ChristiTutionalist Politics | Christian Perspectives on Constitutional Issues

CTP (S3EDecSpecial3) New York At A Crossroads

• Joseph M. Lenard | Christian Activist & Author in Politics • Season 3

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CTP (S3EDecSpecial3) New York At A Crossroads
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond  
We unpack what New Yorkers actually voted for, how state law curbs City Hall’s reach, and why due process and cultural context matter as much as policy promises. Sara Alessandrini shares insights from her documentary and on-the-ground election work, cutting through the noise to the numbers.
• exit polls showing narrow mandate and who voted for whom
• difference between mayoral power, council authority, and Albany control
• feasibility of tax hikes and risks of mobile high earners
• government-run groceries and free buses weighed against costs
• housing supply crunch from 2019 rules and slow approvals
• due process standards, cultural norms, and workplace boundaries
• crime trade-offs, focused deterrence, and system transparency
• competence over charisma as the path to real change  
http://ThisIsWhatNewYorkersSay.com  
https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP   

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, welcome to another episode of Institute Schools Podcast. I am your host, Joseph M. Winer at L-E-N-A-R-D. Oh. Thank you for tuning in. As Brandon used to stay on his show, let's get on with the show. Hello everyone. A special introductory segment before getting into the episode. The remainder of December. Merry Christmas to all. And since I'll be using this opening through the rest of December, they will be Tuesday and Thursday drops here on out for December to help me get caught up with some interviews that I've got in the pile that have been recorded, waiting to be released to help with a backlog. I'm going to do two a week now, Tuesdays and Thursdays, the rest of December, as well as January and February. So in the background here, uh audio only, you're not seeing it, obviously, says Merry Christmas to soldiers everywhere who can't be with their families, showing a group of soldiers with Santa hat and elf hats on. But anyway, or at any rate, right, the ongoing. Oh, I said right again. I found I'm gotten to the habit of thing, right? Right? I gotta watch that. I gotta stop that. Anyway, let's get on with an interview. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Christitutionalist. And first, apologies to others who may be waiting for their discussions to drop because Sarah is here to talk New York and with the man dummy, and I've got to be careful I say that slow. People who watch the show regularly or listen know my politics. So I generally call them mad man dummy. So I want to be careful though. I want us to try to have a down the middle, diplomatic discussion, much like Mom Donnie and Trump had in the Oval Office by the time this airs now a couple weeks ago. But I want to indeed move this up in the release rotation uh ahead of others because who knows what will follow that discussion they had and the first few months when mom donnie actually takes office. So joining me today is Sarah, and I'll only say this, Alessandrini. Is that Greek? It's Italian. Oh, it's oh I'm part Italian, but yeah, Sylvani on mom's Italian side there, but yeah, no, I I would have guessed Greek, and of course, my audience also knows I can't resist the lame pun, so it's like it's all Greek to me, but I'm dumb, right? Yeah, as the saying goes. Anyway, all joking aside, welcome to the show, Sarah.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, and I'm not a fan of Mamdan either. So I guess don't worry offending me. Yeah, I'm not a fan.

SPEAKER_00:

That aside, I hope we'll be able to try to keep our discussion somewhat diplomatic, as non-partisan as possible and theoretical.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm on the Cuomo side, so I like Cuomo, so yeah, definitely I'm not uh I'm not happy that Mandani won. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm not a fan of the senior slayer either, but yeah, again. I want to put that aside for today's.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not his fault. We can talk about the nursing homes too, but yes, yeah, not his fault.

SPEAKER_00:

First, though, about you, where were you born and raised? Where are you now? Significant places you may have been in between how much time did you spend in prison and for what? That's that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Luckily, no time in prison because I'm an immigrant, so I don't want that record. So, yes, so no time in prison at all. Yeah, no, I was born and raised in Italy, so I'm from the north of Italy, like the south of the north, Sicilian, so but you're south south, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm enough to put that aside too, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I was born and raised there, like I was there for 20 years, so then I moved to Roma where I studied like filmmaking, uh, worked there in the industry, so that's where I was for a few years. Then uh a short parenthesis uh in Australia, just went a few months there, and then but I always want to come to this country, so my dream was here. But as an immigrant, it's complicated, obviously, to come to this country. So, first I went to Australia.

SPEAKER_00:

If you do it legally, yes, yeah, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, it's very difficult even to be legally here, so like I would never do it illegally. So but yeah, so then after there, I came to Los Angeles. So I've been in living in Los Angeles for 10 years, but my brain lives in New York apparently, for the for the past four or five years, because I made this documentary called This Is What New Yorkers Say, that is uh felt like talked to New York regular New Yorkers about Andrew Cuomo's resignation. So I've been following all that situation for the past years when he was forced to resign with accusation of sexual harassment, and also which I I I I'm on the fence with that.

