WELCOME TO WEST NEW YORK

 

Governor Cuomo wants people who believe in the Right to Life ( technically all Catholics at a minimum) along with the majority of New Yorkers who do not live in the "Peoples Republic of New York" formerly known as "Bloombergistan" where the 2nd amendment is not in effect plus everyone who believes in traditional marriage ( i.e. the majority of Christians, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs etc.) to leave New York.

 

You are no longer welcome here.  You are without exception, all bigots, homophobes, zealots, extremists, Nazis and potential mass murderers!

 

This from a man who believes that abortion should be on demand, including right up to the time of delivery and that gender selection should be a valid  reason to terminate a pregnancy.  Scratch a Democrat and you will find a eugenist from the Peoples Republic of China. 

 

This from a man who screeched about not needing an assault rifle to kill a deer but doesn't seem to understand the difference between real "Assault Weapons" which are already illegal and firearms that only cosmetically look like military weapons.  Ban the e-cigarettes ...they look like real cigarettes!!!

 

This from a man who clearly believes that thousands of years of religious and moral teachings about men, women and the institution of marriage are suddenly all crap and now we have to think like him and all the other "enlightened"  superior beings who are going to drag us into a "brave new progressive world whether we like it or not.

 

New York State just hung a sign out saying no conservatives as defined above ...need apply.  No matter how much the Governor tries to walk back his words...they are out there and will not be forgotten.

 

And while the number crunchers will tell you that the 48 "upstate" counties get more from the State than they contribute in taxes the politics of the State have become so wasteful, corrupt and extravagant that the time may have come for New Yorkers outside the five city boroughs in particular, to go their own way. and say goodbye to the cannibalistic politics of NYC, that are ruining the rest of the state.

 

Staten Island, and parts of Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx that wants to leave also should be welcome to join the exodus.

 

The epicenter of waste, spending, social justice fear mongering, failed schools, and too big to fail unions is NYC.  Because of the new demographics in sheer terms of numbers, down state and NYC now politically dominate State Government and the rest of the state exists to feed this voracious political monster notwithstanding the fact they receive back more per capita than they give.  The question becomes one of vision...what would a new state with sane fiscal policies, freed of regulatory and ideological barriers look like?

 

A new state without the noose of progressive politics which is going to kill the present state if left unchecked, could be a place where by cutting taxes, the size of government and the stranglehold of the public sector unions would become a magnet for new businesses and the growth of present ones.  

 

A new state without the insanity of an environmental movement that thinks its a religion could release the wealth under our feet and actually make the motto "Excelsior" a reality once again and not a joke.

 

A new state without the tyranny of left wing politics could be a place where people are protected by the constitution and are free to live, worship and speak as  they like. 

 

A new state without union driven politics could become a place where our schools , public including charters and private, could be the finest not only in the nation but in the world.

 

A new state without the politicians of NYC would be an instantly less corrupt political environment.  

 

The notion of secession in NYS in order to form a new state is nothing new.  Efforts in the past have included making Long Island a state; creating  new upstate states called "Niagara" and "Upstate New York"; the secession of Brooklyn and Staten Island has been urged, the merger of Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island in something called "The Free City of Tri-Insula" was proposed prior to the Civil War.

 

In 1969 Norman Mailer running for Mayor and Jimmy Breslin running for City council President as independents, proposed making NYC the "51st" state.  Breslin's concession speech is memorable by him stating that he was "mortified to be part of a process that closed the bars for an entire day"!

 

Handbill for the campaign (front), 1969

 In 2000, members of the NYC City Council tried 3 times to pass resolutions of secession based on the negative balance of payments NYC received from the state as opposed to what they sent to Albany.  That effort still lives.

 

 In 2009 Rep. Randy Kuhl proposed splitting the state into NYS and West New York.  That effort is also still alive with Assemblyman Stephen Hawley proposing legislation in 2013 to let each County analyze, examine and opine on what the effects and impact on partition would be.

 

Despite the current economic and fiscal objections to secession, Governor Cuomo's inexplicable comments, which many believe were designed to shore up his street "creds" with the maniacal progressive left of NYC that he thinks may imperil his re-election, are the final straw.  In one stupid comment both poorly delivered and insulting to millions of New Yorkers, he has figuratively used them as a metaphorical  fire hydrant.  He also doomed any future candidacy for President. 

 

His comments marked a division of the spirit .  Mayor DeBlasio has endorsed them while Senator Schumer has launched a vicious attack on the Tea Party.  They have allowed crass politics to slip the leash that keeps political discourse civil and civilized to become something malignant which disunites us because it disrespects us. 

