Free Republic

Paralysis and “paranoia’’ brought on by US Attorney Preet Bharara’s ongoing corruption probe have come to define Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration with just seven days to go in the legislative session, a worried Cuomo ally and others have told The Post.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, addressed race and the criminal justice system during a stop this week in Baltimore. He spoke at a Maryland Republican fundraiser in Baltimore about racial disparities in law enforcement practices. Paul drew criticism last month in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray, who died after being injured while in police custody, and the riots that followed in Baltimore. At the time, Paul did a controversial interview with radio host Laura Ingraham during which he said some factors that influenced the violence were “the breakdown of the family structure, the lack of fathers, the...

Full title: De Blasio says if rent-regulated apartments law expires it would be 'end to New York City as we have known it' The “end to New York City as we have known it" could be upon us if Albany fails to act and renew rent laws governing 1 million rent-regulated units, Mayor de Blasio said on Friday. In an unusually apocalyptic conference call with 14,000 AARP members, de Blasio said the laws — which expire Monday — are the only things keeping landlords from jacking up rents to market rates, often double what tenants currently pay.

Guy Benson: In “End of Discussion” we have a really fun, very short portion of a chapter that deals with this whole nomenclature on college campuses of “trigger warnings” and “privilege” — there’s a whole list of them. “Microaggressions” is a big one. And towards the end of this chapter on academia we examine the very interesting case of Elizabeth Warren, who is a white woman. That is – the science is in, and she is a white woman. Yet for years, she identified, self-identified wrongly based on family folklore that she was a Native American. And she benefited tremendously...

Barbara Tasch June 10, 2015 New York police commissioner William Bratton said he'd like to hire more non-white officers but most of them have criminal records and therefore, he can't, The Guardian reported. “We have a significant population gap among African American males because so many of them have spent time in jail and, as such, we can’t hire them," Bratton said in an interview with the publication. For this high number, Bratton blamed the "unfortunate consequences" of stop-and-frisk policing carried out on young non-white men over the last few years in New York. A felony conviction, domestic violence charges,...

At a Hartford, Connecticut rally supposedly called to protest five homicides of young people in the city over the past two weeks – four of them shootings – Rev. Al Sharpton was challenged Saturday by a black pastor for asking every preacher present to donate $100 to Sharpton’s civil rights organization, National Action Network (NAN). Pastor Marcus Mosiah Jarvis of Christ the Cornerstone Praise and Western Tabernacle, however, shouted at Sharpton as he strode down the center aisle of the crowded church, “How dare you ask the people of Hartford to give you their money! You’re nothing but a pimp!”

Talk about killing the messenger . . . Mike Barnicle has blamed the New York Post for the fact that New York City has become less safe under Mayor Bill de Blasio. On today's Morning Joe, Barnicle--holding up the front page of today's Post--whined that part of the problem is "the way crime is now covered in this city--especially in this paper, okay? If someone is shot in Times Square, or a guy with a hatchet in midtown is attacking people, it's on the front page." Boo-hoo. The fault, dear Barnicle, is not in the Post, but in de Blasio,...

Big Apple Mayor Bill de Blasio is a busy guy. He’s got more than enough on his plate already, needing to deal with his city’s skyrocketing crime rate, crushing poverty in the areas that the TV cameras don’t cover and a police force which doesn’t much care for him. Still, he took time out of his busy day on Sunday to talk to John Dickerson on Face the Nation. Strangely, he wasn’t there to talk about Gotham, but rather about Hillary Clinton and her recent calls for expanded early voting around the nation. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio...

So Linc Chafee is in the race. This brings the number of contenders up to four. You have an embittered, kleptocratic and entitled Social Security recipient; you have a sex-obsessed, corrupt septuagenarian Socialist; you have a big city machine Progressive; and you have the Wonder-Bread-and-Velveeta pragmatist. Of this crew, the only one that is a real contender is Martin O’Malley. But the real reason this bunch of northeastern Progressive white guys are in the race is to give the illusion that Hillary is not cruising to a coronation. There is undoubtedly some hope, too, that inevitable debates with one or...

Where 'Crime' is Code for 'Black People': How Would You Caption This Photo from The Wall Street Journal's Story on White New Yorkers Who Hate Mayor de Blasio "I would like to thank the kind people who donated on day five of the fundraising drive on ChaunceyDeVega.com and WARN. Your generosity is extremely appreciated. We are now 50 percent to the goal for our twice-a-year fundraiser. Again, if you, are able, and find value in the space that I have tried to curate here for reasonable and intelligent dialogue at our virtual salon, please throw some change into the donation...