SPEAKER_00:

I yeah, I know a lot of celebrities andor politicians get fake Me Too accusations. We see it left and right, so I don't know where I stand on that, and again, uh that aside, we're here more to talk Mam Donnie Trump meeting and going forward now that he's elected. But anyway, I interrupted you.

SPEAKER_01:

It's about the process, it's like whatever how you feel. Like, obviously, like I read the accusation, I have so many questions about it. I don't believe uh what they said about him, I don't believe what the media say constantly about him. So, but I wanted to hear directly from the people and they're like in that conversation about these topics. So it's started from Cuomo, but really to talk about like council culture, uh social media, how we deal with social media, how we don't really interact with people, and especially like now there is this thing if I don't agree with your politics, uh I should not talk to you. It's uh it's terrible, it's a terrible situation.

SPEAKER_00:

All that stuff about Anthony Wiener, that I believe. But again, a whole other show.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a different one, yeah. So, but yeah, that's that's what I've like I've been spending like the past four years seeing like the old situation about Andrew Cuomo. So then obviously I was also I went to New York multiple times this uh this past few months for the election. So I was there, like uh I was at the watch party of the Cuomo team uh during the election, so I was definitely like watching very closely, uh volunteering too sometime, like going around and talking to people and seeing what like during these past months, what they were feeling, how the uh election process works. So, yeah, I was like learning a lot in the past months while I was traveling there in New York, seeing like firsthand uh the election.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm clearly on the right side of the aisle as a constitutionalist, biblical community versus worldly communism, big distinction. But again, all of that aside, if if I were one of those hyper partisan idiots and I don't like them on either left or right, you know, Democrat rah rah-rah rah-rah, my team, or Republican rah-rah, rah, my team, only my team, right? You know, blinders on. I deal in reality, but if I were one of those hyperpartisans, you know, I would want to attack Cuomo, obviously. But like after all that garbage with the Kavanaugh hearing attacks and in my opinion, false allegations and whatnot. Yeah, I try to be a little more sensitive to people are gonna make accusations regardless. So I think that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we should give due process to everybody. Like everybody's got due process, not because you're rich, just or you're a man or you're a politician, then you're a horrible human being. Like, that's not that's not how you create a fair society, that's the problem. And it doesn't help women either.

SPEAKER_00:

If like now suddenly everything becomes like uh an offense, uh, like words of like uh people losing their life, their actual battered and abused women suffer when there are a million false Me Too accusations, because then their story doesn't get believed.

SPEAKER_01:

If everybody likes cream wolf, then at a certain point you don't believe any of them. Uh so that that's where like you have to be careful. You need to have a system where like uh the reason it's fair, like okay, you do the investigation, you see just because someone obviously makes an accusation doesn't mean like someone else is guilty. And again, like uh you're innocent until proven guilty, and that's what should be, not depending on who you are, okay. And I don't I don't like Trump necessarily, like I don't have any issue with him, and I'm I'm not a fan of Trump, but I would give him the same benefit of the doubt. Like, he's innocent until proven guilty.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't have TDS, but I'm also not a Trump cultist. Yeah, I don't have TDS either. Was he a serial phandander, millionaire, billionaire playboy? Absolutely, you know, all the women he dated, he cheated on all his previous all that is factual. That you know, for someone to deny that is just dumb. It's you know, it's delusional, it's cultism. Uh but is he the same or a different person now? And again, that's a whole other debate. But back to Cuomo, then I want to move on to mom dummy. Cuomo, do do I think he's a Bill Clinton? No, we all know Clinton and his escapades, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And then like Cuomo is like someone who likes worked 24-7. Cuomo is always like he was like Trump, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Trump always working, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So like he's not someone with that like lifestyle, Cuomo, like going out and do all kind of like crazy stuff. So that's where even in my documentary, like people like just don't believe the accusation because like they've seen uh Cuomo, they've worked with him, they've seen how he behaved, and then there is the cultural element too, obviously, like like culture like Italian, the Latinos, uh, like obviously we have a different way of interacting with other people, which is like more human, uh, it's less that a lot of times can be more flirtatious and that's yeah, and asking personal questions, like to me, it's funny. Like, if you ask me the difference, like like in Italy, if someone asks you if you're in a relationship, it's the most normal question someone can ask you. Like, like here, when you meet someone, you ask them what kind of job do you do? In Italy, it's like, Oh, are you in a relationship? That's the most normal question you do. But in this country, if you just ask a question, even if you know them for like a while, even if it's in the middle of like other questions. Yeah, if you just ask that question, that means they're interested. And it's like, yeah, that's not like it, not for this kind of culture. So we're like, yeah, we're just very curious about other people's life, and we want to know everything about other people's lives, it doesn't necessarily mean we're interested.

