Trump Jumps Into the Race: 'I Am Officially Running for President of the United States and We're Going to Make Our Country Great Again'

Real-estate mogul and television personality Donald Trump announced his 2016 presidential campaign Tuesday morning.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again!" Trump said.

The Republican businessman made the announcement at the namesake Trump Tower in New York City.

In his wide-ranging and, lasting about 45 minutes, lengthy speech, Trump railed against President Barack Obama and the potential Pacific trade deal — the Trans-Pacific Partnership — while repeatedly touting his own negotiating skills.

"Our country is in serious trouble," he said. "We don't have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don't have them. When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let's say, China in a trade deal? I beat China all the time. All the time."

Via: Business Insider

Continue Reading....

[SPECIAL REPORT] A Bicycle, an Infection, and a Lie

“Land of Song!” said the warrior bard,
“Tho’ all the world betrays thee,
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee!”
— “The Minstrel Boy” by Thomas Moore

The last two weeks have seen a surprising sequence of events surrounding the Iran nuclear weapons talks. It all started on the night of Friday, May 29 when John Kerry arrived in Geneva for an all-day talk scheduled for the following day, Saturday, May 30. The talks did not go well. A senior administration official described them as “intense,” which is diplomatic-speak for “nasty.” There had been plans to continue the next day, but the Iranians mysteriously hightailed it out of Dodge City that night.

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. As he had a free morning on Sunday, Kerry decided to go biking in the French Alps. He’s an experienced cyclist and had brought his bicycle along. And so he set off, riding his orange trail bike, which matched the orange of his helmet. His cycling suit was an elegant black, except for some white markings and a blue band around the bottom of the shorts he wore over his tights. And his bright yellow arm-warmers provided just the right pop of color.

Alas, man proposes and God disposes. Shortly after he set out, we’re told that he hit a curb and fell off his bicycle, breaking his right femur. How that happened isn’t clear. The press wasn’t notified of the accident for some 90 minutes. Local officials said that he was “traveling at a slow speed, on flat ground.” There is a 40 second video where you can see your Secretary of State maneuver his bike, weaving through the other cyclists who were riding with him. They look like bodyguards, and for some reason they keep getting in his way. Riding with guys like this, no wonder he took a fall. You can see it here, but it doesn’t actually show Kerry hit the curb and fall.

Did Kerry’s elegant outfit get mussed up? We’ll never know. For the camera cuts away and we’re taken on what seems to be a ride backwards in time to where Kerry has not yet gotten on to his bicycle. The scene is surreal. There are lots of cars and security personnel aimlessly milling about and then, on the left side of the frame, Kerry can be seen walking out from behind some tall bushes, holding what might be a white folder in his left hand and his cell phone to his ear with his right. He turns and stares directly into the camera, in case we’ve not noticed him. We are perhaps meant to understand that our Secretary of State is not just a pretty face and a fashion plate. He is always working hard on our behalf. Right up until the moment he gets onto his bicycle he will be attending to his duties.

Kerry is flown back to Geneva where he spends the night in a hospital. On the following day, June 1, he is flown to Boston and taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where he apparently undergoes a four-hour surgery under a regional anesthetic. By Tuesday, his doctor says that he’s been fixed. He can walk and is starting physio.

The world breathes a collective sigh of relief, because now the nuke talks can go on. Kerry will continue to hold our side. Only no one hears from him for 10 days. “Ten days later, why no pictures of John Kerry?” asks the Washington Examiner.

Via: American Spectator

Continue Reading.....

5 Things You May Not Know About Donald Trump

Donald Trump has become one of the most well-known Americans through his business dealings, television shows including "The Apprentice," and frequent appearances in the media, and he plans to announce on Tuesday if he will seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

But there are still a number of things about "The Donald" that are not widely known. Here are five of them:

1. Trump's grandparents anglicized their name from Drumpf. His grandfather Friedrich and grandmother Elisabeth were born in Germany and emigrated to the United States. Their son Fred Trump married Donald Trump's mother Mary Ann MacLeod, who was born in Scotland and met Donald Trump's father during a vacation trip to New York.

2. While Donald Trump did inherit wealth from his father, he is personally responsible for accumulating the great bulk of his fortune. Trump's father built affordable rental housing, mostly in Brooklyn and Queens in New York City. He had a net wealth estimated at between $250 million and $400 million at the time of his death, but his four surviving children were heirs.

