Free Republic

When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio failed to endorse Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and appeared to call into question her progressive bona fides, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Though he served as Clinton’s U.S. Senate campaign manager in 2000, de Blasio has been clear that he does not believe that the former secretary of state was pulled sufficiently to the left over the course of the Obama presidency. “The Democrat should be willing to challenge the status quo,” de Blasio in November of last year in the context of Clinton’s efforts to recast herself a progressive populist...

Despite repeated claims to the contrary, Mayor Bill de Blasio is positioning himself to be the leftist “progressive” alternative to Wall Street-friendly Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president, a national party operative told The Post. De Blasio’s hope, the operative said, is a “Draft de Blasio’’ movement will develop among progressive activists over the next several months that will lead to the mayor being able to defeat Clinton in the primary elections next year in much the same way leftist Sen. George McGovern successfully challenged the initially front-running establishment Democratic candidate, Sen. Edmund Muskie, more than 40...

Despite repeated claims to the contrary, Mayor de Blasio is positioning himself to be the leftist “progressive” alternative to Wall Street-friendly Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president, a national party operative told The Post. De Blasio’s hope, the operative said, is a “draft de Blasio’’ movement will develop among progressive activists over the next several months that will lead to the mayor being able to defeat Clinton in the primary elections next year in much the same way leftist Sen. George McGovern successfully challenged the initially front-running establishment Democratic candidate, Sen. Edmund Muskie, more than 40 years...

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio once again refused to endorse his former boss, Hillary Clinton, in remarks today. "This is a different country we’re living in right now, and I think we need to hear a vision that relates to this tim," de Blasio said.

Alexandria, the District of Columbia and Montgomery County joined New York City and dozens of other municipalities across the country Monday in demanding a court allow President Obama’s deportation amnesty to go into effect immediately, saying they want the tax revenue they think the newly legalized workers would bring. A federal court in Texas halted the amnesty, ruling that Mr. Obama likely broke the law in declaring it, but the local officials,...

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s approval ratings have slipped below 50 percent, making it possible he could face a serious primary challenge in 2017. But New York’s pro–de Blasio city council may have found a way to stop that cold: A majority of the council supports giving more than 1 million non-citizens full rights to vote in local elections. That’s one in five adult New Yorkers. Mayor de Blasio’s approval ratings are much higher among minorities than with whites, who oppose him by a two-to-one margin. Giving non-citizens — most of whom are minorities — the vote could...

Pic - Mayor Bill de Blasio, at Gracie Mansion with First Lady Chirlane McCray, activist Van Jones, and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, plans to dip his toe into presidential politics with the launch of a push for income inequality to become a central issue of the 2016 national elections. "All of this is focused on the notion that we are not having a discussion on income inequality in this country and we are not having that discussion at our peril." GRACIE MANSION — Mayor Bill de Blasio, who supporters describe as a "national hero" among progressives, has dipped his his...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – New York City public schools have added two Muslim holidays to the school calendar, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina announced Wednesday. Schools will now close for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, making New York City the largest school district in the nation to recognize the two holidays on the official school calendar. “We are committed to having a school calendar that reflects and honors the extraordinary diversity of our students,” said Farina.

In the bad old days of New York City, the mob would decide the price of erecting a building regardless of who was planning to do it. Years after the construction of One Police Plaza, the City’s Police Headquarters, when the ceiling of the main floor started to fall down an investigation found that the mob had sold the city substandard concrete. They didn’t care who they ripped off. Hard work led by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani broke the grip of the mob on New York’s construction industry and for years afterward construction boomed because of the reduced costs of...

Two police officers shot — and a manhunt is underway. Shortly after midnight Thursday morning, two police officers were shot in front of the Ferguson Police Department. A 41-year -old officer from the St. Louis Police Department was shot in the shoulder, with the bullet exiting through his back. A 32-year-old officer officer from the Webster Groves Police Department was shot just below the right eye with the bullet lodging in his ear. “We could have buried two police officers next week over this,” said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar. Police believe the shots came from a handgun...

