Government-Run Grocery Stores Won’t Lower Prices

  Issues & Insights  

 . . ."This proposal exposes his ignorance of the city’s grocery industry and a naive belief that command-and-control solutions can solve complex market problems." . . .

Image generated by AI

"Last month, state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary election for New York City mayor. Endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani proposed several government-run policies aimed at increasing affordability for working-class New Yorkers. For example, to combat the problem of rising food costs, Mamdani plans to open five city-owned and managed grocery stores, one in each of the five New York boroughs.  

"Mamdani’s scheme is a concoction of misunderstood economic premises and reckless policy prescriptions. It is an enduring fact of history that state-owned businesses rarely perform as well as politicians promise. And although the insurgent Democratic nominee has identified an obvious problem facing the city, he doesn’t understand its true causes.  

"An April 2025 study from the New York State Comptroller states that in 2022–2023, food costs were on average the fourth largest source of household spending, reporting that the cost of food at home in the New York City Metropolitan Area increased by 27.5% between fiscal year 2019 and FY 2023. Mamdani blames profiteering and market failure for the rising food costs and therefore seeks to solve the problem through government entry into the market. According to Mamdani, the mission of these city-run grocery stores would be “lower[ing] prices, not price gouging.”  

"Contrary to Mamdani’s accusations of corporate greed, data show that private grocery stores’ margins are already very slim, averaging 1% to 2%. New York’s grocery business has been, historically, a competitive market because chain and local grocery stores must compete with bodegas, delis, and dollar stores. 

"Since the grocery business is operating within such slim profit margins, Mamdani’s plan to reduce the profit motive is not likely to decrease food prices among non-city-run establishments. An article in City Journal points out that socialized grocery stores simply overlook the real factors affecting New Yorkers’ food supply:

“ 'Opening municipal groceries would not address the underlying forces driving grocery store closures in parts of the city — namely, crime and poverty.”

How do Democrats solve a problem like Jasmine Crockett?

  Patricia McCarthy - American Thinker  

Jasmine Crockett is nothing more than a symptom of what ails the Democrat party. Like AOC, an economic illiterate, she is a phony and a fraud; she’s playing a part. 

"Aesop wrote that “the smaller the mind, the greater the conceit.”  

"For Republicans, Jasmine Crockett embodies that and is an eternal source of hilarity.  

"She thinks she can be all things to all people.   

"Her accent changes depending upon to whom she is speaking.  

"Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris tried the same thing and were also justifiably mocked for it.   

"Crockett allegedly has a fine education, expensive private schools, college and law school.  This is not evident in her public appearances. She has stated that the people who voted for and support Trump “lack education” while it is she who seems blinkered by all things relevant to the American people.  

"She obviously spends a great deal of time, money and effort on her appearance.  

"When interviewed for the recent Atlantic article, her nails were painted with the letters that spell “resist.”  Her hair is styled in a different (and very expensive) way each day.  Her false eyelashes would uncomfortably weigh down the eyelids of most women.  

"Crockett is all about presenting herself as some sort of celebrity, a woman of star power.  She should have gone into acting, not politics.  Her carefully calculated array of costumes and personalities would make any actress proud.  But like most actresses, she as phony as a three-dollar bill. 

"Crockett sat for an interview with  Elaine Godfrey at the Atlantic, a generally left-wing publication.   

"Because she believes herself to be a star to all who those who set their eyes upon her, she assumed the article would sing her praises, glorify her as she glorifies herself so regularly.  

"She actually thought she should become the minority leader on the House Oversight committee because she “has the most followers on social media.”  

"This is a person with the wisdom of a gnat, and arrogance is the opposite of wisdom. " . . .  

Crockett is entertaining.  She is attractive in a show business way and so garners attention.  It is the wrong kind of attention for a serious member of Congress.  Do the Democrats even see her as problem?  Some most assuredly do but remain silent; dissent is not allowed within the party but:  What begins in arrogance often ends in shame.  --Walter Russell Mead

Gotta Love When Left Eats Left: Check How Jasmine Crockett Skewered AOC and Bernie – RedState

"While I think what Crockett said is true, it's also humorous coming from her since she seems to do what she can to get her face in front of the media. It's funny that she threw AOC and Bernie under the bus to try to help her chances of getting a position, if this is true. This probably also wouldn't make the leftist base happy with Crockett."

