Memo to Mayor Mamdani: Talk is Cheap; Free is Costly

Memo to Mamdani: Talk is Cheap; Free is Costly Mayor Mamdani ran on a deceptive, seductive platform of free; free busses, free daycare, cheap housing, and cheap groceries. Talk is cheap; promise whatever you want, as long as you don’t have to deliver. Appropriating other people’s money seems easy. Except when it’s not. Free? Someone has to pay the workers, unless you practice slavery, banned by the 13th Amendment. Free? Someone has to pay the utilities, insurance, maintenance, workers compensation, medical and pensions. Wealth individually may be assets, but collectively it’s the human capital - not the physical assets. Cubans permitted to leave Castro’s Cuba had to sign over their physical assets to the Cuban government The Castro regime was wealthier on paper, but poorer in fact. The real wealth was the human capital of the refugees. Free is expensive when those you look to for payment to subsidize free leave and take their physical assets with them. Did you know the Pilgrims tried collective farming; i.e. socialism, in Massachusetts, but it was an abject failure. Land was allocated to individuals and the harvest boomed the next year, leading to Thanksgiving. Those that pay little or no taxes are quite eager to impose and raise taxes on those that pay taxes. The United States has the right to travel. Have you noticed how middle class, rich, and business taxpayers have discovered the beauty of Florida, North Carolina, and Texas? Retirees, including politicians who believed in taxing the rich, used to be the ones moving to Florida. Free is costly to those who are taxed to pay “free,” but get little in return from the government. Mamdani wants a government grocery store in each of the five boroughs at a cost of $30 million. They would not have to pay rent, but still would have to "eat" shoplifting," or attrition as it is often labeled today. Ask CVS and Walgreens about attrition. Mayor Mandani, Do you know the old joke?: How do you make $10 million in Hollywood (or the airline industry)? Start with $100 million.

Memo to the Democratic Socialists of America on the 4th of July

Memo to the Democratic Socialists on the 4th of July Thank the founders of America, the founders you despise. They created the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and laws that allow you to pontificate. Learn the history of America – not the Howard Zinn’s A People’s History, a socialist fractured dogma of American history, as is The 1619 Project. Learn the history of America – not the woke, DEI history taught at the ”elite” universities you attended. Learn the history of the Pilgrims. They started with socialism, the collectivism of the land. The product of the land would be shared communally. It failed the first year. Too many freeloaders and two few producers willing to exert their labors for the benefit of freeloaders. The land was then allocated in parcels to the families. Prosperity and Thanksgiving followed. Socialism failed; capitalism won. The lesson is clear. Socialism deadens initiative. Ignorant of the American Revolution. The Revolution recognized government reponsding and answering to the people – not the crowned heads that ruled Europe, Asia and the colonies – a true revolution in the history of civilization. You hate capitalism? Surrender your IPhones, IMacs, IPads, Mac Books, Apple watches. They are the innovations of capitalism. You hate capitalism? Stop using the medications that save your lives. They are the research of capitalism. You hate capitalism? Give up the internet and social media. They are innovations of capitalism. You hate capitalism? Say goodbye to Google. Google is the creation of two Stanford graduate students. You hate capitalism? Junk your EVs and Hybrids. They’re the product of capitalistic corporations. Believe America is ripe with inequality? Socialism results the equality of poverty and misery, except for the top1-2% of rulers, who live in luxury. Socialism penalizes hard work and deadens opportunity. Want to see socialism in action? Go to Cuba and Venezuela, the dictatorships in the name of the people. Don’t go to Cuba and Venezuela. Walk the downtown streets of San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. Think socialism is great. Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping converted China to an economy driven by capitalism. India initially adopted socialism upon independence. Socialism failed in both China and India. Capitalism has raised hundreds of millions of Indians out of socialist poverty. Think socialism works? Check the successful entrepreneurs currently fleeing California and Washington. It’s the Pilgrims four centuries later. Blame America on White Privilege? About 320 thousand Union Army and Navy soldiers and sailors died to free 4 million slaves. Blame America on White Privilege. White Privilege gave women the vote as well as all citizens, regardless of race, color, nationality, or sex. Oppose the founders because most were slaveholders. They created your rights and liberties. They knew slavery was bad, but the states could not be united as the United States without compromises: 1) the equality of two Senators for every state 2) The electoral college, giving small a large role in the election of the President 3) Preserving the Slave Trade for 20 years 4) The infamous 3/5 provision for slaves. The slave states, which otherwise did not recognize the rights of slaves, wanted them counted as one each for purposes of Congressional reapportionment. The Northern States objected. The result was 3/5 instead of 1/1. How do we know the drafters of the Constitution knew slavery was bad? Read the Constitution as adopted. Nowhere in the Constitution do you find the words “slave’’ ‘slavery” or “slave trade.” Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence included 169 words that blamed King George III for forcing slaves onto the American colonies. Those words were excised, presumably by Georgia and South Carolina. Hate capitalism? Most of you are young, filled with the idealism of youth, filled with a close mind, because you know and understand everything. You believe America is not the land of opportunity? Why do millions wish to come to America, even today? Why did your ancestors come to America? Yes, for themselves, but mostly to give their children an opportunity. They sacrificed for you. President Biden tried to buy your vote by forgiving student loans: Freeloading! Mayor Andrew Cuomo said “America was never that great.” America’s greatness is shown by you being here, however ungrateful you are. We all know one of the great phrases in the DREclaration of Indpendence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident." What about the last line: "We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."? What does that mean? It means the signers of the Declaration of Indpendence knew England would hang them and forfeit their properties if the Revolution were lost. Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said with the signing of the Declaration of Independence: "We must hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." What do the social democrats have to lose if they fail? Not your lives or property, but the legal power to seize the income and property of others.

