From "Eric Adams Is Indicted in New York/The indictment makes Mr. Adams the first sitting New York City mayor to face criminal charges. The mayor vowed to fight the charges" (NYT)(free-access link).
What's more worrisome, Jumaane Williams becoming mayor for the few months it may take to hold a special election or that ranked-choice voting system? I feel sorry for New York City.
And what about this indictment? I see, elsewhere in the NYT:
Federal investigators have focused since 2021 on whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations, and on whether Mr. Adams pressured Fire Department officials to sign off on the opening of a high-rise consulate building for the Turkish government despite safety concerns.
About 6 a.m. Thursday, nearly a dozen men and women dressed in business attire arrived in S.U.V.s outside the entrance of Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, on the Upper East Side. At least one vehicle had a federal law enforcement parking placard on its dashboard. They walked through the building’s East Gate carrying briefcases, backpacks and bags.
The indictment remained sealed on Thursday morning, and it was unclear what specific charge or charges Mr. Adams, a Democrat, would face. It was also unclear when he would surrender to the authorities.
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al Queda should have just waited a while for New York to destroy itself. I'll bet Osama bin Laden is in hell right now shaking his head.
Oh yeah. Along with countless millions of Americans, even some politicians want back into the comfortable past.
There's no stealing this for the jez, and if they try it's a distraction while the oligarchs flee the country.
I hear Madison, WI is a great place to live and is looking for more residents. And Green Bay as well. It's a 15 hour drive, NYers looking to flee the madness could be in a new city by the weekend. Of course probably a lot of them don't own cars but I'm sure there's a bus going that way. If they can fight their way to the bus terminal. Just don't come south, it's getting full up down here.
The mayor of NYC seems to be more powerful than other mayors. I guess he needs to be.
Maybe they can convince Tom Selleck to run this time.
Adams made the mistake of keeping all that campaign cash for himself. If he had spread it around to all the important people he would be good. That and he pissed off Biden by criticizing Biden's immigration policy.
"I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became"
This guy sounds like Donald J. Trump, but I have no clue why. The Democrat mayor stood his ground, and the Democrat President is now after him? Stood his ground on what issue?
Well, whenever the next election occurs, ranked choice voting will occur. I think it is hot garbage. It might take an election or two before the various political machines can "moneyball" their efforts for maximum chicanery but there will be an object lesson for the rest of the country **IF** we decide to pay attention.
Why would he resign? Sen. Mendez didn’t.
I too feel sorry for New York City and this setup of a political machine. It certainly is an example of what not to do. If what Adam’s was doing was “tough on crime”, then it will be interesting to see the terror of what comes from Williams.
Ranked choice is the more severe long-term threat to representative government. It turned CA into a one-party state, which has unleashed the worst governance ever in the golden state's 175-year history. Liberal democrats offer no restraint to the wild-eyed Leftists that propose the craziest laws. Kamala cheered each one of the steps in CA's descent into hell. Every single friend or relative still there is either trying to arrange an exit or desperately hoping to hold out long enough to die a natural death in their home.
NYC is already in trouble with poor governance. This will hasten their decline, just as electing Adams did. There are no well-run one-party states/cities. None.
You don't know why because the indictment is yet to be unsealed. There are only best guesses available at this point. Adams appears to be alluding to his tepid resistance of the "immigration" forced upon NYC.
It is disappointing and a bit sad but New Yorkers voted for this over and over again and now with ranked choice they will likely never be capable of changing it. Fleeing to Madison is a good idea. The south has hurricanes and Republicans and alligators. This morning we had a tornado warning. It’s a hell hole here…
"I feel sorry for New York City."
Don't. Just don't.
Related to this issue is the unfolding commercial real estate apocalypse. See the PowerLine blog's post on "Economic Collapse in Slow-Motion" for details on the Twin Cities to the west of WI. It is happening in San Francisco too and NYC. As these empty commercial properties drop in value and are sold for a fraction of their pre-COVID assessed value, the tax base in all these Blue Cities will dry up. Overnight. There will be immediate revenue shortfalls, as there are in MN. They will try to shift the tax burden to homeowners and wage-earners, but that is not going to fill the gap.
