NY Gov. Hochul pleads with New Yorkers to return from Florida, admits taxes chased them off

New York Governor Kathy Hochul did her best impression of a broke ex who suddenly wants the old flame back this week, basically pleading with the wealthy “captives” she’s already scared off to please, pretty please, come home and bankroll her endless parade of socialist wish-list items.

In a fireside chat with Nick Reisman at the Politico New York Agenda summit, Hochul finally uttered the words conservatives have been screaming into the void for years: high taxes make rich people leave. It’s human nature, guys.

Shocking development, I know.

After treating the state’s high-net-worth crowd like a bottomless slot machine for far too long, the governor had her come-to-Jesus moment: “I need people who are high-net-worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state … cut me the checks, if you want to be supportive, but maybe the first step should be to go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded.”

Translation: The well has run dry, the golden geese have flown south to a place with zero state income tax and a governor who doesn’t treat them like escaped prisoners.

“Remote work changed everything,” Hochul whined, sounding exactly like a warden who just noticed the jailbreak in progress. “There were people who could only work in an office in Manhattan . . .  and they were captives to our state. They were going to stay. We saw that that’s not the case.” 

She even copped to Wall Street eyeballing Texas, not because the Lone Star governor is more charming, but “they’re going there because of the tax rate.”

Despite this rare flash of self-awareness, Hochul’s big-brain fix isn’t slashing the bloated spending or dialing back the “generous” programs that created the exodus. Nope. She’s reduced to begging “patriotic millionaires” to “cut me the checks” and floating the idea of a recruitment safari in Florida. “Maybe the first step should be to go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded,” she said, showing us again how much she knows about human nature.

Yeah, good luck selling that timeshare pitch. Why swap a beachfront cabana and year-round sunshine for a guilt-trip voicemail from Albany demanding tribute?

The governor also burned plenty of oxygen griping about the Trump administration, pinning everything from gas prices to her own flailing green-energy fantasies on the former president. She admitted her eco-mandates are “scaring the crap out of everybody” with utility bills going through the roof, yet she’s still peddling an “all-of-the-above approach” while begging for “breathing room.”

In the end, Hochul remains firmly in denial, clinging to her vision of a socialist paradise paid for by other people’s money. She’s just now discovering, way too late, what Margaret Thatcher tried to tell everyone: eventually, you run out of other people’s money.

Classic liberal arc: spend like there’s no tomorrow, chase away the payers, then act surprised when the math doesn’t math. 

Hey, Kathy, human nature is a bummer.

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Is Trump now colluding with China? Schiff seems to think so

The following is satire.

Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach -- Yujing Zhang, a 32-year-old Chinese national tried to elude security and sneak into President Trump's "Southern White House" in Florida over the weekend. She was found to have in her possession a laptop loaded with "malware" whose purpose might be to tap into the security installed at the mansion.

Or perhaps, as Adam Schiff might claim, "Zhang is working for the Chinese government hand-in-glove with Trump. We need to investigate further, but I have it on good sources that there's evidence Trump knows her and I call on a special council to probe the matter."

In any case, the federal government is opening an investigation into what they believe may be an incident of international espionage, and top Congressmen were briefed and are looking into the matter.

Here's what went down:

A woman, most likely a Chinese national, holding a Chinese passport, tried to elude the alert security personnel and sneak onto Mar-a-Lago grounds over the weekend. She was carrying a laptop police say was filled with "malware," possibly designed to tap into secure technology installed at the president's Florida home.

"[A]ccording to a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida, 32-year-old Zhang made it through checkpoints and all the way to the main reception area of the Mar-a-Lago club before she was stopped from going any further when a receptionist determined she wasn't on an approved guest list. Secret Service agents did halt her at multiple points to question her purpose for being there," CBS reports.

Trump was staying at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, playing golf and watching Fox News, but he reportedly missed out on the action, unless you believe Adam Schiff's claim.

The President left to play golf around 9:30 am and returned to the main house after 3:00 pm. The Chinese woman was caught trying to sneak into the club just after noon Florida time, but Schiff believes Trump may have slipped her a key, although there is no evidence of that claim.

Federal agents, the Miami-Herald reports, are now looking into whether Zhang, who was "previously unknown to law enforcement" might be part of a larger Chinese counter-intelligence operation designed to infiltrate the President's Florida residence, perhaps on the theory that Mar-a-Lago has less security than the President's home and office in Washington, D.C. If true, Zhang and her colleagues need to go back to spy school.

"Maybe Zhang was invited there by the president who planned to give her access to their computer system with the intention of helping the Chinese government and overthrowing himself," Schiff may have been thinking as he planned to visit the studios of the Comedy News Network.

When confronted, Zheng initially claimed to be a member of Mar-a-Lago, then told security personnel she was just there to use the pool. Finally, when pressed, she claimed to be an attendee of a United Nations-organized "friendship event" at the mansion -- a nonexistent event -- at the behest of a man named "Charles" whom she'd contacted on a Chinese texting app. When that didn't work, she insisted the only reason she was at the mansion was to use the ladies' room.

Zheng was eventually arrested and authorities discovered the aforementioned laptop, as well as four cell phones, an external hard drive, and a USB device loaded with malware of its own.

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is also looking into whether the incident involving Zheng is connected to Li “Cindy” Yang, the south Florida massage parlor owner at the center of a massive human trafficking and prostitution bust (the same bust that netted Patriots' owner Robert Kraft). Yang reportedly organized and held events for Chinese businessmen at Mar-a-Lago, according, also, to the Miami Herald, to try to get close to Trump.

Yang's efforts apparently did not bear much fruit, but attracted the attention of authorities concerned that Mar-a-Lago may not be properly outfitted to host the President.

The Secret Service say the south Florida mansion is treated like any of the President's "temporary residences," and security is handled accordingly. Not so great, but accordingly.

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