I have a better idea: save taxpayers your salary and just quit, you grubby little publicity hound

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“you’ll wait your turn, god damn it, and that time has not come!”

Connecticut has filed over a dozen lawsuits vs. Trump. Now more money is needed

William Tong's office has joined more than a dozen lawsuits against President Donald Trump's administration in recent months.

Now, the Connecticut attorney general is asking for help funding them.

Speaking to reporters this week after a news conference about Trump's first 100 days in office, Tong said he has asked legislators to allocate his office more money so he can continue aggressively fighting the president's agenda.

"I need as much help as I can get," Tong said. "It's a deluge, a nonstop avalanche of work."

…. Tong's office has been busy since Inauguration Day in January, joining other states in a slew of lawsuits that have helped block restrictions on birthright citizenship, blanket freezes on federal spending, cuts to medical research, the cancellation of public health grants and more.

Tong's most recent lawsuit, announced Tuesday, seeks to block the Trump administration from imposing deep cuts on AmeriCorps, which coordinates volunteer work nationwide.

Altogether, Tong said his office has filed "12 or 13" lawsuits against the Trump administration, an average of nearly one per week.

Tong explained Tuesday that blue-state attorneys generals coordinate their efforts so that offices take on different roles in different lawsuits. Connecticut, for example, has taken the lead on a case to protect Social Security from "unlawful layoffs and mismanagement."

Tong said his office is in court in each case and that he personally has attended proceedings several times, including for cases involving birthright citizenship and the Department of Government Efficiency. He plans to attend arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on May 15 in the birthright citizenship case, he said.

It has helped, Tong said, that other like-minded attorneys general, such as in New York and California, have much larger offices, with hundreds of attorneys available to work on suits. Still, he said he'd like Connecticut to do more.

“Do More”? Beginning the day he was sworn in as state Attorney General, Tong has been desperately positioning himself to occupy Dick Blumenthal’s Senate seat the instant that old fraud finally hangs up his Depends and returns to Greenwich. To that end, Tong has joined as a “me-too!” participant every available multi-state lawsuit against anyone and anything. His office’s role is de minimis, but it allows him to issue a flood of announcements to the press, every day, pounding his diminutive chest and proclaiming, “we’re doing … well, we’re doing something!”

You can find a full collection of 7 years of this badling’s publicity efforts on his press release website. Here are just a few items culled from 15 pages of such announcements from just 2019 alone. For this he demands a still-larger budget? Screw ‘im.

  • Attorney General Tong Announces $3.1 Billion Settlement with Walmart over Opioid Epidemic Allegations

  • Attorney General William Tong today announced that Connecticut has reached a settlement with Walmart to resolve allegations that the company contributed to the opioid addiction crisis by failing to appropriately oversee the dispensing of opioids at its stores. The settlement will provide more than $3 billion nationally and will require significant improvements in how Walmart's pharmacies handle opioids. State attorneys general on the executive committee, including Connecticut, attorneys representing local governments, and Walmart have agreed to this settlement, and it is now being sent to other states for review and approval.

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Mary, Mary, quite contrary

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979 Lake Avenue, a/k/a Mary Lane, has taken a second price cut from its February opening price of $2.875 million and can now be yours for the (somewhat) improved price of $2.686. The present owners have improved the place considerably since I last saw it, but apparently not enough to justify that $2.875 price.

I wrote about the house back in November 2020, pre-renovation:

All good things come to those who wait. And drop their price.

979 Lake Avenue (Merry Lane, actually, way up north), asking $1.099 million, has a contract, a year-plus after being listed at $1.450.

It’s a nice house, but needs work. The Mickster and I were asked for a price opinion back before this was listed and we suggested a price just below a million; the owners opted to go with an agent who advised a higher price. That happens frequently in this business, so no hard feelings, but ultimately, a house will sell for what it’s worth, not what some agent promises you it’s worth.

Update, 5/1/25: (It eventually closed at $910,000)

There'll Always be an England - just not the one you remember. Or should I say, سيظل هناك دائمًا إنجلترا؛ لكن ليست تلك التي تتذكرها.

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The Fall of constantinople

David Strom:

NHS Leadership Encouraged All Staff to Fast For Ramadan

…. It's no secret that Great Britain and much of Europe are becoming Islamized, and that Islamists are not at all interested in diversity. That's not a dark accusation--hundreds of thousands of Muslims march in the streets calling for Jihad, demanding Sharia law, and bragging that these countries will become majority Muslim. 

European elites probably hope that by embracing Islam, they can tame it, and with so many Muslims, it makes sense to get everybody else on board. Play along. If we cosplay Islam perhaps the migrants will cosplay Britons. 

And there it is. Top Brass at the National Health Service endorsed the "Ramadan challenge," encouraging non-Muslim NHS employees to engage in the traditional Ramadan fast as a sign of "allyship." 

…. In itself, the "Ramadan challenge" should be offensive to Muslims. Like the Jewish High Holy Days or Easter, for seriously observant Christians, Ramadan is not purely an expression of culture but deeply religious, and a bunch of people who aren't Muslim pretending to observe it cheapens it. 

But it makes more sense, as seen in the light in which it was meant, preparing the ground for conversion. 

Muslims have lived mostly peacefully in Great Britain for years. Given that the British Empire had incorporated regions dominated by Islam, many Muslims have migrated there over the years. You could argue about …. the friction between the Muslim minority and the larger culture, and frankly, I don't know enough to say. But it does seem clear that there was nothing particularly threatening about Westernized Islam, and that any animosity was more racial than religious. 

