Latest news with #RudyGiuliani
Fox News
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
From Soviet refugee to American patriot: Why we must guard against socialism's dangerous creep into our cities
Every July 20, our family celebrates our Americaversary, the day my mother and I arrived in America. My father, grandmother and great-aunt had been let out of the Soviet Union ahead of us so when we arrived on July 20, 1978, they awaited our arrival. We were free, and we were so happy, but the reality of what was going on in America at that time couldn't be avoided. Jimmy Carter was president and would soon give what would be known as his "malaise" speech. Our new home of New York was in chaos. Crime was spiraling out of control and the previous summer's blackout, called "the night of terror" because of the out-of-control crime, had exposed some deep rot across the city. The times were worrying, but our family loved and appreciated the freedom. My parents tell stories about being able to say what they wanted for the first time in their lives. My grandmother and her sister had never imagined practicing our Jewish faith without fear. But the city and the country were in real crisis and even in our new American honeymoon phase it was hard not to notice. Ronald Reagan would be elected two years later, and the country would begin a steady ascent. New York's turnaround would take a little longer. When Rudy Giuliani became mayor in 1994, 1,561 were murdered in NYC that year, on average over four murders a day. The city was a cesspool. I was graduating high school that year and remember a lawless city where no one paid for the subway, drugs were everywhere and there were simply no rules. Our family eventually left New York City in the COVID years because of the city's once again steep decline. We had to go, for our children, and the main question we would get is how we held out as long as we did. The truth was, the eight Giuliani years were a marvel of good government in New York, and they were followed by 12 excellent years of Michael Bloomberg's mayoralty. The NYC blackout of 2003 was nothing like the one from 1977. This time the main story was a city coming together and helping each other. The city had changed for the better. Even after Bill DeBlasio was elected, it took awhile to undo the good policies of those 20 years. In DeBlasio's first term he mostly coasted on the accomplishments of those who had done the work before him. New York seemed unbreakable. But policies matter and so many bad ideas have harmed New York in the last few years. Not prosecuting criminals has led to widespread quality of life crimes. Marijuana legalization means that the whole city smells like weed all the time and other drug use is happening out in the open too. Some of the best public schools in the city were forced to remove their "screens" for admission, such as grades or attendance, and operate on a lottery basis, with predictable results. Now Zohran Mamdani, a self-described socialist, is in pole position to be New York's next mayor. His policy ideas are everything bad pushed over the last decade but on steroids. His grasp of policies is tenuous, such as when he suggested government run grocery stores could lower prices by buying product in bulk. Only someone with extremely limited knowledge of any business could imagine all supermarkets aren't already currently doing this. But the very idea of government-run stores is a bad one. I come from a country that tried this and it led to widespread food shortages. The Mamdanis of the world never quite know how to reach the utopia they aim for and the rest of us suffer because of it. His comments about taxing White people are also very familiar. The socialist cause relies heavily on the idea that there is a class of people out there hoarding more than their "fair share." The cause needs an enemy and Mamdani is ready to turn New Yorkers against each other just like his socialist counterparts had done in places like the USSR. Then there's Mamdani's support for the "Globalize the Intifada" message. This is seen as targeting Jews, and it does of course, but globalizing the intifada means destroying Western civilization. It specifically means bringing "the uprising" to our doors in America. In the four years of the second Intifada against Israel, thousands of people died in suicide bombings and shootings. It wasn't just Jews. Plenty of Christians and Muslims were killed too. A suicide bomber never stops to ask religion of the people he's about to murder. This is what Mamdani will be globalizing. Americans should fear socialism and socialists. The philosophy is at odds with our free country and the equality it pushes never materializes and has failed every single time it's been tried. America is great because of the ideas that make America great. With Donald Trump's November election, we're in an optimistic age similar to the one my family lived through a few years after our arrival. But the lesson of the bad times should be that everything can be undone and broken if we let it. We have a miracle of a country here, but we have to appreciate it and protect it from bad ideas and bad people who seek to destroy it.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bernard Kerik: 9/11 police commissioner later imprisoned and pardoned dies aged 69
Bernie Kerik, who led the New York City Police Department on 9/11, has died aged 69. Kash Patel, former FBI director, confirmed Kerik's death on social media on Thursday. He said Kerik had suffered from a 'private battle with illness' before his death. Kerik had a controversial career after his service as police commissioner, pleading guilty to tax fraud and other charges. He was later pardoned. Rudy Giuliani, former New York City Mayor, spoke on his show on Thursday, reflecting on his long relationship with Kerik. 'We've been together since the beginning. He's like my brother,' Giuliani said through tears. 'I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man.' Kerik, an Army veteran, rose to the pinnacle of law enforcement before a fall so steep that even a city jail named after him was renamed. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud and false statement charges, partially stemming from over $250,000 in apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say counted on Kerik to convince New York officials it had no organized crime links. He served three years in prison before his release in 2013. President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik during a 2020 clemency blitz. Kerik was among the guests feting Trump after his first appearance in federal court in Florida in a case related to his handling of classified documents, attending the former president's remarks at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club. Kerik was appointed by Rudy Giuliani to serve as police commissioner in 2000 and was in the position during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He later worked for the former major of New York City surrounding the efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 loss.