SPEAKER_00:

I've got a couple shows, especially around Valentine's Day every year, right? Regarding dating and relationships, and I have a show I finally did on beauty eye of the beholder, right? Because you know, physical attraction and appearance is part of our human nature and experience and plays a role in relationships. I break down the different categories of beauty. I didn't get into it in the beauty eye of the beholder episode, and probably should have. Like while married, it didn't mean I stopped admiring other women's beauty, but I didn't seek, I wasn't looking to obtain. There's a difference between admiration and whatever my other term I can't remember now, but an interest and seeking to act upon that potential admiration, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01:

And then I think that the problem that I touched also on the documentary is the fact like now a lot of people like interact through social media, they're not used to actually get to know people, understand who they are, where they're coming from, uh, uh their culture, their beliefs, or whatever it is. And coming from Italy, where we still like we're we're not so obsessed with technology as people are in this country. Like, people you see here, everybody's always on their phone, they cannot have like regular interaction with other people. In Italy is very different, like people still seek that kind of like human uh uh connection, and so they're less obsessed with their social media, less obsessed with showing off that stuff. So you actually get to know people on a human level, and I see here a lot of people in the workplace, especially also like people who feel like I don't need to know anything about you, but when actually you learn about people on their human level, then you understand what they mean when they say something.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just caring to tie it back to biblical kind admiration. Doesn't necessarily mean lusting after someone. I can admire the way they looked, it doesn't mean I lust after them, and in biblical caring about our neighbors, you know, are you in a relationship? No, it's not because I want to ask you out on a date, it's just because hey, we're curious about what's going on in your life, major cultural issue, difference shock, especially with all the Me Too movement, the fifth-wave feminism stuff goes on over here. It's oh my god, emotionally triggered snowflake meltdowns.

SPEAKER_01:

We talk about diversity so much, like in this country, but then like, okay, if someone is uh does something in a way that comes from like a different culture, different way of behaving, now suddenly like uh you're a monster. It's like if you want diversity, you're gonna have like people who do things in different ways. Uh, yes, obviously, harassing women it's not good for anyone, doesn't matter what the culture is.

SPEAKER_00:

You have to obey our Western culture laws, yeah, and norms. Yes, you have to.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like obviously when you come like to a workplace, obviously you do all the trainings about sexual harassment and all of that. But again, lost also on the people to understand what like just because someone asks you a question doesn't mean necessarily what kind of movie you're making in your own head, and uh it might be even that, but again, even if like someone is interested in you, it doesn't mean it that person is like threatening you or something, so there are so many different layers, it's like so many gray areas. You cannot just say even if someone asks you out, someone is interested in you, it doesn't mean he's expensive, yeah. Yeah, like you're interested, you you can say no, and it's like I yeah, like in my my 30s, I've said no to a lot of people. A lot of people have said no to me. It's not that every man is interested in you, so there are so many layers, and we need to have that honest conversation, it's like every case is different. You cannot just make uh just someone touches your shoulder, that's sexual harassment. It cannot be that simple, uh, black and white, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, and you touched on it. We need to relax and calm down. And he the problem is we can't have honest conversations, even the conversation is oh my god, offensive, right? Even though many on the left constantly are saying we need to have the conversation. You don't want conversation, you want to dictate your way, but assimilation, you need to assimilate to our culture and our laws and diversity, diversity, equity, inclusion. We already are the most diverse and inclusive nation this planet has ever seen. Have you heard of e Plurbus Unum, the Latin motto for America from many one? It isn't cultural appropriation for me to put on a sombrero and drink margaritas on cinco de mayo. That's not appropriation, that's appreciation, that's diversity, that's inclusion.

