Rita's Spur to Action

A city of empty stores looks isolated.

Our New York City is filled with empty storefronts.

Part of the problem is that unless they are specialty stores, they are not particularly viable in this day and age of online shopping.

The other problem is the structure of commercial real estate laws and regulations. We need to change property valuation methods so that landlords cannot inflate their estimated rent, enabling them to receive larger loans from the banks.

This is why you see so many landlords willing to let spaces sit vacant for years rather than lowering rents — it protects their ability to borrow and keeps the property’s book value high.

The fact of the matter is that stores, per se, will never truly come back.

It is up to us, all of us, to rethink the usage of store space.

Can it be related to the affordability of living in the city? On one end of the spectrum, you have all these spaces empty and on the other, the cost of living in the city has made it unaffordable for young people and most working people.

Maybe stores can be turned into affordable living spaces? Or creative spaces for artists?

Let us use our imagination to reincarnate these store spaces and thus to help revive our city.

Source: https://medium.com/@olliecross/why-nyc-storefronts-sit-empty-for-decades-and-its-more-than-a-greedy-landlords-d25749d36eeb

Recently, Trump reported that “ending”wrapping” the war was all in his mind. Well, he better start wrapping. His war has cost Americans billions – add it to the cost of groceries. American children will soon go hungry because of Trump’s failure to end his own pointless war. 

Isn’t there some way a president can be controlled by the Congress and the Senate?

The Supreme Court has exonerated the President from any responsibility for what he does while in office. The people of America have elected a “do-nothing” Congress and Senate. The American public does not recognize that they are paying the salary of the members of the Congress and Senate while they serve in office and for the rest of their lives, as well. Now, rather than being beholden to the American Public who elected them, they are, instead, serving this President who has no regard for the people he is elected to serve. America is destroying itself by creating its own dictatorship, under which we the people have to live.

Notes:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/31/trump-words-iran-war-churchill

“Judge Richard Leon wrote that Trump can’t build the [White House] ballroom without authorization from Congress.” Trump should be forced to use his own funds that he and his family have made while in office to rebuild the portion of the White House that was destroyed by him. If the ballroom needed rebuilding or wasn’t an adequate size, he still should have gone through the Congress and Senate, received authorization and a stipulated sum of money to be spent on the project.

He must, immediately, be ordered to rebuild the White House using his own funds to do so – since he used public funds to demolish it.

Notes:

https://abcnews.com/Politics/federal-judge-orders-halt-white-house-ballroom-construction/story?id=131587116

Trump has alienated America’s friends and supporters, destroyed our relationship with NATO and the rest of the world.

If Trump was not such a psychopath we would not be involved in a Middle Eastern War for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Obama made a perfectly acceptable deal with the Government of Iran with the Ayatollah and it was beneficial to Iran to accept and uphold that agreement.

It was only for his own ego that Trump had to destroy Iran in order to create a war to make himself look like a hero.

The man has the ego of a mountain and the brains of a sewer rat.

Trump should be impeached. He should be declared unfit to serve as President of the United States before he destroys the country completely.

How do we do that? How do we do that?

We the people can do it.

We the people can elect a congress and a senate who will serve the people of America and refuse to kiss Trump’s ring.

For God’s sake, let’s do it.

Why should we worry about people with insider information profiting in the stock market, futures markets, or even crypto-powered predictions markets?

For one thing, it’s unfair. It hurts average investors while increasing the wealth of certain people who know, for example, what Trump is about to do (including Trump and members of his family).

We should all be concerned that the top enforcement officer at the SEC abruptly resigned last week because the SEC’s chairman and other Republican appointees wouldn’t allow her to be more aggressive in pursuing charges of fraud and other misconduct against Trump’s inner circle.

Friends, there’s a word for this. It’s called corruption.

Source: https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/trading-on-trump?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

There’s something wrong with America today that has enabled us to elect someone who committed treason against the United States. Does it not seem strange to Americans that, despite charges against him, Trump has nonetheless been elected President of the United States of America?

Now, is it also not strange that a man who has made billions and billions of dollars while in office; who has destroyed the White House; and, so far, has not used his own money to rebuild it. Who has taken America into a war in the Middle East with no reason, no plan, and no allies. If Trump is not stopped, America will be destroyed by him.

He is Putin’s “thing,” and together, their desire is to destroy the United States of America. And they are succeeding.

Does the president of the United States of America have the right to declare war or to start wars against any country which he decides is an enemy of America? Does the congress of the United States have something to say about whether the country goes to war or not? Should we not, as a nation, have some control over whether or not war should be declared? 

In the case of Iran, it may be a good thing that Trump has eliminated the Ayatollah (the scourge of the Middle East for 45 years). But there is a good probability, his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, now his successor–a man of no experience, background, and, probably, no plan for the future of Iran–will be even more dangerous. There needs to be a plan for what is to be done with him. But, instead, Donald Trump created a vacuum now filled by Khamenei, and, as is typical of Trump, he has no plan for the future. Now, we are all left with bated breath, waiting to see what happens. He has left us hanging and wondering, “are we on the brink of another full on global war?”

“We are in a moment of crisis.

I fear for this body, I fear for this institution, I fear for our Constitution, but I still have faith in the people.

We can stop this erosion of our constitutional norms, we can stop this democratic backsliding, we can protect our rights and our values, but more people need to speak up, and it is a shame upon this body that those who have power and position now do nothing.”

– Cory Booker, US Senator for NJ

In 1933 Hitler came to power in Germany.

He destroyed the country; murdered 6 million jews plus God knows how many other people.

Led Germany and the world into World War II. 

Today, we have Donald J. Trump, Hitler here in our own country.

He has destroyed tactical relationships that have kept the world out of war for 60 years. 

His attack on Iran, whether good or bad, may lead us into World War III. 

Trump is an egotistical destroyer, always looking for the most violent way to solve problems.

He is denigrating America.

He wants a dumbed down, unhealthy, poor American public whom he can whiplash and move into any direction of his choice. 

He has alienated every Country in the world and destroyed every international relationship that America has had and is now leading us into World War III. 

This time we will fight alone. We will have no allies. And we will be fighting a war that we cannot win. 

Go to the polls and vote. Vote against Trump. 

Fight. Fight to save our nation, our country, our America. 

Fight even to save our inalienable right to vote. 

If you were doing the right thing, why would you wear a mask to hide your identity?

ICE was created in 2002 in response to the attacks in New York on 9/11. 

It has since become an independent organization serving at the personal whim of an egotistical, demented president. 

ICE was not created to simply pick people up off the street – women, children, families – nor to kill them.

The cost is very high and very dangerous to the survival of our democracy. 

You are not allowed, as President, to deny Americans of their legal rights under the law. 

Even the President of the United States must be subject to the law of the land. 

The legal rights of the people must be observed.