By 2011, Donald Trump's business dealings had boosted his fortune to $2.4 billion, according to Forbes. One estimate now places his worth at $4.1 billion, although another maintains that it is as high as $7 billion.

Latest News Update

Get Newsmax TV At Home »

3. Trump's parents sent him to a military school, New York Military Academy, when he was 13 years old. While there he played varsity football, varsity soccer, and was captain of his varsity baseball team.

4. Trump's oldest sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, served as a federal appeals court judge. She was nominated for the post by President Bill Clinton in 1999 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate. Prior to that, she had a seat on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Special: New Probiotic Fat Burner Takes GNC by Storm

5. Trump prefers cherry-vanilla ice cream. He also loves hamburgers and meat loaf, he once told Us Weekly, but he doesn't drink coffee, tea, or alcohol, and eats only the toppings on pizza, discarding the dough. And he eats lunch at his desk.

Via: Newsmax

Continue Reading....

Fact Check Whacks Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton’s claim that Hillary did economic diplomacy because there was no Commerce Secretary

“She [Hillary Clinton] believed that part of the job as secretary of state was to advance America’s economic interests around the world. And, for much of the time she was secretary, for a number of complex reasons, we didn’t have [a] commerce secretary. And now we have got Penny Pritzker. And she’s very vigorous and very good, I think. But we didn’t have one. And so, if she hadn’t been doing this economic diplomacy work, nobody would have been doing it.”

— Former President Bill Clinton, interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union,” June 14, 2015

Former president Clinton, in rebutting accusations that Hillary Clinton helped donors to the Clinton Foundation while serving as secretary of state, made an interesting point on one of the Sunday politics shows — that she had to engage in “economic diplomacy” because “much of time she was secretary,” there was no Commerce Secretary.

This made little sense to us, and it’s certainly easy to check. Was there such a gap in Commerce leadership that it was left to Clinton to conduct the administration’s economic diplomacy?

The Facts

The Commerce Department is sometimes described as the broom closet of the federal bureaucracy, in that it contains a number of unrelated agencies, such as the Census Bureau, the National Weather Service, the Patent and Trademark office, the Economic Development Administration, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and so forth. The notion that the commerce secretary was some sort of globe-trotting promoter of American industry only began to take hold in Clinton’s administration, when Ron Brown became commerce secretary.

The Commerce Secretary, in the department’s mission statement, “serves as the voice of U.S. business within the President’s Cabinet.” Commerce Department Order 1-1 says “the historic mission of the Department is ‘to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce’ of the United States.”

Via: Washington Post

Continue Reading.....

How South Carolina’s Congressmen Voted On “Obamatrade”

The U.S. House of Representatives cast a pair of critical votes on Friday related to president Barack Obama‘s crony capitalist trade push (a.k.a. “Obamatrade“).

The result?  A mixed bag … leaving the future of this massive deal (which would impact up to forty percent of the world’s economy) up in the air.

The first vote was on a so-called “trade adjustment assistance” (TAA) provision favored by Democrats as part of the Pacific Rim pact.  This measure – which says all you need to know about the secretive deal – would have created a costly new government program aimed at helping American workers who lost their jobs as a result of Obamatrade’s passage.

That provision failed by a 302-126 margin.

Five of South Carolina’s seven congressmen – Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney, Tom Rice and Mark Sanford – voted against this provision.  Only two of them – Jim Clyburn (the lone Democrat in the delegation) and Joe Wilson – voted for it.

The next vote addressed whether to give Obama’s administration so-called “trade promotion authority” (TPA, or “fast track” negotiating authority) to conduct the trade deal.  This provision would let Obama continue drafting the agreement in secret – forbidding Congress from debating it, amending it or even overseeing it once it had been approved.

That measure passed by a narrow 219-211 margin.

Unfortunately, only three South Carolina congressmen – Clyburn, Duncan and Mulvaney – voted against this provision.

The rest of the delegation – including so-called “conservatives” Trey Gowdy and Mark Sanford – voted for it.  Their votes were critical, too.  Had all of the Palmetto State’s so-called “conservative” delegation opposed this provision, then the chamber would have deadlocked.

