MANHATTAN INSTITUTE STRATEGY PREVENTS URBAN DECADENCE

MANHATTAN INSTITUTE STRATEGY PREVENTS URBAN DECADENCE

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD.  Traditional Realist

It is hard to believe once beautiful cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City have turned into hellholes. There are bums, currently called “homeless,” injecting illegal drugs in front of the public. These vagrants do not follow the acceptable protocol of public health. They urinate and defecate on the sidewalks and lie down in public places to sleep. Incredibly annoying and frightening, they no longer beg for a handout but threaten people for their money.

When the police are in the vicinity of these disgusting acts of anti-social, criminal behavior, even they turn a blind eye. Law enforcement no longer enforces the law. These out-of-control loiterers and law-breakers have somehow become a “protected class” that is being allowed to dismantle once quaint, historic cities in the United States.  All three of these cities have progressive leaders condoning the policies of lawlessness. 

The think tank, The Manhattan Initiative for Policy Research, developed a theory called “The Broken Window.” It found a connection between disorder, fear, crime and urban decay. Besides emphasizing the relationship between enforcing lesser crimes such as breaking of windows, it tends to place criminals on notice that the police will actively enforce all laws no matter how inconsequential. A major component of the Broken Window approach was to take the police out of their patrol cars and put them on the city streets to become an integral part of the community.

The officers develop relationships with the local youngsters and private citizens. They were supposed to become involved with local community leaders to develop programs to reverse the hostility directed at the community. They developed ways for neighborhood citizens to receive positive recognition for building better communities for everybody.

This partnership between law enforcement and the neighborhood was the key to significantly lowering crime rates in New York City in the 1990s during Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration. Violent crime declined by 56% as compared to only 28% in the rest of the nation. Felonies in the subways dropped 75%. This community partnership with police in the neighborhood enforcing all the laws, even the minor ones led to a healthier, safer and more orderly city.

Yet when we go online to look up the “Broken Window” phenomenon the progressives have used every angle to attribute the positive results of declining crime to anything but the Broken Window law enforcement strategy. Some of these critics have gone so far as to rename it “The Broken Window Fallacy.” The stakes in denying this strategy of combatting crime are great.

There is no way that New Yorkers and tourists did not see the positive changes in Times Square, the subway and other parts of Manhattan landmarks in the 1990s.  The local residents witnessed community stability return to their own block. All the boroughs were more peaceful places to live after the Broken Window approach was instituted.

On the other hand the effects of not enforcing basic health rules, decent behavior towards others and laws protecting the rights of others cannot be hidden. The relaxing of common decency towards tourists, allowing the homeless infestation, abusing police in once fashionable neighborhoods is startling. Tent cities that form on sidewalks and block local businesses create appalling sights and health conditions and have reintroduced diseases under control for decades are the result.

The glibbest progressive politicians cannot erase these vivid pictures of dying cities. The mayor of New York City, Bill Deblasio, seems to relish his destruction of one of the greatest cities of the world. Sadly a large block of progressive voters are willing to walk over the cesspool of druggies, petty criminals, mentally ill and homeless in the name of “tolerance.” Many others are voting with their feet by relocating to the suburbs leaving the devastation for others to experience. Until hipster urban dwellers realize that these socialist policies are eroding the pride New Yorkers have for their great city it will continue to slide into chaos.

The Broken Window enforcement makes it advantageous to do the right thing while making it painful to do the wrong one. Clear, concise messages of how to improve ones’ life are better than utopian socialist double talk. No one, especially government can improve your life. Throughout our history, discipline and the work ethic of the individual have brought minorities up the economic ladder.

The Broken Window philosophy will work today as it has in the past. It is tough love but is better than lies that degrade the dignity of people for the sake of another government handout. These “freebies” lead to dependency and loss of personal initiative and freedom.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

FREEDOM TAKES RESPONSIBLE CITIZENS TO KEEP IT

FREEDOM TAKES RESPONSIBLE CITIZENS TO KEEP IT

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Most Americans are fed up with the daily news cycle: one tragedy after another, two political parties denouncing each other, and news communicators disagreeing concerning any political issues. On top of these opposing perspectives we have different news accounts of the same incident with opposite videos showing two contrary interpretations of events.

There is even a dichotomy between the news sources. Fake news depends on which side of the political system a person leans. The conservative side favors certain traditional commentators who want to bring back moral values that made America great. The progressive side follows the elite media’s social change narrative that shows the unfair treatment of the protected classes. These are radically different approaches of how we should govern.

The news leaves most people confused and upset. Many if not most people have shut down and pulled out of the emotional hassle of trying to understand what is happening politically to our country. It becomes too stressful to confront these daily issues and certainly is not pleasant but it is our duty as citizens to figure out what direction our country should take.

Our history has not been a straight and smooth road of agreement amongst our people. The decision making process under our constitution has had raucous disagreements in many of our elections. Eventually the people’s majority voices were heard through this election process and in the next election there might be a correction in the opposite direction. These changes in the navigation of the nation are subtle, not abrupt, which could have caused a constitutional crisis.

