PUT THEM IN CHARGE OF HEALTH CARE
A Bronx subway cleaner who was arrested last week while collecting his paycheck was shocked to discover he’d actually been fired years earlier, The Post has learned.
Ronald Berry, 47, claims he’s been on sick leave since 2015 for high blood pressure and asthma, and has traveled to a city Transit office on Westchester Avenue and Bruckner Boulevard every two weeks to sign in and pick up his dough without a problem.
He collected roughly $250,000 before someone at the MTA realized there was a problem and sounded the alarm. …
When a Post reporter told Berry he was dismissed way back in 2013, he countered, “So how am I still collecting checks? It’s a fault on the MTA side.”
“If I’m terminated, how am I still collecting checks?” Berry said he asked a boss after his arrest.
“That’s not my problem, that’s payroll’s problem,” the boss allegedly told him.
— New York Post, October 5, 2019
Vote Yourself an Income
There is a lot Izabela Godlewska does not like about Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party. …
But there are upsides. “They give money away left and right,” she explained. …
But analysts say the wildly popular payouts have helped the party win support beyond its base and created a sense that people’s monthly incomes are tied to the ruling party’s continuation in power. …
In a study of voting preferences ahead of the elections, [Slawomir] Sierakowski and University of Warsaw sociologist Przemyslaw Sadura found that social welfare was the main factor driving new voters to Law and Justice.
— Washington Post, October 13, 2019
Technically They Also Voted to Tax Their Neighbors
70% of our voters taxed themselves to provide [free college].
— Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin on NPR, October 29, 2019
Mob Rule?
At the end of the day, the 1% is only 1%. We are 99% and that is exactly why we will win.
—Sen. Bernie Sanders (D‑VT) on Twitter, November 8, 2019
Democracy in Action
Mr. Ruckelshaus attended Princeton University, where he was a lackluster student. To discipline his inattentive son, his father, who was chairman of the local draft board, got his son drafted.
— Washington Post, November 27, 2019
Banking on Washington
Banks are using their long-established relationships on Capitol Hill and in regulatory agencies to undermine a relative newcomer struggling to get traction in Washington: the tech industry. …
Small lenders have urged lawmakers to crack down on Facebook’s plans to offer a new digital currency that would form the basis of a global payments network that could sidestep banks, aligning themselves with liberals like House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters.
When Japanese e‑commerce company Rakuten sought approval to establish its own bank in the U.S., bank trade groups fired off a letter to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. saying Rakuten shouldn’t be eligible for deposit insurance.
— Politico, October 30, 2019
By First Taking Everybody’s Money
I’m literally trying to give everybody money.
— Andrew Yang on Twitter, November 15, 2019
Ever Since I Hung That Soviet Flag in My Mayoral Office
“The ideas that I am fighting for now didn’t come to me yesterday,” [Sen. Bernie Sanders (D‑VT)] said in response to a reporter’s question. …
“Having a long record gives people the understanding that these ideas that I am talking about — they are in my guts. They are in my heart,” he said Friday. “This is who I am as a human being, and it ain’t gonna change.”
— Washington Post, October 25, 2019