Via: Fit News

Continue Reading....

King v. Burwell in Perspective: Only 1 Out of 5 Whose Insurance Costs Grew Because of Obamacare Got Subsidies

The Supreme Court will soon hand down its decision in King v. Burwell. That case asks the Court to decide if the statutory text of the Affordable Care Act authorizes the Treasury to pay subsidies to individuals who purchased coverage through Healthcare.gov—the federally operated health insurance exchange for states that did not establish their own exchanges.

Yet behind the legal dispute over who is eligible to receive subsidies lurks the larger policy issue of the subsidies’ function. While their stated purpose was to help more low-income individuals purchase health insurance, the subsidies also served to mask the significant health insurance premium increases that would inevitably result from the law’s new insurance benefit requirements and regulations.

For instance, if a 45-year-old received $540 annually in subsidies, he may not realize that the premium for the lowest-cost health insurance plan in his area actually had increased by $600 a year thanks to Obamacare regulations—because the government was paying most of that additional cost.

That imposition of costly new requirements on health insurance coverage was one of Obamacare’s fundamental errors. Good health care policy, by contrast, would have started by focusing on finding ways to make coverage less costly rather than just having the government pick up some or all of the extra cost.

Via: The Daily Signal

Continue Reading....

Congress Wants Answers After NOAA Official Creates New, Higher Paying Job For Himself

Earlier this month, it came to light that a top official at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration created a new contract position with the same responsibilities as his previous position, took that new job and got a $43,200 raise in the process.

Now, the Senate wants answers.

Senator John Thune, chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, sent a letter to NOAA Administrator Kathryn D. Sullivan demanding to know how something like this could happen.

“The fact that senior agency officials approved this unseemly arrangement, which clearly warranted closer scrutiny, appears to be indicative of a potential agency-wide problem,” Thune wrote. “In order to maintain the integrity of the agency, NOAA’s officials must avoid conflicts of interest and adhere to and enforce federal hiring and contracting rules.”

According to a report released by the Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General, P. Donald Jiron, the deputy chief financial officer for the National Weather Service, an agency within NOAA, helped to write the job description and set the salary for his own post-retirement consulting job, and then returned to the office the day after retiring to perform the exact same job.

On top of that, Jiron demanded a $50,000 housing allowance even though he wasn’t eligible for the housing benefit. The housing allowance was meant for senior government officials on temporary assignments at NOAA headquarters, not for outside contractors.

The OIG report found that Jiron’s consulting gig was in violation of federal acquisition regulations and Jiron may have violated federal criminal law, though prosecutors declined to pursue charges.

The inspector general also said Jiron pressured and bribed other NWS officials to hire his daughter as a contractor.

“We conclude that senior official’s actions in attempting to influence the NWS staff were improper, and some of those actions may have implicated 18 U.S.C. § 201, the criminal statute prohibiting bribery of public officials,” the report said.

Among other things, Thune asked NOAA to provide data about contractors pay compared to federal employees with similar job responsibilities, the most common jobs filled by contractors in the agency and details about the process involved in drafting a job description.

The agency has until June 26 to provide the information.

Via: The Daily Caller

Continue Reading....

[VIDEO] Here We Go: 'End of Discussion' Invades...MSNBC

MSNBC's Morning Joe welcomed Mary Katharine and me on-set today for a lengthy conversation about our new book, End of Discussion. Given our -- shall we say -- less than glowing assessment of the network in the book, we weren't quite sure how we'd be received. Judge for yourself, but we thought the panel agreed with our central thesis and were quite welcoming and gracious:


Scarborough was clearly on board, and Willie Geist thoroughly endorsed our premise as it pertains to the prevailing winds in academia. Mika, unsurprisingly, was the most skeptical segment participant, challenging us on whether the Right contributes to America's toxic Outrage Industry culture, as well. As we noted, it was a fair question, and one we anticipated. She seemed fairly satisfied with our answer. I'll leave you with another programming note: MKH and I will be guest-hosting the nationally-syndicated Hugh Hewitt radio show this evening from 6-9 pm ET. We hope you'll tune in! 

Via: Townhall

Continue Reading....