SPEAKER_01:

When they hear people talking about like immigrants, like being an immigrant, like obviously it's it's difficult to difficult, but of course, you're going in a country with different culture, with different customs, uh, you have to learn assimilating everything. Like, obviously, I was always a huge fan of this country, so it was not an issue for me because I came here to be in this country, not to be with other create like an Italian community or something. But if you go to other countries, like even Italy or France, uh, immigrants are not as integrated as they are in this country, so you have a very different, much more difficult.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's what part those of us on the right want to avoid. The like I'm in Detroit area, right? Dearborn is stand. We have Greek town in Detroit and Chinatown in Detroit. And you know, little communities where you celebrate other cultures is good, but if it becomes an enclave and you're not part of anything else, you've not assimilated it all, then yes, that becomes a problem rather than a benefit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, I know even Italian people like they barely speak the language. Even they are like young at my age, where like they have all the opportunities to learn the language, they come from like good backgrounds, not like poor or something. And still, like even they're coming here, but they come here with the idea like, still, like every Everything about my culture is better than this. To me, the question is always then why are you here if you don't really love this place? Like, and again, I will never stop being an Italian on some level, obviously, because I'm and not just Italian.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, I'm just got the hand thing going.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like my hands. I cannot think if I don't move my hands. I sometimes I try to stay still, and I'm like, oh, wait, wait, wait, what I would should say.

SPEAKER_00:

So but yeah, and I'm also part Polish and German in my heritage. Ham Tramok was known as Little Poland before. It's no longer the Polish enclave it used to be. Uh, here in Weindot, where I actually live downriver, there is little the the Polish community, the German community, the Italian community. Doesn't mean they don't mingle and mix, obviously. Grandpa and grandma. Grandpa was on mother's side was German, grandma and mother's side, Italian. On my dad's side, both Polish, but you know, all intermingled and intermixed and interrelated, intermarried, assimilated together, didn't appropriate each other's culture, but took part of other cultures as their own, as a benefit, not as a set. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, we're uh talking about everything. 22 minutes in, and let's actually get to what you're here for. Mm dami got elected. Good, bad, indifferent, whatever your opinion, we're here to theoretically talk about what because Trump is not a conservative, he's not a real Republican, he's a populist. What can they? He's not adverse to spending money despite the dough pennies on the dollar cuts here and there. We are still over between one and two trillion dollar federal deficit. He's not adverse to spending money. So I'm curious because I don't know the New York City or state statutes, like a big issue is crime. Affordability, yes, but the crime also. And mom Donnie with his statements in the past, detection release mentality versus broken windows mentality, letting people back out on the streets to re-offend over and over and over again is an issue with many, but yet they voted mom Donnie in, who would be still weak on what claim does he have in the prosecutor's office or any at all?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, obviously, like so first of all, we need to also like look at the numbers of actually the election. Because yeah, people talk about a lot about what's been going on, and they act because if you look at like social media, if you look at the the media or whatever, like it looked like Mandani like would have made like 90% of the votes. If you look at the like the New York Post released like an article acting like as if no one voted for Cuomo, it's like that's not the reality if you look at the numbers. So Mandani got barely like uh little closer to 51% of the votes. 51% of the votes. If you consider also, like, I think it was what's that 70% uh of people in New York vote New York City voted for Kamala Harris uh instead of Trump. So it's a very blue city, obviously. So, and considering how progressive a lot of people are there, 40-51% is not that much as people are making, and yeah, and that's of the pool of people who actually got off their butts to vote.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, more people didn't vote than did vote for all of them combined.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, this obviously was like uh the most like the election that like in the past I think three decades, they said the most people went to vote, so it was two million people. But again, we're talking about I think a population of like six million people that could vote uh or or maybe less of that, but yeah. So we're talking about obviously it's not everybody, a lot of people are always disillusioned about politics. Uh so I was talking to people, so yeah, there are people that are like, oh, what's the point of me going to vote? There are situations where the person like uh even if maybe they just moved so they didn't change the registration, so they couldn't vote, or someone was working the whole day, couldn't take the time off from work.

SPEAKER_00:

So there are all kinds of situations that's true of almost all elections, though, too. Local, state, federal, right? A fraction of a fraction of a fraction elects whomever.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so obviously that was like an issue during the primary because much less people went to vote because people were just assuming Quama would win, and then because the people, the young people that are like very far to the left, they are very engaged compared to other people from other communities, then they all went to vote, and so he got the primary. And of course, when you get become like the head of like the Democratic Party in the primary, obviously, a lot of people, as you said, they just vote for the party, they don't vote for the person or whatever it is. So Cuomo was actually the real Democrat, but he was on an independent line, and then you had Mamdani, who was a socialist or democratic socialist, if you say it's a difference.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh-huh. Right, there's a difference.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you believe in the difference? Yes, I see all the people are like that's not socialism, it's different. Whatever, however, you feel about that. But he wasn't the democratic.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know real socialism like immigrants do. I have a lot of friends escape from behind the iron curtain that know what real socialism and communism is, and they know it when they see it and they're seeing it here.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but again, but if you never lived outside of this country, then you just assume like people, and I see that all the time when I talk to my Italian friends too. If you are in a culture, you just assume that everybody else in other countries think in the same way as you do when it's not the reality. Every culture really changes the way you think about topics. So you cannot put your American mind to really understand the Middle East without taking in consideration that they have a different culture and the same other countries. And so a lot of people think like, oh, yeah, that's socialism didn't work uh in Venezuela because of this and that, but it's gonna work here. So that's a different conversation, obviously. We all have different definitions of what everything is.

