The NYC Mayor - Diddy do it?

 NYC Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 5 charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting foreign campaign donations.  The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan Damian Williams said Adams took over $100,000 in graft and used his office to try to help Turkey.  Before becoming Mayor of Gotham Adams was the Brooklyn Borough President and is also a retired captain in the NYPD.  He has an extensive police background.  The alleged scheme started in '021 and continued after he became Mayor.  Adams says Biden is getting back at him for his criticism of his handling of the migrant crisis in NYC.  NYS State Governor Kathy Hochul has the power to remove him from office.  Question is if everybody's corrupt who's gonna drain the swamp?

Meanwhile Donald Trump has started his own watch collection with watches going as high as $100K.  Do you have to take out a reverse mortgage to buy one?  Talk to Tom Selleck?  Snoop will probably get one.  YOU walk down the street with one and you will be robbed.  Why now though?  Why not wait 'til after the election?  Has Trump given up on the middle class and given that issue to Harris?  What is the watch supposed to do for you?  Maybe Elon will get one too.  I just wanna know what time it is.

The TV scene.  More channels than ever and some nights there's nothing on.

Fauci can do a gain-of-function but Trump can't do a hush money

Geeez that was kind of quick.  With a Gotham jury what other kind of outcome did you expect?  Trump convicted on all 34 counts in his sex hush money trial in Manhattan.  I view it as a political prosecution but others I'm sure are ecstatic.  A weird thing to be convicted of during an important election season but that's the point to throw Trump and the Republican party off their game.  Many are predicting no prison time even though he is now technically a felon.  Does he pick up trash along the highway with a pokey stick?  The depressing state of American politics.  Was hoping to avoid blogging about Trump for awhile but it's one of them intrusive subjects you can't avoid.

The Brett Kavanaugh Accusers

Pres. Trump's SCOTUS nominee -- Usually in cases like this, the classic HE said/SHE said I'll either side with the man (e.g. Clarence Thomas) or not have an opinion for the time being (existentially neutral or only God knows the deal).  When the # of accusers increases then it becomes problematic.  If you're dealing with say four or five different female accusers you can sit there and say it's a travesty against God and Justice and Country but average folk like me begin to ponder.  Sure it can be some evil leftist conspiracy but......So can the FBI conduct a decent investigation in a week?  Was Judge Kavanaugh even properly vetted?  My own preliminary opinion: maybe go with somebody else?

The Church Sex Crisis

With the Pennsylvania grand jury report and some calls for the Pope to resign is the Catholic Church in eclipse?  What's bizarre imo is the seeming lack of "normal" sex scandals (e.g. a high-ranking bishop having an affair with a prioress say).  How did ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick rise so far for so long?  Is there no fear of Hell?  How many clerics are in actual prison these days?  Is this a case of trying to destroy the Church from within?  Thoughts:)

The News is a bit off-center of late

Bill Cosby may spend the rest of his life in prison and President Donald Trump may win the Nobel Peace Prize. Haven't googled Bill Cosby's exact age of late. Could be 89, 97 or 105 but Justice has been served. Public disgrace and opprobrium not enough and I'm no legal authority but I thought there was a statute of limitations or something. The Hollywood academies have rescinded his many awards and mere mention and it's as if I Spy never existed. They finally realized Roman Polanski is a perv too and did the same such is the feminist juggernaut a little late in coming though. President Trump is seriously being mentioned as a viable peace prize potential winner with the upcoming Kim Jong-Un summit in Singapore the Stormy Daniels saga being merely a springtime diversion to fuel the news cycle. As an aside I don't see any more tip cups in Dunkin' Donuts and I have a chunk of change to spare. Are the clerks making too much or something?

The FBI predestined conclusion re those Hillary emails

Yes said FBI Director James Comey it was wrong and reckless of Hillary to discuss classified and sensitive info on her private servers but you know what?  We're not gonna bring charges.  I call this Charming Rogue Syndrome (not an exact fit because it is Hillary) to describe someone who skirts the law time and again and gets away with it meanwhile Joe Shmoe gets hammered.  Anthony Weiner sends penis pics over the Internet and doesn't have a career.

Did the Eric Garner fed investigation become a cold case?

You know that police chokehold case.  What's taking so long?  Maybe it's complicated but it can't be that complicated.  How many times can you analyze the same video?  It's not Zapruder.  Let's know one way or the other.  Maybe before Obama leaves office?