Memo to Scott Pelley: All Employees are Expendable

Memo to Scott Pelley: All employees are expendable Memo to Scott Pelly: You are an employee Memo to Scott Pelley: You are not CBS; you are an employee Memo to Scott Pelley: You are an employee – not the boss Memo to Scott Pelley: Do not personally, publicly, verbally attack and humiliate your boss and employer in front of the staff Memo to Scott Pelley: Of you don’t like your boss or employer, you have two choices - Suck it up or quit Memo to Scott Pelley: A change in ownership means a change in the status quo Memo to Scott Pelley: The once fabled CBS News is plummeting Memo to Scott Pelley: Berri Weiss was brought in to turn CBS around Memo to Scott Pelley; CBS terminated its once great radio news program Memo to Scott Pelley: Get a good lawyer and try to get a buy out on your contract Memo to Scott Pelley: You are not Mike Wallace, Harry Reasoner, Morey Shafer, Andy Rooney, or Ed Bradley Memo to Scott Pelley: You were a correspondent – not a soldier Memo to Scott Pelley: All the accolades, awards you’re still an employee with an inflated ego of yourself Memo to Scott Pelley: The entertainment industry, including broadcasting is full or prima donnas. You’re still just an employee Memo to Scott Pelley: The entertainment industry, and business in general, have no loyalty, especially when the bottom line or personalities are involved Memo to Scott Pelley: Your success was based on your producers Memo to Scott Pelley: The bigger you are, the harder you fall Memo to Scott Pelley: Even if you get down on your feet profusely apologizing and seeking forgiveness, you cannot undo your words and actions Memo to Scott Pelley: You became a liability to CBS Memo to Scott Pelley: CBS can never trust you again Memo to Scott Pelley: What in Hell were you thinking?

Why Iran Can't Cave

Iran is currently willing to fight on, even though its leaders have been decapitated, the Navy sunk, planes grounded, and soldiers killed. The surviving leaders must be thinking: Am I next?” Yet reasons explain it’s apparently suicidal actions. 1) Allah. The Mullahs are true believers, religious zealots, who believe they are doing Allah’s work on earth. They’ll rather be bombed back to the stone age, as long as Allah will embrace them. Allah will see them through. 2) Iran is not a normal country which understands when it has been defeated. Iran believes it can outlast the United States. 3) Religion: Iran is Shia; the neighbor Mideast countries are Sunni. 4) Power. Power is an aphrodisiac. Those with power seek to keep it, if not gain more power. Power also brings wealth. 5) Face. Surrender remains losing face, not only globally, but with their persecuted people. They will have no longer even have an illusion of strength. 6) The idea of surrending to the "Great Satan," along with the daily "Death to America" chants form a pyscholoogical obstancle to rational thinkoing. 7) Economics. The Republican Guard is the economic entrepreneur in Iran. About half of the oil revenues go to the IRNG. They want to keep it. 8) Fear of Retribution. The remaining leaders and those responsible for the murders of their citizens know the fate that awaits them if they lose power. The survivors and families want revenge; we sometimes call it “justice.” 9) Corruption. Their system has a high degree of corruption.

