Monday, November 10, 2025

Ronald Reagan said, "If fascism ever comes to America, it will come in the name of liberalism."

 Ronald Reagan: 'If Fascism Ever Comes to America, It Will Come in the Name of Liberalism'


The Economics of Zohran Mamdani’s New York: A Radical Turn in America’s Urban Policy     Price freezes will result in shortages; a rule in economics.

"Bufano says the biggest concern she hears from small business owners is about the proposed $30-per-hour minimum wage by 2030, something she says could cause a real headache for some. Bufano points out that pay structures inside most small businesses are tiered, with more experienced workers receiving higher wages.

“ 'If wages jump to $30 per hour for entry-level workers, small businesses will have to raise pay across the board to keep the tiered structure in place. And that will add up fast for small businesses,” Bufano said, with many small businesses running on thin margins unable to absorb the cost.

"This proposal could create new pressures for small business owners already navigating high overhead and post-pandemic recovery.

“I work directly with small businesses and entrepreneurs across the NYC metro area and nationally, and as a small business owner myself, I see every day how even small policy shifts can have big ripple effects,” Bufano said. “This is especially true for small businesses operating on tighter margins, with limited budgets, and lacking the financial cushion or capital reserves that larger companies can rely on.” . . .More...

The Economics Behind Zohran Mamdani’s Biggest Plans  "Zohran Mamdani's ambitious plans as New York City's mayor aim to reshape the economic landscape by prioritizing social equity through policies like $30 minimum wage, rent freezes, and increased taxes on the wealthy."

. . . "His plans include:
  • Phased $30 Minimum WageMamdani aims to raise the minimum wage to $30 by 2030, which he argues is necessary to keep pace with the cost of living in New York City.
  • Rent FreezeHe proposes freezing rents for one million rent-stabilized apartments, which is intended to provide immediate relief to tenants facing rising housing costs.
  • Universal ChildcareExpanding access to affordable childcare is key component of his ageand, aimed at supporting working families and promoting economic participation.
  • Free Public TransportationMaking city buses free is another initiative designed to ease the financial burden on residents and encourage public transit use. . . . 
Much more here in this article

When Should You Use ‘Lay’ vs. ‘Lie’?

Word Smarts

"One of the trickiest (and most easily forgotten) lessons seems to be the difference between “lay” and “lie” and when it’s appropriate to use one over the other."


"When you’re feeling tired, sometimes you just need to lay down. Or wait — is it lie down? Grammar can be confusing, but don’t fret: You’re not the only person who is fuzzy on the details of grade-school English class. One of the trickiest (and most easily forgotten) lessons seems to be the difference between “lay” and “lie” and when it’s appropriate to use one over the other. To clarify, in this context, “lie” doesn’t mean “to fib” — we’re talking exclusively about the placement meaning of the verb.

"“Lay” and “lie” are mixed up more frequently than identical twins, as both words refer to people or objects positioned horizontally on a surface. But it’s actually quite easy to tell the two words apart — at least in the present tense. The past tense, however, is where things get tricky. Here are a few easy tips to help you differentiate between the two words.

“Lay” is a transitive verb, and “transitive” refers to objects that are being acted upon. So, if you’re in the act of putting down a book before going to sleep, you’d say, “I lay the book on the nightstand,” because you’re performing an action on the book. In the past tense, you would say, “I laid the book on the nightstand.” 

"Intransitive verbs such as “lie” refer to things acting of their own volition — such as humans. (Here’s a quick memory tip: Only a person can lie on a bed and tell a lie.) An appropriate use here would be, “I lie on the grass in my yard.” But this is where things get even more confusing — the past tense of “lie” is “lay.” So, if you were sitting in the grass hours ago, you’d say, “I lay in my yard.”

"As for that nap conundrum? It’s “I’m going to lie down,” but “I lay down for a nap earlier.”

Lining Up For Gas In California

From the state that gives us Eric Swalwell, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Ted Lieu, Adam Schiff,  performance artist  Alex Padilla, and ad nauseum, et in. TD

Issues & Insights

"So the pain will be doubled – time burned “a mouldering” in lines waiting to pay the Golden State premium just to get to work, the store and home again."