 

No one should think that the creation of a new state out of this existing one would be easy.  It would not.  The issue and the effort however are absolutely worth fighting for because the political monstrosity that has been created by liberals over low these many years can only be changed by starting over and starting fresh.   NYS today is like a bad marriage where the pain of separation has become less than the pain of staying together... a moment  in time where it's always the wrong time to be right!

 

So ...Welcome to West New York...please do not park adjacent to a gas well! 

ERLANDSSON

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF MODERN POLITICS

 

The American public is moving away from the two major parties and the reasons for this I believe, are transparently simple.  The permanent political class is disliked and distrusted because they are not honest... to the point of being corrupt...they don't represent the broad base of the body politic and are either impotent, inefficient, inadequate, incapable  or all four.

 

Of course there are individual exceptions in both parties...but they are exceptions whereas they used to be the rule. 

 

The fact is we are electing not the best of us, but the worst of us as politics  devolves into a family business...a get rich business...an ideology business and a "special interests and wealthy donors  may only  call me" business.

 

The great intellects and persons of character who once populated all three branches of government are absent from the current scene.  The mediocre  have replaced them.  Worse the venal and the stupid are now closing in on the mediocre.

 

Ideology is turning people off.  "Progressive" for example has become the new buzz word for the "Occupy" crowd.  While not defecating on Police cars to make a political statement, they are dedicating their energies to make every aspect of life fair for all.  They won't or can't say how this will be done because they have no clue but then again neither did the Bolsheviks in 1917.  If the rational core of the citizenry doesn't challenged these proto- toltalitarians early then the route they will take to make social equality happen will as a matter of course include, the use of big government, force and coercion to get their way.  That's how the quest for "Utopia" has always ended before.

 

More government has simply made everything worse.  It feeds the public service unions and starves the people who pay the bills. 

 

It is invested in neverending idiotic orders, decrees, laws, policies and "diktats".  Then as a added reward, the average citizen gets to watch their elected  officials do a "perp" walk, lie with astonishing abandon, claim ignorance of everything that theyare responsible for and then commit more crimes to cover their trail.

 

The political disconnect begins today with Academia.  Our schools have begun to resemble something out of the cultural revolution.  Many teachers will sadly teach what they are told and not not what they know to be true. Our present and future citizens are hampered by the fruits of a union run education that leaves many intellectually unable to defend themselves from the propaganda that now passes for academic rigor.  Many have been seduced by the lie that they are no longer or never were the masters of their own fate.  Rather they are taught they are the slaves of a new aristocracy of wealth, race, gender and religion.  The irony here is that those who teach this also worships celebrities who are urged at every opportunity to opine on issues they know nothing about.  Are these pseudo experts not aristocrats?  The question always goes unanswered.

 

Our electoral process from beginning to end is not trusted.  Elections are believed to be rigged either by omission or commission.  The greatest crime in a democracy is the theft of any citizens vote.  For far too long it has been treated with amusement as though it was an indication of political skill and not simply a reason for life in prison.

 

Most of the press and media do almost nothing to report or comment on any of this.  In truth far too many Americans continue to be bombarded with either the distortions or omissions of a servile press.

 

If the poet were to describe the press and media today and their complicity in destroying faith in the democratic system, it might be described thusly:

 

"The scribes of the kingdom

who chronicle our times...

our lives...

who we are and

what we are

in order to explain us

to ourselves

as if we are each  the village idiot

or a madman baying at the moon...

these have become the minstrels of misery

who sing songs of angry music

and never songs of joy...

they have become the wicked jesters

of a wicked liege

who have turned the lords and ladies of the 4th estate

into strumpets of lies both great and small...

into  harlots of a villain king"

 

 

In the end people are turning off because nothing gets done...no problems get really solved...people are rarely fired for their incompetence or their corruption and those who go to jail get to keep their pensions.

 

 

The business of the people is ignored today because the business of politics is more important.   Reformers are mocked as childish because power and money talks and honesty and truth walks.

 

And so the people...people like you and I have had it!  The "system" such as it is doesn't work or at least it doesn't work for you and me.  It needs to go.  We need to go forward by looking backward and returning to our values and our roots.  Government is too big...too wasteful...too unaccountable...too distant...too arrogant and too inept!  We don't need the gigantic, modern, smothering government leviathan any longer.  It not only again doesn't work...it now hurts us.

