Tea and Vitriol

 Rochester, New York has become a deadly violent place to live, work and play. I have been spending more and more time in Germany over the last five years and after each trip the thought of returning to Rochester usually unnerves me. My European friends wonder why I remain living in such a dangerous place, especially when, thanks to the internet, they can read for themselves what is going on here. There I can walk the streets at any hour, feeling safe and relatively secure. Here, in the neighborhood where I still maintain a residence, I won't walk my dogs after dark. There are some streets that I find it necessary to avoid because of the propensity for violence to occur there. Even when merely driving through them. And we no longer have beat cops walking the streets anymore. They were a usual feature in my youth, and I honestly believe that their presence in the neighborhoods helped prevent crime or at least provided a sense of security. Alas, beat cops vanished like the passenger

And a distance of over 3,000 miles doesn't improve the way it looks, either! I have been spending a lot more time in Europe these days, specifically in Germany. I know that there are certain people in Rochester who are delighted to have me gone, while they don't seem to understand that I find it more refreshing and peaceful to be away from our dying hometown. But then, those people don't seem to understand my extremely low opinion of them. I am long past the point where their opinion means anything to me. Thanks to the internet and instantaneous news reporting, it is easy to keep abreast of what goes on in the world, even about Rochester, New York. Apparently, our city "leaders" are either unaware of that fact or simply don't care how Rochester is perceived across the world. It isn't flattering. When people ask where I am from, I tell them. It is not my job to lie for our city government. That's what City Hall's Communications Department gets paid

On Tuesday, April 25 US President, Sloppy Joe Biden, announced that he would be running for re-election in 2024. It was an underwhelming announcement, since he had been saying that he would for weeks now, despite obvious evidence of his increasing senility and impaired motor functions. Rather than make this announcement during a specially summoned press conference, surrounded by members of his family and political supporters, he relied upon a tacky video, previously constructed, to accomplish this. Using stock footage, mostly of the January 6, 2021, clown show in Washington DC, he made outrageous lies and blamed Republicans for all of this country's woes, and that he was running again to "finish the job" he had started. What has been clear to most intelligent observers is that "the job" he was engaged in was the destruction of the United States, both as a world super power and a coherent domestic political entity. His regime has been a frightening example of a g

The final hours of 2022 are upon us. Tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) of people are planning to go out to celebrate New Year's Eve after nearly two years of government-imposed isolation and restrictions across the globe to "combat" the Corona Virus. Bars and nightclubs will be offering tacky paper hats and noisemakers, as well as a plastic cup of cheap champagne at midnight to ring in the new year to customers, who will be drinking at regular prices throughout the evening. All the while, the patrons will be shrieking to each other at how much fun they're having. I hope they will be. They are the ones who weren't invited to anyone's parties. News Year's Eve is usually regarded as amateur night for drinkers, which is why the various law enforcement agencies will be out at full force. Hopefully those partiers will be up and about by January 3rd. For myself, I am not particularly nostalgic about the passing of 2022 nor particularly hopeful for 20

The US mid-term elections are over. The much anticipated "Red Tide," where the GOP would sweep national, state and local elections proved to be only so much hype. Though many races in dyed in the wool Blue states were close, too many Americans refused to reject the politically progressive perversion known as Bidenism. True, the Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives, while as of this writing there are still five Senate seats undecided. While GOP control of the House merely removes that Nancy Pelosi creature as Speaker of the House, and good riddance to her, she still remains a representative for her district in California, which means that she will continue to be a gadfly in the body politic of the US, though of lesser importance than previously. We might say "Thank God for small mercies." As for New York State, we will remain under the control of the unholy triumvirate of pre-born baby killing, criminal loving Hochul, James and Schumer. They

It was such a sad story. Sixteen-year-old Jaquise Davis was coming home from work at Walmart on the night of August 8 this year. On Pennsylvania Avenue, where he lived, a car was speeding down the street. It was a stolen car, taken at gunpoint from the corner of Garson Avenue and North Goodman Street just moments before. Just as Jaquise entered his home, a gunshot rang out and he was killed, an innocent bystander in Rochester's ongoing "Murder Marathon." Immediately, the media went to work! Friends and family stated what a "good boy" Jaquise was, so kind and helpful. Citygov dusted off its usual statement at how shocked they were at this senseless crime. East High School announced that they were providing emotional support and counselors for students who were aggrieved by their friend's death. And the family created a "Go Fund Me" account to help with the expenses of the funeral and to give Jaquise a decent send off. Such a tragic story of a nice y

Let's face it, most politicians and elected officials are boldfaced liars. We are not talking about "little white lies" to make people comfortable or not to offend, because everyone does that. People do not like hearing the truth and only want to hear your opinions if they concur with theirs. We are talking about BIG lies that distort the truth and really have no relation to reality. Politicians lie big time to get themselves elected to public office, then they continue to lie to make themselves popular in order to win re-election. They are facilitated in their political lying by their public relations people, who put a spin on deliberate untruths to make them appear "real," to calm down the voting populace, so people won't think that things aren't as bad as they really are. Case in point is one of the latest pronouncements made by Rochester's current mayor, Malik Evans. Evans, wuss-like and bland, effectively won the Democratic primary early last su

  Early last year, when COVID struck, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a "state of emergency" and assumed emergency, dictatorial powers to combat the pandemic. He shut down New York State entirely, with massive disruptions to the economy, the working class and to the human need for socialization. Cuomo then held near daily press conferences, to relay to the homebound public his strategies for combatting the disease. These so impressed the daytime television industry that, along with shows about menopausal women, castrated husbands and their juvenile delinquent brats, Cuomo won an EMMY Award! Heady with this success, Cuomo prompted his state employees to ghost a largely fictional, pretentious book about his successes in combatting COVID. He hoped to make his mark in history with it, as inaccurate and untrue as it was, and that it should serve as a textbook on how to handle pandemics. He got $5 million for the book deal. Then it all began to go wrong. His own staff