Tsunami Waves Hit US Shores After Massive Earthquake in Russia

 Townhall

"Tsunami waves have reached Hawaii and California after a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the far east region of Russia. 

"The earthquake is among the top 10 strongest earthquakes detected worldwide, as Townhall covered. Hawaii was immediately placed on watch, as its alarm system was triggered and all airlines were diverted. Evacuation efforts began instantly. " . . .

. . ."Overnight, a tsunami wave of 3.6 feet was recorded in Crescent City, California. Arena Cove saw 3-foot waves, according to NBC News.

"In Hawaii, residents were told to evacuate. Oprah Winfrey's private road on the island was opened as people tried to move to higher ground. 

"According to the New York Post, the highest wave was just under 6 feet larger than the average sea level. " . . .

Oprah Winfrey hits back at claims she 'refused' to open her private road in Hawaii for people to escape following tsunami warnings | Daily Mail Online

. . . "But some islanders claimed that billionaire talk show host Oprah 'refused' to open her private road, which would helped to ease congestion for those trying to escape.

"The 71-year-old has a sprawling ranch on the island and the property features a private road that connects the Wailea coastal area to the Kula uplands - an area many frightened islanders were trying to reach.

"Videos posted by people at the scene show gridlocked traffic jams while others claimed there were 'thousands' trying to leave low-lying areas.

"One person on X wrote: 'Oprah won't open her private road from Wailea to Kula, Hawaii, which would make it much easier for locals to get to higher ground." . . .

. . ."Beaches along the Southern California coast were closed as a safety precaution, with LAPD helicopters blaring warning sirens and ordering those on boats and at the shore to get to higher ground. 

"But a tsunami threat soon covered Japan, where workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant were forced to evacuate.

"More than 1.9 million people in the country were under evacuation orders late Tuesday night, after the Nemuro Hanasaki port reported a one-foot wave.

"Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said so far no injuries or damages have been reported.

"Officials in Guam also urged residents to get off the beaches and harbors, while officials in Ecuador issued its own evacuation orders.

"Even tsunami waves that seem relatively small, like those that are just six inches in height, can be destructive.

"Officials say it only takes six inches of the fast-moving water to knock over an adult, and two feet to carry away most vehicle. 

" 'Strong currents can injure and drown people in or near the water and damage and destroy boats and infrastructure in harbors,' the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program warns." 

. . . Much more here...

San Diego cops see a curiously crime-free summer since the ICE raids began -report

 Monica Showalter;  American Thinker  "Open-borders leftists are constantly claiming illegal immigrants commit disproportionately less crime than their numbers would indicate. 

|But an anonymous source inside the San Diego Police Department tells Amy Reichert that he's seeing something different:

A source inside SDPD says crime is unusually low this summer thanks to @EROSanDiego arresting career criminals who thought California’s sanctuary laws would protect them. Now ICE is tracking them down even though @GavinNewsom and Mayor @ToddGloria still shield them. https://t.co/gP88FShvqh

— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) July 28, 2025

"EROSan Diego is ICE, and a glimpse at the ICEBlock app, over the past week on my cell phone suggested a lot of sweeping out of foreign riffraff around town. Some days, there have been eight or nine reports of ICE activity just in my immediate vicinity.

"As a result, the cops have fewer calls, less overtime and and islands of calm where there once was criminality and disorder -- organized thieves, rapists, burglars and cartel criminals fighting one another the likes of which this border city has never seen before. 

"Not too long ago, I was hearing about cartel gun battles and assassination hits deep within the city of San Diego. This, as leftists insisted crime was down and illegals who have already broken into the country unlawfully wouldn't dream of commiting crime, citing meaningless statistics, given that crime is no longer enforced.

"And it makes sense. Millions of dollars for alien smuggling is on the line, so the cartels have been importing their wars north to stake out turf and eliminate rivals. But since ICE raids began in San Diego -- I have not read of any lately.

"ICE San Diego notes that it has picked up people like these:" . . .