Take me to your 9 Leaders

Thoughts on the SCOTUS' latest rulings on ObamaCare and gay marriage...

What's up with the cops in this country?

If Eric Garner were a coyote roaming around one of the five boroughs of NYC he'd be alive today but professionally and humanely relocated - I wanted to work this thought into some kind of workable blogpost-title but it's somewhat unwieldy. Watching the coverage of the Baltimore protests/riots on the Today show this morning and a very conservative person said to me "you can understand their frustration" to which I nodded and said they (black folk/African-Americans) hardly ever get justice. These controversial cop cases involving unarmed black man who later die are mounting in this country and while I like to take them individually and analyze them at my own pace and I do have a fairly strong law-and-order bias cumulatively I find myself asking what's up with the cops in this country? Now practically everybody and their grandmother has a built-in video camera in their cell phones these days but the cops don't seem to care, they keep doing what they're doing whatever they're doing and it usually doesn't wind up good for the unarmed black man. WHY should 25-year old Freddie Gray have a broken spine while in police custody??? Now your typical conservative response will be but we don't know all the facts yet (tin ear on Race those conservatives) but ya wanna know something? What's up with the cops in this country?

The mistake of conflating Ferguson and Eric Garner

Everybody seems to do this, it's become generic trademark commentary on race. Civil rights activists act like a white cop in Missouri decided one day to shoot an unarmed black teen with his hands up and some (but not all) right-wingers see Eric Garner the same way they see Michael Brown (my God the guy was a criminal selling those loosies). My view: the grand jurors in Ferguson did not come up with an unreasonable decision though I might disagree with it whereas in Staten Island the grand jurors did come up with a perfectly unreasonable decision. I take these cases one by one as they come up which is the best way. In the case of Eric Garner it would be far easier and more productive for conservatives to simply admit this cop did wrong, admit it, learn from it and move on instead of hunkering down as they always do in defense of the cops and smearing those who disagree as somehow being anti-cop. It seems grand juries these days are reluctant to indict the men and women in blue. Righties will point out that they hear reams of more evidence than we ever get to hear but I think it goes deeper than this. It's a cozy-and-toasty emotionalism on the part of those hand-picked from society to become jurors that ultimately gives the police officer the bennie of the doubt. So far the NYC protests are far more civilized than what went down in St. Louis, a social model for proper but passionate protest. The ME in NYC says Garner died from a police chokehold, Det. Daniel Pantaleo said to the jurors he was using a technique he learned at the police academy. All I can say is God help us!

The fog of race

I have to say it was dramatic and intense coverage over on the CW Channel 11 News here, while the prosecuting attorney over there in Ferguson Missoui was droning on and on about the finer points of the grand jury verdict on the bigger split screen they were showing live and growing reaction among the large crowd gathered to hear the no indictment verdict against Ferguson PO Darren Wilson in the tragic Michael Brown case. It didn't take long for the first police cruiser to be set on fire and for the tear gas canisters to be shot in the air. I've noticed more and more in these type racially-oriented protests the increasing number of white protesters joining the African-Americans so it might sound contradictory to say we've made some racial progress but sometimes you have to look for it. There's no way in hell PO Wilson can go back on the streets in Ferguson or any predominantly black community across the country. He'll just have to make some sort of drastic career change so that's a kind of social price against him despite the verdict that was rendered by the jury.

What's up with the Ferguson PD?

If you were a troglodyte the past week and just popped on the tube you'd swear there was a major terrorist attack in the community of Ferguson MO. OK so let's rap about race and the police again. Despite my recent post re the NYPD for me Eric Garner is not Sean Bell is not Michael Brown is not Amadou Diallo and why don't we throw in Tawana Brawley while we're at it. I approach these cases on a purely individual basis and you can make the case that maybe Sean Bell or his friend was driving his SUV towards the cops OR that yes maybe teen Michael Brown was tussling with a police officer in his squad car and went for his gun after strong-arming a convenience store. Look I get it but put these other cases together and start comparing and they all highlight even more at least for me that the Eric Garner case is the weakest in terms of the NYPD POV & PR. He wasn't running down the street half-naked waving a machete, he didn't have a gun or a device that resembled a gun or even took out a black wallet the way Amadou Diallo did in the Soundview section of the Bronx when four officers shot him to death. So for parts of the right-wing like the New York Post to unreservedly support the cops as a general rule is a huge socio/political mistake imo if the GOP wants to get serious about attracting the Black Vote and no Bo Dietl doesn't know more than the NYC ME. Missouri - well at least conservatives are starting to wake the hell up by criticizing the increasing militarization of our nation's police forces what with all that surplus army stuff the federal gov't doled out to them in years past. Actually you know something? conservatives all conservatives should start reading Twelve Years a Slave if they haven't already and watch the movie as it's obvious they have no interest in or never got the whole Black Experience. Lastly conservatives waste far too much time talking about Al Sharpton:)