We're not in hard times. We are just entering hard times. Bidenflation and rolling blackouts and shortages of vital goods and foods so far were just the tip of the iceberg. No matter who takes over the wheel in DC the Titanic cannot change course. Like Sara Hoyt wrote today, "keep your clothes and guns where you can find them quickly in the dark."
NY State's enforcement nowhere to be seen.
Major blackouts will be the thing that stops solar and wind. Higher prices alone won’t do it.
Soon we'll be looking back at the good old days when we had moderate leaders like DeBlasio.....Cuomo is putting out feelers they say. I hope he runs. He's within normal limits for a Democrat.. Some of those other candidates are outright maniacs.....Turkey? I wouldn't think they had deep pockets. Adams and his staff must not have been charging the premium bribery rates demanded by the Clinton and Biden......I take some solace in the fact that the garbage gets picked up, crime--at least in my neighborhood--isn't rampant, and life goes on. I guess we'll muddle through. It will be a slow, dignified death.
I had the same reaction, Ann. Ranked choice voting? On top of everything else they have to deal with there?
And I love the cute phrasing of "Mr. Williams, a left-leaning Democrat from Brooklyn...". Left-leaning? You can be sure a Democrat pol from Brooklyn is more than left leaning. He or she is bent over in half, kissing the feet of socialist dogma, through and through.
New York is such a mess. The corruption, the socialist thinking, the careerist in positions from the government offices, through the education system, the unions houses, the stale 'progressives' running the networks and media thinking, and on and on. I'm surprised that city can move at all anymore. Perhaps someday it won't.
It used to be the City that never sleeps. Now it's the City that cannot get out of its own way.
What’s the problem with ranked choice voting?
"Mr. Williams, a left-leaning Democrat from Brooklyn..."
"Left-leaning" in NYT-speak means somewhere between AOC and Che Guevara. As opposed to "far right," which is applied to anyone to the right of Larry Hogan.
Williams is, of course, a truly far left radical.
Look at Alaska and Lisa Murkowski's stubbornly tenacious hold on a seat she would've lost a long time ago without it.
Part of the problem as that most voters don't really understand it, but those who do can use it to game the system. Here's one example:
"It had a serious impact on a 2018 Maine congressional race. A Republican had the most first-choice votes and was leading the Democrat narrowly by a couple thousand votes. But two independent candidates also received a fair amount of votes, and when their second-choice votes were redistributed, the Democrat wound up winning by a few thousand."
New York has brought this on itself completely. Nobody in that garbage dump deserves any pity whatsoever. Well, a minute slice,
Don’t want any of ‘em.
Watching NYC revert back to the ‘70s entirely due to its own stupidity is a heartbreaking joy to witness
I forgot that the public advocate is second in command in NYC. That's the most worrisome part because the PA is almost always a rainbows and puppies ecofascist.
I have conceptual problems with ranked choice voting (it allows some people to change their vote while forcing others live with their first choice), but as a practical matter, it's unlikely to lead to a different outcome than you would get from a traditional run-off system.
More than 700,000 votes? That is only 8.4% of NYC. He should step down for that reason alone.
"I feel sorry for New York City." Why? Because the people there elect leftists and crooks? Because progs find their way to power? Because the people get what they want, good and hard?
"I feel sorry for New York City."
Don't worry about NYC. Cookie has assure us it's doing just fine.
Baghdad faced this so did Rome Constantinople
Heh. I left NYC in 2021 to live an hour north of Green Bay. I still miss NYC every day, despite enjoying myself here. The downside is living in a swing state. The commercials are endless. But the last thing we need is more wealthy, liberal retirees. (I’m neither)
I love New York and New Yorkers. But I feel sorry for them in the same way I feel sorry for Palestinians. You reap what you sow (in how you choose leaders.). Voting has consequences. I can only hope the pragmatic side of New Yorkers starts to show up - a functional city matters.