Democrat Senator Alex Padilla accidentally reveals that Los Angeles is full of illegals

Because of ICE raids, the streets and businesses are EMPTY.
If you’re too afraid to leave your house because of ICE, you may want to self-deport! pic.twitter.com/9jmusiKOXg

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 28, 2025

Here's What Was Found Inside Those FBI Burn Bags. Yes, It's About the Russian Collusion Hoax

Townhall

"So, who’s going to jail? Who’s being questioned? FBI Director Kash Patel revealed today that mountains of Russian collusion documents were found in burn bags. Thousands of documents were discovered, including the annex to the Durham report, which was an investigation initiated by former Attorney General William Barr regarding the origins of the Russian collusion hoax."... 

Sources exclusively briefed Fox News Digital on some of the contents of the classified annex — including that the U.S. intelligence community had credible foreign sources indicating that the FBI would play a role in spreading the alleged Trump–Russia collusion narrative — before the bureau ever launched its controversial Crossfire Hurricane probe. 

A source familiar with the contents of the classified annex told Fox News Digital that while it may not have been exactly clear in the moment what the intelligence collection meant, with the benefit of hindsight, it predicted the FBI’s next move "with alarming specificity." 

"Ultimately, the release of the classified annex will lend more credibility to the assertion that there was a coordinated plan inside the U.S. government to help the Clinton campaign stir up controversy connecting Trump to Russia," the source, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters that have not yet been made public, told Fox News Digital. 

. . . "And now, we learn the Russian collusion conspirators at the FBI tried to destroy the evidence.  

"Keep digging. "   More on Burn Bags.

Exploring the Linguistic Roots of the Southern Drawl

 Word Smarts

"While many countries have geographical differences in accents (for example, a posh London accent versus the rough-and-tumble Cockney accent), America’s various accents are particularly pronounced. A person from Boston speaks differently than a person from New York City, despite their relative geographic closeness, to say nothing of the difference between Midwestern and Southern accents. While all of these are American, the roots of the Southern drawl have a unique colonial history. Let’s examine what makes this distinctive accent so quintessentially American. 

Where the Southern Drawl Came From "Call it a drawl or a twang, but one of the primary hallmarks of Southern American English (SAE) is a melodic, relaxing quality. A marketing firm conducted a survey of global English accents, and the Southern accent was voted the most pleasant. (New York and Boston accents were voted the least pleasant — sorry, New Englanders.) 

"Some may attribute this laid-back melody to the slower, more relaxed pace of life the South is supposed to have compared to northern regions, but there’s more at play. The specific qualities of the Southern accent (and all accents) developed through the intersection of cultural exchange, geography, and evolving linguistics.

"Importantly, there is more than one type of accent within SAE — Texans sound different than Virginians, who sound different than Louisianans. But they all share an origin story in the mingling of British colonists and enslaved Africans. 

"The final “r” sound in words such as “four” and “here” is very important to linguists. If speakers drop the final “r,” that’s called “non-rhotic” as opposed to “rhotic,” wherein the “r” is pronounced. In the mid-1700s in the plantation system, using non-rhotic speech to match upper-class British accents was considered “prestigious” speech (“prestigious” being a way linguists classify certain accents as culturally preferred over others). " . . .

" . . .We reckon that’ll do it for now." 

Jennifer A. Freeman is the Senior Editor of Word Smarts and Word Daily. When she's not searching for a perfect synonym or reaching "Genius" level on Spelling Bee, she's playing with her Welsh Terrier in Greenville, SC.

The oldest baseball you have ever seen -

SBNation.com   

 "No other sport traverses American History like baseball and here is a perfect example of that - a baseball that was found in 1862 from the battlefield of Shiloh.

"The finder of this baseball was an African-American and orderly for the Union Army by the name of G.F. Hellum, who would go on to fight with the 69th Colored Infantry.

"The baseball like this one is referred to today as a "Lemon Peeler" and was softer than today's baseballs and more loosely made and not stitched in a universal pattern. It wouldn't be until later in the century with baseball becoming more competitive and organized did a consistent design known as the figure eight stitching took hold, the very same design still used today.

"The Battle of Shiloh was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, over 10,000 soldiers were killed for the Confederacy and 13,000 for the Union, so as you can imagine the game of baseball must have been a form of comfort for these soldiers during a time of great "bloodshed.