Send your laundry bill to the Port Authority

Imagine being stuck in traffic on the GW Bridge for four hours! I wonder how many car seats were ruined. If I ever have to commute this way I'm gonna head out with some Depends first. You know if you're gonna deliberately close four lanes on the GW at least have the human decency to spread out a few Port-o-Sans here and there. I agree with NJ Assembly Deputy Speaker John Wisniewski who said Christie is simply "not believable" and how could his deputy chief of staff have planned and done this all on her own? They say an email is forever and my mother always said don't put down certain things in writing. I guess that Port Authority executive David Wildstein is discovering that. Look I never liked Christie as much as some folks here, was never taken in by his NJ bluster and always thought he was somewhat overrated. He said a curious thing during his press conference yesterday that Ft. Lee NJ Mayor Mark Sokolich was never even on his radar. What is that supposed to mean? it kinda implies something else, that if he was on his radar the whole thing may have been plausible. I don't see how in hell Christie becomes the GOP standard-bearer in 2016. In retrospect maybe the whole lapband thing was a waste of time.

The 50th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination

While I wasn't even born during this tragic and historic event I was born on 3/14/64 which would make me well along in my mother's womb on that fateful day of 11/22/63. The specials are starting to churn out with PBS leading the way. Watched NOVA's "Cold Case JFK" episode last night and just as I suspected all the more mainstream and respected programs are gonna go all establishmentarian on us, not really gonna give serious fodder to any conspiracy theories. On the show after that narrator George Clooney intoned "when Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed John Kennedy from the Texas School Book Depository" and I got to thinking but that was never exactly proven in a court of law now was it because nightclub owner Jack Ruby wasted no time in gunning him down. While growing up I had a slim purple bound volume of the famous Warren Commission Report on my bookshelf and was weeding out books one day and it was such an easy decision to just chuck the thing out. The House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978 went with it was probably a conspiracy and I'll go along with that but I haven't decided on which theory yet. I'm kind of guessing BB's establishmentarian POV here but let's open it up for debate anyway.

Stop 'n' Frisk put on hold in NYC

My liberal gut instinct tells me Stop 'n' Frisk is wrong but my practical side sees it's also a highly effective police tool for reducing crime rates and getting guns off the streets. As you know Manhattan federal judge Shira Sheindlin has basically invalidated the NYPD's well-known and highly practiced stop and frisk program which has led to at least twenty years of markedly lower crime rates than under the David Dinkins administration. Judge Sheindlin also ordered a court-appointed monitor or overseer of the NYPD program and there's also to be a pilot program involving copcams worn on cops in one precinct in areas in every borough with the highest stop rates is my understanding although the PBA is gonna fight this rightfully saying imo that cops already have alot of gear on like mace and flashlights and this is only an extra and unnecessary encumbrance. Here's a complaint I hear alot about gangbangers in general, what's the deal with them and why do they have such notoriously bad aim? it'd be like the Mob going after Castellano outside the steakhouse but instead shooting an innocent grandmother in her rocking chair across the street. Anyway here's my overall view of these matters, when liberalism holds sway the crime rate goes up, way up. In short PC kills, think ChicagoLand.

The George Zimmerman Verdict and Al Sharpton in all his glory

So I go to work this morning and a black co-worker is carrying around The Daily News and you're like I heard that Jeter got hurt again. NOT GUILTY, look I'd have more respect for the Black View in this case if they didn't cheer when OJ got acquitted. The circular reasoning of pro-choicers like BB and Saty - if Barack Obama were aborted we wouldn't have one of the greatest presidents of modern times (in their view). Discuss all this and more.

SCOTUS/DOMA

Why have legislators?