 

Washington City was built upon a swamp.  They long ago drained the physical swamp but the metaphysical swamp of deceit, corruption, arrogance and incompetence lives on.  These are the four horsemen of modern politics and more and more the people are saying to hell with this...we are leaving you politicians, we are leaving your  enablers and apologists...we are leaving your policies which are disasters that are ruining us and the country we love...and when we say goodbye...we will be a long time gone!

 

ERLANDSSON

WAR AND PEACE IN THE AGE OF LIES!

 

“You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”
― Winston Churchill

 

Americans are sick of war.  All the polls say so.  All the pundits say so.

As we enter the 13th year of our longest war in Afghanistan we seem to be going nowhere.  Our political leaders led by a President who is invested in failure, wants to disengage from battle by engaging the savages who are the Taliban in dialogue.  This is the face of a politically correct war ...fought not to win but for reasons undisclosed to the American people and in truth, for reasons not understood  by those with the responsibility of  now prosecuting this war.

 

The leitmotif of this conflict is now taken from the crucible of Iraq where Obama snatched defeat from the jaws of victory after the surge of General Petraeus and the Awakening of the Sunni tribes turned the insurgency in the Sunni Triangle from defeat and horror to a chance for a peaceful, democratic and pluralistic Arab nation in the middle of the worlds most violent and chaotic region.

 

 We have been fighting  politically correct wars since the end of WW ll which many say was actually the first, since it gave away the democracies of Eastern Europe to a regime as murderous and barbaric as the Third Reich.  However at least it can be said that the countries we went to war against in 1941 were completely and totally defeated.  and that is the difference between then and now.

 

Politicians prosecute wars today more than Generals...perhaps they always did...but at least those who were smart knew that you cannot ask young men and now women to die for their country if the final goal is not total victory.  When total victory is not the end game that is when war becomes truly immoral.  The reasons however for war are always debatable unless we live in either a dictatorship or a "1984" kind of dystopian  society where as Orwell described it :
 

     "War is peace...Freedom is slavery...Ignorance is strength.”

 

Such is the situation we find our selves in today with regard to the aforementioned Iraq.  A nation that  just two short years after we abruptly left under the flimsiest of reasons solely for the ego of a President who needs to be impeached, is now facing the specter of dismemberment by either Iran or al-Qaida or both.

 

At this moment, the ISIS ( alternately known as "THE ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND al-SHAM" or "THE ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA" or "THE ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND THE LEVANT") control parts of Fallujah, Ramadi, Abu Ghraib and have their eyes on Mosul in the north where they are politically strong.  The ISIS is also engaged in tense fighting in Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo in Syria against non al-Qaida Islamists militias aligned with the Syrian Free Army.  al-Qaida in the Levant is alive and well contrary to the assertions of the President of the United States and many fear they will establish a brutal al-Qaida nation comprised of parts of Syria and Iraq.

 

The Sunni triangle was freed from the savage barbarism of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and  what became known as al-Qaida in Iraq by the "Awakening Movement"  or "The Sahwa" in 2005 as the local Sunni tribal Sheikhs, disgusted and repelled by al-Qaida tactics joined with the al-Maliki government and the U.S. to end the insurgency.  By 2009 violence had fallen by 90% in the country and in the Triangle.  Then Obama decided to simply leave by the end of 2011 after almost 4500 American deaths, almost 33,000 casualties and tens of thousands of Iraqi dead, maimed and wounded. 

 

By 2013, 8,868 Iraqis were dead due to ISIS terrorism which included suicide bombings.  The Nouri al-Maliki government had tilted to Iran, was losing control of major sections of the country and the ISIS were sending fighters to Syria to make a terrible situation worse. 

 

The apologists for Obama will tell you that all of this was unavoidable.  That is both nonsense and  immoral since it attempts to give this terrible President cover for the insult it commits against those who fought, bled and died for the people of Iraq. 

 

In his new book former Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, relates how this play actor President never really tried to fashion a way to keep a small force in Iraq to preserve what finally had become a victory.  That he had soured on his military and from 2009 to 2011 let his political "no nothing" apparatchiks  shout down the Generals and run two wars they knew nothing about, all for political gain.  Gates also relates a conversation he personally witnessed between then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Obama.  Clinton told him her opposition to the Iraqi surge was for political reasons because she knew she would face Obama in the Iowa caucuses.  Obama then admitted that his opposition was also political. 