SPEAKER_00:

We don't teach history in this country anymore, civics or history, it's all theoretical, cultural, Marxist social studies now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it's also like you uh, even like in Italy, we're like we have a much better educational system than in this country. Still, you history, you just learn, okay, this happened on this day, this happened that, then after that, but you don't really understand the why, what was going on in the society around that time.

SPEAKER_00:

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. I still have that, of course, memorized. Well, the details beyond that are what are important and matter, like people didn't learn the Bradford Colony what the Mayflower Commie Compact. We tried communism long before Marx ever thought he drunk it up on our soil. The Bradford Colony, the Mayflower Compact was a socialist communist, commune compact, collective ownership, collective rights. They almost all starved to death. Then they pivoted to personal rights, individual private property ownership, free market capitalism, and the rest, as they say, is history. What America was.

SPEAKER_01:

And it was a very different time with very different issues than the ones we have now. So to me, it's just ridiculous to be still talking about fascism and communism in 2025. Just come with a new system, come with something that is more related to this time than the same words that were spoken 50, 60, 70 years ago or something. Maybe more, because like we are in 2025. It's like it's still 2000. I cannot even count how many years ago was that.

SPEAKER_00:

But but yeah, so move your hands more, it'll come to you, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's gonna come back if I just say Italian humor, yeah. Yes, but yeah, so going back to the election, uh, so that's the thing. So we have like this amount of people, but if you look at the exit polls, like they it was interesting to see the they were asking like the people the question how long have you lived in New York? So there was like zero to five years, uh, five to ten years, ten, uh more than ten years, but I was not born here, or I was born here. The more like the more someone was born, like yeah, the more someone had been in New York, the more likely they were to vote for Cuomo. So the people, the zero to five voted like 86% for Mamdani. So that tells you also like the difference. Like, if you were born and raised in New York, you were more likely to vote for Cuomo. If you were like if you moved to New York eight like zero to five years ago, that means you you've probably never even seen Cuomo like governing because he resigned in 2021. Uh so that means that was like four years and more ago. So a lot of these people they moved to New York probably after he resigned. So they never they never got to see him and like how he was working. He never they met, they never saw his father, obviously, but that obviously was like a lot of so that's ancient history, yeah. Yeah, so so and that's like to me when I was listening to like momdani's speech and talking about how they're toppling down like uh like they they won against a dynasty. To me, it's like if you you might like obviously you you might hate Andrew, Andrew Cuomo, like obviously, we're not gonna be friends, but that's I accept that if you don't like him, that's that's okay. But a lot of people love Mario Cuomo. So if you have issues with Andrew, why do you have issues with Mario? So it just shows that like they just hate dynasties just because of the concept.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, oh, we know it well here in southeast Michigan. The Dingle Dynasty go goes back almost a hundred years. Uh uh the original Dingle was there for life, then his son took over for life, and now John Dingle Jr.'s wife, Debbie Dingle, heir to the Fisher guide at Fortune in GM, uh, Debbie Fisher, Debbie Dingle, she took felt entitled and inherited more or less the seat based on the name recognition. So, yeah, we understand that in Southeast Michigan well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but at the same time, like, first of all, people loved Mario, a lot of people loved him anyway. So, like, now you have issues with Mario to like one thing is to have an issue with Andrew, but also like again, and it's not nepotism anyway, it's not that like because you had to be voted for governor, so Andrew was voting for the government. Yeah, so people voted for him and they voted for him three times, and if it wasn't for the sexual harassment allegation and how they were trying to uh force him to resign or impeach him, he would have won a fourth term very easily. Yeah, so and even for this election, he still got like 900,000 votes when people act as if like no one wants him, but a lot of people still love him. Yes, a lot of people that voted for him in this election, of course, they might hate him and still voted for him because they prefer him.

