Tag: new york

INSANITY: New York State Democrats Pass Bill Replacing the Words “Mother” and “Father” with These Two Ultra-Woke Terms

Democrats in New York State have declared war on the nuclear family after passing a bill designed to kowtow to the radical pro-trans lobby.

As The New York Post reported on Wednesday, the New York State Legislature this week passed legislation that would erase the terms “mother” and “father” from state child custody and parental laws in favor of two woke, gender-neutral terms.

The terms that would be used instead? Gestating parent and non-gestating parent.

This sounds like something straight out of the Babylon Bee.

The New York Post reported:

A woke new bill erases the terms “mother” and “father” from state child custody and parental laws — a gender-neutral rewriting that’s expected to spark a flood of similarly clunky legislation.

“Mother” would be replaced with “gestating parent,” while “father” becomes “non-gestating parent” or “parent” in family court, passed this week by state Democrats.

“Paternity” proceedings to determine a child’s biological father would meanwhile become “parentage” cases, under the bill, which was rammed through the Assembly in March and of the Senate this week.

A “putative father” — also known as a deadbeat dad — would now be called “an alleged parent” in official state records, under the bill, which was sponsored by liberals Sen. Luis Sepulveda (D-Bronx) and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester) and will go to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk for approval.

Sepulveda, a Bronx Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, claimed the bill was necessary “to be consistent with current statute and case law>

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman lashed out at the changes:

“Democrats led by Kathy Hochul have continued their declaration of war on New York families by canceling the loving terms of Mom and Dad and replacing them with ‘gestating and non-gestating parent,’” Blakeman said in a statement obtained by the New York Post.

“The insanity ends when I’m Governor.”

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Crazy Wealth Tax Proposals In California And New York City

The socialists who have been taking over the Democratic Party lately have a problem—the state and local jurisdictions where they are able to seize power still have to compete with rival jurisdictions that are still relatively friendly to private property and capitalist businesses. The principal targets of egalitarian fury, namely possessors of great wealth, are strongly incentivized to escape from dystopian hell-holes created by socialists to saner locales. Even those who aren’t so clearly targeted as objects of envy suffer from the effects of economic and social decline and are also incentivized to leave.

Even worse from a socialist perspective, the US Constitution restricts what a state or local government can do in terms of seizing private property. The owner of any property taken for public use must be compensated, so a local socialist enterprise can’t get around the problem of having to raise capital (and later to cover the inevitable losses associated with socialist production) with the help of government funding. However, a government’s power to tax only applies within its own jurisdiction; rich people aided by clever lawyers can figure out how to break their tax “nexus” to an oppressive jurisdiction in order to shield themselves, their businesses, and most or all of the associated wealth in other, much less extortionate jurisdictions.

Two jurisdictions where mass flight from Democratic misrule is unmistakable are California and New York City, both of which have lately experienced a net emigration of more than 100,000 residents per year. While lower-tax states like Texas and Florida are well-known destinations for such blue state refugees, in the case of New York City even the just slightly-less overgoverned New Jersey has become a magnet for a lot of former New Yorkers—it takes a lot for a true Gothamite to suffer the indignity of making that move.

One of the consequences of such flight is that as the tax base shrinks, the pressure on committed socialist ideologues to extort whatever wealth remains even more rapidly (before it too flees from their grasp) mounts. Likewise, there is also pressure to tax things that have previously been left untaxed and might still be within reach, thus pushing the envelope of whatever forms of soaking the rich are permitted by the US Constitution.

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New York DA Indicts Uzbek Truck Hijackers in $4.5 Million Theft Ring

Authorities in New York have busted a truck cargo hijacking ring allegedly run by Uzbek national Murodullo “Murad” Khasanov that they say has stolen at least $4.5 million in cargo.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has handed down indictments for Khasanov and seven of his associates in a scheme using warehouse insiders who passed the crooks tips about what sort of cargo was being stored in their facilities. With that insider info, the crooks forged fake transit papers and then simply drove in and picked up the merchandise, then drove off without any questions asked.