Mayor de Blasio is playing hard-to-get with his former boss and presumptive 2016 Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. For the third time, de Blasio refused to endorse Clinton on national television, sidestepping questions about throwing his support behind the former New York senator. "As for the Democratic field, each of the candidates is beginning to address these issues," de Blasio said on CBS' "Face the Nation" about whether any of the declared Democratic presidential candidates had adequately addressed issues like income inequality and a higher minimum wage. "I'm waiting to hear a fuller vision from each, on how they'll actually tackle...

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said on Sunday that Americans would benefit from reformed national voting laws. “We have a democracy problem,” de Blasio told host John Dickerson on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Our elections are governed by state law and for a long time I’ve believed we need to make a fundamental series of reforms,” he said. “Let’s face it, a lot of the people in the political class have tried to discourage voter involvement and a lot of incumbents prefer a very small electorate,” he added. De Blasio said he disagrees with Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.)...

No Democrats are willing to go on the record with their doubts about Hillary Clinton’s electability – not even the gaggle of hopeless, sad-sack nominal opponents for the nomination: Lincoln “metric system” Chafee, Bernie “socialism now!” Sanders, and Martin “the guy who taxed rain” O’Malley.  But a shocking potential rival is waiting in the wings. The realization is dawning on many in the jackass party that they have an unappealing, gaffe-prone, self-entitled, scandal-ridden presumptive nominee on their hands.  I called out the growing  subterranean panic three weeks ago.  Now with CNN polling revealing movement away from Hillary, the conservative...

The screaming tabloid headlines harken a darker, scarier time in New York history. “Four more murders in one night,” the New York Post wrote under the grieving loved ones of a shooting victim. The front page of The Daily News blared “Subway Crime Soars.” In reality, the uptick in violence is small. But even the perception that New York is suffering any sort of backslide into the violence-plagued bad old days of the 1970s has empowered critics of Mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio has assured the public that overall crime is down and that measures are already being put...

Two convicted murderers made a daring escape from a maximum-security prison by drilling through cell walls,stealing through plumbing tunnels and then climbing out a manhole, authorities said Saturday. A massive search is underway.

So now several of the largest corporations in the state, including Yankee mainstays such as insurance giants Aetna and Travelers, as well as General Electric, are threatening to leave and get out of this abusive relationship. GE's CEO Jeff Immelt told his thousands of Connecticut-based employees that he has put together a team to evaluate a move to another state with "a more pro-business environment." He says the company's state taxes have increased five times since 2011 and the new hike would impose "significant and retroactive tax increases for businesses." Aetna complained that it already pays $65 million a year...

Early-state Democrats are evenly divided over whether Hillary Clinton’s campaign should be worried about recent polls showing her highest unfavorability ratings in years. Exactly 50 percent say there’s cause for concern while the other 50 percent saw no reason for alarm. [Snip] “Twenty-plus Republicans beating her up, Elizabeth Warren talking about the working man issues that terrify her, a couple of candidates like Bernie [Sanders] and Martin [O’Malley] to fill in her policy blanks and a media that feels stiffed by her lack of access, so all we can focus on is emails and the notorious Clinton Foundation and newly...

Wall Street wants Michael Bloomberg to run for president, but the billionaire isn't budging. At the Yale CEO Summit this week, the talk was of "drafting Bloomberg" however possible. The former New York City mayor seems like the perfect solution for Wall Street's problems with the current field of presidential candidates. The Street sees him as a centrist technocrat who adeptly managed one of the most complex cities in the world. They think he understands the global business community. Rumblings about a Bloomberg run are especially strong at several bulge bracket banks, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Merrill once...

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Rev. Al Sharpton took aim at Cleveland's 2016 Republican National Convention in front of a packed house at Cleveland's Olivet Institutional Baptist Church on Friday night, speaking for nearly an hour. "Jeb Bush and Scott Walker and them think they are going to come in here and have four or five days of convention," Sharpton said. "We are going to have another convention outside."

<p>Despite 6-1/2 years of horrid governance and dozens of acknowledged scandals, several of which a few of the credible remaining outposts of liberal thought have actually agreed are scandals, David Brooks, the New York Times's resident fake conservative, asserted on Friday's PBS NewsHour, as if it's an indisputable fact, that "President Obama has run an amazingly scandal-free administration, not only he himself, but the people around him."</p>