Conservative Conversation + Podcasts

Clifford A. Brown

Retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Colonel after 30 years of active and reserve assignments. M.A. Political Science, M.S. Strategic Studies, Army War College, JD. Served in 1st Armored Division in West Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, in 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea during the regime of Kim Il Sung, and commanded a logistics battalion in Iraq 2003-2004. Wide-ranging public policy interests. Occasional home brewer and infuser of alcohol spirits.

| May 5, 2020

16 COMMENTS

Paul Mirengoff is no Trump fan, but he often provides excellent analysis and links, like the rest of the Power Line team and he has a damning piece on Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus incompetence. This is a time of winnowing for leaders. Just as Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is no Noem, so Cuomo is no Insley. That is not praise for the Washington state governor, but a recognition that Washington authorities did something right at the outset, setting the Pacific Northwest on a different trajectory than the New York City area. A New York order could fairly be titled “How to Kill Old People, by Andrew Cuomo.”

The most outrageous evidence was not directly linked by Mirengoff, but his references made it easy to find. I have captured the New York State Health Department coronavirus order dated March 25, 2020. There is no need to highlight the most relevant portion, because the bureaucrats did it for everyone. Bear in mind that nursing homes were already known to be especially vulnerable and likely hot spots in any state not imposing the most draconian quarantine on those facilities, with the most stringent controls on everyone entering a nursing home, a long term care facility. Don’t take my word for it, “this is CNN,” on March 3, 2020:

By David Foster

David Foster

I also blog at Chicago Boyz.

| April 20, 2020

Andrew Cuomo, in combination with the governors of Connecticut and New Jersey, is hiring consulting firms McKinsey and Deloitt to develop a “Trump-proof” plan for reopening the three states. (The phrase “Trump-proof” apparently comes from NJ governor Murphy.) These three governors, in putting this plan-for-a-plan together, seem focused on their hostility to the Trump administration […]

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Covid-19 in New York

April 1, 2020

Hosted by Seth Barron

With guest Nicole Gelinas

Seth Barron and Nicole Gelinas discuss the latest developments in New York City’s fight against the coronavirus, the impact of the city’s lockdown on future growth, and the response of state and local leaders.

As New York continues under lockdown, the effects of the coronavirus outbreak are becoming evident: the city’s death toll has passed 1,000, with more than 40,000 confirmed cases. In addition to health-care professionals, essential public employees like the city’s transit workers and NYPD officers are falling ill at a troubling rate. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo have responded to the crisis with varying degrees of effectiveness, but the outbreak has revealed a lack of preparedness for a public-health emergency of this scale.

Three Martini Lunch

Pelosi’s Partisan Ploy, Cuomo’s Depressing Forecast, WHO Bows to China

March 23, 2020

Hosted by Greg Corombos, Jim Geraghty

Good news is scarce once again today, but your Monday martinis dissect three critical stories. Join Jim and Greg as they slam House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for blowing up Senate progress towards a coronavirus relief bill, making it far less likely that individuals and businesses will have financial assistance in hand when their next rent or mortgage payments are due. They also cringe as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo suggests the COVID-19 restrictions may be in place as long as nine months and up to 80 percent of the population will contract the virus anyway. So is the damage to jobs and businesses worth it if the restrictions won’t stop the virus from spreading? And Jim unloads on the World Health Organization for accepting China’s coronavirus lies as fact and failing to confront the regime in an effort to make sure the virus was contained.

By Clifford A. Brown

Clifford A. Brown

| March 13, 2020

16 COMMENTS

On Tuesday, March 10, Governor Cuomo called out the Guard to combat coronavirus. He did so to provide skilled manpower to disinfect public areas and to deliver meals to people who have been quarantined in their homes in the New Rochelle hot spot.

The deployment comes as experts debate how long the virus can live on solid surfaces, Cuomo said.