But the new wave of Muslim immigration is inherently Islamist, and proudly so. For the most part, the refugees from regional wars in the Middle East and South Asia adhere to the medieval version of Islam, characterized by strict attitudes, hostility to non-Muslims, and (ironically) a strongly colonialist attitude. Islam spread through conquest, and conquest seems to be the goal of the new migrants. 

The elite reaction to this is partly driven by suppressed fear--covering up crimes, fighting cultural self-defense by calling it "Islamophobia," and placating the colonizers in the hope that they moderate and become more British. 

But the new migrants are not interested in diversity; they aim for conquest. Rather than encouraging Britons to become more like the new migrants (cover your head! Don't show skin! Take part in Ramadan!), they should admit that the two cultures are incompatible. 

Being super-nice and pretending to enjoy the (non)diversity is destroying Europe. Individual, Westernized Muslims--of whom there are many--present no threat. 

Islamism does, and needs to be rejected. 

Too bad the man who took over and completed the Central Park skating rink renovation is otherwise occupied

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Rye Playland was showing its age in the early 60s, when my family visited regularly, and it was positively decrepit by the mid-90s. In, the owner of the land, Westchester County, began what County Commissions described as a $30 million renovation of the park – nine years and $150 million later, the renovations remain unfinished, and now it appears that the project is delayed once agin.

Legal Saga over Playland Amusement Park Drags on: 2025 Season is in Limbo

Playland’s future is in question as Westchester County officials continue to feud with operators, Standard Amusements, who announced plans to terminate their contract to run the beloved Art Deco amusement park.

The park’s 280-acres of land is owned by Westchester County.

In 2022 then Westchester County Executive George Latimer, turned over management of Playland to Standard Amusements, a private firm.

Just three years into their 30 year agreement with Westchester County, Standard Amusements announced they were calling it quits, saying the County failed to meet construction obligations and missed contractual deadlines.

The Playland website has instructions for people seeking refunds for group visits or season passes purchased through Standard Amusements.

In a release at the end of January, Standard Amusements said, in part, “…fully realizing our vision required the County to meet the construction obligations necessary to complete improvements to the park. Despite spending over $150 million of taxpayer money— already surpassing their $125 million budget intended to cover completion of the entire project—the County has proven incapable and is nowhere near done.”

The county denied these claims and alleged that Standard Amusements mismanaged the park.

It’s possible, I suppose, that the County government is right, and for the first time in history a public project planned and overseen by incompetent government officials spending public money has the better side of an argument over who’s to blame for the project’s failure, but Westchester County has an unblemished history of both incompetence and corruption, so my bet’s on Standard Amusement being the aggrieved party here.

Here’s the history of the Donald’s role in rebuilding the Wollman Rink in Central Park, accomplishing in 3 1/2 months what the City couldn’t do in 6 years.

The Central Park Renovation: 1980–1986

In 1974, the New York City Parks and Recreation Department started planning a renovation of the rink, including switching the refrigeration system from brine to liquid Freon to lower the operation costs at a time of rising fuel costs. In January 1975, a $4 million plan to renovate Wollman Rink at the park's southeastern corner was announced. By late 1975, the Central Park Task Force, an agency of NYC Parks, released a revised plan to dredge the Pond and redesign the landscaping in the park's southeastern corner for $2.5 million. All plans were deferred due to the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis.

The rink had to be closed in the winter of 1980 when its concrete floor buckled; at that time, the renovation was estimated to cost up to $4.9 million and take two years. Due to the necessity of soliciting bids for three separate contracts and a series of planning errors, construction mishaps, and flooding caused by heavy rains, the renovations had not been completed by May 1986 when the city reversed the decision to use Freon and decided on staying with brine in plastic pipes. By that time, $12.9 million had been spent, with an additional $2 to $3 million estimated to complete the work by the winter of 1987.

Donald Trump then publicly offered to complete the renovations at his expense within six months, in return for leases to operate the rink and an adjacent restaurant in order to recoup his costs. Instead, Mayor Ed Koch agreed to reimburse Trump for any costs up to an agreed limit, and Trump agreed to donate the profits of rink and restaurant to charity and public works.

Adrian Benepe, then the Parks Department's spokesperson and later its commissioner, stated the project was largely complete by the time Trump entered the picture, though this was untrue, the rink was largely in a complete state of disrepair when Trump took over. …. The work was completed two months ahead of schedule and $750,000 under the estimated costs.

Back before the media decided he was “literally Hitler”, it acknowledged Trump’s achievement:

Great views, but there's just one problem (Updated)

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0 Rich Island, Byram, has dropped its price from $7.495 million to $6,500,000. The town appraises it at $4,861,000, so maybe it’s worth its new price, but it’s going to be a hard sell, I suspect.

The public listing description says this:

“Marrying quintessential coastal New England living with convenient proximity to NYC, this property offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a discerning buyer.”

That certainly sounds enticing; however, the agent-to-agent note adds this detail, which strikes me as an important one:

Property is only accessible by a short, 1-2 minute boat ride.

Update: Really, though, it may just take the right buyer

home from whole foods

Well, no wonder it sold so quickly: with this kind of genius staging ...

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80 Sawmill Lane, $3.495 million, has a contract just 8 days after listing.

One more note: the current listing accurately gives the date of construction for this home as 1951, even though it was totally renovated and expanded in 2005. The listing back then claimed a construction date of 2005. That was a common practice in those days, but I, and more importantly, buyers, prefer Ellen Moger’s straightforward approach.