 

Gates then goes on to relate how Obama  repeated his disgraceful actions in Afghanistan saying "The President doesn't trust his Commander, can't stand Karzai, doesn't believe in his own strategy (i.e. the surge) and doesn't consider the war to be his".  All this from a Commander in Chief and a woman who wants to be the Commander in Chief who sent the best of us into harms way without any intention to ensure that their sacrifice would mean something.

 

 

Leaving 10.000 to 15.000 troops in post war Iraq would have kept Maliki away from the Ayatollahs and al-Qaida out of Iraq.  It would have seriously hindered the ISIS and the al- Nusra Front from gaining military superiority within the anti-Assad insurgents and potentially the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Syrians.   

 

The lies and deception of this President has directly led to all of the above.  He has disgraced and defiled our sacred dead.  He has dishonored the country and their memory.  He is not fit to continue to lead this nation.  Hillary for the record is no better and possibly worse because she is allegedly more intelligent but probably more morally compromised. 

 

In the end, the moral of this story is that Americans should never be sent into danger unless three  issues have  been resolved.  The first is that the war has a valid reason and purpose for the nation.  The second is that those who give the orders must believe in the mission.  The third is that the war will be fought to win and for no other reason.  The first is always subject to the meaning of what is valid...that is the job for political leaders to define it and obtain consensus.  The second is self explanatory...there is a special place in Hell for those who send others to their death while  not believing in the very orders they issue.  The third stands alone without footnotes or commentary.

 

ERLANDSSON

2014: THE WARS OF THE PROGRESSIVE SUCCESSION

 

 

John Podesta is back in the White House and Republicans and conservatives should arm themselves accordingly.  His job will be to marshal a 2014 Obama counter offensive that will be both  ferocious, relentless and disingenuous in order that Obama may save his wounded presidency from a Republican rout in 2014.

 

2013 was one of the worst years that any post war president save Richard Nixon, has had to endure.  Barack Obama lied to the American people about big and important things and the  American people caught him in his lies.  The saving grace for Obama of 2012's "Who cares about people like me?" has been replaced with "Who can believe anything this guy says to people like me?"  Once trust is gone with a President, only divine intervention or diabolical manipulation can hope to restore it.

 

"ObamaCare" is a suppurating wound because it's premise is both false and moronic.  It will continue to suck the marrow out of an already partially exsanguinated  presidency.  It directly threatens both the Obama agenda and the Obama presidency.

 

Thus the denizens of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are desperate and there upon enters Podesta, a former Chief of Staff for Bill Clinton and founder of the left wing, Soros financed, progressive think tank...the Center for American Progress, which already has played a significant policy role for this President particularly  with regard to "ObamaCare" and expanded Executive power.

 

His battle plan will be to attack on as many fronts as possible, either simultaneously or sequentially in order to keep the GOP constantly off balance and to give the President's allies in the media a chance to write and say something positive once again.  Podesta also has an unquenchable thirst for Presidential actions unencumbered by Constitutional niceties.  

 

He and the country, afterall has witnessed this President amend "ObamaCare" 15 times, fill Federal positions in contravention to the Constitution and  use the regulatory, investigative and enforcement agencies of his government to target and punish his political enemies...all  without the Congress really baring it's teeth to stop him.

 

So what will this multi-front war look like?  Here are some possibilities and their implications:

 

"The War on Income Inequality"  This will be an overarching theme for 2014 mainly because "equality of outcome",  especially  with regard to wealth is what "Progressives" believe was stupidly left out of the Constitution while all the "bad stuff" like the 2nd amendment. was included.  The battles in this war will be fought over "the minimum wage"...extension of unemployment benefits...taxing the "rich" to pay for broken entitlements they refuse to fix...and taxing them again  to pay for new benefits and entitlements they want to create.  This will be classic emotion driven class warfare, orchestrated to paint Republicans and conservatives as heartless, greedy, uncaring and agents for the evil rich.  They will not tell you that they refuse to grow a bigger pie so that all can have a bigger slice.  Instead they will insist that the pie is forever one size and only sharing the wealth can restore the economy equitably.  They will tell us that this will be the rising tide that lifts all ships but they will not tell us that half the ships have already sunk!

 

"The War for Fair Immigration"    This will be another emotionally charged  set of battles which will largely play on the GOP's "uber" sensitivity to the accusations that they are racist and if they do not repent , the Hispanic vote will never be competitive for them.  Thus the  so called "mainstream" GOP and even some of the "Tea Party" GOP have declared the current immigration system to be broken and indeed it is.  The White House however, will play both the ethnic and the race cards to try and separate the two contentious wings of the party and thereby make both wings look bad.  Their goal is again to stimulate the Hispanic vote in 2014 while attempting to get total amnesty and a fast track to citizenship in a comprehensive bill cloaked in bureaucratic mysticism, border pseudo "toughness and innocent looking set-asides that mask their true goals.

