“Anyone but Trump.” John Kasich and Ted Cruz have combined forces to block Trump from becoming the 2016 Republican presidential candidate. Cruz announced former candidate Carly Fiorina would be his running mate if he is made the candidate. Meanwhile, in Costa Mesa, California, the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump kicked off his California campaign with a huge rally where several hundred “protesters” gathered outside to oppose his right to run for president.
Trump has a right to speak to voters and to run for president even if he is the most unprepared and inappropriate candidate in the race. His primary victories launched him closer to the 1,237 delegate mark needed to win the GOP nomination. If Cruz and Kasich are successful, then a Republican candidate will be selected in a backroom deal by GOP insiders at the convention.
Trump has 954 delegates and California’s 172 delegates would be a huge victory prize. He leads the pack in a recent poll by 27 points. California is a “winner take all” state but the actual delegate determination is made on the district level so the Cruz/Kasich/Fiorina “Anyone but Trump” effort could deny Trump delegates even if he overwhelmingly wins the popular vote in the state.
At his rally, “protesters” blocked roads and swarmed a police car. The anti-Trump hooligans rocked the car and one protester jumped up and down on it, and broke its rear window. A Trump supporter was taken away by ambulance with his face bloodied and his head bandaged as more car windows were smashed. The police were forced to arrest approximately 20 “protesters.”
Demonstrators have a right to protest Donald Trump’s racist, sexist, intolerant and ignorant comments, but Hillary Clinton’s call to “use our words and deeds to bring Americans together” even in the face of hateful rhetoric is the correct response in order to address important issues in the election.
The Cruz campaign has uploaded enormous amounts of raw footage of the candidate and his family to the Internet so that conservative super PACs can use it to prepare anti-Hillary campaign commercials for him. He is side-stepping laws prohibiting campaigns from working directly with super PACs. Ted is busTED for dishonesty in his campaign once again.
In New York City, the de Blasio administration is reeling from allegations that corruption and “pay to play” permeates the NYPD and City Hall. The FBI has been investigating the NYPD since 2013. Police brass including Deputy Inspector James Grant and four others were placed on modified duty or transferred for accepting gifts and vacations from shady businessmen including Jeremy Reichberg, a prominent figure in Borough Park, and Jona Rechnitz, a real-estate investor, both of whom contributed to the de Blasio campaign. The two allegedly gave cops jewelry and expensive gifts in exchange for police escorts and favored treatment on demand.
Federal agents arrested Shaya Lichtenstein, the head of Shomrim, a Jewish security force in Brooklyn, for taking as much as $25,000 for gun permit applications and passing on a cut of the money to NYPD contacts if they expedited the applications. After the commanding officer of the gun permit unit was reassigned, at least nine NYPD “bosses” have been moved or removed.
Another “boss,” Deputy Chief Andrew Capul, was “reassigned to an administrative position pending further review” for his association with Hamlet Peralta, owner of the Hudson River Café, a favorite restaurant for top cops and pols. It closed after Peralta absconded on charges that he operated a $12 million Ponzi scheme. He was arrested and is being questioned about all the activities in his eatery.
As bad as the corruption allegations are, they may only be a part of a larger problem. If City Hall is available to the rich and powerful to curry favor to get whatever they want, including a complete gentrification of New York City, then we the people need to take action.
The FBI and a federal grand jury are investigating but it may not be enough. A state investigation would be the best way to assure that local corruption is rooted out.
We know real estate developers with connections to the administration have multi-million dollar developments approved despite community and legal “impediments.” Mr. de Blasio demanded the end of horse carriage rides in Central Park which would have made the stables available for real estate developers and he attacked Uber to the satisfaction of yellow cab medallion owners pinched by the competition and who donated more than $500,000 to his election campaign.
A state Board of Elections memo accused the mayor and his allies of “willful and flagrant” violations of state law when he supported State Senate candidates in their campaigns. The New York City Board of Elections purged over 100,000 voters before the primary without adequate explanation. The possibility that a pervasive pay-to-play culture is festering in City Hall to the detriment of working class citizens cannot be ignored.
While shining towers filled with multi-million dollar apartments rise all over Brooklyn, homelessness, graffiti and quality of life crimes are on the rise. The City Council has failed to provide leadership with Melissa Mark-Viverito at the helm. There must be an accounting.
May her memory be a blessing 
Has Gowanus Tunnel proposal been shafted – or postponed for years?