"California has the trendiest, and most foolish, energy policies in the U.S. The result is a return to the early ’70s, when drivers lined up around the block, hoping and praying the gasoline wouldn’t run out before they got to the pumps.
"“California’s oil industry now sits at the precipice of complete collapse,” says Edward Ring, director of water and energy policy at the California Policy Center, “and if that happens, more imports will not prevent lines at the pumps.”
"How could California, which has the sixth most proved crude reserves in the country, be looking over the edge of a gasoline crisis?
"California is hurtling toward the gas panic of ’25 because it has been at war with fossil fuel for decades. In the case of motor fuel, “the state legislature has disincentivized the production, distribution, and refining of oil in California,” says Ring, while “cities and counties have followed suit.”
"Two refineries are closing their facilities, the companies that own them having determined that it’s become too difficult to do business in California, which is hostile to energy companies that aren’t sucking up taxpayer-provided dollars to build politically preferred solar and wind projects.
"“By this time next year,” says the Pacific Research Institute, “there might not be even a dozen refineries left in the state to produce the 38 million gallons of California’s boutique blend that’s consumed every day.” 
"A quarter of a century ago, there were 23 refineries in California, 40 in 1983. The remaining sites are the only ones in the country that make California’s special formulation – which adds 10 to 15 cents to the cost of a gallon of gasoline – so importing fuel from other states is not a readily available option." . . .More

Lines for Gas Coming to California — Californians for Energy and Water Abundance

Mayor-elect Mamdani reeks of Lenin — but NYC’s wise safeguard against Marxism stands in his way

 Charles Gasparino

"No matter how many freebees Mamdani doles out, how many grocery stores or rent-free apartments he creates, bondholders get first dibs on city tax revenues because Carey & Co. knew that we need them to keep buying debt or the place shuts down."


"Zohran Mamdani’s victory-lap speech Tuesday night reeked of Vladimir Lenin after Russia’s 1917 communist revolution.

"But instead of commanding a Red Army, the mayor-elect should be aware he will be facing lots of red ink. 

"That’s on top of some very strict and sensible financial rules put in place some 50 years ago — just in case a deranged Marxist ended up running New York City. 

"Yes, socialism can sound rousing when it’s pitched by a skilled orator.

"Mamdani spoke of soaking the rich — failing to mention, of course, that they’re already paying some of the highest taxes in the country.

"He ranted how the poor will finally have their day — in a city that already doles out everything from free health care to subsidized housing. 

"He also dared President Trump, who was in DC undoubtedly watching this spectacle, to “turn up the volume” as he doubled down on his vision: free buses, government groceries, more welfare and free trans medical treatment — even for children. 

"But NYC — with plenty of welfare statism already on the books — will never go full-on Soviet ­Union.

"That’s because laws must be followed — even by a 34-year old backbench, lefty assemblyman with a degree in “Africana Studies” who visions himself as the second coming of Fidel. 

"Those laws include something called “The Financial Emergency Act” of 1975.

"It was the brainchild of former Gov. Hugh Carey and his outside adviser, the great philanthropist and investment banker Felix Rohatyn.

"It was designed to prevent another politician-made catastrophe like the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, when the Big Apple nearly went bankrupt and began to implode, fiscally and socially. 

"Cops were laid off and garbage piled up because we had no money and no one would lend to us — the budget was such a mess, no one knew if they would get paid back.

"The mayor at the time was Abraham Beame but years of bad government, perverse spending and spotty accounting contributed to the mess. " . . .More

Sunday, November 9, 2025

How Nancy Pelosi Betrayed the People She Pretended to Protect

 The American Spectator  

"Pelosi leaves behind a party addicted to performance and a nation more cynical than ever."