SPEAKER_00:

Plus, there are two evils, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like obviously, there are all kinds of people, but I met also people that voted for Mamdani, they still loved Cuomo. So we're not talking about just because you voted for Mamdani, that means you hate Andrew and everything. So there are all kinds of situations. So that to me was interesting to see the exit poll. Okay, okay, 50% of the people voted, but a bunch of those people are also people that maybe just moved there like a few months ago or so, and they got to decide yeah, like we we're discussing it again.

SPEAKER_00:

Turnout, if all those people that whine, moan, and complain, my vote doesn't matter. Yeah, if all you my vote doesn't matter people actually showed up, you could have all wrote in bozo the clown and bozo the clown would have won by writing. So don't tell me that my vote don't count because it does. If everybody actually showed up, the results would be different. The dynasty people wouldn't win on name recognition.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, and that that's the issue. Obviously, like democracy only works if everybody's engaged and everybody has the information and the system is set to actually make it work. And again, if you keep defunding the educational system, if like the media doesn't do its job uh and they're always like attacking people on the personal level, it's like it's it's not a good society, it's not a society, it's not like democracy is not like an effective democracy.

SPEAKER_00:

And I I I can hear people yelling at their computer or their phone if they're listening on their phone right now, you know, even though this will be air weeks from now. I'll be I'll get I'll get the nasties. Well see, no, we are a representative republic, but everybody uses the word democracy, correct? We are a representative constitutionally limited republic. So I know what you mean, you know what you mean, but yet there will still be people get upset because I get it because I also studied business.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, like I came to this country, and I always hear everybody talking about it's a democracy, it's a democracy, and then I was studying business, and I was like, Well, actually, democracy is not even part of the say the constitution or whatever. And it was like, Oh, that's interesting. I never like heard that. So I never heard that at the time because I also live in Los Angeles, so everybody's very on the left side here. So definitely, I totally understand what what you mean uh saying that like it's not a democracy, but you mean democracy, meaning like what people are like going out to vote, like you're gonna vote for the right the good people, and you're gonna have good people if the system is set so that actually you have the right information.

SPEAKER_00:

Our founders spoke to that at the convention, they did not want mobocracy, ineptocracy, kleptocracy, like unfortunately, we've got far too much of now. The old adage two wolves and a lamb voting who what's for dinner. It's not what's for dinner, it's who's on the menu, the sheep, the two wolves outvote the sheep. That's why we are not a mobocracy, the minority is supposed to be protected, but again, we've gotten off the beaten path again.

SPEAKER_01:

So there are so there are so many topics that like are worth talking, obviously.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, although I toggled my video too because I my movement threw my video off there and I went blurry, but the power of the mayor versus the power of the council is a dynamic in play here, too. The mayor is kind of like a president, it the congress or the council really has the bill making authority, and the mayor can sign or veto, he has executive privileges. But in order for Mondani to get through many of the things he's talked about, like government-run grocery stores like Moscow or failed in St. Louis, even more recently here. Uh, he's gotta have a council. What's the council makeup like?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, and also like uh a lot of things that he wants to do, like he needs the governor to sign off to go for that, and a lot of that, like, it's not possible. Like, he wants to tax increase taxes uh on the wealthy, the rich. First of all, that's not how the system works because billionaires don't take regular salaries, so you cannot just increase the percentage because that's not how they make their money, they don't have a regular salary. If you make like a million-dollar salary, you're already already taxed a lot, and in New York City, you are taxed way more than every everywhere else.

SPEAKER_00:

Like it's 90 per 90 percent of all most taxes that you know very your region may vary, uh, your mileage may vary, as I say, but in general, 90 percent of all taxes everywhere are paid by the top 10 or 5% of people already. How are they not wanting others to pay their fair share?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but so there is that issue, but again, the he doesn't as a mayor, he doesn't control where the like doesn't have that power and authority, yeah. He needs Albany to do that, and again, next year there is an election. So for the governor, so Cathy Ockle, she already said she cannot increase taxes, but also like she's fighting, she's going against uh Elise Stefanik, that like she's Republican, and even a lot of people that that like voted for Kwama obviously during the the election, like they're already thinking about voting for Stefanik because like they if they're ready, like it's very far left, New York City, they don't want the state to be all left.

SPEAKER_00:

They're off the charts. Only California is worse. There might be a couple others worse, but New York, New Jersey, California, major taxation.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but so that's that that's the thing. Like it's an election next year, it's she already had hard time winning the last time. But now that there is like New York City that's going very far left, a lot more people will prefer to vote for a Republican candidate. She so she cannot be like, oh, let's increase taxes when already she's in a very difficult situation.