Cesar Chavez Meet George Orwell

George Orwell in his classic 1984 writes about the state creating an unperson, also known as a non-person. The state removes all memory of the person as if the person never existed. Photos are edited, an easier task today with photoshop. Stalin created the process. Orwell named it. Cesar Chavez within 48 hours has become a nonperson, an example of today's cancel culture. He was a hero, inspiration, and symbol for the Hispanic community and Labor Movement. Americans marched with him in Delano. The UFW grape boycott was successful. The growers in 1975 reached an agreement with the farmworkers, after a ten year-struggle. The UFW fight for the farmworkers continues to this day. Huelga became a common word. Holidays, streets, schools were named for Cesar Chavez; monuments and murals created in his image. Lesson plans were teaching tools. Cesar Chavez Day suddenly on a bipartisan basis became Farm Workers Day. I don’t ever remember Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass acting so decisively in one day, as she did in scrapping Cesar Chavez. The New York Times in two full pages laid out his sordid past. Delores Huerta, his co-partner in leading and building the united Farm Workers (UFW), accused him of sexually assaulting her 60 years ago, resulting in his being the father of two of her daughters. She kept it secret for an eternity. Cesar played the good cop with Delores the bad cop in negotiations. He was the public face; she made things happen. She is an incredibly strong woman, carrying the pain of Cesar within her for 60 years. Her public statement and denunciation of him removed any doubt in public minds about the veracity of the claims against Cesar Chavez. Other women came forward. Cesar Chavez was both a rapist and pedophile He survived the Me Too Movement even though rumors have floated that he could be a philanderer. Finally the truth emerged with clear evidence – not an unverified, unverifiable accusation against Justice Kavanaugh. Cesar Chavez had been too great an icon to be pillowed. Rumors had spread that he cheated on his wife. His authoritarianism was known. His sordid past though was covered. The media did not cover his personal life. Cancel culture would not destroy him. Admirers and supporters feel betrayed. Their Cesar Chavez has become a non-person. He was not a saint, but hos depravity was unimaginable. Delores Huerta can replace Cesar Chavez as the face of the United Farm Workers and Hispanics Rising. I have on my office wall a framed letter from Cesar Chavez thanking me for some work I did for the UFW in1990. It remains on the office wall because I am proud of what I did in 1990.

Mayor Mandani's Warmth of Collectivism

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration speech and call for the warmth of collectivism: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” The warmth of Vladimir Lenin? The warmth of Stalin? The dead bodies of the Kulaks? The warmth of Chairman Mao? The warmth of Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro? The warmth of Pol Pot? The warmth of Fidel Castro? The seductive, idealistic collectivism that is a failure in reality The collectivism of the bullet to the head The collectivism of Arhtur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon The collectivism of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 The collectivism that can kill the human soul and deaden initiative The collectivism that leads to Big Brother The collectivism of the elites The failure of collectivism in India after Independence. The failure of collectivism of the Pilgrims. The socialist collectivisms where the population is sharing in poverty while the leaders get rich The Soviet leaders occupied the dachas of the pre-Revolution plutocrats Collectivism leads to coercion Collectivism is a recipe for corruption

Mayor Mandani Fits Right into New York City

New York City, the and heart, center and seat of American capitalism, is moving to Florida, Texas and the internet. America should not be shocked by Zohran Mamdani’s win. Let’s look at today’s New York City. The Senate Minority Leader is New Yorker Senator Chuck Schumer, who is steadily, consistently moving to the left of the Democratic Party. He’s scared of a primary challenge by the best-known Representative from New York City, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. AOC was once a capitalist who moved to the Democratic Socialist Party when her marketing idea failed. It’s easier to take money from those who succeed rather than earning It on your own. The House Minority Leader is Representative Hakeen Jeffries of New York City. A great photo was published a week ago at a rally on October 26 in Queens. Three New Yorkers embraced: Mamdani, AOC and Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Senator from Brooklyn. That’s today New York City. We also have the New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney, Alvan Bragg, a George Soros District Attorney. New York Attorney General Letitia James hails from Brooklyn. Her campaign plank was to prosecute Donald Trump. Mandani’s campaign was simple: FREE! FREE! FREE! Schumer and Jeffries believe in SPEND! SPEND! SPEND! That’s appealing to a dispirited populace who no longer believe the American Dream and upward mobility exists in New York City. Many New Yorkers have left the City and the State for warmer climes, such as Florida and Texas. Many more will vote with their feet. Tax and Tax, Spend and Spend, Elect and Elect was the mantra of FDR. It works. New Yorkers today support raising taxes on the rich. The New York City of Rudy Guiliani is no more. It was gone under the 8 years of Major Bill de Blasio, who Mamdani looks up to. New Yorkers have short memories of the 8 years of de Blasio decay. Let’s not read too much into America from New York City. The neighboring Nassau County reelected the Republican Bruce Blakeman as County Executive. The Republican District Attorney was also reelected while in the adjoining Suffolk County the Republican District Attorney was unopposed. The liberal incumbent mayors of Minneapolis and Portland won reelection over Democratic Socialists. Jacob Frey, the ineffectual Mayor of Minneapolis, let the city be looted and burned during the George Floyd riots. Mayor Bruce Harrell is holding onto a lead against a radical in progressive Seattle. Zohran Mandani was elected Mayor of New York when he won the primary by a plurality. The “D” after his name was a guarantee of election in the general election in a city where Republicans are an endangered species. His opponent was the incompetent, sexual harasser, ex-Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, who was loaded with baggage.