Dolezal Sued Black College for Anti-White Discrimination

JUNE 15--The NAACP official who today resigned in the face of evidence that she masqueraded as black once sued Howard University for denying her teaching posts and a scholarship because she was a white woman, The Smoking Gun has learned.

Rachel Dolezal, 37, who headed the NAACP’s Spokane, Washington chapter, sued Howard for discrimination in 2002, the year she graduated from the historically black college with a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Dolezal, then known as Rachel Moore, named the university and Professor Alfred Smith as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C.’s Superior Court. During the pendency of the civil case, Smith was chairman of Howard’s Department of Art.

According to a Court of Appeals opinion, Dolezal's lawsuit “claimed discrimination based on race, pregnancy, family responsibilities and gender.” She alleged that Smith and other school officials improperly blocked her appointment to a teaching assistant post, rejected her application for a post-graduate instructorship, and denied her scholarship aid while she was a student.

The court opinion also noted that Dolezal claimed that the university’s decision to remove some of her artworks from a February 2001 student exhibition was“motivated by a discriminatory purpose to favor African-American students over”her.

As detailed in the court opinion, Dolezal’s lawsuit contended that Howard was “permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult.”

Judge Zoe Bush dismissed Dolezal’s complaint in February 2004, 18 months after the lawsuit was filed and Dolezal was deposed on several occasions. Bush found no evidence that Dolezal was discriminated on the basis of race or other factors. The D.C. Court of Appeals subsequently affirmed Bush’s decision.

Via: The Smoking Gun

Continue Reading....

Taxpayers Billed $128,781 for Michelle Obama to See Cultural Sites in Venice

First lady traveling to London, Italy to cook with children, see Prince Harry

Hotel costs for First Lady Michelle Obama to see cultural sites in Venice during the last leg of her trip overseas is costing taxpayers $128,781.

The First Lady left for London and Italy on Monday for her “Let Girls Learn” initiative and anti-obesity campaign Let’s Move. During the trip she will cook with children, visit U.S. service members stationed in Italy, and visit Prince Harry.

“From London, the First Lady will travel to Milan,” according to the White House press office. “As part of her Let’s Move! initiative, the First Lady will lead a Presidential Delegation to the Milan Expo 2015, representing our steadfast commitment to a healthier nation.”

The delegation is entitled “American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet.”

“Mrs. Obama and the Delegation will also participate in a cooking activity with children,” the press office said. “In addition to visiting the U.S. Pavilion, the First Lady will meet with Prime Minister Renzi, and tour the Italian Pavilion with Ms. Landini, the Prime Minister’s wife.”

“From there, the First Lady will travel to Vicenza, Italy,” they said. “As part of the Joining Forces initiative, Mrs. Obama will visit members of the military and their families stationed at U.S. Army Garrison Vicenza.”

“The First Lady looks forward to personally thanking the service members and their families and reminding them that their sacrifices have not gone unnoticed by the American people,” the press office said.

“The First Lady will also visit cultural sites in Venice before returning to Washington, D.C.,” the statement concluded.

Via: WFB

Continue Reading....

Days After Relaunch, Hillary Campaign’s Press Relations Already Hits New Low

Just two days into Hillary Clinton‘s re-relaunched presidential run, the campaign has already dealt a self-inflicted wound to its precarious relationship with the press.

Rather than send fifty reporters from fifty news outlets to a given event, press organizations typically set up “pools” of reporters who take turns attending events and filing pool reports of what happened. But on Monday, the designated print pool reporter, The Daily Mail’s David Martosko, was denied access to all pooled campaign events.

The campaign’s denial comes after weeks of negative, tabloidish coverage from the conservative UK-based outlet. Most recently, Martosko critiqued many of his fellow reporters’ coverage of Saturday’s re-re-relaunch, tweeting, “It’s truly astonishing how many journalists at the @Hillaryclinton speech today reported exactly, and only, what the campaign wanted them to.”

The Daily Mail is a conservative-leaning tabloid. Everyone knows that. Everyone in the press pool knows that, especially the reporters Martosko not-so-subtly swiped on Saturday. If Martosko had filed an overtly biased, false, or substandard pool report, he would faced the ire of the dozen or so other political reporters who strongly rely on his reporting.