-Ron A. Bolton

Sources - Stephanie Grimes, KVL

Vintage Base Ball on the Battlefield: A Unique Sporting Event at Shiloh - National Park Magazine

Civil War Era: Did a Shiloh Battlefield Baseball Come From Nashville? Thought to be left by soldiers on the battlefield.

Bill Maher FINALLY EXPOSES Whoopi Goldberg & The Hosts From The View On Live TV

Agenda Insight

"Sunny has a really bad habit of talking over other people, but will not allow anyone to talk over her."

Forget the Autopen. The Question Is Forgery.

  The American Spectator  "Did persons in the White House use the autopen to forge President Biden’s signature?"

TeePublic

"Much ink has been spilled on the topic of whether use of the autopen to sign President Joe Biden’s name to pardons, executive orders, legislation, and other documents invalidates the actions. But these analyses overly complicate and miss the key point: Was the document a forgery?

"Many presidential acts, such as approving legislation, require a signed document to be effective. In 2005, the United States Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel opined: “The President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law. Rather, the President may sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 [of the Constitution] by directing a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen.”

"Signing a piece of paper is not exercise of the power granted to the president; the signature is merely the manifestation and evidence that the president has exercised his power to take an action. No one would claim a president who broke his hand had to abdicate the presidency because he no longer could himself physically sign documents. The question, therefore, is not how the signature ended up on the page, but whether the president himself took the action evidenced by the signature and directed that the document be signed.

"The Constitution grants certain powers, including the pardon power, exclusively to the president. All would agree that if a White House staffer typed up a “pardon” without the president’s knowledge — or with the knowledge of a president who lacked the mental capacity to understand the nature and import of such a document — and then forged the president’s signature thereto, the pardon unquestionably would be invalid. Use of the autopen is simply the mechanism by which the document was signed. The question remains whether the president was aware of its use and had the mental capacity to agree to the challenged act. So, the simpler way to frame the issue is: “Was this a forgery?” . . . More...

John B. Daukas served as principal deputy and acting U.S. assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, 2020-21, and as Chief Counsel for Civil Issues on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2023.

The Clinton Legacy

 The Long Shadow of Hillary Clinton   

"If one wanted to trace a useful starting point for the destruction of Russian and Ukrainian armies, I would suggest the day after the 2016 election."

 

 

"While one cannot blame all of the world’s problems on the former first lady and senator, much of the trouble in Ukraine is related to her actions.

"Volodymyr Zelensky was once a comedian. One of the hallmarks of great comedians is their ability to read the room. When my high school had a very ugly and contentious merger with its sister school (New Trier East and West), a traveling group from Second City came to perform. One of the comedians was asked about the merger, which had made its way into the local papers. He whipped out his Kipling and, without losing a beat, stated, “East is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet!” He was met with wild applause by the crowd.

"The president of Ukraine did not know how to read the Oval Office on Friday. Zelensky supposedly was coached by Obama retreads Susan Rice, Victoria Nuland, Tony Blinken and others. If the story is true and they told Ukraine’s president to be tough with Trump, he got some bad advice. One of the strangest features of American governance is the potential for whiplash changes in policy. In dictatorships or even European-style coalition rule, things either remain unchanged or change at a glacial pace. The winner of Germany’s recent elections promised to deal with the problems of large-scale immigration. Once he saw that he could form a coalition without AfD, he said the status quo wasn’t so bad. But not in America. When you change parties, policies can spin around 180 degrees in a second. Somehow, the Obama brain trust tried to convince Zelensky that it was just like the days of Biden, though it was not.

If one wanted to trace a useful starting point for the destruction of Russian and Ukrainian armies, I would suggest the day after the 2016 election. Without evidence, Hilary Clinton and John Podesta claimed that Donald Trump was a Putin stooge and that through Russian interference in the US election, he was elected president. If you could get the ex-secretary of state away from her glass of Chardonnay for a few minutes, she would no doubt repeat the same: the election was stolen from her, and Vladimir Putin was the culprit. These claims had profoundly negative repercussions in the world. The first was the “Russian Collusion” investigation that wasted two and a half years of the Trump administration." . . .  March 10, 2025

The Obama Legacy

 

AfterMath - Home

Skeleton Crawls From Obama’s Closet, Ruins What’s Left Of Barack’s Reputation (2019) "The American media has a disgraceful reputation, well-earned throughout our history. Randolph Hearst and his yellow journalism lied us into one war and a hundred years later the New York Times helped Bush lie us into a war.