SPEAKER_00:

But also and millionaires and billionaires are very portable, they can move and they'll they'll take their companies and your job with them, and you lose your job.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like you can live in Jersey, you can live in Westchester, you can live a lot of places, still do business in New York, but also at the same time, uh, it's not like he wants. To tax the millionaire or the billionaire, whatever it is, in New York State, and then put all the money made by that tax into New York City instead of redistributing that around the state. Like that's not gonna be okay. Like there is already a lot of like hate between upstate and downstate in New York because everybody thinks that the governor always favors and only cares for New York City. So a lot of other districts, other like areas, region, they're not gonna be okay with like adding like an extra tax on just to give more money to New York City to fund uh free buses or like other services.

SPEAKER_00:

So we we have that exact dynamic in Mish in Wayne County, especially, which is where Detroit is. I'm in southern Wayne County, the Wayne County politics, taxation, and where does all of it go? Detroit, right? And same with the state, state politics. Most people, the western part of the state constantly, the northern touristy parts of the state constantly complaining about how much of state taxes get funneled to Detroit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And even like the the groceries, having like a one for each borough, like first of all, there are like 16,000, I think, uh, like grocery store bodegas and everything. Uh, so five extra is not gonna change the situation of New York City. And if you and I guess it's more symbolic, but even if if that was the case, everybody travels to those groceries because the prices are cheaper, then uh you're not gonna have any food. There is nothing on the shelf. But also, government always says that oh, we're gonna tax this and we're gonna give you lower prices. First of all, you're starting a new industry, like the government is taking on a new industry than never been before in New York City. So that's gonna cost you a lot of money, a lot of consultants uh building. So that's gonna be a lot of expenses just to get started. So like even in Italy, I remember like apparently when they created like the the highways, the freeways, they were saying, Oh, we're gonna just charge you for the first year so that uh you don't have to that then we just pay for that money for like to make it, and then it's gonna be free forever, and then of course it's never free, then they keep it.

SPEAKER_00:

So as Reagan said, there is nothing more permanent than a temporary government program.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, so so like you start a new industry and you've never been in uh, and you think you're gonna be able to give cheaper prices than the people that have done that business for years.

SPEAKER_00:

I used to work for Kmart, which is now gone, but yeah, all the super caves. So I understand the grocery market and how all that works. And yeah, the only way a government-run store works is then if you go full South Africa and seize all the farms so that you can feed the stuff to the government-run store.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and that would cost a lot of money, like traveling, her place, her stuff, uh cargoes. But yeah, I mean, that that's the issue. It's like it's it's dreaming. Like, and again, even if even if that was a plan that works, it's not that what's gonna change the life uh of New Yorkers or anyone, yeah, or like free buses, like uh I live in Los Angeles, and I actually take public transportation in Los Angeles, which is very different, like most people. So it's already cheaper than having a car, and of course, it's more expensive in New York and everything. So, but even there, most people take the subway, not the bus. Uh, and even like to fund that, uh, yeah, there are there are a lot of like questions about everything that he wants to do. He doesn't have the power to just do it, everything takes a lot of work, like affordable housing. Like the problem in New York is that there is like a crisis because they have like a 1.4% of available houses in the market, but it's not just that there are not enough like buildings, like there was um a new rule that passed in 2019, I think it was 2019, and because of that, a lot of landlords that they have like apartments, they're saying it's not worth it for them to renovate them. So some of them are broken, they need renovation, but because they change how much they can deduct, uh, how much in the law, how much how much they can charge after they do the work, they cannot recap their money. So, because of that, a lot of are keeping their apartments unused, they're not usable because obviously they're like in very bad conditions. So, like some are like broken, like holes in the ceiling and everywhere. So, if you just like if you could get those apartments on the market, that would help. But again, it's not gonna solve because you need to build housing, you need to do all of that too, and so and you need to know how to do it. So, to me, it's not just like that. What he proposed, it's impossible. I'm saying if Cuomo proposed the same thing, I would believe it because I know that Cuomo gets the job done. If he if he says something, he's gonna do that in some way, he has a plan, someone who has a proven record, as opposed to a delusional pipe dream, like someone who never done his job uh before, like he never really had any job, like not even uh being a waiter. He's like the son of like millionaires, too.

SPEAKER_00:

So he's like, he wants to tax, he's like Bernie Sanders, wants to tax the million. Bernie Sanders always used to say, I want to tax the millionaires and billionaires. You notice Sanders never says millionaires anymore because he's a multimillionaire with three mansions, including an oceanfront property, even though he peddles the climate scam, uh, and has a quarter of a million dollar sports car. How many people have that? But so yeah, he's a millionaire, so now he just wants to tax the million dollars.