The US is a free country because we honor our Bill of Rights. The first encourages free speech and ability to assemble freely. Slander and outright lying have always been part and parcel of our protection under our First Amendment right. Our founders had faith in the average American citizen’s ability to decipher the truth from fiction. In our early history there were pamphlets written with various versions of the truth and often distributed in the bars. There were strong debates by the patrons often under the influence of alcohol that turned into emotional and sometimes physical events.  These encounters certainly were not peaceful, rational debates although somehow participants made astute political decisions that have kept our country united and on a more or less reasonable course to make us the greatest super power in the modern era.

Progressive socialists are directly attacking the US constitutional republic. These revolutionaries are not restrained to tell the truth. They can almost taste a coup of President Trump by bureaucratic elites, the press, indoctrinated students and a flood of illegal immigrants overwhelming our ability to provide law and order. Many of these socialists are radicals who demand instant transformation of our governmental system. They are pushing the envelope for a decisive top-down government edict rather than a gradual bottom-up ground swell from the people.

The direct assault on America’s capitalism as a free market, laws and our constitutional republic is being challenged by utopian deception, power grabbing promises that will bankrupt the United States into another failed experiment in socialism. We citizens will not only decide the future of America but the world’s future order. It is easy and more satisfying to turn on Netflix, jump on social media or other means of turning to fantasy instead of doing your patriotic duty as a citizen.

Our forefathers left us with a safe option to keep a stable succession of government- the Electoral College. We do not have to rebel in the streets with bullets flying and patriots dying to keep our freedom’s peaceful succession. We have the option to move from the silent majority to an active movement to repel social justice activists who want to short circuit our constitutional protections and proclaim we are now a socialist nation.

Many citizens probably will become agitated by the inconsistent lies and inferences made about honorable people. Political battles are not pretty and are never as dramatic as actual warfare. Political inaction would rob our freedom, voice and property.

Study, listen and absorb the messages of both parties. The future of the USA is in your hands in the next official election.  Remember freedom takes responsibility to keep it. So be informed, vote and let other patriotic Americans know we stand firm against a socialist take over that would gut the US into a third world nation. Keep America the leader of the free world no matter how difficult and annoying it is to be an informed voter.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

“THE GOVERNMENT TOOK MY JOB, DAMN CAPITALISM”

“THE GOVERNMENT TOOK MY JOB, DAMN CAPITALISM”

By Domenick J. Maglio Ph.D. Traditional Realist

On a recent visit to Daytona Beach it was quite windy and I feared that my own little cabana would blow away. I decided to rent an umbrella and chairs from the local truck that rented them for $30 per day. They asked for $40 this time instead of the
$30 that had been the standard for years. The worker told me the price was mandated across the board by Volusia County government. I checked with another competitor down the beach to verify the government pricing not only of the umbrella and chairs but the fact that government would now take a percentage of the yearly profits.  The businessman would not only have to pay the county an increased percentage of profits but in addition would be mandated to pay a minimum wage of $10 per hour for each worker.

The worker said this arrangement was causing a layoff of employees to install the umbrellas and chairs in order to maintain a profit. Then he shockingly and angrily said, “The government is taking my job, damn capitalism.” This utterance was bizarre on two fronts. First this young man knew the county made the economic decision to change the business model. The local authorities confiscated the proprietor’s capitalistic rights to set up his business according to his own vision. This was ripped away by capricious government. The percentage of the income taken by the government from the business was now in the hands of government bureaucrats rather than the proprietor. Yet this naïve and simplistic young man aimed his injustice at capitalism not on the real culprit: local government confiscating private businesses. These private businesses have lost the right to do their business in a rational competitive manner as any owner deemed fit.

This episode vividly demonstrates that our young people do not understand the difference between capitalism/ free market and central government control of our economy. “Damn capitalism” in this situation should be a frightening indictment of the chilling ignorance of our free market economy by our citizens. The lack of understanding of the difference between these two systems weakens our knowledge leaving the citizens vulnerable to a socialist take over. Americans need to understand how free market wealth is accumulated and dispersed throughout the United States. Without this knowledge the public will be susceptible to charlatans selling us a bill of goods that is too good to be true. It will lay the foundation for the raping of our material wealth to leave us as a Venezuelan-like skeleton of our once great nation. It can actually happen.

The older generation has personally seen too many countries go down the socialist/communist path ending in complete and utter economic and cultural devastation. China, Cuba, Cambodia, Argentina, Yugoslavia and currently Venezuela have been examples. These leaders sold out their people’s sovereignty for personal economic advancement and glorification. Inevitably the country’s politicos had to focus on restrictions to keep the people from leaving rather than entering their decaying nations. This is a repressive failure.

Many young US voters and older ideologues (Hippies) pathetically want another opportunity to redistribute the wealth that hardworking Americans earned. They do not want the common good and freedom of the people to determine their own destiny.  The absurd promises of free everything and relief from all of one’s debts is hard for most citizens to resist. This mirage of promised lies can only be overcome by a clear knowledge of historical evidence that shows everyone loses except the politico elites.