Authorities also say the crooks hacked into warehouse computer systems to create their fake transit documents.

The ring stole a wide variety of expensive products including high-end cheeses, copper wire, meats, and cigarettes.

The DA’s office has focused on six thefts totaling $4.5 million.

The suspects are all from the country of Uzbekistan, which is a northern neighbor of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan and is about 800 miles from Iran’s northern border.

Alleged ringleader Khasanov was taken into custody on Wednesday morning during a raid on his ritzy Surf Avenue high-rise apartment in New York City, according to the New York Post.

All eight of the suspects arrested in the scheme are in the U.S. illegally and entered the country during the Biden administration. Officials also say they speak little to no English.

The indictment alleges that the crew stole $165,000 worth of lamb, $266,000 worth of copper, $295,000 worth of beef, $432,000 worth of cheese, and $3.3 million worth of cigarettes. The crooks then reportedly moved to sell the items on the black market.

“What is very disturbing here is that the victims, the owners of the goods and the legitimate shipping companies had no idea this was occurring until the damage is done,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at Thursday’s press conference.

“We believe at least some of the food was meant for grocery stores, like a Costco for example. When food orders go missing and shelves are empty, prices go up,” he added.

Some of the stolen items were recovered and found in a storage facility in New York City.

Suspects Nodir Kobilov and Aleksey Vorobyev pleaded not guilty at their arraignment in court on Thursday morning. Both were given supervised release.

But prosecutors insisted that Khasanov — the alleged ringleader who also has an Interpol “red-notice” out against him — be held on $1.5 million cash bail. A judge ruled that he be held at least until June 11 for his bail application hearing.

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NYC manhole ‘mole people’ have plundered sewer for lost treasures for decades

Treasures abound beneath city streets for anyone brave or crazy enough to explore the murky depths of the Big Apple’s sprawling 7,500-mile sewer system — all in search of a wayward wallet or piece of jewelry that may have fallen through a grate above.

Those temptations were put on full display last week by two separate incidents caught on camera Friday night, where troops of people were seen emerging from manhole covers across Brooklyn after sneaking around the steamy depths in what police said were likely scavenging operations.

The ever-present threat of arrest and obvious risks to personal safety are apparently no deterrent for these intrepid subterranean explorers — for whom no gemstone is too grimy and no coin too crud-covered to add to their loot pouches — with numerous such incidents capturing the city’s attention over the years.

One happening made headlines In 2015, when part-time city Department of Environmental Protection worker Marquis Evans, then 21, led two pals down a Brooklyn manhole in search of “gold, jewelry and guns” in city sewers, cops said at the time.

The trio took several such belowground “scavenger hunt” excursions before the law caught up with Evans and his friends Damien Nieves and David Hannibal. They were slapped with criminal trespassing charges after spending four hours searching for them.

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New Yorkers Are Starting to Realize Just How Crazy Mamdani’s Housing Scheme Really Is

They voted for him, and so they have him, but that doesn’t mean that even New Yorkers are thrilled to see the systematic destruction of what was once the greatest city in the world. More of them voted for the young, handsome, dynamic candidate than for the sleazy retread corruptocrat Andrew Cuomo or the clownish Curtis Sliwa, but that doesn’t mean that New Yorkers are collectively ready to don Mao jackets and start singing the praises of the five-year plan. Mamdani’s audacious scheme to socialize New York City housing is already coming in for severe criticism.

One sign that some New Yorkers are aware of what Mamdani is really all about was an unsigned editorial in the New York Post on Monday. The Post Editorial Board wrote that Mamdani’s “‘Block by Block’ plan to build 200,000 subsidized apartments entails a lot of handwaving, magical thinking and reliance on ‘responsible stewards’ . . who have been failing to manage the real-estate portfolios they already have.” Mamdani promises that “if ‘community land trusts, nonprofits or even the tenants themselves’ control the city’s housing stock, these miracle-workers will ‘expand New Yorkers’ access to safe, stable, and affordable homes.’”