"Michael Avenatti made 254 cable appearances last year, including 147 on MSNBC and CNN - think about that - and was literally a front-runner for the highest office in the land - because the media chose him without doing any due diligence.

"Truth is the media is both easy to manipulate and is way too manipulative so it is normal for presidents to fight them.

"Trump does it with words, Obama, a new report shows, took a much more dangerous approach, though the media will never report it." . . .

We’re Living Barack Obama’s Racial Legacy In Real Time . . . "And that’s where we are today. Obama had the opportunity to go down in history as one of America’s greatest presidents. He not only didn’t take it, but he made it worse.

For longer than I can remember, we’ve been told that America needs to have a Conversation about Race™. We did, for generations, but it was always about whites abusing or keeping blacks down. That is, or at least is now, the wrong conversation. The conversation America needs to have today is pretty much the opposite. Far too many blacks see the system, the police, whites, and society at large as racist, with the corollary that they see themselves as victims...but victims with a pass from law enforcement. (And no, there’s no way to square that pass with “systemic racism.”) Therefore, they feel like they can do anything without consequences. That’s a recipe for disaster, both for blacks and for America. And that’s Barack Obama’s legacy.

There may be a tiny sliver of hope, however. There are a growing number of black personalities and potential leaders who are pushing back on that victimization narrative. Guys like Jason Whitlock, Byron Donalds, Charles Payne, Jason Riley and others are regularly telling their millions of followers how to succeed in life sans the victimization narrative, sort of a wider version of what Chris Rock did with his spectacular video How not to get your ass kicked by the police!

With Donald Trump at the helm, Barack Obama’s legacy has the potential to be reversed as more Americans of all hues decide that the ‘everything is racist’ shibboleth and, more broadly, the cancer of DEI get the derision they so badly deserve." . . .

Cancel the 2028 L.A. Summer Olympics; an anti Trump California opinion

 San Francisco Comical    "Hosting an Olympic Games requires working with a lawless U.S. regime — and its rights-violating security apparatus — as they openly wage war against California."  Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom: a plague on both your houses!

"Sports officials worldwide would be furious. But if we drop the Games, we might refocus on our city. Longtime Los Angeles city government official Rick Cole asked: “If we can’t pave our streets, repair our sidewalks, trim our trees, house our homeless, light our bridges and fix our fire trucks, how can we host an Olympics in just three years?' ”

OC Register

"This show must not go on.

"It’s time, right now, for greater Los Angeles to halt all preparations to host the 2028 Summer Olympics. Let’s turn over these Games to a world city better positioned to host them.

"Not because Angelenos don’t love the Olympics. We are a proud Olympic city, shaped by the 1932 and 1984 Games. In normal times, the city’s incomparable international connections, entertainment assets and sports facilities would make us the perfect host for what LA 28 chair Casey Wasserman calls “the largest peacetime gathering in the history of the world.”

"But it’s no longer peacetime in Los Angeles.

"This event is now too dangerous for California. Hosting an Olympic Games requires us to work together with a lawless U.S. regime — and its rights-violating security apparatus — as it openly wages war against our city and state.

"National Special Security Events, like the Olympics, require host cities to let federal agencies take the lead during the Games.  For the 2028 Olympics, an agreement, which took effect last year, puts the U.S. Secret Service in charge of security, with support from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

"All those agencies work for President Donald Trump, who has launched a war against California that includes deploying troops and secret federal police in our neighborhoods. California leaders have righteously demanded that immigration raids end and the troops leave. But those demands are incompatible with the Olympics agreement, which gives these agencies the power to surge security personnel into Los Angeles.

"Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explicitly linked the current federal occupation of Los Angeles with the 2028 Olympics. He recently declared that Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom, by defending protesters instead of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, forced the feds to take over the city — and suggested they would do so again.

"“If this was a preview of their leadership ahead of next year’s World Cup games and the L.A. 2028 Olympics, we have bigger problems,” Duffy said." . . . More here