SPEAKER_01:

And if you're a millionaire, like you know how to to to get the system to work too, like not in a in an illegal way, like you know how it works. So, you know, like they were saying, even the people from Hollywood they have millions, but they still propose this thing because uh they get paid through companies, not as individual taxpayers and everything. So it a lot of these people they don't have an idea about.

SPEAKER_00:

Because again, it goes back to the top. We don't teach civics, economics, or history at all. And I've got a piece on beforexnews.com I wrote in December on housing and actual ways to fix it. And again, I'm not a Trump cultist, so Trump proposing a 50-year mortgage, I'm like, are you kidding? But no one, no one mangali is not proposing you must buy a 50-year mortgage, no one is forcing anyone, so as an option, okay, make it an option. If people want a 50-year mortgage, make that available, but that doesn't solve anything, there's a whole lot of other things we gotta address to solve the housing issue, and I have a piece on that addressing the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all.

SPEAKER_01:

I watch a lot of Dame Ramsey. So when that 50 years mortgage came, like all the memes you see online about Dave Ramsey, like it's funny.

SPEAKER_00:

30 years is already too long.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, like I mean, but that's again, it's all put patches, uh, putting patches on stuff instead of actually like finding the way to solve the problems at the root and everything. So, yeah, definitely. And then, like, as an immigrant, it drives me crazy, honestly, because like I came here to this country, so when I I have to learn system like health insurance, uh, how the taxes work, all of that. Like, I never I like you come to a new country, you don't know how the system works. So, for me, I always first ask American people, and they never knew anything. So, I had I had to learn all of this, and like even now it's like crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's why I love legal immigrants. You know more about our system than the people born here, because they're just coasting through life.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's crazy, and I have a lot of people that are very much on the left, uh, friends and everything, and I'm the one explaining to them how the health system works, uh, how the insurance works, uh, and like how to go, which hospital you should go, how to figure out. I had to explain because even at work, like someone got cut and he didn't know what to do. And I was the one like going figure it out, okay, this is your insurance, this is the hospital where you can go, this and that. So it's it's like interesting for me to see. Like, and there is nothing wrong in not knowing the knowledge, but when you're the person who is pushing that solution on other people, but you don't actually have the knowledge to understand how the system works, and you just want to destroy things because you because it makes you feel good about yourself or whatever, that's an issue. And rather than thinking, yes, yeah, and have issues with Mandani because like he he he's a populist too, obviously, and so he's always about like this thing. Oh, people tell us what we cannot do. I've been like I've been annoyed by people telling me that like I cannot do this and I cannot do that all my life, uh, and I've done it because people never thought I would be able to come to this country to stay here, to work, get visa and everything. And beyond beyond that, like I work in the movie industry.

SPEAKER_00:

A lot of people, it's an excuse to just give up and not bother to try.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I've done a lot of things that like even working, I made this documentary with no money and everything. So I've done a lot of things that are not where like my background or where I was born, like not the family, my family is not in this industry, in this business. They barely they came to this country only once in 10 years because they don't travel. So I I hate when people tell you something cannot be done, but you should prove first that you're someone also that can achieve things, that have done something, and Mam Dani, besides winning an election, has done nothing in his life.

SPEAKER_00:

So that's the okay. We we've come full circle. I'm gonna wrap it up. I usually try to keep my shows around 30 minutes so they don't get too long. We could talk for 30 hours and still be going. Uh so I do though, I want to wrap it up because we blew way past the 30-minute mark. Where do you have a website for people to reach out to you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, I have the website for my documentary series, uh, it's called This Is What New Yorkers Say. So that's the best place where like you can read more about the documentary, you can uh find my social medias where to watch it. It's now available on streaming platforms like Apple TV, to be for free. Someone is interested.

SPEAKER_00:

And yeah, New Yorkers is spelled out, it's not NY.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, it's it's all like written. This is what New Yorkers say.com. So yeah, that's that's where you can find uh more about the documentary, it's me and social media.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I went blurry again. Anyway, it's more important people see you than see me anyway. They know my ugly face. Yeah, anyway, thank you, Sarah Alessandrini, for coming by today. It was a great conversation. What it usually happens with me what rabbit holes open, and I can't help you with my OCD brain but dive down them. So thank you, Sarah. Take care, God bless, have a great day. I do too. Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist politics podcast and share episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned in to another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the constitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.

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Joseph M Lenard

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