However, the Post points out that “programs that do all this are so old and tired that Mamdani’s Gen Z policy experts appear never to have heard of them, maybe because the experiments had already failed when they were building fantasy housing projects out of Legos.”

Indeed. If socialists learned from experience, there would be no more socialists. There is system on the planet that has been tried so many times and failed just as many times, and yet constantly gains new young adherents who don’t know how bad socialist regimes really have been, or would care if they did know, because in their youthful arrogance, they’re sure they’re going to do right this time what their elders kept doing wrong. Mamdani is going to be the world’s first socialist to build a society. Sure, and he is also going to sprout wings and fly to Mars.

Mamdani announced, of course, that he planned to seize rental properties from landlords who have not maintained them properly — in the judgment of none other than Mamdani and his cronies. He then intends to hand over ownership of those properties to “community land trusts” and “non-profits.”

Oh yeah, that’ll fix everything. As foredoomed as this idea is as any sort of real solution to New York’s housing problems, it has long been high on Mamdani’s to-do list. Intifada on the Hudson: The Selling of Zohran Mamdani shows how he has made socialized housing schemes a centerpiece of his program ever since he entered politics. “People often ask,” Mamdani wrote on Dec. 3, 2020, “what socialists mean when we say we want to ‘decommodify’ housing. Basically, we want to move away from a situation where most people access housing by purchasing it on the market & toward a situation where the state guarantees high-quality housing to all.”

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Mamdani’s “COGE” commission to prepare deeper cuts to New York City social programs and regulations

On Thursday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the formation of a Committee on Government Efficiency (COGE) to examine the New York City Charter for efficiencies: that is, to search for ways in which social programs can be cut.

“The Commission on Government Efficiency will take a hard look at how City government functions and identify the reforms we need to deliver faster, smarter and more effectively for working people,” Mamdani told the media.

The Charter is essentially New York City’s constitution. It defines what authority belongs to the mayor and other officials and what to the City Council; laws, timelines and mandatory minimum rules for city reserve funds; the multi-step public review process required to build housing, change zoning laws or approve major infrastructure; and the scope, duties and enforcement powers of every city department.

The Charter does not control funding but does dictate the operational rules that heavily control, protect or limit social spending. For example, the Charter legally mandates the existence of agencies like the Department of Social Services and the Human Resources Administration, which a mayor cannot simply abolish to save money. The Charter also sets the exact legal procedures for how the city buys goods and hires outside nonprofits to run homeless shelters, daycare centers and after-school programs.

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DOT Subpoenas New York After Deadly Virginia Bus Crash — State Accused of Stonewalling Federal Investigation Into Chinese-Born CDL Holder

The Biden-era policies that opened the floodgates to lax oversight and questionable licensing practices are once again under scrutiny after the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a subpoena to the State of New York over its refusal to cooperate with a federal investigation into a deadly bus crash that killed five people in Virginia.

According to a report from Fox News, the DOT confirmed it has formally subpoenaed New York officials after the state allegedly failed to provide records related to Jing Shen Dong, the bus driver accused of causing the horrific crash in Stafford County, Virginia, on Friday morning.

The crash left five people dead and multiple others injured, raising serious questions about how Dong obtained and maintained his commercial driver’s license (CDL).

“The Acura caught fire, police said. Four of the five people killed were in the Acura: a 45-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, all from Greenfield, Massachusetts, police said,” ABC News reported.

“The fifth victim killed, a 25-year-old woman, was in the Suburban, police said,” the outlet reported.

“Forty-four people were taken to hospitals, including three with critical injuries, police said,” ABC reported.

Federal officials say Dong is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in China, does not speak English, and received his CDL through the State of New York in 2024.

Now, transportation officials want answers.

