we do about it?

Source: Courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced the arrest of 82 alleged illegal immigrants during a five day stretch from September 20 - September 25 in New York state. Forty-two of these individuals had been previously apprehended by local police, but released back into the streets despite having federal detainer requests from ICE. At least two of these foreign nationals have been previously accused of unwanted touching and sexual assault with pending charges. Mark Lungariello of the Rockland/Westchester News reports that "a 32-year-old man arrested in Yonkers had been...