Why conservatives should be against the death penalty (but they aren't)

The perverse Jodi Arias jury, deadlocked now and can't decide whether she lives or dies.  Lost track of how many days they've been deliberating her fate, there's been a devastating supercell tornado in an Oklahoma suburb and the blanket media coverage of the aftermath days after and they STILL haven't arrived at a decision.  I was pondering all this on my walk today and I think it's a fair guess to say most conservatives these days like to be known as libertarian to varying degrees, to different shades and their animating principle is of course they're against increasing the Power of the State and don't even like the power it already has.  The State however has the power and authority to imprison you, that's a major power but they also in some cases, in many cases have the power to also put a person to death.  That's an awesome power, a disturbing power.  For me my personal opposition to the death penalty has nothing to do with sympathy for the criminal in most cases but more a disturbing sense of the Power of the State, it bothers and nags for some reason.  Dunno what the official libertarian position on capital punishment is, I mean I know their position on that other kind of capital punishment (ka-ching ka-ching) that Obama represents but where they come down on putting a criminal to death I really don't know or haven't gotten the memo yet.  Yeah you'll say but it's in the Constitution and that's true but I've been wondering too of late should the Constitution be the be-all and the end-all? our Bible especially when it kinda contradicts libertarian tenets at times and while we all revere the wisdom of the Founding Fathers but being human and all and not the demigods we make them out to be they could've been assholes on occasion (see eminent domain).  Yeah I haven't talked about the death penalty all that much here down through the years primarily because people's minds are mostly made up and what's the point but have finally crystallized at least why it bothers me so much.  IMHO it should also bother your average conservative.  Maybe Rand Paul can tweet it:) 

When government turns on itself

This is interesting, the FBI may investigate the IRS over its targeting of conservative political groups filing for tax-exempt status but then who then investigates the FBI, the CIA?  Obama has recently castigated the IRS for the scandal, will the IRS then audit Mr. Obama?  I must've missed the smoking gun where the President ordered the IRS to go after the Tea Party movement but conservative commentators are acting like this is so.  I'm sorry m'am, just the facts.  AG Eric Holder didn't know his deputy authorized subpoenas for all those AP reporter and editors' phone and interview records, that's interesting an underling having more power than the boss.  Of course there's still Benghazi but allow me to say something about Brooklyn Federal Judge Edward Korman.  I've been reading about him in the paper of late and he's the one who struck down all age restrictions and prescription requirements for the Plan B morning-after pill.  It's not really his decision that struck me, it's to be expected but his reaction to those dissenting parties including the Obama Administration that gets me.  He's one of the most hubristic judges I've ever heard about acting like he's the final arbiter on a contentious social issue and doesn't seem particularly keen on the right to appeal (his decisions that is) which is a cornerstone of our democracy blasting HHS Sec'y Sebelius and anyone really who disagrees with him and he just seems to me to be off the rails, off-center from a judicial temperament pov.  Did you hear Chris Matthews' latest rant about conservative criticism of his beloved president? he's still pushing the racism angle that old yellowed dog-eared card and it's funny but people like him never seem to get laryngitis.  Tawana Brawley had a fundraiser the other day, did you give?  Lingering question though, will the IRS audit those rogue FBI agents?

A kind of an afterthought on the Petraeus scandal

It kind of bothers me that the FBI spent so much time on this.  Yeah that FBI the one that is supposed to fight crime and domestic terror.  It'd be like Batman going after the Mayor's mistress instead of doing battle with the Joker.  Some women simply like men in uniform, think Cop Sex.   I think the interesting thing with Obama is that his right-wing enemies and they are legion can't even seem to approach the merest whiff of an aroma of a sex scandal and don't think they haven't been trying.  I think Obama has deliberately lived his life according to those porn disclaimers re safe sex - "we highly recommend the Surgeon General's accepted guidelines of monogamy and/or abstinence or at a minimum..."  Bill Clinton being warm-blooded got caught up in Monicagate but I think Obama being so intellectual is beyond even this and knows well the practical importance of living a chaste life the better to push through liberalism without the usual distractions.  Since time immemorial women have destroyed powerful men and all their medals and honors and accolades go out the window.  Oh I know I wasn't gonna do a Petraeus blog but I somehow feel less safe with the FBI devoting such massive amounts of manpower to basically a noncrime, I mean was a law broken? but then again it's something J. Edgar Hoover would have done:)