I feel sorry for New York City. Why? They choose all their problems on their own. Like SF, Madison, etc... the infect the rest of the country.
Libtards in Madison, WI want ranked choice voting for WI.
I feel sorry for New York City.
I don’t. After watching the antics of Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, judges Lewis Kaplan, Arthur Engoron, and Juan Merchan, I’d be okay with it if SMOD wiped the whole thing from the face of the planet.
"....nearly a dozen men and women dressed in business attire arrived in S.U.V.s outside the entrance of Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, on the Upper East Side...." So he didn't get the SWAT team treatment? I guess they're not looking for documents, then.
Was the use of lethal force written into the warrant documents? I'm told that it's 'standard boilerplate' - or is that just for Republican enemies?
I won't be feeling sorry for New York anytime soon. I feel sorry for what New York once was, but that was before an entire population of deluded, self-important fools voted a stellar lineup of thugs and criminal maniacs into positions of power, and let them run rampant, just because they wore a 'Progressive Democrat' label. They can dig themselves out this time. Maybe they'll try using big thoughts, like grownups do, when they're concerned about their fate, and the fate of their children.
And the single, hardest obstacle to digging themselves out, will be getting 'ranked choice' balloting out of the picture. With that in place, there is no voting yourself out of misery. It's the biggest self-own that a voting population can possibly do too themselves as a group, and it's always put into place using the old seductive soft-sell, when the real problem is that the people selling it have made the voting environment so disgusting that no decent person would ever make themselves a candidate, for fear of having their life destroyed.
'Ranked Choice' balloting is a guarantee of bad political leadership forever. The only thing more dangerous is a straight-up vote for moving directly into socialist government rule. I wouldn't put that lunacy past NYC, either.
New Yorkers could have had Andrew Yang instead.
Adams likes to brag about how much "chocolate" he has in his administration -- almost as if there was racial discrimination involved.
Reddington, RCV pretty much guarantees that, in any place where one party enjoys clear numerical dominance over the other, the minority party can't win. In NYC, under the usual rules, a republican might be able win over a divided field of dems; but under RCV, the top vote-getter among the dems will get an electoral boost when second- or third-choice votes are factored in. Stated more simply, RCV eliminates "divide and conquer" as a way for a minority-party candidate to win.
He shouldn't resign so long as there's any reasonable possibility that the indictment constitutes lawfare whose purpose is replace Adams' "moderate" mayoral administration for a more leftist one. It gives prosecutors too much power to let them simply indict someone ("ham sandwich" and all that) and for that person to then be expected to resign, prior to any adjudication of the charges. The only exception I'd make to that general idea is when the resignation wouldn't result in any meaningful change in the policies/ideology of the administration.
At least the Post’s coverage mentions the key points in Adams’ claim in the first paragraph: https://nypost.com/2024/09/25/us-news/eric-adams-proclaims-innocence-to-the-post-moments-after-becoming-first-sitting-nyc-mayor-to-be-indicted/
Ranked choice voting is a bad idea. Most people (if they vote at all) vote to get someone out or put someone in. If you want to vote for a fringe party, fine, but that's your vote and that's what you did with it. You shouldn't get a second vote to mess with other people's more serious choices.
New York doesn't really need ranked choice voting. It allows candidates to run on multiple party lines. Ideologically committed parties are on the ballot. Often they nominate the same candidate as the Democrat or the Republican Party. The minor parties pull the major parties left or right, but they are also pulled back into the mainstream by playing ball with the two dominant parties. I'm not sure that New York should be giving the crazies more influence and more incentive to be crazy.
Making the Public Advocate (the Tribune of the Plebs?) the second highest office and successor to the mayor was another bad move. Better to have someone who has to deal with a varied constituency as successor than a professional activist. Mark Green, a Nader hanger-on, was the first public advocate. He was far left and probably still is, but as a pale male he seems out of touch with today's Democratic Party.
New Yorkers could also have had Curtis Sliwa. Would he really have been that much worse?
Jumaane? The variations on the fine old French name Germain/Germaine keep getting stranger.