"Nancy Pelosi’s farewell was less a retirement than an encore — one final pirouette in the long, exhausting pageant of American power. For nearly forty years, she ruled Washington like a monarch in pearls and Prada. A mistress of manipulation whose smile stretched wider than the chasm between her sermons and her sins. When Barack Obama gushed that she was “one of the best speakers the House has ever had,” he wasn’t lying. Pelosi could speak. She could sermonize, sanctify, and spin with unmatched flair. What she never managed was to see beyond herself.
"Her gift was never governance; it was performance in its purest form. Pelosi turned morality into marketing, and the House into her own Broadway stage. The taxpayer was merely her patron. When she wasn’t preaching unity, she was kneeling in a Kente cloth beside Chuck Schumer, a tableau so contrived it made Hollywood blush. The moment was hailed as courage by the credulous and as comedy by everyone else. Yet it defined her perfectly: the politics of pose over purpose, where conviction is cosmetic and every crisis demands a wardrobe change.
"Behind the podium, she preached compassion; behind closed doors, she perfected profit. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, traded stocks with timing so immaculate it bordered on clairvoyance. From Tesla to tech IPOs, the Pelosi portfolio outperformed the market like divine revelation. Any other citizen might have faced indictment; Pelosi faced applause. “We’re a free-market economy,” she quipped once, flashing that lacquered smile. Indeed — and few have freeloaded on freedom with such finesse.
"In Washington, she ruled not by charm but by fear, flattery, and an inexhaustible supply of donor cash. Committee seats became favors; loyalty, currency. To her admirers, she was Saint Nancy, defender of democracy. To her detractors, Machiavelli in Manolo heels. Both descriptions fit. She was relentless, calculating, and convinced that virtue, like diamonds, mattered only when it caught the light.
. . . "Pelosi learned early that outrage paid better than compromise. Every cultural wound became a weapon — every tragedy, a means to tighten her grip. When George Floyd’s death convulsed the nation, she moved quickly, not toward compassion but control. She spoke of justice while supporting policies that gutted police forces and left the poorest neighborhoods to fend for themselves. Businesses burned, families fled, and those meant to be helped were hurt most. Yet the fury persisted, because it served its purpose. Pelosi understood what few dared admit: outrage could be organized, monetized, and endlessly recycled. The country didn’t need healing — not when division had become the Democrats’ most dependable currency." . . . More...

Trivializing Religion Left Us Unprepared for Political Islam

 The American Spectator 

 "Explicitly religious conversations have driven freedom before. They are uniquely capable of doing that today."

. . . "and having forgotten religious discourse we were handicapped in understanding religions well enough to make necessary critical distinctions. Thus, very quickly, when the intolerant apologists for 9/11 reacted to the least critical comment on the beliefs of the attackers by calling it “Islamophobia,” far too few of our cultural leaders knew how to respond with critical truth. As intolerant religionists through the ages have loved to do, even the most worthy of criticism was powerfully repressed in the very nations that al-Qaida and their likes wish to destroy.

"We have learned that lesson less than perfectly. A major party and its president mocked and trivialized American religionists — “bitter clingers” to their guns and Bibles. And now that party, as indicated by recent polls, is liking guns and their application to our politics, excusing or even advocating for violence to change the politics of the country to the way they prefer. And they embrace with almost no criticism whatsoever advocates of religious violence and coercion, those who call for the imposition of religious law with no deference necessary to other religions or the robust and deeply religiously meaningful idea of religious freedom which is our American heritage and the Western heritage.

"New York has elected a mayor who in the heat of his campaign told us that the real take-home image we should have of 9/11 was not the death of 3,000 citizens in New York at the hand of utterly intolerant religionists willing to establish their empire by whatever force necessary. No, no! We should rather make our stand, moved to tears by his painful simulation of genuine emotion, with an alleged relative of his who, in his telling, was fearful to ride the subway because she wore a hijab. Following the rules of the intolerance of the movements the mayor-elect fails to condemn, she had an expectation of some kind of angry reaction to her because of the slaughter executed by co-religionists." . . .More...

The Exodus of Black Men From The Democrat Party

Marcus Watkins AFNN

"It doesn’t matter if they bring in your “BIG GUN” Barack Obama to come out, chastise, and lecture us like political children to get us to behave like sheep and do what “Masta” says. We’re not falling for it. Times are changing."


"There has been a lot of talk about Black men this election cycle. Black men are still the Democratic party’s second most loyal voting bloc, but the left’s hostility toward masculinity and embrace of the matriarchy is causing a lot of Black men to reconsider whom they are voting for. The primary vocation of Black men is “voter,” not father, husband, coach, or mentor for the left. Black men are noticing and are no longer putting up with the disrespect.