 

The War on Climate Change     "Climate change" also formerly known as  "global warming" remains unfinished business for the Enviro-Progressives who believed Al Gore was the Messiah before they realized that Obama was.  While the country freezes and no signs that the earth is warming have been evident for the last 15 years, the war on fossil fuel rages on with disastrous effects for  our economy and our future.  The EPA is the tip of the spear for this front and its continuing mission is to regulate our energy supplies and use via impossible energy emission standards and a future  "cap and trade" system designed to impoverish the middle class with sky high fuel bills.  They seek an end to using coal and oil... two of the three major sources of our energy along with natural gas.  They want this while knowing that we can be energy independent and even a major reliable exporter of energy for the rest of the world.  They want this while knowing that their actions will destroy the economy.  And just when you thought that it could not get worse they now want to control all the bodies of water no matter how small or impermanent, thereby becoming a de facto 4th branch of government.

 

The War on the  Benghazi "False Controversy"    Benghazi is a festering  sore on the Obama presidency.  It also is the single biggest problem for a 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential bid.  The New York Times  "report" on Benghazi is a not too subtle attempt to turn the clock back to the good old days of... "the video did it"  ... al Qaeda did not..and there was no planned attack on our Consulate and personnel on 09/11/2012.  Saying "core al-Qaeda" was not involved is akin to saying Meyer Lansky was not core Cosa Nostra!  The "false controversy" that National Security Advisor Susan Rice referred to on "60 Minutes" just a week before, makes it highly suspicious that this report was a coordinated job with both the White House and the Clintons to cover up their relative responsibility for the death of four brave Americans.   Obama needs the Clintons to keep his wounded presidency alive.  Vindicating Hillary removes a major obstacle to her ambitions while simultaneously restoring the Obama myth that al-Qaeda is "on the run".

 

"The War on ObamaCare Falsehoods"    We are now told that 1.1 million Americans  have now "signed up" for ObamaCare through the Federal Exchanges.  This is being heralded as proof that both the law and the web site are finally working.  No one can tell us however, how many of the "sign ups" are really insured insofar as they have actually paid their first premium and there is still no mechanism on the web site for them to do so.  Nor do we know who they are with regard to their age and medical conditions.  Likewise we don't know how many have simply been placed in the expanded Medicaid program thereby setting the stage for future State and local budget nightmares.  Meanwhile 40% of people enrolled in the state exchanges are older people and/or people with health problems.  Furthermore the CBO predictions of a $2.6 trillion cost for ObamaCare with 31 million Americans left uninsured,  remains .

 

Coupled with all of the above will be the willingness of this White House to nimbly "never let a good international crisis go to waste" if it helps the President and his cause...and there are so many flash points in the world now thanks to the Obama "doctrine of leading from behind".  South Sudan and the Central African  Republic are two new crisis areas while Syria, Iraq, North Korea  and China in the East China and South China Seas remain tense and unpredictable.  The Administration while denying the obvious has all but refashioned its policy on a nuclear armed Iran, thereby abandoning Israel, the Saudis, Lebanon, Jordan, the Gulf Arabs and the Turks to the specter of a Persian, Shia Caliphate with a nuclear scimitar.  In the midst of this chaos caused in large part by American withdrawal from much of the world stage, our Secretary of State has decided that now is the time to force a two state solution on Israel and the Palestinians.  Is this for domestic consumption or are the Israelis so worried about America not having its back that they will agree to a bad deal to avoid an immediate and growing existential threat?

 

Everything Podesta  and the White House will do re the above or things yet unimagined, will be less concerned with solving problems than preserving and solidifying political strength.  These people are not there to work for the American people...they are there to rule the American people!  They will appeal to raw emotion and fear and not to facts and reality.  They will always look to widen the split in the GOP any way they can.  After all the very act of passing a bi-partisan budget had the net effect of furthering Republican disharmony and the debt ceiling battle in March looms ahead.  There will be many many lies about all of the above and most of the press will not call them on it even after ObamaCare.  Lies have  worked before in 2008 and 2012 and the hope is, they will work once again in 2014 as John Podesta and company prosecute  "The Wars of the Progressive Succession."

 

ERLANDSSON