I don't feel bad at all for NYC. THEY did this to themselves. They voted for DiBlasio, then this fool, and wonder why they are turning into a Progressive Utopian Ghetto?? Vote Wiser next time, if there is a next time.
Had Eric Adams simply passively accepted, cheered, and endured the major upheaval caused by that enormous influx of "recently-arriving migrants" into NYC, he would have remained untouched, unbothered, and uninvestigated. But he had audacity to state migrant invasion was irretrievably destructive to NYC itself. Migrants' upkeep costs have drained NYC coffers and resources, which would otherwise serve NYC residents, and those same migrants are now majority of arrested individuals committing street crimes.
Chicago's Mayor Johnson, already reviled by most Chicago residents within first year of his four-year term, clearly understands he must quietly accept and endure the same migrant invasion, without challenging Biden-Harris administration, even as his initial good-standing amongst Chicago voters has quickly evaporated as migrants drain all Chicago's resources too.
Adams hasn't done anything that other Big City mayors have done in pursuit of campaign donations and personal wealth-building. AOC has called for Adams' resignation, but this former bartender has magically become a multi-millionaire herself during her two terms as congresswoman, with no visible means of income other than her congressional salary.
“They are not after me. They are after you. I’m just in the way!” 😂
Donald to New York, Drop dead.
Worked out great for Marc Morial.
We can't know the hypothetical outcome but it probably isn't a coincidence that Adams' legal problems started very soon after he criticized the Biden Administration's immigration policies.
"It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at this."
Well, Chicago has made even a worse choice. There is that.
Bich thinks that Trump was wrong, in the middle of a thread proving he was right.
"Federal investigators have focused since 2021 on whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations, and on whether Mr. Adams pressured Fire Department officials to sign off on the opening of a high-rise consulate building for the Turkish government despite safety concerns.
About 6 a.m. Thursday, nearly a dozen men and women dressed in business attire arrived in S.U.V.s outside the entrance of Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, on the Upper East Side. At least one vehicle had a federal law enforcement parking placard on its dashboard. They walked through the building’s East Gate carrying briefcases, backpacks and bags.
The indictment remained sealed on Thursday morning, and it was unclear what specific charge or charges Mr. Adams, a Democrat, would face. It was also unclear when he would surrender to the authorities."
Smells like lawfare. Compare this with the Feds' raids on NYPD and I must wonder if the Fraternal Order of Police's refusal to enforce Trump's arrest has something to do with it. The fact that the FBI had info about some events since 2021 and held off until now also makes me wonder. It may have something to do with Adams' objection to border policy after his city was overrun with migrants.
Adams wandered off the plantation and criticized the Democrat border policy that was damaging his city, potentially disrupting the grifting machine. He will now be made an example of. Only Republicans may be cannibals!
What was wrong with "one man one vote" that needed to be "fixed" by ranked choice? That's a more relevant question. The answer is, Republicans had a fair chance. Now Democrats can heavily advertise two or three candidates (one usually pretending towards conservatism) that get ranked 1st 2nd or 3rd and so flood the "playoff" slots.
And he has a long history of taking foreign money, especially from China and Turkey. Long before running for mayor. So there's that. One might argue it would have been overlooked if he stayed on the plantation, but he's awfully dirty so it's a toss up at best.
"They're eating the cats. They're eating the dogs. I lack critical thinking skills! 😂" - Rich's new account
Stood his ground on the porosity of the border.
can a voter pick same candidate for all 5 choice ?
can a voter pick same candidate for all choice ?
can a voter pick same candidate for all 5 choice ?
is it possible NYC break up into pieces [boroguhs]
is it different from weighted choice voting?
https://x.com/AlexBerenson/status/1839354506712363108 pretty weak tea
I always thought it odd that so many see solitary confinement as so horrible. I would much rather be in a cell by myself than in a cell with one or more heavily tattooed, mean looking guys who look like they are just waiting for me to fall asleep.
Jail should not be a place that requires social interaction. Just give them a TV and books to read.
Plus, aren't city jails more for short term incarcerations and prisons for long term ones?