According to DOT, investigators attempted to obtain critical documents through normal channels but were repeatedly met with resistance from New York authorities.

“The subpoena is a result of not being able to obtain the requested documents through other reasonable means,” a DOT spokesperson told Fox News.

The federal agency is demanding that New York turn over all records related to Dong’s CDL, his entry-level driver training, and the driving school he attended.

Those records must be produced by Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Failure to comply could result in penalties and additional legal consequences.

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 Mysterious Strangers Pile Out of Sewer Manhole, Prompts Police Investigation

Seven men climbing out of a New York City sewer sounds like the setup of a bad joke.

Authorities, however, aren’t laughing.

A viral video swept the internet this week, courtesy of The Flatbush Scoop, showcasing that exact setup.

“A bizarre and developing situation is unfolding on McDonald Avenue between Kings Highway and Avenue S, near Kosher Corner Supermarket,” the viral post, sitting at over a million views, read.

“Video shows approximately six individuals emerging from a manhole at around 2:00 a.m. after reportedly spending nearly two hours underground — with the cover closed and a person standing watch nearby.”

Indeed, the video did appear to show just that — though it appears that there were seven individuals, not six, to ultimately emerge from the sewer.

Initially, the video showed what appeared to be that aforementioned spotter wearing a white shirt, standing by a trio of vehicles. He then walked over to the manhole in question and appeared to give some sort of signal.

At that point, seven individuals all crawl out of the sewers, with the first one physically moving the manhole cover near the cars.

Even more bizarre, several of the men then immediately began to strip down, and the video cut out shortly thereafter.

For obvious reasons, the internet had a field day with this.

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State of New York Hearing: Reparations for Slavery Only Form of ‘True Justice’

Black New Yorkers attending a state commission studying remedies for racism said they were due cash reparations for slavery and other past injustices.

The New York “State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies” hearing follows Gov. Kathy Hochul signing a bill in 2023 for a commission to study slavery in New York state and examine various forms of compensation.

“We need $800,000 for each foundational black American. That’s simple,” Aubrey Muhammud, one of the attendees, told Fox News Digital. “That’s — in New York — that’s about the cost of living that’ll get you a home or a small business or for you to recover from any financial duress.”

New York joins several other Democratic run states and local municipalities looking to issue reparations in some form.

The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois went as far as paying $25,000 in cash to Black residents to address past racial housing discrimination, according to Fox’s coverage of the controversial issue Saturday.

San Francisco enacted legislation earlier this year establishing official reparations of $5 million to each eligible Black residents. However, facing a $1 billion city budget deficit, the measure contains no taxpayer-allocated funds or guaranteed cash payouts.

New York’s public hearing allowed for residents to relate their experiences to the commission, reportedly in an effort to examine past discriminatory policies and slavery in the United States.

“Certainly grateful that you all came up here today to enjoy and participate and lend your voice to this public hearing. Our theme today is truth before repair,” commissioner Seanelle Hawkins told the audience.

Who exactly would get payments is a matter of concern to some attendees.

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Watch How a Hijab-Wearing AOC Is Treated by a Muslim Male Audience as She Tries Pandering to Them During Eid Celebration in New York City

A Muslim male crowd gave AOC a rude welcome as she attempted to pander to them at a prominent Muslim holiday celebration in New York City.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, AOC was seen wearing a hijab at an Eid Celebration in New York City, which was attended by Muslim men.

Addressing a crowd on Wednesday, AOC called on people to “renew our commitments to one another” so together they “can bring light into the darkness.”

Despite claiming to be a feminist who wants to dismantle the patriarchy, the hijab is widely seen as a symbol of female repression intended to prevent Islamic women from attracting the attention of men.

Despite AOC’s pandering, the Muslim audience was unmoved.

Instead of listening, the attendees ignored what she was saying and started speaking among themselves.

In addition, the background noise completely muffled her speech.

So much disrespect for AOC.

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