Tom Faranda's Folly

(Not BB) - Coming to theaters - "Woke" James Bond

Not Babylon Bee but pretty amusing.

Yankees - nice win over the Astros last night

The Astros were booed through the game because of their cheating scandal. The Yankees are over .500 for first time this year. Big game by Stanton.

 

Baby falcon hatching atop the formerly named Tappan Zee bridge

Here you go. The Thruway authority installed a camera -

3d Baby Falcon Hatches Atop Cuomo Bridge

Experts said that the endangered peregrine falcons are wild bird and their behaviors reflect what happens in nature.

"Some of their actions may be unpleasant to watch and it is possible that some of the fledglings may not survive into adulthood," the Thruway Authority said on its website.

Peregrine falcon chicks are called "eyases." Typically, three to five eggs are laid in the early spring, with the eyases hatching one month later.

Here's a good short video from news 12 - you have to endure a commercial - falcon hatchlings

 

 

WSJ - Biden's "Cradle-to-Grave Government"

Good response to his speech last week. Not mentioned - the stupidity of raising the corporate tax rate to 28% making us uncompetitive with other countries. And companies will simply pass the increased tax cost onto consumers. 

We’d call the price tag breathtaking, but by now what’s another $2 trillion? Add $2 trillion or so each for the Covid and green energy (“infrastructure”) bills, and that’s $6 trillion of new spending in 100 days. That doesn’t include the regular federal budget of more than $4 trillion a year. No worries, mate, the Federal Reserve will monetize the debt.

But the cost, while staggering, isn’t the only or even the biggest problem. The destructive part is the way the plan seeks to insinuate government cash and the rules that go with it into all of the major decisions of family life. The goal is to expand the entitlement state to make Americans rely on government and the political class for everything they don’t already provide.

The White House talking points pitch this in the smothering love of the welfare state: “making care affordable”; free medical and family leave; “free education”; two years of “universal pre-school”; “invest in the care workforce.” Subsidies and millions of new care givers, all licensed and unionized, will nurture you through the challenge of earning a living and raising a family.

One question to ask is: Haven’t we tried this before? What is Head Start if not government pre-school education and child care? Weren’t school lunches and the Women, Infants and Children program supposed to prevent child hunger? Food stamps, welfare checks, child-care subsidies and a supplement to earned-income, plus public housing. Weren’t all of these programs and more from previous decades supposed to end poverty?

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For the candid answer, listen to Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Democrat who explained the political calculation this week to the Washington Post: “Once everyone’s in, all the parents want in. Then it’s not a poor person’s program or a poverty program. It’s an education program. . . . That to me, that is essential. It changes the center of gravity once it’s for everybody.”

So much for the “safety net” to prevent poverty. This is now about mainlining benefits to middle-class families so they become addicted to government—and to the Democratic Party that has become the promoting agent of government.

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The new pre-school entitlement will go to all families, as would free community college. The tax-credit expansion to $3,600 per child in the Covid bill, which Mr. Biden wants to make permanent, is on top of the other welfare subsidies. The Biden plan also makes permanent an expansion of ObamaCare subsidies for more affluent adults, eliminating the subsidy cap that was 400% of poverty. A new paid family leave entitlement will be an incentive for companies to drop leave benefits that already cover most workers.

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The White House is also less than honest about how it will pay for all this. Its short answer is that more taxes on the wealthy and more IRS audits are enough. But that doesn’t come close.

The permanent child-tax credit expansion would cost $1.6 trillion over 10 years, according to our friends at Cornerstone Macro. The White House says it only costs $420 billion, but that’s because it only includes four years through 2025. The new entitlements ramp up slowly but explode in the later years, while the tax increases are immediate and won’t raise the revenue they expect.

That’s especially true of the increase in the top tax rate on capital gains to 43.4%, which would lose money by all historical experience. The White House tries to get around this by eliminating the step-up basis for paying capital gains at death, meaning an heir would pay the tax based on accrued value over a lifetime. This is a back door addition to the current death tax rate of 40%.

The White House also predicts that unleashing thousands of new IRS agents will find $700 billion in unpaid tax bills. But this prediction is based in part on old IRS data, before the 2017 tax reform that removed many tax loopholes, especially in the corporate tax code. ...

The new taxes are destructive, but their impact will take time to be felt as the post-pandemic economy soars. The GOP shouldn’t ignore the taxes and spending. But a more potent political target may be the bill’s tripling down on a welfare state that disdains the dignity of work and seeks to make Americans the wards of government.

 

 

Vile: "You'll always be a Mexican, you'll never be white. You know that, right?"

A simple stop because she's talking on her cell while driving. Glad she didn't have a gun. And she's a teacher!

 

NBC: Bill and Melinda Gates ending their marriage

A surprise

 

Croton Man - Pleads Guilty - $9.5 Million Elder Fraud Scam

In the Yonkers Times - maximum sentence 20 years.