I don't see how ranked choice voting is different than having a runoff if no candidate gets more than 50% in the first round.
I don’t understand the sentiment. Explain why you feel sorry for NYC. Majority/plurality rules. People get the government they vote for. NYC is a one-party city in a one-party state, even when Republicans somehow get elected.
Well, the Quakers thought so too and their little project in penal reform (all solitary all the time) didn't exactly work out the way the zealot reformers swore it would (not to mention being wildly expensive), Look up (I believe, it's been a long time) Eastern Penitentiary for the drearily awful details,
I read the indictment. In terms of laying out a factually and legally supported criminal case, it is impeccable.
It seems to me that the benefits to Adams were so miniscule, and the risks so great, that I have to infer that the Turkey thing was part of a systematic series of similar bribery schemes. These picayune travel, lodging, and campaign contribution benefits must have just been business as usual. Otherwise, why risk so much for so little?
It also strikes me that there must be a multitude of foreign actors looking at the moral caliber of our political leadership and concluding that there is a lot of reward for very little risk in concocting bribery schemes to exercise influence in the US. E.g., the Biden Family, and the many recipients of foreign largesse detailed in Peter Schweizer's writings, such as:
"Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison".
Adams might have avoided this if he had been more welcoming to the Biden/Harris illegal immigrant invasion of NYC.
Remember, Mitch McConnell funnelled $10+ Million to Murkowski's team and supported ranked choice voting in Alaska to ensure Murkowski's election....OVER the actual republican candidate.
And so many "'republicans" and "True Conservatives" on this very blog praise McConnell.
Murkowski was helped tremendously by the $10+ million Mitch McConnell gave her out of the Republican Senatorial election coffers to defeat the actual Republican party candidate.
Good old Mitch, right?........
"Aggressive policing strategy"
Bwahahahaha! Maybe if your name is Daniel Penny, otherwise not so much.
I think that is what has wrecked France. It is similar, if not exactly the same.
That's what happened to Agnew. He just forget he was now VP and to a guy hated by the Media.
This is our modern political system, in action. It's not that Adams isn't being singled out for impropriety. I would wager that all of us suspect that our high-ranking elite political leadership engages in corruption at this level, on a regular, du jour basis. Look at the accumulation of wealth by salaried politicians. Where does it come from? Look at the way our Senators and Representative trade stocks, using the regulatory insights they glean from enacting oversight on the self-same corporations they are trading !
No - Eric Adam's plight has come because he deviated in his obedience to the Party, and dared to ask challenging questions about his illegal immigrant loads.
The whole scheme, like any criminal conspiracy, depends on unity. All of these bad actors have similar skeletons, and all of them are probably listed in the 'criminal enterprises' inventory section of their personal folders - just in case there is any independent thinking and 'something needs to be done'. Eric Adams is a message to others to keep in line. Just like the Good Governor before him, Mr. Cuomo.
How does Eric Adams accept, undisclosed travel benefits, and get arrested but Clarence Thomas does not....
Rich doesn't understand the concept of quid pro quo, or consideration, of which there was none in Thomas's case, and plenty with Adams.
Yeah. Reading those above who nominally oppose Democrat law fare yet here are saying they don’t care is worrisome. I wouldn’t vote for Adams, but if I had to choose between Adams and Williams, then I’d want Adams. New Yorkers aren’t getting that choice. Merrick Garland is.
New York City Abides. It has survived and will continue to survive all human and political...and most natural calamities.
EAB, I also left NYC in (mid-late) 2021--(though I commuted back and forth through the end of January 2022 for my job, from which I finally retired in June 2022). I also miss it every day, probably more now than initially. I lived there 40 wonderful years. I moved to make my (NYC born-and-bred) wife happy, and she is gloriously happy. Where we are is lovely--lower down on the Eastern Seaboard--but it is not NYC.
"Watching NYC revert back to the ‘70s entirely due to its own stupidity is a heartbreaking joy to witness."
That's not happening. Not even close. It's always possible it could occur at some time in the constantly ebb and flow of human and municipal events. But not now, by a long shot.
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