"Black people, particularly Black men, are more vocal than ever about their criticism of the Democrat Party and their support for Trump. If you haven’t heard it in person, all it takes is just a quick scroll on X (formerly Twitter), and you are likely to find more people than ever voicing their disgust with the current Democrat party and/or their support for former President Trump. The most interesting thing is, that these are everyday “Black people,” not your well-known Black conservative influencers with thousands of followers that we are used to seeing.

"I believe we are seeing a major political shift happening in real time. I’ve been saying for quite some time now (at least 5 or 6 years) that Black men’s vote (as a voting block) is up for grabs. It’s good that Republicans are finally starting to see. But the Democrats are too. The gender gap issue is real. If we had taken Black men as a voting block seriously, I doubt that this election would look as close as it does. Hence, this is why you see the Democrat party making these recent awkward pitches toward men to try and get their votes in the final weeks leading to the election. Here’s the thing, for the people that we see who are speaking out in opposition against the Democrat Party, there are probably four to five more people on the fence who are silent but feel somewhat the same way.

"I want to make something very clear. These Black men aren’t walking away from the Democrat Party because they’re in their feelings. They’re not walking away from the Democrat Party because they’re somehow misinformed and they’re being fooled. The “everyday” Black man has been invisible to the Democrat Party for quite some time now. So what is happening is that Black working-class men simply are realizing that the politics of the so-called political left in the United States does not serve them and by extension does not serve their Black family or our Black communities." . . .More  

Marcus Watkins is a God first conservative, grassroots GOP political activist and proud family man. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism from Columbia College Chicago. Marcus is National Director for the Michigan Republican Assembly, an advisor to and member of BLEXIT Michigan (Former Assistant State Director), a member of the Wayne County Republican Party, Citizens of Free Speech and Michigan Leadership Group.

Newly found video shows moments US troops saved thousands of Jews from Nazi train

When Western students using Greta Thunberg chant "Death to Israel!", they need to know this is what they are talking about. Is there no limit to those who want to kill the Jewish people? TD

The Times of Israel   Researcher finds archived video of liberation of Bergen-Belsen camp prisoners near Farsleben in 1945; survivors identify themselves in clip. 

"As Allied armies advanced against Germany in the closing stages of the war the Nazis tried to hide the atrocities they had committed in concentration camps.


"Rare footage of the moment when US soldiers liberated thousands of Jews from a Nazi death train has been uncovered by a researcher, with some of those who were on board since spotting themselves or family members in the silent, black-and-white clip.

Though many photographs exist of the so-called Farsleben Train, liberated on April 13, 1945, it is the first time that moving images of the dazed, relieved prisoners greeting their GI rescuers have emerged.

The film was recently found in the US National Archives by author Matthew Rozell, a Holocaust researcher who in 2016 published a book about the train liberation titled “A Train Near Magdeburg.”

"Rozell published the clip to his YouTube channel on July 29 along with the archive remarks.

“Summary: Numerous scenes, freed Jewish prisoners in groups along railroad tracks,” the comments read. “Their expressions furnish a clue to the suffering they endured. Individual shots: men, women and children, some of them in various stages of emaciation. Flashes of US soldiers distributing food. The group surrounding the soldiers push forward to receive meager bits of food. LS, village being shelled by German artillery from across the Elbe River.”...

Screen capture from video of Jacob Barzilai, his mother and sister, group right, as
 they were liberated from a Nazi death train near Farsleben, Germany  April 1945.
 (YouTube. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

"On April 7, 1945, 2,500 Jewish prisoners from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were put on the train and were set to be transported to Theresienstadt. However, on April 13, the train was forced to stop near the town of Farsleben due to bombings by Allied forces advancing in the area. Some of those on board escaped the train and met up with soldiers from the 30th Division of the US Army who then returned to liberate those still trapped in the carriages.

"When the handful of Nazi soldiers guarding the train saw an American tank and jeep coming over the hill, they fled. US soldiers then flung open the doors to the carriages and the occupants poured out." . . .  More..

The Nazis tried to hide all they did; Hamas showed off the fact that they did it all with glee. 