But instead, the Clinton campaign made Martosko the victim. They screwed over not just the conservative journalist, but a dozen other reporters as well. A campaign plagued by allegations that it is inaccessible to press fed into that narrative by overtly denying access to a reporter that other print outlets were more than happy to send as their representative. And as Politico’s Dylan Byers points out, the denial of access comes one day after the pool “threw a fit” when Clinton staffers kept them away from a conversation Hillary had with everyday Iowans.

Clinton ought to have taken a note from President Barack Obama‘s “War on Fox” back in 2009. Traditional and liberal news outlets were more than happy to keep mum as Obama and his staff openly questioned the legitimacy of Fox News and issued a general no-interview policy. But when the administration tried to exclude their reporters from pool events, the other networks defended Fox News and told the administration they had gone too far.

It’s basically a given that the Clinton campaign will receive negative coverage from conservative-leaning outlets. On the other side of the aisle, Republican politicians have long understood that they’ll never get a fair shake from many/most national outlets. But only Hillary and her thin-skinned staffers treat such negative coverage as utterly unacceptable and worthy of retaliation.

By and large, national outlets are more than happy to ignore when conservative outlets are snubbed or the victims of unfair retaliation (just ask the Washington Free Beacon). But Hillary inconvenienced “respectable” outlets– the very same outlets her re-re-re-relaunch hoped to sway– earning negative coverage from the like of liberal outlets like The Guardian. And if 2008 proved anything, it’s that those are precisely the outlets that make or break Democratic campaigns.

Via: Mediaite

Continue Reading....

121 CRIMINAL IMMIGRANTS FACING DEPORTATION CHARGED WITH MURDER IN U.S. FOLLOWING RELEASE FROM CUSTODY

More than 120 convicted criminals who were supposed to be deported from the U.S. after they were released from custody between 2010-2014 face murder charges, new Immigration and Customs Enforcement data show.

“Between FY 2010 and FY 2014, there were 121 unique criminal aliens who had an active case at the time of release and were subsequently charged with homicide-related offenses. Of these 121 individuals who were bonded out, 33 were released on a bond set by [The Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review] and 24 were released pursuant to the Supreme Court decision in Zadvydas v. Davis,” ICE revealed in a newly released letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

According to Grassley and National Interest Subcommittee Chairman 

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

80%

, the news is “disturbing.”

In a letter dated Friday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Grassley and Sessions point out that the murders are the shocking tip of the iceberg.

“This disturbing fact follows ICE’s admission that, of the 36,007 criminal aliens it released from ICE custody in FY 2013, 1,000 have been re-convicted of additional crimes in the short time since their release,” Grassley and Sessions wrote.

“I am writing to ask whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the State Department, and the Justice Department are fully leveraging existing tools and resources to prevent these dangerous outcomes,” they add.

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading.....

New Obamacare survey shows users love it, but can they keep it?

As the U.S. Supreme Court deliberates on a case that may very well undermine a central plank of Obamacare, the vast majority of people who have gained health coverage under the controversial program are happy with it, a new survey finds.

A total of 86 percent of people who are newly insured through private Obamacare health plans or Medicaid are very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their coverage, according to the Commonwealth Fund report. (Tweet this)

That report, issued last week, also reveals that almost 7 out of every 10 adults who are newly insured through either Obamacare private plans or Medicaid have actually used it to get health care.

And more than 60 percent of those said they would have been unable to get or pay for that treatment without that new coverage, according to the survey.

They really, really like it

"The Affordable Care Act's coverage expansions have been in place for nearly 18 months, and indications are that the newly insured are pleased with their coverage and are using it to get needed health care," said Dr. David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund.

Yet the findings come as many of the newly insured are at risk of losing their health plans because of a pending Supreme Court case that could lead to federal financial aid for Obamacare insurance premiums being barred in 34 states.

Via: CNBC

Continue Reading.....

Media bias or media stupidity?

In recent years a lot of attention has been placed on media bias. Those on the right of the political spectrum are always pointing out the left wing bias of the mainstream media such as the New York Times, CNN and no one’s favourite, MSNBC.

Those on the left deny such bias because they are incapable of seeing it. To them, left wing views are not biased but merely the truth. Divergent views are wrong and those who accuse the media of a progressive bias are morons who simply do not understand what the truth is.

If last week is any indication, there is a more serious problem with the media than just the run-of-the-mill bias; it is the absolute stupidity of some of those who appear on major networks.