Only by teaching factual history can these appeals be recognized as unworkable utopian notions that lead to chaos, violence and repression. We need Americans to disregard PC propaganda and openly debate to short-circuit the indoctrination process. Our older, wiser citizens have a responsibility to our nation’s youth to pass on our great, actual and not revisionist history. We should never allow our young people to believe our free market capitalism is “a privileged system,” which favors one group over another. It is an open competitive economy that encourages opportunity for anyone who can produce better and more positive results.

We should reject the falsehood that a businessman or corporation is too big to fail. This is a basic distortion of capitalism. In capitalism, “any king of the hill” loses its edge to a new and better business, invention or service and should be replaced by the new, more efficient ones. Redistributing the property of others that has been rightfully earned results in robbery and is a disincentive for industriousness. To “damn capitalism” through pure ignorance would be the greatest mistake and sin that would damn the United States to a world we do not want.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

DESTROYING A NATION TO WIN AN ELECTION IS OBVIOUSLY UN-AMERICAN

DESTROYING A NATION TO WIN AN ELECTION IS OBVIOUSLY UN-AMERICAN

By Domenick J. Maglio Ph.D. Traditional Realist

All citizens of this nation are Americans. Some have ancestors who go back to the Mayflower or before while the majority of American immigrants came from all over the world. We are a nation of different ethnic, cultural and racial people who have assimilated into a united America. “E pluribus unum.” We appreciate and love the freedom and opportunity the United States has afforded us.

Certainly in every election there is a portion of voters who are disappointed that their candidate lost. When President Obama won the election the media and half the population was elated that a progressive politician was president while the other half was in a state of shock and disappointment. Progressive commentators repeated that President Obama deserved the respect and dignity of the office. Every citizen was supposed to put aside his own political viewpoint to give President Obama an opportunity for his policies to work. They disagreed with the policies but there was not an iota of vitriol directed at President Obama. The only exception was a demonstration by by the Lyndon LaRouche Party.

Eight years later when President Trump was elected progressives experienced the same stunned reaction as the conservatives faced with the previous election. Before the night of the election the establishment and progressive democrats attempted to overthrow the results by any means. First was Jill Stein demanding a recount, and then trying to entice electoral representatives to switch votes. Under the direction of high officials of the Obama administration the establishment planted a “poison tree” trying to unravel the legitimacy of the election. The Muller investigation and progressive House of Representatives continue to this day to beat a dead horse that Trump was colluding with Russia without a scintilla of evidence for this accusation. Progressive politicians have openly attacked Trump’s character and intelligence while criticizing every decision and even called him a traitor.

Simultaneously the progressive media took every pretense to call President Trump an ignorant, lying racist and any other pejorative they could think of.  Everything President Trump has done or talked about has been reported from a viciously negative perspective. Even July 4^th, 2019, Independence Day, has been framed as President Trump attempting to be a Tin Horn dictator displaying his military might, bragging about himself. The truth is he did not speak once in his 90-minute speech about himself or his accomplishments. The progressive nominees for president kept their original narratives that he did.

The media has falsely reported as if he was the first president to use military equipment during Independence Day. Old videos show the same equipment had been employed by Eisenhower, JFK, and George H.W. Bush in order to celebrate our greatness and encourage patriotism, again no corrections to inaccurate reporting were made.

Probably the most ridiculous and destructive actions towards the United States during Trump’s presidency have been the progressive immigration charades. Although the immigration mess has existed for many previous democrat and republican administrations, the progressives have targeted the Trump administration as the sole culprit. First there was no crisis on the border and when it suited their purpose it became a humanitarian crisis. All of the progressive socialist candidates for president, bar none, have attempted to blame this crisis on Trump’s policies. Of course, according to the progressives the blame for the crisis belongs to “Trump’s racist policy of preventing the illegal invasion of our sovereign nation.”

The progressive politicians’ support and stand-down order enabled Antifa to attack people in the streets. This shutting down of any free and open debate is reminiscent of the Nazi Brown Shirts. It is ironic the progressive presidential candidates’ only defense of these violent thugs is to point to Antifa’s title as meaning “anti-fascist.” That is supposed to be substantiating evidence that they are not “an evil group.” The actions of Antifa’s attacks on innocent victims and private property need to be stopped by demanding officials do their job of preventing lawlessness and prosecute. We need to return to law and order from mob chaos to preserve our government.

On this July 4^th, 2019, Independence Day, all citizens of the United States should thank God that our founders established a stable, free and just system of government. The people vote for president every four years to keep or alter the direction of the executive branch. Our wise patriotic fathers gave us every means to determine our president and representatives. They handed us an ingenious governmental system of stability and order over time.

 Attempting to overturn a duly elected president, to destroy an opposing political party or condone the use of violence is absolutely un-American. These crimes must be punished to keep them from happening again.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.