Saturday, November 8, 2025

'I Lived Behind the Iron Curtain:' Man Who Fled Communism Warns New Yorkers About What's Coming

Townhall   

 Ayn Rand: "There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide." 


MUST WATCH: Man who lived under communism has WARNING for New Yorkers about to elect Mamdani. "I lived behind the Iron Curtain. To want socialism is one of the dumbest things anyone can say." 🚨 pic.twitter.com/aYALWAibyT 

"The Left loves to tell us we have to listen to people's "lived experiences" to understand and respect them. That's all well and good, but they also want to make those "lived experiences" the basis for laws and often stripping people of their rights (including the right to free speech).

"But when those "lived experiences" don't support the Left's narrative, they ignore them. Like this man, who grew up behind the Iron Curtain.

"As we have repeatedly shown, socialism always fails. Venezuela has a 70 percent poverty rate today, despite being one of the world's wealthiest nations just a few decades ago. People who lived under, and fled, socialism know what it's like. It's oppressive, totalitarian, and rife with poverty and violence.

"The Left will argue that "real socialism hasn't been tried," but it has. "Real socialism" always follows the same pattern of corruption, violence, and economic collapse." . . .

Rep. Carter Unveils “MAMDANI Act” to Withhold Federal Funds from New York City

  Englebrook Independent News

"While it lacks broad bipartisan support at this time, its symbolic import is already being felt in media and political circles."

Broc Smith


"In an unprecedented move, Buddy Carter (R–Ga.) introduced legislation on Thursday targeting federal funding for New York City in response to the recent mayoral victory of Zohran Mamdani. The bill, officially titled the Moving American Money Distant from Anti-National Interests Actzmore...
"According to a two-page draft of the legislation obtained by reporters, the measure stipulates that “notwithstanding any other provision of law, during any period in which Zohran Mamdani is Mayor of New York, New York, any unobligated Federal funds available for the city are hereby rescinded and no Federal funds may be obligated or expended for any purpose to New York, New York.” . . .More

. . . "We will also have numerous examples from Mamdani's New York to point to in the not-so-distant future. Increased crime, empty "government-run" grocery stores, shuttered bodegas, a mass exodus of New York's finest and the average Joe, and the collapse of a great city are all in our future. We must tie that all to Mamdani and the Democratic Party as they head into the midterms. If they want socialism, we must make them own it, including its failures."



"Other demands include:

Divesting city pensions from Israeli bonds and securities. 

Banning Israeli products from the city-run grocery stores Mamdani wants to open.

Investigating real estate agents “hosting illegal sales of stolen lands in the West Bank.”

Stripping tax-exempt nonprofit status from entities that raise funds for the Israel Defense Forces

End the NYPD’s training with Israeli Occupation Forces.

Arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and active IDF soldiers for “war crimes” if they enter the Big Apple.

Dismantle an NYC-Israel Economic Council formed by outgoing Mayor Adams.  

“Well at least the DSA mask is off,” said state Assemblyman Kalman Yeger, a conservative Brooklyn Democrat and Orthodox Jew. “This was never about affordability, free buses or anything else. This was always about Jew hatred.

The White House East Wing Renovations: Exorcizing the Daemons of Modernism

 The American Spectator   

"There is something genuinely daemonic about, to take one prominent example, the brutalist monstrosity that is the Barack Obama Presidential Center…"