Irish Independent
14-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
The Irish Independent's View: Hard-pressed families need clarity on what cost-of-living measures lie ahead
It's viewed as a classic ambush question aimed at catching out politicians. Politicians who have stumbled on the question include former US president George HW Bush and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. Former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak was less than convincing on grocery prices when he was Britain's chancellor of the exchequer. The logic is that a politician is to legislate on ordinary people's lives, so the voters want down-to-earth leaders aware of their realities. Depending on what week the question is asked, the answer can now shift such is the growth in the price of shopping basket staples like milk, cheese and butter over the past year. And besides, most people are buying milk by the litre these days. The Central Statistics Office confirmed last week that the rate of food inflation since June of last year has been more than double that of the general rise in prices across the economy, running at 4.6pc compared to 1.8pc. Two litres of full-fat milk up by 27c in the year, a pound of butter is now up by €1.10, cheddar cheese is almost €1 dearer per kilogram and meat prices are up by more than a fifth. Food inflation is double the rate of general inflation, with many families being forced to stump up an additional €3,000 a year due to the rise in grocery prices. Any add-on payments won't be across the board The Government is arguing it is acutely aware of the cost-of-living pressures on families, but inflation is expected to be lower this year than in previous years. The Coalition is trying to wean the public off cost-of-living packages that have featured in recent budgets, due to the post-Covid 19 pandemic surge in inflation and energy. Given the economic clouds on the horizon, the Government doesn't want to see these packages being baked into public expectations. And the argument is that the energy price surge has now been becalmed. Coincidentally, there is no general election coming immediately after the Budget this year. Taoiseach Micheál Martin has spoken about targeted measures in Budget 2026. Reforms to child benefit are being examined to give a second tier top-up payment to less well-off families and tackle child poverty. Therefore, any add-on payments won't be across the board, albeit the existing level of child benefit will remain universal. But the Coalition has been at odds over what will happen with the €1,000 reduction in the student registration fee, which was also part of the cost-of-living package. Indications from Fianna Fáil minister James Lawless that the fee will revert to normal this year sparked a spinning row with Fine Gael. While nobody expects the Budget to be announced in July, the Summer Economic Statement does present the Government with an opportunity to clarify its intentions around helping those still struggling with the cost of living.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Crime-ridden Democrat run cities like Milwaukee should adopt Giuliani model
Sadly, Milwaukee is becoming a food and pharmacy desert. The businesses give specious reasonings for closing down, but I bet the true reason is crime, especially shoplifting. A lot of large American cities (and counties) are run by Democrats, and the tragedy is they refuse to adopt the Rudy Giuliani model, which is the 'broken windows theory.' Giuliani made New York into a safe city and saved the city from bankruptcy. Tourism exploded. I would love to tell the folks who whine and express anger that they brought their dilemma on themselves via their votes. It's their fault; the businesses are not evil. I can only think of one Democrat that followed the Giuliani model, and that was former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Crime dropped further. It's an American tragedy that our large cities are crime ridden, fiscal messes and losing population. It doesn't have to be. Earl Orlebeke, Waukesha Letters: Let local school boards handle issue of cellphone use by students Letters: In Trump era of Washington, ignorant are celebrated, not the butt of jokes | Letters Here are some tips to get your views shared with your friends, family, neighbors and across our state: Please include your name, street address and daytime phone. Generally, we limit letters to 200 words. Cite sources of where you found information or the article that prompted your letter. Be civil and constructive, especially when criticizing. Avoid ad hominem attacks, take issue with a position, not a person. We cannot acknowledge receipt of submissions. We don't publish poetry, anonymous or open letters. Each writer is limited to one published letter every two months. All letters are subject to editing. Write: Letters to the editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 330 E. Kilbourn Avenue, Suite 500, Milwaukee, WI, 53202. Fax: (414)-223-5444. E-mail: jsedit@ or submit using the form that can be found on the on the bottom of this page. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Shoplifting real reason why grocery chains leaving Milwaukee | Letters
New York Times
04-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
The Pointless Triumph of a Hapless President
When the history of Donald Trump's remarkable political career is written, we should all hope, if only for the sake of American literature, that the task falls to someone like the historian G.M. Trevelyan, who believed that the 'dignity' of his chosen profession need not be 'afraid of contact with the comic spirit.' I am praying for the appearance of this masterpiece in my lifetime, but my guess is that before too long, grave chroniclers will be neglecting all the absurdist Trumpian set pieces — his firing of his secretary of state Rex Tillerson via Twitter; his dogged insistence, despite official forecasts, that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue a statement supporting his view; Rudy Giuliani's accusations of voter fraud in the 2020 election, delivered in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping — in favor of earnest analysis of the economic impact of withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement. We have been advised to take Mr. Trump, if not literally, then at least seriously. I do not think we should extend him even that courtesy. We should see him not as a Caesarean figure set upon remaking the United States in his own image or an ideologue who has attempted to impose a coherent philosophical vision on our unruly public life, but as a somewhat hapless, distracted character, equally beholden to vast structural forces and to the limitations of his own personality. The only thing more remarkable than the rhetorical élan with which Mr. Trump has laid out a revolutionary new agenda for the Republican Party — realist in foreign policy, populist and protectionist in economics, moderate on social issues — is his gross unsuitability for any task more consequential than the lowering of marginal tax rates. On issues ranging from military intervention to health care to the stock market, Mr. Trump is simply the continuation of the G.O.P. establishment by other means. If Barry Goldwater was the book and Ronald Reagan the movie, Mr. Trump is the glitzy jukebox musical. This understanding of Mr. Trump's political career is, among other things, the best way to make sense of his recent decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. His dovish admirers reacted with shock, interpreting the move as a betrayal of noninterventionist principles. Republican hawks told themselves that like George W. Bush, with his abandoned vow to avoid nation-building, Mr. Trump had simply evolved. Both sides assumed far too much ideological intent. His decision is best understood not as a betrayal of principle or the result of a deliberative process of coming around to his opponents' view, but rather as an expression of his desire to accomplish something — anything. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