Diane Rehm

NPR’s Diane Rehm was interviewing Sen. Bernie Sanders who is seeking the Democrat nomination for president. Rehm didn’t ask but stated as a fact that Sanders, who is Jewish, is both a citizen of the United States and Israel.

Sanders responded he is not an Israeli citizen and has never lived in that country although he has visited there. According to Rehm, she has a “list” that clearly shows Sanders as well as other Jews are citizens of Israel.

The “list” Rehm spoke of was provided by an anti-Semitic group. It is nothing more than a Jew-hating conspiracy that every Jewish person is automatically a citizen of Israel and therefore should not hold elective office, especially the presidency, because they have divided loyalties.

Via: Canada Free Press

Continue Reading....

NY prison break fiasco may take down Governor Cuomo

NY prison break fiasco may take down Governor Cuomo

Thomas Lifson

Law enforcement is starting to get egg on its face in upstate New York, and the long knives are being unsheathed. The scion of one of the Democratic Party's second-tier (just below the Kennedys and Clintons) dynasties has a bulls-eye on his back.

For nine days, the nation has focused on the hunt for the two scary murderers who escaped the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. Front and center has been New York governor Andrew Cuomo, lauding the forces mobilized to recapture them, and confidently predicting their apprehension. Yet the escapees remain at large, though the terrified local community has decided to reopen local schools, albeit with an "enhanced law enforcement presence."

If Richard Matt and David Sweat avoid capture, it is Cuomo who will bear the political consequences, and he is starting to admit that they may have made a clean getaway.

"The truth is that is the nature of the business," Cuomo said. "You follow up every tip, you follow up every lead. You are as conscientious as you can be on every lead because you never know which one is going to be the one."

"We don't know if they're still in the area or if they are in Mexico by now, right? Enough time has transpired," he said. "But we're following up every lead the best we can."

Those long knives have a big target. Frederick Dicker, the very plugged in New York State politics correspondent of the New York Post, reports:

The massive manhunt for two escaped murderers from the Dannemora prison has been hampered by State Police secrecy, inter-agency rivalries, and the disrupting involvement of Gov. Cuomo on the first day of the breakout, law-enforcement sources have told The Post.

Cuomo's surprise arrival at a still-unfolding escape scene a week ago Saturday generated considerable national publicity for the governor, but distracted investigators at a time when the full facts of the escape were not yet known, the sources said.

"Cuomo actually disrupted the early search efforts when he arrived at the 'command center' on Saturday and refused to enter the room until everyone was removed except state employees,'' said a longtime law-enforcement figure who has regular contact with many involved in the search effort.

"Cuomo's aides came in and threw out the US marshal, the sheriff [David Favro, like Cuomo a Democrat] and others who were there to help coordinate the search effort.

"And they did it without even saying 'Thanks for your help,' or such, just, 'Get out so his highness can enter.'

"The State Police are trying to make sure that they're the ones to catch these guys, that they get all the credit, and as a result, they're not making full use of the assets that are available to them,'' the source continued.

I strongly suspect that Cuomo saw the prison break as an opportunity to distract from the political corruption investigationthat threatens his future:

Paralysis and "paranoia'' brought on by US Attorney Preet Bharara's ongoing corruption probe have come to define Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration with just seven days to go in the legislative session, a worried Cuomo ally and others have told The Post.

"Something is wrong. The place is paralyzed and the governor is not right. He seems frantic at times. He's not acting the way he normally did,'' said the ally, a prominent Cuomo political backer and longtime associate who has contact with the governor's administration on a near-daily basis.

"Cuomo is paranoid, his staff is paranoid and nobody can make a decision on key issues, like the [about-to-expire housing construction subsidy] 421-a program and other big outstanding issues.

"Hardly anything is getting done, Cuomo has gone into seclusion, you can't get to him, you don't know what he's thinking,'' the ally, who described himself as a "friend'' and "admirer'' of Cuomo, continued.

He probably figured that, like most prison escapees, Matt and Sweat would be recaptured quickly, and he could bask in the glow as a tough law-and-order governor, a take-charge guy who got results. Except he didn't.

When you step on other people on the way up, you don't have a lot friends on the way down. The drama of Andrew Cuomo's trajectory could get quite interesting.