Norman Newman, 73, of Croton on Hudson, pled guilty on April 23 to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Newman admitted to knowingly providing lists of potential victims to fraudulent mass-mailing schemes that tricked consumers into paying fees for falsely promised cash prizes and purportedly personalized “psychic” services. Newman was indicted on in March of 2020 for providing list brokerage services for more than 11 years to scammers running fraud schemes. Newman pled guilty to furnishing consumers’ names and addresses to fraudster clients, knowing that the clients were mailing hundreds of thousands of deceptive prize notifications that misled victims into believing that they would receive a cash prize or personalized services upon payment of a fee. Many of the victims were elderly and vulnerable.

According to the indictment, Newman worked in the offices of a list-brokerage company from 2005 until September 2016. Newman worked as a list broker and senior vice president at Macromark Inc., a Connecticut direct mail services firm. Macromark pleaded guilty to facilitating elder fraud schemes in September 2020. The conspiracy resulted in at least $9.5 million in losses to consumers.

In pleading guilty, Newman admitted to assisting clients in obtaining victim lists for deceptive mailing campaigns. These fraudulent mass mailer clients sent out deceptive letters that appeared to be personalized, when, in actuality, the same letters were sent to thousands of consumers on the mailing lists that Newman provided. Each letter was intended to mislead the consumer into believing that he or she would receive a large amount of money, a valuable prize, or personalized psychic services upon payment of a fee to the mass mailers, who often operated under false names. Fraudsters paid commissions to Newman’s employer, Macromark, for brokering the sale of lists of potential victims. Newman then received a percentage of the commissions. Newman knew the content and fraudulent character of the mass-mailings, that they were intended to defraud thousands of consumers, and that some of the consumers were vulnerable to the scams.

Saturday at Yuka's drinking Margarita's

Yuka's Latin Fusion. It's surprising how rarely Brigid and I go out to eat - just the two of us. Brigid had a "classic" margarita while I decided to live large and had a "strawberry and ginger" margarita. Sounded like an odd combination but I decided to try it - delicious! As you can see, we ate outdoors.

3 of Tim's Stepinac football teammates make the NFL

They were all a year behind Tim - so in class of 2016. Malcolm Koonce drafted in the 3rd round by the Oakland Las Vegas Raiders. 79th pick overall. Played defensive end at the University of Buffalo. Not only Stepinac, but he comes from up the road - Peekskill.

T.J. Morrison, undrafted but also signed with the Raiders. Went to Stony Brook. 

Then, Trill Williams, undrafted but signed with New Orleans Saints. Played for Syracuse.

I believe Trill and T.J. are both from Yonkers.

 

 

Baseball: Here's a unique double play

the pitcher has a foot in it...

"College Student Aces Final; Answering 'Racism!' To Every Question"

Upstate New York -

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY—According to sources, local English major Charlie Miller was able to ace her final exam by simply writing in the word "racism!" for every answer.

"Yeah, I completely forgot to study last night so I figured I would try it," she said. "90% of my lectures this year were just hour-long sessions of my professor saying 'racism' over and over again in different inflections, so I figured my chances were pretty good if I made that the answer to all the test questions."

The Skidmore College English professor who delivered the passing grade explained her rationale. "Charlie's test answers weren't technically correct, but they spoke to a deeper truth: everything is racist. At Skidmore College, creating leftist radicals who can find racism everywhere and help us burn down Western Civilization is much more important than educating people. For that reason, we decided to give her a passing grade!"

Local sources say Skidmore College is facing an influx of racist behavior, such as students being openly conservative and voting for Republicans or Libertarians.

"The rise in white supremacist activity at our school is really frightening," said the professor. "One girl named Hannah Davis actually tried to start a conservative student organization on campus. I'm literally shaking right now just thinking about it."

In addition to accepting "racist!" as the answer to every question on every test, the professor said she will offer extra credit for sending threatening letters or doxxing conservatives.

"We have to do this so our students will feel safe," she said.

CDC issues seat belt recommendations: Wear even when outside the car

A logical follow-up to some of their other recommendations. Who can argue with science?

ATLANTA, GA—The CDC has issued brand new recommendations regarding the wearing of seat belts. Health experts there are now recommending people wear a seat belt, even when outside the car.

"This guidance is especially important if you're in a large group of people at the park or an outdoor event," said Dr. Stiku Pumybum. "Risk of collisions leading to bone breaks or concussions dramatically increase in large groups of people. Billions could die!" 

When pressed regarding what gives the CDC authority to comment on seat belt usage, they clarified that these were simply recommendations based on the latest scientific research, for the sake of public health. When further asked how exactly a seat belt that's not anchored to anything can protect anyone, they replied with a statement saying "SHUT UP IT'S SCIENCE!"

The Federal Government has responded with a nationwide seat belt order for all public parks, buildings, and sidewalks. 

"I don't know what's so hard about this," said Biden as his aides handed him a juice box and tightened his 5-point harness. "Just wear the dang seatbelt folks!"