By JamesSalerno

Coolidge

JamesSalerno

| December 16, 2019

Take a look at this legislative gem from our Albany overlords: https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-finally-allowed-to-drive-20191215-odow3uzmpfa5rhslnhjz2pfcjm-story.html More

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New York’s Pipeline Fiasco

By Richard Epstein

Richard Epstein

Known to students at the University of Chicago and NYU law schools as “the libertarian,” Richard Epstein has established himself as an expert in constitutional law, contracts, corporate law, real estate law, torts, labor law—and even Roman law. He is reputed to be more knowledgeable about Justinian’s Code than anyone since the Emperor Justinian himself. The Peter and Kirsten Bedford senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Richard Epstein is the author of several books including, The Cas… [more]

| October 29, 2019

New York faces serious energy shortages today, largely due to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s insistence on banning fracking and blocking construction of new pipelines to import cheap natural gas from outside the state. He hopes to wean the state off of fossil fuels, which are said to drive global warming. Though the evidence concerning global warming and its deleterious consequences is quite thin, let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the dire predictions of climate disaster are correct. If so, it becomes even more imperative to pick both the right sources of energy and the right way to get them to market. Solar and wind are too erratic to do the job, so we have to depend on some form of fossil fuel. Natural gas is high on that list. Unfortunately, the retrograde environmental policies of politicians like Cuomo is a key reason why New York faces an escalating energy predicament.

Today’s deep fear of climate change unthinkingly translates into abiding hostility toward any new technology for extracting and shipping fossil fuels. This regressive approach gets it backwards. As a rule of thumb, every new technological breakthrough results in higher levels of production with lower levels of risk. Therefore, it follows that we should encourage the displacement of old technology to capture these gains. The ideal way to proceed considers both the amount of pollution taken out of circulation and the amount of pollution added.

By Richard Epstein

Richard Epstein

| July 22, 2019

14 COMMENTS

A smiling Governor Andrew Cuomo, with Al Gore to his right and a rapturous crowd of Democratic dignitaries at his rear, signed into law a new statute last week that he proudly touted as “the most aggressive climate law in the United States of America.” The explicit objective of the new legislation is to reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions in New York by 85 percent by 2050.

Step one in that direction is the authorization of two huge, offshore wind power projects said to generate enough power to support one million homes. The legislation goes hand-in-hand with Cuomo’s aggressive executive action to block any new pipeline construction within the state, most notably the Williams pipeline designed to bring about 400 million cubic feet of natural gas each day to New York City.

Rent Control’s Resurgence in New York

June 19, 2019

Hosted by Brian C. Anderson, Seth Barron

Nicole Gelinas and Howard Husock join Seth Barron to discuss New York’s landmark rent-regulation law and its potential impact on housing in the city and state.

Lawmakers in New York recently passed the toughest rent-regulation law in a generation, imposing new restrictions on landlords’ ability to increase rents, improve buildings, or evict tenants. The bill made permanent the state’s existing rent regulations, meaning that future legislatures will find it harder to revisit the issue.

Congestion Pricing in New York, a New Mayor in Chicago

April 18, 2019

0 COMMENTS

Hosted by Brian C. Anderson, Seth Barron

Nicole Gelinas and Aaron Renn join Seth Barron to discuss recent developments in New York and Chicago.

In the first week of April, both cities marked milestones: Manhattan got the nation’s first congestion-pricing plan, courtesy of the state legislature, while Chicago elected its first black woman as mayor.

By Victor Tango Kilo

Victor Tango Kilo

| March 1, 2019

18 COMMENTS

The Governor of New York is disappointed that Amazon was unwilling to play the game of New York politics like a proper corporate courtesan.

“I do believe Amazon should have stayed and fought the opposition,” Cuomo said in a Tuesday radio interview. “It was a vocal minority opposition. Seventy percent of the people support Amazon.”

By Brian Watt

Brian Watt

Brian Watt is a humorist, writer, designer, and marketing professional.

| February 9, 2019

20 COMMENTS

Ever since Catholic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gleefully signed the expansive abortion law that permits killing of children in the womb up until the moment of birth; and then lit up the island of Manhattan in pink to celebrate, the Catholic laity has been hounding Cardinal Archbishop Dolan of New York on social media […]

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A Message for Catholics in New York

By Brian Watt

Brian Watt

Brian Watt is a humorist, writer, designer, and marketing professional.

| January 28, 2019

74 COMMENTS

A portal to Hell has opened in New York State. It was opened by elected members of the state legislature and by its governor, who was baptized in the Catholic faith and vowed at the sacrament of Confirmation to be a soldier of Christ. However, through his advocacy and promotion and the joy that he expressed when he signed the deceptively named Reproductive Health Act, Andrew Cuomo has switched allegiances and is now a soldier of Satan and his soul now is closer to eternal damnation and torment.