. . . Once again am I reminded of the Mitchell & Webb “Are We the Baddies?” sketch, in which two beleaguered Nazi soldiers ponder whether they might in fact be the villains of the ongoing conflict. “Have you noticed that our caps actually have little pictures of skulls on them? … Their [the Allies] symbols are all quite nice! Stars, stripes, lions, sickles… You gotta say, it’s better than a skull. I mean, I really can’t think of anything worse, as a symbol, than a skull!” One can imagine a modernist or post-modernist architect contemplating why it is that their traditionalist counterparts have the Classical orders, or Gothic rib vaults, or the sustainable, natural, recyclable building materials of vernacular architectural styles, while they have hideous failures and blunders like the Obamalisk, the Buffalo City Court Building, Boston City Hall, Pruitt-Igoe, and Grenfell Tower, among so many others.
"That modernist architects never actually experience this moment of self-awareness would indicate that modernism, like other symptoms of leftism generally, may indeed be a biological phenomenon, the result of a smaller-than-normal or underdeveloped amygdala, and the attendant inability to experience a healthy disgust response. How else can we explain the decision on the part of the Obama Foundation, in conjunction with its hired architectural firm, to commission the Obamalisk on purpose? This is not a science fiction film, or a J.G. Ballard novel, but here we are, in real life, with the skyline of a great American city defaced by yet another brutalist monstrosity when we all know better by now, or should.
"Hence, my lack of concern over the renovation of the East Wing of the White House, and the drummed-up controversy it has engendered in the “popular” press. James C. McCrery II, the architect in charge of the upgrades, has a fine track record of designing traditionalist buildings that can be constructed on time, on budget, and to the satisfaction of his patrons. McRery has, during his career, done something vanishingly few fashionably modernist architects have ever accomplished in their lives, namely to design buildings of genuine aesthetic appeal, which people might actually want to look at or be in. These include the Renaissance Revival Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, Tennessee, tastefully clad in Indiana limestone and Roman-style bricks sourced from Ohio; the Renaissance-inspired St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church in Aiken, South Carolina, which won a John Russell Pope Award for its marvelous design (the pediment mosaic is a particular inspired touch); and the Gothic monastery currently being erected for the Carmelites of Wyoming near Meeteetse, with its limestone facades, delicate tracery, and soaring spires made possible (and affordable) by the use of innovative CNC fabrication on the part of the monks themselves." . . .More...

Almost half of Israelis won’t go to New York City with Mamdani as mayor

The Jewish Voice   

It can - and is going to - happen here: Turkey Issues Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu and Senior Israeli Officials


"New polling suggests the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor will cause nearly half of Israelis to avoid New York City.
"In a nationwide survey conducted Nov. 6, 46% of respondents said they would avoid visiting New York in light of the mayoral election results; 34% said they would travel as usual, and 20% were undecided. The poll sampled 501 adults and carries a ±4.4% margin of error.
"Asked about Mamdani himself, 83% of Israelis surveyed said they view him as antisemitic, while 8% disagreed and 9% were unsure. New York—home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel—has long been a favored destination for Israeli tourists, which makes the potential shift in travel habits notable.
"Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, won Wednesday’s contest after rivals Andrew M. Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa conceded.
"In his victory remarks, he pledged to confront antisemitism and presented an inclusive message to Muslim residents, saying City Hall under his leadership would stand with Jewish New Yorkers and affirm a sense of belonging for more than a million Muslims in the city.
"Party movement linked to Mamdani and AOC rejects Gaza deal, endorses ‘Palestinian resistance’
"However, Jewish critics of Mamdani see his remarks as an attempt to smooth over his image after refusing to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada,” embracing BDS policy and threatening to have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he travels to New York.
"The poll’s timing—immediately after the vote—captures initial reactions rather than long-term behavior. Still, the results highlight a divide between Israeli public sentiment and parts of the American Jewish electorate, a split that has surfaced repeatedly in recent years over Israel-related politics in major U.S. cities.
"Mamdani is due to take office on Jan. 1 for a four-year term." . . .

"In this episode of The Spectator P.M. Podcast, hosts Ellie Gardey Holmes and Lyrah Margo discuss the poll results and why young women tend to vote liberal. They also discuss feminism within the conservative movement in light of the recent controversy over Nick Fuentes, who has been vocal about his disdain for women. (RELATED: What Nick Fuentes Gets Wrong About Women) "

Mamdani’s All-Female Fantasy   
. . . "If Mamdani truly believes that the best person for every job just happens to be a woman, then fine. But if his all-female team was assembled to prove a point rather than solve a problem, then New York is in for a rude awakening. Symbolism makes for stirring headlines, but it rarely fills potholes or fixes budgets. It’s easy to pick a team that looks virtuous; it’s harder to build one that actually works."

What comes to my mind are the young female voices cheering every liberal oration made by any Democrat politician, no matter how Newsomish or Swalwellish. The Tunnel Dweller