<p>The de Blasio family is full of feminists, including Hizzoner and son Dante, First Lady Chirlane McCray said on Sunday.</p> <p>McCray, speaking at an event outside the UN for International Women’s Day, called her husband “a true believer when it comes to women having power.</p>

**SNIP** “If government dependence on welfare is rising in a good economy, what’s going to happen in a bad economy?” wondered study author Stephen Eide, who said the trend was antithetical to data dating back to around 1960. The surprising uptick, reformers say, is partly by design. De Blasio’s pick to head the $10 billion Human Resources Administration, Steven Banks, is a proponent of loosening welfare restrictions. With Banks at the helm, the HRA launched a series of sweeping changes in its state-approved Biennial Employment Plan, including changing requirements for welfare recipients with kids younger than 4 years old. Recipients...

Mayor Bill de Blasio (Communist Progressive – NYC) is rushing to the defense of his former employer, Hillary Clinton, who is in hot water for violating Federal requirements that official email correspondence be conducted on government servers. After all, birds of a crony-progressive feather should always flock together.At issue is Hillary’s somewhat Bond-villain decision to build her own email server in her lair in Chappaqua, rather than bother with those pesky government servers. And to a certain extent, can you blame her? I mean heck, there is a reason healthcare.gov wasn’t exactly a rousing success. Can you imagine those same folks...

Mayor Bill de Blasio, promoting his message of income equality and empowering the less fortunate, pressed influential New York City business leaders on Thursday to raise their workers’ starting pay to $13 an hour. The liberal mayor made his call in front of a group that broadly supported his predecessor, billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, and at times had been skeptical of de Blasio’s agenda: a gathering of the well-heeled and powerful known as The Association for a Better New York. “I want to call on you, the business leaders gathered in this room, to do your part,” the mayor, a...

New York City public schools have added two Muslim holidays to the school calendar, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina announced Wednesday. Schools will now close for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, making New York City the largest school district in the nation to recognize the two holidays on the official school calendar. “We are committed to having a school calendar that reflects and honors the extraordinary diversity of our students,” said Farina. De Blasio said the change means that Muslim families won’t be forced to choose between observing the holidays and sending their kids to school....

New York City schools will add two Muslim holidays to the calendar this year, Mayor de Blasio is announcing Wednesday.“Today we’ll announce the addition of Eid al-Adha & al-Fitr to @NYCSchools holiday schedule, a change that respects the diversity of our city,” Hizzoner tweeted.

Another anti-Semitic cab driver has been unearthed in the Big Apple, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday, after one cabbie told a 51 year-old Jewish woman that "all Jews must die." On Sunday morning, Jewish news columnist Baila Sebrow hailed a cab from Manhattan's Carlton Hotel - but when she entered the cab, she was instantly asked whether she was Jewish. After answering in the affirmative, Sebrow was told that "all Jews must die," and the driver then began driving "really fast" - so much so that she was afraid he would total the car, she stated. Sebrow, terrified,...

Cops should “take a deep breath’’ — and close their eyes — when dealing with angry people, according to the NYPD’s new “retraining’’ program. The potentially dangerous advice is part of a $35 million “smart policing’’ primer by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton that most of the cops who have gone through it say is completely useless. One cop who sat through two full-day programs called them “not realistic’’ and “pretty silly.” At one point during the lectures, the cop said, those in attendance were given breathing exercises to learn how to calm down — even...

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is “comfortable” with himself. So the city learned during the biggest crisis to hit a New York mayoralty in recent memory. “I’m comfortable with the fact that I’ve always tried to tell the truth and stay true to my values,” de Blasio said in mid January, as police officers across New York City continued a work slowdown that had brought discretionary police activity to a virtual standstill. De Blasio’s breezy self-assurance was revealing but unfortunate, since it was his belief in his own mission as social-justice truth-teller that had pushed the police into...

I haven't seen official snowfall totals yet, but judging from a glance out the window, it looks as if New York City might have gotten about 6 inches Monday night. Meanwhile, the entire city is shut down. Schools, government, public transportation, private transportation, and — by virtue of the lack of transportation — most offices and businesses. It's just absurd. I've lived in New York for almost my whole life — 48 years and counting. I have seen the city weather many actually large snowstorms, including a 26-incher just a few years go. The city stayed open through all of...