The name of this new satanic law is a lie and something we should expect from the Lord of Lies and those who have done his bidding. It does nothing to promote human reproduction but instead authorizes abortionists to inject fully-formed children in the womb with lethal poisons and to be brutally and horrifically killed up until the moment of live birth on the pretext that a mother’s ensuing life after the birth of her child might be stressful and emotionally challenging.

By Brian Watt

Brian Watt

Brian Watt is a humorist, writer, designer, and marketing professional.

| January 8, 2019

25 COMMENTS

Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York is actively pushing the pro-abortion deceptively-named Reproductive Health Act, which would allow abortions on viable, late-term unborn babies for any “health” reason. Cuomo, who wants the legislation passed in the next 60 days, is a Catholic of Italian descent and had married one of the Kennedy litter and is now divorced and living with his lover. Cardinal Timothy Dolan has a holy obligation to correct, or punish as necessary, any Catholic for openly advocating for abortion which is forbidden by Catholic teaching and when a high-profile Catholic, like Nancy Pelosi or Cuomo or any other Catholic holding political office uses their position and authority to push for abortion, then they are deliberately undermining the authority and teaching of the Church. If Cuomo is under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Albany, then Bishop Scharfenberger should act and excommunicate Cuomo and Dolan should vocally support that action. Dolan should use every opportunity to publicly challenge Cuomo on the pending legislation. Pelosi has been rebuked by her own bishop in the past for her pro-abortion advocacy.

Look, I realize that Cardinal Dolan would probably have to endure being disinvited from dinners at the governor’s mansion or Cuomo’s Manhattan digs and this action would put a kink in any public events where he shares the limelight with the governor, but he has been on record saying that “We must end abortion, and not with contraception” and that abortion must be made illegal. Well, here’s your chance, Eminence to walk-the-walk and not just talk-the-talk. Your own presumably practicing Catholic governor is using his office and bully pulpit to pass legislation that will bolster the state’s efforts to continue to kill children and harm souls. How about using your own office to publicly condemn Cuomo’s actions and call for his excommunication? Or are you more concerned with being ostracized from New York power circles and cocktail parties? Are you a really a Catholic cardinal called on to do lead Catholics away from mortal sin or are you a paper tiger in a skull cap?

Three Martini Lunch

Avenatti Charged, Cuomo’s Tax Confession, Vote Fraud Flailing

November 15, 2018

Hosted by Greg Corombos, Jim Geraghty

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America hope the accuser is OK but cannot miss the irony of lawyer Michael Avenatti begging for the presumption of innocence after being charged with domestic violence and just a month after trying to destroy Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh with no evidence. They also welcome New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s explanation that his state offered $1.5 billion in tax incentives to Amazon because it’s tax rates are too high for New York to compete with places like Texas on a level playing field. And they roll their eyes as Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown and Corey Booker insist Stacey Abrams must win the Georgia governor’s race or else it was stolen by Republicans. They also cringe as President Trump claims people vote multiple times by changing clothes and getting back in line and that people get voter ID by buying cereal.

Is New York Going All-Blue?

November 2, 2018

0 COMMENTS

Hosted by Brian C. Anderson, Seth Barron

City Journal’s Brian Anderson and Seth Barron discuss New York’s upcoming elections and the prospect of a state government run entirely by Democrats.

New York’s local politics have long been driven by a partisan split in the state legislature. With the help of moderate Democrats, Republicans have held a narrow majority in the state senate since 2010. This year, however, many of those moderates were beaten in the primaries by more progressive candidates. As a result, Democrats are poised to take over state government in Albany next year.

By Joshua Bissey

Coolidge

Joshua Bissey

| August 29, 2018